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.

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:

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 …

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.”

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 …

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.

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 …

Cashman Takes the Blame for Yanks' ‘Brutal Baseball’  —  Brian Cashman was not ready to itemize what has gone wrong with his design for the Yankees.  There will be time for that soon enough, unless they make an unlikely surge to the postseason.  —  But Cashman, the general manager …