Are The Tigers Going To Blow The Central? Who Wins The AL West? Can The Sox Hang On? Are The Mets Safe? We've Got a Little Over a Week Left In The MLB Regular Season And Postseason Races All Over Are Coming Down To The Wire

Are you one of those baseball fans who tunes out for most of the regular season and then jumps in late? Well now is the time to dive in. There's really nothing like intense, playoff baseball. While the postseason doesn't get going for another 12 days, a handful of teams are treating every single one of these days like their lives are on the line, because well…they are. If you're a fan of the Red Sox, Tigers, Guardians, Mariners, Astros, Mets, Reds, Diamondbacks, or Giants then you might as well be watching every night like it's October. These races are incredible, let's see where we're at. 

AL Central

We'll start with probably the most shocking of them all, the AL Central. How is this not over yet? The Tigers have led wire to wire to this point, but are experiencing a Mets 2007 caliber collapse at the moment. Entering today, Detroit has lost 15 of their last 22 games. Their massive division lead has shrunk to just 3.5 games as the Guardians have ripped off 12 of their last 13. Cleveland currently owns the head to head advantage and thus the all important tiebreaker at 6-4. What makes this juicy is that next Tuesday through Thursday they play each other in Cleveland for three games. While the Tigers get a little reprieve with their schedule this weekend against the Braves, the Guardians get the Twins for four, including a doubleheader on Saturday. This can be really, really tight if the Tigers don't pick things up these next few days. It's worth noting Skubal pitched yesterday in a loss so they don't even have him going. Not good. 

Tigers remaining: 3 vs. ATL, 3 @Clev, 3 @Bos

Guardians remaining: 4@Minn, 3 vs.Det, 3 vs. Tex

AL West

You actually cannot be tighter in the standings than the Mariners and Astros. They are tied for first at 84-69 and have split the season series at 5 games a piece. Who is next up on their schedules? Of course a three game series in Houston! Tonight you get Bryan Woo against Hunter Brown. Popcorn, couch, seated. So not only will the winner of that series come out with the first place lead, but also the tiebreaker advantage. If you take two of three it's basically a two game lead with a week to go. Nuts. 

An added storyline here is that Houston will be without their superstar slugger Yordan Alvarez after he badly twisted his ankle while scoring the other day. 

Yordan has missed a large portion of the year with a hand issue that was originally misdiagnosed as a sprain when it was actually a fracture. Missing him for this series and the upcoming week is fucking brutal. Such a shame this has to happen to the Astros. What's potentially brewing is a Yankees vs. Astros wild card series in a couple weeks for which my blood pressure will spike to levels that make me no longer alive. 

Both teams after this series have pretty soft schedules so this weekend really could decide it all. 

Mariners remaining: 3@Hou, 3 vs. Col. 3 vs. LAD 

Astros remaining: 3 vs. Sea, 3@A's, 3@LAA

AL Wild Card

For a little bit here you didn't know if the Yankees were going to be scratching and clawing for the 3rd wild card spot with how poorly they played in the middle of the summer. As of right now they hold a two game lead for the 1st spot over Houston, and three over Boston. That's a massive position to maintain because you'd obviously host all three games during the wild card round. They could still steal the division, but not having the tiebreaker over Toronto really kills that chance. Their schedule does help them a bunch with six more against Baltimore and three vs. the White Sox. 

As for the rest of the wild card, all eyes are on the Red Sox who have been leaking blood ever since Roman Anthony suffered a grade 2 oblique strain. Boston has lost 5 of their last 7, including a home series to the A's where they needed a comeback and extra innings walk off to just avoid getting swept. Their offense is completely lifeless at the moment with no one stepping up to fill Anthony's shoes. Oddly enough, Trevor Story is like the only guy right now coming through. Alex Bregman has been a ghost. Rafaela has had one of the worst months in the sport here. They really need to get Wilyer Abreu back and have him slugging immediately when he does return. Brayan Bello's fantastic 2025 is fading fast in September. It's all heading down hill for Boston. If they were a UFC fighter, they're in the last round just staring at the clock hoping it hits zero before they get knocked out. 

The good news for Boston is that they only have to worry about one team on their tail and that's the Guardians. This could also turn into the Tigers if the Central does indeed flip. Right now Boston holds a 1.5 game lead over Cleveland which also includes the head to head tiebreaker. Boston's issue is that they're playing uninspired ball right now and have pissed away the easiest series remaining on their schedule. What's extra rough for the Sox is the order that they play teams next week. If they had the Blue Jays next weekend there's a good chance Toronto has everything wrapped up by then and doesn't care, thus allowing them the luxury of resting starters and not pushing starting pitchers. Instead you get them to start the week where they will care as long as the Yankees keep the division in play. The Tigers now will most likely care very much about the final weekend unless they handle business against Cleveland earlier in the week. Boston is still -400 to make the postseason, but things were a lot prettier a few weeks ago. Even with the offensive woes, they're a nightmare matchup in a short 3 game series with Crochet going in Game 1, but they gotta get there first. 

Yankees remaining: 3@BAL, 3 vs. CHW, 3 vs. BAL

Boston remaining: 3@TB, 3@Tor, 3 vs. Det

Guardians remaining: 4@Minn, 3 vs.Det, 3 vs. Tex

NL Wild Card

Everything appears to be wrapped up in the National League besides the wild card. Technically the NL West isn't over, but the Dodgers have a three game lead over San Diego AND the tiebreaker. I don't see them choking this away. 

The Wild Card, however, is fun and worth paying attention to. Currently the Mets hold a two game lead over Diamondbacks and Reds, with the Giants three back. They only have the tiebreaker over the Giants in this situation. It does feel like, when you look at schedules and the standings, that the Mets SHOULD prevail, but they've also played themselves into this situation with awful baseball. Can they take care of business against the Nats this weekend at home? That really should be a sweep and put them in a pretty spot to play October baseball. A nightmare weekend though and they're in a fucking dog fight next week. 

Mets remaining: 3 vs. WAS, 3@CHC, 3@MIA

Diamondbacks remaining: 3 vs. PHI, 3 vs. LAD, 3@SD

Reds remaining: 3vs.CHC, 3 vs. PITT, 3@MIL

Giants remaining: 3@LAD, 3 vs. STL, 3vs. COL

If I were to guess how this shakes out…

Seattle wins the West. Houston gets the 2nd WC. Boston barely hangs on for the 3rd. Detroit by a nose gets the Central with Cleveland barely missing out. Mets get the 3rd WC. I wanted to take Cleveland over Boston for the wild card, but the Sox having the tiebreaker swings it I think. 

As I said before, if you tuned out the regular season until now, it's a great time to jump in. Tight, fun races with postseason spots on the line all over. It's go time.