Breaking down the race for the AL’s second Wild Card

The Angels remain a half game behind the Astros in the wild card race, with six games to play.

Dallas Keuchel improved to 15-0 at home this season, pitching the Astros past Texas 4-2 Sunday and cutting the Rangers’ lead to 2 1/2 games.

The Angels won again last night to stretch their winning streak to seven games.

Looking strictly at the other contenders for the second Wild Card spot, the Astros are at 53 percent, the Angels are at 22 percent, and the Twins are at 5 percent. Neshek then yielded a two-RBI single to Sean O’Malley to give Seattle a 6-4 lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

All of that is probably confusing, but it should make for an interesting final week and the season-ending four-game series between the Rangers and Angels in Texas could make or break everything. Their magic number is now one, though, with two games to play on Wednesday, so they can clinch with one victory or another Yankees defeat. The Cards, who now lead by the Bucs by four games and could be on the verge of getting Adam Wainwright back from his Achilles injury, will finish the season up in Atlanta against the Braves while the Pirates host the Cincinnati Reds for three games. Hence, with lots of hard work this week, coupled with hope that the Angels and Twins sustain their positioning below them, the Astros may, in fact, come out successful in the end with the final Wild Card spot, and look to play the Yankees during the Wild Card game next Tuesday. Two weeks ago, they were badly declining through 5 straight losses, including 3 against the Angels.

This weekend may have been an opportunity lost for the Rangers and despite their division cushion, their manager knows nothing has been decided.

The Rangers were in prime position to avoid all this craziness, but the way 2015 has gone, the ups and downs, the Cole Hamels trade, the Mike Napoli playing left field and the total re-shaping of the bullpen to just name a few of many, many things, it’s only fitting that Banny’s club is right in the middle of an American League typhoon that will likely be settled on the very last day of the season. “When he said he was dizzy, I was like, ‘Oh my.’ But then we see that he is fine, and he is ready for tomorrow”. We got a good group of guys. “That’s what you have to do as a team”.

On Tuesday, it was Oliver Perez and Pat Neshek giving the game away.

Mets first baseman Lucas Duda recorded his seventh multihomer game of the season, going deep twice, and drove in all of New York’s runs as the NL East champions fell to the Phillies 4-3.

To win the AL West; they need to win tonight, have both Texas and LAA lose tonight.