Nationals first to clinch, but more will follow soon
The Washington Nationals became the first major league team to clinch a postseason spot when they wrapped up the NL East on Sunday.
They’ll have plenty of company in the playoff pic- ture soon enough.
The Nationals lead their division by 20 games, but three other teams have also turned their races into routs. The Cleveland Indians, winners of 18 straight, lead the AL Central by 13 games, and the Houston Astros are ahead by the same margin in the AL West.
The Los Angeles Dodg- ers have a nine-game lead in the NL West, and that’s only after a 10-game losing streak quashed any chance they had of setting a major league record for victories.
Anticlimact ic races are nothing new in the six-division era — in 1995, the Indi- answontheALCentralbya staggering 30 games — but it is somewhat unusual for so many fi rst-plac e teams to have leads this comfort- able. The last time four of the six divisions were decided by double digits was back in 2002, when the Braves, Twins, Cardinals and Yankees won by 19, 13 ½, 13 and 10 ½ games. This se ason could end up looking similar.
The gold standard for lop- sided division races may have come in 1998. That year, five of the six divisions were decided by at least nine games, with the Yankees winning by 22 and the Braves by 18.
Cleveland and Houston enter this coming week with magic numbers of seven to clinch their divisions. The number is 11 for the Dodgers, b arelydownfrom14at the beginning of the month.
Some more develop- ments from aro und baseball: The one really close division race rig htnowisinthe NL Central, where the Chi- cago Cubs are two games ahead of both Milwaukee andSt.Louis.Withatalent- ed, young nucleus returning f rom last year’s World Series victory, the Cubs figured to be in charge of that division for a while, but it’s been a struggle all season. Chicago has been good but not great, and even if the Cubs do make the postsea- son, they could finish with a worse record than both National League wild cards.
The Brewers have typified the all-or-nothing approach t hat seems prevalent throughout baseball these days. They have struck out more times than any team in the majors, but they’re also second in the NL in homers. The quartet of Travis Shaw, Eric Thames, Domingo San- tana and Keon Broxton has combined for 101 homers — only one fewer than Chicago’s Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber and Javier Baez.
St. Louis dropped nine of its first 12 games back in April and was seven games out of first place on the morning of Sept. 3. The Cardinals have won seven of eightsincethen.
Fans in Washington and Toronto saw both ends of the defensive spectrum Friday night. Michael Taylor of the Nationals ended up with an inside-the-park grand slam when Philadelphia’s Odubel Herrera misjudged his line drive to center field. The Blue Jays, meanwhile, were victimized by a gem of a play when Detroit’s Jeimer Candelario backhanded a grounder and started a 5-4-3 triple play.
J.D. Martinez of Arizona contributed to the Dodgers’ slumpbyhittingfourhome runs Monday ni ght.Hislast three homers came in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
An honorable mention goes to Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox, who hit for the cycle Saturday night.