Sometimes our best friends are the ones we hate

It’s almost impossible to get your head around, I know. But try anyway. Here it goes:

Today, the Yankees helped the Red Sox.

How great would it be to see that far left flag in red for the entire postseason? Pretty great, we think.

That’s right, thanks to a 4-1 Toronto win at Yankee Stadium, the Yanks got Boston a game closer to an AL East title, a game closer to ending that seemingly interminable run New York has had since 1995. A game closer to finally sticking the pinstripes with a set of final standings that force the flags above Yankee Stadium’s left field arch to fly a red banner emblazoned with “Boston” to the left of the navy blue sheet with “New York” on it.

Isn’t that, really, the best part of winning the division? Forcing the Yankees to fly a Boston flag in front of a Yankees banner for the entire playoffs? How great would that be? We don’t yet know the answer to that, because it’s never happened before. Ever. The last time Boston finished in front of the Yankees at season’s end, there was no Wild Card, so New York missed the playoffs.

This time, they’re definitely going. Well, not quite definitely yet. They’re still a win - or a Detroit loss - away from punching the final AL golden ticket out there.

Gratuitous editor’s sidenote alert! Isn’t the development of the playoff chases amazing? If consistency and season-long performance is any indicator of a team’s chances in the playoffs, it’s fair to say that the AL has all four of the best teams in the big leagues. There isn’t a single NL team that’s locked up a playoff spot yet. And of the three likely division winners - the Mets, Cubs and Diamondbacks - do any of them really scare you as a Red Sox fan? Really? The Wild Card winner, whichever team it ends up being, seems a much more significant threat. The Phillies have a devastating lineup that’s finally all healthy together, the Padres have the best pitching in the NL and are perhaps the only NL rotation that could compete with the Sox’s depth in a seven-game series. And then there’s Colorado, which won a midseason series … at Fenway. For what it’s worth, his performance in that three-game set, not to mention the Boston front office’s longstanding obsession with his OPS stats, would seem to make resurrecting a trade for Todd Helton a very likely possibility in the offseason if the current A-Rod to Chicago rumors are true.

Still, all of this would make it seem that the Red Sox are in terrific shape heading into the playoffs, right up to the point when you consider who they’ll have to play. They’ve shown throughout the second half that they can’t beat the Yankees. They’ve played well against the Angels at Fenway, but will need to win games in the final six-pack here to ensure they can hold a home-field advantage and avoid playing surrounded by damn Rally Monkeys. And then there’s the Indians, who Boston has dealt with well, but who may be playing better baseball than anyone except, well, the Yankees.

All of this is to say that you have to grab what you can when you can. The Sox grabbed a huge division lead early in the season, and the monstrous Yankee charge in the second half is proving that it’s a damn good thing they did. The what they can grab now is a long-awaited AL East title. The when they can grab it is in the next week. Six games, five wins or Yankee losses needed to sew it up.

These guys are PRECISELY why the Red Sox need to win the division.

The playoffs are clinched, but that’s little consolation at a time like this. It’s time to channel Detroit, Chicago and even the Idiot Sox and get hot. Now. If they do, there’s no telling what comes next, and suddenly the second-half swoon would all be a distant memory.

Just ask St. Louis circa 2006.

– Cameron Smith