Baseball 2011: end of the regular season

Damn it! That's sort of what I said when Papelbon's fast ball was hit into the right center gap and the tying run came into score for Baltimore. "Oh No Crawford," is exactly what I said as the next batter flared Papelbon's pitch to Boston's struggling, big money free agent in left field. Just like the rest of his season he couldn't quite come through. Within a minute it seemed like Even Langoria hit his game winning home run against the Yankees to push his Tampa Bay Rays into the playoffs. The Red Sox had a collapse with a pre 2004 quality to it, being up 9 games or something at the beginning of the month and winding up having to win on the final day of the season to win the American League wild card.
The whole month of September it seemed they were down by three runs by the second inning and any lead the Sox could get was wasted by their bullpen in the late innings. My observation was that if 3rd baseman Kevin Youkilis had not been injured, the team's line up would have been able to generate those extra few runs over September that would have won them another game or two and starting if pitcher Clay Buchholz hadn't had his back problems he would have given them a least one quality start making all this a non issue. Nobody said being a Red Sox fan was easy.

The whole last night of the season was crazy and may be remembered for some time as one of the most exciting final days. Four teams (St. Louis, Atlanta, Boston and Tampa Bay) All looking for one more win just to play one more day. Only The Cardinals got their business done easily with a 7-0 rout of the Astros. The Braves choked up a lead in the ninth  and wound up losing to the Phillies in 14 innings; their season was just as ridiculous as the Sox'. Meanwhile down in Tampa the Yankees took a 7-0 lead into the 8th inning and blew it having to play twelve innings with the prevailing Rays. These games could send any fan into therapy.

Anyway below are the final standings and my predictions
American League
East: Yankees (Red Sox)
Central: Tigers (Tigers)
West: Rangers (Angels)
Wild Card: Rays (Yankees)

National League
East: Phillies (Phillies)
Central: Brewers (Brewers)
West: Diamond Backs (Rockies)
Wild Card: Cardinals (Braves)

What will the playoffs bare? I want a Detroit vs. Milwaukee World Series.