2009 MLB Season

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Giants general manager Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy have been planning for the 2010 season for a while now, even with their own contract situations unresolved.

Both knew their futures with the club would be handled in time. Now, they know they're staying in San Francisco.

Bochy and Sabean each received two-year contract extensions with a club option Tuesday after meeting with managing general partner Bill Neukom. Both men expected to return, but Neukom had said he would wait until the end of the season to make a decision after sitting down to debrief on the year.

While the Giants missed the playoffs for a sixth straight season, they were in the NL wild-card chase well into September and at 88-74 won 16 more games than in 2008.

"The job of the Giants in the 2009 season was to return to winning baseball," Neukom said on a conference call. "The Giants had a winning season and then some. We are not complacent about that. We have more work to do because we want to get the San Francisco Giants to be a franchise that's a contender year in and year out

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) Cliff Lee sprinted off the mound after throwing his final pitch, nearly breaking a sweat for the first time. Heck, he almost outhustled the Phillies' newest speed demon, Ryan Howard .

With their ace and slugger leading the way, the defending World Series champions got back their swagger.

Lee dominated the Dodgers, Howard and Jayson Werth provided the big swings early and Philadelphia cruised past Los Angeles 11-0 Sunday night for a 2-1 lead in the NL championship series.

''We expect to win when we come to the ballpark, and that's kind of who they are,'' Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said.

Lee provided another brilliant playoff start, striking out 10 and allowing only three hits in eight innings.

'' Cliff Lee , what can I say about him? He was absolutely outstanding,'' Manuel said.

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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) When Derek Jeter led off Game 3 with a homer into the bullpen, this AL championship series seemed uncomplicated. Power hitting and steady pitching appeared to be driving New York to the World Series.

About 261 minutes, 14 pitchers, six homers and several big blunders later, a winning hit by a backup catcher left only one thing certain in this cuckoo series: The Los Angeles Angels won't be trampled by the mighty Yankees.

Jeff Mathis drove home Howie Kendrick with a two-out double in the 11th inning, and the Angels survived a second straight ALCS thriller, beating New York 5-4 Monday to trim the Yankees' series lead to 2-1.
''There was a lot of great baseball on that field this afternoon,'' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ''There were a lot of twists and turns, and both teams played a terrific game. We just got it done at the end.''
Kendrick, himself a part-time infielder, homered and tripled before singling with two outs in the 11th off rookie Alfredo Aceves . Mathis followed with his drive up against the left-field wall, and Kendrick slid home well ahead of a desperate throw, setting off an on-field celebration of the backups' bonanza.

Mathis, a .211 hitter in the regular season, came up with his third late-inning, extra-base hit of this outlandish series, just two days after the clubs' 310-minute, 13-inning icy epic in Game 2.

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) Jimmy Rollins curled up to protect himself in the pile and took some playful punches from his teammates.

One more win and the Fightin' Phils will have another World Series trip to celebrate.

Rollins lined a two-run double with two outs in the ninth inning off All-Star closer Jonathan Broxton and the Philadelphia Phillies rallied past the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 Monday night for a 3-1 lead in the NL championship series.

The defending champions can earn their second consecutive pennant with a victory at home in Game 5 on Wednesday night. Cole Hamels , last year's NLCS and World Series MVP, will take the mound for the Phillies. Clayton Kershaw or Vicente Padilla will start for Los Angeles.

''This is big,'' Rollins said. ''The pressure's all on them.''

Trailing 4-3, the Phillies started their rally with one out in the ninth when pinch-hitter Matt Stairs walked on four pitches against Broxton. Stairs hit a two-run homer off Broxton in Game 4 of the NLCS last year at Dodger Stadium.

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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) Mere moments after the Los Angeles Angels unleashed their leaping, screeching, rambunctious Rally Monkey on the scoreboard, they erased a late deficit and saved their season.

Surely that monkey business was just a coincidence. He's just a marketing gimmick, a video star and a plush toy - right?

Not to the fans who watched it happen Thursday night in the latest improbability of an AL championship series game. Not to the Yankees, who were three innings away from tickets to the World Series before the Angels snatched them away with a 7-6 comeback victory that cut New York's edge to 3-2.

''Anything is possible, man,'' Angels outfielder Torii Hunter said. ''Baseball is a crazy game, man. You see some crazy things. Every time you come to the game, you've probably been to 1,000 games, and you see something different every year.''

Kendry Morales drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the seventh inning as the Angels responded to the Yankees' six-run comeback moments earlier with a three-run rally of their own, each hit more improbable than the last.

When closer Brian Fuentes retired Nick Swisher on a bases-loaded, full-count popup for the final, perilous out, the Angels and their monkey had held on - and evoked the faintest echoes of the Yankees' last trip to this stage of the postseason, which ended in their unprecedented four-game flameout in 2004.

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DETROIT (AP) -- Detroit Tigers All-Star third baseman Brandon Inge will undergo surgery on both knees next month.

The team said Thursday that the Nov. 3 procedure at the Detroit Medical Center will address patella tendinitis that plagued Inge throughout this past season.

Inge is expected to be ready for the start of spring training in February.
The 32-year-old native of Lynchburg, Va., hit .230 with 27 home runs and 84 RBIs in 161 games

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BOSTON (AP) -- Red Sox right-hander Tim Wakefield wants to pitch as long as possible after undergoing back surgery.

The veteran knuckleballer said he has no plans to retire after Wednesday's operation for a herniated disk that derailed his first All-Star season.
Retirement "never crossed my mind. I was fully confident in what our doctors were telling me," Wakefield said in a conference call Thursday. "I'm not very sore at all, so I'm looking forward to getting to my rehab and get ready for next year."

Wakefield, 43, had an outstanding first half of the season and was picked for the All-Star game for the first time. But he had no wins in limited action after the break and finished the year with an 11-5 record and a 4.58 ERA.

"It was very frustrating," he said. "I was doing everything possible to try and stay on the field and try to get healthy and try to prove that I could maybe pitch in postseason and it just didn't work out, but I have no regrets on the way we handled things."