WEEK 7 REPORT
AP, Post, AV, CBS News Surge Ahead
CNN Loses Twice for 1st Defeats; Team Video Regains Top Seed

If ever there was a testament to the greatness of the MMSL it came at Saturday's Week 7 games, where one team's victory (CBS News over the Philibusters) affected three teams and a handful of upsets, including the Washington Post's first win against the Washington Times since 2003, stages a dramatic Final Day for five divisional crowns and (likely) two wild-card berths.

Amid all this, CNN's season-opening winning streak was stopped at 12 games by WRC and WTTG, Team Video moves back into the top seed, the City Paper ended its season-long drought by winning its first game, and Discovery Channel's playoff hopes were dashed in double-shutout slaughter-rule games in which the Ducks' Laura Ingle quipped, "We figured out how to break our streak of splits—don't score any runs and lose both games."

	P Rich Kryder and Atlantic Video are making a another late-season rush toward a playoff berth.

The drama begins with the Post winning twice to take a one-game lead in the Wheaton Forest Division over Post.com. The Post took advantage of a Post.com split thanks to an eighth-inning, bases-juiced walk by ageless Scott Moore to nip the Times. Now, that divisional crown and automatic playoff berth comes down to the Post-Post.com rematch on Final Day.

The Associated Press finally broke free of the National Press Club at Layhill with a sweep that included an 11-9 victory against USA Today. The Flash are above .500 for the first time this season and can take the berth with one victory or one Press Club loss. AP can also vault up a few seeds with a sweep.

Atlantic Video's sweep of ABC News and Discovery Channel likely means a second playoff appearance for AV in three years. But the game with the biggest impact on the day was CBS News' 7-5 thriller against the tumbling Philibusters, who now lose tiebreakers in numerous directions and can only hope for some help against the Times, CBS News and ABC News. In one day, CBS went from last-place at Capitalview/Homewood to the final wild-card berth.

Around the rest of the league, WRC tuned up for the playoffs by knocking off CNN and Comcast SportsNet while moving to within one game of WTTG at Veirs Mill. Whatta showdown for the division that will be this week. AOL's sweep helped the AOLiens' run differential in case of seeding tiebreakers; ABC News' two losses puts them squarely against the wall in a rematch with CBS News on Final Day; the Vo Sox ended a nine-game skid by topping Channel 9; and City Paper avoided a dreadful date with league history by finally winning, 14-9 against the Express, after 13 losses.

There are critical games at every division for next weekend's Final Day. There will be jockeying for tournament seeds for those teams slotted 1-8, plus the mad scramble for the final two wild-card berths and the last automatic berth. What an exciting finish to Season 17 in the MMSL!