SweetSpot

          Monday's Top 5: The Prince of Texas

          1. Prince Fielder, Texas Rangers. Maybe Alex Rodriguez ends up winning the Comeback Player of the Year Award, but Prince is the feel-good comeback story of the year, given that he returned from last season's neck surgery as opposed to a year-long suspension. As the Rangers have surged in the second half, Fielder has actually tailed off after a big first half that landed him an All-Star berth. He has dropped from .339/.403/.521 in the first half to .257/.336/.366 after the break, but he delivered the biggest hit of the Rangers season so far in the first game of the big, four-game showdown with the Astros. Tied 3-3 in the eighth, he hit a two-run homer to center off a 3-2 cutter from Astros reliever Will Harris to give the Rangers a 5-3 win and cut Houston's AL West lead to a half-game.

          Should the Astros have gone to a lefty to face Fielder? There was one out, and Drew Stubbs was on deck, followed by Mitch Moreland. It's debatable. Fielder's OPS against right-handers is 100 points higher than his mark against lefties, but Harris had held left-handed batters to a .135 average on the season. With a 1.42 ERA, Harris has done the job all season (though he has given up six home runs among his 13 runs allowed). It's hard to fault Hinch for sticking with Harris over lefty Tony Sipp, especially because Stubbs is a lefty killer. Fielder just won this battle.

          2. Slade Heathcott, New York Yankees. You have to love when a player wearing No. 72 becomes a September hero. Erasmo Ramirez had no-hit the Yankees for seven innings, and Heathcott was in the game only after Carlos Beltran had been pinch run for. Down 1-0 in the ninth with two outs, Rays closer Brad Boxberger walked Brett Gardner. Rodriguez tied the game with a double in the gap. After an intentional walk to Brian McCann, Heathcott went opposite field for his second career home run.

          By the way, about Mr. Boxberger ... Kevin Cash has done a lot of good things as a rookie manager, but I'm not sure sticking with Boxberger as his closer is one of them. Boxberger is now 4-10 with a 3.81 ERA. He has served up eight home runs and walked 30 batters in 56.2 innings. Several of those losses have come in extra innings, where the Rays are 2-13. In the tightly fought wild-card race, if the Rays had turned five of those 13 extra-inning defeats into wins, they'd be 74-69 instead of 69-74, and they'd be right there.

          3. New York Mets. Eight in a row. Another come-from-behind win. Another homer from Yoenis Cespedes. Another big game from Travis d'Arnaud, who slugged a tying, two-run home run in the sixth and, by the way, is hitting a cool .300/.369/.568. Another save for Jeurys Familia. Mets 4, Marlins 3.

          4. Minnesota Twins. They jumped all over Tigers starter Kyle Lobstein for four runs in the first -- a rally Lobstein contributed to when he failed to cover first on one hit -- and two in the second, and Minnesota cruised to a 7-1 victory behind 6 1/3 innings from Tyler Duffey. The Twins are now one game behind the Rangers for the second wild card, which means they're also just 1.5 games behind the Astros, which means the Astros are in danger of not just losing the division title after leading most of the season but also missing the playoffs altogether. The Rangers, Astros and Twins -- three teams for two spots. Just like we all predicted back in March.

          5. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers. Ho-hum: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 5 SO. Kershaw is good. The Dodgers beat the Rockies 4-1.