With the end of today’s games, the playoff picture is looking a little clearer. All games will be televised nationally on TBS this round, including the one game playoff. Going forward:

The Padres and Rockies will play one game of free baseball tomorrow at 7:37 EDT in Denver. It’ll be Jake Peavy vs. Josh Fogg battling it out for the wild card spot. Bud Black may regret his decision not to start Jake Peavy today, but he’ll go tomorrow. One interesting thing to note, Peavy will not be available for the first two games of a potential NLDS in Philadelphia, which will open up on Wednesday.

The other division series is set, as the Cubs and Diamondbacks open up on Wednesday in Phoenix, with Carlos Zambrano matching up against Brandon Webb. The start time of the game is TBD, but we can hope for a good old pitchers’ duel in the desert. Zambrano has really put his game together in September, going 4-2 with a 3.44 ERA after a shaky August.

Over in the AL, the Yankees will travel to Cleveland as Chien-Ming Wang will face Cy Young hopeful C.C. Sabathia on Thursday. Carsten Charles hasn’t faced the Yankees since 2004, so it’s a little difficult to predict how this will play out, but if he’s as effective as he has been all year, this could be another duel.

Finally, the Red Sox and Angels will open up in Boston with a matchup of two more Cy Young hopefuls: John Lackey and Josh Beckett. This promises to be a very good series, as Kelvim Escobar and Jered Weaver will follow Lackey for the Angels against what is a very strong Red Sox lineup. The Sox will play without Clay Buchholz, but it looks as though Hideki Okajima will be ready to go, keeping Eric Gagne out of high-leverage 8th inning situations.

Here’s to hoping what has been an exceptional September gives way to an exciting October. I think it’s just about time for a playoff beer.

The Rockies and Diamondbacks are still not-slugging it out a mile up, but rookie Ubaldo Jimenez is out of the game. He put some nasty pitches past the Diamondbacks’ impatient hitters, racking up a pretty impressive line:

6.1IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 4BB, 10K

He held the D-Backs hitless into the sixth inning, and struck out 9 in his first 4 1/3 innings. The last time the Rockies were in the playoffs, 1995, Jimenez was just 11 years old.

Although the Mets were eliminated from playoff contention today (marking an all-time worst collapse of a seven game lead with 17 games to play), last night John Maine similarly pitched like he wanted it. Maine also flirted with a no-hitter en route to a line of:

7.2IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 2BB, 14K

That was exactly the kind of thing the Mets needed from Maine, who had struggled in the second half. The Mets scored 13 runs in the game, which leads me to believe that they should probably have tried to spread out their run scoring and run prevention more equitably.

Cole Hamels probably had the most impressive start of any pitcher in these all-important final series. His box-score-porn line:

8IP, 6H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 13K

For a pitching starved team like the Phillies, that performance was absolutely essential to their success in reaching the playoffs for the first time since 1993, when Hamels was a nine year old growing up in San Diego. With the NL contenders clustered so closely this season, high strikeout performances can set the tone of the game and lift teams who might otherwise have scuffled. The Padres just lost, and the Rockies are on the doorstep, so there might still be some baseball left in this regular season.

Jimmy Rollins just hit a 2-out triple in the bottom of the sixth to record his 20th triple of the season, to go along with 30 HR, 41 SB and 38 2B. Those totals make him not only the record holder for extra base hits by a shortstop, but also just the fourth player ever (and second this year, after Curtis Granderson) to hit at least 20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 home runs and swipe 20 bases. When he recorded the hit, the chants of “MVP” at Citizens Bank Park were deafening. With the Mets losing 8-1 in Shea and the Phillies jumping out to a 5-1 lead, it’s looking more and more like J-Roll is overtaking Prince Fielder as the leader.

Cole Hamels pitched a gem last night to lift the Fightin’ Phils into first place in the NL East: 8 IP, 6 H, 1 BB, 13 K, 0 R. Throwing 116 pitches, he was above the supposed limit of 100, but when he batted for himself in the bottom of the 7th, the SRO crowd at Citizens Bank Park erupted in support of Hamels.

However, in their MLB Pregame show today, the bottom-third of the screen read: “Cole Hand Hamels,” a reference to the classic Paul Newman movie. Fox, come on, you can do better than that. How about Old King Cole references, Hamels’ Messiah, Cole in the Stocking, Cole Power or Cole-d Fusion? Someone get the guys from mlb.com over to help them out with the corny headline.

