Category: MLB

TORONTO -- Luke Weaver said after the Yankees’ 10-1 ALDS Game 1 loss on Saturday that he has been trying to clean up tells in his delivery, and that the effort to do so has caused him to overthink.

Now, after two consecutive postseason outings in which he has faced three batters without recording an out, Weaver wants to stop worrying about tipping and return to his old form.

That old form, of course, has proven elusive for Weaver all season. Aaron Boone managed him nimbly through the season, quietly moving Weaver to softer lanes against the bottom of opposing orders in order to restore his results and confidence.

When a pitcher openly muses about tipping, his confidence is clearly not at its peak. The Yankees brought this to Weaver’s attention about a month ago.

The question now is how many opportunities the team will give Weaver to get his mind right. A running internal debate/discussion in the organization has been whether Boone should prioritize Weaver over Fernando Cruz in his pecking order, or vice versa.

On Saturday, Weaver and Cruz both struggled, while Camilo Doval pitched two perfect innings. Doval is a former All-Star closer for the San Francisco Giants.

After the Yankees’ pen struggled in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against Boston, I asked a high-up person in the organization what they could do to improve and adjust their pen on the fly. This is the aspect of their roster that stands most clearly between the Yanks and a championship. That person suggested using Doval in higher-leverage situations.

Boone said that he hoped Doval would be available in Game 2 despite pitching the two frames.

“That's kind of how he finished the season,” the manager added. “His last few were really good. I feel like he cleaned up some things within his setup and his delivery. Yeah, that was really efficient, really good, attacking the strike zone with, obviously, that stuff. Another encouraging one for Camilo."

What is Warren’s role?

The Yankees like Will Warren despite choosing Luis Gil over him to start Game 1. But what is Warren’s role in this postseason?

When Gil struggled in the second inning, Boone got the lefty Tim Hill up in the bullpen along with righty long man Paul Blackburn. Why not Warren behind Gil?

“If I was going to go early to the pen, I wanted to get a situation where I had Hill where he was going to get most of the lefties without pinch-hitting early in the game,” Boone explained. “And then at some point, depending on leverage of the game, Will comes into play.”

My understanding is that the Yankees would use Warren for high-leverage outs but more likely length -- just not in a spot like the one in which Boone called for Hill, where several lefties were due up.

Because of off days, Max Fried will be able to start Game 2 and a potential Game 5 on full rest.

On that Judge at-bat

Any time Aaron Judge bats in a big spot in the postseason, the referendum begins on what the result will mean for his October reputation and legacy. Given his numbers, those talking points are mostly fair.

But a closer look at Judge’s bases-loaded, no outs strikeout against Kevin Gausman in the sixth inning shows how that at-bat would have challenged just about anyone.

Asked if he was “overanxious,” Judge said, “I wouldn’t say overanxious, if you saw the whole at-bat. But in the end, I didn't get the job done.”

Here’s what he meant by seeing the whole at-bat: Gausman’s first pitch was a 97 mph fastball low and away for a strike. A pitcher’s pitch. Judge went on to take a few close ones and foul off a few tough ones.

The eighth pitch of the at-bat was a 3-2 splitter that appeared headed to the same area as the first-pitch fastball. That Pitching Ninja guy on Twitter shows this kind of tunneling. I’m trying to do it verbally here, which is not as illustrative. But stay with me.

After the ball left Gausman’s hand, Judge had the usual millisecond to decide if it was going to be in the zone, like the fastball. He considered the spin and path of the ball, then fired. But it was a nasty splitter, diving away for what would have been ball four.

Basically, when Gausman executes that pitch, as he did here, the batter has very little chance. If it looks like a strike to Aaron “Best Hitter on Earth” Judge, imagine how the rest of the league would have flailed at it.

Why Boone didn’t pinch-hit for Rice

Ben Rice struggled in Game 3 of the Wild Card series against lefty Connelly Early’s breaking ball, and did the same in his first two at-bats Saturday against Gausman’s splitter. Gausman is a righty, but that pitch kills lefties.

During the Yankees’ sixth-inning rally, Bellinger followed Judge’s strikeout with a bases-loaded walk, making it a 2-1 game. Then Rice stepped to the plate. Some in the industry wondered why Boone didn’t pinch-hit Paul Goldschmidt, who hits soft stuff well and is 10-for-22 lifetime versus Gausman.

