Interleague play came at the perfect time for the Detroit Tigers - and the rest of the American League may be paying the price for the remainder of the season.
The Tigers, like the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels, have gotten fat against the National League the past 10 games. The Tigers entered the interleague portion of the schedule at 26-31, riddled with injuries and looking like they may never find their groove. But find it they have against the NL, running off a 7-3 record to pull back to a game under .500, and now that the Tigers are rolling a bit they aren't likely to slow down, even when they return to AL competition.
The Yankees are slamming the NL as well. They swept the AL East-leading Nationals in Washington the other day, and own a 10-1 record in their last ten against the NL.
The Angels had turned things around before they hit interleague play, but LA has beaten up on the National Leaguers too, with an 8-3 record. The Angels haven't made up ground on the Rangers, however, because Texas has gone 9-2 in recent interleague games.
The AL leads the overall interleague series, eith 109 AL wins against 82 wins for the National League. That's 27 games over .500 for the AL, with the Tigers, Yankees, Rangers and Angels accounting for 24 of those 27 games (34-10).
New York, Detroit, Texas and LA haven't necessarily been the best teams in the American League this year - Baltimore is hot on New York's trail, the Tigers are still third place in their own division, LA struggled badly the first two months and Texas has even hit some hiccups. But those four are, without a doubt, the top teams in the AL in terms of superstars and pure talent.
There are some really good teams in the National League that present some unique challenges to AL foes. NL teams are plucky and quick and play tight defense and have a lot of crafty pitchers that don't throw as hard. Teams like that are tough, but teams like that get overwhelmed when they face teams like New York and Detroit that feature multiple hall of famers.
Teams with top talent tend to rise to the top over the course of a season, even when those teams are dealing with other roster flaws, or injuries. It's why the Yankees are in the playoffs each year, even in years like the past couple when they haven't had particularly strong teams. It's why the Tigers outlasted the Indians last year, and why they will probably do it again this year.
But there's enough familiarity and toughness amongst the rest of the American League to match up head-to-head with the big boys in the league on a nightly basis. But asking NL teams like the Cubs and Pirates and Rockies to hang in there against C.C. Sabathia, Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols, Josh Hamitlon, and the other AL studs day-in, day-out? You're gonna see some bloated AL win-loss records.
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