In the only series that couldn’t be resolved in three games, the Yankees again play host to the Indians, who lead, two games to one. New York sends 19-game winner Chien-Ming Wang to the mound; Cleveland counters with veteran right-hander Paul Byrd.
With the Yankees, one can never shake the ominous feeling that they are just toying with their prey. Wang hasn’t faced the Indians this year; Byrd has faced the Yankees once — on August 11 at Cleveland — and I expect he’s doing everything he can to forget about that one.

How are the playoffs working for you so far? I expected the Rockies to beat up on Philadelphia, and that’s exactly what has happened. Going to Coors Field down 2-0 is not a good thing. Those fans in Denver have been waiting a long time and they’re pretty nuts about their team.
I thought the Cubs would be giving Arizona a better fight, but that’s been the story with the Diamondbacks all year. As a Padres fan, I take some pleasure in knowing that only teams from our division have won so far on the NL side. Not much, mind you, …read more

We touched on the Cy Young award last week — specifically Rich at Baseball Analysts’ take on the leading candidates. Now another heavy hitter — ESPN’s Jayson Stark — weighs in with his thoughts.
Like everyone else, Stark has San Diego’s Jake Peavy and Arizona’s Brandon Webb in the top two slots in the National League. Nice to see Stark also recognize what Aaron Harang is accomplishing on a very bad Cincinnati team.
I still think Dodgers closer Takashi Saito belongs in the discussion. Lefties are hitting just .194/.239/.311 against him this year. They are the lucky ones: right-handers are batting — …read more

Early starts this morning. Fire up a pot of coffee and find the remote, it’s time for baseball:

Tigers at Yankees, 10:05 a.m. PT — Jeremy Bonderman and Chien-Ming Wang hook up here. The Tigers are 10-20 over their past 30 games, while the Yankees are 20-10. It’s a testament to New York’s offense that this team is in a pennant race despite having only 3 1/2 starting pitchers.
Angels at Red Sox, 11:05 a.m. PT — Speaking of testament to offense, Boston keeps winning despite the presence of Julian Tavarez in its rotation. Tavarez had a great rookie season for the …read more

Somehow I got out of the habit of doing these. With the pennant races heating up, I reckon it’s time to bust out the previews again:
American League

Mariners at Orioles, 4:05 p.m. PT — How are the Mariners doing it? Ichiro Suzuki, Adrian Beltre, and Jose Guillen all are having decent (not great) seasons on offense. The starting pitching has been okay. The relief pitching has been pretty darned good. They score about as many runs as they give up, and yet, they’re a game out of the AL wild card. Felix Hernandez starts tonight, which is always a good reason …read more

With future Hall of Fame right-hander Roger Clemens expected to start for the Yankees on Monday in Chicago, only one question remains: Will it matter?
To the current records…
Red Sox: 36-15
Tigers (WC): 30-21
Yankees: 21-29
Boston leads the American League East, while Detroit is the front-runner in the wild card race. (I know, it’s crazy to talk about the wild card in May, but bear with me.)
If the Red Sox play .500 ball (eh, .495 ball) the rest of the way, they’ll win 91 games. The Yankees would need to win 71 of their final 112 games (.634 winning percentage) to overtake Boston. …read more