The final chapter will be released tomorrow.

Date	San Diego	Colorado	Rockies deficit
September 16	Padres 5, Giants 1	Rockies 13, Marlins 0	-4.5
September 17	Padres 3, Pirates 0	OFF	-5
September 18	Padres 5, Pirates 3	Rockies 3, 9 Dodgers 1, 8	-4.5
September 19	Padres 5, Pirates 3	Rockies 6, Dodgers 5	-4.5
September 20	Padres 6, Pirates 3	Rockies 9, Dodgers 4	-4.5
September 21	Rockies 2, Padres 1 (14)	Rockies 2, Padres 1 (14)	-3.5
September 22	Rockies 6, Padres 2	Rockies 6, Padres 2	-2.5
September 23	Rockies 7, Padres 3	Rockies 7, Padres 3	-1.5
September 24	Giants 9, Rockies 4	OFF	-1
September 25	Padres 6, Giants 4	Rockies 9, Dodgers 7	-1
September 26	Padres 11, Giants 3	Rockies 2, Dodgers 0	-1
September 27	Padres 9, Brewers 5	Rockies 10, Dodgers 4	-1
September 28	Padres 6, Brewers 3	Diamondbacks 4, Rockies 2	-2
September 29	Brewers 4, Padres 3 (11)	Rockies 11, Diamonbacks 3	-1
September 30	Brewers 11, Padres 6	Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 3	EVEN

The 1974 Baltimore Orioles were the last team to win 13 of their final 14 games. That was enough for them to win the AL East by two games over the Yankees. The 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers were the last team in the NL to win 13 of their final 14 games, part of a 15-1 stretch to give them the NL flag by two games over the Giants.

The 1965 Dodgers gave up a total of 15 runs in their final 14 games.

The Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres have finished 162 games and they're tied for the wild card at 89-73.

There will be a one-game playoff Monday in Denver. It will be televised on TBS at 4:37 pm PT.

This will be the 11th tiebreaker in major league history.

Previous tiebreaker playoffs:

1. 1946 NL - St. Louis beats Brooklyn, 2 games to 0 (4-2, 8-4)
2. 1948 AL - Cleveland beats Boston in one game playoff, 8-3
3. 1951 NL - New York beats Brooklyn, 2 games to 1 (3-1, 0-10, 5-4)
4. 1959 NL - Los Angeles beats Milwaukee, 2 games to 0 (3-2, 6-5)
5. 1962 NL - San Francisco beats Los Angeles, 2 games to 1 (8-0, 7-8, 6-4)
6. 1978 AL East - New York beats Boston 5-4.
7. 1980 NL West - Houston beats Los Angeles, 7-1.
8. 1995 AL West - Seattle beats California 9-1.
9. 1998 NL Wild Card - Chicago beats San Francisco 5-3.
10. 1999 NL Wild Card - New York beats Cincinnati 5-0.

In the Griddle contest to pick the last five, it's down to two entries. If the Rockies beat San Diego, ToyCannon will win. If the Padres win, David Y will be the winner.

Jake Peavy versus the Rockies.

Josh Fogg versus the Padres.

The New York Mets became the 21st team eliminated from postseason contention after losing at home to Florida 8-1 and Philadelphia winning the NL East with a 6-1 win over Washington at home.

Thanks to commenter Johnny Nucleo for the coelacanth photo.

This was originally the photo designated for Colorado.

The Cubs and the Reds were the first teams to finish their regular season.

Cincinnati won 8-4 despite Alfonso Soriano's seventh leadoff homer of the season. Ryan Demptser took the loss and pitched in the fourth inning as Lou Piniella wanted to get him some work. Dempster gave up a 3-run homer to Joey Votto that was the difference.

The Cubs should open the playoffs Wednesday, most likely in Arizona.

Jimmy Rollins tripled in the sixth inning at Philadelphia giving him 20 for the season. He has now surpassed 20 in all three extra base hit categories.

Curtis Granderson of Detroit also has done that this year.

Prior to Granderson and Rollins, it had only be done by Wildfire Schulte in 1911, Jim Bottomley in 1928, Jeff Heath in 1941, Willie Mays in 1957, and George Brett in 1979.

If you add in more than 20 steals, then it's just Schulte, Mays, Granderson, and Rollins.

- H. Ramirez walked

- D. Uggla grounded into fielder's choice, H. Ramirez out at second

- J. Hermida singled to right, D. Uggla to third

- M. Cabrera singled to left, D. Uggla scored, J. Hermida to second

- C. Ross doubled to deep right, M. Cabrera and J. Hermida scored, C. Ross scored on T. Glavine's throwing error

- M. Jacobs singled to left

- M. Treanor walked, M. Jacobs to second

- A. De Aza singled to left, M. Jacobs to third, M. Treanor to second

- D. Willis hit by pitch, M. Jacobs scored, M. Treanor to third, A. De Aza to second

- J. Sosa relieved T. Glavine

- H. Ramirez struck out swinging

- D. Uggla doubled to deep left, M. Treanor and A. De Aza scored, D. Willis to third

- J. Hermida grounded out to first

7 runs, 6 hits, 1 errors

Florida 7, NY Mets 0

10:10 am PT - Dontrelle Willis (Florida) vs Tom Glavine (New York) - Willis is 11-3 with a 2.49 ERA in his career against the Mets. Glavine is 17-18 with a 3.83 ERA in his career against Florida.

10:35 am PT - Jason Bergmann (Washington) vs Jamie Moyer (Philadelphia) - Bergmann is 0-1 with a 3.29 ERA (7 games) against Philadelphia. Moyer is 7-4 with a 3.06 ERA against Washington/Montreal, but some of those games were played in 1986.

11:05 am PT - Brett Tomko (San Diego) vs Jeff Suppan (Milwaukee) - Tomko is 7-2, 3.70 against Milwaukee. Suppan is 3-3 with a 6.26 ERA against the Padres.

12:05 pm PT - Doug Davis Yusmeiro Petit (Arizona) vs Ubaldo Jimenez (Colorado) - Davis is 2-3 with a 3.00 ERA against Colorado. Petit will start instead of Davis as the DBacks have homefield clinched. Petit has never pitched against Colorado. Jimenez had no decision in his only other start against Arizona and gave up three runs in 6 2/3 innings.

What do the oddsmakers think:

Florida is +195 and New York is -210, Washington is +204 and Philadelphia is -220, San Diego is +105 and Milwaukee is -113, Arizona is +212 and Colorado is -230

San Diego is 89-72, New York, Philadelphia, and Colorado are 88-73.

• If New York, Philadelphia, and San Diego win - The Padres are the wild card. New York plays at Philadelphia Monday to decide NL East. Colorado's game wouldn't matter in any scenario where the Padres win.
• If New York, Philadelphia, and Colorado win and San Diego loses - New York plays at Philadelphia Monday to decide the NL East. Then there would be a three-team playoff for the wild card. Colorado would draw a bye on Tuesday. San Diego would play at the park of the NL East loser. The winner of that game would host Colorado to decide the wild card. (This info updated.) (Also, Colorado could opt to play two games and be home for both of them, which seems idiotic.)
• If New York and San Diego win and Philadelphia loses - The Mets win the NL East, the Padres are the wild card.
• If New York, Philadelphia, and San Diego lose, and Colorado wins - The Mets would go to Philadelphia to decide the NL East. San Diego would play at Colorado for the wild card.
• If Philadelphia and San Diego win and New York loses - The Phillies win the NL East and the Padres win the wild card.
• If Philadelphia, New York, San Diego, and Colorado lose - The Padres win the wild card. The Mets play at Philadelphia to decide the NL East.
• If Philadelphia and Colorado win and New York and San Diego lose - The Phillies win the NL East. The Padres travel to Denver for a playoff to decide the NL wild card. We have a winner!
  
• If Philadelphia and New York win and San Diego and Colorado lose - The Mets play at Philadelphia Monday to decide the NL East. The loser of that game would play San Diego. San Diego would play at New York, but would be home to Philadelphia.

Other notes

• The AL teams are now seeded: Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York.
• Arizona is the #1 team in the NL. Chicago is the #3 team. The NL East winner will be #2.
• Florida, Washington, and Texas do not have complete games this year and will likely be the first teams to finish a season without one.
• Magglio Ordonez leads Ichiro Suzuki by a margin of .360 to .351 in the AL batting race. Matt Holliday leads Chipper Jones .340 to .339 in the NL batting race.
• Jimmy Rollins has now come up to the plate a major league record 774 times.
• Jake Peavy, barring a horrific outing in a possible playoff tiebreaker game, will win the NL Pitching Triple Crown with 19 wins, 234 strikeouts, and a 2.36 ERA. Randy Johnson was the last pitcher to do that in the NL back in 2002.
• Scott Hairston has the potential of playing for both the NL West champ (Arizona) and the wild card (San Diego) this year. Byung-Hyun Kim of Florida has the potential to do the same except the teams would be Arizona and Colorado. Jose Molina has played for the AL West champ (Los Angeles) and the AL wild card (New York).
• Since 1900, only five pitchers have started 30 games in a season and had a higher ERA than Philadelphia's Adam Eaton (6.29). Jose Lima has done it twice.

On average, the times were OK.

Date	Mets	Phillies	Leader
September 12	Mets 4, Braves 3	Rockies 12, Phillies 0	Mets +7
September 13	OFF	Phillies 12, Rockies 4	Mets +6.5
September 14	Phillies 3, Mets 2 (10)	Phillies 3, Mets 2 (10)	Mets +5.5
September 15	Phillies 5, Mets 3	Phillies 5, Mets 3	Mets +4.5
September 16	Phillies 10, Mets 6	Phillies 10, Mets 6	Mets +3.5
September 17	Nationals 12, Mets 4	Phillies 13, Cardinals 11	Mets +2.5
September 18	Nationals 9, Mets 8	Phillies 7, Cardinals 4 (14)	Mets +1.5
September 19	Mets 8, Nationals 4	Cardinals 2, Phillies 1 (10)	Mets +2.5
September 20	Marlins 8, Mets 7 (10)	Phillies 7, Nationals 6	Mets +1.5
September 21	Mets 9, Marlins 6	Phillies 6, Nationals 3	Mets +1.5
September 22	Mets 7, Marlins 2	Phillies 4, Nationals 1 (10)	Mets +1.5
September 23	Mets 7, Marlins 6 (10)	Nationals 5, Phillies 3	Mets +2.5
September 24	Nationals 13, Mets 4	OFF	Mets +2
September 25	Nationals 10, Mets 9	Braves 10, Phillies 6	Mets +2
September 26	Nationals 9, Mets 6	Phillies 5, Braves 2	Mets +1
September 27	Cardinals 3, Mets 0	Phillies 6, Braves 4	TIE
September 28	Marlins 7, Mets 4	Phillies 6, Nationals 0	Phillies +1
September 29	Mets 13, Marlins 0	Nationals 4, Phillies 2	TIE

With San Diego's loss to Milwaukee, the Arizona Diamondbacks clinched the NL West and the top spot in the NL for the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Although there is a three-way tie for first with 9 points (Sam DC, Steven Alpert, Matt Johnson), the likeliest winner should be David Y. He presently has 8 points and still has one team that is very likely to be eliminated: Colorado.

Of the three leaders with 9 points, all of them have Philadelphia as the last team eliminated. So if there's a reverse choke by the Phillies, then the winner would be Matt Johnson as he has chosen a date of October 1, which would be closer than the other two entries. The Phillies could not be eliminated until September 30 at the earliest.

If San Diego loses its last two in Milwaukee and the Rockies win two at home and then a playoff game, then the contest would likely be won by ToyCannon.

There were five games that affected the NL pennant race. Two teams clinched spots, one team was eliminated, and two teams were pushed to the brink. So with a slightly different format, we'll look at the games as they started:

4:05 pm PT - Washington takes on Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park. Tim Redding takes on Cole Hamels. For four innings the game is scoreless, but in the bottom of the fifth, Jimmy Rollins singles in two and one batter later, Chase Utley doubles home Rollins. The Phillies lead 3-0.

Hamels takes over and shuts out the Nats over 8 innings with 13 strikeouts. Ryan Howard homers in the seventh and the Phillies win 6-0. Time of game: 3 hours even.

Continue reading...

Arizona is headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2002. The Arizona now has 90 wins and will be no worse than the wild card. San Diego trails by one game. The teams tied for second in the wild card, New York and Colorado, both have 73 losses.

Is this sufficiently Repozian?

The Milwaukee Brewers became the 20th team to be eliminated from postseason play tonight.

Three contestants in the Griddle contest are tied for the lead with 9 points: Sam DC, Matt Johnson, and Steven Alpert. David Y has 8 points.

The Mets are going to cause some problems with this contest I fear.

Image from The American Memory Collection of the Library of Congress

The Chicago Cubs became the first second NL team to clinch a playoff spot with a 6-0 win in Cincinnati combined with a 6-3 loss by the Brewers at home to San Diego.

The Cubs will now attempt to win a World Series for the first time since the owner of the pictured arm pitched for them.

Note: Arizona actually clinched a playoff spot a few minutes earlier with their win in Colorado.

TBS today announced its four sets of announcing duos for the Division Series:

1. Chip Caray and Tony Gwynn, They are the first string. Gwynn is good. Caray is not.
2. Dick Stockton and Bob Brenly. With my luck I'll be stuck watching these guys, who are awful
3. Ted Robinson and Steve Stone. With my luck I'll miss these guys, who know stuff
4. Don Orsillo and Joe Simpson. Will Orsillo get the Red Sox Division Series? Will Simpson sound like he's awake?

If a game on TBS goes long and cuts into time for the next game, TNT will show the other game. The "other" game will depend upon where you are for its "otherness."

The Boston Red Sox have shut down rookie right-hander Clay Buchholz for the season because of shoulder fatigue. He will not pitch in the playoffs for Boston.

The Red Sox were keeping their options open for ways Buchholz could help during the postseason, be it as a starter or a reliever. But it became more apparent with each passing week that it would not be a wise move with respect to Buchholz's future.

"Obviously this was not our first choice or even our second choice," said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. "This was pretty much our last choice, our last option. Unfortunately this was something, that after discussions with the medical staff, it's something that we have to do."

If the Rockies make the playoffs, it's possible another Buchholz, Taylor, will get to pitch. The two pitchers are not related as far as I can tell.

Cecil Cooper was named permanent manager of the Houston Astros and was given a contract through 2009, with an option for 2010.

"Cecil is a perfect fit for the managerial job based on his leadership and experience," chairman and CEO Drayton McLane said. "We look forward to his influence on our team as we move forward on our quest to bring a World Series championship to Houston, and we feel he is the most qualified person to help us accomplish that goal."

The NL playoff situation can best be described as "murky." One team was eliminated, but seven teams are still fighting for four spots and it may not be decided until Sunday. Or Monday. Or Tuesday.

And there won't be a five-way tie. Nate Silver explains at Baseball Prospectus.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

Shea Stadium, New York - The St. Louis Cardinals, in town for just one day to make up a rainout from June, send Joel Pineiro to the hill to face off against Pedro Martinez.

St. Louis scored a run in the first and then two in the third. Pineiro gave up just three hits in eight innings and Jason Isringhausen pitched a 1-2-3 ninth and the Cardinals won 3-0.

Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia - The Phillies scored four runs in the first against John Smoltz thanks to two errors and a Ryan Howard homer. The Phillies won 6-4 to move into a tie for first place. The Braves were eliminated and Ryan Howard struck out for a major league record 196th time.

The Mets will play three games at home against Florida. The Phillies will host Washington for three games.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Cubs lost their tenth straight game to the Marlins over the past two years, losing 6-4 at Dolphins Stadium.

But the Brewers couldn't make up any ground for the second straight game. They lost to the Padres 9-5 as they made five errors.

Chicago has a magic number of 2 and become the first NL team to clinch a playoff spot Friday if they beat the Reds in Cincinnati and the Brewers lose at home to San Diego.

Houston caught the Reds for fourth place in the division with a 4-3 win in Cincinnati.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Coming down to the final weekend, there are still three teams that could win the division.

First place Arizona, thanks to Micah Owings 4 for 4 day with 3 doubles, beat Pittsburgh 8-0.

The DBacks have a magic number of 3 and a one-game lead over San Diego.

Colorado won its 11th straight game with a 10-4 win in Los Angeles. Colorado returns home Friday to face Arizona to finish the regular season.

NL Wild Card (Desi Relaford Division):

The Mets are now part of the wild card discussion. San Diego leads three teams, Philadelphia, New York, and Colorado, by one game.

Friday's pitching matchups of interest:

Tim Redding (Washington) vs Cole Hamels (Philadelphia), Carlos Zambrano (Chicago) vs Bronson Arroyo (Cincinnati), Byung-Hyun Kim (Florida) vs Oliver Perez (New York), Brandon Webb (Arizona) vs Jeff Francis (Colorado), Greg Maddux (San Diego) vs Chris Capuano (Milwaukee)

AL East/Wild Card (Ramiro Mendoza Division):

The Red Sox missed a chance to drop its magic number for the division to 1 and lost to the Twins at home, 5-4. Joe Nathan pitched out of trouble in the eighth and ninth for the save.

Yankee manager Joe Torre sent out most of his reserves at Tropicana Field, but the Yankees won anwyay, 3-1. Jose Molina drove in the winning runs. Scott Kazmir struck out 10 Yankees to give him 239 for the season, four more than Johan Santana. With Santana not scheduled to start again this year, Kazmir should finish on top in the league.

Baltimore beat Toronto.

AL Central (Bob Feller Division):

Cleveland missed another chance to guarantee homefield advantage for at least round of the ALDS after losing to Seattle 4-2. The game ended when Kenji Johjima picked Grady Sizemore off of first base. George Sherrill became the first pitcher since Randy Flores back in 2002 to get a save by having a runner picked off to end the game and not retiring a batter.

The White Sox shut out the Royals on three hits for the second straight night.

AL West (Tim Salmon Division):

The Angels finish up in Oakland. Texas finishes up at Seattle.

The Angels will likely need a sweep to get a shot at getting homefield advantage in the ALDS.

Friday's pitching matchups for games that affect where teams get slotted:

Kevin Slowey (Minnesota) vs Daisuke Matsuzaka (Boston), Mike Mussina (New York) vs Jon Leicester (Baltimore), C.C. Sabathia (Cleveland) vs Kyle Davies (Kansas City), John Lackey (Los Angeles) vs Dan Haren (Oakland).

The Atlanta Braves became the 19th team to be eliminated from postseason contention when they lost at Philadelphia 6-4.

That loss knocked the Braves out of the NL East and wild card races at the same time. New York, Philadelphia, and San Diego all have 87 wins and the Braves have 76 losses.

None of the 16 entries in the Griddle contest chose Atlanta as one of the final five teams to be eliminated.

Ryan Howard of the Phillies struck out in the 3rd inning against John Smoltz. That was his 196th strikeout of the season, breaking Adam Dunn's previous record from 2004.

Milwaukee's Ben Sheets will not make his scheduled start tomorrow against San Diego as his injured hamstring has not healed sufficiently for him to go more than an inning or two. Chris Capuano, who is 5-12 and appeared in 21 straight games that have all ended in losses, will make the start instead.

Pitcher Seth McClung and manager Ned Yost are also facing suspensions after being ejected Wednesday night for throwing at Albert Pujols.

Arizona manager Bob Melvin decided to start Micah Owings at the last minute today in Pittsburgh instead of Brandon Webb because he feared that rain delays (and there is one now) might make Webb unavailable for the whole game.

So Owings started and in addition to shutting out Pittsburgh over 7 innings, Owings has gone 4 for 4 with 3 doubles. The only other pitcher in the last 50 years to have at least four hits in a game and three extra base hits was ... Micah Owings. That was this game in Atlanta on August 18.

Three other pitchers in the last 50 years have had three doubles in a game: Andy Messersmith, Bob Gibson, and Don Ferrarese.

During the radio broadcast of today's game between the DBacks and Pirates in Pittsburgh, Pirates radio analyst Steve Blass told a story about how the San Diego Padres flew out to Pittsburgh at the end of the 1973 season to make up a game that he said had no bearing on the playoffs. And he said the Padres won 22-3.

First of all, the Padres flew out to Pittsburgh because the Pirates still had a chance to finish in a tie for the NL East. At the end of play on September 30, the Mets were 81-79, the Cardinals were 81-81, and the Pirates were 80-81.

On October 1, the Mets were scheduled to play a doubleheader in Chicago and the Padres flew out to makeup an earlier rainout. The Padres had actually finished their regular season on a Saturday, September 29. I'm assuming that was because the Chargers had a home game.

So the Padres had a day off to make the always fun San Diego to Pittsburgh commute. If the Pirates won and the Cubs swept the Mets in the doubleheader, there would have been a three-way tie for the NL East.

The Mets won the division though by winning the first game at Wrigley by a 6-4 margin before a crowd of 1,913. The second game of the doubleheader was canceled. The Pirates had been playing at the same time and just finished out their game. The Padres won, but they didn't score 22 runs.

They scored four runs. The Padres won 4-3. A crowd of 2,572 looked on.

As today's game has gone on, the Pirates announcers (Blass, Lanny Frattare, and Greg Brown) have pretty much stopped talking about the game and are discussing characters from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Wild card leader San Diego is facing the NL Central's second place team, Milwaukee, in the Cream City for the final four games of the season.

Since the first full season of three-division play, this is the first time the Padres have been the odd team out in the NL West at the end of the year and forced to play outside of the division. This honor tends to go to Arizona (finishing off a series in Pittsburgh today) or Colorado. San Diego has not played a game in Milwaukee since June of 2006.

Since the two teams first played in 1998 and including the three games they played this year (a Padres sweep in San Diego), San Diego leads the all-time series by a 39-28 margin. The Brewers do have a winning record in Milwaukee in this series, but by just a 17-16 margin.

The games they have played before will likely not be long remembered. This game on May 31, 2003 may make you rub your eyes when you see who the winning and losing pitchers were.

There have been just three players whose major league careers have seen them play just for Milwaukee and San Diego and no one else: Brandon Kolb, Jimmy Osting, and Santiago Perez.

