Down the Stretch - AL Style

[Frayed Knot]

Right, so the league with HF advantage for the WS could change depending on which teams do/don't advance.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Oh! I wasn't aware of that. I thought they had gone back to alternating years.

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Oh! I wasn't aware of that. I thought they had gone back to alternating years.

Nope. Best record between the two leagues winners - so whether the WS starts in the AL or NL city won't necessarily be determined until both LCS are over.
Bud Selig used to claim that couldn't be done because the logistics required much more lead time (he said that even not knowing until the ASG cut it close) but apparently that problem has
been solved now (and they say Trump hasn't done anything yet!!) and so now two days is enough notice.

[Frayed Knot]

Red Sox got crushed by Houston but the Yanx lose also (both were 7:00 games so naturally both just ended).
That clinches at least a tie for the BoSox putting the Yanx in a position where they have to run the table on Fir-Sat-Sun while hoping Houston does the same just to force a play-off game which they'd
have to win just to avoid the one-game WC play-in game.


Didn't see either game but I feel much better about this now than I did a few hours ago when I saw that both the Yanx and Astros had jumped out to early leads.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Yankees-Blue Jays play at 1:05 pm today and if the Yankees lose then I guess the Red Sox can spray champagne in their locker room *before* their 7:10 pm game.

[Frayed Knot]

Spray the champagne, then drink some (maybe with some fried chicken), and then go play the game!!
They can't catch the Astros anyway so WTF


Astros, btw, 1.0 game behind the Indians for best AL record but Cleveland holds the head-to-head tie-breaker so Houston has to win it outright.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Is it me, or have the Yankees had a lot of afternoon games this month?
Friday afternoon? It is Yom Kippur later maybe it's tradition I never really
thought about...

[Frayed Knot]

The Yanx always play their Saturday games in the afternoon and usually one of the games of any given mid-week home series.
Supposedly that stems from the era when no one wanted to go to that part of the Bronx at night and has just lived on.
The Friday game is certainly a new one on me as usually the only place to get Friday day games is at Wrigley where an agreement between the club and the city requires it.
Maybe it's because of Yom Kippur (is it Yom Kippur today?) or maybe they just decided to end the season with three straight day games.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Yom Kippur starts at sundown today.

[Frayed Knot]

Reminds me of the upstate kids at college, many of whom had never heard of Yom Kippur but appreciated it because it got classes canceled for the day.
Thus they referred to it as Yom Hangover.

[Frayed Knot]

Yanx, btw, up 3-0 after 5.
Tanaka was perfect thru 4. Jays finally got an infield single in the 5th and promptly stole 2nd.
Then, with the tying run at bat (was 2-0 at the time), he gets picked off to end the inning.

I keep telling people that other teams put on their 'Stupid' hats whenever they play the Yanx and mostly they keep proving me right.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Frayed Knot wrote: Reminds me of the upstate kids at college, many of whom had never heard of Yom Kippur but appreciated it because it got classes canceled for the day.

That's how it was for me when I was in public school on Long Island. The Jewish holidays were my favorite because I'd have off from school without any religious obligation.

[Frayed Knot]

IIRC the schools in my district didn't close on Jewish holidays at that time, the only difference was that the Jewish kids didn't show up on YK or RH

[Guest d'Kong76]

We had off, days off in September were golden blessings from the man upstairs!

[Frayed Knot]

Yanx win 4-0 as Tanaka K's 15 in 8 innings, so no pre-game clinching/drunkedness for Sox today.
And as much as I'd like to see the Yanx pull out all the stops trying to steal the division only to fall short and spent on Sunday afternoon, it would be real nice if the Sawx can wrap this up
tonight rather than make this weekend a bit too interesting for my tastes.

[Frayed Knot]

Red Sox lose 3-2 to Astros. Lead down to 2 games with two still to play.
The Yanx now need four outcomes to go their way on Saturday and Sunday. Still long odds but not as long as needing six of six like they did a few hours ago.


Astros stay within one game of Cleveland (who are romping in the 9th so we'll assume their win here) for best AL record.

[Frayed Knot]

So the AL is all set.

The Yanx won again as the Blue Jays have apparently put 'Forget How to Hit' on their agenda for this final weekend [1 run, 10 hits, [u:zb259a7a]28 Ks[/u:zb259a7a] over 18 innings]
but the Red Sox came through and clinched the division despite some less than tidy closing action from Mr. Kimbrel at the end (HR & 2B in the 9th)

And the Boston win also means that the Astros can't catch the seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians" for best record so the first round is:
Indians vs WC survivor (Twins @ Yanx)
Astros vs Red Sox - games 1, 2 & 5 in Houston