June 18, 2010

26 Days

Monday, May 24, 2010
            W    L    PCT    GB
Rays 32 12 .727 ---
Yankees 26 18 .591 6.0
Blue Jays 26 20 .565 7.0
Red Sox 24 21 .533 8.5
Orioles 14 31 .311 18.5
Saturday, June 19, 2010
            W    L    PCT    GB
Rays 41 26 .612 ---
Yankees 41 26 .612 ---
Red Sox 41 28 .594 1.0
Blue Jays 37 31 .544 4.5
Orioles 18 49 .269 23.0
In the last 26 days, Boston has a 17-7 record, while Tampa Bay has gone 9-14, New York 15-8, Toronto 11-11, and Baltimore 4-18.

On May 24, Boston had scored only three more runs than it had allowed. In the 24 games since then, they have outscored their opponents 146-95, putting their current run differential at +54.

Way back on May 3, after the Orioles completed a humiliating three-game sweep, the Red Sox were 11-14. Around the same time, CHB proclaimed that the team had "ruined our summer" by being "virtually eliminated" from the playoffs before the final month of spring began; they "look[ed] like trading deadline sellers".

Since May 3, the Red Sox have a 30-14 (.682) record. Do that for a season, and you'll win 110 games.
Example
Online polls are about as scientific as "intelligent design", but here are two from a month ago:

May 20, Baseball Reference: "Will the Red Sox make the playoffs?" (182 votes):
Yes, win East          1
Yes, win Wild Card 14
No 93
Too early to tell 74
May 19 (40 games), Boston Globe: "Where are the Sox Headed?" (3,073 votes):

Catch TB/NY & win East 7.9%
WC is best we can hope for 47.3%
Forget October baseball 44.7%

8 comments:

SoSock said...

On an unrelated-to-this-post-but-related-to-a-previous-one note...

Jere was at last night's return-of-Manny game and said at his site that the crowd response was overwhelmingly supportive.

It's OK Mediots, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. Or should I say - what you think would be a good story.

Amy said...

Gotta love baseball! Anything is always possible. No time limits, just play til the last out, and see what happens.

Imagine if half the outfield and starting pitchers were not in and out of the diabled list? Or maybe we are just better off without them?

SoSock said...

Oh and...I believe this makes 3 days in a row of Sox wins and losses by MFY and FKR.

That's a trend I can embrace!

Don't look back "leaders".....
That chugging noise you hear is a fully loaded bus with 26 big ol' ugly ball players in red stockings gathering up steam and getting ready to flatten you. OK, 25 ugly ones and Ellsbury :)

laura k said...

It's OK Mediots, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

That's what I was thinking over and over last night.

laura k said...

Re online polls and what we believed or didn't believe earlier in the season, the real question is "Were you watching anyway?"

Still, we sit.

laura k said...

I have to say, though, the comeback makes me wish I had been paying more attention.

This isn't a great baseball season for me - I am too distracted by many other things. I'm watching almost every game but not watching standings every day, and not highly emotionally invested compared to many other seasons. So this great comeback snuck up on me. I wish I had been more involved.

But I'm still damn happy about it!!

allan said...

92 games to go.

Three teams are separated by only one game in the standings -- and only two of the three teams get to go to the playoffs!

FenFan said...

I just have to remember the post L-girl wrote a month ago and point out that this is why we watch. Go Sox!!!