Category: Baseball

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Jon Berti will make his first professional start at first base when the New York Yankees play the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of the AL Division Series on Monday night.

Berti, acquired from Miami just before Opening Day, hit .273 in 25 games and 66 at-bats for the Yankees this year while playing second, third and left.

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With Anthony Rizzo sidelined by a pair of fractured fingers, Oswaldo Cabrera started at first in the Yankees’ opening 6-5 win on Saturday, going 1-for-4 with three strikeouts and making several sparkling defensive plays.

Rookie Ben Rice, who played at first while Rizzo was sidelined from mid-June through August, was another option on the Yankees roster.

Rizzo hopes to be back if the Yankees advance to the League Championship Series.

The Royals will start ace Cole Ragans in Game 2 after a season in which he went 11-9 with a 3.14 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 223 strikeouts. The Yankees will counter with left-hander Carlos Rodon, who went 16-9 with a 3.96 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 195 strikeouts.

The Yankees won Game 1 of the ALDS 6-5 thanks to a surprising small-ball approach from their usually power-dependent lineup. New York worked eight walks and weathered an 0-for-4 night from superstar slugger Aaron Judge, whose career playoff batting average dipped to near .200. The Yankees came out on top in a back-and-forth game with the most lead changes (five) in MLB playoff history as the winning run came when Jazz Chisholm raced home on an Alex Verdugo RBI single in the seventh inning.

The Royals will look to do their part in one of the biggest crossover nights in Kansas City sports in recent memory, as the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs will play the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football at the same time.

“I wish the best to the Chiefs tonight that they can win the game,” Royals catcher Salvador Perez said before first pitch in the Bronx. “For us, too. I think it’s a city of champions; that’s how they call Kansas City.”

That’s been the case for the last decade or so.

Sporting Kansas City won the MLS Cup in 2013 to begin the title tide, but it really picked up pace when the long-suffering Royals — who play about 200 yards away from Arrowhead Stadium at neighboring Kauffman Stadium — won back-to-back AL pennants in 2014 and ’15, and captured their first World Series title in 30 years by beating the New York Mets.

Then came the Chiefs, who had not hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in five decades before Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes led them back to the peak in 2020. Now, the latest NFL dynasty has won two straight championships and three of the past five, and has a chance to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls this season.

“I can say from my perspective, once we moved to Kansas City, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Royals manager Matt Quatraro, who took over last season after coaching the Rays. “The support for the Chiefs last year — phenomenal. You’re in your neighborhood and they score a touchdown, you hear cannons going off. Parties every weekend when they’re playing.”

When you combine Royals and Chiefs, the city has won four championships in the four major sports in the last decade. By comparison, New York has not won any between the Yankees, Mets, Giants, Jets, Rangers, Islanders, Knicks and Nets.

In fact, New York hasn’t won a title across the major sports leagues since 2011, when the Giants won the Super Bowl.

You can bet Kansas City fans are reveling in the success, too. They regularly turn out hours before kickoff for Chiefs games for arguably the best tailgating scene in the NFL, while the jerseys of Perez and Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. have started to fly off shelves as the club went from a 106-loss laughingstock a year ago to a playoff team this season.

“What a great job they’ve done to this point, and I know they’re fired up to keep on going,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I know we’re all glad to have them coming back here and having another chance to see them play.”

The success has made the Truman Sports Complex, just east of downtown Kansas City along Interstate 70 in an area that hardly could be considered bustling, the place to be whenever either of the teams is playing at home.

“I think the setup we have there is very unique with both stadiums side-by-side,” Quatraro said. “I’m excited for (the Chiefs). It’s a great time to be there, and the community supports both teams. You can feel it just walking down the street, you can see more Royals fans out in front of people’s houses. It’s a lot of fun.”

For many years, the two franchises seemed to want little to do with each other. But as both rose to prominence, Royals players became frequent visitors to Arrowhead Stadium and vice versa.

