Category: MLB

The Chicago White Sox are on the cusp of accomplishing a feat 120 years in the making, while the Cleveland Guardians are on the brink of elimination.

These are the stakes as the White Sox host the Guardians at Rate Field on Wednesday, Oct. 7, for Game 3 of their AL division series. Chicago holds a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series after back-to-back wins in Cleveland and has a chance to close out a playoff series on the South Side for the first since beating the Chicago Cubs in Game 6 of the 1906 World Series.

Follow along for live score updates, highlights, analysis and reaction throughout a pivotal ALDS Game 3.

MORE: White Sox, Dodgers, Rays, Brewers can all advance with MLB playoff wins today

White Sox vs Guardians live box score

Watch White Sox fans go wild to start Game 3

04:11 PM ET, October 7 2026, Mark Giannotto

White Sox reliever Sean Newcomb has thrown first pitch and Game 3 of the AL Division Series between Chicago and the Guardians is underway at a raucous Rate Field. The sold-out crowd is donning all-black for a "blackout" effect and they're loud.

This place is rocking ahead of the first pitch. #WhiteSox@cbschicagopic.twitter.com/u5CFm98bQi

— Matt Zahn (@mattzahnsports) October 7, 2026

How to watch White Sox vs Guardians

03:45 PM ET, October 7 2026

• Time: 4 p.m. ET
• TV channel: TBS
• Live stream: HBO Max and Sling

Watch the ALDS on Sling

How rested are White Sox and Guardians bullpens

03:28 PM ET, October 7 2026, Casey L. Moore

It's hard to imagine anyone – other than Game 2 starter Gavin Williams – not being available for Cleveland in this win-or-go-home scenario. Starters Joey Cantillo, Tanner Bibee and Foster Griffin have not pitched in this series, and neither has right-handed reliever Matt Festa. Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith have all pitched in both games.

Chicago put 12 pitchers on its ALDS roster and has used seven of them in two games. Right-handers Tyler Davis, Erick Fedde, Davis Martin and David Sandlin, and lefty Noah Schultz haven't seen any action, while Anthony Kay and Grant Taylor have appeared in each of the first two games.

White Sox vs Guardians ALDS schedule

03:10 PM ET, October 7 2026

• Game 1 (Saturday, Oct. 3): White Sox 3, Guardians 0
• Game 2 (Monday, Oct. 5): White Sox 4, Guardians 3
• Game 3 (Wednesday, Oct. 7): At Chicago, 4 p.m. ET
• Game 4 (Thursday, Oct. 8)*: At Chicago, 5 p.m. ET
• Game 5 (Saturday, Oct. 10)*: At Cleveland, 5 p.m. ET

Guardians staying confident despite 0-2 series deficit

02:45 PM ET, October 7 2026, Nancy Armour

CHICAGO — The Cleveland Guardians are fully aware of the task ahead of them.

Teams with a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five series have gone on to win 89.2% of the time (83 of 93), and no Guardians team has ever overcome an 0-2 deficit. But the Guardians didn't come to Chicago to play out the string.

"Obviously, backs are against the wall. This is not how you draw it up when you start the series," Cleveland outfielder Steven Kwan said before Game 3. "But I feel like there's some sort of – I don't know even know what you'd call it, but the energy feels better today than it did the first day. Maybe the first day there were some nerves.

"We kind of got kicked in the face a little bit, and now I think everybody's just like, 'All right, we've got to have a plan now. We've got to stand on something.' If we go down with the ship, we go down with the ship. But we have to be confident in something. I almost feel like that gives us a little more confidence and positivity going into this game."

This is the White Sox's first home playoff game since 2021, having played the wild-card series in Houston and the first two games of the ALDS in Cleveland, and the atmosphere is sure to be raucous.

That makes it all the more fun, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.

"I always ask the players, what do you like better? Do you like to make 50,000 people go crazy, or do you like to shut 50,000 people up?" Vogt said. "They're both very different feelings, but they're equally as fun."

How did White Sox take 2-0 lead in ALDS?

02:35 PM ET, October 7 2026

• Game 1: White Sox 3, Guardians 0 — Munetaka Murakami blasted a two-run homer in the fourth inning and five Chicago pitchers shutout Cleveland on just three hits. Grant Taylor earned the save by pitching the final four innings, striking out six. Colson Montgomery added a third run for the White Sox in the seventh inning with a two-out opposite field double.
• Game 2: White Sox 4, Guardians 3 — Chicago rallied from an early two-run deficit by scoring three runs in the sixth inning, highlighted by Braden Montgomery's two-out, two-run double. The White Sox's held on despite Cleveland's eighth-inning threat, when Jo Adell just missed a game-tying two-run homer and instead settled for an RBI triple. Adell was stranded and Grant Taylor set the Guardians down 1-2-3 in the ninth to preserve the win.

Guardians face elimination after falling behind 2-0

02:15 PM ET, October 7 2026, Mark Giannotto

Cleveland earned the AL's No. 2 seed and a bye to the division series, but the Guardians' have managed just three runs and seven hits through two games facing Chicago pitching. And now their backs are pressed firmly against the wall, one more loss ousting them from the playoffs and extending MLB's longest title drought to 78 seasons. Cleveland last won a World Series in 1948 against the Boston Braves.

