FanHouse

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

I don't know about most of you, but I know that I've grown tired of interleague play in baseball. When MLB implemented it, I loved it and I supported the move as a way to try and bring fans back to the game after the player's strike in 1994.

It's kind of like when you're in a new relationship with a girl and everytime you're hanging up the phone after talking to her you get into that "No I love you more!" debate. It's kind of cute and charming at first, but frankly, after a few months of it you're screaming at her "OKAY I GET IT! YOU LOVE ME MORE! SHUT THE [expletive] UP ABOUT IT ALREADY!"

I've reached that point with interleague play, and I'm ready to get back to some real baseball. Divisional baseball. The games that will actually play a part in deciding who is going to play in October, and who isn't. Three such matchups after the jump.


Tampa Bay Rays (49-32) vs. Boston Red Sox (50-34) - 7:10PM Est.

The Red Sox may have one more win than the Rays this season, yet through the quirky use of mathematics, it turns out that they're behind the Rays in the AL East standings. Now, I didn't invent math (I believe Al Gore did) and my understanding of its concepts doesn't go much further than 2+2=4, but that won't keep me from saying that the AL East standings don't make any sense.

Of course, the last time these two teams met the Red Sox were busy sweeping the Rays out of Fenway Park. Oh, and there was that little incident in which James Shields and Coco Crisp did the dance of sexual frustration anger with each other on the mound. According to Jonathan Papelbon, the bad blood still exists between these teams, so odds are there may be more hijinks over the next couple of days.

Speaking of Shields, he's starting for the Rays tonight as well. I would completely understand if he just started drilling guys from the get go because in his career against Boston he's had the supreme pleasure of going 1-4 with a 5.66 ERA.

The Red Sox will turn to Justin Masterson, who already has Carl Crawford and Johnny Gomes in his sights, and the rook took the Rays down eariler this season going six innings and allowing four runs in a 7-4 Boston victory on June 3rd.

Los Angeles Angels (49-33) vs. Oakland Athletics (44-37) - 10:10PM Est.

As of now the Angels and Athletics are seperated by a mere 4.5 games in the AL West, but that could change after the teams start a three game set tonight in Anaheim. Of course, if you're a fan that loves offense, I'm not sure this is the game you want to be watching tonight.

Neither of these teams can hit right now. The Angels actually lost a game in which the didn't give up a hit to the Dodgers this weekend, and the Athletics are hitting only .197 in their last five games. In other words, first team to score tonight will when, it's just unfortunate that run probably won't come until the 18th inning.

Jon Garland will try and take advantage of the A's offense tonight, and the tall righty has been performing pretty well for the Angels the last few months. In May and June, Garland has gone 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA in 10 starts, and hasn't lost to an American League team since April 28th.

The team that beat him that day? The Oakland Athletics, who will turn to Greg Smith to keep the Angels offense down this evening. Of course, that's not a good sign for the A's offense, because in Smith's last 11 starts Oakland has managed to give him 14 runs of support.

Minnesota Twins (45-37) vs. Detroit Tigers (41-40) - 8:10PM Est.

While I'm happy to see interleague play disappear until next spring, I'm pretty sure the Tigers and Twins feel the complete opposite. They loved every second of it. Together the division foes combined to go 27-9 against the senior circuit and get themselves back into the AL Central race.

The Twins are now only 1.5 games back of the White Sox, and the Tigers are over .500. The question is: is their recent play an indicator of how good these teams actually are, or is it more of a look into how bad the National League really is? I'm swaying more towards the National League sucking, though more so with the Twins. There's just too much talent on that Tigers roster to rule them out of anything.

Glen Perkins will get the ball for the Twinkies, and he's won his last two starts while not allowing more than three runs in any of his last four starts.

The Tigers will turn to Armando Galarraga, who has been somewhat of a godsend this season. At the beginning of 2008, how many people even knew who this kid was? Galarraga hasn't lost a game in over a month (May 23rd) and is 4-0 with a 2.86 ERA during that span. There is one problem for Armando, though, as even though he's 7-2 on the year, guess who those two losses came against. Yep, the Minnesota Twins.

Everybody Else

• Orioles vs. Royals - 7:05PM
• Yankees vs. Rangers - 7:05PM
• Cardinals vs. Mets - ESPN - 7:05PM
• Reds vs. Pirates - 7:10PM
• Marlins vs. Nationals - 7:10PM
• Astros vs. Dodgers - 8:05PM
• White Sox vs. Indians - 8:11PM
• Rockies vs. Padres - 9:05PM
• Diamondbacks vs. Brewers - 9:40PM
• Mariners vs. Blue Jays - 10:10PM
• Giants vs. Cubs - 10:15PM