The baseball calendar says the postseason begins on Oct. 7. But we’re lucky, because barring an absolute collapse it really starts 10 days earlier.
Make no mistake about it, next week’s Tigers-Twins series is a four-game season. Detroit, seemingly rolling into the playoffs after the White Sox faded into oblivion, took its foot off the accelerator in September. In doing so, the Tigers failed to put away the pesky Twins, who reeled off six straight wins in the middle of the month, including taking two of three against the Tigers last weekend at the Metrodome.
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The result: A two-and-a-half game lead for Detroit in the AL Central entering play Tuesday night. And unless something crazy happens, that gap won’t be any bigger on Monday when these two teams hook up for a four-game set at Comerica Park.
While the Tigers-Twins race is heating up, everything else seems to be cooling down around it. The Rockies, Dodgers and Red Sox all have at least four-game cushions on their respective paths to October and the other division races are lacking in drama.
The team most interested in how this AL Central race plays out? Probably the Yankees, who are slated to play the winner in the first round. Of course the NFL and MLB, with the prospect of having a Vikings home game conflict with a Twins playoff game, should be keeping an eye on this as well.
