July will soon give way to August, the All-Star break is history and Major League Baseball is three series deep into the second half of the season. Fans across the nation are starting to hunker down in front of their televisions and radios in anticipation of what should prove to be another exciting second session of baseball, and like the head of an ice-cold ballpark beer, the real-life drama that is the American League East has predictably risen to the top of baseball discussions.
Last May and into June, the Orioles were dominating the AL East, sitting on top of the division with a comfortable lead over both the Yankees and the Red Sox. Meanwhile, New York and Boston were bemoaning their ever-growing disabled lists and blaming everything and everyone for less-than-stellar starts to the season.
New York suffered somewhat longer than Boston, as the Sox cleaned up their clumsy 12-11 start and went 16-9 in the month of June. The Yankees, however, could not find the same spark, ending June teetering on the edge of .500 at 36-38. Yet ever since the Orioles began their "I-told-you-so" mid-season collapse, fans in New York and Boston have been singing a different tune.
The Yankees, coming off a scorching 7-2 record in their final nine games before the All-Star break, have cooled down their bats and started the second half of the season with a barely over .500 record of 6-5. Perhaps the sour taste of taking only one game in their series with the red-hot Los Angeles Angels will produce some more of that familiar pre-break, hard-hitting Yankees baseball.
Hard-hitting it will have to be, as the Yankees' pitching woes continue with the news that both Kevin Brown and Carl Pavano will be missing their next scheduled starts.
Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina have been the only two reliable starters since the beginning of the season, and although the addition of Al Leiter from the Florida Marlins seems to have bolstered their rotation, the Yankees cannot rely on their slugging and an aging pitcher with a season ERA of 6.43 to save them from being pummeled by opponents.
Speaking of woes, the Baltimore Orioles have awoken from their pre-break winning slumber to the harsh reality that they have to play well for 162 games, not 81. The Orioles -- yes, the very same Orioles that some were predicting had all the necessary elements to win the division and even go to the World Series -- suddenly seem stoppable. After splitting a four-game series against Seattle, they have amassed a pitiful 3-8 record. They have lost every series since then, with a record highlighted by a thorough trouncing at the hands of the basement-dwelling Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Unlike the Yankees, the Orioles cannot rely on simply out-slugging their opponents. Sammy Sosa, who just recently tied Frank Robinson for fifth on the all-time career home run list with 586 dingers, has been the lone shining star on an otherwise dull and dismal Orioles lineup, which is batting an mediocre .275 overall. If they want to stay in the hunt for the division crown, they need to take Sosa's lead and start producing runs for their starters.
And then there's the reigning World Champion Boston Red Sox -- the almighty "curse" breakers. After losing a close series to the Yanks following the break, they went on to beat Tampa Bay and split a series with the best team in baseball, the Chicago White Sox. The Red Sox need to take advantage of playing six out of 10 games against Tampa Bay and start building some semblance of a division lead. Their unimpressive 7-7 start is the last way to clinch a division title.
The Yankees are only half-a-game back, and things do not look promising with an injured Curt Schilling blowing saves and All-Star pitcher Matt Clement being placed on the DL after getting rocked by a line drive to the head. The Sox, like the Yankees, are in dire need of healthy players, and if they want to see the green of the infield instead of the fairway come September, they need to start playing last year's baseball.
Delving into the depths of what seems to be eternal mediocrity, we turn to the Toronto Blue Jays. The major blow to the Jays has been the loss of 2003 Cy Young winner Roy Halladay, who suffered a broken leg from a brutally hard-hit line drive. Despite this crushing blow to the rotation, the Jays have managed to get their offense in gear, scoring 44 runs in their last five wins, all against division opponents. If they can bring some consistency to their run production, they have a legitimate shot at clawing their way to a wild card spot.
The big surprise, however, has come from the basement-dwelling Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Devil Rays have shown no signs that they even slightly resemble the same team that played the first half of the season, starting off the second act with a spectacular 8-3 record, including a sweep of the Orioles. And this all comes despite being 20-plus games back at the break and bidding adieu to right-hander Hideo Nomo in the process.
With a decent showing at home against the Red Sox, the Devil Rays should start turning heads, even though they still trail the Sox by 18.5 games. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how long they can keep this streak of phenomenally good baseball alive. Although they might be out of contention, they still have plenty of division games on the schedule, and they can certainly make a difference in the big picture.
