Nova must pitch the Wild Card Playoff, then CC starts Game One

We are down by three games in the loss column, with 23 left to play. No sweat. All we gotta do is win - let's say - 16.

Sixteen and seven brings us Wild Card Gold.

Hell, we could blow the next seven, as long as we run the table - 16 in a row. Not only would we make the one-game finale, but we'd be the hottest team in baseball!

So... we have to start planning.

I say Ivan Nova pitches the one-game season. I'm writing in a two-hit shutout. Of course, if it's Oakland, they could counter with Bartolo Colon - who had the 4th best ERA in the AL coming into this weekend - the man who accepted Bud Selig's craven blood for silence deal. (Even though Colon's involvement with Biogenesis was technically his second on the books PED infraction, Selig gave him a 50-game suspension, to be wiped off the books as time already served. Sweet deal, huh? Especially when you consider the end-of-career bomb presented to Arod was based on repeat instances, which aren't on the books. But by getting Colon to take the deal - and what player wouldn't? - MLB supposedly added "credibility" to its enforcement efforts. Arod's lawyers probably won't have a counter to that one, huh?)

That sends us to the first round, against Detroit or Boston. (Probably the Tigers, because we'll be cuffing around Boston in the last month, huh?) We send out CC in Game One, so he can re-establish his presence as the game's greatest lefty. In Game Two, Hiroki Kuroda will relive the month of July. Game Three is in NYC, where Andy Pettitte cannot be beaten. Don't sweat Game Four. There won't be one.

That sends us to the ALCS, seven games v. Boston. I'm thinking secret weapon David Huff pitches somewhere in there. And if Sunday's epic loss to Baltimore taught us anything, it's that the Yankees need a 7th inning bridge to Robertson. Voila! Phil Hughes in the bullpen!

Oh, to dream. Perchance to dream...

What we really need is another 16 games against that poor White Sox pitcher, Axelrod.