What do Barry Bonds, Luis Gonzalez and Sammy Sosa have in common besides being NL outfielders with 40 or more home runs? All three are involved in the pennant race.

With the San Francisco Giants and the Arizona Diamondbacks battling the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and the Chicago Cubs leading the NL Central, Bonds, Gonzalez and Sosa have enough on their minds besides Mark McGwire's home run record. However, I don't think the home run chase will be a distraction.

SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL

Chicago at Seattle 8 p.m. ET, ESPN Play-by-play: Jon Miller Analyst: Joe Morgan What has kept the Mariners winning at such a torrid pace all season? I expect the Mariners to slump, meaning either a four- or five-game losing streak or 15-20 games of playing under .500 ball. I don't think a team can go 162 games playing its best baseball, like they have done. Lou Piniella deserves all the credit for pushing the Mariners, like Joe Torre did with the Yankees in 1998. Piniella has kept them focused, which is hard to do with an 18-game lead. When the Reds had a big lead in 1976, Sparky Anderson helped us focus on winning every game. He also rested individual players. After a day off, a player usually comes back fresh. That way, no one is tired at the same time. The Mariners could pass the Yankees' AL mark of 114 wins. But the more games a team wins, the more pressure that builds for the playoffs. That happened to the '98 Yankees, who were tight going into the playoffs. They knew if they didn't at least get to the World Series, the season would be a loss and people would call them chokers. There will be similar pressure on Seattle. It will be fine if the Mariners get to the World Series. The worst outcome would be losing a first-round playoff series. The difference with the '98 Yankees is that they had won the Series two years before and were a veteran playoff team. I'm a big fan of Piniella and the Mariners because they play team baseball. They pitch, play defense, hit in the clutch and score in a variety of ways without a huge slugger. Their bullpen is awesome. Although the starters have pitched effectively, the Mariners can shorten a game to five innings, giving them a big advantage. They can go to Jose Paniagua, Arthur Rhodes, Jeff Nelson and then Kazuhiro Sasaki to close out a game. The Mariners are a complete team.

Because the pennant race is supposed to be the main focus, it should help the three sluggers to have another goal rather than standing at the plate worrying about hitting home runs. In 1998, Sosa showed a lot of class when he was battling McGwire. Late in the season, I saw Sosa hit a ball to right field with the bases loaded on a 2-0 count when the Cubs were down by a run. He played the team game all the way, didn't worry about the home runs and ended up being the MVP.

Sosa, Bonds and Gonzalez are in the same situation this year. To eliminate much of the pressure of the home run chase, they should do what McGwire did in 1998: Two hours before the game, talk about the home runs -- and that's it. It's less likely to be a distraction if everybody can ask a question in one setting instead of reporters coming up to them at different times to ask the same question over and over again.

During the Reds' pennant race in 1976, it seemed like the media wanted to talk to me everyday. Sparky Anderson and I set it up where I would talk about an hour before batting practice. Once batting practice started, the questions ended because I had to concentrate on playing the game.

Sosa has already proven he can focus on the pennant race and likes to be the center of attention. Gonzalez is just a nice guy who still doesn't feel like he's chasing McGwire's record. Bonds is the only one who may be affected because he is not used to dealing with the media cordially. Plus, he got so much publicity about it early in the season. There was no pressure on him in April or May because the record was so far away. But now he's still on pace for 70.

Assuming the Mariners and the Yankees win their divisions, which team would you favor to win the AL wild card?
Everything changes, but the way the Oakland A's are pitching, they deserve the wild-card edge. To put things in perspective, Cleveland had to come from 12 runs behind last week to beat Seattle. Oakland, however, should never have to come from more than two or three runs behind to win.

The A's have a solid rotation, with Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and even Cory Lidle. Lidle isn't as good as the other three, but he's been doing a great job in recent starts as a fourth starter. The A's pitching gives them the edge down the stretch.

