Yankees Roll While Red Sox Roll Over

This isn’t supposed to be how the season ended.  After the Red Sox acquired Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Bobby Jenks, they were the hands down favorite to win the Al East and face off against the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.  Not only were the Sox favored to win the American League pennant, they were supposed to threaten the Seattle Mariner’s record of 116 regular season wins.  Looks like we’re going to come up a little short there, don’t you think?  While winning the Division is no longer an option, winning the World Series is.   But, not if they continue to get beat up by the last place Orioles.

Did you see the faces of the Red Sox players last night after blowing another game in the late innings?  It was pitiful, standing there lifeless.  Come on, your in a pennant race!  Why give up now with six games left?  Get angry, get fired up, just don’t lay down and let the Rays or Angels destroy everything you have accomplished this year.  You didn’t win the division.  So what?!  Do you know how many teams would do anything to be in the position this team is right now?  It’s not like we are the ones trailing 2 1/2 behind.  You control the final outcome.  The Yankees are no longer going to help you out.  Their only motivation now is to get their players rested and their pitching rotation in place for the playoffs.  Something we won’t be able to do if this team doesn’t get their heads out of their A—s.

As I said in my post on Monday, it’s not the Rays I worry about, it’s the Angels.  Their schedule lines up much better than the Ray’s.  Buck Showalter’s Orioles are on a mission to show everyone in the AL East that they can play with the best.  The Rays are going to have their hands full this weekend with the surging Orioles.  Don’t think for one second that the Yankees aren’t pumped about the opportunity to knock the Sox into next year either.  If either the Red Sox or Rays stumble this weekend, the Angels will slip right by.

The Yankees were able to win this division for one reason and one reason only: They always beat the weaker opponent.  If someone told you that the Yankees were 4-11 this year against the Red Sox and were now in first place, no one would believe you.  When they face a mediocre starter, they pound him to the turf.  The Sox, on the other hand, let too many games slip by to the below .500 clubs.  That’s why the Yankees were on the field celebrating while the Sox stood there staring into the abyss.  The Yankees don’t want to see the Sox in the playoffs.  As much as we have sucked in the month of September, this team is still an offensive powerhouse and anything can happen in a short series.

This is it, the end of a very long and sometimes bumpy road.  Who will be the last team standing?  The odds are in the RedSox favor, it is theirs to lose.

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