The American League isn’t as wide-open as the NL. Five teams — Oakland, Cleveland, Kansas City, Baltimore and Toronto — are at least 11 games out and not likely to get any closer than that the rest of the way. But that still leaves nine of 14 teams very much alive and ready to start kicking.

Cleveland is one of the big surprises. A lot of people picked them to return to the playoffs instead of to the game’s toxic-waste dump. They started bad and they’ve stayed that way. If it wasn’t for the Nats, they’d be the worst team in baseball.

Seattle was the other big first-half surprise. Picked to lead the league in nothing other than latte sales, the Mariners actually led the division for far longer than anyone expected. They’re just four games out in the AL West, but they score runs as often as I score dates with supermodels. Give them a big round of applause for hanging in this long. Just don’t expect them to be there at the end. The Angels are too good to allow that. And, amazingly, so, too, are the Rangers.

Detroit leads the AL Central by 3.5 games over the White Sox and four over the Twins. If you want a division in the AL that’s going to be fun to watch this summer, this is the one.

Minnesota can hit. Chicago has manager Ozzie Guillen to provide the outrageous — and funny — quotes. None of the three contenders has a run differential greater than Detroit’s rather modest 0.71 runs per game. When you have teams whose just-adequate pitching is paired with sort-of-decent run production, you do not have a formula for a runaway finish. All three will be in it until the last out of the regular season.

Finally, there is the AL East, a division as predictable as humidity in Houston. We said when it started that Boston and New York would be the powers and the Rays would fight to build on their historic run to the 2008 World Series. We were right.

The Red Sox rule. The Yankees are not going away. The Rays are still in the hunt.

It’s all coming in the second half. And it’s going to be fun.

Also on NBCSports.com College basketball: Tournament brackets  |  Schedule   College basketball: 10 teams who can win it all College basketball: Stars to watch in NCAAs O'Neill: Tiger faces major challenge in return Twitter: Follow us @nbc_sports

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