The bond was strengthened when Mahomes — whose father was a big-league ballplayer — bought a share of the Royals.

He’s been keeping close tabs on the team, by the way, building a tight relationship with Witt over the past couple of years. And regardless of what happens Monday night, Mahomes sounds as if he’s planning to be there for Game 3 on Wednesday — maybe even Game 4 on Thursday, if the series comes to that — despite the Chiefs having next week off.

“I’ve heard all the stories of how awesome the environment was the last time they were in the playoffs, and they’re going up against a great baseball team in the Yankees,” Mahomes said. “They’re hungry and playing great baseball right now, and then to be at the K — a sold-out crowd hopefully, and I get to see that October baseball there, it’s going to be special.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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PHILADELPHIA — Iconic performances in this city typically involve two things: a healthy dose of jeering from the fan base, followed by sweet redemption in the form of a meaningful win. Who doesn’t love a comeback story?

But there are layers to these things. What Nick Castellanos accomplished Sunday night against the Mets — crushing a game-tying home run in the sixth inning and a walk-off single in the ninth to seal a 7-6 Phillies win — cannot be properly understood from looking at his 3-for-5 in the box score. To understand Castellanos is to dig deeper than how he carries himself on the surface.

“He doesn’t let anything bother him, really,” manager Rob Thomson said of Castellanos. “If he’s struggling, it doesn’t really bother him, he just keeps working. He’s an experienced guy. He knows he’s going to come out of it at some point. He just keeps fighting.”

Halfway through Game 2 of the National League Division Series, the situation was getting desperate for the Phillies and their embattled right fielder. 

Castellanos opened his fourth-inning at-bat against Luis Severino having logged just two hits in his past 10 at-bats, dating back to the final days of the regular season. The Phillies dropped Game 1 to the Mets in part because the offense had struggled to hit. Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott and Castellanos combined to go 2-for-20 to kick off the 2024 playoffs. The Phillies had to win Sunday and split the series to avoid going into Citi Field with their backs against the wall. 

In the fourth inning, with the Phillies trailing 2-0, the home crowd was edgy and fed up — getting on its players early and often — by the time Castellanos dug into the box for his second at-bat of the night.

When he fell behind 0-2 against Severino by swinging hopelessly at consecutive balls in the dirt, anxious Philly fans expressed their displeasure by emphatically booing him. OK, par for the course. On the very next pitch, Castellanos refrained from swinging at a sweeper in the same extremely low and outside location. Then the fans cheered, sarcastically thanking Castellanos for listening. Huh, that’s different. Castellanos appeared to mutter a few words under his breath. Clearly, the noise had bothered him. One pitch later, he swung again at a low sweeper and grounded out.

“Nick’s a resilient person,” J.T. Realmuto said. “He’s dealt with a lot of ups and down here in Philly, and he always seems to come out on top in the end.”

The Mets added on in the top of the sixth inning after Pete Alonso homered off Jose Ruiz. Things were getting dire. The Phillie Phanatic didn’t even dare to show his face to the exasperated crowd. Finally, the nerves lifted when Harper took a 99 mph Severino fastball and swatted it to the batter’s eye for a two-run home run. Harper touched home plate, raised his arms and roared, imploring the crowd to get up and bring good energy. Up next, Castellanos responded by lifting a no-doubt game-tying home run to left-center. He was fired up, but he wasn’t even close to finished. 

“I was just kind of frustrated,” Castellanos admitted. “So, I guess I locked in more.”

In the eighth, he lined a single to right field off Edwin Diaz to set up the two-run triple from Stott that gave the Phillies their first lead. But these Mets don’t go down easily, so every Phillies run mattered by the time Mark Vientos tied the game with a two-run shot to left in the ninth inning. 

With two outs in the ninth, it was all set up for Castellanos to be the hero — or the villain — after Turner and Harper drew back-to-back walks. Castellanos collected his fifth walk-off of the year when he came through in the clutch again, lining the game-winning single to left and getting mobbed by his teammates on the field. See, we knew you could do it, the exuberant Philly crowd that was jumping and roaring, seemed to say. 

