Did you realize that this morning the defending World Series champions, the Giants, are the same amount of games out of the Wild Card than the lowly White Sox?
Both teams are 4.5 GB in the last wild card spot.
But you could never imagine anyone thinking the Giants and White Sox' shot at the playoffs were equal. The Giants are a good, competitive club even though they were swept by the Cubs. The White Sox have been an underwhelming, underachieving team all season.
The AL playoff race has tightened up. The White Sox still have to climb over many teams to reach the playoffs while the Giants only need the Pirates or Cubs to fall.
But anything is possible.
Take the Blue Jays unbelievable run.
Last night twelve of the first 16 Blue Jays batters reached base as Toronto scored three runs in the first and seven in the second to trounce Oakland for the Jays' 10th consecutive victory. A victory with the Yankees loss to Cleveland, moved the Blue Jays into first place in the AL East.
Two weeks ago, the Blue Jays were in 4th place and 8 games out of first place. Then they made a flurry of deals including acquiring Troy Tulowitzki and David Price. Since then, the Blue Jays have gone 13-1 while the Yankees have gone 4-9.
Realistically, there is 7 weeks left in the season. Any team more than 7 games behind a playoff slot is probably out of the race, since making up 1 game a 1 week is the most reasonable prediction any GM can make at this time in the season.
