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The Brewers have been the epitome of a team playing for this year. They traded away their best prospect for a half-season rental of a starting pitcher. They fired their longtime manager with two weeks to go to jump start the team. And they routinely had their rental starter pitch on short rest. So it should come as no surprise that they picked Yovani Gallardo to pitch the opening game of their best of 5 against the Phillies.

Gallardo spent the vast majority of the year on the DL. He started 2 games in April, 1 in May, and then nothing until right before the season ended in September. Surely, he’s not rusty. No, what a nonsensical notion.

The crazy thing is that Gallardo was effective. He threw 4 innings and allowed no earned runs. But it was the defense and the unearned runs that doomed Milwaukee yesterday. The Brewers converted a bunt that should have been a double into no outs. And then Mike Cameron compounded problems when he misjudged a fly ball in the wind. All this allowed 3 unearned runs to score in the 3rd, and the Brewers never came back against the Phillies Cole Hamels.

It’s always tough to come back from a game 1 loss in a short series–most teams don’t–but most teams don’t have the inhuman C. C. Sabathia starting game 2. We’ll see if there’s more peeing in Milwaukee’s future.

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Did the Cubs have Angel Guzman start just to allow the Brewers to win the wild card? Or was it simply a matter of giving the team’s best starters and relievers another day of rest to prepare for the playoffs?

It was probably the latter, but it’s fun to speculate. Especially if the 2 teams meet in the NLCS. It would be even more ironic if the Brewers were to beat the Cubs then, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

The Brewers scratched their way into the playoffs for the first time in 26 years thanks to, you guessed it, C. C. Sabathia. Sabathia turned in his usual line: 9 innings, 0 earned runs, and 7 strikeouts. Too bad he gets to pitch only once in the first round of the playoffs, unless Milwaukee manager opts for starting him on two days of rest. Nah, that would be crazy, and unnecessarily endanger his future with a team other than the Brewers.

Milwaukee tried to give their season away, but failed and won the wild card, thanks to the Mets repeating their historic collapse from last year. Milwaukee finished in 2nd place, 7.5 games back of the Cubs.

Chicago won their division for the 2nd straight year and hope for better luck in the playoffs than last year. We’ll see how the pressure of that 100-pound albatross feels in their first round against the Dodgers.

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The Reds ended the season doing what they spent most of it doing: losing. Oh, and also playing manager Dusty Baker’s favorite crappy players.

The Cardinals ended the year in 4th place, 11.5 games out of first, somehow winning with players that I didn’t think had the combined abilities to compete. Yet there St. Louis was competing for a playoff berth until about a month ago. Not bad. And since they haven’t made any expensive acquisitions, either in terms of monetary commitments or by giving up prospects, they should be in a good place to jump up a few spots in the standings next year.

Cincinnati finished the season in 5th place, 23 games out of 1st place and 7 games ahead of the Pirates. The Reds have tons of great young talent, yet I have no optimism about them competing next year. Their starting rotation has two extremely talented young kids, with more competing for spots. If only the team had someone in charge who knew how to deal with them. Sigh. No, I expect 2009 to be more of the same.

Wow, nothing I wrote there was funny at all. I tried this year, I really did. But there are only so many jokes you can make about the clueless moves Dusty Baker repeats before the well is dry. All I can hope is that the Reds start next year losing 30-40 in a row so Baker will finally be gone, otherwise the misery of Cincinnati will not end until sometime after 2010.

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Brad Ausmus played his final game as an Astro yesterday in the final game of the 2008 season. Ausmus provided his team with all the runs they’d need, knocking his 3rd ball out of the park for the year, a 2-run dinger.

Wandy Rodriguez pitched 7 innings and allowed 0 runs to pick up his 9th win. Jose Valverde saved his 44th game.

Houston finished the season in 3rd place, a half game in from of the Cardinals. Their late charge for the wild card was derailed by probability and a hurricane, but the team played better than I guessed. We’ll see how they attempt to rebuild for next year. There are some expensive free agent pitchers that’ll be available, and given the depleted nature of the Astros farm system, I expect Houston to be actively signing players.

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Both the Brewers and the Mets collapsed at the end of last season. It’s funny how both have done so again this year. The only real difference is that this year, one of the teams will make the playoffs.

C. C. Sabathia started for the Brewers on short rest, but rest is not something Sabathia needs. That’s something required for lesser pitchers. He scoffs at the notion of rest. And of not injuring himself and losing the biggest free-agent jackpot of ever.

But I digress. Sabathia handled the Pirates, allowing just 1 run over 7 innings. He struck out 11, as well.

The win brought the Brewers back into a wild card tie with the New York Mets, who fell to the Chicago Cubs. There are 4 games left for both teams, so this should stay interesting.