At this moment -- early in the morning of August 5, our Year of 2011 -- two first-place teams have been outscored.
Can’t Anybody In The A.L. Central Play This Game?
The Giants have been outscored by a single run. Lurking just a half-game behind, the Diamondbacks have actually outscored their opponents by 23 runs. I think it's fairly safe to suggest that whoever wins the National League West is highly likely to wind up with a green number in the differential column.
That American League Central, though? I’m not so sure.
Whatever happens, though, it won’t be a first.
We're probably not going to have a sub-.500 division winner, simply because the Tigers are currently 59-52 and don't have to play all that well down the stretch to win 81 games. The Indians have a winning record, and have a shot at finishing with one. And anyway, it's not like there's never been a losing division winner. I do count 1994, and when that season ended the Texas Rangers led the American League West with a losing record.
Granted, that was only 114 games. But the Rangers were 52-62 when the players struck. What was the chance they’d go 11 games over 500 in their remaining 48 games? One way or another, that season would have ended with a losing team in the American League playoffs and the Montreal Expos in the National League playoffs.*
* and just for fun, I'll mention once again that the Atlanta Braves did NOT WIN 16 STRAIGHT DIVISION TITLES. They were six games behind the Expos when the season ended.
Nor will the Tigers or the Indians become the first team with a negative run differential to make the postseason. The Twins did in 1987, the Giants in '97, and the Padres in 2005.
Nor will the American League Central be the first division to finish with every team in the red, runs-wise. In ‘05, the first-place Padres were outscored by 42 runs, the second-place Diamondbacks by 160 runs, the third-place Giants by 96 runs, etc.
So nobody’s really making any history in the A.L. Central this season.
They’re unusual, though.
See More:
