With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.

- Wild-Card Races Taking Shape: This isn't quite what we expected a week ago. The AL wild-card race was supposed to come down to the wire with Boston, Minnesota, Chicago and just maybe the Yankees battling for two spots in the postseason, while the NL was supposed to be a foregone conclusion, with the hard-charging Brewers cruising into October.

But just the opposite has happened. Boosted by the superb play of Dustin Pedroia and the strong returns of Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, the Red Sox are pulling away in the American League and making a strong push to win the East again.

Milwaukee, on the other hand, is slumping at the wrong time -- pulled down by a miserable relief corps. The Phillies are now lurking four games back of the Brew Crew. It's still unlikely that Milwaukee will miss out on the October festivities, but both of the NL East clubs have played well enough that a wild-card bid is not out of the question for either.

Time is growing short, but all it takes is a week for things to shift dramatically.

With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.

- Wild, Wild West: The contenders in the NL West might not have gaudy records -- only the Diamondbacks sit above .500 entering play Thursday -- but that doesn't mean the race won't be plenty entertaining. Think about the last couple of days.

Tuesday Dodgers phenom Clayton Kershaw and prized acquisition Manny Ramirez powered Los Angeles to within 1 1/2 games of first-place Diamondbacks. Wednesday Arizona's own trade catch Adam Dunn gave the D'backs a walk-off win and some breathing room ahead of their final series with the rival Dodgers.

All the while, the Rockies, the darlings of last year's postseason, are lurking. Colorado is 17-14 since the beginning of August, and lest you think it isn't a real factor well back of Los Angeles and Arizona, the Rockies will play both clubs a combined nine times in the coming weeks.

The beauty of a protracted pennant race, especially one with three teams battling for a lone playoff spot, is that it's bound to be exciting even if the teams aren't great, or even very good.

Is Dustin Pedroia an anarchist? Probably not. But that doesn't mean he respects Red Sox Nation authority the way a young whippersnapper -- even one of his prodigious talents -- might. Why, here's Pedroia telling a few lucky fans exactly what he thinks of Sox announcer and Red Sox Nation President (that this is a real, actual title continues to baffle me) Jerry Remy. He's not exactly kind:



Oooh, slam! I would say that Pedroia is probably just poking a little interorganizational fun at Remy, the way the good old boys presumably do, but is there any chance he's not joking? After all, it's true: Jerry Remy did stink at baseball.

(HT: Red Sox Monster)

With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.

- Champs Getting Stronger: The Red Sox have suddenly opened up a sizable four-game edge in the wild-card race after winning Tuesday while the White Sox and Twins lost. The news gets even better when you consider that Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett are set to return on Friday, with J.D. Drew and pitcher Bartolo Colon possibly returning next week.

It's easy to compare the 2008 Sox to the last Boston team that defended a title. Like this year's version, the 2005 team was ravaged by injuries to key players. There's one major difference, though, and that's the depth in the organization. GM Theo Epstein's vision of making the Red Sox a nine-figure player development machine has bloomed fully, and because of it Boston has a very real chance to repeat.

Their minor league system is among the most robust in the game, far different from the Dan Duquette era, and it's enabled the Red Sox to plug many of the holes they've had over the course of a trying season.

When Julio Lugo went down, Jed Lowrie came up and improved the team. When the team needed a spot starter for Josh Beckett, they turned to pitching prospect Michael Bowden. When the team needed another outfielder because of Drew's injury, they were able to deal a prospect with good upside for Mark Kotsay because of their minor league depth.

The stupid thing about the MVP race is that half of it involves perception. Is his team good regardless of how he performed as an individual? Is he a clutch player based on stuff we think we've seen but might not actually know? Is he the type of baseball player worthy of the honor of being selected by us sportswriter types as the best in the game? Is he tall? Is he handsome? Etc, etc.

These ridiculous perceptions are probably why -- despite what the fans think -- Dustin Pedroia will not win the MVP this season. Don't believe me? Just ask Ozzie Guillen, who called the smallish in stature second baseman a "g*dd*mn jockey".

''I never thought I was going to walk a goddamn jockey,'' Guillen said of the 5-7 Pedroia, a player he actually admires. ''Walking a guy who just came from being on top of Big Brown. Right now, he's on a roll. This guy right now is on fire. No matter what you throw up there, he's going to get it. I can't believe you can change professions in one year, go from the Kentucky Derby to the Boston Red Sox ballpark.''

Pedroia has reached base in 10 consecutive plate appearances and became the first Red Sox player with four hits or more in consecutive games since Wade Boggs did it in June 1989.

