I’m sure it was entirely coincidental on the part of MLB’s scheduling computer that the Yankees and Red Sox were matched up for a four-game set around Fourth of July weekend at Yankee Stadium in that venerable structure’s final season. Wonder what kind of odds that computer would have given that neither team would be in first place when the long weekend opened?

Newsday’s Ken Davidoff notes today that the last time baseball’s 800-pound gorillas met this late in the season and neither was in first place was Sept. 15-16, 1997. Or, about six months before the first game in (Devil) Rays history. Pretty remarkable stuff, that.

Elsewhere, Rob Bradford of the Boston Herald says it straight-up: The Rays are better than the Sox. Right now? Well, sure. The standings and head-to-head results don’t lie. But we’ll see over the long haul.

I thought Evan Longoria had some insightful words on the matter last night: “We definitely haven’t figured out how to win at their place and that’s one thing we need to do, but the good thing is they can’t beat us here, either.”

The New York Post’s George King suggests that over the next six days, the Sox and Rays “could combine to put the lifeless Yankees to sleep before the All Star break.”

Strange days indeed, folks. Enjoy the day off…