in 10 days or so, said Manager Chip Hale. ... Arizona sent LHP Z

The New York Mets and Kansas City Royals opened the season against each other back in April in a rematch from last years World Series.Its been mostly downhill from there.Beset by injuries and a general sense of malaise, the Royals and Mets would both miss the playoffs if the season ended now. Kansas City (57-60) is 7 + games behind the second wild card in the AL, and the Mets (59-58) are 2 + back in the NL.The last time both pennant winners from the previous season failed to make the playoffs was in 2007, when the Tigers and Cardinals fell short. The last time both finished below .500 was in 1994 (Blue Jays and Phillies) -- and in a non-strike year the last time was 1986 (Royals and Cardinals).While the Royals are facing an uphill climb, the Mets are still in the thick of the race for a wild card, but its been an ugly August for New York, which now trails St. Louis, Miami and Pittsburgh in the postseason race.With Matt Harvey, Yoenis Cespedes, David Wright and Lucas Duda all on the disabled list, New Yorks lineup looks nothing like it did during the run through last years postseason.The Royals can relate, with Mike Moustakas and Wade Davis both currently on the DL. Kansas City also had to deal with earlier injuries to Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain.The Mets did get Jose Reyes back from the DL over the weekend, and Cespedes is expected back soon.Were scratching and clawing right now, but we know that theres some reinforcements on the way, second baseman Neil Walker said.Here are a few other developments from around baseball:SECOND WINDThe Chicago Cubs are back on pace for over 100 wins after an 11-game winning streak that lasted until Saturday. The Cubs had a 5-15 stretch shortly before the All-Star break, which took some of the luster off their terrific start -- but after this recent surge, Chicago is 12 games ahead of second-place St. Louis in the NL Central.RUNNING AWAYThe Cleveland Indians have stolen an AL-best 95 bases this season, which is nine more than they had all of last year. The Indians are also stealing at an 81-percent clip. Rajai Davis (31 for 35), Jose Ramirez (18 for 23), Francisco Lindor (15 for 20) and Jason Kipnis (11 for 14) are all threats on the bases.Cleveland tied a team record with eight steals Friday night in a win over the Los Angeles Angels.FANTASY FOCUSAlex Rodriguezs departure from the New York Yankees doesnt change much from a fantasy perspective -- he wasnt playing a lot anyway. But if the youth movement is underway now, it certainly looked promising Saturday, when New Yorks Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge each homered in his first major league at-bat -- in back-to-back plate appearances.Judge is the more highly touted prospect -- he was ranked No. 42 on Baseball Americas midseason list and No. 18 by Baseball Prospectus at the beginning of the season. But its hard to ignore what Austin did at Triple-A this year, hitting .323 with 13 homers in only 57 games.LINE OF THE WEEKBrandon Crawford had seven hits in San Franciscos 14-inning win over Miami on Monday. Crawford became the first major leaguer with seven hits in a game since Pittsburghs Rennie Stennett in 1975. Remarkably, Crawford only scored one run Monday despite all those times on base. The next three hitters in the batting order were a combined 2 for 15, and the pitchers spot was next after them.Honorable mention goes to the three-homer games by Colorados Charlie Blackmon and Bostons Mookie Betts later in the week.---AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick contributed to this report. Jaylen Brown Celtics Jersey . Instead of dwelling on the negative, Oates focused on what was good about the clubs recent play. It worked. Dennis Johnson Celtics Jersey . Bryant, who signed a five-year, $34 million contract as a free agent with Cleveland in March, reported symptoms on Monday morning, a team spokesman said. http://www.celticssale.com/kids-marcus-smart-celtics-jersey/ . Thousands of fans at Mosaic Stadium will be cozying up to each other in an effort to stay warm in chilly temperatures and block the Prairie wind that locals say can knock your socks off. Bill Russell Celtics Jersey . -- Stanford squashed Oregons national championship hopes again, schooling the Ducks in power football. Shaquille ONeal Jersey . Perez, 35, posted a 1-2 record with a 3.69 earned-run average in 19 relief appearances last season. His season ended Aug. 9 due to a torn ligament in his left elbow. Perez joins infielder Andy LaRoche and catcher Mike Nickeas with minor-league agreements for 2014 that include invitations to attend spring training. LAS CRUCES, N.M. - No. 16 Texas A&M recorded its second sweep of