MLB News
The Rays can win their third pennant in club history if they win at home tonight. The Guardians will need a win to force a Game 7. Rays slugger Yandy Diaz has declared his team will win. Bold prediction? Hubris? More evidence that baseball is rigged?
Reliever Shawn Armstrong (2-1, 4.58 ERA) will start for Cleveland as an opener.
The Rays start Freddy Peralta (10-11, 4.42 ERA), a July pickup from the Brewers.
The game airs on TBS at 7 pm CT. Who ya got?
Two ways tonight can go. We either see a Rays victory, and they move on to the World Series, starting on Friday in Milwaukee. We spend the next three days staring out the window, twiddling our thumbs and waiting for that to start. Or the Guardians prevail, and we look forward to a winner-take-all battle tomorrow night at the Trop for the American League pennant. While I’m generally Rays-friendly, I kinda lean towards the latter, simply because I am greedy, and want as many baseball games as possible this postseason. After all, who knows when the next time we will get them? At least at the major league level. Still planning to go to the AFL on November 5!
For now though, we know there will be at least two days without meaningful baseball this week, on Wednesday and Thursday. So you might want to enjoy this while you can!
Rays beat Guardians 7-3 and earn a trip to the World Series originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Freddy Peralta threw 5 1/3 gritty innings, Junior Caminero and Yandy Díaz each hit a two-run homer and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night to advance to the World Series for the third time in the franchise’s 29 seasons.
The Rays will face the Milwaukee Brewers in the first matchup in which both teams are seeking their first World Series title since 1980, when the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals.
Game 1 is Friday night in Milwaukee.
“We got one more bite!” Rays manager Kevin Cash told his team as the clubhouse celebration started.
The loss extended Cleveland’s World Series championship drought to 78 years.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our group,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “It just hurts. It stings. Really felt like we had a team to go and just weren’t able to get there.”
On the 18-year anniversary of their first AL pennant in 2008, the Rays jumped ahead 2-0 in the second inning on Richie Palacios’ two-run double and clinched it with closer Bryan Baker on the mound.
The Guardians wouldn’t give up and had the go-ahead run at first base in the eighth when Kevin Kelly struck out Brayan Rocchio to leave the bases loaded after two runs scored.
Peralta, the ALCS MVP, allowed one run and five hits to earn his second win of the series in his third appearance. He pitched six scoreless innings to win Game 2 and got two outs in relief in Game 4.
A sellout crowd of 40,230 fans waved yellow-and-blue rally towels, rang cowbells and chanted “Let’s go Rays!” throughout the night at Tropicana Field, which needed major renovations after Hurricane Milton shredded the roof two years ago and caused extensive damage throughout the stadium.
The Rays played their 2025 home games across the bay in Tampa at the New York Yankees’ spring training complex, got new ownership before this season and secured a new stadium deal to bear ready in 2029 near the NFL’s Buccaneers. They returned to the Trop to win 55 games in the regular season. Only the Brewers had that many home wins this year.
“This is for you!” Caminero yelled to the crowd from a microphone on the field after the game. “Let’s go! I can’t hear you!”
After sweeping the Yankees in the Division Series, the Rays fell behind the Guardians 0-1 and 1-2 in this series before taking three straight games.
Caminero gave Tampa Bay a cushion with his first career postseason homer in the seventh inning. The two-time All-Star sent a drive off the left-field foul pole to give the Rays a 5-1 lead, becoming the first player to go deep on a splitter by All-Star closer Cade Smith.
Caminero turned around before reaching first base, looked toward his dugout and pounded his chest with both arms, cupped his ear rounding second to hear more cheers, stopped before reaching the plate, pointed into the stands and crossed his arms before crossing home.
Caminero hit 42 homers in the regular season but needed 33 at-bats to get his first in October.
The Guardians answered against Tyler Wells and Ian Seymour by loading the bases on two singles and a walk with two outs. Seymour walked Patrick Bailey to force in one run and hit Angel Martínez with a pitch to force in another. Kelly entered and fanned Rocchio on three changeups.
