Four months ago, after a numbing 1-0 Mets loss to Washington, Billy Wagner lashed out in the clubhouse at teammates who, in his mind, had been too quick to depart after the game. In his expletive-laced comments, Wagner did not cite anyone by name. But he seemed, to be singling out the empty locker of Carlos Delgado, who had been playing dismally and who had indeed dressed and left without speaking to reporters.



Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, riding what he calls his best wave of offense in a couple of years, raised the specter of his elbow injury Monday, saying in a televised interview that he's considering offseason surgery. Pujols and the Cardinals have said since last winter that the former MVP some day would require reconstructive surgery to repair a shredded ligament in his right elbow.
The Red Sox have had it with Manny Ramírez. Manny has punched his ticket out of town. It's over. O-VA. Adios, amigo. Good night, Irene. Turn out the lights. Last night's 1-0 loss to the Yankees (think they could have used Manny?) was the proverbial last worthless evening. Ramírez sealed his fate with the club yesterday afternoon.
The Yankees finally showed some fight Monday night, though it didn't help them get back in the win column. A bench-clearing incident put a spark into what was otherwise a one-sided affair, as the Yankees' march toward October vacation continued with a 12-1 loss to the Angels. Ivan Rodriguez and Torii Hunter tangled at the plate after a mild collision in the bottom of the sixth, prompting both benches and bullpens to clear and the two players to be ejected.
Dodgers right-hander Brad Penny, who threw a 40-pitch side session and a 30-pitch simulated game on Monday at Petco Park, could be activated from the 15-day disabled list as soon as Friday. But he won't be rejoining the club's starting rotation. Dodgers manager Joe Torre told Penny that when he does return, it will be out of the bullpen, where Penny has made just two appearances in nine major-league seasons. "He was fine (with it)," Torre said.
Gary Sheffield still needs a few home runs to get to his career milestone. In getting closer on Monday, however, his two-homer game reached a Major League mark that has been 133 years in the making. When Sheffield went deep off Oakland starter Gio Gonzalez in the second inning of Monday's 14-8 Tigers victory, he hit the 250,000th home run in big league history. The statistic comes courtesy of Sean Forman at Baseball-Reference.com, which has been conducting a countdown toward the milestone event on his site with research from David Vincent with the Society for American Baseball Research.