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

- Wild, Wild West: The contenders in the NL West might not have gaudy records -- only the Diamondbacks sit above .500 entering play Thursday -- but that doesn't mean the race won't be plenty entertaining. Think about the last couple of days.

Tuesday Dodgers phenom Clayton Kershaw and prized acquisition Manny Ramirez powered Los Angeles to within 1 1/2 games of first-place Diamondbacks. Wednesday Arizona's own trade catch Adam Dunn gave the D'backs a walk-off win and some breathing room ahead of their final series with the rival Dodgers.

All the while, the Rockies, the darlings of last year's postseason, are lurking. Colorado is 17-14 since the beginning of August, and lest you think it isn't a real factor well back of Los Angeles and Arizona, the Rockies will play both clubs a combined nine times in the coming weeks.

The beauty of a protracted pennant race, especially one with three teams battling for a lone playoff spot, is that it's bound to be exciting even if the teams aren't great, or even very good.

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.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

Say what you want about GM Ned Colletti, and we've said it all here at FanHouse, but he's done just about everything possible to put the Dodgers in a position to win the NL West this year. When one Hall of Famer -- Manny Ramirez -- wasn't enough, he went out and got another one -- Greg Maddux.

Yet here the Dodgers sit, losers of six straight and eight of their last nine on the eve of a stretch where they will play the Diamondbacks in six of their next nine games

It'd be an understatement to say Los Angeles is at a crossroads.

Just as it was before the Ramirez trade, the offense is at the heart of the Dodgers' problems. Manager Joe Torre insists the now daily struggle to put runs on the board is a result of his team pressing, particularly with runners in scoring position.

"Right now, the only thing we're not doing enough of is breathing," says Torre. "We're putting ourselves in a position to succeed and we just can't get over this hump."

Later today, the Red Sox will stroll out of the visitor's dugout and face the Yankees for the final time at venerable Yankee Stadium. There will be other goodbyes to the House That Ruth Built in the coming weeks, but with the Bronx Bombers a major longshot to play into October, this series seems to have taken on special significance.

Here are a dozen of the finest moments in the best rivalry in American sports, all of which took place at Yankee Stadium. Even Red Sox fans have to be feeling a little nostalgic about their team's final visit. After all, the franchise's finest hour took place there.

1. Oct. 16, 2003: The ghosts strike one last time. After Red Sox manager Grady Little leaves Pedro Martinez in well past the 100-pitch mark with a 5-2 lead in the eighth inning, the Yankees rally to force extra innings. In the 11th, Aaron Boone sends a deep fly into the Bronx night, sending New York to the World Series and crushing Boston's dreams of ending the Curse of the Bambino again.

So disciplinarian Joe Torre made Manny Ramirez cut a whole inch off his dreads. Big freaking deal.

Apparently it is, because the Dodgers' new found mojo went by the wayside along with that seemingly insignificant inch.

The Dodgers were playing like a powerhouse after Ramirez's arrival -- until the Dodgers' hair-challenged manager insisted on Samson cutting his dreadlocks, Ramirez complying and hitting .250 ever since, the Dodgers going 4-7 in that time.

An interesting find here by the LA Times, to say the least. I've never actually had long hair, so I can't speak to how losing it would muzzle Manny's ability to rake ... but I can say that when playing a different position you are definitely affected by your teammates hair. No wonder Jonathan Broxton can't close games, Russell Martin is tiring, and Andre Ethier can't hit the ball out of the infield ... and of course, the always mentally weak Greg Maddux obviously got touched up because he was so bothered by Manny's hair missing that one ever-so-important inch.

Seriously, guys ... isn't this the kind of material writers reserve for Cubs' bad stretches?

At least Torre had a sense of humor about it and played along.

"That's something about discipline," Torre joked after getting Ramirez to snip an inch off his dreadlocks. "You sacrifice wins, the season and everything else to have it."

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

The Red Sox don't worry about individual awards. They don't even like to talk about them out of fear that it might distract them from the task at hand, winning a third World Series in five years. That's probably part of the reason why they've been baseball's most successful franchise in the past decade.

If Kevin Youkilis finishes with a bang, they might have to start.

The player once dubbed "a fat third baseman, who couldn't run, throw or field," in Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" is having quite the season. He entered play Thursday with 24 home runs, 88 RBI and a .321 batting average. He ranks in the top 10 in those categories as well as on-base percentage, slugging average, OPS, total bases, doubles, triples and walks.

He might not look like an MVP. He certainly doesn't act like one, grinding hard in every at-bat and taking every out personally in a manner ex-Yankee Paul O'Neill would be proud of, but like it or not, he's a serious contender for the award with under six weeks to go in the season.

"It's been fun to watch," says Dustin Pedroia of Youkilis' season. "He's been the biggest part of our offense."

"He's growing into his power," says Jason Varitek. "He's always been a really good hitter."

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

The Red Sox have decided to push back Josh Beckett's next turn in the rotation to Tuesday because the pitcher is feeling some tingling and numbness in his throwing arm.

Manager Terry Francona said the 2007 ALCS and 2003 World Series MVP slept on his throwing arm awkwardly on Saturday night. He started Sunday against the Blue Jays, allowing eight earned runs in 2 1/3 innings in arguably his worst performance in a Red Sox uniform.

Francona indicated that the decision to push Beckett back from Saturday at Toronto to Tuesday at New York was more precautionary than anything else.

"It's not something we're real worried about, we just don't want to do something rash," said Francona. "If we let him pitch just because he's a good pitcher and he will pitch, I just don't think that makes much sense."

The ace's usual side sessions were postponed a few days as a result of the tingling and the team wanted to put him on a normal throwing schedule in between starts.

For Beckett's part, he sounds a little more concerned. "Anytime it's something with your arm ... especially with a pitcher, you think the worst," said the pitcher. But he went on to say that club officials have assured him the numbness isn't anything to worry about long-term.

Beckett has been outperformed, at least on a results basis, by both Jon Lester and Daisuke Matsuzaka, but there's no doubt Boston will need him at his best to secure a playoff spot and succeed should they get to the postseason. So how worried should Red Sox fans be?

There's this silly little feud going on in Dodger land right now that involves the issue of whether Manny Ramirez' bat in the lineup assists Jeff Kent's ability to hit.

Vin Scully, legendary Dodger announcer, untouchable figure of radio and television lore and 28 time winner of California Sportscaster of the Year, thinks that Kent's bat is heating up because Man-Ram is in the lineup to protect him.

Kent thinks -- according to what he told T.J. Simers recently -- that Scully "talks too much".

"You can't say that," I told Kent, and he said he had just spoken to 200 women (at a Dodgers function) "and I told them the same thing, and they laughed.

"We all love you, Vin," Kent added with a mischievous grin, "but you still talk too much."

To fans and the media, what a team does in the MLB Draft pales next to a big free-agent signing or blockbuster trade.

Part of that is the gaudy figures thrown around during the hot stove season. The Red Sox, this year's top spender in the draft, couldn't even buy one year of Gil Meche if they shifted their draft outlay to the open market. Most of it stems from immediacy, though. A big winter signing answers the question who will help me today? A big haul in the draft answers who will help me tomorrow, but in most cases tomorrow is years away, if it ever comes at all.

Still, as the cost of free agents escalates, the draft continues to become the most important way to ensure long-term success. With that in mind, and with the deadline to sign picks in the books, here's a look at three teams who won and three teams who lost in the 2008 draft