Game 163

Remarkably, the regular season continues tonight when the Padres and Rockies do battle for the final playoff spot, the NL Wild Card. And what a wild weekend it was.

While the Yankees were scoring 30 runs in taking 2 of 3 from the O's, the Mets were completely flushing (no pun intended) their season down the toilet. After losing Friday night, the Mets got another shot when John Maine pitched the game of his life, 7 2-3 innings of 1-hit ball, and 14 strikeouts. The Phillies split a pair with the Nats, setting up Sunday's big finish. Only someone forgot to tell Tommy Glavine.

The veteran left-hander and future Hall of Fame member, spit the bit...plain and simple. He gave up 7 runs and didn't make it out of the 1st inning, and the Mets were dead. Down in Philly, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins were laying the smackdown on the Nats, giving the Phillies their 1st playoff appearance in 14 years.

The Padres merely needed a win to snap up the Wild Card spot, but the Brewers weren't in a giving mood, even though they had already been eliminated. 4 Padres homers didn't matter as the Brewers won 11-6. The Padres could have wrapped things up on Saturday if not for Trevor Hoffman blowing yet another big game.

The Rockies finish was as improbable as the Mets. They took 2 of 3 from AZ to win 13 of their final 14 to force tonight's tie-breaker. Even better they get to play it at home.

Getting back to the Mets fiasco. A lot of fans are blasting Willie Randolph, and a manager certainly has to take a share of the blame, but this is on GM Omar Minaya. He constructed a poor ball club. He didn't do anything at the deadline to address the teams chief needs, and then brings in an idiot like Rickey Henderson to be a "positive" influence on Jose Reyes. WTF?!