AL East Or Wild Card?

With only ten games remaining in the season and a two-game deficit in the AL East, the Red Sox appear to have some difficult decisions ahead of them. Do they sacrifice home field advantage and the AL East title in order to get healthier, or do you they go all-out in these last ten games and try to pass the Rays?

Realistically, the Sox are actually three games back of the Rays when you consider the tiebreaker of head-to-head meetings (which the Rays hold a 10-8 advantage) if both teams finished with identical records. And with Mike Lowell's nagging hip injury, as well as the uncertainty of JD Drew's status, it might be better if they give some of their starters a rest in order to gear up for the playoffs. Also, Jon Lester leads the staff in innings pitched and could probably use a breather before the most important games start up. Ditto for Daisuke Matsuzaka, who notoriously ran out of gas towards the end of last season (although has not done so at all this year).

On the other hand, winning the Wild Card ensures a trip to Anaheim to play the Angels (whom the Sox lost 8-out-of-9 games to during the regular season). But the majority of those games came during the now infamous "Manny Wants Out" saga, and with a healthier pitching staff and more cohesive team, the Sox shouldn't fear the Angels as much as one might think. After all, the Sox have swept the Angels in the last two Divisional Series and have experience on their side. Still, playing the White Sox at Fenway to open up the ALDS seems like it would be a much better scenario than heading out west.

It is worth noting that the Sox won the 2004 World Series as a wild card team and certainly have the pitching staff to match up with any other team in baseball. But here is the X-Factor: with a healthy Josh Beckett pitching Game 1, homefield advantage is essentially neutralized because you can be sure that #19 is going to come up big once the calendar flips to October. It would probably benefit the Sox to wrap up a playoff spot in these next couple of days and then make their decision based on the current standings situation. If they are within striking distance of the Rays (one game behind or less), than they should go all-out. Otherwise, they can line up their pitching rotation for the playoffs and get healthy.

After all, there is no shame in the wild card. Just ask the 2004 Boston Red Sox.