NEW YORK \u2014 The MLB season is reaching a fever pitch.<\/p>\n
With one week remaining on the MLB schedule, 15 of the 30 teams entered Monday either in possession of a playoff spot or within one game of one.<\/p>\n
Only two of the divisions have been decided \u2014 the Milwaukee Brewers won the NL Central and the Philadelphia Phillies won the NL East \u2014 while wild-card spots in both leagues are up for grabs.<\/p>\n
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Here are the races to keep an eye on between now and Sunday\u2019s regular season finale:<\/p>\n
AL East<\/p>\n
The New York Yankees (88-68) were five games behind the division-leading Toronto Blue Jays (90-66) as recently as Sept. 16, but they\u2019ve cut that deficit to two games with six to play.<\/p>\n
Toronto holds the tiebreaker after winning the head-to-head season series, meaning the Yankees would need to finish at least a game ahead of the Blue Jays to win the East.<\/p>\n
But the Yankees have the more favorable schedule, with back-to-back three-game series against last-place teams in the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles, all in the Bronx.<\/p>\n
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The Blue Jays also have six home games remaining, beginning with a three-game set against the playoff-hopeful Boston Red Sox. Toronto ends the season by hosting the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend.<\/p>\n
AL Central<\/p>\n
The Cleveland Guardians are on the verge of incredible history.<\/p>\n
After falling 15 1\/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers on July 8, the red-hot Guardians have climbed nearly all the way back.<\/p>\n
The Guardians (84-72) are now just a game behind the Tigers (85-71) \u2014 and the teams are set to face each other in a high-stakes three-game series in Cleveland beginning Tuesday.<\/p>\n
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Cleveland has won 15 of its last 17 games, while Detroit has dropped nine of 10, including the last six.<\/p>\n
The Guardians would become the first team to trail by more than 15 games in a division race and come back to win it. They hold the edge in the season series with Detroit, 6-4, and can clinch the tiebreaker with a win in this week\u2019s series.<\/p>\n
AL West<\/p>\n
This division was tied going into last weekend, but the Seattle Mariners swept the Houston Astros \u2014 in Houston, no less \u2014 to take a three-game lead.<\/p>\n
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Seattle owns the tiebreaker over Houston, too, making it effectively a four-game advantage.<\/p>\n
The M\u2019s have home series remaining against the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers, while the Astros have road sets against the A\u2019s and Los Angeles Angels.<\/p>\n
AL wild card<\/p>\n
This mix has been jumbled for weeks, but the Yankees finally created some separation with their recent hot streak.<\/p>\n
The Yankees hold a three-game advantage for the top wild-card spot \u2014 which would mean home-field advantage in the wild-card round of the playoffs \u2014 over the second-place Red Sox.<\/p>\n
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And the Yankees have a four-game cushion over the teams fighting for the third and final wild-card position.<\/p>\n
The Red Sox (85-71) are a game ahead of the Guardians and Astros (84-72). One of those three teams \u2014 or potentially the Tigers, should Cleveland overtake them \u2014 will be left out when the season ends.<\/p>\n
NL West<\/p>\n
The Dodgers (88-68) are closing in on their fourth consecutive division title.<\/p>\n
They began Monday with a three-game lead over the San Diego Padres, and they held the tiebreaker, too.<\/p>\n
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That means the Padres (85-71), who host the Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks this week, would need to make up four games on the Dodgers with six to play.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers play the D-Backs and Mariners on the road this week.<\/p>\n
NL wild card<\/p>\n
The Chicago Cubs (88-86) hold the NL\u2019s top wild-card spot, and the second-place Padres are three games behind them.<\/p>\n
The real race is for the third wild-card position, which the Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets and Diamondbacks are all grappling for.<\/p>\n
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The Reds and Mets (both 80-76) are tied for the final spot, and the D-Backs (79-77) are a game behind them.<\/p>\n
Cincinnati and Arizona both hold individual tiebreakers over the Mets, but if all three finished with the same record, the Reds would get the spot.<\/p>\n
____<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 The MLB season is reaching a fever pitch. With one week remaining on the MLB…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[592,64,63,1186,5156,5158,5256,5257,5258,5259,5260,5163,5262,1187,5159,591,1830,2704,2365,1189,5162,85,1190,5161],"class_list":["post-162388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-houston-astros","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}