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“PENNANT RACE-PENNANT CHASE”
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We live in Southern California.

Baseball fans are gripped by a fun pennant race in the National League West.  Sometimes we don’t pay enough attention to what is happening on the out of town scoreboard.

But what is happening in all these other divisions is spectacular, and we still have 5-plus weeks of pulsating baseball to be played with huge implications everywhere.

A quick look at how we have gotten there:

NL WEST:  Here at home the Dodgers ability to hold onto first place despite devastating injuries is astounding.  16-pitchers on the DL this year.  The loss of Mookie Betts and Max Muncy for the middle part of the schedule.  Now the return of some starters and their bats has put LA in position to hold off the challenges from the Padres and Diamondbacks.  LA’s experience is helping them win all these close games.

The Padres have won (22-of-27), and are hammering the ball virtually every night, in beating everyone, and they are doing this with no Fernando Tatis.  Arizona is holding on for dear life now with the loss of Ketel Marte-Christian Walker and Gabe Moreno.  Don’t know if they can hold on.

San Diego and Arizona have come from 10-games back and have gotten as close as 2-games, with both still having a strong chance of finishing first.  The Friars are more dangerous than anyone realizes across the nation.

NL CENTRAL:  Milwaukee is destroying everyone and that is stunning considering the loss of Christian Yelich for the year, plus the pitching injuries.  They have an amazing 11-and-a half lead over the skidding Cubs.

NL EAST:  The Phillies look tired, the Braves are devastated by injuries.  Philadelphia is just (8-17) in a month and look fatigued every night.  But the Braves are 6-back and I see no way Atlanta can overcome the loss of 7-key players, led by Ron Acuna, Ozzie Albers and Austin Riley.

AL EAST…The Orioles and Yankees have been swapping out first and second place the last month.  New York has the big hitters, Soto-Judge, but New York’s pitching seems to have flamed out and the bullpen is burned out.  The Orioles kids keep winning and don’t seem intimidated by the pressure.

AL CENTRAL…Cleveland and Minnesota are playing hammer and tong week by week.  Jose Ramirez leads a very good hitting team.  The Twins no name batting order can hurt you too.  This thing is far from over.

AL WEST…Houston’s amazing rebound from crushing injuries has been special,considering six starting pitchers were hurt for the first third of the season.  Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve are hitting hot again.    Seattle is wasting solid pitching by not hitting, and despite the trading deadline deals, they are still not hitting.

It’s going to be wild between now and October 1st means lots of scoreboard watching coming.  What a pennant race we have.

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