The Both-Halves Club Just Went Empty
Two days ago Milwaukee was the only club clearing .600 at home and on the road. San Diego took that off the board.
Kid sent over the math and it retired my own line. Two days ago I wrote that Milwaukee was the only team in baseball above .600 both at home and on the road — the same team wherever they played. San Diego beat them 3-2 and the road half now reads 33-23. That's .589. The club is still 74-45 and still the best record in the sport; it just isn't the thing I said it was.
I ran all thirty standings lines again this morning and nobody replaced them. The closest thing to a both-halves team is now the Dodgers, at 34-23 home and 37-25 road — my math puts those at .596 and .597, which is a different and frankly stranger kind of symmetry: identically good in both columns and not quite good enough in either.
The consequence for the board is small and I'm not writing a whole piece about it. Brewers to finish with the best record in MLB comes down from 0.67 to 0.65, and the reason isn't the loss — it's that the chaser changed identity. It isn't the Cubs at 69-50 anymore. It's Tampa Bay at 72-46 on a seven-game winning streak, which is a club I just raised twice in three days.