Guardians appear to have locked up a wild card spot, is the AL Central within reach?
Yahoo Sports senior MLB analysts Jordan Shusterman and Jake Mintz recap Cleveland's six-game winning streak. Check out the full conversation on the "Baseball Bar-B-Cast" podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Another nugget to stay in the AL wild card picture.
The Mariners, though they have been playing better, have not been able to make up really any ground- as the Cleveland Guardians are on a W6.
Ooh.
They won their sixth straight last night, going down five to zero against the Angels in my favorite Guardian-Angel series.
They went down five-nil, and then clawed their way back and won in extras.
Jose Ramirez, three doubles.
The Guardians are 8 and 2 in their last 10, and have won six in a row, and we told you this was gonna happen.
They played the Rockies.
Now, they are playing the Angels.
Their schedule gets harder once the calendar turns to September, but they're taking care of business right now against the teams they need to beat, and it has kind of changed the complexion of the wild card race right now.
For a long time, everyone was just tied and jumbled up, and we said if someone gets hot, it's gonna look, make things look a lot different.
Tigers are now four and a half back, falling quick.
Jays, Twins, Mariners, all three back.
Orioles two and a half.
Rangers still just one back.
I think what this does, Jordan, among other things, is put more spotlight on the division races in the West and the Central.
The Mariners are only two and a half back in the West.
The Rangers are only a half game back in the West.
And then the Guardians are only two and a half behind the White Sox in the AL Central.
Yes.
That is definitely something to keep an eye on.
Yeah, and Cleveland comes home for a lengthy home stand against the Royals, Blue Jays, and Tigers.
I will be there for those Blue Jays games.
And then we'll see how it shakes out in the next few weeks, but three games left against the White Sox.
I mean, that is absolutely massive.
Yeah.
That will be a home series, for the Guardians.
Let me quickly check what the Okay, so also relevant, the White Sox right now are up in that season series six to four.
So if we're talking tiebreakers, which I, I have to imagine at some point in this American League mess, some part of the standings tiebreakers are going to matter.
And by the way, this is also true- Yeah in the National League when it comes to seeding.
As we get down to the end, we're gonna start focusing on tiebreakers a lot more.
That's a situation where the White Sox only need to win one more game to have the tiebreaker against Cleveland, but there is still hope there if Cleveland can sweep them at home.
So, I agree with you.
I think that, that it opens it up.
There's division races.
There's, there's, there's obviously this, this messy wild card race.
So lot to watch here in the American League.
