Author: MLB Baseball News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games

With their season on the line, the Yankees are giving the ball to Max Fried — no matter what. 

Fried’s girlfriend is pregnant and due any day now. Tuesday, Fried said he did not wish to talk about the “personal stuff,” but he acknowledged the exciting development for his family while stating that whatever happens, he will be on the mound. 

“I’ve got a really supportive family that understands that this is my job, and it’s not going to affect what happens [Wednesday],” Fried said over Zoom from Yankee Stadium, where some Yankees worked out on the eve of a must-win Game 3. 

Not that he needed further incentive to attempt to make quick work of the Rays. 

Perhaps the lefty is better built to neutralize a pesky Tampa Bay lineup than Game 1 starter Gerrit Cole (five innings, one run) or Game 2’s Cam Schlittler (4 ¹/₃ innings, four runs, two earned). Fried, an athlete with the deepest pitch mix on the team, is less strikeout-reliant than his rotation mates. Plus, the Rays owned the sixth-worst OPS against southpaws this season (.678) and the fifth-best mark against righties (.751). 

Both Yankees options for the start — Fried and Carlos Rodón — are lefties, and pitching coach Matt Blake said there wasn’t much debate about the arm they preferred first, with Rodón set for Game 4. 

“Max has been one of our guys, and we want to ride with him here,” Blake said of Fried, who is now fully built up after missing 2 ¹/₂ weeks in August with an elbow bruise and limited the Red Sox to one run on three hits in six innings of Game 2 of the wild-card series. 

Fried pitched twice this season — allowing seven runs in 14 ²/₃ innings (4.30 ERA) — against a Rays lineup that offers some of everything except strikeouts. 

Their top three can demolish pitches, as Jonathan Aranda demonstrated to Cole. They all make contact, as Liam Hicks and Chandler Simpson, in particular, demonstrated to Schlittler. They will run (3-for-3 in steals) and they will pressure a Yankees defense that looked rattled Monday. 

“They do all the little things, and they can also have the big inning,” Fried said. “They’ve got some power.” 

So he will not be surprised by the opposing lineup. Or messages that could change his personal life forever. Or manager Aaron Boone walking to the mound early, at the first sign of trouble, in a game in which the Yankees bullpen could be emptied and Cole is expected to be among those available. 

“There’s nothing else to save anything for,” Fried said before his 24th career playoff game. “So for me, I understand that the leash is probably going to be pretty small, and we have to do whatever we can to win. 

“For me, it’s just leave everything out there, and we have to win tomorrow’s game.”

It’s not the complete overhaul that occurred last October, but the Mets are again changing their coaching staff. 

Jeff Albert, who oversaw major league hitting, and Danny Barnes, the team’s quality assurance coach, will not return next season, the Mets announced Tuesday. 

A club source indicated no further changes to the coaching staff are expected. 

Albert was promoted last offseason from the minors to the major league position after hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes were fired.

Under Albert’s watch, the Mets finished 20th in MLB in scoring at 4.31 runs per game. The Mets were 23rd in MLB with a .706 OPS. 

Troy Snitker and Rafael Fernandez, hired as hitting coach and assistant hitting coach, respectively, under Albert, will return. 

Barnes spent five seasons on the Mets coaching staff, relaying analytical information to the players. 

Kai Correa (bench coach), Justin Willard (pitching coach), Daniel McKinney (assistant pitching coach), Gilbert Gomez (first base coach), Tim Leiper (third base coach), José Rosado (bullpen coach) and J.P. Arencibia (catching instructor) are the other coaches expected to return. 

The Mets also announced that batting practice pitcher Kevin Mahoney won’t return. 

Albert, Barnes and Mahoney could return to the organization in other roles but are free to speak with other teams.

The Mets have announced that they are making coaching changes in the wake of an unsuccessful 2026 season. Jeff Albert, Danny Barnes, and Kevin Mahoney will not return to their major league roles next season.

