August 26th update

Yankees Set Grand Record

• The New York Yankees set a record on Thursday night by hitting three grand slams in their victory over the Oakland Athletics.
• With the Yankees down 7-2 to the A's in the 5th inning, Robinson Cano, the Yankees second baseman, came up with the bases loaded against Athletics starting pitcher Rich Harden. He hit a ball into the right field stands to bring the Yankees to within one run, 7-6. In the 6th inning, Russell Martin, the Yankees catcher, hit his grand slam off of Athletics reliever Fautino De Los Santos to give the Yankees a 10-7 lead that would only continue to grow.
• Already up 17-8 Curtis Granderson, the Yankees center fielder and one of the breakout stars in the baseball this season, came up and hit his grand slam to put the Yankees up 21-8. Each side scored another run making the final score 22-9. As MLB nears the end of its 136th year the fact that this feat hasn’t happened yet was surprising to even those who were in the game. The 22 runs are the most the Athletics have given up since 1955.
*On a related note, Fernando Tatis of the St. Louis Cardinals hit two grand slams in one inning on April 23, 1999 but neither he nor any of his teammates hit another for the rest of the game.

Beasts of the American League Reside in the East

*Note: This is part 1 of a 6 part series that will break down the division races in each of baseball's 6 divisions over the next 2 weeks.

• Major League Baseball’s playoffs start in about a month at which point the winner of the three divisions per league and the remaining team with the best record (who gets in as a “wild card") play one another to determine who will face off in the World Series. This year’s wild card looks like it will go to whichever team does not win the second place team in the loaded AL East.
• The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are the cream of the AL East crop. At the time of posting, the Red Sox have a half game lead over the Yankees (half games are due to the fact that the Red Sox have played one more game to date). This lead is far from safe, and this race looks like it will come down to the end of the season as these two bitter rivals aim for a championship.
• Whichever team does not win has an 8-game lead in the wild-card race, a pretty safe margin at this point in the season.
• Both teams have benefited from an expected drop in production from the Tampa Bay Rays, who won the division in 2 of the past 3 years but due to cost-cutting reasons have fielded a less competitive team this year. As can be seen here, the Rays have a 2011 salary that is about 4 times less than the Red Sox and 5 times less than that of the Yankees.