Let's make the scenarios simple

One and done
Two their due,
and Three they go whee, whee, whee all the way home.

In other words, if the Red Sox win only one of the next three games, the Yankees take the division. If they win two out of three, they will be tied and be heading off to the Bronx for a tie-breaker on Monday (who's going to pitch that one?). If they win all three, the Red Sox take the division. Got it?

If you want to add in a little spice, if the Sox take two out of three and Cleveland takes 2 as well, there will be a second tie-breaker on Tuesday. What a way to end the season!


Now then, let's talk about big and little Papi. Big Papi finishes the game with another clutch hit in the 9th to finish off the Toronto Blue Jays. But that was just the end. Ortiz's homer was his 20th of the season that tied a game or put Boston ahead, and it was his 11th in September. How could anyone else be considered for MVP this year?

But it was Papelbon who set the stage by going 2.2 innings with 1 K, 2 hits allowed, and 0 ER after Clement almost blew the game (5 innings, 4 ER, 8 hits) and Myers setting the stage with 1.1 innings of almost perfect pitching (1 walk, 0 hits, 0 ER).

In other news: Mike Stanton was acquired from the Nationals for a three game stint. He will not be available to the Red Sox if they make the playoffs. "If he comes in and gets one hitter out, that might be enough," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "This guy's not going to come in and pitch the ninth for us."

Red Sox

Talk about being optimistic!

Arroyo stays optimistic:
"We'll try to wipe this one away as quickly as possible," said Arroyo, who allowed seven runs and seven hits in three-plus innings. "I only threw 79 pitches, so I feel like I'll be healthy for the Yankees. ... You always hope for the opportunity. So, we'll see."

Ortiz on his attempted bunt:
''If I hit a homer it don't matter," he said. ''We're still going to be down by a whole bunch of runs so I was thinking, they had the [third base] space open [as a result of the Ortiz shift]. I was trying to at least get on base. And we had Manny coming up. And if Manny hits a homer, now we're closer. My mind right there was to try to get on base one way or another especially against this guy whose been making good pitches against us. I'm not the kind of guy who's out there just looking at my numbers. It's a team situation and I always want to prove the best I can for our ball club."

The Star Wars character Chewbacca threw out the first pitch at Fenway last night to promote a Museum of Science exhibit. (Globe Staff Photo / Jim Davis)


Red Sox

Injury Report for the Patriots

The Patriots and the Chargers released their injury reports today. Notables on the list are RB Kevin Faulk, T Matt Light, CB Duane Starks, CB Tyrone Poole, CB Chad Scott, LB Tully Banta-Cain and CB Randall Gay.

With Faulk out, the patriots needed a running back, and so:
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Patriots signed free agent running back Amos Zereoue and released wide receiver Andre' Davis today. Zereoue will wear number 31 for the Patriots. Terms of his agreement were not disclosed.

Wasn't Davis part of a trade for a third or fourth round pick?

Patriots

Pats vs. Chargers

Harrison is out for the season. What a disappointment. His hard hitting play making ability is going to be missed.


I took the following from the Pats Website. Does anyone else get as excited as I do when Tim Dwight gets the ball. He just seems to explode into action.

Patriots
Among the League Leaders
21 -- The number of receptions by Deion Branch through three games, tops among all AFC receivers. Branch’s reception total is tied for fourth in the NFL.

78 -- The number of completions by Tom Brady through three games in 2005, leading the NFL. Donovan McNabb ranks second with 77 completions.

948 -- The number of passing yards for Brady through three games, ranking second in the NFL. McNabb leads all passers with 964 yards.

43 -- The number of passing first downs earned by Brady through three games, ranking third in the NFL. St. Louis’ Marc Bulger and McNabb are tied for the lead with 45 first downs.

4 -- The number of rushing touchdowns by Corey Dillon through three games, ranking second in the AFC behind San Diegos LaDainian Tomlinson (6 touchdowns). Dillon’s total is tied for third in the NFL with Chicago’s Thomas Jones and Carolina’s Stephen Davis, behind Tomlinson (6) and Seattles Shawn Alexander (5).

11.0 -- The average number of yards per punt return for Tim Dwight (9- 99), ranking second in the AFC.

1 -- The ranking of the Patriots’ pass offense among all AFC teams. New England has averaged 300.3 passing yards per game this season. The Patriots rank second in the NFL, trailing only the Philadelphia Eagles.

1 -- Tom Brady’s ranking among AFC passers in yards (948), completions (78) and passing attempts (123).


BTW, this is interesting. Apparently, there was a time clock issue. That big a change and noone noticed?

Yesterday's game really meant something

With yesterday's win (first game, of course), the Sox made this weekend's series against the Yankees certain to mean something. If either team gets swept or is swept in the next two games, the three game series will still determine who wins, and most likely who goes home.

Since this series is so important, I went and looked at the Red Sox vs. Yankees history this year: Wins: 7-9, At Home: 3-4, Runs: 100 - 68 (two games were blowouts at 17-1).

The Cleveland Indians also lost last night, so the Sox, Yankees and Indians are in a three way tie for the wild card. I went and looked at Cleveland's remaining schedule. They face off two more times against the lowly (but hard hitting) Tampa Bay Devil Rays. They then have to face off against the Chicago White Sox. Whoever made up the MLB schedule this year deserves a raise.

BTW, why did Schilling come back out in the seventh? He was obviously struggling. He seemed to get into trouble every inning. So why bring him back out when his pitch count was already up there? This is crunch time. Torre pulls his pitchers, no matter who they are or what their ego state is, if they're in trouble. This is not the time and place to protect someone. And then he pitches Hansen, when a few days ago, he refused to put him in just to protect him from situations like this. Tito, make up your mind one way or another.

Red Sox