Afterward, his teammates echoed one another, asserting Castellanos is the same player, and carries the same emotions, in both the good times and the bad.

“Nick doesn’t get bothered by a lot,” Schwarber said. “I don’t know if he took it personally, but he came up big for us. You see the way that he plays the game, where results don’t really bother him. He stays in the game. He stays in the moment. He stays in that at-bat.”

But, that doesn’t really line up with what we saw from Castellanos when he muttered under his breath and later admitted he was frustrated. He was clearly miffed by the sarcastic cheers, so what did Schwarber, his teammates, and his manager mean by nothing really bothers him?

“You’re not looking at the physical outside of him, and you see him rattled,” Schwarber told FOX Sports. “I think that’s the biggest thing. Everyone has emotions and everyone has feelings. He does a good job of making sure that no one sees that. That’s the part about baseball, where you can be feeling great, you can be feeling bad, you can be banged up, and you don’t ever let anyone know. That’s the biggest thing.

“Nick didn’t let the pitcher know. He didn’t let anyone know. Keep that in, and it could be motivation, right? It could be. He kept it in, and like he said, it locked him in.”

This is a topic that has gotten under Castellanos’ skin before, though. 

In July 2022, his first season with the Phillies, Castellanos entered the second half with an 85 OPS+, to go with suboptimal defense in right field. The home crowd booed him as the struggles continued; one day after going 0-for-4 with a strikeout against the Cubs, a reporter asked Castellanos if he had heard the boos. Castellanos retorted, “Nah, man. I lost my hearing. That’s a stupid question.” The exchange got a little combative before the Phillies closed the clubhouse to the media.

The Phillies had signed Castellanos before that season, days after injecting Schwarber to the mix, in part because they wanted to try and slug their way to the postseason. They believed he would help carry that vision so much that Dave Dombrowski pushed a five-year, $100 million offer across the table that Castellanos accepted. He has since struggled in three regular seasons with Philadelphia, putting up an 105 OPS+ in that span. But he has come through in the playoffs, with clutch performances against the Braves and Padres in the 2022 NLDS and NLCS, respectively, on the way to the Phillies’ World Series run, as well as hitting five home runs over three games during last year’s postseason.

Those up and down moments with Castellanos are a significant reason Phillies fans have formed a love-hate connection with the slugger — and why his teammates who have been on this three-year journey with him vouch for his work ethic and fight along the way.

Game 2 was a microcosm of the Castellanos experience, which explains the outpouring of emotion — from the fans, the team and Castellanos himself. The sequence also demonstrated growth for the 32-year-old, as he adjusted his public response when pressed about the booing. In his latest interview about the Bronx cheers, Castellanos was short and to the point, lifting the curtain ever so slightly to reveal that his frustrations allowed him to have success later in the game.

Schwarber agreed that Castellanos’ ability to conceal his inner frustrations from the crowd, often even from his own teammates, could allow fans to get on him more, to continue piling on the boos and create that love-hate relationship. Sports fans want to see emotions and get reactions — both the triumphant and the defeated ones. But Castellanos seems to understand that he doesn’t need to break his bat over his knee and show his frustrations to prove something. He lets his production do the talking. 

The moment he didn’t hold back from letting his inner joy pour out came after his game-tying home run off Severino. He rounded the bases, and immediately jogged over to the seats behind home plate, where his son Liam was standing up and grabbing the netting that separated them. Castellanos smiled wide, the happiness lighting up his eyes, and reached through the netting to pound his son’s chest. 

“Let’s go!” they both screamed.

“All fans see is Nick Castellanos, or Kyle Schwarber, or Bryce Harper, or J.T., whoever it is, all they see is that player walking up to the plate. And it’s this idea of them,” Schwarber said. “But they’re human. It doesn’t matter if you’re hot or you’re cold, there’s always a thought in the back of the mind that he can do damage. So, I think that’s why, if you’re able to stay like that, unbothered on the outside, that’s a positive thing.”

