Minnesota's 3-2 win over Chicago last night, leaves the Twins just one-half game out of first place. That one half is because of a rain-out two weeks ago, which means that if the difference remains 0.5 games in either direction on Sunday night, the Tigers will have to pack up all their crap and head to U.S. Cellular Field for a make-up game on Monday. They must be super psyched for that! (Right after they sweep Tampa Bay and leave a sour taste on the feel good story of the year.)

Also, if the White Sox are the ones who are trailing on Sunday, they would have to win that make-up game—and use the best starter available, no matter who Detroit sends out there—to force a tie-breaker against the Twins on Tuesday. Of course, the entire National League may be washed into the ocean this weekend, so a Thursday or Friday start to the playoffs is not out of the question for many teams.

Or the Twins will lose tonight, the weather will cooperate on the East Coast and Jim Leyland can sleep in on Monday. Either way.

• Four tiebreaker scenarios loom [MLB.com]
• NL playoff picture complicated by makeup game, weather [USA Today]
Photo Credit: AP

Even though the Cubs seemingly handed the game over to them on multiple occasions it just didn't happen. Even after they get to Zambrano early, even after they get the lead runner on base multiple times, even after Samarzdidazaidza walks in the tying run, even after Daniel Murphy leads off the 9th with a lead-off triple with the heart of the order behind him, the Mets just could not win. Original gangsta manager Jerry Manuel recognizes the missed opportunity and the foul-smelling wind that's a blowin':

That's bad. You've got to find a way. We've got to keep pushing and pressing. To have a guy at third, leadoff, a young player like that, and not get him in. . . . We gotta do a better job than that."

To make matters even more pressing, the Brewers continued their Dale Sveum-led resurgence, defeated the Pirates and are now tied with the Bastards for the wild card lead. The Phillies, suffering from their own bouts of bed-shitting of late, are also feeling rattled. But not as much as the Mets, their fans, and their bar owners, according to one Deadspin reader:

I am a Philly native and recent New York transplant. I was hoping you could help spread the word about a bar that no one should ever go to.Today (well not its yesterday) was my 25th birthday and I went out with some friends. I live in the Village. We ended up at the Village Pourhouse at like 9th and 3rd. Mets/Cubs was in the bottom of the ninth when we got there and I was openly rooting for the Cubs to win since the Phils had already lost. There was a guy by the bar in a Mets jersey who heard me and starting yelling at me. Turns out it was the owner of the bar. The Mets lost. I yelled at my friends who were Mets fans that we were still up 1.5 games. Some time passes and I need another drink. I get the smoking hot bartender's attention and she gets a beer for my friend and informs me that she can no longer
serve me. I ask why and find out that because of being a Cubs fan (which I told her I was not), I could no longer drink at the bar. I showed her my license to explain it was my birthday (apparently she did not care). She said she was not getting involved and not risking losing her job over giving me a drink. I was furious, stole the signed credit card receipt from my friend's drink, and after my friend's finished their drinks, stormed out of the bar. Please let Philly people know never to go to this bar. They are anti-Philly and its atrocious that this happened to me. I want to destroy the income
of this bar.

Welcome to playoff baseball.

Mets tied with Brewers for Wild Card [NY Daily News]