It's that time again to check in on the AL East Standings and how the Red Sox are doing:
The most crucial thing to notice when you check out the standings this Friday morning is that little x next to Boston's name. The Red Sox are officially going to the post season by clinching a playoff berth in the AL. The Sox are the first team in the AL to be post season bound. The Sox were able to accomplish this by sweeping the Yankees over the weekend and then avoiding a sweep by the Orioles with a win last night.
The next goal of course is to change that x to a y, meaning that the Sox would clinch the AL East. Because of the change in the wild card rules winning the division is more important than ever. The Sox would not have to put their best pitcher in a "one game takes all" wild card game. The other thing that should be a goal of the Sox is to keep the best record in the AL. If the Sox end the season with the best record then they would get to play the winner of the wild card game instead of playing another division champ. The Sox would then be able to line up their top pitcher against a team that had to put their top pitcher in the wild card game.
The last week of the season is a mix of AL East teams and a weird 2 game series in the NL. The Sox play the Jays this weekend and as long as they win one of those games they will clinch the AL East. Then the Sox have an off day on Monday before heading to Colorado for a 2 game NL series with the Rockies. Having a series this late with the NL is just weird, but since there needs to be at least one AL/NL every night it has to happen to some teams. The Sox then have another off day on Thursday and then head into Baltimore to finish off the series against the O's. The Sox will have the great opportunity to be able to set up their starters and also rest some of their regular players, but at the same time they need to keep that AL record in the back of their minds.
This season so far, has just been a joy to watch. A joy to watch. I can't wait for Soxtober and whatever it brings!
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