With roughly a month to go in the regular season, teams within postseason striking distance are going to really step on the gas starting now.
While the Northeast has all eyes on the seemingly annual Red Sox-Yankees divisional dual, as the Yanks hold a one-game lead over the Sox as of Tuesday morning, there are some pretty interesting races outside of the AL East.
The defending champion Giants are just one game behind Arizona for first place in the NL West. Tim Lincecum and the Giants have six more tilts with the Diamondbacks in September including a three-game series at home to kick off the final month of regular-season action.
The loser of this tilt will likely be keeping an eye on the Braves, who, despite being 6 1/2 games behind the Phillies in the NL East, own a .597 winning percentage and the top spot in the NL wild card standings.
In the AL West, the defending AL champion Rangers are a seemingly comfortable 4 1/2 games ahead of the Angels, but Anaheim — who has arguably the hottest pitcher in the bigs in Jered Weaver — has won four straight. The Halos can even close the gap this week as they travel to Texas for a three-game series starting Friday. Anaheim will host Texas for a three-game series to close out the regular season next month, as well.
