In a riveting final weekend, the streaking Phillies earned the right to host the even hotter Rockies in the playoffs, and Jimmy Rollins put the finishing touches on his case for the NL MVP

Ryan Howard's (above) Phils made up eight games in 17 days on the Mets of Willie Randolph. Al Tielemans/SI

Jimmy Rollins does not look like a typical Most Valuable Player, having lost 10 pounds from a 175-pound frame since the start of the 2007 season, the toll exacted by starting every game at shortstop for the Phillies and coming to bat more times than anybody else in baseball history. Rollins is so small (5' 7") and his bat so large (35 inches, 34 ounces) that when he drags the bat by its knob through the clubhouse, as he did before the season finale against the Nationals on Sunday, he resembles a child pulling a wagon.

Appearances aside, Rollins is a professional troublemaker, not only for his preseason boast that Philadelphia was the team to beat in the National League East -- a pronouncement that irritated many opponents, given that the Phillies had not won a title of any sort since 1993 -- but also for his hand in making Philadelphia the most dangerous offensive team in the league. The last game, which began with the Phillies and the Mets tied for first place, was as good as any of the previous 161 at explaining why Rollins is the best, not to mention most fitting, MVP candidate in a bizarre National League season.

Rollins began Philadelphia's first turn at bat against Washington with a single. He promptly stole second base, stole third and scored on a fly ball out by Chase Utley. That is how the Phillies, to borrow from Rollins's handle, J-Roll. The 6-1 division-clinching win marked the sixth time in Philadelphia's final seven victories, each one of them necessary, in which Rollins either scored or drove in the game-winning run. The Phils won only five games (of 26) all year -- and none after June 9 -- in which Rollins did not get on base.

"He's the most integral part of this team," says Jamie Moyer, the winning pitcher in the clincher, "because he makes things happen, especially in the first inning. I can't tell you how big that is."

As a fitting coda to a season that began with his brash prediction, Rollins came up for the last of his 778 plate appearances knowing exactly what he needed to do to set a franchise record for triples (20) and become the first player ever with 200 hits and at least 20 doubles, triples, homers and stolen bases. "The [Nationals'] outfield plays so deep, I told myself the only way I could get a triple was to hit it off the concrete part of the [rightfield] wall and have it bounce back toward the infield," Rollins says.

The concrete makes up only a sliver of the wall at Citizens Bank Park, near the foul line. Naturally, that's where Rollins whacked the ball with his final swing of the year, and it caromed toward the infield, giving him time to race into third with his historic triple.

The play epitomized the weirdly entertaining 2007 season in the National League. Just how strange was it?

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