Thank God for the rain!

The rain in Philly caused a postponement of the second game of the series, but Houston and Florida lost, so the wild card standings look like this:

Team	Record	Pct.	GB
Astros	64-55	.538	--
Nationals	63-55	.534	.5
Phillies	63-56	.529	1
Marlins	61-57	.517	2.5

The Nationals are tantalizingly close to the wild card lead, but we doubt they would have taken the lead had Ryan Drese continued to pitch tonight. The Phillies were leading 1-0 after their first three hitters singled, and they had men on first and third with one out when play was halted. Given the way Drese has pitched recently, we're confident that that wasn't the last run the Phillies would have scored on Drese. In other words, the rain may have come at a very opportune time.

The teams will play a double header on Thursday to make up the game, and Drese will pitch the second game, so he'll have the opportunity then to throw more gas on the fire. Until then, perhaps Esteban Loaiza and Tony Armas can put together a couple of wins that vault the Nats into first place in the wild card race.