Sep 10th 2008 7:00AM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)
With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the daily drama of the pennant races this time of year without stopping to smell the roses. If you didn’t have playoff fever before last night, there’s a good chance you have it now. I’ll get to the gory details in a moment, but for now, let’s take a moment to bask in the glow of this time of year.

The Red Sox and Rays played one of the better games all season long — a see-saw affair that saw Boston darling Jason Bay give his new club a dramatic lead in the eighth, followed by the upstart Rays showing surprising fight and scoring twice on closer Jonathan Papelbon to win the game.

The White Sox dropped a pair of games to the red-hot Blue Jays, who are seven games back of the Red Sox with seven left to play against Boston, and saw their lead over the Twins shrink to just one game.

Carlos Delgado’s continued resurgence helped the Mets eke out a dramatic, late-inning win over the Nationals. The Cubs and Brewers continued to slump, in the case of the latter creating an intriguing wild-card race where there wasn’t one just a few weeks before.

Finally, out west, the Dodgers yet again got Herculean efforts out of Andre Ethier and Manny Ramirez to add another game to their division lead as the Diamondbacks wilted in the wake of ninth-inning rally.

It’s all too easy to buy into the mantra that the games in April count just the same as they do in September. Of course, it’s completely true. On the other hand, there’s nothing more fun than baseball this time of year. Any fan can appreciate that.Continue Reading