The Yankees clinched the last playoff spot in the AL, but we still don't know who will win the division. So before the AL East and AL Wild Card are renamed for either Ted Williams or Lou Gehrig, the two divisions will have the same name. They will be named for the only player to play his entire major league career for BOTH the Yankees and Red Sox AND win a World Series with each team.

Without further ado...

AL East/Wild Card (Ramiro Mendoza Division):

The Red Sox lowered the magic number to 2 with an 11-6 win over Oakland. Mike Timlin got the win in relief and Dustin Pedroia hit a home run. Boston reclaimed the #1 spot in the AL as they hold a tiebreaker edge over Cleveland.

The Yankees clinched their 13th straight playoff berth with a 12-4 rout of Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field. Rookie Joba Chamberlain pitched a scoreless inning to lower his ERA to 0.40. Tampa Bay rookie retired his first major league batter in his third game overall. But he gave up three runs and his ERA is now 189.00. Presently, Ridgway is tied with Joe Cleary for the highest measureable career ERA. (Several players have infinite ERAs by giving up runs without retiring a batter.)

AL West (Tim Salmon Division):

The Angels took it very easy in Texas and got swept, losing the finale 16-2.

Oakland and Los Angeles have a day off before they face off for three games in Oakland to end the season. The Athletics will likely finish the season having to face each of the three division winners. Texas and Oakland are now tied for third.

Seattle played a road game at home in the first game of a doubleheader against Cleveland. And they played like they were elsewhere and lost 12-4. But the Mariners won the nightcap 3-2 in 10 innings.

AL Central (Bob Feller Division):

Because of the split in Seattle, Cleveland lost its #1 spot in the AL. Cleveland can guarantee home field in the first round of the playoffs with one more win or an Angels loss.

Rains kept stopping the Twins-Tigers game in Detroit and once the Yankees eliminated the Tigers, they cut the game short in the top of the sixth. The Tigers won 9-4.

Jon Garland threw a 3-hit shutout to put the White Sox back into fourth place in the division. And they play again Thursday! Woo hoo!

Tomorrow's pitching matchups that might matter to some people:

Boof Bonser (Minnesota) vs Josh Beckett (Boston), Phil Hughes (New York) vs Scott Kazmir (Tampa Bay), Paul Byrd (Cleveland) vs Cha Seung Baek (Seattle)

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The New York Mets continue to amaze and astound. Unfortunately for them, they are astounding people with their ways of losing games at home.

New York led Washington 5-0 after three innings at Shea and lost 9-6 to the Nats. Moises Alou did extend his hitting streak to 30 games. New York hosts St. Louis in a makeup game Thursday night and then has Florida in to finish the season.

The Phillies are 1 game back after Kyle Lohse was sharp for seven innings, giving up just a 2-run homer to Mark Texeira, as the Phillies beat Atlanta 5-2. The Braves can be eliminated Thursday if they lose or both New York and San Diego win. Philadelphia and Atlanta play again Thursday and then Washington comes to Philadelphia on the weekend to finish the regulars season.

As for Florida see below.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Cubs lost their ninth straight game to Florida over the past two seasons, falling 7-4 at Dolphins Stadium. Florida used eight pitchers to get the win. Logan Kensing was credited with the W.

Milwaukee had a chance to move to one game back if they could finish off a sweep of the stumbling Cardinals. But the Brewers offense was dormant much of the night against Brad Thompson and the Cardinals won 7-3. The Brewers tied an NL record by using five pitchers in the eighth inning (Ray King, Seth McClung, Derrick Turnbow, Brian Shouse, and Chris Spurling). The Cardinals scored four times in that frame.

The Cubs magic number is 3, the lowest of any NL division leader. They play the Marlins again Thursday afternoon and then finish up at Cincinnati. Milwaukee will be hosting San Diego for four games starting Thursday. Bruce Froemming's crew, minus the suspended Mike Winters, will be working the series in Milwaukee.

Houston banged out four home runs in Cincinnati to move one game behind the Reds for fourth place in the division.

Pittsburgh? They resemble Florida. See below.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

With four games left in the season, three teams are within two games of the top.

Arizona lost its second straight game in Pittsburgh. This time it was by a 5-1 margin.

So San Diego had a chance to move one game back and they had Jake Peavy going for them in San Francisco against Pat Misch. It was Barry Bonds' last game as a Giant. And it wasn't even close and the Padres cruised 11-3. It was Peavy's 19th win of the year.

Colorado is just two games back as the Rockies won their tenth straight. They beat the Dodgers 2-0 in Los Angeles. Colorado plays Los Angeles again on Thursday and then hosts Arizona over the weekend.

NL Wild Card (Steve Finley Division):

San Diego leads Philadelphia and Colorado by one game.

Tomorrow's games with postseason implications:

Brandon Webb (Arizona) vs John Van Benschoten (Pittsburgh), Steve Trachsel (Chicago) vs Scott Olsen (Florida), John Smoltz (Atlanta) vs Kyle Kendrick (Philadelphia), Joel Pineiro (St. Louis) vs Pedro Martinez (New York), Jack Cassel (San Diego) vs Yovani Gallardo (Milwaukee), Franklin Morales (Colorado) vs Esteban Loaiza (Los Angeles)

Detroit was eliminated from postseason contention when the Yankees beat Tampa Bay 12-4 in St. Petersburg.

The Tigers are Team #18 to be eliminated. Seven entries in the Griddle contest correctly tabbed Detroit in this place and earned the full five points.

The AL playoff teams are set! The Yankees routed Tampa Bay 12-4 at Tropicana Field to clinch the last playoff spot. It will be either the wild card or the AL East title. Boston leads by 3 games with 4 left for each team or a magic number of 2.

Mark Ecko, the fashion designer who owns Barry Bonds record-setting 756th home run ball, has said that the people have spoken and they want the ball branded with an asterisk and then presented to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ecko claimed there were over 10 million votes and 47% chose the branding option.

In the linked MLB.com story, the Hall of Fame said they would be happy to accept the ball in whatever condition it arrived.

One team was maddeningly close to clinching a playoff spot and a three-way tie in one division was thwarted by some late-inning heroics.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

The Red Sox got nine hits and ten walks against Oakland pitching and won 7-3. The Red Sox increased their lead in the division to 3 games and dropped their magic number to 3 because ...

The Yankees could not hold on to a 5-0 lead at Tampa Bay. Alex Rodriguez hit a grand slam in the third, but in the fifth, the Devil Rays rallied to score six times on an RBI double by Dioner Navarro, a bases-loaded walk by Akinori Iwamura, and then a grand slam by Jorge Velandia. The Yankees tied it in the 8th, but the Devil Rays won it in the 10th on a Navarro homer, 7-6. Yankee pitchers walked 11 Tampa Bay batters.

The Blue Jays clobbered Baltimore, 11-4.

AL West (Tim Salmon Division):

The Angels dropped their second straight after clinching the division, losing at Texas 3-1.

Seattle was eliminated from postseason play with a 4-3 loss to Cleveland in 12 innings at home. An errant pickoff throw from Ryan Rowland-Smith set up Kenny Lofton's game-winning sacrifice fly.

AL Central (Bob Feller Division):

Cleveland held on to the #1 spot in the AL by 1/2 game over Boston. The extra game will be made up tomorrow in an odd doubleheader in Seattle. The Indians will be the home team in the first game and Seattle will be the home team in the nightcap. The doubleheader is the last game to be made up from Seattle's snowout in Cleveland this April.

YORMAN BAZARDO threw seven shutout innings as the Tigers beat the Twins, 8-0.

Kansas City beat Chicago and the two are tied for last place in the division.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead Detroit by 4 1/2 games and their magic number to make the playoffs is 1. Still.

Wednesday's pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Joe Saunders (Los Angeles) vs Luis Mendoza (Texas), Joe Blanton (Oakland) vs Jon Lester (Boston), Johan Santana (Minnesota) vs Jair Jurrjens (Detroit), Fausto Carmona and Jeremy Sowers (Cleveland) vs Ryan Feierabend and Jarrod Washburn (Seattle), Chien-Ming Wang (New York) vs J.P. Howell (Tampa Bay).

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Arizona, the division leader and the team with the best record in the NL, took on Pittsburgh, loser of nine straight. The DBacks came back from a 5-1 deficit with four runs in the eighth. But Josh Phelps drove in a run in the eighth and the Pirates won 6-5.

San Diego trailed San Francisco 4-2 in the ninth with two outs and a runner on third and Brady Clark. Clark blooped a single to score one run. Oscar Robles worked a walk. And then Brian Giles hit a 3-run homer and the Padres moved two games back with a 6-4 win.

Arizona's magic number is still 4. Their magic number to make the playoff is 3.

Colorado is now three games back after winning its ninth straight, 9-7, in Los Angeles. The loss eliminated the Dodgers.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The first place Cubs had been cruising at home, but they were flat at last place Florida and lost 4-2. Dontrelle Willis went eight innings and gave up only a 2-run homer to Craig Monroe. The Cubs magic number is 4.

Second place Milwaukee is now just 2 games out after routing St. Louis 9-1. Prince Fielder hit a pair of home runs to bring his season total to 50. He is the youngest player ever to reach that mark.

Houston beat Cincinnati. The Astros could actually move up to fourth place!

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

Tom Glavine got knocked around early and the Nats built up a 10-3 lead going to the 9th at Shea. The Mets scored six runs and had the tying run on third, but Jon Rauch was able to get the final out. Washington won 10-9. The Mets magic number is 4.

The Phillies missed a chance to pick up a game and lost their tie with San Diego for the wild card when they lost at home to Atlanta 10-6. The Braves have won 9 of their last 11 games. They are four games behind the Mets.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

Before Brian Giles' ninth inning homer, the stage was set for a three-way tie for the wild card. But the Padres now are in the lead by one game over both Phiadelphia and Colorado. The Braves are 3 games back. The Padres magic number is 5.

Wednesday's pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Livan Hernandez (Arizona) vs Matt Morris (Pittsburgh), Tim Hudson (Atlanta) vs Kyle Lohse (Philadelphia), Jason Marquis (Chicago) vs Daniel Barone (Florida), Mike Bacsik (Washington) vs Philip Humber (New York), Brad Thompson (St. Louis) vs Carlos Villanueva (Milwaukee), Josh Fogg (Colorado) vs Derek Lowe (Los Angeles), Jake Peavy (San Diego) vs Pat Misch (San Francisco)

The Los Angeles Dodgers became the 16th team in the majors to be eliminated from postseason contention when they lost to Colorado at home 9-7 combined with San Diego's 6-4 win at San Francisco.

The Dodgers have now lost 77 games and the Padres have won 86, eliminating the Dodgers from a chance at the wild card.

10 of the 16 entries in the Griddle Contest to pick the Final Five eliminated had the Dodgers as one of their selections.

New Pirates president Frank Coonelly named a new general manager for the Pirates: Neal Huntington.

Huntington has worked for the last 10 years in the Cleveland front office.

Thanks to stolenmonkey86

(Updating with info from late night action):

The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Since the Yankees lost today and the Tigers did as well, the stage is now set for three teams to make their departure from postseason contention on Tuesday.

Both the Tigers and Mariners will be eliminated if they lose their games at home. Detroit is playing Minnesota and Seattle is playing Cleveland. If the Yankees win their game at Tampa Bay, that would eliminate both teams.

The Dodgers can be eliminated Tuesday if they lose at home to Colorado and:

1) San Diego wins Tuesday in San Francicso OR

2) Philadelphia wins Tuesday at home against Atlanta

The Dodgers would also be eliminated if the Padres win both tonight and tomorrow.

There are 15 teams out of the running now. Once team #18 goes up, then the contest kicks in, because that's when there are just five teams left.

Detroit and New York start at 4:05 pm PT and 4:10 pm PT respectively. The Mariners get underway at 7:05 pm PT.

I will be watching the clock to see which games end when. If the Yankees were to win their game in Tampa Bay before the game in Detroit ends, Seattle and Detroit would share the #16 spot and everybody else would be in the Final Five.

10 of the 16 entries included St. Louis in the Final Five, which they won't be part of. 15 of the 16 entries include Detroit. Only 2 entries included Seattle.

Atlanta, which could likely hold on for a few days, was not listed by anyone as being in the Final Five.

The Cubs, the NL Central leaders, were the most popular choice to be the last team out.

It's not going to take a high score to win this contest.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

The Yankees lost a makeup game at home to Toronto, 4-1, as surprise starter Jesse Litsch kept the New York bats in check.

Boston's lead in the division increased to 2 games and their magic number dropped to win the division dropped to 5.

Boston finishes at home with two games against Oakland and four against Minnesota. New York finishes with three at Tampa Bay and three at Baltimore.

The Orioles won a makeup game at home against the Royals. Baltimore won all seven games against Kansas City this year.

AL West (Tim Salmon Division):

The Angels rested Vladimir Guerrero and lost in Texas 8-7. The Angels fell into the #3 slot in the overall AL record. They are one game behind #1 Cleveland and 2 in the AILC. However, the Angels have to finish with a better record than Cleveland to get homefield advantage.

AL Central (Bob Feller Division):

Cleveland was off before heading to Seattle for a four-game series in three days with a doubleheader Wednesday.

Detroit gave up just two runs to Minnesota, but failed to score any of their own and lost.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees will clinch a playoff spot with a win at Tampa Bay or losses by Detroit and Seattle tomorrow.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Matt Garza (Minnesota) vs YORMAN BAZARDO (Detroit), Chad Gaudin (Oakland) vs Curt Schilling (Boston), Roger Clemens Kei Igawa (New York) vs Jason Hammel (Tampa Bay), Justin Moseley (Los Angeles) vs A.J. Murray (Texas) [Note the A in A.J. stands for Arlington], Aaron Laffey (Cleveland) vs Felix Hernandez (Seattle)

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets had seemed to have gotten back on track after two wins in Florida. They returned home to face Washington and they were slaughtered 13-4.

The Phillies were off before hosting Atlanta. The Mets lead is 2 games and their magic number is 5.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

The Padres found out that they have lost Milton Bradley AND Mike Cameron for the season and picked up Jason Lane to get some outfield help. Tall Chris Young started in San Francisco for the Padres and he was knocked around for seven runs and the Giants won 9-4.

Idle Arizona saw its lead in the divsion grow to 3 games and its magic number to clinch the division is 4. Arizona will be in Pittsburgh for three games and finish with three at Colorado.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

Milwaukee went back home and got well with a 13-5 pounding of St. Louis. Prince Fielder hit his 48th home run and Ryan Braun hit his 33rd.

The Brewers trail Chicago by 3 games. Chicago's magic number is 4. The Cubs will be playing in Florida and Cincinnati to finish the season.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

San Diego's loss puts them in a dead-even tie with Philadelphia for the wild card. The Padres play their remaining games on the road, two more at San Francisco and four at Milwaukee. The Phillies play three at home against Atlanta and then three at home against Washington.

And Colorado is now just one game back of the Padres and Phillies. The Rockies have won eight straight and will play three in Los Angeles and then three at home against Arizona.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Doug Davis (Arizona) vs Ian Snell (Pittsburgh), Chuck James (Atlanta) vs Jamie Moyer (Philadelphia), Ted Lilly (Chicago) vs Dontrelle Willis (Florida), Jason Bergmann (Washington) vs Tom Glavine (New York), Braden Looper (St. Louis) vs Jef Suppan (Milwaukee), Ubaldo Jimenez (Colorado) vs Brad Penny (Los Angeles), Brett Tomko (San Diego) vs Matt Cain (San Francisco)

The following teams are locked into their place in the standings:

• Toronto (3rd place, AL East)
• Cleveland (1st place, AL Central)
• Detroit (2nd place, AL Central)
• Minnesota (3rd place, AL Central)
• Los Angeles (1st place, AL West)
• Seattle (2nd place, AL West)
• San Francisco (5th place, NL West)

And now the second oldest stadium in use in the National League reverts back to being Dodger Stadium....

Poster Sam DC with a shot of one of the seats in the upper deck that had been painted white to mark where one of Frank Howard's home runs landed.

Austin Kearns catches the last out of the 8th inning. This is taken from the Flickr photostream of MissChatter. Her blog is Just Another Nats Fan.

Also from there is this shot of Ryan Langerhans just wondering Chase Utley's ball is going to land in the 9th. It would bounce over the wall for a double.

Most career grand slams as a pinch hitter - 3, Rich Reese, Ron Northey, and Willie McCovey, and Ben Broussard

Looking at this list, you may think that one person may not belong in the set. Or perhaps three people belong and one person does not. It's all a matter of perspective.

Nevertheless, a pinch-hit grand slam is an unusual event anyway you look at it.

Continue reading...

Two teams clinch postseason spots and in their honor, the divisions will be renamed for the player I deem to be the best one to have played his entire career with that franchise. So without further ado.

AL Central (Bob Feller Division):

Cleveland won the AL Central for the first time since 2001 with a 6-2 win over Oakland at Jacobs Field. For the time being, Cleveland also owns the best record in the AL, but it is by just 1/2 game over the Angels and Red Sox. The Indians would get a tiebreaker edge over the Angels, but lose to the Red Sox. Cleveland's potential first round opponent, New York, won all six games against the Indians this year.

Detroit still has a faint hope for the wild card after beating Kansas City 7-4. Justin Verlander won his 18th.

Minnesota beat Chicago 7-1 and Kevin Slowey struck out nine. It was likely Torii Hunter's last game in Minneapolis as a Twin.

AL West (Tim Salmon Division):

The Los Angeles Angels clinched their third AL West title since the three-division format started in 1994 with a 7-4 win over the Mariners. John Lackey won his 18th game and Casey Kotchman and Maicer Izturis homered. Seattle can be eliminated with a Yankee win Monday afternoon.

Texas shut out Baltimore 3-0.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Although the Red Sox have clinched a playoff spot, their divisional title hopes are still up in the air. The Red Sox had their lead cut to 1 1/2 games after losing to Tampa Bay, 5-4.

The Yankees held on to beat Toronto 7-5 with Joba Chamberlain getting the save and Jose Molina driving in three runs.

Boston's magic number to win the division is 6. New York's magic number to win the division is 8 as they would just need to tie the Red Sox to be named division champs. The extra game in the standings will be taken care of tomorrow when the Yankees host Toronto while the Red Sox are off.

Boston finishes up at home with two against Oakland and four against Minnesota. The Yankees will be on the road to play three in Baltimore and three in Tampa Bay.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees have a magic number of 2 to clinch a playoff spot. They lead Detroit by 5 1/2 games. They lead Seattle by 7. The Yankees will clinch a playoff spot with a win over Toronto and a Detroit loss to Minnesota.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups that affect something about the postseason:

A.J. Burnett (Toronto) vs Andy Pettitte (New York), Carlos Silva (Minnesota) vs Nate Robertson (Detroit), Ervin Santana (Los Angeles) vs Armando Galarraga (Texas)

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

Remember when this division was a 3-team race? Remember when it seemed like first place changed hands a lot? That's likely not going to happen now.

The Cubs lead Milwaukee by 3 1/2 games and have a magic number of 4. Chicago handed the Pirates their ninth straight defeat and it wasn't close. Chicago won 8-0.

The Brewers led Atlanta 4-1, but the bullpen could not hold on to the lead again and lost 7-4.

The Reds squandered a 4-0 lead against the Giants in San Francisco and lost 5-4.

The Cardinals gave the home fans one last thrill, rallying to score three runs in the ninth off of Brad Lidge to beat the Astros 4-3. Albert Pujols came off the bench to drive in run #99 and Rick Ankiel hit a 2-run triple to end it.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets beat the Marlins 7-6 in 11 innings. Billy Wagner blew a save in the ninth. David Wright won it in the 11th with an RBI single off of Harvey Garcia. 16 pitchers saw action in the game.

The Phillies fell to 2 1/2 games back after losing the final game played at RFK to the Nats, 5-3. Ryan Howard tied Adam Dunn's major league record for strikeouts at 195. The Nats finished their tenure at RFK with a record of 122-121. Chase Utley hit the last homer at RFK and that was on Saturday. The last National to homer at RFK was D'Angelo Jimenez back on September 18 off of Scott Schoeneweis of the Mets. The last batter was Jayson Werth who struck out against Chad Cordero.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

First place Arizona used an octet of pitchers against the Dodgers. And it didn't help as the Dodgers won 7-1. Their magic number to win the division is 5 and to clinch a playoff spot is 4.

Arizona leads by 2 1/2 games over San Diego, which was swept by Colorado 7-3. Garret Atkins got an inside-the-park home run when Mike Cameron missed a diving catch and then had Milton Bradley step on his hand. Later, Bradley was ejected by first base umpire Mike Winters for reasons that are subject to dispute. When manager Bud Black tried to keep Bradley from getting into more trouble, he wrestled Bradley to the ground, hurting Bradley's knee. Black was ejected two batters later AFTER Kevin Kouzmanoff had doubled in a run.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

The Padres lead Philadelphia by 1/2 game and that odd game will be made up tomorrow when the Padres play in San Francisco while the Phillies are off. The Rockies, who have won eight straight and a franchise-record 84 in total, are now just 1 1/2 games back.

The Padres finish up with games at San Francisco and Milwaukee. The Phillies play at home against Atlanta and Washington. Colorado plays three in Los Angeles and three at home against Arizona.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups for games that might influence the postseason:

Matt Chico (Washington) vs Mike Pelfrey (New York), Adam Wainwright (St. Louis) vs Dave Bush (Milwaukee), Tall Chris Young (San Diego) vs Barry Zito (San Francisco).

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim clinched the AL West and playoff spot with a 7-4 win over the Seattle Mariners. They are third team in the AL to clinch a spot.

The Cleveland Indians became the second team in the majors to clinch a playoff spot as they wrapped up the AL Central title with a 6-2 win over Oakland at home.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

The Red Sox clinched a playoff spot as they rallied in the ninth to beat Tampa Bay, 8-6.

The Yankees are 2 1/2 games back after they won a 5 hour, 10-inning game that featured 18 pitchers from both sides. New York beat Toronto 12-11 and there were no home runs in the game either. Toronto used eight pitchers and all but one was charged with at least one run. The pitcher who didn't give up a run was Scott Downs and he gave up a hit to the only batter he faced.

