Dinner and Dessert

There are two games of the day.

The early one has the Angels sending Ervin Santana (11-5) to the hill attempting to make it five straight wins over AL East stalwarts Boston and New York. They should. The Yankees counter with shaky Sidney Ponson (6-2). This is more of a test to see if LA can win a game they're supposed to win after doing the unthinkable in sweeping Boston at Fenway and out-hitting the Yankees in the Bronx.

The late one features The D'backs at the Dodgers. Arizona opened a two-game lead over Los Angeles with a win at Dodger Stadium, but now the reinforcements arrive. Manny Ramirez and Clayton Kershaw go up against Randy Johnson. That's 20-year-old power-lefty Kershaw (1-3) going up against 44-year-old power-lefty Johnson (8-7). What a matchup!

Honorable mention: The Phillies and Cole Hamels 9-6) visit the Cardinals and Kyle Lohse (12-3) in a battle of two teams who could end up fighting for the NL Wild Card.