Down the Stretch - AL version

[Frayed Knot]

- Angels can clinch as soon as tonight (heh, heh)

- Sawx and Rays play their 2nd of three (Kazmir vs Matsuzaka) where Boston can knock Tampa out of the top spot where they've been virtually every day since late June.

- Minnesota starting to look shakey for both the Central title and the WC

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Phil Humber may live to haunt another doomed stretch run. His '08 debut with the Twins the other day featured two inherited runs scoring and a run of his own.

[Frayed Knot]

- Tough day for the ChiSox. They drop a pair to suddenly red-hot Toronto while the Twins win their game, chopping a 2.5 game lead down to 1 in just a few hours.
Also, after just recently losing 3B Joe Crede and MVP-candidate OFer Carlos Quentin, 1Bman Paul Konerko grabbed his knee and crumbled to the ground on a fielding play.

- In Boston the Sox rallied in the 8th to go ahead and handed a 1-run lead to Papelbon ... who promptly gave up HR - 2B - 2B to blow the save.
Percival left the tying run on in the bottom and the TB lead is back to 1.5 games.

[Frayed Knot]

East: TB beats Sox in 14 innings, jumps to 2.5 GA of Boston
Tor = 9.5, MFY = 11.0

Central: ChiSox & Twins both win. Sox stay 1 game up

West: Angels clinch.
The only part that sucked is that they had to wait for Texas's loss in a later start so the jumping around didn't take place w/the Yanx on the field.

WC:
Boston up by 5 over Twins
Toronto 7 back
Yanx 8.5 back

[Guest AG/DC]

These marquee matchups are something for the Rays. They can go into the playoffs not only young, hungry, and talented, but battle-hardened.

How are they selling these days? Is the Rays Phenomenon in full effect?

[Frayed Knot]

Down to two races in the AL, and really only one of them means anything.

- In the East it's Tampa & Boston where the winner gets the East title and loser gets the WC.
Sawx are a game behind (2 extra losses) as they start a series tonight in Tampa-land.
BP's playoff odds projection has Tampa approx a 2-1 favorite to hang onto the lead.
Tampa just brought up last year's #1 overall draft pick, LHP David Price. He pitched 5.1 innings of 2-run/3-hit ball yesterday against the Yanx in his ML debut.

- The Central's got the more interesting race since the loser almost certainly goes home.
ChiSox tried to make it more interesting last night by blowing the 7-0 lead they had heading into the 7th capped off by an 8th inning GS. But the Tigers returned the favor by playing the Kyle Farnsworth card which means a GS was served up in the bottom of the inning too and the lead was back to 4.
Chicago has a 1-1/2 game lead as they pull into da Bronx for 4 games.
BP makes them about a 3-1 favorite to hold off Minnesota who head to Cleveland for 3 games.

[Gwreck]

The last 3 Tampa/Boston games start tonight.

The season series is tied at 7-7. In the event that the teams wind up tied, the winner of the season series will be the East Division Champ (and will play MIN/CWS), and the loser will be the Wild Card (and play LAA).

[HahnSolo]

I think TB has an 8-7 edge on the Sox. They split their first 12 games, then the Rays won 2 of 3 in Fenway last week. What happens if they wind up tied, and they tie the season series, which would be the case if Boston wins 2 of 3 here?

[Gwreck]

Hey, looks like I can't count.

If they are tied after head-to-head record, the next tiebreaker is record against division opponents.

[Frayed Knot]

ChiSox lose and so does Mini-soda so no change there.


Boston beats Tampa crushing Kazmir for 9 runs in 3 innings -- virtual 1st place tie.

[Elster88]

Seven up in the wild card.

[Frayed Knot]

Twins score 5 in the 9th to beat the Rays ruining Evan Longoria's 3 HR night. Twins aren't dying easily, the other day they came back from a 7-0 defecit to the seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians" only to lose it in extras.

And the ChiSox lost tonight (to some team that plays in the Bronx) so Ozzie's south-siders lose a full game off their lead (now down 1.5) while Tampa gives back a half game to the idle BoSox and also lead by 1.5.

Boston still has a 6.5 game lead in the WC

[Gwreck]

The magic number for Tampa to clinch a playoff spot has to be down to about 2 or 3 at this point.

The magic number to eliminate the 3rd place team in the East is 2; to eliminate the last team behind Boston in the WC race is 4.

