Baseball excitement is back in Florida and in Kansas City. At this point in the season, the Marlins must look forward to extra inning games as they always seem to hit a homerun to win the game. It happened again tonight as Mike Mordecai became the latest improbable hero as he pinch ran for Mike Lowell and then came up in eleventh inning and put the game away with only his second homerun of the year. It's wonderful to see.

Even more exciting is to watch the Royals play. Fans are now starting to pack the stands and Tony Pena is some kind of manager and motivator. The Yankees hit a buzz saw and were murdered tonight 11-0. Watching the game, I couldn't help but feel good for that organization as the players are all pulling for each other and the fans are going crazy. Now that Mike Sweeney is back (four RBI tonight), their offense is even better and there is a possibility that they could actually pull this off.

The top three teams in the NL Central are now a game and a half apart. Houston, who lost two out of three to the Cubbies, are a game up on the Cardinals (who lost tonight to the Pirates) and a game and a half up on the suddenly surging Cubs.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays had the best record in the AL East for the second week in a row. Lou Piniella is really getting a lot out of his players and could actually turn around a dead organization by his will alone. They aren't an easy win anymore.

And now for the Fan's favorite boxscore players and their last seven games:
- Rocco Baldelli. Baldelli batted .304 for the week to keep his season average at an even .300. I hope he ends up over the mark since he has been over .300 all year.
- Luis Matos. Kind of a new favorite for the Fan, Matos came from nowhere to join Melvin Mora (who I hope comes back soon) at the top of the Orioles batting success. Matos had kind of a quiet week as he batted .290 in 31 at bats. He did drive in five runs for the week.
- Coco Crisp. Kookoo for Coco Crisp had a tough week in some respects as he only batted .219 in 32 at bats. But he did score seven runs in the seven days and he hit two homeruns. Crisp is now batting .269 for the season.
- Hank Blalock. I haven't understood what Showalter has been doing with Blalock as he hasn't been in the lineup regularly and is up and down in the batting order. Maybe because of that, Blalock only batted .250 last week but he did manage four RBI. Blalock is still a solid .319 for the season.
- Laynce Nix. The football star with the baseball uniform batted .421 last week with a homer and four RBI. His season average is now .269.
- Mark Teixeira. Mark had a tough week, batting only .214, but he did have a homer and four RBI.
- Mike Lowell. Lowell is an inspirational story who is doing what star players do: Lead their teams during pennant races. Lowell batted .355 last week with eight RBI. He now has 98 RBI for the season!
- Miquel Cabrera. Cabrera was out-classed last week as he only batted .160 for the week with nine strikeouts in twenty-five at bats. His season average is down to .242.
- Pat Burrell. Well...we've been following the travails of Burrell this season and I finally have good news to report. Pat batted .400 last week! His OBP was over .500 and he had two homers a triple and four RBI. His batting average for the season is now a whopping .206. But, what has gone unnoticed is that his OBP for the year is a respectable .319.
- Jose Reyes. Reyes had another outstanding week as he batted .350 for the week to raise his season average to .300. This guy is going to be special.
- Bo Hart. Bo knows fielding but his batting has turned noticeably south. He sunk under .300 for the first time this season as he batted only .214 last week with nine strikeouts in seven games. He did score five runs though and made more highlight shows with his fielding.
- Sean Burroughs. Jeff's son had his second tough week as he only batted .235 last week with only one extra base hit. His season average is now at .283.

Congratulations to Mike Piazza for his five RBI performance in his first game back from a long injury shelving. Congrats also go to Wilson Alvarez, once a star, who has battled major injuries and has an ERA under 3.00 for the Dodgers while giving up only 1.07 hits and walks per nine innings.