We blew out the lifeless Birds last night, but the A's clung to life in the best record race with a late win over the M's. The magic number is 1 for home field advantage throughout the playoffs. If we wrap it up today, we can rest everybody on Sunday, and let the O's win and maybe drop the Yanks to a fourth-place finish!

Wild card race:

Cleveland -- (has won 8 straight)
Tampa --
Texas 1

Just wanted to reiterate that.

Yankee Elimination Night is here! I love how they got to seal the deal at home, withering away for all to see these last few nights. Second time since '95 they're out completely. And the 12th time in the last 13 years "someone besides the Yanks" will be World Champs.

Oakland gave us a nice present this afternoon. We knew a win would put us 2 up with 3 to play. And we got that win easily, kicking Rocky ass, 15 to 5. Some box score lines: Middlebrooks 5227, Victorino 5223, Salty 5243. Great job by all you Mountain time zone Sox fans out there!

As for the remaining races, we've got Tampa up one on Cleveland, and Cleveland up one on Texas. All three teams have four games left. And the drama disappeared in that NL Central race, with the Pirates now three back with three to play. It'll be a Pirates-Reds wild card game, with home-field still up for grabs. I've had this fear all season long that the poor Pirates were gonna end up stuck in that one-gamer, with a chance of their whole great season going up in smoke in one day. That would be a shame. But I'm not really thinking about that, when there so much Yankee Elimination going on!!!!!!!!!!!

So we have to hear Timlin talking over Don on every call for the rest of the season? Oy. Speaking of oy, the Red Sox couldn't do anything against Chatroom tonight in Denver, and Lackey looked like the guy we've all come to know and hate the last few seasons. Rox 8, Sox 3. The A's are down 3-0 kinda late, so hopefully when I wake up I see we've still got a 1-game lead in the BessWreck race.

MEANWHILE the Yanks are toast. Their tragic no. is down to 1, as they get Chicago'd by Tampa at home, and Cleveland gets Rays'd from the dead against Chicago in the 9th.

Juicy that near no-hitter tonight? MLBN was showing the Yanks but broke in to see this Cardinals guy I've never heard of three outs away from a No-ski. He gets the first two, then gives up one of those infield choppers that he barely can't reach with a jump. Shortstop does a nice job on the barehand, and his throw does beat the runner, but it pulls the first baseman off the bag and he just misses the sweep tag. Hit. Poor sap. The Cards have the Pirates by two and the Reds by three with four left. All three are in the playoffs regardless, but I hope it stays fun till the final day over there in the bizzaro league.

Oh, and did you notice that NESN started to run an episode of the Red Sox Report during the break for the pitching change in the 9th?

[Update, 12:26 a.m.: I have to work early and I thought I'd go right to bed after I wrote all that. But that A's game was cruising along so I kept staying up. Aaaand it's over. A's lose! They got 0 runs on four hits, and only in the 1st and 9th did they send up more than 3 hitters to the plate. So we stay 1 up with 4 to play....]

What do I always tell you? The phone is the way to go! Nobody ever thinks of the phone for these ticket sales. I called two minutes before they went on sale, then just stalled the robotic-prompt lady until the exact moment, then chose my game. I was probably the first schmoe to buy! Pretty far back in the grandstand, but in the infield which was all I cared about.

Of course I already had 2 tix thanks to my 10-game plan, but we needed 3 so we "upgraded." (I'll let you guys know if I need to get rid of the original two tix.)

My mom was going the Internet route at the same time, and said she broke through only a few minutes after I bought our tickets, so maybe it wasn't too hard to get through today. Hope you were as lucky (meaning skilled, motherfucker!) as we were.

Check it out:


Got the '14 schedule magnet yesterday, along with a program handed to me by Dr. Charles himself. And my mom nabbed me a pennant, which has a picture of a pennant on it.

Due to my work schedule, I've gone to hardly any games this season. And when I do, I don't even have time to do full photo galleries for thee. But I've got one for you today. It was the day they unveiled the Yaz statue--the regular season finale at Fenway--and I was there with my mom and Charlie. I'll start you out with a super-bootleg top-bottom-multi-shot thingy:

On hand for the unveiling were a bunch of Carl's teammates, and also some current players who you can see above.

Jim Rice gave a funny speech--lots of "Yaz is looking at his watch"-style jokes.

Dewey Evans gave a heartfelt one.

And here's the man himself getting a little emotional.

Just after they knocked the cover off the statue. As with most statues, it kinda doesn't look like the person it's statue-ing.

Shortly after the ceremony, as I waited for the gates to open, the gray went away and it became a really nice day. Even kinda hot in the sun.

Not a great shot, but I just really wanted to get one of Bill Lee. You also see Tiant, Monty, Rice, Berardino, and a hint of Yaz here. Rich Gedman was there, and I got to say hi to him as he walked right past me. But it was brief as I had spotted Red Sox writin' guy Saul Wisnia and was chatting with him. Was good to finally meet him in person.

I could look at this all day.

Unnecessary quotes Stay Strong unnecessary quotes.

Farrell cat.

A bearded Wally. And Doctor Charles.

Jonny Wadd Gomes.

Yaz threw out the first ball.


Above is a video of him after the pitch heading to the dugout.

We sat in great seats for two innings. Here's Reyes at bat.

Dustin.

The view.

Felix Doubront.

R.A. Dickey was roughed up a little today.

Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a 3-run dong that turned out to be "the difference in the game." This game really flew by. And with that early 4-run inning it was never really in doubt. We stayed 1.5 up on Oakland in the best record race.

Bill Lee was up in the Legends box and brought his bat with him.

The Guidry angle. Fine, I'll tell you. It's just that that "left-of-pitcher" angle was the early 80s center field view on Yankee games on WPIX. So I always think of Loser-ana Lightnin'-that-strikes-orphans-on-purpose when I see this view.

Next game at Fenway will be 10/4, good buddy.

Beard board. And if you're wonder, yes, I'm finally on beard. Started growing it around the 1st of "tha" month. Getting werewolf-y now.... with a few white hairs in there.

Hey, how come there was no "fan appreciation weekend" this year? Are they only doing those in years where we don't make the playoffs?

And I thought AL East champs T-shirts would be more prominent in the stores. I only saw a $40 one. I guess I should just make my own....

Okay, let's talk serious now. We got our job done. The Yanks...totally didn't. Mo Day and the Druggie's last home start were beautifully ruined, as the Yanks lost to the lowly Giants and fell to FOUR back in the WC since TB and Cleveland won. Their tragic number is 3! Gold. Their only shot is to sweep Tampa, BUT, Texas should stay ahead of them through the end of that series anyway as they play the Astros. The key is, those top two teams don't need to do much to keep the Yanks out, even if NY wins every single game.

Red Sox lose. We're 94-62. Have to go 6 for 6 to be 100-62 on the year.

Best record standings:

Us --
A's 1.5
Tigers 2.5

WC standings

Tampa up .5
Cleve --
Tex .5

Yankees' tragic number: 5

Yaz statue day tomorrow.