Nobody can say the Major League Baseball’s American League doesn’t offer diversity. Entering Monday’s games, the three teams with the best overall records in MLB were in the American League. The three teams with the worst records were in the American League.
The New York Yankees 50-25, Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros, each 52-27 through Sunday, had the best records.
Milwaukee, 45-32, had the best record in the National League.
The downside teams for the AL were the Chicago White Sox, 26-51, the Baltimore Orioles, 23-53, and the Kansas City Royals, 23-54.
In the National League, the low end belonged to the Miami Marlins who entered Monday 31-47.
From 1951 through 1967, the Chicago White Sox concluded each season with a winning record. The best winning percentage by the Sox in that span were the 94-60 finishes by both the 1954 Sox and the 1959 Sox.
The 1959 Sox captured the American League pennant and went to the World Series before falling in six games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 1954 Sox didn’t have a chance!
The 1954 White Sox ended up nine games in back of the New York Yankees, 103-51. However, the Yankees only finished second! The Cleveland Indians finished 111-43 and eight games in front of the Yankees who had won the World Series five years running prior to 1954.
Baseball, especially the American League, was in a state of flux in 1954. The 1953 St. Louis Browns had become the Baltimore Orioles. The 1954 Philadelphia Athletics ended up in Kansas City the following season.
As good as the Indians were in 1954, they did no good in the World Series. The New York Giants swept the Indians in four games! Four years later, the Giants’ franchise was in San Francisco.
• This season, struggling to gain traction, the White Sox faced the Oakland Athletics in a four-game series through Sunday.
A Thursday rainout forced a Friday doubleheader and the Sox fell, 11-2, before rebounding to take the second game, 6-4.
Saturday, with Dylan Covey on the mound for the Sox, Chicago led 5-0 after one inning. However, control problems betrayed Covey and the A’s roared back to eventually win, 7-6.
Sunday was a bit of a reversal. Trailing 2-0 early, the Sox strung back-to-back five-run innings midway in the game and won, 10-3.