Les Expos Créent La Folie"

You've gotta wonder which was the bigger news that came out of last night's game: The continued collapse of the Phloundering Phillies or the fact that following the Expos dramatic 14-10 victory last night, which included overcoming an early 8-0 deficit, the NL Wildcard race has turned into a wild, seven team free-for-all where anything is possible:

Florida 70 61 .534 ---
Philadelphia 70 61 .534 ---
Arizona 69 63 .523 1.5
Chicago 68 62 .523 1.5
Montreal 69 64 .519 2.0
St. Louis 68 63 .519 2.0
Los Angeles 67 63 .515 2.5

"What a win. What a win," Expos manager Frank Robinson said. "You see it happening, but you don't believe it. That was a great win for this organization, for the fans and for this city. It's what we needed to do. And the rallying cry here is, 'Whatever it takes."

Down 10-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Expos scored seven runs off three different pitchers. The Phillies had replaced starter Vicente Padilla after the sixth inning with a 10-4 lead. He had allowed six hits, four runs and three earned runs in six innings and had thrown just 92 pitches. Certainly better than what followed him when Bowa removed him.

According to Bowa, Padilla was removed because he'd decided to pitch the way he wanted to with a huge lead. Padilla wanted to throw fastballs. He threw 82 in all, and shook off catcher Mike Lieberthal 15 to 25 times, according to Bowa. The Phillies' clubhouse remained closed for more than 25 minutes as Bowa said he held a meeting with Padilla, pitching coach Joe Kerrigan and bullpen coach Ramon Henderson. It wasn't a team meeting, as several players walked out of the clubhouse to make phone calls or hit the weight room.

Besides his disdain for Padilla's approach, Bowa liked his chances with the Phils' bullpen, which ranked third in the National League with a 3.33 ERA.

However, the bullpen gave up an eruption of 10 runs and the Phillies had blown their biggest lead of the season by the time it was all over.

Joey Eischen (2-2) struck out two batters in the seventh to get the victory for the Expos, who won for the 11th time this season when trailing after six innings. Luis Ayala pitched the last two innings for his fourth save. The eight-run comeback was the biggest for the Expos since they erased an 11-2 deficit to win 14-13 against San Francisco on May 16, 1997.

Meanwhile the hapless Phillies, who lost for the 15th time in 18 road games and dropped to 1-7 on their current 13-game trip, miraculously remain tied for the NL Wildcard lead after the Florida Marlins managed just four hits against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates and lost 4-3.

The Marlins have scored more than four runs just once while losing six of seven games since leaving South Florida last week, and they have scored fewer than five runs 14 times in 23 games this month.

Candidate Three, the Arizona Diamondbacks are learning quickly about how this NL Wildcard is run. Like their loser counterparts the Phillies and the Marlins, the Diamondbacks also lost, just as pathetically, to the last place San Diego Padres! The Padres "vaunted" pitching staff held Arizona hitless over the final five innings as San Diego rallied for a 5-4 victory at Bank One Ballpark.

The Padres must have been feeling relief after pulling off two big trades yesterday to get Pirates outfielder Brian Giles who is hitting .299 with 16 homers and 70 RBIs this season despite sitting out a month with a knee injury and to get rid of All-Star outfielder Rondell White to the Kansas City Royals for two minor league pitchers. White was hitting .278 with 18 homers and 66 RBIs, and now joins a team contending for the AL Central title.

Last night howver, it was Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko who hit consecutive RBI doubles in the eighth innings as the Padres rallied from a four-run deficit to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-4.

In the wild and woolly NL Central where not only is the division title at stake but now, perhaps even an NL Wildcard spot, the Chicago Cubs knocked off the Cardinals in an internecine intradivision game, 7-4. Once again, the Cubs were led by up-and-coming Cy Young candidate, Mark Prior who is now 13-5 for the season and is 5-0 since coming off the disabled list. In 39 innings since his return, he has allowed three runs on 21 hits, walked four and struck out 35. That's a 0.69 ERA in the span. He gave up just one run Tuesday in eight innings before the bullpen bobbled the ball in a three-run ninth. The way he's been going, Prior might even be a candidate for the MVP, should the Cubs somehow manage to defeat their regularly scheduled fate and win the NL Central.

Keeping pace with the Cubs, the Houston Astros, on the same day a damning report came out against NASA by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, who was investigating the Space Shuttle explosion, did a little destruction themselves, exploding against the Los Angeles Dodgers, 18-4. The victory allowed the Astros to stay a half game ahead of the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central which this morning, looks a little like this:

Houston 69 62 .527 ----
Chicago 68 62 .523 0.5
St. Louis 68 63 .519 1.0

Oh yeah, if you're bored with the NL, you can take solace knowing the Red Sox dropped from the AL Wildcard lead to a game back behind the A's and the Mariners with a loss to Toronto Blue Jays, 12-9.

The big news was, of course and once again, the long-suffered bullpen of the Red Sox which, if you followed all the wheeling and dealing of GM Theo Epstein, should have been built into one of the AL's best. Instead, the dueling Dread Scotts: Scott "I Put the Sour In" Sauerbeck (0-1) and Scott Williamson failed the Sox again. Sauerbeck allowed two runs while retiring just one batter and Williamson retired just one batter and surrendered three runs.

"We have concern but we also have confidence that they will be able to get it going," Red Sox manager Grady Little said of his bullpen. "They just had a tough night out there tonight."

Tonight? It's nice to try and be positive Grady but let's face it, this bullpen sucks. Maybe they should have picked up Armando this year. He would have been a perfect fit in this no-lead-is-safe bullpen.

And that's right, the Mariners, stumbling heroically on a six game losing streak in the heat of the pennant race, managed to salvage a 9-3 scuttling of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last night, snapping their losing streak and staying tied for first in the AL West, all in one night.

A heady night indeed. One of many more nail-biting excursions to follow.