The A’s are in that part of their schedule when they play teams that are vastly inferior to themselves. The Orioles don’t hit very much against Oakland and seem to be waiting for the inevitable mistake which will sink their game.

I must say that Pat Hentgen didn’t show much last night, but then again most pitchers are having trouble navigating their way through the A’s lefthanded hitting lineup and their one fabulous righty, Miguel Tejada.

Which brings me to Tejada. He is the reigning MVP. He has played like the MVP for over two months now and has carried the team on his back. He is fabulous to watch every day.

I know Bobby Crosby is the phenom of the future, but if you watch these games, Miguel is the straw that stirs the A’s drink on the field.

The A’s couldn’t have asked for better matchups, facing righthander after righthander, giving Ken Macha a set lineup every night. Eric Chavez has benefited more than anyone. He gets great hacks off of righties, hitting .324 with 16 homers as opposed to .186 with 7 homers off the lefties. Now Chavez can hit third with confidence knowing he will get a good swing virtually every time up. It also helps his concentration in the field because he isn’t worried heading to third base because he knows he will get another nice at bat very soon.

Trust me, having Chavez as your number three hitter batting .324 helps more than having your number three hitter hitting .186.

The A’s will only see Joe Kennedy Friday, Jarrod Washburn down the road, and Jamie Moyer from the left side over the last 29 games. Eric Chavez must have done something right to deserve this gift.

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As one goes through the baseball season at times one forgets the most important rule when analyzing the current game.

Starting pitchers go seven innings at best, relievers decide the games.

The strength of a pitching staff is judged from the back end forward.

The A’s bullpen gets batters out with amazing regularity. The Red Sox bullpen is an adventure every night.

The Red Sox hit the ball with much more authority than the A’s, no doubt about it.

The A’s hit the ball when the game is on the line. The A’s work the pitchers the entire game. When Terrence Long is 1-5 which is often these days, that one hit may decide the game.

The Red Sox are a gritty bunch, my standard for postseason play, but that bullpen is going to be tough to overcome as they chase the Yankees this month.

Scott Williamson when with the Reds was a power closer. Today, as a Red Sock, he is 86-87 MPH and leaves the ball up.

If Scott Sauerbeck is only effective when tired, I suggest the Boston staff use him every day because what he is throwing out there now won’t make it. He blew the game against Oakland last week, walking two batters in a crucial situation and did the same gasoline on the fire job last night against the Blue Jays, who will hand you the game if you let them.

Today the A’s see Pat Hentgen who would welcome a trade to Oakland. The Red Sox see Roy Halladay who is vying for the Cy Young with Esteban Loiaza, Andy Pettitte, and Tim Hudson. The Mariners face a rookie with Tampa Bay.

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My good friend Leonard Koppett, late Hall of Fame sports writer, always told me that as the teams head into September, no matter what has transpired before, whoever plays the best during the last thirty games, wins the race.

He was right as usual, as most of this year’s races will be determined over the last thirty games.

The A’s, Boston, and Seattle are all tied with 31 games to go at 76-55. I said in June when there were 100 games to go, that 96 wins would be the magic number to ensure a playoff spot. I’ll stick with it, these teams are all capable of running off 20-11 marks from today until the end of the season.

Seattle, not only has stopped hitting (Edgar Martinez and John Olerud are slowing from the physical strain of the summer too), but Joel Pineiro, Ryan Franklin, and Gil Meche have been getting blasted during their starts, fueling the Mariners slide more than anything.

The A’s are one gritty bunch down the stretch for the fourth consecutive season, mirroring the “give it your all, accept nothing less” attitude of GM Billy Beane, who keeps the team on edge, never taking a loss lightly or philosophically. I think his attitude is very helpful during the stretch run because these players refuse to lose.

However, they do need another starter.

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It’s starting to look like 2002 for the Seattle Mariners. Last year the Mariners simply ran out of fuel during the dog days of August and faded behind the A’s and the Angels.

As I said three months ago, Seattle is a catchable team. They play great defense, have decent starting pitching, and a fairly nice bullpen.

So what’s wrong?

The core of the team is made up of aging players and that isn’t a good formula for summer success.

Ken Macha told me last year on August first that the A’s, Red Sox, and the Mariners would battle it out for the playoffs, and it was time to see if the youth of the A’s would carry them past the other two teams during the summer push.

It did and the Mariners and the Sox were left at home last fall watching the playoffs on television.

Deja vu all over again in 2003, except the Red Sox made significant improvements to their team which should carry them past the Mariners and into the playoffs.

Bret Boone, Edgar Martinez, and John Olerud are the 3-4-5 hitters for Seattle. Ichiro hits .333 with a high on base percentage. The big hitters are wearing down and there is no one there to pick up the slack.

Dan Wilson, Randy Winn, and Mike Cameron are complimentary players, but if the big guns can’t carry you, there is trouble in River City.

With 32 games to go, Seattle will have to pick up the slack immeasurably to beat Oakland and Boston.

Today, Pedro, coming back from his sore throat and fever, tries to complete the sweep against Seattle and keep the Sox hot at home.

Gil Meche, another good/bad pitcher tries to figure out where he stands today, but without more offense the Mariners are hurting right now.

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The Angels have the rally monkey, now the Red Sox are inspiring the fans with a video from Kevin Millar’s high school days showing the first baseman “trying to dance” to a Bruce Springsteen song.

Another day at the park.

Jose Contreras comes off the DL for the Yankees today and will start against Eric Dubose and the Orioles.

The Yankees still hold out hope that Contreras will be their eighth inning righty in this years postseason. I think he is versatile enough to to do the job.

