Mets historic fall highlights NL's final weekend
01.10.2007 03:00
Sport and Travel
- Source: USA Today
DENVER — Out-of-town scoreboard operators in Philadelphia and Denver drew as many cheers as the home teams Sunday, when the National League's tightest playoff races in memory finally got some resolution.
Some. The Philadelphia Phillies, who took the field knowing the NL East rival New York Mets had fallen behind 7-0 in the first inning at home, earned their first division title since 1993 with a 6-1 victory against the Washington Nationals. Fittingly for a final weekend of countless possibilities — four teams could have finished with 89-73 records, requiring a mini-tournament to decide three spots — the regular season stretches out one more day. The Colorado Rockies will host a one-game playoff today against the San Diego Padres for the wild-card spot. The winner will travel to Philadelphia for Wednesday's start of the NL Division Series. "It's hard to believe we won 13 out of 14 and still have to play another game," Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday said after his team's 4-3 win against the West champion Arizona Diamondbacks forced the tiebreaker. "You're excited to have the opportunity to control your own destiny." The Phillies' victory behind Jamie Moyer's 5⅓ innings of one-run ball and Ryan Howard's three RBI capped a 13-4 season-ending stretch that overcame a seven-game deficit to the Mets in the final 18 days. The Mets' collapse concluded in an 8-1 home loss to the Florida Marlins. "When we started out 4-11, nobody thought we'd be Eastern Division champions," Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino said. "We had confidence in ourselves." The Rockies didn't have as much ground to cover as Philadelphia — they trailed the wild-card leading Padres by 4 1/2 games Sept. 15 — but their run might have been even more improbable. Almost universally picked to finish in the bottom tier of the NL West, the Rockies wedged into the race with a closing run that included an 11-game winning streak. They still needed help from the Milwaukee Brewers, who were eliminated Friday. The Brewers had kept the Padres from clinching the wild card Saturday with an 11-inning win. The updates of their 11-6 win against the Padres on Sunday were wildly cheered by a Coors Field crowd eager to see the Rockies in their first postseason since 1995. "Nothing snuck by the fans on the scoreboard today, that's for sure," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "I knew it wasn't (a reaction to) the Broncos game, and that's a change." San Diego lost the season series against Colorado 10-8 but will have Cy Young Award hopeful Jake Peavy on the mound today against Josh Fogg. The Padres blew a 3-0 first-inning lead as starter Brett Tomko and the bullpen got battered by Milwaukee. "I think the spirits and the mood right now is a little downtrodden, but we're going to" get better, Peavy said. "I'm not going to let this happen" today. The Mets don't have a tomorrow, and their collapse was not greeted kindly at Shea Stadium, where the team was booed repeatedly. The Mets became the first team to hold a seven-game lead as late as Sept. 12 and squander it. Left-hander Tom Glavine, who has 303 wins, failed to get out of the first inning as the Marlins pounded him for seven runs. "It's going to take awhile to get over it," Glavine said of the Mets' crash. *** Contributing: Mel Antonen, Hal Bodley, wire reports
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