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After one month of baseball, the American League East sits atop ESPN Stats & Info’s MLB Divisional Power Rankings by a wide margin.

Dating to last season, the AL East has never held a larger lead than its current 25.6-point lead over the National League East. Strong starts by the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays have given the AL East five of the top 12 teams in baseball, according to ESPN.com’s most recent power rankings.

Additionally, the AL East has been close to unstoppable outside of the division, posting a 44-25 (.637 win percentage) record in games against non-divisional opponents. No other division has a win percentage above .515 in non-divisional games.

What may be most surprising about the AL East is that unheralded names are making an impact for their teams. Toronto's Edwin Encarnacion and Kelly Johnson rank fourth and 20th, respectively, in ESPN’s Player Rating system, combining for 15 of Toronto’s 32 home runs through May 2.

The AL West has its share of players off to fast starts with Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Felix Hernandez, Yu Darvish and Jered Weaver all ranking in the top 10 of ESPN’s batter and pitcher ratings. Five players from the AL West is the most from one division.

The Los Angeles Angels play 17 more games in May against teams that currently do not have a winning record. If the Angels can turn things around and live up to preseason expectations, the AL West has a chance to close the gap on the AL East.

The AL Central currently sits at the bottom of the divisional rankings with only one team above .500. Against non-divisional opponents, the AL Central is 29-48 (.377 win percent), by far the worst win percentage of any division.

The Minnesota Twins have been the worst team in baseball outside their division, winning five of 17 games against non-divisional opponents.

The weekend of May 18 presents several opportunities to shake up the rankings.

Divisional leaders clash in the National League, with the St. Louis Cardinals visiting the Los Angeles Dodgers. Interleague highlights include the Philadelphia Phillies hosting the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds visiting the New York Yankees.

For a brief recap of how we rank the divisions, click here.

Tonight in Arlington, Sunday Night Baseball features a clash of the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers.

Texas leads the league in runs, but the most interesting thing to watch when the Rangers are batting will actually be the shifting Rays defense.

Last season Tampa Bay led the majors by shifting their infield 216 times, an average of 1.3 shifts per game.

This season the Rays have already used 125 infield shifts, amplifying their usage to nearly six times per game.

The huge spike in shifts has primarily been caused by adjusting more often against right-handed hitters. Last season, the Rays shifted on seven percent of such at-bats; this season, the number is 50 percent.

Is this hyper-shifting working? Perhaps. Twenty-one games into the season, the Rays rank 20th in defensive efficiency but are 2nd in defensive runs saved with 20.

Tampa Bay’s opponents are hitting .255 on ground balls this year, compared to the league average of .226.

Looking at a larger sample size, Rays opponents hit .222 on ground balls in 2011, notably worse than the league average of .237.

It’s worth pointing out that the shift not only affects ground balls, but also line drives. Opponents are hitting .642 on line drives against the Rays this season, six percentage points lower than the major-league average.

Again, this season’s sample size is small, but the Rays defense was very similar a year ago, also holding opponents to a line-drive batting average six percentage points lower than the major-league average.

Several Texas Rangers are strong candidates to see shifts tonight. Since 2009, Josh Hamilton has hit 68 percent of his ground balls to the middle-right or far-right portions of the field, with 19 percent to the middle-left or far-left.

Righties Ian Kinsler (74 percent) and Mike Napoli (75 percent) have both pulled about three-quarters of their ground balls since 2009. Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz aren’t far behind, at 65 percent each.

According to The Fielding Bible, the first known use of shifting was in 1946 against Ted Williams, who walked on four pitches. Sixty-six years later, the Rays are taking that idea to the extreme, and tonight’s game may be a showcase for their defensive revolution.

Information from Baseball Info Solutions was used in this post.

Two of the premier second basemen in baseball have signed contract extensions over the last 24 hours. Late Monday, the Texas Rangers and Ian Kinsler agreed to a multiyear extension. Then, Tuesday afternoon, the long-rumored extension between the Cincinnati Reds and Brandon Phillips came to fruition.

Given that both play the same position, are of similar ages and signed deals of both similar value and similar length, a comparison seems natural.

Kinsler’s contract is a five-year, $75 million deal with a sixth-year option. Phillips’ is a six-year, $72.5 million deal. However, both teams functionally have their second basemen under control for at least six years, given that Kinsler’s extension does not kick in until 2013, whereas Phillips’ begins this season.

