In this weekend’s series against the Chowdas, the Bombers — with their 6 1/2 game edge — have the opportunity to effectively secure the division and dash any real hopes the Sawx might have of catching our lead.

Or, as an alternative, in the words of George King, “They can allow the Red Sox to climb off the canvas and turn the final six weeks of the season into a two-way scoreboard-watching orgy.”

Sounds festive.

My vote is that we blow those Chowdas out of contention and save the scoreboard orgies for October. I don’t need any extra stress in my life.

Derek Jeter, whose refusal to acknowledge the significance of this particular rivalry makes me completely insane, will argue that our recent four-game sweep of the Chowdas makes no difference going into this weekend’s series.  I disagree.  I think that having wiped that 0 off our slate, it actually relieves some of the pressure, allows our boys to play to win like they would any other game. It relieves them of an added psychological burden.

More importantly, we are at a major advantage coming into the series.  Jeter is having a veritable orgy at the plate these days – he’s hit in 14 of his last 15 games with his average currently .331. (He is .446 with four dingers and nine RBIs in the last week.)  Cano and Teixeira are also going strong these days. Even Upper-deki, despite the issues with his knew, has blasted three in the last couple weeks.

As for the Chowdas, they’ve got an already floundering Varitek dealing with neck spasms. Papi, may have had a good run recently, but he’s still barely batting his weight and hardly the threat he used to be.

At the end of the day, it’s the pitching that will likely win us this series.  Both Pettitte and A.J. will face mediocre pitchers in Brad Penny and Junichi Tazawa.  Sunday’s game promises to provide the most interesting match-up with CC and Josh Beckett battling it out for their 15^th win of the season.

If the Yanks can take two of three in this series, that’ll be good enough for me.  Let ‘em battle with the Rangers and the Rays for their spot in the postseason. Let ‘em battle and hopefully lose. Call me a stick in the mud, but more than an opportunity to repeat the events of the 2003 ALCS, I’d like to be reading about Dustin Pedroia’s golf handicap this October.