With the Yankees beginning a three-game series in Philadelphia Monday night, it’s interesting to note that the National League has been surprisingly dominant in interleague play in 2018. For a few weeks now, the “senior circuit” has held a head-to-head advantage within arm’s reach of 10 games over .500 depending on the day.
That’s in stark contrast to years of domination for the AL. You may not be aware that the AL has won interleague every season since 2004, peaking at 154-98 (.611) in 2006 and 149-103 (.591) in 2008. Betting markets were very slow to adjust at the time. Will a flip back to the National League catch them napping a decade later?
Since MLB settled on a 300-game schedule heading into the 2013 season, the results have been:
Year League W-L Pct.
2013 AL 154-146 .513
2014 AL 163-137 .543
2015 AL 167-133 .557
2016 AL 165-135 .550
2017 AL 160-140 .533
Smart bettors will monitor this NL surge to see if it’s hinting at value. Be sure to keep an eye on the busy interleague schedule now through Wednesday — Yankees at Phillies (three games), Nationals at Rays (two), Padres at Rangers (three), Indians at Cardinals (three) and Royals at Brewers (two).