Is It Hot in Here, or Is That Just the Pennant Races?

I hope you had an excellent baseball weekend. I’ve got no complaints. Well, that’s not entirely true, but you didn’t come here for those.

Some great games on Monday’s schedule, including four big playoff contender showdowns:

American League

• Yankees at Tigers, 4:05 p.m. PT — Mike Mussina and Justin Verlander hook up at Comerica Park. Mussina has given up seven runs in each of his last two starts and now sports a 5.22 ERA on the season. It might not be time to stick a fork in him just yet, but maybe someone should poke around a little. Yikes, and now I see that Verlander’s ERA over his past seven starts is 5.95. The Tigers have lost 20 of their last 30? Ugh, that’s not good.
• Angels at Mariners, 7:05 p.m. PT — John Lackey goes against Miguel Batista. Looks like a mismatch, until you realize that Seattle leads the wild card despite 61 starts from the likes of Batista, Jeff Weaver, and Horacio Ramirez. I have to admit, as much as I want the Padres to win it all this year, there’s a part of me that wouldn’t mind seeing a Seattle/Arizona World Series because, seriously, what’s up with that?

National League

• Mets at Phillies, 4:05 p.m. PT — Terrible pitching matchup in a bandbox park. Citizens Bank Park isn’t the most conducive to scoring runs, but no other park in baseball is as generous when it comes to giving up the long ball. San Diego’s Terrmel Sledge hit a pop up to left on Saturday night that just kept carrying and somehow left the yard. Brett Myers may have acted like an idiot, but he also made a good point, which is that his home park is a little ridiculous.
• Diamondbacks at Padres, 7:05 p.m. PT — Jake Peavy needs one strikeout to pass Andy Benes as San Diego’s all-time strikeouts leader. Only once in his career — June 22, 2003, against Seattle — has Peavy failed to punch out at least one batter. I’m liking his chances. And, of course, three games separate these two teams atop the NL West.

Happy watching!