We're still not sure we comprehend what happened last night.
Three weeks ago we were floating in the pool, sipping a tall cold one, listening to whatever games were on the radio. On Labor Day of a snoozy 2011 season, the New York Yankees held the American League East 2.5 games beyond the reach of the Boston Red Sox, who themselves gripped a 7.5 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays for the wild card slot. In the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers were gliding 10.5 games high above the second-place St. Louis Cardinals who were 7.5 games south of the wild card-leading Atlanta Braves. With the Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks rassling their respective divisions down like rodeo calves, the only real dust-up in the baseball landscape looked to be out West where the Anaheim Angels struggled to gain traction on the Texas Rangers, who throughout the year refused to lose when anyone else was winning.
Well you never know, we said. Crazier things have happened -- but somebody would have to get really hot and someone would have to get really cold.
Rising hot did meet sinking-like-a-stone cold and the result, as any fan of the Weather Channel can tell you, was thunder, lightning, and storm stories that will run for decades. Such was the baseball weather last night on the 162nd game of the 162-game season, when four teams fought in four almost-simultaneous games for two life preservers that would keep them afloat for at least a wild card tiebreaker. As it turned out the Rays and the Cardinals swam straight into secure arms of the playoffs while late in the night the Red Sox and the Braves were suddenly bludgeoned and slunked into the black quiet waters of the off-season.
In the silent aftermath, an echo says we can't believe what we just saw.
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