The Atlanta Braves were left for dead at the All Star break. It looked like this team was getting ready to call it a season. While not out of the woods yet, the Braves have managed to win their way into a playoff chase. The Braves won’t be winning the NL East this season, which breaks a trend, but they do have a shot at the NL Wild Card. The Braves have been on a home winning streak and are now just four games back in the Wild Card chase. The Giants are also in the hunt—just three games out.

Two Wild Card hopefuls—Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers—go at it today. The Houston Astros have won six straight games and find themselves miraculously just three games out in the Wild Card race. The Milwaukee Brewers are a little bit further back at six games, but they are still in the hunt. There are only a few weeks left in the season, so both of these teams need to start making their push now. Houston is right where they want to be for a push. The Brewers can’t afford to lose at this point. While they are 6 games out, they are also trailing eight other teams. Basically, they’ve only got a prayer.

If you heard a large thud recently, that was probably a Red sox fan hitting the floor. In the span of a few weeks, the Red Sox have went from a team that figured to be on the road to a World Series to a team that’s looking forward to next season. Sure, the Red Sox are still in the hunt for the Wild Card, but they can just about forget any hopes of capturing the AL East crown. After the Red Sox lost Ortiz, they have gone further downhill.

Today, these two teams go at it to decide the series. Texas won game one 9-4 and Baltimore evened up the series by taking game two 7-4. Both teams are pretty much out of the playoff hunt. Texas technically has an outside shot, but they are not going to catch Oakland. The Rangers are -125 today and the Orioles are +110, but could this be a mistake?

The St. Louis Cardinals have been basically hanging on this season. I don’t think they are ready for the World Series. Today, they are finishing up a three game series with the Chicago Cubs. They have won the first two games—2-0 and 2-1. Barely escaping the Cubs, who are 54-75 does not do much for the confidence. The Cardinals are 68-60 and fighting with the Cincinnati Reds for the division.

When the Oakland A’s meet the Rangers at Texas later today, they will be looking to add some more distance between them and the rest of the AL West. Seattle is done, but the Rangers and Angels have a shot. For the Rangers, it has to be go time right now. There’s only 31 games left in the season. They are 66-65 and 10 games behind the A’s, who are 74-55, in the loss column.

There are 15 games on the schedule today. Some key games are Houston at Cincinnati, St. Louis at New York, Los Angeles at San Diego, Chicago at Detroit and Boston at Los Angeles. Here’s the lines for today.

Washington +155
Florida -165

Houston +117
Cincinnati -127

Yesterday the Florida Marlins beat the Washington Nationals 3-1. Today they go at it again. Florida is playing slightly above expectations this year. The difference has been their rookie pitching. The rookies account for a majority of the wins. Today, Johnson takes the mound for the Marlins. He’s 11-6 with a 2.84 ERA this season. His last outing was against the surging Los Angeles Dodgers—he got the win.

The Baltimore Orioles scored multiple runs in the 3rd, 4th and 6th innings. The Yankees were unable to respond. After the 2nd inning—they Yankees scored 2 runs by this point—the Yankees bats fell silent. They scored just 2 runs over 7 hits. The Orioles put 12 runs across the plate on 9 hits. They beat the Yankees 12-2.

It had to happen sooner or later. The 11 game winning streak of the Los Angeles Dodgers came to an end tonight. The way it ended probably left a bitter taste in the mouth of fans and players. The Colorado Rockies were doing absolutely nothing all night long—until the 9th inning. The game was tied going into the 9th. The Rockies put together some baserunners and scored two runs to win the game 3-1.

It was going well until the 6th inning. Randy Johnson was blowing away the White Sox hitters one after another. However, they woke up in the 6th and started catching up to Johnson’s pitches. Soon after giving up a couple of runs, Johnson was pulled. Ron Villone game into the game and got the Yankees to the 7th. Farnsworth came in and the wheels started to come apart.

The Boston Red Sox have found a way, yet again, to lose to the 40-73 Kansas City Royals. This time it was a blown save. The Red Sox were up 4-3 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. In the bottom of the 9th, German came in to pinch-hit for Berroa. He tripled to center field. DeJesus came in and sacrificed in the tying run. Next up was Grudzielanek who doubled to left field. The icing on the cake came next when Sweeney slapped a single to left field that scored Grudzielanek and ended the game.

Going into the 8th inning, the Tigers had the lead 3-2. However, the Minnesota Twins managed to push two runs across the plate and take a 4-3 lead, which was the final. The game had more implications for the Twins than the Tigers. The Tigers have a commanding lead in the AL Central and are 76-38 on the season. The Twins are fighting for the wildcard.

The Cleveland Indians scored three runs in the second inning and it was all they needed. Despite smacking out 9 hits, the Angels couldn’t put anything together. The Indians ended up scoring 4 runs over 10 hits for the 4-0 win.

The A’s finally had their 5 game winning streak snapped today. The Texas Rangers came out to play. The game was close, 2-0, until the top of the 5th when the Rangers scored 4 runs to make it 6-0. They weren’t done. In the top of the 6th, the Rangers added 7 more runs to make it 13-0 and the game was over. The final score was 14-0.

