The Burning Question: Can the Brewers Catch the Reds?

Have the Reds been sufficiently demoralized yet? They've lost half their roster to purges and the most recent trade of Scott Sullivan seems to have hit a nerve among the remaining Reds. Perhaps it would serve management right if they fall behind the abyssmal Brewers by season's end.


Cincinnati 57-70 .449 --
Milwaukee 52-75 .409 5

The Brewers are riding a 4 game winning streak and are 8-11 in August.

The Reds, after somehow holding off the Astros last night, are also 8-11 in August. The Brewers have a much tougher closing schedule. 26 of their final 35 games will be against teams still in the hunt for the playoffs including 3 @ Chicago, 3 @ San Francisco, 4 @ St. Louis and closing the season out with 4 @ Houston. The Reds have 17 of their remaining 35 games against winning teams, only 9 of which are on the road. All signs point to the Reds finishing better but you have to figure with the team being nibbled away week by week, interest in the end result will be pretty low.

Reds reliever reliever Chris Reitsma on trading Scott Sullivan:

"It's a joke," he said. "Sully is the kind of guy you keep around. It makes me sick, it really does. That guy has bent over for this organization year after year. He gets the chance to win now, but for me, he has been a teacher. He's a model citizen, and he knows how to treat people. For a lot of the guys in this room, it's a bad day, a really bad day. He is truly a class act."

More here from the Cincinnati Post on player disappointment.

White Sox Still in First

Last night's victory was the Sox's fifth in a row, and it improved their record to 68-61, a season-best seven games above .500. They are one game ahead of Kansas City and 1½ ahead of Minnesota, which lost to the Royals 3-2. Neal Cotts, a 23-year-old rookie left-hander, earned his first major-league victory. Veteran reliever Scott Sullivan, obtained by trade from the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday, relieved Cotts in the sixth, stranded three runners, struck out three and pitched two scoreless, hitless innings. Looks like a solid move for their bullpen.

The Dog Days of August

Sidney Ponson allowed two runs and six hits in six innings to FINALLY win for the first time in four NL starts as the San Francisco Giants beat the Florida Marlins 6-4 Friday night. Ponson (1-3), acquired from the Baltimore Orioles on July 31, won for the first time since July 24, when he beat the New York Yankees. He walked three and struck out five as he snapped his four-game losing streak. He's a combined 15-9 on the season.

watchyoutalkingbout willis? Dontrelle Willis (11-4), Super D Train, who grew up across the bay in Alameda and had about 300 supporters among the sellout crowd of 42,244, lasted three batters into the sixth inning. He lost his second straight after allowing four runs on six hits. He matched his career high with four walks and matched his career low with one strikeout.

"I faced a good team," said Willis, who rooted for the Giants growing up. "I just gave up too many hits. It's a wakeup call for me to get my stuff back."

Willis was four years old when Bonds made his major league debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986. Dontrelle is 2-3 with a 6.25 ERA post All-Star game.

A's Downward Rotation

Mark Mulder would likely miss the rest of the regular season because of a stress fracture injury. During Friday's game at SkyDome. A's general manager Billy Beane said the loss of one of his left-handed aces would create "a lot more focus on each individual game from here on out." That means a few guys better start getting hot at the plate and fast. How about the Boy Genius' superhero, Erubiel Durazo? He's hitting .213 over the last month. How about Eric Byrnes whi is hitting .139 over that same span? The only guys who have picked it up at the plate are Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez. Since the break, Tejada is hitting .304 and Chavez is hitting .321 with 6 homers and 21 RBIs over 35 games.

They aren't used to missing any of their aces. Since Barry Zito arrived to make it a threesome on July 22, 2000, the three young starters have put up numbers that are impressive on all fronts, but especially in their amazing durability. Hudson and Zito haven't missed a start since then, and Mulder's relatively minor bouts with injury haven't been devastating until now.

During that time, the three pitchers have combined to make 320 starts, going 171-80 with a 3.19 ERA, logging 2,152 1/3 innings -- or an average of more than 225 innings per man, per season.

