SportsCenter Rundown : NEW EDITION (September 29)

IT'S A CINCH TO CLINCH The Yankees and Rays and Reds all clinched playoff berths when they won last night. The Yankees and Rays still need to decide which one of them will win the AL East, but the Reds walked away with the NL Central when they walked off on a homer from Jay Bruce. It's the first walk-off jack to clinch a berth since Steve Finley's grand slam did it for the Dodgers in 2004, and it's the first playoff berth clinched by Cincy since 1995. (Even the Bengals have been to the playoffs twice since then.) Astros-Reds | Yankees-Blue Jays | Orioles-Rays UNLESS YOU'RE THE PADRES. OR THE BRAVES. A Padres loss to the Cubs at home and a Giants win over the Diamondbacks at home means that San Francisco is feeling right at home atop the NL West. Their two-game cushion gives them a magic number of four to clinch. And they'll move Tim Lincecum up in the rotation to start tonight. That means he'd be available to start a potential one-game playoff with the Padres, if necessary. Speaking of which, remember when those Padres were 76-49 and owned a 6.5 game cushion over those Giants in the West? They've gone 11-21 since. Which means they're also 1.5 games behind the Braves in the Wild Card. But the Braves just lost All-Star Martin Prado for the rest of the season with a hip pointer and a torn oblique. Good thing they still have Chipper Jones to play third. Giants-Diamondbacks | Lincecum Moved Up | Braves Lose Prado NET LOSS Marc Stein reports that the proposed four-team deal that would have taken Carmelo Anthony's talents to New Jersey is no longer being actively pursued by the Nets. And the Bergen Record reports that Nets general manager Billy King issued a Tuesday deadline for the Nuggets to finally accept or reject the original proposal. Now maybe the Nuggets missed the decision by the Nets to bring Billy King's talents to New Jersey (it did come less than a week after LeBron's decision), but can they really afford a decision not to deal with King? Doesn't that make them better by default? Didn't we learn anything from Bill Simmons? Stein: Trade Off | Simmons Archive: Atrocious GM Summit HIS PREROGATIVE Just like (stand by for Google search) Phil Collins, Mike Tyson could feel it coming in the air tonight in The Hangover. And now, just like Bobby Brown, Mike Tyson is dancing every little step of "Every Little Step". (And now, just like Bobby Brown and Mike Tyson, I can't sleep at night. I toss and turn.) It's like sports. Kind of. "Funny that Mike Tyson's dark side is Bobby Brown." | Cool It Now. (Just because.)   40 CC Sabathia's win on Tuesday gave him 40 in his first two seasons with the Yankees. It's the most wins for a Yankees pitcher in his first two seasons with the team since Tommy John won 43 in 1979 (see: 21-9) and 1980 (see: 22-9). Which can only mean that someone someday will visit Dr. Frank Jobe for some CC Sabathia surgery. CC Sabathia | Tommy John | Tommy John Surgery 30 Felix Hernandez pitched 8 innings and allowed just 1 earned run in Seattle's 3-1 win over Texas. That gave him his 30th quality start of the season (see: 6 or more IP + 3 ER or less). Since 1980, only Steve Carlton (see: 1980), Dwight Gooden (see: 1985), Mike Scott (see: 1986), Bret Saberhagen (see: 1989), Greg Maddux (see: 1992) and Randy Johnson (see: 2002) have turned in 30 quality starts in a season. And if you look closely at each of those years in parentheses, you'll notice that they match up nicely with years each of them took home the Cy Young award. Recap | Highlights | Cy Young Award Winners 54,896 Dez Bryant took the entire Dallas Cowboys offense out to dinner. To do that, he invited Roy Williams. And it was Roy Williams who invited the entire Dallas Cowboys defense. Don't know if anyone invited the special teams guys. Regardless, they walked out of Pappas Bros. Steakhouse and left Bryant with the $54,986 tab. Also don't know if gratuity was included, but at 15%, that could tack on another $8247.90. (Keep the change.) Thanks for coming to work. Read   "I think it's going well. It's a process." Dwyane Wade says that he expects to be away from the new-look Miami Heat at times this preseason to focus on the ongoing custody case regarding his two sons. He also says he expects to be on the court in Miami for the preseason opener against the Pistons on October 5th, and then in the court in Chicago the next day. Read More "It's just a perfect example of my life." Kris Vertseeg was not a member of the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks last season. So if you read that on the actual Stanley Cup a while back, read it again, because you will now learn be reminded that it was Kris Versteeg who was a member of the champion Blackhawks last season. This season, he's a Leaf. (Don't remind him of that.) He's not the first to have his name misspelled on the Cup. Heck, he's not even the first Blackhawk to have his name misspelled on the Cup. Read More | Photographic Proof (courtesy the Chicago Sun-Times)   Which team will miss out on the postseason in the National League? Braves Giants Padres Rockies     9AM ET Hannah Storm, Kevin Connors 12PM ET John Buccigross, Chris McKendry 3PM ET Max Bretos, Cindy Brunson on ESPNEWS 6PM ET Brian Kenny, Jay Harris 8PM ET Mike Hill, Sara Walsh on ESPNEWS 11PM ET Steve Levy, Linda Cohn 1AM ET Neil Everett, Stan Verrett from Los Angeles     Please do not reply to this email as this address is not monitored. For all other inquiries, click here. This email was sent to: sports@cesabarre.com | cesabarreDotCom Change My Registration Preference When you registered with our site, you asked to receive the daily newsletter of SportsNation TV Show. If you wish to change this registration preference, click here. 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