Major League Baseball - Week In Review

Fasten your seat belts baseball fans of the Central divisions of both the National and American leagues. It looks like those two races will go down to the wire this season, unlike the East and West divisions in each league.
The St. Louis Cardinals once again leap frogged the Chicago Cubs for first place in the N.L. Central by walloping the Cincinnati Reds, 13-4 on Friday night while the Cubs woeful bullpen blew another game in a 3-2 setback at Pittsburgh. On Thursday in Philadelphia, the Cubs bullpen coughed up a 5-0 lead in the final two innings of a 7-5 loss to the Phillies, thanks to outfielder Bryce Harper's walk off grand slam.
In the A.L. Central, the Minnesota Twins fell out of first place earlier this week for one day, but then rebounded to take back the top spot from the Cleveland Indians as they beat the Texas Rangers on Thursday and did the same Friday night (4-3 win) while Indians lost to the New York Yankees, 3-2 just a day after crushing them, 19-5.
The New York Mets were cooled off this week after winning 15 of 16 ball games. It started last Sunday when the Washington Nationals knocked off the Mets in the finale of their weekend series. From there, the Atlanta Braves took two of three from the visiting Mets. Meanwhile, the Phillies and Nationals got things rolling in a positive direction to put a little distance between themselves and the Mets for the wild card spots.
There are still seven teams within four games of each other for the two wild card spots in the National League. The Nationals and Cubs are the top two for now, but the Phillies are just a half game back of Chicago (Phils swept the Cubs in a three game set this week) while Milwaukee is 1 1/2 behind and the Mets 2 1/2 games back. The Giants (3 GB) and the Arizona Diamondbacks (4 GB) are within striking distance with roughly 40 games left to play in the regular season.
The wild card chase in the American League has the Cleveland Indians leading the way with the Tampa Bay Rays holding the second position. The Oakland A's are only one-half game behind Tampa Bay while the Boston Red Sox are 6 1/2 behind the final playoff spot.




AL STANDINGS (through August 16)                                  NL STANDINGS (through August 16)
East                                                                                     East
New York 82-42                                                                 Atlanta 72-52            
Tampa Bay 71-52                                                               Washington 66-55
Boston 65-59                                                                      Philadelphia 64-58
Toronto 52-73                                                                     New York 62-60
Baltimore 39-83                                                                  Miami 45-76

Central                                                                                Central
Minnesota 74-48                                                                  St. Louis 64-56
Cleveland 73-50                                                                   Chicago 64-58
Chicago 55-66                                                                      Milwaukee 63-59
Kansas City 44-78                                                                Cincinnati 57-64
Detroit 37-82                                                                        Pittsburgh 51-70
                                                                                                                                 
West                                                                                     West
Houston 78-45                                                                      LA Dodgers 82-42
Oakland 70-52                                                                      San Francisco 62-61
Texas 60-62                                                                          Arizona 61-62
LA Angels 60-64                                                                  San Diego 56-65
Seattle 50-73                                                                         Colorado 55-67