Seeing as how the Red Sox seem to have the Orioles well in hand, I’ve decided their real competitor is the Nebraska football team, playing on the adjacent TV in the bar. It was briefly 9-7 Sox, but Nebraska just took a 10-9 lead. :) Mmm… Sam Adams.

7-0!! Wally (the Green Monster) is enjoying it. :)

3-0 Sox!

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I’m going to the Riviera in the West Village, supposedly Manhattan’s “Red Sox-friendly” bar, in hopes of watching the potential clinch game.

The Mariners lost yesterday and today, so the Red Sox’ magic number is down to one.

That means Boston could clinch the wild card tonight with a win over Baltimore — but they trail 7-3 in the ninth. Can they pull off another miracle comeback?

UPDATE: Nope. But hopefully they can clinch tomorrow; it’s their last regular-season home game, and Seattle has the day off, so the Sox will have the stage all to themselves with a golden opportunity to clinch outright (i.e., with a win, not with another team’s loss).

Go Red Sox!

ANOTHER UPDATE: This article points out:

For the Red Sox to miss the playoffs, they would have lose their final four games, and Seattle would have to sweep a three-game series against Oakland, then beat Boston in a tiebreaker playoff.

It’s also worth noting that three of Boston’s final four games will be against the hapless, last-place Devil Rays (61-96).

But hopefully the Sox won’t wait till they get to Tampa to clinch. Tomorrow’s starters at Fenway will be Derek Lowe (16-7, 4.56 ERA) for Boston and Omar Daal (4-10, 5.77 ERA) for Baltimore.

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I have adjusted the Jobs & the City webcam’s field of view, so that instead of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, it shows the Chrysler Building and the United Nations building:

At least, I think that dark, monolithic-looking building at right is the U.N. building. It looks different than one normally pictures it — it looks much taller than it is wide, which isn’t true of the U.N. — but I think that’s just because we can barely see its wide east-west face from this angle. The north-south face, which we see dead-on, is indeed quite narrow; the east-west face is much wider, but looks narrow from this perspective because of our angle.

I figure that building must be the U.N., since it’s a tall building on the East Side that appears to be around the same distance north as the Chrysler Building (both are on 42nd Street).

Anyway, since the General Assembly is meeting there and such, I figure it would be a good place to point the webcam. Too bad we can’t see the enormous, security-induced East Side traffic jams from this distance… :)

Man, it really sucks to live in a TV market where I can’t watch Red Sox games! Boston cut its wild-card magic number to three with a dramatic comeback tonight: a three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth tied the game, then a solo shot in the bottom of the tenth won it, as the Sox beat the Orioles, 6-5! Woohoo!

The Sox and their wild-card competitors, the Mariners, each have five games left (including Seattle’s game tonight). That’s a total of ten games. If at least three of those ten games go Boston’s way — in other words, a Red Sox win or a Mariners loss — the Sox will make the playoffs.

The Yankees, meanwhile, are about to clinch the American League East. They lead the White Sox, 7-0. But no matter: the Red Sox will get ‘em in the ALCS. :)

UPDATE: It’s official: the Yankees are AL East champions. Meanwhile, the Cubs have taken the lead by one game in the NL Central standings! Go, Cubbies, go! :)

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The president just came by, preceded by dozens of motorcycles and endless flashing lights. Very cool!

Police lights and blockades in advance of the motorcade.