“Credit to our guys. It’s a gut punch there in the seventh. And our guys came right back,” Vogt said. “Our guys never quit. They never stopped fighting. That’s who they are.”
Díaz, who guaranteed a Game 6 victory through an interpreter on Sunday, gave the Rays another four-run lead with a two-run shot off Hunter Gaddis in the bottom of the eighth.
Caminero led off the Tampa Bay second with single off opener Shawn Armstrong, who took the loss in his second start in three games. Left-hander Tim Herrin replaced Armstrong. Chandler Simpson reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second before Victor Mesa Jr. walked. Simpson advanced to third on Jonny DeLuca’s flyout to center. After Mesa stole second, Palacios looped a double to right-center for a 2-0 lead.
Armstrong, who was the opener in Game 4, faced the first four batters, becoming the first pitcher in postseason history to start a game after pitching both of the previous two days.
DeLuca’s sacrifice fly off Joey Cantillo made it 3-0 in the third but the Rays missed an opportunity to break it open with more runs after they loaded the bases with no outs.
Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI single in the sixth drove in Cleveland’s first run.
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See AP’s full MLB coverage here
The NPB’s Hanshin Tigers accepted Teruaki Sato’s posting request, ever-so-slightly increasing the likelihood of giving the third baseman a new home in the Bronx.
The Japanese Triple Crown winner is now officially available to pursue MLB contracts, and the Yankees are one of many teams interested in his talents. Sato finished the regular season batting .306 with a .383 OBP and .991 OPS. The slugger also recorded 39 home runs, just short of his career-high 40 last season, and totaled 106 RBIs. It’s hard not to dream about the lefty hitter’s swing in Yankee Stadium.
Envisioning the Yankees’ lineup for next season, Sato could make a great fit in the middle of the order. Keeping the power hitters at the top, including Aaron Judge, Ben Rice, and Cody Bellinger (in no particular order), it’s easy to visualize Sato batting cleanup or at fifth. His tenacity could be just what the Yankees need to build off the heavy hitters’ momentum and be unstoppable at the plate. Too often last year, New York had to settle for the slumping Jazz Chisholm Jr. or rookies Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr. in the five-hole. Even if he’s not chosen to be the primary cleanup hitter, Sato would slot in nicely there as well, easing the pressure on the youngsters and lengthening the lineup.
In addition to adding some power to the Yankees’ offense, Sato could solve the Yankees’ constant frustrations at the hot corner. Ryan McMahon, José Caballero, and Anthony Volpe are the current options. None really emerged as a reliable everyday starter, as Volpe shifted from shortstop to second base (before sampling third very late in the game) and the trio of McMahon, Caballero, and Amed Rosario alternated — often committing costly errors that put the Yankees in tough spots. McMahon’s offense was lackluster at best, finishing the regular season among the top 20 worst hitters in the league, batting .213 with a .279 OBP and 78 wRC+. A career lefty-killer, Rosario too often came up empty against southpaws, and likely won’t be back after becoming a free agent. Caballero occasionally managed to give the Yankees a boost offensively, but his defense gave Boone enough pause to bench him for the majority of the postseason.
It’s worth noting that while Sato won the NPB equivalent of Gold Glove at third in 2025, MLB.com’s Max Ralph noted that “there are some concerns about his long-term fit on the infield.” If Sato can even be acceptable there, that would be enough. His bat alone already makes him a much more enticing possibility than McMahon, Caballero, or Volpe.
The Yankees should try every avenue to bring Sato to New York, as he’d be a great addition to the middle of the order. They will surely need someone like Sato as another offensive weapon to supplement their core, in addition to the kind of defensive skills to keep any opposing teams at bay.
Another brilliant start by Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen carried the Rays to victory in a decisive Game 5 in Cleveland that put the Rays in the driver’s seat as the series comes home to Tampa. The Guardians now face back-to-back elimination games, and while they should have ace Gavin Williams going on short rest on Tuesday, if they get there, the Guardians will be trying to piece together another bullpen game out of depth starters and their heavily taxed relief corps just to survive on Monday.
