The World Series Ring of Power

He loves and hates the Red Sox, even as he loves and hates himself. He will never be rid of his need for the team...

The Red Sox look as much like a World Series team this year as Gollum looks like a supermodel. I can do the math, how many games they have to win and Oakland/Texas have to lose, or if by God's grace the Yankees tank, how big the deficit is. However, it's not just a wins deficit, it's some kind of intrinsic "team" deficit, like the Red Sox somehow lack what it takes to play baseball.

Depression aside, the Sox are looking good down the homestretch. The four teams they play from today through August 30th (they play just four teams for 30 days of August) are a collective twenty-five games below .500, and the only contender (Chicago) has lost eight of ten.

After that comes Wild (Card) West Week with three each against the AL West contenders, followed by seven against Seattle and Tampa Bay, both of which should be stocked with minor leaguers by then. Six games (hopefully still big games at that point) against the Yankees are sandwiched around a four-game series with the pesky Orioles, and then the Sox close out with a swing through Tampa and Baltimore (which I might watch). Boston's Wild Card chances are improved by some pretty harsh schedules for the Wild West, where Anaheim will play thirteen of its last sixteen games against AL West contenders. For Texas the same stat is fourteen out of twentyone, and for Oakland thirteen out of twenty. Poor non-contender Seattle will get dismantled, with all twenty-three of its last games against win-hungry Wild Card possibles.

As for the Yankees? Their current stretch will be the toughest they see the rest of the way. Boston and Minnesota are the only above-.500 teams the Bronx Bombers will face (and only three of those nine games on the road) after August 22. Unless they collapse, they can be expected to play slightly-better-than-even until the 22nd, and somewhere around .667 after that. Fuhgeddaboudit.