June standings report

It’s the start of another month, and time to do my little feature I call the standings update. So I’ll put a shout out and update the readers on my favorite teams and the other local ones too.

Let’s start in my adopted hometown with the Shorebirds. The good news is that they’re out of last place now. But the bad news is that they’re stuck in seventh with a 22-29 mark, 14 games in back of the pacesetting West Virginia Power. The Brewers affiliate looks like a pretty good bet to win the first half of the league schedule as they’re 7-1/2 games clear of the second-place Greensboro Grasshoppers. With the number of games both teams have remaining in the half, the “magic number” for the Power is now 9. Behind Greensboro, Lakewood is 9-1/2 back of the Power, Lake County 11-1/2 behind, Lexington 13-1/2 in arrears, and Hagerstown is just a couple percentage points ahead of the Shorebirds. Only Hickory trails us by 1 game. But the first half pennant race could be over for us as soon as tomorrow.

And if you like teams with “Lake” in the name, you’ll love the Shorebirds. After the Hagerstown series concludes Sunday, it’s a solid month of Lakewood and Lake County as opponents. The only other SAL team with a similar block of games is Lakewood, who can complain about only playing Maryland teams for a month as they alternate between Delmarva and Hagerstown.

I’ll stay in the minor leagues for now and check up on my old hometown team, the Toledo Mud Hens. As they were at the end of April, they’re trailing the IL West leading Indianapolis Indians, now by 3 games. But at 29-25 they have the lead in the IL wild card race by a slim 1/2 game over the Rochester Red Wings. The schedule this month starts with a trip to IL East leading Buffalo. They also have trips to Syracuse, Ottawa, Durham, and Louisville in this month leading to the All-Star break, with return trips from Syracuse and Ottawa among the home games. Other teams the Hens host will be Baltimore farm club Norfolk along with 7 home games against their 3 IL West foes, including 4 with Indianapolis June 22-25.

Looking around the big leagues, it’s worth noting that Baltimore has crept back to the .500 mark with 6 straight wins. Granted, 3 were over the woeful Royals, but they all count the same in the standings. So the O’s hit the 1/3 pole with an even 27-27 mark and are actually second in the AL East. (Okay, they’re 10 behind Boston but they’re in second.) Leading up to the All-Star break, the O’s continue their West Coast trip in Los Angeles and Seattle before an interleague homestand with Colorado, Washington, and Arizona. Then it’s back out west to wrap up interleague play with a trip to San Diego and Arizona. Toward the end of the month the O’s host the Yankees and Angels before wrapping up the first half out in Chicago against the White Sox and at Texas.

Meanwhile, the Nats slog on in last place in the NL East, but they’ve improved enough to not be the NL’s worst team. At 22-32 at least they’re not on pace to lose 100. Empty RFK seats will greet the Padres and Pirates before the Nats hit the road, off to Minnesota, Baltimore, and Toronto. They then host Detroit (in a midweek series, dammit) and Cleveland to finish their interleague schedule. A trip to Atlanta and Pittsburgh and home games against the Cubs and Milwaukee wrap up the traditional first half. One thing I like about the Nats is that they’ve become a repository for ex-Tigers (Robert Fick, Nook Logan, and Dmitri Young play for the Nats now.)

Speaking of the defending AL champions, the end of May was as tough as I predicted. The Tigers have slid down somewhat but retain second place in the AL Central, trailing the archrival Indians by 3-1/2 games with a 30-23 record. They still lead the wild card by 2-1/2 over the Mariners and Twins though. (Baltimore is 3-1/2 out of the wild card, by the way. Start the playoff talk now?)

For the Detroit nine, 3 more games in Cleveland (after last night’s loss) await, then it’s off to Texas. But waiting at Comerica Park will be two current NL division leaders, the New York Mets and Milwaukee. Two other good NL East teams are visited on the subsequent roadtrip as they visit Philadelphia, Washington, and Atlanta. However, the Tigers will have an opportunity to make up ground as they host a season-high 12 game homestand heading into the midseason break. They’ll get to greet Texas, Minnesota, AL Central leader Cleveland, and AL East leader Boston – so they can immensely help their playoff hopes with a 10-2 or 11-1 homestand.

The next two standings reports will be split as I’ll do the Shorebirds at their All-Star break June 20 and the rest at the major league break in July. I’ll have an additional feature with both of these reports before the two are reunited (and it feels so good) at the end of July.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.