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Boston Red Sox: Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald reports that the chances of Johnny Damon playing in the first two games of the ALCS are "slim." Damon was knocked unconscious in a collision with second baseman Damian Jackson in Monday's Game 5 against Oakland and was on the ground for nine minutes. "The longer you're knocked out, the greater the chance you have a damaged brain," Dr. Arthur L. Day, a neurosurgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital told Silverman. There is a possibility that Damon could be lost for the entire series. Gabe Kapler will fill in for Damon in his absence.

Chicago Cubs: Mark Prior has never faced the Marlins in his brief major league career. He plans to make up for that by watching tape of teammate Kerry Wood throwing against them as well as Jason Schmidt's outstanding Game 1 performance against Florida in last week's LDS. Drew Olson of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that Prior favors this approach over memorizing scouting reports. "The honest truth is, I think every day you show up, things are different. You have to make adjustments accordingly," Prior told Olson. "Through the course of the game, you might change your plan or approach to a certain hitter two or three times, based on the adjustments they make. Obviously, every game is different. I think the advance reports just give you a general idea of what might happen, but it doesn't always hold true." Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes about Prior's (and all of the Cubs) hard-nosed approach to the game.

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