PHOENIX – Talk, talk, and more talk. That's all the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks did Tuesday, a day before Game 1 of their National League division series. Yeah, the teams took batting practice and tossed the ball around Chase Field, but there was mostly chatter. Hey, banter, banter.

Several themes recurred, including:

• The marquee pitching matchup between flame-throwing Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs and sinker specialist Brandon Webb of the Diamondbacks.

• How the Cubs' clubs – power hitters Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez – juxtaposed with the timely production of the youthful, keep-it-simple Diamondbacks lineup.

• The contrast in managing styles: the shock therapy of Cubs curmudgeon Lou Piniella and the gentle hand of the Diamondbacks munificent Bob Melvin.

• The legions of Chicago transplants who live in the greater Phoenix area yet remain diehard Cubs fans. Could Chase Field become Wrigley under a roof?

Let's listen in …

Webb vs. Zambrano

Zambrano on why he

DENVER – Give it up for the National League West. The division that gave us Barry Bonds' controversial home run record chase, the Arizona Diamondbacks' unlikely ascent and the Los Angeles Dodgers' peculiar infighting, saved its most riveting drama for last.

In a teeth-gnashing tiebreaker for the NL wild-card berth, the Colorado Rockies defeated the San Diego Padres 9-8 in 13 innings Monday night, providing a pulsating playoff prelude as well as a convincing state-of-the-West declaration.

Isn't there room in the postseason for both of these teams?

Matt Holliday scored the winning run (or so said umpire Tim McClelland; replays showed that catcher Michael Barrett might have blocked the plate) on Jamey Carroll's sacrifice fly to right field, capping a three-run rally against all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman and sending a capacity crowd at Coors Field into mile-high delirium and the Rockies to their first postseason since 1995.

Moments earlier, in the top of the 13th, the Padres had

DENVER – When was the last time Todd Helton jumped that high or screamed that loud?

When was the last time Coors Field – normally as empty and airy as the open plain – became a black-and-purple pleasure palace, more than 46,000 people wildly cheering under a cloudless late-September sky?

For Helton, who has played 11 stoic seasons for the Colorado Rockies at a Hall-of-Fame level yet never in a single postseason game, the answer would be never.

For the Rockies, think back to 1995, the only year they made the playoffs in their 15-year existence. Interest in baseball steadily waned as the team got progressively worse, but there's nothing like an improbable winning streak capped by a meaningful game on the last day of the season to perk up the locals.

Count Helton among them. The first baseman bounded and shrieked his way across the infield after stretching to his limit and catching a throw from closer Manuel Corpas to complete a 4-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday that

NEW YORK YANKEES VS. CLEVELAND INDIANS

Games 1 and 2 at Cleveland, Thursday and Friday.
Games 3 and 4 (if necessary) at New York, Sunday Oct. 7 and Monday Oct. 8
Game 5 (if necessary) at Cleveland, Wednesday Oct. 10.

What got the Indians here: Star-power pitching from the top of the rotation and steady power hitting throughout the lineup. C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona are both 19-game winners – and the only disappointment in Cleveland is that both aces won't be able to each pitch two games should the series go five. The Indians have five batters with more than 20 home runs but none with more than 25.

What got the Yankees here: A steady climb from an early-season hole resulted in the Yankees entering the playoffs as a dangerous, seasoned opponent. Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Roger Clemens, among others, have significant playoff experience. An influx of young arms has helped a pitching staff that nevertheless will turn to Chien-Ming Wang and veteran

Brianna McGovern, 10, from Emmaus, Pa. is excited about playing in a Miracle League game. (Rob Kandel/For Yahoo! Sports)

HEIDLEBERG TOWNSHIP, Pa – The van door slid open and four ballplayers wearing Yankees pinstripes poured out and rushed to the field. It was game time.

It didn't matter that Brianna, 10, doesn't have a right leg or right arm, or that Jenica, 10, has metal pins in her legs and burns that cover most of her body, or that Luke, 7, struggles to walk because part of his brain slipped into a hole in his spinal cord, or that Eric, 3, can't walk at all because his spine doesn't extend to his legs.

All but Luke went to their positions in wheelchairs, accompanied by volunteers who helped them put gloves on their hands. A coach rolled out spongy rubber balls for warm-ups, and Brianna, Jenica and Luke scooped them up and rolled them back. Eric, as rascally as any other kid his age, picked up a ball, did a 180-degree turn with his wheelchair and tossed it into the

Jim Bouton, former Yankee pitcher, "Ball Four" author and now commissioner of the Vintage Base Ball Federation, introduces the Hartford (Conn.) Senators and Westfield Wheelers to the crowd prior to the Vintage Base Ball Federation World Series. (David Molnar / Special to Yahoo! Sports)

WESTFIELD, Mass. – For his latest muse, Jim Bouton traveled back, back, back, beyond the warning track of the modern era, through the Field of Dreams cornfield and into the 19th century to a place far different from the dysfunctional clubhouse he chronicled as a fading knuckleball pitcher in his seminal insider revelation, "Ball Four."

On a quaint patch of green in this historic western Massachusetts town last weekend, Bouton's vision of recreating an authentic 1880s ballgame amid a theatrical set piece of the period sprang to life at the first Vintage Base Ball Federation World Series.

Upon reaching the field, spectators passed a kid in a newsboy cap and suspenders hawking programs, a banjo player

PHILADELPHIA – Their home is Las Vegas, so somebody ought to be able to calculate the odds.

Of the 29 pitchers employed by the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers this season – a staggering number even by minor league standards – shouldn't one be a viable fill-in candidate with the big club?

Brett Tomko, the Dodgers' fifth starter, is 2-11 with a 5.80 earned-run average and has given up 20 earned runs in 26 innings in his last five starts. In that time, the Dodgers have gone from leading the National League West by a game to trailing the Arizona Diamondbacks by six.

And though flights on recent road trips have been ghostly silent and the clubhouse feels like a morgue, nobody is admitting the fight is over. In fact, their 15-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night was their most inspired effort in weeks, leaving them 2½ games behind the San Diego Padres for the wild card.

"We need all five starters to be effective game in and game out," said Derek Lowe, who

LOS ANGELES – Jason Jennings has accomplished in 17 starts this season what Satchel Paige did on the Fourth of July, 1934.

Win two games.

Playing for the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Paige no-hit the Homestead Grays at home in the morning, drove to Chicago and, legend has it, shut out the American Giants in 12 innings before nightfall. The performance prompted the Bismarck (N.D.) Churchills to offer him $400 and a late-model Chrysler to pitch for one month.

Jennings, it is safe to say, will command more than that as a free agent this off-season.

OK, any link between a depression-era Negro League player who might have been the best pitcher in baseball history and a current major-league starter is unfair. But even by modern-day standards, the prospect of a bidding war for the wholly mediocre Jennings is sobering.

"He'll probably get three-year offers in the $22 million to $27 million range," said a National League scout who watched Jennings cough up a two-run lead in the sixth inning and fall