The second half of the MLB season is fully underway, and playoffs are coming into sight, just over the horizon. For the first time this season, the AL East has a new leader. The Baltimore Orioles have jumped the Tampa Bay Rays and hold the sole lead in the American League East.
This is the first time the Orioles have reached the top spot this late into the season since 2016.
Tampa Bay came out of the gates already on fire, winning the first 13 games they played and tying the Major League Baseball record for most wins to start a season. They finished the first month of baseball with an outstanding 23-6 record.
But the birds down in Baltimore were right on their heels. They had just come off a great month of their own and were only 3.5 games back of the lead on May 1st.
Throughout the whole first half, the AL East standings displayed the Rays in first and the Orioles right on their heels in second. This division is easily the best in baseball. Every team still has a clear chance at a playoff spot. If the AL Central weren’t required to send one representative, the AL East would send every member to the playoffs.
Every team in the AL East has surpassed 50 wins this season and has a positive run differential, the only division in baseball to do so.
The Rays went into the All-Star break limping, getting swept by the Phillies, then losing a series to the Braves. The break didn’t seem to help all that much, as the Rays got swept by the Rangers before the Orioles came to town tied for the division lead.
Baltimore, on the other hand, has been on fire recently. They have only lost six games in July and are 24-16 since June 1st.
This young Orioles team is special. The Birds haven’t been swept since May 2022, which was around the time Adley Rutschman was called up. They became the eighth team in AL/NL history to reach 70 consecutive series without being swept.
The record is held by the St Louis Cardinals, who went 125 series without losing all three games from 1942-1944.
The Orioles still have three more looming games against the Rays as they look to make up more ground. They have a series against the Phillies, then the Yankees and the Blue Jays follow. This leads us to the Trade Deadline where you should expect Baltimore to be a big buyer.
The Birds have an outstanding offense and a lockdown bullpen. I assume they will be looking to update their starting pitching rotation, as the final push towards the playoffs is approaching rapidly.
