Green: AL East is now officially bizarro land
As April becomes May, Tampa and Baltimore, the two teams that finished at the bottom of the standings last year, are now facing off for sole possession of first place, leaving observers understandably nonplussed. Is this bizarro baseball? Not completely.
The O’s enjoyed an unsustainably buoyant month, and are now perched atop the division standings despite having allowed more runs than they’ve scored. Baltimore’s pitchers seem to have been lucky rather than good. Heading into last night, they were third in the league in batting average allowed, but seventh in ERA and worse in other telling metrics — 12th in strikeouts, second in hit batsmen and first in homers allowed. And they’re not getting much help from their offense, either — they’re 12th in the AL in runs scored and batting average.
But the Rays are another matter entirely. They have the AL East’s best run differential. And why not? Their best slugger had 46 homers last year — more than anyone in the division but A-Rod. Their best pitcher led the league in K’s at 23. This year, they’ve still got those guys — Carlos Peña and Scott Kazmir — though Peña has slumped and Kazmir has been rehabbing. Tampa has also suffered injuries to its DH, its closer, and its starting third baseman, among others. But its pitching has carried the team to its well-deserved first-place berth.
Even without their ace, the Rays have the second-best ERA in the league. The Red Sox went into the Trop last weekend with the hottest offense in baseball: Three of the top-five batting averages in the AL belonged to Boston hitters, and the Sox had scored an average of 6.4 runs per game in their last two series. Boston still leads the league in runs scored, OBP and total bases. Yet the Tampa Bay pitchers limited the juggernaut to a stingy five runs over three games. That’s no fluke. That’s the dawning of a new era in Tampa Bay.
The adolescent ballclub hasn’t been around long enough to call its fans long-suffering. More like acutely suffering: In 10 years of major-league play, they’ve finished an average of 34 games out of first. Hence, this year’s winning start has Rays Nation a bit giddy. We saw starter Jamie Shields give a postseason-worthy fist-pump after two-hitting the Sox on Sunday. The Tampa Tribune and Rays blogosphere are already counting down the team’s magic number. “Gotta love being on a six-game win streak and tied for first,” wrote one jubilant Rays fan. “Don’t know if I’ve ever said that before.”
Alas, Sox fans, it looks like the days of easy wins at the Trop are over. At least there are still the O’s.
