
With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.- Chaos Reigns in NL: The Brewers firing their manager with two weeks to go in the season and the wild-card lead says a lot about the state of their club. But it also says plenty about the wild and wacky National League. A dozen days remain in the regular season, and anyone who tells you they can sort the senior circuit out is plainly lying.
The Dodgers and Cubs are almost certainly bound for the playoffs. Three principle teams -- the Mets, Phillies and Brewers -- are battling for the two remaining spots, but the Astros are within striking distance, and the Marlins, who still have Houston, Philadelphia and New York left on the schedule, even have a sliver of a hope
For now, the Phillies appear to have the edge in the NL East after rallying past the Braves and into first place. For now, the Mets appear headed for another collapse, done in by a rickety bullpen and an offense that can't seem to scrape out a clutch hit. For now, the Brewers appeared destined to wilt, no matter who is managing them.
But the Phils still have a spotty back of the rotation, New York still has
Johan Santana and
David Wright and
Carlos Delgado and Milwaukee still has
CC Sabathia,
Ben Sheets,
Ryan Braun and
Prince Fielder and it showed plenty of fight against the Cubs Tuesday night. If the Brewers and Mets win and Philadelphia loses Wednesday, we'll know even less than we do now.
None of these teams are great, but just based on the sheer unpredictability of the races, the NL is about as entertaining as it possibly could be.