And now for something completely different...

A baseball post? With kickoff of college football season less than 30 hours away? Believe it, homeslice.

The Mets came back to beat the Phillies last night, moving to within just a half-game of the NL wild card lead. That means with a win tonight and a loss by the Marlins, the Mets could actually start September leading the race for the NL wild card.

Incidentally, how crazy are these standings? Five teams within a game and a half of each other, four of them tied in the loss column.

Frankly, I think the Astros will end up stealing it because the four NL east teams will spend the last month beating up on each other, while the Astros get to fatten up on the Reds, Cubs and Pirates.

Team	W	L	GB
Florida	70	62	---
Philadelphia	70	62	---
NY Mets	69	62	0.5
Houston	69	62	0.5
Washington	68	63	1.5

Why are the Mets so close, so late? Two words: David Wright.

The starting pitching has been solid for most of the year, the bullpen has not imploded (yet), and lots of guys are hitting decently.

But Wright (and an assorted cast of unlikely "heroes of the night") has basically carried this team for the last few weeks, with Mike Cameron hurt, Mike Piazza hurt, and Carlos Beltran hitting like a little girl for long stretches.

By the way, did I mention that I got Wright on my fantasy team (in a keeper league, nonetheless), by trading John Thompson straight-up? I mean... good lord.

Oh, and I got that Felix Martinez dude, off the free agent wire this spring.