The Homestretch, Day 22: Pick 'Em

Four games, two very good teams, one series split. The Rays and the Yankees, the two best teams in baseball, drawing even once again. The majors' first 20-game winner this season looking like he should have 20 losses. What more could you ask for from an AL East showdown?

With tonight's win the Rays captured the season series against the Yankees, giving them the first tiebreaker in case of a tie for the division lead. This is huge for the Rays, given the events that have transpired outside of their series with the Yankees this week. As quietly as they've been winning, no one wants to play Minnesota right now. Whoever wins the AL East will draw Texas in the first round, and if I'm the Rays or Yankees, I'm doing everything I can to get that division title because a series with Texas puts me in the ALCS, guaranteed. Minnesota represents a much tougher path, and the Rays took one more step tonight towards not having to travel it.

Meanwhile, the final Rays-Yankees series of the year was busy teasing us, dangling real October baseball right before our eyes. When these two teams meet in this year's ALCS (and I do mean when), we will witness the ultimate stalemate, where victory is only awarded out of necessity. It will just be a question of who is playing better at that time. The Rays and Yankees are as evenly matched as it gets, and even though my contention is that the Rays will win the day, I might have just as much luck picking the winner of the ALCS if I flipped a coin.

Both these teams, however, make their own luck. They play good defense. They get consistent performance from their starting rotations. They capitalize on mistakes. They finish games. Most importantly, they demonstrate balance. If you look at each playoff-bound team here in 2010, you'll find balance is their common element. Minnesota has featured it here in the second half. Texas has just enough of it to get by. Philadelphia owns a monopoly on it in the National League. Cincinnati's in the same boat as Texas. San Francisco/San Diego/Colorado don't have it, but that's because NL West teams are incapable of achieving it. The Rays and Yankees are the two best teams in baseball because they are the most balanced. That's why they split this week's series. Any other outcome would have upset the standard of balance and thus the very core of both clubs.

Now, just 9-10 games remain. The picture is getting clearer. The pressure is getting heavier.

But the balance remains intact.