and the end is always near
The Angels took two of three from Oakland, and the two teams are in a dead heat for first in the division, and first in the Wild Card with the Yankees. Cleveland lurks a mere half a game out of the Wild Card.
The pitching performance of the day yesterday was surely the work turned in by Angels rookie Ervin Santana. On the first day of September, in a pennant race as tight as it can get, against the team his team is battling with, he took a shutout into the ninth inning.
The A's are hoping Bobby Crosby, on the DL with an ankle fracture, will be able to return for the last two weeks of the season.
Andruw Jones, making an MVP case for himself, hit a walk-off homer for the Braves in the tenth inning last night. It's true that Lee and Pujols have monopolized the MVP discussion so far - but Jones is likely to be the only 50 HR man in the majors this year - he's also a Gold Glove centre fielder on a first place team.
John Olerud hit two homers and drove in six runs for Boston last night - Our old friend is 14-30 (.467) since coming off the DL two weeks ago.
Today's action:
AL
BAL: Maine (1-1, 2.70 ERA) at
BOS: Papelbon (0-1, 3.43 ERA)
TAM: Hendrickson (8-7, 6.27 ERA) at
TOR: Downs (2-3, 4.09 ERA)
DET: Douglass (5-2, 5.58 ERA) at
CHW: Garcia (11-7, 3.84 ERA)
TEX: Young (11-7, 4.31 ERA) at
KAN: Greinke (3-16, 6.28 ERA)
CLE: Sabathia (11-9, 4.75 ERA) at
MIN: Radke (8-10, 3.71 ERA)
SEA: Moyer (11-5, 4.22 ERA) at
LAA: Byrd (9-9, 4.11 ERA)
NYY: Leiter (7-10, 5.75 ERA) at
OAK: Haren (11-10, 3.99 ERA)
NL
PHI: Padilla (7-12, 4.67 ERA) at
WAS: Halama (1-2, 5.14 ERA)
CHC: Maddux (10-11, 4.43 ERA) at
PIT: Fogg (6-9, 4.90 ERA)
CIN: Milton (7-12, 6.21 ERA) at
ATL: Hudson (11-7, 3.28 ERA)
NYM: Zambrano (7-10, 4.07 ERA) at
FLA: Willis (18-8, 2.61 ERA)
SDG: Lawrence (7-13, 4.61 ERA) at
MIL: Capuano (14-9, 3.61 ERA)
STL: Mulder (15-6, 3.74 ERA) at
HOU: Astacio (2-6, 6.03 ERA)
LAD: Weaver (13-8, 4.22 ERA) at
COL: Kim (3-2, 4.82 ERA)
SFO: Schmidt (11-6, 4.26 ERA) at
ARI: Webb (11-10, 3.73 ERA)
