Red Sox fire Dombrowski one season after title  —  The Boston Red Sox fired president Dave Dombrowski on Sunday.  The team plans to elevate assistant general manager Eddie Romero to lead its baseball-operations department, sources told ESPN.  —  Dombrowski, 63, was the architect behind …

MLB playoff picture: Updated look at division, wild card races  —  With less than three weeks remaining in the Major League Baseball regular season, the playoff picture is starting to take shape.  —  The Los Angeles Dodgers are cruising with a 17.5-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks …

Rangers shut down flame-throwing prospect, but not for a setback.  He was throwing 102 mph  —  Nick Solak, Kolby Allard, Brock Burke, Emmanuel Clase, Jose Trevino.  —  Encouraging, encouraging, encouraging, encouraging, encouraging.  —  All five have made a case, albeit in a very small sample sizes …

Noah Syndergaard confronts Mets bosses over Wilson Ramos frustration  —  Noah Syndergaard, simmering all season about his inability to convince Mets brass to line him up with his preferred catchers, became livid over the weekend when he had to throw again to Wilson Ramos rather than Rene Rivera or Tomas Nido …

Pete Alonso launches 2 solo homers in a vital win over the Diamondbacks  —  Can Aaron Judge feel Pete Alonso breathing down his neck yet?  —  The Mets rookie is on pace to crush 53 home runs before the calendar flips to October.  And he's charging ahead to overtake Judge's rookie record in the process.

Some tall tales from Rays games in Texas stadium that's closing  —  Rays have had some big wins, a most memorable debut, and some hot times at what's now called Globe Life Park.  —  Updated Yesterday  —  ARLINGTON, Texas — There's not going to be a party or even a toast …

Hoerner makes Cubs history with 3 hits, 4 RBIs  —  SAN DIEGO — Chicago Cubs shortstop prospect Nico Hoerner was on his couch in Northern California on Sunday.  —  On Monday, he was making history.  —  Hoerner became the second Cub since 1920 to debut with at least three hits and four RBIs in a 10-2 win over the San Diego Padres.

Proposed Atlantic League mound distance change creates uncertainty for players and league  —  Garrett Granitz doesn't buy into professional baseball's velocity obsession.  In fact, he occupies a niche created by it.  —  Instead of trying to blow fastballs by batters like many professional …

Bieber thrills his local fans in Indians' 6-2 win over Halos  —  Shane Bieber pitched seven stellar innings of five-hit ball in his first career start at his hometown stadium, and rookie  —  Yu Chang hit his first major league homer in the  —  Cleveland Indians' 6-2 victory over the

Marcus Stroman has his worst start as a Met in loss to Phillies  —  The Mets' Marcus Stroman gambit is not paying off.  —  Six weeks ago, they added Stroman to and subtracted Jason Vargas from their rotation.  It was mostly with an eye toward 2020, but they also were curious about how that upgrade …