A night after an ugly fracas in Los Angeles, the D-backs and Dodgers battled for 12 innings before Arizona managed to win, 8-6, and claim the heated three-game series.

The announcement that the D-backs and Dodgers will open the 2014 regular season with a pair of games in Sydney on March 22-23 feels like an appropriate next step in growing the sport.

On a muggy Wednesday night at Rangers Ballpark, the Indians pulled off a 5-2 victory over Texas that resembled the kind of win that had gone missing during the Tribe’s recent losing streak.

International season openers aren’t new for Major League Baseball. But in 2014, the sport will literally extend its reach further than ever before when the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks square off in Australia. The historic two-game series will be held March 22-23 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Nick LeGrande — a 13-year-old A’s fan with a rare blood disorder — threw out the first pitch in Oakland on Wednesday from an indoor miniature ballpark at his home in Kansas City, thanks to the use of Google’s telerobotic pitching machine at the Coliseum.

The Cardinals have reached agreements with each of their top three Draft picks — left-handers Marco Gonzales and Rob Kaminsky and shortstop Oscar Mercado — MLB.com has learned.

It has been a strange year for the defending World Series champions, with the offense carrying a struggling starting rotation. However, injuries to key hitters will force the Giants to get more from their starters.

Every lineup, every day, as they are made public by the clubs.

Everybody wants to be the hero. Whether natural instinct or shrewd scheming, players tend to plot out what sequence will allow for them to contribute with the game on the line. When a walk-off win is within reach, the wheels start spinning.

For a sport that has experienced delays and postponements ranging from bees and midges to hurricanes and earthquakes, this baseball season has been subjected to an impressive run of interruptions from Mother Nature: A total of 30 weather-related postponements so far, or nine more than all of last year.

Mariners starter Aaron Harang, 35, tossed a two-hit shutout vs. the Astros on Tuesday, becoming the fifth-oldest pitcher since 1916 to have a shutout with no more than two hits allowed, at least 10 K’s, and no walks.

Tuesday night’s game between the Dodgers and D-backs deteriorated into a beanbrawl in the sixth and seventh innings, as Ian Kennedy hit Yasiel Puig in the nose with a fastball, Zack Greinke retaliated by hitting Miguel Montero in the back with a pitch and Kennedy further retaliated by hitting Greinke in the shoulder with a pitch.

In a game marred by hit-by-pitches, ejections and benches-clearing incidents, Tim Federowicz sent the Dodgers home happy with a three-run double in the eighth inning for a stirring win over the D-backs on Tuesday night.

The A’s recovered from their first back-to-back losses since mid-May to defeat the Yankees, 6-4, on Tuesday night at the Coliseum behind four RBIs from Derek Norris and six scoreless innings from Bartolo Colon.

Right-hander Andrew Cashner allowed two runs on six hits over eight strong innings as the Padres edged the Braves, 3-2, Tuesday at Petco Park, clinching the three-game series.

In his third game since a longer-than-expected demotion to Triple-A, Tyler Colvin launched a two-run homer that began a five-run fifth inning and a two-run homer in the eighth to put the game out of reach in the Rockies’ 8-3 victory over the Nationals on Tuesday night at Coors Field.

Veteran right-hander Aaron Harang bounced back in a big way Tuesday night with a two-hit shutout, and Raul Ibanez launched his 13th home run of the year as the Mariners topped the Astros, 4-0.