Climbing the Ladder with the American League 6/1/08

Texas is Hot, Hot, Hot, Boston Completes Historic Month with #500 and the Rays Shine Light on New Records, plus more in this week’s Climbing the Ladder with the American League

The Tampa Bay Rays are back in first place in the American League East, baseballs best division. The Rays hold the best record in the American League and the second best in the Majors, behind the Chicago Cubs. Tampa holds a one game lead over the Red Sox but will face them in a three game series in Boston beginning on Tuesday. The Rays have been over .500 for 36 consecutive days and 40 total this season, both club records. Tampa is also 12 games over the .500 mark, shattering the previous mark of 4 and are the first team since 1900 to hold the best record through Memorial Day after having the worst record in the Majors the year prior. Scott Kazmirbecame the first Ray’s pitcher ever to win 5 games in a single month and has done so while also posting the lowest ERA in a month (1.22) by a Rays pitcher. The most improved team in the majors are .179 percentage points better than they were a year ago on this date and have won 9 of their last 11 series.

The Boston Red Sox have had a historic May in which slugger Manny Ramirez became just the 24th player in Major League Baseball history to his 500th home runs and pitcher Jon Lester threw the 18th no hitter in Red Sox history. A lesser known Red Sox record is the one set by Jacoby Ellsburylast night. Ellsbury stole 3 bases on back to back nights and is the first Sox player to do so since research on the statistic began in 1956. Jerry Remy holds the Red Sox record for stolen bases in a game with 4, which was done on June 14th, 1980. Despite the historic month, the Red Sox finished May going 17-12, but have gone 7-14 on the road dating back to April 25th. Boston will return home to the friendly confines of Fenway Park on Tuesday to host the Tampa Bay Rays. Boston has won 10 straight at Fenway and will look to continue their success on Yawkey Way.

The Toronto Blue Jays have slowly crept their way up the American League East standings and now hold 3rd place by a game and a half over the New York Yankees. Toronto’s pitching staff leads all of baseball with a 3.31 ERA, 6 complete games, tied for first with 22 saves, leads the American League with 429 K’s and ranks second in the majors in runs allowed with 206. Toronto starters have earned the victory in 8 of their last 10 games and have combined to go 8-1 during that stretch. Before last night’s game, the Toronto bullpen had not allowed a run in its last 23.1 innings of work. Toronto has been able to do something that most teams cannot, win on the road. The Blue Jays have won 9 of their last 12 road games and are one of only 3 teams in the American League to not have a losing road record.

The New York Yankees have won three straight games, eight of their last 10 and are above .500 for the first time since 5/4/08. The Yankees won their first extra-inning game away from Yankee Stadium since 4/14/07. The Yankees had lost their previous 7 extra-inning road games prior to last nights win. The Yankee offense is continuing to produce and last nights 7 runs marked the highest in a game without the use of a home run. The offensive production has coincided with the return of Alex Rodriguez. In the 11 games A-Rod has played in since returning to the line up, the Yankees have averaged 6.4 runs per game. This is an increase of nearly 3 more than the 3.5 runs per game the team averaged during the 17 games Rodriguez was on the disabled list.

The Baltimore Orioles, who have done a majority of their winning at home, opened the home stand with back to back wins but have since lost three straight and dropped to the bottom on the American League East. The O’s are the only team in the East not above the .500 mark and have divisional match ups in 8 of their next 11 games. The Orioles “nice start to the season” has officially come to an end. Baltimore has slipped to 22nd in the Majors in runs scored (223) but still remains 10th in runs allowed with 239. Baltimore remains one game ahead of their expected win loss record of 25-29.

The still streaking Chicago White Sox have won 12 of their last 17 games and remain in first place in the American League Central, two games head of the Minnesota Twins. The Sox finished the month of May going 16-12 while posting an ERA of 2.94, the lowest in a calender month since 1981. Chicago’s starting pitching has been phenomenal and leads the American League with 36 quality starts and ranks second in ERA at 3.35. Chicago has struggled at the plate in the last few games hitting just .194 in their last 62 at bats with one run scored and 19 K’s. The solution to this problem is right around the corner as the White Sox will host the Kansas City Royals and the Minnesota Twins who have combined for 527 runs allowed this season.

