September 1 game: Phillies 3, Mets 1

The Phillies started off September on a positive note, defeating the New York Mets, a fellow wild-card contender, 3-1 at Shea Stadium in New York.

Jon Lieber pitched seven strong innings for the victory, Billy Wagner struck out two in the ninth for his 32nd save, and rookie Ryan Howard continued his strong play with a solo home run.

What Happened to Everyone Else in the Race for the Playoffs

Entering play September 1, here are what the two pertinent races looked like:

NL Wild Card

Team W L GB
Philadelphia 71 - 62 --
Houston 70 - 62 0.5
Florida 70 - 62 0.5
New York 69 - 63 1.5
Washington 69 - 64 2

NL East

Atlanta 75 -58 --
Philadelphia 71 - 62 4

Washington @ Atlanta

In a game in which Phillies fans could root either way, depending on their degree of optimism, Atlanta outlasted Washington, 8-7, in 10 innings. The Nationals had trailed 7-3 in the seventh inning before scoring four times in that inning, including two bases-loaded walks, to tie the game.

Cincinnati @ Houston

After trailing briefly 1-0, Houston came back with three unanswered runs to win 3-1, behind Roy Oswalt, who picked up his 16th victory and struck out 11, with Brad Lidge picking up his 32nd save.

Florida was off.

So at the end of the day, the Phillies had kept pace with Atlanta and Houston, gained one game on Washington and the Mets, and half a game on Florida. The standings snapshot is up there for posterity, I won't repeat it every day because it's too difficult to format, so I will just verbally describe the standings implications henceforth.

And thus, entering play Friday, September 2, 2005, the Phillies lead Houston by half a game, Florida by one and a half, the Mets by two and a half, and Washington by three.

This impending Labor Day weekend could radically transform the NL wild card hunt, as all four NL East clubs face each other. The Mets and Marlins battle in Miami, while the Phillies travel to DC for three games with the Nationals. Tonight, the Mets send Victor Zambrano out to face Florida ace Dontrelle Willis. But of more importance to us, the Phillies send red-hot Vicente Padilla to the mound at RFK Stadium, while the Nationals have John Halama.

As for the Astros, they host St. Louis and Mark Mulder, with Ezequiel Astacio going for Houston at Minute Maid Park.

And whilee on the subject of Houston, as of this writing, the Astros' former long-time home, the Astrodome, is now serving an unexpected function - the shelter of refugees from the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and the entire Gulf coast earlier this week, sowing death, destruction, panic, looting, fires, armed gangs terrorizing the population. One of the purposes of this new blog is to offer a sort of intellectual refuge from the ramifications of Katrina.

Much in the same way that the 2001 baseball postseason provided a desperately needed diversion for a nation stunned and grieving from the terrorist attacks of September 11 in New York and Washington, it is hoped that the 2005 pennant chases and postseason can play a similar role, as we as a nation mourn Katrina's victims and strive to help those survivors, whose loved ones and cherished homes and possessions were in such horrendous harm's way, to rebuild their shattered lives.