Ortiz to Girardi on bat flip: Take it like a man  —  NEW YORK — David Ortiz on Wednesday night had a message for New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who had said he didn't care for the way the Boston Red Sox slugger had flipped his bat after hitting a home run Tuesday: “Take it like a man.”

Red Sox wait to hear on Dustin Pedroia  —  NEW YORK — Dustin Pedroia's appointment with Dr. Tom Gill was at 4:30 p.m. today.  Terry Francona is waiting to hear the result.  —  Francona expressed confidence that Pedroia would be in the lineup tomorrow.  But a few seconds later admitted …

Royals calling up 3B Mike Moustakas  —  KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For three years Kansas City Royals fans have waited to see Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer, their heralded first-round picks of 2007 and '08, on the field together in Kauffman Stadium.  —  Now it's about to happen.

Young homers as Diamondbacks shut out Pirates  —  PITTSBURGH — Chris Young hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning, four Arizona pitchers combined for a five-hit shutout and the Diamondbacks snapped a three-game losing streak with a 2-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday night.

Yanks' Joba has ligament tear; year likely over  —  NEW YORK — Yankees setup man Joba Chamberlain has a torn ligament in his right elbow, manager Joe Girardi announced Thursday.  He is likely going to miss the remainder of the season.  —  “My guess is he probably is going to have to have surgery,” Girardi said.

A's dump Geren, name Melvin interim … OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Oakland Athletics fired manager Bob Geren on Thursday in the midst of a nine-game losing streak that has sent them tumbling to the bottom of the AL West standings.  —  “It felt like at this point a change was necessary,” general manager Billy Beane said.

Alex Avila, Justin Verlander lead Tigers past Mariners  —  DETROIT - Alex Avila hit two triples and Justin Verlander pitched eight strong innings as the Detroit Tigers beat the Seattle Mariners 4-1 on Thursday night.  —  Verlander (7-3) struck out a season-best 10 while allowing one run on five hits.

Jurrjens leads Braves to rare sweep of Marlins  —  MIAMI — Jair Jurrjens threw seven solid innings and drove in a run as the Atlanta Braves handed the Florida Marlins their eighth straight loss with a 3-2 win Thursday night.  —  Alex Gonzalez also drove in a run with a double as the Braves completed …

Even rally can't get monkey off Angels' backs  —  Manager Mike Scioscia grows more frustrated after Angels waste chances and lose fifth in a row.  —  The longer the postgame interview went on, the more Mike Scioscia's voice filled with ire.  —  The Angels manager has stressed patience during …

Morgan didn't know he won game  —  By Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel  —  Does it count as a walk-off if you don't know you won the game?  —  The answer is yes but Nyjer Morgan wasn't sure at first why his teammates were running onto the field to mob him.

Assessing the new managers … Wednesday night was a rough one for a trio of managers in one of the largest and best classes of managers in their first full year with new teams.  Terry Collins' Mets relief corps blew a 6-2 lead late in a 7-6 defeat to the Brewers, the Braves' Fredi Gonzalez …

Never too early to look ahead to Class of 2012  —  College pitchers, high school hitters look to be strengths of Draft  —  Now that the 2011 First-Year Player Draft is over and done with, it's time to look ahead to the Class of 2012.  —  It might seem too far in the future …

BOW TIE OF THE WEEK  —  See what this bow tie represents, have a look at some of the others Ken Rosenthal has worn this season and find out what this all means.  —  Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since August 2005.  He appears weekly on MLB on FOX.

Jim Northrup career highlights  —  Yesterday, sad news broke in the baseball world: Former Tigers outfielder Jim Northrup died at age 71 of Alzheimer's disease.  —  Though he was no one's idea of a Hall of Famer and never an All-Star, he did have a rather impressive career.

Beltran has green light on basepaths  —  MILWAUKEE — In 59 games this season, Carlos Beltran has matched his career norms in every major area but one: stolen bases.  Once one of the game's more prolific basestealers — he swiped 25 bags as recently as 2008 — Beltran has not attempted …

Frank McCourt will make next Dodgers' payroll  —  Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt will meet his club's June 15 payroll obligations, according to a baseball official with knowledge of the situation, but not authorized to speak publicly on it.  —  McCourt was also in danger of missing …