Major League Baseball Postseason Predictions: American League – Part 2
The Boston Red Sox have been phenomenal after the All-Star break and a continuation of this sublime form will ensure them a berth for the postseason. The Red Sox have not lost a single series since July 15 and their worst performance in a series has been
a 2-2 draw on two separate occasions.
In the 24 games they have played after the midsummer break, the Red Sox have emerged victorious on 16 occasions with disappointment in just eight of them. Their batting has been their main strength in their victories but as the competition intensifies, their
pitching’ staff has to fire sooner than later. Boston is in with a definite chance of ensured qualification and would not want to spoil this opportunity to rely on the Wild Card position.
The New York Yankees are going strong for the season and have been constantly in touching distance of the top notch in the American League East Division. The Yankees had an excellent opportunity to topple the Red Sox in the three-game series which concluded
on Sunday, August 7 but two consecutive losses did not help their cause.
The Yankees started the series with an impressive 3-2 victory over their division leaders but the dependable CC Sabathia failed to hold things together in the second game for the Yankees to lose 10-4. Boston prevailed 3-2 in the third game after an intense
ten inning encounter to impose a one game deficit on the Yankees.
The pin-striped Yankees are not far behind their rivals Boston in batting with 603 runs thus far in the season. They are ranked as the second-best batting unit behind Boston who has accumulated 617 runs thus far. The batters, apart from continually adding
runs are connecting big hits as well and this is where they have an added advantage. Alex Rodriguez is yet to reach his peak this season and it is the trio of Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson which has led the show this time.
Teixeira has been brilliant at first base as well as on the plate this season. He has amassed 68 runs already in the season and 32 of these have come as home-runs. He displayed his ability to hit under-pressure when he unleashed a grand slam which led the
Yankees to score 17 runs in the game. Teixeira has punched 86 RBIs thus far and is in line to register significantly more than 100.
Cano has gone one better than Teixeira to take his tally of runs to 71 in 112 games at an average of .295. His number of hits at 129 is the most in the Yankees’ bull-pen by a significant margin and in the absence of Alex Rodriguez, this sort of performance
comes in as a relief. When Rodriguez joins the team in around two weeks’ time, the Yankees will be in a good position to aim at the World Series spot.
One player, however who has exceeded all expectations, is Curtis Granderson. The left-handed batter has completed his century of runs this season already and is second in the list of most home-runs for the Yankees this season at 28. Granderson is now within
reach of 1000 career-hits with just 69 more to go. With 114 hits to his credit this season by now, the out-fielder is likely to reach this milestone somewhere by the end of this season.
Continued in Part 3
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