Wild Weekend Preview

The CPOT regular season concludes this Sunday with some key divisional rivals meeting with playoff spots on the line.

The top four teams in each division will qualify for the playoffs and will be seeded in order of finish. In the first round of the playoffs, the division winners will play the teams seeded fourth, and the second and third seeds will play each other.

The Red Sox, at 8-4, are tangled up with the Dodgers, who are 7-4, and the Mets, 6-5. But all three teams play each other this week. The Mets host the Sox at 1:00 p.m. while the Dodgers host the Astros. The Mets then travel to a 4:00 p.m. battle with the Dodgers, making up a game that was postponed earlier in the year.

As a result, all kinds of crazy stuff can happen this weekend. The matchups and records are listed below for those inclined to try to sort it all out.

This much is clear: if the Red Sox beat the Mets, they'll lock up second place in the division. If they lose, they could be leapfrogged by the Dodgers or even the Mets, depending on how the tie-breakers shake out. The good news is, it doesn't look like the Red Sox can fall to fourth place, because somebody has to lose the Dodgers-Mets game, which means that at least one of those teams is guaranteed to finish behind the Sox.

Things are a lot less complicated in the other division, where the Yankees and Diamondbacks have already clinched first and second, the Cardinals and Phillies will sort out the final two seeds, and the Orioles will regroup and wait 'til next year.

The goal for the Red Sox is simple: beat the Mets and earn a home playoff game against either the Dodgers or Mets next week. The Mets put up a tough fight when these two teams met in the season opener, but the Sox pulled away late in the game and came out of it with a 13-7 victory. A lot has happened since then, and the Sox have to be ready to face a different Mets team than they did back in April. The Mets will be fired up and aiming for a big finish to a solid season. The Sox have gotten back in gear over the past few weeks and hope to be firing on all cylinders just in time for the playoffs.

The weather forecast for Sunday calls for highs over 90, capping off a hot week in central Pennsylvania.

The schedule:

Red Sox (8-4) @ Mets (6-5) 1:00 p.m.
Astros (9-3) @ Dodgers (7-4) 1:00 p.m.
Indians (2-9) @ Phillies (3-8) 1:00 p.m.
Cardinals (4-8) @ Orioles (0-11) 2:00 p.m.
Yankees (10-2) @ Diamondbacks (8-3) 2:00 p.m.
Mets (6-5*) @ Dodgers (7-4*) 4:00 p.m.
*plus result of 1:00 p.m. game