The Red Sox have seen their lead shrink in the past week from obscene to merely comfortable. Yet plenty of people without perspective want to panic.

Let me show why any panic is unwarranted.

There is a realistic scenario for a series of one game, winner take all playoff games this October featuring teams that have a legitimate shot to win the NL Pennant. That is a cool thing.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox have a shot to have their best regular season ever, which would be great even if they don't win the World Series.

A pair of 1-0 games used an absurd number of pitchers last night. Maybe we can let relievers pitch a little longer.

Plus the Rockies have NEVER won the NL West. I hope they do this year.

The A's and Astros are about to play a wild and important series that could have huge ramifications on the American League Wild Card.

When the Yankees play the runner up of the AL West for the Wild Card Game, they need to reverse engineer their pitching staff to win. Two recent additions could be the key.

Giving advice to the enemy in this episode of Sully Baseball.

We know the win loss record is problematic as a metric for pitchers. But so are all the confusing new stats. Why not just use the Average Start as a barometer for the Cy Young vote and base the award on how the pitcher actually performed?

Sitting outside of Sunken Diamond on the Stanford Campus, I gloat about the Red Sox sweep of the Yankees and point out that some of the problems in the Bronx won't go away soon.

Meanwhile, I clear out a few unpleasant topics that I have been avoiding addressing.

WFAN writer and friend of the podcast, Jason Keidel, joined the podcast to talk about the renewed rivalry just as the Red Sox and Yankees began playing.

While standing outside in San Francisco, I share my initial thoughts of the trade deadline.

The Pirates may have helped themselves the most, bleeding into 2019. The Nationals probably should have seen what Harper could have fetched.

But the Mets botched the entire day and continue to doom their franchise.

Poppi Kramer, comedian and friend and guest of the podcast, died this week. Her death affected me as I have strong memories of our mutual love for the game. And losing her made me examine the illusion of timelessness in baseball and how we recoil when we see that change and finality are possible in our game.

The Phillies and Dodgers saw a head to head match up of first place teams end with an outfielder pitching in extra innings. That shouldn't happen. There should be ties in baseball.

Meanwhile the Nationals season is heading for disaster while the Pirates and A's are somehow contenders.