Ken Davidoff's baseball insider

Hope that all of you had a good week. I relaxed and had fun with the family, although some interesting weather impacted the activities. The Jersey Shore house that we rented had neither SNY nor YES, so I was limited to watching highlights on ESPN.

It's a good week to get back to work, when you look at the schedule. Wow. Mets-Phillies, starting tonight. Red Sox-Yankees, starting Tuesday, after the Yankees try to salvage a series split with the Tigers tonight. Also starting tonight: Twins-Indians, Angels-Mariners ahd Diamondbacks-Padres. And Brewers-Cubs kicks off Tuesday.

So the first-place team will play the second-place team in five of the six divisions, and in the sixth, the AL Central, the first-place team (Ceveland) will play the surging third-place team (Twins).

By Friday, therefore, we'll have a considerably better idea of what this September has in store for us. In the Mets' case, they can essentially clinch the NL East this week with strong showings against the Phillies and, next weekend, the Braves. Both contenders really need to sweep the Mets; otherwise, they'd have to bank on a horrid Mets September, or just focus their efforts on the NL wild card.

The Yankees could sweep the Red Sox, meanwhile, and still be pretty far out of AL East contention. It's just not happening for them. It's wild card or bust, and the real reason they could use a sweep of the Bosox is because every victory will gain ground on either the Mariners or Angels, who lead Seattle by only two games. Wouldn't it be funny if the Mariners took control of the AL West, and the Yankees wound up fighting their nemesis Angels for the wild card? It would be 1995 redux.

My predictions: Phillies take three of four, Yankees take two of three (after Mike Mussina's victorious rebound effort tonight in Detroit), Angels sweep the Mariners in three, Diamondbacks and Padres split their four-game set and the Brewers wake up and win two of three from the Cubs.