Second Division race highlights 2021 baseball pyramid at break

Halfway into the 2021 baseball season, the Second Division is producing a race such as we have never seen. All eight clubs are separated by less than two games.

A look at the standings through the baseball pyramid at the All-Star break reveals a thick race at the top and in the middle of the First Division, an incredibly tight Second Division from top to bottom, little suspense in the Third Division and another quandary such as only the baseball Fourth Division can produce.

Starting at the bottom, we see the Chicago White Sox on a clear path to winning the Fourth Division and entering next year's Third Division and Super League. They are clearly the best team in the American League Central, and it happens that the Fourth Division contains two divisional underlings, the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers, against whom to ring up many victories.

A different circumstance confronts the San Diego Padres, who have emerged this season as a national factor across the big leagues, but they are trapped in this Fourth Division with no one to play. 

In no other ordinal division of any other sport that we track on these pages do these sorts of problems arise, because the other sports play some kind of round robin schedule. But baseball's schedule, being imbalanced as it is, sometimes puts us in a tough spot with the Fourth Division. The problem is intensified because the division has only six clubs, rather than eight.

It often happens, like this year, that some team just stomps through the division, and it's hard sometimes to qualify a second club for promotion. Various rules have been tried here, and remain in force. But the Padres are "trapped," as it sometimes happens, because they're a division that lays out so they only get seven games, all against the Miami Marlins.

We do have a precedent in the Fourth Division that amounts to making the Padres eligible for promotion if they win five of those seven games. If they don't, we might have a problem, because it's likely every other team in the Fourth Division will have a losing record, except the White Sox. If the Padres win four, this becomes quite thorny. 

We might end up biting the bullet and saying that just in this one special case, the Fourth Division in baseball, the second promotion will be a judgment call. Hate to do that. Hope we don't have to. Because if you're looking at the teams in the Fourth Division, the White Sox and the Padres are the teams that have to go up. The White Sox will make it. And one supposes the Padres would make it if they played enough games. They might end up making it, though, simply because no one else reaches a winning record. 

In that case, we would have to suspend certain minimum requirements for promotion, but that sometimes becomes necessary to promote two Fourth Division teams. And why is it necessary to promote two Fourth Division teams? So that two Third Division teams can be demoted. There's usually no problem producing two teams that deserve it.

In the Third Division, we have no race to speak of. The San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners have raced way out in front of the pack, and it's likely they will be the two clubs promoted to next year's Second Division and Super League. At the bottom of this pile, we find the Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers, both apparently completing the long decent to the bottom tier.

The Rangers played among kings in the early days of this pyramid, which began tracking in 2010, but they now are facing their second straight demotion and the queasy reality of the Fourth Division for the first time. The Pirates were an original Fourth Division club in 2010, but they won it in 2012 and then won the Third Division in 2014. They spent five years in the Second Division before their demotion off 2019 and now they, too, face their second straight demotion.

Our Second Division is the stuff that dreams are made of, all eight teams riding within 1½  games of each other with many games remaining for each of these teams. The schedule lightweight here is Oakland, which has nine of its 22 Second Division games remaining. Everyone else has 15-20 games remaining. The A's come out of the All-Star break with a Second Division home series against the Cleveland Indians.

This is one division where every game is going to count. The top two finishers go to next year's First Division, and the top three finishers will be in the Super League. The bottom two finishers are going down. 

This is a tough, even assembly of teams, and one can see it from the fact that the Red Sox are 11-10 here. In every other division we run, and in the real standings, too, the Red Sox are a behemoth. But in this Second Division, they are 11-10.

One benefit of introducing the Super League is that it makes the whole First Division more interesting. There is a race for championship in the top tier, but, obviously not a race for promotion, so putting the top half of the First Division into the Super League raises the stakes in the middle of the league. 

When all the smoke clears, the only teams in the First Division now left standing still are the fifth-place and sixth-place teams, who occupy a middle station between Super League glory and Second Division banishment. They merely get to remain in the First Division.

We're pretty sure by now that the Arizona Diamondbacks will be banished, as they reached the All-Star break 3-21 in the top level. We ended up skipping 2020 in the pyramids because the teams didn't get around enough, but it remains that games were played, timed passed and the Diamondbacks declined so much from 2019 to 2021 that they are misplaced and not even competitive in this year's First Division. 

If we could have played the pyramids in 2020, the Diamondbacks would have been demoted then, probably, and they now would be fighting to stave off relegation to the Third Division. Instead, they're getting their brains beat in against the First Division.

At the top of the First Division, the Dodgers are one-half game ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers, no doubt a benefit of having the Diamondbacks in this company. A mere two games separates the third-place St. Louis Cardinals from the sixth-place New York Yankees. Add another half-game and we can throw in the Minnesota Twins, if they actually can win enough games against this group to reach the top half.

2021 National League lineal turns East

The Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants are among the early leaders in the 2021 race for the National League lineal championship, but the prize rested in the East as the All-Star break arrived.

The National League traveling championship spent the first two months of the season on the West Coast, so the Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants are among the contenders at the All-Star break.

But the break came with the championship crawling along the East Coast, passing successively to the Washington Nationals, the Miami Marlins, the Atlanta Braves and, later, the New York Mets. The Mets are the title holder at the pause, and they will put it on the line at home against the Atlanta Braves July 26-29.

It seems, though, that no team east of the San Joaquin Valley has the goods to sustain a championship streak. Perhaps the Milwaukee Brewers can do it, but they, and the St. Louis Cardinals, are the two clubs in the NL yet to play for this championship.

The Giants controlled the championship for most of a month, from May 9 to June 6, playing for it consistently during that period. In that time, the Giants won the title twice and defended it three times, losing only to a challenge to the Dodgers, but immediately winning it back in a counter-challenge.

Then the Giants ventured to Washington and lost two of three June 11-13. The title has been in the east ever since.

Giants consolidate Northwest lineal championship

Shortly after the All-Star break in 2019, the San Francisco Giants consolidated the Northwest Conference lineal championship. The playdown went down quickly and evenly.

If the play-down for the Northwest lineal baseball championship in 2019 is an indication, this is going to be an even competition.

By the time the championship was decided in late July, the Colorado Rockies, Chicago Cubs, Minnesota Twins and San Francisco Giants had each won four series with championship shares on the line. With only two exceptions, all the the lost series for the four leading clubs were against each other.

