Cubs' Lilly cheats, busted by Twitter  —  It's not often that you see a runner on first base arguing with the first-base umpire.  But that's exactly what happened in the bottom of the sixth inning at Wrigley Field today, as Casey Blake got into it with crew chief John Hirschbeck.

Mets zero in, shut out Phils for 3rd straight day  —  NEW YORK (AP) Mike Pelfrey and the New York Mets zeroed in once again.  —  Pelfrey and the Mets bullpen pulled off a most extraordinary pitching feat in this big-hitting era, shutting out Philadelphia for the third straight game Thursday night …

Major League Baseball investigating Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, Mark Buehrle and umpire Joe West incident … Major League Baseball will investigate the actions that took place Wednesday in Cleveland when Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and pitcher Mark Buehrle were ejected by umpire Joe West.

Rockies go back-to-back-to-back in rout of Arizona  —  For the first time in more than month, they had the brooms out in the Coors Field stands Thursday.  And for the first time all season, they produced the desired result.  —  The Rockies' 8-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks gave …

Kubel belts two homers, powers Twins over Yankees  —  MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Jason Kubel (FSY) ended Minnesota's long power drought in a big way, belting two home runs and driving in five runs in the Twins' 8-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday night.

Lidge throws, could return Monday  —  NEW YORK — Phillies closer Brad Lidge said he had another good bullpen session before Thursday's game against the New York Mets at Citi Field.  —  He said he plans to make a rehab appearance Saturday with Class A Clearwater.

RYAN HELPS CARDINALS AVOID SWEEP BY PADRES  —  The Sports Network  —  San Diego, CA (Sports Network) - Brendan Ryan finished with a season-high four hits, including a home run, as the St. Louis Cardinals avoided getting swept by the San Diego Padres with an 8-3 win.

Rumblings and Grumblings: Under-the-radar acquisitions that have sparked teams  —  Scott Rolen to the Reds and Colby Lewis to the Rangers among the key acquisitions  —  It's the stuff that happened this past winter while everybody else was digesting the 1,000th Roy Halladay trade rumor of the week.

A's rally past Orioles  —  Kouzmanoff doubles in 3 runs in 5-run 8th inning, leading Oakland past Baltimore 7-5  —  The Oakland Athletics needed a bit of luck to put Kevin Kouzmanoff in position to finish off an eighth-inning uprising.  —  Kouzmanoff made sure all that good fortune didn't go to waste.

News and notes from Fenway: Ellsbury's ribs OK but sore  —  The MRIs and CT scan taken in Tampa Bay on Jacoby Ellsbury's ribs were reviewed by the Sox medical team and indications are that Ellsbury did not suffer a new injury or re-injury to his ribs according to a team source.

Minor League Transactions  —  Check out the Transactions Glossary for the key to deciphering the various inactive lists presented here.  —  An asterisk (*) denotes an instance of a player agreeing to terms on a minor league contract with an organization with which he already had a major league agreement.