Baltimore Orioles (M.González) - Toronto Blue Jays (B.Morrow)

The red hot Baltimore Orioles and  Toronto Blue Jays square off in an AL East battle.

Baltimore has been one of the hottest teams in the game for weeks and their reward is the opportunity to take over the top spot in the American League East. A 4-0 victory over Toronto on Tuesday was number three in a row and their ninth in eleven contests. Over this hot streak, both the arms and bats have been churning out quality performances and Wednesday was no different. Zack Britton made things easy on the bats with a four hit shut out over seven innings while the offense hammered out 18 hits with Mark Reynolds going deep and driving in four runs. Rookie Miguel Gonzalez takes the ball looking to duplicate his last start when he beat the Yankees 6-1. Gonzalez gave up four hits and issued a walk with nine strike outs over seven scoreless frames.

Houston Astros (F.Abad) - Pittsburgh Pirates (K.Correia)

The Pittsburgh Pirates look for a hot streak to start with another victory over the Houston Astros.

When looking at the body of work called the Astros season, the bad times have been too frequent and have lasted far too long. Houston has had big time problems in scoring runs and keeping opponents off the scoreboard. The Astros fell to Pittsburgh by a 6-2 count on Tuesday but have still lost eight of eleven overall with neither  the arms and bats able to get on the same page. Starter Jordan Lyles struggled early with five runs allowed (four earned) on seven hits covering 4.2 innings. The bats simply  didn't get the job done with seven hits and two free passes with RBI hits from Brett Wallace and Chris Snyder accounting for the scoring. Career reliever Fernando Abad makes his third straight start, needing to rebound from a poor start last time out. Abad dropped a 9-3 decision to Cincinnati in which he gave up six runs on nine hits over 4.1 frames.

Cleveland Indians (U.Jimenez) - Detroit Tigers (D.Fister)

The Cleveland  Indians and Detroit Tigers  take the field on Wednesday i a game crucial to the latter's postseason hopes.

Cleveland looked like they might be the team to beat in he American League Central before the All Star break before slowing and finally going in to a prolonged slump since. Neither the bats or arms have been consistent for much of the second half and the result has been many more games going in to the loss column as opposed to the one marked win. That doesn't mean the Tribe can be totally ignored which we saw Tuesday when the Tribe upended Detroit 3-2. Starter Justin Masterson allowed just two runs on four hits and a base on balls while the offense did just enough.The Tribe totaled nine hits and walked five times with three players knocking in  runs and three scoring. The Indians hand the ball to a struggling Ubaldo Jimenez who is looking to snap out of a four game winless streak. In this stretch, Jimenez has gone0-3 with a no decision in which he has given up 18 runs over 20.1 innings.

Los Angeles Angels (D.Haren) - Oakland Athletics (B.McCarthy)

The battle for second in the AL West continues Wednesday between the Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics.

The Angels have certainly been a difficult team to figure out as they have been through their fair share of slow times and an equal number of hot streaks as well. These are desperate times for Los Angeles who are locked in a second place battle with Oakland and need every possible win going forward to bypass the Athletics and grab the Wild Card. The LAA bumped off the A's 6-1 on Tuesday for win number  eight in eleven contests behind  Zack Greinke who gave up a single run on four hits and two bases on balls over seven innings pitched. That was more than enough with a 12 hit attack backing him with Alberto Callaspo driving in a pair of runs. Dan Haren is scheduled to be on the hill Wednesday, hoping for consistency going forward. Haren has been up and down in 2012 and he was fantastic last time out with with a complete game 9-1 victory over Seattle.

Minnesota Twins (P.Walters) - Chicago White Sox (J.Peavy)

The Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins meet on Wednesday afternoon for game three of their series at US Cellular Field.

The Chicago White Sox regained sole possession of the lead in the AL Central on Monday and would have lost it Tuesday but the Tigers lost as well. On Tuesday Dayan Viciedo and Dewayne Wise each had two hits and Adam Dunn and Kevin Youklis added hits as the White Sox scored nine runs on 13 hits. On the mound Jose Quintinilla allowed five hits and seven runs while lasting just 1.1 innings and falling to 5-4 on the year. For Wednesday’s game Chicago starts Jake Peavy who has lost his last three decisions. For the season Peavy has allowed 161 hits and 66 earned runs while striking out 159 over 181 innings of work for a 3.28 ERA.

New York Mets (R.Dickey) - St Louis Cardinals (A.Wainwright)

R,A, Dickey will continue a dream season on Wednesday afternoon when The New York Mets visit Adam Wainwright and The St. Louis Cardinals. Dickey will be searching for win number 18 on the season while Wainwright searches for number 14.

Dickey has been pretty steady since the outset, and has maintained that excellent pace throughout the second half.  Dickey was perfect in his last outing and has also been perfect against The Cardinals this year.  The Knuckleballer pitched a complete game shutout against The Cardinals earlier this season while allowing only 7 hits.  It would be a great sight to see a 37 year old knuckler pick up 20 wins on the season. Dickey has been a great story, no matter how you feel about The Mets.

Philadelphia Phillies (R.Halladay) - Cincinnati Reds (M.Leake) 9/5/12

Just one year ago, this particular pitching match up would have greatly favored The Philadelphia Phillies. Roy Halladay was still viewed as the best pitcher in Baseball and Mike Leake was an unproven commodity.  Halladay has had some bad luck and Leake is hardly among the game's elites, but The Cincinnati Reds definitely feel more comfortable facing The Phillies big right hander than perhaps the team would have a year ago.