I’m in full pennant-watch mode with the first-place Rays now. (At 77-48, they're tied with the Chicago Cubs for the best record in baseball.) Of course, you want the St. Pete team to win the Eastern Division and automatically make the playoffs. But what if Boston (they’re 4 1/2 games behind) surpasses the Rays with 37 games left?

Then it gets down to a wildcard spot — the fourth American League playoff position to go along with the three Division winners.

How does the wildcard scenario look?

The closest team to the Rays in is Minnesota, currently six games behind (in the loss column). The Rays have four games at home against the Twins, Sept. 18-21.

The next closest wildcard contender — and this is very gratifying to write — is the New York Yankees. They are 11 games behind the Rays.

The Rays have a tough remaining schedule, but I certainly feel that they're chances of at least nabbing a wildcard bid are very strong. Rays games in October. Imagine that.

This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...