The answer is simple and reasonable: righty reliever Louis Varland was ready in the bullpen. Swapping in Goldschmidt would have simply given Toronto manager John Schneider a matchup he wanted. Varland came in to strike out Giancarlo Stanton.

It’s fair to wonder why the Yankees did not start Goldschmidt, given that history.

It’s not just Aaron Judge’s fault, of course. There were Yankee failures Saturday across multiple departments in the opener of the AL Division Series, from starting pitching to the bullpen to a lineup that didn’t deliver in yet another loss in Toronto.

But the lingering moment, at least for Yankees fans smarting over an enormous chance missed in a game that would devolve into a laugher, might come from the stressful sixth inning with Judge at the plate. The bases were loaded, nobody out, in a still-taut game. The Yanks were down by two runs.

Kevin Gausman, the Blue Jays starter, was rolling, but Judge is a longtime nemesis – the Yankee star owned a 1.283 OPS against Gausman entering Saturday. His lifetime six homers off Gausman are the most he’s slugged off a single pitcher. It was, as Gausman would put it later, "Mano y mano.”

Mano Gausman won. He got Judge to swing at a low splitter – obviously a ball – on a 3-2 pitch, capping an eight-pitch battle with a crucial K. Gausman walked in a run, but the Jays ultimately escaped the inning, allowing just that one run. Reliever Louis Varland struck out Giancarlo Stanton to end the threat and Toronto went on to a 10-1 victory.

“In the end, you know, I didn’t get the job done,” Judge told reporters in Toronto. “That’s what it comes down to.”

And so the October scrutiny will continue for Judge. He’s clearly one of the greatest hitters of this, or any, era. In the postseason, it’s too much to ask for anyone to reproduce the outsized numbers he’s stacked up during the regular season. But he’s a career .217 hitter this time of year after going 2-for-4 Saturday. (He’s actually having a strong postseason so far, batting .400).

But, fair or unfair, he probably needs to wreck a series himself to get full credit from pinstriped fans. A World Series wouldn’t hurt, either, obviously.

But all that’s not just on him, just like the blame for the loss in the Division Series isn’t solely his to own. After Judge, the Yankees had Cody Bellinger, Ben Rice and Giancarlo Stanton coming to the plate. Plenty of thump there, too, but Gausman and Varland wriggled (mostly) free.

Overall, the Yankees were outhit, 14-6, and were just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Let’s go back to the Yanks’ big chance. Gausman’s splitter was particularly dangerous against the aggressive Yankees and, as the at-bat against Judge went on, it was easy to think he’d use it as his out pitch. But he set it up beautifully by first throwing a 97 mile-per-hour four-seamer inside to Judge, which Judge fouled off. Then Gausman threw an 86-mph splitter outside that dipped below the strike zone. Judge swung and missed.

“I kind of threw some pitches that I got away with, to be honest, early in the at-bat,” Gausman said in the interview room. “But I thought the pitch before really set up the split down and away. In that moment, to be honest, I'm fine walking him. He can blow that game right open with one swing. So kind of knowing that, the whole at-bat I was trying to go down and away with the split, left a couple kind of too good.

“But that was a good pitch. I thought the pitch before definitely set it up.”

“That’s a huge, huge strikeout of a guy who’s going to be the MVP of the league, probably,” Toronto manager John Schneider added. “You’re kind of going to feed on the emotion a little bit, too, to be honest with you. But that’s the last thing you want to see (Judge at the plate in that situation).”

Judge lamented that he had swung at ball four. “You guys all saw it,” he told reporters.

There’s no question the game changes if the Yankees come away with more than one run there. Maybe their bullpen usage changes and Luke Weaver, who has let all six batters he’s faced reach base this postseason, does not get the ball. Yankees relievers allowed eight runs in 5.1 innings in total, though, so it wasn’t just Weaver. And starter Luis Gil was unimpressive, too.

Clearly, Judge and his teammates must forget Saturday’s dud. One way to do that is to start dreaming about how the pitching lines up for them going forward. Max Fried starts Game 2 on Sunday – he was 11-1 with a 1.82 ERA in 16 starts after a Yankee loss this year – and he’ll be followed by Carlos Rodón in Game 3 and then Cam Schlittler, the rookie sensation who overwhelmed the Red Sox in the clincher of the Wild Card series, in Game 4.

