Touch 'Em All: Bosses: Red Sox are definitely not for sale

The Red Sox made one thing clear this woeful season: The team is not for sale.

Club owner John Henry on Thursday strongly denied a Fox Business report that he and the ownership group have been quietly shopping the team to potential buyers.

Responding shortly after the report became public Thursday, Henry told The Boston Globe: "A sale of any kind is so far from our thinking it hasn't even come up apart from technical planning issues involving death or disability. This report is completely without foundation."

The Red Sox "are not for sale and will not be for the foreseeable future," he said.

Fox said it stands by its report.

Oakland righthander A.J. Griffin threw eight scoreless innings in Wednesday night's 4-1 win over the Angels in a game marked by milestones.

Take the 24-year-old Griffin: With the win he became the second A's pitcher in 85 years to start his career with six straight wins.

And Angels first baseman Albert Pujols hit his 30th homer to become the first player to have at least 30 homers in each of his first 12 major-league seasons, according to the team's website.

With the blast, Pujols joined Barry Bonds (13 straight, from 1992 to 2004), Alex Rodriguez (13 straight from 1998 to 2010), and Jimmie Foxx (12 straight, from 1929-40) on the at-least 30 homers club at any point in a career. What makes the feat so improbable is that Pujols was in a terrible slump the first month of the season, and didn't homer until May 6.

Not to be outdone by Pujols, Angels rookie Mike Trout scored a run in Thursday's 6-0 win over the A's, giving him 115 for the year - tops in the bigs, and 18 more than anyone else - despite missing the first 23 games of season.

Boston.com put the Mets' record in perspective with this stat: Since the all-star break, the Mets have four wins at Citi Field. The Nationals have six. And the Braves have five.

What's more, the Mets have 21 losses at Citi Field during that span. We're pretty sure no other team has that many losses there.

Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey is the winner of the 2012 Branch Rickey Award in recognition of his work distributing baseball equipment and medical supplies in Central and South America.

Created by the Rotary Club of Denver, the award honors individuals in baseball who contribute to their communities and are role models for young people.