As the baseball executive in charge of the schedule, Katy Feeney is often the target of criticism from clubs and fans who don’t like some aspect of the schedule. It is only fair, then, to salute Feeney for her efforts for week No. 22 of the 26-week season. This, without any question, is her week.
Provincial Yankees fans may care only that this is the week the Yankees play the Red Sox, but the schedule offers far more treats for fans all over the country. The Angels and the Mariners, separated by two games in the American League West, play in Seattle. The Twins, trying to duplicate their remarkable 2006 comeback, play in Cleveland in an important A.L. Central series.
The Mets, who have a six-game lead over the Phillies in the N.L. East, play the Phillies and the Braves in their parks in series that could decide the outcome of the division race. The Brewers, who have slipped from first place in the N.L. Central, get a chance to redeem themselves in a series against the team that has supplanted them, the Cubs.The N.L. West schedule has a bunch of matchups that are critical to the race in that division.
The first-place Diamondbacks play the second-place Padres, and then the Padres play the Dodgers, while the Diamondbacks play the Rockies, a rare visitor to meaningful final-month baseball.How did the schedule happen to have all of these matchups at this stage of the season? “Magic,” Feeney said yesterday, laughing at her joke.“I wish I had that much foresight, but that’s not possible,” she added. “That’s why they play the games.
All of these teams are going to play at some point, but now is a time when you’re playing mostly in your division. As you get closer to the end of the season, you’re bound to have teams in contention playing each other.”The teams chasing the division leaders couldn’t ask for a better opportunity than to play the teams they are chasing.
The three-game series at Yankee Stadium beginning tomorrow night would ideally present a perfect opportunity for the Yankees in their season-long pursuit of the Red Sox.The Yankees had slashed the Red Sox’s lead over them to four games only a week ago but stumbled by losing four of their next six games to the Angels and the Tigers. That left them seven and a half behind, their largest deficit since they were eight back Aug. 2. Depending on the outcome of their game with Detroit tonight, the closest the Yankees can be to the Red Sox going into their three-game series at Yankee Stadium beginning tomorrow night is seven games, not their most ideal position.Had the Yankees been four back, a series sweep would not have been critical but would have put them in excellent position. Now a sweep is mandatory. Winning two of three and gaining a game won’t do much for the Yankees’ chances.Can the Yankees win three in a row against the Red Sox? With Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling scheduled to pitch, it’s highly unlikely.
As far as Red Sox fans are concerned, the Yankees aren’t even in the race. The only reason the Yankees improved their games-behind position, those fans made clear in e-mail messages, was that the Yankees were playing the league’s worst teams.Indeed, the Yankees won 21 of 29 games in the month after the All-Star Game against teams like Tampa Bay and Kansas City. But how would those same experts characterize the Red Sox’s four-game pulverization of the White Sox this weekend?The Red Sox, in fact, beat the White Sox in seven of eight games in the last six weeks, scoring 10 or more runs six times and outscoring the White Sox, 77-21. The White Sox have the league’s second-worst won-lost record.
Where do they fit in the team ratings created in the minds of those expert Red Sox fans? If the Red Sox are as good as their fans think they are, they will not let the Yankees win even two of the three games this week. To come to New York and repel a Yankees advance in the standings by even a game would serve as a discouraging development for the Yankees.If, on the other hand, the Red Sox were to collapse and let the Yankees catch them, well, let’s not even consider that possibility; it would be too gruesome for their fans to envision.
The Mets can discourage the Phillies and the Braves this week. Those would-be contenders actually squandered their best chance of derailing the Mets earlier in the season when the Mets were scuffling.For the month of June into July, the Mets won 12 and lost 19 but lost only a half-game from their lead.The Mets have been in first place for 101 days, and neither the Phillies nor the Braves are likely to dislodge them.The wild-card berths, of course, remain available to some of the contenders, including the Yankees. Some of the wild-card contenders, on the other hand, may yet wind up as division champions. Barring a dramatic surge starting tomorrow night, the Yankees don’t figure to be one of them.
Copyright © 2007 The New York Times Company
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