During this time of year don’t be surprised when your favorite pitcher gets knocked around. Most pitchers who have been working in the regular rotation have now logged over 100 innings. The weather is warming up in the midwest and east, so get used to seeing your guy getting knocked out of the box.

The real test of the 2003 season will begin after the all star break. Most teams will have played over 90 games by next week’s all star game, this means there will be around 70 games to go until the end of the season. With ten weeks to play seventy games, there won’t be many off days, meaning the standings can change dramatically as teams wilt during the dog days of summer.

Arizona is playing real well right now. Everytime they go to the minors for a player, they come up with what looks like a gem. Last night was no exception as sidewheeling lefty Chris Capuano threw seven major league innings at the Padres for his first major league win.

What’s up with the Padres Jake Peavy? He gave up four homers last night. I pointed out last week that the veterans are doing the job for Arizona and that one shouldn’t look at the Diamondbacks as some rookie heavy team. Homers last night from Craig Counsell, Luis Gonzalez, Steve Finley, and Shea Hillenbrand, all established major leaguers should open the Giants eyes, if they aren’t open already.

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The White Sox and Twins are below .500 again. For the Twins it is a tremendous fall from where they were just one month ago. Minnesota isn’t doing anything very well right now and are in position to be swept in Arlington tonight.

Chicago is not hitting this week, but more importantly their big horse Bartolo Colon failed again to get them a much needed victory. The rap on Colon is that he loses concentration during the game. He must have last night, allowing 11 hits to the Tigers who finally got their tenth home win of the season.

Nice game for Jeremy Bonderman who raised his record to 3-13.

Tonight the Sox will at least put the bat on the ball because Nate Cornejo hardly misses any bats when he goes to the hill. The Tiger righty is just about the worst in the league when it comes to striking out hitters.

Esteban Loiaza, who is notorious for second half fades, needs to step up tonight for his team.

The A’s beat the Devil Rays yesterday, but not without some anxious moments. Tampa’s Joe Kennedy had scouts from Cincinnati and Boston watching him throw against Oakland. Kennedy left after five innings with a nice 3-1 lead. A team like Tampa Bay simply cannot get four good innings from its bullpen and the A’s came back and won the game 6-3.

David McCarty had two doubles, drove in the winning run on a fly, Adam Piatt had a big hit late in the game, and Ricardo Rincon looked sharper than I’ve seen him lately in the A’s win.

It sure was nice for A’s fans to see a righthanded hitter contribute and a lefty shut down the opposition late in the game. Jim Mecir also threw well again.

Today Mark Mulder should have enough to beat the Devil Rays, but that is no surprise. Jorge Sosa throws hard, but he won’t go nine and that is bad news for the Devil Rays. Rocco Baldelli’s bat has slowed down and the kid needs the break to regroup.

Seattle faces a tough righty in Sidney Ponson tonight. With the Mariners down by two runs and Ben Davis on second with one out in the sixth inning last night Ichiro came up facing Rick Helling. Ichiro, hitting .350 and a threat to go deep when he so desires, decided to lay down a bunt. It worked, he got on base, but Randy Winn struck out and Bret Boone flied out to end the threat. If I’m the manager I want my MVP candidate swinging the bat. Ichiro did the same thing in Oakland last week. I’m sure Oriole manager Mike Hargrove said thank you very much when he saw the .350 hitter bunt.

How about how fast Toronto is falling. The bullpen is killing them and now their starters are no longer shutting the other team down enough to let the Blue Jays offense do its thing. Jeff Tam, please!

The Blue Jays will be back and cause trouble for somebody, as the summer moves on because they will hammer the tired pitchers in about three weeks. Now with the handwriting on the wall for their season, do they trade Kelvim Escobar over the next few weeks. I say emphatically yes!

So much for the lefties stop the Yanks theory. Jason Giambi 0-4, Hideki Matsui 0-5, and Jorge Posada 0-1 and they still beat CC Sabathia.

Brooks Keishnick is one of the amazing baseball stories of the year. He gives one a reason to read the Milwaukee box score. He not only is pinchhitting and playing in the field occasionally but is hitting .341 and pitching in relief on a regular basis. He got the win last night, his first of the year and who knows perhaps the first of his major league career. What a story.

The Braves bring all that righthanded power into Wrigley today to face classic underacheiver Shawn Estes. Greg Maddux is no piece of cake either, but the Cubs are feeling for it right now.

If I’m St. Louis, I’m hoping that Matt Morris is OK tonight.

The scouts should be watching Steve Trachsel for the Mets tonight. The Giants should be parked on his doorstep.

Ron Villone has thrown extremely well for Houston and pitches tonight against Paul Wilson who is a better second half pitcher, so check back on him in about two weeks.

If the Pirates are really going to make some trades, tonight’s pitcher Jeff Suppan is worth watching too.

The Royals need Mike Sweeney back in their lineup because at some point Minnesota may wake up and start playing better.

The NL West is a race waiting to happen. With Kirk Reuter out and Jesse Foppert heading to the minors soon, the dog days are waiting to bite this pitching staff.

Baseball is a marathon and the race is just beginning to get tough.

I still think 2003 is a tremendous season. Other than the NL East give me another division that is locked up?

Some scouts believe that Adam Piatt may have turned the corner and if given the chance could give the A’s what they need from the right side. Piatt sort of goes to the beat of his own drummer, has withstood the public flogging from his manager, and is still ticking. Some good signs.

How good are the Red Sox? We won’t know until they come West in August. One thing is for sure, tonight Ramiro Mendoza and Cory Lidle won’t resembe Bob Feller and Don Drysdale when they match up in SkyDome.

The summer is here, baseball will become very interesting as someone once said about 100 years ago.

The game hasn’t changed, the summer separates the pretenders from the contenders.

Ya hear me Cubs.