Ten In A Row !!!! Don't Stop Believin' !!!!!

The Colorado Rockies won their franchise best tenth consecutive game this evening as they topped the Dodgers in Los Angeles, 2-0. They are an unprecedenteed 5-0 on this Southern California road trip ! Colorado's won-lost record moves to 86-72 with their 17th win in 24 games in September. They remain one game behind the San Diego Padres as the Padres smoked San Francisco to keep up the pace. Philadelphia also won over Atlanta, basically eliminating the Braves, to stay even with Colorado. Good news from the other games though. Pittsburgh crawled out of the coffin again to beat the NL West leading Diamondbacks for a second night, reducing Arizona's lead to just one over SD and two over Colorado. Amazingly, the Washington Nationals wrapped up a three game sweep of the NL East leading New York Mets at Shea Stadium. The Mets' lead is now down to one over the Phillies. In Miami, Florida knocked off the Chicago Cubs, but the Cubs maintain their two game lead over Milwaukee as the Brewers fell at home to St Louis.

Only four days remain in the regular season now. Colorado faces another critical game in the finale at Chavez Ravine Thursday Night against the Dodgers. Meanwhile, the many of the other teams change opponents or travel for their upcoming weekend series. San Diego is at Milwaukee for the opener of a tension-packed four games series at Miller Park. Chicago finishes their series in Florida with the third game Thursday night. All of Wisconsin will be rooting for the South Florida Fish. Most of Illinois will be rooting for the Cubs. Philadelphia hosts the Atlanta Braves in the finale of their three game set. Reeling New York has a makeup game at Shea against the Cardinals. And Arizona wraps up their trip to Pittsburgh before heading back west for the weekend to Colorado.

The pertinent NL standings as of the end of the day Wednesday 26 September MDT:

Arizona.............88....70....557.......-
San Diego..........87....71....551.......1
Colorado...........86.....72...544.......2

Chicago.............83.....75....525......-
Milwaukee.......81.....77.....512......2

New York.........87.....71.....551......-
Philadelphia.....86.....72.....544......1
Atlanta.............83......75.....525.....4

I have not talked about the AL with all the excitement going in the NL. Boston has a magic number of two to win the AL East. New York has clinched the wild card. Cleveland is trying to finish up with the best record in AL having wrapped up the Central. And Anaheim won the AL West but they are asleep at the wheel this week so far as lowly Texas swept them in Arlington. The ALDS matchups look as if it will be Anaheim v Boston and Cleveland v New York. We will perhaps know for sure as early as Friday.

What a September to remember with great pennant races in the National League !

GO ROCKIES !!!! BEAT LA !!! COMPLETE THE SWEEP !!!

KEEPIN' THE FAITH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

B E L I E V I N ' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GO PIRATES ! BEAT THE DIAMONDBACKS !

GO BREWERS ! BEAT THE PADRES !

GO BRAVES ! BEAT THE PHILLIES !

GO MARLINS ! BEAT THE CUBS !

GO CARDINALS ! BEAT THE METS !

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College Football Picks for Week Five, 27-29 September

Here are some picks for many college football games being played between Thursday 27 September and Saturday 29 September.

