Help Identify Annual Recurring DeadPatches? (w/Pics)

[BinghamtonEd]

I'm new to this forum, and I'm nothing but frustrated with my lawn. I'm happy with the 90% of it that doesn't have the following problem, but the 10% that is effected is such an eyesore...

I live in southern tier NY. Our lawn has no trees, so it's pretty much all full sun most of the day. I use the Scott's 4-step stuff, that's about it. At the beginning of the season, I put down GrubEx.

I have all of these randomly placed patches on my lawn that look horrible. Up until the heat of the summer, the grass looks great. Once we get into the hot/dry part, these patches just seem to die off. This is the third year this has happened. It seems like each year, the same spots are effected, it just gets a bit worse every year. And, come spring, they'll look much better, until the summer again. These are in the middle of the lawn, so it seems to rule anything running off the house or whatever. And, on top of it, neither one of the neighbors on either side has this problem (although the guy on the one side just lets his lawn get overrun by weeds).

Any clues as to what this might be? I'm not sure what to do about it, either. My plan, within the next week, is to mow the grass short, rake out the dead patches to expose bare dirt, and overseed the whole lawn, using the Scott's "Sunny Mix" (since there's no shade).

Pictures are attached, thanks for looking!