Hello,
The AL East currently have two teams who are showing how to play for the right to make the playoffs. Both the Orioles and Yankees have won 9 of their last 11 games. Both are winning on the road, winning at home, winning in 9 innings and winning in extra-innings. Both are also fighting through all sorts of adversity. Both are getting contributions from role players. Who knew that Raul Ibanez was still in the major leagues? Deservedly so it looks like both teams will make the playoffs. The only question now is who will win the AL East and who'll be in the Wild Card game? For the Orioles no rest for the weary. They play Sunday afternoon and then go home for a doubleheader tomorrow. They don't get their next day off until Thursday. Then barring weather complications, they play 6 straight days to close out the season. And I wouldn't be surprised if they also play on Thursday, October 4th.
Those two teams are the prime examples of how to play in the clutch, two teams not showing that are the Dodgers and Pirates. The Dodgers continue to play like crap. LA has already announced that Don Mattingly would be back as manager for next season. Well why wouldn't he be? The Dodgers anemic play of late isn't his fault, the crappy play is all on their overpaid players. It's hard to believe this is the same team that started out 9-1. That Dodgers team deserved to make the playoffs, this Dodgers team doesn't deserve to make the playoffs.
Their offense continues to be anemic, they've only scored 29 runs over their last 10 games. A quarter of a billion dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to. With only scoring 29 runs in their last 10 games, it should be no surprise they've only won 4 of those games. Lost in the fact that LA's offense has been offensively bad, is how good their pitching is. They've only given up 38 runs over their last 10 games. Dodgers starting pitching has been decimated by injuries. Ted Lilly, Chad Billingsley are already out for the season. It's also highly likely that Clayton Kershaw will miss the rest of the season.
Tonight's Sunday Night Baseball game will be Cincinnati-LA, I'm guessing about 6 people will be turning in for that.
What the hell has happened to the Pirates? In mid-July they were coasting, battling with the Red about who was going to lead the NL Central. Just a couple of months later, Pittsburgh has choked and gagged their way to 4th place in the NL Central. Pittsburgh can't go any lower in the Central as that's the same division as the terrible Cubs and the historically bad Astros. Pittsburgh has played so terribly of late, they've only been able to score 2 runs against cellar dwelling Houston the last two days. That's the same Astros team that has won less than 1/3rd of their games this season and who are the worst team in MLB. Compared to the Pirates though the Astros are hot of late. Houston has won 5 of their last 10 games.
Pittsburgh have lost 8 of their last 10 games and 5 in a row. They've fallen to 74-77 on the season. At one point it looked like a sure thing that they would finally finish above .500 this season. That would have been the first time in 20 years. Unfortunately even that meager goal looks out of reach now. The Pirates play 11 more games this season. The next five games are on the road and then they close the season at home. Unfortunately for them they'll be playing 3 games each against playoff bound Atlanta and Cincinnati. I predict Pittsburgh will finish 3-8 and end the season with a 77-85 record.
But hopefully that will serve as a motivation to have a great offseason. Hopefully Pittsburgh's front office can add one more solid bat and one more solid starter.
themusicaddict
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