Starting Five: Bunching Up in the NL

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

The NL Wild-Card Race
Team	W	L	GB
Brewers	37	32	-
Giants	37	32	-
Rockies	37	33	1/2
Cubs	34	32	1 1/2
Mets	35	33	1 1/2

You Oughta Know ...
There are now five teams within 1 1/2 games of the NL wild-card lead.

San Francisco on Monday lost to Oakland for the first time in the past six Bay Bridge Series meetings to fall into a tie with idle Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, the Mets beat the Cardinals and the Rockies took advantage of six (!) wild pitches to beat the Angels, so both picked up a full game.

So Colorado is a 1/2 game back, and the Mets and Cubs are 1 1/2 out.

It bodes for a fun race. A year ago today, only three teams were within five games of the NL wild-card lead and Tampa Bay had a three-game lead on the AL side.

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From the Trainer's Room ...
Ervin Santana, who was supposed to start Tuesday for the Angels, instead went back to the disabled list because of pain in his right triceps. Sean O'Sullivan will get the start against the Rockies.

"I just want to get healthy," Santana said. "I just want to pitch when I don't feel any kind of pain."

Numbers Game ...
The Cubs became the first team this year to get 10 or more hits but no runs. They left 12 men on base in their loss in a makeup game in Atlanta, going 0-for-6 with men in scoring position. Chicago's .226 mark with runners in scoring position is 29th in the majors, ahead of only Arizona.

In Their Own Words ...
"It's a cross between bad pitching and bad luck. Not a good combo. And this is three months of it." – Cardinals right-hander Todd Wellemeyer, who fell to 6-7 with a 5.53 ERA after allowing double-digit hits for the fourth time this year, most in the NL, this time against the Mets

Advance Scouting ...
A World Series rematch tonight as Philadelphia opens a series at Tampa Bay (7:08 PM ET), with Jamie Moyer facing David Price. They're both lefties, but they have a gap of 23 years in age and 13 mph in fastballs. (When Moyer made his big-league debut on June 16, 1986, Price was 294 days old.) The teams themselves are headed in opposite directions; the Rays have won 14 of 21 while the Phillies are glad to get away from Citizen Bank Park, where they dropped their past six games to fall to 13-22 at home in 2009.