Week seven highlights, low lights, and observations

-At 29-18, the Dodgers have now played 29% of regular season games. 

-Like everything else as I get older, baseball seasons seem to progress more quickly than they used to.

-The Azul are back atop the NL west, barely. This 1/2 game lead will be tested starting tonight in San Diego. 

-This past weekend was “rivalry” weekend and as such, the Dodgers should have been playing the Padres rather than the Angels. If you were to ask 100 Dodger fans, which team is our biggest rival, I’d bet 90 would say either the Padres, Giants, Yankees, or Blue Jays. The other two teams in the NL west plus and the Angels might claim the other 10 votes. Might.

-A week ago, I would have bet against the Dodgers being in first place today. They were fresh off  Saturday and Sunday losses to the red hot Braves and then lost Monday and Tuesday night against the Giants. And then out of nowhere the bats woke up, the pitchers beared down, and the Dodgers win Wednesday and Thursday vs. SF and then destroy the hapless, hopeless Angels over the weekend. 

-The Dodgers vs. Angels run differential in favor of the team that actually plays their home games in LA was an insane +28 for a three game series. And it was good to see Ohtani swing the bat well. After getting an extra day off mid-week, Shohei had six hits over the weekend including three on Sunday. 

-The Mets took two of three from the Yankees last weekend. Sunday was the first time in two years the Mets won a game when losing after the 8th inning. The Mets were 0-96 when trailing after eight, including the post-season, since October 2024.

-Philadelphia has completely turned things around since Donny Baseball took over as manager on April 28th. Since then the Phillies are 14-4 and now have a winning record at 24-23. 

-Talking about winning records, there are five teams in the American League at .500 or above, two of them being the White Sox and the A’s. So if the regular season ended today, the White Sox and the A’s would be in the playoffs.

-I love the A’s home alternate uniforms, bright yellow with Sacramento in script across the front. Not sure exactly why. I just dig ‘em.