What a night of baseball

Nights like tonight are what make sports -- and baseball -- great. Going into the night there were four teams, fighting for two Wild Card spots. Out of the four games played, only one was a laugher. The St. Louis Cardinals (90-72) beat the Houston Astros (56-106) by a score of 8-0. Chris Carpenter went the distance for the Cards, who later would learn they had clinched the Wild Card.

The other three match-ups were really intense. The best game of the night was the Tampa Bay Rays (91-71) defeating the New York Yankees (97-65) in 12 innings by a score of 8-7. The Rays trailed 7-0 in the 8th inning before scoring 6 runs in that frame. Dan Johnson hit a game-tying home run with two strikes and two outs in the 9th inning. That was particularly clutch since the Red Sox were winning at the time and the Rays' season appeared to be on the line.

Evan Longoria capped it off with a walk-off homer in the 12th, his second of the game. I keep thinking of the old adage that big players make big plays in big games. That describes Longoria tonight. He was incredible and this included a nifty defensive play in the top of the 12th.

Longoria's home run catapulted the Rays to the Wild Card because literally three minutes earlier the Boston Red Sox (90-72) had lost to the Baltimore Orioles (69-93). The Orioles were down to their final out against Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon before back-to-back doubles tied it and a single won it. Papelbon is one of the best closers in the game and he couldn't nail it down tonight.

It was all literally unbelievable. The Rays were down 7 runs with 6 outs to go and came back to win. The odds of both happening on the same night with a playoff spot at stake are very long. It was just an incredible, exciting night of baseball.

The Atlanta Braves (89-73) lost 4-3 at home to the Philadelphia Phillies (102-60) in 13 innings. The Braves were just a couple outs away from winning in the top of the 9th before closer Craig Kimbrel coughed up the lead.

The Braves and Red Sox blew 8 1/2 and 9 game leads in September, the largest collapses in baseball history. And it sure made for an exciting night. It really is hard to put into words, but tonight is what baseball is all about. The playoffs start Friday. I'm ready.