Esteban Loaiza continues his second half resurgence as the Athletics defeat the Indians 4-3. Once again, the veterans do most of the damage for Oakland as Milton Bradley and Frank Thomas drive in two runs each. Fausto Carmona pitched very well for Cleveland, allowing just one run in six innings. He's certainly been tried by fire in his rookie year, and it's nice to see he's starting to adjust.

Coupled with the Angels 3-0 win over Kansas City, the Athletics magic number goes down to five. With a win over Cleveland this afternoon, the A's will need to win just two of their seven games against the Angels to clinch the AL West.

In the NL West, Arizona took down division winning San Diego 8-2. You can tell something wasn't right with David Wells as he struck out five in 6 1/3 innings. :-) He also gave up eleven hits. Edgar Gonzalez did not walk a batter in his seven innings of work, and holds nearly a 6:1 strikeout to walk ratio.

The Padres did not lose first place, however, as the Pirates continued their winning streak against the contenders, downing the Dodgers 6-4. That's five in a row for Pittsburgh. That's three good performances in his last three starts for Shawn Chacon. Maybe the Pirates got something out of the Wilson deal after all. Freddy Sanchez collected four hits in five at bats to raise his league leading batting average to .346.

The two losses benefit the Phillies, who move into a tie with the Dodgers. Both are 1/2 game behind the Padres as the chances of a three-way tie got better.