Baseball is Among Us

Spring is here, and that means it’s baseball season. It started on April 5^th with a 3-0 win of the St Louis Cardinals over the Chicago Cubs. It has been a great season thus far.

Through the first 25 games, New York Yankees lead the American League East, Detroit Tigers lead the AL Central, Houston Astros lead the AL West, New York Mets lead the National League East, St. Louis Cardinals lead the NL Central, and the Los Angeles Dodgers lead the NL West. The Cardinals have the best record in the league at 18-6, and the Milwaukee Brewers have the worst record at 7-18.

The Washington Nationals, a preseason favorite to win the NL East, is surprisingly fourth in their division, losing 14 of their first 26 games. This could be because they as a team are hitting .235, and hitting .243 with runners in scoring position (54/222). They have scored only 4.04 runs per game. Their best position players, Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman, are hitting .261 and .221, respectively.

The hottest team in the league right now are the Houston Astros. They are 18-7, and have won 10 in a row. They have scored the fourth most runs (125) in the American League. They also have the second lowest earned run average (3.12) in the AL.

Adam Jones (Baltimore) and Adrian Gonzalez (Los Angeles Dodgers) have been hot this season with batting averages of .402, and .362, respectively.  According to ESPN, Jones has 5 home runs, while Gonzalez has 8 home runs. Jones has 21 runs batted in, while Gonzalez has 20 runs batted in.

On April 29, 2015, Major League Baseball played its first game with no fans in attendance between the Chicago White Sox at the Baltimore Orioles, with the Orioles winning 8-2.

There were no fans because of rioting in Baltimore. Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter quotes on the game to ESPN’s Mike and Mike: “I could hear the phone ringing down in the bullpen from our dugout. There was no mascot. Why do you need a mascot? … You realize all the things you do for the fans … and how they make what you do matter.”