Well, I was right about the Devil Rays series. The A's swept, but all three games were squeakers.

Next up: the White Sox. Their lineup seems a lot less menacing without Magglio Ordonez and Frank Thomas. The first game pitching matchup looks to favor the A's, but all four starters in the last two games have reputations for Jekyll-and-Hyde performances. What kind of games we get depends entirely on which pitchers decide to show up:

Tuesday, 5:05pm (FSN): Rich Harden (8-5, 3.80) vs. Jason Grilli (0-1, 9.00)
Wednesday, 5:05pm (FSN+): Barry Zito (10-9, 4.54) vs. Freddy Garcia (10-10, 3.84)
Thursday, 11:05am (ESPN2): Mark Redman (9-10, 4.59) vs. Jose Contreras (12-6, 5.04)

Meanwhile, this streak where all the contenders win every day is about to end. Tomorrow, the Boston Red Sox begin a stretch of nine games where they play the Angels, Rangers, and A's. These series will be crucial in determining if the wild card will go to Boston, or to the AL West runner-up. A sweep here or there, and somebody could quickly fall out of the race.

UPDATE: Freddy Garcia is going to miss his start with a sore forearm. Grilli will pitch Wednesday, and Felix Diaz will be called up from AAA to pitch Tuesday's game. Diaz is 10-2 with a 2.97 ERA in Charlotte this year.