Royals Hand Yankees Another Royal Beating, 11-0

Is it official now? Either the Royals are for real or the Yankees are really stumbling in a pathetic, aimless sort of way that a team with a $190 million budget has no business doing. Last night, newly acquired Kevin Appier tossed a three-hitter as the Royals won a home series against New York for the first time since 1993, and gave his new team a 1 1/2-game lead over the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central. The Yankees have no lost four of their last five games against playoff contenders. Hardly the sort of performance that would expect them to advance in October or, if they do happen to squeak into the playoffs, not the kind of play that will get them past the first round.

Brent Mayne, who started the game in an 0-for-18 funk, went 4-for-4, walked and drove in two runs. Mike Sweeney drove in four runs, two in the first and two in the seventh off Bret Prinz, who gave up a two-run homer to Mendy Lopez in the eighth.

They say Jeff Weaver's problem is pitching in New York but Kansas City last night, he gave up three runs in the first when he was un-nerved by a check-swing call that didn't go his way. From there it went downhill. Weaver's record dropped to 6-9, while his earned run average inflated to 5.78. He is 3-7 in his past 14 starts, giving up at least 10 hits in six of those starts.

Torre called Weaver's outing "a disappointment," but you've got to wonder why he singled out the pitcher when it wasn't Weaver who managed only 4 hits or Weaver who made two errors. Still, surrendering 9 earned runs in a little over six innings of work is not Cy Young material nor the kind of pitching you want in the middle of a pennant race.

"It's great to be struggling at this point in the season and still be in first place," Derek Jeter said. "A lot of teams would like to be in the position we are in right now."

It helps that the Red Sox, who, prior to last night, had lost 9 of their last 14 games. Last night, they finally defeated the A's to tie up the wild card race again. They did it against Mark Mulder, a guy who had been 10-1 at home and had thrown consecutive complete games in his last two starts.

Meanwhile, the "other" Sox, after seven innings of brilliant defense, one little bobble and a couple of timely the were unable to hold on against the Anaheim Angels who scored a run in the eighth inning to knock off the White Sox 2-1 and increase the White Sox deficit in the American League Central grow to 1-1/2 games. The misery may be over soon though. The White Sox are now 5-29 over the last two seasons in Anaheim, Seattle and Oakland, with today's game in Anaheim their last of the season in the three cities.

Part of the explanation for Billy Koch's struggles this season has been his loss in velocity. Yesterday Koch was put on the disabled list with the kiss of death, elbow soreness. Koch is 5-5 this season with a 5.55 ERA and is nowhere near the 99 mph on which he previously has relied. His fastball has been in the 92 mph range this season.

Magic Marlins Win Another By Walk-Off Homer

For those who missed the heroics and excitement of two nights ago when the Marlins took a 13 inning marathon against the Dodgers with a walk-off home run by third string catcher Ramon Castro, they did it again last night.

With two outs in the bottom of the 11th on Wednesday, Mike Mordecai authored his team's second walk-off homer in as many nights over the Dodgers. A sparingly used utility infielder, Mordecai sent left-hander Victor Alvarez's 2-2 breaking ball high over the American League scoreboard in left to clinch the 2-1 win over the Dodgers at Pro Player Stadium. Alvarez pitched in Tuesday's marathon, and Mordecai observed he likes to throw off-speed pitches. So after Alvarez, who was ahead 0-2, threw back-to-back fastballs for balls, Mordecai guessed on a changeup. He got it and drove a shot that cleared the high wall in left.

Once it left the park, the Marlins spilled out of the dugout and created what center fielder Juan Pierre called a "College World Series-type atmosphere." Before Pierre knew it, sidelined reliever Kevin Olsen was banging a celebratory beat on his head.

A crowd of 12,323 was treated to the Marlins 15th last at-bat win. They had not won back-to-back extra-inning games since Aug. 10-11, 1999 against the Giants. Having their team in the middle of the playoff race and leading the pack for the National League wild card apparently isn't inspiring enough to bring more Marlins fans to the stadium. Whew, baseball fever, catch it! They managed to draw a whole 20,298 to watch the D train pitch but in the last two nights, the Marlins have averaged 12,174 fans per game.

Inexplicably, with the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 9th, the "bonus" coverage offered by ESPN 2, was cut off so that they could bring us some little &%$*#@**$ girl softball game!?! Shades of The Heidi Game?

While the victory allowed the Marlins to stay ahead of the Phillies and the looming Arizona Diamondbacks, you can imagine what it might do to demoralize the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have now fallen back 4 1/2 games behind the Marlins in the Wild Card playoff chase.

Piazza Comeback

Fittingly, it was Italian Night at Shea last night for the return of Mike Piazza, who had a homer and five RBIs to lead New York, which won for the sixth time in its last nine games. The game marked Piazza's first action since severely tearing his groin muscle May 16 in San Francisco.

Perhaps the brightest aspect of Piazza's return and the subsequent homerun was that it was Piazza's eighth homer of the season and his 344th as a catcher, leaving him only seven behind Carlton Fisk for the top spot on the all-time list. If he catches Carlton Fisk before the season is over, it means his selfishly personal crusade to get the all-time homer mark for catchers at the expense of his team, may be over and he can spend the offseason learning how to play first base where he can do less damage defensively and his presence on the team can be positive once again. Good luck Mike. Here's to getting that all-time homer record for catchers as fast as possible so you can concentrate on the good of the team.

Cubs top Astros Again

Moises Alou, a former Astro, belted a three-run homer to power the Chicago Cubs to a 6-4 victory over Houston and closed to within 1 1/2 games of the Astros in the Central Division. The Astros have been in sole possession of first place since July 9 but their lead over the St. Louis Cardinals has now shrunk to a lone game. Sammy was 0-for-4 and struck out three times

Joe Borowski picked up his 22nd save in the ninth when Jeff Kent flied out with the tying runs on base. But this was a save for the entire bullpen, with Mark Guthrie, Antonio Alfonseca, Kyle Farnsworth and Mike Remlinger holding the Astros to no runs and one hit in 3-2/3 innings.

''That's how you win pennants,'' said Cubs catcher Damian Miller, who played for the 2001 World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks.

Houston lefty Jeriome Robertson (11-6), bidding to become the first rookie this season with 12 wins, entered the fifth with a 4-3 lead before giving up singles to Kenny Lofton and Alex Gonzalez.

Jay Mariotti of the Sun-Times believes the Cubs success has alot to do with Manager Dusty Baker:

Given their various injuries, scandals and crises, the Cubs should be 10 games under .500 right now and doing little more than distributing free bobbleheads at the gate. But Dusty Wristbands has refused to let the usual dark clouds settle in. They weren't lying about his positive-reinforcement mojo, which has spread optimism and faith throughout Cubdom when other managers would have worn failure and frustration on their faces. We'd be foolish not to mention the good luck of being in the league's weakest division, widely known as the Comedy Central. That duly noted, the Cubs are overachieving by any standard.