How the Yankees can lose the Wild Card

The Yankees' best chance of losing the Wild Card and missing the playoffs this year is to Detroit, not Seattle.

Of the three teams (Seattle and Detroit are tied 3 games behind the Yankees for the Wild Card going into tonight's games), the Mariners have the most difficult schedule through the end of the season.

Seattle plays Oakland (69-72) six times, Los Angeles (83-57), Cleveland (81-59) and Tampa Bay (58-82) four times each, and Detroit (75-65) and Texas (65-74) three times each. That's 11 games against winning teams and 13 games against teams with losing records.

The Yankees will play Toronto (71-68) seven times, Baltimore (60-79) six times, and Kansas City (62-77), Tampa Bay (58-82) and Boston (85-56) three times each. That's 10 games against winning teams and 12 games against teams with losing records.

Detroit, on the other hand, has only seven games remaining on the schedule against teams with winning records ... three games each against Seattle (74-64) and Cleveland (81-59) and one game against Toronto (71-68). They play Minnesota (69-71) six more times, and Chicago (59-81) and Kansas City (62-77) three more times each.

And even though the Orioles have absolutely sucked (32-3, anyone?) over the past month, they have owned the Yankees this season, with an 8-4 advantage on the season series so far. So the Yankees could have more trouble with a big chunk of the "easy" part of their remaining schedule.

And Tampa Bay and Toronto, which account for nearly half of the Yankees' remaining games, have played the Yankees almost evenly this year, splitting their respective series so far 8-7 and 6-5 in favor of New York.

Detroit has underachieved all year.

Our prediction is that the Tigers will be the team that leaves New York out in the cold for the first time in a while this playoff season.