Waiting for the Sox to wilt
A college buddy and I have been razzing each other about which team is more likely to collapse this month, the Yankees or the Red Sox. He predicted a Yankees meltdown before the Democratic Party convention, and I pointed out that the Red Sox were the team that typically has a problem in August. Then he has to go and rub my face in the fact that the Red Sox have won two World Series titles since 2000, whereas the Yankees have only two AL championships in that timeframe (2001 and 2003), and no World Series wins. But Dan, that wasn’t my point. I was only talking about August. So let’s look at the stats, provided by Baseball Almanac.
| Sox Record on 7/31 |
Sox Record on 8/31 |
Total for August | Yankees Record on 7/31 |
Yankees Record on 8/31 |
Total for August | |
| 2001 | 60-45 | 71-62 | 11-17 | 64-42 | 79-56 | 15-14 |
| 2002 | 63-43 | 75-58 | 12-15 | 67-39 | 84-50 | 17-11 |
| 2003 | 63-44 | 78-58 | 15-14 | 66-40 | 83-52 | 17-12 |
| 2004 | 56-46 | 77-53 | 21-7 | 65-38 | 81-50 | 16-12 |
| 2005 | 59-45 | 77-54 | 18-9 | 56-47 | 75-57 | 19-10 |
| 2006 | 63-41 | 72-62 | 9-21 | 61-41 | 79-53 | 18-12 |
| 2007 | 64-42 | 80-55 | 16-13 | 57-49 | 75-60 | 18-11 |
| Combined August Records |
102-96 | 120-82 |
So you see, Dan, over the last seven years the Yankees are 38 games over .500 in August, whereas the Red Sox are a mere 6 games over .500. I admit this year is looking a bit grim for the Bombers, but history is on our side.