Boston has also reclaimed the top spot in the AL.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland missed a chance to pop open champagne after losing to Oakland 9-3. They will have another chance to do it at home Sunday.

Detroit lost to Kansas City 7-4 to lower Cleveland's magic number to 1 and also put the Red Sox into the playoffs.

Cleveland can win the division tomorrow with a win or a Detroit loss.

AL West (John Montague Division):

Miguel Batista started for Seattle and went 5 1/3 innings to get the win for Seattle. Five relievers followed: Sean Green, Eric O'Flaherty, Cha Seung Baek, Ryan Rowland-Smith, and George Sherill. They all got holds. The last pitcher, J.J. Putz, got a save. Seattle kept the Angels from clinching with a 3-2 win.

The Mariners will be eliminated from the AL West with a loss Sunday and from playoff contention completely if they lose and the Yankees win.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead Detroit by 6 1/2 and their magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 3.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups with postseason implications:

Jorge De La Rosa (Kansas City) vs Justin Verlander (Detroit), Dallas Braden (Oakland) vs Jake Westbrook (Cleveland), Dustin McGowan (Toronto) vs Mike Mussina (New York), Tim Wakefield (Boston) vs Edwin Jackson (Tampa Bay), Jeff Weaver (Seattle) vs John Lackey (Los Angeles).

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The race here is looking like it's Chicago's to lose. The Cubs rolled over Pittsburgh again 9-5. The Cubs lead Milwaukee by 2 1/2 games. The Cubs magic number is 6.

The Brewers lost in Atlanta, 4-3 in 11 innings, after Francisco Cordero blew a save with two outs in the 10th when he gave up a home run to Scott Thorman.

ESPN has chosen the Cardinals and Astros to be the Sunday night game tomorrow. O Lord, what have we done to forsake you? Tell us who to smite! Please let it be Joe Morgan. Or possibly Rick Sutcliffe.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Arizona, the little team that supposedly shouldn't be able to win, won again, beating the Dodgers at home 6-2. Arizona leads San Diego by 2 1/2 games and has a magic number of 6 to win the division and 5 to make the playoffs. The Dodgers can be eliminated Sunday if they lose and San Diego wins.

The Padres lost at home again to the Rockies, who have won seven straight games. The Rockies won 6-2 with Ryan Speier getting the win. Speier relieved Mark Redman in the fifth with the bases loaded and one out with the Rockies up 3-2 and struck out Mike Cameron and got Scott Hairston to fly out.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets had little trouble in beating the Marlins in Florida, winning 7-2.

Philadelphia remained 1 1/2 games back with a 4-1 win in 10 innings in the last night game played at RFK. The Mets magic number is 7.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

In what is now the closest race, the Padres lead the Phillies by just 1/2 game. The Rockies are 2 1/2 games back. The Padres have one more game left than the Phillies. That odd game will be made up Monday. The Padres finish with three at San Francisco and four at Milwaukee. The Phillies finish at home with three against Atlanta and three against Washington.

Tomorrow's matchups for games with postseason implications:

Cole Hamels (Philadelphia) vs Joel Hanrahan (Washington) in the last game at RFK, Chris Capuano (Milwaukee) vs Jo-Jo Reyes (Atlanta), John Maine (New York) vs Chris Seddon (Florida), Tom Gorzelanny (Pittsburgh) vs Carlos Zambrano (Chicago), Jeff Francis (Colorado) vs Greg Maddux (San Diego), Chad Billingsley (Los Angeles) vs Edgar Gonzalez (Arizona).

The Boston Red Sox became the first team to clinch a spot in the playoffs after beating Tampa Bay 8-6 combined with an earlier loss by Detroit. Boston's magic number to clinch the AL East is 6.

Since I'll be getting back late tonight, there will likely be no divisional roundup. You'll have to survive.

But I can tell you that the Angels missed another chance to clinch a playoff spot with a 3-2 loss at home to Seattle. The Angels will try again Sunday.

Cleveland can clinch the AL Central if they win tonight against Oakland and Detroit loses to Kansas City.

Boston can clinch a playoff spot if they beat Tampa Bay and Detroit loses to Kansas City.

The Yankees magic number to clinch a playoff spot is now 4 after a 12-11 win over Toronto.

The Cubs lead the Brewers by 2 1/2 games after the Cubs pounded Pittsburgh again and the Brewers blew a lead in extra innings and lost to Atlanta. Their magic number is 6.

The Mets lead the Phillies by two games at the moment. Their magic number is 7.

As for the NL West and NL wild card, check back later.

In the bottom of the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium, Josh Towers became the 17th pitcher used in the game between the Yankees and Blue Jays.

That actually beat the old AL record for a 9-inning game, which was 15 and last done on September 12, 2004 in a game between the Orioles and Yankees.

However, the game is going to extra innings. And now the mark to beat is 18.

Stay tuned ...

Jeff Karstens comes in for the Yankees as their 10th pitcher and the 18th in the game. Since Yankee starter Phil Hughes left after five innings, no Yankee pitcher has recorded more than three outs.

The alltime record for pitchers used in an extra-inning game is 11, set by Seattle on September 25, 1992. That game lasted 16 innings. The Yankees have just 12 more pitchers listed on their roster!

For those of you old school types, the AL and NL batting average races are fairly close heading to the final week.

In the AL, Magglio Ordonez of Detroit leads Ichiro Suzuki of Seattle by a margin of .354 to .350. Ichiro has 67 more at bats than Ordonez, which will make it harder for him to make up the difference.

In the NL, Chipper Jones of Atlanta is the leader at .340. Matt Holliday of Colorado is second at .337. Holliday has 123 more at bats than Jones.

Other races:

OBP

David Ortiz has the AL lead at .436 and that should get larger as long as Manny Ramirez is out. Ordonez is second at .426.

Todd Helton leads Chipper Jones in the NL OBP race by a margin of .432 to .427. Barry Bonds doesn't have enough PAs to qualify for the lead. He is 28 PAs short. He still might be able to claim the championship depending upon how many PAs he needs by the end of the year.

SLG

Alex Rodriguez has a huge lead over Ortiz, .638 to .598. Carlos Pena is at .597.

The NL race is very close with Prince Fielder of Milwaukee leading Holliday, .613 to .609. Jones is at .601.

There are presently six players in the majors (with enough PAs to qualify) with an OPS over 1.000 for the season: Rodriguez (1.051), Ortiz (1.034), Jones (1.028), Holliday (1.009), Ordonez (1.007), and Fielder (1.000).

And the collar size in Boston grew two sizes that day:

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Anxiety levels dropped throughout New England as Josh Beckett won his 20th game as the Red Sox beat Tampa Bay and Scott Kazmir, 8-1. Tampa Bay rookie reliever Jeff Ridgway has now faced five batters in his career in two games and all five have reached safely and four of them have scored.

The Yankees looked like they were going to keep nipping at Boston's heels after they rallied to score four runs off of Roy Halladay in the 9th to send the game into extra innings. But the Yankees offense stopped there and Gregg Zaun homered in the 14th to give Toronto a 5-4 win.

Boston lowered its magic number to win the division to 7 as its lead grew to 2 1/2 games. Boston could also clinch a playoff spot tomorrow with a win combined with a Detroit loss.

Baltimore lost to Texas 3-2 and the game ended on a strikeout-CS DP.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland lowered its magic number to 2 and took over the #1 spot in the AL overall with a 4-3 win over Oakland at home. Fausto Carmona won his 18th.

Detroit kept its AL Central chances alive with a 5-4 win against the Royals at home. The Royals led 4-0 in the game.

Johan Santana now leads the AL in strikeouts and home runs allowed. The White Sox beat him 6-4.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels were primed to become the first team in baseball to clinch a playoff spot. But they didn't. The Mariners, behind Jarrod Washburn and Brandon Morrow, shut out the Angels in Anaheim, 6-0.

Nevertheless, the Angels magic number is still 1 and if the Angels win one of the next two games against Seattle, it's over. The Mariners cannot be eliminated from the wild card any earlier than Sunday.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead Detroit by 5 1/2 games and have a magic number of 5 to make the playoffs.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups in games with postseason implications:

Shaun Marcum (Toronto) vs Roger Clemens Phil Hughes (New York), Miguel Batista (Seattle) vs Bartolo Colon (Los Angeles), Kyle Davies (Kansas City) vs Kenny Rogers (Detroit), Dan Haren (Oakland) vs Paul Byrd (Cleveland), Daisuke Matsuzaka (Boston) vs Andy Sonnanstine (Tampa Bay)

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets survived a shaky start by Pedro Martinez and a 141-minute rain delay, but the Marlins helped out with six errors and a passed ball that led to eight unearned runs as they beat the Marlins 9-6. Scott Schoeneweis got his first save of the year as Billy Wagner was again unavailable.

The Phillies are still 1 1/2 games back after beating Washington for the second straight time at RFK, 6-3. Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell, and Jimmy Rollins all hit home runs. The Mets magic number is 8.

For Atlanta, see below.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

Chicago pounded error-prone Pittsburgh in the afternoon behind two three-run homers from Aramis Ramirez. The Cubs won 13-8.

Milwaukee was trailing Atlanta and Tim Hudson 1-0 in the eighth and had two outs and no one on before Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder singled. Corey Hart singled home Braun and he and Fielder moved up a base on an error by Jeff Francouer in right field. After Hudson intentionally walked Geoff Jenkins, reliever Ron Mahay came in and uninentionally walked pinch hitter Joe Dillon to force in a run. Bill Hall singled in another run and the Brewers tacked on another in the 9th to win it 4-1.

Houston gave St. Louis the death blow, 6-3 in the Mound City. Cincinnati is discussed elsewhere.

Chicago's magic number is 8, which is also the same number of games they have left.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Arizona stretched its lead in the West to 1 1/2 games with a 12-3 hammering of the Dodgers.

The Padres lost to Colorado 2-1 in 14 innings. Rookie Franklin Morales matched Jake Peavy pitch for pitch, and almost got a 1-0 win, but Adrian Gonzalez tied the game up in the 9th off of Manny Corpas with a home run.

In the 12th inning, Brad Hawpe of the Rockies ended a rally with a baserunning gaffe. And in the 14th, Hawpe homered off of Joe Thatcher to give the Rockies the win. The Padres had just four hits. The last team to get just four hits in 14 innings was Washington against Houston on July 24, 2005.

Arizona's magic number is 8 to win the division and 6 to clinch a playoff spot. San Diego's loss means that the Dodgers cannot be eliminated until Sunday at the earliest.

The Giants announced Barry Bonds wouldn't be back in 2008. And he didn't play against the Reds, but the fans got to see a different beloved vet, Omar Vizquel, hit a home run. But the Giants blew an 8-3 lead in the eighth and lost 9-8 in 11 innings.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

San Diego leads Philadelphia by 1 1/2 games and Colorado by 3 1/2 games.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups in games with postseason implications:

Zach Duke (Pittsburgh) vs Rich Hill (Chicago), Yovani Gollardo (Milwaukee) vs John Smoltz (Atlanta), Oliver Perez (New York) vs Byung-Hyun Kim (Florida), Kyle Kendrick (Philadelphia) vs Tim Redding (Washington), David Wells (Los Angeles) vs Brandon Webb (Arizona), Mark Redman (Colorado) vs Jack Cassel (San Diego).

Scott Olsen of the Marlins pitched five innings against the Mets tonight and gave up eight runs, all of them unearned. He came out before the sixth. The Marlins made four errors, two each by Mike Jacobs and Miguel Cabrera as well as a passed ball from Miguel Olivo.

In the last 50 years, nine other pitchers had given up at least 8 runs in a game with none of them being earned. They are the rare mix of the mediocre and extremely unlucky, with the notable exception of Luis Tiant.

Andy Hawkins of the Yankees gave up 10 runs, all unearned in a start against the Orioles on June 5, 1989.

Hawkins gave up three unearned runs on a 2-out error by center fielder Jesse Barfield. The in the third, Steve Finley led off and reached on an error by Don Mattingly. Cal Ripken reached when Hawkins made a bad throw and Finley went to third. Mickey Tettleton hit a grounder to Steve Sax that he misplayed to allow Finley to score and send Ripken to third. Joe Orsulak singled in a run, but Tettleton was out going to third as Orsulak moved up. Jim Traber doubled home Orsulak. Larry Sheets got an intentional walk. Craig Worthington singled home Traber. Billy Ripken singled to load the bases. Yankees manager Dallas Green mercifully pulled Hawkins and replaced him with Churk Cary. Cary got Anderson to ground into a forceout (effectively the fifth out of the inning), but Finley followed with a grand slam.

Hawkins got into the game with a 6.29 ERA, gave up 10 runs in 2 1/3 innings, and left with an ERA of 6.08. What a country!

But you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.

The St. Louis Cardinals are the next most likely team to be eliminated from postseason play as they will be out if they lose tonight at home to Houston and Chicago wins this afternoon at home against the Pirates.

Then there could be a lull for at least a couple of days. The Dodgers could be eliminated on Saturday if they lose to Arizona and San Diego wins two against Colorado. The Rockies could be eliminated Sunday if they are swept by the Padres and Arizona takes two of three at home from Los Angeles.

In the AL, Seattle could be eliminated Saturday with two losses to the Angels while the Yankees win twice. Detroit will be eliminated if their losses and Yankeees win this weekend add up to five.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The New York Mets appeared to have stopped their slide after scoring four times in the ninth inning off of Florida's Kevin Gregg to take a 7-4 lead. Marlon Anderson's bases-loaded double was the big hit.

Then, with Billy Wagner unavailable, Willie Randolph opted for Pedro Feliciano. Jeremy Hermida singled on Feliciano's first pitch and Jorge Sosa came in. Miguel Cabrera doubled Hermida to third. Alfredo Amezaga grounded out to score Hermida to make it 7-5. Mike Jacobs reached on a David Wright throwing error as Cabrera scored to make it 7-6. Reggie Abercrombie pinch ran for Jacobs. Cody Ross followed with a blooper down the left field line and Abercrombie went to third and Ross moved up a base. Matt Treanor's ground out scored Abercrombie to tie the game.

The Marlins won it in the 10th when Dan Uggla's double off the left field wall scored Hanley Ramirez from first. The Marlins won 8-7 and had 20 hits.

Second place Philadelphia is now 1 1/2 games back after rallying from a 6-2 deficit in Washington to win 7-6. Jayson Werth came off the bench in the seventh to hit a 3-run pinch homer and Jimmy Rollins had a pair of doubles and scored the tying run and drove in the winning run. The Mets magic number stays at 9.

Atlanta? See below.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

With the Cubs idle, the Brewers had an opportunity to pick up a half game in Atlanta. The Braves were starting Jeff Bennett, who hadn't pitched in the majors since 2004 when he was with the Brewers as a Rule 5 selection. Bennett struck out 8 Brewers in 5 2/3 innings pitched and the Braves bullpen closed out a 3-1 win for Atlanta at home.

Houston rookie catcher J.R. Towles set a franchise record with 8 RBI as he went 4 for 4 with two doubles and a home run (albeit off of Aaron Miles). The Astros won 18-1. It was just Towles' sixth major league game and the Baseballreference.com Play Index turned up no instances of any player driving in 8 runs in a game before his sixth game. (The earliest instance had been Jason Bay's 8 RBI game in his 21st game.) Several players have had games with 9 totals bases that early in their career and Justin Upton did it this year in his fifth game.

St. Louis will be eliminated Friday with a loss to Houston and a Chicago win over Pittsburgh. 10 of the 16 entries in the Griddle contest had St. Louis as one of the final five teams.

Cincinnati? Really? See below.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

First place Arizona was off and had its lead sliced in half to 1/2 game as San Diego won its seventh straight, completing a four-game sweep over the Pirates at Petco, 6-3.

And there was another sweep in the West as Colorado took a four-game series with a 9-4 win over the Dodgers at Coors Field.

The Rockies sweep made their three-game series with the Padres somewhat relevant to both teams now. The DBacks host Los Angeles over the weekend. Arizona's magic number to make the playoffs is 8. The DBacks also hold the tiebreaker edge over the Padres. The extra game will be made up on Monday when Arizona is off while San Diego plays in San Francisco.

The Reds and Giants series could have been a chance for fans to watch Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey put on a contest to hit balls out in to San Francisco Bay. But they're both injured (Griffey for the rest of the year) and so the fans got to see Jason Ellison hit a home run instead. The Reds won 4-2.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

San Diego leads Philadelaphia by 2 1/2 games. Their magic number for making the playoffs is 8.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Paul Maholm (Pittsburgh) vs Jason Marquis (Chicago), Carlos Villanueva (Milwaukee) vs Tim Hudson (Atlanta), Pedro Martinez (New York) vs Scott Olsen (Florida), Adam Eaton (Philadelphia) vs Shawn Hill (Washington), Esteban Loaiza (Los Angeles) vs Livan Hernandez (Arizona), Franklin Morales (Colorado) vs Jake Peavy (San Diego).

AL West (John Montague Division):

Los Angeles won a contentious 9-4 game at home against Seattle to stretch its lead to 9 1/2 games and lower its magic number to 1. Two of the sixteen entries in the Griddle contest had Seattle as one of the last five teams eliminated. However, Seattle will still be alive in the wild card race regardless of the outcome of tonight's game.

The Angels can be the first team to clinch a playoff spot with a win Friday night. The Angels also moved into first place overall in the AL, although Cleveland and Boston have one more game to play than the Angels and also hold tiebreaker edges over the Angels. The Angels finish up their season with six games on the road at Texas and Oakland.

The Rangers led Baltimore 1-0 going to the ninth, but Joaquin Benoit couldn't hold on to the lead and the Orioles won in 10 innings 6-3.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Everybody but the Orioles took today off. Boston will be in Tampa Bay for its last road series of the year. They will finish up at home against Oakland and Minnesota. The Yankees play a four-game series that wraps around the weekend with Toronto. Then they go on the road to play Tampa Bay and Baltimore. Boston leads by 1 1/2 games with a magic number of 9. Boston's magic number to make the playoffs is 3.

AL Central (Vito Valetinetti Division):

Division-leading Cleveland had the day off as did second place Detroit. Cleveland leads by 7 1/2 games and has a magic number of 3.

Third place Minnesota had the day off. But Kansas City moved back into fourth place as they split their four-game series with the White Sox.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

New York leads Detroit by 5 1/2 games and has a magic number of 5 to clinch a playoff spot.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Billy Buckner (Kansas City) vs Jair Jurrjens (Detroit), Joe Blanton (Oakland) vs Fausto Carmona (Cleveland), Roy Halladay (Toronto) vs Chien-Ming Wang (New York), Josh Beckett (Boston) vs Scott Kazmir (Tampa Bay).

Kazmir and Johan Santana are now both one strikeout behind Eric Bedard of Baltimore for the AL strikeout lead. Bedard is out for the year. Both Kazmir and Santana pitch Friday. The Twins will be in Chicago.

With the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers being celebrated this year, there has been a lot of discussion about the role of African-American players in baseball. Most of this is about how the numbers have decreased. However, the most prominent minority in baseball now are Latinos, who are some of the game's greatest stars. And yet, their status as a minority is sometimes almost dismissed by American fans.

Continue reading...

Gabe Kapler, who retired from the Boston Red Sox after the the 2006 season and managed single A Greenville this year, says he wants to make a comeback next year, preferably with the Red Sox.

Judging by Kapler's statistics before he retired the first time (primarily because of a torn achilles), I'm sure that the Red Sox will trade Jacoby Ellsbury to make room for him.

The Houston Astros will name former Phillies GM Ed Wade as their new GM today, according to several reports, including MLB.com.

Wade will take over permanently for Tim Purpura, who was fired along with manager Phil Garner in August.

Thanks to commenter sporky over at Dodger Thoughts.

Ack! Cough! ...

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

The Red Sox magic number is still 9 and this blog is starting to sound like a bad pressing of "The White Album."

Russ Adams of Toronto was the villain again as he turned a 2-1 game into a 6-1 Toronto win with a grand slam in the eighth off of Jonathan Papelbon. Boston slid all the way to the #3 spot in the overall AL standings and presently would start the playoffs on the road in Anaheim.

The Yankees are now just 1 1/2 games back and one game back in the AILC after a 2-1 win over Baltimore. The O's loaded the bases in the ninth against Mariano Rivera, but Scott Moore was caught looking to end the game. The Yankees win eliminated Toronto.

Both the Yankees and Red Sox are off Thursday. The Red Sox play at Tampa Bay over the weekend and the Yankees will host Toronto.

Tampa Bay? They lost. Look down.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland lowered its magic number to 3 and its lead in the division to 7 1/2 games as they completed a sweep of second place Detroit at home, 4-2, as C.C. Sabathia won his 18th game.

Cleveland and Detroit are both off Thursday. Cleveland hosts Oakland over the weekend and Detroit will have Kansas City visit.

The White Sox switched places with Kansas City for last place. Minnesota finished off a home sweep of Texas.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels lowered their magic number to 3 and their lead stayed at 8 1/2 games after they edged Tampa Bay 2-1 as I looked on despite apparently suffering from a virus of some sort. You gotta watch hurt this time of year! Ervin Santana struck out 10 batters and the Angels struck out 14 overall. The Rays pitchers struck out 10.

Seattle turned things around a little too late, but still swept Oakland on the road with a 9-5 win.

Seattle plays in Anaheim Thursday to start a four-game series. Two wins by the Angels clinches the division.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead Detroit by 5 1/2 games and their magic number to make the playoffs is 5.

Only one game tomorrow in the AL with any postseason implications:

Ryan Feierabend (Seattle) vs Jared Weaver (Los Angeles). An Angels win moves them into the #1 spot in the AL temporarily although they would lose tiebreakers to the Red Sox and Indians.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Cubs reclaimed the yellow jersey and eliminated the Reds at the same time. Cincinnati and Chicago exchanged pairs of solo homers to make it 2-2 and Matt Murton drove home the winning run on a force play in the eighth to give Chicago a 3-2 win.

Milwaukee slipped back into second place after losing to Houston 5-4 in 10 innings. The Brewers trailed 4-2 in the ninth, but tied it up on a 2-run homer by Rickie Weeks. Hunter Pence had the game-winning hit in the 10th.

