"Playing significant games in September" has been a mantra among Rays players and management the past several years. Well, they don't get as significant as the 10 remaining on the team's 2011 slate.

The Royals will officially begin planning for the 2012 All-Star Game with a pair of meetings with Major League Baseball on Monday and Tuesday.

Brewers veteran Craig Counsell says Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder have a chance to make the leap from productive, well-respected players to October legends. Is this the year?

Ian Kennedy will go for his 20th win of the season Monday night against the Pirates at Chase Field, but despite his level of success this season, he has flown under the radar in many ways.

The Fu-Manchu mustache and the mutton-chop sideburns. The full-body windup and the over-the-top delivery. The ebullient, sometimes offbeat personality. Those are some of the memories people who saw Luis Clemente Tiant Jr. pitch recall fondly.

Everybody has an opinion on the value equation that decides what, exactly, makes an MVP. Pardon Jose Bautista if his definition of value happens to lead him to be particularly supportive of, well, Jose Bautista.

The last starting pitcher to win a Most Valuable Player award was Roger Clemens in 1986. Before him, Vida Blue in 1971. Justin Verlander could join them. Should he?

Albert Pujols hit a two-run homer in the first, and Allen Craig added two blasts as the Cardinals backed Chris Carpenter to a 5-0 win over the Phillies, moving them to within 3 1/2 games of the Braves for the NL Wild Card.

The Cardinals are trying to rally to a Wild Card berth, and they send Kyle Lohse to the hill Monday in the finale of a four-game set. Standing in their way, though, are the Phillies and their ace, Roy Halladay.

Rockies right-hander Kevin Millwood is 10 years older than Padres lefty Cory Luebke, but both pitchers find themselves heading into Monday's series opener with something to prove.

The Dodgers unleashed a punishing 23-hit assault Sunday and returned to .500 by crushing the Pirates, 15-1. On Fan Appreciation Day, Matt Kemp was removed at the start of the sixth inning to chants of "M-V-P" from the Dodger Stadium crowd.

Justin Verlander won his team-record 12th straight start and captured his big league-best 24th victory as the Tigers beat the A's, 3-0, in Sunday's finale at the Coliseum.

On paper, this isn't the same team that carried the American League's best record for much of the summer. But despite seeing their AL Wild Card lead cut to two Sunday, the Red Sox aren't in panic mode.

Matt Harrison once again outpitched Mariners ace Felix Hernandez and the Rangers held on for a 3-0 victory over the Mariners on Sunday to keep a 4 1/2-game lead in the AL West.

Rays lefty David Price was cruising in his third inning of scoreless ball against the Red Sox on Sunday when he was hit in the chest by a liner. Price suffered an upper right chest bruise and came out after four innings for precautionary reasons.

The Astros overcame a series of obstacles in the eighth inning — the weather, a misplayed fly ball by outfielder Brian Bogusevic and a big swing of the bat by Cubs slugger Carlos Pena — in holding on to beat the Cubs, 3-2, on Sunday, snapping their three-game losing streak.

The Giants won Sunday with relative ease, thanks to a long-ball barrage that had historic overtones and summoned some hallowed Giants names. They unloaded six homers, four in an eight-run fourth, on the Rockies and pummeled them, 12-5.