The Athletics won their seventeenth in a row Saturday night, beating the stubborn Minnesota Twins 6-3.

The A’s can break the franchise record which has stood since 1931 if Mark Mulder can beat Joe Mays on Sunday.

Can 20 in a row be far off? After Mulder on Sunday, comes Zito on Monday against Runelvys Hernandez and KC, then Tim Hudson on Wednesday against Paul Byrd.

The Cards win a big twin bill, the slide continues for Seattle and Anaheim keeps pace with the A’s.

Boston’s bull pen coughed up another game and the Dodgers, behind lifesaver Omar Daal beat Houston.

Here’s more.Minnesota learned what the rest of the AL Central has learned over the past two weeks, don’t mess with Eric Chavez. Ron Gardenhire walked Miguel Tejada to get to Chavez in a tie game with JC Romero on the hill. Chavez promptly untied the game as he shattered his bat muscling the ball into short centerfield.

End of story for the Twins who got another well pitched game from Kyle Lohse. The righty touched 94 on the scout’s radar guns in a very fine performance. Lohse should get another shot at the A’s on Friday night in the Metrodome in a rematch against Cory Lidle.

John Lackey needs to be on the top of his game to beat Rodrigo Lopez Sunday. Ramon Ortiz gave the Angels pen the night off so they should be able to help Lackey after the sixth inning. The Orioles are losing every day and Sunday should be no different unless Lopez pitches a gem. Pitching this late in the season may make it difficult for the slightly built Lopez to get it done.

The fall continues for the unbelieving Mariners. They are quickly falling into needing a miracle to get back into this three team race. They just don’t hit and Lou Pinella complains about his team every day.

If they don’t hit Jeff Suppan on Sunday they should burn their bats.

Carlos Hernandez is pitching for Houston against Hideo Nomo. This one will be decided in the eighth inning and Houston has a more reliable one two punch in Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner than Shuey, Quantrill, and Gagne are for LA right now.

Ryan Jensen has gotten smoked lately, but the Giants can outhit Arizona any day of the week. Miguel Batista can bring it and will stop the Arizona slide by holding the Giants to three runs or less. He’s tough.

Boston has a great chance to sneak into the wild card, but Tim Wakefield better hope the wind is blowing in his direction Sunday because his knuckleball may need some help.

There is one full month of drama ahead. September baseball is amazing. Something weird will happen in two of these races, I guarantee it.

It’s just tough to figure out which two.