There once was a time when division titles and play-off positions were captured by a clutch base-hit or dominating pitching performance- think Bobby Thompson's shot heard round the world in 1951 or, more recently, Curt Schilling's bloody sock.

However, in the past week, baseball fans have witnessed such "historical" event as the Yankees capturing their ninth consecutive division championship with a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. And then there was tonight's mess at Safeco, in which the Mariners rolled over and played the obligatory role of whipping boy, putting up hardly an effort to prevent the A's from sealing the division on home turf.

I'm not taking anything away from the A's. They clinched the division, and they earned it. And I'm sure A's fans relish a dominating 12-3 victory, rather than a close squaker, with Frank Thomas hitting a dramatic game-winning (and division-winning) three-run home-run in the tenth inning or something. If A's fans feel that this trend of 12-3 ball-games will continue in the play-offs, there needs to be a reminder: in the play-offs Oakland will face teams that have good pitching and good hitting (and good managers). In 2006, against the Mariners, Oakland never faced any of that.

I mean, c'mon: there was a 140-day span in between victories by the Mariners against the Athletics this year. (By the way, both Mariner victories against the A's this season were games in which Esteban Loaiza started for the A's.) So, yes the A's earned the division title by dominating the Mariners- and now it's time for them to fold, meekly, in the play-offs. (Shit, I jinxed myself. The A's will probably win the whole thing now...)

Anyways, the type of game that was played tonight: with the Mariners allowing 24 base-runners, the last hope to keep things going in the ninth was Rene Rivera, with both Jason Kendall and Jay Payton (who is now hitting .406 in 16 games against the M's) pick up four hits, I'd say that a 12-3 drubbing to clinch the title is perhaps a fitting way for the A's this year. The game was representative of an entire season's worth of showdowns between these two clubs. The only thing that was missing was Joe Blanton on the mound for Oakland.

Oh well, there's always next year. (Ha!) Still, it was nice to see Beltre continue his sixteen-game hitting streak with a one-out home-run in the sixth inning off Kirk Saarloos, which set off a back-to-back home-run binge with Raul Ibanez, who will finish with ten home-runs and 40 RBI more than Beltre, despite making $8 million less. BEltre's season batting average now stands at .268.

Gil Meche takes the mound tomorrow against the A's inwhich may be his last attempt to land himself a big, fat free-agent contract in the off-season with someone, somewhere. With slightly above replacement-level stats on the year- 11-8 record, 4.48 ERA, 149 strikeouts over 180 innings in 31 starts- the one thing that meche will have going for his chances to end the season on a strong note is that Macha will more than likely rest his veterans, and give more playing time to third-stringers in tomorrow's game. Meche just might have his way with the A's tomorrow, despite his career 2-7 record versus Oakland. I could tell you that Eric Chavez murders Meche- 10-for-30 with a career OPs of 1.181 against Gil- or I could point out that Frank Thomas and Mark Ellis have combined to hit only .250 in 28 at-bats against Meche without a hint of power. But it doesn't really matter. There's no idea who's playing for the A's in tomorrow's ball-game, so there is only conjecture...

How about the Mariners? As the season's been over for some time, hargrove has been, indeed, playing the youngsters. T.J. Bohn, Oswaldo Navarro, and a increasingly depleted bullpwnstocked with the likes of John Huber, Francisco Cruceta, and Cesar Jiminez have received a good share of playing time in meaningless games over the past month. Hargrove didn't even start Ichiro, ended his consecutive game playing streak at 396, today in a game that the A's clinched the division. So, I'm fucking clueless as to who he'll trot out in tomorrow's ball-game, but whoever it is, they're facing Barry Zito, never an easy assignment. Barry owns a 12-2 lifetime record versus the Mariners, even if he allowed four runs in five innings in an outing against Seattle last month. (To be fair, Zito allowed one run in seven innings in the start before that against Seattle.) Icould point out that Ichio has 24 career hits- and three career home-runs- off Zito in 76 at-bats, and that Willie Bloomquist has touched Zito for two home-runs but... come to think of it, those two will more than likely be in tomorrow's ball-game, with Bloomie starting at short or something.

We'll see who's playing tomorrow. With a pared-down line-up on each side, the game resorts to a pitching duel between Zito and Meche, and no matter how you look at it, that's an unfair "duel." The outcome would be along the liens of 5-3, A's. However, if hargrove has any kind of killer instinct, stocks the line-up full of right-handers and Chris Snelling somehow convinces all the other batters to be patient on Zito's curveball, then the Mariners could take advantage of a stripped-down Oakalnd club.

And what's the likliehood of that happening?