Blogging May Be Spotty For The Next 4 Days

The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees begin their August series at Boston today and will play 5 games in 4 days, starting with a double header today. The Yankees are currently leading the American League East by 1.5 games over the Red Sox. Both teams are looking pretty beat-up and neither team has been able to rely on its pitching for the last two weeks. In the last few years, the Yanks and Sox have been in a late summer fight to win the East, but both teams pretty much knew that they would both make it into the playoffs. This year, it looks like only one team from the East will be in the playoffs -- and that team could well be the convincing winner of this series (if there is no convincing winner, we might have to wait until the mid-September 4 games series in New York to find out who's going on into October). Since both teams, by definition, will have had a terrible year if the other team goes further than they do, this series is for the whole enchilada.

UPDATE: Saturday Morning. Those were two ugly games, made uglier by the fact that the Red Sox lost both of them. How either team hopes to get very far in the playoffs with their bullpens playing at this level is a mystery.

UPDATE: Monday Morning. I can see how sloppy drafting might have given the impression that it is the August series that matters. Careful reading would have disclosed to the more discerning reader that it is, in fact, the series in New York that really matters. This year, that is the September series. The August series, held in Boston this year, doesn't matter at all.