Last night, Chicago Cubs pitcher Randy Wells had a no-hitter going into the 7th inning. Chipper Jones ended the rookie’s chance of accomplishing the rare task by hitting a single in the 7th. Jones’ hit started a rally that would help the Braves win 6-5 in 12 innings.

For 6 2/3 innings, Wells mowed down the Braves, striking out many of Atlanta’s batters. The Braves then rallied from behind. Jeff Francoeur tied the game with a two-run home run in the 9th, sending the game into extra innings. In the 12th inning, Jones’ walk-off, opposite-field single drove in the winning run.

After hitting his game-winning single off of Aaron Heilman, Jones stated, “These are character-builders that tend to gel clubs.” That game broke a 23-game losing streak in games when trailing entering the 9th inning.

After his second blown save in 10 opportunities this year, Cubs closer Kevin Gregg said, “The five combined runs we gave up in the eighth and ninth innings were uncalled for. But we’re going to get through it. It happens every now and then.”

“That was probably the biggest hit of the year for us,” Jones claimed while talking about Francoeur’s home run that tied the game, sending it into extra innings.

Early in the game, however, Chicago was off to a good start. Alfonso Soriano hit a lead-off solo home run off of Kenshin Kawakami’s fifth pitch of the game. Wells also started the game off pretty well. He got through the bottom half of the 1st inning, having thrown only five pitches. He and the rest of his teammates also had quite a few 1-2-3 innings throughout the game.

Before Jones’ single in the 7th inning, the Braves previously had only one other base runner: in the 3rd inning, Yunel Escobar used his great acting skills to fake getting hit by a pitch. The ball ended up hitting his bat, but he fell to the ground, causing the umpire to believe he got hit on the hand. It is unknown if Escobar had intentions of faking getting hit so he could take first base, or if he was shaken up by the fact that the pitch was heading for his head and fell to the ground. Chipper Jones ended up grounding out into an inning-ending double play.

The Braves rally really started to appear in the 8th inning. Garret Anderson hit a lead-off home run. Martin Prado then hit a routine grounder, but Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee couldn’t quite squeeze his glove on Ryan Theriot’s throw. The Cubs pulled their pitcher and put in Carlos Marmol, who hit a batter and walked two others. Kelly Johnson then drew a bases-loaded walk off of Marmol.

“We were down 5-0. We were dead in the water. But hopefully that hit I got in the seventh kind of got everybody to relax. The longer and longer you go with a guy having a no-no, the tighter the grip goes around the bat. Once we got the hit out of the way, we just started pecking away,” said Jones.

In the 12th inning, Escobar hit a one-out single off of Heilman, and then stole second base. Jones then drove Escobar home after a 3-2 count to win the game.

“I wasn’t thinking about [the no-hitter]. I wasn’t trying to get it. I was just trying to make pitches, and I left a slider out over the plate, and Chipper did what he was supposed to do with it,” said Wells after the game. “We’re not going to sulk over this. We just need to keep fighting to win ball games.”

The Braves’ record is now 26-25. They are in 3rd place in the NL East, and 4 ½ games out of first. The Cubs are 25-25, 4th in the NL Central. They are 4 games out of first.

All right, everyone has had a few days for the Aaron Heilman-Garrett Olson trade to sink in.  But this should really be thought about: Should players from any team be traded twice in the same off-season?

Let’s recap, shall we?

Trade 1: New York Mets receive J.J. Putz, Sean Green, and Jeremy Reed.
Seattle Mariners receive Aaron Heilman, Endy Chavez, Frankiln Gutierrez and four Minor Leaguers
Cleveland Indians receive Joe Smith (Mets) and Luis Valbuena (Indians)

I have no problem saying that the Mets obviously won this trade.  They filled a pressing need and it puts them in a position to OWN the late innings and give the Mets and their fans something to dull the pain of losing the division to the Phillies – by the hands of the Marlins and Nationals – two years in a row.  Blazing fastballs can do the trick.  Next, the Mariners came out with a hoard of youth and talent.  Endy Chavez is still only 31 years old and can give some experience to a young Mariners team.  Getting Gutierrez (who is slated to start in centerfield as Ichiro moves back to right) and the Minor Leaguers was even more of a bonus. Cleveland could afford to stand pat after getting Mark DeRosa, so this deal didn’t really help them or hurt them.