Tasked with taking them down will be right-hander Freddy Peralta, and it would be pretty fitting if it was Peralta carrying the Rays into a World Series matchup against the club he’s spent most of his career with, the Milwaukee Brewers. Peralta signed a free agent deal with the Mets last offseason, only to be moved to Tampa at the deadline after a rough first half. As they do, the Rays helped him clean up his mechanics and get back to form, producing a pretty strong finish to the season in September. Even so, Peralta is not fully back to being the strikeout artist he’s been his whole career. The Rays are unlikely to get seven innings of zero or one-run ball out of him against a very scrappy and desperate Guardians lineup.
RHP Shawn Armstrong (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Freddy Peralta (1-0, 0.79 ERA) at Tropicana Field, 8:08 p.m. ET on TBS.
Yandy Diaz – DH
Jonathan Aranda – 1B
Liam Hicks – C
Junior Caminero – 3B
Chandler Simpson – LF
Victor Mesa – RF
Jonny DeLuca – CF
Richie Palacios – 2B
Taylor Walls – SS
Freddy Peralta – RHP
Steven Kwan – LF
Jose Ramirez – 3B
Chase DeLauter – RF
Jo Adell – DH
Nathaniel Lowe – 1B
Travis Bazzana – 2B
Patrick Bailey – C
Petey Halpin – CF
Brayan Rocchio – SS
Tanner Bibee – RHP
Time: 8:00 PM EDT
TV: TBS/HBO Max
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The Mets are scheduled to speak with Kevin Long about a position on the coaching staff, according to a report Monday evening by the New York Post's Mike Puma.
Long, 59, was most recently spent 2022-26 as the Philadelphia Phillies' hitting coach.
His MLB hitting coach stints include the Yankees (2007-14), Mets (2015-17) and Washington Nationals (2018-21).
Among those tenures, he helped the Yankees (2009) and Nationals (2019) win the World Series.
With the Nationals, Long mentored a young Juan Soto, now the Mets' prized slugger, during the first leg of Soto's career in Washington (2018-22).
Long's time as the Mets' hitting coach was under former manager Terry Collins, who led the team from 2011-17.
New manager Andy Green's coaching staff was among David Stearns' talking points during the president of baseball operations' Sept. 28 news conference.
"Andy and I are going to have conversations on that this week, and we'll get to a decision point here over the next week or so," Stearns said last month when asked about building out Green's 2027 coaching staff.
There is a little bit of baseball news:
Rays are up 3-2 in the series. I don’t care who wins the series, but I’m cheering for Cleveland tonight, because I want a game seven.
Tonight’s lineup:
I’m going to post this early because I’ve got a couple of things to get done and odds are I’ll forget to post it.
With three games decided by two runs or fewer, the ALCS series has been very competitive this season.
The outliers are Game 1, when the Cleveland Guardians won 7-3, and Game 4 when the Tampa Bay Rays won 7-3. The Rays are averaging 3.6 runs per game in this playoff round, while the Guardians are just behind at 3 runs per game.
So it’s no wonder the series is going on much longer than the Milwaukee Brewers four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Rays will have the advantage of home field tonight for Game 6, and they feel so confident that Yandy Díaz said, “it all ends tomorrow. We’re going to win tomorrow,” after the Tampa Bay beat the Guardians 3-1 in Cleveland on Sunday evening.
For Game 6, the Guardians are turning to RHP Shawn Armstrong, who has yet to give up a run in 7.2 innings over six appearances with six strikeouts this postseason, including a one-inning start against Tampa Bay in Game 4. Freddy Peralta will be on the mound for the Rays. Peralta was very effective against the Rays in Game 2 when he threw six scoreless innings, giving up four hits and two walks, while striking out six in a 3-1 victory.
Pitching Matchup: RHP Shawn Armstrong (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs RHP Freddy Peralta (2-3, 3.43 ERA)
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TV: TBS/HBO Max
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The American League Championship Series returns to the gulf coast of Florida on Monday night as the Tampa Bay Rays look to complete the series flip over the Cleveland Guardians.
Tampa took both games over the weekend up in northern Ohio after entering the weekend slate trailing two games to one within the series. Now, they’ll take the field at home in the Trop with Freddy Peralta on the mound and once again pitching like an ace with the opportunity to make it to the World Series against the Milwaukee Brewers on the docket.