As the Giants and Rockies began a three-game series in San Francisco June 24-26, the Rockies held four shares of the Northwest lineal and the Giants held three. By winning two of three, the Rockies assumed seven of the eight championship shares. At that point, the only other share belonged to the Chicago White Sox.

The Chicago Cubs took that share away on total runs with a two-game split against the White Sox July 6-7. Ten days later, the Giants swept Colorado in Coors Field to take over those seven shares. The Giants and Cubs met with all the shares the next week in San Francisco, and the Giants won two of three to inaugurate the Northwest Conference lineal championship.

The Giants and Rockies traded the title back and forth, so the Giants ended the season holding the title. Because coronavirus compromised the Major League Baseball schedule considerably in 2020, this championship will resume in 2021.

 

Mariners best of a weak lot in Happy Chandler West

Nobody in the Happy Chandler West was good enough to even be in the expanded playoffs across big league baseball. Somebody had to win, though. It was the Seattle Mariners.

In a division with no 2016 playoff clubs, the Seattle Mariners were the best in the Happy Chandler West.

The Mariners, at 33-34 and .579, finished four games ahead of the San Francisco Giants, who did barely better than even with their 40-39 record.

Playoff push takes Dodgers to First Division title

The Dodgers won their first title in the First Division, rallying past the Washington Nationals during the playoffs to break open a five-way race.

Clayton Kershaw finished off the Washington Nationals in the playoffs, nailing down the First Division championship for the Dodgers (Tony the Tiger/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license).

The Dodgers, who have spent as much time in the First Division as anyone, finally won the premier league crown in 2016. Playoff results, which are included in our baseball divisions, dramatically turned the race for the Dodgers.

The Texas Rangers actually led the top division at the end of the regular season, 14-9 with a winning percentage of .609, one-half game ahead of the second-place Dodgers at 21-17 and .553. But the post season included two series in the divisional round pitting First Division performers. The Dodgers were to play the Washington Nationals, while the Rangers were to face the Toronto Blue Jays. All four of those clubs, plus the San Francisco Giants remained in the championship hunt during the postseason.

The Giants also were in the playoffs, going against the Chicago Cubs in the first round. If the Giants and Dodgers had both won in the first round, they would have met in the National League Championship Series, possibly with the First Division on the line.

Entering the first round playoff games of Oct. 11, the picture boiled down, just a little. The Rangers had taken themselves out of contention by losing in three straight against Toronto. The Dodgers and Giants both were down, two games to one, in the playoffs. So, the Giants (21-18, .538), Dodgers (22-19, .537), Blue Jays (22-19, .537) and Nationals (14-12, .538) all were rather stuck together.

October 11 was the day of Game Four both for the Giants/Cubs and the Dodgers/Nationals. But the Giants lost their Game Four to the Cubs, thus losing the series in as many games and missing their chance to face the Dodgers in the next round. Meanwhile, the Dodgers took a 5-2 lead in their Game Four against the Nationals, who then tied it with three runs in the top of the seventh inning. Then the Dodgers regained the lead with Chase Utley's base hit to drive in Andrew Toles in the bottom of the eighth, and Kenley Jansen saved the ninth for a 6-5 Dodgers win.

Now, it came down to Game Five for the Dodgers and Nationals. The Dodgers were 23-19 and .547, first place, but barely ahead of the Giants (21-18, .538) and the Blue Jays (22-19, .537). The Nationals were 14-13 now, falling out of the race even if they were to win Game Five. With a loss, the Dodgers would have finished in a tie with Toronto and the Giants in the games back column, with the Giants leading by one percentage point, the slimmest of margins for the First Division title.

But the Dodgers wiped out that controversy with their 4-3 Game Five win against the Nationals at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers brought in Clayton Kershaw in a save situation, and, somehow, the Nationals resorted to Wilmer Difo as their two-out hitter with the tying run at second base in the top of the ninth. Kershaw struck out Difo in three pitches, giving the Dodgers, at 24-19 and .538, the undisputed First Division lead.

It remained that the Dodgers and Blue Jays could have met in the World Series with the First Division on the line between those two clubs. But neither club made it that far, the Dodgers falling to the Cubs in the National League Championship Series and the Jays losing to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series.

So, the 2016 standings in the top two divisions divisions ended like this:

We forewarn the Dodgers, though, that defending the First Division championship is a perilous station. For the last four years, a team defending the title fell to the relegation zone the very next year and was banished to the next level down.

In 2016, that team was the St. Louis Cardinals, the last standing charter member of the First Division in 2010 without since then being relegated. But once the Cardinals claimed their first share of a First Division title in a split with the Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants in 2015, they plummeted to 9-18 in 2016, last place in the top tier. They will be joined in relegation by the Kansas City Royals, who had just been promoted to the high level for 2016.

With the Cardinals now gone, Tampa Bay is the longest running member of the First Division, winning promotion to the top division in 2011 and staying there since. For all of their larger apparent troubles, the Rays hang tough every year against this high level of competition. Even in 2016, when they didn't contend, they still finished 19-20.

In fact, the Rays are the last team to win the First Division outright without being relegated the next season. They entered league and won it in 2011, then finished within a game of the top in each of the next two seasons before claiming a share of the 2015 title.

The New York Yankees won a First Division title in 2012 and earned relegation a year later. The same happened with the Texas Rangers, who won it in 2013, and the Angels, who won it in 2014 before it happened to the 2015 co-champion Cardinals in 2016.

Through the regular season, the Cleveland Indians were an afterthought in the Second Division – fifth place 13-10 and .565, well behind the first-place Boston Red Sox at 25-14 and .641. The second promotional position was held by the Pittsburgh Pirates (20-15, .571), barely over the Milwaukee Brewers and the Yankees, both 20-16 and .556.

But the Indians had an opportunity that the Pirates, Brewers and Yankees did not have – a divisional playoff series against the Red Sox. Winning three straight against the Red Sox, the Indians hoisted themselves through the standings, all the way up to the winning percentage portion of the Second Division title at 16-10 and .615, but still behind the Red Sox (25-17, .595 ) in the games column.

A key performer for the Indians, reliever Andrew Miller, notched the victory in Game One, then pitched two key shutout innings in Cleveland's clinching 4-3 win in Game 3 against the Boston Red Sox (Artura Pardavila III/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).

