"
If the season ended today, the Red Sox would have the best record in the AL, that would mean that their first round opponent would be the winner of the AL single elimination Wild Card Playoff game.
"
With 14 games left, all seems set, regardless of what happens, the Red Sox will win the pennant for the first time since 2007. They will be the best team in the AL and one that competes with the Braves for the title of best in baseball. The Boston Red Sox are poised for a seamless finish to the regular season but still Boston fans find themselves watching the scoreboard. More specifically the part of it that pertains to the teams not named the Red Sox.
Now as crazy as it seems, there IS a playoff race thriving in the doldrums of the American League's Eastern Division. The only difference is that playoff race is one emanating from the thought of a wild card berth not a division title.
For the Rays, their season has been one of hope. After they charged back to nip the Sox at the end of the 2011 season, the Rays failed to make the playoffs last year as the struggled almost a dearly as the Red Sox did. Despite scoring a ton of runs, the Rays simply struggled to close out games in 2012 and finished 4 games out of the playoffs. But like the Red Sox did, one year later they are back and better than ever. They rode stellar mid-season pitching to a spot that for almost a month threatened the Sox once impenetrable division lead.
As for the Yankees they spent most of their first few months of baseball dwindling as a Yankees team seemingly unknown to the world and its history. The Yankees had always been THE team to beat but until Alex Rodriguez returned to baseball a couple weeks ago, the came back from the dead and roared back into contention cutting into the Rays' record all as Tampa lost 6 straight and Boston blew it up in the final days of August.
Before long the Rays were out of contention in the east, but while they stood in sole possession of at least one of the 2 available AL wildcards, the Yankees were and still are knocking on the door.
Now by this point you may be asking "why are we talking about two teams that cannot compete with our own?"
Well here is your answer.
If the season ended today, the Red Sox would have the best record in the AL, that would mean that their first round opponent would be the winner of the AL single elimination Wild Card Playoff game. Now here is where things get interesting. As the standings read, that wild card game would involve a single match-up between the Rangers and Rays.
In a situation like that, you would hope that the Rays would win, simply because of history. After the Sox were swept by the Rangers back in May, their record against the Rays is much better: 12-7. But by comparison there is a much better match-up that could benefit the Sox much more than that involving the Rangers and Rays.
If the Yankees could catch the Rays and bump them out, they would inevitably be rolling meaning that they would have a reasonable chance at dropping the Rangers. By comparison to the Rays/Red Sox series that hands Boston a winning percentage of .632 the Sox are 10-6 against the Yankees that translates to a slightly smaller winning percentage of .625. The difference here is the fact that Boston's last few games with the Bronx Bombers have been some of their best of the year.
In just 17 days all of our questions will have been answered. All the scoreboard watching will have been done, the opponents will be set and the Sox will have an all but crystal clear idea of who they will play come October. Barring the impossible the Red Sox will win the AL East, they will be better than any other team in the baseball world and if that happens no matter who they play they will still have a shockingly splendid chase at beating them out and moving deep into October baseball.
