Down the Stretch They Come - AL Style 2014

[Frayed Knot]

So the fucking Yanx are about to lose their 3rd straight series Thursday night and about to be caught by both Toronto & Cleveland when Koji Uehara serves up the game tying and winning HRs to Teixeira & Headley in the Boston/Yanx rubber match.
(I wonder if any YLDBs were complaining about Girardi not bunting enough after that one?)
That�s 10 HRs allowed by Uehara this season, double his total (in fewer innings) than last year. One of many things that just haven�t repeated themselves for the BoSox in 2014
The Indians, meanwhile, were coughing up a 7-spot to the Tigers in the 11th inning.

The fact that the Yanx keep losing�or almost losing�series and yet are still in the race is partly due to the AL contenders knocking each other off a lot lately [just this week saw Tigers-v-Indians & Jays-v-Rays) which gives the whole thing the whiff of no team wanting the WC very much.

Angels now have a 5 game lead in the West with Oakland in bigger danger of being caught by Seattle than they are at re-taking the division lead.
KC up just a game in the Central w/Cleveland on the fringes
Baltimore is the only team cruising to a division title (+9.5 as the weekend games open)

But the real races are for the WCs
Oakland +2.5
DET +0.5
______________
SEA -0.5
NYY -4.0
TOR -4.5
CLE - 5.0

Meaningful match-ups this weekend:
ChiSox @ Cleveland �- GO TRIBE!!
Royals @ Yanx
Tigers host SFG -- I'd like to see the Giants pressure the Dodges out west but the Tigers are one of the teams that has to keep themselves above MFY level
Blue Jays go to Boston � Sox, you�re out of it. Let's see if Koji can serve up a few late inning bombs to Bautista & Encarnacion
Mariners are in Texas
Oakland hosting their traditional divisional rivals, the Houston Astros

[Frayed Knot]

Pretty good night overall for 'ABY' fans of AL baseball centering mostly around the fact that KC's James Shields, with 9th inning help from fill-in closer Wade Davis, shut out the Yanx 1-0 on 3 hits.
The NYDN seems to take great pleasure in pointing out that the game ended 'AGAIN', as they put it, with Carlos Beltran looking at strike three.

Also good:
- Cleveland danced out of bases-loaded/one-out trouble in the top of the 10th then got a walk-off win in the bottom half vs Chicago to pull even w/the MFYs at 4.5 games out of the 2nd WC
- Seattle jumped up to the lead in that race with their win in Texas

On the bad side of the ledger
- Oakland (13-20 since Aug 1st) lost to Houston and the West race is looking pretty done to them (6 games back)
- Tigers got smacked by the Giants and are currently sitting out of the playoff picture
- and Toronto blew two runs leads in both the 8th & 10th innings in Boston to torpedo their chance at moving up in the WC race and ahead of the Yanx

[Edgy MD]

Baseball, man. The Mets train near the Tigers and the team looks absolutely stacked every spring, yet here they are on the fifth of September, looking up at the Mariners? Wha'?

[Frayed Knot]

A fairly neutral weekend on the whole in the AL races, except of course that three more games were erased from the skid which ultimately benefits the front runners.

Cleveland was the biggest winner (that's what happens when you get to play the ChiSox) going from 5.0 out of the 2nd WC to 3.5 while jumping the Yanx in the process (weren't these guys sellers at the deadline?)
and also the Mariners switched slots with the Tigers as to who is a half-game up and who is a half-game out
Oakland pretty much killed their shot in the west by losing twice vs Houston while LAA was romping on the Twinkies, but they were pretty much out of it anyway and managed to lose just 1/2 a game off their WC lead


WC Race:

OAK + 2.0
SEA + 0.5
_____________
DET -0.5
CLE -3.5
NYY -4.5
TOR -5.0


Today's hi-lights:
Angels are at Cleveland today for an afternoon make-up game (Go Tribe!!)
Royals (2 games up in Central) are in Detroit (also day game today) for the first of a three game set

[Frayed Knot]

Tigers re-tie the AL Central by taking the first two games in this series from KC.
Odd ending tonight. KC, down by 2 in the 9th, gets the first two hitters on against Joe Nathan (two infield singles) then, after one out, send in a pinch-runner for the guy on 2nd which is a bit odd in that he's not the tying run.
Then he's running on the pitch (why? ... I don't know) - and in the process gets picked off!!
Nathan then strikes out the next batter to end the game. Weird strategy by KC


Elsewhere: Yanx lose (and there was much rejoicing), Jays win, Indians lose, A's up 5-2 in the 8th vs the ChiSox, Mariners just under way

[Frayed Knot]

The Astros are having themselves a bit of fun playing spoiler out west. They just took two of three from Seattle, which follows on the heels of them taking two of three from Oakland and before that two straight from Anaheim.
Be nice if we could do the same with Washington (7 games), Miami (3) & Atlanta (3) coming up.

