Yeah it's Red Sox/Yankees... but not much is on the line

I know there will be a lot of chest thumping and bravado this weekend... but let's face it: This Yankees/Red Sox series just doesn't have a lot of juice.

Both teams are making the playoffs so what is on the line is (kind of) is home field advantage and pride.

I mean of course I want the Sox to win and get that magic number down to single digits... but the Red Sox are 9 games ahead of the Tigers with 15 games left, so there's no real chance they'll miss the playoffs.


And the way the Yankees have been playing, they aren't blowing a 5 game lead in the loss collumn with 17 left.

Since losing the Yankee series, the Sox are 9-4. Since losing the Tigers series, the Yankees are 11-3.

In fact the entire AL playoff picture has lost its regular season juice.

Since August 1:
Red Sox are 25-16
Indians are 25-15
Angels are 24-16
Yankees are 26-13

conversely
Tigers are 19-22
Mariners are 18-21

Since getting to within one game of the Angels, the Mariners are 3-15!

So the four playoff teams are set and playing well.

Yeah I'll watch the games and I'll be rooting for the Sox... but other than playoff positioning, not much is on the line.

And last year the Tigers were the big losers in positioning because they got the Yankees and the Twins were the big winners because they avoided the Yankees and got the A's

How did that work out?

So it will be fun... but mainly just chest thumping