Hot damn, the Twins are 1 game back from the Tigers in the AL Central, with the White Sox 5 games back. They play Boston, Baltimore, and Kansas City before facing the White Sox at the very end of the season.
I’m bored so I’m going to try to predict the division winner. I’ve never done this before, and I’ll just use the blog as my notepad. 🙂 Read through and if you think I’m wrong leave your prediction as a comment.
They swept Boston last time, 3-0 for the season. They went 2-1 with the Orioles both other times they faced them. They’ve had the worst time with Kansas City, though, 9-6 on the season.
Detroit is 9-1 against Kansas City, and they play them six times in the next 13 games. They’re 2-1 against Toronto, but 5-11 against the White Sox.
The White Sox are 11-5 versus Detroit, 8-8 versus Cleveland, 3-2 against the Mariners, and 7-9 against the Twins.
The Twins need to be one game up on the Tigers at the end of the next 13 games. Let’s figure worst-case scenarios here, since they’ll be on the road 50% of the time and they are .500 on the road. They’ll do 2-1 against Boston, 2-1 against Baltimore, 1-3 against Kansas City, and 1-2 against the Sox. That’s 8-5, finishing 94-68.
Say the Tigers, who are .720 on the road, go 5-1 against Kansas, 2-1 against Toronto, 0-3 against the Sox, and win their game against Baltimore. That’s 8-5, finishing 97-65, three up.
But we don’t want to drop past the White Sox, or we lose the wildcard. The Sox go 3-0 on the Tigers, 2-1 against Cleveland, 2-2 against the Mariners, and 2-1 against the Twins. That’s 9-4 and leaves them at 93-69, one behind the Twins.
Yeah, that’s my prediction:
– Tigers win, 97-65.
– Twins second, 94-68, getting the wildcard.
– Sox third, 93-69.
Whew.
If you think I’m doing drugs and am completely wrong leave your prediction in the comments, smart guy! I’ll donate a can of Spam to my local food shelf for each prediction people leave. It doesn’t need to be thought out, but reasonable would be nice. 🙂