Schadenfreude 142 (A Continuing Series)
George A. King III,
Post:
Can anybody here play this game?
On a night when so much was on the table for the Yankees, they delivered a miserable performance against a putrid team that started a good pitcher.
Ivan Nova didn't pitch well. Robinson Cano dropped a relay throw and made a baserunning mistake. Right fielder Ichiro Suzuki botched a ball on the warning track. And the hitters wilted in front of Brandon Morrow. ...
Presented with a chance to push their AL East lead to two lengths over the idle Orioles with six games remaining, the Yankees instead hold a one-game advantage ...
Ken Davidoff,
Post:
If we were still in April, they would shrug this one off as quickly as would Amanda Bynes a parking ticket. ...
Instead, the Yankees' 6-0 loss to the Blue Jays last night at Rogers Centre, feels like a golden opportunity blown. Their postseason position remains very much up in the air. ...
The stakes are enormous; the Yankees want absolutely no part of the one-game, wild-card playoff they would face if they lose the divisional battle to Baltimore.
Associated Press:
New York lost for the third time in five games and wasted a chance to go two up with six to play. ...
Nova, knocked out in the third inning of his previous start, has not won back-to-back outings since a five-start winning streak from May 25 to June 17. The 87 extra-base hits off Nova are the most yielded by any big league pitcher.
Wallace Matthews,
ESPNNewYork:
[E]very time you think this race is over, the Yankees pull the Orioles back into it. Their lifeless performance against the Toronto Blue Jays, who have nothing to play for ... means their lead in the AL East is whittled back down to one game with six to go ...
Nova wrote his name into Yankees history by allowing a pair of extra-base hits tonight, which gave him a team-record 87 XBH's allowed this season, eclipsing the record of Andy Hawkins (86 in 1989). But Hawkins needed 208.1 innings to accomplish his feat. Nova? 170.1.
Bryan Hoch,
MLB:
If the Yankees were looking at this start as Ivan Nova's chance to audition for meaningful postseason innings, the right-hander wasn't able to provide much of a convincing argument.
Mark Feinsand,
Daily News:
Nova is lined up for one more start, on Tuesday at home against the Red Sox. If the Yankees are still in a dogfight with the Orioles, do you think Joe Girardi will feel secure with his roller-coaster righthander on the hill?
Neither do I.
5 comments:
Sadly, I will be rooting for the Orioles to sweep the Sox this weekend. But I won't be able to watch it. That would just be too painful.
So I was just looking at the standings and the splits. Baltimore and New York split the season series 9-9. If they end the season tied at the top, who gets awarded the division?
Per MLB.com:
1. Head-to-head winning percentage during the 2012 regular season.
2. Higher winning percentage in intradivision games.
3. Higher winning percentage in the last half of intraleague games.
4. Higher winning percentage in the last half plus one intraleague game, provided that such additional game was not between the two tied clubs. Continue to go back one intraleague game at a time until the tie has been broken.
For the second tiebreaker, Baltimore is 39-27 in the division, while New York is 36-30, so the O's have the edge there.
For the third tie-breaker, Baltimore is 44-27 in the second half (I assume that is what last half means), while New York is 38-33, so the Birds also have that edge.
Bottom line is that a tie at the top means the division for Baltimore and the uncertainty of the wild card for New York.
My utter aversion to the notion of the Orioles making the playoff has cooled. Their Pythag isn't quite as bad as it was. Hard to root against the Sox, tho.
Fen--I think that's just to see who gets home field in the 1-game playoff that they would play should they end up in a tie.
The line above what you quoted is:
"Determining Home-Field Advantage in Two-Team Tiebreakers"
Not determining who wins.
Scroll down further and you'll see:
"One tiebreak game will be played on Thursday, October 4th (tentatively) to determine the Division Champion. Home field advantage will be determined by the rules above for a two-team tiebreaker."
But there are also different rules that consider whether or not the loser would be in the WC spot or be totally out of it, etc. All depends on the records of everybody.
Jere, you are correct. So what I found shows that Baltimore is in line for home field should a tiebreaker game be necessary. My mistake!
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