The Weekly MLB Rundown 09.19.08: 152 Down, 10 To Go...

Posted by A.J. Stevens on 09.19.2008

The season is wrapping up and the pennant races couldn't get any thicker! Plus, this week's rundown takes a field trip to Phoenix! Come in and join us, won't you?



MAGIC NUMBERS

Will the Cubs be next to clinch a division? Signs point to yes.

With Thursday afternoon's extra-innings victory over the floundering Brewers, the Cubs moved their magic number to 2. This means that the Cubs could be anointed NL Central champions as early as today. St. Louis will be in town this afternoon, and they will try to stave off the inevitable, as a loss by the Cardinals will all but eliminate them from Wild Card contention. The Brewers will face off against Cincinnati, who were eliminated the moment Dusty Baker was named manager. More on the Brewers later.

Current division leaders with magic numbers. Cannot predict now.

	East	Central	West
AL	Rays: 10	White Sox: 9	Angels
NL	Phillies: 11	Cubs: 2	Dodgers: 7

Big numbers this time of year mean big fun for playoff fanatics, or nail-biting for fans whose teams are still in the race. For those of you who may be new to the "magic numbers" term, I'll sum it up for you: Magic numbers are the combination of [1st place team]'s wins and [2nd place team]'s losses needed to ensure that [1st place team] wins the [division / wild card / candy bar]. The formula, if you're at all interested, is 163 - [1st place team wins] - [2nd place team losses]. Hooray, math!

In addition to the division numbers, Boston is a virtual lock to clinch a playoff spot this year. It's a toss-up as to who between them and the Rays will win the division, and who will win the Wild Card. To ensure a playoff spot:

Boston's magic number is 4 with Minnesota, and 3 with Toronto and New York.
Tampa Bay's magic number is 3 with Minnesota, and 2 with Toronto and New York.

Eliminated from playoff contention (sorry): Baltimore, Detroit, Kansas City, Texas, Oakland, Seattle, Atlanta, Washington, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, San Diego.

On the bubble: Toronto, Yankees, Cleveland, Houston, St. Louis, Colorado

The Wild Card picture in the National League couldn't get more exciting. Currently (7 PM EDT Thursday), the Mets are in the lead with Milwaukee, Houston, Florida, and St. Louis 1, 4, 5, and 6 games back respectively. The Mets are also a half-game back in their division, so Philadelphia is technically in the WC race as well. With 10 games left, there is a lot of wiggle room in the standings at this distance, and we could even wind up with a Big Fat Tie.

Of course, the Big Fat Tie will only happen under very exceptional circumstances. David Pinto wrote about it here in his Baseball Musings blog, and even he seems to have given up on it, as his last post on it was 2 days ago.

Diamondbacks collapse, Dodgers surge. Outlook not so good.

As noted above, the Dodgers magic number (and therefore, the D-Backs' elimination number) currently (again, Thursday afternoon) stands at 7. One month ago, the Dodgers and D-Backs were tied for first in the NL West. Two weeks before that, the Snakes were 3 games up on the Bums. While this isn't a collapse of Mets-ian proportions, it still is disheartening to watch a team that started the season 20-8 have something that resembles the worst record in the NL West since then. I know, I know... if you live on the West Coast, this is "exciting baseball". If you live east of New Mexico, you don't care. Still, this is the definition of a Quality Pennant Race, except for the fact that the second place team seems to want to give the division away.

Brewers collapse, fire manager. Reply hazy, try again.

...And FireNedYost.com collectively rejoices. This may be a case of "too little too late" for the Brew Crew, as they have fallen out of contention for the NL Central title and face a heated battle for the NL Wild Card. They'll have to dodge bullets from the Mets, Marlins, Astros, and Cardinals to find themselves in the playoffs this year. After being eliminated on the penultimate game of the regular season last year, anything less this year is sure to be a disappointment for the fans in Milwaukee, who haven't tasted playoff baseball since 1982. The Brewers will be facing the Reds, the Pirates, and the Cubs - the latter two at home - in their final nine games of 2008.

SPECIAL FEATURE - POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE
Or, A.J. recaps the game he went to last Friday.

I went to last Friday's Diamondbacks game with mixed feelings. I've always tried to support my local baseball teams no matter where I lived, so it was hard for me to go to the game knowing full well that the Snakes' playoff hopes were being flushed down the can. (See last week's column for a completely self-indulgent rant to that subject.) Still, it was the Diamondbacks, and we had decent seats, so we were determined to have a good time, regardless of the outcome.

Tradition dictated that we get to the park early enough to watch batting practice from Friday's Front Row, the restaurant that overlooks left field. Luck was on our side, as the windows that separate the restaurant from the rest of the stadium were wide open, and I was able to (gingerly) lean out and take some pictures of batting practice. Here's newest D-Back David Eckstein swinging for the fences right-field gap:



One juicy burger later, we made our way down to the field. Stopping in the team store to get a batting practice cap, a program, and other stuff I'd be forced to mind the rest of the game, we missed the switchover to the Reds' BP, as well as former D-Back Micah Owings taking a turn. Owings would prove to be trouble for his former team on Saturday.

The pre-game entertainment was interesting, as a local dance troupe made up of 5-18 year-olds performed a routine on the left field warning track...



...and then took their seats to watch the game:



That's a long way away from home plate, up there.

We were sitting in the second row of the right field bleachers. Great seats for the first couple of innings, then people showed up and sat in front of us:



I never understood people who show up late for a baseball game. Same thing with people who walk into a theater after the movie or play has started. I mean, c'mon folks, that just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The people in front of us weren't nearly as entertaining as the people behind us, a group I referred to throughout the night as the "Jay Bruce Heckling Society of Gentlemen":



These guys were great. They didn't make it profane, they didn't make it personal, and they brought the funny all night long. Poor Jay Bruce. I know he could hear them, because I'm pretty sure the whole darn stadium could hear this group of leather lungs (Chase Field gets eerily quiet during games). Here are some of the choicest taunts:

• "Hey Bruce, you lost CF to Corey Patterson, how much does that suck?"


• "#1 prospect in all of baseball, how does it feel to be on the Reds?"


• "Hey Bruce, I can't see the scoreboard, what just happened?"


• "Hey Bruce, quit biting your nails and pay attention!"

Jay did spend a lot of time with his hand near his mouth, and after a play he would watch the replay on the scoreboard. Being a right fielder can probably get a little boring, I'm sure, especially since there were 3 balls hit out there all night long (one of which Bruce booted for a triple). But still... poor guy was just getting yelled at all night long. I wonder if it was in revenge for Reds' coach Billy Hatcher, who wandered out to RF during BP and would point to the hecklers, then hit a ball into the stands 3 rows in front of them... or 10 rows over their heads. Good times.

While the action in the stands was exciting, there was a game going on a few hundred feet away. There weren't a lot of baserunners, and things didn't look up until Bob Melvin brought in then-closer Brandon Lyon to preserve the lead in Brandon Webb's shot at becoming a 20-game winner:



You can see how well that worked out. Chad Qualls came in to close out the game, and then it was Friday Fireworks time at the Chase. After that, it was time to walk through the club section of Downtown Phoenix to get back to our car and the trip home. I think my ears are still ringing.



What are your baseball game memories? -AJS

And can somebody please tell me why my stupid table is appearing like 59 rows below the previous line? Sheesh. I know HTML, honest.