Summer is winding down, but MLB's postseason races are heating up. We've reached that point in the season schedule when, on any given day, there are games with legitimate weight taking place, and we've got a particularly big battle being waged out West this weekend.
Here are five topics to track across MLB:
1. Bringing their "A" game: The team that entered the season with the lowest payroll in baseball has a legitimate opportunity to dethrone the defending World Series champions in a division race.
If that scenario doesn't get your attention, then why the heck are you even reading this, huh?
This weekend, it's Astros vs. A's at the Oakland Coliseum in a series of surprising significance. The Astros entered the season with a FanGraphs-calculated 98.9 percent chance of winning the American League West, while the A's were at 0.5. Now, Oakland, having matched the mighty Red Sox with a big league-best .745 winning percentage since June 16, is a mere two games back. The Astros got off the schneid with a blowout win in Colorado, but the bottom line is that they've spent the last three weeks losing 11 of 18 and enduring an array of injuries (George Springer is expected to return from a left thumb injury tonight).
For what it's worth (possibly not much), the Astros have dominated the season series to date, winning nine of 13. If schedule strength matters (and it possibly doesn't), Houston appears to have the more forgiving schedule down the stretch, and these opportunities to inflict direct damage are few and fleeting for the A's. These two clubs have just one more meeting, and it comes Aug. 27-29 at Minute Maid Park.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying: This weekend's big. It begins at 10:05 p.m. ET tonight with Charlie Morton (one of the great comeback stories of 2017) opposing Edwin Jackson (one of the great comeback stories of '18). It continues with Dallas Keuchel opposing Trevor Cahill at 4:05 p.m. Saturday and wraps with Justin Verlander vs. fellow no-hit-club member Sean Manaea at 4:05 p.m. Sunday.
2. Little League, big deal: The Mets and Phillies will have an added travel wrinkle woven into their weekend, venturing from the cushy confines of Citizens Bank Park for the much-more-cozy ones of historic Bowman Field during a day trip to Williamsport, Pa. But when they're there, surrounded by all those Little Leaguers with big smiles Sunday at the second annual MLB Little League Classic, they'll know finishing off their weekend set in unusual circumstances was well worth it.
"At the end of the day," Pirates second baseman Josh Harrison said at last year's inaugural event, "it's bigger than you."
Baseball is an institution handed down from one generation to the next, and the Little League Classic is a nice and novel way in which the current generation of big league ballplayers can leave a lasting impression on the kids who hope to one day follow in their big footsteps. It's an extension of MLB's broader efforts, including the Play Ball initiative, to tap into the youth space. But the inspiration runs both ways, because the interactions that take place during the day at Howard J. Lamade Stadium and the surrounding Little League World Series site prove just as meaningful for the pros as for the kids.
"It's kind of refreshing to go back and see the pure joy on these kids' faces, knowing they're just playing a game and are out there to have as much fun as they can," Phillies slugger Rhys Hoskins said heading into the weekend series with the Mets that will conclude in Williamsport. "People are competitive, but at the end of the day, it's cool to see the sportsmanship, the handshakes. You see kids hanging out between the games. Little things like that put it back in perspective."
At night, there's a big league ballgame played at historic Bowman Field, just a short drive from Lamade. It's a Class A ballpark, which makes for an extremely intimate setting, and the stands will be filled by Little Leaguers and their families. The whole thing will be broadcast on ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" at 7:10 p.m. ET.
Bring the orange slices and feel like a kid again.
3. Cole fills a hole: The Cubs acquired a tremendous amount of name value when they landed Cole Hamels from the Rangers last month. But performance value? Hamels had a 4.72 ERA and 1.37 WHIP before being sent to Chicago. He was significantly better on the road than at home, but, at 34 years old, it was fair to wonder if he had much left in the tank to offer a contender.
Wonder no more. A change in scenery and a legit pennant race appears to have brought the best out of Hamels, who has a 1.00 ERA -- and no extra-base hits allowed -- in 18 innings across three starts with the Cubbies. His next assignment comes tonight at PNC Park (7:05 p.m.) -- an exact repeat of his Aug. 1 Cubs debut. Hamels is hoping for a repeat in outcome, too, for he held the Bucs to an unearned run on three hits in five innings the first time around.

The Cubs have had an inconsistent offense this season, and their starting pitching was porous in the weeks leading up to the non-waiver Trade Deadline. That's not a recipe for repeating in the National League Central. But Hamels has brought a needed layer of stability to the starting set for a Cubs club that remains in first place. Aside from the name recognition, he might not have been the sexiest of Deadline pickups, but so far he's been one of the best.
4. Meet Me in St. Louis: Elsewhere in the NL Central, we've got the clubs chasing the Cubs beating up on each other at Busch Stadium this weekend. The Brewers have been sluggish in the second half (13-12), while the Cardinals have surged (18-10) under interim skipper Mike Shildt, a more youthful roster and the incredible Matt Carpenter (who was hit in the hand Wednesday night and thankfully lived to tell the tale).
So while the Cards are trailing the Brewers by 1 1/2 games, momentum would appear to be on their side here, and Milwaukee is coming off a rough day at Wrigley Field that saw both Ryan Braun (rib cage) and Manny Pina (left shoulder) exit with injuries. These two teams aren't just trying to run down the North Siders, they're trying to outlast each other given the implications this series has on the NL Wild Card race, where the Brewers are currently clinging to that first spot.
The Cards will look to leapfrog their division rivals the next few days, beginning with tonight's 8:15 p.m. ET matchup of rookie right-handers, Freddy Peralta and Jack Flaherty. Saturday's 7:15 p.m. Miley & Miles Show (Wade Miley and Miles Mikolas) is a particularly intriguing pairing of low-profile offseason pickups who have brought value to these respective rotations.
5. Outside looking in: If October began today -- and don't worry, we have checked with the Calendar Committee to confirm that it doesn't -- the Dodgers and Mariners would both be absent from the postseason party. That would be quite a bummer for both ballclubs, what with the Dodgers desperate to atone for their loss in Game 7 of last year's World Series and the Mariners desperate to simply take part in the tournament for the first time since 2001.
Fortunately, there's still plenty of ball to be played as these two clubs meet for an Interleague affair at Safeco Field this weekend (Walker Buehler opposes Wade LeBlanc in tonight's 10:10 p.m. ET opener). But more pressing bummers have revealed themselves in recent days -- the Mariners losing ace James Paxton to a comebacker to the forearm and the Dodgers losing ace reliever Kenley Jansen to an irregular heartbeat.
Neither guy, then, will have an impact on this weekend series in which the Dodgers are looking for bullpen relief (the 'pen has given up 13 runs in 18 innings just in the week since Jansen has been gone) and the Mariners are hoping to get continued happy returns from recently returned infielder (we can't call him strictly a second baseman anymore) Robinson Cano (3-for-9 since coming back from suspension) and Saturday starter Erasmo Ramirez (five scoreless innings in his first start in Felix Hernandez's former rotation spot).