Like something out of Dr. Strangeglove.
With the Red Sox having taken the first two games of this weekend’s series in the Bronx, a certain doomsday scenario has crept into the minds of Yankee fans. What if the Red Sox sweep past the Yankees, claim the Wild Card spot, and the Yankees find themselves eliminated during the regular season for the second time in three years?
Well, it’s not bloody likely. The Red Sox are 5 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the Wild Card chase with eight games left to play (four against the Yankees, four in Chicago against the White Sox). They are five games back in the loss column with just four head-to-head games remaining, and the Yankees’ magic number to clinch a playoff berth is three. Consider these scenarios.
• The Red Sox could win all of their remaining eight games, but if the Yankees sweep the Blue Jays in their three game set in Toronto this week, Boston will still be eliminated.
• The Yankees could lose all of their remaining seven games, but if the Red Sox lose three of four in Chicago, Boston will still be eliminated.
• If the Red Sox sweep the Yankees in the remaining four head-to-head games, but the Yankees manage to pull out just one win in Toronto, the Red Sox would have to win three of four in Chicago to clinch a tie.
• If the Yankees win just one of their remaining four games against the Red Sox, they’ll clinch a tie with the Red Sox, and Boston would have to sweep the White Sox and have the Blue Jays sweep the Yankees in three games in Toronto in order for that tie to come about.
That last is the one that should give Yankee fans the most confidence. The Yankees seem sure to pull out at least one win against the Sox in these remaining six games, and doing just that would effectively ice the Wild Card as the Sox would have to win out and win a tie-breaker while the Yankees would have to lose every other game they played this season for Boston to leap-frog them into the playoffs. I’m not saying it absolutely won’t happen, but it takes a powerful pesimism to think it will.
(photo via the outstanding Virtual Card Collection)
I’d feel more confident about this if the Yankees didn’t look like a team perfectly poised to lose every remaining game. Part of me wants to see them miss the playoffs, and to see Girardi fired. I’m not saying he’s the worst manager alive, but his decision to give away so many games of late deserves punishment of some sort. There’s a difference between giving guys a breather and starting a lineup with Colin Curtis, Greg Golson, and Ramiro Peña in it.
It is sad that a scenario such as this is even being contemplated. Hopefully they sneak in, the worm turns, and they go on a little run in the playoffs.
Girardi is a LIAR. He says that if he were told in Feb he needed to win 3 of 7 games to get his $206.3 million disaster into the “Loser’s” bracket he would have signed up for it.!
If the “Boss” was still alive and lucid, that moronic statement alone would have been enough to get him fired!
Then he says he never talked to Joba about his toss to first incident. He also said that it was something he had never seen before, BUT HE NEVER ASKED JOBA ABOUT IT!!!! You lie!
The Sox have been deciamted with injuries, but their “scout” squad slams Girardi’s overpaid chokers in tqo straight games.
I understand that Girardi, in order to prevent a life threatening injury to CC’s arm, and have him at full strength for his spring training opener, he will start Gaudin or Moseley in game one of his “Loser’s” bracket game AT Minn, the team with the best home record in the league!!!
Joe, please, take the Cubs job. They are so bad you can’t screw them up anymore!
What’s all this wild card crap talk. Doesn’t anyone forge they were just in 1st place on Friday, with the best record in baseball. Why roll over to the Rays. They should be taking care of business. It looks like they are playing with no passion and drive…and these games are at HOME! After today, they go on the road for the remainder of the season.
Now we learn via Joel Sherman that the Yankees will start Hughes tonight instead of Moseley hoping for that one win that will clinch a Wild Card tie.
This reminds me so much of the 2004 playoffs. Or the 2007 Mets. “Surely we can win 1 single game”. Well, I actually want to see, with my eyes, that 1 game won. Intellectually, it seems hardly possible that the Yankees can blow this. I have been known to place a bet or 2 in my life. I do not bet with my heart. I will officially pick the Yankees to crawl into the playoffs in humiliating fashion, as this never, ever should have gotten to this point. I’m not saying I know what my Yankees problem is, but I can easily say that it won’t be solved this season. The Yankees don’t know the problem either, so how can things get solved when you can’t pinpoint the problem? Maybe they’ll accidentally win the WS cause the way they’re playing, they won’t win by being focused.