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AL East Race: Rays, Yankees In Battle Royale

First, a look at the American League Wild Card Standings:


American League Wild Card Standings

W L PCT GB STRK
New York 88 58 .602 0 Lost 1
Boston 82 64 .561 6 Won 4
Chicago 79 66 .544 8.5 Lost 2
Toronto 73 73 .500 15 Lost 3
Oakland 72 73 .496 15.5 Lost 2
Detroit 72 74 .493 16 Lost 2
Los Angeles 71 74 .489 16.5 Won 1
Kansas City 60 85 .413 27.5 Won 2
Cleveland 59 86 .406 28.5 Lost 1
Baltimore 58 88 .397 30 Won 3
Seattle 55 91 .376 33 Lost 7

(updated 9.16.2010 at 8:08 AM EDT)



The Wild Card race is just about over. The Boston Red Sox are six games behind the New York Yankees, and with only sixteen games remaining, it's difficult to imagine Boston winning six more than the Yanks.

However, six of those games are agains the Yankees, so it's not completely impossible. If the Red Sox sweep the two series with the Yankees, they may pull ahead of them in the Wild Card race. Still, it's highly unlikely. Coolstandings gives them a smaller than 3% chance of pulling it off.

The Chicago White Sox are not officially out of it, either, but will have to pretty much win all their remaining games, while two teams of the top three - the Yanks, Rays, and Red Sox - must lose at least half of theirs - that's not going to happen.

All of which means that the only question left in the American League is who will win the league's best division?

Here is a look at the AL East race as of Thursday morning:


AL East Standings

W L PCT GB STRK
Tampa Bay 88 57 .606 0 Won 1
New York 88 58 .602 0.5 Lost 1
Boston 82 64 .561 6.5 Won 4
Toronto 73 73 .500 15.5 Lost 3
Baltimore 58 88 .397 30.5 Won 3

(updated 9.16.2010 at 8:09 AM EDT)



Now that's a tight race. The Yankees were in first place on Sunday, the Rays beat 'em Monday to leapfrog, the Yankees won Tuesday to take back the top spot, and Wednesday night the Rays won again to lead the division. Thank goodness both teams are off today so we can catch our breath.

Photographs by cstreet.us, thelastminute, turtlemom nancy , fesek, kthypryn, justinwright, sue_elias, pointnshoot, and scrapstothefuture used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.