Chicago is off Thursday and Milwaukee travels to Atlanta. The Braves actually have a better record than the Brewers, but almost no shot at the playoffs.

The patchwork Cardinals lineup (Scott Spiezio batting cleanup at first base, Miguel Cairo batting fifth at third base) had just enough to beat Philadelphia, 2-1 in 10 innings. The people of New York rejoiced. The people of Philadelphia realized that they had seen this before.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets stopped their skid with an 8-4 win at RFK over the Nationals. Mike Pelfrey got the win, but Jorge Sosa got the big outs. In the sixth inning, the Nats had runners on first and third with no outs and the Mets were up 5-3. Sosa struck out pinch hitter D'Angelo Jimenez and then got Nook Logan to ground into a double play.

With the Phillies loss, the Mets lead increased to 2 1/2 games and their magic number fell to 9. Both teams play tomorrow with Philadelphia playing in Washington and the Mets playing in Florida.

The Braves swept last place Florida at home.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Arizona held on to the best record in the NL West and the league overall with a 6-4 win at home over the Giants. Juan Cruz struck out one batter in the fifth and that was enough to get him credit for the win. Jose Valverde picked up save #46.

The Padres are just one game back after pulling out a 5-3 win thanks to a 2-out, 3-run homer by Scott Hariston off of Matt Capps of the Pirates.

Arizona is off Thursday while the Padres play the Pirates at home once more.

The Rockies hoped to make their three remaining games in San Diego relevant after pulling out a 6-5 win over the Dodgers at home.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

The Padres now lead Philadelphia by 2 1/2 games in the wild card and by 3 in the AILC. Colorado waves politely from 4 1/2 games back. San Diego's magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 9.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Matt Morris (Pittsburgh) vs Brett Tomko (San Diego), Tom Glavine (New York) vs Dontrelle Willis (Florida), Kyle Lohse (Philadelphia) vs Jason Bergmann (Washington), Jeff Suppan (Milwaukee) vs Jeff Bennett (Atlanta)

The Cincinnati Reds were eliminated from postseason contention with a 3-2 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Chicago has 80 wins and the Reds have 83 losses. The Reds have also been eliminated from the wild card.

The Phillies beat the Cardinals Tuesday night in St. Louis, 7-4 in 14 innings.

• St. Louis used 28 players tying the NL record for an extra inning game. That was last done by the Dodgers against the Padres on September 13, 1982. The AL record is 30 in a game by Oakland against the White Sox on September 19, 1972.
• The Cardinals used 11 pitchers, which was a new NL record, and done once before in the AL. That was back on September 25, 1992 by Seattle against Texas.
• Aaron Miles did not start, but played 13 of the 14 innings after Tony La Russa pulled starter Brendan Ryan after he swung at a 3-0 pitch. "This is the big leagues, you don’t swing at 3-0," La Russa said. "Send a message right now that that’s unacceptable," La Russa said in Derrick Goold's game story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
• Albert Pujols could not start because of a sore calf. Miguel Cairo batted third in his place. When Pujols pinch hit in the 13th, he was not planning to run if he hit the ball. He walked. Pitcher Joel Pineiro pinch ran for him.
• The nine players on the field for the Cardinals at the end of the game were (in batting order): Russell Branyan 1B, Aaron Miles 2B, Miguel Cairo 3B, Kelvin Jimenez P, Rick Ankiel CF, Kelly Stinnett C, Skip Schumaker LF, Ryan Ludwick RF, Brian Barden SS. All but Miles had spent time in the minors this season.
• Mike Maroth took the loss for St. Louis. Since joining the Cardinals, he's 0-5 with an 11.25 ERA. Since coming to St. Louis, hitters are batting .402 against him.
• The Cardinals have lost 12 of 13 games. However, if they had beaten Arizona on September 7, they would have been in first place. They are now eight games behind first place Milwaukee.

Two New York ships passing in the night ...

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Boston lost again in Toronto, this time by a 4-3 score as Eric Gagne blew the lead in the 8th on a bases-loaded double by Russ Adams. The Red Sox lead in the division is now just 2 1/2 games over the Yankees and they lead Cleveland and Los Angeles by just 1/2 games for best record in the AL. The Red Sox won their season series against both of those teams.

The Red Sox magic number is still 9. It is just 4 to clinch a playoff spot. Toronto will be eliminated if they lose tomorrow or the Yankees win.

New York kept on rolling as Mike Mussina, who was tossed to the scrap heap earlier, threw seven shutout innings and gave up only three hits. The Yankees cruised 12-0 at home over the Orioles.

Tampa Bay did not win. See below.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Detroit was leading Cleveland 4-1 in the third and then ... Travis Hafner hit a three-run homer off of Justin Verlander to tie it. Victor Martinez and Franklin Gutierrez homered in the sixth off of Verlander and the Indians won 7-4 at home.

Cleveland leads Detroit by 6 1/2 games and its magic number is 5.

Minnesota and Kansas City were the other winners in the division.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels played a slightly more calm game against the Devil Rays Tuesday night and still won, 2-1.

Seattle almost blew all of an 8-2 lead, but held on for a win at Oakland 8-7.

Los Angeles has a magic number of 4 and could clinch a playoff spot as early as Thursday.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

New York leads Detroit by 4 1/2 games.

Wednesday's pitching matchups with postseason implications:

Nate Robertson (Detroit) vs C.C. Sabathia (Cleveland), Felix Hernandez (Seattle) vs Dan Meyer (Oakland), J.P. Howell (Tampa Bay) vs Ervin Santana (Los Angeles), Brian Burres (Baltimore) vs Andy Pettitte (New York), Clay Buchholz (Boston) vs Jesse Litsch (Toronto).

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets have seemingly turned an easy stroll into the playoffs into a scary and grim trek through a swamp filled with nasty creatures that take on the visage of the Washington Nationals. The Mets led 7-3 in the fifth and then gave up five runs and lost 9-8.

The Phillies are now just 1 1/2 games back after a 7-4 win at St. Louis that took 14 innings and 5:04 to complete. The Cardinals used an NL record 28 players and 11 pitchers (Wellemeyer, Johnson, Wells, Springer, Flores, Franklin, Isringhausen, Percival, Falkenborg, Maroth, Jimenez) on the mound. Two other pitchers were used as a pinch hitter (Adam Wainwright) and pinch runner (Joel Pineiro).

Atlanta used seven pitchers in a 4-3 win over Florida and one pitcher got a win, one pitcher got a save, and the other got holds. It was sort of like AYSO, everybody gets a trophy!

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Milwaukee Brewers took over the yellow jersey by .0003 after knocking off Houston at Minute Maid Park 9-1 thanks to a Johnny Estrada grand slam. Ben Sheets left after one inning with a tight hamstring. The Brewers lead by one game in the AILC.

The Cubs lost at home to the Reds 5-2 as Aaron Harang ran his record to 16-4. Cincinnati would be eliminated Wednesday if they lose to the Cubs.

The Pirates lost. See below.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Arizona got four runs in first against the Giants and Micah Owings threw a shutout. Arizona won 5-0.

San Diego remained one game back with a 5-3 win at home over the Pirates.

The Rockies swept a day-night doubleheader over the Dodgers 3-1 and 9-8. The last one came on a 2-out walkoff homer by Todd Helton off of Takashi Saito. While the loss didn't eliminate the Dodgers, the Rockies performed the baseball equivalent of Lloyd the Bartender welcoming Jack Torrance to the permanent staff.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

San Diego leads Philadelphia by 1 1/2 games.

Wednesday's pitching matchups with postseason implications:

Mike Pelfrey (New York) vs Matt Chico (Washington), Tom Shearn (Cincinnati) vs Ted Lilly (Chicago), Dave Bush (Milwaukee) vs Juan Gutierrez (Houston), Jamie Moyer (Philadelphia) vs Adam Wainwright (St. Louis), Barry Zito (San Francisco) vs Doug Davis (Arizona), Ian Snell (Pittsburgh) vs Tall Chris Young (San Diego)

One foot on the accelerator and keep your hand on the choke.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

After a dismal sweep at home by the Phillies, the first place Mets traveled to the seemingly pleasing confines of RFK to take on the Nats. With Orlando Hernandez injured, Brian Lawrence got the start. That didn't go so well and the Nats won 12-4. Jonathan Albaladejo got his first major league win in relief.

Philadelphia is now just 2 1/2 games back of the Mets after almost blowing an 11-run lead at St. Louis. The Phillies got two homers apiece from Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand in a 13-11 win.

Atlanta started three Joneses again and won 11-6 at home against Florida.

The Mets magic number is still 11.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Cubs were three outs away from falling into second place in the division, but David Weathers of the Reds didn't get anyone out in the ninth as Chicago rallied for three runs to win it 7-6. Aramis Ramirez had a triple to tie it and he scored on an infield hit by Mark DeRosa. The win helped to eliminate Pittsburgh as part of Monday's four fish night as the Astros, Twins, and Athletics also met their demise. The Cubs would eliminate with the Reds with a win tomorrow.

Milwaukee did its part to keep pace in the division as they shut out Houston at Minute Maid Park 6-0. Yovanni Gallardo pitched eight shutout innings and Chris Spurling pitched the ninth.

Since the Cubs and Brewers are tied in the AILC, the magic number doesn't really apply since the second place team can win all of its games and know that it will still force a tie.

What about the Pirates? Look below.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Arizona scored three times in the seventh to take a 5-3 lead over the Giants. And Tony Pena came in and gave up five runs on a 3-run homer by Randy Winn and 2-run homer by Pedro Feliz. The Giants won 8-5. Their seven pitchers got these designations during the game: ND, H, H, BS, W, H, S.

The Padres picked up a club record 20th shutout of the season with a 3-0 win at home over the Pirates. The Padres are just one game back of the DBacks and they're even in the AILC, which takes the magic out of the magic number. Arizona is off Thursday and next Monday while San Diego plays every day the rest of the way. Arizona does have a magic number to clinch a playoff spot: 10. (The DBacks just need to be better than Philadelphia to make the playoffs.)

San Diego gave up 10 hits in its shutout, tying Kansas City for the season high in hits allowed in a shutout.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

San Diego is still ahead of the Phillies by 1 1/2 games. The Dodgers are 3 games back and the Rockies and Brewers are 5 games back. San Diego's magic number to clinch the wild card is 12.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Chad Billingsley and David Wells (Los Angeles) vs Jeff Francis and Mark Redman (Colorado), John Maine (New York) vs Joel Hanrahan (Washington), Aaron Harang (Cincinnati) vs Carlos Zambrano (Chicago), Cole Hamels (Philadelphia) vs Todd Wellemeyer (St. Louis), Jonathan Sanchez (San Francisco) vs Micah Owings (Arizona), Tom Gorzelanny (Pittsburgh) vs Greg Maddux (San Diego).

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Frank Thomas belted three home runs at home for the Blue Jays as they bounced the Red Sox 6-1.

The Yankees are now 3 1/2 games back after they held on for an 8-5 win over the Orioles. Daniel Cabrera lost his 17th game to take over the AL lead in that category.

Tampa Bay? See below.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland started its process of driving the final nails in Detroit's coffin as they beat the Tigers 6-5 at home in 11 innings. The Tigers blew a 5-2 lead in the eighth and then lost in the 11th when Zach Miner gave up a home run to Casey Blake.

The Indians lead the division by 5 1/2 games and their magic number is now 7.

The Twins scored twice in the ninth to pull out a win over Texas.

Chicago scored 11 runs in the fifth inning and no other runs and beat the Royals 11-3. The White Sox moved into fourth and the Royals back into the cellar.

How did it happen? Take a deep breath.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels and Devil Rays combined for 17 runs, 31 hits, and took 3:48 to finish the game and the Angels won it 10-7. Edwin Jackson of Tampa Bay gave up 14 hits, matching the high in the majors for a starter this season. It had been done five times before, twice by Chris Sampson of Houston. The other pitchers were Ervin Santana, Scott Baker, and Mark Buehrle. B.J. Upton of the Rays had a straight steal of home against Kelvim Escobar.

The Angels lowered the magic number to 5 and kept their lead at 8 1/2 games over Seattle. The Mariners won in Oakland 4-0.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead Detroit by 3 1/2 games and have a magic number of 9 to clinch a playoff spot.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups with postseason implications:

Jon Leicester (Baltimore) vs Mike Mussina (New York), Justin Verlander (Detroit) vs Jake Westbrook (Cleveland), Jon Lester (Boston) vs A.J. Burnett (Toronto), Jeff Weaver (Seattle) vs Chad Gaudin (Oakland), Jason Hammel (Tampa Bay) vs John Lackey (Los Angeles)

The Yankees beat Baltimore 8-5 tonight. That was the Yankees 86th win and that eliminated

Oakland and ...

Minnesota, both of whom have already lost 77 games and been eliminated from their division races as well.

The Houston Astros were eliminated from postseason contention when they lost to Milwaukee 5-0 at home tonight. Their 85 losses, the most in the NL, were finally enough to knock them out of the NL Central race.

Page 82 - Most losses, one month, team - Washington, AL, 1909 - 29

When the subject of truly dreadful major league baseball teams comes up, the 1909 Washington Senators never seems to come up much. But while they may not have had the colorfulness of the 1962 Mets (40-120), the sad after effect of syndicate ownership of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134), the fire sale look of the 1916 Philadelphia A's (36-117), or even the woefully inexperienced 1952 Pirates (42-112). But the 1909 Senators could match their futility with anyone, finishing the season 42-110, 56 games behind first place Detroit.

Continue reading...

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Phillies won their eighth straight game agains the Mets and it was not a pretty sight. The Mets made six errors, walked 11 batters, hit another, and saw their lead in the division to 3 1/2 games as the Phillies won 10-6. Greg Dobbs came off the bench for a pinch hit grand slam during a 5-run sixth. The Mets magic number is stalled at 11. The Mets had never played a game in their history where they had walked 11 and allowed at least four batters to reach on errors. Two of the errors were throwing errors after runners were already on.

This was the last meeting of the season between the two teams and they play fairly easy schedules in the final two weeks. The Mets play six against Washington, seven against Florida, and one against the Cardinals. The Phillies play three against the Cardinals, seven against Washington, and six against Atlanta.

Tim Hudson picked up the first complete game of the year for Atlanta in Washington.

The Nationals and the Marlins are the only two teams in the majors without a complete game and have just two weeks to avoid becoming the first teams to go a whole major league season without one.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

Chicago is still one game ahead of Milwaukee. The Cubs rode a 3-run homer off from Matt Murton in the third and won 4-3 in St. Louis. Mark Mulder started his third game of the season for the Cardinals. He's lost all three and his ERA is 12.27. But it's not like Tony La Russa has a lot of options. Kip Wells? Mike Maroth? Anthony Reyes?

The Cubs also became the first team to clinch its Metro Area Battle

The Brewers stayed one game back with a 5-2 win at home against the Reds. Carlos Villanueva threw seven shutout innings.

The Cubs remaining games are six with Cincinnati (home and home), three with Pittsburgh, and three at Florida. The Brewers are at Houston for three, at Atlanta for four, and then back home for three against St. Louis and four with San Diego.

In the division's other game, the Astros staved off elimination for one more day with a 15-3 rout at home over the Pirates. Rookie Josh Anderson went 5 for 5 and got by a pitch in his last time up.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Arizona managed to avoid a sweep in Los Angeles with a 6-1 win over the Dodgers.

The Padres stayed two games back as Jake Peavy won his 18th with 10 strikeouts over seven innings. San Diego swept a three-game series from San Francisco with a 5-1 win.

Arizona's magic number to clinch the division is 12 and it is 10 to clinch a playoff spot. In the final two weeks, Arizona plays the Giants for three, the Dodgers for three and then finishes up with three at Pittsburgh and three at Colorado. San Diego finishes with four against Pittsburgh, three against Colorado and then three at San Francisco and four at Milwaukee.

The Rockies salvaged one game with the Marlins, but it's likely too late.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

San Diego leads Philadelphia by 1 1/2 games and Los Angeles by 2 1/2 games. The Padres magic number to clinch the wild card is 13.

Tomorrow's matchups for teams in postseason contention:

Brian Lawrence (New York) vs Tim Redding (Washington), Bronson Arroyo (Cincinnati) vs Rich Hill (Chicago), Yovanni Gallardo (Milwaukee) vs Matt Albers (Houston), Kyle Kendrick (Philadelphia) vs Brad Thompson (St. Louis), Kevin Correia (San Francisco) vs Brandon Webb (Arizona), John Van Benschoten (Pittsburgh) vs Jack Cassel (San Diego).

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland couldn't sweep the series against the Royals and lost 4-3 at home.

Second place Detroit moved to 4 1/2 games in and starts a three-game series against the Indians Monday night in Cleveland. Detroit finished off a sweep of the Twins in Minneapolis with a 6-4 win. The Twins are one loss or one Yankees win away from elimination.

Cleveland's magic number to win the division is 9. Cleveland finishes with three games at home against Detroit and then three with Oakland. Then they go to Seattle and play four games including a doubleheader in which the Indians get to be the home team for the first game (that will be on the 26th) and finish with three in Kansas City. Detroit, after playing Cleveland, hosts Kansas City for three and then Minnesota for three and finishes with three at Chicago.

The last place White Sox rallied from a 7-1 deficit at home against the Angels and won 9-7 on a game-ending homer by Jim Thome that also was #500 in his career.

AL West (John Montague Division):

Despite the loss to the White Sox, the Angels lowered their magic number to win the division to six, which means that the game I'm going to Wednesday could be the clincher, although it would require the Angels to sweep Tampa Bay while Oakland sweeps Seattle at the same time. Most likely, the clincher will be during next weekend's series between the Angels and Mariners.

As for the Mariners, they lost again, 9-2 to Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay won its 63rd game ensuring that no team will lose 100 games this season.

In Oakland, Nick Swisher and Vicente Padilla brawled in the first inning and both were ejected, but in the end, it was an eighth inning grand slam by Michael Young that was the difference as the Rangers won 11-9. Oakland is one loss away or one Yankees win away from elimination.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

The Yankees kept the Red Sox AL East magic number stuck at 9 as they got home runs from Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter for a 4-3 win at Fenway. The Red Sox lead by 4 1/2 games. Boston's magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 6 and the magic number to clinch the best record is 10. Boston only needs to tie Cleveland or Los Angeles to get homefield advantage.

Highlight of the game: the appearance of Bronson Kiheimahanaomauiakeo Sardinha on the field for the Yankees.

Boston's remaining schedule consists of three at Toronto, three at Tampa Bay, then back home for two against Oakland, and four against Minnesota. The Yankees will play Baltimore at home for three, then Toronto at home for four, and finish on the road with three at Tampa Bay and three at Baltimore. The odd game will be made up on Monday by the Yankees.

Baltimore beat Toronto 8-6 in 12 innings.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead Detroit by 2 1/2 games. Their magic number is 11.

Tomorrow's matchups with postseason implications:

Daniel Cabrera (Baltimore) vs Phil Hughes (New York), Kenny Rogers (Detroit) vs Paul Byrd (Cleveland), Tim Wakefield (Boston) vs Dustin McGowan (Toronto), Miguel Batista (Seattle) vs Dan Haren (Oakland), Edwin Jackson (Tampa Bay) vs Kelvim Escobar (Los Angeles).

The Atlanta Braves today are starting Chipper Jones at third, Andruw Jones in center, and rookie Brandon Jones in right. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the first time three players with the same last name started in a game since the Pirates started three Browns, Adrian, Emil, and Brant, on September 29, 1999 in the second game of a doubleheader.

The three Alou brothers did all play in the outfield together for the Giants, but they never were all starters. Something about the Giants wanting to play Willie Mays prevented that.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Cubs and Cardinals played a day-night doublheader and it wasn't until the evening before St. Louis could finally stop its nine-game losing streak and get a split. And the Brewers won to pull back to one game behind and even with the Cubs in the AILC.

In the afternoon game at Busch, Alfonso Soriano hit a 2-run homer off of Ryan Franklin in the 8th inning to give the Cubs a 3-2 win. In the evening game, the Cubs had a 3-0 lead in the third, and then the Cardinals scored four times, capped off by a Miguel Cairo triple and the Cardinals held on for a 4-3 win.

Prince Fielder hit his 46th homer and J.J. Hardy hit his 25th and the Brewers beat the Reds 5-3.

Houston had a 7-run fourth at home to beat the Pirates 9-7. The Astros would become the first NL Central team eliminated from postseason play if they lose Sunday and the Cubs win. The Pirates clinched their 15th straight losing season.

The Brewers will catch up to Chicago in games played a week from Monday. The Brewers have no off days the rest of the year and the Cubs are off Thursday and a week from Monday.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

First place Arizona lost again in Los Angeles, dropping one to the Dodgers 6-2. The Dodgers win eliminated the Giants.

The Padres moved to two games back and one back in the AILC with a 6-0 win over the Giants. Dodgers castoff Brett Tomko shut out the Giants for six innings as the Padres tied a team record with their 19th shutout, a mark they also reached in 1985.

Arizona's magic number is 13 to clinch the division and 11 to clinch a playoff spot.

The Rockies have pretty much consigned themselves to spoiler role (three games left with San Diego, seven with Los Angeles, and three against Arizona) after a 10-2 pasting by Florida.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets lost their seventh straight game against the Phillies as they gave away a game in a 5-3 loss. The Mets let one run score on an error by first baseman Shawn Green and later Carlos Beltran misplayed a Jimmy Rollins drive into a 2-run triple.

Washington beat Atlanta and the game lasted just nine innings.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

San Diego still leads Los Angeles and Philadelphia by 1 1/2 games. None of the three teams play against each other the rest of the year.

