On this day in 1975, when I was 18 days old, the Red Sox clinched the A.L. East. Tomorrow, I'll go to Fenway with a chance of seeing a live clinch for the first time in my life. I wonder if we get a win, and the Yanks are still playing, and losing, they'll put their game on the scoreboard and let us stay and watch.

I got to see the beginning of tonight's game. Our softball game started when it was tied, so I was a little nervous. After the game, which was my finest of the season (we finished the regular season tonight with 0 wins, but everybody makes the playoffs), I got to hear the good news: the Sox were up 11-5. Just what I needed. I then heard Sterling announce a Jeter home run as if he'd somehow reversed 9-11. They are a pathetic franchise in every aspect. At least their playoff clinching celebration was subdued and class--oh, wait, they acted like they'd actually accomplished something. Joba and Shelley Duncan, the two mega-stars who worked hard all year long, were right there spraying brew around. I wonder if Torre is embarrassed by this. If any team should use the motto "act like you've been there before," it's the Yanks. Oh, I'm sorry, they haven't been NON-division champs in quite some time.

The M.N. is at 2, or "02" on redsox.com. Which is funny, since they started keeping track at "09." Drop the 0, people. What are we, the Boston Benito Santiagos? The New England Dukes of Hazzard?

And the Angels are dropping like a stone, so we'll probably play them in the first round. The Indians won game one of their wacky home-and-home in-one-stadium double dip. I've got game two on Gameday right now. Through two innings, the Mariners had five of their first nine batters reach base. They scored no runs. So, that's four outs, plus two players caught stealing. Kelly Shoppach, who threw the runners out, also homered, so now it's 2-0 Indians in the seventh, despite the M's out hitting the Tribe 5-2. A Cleveland loss and we're tied with them. And if the season ends that way, we get home field throughout the playoffs.

I'll update the Cleveland game here.

Update: 10 baserunners for Seattle through eight. But they trail 2-1.
Update: Mariners tie it on a two-out homer in the bottom of the ninth. Tied in the tenth. They also did this last night--tying it in the ninth, and had chances to win in extras, but lost.

Update: Brak brak! Jhonny Peralta misses a hard shot right at him with two outs in the tenth, and the winning run scores for Seattle! Best record in baseball! Fate is in our hands now! Win out, Red Sox. More stuff: If we win Thursday, we'll be three up on the Angels with three to play. Since we have the tie-breaker over them, too, that would mean we'd clinch top three, with one more win OR Yankee loss clinching top two. Which gives us a first-round home field advantage at the very least. So, a win and a Yankee loss Thursday clinches the division and home field advantage in round one, where we'd most likely play the Angels. (We definitely would if the Indians also win Thursday, since they'd clinch a tie with the Angels, and they own the tie-breaker--the two clubs went 5-5 against each other, but the second tie-breaker is division record, and Cleveland dominated there.)

To wrap up: If we win, the Yanks lose, and the Indians win on Thursday, we'll play the Angels in the first round with home field advantage, and the Indians will play the Yanks with home field advantage. The only thing beyond that to be determined would be home field advantage in the ALCS IF it's us against Cleveland.

If those three things don't all happen Thursday, we'll meet back here and figure it all out all over again.