Contractually, the marriage between Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees runs through 2017, but as the three-time American League Most Valuable Player unhappily sat before Game 4 of the AL Championship Series was rained out Wednesday night, you have to wonder if they will actually make it that far.

With the Giants having lost two of the first three games in the NLCS, and with Tim Lincecum giving signs he has regained his ability to dominate hitters in three postseason relief outings, Madison Bumgarner has found himself the odd man out in the rotation.

A first-inning knee injury to Carlos Beltran thrust Matt Carpenter into the No. 2 spot in the lineup, from where he delivered a go-ahead home run that the Cardinals rode to a 3-1 win over San Francisco in Game 3 of the NLCS.

A company owned by Dodgers right-hander Josh Beckett is suing a pipeline builder regarding work on a South Texas ranch, which the company claims ruined the habitat of the endangered ocelot, according to The Associated Press.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, a five-time NBA champion, called Alex Rodriguez this week after the Yankees’ third baseman’s postseason struggles continued, according to ESPNLosAngeles.com.

The Giants and Cardinals were going about their business as usual on Wednesday, with weather threatening to affect Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.

The alarm buzzed at 2:30 a.m. CT at the Carpenter residence in Prosper, Texas, on Wednesday. An hour later, Rick and Tammie Carpenter were on the road to St. Louis, with no idea that their oldest son was about to do something really special.

The Orioles are coming off their first winning season in 15 years, a 2012 campaign that saw the city host its first playoff game since 1997. Dylan Bundy is one of the young arms that has the club excited for 2013.

With his gem Tuesday night, Justin Verlander notched his third start of at least seven innings pitched and no more than four hits allowed this postseason, one short of the mark for a single playoff year.

In the sixth inning of Game 3, the Tigers had the bases loaded with Miguel Cabrera at the plate.

Former Major League third baseman Eddie Yost, who led the American League in walks six times during his 18-year career passed away on Tuesday at the age of 86.

If this uniquely unpredictable postseason has taught us anything, it’s that being one win away, or even one strike away, does not mean being all the way there.

Justin Verlander is so poised and so confident and so utterly dominant at the moment that even on a night like this one, a night when he struggled with his command and his rhythm, a night when he actually gave up an earned run, he still did what he needed to do.

To come back from an 0-3 deficit in the American League Championship Series, it is imperative for the Yankees to do the things that got them here.

Angels starter C.J. Wilson is set to undergo arthroscopic surgery to clean out his left elbow next Tuesday, general manager Jerry Dipoto said.

An ice-cold offense and a red-hot Justin Verlander proved a bad combination for the Yankees on Tuesday as one of baseball’s top-hitting regular-season teams continued a postseason struggle that is beginning to reach historical depths.

Where the Yankees find themselves — a road ballpark with no margin for error in the ALCS — cliches are applicable. They are focused on taking things one game at a time.