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