Albert joined the Mets in 2022 as the Director of Hitting Development after four years as a hitting coach with the Cardinals. He became the Director of Major League Hitting in October 2025 after Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes left the organization. The Mets offense ranked 23rd in batting average, 24th in OPS, and 23rd in wRC+ in 2026.

Barnes joined the Mets as a major league assistant coach to Buck Showalter in 2022. He was the Strategy Coach in 2024 and 2025, and became the Quality Assurance Coach in 2026. Barnes formerly pitched for the Blue Jays. Mahoney, a Batting Practice Pitcher, was with the Mets for two years and was formerly with the Yankees organization.

While the Mets are open to all three returning to the organization in different roles, they are also free to speak to other clubs.

We’ve got a pair of National League Division games today!

First Game: Braves vs. Dodgers

• Series tied 1-1
• 5pm CST

This is the “I wish both teams could lose” series. The Dodgers are, well, the Dodgers, and the Braves are fine but definitely no San Diego or Milwaukee. God, can you imagine a Dodgers v Brewers NLCS with the Dodgers winning again? Gross.

Braves lineup

Dodgers lineup

Second game: Brewers vs. Padres

• Brewers lead 2-0
• 8:30pm CST

Man, I wish both teams could win here. The Padres are a blast and always little brothers to the more successful Dodgers, but on the other hand the Brewers are definitely the “Small Market Team” to beat in this year’s playoffs. The Brewers have a lead right now, but they have to clinch it in California.

Brewers lineup

Padres lineup

In theory, for a team that needs to win three straight games to extend its season, the Yankees should have a shot with Max Fried, Carlos Rodón and Cam Schlittler in line to start. 

Except there are two ways to sabotage the strong pitching the Yankees pinned their October hopes on, and they have shown both through the first two games of the ALDS: horrific defense and a disappearing lineup. 

And so, the Yankees returned home on the brink of elimination, needing to find their gloves and their bats starting in Game 3 on Wednesday against the Rays to avoid another early start to the offseason. 

“I feel like this group has done a really good job all year of bouncing back [from] a tough game, through some tough moments in the season and handled it all very well,” manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday. “So that’s my expectation this time. It has to be. Obviously we’re completely up against it now. 

“So we got to bring it on [Wednesday] night. But we also got to — it’s that level of focus with some calm to the whole situation, too, because you don’t want to get in a situation where you’re pressing out there, trying to do more than you’re capable of. It’s about doing your job right now.” 

The Yankees will try to become the first team to come back from a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-five series since they did it in the 2017 ALDS against Cleveland. 

Boone said he was considering lineup changes for Game 3 against Rays right-hander Nick Martinez after using the same batting order for the first two games. Ben Rice and Austin Wells are a combined 4-for-12 with two home runs, two doubles and a walk, but the rest of the lineup is just 1-for-46 with two walks. 

“The rest of us got to step up a little bit more,” said Ryan McMahon, who could be replaced by José Caballero at third base, with his bat not offering much and his error the first of four the Yankees committed in Game 2. 

The way the Yankees looked at the plate through the first two games of this series was reminiscent of too many games this summer, all without Aaron Judge, when they did not offer much resistance against opposing starters. They have yet to take a lead against the Rays after never trailing against the Red Sox in their wild-card series. 

“I think for us, it’s just going to be working some at-bats against their guys,” Spencer Jones said. “We’ve been getting out early in counts and killing our momentum. So for us, I think it’s just going to be about lengthening those innings, whether it be long at-bats, walks, those kind of things. We haven’t really applied a lot of pressure on that side yet.” 

Of course, the Yankees also need to play cleaner baseball behind their pitchers, which they knew was essential coming into the series. Boone sat in his office at Tropicana Field on Saturday afternoon, a few hours before the first pitch of Game 1, and reiterated the need for the Yankees to take care of the ball. That came against the backdrop of opposing teams’ scouting reports on the Yankees over the years including to put the ball in play and put pressure on their defense. 