Oakland lost again to the ChiSox shaving their WC #1 lead down to 1.5 games over Seattle and just 2.0 games ahead of Detroit. After that comes being out of it altogether.
Funny how their deadline moves for Samardzija & Lester were seen as purely October-based trades since their hold on the division and/or WC spots were a virtual lock. Now 15-23 since July 31

Royals salvaged the final game from Tigers to move head by a game in the Central battle.

[Edgy MD]

Orioles slugger Chris Davis tests positive for amps, and suspended for 25 games. Not sure how that translates to the post-season.

[Gwreck]

I thought that supposed to mean he is ineligible for the entire postseason:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2014/03/27/mlb-drug-policy-increased-penalty-no-playoffs-for-ped-suspensions/6984181/

---

It also really bears repeating that a suspension for stimulants/amphetamines is only imposed after a SECOND positive test.

[HahnSolo]

ESPN says he's out the remaining 17 regular season games, then the first 8 postseason games assuming they play 8. He'd be eligible in their 9th postseason game, perhaps as early as game 4 of the LCS.

And while we're talking about the AL stretch drive, Fuck you Chris Young.

[Frayed Knot]

And just in time for the Yanx four-game series w/the O's. One thing about this series is that you know Buck isn't about to take his foot off the pedal until the O's clinch, and against the Yanx maybe even not then.
Davis was also in contention for most RBIs in a season w/a sub-.200 BA (or something like that) but this might blow that chase too.



Several other match ups to follow in the AL this weekend:
- Cleveland at Detroit
- Oakland at Seattle The A's could be out of the playoff picture and in 3rd place in the AL West as early as tomorrow. Considering both the size of their lead and the buffer that the dual WC system gave them, this has the makings of an historic collapse.

[Guest d'Kong76]

F'n O's leave the bases loaded in the 8th in 0-0 game.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Load 'em again in the 8th, and leave 'em all again.

[Frayed Knot]

On to the 11th

Brandon McCarthy is another one of those short-term MFY projects that immediately improve out of nowhere upon landing in the Bronx
7 innings of 4-hit ball today just improved upon his sub-3.00 ERA (4.00+ over eight seasons w/4 teams elsewhere) as his H/9, WHiP, K-rate, BB-rate, and HR-rate have all improved.

[Frayed Knot]

Aaaaaannnnnnd Chris Young HRs again
Now 8/16 as a Yank w/6 XBHs

[Guest d'Kong76]

d'Kong76 wrote: Load 'em again in the 8th, and leave 'em all again.

Ooops, of course meant the 9th.

[ashie62]

And the Orioles Chris Davis joins the ever growing number of professional athletes who have been diagnosed, or not, with Adult Attention Deficit Disorder.

Adderal is a schedule two controlled substance.

[Edgy MD]

Gar, the Batting-Stance Guy wrote: CDavis becomes 2,581st consecutive player to have really organic altruistic excuse for why he got caught for PEDs.

[Frayed Knot]

So about 5 PM this afternoon the Yanx looked to be on the verge of their 2nd straight late-inning win, both of them courtesy of a Chris Young HR.
But now some five hours and 9-1/2 innings of ball later, they�re headed back to their Baltimore hotel after getting swept, scoring just 2 runs in 20 innings, and find themselves losing two full games to the O�s (although the division boat had sailed a while ago).
But on top of that, they also lose a half game each to Cleveland, Toronto, and KC, plus 1-1/2 games to Detroit. They�ll also concede 1/2 game to the loser and 1-1/2 to the winner of the Oakland/Seattle tilt just getting started.


Aaaaaah, life is good tonight.

[MFS62]

Mets win, MFYs lose two.
Brings new meaning to "Triple Happiness".

Later

[MFS62]

Now Chris Young steals home (as part of a double steal?).
Four months ago, he couldn't tie his shoes.
Now he's Ty Cobb.

