MLB Sleepyhead Summary: Eleven and counting for Cleveland

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

The Cleveland Indians swept a four-game series over Detroit over the past weekend, including getting two helping hands from the Tigers on Sunday, to make it 11 wins in a row.

The Tribe are in rare form despite having several key players on the Disabled List. Pitcher Danny Salazar is scheduled to make his return from the DL this week and if Cleveland are only going to get stronger over the next couple of weeks, they could be front-runners to win the American League pennant that they captured a year ago.

Houston swept an emotional home series against the New York Mets to celebrate the capture of Justin Verlander. The current plan is for their new star recruit to make his Astros debut on Tuesday.

In the AL East, the New York Yankees needed to take advantage of their final season series against the Boston Red Sox and they did just that. The Yankees won three of four, including the finale against Chris Sale on Sunday, to cut the Red Sox’s lead to 3.5 games.

Those wins also kept the Yankees in pole position for the first AL Wild Card spot. They have a two-game lead over Minnesota after the Twins lost two of three against Kansas City (their one win was a good one though: 17-0). Among the other Wild Card contenders, Seattle swept the slumping A’s 3-0, Texas got the better of the LA Angels 2-1 and Baltimore split a four-game series with Toronto.

The losers on the weekend were Tampa Bay who not only dropped two of three against the Chicago White Sox but also saw pitcher Chris Archer leave his start early with foreram tightness. An update on his condition is expected early this week.

Coming up

The Rays will pray for good news on the Archer front whilst hoping for a strong home series against the Twins to try to get themselves firmly back into the Wild Card race. The Rays are currently 4 games behind the Twins for the second Wild Card.

The Yankees are in Baltimore to take on the Orioles, with the Angels facing the A’s and the Mariners hosting the Astros. Texas are on the round playing an inter-league series against Atlanta.

D-Backs make it 10

In the National League, it’s the Arizona Diamondbacks who can’t stop winning. They’ve won ten in a row and the latest three came at the expense of the Colorado Rockies who have been their closest NL Wild Card rivals all season so far.

The Rockies now sit 6.5 games behind the D-Backs for the first Wild Card and have Milwaukee right on their tail at just 0.5 games further back.

The Brewers won three of four games against the Washington Nationals over the past weekend, although the Chicago Cubs matched that (against Atlanta) so the gap at the top of the NL Central is still 3.5 in the Cubs’ favour.

St Louis are still on the case following a 3-1 series win over the San Francisco Giants, whilst Miami suffered a blow by losing three of four against the Phillies.

The big shock of the weekend came in San Diego where the Padres recovered from losing their series-opener against the Dodgers (Clayton Kershaw’s successful return from the DL) by winning the next three games.

Coming up

The Dodgers will now take on the D-Backs in an intriguing three-game series, whilst the Rockies host the Giants, the Brewers travel to Cincinnati and the Cardinals are in San Diego knowing that the Padres will be no push-over.

Miami need to get back on track with some home games against Washington and the Pittsburgh Pirates are arguably in the last chance saloon for their distant Wild Card hopes. They have a four-game series against the Cubs are really need to get the brooms out and sweep the set to keep their hopes alive.