Daily Archives: June 20, 2005

Going into last week’s series against Pittsburgh, the Yankees’ record was 1/2 game worse than the Pirates’. Now, three days after sweeping the Pirates’, the Yankees are 4 1/2 games ahead of Pittsburgh.

Going into this weekend’s series against the Cubs, the Yankees record was 1 1/2 games worse than the Chicago’s. Now, after sweeping them in three games, the Yankees are 1 1/2 games ahead of the Cubs.

Tonight, going into a four game series against Tampa Bay, the Yankees have won six in a row, are 8-2 in their last ten games, are just five games out of first place and a whopping 13 1/2 games ahead of the Devil Rays, with whom they were once tied for last in the AL East. But that’s nothing compared to the discrepancy between the Yankees’ home record and the Devil Rays’ road record:

Yanks Home: 22-13 (.629)
Rays Road: 5-28 (.152)

Wow! That’s a 16-game difference over a sample of 35 games (33 for the Rays). One has to assume the Rays will find a way to win one of the next four games, but given those home and away records, it would be a major upset for them to do any better than that. Of course, that’s how we all felt when the Yankees headed to Kansas City three weeks ago. Let’s not forget that the Devil Rays have a 4-2 record against the Yankees on the season. This is how that happened:

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For great baseball gossip, there are no two guys better than Peter Gammons and Ken Rosenthal. Today, Rosenthal writes that the Mets might not move centerfielder Mike Cameron after all, while Gammons checks in on the Yanks:

The Yankees are trying to get Oakland’s Mark Kotsay, who can be a free agent at the end of the year. But whether or not Brian Cashman will give up the prospects needed to get one of the game’s premier center fielders, like right-hander Philip Hughes and perhaps third baseman Eric Duncan, remains to be seen. Cashman has talked to a number of general managers, but isn’t offering to break up the team as some have suggested. Getting Kotsay would completely change their outfield defense and give them a solid leadoff hitter as they try to move Tony Womack.

Hmmm.

“The Yankees are the best team we’ve seen all season…I don’t know why they’re a couple games over .500.” Dusty Baker
(N.Y.Times)

Well, we’ve got ourselves an answer, Mr. Ciepley. The Cubs suck more…for now, at least. The Yanks beat Chicago 6-3 yesterday, sweeping the weekend series. It was New York’s sixth consecutive win. (In a losing cause, Derek Lee went 6-12 in the three games.) Tyler Kepner has a good write up of the game in the New York Times this morning. The Devil Rays are in town for a four-game set starting tonight and then the Mets come in over the weekend, after which, we can finally put inter-league play to rest for the season.