“You got to beat us somehow,” Boone said. 

The Rays certainly have. In Game 1, they combined shutdown pitching from Drew Rasmussen with taking advantage of Austin Wells’ brutal baserunning blunder in the eighth inning. In Game 2, they continued to put the ball in play and watched the Yankees crumble, their four errors — and a handful of defensive miscues on top of those — opening the floodgates for another Rays win. 

The Yankees have largely been better defensively this year than they were in 2024, when it proved to be their downfall in the World Series. But when the defense and baserunning and hitting against strong pitching all come up small in the postseason, it fuels a recurring nightmare the Yankees have lived through in recent Octobers. 

“You have to flush it and not let it affect you, but at the same time use it as motivation to kind of stop it right there and prove that that doesn’t define you, or that isn’t the character and it was just kind of like a freak game,” Fried said Tuesday. “It’s important to have a little bit of pride and to be able to say, ‘That’s not us — and we’re going to prove it.’ ”

A fairly low-key day yesterday in the American League Division Series, with both the White Sox and the Rays following up their Game 1 victories, with another win in Game 2. That gives them a commanding lead: Chicago in particular, now have two chances at home to clinch, and if needed, a third back in Cleveland. Quite impressive for a team who, before this post-season, had last won a playoff series in 2005. Coming just two years after a nightmarish 121-loss season, it’s another way in which the 2026 White Sox are so far reproducing what the 2023 D-backs did. But will they be able to prevail against the Rays, who have looked very competent against the Yankees?

Anyway, in the NL, we’ll be hoping the Braves can take advantage of their success rolling the dice with a bullpen game to even the series, sending Chris Sale to the mound this afternoon. It won’t be easy, going up against the Dodgers staff ace in Yoshinobu Yamamoto (their only pitcher to pass 140 IP). But if anyone can do it, Sale is the Braves’ best bet. Meanwhile in San Diego, the Padres will try and stave off a sweep after a hammer-blow in Milwaukee, after the attempt to use closer Mason Miller for two innings spectacularly backfired. Should be a fun day of baseball, hopefully ending in San Diego being eliminated and the Dodgers on the brink.

Here are the games on order today

• Los Angeles Dodgers @ Atlanta Braves 3:00 pm (1-1), FS1
• Milwaukee Brewers @ San Diego Padres 6:30 pm (2-0), FS1

The four remaining NL teams take center stage tonight, and they won’t have to battle Monday Night Football for the sporting world’s attention like their junior circuit counterparts had to last night.

We are treated to quite a tasty matchup between the Dodgers and Braves to get things started, while the Brewers will try to sweep away the Padres in the nightcap. If I had to put money down on how many innings I end up watching in the late window, I would bet two innings or fewer. Gotta get my beauty rest.

Dodgers at Braves, 6:00 p.m., FS1

Series tied 1-1

RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (14-9, 2.53 ERA) vs. LHP Chris Sale (14-9, 2.16 ERA)

The NL Cy Young Award is probably going to Jacob Misiorowski or Cristopher Sánchez, but these two starters featured in Game 3 are sure to get some consideration.

Yamamoto is only in his third big league season, but we already how good he can be, particularly in the playoffs. He had a 1.02 ERA over 17.2 innings in last year’s World Series, taking home MVP honors for the set. Sale owns a career 5.83 ERA as a pitcher in the playoffs, but he has been better than that this fall, already tossing 7.2 innings for the Braves in the Wild Card round.

Dave Roberts has deployed a lineup for this game that sees Shohei Ohtani hitting out of the fifth spot in the order. That is the lowest he has hit in a starting lineup since 2020. The future Hall of Fame is in a legitimate slump right now. He missed most of September, and had a .567 OPS when he did play. That was after a pedestrian .795 OPS in August. He’s 2-for-8 with two strikeouts, no walks, and no extra base hits so far in this series.

