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Leave it to New York to keep the drama going in the NL East.

The Mets entered Saturday with a chance to be eliminated from postseason contention. A loss to Florida and a Phillies win would have sent the Mets home for the winter.

Instead, pitcher John Maine was the Mets' savior, stopping their five-game slide and pulling them into a first-place tie with the Phillies with a 13-0 win over the Marlins. The Phillies lost to Washington 4-2.

New York will hope for another big effort from Tom Glavine in the regular-season finale today. A win over Florida and another Philadelphia loss today would give New York consecutive division titles.

If the Mets and Phillies finish tied, they will have a one-game playoff Monday in Philadelphia for the NL East crown.

Gwynn sticks it to Padres

The Padres are still waiting to clinch a playoff spot ― and they can blame a familiar name.

Tony Gwynn Jr. hit a tying, two-out triple off Trevor Hoffman in the ninth inning, and the Brewers went on to beat the Padres 4-3 in the 11th.

San Diego would've been heading back to the postseason for the third straight year, except for the hit by Gwynn, son of the Padres Hall of Famer.

The Padres' loss clinched the NL West for Arizona and gave the D-Backs home-field advantage.

Padres manager Bud Black isn't planning to use Jake Peavy today, preferring to save him for the potential tie breaker.

Rockies still in the hunt

San Diego's loss and Colorado's win mean things are still up in the air in the NL West's wild-card race, with Colorado within one game of the Padres.

The Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki hit his first grand slam in an 11-1 rout against Arizona on Saturday night.

Should the Rockies beat Arizona today and the Padres lose to Milwaukee, Colorado and San Diego will have a tie-breaker game Monday.

Jimmy Rollins backed up his boast and buoyed by a historic collapse, the Philadelphia Phillies can relax. Jake Peavy and the San Diego Padres can hardly afford to rest - they've got a date at Coors Field.
A wild finish Sunday gave fans an extra treat: A one-game tiebreaker between the Padres and Colorado Rockies for the NL wild-card spot.

Hours after one final failure by the New York Mets gave the Phillies the NL East title, the Padres missed a chance to clinch the majors' last playoff slot. Now, they hope their All-Star ace can outpitch Josh Fogg on Monday night.

"I think the spirits and the mood right now is a little downtrodden, but we're going to get it up," Peavy said. "I'm not going to let this happen tomorrow. I can promise you it'll be a new day, the boys will be excited. I mean, this is why we play the game."

Had the Mets won, there would've been a lot more games. That would have left four teams tied with the same record, and caused a crazy three days of tiebreakers.

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As it is, the wild-card winner opens the postseason Wednesday at Philadelphia. The same day, the Chicago Cubs start at Arizona in the other NL series.

The AL pairings already were set: The New York Yankees begin at Cleveland on Wednesday, then the Los Angeles Angels take on Boston at Fenway Park on Thursday.

"Obviously, they've got a lot of playoff experience, more than we've seen," Indians slugger Travis Hafner said. "But it's a five-game series, and we feel good about our team."

While the Padres lost 11-6 at Milwaukee, Colorado gave itself a chance by holding off Arizona 4-3.

This will be baseball's first one-game playoff since the Mets beat Cincinnati in 1999, and this wild-card winner starts the postseason Wednesday at Philadelphia.

The Phillies and Mets were tied for the NL East lead going into the final day of the regular season. But any drama was quickly drained when 300-game winner Tom Glavine gave up seven runs in the first inning to Florida at Shea Stadium.

"It's something that's going to take a while for us to get over," Glavine said after an 8-1 loss.

Rollins scored two runs as the Phillies took an early lead and beat Washington 6-1.

The Mets became the first team to blow a seven-game lead with only 17 games left. Rollins said before the season the Phillies were the team to beat - yet the MVP candidate couldn't have envisioned this ending.

"I'm no prophet, just a baseball player," Rollins said.

It made for a neat twist, at any rate. Earlier this year, the Phillies became the first team in history to post 10,000 losses. And their collapse in 1964, when they blew a 6 1/2-game lead with only 12 to play, is the stuff of baseball fables.

"I guess they can't say we were the worst team anymore," said Dennis Bennett, the Phils' opening-day starter on that infamous club.

The Phillies returned to the postseason for the first time since 1993. Star Ryan Howard jumped into the stands to celebrate, a couple of players showered fans with a water hose and longtime announcer Harry Kalas sang "High Hopes" over the public address system at Citizens Bank Park.

"There's only one more celebration to try and go for now and that's the whole thing," Howard said.

While the NL was fraught with tension, the AL was full of fun.

The Yankees, Angels, Red Sox and Indians also gave their regulars time to rest.

In Baltimore, catcher Jorge Posada took over the managing duties from Joe Torre for the day and guided the Yankees to a 10-4 win.

"Everybody had a pretty good time today," Torre said.

At Fenway, the Red Sox finished up with a 3-2 loss to Minnesota. There was good will all over the ballpark - the wives of Boston pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima sent Japanese sandwiches and desserts to the press box for the media.

, so it was no surprise when that trend continued in the season's final weekend.

Colorado's dramatic win, coupled with San Diego's 11-6 loss in Milwaukee Sunday afternoon, means the Rockies (89-73) will meet the Padres (89-73) in Denver at 3:37 Eastern Time Monday to decide who earns the fourth and final National League playoff berth.

"This is great. They're more fun to watch," fan Jesse Feather said. "It had to start somewhere and they've got it going now."


Feather and his brother, Justin, were like many in the crowd Sunday afternoon at Coors Field: they were scoreboard watching.

"I hope it stays abuzz," fan Pat Horn said. "I hope the scoreboard proves that this game matters. Hopefully it'll have something that this ball park hasn't felt before."

Horn sat with his two children counting down to the first pitch with a nervous energy. Throughout the concourse fans were chatting about what had to happen for the Rockies to make the playoffs.

"This has reignited that feeling of excitement we felt when they first came here and made the playoffs for the first time, and the Blake Street Bombers and all that," Horn said. "Everyone is talking Rockies baseball."

Coors Field certainly had the feel of the playoffs. The three-game series with the Diamondbacks was the most important since 1995 -- the first and only time the Rockies reached the postseason.

The team posted its first winning record since 2000, but Justin Feather said there's a certain something about this year's team that has caught the attention of the city.

"There's a little bit of a swagger," he said. "Even the last couple of years when they were terrible, I still liked watching the young kids. It's been fun to watch these guys develop and now they're in a spot to get in the playoffs."

Whether the Rockies are playing playoff baseball in October or not, there's definitely something besides beer brewing in the mountains.

"It's just nice to finally have some meaningful games in September," Justin Feather said.