Nine days left

Baseball season has just a little more than one week to go and one of 11 teams will wind up being World Champions in a little more than a month.
Here's a brief update on how things stand with about 9 games left to play.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
West - So far the Los Angeles Angels are the only AL team to clinch a playoff spot. The Angels are 94-59 and need to go 6-3 in their last nine games to win 100 games as a franchise for the first time.
East - Tampa Bay, which never had a winning season before, is 91-61 and leads the Boston Red Sox by 1 1/2 games. They also are just 2 1/2 behind the Angels for best record. That is important because if they face each other in the playoffs the team with best record gets home-field advantage.
Central - The White Sox are 85-68 and have a 2 1/2 game lead on Minnesota, which is 83-71.

MY AL PREDICTIONS
Angels finish with best record, Tampa Bay holds off Boston for the division title but Red Sox are the wild card and the White Sox win the Central. That would leave opening-round playoff matchups of Angels vs. Red Sox and Devil Rays vs. White Sox .

NL
West - The Dodgers are 80-74 and lead the Diamondbacks (76-77) by 3 1/2 games.
Central - The Cubs are 92-60 and have clinched the division. Milwaukee is 84-70 and in the wild card race.
East - Mets are 86-67 and have a half-game lead on the Phillies at 86-68. One of these two teams will likely be the wild card.

MY NL PREDICTIONS
Dodgers hold off Arizona and win the west, Mets hold off the Phillies to win the East but Phillies are wild card. Playoff matchups would be Cubs vs Phillies, Mets vs. Dodgers.

Postseason predictions will come once I know who actually makes the playoffs and what the matchups are. However, I should note I am VERY bad at picking baseball playoff series winners for some reason.