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Outfielder Brett Phillips has announced his retirement after seven Major League seasons. In an Instagram reel released today, Phillips credited his career to his family, his faith, and to many people in and out of baseball that helped him achieve his success. Beyond those named in his speech, the 31-year-old Phillips also had a whiteboard full of names of many former teammates and executives who played key roles in his career. Phillips hit .187/.272/.347 with 31 homers over 971 plate appearances and 393 games during his MLB career, while playing for five different clubs at the big league level. Phillips’ speed was his chief offensive weapon, as he stole 39 bases on 45 career attempts. That speed also helped him deliver outstanding defense at all three outfield positions — over his 2321 1/3 innings as a big league outfielder, Phillips amassed +41 Defensive Runs Saved, +31 Outs Above Average, and a +13.0 UZR/150. The Astros made Phillips a sixth-round pick in the 2012 draft, though before he could make his debut in the Show, Houston dealt Phillips as part of the huge trade at the 2015 deadline that brought Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers from Milwaukee. Phillips was one of four pieces of the very prominent trade package acquired by the Brew Crew, as Josh Hader, Adrian Houser, and Domingo Santana were the other members of the haul. Not to overshadowed at the time of the trade, Phillips was drawing top-100 prospect attention heading into the 2016 season and for a couple of years afterwards. Phillips got his first taste of the majors in 2017, and he appeared in 52 games for the Brewers over the next two seasons before the outfielder was moved to the Royals in another notable deadline deal that saw Mike Moustakas shipped from K.C. to Milwaukee. This tenure in Kansas City stretched over parts of three seasons before Phillips was dealt again to the Rays partway through the abbreviated 2020 season, which set the stage for the most memorable moments of Phillips’ career. Tampa Bay won the AL pennant that year, with Phillips chipping in as a defensive specialist during the rest of the regular season and then as a defensive sub and pinch-runner throughout the playoffs. He had just three plate appearances during the postseason, and his one hit during that stretch couldn’t have been bigger. With the Dodgers holding a 7-6 lead over the Rays with two outs in the bottom of the ninth of Game 4, Phillips lined a single that tied the game, and ended up as the walkoff hit when Randy Arozarena also on the play due to a Will Smith catching error. Beyond the hit itself, Rays fans will always remember the image of Phillips’ celebratory airplane-style sprint around the outfield. The following season saw Phillips deliver his best year at the plate, as he hit .206/.300/.427 with 13 homers and 14 steals (out of 17 attempts) in 292 PA while playing in a part-time outfield role in Tampa Bay. His numbers dropped off sharply in 2022, however, and the Rays designated him for assignment and then dealt Phillips to the Orioles. Phillips moved on to play 39 games with the 2023 Angels in what proved to be his last MLB campaign, as subsequent minor league deals with the White Sox and Yankees didn’t result in any more calls to the Show. His stint with the Yankees saw the start of a new career path for Phillips, as he attempted to convert to pitching. Phillips’ final stop of his career came with Kane County of the independent American Association this year. Beyond his energy and contributions on the field, Phillips became a fan favorite and social media darling due to his outgoing personality. “Baseball Is Fun” became Phillips’ unofficial catchphrase, and he finished his retirement announcement by repeating his mantra one more time. We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Phillips on a fine career and we wish him plenty of more fun in his post-playing work endeavors. View the full article

