The MLB Standings have seen movement since the beginning of the week. The Oakland Athletics took the New York Yankees to school while simultaneously surpassing the Texas Rangers in the A.L. West division. Meanwhile in the National League, the kings of the Central division, St. Louis Cardinals, are 20 games over .500 and cruising with the best record in baseball.
Oakland A'cing It
The Rangers could see this coming since 2012 when the A's took first place in the final game of the year. In 2013, the Athletics took first place midweek and now have a two-game lead over the second place Rangers. For the A's, it took a lot of work to climb back to the top. Just a little over a month ago, Oakland was six games back and a game under .500 with a 19-20 record. Now, the A's are 41-27, 14 games over .500 and fresh off a sweep against the Yankees.
The A's are once again relying on their pitching to get the job done. Ironically, the Rangers have the better team stats overall, but the A's are finding a way to win as things are coming together at the right time. The A's have a chance to widen their lead against the Seattle Mariners over the weekend before facing off against the Rangers in a four-game series from June 17-20.
Cardinals Cruising
The Cardinals have been at the top of their division for over a month now. Though they only have a 3.5-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds and a four-game lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cardinals look like they are in extreme control of the division. This won't change until their pitching falters or a few of their hitters go in a true slump.
St. Louis is winning because they can hit and pitch. They are first in ERA and their offense has the second highest batting average in baseball. It's tough to stop a team that can both hit and pitch. St. Louis is 20 games over .500 and it looks like they will have a winning record for the remainder of the year.
The scary part for the Cardinals is that they have two more series against teams with losing records as they see the Miami Marlins and Chicago Cubs. The Cardinals just took 2 of 3 from the struggling New York Mets. Look for their record to get better before they host the second-place Rangers in the middle of next week.