Author: rincon

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced their starting pitchers for Game 1 and Game 2 of the World Series.

First, Blake Snell will take the mound on Friday. Then, Yoshinobu Yamamoto will get the ball in the second game in Toronto. Both have been nearly untouchable throughout the 2025 postseason and have a chance to give the Dodgers home-field advantage. 

Snell has started three games in these playoffs — one in each series. He’s pitched at least six innings and struck out at least nine batters in each of those three outings. In his last two games — Game 2 against the Phillies and Game 1 against the Brewers — he allowed just a total of two hits and zero runs. 

Yamamoto has been equally stellar. He complements Snell’s hard-throwing approach with precision. In Game 2 of the NLCS, he pitched the first complete game in the playoffs since Justin Verlander in the 2017 ALCS. Over 19 2/3 playoff innings, he’s struck out 18 batters and walked just four. 

Behind Snell and Yamamoto, the Dodgers will try to take a 2-0 lead in Toronto before the World Series comes back to Los Angeles.

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Count Deion Sanders as impressed with the spectacular show that Shohei Ohtani staged in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series.

“Can they just hand him the MVP during the game?” the Colorado Buffaloes coach said Tuesday at his weekly news conference.

Sanders was in awe after hearing the totality of the Los Angeles star’s performance as Ohtani threw six scoreless innings and struck out 10 while also hitting three homers to send the Dodgers back to the World Series.

“That is ridiculous, man,” Sanders said.

Best-ever performance, regardless of sport? Sanders wasn’t ready to definitively declare that.

“I’ve seen some wonderful things that have transpired in sports. It’s hard for me to say that, but that is unbelievable,” said Sanders, who played Major League Baseball while also embarking on a Hall of Fame football career. “He’s doing something that’s unfathomable.”

Sanders envisions Ohtani’s two-way exploits possibly paving the way for other baseball players to be allowed pitch and hit in a similar fashion. Maybe not to Ohtani’s level — he captured the NLCS MVP pretty much on Game 4 — but at least being given the chance.

It’s sort of like how Sanders empowered Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter to play wide receiver and cornerback while at Colorado.

“There are many pitchers that can do both, but they’re never allowed to do so,” said Sanders, whose Buffaloes (3-4, 1-3 Big 12) return from a bye week and will play at Utah (5-2, 2-2) on Saturday night. “Because they put (players) in a pocket and say, ‘You just need to do that.’ So hopefully he opens the doors for others.”

Ohtani is the frontrunner to win a second straight NL MVP after a regular season in which he hit .282 with 55 homers and 106 RBIs. He also won the AL MVP in 2021 and ’23 with the Los Angeles Angels.

Sanders batted .263 with 39 homers, 168 RBIs and 186 stolen bases over his nine-year baseball career that spanned four teams. He remains the lone athlete to play in a World Series (with the Atlanta Braves) and a Super Bowl (San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys).

“It’s so funny because when I’m in the cafeteria, and the baseball games are on I’m thinking, ‘Dang, I really used to do that,’” Sanders said. “It’s unbelievable. Everybody’s throwing 95 (mph) and over now. Everybody’s launching bombs now. It’s unbelievable, man, what this game has gotten to. But I like it because it’s faster, it’s quicker.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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George Springer seized a spot in Toronto Blue Jays history when he hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning that sent his team to a 4-3 win over the Seattle Mariners in Game 7 of the AL Championship series.

Springer’s drive to left field Monday night didn’t have quite the same impact as Joe Carter’s homer that gave Toronto the World Series in 1993, or even Dave Winfield’s extra-inning double that helped the Blue Jays edge Atlanta for the 1992 title. But for a hit that occurred outside the World Series, Springer’s was awfully impactful.

A stat called championship win probability added (cWPA) — published by Baseball Reference — measures how much a particular play increased or decreased a team’s chance of winning that year’s World Series. That’s based on when it occurred in the game — and when that game occurred in the overall context of the season.

Springer’s homer increased Toronto’s chance of winning the World Series by 19.73%. It ranks as one of the 10 biggest non-World Series plays since 1903. Here’s the full list:

10. Chris Chambliss, New York Yankees (1976)

Chris Chambliss’ solo homer in the bottom of the ninth to give the New York Yankees a 7-6 win over Kansas City in Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS. (cWPA of 18.77%)

The LCS was best-of-five before 1985, so this homer by Chambliss was a walk-off in a winner-take-all game. It also touched off a complete mob scene as fans invaded the field at Yankee Stadium. Baseball Reference’s cWPA data has Chambliss’ drive just ahead of a similar homer by Aaron Boone of the Yankees in Game 7 of the ALCS 27 years later.

9. Cecil Cooper, Milwaukee Brewers (1982)

Cecil Cooper’s two-run single in the seventh that put the Milwaukee Brewers up 4-3 against the California Angels in Game 5 of the 1982 ALCS. (19.66%)

That 4-3 lead held up to give Milwaukee the pennant in a series California led 2-0 at one point. The Angels also blew a 3-1 lead in the 1986 ALCS.

8. George Springer, Toronto Blue Jays (2015)

Springer’s three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh that gave Toronto a 4-3 lead over Seattle in Game 7 of the 2025 ALCS. (19.73%)

Like Cooper’s hit, Springer’s drive turned a deficit into a lead in the seventh inning of a winner-take-all LCS game. Give Springer extra points for erasing a multirun deficit.

7. Manny Trillo, Philadelphia Phillies (1980)

Manny Trillo’s two-run triple with two outs in the top of the eighth, which gave the Philadelphia Phillies a 7-5 lead against the Houston Astros in Game 5 of the 1980 NLCS. (19.79%)

This two-run lead actually didn’t hold up. Houston tied the game, but the Phillies did eventually win 8-7 in 10. So those two runs were huge.

6. Jack Clark, St. Louis Cardinals (1985)

Jack Clark’s three-run homer with two outs in the top of the ninth that gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 7-5 lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of the 1985 NLCS. (19.83%)

The Dodgers pitched to Clark with first base open and he made them pay. This is the only play on this list that wasn’t in a winner-take-all game, but it sent the Cardinals to the World Series when they were one out from a Game 7.

5. Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals (2006)

Yadier Molina’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth that gave St. Louis a 3-1 lead over the New York Mets in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. (20.71%)

After a spectacular catch by New York’s Endy Chavez at the wall in left field earlier in the game, Molina sent this ball well past it. The Cardinals held off a New York rally in the bottom of the inning to win the pennant.

4. Rick Monday, Los Angeles Dodgers (1981)

Rick Monday’s solo homer in the top of the ninth that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead over the Montreal Expos in Game 5 of the 1981 NLCS. (21.18%)

This homer — hit with two outs — ranks slightly ahead of Molina’s one-out drive. Both provided the game’s final scoring.

3. Johnny Bench, Cincinnati Reds (1972)

Johnny Bench’s solo homer in the bottom of the ninth for the Cincinnati Reds that tied Game 5 of the 1972 NLCS against Pittsburgh at 3. (22.52%)

The Pirates were three outs from the World Series, but those never came. Bench led off with this opposite-field drive, and Cincinnati would score the pennant-winning run on a wild pitch later that inning.

2. Bobby Thomson, New York Giants (1951)

Bobby Thomson’s three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth that gave the New York Giants a 5-4 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 3 of a tiebreaker series for the National League pennant in 1951. (35.56%)

Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round The World” wasn’t technically a postseason play because tiebreaker playoffs have been considered part of the regular season. Still, this was a winner-take-all game for a World Series berth, and Thomson’s team went from being down two runs to winning in one legendary swing.

1. Francisco Cabrera, Atlanta Braves (1992)

Francisco Cabrera’s two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth that gave the Atlanta Braves a 3-2 win over Pittsburgh in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS. (36.84%)

Cabrera remains one of baseball’s unlikeliest heroes, having had only 11 plate appearances during the 1992 regular season. He ranks just ahead of Thomson. Although Thomson’s hit erased a bigger deficit, Cabrera’s came with two outs while Thomson’s came with only one.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2014 Giants land in this spot? 

The 2014 Giants had an average lineup. The 2014 Giants had an average pitching staff. They won only 88 games in the regular season, and were probably lucky to do that given they outscored their opponents by all of 51 runs. And yet, they won the World Series. How? You can find the answer in three months.

After winning the season opener in March, the Giants went 16-11 in April. In May, San Francisco went 20-9, bringing their record to 37-20. After defeating the Mets on June 8, they were a season-high 22 games over .500, with a 43-21 record, and were 10 games up in the NL West. 

Everything then fell apart.

For the rest of June, the Giants went 4-15 and were outscored by 37 runs. A 12-14 July followed, with San Francisco outscored by seven runs. August and September were better — 16-12 and 13-12 — but not exactly reassuring. The Giants even fell another four games back of the NL West-leading Dodgers in September. No one else in the NL stepped up, however: The Pirates also won 88 games, making them the only other non-division winner in the NL besides the Giants and Brewers — Milwaukee went 82-80 — with a winning record. 

Pittsburgh and San Francisco faced off in the NL Wild Card Game, and the Giants advanced. They then took down the NL East champs, the 96-win Nationals, in four games. The NL Central champion Cardinals were next in the NLCS, in five games. And then the Giants won a seven-game World Series against the Royals, a team that had won an AL wild card and 89 games, then defeated a run of opponents with better records themselves. 

The Giants didn’t do much for most of the season that made them look like a postseason juggernaut, but most of the rest of the NL was worse. Star catcher Buster Posey was great, of course, and Hunter Pence, Brandon Crawford and Pablo Sandoval all produced, too. The rotation, Madison Bumgarner aside, was a mess, however, with midseason trade acquisition Jake Peavy the only other pitcher to turn in even an average performance for San Francisco. The bullpen had its high points — Jean Machi, Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla and some others — but the 2010 pen this was not. 

In the end, it was all enough. Despite their complete averageness, the Giants took down the Pirates, Nationals, Cardinals and Royals in succession. They survived the regular season, survived the Wild Card Game, then defeated teams that, reasonably, you would not have chosen them to defeat. Don’t misread here; the Giants earned that title. But they did not make it easy on themselves at any point after June 8, that’s for sure.

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Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2006 Cardinals land in this spot? 

In 2006, Albert Pujols had one of the best seasons of his career. He slashed .331/.431/.671 with 49 homers, leading the majors in slugging percentage. Scott Rolen was his usual masterful self at third base and added plenty at the plate, too. Utilitymen Scott Spiezio and Chris Duncan hit well, while shortstop David Eckstein fielded fine but struggled at the plate. Veteran center-fielder Jim Edmonds was still productive, but at age 36 was slowing down. 

Let’s speed things up: Things aren’t great on offense when your 10th-ranked hitter by WAR is a starting pitcher, as was the case with the ‘06 Cards. Mark Mulder hit .280/.400/.480 in 36 plate appearances, and that created a ton of value given NL pitchers batted .132/.167/.175 overall. 

More 2006 Cardinals in a nutshell: Mulder was a better hitter than a pitcher. He had a 7.14 ERA across 17 starts. That was just kind of how the middle and back-end of the rotation went for this team, with Anthony Reyes posting a 5.06 ERA in 17 starts and Jeff Weaver at 5.18 across 15 starts. They were both better than Jason Marquis, who led the NL in losses with 16 owing to a 6.02 ERA. Chris Carpenter was his usual self with a 3.09 ERA in 221.2 innings, and Jeff Suppan was above-average — and therefore the team’s second-best starter — in his 190.

The bullpen was significantly better, with Jason Isringhausen closing games, and a slew of relievers successfully supporting him. The star of the pen was rookie Adam Wainwright. He would throw 75 innings with a 3.12 ERA while striking out well over three times as many batters as he walked. Wainwright is responsible for the most significant memory most people have of the 2006 postseason, too — one that still haunts Mets fans. 

In the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the NLCS, Wainwright was on the mound to close it out. Carlos Beltran came to the plate with two outs. Beltran had hit .275/.388/.594 with New York that season, his best in the majors to that point and also afterward, thanks to 41 homers and 95 walks to go along with a Gold Glove. 

As he came to the plate, the TV announcer said that Beltran had “murdered” Cardinals pitching in his two postseasons against St. Louis, as a member of the Astros in 2004 and with the Mets that fall. Here, the bases were loaded with two outs, with the Cardinals up two runs. The first pitch was a called strike fastball. The second was a curveball that Beltran fouled off. The third? A gorgeous curveball on the corner that locked up Beltran, who struck out looking. It was the end of the Mets’ season, and the true beginning of Wainwright’s excellent career. 

It was also a sign that nothing could stop this 83-win team, two years after the Cardinals’ 105-win 2004 club had been swept by the Red Sox in the World Series.

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Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2011 Cardinals land in this spot? 

This is probably a higher-ranked team if Albert Pujols was still at his peak, but the thing about Albert Pujols is that the beginning of his decline was better than most players at their very best.

In a down year, he slashed .299/.366/.541 with 37 home runs while finishing fifth for the NL MVP. And he was joined by the likes of Lance Berkman, who batted .301/.412/.547 with 31 dingers, and Matt Holliday, who slashed .296/.388/.525. Yadier Molina was once again a master behind the plate, and plenty productive at it, too.

Ryan Theriot and Skip Schumacher were the weak parts of the lineup, but everyone else — David Freese, Colby Rasmus, Jon Jay, Allen Craig, Nick Punto and Rafael Furcal — were all productive, sometimes in part-time roles. All told, the Cardinals had the best offense in the National League and the second-best offense in MLB.

The rotation, on the other hand, was not among the league’s best as not a single starter rose to the level of ace. Chris Carpenter came the closest, with an NL-leading 237.1 innings, but his 3.45 ERA was a bit deceptive, as the league average in 2011 was 3.94 in a season where pitchers dominated. The whole rotation, Jake Westbrook’s poor season aside, was like this: a little better than average, and certainly getting the job done, but nothing that struck fear into the hearts of opposing lineups. 

The bullpen didn’t stun, either. Adam Wainwright, who had finished third and second in the previous two NL Cy Young races, should have been the jewel of the staff, but he underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery in the spring. 

Despite Pujols taking a step back, some holes in the lineup and a pitching staff that didn’t excite, the Cardinals made it work. They won 90 games in the regular season, and then fell one game shy of playing every possible game in the postseason in order to win the World Series. The NLDS against the 102-win Phillies took all five games. The NLCS went six, with the Cards downing the 96-win Brewers. 

The World Series against the Rangers went the full seven, but only after a dramatic Game 6 when St. Louis won 10-9 in 11 innings. The Cardinals were down by two runs in the ninth but forced extra innings, then were down two runs again in the 10th before tying the game in the bottom of the inning. In both instances, St. Louis was down to its final strike, while the Rangers were one strike away from winning their first-ever World Series. 

Instead, David Freese, who had already been named NLCS MVP, hit a walkoff home run in the bottom of the 11th inning, setting the stage for Game 7. The Cardinals would win that game with comparative ease, 6-2, giving them their second championship of the century. The Rangers would have to wait until 2023 to win their first title.

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Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2008 Phillies land in this spot? 

You can’t say enough about Chase Utley’s 2008 season. He was worth an MLB-best 3.5 wins above replacement defensively at second base, as the top defender in an infield that had Gold Glove-winning Jimmy Rollins at shortstop. He hit 33 home runs while doing this, first among second basemen in ‘08, as were his 104 RBIs — he was second in runs at the position, behind AL MVP Dustin Pedroia.

Utley led the majors in hit by pitches with a career-high 27, the second of a three-year period in which he led MLB in that stat and picked up 76 of them overall in that stretch. And he posted a Phillies-best .380 on-base percentage on top of all of that, as well, leading to a nine-win season, the second-best in the league that year behind only peak-era Albert Pujols.

Utley was just one guy, though. The Phillies also had the aforementioned Rollins, who in addition to the Gold Glove honors stole 47 bases in 50 attempts. Center fielder Shane Victorino picked up a Gold Glove, too, while posting a .799 OPS and collecting 36 steals of his own. Pat Burrell also mashed 33 dingers, while Jayson Werth posted an .861 OPS in right. Ryan Howard led the majors with 48 home runs and 146 RBIs. There were a couple of holes in the lineup — Carlos Ruiz provided far more behind the plate than at it, while Pedro Feliz wasn’t at third for his bat — and the bench was a bit weak, but there was plenty of powerful, patient depth to make up for it, and lots of defense, too.

The rotation was far stronger at year’s end than at the beginning. Cole Hamels was a stud, eating up innings and posting a 3.09 ERA, and 45-year-old Jamie Moyer defied time with a 3.71 ERA in 196 innings of work. Brett Myers was basically average, and then things got worse in a hurry. That is, until the Phillies made a deal with the Athletics to bring Joe Blanton aboard. Blanton did what Kyle Kendrick and Adam Eaton had struggled to all season, giving the Phillies another solid mid-rotation arm to shore up the staff and lengthen it for a postseason run beyond Hamels, Moyer and Myers. Kendrick and Eaton, in a combined 262.2 innings, posted a 5.62 ERA — that kind of performance could not be relied upon in big games in October.

The bullpen, anchored by Brad Lidge’s fourth-place Cy Young finish and 1.95 ERA in 72 games, was phenomenal, though, and more than made up for that weakness pre-Blanton. As a unit, the pen posted a 3.22 ERA, more than a full run better than the rotation’s, and miles ahead of the league’s 4.10 average. The Phillies cruised to a championship, facing their toughest opponent in October, the 97-win Rays, in the World Series. Like with the Brewers and Dodgers before them, they only won a single game against this squad.

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Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2000 Yankees land in this spot? 

The 2000 Yankees are an odd team. You can only critique them so much, given that they ended up winning the World Series, but they are a victim of their own success. Or, rather, a victim of their success in the years surrounding 2000.

The 2000 Yankees won just 87 regular-season games, the second fewest of any team in these rankings not counting the 2020, pandemic-shortened Dodgers. The 1996 Yankees won 92 games and the World Series. The ‘98 squad is one of the greatest teams of all time, not just of the Yankees’ dynasty: They won 114 games and the World Series. The ‘99 team repeated, and did so with 98 regular-season victories. 

Meanwhile, the 2000 Yankees didn’t come all that close to cracking 90 wins, and it wasn’t a bad-luck thing, either, as they outscored their opponents by just 57 runs. The 1998 team’s run differential was plus-309.

It wouldn’t take much of an argument to convince anyone that the 2001 Yankees, with 95 wins and a much more respectable run differential, were better than 2000 team, but alas, that 2001 team lost the World Series. The 2000 Yankees did win the World Series. They did seal a three-peat. Sometimes, you just have to count da rings, and this one counts just as much as any of New York’s other ones.

And again, it’s not like this Yankees’ squad was no good — it’s just being measured against 24 other clubs whose seasons ended the same way. Derek Jeter was great, batting .339 while posting an .896 OPS. Bernie Williams was just as good, slashing .307/.391/.566 with a team-leading 30 home runs and a Gold Glove. Jorge Posada had what was, to that point in his career, his best season. A catcher hitting .287/.417/.527 over 151 games was absurd, even in this high-offense era. David Justice, added in late June in a four-player trade with Cleveland, was the other offensive standout for the team. 

What caused problems for this iteration of the Yankees, at least relative to the surrounding seasons, was that the pivotal players of 1996-1999 weren’t up to their usual standards. Tino Martinez produced a line that wouldn’t fly now, never mind when offensive numbers were sky-high. Chuck Knoblauch got on base plenty, but did little else at the plate. Ricky Ledee, Scott Brosius and Paul O’Neill all struggled to varying degrees.

And yet! A rotation led by Roger Clemens, with Andy Pettitte and Orlando Hernandez behind him, made up the difference even as David Cone struggled. The bullpen was vital, too, even in a year in which closer Mariano Rivera looked mortal — well, for Mariano Rivera. Most relievers would take a 2.85 ERA against 2000’s lineups, but he had been under two runs per nine for three years running. 

Still, even with their issues, the Yankees would win the Subway Series against the Mets, 4-1, somehow their least-stressful matchup of the entire postseason.

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