One item has been lost, in the division clinch afterglow and and the stumble towards Division Series home-field advantage:
Miguel Cabrera is going to win the American League batting title.
On the morning of the next-to-last day, he's hitting .341, three points better than the Rangers' Michael Young, and Red Sox Adrian Gonzalez who led most of the season.
M-Cab has done it by hitting .427 in September, stringing together games like tonight's 3 for 5 in the Silverdome, helping his Lion teammates defeated the Browns 14-0.
Quarterback Doug Fister cut through the Clevelanders like a knife through melted butter, allowing three runs and no walks while striking out nine.
Good thing too, since the Rangers won 4-3 in Anaheim and erased the Angels faint wild-card hopes while staying one game ahead for Division Series home-field.
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Red Sox manager Terry Francona had a full head of hair when September started.
In the pic on MLB.com's home page, he's as bald as a cue ball.
A 6-19 September, and losing nine games in the standings, can do that to you.
The Red Sox meltdown is complete. Three weeks ago they had a nine game lead for the AL wild card. After play tonight, they and T-Bay are now tied for the bridesmaid prize with identical 89-71 records and two games left.
Their undoing tonight at Camden Yards was a three-run inside the park homer by Robert Andino, in the yard with the league's smallest outfield and shortest home run distances.
Jacoby Ellsbury had the ball in is glove. It dropped when he hit the center field wall. He fell to the turf but had the presence of mind to lateral to JD Drew, who threw home. And they still almost got Andino.
The D-Rays defeated New York, New York before the usual small turnout at Tropicana. 18,772 announced, including one fan who came prepared, with a cell phone and a white board on which he wrote scoring updates from Baltimore, to hold up for his phone-less neighbors to see.
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Tonight's game was there for the taking, but the Cardinals passed.
Second and third, two runs in -- on Lance Berkman's double -- one out, game newly tied at five, and no further scoring.
The Astros won in the 10th, on a double, an error by Cards pitcher Octavio Dotel, and a safety squeeze.
Dame Fortune smiled on the Redbirds, since the Braves also lost, 4-2 to the Phillies in Atlanta to stay one game up for the NL wild card.
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The smart Tiger fan maybe should root for the Red Sox, in their current state of disarray, to advance, and not the surging D-Rays.
Here in the second floor baseball bunker, the conventional wisdom is: let the Red Sox nation stew in its own juices over the winter; no re-enactment of The Rivalry anywhere in post-season, we'll take our chances with the hitting-thin D-Rays in the Division Series.
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