Thus, the Indians and Red Sox are the two clubs being promoted to the First Division in 2017, replacing the Royals and Cardinals, who will come down from the First Division to the Second Division. At the bottom of the Second Division, the Angels and Atlanta Braves appear joined at the hip in their decline. Both were freshly demoted to the Second Division in 2016, and both are being demoted again, to the Third Division, in 2017.

The Detroit Tigers, New York Mets and Chicago Cubs dominated the Third Division in 2016. Each had a Third Division patsy within its regular big league division, and each took advantage. The Tigers were 15-4 against the Minnesota Twins, the Cubs were 15-4 against the Cincinnati Reds, and the Mets were 12-7 against the Philadelphia Phillies.

By being just a nudge better, nine winning percentage points, the Phillies staved off the Twins and averted relegation. The Reds, who finished in last place, are to be relegated, with the Twins, to the Fourth Division in 2017. The Twins, a charter First Division club in 2010, now are headed to the bottom level.

On the top of this heap, the Tigers were unstoppable. They roughed up the Twins pretty good, but they also were 20-12 against their other Third Division opponents and notched winning records against every such team that they played. At 35-16 and .686, the Tigers needed every bit of it to avoid sharing the division championship with the Mets and Cubs.

The Mets were the second-place team, 28-13 and .683. The Tigers, playing so many more games, still won the games column by two, but barely finished ahead by percentage. The Cubs were right there, too, 26-13 and .667. However, the Mets won five of their seven games against the Cubs to secure Second Division promotion with the Tigers in 2017.

Coming down from the Second Division and replacing the promoted Tigers and Mets in the Third Division are the Angels and Braves. Neither team seems likely to become a noise maker in the Third Division.

The more likely Third Division noise makers figure to be the teams coming up from the Fourth Division, the Houston Astros and the Miami Marlins. The Astros became a strong club across big league baseball in 2015, but only now have they been able to escape from the Fourth Division dungeon, a house of horrors they first entered in 2011.

The Fourth Division is loathe to give up good teams that fall into its clutches. The Baltimore Orioles fell to the Fourth Division in 2015. Last year, in their second attempt to escape, they finished at the bottom of this lowest division for the second straight time.

First Division title a three-way split in 2015

We ended up declaring tri-champions for the First Division in 2015, giving equal due to the St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays. On the bottom end, the Angels defended their 2014 title poorly to earn relegation, along with the Atlanta Braves.

There was never much clarity on top of the First Division in 2016 as the St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays set a strong pace all year and never came apart from each other.

In the end, it came to a split championship between those three clubs.

Normally, the call is made by winning percentage, but we always split titles when there is a discrepancy between winning percentage and the games behind column. In this case, the Cardinals were 15-10, .600, to lead the way in winning percentage. But that's one-half game behind the Giants (26-20, .565), who led in the games behind column.

Then again, the Rays (19-14, .576), finished ahead of the Cardinals in the games behind column and ahead of the Giants in winning percentage. At the same time, they tied with the Giants in the games behind column and behind the Cardinals in winning percentage.

So, there was no boiling this one down to one club, or even two.

The split championship was a first in the First Division in more ways than one. It also marked the first time the Cardinals claimed even a share of the title, even though they are the only club that has been in the First Division continuously since tracking began in 2010.

On the bottom of the First Division, the Dodgers escaped relegation by winning 12 of their last 20 after finishing July in last place at 10-18. The Dodgers finished 22-22, sixth place, ahead of the Atlanta Braves and the Angels, who both will be relegated.

The Angels won the First Division in 2014, but came back with a last-place performance in a limited 2015 schedule, finishing 6-16.

Coming up from the Second Division to replace the Braves and Angels in the First Division will be the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers.

Dodgers win wild West League in 2015

The Dodgers rallied through the final two months of the 2015 West League season, while the Houston Astros faltered on the road. Thus, the Dodgers overtook the Astros to claim the West League championship.

Adrian Gonzalez led the Dodgers' batting order through a championship campaign during the 2015 West League season (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

The Dodgers looked finished in the West League after the Houston Astros swept them three Aug. 21-23 in Houston, starting with a no-hitter for Houston hurler Mike Fiers in the Friday night opener.

After that series, the Astros were 42-26, four games up on the Dodgers, who wallowed at 37-29 second place. 

But the road took a toll on the Astros in the final month, as two three-city trips through the circuit yielded combined results of 4-15. 

The better seasoned Dodgers campaigned on their big road trip, a Sept. 3-13 three-city swing through San Diego, Anaheim and Arizona that went 7-3, one loss in each location.

By the time the Astros took a 2-8 beating going through Oakland, Anaheim and Arlington, TX, Sept. 7-17, the Dodgers were in command.

The Dodgers went to the final week of the season with a two-game lead on the Astros and a three-game lead on the Angels and San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers then split four in San Francisco before sweeping three at home against the San Diego Padres to secure a 5-2 week, which no one else surpassed and only the Astros matched.

Ending the regular season, the Dodgers remained two up on the Astros. The Dodgers, Astros and Rangers remained alive in the Major League playoffs. Though the Rangers won the American League West at 88-74, two games ahead of the Astros and three ahead of the Angels, they were also-rans in the West League.

The Rangers finished 47-49 in the West League, sixth out of 10 clubs. So, the Rangers didn't hold up very well against their regional competition, but they were 41-25 outside the West League. The Astros were 32-34 outside the West League. The Dodgers were 36-30 outside the league

As the playoffs began, the possibility existed that the Astros and Rangers could meet again for the World Series berth, also giving the Astros one last run at the Dodgers in the West League. But the Astros couldn't get past the Kansas City Royals and the Rangers couldn't get past the Toronto Blue Jays.

Thus. the Dodgers prevailed in the first year of playing out the West League, which will next play out when the interleague divisions align for it in 2018. Meanwhile, it has been decided here to track a different disalignment in the next two seasons, based on whether clubs are original or expansion franchises. If we applied it to the 2015 season, the results are quite surprising.

With their league win, the Dodgers also claim the title in the league's South Division. In the North Division, the Giants prevailed by one game over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Fiers starts WL series no-hitting Dodgers

Houston Astros right-hander Mike Fiers launched a key series against the Dodgers with a no-hitter Friday night, giving the Astros a two-game lead on the Dodgers in the West League. This weekend's series is the only time the two top clubs in the loop will meet this year.

