Like summer itself, which officially ended on Sunday with the autumnal equinox, no beautiful season ever lasts as a baseball fan.

Not even this one, as much as you may want it to.

So savor one more week of this regular season. For most people, it will be the final innings to watch the team that held them spellbound this summer. It will be a time for all fans to watch Craig Biggo's farewell swings. It will be the week that they finally decide the postseason matchups, and what a fitting final week for a beautiful season. All four National League playoff races are up for grabs (3 1/2 games is the largest lead), and while the Indians and Angels have won divisions, the playoff-bound Red Sox and the Yankees -- who can seal a postseason berth as early as Monday afternoon -- basically still must decide on a crucial order of finish.

No beautiful thing lasts, and that is what makes baseball so special in the first place. It ends, blissfully for only a relative few, and then returns with spring blossoms. Here, with an appreciation of fall, is a look at one last week:

AL East/Wild Card

Perhaps a squirrel may remain,
My sentiments to share.
Grant me, O Lord, a sunny mind,
Thy windy will to bear!
Emily Dickinson

The AL East became a race at about the same time that a squirrel staked out the top of the right-field foul pole at Yankee Stadium, much to the chagrin of many Red Sox fans. Fortunes changed. A Bronx club once trailing by 14 1/2 games enters the final week only 1 1/2 games behind Boston and a comfortable 5 1/2 ahead of Detroit in the Wild Card chase. So perhaps a squirrel may remain in October.

It no longer matters all that much to Red Sox Nation, because the club clinched a postseason berth on Saturday. The big question, of course, is whether it's a 10th consecutive division title for the Yankees or whether Boston holds on. The Red Sox are home this week for two against Oakland (Tuesday-Wednesday) and then a four-game series against the Twins. New York, just one game back in the loss column, finishes its home series against Toronto with a makeup (April 25 rainout) at 1:05 p.m. ET on Monday, and then goes on the road for three at Tampa Bay and three at Baltimore.

"We're just playing baseball the way we wanted to play it from the beginning," said Yankees starter Mike Mussina, who continued his resurgence with a solid outing Sunday. "We're not anywhere close to the same team we were back in April or May. We feel better, we like our chances for the postseason, it looks like we're gonna be there, and hopefully we can play this well for the rest of this week and then thereafter."

Interesting situation: The Yankees actually would seem to be better off if they don't win the division. If they were the Wild Card as of right now, they would face Cleveland in the Division Series because the Indians have the league's best record. New York has not lost to the Indians in 2007. Conversely, the Yankees have had some famous difficulties with the Angels in recent years, especially in the postseason. And as for Boston, if it wins the East, just remember that it won the season series with the Angels, 6-4.

NL East

In autumn, when the leaves are brown,
Take pen and ink, and write it down.
Lewis Carroll

Let it be written that the last MLB game at RFK Stadium was played on Sunday, and that finale was especially notable because the Phillies lost it to the Nationals.

"What that did," Mets third baseman David Wright said, "was create a little crack in the door. [There was] another opening to go through, and we hadn't been able to do it [previously]. This time, we did."

Wright proceeded to single in the game-winner in the 11th inning at Florida, and that 7-6 victory increased the Mets' tenuous lead to 2 1/2 games. "Obviously, the baseball gods are making us pay a little bit," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. New York knows that Philly is not going down quietly, especially considering that it is only a half-game back in the Wild Card standings, yet it says in pen and ink that the defending NL East champs are in still seemingly good shape.

They finish the regular season at home with three against Washington, then a one-game makeup (June 28 rainout) against St. Louis (could be a chance to see if Albert Pujols can reach the 100-RBI mark yet again), and then three against Florida. Philadelphia comes home to start a three-game series against the hot Braves (having to beat Tim Hudson and John Smoltz in the last two), and then closes with three against Washington.

NL Central
The autumn seems to cry for thee,
Best lover of the autumn days!
Each scarlet-tipped and wine-red tree,
Each russet branch and branch of gold,
Gleams through its veil of shimmering haze,
And seeks thee as they sought of old:
For all the glory of their dress,
They wear a look of wistfulness.
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey

This division produced the last World Series champion in St. Louis, but now there are left two franchises that have sought glory seemingly forever to no avail. The Cubs are trying to avoid recognizing a 100th anniversary in 2008 of their last world championship ... is "next year" finally here? They have opened up a 3 1/2-game lead over the Brewers, who date back to the 1969 expansion (nee Seattle Pilots) and have spent much of this season on top of the division and believing that this was finally their year.

