The Boston Red Sox are close to signing Mark Teixeira, according to an ESPN report.

Boras has told teams in recent days that he’s “getting close” to resolution in Teixeira’s negotiations, and Teixeira was quoted this week as saying he hoped for a conclusion by Christmas. A rival executive involved in the negotiations believes that a Red Sox deal with Teixeira will fall in the range of eight years, for a salary of about $22 million a year.

With the Yankees having done most of the major signings this off-season, it’d be a big move for the Red Sox. The only other big name in free agency is Manny Ramirez, whom we know won’t be visiting Boston any time soon to negotiate. Putting Tex in there with Pedroia and Ortiz will make for a hard lineup to pitch around.

New York Mets 7, Philadelphia Phillies 8: It’s very, very hard to get up 7-0 on your opponent and then lose, but the Mets found a way. It took 13 innings, but if there’s ever That Game in the middle of a season that separates whether a team makes the playoffs or not, this may very well be it. New York might have this loss lingering for a while.

Chicago Cubs 14, Pittsburgh Pirates 9: The Cubs can hit, they can pitch, and if they can get over this curse thing, they should be in the World Series.

LA Dodgers 1, Washington Nationals 2: The Dodgers better get it together fast. Thankfully for them Arizona lost, but they’re still three games back.

Florida Marlins 9, Atlanta Braves 10: The Marlins are starting to fade as was expected, but you’ve gotta give this club some credit for being in it this long.

Cincinnati Reds 2, Houston Astros 1: Bronson Arroyo is actually starting to look like a real pitcher again. He pitched a complete game in this one and got the win.

Milwaukee Brewers 12, St. Louis Cardinals 0: Milwaukee’s pulling away from St. Louis, and the Cardinals Wild Card chances are getting dimmer and dimmer.

Arizona Diamondbacks 2, San Diego Padres 9: It’s a tough loss for the D’Backs, but the Dodgers lost, too, so no ground was lost.

Colorado Rockies 7, San Francisco Giants 2: There will be no late season rally from Colorado this year.

Chicago White Sox 8, Baltimore Orioles 3: The race between the White Sox and Twins is starting to get interesting, but it may simmer down. I don’t know how many, but the Twins have got something like 20 of their next 25 games on the road.

Cleveland Indians 10, Detroit Tigers 4: I know it would’ve been a long shot, but had they kept Sabathia, and with their recent surge, would the Indians be in this thing?

Boston Red Sox 7, New York Yankees 3: If the Yanks don’t take the next two in this series, you can pretty much count them as dead this year.

Toronto Blue Jays 6, Tampa Bay Rays 2: It’s a set back, but they’ve got the best record in baseball, and it’s going ot be hard for the Sox to catch ‘em.

Texas Rangers 2, Kansas City Royals 1: I feel like every year we think the Rangers year may be next year, and then they put together similar success from the previous season. But seriously: Next year this team could be dangerous.

Oakland A’s 1, LA Angels 5: They don’t have the best record in baseball anymore, but it’s hard to stay motivated when you’re up by about 3,000 games out West.

Minnesota Twins 2, Seattle Mariners 3: Maybe the Mariners just have the Twins number. For whatever reason, Minnesota just can’t seem to beat Seattle.

Cincinnati Reds 2, Chicago Cubs 1: The Reds gave up just three hits to a team that normally rips the cover off the ball.

Pittsburgh Pirates 2, St. Louis Cardinals 11: On the bright side, soon the people of Pittsburgh will have the Steelers to cheer for.

San Diego Chargers 6, Arizona Diamondbacks 8: It was the first time all season that Jake Peavy gave up five earned runs.

Colorado Rockies 4, LA Dodgers 3: With the Dodgers losing and the D’Backs winning, that lead is now one game in favor of Arizona.

Florida Marlins 5, San Francisco Giants 6: The Giants are starting to come around. They’re not going to do anything this season, but for a young team, this is promising.

Oakland A’s 1, Minnesota Twins 3: Francisco Liriano didn’t give up any runs, and if this guy is back to the form he was in two years ago, watch out.

Seattle Mariners 3, Chicago White Sox 15: Griffey ties Sammy Sosa for fifth all time, but like someone on ESPN said, “The report should read that Griffey remains fourth all time.”

Boston Red Sox 6, Baltimore Orioles 11: On the bright side, the Rays lost.

Kansas City Royals 5, Cleveland Indians 8: There’s really no intresting stat to report in this one.

New York Yankees 5, Toronto Blue Jays 1: Andy Pettite got his first win in a long time.

LA Angels 5, Tampa Bay Rays 4: The Rays went for the sweept, and tried to put together their normal late-inning magic, but that’s a hard thing to do against the Angels, and an even harder thing to do against K-Rod.