Castellanos’ ability to slow the game down, stay outwardly unbothered in tough moments, and perhaps use it as motivation to eventually have success, and allow his overjoyed emotions to come out, is as much a part of his game as his iconic moments in Philly. In the past, Castellanos’ reaction to the crowd’s love-hate relationship, and even overcoming it, wouldn’t happen like the flip of a switch, the way it did in the Phillies’ walk-off win Sunday night. He made the in-game adjustment to use the booing as motivation, and this time, it worked. 

It’s the stuff of comebacks, and who doesn’t love that?

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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LOS ANGELES — Before 21-year-old Jackson Merrill took the league by storm and 31-year-old Jurickson Profar orchestrated the best season of his 11-year career, there was a position group littered with uncertainty. 

When the Padres reported to Arizona this spring, no one knew who’d be joining Fernando Tatís Jr. in the outfield. After trading away Juan Soto and Trent Grisham in December, the only other outfielder on the 40-man roster was José Azocar, who would not make it through the 2024 season with the franchise. 

Turns out, all it would take to assemble one of Major League Baseball’s most productive position groups was a $1 million free-agent flier and a top infield prospect. 

Profar produced in a career year, finishing seventh in the majors in on-base percentage. Merrill mesmerized in his switch from shortstop to center field, leading all major-league rookies in FanGraphs wins above replacement. And Tatís starred, leading an unheralded outfield group that had suddenly transformed from unsettled to unstoppable. 

On Sunday, that trio’s medley of clutch hits and nifty web gems helped the Padres even the National League Division Series in a 10-2 drubbing of the Dodgers that got ugly late both on the scoreboard and in the stands. 

“Wild,” Tatís said. “Oh, man, it’s definitely wild out here. But at the same time, it’s a good environment for baseball, although people get carried away a little bit with their emotions.” 

The answers to the Padres’ outfield questions came just before Opening Day. 

In February, they brought back Profar, the former top overall prospect who had been a slightly below league average through his first 10 big-league seasons. The answer up the middle came internally in March, when Merrill, then a 20-year-old shortstop who had never played above Double-A or played center field at any point in his professional career, won the competition. 

In a stunning development, all three became All-Stars. And in Game 2 of the NLDS, all three starred.

Profar, Tatís and Merrill combined for eight hits, three home runs and a series of spectacular catches that drew the wrath, ire and attention of 54,119 fans on a turbulent evening at Dodger Stadium that ended with fans throwing objects into the outfield and visiting bullpen. 

“What I got out of it was a bunch of dudes that showed up in front of a big, hostile crowd with stuff being thrown at them and said, ‘We’re going to talk with our play, we’re not going to back down,'” Padres manager Mike Shildt said “‘We’re going to elevate our game, we’re going to be together, and we’re going to take care of business.'” 

At one point in the seventh inning, baseballs, beer cans and debris were hurled from the pavilions toward the direction of San Diego outfielders, leading to a nine-minute delay. None of it stopped the Padres from responding in a heated series. 

In fact, the actions in the bleachers seemed to fuel a lineup that launched four of its six home runs on the night after the ignominious display. 

“We saw our boy Profar getting balls thrown at him, he has a right to be mad,” Tatís said. “But at the end of the day, we understand we’re on a mission.”

Profar set the stage early before things deteriorated late. 

For the second straight night, the Padres jumped on a reeling Dodgers rotation to take an early lead. And for the second straight night, the Dodgers answered back. 

Or, so it seemed.  

The home run tunes blared from the speakers in the bottom of the first inning as Mookie Betts rounded second and pointed toward the Dodgers’ bullpen during his customer trot around the bases. It wasn’t until Betts rounded second base that he realized Profar — who had spent the past few seconds hopping up and down and staring toward a group of fans in the first few rows who had tried and failed to secure the deep drive to left field — had robbed the homer with the catch of his life. 