Judge will continue to get chances. It’s probably worth believing in him, regardless of Octobers past. Maybe it’s worth continuing to believe in the Yankees, too, despite the way Saturday sagged.

Judge does. “I like our chances,” he said. “We’ve got to keep getting those opportunities and we’re going to come through when we need to.”

Yankees reliever Luke Weaver is having a postseason to forget.

After allowing two runs without recording an out in Game 1 of the Wild Card series against the Red Sox, the right-hander had a repeat performance against Toronto on Saturday in the first game of the American League Division Series.

With the Blue Jays up just 2-1 in the seventh, Weaver was called upon to keep Toronto scoreless as he started the inning. Daulton Varsho worked a five-pitch walk before Anthony Santander lined a single to right field, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Andres Gimenez then singled through the right side of a drawn-in infield to score one. 

After three batters, that was it for Weaver. Fernando Cruz would allow two of Weaver's runners to score, closing the book on the 32-year-old's night. Weaver allowed three runs on two hits and one walk, without recording an out, again.

"Not a stuff issue," manager Aaron Boone said of Weaver after the loss. "Obviously, command is usually a strength for Weave. Losing the first guy in four pitches there and then looked like a couple of change-ups that just kind of were flat and up and over the plate that Santander got and Giménez with the drawn-in infield. It can click like that, because the stuff is there. We've just got to get him locked in with his delivery."

Weaver's delivery and mechanics became a point of discussion after Saturday's 10-1 loss, and all of it came from Weaver himself.

"The results haven’t been good. There’s been a lot of internal factors. I don’t want to get too crazy into it, but there’s been adjustments that I’ve had to make based on things people are seeing. It just hasn’t lined up," Weaver explained after the game. "It’s pretty late in the adjustment period. It’s just not lining up out there. I don’t feel like myself. I don’t feel like my mind is completely clear to go out there and attack. I do feel physically strong, I do feel mentally strong overall. There are just some factors that are building up and I’m just not executing at the clip I want to."

"There's been a lot of internal factors. I don't want to get too crazy into it, but there's been adjustments I've have to make based off of things that people are seeing. It just hasn't really lined up. It's been pretty late in the adjustment period and it's just not lining up… pic.twitter.com/zI8RhEeLv4

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 4, 2025

Weaver became the Yankees'  most reliable reliever last season, allowing him to overtake Clay Holmes as the team's closer through their playoff run a year ago. 

However, with the addition of Devin Williams in the offseason and then David Bednar at the trade deadline, Weaver's role has been more of a bridge to the ninth inning. This season, he's pitched to a 3.62 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP, up from last year, but a lot of that has come of late. He pitched to a 9.64 ERA in 12 appearances in September, buoyed by a couple of blowup outings earlier in the month, but was still solid heading into the postseason. 

In his final six appearances (5.2 IP), Weaver allowed just one hit and one walk. However, that hasn't translated to the playoffs as of yet.

Despite trying to combat pitch tipping, Weaver says he feels close and is competitive. He points to the soft contact teams have gotten off of him in his two postseason outings so far, but the adjustments he's making aren't taking, and his patented changeup is staying up in the zone. For Weaver, who is a free agent after this season, the adjustments have "become a lot," and he is going to go back to what he was doing before.

"Ultimately, I’m at a point where I’m just full send and none of that’s going to matter anymore," he said. "I’m going to be what I think is best for me and attack and what I need to do."

He later added, "Baseball seems overwhelming at the moment when the results aren’t on your side. I don’t walk away from these outings being too hard on myself. Ultimately, I’m really close. I’m not giving up balls out of the yard or hard contact. It comes down to pitch selection, execution and relying on our guys on the field to make plays."

Weaver was pressed with follow-ups about the perceived tipping but he didn't want to go too deep on it, but wanted to make his feelings known.

"I just got to be tidy, clean, go out there and give myself the best chance," he said. "Ultimately, too, at the same time, you have to keep your brain clean; the moments already big, you don’t need more things stacking on your plate."

Despite the tough outings, Weaver's teammates remain confident that the reliever can still get it done.

"Things haven't gone his way, but everybody in this room has confidence in him to go out there and do his job," Aaron Judge said of Weaver. "He's been a special piece of this team since he came over here."

