Need look no further than the temporary blog on the Sox (following a
column by Jacob Luft)
over at Sports Illustrated, at this link:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si...r-champion.html

In article <1159481885.028964.240730@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups. com>,
yougotlucky215@yahoo.com wrote:



Thanks for the URL. I think the consensus all around is that the
pitching wasn't nearly as strong (4.64 ERA vs 3.61 last year).

Although I'm not sure I understood the metric about defense, I had
been wondering what defense that had played.

An interesting stat, in my opinion, was record in one-run games.

Last season, the team was 35-19 (.648) in one run games, and 64-44
(.593) in games decided by 2+ runs. The winning percentage differential
amounted to three extra wins. This season, the corresponding numbers
are 66-50 (.569) and 22-21 (.512). The winning percentage differential
amounted to two fewer wins.

That net differential of five wins (+3 vs. -2) accounts for nore than
half the difference in overall winning percentage last year vs. this
year.

In article <1159481885.028964.240730@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups. com>,
yougotlucky215@yahoo.com wrote:



Thanks for the URL. I think the consensus all around is that the
pitching wasn't nearly as strong (4.64 ERA vs 3.61 last year).

Although I'm not sure I understood the metric about defense, I had
been wondering what role defense had played.

An interesting stat, in my opinion, was record in one-run games.

Last season, the team was 35-19 (.648) in one run games, and 64-44
(.593) in games decided by 2+ runs. The winning percentage differential
amounted to three extra wins. This season, the corresponding numbers
are 66-50 (.569) and 22-21 (.512). The winning percentage differential
amounted to two fewer wins.

That net differential of five wins (+3 vs. -2) accounts for nore than
half the difference in overall winning percentage last year vs. this
year.