Stephen King - Faithful

The Minnesota Twins, represented on the mound in the first of these crucial tilts by Johan Santana, who will almost certainly win this year’s Cy Young Award in the American League, are leading 3–1 in the fifth inning. If the Twins go on to win this game (Santana hasn’t lost since the All-Star break) plus the nightcap of this hurricane-induced doubleheader, and if the Red Sox can win tonight in Tampa, [63] It would be their fifth win in a row. the Yankees’ lead in the AL East would drop to a single scrawny game. I’m not saying this will happen, but if it did , considering the fact that Boston and New York have a combined total of eight games left to play… well, in a case like that, all bets would be off.

Maybe it doesn’t matter. Probably it doesn’t matter, in terms of what comes next; once you get to postseason, all the matchups are tough. But I want that home-field advantage. Even more, I’d like to see the Yankees humbled. So come on, you Twins! Go, you Johan!

It’s weird: here we have the Yanks’ ace Moose against Johan Santana in a rematch of last year’s ALDS, in a game with playoff implications, yet when I tune in during the second inning I discover the Stadium is a sea of blue seats. There can’t be more than two thousand people there—less than the number of folks who turn out for BP at Fenway. Later, the Yankees will list the official attendance as N/A—not available. Hey George, I hear Montreal’s looking for a team.

10:15 P.M.: One doesn’t like to believe God is a Yankees fan—it’s a terrifying idea—but days like this make me wonder. I thought that, with New York playing two against a strong Minnesota team and the Red Sox playing one against the hapless Rays, we really had a chance to pull within a breath of first place. At worst, I thought, New York would split their twin bill with Santana taking the opener.

But no. Santana left after five with a 3–1 lead, pulled by the Twins’ skipper, who quite naturally wants to protect his young ace with the playoffs looming. The Yankees then scored a bazillion runs and the camera caught the aforementioned young ace in the dugout, hucking helmets at the cement floor. Getting quite a bounce, too. The Yankees went on to win the second game, 5–4.

In Tampa, Tino Martinez hit a three-run bomb to put the game out of reach in the eighth, but the really disturbing development was how mortal Pedro Martinez looked in his last start of the regular season—how downright lousy . The hapless D-Rays won that one, 9–4, and instead of picking up a game and a half, we lost a game and a half. The Yankees’ margin is now four games, and given that the Red Sox have just four to play, I think that pretty well cooks us in the AL East, don’t you? The bottom line is simply that when the pressure got really intense, the Yankees refused to buckle. The Red Sox—aided by the Baltimore Orioles and at times by Terry Francona, who has a tendency to freeze at critical moments like Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny —did. Now we turn our eyes—ever hopeful, ever faithful—to the playoffs, where we can only hope the script will change.

SK:Santana comes out of the game, the Yanks score four and win. And I saw Santana in the dugout, heaving helmets. It ain’t nothing to Gardenhire; he’s got a lock.

If we finish second, I have no problem with Tito’s doubleheader pitching roster. But what’s with this playoff sked? Are we conceding the games Santana pitches, or what? Saving Curt for “winnable” games? Give me your thinking on this. What am I not seeing here?

SO:I thought the Yanks might tank it to make sure we’d get the Twins, but now it appears the Twins tanked it, pulling Santana after five. The playoffs don’t start for another six days, so it’s not like a starter should be on a pitch count around 70. Boo!

I have no idea what’s up with T Franc’s playoff rotation. It sounds like he’s going with a four-man squad, meaning Curt will start only Game 2 of the ALDS. I guess he’s assuming that’s a W, and he’ll have his #3 and #4 guys set for Games 3 and 4 at Fenway. If the 3 and 4 guys and the home bats can’t get it done, then he’s hoping—someday, some way—for a split between Pedro and Santana. Problem is, Arroyo, who should be our #3, has thrown far better on the road, and at this point we don’t have a reliable #4. I think it’s cavalier of Francona to assume we don’t need two from Father Curt in the first round. Sure, it would be nice to start the ALCS with a fresh ace, but there’s not much margin for error in this plan. Minnesota’s a good team that’s been there before.

SO:So was the Coma’s initial rotation just smoke? Because now Pedro’s saying he’s starting Game 2 and Schill’s taking Games 1 and 5. And the Angels, now leading the West by one, have the exact same record as the Twins. I have to wonder, is the switch due to the possibility of missing Santana? It’s all up in the air for now, and probably will be until the outcome of that juicy Angels-at-A’s series this weekend.

SK:I don’t know about the rotation. All I know for sure is that I’m considering a petition to the Great High Ayatollah, suggesting a fatwa on the Yankees would be a good idea.

As a Red Sox fan, I am of course aware that there is another baseball league, but my grasp of it is vague, like a European’s grasp of the New World in the seventeenth century or an American’s grasp of the solar system in the nineteenth. Yes, somewhere in the American Midwest there lives a fearsome wand-wielding wizard named Pujols, and I know that in California there be Giants, for my Red Sox did truly visit them once in the season which is now almost over. But like most Red Sox fans, my focus will remain fiercely fixed on what is sometimes called “the junior circuit” until—and if—we have to play one of those quasi-mythological Others in the World Series. And that’s okay, because in this final weekend of regular-season baseball, I find plenty to occupy me within the familiar geography of the American League.

Three of the four AL postseason teams have now been decided: the Yankees (AL East champs), the Twins (AL Central champs) and the Red Sox (AL wild card). The winner in the AL West will be decided this weekend, in Oakland, when the A’s and Angels, with identical 90-69 records, go head-to-head. It will be, in effect, a mini-playoff, one the Red Sox and their fans will be watching with great interest. We’ll play the team out of our division with the best record, but as I write this on Friday afternoon, Minnesota’s record is also 90-69. That means we could wind up facing any one of those three. All I know for sure is that I’m hoping Cleveland will put a hurtin’ on Minnesota this weekend, because we have to start by playing two away games no matter who our opponent is. Given that, I would prefer to steer clear of the Metrodome as long as possible.

Not to mention young Mr. Santana.

The Sox had last night off, ceding center stage (at least here in the East) to the Yankees, who clinched the division with their 100th win (so that’s what—16 against Tampa, 15 against Baltimore, 14 against Toronto…), beating the Twins’ second-line relievers late after Ron Gardenhire pulled starter Brad Radke in the fifth. By resting, in effect the Twins rolled over this whole series, handing the Yanks the sweep. With the Angels losing and the A’s winning, the West is knotted again, and the Twins, Angels and A’s all share the same record. Because the Angels and A’s play each other this weekend, the winner of the West will have at least 92 wins. The Twins lost their season series with both clubs, so to face the Sox they have to sweep their last three. I have to wonder: By losing this series, are the Twins purposely shooting for a rematch with the Yanks?