And Weaver has a history the Yankees can lean on. In 12 appearances last October, Weaver was great, pitching to a 1.76 ERA and converting four saves along the way. 

But while it's unknown when his next postseason appearance will be this year, Weaver remains confident in his stuff. And that given an opportunity, he will continue to compete for his teammates.

"I’m not going to allow two outings to dictate my time here. You can certainly say what you like, but ultimately, I feel confident in our team, I feel confident in myself," he said. "It’s not like I’m throwing 93 [mph], I’m throwing 97, it’s coming out really good. I’ll make the adjustments, I’ll do it. I’ll leave everything out on the field. It won’t be a matter of trying, a matter of letting myself roll over. I’ll compete with anyone in this entire world or I’ll die trying."

The Yankees hope to avoid a 0-2 deficit when they play the Blue Jays in Game 2 of the ALDS on Sunday.

 

Luis Gil was terrific for the Yankees down the stretch. 

The right-hander threw well enough that he earned himself the ALDS Game 1 start. 

Things, however, did not quite go as planned on Saturday afternoon.

Gil was knocked out of the game by the high-powered Blue Jays over just 2.2 innings of work, allowing two runs on four hits (two homers) in what was his shortest outing of the season. 

He gave up a two-out solo shot to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the bottom of the first, and then Alejandro Kirk made him pay for another mistake with a no-doubt solo blast of his own leading off the second. 

The righty came back out for the bottom of the third, but was pulled after giving up a two-out single to Guerrero. 

“They were hunting the top of the zone and put some good swings on him,” Aaron Boone said. “You live with the two solo shots, we were still in the game there and he did enough, we felt like we could piece it together from there.”

As things played out, though, the Yanks were unable to piece this one together. 

The offense wasted a golden opportunity with Toronto’s Kevin Gausman on the ropes in the sixth, as Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton struck out with the bases loaded in a close ballgame.

The Jays' offense was sure to make them pay for that an inning later, as they jumped all over the struggling Luke Weaver to score four more times in the seventh, officially putting this one away and securing the series advantage. 

“Not the result we wanted,” Gil said through an interpreter. “You want to execute your pitches against this lineup, but at the same time they’re big-league hitters, they’re there to swing the bat and they were able to do that tonight -- but I have full confidence in my teammates and I know we’re going to come back strong tomorrow.”

A game lost but another valuable experience for Sánchez originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The stroll to the outfield for his pregame warmups couldn’t have been any cooler for Phillies starting pitcher Cristopher Sánchez. And neither could his reaction.

Sánchez, about to make his third playoff start in the first game of the NLDS against the defending World Series champion Dodgers, took his cap off and raised his long right arm to the frenzied, early-arriving crowd who were showering him with adulation.

Turns out, the red-clad fans were just practicing their cheering before Sánchez’ acknowledgment, because then it became deafening.

The sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park was never silent during a heartbreaking 5-3 loss to the Dodgers, who took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series with Game 2 scheduled for Monday night. Sánchez kept the powerful Dodgers silent for most of his outing, as he allowed just four hits and two earned runs during his 5 2/3 innings.

But that wasn’t good enough, as Los Angeles took the lead for good the next inning when Teoscar Hernandez bombed a three-run, two-out homer off reliever Matt Strahm to lead the Dodgers to the win.

While Sánchez stated his outing wasn’t good enough for the win, his performance will go a long way into his march as a top starter in this league, because he knows how to make that happen.

“We lost tonight so personally I don’t care about how I did individually,” he said after striking out eight. “If we lose then I don’t feel good. One pitch changed the game for us and for me personally.

“Individually, even if I perform well, or whatever I do, if we lose the game then I don’t feel good. We’re a team. If we win then we win together and if we lose then we all lose together. I don’t feel good about losing.”

And that’s where he is, personally and professionally, in a nutshell. He has grown as much mentally as he has in height the past few years, in which he sprouted to six feet, six inches tall. His pitching can be documented by stats. His growth as a leader and top pitcher in the league is seen a bit differently. Like Saturday night.

“He was, again, really good,” said Rob Thomson. “The strike throwing ability. The changeup was filthy tonight. 65 percent strikes, 18 whiffs, 17 out of 24, I think, first pitch (strikes). He was fantastic. He really was.”

