Home MLB MLB Sleepyhead Summary: Sweeps and Waiver Deals

MLB Sleepyhead Summary: Sweeps and Waiver Deals

by Matt Smith

The MLB Sleepyhead Summary is a new regular column that helps British baseball fans keep up to speed with MLB despite the time difference!

I’m writing up the Sleepyhead Summary with the Braves-Cubs game live on the TV on Friday evening.

The calendar hitting 1 September is a sobering reminder that we have just one month left of the MLB regular season and the daily dose of ballgames that we get to enjoy.

Best make the most of them.

American League Sweeps

The main story in the American League over the past few days has been sweeps.

The Boston Red Sox swept their three-game series in Toronto to all-but put the Blue Jays out of realistic Wild Card contention, whilst the New York Yankees were swept off their own field by the charging Cleveland Indians. That put the Red Sox 5.5 games ahead of the Yankees in the AL East before they started a four-game series on Thursday night.

New York took the opener 6-2, catcher Gary Sanchez hitting his 12th home run of August, to bring the gap back down to 4.5 and they’ll be hoping to continue that trend over the rest of the weekend.

There were also sweeps for the Minnesota Twins (over the White Sox), Baltimore Orioles (Seattle) and the LA Angels (Oakland), whilst the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers won their respective series over Kansas City and Houston 2-1.

Where that leaves us

All of which has kept the Yankees out in front for the first AL Wild Card but by just a single game over the Minnesota Twins. The Twins then have a 1.5 game lead over the Angels, 2.5 over the Orioles, 4 over the Rays and Rangers and 4.5 over the Mariners and Royals.

The key AL weekend series (on top of the aforementioned Red Sox-Yankees) see the Angels and Rangers meeting in Arlington and the Royals facing the Twins in Minnesota. Baltimore will look to gain ground with a four-game series against the Blue Jays although they dropped the opener on Thursday night thanks to a three homer barrage by Kendrys Morales.

D-Backs Down the Dodgers

In the Senior Circuit the sweep of the week saw the Arizona Diamondbacks defeat the LA Dodgers 3-0 to hand the Dodgers their first sweep of the season. Arizona have won seven games in a row before starting a three-game series against fellow current Wild Card spot holders the Colorado Rockies.  The Rockies have stuttered a bit of late and lost their mid-week series against Detroit 2-1.

The Chicago Cubs swept their three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, pretty much knocking the Buccos out of contention in the process, with the Washington Nationals also getting the brooms out to deal a blow to the previously-hot Miami Marlins. Giancarlo Stanton was able to tie the record for most home runs hit in August (18) during the series to take his season total to 51.

The Cardinals and Brewers split their short two-game series 1-1, leaving Milwaukee 3.5 games behind the Cubs in the NL Central and 2.5 games behind the Rockies for the second Wild Card.

The weekend series in the NL include the Brewers hosting the Nationals, Miami hosting the Phillies (the Phils won the opener on Thursday 3-2), the Cardinals heading to San Francisco and the Dodgers heading to San Diego.

ALW – W for Waiver deals

Away from the games, the off-field action took place in the AL West on Thursday as the Astros, Angels and Rangers all made late-night waiver deals before the end of August (and the cut-off for new additions to be eligible for their potential post-season rosters).

The Astros made the big splash many thought they’d make before the non-waiver deadline by acquiring Justin Verlander from the Tigers. He didn’t seem overly keen on the idea by all accounts, but – as a parent says to a doubtful child heading to school for the first time – I’m sure he’ll enjoy it when he gets there.

Detroit continued their tear-down by sending Justin Upton to the Angels, with Anaheim also acquiring Brandon Phillips from the Braves. The Rangers didn’t want to be left out and therefore added starting pitcher Miguel Gonzalez from the White Sox.

 

 

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.