White Sox can clinch ALCS berth with Game 3 win

01:55 PM ET, October 7 2026, Mark Giannotto

Chicago has won each of its first four playoff games this year, sweeping the best-of-three wild-card series from the Houston Astros and beating Cleveland on the road in their first two games of this best-of-five division series. Now they're one win away from the franchise's first appearance in the AL championship series since winning the World Series in 2005.

White Sox-Guardians starting pitchers and bullpen plans

01:35 PM ET, October 7 2026, Mark Giannotto

Lefty reliever Sean Newcomb will start for the White Sox as they once again turn to an unorthodox pitching arrangement built around several pitchers depending on the situation. Cleveland has just three runs and seven hits through two games facing White Sox pitching.

The Guardians will initially turn to right-hander Daniel Espino on the mound, but it will be all hands on deck for the road team. Lefties Joey Cantillo and Foster Griffin, and right-hander Tanner Bibee all figure to be at the ready for manager Stephen Vogt.

White Sox starting lineup

01:21 PM ET, October 7 2026

Chicago's starting nine against right-hander Daniel Espino:

Everything you’ve got today, Chicago! pic.twitter.com/J1Yh7ishI3

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) October 7, 2026

Guardians starting lineup

01:14 PM ET, October 7 2026

Cleveland's starting nine against left-hander Sean Newcomb:

Our lineup today.#GuardsBall | #StandGuardpic.twitter.com/2LdjXRjgQl

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) October 7, 2026

White Sox 'trying to enjoy the moment'

01:01 PM ET, October 7 2026, Nancy Armour

CHICAGO — If the young White Sox are feeling the pressure of what is, for many, their first home postseason game ever, they're not showing it. Players were kicking a soccer ball around left field during pregame warm-ups, the ball bouncing around them as they stretched and did brief sprints.

"I think that's been our identity the whole year," White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas said. "It's October baseball. This means a lot for us. A lot of us have never been here before, and we're just trying to enjoy the moment and take the best advantage out of it.

"We cannot wait for today," he added. "Today at home is going to be special, and we'll have been talking about this moment playing baseball in October here at home. It's going to be special, and we cannot wait for it."

White Sox probable pitching plan

12:52 PM ET, October 7 2026, Nancy Armour

CHICAGO — The Chicago White Sox pitching plans for Game 3 are a mystery. Even to manager Will Venable.

Sean Newcomb, a lefty reliever, will start the possible series clincher against the Cleveland Guardians. Given Newcomb pitched two innings of relief in Game 2, he probably won't go more than a couple of innings.

After that, it's anybody's guess.

"We're going to read and react, similar to what we've done," Venable said before the game. "There's a different calculus here, obviously, with a game potentially tomorrow, with no more off days, with what we've used of guys. So there's a lot of different inputs on this one.

"I wouldn't tell you the exact plan anyway," Venable added, smiling. "But truthfully, we're going to be kind of reading and reacting on this one."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: White Sox vs. Guardians LIVE score, updates and highlights from potential ALDS clincher

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Freddie Freeman endured his worst offensive season since first putting on a Dodgers uniform, defined by a dramatic power outage where he hit just one home run over his final 66 games.

Freeman never finished any season hitting 21 home runs over his first four seasons as a Dodger. This included a two-month stretch in 2025 where he hit just two home runs over a two-month frame, but he still finished with 24 overall.

His final home run of the first half this year came on July 4 against the San Diego Padres, finishing the first half of the season with 15 home runs while slashing .290/.375/.487. Freeman still managed to maintain his pure contact ability at an elite level entering the second half, hitting .338 over his first 39 games, but he had just nine extra-base hits over that time, all of them doubles.

Freeman snapped his 47-game home run drought with a three-run shot against left-hander Brycen Mautz of the St. Louis Cardinals on Sept. 2. While the team posted a 13-5 record over the final 18 games with him in the lineup, Freeman limped his way to the tune of a .167/.208/.167 slash line with zero extra-base hits.

The first-round bye gave the Dodgers a much-needed week of rest, with guys like Freeman and Shohei Ohtani having dealt with lingering issues that crippled their second-half production. The culprit behind Freeman’s drop-off was a case of patellar tendonitis in his right knee. Although Freeman took a stumble into the visitor’s dugout against the Kansas City Royals on Aug. 12, he noted that the issue didn’t stem from that play.

“I was having trouble moving [on defense]. I didn’t have a front side anymore [in my swing],” Freeman said of the way the injury had initially impacted him. “It just got to the point where it wasn’t giving me the best opportunity to play like I want to.”

Freeman experienced a similar fate two years ago when he suffered a sprained ankle during the Dodgers’ final regular season series. His production took a sharp nosedive over the team’s first two postseason series, but he ultimately managed to hit four home runs in a World Series MVP-winning five game clash with the Yankees.

So far this postseason, Freeman has managed to quickly turn the page on a woeful end to the regular season. His first big moment came against Grant Holmes on Sunday, smashing a solo home run that put the Dodgers on the board. The ultimate test for the NLDS came on Tuesday against left-hander Chris Sale, the only pitcher to toss a complete game shutout against the Dodgers in the regular season. After Kiké Hernández started the scoring with a two-run home run in the fourth inning, Freeman followed suit with his second blast in as many games, totaling his postseason home run total from last year’s title run.

