Yesterday, the Philies defeated NL East-leading Atlanta to trim their lead down to 4 games. Ex-Yankee John Lieber pitched 8 scoreless innings for Philadelphia, who are just two games back from Houston in the Wild Card hunt. The red-hot Astros won for the third straight game to keep their lead. The Marlins, also in the hunt, got another great outing from Dontrelle Willis (22-9) as they kept their chances alive with a 2-1 win over the Mets. In the NL West, San Francisco wasted a chance to gain some ground on San Diego with their 2-0 loss to Washington. San Diego lost 4-2 to Colorado.


In the American League, the Angels ran their winning streak to 6 as they increased their AL West lead over idle Oakland to three games. In the AL Central, the historic collapse continues for the Chicago White Sox as they lost again, this time to Minnesotta in extra innings. Cleveland is still one of the hottest teams in the league, again defeating the woeful Royals. Once of 15 games, the White Sox's lead is down to just 1.5 games.

Yesterday the Yankees got a big boost from a player returning from an injury. Mike Mussina, out for three weeks, came back and had a strong and encouraging outing, pitching six innings of four hit, one unearned run baseball. Jorge Posada had two big homeruns for the Yanks, who had to hold on for the win after their middle relief turned a 7-1 laugher into a close 7-6 game in the ninth. With the win, the Yanks have a 1 game lead over the Red Sox in the AL East.