The Giants have cause to celebrate?  Ending a nine game losing streak, they find themselves a mere 3 ½ games off the pace in the NL West.  Do they have a chance?  Mathematically, yes.  In reality, no chance at all.  This team is going no where fast and face some very tough decisions in the off season as Bonds will surely be gone, Moises Alou will probably go elsewhere if his father retires (which he probably will), Ray Durham is a free agent along with Pedro Feliz (their most productive hitter, in spite of his oft bad pitch selection). 

Armando Benitez is a disgrace, and it is clear how and why he was expelled from New York, found solace in relative isolation in Florida and is back on the hot seat in laid back, mellow California.  Listening to the banter in the stands at Pac Bell ball park is a revealing exercise; the SF fans, thought  to be knowledgeable, do not show up to the ball park anymore as the wine sipping, politically correct ‘tourists’ show up and engage in nonsensical commentary among each other.  But they do know enough to boo Benitez, who has blown three saves in the nine game streak, one time throwing his glove up in the air and batting it to the ground after giving up a homerun, an unseemly display.

.  Players are NEVER supposed to reveal their emotions when things go bad and it is a wonder Felipe Alou tolerated this behavior on the field.  Benitez is history in San Francisco, he will certainly be dealt in the off season (if they can possibly unload his contract on some other team), and having traded away Jeremy Accardo for the currently unproductive Sean Hillenbrand, they will find themselves in familiar territory since Rob Nen’s retirement -  searching for a closer.

Chase Utley chasing Dimaggio?  Appropriate.  Much more so than Jimmy Rollins’ quest at the beginning of the season, a carry over from the previous year.  Doing it in ONE season is the only way to break a season record, not over two as those who love a story wrote about in early April.  Utley is the real deal, a solid hitter with a solid approach at the plate and one of the true up and coming stars in baseball, if he has not already achieved that stature.  Still not a household name, he will be if he gets close to Dimaggio.

The A’s hold on to first place over the surging Angels, doing it with smoke and mirrors.  As one of the worst hitting teams in all of baseball, they have relied on a pitching staff devoid of stars (save for Zito and Street) that has done the job over the long haul.  But as Billy Beane has often said, the A’s are built to win over a long season, but have had problems in the short series playoff format.  Undoubtedly, if they reach that level again, they will experience a similar fate.  Their shortstop and projected number 3 hitter, Bobby Crosby, is in the midst of yet another disappointing season. 

Injury prone and not a fundamentally sound hitter (swinging hard ALL the time is not the way to succeed at the major league level), he is batting .229 and relegated to the 8^th spot in the lineup, when he plays.  Eric Chavez, their ‘franchise player’ has been injured too this year with tendonitis in his forearm, which has affected his hitting too.  Still a gold glove third baseman (only two errors all season), he has not produced at the plate as he has in the past and his status as the player they chose to keep over Miguel Tejada is being questioned more than ever before, at least by me.  

Tejada plays EVERY day and produces (.330, 19 homeruns).   Milton Bradley has assumed the third spot in the A’ s batting order since coming off an extended stay on the DL, raising his batting average from a paltry .214 to .291 and carrying his team through an extended team hitting slump. 

And the hustle of Marco Scutaro accounted for a run scored from 2b on a passed ball/strikeout – as the catcher threw down to 1b

in a leisurely manner to assure the out, Scutaro hustled from 2b to score, catching the Angels napping in what was an important game to determine the winner of the three game series recently completed in Anaheim.  Needless to say, Bobby Crosby would not have scored this run and if he had been in the line up and tried, probably would have injured himself, again.

The Yankees are back in first place, tied with the Red Sox as the White Sox have inexplicably returned to the pack.  The Wild Card entry is now completely up for grabs as the two east leaders, the White Sox and the Twins all vie for this one spot.  

The thought that the Tigers would come to earth has not happened; they continue to play well and are approaching a win/loss record of 40 games over .500.  Clearly Jim Leyland will be Manager of the Year in the AL. 

And the MVP award in the AL?  I would have to give it to Derek Jeter at this point, though traditionally these awards are won or lost in the last two months of the season.  But he did raise his average above .350 and hit a home run last night to give his team an early lead from which they did not look back.  Disappointing free agent acquisition from the past off season?  AJ Burnett (2-4, 4.84) is a bust and will never perform.  Why bother?  He has a guaranteed 55 million dollar contract.