Detroit Tigers 1, Texas Rangers 9: Maybe next year will be the Tigers year to rebound and re-group.

New York Mets 2, Pittsburgh Pirates 5: For as well as the Mets are doing, they won’t do diddly in the postseason if that bullpen doesn’t get under control. Chalk up another loss for hte struggling ‘pen in this one.

SF Giants 5, Atlanta Braves 0: The Braves are rapidly approaching rock bottom. Remember when ESPN picked this team to be in the World Series at the beginning of the year? As a Braves fan, I said it was impossible then, and I’m proving that right, now.

Houston Astros 3, Milwaukee Brewers 9: I know it’s fun jacking up CC Sabathia’s stats, but in October when he has a tired arm, Ned Yost will probably wish he’d sat him down after the sixth when Milwaukee had a 7-2 lead. Just a thought.

Boston Red Sox 6, Baltimore Orioles 3: The Red Sox are 4 1/2 games back of the Rays, who can’t seem to lose no matter what injuries they face.

LA Angels 4, Tampa Bay Rays 6: Does Tampa Bay have the best pitching in baseball? They’re young, they can sling ‘em, and unlike most teams, they’re all healthy.

Detroit Tigers 8, Texas Rangers 7: Edgar Renteria, who hit over .330 last year, is hitting just .268 in the AL this year.

Oakland A’s 3, Minnesota Twins 2: The Twins rallied late, but couldn’t pull this one off.

Seattle Mariners 5, Chicago White Sox 13: Consider this: Carlos Quentin was traded from the D’Backs to the White Sox this off-season for a minor league prospect. Thirty-five home runs later, who do you think got the best of that deal?

St. Louis Cardinals 3, Cincinnati Reds 7: It’s always nice to see Cincinnati actually win a game. I know he’s on an awful team, but Edinson Volquez might well be your Cy Young. He’s the best pitcher, and he’s proving it by winning 15 games for one of the worst teams.

San Francisco Giants 3, Atlanta Braves 1: The Braves are reaching all time lows. They can’t hit, they can’t pitch, they can’t really do anything right now.

Chicago Cubs 9, Florida Marlins 2: The Marlins are sinking further and further back. They had a nice run, but it looks as if it’s ending.

Colorado Rockies 7, Washington Nationals 2: The Rockies have won four of their last five. Can they rattle off 22 straight and make the playoffs? They did last year.

New York Mets 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 0: It looked rash getting rid of Willie not even half way through the season. But whether it’s his management style or not, the move is paying off.

Arizona D’Backs 0, Houston Astros 3: Don’t look now, but here come the Astros.

Milwaukee Brewers 5, LA Dodgers 7: It took a walk off, but it put the Dodgers back in first place.

Philadelphia Phillies 2, San Diego Padres 1: The Phillies are still two back from the Mets.

LA Angels 3, Cleveland Indians 4: It’s rare, but the Angels actually lost a series, and to the Indians, no less.

Baltimore Orioles 16, Detroit Tigers 8: They were an early season favorite, but the Tigers just haven’t played well this season.

Kansas City Royals 6, New York Yankees 15: They’re only five back in the Wild Card, and this “The Yanks are dead” talk may have been a bit premature.

Toronto Blue Jays 15, Boston Red Sox 4: All that’s ever talked about is Manny-Manny-Manny, but Jason Bay, even going 0-3 in this one, is hitting .328 since coming over to Beantown.

Seattle Mariners 8, Minnesota Twins 11: This year Adrian Beltre makes $13.4 million. He’s been a rip off for a while, and though he’s still not worth $13M, he’s at least got 20 homers this year.

Chicago White Sox 13, Oakland A’s 1: Ouch.

Tampa Bay Rays 7, Texas Rangers 4: With Boston struggling, they’re starting to run off with the AL East. And given that their entire team is injured, it’s something to applaud.

Chicago Cubs 10, Atlanta Braves 2: It was the first of a double header, and things didn’t get better in the second game.

Cincinnati Reds 2, Pittsburgh Pirates 5: I’m too lazy to look it up, but have the Reds won a baseball game in the last month?

New York Mets 12, Washington Nationals 0: The Mets are tied with the Phillies for first place in the NL East.

St. Louis Cardinals 6, Florida Marlins 4: The Marlins are slipping away out East. The Cardinals are three back of Milwaukee in the Wild Card.

Cubs 8, Atlanta Braves 0: Say hello to a decent draft pick, Atlanta.

San Francisco Giants 2, Houston Astros 6: The Astros, who started the season hot and then sucked, are starting to get hot again. At 61-59, it’s a stretch, but it’s still possible.

Arizona Diamondbacks 5, Colorado Rockies 6: I think the D’Backs will be the most dangerous team in the playoffs, but they’ve got to get there first.

