Big Series, Bigger Series

Most of the attention in baseball tonight will fall squarely on the Tampa Bay-New York match-up, where CC Sabathia will take on David Price, with the winner of the game holding sole possession of first place in the AL East. It is a big match-up with quite a few playoff implications on the line. If either team can pull off a series sweep, they’ll put themselves in a great position to win their division and likely finish with the best record in the league, which means a first round date with the Rangers instead of the Twins. Neither of those teams are pushovers, but given Josh Hamilton’s health, that’s almost certainly a better match-up right now.

The reality is that the series in Tampa won’t decide a playoff spot. Both of those teams are headed for October baseball, as the loser of the AL East will almost certainly win the Wild Card. While they want to win the division, neither team’s season is hanging in the balance. So, while it’s a big series, there’s a bigger one out west.

90 minutes later, the San Diego Padres will kick off their series in Colorado against the surging Rockies, winners of 10 straight. The Padres lead in the NL West is down to percentage points, and Colorado only stands 1 1/2 games out of first place. Both of these teams have a real chance to win their division, but both also trail the Atlanta Braves in the Wild Card race. It is likely that one of these teams will be sitting at home when the playoffs begin, and because of how closely the races over in the Senior Circuit are, the playoff teams will probably squeak in with just a win or two more than the ones whose seasons end after 162 games.

This San Diego-Colorado match-up has enormous ramifications for what we’re going to see in October. A Padres sweep puts the Rockies back on life support. San Diego’s season won’t end in the next few days, but the last thing they need after a prolonged slump is to get whooped by a surging division opponent. If the Rockies take the series, and especially if they sweep, the Padres will need to find some late season magic in order to keep their miracle season alive.

Cory Luebke vs Jeff Francis isn’t quite as sexy as the Price-Sabathia tilt in the AL, but that’s the game with big implications tonight. If you have the ability to watch either game, I highly suggest watching the two Western teams square off. You’ll see Tampa Bay and New York in the playoffs, and you might even see them play each other again. You almost certainly won’t see both Colorado and San Diego in October, and the series that begins tonight will go a pretty good ways to determining which of those two teams gets to keep on going after the regular season ends.

In appreciation of the magnitude of the games tonight, we’ll be hosting a special live blog for anyone who wants to discuss the games as they happen. We’ll kick that off at 7:00 and leave it open through the end of the Rockies-Padres game. This is when baseball really gets fun – come enjoy it with fellow FanGraphs readers.