So I’m sitting here watching the 1990 World Series highlights on MLB Network as my Oakland A’s eventually get swept by the Cincinnati Reds.  There’s no way that should have happened, which brings me to the point of today’s blog.  It’s not always the best team that wins it’s the hottest and you have to be in it to win it.

Let’s start with the Atlanta Braves who heading into tonight have won 15 of their last 17 and are only 2 games back of the NL Wild Card.  On September 12th they were 6.5 games behind the Rockies.  This is an interesting spot for Colorado as just 2 years ago they were the hunter and now they are the hunted.  They won 14 of their last 15 games to make the playoffs and went onto to win 21 of 22 overall and now the Braves are trying to do the same.  I think the announcement of Bobby Cox retiring after next season has made this even more interesting for the Braves.  We’ll see this week if they can pull this off and make the postseason.

The other great race is in the AL Central and the Twins pulled to within a game of the Tigers after their 3-2 win in 10 innings today.  They’ll try and draw even with them tonight in game 2 of their DH that can be seen on MLB Network.  The Twins are another hot team as they have now won 12 of their last 14 as they are trying to chase down the Tigers.  As we saw with the Angels in 2002 and then the Marlins the following year it’s not always the team that was good all year that wins it all.  Sometimes it’s the team that got hot at the right time.  The key of course is to get in.

It’s going to be a fun week as we have 2 races coming down to the wire.  It all starts tonight with Path to the Pennant at 5, the MLB Tonight at 6, and the Twins and Tigers at 7.-Matt Vasgersian