Even though the two players will be compensated in similar fashion over the next five or six seasons, the quality of their play leading up to the extensions has been of much different quality. While Kinsler may get overshadowed on a star-studded team and Phillips may garner attention for his Twitter and fielding antics, Kinsler is the far superior player.

Kinsler has out produced Phillips in every season since 2007 by WAR. In fact, Kinsler (23.2 WAR) outranks the likes of Robinson Cano (22.6 WAR) and Dan Uggla (13.4 WAR) in terms of production since 2007.

Very few second basemen retain this sort of high-level value deep into their 30’s. Kinsler will be locked up for both his age-34 and 35 seasons (as well as 36 if the option is picked up), while Phillips will be under contract in his age 34-to-36 seasons, also. The number of second basemen since 1900 who have contributed seasons of 3+ WAR at age-34 or older is exclusive and limited to some of the greatest players to play the position in MLB history.

Among second basemen, only Eddie Collins (1921-26), Jeff Kent (2002-07), Charlie Gehringer (1937-40), Lou Whitaker (1991-93) and Joe Morgan (1980-83) have at least three straight seasons of 3+ WAR since 1900. No one else has done it more than twice (Willie Randolph and Eddie Stanky have done it twice). A 3-WAR season already assumes some skill degradation for Kinsler and would actually constitute an improvement for Phillips over the last few seasons. Yet they will be paid as if 3+ WAR is almost assumed.

Think about how close this World Series has been. The Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals are even in games, even in runs, even in errors and one apart in hits (the Rangers have 11, the Cardinals have 12).

It is a World Series in which pitching has dominated, with the Game 2 starters Colby Lewis and Jaime Garcia matching the efforts that their respective bullpens have put in this postseason.

The pitching has been so good that each team held the other to six hits or fewer in each of the first two games of this World Series. The last time both teams were held to six hits or fewer in Games 1 and 2 was in 1981, when the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers did so.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the first World Series in 37 years in which neither team scored more than three runs in either of the first two games. That had last happened in 1974, when the Athletics defeated the Dodgers in five games. The only game of that series which did not end with a 3-2 final score was Game 4, which Oakland won 5-2.

The Rangers' pitching has been good enough to hold Albert Pujols to 0-for-6 so far. Pujols is actually just 3-for-21 in World Series play dating back to the start of the 2006 World Series (a series the Cardinals won despite his hitting .200).

The Cardinals' pitching has been good enough to record 16 strikeouts to just three walks in the first two games. Their staff has whiffed 85 hitters and yielded just 25 walks. This could be the first time in Cardinals postseason history that their pitchers finished a postseason with a strikeout-to-walk rate of at least 3-to-1.

Some other noteworthy nuggets gleaned from mining the numbers through these first two games World Series include:

• Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler has four hits, three coming on pitches that were in the lower-third of the strike zone or below the knees.

During the regular season, Kinsler had only a .243 batting average on balls in play (and no home runs) against pitches to that location, a success rate that put him in the bottom 20 percent of major leaguers. But within the small sample of two games, he’s been able to produce positive results.

• Similarly, Cardinals pinch-hitter Allen Craig (who may DH in the games in Texas) has been able to hit the knee-level pitch. Both of his pinch-hits in this series have come on pitches that were at the bottom of the strike zone.

The image at the top of this article shows the range of locations on which Craig has gotten his six hits this postseason.

• After giving up three hits in four at-bats against right-handed hitters in the Division Series against the Phillies, Cardinals lefty Marc Rzepczynski has been terrific against right-handers in the last two rounds. They are 1-for-their-past-14 against him.

This is due largely to the effectiveness of his changeup and slider. He’s thrown seven of eight for strikes to right-handed hitters in the World Series.

The Texas Rangers sacrificed, in a manner of speaking, both offensively and defensively to steal Game 2 of the World Series from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Via the Elias Sports Bureau, the Rangers became the third team in World Series history to come back from a 1-0 deficit in the ninth inning or later to win, joining the 1911 Athletics and the 1985 Royals.

The Rangers were just 8-20 in one-run games on the road during the regular season (the second-worst record in the majors), but found a way to win this game, scoring their runs on back-to-back-sacrifice flies by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young.

