Big Bear Nolan's Blog

1. Tampa Bay Rays (41-27) at Los Angeles Dodgers (45-27). June 15-17

Both teams are coming into this series off rough road series’ over the weekend where the Rays dropped 2 of 3 to the Angels and same with the Dodgers against the suprising first place White Sox. The Rays, who were in first place in the AL East for a long period of time over the last month or so has fell a game behind the New York Yankees and now gets to face the Dodgers. LA on the other hand is still holding a decent 7 game lead over second in their division but are still in the thick of it for the No. 1 spot in the NL postseason. The Dodgers are 1.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves for first while Milwaukee is right behind them with a 43-26 record. It is is only June but this series can do a very long way for both these teams.

2. San Diego Padres (37-33) at St. Louis Cardinals (38-31) June 15-17

Massive Wild Card implications are on the line for this one. The current top seed in the NL Wild Card standings in the Cardinals face the team holding the last spot in the Padres. St. Louis holds a 1.5 game lead over the cutoff where the Padres are a game ahead of the first team out of the postseason. Both of these teams split the four game series at San Diego earlier this season so a potentially big tiebreaker is on the line here for both of these teams. St. Louis lost a series at Minnesota over the weekend and now are 5 games behind the Brewers in the NL Central. While they aren’t completely out of that race, they lost huge ground to the Brewers and got closer with flirting along the cutoff.

3. Chicago White Sox (38-32) at New York Yankees (43-27) June 16-18

Look at these White Sox go! The AL Central leading Chicago White Sox are coming off a winning homestand against the top two teams in MLB (Braves and Dodgers) and now get another opportunity at a giant. This time it is on the road against the AL’s No. 1 team in the New York Yankees. The Yanks are coming off a big road series win at Toronto and get to spoil the fun for the White Sox. With Chicago holding a tiebreaker with Cleveland and New York one game up over Tampa Bay, this is a big opportunity for either the Sox or Yankees to get a multiple game lead in their division. Especially with the Rays going on the road to Dodger Stadium and Guardians going to Milwaukee this week.

4. Cleveland Guardians (39-33) at Milwaukee Brewers (43-26) June 16-18

That leads to my next series, which is the Cleveland Guardians at Milwaukee Brewers. Cleveland is coming into this series off an defecto sweep over the Detroit Tigers (game 3 was PPD). While the Brewers cooled off the Phillies behind a historic 1 hit complete game shut out from Jacob Misiorowski on Friday (June. 12). Milwaukee could really use this one to keep a lead in the NL Central while staying alive in the race for the NL No. 1 seed. Same with Cleveland who’s now in a very tight race with the White Sox.

5. Pittsburgh Pirates (36-36) at Athletics (35-36) June 15-17

It is June 15 and the Athletics still have not fizzled out yet. While it does help that their division and the AL itself is not super strong this year, these A’s are still very well keeping up in this thing just 2 1/2 months into the season. The Athletics currently hold a tiebreaker over Texas for the last spot in the AL Wild Card while are just one game back of the Seattle Mariners in the AL West. Pittsburgh on the other hand has kinda started to fizzle out, while the Pirates have lost pace with the Brewers in the NL Central race sitting 8.5 behind. The Buccos aren’t out of the Wild Card just yet but do need to not fall behind that as right now there are four teams between the Pirates and the last WC spot. But Pittsburgh is still only 2 games out. If one of these teams wants to be here when the season really heats up from mid-August to September. Winning this series is a good way to make sure that you are there.

(NOTE: These records are how they stand right now at 1:01 pm of Monday, June 15. For up to date standings. Check here)