Righty ‘reliever’ Shawn Armstrong will start for Cleveland in what will very clearly be an all-hands-on-deck bullpen game as they look to stave off elimination. First pitch is slated to be chucked by Peralta at 8:08 PM ET down in Tampa, with coverage of the game carried on TBS/truTV.
Here is how both clubs will line up to start:
The Tampa Bay Rays enter Game 6 of the American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Guardians one win away from capturing their third AL pennant.
After the teams split the first two games of the best-of-seven series in Tampa Bay, the Rays won two of three in Cleveland. A third consecutive victory would send the Rays to the World Series, where they would face the National League champion Milwaukee Brewers. The Guardians, however, are looking to stave off elimination and force a winner-take-all Game 7 on Tuesday.
Looking to clinch the pennant in front of their home fans, Rays right-hander Freddy Peralta will make his third appearance and second start of the ALCS.
Peralta is the latest pitcher to benefit from Tampa Bay’s well-regarded coaching staff. The team’s signature trade deadline acquisition was named the American League Pitcher of the Month for September after allowing three runs in 34 innings over his final six regular-season starts.
The right-hander’s late-season success has carried over into the playoffs. Peralta earned the win in Game 2 of the series after allowing four hits over six scoreless innings. Three days later, he came out of the bullpen in Game 4 and recorded two key outs, stranding an inherited runner. Will Peralta post another quality start, or will the Guardians’ offense wake up with their season on the line?
Here’s Tampa’s starting nine for this one:
Meanwhile, Guardians right-hander Gavin Williams will not start on short rest. Cleveland will instead deploy a bullpen game, saving Williams for a potential Game 7.
Right-hander Shawn Armstrong will serve as the opener for the second time in three games. After Armstrong exits, Cleveland’s manager Stephen Vogt will likely rely on favorable matchups throughout the game, turning to his bullpen early and often to record the 27 outs needed to keep the Guardians’ season alive.
And Cleveland’s starting lineup for this anticipated contest:
Will the World Series matchup be settled today, or will the Brewers have to wait until Tuesday to learn their opponent? Who do you think will win?
The Atlanta Braves season may be over, but there is still a lot of baseball yet to be played. The Cleveland Guardians are on the brink of elimination in their hope of winning their first World Series since 1948 and they will be facing the Tampa Bay Rays in search of their first ever World Series win.
Regardless of who moves on, we will see at the very minimum a World Series winner that has not won in seventy-eight years since the Brewers also have never won a World Series and have not appeared in one since they were in the American League back in 1982. Is it a bad time to be a salary cap fan? That can be debated in the comments.
For the game this evening, the Rays will be bringing the resurgent Freddie Peralta who sports a 0.79 ERA in the postseason thus far in 11.1 innings with three appearances to include two starts. Shawn Armstrong appears to be set to be an opener for the Guardians. He has already made six appearances this postseason and has a sterling 0.00 ERA and 0.26 WHIP.
Follow along in the comments. First pitch is at 7:00 EDT.
It’s official: the Yankees’ skipper will be sticking around for the 2027 season.
YES Network’s Jack Curry, with credit to Bergen Record writer Pete Caldera, reported Monday that Aaron Boone will return for his 10th season as manager in the final year of his two-year, $10.5 million extension signed in 2025.
Plenty of mixed opinions are already swirling in reaction to this decision, but it doesn’t come as a surprising one. Many have given their praise to Boone, including former Yankees manager Joe Girardi, for bringing the Yankees to clinch their 61st postseason berth and navigating an injury-ridden roster. During his career as manager, Boone has led the Yankees to the playoffs in eight of his nine previous seasons, albeit with just one American League pennant and a World Series appearance to show for it. They’ve fallen to the division rival Blue Jays and Rays in the ALDS during the past two seasons.
The Yankees’ executives were clearly satisfied enough with Boone’s decision-making this season and chose to have him at the helm next year in hopes of bringing another championship to New York. However, with considerable levels of uncertainty at several positions this offseason, there is much to consider about how Boone will construct a winning roster. Will the Yankees give him enough ammunition to clinch a postseason spot and make it through the ALDS?