Hamilton became the fourth player in World Series history to have the game-tying or go-ahead RBI in the ninth inning or later of a game in which his team trailed 1-0 at the time, joining Hall of Famers Home Run Baker (1911 Athletics) and Brooks Robinson (1969 Orioles), and Dane Iorg (1985 Royals).

Iorg is the one most familiar to Cardinals fans. His two-run walk-off single in the ninth inning gave the Royals a 2-1 win in Game 6 of the World Series, sending the series to a Game 7, which the Royals won 11-0.

That Game 6 loss is best remembered for the missed call by first-base umpire Don Denkinger, on the play that started the Royals' rally.

The other keys for the Rangers were stars with their gloves in the early innings and stars with their bats in the ninth inning -- Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus.

Kinsler made a bare-handed play to catch a throw from shortstop Andrus as part of a fourth-inning double play.
According to the metrics provided by Baseball Info Solutions, Kinsler turned 68 percent of double-play opportunities in which he was either the pivot man or fielder. His six double play runs saved (a component of defensive runs saved) were the most in the majors.

Baseball Info Solutions also charts every play of every game. Entering Game 2, Kinsler led all postseason players with 12 “good fielding plays” (think plays that would be Web Gem nominees).

Andrus made a Web Gem to get an out in the fifth inning. He rated third among shortstops in the majors with 13 defensive runs saved.

In the ninth inning, each had hits, with Andrus going to second base after his single on a failed cutoff attempt by Albert Pujols (who entered the day ranked second to Kinsler in good fielding plays). Based on win probability data from the Elias Sports Bureau, that hit lowered the Cardinals' chances of winning from 67.6 percent to 44.5 percent.

Prior to the ninth-inning comeback, it looked like the story of the night would again be Cardinals pinch-hitter Allen Craig.

Craig became the first player in World Series history with two go-ahead pinch-hit RBIs. He was the third player with a go-ahead RBI in the sixth inning or later of consecutive World Series games, joining Duke Snider (1952 Dodgers) and Amos Otis (1980 Royals).

The Cardinals had a chance for a rally of their own in the ninth inning, but it was their inability to sacrifice that hurt them, when Nick Punto struck out after twice failing to bunt with a man on first.

Punto had six sacrifices in 166 regular-season plate appearances (the fourth-best rate of sacrifices per plate appearance for a position player in the majors), but on this day, he couldn’t make the necessary play to help the Cardinals to a victory.

The 107th World Series begins Wednesday with the Texas Rangers visiting the St. Louis Cardinals. The AL has won 62 of the previous 106 series and the winner of Game 1 has won seven of eight and 12 of the last 14. There have been 102 Best-of-7 World Series. The winner of Game 1 has gone on to win the World Series 64 times (62.7 percent).

The Rangers are the first team lose the World Series and return the following season since the 1992 Atlanta Braves (who lost to the Toronto Blue Jays a year after losing to the Minnesota Twins). The last three AL teams to return to the Fall Classic a year after a loss have gone on to win the World Series. The last AL team to lose back-to-back World Series was the New York Yankees in 1963 and 1964.

The Cardinals are in their 18th World Series, tied for the second-most all-time with the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. The Cardinals are making their third World Series appearance since the start of the 2004 season, the most of any team in that span.

On the Mound
C.J. Wilson gets the nod for Texas. Wilson has not enjoyed recent postseason success as he is 0-2 with an 8.04 ERA in three starts this postseason. According to Elias, the only other time a Game 1 starter in the World Series had lost two previous games in that postseason was Tom Glavine for the Braves in 1992. He was 0-2 heading into his Game 1 start against the Blue Jays. He pitched a complete game and won.

A major problem for Wilson has been the long ball, as he has allowed six homers this postseason after giving up just 16 in 223⅓ innings during the regular season.

Chris Carpenter takes the mound for the Cardinals. Carpenter has seven career postseason wins which is one shy of Mariano Rivera for the most among active pitchers. The seven wins are also tied with Bob Gibson for the most in Cardinals history.

Carpenter will face a Rangers lineup that includes six regulars who bat right-handed. Carpenter’s main secondary pitch versus righties is a tight-breaking slider that sits in the high-80s. Carpenter likes to work his slider down and away to get hitters to expand their strike zone. However, he faces a tough challenge in a Rangers lineup that features some of the most disciplined hitters in the league against sliders.

