The spontaneous combustion of the Boston Red Sox two weeks ago removedwhat little excitement there was in the AL pennant race, and league leaders are now sitting backand fine-tuning for the postseason. Seattle, New York, Cleveland, and Oakland have putthemselves on full steam ahead to the playoffs, and it looks like smooth sailing from here untilOctober.
For all intents and purposes, the Seattle Mariners clinched the AL West back in thebeginning of May, and that title will become official this week. The Mariners whittled theirmagic number down to two by winning their last five straight games, and with a record of 104-40, they have a shot at breaking the Chicago Cub's 1906 record of most wins in a season (116).
The Mariners showed few signs of fatigue on their recent road series, as they swept theBaltimore Orioles last weekend and beat the Anaheim Angels in on Monday night. RookieIchiro Sukuki continues to lead the league in hitting with a batting average of .437, and FreddyGarcia is first in ERA with a mark of 2.98.
Seattle has won 19 road series this year without losing any, and if this pattern continuesuntil the end of September, they will become the first time in major league history to accomplishthe feat.
In typical fashion, the New York Yankees have won when it really counted over the lastfew weeks, and after winning seven games against division rival Boston in the last ten days, theirmagic number to clinch their division stands at eight. The Yanks have secured victories in nineof their last ten outings and have already started to finalize their playoff pitching rotation.
The Sox, meanwhile, who challenged the Yankees every step of the way for the first fourand 1/2 months of the season, have been downright pathetic over the last few weeks and now findthemselves 13 games out of first place. They have won only won game in their last 14, andMonday night's rain out came as a welcome respite to Red Sox nation.
The cancellation was especially sweet because it thwarted Roger Clemens' attempt tobecome the first 20-1 pitcher ever. While Clemens will certainly get another chance, Sox fansare rejoicing that he did not accomplish the feat against his former team.
Although Red Sox manager Joe Kerrigan may not be willing to admit it, PedroMartinez's season is over, and even the most diehard Red Sox fan deserves to be thrown in thelooney bin if he or she thinks Boston will be doing anything other than sitting on the beachdrinking something out of a coconut this October. The club has scheduled former all-star closerDerek Lowe, who has not started a game since June of 1998, to take the ailing Martinez's placein the rotation tonight (yes, i do mean Wednesday night) against Tampa Bay.
The only division where the second-place team can even see the rear ends of the team infront of them is the AL Central, where the Cleveland Indians lead Minnesota by six games. TheTribe split a weekend series with the Chicago White Sox that mathematically eliminated the Sox- two games behind Minnesota - from the race. Indian Jim Thome hit his AL-leading 47thhomer during Monday's season finale, and Juan Gonzalez has been hot lately. He was selectedAL player of the week on Monday after batting .379 and driving in 18 runs from Sept. 3-10.
In the wild card race, the Red Sox have laid down the red carpet for Oakland, who at 87-57 have the second-best record in the majors. The A's have been baseball's best team since lateJune and have won 14 of their last 15 games. Barry Zito won his eight straight start on Mondaynight when he struck out ten in a 7-1 beating of the Texas Rangers. The trio of Zito, TimHudson, and Mark Mulder has been key to Oakland's turnaround after a miserable start and islikely to be a force to be reckoned with in the postseason.
