It's a big night for New Yorkers as the Yankees and Mets both battle the second place teams in their divisions. The stadium in the Bronx hosts the Red Sox as Randy Johnson faces Josh Beckett. Neither is pitching well lately. Beckett's walked 10 and allowed 18 runs in his last sixteen innings, covering three starts. Johnson's pitched badly in three of his last four starts, only striking out 5.1 per nine while posting a 7.43 ERA. Thanks to the Yankees offense, he's 3-1, however. What both pitchers have in common over their slumps is they faced the Blue Jays twice and were hammered both times. That has to be a huge positive for Toronto fans.

The two hitters who caused the big MVP argument last year are also in slumps. David Ortiz is a mere five games. He's 1 for 20 with two walks over those games, but still managed to drive in four runs. A-Rod hit just one home run in his last 15 games, posting a .232 BA. But he's showing signs of coming out of that as well as he's 5 for 13 with six RBI in his last three games.

Also, note that the Yankees efforts to improve their defense worked better than the Red Sox efforts so far. They Yankees come into the game with a .710 DER versus .705 for the Red Sox.

The Mets visit Philadelphia as the best team in the NL faces the hottest team in the NL. Undefeated Pedro Martinez takes the hill for the Mets. Pedro's allowed just nine hits in sixty nine at bats on the road this season. Pedro's danger zone is the sixth inning, where the batting average against him jumps to .273 and slugging jumps to .545. Brett Myers opposes the Mets for the home team. Myers this year allowed a high number of walks and home runs at home. However, overall he's kept batters off base, so his 3.50 home ERA is quite good for the that ballpark.

Of course, on the West Coast, Barry Bonds sits on the edge of tying Ruth for second place on the all time home run list and first among left-handed batters. Rich Hill gets the call for the Cubs, and they've never faced each other. The fact that Hill has allowed five home runs in 27 2/3 major league innings bodes well for Barry.

Enjoy!