Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Pray for a Wild Central

Even though the O's pulled out a great win last night, I'm starting to lose hope. All those injuries have caught up to them, especially Bedard's, as the pitching has gone south. With Boston starting to pull away with the lead, it's time to focus on the wild card.

This looks like it might be the first year that the AL wild card will come from the Central. The O's and Twins were in a tie for the WC lead after last night. And if the O's continue to go south, the Twins better pull way, way ahead of the Junkees in the wild card lead. They still have a great team, great defense, and one of the best pens in the game. I'm hoping Johan Santana has a second half like he had last year. If that's the case, the Twins will be in good shape, no matter how good the White Sox do.

And sitting just one game behind the Twins are the Indians. I picked this team to win the division, so I admittedly felt stupid when they were awful in April and May. But they've come together lately and started hitting. Wickman, Rhodes, and Betancourt lead a pen that's much improved since last year's disaster. And they've got a pretty good rotation. Sabathia and Clifton Lee haven't been great this year, but still might heat up. Ex-Junkee Westbrook has recovered from a terrible April; he's had 7 of 8 quality outings recently.

So for a Yankee-free October, I'm rooting for these guys to win. And it makes the Tribe beating up Foulke easier to swallow.

No comments: