With a seven-run seventh inning, the Tampa Bay Rays rolled to a 10-8 win over the Oakland A’s in Oakland last night to bring their record to 54-50. That record is a good approximation of how good the Rays have been this year; they’ve scored 436 runs (seventh in the American League) and allowed 420 (sixth), so you’d expect them to be a bit above .500 and right in the thick of a division or wild card race.
Except that they’re not really in the thick of anything. They’re 10 1/2 games behind the Red Sox and eight behind the Yankees and as July winds down, there are talks that they’re going to jettison BJ Upton and maybe even James Shields to help make budget room for 2012.
If the Rays were in the AL Central, they’d be just a half game behind the division-leading Tigers. If they were in the West, they’d be within striking distance (five games) of the Rangers. In the NL, they’d be six games back in the wild card, but just two games back in the Central, six games back in the West, and 5 1/2 back of the wild card.
It isn’t news that the AL East is baseball’s toughest division, but if the Rays do manage to finish with a better record than the AL Central winner, it’ll be just the second time since 2003 that a team with a better record than a division winner is squeezed out of the American League playoffs (the Yankees in 2008 beat the Twins and White Sox atop the AL Central by a game, the 2003 Mariners were three games better than the Twins).
Actually, for all of the imbalance of the AL, this happens more regularly in the National League. Non-playoff teams have topped division winners in the win column in 2005 (the Phillies, Marlins, and Mets were all better than the West champion Padres), 2006 (the Phillies topped the NL Central and eventual World Champion Cardinals), 2007 (the Mets and Rockies were both better than the Central champion Cubs), and 2009 (the Mets, Astros, and Cardinals all had better records than the NL West Champ Dodgers). Of course, no one in the National League has to play the Yankees or Red Sox 35-odd times a year, which can make it difficult to finish with any sort of respectable record at all.
Also last night: The Giants got a nice, symbolic win over the Phillies in what many people think is an NLCS preview, the Mets finished a sweep of the Reds, the Brewers used a sweep of the Cubs to stay in first place, and the Cardinals lost their second straight game to the lowly Astros after trading Hunter Pence. Also, my wireless router broke.
Tonight: The big Turnpike Series in Pennsylvania kicks off in Philadelphia as the Pirates try to stay within striking distance of the Brewers. Roy Halladay takes on his mechanical clone, Charlie Morton, in a pitching matchup that may make the world implode upon itself. The Angels and Tigers play in Detroit in a matchup of playoff contenders in the AL. Chien Ming-Wang returns to the mound for the Nationals against the Mets as the Mets try to keep their dim playoff hopes alive.