Mark P The Weekend Chat (postseason edition) is here! We’ll take a minute for some questions to stack up, and then pitter patter, let’s get at ’er Phillie Phanatic If Phils lose does Thomson get fired? Mark P I’m not sure there’s anything that be pointed at as Thomson’s fault, in relation to why the Phillies aren’t able to get over the hump and win a title. But, with relatively little roster flexibility, it’s possible a managerial change might be viewed as a step that can be taken to try and shake things up. If Thomson wanted to continue managing, I suspect he might find another job as early as this offseason, given his track record and how many teams are looking for new dugout bosses Ca$hman Did Devin Williams late season resurgence get him into qualifying offer territory and if so does he accept it? Mark P He would absolutely accept it, but there’s no chance the Yankees would float $22MM to a reliever coming off such an inconsistent season. Joe Do the Reds trade for a middle of the order bat or sign one? What would they have to trade? Mark P Given their payroll limitations, a trade seems more likely, though the Reds should or could be able to find a decent hitter at a reasonable price. Martinez and Pagan both coming off the books frees up a big chunk of payroll space that Cincinnati can re-invest towards a big bat. On the trade front, the Reds technically have a pitching surplus. But, like I say about any team that seemingly has “too much” pitching, trading one arm and then running into an injury or two can very quickly put a team into a rotation hole. So, if the Reds go this route, they’ll have to be very careful about who they’d trade. Boomington Christian Walker a good fit for Reds? Mark P If the Reds are going to trade for someone, probably not the guy entering his age-35 season, who is owed $40MM over the next two seasons, and is coming off a 99 wRC+ year Read more Jim When do the Arb projections drop? Mark P I believe they’re coming this week, and possibly as early as tomorrow. Stay tuned! Mariners I’m both nervous and confident…. which one wins out versus the tigers? Mark P Losing Game 1 was a real blow to the Mariners with Skubal going tonight. If the Tigers are up 2-0 with the series going back to Detroit and Skubal on tap again for a hypothetical Game 5, the M’s are in major hot water. Ang T Is it a given that Vientos replaces Alonso if Pete leaves in free agency? Mark P In my Mets offseason outlook from the other day (self-promotion, woo hoo!), I suggested that the Mets could sign a veteran left-handed bat to platoon with Vientos. Someone like a Cody Bellinger who can play both 1B and the outfielder would be ideal, though Bellinger is a nice fit on a lot of teams. Vientos’ offense was so lackluster in 2025 that if you’re the Mets, I’m not sure how confident you can be in just handing him the first base job outright. Dylan beavers Do I get extended this off-season Mark P /checks MLBTR Agency Database /sees Beavers is repped by someone other than Scott Boras Yes, it’s possibility! Now that Basallo has been extended, you wonder if that breaks the seal on the Orioles locking up more players from this second wave of the young core. Beavers is repped by the Beverly Hills Sports Council, who has negotiated other early-career extensions for the likes of Jackson Chourio and Kristian Campbell Mets fan Should I expect the mets to have the same coaching staff layout with a pitching and hitting coach with an asst for each or is it possible we get an associate manager, offensive coordinator, field coordinator, etc? Mets shakeup Were you surprised to see to the Mets fire so many coaches? Hefner had a pretty good reputation as a pitching coach before this year and Stearns didn’t do a good job of giving him much to work with this year. Mark P Speaking of people who won’t be unemployed for long, I expect Hefner to quickly land on another MLB staff for 2026. I agree with the assessment that the Mets’ pitching struggles were more due to personnel and a flawed approach to the rotation more than anything Hefner did. (That said, there’s also the caveat that I don’t know what was happening within the Mets clubhouse.) As to the team’s coaching titles, it’s possible they might switch up some titles and responsibilities, perhaps to more directly specify coaches into specific duties. Probably depends on who they end up hiring. Bobby Cox I thought Skip S would have been a good choice for us. I dont want Ross, maybe DeRo or eddie p. How about you? Mark P A few months ago, I predicted that John Gibbons would be the Braves’ next manager. I’ll continue to stand by that call in the wake of the news that Gibbons is leaving the Mets’ bench coach job. Kwan As rough as the outfield situation had been in Cleveland, it feels like they hang on to me for this next season. Mark P Kwan is arb-controlled through 2027, and the Guardians traditionally wait to deal a player prior to his final year before free agency. So unless the Guards are out of the race at the deadline (like this year!….wait….), Kwan will probably get traded next winter Guardians of the Galaxy Given the absolutely abysmal offense displayed by the Guardians this season, do you see ownership finally opening their wallets at least a little to acquire some reliable offense (OF/INF) or should we expect another year of bottom-dwelling offense while we waste quality pitching and JRam’s prime? Mark P You’re preaching to the choir on this. Moving Gimenez’s contract and most of Straw’s contract opened up a lot of extra money for the Guardians, plus Emmanuel Clase’s contract might well be wiped off the books by a suspension. This is a team with only $37.2MM committed to next year’s payroll even with Clase’s money still considered. Even with a gigantic arb class pushing that number up, you’d think there would be some urgency to bring in some kind of proven bat. Rodney The Jays fired on all cylinders the first two games against the Yanks, but baseball fortunes can turn on a dime. Where does your biggest fear lie with the team? Mark P As we saw today, Toronto’s relief corps is very shaky. That doesn’t bode well for the bullpen game the Jays have lined up for Game 4, if the Yankees can win Game 3. Speaking as a Jays fan, I’m obviously very happy with the series thus far, but I’m absolutely not counting my chickens yet Stevie Wonder Do the Royals resign Jonathan India? Mark P I’d think pretty hard about non-tendering him. It would be a tough pill to swallow just a year after trading away Singer for him, but India had a sub-replacement season. The money KC can save with a non-tender can be spent on a better replacement for 2B, or for outfield help Tigers Rock! Favorite Detroit rockers? Funkadelic, the Stooges, MC5, or Alice Cooper? Mark P I assume that by “rockers” you’re not counting umpteen incredible Motown artists (like Stevie Wonder, who just asked that Royals question). If so, my answer is the White Stripes. Mark Would the Rangers move Langford? What do you think they would ask for from the Red Sox? I think his bat would be special in Fenway. Mark P Firstly, Langford is maybe the last person the Rangers would trade. Secondly, the Red Sox have an outfield surplus already. Angels fan What are the playoffs that this chat is speaking of? Mark P Cast your mind back to the magical 2002 season… Blake With the Texas Rangers seemingly heading toward austerity, do you think they will try to move any surprising names this off-season? Mark P Loosely translated, this means “which of the big four contracts do you think is most movable”? Semien is least-tradable, Seager is next, and the Rangers would get a lot of interest if they shopped deGrom or Eovaldi. Frontline pitching is always valuable, even for two veterans with injury histories making significant money. DeGrom getting through 2025 healthy is a big plus for his market, and Eovaldi was incredible when healthy this year. One wrinkle for Eovaldi’s trade market is the possibility of a sports hernia surgery, so teams may be unsure about how his offseason routine will be disrupted Angry Fan Have you ever witnessed a fanbase as mad as Pittsburgh Pirates fans currently are? Mark P I’m not even sure if the Pirates are the angriest current fanbase. Angels, Rockies, Twins, White Sox, etc. Brewers Fan I’m not sure who you had going into it, but if Chourio missed the rest of it, does that change your view of the series? Mark P I still think Milwaukee wins with or without Chourio, but obviously losing him would be a blow Verlander Do the giants resign me? Mark P They need pitching and JV did well enough in 2025 that you’d assume the Giants would welcome a reunion. The ball might be in Verlander’s court about whether he’d like to return to a familiar spot, or perhaps seek out a team better positioned to contend Don Zimmer PCA has peaked, and his career year is over. He hits 230 vs LHP and is an easy out vs same. What can we get if we trade him in Dec? Mark P The Cubs would get an absolute haul for a pre-arb player who’s turning 24, and who (at minimum) is a speed demon with Gold Glove-level defense in CF As much as PCA tailed off in the second half, there is absolutely zero chance the Cubs move him. Frank Drebin Jr Have you changed your World Series prediction yet or are you still confident? Mark P My preseason pick was Dodgers/Royals. I won’t lie, I don’t love KC’s chances of reaching the Series. Not being in the playoffs is a real setback. David Wells or Rice as the Yankees’ primary catcher next year? Mark P Wells, with Rice moving in as the primary first baseman and occasional backstop Rockies Front Office Who do you feel will be the front runners for the Rockies front office role? Rockies FO Any rumblings on the person to replace Bill? Mark P This will be one of the more interesting GM searches in a while, just because it’s so unlike the Rockies to go outside the organization for a hire. Who knows what their criteria might be, or how they’re approaching this process. I tend to agree with the idea that they’ll turn to someone who has worked with the Rox in the past. For all the Thad Levine buzz, his tenure in Colorado only slightly overlaps with the Monforts’ purchase of the team, so I’m not sure he’s exactly the known quantity to the Monforts that people think. Bobby Cox I could see Sox signing ozuna to a 1 year deal. They could use him Mark P The Red Sox? They probably need to keep the DH spot open, either for Yoshida or to cycle multiple guys through. The White Sox? Hey, why not, as a veteran bat who can probably then become trade bait at the deadline. Even for Chicago, however, they might prefer to keep their DH spot free for getting Quero and Teel both into the lineup as much as possible Torii Hunter Should I add wash to my staff if I am the manager? Mark P Speculative on my part, but my guess is that Washington wouldn’t want to return to a team that just fired him as manager. Wash’s most probable landing spot might be back in Atlanta as a coach on the new manager’s staff. As for the Angels, I do think that if the new skipper is a first-timer like Hunter or Pujols, hiring an experienced bench coach is a must. Guest Don’t get Cardinals thinking are the going to youth or not Mark P They certainly are this time around. Given how the veterans with no-trade clauses are all at least “thinking about” waiving their protection, the writing is on the wall about the rebuild. Phil Which MLB veteran do you see having the most difficult time finding a Major League contract next season, similar to the way that JD Martinez and Anthony Rizzo did? Mark P We just mentioned Ozuna in a recent question, and he might fit the bill. His numbers were okay (21 homers, 114 wRC+) but way down from his previous two seasons. Ozuna turns 35 next month, he’s a DH-only player, and his past off-the-field issues make him a no-go for some teams automatically. Ang T Which route will the Mets go to acquire a staff Ace? Mark P Valdez might be the closest thing to a clear-cut ace in this year’s free agent market, given the questions about Cease and Gallen. (And Tatsuya Imai, who is an unknown against North American hitting.) So based on scarcity alone, the Mets are likelier to go the trade route for frontline pitching. Joe Are the Rangers able to move any of their big contracts before next season? If so will the return be worth it? Mark P I think there’s some logic in selling high on DeGrom or Eovaldi, because as great as they looked in 2025, the injury risk won’t just go away. The problem is that if you deal one of those two, that opens up yet another hole in a rotation that may lose all of Mahle, Kelly, and Corbin to free agency. Ebenezer_Batflip Seems like everyone said Story would almost never opt-out, but his season has substantially exceeded expectations and he only has 2 years left on his deal, which would end during a potential CBA lockout. Feels like he’s the kind of guy who would prioritize getting a 3rd of 4th year over AAV money. What do you think? Story opts out or stays in Boston? Mark P Story is owed $25MM in both 2026 and 2027, plus he’ll get another $5MM on his buyout of a $25MM club option for 2028. So that’s $55MM left on the table if he does opt out, and his contract does last through the end of the CBA following the 2026 season. Story turns 33 next month, and he’s coming of a 101 wRC+ season. The counting numbers look better than the overall offensive impact for Story, and his defense really dropped off significantly, to boot. All in all, I suspect he stays in his contract, since his market might not be all that robust. Besides, why not stick around in Boston on a very promising young team? Worth noting that if he did opt out, the Red Sox could override his decision by guaranteeing Story’s 2028 salary. But, I think we can rule that scenario out. Felix Did Shane Bieber show enough in his abbreviated 2025 to get a multi-year pact? Mark P 40 1/3 innings of 3.57 ERA ball, with pretty good peripherals (especially a great walk rate) but a lot of homers allowed. A lot of teams would happily give Bieber multiple years off that production. Hits Like Rays Chances that the Rays keep Christopher Morel around next year for only about $800k? Mark P Morel’s arb-eligible salary won’t be much, but he also hasn’t shown much since arriving in Tampa Bay. The Rays have their usual gigantic arbitration class that I have yet to entirely sift through, but between their usual slate of trades and non-tenders, I’d lean towards Morel being elsewhere in 2026 Marlins Willson conteras as our trade. His contract is underwater, but he supplies defense and offense at first, send lottery ticket for STL to pay half the contract. Sign a good RP and we are a wildcard team Mark P I don’t even think I’d call his contract underwater, considering that Contreras has been quite steady over his three years in STL. Miami is an interesting team to watch this winter since they “might” pivot to a bigger move or two if they feel they can legitimately contend. I do kinda think they’re more prone to play it more conservative, but since we don’t know how Bendix will operate once he gets the green light to build a competitive team (or spend), it’s a bit of a question mark Plus, don’t forget that Contreras has a no-trade clause. So he’d have to be convinced that the Marlins will be pushing to contend before he signs off on such a trade. Cry young Crochet vs skubal but what about Chapman or freid? Mark P Both have good cases for top-five finishes, even if I think most voters will favor starters over Chapman. Larry Is AJ Preller’s job safe? Seems like it is too late to move on after letting him gut the farm . Mark P Preller’s contract is up after the 2026 season, so ownership will be making a decision on his future sooner rather than later. My guess is that he’ll get another extension since the Padres keep winning, even if they haven’t broken through for consistent playoff success Ohtani MVP again as this king deserves or some other mortal? Mark P Going forward, we should be thinking about what it’ll take for Ohtani to “not” win MVP, assuming he stays healthy. If it wasn’t for Judge having one of the best hitting seasons of all time, Ohtani would have four MVPs in a row and be rolling towards a fifth. Mariners Polanco seems to have skubals number Mark P In these chats last winter and spring, I vaguely recall naming Polanco re-signing with the Mariners as perhaps the offseason’s most baffling move. Whoops! Trip Edwin Diaz to the Braves possible? Mark P The Braves generally don’t go quite that big in free agency, and Diaz will be looking for a deal at least matching his current contract. I don’t see a fit, and if I had to pick Diaz’s 2026 team, my guess is a reunion with the Mets Tiny Tigs Any chance ownership and the front office stop sitting on their hands and sign some real vets to compliment the young players on the team? Sick of 1 year deals, expecting to make a legit push when it matters Mark P In fairness, Detroit did try to sign Bregman, so they at least attempted to make a splashier long-term signing. Wouldn’t shock me if Bregman is on their radar again this winter, as well some other bigger names. A full season of competitive baseball and the September scare should probably convince ownership to spend a little more, though we should wait until the Tigers’ season is actually, y’know, over. If they make the ALCS or better, our takes on Detroit’s strategy will look a lot different. Squatter Talk Was Shea Langeliers’ season under appreciated? Mark P Absolutely, in part because the A’s generally fly under a lot of fans’ radar CT Do you think Shane McClanahan could be traded if he pitches well next season? Mark P McClanahan is arb-eligible for the third of four trips this winter, and will get just a minimum raise since he didn’t pitch this year. All his injuries have pushed his salaries down enough that he likely won’t get expensive enough for the Rays to pursue trading. Say he returns to have a full and healthy 2026 with ace-level numbers. That bumps his 2027 salary up to perhaps $8MM or $8.5MM, which even by Rays standards is something they an afford for a frontline arm. Andy Is Muncy an automatic to have his option picked up by the Dodgers? Mark P Yep Jay So Trey Day is pretty fun – wouldn’t you say? Mark P Just an unreal start. A kid with all of 14 MLB innings to his name just dominates the Yankees to that extent…you can’t make this up. Slick Ric I think you are short changing how angry Pirates fans are. Mark P While there’s undoubtedly a lot of (deserved) frustration in Pittsburgh, there are unfortunately a lot of fanbases that are irate at their teams right now. Kyle Do the Red Sox go into 2026 with Casas penciled in at 1B or do they look for an external option? Mark P Casas will probably get one last chance for next year. He might be a trade candidate this winter, except the Sox would be selling low since Casas barely played last year. Ray In addition to Tucker, who else isn’t with the Cubs next season, Alcantara, Ballesteros or Caissie, or more than 1 of the latter? Mark P As in, you’re assuming the Cubs make another big trade of a prospect (or two?) in exchange for a star veteran? It’s a possibility, except with Happ/Seiya both just a year away from free agency now, the Cubs are going to be less keen on moving an outfield prospect Bucco Fan Which teams do you consider to be the best trade match for a Pirates team with SP depth? Mark P Mariners, Red Sox, Mets….basically any club that has a distinct need in the rotation, and has a prospect pool that is generally deeper in top bats than top arms. Cardinals or Cubs maybe fit here except they’re division rivals. Dodgers technically fit except their best position-player prospects are a few years away, and the Pirates need help now. We’re over two hours now, so it’s time to wrap this one up. Thanks so much for all your questions, and more chatting should be taking place next weekend! If you’re interested in more baseball Q&A, one of the many benefits of our Trade Rumors Front Office subscription is the exclusive weekly live chats. The more limited field means you’re about 10 times more likely to get a question answered, as opposed to battling for space with hundreds of other questions in today’s chat. For more on our memberships, check out this link: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/membership?ref=chat-10-05-25 View the full article