Milwaukee Brewers 7, San Diego Padres 1: Does anyone want to play Milwaukee right now? Sabathia improved to a perfect 7-0, and is now gunning for the Cy Young with only a half season under his belt in the NL.

Philadelphia Phillies 6, LA Dodgers 7: Say hello to a tight race in the NL West. Couple that with a very tight race in the NL East, and we’ve got some fun heading into clutch time.

NY Yankees 2, Minnesota Twins 4: The Twins took two of three from the Yanks, who look as if they’re done this year.

Texas Rangers 4, Boston Red Sox 8: No, 36 runs weren’t scored in this one.

Baltimore Orioles 6, Cleveland Indians 1: Whatever.

Toronto Blue Jays 4, Detroit Tigers 3: The door of opportunity is being shut on Detroit. My prediction for AL representative in the World Series isn’t even going to make the playoffs.

Kansas City Royals 0, Chicago White Sox 4: The ChiSox will be a very dangerous team in October.

Seattle Mariners 10, LA Angels 7: They’re about three and a half million games ahead of the second place Rangers out West, so this loss shouldn’t hurt too badly.

Tampa Bay Rays 3, Oakland A’s 2: With Crawford and Longoria out, the Rays need to continue winning these 3-2, 2-1 type of ball games.

Florida Marlins 8, NY Mets 2: Don’t look now, but the Marlins are keeping pace. It’s kind of scary how this team always seems to have nothing but always seems to do well with it.

Houston Astros 13, Cincinnati Reds 4: The Reds are just pitiful right now. Pitiful.

Washington Nationals 4, Milwaukee Brewers 5: It took a walk off in the 13th, but the Brew-Crew will take it.

San Diego Padres 16, Colorado Rockies 7: I’m guessing the Rockies don’t have the magic in ‘em this year like they did last year.

Pittsburgh Pirates 3, Philadelphia Phillies 6: To quote Jimmy Rollins, this seems to be the class of the NL East for the second year in a row.

LA Dodgers 4, San Francisco Giants 5: When you’re chasing the D’Backs, you’ve gotta beat teams like SF.

Atlanta Braves 1, Arizona D’Backs 6: Brandon Webb is now 17-4 with a 2.88 ERA. If it wasn’t for him, this team wouldn’t be anywhere near being in the running. Can we just go ahead and hand him the Cy Young?

St. Louis Cardinals 2, Chicago Cubs 6: Ryan Dempster pitched at home, which means a win for the Cubs.

Oakland A’s 1, Detroit Tigers 6: With four hitters over .300, you’d think the Tigers would have a better record than this.

Cleveland Indians 4, Toronto Blue Jays 0: Cliff Lee pitched eight innings, lowering his ERA to a 2.45. He’s 13-2 on the year.

Texas Rangers 15, Baltimore Orioles 7: Josh Hamilton hit his 28th homer of the year. The kid can sure swing the bat.

Boston Red Sox 5, Chicago White Sox 6: Ken Griffey wasn’t playing, but the ChiSox still got the W.

Minnesota Twins 4, Kansas City Royals 5: You have to start wondering what kind of team the Twins really are. One second they’re looking dominant — the next they’re dropping two of three to the Mariners and losing to the Royals.

New York Yankees 3, LA Angels 4: Mariano Rivera blew this one, surprisingly.

Tampa Bay Rays 11, Seattle Mariners 3: The Rays are slowly walking away with the AL East.

Milwaukee Brewers 6, Cincinnati Reds 3: The Reds are slumping, and the Brewers seem to be getting out of theirs. Ricky Weeks had 4 hits to help the Brewers get the win.

Houston Astros 4, Chicago Cubs 11: Remember when A-Rod was traded for Alfonso Soriano? I’m not comparing the two — A-Rod’s clearly the better player — but did Texas get the best of that deal when it took place? He’s half the salary, and he’s well more than half the player. He hit his 21st dinger of the season in this one, and that’s considering he’s missed plenty of time with injuries.

Pittsburgh Pirates 2, Arizona Diamondbacks 0: Randy Johnson pitched a good game, but Jeff Karstens had a no-no with two outs in the 8th inning.

Atlanta Braves 2, San Francisco Giants 3: With Chipper and McCann out of the lineup, is there an easier group of hitters to navigate through in baseball?

Florida Marlins 0, Philadelphia Phillies 5: If there’s one thing Philadelphia’s been great at this season, it’s beating the teams in the East when they’re head to head.

San Diego Padres 4, New York Mets 2: Pedro gave up two solo homers in the first, settled down, but still go the loss.

LA Dodgers 6, St. Louis Cardinals 9: Manny hit his third homer in five games, but it wasn’t enough to power the Dodgers past the Cardinals, who also received a jack from Albert Pujols.

Cleveland Indians 7, Tampa Bay Rays 10: The Rays scored six runs in the ninth to win this one. They’re certainly a team for the dramatic recently.

