Author: rincon

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Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos homered as the New York Mets stopped the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ record-tying postseason scoreless streak in a 7-3 victory on Monday, tying the NL Championship Series at a game apiece.

Lindor added to his storybook season with a leadoff homer in the first inning against Ryan Brasier. Viento delivered during New York’s five-run second, connecting for a grand slam against Landon Knack.

Before Lindor went deep, Los Angeles had a string of 33 consecutive scoreless innings. Jack Flaherty led the Dodgers to a 9-0 victory in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday night.

Sean Manaea opened Game 2 with four shutout innings for New York. He was charged with three runs, two earned, and two hits in five-plus innings. Closer Edwin Diaz earned a four-out save.

Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and two walks. He remains hitless with the bases empty in his first postseason.

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Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Wednesday in New York.

The Mets jumped all over the Dodgers after flopping in the series opener.

Lindor fouled off four consecutive pitches from Brasier before sending a 395-foot shot to right for his leadoff homer.

Knack took over for LA in the second and gave up a leadoff single to Starling Marte and then walked Jesse Winker. One out later, Tyrone Taylor doubled to left, scoring Marte.

After Francisco Alvarez popped to shortstop, Lindor was intentionally walked to load the bases. Vientos sent a 391-foot shot to center for the third grand slam in Mets playoff history. That extended the lead to 6-0 and silenced the sellout crowd of 52,926.

It was the Mets’ second slam of the playoffs. Lindor hit a go-ahead slam in Game 4 of the NL Division Series against Philadelphia. Edgardo Alfonzo had the club’s first playoff slam in 1999.

The Dodgers had the potential tying run at the plate with two outs in the eighth.

Tommy Edman singled and Max Muncy walked before the Mets brought in Diaz. They moved up on a double steal before Kiké Hernández flied out to shallow right field to end the threat.

After Muncy homered leading off the fifth, the Dodgers rallied in the sixth to trail 6-3, reigniting the crowd.

Manaea issued consecutive walks to Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández to open the inning. Freddie Freeman grounded into a high bouncing fielder’s choice to second that Jose Iglesias couldn’t field cleanly. Hernández was safe at second on the error as Manaea exited.

Edman singled to right off Phil Maton with two strikes, scoring Betts and Hernández. Muncy walked to load the bases again and bring up Kiké Hernández.

He grounded into the glove of third baseman Vientos, who initially bobbled the ball before throwing to second, where Muncy slid into the leg of Iglesias. Pete Alonso then kept his foot on the bag as he stretched to haul in Iglesias’ throw.

The Dodgers challenged the double-play call, but it was upheld and the inning ended.

Manaea was the first left-handed starter the Dodgers have faced this postseason. They saw him plenty during his time with San Diego in 2022 and San Francisco last year. But he changed his delivery midway through this season with the Mets, dropping his arm slot and releasing the ball more horizontally.

The Mets took advantage of hard-throwing Dodgers rookie Edgardo Henriquez with an insurance run in the ninth.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are set to be at Yankee Stadium on Monday night for Game 1 of the ALCS between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians, per multiple reports. 

The couple was most recently spotted in NYC on October 11 and 12.

It’s a bye week for Kelce’s undefeated Kansas City Chiefs, while Swift has a few more days off before she returns from a two-month break and takes the stage at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Friday to kick off the final leg of The Eras Tour.

Kelce, a Cleveland native, has shown his support for the Guardians in the past, including throwing the ceremonial first pitch before a 2023 game against the Kansas City Royals — although his attempt did hilariously send pitcher Shane Bieber and the Guardians mascot running for cover. 

Swift also has baseball ties, most notably when she sang the national anthem before Game 3 of the 2008 World Series between her hometown Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays.

The couple’s rumored appearance comes after the pair attended the US Open men’s final in New York, alongside Patrick Mahomes and his wife, last month.

Swift attended Kansas City’s first two games of the season. She was absent from the next two road games before returning to Arrowhead Stadium in Week 5, marking her 16th regular-season Chiefs game. Kelce recorded a season-high nine catches for 70 yards in that 26-13 victory.

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Swift will likely miss Kelce’s next game, as the Chiefs head to San Francisco for a Super Bowl rematch with the 49ers. Kickoff is set for 4:25 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on FOX, with Tom Brady and Kevin Burkhardt on the call. 

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Clayton Kershaw won’t take the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers again this year, regardless of how much further the team goes in the postseason. But he plans to return in 2025 and make the most of his surgically repaired shoulder, he told the MLB on FOX pregame show before Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

“Mentally, I feel great,” Kershaw said in response to a question from David Ortiz. “I had shoulder surgery last offseason, and my shoulder, elbow, everything — my arm feels great. Obviously, I had some tough luck with my foot this year, but I want to make use of this surgery. I don’t want to have surgery and shut it down. So I’m gonna come back next year and give it a go and see how it goes.”

