AL remaining schedules: Red Sox easiest; Twins toughest

August 21, 8:20 PMMLB ExaminerTony DeMarco

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With the very real possibility that both the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox could be idle this October, it's time to compare the remaining schedules in what amounts to a five-teams-for-three-spots race to join the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the American League playoffs: 

Boston: When you're worried about how quickly your ace can regain feeling in two fingers on his pitching hand, and your bullpen has been leaky, you have some legitimate stretch-run concerns. At least the remaining schedule is OK: A 20 home game/16 road game split includes home-and-home series with Tampa, New York and Toronto, and there are three games with the White Sox. And mark this down: The Red Sox close the season in Fenway against the Yankees.

Tampa Bay: They have some wiggle room in the AL East race, and the league's best home record (47-18), so if you haven't already figured it out, the Rays are the closest thing to a playoffs certainty. The home game/road game split works against them a bit – 16 home and 19 road. The three September home series aren't easy – Boston, New York and Minnesota – and they finish on the road with series in Baltimore and Detroit.

Chicago: A +117 run differential -- built on the league's second-highest runs scored total and third-lowest team ERA -- says the White Sox should be going to the playoffs. But the remaining schedule is no cakewalk -- 16 at home (where they are 45-19) and 19 on the road -- and series against all five other AL contenders, in order -- the Rays, Red Sox, Angels, Yankees, Twins. The latter series, which could decide the AL Central, is set for Sept. 23-25 in the Metrodome.

New York: When you're down to plugging Carl Pavano into the rotation for the first time this season and only his third big-league appearance since 2005, the word desperation comes to mind. The schedule doesn't work for the Yankees, either: 16 home games and 20 on the road, including the last six at Toronto and Boston. And how about this brutal early-September trip: Makeup game in Detroit, three games in Tampa, three in Seattle, three in Los Angeles. 

MInnesota:  Nobody in this race added a bigger potential impact player than the Twins did by bringing back Francisco Liriano from the minors. But the schedule could do them in: Only 12 home and 24 on the road, beginning with a rare, four-city, 14-game trip with stops in Los Angeles, Seattle, Oakland and Toronto (blame it on the Republican National Convention), plus a four-game stay in Tampa. At least they have Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City (two series) left on the schedule.