An October without the Yankees? It could happen.

"I think the logo doesn't allow that," Larry Bowa said.

Bowa coached for the Yankees last season, then followed Manager Joe Torre to the Dodgers. Torre led the Yankees into October every year he managed there -- 12 in all -- and he has a pretty good idea of how New York would react if the Yankees missed the playoffs.

"It's going to be horrible if the Red Sox make it," Torre said.

It is bad enough that the Yankees have not won the World Series in eight years. It would be worse if they miss the playoffs, blowing the chance to tie the Atlanta Braves for the major league record of qualifying for the postseason 14 consecutive times.

It would be infinitely worse if, for the first time in 18 years, the hated Boston Red Sox make the playoffs and the Yankees do not.

But, as the Yankees arrive in Anaheim tonight, they stand third in the American League East, third in the AL wild-card race.

Blame the Tampa Bay Rays, if you will. The Yankees were 64-51 and five games out of first place this time last year, trailing only the Red Sox in the AL East. Today they're behind the Sox and the upstart Rays, so even second place is not guaranteed.

Kevin Millar, who has played in the AL East since 2003 for the Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles, ventured a guess as to how the Yankees would react to missing the playoffs.

"You'd probably see every free-agent pitcher signed by the Yankees," Millar said.

He might not be joking. The Yankees passed on a trade for Johan Santana last winter, preferring to retain youngsters Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy and include them in the starting rotation. Neither Hughes nor Kennedy won a game in a combined 14 starts; Kennedy returns from the minor leagues tonight to start against the Angels.

Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte have pitched effectively and remained healthy, but ace Chien-Ming Wang is expected to sit out the rest of the season because of a torn tendon in his foot and phenom Joba Chamberlain is out indefinitely because of tendinitis in the rotator cuff.

The Yankees' starters this week include Sidney Ponson, with his fifth team in four years, and Dan Giese, who got his first major league victory this year, at 31.

Yet the Yankees have used fewer starters this season than last season. They led the league in runs and home runs last season; they rank sixth in runs and eighth in home runs this season.