AL East (The Pee-Wee Wanninger Division):

As you probably heard somewhere, the Yankees moved to within five games of the Red Sox after a 3-game sweep. But elsewhere in the division, the Orioles lost their ninth straight game as the Devil Rays completed a 3-game sweep.

The Rays have now gone back over the .400 mark. Tampa Bay has topped .400 in a season just four times in its history.

AL Central (The Vito Valentinetti Division):

Cleveland and Detroit both won. The Indians won a game-ending bases loaded walk by Kenny Lofton against Rick White of Seattle. It was just the 8th walkoff RBI for Lofton in his career and the first time he did it with a walk.

The White Sox have now lost 16 of 19 games. Third baseman Andy Gonzalez made three throwing errors in the third inning. For more on this see the AL West below.

AL West (The John Montague Division):

The Rangers benefited from Andy Gonzalez's bad third inning. But it was a team effort.

• - J. Saltalamacchia safe at first on third baseman A. Gonzalez's throwing error
• - R. Vazquez safe at first on pitcher J. Danks' fielding error, J. Saltalamacchia to second
• - I. Kinsler flied out to deep left
• - G. Laird reached on bunt single to third, R. Vazquez to third, J. Saltalamacchia to third, R. Vazquez and J. Saltalamacchia scored on third baseman A. Gonzalez's throwing error
• - G. Laird stole second
• - M. Young struck out swinging
• - S. Sosa safe at first on third baseman A. Gonzalez's throwing error, G. Laird scored
• - M. Byrd struck out swinging

The Angels are now just 1/2 game behind the Red Sox for the best record in the AL. The Red Sox did win the season series 6-4.

AL Wild Card (The Dave Collins Division)

The Yankees finally surged past the sagging Mariners to take over the lead in the wild card and rearrange the playoff pairings. The Mariners head to Toronto. The Yankees host Tampa Bay. The Tigers (included as a courtesy since they won the pennant last year) go to Oakland for an exciting rematch of the 2006 ALCS.

NL East (The Rico Brogna Division)

The Phillies swept four games from the Mets at Citizens Bank Park to move within two games. The rest of the division was off.

When Mets closer Billy Wagner came into a 10-8 game in the 8th, Mets announcer Gary Cohen mused that Wagner may have just been coming into pitch the 8th against the Phillies best hitters as Chase Utley, Pat Burrell, and Ryan Howard were due up. Despite a Burrell homer, Wagner went out again in the 9th and the Phillies rallied to win 11-10.

Burrell hit two home runs in the game to run his career total against the Mets to 41. Burrell has hit 21 against the Marlins, 19 against the ExNats, and 14 against the Braves.

NL Central (The Ted Savage Division):

The Cubs beat the Brewers 5-4 and now Chicago is the only team in the division with a winning record. The Brewers loaded the bases in the ninth and got one run on a bases-loaded walk by Corey Hart, but Kevin Mench grounded into a force play on the first pitch from Ryan Dempster to end the game.

As the guy from Milwaukee told me, "We have a saying in Milwaukee, 'Kevin Mench does not take walks.'" Chris Capuano took the loss. The Brewers won the first seven games of the year that Capuano started. And now have lost 18 straight games in which Capuano has pitched, the last two as a reliever.

The teams in the division all switch partners for the weekend. Houston will be at Chicago, Pittsburgh at Milwaukee, and Cincinnati will be at St. Louis. The Reds are just seven games out of first.

NL West (The Steve Finley Division):

Tall Chris Young faced Short Chris Young tonight in San Diego. Tall had two strikeouts, but walked Short once. Then Tall Chris walked five others. And hit a batter. And gave up a home run to Mark Reynolds. The DBacks took an 8-0 lead and held on for an 8-7 win. San Diego missed a chance to match the team record of biggest deficit overcome. They have done it twice. Once in 1970 and again in 1974.

Over the weekend, Arizona visits Colorado and Los Angeles goes to San Diego.

For the morbidly curious, San Francisco will be at Washington this weekend. Time to see Barry Bonds make his last appearance at RFK!

NL Wild Card (The Terry Mulholland Andy Ashby Division):

Everybody is coming back to the pack. The #8 seed in the league, Colorado, is just six games behind Arizona, the team with the best record in the NL