1

- Playoff spot still to be decided. That's the NL Central. The Cardinals lead the Astros by 1 1/2 games. The Cardinals magic number is one and they can clinch the division with a win at home against Milwaukee at 11:15 am PT (Carlos Villanueva vs. Chris Carpenter). Or the race would be over if Houston loses at Atlanta at 10:05 am PT (Chris Sampson et al. vs John Smoltz). If St. Louis loses and Houston wins, the Cardinals would play one more game at home against San Francisco at 12:05 pm PT.

1

- The magic number for both Detroit and San Diego to clinch the division championships in the AL Central and the NL West respectively. Both teams are in the playoffs as are the teams they tied with, Minnesota and Los Angeles. Detroit hosts Kansas City at 10:05 am PT (Odalis Perez vs. Jeremy Bonderman). Minnesota hosts Chicago at 11:10 am PT (Javier Vazquez vs. Scott Baker). The Dodgers play at San Francisco at 1:05 pm PT (Eric Stults vs. Jason Schmidt). San Diego plays at Arizona at 1:40 pm PT (Woody Williams vs. Brandon Webb).

1

- Day left in the managerial tenure of Frank Robinson in Washington. And likely Joe Girardi in Florida. And Dusty Baker in Chicago. And maybe Felipe Alou in San Francisco.

.001

- The difference in the AL batting race between Joe Mauer and Derek Jeter. Beware the denominator! Jeter has over 100 more ABs than Mauer. And the lead is actually is actually .0016 (.3462 to .3446). Freddy Sanchez leads Miguel Cabrera by .003.

1

- The lead in the NL strikeout race held by Aaron Harang over Jake Peavy. John Smoltz is 10 back and he has one start.

.1

- Brandon Webb's lead over Roy Oswalt for the NL ERA title (2.88 to 2.98). Oswalt may get one more start if the Astros play a tiebreaker against the Cardinals Tuesday.

1

- Grady Sizemore's lead over Michael Young in the AL doubles race (53 to 52).

1

- Freddy Sanchez's lead over Luis Gonzalez in the NL doubles race (53 to 52).

1

- Carlos Delgado's lead over Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez, and Andruw Jones in the NL sacrifice flies race (10 to 9).

1

- Roy Oswalt's lead over Clint Barmes and Cory Sullivan in the NL sacrifices race (20 to 19).

1

- Barry Bonds's lead over Ryan Howard in the NL intentional walks race. (38 to 37)

1

- Miguel Tejada's lead over Victor Martinez and Michael Young in the AL GIDP race (28 to 27).

1

- Aaron Harang's lead over Brandon Webb and Chris Carpenter in the NL complete games race (6 to 5). Webb and Carpenter both pitch Sunday.

1

- Daniel Cabera's lead over Jose Contreras and John Lackey in the AL wild pitch race (17 to 16). But none of those pitchers are scheduled to go Sunday.

1

- Jeff Francis's lead over Ramon Ortiz for NL intentional walks issued (15 to 14). Ortiz is scheduled to pitch Sunday for Washington.

1

- Is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

They will also play:
Mets at Washington - Wanted: New object of irrational hatred among managers. Please apply within.
Philadelphia at Florida - San Diego and L.A. fans no longer hang on the play-by-play calls of Tommy Hutton and Rich Waltz.
Tampa Bay at Cleveland - If the Devil Rays lose, they finish with a .247 road record. That will make some people happy.
Toronto at Yankees - The guys who decorate the fields for the playoffs want everybody to keep things neat.
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh - The Reds can finish at .500 with a win.
Baltimore at Boston - Devern Hansack is just 245 wins short of the record for most wins by a pitcher born in Nicaragua.
Colorado at Chicago - Yesterday, these teams combined to use 50 players, including a record 20 pitchers.
Oakland at Los Angeles of Anaheim - The Angels are the kings of the LA/OC Metro Area! But out of the playoffs.
Seattle at Texas - The Rangers can finish at .500 with a win.

The Philadelphia Phillies were eliminated from playoff contention when the Dodgers beat the Giants 4-2.

Philadelphia Phillies playoff hopes
Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 30, 2006

Even though Phillies GM Pat Gillick dumped one of his best players, Bobby Abreu, along with a serviceable starter, Cory Lidle, at the trade deadline, the Phillies still held on doggedly in the playoff race thanks to the hitting heroics of Ryan Howard and Chase Utley.

The Phillies were ultimately undone by a pitching staff that was not quite good enough to hang with San Diego and Los Angeles in the National League. Perhaps the perfect Phillies game this year was a 14-inning 8-7 win at Washington on Wednesday where the bullpen blew two saves and almost blew a third. The Phillies also played much of the year with one of the NL's worst offensive players, Abraham Nunez, starting at third base. But then again, Abraham Nunez wasn't David Bell.

There will be no visitation. In lieu of flowers, the Phillies request that you make donations to the Roger Maris's Family Fund for the Determination of Which Home Run Records are Acceptable.

It's a playoff berth!

The San Diego Padres clinched a playoff berth with a 3-1 win at Arizona. The Padres are uncertain yet if this is a division championship or a wild card and will decide tomorrow.

Abbot Bruce Bochy celebrated the ceremony at Chase Field. A postseason honeymoon will start next week either in San Diego or New York.

It's a Playoff Berth

The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched a playoff spot with a 4-2 win over the Giants at San Francisco.

The Right Reverend Grady Little presided over the ceremony. The Dodgers have decided to keep their own name.

The team will begin its postseason honeymoon either in Los Angeles or New York next week.

The Cincinnati Reds were eliminated from playoff contention today when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-2 in St. Louis.

Cincinnati Reds 2006 Playoff Hopes
Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 30, 2006

Not much was expected out of the Cincinnati Reds, but they stayed in the playoff race until the second to last day of the season thanks to the late season stumbles of the Cardinals. On August 24, the Reds were .0004 behind St. Louis for first place after a 6-3 win in San Francisco. Then they lost 10 of 12 games and were never able to get back into serious contention for a playoff spot.

Cincinnati GM Wayne Krivsky traded just about everybody. He would have traded Vada Pinson if he could. He tried to trade Harry Heilmann and Edd Roush, too. But he did succeed in trading Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez for a pair of Washington middle relievers, Bill Bray and Gary Majewski. Then there were a bunch of other pitchers added: Rheal Cormier, Scott Schoeneweis, Eddie Guardado, Sunny Kim, Jason Johnson, and possibly Joey Jay and Bob Purkey.

The ultimate cause of death was food poisoning from some tainted chili-like substance sold at Great America Ballpark. There will be no visitation. In lieu of flowers, please make donation to the Cincinnati Foundation for the prevention of Ken Griffey Injuries.

Getting a jump on tomorrow's action...

The eight playoff teams could all be decided tomorrow. Or maybe just six of them. Or maybe just seven of them. Or maybe five of them. There are just two days left in the regular season. Or there may be three. Or there still could be four.

Here's the situation now:
The NL West is a tie between San Diego and Los Angeles at 86-74. Both teams lead Philadelphia (84-76) for the wild card. The best the Phillies can hope for now is a tie with either the Dodgers or Padres for the wild card which the Phillies would host on either Oct. 2 (if it's a two-way tie) or Oct. 3 (if it's a three-way tie).

The Phillies play at Florida at 10:25 am PT (Randy Wolf vs. Scott Olsen). The Phillies must win to stay alive. If they lose, BOTH the Dodgers and Padres advance.

San Diego and Los Angeles both get started at 1:10 pm PT. The Padres will be at Arizona (David Wells vs. Juan Cruz) This could be one of the greatest disparities in weights between starting pitchers ever. Wells is officially listed at 250 and Cruz is at 155. I'm thinking that Wells is a little above 250. The Dodgers play at San Francisco at 1:10 pm PT (Greg Maddux vs. Matt Cain). Greg Maddux had just finished his first year of pro ball at Pikeville in the Appalachian League a few weeks before Cain was born.

The Dodgers and Padres can both clinch playoff spots with a win. If the Padres win, the Dodgers lose, and the Phillies lose. The Padres would win the West, the Dodgers would be the wild card, and the Phillies would be out of it. If the Padres and Dodgers finish tied for first in the West and ahead of the Phillies, the Padres would be the divisional champ and get the #2 seed.

In the Central, the collapse of the St. Louis Cardinals and the rise of the Houston Astros was stopped by the fact that the Cardinals won and the Astros lost. Was that in the script?

The Cardinals lead the Astros by 1 1/2 games and the Reds by 2 1/2 games. The Cardinals can clinch no worse than a tie for the division if they can beat Milwaukee at 10:25 am PT in St. Louis. Ben Sheets will face Jeff Suppan.

The Astros play at Atlanta later in the day at 4:05 pm PT. Chris Sampson is the scheduled starter for Houston against Lance Cormier of Atlanta. Sampson started on Monday in Philadelphia and relieved in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. The Astros would be eliminated if they lose and the Cardinals win.

Cincinnati is still alive, but could be eliminated by the time they start playing at Pittsburgh at 4:05 pm PT (Bronson Arroyo vs. Marty McLeary). The Reds will be done if they lose or if the Cardinals or Astros win. The Reds can only move on to the postseason if they get into a three-way tiebreaker with the Cardinals and Astros at 81-81. If such an event happened, it would require the Cardinals to first lose a makeup game at home against San Francisco on Monday, that would be followed by a game between the Cardinals and Astros in Houston on Tuesday and then the Reds would play the winner of that game in either St. Louis or Houston on Wednesday.

All that is left in the AL is to decide the AL Central champ. The Tigers and Twins are tied at 95-65. The Twins need to finish one game ahead to win the division as the Tigers won the season series. The Twins play bright and early at 9:10 am PT at home against the White Sox (Jon Garland vs. Matt Garza). The Tigers host the Royals at 4:05 pm PT (Ambiorix Burgos vs. Zach Miner). The Yankees are guaranteed the #1 spot and Oakland is the #3 team.

They will also play:
Colorado at Cubs - The Cubs are tied for worst record in the NL and the Rockies are just one game out of fourth place in the NL West.
Texas at Seattle - King Felix makes his last start of the year against Lord Kevin of Millwood.
Toronto at Yankees - The Yankees will clinch the NY Metro Area title with a win.
Baltimore at Boston - The Orioles will lose the DC/Baltimore Area battle with a loss or Washington win.
Mets at Washington - Another chance to see Carlos Beltran face Beltran Perez!
Tampa Bay at Cleveland - The Devil Rays try to avoid loss #100.
Oakland at Los Angeles of Anaheim - The Angels clinch the LA/OC Metro Area title with a win or a Dodgers loss.

