Myriad of baseball thoughts 6/18/10

The San Francisco Giants (37-28) look to continue their solid play as they start a six game road trip tonight with a visit to the Toronto Blue Jays (36-31) at 5 p.m. MT. The game will be televised via MLB Extra Innings and available online via mlb.tv. Same story for watching the games Saturday and Sunday except coverage of both of those games starts at 11 a.m. MT. The Giants have showed they can play well at home and now here's a chance to show they can take it on the road against a solid team. The Giants haven't really played that well on the road so I think Toronto will take two of three, but I'm hoping for two of three the other way.

Here's a look at the top of the National League West Standings entering this weekend:

Team W-L GB
1. San Diego Padres 38-28 --
1. Los Angeles Dodgers 38-28 --
3. San Francisco Giants 37-28 .5

The Giants are also a half-game back of the New York Mets (38-28) in the Wild Card right now. The Atlanta Braves (39-28) have a half-game lead on the Mets in the East. The Padres host the Baltimore Orioles (18-48) this weekend and should win at least two there. San Diego continues to surprise everyone with their continued solid play. The Dodgers visit the Boston Red Sox (40-28) in Manny Ramirez's first return to Fenway Park for the first time since he was traded in 2008 under unpleasant circumstances. The Red Sox have been surging of late and I think they will take two of three in that series.

In other baseball news, Washington Nationals (31-36) rookie phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg makes his third start tonight at home against the Chicago White Sox (31-34). Coverage of that game starts at 5 p.m. MT on MLB Network. Strasburg is 2-0 in his first two starts with an ERA of 2.19 in 12 1/3 innings pitched. He has an astounding 22 strikeouts already, with 14 in his first start against the Pittsburgh Pirates (23-43) and 8 more Sunday on the road against the Indians (25-40). I thought that Jason Heyward (.266 AVG, 11 HR, 44 RBI, .383 OBP, .489 SLG) of the Braves had a beat on rookie of the year, but Strasburg is fast closing the gap and will win the award at this pace. I don't remember having two rookies this talented in the same league at the same time. Heyward and the Braves take on the Kansas City Royals (29-38) this weekend at Turner Field with the opener tonight at 5:35 p.m. MT on MLB Extra Innings and mlb.tv. I think Strasburg will continue to dazzle and will end up winning the Rookie of the Year, but will probably dip slightly from his current pace. Heyward, though, I think is the real deal and will keep playing well.

My second favorite team, the Philadelphia Phillies (34-30) are coming off taking two of three from the hated New York Yankees (41-25) in the Bronx this week including an impressive performance from 47-year-old pitcher Jamie Moyer on Wednesday in which he gave up only two runs in eight innings of work. Kyle Kendrick pitched well last night as well to help make things more bearable for me as the Lakers won the NBA Title last night. The Phils try to keep it up against the Minnesota Twins (38-28) this weekend at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. I think the Phillies are starting to pull out of their slump and will win two of three this weekend, particularly as they are at home. It will help when my favorite player (and 2007 MVP) star short stop Jimmy Rollins comes off the disabled list soon as well. Hopefully that will be soon. He's been having a solid year and is definitely an emotional leader of the team that helps others around him play better. For all of the talk about the Phillies struggles, they are just 3.5 games back of the Braves and only two back in the loss column. I think they'll figure it out and when the NL East for the fourth consecutive year. The Twins are no slouches themselves and find themselves once again in a tight race with the Detroit Tigers (36-29). I could see that one going down to the final week of the season once again. The Tigers host the Arizona Diamondbacks (26-41) this weekend.

There's lots of intrigue to look for in baseball this weekend so I recommend you catch at least some of it. National coverage features the aforementioned White Sox-Nationals match-up tonight at 5 p.m. MT on MLB Network. Tomorrow it's the second game of the Dodgers-Red Sox series at 2 p.m. MT on FOX and then the Oakland Athletics (33-35) visiting the St. Louis Cardinals (36-30) at 5 p.m. MT on MLB Network. On Sunday it's the Subway series between the Mets and Yankees in the Bronx at 11 a.m. MT on TBS and then the finale of the Dodgers and Red Sox from Fenway Park at 6 p.m. MT on ESPN. Saturday and Sunday it's the Angels (37-32) and Cubs (30-36) from Wrigley Field tomorrow at 11 a.m. MT and Sunday at 12:20 p.m. MT on WGN. And of course all games are available on MLB Extra Innings and mlb.tv. I know I'm going to be enjoying some baseball this weekend and you'd do well to do so too.