WABC in New York showed a movie every weekday afternoon at 4:30 when I was young. Every so often Monster Week would pop up with a bunch of 'Godzilla vs." flicks. So it's with a bit of nostalgia that Godzilla vs. Matsuzaka comes to New York this evening, weather permitting. There's only a small history between the two:

The two Japanese mega-stars have a little history. In the 2002 Japan Series, Matsui went 0-for-3 against Matsuzaka. In the 2001 All-Star Game at Yokohama Stadium, Matsui hit a two-run home run off Dice-K.

Meanwhile, the comeback last night against Baltimore gave Boston the biggest division lead of any first place team, and set the losing Yankees further into last place. Another sweep by the Red Sox and New York finds itself 8 1/2 games out of first place.

Last year's playoff entries from the AL Central face off in Detroit as Ramon Ortiz takes on Nate Robertson. Two things are helping Ortiz pitch well for the Twins. He's lowered his walk rate to less than one per 9 innings, and the Twins defense is posting a .765 DER behind him. With lots of balls in play, turning 76.5% into outs is extraordinary. Robertson reduced his home run rate by about a factor of three. That puts his ERA at 2.05, fifth in the AL.

Roy Oswalt looks to stop Houston's six-game losing streak as he faces Chris Capuano and the first place Brewers. One problem Roy faces this season is left-handed batters getting on base. They're doing so at a .354 clip. Coming into this season, Oswalt held lefties to a .307 OBA. Capuano's striking out about 1.5 batters more per nine than in his previous two seasons. Combine that with a higher percentage of ground balls and Chris' ERA took a tumble.

Enjoy!