It's the first week of September, this means the playoff race for Major League Baseball is absolutely heating up.
Starting with the American league, there is a battle in the AL East. Currently the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox are tied for first with the Baltimore Orioles 2 games out of first. Things look like they could go down to the wire with a month left to play The AL East as of today has three teams in the playoffs, how long is it going to last? Could someone like Kansas City or Detroit jump in and take a wild card spot from one of the three AL East teams. Infamously the Boston Red Sox collapsed in September which allowed the Orioles into the playoffs just a couple years ago. The division may very well come down to an end of the season series between the Red Sox and Blue Jays. The teams will play eight more times before the season ends. Similarly speaking Baltimore and Boston will only play six more times, three in Boston and three in Baltimore and the O's will play the Jays six more times all of them in Toronto.
Moving to the AL Central the Cleveland Indians have been in first place almost all summer. However, the Tribe will have a combined 19 games against the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers respectively. The Tigers are only five games out with 11 head-to-head match-ups left against the Tribe. Eight of those games will be played in the Motor City, and while that helps the Tigers; the Tigers are 1-11 against the Indians this season. Meanwhile the defending champion Royals are four games out of the wild card and are desperate to make the playoffs. The Royals however only have a combined nine games against both Cleveland and Detroit. Not exactly the schedule they would t=want to make up games quickly.
Finally in the AL West The Texas Rangers are running away with the division. They are currently 10 games up on the Houston Astros. They are the favorites to win the AL West and secure themselves into the playoffs. Out of the three divisions they seem to be the most secure. However, the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros are still in the hunt for the wild card. The interesting aspect to all of this is that the majority of Texas's remaining schedule is against AL West opponents. If there was a possibility of a collapse it would be in September for the Rangers.
My predictions for the month of September is that the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers will hang on and win their respective divisions while the Boston Red Sox will win a one game playoff against the Toronto Blue Jays to win the AL East.
