(Not) the playoff watch - perfect bullpen edition

the heart says playoffs, the head says golf course

Nats 8, Turners 6

"I'm pretty sure if we lost," Guillen said, "the season was done."

Message to Jose - season already over.

Phailers 12, Flippers 5

"I didn't feel too much pressure to have to get a win," winning pitcher Cory Lidle said. "It's big. Hopefully we can win tomorrow and get a little bit of momentum. If we can take a few series in a row and Houston slows down a little bit, everything's going to be right back to where it was before."

Brewskies 7, Texans 4

"You really can't count on scoring five runs off of Roger Clemens, but tonight, luckily, we did," Yost said. Any time you can beat him, you've done something."

Budweisers 3, Metsie 2

"I was mad at the pitch before being called a strike, I was mad I swung at that, and then he hung me one," Walker said. "So, madness, madness, happiness, all in the matter of a minute. Stupid."

Season over.

Wild card: Ryan Howard
Busted flush: The Rocket

At the start of play today:

                W  L  GB GL
  Houston      75 65  -- 22
  Florida      75 65 0.5 21
  Philadelphia 74 67 1.5 21
  Washington   73 69 3.0 20
  NY Mets      70 71 5.5 21

Pitching today:

Turners (not so so-so Sosa) at Nats (¡Livan!)
Texans (lefty Andy Pettite) at Brewskies (the disrespectful Tomo Ohka)
Flippers (rookie Jason Vargas) at Phailers (Brett Myers)
Metsies (off the DL Steve Trachsel) at Budweisers (Jeff Suppan)

Best case: gasping for air, but 2 down.
Worst case: tkaing the last breaths at 4 behind.