Oakland A's Oakland A's

August 25, 2004

Playoff Chase

Between the AL West and the AL Wildcard there are four teams fighting for two playoff spots. Here's how their schedules look over the last month+ of the season. (ranked by opponents' winning pct)

Oakland - .493
Anaheim - .500
Boston - .503
Texas - .511

And the key series between these four teams:

Ana at Bos, 8/31 - 9/2
Tex at Bos, 9/3 - 9/5
Bos at Oak, 9/6 - 9/8
Tex at Oak, 9/13 - 9/16
Tex at Ana, 9/17 - 9/19
Oak at Tex, 9/21 - 9/23
Oak at Ana, 9/24 - 9/26
Ana at Tex, 9/27 - 9/30
Ana at Oak, 10/1 - 10/3

And some of those old-school, back-east rivalry games:

Bos at NYY, 9/17 - 9/19
NYY at Bos, 9/24 - 9/26

That gives us a game with HUGE playoff implications every day between 8/31 - 9/8 and 9/13 - 10/3. I give a slight edge to the A's here for two reasons: (1) Their games against the Red Sox are at home instead of at Fenway and (2) They have a slightly easier schedule.

Regardless, there's going to be an aweful lot of good baseball to watch down the stretch, so thank goodness for MLB Extra Innings! Now, if I could only get around that annoying Fox roadblock on Saturday afternoons...

Posted by andrew at August 25, 2004 10:24 AM | TrackBack