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Saturday, September 28
 


ESPN.com

Through Saturday's games

AL DIVISION LEADERS
TEAM W L PCT GA
x-N.Y. Yankees10258.63810½
x-Oakland10259.6344
x-Minnesota9367.58112½

NL DIVISION LEADERS
TEAM W L PCT GA
x-Atlanta10158.63520
x-St. Louis9665.59612
x-Arizona9764.6022½

AL WILD CARD STANDINGS
TEAM W L PCT GB
y-Anaheim9863.609--

NL WILD CARD STANDINGS
TEAM W L PCT GB
y-San Francisco9466.588--

x-clinched division title; y-clinched wild card

Tiebreakers
Home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs: The Yankees beat the A's in their season series, so if the two teams finish with the same regular-season record New York will get home-field advantage. (Yankees may have to play a makeup game on Monday vs. Tampa Bay.)

Home-field advantage in the NLDS: The Cardinals beat the D-Backs in the season series, so if the two finish with the same record St. Louis will get home-field advantage in the first round of the NL playoffs.

Playoff matchups
This is how the playoff matchups will look:

American League
Anaheim at N.Y. Yankees
Minnesota at Oakland

Home-field order for ALCS: New York, Oakland, Minnesota, Anaheim (wild card cannot have home-field advantage)

National League
San Francisco at Atlanta
St. Louis at Arizona

Home-field order for NLCS: Atlanta, Arizona, St. Louis, San Francisco

Momentum meter
Barry Bonds: Up OK, so his meter has been up for two years straight. He cracked his 46th homer to put the Giants up 3-2 on Saturday. He's due for a huge postseason ... and we predict he'll have it.

Diamondbacks: Up It looked like they were going to lose home-field advantage to the Cardinals, but have regained their Mo with three straight wins. A win Sunday means they'll open at home.

Sunday's games of the day
Milwaukee at St. Louis, Wayne Franklin (2-1, 3.71) vs. Andy Benes (5-4, 2.93).

Remember when Benes retired back in spring training? Now he'll be in the postseason rotation and he's allowed more than two runs just once in his past 10 starts (and that time he allowed just three runs.) And, in the absolute weakest move of the year, Jose Hernandez will likely sit again for Milwaukee, leaving him one K short of the single-single strikeout record. St. Louis needs to win and Arizona to lose to gain home field over the D-Backs.

Colorado at Arizona, Denny Stark (11-3, 3.69) vs. John Patterson (1-0, 3.16)

Stark, a rookie, has been terrific for the Rockies of late, as he's 4-0 with a 2.72 ERA over his last eight starts. And he was dazzling in his last outing, pitching seven shutout innings on Tuesday as Colorado beat the Dodgers 1-0. Patterson will be making just his fifth start of the season.

The Numbers Watch
Alfonso Soriano: He remains one homer shy (to go along with his 41 steals) of joining Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez in the 40-40 club.

Vladimir Guerrero: Hit a deep fly ball off the top off the wall, just missing his 40th home run of the season Saturday, and just missing admission into the 40-40 club.

Sammy Sosa: The Cubs rallied past the Pirates on Saturday, but Sosa went 0-for-3 to remain stuck on 498 career home runs, and 48 this season.




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