You could really bottle those quotes from the manager and insert them after almost all of Sánchez’ starts this season. He’s become that good. Good enough that the national media, who don’t see him that often, were overly impressed throughout the park.

It was just the third playoff start for the 28-year-old and the first since being anointed the team’s ace after Zack Wheeler was shelved by a blood clot near his right shoulder that ultimately required surgery.

Sánchez has embraced the new role with the passion of a veteran, but with the understanding that you never stop absorbing the lessons in this crazy game of baseball.

“To learn and to always learn,” Sánchez said of what he could take from last night’s devastating loss. “There’s always new things that you can learn from everything that you get. Learn from those things on this outcome and I think there’s a lot of things that we have to improve but take the good out of it and learn from it.”

As much as a crowd like Saturday’s can give adrenaline to a player, the withdrawal can also be real. Perhaps a little of that hit Sánchez during his outing.

“Yeah, he looked great,” said catcher J.T. Realmuto. “I thought it looked like he got a little tired there that last inning. He started falling behind hitters, wasn’t quite commanding his fastball the same as he was early on. But other than that inning he looked his old self. He was great.

“It’s not that he was at a ton of pitches but there’s a ton of energy out there. These games are draining. I looked up one point in the fourth inning, and I was exhausted. I couldn’t believe it was only the fourth inning. I can’t imagine what a starting pitcher feels like. That’s just part of the playoffs and for me, I think just the command of his pitches was a little off there in that last inning.”

He left the game with two outs in the sixth, having given up those two runs. His demeanor was much different than it had been earlier in the night when he went to the outfield for that warmup session. His shoulders were slightly shrugged, the frustration readable on his face. But as he spoke to the media following the game, Sánchez was thoughtful about what had happened, honest with his performance and professing his belief of team first.

In the short term, it is a hard loss for this team in a playoff series against perhaps the best team in baseball right now. In the long term, an experience gained by their top pitcher.

Red October coverage on NBC Sports Philadelphia is sponsored by Toyota.

Aaron Judge missed on a big chance, two Yankee bullpen cogs wobbled and Alejandro Kirk homered twice Saturday as the Blue Jays routed the Yankees, 10-1, in the opener of their ALDS at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Toronto also got a much better outing from their starter, Kevin Gausman, than the Yankees did from Luis Gil,who was yanked after only 2.2 innings. The Jays scored four runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to wreck a tight game.

The Yanks will try to even up the series Sunday in Game 2. They were the second-best road team in MLB this year, but that has not translated to Toronto. They are now 1-7 at Rogers Centre this year.

Toronto’s Game 1 victory was the Jays’ first postseason win since Game 4 of the 2016 AL Championship Series. Toronto had been mired in a seven-game playoff losing streak. 

Here are the takeaways...

- The baseball world has been waiting for Judge, who took a .212 postseason average into Saturday, to have a breakout October and he had a key opportunity in the sixth inning of Game 1 with the Yanks down, 2-0. The inning started when Anthony Volpe swatted a ball off the left-field wall for a leadoff double. Austin Wells followed with a single and Trent Grisham walked, loading the bases and bringing up Judge, who entered the game with a career average of .354 against Gausman and six home runs. After a tense, eight-pitch battle, Judge struck out, swinging and missing at a Gausman splitter that dove out of the strike zone. Gausman set up the outside pitch by throwing a 97-mph fastball inside to Judge, who fouled it off. The Yankees scored when Gausman threw four straight balls to Cody Bellinger, but they could not tack on. Gausman retired Ben Rice on a popup for the second out and then Toronto manager John Schneider replaced Gausman with righty Louis Varland. With Giancarlo Stanton up and a 1-2 count, Varland threw a 101-mph fastball past Stanton’s hard cut for the final out of the inning.

- Judge has been hitting so far this postseason -- he was 2-for-4 in Game 1 with a single and a double and is batting .400 this October with a .905 OPS.

- Except for the bases-loaded walk, Gausman was excellent for Toronto, getting quick outs and using his mid-80s splitter to generate whiffs. The Yankees swung at the pitch 17 times and missed 10 of them, according to Baseball Savant. Overall, Gausman allowed one run and four hits in 5.2 innings, striking out three and walking two. He had only 50 pitches after five scoreless innings, but the Yankees made him work in the sixth inning and though he got Judge in a big spot, the Jays went to the bullpen for the final out of that frame.