Trade 2: Chicago Cubs receive Garrett Olson and Henry Williamson
Baltimore Orioles receive Felix Pie

This trade was pretty even seeing that these three are all prospects with a lot of time.  But the number of prospects AND the fact that they are pitchers give the Cubs the edge here.

And now this….

Trade 3: Seattle Mariners receive Ronny Cedeno and Garrett Olson
Chicago Cubs receive Aaron Heilman

Who got the better deal out of Trade 3?  The Mariners without a doubt.  With Olson, they get more years out of him, more promise (he was fifth in wins among rookie starters), and upgrade what looks like one of their strengths – young pitching, especially with a rotation with Felix Hernandez and Erik Bedard headlining it.  Chicago’s rotation is very good, and Heilman is a candidate to start.  Plus, the trading of Ronny Cedeno leaves second base wide open for the left-handed-hitting LSU product Mike Fotentot

But back to my previous point.

I don’t think that it is fair to any player to trade them, but business is business is business.  Without trades, especially with blockbuster players, teams don’t improve.  Because of that, teams lose revenue and maybe don’t get any to begin with.  But TWICE?  I don’t just see this as fate striking or just being opportunistic.  I see this as a team telling a player, “OK, you’re here and we want you to stay in the (fill in the blank) organization” and then telling him two days later, “You just didn’t make the cut.  Yes, I know Spring Training hasn’t started yet, but we’ve found someone else to take your place.  The (fill in the blank) will handle your paycheck.  Have a nice career.”  The players are more than meat and contracts; situations like this are reasons why players that wouldn’t even be All-Stars have no-trade clauses.

Then again, business is business is business.

It’s mid-September yet again, and it looks like we see the Mets and the Brewers in familiar September form… losing important games that is. The media has been playing up another collapse like the Mets had last year in which they lost a 7 game lead with 17 games to play.  The Brewers are blowing a once large wild card lead, like they blew their 8.5 game lead over the Cubs last year in the division race (this lead shrank over 3 months however). The way the Mets and Brewers played yesterday was terrible. The Mets were shutout by the dreadful Washington Nationals in a game in which the Mike Pelfrey and the bullpen combined to give up 1 run. The Brewers lost a game they couldn’t afford to lose, namely because CC (remember NO periods) Sabathia was pitching. To make matters worse for both teams, the Phillies won last night, giving them a .5 game division lead over the Mets, and putting them 1 game ahead of the Brewers in the overall standings (important if the Mets win the NL East and the Brewers fight with the Phils for the wild card).

Currently, the Brewers are in the worse boat of the 2. GM Doug Melvin just fired manager Ned Yost, presumably for being too intense, in turn making the players tight as well. Firing a manager and continuing a free fall in the wild card race will only put more pressure on the Brewers to succeed. They couldn’t even get a win out of their ace last night against the Cubs. The Brewers appear to be getting tighter and tighter by the day, and it appears they may completely fall off in the wild card race. They are currently 1/2 a game back in the wild card race behind the Mets. The Brewers have all the tools to be a contender this year and they are blowing it down the stretch. The players know this is their only year with CC, and the window of opportunity is closing quickly.

The Mets on the other hand are in a little bit better of a spot. They’re half a game up in the wild card standing and only half a game back of the Phillies in the NL East. The Mets problem is they’ve been bitten by the injury bug with Billy Wagner, and have just lost one of their clutch and most reliable players in Fernando Tatis. The Mets only had a 3.5 game lead this year, and this collapse could not possibly match the collapse of last season no matter what happens. The Mets, simply put, are not a particularly good team. They have bullpen deficiencies (Wagner wasn’t perfect, and no one else in the bullpen can get 3 consecutive outs), no clutch hitting, inconsistent starting pitching, and cannot score in the late innings of games. Luckily for the Mets, they play in the NL East, not the AL East where they would have been slaughtered by the tougher competition and probably came in last place. The Mets have a good shot at the playoffs despite all their problems.

My prediction is the Mets get the wild card and the Phillies get the division.