This week in baseball: Almost everywhere you look in the AL, there’s mediocrity to be found
Brice Turang’s homer in the ninth inning gave Milwaukee a three-game sweep of the New Yankees and was the latest example of an early-season trend. The American League has been taking it on the chin. By the end of the night Sunday, only three AL teams had a winning record, and one of them was the Athletics, who were only two games above .
500. The Rays (26-13) and Yankees (26-15) are the only junior circuit teams that have been really impressive, and the latter ran into quite a roadblock against the NL Central’s Brewers. If the season ended now, the last two AL wild cards would be the White Sox and Rangers, who are both 19-21.
Eleven AL teams are under . 500. That’s the most through May 10 of any league in the divisional play era, according to Sportradar.
The 2019 AL and the 2012 and 2010 NL each had nine teams under . 500 at this point in the year. Part of what makes this scenario possible is the proliferation of interleague play.
The NL is 107-82 against the AL this season for a . 566 winning percentage. The best interleague season was when the AL had a .