Mike Fiers, recently acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers, threw a no-hitter at the Dodgers Friday night (Steve Paluch/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

The Dodgers have only one crack this year at the Houston Astros, it began Friday night, and, so, far, the Dodgers haven't hit them.

Astros right-hander Mike Fiers, acquired with center fielder Carlos Gomez from the Milwaukee Brewers at the non-waiver trading deadline, put a no-hitter on the Dodgers Friday night in Houston for a 3-0 victory to begin a three-game series.

The series is the only one this year between the Dodgers and Astros, who have gone back-and-forth on top of the West League standings all season. Friday's result increased Houston's lead over the Dodgers to two games, with the San Francisco Giants now 2½ games back.

The no-hitter by Fiers continued a tepid stretch for the Dodgers, who were swept in two games on the road by the Oakland Athletics Tuesday and Wednesday. The Athletics entered that series with seven straight losses.

Through Friday's games, the Astros are 40-26 in the West League, followed  by the Dodgers at 37-27 and the San Francisco Giants, 38-29. So, it has come down to those three clubs in the West League.

The Angels, who began Friday only 2½ games behind the Astros in the American League West division, now are six behind the Astros in the West League. The Angels opened a three-game series this weekend in Anaheim against the Toronto Blue Jays in an attempt to save their First Division season. However the series will have no effect on the West League.

The difference between the Astros and the Angels in the West League comes down purely to how those clubs have fared this year against the National League West, which is supplying their interleague opponents this season (hence, the activation of the West League).

The Astros are 12-3 in those games, compared with 7-10 for the Angels. In those games, then, the Astros are six games better than the Astros. Throw in the fact that the Astros are 8-5 this year against the Angels and we find, a bit startlingly, that the Astros are 20-8 combined against the Angels and interleague opponents, while the Angels are 12-18 against the Astros and interleague opponents. Yet, the Astros were only 2 ½ games better in the AL West.

Against the other AL West teams (the Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers), by the way, the Angels are 23-15, compared with 20-18 for the Astros. The Angels have 19 games left against those clubs and the Astros have 18 left against them. The Angels and Astros have six games left against each other.

The Astros had a run of seven losses in eight games against the West League from Aug. 3-11, helping the Dodgers whittle a 3½-game deficit to nothing.

The Dodgers began Friday with little activity in the West League since July 1, just six games with the Angels and Athletics, which they split.

Of course, the September schedule is packed with divisional games across Major League Baseball, and it's all going to come down to that final month.

But if the Dodgers are going to do anything about it directly against the Astros, this weekend is their only chance.

So far, they don't even have a hit.

West League Overall W     L      Pct.     GB Houston 40 26 .606 — DODGERS 37 27 .578 2 San Francisco 38 29 .567 2½ Arizona 33 31 .516 6 ANGELS 35 33 .515 6 Oakland 32 31 .510 6½ San Diego 32 35 .478 8½ Seattle 31 34 .477 8½ Texas 29 37 .439 11 Colorado 21 45 .318 19	North Division W     L      Pct.     GB San Francisco 38 29 .567 — Arizona 33 31 .516 3½ Oakland 32 31 .510 4 Seattle 31 34 .477 6 Colorado 21 45 .318 16½ South Division W     L      Pct.     GB DODGERS 37 27 .578 2 Houston 40 26 .606 — ANGELS 35 33 .515 6 San Diego 32 35 .478 8½ Texas 29 37 .439 11
Friday's results Houston 3, DODGERS 0.	Saturday's games DODGERS at Houston.

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.

St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, right, delivered a big home run for the Cardinals against the San Francisco Giants Tuesday night. Here he is with his brother, Benji Molina, during a 2007 meeting between the Cardinals and Giants (shgmom56/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The First Division race will go into hyper-drive in the next 10 days, which feature the only seven games this season between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals, the two front-running teams in the top tier.

If the first two of these meetings are any indication, this stretch of the race will be memorable.

The Cardinals won the opener in St. Louis Monday night, 2-1, on a solo homer for Yadier Molina and an eighth-inning scratch run that scored on an infield out by Mark Reynolds. The Giants prevailed, 2-0, in the second game, thanking an RBI double by Brandon Crawford, a hit batsman with the bases loaded, six shutout innings for Madison Bumgarner and a stiff bullpen.

The Giants improved to 21-10 (.677) in the First Division, while the Cardinals fell to 10-5 (.667). It is winning percentage that will decide this, so, even if the Giants have a three-game lead, that matters little.

After Tuesday's games, the Giants have 11 games left in the First Division, the first of which is the finale to this series with the Cardinals Wednesday in St. Louis. The Giants will end up with 43 games in the First Division. The Cardinals have 10 games left, bringing their total in the tier to 25. So, each individual game weighs more heavily on the Cardinals, for well or ill.

The Giants and Cardinals, we all know, have rather parallel fortunes in recent postseasons. The Giants win it every time they are in it, which is only half the time. The Cardinals are always in it, but they only win it when the Giants aren't in it, which is half of the time.

In the First Division, their histories are rather like that.

The Cardinals are the only team that has been in the First Division every year since these standings were first kept in 2010. But the Cardinals never even came close to winning it until last year, when they fell short at the end.

The Giants weren't even in the First Division in 2010. But their 2010 postseason pushed them to the Second Division championship and promotion to the First Division for 2011, when they lost the top tier title to the Tampa Bay Rays by a mere eight percentage points. Then the Giants lost the 2012 First Division title to the New York Yankees by only 13 percentage points.

In 2013, the Giants and Yankees both plummeted so far that they both were relegated to the Second Division in 2014. The Giants flourished and easily won the Second Division in 2014, winning promotion to the First Division for this season with a great chance to win it.

So, it's wildly fluctuating ups and downs for the Giants, while the Cardinals have been steady and consistently excellent, without the peaks and pits that are well known to the Giants.

The Giants went a long way towards whittling down the First Division race last week, winning four straight from the Washington Nationals right after the Nationals lost two of three to the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. With that tailspin, the Natties fell from contention and now are 17-18 in the top division.

The only other club in the mix for the First Division fight is the Tampa Bay Rays (17-10, .630), who are two games down the the Giants in the games column. But the Rays have only six games left in the First Division, all against the Toronto Blue Jays during the final week of the season.

