Here we go! Seventeen games in 17 days, 14 of which are in Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play .660 ball (46-24) and where Nomar is Nomar:

      AVG  OBP  SLG   OPS

Home .387 .424 .695 1.119 

Road .244 .284 .391  .675

Boston has to win the wild card, and right now it leads Seattle by 1½ games. If the Yankees go 10-7 the rest of the way, Boston would have to go 15-2 to win the division. ... Trot Nixon will miss at least a week and possibly longer -- maybe the rest of the season. David Ortiz has been a smashing success. Two recent Joe Morgan columns cast light on his interview with Manny. ... "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Playoff Tiebreakers but Were Afraid to Ask."

The archives of The Sporting News will soon be online and fully searchable at Paper of Record. For fans and researchers, this will be an amazing resource. ... Probable starters for the White Sox series, which begins tonight at 7:05 pm: Suppan/Wright, Wakefield/Colon and Burkett/Buehrle.