Five games left, three back of the Dodgers, tied with the Cubs, a half game up on the Astros, and Milton Bradley losing his mind in LA. Does that say it all? Not if you're an A's fan. Then it's five games left, tied with the Angels, three distant games ahead of the Rangers, and Ichiro getting ready set a major record on the home turf.

The Giants edged the Padres 7-5 in a nail biter in San Diego last night. They had a huge six-run fourth inning but couldn't put too much together other than that despite rapping out seventeen hits, including a career-high five hits for Ray Durham. Dustin Hermanson, who's facing a three game suspension (which will probably be put off until the beginning of next season) for plunking Jeff Kent last week, did his best Robb Nen impression, allowing two base-runners and then getting three big outs for the save. The Giants send fresh-faced-rookie-phenom Noah Lowry to the hill tonight to take on fat-slob-cagey-veteran David Wells for the Padres.

The nightmare continued in Oakland last night as the A's fell to the Mariners 7-2. The loss puts them into a tie with the surging Angels, who've had the pleasure of watching the amazing Vladimir Guerrero hit five home runs in the last five games. Texas is three games back, but if we aren't writing off the Giants in the NL West we can't really write off the Rangers in the AL West. The Athletics' fresh-faced-sophomore-penom Rich Harden goes up against some guy called Madritsch for the Mariners tonight in Oakland. Jump on BART about 6:30 and you can watch the magic happen in person. (And check it out: it's SFist's first-ever Oakland A's picture, showing Tim Hudson in a moment of shame.)