By this time next Monday, you will know whether your
2014 Carmine Hose are defenders or pretenders—or more precisely, whether they are buyers or sellers. Their next seven games are against AL East teams that are ahead of them—four games with Toronto at
SkyDome (
RogersCentre this) and three against the Rays at the
MostPulpDome. If they don't win
both series (a
minimum of 5 out of 7), you can kiss this campaign goodbye. If they
do take five of those key road games, they will
still be only 51-54 with 57 games to play. If you figure that a
bare minimum of 88 wins
might get you the
Second Wild Card, then they have to go 37-20 for the rest of the year—
a .649 winning percentage. They are currently winning at a .469 clip—
and that's after winning seven out of their last eight. Is it possible for them to crawl back into this? Sure, after all, the Rays did as much in 2011. Going into the games of July 21, 2011, Tampa had just 51 wins—
then they won 40 more games to finish at 91-71 (a .606 clip). They got the Wild Card on the last day (remember?), then lost to the Rangers in the ALDS.
So, you're saying we got a chance???!!! Sort of.
