Even if we won’t be referring to an official “playoff push” until September, given that nine teams are within four games of first place heading into Monday’s action, we might see our fair share of dashed postseason hopes in the next couple of weeks.

The week of Aug. 19 will see clashes of some of MLB’s toughest customers, including a pair of special-occasion Interleague matchups, two potential American League postseason previews, and an NLDS rematch from each of the last two seasons.

Mariners (64-61) at Dodgers (73-52)
3 games (Monday-Wednesday)

Head-to-head: In their only clash of the season, the Mariners will be looking to break a rather pesky Interleague streak, having lost six consecutive head-to-head series against the Dodgers dating back to 2012. (Clayton Kershaw, the only remaining active player who appeared in Seattle’s last series win in 2009, pitched Sunday in St. Louis and unfortunately won’t appear in this latest edition.)

Storyline: The NL West is the senior circuit’s most competitive division, but despite the likely challenges that lie ahead for the first-place Dodgers, the timing of this series couldn’t be worse for the Mariners, who’ve lost four games in the standings in the past seven days and are scrambling to cope with their ongoing offensive woes while keeping pace with the surging Astros.

Watch out for: Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller and Logan Gilbert. The Mariners, as a group, are hitting a league-worst .201 in August, but their rotation is lined up perfectly to handle serious competition. The trio have pitched to a collective 1.73 ERA with a 0.75 WHIP and eight quality starts in nine tries this month, a trend that needs to continue if Seattle wants to remain in contention.

Twins (70-54) at Padres (70-55)
3 games (Monday-Wednesday)

Head-to-head: The Twins won the last matchup, two games to one, in 2023. That was in keeping with their mutual history, as Minnesota has now won six of its eight series against San Diego since 2003.

Storyline: Although two clubs that generally have little to do with each other, the Padres and Twins are having eerily similar seasons. Their records are within a half-game of each other. They’ll meet in San Diego with identical run differentials (+70). Both have been nigh-on unstoppable in August, and, most importantly, both are close enough to taste first place — the Twins are two games behind the Guardians in the AL Central, the Padres three back of the Dodgers in the NL West. They’ve set up an unstoppable force-immovable object midweek series, if both rosters show up like they have of late.

Watch out for: Jackson Merrill has been the Padres’ chief human highlight reel in the second half, saving a no-hitter, powering two separate seven-game winning streaks and generally strengthening his Rookie of the Year case. The 21-year-old is hitting .320 with three triples and four homers in August.

Guardians (72-52) at Yankees (73-52)
3 games (Tuesday-Thursday)

Head-to-head: This will be the teams’ final meeting of 2024 after the Yankees took the first three-game set, two games to one, back in April. Cleveland hasn’t won a season series against New York since 2019.

Storyline: Two teams that had much more comfortable divisional leads in June — the Guardians’ lead peaked at nine games up on June 25, the Yankees a step lower when they were 4 1/2 games up on the Orioles on June 6 — are now in precarious spots. The Yankees, slowly emerging from a dramatic mid-season slump, are in a virtual tie with the Orioles and the Guardians, fending off both the Twins and the Royals, have fallen to 7-10 in August.

Watch out for: At the risk of repeating ourselves, it just has to be Aaron Judge, who became the fastest player in Major League history to reach the 300-HR benchmark on Wednesday and is now hitting .458/.594/.854 with five homers, 12 RBIs and 16 walks to 14 K’s in August.

Phillies (73-51) at Braves (66-58)
3 games (Tuesday-Thursday)

Head-to-head: Despite the Phillies having a much more fortunate season, currently holding an eight-game lead in the NL East, the Braves won each of their first two matchups of 2024, going 4-2; Phillies pitching has a 7.10 ERA in those six games.

Storyline: With their mid-season swoon mostly behind them, the Phillies aren’t in any real danger of being overtaken in the NL East. The Braves, for their part, were unable to capitalize on the Phillies’ slide, and although they’re still in playoff position, they have their hands full even before factoring in the potential complications posed by the resurgent Mets, who are now just two games back in the Wild Card race.

Watch out for: The Braves’ lineup is clicking of late, but they’ll be running into Phillies ace Zack Wheeler right out the gate on Tuesday. The 34-year-old has gone at least five innings in each of his last nine starts, allowing two runs or fewer in eight of them (working around a rare seven-run clunker against the Yankees on July 29.)

Astros (67-56) at Orioles (73-52)
4 games (Thursday-Sunday)

Head-to-head: The Astros swept the first meeting of 2024, a three-game set in Houston back in mid-June. That was part of a larger shift for both clubs; since the beginning of that series, the Astros have the best record in the American League (30-16) while the Orioles have gone 23-26.

Storyline: The Astros remain one of the hottest teams in baseball, entering the week an MLB-best 11-4 in the month of August. The Orioles, meanwhile, missed an opportunity to overtake the Yankees in the AL East when their mid-season skid coincided with New York’s, but a strong showing against another playoff-bound club could do wonders for clubhouse confidence heading into what’s sure to be a tense playoff push.

Watch out for: The red-hot Astros have a lot going for them, but one could argue that no one on the roster has been a bigger boon for Houston than Hunter Brown, who, after getting off to an abysmal start to the season, is 10-2 with a 2.13 ERA in his last 13 starts dating back to June 8. He’s also coming off one of his longest starts of the year in which he threw seven innings of one-run ball against the White Sox on Saturday.