Brewers at Padres, 9:30 p.m., FS1

Brewers lead series 2-0

RHP Dustin May (7-9, 4.70 ERA) vs. RHP Nick Pivetta (3-2, 2.86 ERA)

It will be interesting to see how this game flows early on. The Padres are the ones that have to pull out all the stops for a win, but they also have a pitcher on the mound that they probably trust quite a bit. That said, if they see even a wobble, manager Craig Stammen will be forced to go to a bullpen that he has seen be out-pitched twice already.

Meanwhile, the Brewers can let the game come to them a bit. Obviously, they want to win, but if May falls apart early and the game gets out of hand, they may just ask him to bite the bullet so that the relievers can live to see another day. Should the Padres pull this one out, Game 4 is tomorrow night, and a fresh bullpen could be the difference maker.

This is a tough time of the year for writing about a team not in the playoffs. MLB likes teams not to make much news while the playoffs are on.

But we do have baseball tonight:

6:00 Eastern Dodgers @ Braves. They are tied at a game each.

Lineups, Ohtani has dropped to fifth in the lineup.

9:30 Eastern Brewers @ Padres. No lineups up at the moment. Brewers are up 2-0, so the Padres need this one. Dustin May (4.70, 7-9) starts for the Brewers. Nick Pivetta (3-2, 2.86) starts for the Padres.

It’s a pivotal game 3 in the NLDS as the Braves return home to Atlanta. They’ll give the ball to Chris Sale while the Dodgers will start Yoshinobu Yamamoto. First pitch is scheduled for 5pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Fox/FS1.

For Game 3 of the NL Division Series, the teams change venues and play at Atlanta and at San Diego.

The Brewers can wrap things up tonight, while the Braves and Dodgers will go to Game 4 tomorrow.

5 p.m. CT: Dodgers at Braves (Series tied 1-1)

TV: FS1. Announcers: Joe Davis, John Smoltz and Ken Rosenthal.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, RHP vs. Chris Sale, LHP

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com preview

8:30 p.m. CT: Brewers at Padres (Brewers lead series 2-0)

TV: FS1. Announcers: Adam Amin, Adam Wainwright, A.J. Pierzynski and Tom Verducci.

Dustin May, RHP vs. Nick Pivetta, RHP

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com preview

Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Chris Sale, the rematch.

NLDS Game 3 info

• Teams: No. 2 seed Dodgers at No. 3 seed Braves
• Series: Tied 1-1
• Ballpark: Truist Park, Atlanta
• Start time: 3:08 p.m.
• TV: FS1 (Kenny Albert, John Smoltz, Ken Rosenthal)
• National radio: ESPN Radio (Dave O’Brien, Jessica Mendoza)
• Local English radio: AM 570 (Stephen Nelson, Rick Monday)
• Local Spanish radio: KTNQ 1020 AM (José Mota, Luis Cruz)

In a game that could have a massive shift in momentum in either direction for both teams, the Atlanta Braves bring future HOFer Chris Sale to the mound amidst one of the best seasons of his career against Yoshinobu Yamamoto during the best season of his young career.

The last time these two pitchers faced off the Braves beat the Dodgers 1-0 when Chris Sale pitched a complete game shutout on August twenty-seventh. A repeat of that exact result is slim, but if Sale could pitch a long game today, it would be welcomed among the bullpen that has already had back-to-back games where they carried the load.

Drake Baldwin was the offensive hero the last time the Braves faced Yamamoto with a solo shot that was the only run of the game.

First pitch is at 6:00 pm EDT. Follow along in the comments.

Lineup

Preview

This wasn’t how the San Diego Padres drew this up. After two soul-crushing losses to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Friars will now head back to Petco Park with no room for error. They’ll either pull off the ultimate Cinderella story, or it’ll be another in the long line of failed attempts to bring San Diego a championship.

