MLB: Day One Hundred and Nineteen

Posted on | July 31, 2007 | No Comments

On Saturday some pretty good teams continued to struggle and all the races in Major League Baseball continued to be very tight, except one race.

Suddenly the New York Yankees have lost three straight games and the Boston Red Sox have won three straight games. The lead in the American League East has suddenly ballooned back to nine games. It just doesn’t take long for the lead to dwindle, grow, dwindle, and then grow again.

Surely the Yankees will right the ship again and make another run at either the AL East crown or at least the AL Wildcard. They’ve shown flashes of brilliance – flashes that have lasted for ten games or so.

But the Boston Red Sox are quickly reestablishing themselves as the team to beat in baseball again. They’ve taken a major shot from the Yankees and responded by winning a bunch of games. And they’re winning by getting great pitching for a couple games and then getting hitting for a couple days. They certainly have the bats and the pitching to win it all. The question is whether any other team can get their act together to challenge.

One team that could challenge them is the Detroit Tigers. But the Tigers have looked horrible for the past week or so. They just lost their third straight game. And the sad thing is that they’ve either been tied or had the lead in the seventh inning of each one of those games. In fact, they’ve had the lead or been tied in the seventh inning or later in each of their last five games. Yet they’ve only one won of those games.

The Tigers bullpen is at its worst right now. They’re giving-up all sorts of runs and that’s got to be frustrating to the Tigers starters who have pitched pretty well. The only good news for the Tigers is that Joel Zumaya (their best reliever) has started throwing all out again and could be back as soon as the middle of August. That can’t be soon enough for the Tigers who need someone who can come in and hold the opponents scoreless for an inning or two late in the game.

The Tigers still sit atop the AL Central, mostly because the second place Cleveland Indians have been playing poorly too. But eventually the Indians will start winning again. And if the Tigers don’t get their bullpen together, they’ll soon find themselves out of the division lead and out of their playoff race altogether.

Related posts:

1. MLB: Day One Hundred and Forty-Five
2. MLB: Day One Hundred and Seventy-Two
3. MLB: Day Nineteen
4. MLB: Day One Hundred and Forty-Nine
5. MLB: Day One Hundred and Seventy

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