Sunday's mathcups for games with postseason implications:

Adam Eaton (Philadelphia) vs Oliver Perez (New York), Matt Belisle (Cincinnati) vs Carlos Villanueva (Milwaukee), Jason Marquis (Chicago) vs Mark Mulder (St. Louis), Tim Lincecum (San Francisco) vs Jake Peavy (San Diego), Edgar Gonzalez (Arizona) vs Esteban Loiaza (Los Angeles) in a Dia de Independencia special.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Baseball players and managers like to say that "momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher." One day after the Yankees came from behind to score six runs in the eighth and beat the Red Sox and send New England into a state of extreme paranoia, Josh Beckett came out and shut down the Yankees (aside from a first inning Derek Jeter homer) and the Red Sox won 10-1. The Red Sox now lead the division by 5 1/2. The magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 6, to clinch the division is 9, and to clinch the best record in the league is 11.

Kurt Birkins of the Orioles didn't retire a batter and the Blue Jays won 8-3. And Tampa Bay knocked out Seattle starter Horacio Ramirez before he could retire a batter as the Devil Rays won 6-2.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland kept on rolling to the division title with a 6-0 win against Kansas City. Fausto Carmona won his 17th game of the season.

Detroit scored four times in the first at Minneapolis against Johan Santana, but YORMAN BOZARDO couldn't go five innings and Joel Zumaya got the win for the Tigers 4-3. Minnesota was eliminated from winning the Central, but is still alive for the wild card.

Cleveland leads the division by 5 1/2 games. Their magic number to clinch the division and a playoff spot is 9. Cleveland starts a 3-game series in Detroit Monday.

Interested in the White Sox? Then skip down about about four lines. Also tell me why.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels lowered their magic number to win the AL West to 7 and increased their lead to 8 1/2 games with a 2-1 win over the White Sox in Chicago. Seattle would lose to Tampa Bay later in the evening.

Oakland eliminated Texas from postseason play with a 7-3 win at home. Oakland was eliminated from the AL West race when the Angels won.

Sunday's matchups for games with postseason implications:

Billy Buckner (Kansas City) vs Aaron Laffey (Cleveland), Joe Saunders (Los Angeles) vs Mark Buehrle (Chicago), Jair Jurrjens (Detroit) vs Scott Baker (Minnesota), Andy Sonnanstine (Tampa Bay) vs Jarrod Washburn (Seattle), Roger Clemens (New York) vs Curt Schilling (Boston)

The Texas Rangers were eliminated from postseason contention with a 7-3 loss in Oakland today. That gave the Rangers 79 losses and they will not be able to catch the current wild card leader, New York, which has 84 wins.

The San Francisco Giants were eliminated from playoff contention today when the Dodgers beat Arizona

The Giants have 81 losses. The Padres and Dodgers both (as of this time) have 79 wins. Both teams play the Rockies who have 76 wins. If the Padres went 2-1 against Colorado and won no other games, they would have 81 wins. However, the Rockies and Dodgers play each other seven times, so one team will have to win at least four games. If the Rockies won four of the games against the Dodgers, Los Angeles would still have 82 wins. If the Rockies won five of the games against the Dodgers, combined with their one theoretical win over the Padres, Colorado would have 82 wins.

The agreement between MLB, Minor League Baseball, and the Caribbean winter leagues contains an "extreme fatigue" clause that allows many organizations to prohibit their players from appearing in any games this winter in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, or Mexico. Puerto Rico has already canceled its winter season, although it was for other financial reasons.

So will there be enough players to go around? Yes, according to a report in MLB.com.

The "extreme fatigue" reasoning, as detailed in the Winter League Agreement between Major League Baseball, the Winter Leagues and the Caribbean Confederation, has been a part of the contract for almost a decade. It gives Major League clubs the right to withhold a native player from participating in Winter League and cite "extreme fatigue" if a player has reached a certain number of at-bats (500 at-bats for players from Class A to the Major Leagues, and 325 at-bats for players in short-season and Rookie League ball), innings pitched (170 innings at the Major League level, 165 innings for Class A to Triple-A, 80 innings for short-season, 70 innings for Rookie League), or games played (60 games at the Major League level, 55 at Class A to Triple-A, 35 at short-season and Rookie League).

A Dominican Republic newspaper, Hoy, had picked up on this provision, which has been around for a while, but MiLB and MLB officials both say that there will be plenty of players available for all the teams, especially since there are over 1,000 players in the Dominican Republic. 

The Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants are both likely candidates for elimination from postseason play today.

Texas will be eliminated today with a Yankees win or a loss to Oakland.

San Francisco will be eliminated today UNLESS:

1. The Dodgers lose to Arizona.
2. The Rockies lose to Florida.
3. The Giants beat San Diego.

Baseball Prospectus playoff odds

AL RIOT Numbers

NL RIOT Numbers

'Twas a night for staying up late...

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

The top three teams started to bunch up a bit.

Arizona lost to the Dodgers in Los Angeles 7-4. Doug Davis, who had never given up an earned run to the Dodgers in 30 previous innings of work, gave up four earned runs and six runs overall. The game was played in a brisk 3:32. The DBacks magic number stayed at 13 to clinch the division and 11 to make the playoffs.

San Diego moved to three games back thanks to a 10th inning walkoff homer from Khalil Greene off of Dan Giese. The Giants led 4-2 going to the bottom of the ninth, but San Diego won 5-4. That game took just 3:02 to play.

Colorado's playoff hopes became very remote after losing at home to the Marlins 7-6. Matt Treanor and Jeremy Hermida had big hits in the seventh for the win. These two teams duked it out for 3:23.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

Chicago increased its lead in the division to what could be a commanding 1 1/2 game lead over Milwaukee.

The Cubs lead the Cardinals 2-1 in the ninth and loaded the bases with two outs after a double by Felix Pie, an intentional walk to Jacque Jones, and an unintentional walk to Jason Kendall. Pinch hitter Daryle Ward cleared the bases with a double to make it 5-1.

The Cardinals got homers from Jim Edmonds and Ryan Ludwick in the ninth and then three singles to load the bases, but Bob Howry got Aaron Miles to ground out to preserve a 5-3 win. The Cardinals have now lost eight straight games. The Cubs magic number is 15.

Milwaukee had Ben Sheets starting on the mound tonight, but he was hit hard early giving up four runs in the first and the Brewers tried to come back, but lost 6-5 at home. Sheets took the loss and Chris Capuano relieved and pitched well. However, it was the 20th consecutive game Capuano appeared in that the Brewers lost this year.

And Houston slipped into last place in the whole NL with a loss at home to the Pirates.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Phillies may lose to the Marlins, Braves, and Rockies, but they seem to be able to handle the first place Mets, beating them for the sixth straight time this year. Greg Dobbs had a sacrifice fly in the tenth inning for the winning run in a 3-2 game.

Washington and Atlanta played for 13 innings and 5:13 in DC and in the end, the Nats were eliminated from playoff contention as Atlanta won 8-5. Even though the Nats are two games better than the Astros, they're done.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

The Padres lead the Dodgers and Phillies by 1 1/2 games. Colorado is 3 1/2 games back and just gets mentioned because they have games left with San Diego and Los Angeles and I have to figure them in when determining who gets eliminated. The Giants look to be the next team to go.

Tomorrow's game with postseason implications:

Ted Lilly and Sean Marshall (Chicago) vs Braden Looper and Joel Pineiro (St. Louis), Kyle Lohse (Philadelphia) vs Pedro Martinez (New York), Livan Hernandez (Arizona) vs Derek Lowe (Los Angeles), Kirk Saarloos (Cincinnati) vs Jeff Suppan (Milwaukee), Sergio Mitre (Florida) vs Ubaldo Jimenez (Colorado), Matt Cain (San Francisco) vs Brett Tomko (San Diego).

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

As some of you might have read, the Red Sox blew a 7-2 lead in the eighth when Hideki Okajima and Jon Papelbon combined for this sequence: Homer, homer, walk, double, single, double and error, single. New York won 8-7 in a nifty 4:43. The Red Sox still lead by 4 1/2 games. The Sox magic number to win the division is still 11, the magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 7, and the magic number to clinch the best record is 12.

Baltimore won its second straight, beating Toronto. Tampa Bay did not win however.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland lowered its magic number to 10 with a come-from-behind win at home against the Royals. Franklin Gutierrez hit a 2-run homer in the seventh, Victor Martinez homered in the eighth to tie it, and the Indians won it 5-4 on a Casey Blake homer in the ninth.

Detroit stayed six games out after winning in Minnesota 4-2. Timo Perez was 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and is batting .429 since his callup from Toledo.

As for the White Sox, see below.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels lost their second straight and the magic number is stuck at 9 after a 5-3 loss to the White Sox. The Angels also moved down to the #3 slot in the AL. They have the same record as Cleveland (86-61). The two teams split their season series, 5-5. The second tiebreaker is intradivision play and the Indians have a better winning percentage at 42-22 (.656) to the Angels at 28-19 (.596).

Seattle is now 7 1/2 back after a 2-1 win over Tampa Bay.

Oakland and Texas took 3 1/2 hours to play their game, which the Athletics won 11-9. Daric Barton hit his first major league home run for Oakland.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees are still 3 1/2 games ahead of the Tigers.

Pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Chien-Ming Wang (New York) vs Josh Beckett (Boston), Jered Weaver (Los Angeles) vs Jon Garland (Chicago), Zack Greinke (Kansas City) vs Fausto Carmona (Cleveland), YORMAN BAZARDO (Detroit) vs Johan Santana (Minnesota), Scott Kazmir (Tampa Bay) vs Horacio Ramirez (Seattle)

The Washington Nationals were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention with an 8-5 loss at home to Atlanta in 13 innings.

The Nationals have 82 losses and are eliminated despite the fact that the leader in the wild card race (San Diego) doesn't have 81 wins yet. However, since San Diego has 78 wins, the Dodgers 77, and the Rockies 76 AND San Diego plays Colorado three times and Colorado plays Los Angeles seven times, one of them will have to end up with at least 81 wins.

If San Diego won only 2 of 3 against the Rockies and no more games, they would have 80. The Rockies would then have 78 wins. But the Rockies and Dodgers are going to be 3-4 or 4-3, which would give one of those teams 81 wins.

Tonight's Yankees-Red Sox tilt officially clocked in at 4:43 minutes missing by 2 minutes the record for the longest nine-inning game. That was set last year on August 18 by the same two teams.

The game lasted long enough for Charlie to finally get off the M.T.A.

A tentative 2008 schedule has been made up and is awaiting approval from the concerned parties and usually the players are the last ones to sign off.

Boston and Oakland appear to be the teams chosen for an opening set in Japan. And the Washington Post is reporting that the Nats want to get the Sunday night ESPN season opening game. However, ESPN and MLB haven't signed off on anything.

It would likely be a one-game series to give Washington a chance to try out its still unnamed ballpark, which should be completed in time for the 2008 season. The Mets would be the likeliest opponent.

Thanks to Sam DC for heads up.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

Chicago reclaimed first place in the division as Milwaukee had the day off. The Cubs scored four runs in the first and beat Houston 6-2 at Minute Maid Park.

Two red teams played each other in the afternoon.

Chicago will be in St. Louis to play four games in three days with a doubleheader Saturday. Milwaukee will host Cincinnati for three games. And some people will be watching the Pirates play in Houston. The Astros are tied with Florida for the worst record in the NL.

NL West (Steve Finley Divsion):

Arizona had a productive day off as second place San Diego lost in Los Angeles 6-3. Arizona's lead in the division is now four games. The magic number to clinch the division is 13 and 11 to clinch a playoff spot. The Dodgers are 5 1/2 games back.

The Rockies fell to 6 1/2 games back of the DBacks as the Phillies routed them at Citizens Bank Park, 12-4. The Rockies used eight pitchers and the Phillies used seven.

Arizona will be at Los Angeles for the weekend, San Francisco will be at San Diego, and the Rockies will be home to play Florida.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Phillies were the only team that played and they are 5 1/2 games out. The Mets magic number to clinch the division remained at 11.

The Phillies will play the Mets for the last time this season over the weekend at Shea Stadium. Atlanta will be at Washington for the weekend. The Nats will need to run the table to avoid being mathematically eliminated and then hope for a lot of other things to happen.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

San Diego's lead was cut to 1 1/2 games over the Dodgers and Phillies. The Rockies are 3 1/2 games back.

Tomorrow's games with postseason implications:

Jamie Moyer (Philadelphia) vs Tom Glavine (New York), Tom Shearn (Cincinnati) vs Ben Sheets (Milwaukee), Carlos Zambrano (Chicago) vs Adam Wainwright (St. Louis), Dontrelle Willis (Florida) vs Josh Fogg (Colorado), Barry Zito (San Francisco) vs Tall Chris Young (San Diego), Doug Davis (Arizona) vs Brad Penny (Los Angeles)

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels forgot something about playing the Orioles. You need to score at least one run to beat them. Jon Leicester, James Hoey, Chad Bradford, and Jamie Walker combined on a 3-0 shutout of the Angels. Their lead is 8 1/2 games, their magic number for the division is 9.

Seattle won two games in a row for the first time since August 23-24 with a 5-run rally in the eighth against the Devil Rays for an 8-7 win. Ryan Rowland-Smith added a win to go along with his hyphen.

Oakland strengthed its hold on third place with a win over Texas. Texas is now eliminated from the AL West race, but not the wild card.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Boston didn't play, but the Sox magic number for winning the division dropped to 11. The magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 7. The magic number to clinch the best record in the league is 13. (The Red Sox only have to tie the Angels to get the #1 seed.)

Yankee starting pitcher Ian Kennedy gave up just one hit in seven innings in Toronto, but that was an RBI double for Frank Thomas. Thomas singled home Armando Rios with the winning run in the ninth for a 2-1 Jays win. The Yankees are 5 1/2 games behind the Red Sox. Did you know they were playing each other this weekend?

The Orioles will be in Toronto in an avian battle.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

I thought Midwesterners were an industrious lot unlike us people who live on the coasts. But they're not. The whole division took the day off.

First place Cleveland (magic number 11 and lead of 5 1/2 games) has Kansas City coming to town. Second place Detroit will be in Minnesota. And what about the last place White Sox? They get to have the Angels visit.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead Detroit by 3 1/2 games for the wild card.

Tomorrow's games with postseason implications:

Brian Bannister (Kansas City) vs C.C. Sabathia (Cleveland), Andy Pettitte (New York) vs Daisuke Matsuzaka (Boston), Nate Robertson (Detroit) vs Matt Garza (Minnesota), Bartolo Colon (Los Angeles) vs Jose Contreras (Chicago), James Shields (Tampa Bay) vs Felix Hernandez (Seattle)

A picture from yesterday's Nats-Marlins game.

Kip Wells lost his 17th game of the year for the Cardinals today in Cincinnati. That is the 33rd time since 1901 that a Cardinals pitcher has lost 17 or more games in a season. The last time it happened was back in 1990 when Bob Forsch Joe Magrane lost 17 and Jose DeLeon lost 19.

Three Hall of Fame pitchers are on the list: Steve Carlton, Dizzy Dean, and Jesse Haines.

The Cardinals are also using Anthony Reyes, who is 2-14, in the starting rotation.

Minnesota Twins GM Terry Ryan, whose teams have won the AL Central four of the past six seasons, is stepping down at the end of the season after 12 years in the job, according to a Minneapolis Star Tribune report.

Bill Smith has already been chosen to replace him.

Link via Baseball Thinkfactory.

The Pirates ownership have finally named a replacement for former team president, Kevin McClatchy: Frank Coonelly.

According to the AP story about Coonelly:

"This is a tremendous step forward in the transition of our organization," Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said. "After an extensive search process, it became clear to me that Frank is by far the best and most qualified choice to become the day-to-day leader of this organization.

"Frank brings a tremendous amount of baseball experience to this role. This experience will be a critical asset for us moving forward, including in the short term in the selecting of our new general manager and assembling our baseball team."

Coonelly has a huge job in front of him, with his first task trying to find a new general manager after Dave Littlefield was fired Friday. He also will evaluate manager Jim Tracy, who is in his second season.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Brewers stay alone in first place lasted all of one day as the Milwaukee bullpen failed late while the Cubs bullpen stayed intact just long enough.

The Brewers started the day with an afternoon game in Pittsburgh. The Pirates took a 4-0 lead, but the Brewers pecked away and tied it in the top of eighth on an RBI triple from Corey Hart.

But in the bottom of the eighth, Derrick Turnbow gave up three runs, two of them on a triple by Josh Phelps and the Pirates won 7-4.

That loss gave the Cubs a chance to move back into a tie for first and they did so with a 3-2 win in Houston. Ryan Dempster almost blew the lead, giving up an RBI triple to Mike Lamb and the Astros had runners on the corners with one out when Dempster got Eric Munson to hit into a 3-6-1 DP to end it.

Two teams wearing red played each other also.

The tie will be over tomorrow as the Cubs play Houston while Milwaukee has the day off. The Cubs will play four games, including a doubleheader Saturday, in St. Louis over the weekend. The Brewers will return home Friday to host the Reds.

The Brewers and Cubs do not play each other again this season.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

Shawn Green decided to play on Rosh Hashanah and he drove in the winning run in the Mets 4-3 win over Atlanta at Shea Stadium. The Mets lead in the division is now seven games and their magic number is 11.

The Phillies fell further back as they were shut out by the Rockies, 12-0. The Rockies used Denny Bautista, Mark Redman, Juan Morillo, and Josh Newman. The Phillies turned a triple play in the first.

The AP estimated that there were about 400 people in the stands when the Marlins game against Washington started this afternoon. How many stayed for all 12 innings is up to debate. The Marlins won and are now 1/2 game behind Houston to get out of having the worst record in the NL. The Nats were eliminated from the NL East race, but not the wild card.

The Phillies will be the only NL East team in action Thursday as they will play the Rockies for the fourth time.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Baseball's bumblebees, the Arizona Diamondbacks, won again in San Francisco, 9-4. The DBacks lead the Padres by 3 1/2 games in the division although just 2 in the AILC. Their magic number is 16 to clinch the division and 13 to clinch a playoff spot. The Giants are now eliminated from the NL West, but not the wild card.

(Bumblebees, as any devoted watcher of Miss America pageants would know, is the animal that can fly despite having a body that makes it impossible to fly, so they are a symbol of determination. Would Miss Louisiana lie to me? Apparently she did.)

The Padres lost to Chad Billingsley for the fourth time this year, falling 6-1. Mike Cameron became the second Padre batter to strike out five times in one game. The other one was Clay Hensley last year in Chicago. But since Hensley is a pitcher and he struck out five times, no one minded because that meant the Padres scored a lot. Kevin Kouzmanoff has reached base nine straight times for the Padres.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

The Padres top three pursuers, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Colorado, all have the same record at 76-69 and are 2 1/2 games out. The tie won't last as the Phils and Rox will go at it again in Philadelphia tomorrow night.

Limited action tomorrow and only a few games with playoff implications:

Jeff Francis (Colorado) vs J.D. Durbin (Philadelphia), Steve Trachsel (Chicago) vs Woody Williams (Houston), Greg Maddux (San Diego) vs David Wells (Los Angeles)

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Tampa Bay scored four runs in the first at Boston and were holding on to a 4-3 lead in the ninth with closer Al Reyes in with one on and one out against David Ortiz. But in shades of last year, Ortiz hit a walkoff homer to give the Red Sox a 5-4 win. The magic number is 12 to win the division and 7 to clinch a playoff spot.

The Yankees are still five games back, but only 4 in the AILC. New York beat Toronto 4-1. Joba Chamberlain gave up his first run, although it was unearned. The estate of George McQuillan, who started his career with 27 scoreless innings in 1907, rejoiced.

For the Orioles, see the AL West.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels scored 18 runs on just 14 hits in Baltimore as Orioles pitchers walked 13 batters and hit one and the Baltimore fielders chipped in with three errors. The Orioles threw 215 pitches. The final casualty report was Angels 18, Orioles 6. The Angels magic number is 9. I have tickets to the Angels game next Wednesday against Tampa Bay. Will that be the clincher?

The Mariners kept the Angels lead at 9 1/2 games with a rare win. The Rangers did not win (see AL Central).

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

The Indians lost in Chicago, 7-4, as their magic number stalled at 11, as Detroit beat Texas 5-1. Justin Verlander won his 17th game. Cleveland's lead is 5 1/2 games.

Gil Meche got a win for Kansas City against Minnesota.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees are still 4 games ahead of Detroit and have a magic number of 16 to make the playoffs.

Games with postseason implications Thursday:

John Lackey (Los Angeles) vs Jon Leicester (Baltimore), Ian Kennedy (New York) vs A.J. Burnett (Toronto), Jason Hammel (Tampa Bay) vs Jeff Weaver (Seattle)

There were 16 entries in the Last Five Teams to Go Down contest.

The most popular team chosen to be the last team out was Chicago, picked by seven people. Four people picked Philadelphia, two picked Milwaukee, two picked Los Angeles, and one entry had San Diego.

Two people picked the season to end with a tiebreaker playoff, one with the Cubs losing to Milwaukee and the other having the Phillies lose to San Diego.

My early calculations indicate that no team can be eliminated Wednesday or Thursday.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Dave Smith of Retrosheet announced some updates of new information to the Retrosheet site.

• There are now boxscores for available for games in 1872 and 1874.
• The team pages now list who the coaches were for each team in addition to the managers. Look at the 1946 Cleveland Indians as an example.
• Managers, coaches, and players will have their yearly total of ejections noted. As you can see from Leo Durocher's record.
• Also, if you check pitching totals, the run support a starter received is now listed.
• Split totals now include "close and late."

Contest deadline is Wednesday, 9 pm PT

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The only division race that will see the most changes in the final weeks will be this one. And the leader changed again today. Milwaukee and Chicago started the day tied, but the Brewers finished the day all alone in first.

Milwaukee got six shutout innings from Yovani Gallardo, Prince Fielder hit home run #44, and the Brewers got an easy 6-1 win at Pittsburgh.

The Cubs had a 4-1 lead early against the Astros in Houston, but the home team kept chipping away. Hunter Pence tripled home two in the fifth and Mark Loretta doubled home Carlos Lee with the tying run in the eighth.

Chicago had runners on first and third with one out in the ninth and Mark DeRosa hit into a double play. In the eleventh, Brad Lidge walked the bases loaded, but Jacque Jones flied out to center. In the bottom of the eleventh, Loretta drew a one-out walk against Ryan Dempster. Eric Bruntlett pinch ran for him and then came around to score the winning when Luke Scott tripled to center. The Astros won 5-4. The Cubs are one game back.

