Out on the road. 4 out of 6, against two of the better NL teams, traveling long distances in between, with one of the losses coming when one of the "aces" gets shelled and has to return home for an MRI. I've said it before, I'll say it again - you keep cranking out 4-2 weeks, you finish with a great record. Any 4-2 week is a good week. Period.
- The offense continues to be a concern. They're now on a pace to score fewer than 800 runs. Part of that is a result of spending a week in NL parks, one of which is one of the worst hitters parks in baseball. Part of that is having players that aren't hitting, and they've still got too many of those.
- The good: Alex Cora hit .429/.545/.714 in 10 plate appearances over four games. Varitek had a good week, Manny continues to swing the bat well. Crisp had 11 hits in 26 at-bats, continuing a productive streak that has his season numbers up to "bad" from "hideous."
- The bad: Ortiz was 3-18. 2 HR, but not much else. Lowell was 2-13, with a big hit yesterday, but nothing else. Pena got some at-bats when Drew rested a quad, and did nothing with them.
- The ugly: Julio Lugo. 0-18. He's now hitting an almost unbelievable .193/.258/.288/.546 on the season.
- A week and a half ago, the Yankees had gone on a winning streak that coincided with Boston's first real struggles of the season, and the lead was down to 7 1/2 games. People were suggesting that, at the current rate, NY would be in first place by the 4th of July. I mocked that. "Which rate is that? They've made up 1 game in the last 6 days. Three weeks ago this morning, they were 9 1/2 out, this morning they're 9 1/2 out. Neither of those rates is getting them to first place any time soon...that's what happens when one team has a good week while another has a bad one, which happened a week ago. It's just foolish to read too much into it. The Nationals have made up 2 1/2 games against the Mets over the last 3 weeks, and are now ... 9 1/2 games out. Anyone think that Washington's making a charge? ... I expect that the lead, when we get to July 4th (three weeks from today), will be within about 3 games of where it is now, somewhere between 6 1/2 and 12 1/2." It's now back to 11 1/2, as the Yankees have gone 1-5 on an easier road trip than the one the Red Sox are 4-2 on. And it looks like the July 4 lead is a whole heck-of-a-lot more likely to be greater than 12 1/2 than less than 6 1/2...
- Great game yesterday, in which the Red Sox once again demonstrated the virtues of plate discipline. Jake Peavy wasn't wild, but the Red Sox were patient, fouled off a lot of pitches, and forced him out of the game after just five, having thrown 111 pitches. Beckett had a great game, just one little rough spot in 8 innings, to run his record to 11-1, as the Red Sox handed Peavy just his 2nd loss of the season.
- It would not be at all surprising to see those two starters match up again in two weeks in San Francisco.
- At Seattle for three, then home to an extended stretch of weak competition. Right now, they've got an 11 game lead in the East, 11 1/2 over the Yankees. Given the July schedule, I'll be surprised if they aren't still up by double-digits when August starts.
AL Pythagorean Projection Report - 6/25/2007
| | | | | | | ProjectedActual
| | R/G | (rank) | RA/G | (rank) | Pythagorean | (rank) | W | L | W | L | Luck
|
|---|
| Boston | 5.05 | (6) | 3.89 | (2) | 0.617 | (1) | 46 | 28 | 48 | 26 | 2
| | Detroit | 6.09 | (1) | 4.7 | (9) | 0.616 | (2) | 46 | 28 | 45 | 29 | -1
| | Los Angeles | 5.17 | (5) | 4.13 | (3) | 0.601 | (3) | 46 | 30 | 49 | 27 | 3
| | New York | 5.45 | (2) | 4.6 | (7) | 0.577 | (4) | 42 | 31 | 36 | 37 | -6
| | Cleveland | 5.36 | (3) | 4.66 | (8) | 0.564 | (5) | 42 | 32 | 43 | 31 | 1
| | Oakland | 4.3 | (13) | 3.84 | (1) | 0.552 | (6) | 41 | 33 | 39 | 35 | -2
| | Minnesota | 4.78 | (10) | 4.49 | (4) | 0.528 | (7) | 39 | 34 | 38 | 35 | -1
| | Toronto | 4.78 | (9) | 4.57 | (5) | 0.521 | (8) | 39 | 35 | 37 | 37 | -2
| | Seattle | 5.01 | (7) | 5.01 | (11) | 0.5 | (9) | 36 | 36 | 39 | 33 | 3
| | Baltimore | 4.41 | (11) | 4.57 | (6) | 0.484 | (10) | 36 | 39 | 32 | 43 | -4
| | Texas | 5.2 | (4) | 5.8 | (13) | 0.45 | (11) | 34 | 41 | 30 | 45 | -4
| | Kansas City | 4.33 | (12) | 5.22 | (12) | 0.415 | (12) | 32 | 44 | 30 | 46 | -2
| | Tampa Bay | 4.95 | (8) | 6.05 | (14) | 0.408 | (13) | 30 | 43 | 33 | 40 | 3
| | Chicago | 3.87 | (14) | 4.82 | (10) | 0.402 | (14) | 29 | 42 | 29 | 42 | 0
| |
|---|
Top 5 projections (using current winning %)
| Boston | 105 | 57
|
| Los Angeles | 104 | 58
|
| Detroit | 99 | 63
|
| Cleveland | 94 | 68
|
| Seattle | 88 | 74
|
Top 5 projections (starting with today's record, using Pythagorean winning %)
| Boston | 102 | 60
|
| Los Angeles | 101 | 61
|
| Detroit | 99 | 63
|
| Cleveland | 93 | 69
|
| Oakland | 88 | 74
|
Standings for the week
| | | | | | | ProjectedActual
| | R/G | (rank) | RA/G | (rank) | Pythagorean | (rank) | W | L | W | L | Luck
|
|---|
| Detroit | 7.33 | (1) | 2.33 | (1) | 0.89 | (1) | 5 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1
| | Minnesota | 6.33 | (5) | 3.33 | (3) | 0.764 | (2) | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | -1
| | Texas | 7.33 | (1) | 5 | (9) | 0.668 | (3) | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0
| | Boston | 4.33 | (9) | 3 | (2) | 0.662 | (4) | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0
| | Los Angeles | 7 | (3) | 5 | (9) | 0.649 | (5) | 4 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1
| | Toronto | 7 | (3) | 5.5 | (13) | 0.609 | (6) | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0
| | Cleveland | 5.33 | (8) | 4.33 | (5) | 0.594 | (7) | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | -1
| | Tampa Bay | 6.33 | (5) | 5.33 | (11) | 0.578 | (8) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0
| | Seattle | 4.33 | (9) | 4 | (4) | 0.537 | (9) | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1
| | Baltimore | 5.5 | (7) | 5.33 | (11) | 0.514 | (10) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0
| | Chicago | 3.5 | (12) | 4.67 | (6) | 0.371 | (11) | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | -1
| | New York | 3.17 | (13) | 4.83 | (7) | 0.316 | (12) | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | -1
| | Kansas City | 3.83 | (11) | 6 | (14) | 0.306 | (13) | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0
| | Oakland | 2.67 | (14) | 4.83 | (7) | 0.252 | (14) | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0
| |
|---|
Labels: 2007, baseball, pythagorean, Red Sox
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