TWIN KILLING: After yesterday afternoon's dramatic victory over Anaheim (and Boston's defeat of the White Sox last night), the Minnesota Twins now have a share of first place in the AL Central for the first time since before their June collapse. Aaron Gleeman has a great account of the game's final play, which when all is said and done may be the second-most-played-SportsCenter baseball highlight of the season, after the Milwaukee Sausage Incident.
With a month left, there are six legitimate pennant races for the eight MLB playoff spots, including the latest Yankees-Red Sox war in the AL East, Mariners-A's in the West, the three-way battle in the AL Central, and the huge jumble in the NL that's reminiscent of last year's AFC playoff picture in football. Three teams are fighting for the NL Central lead, with six teams still in the picture for the Wild Card- and for one day last week, five different teams were tied for the NL WC lead.
In all, 17 of the 30 major league teams are still in playoff contention- parity in baseball, at least temporarily, seems to be for real, and the multiple pennant races envisioned when baseball first went to the expanded-playoff format in '95 are finally coming to fruition for the first time ever. It's going to be one hell of a last few weeks- but what if there's a three- or four-way tie for the Wild Card? Does Bud even have a rule for that?