What a wild and crazy night it was. Heading into the final day of the 2011 MLB season, four teams were tied for the final two playoff spots. The National League Wild Card race came down to a contentious battle between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals, while the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays slugged it out for the coveted American League Wild Card spot. Within a span of two hours, two teams were knocked out of the MLB playoff race and two were getting ready for October baseball.

Amazingly enough, the Atlanta Braves began September with a firm 8.5 game lead in the Wild Card standings against the St. Louis Cardinals however, injuries and poor starting pitcher performance proved to be their downfall. Their comfy lead all but disappeared and they were tied for the Wild Card spot with the Cardinals heading into the final game of the season. St. Louis played their last game earlier in the day and dropped a final notch in the W column with a victory over the Houston Astros. From there all the Cards could do was wait to see if the Braves could top the Phillies and force a one game playoff but as midnight approached on the East Coast, the Braves couldn’t hold their ground and fell to the Philadelphia Phillies, thus ensuring a final playoff spot for the Cardinals.

Like the Braves, the Boston Red Sox sat atop a nice lead in the American League East. At the beginning of September, the Bo Sox looked down at both the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, and even held a comfortable 9 game lead over the third place Rays. Boston’s comfortable lead dwindled and they soon found themselves tied for the final playoff spot at the last regular game of the season. Unfortunately, the Red Sox came up short against the Baltimore Orioles. Meanwhile, down 7-0, the Rays staged an epic comeback against the New York Yankees to win thus securing the Rays the final playoff spot.

In terms of tension and fun, you could not have asked for a better day of baseball and an exhilarating end-of-season run. With four teams tied for two playoff spots heading into the final day of the season, September 28 will go down as an epic day in sports history.

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Ah—the Dog Days of Summer . . . while this is usually the time when parents and children count the days until it’s school’s back in session—we baseball fans do some counting of our own—how many games up, back or out are our favorite teams from playing October baseball.

From opening day and beyond, this baseball season has seen many division rivals compete head to head for 1st and now that it’s coming down to the home stretch, expect these teams to show off with electrifying performances that will inevitably go down to the wire.

The National League Central division has experienced close and competitive races all season. While the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals are battling it out for division domination, it looks like the Pittsburgh Pirates have felt the bite of summer. Though they were previously on a tear, the Buccos have succumbed to summer’s sultry heat dropping their last 10 games in the L column and it looks like they are going to miss the playoffs for a record 19th straight year.

In American League news, it’s business as usual as the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox battle it out to see who gets the division crown and who gets the wild card spot. The AL West has the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vying for a division title against the defending American League champs–the Texas Rangers. Although the Cleveland Indians are battling the Detroit Tigers for AL Central bragging rights, don’t count out the Minnesota Twins just yet—they are usually good for a late season surge in this mediocre division.

As for the rest of the playoff landscape, expect to see solid teams like the San Francisco Giants, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Philadelphia Phillies play strong through the rest of the regular season. And, as the summer winds down, now is the perfect time to take in a game at your favorite ballpark and we have sports tickets for every team and every league.

Strasday. Strasmas. No matter what you call it, Stephen Strasburg’s debut for the Washington Nationals was a landmark day for a franchise that hasn’t had many since it returned to the nation’s capitol.

Stephen Strasburg, the top pick in last year’s draft, who breezed through the minors in less than a year, whose fastball clocks in at over 100mph, whose arsenal of pitches includes a curve that falls off the table and a changeup that is thrown faster than many major leaguer’s fastballs; a man who appreciates a good pair of socks; a man who will save baseball in Washington D.C., nay the world, pitched his first major league game against the Pittsburgh Pirates last night.

Strasburg threw about 90 pitches. The Pirates took about 90 swings. Very few made any contact.

The kid is alright.

I’m sad for my Phillies because I don’t see them having a lot of success against this guy over the next 10 or 15 years. But the last super prospect came and went in the blink of an eye basically, so for all of baseball, I hope Strasburg’s stay is a little longer.

Then again, if all of his games end like this and he decides he wants to try his hand at professional fishing or maybe open up an HVAC repair service back in San Diego, well that just might be okay by me too.

Well I’m really starting to lap the field here. But being the tallest, quickest and best looking of the group, it’s only to be expected.

We continue with our PostView of the 30 MLB teams. Loyal readers probably need to prepare themselves for the frightening possibility that my 10 teams will be comepleted in the near future while the other two tortoises may never reach the finish line. It’s a grim reality, I know.

Today we take a gander at the Colorado Rockies. Yet another ingenious expansion name. We are the Rockies. We are mountains. You will not climb us.

The Rockies are a pretty good young team. They have two solid young starting pitchers in Ubaldo Jimenez and Jorge De La Rosa. De La Rosa is one of those names you can say for about five minutes straight when you’re stuck in traffic to entertain yourself. Trust me.

Thier lineup is packed with solid hitters at nearly every position. Troy Tulowitzki is the star of the show and in Denver I’m guessing he is enjoying life.

The bullpen is a little shaky right now, but this is a team that has made the playoffs two of the last three years, and a team I think will play in October again. Excuse me Rocktober. You see, these names really are brilliant.

Predictions:

Team MVP – Huston Street…if he can return from the DL and lock down 9th innings like he did last year, the Rockies have a good chance of winning the division or wild card.

X-Factor – Carlos Gonzalez…Carlos Gonzalez (Cargo to his friends and fantasy owners) haunted my dreams for a 5 day period last fall when he hit somewhere north of .500 in the divisional round against the Phillies. He’s a top prospect from Oakland in the Matt Holliday trade and projects as a 5 tool player. He’s out with a tight hamstring currently, an injury that this writer encourages him to, “rub some dirt on it and get back out there.”

Standings – 1st in the NL West.