Welcome to the first Comic Book Clique MLB Weekly Report! Every Thursday, we’ll review the past 7 days in the MLB, highlighting the leagues best teams and players in that span as well as a week some teams and players may be looking to forget.
What a time to start! With the calendar set to turn a new page in just a few days, we’re in the home stretch of the season: September Baseball. Let’s take a look at the current MLB Divisional Standings:
The Cleveland Guardians are surging, having won seven in a row and gaining ground on the division-leading Chicago White Sox (not a sentence I thought I’d be writing at the beginning of the season). They sit just 2.5 games back of the White Sox - had to say it twice for it to really sink in.
In the National League, several teams had identical success with the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Philles & Los Angeles Dodgers going 4-2 in the past week.
The Boston Red Sox continue to play very well going 5-1 since last Thursday and 27-12 (!) since the All-Star break. They’ve pulled themselves out of the cellar and hold the 2nd Wild Card spot in the AL. Speaking of…
See, that is what will make this fast approaching September so interesting. The American League has been downright abysmal this year but it will lead to some great baseball going into the playoffs. The 3rd Wild Card spot could be anyone's and currently sees the Guardians fend off six teams within 5 ½ games and I don’t necessarily envy the fanbases of the Rangers, Orioles, Blue Jays, Mariners, Twins, Tigers or the aforementioned Guardians for that matter.
On the flip side of things - the once promising Washington Nationals have lost 6 of their last 7 games. An offense that has been consistently ranked at the top of baseball for large chunks of the season find themselves batting .190 and scoring only 21 runs during this 1-6 stretch.
In the AL, this past week has made a little more sense when it comes to the Detroit Tigers. Having offloaded Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize ahead of the trading deadline on August 1st, the Tigers went 7-3 for the first 10 games after. Since then? 2-10. We may be putting the final nail in the coffin of the Tigers season.
I’d like to end these weekly reports with some fun insights, a top play, a blunder or, to put it plainly, something that might make you go “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”
This week I’ve got two things! First, the Twins have been in Minnesota for 65 years and this past Tuesday, Taj Bradley threw the franchises first Immaculate Inning:
I’ll say this last one may not be romantic per-se but it would be historical. I mentioned earlier that the AL has been abysmal this year. So abysmal in fact that the AL West does not have a single team with a winning record. Someone has to win the division. Should this trend continue through the end of the season it would be the first time in MLB history that a team makes the playoffs with a losing record in a standard season. Something to keep your eye on!