The Yankees beat the Blue Jays 7-2 tonight while the Tigers lost at home to Kansas City 9-7 in 11 innings and the Twins lost at home to the White Sox 4-3 to clinch homefield advantage throughout the postseason for New York. The Yankees lead both the Tigers and Twins by two games with two left and hold tiebreaker edges over both of them.

Cubs catcher Michael Barrett is still recovering from an operation to repair an intrascrotal hematoma. Barrett is looking for a bulletproof protective cup to wear next season.

Apparently such things are sold, although I haven't been able to find one. I would assume that the Army has a few of them.

Former Minnesota Twins player Craig Kusick passed away Wednesday in Minnesota of a type of leukemia.

After playing in the majors for seven years, Kusick became a high school baseball coach in Rosemount, Minnesota. The Twins had a moment of silence for Kusick before yesterday's game.

Earlier I had written about the last time rained out games had to be made up after the end of the regular season.

I've been looking for more, but it's a rare occurrence.

Back in 1973, there were two rained out games made up on Monday, October 1 to help settle the NL East. The Mets had to win at least one of two scheduled games in a doubleheader at Wrigley Field to avoid a tiebreaker playoff. The Pirates played the Padres that day and needed to win that game and have the Mets get swept and force a three-way playoff among the Mets, Pirates, and Cardinals. They all would have been 81-81.

A whopping crowd of 1913 packed Wrigley Field to see the Mets win the first game 6-4 rendering all the other events of the day moot. The Pirates lost at home to the Padres before 2572 fans at Three Rivers Stadium.

Althought it wasn't a makeup for a rainout, the Cubs and Giants had to replay a tied game after the end of the regular season back in 1908. That was the makeup for the infamous "Fred Merkle" game of September 23, 1908, which went into the books as a 1-1 tie. The game was to be replayed only if it affected the championship. And on October 8, the Cubs and Giants were both 98-55. The Pirates were 98-56, but out of it. The Cubs wont that game 4-2.

In the American League in 1908, Detroit beat Cleveland by 1/2 game in the standings because American League practice did not require all rained out games to be made up. And when the season ended, Detroit was 90-63 and Cleveland was 90-64.

Scott Van Voorhis of the Boston Herald reports that the Red Sox may sell the naming rights to their 2007 season.

The 2000 San Diego Padres season was sponsored by the Sycuan tribe. The 2005 Chicago Bears season was "presented by" Bank One (which is now Chase).

It's a good thing the Red Sox are looking for alternative revenue streams because there's a good chance that if people don't get behind that team, it may have to fold. I heard that Red Sox owner John Henry actually had to get his lunch from a Subway yesterday and that was only because he had a 2 for 1 coupon.

There are maybe three, four, or five days left in the regular season. This is the last Friday of the regular season. There is a tie atop one division, another division has its leaders separated by just 1/2 game, and one is separated by one game.

Although the AL Central is in a dead-even tie, it's the NL Central where tensions are highest. The Cardinals lead over the Astros has dwindled to just 1/2 game. The Astros have won nine straight while the Cardinals have lost eight of nine. Houston gets a jump on the action at 4:05 pm PT in Atlanta (Roger Clemens vs. Chuck James). St. Louis hosts Milwaukee at 5:10 pm PT (Chris Capuano vs. Jeff Weaver). As long as the Astros stay within 1/2 game of the Cardinals on either the plus or minus side, the Cardinals will be forced to make up a rained out game on Monday at home against the Giants.

In the NL West, San Diego leads Los Angeles by one game. San Diego plays at Arizona at 6:40 pm PT (Clay Hensley vs. Livan Hernandez). The Dodgers play their final weekend at San Francisco starting at 7:15 pm PT (Hong-Chih Kuo aka 郭泓志 aka Gūo Hóngzhì faces Noah Lowry). The Padres magic number to clinch the division is 3 and they can wrap up a playoff spot with a win or a loss by the Phillies. The Dodgers will clinch a playoff spot with a win AND a Phillies loss. The Phillies fell two games behind the Dodgers in the wild card race and play at Florida at 4:05 pm PT (Jamie Moyer vs. Brian Moehler).

The Reds, who are still alive with a record of 79-80, play at Pittsburgh at 4:05 pm PT (Aaron Harang vs. Zach Duke). The Reds would be eliminated with a loss and a win by either Houston or St. Louis.

The AL Central has Detroit and Minnesota in a 95-64 tie. Both teams trail the Yankees by one game for best record in the AL. The winner of the division would get homefield advantage over Oakland in the Division Series, the loser would be the wild card and start the division series in New York. Detroit holds the tiebreaker edge as they won the season series 11-8.

Detroit has the edge as they get to host the 100-loss Royals for the final weekend. They play at 4:05 pm PT (Runelvys Hernandez vs. Wil Ledezma). The Twins finish up at home against the White Sox. That game starts at 5:10 pm PT (Freddy Garcia vs. Boof Bonser).

They will also play:
Colorado at Cubs - The first time the Cubs fans get a chance to see Ubaldo Jimenez.
Baltimore at Boston - The Red Sox hope to move back into second place against a team they've beaten 13 of 15 times this season.
Mets at Washington - "Break up the Nats!" or is it "Wake up the Nats!"
Tampa Bay at Cleveland - Devil Rays need to win 2 of the last 3 to avoid 100 losses.
Toronto at Yankees - Presumably, the Yankees will get more than one hit tonight.
Oakland at Los Angeles of Anaheim - Athletics get practice against a pitcher named Santana.
Texas at Seattle - The last weekend behind the mike for Mariners broadcaster Ron Fairly.

The Minnesota Twins have, for the first time, at the end of the day, finished it in first place. The Twins beat Kansas City 2-1 in 10 innings while Detroit lost at home to Toronto 8-6. The Twins and Tigers are both 95-64. But the Tigers hold the tiebreaker edge as they won the season series over Minnesota 11-8.

The Tigers finish at home with three games against Kansas City (which lost game #100 tonight) while the Twins are at home against the White Sox.

If the Twins can finish first, they would break the AL record for fewest days in first by a champion. The 1967 Red Sox led for just 20 days. The 1951 NY Giants were in first for just three days before their playoff against the Dodgers.

The New York Mets announced today that Pedro Martinez will be out for the playoffs after an examination turned up a torn tendon in his left calf muscle.

It appears that Frank Robinson is down to his final days as manager of the Washington Nationals. Robinson will probably get a front office job and be named Excecutive Director for Crabbiness and High-handedness.

The Baseball Hall of Fame has issued a ballot of 27 players as well as a 15-person "composite" ballot of owners, umpires, and other officials.

The players are: Dick Allen, Bobby Bonds, Ken Boyer, Rocky Colavito, Wes Ferrell, Curt Flood, Joe Gordon, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Mickey Lolich, Sparky Lyle, Marty Martion, Roger Maris, Carl Mays, Minnie Minoso, Thurman Munson, Don Newcombe, Lefty O'Doul, Tony Oliva, Al Oliver, Vada Pinson, Ron Santo, Luis Tiant, Joe Torre, Cecil Travis, Mickey Vernon, and Maury Wills.

The composite ballot consists of: Buzzie Bavasi, August Busch Jr., Harry Dalton, Charlie Finley, Doug Harvey, Whitey Herzog, Bowie Kuhn, Billy Martin, Marvin Miller, Walter O'Malley, Gabe Paul, Paul Richards, Bill White, Dick Williams, and Phillip Wrigley.

To gain inducation, a candidate needs to gain 75% of the votes from the electors, who are the living members of the Hall of Fame plus recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award (for broadcasters) and the J.G. Taylor Spink Award (for writers). There are 84 men in that group (there is also one member of the old Veterans Committee who gets a vote because his term hadn't expired, John McHale.)

The previous two times this system had been used, no one was chosen. Gil Hodges and Ron Santo have come the closest. Joe Torre was nominated for his playing days, not his managing days, which are obviously ongoing.

The last Thursday of the regular season beckons. 12 games are scheduled today and they start at 9:35 am PT and the last goes off at 7:05 pm PT. There will be a little less scoreboard watching in game today as the big games in the NL, where there are still three playoff spots up for grab, are starting at different times throughout the day.

The first big game of the day is at 9:35 am PT and it takes place in Pittsburgh, where Houston, winners of eight straight, tries to keep up its highly improbable, yet highly entertaining run at the Cardinals in the NL Central. Roy Oswalt goes for Houston against Tom Gorzelanny of Pittsburgh. The Astros have used 20 pitchers in their last three game, so Phil Garner would like to see Oswalt put in a lot of innings.

Up next at 12:05 pm PT is a game featuring the wild card leading Dodgers, ahead of Philadelphia by one game and trailing San Diego by one in the West, at Colorado. Brad Penny will pitch against Byung-Hyun Kim. The Dodgers have won 14 of 18 games against Colorado this year.

Although it's not a huge game, the Cincinnati Reds are teetering on the brink of elimination. The Reds really need a win at Florida in a 4:05 pm PT game to keep their hopes alive. Kyle Lohse will face Ricky Nolasco. Actually, the Reds could still lose and stay alive if the Cardinals lose. The Reds trail St. Louis by 3 1/2 games.

Also at 4:05 pm PT, the Phillies play the final game of their series at Washington. Jon Lieber will face Mike O'Connor. The Phillies won a wild 8-7, 14-inning game that featured two blown saves by the bullpen and almost a third.

Teams that can't change their place in the divisional standings are: Baltimore (4th, AL East), Tampa Bay (5th, AL East), White Sox (3rd, AL Central), Cleveland (4th, AL Central), Kansas City (5th, AL Central), Los Angeles of Anaheim (2nd, AL West), Philadelphia (2nd, NL East), Washington (5th, NL East), and Milwaukee (4th, NL Central).

Central leading St. Louis hosts Milwaukee at 5:10 pm PT. The Cardinals lead the Astros by 1 1/2 games and ended a seven-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Padres Wednesday. Doug Davis will start for the Brewers against Jason Marquis, who has managed to win 14 games despite an ERA of 5.80.

