Projo Sox Blog

Au contraire. The Blue Jays are here for four games in three days and, while hardly anybody realizes it, this is another crucial series. The white-hot Jays, winners of 11 of their last 12, are only seven games behind the Red Sox in the loss column for the wild card and understand that the next two weekends -- Jays at Sox now, Sox at Jays soon -- are their season. (Toronto Globe and Mail) They've even juggled their rotation so that their three best pitchers (Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett and Jesse Litsch) will work this weekend on short rest.

Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald thinks the Blue Jays "are going to be a hurricane-sized force to deal with this weekend and next in Toronto." The Jays-tinged fan blog Batter's Box figures "[it] will probably take a minimum of 12 wins from here on out, and at least five need to be against the Red Sox," for Toronto to make the playoffs. And that push has to start tonight.

"Let's Roll" is how Batter's Box concludes its post.

The Jays will be ready to do just that. The Sox -- in no position for a post-Tampa Bay letdown -- better be, too.

LOOKING AHEAD: Murray Chass, writing on his new blog, says the Sox don't have to worry about the Jays because "the Red Sox are going to win the American League East title and finish in first place for a second successive season for the first time since 1916." And he wrote this after they'd lost two of three to the Rays.

LOOKING WAY AHEAD: Even if Chass is overly optimstic, fact is the odds are overwhelmingly in the Sox' favor to at least make the playoffs. (Baseball Prospectus lists them at 98.02 percent.) Toward that end, Sean McAdam looks at the potential postseason roster.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES: Sean's roster doesn't include Mike Timlin and Chad Finn says it shouldn't.

BACK TO SQUARE ONE? It does include J.D. Drew, but Silverman reports that Drew's back is bothering him again.

TITO TIME: That's what WEEI's Rob Bradford calls September and October, since it's when Terry Francona is at his best.

INTERVIEW ONE: Joe Haggerty, on his Hacks With Haggs blog, talks to Sox farmhand Lars Anderson.

INTERVIEW TWO: Sox assistant GM Jed Hoyer answers questions from fans on the SawxHeads blog.

ANOTHER COUNTY HEARD FROM: Now it's Paul Gutierrez of the Sacramento Bee making the Dustin Pedroia-for-MVP case.

WE SAY IT HERE, IT COMES OUT THERE: Which, of course, is giving ourselves way too much credit, but, hey, why not? Last week we linked to a rotoworld.com report saying the Red Sox were looking at Japanese pitcher Junichi Tazawa. Yesterday the Japan Times reported the same thing.

FIRST LOOK: If you're interested, here's a video clip of Tazawa in action:

AND ALL RONAN TYNAN CAN DO IS SING: John Klima of the Daily Breeze says Manny Ramirez "is the worst baseball player I have ever seen" because he's "a liability anytime he doesn't have the bat in his hands."

AIM HIGH: Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times lists all the reasons why the Rays should want to win the A.L. East, rather than merely settle for making the playoffs any way they can.

ENOUGH! Joe Maddon has to stop using Troy Percival as his closer, says John Romano of the Times.

THE BLAME GAME: With the Yankees playing out the string, who's-going-to-win-today's-game? has taken a back seat to who's-responsible-for-this? Joe Girardi says he is. (New York Post) But it sounds like Hank Steinbrenner is more inclined to fault Brian Cashman. (New York Post)

IT'S THE OFFENSE, STUPID: One of the Yanks' biggest problems this year is the failure of the hitters to produce as expected. (New York Times) Toward that end, they plan to work with Robinson Cano on changing his swing. (mlb.com)

GET REAL: Mike Lupica says the Yanks are deluding themselves if they don't understand a simple truth: They're too old, and not good enough. (New York Daily News)

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE: The Yankees figure to have a busy offseason, and the decision whether or not to bring back Bobby Abreu is one of the first dominoes that may fall this autumn. (New York Daily News)

HOW BAD IS IT FOR THE YANKS? So bad that the announcers on YES -- "Al Yankzeera," in the words of the Daily News' Bob Raissman -- are letting them have it.

REAL PROBLEMS: Forget this on-the-field stuff. The New York Daily News reports lawmakers in both Washington and the New York state capital of Albany are investigating whether New York City officials inflated the land value of the new Yankee Stadium to 10 times the market value of virtually all other land in the South Bronx neighborhood to make it possible for the Yankees to pay back nearly $1 billion in tax-free bonds for the project.

SNIT'S OVER . . . KIND OF: Having spent two years stomping his feet and holding his breath until his face turned blue -- because the Yankees had the effrontery to release him -- Bernie Williams has finally relented and says he'll be at Yankee Stadium for the final game on Sept. 21 (New York Post), his first trip to the Stadium since his last game with the Yanks in 2006. He still won't say he's retired, though, even though a) he turns 40 tomorrow, b) he hasn't played in two years and c) he hasn't had what could be even be considered a decent season since 2004. "I'm still training, so you never know," he told the Post when asked if he was ready to make official what seems obvious to everyone but him . . . namely, that his playing days are done.