Carpenter got right-handed hitters to chase 47 percent of his sliders that were out of the zone during the regular season, a mark that ranked in the top three in baseball among qualified righties. However, Rangers righties combined to chase just 24 percent of the sliders they saw, led by Michael Young, Elvis Andrus, Ian Kinsler and Mike Napoli. Each of them ranked in the top six in the league in chasing the lowest percentage of sliders against righties.

Stat of the Game
With frost and freeze warnings posted across much of Missouri and temperatures expected in the 40s for Game 1, it’s worth pointing out that neither team is used to these conditions. There were 39 games this season that were played at a game-time temperature of 100° or higher, with 27 of those games being played in Arlington.

The Cardinals played 15 games (10 at home) where the listed boxscore temperature was below 60°. They went 5-10 in those games. The Rangers played 13 games with a boxscore temperature below 60°, going 5-8 in those contests. All of those were on the road.

The Texas Rangers advanced to the ALCS with a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. It’s the second consecutive season they’ve beaten Tampa Bay in the divisional series to advance to the League Championship Series for just the second time in franchise history.

Adrian Beltre hit three home runs, just the fourth player in major-league history to hit three homers in a postseason series-clinching game. Beltre, George Brett and Babe Ruth are the only players with three solo homers in a postseason game.

The Rangers are just the second team in postseason history to win a game in which they scored at least four runs and all their runs came on solo home runs.

They join the 1995 Cleveland Indians who beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3, in Game 3 of their ALDS.

Ian Kinsler led off the game with a home run, the first leadoff longball in postseason franchise history, and the first time in 30 postseason games the Rangers got a home run from the leadoff spot in the order (in any inning). Kinsler led the majors with seven leadoff homers in the regular season.

Matt Harrison started for the Rangers and tied his career-high with nine strikeouts in five innings pitched. He’s the second pitcher in postseason history to strike out at least nine in five innings or fewer, joining Steve Blass of the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates.

It’s the fifth straight home game the Rays have lost to the Rangers in the postseason, tied for the third-longest active streak of its kind and tied for the fourth-longest that began after World War II (according to the Elias Sports Bureau).

Looking ahead to the ALCS, the Rangers struggled with both possible opponents. They were 2-7 with a 6.69 ERA against the New York Yankees and 3-6 with a 4.96 ERA against the Detroit Tigers.

Just two days removed from completing the greatest September rally in MLB history, the Tampa Bay Rays look to build on their strong finish against the Texas Rangers in the American League Division Series.

Inside the Series
This is a rematch of last year’s ALDS, a series Texas won in five games. The series was unique in that it was the first in postseason history where the road team won every game.

The Rangers edged the Rays during the regular season, taking five of the nine meetings.

Rangers catcher Mike Napoli proved a particularly tough out against Tampa Bay this season, batting .407 with three home runs.

On the Mound
Taking the mound for the Rays will be left-hander Matt Moore, a September call-up who began this season as the top pitching prospect in all of baseball.

Moore has made only one career start (with two appearances out of the bullpen), going 5.0 innings while allowing no runs on four hits, 1 walk and 11 strikeouts against the New York Yankees on Sept. 22 at Yankee Stadium.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Moore’s one career start is the fewest by a Game 1 starter in MLB postseason history.

Texas brings its own lefty to the mound in Game 1, sending C.J. Wilson to the hill. Wilson’s 2.56 ERA after the All-Star Break was second-best in the AL, behind Doug Fister (2.47). He had a 1.21 ERA in September and is 4-0 as a starter in his career against the Rays, combining regular season and the playoffs.

Getting Defensive
These teams ranked in the top four in the majors in Defensive Runs Saved this season – Tampa Bay was first, Texas was fourth. The strengths of these teams defensively have come at second, short and third base.

Ben Zobrist (17) and Ian Kinsler (16) ranked 1-2 in MLB in Defensive Runs Saved at second base. Elvis Andrus (13) ranked third in the majors, Elliot Johnson (11) ranked tied for fifth and Reid Brignac (8) tied for seventh among shortstops. Among third basemen, Adrian Beltre (17) ranked second in the majors and Evan Longoria (12) was fifth.

