Bill Buckner Strikes Again  —  The Boston Red Sox' odds of reaching the playoffs peaked on Sept. 3.  Following a 12-7 win against the Texas Rangers, they held a 9-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays with 24 games to play, giving them a 99.6 percent chance of making the post-season.

Splat  —  That's Red Sox owner John Henry's Tweet in the days just before his club inked outfielder Carl Crawford to a seven-year, $142 million contract, this despite the fact that Crawford's career numbers at Fenway Park were quite pedestrian ( .275 average, .301 OBP, .708 OPS) …

Playoffs ready to take flight for Yankees, Tigers  —  NEW YORK—After a long flight, a pre-dawn arrival and a workout that came all too soon, Derek Jeter is ready for the playoffs.  —  Almost.  First, a good night's sleep would be nice.  —  “Man, I got home at 4:30.

Petco Park claims another victim as Padres fire hitting coach Randy Ready  —  Earlier this season general manager Jed Hoyer tried to deflect criticism aimed at hitting coach Randy Ready for the Padres' offensive struggles, but today the team fired Ready after 2.5 seasons on the job.

Royals fire McClure, Gibbons from coaching staff  —  The Royals took their first step toward next season Thursday morning by announcing pitching coach Bob McClure and bench coach John Gibbons will not return in 2012 on manager Ned Yost's staff.  —  The dismissals came roughly 12 hours …

Kemp Makes History in LA's 7-5 Win Over D-Backs  —  PHOENIX (AP) — Matt Kemp hit a two-run homer to become the first Dodgers player in 70 years to lead the NL in home runs and RBIs, and Los Angeles held off a late rally to beat the playoff-bound Arizona Diamondbacks 7-5 on Wednesday night.

Bucs' summer excitement ended too early  —  Club looking to build upon strides made in first four months  —  PITTSBURGH — There are myriad ways to reflect upon the Pirates' 2011 season, which, though stamped as another losing campaign, was certainly unlike the 18 that had preceded it.

Baseball Night in America  —  Baseball, like life, revolves around anticlimax.  That, in many ways, is the beauty of it.  I realize that's a hard thing to explain to someone who doesn't love baseball.  No, more than hard, it's an impossible thing to explain, because many people want sports to be more than life.

Quick news and notes after the 2011 postmortem with Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy (18)  —  The sweet funk of formaldehyde is in the air, which means it must be time for the annual postmortem with Giants GM Brian Sabean and Manager Bruce Bochy.  —  I'll get to transcribing in a moment, but here is the short and quick breakdown:

Phillies history lesson: Who is Gene Mauch?  —  He arrived in Philadelphia in 1960 at age 34, the youngest manager in the Majors.  An unknown name certainly made a name for himself in his nine years as the Phillies' manager.  —  Gene Mauch was in the Phillies' record book for most games managed …