The Detroit Tigers show absolutely no signs of letting up any time soon. Today’s victim was the Minnesota Twins. Once again, Francisco Liriano was unable to do anything about it. He had an early shower. The game was not that bad until the 7th. That’s when Detroit turned it on and ended the game. The Tigers scored 4 runs in the bottom of 7th and then followed it up with another run in the bottom of the 8th for good measure. The Tigers beat the Twins 9-3.

The LA Angels put another notch in their belt today by beating the White Sox 6-3 in Chicago. The 7th inning was the defining moment. The Angels scored 3 in the top of the 7th to go up 6-2 and put the game away. The White Sox hitters were silent all game. Only Iguchi and Thome had hits.

Yesterday, the Mets lost a heartbreaker to the Florida Marlins. Today, the Mets were determined to get out of the gate fast—and that’s what they did. The Mets scored 4 runs in the top of the 1st inning and never had to look back. They added another in the 2nd and 3rd. The Marlins made it interesting by scoring 2 in the 6th and 2 in the 7th, but they fell just short. The Mets won 6-5.

The Oakland A’s got back to business today by beating the LA Angels 3-2. After 5 innings of the play, the game was tied 2-2. In the top of the 8th inning, the A’s managed to push a run across the plate and took a 3-2 lead. Any thoughts of a comeback were dashed when Street came into the game and mowed down the Angels for two straight innings.

The Kansas City Royals gave the Chicago White Sox all they could handle today. At the end of 9 innings of play, the score was tied 4-4. The White Sox could not afford to lose this game and fall yet another game behind Detroit. In the top of the 10th inning, the White Sox scored 3 runs to seal the deal. The Royals made it interesting by scoring one in the bottom of the 10th and threatening. The final was 7-5.

You can’t keep a good team down. Today, the Detroit Tigers put it on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Devil Rays jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st, but the Tigers quickly set the pace by scoring 5 runs in the top of the second. They added another in the 3rd, to take a 6-3 lead. The tigers added 2 in the 5tgh, 1 in the 6th and 1 in the 9th. They won 10-4.

Tonight’s game against the Florida Marlins was almost in hand for the New York Mets—almost. The game was a back and forth affair. The Mets scored 3 in the third to take a 4-1 lead, but the Marlins scored 3 in the bottom of the 4th to tie things up. In the top of the 7th, the Mets got the go ahead run (5-4).

The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1 today and gained a critical game on the Boston Red Sox. The critical inning of the game was the 4th. In that inning, the Yankees, then training 1-0, put up 4 runs and sealed the victory. It was smooth sailing for Yankees pitchers.

The Cleveland Indians got a little revenge today as they beat Boston 6-3. Once again, the Red Sox tried some 9th inning heroics, but despite 2 runs in the 9th, they fell short. There were 26 hits in this game and one error, which was committed by the Red Sox.

It was a battle between the top AL West rivals A’s and Angels tonight. In the end, it was pitching that won the game. The Angels jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 4th, but Dan Haren allowed no more and went the distance. The A’s came back with a run in the 6th to tie it. They added 2 in the 7th to seal the deal. Oakland won 3-1.

It was a Texas sized massacre in today’s game between the Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins. For Texas, it was a good day to take off and see the sights in Minnesota. This game really never got started for Texas. The Twins scored 5 runs in the first inning and never let up. They added 3 in the second, 3 in the fourth, 3 in the fifth, and 1 in the sixth. The Rangers avoided the shutout by adding a run in the seventh and one in the ninth. The Twins won 15-2.

The slumping Chicago White Sox mustered a win today—albeit against the horrible Kansas City Royals. All the damage, and scoring, was done in the first three innings. The White Sox scored 3 in the first, 2 in the second and 3 in the third. The Royals just didn’t have enough offensive power to hang around. The final score was 8-4 White Sox.

The Tigers simply ran out of gas today. Despite having an early 1-0 lead, they were unable to get anything going against the Devil Rays in Tampa. The Devil Rays took a 2-1 lead in the 4th and never looked back. In the 6th, they put the game out of reach by scoring 4 runs and taking a 7-1 lead. The Tigers scored 2 meaningless runs in the 9th. The final was 7-3.

The Cleveland Indians had the Boston Red Sox right where they wanted them—up by 3 going into the bottom of the ninth. Unfortunately, the Red Sox in Boston proved to be too much and the Indians blew the game. The Red Sox scored 3 runs in the bottom of the ninth to win 9-8 and keep their lead in the AL East. This big hit—a three-run homer—came courtesy of David Ortiz. It was another game winning hit for him.

Today’s game between these two was close until the latter part of the game. Actually, the Orioles were up 3-0 going into the top of the 6th inning. The Mariners managed to score 3 runs and tie it. In the top of the 7th, the Mariners scored two more. The Orioles got one back, so it was 5-4. The key inning proved to be the 8th. The Mariners scored 4 runs in the top of the 8th and put this game out of reach. Adding insurance in the 9th, gave the Mariners a 10-5 win.

The Florida Marlins absolutely crushed the Philadelphia Phillies today. There were only three innings were the Marlins failed to score. The Marlins scored 2 in the first, 2 in the second, 1 in the fourth, 4 in the fifth, 3 in the eighth and 3 in the ninth. The final score was 15-2.