What is now shaping up as one of the most interesting and passionate postseasons of this dream decade now brings you perhaps the last doubleheader of the baseball season today: Rays at Red Sox (4:37 p.m. ET) and Phillies at Dodgers (8:22).

There could be one more example of multiple Major League Baseball action in the same day -- if a Game 7 is needed in the National League Championship Series. That would be played on Saturday in Philadelphia, after a possible Game 6 of the American League Championship Series hosted by Tampa Bay.

The whole question at this point, of course, is whether either or both series will get to that point. One thing is certain: Last October's trend of Sweep City did not carry over to 2008. The Dodgers on Sunday hosted their first NLCS game in exactly 20 years -- when Orel Hershiser beat current TBS analyst Ron Darling and the Mets to win the pennant -- and they had more fun than "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." The Dodgers opened mightily with a 7-2 victory to cut the Phillies' series lead to 2-1. The ALCS, meanwhile, is tied at a game apiece after that historic Game 2 in Florida.

In 2007, there were a record five postseason sweeps -- not great if you love lengthy drama. Three of the four Division Series matchups resulted in sweeps. The Rockies swept the Diamondbacks in the NLCS, and the Red Sox swept the Rockies in the World Series. The Red Sox needed seven games to get past the Indians and into that Fall Classic, and the only other non-sweep was Indians over Yankees in four.

This year continues to give fans (and, not insignificantly, broadcasters and their advertisers) more total-game volume. The Dodgers' Game 3 clincher over the Cubs marked the only 2008 Division Series sweep (the other three each went four games), and now no sweep is possible in the LCS round. So even a World Series sweep would mean a one-year reduction of sweeps from five to two.

Maybe the latest victories by the Rays and then Dodgers were harbingers of a fuller baseball slate the rest of this month. Here's a little-known fact: None of the last five World Series have reached a Game 7, meaning we are in the longest such drought since 1935-39. If this year's World Series is won in six or fewer, then that will match the longest such drought, from 1913-18 (six).

What does it mean? Why do we care? Unless your team is doing the sweeping, we like to watch as much Major League Baseball as we can until they pry it out of our steel-trap grip and take it from us for a long winter. Why do we root for baseball season to end, anyway? There is no greater glory, we are taught, than that moment when a team clinches a World Series and is given The Commissioner's Trophy. All it really means is that at that very moment, sorry, but your Major League Baseball season is over.

That's the reality, yet still we watch. As you can see from the special Pennant Traces content that MLB.com has been rolling out this month, fans are fans and the playoffs capture your attention even if your team is long since removed.

Today, all of the baseball world gets to watch a twin bill. Let's play two, maybe for the last time. The new MLB postseason format builds in an extra day off in each LCS, so today's doubleheader is something of an oasis within a run of solo-stadium performances, including both days this past weekend. There won't be any rain in Boston this week, Tampa Bay's field can't get rained on, and as for Dodger Stadium, rain is irrelevant. So unless Game 7 in the NLCS and Game 6 in the ALCS are both needed on Saturday, then just remember all those days of 15 games all summer long and take one last long look at lots and lots of hours of the national pastime on this day.

It's a lot different than that wild 2004 run, when there were five LCS doubleheaders. Ah yes, we remember Cardinals vs. Astros followed by Red Sox vs. Yankees into the wee hours way past midnight on the East Coast.

At the rate the Dodgers and Phillies have been going all year, there is a pretty strong chance of the NLCS going back to Philadelphia for a Game 6 and maybe a Game 7. The home team has now won every game in their 11 meetings this season.

Today's doubleheader begins with Matt Garza starting for Tampa Bay against Jon Lester for Boston. The big question in this game is whether anyone can stop the Lester train. He hasn't allowed an earned run in three career postseason starts. And he was 3-0 with a 0.90 ERA in three starts against the Rays this season. Will Tampa Bay carry momentum from that phenomenal 11-inning victory in Game 2? Will people in Red Sox Nation keep talking and blogging about whether Josh Beckett is still their ace or whether Lester has overtaken him for that distinction?

"Like I said from the beginning, it doesn't matter to me who's the No. 1 starter and who's the No. 5 starter," Lester said Sunday in anticipation of his Game 3 start. "We all have equal importance to this team when it comes to winning. I just try to go out and execute pitches. Hopefully I can go deep in the game and give the bullpen a rest and give it to [Jonathan Papelbon], and anytime you get to Pap with the lead, we're doing pretty good."

The nightcap tonight is Joe Blanton for the Phillies vs. Derek Lowe of the Dodgers. The Phillies are 10-4 when Blanton starts, reaping the benefits of his mid-July acquisition from the A's, and he was especially dominant in Game 4 against the Brewers, helping his team clinch that day. Lowe will be pitching on short rest, and it would be a definite aberration to see him beaten twice in the same postseason series.

One can only imagine what kind of intensity that Dodgers-Phillies game will hold, whether there will be more carryover from the inside-pitching soap opera. As Tim McCarver noted on FOX after Sunday's brouhaha at Dodger Stadium, fans at the park during each game probably will react to every inside pitch the rest of this series. Pitchers have to establish the inside pitch to succeed, a fact of life. Maybe it will be a dead issue now, but don't be surprised if it comes up again today.

Hiroki Kuroda was given an umpire's warning after buzzing a fastball over the head of the Phillies' Shane Victorino on Sunday. When asked afterward whether he thought that was appropriate, Dodgers manager Joe Torre said: "With the passion that goes on in this postseason, I mean, you work all year to get here, and I think the umpires just basically tried to do the safe thing. And I can't fault them in that."

"That's baseball," added Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who talked at length about the need to avoid throwing anywhere near a batter's head, statement or not.

Umpire Mike Reilly explained: "In Game 2, we had a situation in the first inning, there also was a little bit of chirping on a couple pitchers that were throwing in locations. So we were aware of that. And then tonight, after the second pitch was thrown high and up tight on the Philadelphia hitter, we felt we wanted to put a warning in at that point to stop it. And Mike Everitt did a great job behind the plate in putting that warning."

It's all about location, location, location, after all. And today there are two locations for baseball: Los Angeles and Boston. There's a good chance that will be the last time more than one game will be played on the same day in 2008. Enjoy it. Enjoy it.