BULLPEN BLOWS IT; DOESN'T MATTER, SOX GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!!

The bullpen picked a good game to blow. Getting all of that out of their systems now before the playoffs is fine with me. The Sox held a 4-3 lead, but by the time My Man Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima were done with it, it was a 6-4 deficit. Delcarmen gave up a game tying solo homer to Troy Glaus and Okajima gave up a two run shot to Vernon Wells in the ninth to lose it.

Schilling pitched a fine game, but the Sox offense never got going. A disappointing loss, but ultimately one that shouldn't matter much.

As I stated in the head line, the Sox are going to make the playoffs. With 22 games remaining for the Boston nine, they hold a 6.0 game lead over New York. However, should New York pass us through some miracle, the Sox would still make the Wild Card as they hold a 9.0 game lead over Seattle and theres no way they’ll blow a nine game lead with 22 to go. That’s not happening.

Happy Playoffs, everyone!!

That’s the good news. The bad news is that after tonight it'll take a minor miracle to keep the Yankees out of the playoffs. New York beat Seattle (again) to put themselves up 3.0 games on the fading Mariners. They are 3.5 games up on Detroit as well. New York has 22 games remaining. They aren't going to catch Boston, but they’ll have to have quite a collapse to miss the playoffs.

Come to think of it, this entirely clears up the American League playoff picture. New York will be the Wild Card entrant, while Boston, Cleveland, and Los Angeles will win their divisions. The only thing remaining is the final standings in order to rank the four teams above.

As it stands now, the Red Sox hold the best record in the league. They lead LA by 1.5 games, and Cleveland by 2.5. This means that the Red Sox would face New York in the first round of playoffs.

But, because the Wild Card team can't begin the playoffs by playing a team in their own division, the Red Sox would instead play Cleveland while the Yankees would play Los Angeles. Actually, even if the Angels pass Boston, the match up would remain the same (BOS/CLE and LA/NY) in the first round. The only difference would be home field advantage in the ALCS if both Boston and LA won their series.

Both series would be interesting, not the least bit because New York historically (as in the last five years) has trouble with LA, and the Red Sox are facing the team on the biggest roll right now. In their last ten games Cleveland is 9 and 1.

At this point, and given there is about 20 games to go so things can change, I'd rather face the Angels in the first round. I think the Yankees are more vulnerable in a longer series and I’d rather face them in the seven game ALCS.

AL East: ITS OURS, BABY!!! Sox up by 6 with 22 to play for.

Tomorrow (Thursday): The Sox start a four gamer in beautiful Charm City. Tim Wakefield goes for Boston, Garrett Olson (of the 7 run ERA Olsons) for the Orioles. Game time is the ever predictable 7:05pm EST