Red Sox, Braves Lead by Only 1 Game With 3 to Play  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Never in the long history of Major League Baseball has any team held a lead in September of eight games or more for a postseason berth and failed to clinch.  —  Got that?  Never happened.  Not even once.

Yanks prez: Team wants Cashman back as GM  —  NEW YORK — After a successful regular season, the New York Yankees would like Brian Cashman to remain as the team's general manager beyond this year.  —  “Clearly, we want him back,” Yankees president Randy Levine told ESPNNewYork.com.

2011 New York-Penn League Top 20 Prospects  —  With negotiations with most premium 2011 draftees dragging late into the summer, the short-season New York-Penn League lacked its usual college star power this summer.  Instead, most of the circuit's top prospects were 2010 high school draftees or international players.

BoSox stop Yanks to pad wild card lead  —  The Red Sox salvaged their AL wild-card lead Sunday when Jacoby Ellsbury hit a two-out, three-run homer in the 14th inning of the nightcap of a day-night doubleheader, lifting Boston over the New York Yankees 7-4.  —  The Red Sox rallied from a 3- deficit …

Matt Kemp's NL triple-crown ambitions take hit in Dodgers' win  —  SAN DIEGO — At one point during the Los Angeles Dodgers' 8-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday, a fan at Petco Park shouted at Matt Kemp.  —  “Braun got two hits!” the fan alerted him.  “Braun got two hits!”

Source: Frustrated Marlins to consider trading underperforming Nolasco  —  Nolasco in his final start took the loss after giving up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits in two-plus innings to Brewers.  —  MILWAUKEE — Ricky Nolasco's season ended Sunday.  So perhaps did his tenure with the Marlins.

Ten worst career-ending performances of all time  —  It's that time of the year again.  The regular season is winding down, and with it quite a few major league careers will come to an end.  —  Everyone wants to go off with a nice storybook ending where you get the bit hit or throw …

Distressing day, that's for sure  —  ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - We are reeling.  Our world no longer makes sense.  The Patriots can't even beat the Buffalo Bills anymore.  —  In a skittish September of cataclysmic Red Sox freefall, we still had the Patriots over the Bills.

Phillies end eight-game losing streak in romp over Mets  —  NEW YORK — Roy Halladay, Hunter Pence and the fully loaded Philadelphia Phillies snapped their eight-game losing streak, looking playoff-ready in every way Sunday by routing the New York Mets 9-4.  —  Playing their regular lineup …

Well-stocked bullpen gives Rockies some trade options  —  Contact: 303-954-1301 or trenck@ denverpost.com  —  HOUSTON — The Rockies' season is measured more by MRIs than RBIs.  It has been an unmitigated disaster, with injuries and underwhelming performances siphoning any and all optimism.

Orioles Fall to Tigers 10-6  —  DETROIT (AP) — Brian Matusz is in line to break a record held by Roy Halladay — but it's not a very flattering one.  —  Matusz gave up six runs and seven hits in five innings Sunday in Baltimore's 10-6 loss to the Detroit Tigers.

Kuroda uncertain as to future in LA or Japan  —  SAN DIEGO — Hiroki Kuroda has been told that the Japanese media is speculating that he'll return to Japan to pitch a farewell season with Hiroshima in 2012.  —  “It's amazing that something I don't know, someone else knows,” said Kuroda …