The measures adopted Monday include mandatory random drug tests and background checks for all current and future clubhouse personnel.

In addition, clubs will be required to maintain a log of all packages sent to major league clubhouses.

The commissioner’s office also announced Monday that teams will be required to keep a list of all clubhouse vistors except for members of the Baseball Writers’ Association.

As it stands, it looks like the following teams are going to be going to preliminary Fall Classic: In the AL, we will probably have the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Los Angles Angels of Anaheim (I can’t believe they actually stuck with that atrocious name) and the Cleveland Indians. Although, either the Yankees or the Indians can forget about the Detroit Tigers, a team that’s only 4.5 games behind the Indians for the AL Central and 2.5 behind the Yankees for the AL wild card slot.

In the National League, things are even worse. There are six-to-eight teams that have a legitimate shot at making Major League Baseball’s second season. The teams fighting for these spots include the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, the Chicago Cubs, and the Milwaukee Brewers. In the NL West four out of the five teams in the division have a shot at post-season play and they are the LA Dodgers, the San Diego Padres, the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies.

Because there’s still a lot to be decided, Ticket Solutions does not have any playoff tickets posted. However, we do have World Series tickets available so if you are confident enough in your team, you can take a chance and invest in some now before the rush arrives.

Enjoy the stretch run of MLB’s regular season and get yourself ready for post season baseball. And if you want to follow your baseball team as they march towards greatness, Ticket Solutions can definitely help.

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So here we are with only a month and some change left in the season and because of the wild card format, there are a number of teams that are worth paying attention too. In the National League, the breakdown is as follows:

NL Wild Card Standings (as of 08/20/07) :

San Diego…. 66-57 .537 -

Philadelphia.. 65-58 .528 1.0

Atlanta………. 65-59 .524 1.5

LA Dodgers.. 64-60 .516 2.5

Colorado…… 63-60 .512 3.0

Milwaukee…. 63-61 .508 3.5

Outlook
In all likelihood, the NL Wild Card will come down to the last week of the season. Not only are many of these NL teams fighting for their wild card lives, they are still in contention for their respective division title. This puts even more pressure on these teams as the stretch run begins.

In the East, both the Braves and the Phillies made moves during the trading deadline and will be in contention for both the wild card and the division until the end. Between these two teams, the Braves have the better pitching and they also have a better team batting average. However, the Phillies have scored more runs than the Braves. Both teams have MVP-caliber players and the final part of each team’s schedule is similar as well, making this call look like a toss-up.

Of course, the Cubs, Rockies, Dodgers and Padres won’t be forgotten either. All of these teams have solid pitching (yes, even the Rockies who give up about 4 runs a game) and good hitting – save perhaps the Padres and Diamondbacks – meaning stats aren’t going to do much when it comes to making a pick here. Because of the fact these teams are really even, the safest bet is to go with a hunch.

With that in mind, my thinking is that the wild card winner is going to come from the East in either the Phillies or the Braves. As of this writing, both teams were 5 and 5.5 games behind the East-leading Mets, respectively and both teams have upcoming meetings with the Mets and each other. Of course, while these three teams are beating up on each other, a team like the Padres or even the Rockies could sneak in for the final NL Playoff representative. It should be a fun month or so. Stay Tuned.

The American League
The funny thing about all of this is you can take what I wrote about the National League and apply it to the AL – at least for the top two teams (this weekend did a lot to damage the Tigers chances but they can still catch the Indians). Will the Yankees catch the Red Sox for the division title (they have two more series left against the BoSox)? If they don’t, will they be able to secure the wild card spot? Questions, questions, questions. Before we can answer some of these, let’s take a look at what’s going on in the DH league:

Seattle…………. 69-52 .570 -

NY Yankees… 70-54 .565 0.5

Detroit…………. 67-57 .540 3.5

Toronto……….. 63-60 .512 7.0

Minnesota……. 62-61 .504 8.0

Oakland………. 61-64 .488 10.0

Outlook
While the Yanks and the hot streak they are on is the talk of the town; they still trail the Mariners in the wild card chase. So how will it all shake out? The Yankees have a tough schedule coming up but if they keep swinging the bats the way they have, they will be a tough out. They still have that knack for getting that final deciding run, continuing their climb out of that notorious early season slump.

Of course, Seattle is just as concerned with catching the California Angels (Freudian slip?) as the Yankees are with catching Boston… and even though there’s a month and 10 days left in the season, it looks like Minnesota (don’t you all wish Santana could pitch every inning?), Toronto and Oakland are pretty much out of it. That leaves the big 4. Detroit and Cleveland will be fighting for their division with perhaps the 2 nd place finisher missing out altogether.

Meaning we have – at this particular juncture anyway – another toss-up. At this point, my heart says the Yankees (not a fan, it’s more a dread feeling) but my head is thinking Seattle… Of course, the upcoming 3-game meeting between these two teams (09/03 – 09/05) could go a long way towards settling matters.

Chris Richardson is the web communication specialist for TicketSolutions.com. At Ticket Solutions, we have tickets for games to every MLB baseball game you can think of, including the World Series.  Check out our MLB ticket inventory. Watch for the Ticket Solutions sports blog launching soon.

His days as a closer are closed.

Carmona pitched eight shutout innings against the team that blasted him out of Fenway Park when he flopped in a tryout to save games last season, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 1-0 win on Wednesday night.

The 23-year-old Carmona, who gave up just four singles, was facing the Red Sox for the first time since blowing consecutive save chances in Boston last season, two outings three nights apart that all but finished the Indians’ experiment with him ending games.

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Calero had been sidelined since June 17 because of inflammation in his right shoulder. He is 1-4 with a 6.39 ERA in 31 relief appearances with the A’s this year.

Braden made three relief appearances since being recalled from Sacramento on June 25, allowing two runs in four innings. He is 1-3 with a 6.08 ERA in seven games overall with the A’s this season.

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Your golf vacations do not need to revolve around golf equipment and golf practices and golf carts only. Once in a while you can play tennis and toss the baseball for a change as well.

C.C. Sabathia tries to prevent the Indians from falling out of first place for the first time in nearly four weeks when he takes the mound in Wednesday’s series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Cleveland (41-29) won Monday’s series opener 10-1, but the Phillies (37-34) evened the three-game set with a 9-6 victory on Tuesday.

The Indians have lost six of their last 10 games to fall into a first-place tie with Detroit in the AL Central. They have not been out of the top spot since May 24, when they trailed the Tigers by one-half game.

Rogers had no record and a 13.50 ERA in a combined two innings over three appearances since being recalled from Indianapolis on Tuesday.

The Pirates recalled right-hander Josh Sharpless, who arrived in Cincinnati in time for Sunday’s game. He had a 1.50 ERA in 14 games as a rookie with the Pirates last season.

Sharpless was 1-0 with three saves and a 2.96 ERA in 16 appearances with Indianapolis this season.

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Guthrie took a three-hit shutout into the ninth inning and came within two outs of his first complete game before Baltimore manager Sam Perlozzo pulled him, only to watch the Boston Red Sox score six runs and beat the Orioles 6-5 on Sunday.

“At one point, it seems like we had no chance,” said Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, who doubled in Boston’s first run. “In the ninth, 5-0, fly ball, catcher misses it, and that was the difference in the game. Everybody started going crazy.”

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“It was a grind. I did just enough to get it done,” Lackey said after allowing one unearned run over his five innings of the Los Angeles Angels’ season-opening 4-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Monday night.

Lackey (1-0) threw 96 pitches, walked four and gave up four hits — including Ian Kinsler’s homer after catcher Mike Napoli dropped Kinsler’s foul pop for an error. The right-hander struck out five and stranded runners on third base four times.

“He made the pitches when he needed to,” Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia said.

The Angels’ victory spoiled Ron Washington’s major league managerial debut. The Rangers squandered a string of opportunities, going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

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