Welcome Mat rolls D-Rays  —  Hideki back with 4 hits  —  The Yankees' lineup already was long on star power and sheer power, when Hideki Matsui's return and Gary Sheffield's continued progress prompted Joe Torre to boast "there's no question you can never have too much talent."

14 in a row: 'You knew the end was coming'  —  ATLANTA (AP) — It had to end sometime.  —  How about 1992?  The Atlanta Braves were coming off their worst-to-first season, surely a fluke if there ever was one.  They were perennially one of baseball's worst teams, the guys who passed …

Maine squeeze to pen possible  —  MIAMI - Willie Randolph said he may use John Maine in the bullpen the final week of the season, giving him some comfort level there in case the Mets need him in that role in October.  —  "Right now he's starting Sunday.  After that we'll see where we are," the manager said.

Wakefield takes on Orioles in return  —  Boston (77-67) at Baltimore (62-81), 7:05 p.m. ET  —  After nearly two months of being sidelined, veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield will be back on the mound Wednesday night at Camden Yards, when the Red Sox play the second game of this three-game series against the Orioles.

Lots of reasons why it ended for Braves  —  When you finish first 14 times over 14 completed seasons, you assume every year is your year.  For the imperial Braves, this one finally wasn't.  The Mets made it official Tuesday night, winning in Florida to eliminate the Braves from the NL East race.

Liriano exits early  —  Twins lefthander Francisco Liriano is expected to miss the rest of the season after injuring his left elbow on Wednesday for the second time in six weeks.  —  Liriano left the game in the third inning after throwing a pitch to Oakland's Bobby Kielty.

Baker: 'Wildest game I've ever seen'  —  Watches Cubs overcome 6 errors, win on Izturis' single  —  Carlos Zambrano was asked before Tuesday's game why he didn't want to shut down for the rest of the year.  —  "First of all, I don't want this team to get 100 losses," Zambrano replied.

Papi don't preach much sense in MVP rant  —  Derek Jeter admitted to noticing the "M-V-P" chants had never been as loud, never come as early as they did last night.  It was as if the first time he came to the plate, Yankee fans decided to send a message to David Ortiz.

The myth of clutch  —  With the MVP races in both leagues going down the wire, you are going to hear and read a lot about "big hits" and "clutchness" in the next few weeks.  The eventual winners probably will have some type of signature moment — a walkoff home run, most likely — to hang his campaign on.

One Enchanted Evening  —  As I was taking notes during last night's games, I was thinking that today's column would be about "a night at the races."  You had key games up and down the scoreboard, with the AL Central, AL wild card, NL West and NL wild card being contested, albeit not in head-to-head action.