The Cardinals, who could have moved into first place if they had won in Arizona on Friday lost their fifth straight game, losing in Cincinnati 7-2 as Adam Dunn hit two homers, including a grand slam. The Cardinals are now 4 games out of first. They can only hope that their four-game series this weekend at home against the Cubs means something.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets lost and it wasn't pretty as Orlando Hernandez was rocked in a 13-5 loss at Shea Stadium to the Braves.

But the Phillies failed to capitalize and lost 8-2 to Colorado. The Phillies are six games back and the Mets magic number is 13.

Some people in South Florida saw the Marlins beat the Nats 13-8, but I want their names! Jason Maxwell of Washington got his first major league hit and it was a pinch-hit grand slam. It's pretty much downhill from there, Jason. Chris Seddon made his major league debut as a starting pitcher for the Marlins and went three innings and gave up seven runs.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Arizona's 6-game winning streak was snapped in San Francisco as the Giants scratched out a 2-1 win. Bob Wickman took the loss after giving up a triple and sac fly in the eighth.

The Padres are now 2 1/2 back after they hit four homers against the Dodgers and won 9-4. It's a two-team race for the division now with the Dodgers and Rockies tied at six games back.

The DBacks magic number is 16, but their biggest edge may be that they don't play the Padres anymore this year.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

San Diego leads Philadelphia by three games and Los Angeles and Colorado by 3 1/2.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Dave Bush (Pittsburgh) vs Tom Gorzelanny (Pittsburgh), Denny Bautista (Colorado) vs Kyle Kendrick (Philadelphia), John Smoltz (Atlanta) vs John Maine (New York), Rich Hill (Chicago) vs Matt Albers (Houston), Justin Germano (San Diego) vs Derek Lowe (Los Angeles), Brandon Webb (Arizona) vs Jonathan Sanchez (San Francisco).

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Tim Wakefield started tonight's game for Boston with a career 19-2 mark against Tampa Bay. The Rays knocked Wakefield out of the game early and led 8-1 going to the bottom of the 4th. But the Red Sox scored four times to make it 8-5. Then the Rays got a run to make it 9-5. Then the Red Sox scored three times to make it 9-8. And in the bottom of the sixth, the Red Sox put up a six and went on to win 16-10.

Boston's lead over the Yankees stayed at four games, but their magic number dropped to 13. The Red Sox also maintained a 2 game lead over the Angels for best record in the AL. It was announced today that the AL team with the best record will have the option of choosing which Division Series schedule it wants. One of the series will have off days scheduled between Games 1 and 2 AND Games 4 and 5.

The Yankees won easily in Toronto, 9-2, thanks to a grand slam from Jason Giambi. (By the way, if I write briefly about the Yankees it's only because they have their own blog here with many more visitors. The Griddle is officially, not just nominally, nonpartisan in the Red Sox-Yankees fight.)

The Orioles. Well, they led the Angels until the third inning. The Orioles clinched their 10th consecutive losing season.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland's lead in the division is now 6 1/2 games and the magic number is 11. The Indians had only a few problems with the White Sox in Chicago in an 8-3 win.

Detroit split a day-night doubleheader against the Rangers. In the opener, the Tigers gave up six home runs and lost 13-6. But in the night game, Jair Jurrjens came off the DL and gave the Tigers a good outing and the Tigers won 4-1.

The Royals are now officially playing out the string and with their loss to the Twins, they have had 12 losing seasons in the past 13.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels lead over Seattle is now 9 1/2 games. Their magic number is 10. The Mariners lost their 15th game in 17 tries as Oakland won 7-4.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead Detroit by five games. The Yankees magic number is 14 to clinch the wild card.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups for games with postseason implications:

Jake Westerbrook (Cleveland) vs Javier Vazquez (Chicago), Kelvim Escobar (Los Angels) vs Daniel Cabrera (Baltimore), Edwin Jackson (Tampa Bay) vs Jon Lester (Boston), Edinson Volquez (Texas) vs Justin Verlander (Detroit), Mike Mussina (New York) vs Dustin McGowan (Toronto), Dan Haren (Oakland) vs Miguel Batista (Seattle)

Kansas City.

The Yankees now have 82 wins and the Orioles and Royals both have 81 losses.

The Florida Marlins were eliminated from postseason play last night with a 5-4 loss to Washington combined with Philadelphia's 6-5 win over Colorado.

I missed this last night as my math was off, but the RIOT number people got it right.

The Marlins have 83 losses, so they can only win 79 games. The current wild card leader in the NL, San Diego has 77 wins. However, because the #3 and #4 teams in the wild card race, Los Angeles and Colorado have seven games left with each other, as well there being games left between San Diego and Los Angeles (3), San Diego and Colorado (3), and Philadelphia and Colorado (2), someone is going to get to 80 wins.

Don't forget the contest to win a ... prize ... and the undying respect of your peers.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Cubs and Brewers went back into a tie at first after a day of routs.

The Cubs played an afternoon game that was a makeup of a rainout earlier in the year against the Cardinals. The Cubs broke the game open with five runs in the fourth against Joel Pineiro and then Tony La Russa turned to the back end of his 18-man pitching staff, using Andy Cavazos, Brian Falkenborg, Kelvin Jimenez, and Mike Maroth. And the Cubs won 12-3.

Cardinal radio announcers Mike Shannon and John Rooney had this discussion of Mike Maroth today (as reported by my St. Louis correspondent):

Shannon: He's been disappointing, hasn't he?
Rooney: He's been terrible.

And Chris Duncan may miss the rest of the season with a sports hernia.

The Brewers had a chance to keep their one-game lead when they faced Tony Armas and the Pirates in Pittsburgh, but it was no contest as the Bucs won 9-0.

Nate McClouth was 3 for 5 with 3 RBI and a home run. Sometimes I wish the late J.D. Cannon managed the Pirates instead of Jim Tracy because I would like to hear him growl, "McCLOUTH!"

The Cardinals stayed three games back and are heading to Cincinnati and then host the Cubs for four games. The Cubs are going to Houston.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets won for the ninth time in ten games since dropping four straight in Philadelphia with a 3-2 win over the Braves at Shea Stadium. David Wright hit his 28th homer, a 2-run shot off of Tim Hudson, to provide the winning margin. The Mets magic number dropped to 14.

Philadelphia is still six games back after coming back from being down 5-2 in the seventh to Colorado on a 3-run homer by Pat Burrell and then winning in the 10th on an RBI double from Ryan Howard to score Chase Utley.

The Nats and Marlins played at Dolphins Stadium and the attendance was reported as 12,345 although I think that somebody was too lazy to count and just typed the numbers without thinking. Washington pushed the Marlins closer to elimination. The Nats got 21 runners on base and scored just five of them. Twelve runners were stranded, three runners were eliminated on double plays, and another was thrown out at home.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Arizona was scrambling around for a second baseman after Orlando Hudson was sidelined for the season with wrist surgery. DBacks manager Bob Melvin settled on September callup Emilio Bonifacio and put him in the leadoff spot. Bonifacio went 2 for 5, drove in two runs and made a key defensive play in the ninth. And Jeff Salazar hit a two out, three run pinch hit homer off of Brad Hennessey of the Giants to give Arizona a 5-3 win.

Arizona now leads San Diego by 3 1/2 games, Los Angeles by 6, and Colorado by 7. Arizona's magic number is 16.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

The Phillies inched up to 1 1/2 games back of the Padres. The Dodgers stayed 2 1/2 back as they were idle. The Rockies are now four games back.

Pitching matchups with postseason implication Tuesday:

Franklin Morales (Colorado) vs Adam Eaton (Philadelphia), Yovani Gallardo (Milwaukee) vs Bryan Bullington (Pittsburgh), Buddy Carlyle (Atlanta) vs Orlando Hernandez (New York), Mark Mulder (St. Louis) vs Matt Belisle (Cincinnati), Jason Marquis (Chicago) vs Brandon Backe (Houston), Jake Peavy (San Diego) vs Esteban Loaiza (Los Angeles), Edgar Gonzalez (Arizona) vs Kevin Correia (San Francisco).

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

The Red Sox lead over the idle Yankees in the division dropped to five games after Tampa Bay behind Scott Kazmir pulled out a 1-0 win at Fenway. Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz sat out the game and Julio Lugo was the DH. The Red Sox magic number stayed at 14.

Toronto lost at Detroit (see below).

The Yankees start a series in Toronto Tuesday. The Orioles, who are still in the league, host the Angels Tuesday.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels were off as they headed out to Baltimore. Their lead moved up to 8 1/2 games and their magic dropped to 12 as the Mariners lost at home to Oakland.

The A's hit a pair of grand slams in the game. One by Kurt Suzuki in the second and another in the ninth by Dan Johnson that turned a taut 5-3 game into a 9-3 rout. That was the second time in franchise history the A's had hit two grand slams in a game. The last time was August 24, 2003 in Toronto.

Texas was off and will play a doubleheader tomorrow in Detroit to start a three-game series that will take two days.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland's game in Chicago was delayed 9 minutes at the outset and then for 2 hours and 23 minutes in the seventh and finished before a crowd of about 1,000 people. The Indians won 6-2 in a game that ended at 12:36 in the morning CT. Cleveland lowered its magic number to 13 and moved to 1/2 game in back of the Angels for the #2 spot and 2 1/2 games in back of Boston for the #1 spot. Chicago has now tied Tampa Bay for the worst record in the majors. (Florida also is 61-83.)

The second place Tigers hosted a makeup of a game postponed from April 5 against the Blue Jays.

Toronto led the game 4-1 in the ninth and the Tigers had two outs and none on against Roy Halladay after Timo Perez grounded into a double play. However, Sean Casey and Brandon Inge singled and Halladay was removed for Casey Janssen. Inge moved up on defensive indifference and he and pinch runner Cameron Maybin scored on a Curtis Granderson single. Placido Polanco singled Granderson to second. Gary Sheffield walked and Magglio Ordonez followed with a single to score two runs and give the Tigers a 5-4 win. Yorman Bazardo picked up his first major league win.

The Twins beat the Royals that put Kansas City on the brink of elimination along with the Orioles.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead in the wild card dropped to 3 1/2 games over Detroit. Seattle, which has lost 14 of 16, is 5 1/2 games out. The Yankees magic number is 16 to clinch the wild card.

Pitching matchups with postseason implications:

Vicente Padilla and Brandon McCarthy (Texas) vs Chad Durbin and Jair Jurrjens (Detroit), Joe Saunders (Los Angeles) vs Victor Santos (Baltimore), Andy Sonnastine (Tampa Bay) vs Tim Wakefield (Boston), Paul Byrd (Cleveland) vs John Danks (Chicago), Dallas Braden (Oakland) vs Jarrod Washburn (Seattle)

There are 22 teams that won't move on to the postseason, and two of them have already been eliminated: Tampa Bay and the White Sox.

Your mission is to pick the last five to be eliminated. Email them to me at btimmermann@gmail.com and put them in order with the last team to be eliminated at the end. The winner will get a copy of It Ain't Over Til It's Over. It's my copy and I only spilled a little food on it. You won't notice it. Much.

Also, tell me on which date you think the last team will be eliminated. If you think a team will be involved in a tiebreaker playoff, that would be the date you should pick.

The scoring: You will get five points for each team that is in the last five and is in the right order. If you pick a team in the last five, but in the wrong order, you lose one point for each rank you miss by.

The date of the final team's elimination will serve as a tiebreaker.

If there are still ties, I will pick a winner at random.

So an entry should look like this:

5. St. Louis Browns

4. Wilmington Quicksteps

3. Providence Grays

2. Brooklyn Eckfords

1. Worscester Ruby Legs - September 28

The last team listed is the last team out.

All entries must be received by 9 pm PT Wednesday, September 12. You'll have to send the entries in by email to the address listed above.

Page 299 - Most balks, Division Series game - 1, Kevin Tapani, Chicago, 10/1/1998, Kevin Millwood, Atlanta, 10/7/2000, Andy Benes, St. Louis, 10/5/2002, Brett Tomko, 10/7/2006

Originally, this was going to be page 299 from the 2006 book, but that page was not interesting. So I switched to the 2007 online guide. Not that that page is any more interesting.

There has never been a balk by an AL pitcher in the Division Series. What does this mean? It means that umpires don't think Andy Pettitte balks.

Continue reading...

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

It looked like this division was going to get very cozy, but first place Arizona rallied from a 4-2 deficit to score four runs in the seventh and then hung on for a 6-5 win over the Cardinals.

Arizona's lead increased to two three games over San Diego and the magic number dropped to 17 as the Padres lost in Denver to the Rockies 4-2. Tall Chris Young, who looked a Cy Young contender earlier in the year, saw his record fall to 9-7, giving up three runs and two hits in five innings and striking out eight, but also walking five.

The Dodgers lost to the Giants, 4-2, on a 3-run pinch-hit homer by Ray Durham in the eighth. The game didn't take long, just 2:19, despite three mid-inning pitching changes in the eighth by the Dodgers.

The Dodgers are 5 1/2 games back in the division and the Rockies are 6 games back.

Arizona starts a three-game series in San Francisco Monday. The Rockies travel to Philadelphia. The Dodgers and Padres are off before starting a three-game series Tuesday.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Brewers got back-to-back-to-back homers to start the game in Cincinnati and hit six homers overall in a 10-5 win over the Reds. This win moved the Brewers into sole possession of first place because ...

Steve Trachsel lasted just two innings and gave up six runs as the Pirates whipped the Cubs 10-5. Freddy Sanchez almost had an inside-the-park grand slam, but he was thrown out at the plate and had to settle for a 3 RBI triple. Michael Wuertz appeared in a major-league leading 46th game that his team lost. (The link doesn't include today's games). In the last 50 years, the most games by a reliever in losses is 59 by a pair of Cub relievers: Dick Tidrow in 1980 and Will Ohman in 2006.

Houston is still in the league. The Astros lost.

The Cubs host the Cardinals in a makeup of an earlier rainout on Monday afternoon. Milwaukee will be in Pittsburgh. On Tuesday, the Astros will host the Cubs and the Reds will host the Cardinals.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets kept on winning as Pedro Martinez went five innings in a 4-1 win over the Astros at Shea Stadium. The Mets magic number is 15.

The Phillies remained six games out after an 8-5 win over last place Florida, holder of the worst record in the NL. The Marlins were the first team to be eliminated from a chance to win its division. The Marlins are still alive in the wild card.

Washington and Atlanta played. Washington won. The Nats didn't make an error for a change. And BOTH Ryan Langerhans AND Robert Fick got hits. D'Angelo Jimenez, who came into the game batting .152 went 3 for 5 and had 3 RBI.

The Braves will be in New York. The Phillies will host the Rockies. The Marlins and Nats will play their final series of the year at Dolphins Stadium. Good seats are still available.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

The Padres lead the Phillies by 2 games, the Dodgers by 2 1/2 games, and the Rockies by 3 games. The Phillies-Rockies series and Dodgers-Padres series this week may pare the field. Or it could just become tighter.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups in games with postseason implications:

Joel Pineiro (St. Louis) vs. Ted Lilly (Chicago), Ubaldo Jimenez (Colorado) vs. Kyle Lohse (Philadelphia), Tim Hudson (Atlanta) vs. Oliver Perez (New York), Livan Hernandez (Arizona) vs. Tim Lincecum (San Francisco).

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Mariners actually picked up a game in the standings. Seattle demolished Detroit 14-7. Seattle is still eight games back and the Angels magic number stalled at 13.

The Angels lost to Cleveland in the Sunday night game, 6-2.

But connoisseurs of the AL West would have enjoyed the game in Texas where the Rangers beat Oakland 12-9. The game was delayed twice by rain for a total of 89 minutes and it still took 4:08 to play.

Oakland got 9 hits and drew 10 walks and a hit batter and had 2 batters reach on errors. They stranded 13 runners. The Rangers picked up 13 hits, 5 walks, a hit batter, and one big error from Donnie Murphy. The teams combined to score eight unearned runs. Bill White was given credit for the win, his first in the majors. Oakland leads Texas by .0003 for third place.

Oakland travels to Seattle Monday. The Angels are off until Tuesday when they will play at Baltimore. The Rangers are headed to Detroit for a three-game series involving a doubleheader.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland's win and Detroit's loss pushed the Indians lead in the division to 6 games and lowered the magic number to 14. Cleveland is one game behind the Angels for the #2 spot. They tied their season series at 5-5. The second tiebreaker is division record. The Angels are 28-19 in their division (.596) and the Indians are 39-21 (.650), so it's likely that Cleveland would win that tiebreaker

The Royals were a stopover on the Yankees trip to the playoff and lost 6-3.

The Twins helped to mathematically eliminate the White Sox from postseason play. Johan Santana ran his record against the White Sox to 13-5.

Cleveland travels to Chicago Monday. Detroit hosts Toronto in a rainout makeup game Monday. Minnesota will be at Kansas City.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Boston lowered the magic number to 14 with a 3-2 win at Baltimore. Josh Beckett won his 18th game. Jeremy Guthrie left the game with an oblique strain and the Orioles are so desperate for pitching that they picked up Victor Zambrano from the Pirates to finish the season.

The Yankees won to stay 5 1/2 games out. And as pointed in the comments, Chien-Ming Wang also won his 18th game of the season.

Tampa Bay won its fourth straight series with a 3-2 win over the Blue Jays in St. Petersburg.

Tampa Bay will be at Boston Monday. The Yankees will be off and will be in Toronto Tuesday. Baltimore will just be a place where the Angels have to play before the season ends.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead the Tigers by four games and the Mariners by five games. The Yankees magic number for winning the wild card is 16.

Tomorrow's pitching matchups in games with postseason implications:

Scott Kazmir (Tampa Bay) vs. Curt Schilling (Boston), Roy Halladay (Toronto) vs. Kenny Rogers (Detroit), Fausto Carmona (Cleveland) vs. Gavin Floyd (Chicago), Joe Blanton (Oakland) vs. Horacio Ramirez (Seattle).

Ricky Weeks, J.J. Hardy, and Ryan Braun led off the first inning for the Brewers in Cincinnati against Pete Dumatrait with consecutive home runs.

That is the third time that is happened in major league history. All of the games have happened in the NL.

April 13, 1987 - Marvell Wynne, Tony Gwynn, and John Kruk of the Padres led off the bottom of the first against Roger Mason of the Giants with three straight homers.

May 28, 2003 - Rafael Furcal, Mark DeRosa, and Gary Sheffield led off the bottom of the first against Jeff Austin of the Reds with three straight homers.

Prince Fielder and Corey Hart followed their teammates homers with singles and Dumatrait was pulled after 12 pitches.

UPDATE - (Braun and Weeks now both have two home runs in the game.)

The Arizona Diamondbacks will lose starting second baseman Orlando Hudson for the season after deciding he needs surgery on his injured left thumb.

AL strikeout leader Eric Bedard will miss the rest of the season with an oblique injury. Bedard leads Johan Santana by 18 in that department, 221 to 203. Jake Peavy leads the NL with 210 Ks.

From the New York Times:

A report on Oct. 24, 1988, about the marriage of Amy Levine and David Abrams, misstated where the bride received her undergraduate degree. She graduated from Brown University, not Boston University. Amy Abrams only recently called attention to the error.

For the record, I would like to retract the statement that I made around that same date back in 1988 when I told someone that UCLA had beaten Arizona 24-0 in football on October 22, 1988.

Actually, the score was 24-3.

I apologize.

I also wish to apologize to my parents for an instance in 1977 when I didn't mow the lawn because the mower was out of gas. There actually was gas available.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):
The Orioles actually won a game. And it wasn't even close. Scott Moore hit a grand slam in the third and Baltimore beat up Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Red Sox 11-5. Matsuzaka is now 14-12. The Red Sox magic number stayed at 15.

New York pulled is now 5 1/2 games back after an 11-5 win in Kansas City. Alex Rodriguez became the first Yankee to top 50 home runs in a season since some guys named Maris and Mantle did it in 1961.

And the Yankees mathematically eliminated the Devil Rays with that win. The Rays went down fighting, scoring four times in the bottom of the ninth inning off of Jeremy Accardo of Toronto on two run homers by B.J. Upton and Delmon Young, to win 5-4.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland halted a brief two-game losing streak as C.C. Sabathia went the distance in a 6-1 win over the Angels in Anaheim. Sabathia is now 17-7 on the season. He needed just 103 pitches to go the route. Ervin Santana lost his 13th game. Cleveland is two games back of the Angels for the #2 slot. If they can win the final game of the series Sunday, they will tie the Angels in the season series at 5-5. Aaron Laffey will pitch for Cleveland against Jered Weaver of the Angels in the ESPN Sunday night game. Expect Joe Morgan to get excited over the Angels going from first to third on singles.

Detroit stayed 5 games back of Cleveland with a 12-6 win over Seattle. Timo Perez is 18 for 42 since being called up from Toledo. Curtis Granderson hit his 22nd triple. No player in the AL had hit 22 triples since Snuffy Stirnweiss did in 1945. The AL record for triples in a season is 26 done twice, Joe Jackson for Cleveland in 1912 and Sam Crawford for Detroit in 1914. No player in the majors has hit 23 triples in a season since Dale Mitchell of Cleveland did in 1949.

The White Sox won a slightly less wild game over the Twins. However, if the White Sox lose Sunday and the Yankees win again, they will be the second team eliminated from postseason play.

The #1 pick in the 2006 draft, Luke Hochevar, made his major league debut in the Royals game against the Yankees. He threw three scoreless innings.

Cleveland's magic number is 16.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels and Mariners lost as you know. The Angels magic number is 13 and they lead Seattle by nine games.

The Rangers beat the A's in Arlington and the two teams are now even in the AILC. Except it's really not important now. Unless you are the kind of person who bet on who would finish third in the AL West. If so, please develop a more interesting compulsive behavior.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees magic number for clinching a playoff spot is 18. They lead the Tigers by three games and the Mariners are way off course now, five games out.

