The Rookies

Our only hope?

The end of September is here! Time for some exciting playoff race baseball! Teams are fighting to the right to play October baseball. Teams are duking it out, playing every game with the highest intensity as the quest of glory wraps up.

…wait, we don’t have a playoff race closer than three games apart? Five of the division winners are close to automatic?

Well, Bud Selig’s baby the Wild Card is fixing that, right? Wait, you’re telling me that with two weeks to go in the season the Wild Card is pretty much decided?

Do we have any hope for a playoff race, for baseball to have some momentum going into the postseason?

Well, don’t look in the AL East or West: The Yankees and Angels have distanced themselves from the Wild Card contenders in second place with good (Yankees) and possibly unsustainably lucky (not the Yankees) hitting. And don’t look in the NL at all: The closest race is the Wild Card, which the Rockies lead by four games over the Giants. Until Tim Lincecum is cloned, that is an exceedingly large deficit for a team that, despite the presence of Pablo Sandoval, is allergic to being good at hitting the baseball or getting on base.

So, uh, what we have is the Minnesota Twins. Yes, the ones whose number two starter is the illustrious Carl Pavano. Somehow, they have managed to shave the front-running Detroit Tigers’ lead to 2.5 games after a crucial series win this weekend over the Tigers at home. The Twins have 12 games left to catch the Tigers, including a four-game series in Detroit beginning next Monday.

Do I think the Twins will catch the Tigers? No. But hopefully they can make it interesting.