Have you noticed there is one division race left in baseball?
Eighteen Major League teams have mailed it in, as five division races have long ago been settled. Then there are the Red Sox and Yankees.
They are in a down-to-the-wire battle in the American League East that looks destined to be settled on the last day of the regular season: Sunday, October 1. Aside from die-hard baseball fans and the respective Red Sox and Yankee Nations, most everyone else has moved on to college football and the NFL.
But what these bitter rivals have been doing over the last couple of weeks is amazing. The Sox lead the Yankees by three games in the AL East and neither team can gain any ground. While both win on most nights, whenever one loses the other also does. So who wins the division, and who gets the wild card?
Since the Yankees closed the gap to three, both teams are 7-2, and whichever score is posted first, the other team faces the pressure to keep winning. Take the last six games, with the Yankees at home to play the Orioles and the Twins, who are locked into the second AL Wild Card spot, and the Sox on the road.
Behind resurgent rookie Aaron Judge, who has broken his midway slump and now has 45 homers, the Yankees crushed the Orioles in the first two games of their series. The Red Sox were at Tampa Bay and rallied to tie their opener in the ninth and then outlasted the Rays in 15 innings. Next night, Boston’s struggling Rick Porcello earned a 3-1 win to hold the three-game lead. Both lost close encounters Sunday; the lead remained three.
Minnesota arrived at Yankee Stadium for a possible preview of the AL Wild Card game, while the Red Sox moved on to Baltimore. The Yanks won the first two games and surely would gain ground. But the Sox rallied from five runs down to force extra innings and beat the Orioles in 11. The next night, the Sox used a wild pitch to score the game’s only run, also in the 11th.
The Yankees swept the Twins 11-3 in the afternoon third game. Last night, Chris Sale struck out 12 as the Red Sox also swept the O’s, 9-0. Boston plays this weekend in Cincinnati and the Yanks in Toronto, both last place teams in their divisions. Then they finish with seven straight at home, but the Sox face four games against the Western Division champ Houston Astros.
Advantage Yankees? Maybe, but it’s going down to the last day. What else would you expect of the Red Sox and Yankees?
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