Indians, Angels Clinch Division
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Indians and Angels Clinch Their Division
The Cleveland Indians clinched the AL Central yesterday and the Los Angeles Angels are the AL West champions after their win yesterday over the Seattle Mariners. The other four divisions in majors are still open with the Milwaukee Brewers the closest to being eliminated since the magic number is four for the Chicago Cubs to clinch the NL Central. The Cubs travel to Florida to play the Marlins on Tuesday and the Brewers can erase a half game off the lead with a win today over the St. Louis Cardinals in Miller Park.
In the AL East, the New York Yankees can move to within one game of the Boston Red Sox with a win today over the Toronto Blue Jays while the Red Sox entertain the Oakland Athletics. Schedule favors the Yankees since their final six games will be against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Baltimore Orioles. The Red Sox get much tougher competition, playing the Athletics and the Minnesota Twins the last week of the season. It will be surprising if the Red Sox win the division the way things are going for them. They have lost 5 of their last 7 games, while the Yankees have won 6 of their last 7 games.
In the NL East, the New York Mets are two and a half games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies, with the Phillies only having six games left to play. A Mets win today would extend their lead to 3 games since the Phillies are idle today, but a loss would close the gap to 2 games. The Mets play the Washington Nationals, the St. Louis Cardinals in a makeup game and the Florida Marlins, who all have losing records the rest of the way while the Phillies play Atlanta Braves and the Nationals to wind up the season.
The Arizona Diamondbacks hold a 2 1/2 game lead in the NL West over the San Diego Padres, but the Padres can close to within 2 games of the Diamondbacks with a win over the San Francisco Giants, while the idle Diamondbacks take the day off and play the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Colorado Rockies to close the 2007 season. The Padres will be on the road the rest of the season playing three games with the Giants and four games with the Brewers to end the season.
Around the Bases
Mike Mussina (11-10) pitched the Yankees to a 7-5 win over the Blue Jays on Sunday, as the Yankees moved to within a game and a half of the first place Red Sox in the AL East. Mussina has won his last three starts and has a 3-0 record with a 1.93 ERA for the month of September. Alex Rodriguez hit eight home runs in his first eight games of September, but is homerless in his last twelve games encompassing 46 at bats.
Tim Wakefield (16-12) was defeated by the Rays 5-4 on Sunday, being outpitched by Edwin Jackson (5-15). Wakefield, who was on track for a 20 win season earlier, is now 0-2 with two no decisions in September and a 10.70 ERA for the month, after having a 4-1 record with a 2.45 ERA in August, a month in which he gave up nine earned runs in 33 innings, while in September he has given up 21 runs in 17 innings. Curt Schilling is also 0-2 for the month of September. Clay Buchholz (3-1) strangely has only started one game since pitching his no-hitter on the 1st of September. He has only given up one earned run in 16 innings this month, and yet he is not starting games. No wonder the Red Sox are collapsing in the last month of the season. Daisuke Matsuzaka has only won three times since the 14th of July.
The Brewers had a 4-1 lead over the Braves, but wound up losing 7-4 with Ryan Braun tying Chris Young in home runs by a rookie with his 32nd. While the Brewers were losing, the Cubs were shutting out the Pirates behind the pitching of Carlos Zambrano (17-13) and the hitting of Derrek Lee and Ronny Cedeno, who both homered and drove in three runs.
Andruw Jones, with 26 home runs and 93 RBIs, has 15 less home runs and 36 less RBIs than last season, and his slugging percentage has dipped from .531 last season to .413 this season. His .220 average and 123 hits are his lows for a full season as a Brave. Don't worry about Anduw too much though; Scott Boras, his agent will find him a contract (if he can talk the Red Sox into signing J.D. Drew, he will find someone willing to pay the big bucks for Jones, despite a less than stellar 2007 season). Just two seasons ago, his OPS was .922 and this year it is down to .723. Not to worry, Boras will find him a contract with close to Soriano type dollars more than likely.
Jeff Francis (17-8) outpitched Greg Maddux (13-11), as the Rockies hung on to their hopes of a wild card berth, as they are only a game and a half behind the Padres. The Phillies lost to Nationals 5-3, but still are only a half game behind Padres in NL wild card race. The Phillies have five players with 21 or more home runs, and Aaron Rowand needs two RBIs to give the Phillies five players over 90 RBI's.