Remaining First Division games

ANGELS (six games): August 21-23, three at home against Toronto; September 7-9, three at home against DODGERS.

DODGERS (10 games): August 31-September 2, three at home against San Francisco; September 7-9, three at ANGELS; September 28-October 1, four at San Francisco.

Atlanta (13 games): September 3-6, four at Washington; September 15-17, three at home against Toronto; September 29-October 1, three at home against Washington; October 2-4, three at home against St. Louis.

San Francisco (11 games): August 19, one at St. Louis; August 28-30, three at home against St. Louis; August 31-September 2, three at DODGERS; September 28-October 1, four at home against DODGERS.

St. Louis (10 games): August 19, one at home against San Francisco; August 28-30, three at San Francisco; August 31-September 2, three at home against Washington; October 2-4, three at Atlanta.

Tampa Bay (six games): September 25-27, three at Toronto; October 2-4, three at home against Toronto.

Toronto (12 games): August 21-23, three at ANGELS; September 15-17, three at Atlanta; September 25-27, three at home against Tampa Bay; October 2-4, three at Tampa Bay.

Washington (10 games): August 31-September 2, three at St. Louis; September 3-6, four at home against Atlanta; September 29-October 1, three at Atlanta.

2015 First Division standings, through games of August 18

First Division W     L      Pct.     GB San Francisco 21 10 .677 — St. Louis 10 5 .667 3 Tampa Bay 17 10 .630 2 Washington 17 18 .486 6 DODGERS 15 19 .441 7½ Toronto 10 13 .435 7 Atlanta 13 22 .371 10 ANGELS 5 11 .313 8½

Astros improve lineup, but stop scoring

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 Houston Astros have replaced light-hitting Jake Marisnick, left, with big-hitting Carlos Gomez, right, but the offense has since then sputtered (Marisnick photo: EricEnfermero/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Gomez photo: slgckgc/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).


By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

At the July 31 trading deadline, the top contenders stock up on a market for high priced talent to add the extra piece or two that should make themselves that much better.

Should.

So, the Houston Astros, sudden contenders in 2015, went to the market and picked up a lot of good stuff. A week before the deadline, they sent minor leagues Daniel Mengden and Jacob Nottingham to the Oakland Athletics for Scott Kazmir, an accomplished big league left-hander from the Houston area. On the day of the deadline, they moved minor leaguers Josh Hader, Adrian Houser and Brett Phillips, along with rookie right fielder Domingo Santana, to the Milwaukee Brewers for right-hander Mike Fiers and one of the best players in the game, center fielder Carlos Gomez. The Astros even picked up some cash in the deal to help with those contracts.

The Astros made themselves much better. They could replace light-hitting center fielder Jack Marisnick with Gomez, a Gold Glover who has averaged 24 homers and 37 steals in the last two full seasons, a 128 OPS-plus guy.

Suddenly, the pitching rotation includes Kazmir, who won 15 games in an All-Star 2014 and was even better this year, a 2.38 ERA in 18 starts for the Athletics. They also could include Fiers, who isn't terrible and has even been good, throwing a 2.13 ERA in 72 innings for the Brewers last season. That meant they could be a little cautious with young starters like Lance McCullers while lopping off mediocre veterans Roberto Hernandez and Dan Straily. By the way, the Astros also recently brought veteran Scott Feldman back from the disabled list.

So, as they've often said in Houston, all systems are go, right?

Last week, the first full week after the trade deadline, the Astros lost six of their seven games to the Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics, neither of which are winners (though the Rangers, partly due to sweeping three from the Astros, are up to .500). They lost again Tuesday night to the San Francisco Giants. It's true that all those games were on the road, as is their game Wednesday against the Giants.

But this isn't the plan.

Through July 30, the Astros built their lead in the American League West by two over the Angels by sweeping them three in Houston. In addition, not incidentally, the Astros were 35-18 in the West League, holding a 3 1/2 game lead over the Dodgers.

All of that is gone now. The Dodgers, whose only West League action since July 30 is a three-game sweep of the Angels at Dodger Stadium last weekend, now have taken a one-half game lead over the Astros in the West League. And the Angels have cut their deficit to one game in the AL West despite a 4-6 August.

So, the Astros laid some good plans, but they aren't working immediately.

Kazmir, for his part, has been sensational for the Astros, allowing one earned run in his first three starts (20 1/3 innings) for them. Fiers took his first start for the Astros Sunday in Oakland and allowed only a run in 6 2/3 innings. The Astros wound up losing, 5-4. Not his fault.

In fact, the Astros pitching for the last 11 days has been about the same as the rest of the season, an ERA right around 3.50 (the American League average was 3.92).

But their hitting seems to have taken a respite. Right off the trade deadline, the Astros had a couple games in which they scored nine runs. One of those games, they actually lost, a 12-9 decision to the Rangers on Aug. 3. In their next seven games, the Astros fashioned a team batting average of .188, along with an on-base percentage of .263. The Astros scored a total of 18 runs in those games, even though they hit five homers.

Has Gomez been an upgrade on Marisnick? Entering Wednesday's games, Marisnick put up an OPS of .611 (68 OPS-plus). In his first 11 games for the Astros, entering Wednesday, Gomez has a .619 OPS and a 71 OPS-plus. In the short term, then, Gomez is no upgrade on Marisnick offensively. Of course, one figures .611 is about what Marisnick will do, while Gomez figures to become a lot better.

And the Astros do need that. The Astros entered Wednesday's games with 500 runs, fourth in the Major Leagues, 4.05 runs per game. In the last week, though, they've averaged fewer than three runs per game.

They're not going to win that way. And if they don't win, then those acquisitions were for naught.

Rangers drop Giants, keep Dodgers safe with Aaron

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.

Josh Hamilton was a hero Sunday for the Texas Rangers, and, indirectly, the Dodgers (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Dodgers are a long way past dodging trollies, but they did dodge a bullet Sunday, when the Texas Rangers took down the San Francisco Giants, 2-1, to keep the Henry Aaron Award.

With a win in that game, the Giants would have captured the series and the Aaron, setting themselves up for a chance to surpass the Dodgers on top of the standings for the interleague traveling trophy.

Instead, the Dodgers remain the top club in the Aaron, and they stand to remain that way for some time, especially with the Aaron now living in the American League.

