Pirates fire manager Tracy, 3 in front office  —  The Pirates today fired manager Jim Tracy after two losing seasons, as well as director of baseball operations Jon Mercurio, director of player development Brian Graham and scouting director Ed Creech.  —  Tracy, 51, went 135-189 …

Duquette resigns from O's  —  Unhappy with role, O's VP will pursue front office position elsewhere  —  Unsatisfied with his role in the Orioles' front office, vice president Jim Duquette resigned today after two seasons with the club.  Duquette had one year left on his contract …

Game One Report, Yankees versus Indians  —  CLEVELAND—Ryan Garko had never played in a playoff game in the major leagues prior to Thursday night.  Nevertheless, the Indians first baseman knew one basic tenet about postseason play: "I know that what happens in the regular season has no bearing on what happens now," Garko said.

ALDS Game 2: Yankees at Indians  —  Here are the lineups:  —  YANKEES  —  Damon LF  —  Jeter SS  —  Abreu RF  —  Rodriguez 3B  —  Matsui DH  —  Posada C  —  Cano 2B  —  Cabrera CF  —  Mientkiewicz 1B  —  Pettitte LHP  —  INDIANS  —  Sizemore CF  —  Cabrera 2B  —  Hafner DH

Dice-K to make postseason debut  —  After roller-coaster year, righty ready to write new chapter  —  BOSTON — Daisuke Matsuzaka is in the ideal spot to find success in his postseason debut Friday night.  —  After Josh Beckett's dominating performance in Wednesday night's 4-0 Red Sox win …

Read: Fixing the Mets  —  At his blog for ESPN.com, Peter Gammons provides a listing of what the Mets should do this off-season.  —  Gammons believes the Mets should learn from their failure to maintain their seven-game lead down the stretch by looking at the their division foe to the south, the Phillies, writing...

Diamondbacks top Cubs, take Game 2  —  If you saw just one moment, one play, from this game or this series, the full-count pitch from Ted Lilly to Chris Young in the second inning Thursday night would satisfy outcome and circumstance, pathos and bravado.  —  It was a snapshot moment in a series …

Angels pregame chat  —  In an attempt to punch up his hitting order, which was held scoreless after getting just four hits (all scattered singles) off Game 1 winner Josh Beckett, Angels manager Mike Scioscia yesterday went with switch-hitting Kendry Morales as his designated hitter …

Gnats in the Playoffs  —  The Nats didn't make the NLDS, but the gnats are out in force in the bottom of the eighth in Cleveland.  They're all over the players and Chamberlain walks Sizemore on four pitches.  That's six out of eight innings in which the leadoff hitter reached for Cleveland.

2008 NL Projected Rosters (2)  —  Milwaukee  —  That the Brewers came up a little short in their breakthrough season had much to do with the bullpen and the defense.  The club is in the great position of not needing any starting pitching help.  In fact, with Carlos Villanueva …

The Yankees Super Secret Hotel Aliases Revealed  —  If you want a sense of the zeal with which Yankees front-office employees were shoveling as many receipts at taxpayers as possible in 2005 (as reported in this week's Voice), look no further than this: Accidentally included in a stack …