There probably isn’t much that can quell fans’ dismay over the results of the last two games against the White Sox, but it might be somewhat uplifting to realize that every first-place team has performed pretty poorly since the break. In the last 10 games, the Cubs are tied with the Indians and Orioles for the most wins among division leaders (five), while the Rangers and Nationals have won four games and the Giants have won only two.
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Since the start of July, the Cubs are 8-12, Orioles 11-9, Nationals 9-10, Giants 8-10, Indians 8-11, Rangers 6-14. In the same time, the last place teams have done the following: Angels are 13-7, Twins 12-8, Reds 10-9, Padres 9-12, Braves 7-13, and the Rays 5-15.
In other words, the first place teams have combined to go 50-66, while the last place teams have gone a combined 56-64.
Imagine, if you will, the Cubs, O’s, Nats, Giants, Indians and Rangers assumed one team, ‘the winners’, while the Angels, Twins, Reds Padres, Braves and Rays assumed another single team, called ‘the losers’. What we’ve witnessed over the past month would be comparable to ‘the losers’ outplaying ‘the winners’ for 120 games, that is, into the middle of August.
Although not exactly the same (pooled variations and covariance introduce complications), this is extremely perplexing.
But this is baseball. It isn’t supposed to make sense all the time.