Pitching matchups for games with playoff implications (not mentioned above):
Felix Hernandez (Seattle) vs Jeremy Bonderman (Detroit), Josh Beckett (Boston) vs. Jeremy Guthrie (Baltimore), Chien-Ming Wang (New York) vs Zack Greinke (Kansas City).

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets beat the Astros 3-1 and lowered their magic number to 16. They lead the Phillies by six games.

Philadelphia's John Ennis gave up a leadoff homer to Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins and then Florida did not score again and the Phillies won 9-1. Clay Condrey got the win in relief.

Washington played at Atlanta. Washington lowered its error total from five to three. Ryan Zimmerman dropped from three errors to just one. The Braves still won 9-2.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

Carlos Zambrano returned to form as the Cubs won in Pittsburgh, 5-1. Zambrano gave up just two hits in six innings, although he did walk five, giving him the NL lead in that category.

Milwaukee stayed tied for first, rallying for a 4-3 win in Cincinnati with single runs in the eighth and ninth innings. All of the Reds runs came on a second inning homer by rookie Joey Votto.

The Cardinals fell behind Arizona 3-0, then scored seven runs in the third to go ahead, and then blew the lead allowing the DBacks to score five times in the fourth, and lost 9-8. Dana Eveland got one out for the win. The DBacks used eight pitchers. The Cardinals are two games back of the Cubs and Brewers, but just one in the AILC.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

The Padres are still two games back after eking out a 3-1 win over the Rockies in Denver. Greg Maddux didn't walk anyone in six innings of work, stretching his streak to 54 1/3 innings without a walk.

The Dodgers are 4 1/2 back as they beat the Giants 6-2.

Arizona's magic number is 19, but they will play the rest of the season without Orlando Hudson who has to have hand surgery.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

Even if the Braves get back in the wild card race in place of the Rockies, the division name stays the same. I plan ahead!

The Padres are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Dodgers, 3 games ahead of the Phillies, and 4 games ahead of the Rockies. The Padres magic number to clinch the wild card is 19.

Tomorrow's important pitching matchups in the NL:
Roy Oswalt (Houston) vs. Pedro Martinez (New York), Ben Sheets (Milwaukee) vs. Phil Dumatrait (Cincinnati), Steve Trachsel (Chicago) vs. Matt Morris (Pittsburgh), Dontrelle Willis (Florida) vs. Jamie Moyer (Philadelphia), Tall Chris Young (San Diego) vs Josh Fogg (Colorado), Brad Penny (Los Angeles) vs Matt Cain (San Francisco), Brad Thompson (St. Louis) vs Doug Davis (Arizona).

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays became the first team eliminated from postseason contention when the Yankees beat Kansas City 11-5. The Yankees now have 80 wins and the Devil Rays, with 83 losses, will miss the playoffs again.

As I pop through the various partisan blogs of the Toaster, I notice that there is a wide array of emotions among the writers and commenters.

You can head over to Bronx Banter, where the outlook is mostly positive from Alex, Cliff and company, although the commenters still seem wary that something could go wrong. But with the Yankees very likely headed to the playoffs, tensions have eased. Except when Kyle Farnsworth pitches. Then fasten your seat belts.

Over at Dodger Thoughts, Jon tries to maintain calm amidst an uproar of anger directed at the Dodgers front office, the Dodgers manager, the press, and sometimes the weather.

Mark over at Bad Altitude has had a season-long roller coaster ride with the Rockies who have looked very good, very bad, and now look good again, although they really don't seem to have any starting pitchers left.

Cub Town has been a roller coaster as well. But it's more like one that breaks down a lot. The Cubs are still tied for first, using this year's NL Central key to success: not screwing up as much as Milwaukee and St. Louis.

The A's are almost gone and Catfish Stew can take solace in pictures involving cute babies, or perhaps the success of either Cal or Nebraska football.

And Mike can include the Phillies in a rant. And I can't say I blame him some of the time.

Baseball fans who visit the Toaster are not casual fans. They know the game well.  They live and die with their teams it seems. I just hope that sometimes that all of us don't give up on our enjoyment of the game as we examine every decision with a microscope or ask for summary executions of players or managers that mess up. The ups and downs of a baseball season are unique in American sport. No other sport offers you the chance to have an exhilirating win and a devastating loss in consecutive days (or the other way around) like baseball does. I just like to sit back and see what plays out. Others may have different ways of following the game. I won't say which way is better. I just know which way is better for me.

Cheer, boo, sit on your hands, rail at the Baseball Gods or bad karma or whichever theology works for you. The season will end sooner than you think.

And then there will be winter. You will come home from work, turn on the TV, and your team's game won't be on TV. And you'll be flipping through the calendar counting the days until April comes.

Enjoy September. It's the best time of the year for baseball.

After last night's 11-4 loss in Cincinnati by Milwaukee, Brewers manager Ned Yost faulted a mosquito bite for forcing him to scratch himself (place undisclosed) and third base coach Nick Leyva read it as the steal sign. Gabe Gross who was on second with one out, tried to steal third as Ryan Braun struck out and was thrown out for a K 2-5 DP.

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

"I had a mosquito bite in a certain spot and I was itching it, and Nick thought I was putting the steal on," Brewers manager Ned Yost said, referring to third-base coach Nick Leyva.

Baseball creed says never to make the first or third out at third base, and with Prince Fielder due up after Braun, seeing Gross take off for third was simply shocking.

"Gabe takes off and I'm looking around thinking, 'What's going on here?' " Yost said. "That was an omen to begin with."

Gross was equally shocked.

"I thought it was kind of a weird time, but he put it on and I took off," Gross said.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

Why start with this not so interesting division? Because its games are over first.

The Mets increased their lead over the Phillies to six games and reduced their magic number to 17. New York routed Houston 11-3 and the Phillies fell behind early to the Marlins at home and lost 6-3.

Washington made five errors, three by Ryan Zimmerman and lost in Atlanta 7-1 in the other NL East action.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

I've seen bad pennant races in my day. I've lived through the 1973 NL East. I've seen the 1984 AL West up close. I lived through the 2005 NL West thing. The 2006 NL Central was really just a two-team deal.

But in 2007, I'm just not sure what to think. Presumably no team can win. Yet one team has to win. Is it a paradox? Or just really bad baseball?

The Cubs and Brewers started the day tied with the Cardinals one game back but even in the AILC.

Chicago finished its game first and lost to Tom Gorzelanny of the Pirates (who has won 14 games this year), 6-2.

The Brewers started a little bit later, but were out of from the start in Cincinnati. The Reds scored six times in the first and three times in the second and set Dave Bush to the showers in an 11-3 win for Cincinnati.

The Cardinals had a chance to move into first place by .0001 if they could beat Arizona at Chase Field. However, the Cardinals were hampered by the fact that Arizona was starting Brandon Webb and also the fact that the Cardinals really aren't all that good and they have to start Russell Branyan at third base now. The DBacks won 4-2 and the Cardinals fell back to .500.

The Pirates and Astros are now tied for fifth place. Or last place if you prefer. They are both 1/2 game ahead of the Marlins for the worst record in the NL.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Arizona (which beat St. Louis see above) increased its lead to two games. They are one game behind the Mets for best record but two behind in the AILC. The Mets won the season series against the DBacks four games to three.

The Rockies tied a major league record by using ten pitchers in their 10-4 win over the Padres in Denver. Elmer Dessens, Mark Redman, Ryan Speier, Matt Herges (the winning pitcher), Dan Serafini, Matt Herges, Jeremey Affeldt, Latroy Hawkins, Jorge Julio, Brian Fuentes, and Ramon Ortiz all got into the game. Julio pitched for the Orioles in the other game where a team used 10 pitchers in a 9-inning game back on September 12, 2004. The 16 pitchers overall in a 9-inning game tied the major league record, done three times before.

Los Angeles fell 4 1/2 games back after a 5-4 loss to the Giants in San Francisco on a Dan Ortmeier walkoff homer against Jonathan Broxton. Broxton had given up just one home run all season before yesterday and has now surrendered them in back-to-back games. (Pretend I'm sounding like Jayson Stark with that sentence.)

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

The Padres still lead the Dodgers by 2 1/2 games while the Phillies and Rockies are 3 games back.

Tomorrow's starters in games with postseason implications: Woody Wiliams (Houston) vs. Tom Glavine (New York), David Wells (Los Angeles) vs. Barry Zito (San Francisco), Rick VandenHurk (Florida) vs. John Ennis (Philadelphia), Carlos Zambrano (Chicago) vs. Ian Snell (Pittsburgh), Jeff Suppan (Milwaukee) vs Aaron Harang (Cincinnati), Greg Maddux (San Diego) vs Jeff Francis (Colorado), Braden Looper (St. Louis) vs. Micah Owings (Arizona).

Sorry, Nats and Braves fans.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Boston lowered its magic number to 15 after Jon Lester and Manny Delcarmen combined on a 4-0 shutout of the Orioles at Camden Yards. The benches emptied after Orioles starter threw a pitch at Dustin Pedroia's head. The Orioles have lost 11 straight home games, a Baltimore high, and have not won at home since August 21 when they beat Texas 6-2. They lost the next day to Texas 30-3 and so began the nightmare in Baltimore.

The Yankees kept pace with a 3-2 win in Kansas City. Alex Rodriguez hit his 49th home run.

Toronto beat Tampa Bay 7-2. The Devil Rays are now one loss or a Yankees win away from postseason elimination. The Rays have 83 losses and the Yankees have 79 wins. Stay tuned to this space for updates. Except I'll be out a lot tomorrow. So maybe you should do something better with your day. I can think of many things that would be better. For example, you could go out shopping for shelf paper, I hear that stuff is handy and really makes a kitchen look sharp.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels lead the Mariners by nine games after a 3-2 win over Cleveland in 10 innings at home. Garret Anderson drove in a run in the first. It's the 12th straight game he's driven in a run, two short of the AL record of 14 set by Tris Speaker in 1928 when he played for the Philadelphia A's. The Angels announcers claim the record is 13. But the Sporting News says it's 14 and I have a tendency to doubt anything said by Steve Physioc. The Angels magic number is 14.

The Mariners lost their 12th out of 13 games, falling to Detroit 6-1.

Texas and Oakland played. One of them won. It was the home team.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

The Indians loss (see above) and the Tigers win (see above) cut Cleveland's lead to 4 1/2 games. Curtis Granderson of Detroit his 20th home run to go over 20 in doubles, triples, and home runs. He is the first player to do it since George Brett in 1979. Willie Mays did it in 1957, Jeff Heath did it in 1941, Jim Bottomley in 1928, and Frank "Wildfire" Schulte also did it in 1911.

Meanwhile in Chicago, the Twins scored six times in the ninth to take a 10-4 lead over the White Sox. Julio De Paula came in to mop up. And he allowed the first five White Sox to reach and score and then Joe Nathan came in and he gave up the tying run. The game then went on to the 13th and the White Sox pushed across a run on an A.J. Pierzynski single. The teams combined for 39 hits. And now they've done that twice this year.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead the Tigers by three games and the Mariners are now four games back.

Pitching matchups for games with playoff implications:

Daisuke Matsuzaka (Boston) vs. Jon Leicester (Baltimore), Jeff Weaver (Seattle) vs. Nate Robertston (Detroit), Andy Pettitte (New York) vs. Brian Bannister (Kansas City), C.C. Sabathia (Cleveland) vs. Ervin Santana (Los Angeles)

The Pittsburgh Pirates have fired GM Dave Littlefield, according to MLB.com. AP Story.

From today's New York Times corrections and I'll copy it out since they don't cumulate on the website. The bolding is mine.

A sports article on Aug. 27 about Hideki Okajima, an All-Star relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, misstated the nickname of a professional team he once played for in Japan, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham. It is the Fighters, not the Ham Fighters. (The error first appeared on Feb. 27 in an article about Okajima.) (Go to Article)

I am pretty sure I was one of the people who sent in a correction request. Why? Because I'm one of those people. We're really no fun at parties.

A look back at Nippon Ham in the playoffs last year. The Fighters are in first place in the Japanese Central League this year.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

As Vin Scully likes to say when a division race is very close, "You could cover up the leaders with a napkin." And such is the NL Central. And not a big napkin that you put in your lap. It's one of those little napkins that you get on an airplane when you get a bag of pretzels and a drink.

The Cubs are now in a tie with the Brewers and the Cardinals are just one game back and even in the AILC.

The Cubs blew a 4-2 lead in the eighth and lost to the Dodgers at home 7-4. Alfonso Soriano's two home runs accounted for all four Chicago runs.

The Cardinals won a rain-shortened game over the Pirates 16-4. Rick Ankiel hit two home runs and drove in seven. Did Ankiel have some help though?

Kelvin Jimenez, in relief of Mike Maroth in the second, retired the only batter he faced and he got the win. Thirty-seven other pitchers have done that this year. Jimenez made the earliest appearance for a pitcher pulling off this feat since Brian Holton of the Dodgers did it on June 25, 1988. Holton did it in the first inning.

Anthony Reyes missed out on a save in the 12-run advantage win because the rain kept him from getting the minimum three innings. Dan Quisenberry remains the only Cardinals pitcher to have a +12 run save since 1969. He did it back on July 6, 1989 against the Dodgers.

On the weekend, the Cubs go to Pittsburgh, the Brewers travel to Cincinnati, and the Cardinals go to Arizona.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

The Dodgers were the only team in the division to play today and they moved to 3 1/2 games behind first place Arizona. The Padres are one game back and the Rockies are 4 1/2 back.

The Padres will play at Colorado. The Dodgers will be at San Francisco. And you should already know who the DBacks will be playing.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

Everybody had the day off. The Mets lead by five games and have a magic number of 19.

The Mets will host Houston, which is not a good team. The Phillies will host Florida, which is worse than Houston. The Nationals will be in Atlanta. Please tell Don Sutton to go to the right booth in the press box.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

The Padres lead the Dodgers by 2 1/2 games, the Phillies by 3 games, and the Rockies by 4 games. The Phillies will play the Rockies next week, the same time the Dodgers host the Padres.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

The Indians were slowed down by fellow first place team Los Angeles in Anaheim, 10-3. The Indians lead 3-1 and then gave up nine unanswered runs. The Indians fell two games back of the Angels for the #2 spot. The teams have now played seven times and none of the games were in Cleveland.

The Tigers actually picked up a game on the Indians when they scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the White Sox, 3-2. Gary Sheffield came off the DL.

What about the Royals you ask? You really didn't ask did you. Why?

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

The Red Sox dropped their magic number to 16 as they beat Baltimore at Camden Yards, 7-6. Clay Buchholz pitched three innings in relief for the win. Tike Redman became the first Oriole to get a hit off of Buchholz.

Everybody else in the division was off. The Yankees will be in Kansas City and Toronto travels to Tampa Bay.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels won, as you might have heard. Garret Anderson got an RBI in his 11th straight game, two short of the AL record of 13. The Angels lead Seattle by eight games and have a magic number of 16.

The A's and Rangers sat around and tried to look busy before they play each other Friday.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead the Mariners and the Tigers by three games. Seattle will be at Detroit for three games in a series that will likely eliminate one team from playoff contention. Ian Kennedy pitches for New York against Gil Meche. Miguel Batista goes for Seattle against Justin Verlander.

When I read the summaries of the results of Japan's Central League for yesterday, one line just stood out for me:

CENTRAL LEAGUE
Yomiuri 3, Chunichi 1, 12 innings
Hanshin 1, Yokohama 0
Yakult vs Hiroshima, postponed, typhoon

Only one of those games was in a dome: Yomiuri vs. Chunichi, which was played at the Nagoya Dome. It also took 5:15 to play 12 innings! Hanshin vs. Yokohama was played at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya.

Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times has a nice interview with Dave Smith, the founder of Retrosheet, which is an invention that is worth more to mankind than even sliced bread and is duking it out with the smallpox vaccine. You know, the thing that left the funny mark on your upper arm with four holes. If you don't have one, you're too young.

What inspired you to start this website?

The organization began informally in 1989 with the plan to distribute data by floppy disk. Of course, it would be four years before we had any full seasons to distribute! By that time, the internet was really beginning to take off and it was an obvious choice for us. Since our bedrock core principle from day one has been that we would always give our information for free to anyone who wanted it, then the internet was not only convenient, but an ideal vehicle for us. So in 1994 the website started in a very modest way.

How do you finance the site?

We don't have much in the way of real dollar costs, just the monthly fee for the website and some expenses for copying game accounts, etc. Those costs are easily covered by donations we receive, the bulk of which have come from the Retrosheet Board of Directors and webmaster. Our major "financing" is from the enormous number of hours put in by volunteers, literally thousands of hours. I shudder to think what the real dollar cost of their skilled, selfless work would be on the open market.

If someone wants to donate money to Retrosheet, how should they contact you to do it?

There are two ways. Either make out a check to Retrosheet and send it to me or use the PayPal link on the front page of our website. I wish to stress that no one should feel obligated to make a donation, no matter how much they use the website.

Disclosure: Fellow Baseball Toaster loggers Alex Belth and Cliff Corcoran contributed chapters to this book. I did not get a free copy of this book. You may take that information for what it’s worth.

When I picked up my copy of It Ain’t Over 'Til It’s Over the cover says it’s written by “The Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts.” So I was ready to sit down and hope that I would read something enlightening. Something that was “expert.” And I think I was satisfied that I did.

“It Ain’t Over …” is a collection of 13 essays (about 14 races as one covers two races in consecutive years) about what the writers deemed to be the “best” pennant races, using a set of mathematical criteria that primarily factored in how many teams were in the race until the end and how close the race stayed. However, the introduction by Steve Goldman does recognize that for most of us, the “best” pennant race is the one we personally remember the best.

The 14 races are: 1967 AL, 1959 NL, 1948 and 1949 AL (which share a chapter), 1908 NL, 1964 NL, 2003 NL Central, 1972 AL East, 1973 NL East, 1974 AL East, 1951 NL, 1984 AL West, 1934 NL, 1944 AL. It’s an interesting selection and it’s unlikely that anyone is familiar with the details of all the races.

Continue reading...

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

Two teams tied for first in the division faced off head-to-head for the last time. And 28,065 fans came to the game! That included a walkup of close to 2,500 according to the Arizona broadcast team. The Padres started their ace Jake Peavy on three days rest and that gamble did not pay off as the DBacks knocked him around for 8 runs in 4 innings and held on for a 9-6 win. The DBacks won the season series, 10-8, to gain that particular tiebreaker edge as it is looking more likely that one of these two teams will be the wild card. (Late update: Orlando Hudson is having an MRI on a sprained left thumb.)

The Dodgers lost in Chicago (more below) and the Giants got a home run from Barry Bonds in a 5-3 win over the Rockies. The Dodgers are four games out of first and the Rockies are five. The Dodgers play again in Chicago Thursday and then go to San Francisco. The other teams are off Thursday. Arizona hosts St. Louis Friday and San Diego goes to Colorado.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The first place Mets rested many of their starters and were shut out 7-0 by a quartet of Cincinnati pitchers: Tom Shearn, Marcus McBeth, Jared Burton, and Mike Stanton.

But the Mets didn't lose any of their five game lead as the Phillies blew an 8-2 lead in the eighth and an 8-6 lead with two outs and nobody on in the ninth and lost to the Braves 9-8.

The Nats took control of fourth place in the division as they completed a sweep of the Marlins 6-4.

The whole division is off Thursday, but on Friday the Mets (magic number: 19) will host Houston, Florida will be at Philadelphia, and the Nationals will be at Atlanta.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Cubs beat the Dodgers 8-2 to stay 1/2 game ahead of the Brewers who routed Houston 14-2.

The Cardinals fell two games back as the Pirates spoiled the return of Mark Mulder to the rotation with an 8-2 Pittsburgh win.

The Cardinals and Pirates play another game Thursday before St. Louis heads to Arizona and the Bucs go to Chicago. Milwaukee will be in Cincinnati. The Brewers are 26-42 on the road.

NL Wild Card (Andy Ashby Division):

The Padres lead the Phillies and Dodgers by three games and the Rockies by four games.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

The Indians won their seventh straight game over the Twins this season and dropped their magic number to 17. They are also just one game in back of the Angels for the #2 slot and 2 1/2 games behind Boston for the #1 spot. The Indians start a big four-game series in Anaheim Thursday. The teams have split their first six games this season. If they split this series, the next tiebreaker is (and I'm not sure why), intradivision record and both teams are pretty close in winning percentage there with the Indians slightly ahead now.

Detroit managed to eke out a 2-1 win in 11 innings over the woeful White Sox. Bobby Seay won again and this time it wasn't a scorer's decision. He was the pitcher of record in the 11th when Brandon Inge doubled in the winning run.

The Royals lost.

AL East (Pee-Wanninger Division):

Vernon Wells of Toronto hit a 2-run homer in the ninth off of Hideki Okajima of Boston as the Blue Jays slowed down the Red Sox march to the playoffs with a 6-4 win.

The Yankees trailed Seattle 2-1 going to the 7th and then scored eight times as Alex Rodriguez hit two home runs in the inning. The Yankees won 10-2, but they still trail the Red Sox by six games.

The Devil Rays handed the Orioles another beating, 17-2. Carlos Pena had a 3 4 2 7 line in the boxscore. Nevertheless with the Yankees win, the Devil Rays moved another game closer to elimination. Right now, the Devil Rays can win a maximum of 80 games, the Yankees have 78 wins.

Baltimore travels to Boston Thursday (Wrong other way around as Baltimore is the host.) The Yankees are off before heading to Kansas City. Toronto starts a series at Tampa Bay Friday.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees lead the Mariners by 3 games and the Tigers by 3 1/2. After the Tigers play the White Sox Thursday, Detroit will host Seattle over the weekend in what should be an elimination series. But it's looking very likely that the only race in the AL will be between Boston, Los Angeles, and Cleveland for seeding.

Baseball-reference.com now has minor league stats going back to 1992. You can check them out in some of the links that Sean Forman has on his blog for BR.

Or you can go directly to the minor league stats at this link.

For the curious few who read this post of Bob's, it was reported that former major league reliever Bill Henry had passed away.

There was one hitch. The real Bill Henry was not dead. There was a Bill Henry who died, but he wasn't a former major league pitcher. Just a guy who told people he was.

