Shooting the breeze with Brewers owner  —  MILWAUKEE  —  The Brewers are eight games under .500 and eight games back in the National League Central.  —  But their owner, Mark Attanasio, isn't about to concede.  —  Attanasio was upbeat and optimistic during a lengthy interview …

Carlos Zambrano goes nuts in the Cubs-White Sox game  —  Today's starter Carlos Zambrano went nuts during the first inning of today's Cubs-White Sox game, after which he was removed from the game by Lou Piniella and asked to leave the ballpark.  —  The details: The first batter he faced was Juan Pierre …

Dodgers should gamble on trading Kemp  —  Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005.  He appears weekly on MLB on FOX.  Follow him on Twitter.  —  The Dodgers are in a box.  —  Their starting pitching is not good enough for the team to win the NL West, much less advance in the postseason.

New York Mets not eager to trade Angel Pagan, view him as insurance policy for Carlos Beltran  —  The Seattle Mariners still had not made pitcher Cliff Lee available as of Thursday, and had given no indication they will in the near future, according to major league sources.

BLUE JAYS' MORROW COMING INTO HIS OWN  —  Sports Network  —  Toronto, Canada (Sports Network) - Brandon Morrow appears to be doing his best Roy Halladay impression of late.  Though you could argue that the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander is simply, finally, being himself.

Close-knit Uptons to compete for first time  —  Parents of B.J., Justin cheer for both sons to do well in series  —  ST. PETERSBURG — The Upton brothers will compete against each other for the first time in any organized sport Friday night when the Rays host the D-backs at Tropicana Field.

Jeter will have his cake — and eat it, too  —  The Captain turns 36 years young Saturday, with no real signs of slowing down … Starting Saturday, Derek Jeter will need to tweak his own company line.  Over the past 12 months he has met inquiries about his baseball mortality with this question of his own:

Pirates frustrated with sweep by sizzling Texas  —  Tempers flare as Rangers prevail, 6-5, on Guerrero's walkoff single  —  ARLINGTON , Texas — Never bet against a streak, as they say.  —  The Pirates had chance after chance after chance to bury Texas, but the Rangers gained their only lead …

Tejada carries Orioles to 11-5 win over Marlins  —  BALTIMORE—Miguel Tejada had a season-high four hits, ended a long home run drought and drove in four runs to lead the Baltimore Orioles past the Florida Marlins 11-5 Thursday night.  —  Tejada singled in a run and scored in the third inning …

Castro on his way as Reddick optioned  —  To shore up their pitching staff after last night's slugfest, the Sox have recalled lefty Fabio Castro from Triple-A Pawtucket and optioned OF Josh Reddick back to the minors.  —  This from the release:

ONCE AGAIN, LOWELL'S HIP THROWS A WRENCH  —  It was the hip all along.  —  Discomfort in Mike Lowell's surgically repaired right hip resulted in the corner infielder heading to the disabled list on Thursday.  The move represented the latest derailment by the joint to the four-time All-Star's 2010 season …

Dusty Baker not inspiring faith as Reds go toe-to-toe with Cardinals … Coming off a sweep of the A's in Oakland, the Reds look more and more like serious challengers to the Cardinals in the NL Central.  While it was their pitching that got the job done in Oakland — three quality starts …