Cincinnati rookie Travis Wood sported a new look Saturday. The long locks were gone, replaced with a shorter, more military-style haircut. His strong outing on the mound was the perfect match for his more clean-cut appearance. Wood pitched seven efficient innings and hit his first career homer to lead the Reds to a 6-1 win against Adam Wainwright and the St.

Jim Thome has the classic slugger's swing, a hard uppercut that rarely yields a cheap home run. He's sure getting the most out of his first season with Minnesota, too. Thome homered twice, moving past Mark McGwire for ninth place on baseball's all-time list and powering the Twins over the Texas Rangers 12-4 on Saturday.

Already out for the season, Chipper Jones has been ejected from the Atlanta Braves' game at Florida in the first inning. Jones was given the heave-ho Saturday by plate umpire Doug Eddings for arguing from the dugout after a 2-2 pitch to Florida's Hanley Ramirez was called a ball. Jones underwent season-ending knee surgery Aug.

Becoming Oakland's first 15-game winner since 2007 doesn't mean as much to Trevor Cahill as learning to pitch without his best stuff. The Athletics' right-hander did both Saturday, a significant step in Cahill's maturation and evolution as Oakland's top pitcher. He overcame a career-high six walks to throw six scoreless innings and got just enough offensive support in the...

Marcus Thames is making the most of every opportunity to play, a big reason the New York Yankees are rolling right along without several injured All-Stars. Thames launched a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning and New York beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5 on Saturday to set a season high with its eighth straight victory.

Carlos Zambrano was yelling and pumping his arms, looking as if he might go into another full-fledged meltdown. Instead, he kept his composure. He also kept a good run going. Zambrano passed Kerry Wood on the Cubs' strikeouts list, Starlin Castro became the club's first rookie in 66 years with six straight multi-hit games and Chicago beat the New York Mets 5-3 on Saturday.

No matter what uniform Manny Ramirez wears to Fenway Park, he keeps on hitting. The slugger the Chicago White Sox hope will help them to the playoffs singled twice in a 3-1 win over the Boston Red Sox in the opener of a day-night doubleheader Saturday. In June, Ramirez returned to his former stadium with the Los Angeles Dodgers and went 5 for 12 with a solo homer in a three-game series.

Jim Thome has passed Mark McGwire for ninth place on baseball's all-time home run list, hitting a pair of homers for Minnesota to reach 584 for his career. Thome sent a pitch from Texas starter Colby Lewis soaring into the second deck above right field leading off the third inning of Saturday's game.

Manny Ramirez has made a quick contribution on his return to Fenway Park with the Chicago White Sox. The former Boston Red Sox slugger singled to right field in the second inning Saturday, sending Paul Konerko to third with no outs. Konerko then scored the first run of the game when A.J. Pierzynski grounded into a double play against Clay Buchholz.

Carlos Silva is scheduled to start Tuesday for the Chicago Cubs against Houston after missing more than a month because of a heart problem. He takes the spot of Tom Gorzelanny, who will miss at least one turn in the rotation after being hit in the left hand by a line drive against Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

Injured stars Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte are getting closer to rejoining the New York Yankees. Pettitte threw 50 pitches in a simulated game Saturday morning at Yankee Stadium and said he had no problems with the strained left groin that's kept him out since July 19. "I didn't feel anything," Pettitte said.

Aaron Cook was his usual hard-to-beat self at Petco Park, which wasn't exactly what the skidding San Diego Padres wanted to see. Cook returned from a monthlong stay on the disabled list to win again in San Diego and the Colorado Rockies handed the reeling NL West-leading Padres their season-high eighth straight loss, 4-3 on Friday night.

The Minnesota Twins chose Matt Fox to start Friday's game not because of his dazzling stuff or eye-popping statistics. He was their only option. Turns out, he was the perfect choice. Denard Span delivered the go-ahead single in the seventh inning, emergency starter Fox pitched 5 2-3 innings in his major league debut, and the depleted Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers 4-3 on Friday night.

Jaime Garcia told himself it was just another game, and when Brandon Phillips came to the plate it was just another hitter. The rookie maintained his focus to beat the Reds for the fourth time, halting the free-falling St. Louis Cardinals' five-game losing streak and ending Cincinnati's four-game run in a 3-2 victory on Friday night.

Cole Hamels is used to getting little run support. It hasn't affected his pitching. The left-hander dominated over seven innings and the Philadelphia Phillies capitalized on a Milwaukee miscue to score the only run they would need in a 1-0 victory over the Brewers on Friday night. Hamels (9-10) made the lone run stand, as he breezed to his second straight win and ran his consecutive scoreless...

Whenever Florida left fielder Logan Morrison hits the ball hard toward a gap, he starts thinking about turning it into a triple. There's typically just one flaw in that plan. "I'm not the fleetest of foot," Morrison said. The Braves might argue that one. Morrison hit two stand-up RBI triples, Andrew Miller battled through five innings for his first win in more than a year, and the...

Matt Garza pitched into the sixth inning to earn his 14th win, Carl Crawford had three hits and an RBI, and the Tampa Bay Rays cruised to a 4-1 victory over Baltimore Orioles on Friday night. The Rays stayed 1 1/2 games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East and extended their wild-card lead over Boston to seven games.

Nyjer Morgan's wild week has landed him an eight-game suspension, one of nine punishments handed out Friday by Major League Baseball following a brawl between Washington Nationals and Florida Marlins. MLB suspended Nationals outfielder Morgan and fined him an undisclosed amount for three separate incidents over the past week.

Minnesota Twins right-hander Scott Baker will probably miss two starts because of tendinitis in his pitching elbow, manager Ron Gardenhire said. Baker lasted just two innings in his start on Thursday night. He had a cortisone shot after leaving the game and said on Friday that his elbow already is feeling a little better.

Nationals rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg had reconstructive elbow surgery Friday that could keep him out of the starting rotation until the 2012 season. Lewis Yocum performed the procedure in Inglewood, Calif., in which a piece of ligament was taken from the 22-year-old right-hander's left leg and transplanted into his pitching elbow.