Baltimore Orioles 4, LA Angels 9: Vlad went yard, and Tex had 2 hits, raising his average to .286.

Minnesota Twins 7, Seattle Mariners 3: Good thing they won this one, because getting swept by the Mariners isn’t a good thing to do.

Oakland A’s 1, Toronto Blue Jays 5: Oakland is fading, fading, fading. . .

New York Yankees 5, Texas Rangers 3: The Yanks gave up 9 hits, but only surrendered three runs.

Boston Red Sox 8, Kansas City Royals 2: The Wakefield Knuckler was looking good last night.

Detroit Tigers 1, Chicago White Sox 5: Griffey couldn’t get anything going, but it didn’t slow down the ChiSox at all. Detroit is letting Minnesota and Chicago run away with this division right now. Given that they were my World Series prediction at the beginning of the year, I’m not too happy about it.

Houston Astros 7, Chicago Cubs 11: The Cubs were up, blew a big lead, but Soriano’s three-run blast in the seventh made the score 10-7, and the Cubs didn’t look back after that.

Florida Marlins 8, Philadelphia Phillies 2: The Marlins are only 1.5 games back, the Mets 2. I”ve been waiting for someone in this division to break this thing open, but I’m starting to wonder if it’ll happen.

Milwaukee Brewers 8, Cincinnati Reds 1: And Prince Fielder didn’t push or hit anyone.

San Diego Padres 5, New York Mets 6: Has this team gotten this much better because Randolph is gone, or is just coincidence they seem to be hitting on all cylinders right now?

LA Dodgers 4, St. Louis Cardinals 6: People acted as if the Dodgers won the West when they got Manny. But with the D’Backs starting to hit stride, that won’t be the case.

Pittsburgh Pirates 1, Arizona Diamondbacks 3: With 16 wins and an ERA under 3.00, it’ll be hard to argue for anyone else in the NL for Cy YOung.

Washington Nationals 2, Colorado Rockies 8: At least last year’s NL representative can still beat the bad teams.

Atlanta Braves 11, SF Giants 4: Hampton got his first win since his return, and even with a whopping 6.75 ERA since he’s been back, we still need him. With the absence of Tex, whenever Hampton pitches, he’s now our second best hitter.

Oakland A’s 3, Toronto Blue Jays 4: It was the A’s 8th straight loss.

Cleveland Indians 4, Tampa Bay Rays 8: It was Tampa’s first win over the Indians all season long.

New York Yankees 6, Texas Rangers 8: The Yanks are slowly starting to disappear in the AL East standings.

Boston Red Sox 8, Kansas City Royals 2: Is there much doubt the Red Sox will win when Josh Beckett’s on the mound?

Detroit Tigers 8, Chicago White Sox 10: It was 14 innings, and the Tigers had a 2 run lead in that inning. Edgar Renteria bobbled a sure out, and next thing you know the White Sox have put on four runs.

Baltimore Orioles 3, LA Angels 0: Wasn’t Tex’s bat supposed to make the Angels better? I keep seeing these low scoring games from a once-potent offense.

Minnesota Twins 7, Seattle Mariners 8: The Twins are a team I can’t quite figure out. . .

Houston Astros 2, Chicago Cubs 0: Thankfully for the Cubs, the Brewers lost as well.

Milwaukee Brewers 3, Cincinnati Reds 6: Speaking of the Brewers. . .

Washington Nationals 9, Colorado Rockies 4: The D’Backs are better than the Rockies, and the Dodgers landed Manny. This pretty much ends whatever dim hopes there were that the Rockies would make the playoffs. It’s still kind of hard to believe this team was in the World Series last year.

Pittsburgh Pirates 7, Arizona Diamondbacks 13: It’s rare the D’Backs get this much offensive power. When they do, you can pretty much lock it up.

Atlanta Braves 2, San Francisco Giants 4: It was the Giants third win in the last four games.

Oakland A’s 1, Toronto Blue Jays 6: It seemed not long ago the A’s were actually a contender. Now they’re about 200 games back.

Cleveland Indians 5, Tampa Bay Rays 2: Tampa better be counting its lucky stars that the Indians won’t be in the playoffs, because they haven’t beaten them all year.

New York Yankees 5, Texas Rangers 9: Texas keeps finding itself sneaking up in the Wild Card, but they’ve got a long ways to go.

Boston Red Sox 3, Kansas City Royals 4: With 64 wins, it’s hard to say Boston is slipping, but I’m getting that feel.

Baltimore Orioles 5, LA Angels 6: It was a bases loaded walk that ended the game. What a bummer.

Minnesota Twins 6, Seattle Mariners 11: The Twins are that team that have been surprising, but every time they win a good game, they lose one to a team like Seattle.