American League Breakdown and Review/US ease past Jamaica

American League Breakdown and Review

The Baseball season has been very competitive and interesting thus far. My favorite team in the whole world The Boston Red Sox has dominated The American League during the last month. The AL leading MVP candidate Adrian Gonzalez has showed baseball that switching leagues hasn’t effect his approach or impact on the game because he is leading all of baseball with a ridiculous batting average of .348. With the most feared lineup in baseball, I found it hard for any AL team to compete with the surging Red Sox. John Lester and Josh Beckett (who is leading baseball in ERA with an average of 1.86) have proven that they are the two aces that the Red Sox will need in order to make an impactful October run to the trophy.

 In the AL Central, The Detroit Tigers are leading the division behind CY Young favorite Justin Verlander. I have been heavily impressed with the performance of Verlander because he has the distinct ability to be in the running for a no hitter in about one of his every five starts. Justin Verlander is tied for the most wins in baseball along with his teammate Max Scherzer. The Cleveland Indians have been a nice surprise in the AL Central, but has fallen back to earth with a horrendous June. I still feel that The Minnesota Twins will win this division because star catcher Joe Mauer is on his way back from being injured for the majority of the season. The pitching staff for the Twins is starting to look like their reading to fight for the division that they have owned for numerous years.

The AL West looks like its going to be a tight race until the very end. There are only five games that separate all the teams in the division. On paper, The Texas Rangers have the most talented team with a great lineup that includes   AL MVP Josh Hamilton, Adriane Beltre, Michael Young, Nelson Cruz, and Elvis Andrus. The team with the best pitching by far in that division is The Seattle Mariners. The Seattle Mariners have a deadly and I mean deadly one two punch at the top of their staff in CY Young winner Felix Hernandez and the young ace Michael Pineda. The Mariners have to get better offensively because as a team they are hitting under .228 for the year which is at the bottom of the majors. Even though the Angels are three games under 500, they are just three games back entering today’s play. The Angels only have one player in their lineup hitting over 300 which is Howard Kendrick.  I just wonder as a pitching staff, will Jared Weaver and Dan Haren be enough to hold off the power of The Texas Rangers. I like the Oakland A’s, but I think their youth and lack production in their line up will eventually placed them out of this close and intense AL West race.

Next Week, I will break down the National League division by division.

Stay Tuned, video blogs from NateReySports are coming soon to all our viewers.

US ease past Jamaica
After a final group stage game against Guadeloupe that didn’t impress at all, the US stepped up their game in their quarterfinal matchup against Jamaica in a convincing 2-0 victory. They made a very questionable choice in benching veteran Landon Donavon and instead starting new comer Alejandro Bedoya. They also received a big loss when star striker Jozy Altidore pulled his hamstring causing him to immediately leave the game. However none of this seemed to hurt them.

The first half ended 0-0 but in the second half the US played even better. Jermaine Jones’ shot was deflected in to make it 1-0 USA in the 49^th minute. Clint Dempsey could have doubled the lead when his header from 2 feet out was punched away at the line by keeper Donovan Ricketts. However in the 80^th minute Dempsey would receive a neat cross from young Juan Agudelo as he then rounded the keeper and scored into an empty net to make it 2-0 USA. The game ended with Jamaica surprisingly never seriously threatening the US goal. After personally watching them outplay Honduras in every way with a 1-0 victory, this came as a shock.

Jamaica demolished lowly Grenada 4-0 in their opening match then defeated Guatemala 2-0. They defeated Honduras 1-0 and could not convert a penalty kick missing the easy chance of going up 2.       Regardless, they defended and passed the ball very well. The chances they created were also impressive. However against the United States they seemed too afraid to play their game. Physically the Jamaicans are tougher but mentally the Americans seemed to intimidate them. This factor plus home field gave the Americans the edge the needed to grab the victory.

They will now face Panama in a rematch from the group stage as they meet in the semi-finals later this week. The US will not only look to make the final but will also hope to avenge their first ever group stage loss in their history of the competition. They will be better prepared. By winning the semi-final they will play Mexico or Honduras in the final. In 2009 the US lost in New Jersey to Mexico 5-0 and if they are to meet again, the Americans will definitely have revenge on their minds. All five goals were scored in the second half and that made it unbearable. The US has to step up their game even more against a Panama side that have much less to lose then they do. It should be an exciting matchup so watch and enjoy fellow viewers. Next week I will analyze the winning semi-finalist’s performances. Stay tuned and keep watching Soccer.