Beckett scratched  —  Josh Beckett has been scratched from his scheduled start on Friday, and the Red Sox ace plans to have his ailing right elbow examined by Dr. James Andrews in Alabama.  —  In a postgame interview, manager Terry Francona said Beckett was seeing Andrews as a precaution.

Aceves works his way up to bigs  —  Yanks option Robertson down to Triple-A to call up righty  —  NEW YORK — When Alfredo Aceves walked along the blue line to the Yankees' clubhouse for the first time on Thursday, the newly called-up right-hander already had an idea of what he hoped to see in his Yankee Stadium locker by game time.

Jays designate Stairs for assignment  —  Trade talks indicate veteran may sign with contending club  —  ST. PETERSBURG — The Blue Jays have designated Matt Stairs for assignment and are working out a trade that could potentially send the veteran to a contending club.

“There's Only One October” says Frank Caliendo, Randy Jackson and Stewie from Family Guy  —  Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Timothy Hutton and other celebrities join largest ever Major League Baseball postseason ad campaign; television partner personalities appear for first time in ads promoting Major League Baseball's postseason

Sox on Mariotti's split: 'It's about time'  —  BALTIMORE — Word of Jay Mariotti's split with the Chicago Sun-Times reached the White Sox' clubhouse minutes after their victory Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles, and the reaction could be heard outside.

Santana must learn leadership role  —  PHILADELPHIA - Johan Santana is not like everyone else in the New York Mets' clubhouse, no matter how much he craves to be.  He is supposed to be an ace, and he needs to bag the humility and start acting like one.  —  In the afterglow of a 6-3 victory …

One month ... and 10 key questions  —  One month to go.  —  That's all.  There's just one month to the day before this amazing baseball season hits the finish line.  It's hard to know where to train your eyes in this 87-ring circus.  But Rumblings is here to help, as always, by presenting 10 key questions for the final month:

Kotsay gone; Schafer won't be up in Sept.  —  Game's approaching and I've got a bunch of stuff to lay on you, so let's just dive right into this.  —  Just talked to the GM, Frank Wren, about the Mark Kotsay trade and the prospect they got for him, Luis Sumoza.

Angels looking for a backup shortstop  —  David Eckstein is among those mentioned for depth at the position.  —  Five days before Monday's trade deadline, the Angels continue to pursue a veteran shortstop as insurance in case Erick Aybar is injured.  —  The team has targeted three Toronto players …

Duking It Out  —  Elijah Dukes hits two home runs tonight against the Dodgers.  He's scored three time and knocked in four as the Washington Nationals are blowing out the Dodgers 9-2 in the eighth.  Cristian Guzman is a triple short of the cycle as he drives in two.  —  Kershaw lasts just 2 1/3 innings, allowing five runs.

Future Shock  —  And in This Corner...  friendly  —  It really was the statement heard 'round the world, as from the time of its release until the end of the day, my phone has been burning in non-stop discussions with teams, agents, players, and other members of the media all looking to talk about the Pedro Alvarez situation.

ANOTHER NAIL IN YANKEES' COFFIN  —  BOMBERS LEAVE HANK STEWING AFTER DEBACLE  —  The Steinbrenner family and Jack Nicholson saw last night what a lot of other people have been looking at for a while: The end of the baseball world as a generation of Yankees know it.

Hank has eye on Sabathia, Burnett  —  Hank Steinbrenner is keeping his glimmer of hope for the postseason alive.  But that's not about to stop him from peeking ahead to some valuable pitchers he could pursue during the offseason - namely, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett.  —  Live Blog: Clock approaches midnight in Bronx