It's true, it's true: The Florida Marlins, long the victims of bad baseball (except when they win the World Series) and even worse stadium accomodations, do not provide a draw to fans in beautiful Miami, Florida. But rarely are the fans so noticeably absent as they were last night. From the Orlando Sun-Sentinel:

That's what reliever Joe Nelson and two other Marlins' players, whose identities he loyally protected, did before the opening pitch of Florida's 5-3 win against the Atlanta Braves. Each picked a section of Dolphin Stadium and scanned for fans. Nelson guessed 418. The official count came up with 584 fans, five fewer than the media accounted for.

"You guys might have had a better view," Nelson said, referring to the smallest crowd at Dolphin Stadium since 375 came out last Sept. 13. "We had a few friendly jokes about how many people would be here. It was actually higher than I anticipated."

584 fans. Terrible. Sarah Palin had more family members in the XCel Center last night, though, granted, some of them were unpaid. (Politcal humor!)

Beyond the park and the baseball, though, I suppose I can see why baseball fans don't necessarily dedicate themselves to nine innings at the ol' ballfarm. The fact that Miami Beach is so very close nearby would be my first. In the north, baseball is a celebration of the fact that you can merely sit outdoors for more than three minutes. In Miami, the distinctions aren't quite the same.

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

- The Cavalry Arrives: The rosters expand from 25 to 40 today, allowing clubs that have fallen out of contention to give their younger players a taste of the majors and giving contenders the chance to add another bullpen arm or bench bat for the stretch run.

A few players to keep an eye on that could actually contribute to contenders down the stretch:

Doug Slaten, RP, Diamondbacks - Should give Arizona a much-needed left-handed bullpen arm for the final month.

James McDonald, SP, Dodgers - Could get a spot start or two.

Mat Gamel, 3B, Brewers - Shortstop Alcides Escobar has gotten a little more buzz, but Gamel could be in the platoon mix with Bill Hall and Russell Branyan plenty over the final month.

Jonathon Niese, SP, Mets - He's starting against Milwaukee on Tuesday.

Phil Humber, RP, Twins - One of the players acquired by Minnesota in the Johan Santana deal, Humber will start out in the bullpen, which hasn't been as strong as the Twins would like, but he could also make a spot start if needed.

John Jaso, C, Rays - Whither David Price? As Pat Lackey pointed out last week, he might not be as ready as most people think. Jaso has a gaudy .820 OPS at Triple-A Durham, and with Dioner Navarro nursing the bumps and bruises of a long season, he could spell the catcher effectively.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

New York Mets (75-60) at Florida Marlins (68-67) 7:10 PM ET

Hey, why not? Beltran's in Florida, just like Chad Johnson was when he changed his name. And after last night's grand slam against the Marlins to cap a ninth inning rally which started with two outs and nobody on, Carlos Beltran can give himself a cool nickname like Uno Cinco and then take a trip to Broward and get that name changed. Of course, I'm sure that Uno Cinco would have much rather done what he did last night against Adam Wainwright in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, but that's being picky.

Somehow, only five weeks remain in the baseball season. Other than injuries, a contending team's schedule might be the biggest factor in determining which teams get a shot at postseason glory and which spend October on the golf course.

The following is a quick breakdown of what the NL teams still fighting for a playoff spot will face over the season's final weeks.

Brewers

The Good: There are plenty of bottom-feeding clubs left on Milwaukee's schedule. The Brewers will play six against the Pirates and Reds as well as four against the Padres down the stretch. In all, 16 of their final 31 games will be against sub-.500 competition. In addition, they only face the Cardinals -- the team chasing them in the wild-card race -- two more times.

The Bad: The Brew Crew still have six games left against the Cubs, including a three-game set to finish the season. Milwaukee might want to lock up the wild card before that final series.

Key Stretch: From Sept. 11-21, Milwaukee will embark on its final road trip of the season. The Brewers will head to Philadelphia for four games and then Wrigley Field for three before ending the trip in Cincinnati. They'll have a chance to catch the Cubs over the final 2 1/2 weeks of the season, but if they take care of business, the NL Central title should be a point of pride more than anything else.

Dan Uggla has struggled during the second half of the season. Since the infamous All-Star game where Uggla struck out three times and made three errors, Uggla has been awful, sporting a line of .189/.298/.336. The All-Star game may or may not have led to Uggla's struggles, but Uggla's struggles have led to him being benched on Sunday by Fredi Gonzalez.

"Some guys go through rough spots in the season," Gonzalez said. "He's going through one now. He's a big part of our offense."

"We need him to get back on track if we're going to win," Marlins outfielder Luis Gonzalez said. "He's huge for us."

Uggla says he has no explanation for his struggles. He scoffs at the amateur psychologists' belief that his performance in the All-Star Game - three strikeouts and three errors - plays a factor.

