Hello, Darkness: 50 games in, it’s deja vu all over again

The 2018 Blue Jays season started off completely opposite to the one that preceded it. Whereas the 2017 Blue Jays dug themselves an ultimately insurmountable hole in the first couple weeks of the season, this year’s edition jumped out of the gate (albeit after a slight stumble) to the extent that playing .500 ball the rest of the season would likely keep them in the wild card hunt all summer.

But as the chart below shows, the divergent starts have yielded to converging fortunes so that after 50 games we’re in the same spot:

The chart below uses winning percentage so lines are smoother, but the fundamental wedge pattern is the same:

As if ending up at the same place as a year ago weren’t bad enough, the Jays are actually in worse position this year than last, as they’re 11 games out of the division and 6.5 behind the second wild card. After the 50th game on May 28, 2017, it was just 7.5 and 3.0 games, respectively.

The 2017 Blue Jays swept the Reds to end May over games 51 to 53 before their line went flat for three weeks before plunging.