- Yankee starters were mostly excellent in the first round victory over Boston, fashioning a 1.33 ERA and delivering 20.1 innings in three games. But that ended quickly in the ALDS. Gil lasted only 2.2 innings and gave up two runs and four hits. He struck out two and walked none. He gave up two early home runs and the Jays looked pretty comfortable against him. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homered in the first inning and Kirk slammed a 392-foot homer in the second. Gil is generally adept at suppressing home runs – he allowed 0.8 per nine innings this season and his career mark is around one per nine.

- Guerrero’s homer was a solo shot and his first longball since Sept. 5, a span of 90 plate appearances. It was also Guerrero’s first career playoff homer and perhaps a start at altering the October perception of him – he came into the game with a career average of .136 and a .422 OPS in his first six career postseason games, all losses. Guerrero also made a terrific defensive play at first in the second inning, a diving, backhand snare of a Ryan McMahon liner that he took to the first-base bag for an unassisted double play. He finished the day 3-for-4 with two RBI.

- Luke Weaver’s woes this postseason continued when he came in to start the seventh, an inning that devolved into a four-run bonanza for Toronto. Weaver walked Daulton Varsho leading off and then gave up a single to Anthony Santander. The lone glimmer of that particular play came when Judge threw the ball all the way to third, perhaps lessening some of the concerns about his injured elbow. But with first and third against Weaver, Andrés Giménez singled through a drawn-in infield to drive in an insurance run and put Toronto up, 3-1. Weaver has faced six batters so far in the playoffs and all of them have reached base. He was removed in favor of Fernando Cruz. But, one out later, Cruz allowed a two-run double to Nathan Lukes and a sac fly to Guerrero, ballooning Toronto’s lead to 6-1. According to the Fox broadcast, the Jays were 71-4 when scoring five-plus runs, the best such mark in MLB.

- Kirk hit his second homer of the game, leading off the eighth inning, connecting against Paul Blackburn. Including his homer flurry at the end of the regular season, Kirk has five home runs in his last three games.

- Perhaps the Yankees could’ve kick-started their offense early against Gausman, but they came out on the wrong side of a quirky play. Grisham seemed to foul a ball off his toe leading off, but umpires did not see it, and Yankee arguments did not sway them. The ball went to Guerrero for a 3-unassisted, giving Gausman an easy, first-pitch out.

Game MVP: Alejandro Kirk

Kirk, who became the fourth player in Blue Jays history to have a multi-homer game in the playoffs.

Highlights

Cody Bellinger walks in the first Yankees run! pic.twitter.com/BM5B3cOz1c

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 4, 2025

What's next

The Yankees and Blue Jays continue their best-of-five series on Sunday. First pitch is set for 4:08 p.m.

New York will send ace Max Fried to the mound with Toronto countering with Trey Yesavage. 

Bader brings energy, edge to Phillies' championship push originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

From the moment Harrison Bader slipped on a Phillies uniform, it just made sense.

The energy. The defense. The all-out style of play.

Since arriving from the Twins at the Trade Deadline, Bader has injected Philadelphia with exactly the kind of spark that wins in October.

A veteran of nine seasons on his sixth club, Bader joined a crowded outfield mix that already included Nick Castellanos, Brandon Marsh and Max Kepler.

Before the swap, he was putting together a solid season in Minnesota, tallying 25 extra-base hits in 96 games with a .778 OPS. His bat was red hot in July — five homers, a .914 OPS and 11 RBIs in the month.

Three weeks after the trade, Castellanos told reporters that Bader had been frustrated with his playing time, understandable for a guy swinging the bat well before the trade. His first few weeks in Philly were rough, hitting just .171 in his first 41 at-bats.

Then came August 20th against Seattle, when Rob Thomson gave him the nod, and Bader took off. From that point on, he slashed .346/.390/.522 with 15 extra-base hits to close out the regular season.

His impact went far beyond the numbers. Bader, who primarily played left field with Minnesota, immediately stabilized center field for Philadelphia. His 85th-percentile sprint speed was on full display, flagging down balls gap-to-gap from Monty’s Angle to the bullpen — complete with his trademark crab-walk backpedal.

When Trea Turner landed on the injured list in late September, Thomson moved Bader into the leadoff spot, and the results spoke for themselves. Over 13 games atop the order before the final homestand, he hit .339, sparking an offense that notched nine wins, including a sweep of the Mets and a statement series victory in Los Angeles.

