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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Every game the Red Sox play these days seems to be the one that will define the rest of their season. Yesterday, the Sox came back to win with a six run ninth against the Phillies.

Of course all the heroics, topped by Trot Nixon’s grand slam off Turk Wendell, were set up by the Boston bullpen, which once again proved that on a day to day basis it cannot hold a lead.

Mike Timlin, Scott Sauerbeck (it may be time to worry about him), and Alan Embree simply were awful at crunch time. Only Byung Hyun Kim seemed to have his stuff Monday and you now how he has pitched lately.

Damian Jackson who pinch ran for David Ortiz in the eighth inning, came up with a big single to keep the budding rally alive in the ninth. It looked like Grady Little had outmanuvered himself, but Jackson a low .230s hitter got the hit to keep things cooking.

Jose Mesa became unglued and it got uglier for the Phillies from there.

Today it is on to Chicago where John Burkett and Bartolo Colon recreate their matchup of June 17th, when the Red Sox beat Chicago 7-4.

The Cubs got the pitching performance from ace Mark Prior that they were looking for yesterday. Prior’s pitches seem to float through the strike zone effortlessly, but are untouched by the hitters. He struck Albert Pujols out on an untouchable pitch.

Sammy Sosa came up with a big base running play, going from first to third on Jim Edmonds, who seemed to hold on to the ball too long. I said last week that Edmonds likes to grandstand from time to time, and this time it hurt his team as the run that Sosa scored got things rolling for the Cubs. Otherwise, Edmonds is the best overall centerfielder in the game today.

Today it’s Jason Simontacchi and Matt Morris against Carlos Zambrano and Kerry Wood. Does it get any better than this in September?

Only if this was the last weekend of the season.

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Labor Day is another marker along the road to the finish line during the major league season.

With September first officially here today, the race to the end becomes a tight, daily grind. One cannot afford too many missteps along the way or the dream will end abrubtly.

The Phillies won three in Ny over the weekend despite their players obvious dislike for the manager.

Larry Bowa held a meeting Thursday, telling his team he was basically through with them, that they were now on their own. The players responded with a meeting of their own and then went out and swept the Mets behind good pitching from Vincente Padilla, Randy Wolf and Kevin Millwood among others.

It’s always a good idea to have a meeting before playing games you should win. The Phils picked a good time for theirs because even though the Mets have been playing well, they really don’t match up with the talent on Philadelphia.

Today, the Phils meet the Red Sox in the Vet in a makeup of a rained out interleague game from June. Jeff Suppan who had success in the NL goes against Brett Myers, in a game Boston needs alot more than the Phillies.

The A’s have won nine in a row. Sounds familiar doesn’t it.

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The A’s continue to play world championship defense in the infield with the exception of Scott Hatteberg who is trying his best to master a position that is not that easy to play.

In any case, any mistakes that the A’s pitchers make are being turned into routine outs by Mark Ellis, Miguel Tejada, and Eric Chavez who by the way is really impressing me with his particular Brooks Robinson like defense at third.

Ted Lilly looked the sharpest he has been all season last night. He had no hit stuff against the Devil Rays.

I always say the Devil Rays surprise you once per series, well, today is the only day they have left against Oakland.

To put the race between Oakland, Boston, and Seattle in perspective, the three teams vying for two spots in October are only 2 1/2 games apart with 26 left to play.

Nothing is settled yet, baseball history is full of teams blowing leads with ten games to go, and we aren’t even close to that yet.

Today, it is youth versus youth as Rich Harden throws his 95 MPH gas against the young Tampa hitters, should be fun to watch.

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The Mariners looked like they were going down to another lifeless defeat at the hands of a tailender when their offense woke up and scored three times in the ninth inning to beat the Orioles 3-2.

Ichiro continued his slide last night, in fact, some of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays I talked with yesterday observed that the Mariners catalyst is swinging a very slow bat these days and chasing pitches all over the strike zone.

Same thing happened with Ichiro last season as he ran out of gas when the Seattle ballclub most needed his bat. Bret Boone has the weight of this team on his back and until someone else stands up and hits with authority I think you are going to see more games like last night’s for Seattle the rest of the way home.

John Olerud ripped a potential double play ball at Oriole secondbaseman Brian Roberts with one out in the ninth last night, but Roberts couldn’t stop the ball and two runs scored on the hard smash winning the game.

You could hear the sigh of relief from the Seattle ball club all the way to Oakland.

Today the Mariners send out Gil Meche who has been one good, one bad all month against the Orioles best pitcher Damian Moss. Moss walks so many batters that Seattle may put some runs on the board today, but who knows what Meche will give his team.

The Red Sox showed once again two things:

One, they can pound the ball at home, and two, the Yankees pitching, a problem all season, is still a problem the Bombers will have to deal with in September and October.

Today, things should look different in Fenway with Pedro Martinez facing lefty Andy Pettitte.

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With things going swimmingly well in Oakland, all eyes turn back to the East where the Yankees go to Boston to renew one of the most dramatic late season rivalries in the game.

The Yankees have broken the hearts of Red Sox fans repeatedly over the years. Whether it is 1978, 1949, or 1950, the story is always the same. The Sox are on the verge of playing in October, and then the Yanks knock them out in an excruciating series.

This six game set has implications once again. Boston trails NY by 4 1/2 games. The Red Sox lead Seattle by 1/2 in the wild card.

Boston looks to Derek Lowe and his blisters to shut Cuban rookie Jose Contreras and the New Yorkers down in game one.

The Yanks ain’t what they used to be. In fact, the White Sox took two of three from NY, knocking the Bombers pitching around in the process. The Yanks can hit, but so can Boston. Who can pitch better? Both teams rely on at least three pitchers from their bullpen every night.

The difference might be Byung Hyun Kim versus Mariano Rivera and you know who will win that one.

So, if I’m Boston, just split the six games and hope Seattle continues on their yearly slide into the Pacific.

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