BASEBALL MLB ARTICLES

There’s still a month of baseball to play, but the AL postseason seems all but decided and if everything stays the way it is, this series opener between the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics could be a preview of the AL Wild Card matchup though that is likely played in the Bronx rather than out by the bay in Oakland. Even so, this will be an intriguing matchup and one worth following between the league’s biggest Cinderella Story and its favorite villain on Labor Day. ... 

ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball this week will take us out to the NL West where the division leading Houston Astros will host the also-ran Los Angeles Angels in the finale of a four-game weekend series. Injuries to the pitching staff took away any chance the Angels had at competing this year and as we embark on the season’s final month, the Angels will have to take solace in the role of spoiler as they shoot for the upset against Gerrit Cole and the Astros on Sunday. ... 

Two of National League contenders square off in a series finale on Sunday and TBS has the coverage as the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs close out a series in the City of Brotherly Love. The Phillies have been struggling a bit and need this win. Fortunately, they’ll have Aaron Nola on the mound, but the Cubs won’t make it easy as they have Jon Lester lined up to make the start, setting things up for a great pitching duel. ... 

The Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Indians will meet in Cleveland on Saturday in the middle game of a three game series. This game, and series, is between two teams that are much closer in talent and performance than it may appear on first glance with Saturday figuring to be an especially tough one for the home team. A day after the Rays see the Indians’ Cy Young contender, the Rays will use theirs, sending Blake Snell to the mound on Saturday against the Indians’ and their rookie hurler, Shane Bieber. ... 

The New York Yankees are seemingly out of the AL East. Even with the Red Sox having some issues over the last week, the Bronx Bombers are 7.5-back, but they’re first in the AL Wild Card picture and appear destined for the postseason. They’re competition on Saturday, on the other hand, are firmly focused on the future as the Detroit Tigers are in complete free fall right now. The Yankees have a good opportunity to pad their record on Saturday against the Tigers as they send their ace, Luis Severino, to the mound opposite the Tigers’ beleaguered veteran, Jordan Zimmermann. ... 

It’s an important weekend series coming up for the Los Angeles Dodgers who will play host to the Arizona Diamondbacks, hoping to make up some ground against the division leaders. The Dodgers are still the divisional Goliath, but time is running out for them to make their move back to the top of the division standings after winning the NL West in each of the last five seasons. Can the Dodgers make up ground over the weekend or will time continue to run without any progress by the men in blue?

The Philadelphia Phillies are falling behind the Braves in the NL East but remain in much better position than the Washington Nationals when the two teams meet on Tuesday night for the middle game of a three-game series. Five games back of Philly, the Nationals have seemingly given up on their season, but Tuesday’s rematch of Max Scherzer and Aaron Nola offers us a head-to-head in one interesting race: a race for the NL Cy Young Award. ... 

While the races in the AL West and all across the NL are heating up, the Boston Red Sox remain well in control of the AL East as they get set to welcome in the division rival Tampa Bay Rays for the final game of a three-game series. Nathan Eovaldi returns to Tropicana Field for the first time since being traded to Boston prior to the deadline. He’ll get the start against his former team, looking to keep the Red Sox rolling.... 

A David versus Goliath series wraps up on Sunday when the Baltimore Orioles host the New York Yankees in the final game of an extended four-game series. The Bronx Bombers are the clearly superior team, but in baseball, you never know, particularly in divisional rivalries. The Orioles have played the Yankees tough. We’ll see if that continues as the two teams battle it out in ESPN’s Sunday Night matchup featuring two young, talented—but struggling—starters in Luis Severino and Dylan Bundy. ... 

Kicking off—perhaps—the weeks’ biggest series, the Houston Astros will hosting the Oakland Athletics in the first of three between two teams battling it out for the AL West crown. The series features the reigning World Series champions and the season’s biggest Cinderella story. Nothing embodies the difference between these teams as well as the pitching matchup which features journeyman Edwin Jackson for the A’s and spare starter Brad Peacock for the Astros. ... 

The Los Angeles Angels started the season looking like the Houston Astros’ primary competition for the AL West title, but injuries have taken their toll on the Halos, particularly in the pitching staff. Los Angeles now sits at .500 and will have to play spoiler for the Astros as they host Houston in a three game series starting on Friday night. In that game, Houston should have Dallas Keuchel lined up to start opposite the Angels’ Andrew Heaney. ... 

With Washington Nationals and New York Mets were the two favorites in the NL East before the season started, but both haven’t lived up to expectations, with the Nationals arguably the biggest disappointment in baseball. With Washington now joining the ranks of the sellers with a couple August trades, these two teams will be battling for little more than pride when the face off on Saturday in the middle game of three. Gio Gonzalez and Zack Wheeler should be in line to make the start for their respective team. ... 

