Unfortunately, the Mets and the Brewers managed to find ways to win last night -- it should be noted that the Cubs used none of their big guys (Lee, Soto, Ramirez, Soriano).  Fortunately, on short rest, Roy Oswalt was able to continue making the Reds his whipping boys, even if the bull pen really wanted to make things interesting in the bottom of the ninth (five runs allowed, to pull the game within two).  With the fortunes of yesterday revealed, the facts stand at this: the Astros cannot lose and the Brewers and the Mets are going to have to be swept.  This seems rather unlikely given that the Cubs are seemingly resting their starters.  Alas, let's give this post one last time through -- in the hope that I'll have to update it tomorrow.

So there it is.  Our can't lose and can't win hope for October baseball.  Whether or not we still get to dream about October baseball tomorrow, we should remind ourselves of this: it's the final Friday of the season and we're still alive in the Wild Card race.  That, is a good season right there.  There's not a whole lot more you can, ultimately, ask for as a fan.

With one in the elimination column, three more on the board for the Mets and the Brewers, four (possibly) left for us what do our odds look like?

Sports Club Stats only had one result, in their Monte Carlo sim, that had in us winning the wild card.  The numbers just confirm how screwed we are.  But screw'em, let's take a look at the match-ups we need to root against tonight.

Dempster can surely make mince-meat of the Brewers and Mike Pelfrey is a CHUMP.

So there you go.  Savor today, it could be our last meaningful day in 2008.