Category: Toronto Blue Jays

De Ja Vu… Ellsbury Comes Through

Two nights ago (8/2/11), the Boston Red Sox won a 1-run game against the Cleveland Indians off a Jacoby Ellsbury walk-off hit that scored Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Last night (8/3/11), the Boston Red Sox won a 1-run game against the Cleveland Indians  off a Jacoby Ellsbury walk-off home run that scored the game winning run.

These are Jacoby Ellsbury’s first two walk off hits in his career and the come in consecutive games.  Things are clicking for the Red Sox and although the offense cooled down a bit, they are finding ways to keep the Yankees at bay.

The Red Sox hold a 1 game lead against the Yankees in the AL East race.  The AL East has quite a good standing in the MLB this season… 4 out of 5 teams have winning records (Baltimore, of course, being the one without a winning record).

Boston plays one more game with Cleveland before a weekend series with the Yankees at Fenway Park.  This season, Boston holds a 5-1 record against the hated Yankees.

American League East

Team W L PCT GB
Boston 68 41 .624 –
NY Yankees 67 42 .615 1.0
Tampa Bay 57 52 .523 11.0
Toronto 56 54 .509 12.5
Baltimore 43 64 .402 24.0

 

 

And the Sox Move Into 1st

Last night’s 6-4 win and a Yankees loss to the Tampa Bay Rays was enough to move Boston back into first place in the American League East standings.  The Yankees may have 1 game in hand (86 games played to Boston’s 87 games played), however, Boston will have the upper hand come the All Star Break because Boston will have an extra day off. Also, more New York players will be affected by traveling to and from the All Star game.

Once the All Star break is over, Boston will be playing against Tampa Bay and then Baltimore while New York will be taking on Toronto and Tampa Bay.  All four series will be on the road for Boston and New York.  The Red Sox and Yankees won’t play each other until the first week of August when the Yankees travel to Boston for a 3 game series directly after a 4 game series with the Chicago White Sox (they can call it their Sox trip).

As of now, the Boston Red Sox are on pace to reach 97 wins…. BUT keep in mind that they are playing great baseball right now and they had a horrible start to the season.  If Boston’s start wasn’t so bad, they might have a 5 or 6 game lead at this point.

Current AL East Standings (as of 7/8/2011 @ 8:34 am est)

Team W L PCT GB
Boston 52 35 .598 –
NY Yankees 51 35 .593 0.5
Tampa Bay 49 39 .557 3.5
Toronto 42 47 .472 11.0
Baltimore 36 49 .424 15.0

Red Sox Back Within a Half Game in AL East

Tim WakefieldTim Wakefield and the Red Sox earned a win against the Toronto Blue Jays last night to come within .5 games of the Yankees in the AL East standings.  The Red Sox are 51-35 overall and the Yankees are 51-34 overall.

The Red Sox start a series against the Baltimore Orioles tonight in Boston and it’s a 4 game series that will take Boston up into the All Star Break.  Boston has a great chance to take a few wins from the struggling Baltimore Orioles the next few days and move ahead of the Yankees in the standings.

The Tampa Bay Rays are now 4 games behind New York and are also in the hunt of the AL East lead.  Adrian Gonzalez of the Red Sox was just named the player of the month for June in the American League.  Although pitchers on the Red Sox are on and off the DL, the Red Sox have found ways to win games and snap the brief loosing streak from 2 weeks ago.

It would be nice to see the Red Sox with a slight advantage over the Yankees in the AL Standings during the All Star break!

Red Sox Going Backwards

After having the best MLB record since April, the Boston Red Sox find themselves praying that interleague play comes to an end.  Last night, the Red Sox lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.  The Sox finally had an RBI… and who did it come from? John Lackey… go figure!

Boston needs to wake up their bats, get their $h!t together and reclaim first place in the AL East standings.  The All Star game is not too far off and it would be a huge advantage for the Sox if they had a slight lead in the AL East heading into the All Star break.  By the way, have you been voting for Sox players to go to the All Star game?

Boston is now 2.5 games out of first place and only 1.0 games ahead of  Tampa Bay.  Tampa has Boston in the cross-hairs and it would be disappointing for the team and fans to see the team fight back to first place after a dismal start and then fall back to 3rd place.

What this ball club needs is a nice home stand against an AL East team that they are very familiar with… On July 4th, the Red Sox host the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park.  The Red Sox need to win this series and take at least two games from Toronto. Additionally, Boston hosts the Baltimore Orioles directly after the Blue Jays.  This would be a great time to make up some lost ground.  hopefully the Sox can win 3 out of the 4 games with Baltimore.  This would significantly put the team in a positive direction before the all star break.  We’re looking for Boston to take 5 out of 7 (or better) from their next 7 home games at Fenway.

What could REALLY help the Red Sox though, is winning game 3 against Philadelphia today.  It’s a 1:05 game and it would be really nice to see Boston get their bats going in this one.  Today’s matchup is Jon Lester vs Cole Hamels.  Both pitchers are 9-4 on the season so far.  Hamels’ ERA is slightly better 2.49 vs Lester’s 3.36 ERA.

After today, Boston heads to Houston for a weekend series vs the Astros.  The weather has been very hot in Texas the past few days and I am hoping that this will not hurt the Sox in any way shape or form.  Houston is currently 28-53 on the season, but that doesn’t mean this will be a walk in the park for Boston.  They are going to have to earn every run and work hard for a win.

Let’s go Boston!  Reclaim 1st place before the All Star Break!

1.0 Back… Going into Series With Yankees

The Red Sox have a chance to take back frirst place in the AL East this week.  All they have to do is win 2 out of 3 games against the Yankees or better.

The Yankees took 1st place back from the Red Sox last week after a 4 game losing streak ended their hot streak.  This week is a chance to prove that they are worthy again of first place.  The Sox have already taken 5 out of 6 games against the Yankees this year.  Taking another 2 or 3 would really offset the season series vs the pinstripes.

This series was well timed by the schedule makers.  There is a good distance between 2nd and 3rd/4th… the Blue Jays and Rays are tied for 3rd but are both 4 games out of first and 3 games out of second.

The Sox were lucky to come away with a sweep of the Athletics… especially after a 9th inning collapse which resulted in 14 innings on Saturday.

Standings Finally Shaping Up For AL East

It took some time, but the AL East is somewhat organized how it usually is at this time of the year…. The Red Sox and Yankees battling for the lead, Toronto and Tampa battling for 3rd/4th and the Orioles looking up at everyone else.

The Red Sox are half a game behind the Yankees and things are looking promising.  They are one of the hottest teams in baseball right now.  In their last 10 games, they are 8-2 (tied for best with 4 other teams).  Adrian Gonzalez is one of the hottest hitters right now (.340 batting average and 43 RBIs) and they had 20 hits in a 14 – 2 win over the Cleveland Indians last night.  Jacoby Ellsbury has also been great in terms of production with stolen bases, runs scored and obp.

Things are clicking for the Sox and it’s about time.  The Sox are on the road right now heading to Detroit for a 4 game series.  Next month, they have a few important series with the Blue Jays, Yankees and Rays!  A lot of moves in the standings are up for grabs.

If you haven’t been to a game yet, you should get some tickets… Boston Red Sox Tickets.