Schmitty pretty much just summed it all up his last post. I just wanted to take a second to show a visual of this improbable season. I broke down the AL East records by month:
There really isn’t much to say except for thanks to the Red Sux for the EPIC FAIL! I will say though that if you look at the numbers, the Rays came on really strong for the last two months of the season. The Rays tied the Tigers for the best record in the AL for the month of August, and they had the third best record in the AL for the month of September behind the Tigers and the Rangers. It is also worth noting that with the exception of 4 games for the rays and 3 games for the Sux against the Rangers, all of the September games were intra-divisional!
I also want to take a moment to say a special Thank You to Mr. BJ Upton for waking up and deciding to play some baseball. The following is a look at BJ’s production for September, along with his production for the rest of the year. “Wait, aren’t you the one who was complaining about BJ Upton just a few short months ago?” Yes, I was, and although I will thank him for his contribution in September, and hopefully in October, I still stand by my comments. As you can see by the chart below, although he had great numbers in September, his production for the first 5 months of the year were abysmal!
I find it interesting that BJ was able to produce about 1/3 of his yearly number in the month of September. I know we are all on a high after what the Rays did this season, but the reality is that if BJ had been putting up these kind of number all season long, in my opinion, we would not have had to sweat the last month of the season like we had to.
Anyways, enough with the negative, lets look forward to the Playoffs and hope that we can continue to play as hot as we have been for the last two months! And as always… LET’S GO RAYS!!