AUGUST: THE MOVING MONTH FOR THE BLUE JAYS?

If weekend sweeps of the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox were any indication of how quickly things can change in the standings when divisional rivals sweep their foes away, how quickly could the Toronto Blue Jays climb back into the race?

Tonight's game against the New York Yankees is the first of 15 divisional contests to be played against the teams in front of the Blue Jays over the next 18 games. Factor in a series against the Angels and then a four-game set against the Rangers and you have every team that Toronto must beat in order to gain ground in the standings. And I'm thinking playoffs for a 53-57 team who has fallen 15.5 games behind New York in the standings with a swath of teams ahead of them in the Wild Card? Those teams not limited to the clinging Red Sox who have fallen into a tie with the Rangers, and the pursuing Rays, Mariners and White Sox...I must be crazy, right?

But yet, the Blue Jays have so many divisional games left, and they find themselves just nine games behind the wild card leading Rangers and Red Sox.

Let's be realistic here, if the Jays could make up half of those games during this 18 game stretch, they would be right back in the mix headed into a daunting September. All the more reason for the Blue Jays playing better baseball in August was the continued confidence of Kevin Millar after a 3-3 day and a homerun against his old team in an eventual 7-3 pounding of the Baltimore Orioles Sunday afternoon. Millar remarked after the game that the team had been struggling since June, but they had to finish strong over the last 51 games.

That's right, there's still 51 freakin' games left!

And reports have also indicated that Shaun Marcum, who often flirted with no-nos last season could start Friday in Tampa Bay as the Blue Jays have not yet announced a starter to oppose Big Game James Shields.

Back in New York though, it's Marc Rzepsyncski against Sergio Mitre, in a rematch of Thursday Night at the Blue Jays' home, The Rogers Centre. The Yankees took that game, and went on to sweep the Boston Red Sox, winning seven straight in the process. Toronto lost the first game of the series to the Orioles in depressing fashion only to close out the series with two big wins to improve their August mark to 4-3.

Tampa Bay trails Boston by 1.5 games in the Wild Card, and Boston has now lost six in a row. Things aren't looking so sightly in Beantown right now...and maybe as I had predicted weeks ago, that August would be the month the Red Sox would fall out of it. You see, they were just benefited by this mediocre schedule throughout much of the season and now play a number of tough games in August...that's not to say the Blue Jays don't have an even tougher schedule, though.

It is the beginning of the stretch run in baseball's fabled 2009 season, and historically in the month coined after the great Roman leader Augustus, large divisonal leads have been known to falter, while teams have run away from the pack. It is also very similar to the third round of any major championship in golf- past the midway point, baseball players now must make a charge and leave it all out on the field. After all, the Phillies held a nine game lead at one point, and now that lead is just four with two teams- the Braves and the Marlins chasing them down.

Toronto might have to go 35-16 to do it, but they're not out of it yet. As the famous Yogi Berra once said, it ain't over til it's over.