[sharknut]

We hosted the 1st place Braves in the 1st 4 games of our home stretch and we were swept, which had us fall 3 games back and we were fighting up hill the rest of the way. In the 1st game, Seitzer selfishly charged the mound after being hit by a pitch and was suspended the rest of the series. Unforgivable when we are 1 game out of the wild card with 20 games to go. I was leaning towards offering the 33 year old UFA to be a new deal, but that selfish move may have single handedly cost us the playoffs.

Sure, he will hit about .300 and get on base, but is that worth the $3 million+ a year he wants when he can't be counted on when push comes to shove? I don't have unlimited payroll like I did in Los Angeles, and I can't afford to give that much to someone I can't count on.

We went 6-4 in the 10 games after being swept, but we still found ourselves 3 games out with 9 left, but we started our stretch against the Mets, who were just 1 game behind the Expos, and then the Expos themselves. We lost the 1st game to the Mets to fall 4 back, but we won the next 2 to back to within 3 games of the Expos with 3 game with them coming up. The last game of the Mets series was an 18 inning classic, so my club was tired.

Neither Jon Leiber or Jimmy Meadows were great, each allowing 5 runs in 5 innings, but the bullpens shut everything down until the 9th where Albert Belle hit a 3-run home run to give the Expos an 8-5 win and a 4 game lead with 5 to play.

In game 2, Jon Barnes went 8 strong innings and 8 different players had 1 RBI in an 8-2 win to claw to within 3 with 4 left.

In another must win game, Leibrandt had the worst start of his season giving up 5 runs in 3 innings and I decided I had to pinch hit for him early. Colon his a pinch-hit single as we made it 5-2. Tony Barron hit a pinch-hit 2 run home run in the 7th to bring us to 5-4 as our bullpen locked things down. In the bottom of the 9th and 1 out, Darin Erstad singled in Seitzer to tie things up at 5. And we played on and on tied at 5 until the 17th inning when Eduardo Perez hit a solo shot to keep us alive in a 6-5 win.

So, 2 games back with 3 to play gave us very little room for error. In our 1st game with the Phillies, we went 14 innings, meaning we played 74 innings in the last 5 games. Once again our bullpen was nails shutting down the Phillies after the 5th inning and we won 5-4 to keep us 2 games back as the Expos won again.

Andy Araujo went all 9 in a 3-1 win in game 161, but the Expos would not co-operate and we were eliminated with just 1 game to go in the season. We won another extra innings game in the finale for ****s and giggles, and I am pretty proud that we won 6 of 7 must win games to close the season out. Definitely would take this result at the start of the season, but I am bummed we just missed out.