Terry Francona probably managed the Red Sox right out of a chance to win the American League East last week. On Thursday night, he threw Byun-Hyung Kim into a two-run game in the ninth inning against the Orioles. Kim promptly gave up two runs. The Sox rallied, but lost by … you guessed it … two runs. On Friday, Francona left a gassed Pedro Martinez in the game four batters into the eighth inning. This was long enough for Pedro to give up the tying and go-ahead (and eventual winning) runs. The game reminded me of Game Seven of last year’s ALCS. Not only was Pedro left in the game too long, but the final Yankee run against Pedro scored on a cheap bloop hit (last year, it was the tying run). Francona’s bad managing doesn’t compare to Grady’s atrocious managing but it still makes me wonder if the Sox can win a championship with Francona at the helm.

The good news is that the two wins over the weekend put the Sox on the brink of clinching the AL Wild Card. Clearly, winning the division would have given the Sox a tremendous edge in the playoffs. Boston and New York have the best home records in the American League but are roughly .500 teams on the road. Last weekend in New York, the Yankees outscored Boston by 19 runs in the three games. This past weekend, Boston outscored New York by 12 runs over the three games. The Wild Card could have a silver lining, however, if the AL West winner (presumably the A’s) can finish with a better record than the Twins. The team with the second best record among AL division winners will play the Wild Card team. Given a choice, I think every single person in the Red Sox organization would rather play the A’s than the Twins. Dating back to Game 3 of last year’s AL Division Series, the Red Sox are 11-1 against the A’s including a three game sweep in Oakland this month in which the Sox beat the A’s by at least five runs in every game. The Sox, on the other hand, are 2-4 against Minnesota. More importantly, the team facing Minnesota in the ALDS could see Johan Santana, the best pitcher on the planet since June, two times in a five game series. Winning the division would be great, but I think I would rather start on the road in Oakland than have home field advantage against the Twins.

Very little has gone right for the Red Sox and Cubs this season, but both teams are leading the Wild Card heading into the final week of the season. Both teams are under .500 in one-run games (Boston 16-17, Chicago 19-26) and have suffered a great deal because of injuries (the Cubs to a larger degree) but have survived to this point and may get a second chance to make the dream World Series matchup a reality. A Cubs-Red Sox World Series would be even more intriguing now that Nomar is playing for the Northsiders.

Though I haven’t seen a schedule, my assumption is that the first two games of the ALDS will be played on Tuesday, October 5th and Wednesday, October 6th. In 2002, the AL started on Tuesday and Wednesday while the NL played one series that started Tuesday/Thursday and another Wednesday/Thursday. In 2003, the leagues reversed that schedule. I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t be back on the 2002 schedule in 2004. The fact that the ALDS begins on Tuesday probably means that Pedro Martinez will start Game One. If Francona does the smart thing (don’t hold your breath) Curt Schilling will be moved up a day in the rotation to pitch on Friday this week, thus allowing Curt to have his normal four days of rest before his first playoff start. Pedro would be pitching with an extra day of rest which should benefit him greatly. My preference, and probably the preference of most Red Sox fans, would be to have Schilling pitching in Game One (and therefore Game Five, if necessary), but making that switch would mean either (a) having Schilling pitch Game One on three days rest OR (b) not pitching Schilling at all this week AND (c) running the risk of Pedro Martinez having a temper tantrum for being bypassed in the rotation. In subsequent rounds, it shouldn’t matter because both pitchers would be slated to start twice in a seven game series unless Francona decides to use Schilling on three days rest. This is certainly a possibility, especially if the Sox #3 and #4 starters continue to have problems.

Whether to go with Martinez or Schilling in Game One is probably less taxing for the manager than deciding who will pitch in Games Three and Four. Bronson Arroyo has been the Red Sox third best pitcher during the second half of the season, but Tim Wakefield and Derek Lowe are both experienced and pitched well in the postseason last year. Wakefield was tremendous against the Yankees. My guess is that Lowe will start Game Three and Wakefield will start Game Four, but that Francona won’t hesitate to go to Arroyo later in the playoffs if either Lowe or Wakefield continues to struggle.

During the Boston College-Wake Forest telecast on Saturday, announcer Pam Ward mentioned, following a bad call in BC’s favor, that the officiating crew was from the Big East Conference. I guess Ward is under the very false impression that having Big East officials on the field is a good thing for BC.

If someone ever puts together a book of obscure football records, BC Head Coach Tom O'Brien will be the runaway record holder for calling the most punts on 4th down and less than five yards to go inside the opponent's 40-yard-line.

There was a fairly interesting 60 Minutes piece (yes, I know that's hard to believe) last week about Bill Belichick and Head Coach John Fox of the Carolina Panthers. I watched the show half expecting Dan Rather to come on and present a memo claiming that the Patriots had in fact not won the Superbowl last season.

The Patriots are now one win away from tying the NFL record for consecutive wins (including the Playoffs) with 18. The Pats could break the record on October 10th against Miami, one of the teams that currently holds the record. The 1972-73 Dolphins, the 1989-90 49ers, the 1941-42 Bears and the 1933-34 Bears all won 18 consecutive games.