The Giants remain second to the Dodgers in the Henry Aaron standings this season, though the Giants have played nine times this season for the award, breaking their tie at eight with the Dodgers. The Dodgers still have the better overall performance, going 15-10 in Aaron games with one title, six defenses in seven attempts and 22 games holding the title. The Giants are 14-14 with one title, four defenses in six attempts and 18 games holding the title.

Not incidentally, the Angels have made a strong run with the Aaron since the start of July. After taking the Aaron in a three-game sweep of the Rangers July 3-5 in Arlington, the Angels ripped through four strong title defenses before the Rangers took it back from them by winning two of three last weekend in Anaheim. However, the Angels did a lot with their run, going 14-5 with four title defenses in five attempts and holding the prize for 16 days to reach the thick of the standings in their only turn this season with the interleague traveling trophy.

The Rangers held the Aaron by the skin of their teeth last week in a four-game split with the New York Yankees. The Rangers only held the Aaron because no team can lose that prize in a split series. However, the Yankees did take the Harmon Killebrew Award from the Rangers, who also won that prize last weekend in Anaheim. The Yankees beat the Rangers in the total runs tie-breaker for the Killebrew, 35-19.

Josh Hamilton may be a pox on the Angels, but he is a hero today for the Dodgers after hitting a two-run homer in the sixth inning Sunday to give the Rangers their deciding victory over the Giants. Hamilton hit the bomb against right-hander Mike Leake, acquired by the Giants from the Cincinnati Reds in a deadline deal earlier in the week.

With the Rangers, by the way, Hamilton has a .742 OPS, which is about how he produced with the Angels in 2013 (.739) and last year (.745). He has five homers and 16 RBI in 118 plate appearances, which include eight walks and 31 strikeouts.

The Rangers are defending the Aaron Monday through Wednesday at home against the Houston Astros, who, for all their resurgence this season, have been no factor in the Aaron or Dick Allen Awards.

It remains that the Rangers lag in the Henry Aaron standings, though their two titles this year are the most for any club. They need a couple more weeks of title defenses before they're pushing on the Dodgers.

First Division: Dodgers dying again against top club

A trip to Dodger Stadium this weekend appears to be just what the San Francisco Giants needed to end a three-week run of losing baseball. The Giants solidified their teetering hold on first place in the First Division by winning the first two games of this weekend's series.

San Fransicso Giants right-hander Tim Lincecum will try for his third win of the season against the Dodgers Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium (Acordova/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

So, the San Francisco Giants are in Los Angeles this weekend, and we think, by now, that we know what that means.

It means that Friday night, within an hour of the first pitch in this weekend's three-game series, Dodgers starting pitcher Mike Bolsinger loaded the bases before hanging a breaking ball to Buster Posey, who put it very quickly into the left-field seats to give the Giants a 4-1 lead in the third inning. Grand slam.

The game kind of went on like that Friday night. The Giants won, 9-5.

Saturday afternoon, Dodgers right-hander Carlos Frias hung a two-strike, two-out pitch to Justin Maxwell, who turned it into a two-run homer to give the Giants a 4-2 lead in the fifth. Brandon Belt added a two-run homer for the Giants in the sixth, finishing off a 6-2 San Francisco win.

Middle-inning, game-breaking homers are the kind of events markinig encounters this season between the Dodgers and Giants. The Giants have won nine of those 11 encounters already this season. By early Saturday evening, this series was more of the same.

A visit to Dodger Stadium has come as something of a tonic for the Giants, particularly in the First Division, where their lead was diminished to one-half game this week while the Tampa Bay Rays took three of four from the Washington Nationals. With their wins on Friday and Saturday, the Giants (14-4 in the First Division) are back to a 1½ games ahead of the Rays (13-6) in the top tier.

From a more conventional perspective, the Giants had been less than an ordinary club for the last three weeks. Starting on May 30, they lost two straight to the Atlanta Braves, then three straight to the Pittsburgh Pirates, all at home. They went on the road to win two of three against both the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, hardy a signature achievement.

Then the Giants came back west to lose three straight against the scuffing Arizona Diamondbacks and split four games against the wuffling Seattle Mariners.

Sounds like a ball club that needed a visit to Dodger Stadium for a set of games against more than $250 million of baseball talent assembled by the brain power of elite universities.

At some point after watching the Dodgers consistently die against the best clubs, we have to stop being mystified. Until the Dodgers can beat some of the best clubs, we can't say they're one of them.

In the First Division right now, the Dodgers are 6-15, the last-place team by a two games. That includes a combined performance of 4-14 against the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.

The good news for the Dodgers right now is they won't have to worry Sunday about facing San Francisco left-hander Madison Bumgarner, who already has beaten them twice this season. But they do have to face right-hander Tim Lincecum, who also has beaten them twice this season.

First Division: Angels, Dodgers both facing trouble

The Angels and Dodgers both are in First Division trouble coming through the first week of June. Both are at the bottom of the division, which spells relegation to the Second Division for 2016 if they don't rise in the top tier. That means beating top-level clubs, which neither Los Angeles club has done very much of this season.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia won't be able to argue his way into remaining in the First Division for 2016 if his club doesn't improve its performance against this top tier of teams (Googie man/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

By BILL PETERSON

Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The First Division is heating up with a lot of action during these last couple of weeks, but the Dodgers and Angels aren't heating it up with it.

Far from it. The inability of the Angels and Dodgers to handle top teams has been noted in the First Division standings, among other places. Both Los Angeles teams came through this first week of June fighting against the possibility of relegation to the Second Division in 2016, which is the fate of the two clubs finishing at the bottom of the First Division in 2015.

The Angels lost two of three last week at home against the Tampa Bay Rays, dropping the first two games after winning the opener. The Dodgers have not succeeded in purchasing the goods to take down the two elite clubs in the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants, posting a combined 4-11 against the two clubs that have accounted for the last five National League pennants.

The Angels need to get their getting quickly, as they'll play fewer than two dozen games, total, in the First Division. At 3-7 in the First Division, the Angels are defending their 2014 top tier title with a last-place performance, six games behind the front-running Giants. The Angels will get another crack at the Rays next weekend in St. Petersburg. After that, though, the pickings will be slim.

