Tight Squeeze

NL CENTRAL RACE

Houston 68-62 .523 --
St. Louis 68-62 .523 --
Chicago 67-62 .519 1/2

Cubs beat the Diamondbacks, also fighting for a playoff spot, 5-3. In two August starts against the Diamondbacks including last night's victory, Matt Clement is 2-0 while allowing three earned runs and eight hits in 15 innings, while striking out 16. This is nothing new. Clement threw a three-hit shutout on Aug. 24, 2002 at Arizona.

The Cubs reached their 67-win total of 2002 with 33 games left. Cubs starters have a 1.88 ERA in their 53 victories this season. That's how you offset an offense that entered Sunday's game with a .236 average in August, averaging 3.6 runs per game with a .302 on-base percentage and a .381 slugging percentage. Sausage-beater Simon is already an improvement. Last night he went 3-for-5 and is 9-for-23 (.391) with six RBIs since joining the Cubs.

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The Cardinals have a 2-27 record when scoring fewer than three runs. Yesterday, behind Brett Tomko, the Cards shut out the Phillies 3-0 to take this series two games to three at home. Tomko also was a main participant in a shutout in his last start at Busch, a 3-0 win over Florida on Aug. 7. Before those two games, Tomko had been 0-5 in 17 career starts at Busch.

"We kind of came out of Philadelphia last week with our tail between our legs," Cards 3B Scott Rolen said. "There were a lot of guys getting hit by pitches, just a lot of things going on. We get swept there, we drop the first game here and then we turn it around and win the series after all that. It shows a little something about this team." Rolen enjoyed a huge game against his former team, with two doubles, a single, two runs and several stellar defensive plays.

After a less than impressive debut with the Cards on Saturday, reliever Mike DeJean earned a save by pitching one shutout ninth innning with usual closer Jason Isringhausen having thrown 34 pitches on Saturday. DeJean was a closer in Milwaukee last year, accumulating 27 saves. He was especially good in September, when he was six for six in save opportunities with a 1.46 ERA.

Hitting machine Albert Pujols is hitless in three games since returning from his illness. Pujols will carry an 0-for-12 stretch into the three-game series with the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday. The longest previous hitless streak in his career was 0 for 14, which he did twice in 2001. He could go hitless for another 97 at-bats and his batting average would still be above .300.

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Houston's Jeriome Robertson, coming off two ineffective outings against the Chicago Cubs, held Cincinnati to two runs on four hits over seven innings to earn his 12th win of the year, tops among all National League rookies. Step down Dontrelle. Or step up and help the Marlins back on their feet. What was once a shoo-in for Rookie of the Year is now up for debate again.

The Astros, winners of just five of their last 13 games, evened their homestand record to 3-3 with six more to play after Monday's off day.

"We've been losing a lot of games lately, so we have to play hard," said Hidalgo, who fell a double shy of the cycle, came through with an RBI triple into the left-center gap, capping the scoring before a crowd of 35,730. "We just have to go on a tear as a team, because we have a good team that can do anything."

The Cardinals will play 26 of their final 32 games against teams within the NL Central division. The Cubs have 27 of their remaining 33 versus the NL Central. The Astros, on the other hand, will play more than half of their remaining games -- that's 18 of 32 -- against teams from the NL West. Since we don't really consider the Dodgers a contender over here, this looks like a fluff schedule that should help the Astros take the Central Title.

The Astros host the Dodgers and Padres to close out the current homestand and will travel to Los Angeles and San Diego to begin a three-city road trip. Houston will play 14 games against the NL Central -- four in Milwaukee (Sept. 8-11), three versus St. Louis (Sept. 12-14), three at St. Louis (Sept. 19-21) and four versus Milwaukee (Sept. 25-28).

What A Difference Less Than A Week Makes

Hey, think back to Thursday morning, 4 days ago. The Red Sox had just blown a big lead in yet another bullpen meltdown to the A's and had fallen two games back for the AL Wildcard race. Despite their victory, the A's were still no where within sniffing distance of the Mariners and now suddenly, after Boston's fourth straight win and Seattle's fifth consecutive loss, which is its longest losing streak since Sept. 9-14, 2002, the Sox are tied with the A's again for the Wildcard and the A's, perhaps incredibly, after suffering the shocking loss of Mark Mulder, are only a game behind the Mariners for the AL West lead!

On the 15th of August, the A's were five games behind the Mariners and looked to catch only the Red Sox for the Wildcard. Should the Mariners begin, with Pedro the Lion due to take the mound for the Sox today, to hit the panic button? A year ago yesterday, the Mariners gave up the first place lead they'd held for four and a half months and finished in third place. Suddenly, history is looking like an ugly woman getting ready to crash another party. The Mariners are under .500 in August (10-12). In the past 13 games entering last night, the Mariners had only one starting pitcher work more than six innings. Seattle has had a winning record in Boston only once in the last 17 seasons, 4-2 in 2001.

In perhaps what could be considered loud harbinger of opposite cars going in opposite directions, The A's pounded Toronto 17-2 yesterday to cut that once-overwhelming lead to one single little game.

Rich Lederer has a nice tribute to Bobby Bonds over at Rich;s Weekend Baseball Beat.