The Sox will close out the 10-game road trip tonight at Rogers Centre, and a win will make it just what I was hoping for: an even 5-5 split since they left Fenway.
The Sox are three up on Tampa Bay, who came from behind in the ninth to win last night.
Losing isn't fun, but my friend Adam sent me an email this morning that sums up the AL East:
Losing may be annoying. But even though the Sox are only playing .500 ball over their last 10 games, they've gained ground on the Rays and O's and haven't lost ground to theMFY or Jays. TB has only won 3 of their last 10 and Baltimore is 4-6 in their last 10 games. So far August has been the Sox' worst month since May. They were .500 in May and are only one game over in the 13 games this month. Since July 1st, the Sox are 22-16 (.579 WP). That's a 94-win pace. Overall, they're on pace for 95/96 wins.
The Rays went 21-3 from June 29th to July 27th. During that stretch, they took over first place. Since then, they've lost 3.5 games in the standings to the Sox.
Baltimore are 18-19 since July 1st. Right now, they're on pace to win 88 games. Even though they're a better team than last year by Pythag (86 wins this year v. 82 wins last year), they're a long shot to reach last year's win total. In 2012, the O's were 29-9 in 1-run games and 16-2 in extra-innings. So far this year they're 14-21 in 1-run games and 6-5 in extra-innings. It doesn't look like they're going to have the luck they had last year.Before the season I felt the Sox were better than Baltimore, Toronto, and the MFY. I still think they are. Right now, the AL East is a 3-team race. The division has 3 of the top 6 records in the AL: Sox (1), Rays (4), O's (6). The MFY have won 4 straight, but they really aren't that good. The Jays, the off-season winner, also aren't a good team.Still a long ways to go, folks.