The YLDBs in my office are having a field day.
I said "This proves the American League must be inferior".
That shut them up for a while because they had to think.
They're cute. Every Mets fan should own one.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

It seems like no matter whether the Yanx win or lose they remain right about at 5 games out of a WC spot. They were 4 out when I started this thread and, after a week and a half totally indifferent play they're now 5 out, a fact which I guess gets chalked up to the other WC contenders have been mostly indifferent as well. The good news, of course, is that 10 days have been wiped off the schedule as they've been running in place.


- LAA have now won ten straight and have gone from trailing by 6 games in late July to now leading their division by the biggest gap in baseball at 11.0 games.

[Frayed Knot]

Yanx go up by one in the top of the 9th via a McAnn HR - but then 3 doubles off Robertson in the bottom half equals a walk-off win for the O's and a 3-of-4 win in the series.

[Edgy MD]

Midlantica takes New York, 3-out-of-four in two different towns.

[Frayed Knot]

- Oakland took 2 of 3 from Seattle to at least temporarily halt their lengthy slide towards one of the biggest collapses of all time. They also may be saved by having 7 remaining games w/Texas

- Tigers swept Cleveland virtually killing any chances for the seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians"

- KC's gotta be kicking themselves for losing 3 of 4 to Boston


AL Central: Detroit +1.5 over KC. One remaining series between the two

WC:
OAK +1.5
KC --
SEA -1.0
TOR -4.0
CLE -5.0
MFY -5.0

[Lefty Specialist]

Something KC is dreading is the continuation of the suspended game with Cleveland, where they're down by two runs in extra innings. That's about a 95% guaranteed loss that isn't showing up on the ledger yet.

[Frayed Knot]

Lefty Specialist wrote: Something KC is dreading is the continuation of the suspended game with Cleveland, where they're down by two runs in extra innings. That's about a 95% guaranteed loss that isn't showing up on the ledger yet.

95%, unless we should suddenly trade Mejia to the Indians ... amIrite folks!?

[Frayed Knot]

Both the Tigers (v Minn) & Royals (v ChiSox) scored twice in the 9th to win games.
Detroit's two runs busted a game that they allowed to be tied in the 8th after leading 6-0 at one point, while KC twice used pinch-runners in the 9th to score from 2nd on an SB (steal of 3rd plus a throwing error) and an infield single (just never stopped running - Mookie style) to pull their game out.

So no change in the ALC race (Detroit +1.5) but every other WC contender either lost (CLE, NYY, TOR, SEA) or didn't play (OAK)
which makes this essentially a One-One-Two situation where one from the DET, KC, OAK, SEA group is going to lose out entirely, Two are going to wind up as WCs to face each other in the game of death, and One (either DET or KC) gets to sit back and wait for the winner.
All the others: TOR -5.0; CLE -6.0; NYY -6.0; TBR -10.0 are effectively, even if not yet officially, out of it.


I'd prefer to see KC take the Central and have Oakland hang on to one of the spots, but am willing to just enjoy the ride in any case.
One other AL goal for this year ... a sub-.500 MFY team. 5-10 would put them right on the number so I'm looking for 4-11 or worse. That's not too much to ask from a team whose RS/RA deficit (-30) means they should already be 7 games under, is it?

[Frayed Knot]

Orioles OF/1B Steve Pearce is 31 y/o and is in his 8th ML season - although this is the first one where he's reached more than 170 PAs
Drafted by the Pirates out of Comm Coll in Florida in 2005, he reached the majors part time in 2007 and played part time for a few years.

He was released by the Pirates at the end of 2011.
He was then picked up by the Twins, released by the Twins, signed by the Yanx, sold to the O's, plucked off waivers by the Astros, purchased by the Yanx, and claimed on waivers by the O's ... all between March & Sept of 2012
He got 119 ABs for the O's in 2013 ... then was released by them again in April of this year.
Baltimore then re-signed him two days later and will clinch the AL East tonight with Pearce playing 1st (in place of the suspended Chris Davis) and hitting his 18th HR/43rd XBH of the year in <350 ABs .294/.393/.535
He had just 17HRs/66 XBHs in his career before this season.

That defies any logic one can think of.

[Edgy MD]

It's the short power alleys.

It always is.

[Frayed Knot]

Better BA for Pearce in Baltimore this year but more power on the road, a result which is pretty much the opposite of what you'd expect.
The closer alleys and smaller overall OF at Camden are generally thought to increase HRs but reduce singles & doubles.