This time of the year can be bittersweet for some baseball fans, but the purists realize that you must relish the final weeks of every season in order to fully appreciate it when the time comes for you to root on your own team toward postseason immortality. Of course, you have teams like the Yankees, who seem to saunter into the playoffs year in and year out, as well as perennial cellar-dwellers like the Pirates, who haven?t sniffed a .500 record in nearly two decades. The reality for the vast majority of fans, however, is a tense and gripping feeling that the hometown team, if indeed they are in contention coming down to the wire, needs to seize the golden opportunity of becoming one of the eight teams with a chance to make an October run for the ages. The 2010 season has brought us a ton of fantastic storylines (three perfect games, are you kidding me? Yes, I said three.), but one thing it is lacking is the suspense that comes with multiple division and wild card races that come down to the wire. The Philadelphia Phillies decided that it was finally time to turn on the afterburners in September and blow away the rest of the National League. On August 31, the Phillies trailed the Atlanta Braves by three games in the NL East. Fast forward four weeks and Philadelphia has reeled off a 20-5 record and clinched the division with five games remaining. They are making it look easy as they have jumped on the backs of their big three of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. Often the hottest team going into the playoffs is where the good money plays, and that team is definitely the Phillies. The National League Central has similarly lacked for drama here in the late season, as the Cincinnati Reds have not been challenged in the slightest by the St. Louis Cardinals. Armed with the best OBP, slugging percentage and OPS in the National League, Cincinnati is not lacking for firepower. The race for this division crown has been virtually over for weeks, as the Cardinals have uncharacteristically folded as the season has come to a close. The Reds might be the biggest surprise to become a part of MLB?s version of the elite eight, as they were more of a sleeper pick to contend in 2010. A sleeper no more, Cincinnati clinched a playoff birth in walkoff fashion on Tuesday night thanks to a home run off the bat of Jay Bruce. Regular season drama doesn?t get much better than that. The Texas Rangers, along with their offensive fireworks and surprisingly effective pitching staff, have made the American League West their personal punching bag this season. Even without their MVP candidate, Josh Hamilton, for most of September, the Rangers have never seen their lead over the second place Athletics dip below seven games. This has enabled Texas to fully rest Hamilton and his sore ribs in order to have him as healthy as possible for the Rangers first visit to the postseason since 1999. The Rangers hope that Cliff Lee has brought along with him some of the postseason magic that he flashed so brilliantly in Philadelphia a season ago, as he will surely start game one of the division series. In the American League Central, the Minnesota Twins have once again used fundamental baseball and a solid pitching staff to get into the postseason. Throughout the years, the consistency that Ron Gardenhire?s teams have displayed has been a testament to the Twins way. During Gardenhire?s ten-year tenure as the Twins? manager, this will be the sixth season in which the Twins have reached the playoffs as the Central Division champion. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this division championship is the fact that they have done it without their superstar first baseman, Justin Morneau, who has been out of commission since suffering a concussion on July 7, and there is no timetable for his return. Interestingly enough, Morneau?s OPS of 1.055, albeit in only 348 plate appearances, would rank first in all of MLB. For the seventh time in the past eight seasons, the American League Wild Card will come from the Eastern Division. The only aspect of the AL playoff picture left undecided is who will be crowned the AL East champion. The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays are locked into a battle that has lasted the entire season and probably won?t be decided until the final weekend of the season. While this battle isn?t nearly as fierce as it would be if one of the teams would be left without a postseason seat, musical chairs style, it would certainly be a blow to the Yankees? psyche if the Rays were to capture the division title. Along with the Phillies, the two teams out of the AL East will be considered the favorites to win the whole enchilada. The only true race to the playoffs remaining is a hybrid three-team competition between the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves. One team will win the NL Wild Card and another will take home the NL West crown. Entering September, the Padres held a four game lead over the Giants and looked to be proving everyone (including yours truly) who said they wouldn?t last dead wrong. With five games remaining, the top of the West standings have flip-flopped and now the Giants possess a two game lead over the fading Padres, who have gone 11-26 since August 26, the day in which they embarked on an untimely ten game losing streak. Conversely, the Giants have closed the season with a 17-8 record since August 31. A stellar pitching staff is to thank as San Francisco hurlers have given up more than three runs precisely once since September 5. The National League Wild Card is currently controlled by the Braves, but moreso as a result of their stellar play early on than anything else. The Braves have limped to the finish line, posting a 12-14 record in the month of September. Similar to the Giants, the Braves have experienced heavy turnover in their starting lineup, as veteran third baseman Chipper Jones and All-Star second baseman Martin Prado are both done for the season regardless of whether or not the Braves make it to the playoffs. Also very Giants-like, the Braves rely on the strength of their starting pitching to keep them in games and the shutdown ability towards the back end of their bullpen to close them out. As it stands, the Padres are the team left on the outside looking in on the playoff picture. Such is life in Major League Baseball, as the team who has had at least a share of first place in the West since June 18, barring a surge in the final five games, could be left with memories of a season that could have been. One could say that they had no business being there in the first place, but once any team takes a division lead into September, it is a disappointing blow to lose that lead down the stretch. However, the fat lady is only warming up. There are five games to play and anything can happen. The Padres trail the Braves in the Wild Card by a mere one and a half games and neither team is lighting the world on fire at the moment. The sole postseason push now takes center stage for all of baseball to see, as the magnifying glass will be affixed on every pitch, at-bat and managerial decision made by these three teams from hence forth. And if one of your teams is involved, enjoy every second of it, because you never know what next year will bring.