“I thought that was kind of funny,” Merrill said. “But if [I] was Mookie, I’d be pretty mad.” 

Did Merrill know Profar caught it? 

“Absolutely not,” Merrill said. “I was like, ‘Dang, 1-1, what are we doing?’ He jumped around, and it looked like he was like, ‘No, no.’ When he threw it in, I was like, ‘Oh my God, what are we doing?’ First inning, we’re going like this? I love it.” 

In right field, Tatís wasn’t sure, either. 

“I was probably like everybody else, had that question mark until he started jumping back,” Tatís said. “Then he showed the ball. My emotions went through the roof.” 

So did those of Dodgers fans, who by night’s end couldn’t contain them. 

There were unfortunate interactions throughout the game between the Padres’ outfielders and fans in the pavilions, particularly after the corner outfielders’ dazzling defensive displays. 

In the fourth inning, Tatís robbed Freddie Freeman of a double when he stretched out to make a grab. The catch earned claps from starter Yu Darvish on the mound — and a chorus of boos from the bleachers. Tatís danced as the jeers rained down. He said he doesn’t mind anything fans say to him. He will get into the act and go back and forth, too. 

But none of the Padres’ histrionics warranted what took place in a shameful seventh-inning display as Dodger fans threw baseballs in Profar’s direction and trash toward Tatís. Profar was incensed, only calming down after his Padres teammates paid him a visit in shallow left field. There were multiple announcements over the PA speakers reminding fans not to throw anything on the field, and at one point stadium security huddled around the Padres outfielders and escorted them away from the disturbance.

“You can yell whatever you want,” Profar said. “Just the throwing stuff, people can get hurt.”

The chaos deterred neither Darvish, who proceeded to put up another zero to close out a seven-inning, one-run gem, nor a Padres offense that seemed to be sparked by the fiasco. After the delay, Machado gathered the team in the dugout and encouraged his teammates to remain locked in, despite the fracas happening around them. 

Earlier in the night, Machado was involved in a different quarrel, this one between the lines. 

After Tatís — who is 9-for-14 with three home runs to start the postseason — homered and doubled in his first two at-bats, he then got plunked on an 0-1 pitch by Jack Flaherty in a 3-1 game to start the sixth inning. Profar and catcher Will Smith exchanged some words. Machado, who thought Flaherty was throwing at Tatís, was also displeased. 

Flaherty said he wouldn’t have purposely tried to hit Tatís in that situation, but tensions brewed nonetheless. After striking out Machado, the Dodgers pitcher yelled some choice words toward the Padres third baseman, telling him to “sit the f— down.” Machado, upon learning what Flaherty said, chirped back. The two would continue trading barbs, at one point appearing to challenge each other to a fight, before night’s end. 

As everyone seemed to be losing their cool, the youngest player on the field kept his.

After Machado struck out and Flaherty departed, Merrill won the ensuing lefty-lefty matchup and padded the Padres’ lead with an RBI single. Two innings later, the electrifying rookie delivered the knockout blow with a two-run home run. After finishing the year leading all rookies in hits, batting average and slugging, Merrill has carried his success into October, tallying six hits in his first four career playoff games.

“He’s just going to show up and ball,” Tatís said. “What this kid has done for this team this year is just amazing. His talent is unbelievable, his character. I feel like everybody can see it, what type of baseball player he is.” 

On a night overshadowed by some bad actors in the stands, Tatís left them with a parting gift in the ninth, sending another baseball back into the bleachers. 

The crowd at Dodger Stadium threatened to derail the performance. 

But a surprising Padres outfield once again stole the show. 

Now, it’s a series. 

“I know we’re about to go back to San Diego with a very, very loud, raucous, aggressive, hungry crowd that’s going to be super excited and going to be getting after it,” Shildt said. “But I know, also, that we’ll stay classy, San Diego.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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