Facing his former teammates for the first time, Red Sox right-hander Jake Peavy beat the White Sox, 7-2, on Saturday night at Fenway Park. Peavy allowed two runs over seven innings, while a balanced offense handed John Danks the loss.

With the Pirates closing in on their first winning season since 1992, and in the mix for a playoff berth, Bucs fans are in for a wild ride.

The Giants went into Saturday with the worst winning percentage (.448) of a defending World Series champion other than the Marlins, who went 54-108 (.333) in 1998 after winning it all the year before.

Jed Lowrie extended his career-high hitting streak to 12 games with a go-ahead double in the eighth inning to give the Athletics a 4-3 series-opening win on Friday night over the Rays at O.co Coliseum.

Angel Pagan doubled in his return from an 84-game disabled-list stint and Tim Lincecum threw six scoreless innings thanks to a key defensive play by Pablo Sandoval in the Giants’ series-opening 1-0 win over the D-backs on Friday.

Adrian Gonzalez homered twice and drove in four runs, Yasiel Puig had four hits and Hyun-Jin Ryu added an RBI double to 6 1/3 solid innings on the mound to earn his 13th victory as the National League West-leading Dodgers thumped the Padres in Los Angeles.

There’s a feeling in the ballpark when a home team is in the postseason hunt. It’s a feeling that has been experienced before in Pittsburgh in the past, just not quite like this, and not with this backdrop. Starting in Pittsburgh and ranging from Boston to the Bronx and Oakland to L.A., games that mattered were all over the place.

Todd Helton crushed a pair of three-run homers Friday, his six RBIs powering the Rockies to a 9-6 victory over the Reds at Coors Field.

With Friday’s 7-2 Tigers win at Comerica Park — called after an hour, nine-minute rain delay that ended play after seven innings — Detroit now has a 7 1/2-game lead on Cleveland in the AL Central.

Jered Weaver pitched six shutout innings, Grant Green hit a key three-run double and the Angels beat the Brewers, 5-0, at Miller Park on Friday to win for the sixth time in the first seven games of this road trip.

Extra rest might have been just what the doctor ordered for Ryan Dempster, who allowed three runs over 6 1/3 innings to lead the Red Sox to a 4-3 victory over the White Sox on Friday night.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland knew Miguel Cabrera wanted to play against Cleveland, despite his abdominal strain. But after Cabrera lasted just two innings of Friday’s opener before his second consecutive early exit, Leyland and the Tigers might be weighing whether to sit him to get him right.

Hard-throwing right-hander Taijuan Walker pitched five innings of two-hit ball on Friday as the Mariners’ premier pitching prospect won his Major League debut in a 7-1 victory over the Astros. Dustin Ackley went 4-for-5 with four RBIs.

Julio Teheran minimized damage during a potentially disastrous third inning, and Freddie Freeman supplied all of the necessary support with a two-run, first-inning home run that doomed Jose Fernandez and helped the Braves claim Friday night’s 2-1 win over the Marlins at Turner Field.

Friday’s offensive outburst was enough to overcome another poor outing from CC Sabathia and propel the Yankees to a critical 8-5 victory over an Orioles team that now sits just a half game ahead of them for third place in the Wild Card standings.

Matt Kemp played seven innings in center field on Friday in his second Minor League rehab game with Class A Rancho Cucamonga, his biggest test yet for a sprained left ankle that has kept him on the disabled list for five weeks.

Bryce Harper has become one of the most popular players in baseball because of the intensity that he brings to every play. But with two on and two outs in the eighth inning of Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Mets, that intensity was lacking.