'Member?: Tampa Bay Takes Back Homefield Advantage; Phillies Get One Step Closer To The Series

MLB ALCS Game Three; NLCS Game Four: Apparently sure things aren’t so sure in the playoffs. Jon Lester was supposed to be the rock in the Boston rotation, but he got rocked by BJ Upton and Evan “He’s Dominican?” Longoria for home runs leading to a shellacking at the hands of the Rays. Philadelphia took hold of a see-saw game by using a Matt Stairs homer in the eighth inning to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. [Tampa Tribune; Philly.com]

More news you may have missed while wondering what you’d give up to get Tony Gonzalez on your team … after the jump.

NFL : Well so much for talk of the Giants being the beasts of the NFC East. They got their big blue butts handed to them by the Browns. Braylon Edwards hauled in 154 yards and a touchdown in a convincing beat down that maybe, possibly could bring back some shine to the Browns’ season. [Cleveland Plain Dealer]
NFL News: John Madden won’t be calling a football game for the first time in 476 chances. The former Raiders coach is afraid to fly and travels on his own decked out bus, so he’s going to spend time with his family rather than do three straight cross country games. [Yahoo]
NBA News: The league is cutting 9% of its work staff because of the bad economy. Don’t get us started on the cutback on groupies at the team hotels. Talk about demoralizing. [Yahoo]
NHL News: Sad news come out of Russia as 19-year-old New York Rangers prodigy Alexei Cherepanov died during a game. He was talking to Ranger Jaromir Jagr when he just collapsed. [Yahoo]

Image [AP]