We had Josh Towers, of course, throwing his first shutout as a Blue Jay, and the second of his career, against the team that originally signed him, the Orioles. Towers evened his record at 9-9, and matched the career high in wins that he established last year.

In Atlanta, Claudio Vargas shut out the Braves on two hits through seven innings: Aquino and Groom finished the shutout. Vargas also evened his 2005 record (at 6-6), and also matched his career high in wins, established in 2003.

There was a nice pitcher's duel in Miami. Dontrelle Willis allowed just 5 hits over 8 innings, but one was a 6th inning solo homer by Randy Winn. Which was all Noah Lowry needed, as he worked 7.1 IP of shutout ball.

But there was an even better pitcher's duel in Oakland. Danny Haren was 9-0 in his last 14 starts, and Oakland had won all 14 of those games. Haren was brilliant last night, allowing just three hits while going the distance. But in the fifth inning, Lew Ford walked, stole second, and scored on a Cuddyer single. No one else, on either team, made it as far as third base all night.

Because as good as Haren was, Johan Santana was even better. After Nick Swisher singled to lead off the third, Santana retired the next 20 hitters. BY which time there two out in the ninth. Mark Kotsay doubled, and Bobby Crosby walked, but Santana got Eric Chavez to fly out to end the game.

Santana has been consistently good this year: his month-by-month ERAs this year are 3.55, 3.83, 3.93, and 3.45 - he just hasn't been consistently awesome the way he was over the last three months of 2004. At any rate, Oakland's loss and the Angels' win knots things up again in the AL West.

And so, on tap today:

AL
Texas (Wilson 0-4, 10.07) at New York (Mussina 11-7, 4.01) 1:05
Los Angeles (Colon 14-6, 3.56) at Seattle (Franklin 6-11, 4.61) 4:05
Minnesota (Mays 5-7, 4.95) at Oakland (Saarloos 7-6, 4.21) 4:05
Toronto (Bush 2-5, 4.94) at Baltimore (Maine 0-0, 0.00) 4:35
Chicago (Garland 16-5, 3.29) at Boston (Wakefield 11-9, 4.13) 7:05
Tampa Bay (McClung 2-7, 7.63) at Cleveland (Elarton 7-5, 4.41) 7:05
Detroit (Maroth 9-11, 4.89) at Kansas City (Hernandez 8-10, 4.93) 7:10

NL
Arizona (Ortiz 4-6, 5.88) at Atlanta (Thomson 3-2, 3.42) 1:15
St.Louis (Carpenter 16-4, 2.26) at Chicago (Williams 3-5, 5.18) 1:15
New York (Seo 3-1, 1.42) at Los Angeles (Houlton 4-5, 5.49) 4:05
Cincinnati (Ortiz 6-8, 5.89) at Milwaukee (Ohka 7-6, 3.79) 7:05
Pittsburgh (Wells 6-12, 4.86) at Houston (Clemens 11-4, 1.38) 7:05
San Francisco (Tomko 7-11, 4.75) at Florida (Beckett 10-6, 3.49) 7:05
Washington (Armas 6-5, 4.64) at Colorado (Kim 3-8, 5.05) 8:05
Philadelphia (Padilla 5-11, 5.00) at San Diego (Astacio 3-10, 5.85) 10:05