By Tom Morris Okay then, it has finally happened: with only five weeks left in the 2005 baseball season, the playoff races are actually getting really, really interesting. And by that I mean we now have a select group of hot, motivated teams racing each other to a dramatic late-September finish. Well, ...in the American League at least. The NL wild-card hunt keeps showing promise, but the hot team of the week keeps slumping, and bumping, into the stragglers, making the whole thing a muddy and muddled affair as opposed to a competitive one. The Yankees have arrived, that's for certain, breathing their New York air down the necks of the Red Sox and the A's, who themselves have regained the lead in the AL West. The San Diego Padres are below .500, but then again, I think you guessed that one; Milton Bradley rolls the dice again, playing more games that he continues to lose, this time involving himself in a race of a different kind; Doc Gooden sadly started another walk of shame into the hands of the law, Sidney Ponson seeks to catch the former Mets' arrest streak; and the lovable Tampa Bay Devil Rays almost get an honorary mention in my Team Rankings Page, sweeping the Angels to remain one of the hottest teams since the All-Star break. Some things just don't make sense. You may feel the same about my weekly installment, but I'm gonna give it to you anyway: [ Last Week's Rankings in Parentheses... ] 1. St. Louis Cardinals: ( 1 ) The Cards have had to deal with season-ending surgery for Scott Rolen, and a nagging Mark Mulder injury, which has already pushed him out of the rotation for one go-round. But Chris Carpenter just won # 19, and Jason Marquis did the unthinkable by winning a game, his first in like 11 starts. Albert Pujols got ejected the other day... That's all I can think of: St. Louis stays sharp, with depth, pitching and talent, and hold the top throne for the third straight week. 2. Boston Red Sox: ( 2 ) I dare you to come up with a better offensive dynamic duo in baseball right now. Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz are absolutely the scariest combo, anchoring this team's powerful line-up as they continue to try to resurrect their rickety pitching staff. How far they will go with Schilling on the mound remains to be seen, but Wakefield, Clement and Whining Wells are doing their best to hold the pieces together. With the Yanks close behind don't hold your breath, though. 3. New York Yankees: ( 5 ) Tell me you didn't see this happening...eventually. Georgie's Boys have thrust themselves to the frontline in a big way, they can't be stopped when they don't want to be, and the starting pitching staff drinks two pints of Miracle-Gro, because they've somehow sprouted into a capable rotation --well, by AL East standards. They're going to go head-to-head with the Sox --AGAIN-- and the team with the better bullpen wins this one. I for one am already making popcorn. 4. Chicago White Sox: ( 3 ) The team with the socks of a different color made a more than timely recovery from their first and only legitimate slump of the year, winning 4 of 5 right on the heels of a 7-game slide. It helped that they had a mammoth lead in the Central. Play-maker Podsednik just got activated off the DL, and the Southsiders are in no danger of missing the postseason this year. 5. Atlanta Braves: ( 4 ) It appears as if you don't even need to hit very well to win if you're an Atlanta Brave. A .212 team BA this past week yielded 5 wins, which says a lot about this team's ability to pitch across the board, and to win the close ones. Andruw Jones didn't cool off, doing his ever best to keep both Pujols and Derek Lee in double-crown territory, and leading the charge for NL MVP. Think of a bat more important to saving a line-up than Jones's. 6. Oakland Athletics: ( 8 ). Pardon the cliche, but "They're Baaack..." Indeed, after a stint on the Disabled-Bats-List, the A's have rebounded nicely. And just in time. The way the Yankees and Indians are going, Oakland could have already been discarded to the American League Recycle Bin. But now, they can't stop hitting, or winning, and thanks to the Angels mini-collapse, they stand alone atop their division. Nice job, fellas. 7. Cleveland Indians: ( 10 ) This is no longer a cinderella story, folks. If you sit down to watch one game with the tribe in it, you'll get my drift. Their airtight pitching may have leaked a little oxygen of late, but a .303 batting average, and 6 1/2 runs a game this past week are giving late-to-the-scene rubberneckers a case of whiplash. 8. Florida Marlins: ( 11 ) I must say, with D-Train back on track, and AJ Burnett throwing his own steam on the mound, the Fish made an actual surge this past week to put themselves within 1/2 game of Wild-Card leading Philadelphia. But they fell back just enough to keep the NL's bottleneck Wild-Card race even narrower. Most of the teams in this race can pitch. With them, it's which offense can provide more sparks this month... 9. Philadelphia Phillies: ( 7 ) Looked to run away with this thing, did the Phils, with the Astros tripping on the diamond, and the NL East afraid to step up. But Philly kept everyone's hopes alive by themselves stumbling through the weekend. Good for the baseball fans, not good for their record. The next two weeks sees a virtual round-robin of wild-card teams going head-to-head. The Phillies have consecutive battles against the Mets, Nationals, Houston and Florida. It only gets more and more exciting in this game... 10. LA Angels of Anaheim: ( 6 ) All the way down here --all of a sudden-- are the unimpressive Angels. A very good team playing not very good baseball recently, the Halos have a serious case of the run-production Blues. A sweep by Tampa Bay nailed down last week's coffin, in one weekend sending them out of both the division lead AND the Wild-Card race. A 3-game set against the A's --starting tonight-- will be huge for a team that cannot depend on the Yanks or Oakland to lose the rest of the way. They must hit their way back into it...soon. 11. New York Mets: ( 13 ) The other day --Tuesday, I think-- I had given up on watching my pitiful Orioles lose again, and surfed around MLB Extra Innings to see what was going on. What I got was the Mets, who in a series of nights absolutely erupted with their bats. It was fun, so I kept coming back to the well, which didn't seem to dry up --until they stopped playing the woeful Diamondbacks, that is. Still, it's an encouraging sign for a team weak on run support most of the year. 12. Houston Astros: ( 9 ) Houston continues to fall in the Rankings, as well as in the wild-card race, being surpassed by both Philadelphia and Florida. Their bats have gone cold again, and poor Clemens keeps getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop, over and over, while his ERA keeps dropping! With it do the Astros fans' heads, but noone said this thing is over. Philly, Houston and Florida have the best shots at the postseaon --hard to tell who it's going to be. 13. Minnesota Twins: ( 12 ) These guys were keeping it real in the AL race for a while,with inspired play for a team not known for hitting, and still smarting from the loss of Torii Hunter. But a losing record this past week, combined with the fact that the Yankees and Indians don't like losing anymore, means it's time for Minnesota to start looking toward 2006. 14. Washington Nationals: ( 14 ) By virtue of Houston and Philadelphia's ordinary play, the Nats are still here, despite one of the worst offenses in the league, and spotty starting pitching. But, in the baseball olympics it's easy to be a hurdler when they keep lowering the bar on ya. Helmets off to Frankie's boys in Washington, a DC Area team that will actually have a winning record. 15. Cincinnati Reds: ( NEWCOMER ) Hey, somebody's gotta take this spot, the only one with a team not in the playoff hunt. Plus, all the other guys (Toronto, San Diego, Texas, etc..) adamantly refuse to try a piece of this delicious pie, and the Reds have won 8 of 10. So there you go, Cincinnati faithful. Your dominant sluggers may soon be dispersed throughout the league, but for now they're hitting plenty of balls outta there. I'm leaving the ballpark too, as soon as I finish my hot dog. As always, keep the game on your mind, and your mind in the game....