Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below the main deck of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. With the dog days of August now almost entirely in our rear view mirror, let’s see what Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken are up to:
No wonder there are never any fish crackers around here.
Anyway, a look at baseball suggests itself. Someone, somewhere, once allegedly said that the pennant races don’t actually start before Labor Day, which is undoubtedly a surprise to the various teams and players who have been competing against one another since April or earlier. Still, the beginning of September serves as a convenient guidepost from which to measure how those teams that desire to play deep into October are faring.
Starting with the junior circuit, out in the American League West, there is a three-way race for the division crown between the Houston Astros (of course), the Seattle Mariners, and the Texas Rangers. The latter have been riding a hot streak as of late, pulling within two and a half games of second-place Seattle, who themselves are two games back of Houston. The Astros have six games left, three home and three away, against the Rangers and three at home against the Mariners. Seattle and Texas do not face each other in September, thus once again proving that Major League Baseball can’t write an intelligent schedule to save its life. As a side note, Cal Raleigh, the Mariners’ power-hitting catcher, is the best player in baseball you don’t know exists because he plays next to the wrong ocean.
The American League Central is all done except for the handing out of division champion t-shirts to the Detroit Tigers, who, as of this moment (August 31, 2025), have the third-best record in baseball. The Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians Guardians are within shouting distance of the final wild-card spot, but barring a major collapse, it will most likely go to whoever places second and third in the West.
The East ... ah, there is a tale warranting telling. Did you know there are teams in the division aside from the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox? There are, and one of them, namely the Toronto Blue Jays, currently holds a three-game lead over the Yankees and a three-and-a-half-game lead over the Red Sox. Oops. Toronto has three games left against New York on the road and three at home against Boston, while the Yankees and Red Sox have an upcoming three-game set in Beantown.
In the Wild Card, New York is up by three and Boston is up by two over Seattle. The Mariners have the easiest remaining regular-season schedule of all the postseason-contending teams in the AL, with the Yankees close behind. The Blue Jays have the most challenging route to October, with only one opponent (Baltimore) decidedly below .500. By comparison, Seattle has four games left against the Angels, three against the Braves, and three against the Rockies — at home, no less. I’d rather be a seafarer than a bird next month.
Next post, a look at the National League.
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