Four months after injury, Yanks' Wang fires pitch  —  TAMPA, Fla. — New York Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang threw 25 pitches Friday in his first throwing session off a bullpen mound since hurting his foot in June.  —  Wang partially tore a tendon and sprained his right foot running the bases during …

Somehow, Red Sox get magical  —  Somehow, out of nowhere, it became a game screaming and begging for a Dave Roberts moment.  —  Here were the Red Sox [team stats] last night and into the early morning at Fenway Park [map] trailing the Tampa Bay Rays 7-0 in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series …

A Stathead Considers Chemistry  —  With apologies to Elvis Costello (or whoever the line belongs to), writing about this game is like dancing about architecture.  —  You need more.  You need sounds, and feelings, and touch, and all the things that make an experience burn itself into memory.

Peavy trade derby: Padres court additional teams … San Diego pitcher Jake Peavy, the Cy Young Award winner currently being dangled in trade talks, initially indicated to the Padres that he would prefer a deal to one of five teams — Atlanta, St. Louis, the Chicago Cubs, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros.

Melvin expands search  —  Manager opening drawing interest  —  Boston - Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin now realizes just how much the Brewers have moved up in the baseball world.  —  Managerial candidates are calling him, instead of vice versa.  —  Melvin said Thursday …

Columbia pitches ‘Moneyball’ to Pitt  —  Zaillian to write, Frankel to direct adaptation  —  Brad Pitt is adding to his busy schedule by playing ball for Columbia.  —  Steve Zaillian has signed on to adapt Michael Lewis' nonfiction bestseller “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” and David Frankel is attached to direct.

“Jerry ‘Needs An Instruction’ Manuel” —Chris Berman (1955-2008)  —  KT covered some Manuel lunacy in the Gallimaufry, and there's more where that came from:  —  While the big offensive trio had respectable statistics or better, they didn't stop the September slide.

Looking at the candidates who spurned the Mariners  —  I spent 30 minutes or so on the telephone Thursday night with a longtime baseball executive who wanted to know what was going on in Seattle.  —  Specifically, he wanted to know why so many people at the assistant general manager level told …

Rick Knapp named Tigers pitching coach  —  DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers today announced the organization has hired Rick Knapp as the club's pitching coach.  —  Knapp joins the Tigers Major League coaching staff after spending the previous 12 seasons as the Minor League pitching coordinator for the Minnesota Twins.

Cubs, GM Hendry close to extension  —  The Cubs and general manager Jim Hendry are closing in on a multiyear extension that could help stabilize the team's baseball operations at a time the sale of the franchise is growing increasingly uncertain.  —  Hendry, who was in the final guaranteed year …