Freeman’s adjustment this time around didn’t pertain to his knee issues, as he remarked that all he needed to do was open up his shoulders a couple inches to get better swings on the ball.

“The first couple days of the bye week, you’re just trying to figure out when looking at video what’s worked in the past, what it looks like in set-up, and we found something where my shoulders were a little too turned. All I really did was just open my shoulders a couple inches. Baseball is a game of inches.”

In the same stadium that Freeman called home for his final five years as a member of the Atlanta Braves, the Dodgers now go up against right-hander Tyler Mahle with the hopes of advancing to their third consecutive NLCS.

The Royals hit 170 home runs in 2026, tied for the second-most in club history and eleven more than last year. There were plenty of impressive and memorable blasts along the way, from towering shots to clutch home runs in big moments. Here are the best of the bunch.

April 26 vs. the Angels – Jac ties it up, Lane Thomas walks it off

Okay, technically this is two home runs. The Royals got down 6-0 early on against the Angels on a nationally televised broadcast, but clawed their way back amid a 90 minute rain delay. They still trailed by three in the ninth inning when Vinnie Pasquantino tripled (more unlikely than any home run!) and Salvador Perez singled. Jac Caglianone launched a ball 409 feet right down the right field line to tie things up and give the Royals new life.

Jason Benetti on the Peacock call as Jac Caglianone crushes a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth to send the Royals to extras vs the Angels. ⚾️💣🎙️ #MLBpic.twitter.com/Wl4vxJw8K8

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 27, 2026

The Royals bullpen coughed up the lead again in the tenth (shocker!) With two outs, Maikel Garcia walked to put two runners on for lefty-killer Lane Thomas to face southpaw Joey Lucchesi. Thomas put one in the seats to send everyone home, wet and happy.

Walk-off home run for Lane Thomas! Royals complete the comeback from down 6-0 to sweep the Angels! pic.twitter.com/8JDwwBZT41

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 27, 2026

May 9 vs. the Tigers – Bobby hits an inside-the-parker

Fans were still settling into their seats in the first inning of a May game against the Tigers when Bobby decided to start the show. He laced a liner up the right-field line that Tigers right fielder Kerry Carpenter misplayed. Bobby decided to touch ‘em all. With a sprint speed of 30.4 feet per second, Bobby went from home to third in 10.91 seconds for an inside-the-park home run.

BOBBY WITT JR. INSIDE-THE-PARK HOME RUN! pic.twitter.com/TgCectO0zJ

— MLB (@MLB) May 9, 2026

July 2 vs. the Rays – Carter Jensen leads off with the longest home run of the season

Matt Quatraro moved Carter Jensen into the leadoff spot in late May, and it seemed to help get him going. He hit .249/.332/.529 as a leadoff hitter, and only seven teams hit more home runs out of the leadoff spot.

Jensen showed off that leadoff power in a July game against the Rays, when he crushed a first inning pitch from lefty Ian Seymour 449 feet, the longest home run of the season by any Royals hitter.

Carter Jensen CRUSHES a leadoff homer 449 FEET!

(MLB x @BudweiserUSA) pic.twitter.com/8k96Dzzl7r

— MLB (@MLB) July 2, 2026

July 13 – Jac Caglianone goes third deck in the Home Run Derby

By midsummer, the baseball world was beginning to recognize that the Royals had a prodigious power hitter in their lineup in Jac Caglianone. He wasn’t selected as an All-Star, but he was invited to All-Star Weekend to participate in the Home Run Derby, becoming just the fifth Royals hitter ever invited to the event. With his father, Jeff, pitching to him, Caglianone put on a show, launching eight home runs before being eliminated in the first round. He may not have advanced, but he gave us some memorable blasts, including this triple-decker in Philadelphia.

JAC CAGLIANONE TRIPLE DECKER 🤯

The T‑Mobile Home Run Derby is LIVE now on Netflix! #HRDerbypic.twitter.com/bKyoxqvOhM

— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) July 14, 2026

July 25 vs. the Tigers – Salvy breaks the club home run record

Salvy has hit a lot of home runs in a Royals uniform. And now, he has more than anyone in team history.

In a July game in Detroit, Salvy hit career home run #318, passing George Brett for most by a Royals hitter.

Salvador Perez hits his 318th Home Run and now holds the #Royals Franchise All Time Home Runs Record! pic.twitter.com/17V1gNEel3

— Harold R. Kuntz (@HaroldRKuntz3) July 25, 2026

Salvy would end the season with 324 career home runs, tying Gary Carter and Lance parrish for fifth-most all-time by a catcher. He also hit 21 home runs for the year, making him just the fifth catcher ever with ten 20+ home run seasons, joining Mike Piazza, Johnny Bench, Brian McCann, and Yogi Berra.

August 8 vs. the Cubs – Cags goes very deep twice

Jac Caglianone was on fire in August, hitting .411 for the month. In an August game against the Cubs, he set off first inning fireworks with a 448-foot blast off Clay Holmes.

This is a big boy blast from Jac Caglianone. He’s 2-for-2 tonight with a HR, 2B.

Over 388 AB: .260 BA, 19 HR, 47 RBI, 4 SB, .783 OPS. Only 23 years old. Only getting better.

