The Arizona Diamondbacks acquired right-handed reliever Brad Ziegler from the Oakland Athletics on Sunday for a pair of young players, boosting their bullpen for a playoff push. The 31-year-old Ziegler is 3-2 with a 2.39 ERA and one save in 43 appearances and 37 2-3 innings. He will join an Arizona team hoping to challenge the World Series champion Giants in the NL West race.

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Nick Blackburn is pitching the same way he did earlier in the season — and that’s not good news for the Minnesota Twins. Blackburn was roughed up again Saturday night and failed to make it out of the fifth inning in the Twins’ 8-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics. “Blackie really labored as you saw,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

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A Person familiar with the deal says the Oakland Athletics are close to finalizing a deal that would send right-hander Rich Harden to the Boston Red Sox for Triple-A first baseman Lars Anderson and a player to be named. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade has not been completed.

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Gio Gonzalez had his second straight bad outing, and lost for the third time in four starts. He doesn’t plan to let it mar his All-Star season. Gonzalez allowed five runs on nine hits over 5 1-3 innings and made a costly throwing error that led to Minnesota’s go-ahead run during the third inning of a 9-5 loss to the Twins on Friday night.

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The Stew goes through the quad and into the gymnasium to look at some of the hottest players in baseball and their chances of keeping it going. David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox The Naked Truth: .301/.387/.562, 20 HR, 68 RBIs, … Continue reading →

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The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are both interested in adding a starting pitcher before Sunday…

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Oakland’s offense staked Rich Harden to a five-run lead in the first inning, and the right-hander did enough to make it stand up. All it took was one inning — one very bad inning — by three Athletics relievers to let it all go to waste. Desmond Jennings hit his first career home run and later added a two-run double in a seven-run seventh inning and the Tampa Bay Rays rallied from five runs…

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James Shields’ first pitch put Tampa Bay into the record books. The rest of his night was as forgettable as it gets. The Rays right-hander suffered his most lopsided loss of the season and became the third straight Tampa Bay starter to get knocked around by the suddenly resurgent Oakland Athletics, who had a season-high 17 hits on the way to a 13-4 win Wednesday night.

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Brandon McCarthy just wanted to give the Athletics’ bullpen a rest. The right-hander did far more than that, turning in the best performance by an Oakland starter in more than a month. McCarthy carried a shutout into the eighth inning then settled for a combined seven-hitter, and the Athletics got another solid game from hot-hitting Cliff Pennington while beating the Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 on…

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Johnny Damon reached another milestone on his way toward 3,000 hits. Like the rest of his Tampa Bay teammates, he didn’t go very far after that. Damon hit his 506th career double to tie Babe Ruth for 47th on baseball’s all-time list but the Rays continued to struggle with men on base, stranding eight runners in 6-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.

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