Stat of the Game
While the Rays dominated headlines for their late-season surge, they aren’t the only team in this series coming off a noteworthy September. The Rangers closed the book on the regular season with a .544 slugging percentage in September, the highest slugging percentage by a team in September in the live-ball era (since 1920).

Today’s Trivia: Set to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in July, Bert Blyleven turns 60 today. Among those who have already been up for a vote, who now has the most career strikeouts for a pitcher not in the Hall of Fame?

Quick Hits: A quick look at the numbers behind the four most surprising starts in the American League.

Tampa Bay Rays
• Ian Kinsler and Jose Tabata have both scored more runs (7) than the Rays (6).
• In innings 4-6, the Rays are 2-for-38 (.053).
• It’s tough to start rallies when you are hitting .098 with no outs.
• The Rays are batting .105 in at-bats lasting longer than one pitch.
• Last season, the Rays were 86-36 when allowing five runs or fewer. This season? 0-4.

Boston Red Sox
• Much has been made about the Red Sox having a lefty heavy lineup, but consider this: Red Sox lefties are batting .300 against southpaws, while right-handed hitters are just 3-for-32 (.094).
• From the sixth inning on, the Red Sox are hitting just .125 (7-for-56).
• Boston’s 7-to-9 hitters are a combined 4-for-38 (.105).
• The first time through the lineup, opponents are hitting .171 off Red Sox starters. After that, they’re hitting .417.
• The Red Sox have allowed 12 runs in the fourth inning alone. That’s more than four teams have allowed all season.
• No team in MLB history has rebounded from a 0-4 start to win the World Series. Only the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals reached the World Series after starting the year with four straight defeats and they lost to the Kansas City Royals in seven games.

Baltimore Orioles
• Opposing 3-5 hitters are 4-for-45 (.089) this season.
• Through four games, the opposition has a total of two hits in the first two innings and a .077 batting average.
• The Orioles were 39-88 in 2010 when scoring less than six runs. This season? 4-0.
• Opponents are hitting .136 against the O’s starters, who have allowed a total of 12 hits. Matt Garza allowed that many in his first start for the Cubs.
• At 4-0, the Orioles are looking for their first 5-0 start since 1970, a year they won the World Series.

Kansas City Royals
• Kansas City’s relievers are 4-0 with a 1.57 ERA. Last season, the bullpen went 21-27 with a 4.46 ERA.
• Opponents are actually hitting .288 against the Royals, the fourth highest in the majors. But with runners in scoring position, they have a .180 batting average. That means opponents are hitting .323 when there aren’t runners in scoring position.
• The Royals have won consecutive games lasting longer than 11 innings for the first time since April 1969.

Trivia Answer: Among those that have already been up for a vote, Mickey Lolich‘s 2,832 strikeouts are the most for a pitcher not in the Hall of Fame.

• Miguel Cabrera homered twice as the Detroit Tigers outmuscled the New York Yankees to salvage the final game of their opening three-game series in the Bronx.

It was Cabrera's 19th career multi-homer game, and second at the new Yankee Stadium. Both of his home runs came against cut fastballs from Phil Hughes.

In the loss, the Yankees Jorge Posada also went deep twice, the 17th time in his career he has done so.

However this was the first time he has done so as a designated hitter. Each of the previous 16 came while he was playing catcher.

• For the third straight game to open the season Mark Teixeira hit a home run.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the only other Yankees player to hit a home run in each of the first three games of the season was Dave Winfield in 1983.

• Texeira isn't the only player to have homered in each of the first three games of this season.

His former teammates with the Rangers, Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz, both homered for the third straight game to kick off the 2011 campaign.

Kinsler and Cruz are the first set of teammates in Major League Baseball history to do so in each of their team's first three games.

Who’s hot and who’s not to start the 2011 season:

• The Texas Rangers hit 11 home runs and scored 26 runs in a season-opening sweep of the Boston Red Sox.

Boston is 0-3 for the first time since they starting the 1996 season 0-5. The only positive sign was Carl Crawford, who after opening the season 0-for-7, had two hits and an RBI today.

• Crawford’s former team the Tampa Bay Rays have struggled to find offense, getting swept by the Baltimore Orioles.

The Rays scored just one run in each of their first three games to start the season.

