With the A’s victory over Cleveland this afternoon, every non-AL West team has been eliminated from any further MLB Heavyweight title bouts. (See Catfish Stew sidebar for details.)

The A’s and Angels have 10 possible title bouts remaining, while the Rangers and Mariners can have six each. Only the A’s and Rangers remain in the race for Heavyweight of the Year. The A’s have 27 victories, while the Rangers have 22. Because the A’s have fewer losses, just one more title bout win by the A’s, or one title bout loss by the Rangers, would clinch a second straight Heavyweight of the Year title for the A’s.

One piece of good news for the A’s: if the Rangers do come from behind and win the Heavyweight of the Year, it would mean that the A’s would get at least a tie in the real AL West standings, as three Rangers victories over the Angels would reduce the A’s magic number to win the AL West to 1. So A’s fans can calm their nerves with the assurance that they will likely win at least one title or the other, if not both.

One final note of interest: although the Heavyweight title stayed in the AL for most of the year, the New York Yankees did not have a single title bout.