NL wild-card leader Los Angeles has key games against Atlanta and Arizona before the strike date. AP

The theory here is that teams need to get serious -- really serious -- before the Aug. 30 strike deadline in case a strike wipes out the rest of the regular season but not the playoffs.

So, according to this theory, teams will do everything it takes to win between now and then. Forget rest for the bullpen. Exhaust the bench. Push along the injured sluggers. Use every trick in the book.

Will that be necessary? Well, most analysts believe baseball probably could withstand a strike of a week or two and still resume the regular season. The postseason would just be pushed back into November, like it was last year after Sept. 11.

But if a strike goes any longer than that, baseball will have to think about jumping straight into the postseason -- if there is one. So the next nine days, theoretically, may be it for the rest of the regular season.

That means Boston, which trails in the American League wild card race, has a huge few days coming up, while Anaheim, Oakland and Seattle try to settle things in the AL West. The next nine days also will be big for Los Angeles (the National League wild-card leader), San Francisco and Houston (both of whom still have a chance).

It also means the next week or so could be important for teams vying for home-field advantage in the playoffs, teams like Atlanta and Arizona, who are jockeying for the best record in the NL. Not to mention all the leaders in the AL -- including the Yankees, Minnesota and whoever is leading in the West when the strike comes.

Still, the idea that teams somehow have to turn it up a notch in the next nine days … well, that kind of suggests that they're coasting now.

"We're not putting any sense of urgency on it. We're going to go out here and try to win every game we can as hard as we can," Angels manager Mike Scioscia told the Los Angeles Times. "That's our approach anyway so I don't know how you alter that."

It's probably true. If teams had been waiting until now to make their move, they've probably waited too long, anyway.

A.J. Burnett averaged 117 pitches in his last six starts before going on the DL. AP

Every time some young pitcher is left out on the mound beyond 100 pitches, someone wonders whether the manager is messing with a promising career.

Florida's A.J. Burnett, for instance, went 132 pitches in a game on July 27 -- when the Marlins were 16 games out of first place. Burnett has thrown more than 100 pitches in 20 of his 27 starts. He averages more than 111 pitches a game. (Only Arizona's Randy Johnson throws more, at about 114 a game.)

And now Burnett is on the disabled list.

Chicago's Mark Prior threw 136 pitches on Aug. 4 when the Cubs were 46-62 and 13 ½ games out. He's averaging more than 107 pitches a game. Chicagoans are nervous because they remember the plight of Kerry Wood, who had to have elbow surgery after throwing 120 or more pitches in seven starts during his rookie season in 1998.

There is some debate about the correlation between high pitch counts and injury. Some in baseball don't believe in the concept of pitch counts, instead relying on other measures to determine when a pitcher is tired or needs to be pulled from the game. Leo Mazzone, the widely respected pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves, is one of those, and he's put together a pretty solid pitching staff over the last decade or so that's mostly avoided major injuries (though John Smoltz had elbow surgery and missed more than a year).

Yet there are studies that suggest high pitch counts can take a toll. A report published in a recent issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine found a significant relationship between a high pitch count and the risk of shoulder pain. The study followed 467 much younger pitchers (ages 9-14). And, as the study suggests, there are other factors that have to be considered: Which pitches are thrown and a pitcher's mechanics, mainly.

Still, pitch count is a consideration. So why do some managers seem to have no consideration for how much their pitchers throw?

They want to win, that's why. They figure these youngsters have rubber arms or they don't believe high pitch counts are harmful. They're worried about their jobs. They have no other choices.

Or they're just not paying attention.

Celebration scenes like these are few and far between. AP

Ohhh, they're terrible. Absolutely terrible. Worse, now, than the Milwaukee Brewers. How's that for bad?

If there's no strike, the Rays could lose 100 games and not even flinch.

The rest of us … we're flinching.

At least the Rays are losing in interesting fashion. Last Thursday, Andy Sheets hit a three-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat Cleveland, 4-3. And then the Rays turned into the Rays again.

Friday night, Kansas City's Raul Ibanez hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning off Tampa Bay's Esteban Yan as the Royals won 6-5.

The next night, Kansas City's Brent Mayne hit a homer with two outs in the ninth inning -- again off Yan -- to tie the score. Mike Sweeney and Ibanez homered in the 12th in a 7-3 Kansas City win.

Yan, who's blown seven of his 22 save opportunities (a major-league worst 32 percent), lost his job over that one.

Then, after two wins, the Rays blew it again. Baltimore's Gary Matthews Jr. hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning Tuesday night off Lee Gardner to give the Orioles a 7-4 win.

Three blown leads in the ninth inning in five nights. Ouch.

The Rays have lost seven games this season when they have had the other team down to its last out. They've lost 19 decided in the ninth inning or later.

Tampa Bay, which never has had a winning season, is on its way to becoming the first team in more than 20 years to lose 100 games in back-to-back seasons. The last team to do it was the Toronto Blue Jays, who lost 100-plus from 1977-79 in their first three years of existence.

The reasons the Rays are so bad are pretty simple. They're ranked 13th in hitting (.252) and 13th in ERA (5.17) in the 14-team American League.

We could go on. But we won't. They're the Rays. It's just too darn easy.