Pitching In. Last night's 13-2 rout of the Mariners was truly a team effort. Everyone in the starting lineup either got a hit or scored a run (7 of the 9 hitters did both). In the 6th and 7th innings, Boston sent a total of 19 men to the plate, scoring 5 and 6 runs, respectively. Manny Ramirez's second home run of the game -- and 17th career grand slam -- capped the scoring. The lineup at the beginning and end of the game:

     Beginning          End

     Damon cf           Kapler cf

     Bellhorn 2b        Reese ss

     Ramirez lf         Hyzdu lf

     Ortiz dh           Ortiz dh

     Varitek c          Nixon rf

     Millar 1b          Mientkiewicz 1b

     Cabrera ss         Gutierrez 2b

     Mueller 3b         Youkilis 3b

     Roberts rf         Mirabelli c

Ramirez and Ortiz homered in the same game for the 12th time, setting a new club record (11 for Ted Williams/Jimmie Foxx in 1940 and Jim Rice/George Scott in 1977). ... Curt Schilling threw 7 innings, retiring his last 11 batters without allowing the ball to be hit out of the infield. He has not walked a batter in his last five starts. ... Scott Williamson pitched the 9th inning, walking one batter, striking out one and getting two groundouts; he threw 7 balls and 7 strikes. His velocity was only in the high 80s, but I'm assuming he wasn't pushing himself to the limit.

Elsewhere: The Yankee pitching staff melted down in Baltimore last night and New York lost 14-8. Vazquez couldn't get out of the third inning -- issuing two walks and a HBP, all with the bases loaded -- as the Orioles scored 8 times. Loaiza was also hit hard in relief. The lead in the East is back down to 2½. ... Anaheim beat the White Sox 7-5 to remain 5 games back in the wild card race. They also moved to within one game of first place in the West because Oakland lost to Cleveland 4-3 in 12 innings. ... Texas beat Toronto, but I'm going to leave them out of my playoff picture because they are 5 games behind in the West and 9 games back in the wild card.

Today:

Cleveland (Sabathia 11-9, 3.98) at Oakland (Harden 9-6, 3.98), 4:05 pm
Yankees (Hernandez 7-0, 2.62) at Baltimore (Ponson 10-13, 5.37), 4:35 pm
White Sox (Grilli 1-1, 6.48) at Anaheim (Sele 8-2, 4.77), 10:05 pm
Boston (Arroyo 8-9, 4.23) at Seattle (Moyer 6-10, 4.87), 10:05 pm