West leading San Diego starts its final series of the season, a four-game set in Arizona, at 6:40 pm PT. Jake Peavy will take on Miguel Batista. The Padres are 22-50 alltime at Chase Field/Bank One Ball Park. They are 3-3 there this season. Both San Diego and St. Louis have magic numbers of 4. If San Diego wins or St. Louis loses one more game, the #2 slot will be guaranteed to the NL West champion.

As for the American League, the spots are all set and there is just some minor jockeying for position. The Yankees lead the Tigers by one game for best record (which is effectively two games because of tiebreakers). The Tigers lead the Twins by one game (again effectively two games because the of tiebreakers) in the Central. Oakland will be the #3 team as they can't pass up Detroit.

They will also play:
Toronto at Detroit - The Tigers likely weren't expecting a big crowd for a midweek daygame in late September.
Baltimore at Yankees - Chris Gomez has a 17-game hitting streak! 17 games!
Tampa Bay at Cleveland - The Devil Rays won their third road game since July 1 last night at Boston.
Mets at Atlanta - The Braves continue their traditional late season domination of the Mets.
Kansas City at Minnesota - Brad Radke will attempt to keep his right arm attached while the Royals try to avoid loss #100.
Oakland at Los Angeles of Anaheim - The Angels lead the Dodgers by 2 games in their Metro Area battle.

The Ambassador of the Negro Leagues, Buck O'Neil, remains hospitalized in Kansas City, suffering from extreme fatigue. Doctors are still not sure what has caused the 94-year old O'Neil to feel so weak.

The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters finished in first place in the Pacific League for the first time since 1981 after beating the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 4-1 at the Sapporo Dome. The Fighters finished one game ahead of the Seibu Lions who beat the defending champion Chiba Lotte Marines 4-3 in 10 innings.

The Pacific League playoffs are scheduled to start on October 7. Second place Seibu and third place Softbank will meet that day for the first game of a best of three at the Yahoo Dome in Fukuoka. Game 2 and Game 3 (if necessary) will be played at the Invoice Seibu Dome in Tokorazawa.

The winner of that series will face the Fighters starting October 11. That will be a four-game series with the Fighters being spotted a win. Games 1 and 2 will be in Sapporo on October 11 and 12. Games 3 and 4 (if necessary) will be in either Fukuoka or Tokorazawa.

Former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Michael Nakamura set a PL record in the Fighters win when he notched his 39th save of the season.

The American League now has its full complement of playoff teams as Oakland clinched the AL West. All that's left is to sort out where New York, Detroit, and Minnesota will finish in seedings. In theory, Oakland could take the #1 slot if they win their last five games and the Yankees, Tigers, and Twins stumble in the final weekend. However, the Tigers play the Royals over the weekend, so Detroit could have the edge. Detroit and New York have the same record, but the Yankees hold the tiebreaker edge.

The NL suddenly has a new division, the Johnny Edwards. St. Louis has dropped seven straight games while Houston has won seven straight to cut the Cardinals lead to just 1 1/2 games. And the Reds are just 2 1/2 games back. The Cardinals have six games left with a potential makeup game against the Giants on Monday held in escrow. Houston and Cincinnati have five games left. The Cardinals magic number is five.

St. Louis plays the NL West leader San Diego at home at 5:10 pm PT (Chris Young vs. Anthony Reyes). Houston is at Pittsburgh at 4:05 pm PT (Jason Hirsh vs. Shawn Chacon). Cincinnati plays at Florida at 4:05 pm PT (Chris Michalak vs. Anibal Sanchez). If the Padres win, the #2 slot in the NL will be guaranteeed to either San Diego or Los Angeles.

With San Diego unlikely to squander a two game lead with five games to play, the NL wild card race looks to be the last great race. The Phillies trail the Dodgers by one game. Philadelphia plays at Washington at 4:05 pm PT (Cole Hamels vs. Pedro Astacio). Los Angeles plays at Colorado at 5:35 pm PT (Derek Lowe vs. Aaron Cook).

They will also play:
Arizona at San Francisco - Since Brandon Webb isn't pitching, Arizona will go back to scoring runs.
Baltimore at Yankees - Yankees fans shout, "The Orioles are boring. Make them go away!"
Cleveland at White Sox - The White Sox are playing for pride now and don't seem to have a lot of that.
Tampa Bay at Boston - Will the Devil Rays win another road game in 2006?
Mets at Atlanta - This time of the year, the Braves always seem to have the Mets number.
Milwaukee at Cubs - The Cubs are just 1 1/2 games in back of Pittsburgh.
Kansas City at Minnesota - The next loss for the Royals is #100.
Oakland at Seattle - Sacramento takes on Tacoma
Texas at Angels - Oklahoma takes on Salt Lake City

It's a Division Championship!

The Oakland Athletics clinched their first AL West championship since 2003 after defeating Seattle 12-3 while the Angels lost to the Rangers, 5-2.

Dr. Kenneth Macha presided over the ceremony. The happy team plans to start its postseason festivities in either New York, Detroit, or Minneapolis.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were eliminated from the playoffs after losing to Texas combined with an Oakland win in Seattle.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 2006 Playoff Hopes
Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 26, 2006

The two-time defending AL West champs had hopes for three in a row, but a suspect pitching staff at the beginning of the season, which included an injured Bartolo Colon and the wrong Weaver brother, got them off to a bad start. The bullpen, aside from Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez, was a work in progress and only showed flashes of its steady performance from 2005.

But the Angels bigger problems were with hitting (which they didn't do very well) and fielding (which they didn't go very well either). While baseball pundits like to say "Pitching and defense win championships", keep in mind the meaning of "and" in Boolean logic.

The cause of death was Extreme Baserunning Aggression Syndrome, a condition characterized by a propensity for overusing the "contact play".

Visitation will be at Angel Stadium of Anaheim through October. In lieu of flowers, the team asks that you make donations to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names.

The Florida Marlins were eliminated from playoff contention tonight after losing to Cincinnati 5-3.

Florida Marlins 2006 Playoff Hopes
Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 26, 2006

The Marlins started the season like a house afire. That is they were in the house that was on fire and they were trying to get out. The Marlins started the season 11-31 with a lineup that consisted mainly of rookies or second year players making the major league minimum.

Then as the season progressed, the young pitchers, such as Josh Johnson, Anibal Sanchez, and Scott Olsen started to get things together. And young players like Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, and Josh Willingham started to hit. Combine that with the good hitting of Miguel Cabrera and the Marlins got over .500 for a few days and toyed with the wild card.

But the Marlins didn't have quite enough to fend off the Phillies who started to win enough games to make the Marlin fan say, "Wait till some indeterminate time in the future...."

Complicating matters was a poisonous relationship that apparently developed between the Marlins front office, in particular owner Jeffery Loria and GM Larry Beinfest, and manager Joe Girardi. Loria didn't like Girardi after the manager told him to stop berating an umpire from the stands and Beinfest reportedly didn't like the way Girardi handled the pitching staff, which ran into injury problems. The Marlins good starting pitchers obscured the fact that the team has a mediocre bullpen and relied on Joe Borowski to be the closer.

Visitation will be at Dolphin Stadium from September 26-October 1. In lieu of flowers, the Marlins ask that you donate money to the Jeffrey Loria Foundation, which helps support people named Jeffrey Loria.

The Barry McGuire teams today are:

1. Florida - The Marlins are eliminated if they lose to Cincinnati OR if the Phillies or Dodgers win.
2. Los Angeles of Anaheim - The Angels are eliminated with a loss to Texas AND a win by Oakland at Seattle.

The NL wild card race cannot end before Friday. The NL West race could be sewn up by the end of Wednesday. The NL Central race cannot end before Thursday.

Loyal reader, as determined by an oath adminstered by the Almagamated Transcontinental Association of Baseball Bloggers, Saddlemakers, and Sous Chefs, Diane Firstman has passed along from her blog Diamonds are for Humor, that the Tampa Devil Rays have a chance to be the first team since World War II to have a winning record at home (they finished 41-40) and play under .250 ball on the road.

Tampa Bay is 19-56 on the road and play 3 games each in Boston and Cleveland. Since Canada Day, the Devil Rays are 2-24 on the road.

Alan Schwarz of the New York Times has a profile of a man believed to be the oldest professional baseball ever, Si Simmons, who is 110 years old (he turns 111 next month). Simmons played in the Negro Leagues from 1912 through 1929.

My parents were born in 1929. My parents have passed on. Simmons played for the Homestead Grays. In 1913. My grandmother was nine then.

Thanks to Johnny Nucleo for the pointer.

Pacific League

	W	L	T	GB	PCT
Fighters	81	54	0	.600
Lions	79	54	2	.594	1
Hawks	75	54	5	.581	3

The Seibu Lions had ace Daisuke Matsuzaka going against the fourth place Chiba Lottle Marines Tuesday night, but the Marines jumped on him four runs in the third inning and won 6-2 at the Invoice Seibu Dome. That loss left the door open for the Nippon Ham Fighters to take over first place and they did. The Fighters did as three pitchers combined on a 4-hit shutout over the Softbank Hawks 8-0 at the Sapporo Dome.

The Fighters now lead by one game with one game left in an attempt to get the top spot and bye in the first round of the playoffs. The Hawks are now guaranteed third place. The Fighters will finish first with a win or a loss by the Lions. The Lions and Fighters play their last regular season games tonight. The Hawks have an additional game on 9/29.

The Pacific League playoffs will not start until 10/7.

In the other league:

Central League

	W	L	T	GB	PCT
Dragons	76	49	5		.608
Tigers	76	55	4	3	.580

The Dragons have 16 games left and the Tigers have 11.

The Minnesota Twins became the fourth team to clinch a playoff spot and the third from the AL. Oakland will try for the fourth straight day to clinch a playoff spot. The NL pennant races aren't decided except for the Mets, who are just watching in glee as their potential playoff competitors flail about. 17 teams overall have no chance at the playoffs. 4 teams have clinched playoff spots. There are 9 teams left playing for four spots: Oakland, Los Angeles of Anaheim, Philadelphia, Florida, St. Louis, Houston, Cincinnati, San Diego, and Los Angeles.

