Interleague play is over for the year. I was looking forward to it when it started and I’m thrilled it is over.

Baseball should have one week of interleague play matching the traditional or geographic rivals. Eighteen games is just too much. It takes too much of a bite out of the schedule.

Now the races can begin again.

Much to the chagrin of their pursuers, Atlanta, St.Louis, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Seattle and others can have big weeks before the break.

Here’s why.The Braves can put the Expos further back in the NL East. Atlanta has shown a versatile, deep bull pen. Bobby Cox is in that pen every night, but as many readers pointed out to me, the relief corps in Atlanta is deep and doesn’t rely on one pitcher, other than John Smoltz.

Good point. However, Cox better be careful with Smoltz who is still learning the closers role. Bobby Thigpen holds the record for saves in a season with 57. Smoltz and LA’s Eric Gagne are threatening to obliterate the mark.

Of course, after Thigpen’s record setting season, he was through as an effective reliever because of arm trouble.

Bartolo Colon pitches for Montreal tonight against Atlanta’s Damian Moss. Will the devastated Colon pick up the pieces from the trade and outpitch the Australian rookie?

I think Colon will come up big tonight after a pep talk form manager Frank Robinson who will not put up with a pouting super star pitcher.

Minnesota has a tough week playing the A’s and Mariners. The Twins play great defense, first in the AL, and it paid off last night as Torii Hunter made the catch of the season in Oakland, robbing John Mabry of a game breaking triple in the fourth inning.

The Twins are in their pen every night, and not just for an inning or two. This will wear them down over the long haul, but who can stop them in the Central?

Minnesota freezes when a lefty takes the hill for the oppositon. Tonight it’s Barry Zito and tomorrow it’s Mark Mulder for Oakland.

Good thing they won last night.

David Justice has a .400 on base percentage built on walks. He has 10 extra base hits all year long, less than 25% of his total hits. How much longer can he stay in the clean up spot in the order? Even though his walks enable Eric Chavez and Jermaine Dye to come up with men on base, at some point Justice has to help out with the long ball.

Chicago’s Todd Ritchie is 4-10. Not what the doctor ordered for a young, struggling pitching staff. Detroit is in town. This is a good week for the Sox to make a move on the Twins who will have trouble as the week unfolds.

The Sox can hit. Why not make a trade for a pitcher and move Ray Durham or Carlos Lee?

The Dodgers are just not going away. I think there is tremendous pressure on Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling to carry the Diamondbacks this year. The staff ERA is 4.14 even with these two, maybe Matt Mantei’s return to the bull pen will help.

Rick Helling pitches tonight against Omar Daal. Daal has physical problems every other day, but gets the job done. Helling has thrown well lately, this is a big start for Helling. I can’t believe Arizona is relying on Helling to beat LA, Arizona better score some runs tonight, they’ll need it.

The Yankees picked up Raul Mondesi for a minor league pitcher. With Toronto agreeing to pay half of next year’s salary, you would think Mondesi, a five tool player would command more on the open market.

Many people rave about Mondesi, I think he is an underacheiving player who has never been a consistent force.

The Yankees can hide him in the batting order and he is an upgrade over Shane Spencer. Now where will Spencer end up? How about with the A’s or the Giants? He is a legit hitter with an upside, I can see it happening.

Roger Clemens pitches tonight against a despirited Indians team. As much as Clemens has struggled lately, even he should win number 289 against this crowd.

The Cardinals have all sorts of problems to overcome. Trouble is who can beat them? If they play well, which is no given, for a solid month, they can pull away from Houston ,their only real competition.

The Cubs make one step forward and three steps backwards every week. I’m beginning to think a change in the dugout may benefit them.

The Orioles have given righty starters a lot of trouble this past month. Tonight they face a hot righty, Ramon Ortiz, in Anaheim. Baltimore starter Rodrigo Lopez was passed over for the all star team. I think, even though he will be highly motivated to show Joe Torre he was wrong in omitting him, the season workload is beginning to wear on Lopez and trouble looms for the O’s who return to the west coast after being here eight days ago in SF.

Boston got a tremendous boost from Pedro last night. They play two with the Blue Jays today. Toronto has more players to unload, a situation which is destroying the focus of the team.

The Red Sox are catching the Blue Jays at the right moment.

The pursuers better be careful this week. The seven games this week before the break, could spell trouble for the second place teams, even though they may not have the mystique of interleague action.