[PilotMan]

We lost Rickey for the rest of the year. He's down with a hamstring. Bummer. Lee Stevens will resume his role in left. He's started 27 in left this year while Henderson was out the first time.


I forgot to run down the divisional races in my recap.


Barry Bonds, at the tender age of 29, has hit the 300th home run of his career.


RP Scott Baker was lost for the rest of the season with a forearm strain. Baker threw a career high 47 games for the Dodgers this year. Not sure the team will miss his 6.40 ERA.


On September 5th the Dodgers were eliminated from the playoffs.


The Yankees are 24.5 games in front of the Orioles with a magic number of 3. In last, the Brewers, the worst team in baseball, are 49.5 games back with a month to play.


In the West, the White Sox are in a fight with the A's (3GB) and the Twins (5.5GB).


The NL East sees a big fight between the Phillies and Mets (.5GB).


In the West it's the Astros who are 7.5 in front of the Braves.


The season just keeps getting better for the Dodgers. In typical Dodger fashion against the Braves, we get good pitching from Don Robinson, but a couple homers and we're down in the 9th. LA gets a game tying HR from Carl Everett to tie it up. Patterson gives up his own dinger in the 10th, and Geronimo Pena gets it back with his own in the 10th to keep it going. Patterson locks down the 11th and LA manages to get the bases loaded in the 11th. Rob Natal comes up and hits a slow roller. Natal is a catcher, he can't run, but he busts his ass and legs out the single to walk off the win for LA. Natal is laying on the ground writhing in pain after he's called safe. Turns out, he awkwardly stepped on first and twisted his ankle. Check that....he broke his ankle, and he's done for the season.


LA loses McGriff to a broken rib after getting into a collision at second base. In the same game, Braves rookie IF Russ Davis made his ML debut. He was hit by a pitch and left the game with a potentially serious injury. McGriff probably won't be done for the year, but it'll be close, and it won't really matter in the end. Just another guy down who actually hits.


The next time LA saw Randy Johnson we didn't get our first hit until the 4th inning. That means that against LA, Johnson threw 12 straight no-hit innings. He also notched his 300th K of the year in that game.


The Yankees pick up win number 99, and become the first team to clinch their division. No other team is even close to a 10 game magic number. The O's are 25.5 back in 2nd place.


More bad news on the injury front for LA. Rene Arocha, the hands down, workhorse stopper on the team is done for the year. Shoulder pain forced him from a game and after the evaluation it was determined that he'd torn his rotator cuff. Post surgery, he's not expected to be back until possibly June next year. Just terrible news for the team.


Also lost, Jose Cleto again hits the IL after spraining his ankle coming off the mound poorly while making a defensive play. Don Robinson also left a game early, but his diagnosis was better, and no trip to the IL was needed. Todd Worrell has returned to take Cleto's place as the set up man. LA has also called up Shigeki Taguchi who posted a 2.31 ERA and 13 saves at AA San Antonio. So far, over 3 games, he's allowed one hit, while striking out five.


With Lee Stevens getting game time starting in place of Henderson, LA is using Mike Busch at first.


I gotta say, this iteration of the LA lineup is awful. No McGriff, no Henderson. No use.


The Houston Astros become the second team to clinch their division as they win the NL West. The Braves were the only team that could compete, but they find themselves 13.5 games back now.


Over in the AL West, the White Sox are 5.5 up on the A's, with a magic number of 9 and in the NL East, it's the Phillies who are up 5 on the Mets, and their magic number is 9.


If the White Sox take the West, they will have a chance to bet the Yankees. Both teams have been the AL rep the past 3 seasons.


Over in the NL, the last time it wasn't the Mets, Phillies, or Astros in the World Series, it was 1986. That's amazing. The NL has won five of the last 6 World Series'.


Major League veteran Nick Esasky announced his retirement from baseball today. He was only 33 and had spent the last three seasons trying to make the majors with the Dodgers. His last ML game came in 1990 with the Orioles. He played this season in Bakersfield at the Dodgers A level club, where he batted .271 with 10 HR's and did a perfectly respectable job for a guy over 30 in A ball. Esasky made the All Star team in 1986 with the Reds. He spent the majority of his career in Cincinnati and he retires with 203. He lead the majors in strikeouts in 1984 with 168 and lead the majors in RBI's in 1988 with 114. He finished 3rd in the 1982 ROY voting and earned over 2.7 million in his 9 year professional career.


Fred McGriff has returned from his injury with three days left in the season. Don't think it'll matter much.


The White Sox seal up the AL West and in the NL East, the Phillies have held on to their lead, although it's down to 2 games, with 3 to play. Both the Mets and Phillies have over 100 wins on the year. Two very good teams.


The regular season is over. I'm going to do a write up on the Dodgers season, because there's a number of somewhat interesting storylines with the team, despite how bad they are. Then a quick preview of the LCS teams and WS before we close the book on 1993.