In the NL, the Central leader and the West leader, St. Louis and San Diego play the second game of their series at Busch Stadium at 5:10 pm PT (Woody Williams vs. Chris Carpenter). Both teams have magic numbers of 5. The Padres lead the Dodgers by 2 games and the Cardinals lead the Astros by 2 1/2 games.

The Dodgers and Phillies are now tied for the wild card. Both teams are on the road against the last place teams in their divisions. Philadelphia will be at Washington at 4:05 pm PT (Brett Myers vs. Ramon Ortiz). The Dodgers are at Colorado at 5:35 pm PT (Greg Maddux vs. Jason Jennings).

Houston, which has won 6 straight, while St. Louis has lost 6 straight, plays at Pittsburgh at 5:10 pm PT (Andy Pettitte vs. Ian Snell) in an attempt to keep its improbable quest to catch the Cardinals in the Central.

Oakland leads the Angels by five games with six left to play and has a magic number of 2. Oakland tries again to clinch the AL West at Seattle at 7:05 pm PT (Rich Harden vs. Jake Woods). The Athletics also need the Angels to lose at home to Texas in a 7:05 pm PT start (Robinson Tejeda vs. Kelvim Escobar).

They will also play:
Baltimore at Yankees - Hayden Penn takes his 15.43 ERA into Yankee Stadium to face the AL East champs.
White Sox at Cleveland - Pretend it's 2005 and this game will seem really important.
Cincinnati at Florida - Even if the Reds lose, they're still not eliminated. The Marlins would be dead with a loss or a win by Philadelphia or Los Angeles.
Tampa Bay at Boston - The Red Sox know that they can't go lower than third.
Toronto at Detroit - Tigers are tied with Yankees for best record in the AL.
Mets at Atlanta - Mets promise not to taunt the Braves. Much.
Milwaukee at Cubs - The Brewers have won five straight and could finish third, but not many people will care.
Kansas City at Minnesota - Johan Santana will try to pitch will encased in Plexiglass to avoid injury.
Arizona at San Francisco - The Giants lead Arizona and Colorado by just one game for third place.

The San Francisco Giants were eliminated from playoff contention tonight when they lost to Arizona at home 7-1, giving them 81 losses for the season and unable to catch wild card leaders Philadelphia and Los Angeles who have 82 wins.

San Francisco Giants 2006 Playoff Hopes
Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 25, 2006

The 2006 Giants were one of the oldest teams in the majors and at times featured an outfield where each player was 40 years old or over (Barry Bonds, Steve Finley, and Moises Alou). Then there was the case of 38-year old shorstop Omar Vizquel and 38-year old reliever Mike Stanton.

But the old guys, with the exception of Finley, all played pretty well. Bonds, whom people thought would either be through or have to take a leave of absence because he was indicted, put together a solid year with an OPS over 1.000 again. And Bonds broke Hank Aaron's career mark for NL home runs.

However, there was the problem with the pitching staff. 21-year old Matt Cain brought hope. 32-year old Jason Schmidt was solid. And other than that, the pitching was pretty awful. Free agent Matt Morris has an ERA of 5.09. And it gets worse after that.

The cause of death was listed as Sabeangeria, a disease marked by the rapid aging of the a team's roster.

Visitation will be at AT&T Park from September 25-October 1. In lieu of flowers, the Giants ask that you make a donation to the Society for the Prevention of Leaking of Federal Grand Jury Testimony or the Sal Yvars Telescope Collectors Association.

In Houston's 5-4 win over Philadelphia tonight, the Astros used nine pitchers and the Phillies used seven pitchers.

The nine pitchers in a nine-inning game tied the NL record that had been done three times before. The last NL team to do it was the Cardinals in a season-ending game last year on October 2, 2005 against the Reds. The Cardinals also did it against the Dodgers on September 8, 2001 against the Dodgers. That game was actually meaningful.

The 16 pitchers combined tied the major league record. Houston had a share of that record, set on September 28, 2002. That game was a 5-2 Giants win. However, none of the eight pitchers used by the Astros in 2002, pitched in tonight's game. Aaron Fultz pitched for the Giants in 2002 and for the Phillies tonight.

Colorado and Arizona broke the record for most pitchers used in an extra-inning game back on September 16 when the DBacks beat the Rockies 7-6 in 16 innings.

Pitcher #5 got the win for Houston tonight, Dave Borkowski.

The defending World Series champion White Sox were eliminated from playoff contention today after losing to Cleveland 14-1 while Minnesota defeated Kansas City 8-1.

Chicago White Sox 2006 Playoff Hopes
Born: April 2, 2006
Died: September 25, 2006

Most experts thought that the White Sox were going to be one of the top teams in the AL this year. All of the key parts of the championship team were back and Jim Thome was added to add even more pop to a lineup loaded with power hitters such as Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye, and Joe Crede.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the playoffs. The White Sox pitching staff could not perform to the level it did in 2005. Coming into tonight's game, the White Sox staff put up an ERA of 4.60, up from 3.98 in 2005. The bullpen was shaky too.

Ultimately the White Sox died from a case of Extreme Podsednikism with some residual Andersonness that exacerabted the condition.

There will be no visitation. There will be a memorial service sometime next season. In lieu of flowers, the White Sox ask that you make a donation to the Ozzie Guillen Fund For The Improvement of Interpersonal Relations.

It's a playoff spot

The Minnesota Twins are pleased to announce that they have clinched a playoff spot tonight thanks to an 8-1 win over the Kansas City Royals while the Chicago White Sox lost to Cleveland 14-1.

The Twins have not yet decided whether to have a divisional championship or to have a wild card. The Rev. Ron Gardenhire presided over the ceremony at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters supsended pitcher Satoru Kanemura for the rest of the regular season (2 games) and the playoffs for publicly criticizing team manager Trey Hillman. Kanemura could come back for the Japan Series if the Fighters make it that far.

From the Kyodo News Service:

Nippon Ham had been leading the game 4-1 when Hillman gave the
order for Kanemura to leave the mound with two outs and the bases
loaded, and Lotte rallied off reliever Takehiko Oshimoto to tie the
score the same frame before winning the game on Benny Agbayani's
grand slam in the seventh.

Upset that he missed out on double-digit wins for the fifth
season in a row, Kanemura said after the game, ''I'll never forgive
him. He is a foreign manager, so he probably doesn't care about
individual stats. I don't even want to see his face.''

In order that it could happen.
1. Florida - If Philadelphia beats Houston today
2. San Francisco - If Philadelphia beats Houston OR if the Giants lose to Arizona
3. White Sox - If they lose to Cleveland AND the Twins beat Kansas City
4. Angels - If they lose to Texas AND Oakland beats Seattle

The Mets already have clinched homefield advantage in the NL for both rounds.

San Diego has a magic number of 6 against St. Louis to clinch home field, although the Padres will probably win any tiebreaker against the Cardinals unless they get swept. The Padres have won 2 of 3 already against St. Louis and they hold the edge in the second tiebreaker which is intradivisional games. The Cardinals actually have a losing record against teams in their own division (37-40).

In the AL, the Tigers lead the Yankees by 1/2 game and the teams are tied in the AILC (all important loss column). The Yankees hold a tiebreaker edge over the Tigers so the Yankees magic number to clinch homefield throughout the postseason is 7. For Detroit, it is also 7.

Oakland lost the season series to Detroit, but won the season series against the Yankees. For Oakland to get home field against Detroit, their magic number is 11. Against New York, it is 10.

Cyril Morong and Dave Petit document the teams that have taken the biggest drops in winning percentage from the first half of the season and in the second half at Beyond the Box Score.

Thr 1879 Cubs played the first half of the season at a .769 pace, but played the second half at .400.

If you want to go for "modern" times, you can look to the 1905 Cleveland Indians which started at .636, but played the second half at a .351 pace.

The 2006 White Sox project to be 22nd in this category. The 2005 Nationals started out at .617 and played the last 81 games at a .383 pace. And if you look at those numbers, you can tell that Washington had to finish the season at .500.

Just one week to go in the regular season and there are only three teams with postseason berths wrapped up, but the number of contenders is dropping too. There are just 12 teams still with chances and most of them are extreme longshots.

Two teams can clinch spots Monday: Oakland and Minnesota.

The Twins can clinch the wild card if they can beat Kansas City on the road at 5:10 pm PT (Boof Bonser vs. Jorge De La Rosa) and the White Sox lose at Cleveland at 4:05 pm PT (Jon Garland vs. Cliff Lee). The Twins trail the Tigers by 1 1/2 games in the AL Central. The Tigers have a magic number of 5 to clinch the division title since they hold the tiebreaker advantage by winning the season series 11-8.

Oakland had two chances to clinch the AL West, but lost Saturday and Sunday to the Angels. So now Oakland can clinch the division if they can beat the Mariners in Seattle at 7:05 pm PT (Esteban Loaiza vs. Cesar Jimenez). And the Angels would have to lose at home to Texas at 7:05 pm PT (Edinson Volquez vs. Joe Saunders).

The National League, aside from the Mets, remains an untidy mess. The team with the lowest magic number to clinch a playoff spot is still the Cardinals who have a magic number of 5. But the Cardinals were swept in a four-game series in Houston and saw their lead in the division shrink to 3 1/2 games.

San Diego leads the Dodgers by 1 1/2 games in the West. And the Phillies lead the Dodgers by 1/2 game for the wild card.

The Central and West division leaders get together in St. Louis at 5:10 pm PT (David Wells vs. Jeff Suppan). The Padres have taken a 2 1/2 game lead on the Cardinals for the #2 slot.

Philadelphia plays its final home game of the regular season at 4:05 pm PT against Houston (Matt Albers vs. Randy Wolf). The Dodgers have the day off.

They will also play:
Cubs at Cincinnati - Kids in Cincinnati will no doubt be sneaking transistor radios into school to follow this afternoon affair.
Boston at Toronto - The Blue Jays can take over second place with a win. That and CDN$2.75 gets you a ride on the TTC.
Washington at Mets - Nats pitcher Beltran Perez may face a Beltran, but probably not a Perez as Tom Glavine is starting.
Yankees at Tampa Bay - Yankees need a win to reclaim homefield advantage for the playoffs.
Arizona at San Francisco - Giants pitchers return from a road trip where they put up an ERA of 11.22 in nine games.

After Houston finished a four-game sweep of the Cardinals at home with a 7-3 win in what could have been Roger Clemens's last home appearance.

At least for now.

