Right Where We Want Em’
As the dog days of summer are almost half over we got a 5 1/2 game lead in the division and the Yankees are sinking faster than the ball in times square on New Year’s Eve. All though we have been winning, it’s been pretty ugly. But the key word is winning. The unearned runs are flowing. Maybe that has been the fuel to our vicious offence lately. 46 runs in the last 4 games is pretty impressive. Right now we are like a rolling fire ball, that will stop for nothing. I like it….and I would probably say that holds true for all of the Nation.
We have won 11 straight at the Fens. We are 36-18 at home so far this year. What does this all translate into? Would you be happy if I said that our remaining schedule has us for 27 more games at Fenway? That’s right. 27 more home games and only 22 away. Our away schedule pits us against Detroit, Anaheim, KC, NY, Toronto, TB and Baltimore in that order. Our toughest series should be LA Angels of Anaheim ( we should rip them apart just for having that retarded name) and the Yankees. At home we have Chicago, Detroit, TB, Baltimore Anaheim, Oakland, Toronto and NY. Now we have a few harder matchups with going against Oakland, but at least it’s at home and we do have a history of beating them regularly. Our last 7 games are at home. How sweet would it be to know that the division is wrapped up and while playing the Yanks in our last series of the year?
The rest of August has a schedule in our favor. September is a little tougher but by then I would presume that we would be in a good grove. I’m not counting on Foulke being much help, but I would say that the bats will stay on fire and the rotation will be able to hold it’s own. Overall I say we got em’ right where we want em’.
S.
August 12th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
My buddy Eric asked me this morning if I was comfortable up 5 with 49 to play…
That made me take a closer look, and the more I evaluate the remaining schedule between the Sox and Yanks, the more nervous I get.
About the Sox
27 of our 49 games remaining are against teams above .500. Unfortunately, we are a combined 17-20 (..459) vs these teams to date (2-1 vs LAA with 7 to play, 2-2 vs CWS with 3 to play, 6-7 vs NYY with 6 to play, 4-2 vs OAK with 4 to play, and 3-8 VS TOR with 7 left) The White Sox games this weekend will be tough as they have a better away win % (.690) than we do at home (.666). The OAK record was way before they made their charge, so you can’t gain any comfort there. Toronto does not give me any indication they will let up against us, especially given that Holliday will be back when it’s our turn to face them again deep in September. Bottom line here is that if we continue to play .459 ball against these good teams, we will only win 12 of those 27 games.
Of the other 22 games against under .500 teams, we have dominated. We are a combined 19-12 (.613) vs these teams (3-1 vs DET with 6 left, 3-0 vs KC with 3 left, 8-4 vs TB with 7 remaining, and 5-7 vs BAL with 6 to go). Unfortunately the D-Rays have played over .500 ball since the break, and we all know BAL has basically dominated us for the last 2-3 years. If we continue to play .613 ball against these teams, we would go 13-9.
If you combine these 2 points based on win % against these teams, we would go 25-24 to finish @ 91-71. As we know - 27 of the 49 games are at home which should swing many of these games in our favor.
Now let’s look at the Bitches –
They have 25 of their 48 games against teams above .500, but it is really bizarre how different they played compared to us. They Spanks have actually gone 22-15 (.595) against these teams (4-3 vs TEX with 3 left, 1-2 vs CWS with 3 left, 7-6 vs the Sox with 6 left, 5-3 vs TOR with 10 to go, and 5-1 vs OAK with 3 left. The same can be said that the OAK record was before their re-birth, but the Blue Jays will play a major part in any Spankee runs. If they keep dominating the good teams at their current .595 clip, they will go 15-10 in these games.
Here’s where it gets scary…the Cranks have been awful thus far against the bad teams, going 12-17 (.414) vs teams under .500. (5-1 vs SEA with 4 left, 0-3 vs KC with 3 left, 3-7 vs TB with 9 left, and 4-6 vs BAL with 7 to go). The staple of Wankees past has been that they beat the teams they should, which is clearly not been the case thus far.
Can we really expect the D-Rays and Royals to continue their dominance here? If the Wanks continue to play .414 ball vs the bad teams, they would go 10-13, finish with a 25-23 record over the next 48, and end up 86-75, 4.5 back.
It’s clearly coming down to the wire…the 6 games we’ve got left against them. We’ve got to play better against the good teams, and must stop the horrific AL East bashing we’ve taken so far this year. If we can’t beat the good teams now, it’s going to be a quick exit in October. It’ll be nice to win the division, but we’re going to need some help from the Royals, D-Rays, and Blue Jays….? God help us…