Baseball in the Daytime: The First Day of Fall

We're down to the last eight or nine games of the regular season for most teams, and this is where the shoestrings must be tied tight, the eye black painted thickly if your day baseball has implications of October in it. There's but one game on tap today. Details after the jump.

Philadelphia @ Florida, 3:10 Central: Today's lone feature contains the N.L. East first-place, and still defending-champion Philadelphia Phillies and the Florida Marlins. A pair of righties are your starters today, and they're a pair with great numbers on the season. Big Joe Blanton goes for the Phils. He's 10-7 with a 3.97 earned-run average. Okay, not great, but good. His counterpart, Josh Johnson, has won 15 while only losing for, averaging 3.01 earned runs per contest. The Marlins still have a chance to get into playoff baseball, but they'll need to play near-perfect baseball. As of today, they, along with Atlanta, sit five games back of the Rockies, and they have the four-games-back Giants to leapfrog in the Wild Card race. Today's match, available for viewing on DirecTV 732 (heard on XM 185) gives Florida one of their best shots to gain some ground, as they'll play two today with Philly. Jamie Moyer and Anibal Sanchez are slated to start game two.

Other N.L. standings news includes the St. Louis Cardinals 10 ahead of Chicago in the Central, while the Dodgers hold a five-game lead over the Rockies. In the American League, Los Angeles is eight games in front of the Rangers in the West, New York has five games over Boston in the East, and Detroit's Central lead has been whittled down to two and-a-half games. Minnesota has nothing but division road games left: two more with the White Sox, a three-spot with the Royals, and a season-closing visit to Detroit, which should be nothing shy of fantastic. Thw Twins have won five of six, while the Tigers have dropped six of their last 10.

That's the day-baseball news for now and I...am...outta here.