While it’s not much of a surprise (even to an admittedly biased observer such as myself) that the Philadelphia Phillies are up 2 games on the Milwaukee Brewers, the fact that the Phils drove CC Sabathia out of Game 2 in the 4th inning was unexpected. Yes, Sabathia was starting on 3 days’ rest but he had done so in his last 3 starts of the regular season and still thrived.  If the Phils have a long playoff run the at bat by Phils’ pitcher Brett Myers against Sabathia with 2 outs in the 2nd inning could go down as one of the most amazing moments in the team’s history. Myers batted just .069 this year but, after falling behind 0-2, fouled off a number of pitches and worked the count to 3-2 off Sabathia, as the crowd became increasingly frenzied. Finally Myers took a pitch for ball four, eventually leading to Shane Victorino’s grand slam which put the Phils up to stay.

For the Tampa Bay Rays, it can be considered a surprise that they lead the Chicago White Sox 2-0 only because they’ve never even had a winning season before 2008, and how a young team reacts to the spectacle of the postseason is always a question. But if the Rays are feeling any pressure it’s not showing, as they’ve rallied from two-run deficits in the early innings of both victories. Their next step is to perform on the road, but they only need one win to advance to the AL Championship Series.

The biggest shocks come from the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Angels, the teams with the best record in their respective leagues. The Cubs, with all of the anticipation and hype over the 100th anniversary of their last World Series win, have looked horrendous against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ryan Dempster walked 7 in less than 5 innings in the first game and Chicago’s infield defense let Carlos Zambrano down in game two. Nothing surprising for Joe Torre, though. His team is in the playoffs once again — it’s just not the Yankees.

The Angels finished with 100 wins in the regular season and were 8-1 this year against the Boston Red Sox. Surely this would be enough to overcome the Angels’ previous playoff failures against Boston? So what if the Sox swept the Angels in the 2004 and 2007 Division Series? History seems to be repeating itself, though. LA was stymied by Jon Lester in the opener and suffered a crushing defeat last night. Boston scored 4 in the first but squandered a lot of other chances, and the Angels finally tied the game at 5 in the 8th inning, only to see J.D. Drew hit a 2-run homer off Francisco Rodriguez in the 9th.

Dating back to the 1986 AL Championship Series the Red Sox have now beaten the Angels 11 consecutive times in postseason play. The series now shifts to Boston where the Angels must beat Josh Beckett, who has a career 1.73 ERA in 10 playoff starts.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, of the 35 teams to fall behind 2-0 in the division series before this year, just five have come back to win. So the odds are against the Brewers and White Sox, but especially against the Cubs and Angels: only one team, the 2001 Yankees, has ever rallied to win a division series after losing the first two at home.

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Despite the Astros’ being the “home” team the crowd of 23,441 (not bad for a game scheduled on a day’s notice) was mostly comprised of Cubs fans, with Milwaukee being much closer to Chicago than Houston.

And then there are the playoff races. On Wednesday, I posted a message on the discussion board that included this brilliant bit: “Except for the AL Central, in every playoff race the leader is ahead by 3 or more games in the loss column. Could this mean much less drama in the final week?” What was I thinking? Besides the Minnesota Twins, the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies are all within 2 games in the loss column in their respective divisions, and 1 game (or 1.5 in the Twins’ case) overall. The NL Wild Card race has also tightened.

After losing 2 games at Fenway Park to AL East leader Tampa Bay in dramatic fashion, Boston regained ground by cooling off the red-hot-but-way-too-late Blue Jays while the Rays lost 2 of 3 to the Yankees, who have nothing left to play for but the closing week of their stadium. The loser of the AL East race will likely be the AL Wild Card representative, though. There is no such certainty in the NL.

The Milwaukee Brewers had a 4-game lead going into the first of a four-game series in Philadelphia. They leave town tied with the Phillies for the Wild Card after being swept, and the Astros are within two games despite being no-hit by Zambrano.

The Brewers had the option of pitching CC Sabathia Sunday against the Phillies on three days’ rest. They decided against it, preferring to have Sabathia pitch the first of a three-game set in Chicago. After Friday’s game was rained out, the Brewers’ players had to give their approval to the game being rescheduled for Monday, when both the Phils and Brewers had an off-day (since the labor agreement bars teams from being scheduled to play on more than 20 consecutive days). That would’ve allowed Sabathia to pitch that day on 4 days’ rest. The players voted against giving up their off-day.

Sabathia will start on Tuesday against a Cubs team now up by 7.5 in the NL Central, while in the rescheduled game Sunday night Jeff Suppan allowed 6 runs, 8 hits and 4 walks in 3 2/3 innings in losing to Brett Myers — who was the second Phils starter (after Jamie Moyer, who got the win on Thursday) to pitch and win on 3 days’ rest in the crucial series. If the Brewers’ collapse is complete 14 days from now and they miss the playoffs entirely, the decision to hold Sabathia back should go down as a major blunder.

Speaking of collapses…as if the Phils weren’t happy enough with moving into a tie with the Brewers, the New York Mets’ bullpen woes continue to haunt them. Mets relievers coughed up two more late leads this weekend, losing 2 of 3 to the Atlanta Braves. This allowed the Phils’ 4-game sweep of the Brewers to cut their NL East deficit from 3 1/2 games to just 1. This New York Post back page headline from Friday might be just a bit premature.

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