Following next weekend's series at Tampa Bay, the Angels will have only nine games left in the First Division this season – six against the Dodgers and three against the Toronto Blue Jays. Being six games down in the First Division is a lot different from being down 5½ to the Houston Astros in the American League West, which is another position they've taken. The Angels have a lot more time in the AL West, and the Astros (12-10 against clubs at or above .500 and 22-13 against clubs below .500) are likely to cool off as they play against better clubs.

Teams have won ordinal divisions with fewer than two dozen games, but it requires a superior winning percentage for that team, and there can't be another team that's both playing a lot of games and winning a big share of them. The record for fewest wins to take a division belongs to the Texas Rangers, who won the First Division in 2013 with a 13-8 record in their 21 games. The second place team, Tampa Bay, finished 18-15.

The team with the fewest games played to win a division was the Angels in the 2013 Second Division. The Angels played only 19 games, but finished 14-5. The Angels beat the Nationals (25-18) by one game and 156 percentage points (.737 to .581). Both clubs were promoted to the First Division for 2014, and the Angels went on to win it.

That has a way of happening in the First Division. In three of the last four years, the First Division winner had been freshly promoted that year. In addition to the Angels in 2014, the Texas Rangers did it in 2013 and the Rays did it in 2011. It's worth pointing out that the Giants are working on precisely the same achievement, leading the First Division after being promoted to the top tier this season. 

However, the Rangers were swiftly demoted to the Second Division after an injury-plagued 2014 season. That does not appear to be a danger for the Giants.

The Dodgers have a different kind of job in front of them. The Dodgers actually are last in the games behind column of the top tier, seven games down, compared with six down for the Angels. However, the Angels have a lower winning percentage (.300, compared with .333 for the Dodgers), and promotion and relegation ultimately comes down to winning percentage.

Last week was no better than a break-even proposition for the Dodgers, who won two of three at home against the Atlanta Braves, but lost two of three at St. Louis last weekend. All of those were First Division games. The Braves went on to split last weekend on the grounds of the division-leading San Francisco Giants. This weekend, the Dodgers have lost two of three at home to the Cardinals, with the final game of that series coming Sunday night.

The Giants lead the First Division with an impressive mark of 12-4, thanks largely to their combined 10-2 performance against the Dodgers and Angels. The Rays are pressing the closest pursuit, only a game down at 9-3 after taking two of three in Anaheim last week. The Nationals (7-5) and the Cardinals (6-3) are the only other clubs breaking even in the division.

As the schedule lays out, the Giants will play about 40 games this year in the First Division, so their work is far from done. Same with the Dodgers. But the Dodgers are on the other end of the standings from the Giants. While the Giants vie for the leadership and the championship, the Dodgers now hold seventh place, which will get them relegated to the Second Division in 2016 if they do not improve their performance against this top tier of clubs.

First Division: Dodgers, Cardinals, vie to challenge Giants

The Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals will see a lot of each other in the next 10 days in games that should matter a lot to the First Division. But the San Francisco Giants are off to such a good start in the top tier that there's a chance no one else will matter.

Andre Ethier is swinging a strong left-handed bat for the Dodgers, hitting .317 with a 165 OPS-plus. The Dodgers will need him for the next couple weekends against the St. Louis Cardinals (LiAnna Davis/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Dodgers' greatest natural rival, of course, is the San Francisco Giants. But the team that really has stood in their way the last couple years is the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cardinals have eliminated the Dodgers from the last two years of playoffs, offing them in a six-game National League Championship Series in 2013 and again in a four-game divisional series in 2014. In each of those seasons, though, the Dodgers won four of the seven regular-season meetings between those clubs.

The 2015 version of those games is coming right up – three in St. Louis this weekend and four at Dodger Stadium next weekend. All of these games should be thick with implications in this year's First Division competition, although the San Francisco Giants are threatening to make everyone else irrelevant.

The Giants are off to an 11-2 start in the top tier, winning seven of their nine meetings with the Dodgers and sweeping the Angels earlier in the season. Now, the Giants have added a team from outside Southern California to their hit list, beating the Atlanta Braves, 7-0, Thursday night in the first game of a weekend series in San Francisco.

The Dodgers slightly improved their First Division situation this week by winning two of three from the Braves at Dodger Stadium, but they're still only 4-8 in the division, 6½ games behind the Giants. The Cardinals have played only three games this year in the First Division, going 2-1.

Across the National League, the Cardinals are 31-16 and the Dodgers are 28-18, the two best records going. Both have been NL playoff semifinalists for the last two years.

The Cardinals are the only club across Major League Baseball that has been in the First Division for every year of its existence, starting in 2011. The Dodgers have been a First Division club every year except 2012. But neither club has ever won the First Division, and the Cardinals never came especially close until last year.

The 2014 First Division season ended with the Dodgers and Cardinals meeting in the divisional playoffs. Either club could have captured the First Division with the right outcome in that series. But the Dodgers won just enough of those playoff games – one – to give the Angels a one-half game championship margin over St. Louis.

So, the Dodgers and Cardinals will meet seven times next 10 days with serious implications for the First Division.

Unless the Giants keep doing what they're doing.

Henry Aaron Award: Giants foil Dodgers, again

Just as the Dodgers were about to set the all-time record for Henry Aaron Award title defenses, they ran into their nemesis for all time, the San Francisco Giants. The Giants shut out the Dodgers three straight in San Francisco this week, stopping the Dodgers at six consecutive Aaron defenses.

San Francisco Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner beat the Dodgers for the second time in 2015 this week. The Giants snatched the Henry Aaron Award for the first time this season (SD Dirk/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON

Big Leagues in Los Angeles

You can leave it to the San Francisco Giants to ruin the fun for the Dodgers. But don't get the wrong idea. 

Some folks think the Dodgers are spooked by the Giants. They're not. The Giants don't beat their opponents by spooking them. The Giants win because they are good.

So, the Giants have done it to the Dodgers here, sweeping them three May 19-21 at AT&T Park to take away the Henry Aaron Award just as the Dodgers were poised to set a record with it.

Instead, the Dodgers came through that series heading into a record no one wants. The Dodgers didn't score a run for the entire series, going one-for-17 with runners in scoring position. The first two starting pitchers to take them down for the Giants were 39-year-old right-hander Tim Hudson and the nowadays unremarkable Tim Lincecum (though he is off to a nice start in 2015 — 4-2 with a 2.08 ERA). 

