wo points have separated the second wild-card team from the ninth-seeded

This story has been clarified. Read below.NEW YORK -- David Ortiz was annoyed -- with himself and New York Yankees catcher?Austin Romine.Starting his final series at Yankee Stadium, Ortiz went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and stranded seven runners as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 6-4 on Tuesday night and delayed Boston from clinching the American League East.Big Papi ended the game by fanning with two runners on when Tyler Clippard threw him a high, backdoor cutter. The 40-year-old slugger was succinct, saying, That aint fun.Ortiz also didnt like all the trips to the mound by Romine.They tricked me tonight. Too much talking between the pitcher and catcher, Ortiz said. Ill trick them tomorrow.Despite a stellar season, Ortiz said before the game that there is no way he will change his mind about retirement.My body is counting the days, let me tell you, he said. Its hard to play baseball when you are 40. Im not going to lie to you, its hard -- especially when youre looking everywhere around and everybodys 20. You can be a dad.Ortiz is hitting .318 with a major-league-leading 48 doubles, 37 homers and 124 RBIs. He hopes to earn a fourth World Series ring with the Red Sox.You often wonder why hes retiring, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. Gosh, the year hes having, I would really have to think about coming back. But Im going to encourage him to retire.Ortiz has homered six times against the Yankees this season. New York has planned a pregame ceremony for Thursday.Yankee Stadium, it might be my favorite place to hit, to play, regardless, he said. The dimensions are perfect for a left-handed power hitter. All the emotions, all the adrenaline, all the competition competing against the Yankees has been outstanding through the years.Ortiz has 53 regular-season homers against the Yankees, all but one with Boston, tied with Hank Greenberg for fourth behind Jimmie Foxx (70), Ted Williams (62) and Manny Ramirez (55). His 31 homers at the old and new ballpark in the Bronx are tied with Mickey Vernon for second-most among visiting players, one ahead of Williams and one behind Goose Goslin.When he walked to the plate before flying out to center field in the first inning, Ortiz was greeted by a mixture of boos and cheers, with some fans rising to applaud.I think there will be a lot of respect paid for a guy whos had some good moments in here, Red Sox manager John Farrell said before the game, going on to compare this to the Fenway Park finales of Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. Despite the rivalry, I think people appreciate baseball. They appreciate really talented players, and I would expect David to receive a similar treatment.Ortiz has been booed at Yankee Stadium since he joined the Red Sox for the 2003 season. But the jeers got more intense as his career progressed and he helped the Red Sox overcome a 3-0 deficit against New York in the 2004 AL Championship Series, then won World Series titles that year and in 2007 and 2013.It got more powerful now, he said. They know me a little bit more now.Ortiz took notice that a fan launched a website, moonbigpapi.com, encouraging spectators at Ortizs Yankee Stadium finale on Thursday to moon the Boston star.Can you imagine? Ortiz said, laughing. If it happens, Im going to make sure I got my cellphone in my back pocket.A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Gary Sanchez as the Yankees catcher Tuesday night. Sanchez was the Yankees designated hitter. Swen Nater Jersey . -- Patrick Reed got an early start in golf. Gary Neal Jersey . Vokoun departed practice on Saturday morning after discovering swelling in his thigh. He was taken to a local hospital where the clot was revealed. The club announced the surgery following a 5-3 exhibition loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. https://www.cheapspurs.com/996j-maurice-cheeks-jersey-spurs.html . Burris threw two TD passes, including a key 15-yard fourth-quarter strike to Bakari Grant that effectively countered a Toronto comeback bid and led Hamilton to a 33-19 victory. Steve Smith Jersey . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. Following a loss to Colorado on Saturday, Minnesota rebounded the following night to blank Nashville 4-0, but then had the tables turned on them Tuesday. San Antonio Spurs Pro Shop .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon. Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland, a driving force behind the NHL adopting its wildly popular 3-on-3 overtime, wondered recently how exciting it would be for the league to adopt a wild-card play-in game similar to what is used by Major League Baseball.The proposal would add a third wild-card playoff team to each conference, with the bottom two wild-card teams facing each other in a one-game playoff to determine which team advances to a first-round playoff series. The idea was discussed at last weeks board of governors meetings in Florida.Personally, Im not in favor of it, Philadelphia Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said. I think we demand a lot of our players and playing more games, I dont think, is a solution.Hextall said that considering the teams play a preseason with a minimum of seven games, 82 games in the regular season and up to two months in the playoffs, plus the potential of the Olympics and World Cup every other season, weve got to be really careful of putting our players through more than we already do.Under Hollands plan, if the current season ended Sunday, the ninth-seeded New Jersey Devils (30 points) would face the second wild-card team in the East, the Washington Capitals (37 points), in the Eastern Conference play-in game. The ninth-seeded Winnipeg Jets (29 points) would face off against the second wild-card Los Angeles Kings (30 points) in the West.It is something weve discussed and it has gained some traction, Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill said. But what if the second wild-card team has a six-point lead on the ninth-place team? Should they be knocked out of the playoffs becausse they lose one game?In the three seasons since the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, when the Columbus Blue Jackets missed the playoffs despite being tied in points with the Minnesota Wild, at least two points have separated the second wild-card team from the ninth-seeded non-playoff team in each conference.ddddddddddddThat alone, Florida Panthers executive chairman Peter Luukko said, should be reason enough to keep the current playoff format unchanged.I think its fine the way it is, Luukko said. I mean, were playing 82 games. I think its fair and I think its really working. Its coming down to the end of the season anyway right now. It couldnt be more exciting. I just think that kind of cheapens it.Nill said there have been discussions among general managers about giving the No. 1 playoff seed more of a reward for finishing with the best record in each conference, perhaps by increasing their number of first-round home games from four to five.That idea might be more palatable to the players than adding an extra game to their schedules.I think its stupid, Flyers forward Jakub Voracek said. A one-game playoff? I dont think this is baseball. You have 82 games to get in the playoffs. If youre not in, youre out.Teammate Wayne Simmonds agreed.You get in, you get in, he said. There should be no play-in game. You finish one through eight, youre in the playoffs. You finish ninth and you lose a tiebreaker by goal differential or something else, its too bad. The tiebreakers are fine, why change it now? ' ' '