There is still time for the A's to acquire a veteran starter in a trade - according to ESPN's Jayson Stark, Montreal's Livan Hernandez, Los Angeles' Andy Ashby, Texas' John Thomson and Baltimore's Pat Hentgen are among the pitchers who have cleared waivers - but that seems unlikely because of salary concerns and Beane's reluctance to part with the system's top prospects. Livan Hernandez is 4-1 with a 1.45 ERA since the All-Star break. Hentgen is 4-1 3.00, Thomson 5-1 4.68 Ashby, 1-3 4.50. By comparison, Barry Zito is 2-5 3.62. Former Oakland starter Cory Lidle, playfully expressed interest in the job Friday, and that might not be too far-fetched: Lidle (11-10, 5.95 ERA), who is slated to pitch against the A's on Monday, has cleared waivers, according to a source, and he wouldn't command much in a trade.

They could always dip into AAA again- Justin Duchscherer is 12-2 with a 3.22 ERA with Sacramento River Cats. They probably won't dig as deep as Double-A though, where Joe Blanton has compiled a remarkable 173 strikeouts and just 26 walks in 166 2/3 innings this season, 2-1 1.34 in five starts AA.

How about this for an even schedule down the stretch?

Mariners Oakland

3 games @ Boston 3 games @ Toronto
3 games vs. Tampa Bay 3 games vs. Baltimore
3 games vs. Baltimore 3 games vs. Tampa Bay
3 games @ Tampa Bay 3 games @ Baltimore
3 games @ Baltimore 3 games @ Tampa Bay
3 games vs. Texas 4 games vs. Anaheim
3 games vs. Anaheim 3 games @ Texas
4 games @ Texas 3 games vs. Anaheim
3 Oakland-Seattle games @ Oakland
3 games @ Anaheim 3 games vs. Texas
3 Oakland-Seattle games @ Seattle


2nd Half Cy Young? Since the All Star break, Mike Hampton is 6-0 2.61.

Eric Gagne tied a major league record with his 43rd consecutive save this season. Gagne got three outs for his 51st consecutive save, three shy of the major league record set by Tom Gordon, who saved 43 straight in 1998.

Last Gasps From St. Louis?

Is this big news or just a sad reaffirmation that the Cardinals, grasping at straws, will not make it to the postseason? The Cardinals sport the worst bullpen ERA in the National League at 5.08. Their 24 blown saves are the most in the league and the team sports a dismal 10-21 record in one-run games. So what do you do? Add Mike DeJean, 32, was 4-7 with a 4.87 earned-run average and a team-leading 18 saves for the Brewers. He has 58 strikeouts in 64 1/3 innings. He is 2-0 with a 3.63 ERA in 14 appearances since the All-Star break. primary right-handed setup man for closer Jason Isringhausen.

"We see him helping to set up for (Jason) Isringhausen," Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty said. "And when Izzy isn't available, we can use him to close." DeJean features a low-90s sinker, hard slider and splitter and has been especially tough on righthanded batters, who are hitting .218 against him this season, but let's face it, he isn't a season saver.

Neither is the other retread they traded for, Sterling Hitchcock. The 32-year-old southpaw was lost in the shuffle in New York, where he appeared in 27 games and was 1-3 with a 5.44 ERA. Still, Hitchcock retired 21 of 26 first batters he faced out of the bullpen, and stranded 12 of 16 inherited runners. His last outing against KC was a disaster. He pitched a third of an inning and gave up three hits and three earned runs. 7.71 ERA for the month of August. The price for Hitchcock was significant. Pope was the Cardinals' No. 1 draft pick in 2001 and Julianel was the 12th pick the same year. Both were at Class A Peoria. Pope was 4-1 with a 4.92 ERA, while Julianel was 4-2 with a 1.05 ERA and nine saves. Hitchcock will eventually join the starting rotation, though at first he may pitch out of the bullpen.

St. Louis fell into third place in the National League Central, but remained one game behind first-place Houston. The Cards missed a chance to move into a tie with the Astros after Houston lost at home to Cincinnati. The Cubs beat Arizona to move into second place, one-half game behind the Astros.

Kardinal Killer: Jim Thome, who homered in each of the Phillies` three wins over the Cardinals last weekend, has driven in nine runs against St. Louis in the span of a week. Thome is a career .449 hitter (22-for-49) against St. Louis, with 13 homers and 27 RBIs.

The Tigers, who had two nine-game losing streaks earlier, lost their season-high 10th straight.