The Boston Red Sox were left for dead this season. Now, they’ve won 18 of 20 and are currently riding their longest winning streak since the lineup included Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr and some lefty named Ted Williams. They are just two shy of the franchise record of 15 straight wins, which was established by a different Williams-led team.
This past weekend series, the Red Sox toppled the first-place Rays in a four-game sweep. Meanwhile, the second-place Yankees lost two of three. Oh, and the Orioles swept the Astros and have won seven straight games. Things are tightening.
For much of the season, this division has looked like a two-team race. Maybe, if a third team snuck into contention, it would be the defending American League champion Blue Jays. The Orioles and Red Sox looked like they were coasting into the trade deadline as sellers.
Maybe that’s still the case, as things can change very quickly in two weeks. Look no further than what has happened here over the last several weeks.
It’s also entirely possible that all five teams could remain in contention all season here. Perhaps the AL East ends up with all three wild-card teams as the rest of the American League remains mired in mediocrity.
It’s not even that far-fetched. Right now, the Rays have the best AL record with the Yankees second. The Red Sox hold the third wild card. The Orioles are only two games out of a playoff spot. The Red Sox and Orioles would only need to squeeze past the Guardians (who are currently three games ahead of the Orioles) to give the East four of the six playoff teams on this side of the bracket.
Maybe the division race could even get juicy? The Red Sox have trimmed their deficit to just six games, with the Orioles eight back. The Rays looked like a regression candidate heading into the second half and if that coincides with the Yankees’ offensive woes continuing, things really could tighten up here.
It’s getting fun.
Biggest Movers
Rk
Teams
Chg
Rcrd
Dodgers
How’s this for backward? Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw his first career complete game on Sunday. Well, his first in the regular season. He had two in the playoffs last year.
—
63-37
Brewers
They lost four of five heading into the break. So what? It’s a group of winners. They come out of the break and sweep the Marlins, including two walk-off wins.
—
62-37
Cubs
The most disappointing performers on offense in the first half were probably Alex Bregman and Nico Hoerner. Both appear to be waking up, as Bregman has three homers in his last five games and Hoerner went 8 for 13 over the weekend.
1
56-43
Braves
The Braves will hold out hope that all Austin Riley needed was the All-Star break. After a first half in which he hit .207/.288/.329, he’s 6 for 12 with three home runs so far post-break.
2
57-41
Rays
I mentioned the Rays as a regression candidate. The most elementary way of showing my work here is they have a +14 run differential and are 56-42. With that run differential they should only be about two games over .500. Obviously there are outliers and it’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but when teams stray this far, it can be a red flag.
2
56-42
Yankees
The offense mustered just five runs in three games over the weekend. Maybe it was just the Dodgers? Sure. That was it! The concerns linger …
1
55-44
Phillies
The Phillies have won all seven of Jesús Luzardo’s last seven starts. In those outings, he’s 5-0 with a 1.49 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 42 ⅓ innings.
—
55-45
White Sox
They still need pitching help, but it’s nice to see Sean Burke go 4-0 with a 1.40 ERA in his last six starts.
—
52-46
Pirates
In a six-game stretch wrapping around the All-Star break, the Pirates went 5-1 against the Brewers and Guardians. They’ve also now won three straight Paul Skenes starts after that weird losing streak. Things are looking up!
2
52-48
Red Sox
Willson Contreras his hit 22nd home run of the season on Sunday. His career high for a season is 24.
5
50-48
Guardians
Through 100 games, the Guardians are on pace to have zero players hit 20 home runs. We don’t see that often these days, but for this franchise, it last happened in 2015 (excepting the 2020 nonsense). The team leader that year was Carlos Santana with 19.
2
52-48
Marlins
It’s been tough competition, but the Marlins have lost six straight, a concerning trend with the trade deadline looming.
2
52-48
Diamondbacks
The D-backs tied a franchise record Sunday by coming back from a seven-run deficit to win. They’ve now won six of their last seven.
—
51-48
Cardinals
They were right on the verge of winning back-to-back series against winning teams, but then blew a seven-run lead Sunday. What a gut punch.
2
51-47
Rangers
The Wyatt Langford tear continues. In his last 21 games, he’s 32 for 88 (.364) with four doubles, eight home runs and 20 RBI.
1
50-49
Mariners
The Mariners had an Andrés Muñoz problem earlier this season, but he’s now gone 12 straight scoreless outings, converting all seven of his save chances in there with 18 strikeouts against four walks in 12 innings.
—
50-50
Nationals
On Dec. 22, the Nationals signed lefty Foster Griffin to a one-year, $5.5 million deal. He had spent the previous three seasons in Japan and had just eight career MLB innings (with a 6.75 ERA) to his name. He’s now an All-Star who is 11-2 with a 2.68 ERA and 1.03 WHIP. What a story.
1
50-50
Orioles
The O’s are now 10-3 with a +25 run differential in July. Putting it together at the right time or just a tease job?
2
49-51
Tigers
The loss Sunday hurts because the margin of error remains pretty small here, but the Tigers have still won 11 of their last 15.
3
46-53
Twins
Without Joe Ryan, the rest of the Twins’ rotation has a 4.80 ERA (league average is 4.21). He’s doing some heavy lifting.
3
49-51
Padres
They got the blowout win on Sunday, but the bottom line is they lost a series to a bottom feeder coming out of the break. The Padres now get to deal with the Braves and Marlins before returning home.
2
49-50
Astros
Hunter Brown was good in two starts, but then hit the injured list for roughly 2 ½ months. He was fine in his first three starts back. In his last three? Fifteen walks in 14 ⅔ innings along with three home runs allowed have contributed to a 7.98 ERA.
1
47-54
Blue Jays
They still haven’t been more than two games over .500 since March. They haven’t been over .500 since April 3, when they were 4-3. They pulled themselves even at 29-29, but then lost four straight. They pulled themselves back to even, again, on June 22, but followed that with six consecutive losses.
—
46-53
Reds
Sal Stewart moved to 20 homers and 70 RBI on Sunday. The only Reds rookie to ever get to 25 and 80, respectively, was Hall of Famer Frank Robinson in 1956 (38 HR, 83 RBI).
—
45-53
Mets
Starter Clay Holmes was supposed to make a rehab start over the weekend as he looks to return from a broken fibula. Alas, it was rained out, but he’ll still be back soon enough to garner a lot of trade interest, especially given the dearth of sellers and how many teams are looking to buy rotation help. Keep an eye on him.
1
42-58
Giants
Buyer beware on Robbie Ray? He has a 2.44 ERA at home and 4.36 on the road. Then again, one disastrous outing is really skewing that road ERA and he’s had some good road outings (such as five scoreless innings in Wrigley or 6 ⅓ scoreless in Truist).
1
42-57
Athletics
The A’s have now allowed 23 runs in a game twice this season. The only other teams in history to have that happen (at least 23, that is) are the 1901 Reds and 1923 Red Sox.
—
42-57
Rockies
Last week, I mentioned Hunter Goodman’s home run pace relating to the Rockies having never had a 50-homer guy. Well, he hit three on Sunday and his pace is up to 48. This is fun.
—
40-61
Royals
The degree to which reliever Lucas Erceg has regressed this season is remarkable.
1
40-60
Angels
Given their upside and also inconsistency often on display, I can only conclude that both Reid Detmers and José Soriano should both be rooting for a trade. Both could benefit from a change of scenery in the hopes that their new team can better help them hit their ceiling.
1
39-61
