Lets get it on! (again)

Well boys and girls in a ten game sprint. Yankees win more than the Red Sox they are going to the party. They win the same amount and they go to the party. The Sox win one more than the Yanks and we go to a play-off (if the Wildcard comes from the Central, if not then the winner of the season series will take the East and the higher seed in the play-offs, current record is 9-7 Yanks) and if the Sox win two or more games than the Yankees then the Fenway lot will be those looking forward to cold crisp October nights of baseball, simple eh?

On August 21st this race was over, well according to Neil H anyways, ‘The Yankees are a 540 team, they will pretty much win 54% of their games rest of the way in - teams tend not to change their character 120 games into the season.’ I replied, ‘The Yanks throughout the season have never had a settled rotation, we seem to be edging towards it. We aren't firing on all cylinders that is for sure but I don't think we are that far behind the Red Sox.’ It ended up with, ‘So suddenly Randy will become real Randy, Mussina will be solid, Chacon will keep up his Cy Young impression, Al Leiter will be steady etc, etc, etc - no one is saying that you are that far behind, it is only one game every ten days you need to make up, but there is nothing in the record to suggest that you are about to be a good team - not saying the Sox are either, but we have the advantage.’

Well I think that advantage has swung. Neil H said the season would be well over by the final three game set at Fenway but I think he may of changed his mind since he said that just one small month ago. Randy when he hasn’t been tossed has been great, Mussina looked superb last night and Wang went very well in his last start. Those three are slated to pitch for the good guys in that final series but Neil H will contest their last starts as they were against a poor hitting Orioles line-up.

Chacon is keeping up his Cy Young impression and Al Leiter, well until the 8th last night he’d been doing a job for the Yankees. The Yankees have overnight become a very good team, when bit part players are stepping up then you know things are going right, it isn’t as though the Sox have sucked down the stretch, they haven’t, the Yanks are just playing great ball just like the Tribe.

We have ten short rounds and the last three will be giant, for once it isn’t just about pride, it is about October. The wildcard looks set to come out of the AL Central for the first time so one of the two ball clubs will probably miss out on the party, now no-one saw that coming.

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