Sure, it's a football phrase, but as the pigskin season kicks off in earnest, one of that sport's most time-honored utterances can most definitely be applied to Major League Baseball in this 12-team postseason era.
Just win, baby.
Never has that been truer than the National League wild-card race, where four teams toggle between hopelessness and optimism week to week − maybe even day to day.
Take the Miami Marlins. Ten games ago, they were a losing team (66-67), in sixth place in the wild-card standings, needing to make up three games and vault three teams to reach paydirt.
Well, eight wins in 10 games − capped by a comeback win and series conquest Sunday at Philadelphia − has the formerly dead Fish tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the loss column for the third wild-card spot, just a half-game out of the money and up to No. 8 in USA TODAY Sports' MLB power rankings.
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The San Francisco Giants? Also looking like a dead club walking just five days ago, after a Wrigley Field sweep left them at .500 (70-70), in that No. 6 spot and seemingly without hope. Well, a weekend visit from the Colorado Rockies while the Cubs and D-backs were beating each other up, and things look awfully different: Just one game behind Arizona and Miami in the loss column, and four more games with the last-place Rockies this week.
It's no different in the AL, where the Toronto Blue Jays flip-flopped with the Seattle Mariners as they swept Kansas City while Seattle floundered, losing three of four to fall into the No. 3 wild card spot, just a half-game up on Texas.
The message? Take care of your own, and the wild-card gods will probably take care of you.
A look at this week's rankings:
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