the day, defeating host New Mexico State, 25-20, 25-16, 25-19, in the Borderland Invitational tonight at the Pan American Center.Texas A&M, which swept Arizona earlier in the day, improves to 2-0 in the tournament and 5-3 on the season. New Mexico State, which entered the contest riding a five-match win streak, falls to 6-3 overall.Texas A&M spotted NMSU a 6-1 lead to begin the match before freshman outside hitter Hollann Hans got an out-of-system kill to stop the host Aggies 5-0 run. Texas A&M continued to chip away at the NM State lead and trailed 11-7 before junior outside hitter Kiara McGee connected on three consecutive kills to put Texas A&M within 11-10. NMSU then committed back-to-back attack errors to give the visiting Aggies their first lead, 12-11.NM State regained the lead at 15-14 after A&M hit long on consecutive attack attempts. Kassandra Tohm then put NMSU ahead 16-14 with a kill, but A&M countered, scoring five unanswered points to go up, 19-17. The teams would exchange points before NM State, which was outhit .241 to -.032 in the frame, committed three consecutive errors to put A&M serving for the set, 24-19. A&M hit wide on the next play, but Hans, who led all players with five kills in the stanza, came back with a kill from the back row to secure the 25-20 win.NM State jumped out to an early lead to begin the second set before a dump kill by junior setter Stephanie Aiple, followed by solo blocks by sophomore middle blocker Kaitlyn Blake and Aiple put Texas A&M ahead, 9-7. NM State, the defending Western Athletic Conference champion, later tied the score at 10-10, before A&M reeled off five consecutive points.NM State cut the margin to 18-15 but could get no closer as senior middle blocker Jazzmin Babers tipped the ball in for a kill and Blake followed with a kill to put A&M up 20-15, forcing NMSU to call its final timeout. The host team got a kill coming out of the timeout, but Blake countered with a kill. Texas A&M, which outhit NMSU .304 to .000 in the set, went up 22-16 on a NM State attack error before Blake and Company closed out the match with three consecutive blocks.NM State held its largest lead of the third set at 14-9 before junior opposite hitter Ashlie Reasor recorded back-to-back kills to spark an 11-2 run that put Texas A&M ahead, 20-16. The teams then traded service errors before McGee and Babers had consecutive kills to put Texas A&M up, 23-17. A&M, which outhit NMSU, .dddddddddddd286 to .080 in the set, served long on the next play, but Aiple put her team at match point with her third kill of the contest. NM State tipped the ball in for a kill to stay alive before McGee put down her seventh kill of the night to close out the match.Babers hit .667 and tied Hans for match-high honors in kills with nine. Aiple dished out 29 assists while directing A&M to a .275 hitting efficiency, and Blake led all players with eight blocks as A&M outblocked NM State, 12-2, and held the host Aggies to a .010 hitting efficiency for the match. Aiple and junior libero Amy Nettles shared team-high honors in digs with seven apiece.Texas A&M closes out the tournament against co-host UTEP, Saturday at 12 p.m. (1 p.m. CT) at Memorial Gym in El Paso, Texas.Texas A&M Head Coach Laurie Corbelli quotes:On getting two sweeps today...I was really happy with the way the team set the tone for the day. This has been a day that maybe on the back of my mind was one of the tougher days of our season; two matches that were really important for us, a third weekend on the road, a great Arizona team and a great conference champion New Mexico State team. I was picturing five set matches for both of these matches. For us to really put things together was great. I thought our blocking really improved, and our middles were involved more this week than they were last weekend in Puerto Rico. Those are the kinds of things we have been working on to continue to improve. Our ball handling was a whole lot better this weekend. That sets us up to have our setter have more options, gives her opportunities to attack and just makes our game look a lot smoother and a lot stronger and harder to stop.On the balanced attack...We are really sold on the balance because so many teams now just really set out to one hitter, with two or three blockers all waiting on one hitter that is sometimes really obvious who is going to get the ball on many teams, and I really dont want to play that way. Some days we have to, but we prefer not to.On the improved serving...I thought we got over the hump with our serving. We did not serve well the first two weekends at all, and I thought today our serving was much more aggressive and much more on point, and we just looked a lot more confident in our serving. That was really good to see. ' ' '