This one stung a little extra. After Ty France was denied a go-ahead home run by a roof, the Padres failed to secure the win in Game 2 when Mason Miller was tasked with recording a six-out save. He had only done it once in his career before. He did not make it twice. Miller got five outs before loading the bases and serving up a two-run single to Jackson Chourio for a walk-off Brewers’ victory.

Taking the mound

Dustin May (MIL) v. Nick Pivetta (SD)

May has spent the majority of this season dealing with immense command issues. In 145 2/3 innings, the right-hander has issued 50 walks and posted a 1.32 WHIP and 4.70 ERA. He was even worse after being traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to Milwaukee, posting 5.65 ERA and 1.42 WHIP.

However, May has dominated San Diego this season. In three starts (22.0 IP) versus the Padres, the veteran starter has surrendered just three earned runs. One of those starts was a complete-game shutout that saw May take a perfect game into the seventh inning. If that’s the version of May the Friars get tonight, it’ll be hard to stave off the inevitable.

Pivetta will be tasked with gifting the Padres a stay of execution. There’s not many starters better equipped to do that. Since returning from the IL, Pivetta has been brilliant. He’s posted a 1.64 ERA in five starts (including his start in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series).

His one flaw has been an inability to work deep into games. Since his return, Pivetta has not pitched more than five innings. He only pitched 3 1/3 in his last playoff start. Thankfully, the bullpen got a rest day on Monday after a tiring weekend in Milwaukee. That should give Pivetta some wiggle room if he struggles.

Batter up!

It’s hard to find anything good about this lineup right now. After looking otherworldly in the Wild Card Series against the Chicago Cubs, they’ve scored a total of five runs in the first two games versus Milwaukee. San Diego’s left 20 runners on base and gone an abysmal 3-for-18 with RISP. That needs to change on a dime if the Padres want to force Game 4.

1. Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
2. Samad Taylor, LF
3. Manny Machado, 3B
4. Ty France, 1B
5. Jackson Merrill, CF
6. Xander Bogaerts, SS
7. Luis Campusano, DH
8. Ethan Salas, C
9. Jake Cronenworth, 2B

France has been the only solid contributor that has consistently proven his value at the plate this series. The slugging first baseman has gone 3-for-7 with two RBI. It would have probably been more had the Milwaukee roof not taken away a would-be go-ahead home run in Game 1. But the Padres have hit, they just need to string those hits together.

Relief corps

It’s worth wondering what made Stammen go to Miller for six outs. He hadn’t used David Morgan yet in the series and could easily have tasked him with at least two outs in the eighth before turning to the closer. Bradgley Rodriguez had finished out the seventh and could have at least started the eighth. What’s done is done, but it’s hard to understand why.

It’s all hands on deck as San Diego tries to stave off elimination in the NLDS. The Padres have every arm available after their rest day on Monday. Jason Adam, Yuki Matsui, Miller, Adrian Morejon, Morgan and Rodriguez will work out of the ‘pen, but Joe Musgrove could also see time if San Diego gets a big lead.

Today baseball returns its attention to the National League as the Los Angeles Dodgers travel to Atlanta with the series split at one game each. As for the San Diego Padres, it’s win or call it a season as the Milwaukee Brewers have taken a 2-0 lead in the series.

It should be a good day for baseball.

And now to the details.

Los Angeles Dodgers (1-1) @ Atlanta Braves (1-1) — 4:00 PM MDT

Pitching Matchup: RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2.53 ERA) vs LHP Chris Sale (2.16 ERA)

SB Nation Sites: True Blue LA, Battery Power

Lineups;

Milwaukee Brewers (2-0) @ San Diego Padres (0-6) at — 7:30 PM MDT

Pitching Matchup: RHP Dustin May (4.70 ERA) vs Nick Pivetta ( 2.86 ERA)

SB Nation Sites: Brew Crew Ball, Gaslamp Ball

Lineups:

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The venue has changed and the intensity has gone up another notch as well, as the Atlanta Braves suddenly find themselves back at home and with home field advantage against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s a massive opportunity for the Braves — even though the task remains difficult against the two-time defending World Series Champions and the hero of the 2025 World Series, himself, Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Either way, the Braves are here for a reason and they’ve also got a big lever to pull in the form of a Chris Sale start in front of the hometown fans as well, so it’s definitely a situation where you feel like both teams have a really good shot at coming out of this ballpark with the crucial 2-1 advantage.

