Escobar, a 30-year-old right-hander, is 5-5 with a 3.96 ERA in 10 starts this season. "Kelvim has been a key contributor to the success of our pitching staff," Angels general manager Bill Stoneman said. "I'm excited about the prospect of him pitching for the Angels through the 2009 season." Escobar signed a three-year, $18.75 million contract with the Angels on Nov. 24, 2003, after pitching five full seasons and parts of two others with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was 11-12 with a 3.93 ERA in 33 starts in 2004, and 3-2 with a 3.02 ERA in seven starts and nine relief appearances last season.

On Wednesday night, Lasting Milledge was not wearing the rather large cross that he wore during his debut the previous night. The size of the cross was the topic of conversation across New York sports talk shows on Wednesday afternoon.

Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury about how they got Barry Bonds' leaked testimony urged a judge on Wednesday to let them off the hook. The Chronicle's Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, the latest reporters to become entangled in the federal government's ramped-up efforts to investigate leaks, argued that the First Amendment protects reporters and their sources. In an affidavit accompanying their filing, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein wrote U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins of San Francisco that anonymous sources were instrumental in breaking the Watergate scandal.

Derek Jeter, who wasn't elected to his first All-Star Game start until 2004, his ninth season, now leads all of the American League on the ballot. Jeter's 537,218 votes led all AL players in voting results released on Wednesday, the first of regularly scheduled weekly updates that will track online and paper balloting by fans leading up to the 77th Annual Fall Classic on July 11 at Pittsburgh's PNC Park. That said, Jeter nonetheless appears to be settling in to a competitive race against Baltimore's Miguel Tejada. The game's reigning ironman follows at the position with 370,078 votes -- by far the best runner-up total on the slate. Shortstop thus is a rare position where Yankees and Red Sox players aren't staging their typical match race. Representatives of those teams -- naturally, in a flat-footed tie for the American League East lead entering Wednesday's action -- are running 1-2 around the rest of the infield. Bombers third baseman Alex Rodriguez has the early runaway lead on the ballot, with a 300,000-vote lead over Boston counterpart Mike Lowell. With 524,153 votes, A-Rod's real battle appears to be with Jeter for overall vote leadership. David Ortiz, who would have to take a glove to Pittsburgh since the designated hitter will not be in use in the National League ballpark, leads at first base, his 451,431 votes providing an edge of 120,000 over Jason Giambi -- oddly, another frequent DH. Showing the power of the pinstripe, Robinson Cano, playing his first big-league season and excelling, has a slight lead over Boston second baseman Mark Loretta at second base. With 289,394 checkmarks, Cano is fewer than 32,000 votes ahead of the former Padres infielder, who is wrapping up a hot first May in the Nation. Yankees and Red Sox also lead at the two other infield positions, although their main competition comes from other precincts. At catcher, Boston's Jason Varitek and the Yankees' Jorge Posada are separated by 114,000 votes -- and by Detroit's Ivan Rodriguez, whose 277,034 votes trail Varitek by 58,000. Posada is 36,000 further behind I-Rod, a perennial All-Star. Among outfielders, former Fenway neighbors Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon are 123,000 votes apart. However, Ramirez's early lead is tenuous, with the Angels' Vladimir Guerrero trailing by fewer than 2,000 votes. Ramirez leads with 516,658, and Damon checks in with 393,643.

Athletics second baseman Mark Ellis has a broken right thumb that will sideline him for up to six weeks. Ellis had X-rays late Tuesday after getting hurt sliding while breaking up a double play in the sixth inning of an 8-7, 10-inning loss to the Kansas City Royals. He will be placed on the disabled list Thursday.

Struggling designated hitter Phil Nevin was traded Wednesday by the Texas Rangers to the Chicago Cubs, who desperately need a bat in the middle of their lineup without Derrek Lee. The Rangers, who will pay a portion of Nevin's $10 million salary, got Jerry Hairston Jr. from the Cubs. Nevin was hitting .216 with nine homers and 31 RBI in 46 games for Texas, where he split time in the lineup with rookie Jason Botts the past week. Nevin had just two hits in his last 32 at-bats, both home runs. The 35-year-old Nevin came to the Rangers last July 30 in a trade for pitcher Chan Ho Park. Nevin hit only .204 with 12 homers and 39 RBI in 75 games for Texas.

Dwight Gooden hopes his time in jail will help end his two-decade battle with drugs and alcohol, saying he'd "rather get shot than come back here," the New York Post reported Wednesday. The former Cy Young Award winner is serving a year and a day in a Florida prison for violating his probation by using cocaine. "You keep asking yourself, 'What went wrong? What went wrong?' " he told the Post in his first interview from prison. Gooden, 41, is looking forward to the day he is released, which could come as early as November. He also insists he will stay clean and sober this time. "I can't come back here," he said. "I'd rather get shot than come back here. ... If I don't get the message this time, I never will."

While the Royals haven't confirmed they've offered Braves assistant Dayton Moore the team's general manager job, the current GM Allard Baird revealed that he was fired Wednesday morning, The Kansas City Star reported. "I was told this morning," Baird told the paper. "Beyond that, I don't have anything to say." Sources tell the paper that Moore is getting a five-year contract and complete control over baseball operations. Moore, 39, is expected to take control, officially, next week after baseball's two-day draft. Assistant general manager Muzzy Jackson will replace Baird on an interim basis, the paper reported. The Royals are mired in one of their worst seasons ever, and rumors of Baird's demise had floated for weeks.

Lefthander David Wells is on the disabled list for the third time this season. Five days after being struck on the right knee by a line drive, Wells landed on the DL. The Red Sox on Wednesday made the move, which is retroactive to May 27, and recalled righthander David Pauley from Double-A Portland of the Eastern League.

Gary Sheffield was scratched from the Yankees' lineup less than an hour before the start of Tuesday's game, as the team announced he had a sore left wrist. After the game, Sheffield expressed concern that the injury -- which he said is in a different spot than the one that kept him sidelined for more than two weeks this month -- might send him back to the disabled list. "I don't know what's going on," Sheffield said. "I felt like it was getting better, but it's in a different spot now. It's right on the wrist, right on the bone. It's really painful. "I'm trying to get back, especially with [Hideki] Matsui down, and do what I'm accustomed to doing," he added. "When you're not able to do that, it's frustrating."