Sunday, June 1, 2014

THIRD COUSIN OF SLOW DRIP: INTERLEAGUE PLAY STEAMS INTO JUNE

The American League won 41 of 69 interleague contests in May.

They were 22-12 at home, 19-16 on the road.

The AL continues to enjoy a bit of a schedule advantage: they've played 55 games against sub-.500 opposite-league competition, as opposed to just 50 for the NL.

The AL has gone 36-19 in those games, while the NL has posted only a 27-23 mark in theirs.

The Yankees were the team who played the most interleague games in May, a total of thirteen. At one point hey lost four in a row (two on the road to the Brewers, two at home to the Mets) but finished 7-6 for the month.

The Phillies went 0-6 in interleague games during May, and are now 1-8 for the year.

The Braves met the reeling Red Sox (nine straight losses) in a home-and-home interleague series, and gave Boston a shot in the arm, dropping all four contests.

The Royals might want to petition for a permanent move to the NL; they went 4-1 in interleague contests during May, in a month that was otherwise quite lackluster for them.

The first full week of June (2nd through 8th) features the highest concentration of interleague games, with a total of 20,

No Yankees to be found in interleague play during June, while the Braves will play eight interleague games this month.

The Cardinals and the Astros, however, have the most interleague games in June, with nine.

Who's ona rampage in interleague play this year? Nelson Cruz has 5 HRs in seven interleague games, with a slugging average of 1.071 thus far.

Meanwhile, Buster Posey continues to struggle in these games: he's 4-for-22 (.182) so far this year and is hitting .186 lifetime in interleague contests. (The Giants are 6-0 in interleague games anyway.)