AL East

The Red Sox made some stunning moves at the trade deadline, effectively throwing in the towel on the 2014 season.

Two months later, it's time to take a look back and see how the deals look like with some hindsight. While the overall evaluations of the moves won't be able to be fully judged until at least after 2015, there's already been some clarity on how the moves will turn out.

On Tuesday night, the Baltimore Orioles are going to be partying like it's 1997.

With an 8-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, Buck Showalter's squad captured its ninth victory in 10 games and moved 13.5 games in front of Toronto in the AL East, effectively locking up the division.

New York Yankees star Martin Prado is expected to miss the rest of the regular season after an emergency appendectomy.

Meredith Marakovits of the YES Network passed along the news:

The Yankees later confirmed the news of Prado appendectomy (via Danny Knobler):

The Baltimore Orioles have been on a tear in the past week, winning eight of their last nine games and further lengthening their division lead in the AL East to 12.5 games over the Toronto Blue Jays.

At this point, the Orioles have managed to dwindle down their magic number to clinch the division all the way to just one game, which means they could capture the division crown as early as Tuesday night.

At the beginning of Tuesday, the Baltimore Orioles find themselves with their biggest divisional lead since the 1979 season. At the end of Tuesday night, the Orioles inched a bit closer to their first AL East title since 1997 as they defeated the Boston Red Sox (63-82) 4-1. 

Marcus Stroman was nearly decapitated on Monday.

At the very least, the Blue Jays pitcher could’ve found himself picking Chiclets out of the dirt after a vicious comebacker zipped back toward the mound.

The New York Yankees need a face-lift.

It's time for things to change in the Bronx. While the team has continually avoided ultimate disaster for the past few seasons—"ultimate disaster" being a losing record—these rosters have come far too close to being a complete mess.

In reality, they've been a small spill. A tipped-over glass, if you will. There's no use crying over spilled milk, but there's plenty of reason to question why the liquid hit the floor.

2014 has been an incredibly turbulent year for teams in the AL East.

The standings look drastically different than they did a year ago, with the 2013 World Series champion Boston Red Sox dwelling in the division’s basement and the Baltimore Orioles poised to win the AL East crown for the first time since 1997.

After hitting a home run in each of the last five games, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista enters Tuesday's contest against the Tampa Bay Rays looking to match Jose Cruz Jr.'s franchise record of six consecutive games with a home run, per Complete Baseball Encyclopedia (via

Dustin Pedroia's Saturday night was over quickly as the Boston Red Sox second baseman left early after getting hit in the head by Logan Forsythe of the Tampa Bay Rays.