Hello and welcome to the final day of the Major League Baseball regular season. As of yesterday, there is nothing left for the Red Sox to play for. Just as the Sox vs Orioles game was starting, the A’s lost their game. That guaranteed the Red Sox home field advantage through the American League playoffs. The AL’s win at the all star game guarantees the AL pennant winners home field in the World Series. So the Sox could potentially have home field all the way through the post season. That has a nice ring to it.

Boston has 97 wins with one game left to play. After the nightmare horror of last season, I was optimistic that they could win 81 games. Let’s look at the current standings and see where an 81 win season would have placed us. How does second to last in the AL East ahead of only Toronto sound? It sounds like a huge improvement over last year, that’s what it sounds like. It also looks really depressing to finish behind the Yankees yet again. Fortunately, we’re just cruising our way to the best record in the entire American League. I cannot overstate how happy I am with this team. What a great season, and hopefully the best is yet to come.

As for the Division Series match ups, they are set for the Division winners. Oakland plays Detroit and Boston plays the wild card winner. The wild card race is still up in the air. Neither spot in the AL has been clinched yet. With one game still to be played, Cleveland (91-70) has a one game lead over Texas and Tampa Bay (both at 90-71). Tampa Bay plays Toronto today at 1:00, Cleveland plays the Twins at 2:00, and Texas plays the Angels at 3:00 (all times are Eastern). If the race ends with two teams tied for the second wild card spot, there will be a one game playoff on Monday (to decide who gets to play in the one game playoff… confusing, eh? Just wait, it gets worse) with the team that won the season series hosting. If the race ends in a three way tie it gets really strange.

The league has a formula where they designate the three teams as Teams A, B, and C. I am not sure about this, but I think the slotting is based on winning percentage against the other two teams, with the team with the best record getting to chose which slot they want. Cleveland is team A, Tampa Bay is team B, and Texas is team C. What does that mean? On Monday, Cleveland would host Tampa Bay. The winner gets the first wild card slot. On Tuesday, Texas would host the team that lost on Monday with the winner getting the second wild card slot, and the loser getting the opportunity to start Christmas shopping a little early. Then of course, the two wild card teams play each other to determine who wins the chance to lose to the Red Sox in the Division Series.

Part of me is rooting for that three way tie! Imagine having to play three one game playoffs on three consecutive days (I think, the wild card game might be Thursday, but I am pretty sure it’s going to be Wednesday), talk about stress, huh? I don’t really care who wins what, just as long as Tampa Bay doesn’t advance to the Division Series. As far as a Red Sox opponent goes, all three teams scare me, but Tampa Bay’s pitching scares me the most. I would much rather facing the Indians or the Rangers.

We’ll have to hang on and see how it all turns out over the next few days. It definitely looks to be a fun finish to the regular season in the American League, and I haven’t even looked at what’s happening in the National League yet.