The American League East long has been one of Major League Baseball’s toughest and most competitive divisions, and the same rings true for the 2022 season.
While the New York Yankees have a comfortable 14-game lead over the Rays for first place in the AL East, the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays are not far behind Tampa Bay. And even though the Baltimore Orioles are in last place, they’re just 2 1/2 games behind Toronto and have rattled off nine straight wins to move to 44-44 on the season.
It’s been a while since a division had all five of its teams at or above the .500 mark by July 12.
Check out this excerpt from MLB.com’s Sarah Langs:
This is the 4th time in the Wild Card Era (excluding 2020) that a division has had all of its teams at or above .500 on July 12 or later (records at end of day), according to the Elias Sports Bureau. It also happened in the 2012 AL East, 2005 NL East and 2000 AL West, on several days under the qualifiers for each season.
Now, the question is whether all of the AL East teams will finish at or above .500 to end the season.
There’s still plenty of baseball left to be played, plus the Aug. 2 MLB trade deadline.