http://blogs.fangraphs.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Trey-Yesavage-ALDS-G2-2025.jpgKevin Sousa-Imagn Images The pitching matchup favored the Yankees. With all due respect to one of baseball’s best young arms, Toronto’s Trey Yesavage came into the contest having thrown just 14 big league innings. Conversely, New York starter Max Fried is a three-time All-Star who finished the season 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA. While Yesavage has a bright future — he’s currently the Blue Jays’ top prospect — his mound opponent seemed a better bet to perform under the pressure-packed lights of the postseason. That didn’t happen. Yesavage, who began the year in Low-A and didn’t make his major league debut until September 15, not only kept the Yankees off the scoreboard, but he did so in spectacular fashion. As for Fried — ditto his teammates who followed him on the bump — it was a veritable horror show. He got rocked. When all was said and done, Toronto had bombarded the Bronx Bombers to the tune of a 13-7 rout that wasn’t as close as the final score suggested. The win gave the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five Division Series. That Canada’s team launched four home runs and took a 12-0 lead before the Yankees recorded their first hit — a sixth-inning single after Yesavage had left to a huge ovation — isn’t exactly a footnote to what transpired at Rogers Centre. It was an impressive onslaught. Even so, what the 22-year-old right-hander with the power arsenal did was the story of the day. His dominance was on display from the get-go. Yesavage fanned Trent Grisham to begin the game. Then, after walking Aaron Judge on four pitches, he basically went into rinse-and-repeat mode in the K department. Through four frames, the 20th-overall pick in last year’s draft had fanned 10 of the 13 batters he’d faced. The offerings he undressed hitters with were threefold. Per Baseball Savant, Yesavage threw 35 four-seamers, 29 splitters, and 14 sliders. The Yankees were powerless to square up the pitches that left his hand. Yesavage’s final line included 11 strikeouts and just one baserunner allowed over 5 1/3 frames. The Toronto relievers didn’t find things quite so easy — far from it, actually — but more on that in a moment. The Blue Jays batters began squaring up baseballs in the second inning. After Fried escaped a first-inning jam by inducing a double play, he surrendered the game’s first gopher in the second. Judge’s misplay on a Daulton Varsho double into the right field corner put a runner on third to start the inning, but the bobble was quickly rendered irrelevant. Ernie Clement followed with a home run to give the AL East champions a 2-0 lead. From there it got ugly for Fried & Co. An Alejandro Kirk chopper to first with one out and runners on corners made it 3-0 in the third, and that was immediately followed by run-scoring knocks from Varsho, his second double of the game, and Clement. Then came the fourth inning, which left the Yankees shellshocked and the Toronto faithful in rapture. The oft-struggling New York bullpen took the brunt of the abuse. After an infield single and a walk, Fried was lifted for Will Warren, who walked George Springer to load the bases and struck out Davis Schneider looking for the first out. That’s when things got truly out of hand. In stepped Yankee killer Vladimir Guerrero Jr. With the count 2-1, Warren threw Guerrero a belt-high inside fastball. Vladito turned on it and absolutely demolished it 415 feet into the second deck in left-center field for a grand slam. Kirk singled on a grounder through the right side, and Varsho clobbered a two-run shot for his third extra-base hit of the game. In a hurry, there were 11 runs on the board. The Blue Jays weren’t done. Springer went yard in the fifth, and after Cody Bellinger put the Yankees on the board with a two-run shot off of Justin Bruihl in the top of the sixth, Varsho played long ball again the bottom half. At 13-2, Toronto’s lead was nothing short of comfortable. Until it wasn’t. Unwilling to go quietly, the Yankees made a lot of loud contact in the seventh. Chewing through three Blue Jays relievers, New York plated five runs, making things at least temporarily uncomfortable for John Schneider’s club. At 13-7, the Yankees were down but not necessarily out. Not long thereafter, though, they were done. Louis Varland tossed a scoreless eighth, and Seranthony Domínguez matched that zero in the ninth. Toronto’s overall bullpen effort wasn’t pretty — 10 hits and seven runs allowed in 3 2/3 innings — but the cushion the offense had provided was enough. The Blue Jays bats boomed throughout, belying the difficulty of facing a starter of Fried’s caliber in an important game. The fresh-faced youngster that completely shut down a power-packed Yankees lineup? He was historically dominant. Per Sportsnet Canada, Yesavage became the first pitcher in major league history with 11 strikeouts while allowing no hits through the first five innings of a playoff game. His efforts put the Yankees, who entered this series having won 13 of their last 15 games, on the brink of elimination. After a travel day on Monday, Game 3 of the ALDS is on tap for Tuesday night in the Bronx, where the Yankees will look to repeat what they did in 2017, the last time they fell behind 2-0 in a best-of-five series. That year, they lost the first two games on the road against Cleveland, who like these Blue Jays had won the most games in the American League. New York won two games to even the series and flip the momentum before winning the decisive Game 5 back on the road. To come all the way back this time, the Yankees will first need Carlos Rodón to silence the scorching hot Toronto lineup, and they’ll also need to score some runs against Blue Jays starter Shane Bieber. Of course, that was also the Yankees’ plan when they arrived at Rogers Centre on Sunday, before they realized they were no match for Trey Yesavage. Source View the full article

Photo Credit: Apple TV+ The Morning Show Season 4 Episode 4 release date and time are right around the corner. As per the season’s official schedule, the upcoming episode is titled “Love the Questions.” The Morning Show is a drama television series created by Jay Carson. The show is inspired by the 2013 book Top of the Morning by American journalist Brian Stelter. It features a star-studded cast led by Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, along with Billy Crudup and Karen Pittman. So, here’s everything you need to know about the release of The Morning Show Season 4’s fourth episode. When is The Morning Show Season 4 Episode 4 release date & time? The episode’s release date is Tuesday, October 7, and its release time is 6:00 p.m. PT in the U.S. Everywhere else, it releases on Wednesday, October 8. Check out its release times in the U.S. below: TimezoneRelease DateRelease TimeEastern TimeOctober 7, 202509:00 p.m.Pacific TimeOctober 7, 20256:00 p.m. Find out how many episodes will be available to watch in The Morning Show Season 4 right here. Where to watch The Morning Show Season 4 Episode 4 You can watch The Morning Show Season 4 Episode 4 via Apple TV+. Apple TV+ is home to some of the most critically lauded movies and television series of various genres. It hosts popular shows such as Ted Lasso, Slow Horses, and Presumed Innocent, to name a few. Additionally, the platform offers a free trial for first-time subscribers before they purchase a membership plan. What is The Morning Show about? The official synopsis for The Morning Show is as follows: “A behind-the-scenes look at the lives of the people who help America wake up in the morning, exploring the unique challenges faced by the men and women who carry out this daily televised ritual.” The post The Morning Show Season 4 Episode 4 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More. View the full article

Steven Fisk and Garrick Higgo dueled late Sunday for the Sanderson Farms Championship with Fisk eventually pulling away after birding the last three holes.View the full article

Photo Credit: NBC Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 2 release date and time are not too far away, and fans are eager to find out where they can watch the next episode. Titled “A Game of Inches,” this episode will showcase Asher’s unexpected discovery involving an expectant couple, a patient who creates turmoil within the hospital, and the return of some recognizable characters to Gaffney. However, tensions rise as Ripley and Archer clash over the treatment strategies related to a case. Let’s explore the release date and time details of Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 2. When is the Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 2 release date & time? The episode’s release date is October 8, 2025, and its release time is 5 p.m. PT and 8 p.m. ET. Check out its release times in the U.S. below: TimezoneRelease DateRelease TimeEastern TimeOctober 8, 20258 p.m.Pacific TimeOctober 8, 20255 p.m. Find out how many episodes will be available to watch in Chicago Med Season 11 right here. Where to watch Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 2 You can watch Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 2 via NBC and Peacock. NBC and Peacock belong to the same media family, each catering to audiences in distinct ways. NBC stands out as one of America’s premier broadcast channels, providing news, sports, and popular entertainment programs to millions of viewers. However, Peacock serves as NBCUniversal’s streaming service, all conveniently available in one location. What is Chicago Med about? The official synopsis for Chicago Med is as follows: “An emotional thrill ride through the day-to-day chaos of the city’s most explosive hospital and the courageous team of doctors who hold it together. They will tackle unique new cases inspired by topical events, forging fiery relationships in the pulse-pounding pandemonium of the emergency room.” The post Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 2 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More. View the full article

The Blue Jays hold a 2-0 lead in the ALDS after a 13-7 win over the Yankees today. Toronto has torched the Yankees for 23 runs over the two games, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (3-for-5 with a grand slam) and Daulton Varsho (4-for-5 with two homers and two doubles) doing the most damage today with four RBI apiece. Max Fried was charged with seven earned runs over three-plus innings in a disastrous outing for the Yankees ace. New York’s lineup came to life with seven late runs against Toronto’s bullpen, after Jays starter Trey Yesavage was nothing short of dominant. In just his fourth career outing in the majors, Yesavage allowed only a walk over 5 1/3 hitless innings, with 11 strikeouts — the most K’s from any Blue Jays pitcher in a postseason game. The decision to pull Yesavage after 78 pitches seemed to be based on a desire to keep Yesavage from facing Yankees batters a third time, and to potentially keep Yesavage fresh for usage later in the series. Of course, the Yankees can only hope that there will even be a “later in the series,” as the Jays are just one win away from advancing to the ALCS. Game 3 is on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. More from around the AL East… Rays assistant general manager and VP Carlos Rodriguez officially announced on Wednesday that he is leaving the organization. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes that Rodriguez “had been talking about [departing] for a while,” so the move has nothing to do with the Rays’ new owners, as it is believed that the incoming ownership group won’t be making any major changes to the baseball ops group. Rodriguez was one of four AGMs under president of baseball operations Erik Neander, and Topkin believes the club will fill Rodriguez’s spot by promoting from within. Rodriguez has been in his VP/AGM role for the last four seasons, and a member of Tampa’s organization for the last 15 seasons. Beginning as a scout, Rodriguez had many roles as he worked his way up the front office ladder, including multiple years running the Rays’ Latin American scouting and international scouting operations. Luke Weaver retired the only batter he faced in a mop-up appearance for the Yankees today, providing some small hope that the right-hander is turning things around. After an inconsistent regular season, Weaver has had a nightmarish postseason, as he hadn’t recorded a single out from six batters faced in two prior outings against the Jays (in Game 1 of the ALDS) and Red Sox (in Game 1 of the wild card series). Weaver discussed his struggles with MLB.com’s Jake Rill and other reporters before today’s game, suggesting that he may have been over-correcting in an attempt to keep from tipping his pitches. “I’m at a point where I’m just, ’Full send,’ and none of that’s going to matter anymore. So I’m going to be what I think is best for me, and I’m going to go out there and attack the way I need to do,” Weaver said. After a disappointing season for the Orioles and their core of young players, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko opines that the team should go big in adding both experience and quality by signing Cody Bellinger this winter. To be clear, this is a speculative opinion on Kubatko’s part, rather than a suggestion that Bellinger might be on the Orioles’ radar this winter. Baltimore hasn’t been linked to Bellinger when he has been a free agent or trade candidate in the past, and signing Bellinger would represent far and away the team’s biggest financial splash of the Mike Elias era. Tyler O’Neill’s three-year, $49.5MM contract from last winter is the only multi-year free agent signing Elias has made, though the Orioles’ eight-year, $67MM extension with Samuel Basallo from the summer indicates that the club may be getting a bit more comfortable with larger spending. View the full article

Right hamstring tightness forced Jackson Chourio out of Game 1 of the NLDS in the second inning, though Chourio had already logged three hits by that point in the Brewers 9-3 win over the Cubs. In the aftermath, Chourio told reporters “I feel good, and I feel I’m in a position where I’m ready to keep going and ready to keep competing,” though he underwent an MRI to check for any sort of serious injury. That MRI didn’t come back entirely clean, as Brewers manager Pat Murphy told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Curt Hogg and other media that the MRI was “inconclusive. It’s not a serious hamstring strain, but it’s not necessarily something that won’t limit him. We’re going to kind of see how he feels. He’s going to go through some testing, and if he feels anything, we’re going to shut it down.” As Hogg describes it, Chourio’s work today was limited to some runs from home plate to first base, with the outfielder moving “at roughly 50 percent.” Chourio “appeared to move gingerly but did not seem to be in any pain during or after the running,” Hogg writes. The off-day between Game 1 and Game 2 of the series gave Chourio and the Brewers extra time to monitor the situation, and kept alive the chance that Chourio might yet be able to play in the next contest. There is also an off-day between Game 2 and Wednesday’s Game 3, so the Brewers could conceivably rest Chourio for Monday and then not make a final determination on his status until prior to Wednesday’s game. Issac Collins took over for Chourio in Game 1, and Murphy said Collins will remain as the Brewers’ left fielder if Chourio indeed can’t play. As Hogg noted, Collins cooled off drastically over the last six weeks of the season, bringing a quiet end to an otherwise strong rookie season that saw Collins finish with a .263/.368/.411 slash line and nine homers over 441 plate appearances (122 wRC+). If Chourio has to be removed from the NLDS roster for injury purposes, the Brewers would get to add a replacement to their roster, but Chourio wouldn’t be eligible to return to action until the World Series (if Milwaukee advanced through both the NLDS and NLCS). Outfielders Blake Perkins and Brandon Lockridge are already on the 26-man roster, so the Brew Crew wouldn’t necessarily summon another outfielder in Chourio’s place. View the full article

Tommy Gainey, 50, holed a long eagle putt from off the green at the par-5 13th to take the lead, and he closed with a 6-under 66 for a two-shot victory in the Constellation Furyk & Friends in Jacksonville, Florida, for his first PGA Tour Champions title.View the full article

As the Giants get their managerial search underway following Bob Melvin’s recent dismissal, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that catcher Nick Hundley is “strongly in the mix” for the job. It’s unclear whether Hundley has interviewed for the position at this point, but the fact that his name has come up so clearly is nonetheless notable. Hundley, 42, was a big league catcher for parts of 12 seasons and served as the Giants’ primary backup to Buster Posey for the 2017 and ’18 seasons. After serving under Posey as part of the team’s catching tandem, it now appears Posey has interest in bringing Hundley in to serve as his manager now that he’s become San Francisco’s president of baseball operations. Hundley immediately jumped into an off-the-field role with the league upon announcing his retirement in 2020, as he became a senior director of baseball operations with the commissioner’s office. He spent two years in that role before departing the league office to take up a job in the Rangers organization, where he serves as a special assistant to president of baseball operations Chris Young. Hundley won a World Series in the organization in 2023, and during that playoff run was actually a candidate to manage the Giants when then-president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was looking to replace Gabe Kapler in the dugout. At the time, it was reported that Hundley had withdrawn himself from consideration before receiving an interview due to family considerations. He had talked to both Zaidi and Posey himself about the role before making that decision, however, indicating that he had at least some level of interest. With no interview confirmed to have taken place, it’s not necessarily a lock that Hundley would accept the opportunity to interview if offered given his past decision to decline that invitation. With that being said, it’s entirely possible that whatever concerns Hundley had about jumping back into the grind and travel involved with a managerial role have resolved themselves in the past two years, or even that the idea of reporting directly to a former teammate like Posey holds enough appeal to get him involved in the process again. It’s also worth noting that Heyman made clear Hundley has “no guarantees” of landing the position, even in the event he has changed his mind about his desire to manage. Whatever the case may be regarding Hundley’s candidacy, he’s far from the only person the Giants will talk to about their managerial gig. Former All-Star and longtime Oakland A’s catcher Kurt Suzuki is known to have interviewed for the position. Former Giants bullpen coach Craig Albernaz, now in Cleveland as Stephen Vogt’s bench coach and associate manager, is “expected to get a look” for the job as well. It’s worth noting that all three of Hundley, Suzuki, and Albernaz have connections to the Bay Area, though that may not necessarily be something Posey is looking for specifically in his next manager. Whoever next sits in the manager’s chair for the Giants will be an external hire, as Posey is not expected to interview any members of the current coaching staff for the job. View the full article

Royals GM J.J. Picollo told reporters (including Anne Rogers of MLB.com) after the regular season came to a close that he expected that “most of the [coaching] staff” (including hitting coach Alec Zumwait) will return to Kansas City in 2026. At the time, he acknowledged that there might be some “tweaks” to the staff in hopes of getting the most out of the club’s players. Today, Picollo provided more details on those tweaks when he told Rogers that the Royals won’t renew the contracts of assistant hitting coaches Keoni DeRenne and Joe Dillon for the 2026 campaign. DeRenne has been in the Royals organization since 2020 and has spent the past four seasons as the club’s assistant hitting coach. He previously coached in the Cubs and Pirates organizations at the minor league level. Dillon, meanwhile, has been an assistant hitting coach for the Royals in each of the past two seasons and has previously served as an assistant hitting coach for the Nationals and spent two years as the hitting coach for the Phillies in addition to time in the Nationals and Marlins organizations coaching at the minor league level. Picollo praised the pair’s work in Kansas City, telling Rogers that both are “really good, tireless workers” who will “end up in a good spot somewhere in the game.” The duo figure to have plenty of opportunities to catch on somewhere with so many teams changing managers this winter. Many of those new managers will look to make tweaks to their team’s coaching staff, which could benefit coaches like DeRenne and Dillon. As for the Royals themselves, the departures of their assistant hitting coaches will create an opportunity to bring in fresh voices to complement Zumwait. Kansas City finished the season with a team-wide wRC of just 93, even in spite of strong performances from core pieces like Vinnie Pasquantino, Maikel Garcia, and Bobby Witt Jr. at the place. That’s because much of the club’s supporting cast disappointed in a big way, while some players counted on to be threats high in the batting order like Jonathan India and Jac Caglianone failed to produce. While the Royals might hope that a veteran like India can return to form on his own, a young player like Caglianone could surely benefit from the guidance that new members of the coaching staff could offer. More from around the league’s coaching staffs… Pirates hitting coach Matt Hague is expected to continue in his current role with the club, according to a report from Alex Stumpf of MLB.com earlier today. Hague, 40, spent part of three seasons as a big league player before starting his coaching career in 2020 as a minor league coach with the Blue Jays. He spent the 2024 season with Toronto in the big leagues as an assistant hitting coach, before getting hired away by Pittsburgh last offseason to serve as their primary hitting coach in the majors. Hague’s Pirates were the second-worst team in baseball by wRC+ this year as even well-regarded hitters like Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz took significant steps back at the plate. Even so, he’ll get another opportunity to guide the team’s offense in 2026, and with improving the lineup being a top priority for the Pirates this season he’ll hopefully have more talent to work with on the field next year. The Diamondbacks are expecting to retain their 2025 coaching staff for next season, manager Torey Lovullo told Dave Burns and John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports last week. Lovullo left the door open for some roles on the coaching staff to change even as the entire group is retained for the 2026 campaign, though he suggested that coaches will generally remain in their same role they had this season. While the Diamondbacks disappointed with an 80-82 record this year, it’s hard not to see how injuries to key players like Corbin Burnes, A.J. Puk, and Justin Martinez wound up significantly impacting the team for the worse, and it’s not impossible to imagine that the club could have squeaked its way into the postseason had core pieces like Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suarez, and Merrill Kelly not been traded at this year’s deadline. Evidently, that’s enough for Lovullo and GM Mike Hazen to feel comfortable sticking with their current staff for at least one more year. View the full article

With so many managerial vacancies around the sport at the moment, it should be expected that a large crop of potential candidates are seeing their name come up in those conversations. While the 30 MLB manager positions are among the most coveted jobs in the baseball world and the opportunity to even interview for one is a significant honor, that doesn’t mean that everyone on a front office’s shortlist will have interest in the job. One such case is former Padres manager Andy Green, who Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports has declined “multiple managerial opportunities” in order to stick in his current role as a player development executive within the Mets’ front office. It should be noted that it isn’t clear which teams contacted Green or how serious those clubs were in their interest. Still, it’s interesting to hear both that Green was receiving interest from clubs and that he preferred to stick in his current role with the Mets than pursuing another round in the manager’s chair. After spending parts of four seasons in the majors as a player, Green briefly served as the third base coach in Arizona before taking over as San Diego’s manager during the 2015-16 offseason. Green managed the Padres for four seasons but ultimately was fired shortly before the end of the 2019 season, eight games before the end of what would be the club’s fourth-consecutive 90-loss campaign. While Green did well in bringing young players like Manuel Margot, Chris Paddack, and Fernando Tatis Jr. along in the majors, San Diego felt the results on the field weren’t improving fast enough under Green. It didn’t take long for him to find a new position, however, as he was quickly snapped up by the Cubs and newly-minted manager David Ross to serve as Ross’s bench coach for the 2020 season. Green remainder in Chicago for Ross’s entire tenure as skipper, but chose to depart the club when Ross was dismissed in favor of Craig Counsell. Leaving Chicago is what led Green back to Queens, where he briefly appeared as a player for the Mets across four games in 2009. Green was hired by new president of baseball operations David Stearns in November of 2023 for an unspecified “senior role” in player development. It was later revealed that Green had been given the role of senior vice president, and he’s worked under Stearns as part of New York’s front office in each of the past two seasons. For Green to turn down the opportunity to return to the dugout, he’s clearly comfortable with his position in the Mets organization. It’s certainly possible that the 48-year-old appreciates the move to a front office role and the flexibility afforded by no longer being part of the day-to-day grind of traveling with the team during the season, or that his player development skills are better suited for work behind the scenes rather than in the dugout. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Green wouldn’t consider a jump back to the dugout at some point in the future. Will Venable famously declined an interview with the Mets organization in order to stay in his associate manager role with the Rangers, only to accept an offer to manage the White Sox just a year later. Perhaps Green could reconsider a move back to the dugout at some point down the line if the right opportunity came along, but it seems for now that he’s content to stay with the Mets even as nearly a third of the league is looking for a change in the manager’s chair. View the full article

Robert MacIntyre won the Dunhill Links Championship to complete a successful homecoming after being part of Team Europe's victory in the Ryder Cup last week.View the full article

Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos spoke to reporters (including David O’Brien of The Athletic) yesterday in an end-of-season press conference yesterday and covered a variety of topics. Much of the focus, however, was on Brian Snitker’s decision to step down as manager and the impending hunt for a new manager. Anthopoulos made sure to emphasize that Snitker’s departure from the role was in fact the veteran manager’s own decision, and that if he had wanted to remain in the dugout for an 11th season Anthopoulos would not have stood in the way of that. He spoke glowingly of the relationship and trust the two of them had built, and went on to reveal that Snitker is actually under contract with the organization through the 2030 season. That’s because, Anthopoulos revealed, Snitker’s January 2023 contract extension that was announced as a three-year deal that ended in 2025 was actually an eight-year contract where he would serve as manager through the end of the 2025 season before shifting into a senior advisor role for the final five years of his deal. It was left to Snitker to decide whether that latter portion of the extension would be announced at the time, and Snitker opted against that. It’s an interesting reveal that makes clear Snitker’s move out of the manager’s chair is not related to Atlanta’s disappointing 2025 season, and lends credence to the idea that the Braves would have been happy to bring him back for an 11th season as manager if he was inclined to pursue one. Snitker ultimately opted to step aside, however, and that’s left Anthopoulos to begin his first search for a new manager since joining the Braves in November of 2017. Anthopoulos told reporters that he had not yet even made a list of potential candidates for the role in deference to Snitker, though he added that doing so was the next item on his offseason to-do list. Anthopoulos noted that the next manager doesn’t necessarily need to follow in the footsteps of Snitker, a 49-year veteran of the organization, and have deep roots within the organization. That should allow Anthopoulos to cast a wider net in finding the right partner to bring playoff baseball back to Atlanta. Former Braves players like David Ross and Walt Weiss have been popular speculative picks for the job among fans and in the media, and while O’Brien notes that someone like that cannot be ruled out there’s been no indication of who Anthopoulos may be looking at as a candidate. Anthopoulos told reporters he hopes to keep it that way, though he also acknowledged that with as many managerial vacancies as there are in baseball at the moment even his notoriously leak-free front office may have trouble keeping the team’s plans completely under wraps. Regardless of who is ultimately leading the Braves from the dugout next year, it’s clear that some changes will be necessary on the field. The first major decision point of Atlanta’s offseason (aside from finding Snitker’s replacement) will not actually sit with Anthopoulos at all, as Ha-Seong Kim will be able to decide whether to exercise his $16MM player option for 2026 or return to free agency. Kim had a tough year between the Rays and Braves this season, appearing in just 48 games and slashing just .234/.304/.345 overall. Atlanta was quite impressed with his work after they claimed him off waivers, however, and he posted a respectable 91 wRC+ across his 98 plate appearances with the organization. Anthopoulos was candid with reporters (including Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) about the fact that the Braves hope to keep Kim in the fold, though it remains to be seen if he’ll simply exercise his player option or if he’ll instead look to test free agency. O’Brien suggests that the club could look to preempt Kim’s opt-out decision by negotiating a contract with him before he reaches the open market, as the Royals did with Michael Wacha last winter. That would make plenty of sense given Anthopoulos’s proclivity towards extensions, even for recently-acquired players like Sean Murphy and Chris Sale. At the same time, Kim’s combination of an impressive ceiling and difficult 2025 season could make him a difficult player to find the proper value for on a longer-term deal. Keeping or replacing Kim isn’t the only priority of the team’s upcoming offense, of course. Burns notes that Anthopoulos highlighted both the bullpen and the starting rotation as areas he hopes to upgrade this winter in addition to shortstop. The loss of Max Fried to the Yankees last offseason was badly felt in the Atlanta rotation, and while talented arms like Sale, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo Lopez, and Spencer Schwellenbach all remain under team control, that entire group faces questions headed into 2026 whether those concerns are about age, health, or performance. Bringing in a stable arm who can provide reliable, mid-rotation or better innings would make plenty of sense, and a bullpen that stands to lose Raisel Iglesias and could also see Pierce Johnson head into free agency if Anthopoulos does not exercise his $7MM club option after losing A.J. Minter last year will also need significant reinforcement. The free agent market looks to be littered with quality options in both regards, but the Braves have typically resisted spending large sums of money in free agency and have long preferred to get creative on the trade market when looking to bring in new talent. Perhaps that could change this year after 2025’s disappointing finish, and Atlanta will go out and sign someone like Dylan Cease or Edwin Diaz to a sizable contract. It seems more likely, however, that the Braves will instead look to be opportunistic in free agency and focus their more aggressive pursuits on the trade market, which has brought them success when adding players like Sale, Murphy, and Iglesias over the years. Joe Ryan, Sandy Alcantara, Pete Fairbanks, and JoJo Romero are among the players who could theoretically be available this winter who would fit Atlanta’s pitching needs. View the full article

http://blogs.fangraphs.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Spencer-Torkelson-ALDS-G1-2025.jpgSteven Bisig-Imagn Images SEATTLE — “We didn’t steal one. We earned it.” Those were the first words spoken by Tigers manager A.J. Hinch following Game 1 of the ALDS at T-Mobile Park on Saturday night. Hinch took umbrage with a reporter’s characterization of a 3-2 victory that spanned 11 innings in a road ballpark as “stealing one.” Managers should bring that type of bravado to the press conference. Especially Hinch, who is tasked with imbuing confidence in a squad that has been dogged by tales of its epic collapse for over a month. But with all due respect to Hinch, to describe any one-run, extra-inning game as one where either team definitively earned the win, or on the flip side deserved to lose, places all the emphasis on the final result and glosses over exactly how that result came to be. The Tigers got the win, and now they enjoy a 1-0 series lead with Tarik Skubal, the reigning (and presumptive) AL Cy Young award winner, taking the mound for them in Game 2. They get to bask in the glow of that advantage, and they absolutely should. But if Hinch gets to quibble with verbiage, so do I. During the regular season, the Mariners were 31-21 in one-run games and 10-11 in extra innings. The Tigers were 21-12 in one-run games and went 5-8 in extras. Based on those numbers, Seattle performed better in games that couldn’t be decided in regulation, while Detroit put together a stronger winning percentage in one-run games. But as research has shown, none of those numbers really matter because the tighter the score and the more innings played, the more random the outcome. Winning tight games that stretch beyond nine innings is less about skill than the winners want to believe. When reviewing Russell Carleton’s Baseball Prospectus research on the topic, the following passage felt particularly germane: For a moment, I want to focus on the 25 percent of one-run games that go into the ninth tied. In some sense, from this point onward, the fundamental characteristic of the game has changed. From this point onward, the game is a series of one-inning sudden-death games. Prior to this, if the opponents scored in the fifth inning, you could make it up in the seventh. But no more. From a sampling perspective, we’ve gone from a nine-inning sample of team quality on that day to a one-inning sample. Smaller sample sizes mean more variance: anything can happen in extra innings. None of this is to say that skill doesn’t factor into the outcome at all, but it’s less of a factor than in games decided by multiple runs. But we’re not actually here to discuss overarching theories and analytical truths that tell us what typically happens. We have an actual baseball game with real outcomes to discuss. In this game, both teams caught some fortunate bounces, both teams got away with mistakes, and both teams took advantage of mistakes made by their opponent. And both teams did all of this in largely equal measure. Before we wade into the waters of mistakes and misfortune, let’s first acknowledge the purely skill-based victories. Tigers outfielder Kerry Carpenter earns full credit for taking Mariners starter George Kirby deep with two outs in the fifth inning. With the Tigers trailing 1-0 and a runner on first, Carpenter attacked a sinker several inches above the top of the zone and drove it over 400 feet. In a game awash in 50/50 managerial decisions, the one most likely to have calculus equations floating through Mariners skipper Dan Wilson’s field of vision before Game 2 is the choice to leave Kirby in the game to face Carpenter a third time. It’s generally safe to assume more noise than signal when considering a hitter’s history with a specific pitcher. But Carpenter’s four home runs in 10 plate appearances against Kirby entering that third matchup of the night were staggering enough to give pause. And though when addressing specific matchups players usually opt to keep their comments vague to the point of meaningless while doling out the utmost respect to their opponents, when speaking to the media postgame, Carpenter bluntly admitted to seeing Kirby well and feeling like he had him timed as he stepped in to face him in the fifth. Kirby’s wOBA allowed this season was .286 the first time through the order and .264 the second time through, but it spiked to .390 when facing opposing hitters for a third time. Additionally, Carpenter has a known kryptonite in left-handing pitching. Seattle had southpaw Gabe Speier ready and waiting for the bullpen phone to ring as Carpenter was announced, but the call didn’t come. After the game, Wilson said he thought Kirby still had the stuff to handle Carpenter; instead Carpenter’s handiwork gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead. It feels very obvious in retrospect that Wilson should have gone to Speier, but just as four of the previous 10 meetings between Kirby and Carpenter resulted in a home run, four of them also ended with a strikeout, including one in the first inning Saturday. It’s not absurd to think he could pull it off again. Nevertheless, Carpenter bested Kirby, earning every inch of that home run. Likewise, Seattle center fielder Julio Rodríguez gets all the flowers for going deep against Detroit starter Troy Melton one frame prior. Like Carpenter, Rodríguez launched a high fastball (though this one was a four-seamer, rather than a sinker), and 413 feet later, he was circling the bases. The Mariners defense also earned two crucial outs on back-to-back batted balls to end the ninth inning. First, a line drive moving 101 mph off the bat of Javier Báez sent Eugenio Suárez into full “I’m a Little Teapot” mode. He tipped to his left and pulled the ball out of the air just as his knees brushed the infield dirt. Next, with his throwing motion flinging his body to the first base side of the mound, Andrés Muñoz managed to redirect his momentum to reach back and snag a liner off the bat of Parker Meadows. Not to be outdone, the Tigers defense turned a tricky double play at one of the highest-leverage points in the game. After Rodríguez tied the score with a single in the sixth, first baseman Josh Naylor stepped to the plate with no outs and runners on first and second. He pulled a groundball toward second base. The shortstop Báez fielded it, then tagged Rodríguez, who was on his way to second, before firing to first to complete the double play. The play required tremendous balance and accuracy from Báez, but even with what Hinch termed “acrobatics,” the play was still close enough to challenge the outs at both first and second. So close, in fact, that if Rodríguez had stopped running to second — either by retreating to first, halting in place, or dropping to the dirt — he probably would’ve prolonged the tag play by enough split-seconds for Naylor reach first safely. This was not the type of lazy grounder that big league infielders can easily convert into a routine double play; those outs were hard won. But now the time has come. We must grapple with the parts of the game with murkier relationships to player skill. First up, the Took Advantage of an Opponent’s Mistake category: Pitching in relief for the Tigers, Rafael Montero opened the sixth with a walk to Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena and a single to catcher Cal Raleigh, who scooped a splitter on the outer half and served it into right field. At that point, Montero was probably hoping he could take a pitch to gather himself, that Rodríguez would be one of those hitters that takes the first pitch of a plate appearance without any real thought given to swinging. But much like the whole mouse-cookie-milk situation, if you throw Rodríguez a cookie, he’s going to want to swing. And in this case, that swing led to a single that drove in a run and tied the game. Punishing mistake pitches still requires skill, but because it’s dependent on the existence of a mistake, it’s a skill that relies on a positive twist of fate. Perhaps the Naylor double play could be considered taking advantage of an opponent’s mistake too, because Rodríguez didn’t hit the deck when Báez tried to tag him, but that particular play feels like less of a mistake on Rodríguez’s part. Instead, we should consider the flip side; if Rodríguez had delayed the relay throw to first long enough for Naylor to beat it, the play would’ve gone into the Heads Up Baseball category, where a player makes an instantaneous decision that another player ordinarily wouldn’t have made. Because of how fast Rodríguez was running and where Báez fielded the ball, it would’ve taken extraordinary awareness and athleticism to recognize what was happening and then stop, drop, and roll before getting tagged. This next play featured two mistakes, but only one of them was taken advantage of. With Detroit’s switch-hitting utilityman, and certified lefty killer, Jahmai Jones on first, catcher Dillon Dingler hit a popup to shallow right field. Seattle second baseman Jorge Polanco couldn’t quite make the catch, but because right fielder Victor Robles hustled in while the ball was in the air, and because Jones didn’t make the proper initial read on the situation, Robles was able to recover the ball and get Jones on the fielder’s choice at second. In the (Mis)Fortune category, much of what we deem luck or unlucky in baseball distills down to batted ball outcomes. There’s no room for moral victories this time of year, so I doubt Mariners fans will take much comfort in tallying up half a dozen well-struck batted balls from the likes of Arozarena, Polanco, Naylor, and J.P. Crawford. Of course, the Tigers had a couple of these as well: notably, a Carpenter groundout with an expected batting average of .630 and a Gleyber Torres lineout to left field (.900 xBA) in the 10th. To understand how infuriating these can be, I give you this loud out from Naylor. Hit one pitch after Rodríguez homered off Melton in the fourth inning, Melton’s reaction to the way the ball left the bat makes it very clear he was convinced he’d just given up back-to-back jacks. Finally, we have the Got Away With a Mistake category. The early example of this is Kirby working his way out of a jam in the second inning. In both the first and second, he threw several mistake pitches, sinkers that missed the shadow region of the zone completely, finishing too far outside to be considered competitive. But the Tigers failed to meaningfully capitalize. Designated hitter Colt Keith opened the second with a single and then Dingler followed with a walk, but after Kirby threw ball one to third baseman Zach McKinstry, Raleigh made a mound visit. On the next pitch, Kirby pulled his sinker down into the zone, and from that point forward, he was able to find that location regularly enough to coax swings out of the Detroit lineup. The other prime example came very late in the game. In the top of the 11th, McKinstry sent a groundball up the middle, scoring first baseman Spencer Torkelson from second. McKinstry, who went hitless for the final three months of the regular season (that’s not literally true, but it probably felt that way for both Tigers fans and McKinstry), tapped a ball back to the pitcher with an exit velocity of 73 mph and an xBA of .220. It was nearly fielded by both pitcher Carlos Vargas and shortstop Crawford, who was shading the left-handed McKinstry to pull and had to sprint back toward second to attempt a diving play. Neither fielder could snag it, so it went for a hit that drove in the game-winning run. However, at this point in his career, Crawford is not a good fielder, specifically when it comes to his range (or lack thereof). With -12 OAA, he was the second-worst defensive shortstop in the majors. That the single was just out of Crawford’s reach indicates that a better fielder with better range probably would’ve at least kept the ball from getting past him and forced Torkelson to hold up at third. McKinstry got away with one there. Because of the narrow margins in this game, roughly one billion things happened that, had they gone even a little bit differently, the outcome of the game may have swung the other way. Hinch and the Tigers got the win, and now they get to reap the rewards of being up 1-0 in a best-of-five series. But if the Tigers are now considered favorites to win this ALDS showdown, it’s not because they put on some dominant showing in Game 1 that changed the complexion of the series. It’s because you’re only as good as your next day’s starter, and they’ve got Skubal going in Game 2. And that’s even more true considering these teams just ran through a combined 13 relievers in one night. Source View the full article

