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 …

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.

Kearns Shows Promise After Power Outage  —  Last April, when he was a Cincinnati Red, Austin Kearns hit five homers and drove in 18 runs, a fine start to a season in which he would establish career highs in both categories.  But this April, in his first full season as a Washington National …

Slinging it with best of them  —  NEW YORK — He found a place to throw.  Like he always does.  —  I went to Yankee Stadium last night.  Like Daisuke Matsuzaka, I was in New York a day early to get extra rest for tonight's big game with the Yankees.  And sure enough, there he was.  Throwing.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …