>>>>The Diamondbacks and Brewers are neck and neck for the better record between them, the Brewers holding a one game lead. It looks like that will determine which of them gets the Phillies in the first round.
>>>
>>>Well, that depends on whether the Braves can hold on to the wildcard. After both they and the Cards lost last night (to the Phils and Astros, respectively), Braves have a 1-game lead with 2 to go. The good news for the Braves is that they won't face Halladay at all or Lee again. Oswalt starts tonight and he's looked pretty good his last few starts.
>>>
>>>> That's going to be a tough matchup for anyone. Halladay, Lee, Hamels. Repeat. You probably have to go through them anyway but you hate for it to be in the first round.
>>>
>>>Actually, Charlie's planning a 4-man rotation, including Oswalt, for the playoffs. With the new, compressed schedule, 3-man would be tough.
>>>
>>
>>That's good news for whoever plays the Phillies. Nothing against Oswalt but he has been fighting injuries this season and hasn't been himself.
>
>Check out last night's box score. Oswalt was Oswalt.
>
>>
>>As you can imagine, there is some consternation here over the Cardinals' inability to capitalize on their opportunities. They had a really bad loss Thursday night (blew a lead of 6-1 in the 8th and 6-2 in the 9th) and then lost last night to the Astros. If you can't beat the worst team in baseball with a playoff spot on the line you won't get much sympathy from me.
>
>We were at the Phils on Thursday watching the scoreboard and seeing the Mets come back to beat the Cards. On the whole, I'd much rather have the Braves win the wildcard. I really don't want to face the Cards in the first round. (That said, now that the regular line-up is playing, the Phils look pretty good again.)
>

I'm still following the Brewers even though they clinched a playoff spot a week or so ago. They are neck and neck with the Diamondbacks for the second seed in the NL. It was amazing what happened last night. The Brewers won their game, meaning the D-backs had to win their west coast game to have a chance for the second seed. Arizona has the tiebreaker by virtue of winning 4 of 7 against the Brewers during the regular season but they were a game behind and had to keep pace. The Dodgers scored 5 runs against them in the top of the 10th to take a 6-1 lead. Then the Diamondbacks scored 6 runs in the bottom half to win it. Incredible! So the Brewers still haven't clinched the spot. They can do so by winning tonight or Arizona losing.

The other close race they are in is Ryan Braun's quest for the batting title. He and Jose Reyes of the Mets have been duking it out. Reyes went 3 for 5 last night, including two rare homers, to take a lead of something like three ten-thousands of a point over Braun. The Mets played their last game this afternoon. Reyes led off by bunting for a hit -- wimp! And then came out of the game so he could pin his average where it was -- double, triple, quadruple wimp! It was his decision, not the Mets manager's. According to what I read, Braun has to go 3 for 4 or better tonight.

Too bad Ted Williams can't come back from the dead to smack Reyes. As I'm sure you know, Williams was the last player to hit .400, 70 years ago. (I'm SURE you know that part). He went into the final day of the season, a doubleheader, with an average of .399-something that rounded up to .400. His manager asked if he wanted to take the day off. Hell, no, Ted said, completely in character. He played both games, went 6 for 8, and wound up at .406.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/6996357/seventy-years-later-remembering-ted-williams-magical-season