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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim closer Francisco Rodriguez entered a new atmosphere in baseball history Saturday, notching his 50th save of the season in a 5-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins. Rodriguez, who ironically wears No. 57, is on pace to absolutely shatter former Chicago White Sox reliever Bobby Thigpen’s record of 57 saves set back in 1990. K-Rod is currently on pace to save 63 games and has to be in consideration for the American League Cy Young award. Along with Cleveland Indians starter Cliff Lee and Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Boston Red Sox, Rodriguez has been the most automatic go-to guy each and every day for Mike Scoscia’s first-place Angels. Along with his league-leading save total, K-Rod also sports a 2.20 ERA and has 62 strikeouts in only 55 innings.

When the Chicago Cubs acquired Rich Harden from the Oakland Athletics on July 8th, questions about Harden’s health and durability blew through the Windy City like fire. Poor metaphor? I apologize. In the face of critics and the supposed “Curse of the Billy Goat”, Harden is bringing his star to new heights in Chicago. Harden earned his third win as a Cub while giving up only two hits in seven innings and fanning 10 in a 5-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field. Harden’s now 3-1 as a Cub and the North Siders are now a Major League-best 77-48 at home.

New York Yankees‘ manager Joe Girardi and his injury-plagued roster will happily welcome back starting left fielder Hideki Matsui from the 15-day DL Tuesday as the Bombers start a three game series up north against the Toronto Blue Jays. Hitting .323 with seven home runs and 34 runs batted in on the season, Matsui has been sidelined with a multitude of left knee injuries since early June and was officially placed on the disabled list June 22nd. It’s most likely that Girardi will have the 34-year old left get most of his early swings from the DH position until he feels Matsui is 100% comfortable returning to the field as he hasn’t started a game in left since June 15th. Healthy or not, the Yankees will need the veteran’s bat to have any chance at making a run at the postseason and extending the life of historic Yankee Stadium. As of today, the Yanks are 66-58 and find themselves nine and a half games behind the first place Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East and six games behind the rival Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card standings.

Despite Mark Kotsay becoming only the second player in franchise history to post a single, double, triple and home run in the same game, the Chicago Cubs beat Kotsay and the Atlanta Braves 11-7 Thursday evening at Turner Field. Kotsay was 5-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored. The cycle came accompanied by the veteran second baseman’s 1,500th hit, a double off of Chicago releiver Bob Howry in the seventh inning. Still the celebrating Thursday was all done by Chicago, who with the sweep of Atlanta extended their National League Central lead to four and a half games over the Milwaukee Brewers. Ted Lilly picked up his twelfth victory of the season despite giving up four runs over six innings. Braves’ pitcher Tom Glavine looked pitiful against the Cubs’ high-powered offense. The veteran was tagged for seven runs in just four innings after allowing home runs to Aramis Ramirez in the third and Alfonso Soriano in the fourth. Glavine’s performance might be a microcosm for Atlanta’s season. The Braves are 55-66 and ten games behind the New York Mets in the National League East.

Dealing with constant trade rumors must be tough, going a career-worst 14 starts without a win must be worse. After a winless stretch that almost reached across an entire summer, San Diego Padres pitcher and future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux has won his last three starts to move to within one win of eighth-place Rogers Clemens‘ on baseball’s all-time victories list. Maddux scattered six hits while allowing two runs in six innings against the Colorado Rockies Saturday evening at Coors Field to earn his 353rd career win. The 43-year old Maddux is 6-8 on the year with a 4.12 ERA however he’s lowered that average by almost half a run to 3.71 over his last three starts. The Padres chose not to move the crafty right-hander before the deadline but don’t be too surprised if Maddux is wearing another uniform before season’s end if a waiver-wire trade can be reached with another almost-certainly National League team.

