And not in a good “family game night” kind of way either.
Cubs lost to the Giants today and the Rockies defeated the St. Louis Cardinals. At the start of the day our elimination number was holding strong at three. After these two events, our elimination number is down to one. And unless a miracle happens, this will be the last day of the season that I post while we’re still in contention for a playoff spot.
Wells was unsuccessful in his bid for win number 12 as San Francisco proved to be too much for him and held strong at five games out of the wild card spot. Here now is what the American League and National League wild card standings look like:
Unbelievably the American League is down to only two teams left vying for the final playoff spot. The rest of the league is out. National League proved to be a little more competitive this year as five teams are still left competing. Surprisingly, Atlanta has jumped up to second place, only two and a half games behind the Rockies after their recent six game win streak. Their elimination number is five so the rest of this week should prove to be interesting for both the Braves and Rockies. It’s only a matter of time (barring miracles of course) for the rest of the teams listed that are still in contention.This is why it’s important to kick the season off fast, stay strong and finish strong. Every game counts when you tally it all up and look at the big picture. Those one run losses early on may not have seemed like a big deal then. Now, you’d love to have those turn around into one run wins. Would make a huge difference. Play the episode of today’s Prose and Ivy Cubs Blog Talk Radio show I recorded earlier today, listed in the side bar on the right. My take on Bradley, next year’s line up and rotation, use of the young talent, Fukudome’s worth and what it all means looking at 2010 is discussed on the show.
Enjoy the talk now and leave a comment or two while we’re technically still in it. One loss or one Rockies win and our ’09 will officially wrap come the final regular season game. The rest of the way we play at Wrigley where we are much better than we are on the road. Maybe that will matter and maybe it won’t. Unfortunately that’s the stressful and depressing part of losing control of your own destiny. One to go. Will it come Tuesday? Will it come at all? Hope not. We’ll see. On top of playing at home, we’ve got Pittsburgh coming to town. We know how I feel about Pittsburgh…wish we could play them all 162 games. The Rockies on the other hand have Monday off as well and then face the Brewers. Can’t imagine the Brewers would like to do us any favors. Doesn’t look good. But again, we’ll see.
Dempster at home against the Pirates on Tuesday. All we can do is our part and hope for the best. Go Cubs Go!
Prose and Ivy 