Yankees/Red Sox Preview: No, Wait, Come Back! It’s Interesting, I Promise!
The Red Sox are hot, having won five of their last six. The Yankees are in a bit of a funk, as they dropped a series against Oakland at home and lost the first two games of a series in Baltimore before taking the final two. This is important because the Red Sox are either in first or second place, while the Yankees are either right behind them or just in front of them. Don't know. This has been the case for the last 14 seasons or so, except those times the Rays made the playoffs, but I'm pretty sure I dreamt that after eating pizza that got left on the counter all afternoon.
The Yankees will win the division, unless they don’t, in which case they will still make the playoffs. Or the Red Sox will win the division, unless they don’t, in which case they will still make the playoffs. Thrilling. This brings up the two rules of the Yankees/Red Sox Paradox.
Rule 1: The Wild Card is an abomination
Think about the last 14 seasons if they still had the two-division setup without the Wild Card. Every August, every September, there would be Yankees/Red Sox games that felt like playoff games. Not, “We’ve got a playoff atmosfeah for every game”; the games would really feel like playoff games. No safety net. If the Yankees drop all three games in Boston this week, they’ll be a little disappointed. They’ll feel bad for about an hour, and then they’ll resume not planning family vacations for October.
Rule 2: Thank all that is good for the Wild Card
Can you imagine just two playoff spots in the American League, with one almost always going to the Yankees or Red Sox? And with one fewer round of playoffs, it would be more likely that the World Series would feature the Yankees or Red Sox over and over and over. Sorry, Tigers. Maybe you should move to the National League if you don't like it, Brewers. Better luck next time, Blue Jays. Well, actually, that last one still applies. Keep your head up, Toronto.
So it’s horrible that the Yankees and Red Sox aren’t fighting for a single playoff spot. It’s awesome that the Yankees and Red Sox aren’t fighting for a single playoff spot. The Yankees/Red Sox Paradox.
If you squint, there is a way to make this more interesting. If the Yankees drop all three games while the Rays win their next three in Texas, there will be only 4.5 games separating the Yankees and Rays in the Wild Card, and those two teams still face each other six times. So let's just all hold our breath and wait for the Rangers to roll over for our amusement.
It is baseball, though. The Rays could crawl into a race, even if there’s a minuscule chance of it happening. Even if it doesn’t, it’s always sort of cool to watch two historical rivals play a few 15-hour games. It’s just a shame that they don’t really mean anything. I’m pretty thankful that they don’t mean anything.