But the four-game sweep just brought the Astros within 3 1/2 games with seven left to play. The Cardinals have seven games left also, but they also have a potential rainout makeup game against the Giants that will only be replayed if necessary.

The last time a game was made up after the end of the regular season was on October 5, 1981 when the Kansas City Royals had to go to Cleveland to potentially make up two games. The Royals lead Oakland by 1/2 game in the second half of the split season and if the Royals lost both games, Oakland would have been the champion of both halves and picked up an extra home game. The Royals won the first game, 9-0 and the second game was called off. 3,006 fans showed up in Cleveland to watch.

The Cardinals finish with seven games at home. Three against San Diego and four against Milwaukee. The Astros finish with seven games on the road. One at Philadelphia (a rainout makeup), three at Pittsburgh, and three at Atlanta.

St. Louis lost 2 of 3 earlier in the year in San Diego and have won 7 of 12 against the Brewers. Houston has lost 4 of 5 to Philadelphia, defeated Pittsburgh 10 of 13 times, and beat Atlanta 3 out of 4 times back in June.

The home/road situation will likely be the deciding factor. The Cardinals are 46-27 in the friendly, smiling confines of Busch Stadium where The Best Fans in Baseball™ can will the Redbirds over the finish line through the sheer power of their Midwestern wholesomeness. Houston is 33-41 away from home and the Astros have swept just one road series all year and that was at Wrigley Field in June.

Stranger things have happened, but barring Tony LaRussa channeling the spirit of Gene Mauch, the Cardinals should wrap up the NL Central before the weekend.

So sayeth the man who predicted Cleveland to win the World Series.

San Diego reliever Trevor Hoffman broke Lee Smith's record for most saves in major league history, recording #479 in San Diego's 2-1 win over the Pirates at PETCO Park.

The Atlanta Braves were eliminated from playoff contention today after losing to Colorado, 9-8 and the Phillies beating the Marlins 10-7.

Atlanta Braves 2006 Playoff Hopes
Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 24, 2006

The demise of the Braves dynasty was awaited by many baseball fans in the same way that the U.S. government keeps checking on the health of Fidel Castro.

The Braves Dynasty collapsed under the weight of injuries and the inability of the farm system to produce enough pitching to keep the team afloat. The Braves were able to score runs thanks to players like Adam LaRoche, Andruw Jones, and Brian McCann, but their bullpen and starting rotation (which were difficult to discern differences between) dragged them down to the bottom.

The Braves leave a legacy of consecutive playoff appearances dating back to 1991 (they were in the wild card spot when the season was called off in 1994). Visitation will be at Turner Field from September 26 through October 1.

In lieu of flowers, the Braves ask you to give money to the Chief Noc-a-Homa Memorial Fund for the Nonproliferation of Stupid Mascots.

The Arizona Diamondbacks were eliminated from playoff contention today after the Phillies beat the Marlins 10-7. That was Philadelphia's 82nd win. The DBacks have 81 losses and cannot catch the Phillies for the wild card

Arizona Diamondbacks Playoff Hopes

Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 24, 2006

2006 went up and down and all around for the purple, green, and white and a few other colors of the team that carried the baseball banner for the Copper State.

Arizona tried to wring the last bit of use out of some veteran players such as Luis Gonzalez, Craig Counsell, Shawn Green, Tony Clark, and a lot of bad relievers.

The Diamondbacks realized that they weren't going to win that group and Green was traded to New York, Counsell sent to the bench, Clark sent to the even deeper bench, and Gonzalez was told to not come back in 2007.

In their place, came a bunch of prospects such as Conor Jackson, Carlos Quentin, Stephen Drew, and Chris Young (not the tall Padre variety).

Eventually, the team succumbed to the effects of Grimsley's Phenomenon. Once mediocre middle reliever was served a subpoena by the Federal government and named as an HGH user, the team went into a skid. They tried to pull back out, but finally went down for good.

Visitation will be at Chase Field from September 28 through October 1. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Diamondbacks Foundation for Establishing Higher Standards For Its Players.

It's a playoff spot!
The Detroit Tigers clinched their first playoff spot since 1987 with an 11-3 win over the Kansas City Royals. The Tigers have also moved 1/2 game ahead of the Yankees for best record in the American League.

The Tigers need to finish one game ahead of the Yankees to get homefield through the playoffs as the Yankees own the tiebreaker.

Pacific League

	W	L	T	GB	PCT
Lions	79	53	2	.598
Fighters	80	54	0	.597
Hawks	75	53	5	.586	2

The top 3 teams all lost again Sunday.

Last place Rakuten beat the Lions 4-2. The second place Fighters lost to the fourth place Marines 8-4. And the third place Hawks lost to the fifth place Buffaloes 5-2.

The Fighters host the Hawks on 9/26 and 9/27. Those same days, Seibu hosts the fourth place Marines. The Hawks also have a makeup game against Rakuten.

If Seibu wins both of its games (with Daisuke Matsuzaka starting one of them), they will finish first. If the Lions split their games and the Fighters win two, then the Fighters would finish first in the PL for the first time since 1962 when they were called the Toei Flyers. If the Fighters win their three remaining games, and the Lions lose two, then they would finish in first.

In the other league:

Central League

	W	L	T	GB	PCT
Dragons	75	49	5		.605
Tigers	75	55	4	3	.577

The Dragons have 17 games left and the Tigers have 12.

Two tickets for the postseason could have punched yesterday, but none were. But they can still be punched today and the AL playoff contenders could be pared to a group of give. In the NL, the checkered jersey passed out of the hands of the Dodgers and over to the Phillies and suddenly the potential playoff pairings got all scrambled up.

The most likely team to get a playoff berth clinched is Detroit, which can clinch no worse than the wild card with a win at Kansas City at 11:05 am PT (Justin Verlander vs. Runelvys Hernandez). The Tigers will also go in if the White Sox lose in a 11:05 am PT game in Chicago against Seattle (Ryan Feierabend vs. Freddy Garcia). The Twins trail the Tigers by 1 1/2 games and have a magic number of 3 to clinch a playoff spot. Minnesota plays at Baltimore at 10:35 am PT (Matt Garza vs. Adam Loewen).

Oakland can wrap up the AL West title at home against the Angels in a 1:05 pm PT game (Ervin Santana vs. Dan Haren). The Angels will be eliminated entirely from the playoffs with a loss and if they win and Minnesota wins, they will only be able to win the AL West.

Over in the NL, the Padres solidified their lead on the NL West and now lead the Dodgers by 1 1/2 games and the Phillies lead the Dodgers by 1/2 games. The Dodgers have now become the Blanche DuBois of the NL and are dependent upon the kindness of strangers to make the playoffs.

The Phillies, making one of the more improbable playoff runs in the majors, go for a sweep at home against the Marlins in a 10:35 am PT game (Scott Olsen vs. Jamie Moyer).

The Padres go for a home sweep against the Pirates at 1:05 pm PT (Marty McLeary vs. Clay Hensley). Trevor Hoffman tied Lee Smith's career saves at 478 Saturday night and no doubt the Padres would like to see Hoffman break the record in the Padres last regular season home game of the season.

Los Angeles plays its final home game of the regular season at 1:10 pm PT against Arizona (Livan Hernandez vs. Hong-Chih Kuo). Arizona's extremely slim playoff hopes rely on them getting into at least a 3-way tie for the wild card with the Dodgers and Phillies at 81-81. If the Phillies win earlier in the day, Arizona would be eliminated even if they win.

St. Louis has slipped into the #3 spot in the NL and the Cardinals are looking at a first round matchup against the Mets right now. The Cardinals have a magic number of 5 and lead Houston by 4 1/2 games. The Astros get their last chance head-to-head with the Redbirds at home at 5:05 pm PT (Jeff Weaver vs. Roger Clemens). Clemens will be pitching on three days rest in Houston's last home game of the season. Of course, Clemens could have pitched on normal rest Monday in a game that means just as much to the Astros playoff hopes since if they win Sunday and lose Monday, they gain nothing. But far be it from me to question the mind of Phil Garner..

They will also play:
Boston at Toronto - The Blue Jays need to win the next two against Boston to move into second place.
Washington at New York - The Nationals try to regroup after losing Nick Johnson to a broken leg.
Chicago at Cincinnati - The Cubs are two games behind Pittsburgh to get out of last place.
New York at Tampa Bay - The Yankees lead the Tigers by 1/2 game for best record in the AL.
Cleveland at Texas - The Rangers flirt with falling under .500, but is it really flirting if no one pays attention?
San Francisco at Milwaukee - The Giants are 1-7 on a road trip in which they have given up 88 runs. And yet they haven't been eliminated.
Atlanta at Colorado - Wary NL East fans still aren't sure the Braves aren't going to make the playoffs.

After today, the Andy Ashby Division teams have left:
San Diego - at St. Louis (9/25-27), at Arizona (9/28-10/1)
Philadelphia - vs. Houston (9/25), at Washington (9/26-28), at Florida (9/29-10/1)
Los Angeles - at Colorado (9/26-28), at San Francisco (9/29-10/1)

Barry Bonds hit career home run #734 in the third inning for the Giants at Milwaukee against Chris Capuano, breaking Henry Aaron's all-time National League home run record.

The Boston Red Sox were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention today after losing to Toronto 5-3 while Minnesota defeated Balitmore 8-5.

Boston Red Sox playoff hopes
Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 23, 2006

The Boston Red Sox began 2006 as co-favorites with the Yankees to win the AL East. The acquisition of Josh Beckett was supposed to give the Red Sox the best starting rotation in the division. But it never turned out to be. The Red Sox rode the hot bat of David Ortiz, but eventually ran into injury problems that wrecked their season.

Boston did get good seasons out of players such as Anibal Sanchez, Cla Meredith, Hanley Ramirez, and Josh Bard. If they only hadn't been playing for other teams.

Doctors determined that the ultimate cause of death was complications from the Epstein-Cora Virus. Visitation will be at Fenway Park from September 26-October 1.

The White Sox rallied from a 7-2 deficit against Seattle to win 11-7 and kept Detroit from clinching a playoff spot today.

Later in the day, the Angels beat Oakland 6-2 to delay the Athletics AL West clinching celebration as well.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day...

Japan's Central League has a 2-team race for its lone playoff spot.

