Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
June 25, 2008
Getting Ridiculous

The American League took all three west coast games Tuesday night. The Phillies could not hold a 1-0 lead as Moyer allowed a three-run homer to Emil Brown in the seventh, and Oakland went on to a 5-2 win. They finally scored some runs for Joe Blanton, who held Philadelphia to one run over seven innings of work for the win.

Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher hit back-to-back home runs off Trevor Hoffman in the ninth to break a 1-1 tie and give Minnesota a 3-1 victory. It was Buscher's first home run of the season, and Harris is slugging .348 on the year. Hoffman's ERA is now 4.85, the highest of his career.

The White Sox and Dodgers were tied at one until Jermaine Dye launched a two-run homer in the eighth. Wise picked up a triple later in the inning, driving in a scoring a run. He just missed the cycle by a home run.

The American League is now 109-76 in interleague play, a .589 winning percentage. They are outscoring the NL 5.1 to 4.2. Remember, for most of the season the National League was outscoring the American League despite allowing the pitcher to bat.

The Royals are 11-3 in interleague play, having defeated the Rockies Tuesday night. The Rockies have the NL's best record against the AL this year at 7-4. Colorado was their easy opponent, as the other teams they've faced included San Francisco, St. Louis, Arizona and Florida. Watch out for the Royals!


Posted by David Pinto at 07:27 AM | Series | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Watching the early blowouts of the Mets, Reds and (appropriately) Nationals last night on Extra Innings, I thought: "This league can't possibly be this bad."

Well, maybe it can be. The NL is well on its way to its fourth drubbing in a row in interleague play. I know, it's just a sample from one part of the season and may not accurately reflect the real strength of the two leagues over the full year.

But it's getting harder and harder to write it all off as a fluke. Not after four stints of 252 games each. The NL was outscoring the AL early in the season. But they got to hit off NL pitching staffs.

At least the Yankees lost.

Posted by: Casey Abell at June 25, 2008 08:17 AM

I agree. "Who scores more" is a pretty bad way to compare quality of leagues, or even quality of offenses.

Is the PCL a stronger league than the AL?

Quality of a league is made up of the quality of the hitters AND the pitchers. For most of the season, the NL was outscoring the AL when they were playing solely NL teams. That doesn't necessarily give them a better offense. They could have the same offense and worse pitching, or worse offense and much worse pitching, or be identical with more hitters' parks. You can't tell unless they play head-to-head, or you look at league-jumpers.

With the prominent league jumpers, for example, Miguel Cabrera is having a "down" season in the AL, Dana Eveland is having a "great" year for the A's. Those changes BOTH depress AL scoring AND show that the AL is a stronger league.

Posted by: Phillybooster at June 25, 2008 10:47 AM

What are the home and away splits, i.e. DH v no-DH?

Posted by: guido at June 25, 2008 11:15 AM

When KC and Minn are feasting on the NL it's a pretty bad sign. All the NL teams with winning records in IL have losing records overall which is weird. The disparity is pretty bad now and I don't see much evidence it's changing anytime soon. It seems like a number of middle of the pack teams in the AL would contend in the corresponding divisions in the NL and almost none of the NL teams would do as well in the AL.

Posted by: Bandit at June 25, 2008 11:21 AM

Small correction, David. The White Sox were winning 2-1 (had been for several innings) when Dye hit a two-run homer to put them up 4-1.

Posted by: Mark at June 25, 2008 06:19 PM
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