Schedule before the Showdown

[Uli2001]

Orioles have

Angels (A)
Boston (A)
St Louis (H)

Tampa Bay has

Boston (H)
Seattle (H, 4-game series)
Minnesota (A)

They both get Boston, but Tampa Bay has a much harder schedule overall (on paper). They might have trouble playing .500 against this schedule.

The Orioles have to take care of business here. Thus is a great opportunity to create some serious daylight at the top of the division before the TB series.

 

 

 

[banks703]

The focus being on the Tampa series for many but personally I think the division is going to come down to how the O’s play the Sawx these next seven games with them.

Boston has the third toughest schedule of remaining game (.555), Tampa has the 4th toughest (.544) and the O’s have the 13th toughest (.509). The three of these teams are all playing each other at least one more series but only the O’s are done with the Jays while Tampa has them for 6 more games and Boston has the Jays for 3 more. 
 

Games left against the East:

 

Boston:

O’s - 7

Rays - 5

Jays - 3

 

Tampa:

Jays - 6

Saux - 5

O’s - 4

 

O’s:

Saux - 7

Rays - 4

 

The Jays have the 20th toughest scheduled remaining (.489) but play the Rays for 6, the Jays for 5 and the Janks for 6.

 

Each of the other ALE teams have at least 15 more games against the division. The schedule makers didn’t do the O’s any favors with these two west coast trips but the O’s are really fortunate to get the Angels when they’re as bad as they are right now. Leaving Anaheim to stop in Boston for three games should tell us a lot about how the last three weeks may go for both the Sawx and the O’s. This is again where I think the schedule makers did not do the O’s any favors. The O’s opened and will close the season with a series against the Saux. Boston being squarely in the playoff mix will factor into the O’s holding off Tampa (and even the Jays given their schedule).

I would feel confident going into that last series if the O’s could have already locked up the Division, which means that they probably need to take at least 6 of these next 9 games against the Angels, Saux and Cards before the four game set with Tampa. Picking up another game on the Rays before playing that series is almost required to avoid losing the division lead should the most catastrophic outcome occur with those four games. Tampa getting Boston then four against Seattle then three at Minnesota really helps the O’s chances of picking up at least one game. Of course the O’s have to take care of business.

These next 26 games are going to be wild.