Central League

	W	L	T	GB	PCT
Dragons	75	48	5		.610
Tigers	74	55	4	4	.574

The Central League season has 146 games this year, so the teams still have a ways to go. The Dragons have a magic number of 12. However, if they finish with a higher winning percentage than the Tigers, but with fewer total wins, the two teams would play a best-of-three playoff.

The Dragons remaining 18 games (9 home, 9 road):
9/24 at Yakult
9/26-28 vs Yokohama
9/29-10/1 at Tigers
10/3-6 vs Hiroshima
10/7-8 at Yokohama
10/9 at Yakult
10/10 at Yomiuri
10/14 vs. Yakult
10/15 vs. Yokohoma
10/16 at Hiroshima
After 10/5 all the games are makeups for earlier postponements

The Tigers remaining 13 games (8 home, 5 road):
9/24 at Yomiuri
9/26-28 vs. Hiroshima
9/29-10/1 vs. Dragons
10/3-5 at Yakult
10/7-8 vs. Yomiuri
10/14 at Hiroshima

Retired pitcher Kent Bottenfield is giving concerts and will soon have his second CD of contemporary Christian music released.

None of the songs are about the miracle of the Angels thinking that Bottenfield was the equal of Jim Edmonds.

Pacific League

	W	L	T	GB	PCT
Lions	79	52	2	.603
Fighters	80	53	0	.602
Hawks	75	52	5	.595	2

The Lions moved back into first by .001 as they beat Rakuten 5-4. Nippon Ham fell out first when the Fighters lost to Lotte 5-4. Softbank's chances of finishing first are almost done after they lost to Orix by, you guessed it, 5-4. The Hawks will need to win their last four games and hope that the Lions drop 2 of 3.
Games remaining:
Fighters: at Lotte (62-69-1) on 9/24, vs. Hawks on 9/26-27
Lions: at Rakuten (44-83-4) on 9/24, vs. Lotte on 9/26-27
Hawks: at Orix (50-80-3) on 9/24, at Fighters on 9/26-27, plus one game at Rakuten that hasn't been rescheduled yet.

There are six playoff spots left and just 16 teams left competing for them. Two of the playoff spots could be wrapped up. Three more teams could be eliminated.

Oakland has the easiest path to clinching a playoff spot. The Athletics lead the Angels by eight games with nine left to play and they play host to the Halos at 1:05 pm PT (John Lackey vs. Joe Blanton).

Detroit can clinch its first trip to the playoffs since 1987 with some help. They Chicago to lose to Seattle earlier in the day and then beat Kansas City on the road at 4:10 pm PT (Kenny Rogers vs. Mark Redman). Detroit leads Minnesota by 1 1/2 games in the AL Central.

The Twins lead the White Sox by 5 1/2 games in the wild card. They will play at Baltimore at 1:35 pm PT (Scott Baker vs. Erik Bedard). Their magic number to make the playoffs is 4.

Over in the National League, there is New York, champions of the East and owners of the best record, and then there's the rest.

St. Louis leads Cincinnati and Houston by 5 1/2 games in the Central and appears to be just trying to stumble over the finish line and into the playoffs. Their magic number is five. They play at Houston at 4:05 pm PT (Jason Marquis vs. Roy Oswalt).

Then there is the Andy Ashby Division. San Diego leads Los Angeles by 1/2 game in the West and Los Angeles leads Philadelphia by 1/2 game for the wild card.

The Phillies will play first at 10:20 am PT (Brian Moehler vs. Jon Lieber). The Padres play at 7:05 pm PT at home against Pittsburgh (Zach Duke vs. Jake Peavy). The Dodgers host Arizona at 7:10 pm PT (Miguel Batista vs. Brad Penny). If the Dodgers win, Arizona is eliminated.

They will also play:
Seattle at Chicago - The defending World Series champions are plummeting toward elimination.
Washington at New York - Both teams are just behind their AL neighbors in their Metro Area battles.
Boston at Toronto - The Red Sox are eliminated if they lose and Minnesota wins, but Boston refuses to drop, sort of like Captain Jacobi of the "La Paloma".
Chicago at Cincinnati - If we're lucky this game will last just five innings again.
San Francisco at Milwaukee - The Giants pitchers have surrendered 78 runs in their seven games on this road trip. And they've won one of the games!
New York at Tampa Bay - Yankees magic numbers to clinch home field, 7 vs. Detroit and Oakland, 6 vs. Minnesota.
Atlanta at Colorado - The same day that the Colorado Buffaloes play the Georgia Bulldogs!
Cleveland at Texas - The Rangers are just 2 1/2 games back of Philadelphia.

The Colorado Rockies were eliminated from playoff contention today after San Diego defeated Pittsburgh 6-2. The Padres now have 81 wins, one more than the Rockies can win. The Rockies cannot win the wild card either as Philadelphia and Florida have to finish with more than 80 wins.

Colorado Rockies Playoff Hopes
Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 22, 2006

Not much was expected from the Rockies in 2006, but the team managed to give its fans some hope as they toyed with first place during the summer. The team received excellent pitching from its starters and its bullpen for the first time ever. However, the offense at Coors, outside of Matt Holliday and Garret Atkins was spotty. Eventually the team just gave up and signed up Vinny Castilla because he seemed like a nice guy.

The coroner ruled that the Rockies died of a humidor-related illness. The team was just too wet. Visitation will be at Coors Field from September 22 through September 28.

In lieu of flowers, the Colorado Rockies ask you to make donations to your favorite climate-controlled home for sick baseballs.

Barry Bonds hit a 3-run homer in the 6th inning of off Chris Spurling of Milwaukee to tie Henry Aaron for the most home runs hit in the National League at 733.

The Toronto Blue Jays were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention Friday night after a 7-1 loss at home to Boston.

Toronto Blue Jays Playoff Hopes
Born: April 4, 2006
Died: September 22, 2006

The good people of Ontario began the year with high hopes that free agent acquisitions such as B.J. Ryan, A.J. Burnett, and Bengie Molina, as well as trading for Troy Glaus, would finally be able to propel the Blue Jays into a playoff spot and break up the New York-Boston Axis.

But Burnett was injured for much of the year as was Gustavo Chacin. Then other starters saw their effectiveness go AWOL, such as Josh Towers. Finally, the Blue Jays succumbed to Gibbonsness, a rare condition marked by an inability to accept negative messages written on greaseboards and arguments with starting pitchers.

Visitation will be at Rogers Centre from September 22-26. In lieu of flowers, the Blue Jays ask that you donate money to Rogers Communication to help fund their Blue Jays Payroll Expansion Fund, which pledges to help the team sign at least one more very expensive free agent. You may make your donations in either US or Canadian dollars.

With the division race decided and both teams almost eliminated from wild card consideration, Toronto and Boston both shelved players for the rest of the season.

Roy Halladay of Toronto will not start again this year because of a right forearm strain.

Coco Crisp will have surgery on his left index finger Monday and skip the last week.

After spending 27 years as an announcer for the Angels, Giants, and Mariners, Ron Fairly will retire from his job with the Mariners. Fairly also played in the major leagues for 21 years.

Pacific League

	W	L	T	GB	PCT
Fighters	80	52	0	.606
Lions	78	52	2	.600	1
Hawks	75	51	5	.595	2

The only one of the contenders that played today were the Lions (Seibu) who lost a 1-0 game to the last place Rakuten Golden Eagles in Sendai.

Games remaining:
Fighters: at Lotte (61-69-1) on 9/23-24, vs. Hawks on 9/26-27
Lions: at Rakuten (43-82-4) on 9/23-24, vs. Lotte on 9/26-27
Hawks: at Orix (49-80-3) on 9/23-24, at Fighters on 9/26-27, plus one game at Rakuten that hasn't been rescheduled yet.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Marlins manager Joe Girardi's chances of returning to manage in 2007 are "zero." This has already been commented on by Mark at Bad Altitude.

The Marlins brain trust, mainly Jeffrey Loria, was upset with Girardi for numerous decisions, especially bringing back Josh Johnson after a long rain delay on September 12, that some think was responsible for Johnson's arm that has shut him down for the season.

A Spanish-speaking manager may be in line so Fredi Gonzalez of Atlanta, Joey Cora of Chicago, and Manny Acta of the Mets are all mentioned in the story as possible successors as well as a long list of the usual suspects: Jim Fregosi, Jerry Manuel ...

Thursday could have seen two divisions change leaders and both wild cards change hands. In the end, the division leaders all stayed the same and the only change in the wild card was in the NL where the Phillies dropped back a 1/2 game because they were idle.

But today, everybody is in action. It's the penultimate weekend of the regular season. Just two playoff spots are sewn up, but it's possible that by the time the weekend is over, four more could be wrapped up with just the Andy Ashby Division up for grabs (the NL West/wild card competition).

Oakland can wrap up the AL West championship by Saturday if they can win their next two games at home against the Angels. They lead the Angels by seven games and have a magic number of 4. The game starts at 7:05 pm PT (Jered Weaver vs. Barry Zito). The Angels have seven games left with Oakland and pretty much have to win them all.

St. Louis has a 6 1/2 game lead over both Cincinnati and Houston in the Central and a magic number of 5. The Cardinals are at Houston at 4:05 pm PT (Jason Marquis vs. Jason Hirsh). The Astros harbor dreams of a sweep and are planning to bring Roger Clemens on three days rest on Sunday. This coincidentally is the Astros last home game. Hmm....

In the AL Central, Detroit leads Minnesota by 1/2 game and have a magic number of 4 to make the playoffs while the Twins have a magic number of 5. Detroit plays at Kansas City at 5:10 pm PT (Wil Ledezma vs. Luke Hudson). The Twins play at Baltimore at 4:10 pm PT (Carlos Silva vs. Daniel Cabrera).

In the Andy Ashby Division, San Diego leads Los Angeles by 1/2 game in the West and the Dodgers lead the Phillies by 1/2 in the wild card. Philadelphia will play first at 4:05 pm PT at home against Florida (Ricky Nolasco vs. Cole Hamels). The Padres are next up at 7:05 pm PT at home against Pittsburgh (Tom Gorzelanny vs. Chris Young). The Dodgers play the last game of the day at 7:40 pm PT at home against Arizona (Claudio Vargas vs. Derek Lowe). The Cardinals also lead San Diego by 1/2 game for the #2 slot in the NL. The two teams meet next week in St. Louis for three games.