The teams vying for the lead in the NL’s Central and West divisions don’t really have any specific animosity towards each other. In those divisions, the big rivalries are between the Cubs and Cardinals and Dodgers and Giants. The same, however, cannot be said of the NL East. Or, more accurately, Philly fans and just about anyone who has ever gotten in the way of delivering the first pro championship in more than two decades. As evidence, just take a look at these t-shirts being promoted on The 700 Level.

I get the pheeling this one’s gonna get uglier before it gets better.

UPDATE: No part of this telecast can be rebroadcast or retransmitted without the express written consent of the Commissioner of Baseball.

Barry Bonds lactates and drinks elk semen. I’m going to go throw up now.

This week, we all just have to throw analysis out the window and enjoy the fireworks. Tonight’s games, with the starters:

• Nationals @ Phillies, 7:05 PM EDT, Redding (3-5, 3.53) vs. Hamels (14-5, 3.54), televised only locally
  (Hamels will be limited to about 100 pitches tonight)
• Marlins @ Mets, 7:10 PM EDT, Kim (9-8, 6.11) vs. Perez (15-9, 3.32), televised only locally
• Padres @ Brewers, 8:05 PM EDT, Maddux (13-11, 4.10) vs. Capuano (5-12, 5.09), televised on ESPN
  (Ben Sheets, scratched from his scheduled start today, will be available for one inning out of the bullpen)
• Diamondbacks @ Rockies, 8:05 PM EDT, Webb (17-10, 3.02) vs. Francis (17-8, 4.17), televised only locally
• Cubs @ Reds, 7:10 PM EDT, Zambrano (17-13, 4.08) vs. Arroyo (9-14, 4.22), televised only locally

It’s enough to make a guy shell out the extra $10 for the premium mlb.tv subscription, which comes with Mosaic mode. With the exception of the Brewers, every team still in contention controls its own destiny. That means if any of the five teams in contention in the East/West/Wild Card picture (Rockies, DBacks, Phillies, Mets, Padres) go 3-0 to finish the season, they’ll be guaranteed at least one extra game.

If you’re still reeling from the NL playoff possibilities, I came across this tool, which can visualize any race, divisional or otherwise, going back through history. It would be cool if it could do an x/y plot instead of a simple time graph, but it’s still pretty nifty.

Check it out here.

NEW YORK–Oscar the cat has been spotted spending time in the Mets clubhouse at Shea stadium. He seems particularly fond of members of the bullpen. When asked about Oscar’s presence, Billy Wagner said New York was really just more of a cat town, and he was starting to find peace now that the cat had arrived. Doctors say say the cat’s presence there is inexplicable.

I’m not going to write about the Phillies right now. Suffice to say, the Mets’ collapse has been epic, and the Phillies train keeps on pushing. As have the Rockies: 11 in a row, and counting. Meanwhile, the Padres are making seemingly sound decisions about their future. Manager Bud Black has announced his intention to throw Jake Peavy on three days rest Sunday only if the team needs a win in order to tie for a playoff berth. If the Padres win one of their next three games, a tie or better is all but guaranteed (it would take a sweep by both the Mets and the Phillies to knock them out).

Unfortunately, the situation isn’t that simple. I wonder how Bub Black will manage his team if they fail to win their next two games. As a hypothetical, consider if the Mets and Phillies each go 1-1 over the next two days with the Padres 0-2 (we can ignore the D-Backs-Rockies games for the sake of simplicity). That leaves all 3 teams with 88 wins going into the last day of the season. Will Bud blow his cool, fearing a win by both the Mets and the Phillies to knock his team out? It’s a question of whether the upgrade of a 3-days rest Peavy over the alternative (Tomko, ew) on Sunday is worth the downgrade from a fully rested Peavy to Tomko on Monday. In other words, if the Pads must win both games, do you put your best pitchers on the mound (which is Tomko Sunday, Peavy on full rest Monday), or do you just try to get in the position to keep in it (throwing the ace on short rest Sunday) and trust to fate behind Tomko in the tie-breaker?

It all hinges on the marginal effect of a day of Peavy’s rest on his stuff, and history has little to tell us. I say he throws Peavy on Sunday, because that is management orthodoxy. However, if the Mets or Phils crumble under the pressure of the last day, the Pads will tie, regardless of their own performance. Black will have wasted his one bullet, and find himself firing blanks in Monday’s winner-take-all showdown.