Written by Michael Beller at SI.com
Last season, the baseball-loving world was deprived of the drama of a pennant race. By Sept. 1, the Cubs, Nationals and Rangers had realistically sealed up their respective divisions. The Indians’ lead in the AL Central never dipped below 4 1/2 games that month, and the Dodgers maintained at least a 4-game lead over the Giants in the NL West for the final three weeks of the season. The only division lead that changed hands at any point in September was the AL East’s, but even there the Red Sox moved ahead of the Blue Jays on Sept. 7 and never looked back.
Things look more promising this season, as four of the races—the AL East (Yankees over Red Sox by three games), AL Central (Twins over Indians by one game), NL Central (Brewers over Cubs by 1 1/2 games) and NL West (Rockies over Dodgers by one-half game—are tight. Yet that still leaves two that, barring something unlikely happening, may have already been decided.
Heading into play on Wednesday, the Astros hold an 11-game advantage in the AL West, while the Nationals are 8 1/2 games clear of their nearest competitor in the NL East. Since divisional play began in 1969, there have been 20 instances of teams possessing a 7-game divisional lead on May 31. Only two of those teams—the 1969 Cubs and 2014 Giants—failed to win their divisions. San Francisco, of course, nabbed a wild-card spot and rode that—as well as the left arm of Madison Bumgarner—all the way to a World Series championship. That leaves the famously snakebitten ’69 Cub, who still led the NL East by 8 1/2 games as late as Aug. 19, as the only team to have such a big advantage and fail to close the deal. Houston and Washington, then, certainly have history on their side.
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