A lot of the Cardinals rivalry was because of the playoff implications. After the Astros and Rangers compete for division titles for a years and face each other in the playoffs, I think all that changes.
I fear none of the other AL teams at this point. Texas, Toronto, and Baltimore don't have the pitching. Of all teams, Boston definitely has the best lineup but do you fear any of their pitchers either? I don't. Cleveland probably has a feisty lineup and the most complete rotation, but is their rotation much better than ours? Kluber is their version of Keuchel, probably has pitched his best year of his career already. Salazar and Carrasco are good and young, but McCullers has better stuff than both, and when he's locating his pitches like he did against the Angels is better than both. Fister or McHugh are gonna be worse than their third starter, but you're still debating between a guy with a 3.42 ERA/1.23 WHIP who will probably end the year with ~15 wins and another guy who won 19 games last year, has a 3.78 FIP this year, and has shown a perennial knack for putting up great second halves. Our bullpen is better than theirs; it's the best in the AL excluding KC and NYY who shouldn't make the playoffs. In the playoffs, rotations get compressed and bullpens become huge. Parity reigns king in the AL, and given our pace in the past two months I like our chances as much as anyone else's.
Baltimore might have a better pen than us. Britton is a fierce closer and is better than anyone we have. It's the Oriole starting pitching that needs help. Tillman is very good. Gausman is an up and comer. The other 3 are not very good. The Orioles have a better lineup than us, so do the red sox.
It's hard not to feel a little sorry for LA there. We do to them what the Rangers do to us which is...kill us. It's funny how that works out. They kill us and we kill you (LA).
Yeah... much like the Astros/Rangers will even out eventually, there could be some course correction in these games too (and unfortunately, next time they'll play will be September during the stretch run, including the last 3 games of the season). Its damn hard to beat ANY team 11 games in a row... hell, I bet even some minor league teams would find a way to beat a major league team just once over 11 games. Lets hope that the division is all but wrapped up prior to the last series... and let the baseball gods/universe correct itself when it has no meaning on the playoffs.
Maybe a little more of this: <iframe src='http://mlb.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=268180883?topic_id=6479266&width=400&height=224&property=mlb' width='400' height='224' frameborder='0'>Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe>
If Bregman and Gurriel perform as we hope, and I know it's a big "who really knows " but if they are legit right off the bat, I'll put our lineup against any
