When the Yankees take the field against the Boston Red Sox Friday evening, they will be somewhere between three and five games out with 23 left to play. Although the Yankees have the safety net of the wild card if they don’t do well in this series (and the one in Boston to end the season), the closeness of the consolation prize – that is, the wild-card race – means nothing can be taken for granted. And there is more at stake than just entry to the playoffs. There is the burden of history to consider.

Last fall, the Yankees endured the baseball equivalent of Little Bighorn, blundering their way into an unprecedented seven-game loss in the American League Championship Series. It is a sports cliche to say that one team “embarrassed” another, but if ever any club deserved to have the word applied it was the Yankees. Bucky Dent and 80 years of New York domination were paid back at a blow.

Now the Red Sox have the opportunity to do it again. If they brush off the Yankees in their remaining games, they will not only secure the division for themselves, they may very well knock the Yankees out of the postseason altogether, compounding last year’s insult. Even further down the line, if the Yankees go home early, their front office and on-field management will most likely be purged, confounding efforts to retool the team for next year. By beating the Yankees now, the Red Sox can win two division titles – 2005 and 2006.

At this writing, the Yankees and the Indians share the wildcard lead, while the A’s trail by 1 1/2 games. Each team’s remaining schedule reveals offsetting advantages and disadvantages for the contenders, bringing to mind the sportswriter who was asked which of two weak teams could win the 1944 World Series, the Browns or the Cardinals. The answer: “Neither.”

Of the Yankees 23 remaining games, 10 are in the Bronx: Three against the Red Sox, four against the Orioles, and three against the Blue Jays. Of the 13 on the road, three take place in unfriendly Tampa Bay, three are in Toronto, four happen in Baltimore, and the final three are scheduled for the even less friendly confines of Fenway Park.

If the race is going to be settled by just a game or two, the Yankees will be in a difficult position. While they have a strong .643 winning percentage at home (45-25), they are a sub-.500 team (33-35) on the road. As one can generally expect of lefthanders in the House that Ruth Built, Hideki Matsui (.336 AVG/.407 OBA/.596 SLG in the Bronx) and Jason Giambi (.297/.463/.571) have outdone themselves at home. Right-handers Derek Jeter (.362/.449/.545) and Alex Rodriguez (.358/.456/.681) have also been more productive in front of friendly crowds.

The pitching has also been about a half run better at home, though some of that is attributable to pitchers like Mike Mussina, Al Leiter, and Kevin Brown,who will have little or no impact on the remainder of the season. While the Yankees do benefit from seeing just one team with a winning record the rest of the way,none of the remaining teams have shown themselves to be Yankees patsies during the season.

As for the Red Sox, 11 of their 23 remaining games will be in Fenway Park: four against Oakland, four against the Blue Jays, and those final three with the Yanks. As for the 12 away games: three in the Bronx, three in Toronto, three in Tampa, and three in Baltimore.

Like the Yankees, the Red Sox have a losing record on the road. Unlike the Yankees, they have the advantage of a fourgame lead. They also have 10 games against winning teams, including an A’s club with October on its mind and the Yankees themselves. Still, all they have to do to hold on to the division title is not fall apart – if the Sox go 12-11 in their remaining games, they would finish at 94-67; even if the Yankees swept their remaining games, they would finish with 91 wins.

The Indians are staring at a favorable home stretch, literally. They have 15 remaning home games: three with the Twins, three with the A’s, three with the Royals, three with the DRays, and three with the White Sox. Only seven away games remain: Three in Chicago and four in Kansas City.

The Indians, however, are one of those teams that struggle in their own park. While they are 45-29 on the road (.608), at home they’re only two games over .500 (34-22, .514). Still, the schedule is quite friendly to them, with seven games against the Royals, who are close to cementing a place among the very worst teams of all time, three against the Devil Rays, who cannot count on their anti-Yankees magic to sustain them in Cleveland, and three contests against a Twins team that has died of offensive malnutrition.

The main speed bumps are the A’s and the White Sox. Against the latter, the Indians are 3-10 on the season. Assuming this record holds, the Indians go 1-5 against the Pale Hose the rest of the way. If the Yankees play only as well as they have to date, the Indians would need 92 wins to take the wild card. That would require them to go 12-4 in games that are Ozzie Guillen-free. That’s a tall order given the presence of the Athletics. Barring a Yankees collapse, the Indians will have to beat the White Sox to get to October.

Oakland and Los Angeles each play 10 more home games and 13 away games. The A’s play the Twins, Rangers, and Angels at home, and the Rangers, Indians, Red Sox, and Mariners away. Meanwhile, the Angels play the Tigers, Rangers, and D-Rays at home, and the White Sox, Mariners, A’s, and Rangers away.

As with the Yankees and the Red Sox, the A’s will have the opportunity to settle their division race in head-to-head competition against the Angels. The AL West contenders are currently just a half-game apart, with the advantage belonging to the A’s, who are 8-7 against the Angels to date. It is key for the A’s to do better in this last match-up, because their remaining schedule is difficult and their team health is declining. In short, whichever of the two teams fails to win the division will go home; by the time the smoke clears, the wild-card race will have left them behind.

Mr. Goldman is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel, released this year.