AND NOW...A (GULP) 4-WAY TIE?!?!?!

VEGAS’S LOSING STREAK REACHES EIGHT

Yuma----Charles Oliver’s troops got on the board first, but couldn’t hold serve in the late innings, and Jake Peavy (10-7, 3.81) fanned 10 Luchadores en route to a 6-2 win in front of the raucous Firebird faithful at the expense of visiting Las Vegas, which has now lost its eighth straight game and ninth of its last ten to fall below .500 (75-76), yet, incredibly, the Central Division club maintained a half-game lead over hard-charging Oakeyland, which can now control its destiny.

Brett Myers (9-8, 4.71) got an early 2-0 lead in this contest thanks to Jimmy Rollins’s ninth homer of the season, but was undone by Vladimir Guerrero. The Firebirds star earned his paycheck on Game Day 151: homering in the fifth, his 24th of the season, to help tie the score, singling in the go-ahead run in the sixth, and (for good measure) adding an insurance run in the eighth on a fielder’s choice. Peavy, meanwhile, was close to unhittable after the first, and Yuma (86-65) won its fifth straight.

Las Vegas has just one game left to play, but it’s on the road, against Oakeyland. If the Ballers can just beat Western doormat Casselton one more time, they will move into a tie and play a win-one, winner-take-all game at home against Vegas. This could be an absolutely historic collapse for the defending Central champs…shades of the ’64 Phllies!

WEST CLUBS HOLD WILD CARD ADVANTAGE

Yuma not only stayed one game behind West-leading Lexington, but also stayed ahead of Eastern clubs like Worcester and Frostbite Falls in the wild card race. While all the pundits have predicted that the wild card would emerge, yet again, from the ultra-strong East, in point of fact both of those runner-ups trail Yuma and Lexington. The nightmare scenario, though, is not that no Eastern club would make it: rather, the biggest thing to shuffle through is the possibility that four teams could all finish 87-65 (gulp)!

Both of these scenarios became possibilities because the West-leading Rebels overcame Alex Rodriguez and the visiting S-Mart Boom Sticks to win 5-4 at Lexington, sending GM Ronald Melkonian’s troops to a franchise-record 87th win of the season. Josh Beckett (10-7, 3.19) pitched eight passable innings, the big blemish being ‘A-Rod’s’ BARB-leading 48th circuit shot of the season. But the Rebels had a bigger day with the home run ball, pounding Chuck James and Alan Embree, getting big flies from B.J.Upton, David Wright, Adrian Gonzalez and J.J. Hardy. It was Lexington’s eighth straight win, setting up the following scenario:

Lexington, at home, with Johann Santana on the mound

Yuma, at home, with C.C. Sabathia on this hill

And the very real possibility that both will win against sub-.500 opponents, leaving Frostbite Falls and Worcester both needing sweeps of their final series to force any kind of playoff.

In other BARB action:

FROSTBITE FALLS 12, DARWIN 9

WP: Ben Sheets (10-11, 4.10)
LP: Oliver Perez (12-5, 3.48)

The visiting Squirrels scored five times in the fifth against a wild Oliver Perez, and despite a pair of late home runs from DH David Ortiz, the Finches were unable to come back against Andrew Haynes’ bullpen, as Frostbite Falls used five arms in relief of an effective but ginger Ben Sheets.

BROOKLYN 4, WORCESTER 2

WP: Fausto Carmona (10-4, 2.89)
LP: Jon Lester (6-3, 2.91)
SV: Rodriguez (32)

DH Jeff Kent, just off the DL, doubled home a run and added a sac fly, and Francisco Rodriguez picked up his BARB-leading 32nd save of the season in relief of Carmona as the Moabs (77-73) assured themselves to finish at least two games above .500 in what is otherwise a disappointing year for Brooklyn. The loss dropped the Eliminators into a tie for second in the Eastern Division and a potential four-way tie in the wild-card race, greatly muddying the league’s postseason picture.