They will also play:
Boston at Toronto - Toronto is eliminated if Minnesota wins regardless of the outcome of this game. Boston is eliminated if they lose and Minnesota wins.
Chicago at Cincinnati - If the Reds can finish second, they get a tiny slice of playoff money.
Washington at New York - The Mets will try playing this game with their underwear worn backwards to see what it feels like. For starters, it's much harder to go to the bathroom.
New York at Tampa Bay - The Yankees have a magic number of 8 to clinch home field all the way through the end of the season.
Atlanta at Colorado - The only way the Rockies can make the playoffs now is to force a five-way tie for first in the NL West. They have to win nine straight, the Padres have to lose ten straight, the Dodgers have to lose nine straight, the Giants have to go 5-5 with 3 wins against L.A. and 2 against Arizona, and the Diamondbacks have to go 9-1 with the only loss coming against San Francisco.
San Francisco at Milwaukee - The Rockies need the Brewers to win! Or did you stop reading the last paragraph?
Cleveland at Texas - Cleveland will finish fourth. The Rangers have a slight chance of finishing second, but more easily could finish fourth. So they will likely finish third.
Seattle at Chicago - Time for everyone to see Ryan Feierabend as a starter for the first time. You have to figure out who he plays for.

A group of nearly 1000 angry Orioles fans walked out of Baltimore's game today to protest the lousy way the team has been run, according to this AP report.

The walkout was organized by a local radio host, Nestor Aparicio, the nephew of Luis Aparicio.

The Orioles are in their ninth-straight losing season. However, the walkout must have helped today. The Orioles beat the Tigers 4-3.

As a counterpoint, MLB.com has a story on Bobby Abreu who has ended his nine-year long playoff drought. The story almost made me cry. Well, it made me feel something. But I don't think it was an emotion. I never realized that Abreu could have been this century's Ernie Banks. And Abreu had already played in the postseason once before!

The Yankees have signed an agreement to make the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons their AAA affiliate in 2007, replacing Columbus.

Columbus will now be the AAA team for Washington. Philadelphia moves to Ottawa in 2007, which will become Allentown in 2008. Washington used to use New Orleans, but Baltimore now needs a AAA affiliate.

MLB.com is letting people download video of division or playoff spot clinching games for free. However, it looks like if your favorite team clinches by having someone else lose, your out of luck. Right now, you can download the Mets clinching win over the Marlins, but for the Yankees, you can't download Boston's loss to Minnesota.

Let this be a lesson to teams: don't back in!

With the days in the regular season running short, two playoff spots wrapped up and the American League turning into a quadripartite battle for the best record among the Yankees, Tigers, Athletics, and Twins, teams are going to start dropping out of playoff contention very quickly.

Since I'll be out tonight, you may miss some teams bite the dust, but here's the forecast:

Boston and Toronto - If the Twins beat Boston tonight, and the Twins are starting Johan Santana, both the Red Sox and Blue Jays are through. If the Red Sox, both teams live for another day. But they both won't live for ever as the two teams play each other over the weekend.

Colorado - If the Rockies lose to Atlanta tonight and the Dodgers and Padres and Giants and Marlins (late addition) all win, the Rockies are eliminated. It's complicated, but trust me. The fifth to first leap in the final two weeks of the season is not one that is easily made.

Los Angeles of Anaheim - They won't be eliminated today at all, but if Oakland wins today, they could clinch the AL West with two wins at home over the weekend against the Halos.

Royals manager Buddy Bell is taking a medical leave of absence and will likely not be on the bench for the final games of the season for Kansas City. Bell is getting treatment for a growth near his left tonsil. Billy Doran will run the team for the Royals final games, all of which are against Detroit and Minnesota.

Do you root for a team in New York? If so, your team is in. Congratulations! Do you root for a team in California? You may or may not be happy at the end of the day. Do you root for a team from Michigan or Minnesota? Well, you can start to breathe easier now. Do you root for a team from Illinois? Sorry. Missourians? Well, you know where you stand. Texans, Georgians, New Englanders, and the entire nation of Canada? Sorry.

The Mets have nothing left to do in the final two weeks except staying sharp and avoiding getting someone hurt. They've got the NL East and homefield advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs sewn up.

The Yankees clinched the AL East last night, but they lead the Tigers by just one game for the best record in the league. The Twins are 1 1/2 games back. The Yankees own the tiebreaker edge on the Tigers with a 5-2 record. If they finish tied with the Twins, then you have to go to the second tiebreaker since the teams split their six games, which is record in intradivision games, which would favor the Yankees.

There are 10 games scheduled for Thursday.

AL West leader Oakland gets things started at 12:35 pm PT at home against Cleveland (C.C. Sabathia vs. Rich Harden, yes THE Rich Harden). The Athletics lead the Angels by 6 1/2 games and have a magic number of 5.

The top two teams in the AL Central are both in action. The Twins (presently in the wild card spot) trail the Tigers by 1/2 game. Detroit plays a rainout makeup in Baltimore at 1:05 pm PT (Nate Robertson vs. Kris Benson). Minnesota, 1/2 game behind and the current wild card team, go for a sweep of a three-game series in Boston at 4:05 pm PT (Johan Santana vs. Josh Beckett). A Twins victory would serve to eliminate both Boston and Toronto at the same time.

NL Central leader St. Louis owns a seven-game lead over the Reds and a magic number of 5. The Cardinals play at Houston at 5:05 pm PT (Chris Carpenter vs. Andy Pettitte). With the Reds off, the Cardinals can only lower their magic number by one.

The NL West and wild card will be the races that will go down to the end it appears. The Padres lead the Dodgers by 1/2 game. The Dodgers in turn are tied with Philadelphia for the wild card.

The Phillies get the day off, but the Dodgers and Padres are both at it. San Diego is at home to face Arizona at 7:05 pm PT (Brandon Webb vs. Woody Williams). The Dodgers will try to avoid a sweep at home against the Pirates at 7:10 pm PT (Shane Youman vs. Chad Billingsley).

They will also play:
Florida at New York - Mets fans hope that Pedro Martinez is back in form. But they don't tend to worry or fret about things.
Seattle at Chicago - It's come to this, the defending World Champs just get a cheap one-line description for their game.
San Francisco at Milwaukee - And nobody noticed that I initially left this out.
Atlanta at Colorado - The Braves make their long-awaited first trip of the year to Colorado. The Cubs won't play in Denver until the last weekend of the season. Oh boy.

It's a Divisional Title!

The New York Yankees wrapped up their 14 1/2th (the 1/2 for 1981) AL East divisional title after the Boston Red Sox lost to the Minnesota Twins, 8-2.. Reception will be held in Bronx, NY sometime in the first week of October. The Yankees have announced that they will keep their own name.

The Rev. Joseph Torre presided over the ceremony.

Today the Milwaukee Brewers became the tenth team to be eliminated from playoff consideration. They now cannot win more games than the first place Cardinals and cannot win the wild card either as the Dodgers and Phillies both have 79 wins, one more than the Brewers can possibly win.

Milwaukee Brewers 2006 playoff hopes
Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 20, 2006

The Brewers season was marked by high hopes with promising players such as Ben Sheets, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, and Bill Hall, among others, but the season ran aground after the All-Star break as injuries and an inconsistent to downright bad bullpen caused the team to succumb to terminal mediocrity. A 10-game losing streak at the end of August and beginning of September provided a fatal blow from which the team could not recover. The cause of death was ultimately ruled to Excessive Wisconsinness, a disease caused by excessive tailgating and an inordinate fixation on the career of Brett Favre.

The team is survived by several good young players and several costumed sausages. Visitation will be from September 21-24 at Miller Park. In lieu of flowers, the Brewers request that you just drink beer.

Hyang-Nam Choi, a 35-year old pitcher who played for Buffalo, Cleveland's AAA team, gives his opinion about the possiblity of Korean slugger Seung-Yeop Lee making it in the U.S. in this article in Donga.com.

Choi, now in Korea for a break, said, "When I played baseball in Korea, the most feared batter was Yang Jun-hyuk, not Lee Seung-yeop. And yet, I could feel inexplicable growth potential in him. Whenever I see Lee playing on TV, I can really see that he has upgraded a notch."

Lee showed weakness from the eyes of Choi. His weak point was the fastball and breaking balls. One of the reasons Lee had a hard time in 2004, his first year in Japan, was because Japanese pitchers obstinately targeted his weak spots.

......

Choi forecasted, "However, Lee overcame his weakness in just a few years. Besides, Lee is already good at hitting outside pitches. The strike zone of American baseball is tight inside but is lenient outside. If Lee plays in the U.S., it will be more favorable to him." Choi also noted, "I usually believe my hunches, and I believe that Lee will improve more in the U.S. Lee is perfect in terms of speed, power, flexibility, and stringent self management. Even If I pitch against him again, I don't think I will do well."

Bob Wickman has re-signed with the Braves for 2007.

Ahh, the final piece is in place now for the Braves rebuilding process.

Doug Mirabelli, whom San Diego GM Kevin Towers excoriated earlier in week, replied in the Boston Globe.

Mirabelli was both upset at Towers for revealing what he considered a private conversation, but he also started speaking of himself in the third person.

``Considering the timing and how long I've been away from there, it seems unfortunate," he said. ``It seems unfortunate for me to have left that opinion with anybody.

``These guys have seen me around here a lot. To be taken so literally on some occasions was unfortunate. I don't apologize for wanting to come back here to Boston. I do apologize for the fact that if he has that strong of an opinion of Doug Mirabelli over a month or two months of time, I didn't do my job as a player or a person. I wouldn't want that opinion of me by anybody. That's not the perception of Doug Mirabelli that I would want anywhere."

But Rickey Henderson just uses his first name when he does the third person talking bit.

In Japan's Pacific League, although the three playoff teams are set, there is a taut battle for first. The first place team plays just one round of playoffs and gets a one game handicap.

Here are the top three teams and their records

Pacific League

	W	L	T	GB	PCT
Fighters	80	52	0	.606
Lions	78	51	2	.605	.5
Hawks	75	51	5	.595	2

Games remaining:
Fighters: at Lotte (61-69-1) on 9/23-24, vs. Hawks on 9/26-27
Lions: at Rakuten (43-82-4) on 9/22-24, vs. Lotte on 9/26-27
Hawks: at Orix (49-80-3) on 9/23-24, at Fighters on 9/26-27, plus one game at Rakuten that hasn't been rescheduled I believe.

