With only three weekends of baseball left in the regular season, all the races still up in the air have critical matchups beginning today.

Some people say that a win in April is just as important as a win in September, they all count the same, one game in the standings. I don’t buy it.

A bullpen collapse in September can carry over to the next game, with only 15 games left to play, the cushion of making up for a blown save is gone. A head on loss to a rival counts two games in the standings, there may not be enough games left if you do that too many times.

In other words, when you have 100 games to go, you can make up for your mistakes, with three weekends to go, it may become too late. That is why clutch players are remembered (Yaz, Giambi, Frank Robinson) in history, especially during the stretch run, since they keep the team on track for the playoffs.

Tonight Barry Zito faces Texas, a team he has beaten nine straight times. The game is in Texas which means nothing will be easy for Oakland this weekend. Zito has pitched some of the best games of his career in Arlington and faces Cal alum Ryan Drese, a righty who seems to give up three or more in the first inning whenever he starts a game.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

The White Sox’s Esteban Loiaza can solidify his Cy Young credentials today when he faces the Minnesota Twins and Brad Radke. Minnesota got back to within one game of the lead behind lefty Johann Santana and two excellent relief outings from LaTroy Hawkins and “Everyday” Eddie Guardado. Shannon Stewart (MVP?) drove in two runs as the Twins won the game 4-1.

With the Boston Red Sox on tap for the weekend for Chicago, both Minnesota (who goes to Cleveland) and KC (who will play the 1962 Mets, I mean Tigers) have a chance to pick up some ground or in the Twins case perhaps take the lead if the White Sox falter in Fenway.

So, pressure falls on Loiaza today to extend the lead back to two games in the Central over the Twins. May not be that simple as Brad Radke has been here before in big games and has pitched better as of late.

Absolutely no doubt that Ted Lilly is in the A’s playoff picture if they get to the postseason. With only Hudson and Zito as sure bets to start, and with the A’s only throwing Hudson on three days rest if necessary, the A’s will need two more starting pitchers. Lilly is first up and deserves it. Next, Rich Harden, simply because there is no one else available that the manager would trust in that situation. This is the spot where I thought Pat Hentgen would have fit in perfectly.

Signature move by Ken Macha last night pulling Lilly in the sixth (he has done it with huge success all year), turning the next five outs over to Chad Bradford, then closing with a bevy of others.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Described as a pitcher having a below average fastball and a decent breaking ball, Justin Duchscherer showed the scouts the one thing they forgot to put in their scouting reports: he knows how to pitch and isn’t afraid to throw the ball over the plate.

Displaying an excellent breaking ball (not in Zito’s class, but not bad) when he needed an out, the rookie’s night became infinitely calmer after the A’s put four runs on the board in the third, then four more in the next inning, to ice their 8-1 win.

Where does Duchscherer go from here? He certainly deserves to pitch against Anaheim next week. He reminds me of a younger version of Gil Heredia. He moves the ball around and needs impeccable control to survive.

Eric Chavez made a sensational play in the field to bail Duchscherer out of a bases loaded jam when the game was scoreless. Chavez and Miguel Tejada had big offensive nights, but perhaps the best sign for the A’s was the emergence of Jermaine Dye’s bat from its season long slump.

Dye homered, the ball leaving the yard in a blink of an eye (only he hits them like that on this team), plus his single got the first four run rally going. Big night for Dye. Erubiel Durazo batted second and drove the Angels nuts with his take, take, take approach getting two walks and an off field double, always ahead in the count.

All in all a positive night at the park for Oakland that also got a welcome boost from the Rangers and Rafael Palmiero.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Twenty one games left to play and the Giants have an eleven game lead. Is there anything remaining to write about before the playoffs begin? Let’s give it a try. Marty writes this morning, “Other than the Giants and the Braves no other teams are mortal locks to get to play in October.” When this season started, if one was asked who the “mortal locks” would be in October, one could reasonably have answered the Braves and the Yankees. If pushed a bit further, in answer to a question respecting who were likely to be playing in October even though not a ” mortal lock”, a reasonable response might have been the Red Sox, possibly the A’s, possibly the Giants, simply because of the mediocre opposition in their division, the Cards, Seattle, or any one of a grab bag of aspiring teams. No one in their right mind would have called the Giants a “mortal lock”.

Click below for more, thanks Ed. [Read more →]

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! [Read more →]

Seems like that old magic has slipped from the A’s these days, but not to worry, the Oaklanders are now home to face the Angels, a team they must give respect to, in the friendly confines of the Coliseum.