More to come…
A cat may have nine lives, but Aaron Boone has 10.
Despite another early playoff exit, and the noise surrounding Boone’s job perhaps reaching an all-time high, the Yankees are bringing their manager back for a 10th season next year, a source confirmed to The Post on Monday.
If and when baseball is played in 2027, with a lockout looming, it will be the final guaranteed year on Boone’s contract. As if there were not enough already, there will be even more pressure on the 53-year-old baseball lifer to finally get the Yankees over the hump in October, a feat that remained insurmountable this year when they were swept in the ALDS by the AL East champion Rays.
Boone has achieved plenty of regular-season success during his tenure (a 790-565 record and three division titles), but he has been unable to parlay that success into a championship, coming closest in 2024 with a trip to the World Series in which the Yankees fell flat against the Dodgers.
Questions remain about whether Boone can be the manager that gets the Yankees back to the Canyon of Heroes, and what will be different in Year 10 — the same number of years that Joe Girardi got before him (with Joe Torre staying for 12 years before that).
There were some in the organization who thought this past regular season was Boone’s finest as a manager, given that the Yankees were missing three-time MVP Aaron Judge for over half the season, in addition to sizable injury absences for Giancarlo Stanton, Cody Bellinger, Max Fried, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Trent Grisham.
General manager Brian Cashman, who before Game 3 of the ALDS called Boone “a really good manager,” has an expiring contract but is expected to remain in his post and partner with Boone again in trying to bring home the organization’s 28th World Series championship. They are expected to speak to reporters later this week for the first time since their playoff run ended to chants of “Fire Boone” after Game 3 of the ALDS.
The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) first reported the news of Boone’s return.
Boone’s biggest supporters over his tenure have included Hal Steinbrenner, Cashman and, in the clubhouse, Aaron Judge. But on multiple occasions over the past two seasons, the captain notably voiced his frustration with Boone’s comments about his comeback from injuries, which put his manager in the crosshairs and raised questions about them not being on the same page.
“He puts us in the right position to go out there and succeed, especially a season like this where I’m banged up missing 100 games,” Judge said the night the Yankees were eliminated. “… For him to manage it the way he did and put us in the best position to get into the postseason and get an opportunity to win a World Series, he’s definitely had our back and is the guy.”
Throughout his tenure, Boone has been known for standing behind his players, sometimes to a fault, as it can sometimes come across to fans as a lack of accountability when they make mistakes.
“He might take the blame for the way we perform, but at the end of the day, it comes down to us,” Cam Schlittler said after the ALDS. “The expectation needs to be a little bit better.”
There were also some more practical reasons for the Yankees to stick with Boone, with a lockout looming Dec. 1, when baseball’s current collective bargaining agreement expires. If the Yankees had decided to find a new manager, they might not have been able to finalize one until November, at which point that manager might have had just a few weeks to start getting to know his new players before having to cut off contact starting Dec. 1 until what may be an expedited spring training.
It remains to be seen whether Boone will be making any changes to his staff. Two of his coaches — pitching coach Matt Blake and director of catching Tanner Swanson — have expiring contracts but are highly regarded and widely expected to return barring promotions.
More than a quarter of the way through this 21st century, there's a decent argument to be had over which Major League Baseball team is the Franchise of the Century.
Looking for pure championship tonnage? The Boston Red Sox, with four World Series titles, are still the answer.
A 14-year postseason streak that includes three World Series triumphs? It'd be hard to argue with the Los Angeles Dodgers, though we'd be remiss to not mention their archrival San Franciso Giants, who also reeled off three titles, in six years.
Yet which champions of the 21st century were best-constructed, top to bottom? Dominant both in the regular season and October? USA TODAY Sports examines and ranks the 26 titlists since 2000:
We’re not here to take the shine off anyone’s diamonds, but this group is an easy choice for No. 25. At 83 wins, they tote the lowest win total of this group. Their postseason run was turbocharged by manager Tony La Russa’s derring-do on the last day of the season, when he held out Chris Carpenter hoping his team would either win or back in with a Houston loss. They did both – and Carpenter plowed through the playoffs. The World Series was rainy and grim and error-prone. Best forgotten, unless you wash down your toasted ravioli with a swig of Schlafly.
