Bloody mess  —  Schilling's sock called into question  —  BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Orioles' lineup barely touched Curt Schilling in last night's 6-1 Red Sox win.  In seven innings, he allowed one run, a home run by Miguel Tejada, which was not enough to overcome the damage the Sox inflicted …

Cleveland 9, Texas 4  —  CLEVELAND (AP) — Sammy Sosa is "Slammin' Sammy" once again.  —  Sosa hit two homers to reach 594 for his career, but Paul Byrd and the Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers 9-4 Thursday for their fifth straight win.  —  Sosa's 439-foot drive leading off …

April 26th vs. The Blue Jays  —  Man, it seems like it's been forever since that big comeback win against the Indians.  Talk about a long week.  —  When you factor in his age, and the way he was rushed to the big leagues, and the fact that it was his big league cherry today, I thought Phil Hughes was impressive tonight.

Smoltz agrees to extension with Braves (AP)  —  ATLANTA (AP) — John Smoltz is likely to spend his entire major league career with the Atlanta Braves after agreeing to a contract extension Thursday.  —  Smoltz, who turns 40 next month, will return for a 20th season in 2008 with a deal that will guarantee him about $14 million.

Notes: Igawa's turn to be skipped  —  Lefty may pitch out of the bullpen as he works out the kinks  —  NEW YORK — The Yankees want to see Kei Igawa work more on his placement.  Accordingly, his place for the weekend series against the Red Sox will be in the bullpen.

Notes: Slow going for Schmidt  —  Betemit moved up to seventh; Ethier wary of right-field fence  —  LOS ANGELES — Jason Schmidt rejoined the club after attending the birth of his third child, but he's still a long way from pitching in a game.  —  Schmidt was disabled retroactively …

Think A-Rod won't opt out?  Think again … This week's bulletin from the Alex Rodriguez Opt-Out Watch was this save-for-future-reference quotation:  —  "I want to stay in New York, no matter what."  —  OK, let's hold that laugh track for a minute.  No matter what.  That's what he said.

Twins beat Royals 1-0 in 11 to end slide (AP)  —  MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Mike Redmond hit a run-scoring single in the 11th inning and the Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 1-0 Thursday to end a four-game losing streak.  —  Justin Morneau and Jason Tyner had back-to-back singles off Todd Wellemeyer …

Leyland on Casey: He'll hit  —  CHICAGO — With some players, the slump all but announces itself with bad swings, bad pitch selection, bad decisions.  —  But with Sean Casey, hitting .186 in the first 21 games, it isn't an obvious combination of the above.  In fact, he's not sure what it is.

Mench makes do in Milwaukee  —  Outfielder settles in after struggling to adjust to being traded  —  MILWAUKEE — Kevin Mench was picking out granite countertops when he got the news.  Perhaps something a little less permanent would have been better.  —  Mench was happy in Texas.

Selig: Miller should be in Hall  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Marvin Miller received a surprise backer in his quest to make baseball's Hall of Fame: commissioner Bud Selig.  —  Miller, who led players to free agency that has produced multimillion-dollar contracts, fell short of election from the Veterans Committee in 2003 and again this year.

Zumaya expresses shame over outburst at umpire  —  CHICAGO — A day later, Joel Zumaya acknowledged he acted like a "jerk" and vowed it will never happen again.  —  The Detroit Tigers reliever yelled an obscenity at plate umpire Mark Wegner while he was on the mound Wednesday and had more harsh words …