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!

Post from: Knuckle Curve

To the current records…

Red Sox: 36-15
Tigers (WC): 30-21
Yankees: 21-29

Boston leads the American League East, while Detroit is the front-runner in the wild card race. (I know, it’s crazy to talk about the wild card in May, but bear with me.)

If the Red Sox play .500 ball (eh, .495 ball) the rest of the way, they’ll win 91 games. The Yankees would need to win 71 of their final 112 games (.634 winning percentage) to overtake Boston. I’m not sure which scenario is less likely, but I certainly don’t see both of them happening. The Yankees won’t win the division.

How about the wild card? This is at least possible. Again, assuming Detroit goes 55-56 from here on out, the Tigers will finish with 85 wins. The Yankees would need to play “just” .580 ball (65 wins) to make that happen. And they’d need cooperation from the teams ahead of them in the wild-card race, which is everyone except Tampa Bay, Kansas City, and Texas.

Even with the addition of Clemens, the Yankees pitching staff is a train wreck. I don’t care how good a team’s offense is, a rotation of Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang, and Triple-A pitcher du jour just isn’t enough to dig them out of this deep a hole.

If I’m wrong, and the Yankees do make the playoffs, Joe Torre gets my vote for Manager of the Year. Because right now, there is nothing about this team that suggests more than 85 wins is possible.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

American League

• Red Sox at Rangers, 11:05 a.m. PT – Tim Wakefield gets the start for Boston. It’s always fun to watch his knuckleball flutter. Plus, someone’s got to justify Doug Mirabelli’s presence in the big leagues. Also, Sammy Sosa is back; I haven’t seen him yet — does he still have anything left?
• Orioles at Yankees, 4:05 p.m. PT – Yuck, did I just recommend sitting through a Red Sox and a Yankees game? Anyway, Adam Loewen is an exciting young pitcher who bears watching this season. Read more about Loewen at the Baltimore Sun (with a tip o’ the cap to Anthony at Oriole Post). Mike Mussina? Dude throws a knuckle curve, ’nuff said.
• Tigers at Royals, 5:10 p.m. PT – Justin Verlander gets the call for Detroit. Anytime that kid pitches, there’s a chance something special will happen. His fastball averaged a tick over 95 mph last year as a rookie (thanks to Lee at Tiger Tales for that nugget).

National League

• Mets at Braves, 4:35 p.m. PT – The matchup (Oliver Perez vs Mark Redman) isn’t particularly exciting, but these NL East rivals both have won their first three games of the season. Quoth Jeff Lynne:
  

  Save me, oh save me
  It’s unreal, the suffering
  There’s gonna be a Showdown

  I don’t think he was talking about this game, but you get the idea.

• Cubs at Brewers, 5:05 p.m. PT – Speaking of division rivals, this one should be fun. Rich Hill and Dave Bush hook up in Milwaukee. Here are two starting pitchers that don’t necessarily get as much attention as they should. Hill has been a prospect forever, but finally appears to be on the verge of figuring out how to translate minor-league success into big-league staying power. Bush, meanwhile, posted numbers in his first full season that on first glance aren’t special: 12-11 record, 4.41 ERA. But the guy allowed fewer hits than innings pitched, and flashed a strikeout-to-walk ratio of better than 4-to-1. Bush is just 27 years old and, like Hill, a great candidate to break out in 2007. If you can watch only one game today, make it this one.

Me? I’ll be out at the Padres home opener here in San Diego. I plan to take many photos. You have been warned…

Post from: Knuckle Curve