You see the A’s simply play better baseball at home. It may be the cool nights, or the fact that these young men have less pressure off the road (nightlife can be tiring around the league), or that the pitchers know how to pitch in the Coliseum.

Whatever it is, there is no better time to go for it, than tonight with your best pitcher on the mound. Tim Hudson got roughed up by the Orioles in his last start, but likes to face the Angels and will see Aaron Sele as his opponent.

The Angels are a truly professional group and will not roll over and die this month. They still have one of the better bullpens in baseball and you don’t want to get into a close game with them in the late innings. Troy Percival hasn’t been lights out, but give Francisco Rodriguez, Brednen Donnelly and Ben Weber a late lead and you can get hurt.

The Angels will test the A’s defense and push the envelope with bunts, hit and runs, and steals.

When Mark Mulder went down with his leg injury I said the A’s would be all right because the rest of the team would stand up.

Here’s the strength of the A’s right now. A dynamite bullpen when they have the lead. One of the top, if not the top, starters in the league in Tim Hudson, a superior inner defense, two players Eric Chavez and Miguel Tejada, who are as clutch as any two players in baseball right now, and a team that is chasing them (Seattle) that can’t hit a fastball.

The formula is simple go 12-7, get to 96 wins, and be glad Seattle is your closest pursuer.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Folks, the Daily Dish will return on Monday.

Have a nice weekend,

Marty Lurie [Read more →]

Another amazing day of baseball on Wednesday.

The Cubs rallied from a 6-0 deficit to knock the Cards off 8-7. Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker are not getting along. They both live in the Bay Area, see each other from time to time at other sporting events during the winter, but during the season they fight like cats and dogs.

We all know how much Tony cares about our four footed friends (cats and dogs), but he is fanning the competitive flames with his comments about Baker and the way the Cubs pitchers play the game.

The Card’s manager challenged Baker to a fight yesterday after Matt Clement and Dan Haren took turns hitting one another with pitches.

Last year in the playoffs, Tony chastised Kenny Lofton and Dusty ( then with the Giants) for the way they play the game. Now Tony is critizing Kerry Wood and Mark Prior for pitching up and in, and claims that the Cub batters wiil be “dealt with” accordingly. Tony played with the toughest pitcher of the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s in KC in 1963, Hall of Famer Early Wynn, who would knock his mother down at the plate if she dug in, I wonder if Tony critcized Wynn, a 300 game winner, back then.

In the midst of all this, these two teams are fighting it out with Houston for first place in the NL Central.

Both bullpens are spent. After four excruciating games, they face each other again today with Shawn Estes who has trouble going five good innings facing the more capable Brett Tomko for St. Louis.

These two teams have been bitter rivals for over 100 years, this series is absolutely special not only because of the Cardinals lineup and the Cubs starting pitching plus Sosa and Alou (five hits Wednesday), but because two of the best managers in baseball are trying to knock each others block off and I like the action.

The Cards have a better chance of winning today simply because Tomko can win and Estes is so inconsistent that the Cards should have plenty of runners on base, not a good formula for success.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Starting this month of September
(Latinamerican month in the USA)
last of the regular season a total
of 30 percent of all Major League
Baseball players are Latinos,
a figure that continues to
increase with each season.

By Amaury Pi-González
Bay Area [Read more →]

I’m not sure that I’ve seen better baseball games than the ones played at Wrigley Field yesterday. For one, neither the Cards nor the Cubs have distinguished themselves through their bullpens this season. Yesterday they did!

The Cubs finally won the first game 4-2 behind Sammy Sosa’s homer in the 15th inning. And I mean 15 tense innings. Both bullpens were outstanding. The Cubs put up eight innings of one hit shut out relief, while the Cards went nine and one third innings of two run (Sosa’s homer), five hit relief.

Moises Alou made an ill advised dash to third with none out on a hit and run single to short left field (being thrown out easily in the ninth), but other than that miscue these teams played superb baseball.

Matt Morris outdueled Kerry Wood 2-0 in the nightcap allowing the Cards to break even on the day.

Matt Clement and Dan Haren today in Wrigley, with another game tomorrow. Both pitchers today will be expected to go at least seven, I think the Cubs have a better chance of winning this game because Clement is a horse while Haren is an untested rookie, but with the St. Louis offense ready to bust loose at any moment, this should be another great game.

Funny thing if the Cubs or Cards win the Wild Card, they will give either the Giants or the Braves all they can handle in the NLDS.

Click below for more! [Read more →]