The Giants need to root for the Diamondbacks as crazy as that sounds because the Dodgers face Arizona three times, while the Giants are in Colorado for four games.

The key for teams trailing the leaders by more than three or four games is not to slip back in to the six or seven range because that means you have to sweep a series to get back into the race and that is tough to do in September.

The A’s get one more crack at the dregs of the Central before returning home to the Twins on Friday.

Boston needs a win today, Seattle gets a day off, and the Yankees face Kenny Rogers in Rogers’ house of horrors, Yankee Stadium.

Let’s see what else is up.

The A’s face Darrell May, a lefty, and counter with Don Drysdale, I mean Cory Lidle. Lidle has thrown 31 consecutive scoreless innings. The team record is 38.3 consecutive scoreless innings thrown by Mike Torrez in 1976. Kansas City is 25-25 at home against righties. They beat Kyle Lohse yesterday after losing to Rick Reed and Brad Radke, although they knocked Radke around.

With the prospect of facing Mulder and Zito on Tuesday and Wednesday the Royals have pressure to do something tonight.

The Central (22-8) has been very good to Oakland, almost as good as interleague play (16-2) which accounts for the A’s 29 games over .500 record. The A’s are 23 -22 vs. the East and an alarming 19-19 against the West.

The A’s shouldn’t look at the scoreboard, but just keep winning series. After today, the Angels get six with Tampa Bay and Baltimore, while the A’s are playing the Royals and the Twins.

Ray Durham is giving the A’s the same kind of production Johnny Damon gave them in the second half last year. He has speed, occasional power, and is a tough out. If he wanted to DH next year, he would be an ideal leadoff hitter for this team. If he wants to play in a world series, he should consider coming back and the A’s should make a legit attempt to sign him.

Expect Anaheim to close the gap between the leaders by next Monday. Ramon Ortiz pitched quite well in NY last week. He gives up the long ball and Fenway can be a nightmare for a fly ball pitcher. John Burkett was torched by Minnesota in his last outing. Anytime a decent opponent faces the Sox and neither Pedro nor Lowe is on the mound, the Sox have to worry about the outcome.

Today is that case big time. The Yankees come in next and any hope Boston has of catching NY starts with that series. Today’s game looks like a high scoring affair.

Seattle blasted Cleveland finally. Freddy Garcia is not on his game, he struggles with pitch totals, his location is off, believe me he greatly appreciated the 12 runs his team gave him yesterday.

Things will not get better for Seattle until they starighten out their pitching. With Ryan Franklin, Ismael Valdes, Joel Pineiro, and Jamie Moyer also in the rotation, this is not going to happen quickly.

The only thing keeping Seattle afloat right now is their gritty “get it done” style of play which carried them to 116 wins last year. Seattle needs Ichiro, Boone, and Edgar to hit like they did last year and hope that Mike Cameron and John Olerud get hot for the last month.

It’s not unreasonable to see Seattle as the odd team out when it is all said and done. They are not playing well and haven’t played well for a month.

With the Angels pitching featuring John Lackey and Mickey Callaway and Seattle not firing on all cylinders, the A’s just may win this division and put it away before Sept. 20th.

The Giants have struggled in Coors Field even when they have been playing well. They are now playing with a sense of urgency because they could pick up a couple of games this week, while the Dodgers play Arizona.

Truly, only Jason Schmidt has pitched like a playoff starter and that includes the bull pen as well. The Giants hit enough to win, but their lack of championship pitching has been the stumbling block.

St. Louis has now lost Matt Morris from their starting staff (hamstring) after the team finished 20 consecutive games played. They still lead Houston by three, but everyone in baseball is waiting for the Astros to grab the lead. St. Louis is one tough team and has played extremely well with all the adversity that has plagued them. The more they hang in there, the more I believe they just may make the playoffs. Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, and Tino Martinez are bona fide major leaguers and can carry the club. This division race is still very much the Cards, until Houston shows they are a consistent team. The Astros haven’t shown me that yet.

Whether or not there is baseball after Thursday of this week depends on how far the owners want to push the envelope. We’ll see which owners have the most clout on Friday morning, the hard liners who want it all now or the moderates who will be satisified with a significant win.

Right now, it’s too close to call.