Labor Day is another marker along the road to the finish line during the major league season.

With September first officially here today, the race to the end becomes a tight, daily grind. One cannot afford too many missteps along the way or the dream will end abrubtly.

The Phillies won three in Ny over the weekend despite their players obvious dislike for the manager.

Larry Bowa held a meeting Thursday, telling his team he was basically through with them, that they were now on their own. The players responded with a meeting of their own and then went out and swept the Mets behind good pitching from Vincente Padilla, Randy Wolf and Kevin Millwood among others.

It’s always a good idea to have a meeting before playing games you should win. The Phils picked a good time for theirs because even though the Mets have been playing well, they really don’t match up with the talent on Philadelphia.

Today, the Phils meet the Red Sox in the Vet in a makeup of a rained out interleague game from June. Jeff Suppan who had success in the NL goes against Brett Myers, in a game Boston needs alot more than the Phillies.

The A’s have won nine in a row. Sounds familiar doesn’t it.

Click below and I’ll tell you why I like this team better than last years AL West champs.Defense, defense, defense. I love big league defense. You can’t shoot the ball through the left side of the A’s infield right now. They clean up any mistakes the pitchers make

The A’s were in a somber mood after Mark Mulder’s injury. I cautioned everyone at that time that this team needed big players to step up. They have.

Miguel Tejada is a better hitter right now than he was last year. Eric Chavez is no longer fighting himself and seems relaxed at the plate. They both come through each game in some fashion.

Check out the A’s batting averages. It seems like everyone is hitting .254. The truth is they are, but the one hit they get in four at bats seems to come at the right time, usually following a walk to Erubiel Durazo or Terrence Long.

Meaning they are a clutch team right now. They get the big pitch or the big hit or the big defensive play or the right umpires call when it turns the game around.

You can’t win in October without defense. The A’s now have that defense, something they didn’t have at this level last fall.

Ricardo Rincon threw a pitch yesterday with the tying run on third that Ramon Hernandez totally mishandled. Hernandez’s defense may hurt the A’s in the playoffs. Anyway, he hustled after the ball, threw a perfect strike to Rincon who blocked the plate with his leg as well as Mike Scoscia ever did, and the runner was out, preserving the lead.

Rincon’s defensive play and the feed from Hernandez were beautiful to watch.

First base umpire Joe Brinkman blew a checked swing call on Hernandez so badly that everyone on the Devil Rays bench almost got ejected from the game. Brinkman one of the worst ball and strike guys in the league must have been thinking of his dinner plans and missed seeing the pitch, it was that obvious that Hernandez had swung through the ball.

The A’s now lead the Red Sox by 3 1/2 games with more coming this week.

Seems unlikely barring a complete turn around in play, that Boston has enough on the mound to make up more than five games on the A’s in September.

While the A’s see Baltimore and Tampa Bay this week for six more games, the Red Sox meet the Yankees and White Sox. So after the sun sets on Sept. 7th, I’d say you can comfortably make your first round playoff reservations in Oakland, they will win something to qualify for the party.

Kansas City flies into Texas today to meet the Rangers who win at home. Darrell May is the best the Royals have and he meets Colby Lewis, who isn’t the problem, A Rod and the lumber company is, and that’s what May must worry about.

David Wells pitches in Toronto against Roy Halladay. Two pitchers who are running out of gas late in the season. Bullpens will rule in Canada today.

Manny Ramirez missed the entire Yankee series with the “flu”. Is that right? Somehow seems strange.

Rod Beck save number 20 and an ERA of 1.55. Simply unbelievable. How did the Cubs let him go?

Mark Prior needs another Cy Young type game for the Cubs today at home against the Cards. This is the beginning of five between these two longtime rivals and this one better go the Cubs way.

If the Cards find any balance in their bullpen, they can put the Cubs away this week. Dusty Baker has done a fantastic job and if he somehow comes out of this series in first place, he will give Felipe Aloiu a run for his money for NL manager of the year.

Pitching and defense. LA has the former and if the latter shows up perhaps they can make it happen. Today they face Houston at home with Hideo Nomo, one of my favorites, hoping to have some late season strength in his right arm against Wade Miller who has been hit hard lately.

Miami lost Mike Lowell. Similar situation as the Mulder loss for the A’s. This team has 24 other players who are capable of winning. If Lowell hit .400 for September it still wouldn’t have been enough if the rest of the team didn’t play well.

Brad Penny against Tomo Ohka, let’s see which team comes to hit today.

Minnesota lost a tough one in Arlington Sunday. Now they are home and Kenny Rogers who has never done squat in September is first up against the Angels today and John Lackey whose whole season has been a disaster from game one.

Minnesota just needs to play good defense, have a reasonable bullpen and remember that they won last year and then they can stay in this thing until the end. They can’t win the pennant in one day.

After todays game in Philly, the Red Sox go to Chicago to face the White Sox and Bartolo Colon.

Not good news for Boston fans as the Sox bats snooze on the road for some reason.

With 26 games to go for Boston, I think this week’s games (Chi and NY) will determine how important the remaining games against the Orioles, Indians and Devil Rays will be for the Hub.

The way the A’s are playing, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a double digit winning streak play out this week even though the team hits the road for six, a place that hasn’t been kind to Oakland this season.

The Giants? Just get everyone healthy for October. Jason Schmidt is a pleasure to watch pitch.

You can feel it in the air. September is officially here. I can sense the finish line approaching.

What a journey.