Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins, and Chicago White Sox Narrow Divisional Gaps.

Yesterday's major league action ended with three contenders gaining on the leaders in their divisions.

The Colorado Rockies continued to gain ground on the L.A. Dodgers in the NL West with a 5-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds. They are now only two games behind the Dodgers after winning their seventh consecutive game. The Rockies are 9-1 in their last 10 games, while the Dodgers are 5-5.

The Dodgers were seven games ahead of the second place Giants before the All-Star break and nine games ahead of the Rockies. Now, two months later, the Rockies have the luxury of leading the Wild Card race by four-and-a-half games even if they can't catch the Dodgers.

The Rockies should be the favorite to defeat the San Diego Padres tonight with Jorge De La Rosa (14-9) facing Edward Mujica (3-4) of the Padres. The Dodgers may have a tougher time of it with Hiroki Kuroda (5-6) taking the mound for the Dodgers against Matt Cain (13-4).

It may have been 45 years since the Philadelphia Phillies blew a six-and-a-half game lead with 12 games left in the 1964 season, but the 2009 Phillies seem to be in danger of blowing their NL East lead and having history repeat itself.

In their last 10 games, the second place Marlins currently stand five games behind the Phillies and have a 7-3 record, while the Phillies have a 4-6 record in that stretch.

Josh Johnson (14-4) will start tonight against J.D. Martin (3-4) of the Washington Nationals. The Florida Marlins end their season in Philadelphia with a three-game set.

Cole Hamels (8-9), who has had a disappointing year, will have Nelson Figueroa (2-4) of the New York Mets as his mound opponent.

In the AL Central, the Chicago White Sox gained a game on the first place Detroit Tigers, and a half game on the second place Minnesota Twins by defeating the Oakland A’s in a 4-3 walkoff win that lasted 13 innings. A.J. Pierzynski ended the game with a walkoff double.

The White Sox are now six games behind the Tigers, while they are only a half game behind the Twins. They will travel to play the Angels tonight, while the Tigers and Twins play losing teams in the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics.

Gavin Floyd (11-9) and Joe Saunders (12-7) will be on the mound in the White Sox-Angels game. Nate Robertson (1-1) and Brian Tallet (6-9) face each other in the Tigers-Blue Jays game tonight. Nick Blackburn (8-9) will be facing Clay Mortensen (0-2) in the Twins-Athletics game.

The best scenario for the Rangers is to win the AL Wild Card race since they are only two games behind the Boston Red Sox. It would be a real surprise if they were to win the AL West. The Rangers and Angels are both 7-3 in their last 10 games and currently hold three-game winning streaks.

The Rangers host the Seattle Mariners tonight with Kevin Millwood (11-9) favored to defeat Brandon Morrow (0-4) who has lost three of his four losses to the Rangers and has a 14.39 ERA against the Rangers in 2009.

Only 10 teams are within six-and-a-half games or less of their division leader. By this time next week, some of these teams will have fallen out of the race. Teams in third place have a particularly rough road ahead since they need to pass two teams.

Diamond Notes

Ichiro Suzuki needs only four hits to have hit safely 200 times for the ninth season. However, it's taking longer than expected since he is currently in a 2-for-18 slump.

Adam Lind needs four doubles, while Billy Butler needs five to join Brian Roberts in the 50 doubles club this season.

Michael Bourn and Shane Victorino are the only major leaguers with at least 10 triples this season, each having 11. Adam Dunn needs four home runs to have 40 home runs  for five straight seasons. Kendry Morales needs two runs batted in to be the ninth player this season to have 100 RBI.

Other players close to having 100 RBI for the first time in their career are Adam Lind and Hanley Ramirez with 96. Andre Ethier, Mark Reynolds, and Aaron Hill have driven in 94. Ryan Zimmerman with 93 and Nick Markakis with 91 respectively, also have a chance of having 100 RBI; while Matt Kemp with 89 RBI's, has an outside chance of reaching the 100 RBI mark this season.

Albert Pujols has 342 total bases and leads Mark Teixeira (of the AL) by 50 total bases, with Teixeira having 292. The 342 by Pujols matches the 342 he had last season at this point. Sammy Sosa was the last major leaguer to have 400 total bases when he had 425 in 2001. The last American Leaguer to have 400 total bases was Jim Rice when he had 406 in 1978. The last previous AL player to 400 total bases was Joe DiMaggio when he had 418 in 1937. Babe Ruth holds the major league record with 457 total bases in 1921 in a 154 game season which makes it even more remarkable.

Matt Holliday has been a huge part of the reason the St. Louis Cardinals have the largest lead in the majors in their division.

Holliday hit .286 for the Athletics and is hitting .379 for the Cardinals. He batted 346 times for the Athletics and 161 times for the Cardinals. Despite the 185 fewer at-bats with the Cardinals, the numbers are much closer than expected.

The following list shows Holliday's numbers with both the Athletics and Cardinals, with the Athletics' numbers displayed on the left:

Doubles: 23-12

Triples: 1-2

Home Runs: 11-12

RBI: 54-42

Total Bases: 113-157

Extra Base Hits: 35-26

His percentage numbers which don’t take into account his at-bats, are an even truer indication of how his numbers improved after leaving the Athletics:

Batting Average: .286 -.379

On Base Percentage: .378 -.432

Slugging Percentage: .454 -.702

OPS: .831–1.134

Oakland Athletics fans can’t help but wonder why Holliday put up below average numbers when he was in Oakland. Then, after the trade, he goes on a tear and helps the Cardinals extend their lead in the NL Central race.