When you scan the daily headlines in baseball these days, you can almost overlook the fact that there are games actually being played. The irony of that is that in the competitive context of the 2020 campaign, each of those games means more, on average, than in any season that has come before.
You've heard the multiplier 2.7 mentioned time and again since MLB landed on a 60-game schedule in this pandemic-ravaged season. That's how much each game is worth in relation to a normal 162-game season. Through Monday, the most games any one team has played is 11, yet the schedule is already more than 15% complete. Actually, it's probably more than that, because it seems improbable that baseball will be able to make up all the games that have already been postponed, not to mention the postponements we suspect are still to come.
Consider the red-hot New York Yankees, who after beating the Phillies on Monday night had won seven straight and eight of nine overall. If you slap that 2.7 multiplier on the Bombers' record and round off the numbers, that translates to a 22-3 start. The Rays, largely considered to be New York's primary challenger for the AL East crown, have stumbled to an offense-challenged 4-6 mark, but magnified by the 2.7 lens, that's 11-16. You can look at Tampa Bay as already being 12 games behind New York in the standings. Game, set and match, right?
