Half a Dozen Big Ones

Since my inaugural post where I said the Yankees had to play .667 baseball to make the playoffs, they have played .500 baseball, but won the last two so it's promising. The next six games are critical in determining their post season chances. We've got six away games but the first three are against a Toronto team that if they sweep us, would put us in fourth and effectively end the season, motivation enough for the team to play their absolute hearts out. Then another three versus a better, but still not good Orioles team who the Yankees have been struggling against all season for some reason. To be on track for that 92 win number the Yankees have to win 5 out of 6 before their day off and then ultra critical, season do or die series versus Boston, and here's why I think they can do it.

In Toronto it looks like tonight might be our allotted one loss. We have Rasner on the hill, and despite his decent start last week we still lost, and he still sucks. And Toronto has Burnett going, who hasn't lost a game in over a month now. If the Yankees can get back to working the count and making Burnett throw strikes, we may be able to pull one off. Tomorrow night we've got Pettitte who has not won since July 26, but is going against an unknown James Purcey, could be a double digit game for the Yanks, and a much needed pick me up for Andy. Then for the series finale on Thursday it's Ponson versus Halladay. This is the clincher right here, Ponson has SO surprisingly thrown well, but the team has failed to score runs for him. Versus Halladay all we can ask of Ponson is to give us his best 7 innings and hope we can win by a run or two.

Then off to Baltimore where we should have a nice win on Friday night to start things off with Moose pitching against another unknown. Saturday things get a little dicey where it looks like we may throw Pavano out on the hill. Now you know how I feel about old Carl, and he is just too easy to pick on so I will take the high road. I am saying that if Carl comes in Saturday and reels off his first win, and then able to get 4 more in 5 starts he has this season, and the Yankees make the playoffs, he is absolved in my mind of all his misgivings over the past 4 years. I would also command that he is not on the post season roster. I think there is a better chance of me fathering Jennifer Aniston's children than any of the Pavano scenarios though. And on Sunday for the 6 game finale, Rasner is going against Guthrie, who clobbered us last time we played Baltimore. So going off statistics and previous match ups, splitting these six games down the middle seems more likely, but hey, it's playoff time and we need the Yanks to show us some magic if we want to have some hope.

As for the offense, I think we saw a lot of good things in the last game versus Kansas City that hopefully carry over. Batters working the count, A-Rod and some of the big bats taking it deep. And guys like Jeter, Gardner and Robbie coming up with extra base hits and smart base running. Simple things like that is all we need, plus our pitchers keeping us in the game to head into that Boston series with a full head of steam and our strong starters going.