Elsewhere

The Phillies are amply covered elsewhere, so let's take a look at some other developments in the game.

Ichiro. When someone is known by his or her first name alone you know the individual revolves in a special orbit. Julia in cooking. Tiger in golf. Kobe in basketball. Ichiro in baseball. Wait a minute. How often does his name come up in conversations about baseball? Hardly ever. Last night, Ichiro reached 200 hits in a season for the eighth straight year, tying the record set by Wee Wiillie ("Hit 'em where they ain't") Keeler one hundred years ago. That's right, folks, one full century ago.

Playing in the Pacific Northwest for a team going nowhere most of the time, Ichiro has labored in relative obscurity. Not only is he a clean hit machine, unlike Pete Rose, he is a superb base runner and Gold Glove outfielder. Between his tenure in the big leagues here and his years in Japan, Ichiro has accumulated more than 3000 hits. Unless he ends up playing for a bigger market team some day, however, Ichiro will continue his march to Cooperstown well under the radar. More's the pity.

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Tampa Bay beat Boston for the second straight night to win its 90th game of the season and increase its lead in the AL East to two full games. They are unquestionably this year's Cinderella team and if they can win two out of four against Minnesota, a team fighting for a playoff spot itself, they will clinch at least the Wild Card. Americans love an underdog and right now the Rays are getting lots of love.

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Those who predicted instant replay would damage the game might take note how few times the review system has been called on since it first appeared a few weeks ago. On the other hand, disputed home run balls, the only instance in which reviews can be made, are relatively few whereas safe or out calls are common. If baseball extends the review to all disputed calls, the impact will be enormous.

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Don't look now but the Florida Marlins refuse to go away. This collection of free-swinging, strong-armed, low-salaried youngsters continues to make the race interesting. If the Marlins' young pitching staff can stay healthy for an entire season they are going to be in the thick of things for a long time to come. It's a shame only 17 people in Miami will regularly see them play, but the rest of the country will know their names.

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Milwaukee's Ben Sheets left the game last night after two innings with another arm ailment of unknown origin. Sheets will be a coveted free agent after the season ends, but any team looking at a long-term commitment should be extremely cautious given his medical history.

Meanwhile, look who started for Detroit last night: Freddy Garcia. The Phillies' former $10 million per victory hurler pitched well, too, going five innings, yielding two hits, one run, a walk and three strikeouts.