Could we see an All-Chicago World Series this season? Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee would like to think so.

Week 13 of the season brings us the last of the interleague games for the year. Teams will be making every effort to get all of these games in during the coming week, so that they need not worry about traveling to those cities again later on. Once again, all of the interleague games on the schedule make it difficult to write up a series of the week. Unless, of course, you believe that one of these series is a preview of the World Series.

The denizens of the Windy City certainly believe that the White Sox and Cubs both have an excellent shot at the post-season, creating a series that could be a preview of the Fall Classic this year. It is a bit premature, but with both teams sitting in first place, and neither getting a serious challenge from their division mates thus far, the possibility of an all-Chicago World Series looms fairly large. The favorite in such a series would have to be the Cubs, who have a much better, and deeper pitching staff. The Cubs offense it tops in the NL and second in MLB in runs scored, while the White Sox are second in the AL and sixth in MLB. Overall, the two teams are very comparable in terms of their offensive numbers, with the Sox having a slight edge in power, and the Cubs a bit more capable in terms of manufacturing runs, and using the speed aspect of the game to their advantage. The two teams are even at 2 wins apiece thus far, and have four more games to play, including today’s game (Sunday).

The way the Tampa Bay Rays and Florida Marlins are playing we could almost as easily have al all-Florida World Series this year. The Rays are in second place, just one half game behind the Red Sox, in the highly competitive AL East, and the Marlins are just one game behind the Phillies in the NL East division. Tampa Bay looks like the real deal, with a high-powered offense, and several of the top pitchers in the AL. The Marlins appear to be hanging in there with smoke and mirrors though. They are leading MLB in home runs, but their pitching is mediocre at best. So the likelihood of them continuing to contend in the NL East is somewhat remote. The Mets are just 3 ½ games behind the Marlins, and you can never count the Braves out of the running, as they are just 4 ½ games back. Either team could overtake the Marlins with a relatively short winning streak, and it is likely that both teams will do so.

The folks in New York would love to see another subway series there, and there will be four games between the Yankees and Mets this week for fans to ponder the possibilities. However, the Yankees are still hanging in there just 5 games back, but suffering through another injury-plagued season, especially with their pitching staff, making it very difficult for them to be taken too seriously.  Meanwhile, the Mets are still shaking off the bad vibes created by the mishandled firing of manager Willie Randolph, and need to turn their entire team in the right direction before they can be taken seriously.  The Mets have ample pitching to position themselves into contention, but their offense is too reliant on fragile older players like Moises Alou, and Carlos Delgado who could always spend more time on the DL than on the bench this season.

There are other possibilities out there for one-city World Series match ups, though it would take some semblance of a miracle for such a series happen in most of the other places. The two Los Angeles teams could potentially rise to the occasion as the season rolls on. The Angels are in first place with a comfortable lead of 4 ½ games, and as good as Oakland can be, probably won’t have the guns to catch and pass them. The Dodgers are 4 ½ games behind the Diamonbacks, who looked invincible the first two months of the season, but have been swooning of late, leaving the door open for the Dodgers to slip into contention. If the Dodgers can start to get a bit more power out of their lineup, they have a shot at catching the Snakes, keeping the possibility of an all West Coast World Series possible.

Of course, all of this assumes that the two best teams in baseball, the Red Sox in the AL, and the Cubs in the NL, don’t continue at their current pace and crush the rest of the league over the second half. Both teams appear to have strong offenses, and equally strong pitching, making it a real possibility that they will both be there at the end of the season as the teams to beat to get to the World Series.