When he stepped to the plate in the eighth inning, Pedroia was met with cheers of ''MVP, MVP.''

Now, in fairness to Ozzie, he then proceeded to discuss the fact that Pedroia was the heart and soul of Boston's team right now.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Toronto Blue Jays (75-60) at New York Yankees (68-67) 1:05 PM ET

If Alfonso Soriano can get booed, then why not the player he was traded for? There are probably still some people who want the merciless booing of Alex Rodriguez to stop. But they're getting harder and harder to find after Rodriguez's latest ninth inning gag job: a double play with the winning runs on base and nobody out against B.J. Ryan and the Blue Jays on Saturday. It's gotten so bad, the "Get Rid of A-Rod" websites are starting to turn up. While the Soriano booing might be a little bit silly with the Cubs steaming towards the playoffs, the Rodriguez booing can be understood a bit more with the growing reality that the last season of Yankee Stadium is going to end in September. (P.S. Your inevitable argument that all the injuries are to blame more than Rodriguez is probably valid. But it's harder to boo a player on the disabled list. Trust me, I've tried.)

The Boston Red Sox believe they can win the World Series again this year, despite a four game deficit to the Tampa Bay Rays and a slim lead in the AL Wild Card race. Hence, their trade for Mark Kotsay.

Of course, part of those postseason plans probably don't include not having Josh Beckett. Which might be a legitimate scenario, as the Sawx ace didn't receive any good injury news today.

Following manager Terry Francona's postgame press conference in the wake of a 3-2 Sox loss at Yankee Stadium, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein announced today that Josh Beckett has been scratched from tomorrow's scheduled start in order to visit with renowned specialist James Andrews in Birmingham, Alabama.

Translation: Start worrying again.

Uh yeah. That seems like a safe prognostication. Epstein mentioned something about Beckett's elbow not being "100%", which also seems reasonable, since he's headed to see Andrews.

I know we've all seen plenty of heroically styled September and October behavior from the Red Sox over the past few years, but in all honesty, if the Sox lose Beckett for the season -- not too far-fetched an idea with DJA involved -- I think we can all go ahead and call of any more Beantown celebrations.

Be advised, the following video contains salty language, in case you or your cubicle mates are easily offended:



That's from last night's Yankees/Red Sox game in New York (hat tip to Walkoff Walk), but it's especially fitting today on the heels of reading about over-aggressive cops enforcing the little known (err, non-existent) God Bless America Rule during the seventh inning stretch.

Did the mouthy fan cross the line by arguing a little too much? Perhaps. But did the female police officer escalate the situation by screaming and initiating physical contact? Absolutely. In a tense situation in the middle of a crowd of drunk fans chanting profanities, the last thing any experienced officer should be doing is making the situation worse. Both of those jokers should have been thrown out of the stadium.

Later today, the Red Sox will stroll out of the visitor's dugout and face the Yankees for the final time at venerable Yankee Stadium. There will be other goodbyes to the House That Ruth Built in the coming weeks, but with the Bronx Bombers a major longshot to play into October, this series seems to have taken on special significance.

Here are a dozen of the finest moments in the best rivalry in American sports, all of which took place at Yankee Stadium. Even Red Sox fans have to be feeling a little nostalgic about their team's final visit. After all, the franchise's finest hour took place there.

1. Oct. 16, 2003: The ghosts strike one last time. After Red Sox manager Grady Little leaves Pedro Martinez in well past the 100-pitch mark with a 5-2 lead in the eighth inning, the Yankees rally to force extra innings. In the 11th, Aaron Boone sends a deep fly into the Bronx night, sending New York to the World Series and crushing Boston's dreams of ending the Curse of the Bambino again.

The Braves, buried deep inside a depressing NL East vault of mediocrity, today traded starting centerfielder Mark Kotsay to the Boston Red Sox for outfielder and prospect! Luis Sumoza. At least so sayeth my Braves.com email alert, not that no one saw this coming (quote from DOB at the AJC FYI).

The teams finalized the trade Wednesday morning after spending much of Tuesday negotiating details of the deal, which sent the 32-year-old center fielder to Boston in time to be eligible for their postseason roster.

"It'll be a fun experience for the next 30 days, that's for sure," Kotsay said as he prepared to board a flight for Boston on this afternoon. "Just one of those deals, we'll get through it."

Despite the Braves' disappointing season, Kotsay said this of his eight months with the organization: "Great experience, man."

Yay! That was almost as optimistic as the Braves' email which made little or no mention of Kotsay and pimped the hell out of Sumoza's stats. Now, interestingly, Atlanta traded Joey Devine last year for Kotsay, making this a Devine for Sumoza trade.