Twelve games left. Twelve games to decide two division champions and two wildcard teams. As the most exciting season in recent baseball history winds down, we are no closer to knowing what is going to happen than we were a month ago.

The Cubs are starting to come on and have a great schedule down the stretch. Prior was amazing tonight. The only trouble is that the Astros are playing just as well and won big against the Rockies. Down a game and a half, the Cubs finish with the Mets, Pirates and Reds--all teams they should beat.

The Astros have one more series at St. Louis, a series with the Giants and finish the series with Milwaukee. That schedule seems to favor the Cubs. But if things stay as they are, the best team in the division (the Cubs) might not win the division.

Meanwhile, the Phillies and Marlins have a big series with the wildcard on the line. The Marlins had a game and a half lead but were blown up by the Phillies today, 14-4. The Marlins and Phillies play each other six times between now and the end and each team has to play a series against Atlanta.

That kind of schedule for the two teams means that the Dodgers still have a chance though they play the Diamondbacks and Giants in the stretch. They are losing so far tonight to those Diamondbacks and may not gain any ground.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox beat off a scrappy Devil Rays team as they barely held on to win, 3-2. Pedro went all the way for the win. The question remains if Pedro has to work this hard down the stretch, will he have anything left for the playoffs?

The Mariners are fading at a bad time and it's hard to believe that Ichiro is only batting .309. His average has gone down for the third straight year and his OBP is thirty-eight points behind last year. A telling statistic is that he has batted over six hundred times and only has 33 walks. There is much speculation as to whether he wears down over a MLB season that is much longer than the Japanese leagues.

The Twins have the best record in baseball since the AllStar break and the White Sox are right behind them. The Twins won their head to head battle tonight and leaped frogged to the top of the division. The Royals started winning again to stay three and a half back but it is unrealistic for them to catch not just one top team, but two.

And finally, you know the Fan has to finish this post by giving it up to Roger Clemens as he won his fifteenth game tonight. The win was the 308th of his career. The Yankees are peaking at the right time which seems to coincide with the re-emergence of Soriano at the top of the lineup.