Hello,
Both the Dodgers and Diamondbacks lost on Friday night. With the Diamondbacks losing that reduces the Dodgers magic number to 4. I may have been a bit optimistic when I wrote that the Dodgers would probably clinch the NL West by this weekend. For LA to do that they have to win both of their games this weekend and the Diamondbacks would have to lose their two weekend games. I just don't see that happening with the Dodgers resuming being a low scoring team. LA will probably clinch the NL West during the 4 game series they against the Diamondbacks starting Monday.
The Dodgers are tied with the Royals for 16th most runs in MLB. The only team that has a legitimate chance of reaching the playoffs who've scored fewer runs than LA is the Pirates. Pittsburgh has crossed the plate 22 less times than LA. (Meanwhile the Red Sox continue to run away with the MLB runs title, they've scored 777 runs as of Friday. They've scored 32 more runs than the Tigers.) LA has only scored 5 runs in their last 3 games, including 2 runs on Friday night. When the Dodgers score few runs, who is pitching many of those games?
That's correct the best pitcher in MLB, Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw didn't have a great game, he gave up 8 hits and 3 runs in 7 innings. In the loss he only had 6 strikeouts, Kershaw drops to 14-9 and still has a sterling 1.94 ERA. He leads MLB in ERA by .25 runs less than Miami's volatile Jose Fernandez. Kershaw is also 3rd place in strikeouts but only tied for 10th in wins, that has a lot to do with lack of run support.
Now on to that Dodgers offense that forgets how to score whenever Kershaw takes the mound. LA did finish with 10 hits, but was only able to turn those 10 hits into 2 runs. Jose Uribe hit his 11th homer of the season and also had two hits. Uribe is hitting .278 this season. Newest Dodger batter Michael Young was 2 for 3 and is also hitting .278 this season. The third Dodger who had a multiple hit game was Mark Ellis and he's hitting .273 this season.
Meanwhile in the American League the Red Sox continue racing to the AL East title. Powered by Jarrod Saltalamacchia's 7th inning grand slam, Boston defeated New York 8-4. By beating the Yankees yet again, Boston's magic number is 7. Sometime in the next few days they should clinch the AL East. Of course they want more than that, they are also headed towards having the best record in the AL. Boston wants home field advantage up to and through the World Series. They lead the A's, who's the next closest team to them, by 3 games for AL's best record.
The Orioles strengthened their very slim playoff chances by beating the Blue Jays 5-3 in Toronto. Chris Davis hit his 50th homer this season, he becomes the 27th MLB player to join the 50 homer club. He's the first to do so since Jose Bautista did it in 2010. Also he's only the third player in MLB history to have 50 homers and 40 doubles in a season. He joins Babe Ruth and Albert Belle in that very exclusive club.
Tampa Bay also won on Friday night, Boston still leads them by 8.5 games in the AL East. Obviously Boston is the only team with a great chance to win the AL East. If any other AL East team wants to make the playoffs they'll have to make it via the AL Wild Card. Right now the two AL Wild Cards are Texas and Tampa Bay. Cleveland is 1.5 games behind Tampa Bay. The Yankees are 2 games behind and the Orioles are 2.5 games out of the AL Wild Card.
The Orioles have only won 5 of their last 10 games, of their remaining 15 games they'd probably have to win 10 to 15 games to sneak into the playoffs. Baltimore still has 6 more games to play against Boston and 4 more games against Tampa Bay. They have a huge mountain to climb just for the right to play in the one game AL Wild Card.
Oakland jumped out to a 9-2 lead and looked like they were headed for an easy win. That was until the Rangers scored 6 runs in the 8th inning and made the game much more interesting. However the A's held on to win 9-8 and lead the fading Rangers by 4.5 games in the AL West.
themusicaddict
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