“Baseball–Pennant Race-Pennant Chase”

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Here we head to the final weeks of the baseball season.

Things we never imagined we’d see are happening.

The Giants are running way with the best record in baseball.  How is that possible with a roster of rent-a-vets?

The Dodgers are getting healthy at the right time, even if there is no Trevor Bauer, and likely little help from Clayton Kershaw.

The Padres are operating on fumes, a pitching staff battered by injuries, a lineup that looks mentally and physically fatigued.  Expect San Diego, fans and media, to start playing the blame game if this season does not need to playoff games.  Hope this does not become a sinkhole of a season.

Other places, other situations.

Small market Tampa Bay, with the minuscule payroll, knows talent, how to develop it, how to trade for it.  It is a shame no one comes to see their games.  They’d be better off in Montreal.

The Yankees are trying to claw their way back into the AL-East race.

Boston looked so good for awhile but has fallen off the pace.

Toronto, to hang in there, with no home stadium till 2-weeks ago, is an amazing accomplishment.  The Blue Jays should be a tired team, playing in Dunedin, then Buffalo, and finally back at Skydive.

The White Sox have been building for years and look as if they have arrived.

Houston, hate them or not, are grinding their way thru the race.

Oakland has such a strangely configured roster.  Is there enough pitching?  If they don’t hit home runs what happens to them?

Back in the National League-it’s been topsy turvy.

Injuries, tons of them, first to all of the outfielders, then the front of the pitching staff, have wrecked the Mets season.

What to make of the Phillies?  Spent all that money on Harper-Realmuto-McCutcheon, but not enough on pitching.

Atlanta has so many bats, so many problems named Acuna-Ozuna and the hurting pitching staff that will cost them in the end.

I look at Milwaukee and am just amazed they are where they are, but if you have frontline pitching, stay free of injuries, maybe you can put enough bats around them to have a good season.

Hard to believe the Reds, with all those bats, but not enough arms in the rotation or in the bullpen, can stay in this race with 6-weeks to go.  But playing in that bandbox has helped them a lot.

The Cardinals are caught in some type of transition, old stars, mid-life sluggers, and a bunch of kids on the way, but they don’t have enough to make up the difference in this race.

As fascinating as some of these teams have been, it has been hard to look at how much bad baseball there is.  The Cubs 12-game losing streak.  Arizona with losing binges of 13-games and then 17.  Add in the woeful Orioles current 15-game slide, a lousy Pittsburgh franchise, the horrors of the Texas Rangers, it’s pretty bad.

So we head to big series this weekend, to see who can survive and stay in the hunt in the National League and if anyone can make a run in the American League..

What a grind of a season it has been…and it’s not over yet.

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