Magic Number

Ryan Howard hit an RBI double in the 10th inning soon after Cliff Lee fell one strike short of his seventh shutout, and the Phillies beat the Florida Marlins, 2-1, to sweep a day-night doubleheader yesterday in Philadelphia. The Phillies, who won the opener, 3-1, reduced their magic number for clinching a fifth straight NL East title to two. Jose Lopez spoiled Lee's shutout bid when he hit a tying home run on an 0-and-2 pitch in the ninth. Lee struck out 12 and allowed five hits in nine innings, failing to earn his 17th win. John Mayberry Jr. gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead when he lined a...

When Mark Wilson got to 8 under through 11 holes on the Palmer Private course Friday, he seriously discussed golf's magic number with playing partner Harrison Frazar, who once shot a 59 on another Humana Challenge course. "I don't know why the conversation went there … but I thought about it," Wilson said. Wilson ended up posting the lowest score of his career, and that 62 wasn't even the best round of the day in the desert. Bob Hope's name is no longer on this reformatted tournament, but its tradition of stunningly low scores is still going strong.

BALTIMORE - He stood at home plate long enough for Gilbert Stuart to sketch the outline of his portrait. Long enough for Armand LaMontagne to cut the first rough carvings of his sculpture. Long enough for Annie Leibovitz to frame her photograph just right. Manny Ramírez posed long enough for history to share his gaze as he contemplated what he had just wrought with one powerful flick of his wrists at 9:29 p.m. last night. With a swing of his 34-inch, 32-ounce, all-black SSK maple bat, Ramírez sent a baseball deep into the Maryland night, the ball simultaneously landing in the right-center-field bleachers and the...

After a painful last pitch, victory was particularly sweet for Dan Haren and the Angels. Haren's start ended after he was hit by a line drive on the final out of the eighth inning, Peter Bourjos and Vernon Wells homered, and Los Angeles beat the Blue Jays, 7-2, last night in Toronto, closing within 2 ½ games of the Red Sox in the American League wild-card race. "We've put ourselves in a position where if someone stubs their toe, we've got a chance," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, whose club pulled even with the Rays in wild-card race.

Kyle Lohse pitched seven sharp innings, Michael Cuddyer went 3 for 4 with a homer, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-1, at Minneapolis for their ninth straight victory. The streaking Twins are quickly closing in on their third consecutive Central title. They reduced their magic number for clinching the division to four. Lohse (8-11) gave up one run, four hits, and one walk. He is 3-1 in his last six starts, and he lasted seven innings for only the third time since the All-Star break.

The Tampa Bay Rays had just beaten the Baltimore Orioles, and all the televisions in the clubhouse were tuned to the game between the Red Sox and Cleveland. That's right, the once-lowly Rays are in a pennant race. They're scoreboard-watching, checking out the competition on TV, and doing their part to make their first trip to the playoffs as AL East champions. Jason Bartlett had two of Tampa Bay's three hits, and the Rays inched closer to their first division title with a 4-2 victory in Baltimore last night.

Once top cats in the AL Central, the Detroit Tigers were tamed, declawed, and chased away with a broom. The Cleveland Indians simply wouldn't let them hang around. Not this year. "They're going to be Central Division champions, obviously," Tigers manager Jim Leyland conceded yesterday after the host Indians completed a three-game sweep with a 4-2 win. "They did what a championship team does. " C.C. Sabathia (18-7) upgraded his Cy Young Award résumé and the Indians, a fourth-place finisher in 2006, dropped their magic number to three for clinching their first...

Geovany Soto and the Cubs can almost taste the champagne after one of their sweetest and most improbable victories of the season. Soto hit a tying three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Derrek Lee singled in the winning run in the 12th, and Chicago beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-6, yesterday to move closer to the NL Central title. The Cubs' magic number for winning their second straight division championship was reduced to two as they sent the Brewers to a crushing defeat.

Pedro Martinez last night. Curt Schilling today. It can't be fun being a Toronto Blue Jays hitter this weekend. This is why the Red Sox are the pick to prevail in the 162-game marathon. The Sox just keep coming at you with aces. Last night it was Pedro's turn and he reverted to form, delivering the first Fenway victory of the year (and getting the Sox back to .500) with 7 2/3 masterful innings of four-hit, one-run pitching in a 4-1 conquest of the Jays. Nobody seemed worried about Pedro sticking around for the finish of this one. In fact, for a while it looked as if manager...

