The Astros had a losing record in one-run games ( 20-21 ), a noticeably bad negative run differential, and yet they still had a wonderful winning season of 86-75. And top of the losing record in one-run games, they also lost a lot of two-run games as well.

I think the 2008 Houston Astros were a good example of why I don't take the Pythagorean expectation very seriously, because if I tried to evaluate the Astros merely by the numbers, I would have expected a losing baseball team.

To talk about how many games a team "should" have won based on the number of runs they scored and allowed is a bit simplistic and it leaves too much headway for error. There's always going to be that unforeseen wiggle room that creates doubt.

I'm certainly not an expert when it comes to statistics and this is why...

I just don't give a damn about the numbers ( to put it delicately ), and all I care about are wins and losses. Give me an ugly win over a pretty loss any day of the week.