Weekend predictions: Yankees, Mets, White Sox and Nationals

First, your new playoff seedings:

AL: Yankees (1) vs. Texas (3), Minnesota (2) vs. Tampa Bay (4).

NL: Cincinnati (1) vs. Philadelphia (4), Atlanta (2) vs. San Diego (3)

Thoughts: The Reds gained homefield advantage last night by simply not playing and watching the Braves lose. Man, have the Reds been good. It's a great story.

And now, your predictions:

1. The Yankees will drop two of three to Toronto, in this all-day-game series at Yankee Stadium. The biggest tension will occur today, when Jose Bautista again takes exception to Ivan Nova’s actions and the benches clear. Bautista will follow with a home run, his 44th, which will land above the monuments in centerfield.

“Just as the last time, I admire Ivan’s toughness,” Joe Girardi will say of his pitcher. “However, I’m not sure it was a good idea to ask Bautista if he missed the Mets. It just seemed to get him more angry."

Alex Rodriguez, despite being injured, will make news today by rehiring Scott Boras. Then he’ll make news Sunday by firing Boras, explaining, “I didn’t want him to pay double-time for Labor Day.” The three-time MVP, who loves welcoming new people into his inner circle, will replace Boras with Rusty Hardin.

“I felt like taking a risk,” A-Rod will say, “not unlike Larry David in this episode of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.’”

2. The Mets will win two of three over the even worse Cubs at Wrigley Field, in another all-day-game series. Jenrry Mejia will provide the major highlight by pitching superbly tomorrow in his big-league start, allowing a run in 6 2/3 innings and striking out eight.

“He’s pretty special,” Jerry Manuel will say, “After a performance like that, there’s only one logical place to use him from now on. That’s right, in the bullpen.”

Meanwhile, knowing his days as Mets manager are numbered, Manuel will take a taxi over to Chicago’s South Side and try to get into his old manager’s office at U.S. Cellular Field.

“I thought maybe they’d forget that they fired me,” Manuel will explain later. “George Costanza tried something similar in this episode of ‘Seinfeld.’ Unfortunately, it didn’t work for him, either.

3. The White Sox won't be in town. They'll be at Fenway Park, where their new DH Manny Ramirez will once again play at his place of employment from 2001 through 2008.  And in a continued, odd trend, Manny will be on deck all three games when White Sox hitters go deep with game-winning home runs, en route to a Chisox sweep.

Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, fascinated by this phenomenon, will try different people in front of Manny each day, to test the pattern. He'll go from the obvious to the surprising to the flat-out ridiculous, and it will work each time.

4. The Nationals will take two of three from the Pirates, and Nyjer Morgan will make his presence felt once again. While appealing his two suspensions, the second of which will be announced today, Morgan will slide hard into Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit tonight; steal second and third base tomorrow with the Nationals trailing, 20-2; and on Sunday, he'll taunt Pirates fans by dressing and speaking like Steve the pirate from "Dodgeball."

--Curtis Granderson had another good day for the Yankees, and while his season is starting to look better.

--Jorge Posada is a complex dude, Anthony Rieber writes.

--Angel Pagan is doing better physically than Jose Reyes, David Lennon reports.

--Have a great day.