The finale went to Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner, who beat Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw for the second time this season and may, in view of his 2014 World Series performance, be the top pitcher going right now. Bumgarner and Kershaw locked up on one earlier game this year in which neither pitcher took a decision, but, in the course of this season, the Giants won.

The Dodgers entered the series with a record-tying six consecutive Henry Aaron title defenses, then went down by scores of 4-0, 4-0 and 2-0. 

Following the series, the Dodgers returned to Dodger Stadium and failed to score in their first four innings Friday night against the San Diego Padres. With a scoreless fifth inning, the Dodgers would have set their all-time record with 36 consecutive scoreless innings. With a scoreless game, the Dodgers would have been the first team to be shut out four consecutive times for the first time since the Chicago Cubs in 1992.

But Andre Ethier broke that streak for the Dodgers with a run-scoring double in the fifth. Before Ethier stepped in, the Dodgers had gone 133 consecutive batters without scoring a run. The Dodgers ended up beating the Padres Friday night, 2-1.

Anyway, the Giants have the Aaron again after their terrific run with it to end the 2014 season. The Giants have won it for the first time in 2015.

But the Dodgers took a big lead in the Aaron standings, in which they now are 15-10 with 22 days holding the honor. 

Now, it's the Giants' turn after taking down the Dodgers, as they will do to the Dodgers and as the Dodgers will do to them, because that's what these clubs have always done to each other. It's true that the Giants now have beaten the Dodgers in all six games the two clubs have played in San Francisco this season. But that isn't the Giants spooking the Dodgers. 

Remember that the Dodgers beat the Giants two-of-three at Dodger Stadium this year, and the Dodgers beat the Giants in seven of their last nine meetings last year, including five of their last six in San Francisco. 

Whichever club is riding high, that's the club that's going down when these clubs meet. It isn't spooks. It's just a great rivalry.

West League: Dodgers, Astros expand cushion

The Dodgers and Houston Astros now are running well ahead of the West League after a spectacular two weeks for both clubs. But the Astros were slowed down last week by the Texas Rangers, while the Dodgers haven't been slowed down by anybody.

Scott Van Slyke is one of several utility players for the Dodgers who are hitting with authority (TonyTheTiger/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license).

By BILL PETERSON

Big Leagues in Los Angeles

It was anticipated that the Dodgers would at least strongly contend for the West League championship. That expectation was not attached to the Houston Astros.

Right now, though, those are the two teams on top of the league, and they are more on top of the league now than they were two weeks ago. Through April 26, the Astros held a one-half game lead over the Dodgers, but four other clubs were within four games of the league lead. Now, the Dodgers lead the Astros by one game and no one else is less than four games out of the league lead.

The Astros don't seem to have a lot, but everything was going just right. They had a 10-game winning streak in the West League (and overall) from April 24-May 3, winning five of those by one run. The club that finally slowed them down was the Texas Rangers, who swept them three straight last week in Houston.

The Dodgers don't have everything going just right. How can we say everything is going just right when they have Yasiel Puig, Kenley Jansen, Carl Crawford and Hyun-jin Ryu on the disabled list?

But the Dodgers have four or five guys right now who are hitting everything coming their way. Adrian Gonzalez (1.152 OPS) and Joc Pederson (1.043) are leading the charge. But Justin Turner (1.032) and Alex Guerrero (1.155) both have been fantastic and productive in their utility roles. Andre Ethier, something of a forgotten man at the start of the year, is running a .943 OPS. And Scott Van Slyke, who has always damaged left-handers, now is doing it to right-handers, against whom he has a 1.035 OPS and two homers in 36 at-bats this year.

The Dodgers are going so well now that the San Francisco Giants have heated up and still lost ground. The Giants are 7-3 in the West League during the last two weeks, but they lost a game to the Dodgers, who were 7-1.

Games of April 27

Seattle 3, at Texas 1.

Colorado 5, at Arizona 4.

DODGERS 8, San Francisco 3.

Houston 9, at San Diego 4.

Games of April 28

at Oakland 6, ANGELS 2.

Seattle 2, at Texas 1.

at Arizona 12, Colorado 5.

San Francisco 2, at DODGERS 1.

Houston 14, at San Diego 3.

Games of April 29

ANGELS 6, at Oakland 3.

Seattle 5, at Texas 2.

at Arizona 9, Colorado 1.

at DODGERS 7, San Francisco 3.

Houston 7, at San Diego 2.

Games of April 30

at Houston 3, Seattle 2.

ANGELS 6, at Oakland 5.

Games of May 1

at Houston 4, Seattle 3.

Oakland 7, at Texas 5.

at DODGERS 8, Arizona 0.

at San Diego 14, Colorado 3.

at San Francisco 3, ANGELS 2.

Games of May 2

at Houston 11, Seattle 4.

at Texas 8, Oakland 7, 10 innings.

at DODGERS 6, Arizona 4.

at San Diego 4, Colorado 2.

at San Francisco 5, ANGELS 4.

Games of May 3

Houston 7, at Seattle 6.

Oakland 7, at Texas 1.

at DODGERS 1, Arizona 0, 13 innings.

at San Diego 8, Colorado 6.

at San Francisco 5, ANGELS 0.

Games of May 4

Seattle 3, at ANGELS 2.

Texas 2, at Houston 1.

San Diego 3, at San Francisco 0.

Games of May 5

at ANGELS 5, Seattle 4.

Texas 7, at Houston 1.

at San Francisco 6, San Diego 0.

Games of May 6

at ANGELS 4, Seattle 3.

Texas 11, at Houston 3.

Arizona 13, Colorado 7.

Arizona 5, at Colorado 1.

San Diego 9, at San Francisco 1.

Games of May 7

Houston 3, at ANGELS 2.

at Arizona 11, San Diego 0.

Games of May 8

at ANGELS 2, Houston 0.

at Seattle 4, Oakland 3, 11 innings.

San Diego 6, at Arizona 5.

DODGERS 2, Colorado 1, 6 innings.

Games of May 9

Houston 6, at ANGELS 5.

at Seattle 7, Oakland 2.

San Diego 6, at Arizona 4.

Games of May 10

at Angels 3, Houston 0.

at Seattle 4, Oakland 3.

at Arizona 2, San Diego 1.

DODGERS 9, Colorado 5.

Games of May 11

No games.

Games of May 12

San Francisco 8, at Houston 1.

at ANGELS 5, Colorado 2.

at Seattle 11, San Diego 4.