“Winning baseball is a universal language,” Bader said. “We all come from different places, but the goal’s the same. The only focus for me was taking advantage of the opportunity to help this team win.”

That mindset made him an easy fit in a clubhouse full of veterans who’ve lived the highs and lows of Red October.

“There are no cliques here,” Bader said. “It’s about doing your job and executing. You gain respect by playing winning baseball.”

It’s the same approach that made him a postseason hero in the Bronx. In 2022, Bader homered five times in nine playoff games for the Yankees — experience that fuels his confidence now in Philadelphia.

“You can’t play hero ball,” he said. “It’s about having a good at-bat, passing the baton, doing the little things that win a series.”

Bader has worked tirelessly to evolve as a hitter. After an injury in 2023, he spent last offseason reworking his mechanics with a biomechanist in Tampa.

“I didn’t want to go back to who I was — I wanted to be someone new,” he said. “The game’s about evolving.”

He certainly evolved. This mechanical change has allowed Bader to exhibit strong offensive production against right-handed pitchers.

Coming into 2025, Bader posted a career .775 OPS versus left-handers and a .670 against righties.

This season, Bader’s splits are reversed, which can be beneficial as you generally face more right-handed pitching. His OPS against righties is .845 (344 AB), while it’s .689 versus southpaws (157 AB).

Off the field, Bader’s personality has become just as impactful as his play. He actually inspired teammates to join his “crop top” pregame routine during the summer heat.

“I’d never tell another grown man to wear a crop top,” Bader laughed. “But it shows how together this group is.”

And then there’s his appreciation for the city itself.

“The fans here make this place special,” he said. “They share the same passion we do. I’m grateful to compete in front of that energy.”

In just two months, Bader has become everything the Phillies could have hoped for, and he’s a reminder of what makes this group so dangerous in October.

He’s been here a short time, but in every sense, Harrison Bader already feels like a perfect fit for Philadelphia.

‘You either win or you don't': How will Phillies respond to bye? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

So, push has now come to shove. Figuring out how to spend a bye week, like the Phillies just completed, was the biggest task presented them this week as the Los Angeles Dodgers were disposing of the Cincinnati Reds in a National League Wild Card Series.

The Phillies handled their week with work. After a day off on Monday, there was a fundamental-based practice on Tuesday, followed by an intrasquad scrimmage on Wednesday in front of 31,000 fans. A couple more days of staying sharp and now it’s here – Game One of the National League Division Series, with Dodgers righty Shohei Ohtani facing Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sanchez.

The week off is as much mentally challenging as it is physically. Taking time off during a season just isn’t the norm, except for the All-Star Break. And if there’s anything baseball players and managers don’t like, it’s having their routine disrupted. Add in all the talk about whether it’s good or not to spend some days away from the diamond at this point of the year, and it probably becomes more of a dilemma than it really needs to be.

“It’s an advantage if you win the first series and it’s a disadvantage if you don’t,” said Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.

In essence, the Phillies have already won a series with the bye, while the Dodgers made quick work of the Reds, finishing them off in two games and outscoring them by a combined 18-9. During that series, Dodgers starters Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto worked 13 2/3 innings and allowed just eight hits and two earned runs while striking out 18.

How the Phillies hitters fare in this series against the Dodgers starters is going to be a huge factor. In their three-game series in Los Angeles in the middle of September, the Phillies were no-hit during Ohtani’s five innings, got two hits, no runs and struck out 12 times in Snell’s seven innings and were able to garner only one hit and one run in Emmet Sheehan’s 5 2/3 innings.

Should the Phillies get shut down by the Los Angeles starters to begin this series, you just know the airwaves are going to be filled with talks about the disadvantages of the bye.

Said Trea Turner: “I say it till I’m blue in the face. It’s just an excuse one way or the other. You’ve got to show up and you’ve got to win. You either win or you don’t.”

And Nick Castellanos had some thoughts, saying: “Obviously (like having) the bye because we’re closer to the World Series. But I think if there was a way to play competitive baseball, not have the outcome knock us out, we get the bye no matter what, I think that’s personally what I wish could happen. I just know how important rhythm is and consistency is to a game like baseball because of how difficult it is.”

For manager Rob Thomson, the week couldn’t have gone any better. Now it’s time to see if that pays off or not.

