So What's the Bigger MLB Story?

Even when the Red Sox and Yankees aren't matching up in baseball's most-intense rivalry, they're still competing against each other to come up with the biggest story.  And just like in their games, there is a winner and a loser.  The battle in this one is a matchup for the bigger MLB story at the moment: Mariano Rivera becomes the all-time saves leader vs. the Boston Red Sox possibly having a historical collapse and missing out on the playoffs?  Take your pick...

Usually, when a player approaches a record in baseball, it makes the front page of every major newspaper and sporting magazine, but now there's a different scenario.  On a day when Rivera became the all-time leader in saves, it seemed like more of the focus was on the Red Sox and whether or not they would continue to falter down the stretch and blow an insurmountable lead in the AL Wild Card. 
Just a few weeks ago, the Red Sox were leading the AL East.  Since their three game series loss to the Yankees, which diminished their lead to only 1.5 games, the Red Sox have struggled to even win a series.  Since that night, they have lost their lead in the East, fallen 5GB of the hated Yankees, and are only a slim two games up on the surging Tampa Bay Rays.  If the Sox go on to lose the Wild Card this season, it will be the largest collapse based on games up that a team has ever had going into the last month of the season.

There's been a lot of this around Boston lately

On Sept. 30, the Red Sox were .5 a game up on the Yankees, meaning that they had a 9 game lead over the Rays.  At that time, everyone was complaining that the races weren't competitive because it seemed that all the division and wild card leaders had everything wrapped up.  But, oh how playoff baseball has come about two weeks earlier for the Rays and Red Sox.
I know a lot of this post has been focused around the collapse of the Red Sox, but let's not throw Rivera's record on the back burner.  He has dominated the baseball world in the ninth inning for 15 years now, doing it with one predictable pitch: the cutter.  You could ask anybody what pitch is coming from Rivera, even the hitter and he'd guess right.  But, time and time again, 602 times to be exact, he has come out on top and preserved a game for the Yankees (644 if you include playoffs).  Just imagine where the Yankees would be in the past 15 years without Rivera and it's getting hard to imagine anyone else running out of that bullpen in the ninth inning in a couple years, because let's face it, his time is running short.

So here's to both major stories, each getting their own sort of acknowledgement, one for the better, one for, well, the not so good.  But, don't panic yet Boston fans, you managed to gain a split in the double-header against the cellar-dweller Orioles tonight and got back to a two game lead over the Rays.  It doesn't matter how you make the playoffs, all that the people care about is whether you're in it or not.

*Images courtesy of Google Images*