With two more homers (34 on the year) yesterday, Frank Thomas now is squarely in the MVP race if the White Sox win the Central.

And that’s the way it should be because it is crunch time and the big players stand up.

Scott Sullivan is a great bull pen pick up for the White Sox. He already threw two scoreless innings picking up lefty Neal Cotts, who has kept the Sox in his last two starts.

The A’s need to take some heat off the bullpen and could use another big league starter.

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The baseball season is a marathon race with many twists and turns before reaching the finishing line in late September.

The A’s will run the last 34 games of the race without arguably their best pitcher.

Is the season over?

Not by a long shot.

Click below and I’ll tell you why not.

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Not since May 2002 have the A’s faced such uncertainty with their pitching staff. With Mark Mulder shut down for at least two weeks on the DL and Rich Harden showing growing pains, all of a sudden what looked like a big four starting pitching rotation has been reduced to Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and hope for the best.

The A’s do have the benefit of the schedule in their favor over the next two and one half weeks since they face Toronto this weekend (won’t be a cakewalk by any means), then come home for Baltimore and Tampa Bay before duplicating those two series right away on the East Coast the next week.

The offense will need to pick up the slack. The bullpen will have to be managed very carefully. The season has many twists and turns, no one can predict injuries, the A’s just got hit hard where they can least afford it.

Rich Harden presents another dilemma. What to do? As good as he looked earlier, that is how bad he looks now. He threw over two hundred pitches in his last nine innings coming into last night’s start, Thursday night he threw 78 more in 2 2/3 innings. He probably would benefit from bullpen work until he finds his mechanical groove once again.

The A’s probably will give him one more start against Baltimore next week, a low rent outfit, to see if he can dominate the Orioles. If he doesn’t do well in that start, it’s anyones guess what the next step will be.

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As the season turns into the home stretch the good teams are putting their best players on the field and they are responding.

The A’s bullpen, a hearty three man bunch all season has come alive in Boston as all the relievers, save Jim Mecir, have gotten into the act.

You just can’t say enough about quality pitches in crucial situations. Chad Bradford, now Ricardo Rincon, and as always Keith Foulke, teeter on the brink of disaster almost every time on the hill. Yet when the chips are on the line, they throw pitches which turn into routine outs, ending rallies.

How much longer they can do this without being effected from daily use is anyone’s guess. If Chad Harville and Michael Neu come through more often, then the big three can continue to get the big outs.

The A’s rallied last night with only one walk in the entire game. A good sign for the hitters. When Byung Hyun Kim needed to make big pitches he didn’t, grooving an 0-2 pitch to Scott Hatteberg who hit a laser to right putting the A’s in front to stay.

Previous night, Scott Sauerbeck needed to throw strikes to Erubiel Durazo and Eric Chavez and couldn’t, two walks resulted, then Scott Williamson grooved an 0-2 pitch to Ramon Hernandez, three run homer, end of game.

When the Sox needed big hits, they weren’t there. The A’s pitchers consistently made quality, in your face type of pitches which ended the scoring chances.

That my friends is the difference in this series. The A’s get the job done with a minimum of flair. The Sox look good on paper, but when the game is on the line, they don’t produce.

Baseball has turned into a game of bullpens because starters rarely go more than seven innings, the A’s bull pen is clutch right now, Boston’s isn’t and that is the way the ball is bouncing with 34 games to go.

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What a night for Bay Area baseball fans. First the A’s snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, then the Giants tie the Braves on a wild pitch and then have an emotionally drained Barry Bonds hit one into the bay off of lefty specialist Raymond King to win the game.

Ramon Hernandez hit a game winning homer the impact of which on the A’s season could be as big as Terrence Long’s catch on a ball hit by Manny Ramirez last season robbing Ramirez of a game winning home run.

The A’s used that catch and win in Boston last August to propel themselves to the division title.

This homer by Hernandez came at the right time as the A’s were reeling from the injury to Mark Mulder and the two hit pitching of Derek Lowe.

Mulder has not been himself for the last week or so. Now he reveals that his hip tendinitis has been an issue since July 19th.

When injuries like this occur in baseball one of two things may happen.

Either the team deflates and goes into a tailspin or they pull together and some aspect of the team steps up to take up the slack.

Now, if Mulder is out for any prolonged period, the offense will have to shoulder more of a burden if the A’s are going to keep pace with Seattle and Boston.

Hits like Hernandez had last night go a long way.

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The last time the Mariners’ Ryan Franklin faced the Blue Jays, they knocked him all over the yard in Safeco Field. Tonight Kelvim Escobar, who won’t miss the A’s this weekend like he did last week in Oakland, pitches for the Blue Jays.

Ichiro is getting some play for AL MVP as scribes are finally noticing that no one on the so called winning teams is having a big season.

Carlos Delgado will end the year with 130 plus RBI and forty homers or more, and he stands to be the MVP unless Bret Boone or Ichiro go crazy and the Mariners hang on. Two big “ifs”.

This series could go a long way to settling the issues if one of the MVP candidadtes carries his club.

In Boston, the Sox will face Mark Mulder, coming off his worst outing in a while. Mulder couldn’t get the feel of the baseball in Oakland last week and must not get behind because the Red Sox are a totally different team in Fenway as is Oakland on the road.

If I was the A’s, I wouldn’t want to play catch up in Boston.

Derek Lowe pitched his best game, dominating the A’s and Erubiel Durazo in critical game turning moments. The A’s have been in big games over the past few seasons in August. Art Howe always had this team ready to play, tonight will go a long way in determining how this seven game trip turns out since Perdo Martinez, Roy Halladay, and Escobar are ahead in coming games.

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