State of the SoxandPhils

Each of our teams reduced their magic numbers by one today - two left for the Red Sox, three for the Phillies. The Phils held on to beat the Brewers, but Christine remains cranky. The Red Sox inched closer to the playoffs - not by winning and delaying the Yankees' division clincher, but by the Rays stealing a win from the Rangers in the 9th inning.

I was, and probably still am, more mellow than Christine about the fact the our teams' killer instinct has gone from Rambo to Gandhi, but I think we're both getting a little antsy.

Saturday night, when I was getting exasperated with Christine's reaction to the Phillies walk-off loss to the Brewers (amazingly, Brad Lidge had nothing to do with it), she turned the tables and pointed out that I'm not too happy with the Red Sox right now.

Sure, they've been embarrassed by the Yankees. But I truly believe that the Red Sox have had their fair share of success in recent history, and I don't mind sharing the wealth as long as they play hard, are competitive and are better than the Empire.

Two stories this morning illustrate the state of our teams. The Inquirer game-day story starts off with Charlie Manuel addressing a handful of players after the loss. Although he struck a comforting tone, he's a little more of Christine's mindset than mine:

"I know some say it's in the bag," the manager told them. "We ain't got a thing yet."
[...]
Asked whether he was worried about complacency, given that the Phillies have seemed inevitable division champions all summer, Manuel said: "I'm not [complacent]. You'll have to go ask them. I talk to them every day, and I hadn't seen nobody tell me that. I'm not taking it for granted that we've got the division won. No. Not at all."

The story also mentioned something Christine has been concerned about for quite a while:

"When we were in Atlanta [last weekend]," said Werth, "I just happened to look at their schedule and notice that, like, seven of their last 10 games were against the Nationals. Ever since I saw that, I realized that, potentially, they could still make a run at us. As far as I'm concerned, it's over when we've got it."

I'm still not worried.

This Dan Shaughnessey column, however, pointing out how the Yankees have been the better, hungrier and more focused team all season, did make me pause for concern, especially because it reinforces my point yesterday that the Red Sox seem content with second best.

One team is going all out to win every day.

The other team is the Red Sox - asking you to stand back and look at the big picture.

That got me riled until the following line reminded me of the success of the Red Sox over the past few years is because of strong management and solid planning. There may be mistakes along the way, but the big picture will usually be pretty good.

Two managers. Two theories. Sox fans might not agree with Francona, but he knows his team and has a pretty good track record in this area.

So I took the following advice from the column, closed my eyes, held my nose (and switched the channel before the final out).

Today might be a good day to employ the half-full theory. Cover your eyes, let the Yankees celebrate, and think about October.

I'm not sure if our teams are aware, but October begins this week. The playoffs start next week. We're just two clinchers and two rounds away from the SoxandPhils Series.

Weather watch: On my last training day before the bike ride, I stayed in due to rain. I figure I'll have plenty of time to get wet on my bike next Saturday. Weather.com still calls for rain on both days; AccuWeather still disagrees. Christine, usually the more pessimistic about such things, is more optimistic than me.