St. Louis right-hander Jake Westbrook, sidelined by an oblique strain, is hoping to get back into shape for possible bullpen duty in the postseason.

Buster Posey absorbed the impact from a Ryan Vogelsong curveball that skipped once in the dirt before striking him in the throat Friday, but remained in the game to play all nine innings and help the Giants outlast the San Diego Padres, 3-1.

Having survived a 20-game stretch in which they played 17 on the road, the A’s furthered their bid for a postseason berth by starting off their season-ending homestand with an 8-2 win against the Mariners on Friday night.

One year after being hired as Marlins manager, Ozzie Guillen said he wouldn’t change a thing if he had to do it all over again.

Mark Teixeira took six at-bats of batting practice on Friday in Tampa, Fla., and expects to play five innings in an instructional league game on Saturday.

Justin Upton’s two-run homer capped a three-run fifth inning and gave the D-backs a 8-3 win over the Cubs, picking up starter Ian Kennedy, who had an uneven outing.

Satisfaction is where you find it. The Citi Field folk found it in R.A. Dickey’s 20th victory on Thursday.

Jason Varitek’s special assistant job with the Red Sox will have him all over the place. He won’t be only a catching instructor or only a talent evaluator, and he’s likely to make plenty of stops outside of Boston and Fort Myers, Fla., too.

The fireworks kept coming in Friday night’s games, making playoff races tighter than ever. The Tigers’ two-game lead in the American League Central was cut in half after they took a 4-2 loss to the Twins.

Sitting in the home dugout at Petco Park, during a wide-ranging interview, Josh Byrnes talked in depth for the first time about what went wrong in Arizona and what is going right now in San Diego.

Each day, MLB.com selects one player from each game whose performance stands out.

Sometime during the Braves’ celebration for clinching a playoff spot Tuesday, second baseman Dan Uggla reached into a bin full of ice for a drink. Instead of finding what he wanted, Uggla cut his right hand and required stitches to stop the bleeding. Uggla played Wednesday and Thursday and doesn’t plan on missing any games.

Indians general manager Chris Antonetti confirmed on Friday that Sandy Alomar Jr. and Terry Francona are the only managerial candidates that the club is publicly announcing at this point.

An overflow crowd packed Turner Field on Friday night as the Braves honored Chipper Jones, who will retire at the conclusion of this season. Some of the notables sitting alongside Jones during the on-field pregame ceremony were his parents, former manager Bobby Cox, Hank Aaron and legendary scout Paul Snyder, who selected Jones first overall in the 1990 First-Year Player Draft.

Jon Niese capped his season with seven strong innings in Friday’s 3-1 victory over the Braves. Niese was in line for a hard-luck loss until Lucas Duda — on the ninth pitch of his at-bat, with a record crowd in a frenzy — drilled a go-ahead three-run homer off Braves starter Tim Hudson in the seventh.

On the night the Braves honored future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones in an emotional pregame ceremony, the Mets flipped the script on their longtime nemesis. Lucas Duda belted a go-ahead three-run homer off Tim Hudson in the seventh inning, sending the Braves to a 3-1 loss Friday.

Shin-Soo Choo aided a three-run second inning with the first of his two RBI doubles in the game as the Tribe rolled to an 8-5 victory over the Royals on Friday night in Sandy Alomar Jr.’s managerial debut.