Here’s Gavin’s Midwest Standings and Recap:

Here’s your summary of what happened over the holiday weekend in our respective Divisions:

AL CENTRAL – Not a lot of movement within the division, but bats beginning to heat up.

Detroit (44-37) won first game 11-9 in Minny before dropping the next two games 3-4 and 2-6. Bat .224 on their road trip and Jim Leyland complains of his starting pitchers pitch counts going into sixth innings.  I see visits to Dr. James Andrews in your future.

Minnesota (43-40) took two of three from the Tigers at home. Mauer won’t bat .400 with this performance. “Only” bats .333 for the holiday weekend.

Chicago (AL) (42-40) – won the hard games, including roughing up Greinke on Friday, only to lose 4-6 and 3-6 to split the series. Sox need to be winning these series if they are going to catch up and possibly pass the rest of the division.

Kansas City (35-46) manages a split with the Sox in one of the rare 4 games series this week. Defense and baserunning woes still surprising awful for a major league team.

Cleveland (33-50) win 15-3 and 5-2 on the road in Oakland, before dropping Sunday’s game 2-5. In doing so, come a game closer from extricating themselves from the AL Cellar.

Division Standings

Team               GB

Detroit             —

Minnesota       2.0

Chicago (AL)    2.5

Kansas City      9.0

Cleveland        12.0

NL CENTRAL – Cards and Cubs advance at the expense of the Reds and Brewers.

St. Louis (45-39) bats ignite taking 2 of 3 on the road in Cincy, 7-4 on Friday, 2-5 on Saturday and rebounding to crush the Reds 10-1 on Sunday. Cards will be tough in second half.

Milwaukee (43-39) in dropping 3 of 4 to the Cubs look to be cracking at the seams. Ryan Braun seemed to state the obvious, the Brewers don’t have the arms to stick with the Cubs and Cards.

Chicago (40-39) – Spent the holiday winning a close game (2-1), losing a blowout (2-11) and winning in a rout themselves (8-2) on Sunday. We’ll see how adding Aramis Ramirez works to an offense that appears to have been sparked by the numerous I-Cubs contributions this month.

Cincinnati (40-40) – Micah Owings almost singlehandedly salvaged Saturday’s win for the Reds with a solid outing and a home run to help his cause.

Houston (39-41) – lose to the Big Unit and Lincecum 0-13 and 0-9 before throwing out Roy Oswalt to nail down the 7-1 victory on Sunday. Those two guys are good, but not that good. Houston…wait for it… you have a problem. Ha! Every time!

Pittsburgh (37-45) – lost 2 of 3 to the Marlins as the Marlins continue to surprise in the NL East with their stable of young arms.

Division Standings

Team               GB

Milwaukee      —

St. Louis           1.0

Chicago Cubs  2.5

Cincinnati        3.0

Houston           4.0

Pittsburgh        7.0