If there are any further questions as to whether or not Barry Bonds is the National League's most valuable player, please review the recent series sweep of his team by the Montreal Expos during his absence. Bonds, who has been with his ailing father, is expected to play Thursday night but has to heavy heart as Bobby Bonds is seriously ill with a variety of ailments.

In the four games against the Expos, the Giants managed only four runs on six extra base hits (no homers) while leaving 32 runners on base. They only managed 24 hits during the four game set or an average of six hits a game. Without Bonds, the Giants are the Tigers with better pitching.


The Yankees ended Lima Time rocking Jose for six runs in four innings. Lima lost for the first time this year. The loss is a bad start for an important Royals week where they face the Yankees three times before closing the week with a four game series at Minnesota. The Royals loss combined with tonight's White Sox win lowers the Royals' division lead to two games.

Karim Garcia had three RBI for the Yankees and could be a key slugger for New York down the stretch. Dellucci is a nice player but has never hit for much in his short career and the Yankees could use big production from Garcia down the stretch and into the playoffs. Garcia is batting .333 since joining the Yankees and has big time power potential.

The Yankees have their biggest division lead over Boston of the year at five games. I wouldn't count the Red Sox out yet though as the two teams will face each other over a dozen times down the stretch.


In battles of the lower end of the divisions, Texas and Detroit are in the bottom of the sixteenth inning as neither team has scored a run since Detroit tied the game in the ninth inning. Either that's a lot of good relief pitching or a lot of bad hitting. A-Rod is oh for six.

Tampa Bay and Cleveland are also in the fourteenth inning as the Devil Rays scored a run in the top of the eleventh only to see the Indians tie it in the bottom of that same frame.

Hey! At least those teams are battling hard with nothing to lose but the ballgame.