“It’s going to be good TV. Two of the best in the game,” stated manager Walt Weiss when he was asked about the marquee matchup of Sale vs. Yamamoto. “I think that was a match-up this year, right? The 1-0 game. Probably more of the same, I would imagine. But two really good ones.”

When Weiss was asked about the grand pitching lan for this series, he continued to reiterate that he’s been taking things one game at a time. “I think it depends on some different certain circumstances, the state of your bullpen — obviously the focus is on winning that game that day,” explained Weiss as he discussed the extreme surface level details of his plan. “But it can change depending on your circumstances. Like in Game 1, we didn’t have a full bullpen. So going into that game, we knew we couldn’t chase from behind. Just couldn’t do it, because it would have left us shorthanded the next day if we had the lead. So we do what we did in Game 1 and Game 2 we had a full rack, and it allowed us to do the bullpen game.”

“It just depends on where you’re at at that particular point time,” continued Weiss. “You’ve got to be careful looking too far in front of the future because it’s a task at hand always. Obviously that happens a lot during the regular season. That’s part of the daily [routine] in the regular season. But in postseason most of the time you’re focused on that game. But every once in a while, because of the circumstances, you may have to think a little bit differently.”

It’s certainly been a different strategy for Walt Weiss to employ during this series but it’s one that has paid off to the point where the Braves now find themselves tied in the series with two games coming up in Cobb County. Although Rowdy Tellez will be starting this game from the bench, there’s always the chance that he could play a big role in any given game as a pinch-hittter and as such, his thoughts on what lies ahead are as valuable as anybody’s.

When Tellez was asked about Sale and his preparation, he was very complimentary of the future Hall-of-Famer. “I think his ability to flip the switch. He’s pretty calm, mild mannered throughout the day. You hear a song come on and it’s, like, all right, it’s time to go,” explained Tellez as he talked about Sale getting prepared for any given game. “But to be that consistent for that long and be the same guy day in and day out, I think that’s pretty special. Once he gets on the mound, he’s going to give you everything you’ve got. And that gets the guys going, too, knowing that whatever he’s going to do we’re going to try to match his energy and bring whatever we can.”

Tellez doesn’t just have faith in his starter for Game 3, either. He’s feeling pretty good about Sale, Game 4 starter Tyler Mahle and the bullpen’s chances in general as well and expressed as such now that the series has switched venues. “Those are our 1-2. Anytime you can get to the 1-2 and have a chance to win both games it’s going to be huge,” stated Tellez. “Our bullpen has been electric. Obviously Ray [Kerr] went from stocking shelves to punching out Ohtani. So I think our bullpen has been lights out, and I think that’s huge for us going down the stretch and we’re able to save our arms.”

Again, it really can’t be stated enough just how massive of an opportunity this is for the Braves. Sure, it’s going to be tough against a Dodgers lineup that can go off at any given moment but the same could be said of the Braves and some of the hitters that they have to offer. It’ll certainly be a tough one but knowing how Sale usually rises to the occasion and how this team has always seemed to come up big in big-time situations, this seems like a golden opportunity for the Braves to do something special.

“I don’t think anybody’s believed [in the Braves] all the way through, outside this building,” exclaimed Weiss when he was asked about the team’s chances going forward. “As soon as we would slip, they’d just say, aha, I told you so. And then here we come again. That’s been the way the season’s gone.”

Hopefully Atlanta will take advantage of the opportunity and come up huge. We’ll see what happens!