57 DOWN, 1 TO GO: Francisco Rodriguez tied Bobby Thigpen's record for saves in a season when he recorded his 57th in the Angels' 7-4 win over the Mariners last night. (Los Angeles Times) As you can see, he celebrated in his usual understated way.

RAINING ON K-ROD'S PARADE: Tim Marchman of the New York Sun thinks this "is where it's fair to rail against the save as the single most ridiculous statistic in baseball . . . [because Rodriguez is] demonstrably not the best reliever in baseball this year, let alone anywhere near having the best relief season ever."

TIPPING HIS CAP Thigpen says he's happy for Rodriguez and will send a congratulatory note when the record finally falls.

NOT THIS TIME: Adam Rubin of the Daily News says "there seems to be little sense that the Mets will self-destruct over the season's final 17 days."

IT IS, AFTER ALL, THE SPORT OF THE FUTURE: The Mets are thinking of buying an MLS team. (bloomberg.com)

A.L. RACES: The White Sox and Blue Jays were 0-0 through seven innings last night, then did all their scoring in the eighth: Six runs for Toronto, four for Chicago. But the 6-4 loss (Chicago Tribune) didn't cost the Chisox any ground in the standings, as the Twins dropped a 3-2, 10-inning decision to the Royals (Minneapolis Star-Tribune), which kept Chicago's Central lead at one game . . . The Twins -- who now start a 10-game road trip through Baltimore, Cleveland and Tampa Bay -- did fall farther behind the Red Sox in the wild-card standings; they now trail the Sox by 5 1/2 games overall, six in the loss column.

LOST IN TRANSLATION: When Ozzie Guillen's exhortation that his troops "fight like cats" became a punchline on the Chicago talk-show circuit, Jermaine Dye attempted to make it a rallying cry. But the T-shirt Dye had made for Guillen (Chicago Sun-Times) -- "Paws Up" -- makes it sound like the White Sox have died.

N.L. RACES: Jamie Moyer, pitching on three days' rest, led the Phillies past the Brewers, 6-3 (Philadelphia Daily News), which enabled Philadelphia to pull to three back of the idle Mets in the East . . . They also picked up a game on Milwaukee in the wild-card race and now trail the Brewers by three . . . As does Houston, which completed a three-game sweep of the Pirates (Houston Chronicle) and now has won 14 of its last 15 games . . . The Cubs pushed their lead in the Central to 5 1/2 games with a 3-2 win over the Cardinals (Chicago Sun-Times) in Rich Harden's successful return to the rotation . . . No change in the West, as both the Dodgers and Diamondbacks had the day off.

SIX IS OUT: David Pinto of Baseball Musings says this week's results have diminished the chances of a six-way playoff tie in the National League.

AND NOW WE WAIT: The showdown series between the Astros and Cubs in Houston is being delayed by Hurricane Ike. MLB has already postponed both tonight's and tomorrow's games in anticipation of the storm (Houston Chronicle), and will wait for post-Ike damage assessment before deciding on when to reschedule. The Chicago Sun-Times' Gordon Wittenmyer applauds MLB for not forcing the Cubs to fly into Houston as the storm approaches, but thinks the series could have been played somewhere else.

DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY: The volcanic Lou Piniella has pasted on a smiley face as he tells Cubs fans not to worry, "there is nothing to panic about" despite 8 losses in 10 games. (Chicago Sun-Times)

IN AGREEMENT: Both new media (Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports) and old (Tracy Ringolsby, writing on foxsports.com) think Tim Lincecum should win the N.L. Cy Young Award.

THE BATTLE IS JOINED: Scott Boras/Pedro Alvarez-vs.-the Pirates has gone to arbitration, and Passan says the dispute "is delicious with plotlines."

NO ROCKY MOUNTAIN MIRACLE THIS YEAR: Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post, noting they'd have to go 15-1 merely to finish with a winning record, pulls the shroud over the Rockies.

ALBATROSS: That accurately describes Michael Young's contract, says Mike Hindman of the Dallas Morning News, since Young has devolved into the worst defensive shortstop in baseball.

LOCAL BOYS: Paul Konerko's strained knee will keep him out of action this weekend. (Chicago Tribune)

HERE AND THERE: The Indians say Eric Wedge's job is safe (Cleveland Plain Dealer) . . . Ozzie Guillen wants Joe Crede back in 2009 (Chicago Tribune) . . . Troy Glaus got a good medical report on his injured shoulder and may return to the Cardinals' lineup this weekend (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) . . . The Mariners' Adrian Beltre can't decide whether to have thumb and shoulder surgery now, which would end his season, or play though the pain for the final 2 1/2 weeks. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

OLD FRIENDS: A torn shoulder muscle may end Gabe Kapler's season (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) . . . Freddy Sanchez is going to the eye doctor because of blurriness in his right eye. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

-- ART MARTONE