Dr. Jekyll, I Presume?

Dave Paisley

Well, Roger Clemens finally lost a second game. As I'm always telling my wife, "It's tough to win when your team doesn't score any runs." Welcome to the crappy run support club, Rocket. I think you'll find Mr. Mussina somewhat unsympathetic. "Boo hoo," he'll say. "Is da poor widdle Wocket all upset about da poor wun support? Poor baby..."

Well, maybe it won’t be quite that bad, but I'm guessing that after this embarrassing shutout, the offense won't be getting the top of the line Rolexes as Christmas gifts for helping him get that umpteenth CY award.

But if Yankee run support for Clemens has been Dr. Jekyll, and for Mussina it's been Mr. Hyde, then the difference between the two leagues this year has been equally remarkable. While the American League has proceeded to an orderly, Dr. Jekyll-like conclusion, with the participants all but confirmed with a month left to go, the National League has been nothing but an unruly Mr. Hyde. With a month to go, it looked like any of eight teams could make the playoffs, and with less than two weeks to go that number has, if anything, expanded to nine with the late addition of the Mets to the East division race. If you want to add in the not quite eliminated Padres, the number even expands to ten.

While a Mets resurgence once seemed unlikely, they are closer to a playoff berth than the Cubs, who have been widely regarded as a playoff contender for most of the season. Sure, the Mets are only three games over .500, but with the Braves and Phillies limping badly to the finish line, the Mets have a legitimate shot. Just look at their remaining schedule - nothing but the Expos, Pirates and a three game series with Atlanta in case they need to really gain some ground this weekend. Of course, the Braves have lots of games against the Marlins, but they also have the Phillies and, naturally, the Mets. The Phillies, meanwhile have a slew of Cincinnati games as well as Florida and the Braves.

So the Braves control their own destiny to a degree, but they've proven to be somewhat inept at that recently, being a mere 3-6 since the resumption of play.

So the Mets have a shot - an outside shot at four games back with eleven to play and two teams to get past, but who can root against them? (Oh, sure, go ahead...)

Meanwhile, the West division remains a three way dogfight, with the Diamondbacks, Giants and Dodgers scrapping it out. Unfortunately for them, only the winner is likely to make the playoffs, thanks to the Cardinals' recent surge. So Barry Bonds could hit 71+ homers and finish out of the playoffs one more time, robbing him one more time of a chance to shine at least once in post-season play. The Dodgers are unlikely to get past both the Giants and D-Backs, but a winning record and last week contention will be a nice climb back to respectability for them for a change.

Over in the Central, it's still a three horse race, well, if you count the Cubs as chasing the wild card. They're only four and a half games back in that, behind the Cards and Giants. Still, with a four game series in Houston this weekend, they could be toast by Saturday. Anything short of a sweep and they're about done. And speaking of Houston, they're finishing up a home series with the Cards right now (1-1) so far, and they finish out the season at Busch. There's one great thing about this unbalanced schedule - just about every contending team has head-to-head games against it's rivals coming down the stretch. Gone are the times when Seattle would be gunning for a division title playing teams like the Royals as the so-called "swing team" in the balanced schedule. (The only odd team out in this regard are the D-Backs, who get to play Milwaukee six times (as well as Colorado and LA) in the closing couple of weeks.)

St. Louis, meanwhile, gets Milwaukee and Pittsburgh in addition to the Astros, so the Cubs can't count on much help from that quarter.

So it's going to be tough to tell who's in and out for sure until the last game. By this Sunday we may be able to cut the short list down to six or seven teams, but that will be it.

Meanwhile, the M's, A's Yankees, and soon the Indians have nothing better to do than sharpen their claws. It does mean that the AL playoff teams will be as perfectly set up for the playoffs as they could wish, while the NL will be kicking, scratching and clawing all the way to the end. We can't rule out the possibility of a tie, resulting in a sudden death playoff, either. Possibly more than one, even. Which approach will stand the teams in better stead? We'll have to wait and find out...

about the author

Now here's an odd thing - Roger Clemens has lost to only two teams, the Seattle Mariners and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. If you can figure out what else these teams have in common, email Dave Paisley at drdjp@strikethree.com to claim your prize.