NL East

The National League may have just lost a Cy Young candidate, but may also have gained an ERA title winner.

The Florida Marlins announced this afternoon that staff ace Josh Johnson would be shut down for the season after complaining of problems with his back and shoulder for much of the second half of the season.

The Washington Nationals have 19 games remaining in the 2010 season.  If they win three of them, they will avoid losing 100 games for the third straight season.  It's little solace for Nats fans that harbored illusions of a wild-card berth when the team got off to a 20-15 start.

Sports Irreverence and More from The Other Tip of the Goldberg

Maybe it’s because of the rain that fell this morning—I haven’t seen any rain for about eight years, and it has me a little confused.

The rain also washed away my pickup softball game this morning, giving me a little more time on my hands to think about the pressing issues of the day.

After watching teammate Mike Pelfrey rebound with a solid effort against the Phillies yesterday, Jon Niese will try to do the same today.

The rookie left-hander has had three straight bad starts after four straight outstanding ones of allowing one earned run in each.

During his recent slump, the Mets have brought up the subject of limiting his innings, but decided to let him roll. They did push him back a day after his most recent outing, when he allowed five runs in six innings against the Cubs.

The Philadelphia Phillies obstacle course of a season currently finds them one game up in the National League Eastern Division. The club's 2010 campaign has been akin to a season of The Amazing Race in terms of duration, complexity, and challenge. 

September 11, 2001 started off as any other regular day. I was in eighth grade at the time, school had just started a few days before, and I basically didn't have a care in the world.

However, the events of that day struck fear into the nation, to the point where we still feel the effects today.

Having a lot of superstars is great for obvious reasons. But the thing that makes a team great is having guys on the roster who can step in for those superstars when needed and make the plays that need to be made, or just play in a supporting role and do all the little things.

Fortunately for the Phillies, they have a lot of both types of guys. The superstars (Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Jimmy Rollins) aren't hard to pick out. But what makes this 2010 team so dangerous is just how stacked the roster is with great supporting players.

The Philadelphia Phillies have shown resilience, heart, and very solid pitching in somehow amassing the best record in the National League during a strange season that could have derailed a lesser group.

At Citi Field—a mausoleum of a stadium that has not been kind to the Fightins in 2010—they rode three hits by Carlos Ruiz and solo shots by Ryan Howard and Chase Utley to defeat the hapless New York Mets, 8-4.

With only three weeks to go in the 2010 regular season, it's looking more and more like there will be postseason baseball in Philadelphia.   That doesn't mean that there weren't some difficult moments along the way.

Injuries and slumps are bound to happen, so rather than focus on the obvious, here is a look at six things that made even the most ardent Phils' fan consider switching to reality television for entertainment.

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It's been 66 years since the National League has seen a three time National League champion.

The year was 1944 when the mighty St. Louis Cardinals won their third straight pennant after finishing first in the NL with a 105 win season.