May standings report

A day late, but not a dollar short. Here’s the standings report for my teams through tonight’s contests.

With tonight’s loss to Greensboro, the Delmarva Shorebirds are dead even with the Lexington Legends for first place in the South Atlantic League’s North Division. Lexington was rained out tonight, so they’ve at least temporarily lost their standings advantage over the Shorebirds (the Legends had played one more game than Delmarva, so being even in the loss column was to Lexington’s benefit.) But both teams are 31-20, and I’ve found out that Hagerstown is making up tonight’s rainout. So Delmarva has just 17 games left in the half compared to Lexington’s 18. Additionally, Lexington will get a “ringer” in the rotation for at least one start as Roger Clemens will work himself back into shape with his son Kody, already a member of the Legends. (Unfortunately, the elder Clemens will likely be long back in Houston before the Legends return to Perdue Stadium in July.)

So both teams stand at 31-20, but you can’t count out Greensboro or West Virginia, 29-23 and 28-23 respectively. They lurk just a few games back, with 26-26 Lakewood being the dark horse. Hickory, Lake County (who faded from being first at the start of the month), and Hagerstown round out the North field. Meanwhile, the Rome Braves are punishing the South Division.

This month will be a month of transition for Delmarva’s roster. After the amateur draft is held next week, the rookie leagues start up, and it’s likely a few Shorebirds will be sent down to those teams in Bluefield, WV and Aberdeen, MD while our club is possibly receiving some of the higher draft picks deemed ready for A ball. So some guys you’ve come to know over 50 games won’t be here much longer. It just may be the end of the road for a few.

June’s schedule finds Delmarva starting with 4 games here against third-place Greensboro (the first was the 2-0 loss tonight), then taking a brief trip north to face Lakewood for 4 contests. Coming back home, it’s 3 with last-place Hagerstown before 4 home games once again facing Lakewood. The final series before the SAL All-Star break will find the Shorebirds squaring off with the Hagerstown nine over in western Maryland, quite possibly with a playoff berth at stake.

The rest of June has us playing home and away with both Hagerstown and Lake County. Remember, the standings are refreshed at the All-Star break, so these two second-division clubs will have new life in the second half.

By the way, Lexington will have the 4 games with Hagerstown before spending the rest of the half battling Greensboro 6 times and Lake County for 8 games. So don’t count out the Greensboro Grasshoppers.

Moving to the International League and my former hometown, the Toledo Mud Hens continue to scuffle along with a 25-27 record, 6 games and counting behind Indianapolis in the IL North. It’s back to the reality of Toledo baseball after the dream 2005 season, or so it appears. The Indy club has won 5 in a row to open up that lead over the second-place Mud Hens. Louisville and Columbus bring up the rear of that four-team division, but they’re just 2 and 3 games in back of the Hens now. Toledo has one of the better home records in the IL at 17-12 but they have been dreadful on the road.

Coming into June, they began a 32 game stretch against the IL’s East Division. This month they’ll have 4 game sets at Ottawa (current series) and the three New York teams (Buffalo first, then Rochester and Syracuse on the later trip) split up by a pair of 4 game home sets against Ottawa and Syracuse. On the 26th they start a long homestand against Norfolk, Charlotte, and Indianapolis that concludes their home schedule prior to the AAA All-Star Game being held at Fifth Third Field this year. They go into the All-Star break with a trip to Louisville and Indianapolis.

However, the Hens’ parent club is still kicking ass. The Detroit Tigers came back tonight from 5-0 and 6-5 deficits to beat the Yankees and snap a 4-game losing streak. This win puts them right at the 1/3 mark of the season with a 36-18 record, best in the big leagues. (It’s about freakin’ time.)

With the White Sox losing again at Cleveland, the Tigers regain the 2 1/2 game cushion over the Chicago squad, with the Indians sticking 8 1/2 back. The Twins are 11 back at the moment (playing late in Oakland) and the Royals are 21 1/2 games out in early June. The only Achilles’ heel the Tigers seem to have at the moment is their struggles against other good teams. They’re killing the bottom-feeders but are just 1-6 against the Yankees and White Sox (all at home.)

June will see the Tigers playing more good teams, starting with this weekend’s series at home to Boston. then it’s off for a critical three-game set in Chicago with the White Sox before they play their ’80’s archrivals in Toronto for a 3 game series. (I sort of miss them being in our division.) They return home for 4 with Tampa Bay before heading back out on the road to begin a 15 game stretch of interleague play. They’ll tangle for 3 games at Wrigley against the Cubs and up in Milwaukee, return to face the Cardinals and Astros, then end the month by starting a long roadtrip in Pittsburgh. That trip will also send them back out to the west coast (Oakland and Seattle) to wrap up the pre-All Star part of the schedule.

The next standings report will be a wrapup of the Shorebirds’ first half on June 19th. I’ll save the other two clubs for the major league All-Star break in July.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

3 thoughts on “May standings report”

  1. Hello from a lifelong Toledo-area resident and Detroit fan! Like your blog.

    Re: Tigers

    The thing which strikes me is their best-in-MLB away record. Obviously, they need to win the home games against strong teams, but it’s their away performance which has put them in first place.

  2. You can take the guy out of Toledo, but you can’t quite take the Toledo out of the guy.

    I think living on the Eastern Shore would get it the closest though.

    As far as the Tigers go, this month will likely tell whether the Olde English D will stay on top or not. July and September look a little easier, August will be tough too.

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