What a crushing weekend it was for Milwaukee down in Atlanta, with many Brewers fans in tow. On Saturday, closer Francisco Cordero, of all people, gave up a dinger to Scott Thorman that blew a two-out save in the ninth and led to Mark Teixeira's game-winning single in the 11th. Then on Sunday, the Brewers went into the seventh with a 4-1 lead and left it with a 5-4 deficit on their way to a heartbreaking loss. The Cubs, meanwhile, were cruising at home. Now Milwaukee comes home but has to play three against St. Louis and four against the Wild Card-leading Padres; the Cubs play three at Florida and three at Cincinnati.

"I guess we have our work cut out for us, that's for sure," said Brewers shortstop J.J. Hardy, who on Saturday hit the club's franchise-record 217th homer. "We just have to go out there and win ballgames. We can't worry about the Cubs, because they're going to do what they're going to do. ... We definitely would rather be in their seat."

It is a good seat for Cubs fan Dave Berry, who added the words "suffering since 1951" after his name on an e-mail to MLB.com. He wrote: "Thought of a line from Shakespeare's Sonnet XVIII: "And summer's lease hath all too short a date."

NL West

In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!
Robert Louis Stevenson

That smoke is coming from Colorado, where the Rockies are on fire. Baseball's hottest team has won eight in a row, and the Rockies just went into PETCO Park and made a lot of Padres fans pretty upset by sweeping three. It allowed Arizona to hold onto a 2 1/2-game lead over San Diego, with Colorado now four back. The Dodgers, meanwhile, have stumbled to the finish, so the final homestand this week at Dodger Stadium will be Sandburg's words come to life: "no beautiful thing lasts."

All three remaining division contenders are now on the road, and all of their games Monday can be seen on MLB.TV. Arizona is at Pittsburgh; San Diego is at San Francisco; and Colorado is at Los Angeles.

While the Padres are finishing up in that aforementioned series at Milwaukee, just imagine how interesting the final regular season series at Coors Field could be this coming weekend. Arizona at Colorado. And it could be especially meaningful for Rockies fans, because of the ...

NL Wild Card

The leaves are swept from the branches;
But the living buds are there,
With folded flower and foliage,
To sprout in a kinder air.
William Cullen Bryant

That is what the NL Wild Card race seems to be every year. It is a pin oak holding onto its leaves as long as possible, yet ultimately they are swept from the branches, one by one. In this final week, many are still holding on, their glorious colors holding us spellbound in the meantime.

The Padres enter the week in the lead, with the Phillies just a half-game behind and the Rockies only 1 1/2 back. Three other "leaves" are barely hanging onto the branch. One is Atlanta, which is 3 1/2 back and dangerous -- but requiring quite a lot of faith in three clubs above it being passed. The Dodgers are 5 1/2 back and their elimination number in this race is two. Milwaukee, meanwhile, is six back and has the same elimination number as L.A., so the Brewers truly must outlast the Cubs for a division title.

Division champs

Autumn hath all the summer's fruitful treasure...
Thomas Nashe

A day after the Red Sox clinched at least some kind of postseason berth, Sunday was a day of celebration on the field for the Indians and then the Angels. Yet this final week remains important to both of those division champs, because there is more importance than ever on finishing with your league's best record.

The club finishing with the best record not only assures itself of a home-field advantage in the Division Series, but also the right to choose whether it is DS "A" or DS "B". That means it will have the choice of hosting the maximum eight-day or seven-day series, which means the option of another day's rest beforehand.

Right now the Indians have the AL's best record at 92-63. The Red Sox and Angels are both a half-game back at 92-64, and again Boston would win that head-to-head tiebreaker. Los Angeles starts a three-game series Monday at Texas, is idle on Thursday, and then finishes with three at Oakland. Cleveland opens a three-game series Tuesday at Seattle, and then closes with three at Kansas City.

Summer is gone, and soon comes the Classic of fall.

Emily Dickinson said it best, after all.

If you were coming in the fall,
I'd brush the summer by
With half a smile and half a spurn,
As housewives do a fly.