Saturday Morning

TEAM	PTS	SP	RP	H	H	Record
Jake	75			Ortiz		6-0
Tom	54	Lannan				5-1
Dale	50		Papelbon	ARamirez		5-1
Joe	45		Wagner	Bay		4-2
Connor	44	Jackson	Nathan	Youkilis	Matsui	4-2
John	43			Escobar	Rolen	3-3
Gerry	30			Rios		3-3
Tief	28		Lyon			3-3
Max	23	Grienke	Putz	Braun	Drew	2-4
Avery	23	Harang	Valverde	Joyce		2-4
Bill	23			Pudge	Pedroia	1-5
Jacob	15	Sanchez	Jenks	Ellsbury	Overbay	1-5
Joel	14	Lackey	FRod	Lee	Rowand	0-6

It appears almost 100% certain that Jake has clinched the McNamee Division. Dale needed to beat him by 3 games to tie. No way that's going to happen.

Despite that, Dale is very well positioned to take the wild card. All of the wild card contenders (Dale, Tom, Connor, and Joe) are at the top of the scoring right now, which means they would all finish with similar records. Dale had a 2-game lead coming in, so it would take some teams from the bottom to sneak up and mess things up. Could happen, but not real likely.

The race for the Mitchell Division between Tom and Connor is still wide open. Tom is ahead by 10, but they each still get their starting pitchers, and Connor gets a reliever and two hitters (although his 2B Matsui has missed the last three games with a weak back that he got about a week back). The keys are the starting pitchers. For Tom, John Lannan (WAS) pitches tonight at home against Colorado, and for Connor, Edwin Jackson (TB) pitches tonight at Texas. There is still a strong possibility of a 1-game playoff. That game would be Tuesday night.

All of this analysis of course comes with the disclaimer that anything could still happen. But in following these games for 22 years, I know it rarely does.