Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 28, 2004
Streaks

While I was having my own streak of not watching baseball games for almost a week, some major league teams have gone off on streaks of their own. The Boston Red Sox are now 5 1/2 games behind the Yankees, well within striking distance given that they have six contests between each other. The Red Sox have not lost two in a row starting on August 7. They have outscored their opponents during that time 134-86 (6.7-4.3 per game) to amass a 16-4 record. I find it interesting that the big trade was supposed to help the defense (which it did) which has allowed 4.7 runs per game overall this season. But the offense has really come alive, despite the fact that neither Mientkiewicz (.631 OPS) nor Cabrera (.759 OPS) has provided much offensively. I guess all those men the Sox were leaving on base earlier this year are coming around to score.

The Indians, after being on the verge of taking over the AL Central two weeks ago have been banished by the Twins to also ran status. Minnesota now has a commanding 7 game lead in the Central.

Out west in the AL, Oakland and Anaheim are each 9-1 over their last 10 games, with the Athletics holding on to a slim one-game margin. The Rangers are hangin in also, 2 1/2 back with a 7-3 record over their last 10. The Angels are actually on an 11-1 run, in which time they've scored 9 or more runs 5 times, including a 21-6 drubbing of KC. The A's run is 10-1, and they've pitched three shutouts in that time.

Over in the NL, the Braves have won 5 in a row to push their lead to 9 1/2 games and pretty much assure another NL East Crown. Meanwhile, the Cubs have put together an 8-2 run to inch them into the NL Wildcard lead. Nomar, it should be noted, has a .905 OPS in August and 11 extra-base hits.

There are streaks on the losing side, also. The Orioles have lost 11 in a row after being on an 11-2 run. Once again, they've fallen behind the Devil Rays in the race for third in the AL East. And the Brewers, who seemed like an up-and-coming team earlier in the season have fallen off the edge of the earth. The offense disappeared in July and has not been seen since. The pitching followed suit in August leaving the team 5-18 this month. It's a good thing they have such a great farm system on which to fall back on. Of course, this is the kind of performance Milwaukee fans have come to expect; a good start out of the gate followed by poor play the rest of the year, with the team doing nothing to correct the action mid-stream. Usually, it happens at the end of May, instead of July, however, so this was a banner year for the Brewers.


Posted by David Pinto at 03:58 PM | Standings | TrackBack (0)