Both Ron Washington and Ray Montgomery have been evicted from the manager’s office in Anaheim, as the Angels plan to hire a new manager rather than tabbing either their manager or interim manager from this season to return in 2026. Most of the attention has been focused on the candidacy of Albert Pujols to this point, but Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reported yesterday that one other expected candidate is Torii Hunter. Hunter, 50, played 19 seasons in the majors. He made it to the All-Star game five times, won nine Gold Glove awards for his work in the outfield, and enjoyed an impressive five-year run with the Angels from 2008 to 2012 where he slashed .286/.352/.462 in 713 games. Hunter being a candidate for the job is hardly a surprise, given the fact that he was reportedly in the mix for the job following the 2023 season before Washington was hired. At the time, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale highlighted Hunter as “tremendously regarded” by club owner Arte Moreno, which was enough to make him an option even in spite of his lack of coaching experience at a time when the Angels were specifically focused on bringing in a more experienced voice at the time. While Hunter did not ultimately land the job, that didn’t end the organization’s interest in bringing him into the fold. They pursued him as a potential member of Washington’s coaching staff, and while he declined to be considered for that role he was hired as a special assistant to Minasian in April of 2024. He’s remained in the organization ever since, and the relationship that role has surely created with Minasian over the past two years could help give Hunter a leg up in the hunt for the job if Minasian has a say in the hiring process despite his status as a lame duck GM. Still, it’s must be remembered that Pujols is held in a similar regard by Moreno and is also already employed by the organization as a result of his ten-year personal services contract with the club signed at the time of his free agency as a player. Some reporting has gone as far as suggesting that it might be the Hall of Famer’s decision to make whether or not he serves as Anaheim’s next manager. Even with Pujols emerging as an early favorite, however, that doesn’t mean he’s a lock to be in the dugout next year. There’s certainly a chance that someone with Pujols’s profile might prefer to hold out for a team with stronger prospects than the Angels currently have coming off their tenth consecutive sub-.500 season. The turnover rate of Angels managers might also be a concern. After all, the team has churned through five managers (Brad Ausmus, Joe Maddon, Phil Nevin, Washington, and Montgomery) in the last seven years since Mike Scioscia left the club following the 2019 season. Even aside from those potential concerns on Pujols’s end, it’s not impossible to imagine GM Perry Minasian pushing for a different candidate or even Moreno himself having a change of heart. All of that is to say, keeping other candidates in mind for the position is sensible, and Hunter has a lot of the same qualities that have made Pujols the early favorite for the job. Given that, it stands to reason that Hunter might find himself in strong position to land the gig if Pujols were to decline to be considered. What’s more, every indication points to Hunter having interest in both managing generally and leading the Angels specifically. He not only interviewed for the role in 2023, but also told reporters at the time that he would relish the “challenge” of helping turn the Angels franchise around. On the other hand, it’s worth noting that Hunter is arguably even more connected to the Twins organization than he is to the Angels after playing 12 seasons in Minnesota. The Twins also have a managerial opening after their decision to fire Rocco Baldelli, and while there’s not yet been any solid connection between Hunter and that gig it would certainly be one worth considering from Hunter’s perspective. The organization’s massive sell-off this past summer would certainly provide a challenge if Hunter is looking for one, but the team’s history suggests that Twins managers have more job security than those in Anaheim. Every manager in Minnesota in the past 35 years has had at least four full seasons on the job to prove themselves, while Scioscia is the only Angels skipper since inaugural manager Bill Rigney to be afforded that same opportunity. View the full article

