With the Royals loss and the Twins win, those two teams are now tied. If Chicago wins, the White Sox will be in first by half a game. That's the bad news for the Royals. The good news is that they almost came back from way behind today to win in the ninth AND they have been counted out for dead a month ago and stormed back. We'll have to see which way they go this time. This Fan's sad opinion is that this is the beginning of the end of a great run.

The Cubs have bounced back tonight behind the brilliance of Mark Prior. If the 6-0 score (eighth inning) holds up, the Cubs will be only a half a game behind Houston. The Cardinals are losing huge, 13-0, so they will not be taking advantage of the opportunity to inch closer.

The Phillies are getting trounced by Milwaukee again and the more I see this collapse, the more I believe that there is no way that Larry Bowa will survive as manager. And with the talent they have, I wouldn't be surprised if it happens soon.

The Marlins, a half a game behind the Phillies are beating Colorado 1-0. That would not be considered a safe lead in Coors (obviously). Cabrera is two for two and has driven in the only run. Mike Redman is pitching very well again tonight.

Barry Bonds game winning homer last night reminded me of The Natural, one of the best baseball movies of all time. I will say this to you one more time: We are watching history folks. Sixty years from now, people will be asking you if you ever saw him play. The two best players ever: 1. The Babe. 2. Barry Bonds.


And now it's time for the Fan's favorite boxscore players and how they've fared the last seven days:

- Karim Garcia. Garcia has captured my fancy with his big week for the Yankees. Now I wonder why he sat today! Garcia came up to the plate thirteen times last week and had four walks and five hits (a tidy little .694 OBP!) with three homers, a double and seven RBI.

- Rocco Baldelli. Baldelli is the model of consistency. He batted .300 exactly for the week and is at exactly .300 for the year. What is promising is that his OBP seems to rise every week so that means he's getting more selective.

- Coco Crisp. Crisp didn't describe Coco's batting last week as he only hit .182 last week to pull his season average down to .262. His OBP is down to .301, which is very poor for a leadoff guy.

- Hank Blalock. Blalock batted a consistent .292 for the week with a homer, two doubles and seven RBI. He is now at .317 for the season with 21 homers and 72 RBI. His season OBP is .374. Excellent.

- Mark Teixeira. Teixeira struggled last week, batting only .192 but he did have three doubles and three RBI. He is batting a decent .250 for his rookie season with 19 homers and 61 RBI. Watch out next year!

- Michael Young. Young had a good week, batting .313 with a homer and three RBI. More importantly, he scored nine runs from the leadoff spot and now has scored 87 runs for the season to go along with his .310 batting average with 11 homers and 61 RBI.

- Pat Burrell. Burrell didn't make progress as it appeared he might as he batted only .182 for the week and shrunk back down to .201 for the year.

- Miguel Cabrera. The youngster had a great week as he batted .429 for the week with nine hits in twenty-four at bats. Cabrera had a double, a triple and two homers and drove in six runs. He's also improving his patience and walked four times last week.

- Jose Reyes. Reyes was as good as Cabrera as he had eleven hits in twenty-seven at bats for a week's average of .407. The twenty year old is now batting .308 in his rookie season.


Mark Prior is the man. He is the Cy Young Award winner this year and looks as dominant as Roger Clemens in his young years.