It’s fitting that this seven-year run of Atlanta excellence netted a championship, but ironic that perhaps its most diminished team pulled it off. The Braves lost Ronald Acuña Jr. to a midseason knee injury, won just 88 games and then saw Game 1 World Series starter Charlie Morton succumb to a broken leg. They gutted through with a handful of bullpen games, Max Fried’s brilliance and a three-headed, bepearled monster in the outfield to replace Acuña.
We mean no disrespect to the Gateway to the West. For real. It’s just that these Cardinals were 10 ½ games out of first on Sept. 5, won 90 games and needed some acts of nature to simply get in the playoffs. What they did have: Albert Pujols and Carpenter, who vanquished Roy Halladay and the Phillies in an epic NLDS Game 5 and made three World Series starts thanks to some timely rainouts.
The Yankees’ three-peat hardly ended with a whimper. They were just a little tired, perhaps. These Bombers won just 87 games and were forced to an ALDS Game 5 by the low-payroll Oakland Athletics. Yet all the usual suspects turned up when they needed them, buttressed by David Justice, who hit 20 homers after a June trade from Cleveland and three more big ones in the postseason, earning ALCS MVP.
Perhaps no franchise is tougher to slot in this exercise than the three-time champion Giants, whose whole was always grander than the sum of their parts. We’ll call this edition the weakest of their three even-year champions, simply because this was always a pitching-centric operation and Tim Hudson, 39, and Jake Peavy combined for a 9.22 ERA in four World Series starts. But the gallant Madison Bumgarner can cover up a lot of deficiencies, with help from a battle-tested bullpen.
Talk about a team that had everything and nothing: The only squad among this bunch that fired its manager (Jeff Torborg) midseason, drew just 1.3 million fans to its cavernous football stadium and had a closer eventually convicted of attempted murder in Venezuela. Yet these 91-win wild cards had an amazingly effective throwback duo of slap-and-run dudes in Juan Pierre and Luis Castillo combine for 7.9 WAR, a ready-made playoff ace in Josh Beckett and a 20-year-old hitting machine named Miguel Cabrera. Yes, this team took out the Aaron-Bleeping-Boone Yankees.
No hate for these 97-game winners that rank the lowest among Boston’s four titlists. And salute to David Ortiz, who had perhaps his most epic postseason (.353, five homers, 1.206 OPS in 16 games), months after his "this is our (bleeping) city" moment in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing. Yet these were the Sox of Shane Victorino and Jonny Gomes, John Lackey and Mike Napoli, a salty veteran crew that got it done. Salute to them all, even if they’re less decorated than other squads who earned the right to pilot duck boats on the Charles.
Almost the epitome of the potent yet streaky squad that caught fire at the right time, Texas won just 90 games and had to fight through the wild-card series, yet proved there’s such a thing as performers built for the postseason. Namely, ace Nathan Eovaldi, slugging shortstop Corey Seager and manager Bruce Bochy, who added a fourth title to his Hall of Fame resume.
They crafted the modern ideal of a playoff team: Make contact but also slug home runs, get by with nominal starting pitching and turn it over to a dominant bullpen. These wild-card Angels won 99 games, ended the Yankees’ streak of four straight AL pennants and stunned Barry Bonds’ Giants with a stirring Game 6 rally. Lackey, beginning a run of three championships with three franchises, won Game 7.
The year Giants postseason devil magic was truly born. They lost All-Star center fielder Melky Cabrera to a PED suspension, trailed St. Louis 3-1 in the NLCS and trusted their season to shaky veteran Barry Zito in Game 5. But Zito and the Giants roared all the way back, and the lefty beat Justin Verlander in World Series Game 1, when Pablo Sandoval – Pablo Sandoval! – crushed three homers off the future Hall of Famer.