He doesn’t garner much press — at least not outside of Tigers territory — but Will Vest has developed into one of baseball’s better relievers. The 30-year-old right-hander has appeared in 181 games for Detroit over the past three seasons and logged a 2.93 ERA and a 2.71 ERA over 187-and-a-third innings. Moreover, he is currently the team’s closer. Vest’s 2025 ledger includes 23 saves to go with a 3.01 ERA and a 2.71 FIP, and he recorded the final out in both of the club’s Wild Card wins over Cleveland. If the Tigers go on to beat the Mariners in the ALDS, Vest will likely have played a key role. He could easily be pitching for Seattle. As related by Dan Hubbs in a piece that ran here at FanGraphs two weeks ago, the Mariners took Vest in December 2020’s Rule-5 draft, only to return him to the Tigers the following July. Hubbs had departed as Detroit’s director of pitching development by the time Vest was reacquired, but he was, and remains to this day, bullish on the righty’s raw ability. Vest was one of three pitchers (Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal were the others) whose development process the now-Athletics’ bullpen coach looked back on in the September 23 article. Spin rates that were “off the charts” was an attribute Hubbs saw in the then-under-the-radar prospect, as were “good movement profiles on everything he threw.” For the young hurler, success at baseball’s highest level “was just a matter of him getting comfortable competing in the strike zone.“ What are Vest’s memories of working with Hubbs, and in which ways has he continued to develop in the years that have followed? “I knew that I had stuff,” Vest told me in the waning days of the regular season. “It was more about homing it in, more about the pitch-ability. There was some raw stuff he saw in me that we’d work on. Velo. Developing a changeup. Refining my slider. I could spin the ball pretty well; I just didn’t have good command. That’s what I refined throughout the minor leagues, and he helped me do that. “When I got into pro ball, the nuances of analytics had kind of taken over,” added Vest, whom the Tigers took in the 12th round of the 2017 draft out of Stephen F. Austin State University. “We were all learning how to use it to help us as pitchers. [Hubbs] was at the forefront, leading that charge in our organization, bringing analytics to the pitching staff.” A more recent development has paid huge dividends. Vest used to spike his slider, but he stopped doing so around the midpoint of last season. The numbers that followed stand out like a sore thumb. Whereas the pitch was too often punished in 2024, this year it has elicited a .206 BAA, a .286 slug, and an eyebrow-raising 43.7% whiff rate. Thrown harder (88.7 mph vs 86.9 mph) and with more spin (2,748 rpm vs 2,381), it has lost some shape, but gained in terms of deception. “The total movement is a little bit less since I stopped spiking it, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Vest explained. “You want it to look as much like your heater as you can, and that had kind of been my problem. Sometimes my slider would get too big. It would pop, and just not look like my fastball. I saw what hitters were telling me. I would throw a pretty decent slider in decent locations, and it seemed like they were on it. Now I’m throwing one that pairs better with my fastball. I’m also commanding it better.” The command and pitch-ability that Hubbs once helped Vest to refine are integral to his success, and the underrated closer knows that as well as anyone. “It all comes down to execution,” said Vest. “You can do little things to make individual pitches better, but at the end of the day, if you’re throwing 95 with a good ride heater, and it’s right down the middle, it’s going to get hit in this league. You need to have a mix of good stuff, but there is also knowing where to throw it and when to throw it. You need to be executing your pitches.” He executed to perfection last night. Vest pitched the ninth and tenth innings, retired all six batters he faced, and was credited with the win as the Tigers edged the Mariners 3-2 to capture ALDS Game One. The effort wasn’t an anomaly. In nine career postseason outings, Vest has allowed one run over 11 innings. ——— RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS Dan Wilson went 10 for 17 against Justin Thompson. Edgar Martinez went 10 for 16 against Mariano Rivera. Kevin Seitzer went 12 for 22 against Richard Dotson. Ichiro Suzuki went 12 for 19 against Aaron Sele. Alvin Davis went 17 for 30 against Dan Petry. ——— Ceddanne Rafaela’s breakout with the bat came to a screeching halt in midseason, and it coincided with a questionable decision. Short in the infield due to injury and nonperformance, the Red Sox began shuttling the game’s best defensive centerfielder between that position and second base. As I pointed out in a mid-August column, Rafaela had a 114 wRC+ before being taken out of his comfort zone — and that number slid to 91 by season’s end. While ten points higher than last year’s 81 wRC+, it wasn’t what it might have been. Is he happy with his season overall? I asked him that question after game 162. “You can say I’m happy, but it’s more so I’m happy that I helped the team in any way I could,” the 25-year-old outfielder told me. “My defense. Part of the season with my offense. So yeah, I’m happy.” Which brings us to the crux of what I wanted his thoughts on. Did having to shuttle back and forth have a negative impact on his performance? “I don’t know,” Rafaela responded. “Maybe. Maybe yeah, maybe no. I didn’t pay attention to it. I just wanted to help the team. But when you’re playing a position every day, it helps.” I related to Rafaela how I’d offered that as one of the reasons for my bullish expectations as the season was about to start. Solely playing center would help him perform better with the bat. “Yeah, of course,” he said to my reasoning. “I think if you only play one position, that can happen. But it is what it is. I can’t look back. I’m in a playoff spot now, so all I can think about is going out there to win. That’s the mindset.” As a second baseman, Rafaela had one DRS and a minus-21 wRC+ over 79 plate appearances. As a centerfielder, he had 20 DRS and a 109 wRC+ over 508 plate appearances. Seemingly coming to their senses, Alex Cora & Co. once again began playing the likely Gold Glove winner solely in center at the the end of August. Not long thereafter, he began to rebound with the bat. Over his last dozen games, Rafaela registered a .364 BA and a .927 OPS. Was the surge something that could have been expected? “Yeah, because it’s baseball,” Rafaela said. “It can happen.” ——— A quiz: The Seattle Mariners were in their 15th season when they first finished with a winning record. Who led that 1991 squad in home runs? (A hint: he has the most strikeouts of any hitter in Mariners history.) ——— NEWS NOTES The average time of a nine-inning MLB game was 2:38 this season, up two minutes from a year ago. In 2002, the last year before a pitch clock was instituted, the average time was 3:04. The 2026 Ford C. Frick Award finalists were announced this past week. They are Brian Anderson, Joe Buck, Skip Caray, René Cárdenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Duane Kuiper, John Rooney, Dan Shulman, and John Sterling. More information can be found here. Ray Lane, a legendary Detroit sportscaster whose career included calling Tigers games alongside Ernie Harwell from 1967-1972, died last weekend at age 95. Fans of a certain age will recall that Paul Carey was then Harwell’s broadcaster partner from 1973-1991. ——— The answer to the quiz is Jay Buhner, who homered 27 times for the Mariners in 1991. Ken Griffey Jr., who was then in his third MLB season, went deep 22 times. ——— Left on the cutting-room floor from my recent conversation with Dillon Dingler was what the Detroit Tigers catcher told me when I asked what’s going through his mind when he walks behind the plate to start a game. “The first inning is crucial — it’s usually three of their best hitters — so I’m really just trying to settle down, honestly,” Dingler admitted. “There is a lot of emotion that goes along with the game, especially at the start. You’re amped up, so you take that time to calm down a little bit and get in the flow. I would say that I’m pretty even-tempered, but at the same time, there is adrenaline. It’s the rush, and you have to control that.” ——- Sticking with the Tigers, a recent piece I put together on Cleveland’s pitching group included the perspective of Detroit reliever Paul Sewald, who was with the Guardians for the first half of the season. I also asked Sewald about his current club’s pitching group. “Fet [pitching coach Chris Fetter] is amazing at figuring out our game-planning,” he told me. “That is an essential part of the job, and figuring out which pitches you’re going to throw is very difficult before a game ever starts. And then, [assistant pitching coach] Robin Lund is a physicist at heart. He’s the guy who is going to help you with, ‘Hey, you’re not moving the way you were in 2022 and 2023. We need to get you moving the way you used to, so that you can throw with the same velocity you did then.’ We also have [assistant pitching coach] Juan Nieves. There are times you need somebody who knows what it’s like to be on the mound in front of 35,000 people and throw strikes. Juan is that guy. It’s important to have people who have specialties and can help in any situation.” ——— FOREIGN AFFAIRS The LG Twins had the best record in the KBO, finishing atop the standings at 85-56-3. The Hanwha Eagles were close behind at 83-57-4. The Pacific League’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks had NPB’s best record at 86-52-4. The Central League’s Hanshin Tigers had the second-best record at 85-54-4. Masahiro Tanaka recorded his 200th career win — 122 in NPB and 78 with the New York Yankees in MLB — earlier this week. The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants right-hander joins Yu Darvish, Hiroki Kuroda, and Hideo Nomo as Japanese pitchers who have reached that number between the two leagues. With CPBL season about to come to a close, the CTBC Brothers have the best record in Taiwan at 70-49. The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions are next best at 65-53. ——— A random obscure former player snapshot: Charlie Neal recorded the first hit in Los Angeles Dodgers history. A middle infielder who’d broken in with Brooklyn as Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese were closing out their careers, Neal singled off of Ruben Gomez at San Francisco’s Seals Stadium as the newly-located rivals clashed on Opening Day 1958. The speedy Longview, Texas native was then at his best in 1959. Not only did Neal total 60 extra-base hits, win a Gold Glove, and make the All-Star team; he excelled in the Fall Classic. Neal went 10-for-27 with a pair of home runs as the Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox in six game to capture LA’s first World Series title. A few years later, he made more history back East. In 1962, Neal recorded the first RBI in New York Mets history, driving home Richie Ashburn in the expansion team’s first-ever game. That same day, he became the first Met to log a three-hit game, with one of those knocks leaving the yard. One inning before Neal went deep, Gil Hodges hammered the first home run in Mets history. ——— The Houston Astros missed the postseason this year following eight straight seasons of October baseball, half of of which came with Dusty Baker at the helm. Taking over after the sign-stealing scandal cost A.J. Hinch his job, Baker went on to lead the erstwhile Colt .45s to their second World Series title in six years, in 2022. Houston’s 2024 playoff appearance came under current manager Joe Espada. Alex Cora was Hinch’s bench coach when the shenanigans took place, resulting in the now-Red Sox skipper’s being suspended for the 2020 season. Cora was asked for his thoughts on the Astros’ postseason streak having come to an end. “The thing that I really respect out of the group, with Dusty and Joe, is that they turned the page on our mistake,” Cora told reporters at Fenway Park. “They did an amazing job of putting that behind. It will always be, not on them, but on me and the rest of us… It’s hard to do this over and over and over, and they did it very well. [Jose] Altuve comes in there from the beginning, and he led that team. Alex [Bregman] did the same thing.” ——— Jane Leavy’s Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How To Fix It includes a number of passages that feature Dusty Baker. One of them, which has nothing to do with the book’s title, addresses the now-76-year-old renaissance man’s days as a minor-league outfielder in the Atlanta Braves system. “That fall [1969], the Braves sent him to the Arizona Fall League, where he saw Janis Joplin play a gig in their home ballpark in Tempe,” Leavy wrote. “In the raw caw of her voice, he heard the strain of upheaval and rage that filled that American season. He hung out with the hippies. He liked them because even though they had stormed the fence to get in, they were peaceful about it… When the Braves told him he had to give up his student deferment and report to spring training earlier, he joined the Marines rather than the State or National Guard. The way he saw it, Marines were not likely to be called upon to fire on hippies and student protestors. It was 1970. He saw what the Ohio National Guard did at Kent State.” Baker has long been a baseball treasure. ——— LINKS YOU’LL LIKE Who drew the comics that used to be found on the backs of Topps baseball cards? Tiffany Babb addressed that question at The Fan Files. Doing a crossword puzzle is a big part of Tarik Skubal’s pregame routine. Jason Beck has the story at MLB.com. Julian McWilliams wrote about the rejuvenation of Toronto’s George Springer for CBS Sports. Andscape’s William Weinbaum presented us with an oral history of Satchel Paige’s final MLB game, which came at age 59 in 1965. How power ages might surprise you. Travis Sawchik shared some of the numbers in a blog article at Driveline Baseball. ——— RANDOM FACTS AND STATS The Seattle Mariners had 31 one-run wins this season, the most of any team. The Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins tied for the fewest one-run wins with 15 apiece. The Los Angeles Dodgers led all National League teams with 825 runs scored. They also topped the circuit in home runs and hit the ninth-most singles. The Milwaukee Brewers were second in the NL with 806 runs scored. They topped the circuit in singles and hit the ninth-most home runs. Houston Astros catchers combined for 178 hits and a .286 batting average this season; both were MLB bests. Tampa Bay Rays catchers combined for 95 hits and a .185 batting average; both were MLB worsts. Toronto Blue Jays catchers were charged with 15 throwing errors, the most of any team. Kansas City Royals catchers had just one throwing error. Don Newcombe became the first Black pitcher to start a World Series game when he took the mound for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the New York Yankees on today’s date in 1949. The lone run Newcombe allowed that afternoon was a ninth-inning homer by Tommy Henrich, the first ever walk-off blast in Series history. On today’s date in 1944, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the St. Louis Browns 3-2 in 11 innings to even up the World Series at one game apiece. The Cardinals went on to win that year’s Fall Classic, with all six contests taking place at Sportsman Park. Players born on today’s date include Randy Bockus, a right-hander who appeared in 37 games for the San Francisco Giants across the 1986-1988 season, and in two games for the Detroit Tigers in 1989. A Canton, Ohio native who attended Kent State University, Bockus went 2-1 with a 4.23 ERA over 61-and-two-thirds career innings. Playing against the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 28th of his rookie season, Bockus struck out as a pinch hitter in the 13th inning, moved to the outfield the following frame and was later pinch-hit for by fellow pitcher Mike Krukow. Also born on today’s date was Jim Bagby, who helped pitch the Cleveland Indians to a World Series title in 1920. A right-hander from Barnett, Georgia, Bagby bagged 31 wins during the regular season, then bested Brooklyn Robins righty Burleigh Grimes in Game 5 of the Fall Classic. Notable in that contest was Bagby’s becoming the first pitcher to hit a World Series home run, and Cleveland second baseman Bill Wambsganss turning the only triple play in World Series history. Source View the full article

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Here are the stories we covered ourselves on Book Riot this week. Meet the New Host of Reading Rainbow: Mychal the Librarian We have some good news in the world of books and reading today: Reading Rainbow is coming back! The original TV show was hosted by LeVar Burton and ran from 1983 to 2006. It’s hard to overstate just how beloved this educational children’s series was—and still is. Now, after 20 years, it’s finally coming back! The Best New Books of October, According to Indie Booksellers Here are ten of the best books of October, according to indie booksellers. Many of these we also recommend on Book Riot, so I’ve quoted our relevant recs when available. Be sure to click through to the ABA website for the full list, including six Indie Next Picks that are now out in paperback. THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB is Going to be a Musical! Here’s Everything We Know Mark your calendars and book your flights to New York in spring 2027, because that’s when the new Baby-Sitters Club musical is set to premiere. The musical is set twelve years after the events of the books (which were originally published from 1986 to 2000). Now adults, the four founding members of the Baby-Sitters Club—Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey—return to their hometown of Stoneybrook, CT to honor the pact they made with each other when they were thirteen years old. As the four women reflect on their past lives, the friendships, and the hardships, they come to some life-changing realizations about themselves and what matters most. Texas School Administrators Use A.I. To Ban Books Like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD As reported by Frank Strong, what makes this case even more infuriating is that district officials used Artificial Intelligence to create their list, allowing them to abdicate responsibility for the decision to an even further degree. First, they can blame state legislation for the removal of books, then they can blame A.I. for identifying these specific titles. Watch the PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION Teaser Trailer People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry was published in 2021, and four years later, we’re getting a movie adaptation. The film of the same name stars Emily Bader as Poppy and Tom Blyth as Alex, and it comes out on Netflix January 9th. Netflix has just released the first teaser trailer, which you can watch below. 23,000 Book Bans Since 2021: PEN America Releases Its Latest Report on the State of Literary Censorship So what does the latest report find? Starting at the top level, PEN found that since 2021, nearly 23,000 titles have been banned across 45 states and 451 public school districts. The Bestselling Books of the Week, According to All the Lists There are a ton of new titles on the bestseller lists this week, which makes for a nice change. Another Judge Chips Away at Library Patron First Amendment Rights In another blow to the First Amendment Rights of library users, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida ruled that the Escambia County school board did not violate student or author rights when it pulled And Tango Makes Three from school library shelves. This is the second ruling in a matter of months to put the approved content of public library and public school library materials into the hands of government officials. The Most Read Books on Goodreads in September 2025 From romance novels to thrillers to historical fiction, these were the most read books on Goodreads this month. View the full article

