Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 04, 2003
Games of the Day

Just three games tonight, all in the AL, but two of them have a direct impact on the AL Central race. At this point there really are two races in the AL. The first is between the Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners and A's for two division spots and the wild card. Four games separate these four teams. But the A's, 1/2 game out of the wild card, are ahead of the White Sox by six games for that spot.

Which brings us to the AL Central where the Royals lead by two games over the White Sox (three in the AFILC) and 4 1/2 over the Twins, who have just returned to the .500 level. The Royals open a three game series in Chicago tonight. Runelvys Hernandez faces Jon Garland. These two met last week during the White Sox sweep of the Royals, and Garland won in a 7-4 game.

Luck has a big part in any season. Through games of June 18th, the Royals were 36-32. That was the last day Mike Sweeney played. Since then the Royals have a better record, 23-18, despite not playing better. Since Sweeney has been out, the Royals have been outscored by 9 runs, 222-213, which would suggest a 20-21 record. The Royals have won the close ones, going 8-2 in one and two run games in that time. The Royals were unlucky losing Sweeney, but they were lucky in winning three more games than expected during his absence. And he's coming back tonight. However, his being in the lineup doesn't seem to make that much of a difference in terms of KC's offense; they scored 5.18 runs per game when he's played, 5.19 runs per game when he hasn't. Raul Ibanez has really stepped it up during Sweeney's injury:

Ibanez, 2003Through 6/18Since
Batting Average.278.331
On-base Average.330.372
Slugging Percentage.437.547

In other matchup important to this race, the Minnesota Twins visit the Baltimore Orioles. The Twins are 11-6 since the All-Star break, and they are averaging 5.6 runs per game during that time. They will send an improving Brad Radke (2-1, 3.15 ERA over his last five starts) against newly acquired Damian Moss. Moss is one of only three ERA qualifiers who has walked more batters than he has struck out.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:56 AM | Games | TrackBack (0)