Source: Florida Marlins to offer Bobby Valentine four-year deal; meeting set for Friday  —  Former Texas Rangers and New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine has confirmed he will fly to Florida on Friday night to meet with Marlins executives, including owner Jeffrey Loria, and discuss the club's managerial job.

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:

Pedroia's 3rd HR lifts Red Sox over Rockies in 10  —  DENVER—Dustin Pedroia was hitting the ball all over the place.  Most of all out of the yard.  —  Pedroia went 5 for 5 with three home runs, including a tiebreaking shot off Huston Street in the 10th inning, to lift the Boston Red Sox …

Gaston shuffles things up with Lind, Hill  —  Manager drops both struggling hitters in batting order  —  TORONTO — After nearly three months of watching sluggers Aaron Hill and Adam Lind struggle, Toronto manager Cito Gaston has finally seen enough.  —  Heading into Thursday night's contest …

Garza goes eight effective innings in Rays' win vs. Padres  —  ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Matt Garza (FSY) pitched eight effective innings, Kelly Shoppach (FSY) came within a triple of hitting for the cycle and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the San Diego Padres 5-3 on Thursday.

Beltran: ‘Everything came out good’  —  PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — New York Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran isn't ruling out the possibility of joining the team in Puerto Rico for a three-game set with the Marlins next week after what he called a successful step in his return from injury.

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 …

South Carolina sinks Oklahoma 3-2 in 12 innings at CWS  —  OMAHA (AP) — Brady Thomas singled in the winning run in the 12th inning and South Carolina eliminated Oklahoma from the College World Series with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.  —  The Gamecocks (50-16) were down to their last strike …

Santana Admitted Sex With Accuser  —  Cops: Star claimed act was consensual, portrayed woman as aggressor  —  As Florida police investigated a woman's claim that Johan Santana raped her last October on a golf course, the baseball star admitted to cops that he engaged in consensual sex with the woman …

Inbox: Is it time for big move from D-backs?  —  Beat reporter Gilbert answers fans' questions  —  What do you think about trading Dan Haren?  He is our most valuable player in my opinion and is under contract for a few more years.  —  For me, Carl, that depends on the answer to the question …

Rangers GM loses bet with streak at 10 … Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said on an ESPNDallas.com chat Thursday that he will honor his bet with shortstop Elvis Andrus and dye his hair now that the team's win streak has reached 10 games.  —  “I was hoping he'd forget, but no such luck,” Daniels said.