With about a month and a half left, the pennant races are really firing up. The teams that should win their divisions are the Rangers in the AL West,  unless they have  a colossal breakdown, and the Padres, who look for real in the NL West. I still like the Rockies a lot and you can’t count out San Francisco, but the Padres are hanging tough. The Rays and Yanks are all tied up and Bosox are only 5 1/2 games out in the AL East. Bosox getting back to health. Pitchers are back and Dustin Pedroia is coming back tonight at second base for Sox. That should help them out a lot for the stretch run.
The Rays will play the Yanks in two more series. They’ll play at home against the Yanks Sept. 13-15, and play the Yankees in the Bronx, Sept. 20-23 for a four game set. The Yankees play Boston in New York Sept 24-26, and end the season at Fenway Oct. 1-3. I love the way the Rays pitch and and really love the way they play defense. They win games with their defense. Just need to get good bullpen work and have timely hitting like they did last night against Cliff Lee and the Rangers when they battled back from a 4-2 deficit against Lee and scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth to win 6-4. It was a playoff-like atmosphere at St. Petersburg. Two great pitchers (Lee and David Price) and solid teams. Rays need their starting pitchers to pitch like they’re capable and their bullpen, particularly Rafeal Soriano, to close out games. David Price needs to step up big time, which he has been doing this season (15-5, 2-75 ERA), and the young Jeremy Hellickson, whose future is unlimited, looks like he can really help the team with starting  pitching (now, he’s 3-0 so far) and bullpen relief (later in the season, Sept if he goes to the bullpen which would be hard to do with the way he’s pitching as a starter right now). The other guys need to give them quality starts. A couple of their starters are slightly injured right now, but should be back at the end of the month.

The Yankees need to get solid pitching from C.C. Sabathia (which they should), Phil Hughes and A. J. Burnett. Their starting pitching depth isn’t great and their bullpen is good sometimes. They need to get RBI production from Texiera and A-Rod. A-Rod has done it almost driving in 100 runs to this point and Tex has been a little cold this year. He’s been warming up a little lately. Robinson Cano may be the best hitter in baseball.

You just wonder if the Yankees have it in cruise control until the playoffs. Probably so. But you get a hot, fired up team like the Marlins were in the ’03 World Series against the Yankees, and the Yankees can be beat. Red Sox now getting healthy. Jason Varitek will be back at the end of the month. It was tough losing Kevin Youkilis for the year, but with everybody back on offense except for him, the Sox have a chance. They’ll see both Yankees and Rays at home and away, so they can make their own breaks.

The Braves are clinging to a 2 1/2 game lead on the Phillies. The bad news, well there are two pieces of bad news: 1. Chipper Jones is out for the season with a torn ACL in his knee. 2. Chase Utley and Ryan Howard are coming back today from injuries. With Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt in the Phillies rotation, that makes them extra tough. They still have some problems with Brad Lidge saving games, he blows it sometimes, but with Utley and Howard back in the starting lineup, the Braves are really going to have to bear down.

The good news is the Braves’ pitching. Tim Hudson has had a career year this year for the Braves which is a pretty big statement since he has had an outstanding career. He is 14-5 with a 2.13 ERA and is dominating. Jair Jurrjens is showing his brilliance from last year as he has successfully returned from injury. Jurrjens gives the starting pitching a big lift. With Kris Medlin out for the season most likely, Mike Minor, the rookie from Vandy, is going to have to step up. He reminds me a lot  of Tom Glavine with more velocity on his fastball. And he’s a great competitor. He could help a lot. Derek Lowe and Tommy Hanson will have to keep the Braves in games. Those two don’t dominate, but they are solid pitchers and the Braves need them to hold the other team for six or seven innings. Billy Wagner will be huge down the stretch. He can be unhittable at times. At 37, he’s still throwing 97 mph. He’s converted 29 of 36 saves, but he’ll need to be good down the stretch. He’s been shaky at times lately.

Brian McCann will have to be the team’s leader both vocally and on the field. He has it in him. They are just going to have to grind out the wins. With players like Martin Prado, Omar Infante and Brooks Conrad, they’ve got a chance.

The Braves play at Phils Sept 20-23 and at home against Phils to close out season, Oct. 1-3. If Braves can hand in there, the first three days in Oct. could be very interesting.

In the AL Central it’s the Twins and the White Sox. Twins hold a three game lead. The Twins look like they might be starting to take  control and if and when Justin Morneau returns, that’ll make the Twins that much tougher. The Twins open a series tonight at home against White Sox (Aug. 17-19) and go to White Sox Sept. 14-16. I like the Twins to win it. Ron Gardenhire always seems to get it done for the Twins. He’s a terrific manager. Twins could be dangerous in postseason if they get there.

St Louis and Cincy are locked in a great race with the Reds holding a one game lead. The Cards swept the Reds last week after Brandon Phillips of the Reds made those ill-advised comments questioning the Cards’ manhood. That could come back to cost the Reds. St Louis hosts Cincy Sept. 3-5 in what could be a huge series and play another big series, that could be a prelude to the playoffs, when they go to Atlanta to face the Braves Sept. 9-12. Like the Cards and Tony LaRussa to get it done. Just have that experience and Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright are stellar pitchers.

Should be an awesome month and a half of baseball.

(Tim Hudson, left, and Brian McCann need to carry Braves to playoffs)