The last game will be played regardless of its playoff implications however.

If you're figuring out the winning percentages, don't count the ties as half a win and half a loss. All they do is just lower the denominator. The ties are not replayed. All three teams can finish first I believe.

One more team hovers on the brink of clinching a playoff spot. One more team (that I buried prematurely) hovers on the brink of elimination. And the NL West and wild card remain very much up in the air.

The New York Yankees are on the brink of clinching the AL East for the first time since 2005. They have a magic number of 1 and lead the Red Sox by 11 games. The Yankees play at Toronto at 4:07 pm PT (Sean Henn vs. Roy Halladay). OK, so this matchup doesn't look all that favorable to the Yankees. So they can go the alternate route and hope that Boston loses at home to wild card leader Minnesota in a 4:05 pm PT game (Boof Bonser vs. Curt Schilling).

The Twins are just 1/2 game behind the Tigers in the Central. The Tigers play the third place White Sox, who trail the Tigers by five games and the Twins by 4 1/2 games, at 5:05 pm PT (Jeremy Bonderman vs. Jon Garland).

In the AL West, Oakland leads the Angels by 6 1/2 games and has a magic number of 6. Oakland hosts Cleveland at 7:05 pm PT (Fausto Carmona vs. Esteban Loaiza).

The National League West and wild card remain the best race. The Dodgers and Padres exchanges yellow and checkered jerseys as division leaders and wild card team for the third straight day. The Padres currently occupy the top spot with the Dodgers a half game back. Will they trade places for the fourth straight day? San Diego is at home to play Arizona at 7:05 pm PT (Edgar Gonzalez vs. David Wells). The Dodgers play Pittsburgh at home at 7:10 pm PT (Shawn Chacon vs. Greg Maddux).

The Phillies are just one game back of the Dodgers and they play Chicago at 4:05 pm PT (Les Walrond vs. Brett Myers). The Phillies will be off on Thursday before the Marlins come to town over the weekend.

St. Louis leads the Central over Cincinnati by seven games with a magic number of 6. The Cardinals will be at Milwaukee at 5:05 pm PT (Jeff Suppan vs. Carlos Villanueva). The Brewers will be eliminated (for real this time!) with a loss or a win by Philadelphia or Florida.

They will also play:
Cincinnati at Houston - The Roger Clemens Farewell Tour V has not been a commercial success.
San Francisco at Colorado - The Giants playoff hopes couldn't withstand a trip to St. Louis and Colorado. They've been outscored 52-17 in their last four games.
Baltimore at Tampa Bay - Hayden Penn has his ERA down to 27.00.
Atlanta at Washington - The Braves have to go 8-3 to finish the year to avoid their first losing season since 1990. That was the last of seven straight losing seasons for the Braves.
Florida at New York - The Mets need one win or a Cardinals loss to clinch homefield advantage for both rounds of the NL playoffs.
Seattle at Texas - Texas was the first team with a winning record to be eliminated.
L.A. of Anaheim at Kansas City - The Royals play the Tigers and Twins to close out the season so the Royals will be kingmakers in the AL Central.

The Oakland Athletics have now clinched the SF/Oakland Bay Area metro battle. The White Sox have long clinched the Chicagoland battle.

The other three battles, New York, DC/Baltimore, and LA/Orange County, will likely come down to the final weekend.

The Texas Rangers became the ninth team to be eliminated from playoff contention tonight. The Rangers were eliminated after losing to Seattle 9-7 in extra innings while the Angels defeated Kansas City 5-2 and Oakland defeated Cleveland, 7-3.

This gives Texas 75 losses, for a maximum of 87 wins. The Angels have 81 wins and the Athletics have 87 wins. Since the Angels and Athletics play each other seven times, one will have to win at least 88 games. The Rangers cannot win the wild card since the Twins have 89 wins.

Texas Rangers Playoff Hopes
Born: April 3, 2006
Died: September 19, 2006

The Texas Rangers began the 2006 season with hopes especially since young GM Jon Daniels assumed he had fleeced Washington GM Jim Bowden by acquiring Brad Wilkerson in exchange for Alfonso Soriano. Later in the offseason, the Rangers acquired pitcher Adam Eaton to bolster their rotation.

But Wilkerson turned out to be a bust, Eaton was hurt much of the year, and the Rangers eventually succumbed to an attack of Showalter's Syndrome, a malicious disease marked by an obsessive desire to micromanage combined with a bad bullpen and inconsistent offense.

The Rangers are survived by Michael Young, Mark Texeira, and several middling pitchers. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Frank Francisco Society for the Prevention of Chair Throwing Injuries. Remember the best way to prevent flying furniture related injuries is eternal vigilance.

The Griddle wishes to apologize to the fans of the Milwaukee Brewers for prematurely running their funeral notice. Reports state that the Brewers are only "mostly dead."

Maybe Matt Harrington still throws hard and only the radar guns got slower....

Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star catches us up on the sad story of Matt Harrington, pitcher for the Fort Worth Cats.

As suggested by reader grandcosmo.

Josh Johnson of Florida will likely be put on the shelf for the rest of the season with a right forearm strain.

Johnson had an excellent rookie year, going 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA. Johnson will finish the season with 157 IP, so he won't be listed among the ERA leaders at season's end.

Chris Carpenter of the Cardinals leads the NL at 2.79, so it would have been pretty hard for Johnson to make up that deficit. Brandon Webb is at 2.92 and Roy Oswalt is at 3.05.

Longtime baseball front office executive Syd Thrift passed away Monday at age 77 after undergoing knee replacement surgery. The exact cause of death is to be determined.

Thrift worked for the Pirates, Orioles, Yankees, Devil Rays, and Royals organizations.

Thrift, along with Barry Shapiro, authored a book entitled The Game According to Syd.

Peter Gammons returns to the air for ESPN tonight, although it will be in a limited capacity. But it will be good to see him back.

Too bad the trading deadline has passed? Whom did all the GMs leak their deals to this year?

Despite San Diego's loss last night to the Dodgers, the Padres still have an excellent chance of making the postseason. But earlier in the year, then Padre catcher Doug Mirabelli was none too happy about being on the team. And according to a report in the San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego GM Kevin Towers was none to glad to see him leave.

"He called (Dave) Roberts (when Mirabelli was traded) and said, 'I guess I'm getting called back to the big leagues,' " Towers said before Monday's game with the Dodgers. "I'm glad I didn't hear that. . . . I don't miss him. These guys don't miss him."

----------

"The Sunday before the trade, Mirabelli was calling my phone like 5-6 in the morning. I finally get to (Petco) Park . . . I get into the clubhouse and he says, 'KT, can we have some private time?' "

When they were alone, Towers said, Mirabelli told him the Padres might want to start Bowen behind the plate against the Dodgers that day, "because I'm not focused on the game."

"I said, 'What?' " Towers recalled. "He said, 'My boys, the (Red) Sox have been calling me. I got to tell you, it's all I watch on TV; all I think about is the Red Sox. Do me a favor and you guys a favor (and make a deal)."

The Padres received Josh Bard and Cla Meredith in exchange for Mirabelli. Bard and Meredith (two players who have nothing to hang their heads over Monday night), have been instrumental in the Padres battling for a playoff spot.

Mirabelli should start tonight in Boston to catch Tim Wakefield in a game against the Twins. Have a good time Doug!

After his career as a knuckle ball catching expert comes to an end, Mirabelli will go into his second career, which will be repairing wheels on Conestoga wagons. He is also thinking of dabbling in selling whale oil lamps or selling his own brand of Mirabelli 33.3 baud modems!

The Mets finally wrapped one of the eight playoff spots. There are just seven spots left and 21 teams left to compete for them. And the teams may start dropping like flies soon. Or more like very slow moving beetles.

With their first division title since 1988 in hand, the Mets have only one more thing to worry about, home field advantage in both rounds of the NL playoffs. Their magic number to clinch that is 3 against the second best team in the NL, St. Louis. The Mets already have homefield advantage clinched against every other team in the NL.

The next team that is likely to clinch a playoff spot is the "other" team in New York, the Yankees. The Yankees can wrap up their first AL East title since 2005 by Wednesday. The Yankees have a 10 game lead over Boston and a magic number of 3. The Yankees are in Toronto at 4:07 pm PT (Jeff Karstens vs. Shaun Marcum).

Two teams have magic numbers of 7. One is AL West leader Oakland which leads the Angels by 6 1/2 games. Oakland hosts Cleveland at 7:05 pm PT (Cliff Lee vs. Kirk Saarloos). The other is NL Central leader St. Louis which leads Cincinnati by seven. The Cardinals are at Milwaukee at 5:05 pm PT (Jeff Weaver vs. Ben Sheets). The Brewers would be eliminated with a loss.

In the AL Central, the Tigers have a shaky 1 1/2 game lead over the Twins, but they now lead the third place White Sox by six games. The Tigers have a magic number of 12 to clinch the division and 7 to clinch a playoff spot. Detroit is at Chicago at 5:05 pm PT (Justin Verlander vs. Freddy Garcia). The Twins lead the White Sox by 4 1/2 games for the wild card and have a magic number of 9 to clinch a playoff spot. The Twins are at Boston at 4:05 pm PT (Matt Garza vs. Tim Wakefield).

The NL West leaders, the Dodgers, have the largest magic number of any division leader at 13. They lead the Padres by 1/2 game after their most improbable 11-10, 10-inning win over San Diego Monday night. The two teams don't play each other again in the regular season. The Dodgers are at home for a 7:10 pm PT game against Pittsburgh (Ian Snell vs. Hong-Chih Kuo). The Padres will be at home at 7:05 pm PT against Arizona (Livan Hernandez vs. Clay Hensley).

The Padres lead the Phillies by 1 1/2 games for the wild card. The Phillies play host to the Cubs at 4:05 pm PT (Wade Miller vs. Jamie Moyer).

They should also play:
Atlanta at Washington - The Braves are just a game out of third. The wild card beckons!
Florida at New York - Albuquerque takes on Norfolk.
Baltimore at Tampa Bay - This is what Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention is all about.
Cincinnati at Houston - Because these teams play each other, the Cardinals can't lower their magic number by more than one.
Seattle at Texas - The Rangers are done if they lose and t