Red Sox, Braves lead by only 1 game with 3 to play (AP)

Never in the long history of Major League Baseball has any team held a lead in September of eight games or more for a postseason berth and failed to clinch. Got that? Never happened. Not even once. And yet it could happen twice in 2011, because the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves are teetering on the verge of collapsing in the season's final month the way no club has before.

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Hideki Irabu and five other baseball players who died too young (Yahoo! Contributor Network)

Former New York Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu was found dead in his Los Angeles area home on Thursday at the age of 42. He joined the Yankees in 1997 from the Japanese league Lotte Orions via the San Diego Padres. After pitching only eight games in the Yankees minor league system he...

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Gutirrez believes he’s ready to go full-bore (Yahoo! Sports)

Is it time for Franklin Gutierrez to be a full-time player once again? Gutierrez seems to think so after coming off the disabled list to make five starts in center field for Seattle in the Mariners' last eight games. He had his best game yet on Wednesday in Minnesota with a...

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First-time Texas Rangers now face proven Yankees (AP)

Now that the Texas Rangers have finally won a postseason series for the first time, they get to play the team that has won more than any other. Bring on the New York Yankees, who have 27 World Series titles and 40 pennants. "We feel like we can play baseball with anyone," Rangers manager Ron Washington said Wednesday.

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Lester’s 19th leads Red Sox over Yankees 7-3 (AP)

Jon Lester thought about the standings and realized the hole the Boston Red Sox are in -- 51/2 games behind the New York Yankees in the AL wild-card race with just eight games to play. Difficult. Unlikely. But not impossible. Especially with four more games against the Yankees. "We've got a chance," he said Saturday after taking a no-hit bid into the sixth inning and leading the Red Sox...

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Granderson hits 3-run homer, Yankees win 11-5 (AP)

Locked in a tight race with Tampa Bay in the AL East, the New York Yankees can't afford any drop in production while slugger Alex Rodriguez is on the disabled list. That wasn't a problem Tuesday night. Curtis Granderson hit a three-run homer, Marcus Thames added a two-run drive and three other Yankees hit solo blasts as New York pounded the Toronto Blue Jays 11-5.

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Takahashi pitches Mets to 8th straight win (AP)

David Wright dove for home plate in the first inning, then pumped his fist and screamed after a crucial out in the sixth. Make no mistake about it -- winning at Yankee Stadium is a big deal to the New York Mets. Hisanori Takahashi outpitched Javier Vazquez in their second low-scoring duel this season and the Mets ran their winning streak to eight games with a 4-0 victory over the suddenly slumping...

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