Cliff Lee tossed a five-hitter for his sixth shutout of the season, helping the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies beat the second-place Atlanta Braves 9-0 on Monday night. Lee (16-7) struck out six, walked none and needed only 100 pitches to finish off the Braves after falling one out shy of a shutout in his previous start at Cincinnati. The left-hander has won his last seven starts, and hasn't allowed a run in five of those games. The major league-leading Phillies increased their lead to 8 1-2 games over Atlanta and reduced their magic number for...

Just below a sign that said "We Believe," a speaker blared Journey's "Don't Stop Believin"' across Arizona's clubhouse. A setup? Possibly. Either way, there's not much doubt in these Diamondbacks. Ian Kennedy pitched eight dominant innings to become the NL's first 20-game winner, Justin Upton hit a broken-bat homer and Arizona moved a step closer to its first NL West title in four years with a 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night. "This is the most important part, which is winning games, taking away that magic number and clinching here pretty...

Ryan Howard hit an RBI double in the 10th inning soon after Cliff Lee fell one strike short of his seventh shutout, and the Phillies beat the Florida Marlins, 2-1, to sweep a day-night doubleheader yesterday in Philadelphia. The Phillies, who won the opener, 3-1, reduced their magic number for clinching a fifth straight NL East title to two. Jose Lopez spoiled Lee's shutout bid when he hit a tying home run on an 0-and-2 pitch in the ninth. Lee struck out 12 and allowed five hits in nine innings, failing to earn his 17th win. John Mayberry Jr. gave the...

Cliff Lee tossed a five-hitter for his sixth shutout of the season, helping the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies beat the second-place Atlanta Braves 9-0 on Monday night. Lee (16-7) struck out six, walked none and needed only 100 pitches to finish off the Braves after falling one out shy of a shutout in his previous start at Cincinnati. The left-hander has won his last seven starts, and hasn't allowed a run in five of those games. The major league-leading Phillies increased their lead to 8 1-2 games over Atlanta and reduced their magic number for clinching their...

For all that's changed about marriage statistics since the 1950s - the age at which people marry has gotten older, the divorce rate has risen and fallen - one number has stayed steady: We split around the seven-year mark. Census data released this year found that first marriages that ended in divorce lasted a median of eight years. The median time from marriage to separation: about seven years. It's been more than 55 years since Marilyn Monroe moved into the same apartment building as a happily married man whose wife - of seven years - happened to be away for the...

The 3,000 Hit Club is an elite group of baseball’s greats. Musial. Ripken. Cobb. Mays. Not one of the 27, though, joined while wearing a Yankees uniform. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig never did it. Neither did Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle. Same for Bernie Williams and Don Mattingly. There’s an All-Star roll call of Yankees who came up short for reasons that include illness, injury, wartime service and, frankly, not being wanted any longer in win-now New York. No. 2 from Kalamazoo is about to change that.

By Chad Finn, Boston.com/Globe Staff VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The magic number for the Vancouver Canucks is apparently one. Three one-goal wins on their home ice, the latest coming in their 1-0 victory tonight. A one-game advantage over the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final. And one more victory necessary for the first title in the franchise's 41 years. Maxim Lapierre scored the game's lone goal at 4:25 of the third period, and goaltender Roberto Luongo, so beleaguered during the Canucks' Games 3 and 4 losses at Boston when he allowed...

The Tampa Bay Rays keep reaching new milestones, and their latest feat brought them closer to perhaps the most significant accomplishment in an amazing regular season. The Rays reduced their magic number to win the AL East to 2 last night with another franchise first: a doubleheader sweep in Baltimore. After James Shields pitched seven effective innings in a 5-2 victory over the Orioles in the opener, Tampa Bay rallied to win the nightcap, 7-5. The sweep left the Rays three games ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East.

The 3,000 Hit Club is an elite group of baseball’s greats. Musial. Ripken. Cobb. Mays. Not one of the 27, though, joined while wearing a Yankees uniform. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig never did it. Neither did Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle. Same for Bernie Williams and Don Mattingly. There’s an All-Star roll call of Yankees who came up short for reasons that include illness, injury, wartime service and, frankly, not being wanted any longer in win-now New York. No. 2 from Kalamazoo is about to change that.