Giving Cubs Clay Holmes trouble. pic.twitter.com/3wpG9vYTXr

— Sam Fosberg (@discussbaseball) August 9, 2026

Not content with one dinger, he got greedy with another home run, this time off Colin Rea.

Jac Caglianone tonight:

111.9 MPH, 448 FT home run
106.7 MPH double
104.9 MPH double
111.0 MPH, 420 FT home run

Cags has his first career 20-homer season! 👑 pic.twitter.com/vYBcuQHybb

— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) August 9, 2026

The blast gave him his first 20-home run season and helped earn him American League Player of the Month honors for August.

Did I miss one? What was your favorite Royals home run of the year?

Despite the impending birth of his firstborn child, Max Fried is starting Game 3 as the Yankees look to avoid elimination from the ALDS.

During his last outing against the Red Sox in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, Fried held steadfast through six innings, striking out six and giving up a home run (a solo shot). With an offense that isn’t offering much support outside of Ben Rice, the Yankees can’t afford any mistakes from Fried tonight as they anticipate continuing their postseason run with a win at home. There’s no doubt that the roars from the Bronx crowd in an elimination game can be intimidating, but Fried must block out the noise to stay focused on shutting down the Rays’ offense.

It’s possible that home-field advantage could help the Yankees’ offense and hopefully fuel some fire as they fight through every at-bat. They’ll need as much ammunition as they can get to face Rays righty Nick Martinez, who has a 2.25 ERA through 12 innings in the Bronx this season with 14 hits and three earned runs allowed.

Yankees skipper Aaron Boone is expected to shuffle around the lineup heading into the do-or-die scenario, and it would be reassuring to give a few guys on the bench, including José Caballero and Anthony Volpe, a shot at making the start. Errors from Game 1 and Game 2 starters Ryan McMahon and Jazz Chisholm Jr. have frustrated fans, to say the least, and it would be reassuring to give Caballero and Volpe a shot at keeping the Yankees’ postseason run going for another day. Boone was reportedly considering starting Volpe at third over McMahon for Game 2, but was quoted as saying he wanted to “prioritize the defense.”

Volpe made his last postseason start in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series and got a hit off Red Sox rookie Payton Tolle. Caballero, on the other hand, has yet to make his postseason debut at the plate this year. He does, however, have decent numbers against righties this season, batting .233 with .295 OBP and .666 OPS.

The Yankees have their work cut out for them as they strive to stay alive against Tampa Bay, and hopefully we’ll see some changes to the starting nine that can instill some feelings of confidence.

ALDS Game 3 Info

Teams: No. 4 seed Yankees vs. No. 1 seed Rays

Series: Rays ahead 2-0

Ballpark: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

Start time: 8:00 p.m.

TV: TBS/truTV

Streaming: HBO Max

National radio: ESPN Radio (Mike Couzens, Eduardo Pérez, Tim Kurkjian)

Local English radio: WFAN 660 AM / 101.9 FM

Local Spanish radio: WADO 1280 AM

“Thanks, but no thanks” isn’t the answer the Phillies expected from fired Red Sox manager Alex Cora. 

With the Phillies scrambling to figure out who their next manager will be, general manager Dave Dombrowski must now pull together a short list of candidates to lead the franchise. 

The obvious top candidate is Don Mattingly, who led the Phillies to a playoff berth and a strong 79-55 record despite taking over a team that was 9-19. The Post’s Jon Heyman reported the club could keep their interim manager for 2027 after initially appearing like that would not be the case.

“I think I would like to do it,” Mattingly said during the summer as the Phillies were piling up wins and competing for first place. 

So we know Mattingly will likely take it if Dombrowski offers him the gig, but whether that happens is another question entirely. 

“I think Alex Cora is one of the finest managers in the game of baseball,” Dombrowski told reporters in April. “I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Hall of Fame managers like Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland. … If Alex Cora decides he’s managing, he has a chance to be in that same category. That’s how good he is.”

Mattingly was Dombrowksi’s second choice in Philadelphia in April, though, and he may be that again, though outside options are rather thin.

Other potential hires could include Rocco Baldelli, Brad Ausmus and David Ross.

There’s no obvious link between Baldelli and Dombrowski, but he’s arguably the most credentialed of managers available. Baldelli is the third-winningest manager in Twins history, going 527-505 (.511), and won Manager of the Year in his first year after he went 101-61 in 2019.  

Dombrowski could also look at Ausmus — the Yankees’ bench coach since 2024 — who has a close relationship with Dombrowski dating back to Detroit in 2013.

Ausmus won 90 games in his first year with the Tigers before things cratered.

It was previously reported that Mattingly would be “gracefully dismissed” by the Phillies if they could hire Cora, though it now appears that Donnie Baseball might have a chance to stick around with the team longer than anticipated.

Game 3 NLDS Bragging rights wasn’t all that the Los Angeles Dodgers took from the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night.

A Dodgers fan wearing a Yoshinobu Yamamoto jersey caught a foul ball during Tuesday night’s game. A spectator seated nearby was taking a video of his excited reaction then said, “Give it to the kid! Give it to the kid!”

The fan then looked at the camera, shrugged, and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t! I’m not giving it to the kid! I feel bad, but I’m not giving it to the kid!”

The video then panned to the kid in question, who was wearing a Braves jersey and had a disappointed look on his face.

