Series Finale

NEW YORK - Nickelodeon's hit show iCarly made Jennette McCurdy a star, and although the show will have its series finale in November, the 20-year-old doesn't have to worry about what comes next. The network has tapped McCurdy and actress Ariana Grande to star in a spin-off tentatively titled Sam & Cat . The series will follow the girls' characters, Sam Puckett from iCarly and Cat Valentine from Victorious , as they become roommates and start a baby-sitting business. Sam & Cat will be produced by Dan Schneider, who is behind Nickelodeon shows iCarly, Victorious, Zoey 101 , and Drake & Josh . "I couldn't be under a better person's wing, so I'm really happy about that decision," McCurdy said in a recent interview.

It's time to say goodbye to Brenda Leigh Johnson's sing-song, Georgia-scented " thank you! " The LAPD interrogator par excellence played with delightful quirk, brilliant intelligence, and disarming cunning by Kyra Sedgwick will take her leave on the season finale of TNT's The Closer at 9 p.m. Monday. The episode also will transition viewers to the series premiere of TNT's spin-off, Major Crimes , at 10 p.m. Set in the same squadroom, Major Crimes retains most of the Closer regulars we've grown to love, or in the case of Capt.

LOS ANGELES - In a perfect world, the lineup card manager Charlie Manuel filled out before Tuesday night's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers would have been almost identical to the one he handed in before the opening-day game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in early April. The world, of course, has been far from perfect for Manuel and the Phillies. But there was Roy Halladay pitching, Chase Utley playing second base, and Ryan Howard at first for the game in Dodger Stadium, the first time that trio has been on the field together this season.

SAN FRANCISCO - Brian Wilson has no regrets about how many times he pitched during the San Francisco Giants' improbable 2010 World Series title run. Nor about how he stayed on the mound at Colorado last week despite ligament damage in his arm. "Absolutely not," Wilson said. "That's how I play baseball. Push it to the limits. " Wilson has now reached his limit. San Francisco's bearded and boisterous closer said before Sunday's series finale against Pittsburgh that he probably will have elbow-reconstruction surgery, ending his season after only 56 pitches, two appearances and one save.

Roy Halladay and Mark Buehrle are scheduled to start Wednesday's Phillies-Marlins series finale in Miami, marking the 10th time since 1990 that two authors of a perfect game will oppose one another. Halladay pitched his perfect game in 2010 against the Marlins. Buehrle tossed his while with the Chicago White Sox in 2009. The previous instances, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, are: Dallas Braden-Buehrle in 2011; Randy Johnson-David Wells in 2004, 2005, 2007; Kenny Rogers-Wells in 2000, 2001 (twice)

WASHINGTON - For House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the swearing-in of a record number of Democratic women was a historic moment worth a photograph. And, she decided, history needed a little digital help. After only 57 of the 61 congresswomen showed up in time for the photo scheduled Thursday on the Capitol's steps, Pelosi's aides digitally inserted images of the four absent members into the photograph. She then had the altered image posted on her Flickr photo-sharing site. Journalists and historians frown on such altered views of history.

LOS ANGELES — The hope stretched into its fourth day, mixing with the frictionless SoCal air to fill the visitor's dugout at Dodger Stadium with a rare kind of warmth. Sitting at the edge of the dugout, Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee stared out onto the infield grass and contemplated the significance of the fast-approaching game. "I'll look at several things," he said. "But I ain't telling you. " In a way, Roy Halladay's return from a 7-week layoff mirrored the juncture at which the Phillies find themselves.

DENVER - For the second consecutive game, Shane Victorino served as an offensive trigger with an extra-base hit in the opening inning. Victorino had gone 98 plate appearances and 89 at-bats before hitting a one-out double in the first inning of Saturday night's 8-5 victory over the Colorado Rockies. That was his first extra-base hit since June 13 in Minnesota, a remarkably long stretch for a player with his speed. He added an RBI triple in the ninth inning of that game. Victorino returned to work Sunday by setting the tone again with a one-out triple off lefthander Drew Pomeranz before scoring on a two-out single by Carlos Ruiz in what became a 5-1 Phillies victory in the series finale at Coors Field.

If yesterday's Angels-Mariners American League West playoff has you psyched to watch baseball's postseason, hold on. The expanded postseason, which begins tonight, does not translate into more games on television. Instead of staggering the series and the times as in years past, major league baseball has decided to start all four division series tonight at 8:07. Viewers will get regionalized coverage until the World Series; instead of four games, you'll see one tonight. The Baseball Network, which includes TV networks ABC and NBC with major league baseball, is in charge of this mess.