Thursday 27 September

Arkansas St (-6) 27, Memphis 13 + X
Boise St (-11 1/2) 34, Mississippi St 26 + X

Friday 28 September

#5 West Virginia (-7) 24, #18 South Florida 22 X +

Saturday 29 September

#1 Southern Cal (-21 1/2) 48, Washington 23 + X
#2 Louisiana St (-42) 51, Tulane 6 + X
#3 Florida (-18 1/2) 40, Auburn 16 X X
#4 Oklahoma (-24) 44, Colorado 13 X X
#6 California (+5 1/2) 35, #12 Oregon 33 + X
Kansas St (+14 1/2) 26, #7 Texas 23 UPSET + +
#8 Ohio State (-27) 67, Minnesota 13 + X
#9 Wisconsin (-7 1/2) 29, #23 Michigan St 20 + X
#10 Rutgers (-17 1/2) 31, Maryland 21 X +
#11 Boston College (-35) 43, Massachusetts 12 + +
#13 Clemson (-4 1/2) 24, Georgia Tech 17 X X
#14 Virginia Tech (-17 1/2) 29, North Carolina 7 + X
#15 Kentucky (-23 1/2) 54, Florida Atlantic 24 + +
#16 Georgia (-15) 38, Mississippi 16 + +
#17 Hawaii (-27) 56, Idaho 17 + +
#19 Penn State (-4 1/2) 30, Illinois 20 X X
#20 Missouri: IDLE
#21 South Carolina (-13 1/2) 29, Mississippi St 7 + +
#22 Nebraska (-21) 54, Iowa St 20 + X
#24 Alabama (even) 23, Florida St 20 (@ Jacksonville) X X
#25 Arizona State (-16 1/2) 37, Stanford 17 + +
Brigham Young (-5 1/2) 33, New Mexico 27 + +
Utah (-20 1/2) 28, Utah St 14 + +
Cincinnati (-13 1/2) 37, San Diego St 24 + +
Nevada-Las Vegas (+5 1/2) 29, Nevada 24 UPSET X X
Texas Christian (-10 1/2) 23, Colorado St 16 + X
Air Force (+2) 16, Navy 13 UPSET X X
Texas A&M (-16 1/2) 27, Baylor 16 + X
Texas Tech (-34) 66, Northwest St 24 + +
Oklahoma St (-32) 37, Sam Houston St 10 + +
Arizona (-2 1/2) 17, Washington St 14 + +
Oregon St (even) 31, UCLA 27 X X
Purdue (-21 1/2) 40, Notre Dame 16 + X
Virginia (-7) 28, Pittsburgh 20 + +
Texas El Paso (+1 1/2) 20, Southern Meth 17 UPSET + +
Northwestern (+16 1/2) 23, Michigan 20 UPSET X +
Miami FL (-24) 24, Duke 9 + +
Louisville (-23) 55, North Carolina St 34 + +
Iowa (-11) 24, Indiana 17 X +
Houston (-10 1/2) 33, East Carolina 23 X +
Army (-6) 27, Temple 20 + +

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The Dream Lives on Through Tuesday !

[Because of no internet connection on Tuesday evening, this post comes about 19-20 hours late.]

The maximum desired optimum results almost occurred on Tuesday. Everyone that needed to win and everyone that needed to lose did with one exception. San Diego rallied in the 9th for a 6-4 victory over San Francisco that keeps the Padres ahead the Rockies by one game in the wildcard playoff race. Of great importance were the losses by Arizona and Philadelphia. It was also fine to have Chicago and New York lose and Milwaukee win. All the matchups that occurred Tuesday continue today, although the pitching matchups overall are a little less favorable.

Of greatest and primary importance is having the Colorado Rockies win tonight again in Los Angeles against the now eliminated Dodgers. Tuesday night's 9-7 win was not as pretty as one would like at this time of the season, but a win is a win and we will take it. It was the Rockies' ninth consecutive victory which ties the club record set back in 1997. Of the three games in LA, this is the one I believed would be the least difficult but we will all have to see as everyday is different and unpredictable.

So with just FIVE days left in the regular season, Colorado and Philadelphia are tied, one game behind San Diego for the wild card. Of interest as well, Arizona is three up on Colorado; Chicago leads Milwaukee by just two for the Central; and New York leads the Phillies by two for the East. It is a great finish in the making...

GO ROCKIES !!! BEAT LA !!!

GO GIANTS ! BEAT SAN DIEGO !

GO BRAVES ! BEAT PHILADELPHIA !

GO PIRATES ! BEAT ARIZONA !

GO NATIONALS ! BEAT NEW YORK !

GO BREWERS ! BEAT ST LOUIS

GO MARLINS ! BEAT CHICAGO !

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