You can read the convoluted tale from the Lakeland Ledger. (Note: the link is loading very slowly for me at the moment.)

AP story followup.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

The top two teams in the division faced off again in Phoenix and this time the game was televised. And 26,063 curious people bought tickets to go to Chase Field to watch this game. The DBacks moved back to within .001 of first place with an 8-1 rout of the Padres. Tall Chris Young lasted just four innings, although he retired Short Chris Young both times. The two teams play each other for the last time Wednesday night with Jake Peavy facing Livan Hernandez.

For tiebreaking purposes, the DBacks presently lead the season series 9-8. If the Padres win tomorrow and make it 9-9, the second tiebreaker (if both teams would make the playoffs regardless), would be intradivision record where the Padres have a 6-game edge (33-23 to 27-29).

In the other intradivisional game, the Rockies rallied in the ninth to beat the Giants, 6-5.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The Cubs brought back Steve Trachsel to pitch tonight at Wrigley Field against the Dodgers and it wasn't a rousing success as the Dodgers won 6-2.

Milwaukee moved to within 1/2 game of the Cubs with a 5-3 win over the Astros at home. The Cardinals are now just one game back after beating the Pirates, 6-2 as Ryan Franklin got his first career save.

The Reds played a game. See below.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets won their fifth straight thanks to 2 homers and 7 RBI from Paul Lo Duca in an 11-7 win at Cincinnati.

The Phillies ended a three-game losing streak and stayed five games out with a 5-2 win at Atlanta. The Braves are just 1 game over .500.

As usual, the biggest game of the day in the NL East was in Washington where the Nats and Marlins played their second game of their three-game series. Jesus Flores hit a 2-run game-winning double off of Kevin Gregg to win it for Washington, 4-3. The Nats are now 62-77, the same record as the Giants, Astros, and Reds. Mediocrity loves company.

NL Wild Card (No Name Division):

The DBacks lead the Dodgers and Phillies by three games and the Rockies by four games. The Dodgers will pitch Eric Stults against Ted Lilly. The Phillies will have Kyle Kendrick facing Tim Hudson. The Rockies will try Ubaldo Jimenez against Kevin Correia. If the DBacks win tomorrow, then the Padres will become the wild card team and the name of Andy Ashby will be invoked.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

The Red Sox dropped their magic number to 17 with a 5-3 win over Toronto. Josh Beckett won his 17th game, besting Roy Halladay.

The Yankees routed Seattle, 12-3 and that will be covered below.

The Orioles actually won a game! They beat the Devil Rays in St. Petersburg 8-4. The Rays postseason hopes are on life support now. The Rays are closing in on elimination and it could come in a couple of days. Stay tuned.

AL Central (Vito Valetinetti Division):

Cleveland dropped its magic number to 18 and now leads Detroit by 7 games. Cleveland won in Minnesota, 7-5, in 11 innings. Detroit could score just one run against the White Sox and lost on an Alex Cintron homer, 3-1.

Kansas City lost (see below) and David DeJesus was hit by a pitch for the 18th time, tying the club record held by Angel Berroa and Mike Macfarlane.

AL West (John Montague Division):

Like the other two division leaders in the AL, the Angels are running away and hiding. Their lead over Seattle is 7 1/2 games after a 4-3 win over Oakland.

Texas beat Kansas City in Arlington, 9-8 and David Murphy got to play all three outfield positions.

Seattle's Kenji Johjima committed a catcher's interference and in the end the Mariners had to use a guy named Wladimir. The Yankees won 12-3.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees bumped their lead over Seattle to two games and over Detroit to 3 1/2 games. The Mariners better hope that Jarrod Washburn can save their playoff hopes in the Bronx against Phil Hughes of the Yankees. The Tigers bring back Kenny Rogers from the DL to face Gavin Floyd of the White Sox. Seattle plays in Detroit this weekend while the Yankees will be in Kansas City.

Catcher's Interference Calls of 2007

Date	Batter	Catcher	Umpire	Batter's team	Catcher's team
April 4	Edwin Encarnacion1	Michael Barrett	Bob Davidson	Cincinnati	Chicago N
April 15	Rafael Furcal	Rob Bowen	Angel Hernandez	Los Angeles N	San Diego
April 16	Andre Ethier	Miguel Montero	Brian Gorman	Los Angeles N	Arizona
April 19	Eric Byrnes (RBI)	Rob Bowen	Doug Eddings	Arizona	San Diego
April 24	Darin Erstad	John Buck	Larry Young	Chicago A	Kansas City
April 25	Miguel Tejada	Jason Varitek	Angel Hernandez	Baltimore	Boston
April 27	Edwin Encarnacion2	Ronny Paulino	Laz Diaz	Cincinnati	Pittsburgh
April 28	Dave Roberts	Miguel Montero	Chuck Meriwether	San Francisco	Arizona
May 1	Rod Barajas	Brian McCann	Joe West	Philadelphia	Atlanta
May 4	Andre Ethier	Brian McCann	Randy Marsh	Los Angeles N	Atlanta
May 9	Shawn Green	Eliezer Alfonzo	Bruce Froemming	New York N	San Francisco
May 9	Travis Hafner	Mike Napoli	Ted Barrett	Cleveland	Los Angeles A
May 17	Darin Erstad	Jorge Posada	Angel Hernandez	Chicago A	New York A
June 3	Carl Crawford1	Jason LaRue	Joe West	Tampa Bay	Kansas City
June 16	Edwin Encarnacion3	Gerald Laird	Ron Kulpa	Cincinnati	Texas
June 22	Edwin Encarnacion4	Jamie Burke	Mike Winters	Cincinnati	Seattle
July 3	Travis Hafner	Ivan Rodriguez	Derryl Cousins	Cleveland	Detroit
July 7	Carl Crawford2	John Buck	James Hoye	Tampa Bay	Kansas City
July 15	Carl Crawford3	Jorge Posada	CB Bucknor	Tampa Bay	New York A
July 22	Alex Gordon*	Mike Rabelo	Dan Iassogna	Kansas City	Detroit
July 27	Magglio Ordonez (RBI)	Mike Napoli	Bill Miller	Detroit	Los Angeles A
August 4	Nelson Cruz (RBI)	Gregg Zaun	Greg Gibson	Texas	Toronto
August 13	Mark Kotsay	Ivan Rodriguez	Derryl Cousins	Oakland	Detroit
September 4	Hideki Matsui	Kenji Johjima	Greg Gibson	New York A	Seattle
September 30	Jose Guillen	Guillermo Quiroz	Bill Miller	Seattle	Texas

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

The top two teams in the NL West played each other today in Arizona. No, they really did! But neither the Padres or Diamondbacks televised the game. So I've had to rely on what people wrote about the game.

The game drew just a little over 30,000 (30,531 exactly) people to Chase Field to see the Padres hit five home runs, four of them off of Micah Owins, two of them by Brian Giles, as San Diego easily won, 10-2. Greg Maddux extended his walkless innings streak to 49 1/3.

Tall Chris Young faces Doug Davis tomorrow. And the dulcet tones of Matt Vasgersian and Daron Sutton should be available to entertain and enlighten fans throughout San Diego and Greater Phoenix. Arizona is 26-29 against NL West clubs. San Diego is 33-22 in intradivisional games.

When the Padres and DBacks played last week in San Diego for four games the largest was just 29,021. So if there's a pennant race going on in the NL West please alert the people of San Diego and Phoenix.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The top three teams in the division lost and all of the games were pretty ugly.

Carlos Zambrano was hit hard by the Dodgers and gave up 8 runs as the Cubs lost to the Dodgers, 11-3.

The Brewers bullpen blew a 7-4 lead in the 8th and lost 9-7.

The Cardinals lost to Pittsburgh 11-0 and Kip Wells saw his record fall to 6-16.

All three teams will try it again tomorrow with the Cubs leading the Brewers by 1 1/2 and the Cardinals by 2 games.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

Four days after being swept in a four-game series by the Phillies, the first place Mets have won four straight and got Pedro Martinez back. After a shaky first inning, Martinez settled down and the Mets beat the Reds and Aaron Harang 10-4.

The Phillies could not generate any attack against Lance Cormier of the Braves, who came into the game with an ERA over 7.50 and lost 5-1.

But in the biggest game in the division, the Nationals moved out of last place with a dominating 6-3 win over the Marlins at RFK. The attendance was reported at 27,952, not all that far off from the total in Phoenix.

NL Wild Card (No Name Division):

The wild card race tightened up. The DBacks lead the Phillies and Dodgers by 3 games and the Rockies by 4.

The Phillies will send Kyle Lohse out to pitch against Tim Hudson. The Dodgers will start Brad Penny against Steve Trachsel (pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable for that one), and the Rockies will start rookie Franklin Morales against rookie Tim Lincecum of the Giants. Aaron Cook was ruled out for the year.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

The Red Sox almost blew a 10-1 lead at home against Toronto, but held on for a 13-10 win. Daisuke Matsuzaka got the win despite giving up 10 hits and 7 runs. He was the fourth pitcher to win a game this year despite surrendering 7 runs. The Red Sox magic number dropped to 18.

The Yankees lost a game to the Red Sox in the division and likely lost Roger Clemens for one start with an elbow problem as Seattle ended a nine-game losing streak with a 7-1 win at Yankee Stadium.

But the big game in the division was at Tropicana Field where the Devil Rays continued their winning ways (9 out of 11) with a 9-7 win over the rapidly fading Orioles, losers of 11 of their last 12. Carlos Pena set a franchise record for home runs when he hit his 35th in the seventh inning, a shot that bounced off a catwalk and actually never cleared the rightfield fence.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland wasn't bothered by a loss Sunday and beat Minnesota today 5-0. What stood out most about this win was that the losing pitcher was Johan Santana. The Indians have beaten Santana five times this year. No Twins pitcher has lost five games to one team in a season since Joe Decker did so against Oakland in 1974.

The Royals won. The Tigers and White Sox negotiated a day off under their union contract and spent the day marching in parades with members of the Teamsters. The White Sox will be in Detroit Tuesday night. The Tigers are six games back and the Indians can start working on their magic number, which has reached 20.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Angels brief two-game losing streak ended as they had little trouble with Oakland, except when they used September callups in relief. The Angels now have a magic number of 20.

The Mariners actually won again! See above! They better enjoy it while they can as tomorrow they have Horacio Ramirez starting against Chien-Ming Wang.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Mariners moved to within one game of the Yankees for the wild card and they are even in the AILC. The Tigers are 2 1/2 games out.

The Ottawa Lynx, the Phillies AAA affiliate, played its final game in franchise history today, losing to the Syracuse Chiefs, 8-5. The Phillies are moving their AAA team to Allentown, Pennsylvania next season.

With no official ceremony Monday, Lynx fans and staff all found their own special way to mark the event.

The team's official scorer turned around in the pressbox and issued a rebellious cry when the visiting team argued that a first-inning Ottawa triple should have been declared an error: "Why do I give a damn?"

The assembled baseball reporters and team staff replied with encouraging shouts of, "Atta boy!"

The only remaning affiliated minor league team left in Canada now is the short season A-level, Vancouver Canadians. 

Pedro Martinez picked up his 3000th career strikeout when he fanned Aaron Harang of the Reds in Cincinnati today.

Ichiro Suzuki picked up his 200th hit of the season with a home run off of Roger Clemens in New York. Ichiro now has seven straight 200-hit seasons, only one behind Willie Keeler's record of eight from 1894-1901.

Mike Mussina relieved Roger Clemens in New York. The two pitchers have combined for 601 career wins. RATS!

Note:This story turned out to be wildly inaccurate. Bill Henry the ballplayer is still alive.

Bill Henry, a relief pitcher for 16 major league seasons, for the Red Sox, Cubs, Reds, Giants, Pirates, and Astros, died on August 27 in Lakeland, Florida at the age of 83, according to the Associated Press.

Henry pitched in the 1961 World Series for the Reds and made the NL All-Star team in 1960.

However, Henry's birthdate is listed in sources, such as Baseball-Reference.com, as October 15, 1927. This means that Henry either was 79 when he passed away or was born on October 15, 1923.

If the latter is true (and I'm thinking it is turns out it wasn't), Henry pitched his last season in the majors at age 45.

Page 372 - Fewest singles in a World Series game, both teams - 2 - St. Louis NL (2) vs Philadelphia AL (0) , October 8, 1930.

The Athletics had won the pivotal Game 5 on a combined shutout by Earnshaw and Lefty Grove, with the latter picking up the win after Philadelphia scored two runs in the ninth on a Jimmie Foxx home run. Manager Connie Mack started Earnshaw again in Game 6 on just one day's rest instead of #3 starter Rube Walberg, who had lost Game 3.

Continue reading...

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland's winning streak was snapped at eight by the White Sox and Jose Contreras. The White Sox won 8-0 and picked up 18 hits. It was the first time this season that the White Sox got 18 hits in a game AND won. They got 18 hits in a 20-14 loss to the Twins on July 6.

The Tigers looked to have a chance to pick up ground on Cleveland as well as in the wild card after getting a 7-0 lead after 4 1/2 innings in Oakland, but the A's rallied and tied it up in the ninth on a 2-run homer by Kurt Suzuki and then in the 10th Jack Hannahan singled in the winning run off of Yorman Bazardo to lose 8-7. Can I type that name again? Yorman Bazardo.

Kansas City and Minnesota played. Somebody won. Let's see.... Royals 8, Twins 1. The Twins are hosting Cleveland tomorrow. Detroit has the day off and rests up for a series at home against the White Sox starting Tuesday. The Tigers and White Sox are the only two teams not playing on Labor Day.

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

Boston's lead is back up to six games after beating the Orioles, 3-2. The O's have lost 11 of 12 and the only game they won in that stretch was 9-8 over Boston Friday and the Red Sox had the tying and winning runs on base when the game ended. In the meantime, they have had a game where they have given up 30 runs and also been no-hit by a rookie. Other than that, things are going well in Charm City.

Tampa Bay beat the Yankees, 8-2, but still were eliminated from winning the division. But if the Rays can win 25 straight, they would both tie the major league record for consecutive wins and finish .500.

The Rays host Baltimore Monday. I'll be watching.

AL West (John Montague Division):

The Rangers tried to give away their 8-5 lead in the 9th to the Angels, but couldn't do it and won 8-7. Texas felt at home in Anaheim as the gametime temperature was 97 degrees. But it's a wet heat. (It's 93 in South Pasadena as I type this close to 10 pm).

Seattle lost its 9th straight game. The team record is 14 and that was back in 1992. The losing pitchers in that streak: Tim Leary, Dave Fleming, Russ Swan, Mike Schooler, Leary again, Calvin Jones, Fleming again, Randy Johnson, Jeff Nelson, Leary for the third time, Erik Hanson, Fleming for the third time, Jones for the second time, and Brian Fisher.

Oakland won. See above. YORMAN BAZARDO!

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The status quo held as the Yankees remained two games ahead of Seattle and three up on Detroit. Seattle will be in the Bronx for three games and tomorrow afternoon's game matches Felix Hernandez and Roger Clemens.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets made the Braves irrelevant for the rest of the year as they finished a 3-game sweep in Atlanta with a 3-2 win.

The Phillies fell to four games back when they blew a 5-0 lead and the Marlins won at home 7-6. The Fish hit five home runs in the game, tying a franchise high from last year on September 11 against the Mets.

The Phillies will play three at Atlanta starting Monday. The Mets go to Cincinnati for three. Some pitcher with a 0-0 record named Martinez is supposed to start for New York.

But the eyes of America will be on DC where the Fish and Nats will play three games that may go a long way to deciding who will get a higher draft pick that they will have trouble signing next year because they don't have a lot of money. Both teams still are tied for the worst record in the NL.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The NL Central is on fire! The top three teams all won and now there are three teams ABOVE .500 in the division for the first time since April 20.

Milwaukee and St. Louis stay in the division, hosting Houston and Pittsburgh, respectively. The first place Cubs start a four-game series against Los Angeles at Wrigley.
Pittsburgh has slipped behind Washington and Florida for worst record in the NL.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

The top two teams, San Diego and Arizona lost, to the number three and four teams, Los Angeles and Colorado. The Padres lead the division by .001 and surrendered the top spot in the NL to the Mets.

Someone will lead the division by one game after tomorrow as San Diego starts a three-game series in Arizona, the last meeting of the season for these two teams. The pitching matchups will be Greg Maddux versus Mashing Micah Owings, Tall Chris Young versus Anti-Mashing Doug Davis, and then Jack Cassel against Livan Hernandez.

The Dodgers will be in Chicago for four games. The Rockies will host the Giants for three games.

NL Wild Card (No Name Division):

There has never been a player who has played for the Dodgers, Rockies, Phillies, and Diamondbacks. Players who have played three of the four include: Bobby Estalella, Scott Service, Craig Counsell, Elmer Dessens, Steve Finley, Lenny Harris, Matt Herges, Darren Holmes, Dennys Reyes, Brent Mayne, Omar Daal, Felix Rodriguez, Terry Mulholland, Andy Ashby, Milt Thompson, Jose Hernandez, and Todd Zeile.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays would become the first team to be mathematically eliminated from a chance at winning its division, if:

The Rays lose to the Yankees. (nope)

OR

The Red Sox beat the Orioles. (Red Sox won 3-2).

The Rays would still be alive in the wild card race regardless.

According to the the Baseball Prospectus playoff odds, the Rays, Orioles, Royals, White Sox, Rangers, Marlins, and Nationals are all out of it. However, the Pirates and Giants still have a chance! People of Pittsburgh and San Francisco, buy your playoff tickets today!

AL East (Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

It was a pretty good day for rookie pitchers in the AL East to put it mildly. There was a no-hitter by Clay Buchholz in Boston against the Orioles. The Red Sox reclaimed the #1 spot in the AL.

Ian Kennedy of the Yankees just had to settle for a regular old win against Tampa Bay.

Toronto beat Seattle despite losing a hit because Aaron Hill batted out of order. However, that was really John Gibbons' fault and he didn't seem to be all worked up about it.

AL Central (Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland won its eighth straight game and are now just 2 1/2 games behind Boston for the best record in the AL. Paul Byrd threw a four-hitter. The White Sox have lost 18 of 21, which matches the worst 21-game stretch in franchise history.

The Tigers remained 5 1/2 games back with a win in Oakland. And the Twins got up early in the morning (11:10 am local time start) to beat Kansas City.

AL West (John Montague Division):

Texas tried to give back a big lead to the Angels, but the Rangers held on for a 7-6 win. But the Mariners lost their 8th straight game and they remain 6 1/2 games out of first.

Oakland won lost. See above.

AL Wild Card (Dave Collins Division):

The Yankees now lead Seattle by two games for the wild card. The Tigers are three games back. Tomorrow's pitchers: Andy Pettitte vs Jason Hammel, Jeff Weaver vs. A.J. Burnett, Nate Robertson vs. Dallas Braden.

NL East (Rico Brogna Division):

The Mets have made the Braves pretty much irrelevant when it comes to the playoffs with a 5-1 win. The Braves are 6 1/2 behind the Mets with the Phillies in between them. Tom Glavine of the Mets faces John Smoltz of the Braves Sunday in a game dripping with nostalgia.

The Phillies dropped a game when J.D. Durbin couldn't retire any of the seven Marlin batters he faced in the first inning. The Marlins won 12-6. But Washington beat the Giants, so there is still a tie for worst record in the NL. The Fish will play in DC staring Monday for three games. Tickets are still available.

NL Central (Ted Savage Division):

The top three teams all won. The Cubs beat the Astros, 4-3. The Brewers routed Pittsburgh, 12-3, and the Cardinals routed the Reds, 11-3. The Cubs lead is 1 1/2 games over Milwaukee and 2 over the Cardinals games. The top three teams in the division are .500 or better now! The last time the top three teams in the NL Central were at .500 or better was on May 1.

Juan Encarnacion of the Cardinals will miss the rest of the season and might have had his career ended after suffering multiple facial fractures and an eye injury Friday night when he was hit by a foul ball while standing in the on deck circle.

NL West (Steve Finley Division):

The Padres held on to their lead in the division and the #1 spot in the NL with a 7-0 win over the Dodgers. The Padres go for the sweep against Chad Billingsley Sunday sending Justin Germano to the mound.

Arizona scored 12 runs in the first three innings against Colorado and won 13-7. Dana Eveland got the start for the DBacks despite a 20.20 ERA. His ERA is now 18. Edgar Gonzalez got the win in relief.

NL Wild Card (Terry Mulholland Division):

The NL wild card is looking increasingly like it will be one of four teams: San Diego, Arizona, New York, or Philadelphia. The Phillies trail the two NL West teams by three games as well as New York in the East. This division could be renamed soon! Stay tuned!

Arizona sends Brandon Webb out to pitch against Josh Fogg of Colorado. Philadelphia has Adam Eaton facing Scott Olsen of the Marlins.

Boston rookie Clay Buchholz, making only his second major league appearance and only because Tim Wakefield was injured, threw a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park. The Red Sox won the game 10-0. The last pitcher to throw a no-hitter in his second start was Wilson Alvarez of the White Sox back in 1991.

The last Red Sox pitcher to have thrown a no-hitter was Derek Lowe on April 27, 2002 at Fenway against Tampa Bay. That was also a 10-0 win.

The Orioles were no-hit in a 5-inning game on the last day of the season last year by Devern Hansack. The Orioles were last no-hit in a 9-inning game by another Red Sox pitcher, Hideo Nomo, on April 4, 2001.

You can feel free here, if you are so moved, to discuss the various happenings in football, both with the pointy kind played by the collegiate lads, or the round kind, such as the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, the Eredivisie, or the Faroe Islands domestic league. (The Faroese appear to have this weekend off.)

Any comments about the NECSAC will be deleted. I'm still angry at Bowdoin College.

The University of Oregon, presently the only team in the Pac-10 that does not play baseball, is going to hire Cal State Fullerton coach George Horton to head up its new program, which won't start play until 2009, according to the Oregonian newspaper (as well as the Orange County Register.)

Horton led Cal State Fullerton to a national title in 2004. Oregon's archrival, Oregon State, has won the College World Series the past two years.

Oregon gave up its baseball program after the 1981 season.