Heavyweight Fight Round Three

The Red Sox will get a chance to defend their World Championship as they won 10-1 today vs. the Yankees. They finish tied record-wise for first place at 95-67, even though the Yankees won the AL East based on a 10-9 season series advantage.

The Red Sox did win the AL Wild Card when Cleveland lost at Chicago today.

The Yankees, Red Sox and Angels all finished with the same record. However, because the Yankees lost the season series with the Angels 6-4, they will have to play the first two games on the road in California. This playoffs sets up nicely for a potential third consecutive Boston v. NY AL Championship series and possibly a rematch of last year's World Series. But we shall see.

So the first round of the playoffs (three wins advances) sets up like this, with my predictions in parenthesis:

AL
Boston Red Sox v. Chicago White Sox (Red Sox in five)
New York Yankees v. Los Angeles Angels (Angels in five)

NL
San Diego Padres v. St. Louis Cardinals (Cardinals in three)
Houston Astros v. Atlanta Braves. (Astros in four)

On a side note: After an emotional and injury filled win at Pittsburgh last week, the Patriots lost 41-17 today to San Diego. The game was tied at 17 going into halftime. Apparently the Patriots decided to mail in the second half, getting shut out 24-0. This loss snaps a 21 game home winning streak. The Patriots hadn't lost at the Razor since December 2002.