Watch The Headlines For A Brewers Blowup

• Phillies 7-Brewers 3 (Game 1); Phillies 5-Brewers 0 (4th Inning, Game 2):

2008 will be nothing like 2007 for either the Mets or the Phillies because no matter how many games the Mets bullpen gacks up; or whether or not the Phillies are able to catch up to

the Mets, both are going to make the playoffs because the Brewers are not going to be able to navigate their way out of this tailspin.
The loss column is the most imperative number to keep track of because a game yet to be played can still be a win; a loss cannot be made up. I said before the weekend that if both the Mets and Phillies took care of business, they'd be in playoff position by Monday----Blog 9/12. If the score of the second game holds, the Phillies will be two games behind the Mets in the loss column, and tied with the

Brewers in the loss column; and the Mets will be two games ahead of the Brewers in the loss column.
If the second game stays as it is now, I would keep my eyes open for tomorrow's headlines for some kind of Brewers explosion between players; or between a player and the manager; or something. With the way they're always infighting and are essentially leaderless in the manager's office, it's not going to take much (if anything) to set something off and then they're really going to collapse on and off the field and it's going to get real ugly, real fast in Milwaukee.

• Braves 7-Mets 4:

It's better for the Mets to get out on the road and head to a locale where they've had success this year against a terrible team in Washington against the Nationals. The Mets fans are

within their rights to boo the gasoline-can wielding suspects coming out of the bullpen, but after the way Luis Ayala has been nothing short of a godsend since arriving, booing him today for one hiccup was out of line. If the series against the Nationals warrants it, I'd expect Al Reyes to get some work to see if he's able to help out as the season winds down. The two losses to the Braves were partially due to bullpen failure, but also partially due to the inability to add tack-on runs. With an extra run here and there when the opportunity presented itself, there wouldn't have been a need to worry about who was going to pitch in the late innings.

• Broncos 39-Chargers 38; a move that took BALLS beyond belief:

If a manager or coach does something that I can only look upon with awe and say, "I wouldn't have had the nerve to pull something like that," I admire it. In the

closing moments of the Broncos-Chargers game, the Broncos scored to make the score 38-37 with only the extra point standing between a likely trip to overtime for the Broncos and Chargers. Instead, Broncos coach Mike Shanahan (whom I've considered to be overrated as a coach/GM) had the audacity to try for the two-point conversion and get the win...and they made it. I don't know many coaches----from Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells, Don Shula, Jimmy Johnson or anyone else you could name----who'd pull something like that. Even though it worked, I don't know if it was logically the correct thing to do, but I have to tip my hat to Shanahan because I wouldn't have done it and it worked.