Not your average 93-win wild card, not with a pitching staff featuring future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer, World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg at the height of health and dominance and Patrick Corbin somehow justifying a $140 million contract with one great season. Oh, and this Juan Soto fellow graced the postseason stage for the first time, helping them overcome a 2-1 NLDS deficit and 3-2 World Series disadvantage to stun the Astros.
Jon Garland, Freddy Garcia, Mark Buehrle and Jose Contreras – this version of El Duque had just turned 40 – won’t make anyone’s list of most dominant pitching quartet. But for two weeks in October, they couldn’t be stopped, pitching four consecutive complete games to shock the Angels in the ALCS and then sweeping aside Houston. A nice capstone for franchise stalwart Paul Konerko, who hit five playoff homers and won ALCS MVP honors.
A true meld of the older-school Astros and the next generation, with Yordan Alvarez capping the run with a mammoth Game 6 World Series home run. Jeremy Peña deftly replaced Carlos Correa, winning ALCS and World Series MVP honors, and the pitching staff’s top-to-bottom dominance was exemplified by Cristian Javier running the opening leg on a four-man World Series no-hitter.
They needed all 162 games to clinch the NL West with 92 wins, but Bochy’s first championship team was about to brew up something special. While their lineup of spare parts inspired the phrase “Torture” to describe Giants baseball, the last great year of Tim Lincecum – he struck out a major league-high 231 – dovetailed with the arrival of Buster Posey and the rise of Madison Bumgarner to inspire an 11-4 run through the playoffs. And no, we did not forget Matt Cain’s 21 ⅓ playoff innings with no earned runs allowed.
That attrition forced them to throw four bullpen games in this postseason run, stare down a 2-1 deficit in the NLDS and get taken to six games by the Mets in the NLCS tempts us to downgrade this group. But also: Shohei Ohtani. The sport’s only 50-50 man slammed three homers and drove in 10 runs through Game 1 of the World Series, before a Game 2 shoulder separation slowed his mojo. No worries: There’s always another Hall of Famer in L.A. to pick up the slack.
They’d be a couple spots higher if not for The Scandal, which you may have heard about. Regardless, this was a squad, especially once they traded for Justin Verlander in August and saw him post a 1.06 ERA in five starts down the stretch and strike out 38 over 36 postseason innings.
You can make an argument this group was more talented than the history-making 2004 squad. And can we really produce “remember when?” documentaries when nobody’s stopped talking about it? Anyhow, these guys featured plenty of ’04 holdovers yet upgraded with Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and Mike Lowell on the dirt and Beckett and Jon Lester ensuring Curt Schilling wouldn’t need to pitch until his sock turned red.
Fun fact: Only two teams in the wild-card era have first-half winning percentages higher than these Dodgers’ .717 mark in the COVID-shortened 60-game season: The 1998 Yankees and 2001 Mariners. The former is arguably the greatest team in that era and the latter won 116 games. Point is: These Dodgers would’ve made the playoffs, as they have the past 13 seasons. And these Dodgers had All-Star and Hall of Fame players performing at peak capability – from Mookie Betts to Corey Seager, Clayton Kershaw to Walker Buehler. With the rules the same for everyone, the Dodgers won more postseason games – 13 – than any champion to that point, 11 of them at a neutral site. Recognize.
Shh, don’t tell any salary cap-loving owners that smaller-market teams can hit the gas and win it all. The Royals were one win – or 90 feet plus some extra-inning luck – shy of a championship in 2014, then came back and finished the job a year later. Like the Giants who vanquished them a year earlier, the Royals put the ball in play and played exceptional defense. They also had a taut bullpen and went for the jugular at the trade deadline, adding Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist. Ninety-five wins and an 11-5 postseason run – not bad for a Central Division club.
Game 7 of the ’01 World Series has been referred to as "The Last Night Of The Yankee Dynasty." It’s also a pretty neat coda to an era of, shall we say, anti-aging enhancement. Of the 17 everyday regulars on both teams, 12 were at least 32 years old. That just doesn’t happen anymore! Sure, these Diamondbacks were plenty flawed, but didn’t need too much more than a 1-2 starting pitching punch we won’t see again. Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson combined to win 43 regular season games and all four of Arizona's Series games – named co-MVPs – with Johnson replacing Schilling in relief to win the epic Game 7. No, the manager wasn’t great, the back end of the rotation was shaky and the bullpen was terrible. But sometimes two horses beats a whole stable.
