Category: Baseball

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THE HERD WITH COLIN COWHERD

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Gerrit Cole pitched like a postseason ace Thursday night, holding the Kansas City Royals to a single run over seven innings and sending the New York Yankees to a 3-1 victory that put them back in the American League Championship Series for the record 19th time in franchise history, and the fourth time in the past eight years.

The six-time All-Star scattered six hits and struck out four before handing the ball to the New York bullpen, which dominated a tense American League Division Series. Clay Holmes tossed a perfect eighth inning and Luke Weaver breezed through the ninth, extending the scoreless streak by Yankees relievers to 15 2/3 innings this postseason.

New York will play Cleveland or Detroit in the ALCS starting Monday night at Yankee Stadium. The Guardians forced a winner-take all Game 5 with a win over the Tigers on Thursday, and that game will take place Saturday.

Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres and Game 3 star Giancarlo Stanton drove in runs for the Yankees, who fittingly clinched the series on the road. They won 50 games away from home in the regular season, their most in 21 years.

Michael Wacha failed to get through five innings for Kansas City, allowing two runs, six hits and a walk. He didn’t get much help from a long-scuffling offense that managed just five runs total over the final three games of the series.

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Still, it was a remarkable turnaround for a club that went from 106-loss laughingstock a year ago to making its first postseason appearance since winning the 2015 World Series. And with young stars such as Bobby Witt Jr. signed to long-term deals, there is hope in Kansas City that this was a beginning rather than an ending.

New York set the tone from the start, pouncing on Wacha like it did in the series opener. Torres hit the veteran right-hander’s first pitch of the game for a double, and Soto followed with an RBI single on just the third pitch of the night.

Anthony Volpe kept on the pressure with his single in the fifth. And after Alex Verdugo grounded into a forceout and Jon Berti singled to put runners on the corners, Torres lined a two-out single to make it 2-0 and put an end to Wacha’s night.

Meanwhile, Cole only seemed to get stronger as he clicked off innings.

The reigning Cy Young Award winner retired his first six batters, worked around a leadoff single in the third and retired eight more before Tommy Pham’s single in the fifth. Cole promptly struck out Kyle Isbel on three pitches to end that inning.

Stanton, who hit the go-ahead homer in the eighth inning in Game 3, extended the lead to 3-0 with his single in the sixth.

Tensions that had simmered all night — and all series, after Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm called the Royals’ Game 2 win “lucky” — finally boiled over in the sixth. Volpe slapped a hard tag on Maikel Garcia at second base to complete a double play, and the Royals third baseman took umbrage with it. Players spilled out of both dugouts before order was restored.

The near-fracas nearly ignited Kansas City, too. Witt, who had been 1 for 15 in the series, followed with a base hit and Vinnie Pasquantino — who’d been 0 for 14 — had an RBI double. But with the sellout crowd of 39,012 in Kauffman Stadium whipped into a sudden frenzy, Cole got Salvador Perez to pop out lazily to second base to end the inning.

Cole’s night ended after he got Isbel to fly out to the warning track with a runner aboard to end the seventh, a deep shot to right field that would have been a tying homer had it been hit to that part of Yankee Stadium.

New York’s bullpen did the rest.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Pinch-hitter David Fry had a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning, then bunted home an insurance run in the ninth to help the Cleveland Guardians force a decisive Game 5 against the Detroit Tigers in their AL Division Series with a 5-4 victory on Thursday night.

Cleveland ended a streak of 11 losses in postseason elimination games dating to Game 6 of 1997 World Series.

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Game 5 is Saturday in Cleveland, with ace Tarik Skubal set to start for the Tigers. The winner advances to the ALCS against the New York Yankees or Kansas City Royals starting Monday.

On the verge of reaching the AL Championship Series for the first time since 2013, the Tigers overcame a 2-1 deficit when Zach McKinstry homered in the fifth and Wenceel Perez hit a run-scoring single in the sixth, giving Detroit a 3-2 lead.

Beau Brieske had pitched scoreless ball for 5 1/3 innings over four postseason appearances before Fry, batting for Kyle Manzardo, drove a fastball off an advertising sign between the two bullpens in left for the second pinch-hit homer in Cleveland postseason history — after Hank Majeski in Game 4 of the 1954 World Series.

Emmanuel Clase retired five batters, preserving a 4-3 lead in the eighth when he escaped a second-and-third jam by striking out Trey Sweeney on a 100.9 mph cutter as the batter’s helmet came off.

Fry’s bunt brought home Brayan Rocchio in the ninth to boost the lead, which proved important.

Pinch-hitter Justyn-Henry Malloy doubled leading off the ninth, advanced on Parker Meadows‘ groundout and scored on Jace Jung’s groundout. Clase struck out Matt Vierling, who couldn’t check his swing, for the save.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers expect to get one of their superstars back in their lineup with their season on the line.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters he expects Freddie Freeman to start in Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres on Friday (8 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App). 

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Freeman has been dealing with an ankle sprain he suffered while trying to leg out an infield single when the Dodgers clinched the NL West in a win over the Padres on Sept. 26. 

He missed the final three games of the regular season but started Games 1-3 of the NLDS despite dealing with obvious pain and limited mobility in his ankle. Freeman was a late scratch from the lineup in Thursday’s Game 4 — with the Dodgers facing elimination — due to the injury, but L.A. won 8-0 to force a Game 5.

Freeman is 3-for-11 with three singles in the NLDS thus far. He recorded a .282/.378/.476 slash line with 22 home runs and 89 RBIs — still respectable numbers but below career averages for the 35-year-old eight-time All-Star.

Shortstop Miguel Rojas, who exited Game 3 with an injury, is not expected to be available beyond a potential pinch-hitting role, Roberts said. The Dodgers have not yet announced a starting pitcher for Game 5, while the Padres will hand the ball to Game 2 winning pitcher Yu Darvish.

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