Pennant Crunch: Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Wednesday, September 24 2003 @ 08:46 AM EDT

Wow! All 3 American League Divisions were decided in one night, leaving the NL Central and the wildcard battles to be determined. The AL playoff matchups are nearly a done deal: Boston will travel to Oakland and Minnesota will visit New York unless something extraordinary occurs. Houston pitching had one really bad inning and now trail the Cubs in the NL Central. Today - Philly's last stand: two exciting young pitchers, Brett Myers and Josh Beckett, face off in Florida.

AL West: Athletics have clinched ; AL Wildcard

Team	Wins	Losses	Remaining	Yesterday	Schedule	Elim
Oakland	95	63	4	Tex 4-3	Tex 1, @Sea 3	__
Boston	93	64	5	Bal 6-5	Bal 2, @TB 3	__
Seattle	90	68	4	Ana 2-1	@Ana 1, Oak 3	2

Jorge Julio is not going to get any Christmas cards from the Mariners this year. The Baltimore closer gave up a game-tying 3-run homerun to Todd Walker in the bottom of the 9th with 2 out. David Ortiz hit a leadoff walkoff homerun the next inning, putting another nail in the Mariners' coffin.

Freddy Garcia and Scot Shields hooked up in a pitchers' duel. Freddy loaded the bases with none out in the 2nd, but a run scoring double play limited the damage to a single run. Shields' stuff was darting all over the place - the M's managed to threaten in the 5th, after Randy Winn doubled with 1 out and moved to third on Mike Cameron's single. But a weak fly ball to LF by Rey Sanchez wasn't deep to score the runner, and the rally fizzled. Shields went an impressive 8 innings and allowed only 3 hits. Troy Percival walked the leadoff man Carlos Guillen in the 9th. With 1 out, pinch-runner Luis Ugueto stole second and went to third on an Edgar Martinez flyball to centre. John Olerud worked the count full and fouled off the next pitch, at which point Percival went with his first curve ball (all fastballs to that point). John flinched, but the ball was high - a walk. Randy Winn calmly punched a groundball single into centrefield to tie the game. The Mariners had a tie game and had a life.

Freddy came out for the ninth, and promptly served up a groundball up the middle to Jeff DaVanon. Arthur Rhodes made a brief appearance and was dismissed after Garret Anderson's ground single into rightfield. Enter Rafael Soriano. One would think a bunt would be automatic in this situation (2 on, none out), but managers usually don't ask someone like Tim Salmon to bunt. Salmon put a good swing on a 1-2 pitch but produced only a flyball to RF. DaVanon stayed rooted to the 2nd base bag as Ichiro made a routine catch. News came in that the Athletics had tied the Rangers in the 9th 3-3 on an RBI-double by Jermaine Dye. Speizio hit a sharp grounder that newly-minted first baseman Willie Bloomquist (Olerud left for a pinch-runner after his walk) made a game-saving diving stop on. The runners advanced on the 3-1 putout. Melvin chose to walk the lefty Adam Kennedy (I HATE, HATE, HATE this type of move) to load the bases and face righty Shawn Wooten. Soriano blew Wooten away with a 1-2 fastball high and away and we were headed to the tenth.

The Angels' best relief pitcher, Brendan Donnelly, entered the fray. Nothing doing for the Mariners, as the side was retired on 3 flyballs. In Oakland, Adam Melhuse singled in the winning run with the bases loaded and two outs in the 10th - Seattle now had to win to stay alive in the division race. With 2 out in the 11th, Edgar drew a walk off Francisco Rodriguez, but confounded the Pacific Northwest by attempting a steal (with predictable results). In the bottom of the 11th, Shiggy Hasegawa came in to face the heart of the Angels' order. Anderson nearly reached on a grounder because of an errant throw, but Bloomquist was able to handle it. It didn't matter, as the next batter, Tim Salmon, smoked a pitch far beyond the left-centrefield wall to end the game. The Mariners had lost the game and (realistically) their season on that swing.

San Francisco scored 10 runs in the 2nd inning. The key at-bat was Barry Bonds' bases-loaded 1-out grounder to Jeff Bagwell. Bagwell made a poor throw home to try for the force and all hands were safe as Bonds reached on an error. The Giants parlayed that into ten runs and Jason Schmidt wasn't going to blow that kind of lead - the Giants cruised to a 10-3 win.

Great game in Florida last night. Dontrelle Willis battled for 6 innings, giving up 3 runs early in the game (Jimmy Rollins plated 2 runs with a double). Kevin Millwood made it stand up until the fateful 7th inning. After a pair of walks and a fly out, Jeff Conine slammed a 3-run shot to left-centre to tie the game. Millwood was chased, the bullpen poured gas on the fire, and Florida had a 5-3 lead by the end of the inning. Braden Looper struggled with his control in the 8th, Chad Fox had to relieve him and limited the damage to a single run. The Phils' rally fell short as tripe-U (Uggie Urbina) nailed down the victory. The Phillies are faced with 2 must-win games in Florida to stay alive.

The top 3 clubs in MLB all won, and are within half a game of each other for the best record in baseball. The Yankees clinched their division within minutes of the Twins doing the same. Technically, Boston and New York can still finish with 98 wins each, but NY has a better head-to-head record and so Boston would slot in as the wildcard.

Detroit shocked Kansas City last night. Instead of a coronation, the Twins were given a surprise division-clinching party.

IF the season had ended last night ...

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