August is almost done. Friday and Saturday are the final days of the month. Here are the standings as we approach the final Friday of August before welcoming the weekend. All leads were safe after Thursday's games. In fact, teams in first place either increased their leads or were able to maintain their leads heading into Friday evening's games.
N.L. Central: Pittsburgh Pirates 1 GB behind St. Louis Cardinals
This division remains tight. The Pirates couldn't take advantage of the Cardinals' day off on Thursday. As a result, their 0-4 lost to the lowly Milwaukee Brewers cost the Pirates half a game in the standings and the chance to tie for first in the division. Guess what though? Things will get extremely interesting as the Pirates and Cardinals meet at 7:05 p.m. ET in PNC Park.
A.L. West: Texas Rangers Gain .5
The Rangers got lucky on Thursday as the Oakland Athletics couldn't close their game against the Detroit Tigers. The A's lost 7-8 on a walk-off despite having a three-game lead entering the bottom of the ninth in Detroit. The Rangers had the day off and yet, it was a very productive afternoon.
A.L. Central: Comeback Tigers Gain a Game
As mentioned above, the Tigers defeated the Rangers in clutch fashion. Here's what happened.
That says it all. There's already some playoff magic roaming around the airs of Detroit and purchasing Torii Hunter is surely paying dividends as the right-fielder is hitting .400 in his last five games with two home runs and four RBI.
The other divisions: NL West AL and NL East remained the same.
The Atlanta Braves are 13 games up on the Washington Nationals. Though the Nationals are also winning, the Braves are chipping away at the magic number, trying to get it to single digits as soon as possible.
The Los Angeles Dodgers remained 9.5 games on top of the Arizona Cardinals as everybody in the West had the day off on Thursday.
The Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays both lost on Thursday. It's bad news for the Rays, who could have inched a game closer to the first-place Red Sox. The Sox's lead remains at 2.5 games.