Kershaw underwent shoulder surgery soon after the Dodgers’ elimination in the 2023 National League Division Series at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The recovery from that operation sidelined him until he made his season debut on July 25. He only made seven starts, however, exiting his last one on Aug. 30 in the second inning due to a toe injury. 

Kershaw attempted to rehab the injury in time to rejoin the Dodgers’ shorthanded starting rotation in the playoffs, but failed to do so and was ruled out for the rest of 2024.

“Clayton has done everything he can to keep this thing moving forward and giving himself a chance to participate in the postseason,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters then. “But where he’s at right now, physically, the foot, the toe just is not cooperating. It’s actually getting worse.”

The 36-year-old Kershaw had a 4.50 ERA over those seven starts, easily the fewest number of starts and highest ERA the 10-time All-Star has registered in his career.

Despite his absence from the playoffs, the Dodgers’ pitching staff tied an MLB postseason record with 33 scoreless innings with Kershaw watching from the dugout every step of the way. That includes a dominant 9-0 win over the New York Mets in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday behind seven scoreless innings from Jack Flaherty, an L.A.-area native who grew up watching Kershaw.

“Just the collective effort, that’s been the coolest thing to see,” Kershaw said. “It’s been everybody. Obviously having ‘Flare’ throw last night, getting to go through seven innings, it really sets up our game today for a bullpen game, obviously. You’ve got to give our bullpen a ton of credit, what they were able to do starting with that bullpen game in San Diego [in Game 4 of the NLDS] all the way through to now. You can say so much about every guy, man. It’s been awesome to watch.”

Kershaw, both personally and as the longest-tenured member of the Dodgers, has been no stranger to playoff disappointment over the years. L.A. looked headed down a similar path, down 2-1 in the NLDS against the rival San Diego Padres. But that’s when their pitching staff’s scoreless streak started, allowing the Dodgers to rattle off three consecutive wins to not only advance to the NLCS but also take the early series lead over the Mets.

That prompted Derek Jeter to ask Kershaw what made this Dodgers team different from past years.

“It’s hard to compare years,” Kershaw said. “I feel like we’ve had great teams in the past, and no disrespect to different teams that I’ve played on in the past, too. But this year, this group of guys, it just feels really resilient. There’s no quit, whether we’re down 6-0, whether we’re up 6-0. It’s that same fight every single inning. It’s been a lot of fun to be a part of, especially taking a step back and being on the sidelines watching this group of guys, you can really tell there’s a heartbeat there. It’s kind of one collective.”

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The last time the New York Yankees were in the World Series, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter were manning the left side of the infield for the 2009 superteam that won the franchise’s record 27th title.

Now, both former teammates — reunited as MLB analysts at FOX Sports — are bullish on New York’s chances of making it back to the Fall Classic for the first time in 15 years, as the Yankees begin the 2024 ALCS against Cleveland on Monday.

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“You never want to say you have an … easy road to the World Series, but if the Yankees could pick and choose their [playoff] opponents,” Jeter said on FOX Sports’ postgame show after Game 1 of the NLCS. “I think they got the two that they would pick and choose because of their success against the AL Central.”

To Jeter’s point, the Yankees went 4-2 against the Guardians in the regular season. They went 5-2 against their division series opponents, the Kansas City Royals, in the regular season, then dispatched K.C. in four games in the ALDS. 

The Yankees have made four ALCS trips since they last won it all in 2009, but they’ve lost each time — once to the Detroit Tigers and three times to the Houston Astros. Despite that, Rodriguez is optimistic about the team’s chances this year.

“You don’t have to say it, I’ll say it — the Yankees have an easy road to the World Series,” Rodriguez said. “It’s never easy, but this is the clearest path in 20 years.”

While the Yankees have the AL’s best record at 94-68, the Guardians were only two wins behind them at 92-70. 

Cleveland boasts a characteristically underrated pitching staff led by star closer Emmanuel Clase as well as a lengthy lineup headlined by perennial All-Star closer Jose Ramirez. The Guardians dispatched the AL Central rival Detroit in five games in their ALDS series.

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Major League Baseball’s postseason is averaging 3.33 million viewers going into the league championship series, an 18% increase over last year’s average of 2.82 million.

The division series averaged 3.56 million viewers for 18 games, a 14% increase from last year.

Friday’s night NLDS Game 5 between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres averaged 7.5 million on FOX, FOX Deportes and streaming, the most-watched division series game since 2017.

Saturday afternoon’s deciding game between the Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers averaged 3.42 million on TBS, the most-watched division series matchup in a day game window (pre-4 p.m. start) in 17 years.

The game was originally slated to be played at night, but was moved up to the afternoon due to the threat of inclement weather.

FOX and FS1 averaged 4.09 million for the National League games, their highest numbers since postseason baseball began airing on FS1 in 2014. Fox also benefitted from the Phillies-Mets being the other series. The Mets advanced in four games.

TNT Sports averaged 3 million for the ALDS series games on TBS and TNT. The Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals in four games in the other series.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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