The camera then panned back to the Dodgers fan, who was gloating over his ball then posed for a photo with it.

The video has gone viral, with one X user who reposted it getting over 2.6 million views on about 12 hours. The original TikTok video also has nearly a million views.

Normalize keeping the ball if you caught it fair & square pic.twitter.com/N7no5IppOs

— Gina Muscato (@GinaMuscato) October 7, 2026

It has sparked a debate about whether adult fans are obliged to give little kids balls that they catch at baseball games. Some believe an adult fan who caught a ball fair and square should not be shamed if they want to keep it, while others feel like an adult fan should be entitled to give their catch away to a fan.

This Dodgers fan was clearly in the former group.

Good morning! Kiké Hernandez hit a home run in the postseason last night, which is a thing that Kiké Hernandez likes to do. But this one was particularly notable, as it was his 17th career postseason homer, tying him with David Ortiz on the all-time list.

I don’t love that Kiké may knock Big Papi down a slot. But now that he has, I’m hoping he can pop off another couple of homers before the Dodgers run is over. And I’ll say the same about Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, and even Giancarlo Stanton. Why? Because they are all exactly 2 homers behind Derek Jeter on the all-time list, with Kiké 3 behind.

I once got into an argument with a fan at Yankee Stadium who was adamant that Derek Jeter was the greatest postseason player in baseball history. But, in making his argument, this fan revealed that had no idea that Jeter had played in far more postseason games than any other player in history owing to the fact that, for most of baseball’s history, the World Series was the only playoff round there was (Yankee fans, they’re not always the best and brightest). The fact that the ever-expanding postseason has warped the record books to such an extent that it does in fact look like Jeter and Bernie Williams are the undisputed gods of the sport has always bothered me and I demand an end to it right this second!

So, aside from rooting for the Padres, I am now fully invested in one thing this October: seeing massive dongs from Kiké, Freddie, Max, and even Giancarlo (let’s face it: many Yankee fans would actually be pissed if he ends up passing Jeter).

Use this space to talk about postseason records and whatever else you want and, as always, be good to one another.

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Yoshinobu Yamamoto has done a lot of big things since joining the Dodgers, and continued to establish his resumé as an October ace with seven strong innings to beat the Braves in Game 3 of the NLDS on Tuesday night in Atlanta.

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Yamamoto allowed only one run in the win, and got through seven innings on 98 pitches. On the season, Yamamoto has allowed zero or one run in 15 of his 29 starts.

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“Wow, what a performance,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters in Atlanta. “He just has a way to just make pitches, calm his heartbeat. And I think he made two mistakes all night — the first pitch to [Matt] Olson; Lane Thomas, that cutter that just didn’t get there. But outside of that he was awesome.”

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Yamamoto has started 10 times for the Dodgers in the postseason, plus one relief appearance. That’s 11 total appearances, and the Dodgers have won 10 times. Yamamoto himself is 8-1 in the postseason with a stingy 2.14 ERA. His last five postseason outings, dating back to last year’s NLCS, are wins.

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Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the only pitcher in MLB history to earn the win in 5 straight postseason appearances while not allowing more than 1 run or 1 walk in any of them.

All 5 have come on the road. pic.twitter.com/QwWmubt7fS

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) October 7, 2026

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Yamamoto’s 10 strikeouts on Tuesday night are his postseason career high with the Dodgers, and he joined select company in franchise history. It was just the 20th postseason game by a Dodgers pitcher with double-digit strikeouts, accomplished by 13 different pitchers.

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Clayton Kershaw has the most such games with six, starting with Game 1 of the 2013 NLDS in Atlanta to 13 strikeouts in Game 2 of the 2020 wild card series to close out the Brewers.

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Don Newcombe was the first Dodgers pitcher with double-digit strikeouts in the postseason, fanning 11 Yankees in Game 1 of the 1949 World Series. Unfortunately he was on the tough-luck end of a 1-0 loss, with New York right-hander Allie Reynolds striking out nine in a shutout win at Yankee Stadium.

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Carl Erskine set a World Series record with 14 strikeouts in Game 3 of the 1953 World Series at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, also against the Yankees. That mark stood for a decade, until Sandy Koufax struck out 15 in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series at Yankee Stadium.

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“Everything I read about him was true, and everything they told us about him also was true,” Yankees star Mickey Mantle said of Koufax to the Associated Press. “What a pitcher!”

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Koufax had three double-digit strikeout games in the World Series, with his other two a pair of games with exactly 10 strikeouts over a span of only four days in 1965, pitching shutouts in Games 5 and 7 to beat the Minnesota Twins.

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Prior to Yamamoto, the last Dodgers pitcher with 10 strikeouts in a postseason game was Game 4 of the 2025 NLCS, when Shohei Ohtani struck out 10 Brewers while also hitting three home runs en route to winning NLCS MVP.

