Fungos: The Last Weekend of The Season Edition

By Gary Armida

As Baseball heads into the final weekend of the regular season, there are two great races going on, one in the NL with the scramble between the Mets, Phillies, and Brewers for three spots. The other is the race between the White Sox andTwins for the AL Central crown. While Major League Baseball had to hope for a few more divisional races, these two scrambles are two of the most intense, exciting races in recent history. Each team has inherent flaws that they are trying to overcome. With heavy rains coming to New York, the Mets may have to play on Monday just to finish the regular season. Fortunately, this would be in the best interest of the organization.

The New York weather report is fairly certain that there will be heavy rain for Friday and Saturday. While weather all but killed the Astros’ playoff run, this stoppage may actually help the Mets. If both games are rained out, the Mets and Marlins would most likely play a double header on Sunday and one game on Monday. This helps the Mets put their best pitchers, Santana, Pelfry, and Perez on the field this weekend. Pelfry, today’s scheduled starter, would go on Sunday along withSantana, both on regular rest. Jonathan Niese, who was the scheduled Saturday starter, will not be needed as Oliver Perez can start on Monday, which would be his next turn in the rotation anyway. While Perez is very inconsistent, he has been lights out against the Marlins this season. In 5 starts, Perez is 3-0 witha 2.03 ERA in 31 innings against the Fish. With a battered bullpen, the Mets need their three best starters on the hill. While it may hurt their chances of advancing in the playoffs, they do have to qualify for the playoffs before they worry about that.

While all the paranoid Mets fans start to pray to the rain gods, lets take a look at what is making news heading into the final weekend…

• Staying with the Mets for a second, they got the “it still counts even it is ugly” win last night against the Cubs with Carlos Beltran lining one down the right field line to plate Jose Reyes. Pedro Martinez actually pitched better than his final line indicates as the bullpen could not bail him out in the seventh inning. For the first six innings, Martinez scattered 6 hits and gave up 3 runs while hitting 90 miles per hour on the radar gun a couple of times. It was a gritty performance by the veteran, one that deserved better. Of course, the bullpen couldn’t get him out of a 7th inning jam as manager Jerry Manuel sent Martinez out there for one inning too many. While the Cubs didn’t have their best lineup in there (their best 4 hitters were on the bench), this was an important win. They keep their tie with the Brewers for the Wild Card and gain that half game from the idle Phillies, trimming Phil’s division lead to one.
• The Cubs seem to be in rest mode with their 4 hitters out last night. They’ve earned that right and do not owe any club a thing. Lou Piniella already announced that Ryan Dempster will be their first starter for the division series.
• All of the Brewers’ desperation moves seem to be working. First, they start CC Sabathia on 3 days rest and he delivers a gem against the Pirates. Yesterday, they started the young Yovanni Gallardo who is just off the disabled list after injuring his knee on May 1st. Gallardo pitched well, going 4 innings, giving up 3 hits, 1 run with 7 strikeouts. The Brewers won with a walkoff Ryan Braun grandslam in the bottom of the 9th inning. The Brewers head into the final series with Chicago on a small roll again having won their last 4 games. The Cubs seem to be on full rest mode so the Brewers may be able to make some noise. Their pitching looks to be Jeff Suppan, Dave Bush, and then Sabathia on 3 day’s notice once again. Another 3 day’s rest start may be too much to ask for.
• By virtue of the Diamondbacks loss, the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched a playoff spot. This must give Joe Torre some satisfaction that the Yankees are sitting home while he is, once again, in the postseason. The Dodgers are a dangerous team with Manny Ramirez. With a decent amount pitching, the Dodgers can play with anyone.
• The miraculous Twins’ run continues as they finished off a sweep of the White Sox to move a half game ahead in the division race. As stated in our series preview, the Twins are a dangerous home team and they proved it against the Sox. Now, the Twins face the Royals while the Soxget the Tribe. The Indians, as you will read in a second, are not the walkover team that started this season. Look for the Twins to make the playoffs because of their homefield advanatage and their poor opponent (the Royals).
• Guess who has the second best record since July. The Rays? Nope. The Red Sox? Nope. Astros? No. The answer is the Cleveland Indians. Yes, that team who went through so many injuries and  so many poor perforrmances has been one the best for most of the season. Since July 10th, the Tribe is 42-26. With a solid foundation in place and some better health, the Indians will contend in ’09. Their real issue will be their starting rotation. Cliff Lee, off an incredible season, will have to show that he truly is an ace rather than the solid, but .500 pitcher he has been in the past. Fausto Carmona will have to prove that 2007 was no fluke after a terrible 2008. The bullpen will need to be organized. It will be interesting to see if they bring in a veteran closer or let Jensen Lewis keep the job. Hopefully, Lewis will get the chance with his potentially dominating stuff.
•  Roy Halladay won his 20th game with a complete game victory over the Yankees. The complete game was Halladay’s ninth of the season. While Cliff Lee will most likely win the Cy Young, Roy Halladay has been the league’s best pitcher. He finishes the year at 20-11 with a 2.78 ERA with 206 strikeouts in 246 innings.
• That’s it for today. Have a great weekend. I would also like to say thanks for reading FCP. We just finished our 2nd best week ever on the site. Thanks for making that happen.

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