Today’s Featured Book Deals $1.99Entitlement by Rumaan AlamGet This Deal $1.99The Gene by Siddhartha MukherjeeGet This Deal $4.99The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi VoGet This Deal $1.99Bonfire by Krysten RitterGet This Deal $1.99Ladykiller by Katherine WoodGet This Deal $1.99What Kind of Mother by Clay ChapmanGet This Deal $1.99A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca SolnitGet This Deal $1.99The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat SebastianGet This Deal In Case You Missed Yesterday’s Most Popular Book Deals $1.99Disappoint Me by Nicola DinanGet This Deal $1.99The Book of Doors by Gareth BrownGet This Deal $1.99The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah JohnsonGet This Deal $1.99The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie WrobelGet This Deal View the full article

Photo Credit: NBC The Chicago Fire Season 14 Episode 2 release date and time is on the horizon, and fans around the world are eager to find out when they can watch the next episode. In the upcoming episode named “Primary Search,” viewers will witness Vasquez’s struggle to establish his worth at 51. Meanwhile, Violet and Novak delve into a concerning mystery. Herrmann is determined to ensure that Molly remains positively good for it. Here’s everything you need to know about Chicago Fire Season 14 Episode 2. When is the Chicago Fire Season 14 Episode 2 release date & time? The episode’s release date is Wednesday, October 8, 2025, and its release time is 6 p.m. PT and 9 p.m. ET. Check out its release times in the U.S. below: TimezoneRelease DateRelease TimeEastern TimeOctober 8, 20259 p.m.Pacific TimeOctober 8, 20256 p.m. Find out how many episodes will be available to watch in Chicago Fire Season 14 right here. Where to watch Chicago Fire Season 14 Episode 2 You can watch Chicago Fire Season 14 Episode 2 via NBC and Peacock. NBC’s range of content includes television shows, news, and sports. Peacock serves as NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, allowing viewers to enjoy all their beloved NBC programs, original series, films, and much more. What is Chicago Fire about? The official synopsis for Chicago Fire is as follows: “An edge-of-your-seat view into the lives of everyday heroes committed to one of America’s noblest professions. For the firefighters, rescue squad and paramedics of Chicago Firehouse 51, no occupation is more stressful or dangerous, yet so rewarding and exhilarating. These courageous men and women are among the elite who forge headfirst into danger when everyone else is running the other way and whose actions make the difference between life and death.” The post Chicago Fire Season 14 Episode 2 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More. View the full article

Photo Credit: ABC The Abbott Elementary Season 5 Episode 2 release date and time is on the horizon. Season 5 Episode 1, “Team Building”, showcases the deteriorating condition of the school, with literally roofs falling off the ceiling, followed by gas leaks in the kitchen. After the school gets caught taking bribes, the district sends Craig for team-building exercises as a punishment. This also results in fewer resources, as Janine ends up mentoring a new teacher and handling a large class of 40 students. Here’s all you need to know about the upcoming episode. When is the Abbott Elementary Season 5 Episode 2 release date & time? The episode’s release date is October 8, 2025, and its release time is 5:30 p.m. PT, 8:30 p.m. ET Check out its release times in the U.S. below: TimezoneRelease DateRelease TimeEastern TimeOctober 8, 20258:30 p.m.Pacific TimeOctober 8, 20255:30 p.m. Where to watch Abbott Elementary Season 5 Episode 2 You can watch Abbott Elementary Season 5 Episode 2 via Hulu. Owned by The Walt Disney Company, Hulu is a large streaming platform to watch the latest movies and shows. It also includes a never-ending list of movies and shows across multiple genres. Furthermore, the site also hosts several original content like Alien: Earth, Paradise, The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, Shōgun, Swiped, and the latest Chad Powers, starring Glen Powell. What is Abbott Elementary about? The official synopsis for Abbott Elementary is as follows: “In this workplace comedy, a group of dedicated, passionate teachers — and a slightly tone-deaf principal — are brought together in a Philadelphia public school where, despite the odds stacked against them, they are determined to help their students succeed in life. Though these incredible public servants may be outnumbered and underfunded, they love what they do — even if they don’t love the school district’s less-than-stellar attitude toward educating children.” The post Abbott Elementary Season 5 Episode 2 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More. View the full article

Photo Credit: BET The Sistas Season 9 Episode 12 release date and time is right around the corner. As per the season’s official schedule, the upcoming twelfth episode is titled “Search Party.” This episode will pick up from the cliffhanger of Episode 11, “Surprise, Surprise,” which saw Karen leave her baby in the crib and disappear without a trace. Sistas is a comedy-drama television series created by Tyler Perry. It first premiered on October 23, 2019, and follows the tumultuous dating lives of a group of black women living in Atlanta. The show stars KJ Smith, Mignon, Ebony Obsidian, Novi Brown, Crystal Renee Hayslett, Angela Beyince, Devale Ellis, Chido Nwokocha, and many more. Here are all the release details of Sistas Season 9 Episode 12. When is the Sistas Season 9 Episode 12 release date & time? The episode’s release date is Wednesday, October 8, and its release time is 6:00 p.m. PT and 9:00 p.m. ET. Check out its release times in the U.S. below: TimezoneRelease DateRelease TimeEastern TimeOctober 8, 20259:00 p.m.Pacific TimeOctober 8, 20256:00 p.m. Where to watch Sistas Season 9 Episode 12 You can watch Sistas Season 9 Episode 12 via BET. BET is one of the most popular television networks in the country that currently operates under the umbrella of Paramount Media Networks. It hosts an exclusive selection of entertaining movies and television shows. Fans can enjoy popular series on BET and BET Plus, such as The Oval, Tyler Perry’s Assisted Living, Ms. Pat Settles It, and House of Payne, among others. What is Sistas about? The official synopsis for Sistas is as follows: “There’s nothing that bonds a group of single black women together more than sidestepping the land mines of living, working and dating in Atlanta. In a sea of swipe-lefts, social media drama and unrealistic #relationshipgoals, these friends try to find their Mr. Right.” The post Sistas Season 9 Episode 12 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More. View the full article

Photo Credit: NBC The Chicago P.D. Season 13, Episode 2 release date and time are just around the corner. In Chicago P.D. Season 13 Episode 1, “Consequences,” the story picks up a month after Chief Reid’s death. Following his death, Hank Voight believed that his team could get reinstated, but not before Internal Affairs Commander Delvin made his move. Delvin’s investigation puts Voight and his team’s entire future at risk. However, it is to be seen how far Hank goes for his team. Here’s all you need to know about the latest episode and when it’s airing. When is the Chicago P.D. Season 13 Episode 2 release date & time? The episode’s release date is October 8, 2025, and its release time is 7 p.m. PT, 10 p.m. ET Check out its release times in the U.S. below: TimezoneRelease DateRelease TimeEastern TimeOctober 8, 202510 p.m.Pacific TimeOctober 8, 20257 p.m. Where to watch Chicago P.D. Season 13 Episode 2 You can watch Chicago P.D. Season 13 Episode 2 via NBC. NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation) is a major TV network in the U.S. It started in 1926 and has since become one of the most well-known broadcasters. NBC offers a variety of shows, including news, sports, dramas, and comedies. Some popular programs on NBC include Saturday Night Live, The Voice, and Chicago P.D. What is Chicago P.D. about? The official synopsis for Chicago P.D. is as follows: “A riveting police drama about the men and women of the Chicago Police Department’s District 21 who put it all on the line to serve and protect their community. District 21 is made up of two distinctly different groups: the uniformed cops who patrol the beat and go head-to-head with the city’s street crimes and the Intelligence Unit that combats the city’s major offenses – organized crime, drug trafficking, high-profile murders, and beyond.” The post Chicago P.D. Season 13 Episode 2 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More. View the full article

Photo Credit: Apple TV+ The Slow Horses Season 5 Episode 3 release date and time is right around the corner. As per the official schedule of the show, the upcoming third episode of the season is titled “Tall Tales.” The previous episode, “Incommunicado,” saw Lamb take down an assassin. Meanwhile, Taverner comes across some key information about the Abbotsfield shooting. The third season of Slow Horses returns with the beloved duo Jackson Lamb and River Cartwright, as they find themselves unraveling more crimes and conspiracies. The popular spy thriller stars Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rosalind Eleazar, and more. So, here’s everything you need to know about the release date of Slow Horses Season 5’s upcoming episode. When is the Slow Horses Season 5 Episode 3 release date & time? The episode’s release date is Tuesday, October 8, and its release time is at 6:00 p.m. PT and 9:00 p.m. ET. Check out its release times in the U.S. below: TimezoneRelease DateRelease TimeEastern TimeOctober 8, 20259:00 p.m.Pacific TimeOctober 8, 20256:00 p.m. Find out how many episodes will be available to watch in Slow Horses Season 5 right here. Where to watch Slow Horses Season 5 Episode 3 You can watch Slow Horses Season 5 Episode 3 via Apple TV+. Apple TV+ offers a free trial that fans can enjoy before purchasing a membership plan to begin streaming. The popular streaming platform hosts a multitude of globally renowned and trending shows like Chief of War, Severance, The Buccaneers, Shrinking, and many more. What is Slow Horses about? The official synopsis for Slow Horses is as follows: “Follow a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents—and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb—as they navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces.” The post Slow Horses Season 5 Episode 3 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More. View the full article

A farmworker opened fire at two farms in Half Moon Bay, California, in January 2023. He killed seven men, six co-workers and a supervisor, all immigrants. He also shot an eighth man —five times— but he survived. The physical recovery for Pedro Romero Pérez has been a long one, but his emotional healing has been even longer. José, Pedro’s older brother and only family in the U.S., didn’t survive the shooting. In this episode, we go to Half Moon Bay, where an unconventional music program is helping Pedro and others heal from their deepest wounds through the keys and wails of the accordion. Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Follow the show to get every episode. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. Follow us on TikTok and YouTube. Subscribe to our newsletter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. View the full article