The last time the Mariners’ Ryan Franklin faced the Blue Jays, they knocked him all over the yard in Safeco Field. Tonight Kelvim Escobar, who won’t miss the A’s this weekend like he did last week in Oakland, pitches for the Blue Jays.

Ichiro is getting some play for AL MVP as scribes are finally noticing that no one on the so called winning teams is having a big season.

Carlos Delgado will end the year with 130 plus RBI and forty homers or more, and he stands to be the MVP unless Bret Boone or Ichiro go crazy and the Mariners hang on. Two big “ifs”.

This series could go a long way to settling the issues if one of the MVP candidadtes carries his club.

In Boston, the Sox will face Mark Mulder, coming off his worst outing in a while. Mulder couldn’t get the feel of the baseball in Oakland last week and must not get behind because the Red Sox are a totally different team in Fenway as is Oakland on the road.

If I was the A’s, I wouldn’t want to play catch up in Boston.

Derek Lowe pitched his best game, dominating the A’s and Erubiel Durazo in critical game turning moments. The A’s have been in big games over the past few seasons in August. Art Howe always had this team ready to play, tonight will go a long way in determining how this seven game trip turns out since Perdo Martinez, Roy Halladay, and Escobar are ahead in coming games.

Click below for more!The best news for the Giants is they are home to the friendly confines of Pac Bell Park. With an 8 1/2 game lead and a six game losing streak in tow, many folks are predicting dire things for the Giants.

The way I see it is this.

It will take a complete collapse by SF to blow the division lead completely, and I mean losing 18 of 20.

The Giants have 22 games at home to close the season. The Giants win at home as their 41-18 record shows.

Only a super team can pass them in the West, there isn’t one there.

The beauty of a big lead is the opposition has to play .750 ball or better to close the gap. If the Giants go out and win 5 of 7, then the lead will be back up to double digits because Arizona will lose some games, you can count on it. It will happen one of these days and possibly on this homestand even though the opposition is Atlanta and Florida.

All in all the Giants are banged up and in a rut, coming back to Pac Bell couldn’t come at a better time.

Jarrod Washburn gave it all he had last night in Chicago, but two homers on balls that were absolutely crushed by Frank Thomas cost him the game. The Angels no longer have the fire power to blast teams, instead they rely on small ball almost exclusively when ever the game is on the line. Trouble with small ball in the middle of the game is when you play for one run, you get one run, cutting off the chance for a big inning, which isn’t a good practice in the AL.

Scott Shields and Jon Garland looks like another close game tonight. Don’t overlook Thomas in the list of candidates for AL MVP either. he has 30 homers and is the entire offense in Chicago.

The Royals went down hard in NY last night, Jose Lima was blasted out by the Yankees who are swinging the bats much better. The NY pen is still a mess as the Royals almost got back in the game after knocking Jeff Weaver out in the sixth.

Tonight Kevin Appier and Andy Pettitte in the big stadium. I always have maintained that Appier pitches up to the competion, he faces one of the hottest pitchers in baseball in Pettitte, so maybe the Royals will be competitive tonight.

Funny how baseball is. The Red sox can’t beat the Orioles, losing four of six two weeks ago. The Yankees go into Baltimore and sweep four straight from the O’s. The Yanks have 11 more games against Baltimore, not good news for the Red Sox who better step up their game or they will be watching the playoffs on television in October.

With the way the Yankees are playing (hitting), Boston doesn’t have much room for error.

In 1982, Rick Sutcliffe and the Indians knocked the Orioles out of the AL race when he consistently beat Baltimore. Strange things happen in baseball every day no matter how much we like to think we know about the game.

The Cubs better hit the ball in Houston because whatever slump the Astros are in probably won’t last in its home park where runs are plentiful.

Dusty Baker can manage, if he could hit in his lineup he would really help a lot more.

The best fifth starter in baseball Carl Pavano gets to tee it up in Colorado tonight for Miami. It usually takes the Rockies one day before they realize that they are home, so maybe Pavano can sneak by tonight.

Garrett Stephenson has been super for St. Louis and he is home tonight against Pittsburgh, a team closer to the lead in the Central than the Diamondbacks are in the West. I’m not sure what that means, but Pittsburgh hasn’t completely folded, in fact Julian Taverez is the best middle reliever in the league right now.

The Phillies Kevin Millwood beat Milwaukee last week and faces the totally unpredictable Ben Sheets in Wisconsin today.

Without Albert Pujols in the lineup the Cards are a different team. Almost ordinary looking.

Kevin Brown pitched on short rest his last outing, let’s see what he brings tonight in LA against the Expos.

Earlier in the season I made a bet that Texas would play .500, I wrote it off in June when the Rangers went south in the race. You know what, they now are nine games under .500 and closing in on the Angels for third place in the West. I think they might make it to the .500 mark afterall.

The A’s see only righties unless they catch Mark Hendrickson somehow in Toronto (big deal) on this trip. This means the lefties will be in there every day for Ken Macha and just might surprise people with a more consistent effort because they will be playing everyday and when big leaguers get regular at bats they see the ball better. I mean Terence Long, Chris Singleton, Scott Hatteberg, and Eric Chavez in particular.

The lack of lefthanded starters by the opposition down the stretch is a major plus for Oakland, just look how they dinked Roy Halladay all over the yard Sunday simply beacuse they put the bat in the ball. These lefties aren’t big hitters, but if they face enough righties, they become dangerous.

Johann Santana and Jason Davis hook up again in an reenactment of the fourteen inning double shut out last week in Minnesota.

I’m not completely up on this, but isn’t Minnesota losing key players to injuries lately.

Home sweet home, couldn’t be more important for Boston and San Francisco right now. Let’s see how it turns out, you know the results will be different from what you thought.

That’s baseball.