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Imagine the not-quite-final National League East standings showing that after 162 games the Phillies and Mets are tied for first place with 91-71 records. And the Brewers have swept the cruising Cubs at home to forge a three-way tie for the wild card with their 91-71 finish.
Heart starting to race a little? Mine, too . . .
The Weather Channel has been running a doomsday series called "It Could Happen Tomorrow." An F5 tornado turns downtown Dallas into the world's highest pile of broken glass and shattered desktop computers . . . New York City gets a direct hit by a Category 3 hurricane (There was actually a possibility of that happening this week, according to some computer models) . . . A powerful earthquake off the Pacific Northwest coast triggers a destructive tsunami. (Was that a Starbucks floating in Puget Sound?) The only thing missing from the series is Steve McQueen and Charlton Heston.
It is a lot more likely that the Phils, Mets and Brewers could wind up in a three-way tie than there is that Wall Street could wind up deeper in tidal water than in failed banking giants. Baseball teams win four straight all the time. That's all it would take for the Mets and Brewers while the Phillies are winning two of three from the dreadful Nationals, a team that has never rolled over for them.
But that's not the only permutation. Phils are swept to finish 89-73? Mets lose two of three to the Marlins and Brewers lose two of three from the Cubs to finish 89-73.
Thing is, the driver's seat gets a little cramped when the days dwindle down to a precious few and your team has two blinding sets of bright lights in the rearview mirror.
The biggest control the Phillies have of a destiny that appeared manifest after they came home from a great trip for their final six games is in the coin flips they have won to sort out both two- and three-way ties. They get the Mets at home Monday. Win that, they wait to see who prevails in a Mets-Brewers playoff for the wild card. Mets win, the Phils play the Dodgers starting Wednesday. Brewers win, they get the Brew Crew at the Money Pit.
That's the easiest part. Charlie Manuel, pitching coach Rich Dubee and Ruben Gillbuckle had to spend a lot of off-day time game-planning the multiple scenarios.
No matter how they bend it, fold it, staple it or mutilate it, Brett Myers is a big part of any beyond-the-weekend plans hard on the heels of a deja-vu-all-over-again stinker that recalled all the reasons he made minor league starts in Allentown, Reading and Clearwater. The minor league assignment was aimed at clearing his head and lowering his fastball. It appeared to work. He came back brilliant. But for a second straight start, the Phils' perennial enigma had a low-octane fastball that split the heart of the plate - one of those ones where it takes Harry and Wheels a couple of replays to determine whether it was a changeup or splitter that just flew into the outfield seats.
The pre-meetings rotation would have staff ace Cole Hamels starting a meaningful game Sunday. (Sorry, Jamie, we know who really is the staff ace this year but have to follow protocol.) But should the Phillies clinch the division tonight or tomorrow, he could throw a side instead and be ready to open the Division Series on Wednesday. However, if Myers has used up his quota of trust tokens, Manuel could use the 2 days off to flip him with Moyer.
But that's all best-case stuff. There's a second wild card lurking, ready to inject a little chaos theory into the regular season's final weekend, and that is the subtropical pinwheel in the Carolinas that might threaten tonight's game against the Nationals. Day-night doubleheader Saturday, when the forecast is still less than great? Long, pitching-staff-disrupting rain delays, with the Mets also facing rainouts is just about all the confusion overload this suddenly complex end game can handle.
It could happen tomorrow . . .
Sure could. In the half-full section of the glass, however, the beast of a Nor'easter could rain itself out on the boardwalks of the Jersey Shore, the Phils could clinch Saturday as the Mets bullpen continues to implode during "Choke II, The Movie," and the Brewers slide into the wild card.
And how sweet a story would it be if baseball's Indiana Jones, Jamie Moyer, cracks that whip of a left arm and his 16th victory of an amazing season seals the deal for the Phillies? *
Send e-mail to bill1chair@aol.com.
For recent columns, go to http://go.philly.com/conlin.
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