A few years ago, I watched an interview. Vin Scully, the Hall of Fame broadcaster, was the guest. The host asked Mr. Scully about the Dodgers performance in the 2015 season. The Dodgers fell to the Mets in the 2015 NLDS. Mr. Scully indicated a very great point, which was that the Dodgers didn’t play well against .500 teams or better. Indeed, the Dodgers won 28 games and lost 37 times in 2015 while playing against .500 teams or better.
I went to check on the baseball reference website to see which team is great at playing against .500 teams or better.
The Houston Astros are currently leading in the AL West and they are really good at playing against .500 teams or above. The Astros already collected 45 wins while playing against .500 teams or above.
Meanwhile, the Padres are playing well against teams with a winning percentage of .500 or over and they already won 32 games. But, at this moment, the Padres are 13 games behind the Giants and 10.5 games behind the Dodgers. What really happened? The Padres won 36 games and lost 36 games while playing against teams with a winning percentage under .500. The Padres haven’t gained too much advantage against losing teams.
In addition, the Giants are leading the majors with 80 wins. Among these 80 wins, they won 34 times when playing against teams with a winning percentage of .500 or over.
In the meantime, the Tampa Bay Rays, the 2020 AL pennant winner, are also having a great season. They have already won 77 games so far and currently lead in the AL East. By far, the Rays collected 42 wins against .500 teams or over.
The Yankees are probably the hottest team in the MLB now because they collected 22 wins over the last 30 games. The Yankees are 2nd in the AL East and 4.5 games behind the Rays. So far, the Yankees took 41 wins against .500 teams or over. Nonetheless, there are still some tough series for the Yankees in September. They will host the Blue Jays from September 6 to September 9. Additionally, they will have to visit the Red Sox and the Blue Jays. And, for the final series, they will have to face the Rays at Yankee stadium from October 1 to October 3.
Moreover, the Brewers, the Red Sox and the Blue Jays each post an above .500 winning percentage against winning teams.
However, the Braves are the leader in the NL East and they won 26 games against .500 teams or over while losing 30 times. The White Sox already won more than 70 games, but they only defeated winning teams 27 times while losing 31 games.
Finally, how about the Dodgers? Well, the 2020 World Series champion won 27 games against .500 teams or over, nevertheless, they lost 29 times. In particular, the Dodgers only won 3 games against the Padres and lost 7 times. It will be interesting to see whether the Dodgers can post a winning percentage over .500 against .500 teams or over at the end of the 2021 regular season.
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