World Series

Monday night, the Philadelphia Phillies won the NL East for the fourth straight season in a row.

Up in Toronto, the New York Yankees evening could have been a champagne party too. Instead, AJ Burnett imploded worse than ever on the mound and the Blue Jays won the game 7-5.

Burnett could not even get out of the third inning, and he was to blame for all seven runs scored.

Rock bottom?

The Colorado Rockies easily could have spent this whole week making up scenarios that most li

Commissioner Bud Selig said in an interview today that he would be open to revisiting discussions about expanding the postseason.

"It's a fair question. We have less teams than any other sport. Eight teams make the playoffs. One wild card in each league. We certainly haven't abused anything."

Major League Baseball explored the idea several years ago, but never came to a decision.

There is no professional sports league in which it is tougher for a franchise to reach the postseason than Major League Baseball. Making the postseason in baseball is a true accomplishment for any team, even for the Yankees and their $206 million payroll.

When the Arizona Diamondbacks returned home from a disastrous road trip where they went just 2-8, there didn’t seem to be anything to look forward to for the final six home games of the season.

The Diamondbacks must have sensed the malaise of its fan base. The team took the 10-game road trip to do a little housekeeping at Chase Field to begin to build excitement to 2011 and especially the fact that Phoenix will be hosting the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star game.

OK, this assumes the Phillies will go to the World Series but here goes nothing.

If the Phillies are the top seed in the NL (which they would be if the season ended today), they would get the option of playing Game 1 on Wednesday vs Game 1 on Thursday. All other games would be the same regardless.

We are in the home stretch of the long, arduous MLB season. The Minnesota Twins have wrapped up the AL Central, while five others (New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds) are all pretty much guaranteed spots.

That leaves the quartet of the Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies jockeying for the final two postseason spots: the National League West Crown and the NL Wild Card.

Another year, another playoff birth for one of the model franchises in baseball.

With their 6-4 win over the Cleveland Indians, coupled with the Chicago White Sox losing to the Oakland A’s, the Minnesota Twins have clinched the American League Central title and their sixth AL Central title in nine years.

Via the NY Post:

Joe Torre and Don Mattingly will attend the unveiling of George Steinbrenner’s monument in Monument Park, according to multiple people with knowledge of the names who will be on hand at Yankee Stadium.

Via Chad Jennings: