Author: rincon

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Lane Thomas hit a three-run homer in a five-run outburst before Detroit got an out, and the Cleveland Guardians unleashed their lights-out bullpen to complete a four-hitter in a 7-0 win over the Tigers in an AL Division Series opener on Saturday.

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Thomas’ shot — on his first career postseason swing — helped the Guardians cool off the Tigers, who stormed into the playoffs with a second-half surge before sweeping AL West champion Houston in the wild-card round.

“It started with the guys in front of me,” Thomas said.

Tanner Bibee pitched 4 2/3 innings before Guardians manager Stephen Vogt swung the door open to baseball’s best bullpen to finish off the Tigers. Relievers combined for 4 1/3 hitless innings to finish and match the largest shutout victory margin in Cleveland postseason history.

Detroit struck 13 out times and didn’t get a runner past first in the final four innings.

Cleveland’s bullpen was as advertised. Rookie Cade Smith (1-0) replaced Bibee and struck out all four batters. Tim Herrin took care of the seventh, Hunter Gaddis the eighth, and Emmanuel Clase, who led the AL with 47 saves, worked the ninth.

“It’s incredible. to come out and do what they do, day in and day out, especially during the season, 162 (games), it shows what we have back there,” Thomas said.

David Fry added a two-run, sixth-inning double for the AL Central champion Guardians, who were unaffected by not playing for almost a week with a first-round bye.

Game 2 is Monday, when the Tigers will turn to Tarik Skubal, the favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award, to try and even the best-of-five series.

The 2,327th meeting between Detroit and Cleveland was the first between the franchises and Central division rivals in the postseason.

It was as good as over after one inning.

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch has made the right decisions for months as his young club went from being under .500 at the trade deadline to qualifying for the postseason with a 33-13 flourish since Aug. 11.

Hinch used his bullpen in Game 1 from the start and it backfired.

The Guardians sent nine batters to the plate in the first with Thomas’ moon shot into the left-field bleachers opening the 5-0 lead. Cleveland became the first team in AL postseason history to score five runs before recording an out.

Steven Kwan got it rolling with a leadoff double against Tigers starter Tyler Holton (0-1) and Fry walked. José Ramírez followed with a hard hopper to third that Zach McKinstry misplayed for an error, allowing Kwan to score.

Josh Naylor’s RBI single made it 2-0 and Hinch pulled Holton after just four batters to bring in Reese Olson — the move blew up in seconds.

Thomas, who batted just .143 with 33 strikeouts in his first month with Cleveland after being acquired from Washington in July, made his first postseason at-bat with the Guardians unforgettable.

He turned on Olson’s first pitch — a slider down the heart of the plate — and launched it over the wall, sending the majority of 33,548 fans inside Progressive Field into a frenzy.

Bibee admitted feeling nerves ahead of the opener, and he showed some in the first.

He gave up a one-out single and hit Riley Greene with two outs, prompting a visit from pitching coach Carl Willis. Bibee got Colt Keith on a lazy fly for the final out on his 27th pitch.

Taking the mound in the second with a five-run lead helped Bibee settle in. The right-hander gave up four hits and struck out six.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb, a candidate to start Game 3, was added to the ALDS roster after finishing the regular season on the injured list with a blister on his middle finger. Cobb’s postseason experience — he beat Cleveland in the 2013 wild-card round with Tampa Bay — certainly helped his cause along with being a former teammate of Vogt’s. Cobb was acquired in a July trade from San Francisco.

UP NEXT

Skubal led the AL in wins (18), ERA (2.39) and strikeouts (228). The left-hander is expected to face Guardians RHP Matthew Boyd, who spent eight seasons with the Tigers and remains close friends with Skubal.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Clayton Kershaw, sidelined since late August with a toe injury, won’t pitch again this season for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“This is it for Clayton for 2024,” manager Dave Roberts said Saturday before Game 1 of the National League Division Series between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

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A 36-year-old left-hander, Kershaw is a three-time Cy Young Award winner and 10-time All-Star. He didn’t pitch until July 25 after having offseason shoulder surgery. He went on the injured list Aug. 31 with a bone spur in his left big toe.

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

Kershaw had been left off the Dodgers’ NLDS roster earlier Saturday before Roberts confirmed that his season was over.

He was 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in seven starts.

Because of his toe, Kershaw couldn’t pitch the way he wanted to and other areas of his body were overcompensating for it.

He said he’s been assured by doctors that he doesn’t need surgery.

“It’s something that takes time I guess, which is the worst thing because I’m not good at that,” Kershaw said last week. “My arm, I’m keeping it going the best I can. I really think when my toe is better, I will be ready to pitch. I need to get close to 100% so I can throw.”

He had been eager to redeem himself after last year’s stunning postseason debacle. Kershaw got hammered by Arizona in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, giving up six hits and six runs in the first inning.

His postseason ERA is 4.22 over 194 innings pitched. His regular-season ERA of 2.48 is the best of any MLB pitcher with at least 1,500 innings pitched since 1920.

Kershaw signed a one-year contract in February plus a 2025 player option worth $5 million.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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What’s better than watching baseball? Watching baseball and winning money!

You can partake in the best of both worlds while watching the MLB playoffs this weekend with our free-to-play FOX Super 6 game.

How do you play? Enter the MLB Playoff Super 6 contest by predicting the correct answers to six questions before the games start for your chance at weekly cash prizes. 

All you have to do is finish in the top six to win a prize.

It really is that simple, and again, it’s free.

And if you need a little help before heading to the app to make your picks, we have you covered this week.

Read below for our thoughts on the playoffs, which can be seen on FOX and the FOX Sports app.

Let’s dive into the questions and predictions below.

1. Which player will have the MOST RBIs in the Divisional Round?

Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, José Ramírez, Manny Machado

This was a close call as these four have a combined 497 RBI among the four of them, but Ohtani has been on an absolute tear. Fresh off a season where he became the first player ever to steal 50 bases and hit 50 home runs, he recorded over 100 RBI this season for the first time since 2021. We expect his stellar play to continue into the postseason.  

Prediction: Shohei Ohtani

2. Which pitching staff will have the MOST STRIKEOUTS in the Divisional Round?

Mets, Guardians, Tigers, Royals

Cleveland had the second-best team ERA in the AL at 3.61 in the regular season along with 1,410 strikeouts, and face a Tigers team that snuck into the playoffs. The Mets are likely to be in a battle against the Phillies and the Royals face an offensive juggernaut in the Yankees, so the Guardians is the way to go here. 

Prediction: Guardians 

3. Which player will score the MOST RUNS in the Divisional Round?

Juan Soto, Bobby Witt, Francisco Lindor, Bryce Harper

The Yankees signed Soto to a one-year deal worth $31 million, and he’s been worth every penny. This season he set career-highs in hits (166), home runs (41) and was one RBI shy of tying his career-high in that category as well (109). His 128 runs scored this year was the second-most of any player in MLB, only behind Shohei Ohtani. Expect him to put on a show against the Royals.

Prediction: Juan Soto

4. Order by total TEAM HITS in Game 3 of the Divisional Round (highest to lowest)

Padres, Dodgers, Mets, Phillies

The Dodgers went 5-8 against the Padres this season, but it’s now or never for the stars in Los Angeles. The trio of Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman has totaled 480 combined hits and will need to continue that sort of play in the postseason. While it’s tempting to take the league’s leader in hits in the Padres (1,456)— it’s hard to to bet against a loaded Los Angeles roster. The Phillies are also a smart play here, as they finished tied for the fourth most hits in MLB this season (with the Dodgers) at 1,423.

Prediction: Dodgers, Phillies, Padres, Mets

5. Which group will have the most COMBINED HOME RUNS in the Divisional Round?

Judge, Soto, Stanton OR Ohtani, Betts, Freeman OR Harper, Schwarber, Turner OR Machado, Tatis Jr., Merrill

It has to be the Yankees trio here. New York’s 237 home runs this season led the league, with Judge and Soto combining for 99— becoming the eighth duo to reach that milestone in MLB history. They’re the first duo to combine for 99 home runs since Alex Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro did so for the Rangers in 2002. Stanton still managed 27 home runs himself despite only playing in 114 games this season. 

Prediction: Judge, Soto, Stanton

6. Who will win Game 3 of the SD-LAD Divisional Series?

Dodgers or Padres

As mentioned above, the Dodgers built their roster for this exact moment. While the Padres had their number in the regular season, this team still finished top five in MLB in hits (1,423), home runs (233), and RBI (815). No team finished with a better record at 98-64, and we think they get the job done in San Diego in Game 3.

Prediction: Dodgers

Tiebreaker: What will be the final score?

Prediction: 7-5

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Shohei Ohtani has mashed 100 mph fastballs for homers, stolen bases against some of the game’s best catchers and recently wrapped up one of the best regular seasons in Major League Baseball history.

Now the Japanese superstar and his Los Angeles Dodgers have to face something that’s arguably even more daunting.

A five-day break.

Since MLB’s most recent 12-team playoff format took effect in 2022, five of the eight top seeds have lost in the Division Series, unable to capitalize on the supposed reward of earning a bye through the Wild Card Series.

This year, the Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies have the top two seeds in the National League, while the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians are in the same position in the American League. That has given all of them five days to prepare for the best-of-five series that begin Saturday.

Sure, a few days to heal bumps and bruises while other teams fight it out is nice. But there’s also a downside.

“It’s not a vacation,” Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott said following a workout earlier this week.

Maybe more than any other professional sport, baseball is one that relies on rhythm and routine. MLB squeezes 162 regular-season games into 187 days over six months, meaning teams play games almost daily from April to September. Other than the All-Star break in July, there’s never two scheduled days off in a row.

Five days is a relative eternity. And it hasn’t always been a good thing.

“It’s a trade-off,” said Chris Antonetti, Cleveland’s president of baseball operations. “The benefit is you get time off. The downside is you’re not in the major league environment facing live major league pitching in the normal cadence that you would be during the season.

“But on balance, I think I’d still take the trade-off and want the bye.”

The Guardians have played simulated games the past three days to keep fresh. On Wednesday, they played in an empty Progressive Field with crowd noise piped in, giving it the same aura as the pandemic-marred 2020 season.

“What we’ve tried to do is be really deliberate this week about the environments we’re creating to keep our guys ready and ready to compete on Saturday,” Antonetti said.

The Yankees are one of the teams that have had success under the current playoff format, winning their 2022 Division Series against the Guardians following a five-day layoff. Manager Aaron Boone said last week that part of his plan was to bring some of the organization’s minor leaguers to New York, so there were fresh arms for hitters to face while they wait for Saturday.

“We’ll do our best to prioritize taking advantage of the rest, which I’m sure several guys at this time of the year will benefit from,” Boone said. “But we’re also trying to make sure we keep that mental edge and keep guys as sharp as we possibly can with live looks.”

The Dodgers are the poster child for what can go wrong following a long break in October. They were the top NL seed in 2022 but lost in four games to the San Diego Padres. Last season, they also earned a bye before getting drilled by the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-game sweep.

Now Los Angeles is back in the same position. The Dodgers are in a good spot in many ways — they’ve got one of the game’s best offensive lineups with Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, and have clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs thanks to a 98-64 record in the regular season.

They’ve also tweaked their routine during the five-day break compared with the previous two years, getting some swings against high-velocity pitching machines that mimic MLB pitchers. A few of the team’s players also have organized watch parties for the wild-card games in an effort to keep up camaraderie.

But one thing they won’t have on Saturday is momentum.

They’ll have to create it fast.

“I see some more hunger, I see some more edge. I like that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Not to say that guys weren’t prepared or trying or cared, but there’s a different level of intensity.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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The New York Mets are heading to the NLDS after a dramatic, ninth-inning comeback sparked by Pete Alonso’s go-ahead, three-run home run to oust the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Mets’ run to the playoffs after a dismal start has been improbable, to say the least. And now, according to MLB history, New York actually has a great shot at making the World Series due an absurd, hard-to-believe pattern related to the Brewers’ unfortunate playoff history.

The trend is this: In the ten times that the Brewers have made the postseason in franchise history — nine of which have come in years when there was a division series in the MLB playoff format — every team that has defeated Milwaukee has gone on to at least reach the World Series, if not win it altogether.

Here is a breakdown of how all those teams fared, via FOX Sports Research:

1981 New York Yankees: Defeated Brewers in ALDS, reached World Series

Though the division series was not permanently instituted until 1994, MLB debuted it for the first time in 1981 as a way to sort out the East and West division winners from the first and second halves of the 1981 season, which was interrupted partway through due to a strike by the players’ union. The first-half AL East winners, the New York Yankees, beat the second-half division-winning Brewers 3-2 in the ALDS in Milwaukee’s playoff debut. The Yankees then went on to sweep the Oakland A’s in the ALCS before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1981 World Series.

1982 St. Louis Cardinals: Defeated Brewers in World Series

This one technically counts! This was the Brewers’ first and only World Series appearance in franchise history. They were AL champions at the time facing their now-NL Central division foes from St. Louis. The Cardinals prevailed thanks to a late comeback in Game 7, powered by future Hall of Famers Ozzie Smith and Bruce Sutter, and series MVP Darrell Porter.

2008 Philadelphia Phillies: Defeated Brewers in NLDS, won World Series

The Brewers finally returned to the postseason in 2008 thanks in no small part to CC Sabathia, who became one of the greatest trade deadline acquisitions in MLB history, carrying Milwaukee to a wild-card spot with an 11-2 record and 1.65 ERA over the final two months of the season. However, the Brewers were no match for a loaded Philadelphia Phillies squad that dispatched Milwaukee in four games in the NLDS, before beating the Dodgers in the NLCS and the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series.

2011 St. Louis Cardinals: Defeated Brewers in NLCS, won World Series

The Brewers advanced to the NLCS with a win over none other than the D-backs in the 2011 NLDS, only to fall to the Cardinals in six games in the NLCS. St. Louis then beat the Texas Rangers — the 2023 AL pennant winner — in a seven-game World Series classic led by then-rookie David Freese.

2018 Los Angeles Dodgers: Defeated Brewers in NLCS, reached World Series

The Dodgers edged the Brewers by winning an instant-classic Game 7 of the NLCS in Milwaukee, denying a 96-win Brewers team the chance to make it to the World Series. L.A. then lost the World Series for the second consecutive year, falling to the Boston Red Sox in five games.

2019 Washington Nationals: Defeated Brewers in wild-card game, won World Series

The Brewers looked poised for a rematch with the Dodgers team that ended their season in 2018 — until outfielder Trent Grisham overran a seventh-inning, bases-loaded Juan Soto single, allowing all three runners to score and turning a 3-1 Brewers lead into a 4-3 deficit that stood up as the final score. Washington went on to stun the Dodgers in the NLDS and sweep the Cardinals in the NLCS, and then shock the Houston Astros in a seven-game thriller of a World Series.

2020 Los Angeles Dodgers: Defeated Brewers in wild-card series, won World Series

The 29-31 Brewers were the last of eight teams — including a record five NL wild-card teams — to qualify under a temporarily expanded playoff format. Milwaukee was no match for the Dodgers, who breezed through them in the best-of-three series and then swept the San Diego Padres in the NLDS, rallied to beat the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS, and defeated the Rays for their first World Series title since 1988.

2021 Atlanta Braves: Defeated Brewers in NLDS, won World Series

The 88-win Braves were widely regarded as the weakest team in the NL playoff field, but stunned the Braves in the NLDS, did the same to the Dodgers in a rematch of the 2020 NLCS, then defeated the Astros in six games in the 2021 World Series behind a homegrown core that has since turned Atlanta into one of the best MLB teams this decade.

2023 Arizona Diamondbacks: Defeated Brewers in wild-card series, reached World Series

The Diamondbacks were the last team in the playoff field, and the Brewers had Arizona on the ropes in each of the two games the teams played in Milwaukee, only for the “Snakes” to stay alive and come back to win both times. Arizona then went on its own improbable run, demolishing the NL West-winning Dodgers in the NLDS and outlasting the Phillies in an epic NLCS. The D-backs went on to lose the World Series in five games to the Rangers.

2024 New York Mets: Defeated Brewers in wild-card series*

New York’s run started with an epic comeback against the Braves in a weather-postponed doubleheader to seal a playoff berth. Will the Mets continue their run and reach the World Series? Up next is a daunting NLDS against the division-rival Philadelphia Phillies which begins on Saturday at 4:08 p.m. Eastern Time on FOX.

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