Two years ago, the Cleveland Indians upset the Boston Red Sox in the ALDS in route to a World Series Game 7 loss to the Cubs. Last year, both the Red Sox and Indians failed to make it past the first round. Here in 2018, we could be looking at a potential ALCS in between these teams, but both clubs will have to get that far first. For now, let’s just look at the four-game series between these two clubs as a possible postseason preview between the only two near-locks to win their respective divisions to this point in the season. ... 

The St. Louis Cardinals are traveling to Hollywood to take on a struggling Los Angeles Dodgers’ squad. The Red Birds will play the Boys in Blue in a best of three, with the middle game on Tuesday broadcast nationally. This game could serve as another announcement by the Cardinals that they’re for real as they continue to surge. Daniel Poncedeleon gets the start for the Cards in this important game as Hyun-Jin Ryu makes the start for the Dodgers.... 

The Philadelphia Phillies are in a dog fight atop the NL East with the Braves. They need to keep winning to try and overtake Atlanta in the division. On Wednesday, the take on the Washington Nationals in the middle game of a three-game series. Washington came into the season as the heavy favorites to win the NL East, but for now, they’re barely treading water around-.500 and on the outside looking in. They’ll need to take advantage of their head-to-head series—like this one—with the teams ahead ... 

Sitting at .500 at the All-Star break, many fans wrote off the St. Louis Cardinals as a true contender when they sent Mike Matheny packing and then traded Tommy Pham to the Rays. Those were signs of a failed season, but since then, this team has turned the corner and will face the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday in the middle game of a very important three-game series. Going into the series, the two teams are separate by a game in the standings and are both still within striking distance of the NL... 

The Little Leagues are the life blood of baseball in America, feeding into the High School and College ranks and, eventually, into Major League Baseball. The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies will face each other in the MLB Little League Classic on Sunday night, broadcast nationally on ESPN. As Little League alum Todd Frazier will lead the Mets into a series finale showdown against a contending Phillies team full of excellent young players. ... 

The Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox kick off an interesting four-game series on Monday that ultimately will have little regular season impact for these two—almost certain—division winners. Despite the meaninglessness for the regular season, Monday’s game could be the first game of a preview series to this year’s ALCS. We have a good pitching matchup in the game, too, with Corey Kluber and Rick Porcello in line to get the start in what could be a statement game, and series. ... 

The Cleveland Indians will host what barely qualifies as a Major League team in the Baltimore Orioles in the middle game of a weekend series on Saturday with Fox Sports 1 broadcasting what should be an easy Tribe win. The one ray of hope for Baltimore may be the Indians’ starter, Adam Plutko, who will be called upon to make the start in place of the injured Trevor Bauer. The O’s starter, however, remains a mystery and the talent gap between the Indians and Orioles remains as wide as ever. ... 

Ranked atop their respective divisions, the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies meet in the City of Brotherly Love for a brief two-game series, concluding on Wednesday night. The series—and game—could end up being a World Series preview though teams like the Yankees, Astros, Braves and Cubs—amongst others—will have something to say about that. Back to Wednesday night’s action, the game will feature new Sox’s right-hander Nathan Eovaldi trying to bounce back from a rough start and Vince Velasquez also coming off a less-than-stellar performance his last time out. ... 

The Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals will close out a four-game series on Thursday as both desperately try to hang out to ever-shrinking postseason odds, both currently on the outside looking in. In an interesting pitching matchup for this contest, the Nationals will look to Tanner Roark who has come back from the brink of falling out of the rotation while the Cardinals give the ball to rookie right-hander Jake Flaherty.... 

Unless you think either the New York Yankees or Houston Astros are at risk of losing their playoff spot, in the American League, the push for the postseason essentially boils down to the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics, meaning their three-game series this week has huge playoff implications. Though these are two teams headed in—seemingly—opposite directions, this series could serve as a major momentum shift for either team. Seattle needs a series win more than the A’s, but Oakland could d... 

The west coast’s best rivalry continues as the Los Angeles Dodgers welcome the San Francisco Giants to town for a best-of-three series starting on Monday. The Dodgers enter the series with the edge in terms of roster and standings, sitting in a tight fought battle atop the NL West while the Giants do everything in their power to hold-on on the fringes of contention. With that, San Francisco should be plenty motivated and in a rivalry series like this, you never can tell even if one team—like the... 

It’s a possible Wild Card game preview on Saturday as the Atlanta Braves play host to the Milwaukee Brewers in the second game of a crucial three-game weekend series. These two teams currently sit in a Wild Card spot, but each have bigger aspirations with their sights set on a division crown. Wherever they end up, the push for October baseball is one and we have an interesting pitching matchup lined up with Wade Miley going for the Brew Crew and Julio Teheran on the bump for the Braves. ... 

Ever the disappointment for the Washington Nationals, it was the Chicago Cubs who knocked them out of the 2017 postseason. The Nationals are again a disappointment to this point this year as they’re fighting to even get to October baseball. This will be the first series between these two teams since last post season and the two squads will square off on national television in the series finale on Sunday. ...