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Last night, Jose Bautista became the first player in the Majors to hit 50 home runs this season, and, with only a week remaining in the regular season, he may be the last as well.

Wait...what? Who? Huh?

That would be the standard reaction from most baseball fans, spanning from the casual observer to the most diligent follower.

The first question to consider, of course, is, who in the world is Jose Bautista?

During last night's Jays-O's radio broadcast, I heard a "record" that hasn't been getting any press and also one that drew me to an even more startling conclusion.

Baltimore Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis became the third (yes, the THIRD) major leaguer in history to have four straight seasons of 43 or more doubles. Wow, really? Ever? That's quite impressive, well done Nick!

There are now less than 10 games left in the marathon that is the Major League Baseball season. There were many lessons taught this year: One of which is that 2010 was the year of the pitcher, with so many pitchers throwing absolute gems.

We learned that even though its been three years, somebody can reach the 50 home run mark again (even though Jose Bautista only had 59 total HR for his career. Suspicious? Kind of. I like to give him the benefit of the doubt though).

Everyone knew the San Francisco Giants' starting pitching would be the team's strength heading into the 2010 season.

However, even those lofty expectations didn't prepare the Major League Baseball world for what would unfold in the month of April—the starters came out firing bullets.

Extremely accurate and effective bullets.

Tim Lincecum roared from the gates (1.27 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, 43:7 K:BB) and three of the other four starters were right on his heels.

Yankees vs. Red Sox, the most storied and greatest rivalry in sports will have a little less meaning this time around because of Boston's injury-plagued season that has left them on the brink of elimination, but it still is a must win series for the Bronx Bombers.

New York Yankees fans have been wanting ace C.C. Sabathia to win this year's Cy Young Award. After every single okay start, there were articles stating that C.C. had locked-up the most prestigious pitching award in Major League Baseball.

Well, there's a phenom that has been pitching one of the best pitching seasons over the past couple of years, and it's Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners.

Via Chad Jennings:

With just over a week left in the MLB season, I figured it'd be good to look at the possibilities for this postseason's match-ups.

While certain teams have much work to do in regards of locking their position in the postseason, I thought it would be fun to look into the playoffs as they sit today.

If the postseason started right this instant, the match-ups would look like this:

American League Division Series

Texas Rangers at New York Yankees

Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins

The San Francisco Giants' pitching staff has been on an unprecedented tear in the last three weeks. The Giants have pitched in 17 consecutive games in which they've held an opponent to 3 runs or fewer, and 12 consecutive games in which they've limited them to 2 runs or fewer.

Both of these streaks are records.

Where does this feat place San Fran's rotation amongst the greatest pitching staffs of all time?

Are they even the best staff in Giants' history? In honor of their feat, here are the 20 greatest pitching staffs of all time. 

The big series in the standings may be the Yankees vs. the Rays, but judging by the ticket prices on StubHub, the one the fans care about is Yankees vs. Red Sox and we have a good one tonight as Andy Pettitte goes up against Josh Beckett.