Major League Baseball recently had its All-Star Game, and the American League prevailed for the first time in the last four seasons. This will certainly give any team that comes out of the DH league an inherent advantage in the World Series. They just might need it, as a variety of strong teams in the National League appear to be building momentum toward the postseason in hopes of toppling whoever ends up standing in their way. Here’s a look back at last few days of professional baseball action.
The Washington Nationals came into the 2013 regular season with high hopes, a talented pitching staff and a lineup filled with up-and-coming superstars. Unfortunately, things have not gone as planned, and after winning only one of their last 10 games they find themselves five games below the .500 mark and nearly double digits behind the Atlanta Braves. Bryce Harper’s amazing rookie campaign created a lot of buzz in the Nation’s Capital, but the talented young leftfielder is on pace to produce stats that will barely register as average based on where he hits in the batting order.
Three talented teams in the NL Central continue to set the pace for the entire major leagues, and the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates became the first teams to 60 wins on the season. By contrast, only three teams in the NL East and NL West have more than 50 wins. This means that the Wild Card entry from the pitcher-hitting league is very likely to be the Cardinals, Pirates or Reds. Cincinnati also has a higher win total as of press time than any team in the other two divisions. This creates a very rare scenario from a historical standpoint, but a very interesting next few months for baseball fans who live in the Midwest.
While everybody else is paying attention to more successful teams, the suddenly mediocre NL West now belongs to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Fans of the True Blue have watched them win eight of their last 10 and catapult to the top of the rankings in a division simply waiting to be seized. If the Dodgers make the playoffs and stud pitcher Clayton Kershaw gets his hiccups ironed out, they may surprise everybody who doubted them while they toiled in mediocrity throughout the first half of the season.
