A Wild-Card Race Worth Chasing

Wednesday night's Astros-Marlins game has taken on an added layer of drama. Clemens's mother, Bess, has died earlier this morning, but word begins to make its way through the clubhouse that Clemens is planning on starting anyway.

"It's something he's chosen to do," veteran first baseman Jeff Bagwell says. "Only he knows his reasons."

In what was surely Houston's biggest game of the season -- and one of the most difficult of Clemens's career -- he pitched the Astros to a 10-2 win, then spoke poignantly about his mother for almost 20 minutes in a postgame news conference. When it was over, he hugged his family and wiped away tears.

Meantime, in a somber visitors' clubhouse, Burnett stands at his locker. One day before, he had called this "the biggest start of my career." He has taken the loss hard.

"It feels like you're letting your team down right when they need you the most," Burnett tells reporters. "I went from being one of the best pitchers out there to 'I can't win no thing now.' To lose control like that is unacceptable."

Interlude

Observations, discoveries and oddities from a close examination of the wild-card standings over the last several weeks:

· Beginning Aug. 16, there have been eight outright lead changes, including an eight-day period (Aug. 16-23) when the lead changed hands between Houston and Philadelphia five times. But there have been only three instances in which there was a tie for the lead at the end of a day -- Aug. 17 (Phillies and Astros), Aug. 30 (Marlins and Phillies) and Sept. 14 (Marlins and Phillies).

· Beginning Aug. 13, no team has enjoyed a first-place lead bigger than 1 1/2 games. This month, there have been only three days (Sept. 13, Florida; Sept. 6 and 7, Houston) when a team held a lead bigger than a half-game.

· It used to be a five-team race. The New York Mets were as close as 1 1/2 games at one point (most recently on Aug. 30) and were within five games of the lead as recently as Sept. 7, but have fallen apart in the last week.

· At the end of play on Aug. 30, the bunching of the five contenders was the closest it has been all year: First and last place are separated by a total of 1 1/2 games. A day later, the five teams were within two games of each other, in perfectly symmetrical order: Each team trailed the team directly ahead of it by a half-game.

· On Aug. 26, with five teams separated by a total of 2 1/2 games, all five teams won. Two days later, with the same margin of separation, all five teams lost.

· The Nationals last led the wild-card race outright at the end of play on July 27, with a 55-46 record. The next day, they lost to the Braves to fall into a tie for the lead, and the day after that a loss to the Marlins dropped the Nationals behind the Astros.