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Albany, NY – Well with just one game to play in the baseball regular season, both wild card playoff spots are still up for grabs...
Last night in Baltimore, rookie Ryan Lavarnway homered twice to power Boston past the Orioles 8-7. The Red Sox, who improved to just 7-19 this month with the win, remain tied in the American League Wild Card race with Tampa Bay, who downed the Yankees 5-3. The sputtering Red Sox have blown a nine-game lead over the past three and a half weeks.
Elsewhere in the AL, Detroit outlasted Cleveland 9-6, Texas trounced the Angels 10-3, the White Sox doubled up Toronto 2-1, Oakland blanked Seattle 7-0, and Minnesota held off Kansas City 7-4.
Over to the NL, in Houston, Ryan Theriot smacked a tie-breaking, two-run triple in the seventh, as the Cardinals dumped the Astros 13-6. St. Louis is now tied for the NL Wild Card lead with Atlanta, who lost to Philadelphia 7-1. The Braves have squandered away an eight and a half game lead over the past three weeks.
Elsewhere, Milwaukee knocked off Pittsburgh 6-4, Arizona dropped the Dodgers 7-6 in 10, San Francisco clobbered Colorado 7-0, Cincinnati edged the Mets 5-4 in 13, Florida got by Washington 3-2, and the Cubs topped San Diego 6-2.
In other baseball news, Ozzie Guillen announced via Twitter he'll be managing the Florida Marlins next season. However, with no official word from the club, Guillen deleted the Tweet.
The Mets are preventing the Yankees from temporarily putting their Triple-A team in Newark, New Jersey, while the team's regular field in Scranton, Pennsylvania undergoes a year of renovations. The Mets invoked their territorial rights to nix a new Yankees affiliate in the area, even temporarily.
And in NBA news, negotiators for the league and its players met for about two hours on Tuesday and will talk again today in an effort to end the lockout that has lasted nearly three months.
I'm Tristan O'Neill, WAMC News.