Tough day for the Angels yesterday. Hoping to get some help from Curt Schilling and the Red Sox, the Halos instead saw the A’s rough Schilling up for four runs in 6.2 innings en route to a 6-2 win. Then, with ace Bartolo Colon on the mound, the Angels still managed to lose to Detroit 8-6 despite two homers from reigning MVP Vlad Guerrero. The Oakland win and LA loss created a deadlock atop the AL West standings with the A’s and Angels both sitting at 81-65.

But even worse for LA, Guerrero left the game early after injuring his shoulder and is currently listed as day-to-day. It’s the same shoulder he dislocated in May, an injury that shelved the right fielder for three weeks. The Angels say this injury isn’t nearly as severe (they’re calling it a jammed shoulder), but we’ll see. The Angels have been staggering of late, getting swept in Seattle before losing to Detroit last night, and they’re dead in the water if Guerrero is out for an extended period of time.

Meanwhile, the Yankees continued to exact some revenge from the pesky Devil Rays last night, finishing off the series sweep 9-5, their fourth-straight win and eighth in their last 11 games. With the Indians idle Thursday night, the Yankees now sit a half game behind Cleveland in the Wild Card standings while the A’s and Angels are three back.

The interesting thing about the AL standings is, while the Yanks, Indians and, up until last night, A’s are all fighting for the Wild Card, all three teams are still very much alive in their division races. The Yankees sit just 1.5 games behind the Red Sox, Cleveland is 4.5 behind Chicago in the Central and, as I noted earlier, the A’s and Angels are in a dead heat in the West.

Even better, the schedule makers deserve some credit for the drama that’s about to unfold. Oakland and LA meet for a four-game series from September 26-29, the Yankees and Red Sox close the season with a three-game series in Fenway, and the Indians and White Sox meet up twice more: in Chicago for three (Sept. 19-21) and then in Cleveland for the final three games of the year.

Admittedly, I’m an Indians fan so this may sound biased, but the Tribe is getting into the playoffs, whether it’s via the AL Central crown or the Wild Card. Aside from those six games against the Sox, Cleveland closes with seven against the Royals and three more against Tampa Bay. Their starting pitching has been sensational, they’ve got the best bullpen in the AL and they can swing the lumber. This team is too hot, too hungry and too talented to not finish it off. In the West, I would’ve given the edge to the Angels because the A’s are still without hot-shot starter Rich Harden, who’s better than Barry Zito right now, but this Guerrero injury could swing the advantage back to Oakland. And in the East, I don’t see the Sox blowing it. The Yankees are hot right now and Randy Johnson has been much more effective in his last four starts but they still have too many holes in their rotation to pull off the comeback. It may not happen until that final series in Boston, but the Sox will finish off the Yankees at some point.

My picks?

EAST: Boston
CENTRAL: Cleveland
WEST: Oakland
WC: Chicago

An October without the Yankees? How fucking sweet would that be?