The most unpredictable race right now is the AL Central division battle. The Tigers went on a losing run since mid September and have been caught up to. The Twins are now on their way to getting into the game once again, sitting only 2 games behind the Tigers now. Today, they are playing a double header against each other that could make a big difference as to where the teams end up. Whoever wins 2 of the games will have a great advantage. If they split, the end up in the same place as they were this morning, just with fewer games to fix it. At this moment, the teams are in the 8th inning, tied at 1. It’s a close game, so we’ll have to see what happens moving forward, but it’s quite exciting indeed!

This year has not been one that the Washington Nationals have wanted to keep playing. They have struggled since the beginning and they have many very young players. They’ve been stuck with these young players ever since they became a team a couple years ago. Now they have lost more than 100 games this year, for the second year in a row. It’s not that they haven’t got the talent, but they might not have the experience to pull out the tough wins or anything. They just lost #100 last night against the Dodgers, a team that is in playoff contention. It’s too bad because this team had higher expectations of themselves this year. Maybe they wouldn’t have hit the playoffs this year, but they might have been able to become a .500 team or something.

Milton Bradley, or “Milty” as some of his Chicago fans call him, has been suspended for the rest of the season because of the rough year that he’s had. There was a huge uprising amongst the fans saying that he shouldn’t have been eliminated from the team. They said they have a chance to make it to the postseason and that Milton’s high batting average would have gotten them all the way into first position in the NL Central. Actually, none of that happened. Most of the fans and media seem to be saying “it’s high time that this guy got some real consequences from his bad mouthing the city, team, fans, etc etc”. There is virtually no chance for the team to make it to the playoffs and he doesn’t have a batting average this season that meets his $30 million dollar contract. Even if he had .300 (which he doesn’t), that’s a million dollars for every .010 on his average. Maybe he’s been suspended because he’s playing so much under expectations, but his conduct has made it much easier. And no one calls him “Milty” that I know of.

St. Louis is having a phenomenal year. It’s almost certain that they’re headed to the playoffs. It’s partly because of the strength of their lineup all year. But their addition of Matt Holliday and Mark DeRosa has put them into a much more impressive position than they were in just a few months ago. They are dominating the NL Central and they will be pushing forwards and getting their team in place for the October campaign. They probably shouldn’t change too much because they already have something amazing going on. This is a team that can get into a groove and win long series of games in a row. We’re going to look forward to seeing these guys on the Wheaties box this year, it would seem, because they will be hard to beat. The Phillies will give them some tough competition and so would the Yankees, should they get that far. And never count the dark-horse teams out either!

The Tigers are having a great season, don’t get me wrong. They’ve been playing impressive games all year and are way ahead in the AL Central Division. This was partly expected, but very few people expected that the other teams would drop off as much as some of them have. But there are people starting to wonder if Detroit has what it takes to beat the Yankees in the first round this fall. It’s been a long year so far, but they haven’t yet put themselves in the position to prove that they can beat the big teams. They almost lost to Toronto last night, if not for a big 9th inning comeback. Almost no one needs a comeback against the Blue Jays. It will be a big year for Detroit if they make it to the playoffs. Everything beyond that seems to be sugar on top of the deal.

One of the best Yankees in years is back in the battle. Derek Jeter has now tied Lou Gehrig’s top hit mark as a Yankee. Last night against the Rays, he got a single, which was an exciting moment. He hardly noticed that it was a big moment, though he joked later that he had been working hard to get that record. He walked in the 8th, so he didn’t break the record. But he will in the next few days, we’re pretty sure of it. Gehrig is perhaps the most celebrated Yankee of all time, although players like Ruth and Mantle are right up there too. But now Jeter is much closer to being put in that category, though he’s not a player that people are so excited about; just a very consistent worker is all.

The San Francisco Giants are now 2 games down in the Wild Card standings. They haven’t been able to win the way that they were before. This has been a really big problem for them. Hardly anyone even expected the Giants to make it this far, but it’s even more exciting that they could make it all the way into the playoffs. They’re keeping pace with the Rockies better than might have been expected. But they can’t keep dropping games to teams like the Brewers, who are also possible wild card contenders, though it’s not very likely. Both of those teams could go on a big run here at the end of the season. But it looks like it’s going down to the wire with the Rockies and the Giants. Get ready for some fun!