The Angels dispatched the Texas Rangers with relative ease tonight behind Vlad Guerrero's two booming home-runs and some solid Joe Saunders pitching. While watching the Angels beat the Rangers 8-3 I flipped over (thanks to the wonder that is DirecTV MLB Extra Innings) to watch the Mariners-A's game. The Athletics were, as usual, pounding Seattle 9-5 in the sixth inning so I resigned myself to the fact that the A's magic number would be reduced to one. After the Halo victory I flipped over again and saw that Seattle had scored a run and now trailed by 3 going to the bottom of the eighth. But after watching Ichiro strand a runner at second with a horrid inning-ending strikeout I shrugged and punched-up Heroes on my Tivo (the jury is out on that show but it has my interest for now. I will tune in next week to see how this X-Men light pans out). After that I checked out mlb.com and found that , miraculously, the Mariners had scored three times in the bottom of the ninth off of Oakland closer Huston Street to force extras. Seattle then went on to win the game in the bottom of the 10th. Amazing.

I realize that the Angels still face almost certain elimination and this miracle loss could not possibly be a harbinger of a future, greater miracle. Could it? Is it possible that doubt could creep into the A's locker room like some sinister virus, infecting the players at absolutely the worst time? Meanwhile the Angels, watching from their own locker room are given a sudden booster of confidence and hope that propels them on to six consecutive wins? Stranger things have happened my friends. So do not get over-excited. Don't run over to Angels Stadium looking for playoff tickets. But go ahead and watch tomorrow's game with a little more interest and feel free to keep an eye on the game up in Seattle as well. The last week of the season just became watchable.