Afternoon Baseball

As the 106th regular season of the modern baseball era ends today, we can look at a game that provided thrilling moments throughout the season and a fantastic playoff chase that, buoyed by the wild card, came down to the final day. For all that's not right with baseball, this past month (at the least) has been a golden one for the sport. Some thoughts, with the winners and losers of the weekend, too:

1. The two biggest winners today are the Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros. The Sox come away with the confidence of having taken 2 of 3 from the Yankees this weekend, and both teams can say they won their way into the postseason. But most importantly, both avoided having to play a one-game playoff tommorrow that would have eliminated the off day, messed up their rotations and put both against dangerous teams.

2. Roy Oswalt put himself in darkhorse Cy Young competition with his win today. Second straight 20-win season, and again dominant down the stretch. Pettitte and Clemens will cancel out any chance he had, but Chris Carpenter has to be grateful that postseason play doesn't count. He's looking more and more like an overworked pitcher.

3. As much as the Yankees looked like a disaster waiting to happen Friday night, the Hall of Famer in Randy Johnson showed up Saturday. But more than that, Gary Sheffield again showed that he's the most dangerous hitter the Yankees have as well as being one of the few players the Yankees have who doesn't tighten up in a big spot (along with Jeter, Bernie, Rivera and Mussina). Again, no knock on A-Rod, who's leading the team in the way that's best for everyone -- on the field, but Sheff is the most important player when it comes to the way the team approaches big moments and big games.

4. Cleveland, Cleveland. What the hell happened? How could you be swept at home by a team playing at 80%? Luckily, their window is still just opening. At least, it appears that way. But a lot will depend on the re-signing of Millwood, whether Wickman can last another year, and whether or not the Twins had a hiccup, or their lack of talent has truly caught up with them.