I know the numbers don’t bear me out on this one, but I’ve watched Alex Rodriguez play in Oakland over the past eight years and countless times on television, and you know what, I’ll take Miguel Tejada on my team over A Rod as my shortstop.

Rodriguez plays with little passion. A quality I don’t like to see in any player, let alone the straw that stirs the drink on a team.

Ever since Roger Clemens blew Rodriguez away in the playoffs, he has been a timid player. He took the money and moved to Texas, leaving any heart he had behind in Seattle.

The A’s routinely handled Rodriguez last night in key situations. Maybe if Texas ever gets it together, Rodriguez will become interested in his game, but until then he goes through the motions and rarely does anything to beat a good team, one in pennant contention.

I’d rather have a maximum effort guy like Nomar or Tejada in my lineup. At least they play like they care and are clutch baseball players.

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The Twins continue on their collision course with second place in the Central. Once a team goes into free fall it isn’t fun to watch. Minnesota’s slump may have hit bottom last night when they surrendered 12 runs in the seventh inning to the Royals. Once sporting the best bullpen in baseball, the Twins now have the 2003 version of the arson squad.

I wonder if the fact that LaTroy Hawkins and Eddie Guardado are having acrimonious contract negotiations with Twins management is adding to the problem.

Ron Gardenhire replaced Jacques Jones at the top of the order against lefties with Lew Ford, another sign that Minnesota is concerned with its performance.

Who can say how it will all end this season, but for a change the AL Central is getting interesting with the Royals pounding the ball.

Too bad KC will be unloading Carlos Beltran soon, with Beltran they have a nice 3-4-5 in their order.

Every cloud has a silver lining and with Miguel Ascencio, Runelvys Hernandez, and Jeremy Affeldt struggling, some other pitchers have stepped up for the Royals and actually will give them depth on the pitching staff when Affeldt and Hernandez return to form.

The White Sox opened the game with four straight doubles off John Burkett and then disappeared on offense. If I was scouting the White Sox and needed a pitcher, I think Esteban Loaiza would be the better buy (rather than Colon) at the price asked by Chicago.

Loaiza has a chance to add to his market value tonight against Tim Wakefield.

Ichiro is having another MVP type season. His outstanding play over the last month has been a major reason for Seattle’s surge in the West. Bret Boone’s play has been another. The A’s have found a way to limit Ichiro’s damage when the Atletics pitchers face him, this will have a big bearing on the outcome of the games played between these two teams starting on June 30th in Oakland.

Ted Lilly pitched extremely well last night, limiting the Rangers to only five hits and two runs in six innings. Of course, the Rangers hit lefties like the 1962 Mets would (loveable 120 game losers), but he did have excellent command of his breaking ball, putting the Ranger bats in motion before the pitch reached home plate, a lot of long loud fouls, not going anywhere.

Tonight the carnage continues for Texas against Barry Zito 9-0 lifetime against this spiritless bunch.

Jeff Weaver may be on his way out of NY. Some players just can’t handle the limelight of the big apple, and I sense Weaver is one of them.

With the injury to Jose Contreras, the Yanks have no other options other than running Weaver out there every fifth day and watching him get pasted.

Jason Giambi is on fire and Hideki Matsui (also ripping the ball) is now hitting cleanup behind him.

Tampa Bay showed up at the right time for NY. Clemens versus Zambrano today.

Kevin Appier couldn’t get the job done for Anaheim last night and tonight Aaron Sele tries to slow Ichiro and company down.

Freddy Garcia takes another step tonight in his quest to regain his career.

The Angels are more than a little concerned with the .244 average of David Eckstein. He sets the table for the big boys, when he is on they have fewer solo homers (Huh?).

Groin pulls were the soup du jour last night in LA.

Kevin Brown’s loss to the Dodgers is more significant than JT Snow’s to SF, but both sound like they may be sidelined for more than a couple of days.

Kirk Reuter may not look like much, but he has a big start tonight against Kaz Ishii, a pitcher who walks many batters, which will help the Giants offense. Jesse Foppert allowed too many cheap runners last night, allowing the pop gun attack of LA to get rolling.

AL Wild Card

Boston

A’s 1/2

Toronto 1 1/2

KC 4

NL Wild Card

LA

Montreal 2

Houston 3 1/2

Phillies 4 1/2

Cards 5 1/2

How about three one hitters for the Mets in a row? Jae Soe can pitch, I said it earlier in the year. If Steve Trachsel gets his fastball over early in the count and locates it on the outside part of the plate, he is tough to hit. How about Trachsel on a contender? The Marlins have a gem in Dontrelle Willis who one hit NY Monday night.

Tonight Al Leiter and Brad Penny, another low scoring game on the horizon.

That’s all folks!