Nothing like being in contention when September rolls around. It’s been a long time. 
As we get into the Labor Day weekend, there’s something I’ve long wondered about: why does MLB basically ignore holiday weekends (Memorial Day, Labor Day, and sometimes July 4th) in making up its schedule?
Baseball teams have the occasional 2- and 4-game series, in addition to the usual run of 3-game series. The Nats, for instance, were in Miami on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, now they’re hosting the Cards for a Thursday-Sunday 4-game series, and then the Cubs come to town on Monday for four games.
When they start a new series in the middle of a weekend like that, it just feels weird. And also they lose the travel advantage occasioned by the usual arrangement of a Sunday day game being followed by either a Monday night game or a day off, because most teams will have day games on both Sunday and the Monday holiday.
With the Nats, for instance, the Cards series could just as easily been Friday through Monday, with the Cubs series before the weekend, and the Marlins series after.
I realize it has to be a little more difficult to treat the two (or three) holiday weekends during the season somewhat differently for scheduling. But it doesn’t seem like it could be that much more of a challenge. So any thoughts on why the MLB schedule is oblivious to the holiday weekends?
Orioles were the better team last night. Uh-oh…
D-backs continue to own the Dodgers. They’ve been a streaky team all year, so if they get hot now with a 3 week stretch of NL West opponents, look out!
Reds kick the shit out of the hapless Astros. No surprise there. Joey Votto should be back in the lineup this weekend. Sweet!
Only two games back!
Remember in mid-July when the Yankees had a 10-game lead? Usually it’s taken a Red Sox team to lose so big a lead, so fast, in the AL East. 
But unless you think they can really catch the Giants, which I can’t see happening, their real competition isn’t in the NL West - it’s the Cards and Pirates, and perhaps the Dodgers. They could contend for the second wildcard slot, but it’s hard to see them doing any better than that.
O’s up 2-0 in the third. Can this really be happening??
Go O’s! Take down the Evil Empire!
Not this weekend, I guess.
What’s more, the O’s actually lost a one-run game! I didn’t know that was allowed anymore. 
Astros win, putting them clear of the '62 Mets for wins in a season and winning percentage; they need
1 win to at worst tie the Mets for losses in a season
2 wins to avoid having more losses in a season than the Mets
3 wins to beat the win total put up by the '03 Tigers
They are pretty likely to end up with the worst road record in history - the record is 17-64 (according to ask.com, which I don’t really trust, so if that’s wrong please correct me); at the moment, the Astros are 13-53 which projects to 16-65. They need to go 4-11 to tie the record (instead of set it) and 5-10 or better to avoid tying it.
Woohoo!
Orioles come from behind to win 8-3 and take the series against the Yankees 2-1. Mark Reynolds had his second 2-homer game of the series.
And they might win again today. The Reds seem to struggle against bad teams, and both the game last night and the game today are perfect examples of why they NEED Joey Votto back in the worst possible way. Both games were well-pitched by the Reds (and the Astros too) but we just cannot generate any offense sometimes. Its perplexing.
I hate to be Mr. Picky again, but this isn’t true. The Reds are 28-12 against the NL’s five worst teams, and will be 29-12 if their current lead holds up.
As my grandfather used to say, “another great theory ruined by the facts.”
I’m definitely happy with the way today’s turning out. After gaining and losing and gaining and ultimately losing the lead in last night’s 10-9 donnybrook, it was good to see the Nats hang on to win today’s 4-3 game, and win the series with the Cards 3-1.
Meanwhile, the Braves lost last night, so they didn’t gain any ground, and they’re down 7-1 in the 4th, so the good guys might pick up a game on them today.
All of a sudden, there are some serious pennant races in the AL. The O’s are only 2 back of the Yanks, the Tigers trail the White Sox by 1, and the A’s will stay 3 back of the Rangers if their 6-1 lead holds up.
So, I admit that after my wanton theory has been thoroughly eviscerated by facts, the Reds manage to win over the Stros…giving them a 9.5 game lead in their division (best in majors), gives the Reds their 37th come from behind win (best in MLB), gives Aroldis Chapman his 26th CONSECUTIVE save (Reds record), with their 82 wins it guarantees their 2nd winning season since 2001, their magic number is now 19, Strasburg is making his final start on Sep 12th […] and Joey Votto will be back for the next series.
So in other words, sorry about the alarmism, thanks for your patience…you have to understand that success in Cincinnati these days is fragile and hard to believe that it will be sustained.
That’ll do, pig.
Dodgers and D-backs split a four-game series after today’s 9th inning come-from-behind walk-off double from Adrian Gonzalez. The split didn’t help the Dodgers in the NL West as the Giants took 2 of 3 from the lowly Cubs. But thanks to some help from the other contenders, the Dodgers are now only a half-game out of the wild card spot.
September looks to be quite the ride.
The Bengals’ season will begin soon, if you’re in need of a little misery.
So the Oakland A’s are the story of the year, right?
Yankees payroll: $197,962,289 (highest in MLB)
Oakland payroll: $55,372,500 (2nd lowest, slightly above Padres)
Yankees record: 76-57
Oakland record: 76-57
Moneyball 2 incoming.
Time for another Bay Bridge series!