Baseball

The Baltimore Orioles have been on a tear in the past week, winning eight of their last nine games and further lengthening their division lead in the AL East to 12.5 games over the Toronto Blue Jays.

At this point, the Orioles have managed to dwindle down their magic number to clinch the division all the way to just one game, which means they could capture the division crown as early as Tuesday night.

There are guys who hit home runs, and then there are home run hitters. For most of his superlative career, the Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera has landed squarely in the second category.

He's a beast, a masher. A hitter opposing pitchers genuinely fear. A hitter you assume is going to launch one every time he takes a cut.

After defeating the San Diego Padres on Monday night and notching his 18th win of the season, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has forced his way into the National League MVP discussion with just a little more than two weeks left in the regular season.

Ryan Zimmerman is nearing recovery from his hamstring injury just in time for the Washington Nationals' foray into October baseball. 

The Washington Post's Adam Kilgore provided an encouraging update on the 29-year-old third baseman's rehab:

As Comcast SportsNet's Mark Zuckerman added, he was looking good during batting practice, as well:

At the beginning of Tuesday, the Baltimore Orioles find themselves with their biggest divisional lead since the 1979 season. At the end of Tuesday night, the Orioles inched a bit closer to their first AL East title since 1997 as they defeated the Boston Red Sox (63-82) 4-1. 

When the rosters expanded in early September, the Cincinnati Reds' transaction report was loaded with prospects. Unfortunately, many of the top names fans might have hoped to see grace the list (e.g., Robert Stephenson, Ben Lively and Michael Lorenzen) were nowhere to be found.

Even so, there are two prospects—maybe a third in Carlos Contreras—who could have solid yet very different futures at the big league level.

Marcus Stroman was nearly decapitated on Monday.

At the very least, the Blue Jays pitcher could’ve found himself picking Chiclets out of the dirt after a vicious comebacker zipped back toward the mound.

With the MLB playoffs fast approaching, it is time to take a glimpse into some ideal scenarios that set up well as part of the larger conversation.

To be sure, nothing has been finalized with relation to seeding and no one has clinched a playoff berth yet. As such, we are going to keep things simple by only referring to teams that qualify for the playoffs as of game time Monday.

Earlier this month, the Detroit Tigers expanded their playing roster with the annual September call-ups. This coterie of youngsters has arrived in Motown at the back end of Detroit’s roller-coaster season. They may play an important role, as the Tigers are currently looking up in both the division and wild-card standings and chasing their fourth consecutive berth in the postseason.

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo had one highlight in an otherwise unimpressive outing against the Miami Marlins on Monday, breaking the all-time franchise record for strikeouts with his lone K of the night, per MLB Milestones.