“I’m telling you, the intrasquad game just put it over the top, with all these people here,” he said. “It really did. Case in point, it was, I forget what inning it was, and there was a runner on first and Nick (Castellanos) hit a ground ball. Double play and he ran hard all the way through the base. Whereas, if there’s nobody in the stands, probably doesn’t happen. Those are the little things that I look at and say that was worth it.”

Time will now tell.

When Clayton Kershaw was left off the Dodgers’ roster for the best-of-three wild-card round against the Cincinnati Reds, it marked the first time since his 2008 rookie season that he didn’t pitch in one of the team’s playoff series when healthy.

But on Saturday, ahead of Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Dodgers decided to add Kershaw back in the mix, ensuring he will likely get the chance to take the mound at least one more time before entering retirement this offseason.

Kershaw and fellow left-handed pitcher Anthony Banda were the only two changes the Dodgers made to their NLDS roster Saturday, swapping them in on an 11-man pitching staff in place of multi-inning left-hander Justin Wrobleski (who didn’t pitch in the wild-card series) and rookie right-hander Edgardo Henriquez (who walked two batters and gave up a hit while recording no outs in Game 1 against the Reds).

Read more:Shohei Ohtani to start Game 1 of NLDS for Dodgers — this time, without set restrictions

The Dodgers made no changes to their 15-man position player group from the wild-card round, once again keeping three catchers on the roster (as Will Smith continues to recover from a fractured hand) as well as speedy defensive specialists Justin Deal and Hyeseong Kim.

Kershaw’s return had been expected, even before manager Dave Roberts officially confirmed on Friday that the future Hall of Famer would be on the roster for the NLDS.

First and foremost, the Dodgers will need added left-handed pitching depth to combat a Phillies lineup that includes left-handed threats such as Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott. That’s why Banda was included as well.

But Kershaw, who went 11-2 this season with a 3.36 ERA, also gives the Dodgers a steady veteran presence out of the bullpen (where he is expected to pitch).

Here’s your 26-man roster for the NLDS. pic.twitter.com/LRFPKU9Aug

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 4, 2025

They missed that in the wild-card round, when a string of younger pitchers struggled to consistently find the strike zone while pitching in relief.

Thus, they will be hoping their 18-year veteran can provide it, in what would be his final career postseason series if the Dodgers don’t advance.

The only other major roster question facing the Dodgers entering this series is at catcher. Roberts said Friday that Smith “will be available to catch” in this NLDS, but was unsure if he’d be able to start right away in Game 1. Smith, who has taken only live at-bats in the last week while nursing his injury, did not appear in the wild-card series despite being on the roster. He took more live at-bats during the team’s Friday night workout at Citizens Bank Park.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Yankees won't see some familiar faces when they take on the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2025 American League Division Series.

Toronto announced its roster for the playoff series on Saturday morning, ahead of Game 1 at 4:00 p.m., and star shortstop Bo Bichette is not on it.

Bichette, 27, has been out since Sept. 6 with a knee injury. 

The SS finished the 2025 regular season tied for second in hits with 181 (along with Padres' Luis Arraez), just three less than the Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. over 18 less games (139 played by Bichette). He also finished second in the AL in batting average at .311 behind Aaron Judge's .331 mark.

Bichette hit .281 with nine hits, including a home run, six RBI, and five runs scored over nine games against the Yanks in the regular season.

He would be eligible to be added to the ALCS roster if the Blue Jays were to advance.

Additionally, Toronto left veteran pitchers Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt off the ALDS roster, as well as 1B Ty France. The club decided to go with Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, and Trey Yesavage as their starting pitchers, plus Eric Lauer, who started 15 games in the regular season and pitched in another 13 out of the bullpen.

Scherzer went 5-5 over 17 regular seasons start, pitching to a 5.19 ERA and 1.29 WHIP. He gave up four runs on 10 hits across 5.0 IP in his last start on Sept. 24 against the Red Sox.

Bassitt owned a 11-9 record with a 3.96 ERA over 32 games (31 starts). Like Scherzer, he also struggled down the stretch, allowing three runs on eight hits over 4.1 IP against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sept. 18.

As for the Yankees, no major changes were made to their ALDS roster compared to the Wild Card series. Luis Gil, who's starting Game 1, was added to replace Mark Leiter Jr.