Nine to Know: The AL Postseason Watch

Off The Bill Chuck Files,

  1. Adrian Beltre hit a tiebreaking two-run 9th inning homer off Angels closer closer Ernesto Frieri as the Rangers topped the Angels, 3-1, and got the fat lady starting to warm up her voice for the Halos this season.
  2. Texas  is now 89-60 and the Angels  are now 81-69 and 4.5 games behind the A’s (85-64) who are 4 games behind Texas after clobbering Detroit (79-70), 12-4.
  3. The A’s got bad news when they found that pitcher Brett Anderson will miss the rest of the season, due to an oblique injury.
  4. The Tigers did not lose ground in the AL Central as the division leading White Sox (81-68) lost to the Royals, 4-3, on an Eric Hosmer walkoff single. The ChiSox have a 2 game lead in the division despite going 6-12 against the Royals this year.
  5. The Yankees (86-63) increased their AL East lead to a full game by winning their fifth in a row as Nick Swisher  grand slammed and Ichiro Suzuki was simply grand again in a 10-7 win over the increasingly blue Jays.
  6. In the sweep of Toronto, Ichiro was 9 for 12 with three doubles, a homer, four RBI and four steals. He’s now hitting .321 as a Yankee including batting .362 against lefties. The Yanks matched their season high of 23 games over .500.
  7. The Yankees lead the AL East by one over Baltimore (85-64) who were idle yesterday and by 6.5 over Tampa (80-70) who scored six in the bottom of the 9th including a three-run walkoff homer by B.J. Upton to top the pitiful Red Sox, 7-4.
  8. By splitting the four games with Boston, Tampa Bay remained 5.5 games back of Oakland and Baltimore who are tied for the two AL wild-card slots.
  9. Walkoffs:
  • The A’s now have 13 walkoff wins and four walkoff losses.
  • The Orioles now have seven walkoff wins and no walkoff losses.
  • The Rays now have seven walkoff wins and six walkoff losses.
  • The Tigers now have seven walkoff wins and seven walkoff losses.
  • The White Sox now have seven walkoff wins and seven walkoff losses.
  • The Rangers now have five walkoff wins and five walkoff losses.
  • The Angels now have four walkoff wins and six walkoff losses.
  • The Yankees now have two walkoff wins and six walkoff losses.