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Pitcher	Series/game	Opponent	Strikeouts	Result
Don Newcombe	1949 World Series G1	at Yankees	11	L
Carl Erskine	1953 World Series G3	Yankees	14	W
Sal Maglie	1956 World Series G1	Yankees	10	W
Sandy Koufax	1963 World Series G1	at Yankees	15	W
Don Drysdale	1965 World Series G4	Twins	11	W
Sandy Koufax	1965 World Series G5	Twins	10	W
Sandy Koufax	1965 World Series G7	at Twins	10	W
Tim Belcher	1988 NLCS G2	Mets	10	W
Clayton Kershaw	2013 NLDS G1	at Braves	12	W
Zack Greinke	2013 NLCS G1	at Cardinals	10	L
Clayton Kershaw	2014 NLDS G1	Cardinals	10	L
Clayton Kershaw	2015 NLDS G1	Mets	11	L
Clayton Kershaw	2016 NLDS G4	Nationals	11	W
Clayton Kershaw	2017 World Series G1	Astros	11	W
Clayton Kershaw	2020 wild card G2	Brewers	13	W
Walker Buehler	2020 World Series G3	“at” Rays	10	W
Max Scherzer	2021 NLDS G3	Giants	10	L
Blake Snell	2025 NLCS G1	at Brewers	10	W
Shohei Ohtani	2025 NLCS G4	Brewers	10	W
Yoshinobu Yamamoto	2026 NLDS G3	at Braves	10	W

Ever since Max Scherzer left the team at the trade deadline in 2021, Nationals fans have been waiting for an ace to emerge. For years, we were holding out hope that MacKenzie Gore would be that guy. He showed great things early in seasons but would inevitably fall apart. Once he was traded, it was on to the next guy in the hunt for an ace.

Heading into this season, our hopes hinged on Cade Cavalli, a 27 year old who had only made 11 career starts. Despite his inexperience, Cavalli was named the Opening Day starter due to his high potential. This season, Cavalli rewarded the team’s faith and emerged as a true front of the rotation arm.

Talent has never been the issue for Cavalli. He was drafted in the first round in 2020 out of Oklahoma due to his electric arm talent. Cavalli established himself as a top prospect and made his debut at the end of the 2022 season. However, that is where the trouble began.

During Spring Training of 2023, Cavalli had to undergo Tommy John Surgery. He missed all of that season and only threw 8.1 innings in 2024 due to a litany of setbacks. After struggling in AAA to begin 2025, Cavalli looked like damaged goods.

However, he ended his season on a positive note, making 10 solid starts in the big leagues. His 4.25 ERA and 1.48 WHIP was not anything special, but he was averaging 97 MPH with a nasty curveball. Even if the results were not there, you could see the vision.

During Spring Training, it became very clear that the new regime was tantalized by Cavalli’s potential. Blake Butera talked about how special he could be and he quickly was named the Opening Day starter.

It is easy to forget now, but for the first three months of the season, Cavalli was fine but not elite. After his June 25th start, Cavalli had a 4.00 ERA and was averaging under 5 innings per start. He was not having a bad season by any means, but he was far from elite.

The turning point came during his June 30th start against the Red Sox. Of course, that was the infamous ‘sit down boy’ game. In that contest, Cavalli struck out 13 hitters, allowed just 1 hit and got 25 whiffs. He looked like a dominant force at Fenway Park that night.

Cade Cavalli vs. Red Sox:

7 IP
0 ER
13 K (career-high)
1 H
0 BB
25 Whiffs (career-high)
45% Whiff ratepic.twitter.com/mOZ9QQUdaA

— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) July 1, 2026

His role in starting that brawl put him in hot water, but the way Cavalli handled that was impressive. He seemed genuinely remorseful and handled the aftermath of that situation as well as he could have. It also did not stop him from going forward with his season.

In his last 15 starts of the season, Cavalli went 9-1 with a 2.08 ERA, striking out 111 hitters in 86.1 innings. He made the leap from solid big league starter to staff ace. As the season went on, you could just see that confidence growing each time he took the ball. Cavalli performed like an ace on the field, but also carried himself like one.

His nasty stuff and leadership were rewarded with an extension at the end of the season. The Nats and Cavalli agreed to a 4-year deal which has a club option for a 5th season. After all the injury set-backs Cavalli has faced, that had to be an awesome moment for him. It was also great to see the team lock up a rising star.

THIS ONE’S FOR D.C.

Cade Cavalli has agreed to a 4-year contract extension through the 2030 season with a club option for 2031. pic.twitter.com/mZiTaR92of

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 18, 2026

We have talked a lot about his story and rise to prominence, but now I want to dive into the data. For the season, Cavalli finished with a 3.02 ERA and an even 200 strikeouts in 169.2 innings of work. 

His underlying numbers were also stellar, with a 3.25 FIP, a 3.67 xERA and a 3.13 xFIP. From a value perspective, Cavalli had 3.9 fWAR and 3.7 bWAR. The strikeout and walk numbers were also phenomenal. Cavalli struck out 28.3% of hitters while only walking batters at a 6.8% clip.

When you look at his pitch mix, Cavalli made a couple big changes. The first one was adding a sweeper to go with his already fantastic curveball. His sweeper gave Cavalli a new weapon, particularly against right handed hitters, who he struggled with in 2025. Cavalli’s sweeper is a hard one, averaging over 86 MPH. It also had much more drop than your average sweeper because he throws it similarly to his curve.

The hard sweeper is a pitch that has been really successful for big name starters this year, and Cavalli is part of that trend. Gavin Williams and Jesus Luzardo are a couple other high end arms with high velocity sweepers. Batters hit just .115 with a 37% whiff rate against the Cavalli sweeper.

