Updates to the Latest News In Baseball [Michael Vinciguerra]

Greg Maddux aided the Padres to victory as they swept the Diamondbacks. Although Maddux did not record the win, this victory allowed the Padres, who were chasing the Diamondbacks for quite some time in their division, to take over first place.

The Phillies beat the Mets on a bizarre ending play to pull to within three games behind the Mets in their division. Marlon Anderson was ruled out on a game ending interference call at second base in the ninth ending. This negated the possible tying run from scoring.

Pedro Martinez is finally going to return to the MLB. He is scheduled to make a bullpen appearance when needed against the Braves on Friday before determining if he is ready to start his first full game after returning from rotator cuff surgery.

Manager Cecil Cooper, who replaced former manager Phil Garner on Monday, earned his first victory as the Astros blank the Cards. Roy Oswalt struck out nine in seven dominant innings, sending the Cards back to third place in their division.

Ben Sheets returned from the DL just in time to dig the Brewers out of the hole they are finding themselves in. Sheets outpitched Zambrano and shut down the Cubs to pull into second place in their division and 1 1/2 games out of first in the NL Central.

The Dodgers acquire right hander pitcher Esteban Loaiza from the A's, assuming more than $8 million in salary. Loaiza has pitched in two games in the 2007 season in which he won one game and has an ERA of 1.84

Manny Ramirez will be out for several days with a strained muscle on his left side. Meanwhile the Yankees continue to beat Boston. More importantly, however, is that with the Angels sweeping the Mariners, the Yankees have finally entered into a tie with the Mariners for the Wild Card spot.