High Stress in Red Sox-Yankee Land

The Indians are screwing things up. They’re supposed to be winning these games so that the Red Sox or the Yankees stay home from the playoffs and cause severe hemorrhaging. In Boston’s case it will be the fans and in New York’s it will be management. The Sox won 5-3 last night behind Mercenary David Wells (NYY from ’97-98, ’02-03). 2004 Yankee 1B John Olerud contributed a SF to the Sox cause last night. Each team has a situational LH reliever on its roster that the other released midseason. LHP Mike Stanton came over to the Red Sox from the Nationals this week while the Yankees signed LHP Alan Embree and IF Mark Bellhorn during the summer after the Red Sox released them. If the Indians weren’t struggling (lost 4 of 5), the Red Sox and Yankees would each need 2 wins in order to qualify for the playoffs. 2004 playoff hero Curt Schilling is scheduled to start Sunday vs. Mike Mussina, Schilling has struggled recovering from the ankle injury that he had jury-rigged during the playoffs last season to help the Sox win their first championship since 1918.

Found an interesting site run by a couple of die-hards.

http://www.yankeesredsox.com


Type/Last Week/Season
NCAA/1-0/4-3
NFL/2-2/5-3
Invest/-2.2*/-3.3*

The Patriots had an extra 52 seconds to work with last week but don’t think that the officiating error was a lopsided one. I’m sure the Steelers would have been sweating their tying TD a little bit more if the clock was reading in the :30’s rather than 1:+.

I left off the USC-Oregon game last week and that looked like a mistake for a half as Oregon capitalized on USC mistakes to take a 13-0 lead. But the Trojans cut the deficit to 3 by halftime and then scored 5 TDs in the second half to win going away, 45-13.

The Rams recovered from a slow start against Tennessee to take a 7-point 4th quarter lead but a bizarre incorrect officiating call ended a scoring opportunity and gave the Titans the FG they needed to cover the number. Rams QB Marc Bulger’s pass clearly went forward, across the 30-yard line stripe. It was ruled a fumble, and the replay official must have been tired of HC Mike Martz’s challenges. Maybe that’s why he’s in the hospital this week. ESPN’s PrimeTime crew continued their Don’t criticize anyone ways, claiming insufficient evidence. Um, the 30-yard line goes across the whole field!

INVEST
Oakland 35 (-3) Dallas 20*. Once, an isolated incident. Twice, a trend. Three times, a problem. That’s SS Roy Williams in 2-deep coverage the past 2 weeks against the Redskins and 49ers. The Cowboys only have to face the most vertical passing attack in the league in this one.

SATURDAY
1:00 ET FOX HD Yankees: Randy Johnson (16-8) @ Red Sox: Tim Wakefield (16-11). White Sox Reserves: Garland (17-10) @ Indians: Westbrook (15-14).

3:30 ET ABC USC 48 (-16) Arizona State 24. I’ll be picking the Trojans to cover the points until they don’t.

3:30 ET CBS HD Alabama 19 (+3 ½) Florida 13. Florida’s new spread offense struggled in its other game against a good SEC defense, managing just 16 points against Tennessee.

4:45 ET ESPN Notre Dame 26 (+3) Purdue 24. HC Charlie Weis continues the Irish revival.

SUNDAY
1:00 ET ESPN HD Yankees: Mussina (13-8) @ Red Sox: Schilling (7-8).
1:00 ET ESPN2 HD? White Sox Reserves McCarthy (2-2) @ Indians: Elarton (11-8).

1:00 ET CBS HD San Diego 20 (+5 ½) at New England 24. The Patriots lost SS Rodney Harrison for the season due to injury last week. They still managed to win at Pittsburgh though. One reason why the Patriots are able to succeed despite numerous injuries is that every player on the roster is accustomed to playing. The Chargers got a much-needed victory last week and certainly have the talent to break the Patriots’ long winning streak at Gillette (soon to be P&G?) stadium.

1:00 ET CBS HD Jacksonville 20 (-4) Denver 14. This game could finish in under 3 hours, a rarity now with all of the long commercial breaks. Both teams emphasize running inside, so there doesn’t figure to be many points scored in this one.

4:15 ET FOX HD Philadelphia 24 (+1 ½) Kansas City 21. I’ll take the better defense in this one, even if the Eagles have a new kicker (David Akers must have watched some Curt Schilling video while preparing for the Raiders game last weekend) and a significantly injured Donovan McNabb. WR Terrell Owens and RB Brian Westbrook were great the last 2 weeks against the Bay Area teams.

7:30 ET ESPN HD NFL PrimeTime 8:30 ET San Francisco 30 (+2 ½) v. Arizona 18. The first NFL regular season game scheduled for Mexico, maybe the Cardinals will eventually get their first touchdown this season. QB Josh McCown is in for the injured Kurt Warner, but regardless of who the QB is, Arizona needs to start gaining some positive yards on the ground in order to have success. The 49ers came from ahead to lose last week to the Cowboys at the Stick last weekend. Cowboy fans outnumbering Niner fans ticked off the liberal sports-talk hosts in the Bay Area who were mad that Niner fans may have sold their tickets to Cowboy fans instead of giving them to Niner fans. It costs about $3-400 per game for 4 seats, and fans tend to keep good seats when a team struggles so that they don’t have to move to the nosebleeds when the on field performance picks up. 10 games x $300 = $3-4K for the season. If a fan can lower the season costs by a few hundred bucks by selling a couple of games, maybe that fan will be able to buy gas to get to the games in December.

MONDAY
1:00 ET ?ESPN/ESPN2. 1-game playoffs (if necessary) for the final spots. Yankees-Red Sox or Yankees-Indians or Red Sox-Indians and/or Phillies-Astros. If the Yankees, Red Sox, and Indians all finish tied, the Red Sox play the Yankees on Monday in New York and the loser plays the Indians on Tuesday for the Wild Card. One of those teams could have a beleaguered bullpen at the start of the division series.

9:00 ET ABC HD Carolina 31 (-7) Green Bay 20. The Packers are off to a horrible start this season. They can’t stop the opposition, and their offensive line play is down following the loss of both starting guards to free agency. The Panthers can’t afford to fall any further behind the 3-0 Buccaneers who have exceeded expectations out of the gate this season behind RB Cadillac Williams.