"That was over as soon as the game was over," he said.

But that hasn't stopped opposing fans from taunting him ... especially one group that's been particularly scorned by Marlins in the past.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Philadelphia Phillies (65-58) at San Diego Padres (48-75) 8:05 PM ET

Premature to say that this game against the downtrodden San Diego Padres is a must game for the Phillies? Definitely. And just because the Mets are on an upswing against league dregs like Washington and Pittsburgh and the Phillies were swept by a division leader doesn't mean the Phillies are dead and buried. But just five days ago the Phillies were up on the Mets by two games. On this day, it's the reverse. So this is a valley that the Phillies would do well to dig out of starting tonight. The Phillies have the right guy on the mound to do that in Cole Hamels.

Say what you want about the National League West. The Diamondbacks and Dodgers might only need 84 wins to capture the division crown, but at least both teams are trying to get better. The NL East appears to be a stronger overall than its counterpart in the West, but there's a whole lot more desperation and angst to go around on the Atlantic seaboard.

In Queens, there is plenty of reason to panic over the shape of the Mets' bullpen, which blew another lead in the ninth inning in a loss to the Pirates Monday afternoon. Whether it has to do with having a certain mentality or not, it's clear that Billy Wagner is the only New York reliever who is reliable in the ninth inning, and he's going to be out for a few weeks.

Wagner and the bullpen is a microcosm for the problem the Mets seem to keep stumbling on -- they have no depth on their roster. (It's worth noting, too, that GM Omar Minaya did nothing to fix that problem at the trade deadline.) A season-ending injury to Wagner, Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran or Johan Santana would devastate New York in a way unlike a similar injury to one of Philadelphia or Florida's stars.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Fair warning: If you're one of those who is sick of the big market teams like the Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox, you might want to look away. Because today, it's nothing but the big cities. New York. Miami. Boston. Chicago. The O.C. Metropolis, ho!

Florida Marlins (61-55) at New York Mets (61-54) 7:10 PM ET

Pennant races are fun. And three teams are more fun than two teams. The only thing better than a game featuring the two teams that are chasing the Phillies would be a game featuring all three teams. But it wouldn't exactly be settling if you decided to curl up with these two. The Mets beat Florida last night to move ahead of the Marlins and close to a game back of Philadelphia. But the Marlins have the pitching matchup they want as Scott Olsen goes for the Fish, while injuries have forced Brian Stokes to make his first start as a Met after spending the season in the minors.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Before the season started, the Detroit Tigers were the popular pick amongst baseball fans and experts alike as the eventual World Series champion. After adding Miguel Cabrera to a potent lineup that already included hitters like Magglio Ordonez, Gary Sheffield, Carlos Guillen, Curtis Granderson, and Ivan Rodriguez, there was talk that the Tigers would score 1,000 runs this season.

Who knew they'd need to? Though most people were aware that the Detroit bullpen would be a problem area, I don't think anybody thought they would be as bad as they have been in 2008. So now here we sit on August 7th, and the Tigers find themselves in a tailspin.

After building up some momentum in recent weeks to get back into the AL Central race, the Tigers have now lost six in a row to fall three games under .500. They're also on the verge of being swept by the division leading Chicago White Sox and falling 9.5 games out of first place, which could effectively end any hope they have of playing this October.

So will the Tigers pull the plug on their season tonight, or are they going to rise up and start mauling people again? Find out after the jump.

As I've said here on FanHouse during the last week, I didn't think the Red Sox were actually going to trade Manny Ramirez. I figured it was just the annual tradition of the team acting like it was going to move their slugger just to get an idea of his worth before eventually scrapping the idea. Then, as time passed, it looked like Manny was really going to get traded to the Florida Marlins and for the first time ever, I felt the deal was distinctly possible.

Then two hours later I was hearing that Manny had been traded, but to the Dodgers instead of the Marlins. So what happened in those few hours to take the Marlins out of the race? Apparently they got too greedy (fourth item).

One high-level Red Sox official said he expected Manny Ramirez would end up with the Marlins, but the Marlins backed off Wednesday night and justified asking for an additional $2 million (on top of paying Ramirez's salary) to cover salaries of the compensatory draft picks Florida would get for losing Ramirez to free agency this winter. Plus, Florida's refusal to include outfielder Mike Stanton -- who leads his Single A league with 27 homers -- helped kill the deal.

Are the Marlins really that cheap? "Okay, we'll take Manny off your hands for you, but you have to pay his salary, pay for the draft picks we'll get when we don't re-sign him, pay Mr. Loria's mortgage, and build us a new stadium. Oh, and we're not giving you anything in return either. Deal?"

Just the Marlins being the Marlins, I guess.