Climbing the Ladder with the American League 6/8/08

Seattle is the Lowest of the Low, while LA Continues to Roll, plus more on this Week’s Climbing the Ladder with the American League

The Boston Red Sox continue their success at home and have won 4 of their last 5, 7 of their last 9 and 14 of their last 15 at home. Boston ranks second in the majors in home batting average at .301 behind the Chicago Cubs and leads all of baseball with a .806 winning percentage at Fenway. Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilisended his consecutive errorless games and chances streak by a first baseman on Saturday when he dropped a throw in the 9th. The 238 consecutive games and 2,002 consecutive chances without an error beat the previous streak of 193 games held by Steve Garveyand 1,700 chances held by Stuffy McInnis. Boston will finish its home stand this week when if faces Baltimore, and will then travel to Cincinnati for a weekend interleague match up against the Reds.

The Tampa Bay Rays failed a true test of whether or not they could hang with the big boys in the American League. Tampa Bay was swept by the Boston Red Sox this week in Fenway, dropping the team to second in the East. The Rays have the 4th best record in the majors behind the Cubs, Angels, and Red Sox, but remain in second place by a half game for the 4th straight day. Tampa has a tough streak ahead in which the they will face the first place Los Angeles Angles for three games, followed by an interleague match up with the Florida Marlins.

The Baltimore Orioles opened their 9-game road trip by winning 2 of 3 in Minnesota and the first two of a three game series in Toronto. The wins against Toronto come at a time when the two teams are within a half game in the standings, battling for third place in the American League East. Despite ranking 21st in the Majors in runs scored (261), the Orioles are one of 6 teams in the Majors with 4 players with 9 or more home runs. Three of these teams are in first place, but Baltimore plays in the best division in baseball where every team is above .500.

The Toronto Blue Jays are on the verge of being swept by the Baltimore Orioles, something that hasn’t been done since April 20-22, 2007. The once surging Blue Jays have lost 4 straight and 6 of their last 7. What a difference a week makes. This tough stretch has come at a time when Toronto’s pitching has somewhat regressed back to the mean and has given up 5 or more runs in each of their last 4 games. The good news for Toronto is that they will host the Seattle Mariners after they finish their series with the Orioles.

The New York Yankees have won 11 of their last 17 and remain above .500, despite being in last place in the American League East. New York won its third walk off game of the season on Saturday, a game in which the Yankees recorded a season high 19 hits. Yankee left fielder, Johnny Damonbecame the first Yankee player to record 6 hits at Yankee Stadium and also tied the American League record for hits in a 9 inning game. Damon’s sixth hit was also a walk off, the sixth of his career and his first as a Yankee.

The Chicago White Sox have won 5 straight games and 17 of their last 23. Chicago is 5-0 to start their 7-game home stand and have hit 11 home runs over that time, tying Texas for the American League lead with 78. Chicago holds a 4.5 game lead in the American League Central and are in the middle of a stretch in which they’ll face Central opponents for 9 straight games. Chicago’s rotation leads the Major Leagues with a 3.31 ERA and 40 quality starts. Chicago is 28-12 in 2008 when receiving a quality start.

The Minnesota Twins are 0-2 to start a 10-game road trip and are on the verge of being swept by the American League Central leading Chicago White Sox. The Twins have lost 3 in a row for the 5th time this season. Minnesota has not had a starting pitcher record a win since May 29th and Twin starters are 0-4 with a 7.87 ERA over that span, allowing 70 hits, 13 walks, and 15 K’s.

The Cleveland Indians are 4-5 so far during their 11-game road trip, which will conclude Monday night in Detroit. Cleveland pitching has continued to impress and holds the 5th lowest ERA in the Majors (3.73) despite missing 2/5 of their rotation due to injuries. The Cleveland offense has begun to heat up and are batting .298 in their last 7 games. As Cleveland’s bats heat up, expect the Indians to creep up the standings in the Central.

The Detroit Tigers snapped a 4-game losing streak with a win over the Cleveland Indians last night. Detroit starters have posted a 3.01 ERA over their last 12 games and have held opponents to a .238 batting average while posting 8 quality starts. Detroit has moved to 11th in the majors with 286 runs scored and now ranks 10th in home runs with 61. Detroit will finish its series with the Indians on Monday then host the White Sox and Dodgers in the upcoming week.

The Royals remain in last place for the third straight week and are 3-7 in their last 10 games. Kansas City scored a season high 11 runs on Saturday at Yankee Stadium, the first time the Royals have scored 10+ in the Bronx since July 17th, 1990. The Royals had gone 77 straight games at Yankee Stadium without scoring 10 or more runs. Despite yesterday’s run explosion, the Royals rank 25th in the majors in runs scored (231) and 17th in runs allowed (294). The Royals will return home this week to host the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, they will then travel to Arizona for a weekend interleague series with the Diamondbacks.

The Angels will look to finish a 6-game road trip with a win today when they face the Oakland Athletics. The Angels have won 7 straight games and 7 straight series, the longest current streak for each in the Majors. Angels starters lead the Majors with 32 wins and rank 5th overall with a 3.78 ERA. The Angels are also first in the Majors with a .989 fielding percentage. Pitching and defense has helped the Angels remain in first place for much of the season.

The Oakland Athletics have lost two straight after winning their previous 4. Oakland is 4-6 over their last 10 games and continue their streaking ways. The A’s have scored 156 runs in their last 36 games but 81 (51.9%) of those runs have come in 7 games. Oakland has scored just 75 runs (2.59 runs per game) in the other 29 games. Oakland has been able to win despite their overall low runs per game and has done so allowing just 234 runs, good enough for 2nd best in the Majors. Oakland also ranks first in home runs allowed with 40, batting average against at .238, and OPS against at .661.

The Texas Rangers have cooled off a little and are just 4-6 in their last 10 games. Texas leads the Majors in runs scored with 355, are 3rd in home runs with 78, first in batting average at .284, first in OPS at .817, first in slugging at .463, first in total bases with 1,055, and first in RBIs with 340. The Texas offense has been phenomenal but they have allowed a Major League leading 377 runs. If Texas wants to do anything this season they will need to improve their pitching and defense.

The Seattle Mariners are the worst team in the American League and the worst team in all of baseball. The teams .355 winning percentage is .032 points lower than the next best team and things do not look to be improving for the Mariners. Seattle has been outscored by 63 runs and are even under performing according to their expected win loss record of 25-37. Although the Seattle front office says their season isn’t over, it’s hard to believe that there’s any hope for the Mariners in 2008.