Saturday’s early MLB games: Rangers try to clinch, other playoff contenders in action as well

There’s barely more than one week left of the 2010 MLB regular season, hard as it is to believe.  So, best enjoy the wide selection of live games while we can.

There are six MLB games starting before midnight UK time today.

All times are in BST.

18.05. St. Louis at Chicago Cubs (Chris Carpenter – Casey Coleman)

The Cincinnati Reds’ magic number in the NL Central is down to 3, meaning that even if the Cardinals win all of their remaining games, the Reds need only to win 3 of theirs to take the division.  In other words, St. Louis are an extreme long-shot to return to the postseason.  Still, victories over the Cubs are always enjoyed by Cardinals fans regardless of the standings.  Adam Wainwright got his 20th win of the season yesterday and St. Louis will go for their third win in a row with their ace on the mound today.

18.05. Atlanta at Washington (Derek Lowe – Yunesky Maya)

It’s all going horribly wrong for Bobby Cox’s Braves.  Their 8-3 loss to the Nationals last night made it 4 defeats in a row, leaves them 7 games behind the red-hot Phillies in the NL East (that ship has sailed) and half a game back in the Wild Card race.  They need to snap that losing streak today and start clocking up some victories fast, otherwise it’s going to be a very disappointing end to Bobby Cox’s managerial career.

18.07. Baltimore at Toronto (Jeremy Guthrie – Ricky Romero)

These are two teams playing out the string, but there are still plenty of reasons to take an interest in the game.  Not least of which is to follow the latest instalment in Jose Bautista’s incredible 2010 season.  He went deep twice yesterday (as did several other players) to take his Major League-leading home run total to 52.

21.05. Texas at Oakland (Derek Holland – Gio Gonzalez)

The A’s headed into this four-game series against the Rangers needing a sweep to give them a chance of making a very late run for the AL West title.  They won the opener on Thursday thanks to another excellent outing by Dallas Braden, but the Rangers responded last night with a 10-3 victory.  That means Texas can clinch the division, and their first playoff berth since 1999, with a victory today.

21.10. Boston at NY Yankees (Jon Lester – Ivan Nova)

Last night couldn’t have been much fun for Yankee fans.  It’s not often a team hits six home runs and loses, but that’s the trick New York managed to pull off against their bitter rivals.  Of more concern to the Bronx faithful would have been the way in which Andy Pettitte pitched.  The Yanks could just about put up with a loss to Boston owing to their different positions in the standings, but they were pinning their hopes on Pettitte providing a steadying influence in their postseason rotation.  Another poor performance next time out and they will be much less confident of retaining their World Series title.  Jon Lester has won his last five starts, while youngster Ivan Nova has been let down by one bad inning in each of his last four starts.

21.10. Cincinnati at San Diego (Travis Wood – Jon Garland)

This NL West/Wild Card race is going down to the wire: never-jangling for fans of the teams involved, exciting for the rest of us.  The Padres are fighting for everything and that showed last night as deadline pick-up Miguel Tejada came through yet again with a two-run single in the seventh inning that would prove to be the game-winner in a 4-3 victory.  Meanwhile there’s a sense that the Reds have slightly taken the foot off the accelerator with the NL Central all but sealed.  If true, San Diego will be looking to take full advantage today.

All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, At Bat with Gameday Audio and MLB.tv).  A complete schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com