CLINCH TIME: After sweeping the Chicago White Sox and then beating Detroit tonight for consecutive win number 7, the Minnesota Twins lead the AL Central by 3.5 games, with a magic number of 6 heading into Saturday's games. Oh yea, and six of the Twins' eight remaining games are against the sorry, no-account Detroit Tigers. If the Tigers lose five of the six, they will tie the legendary 1962 New York Mets for the worst record in baseball history. The Twins even have their answer to the Rally Monkey: the Magic Number Guy.
With the Twins likely to win the Central and the Red Sox pulling ahead in the wild card race, the American League playoff picture is becoming clearer: if the season ended today the Division Series would pit Oakland against Boston in one matchup, and the Twins against the Yankees in the other. And while I'm excited about the sabermetric-wet-dream of an A's-Sox clash, a Twins-Yankees playoff series is honestly something I've dreamed of ever since I moved to New York. If I can't get tickets to the games at the Stadium I'll go to all five at local bars, dressed head to toe in Twins regalia. The Twins would be underdogs, sure- especially since, as Gleeman points out, they have the glorious record of 0-13 vs. the Yanks in the last two years, and haven't beaten the Bronx Bombers since May of 2001. But they'd have 99% of the country rooting for them, and there would be nothing quite like the Twinkies winning in the playoffs against a team with three times their payroll.
Last year the Twins clinched the division on Rosh Hashanah; this year they'll likely get it done with three or four days to spare.