Friday, October 1, 2004: There are four games left in the regular season of the 2004 Major League Baseball season. While there are still plenty of playoff slots to be determined, and this may be one of the best closing weekends in baseball history, the Sox just need to keep themselves tuned and get into a playoff mentality. They have 95 wins now, so they might want to add to that for aesthetic purposes, but the fact is, no matter what happens from here on out, on Sunday or Monday they will get on a plane and fly to Minnesota, Oakland, or Anaheim.

Tito does have some decisions to make. Who will be our number four starter? What will the playoff roster look like? But on the whole, he knows that most of what is to come will happen between those white lines. Obviously a manager can have an impact on the game, and his impact has been for ill as often as for good in the past six months, but hopefully he knows his club better than he ever has and understands that, for example, keeping Pedro in after seven is inadvisable unless he is absolutely dealing, his pitch count is low, and the lead is large. And even then, why do it? He knows he needs to have a fast hook for Dlowe, and that he has to be judicious and smart with use of the bullpen. He knows not to over-manage. He knows these things. Or he should.
But there are five days until then. Tomorrow is a doubleheader, the result of a rain postponement earlier in the season, and thus is potentially dangerous. In that second game in particular I hope he just sends out waves of guys on the bottom tier of the 40 man roster and at the back of the pitching staff, Bud Selig be damned. Selig, of course, will argue that for the integrity of the game teams with secure playoff berths must make honest efforts this weekend. Not to be graceless, but screw that. Whatever integrity is lost in resting guys in the second game of the doubleheader is more than gained when teams are at what they believe will be their best for the playoffs when not only the packed stadia but the tens of millions watching on tv actually give a damn. No Sox fan will care if they see a game that resembles something played in Fort Myers in March, and Orioles fans? Well, that’s the price of playing sub-.500 baseball all year (except, of course, against us. Bastards.)