The good feelings disappeared in a New York minute  —  NEW YORK - The ancient house of horrors came back to bite the Red Sox in the butt one last time.  —  It was all going perfectly.  Theo Epstein was having a better week than Barack Obama, the Sox were positioned to sweep the Yankees off the playoff map …

Phillies, in need of left-handed bat, deal for Stairs … The Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to send Matt Stairs to the Phillies for a minor leaguer to be named later.  —  The trade, first reported by FOXSports.com, gives the Phillies a left-handed bat off the bench to replace the injured Geoff Jenkins.

Guzman hits for cycle  —  Shortstop accomplishes rare feat against Dodgers  —  WASHINGTON — Nationals shortstop Cristian Guzman hit for the cycle in an 11-2 victory over the Dodgers on Thursday night at Nationals Park.  —  Guzman is the second player in Nationals history to perform the feat.

Hank has eyes on Sabathia, Burnett for offseason  —  A day after promising that the Yankees will be busy in the offseason addressing their needs, Hank Steinbrenner yesterday named two pitchers in whom the Yankees have interest.  —  “Everybody's looking at [CC] Sabathia and [A.J.] Burnett …

Analysis: Alvarez case a personality clash?  —  Boras' history with Pirates, Coonelly set stage for mess  —  For all the ticking clocks, terse exchanges and now a full-blown drama between Major League Baseball and its players' union, it might be easy to lose sight of perhaps the most pivotal aspect of the Pirates' Pedro Alvarez saga:

Royals' Olivo expresses frustration with playing time, Hillman  —  Miguel Olivo is ticked.  Not even the guy known in some circles as “Smiley” can ignore it any longer.  —  “It's only, what, (29) more games?” he said.  “I'm going to do my best during that and that's it.”

Cashman still believes in Yankees' youth movement  —  Their 3-2 walk-off victory over the Red Sox allowed a little euphoria and relief into the Yankees' clubhouse for a day, but no one should kid himself.  There will be no sprint to the finish line for this team.

Prospect Hot Sheet: Aug. 29  —  Is the season almost over already?  Brett Wallace may wish that it could go on a little longer.  Just a couple of months ago he was playing for Arizona State, now he's in Double-A and leading Springfield to a playoff spot.  It's an amazing run …

The Quirks of NPB Pitching  —  It's been another busy week and I haven't had much time for baseball, so let's take a break from the NPB current events and take a look at some pitching.  —  If you've read this blog more than once, you might have observed that it's very pitching-centric.

Orioles to offer $1 tickets in Sept.  —  Tickets will be available in select section of upper deck for all 16 home games  —  The Orioles and MASN will offer $1 tickets in a select section of the upper deck at Camden Yards during the month of September, the team announced today in a news release.

MLB, umpire: Call against Aybar was wrong  —  ST. PETERSBURG — Upon further review, umpire Doug Eddings was wrong about the controversial obstruction call involving Willy Aybar in Sunday's game at Chicago.  —  Mike Port, MLB's vice president of umpiring, told the St. Petersburg Times …