First Division

Cards, Giants start top tier stretch

The San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals are right next to each other on top of the First Division standings, separated by 10 percentage points through Tuesday's games. They will meet five more times in little more than the next week, and the championship is likely to ride on those games.

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Harmon Killebrew Award	Today's standings
Yanks top Twin in huge Harmon Killebrew set	August 18, 2015
The Minnesota Twins still lead the Harmon Killebrew Award standings after a big run of wins early this season. However, the New York Yankees are coming on strong and now have three Killebrews this year, the most of any team. Now that the Yankees have defended the Killebrew by winning the first two games of their series with the Twins this week, it remains to be seen if they will use this chance to overtake the Twins in the overall standings.	Here are the standings across the Major Leagues through August 17 in all the competitions, including the Henry Aaron, Dick Allen and Harmon Killebrew traveling trophies, the West, East and Center regional leagues, the ordinal divisions with promotion and relegation, and, of course, the Major League playoff races, among others.

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Henry Aaron Award	Second Division
Iwakuma no-no preserves Aaron Award for Mariners	Race is on, top to bottom
Seattle Mariners right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma threw the first no-hitter in the history of any traveling trophy last week, leading the Seattle Mariners to a 3-0 win against the Baltimore Orioles in Seattle. Iwakuma's gem gave the Mariners their first Henry Aaron Award title defense in more than four years.	The Second Division is shaping up as a tight race to the top and away from the bottom in the final few weeks of the season. The Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers are the top clubs bucking for promotion right now, with the Cincinnati Reds in the best position to overtake one of them before it all ends.

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West League	Third Division
Astros improve, stop scoring	D-Backs cruise to top of Third
The Houston Astros improved their starting rotation and their everyday lineup at the trade deadline, then started losing. In a flash, they lost a substantial West League lead and now have been overtaken on the top of those standings by the Dodgers.	The Arizona Diamondbacks are one of the game's hottest clubs right now, holding the Dick Allen Award for 10 games and taking the lead in the Third Division. Remarkably, they're doing it with first baseman Paul Goldschmidt producing like something a little better than an ordinary hitter.

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First Division	Henry Aaron Award
LA clubs fight to stay in tier	Aaron lead safe with Dodgers
The Dodgers improved their status in the First Division during the first weekend of August, but at the expense of the Angels. The Dodgers swept three games from the Orange County club, pushing themselves slightly out of the relegation zone while the Angels fell to last place in the top tier. Time is running out for both clubs. The Angels have only six First Division games remaining, and the Dodgers have only 10. The Dodgers now are 13-18 in the First Division, while the Angels have fallen to 5-11.	Josh Hamilton hit a two-run homer for the Texas Rangers Sunday, giving his club a 2-1 win against the San Francisco Giants, along with retention of the Henry Aaron Award. Because the Aaron remains in the American League, the Dodgers are safe with their lead in the Henry Aaron standings.

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Dodgers	Harmon Killebrew Award
Local deadline trades solid	Hot Yanks have Harmon
The Angels and Dodgers each made helpful moves going up to the July 31 trading deadline, though neither club made big headlines across the game. The Dodgers added depth to their pitching rotation, while the Angels added veteran outifielders who will give them flexibility.	Dominating the American League East as they are, the New York Yankees are one of the surprise teams in the Major Leagues. And it's always surprising when the Yankees are surprising. In addition to leading their division for the last 30 days, the Yankees now hold the Harmon Killebrew Award.

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Angels	East League
Angels unique in expansion	Mets fly to top of East League
Just going by the regular season histories, the Angels are the most successful expansion franchise in the history of Major League Baseball, being the only expansion franchise with a winning record historically. The Angels went over. 500 in July 2014 and they have kept winning.	New York Mets second baseman Wilmer Flores, all but unknown a week ago, has become a national folk hero this week, first for his public display of sadness when he thought the Mets traded him, then for beating the Washington Nationals almost by himself Friday night when it turned out the Mets didn't trade him. Flores pushed the Mets back into a tie on top of the East League.