Cade Cavalli, Vicious 87mph Sweeper. 😤 pic.twitter.com/qZNSGHPuEu

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 13, 2026

One change that coincided with Cavalli’s quantum leap was an increase in cutter usage. The cutter was a pitch Cavalli had thrown in the past, but he did not use it much in the beginning of the season. However, he started throwing it more starting in that Red Sox start. He threw it about 12% of the time from July onwards.

The cutter on its own is nothing special, but it mixed well with his other pitches. It also gave him an offering he could consistently throw in the zone. With these new weapons, Cavalli had all the answers.

Those new weapons are cool to talk about, but another big part of his rise was an improvement in command. In the second half of the season, Cavalli walked less than 6% of hitters and was executing at an extremely high level. It felt like he could put pitches wherever he wanted.

When I watch the playoffs this year, I am confident that Cavalli can thrive in that environment. He has the stuff, command and moxy to succeed against the best hitters. We saw that in his biggest matchups this year. When the lights got bright, Cavalli was at his best.

With that extension, we now know that Cavalli will be a National long term. That is great news because he pitched like an ace down the stretch. If that is what he looks like moving forward, Cade Cavalli could challenge for Cy Young’s. It is so great to finally have a horse at the front of the rotation.

Season Grade: A+

First Half Record: 25-40 (6/6 South Atlantic League North)

Second Half Record: 32-34 (4/6 South Atlantic League North)

The 2025 season was a magical year for the Brooklyn Cyclones. The team dominated the first half of the South Atlantic League season, earning a playoff berth, and for first time since 2019, a championship trophy was hoisted over Coney Island.

The Brooklyn Cyclones team that Eduardo Núñez had in 2026 was a very different team than the squad Gilbert Gomez had in 2025, and it showed. A general sense of malaise permeated throughout the entire Mets minor league system, but no team was worse than the Brooklyn Cyclones, who went 25-40 in the first half and were the second-worse team in the South Atlantic League.

The team perked up a bit in the second half, going 4-0 in June, 10-13 in July, and 15-11 in August. At the beginning of September, Brooklyn found themselves six games behind in the standings, playing a seven-game series (a game from July was being resumed) against the first-place Frederick Keys. While an extreme long shot, a sweep of the series would have rocketed the Cyclones up in the standings, potentially into first place depending on how the rest of the South Atlantic League North did that week. Their final series of the 2026 season unfortunately did not go the way the team and its fans were hoping, as Brooklyn kicked things off by dropped both games of the series opening double-header to immediately have their playoff hopes dashed, and then lost it to fall a game below .500 not just in the second half, but on the season. With the series loss, Brooklyn ended both the first and second halves of their season below .500, the first time for them to do that since the South Atlantic League moved to a split-season format in 2022.

TEAM MVP

John Bay: 77 G, 271 AB, .232/.360/.458, 63 H, 16 2B, 3 3B, 13 HR, 35 BB, 88 K, 18/22 SB, .294 BABIP

(Runner Up: Corey Collins)

John Bay, whose father played football at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, was a three-sport all-state player at Shattuck High School in Shattuck, Oklahoma, but when he began his collegiate career at OSU, he quickly found out that he was a big fish in a small pond. Competing for playing time thanks to the havoc that COVID-19 played on the college baseball season and decisions that were later made to attempt to do right by the players who missed the season, Bay ended up redshirting in his freshman season in 2021. He played in the Appalachian League that summer and hit .229/.381/.473 in 51 games, leading the league with 10 home runs. That was enough to get him a little playing time in 2022, and the outfielder appeared in 26 games, accruing 34 at-bats and hitting .324/.415/.500.

That summer, he was recruited by former Cowboys assistant coach Roland Fanning, who left OSU for Austin Peay University after the season ended. Bay played for the Lakeshore Chinooks of the Northwoods League that summer and entered the transfer portal, transferring to Austin Peay. He missed roughly a month at the beginning of the season due to a hamate injury but ended up appearing in 26 games for the Governors, hitting .225/.343/.528 with 8 home runs. In 2024, his redshirt junior season, he had a breakout season, hitting .365/.471/.817 in 55 games with 24 home runs. He followed that up with a strong stint in the Cape Cod Baseball League, hitting .254/.393/.507 with 4 homers in 23 games for the Chatham Anglers, but the 2024 MLB Draft came and went without the 23-year-old Bay’s name being called.

Bay finished up his collegiate career in 2025 hitting .360/.507/.769 in 59 games with 22 more home runs, giving him a cumulative .338/.463/.732 batting line with OSU and Austin Peay with 42 doubles, 6 triples, 55 home runs, 24 stolen bases, 99 walks, and 166 strikeouts in 166 total games. Once again, the draft came and went and Bay did not hear his name. He had numerous independent league offers on the table, but no major league offers were extended until the Mets called; Bay agreed immediately.