The National League Central has been witness to two of the hottest hitters in the Majors this month as Cincinnati Reds‘ youngster Jay Bruce and Chicago Cubs’ superstar Alfonso Soriano have heated up as summer rolls on. Bruce has heated up considerably since the Reds moved future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. to the Chicago White Sox. In August alone, Bruce has smacked four home runs and has eight runs batted in. Since the Griffey deal, the young slugger is batting .347 to go along with a career-best 13-game hit streak. Since coming back from the disabled list on July 23rd, Cubs’ outfielder Alfonso Soriano is 23-for-66 (.348) with six homers, 15 RBIs and 14 runs scored. While both men are currently red-hot, their respective teams are heading in two different directions. The Reds find themselves near the basement of the NL Central at 52-64 while the Chicago Cubs have the National League’s best record at 69-46.

With their lead in the NL East at a slim game and a half over the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Arizona Diamondbacks suffered a costly blow to their postseason chances Saturday when slick-fielding second baseman Orlando Hudson re-aggravated a lingering left wrist injury. Hudson dislocated a bone in the wrist while attempting to stop a wild throw from pitcher Juan Cruz in Saturday night’s crazy game against the Atlanta Braves. As Hudson lunged towards the ball, Braves’ catcher Brian McCann slid into Hudson before the second baseman grabbed his wrist in obvious agony and remained face-down on the field. Hudson had surgery late Saturday night and will miss the remainder of the season. Hitting .305 on the year, Hudson missed much of last season after having surgery to repair damaged ligaments in the same wrist. Arizona has called up outfield prospect Jeff Salazar from Class-AAA Tucson to fill Hudson’s roster spot on the Major League club. Salazar was hitting .364 with four homers and 18 RBIs in 24 games for Tucson and will be in uniform with the D-Backs take on the Colorado Rockies tonight at Coors Field.

This weekend we all grew witness to yet another dramatic edition of the most-overdone spectacle in sports: Manny being Manny. Manny Ramirez spoke to ESPNDeportes.com on Saturday saying that he is welcome to a trade and is “sick” of the Boston Red Sox front office. I’m not sure exactly what Manny could be so bent out of shape over. Maybe it’s the two World Series championships he’s won in the past four seasons. Then again, maybe it’s the $168,308,346 that the Red Sox have paid Manny during his seven years in Beantown. Regardless, maybe having buddy David Ortiz back with the big club will ease Ramirez back into some semblance of normality.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will face their toughest week of the season as they begin a six-game set against American League East powerhouses the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The Angels recently swept the Red Sox in Anaheim but will now come to Boston’s Fenway Park to face the best home team in baseball. Of course, something has to give here. The Sox are a Major League-leading 37-13 at home while the Angels sport the best road record in baseball at 33-19. After dealing with Daisuke Matsuzaka, Clay Bucholz and Josh Beckett in Beantown, the Angels head south to face the red hot Yankees in the House That Ruth Built. New York is 8-1 since the All-Star break and players such as Robinson Cano, Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte have really found their stroke as we wrap up a month that saw the Yanks go 14-7 and come within two and a half games of the division lead. If the Angels make it through this week in one piece I’ll be really surprised. They’ve had problems scoring with runners in scoring position and have leaned on their pitching to get them victories. While their bullpen might be the best in the game, no Angels fan could be happy to hear that ace John Lackey announced he is entering a “dead-arm” phase just last week. Whether or not it’ll hurt the righty’s control or velocity is yet to be seen but regardless, this will be a telling week for baseball’s best team.

Carlos Delgado has resurrected his 2008 campaign by swinging the Majors’ hottest bat in the past three weeks. Since hovering in the neighborhood of .230 for most of the first half, Delgado is hitting a sizzling .419 in July. Carlos’ timely hitting sparked the resurgent Mets‘ charge to first place in the National League East, a lead they share with the rival Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets “welcome” Philadelphia for an important three-game series starting at Shea Monday night. Mets’ ace Johan Santana will face off against the Phillies’ newly-acquired Joe Blanton in Blanton’s first start since being traded during the All-Star Break.