Last weekend I took a look at the state of Major League Baseball’s playoff races by examining the magic numbers of postseason contenders. Let’s take a look at how those numbers have changed over the last week of action.
For those of you who are new to magic numbers or aren’t quite sure what they entail, no need to worry. Just take a quick look at last week’s article where I describe what magic numbers are and how they’re calculated.
Over the past week, there have been no changes regarding division leaders. In fact, nearly all of the teams that sat atop their divisions last weekend have put some distance between themselves and their competition.
Honestly, there are only a few races worth following this September. The Boston Red Sox and LA Angels are each trailing the leaders in their divisions, the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers, by 2.5 games. Every other division winner looks to be decided, as the next closest gap is the Milwaukee Brewers 7 game over the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central.
The Brewers had the smallest magic number last weekend, but today that honor goes to the team with the best record in the Majors.
Following their sweep of the Atlanta Braves this week, the Philadelphia Phillies have taken the first two games of their weekend series against the Brewers.
Now, the Phillies are sitting a comfortable 11 games in front of the Braves in the NL East. Their recent hot stretch has reduced the Phillies magic number to 9, meaning that Philadelphia only has to win 9 of its remaining 21 games to clinch the division.
Here’s a look at the rest of the division leader’s magic numbers, followed by the number of games they have remaining.
New York Yankees – 17 : 19
Detroit Tigers – 10 : 18
Texas Rangers – 16 : 17
Milwaukee Brewers – 11 : 16
Arizona Diamondbacks – 10 : 17