Ah, remember when a $424.5 million outlay for three players was a “splurge?” So it was for the Yankees when they reeled in CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira after missing the 2008 playoffs. And goodness, it worked: The Yankees won 103 games, went 11-4 in the postseason and tamed a budding Phillies dynasty in the World Series. Just a perfect mix of old and new guard on this team, epitomized by Sabathia, Burnett and Pettitte starting every playoff game, often on three days’ rest. Alex Rodriguez clutched up, months after his exposure as a steroid scoundrel. And while Derek Jeter had long been derided as statuesque at shortstop, he produced a 6.6-WAR season, his best since 1999.
Oh, yeah – these guys. As we mentioned, there might be a better Red Sox team deeper on the list, but it’s tough to match the star power, resiliency and overall thump of this club. Manny Ramirez clubbed 43 homers. Schilling and Pedro Martinez combined for 37 regular season wins. Keith Foulke was dynamite in the eighth and ninth innings. The bit parts – Bill Mueller, Mark Bellhorn, trade deadline pickup Orlando Cabrera and yes, even Dave Roberts – fit perfectly around this core. And oh, what a history-making core.
Until further notice, The Team That Ruined Baseball. Teams don't earn too much scorn for runaway spending unless they win it all, and these Dodgers doubled down on their '24 championship by adding Blake Snell on a $182 million deal and becoming the first club since 2000 to win consecutive titles. And this club was markedly better than the '24 squad: Shohei Ohtani's elbow and shoulder were full go, Yoshinobu Yamamoto became a playoff legend and Freddie Freeman wasn't playing on one leg. Little wonder they pulled off a miracle in Game 7 at Toronto .
Still kind of amazing these Phillies won just one World Series and two pennants. Yet the ’08 squad featured four of their most important pieces firing at peak performance. From Ryan Howard’s majors-leading 48 home runs to Chase Utley’s 9-WAR season and Jimmy Rollins stealing 47 bases - this was the essence of that run. Cole Hamels won Game 1 of every playoff series while fashioning a 1.64 ERA, with Brad Lidge nearly perfect in nine ninth-inning playoff appearances, racking up seven saves.
Nope, not a sentimental choice here. These Cubs won 103 games and were a stunning blend of brilliant youth and veteran smarts. At 24, Kris Bryant was never better, winning NL MVP, drilling 39 homers with a .939 OPS and leading the league with 7.3 WAR; Anthony Rizzo, 26, produced 5.8 WAR from first base and hit 32 homers. Veterans Lester and Lackey produced one more championship hurrah, while Jake Arrieta was only a little less nasty than his 2015 Cy Young campaign. The late-spring re-signing of Dexter Fowler and deadline add of closer Aroldis Chapman put the team over the top – even if World Series Game 7 brought some frightful moments before Bryant’s iconic, stumbling toss to Rizzo for the final out and their first championship in 108 years.
This championship looked pretty good at the time and has only gotten better with age. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez finished first and fourth in MVP voting, and the latter’s signing in spring training proved a massive boon thanks to his own production (43 homers, 130 RBI) and lending his hitting expertise to Betts and others. Mookie will be in the Hall of Fame some day and this was his finest hour, leading the majors and setting career highs in WAR (a career-best 10.3), average (.346) and slugging (.640, thanks to 32 homers and 47 doubles). A rotation fronted by three current or future Cy Young winners – Chris Sale, Rick Porcello and David Price – provided the bedrock for a 108-win season, and the trio only grew more lethal in the postseason. That’s when rookie manager Alex Cora deployed them often in relief, papering over a bullpen he trusted only so much. The season ended appropriately, when Sale pitched the ninth inning of a Price start and unleashed a nasty backfoot slider to vanquish Manny Machado and the Dodgers. That capped an 11-3 postseason and 119-win campaign – the team of the century for what’s still the franchise of the century.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ranking MLB World Series winners of the 21st century by greatness