Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Being September, not every baseball playoff race is up for grabs anymore. Still, that hardly lessens the overall drama in the final month of the 2006 regular season. Of course, at this stage franchises are motivated by different factors. I've provided a few examples, using yesterday's contests to illustrate.

Playing for pride
There's no getting around it--the Washington Nationals are hopelessly out of contention, even when you consider the relatively weak records of National League Wild Card hopefuls. It was a bit hard to believe that, though, after seeing a postgame picture of GM Jim Bowden handing a bottle of champagne to starting pitcher Ramon Ortiz. Why the enthusiasm? Ortiz no-hit the St. Louis Cardinals for eight innings before allowing a single to lead off the ninth. He eventually was lifted after giving up a solo homer to Albert Pujols with two out. To add to his big afternoon, Ortiz also hit his first career long ball against Jorge Sosa in the 4-1 victory. Sure, there was no 2006 implication for such a display (at least on the winning side), but certainly Bowden hopes to build on this sort of afternoon. It is, after all, only the team's second season in the nation's capital. I doubt that being hopelessly out of contention makes losing a whole lot easier, anyway. Apparently the champagne was intended to celebrate an Ortiz no-hitter, but the Nationals toasted him in spite of the near-miss.

Playing for perks
Large divisional leads mean that some teams have all but printed playoff tickets. Nevertheless, there are often reasons to label their future games, to a degree, meaningful. First of all, there is home-field advantage: the team in each league with the best record is guaranteed to begin at least the first two playoff series in its own ballpark, should it advance that far. Because of the American League's late victory in this year's All-Star Game, the Junior Circuit's representative potentially gets to start all three series at home, as long as it survives. At this moment, the Detroit Tigers own this advantage, while others fight in the hopes of seizing this privilege.

One of these teams, the Oakland Athletics, lost 8-1 to Texas on Labor Day. The New York Yankees, who are closest in record to Motown, seemed to be headed down a similar path at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. The Royals had chased Chien-Ming Wang after five and two-thirds innings, and took a 5-1 lead into the eighth. To that point, Kansas City starter Luke Hudson had snuffed out several potential New York rallies in his seven innings of work. Jimmy Gobble was the first delegate from the Royals' bullpen to appear in the eighth, but three more would follow. Three walks, seven hits, and ten runs later, Ambiorix Burgos walked off the mound, his team having handed the Yankees a reprieve from falling farther behind in the home field advantage race. Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano accounted for four of the frame's base knocks, including one longball apiece. Posada had the distinction of driving in runs with both. The final: 12-5, New York.

This provided a snapshot of recent success for New York, who rose to a season-best 28 games over the .500 marks. Despite the Royals' good series against several contenders in August, the most recent bullpen performance reminded observers both of the team's futile record and its legendary difficulties in relief. More importantly, though, the Yankees stayed just a game behind the Tigers in the loss column, and two overall.

Playing for everything
When I arrived home last night, the first image I saw upon turning on SportsCenter was a soaring home run toward a warehouse in left field. Yes, the Padres were home, and PETCO Park looks especially sharp in high definition. The opposing Rockies had been in a position to win, thanks to a very early two-run bomb by Todd Helton, and Troy Tulowitzki's first major league round-tripper in the fifth. San Diego had kept it interesting thanks to a three-run third that included an RBI double by Josh Barfield and just the 12th homer by Brian Giles. Entering the bottom of the ninth, the purple and black clung to a 5-4 advantage, sending closer (and former USA Representative in the World Baseball Classic) Brian Fuentes to the hill. Russell Branyan had homered earlier, but he flied out on a full count against Fuentes. After Mike Cameron and Mike Piazza walked, also on 3-2 pitches, Barfield stepped to the plate and fell into a 1-2 count. The next pitch was the aformentioned shot to left. Fuentes walked off the field rather calmly for a man who had just thrown the decisive pitch in a 7-5 San Diego triumph, but there was more at stake than a single victory or defeat in the standings.

What had transpired reminded me vaguely of a game I attended at PETCO earlier in the season. I had gone with friend of mine who drove down from West L.A. to meet me in Orange County with the eventual purpose of watching his Dodgers play in San Diego. Los Angeles held a 5-0 lead entering the ninth, but a spate of walks and shaky outings by both Lance Carter and Danys Baez allowed the Padres to tie it. Tim Hamulack surrendered the winning run in the 10th, by which point we were shaking too much to say a whole lot about the proceedings. To lose a game on the road, to a division rival and annual nemesis, by blowing a five-run lead, when you had not only bought a ticket to the game but driven over a hundred miles to get there, is a lot to bear.

The Padres were behind in the standings at that point, but rode a wave later in the summer and took first place for a time. Meanwhile, the once-surging Dodgers fell into last place by the end of July. Several roster moves by Dodgers GM Ned Colletti may have just been what the doctor ordered, as Los Angeles won nearly every game for more than two weeks afterward and eventually took back first. Entering Labor Day, their lead in the West was three games over, naturally, San Diego. The Friars, for their part, held a lead of a game and a half in the Wild Card even as they hoped to overtake their competitors to the north. Indeed, the team's newest slogan (Mission: October) can be accomplished in more than one way.

In the end, free passes issued by a closer helped the Padres rally to win at home in the ninth. Like my experience at PETCO, the game against Colorado gave San Diego a chance to advance on the Dodgers, who had dropped a game on the road to struggling Milwaukee. The Padres shored up their playoff hopes a bit by maintaining their lead in the Water Closet (as Rob Neyer calls it) while climbing within two of the Angelenos.

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