The Minnesota Twins went 5-1 on their last road trip but have lost the first two of their 7 game home stand. Minnesota finished the month of May with a 15-13 record and raised their team batting average to .273 after hitting .260 in March and April. The Twins scored 154 runs in May, which is up 52 runs from the 102 runs they scored in April. The 256 total runs scored rank the Twins at 12th in the majors and the teams .267 batting average ranks them 6th. The Twins rank 20th in the Majors in runs allowed with 268 but rank first in walks given with 146. Twins pitching isn’t issuing a lot of free passes but are still allowing a lot of runs.

The Cleveland Indians are in the early stages of an 11 game, 3 city road trip, the longest of its kind for the Indians this season. Cleveland is off to a slow start this season (25-30, 3rd) compared to where they were a year ago today (34-21, 1st). The Tribe’s 12-15 May and 13-15 April were the first consecutive losing months dating back to June/July of the 2007 season. Cleveland’s offensive is to blame for the sub .500 record, batting just .218 in May while scoring just 98 runs with 3, 10+ hit games in the entire month. The .218 average was the lowest by an Indian team since August 1968 and the lowest in the Majors since the Mets in September 2003.

The Detroit Tigers were shut out last night for the 9th time this season despite batting .376 with runners in scoring position in their last 11 games. The Tigers rank 10th in the Majors in runs scored (261) but rank 23rd in runs allowed (279) and are under performing according to the expected win loss record of 26-29. Detroit’s pitching has improved over the teams last 7 games posting a 3.38 ERA while holding opposing batters to a .226 average. Detroit has also flashed the leather with a .990 fielding percentage in its last 10 games, including a streak of one error in their last 4 games.

The Kansas City Royals brought their 12 game losing streak to an end last night with their win over the Cleveland Indians. Todays series deciding match up marks just the third of the year for the Royals and the first dating back to May 18th. Despite the 22-34 record, the Royals are 11-11 against the other teams in its division. This is an improvement for the club who went 29-43 against the Central in 2007. Joakim Soriaset a Royals season opening record last night when he saved his 12th straight game in as many chances. The previous record was held by Al Hrabosky, who opened the 1978 season with 11 straight saves before failing to convert the 12th.

The Angels ended their two game losing streak last night with a win over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Angels have gone 17 consecutive games without scoring more than four runs against Toronto. The Halo’s have held sole possession of first place in the American League West for the last 19 days and maintain a 3.5 game lead over the Oakland Athletics. Dating back to last year, the Angels have spent 225 of the possible 242 days in first place and don’t look to be giving up their place in the standings any time soon. LA starters are tied with the Toronto Blue Jays with 27 wins and have 7 shut outs so far this season. LA is cruising right now and it will be tough for any other team in the West to take first place from them.

The Oakland Athletics have lost 4 straight games and have fallen to 3.5 games behind the Los Angeles Angels. With the Texas Rangers nipping at their heals for second place, the A’s will need to improve upon their 12-15 May, their first losing May in the last four years. Oakland is just 6-11 (.353) against teams in the West but are 23-16 (.590) against the rest of baseball. The A’s now have the second worse winning percentage against teams in its own division behind the Detroit Tigers. The Oakland pitching staff struck out 202 batters in the month of May, the fifth time in Oakland franchise history that a pitching staff has struck out at least 200 batters. The A’s rank 3rd in the majors in runs allowed with 210 but ranks 16th in runs scored with 241. Oakland is another team who is under performing according to their expected win loss record, which as the A’s at 31-25.

The Texas Rangers have won 7 of their last 10 games despite losing their first series in their last 10. Texas is above the .500 mark for just the second time time in the last two seasons and remains in 3rd place in the American League West, 4.0 games behind the Los Angeles Angels. The Rangers had 19 wins last month, making it the most wins ever during the month of May in the teams 37-year history. The 19 wins are most in any month in the franchise’s last 24 years. The Rangers also hold the second best record in the last 5 weeks behind the Tampa Bay Rays. Texas ranks 1st in the American League and 3rd in the Majors with 300 runs scored but has also allowed 308 runs, ranking them 26th in the majors and last in the AL in that category.

The Seattle Mariners are awful. Seattle’s 21 wins are the lowest in the American League and the second lowest in the Majors, just ahead of the Colorado Rockies who have 20. In the Mariner’s last 20 games, the team has allowed 31 multi-run innings and big innings have been the teams downfall in 2008. Seattle ranks 20th in the Majors with 226 runs scored and 24th in runs allowed with 283. The Mariners just can’t get it going this season.