[Frayed Knot]

Tampa thumps Twins
BoSox beat Toronto
ChiSox win


So the AL East race stays the same -- 1-1/2 game lead for Rays
Chicago's lead in the Central jumps to 2-1/2


The Rays-Twins game featured the first ever replay over-rule.
Rays 1B Carlos Pena had a double turned into a HR when the review showed his hit had bounced off a fan and back onto the field

[Gwreck]

Tampa clinched their playoff spot today.

Really happy for this guy:

[Frayed Knot]

That's three post-seasons in a row for Cliffy

2006 Mets
2007 Cubs
2008 Rays

[Frayed Knot]

While the BoSox were clinching a spot last night the Rays were winning a pair from Bal'mer so that pretty much ends any specualtion about an ALEast race.
Rays are 3 up and each has 5 to play and, with Tampa holding the tie-breaker for season series, their magic number is down to 2.


Twins beat the ChiSox in the first of their head-to-head series, chopping the Chicago lead down to 1.5.
6 games left for Chicago, 5 for Minny.
7 favorable (for Twins) outcomes in those 11 games forces a one-game playoff as the loser has no shot at the WC. More than that Minnesota is in, few and the White Sox are.

Angels with a 2-game lead on Tampa for overall best record but Rays win the tie-breaker (6-3) there too.

[Gwreck]

Even if Tampa gets best overall record (rather than the Angels) it won't have any impact on the first-round matchups:

East Division winner v. Central Division Winner
Angels v. Wild Card

[Frayed Knot]

The lone remaining race in the AL was whittled to a 1/2 game lead as the Twins win their second straight from the White Sox.
One more head-to-head for those teams tonight.

Then the Twins finish it out against the Royals while Chicago gets Cleveland (and Cliff Lee to close it out) plus they have a rain makeup with Detroit to be played if necessary.

[Frayed Knot]

Both Minnesota and the ChiSox got their butts kicked last night by KC and Cleveland respectively.
That's 5 in a row for Ozzie and his south-siders.

Lead remains 1/2 game in favor of the Twins and it's looking like Chicago's rain make-up vs Detroit may have to be played on Monday.

[Gwreck]

Both teams lost, again.

Here's your Sunday scenario:

Twins win, White Sox lose = Twins clinch.

Both teams win OR both teams lose = Twins go into Monday up a half game.
White Sox win, Twins lose = White Sox go into Monday up a half game.

Either of the latter two scenarios requires a rainout makeup game: Tigers at White Sox at 1:05 PM CDT on Monday. The White Sox would either be playing to force a tiebreaker, or to clinch, depending.

If the tiebreaker game is necessary, it will be Tuesday in Chicago.

[Frayed Knot]

Well, somebody is playing baseball on Monday.

The Twins & ChiSox both won today, meaning that the Twins finish 1/2 game ahead and that 2008's biggest disappointment, the Detroit Tigers, get their vacation delayed by a day as they have to make up an earlier rain-out with the ChiSox.

If Chicago wins that they then will have to go up against the Twins on Tuesday for a one-game play-off for the AL Central.

[Frayed Knot]

And not that it has anything to do with the AL post-season set-up, but I'm getting a kick out of the fact that the Yanx & Sawx are still playing at this moment - and playing totally meaningless games at that.

They got rained out last yesterday and the Sox insisted on making this a day/night DH (on account of being sold-out through like 2045). Then the start of that was delayed by rain as well and now the 2nd game has gone to extra-innings.

[Frayed Knot]

And the Sox/Tigers rainout makeup game which might or might not lead into a play-in game on Tuesday with the Twins is itself being delayed by rain.

I believe this specific AL playoff (against Rays whoever it is) isn't scheduled to begin until Thursday so there's no immediate concern in Bud/network-land.

[Frayed Knot]

ChiSox get a late game Grand Slam from IF Alexi Ramirez (and man was he happy!!) to win their game 162 and now host the Twinkies Tuesday for the right to head to Tampa on Thursday.

[Fman99]

I am bitter towards any team that is lucky enough to have hitters who, you know, get big hits for their team at the end of the season when they need them to gain a playoff spot.

Just saying.

[Frayed Knot]

And the Chicago White Sox are your AL Central Division Champeens.
Win a 1-0 combined 2-hitter with the only run coming on a ridiculously long 7th inning Jim Thome HR.