There was a lot of really great baseball yesterday, and I'm going to talk about it at length. The NL Wild Card is as tight as you could ask for, and the key games had as many late twists and turns as you could hope to see. The Marlins are hosting the mighty Cardinals, and the two teams went into the eighth inning tied at 4-4. St.Louis pushed a run across in the top half of the inning. And the out of town scoreboard probably showed the Phillies leading the Mets. But the Marlins fought back - Luis Castillo led off with a bunt base hit, and took third on Miguel Cabrera's single. Ray King relieved Matt Morris and got two quick strikes on Carlos Delgado. Carlos then drove the 0-2 pitch to right, where Larry Walker briefly lost it in the lights. It went by him and rolled to the wall for a two-run triple, and Florida hung on for the win. Delgado and Cabrera, by the way, account for every Marlins homer over the past three weeks.

The Marlins then got some good news out of Queens, when backup catcher Ramon Castro clubbed a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth as the Mets rallied to top the Phillies. Meanwhile in Houston, Morgan Ensberg's three-run homer led the Astros to a victory over Cincinnati.

And so... Florida and Philadelphia sport identical 70-62 records; the Mets and the Astros are just half a game back at 69-62. And the Nats edged Atlanta 3-2, and sit just one more game back, at 68-63.

Is that close enough for you?

But yesterday's Game of the Day was the matchup between the two AL West leaders - and it delivered everything you could possibly ask for. Bartolo Colon, leading the AL in wins was matched up with Barry Zito, who's pitched as well as anybody in the league since April turned to May. First place was at stake - the A's held a one game lead going in.

Oakland scored in the third inning, when Dan Johnson singled to score Eric Chavez, who had doubled. And that was all, as Colon and Zito worked their way deep into the late innings. Zito took a two-hit shutout into the bottom of the eighth when Rob Quinlan hit his second homer of the season to tie the game. Colon set down the A's in order in the top of the ninth; in the bottom of the inning, Zito retired Cabrera, Anderson, and Guerrero to send the game into extra innings.

Oakland threatened immediately. Dan Johnson led off with a double to left, and Scott Hatteberg sacrificed the pinch-runner to third. Francisco Rodriguez replaced Colon at that point; with the go-ahead run just 90 feet away, K-Rod got Payton to foul out before fannning Swisher to keep the game tied.

Kiko Calero took over for Zito in the tenth, and the Angels almost ended it. With one out, Erstad singled. One out later, he stole second and moved up to third on Jason Kendall's throwing error. Rob Quinlan had a chance to be a hero again, but Calero struck him out.

Then, leading off in the eleventh, Bobby Kielty homered off K-Rod - Kielty, whose struggles hitting left-handed we are all pretty familiar with. Huston Street came on to nail down the final three outs in the bottom of the eleventh.

The Angels did not go quietly. Chone Figgins drew a one-out walk. Orlando Cabrera popped out infield, but with Garret Anderson batting, Figgins stole second. Anderson walked, putting the winning run on base and bringing Vladimir Guerrero to the plate. How else could it end? Street, who turned 22 earlier this month, got Vlad to ground out to close his 18th save. Oakland now leads the Angels by two games.

Let's see if they can top that tonight. It's the Game of the Day again, although I'm pretty excited about the Big Unit returning to Seattle and facing King Felix.

AL
CHW: Hernandez (8-6, 4.65 ERA) at TEX: Loe (6-4, 3.75 ERA)
MIN: Lohse (8-12, 4.32 ERA) at KAN: Wood (4-5, 4.12 ERA)
TAM: Fossum (8-10, 4.76 ERA) at BOS: Wakefield (13-10, 4.35 ERA)
DET: Johnson (7-10, 4.43 ERA) at CLE: Sabathia (11-9, 4.75 ERA)
BAL: Chen (10-8, 3.95 ERA) at TOR: Chacin (11-7, 3.62 ERA)
OAK: Blanton (8-9, 3.61 ERA) at LAA: Lackey (10-5, 3.59 ERA)
NYY: Johnson (12-8, 4.20 ERA) at SEA: Hernandez (2-1, 1.75 ERA)

NL
PIT: Redman (5-14, 4.83 ERA) at MIL: Ohka (9-7, 3.91 ERA)
LAD: Lowe (8-13, 4.11 ERA) at CHC: Rusch (5-7, 4.35 ERA)
ARI: Halsey (8-11, 4.50 ERA) at SDG: Park (11-6, 5.91 ERA)
COL: Francis (12-9, 5.86 ERA) at SFO: Correia (2-5, 4.31 ERA)
WAS: Hernandez (14-6, 3.87 ERA) at ATL: Thomson (3-4, 4.97 ERA)
STL: Suppan (12-10, 4.02 ERA) at FLA: Vargas (5-1, 3.16 ERA)
PHI: Myers (11-6, 3.55 ERA) at NYM: Martinez (13-5, 2.77 ERA)
CIN: Claussen (9-8, 4.29 ERA) at HOU: Pettitte (12-9, 2.60 ERA)
WAS: Loaiza (9-9, 3.57 ERA) at ATL: Ramirez (10-8, 4.52 ERA)