Padres slugger Carlos Quentin on Sunday dropped his appeal of an eight-game suspension for going after Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke last week and breaking Greinke's left collarbone in the rumble. The suspension begins not a moment too soon - the Padres will be in Los Angeles on Monday to begin a three-game series in the clubs' first meeting since Thursday night's brawl. Quentin was philosophical about missing the series. "Let me say this as far as the Dodgers series: Obviously I will miss the upcoming one but I will be a part of the rest.

Surrounded by the cast and crew of TGS at the end of its final taping, Tracy Jordan looked into the camera and expansively said: "Thank you, America. That's our show. Not a lot of people watched it, but the joke's on you, because we got paid anyway. " And so, 30 Rock 's show-within-a-show ended with a joke-within-a-joke. Even the highly promoted series finale of 30 Rock drew fewer than five million viewers. And that joke was on us, too. Because part of the appeal of Tina Fey's surreal sitcom was its disregard for the audience.

WASHINGTON - For House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the swearing-in of a record number of Democratic women was a historic moment worth a photograph. And, she decided, history needed a little digital help. After only 57 of the 61 congresswomen showed up in time for the photo scheduled Thursday on the Capitol's steps, Pelosi's aides digitally inserted images of the four absent members into the photograph. She then had the altered image posted on her Flickr photo-sharing site. Journalists and historians frown on such altered views of history.

DEREK JETER shook off an injury to tie Willie Mays for 10th place on the career hits list, backing Phil Hughes and helping the visiting New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-0, Thursday night to maintain a share of the AL East lead. New York won consecutive games for the first time in a month and kept pace with the Baltimore Orioles, who completed a three-game sweep of Tampa Bay. Hughes (15-12) retired his first 10 batters and gave up five hits in 7 1/3 innings. He struck out seven, walked one and allowed just three runners past first base, ending a streak of seven straight starts in which he allowed home runs.

It ranked among the most unpopular trades in Phillies history when general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. sent Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners for the minor-league trio of J.C. Ramirez, Tyson Gillies, and Phillippe Aumont in December 2009. Many of the developments since only hardened the initial view. Now, however, Aumont is becoming a go-to guy in the middle of a playoff race and his work is being endorsed by none other than Clifton Phifer Lee. "Oh, he's good," Lee said Wednesday after Aumont pitched a scoreless eighth inning in the Phillies' 3-1 win over Miami.

OAKLAND ATHLETICS pitcher Brandon McCarthy has walked a few steps and is making encouraging progress in his recovery from surgery after getting hit in the head by a line drive last week. A's trainer Nick Paparesta said Monday that McCarthy seems likely to leave the hospital soon. Paparesta had said 2 days earlier that McCarthy was still in a "life-threatening" situation. "I think that we're a little bit more comfortable with where he is and how he's doing, absolutely," Paparesta said Monday before the A's opened a four-game series with the Los Angeles Angels.

The Phillies needed a meteoric rise coming out of the all-star break. They have had a modest one. Since Jonathan Papelbon and Carlos Ruiz combined to record the final out of the All-Star Game in Kansas City last month, the Phillies have gone 24-17 and restored some respectability to what had been a wretched season. "Too little, too late" will be the epitaph on the Phillies' 2012 tombstone, which, when you think about it, is not nearly as stinging as "we were the best team in baseball, but failed to win the World Series.

WASHINGTON - Things couldn't be going any better for the Washington Nationals, and still they are embroiled in one of the game's most fascinating controversies. The Nationals pull into Citizens Bank Park this weekend with the best record in baseball. At 77-47, the franchise is 30 games over .500 for the first time since 1994. That was the ill-fated season when the most infamous strike in professional sports history halted everything in mid-August, shattering any hope the Montreal Expos had of building a downtown ballpark.

SAN FRANCISCO Giants general manager Brian Sabean insists his club's two suspended veteran players should have known better than to use performance-enhancing drugs. A day after outfielder and All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera received a 50-game suspension for a positive testosterone test, Sabean said Thursday he was shocked when he received word of the suspension from Major League Baseball on Wednesday morning, not long before San Francisco's series finale against the Washington Nationals.

Roy Halladay and Mark Buehrle are scheduled to start Wednesday's Phillies-Marlins series finale in Miami, marking the 10th time since 1990 that two authors of a perfect game will oppose one another. Halladay pitched his perfect game in 2010 against the Marlins. Buehrle tossed his while with the Chicago White Sox in 2009. The previous instances, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, are: Dallas Braden-Buehrle in 2011; Randy Johnson-David Wells in 2004, 2005, 2007; Kenny Rogers-Wells in 2000, 2001 (twice)