The Daily Prospectus: Lots of Baseball

A 17-game schedule Wednesday provided enough baseball to last anyone…OK,
about one day:

• The Indians impressed the hell out of me, sweeping a doubleheader at
  Fenway to move back into first place in the wild-card race and push the Red
  Sox ever so close to extinction. The Tribe got seven innings of one-run
  ball from their bullpen, including four shutout innings in a
  come-from-behind second-game win. Steve Woodard, brutal since coming
  over from Milwaukee, outpitched Pedro Martinez for six innings in
  the first game, and shares the hero’s role with Omar Vizquel.

  Even at that–and the post-game coverage aside–the Sox aren’t dead.
  They’re four games behind the Indians going into today’s doubleheader, and
  just as capable as the Indians of taking a pair. They probably need both,
  though; being four games out and stuck behind three teams with nine games
  left would probably be the end. They desperately need Carl Everett
  back in the lineup.

• The Sox, by the way, are fourth in line because the Blue Jays have
  turned into the best team in the league. In the AL East, anyway. With their
  second straight win over the Yankees, Toronto stayed three games out in the
  wild-card race and leapfrogged over Boston. The Jays have an advantage none
  of the other teams do: they close the season at Jacobs Field, so they would
  control their destiny next weekend, the A’s notwithstanding.

  The Jays play a huge game tonight. Like the Sox did yesterday, they have
  their ace going in a game they need to win against a team that’s probably
  better than them. If they can beat the Yankees behind David Wells,
  they get a weekend against the free-falling Devil Rays, and Chris Kahrl and
  I start laying in the champagne.

• Out West, the Mariners extended their lead over the A’s to three games
  by winning their eighth straight game. If the Ms do make it into the first
  week of October, they really ought to send a couple cases of a nice merlot
  to Camden Yards and the TropDome, because the Orioles and Devil
  Rays…well, let’s just say this isn’t the most impressive eight-game
  winning streak in baseball history.

  The "three-game lead" is a slight misnomer, because the A’s are
  just two games back in the loss column heading into their four-game series
  in Seattle. They can probably afford a split and still have a shot at the
  AL West title. Taking three of four would move them into a virtual tie and
  pull the Mariners into the morass of the wild-card chase. Should the
  Mariners win three, they’d lock up the division crown and have the Yankees
  in their sights for #2 seed in the AL.

  Given the importance of the game, you can imagine how happy I am that my
  local Fox cable affiliate is presenting the Giants and Diamondbacks.

• Ah, yes, the National League. The Cardinals clinched the Central last
  night, putting one foregone conclusion to rest. The Giants clinched a tie
  in the West about an hour later. The Mets staunched the bleeding by beating
  the Braves 6-3, cutting their gap in the East to just four games. The
  Braves, though, have pretty much clinched a playoff spot, and we can expect
  them to act accordingly from here on out.

  Looking for a story in the NL? OK, not that I have any credibility left on
  this topic, but the Dodgers have won six straight games, passed the
  Diamondbacks and moved to within 5 1/2 games of the Mets. Yes, I know the
  Mets have long been conceded a playoff spot and the Dodgers branded a $100
  million disappointment. But just two years ago the Giants were in almost
  the exact same situation and managed to get to game 163; the Mets lost
  their last five games and missed the postseason altogether.

  The Mets do catch a break in that they play the Phillies, and face three
  left-handed starters, this weekend. The Mets have allowed themselves to
  become overwhelmingly right-handed on offense, which contributed to their
  struggles with the Braves’ Greg Maddux and Andy Ashby, but
  will benefit them against Omar Daal, Randy Wolf and Bruce
  Chen.

  The Dodgers are simply getting great starting pitching right now. Their
  starters haven’t allowed a run since Sunday, and the Diamondbacks score one
  run in the course of being swept. Los Angeles really hasn’t gotten a bad
  start in almost two weeks, and are 8-3 in that span.

  Of course, they’re not scoring, either: just four runs against the D’backs,
  with two wins coming on bottom-of-the-ninth home runs, and all three games
  decided by one run. That’s the magic of Tom Goodwin and Mark
  Grudzielanek at the top of the lineup.

  This probably won’t develop into anything. The Dodgers have been more lucky
  than good of late and the Mets have some good matchups this weekend. It’s
  just something to keep in mind, something to make the NL mildly relevant
  for the next few days.

Joe Sheehan can be reached at jsheehan@baseballprospectus.com.