• The annual youth baseball tournament which pits 8 all-star teams made up of 11-13 year olds from different regions of the Unites States against 8 all-star teams from the rest of the world concluded on Sunday with the California representative defeating Japan's team.
• Nick Pratto, whose father coaches the team, singled in the game winning run with two outs in the bottom of the last inning (they only play 6 instead of 9 in Little League rules) to take home the title.
• A U.S. team has now won six out of the last seven World Series, with Japan's win last year the exception and California teams have won in 2 of the last 3 years.
• California now has the most titles for a U.S. state with 7 but are far behind the 17 titles won by Taiwan/Chinese Taipei.
AL West a two-team race
*Note: This is part 2 of a 6 part series that will break down the division races in each of baseball's 6 divisions.
• The American League West is the smallest division in baseball with only 4 teams (the NL Central has 6 and all others have 5) but they have two legit contenders. Those two teams are the Los Angeles Angels of Aneheim and Texas Rangers and after this weekend's series, the Rangers have a 3 game lead.
• Angels manager Mike Scioscia made headlines in the series by starting his two best pitchers (Jared Weaver and Ervin Santana) on 3 days rest instead of the typical 4+ days rest. Although the move is unusual, it was doubtlessly done to give the Angels a better chance to beat their close rivals in this crucial series. Although the Angels won on Saturday, Santana didn't pitch amazingly well, giving up 4 runs in 7 innings and only striking out 2.
• Things got worse on Sunday as Weaver had by his standards a terrible game giving up 7 runs in 6 innings and struggling all night with his usually pinpoint accuracy.
• Both teams have relatively easy schedules down the stretch including multiple games against the other teams in their division, the Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners. The two teams then meet for a 3 game series in LA from September 26-28 at the end of the season that could decide the division's winner.
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