Climbing the Ladder with the American League 6/22/08

The Ups and Downs of Interleague Play Plus More in this Week’s Climbing the Ladder with the American League

The Boston Red Sox finish another week in first place.  Boston has been in first for a season high eighteen straight days and has held sole possession of first place for 49 days in 2008.  Currently, the Red Sox are 7-4 in interleague play this season and have lost consecutive games to the National League for the first time since June 12-14, 2007. JD Drewhas continues to rake in June and leads the majors in runs, homers, RBI, and slugging for the month.  Drew’s 10 homers in June match the most in a month for him and his current 1.045 slugging percentage would be the most for a Sox player in June since research was first available in 1956.  Drew also has 4 homers in his last 6 games and has homered 8 times in his last 14 games.

The Tampa Bay Rays 44 victories are the most ever before the All-Star Break in the history of the franchise.   The Rays are now only a half game behind the Boston Red Sox, the closest the two teams have been in the standings since June 7th.  Tampa currently stands 14 games over .500 and have been over .500 for 54 consecutive days.  Prior to this season, they Rays have been over .500 for just 72 combined days in the last 10 years.

The New York Yankees have been playing outstanding baseball since the return of Alex Rodriguezand are looking to salvage the last game of a three game series with the Cincinnati Reds.  The Yankees are 15-8 in series finales this season and hope to prevent being swept at home for the second time this season.  Yankee pitching has been impressive over their last 9 games and have posted a 1.88 ERA during that stretch and have held their opponents to 3 runs or less in 11 of their last 13 games.

The Baltimore Orioles are looking to do something they haven’t done since April 6th, win on a Sunday.  Baltimore has lost 10 consecutive games on Sundays since the first of the season. The O’s have enjoyed playing baseball in June and are currently hitting .290 with 28 home runs and 103 runs in the 19 games they’ve played so far this month while committing just 6 errors.

The Toronto Blue Jays have fallen to 10 games behind the American League East leading Boston Red Sox.  The Jays offense has continued to struggle despite good pitching performances from the Toronto stating 5.  The Jays surrendered an inside-the-park home run to Prince Fielderon Friday and the fact that a 280 pound man can round the bases before the ball reaches home plate goes to show you how Toronto’s season is going so far.

The Chicago White Sox have lost 8 of their last 12 games but have managed to hold onto their first place seat in the American League Central.  The White Sox have lost the first two games of three game series with the Cubs and will look for Javier Vazquezto stop the bleeding.  The White Sox bullpen has continues to pitch well and leads the American League with a 2.76 ERA, which is a great improvement over the 5.62 ERA it had posted at this time last season.

The Minnesota Twins have won 6 straight games and will look to complete a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  The Twins have four series sweeps so far in 2008 and will look to Livan Hernandezto pitch well enough for the fifth. Minnesota starters have earned a win in five straight games, the first time for the team since August 22-26, 2007.  Twins hitters have batted .348 with 33 runs scored, 12 doubles, 3 triples, one homer and 16 walks over this stretch.

The Cleveland Indians have won two straight games and are 5-5 in their last 10 games.  Cleveland’s offense has raised its batting average from .234 to .245 over the last 20 days but its pitching has begun to regress back to the mean.  Although Indian starters own the 3rd lowest ERA in the Major Leagues and have allowed just 148 earned runs in 376.2 innings pitched, June has not been a good month.  Indian starters are 6-8 with a 5.50 ERA in June after posting a 3.12 ERA in May, but have also pitched 5.0 or more innings in 53 of their last 60 games.

The Detroit Tigers have won 11 of their last 14 games and the team has batted .299 with 77 runs scored, 21 doubles, 4 triples, and 20 home runs during that stretch.  Tiger pitching has also shaped up to post a 3.41 ERA during the 14 games and a 3.18 ERA over their last 25 games, including 17 quality starts.  Detroit will get slugger Gary Sheffieldback from the disabled list soon but he has struggled in his rehab assignment.  In his four games in Single A ball, Sheffield is batting just .100 (1-10) with a home run, a RBI, and 5 walks.

The last place Kansas City Royals are facing the second to last place San Francisco Giants this weekend and will look to take the rubber game of the series this afternoon.  The Royals are 3-1 in rubber games with their last win coming last Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.  With last nights win, the Royals improved to 8-3 against the National League, tying Baltimore and Minnesota for the best interleague record. The Royals and Giants will wear retro-uniforms during Sundays game as a tribute to the Negro Leagues.

The Angels 45 wins ranks the team 3rd in the Majors in wins.  Los Angeles has won 7 of their last 8 road games and are 11-3 in their last 14 road games.  The Angels have scored 6 or more runs in 4 of their last 5 games and are batting .303 during that span.  The Angles have 17 home runs in the 18 games they’ve played in June after hitting 20 home runs in May.  Fourteen of the Angels next 20 games will be road games but the Halos don’t mind playing away from  home as they have the best road record in the Majors at 23-12.

The Oakland Athletics have split the fist two games of their series with Florida Marlins and and are looking for a win today.  The A’s have lost 9 of their last 12 series but remain in second place in the American League West.  The A’s are 11-7 so far in June and have finished with a winning record in June for the last 6 seasons.  Oakland pitching has continued to keep the A’s in games and has posted an ERA of 3.47 so far this season, the second lowest in the Majors behind the Chicago White Sox.

The Texas Rangers enter today’s game hoping to climb above the .500 mark.  The Rangers will play their third rubber game in as many series today and are 6-3 in rubber games this season.  Last nights 13 run affair marked the 13th time this season the Rangers have had a double-digit run total.  Texas leads the Majors in games with 10-or-more runs in 2008 with the Chicago Cubs in second with 10.

The Seattle Mariners are 2-2 in their last 4 games but are 8-14 following their 7 games losing streak.  The Mariners will be looking to dump salary in the next coming weeks and could move pitcher Erik Bedardto a contender. Despite having just 26 wins this season, the Mariners are not as bad as their record shows and should have a better second half to the season.