It’s All Critical in Final Weeks

It might be difficult to fathom, particularly in the National League, but the winners of these things -- division titles, wild cards -- are out there, somewhere.

With the playoffs five weeks away, the Yankees have some hope for Hideki Matsui’s return, waning hope for Gary Sheffield’s, a thready rotation and the been-there-before wisdom to know that help and harm will crawl out from the darkest corners.

The top of the AL East just swung 10 games in a month, and there’s more than that left.

“What we need to do is what we’ve done to get here,” Yankees Manager Joe Torre said Friday. “That is, to pay attention every day and play nine innings. By no means are we out here to play four corners. It shouldn’t be hard. We just got this thing. It’s new to us.

“We got it done in a short period of time, and it could get away from us in a short period of time.”

Here are the players, and a handful of series, that should be pivotal. The rest, we can’t predict.

Five Critical Players

J.D. Drew, Dodgers. If Grady Little is going to insist on batting Drew cleanup, then Drew is going to have to start producing like a cleanup hitter, even while swinging through the residue of off-season shoulder and wrist surgeries.

Jason Varitek, Red Sox. While Angels bats provided a breather, Red Sox pitchers sometimes have looked lost without the dynamic catcher, out for the last three weeks because of arthroscopic knee surgery. He’s angling for a return this week, but no one knows for sure.

Ryan Howard, Phillies. From rookie of the year to top-three MVP candidate, Howard is batting .320 in the second half and has slaughtered pitching by the Reds, Cardinals and Padres, which is where a large part of the wild-card race is.

Brian Giles, Padres. The Dodgers took a long, hard run at Giles last winter and ended up instead with Rafael Furcal at shortstop and Kenny Lofton in the outfield. Giles has done his usual on-base thing, but five homers and 32 RBIs since the end of May isn’t corner-outfield worthy.

Jermaine Dye, White Sox. Jim Thome has a bum hamstring, so Dye drops three hits, four runs and three RBIs on the Tigers in Thursday’s 10-0 rout. Dye’s league rankings: Average, sixth; RBIs, sixth; slugging, second; home runs, third; on-base percentage, 10th.

Five Critical Pitchers

Huston Street, A’s. Ken Macha has other ninth-inning options -- Justin Duchscherer, Kiko Calero, Kirk Saarloos, Joe Kennedy, Chad Gaudin (to name the rest of the bullpen) -- but there’s no reason to mess with one of the real strengths of the club. Street is expected off the disabled list in the first week of September.

Mike Timlin, Red Sox. If they can’t get the ball from their starters to Jonathan Papelbon, the Red Sox can forget another October of baseball. Timlin managed to hold off the Angels last week but still forced consecutive four-out saves by Papelbon, who’s throwing lots of innings and pitches.

Jake Peavy, Padres. Ignore the record (7-12) and the ERA (4.35) that’s higher than it has been since his rookie season. Finally over whatever it was the World Baseball Classic wrought, Peavy has a 1.89 ERA in August, when batters are hitting .183 against him.

John Lackey, Angels. He has given away some starts in August, when his ERA is 5.07 and he is allowing a .332 batting average. Historically, September is his best month.

Jason Isringhausen, Cardinals. As if Tony La Russa didn’t have enough problems in his starting rotation, Isringhausen leads the National League with nine blown saves, and his August ERA is more than 7.

Five Little Guys

Jason Bartlett, Twins. Batting ninth, Bartlett helps set up the Joe Mauer-Michael Cuddyer-Justin Morneau gantlet. Plays a neat, clean shortstop, has a .415 on-base percentage.

Don Cooper, White Sox. Ozzie Guillen’s pitching coach, Cooper had the league’s best staff last season, particularly by October. Now the team’s ERA is up a run and three starters’ ERAs are at or pushing 5.00.

Chris Duncan, Cardinals. Albert Pujols is Albert Pujols, and Scott Rolen is steady, but Jim Edmonds is ailing and looks as though he’s being phased out. Duncan sees a lot of hittable pitches in the two hole, in front of Pujols, and Cardinals pitching is going to need all the runs it can get.

Chone Figgins, Angels. His on-base percentage has taken a slight hit in the second half, but an adjustment could be on the way. At the top of a swing-first, ask-questions-later offense, Figgins terrorizes the A’s: .347 average, .396 on-base percentage, eight steals in nine attempts.

Carlos Quentin, Diamondbacks. General Manager Josh Byrnes and Manager Doug Melvin opt to go into the final weeks with rookies at shortstop (Stephen Drew) and in right field (Quentin). Quentin, given right field when Shawn Green was traded to the Mets, turns 24 Monday. Drew is 23.

Five Critical Series

Padres at Dodgers, Sept. 15-18 (4). Padres don’t own Dodgers yet, but transaction is in escrow.

White Sox at Twins, Sept. 29-Oct. 1 (3). Ron Gardenhire needs to be close, and needs to have Johan Santana, Francisco Liriano nearby.

Athletics at Angels, Sept. 28-Oct. 1 (4). The back end of seven games in 10 days pitting the AL West rivals.

Red Sox at Yankees, Sept. 15-17 (4). Yankees send limos to ensure Red Sox get to ballpark on time.

Padres at Reds, Sept. 12-14 (3). Schedule quirk has Reds playing NL West teams (all wild-card contenders) 16 times over three weeks.