On a rather quiet Monday many things happened that may impact the rest of the baseball season.

With only 18 games or so to go, small trends are worth noting even though things can change dramatically over the course of two or three days. So here goes.

The A’s aren’t hitting. Last night Mike Scoscia effectively worked around the heart of the Oakland order with the game on the line (1-1) in the seventh inning.

Scoscia walked Eric Chavez to get to Miguel Tejada with the lead run on third base and one out. Then he brought in Francisco Rodriguez to face Tejada. Rodriguez has the nastiest stuff I have seen out of the bullpen all year long. If Boston had anyone close to Rodriguez, George Steinbrenner would be out of his mind by now.

Rodriguez merely blew Tejada away with unhittable sliders, then took the bat out of Scott Hatteberg’s hands with a 95 MPH heater, although to Hatteberg’s credit he did hit the ball hard to second baseman Adam Kennedy.

Then the game got really interesting, raising some questions about the A’s relief corps.

Click below for more!Top of the eighth. Tim Hudson had thrown his typical 100 plus pitches at this point and seemed to be at that point of the game when he had to be watched very carefully. Bang! Double by Adam Kennedy leading off the inning. Now the Angels don’t have much firepower, but they still had potential MVP Garret Anderson hitting next.

No lefty up in the pen. Why not? Was Ricardo Rincon available? The Angels didn’t have any other lefties on the bench, Ken Macha could have fired his lefthanded bullet right here or walked Anderson and pitched to Scott Spiezio with Hudson.

The decision was to pitch to Anderson who propmtly did his impression of Eddie Murray and lined a single up the middle and the Angels went up 2-1 and with their bullpen as strong as it is, this was the deciding play of the game.

But it got worse from there. After Spiezio hit into a routine double play, Jeff DaVanon doubled, Jim Mecir was up the pen, then he was down and Chad Bradford got up, then they both were up. Hudson issued an intentional walk, gave up an infield single, and then with his arm hanging by his side (pitch 127) walked Wilson Delgado forcing in a run. His last 3-2 pitch was delivered almost sidearm when he just needed to throw nice normal a strike. By the way, Chad Bradford got the last out in the eighth and John Halama and Chad Harville pitched the ninth. Huh?

Why was Hudson still in the game? Why did they go after Anderson? Where was Rincon? Why didn’t Bradford come into the game at the most critical point as Macha has done in the past?

All good questions that impact how the A’s are approaching their task these last two and one half weeks. The strength of this team is its pitching, and last night they didn’t go to it.

Some runs would help also. One bright spot was Jermaine Dye who made a nice catch in the field and believe it or not hit three balls on the nose and got one hit, his first since coming back.

Tonight a battle of rookies, Justin Duchsherer, a strike machine ala Greg Maddux against a high energy hittable hardthrower Chris Bootcheck out of Auburn University.

The Angels cannot be taken lightly with their bullpen, neither can the A’s if they use theirs correctly.

Seattle sat home and picked up one half game on the A’s and Boston. Their best day in weeks.

The Red Sox hit the ball, the Red Sox bullpen couldn’t pitch the ball. When Boston lost four of six to the Orioles last month folks thought it was just one of those things that happens from time to time, bad team beats good team.

After watching the Orioles dismantle the Red Sox pen, the Sox have something to worry about as they face the O’s six more times. Come to think of it, I said the same thing about Boston’s problem pen after Carl Crawford hit a ninth inning homer to beat Boston on opening night.

Byung Hyun Kim ain’t Chad Bradford. Again someone has got to step up on a regular basis to bail this team out. They have 19 games to figure it out.

Former Minnesota manager Tom Kelly, a very candid man, once told me how Todd Walker’s defense kills the team. I saw it again last night as Walker let a key run score with one defensive lapse and caused a Johnny Damon misplay on another poor move. On a team that can’t afford to give outs away Walker is a luxury at second base that Boston cannot afford.

Tonight Derek Lowe tries to right the Boston ship against the walk machine Damian Moss. Lowe better be ready to go nine because this pen is a mystery every night. Ten runs last night wasn’t enough for John Burkett and company.

Roy Oswalt pitched for the Astros last night and appears to be back to normal. His stamina is down, but he did take his turn. The Astros turn to Tim Redding tonight. Redding has been considered a headcase in the past and now the Astros need him to step up. Houston has their pen in fine gear, maybe Jimy Williams can ride them for a couple of more weeks. Promises to be some race.

Cubs, the flavor of the month, are in Puerto Rico and throw Carlos Zambrano against Zach Day. Home runs fly out in PR, so Sammy Sosa must be watched carefully this week.

The Cards are home against Colorado. The Rockies usually wilt once out of Colorado, so this may be a good series for the Cardinals.

The Marlins got the pitching performance they needed last night from Josh Beckett to tie the Phillies for the lead once again. Today Carl Pavano, perhaps a number two guy now instead of a five (reminds me of Cory Lidle last year) goes against Tom Glavine. The Mets lack of offense is killing them when they play teams that can score more than three runs.

The Braves knocked Kevin Millwood around, Russ Ortiz (19 wins) threw 110 pitches in six innings with five walks and the Braves held on to win with a nice offense and no John Smoltz.

Randy Wolf, a lefty, against Shane Reynolds. If Wolf can pitch through this lineup unscathed I’ll be surprised.

The Dodgers are still here. Tonight Randy Johnson goes against Hideo Nomo who complained of a tired arm in his last start. Two pitchers limping in, a game of bullpens for sure and you know whose is better.

Great start for Bartolo Colon last night. Complete game for Colon and the Sox who scored five in the first and hung on to win.

Mark Buehrle never misses a chance to beat the Twins and faces a 32 year old lefty Carlos Pulido, who was rescued form the Mexican League by Minnesota.

Pulido versus Buehrle, division lead on the line, this is what makes baseball special. Seems like a mismatch, but just watch the game something noteworthy will happen.

Jimmy Gobble tries to duplicate his last performance tonight versus Cleveland and a tired armed Jason Davis in KC. If they can get the ball to the bullpen, KC has a good chance to beat the Tribe who has fallen on hard times recently.

Tony Mounce is back for the Rangers. He is a soft tossing lefty who had some moments the first time through and will have to face Seattle tonight, then the A’s on Sunday. This is Seattle’s chance to get some momentum. The A’s pitching has slowed down just slightly, joining their offense, the Red Sox can’t beat Baltimore and Texas and A Rod are in town.

Does Seattle have the starters to make it happen? Maybe, but this mound crew has struggled mightily along with their bats, losing regularly as a team.

Seattle is going to have to show me something very quickly for me to change my mind as to their ultimate resting place.

What happened to Joel Pineiro? Will Gil Meche last another two weeks? Can Edgar Martinez play with a fractured toe? All questions that must be answered quickly.

The Yankees face the Tigers with Jose Contreras doing the honors tonight.

Jason Giambi had two hits yesterday bringing his average up to .247. Unbeliveable on Sept.9th.

Doug Waechter at home again for Tampa Bay against Cory Lidle. I like the way the Devil Rays play the game. I think George Steinbrenner wishes Lou Piniella could work for him once again.

Don’t bet against it.

Other than the Giants and Braves, no other teams are mortal locks to get to play in October.

That’s a lot to look forward to on a Tuesday.