Or not.
It is, to borrow a word from Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, counterintuitive. Having a huge lead allows the manager to set up his pitching rotation for the postseason and to rest key players down the stretch. But there's a pretty good body of evidence to suggest that's not the advantage it would seem.
Here's what has happened over the last 10 years to the team that finished with the biggest lead in its division:
None won the World Series.
One made it that far.
Four lost in the League Championship Series.
Five were bumped off in the first round.
Take last year, for example. The Angels cruised through the regular season, winning the AL West by 21 games. Then they won only one game in their Division Series against the Red Sox.
This year, even though they went into last night with a 44-16 record since June 11, they haven't been able to completely shake off the Texas Rangers. And, says centerfielder Torii Hunter, that's a good thing.
"You need that push," he explained. "You don't want a 20-game lead and to be so comfortable that you get to the playoffs and lose your mojo. You want to be pushed to the end."
Baseball is a game of focus and concentration. Even big-leaguers, it seems, can lose that intensity if they find themselves in a comfort zone down the stretch instead of having to fight just to make it to the playoffs.
If nothing else, it's a soothing thought for Phillies fans next time the team hits a rough patch.
The hot corner
* Catcher Lou Marson, one of the four minor leaguers the Phillies sent to the Indians in the Cliff Lee trade, is expected to play in the big leagues next year but will ultimately face competition from Carlos Santana, currently at Double A Akron.
