Posted on 09/30/2005 7:32:46 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
Compared to last October, this weekend's scenario probably doesn't seem all that bad to the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox.
Down one game with three to play, the Red Sox will try to stage another dramatic comeback against the archrival New York Yankees when the teams open their big series at Fenway Park.
``It's going to be three Super Bowl games,'' Boston's Kevin Millar said. ``Whoever set the schedule this year is a genius.''
Last season, Boston became the first team in major league history to overcome an 0-3 deficit in the playoffs, rallying to take four straight from New York in the ALCS to capture the pennant.
The Red Sox would go on to win their first World Series title since 1918 by sweeping St. Louis, putting the Yankees in the unfamiliar position of waiting until the next year for revenge.
The Red Sox held the Yankees off for most of this summer, hoping to win their first AL East title since 1995. However, Boston, which has finished second to New York in each of the previous seven years, squandered its advantage, and enters the weekend one game out.
Things could have been considerably worse.
The Red Sox trailed Toronto 4-1 in the sixth inning Thursday night while the Yankees were cruising to an 8-4 victory in Baltimore.
However, Manny Ramirez belted a two-run homer before David Ortiz fortified his MVP candidacy by belting the tying homer in the eighth and driving home the winning run with a single in the ninth, giving Boston a 5-4 win and plenty of momentum heading into the weekend.
``The best thing that ever happened to this team was winning this game tonight,'' Ortiz said. ``Everybody was on their toes.''
While the Red Sox split four games with the Blue Jays, the Yankees took three of four from the Orioles, giving themselves a small cushion heading into this do-or-die series.
``It'll be unbelievable. It's always a playoff atmosphere when you play the Red Sox,'' said Yankees slugger Jason Giambi, who belted a first-inning, three-run homer Thursday.
``It will be a lot of fun.''
A less consequential race will also be taking place during the series as Ortiz and Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez will go head-to-head for the MVP award. Both players boast eye-popping numbers, but the winner may ultimately be decided by who takes the division this weekend.
``That's how you win an MVP -- getting into the playoffs and winning the World Series,'' Ortiz said this week. ``All I want to do is get into the playoffs one way or another.''
Rodriguez agreed.
``I think the focus is on the team. I think a nice side note behind that is, obviously, the MVP race,'' he said. ``No question, front and center right now is the Yankees vs. Boston.''
If the teams finish in a dead heat after Sunday, a one-game playoff to determine the division champion will be played at Yankee Stadium on Monday.
Both teams are also still very much alive for the wild card. The Yankees also lead Cleveland by one game. The Indians will conclude the regular season with three against the AL Central champion Chicago White Sox.
If the Red Sox, Yankees and Indians finish tied, New York will play Boston on Monday, with the loser heading to Cleveland for a one-game playoff to determine the wild card.
After Yankees rookie Chien-Ming Wang squares off against veteran left-hander David Wells in the series opener, Randy Johnson and Tim Wakefield will meet Saturday followed by Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling in Sunday's regular season finale.
This is the first time the Red Sox and Yankees have battled for the division down to the wire since 1978, when light-hitting shortstop Bucky Dent homered to win a one-game playoff and send New York to the postseason.
The pennant came down to the final two games of the season in 1949, when Boston brought a one-game lead into Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won both to reach the playoffs and begin a dynasty that claimed 14 AL pennants and eight World Series titles in 16 years.
Before that, you have to go back to the 1904 season, when Boston met the New York Highlanders in a doubleheader on the final day of the season. Boston won the opener to take the pennant.
``You sit there and you say at the start of the season that the best team wins after 162 games. And now you're down to the final three,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said. ``We all know what the situation is. ... To think that it's come down to a handful of games to decide what 157 couldn't decide, that's great for baseball -- but not too good for my stomach.''
Updated on Friday
My medication is ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
go yanks
Doogle
Tonight will be gut wrenching
GO SOX!
My hope: Red Sox win 3 and the AL East, Indians win 3 and get the wild card and the Yankees get an early vacation.
I'd expect that from KarlInBoston :)
GO anybody but the Yanks, LOL.
The Moose vs. Schilling on Sunday.
You will be able to lay down in the middle of Fifth Avenue on Sunday afternoon, and take a nice long nap...
Unless'n, of course, the Yankees take the first two games...
The Skankees wouldn't be in this position if they didn't lose so many games to the HORRIBLE Devil Rays and Royals.
GO SOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just hope the game is available on a major network other than the YES network.
"My hope: Red Sox win 3 and the AL East, Indians win 3 and get the wild card and the Yankees get an early vacation."
That's my wish as well. However, as a lifelong Cleveland sports fan, my expectations are quite different. I expect the White Sox to beatup the Tribe, thereby ending a magical run. (Watch the umpiring in the Cleveland-Chicago games. Who do you think the networks want in the playoffs?)
Putting my well earned cynicism aside, I'll be watching, go Tribe!
If the Yankees win one of the first two games, then they are guaranteed a tie for the AL East title and will probably play the Sunday game without doing anything dramatic in terms of their pitching. If they go into the Sunday game needing a win to tie Boston for the AL East title (especially if Cleveland is ahead or tied for the wild card lead), then they'll pull out all the stops and use a dozen different pitchers on Sunday if necessary -- which means that they'd be very thin for a Monday game if they win on Sunday.
If that kind of scenario unfolds, then the Yankees could end up in a position kind of similar to what they faced in the playoffs last year, when they were up 3-0 against Boston but actually faced a daunting task for the remainder of the series -- because a rainout early in the series ensured that the Yankees' lack of depth in the starting rotation would become a real problem when they had to play something like five nights in a row.
What you said. Ditto. It's been a great baseball season.
P.S. I'm still bitter about the 1995 (94?) strike.
Oct 2000 -- Yanks beat Mets in World Series
Nov 2000 -- ‘#1’ Yankee Fan’, Hillary Rodham Clinton elected (Sen – D-NY)
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