Will Baseball’s Intrigue Last Through the Day?

Entering Friday night, baseball’s last two races were on life support. That was actually an improvement upon Thursday night, when the AL Central-leading Tigers and NL West-leading Dodgers each had whiffed on a chance to clinch their division with a win. But the weekend looked bleak for drama: Though their pursuers, the Twins, got the woeful Royals, the Tigers were playing the same White Sox they took two of three from last weekened, and the Dodgers needed only to beat the Rockies once to earn their division title. It seemed like this weekend would just be the time for the favorites to finally shut the door.Friday night, they didn’t.

Jake Peavy, acquired to shut down teams in games like this and get the White Sox to the playoffs, twirled eight innings of two-hit ball as the Tigers lost 8-0. The Dodgers couldn’t quite get over the hump against Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez, who struck out ten, and lost 4-3. The Twins, who raced out to a 10-0 lead against the Royals on the back of a Delmon Young grand slam, weathered seven straight runs and a rally that brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth inning for a 10-7 win.

So the gap in the AL Central is just one game, and the NL West is still the Rockies’ to seize with a sweep. This makes today a little more exciting, until one learns that two aces may well determine the race winners. Minnesota faces Kansas City’s Zack Greinke today, and the Dodgers, who could have clinched the division by getting their 94th win in any of four games against the Pirates and Padres since last Sunday, throw out Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw can seal the West with a win, while a victorious Greinke would mean the Twins would have to have the Tigers lose both of their last two and win on Sunday to get into the playoffs.

There is drama in these races now, but it could be gone by midnight, and these aces are not conducive to the comebacks in progress becoming comebacks completed.

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