Eye Toward October: Sept. 3

With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.

- Champs Getting Stronger: The Red Sox have suddenly opened up a sizable four-game edge in the wild-card race after winning Tuesday while the White Sox and Twins lost. The news gets even better when you consider that Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett are set to return on Friday, with J.D. Drew and pitcher Bartolo Colon possibly returning next week.

It's easy to compare the 2008 Sox to the last Boston team that defended a title. Like this year's version, the 2005 team was ravaged by injuries to key players. There's one major difference, though, and that's the depth in the organization. GM Theo Epstein's vision of making the Red Sox a nine-figure player development machine has bloomed fully, and because of it Boston has a very real chance to repeat.

Their minor league system is among the most robust in the game, far different from the Dan Duquette era, and it's enabled the Red Sox to plug many of the holes they've had over the course of a trying season.

When Julio Lugo went down, Jed Lowrie came up and improved the team. When the team needed a spot starter for Josh Beckett, they turned to pitching prospect Michael Bowden. When the team needed another outfielder because of Drew's injury, they were able to deal a prospect with good upside for Mark Kotsay because of their minor league depth.

- Bad News on Big Z: The extra rest doesn't seem to have helped Carlos Zambrano as much as the Cubs had hoped. He departed after five innings in Chicago's loss to Houston and revealed later that his arm was hurting.

Losing Zambrano at this juncture would be a big blow, but Zambrano is not as critical to the Cubs' chances as he was last year. Chicago wouldn't be better off without the right-hander, but it could still win the World Series with Rich Harden and Ryan Dempster heading up its rotation.

- Rocktember: The reigning National League champs have now won seven of their last 10 games and are only five games out in the West race. A run like last season's is still improbable, but Colorado has three games left against Los Angeles and six left against Arizona, including three on the final weekend of the season.

Baseball Prospectus' Joe Sheehan put it best: "All the Rockies have to do is focus on making that last series relevant." That means picking up two games on Arizona in the next three weeks. Doesn't sound so tough, does it?

- 'Pen Performance: Jonathon Niese was shaky in his major league debut, but once again the Mets' bullpen got the better of the Brewers. New York's relief corps isn't going to be completely settled until Billy Wagner returns, but it's been OK as of late.

- No Blues for Dodgers: Los Angeles has to be feeling pretty good after Tuesday night's win. Manny Ramirez homered and Clayton Kershaw went seven strong innings to pull the Dodgers within a game of the Diamondbacks.