The Indians, who have veteran players with playoff experience, should beat out the Minnesota Twins for the AL Central title. Let's face it -- Minnesota hasn't played well since the All-Star break. Plus, Brad Radke is on the disabled list, and shortstop Cristian Guzman remains sidelined. While it will be difficult for the Twins to hang on and win, they should be applauded for fighting all season.

Acquiring Rick Reed for Matt Lawton, a good hitter, will unlikely help them. The Twins needed offense because they were having trouble scoring runs. The Indians didn't help themselves at the trade deadline either, but they have a more talented team -- as long as their players stay healthy.

With less than two games separating the Dodgers, Giants and Diamondbacks in the NL West, who do you like?
It's hard to pick between the three because the Dodgers have stayed at the top despite having a depleted pitching staff. James Baldwin is the key for them. If he continues to pitch well, they have a good shot at the NL West title.

At the trading deadline, the Giants helped themselves the most with the addition of Jason Schmidt, Andres Galarraga and John Vander Wal. They addressed their needs -- firepower and starting pitching. Schmidt has all the makings of a top-notch starter.

I have doubts about the Diamondbacks' pitching after Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Their lack of starting pitchers beyond Johnson and Schilling is starting to surface more. They need more production from their third, fourth and fifth starters. Arizona hopes Albie Lopez can help the rotation, but we'll have to wait and see.

How significant is Greg Maddux's NL record for consecutive innings without allowing a walk?
Pitching more than 70 innings without a walk is an unbelievable record. But then Bill Fischer has the major-league record with 84 1/3 innings. When I was with the Reds, Fischer was the pitching coach for a while, and his theory was always to throw strikes.

Watching the last few games Maddux has pitched, the record may have been in the back of his mind. When he was behind in the count, I saw him give up a few hits. He was making pitches and throwing strikes instead of hitting the corners. He got knocked around in his last start against Houston, even though he got the win.

Now that he has the NL record, Maddux may walk a batter or two. It's tough to pitch in tight games and not pitch around certain hitters, or give in. Because Maddux is so precise and likes to get ahead in the count, hitters figure the best pitch they may get from him is the first one.

Hitters will often swing at the first pitch against someone like Maddux or a pitcher with one great pitch, like a split-fingered fastball. They don't want to get two strikes on them and then see the splitter. With Maddux, he can throw strikes any time he wants. So what do you do?

What do you think about Ted Lilly's suspension when he wasn't even tossed from the game?
Bartolo Colon was suspended for seven games and didn't hit anybody in the head. Lilly hit Scott Spiezio in the head and got six games. And his teammates were cheering him when he came to the dugout. Maybe Colon should have hit the guy in the head; then he would have only gotten six games, not seven. Meanwhile, no suspension was handed when Roger Clemens hit Mike Piazza in the head.

The punishment doesn't seem to be equal all the time. The playing field isn't level because the game is being dictated by people other than the players on the field. The players have been able to police the actions of other players for 100 years. How does someone else decide when a player is throwing at someone? The players usually know and have a better sense of what to do.

The approach has always been the same: "If your pitcher throws at my one hitter, my pitcher will throw at one of yours". But now the game is being taken from the players' hands. The umpires are pressured to decide when a pitcher is throwing at a hitter. They have been told to warn the pitcher or kick him out of the game if he hits a batter in the head, even if he throws a curveball and the hitter doesn't move. The umpire will then tell the other team to not retaliate or he will get kicked out of the game.

In Lilly's case, he hit Spiezio in the head on the first pitch an inning after Ramon Ortiz hit Derek Jeter on the hand. There was no doubt what Lilly did. The problem with Lilly, though, is a pitcher shouldn't hit somebody in the head. I can understand a pitcher retaliating or coming inside, but not to the head.

There's a big difference between Lilly and Colon. Colon retaliated by scaring a guy; he didn't have to hit the player to make a point or send a message. Just knock him down.

So, when Colon gets a longer suspension than Lilly, something's not right. The punishment needs to be more consistent, and there are too many incidents every day of the week to be policed by someone other than the players, who know what's going on. Let the players do it; that's the way it should be.

Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan is a baseball analyst for ESPN.