According to Elias, they are the first team since the 2007 St. Louis Cardinals to score one run or fewer in each of their first three games.

Meanwhile the Orioles are 3-0 for the first time since 1997. That season they won 98 games, the last time they finished over .500.

• The Philadelphia Phillies are 3-0 for the first time since 2001 after finishing off a sweep of the Houston Astros.

Philadelphia hasn’t started 4-0 since 1915, when they started 8-0.

The Phillies starters have been as good as advertised. Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Roy Oswalt have combined to go 2-0, with a 2.84 ERA in 19 innings.

Each pitcher didn't allow more than 5 hits, and they have 23 combined strikeouts compared to just one walk.

• After a rocky start to 2011, the New York Mets rebounded nicely to take two of three from the Florida Marlins on the road.

Last year, the Mets didn't win a road series against a team from the National League until August 20-22 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

CC Sabathia (six innings, 11 hits, two earned runs, no walks, seven strikeouts) is the first pitcher since Bruce Hurst in 1986 to allow at least 11 hits and two runs or fewer in a postseason start.

From the Elias Sports Bureau: Since joining the team in 2009, Sabathia has now won a team-high 16 starts (including two in the postseason) following a Yankees' loss.

Robinson Cano's four home runs in this series is one shy of the most HR in a postseason series by a second baseman. Chase Utley hit five HR in last year's World Series.

Cano and Josh Hamilton each have four HR in this series. The only other postseason series where opposing players each had four HR was the 2004 NLCS: Houston's Carlos Beltran and St. Louis' Albert Pujols.

During the regular season, C.J. Wilson allowed just one home run with no outs in an inning. In Game 5, Nick Swisher and Cano both homered off Wilson with no outs in the third inning. The home runs by Swisher and Cano were the first back-to-back home runs in a postseason game by the Yankees in an LCS since Game 3 of the 2000 ALCS at Seattle (Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez).

Kerry Wood has picked off two Rangers in this series (Ian Kinsler in Game 1, Elvis Andrus in Game 5). He's the first pitcher with two pickoffs in a postseason series since Mark Mulder did it in the 2001 ALDS against the Yankees.

In three wins, the Rangers are hitting .448 (13-for-29) with runners in scoring position, and just .176 (3-for-17) in two losses.

More incredible notes from Cliff Lee's complete game victory Tuesday over the Tampa Bay Rays, giving the Texas Rangers their first postseason series victory ever:

• Lee won his sixth straight decision as a starter to begin his postseason career, tied for third-most all-time with Lefty Gomez. The record is eight by Orlando Hernandez.

• Lee had the fourth CG win on the road in a winner-takes-all game in the last 40 years, and the first since John Smoltz for the 1991 Atlanta Braves.

• Lee has won five straight postseason starts in which he pitched seven or more innings, and only Bob Gibson, Dave Stewart and Red Ruffing have longer streaks in major league history.

• Lee became the sixth starting pitcher to win two road games in a single postseason series, allowing one run or fewer in each. The last was Roy Oswalt for the 2005 Houston Astros in the NLCS.

• Lee's 21 strikeouts are the third-most in a single series for an AL pitcher since 1920.

• Lee threw his fifth postseason game with seven or more IP and no walks, which ties Christy Mathewson for the second-most ever. Greg Maddux has the record with seven such games.

• Lee's Game Score of 82 made it the fifth game this postseason of 80 or better. That ties an all-time record for a single postseason, set in 1967 (when there were five in a seven-game World Series) and tied in 1997.

• That Game Score is tied for fourth-best by a starting pitcher in a winner-takes-all postseason game. Sandy Koufax (1965 Los Angeles Dodgers), Jack Morris (1991 Minnesota Twins) and Ralph Terry (1962 New York Yankees) were the only three with a higher Game Score and they all did it in Game 7 of the World Series.

• There were four complete games in the LDS in which the pitcher allowed one run or fewer, the most since the 1986 LCS also had four.

FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU:

• The Rangers became the first team in MLB history to score twice from second base on infield outs in a postseason game. The last teams to do it even once was the Baltimore Orioles in Game 5 of the 1970 World Series in the Cincinnati Reds. Before Tuesday, the Rays had never allowed it to happen once in any game, regular season or postseason.

• During the regular season there were three instances of a runner scoring from second base on an infield out.

• Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz both hit three home runs in the series, becoming the second pair of teammates in major league history to hit three HR apiece in a postseason series of five-or-fewer-games. The other pair was Babe Ruth (three HR, all in one game) and Lou Gehrig (four HR) in the Yankees four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1928 World Series.

The good news is the Texas Rangers have a comfortable lead in the American League West (eight games over the Athletics and Angels). However, after getting swept by the Tampa Bay Rays, Texas clearly has some work to do with the postseason on the horizon.

• Against the division-leading Twins, Yankees and Rays (New York and Tampa Bay are tied atop the AL East), the Rangers are a combined 3-11.

• The Rays were the fifth team to sweep the Rangers this season, and the fourth from the AL East. (The Boston Red Sox are the only team in that division that hasn’t swept Texas.)

• How much do the Rangers miss second baseman Ian Kinsler? They were 59-41 before he went on the disabled list with a groin injury. In the 19 games the Rangers have played without Kinsler, they're just 8-11.

• Except for the month of June when they went 21-6, the Rangers have been a .500 club (46-46), including 6-9 in August.

NOTABLES FROM WEDNESDAY:
• The New York Yankees are 7-1 this season when Brett Gardner is the lead-off hitter, outscoring their opponents 42-19. Gardner is 12-for-31 (.387 BA) with eight runs scored and three walks in those games. He's also started six of those eight games by getting on base in the 1st inning (Jeremy Bonderman hit Gardner with a pitch in the first inning on Wednesday). The Yankees have scored in the first inning in five of those eight games, totaling 11 runs.

• Holding onto a 3-2 lead against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Milwaukee Brewers' Trevor Hoffman was brought in with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Hoffman proceeded to strike out Brendan Ryan on three pitches. According to Baseball-Reference.com, batters are now 0-8 against Hoffman in situations where he’s pitching in a game with a 1-run lead and the bases loaded in the 9th inning or later.

• Despite blowing a three-run lead in the top of the ninth inning, the A’s came back in the bottom of the inning to win 5-4. Oakland is now 51-0 this season when leading after eight innings. Only the Yankees have more wins without a loss (64-0) when leading after eight.

• The Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera has now hit at least 30 home runs in six of his first eight seasons. The only players who have had more 30-HR seasons in their first eight years in the bigs: Albert Pujols (8), Eddie Mathews (7) and Ralph Kiner (7).

• The Red Sox's Jonathan Papelbon became the first pitcher (since saves became an official stat in 1969) to record at least 30 saves in each of his first five full seasons. Papelbon also struck out the side in the ninth, just the third time in his career he's had a three-out save and struck out all three batters he faced.

• The Minnesota Twins' Francisco Liriano had pitched 78⅓ innings at Target Field this season without allowing a home run before the Chicago White Sox's Andruw Jones hit a three-run shot in the second inning. And while Liriano gave up his first HR at home, Joe Mauer went deep at Target Field for the first time this season (49 games).

• The Philadelphia Phillies' Jimmy Rollins was the first player since Nomar Garciaparra in 1997 to have a triple, home run and two stolen bases in a game. Also in that game, Jayson Werth had been hitless in his last 35 at-bats with two outs and runners in scoring position before his seventh-inning double scored Raul Ibanez from third.

• The Atlanta Braves are tied for the major league lead with 10 walk-off wins, and rookie Jason Heyward has accounted for three of them following his RBI single in the ninth inning against the Washington Nationals.

Starting today we are going to start unveiling our top 25 players in the majors under the age of 25.

The criteria to make the list:

- Must be under 25 years old on Opening Day 2010.
- Must have MLB experience.
- MLB results matter more than projected future stats or “talent” level. (If we were doing a list based on potential, Jason Heyward, Carlos Santana, Buster Posey and Austin Jackson etc. would be on this list).
- Our 25-man "team" must carry ordinary MLB requirements (two catchers, all positions and DH covered plus a bench and 12 pitchers).

We'll unveil the bottom 5 today and work our way up the next 4 days.

25. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, TEX, 24
2009: .233 BA, .290 OBP, 9 HR in 84 games.
-In danger of earning the dreaded lifetime prospect distinction, “Salty” should start behind the plate for the Rangers this season. His tools can’t be ignored, and legitimate power-hitting catchers are not easy to find. But legitimate power-hitting catchers do not have a .180 WHAvg, .371 SLG% nor an OPS of .661, and his 33% chase percentage and 31% K% do not help his case either. But every team needs two catchers, and this one is no different. A strong season from Saltalamacchia could do well to justify his spot on this list; otherwise, he’s a mere placeholder for the likes of Carlos Santana or Buster Posey in 2011.

24. Elvis Andrus, TEX, 21
2009: .267 BA, .329 OBP, .702 OPS, 33 SB
-Of the top 14 stolen base leaders in the American League last year, only Ian Kinsler (.327) and B.J. Upton (.313) had worse OBP numbers then Andrus. In a Texas system that should produce some top notch offensive talent in the next couple years (ESPN’s Keith Law ranked the Rangers’ organization as the number one farm system in baseball), Andrus can improve his runs scored and stolen base totals significantly if he can make better contact in the zone (.662 OPS on pitches in strike zone last year) and work some walks with a little more frequency (7.4% BB% in 2009). With Julio Borbon at the top of the order, there won’t be too much pressure on Andrus to produce offensively, particularly given his ability with the leather.

23. Asdrubal Cabrera, CLE,
2009: .308 BA, 68 RBI, 81 runs, 17 SB, .799 OPS
- Cleveland’s switch-hitting shortstop took some solid steps forward in 2009, but was still vulnerable against breaking pitches from both sides of the plate. Cabrera hit .125 on 198 curves and sliders on the inside part of the plate last season. Pitchers needed to work the inner third effectively, because Cabrera hit .333 on the outer third. However, even with the 49-point average jump from 2008, Cabrera’s OBP only saw a 15-point spike, and his walks percentage (7.6%) is still well behind the league average of 8.9%. However, he can get away with it at times because he’s so hard to finish off. Cabrera only strikes out in 31% of 2 strike at-bats, missing 17% of swings with 2 strikes, and won’t help pitchers early, chasing only 15% of pitches in non-2 strike counts. Those numbers will almost certainly help him improve on his walks percentage in 2010, showing why he’s a very viable option to lead off the Cleveland order.

22. Daniel Bard, BOS, 24
2009: 3.65 ERA, 63 strikeouts in 49.1 IP
- While Bard’s ERA might not impress you for a reliever, the 3:1 K/BB ratio certainly will. Daniel’s 100MPH fastball coupled with a crafty slider allowed him to effectively work out of jams, keeping 76% of inherited runners from scoring. 52 percent of Bard’s innings were completed in 1-2-3 fashion, and 22 percent of his outs recorded came via a 4-pitch or fewer strikeout.

21. Neftali Feliz, TEX, 21
2009: 1.74 ERA, 39 strikeouts and 8 walks in 31.0 IP
- Feliz had a tremendous, but brief stint in the majors this past season. In 20 appearances, Feliz held opposing batters to a .124 batting average. Feliz turned 2-strike at-bats into outs 89 percent of the time (league avg. = 72 percent). With a WHIP of .677 and a K/BB ratio of nearly 5:1, Feliz represents the Rangers as their closer of the future, and perhaps present.

Check back tomorrow for players 16-20.

Some of Wednesday's best notes from around the big leagues...

Why Cardinals Starter Adam Wainwright Won:
- Stayed ahead of hitters: against 25 batters, threw 18 first-pitch strikes (72 percent) and reached a 2-0 count just twice (8 percent).
- Hitters went 0-7 (3 K) vs curveball (.122 BA against curve in 2009).

Why Rays Starter Matt Garza Won:
- Kept himself in the game: 8 innings pitched is longest of season by a starter and Garza's longest in his last 12 starts.
- Good slider control: 79 percent for strikes (11-14) and 57 percent of pitches out of the zone were chased by hitters.
- Lefty power shut down: Orioles left-handed hitters were 1-16 (.063), including Nick Markakis and Luke Scott (combined 0-7, 4 K).

Hitter of the Night:
Edgar Renteria, SF: 5-5, BB, 2 RBI.
- 4th career 5-hit game, including 2 hits off curveballs. Through 2 games this season, he has 3 hits against curveballs.
- Renteria was 3-31 (.097) against curveballs last season. He obviously did some work this offseason as he is a perfect 3-3 in 2010 against Uncle Charlie.