The Red Sox have won their last six games and 15 of their last 20. Despite four weeks of success, Boston has actually lost ground in the AL East because the Yankees will not cool off.
On the morning of May 9, the Red Sox were in the AL East basement, covered in shame at actually playing worse than the Orioles.
MFY 19- 8 ---
TBR 18-11 2.0
TOR 17-13 3.5
BAL 11-17 8.5
BOS 10-19 10.0
Since then, the Red Sox have caught fire, going 19-8 and matching the MFY's fast start to the season. Winning 19 of 27 works out to 114-48 record over a full season; it's the second-best record in MLB over that period. Which is great, except for the fact that the Yankees are the one team that has played better than Boston; they have won 21 of 28, a blistering 122-win pace.
May 9 through June 7
MFY 21- 7 ---
BOS 19- 8 1.5
TOR 16- 9 3.5
TBR 14-12 6.0
BAL 13-16 8.5
So . . . despite a .704 winning percentage over the last month, the now-in-fourth-place Red Sox have dropped 1.5 games further behind in the division.
Morning of June 8
MFY 40-15 ---
TOR 33-22 7.0
TBR 32-23 8.0
BOS 29-27 11.5
BAL 24-33 17.0
Obviously, it's very frustrating. However, I have no doubt there are a few Schandenfreude posts on the horizon. Meanwhile, there is some comfort in the fact that if the season had ended yesterday, the Red Sox would have qualified as the third wild card team.
Also: In the six games before last night's extra-inning win over the Angels, Red Sox starting pitchers had a 0.23 ERA (1 earned run in 39.2 innings, 4 walks, 29 strikeouts) and a .148 opponent average. It was the lowest ERA by Boston's starters over a six-game span since (at least) 1913, when earned runs became an official stat. The previous lowest ERA was 0.37 from August 21-26, 1916 (Babe Ruth had a win and a save).
The Yankees are having a great year, and it's not bothering me that much. They'd have to have a lot of such seasons to get over the discomfort of our four-to-one WS advantage we have in the last twenty years (and if you risk talking to Yankee fans, you see that this has a very strong tendency to bother them a lot).
ReplyDeleteI also think there's a lot to look forward to in terms of YED: the more games they win, the more painful it will be to get knocked off in the first round.