Two Weeks Away From Baseball
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Two Weeks Away From Baseball
American League
A lot has changed in the last two weeks in baseball since my wife's accident two weeks ago plus another move to a bigger apartment and being so busy painting last week in a part time job.
In AL East, the New York Yankees have gained only one game on the Boston Red Sox in the last two weeks. For the Red Sox to win 95 games they need to have a 9-10 record in their last 19 games. The Yankees will have to play 15-5 baseball in their last 20 games to win 95 games. Yankees play nine of their last 12 games against the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays while playing the Blue Jays and Red Sox in their other remaining games. The Red Sox host the Yankees next weekend in Boston.
The biggest change was in the AL Central and AL West. On August 25th, the Detroit Tigers were 2 1/2 games back of the first place Cleveland Indians in the AL Central and Minnesota Twins were 5 1/2 games back and today the Tigers are 5 games behind the Indians and the Twins fell to 13 games back showing how fast a team can fall out of the race in a two week period.
In the AL West, the Los Angeles Angels were one game ahead of the Seattle Mariners, but two weeks later the Mariners are on the brink of being eliminated being nine games behind the Angels.
National League
Two weeks ago in the NL East the New York Mets were seven games ahead of Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves, and now, two weeks later, not much has changed with Phillies six games back and Braves 7 1/2 games behind the Mets.
The NL Central race two weeks ago had the Chicago Cubs a game and a half ahead of Milwaukee Brewers and three games ahead of St. Louis Cardinals. Two weeks later, the Cubs and Brewers are tied for first and Cardinals are two games behind them.
The Arizona Diamondbacks were leading the NL West with a 2 game lead over the San Diego Padres and a 6 1/2 game lead over the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers. Two weeks later, the Padres are still two games behind and the Dodgers have moved to within 4 1/2 games of Diamondbacks and the Rockies are six games behind.
Around the Bases
Alex Rodriguez needs three home runs to equal the 54 home runs Mickey Mantle hit in 1961 for Mantle's personal best as a Yankee. It is time Rodriguez gets credit for what he has done with the Yankees. With three weeks left in this season Rodriguez has hit 170 home runs and driven in 495 runs in four seasons with Yankees. However, in postseason play he has only 2 homers and 5 RBI's in 79 postseason at bats as a Yankee. In his last two postseasons, he has a total of one double and two singles and three total bases to show for 29 at bats and had no RBI's in those at bats.
Josh Beckett tries for his 18th win today against the Baltimore Orioles. C.C. Sabathia and Chien-Ming Wang are the only other pitchers with 17 wins this season.... Carlos Pena has to be the American League Comeback Player of the Year. Last year, he played in only 18 games for the Red Sox with one home run and 3 RBI's but this year has 37 home runs and 105 RBI's for Rays with three weeks left in the season.
30-30 race, as of today, has David Wright needing three home runs to have a 30-30 season since he already has the 30 stolen bases exactly. Grady Sizemore has the 30 stolen bases exactly but needs seven home runs which is not too likely to happen since it took him over five months to hit the 23 he has now. Jimmy Rollins needs four homers and two stolen bases for a 30-30 season. Brandon Phillips needs two homers and three stolen bases to reach 30-30. Chris Young needs two homers and six stolen bases to join the 30-30 club. Right now, it looks like there could be four members of the 30-30 club this season.
