What a day...

Yankees win, Red Sox lose, and I'm giddy as a teenager who just found out the girl he has a crush on likes him back.

Hard to believe, but it's true. Since today's AL East matchups were essentially meaningless, I really only wanted three things:

1) No injuries on the Sox.
2) An easy and uneventful day for the Boston bullpen.
3) A storybook ending to the NL playoff picture.

Well, I got two of the three today. For the third, I'll have to wait until tomorrow's tiebreaker matchup between the Rockies and Padres.

Back in the day, I used to post an extensive preview analysis at SoSH for each Red Sox regular season series. I loved putting them together, but they involved a lot of research and time so they died a death of attrition.

So today, after the National League constellations aligned to provide a fireworks finale suitable for the 4th of July, I felt uplifted enough to draft an admittedly abridged preview of tomorrow's wild card matchup in Denver.

That's right, uplifted. In fact, I'm happy as a pig in shit right now. First, there was the somewhat perverse pleasure of watching the Mets complete their epic collapse before the boobirds at Shea with an 8-1 drubbing at the hands of the Marlins. Moments later, the Phillies took care of business and clinched the NL East with a 6-1 win over the Nats. Normally I find teams from Philadelphia (and their fans) worthy of scorn and ridicule, but there's something eminently likeable about this team.

That left the Padres needing a win in Milwaukee to lock up a wild card slot. With a 4-2 lead, Brett Tomko fell apart in the 5th inning as the Brewers scored 4 times. They tacked on 3 more in the 6th on their way to what must have been a satisfying 11-6 win after falling short of the Cubs in the NL Central.

With the loss, Colorado seized an opportunity to force a one-game tiebreaker playoff. Ubaldo Jimenez pitched the game of his life, holding the AL West winning D-Backs hitless and scoreless until the 6th. A run scored to tie the game 1-1, but the Rockies bullpen, led by Brian Fuentes, sealed off the leak with no further damage.

In the 8th, a Garrett Atkins RBI single and a 2-run double by Brad Hawpe gave Colorado what seemed at the time like an insurmountable cushion. After all, in 38 games since June 26, closer Manny Corpas had allowed just 4 ER (all on solo homers) in 37.2 innings.

Yet the Padres scored twice on an Augie Ojeda sac fly and a two-out Alberto Callaspo RBI single to draw within a run. With Colorado's chances for the postseason hanging in the balance, Arizona's Stephen Drew nubbed a grounder off the end of his bat down to third. Atkins played it on a tough hop and threw to first to seal the deal.

Now, instead of some wretched network sitcom or tired reality show, I'll be playing remote control ping pong between Rox-Padres and Pats-Bengals on MNF tomorrow night. Josh Fogg should deliver the first pitch at around 7:40 EDT on TBS. Kickoff in the Queen City is an hour later on ESPN.

Should be a blast.