The 24-year-old outfielder was assigned to the Low-A St. Lucie Mets and he hit the ground running, hitting .333/.464/.593 in his 17 games there, logging 3 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs, 4 stolen bases, and drawing 9 walks to 21 strikeouts. He was promoted to High-A Brooklyn at the end of the season and hit .103/.333/.207 in 10 games for the eventual South Atlantic League champions. A few weeks after the season ended, he was selected to replace the injured D’Andre Smith in the Arizona Fall League and went 1-10 in the 3 games he appeared in drawing two walks and striking out 5 times. He remained in Brooklyn to begin the 2026 season and continued showing his trademark power even in a ballpark that dampens offense, appearing in 77 games and hitting .232/.360/.458 with 16 doubles, 3 triples, 13 home runs, 18 stolen bases, and drawing 35 walks to 88 strikeouts. In late July, he was promoted to Double-A Binghamton and appeared in 39 more games for them, hitting 252/.363/.366 with 6 doubles, 3 home runs, 11 stolen bases, and 20 walks to 48 strikeouts.

The 6’1”, 220-pound Bay stands square at the plate, holding his hands high at the eyes, wrapping his bat behind his head angled at 2:30, almost perpendicular to the ground. He swings with a slight leg kick, and has a quick, long-levered stroke. He has above-average power when he can get extended and pull the ball in the air. He has enough barrel control and makes decent enough swing decisions that he is not a one-dimensional stomp-and-lift hitter and does use the rest of the field. While his swing-and-miss rate is high and his strikeout rate concerningly high, his overall contacts numbers have been about average, and he has shown the ability to draw a high number of walks.

Bay is athletic and is a solid defender. The majority of his playing time in the outfield has come in center, with a bit less time in right field and a bit less time still in left. The 25-year-old does not have an explosive first-step, but is speedy, reaching his running gait quickly. His arm is a bit stronger than what is expected of most centerfielders, but is fringe-average or so for right field.

TEAM CY YOUNG

Daviel Hurtado: 17 G (15 GS), 77.0 IP, 52 H, 30 R, 23 ER (2.69 ERA), 26 BB, 74 K, .242 BABIP

(Runner Up: Bryce Jenkins)

A native of Havana, Cuba, Daviel Hurtado left the island nation and took up residency in the Dominican Republic in 2022. Having played on the U-12 and U-15 Cuban National Baseball Teams, the left-hander drummed up some interest but elected to wait to for the 2023-2024 international signing period to begin instead of signing with a club immediately in order to better showcase his talents and maximize his potential contract. On January 15 2023, when the signing period began, he came to terms with the Mets and was given a $640,000 signing bonus. He was assigned to the Dominican Summer League for the 2023 season, but did not actually pitch, as Tommy John surgery kept him off the mound all season.

After the healing and rehabbing process came to an end, he finally made his professional debut in May 2024 with the FCL Mets. He remained with them for the entire 2024 season and appeared in 8 games, all starts, posting a 6.32 ERA in 15.2 innings, with 15 hits allowed,10 walks, and 23 punch outs. The organization had him remain in the FCL when the 2025 season began but they quickly promoted him to Low-A St. Lucie after he began the year allowing just a single earned run in 19.0 innings, allowing 8 hits, walking 5, and striking out 25. With the St. Lucie Mets, he appeared in 13 games, making 7 starts, and posted a 2.70 ERA in 46.2 innings, allowing 45 hits, walking 19, and striking out 50.

The 21-year-old began the season with St. Lucie but was promoted to High-A Brooklyn after four starts. With the Cyclones, he appeared in 17 games and made 15 starts, posting a 2.69 ERA in 77.0 innings, allowing 52 hits, walking 26, and striking out 74. Altogether combined, the southpaw posted a 2.93 ERA on the season, allowing 62 hits, walking 27, and striking out 89 in 86.0 innings.

The 6’1”, 165-pound southpaw is well proportioned and lean. He throws from a high-three-quarter arm slot with loose, whippy arm that utilizes a long arm action through the back. He throws from the far first base side of the rubber, further amplifying the difficult angle that his pitches attack batters from. The southpaw has a repertoire that includes a four-seam fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup.

His fastball sits in the low-to-mid-90s, sitting in the low-90s and topping out comfortably at 95 MPH. The pitch has about 15 inches of induced vertical break and features above-average run thanks to its spin efficiency and the left-hander’s slingy delivery, so much so that it often gets characterized as a sinker. The pitch doesn’t really miss too many bats, nor do hitters have problems dealing with it and putting it in play with authority.

The southpaw’s curveball sits in the mid-70s-to-low-80s, featuring 55 inches of vertical drop and 5-10 inches of horizontal movement, making it a loopy, slurvy 11-5 bender. His slider sits in the mid-to-high-80s, featuring 35 inches of vertical drop and 3-5 inches of horizontal movement, giving the pitch hop. The two breaking balls tunnel well with each other, the slower curveball featuring more overall movement and the faster slider featuring less.

Infrequently, Hurtado throws a changeup. The left-hander has been more effective against right-handed batters than fellow lefties over the course of his career, but he has been effective enough against left-handed batters and as such has not really needed to develop a pitch to neutralize them.

While none of his pitches individual grade out as much better than average, with his fastball a decidedly below-average pitch, his total ability plays up thanks to his ability to tunnel his pitches and his ability to command everything pinpoint control. Hurtado is at his best when he is nipping the zone for strikes and then expanding it for strikeouts or weak contact with his breaking pitches. The southpaw was able to limit damage to an extreme degree in 2026, posting a 23.4% line drive rate, 54.6% groundball rate, and 22.0% flyball rate, with a 10.4% HR/FB rate. The Cuban left-hander does not have much of a resume, but his damage-prevention abilities might not simply be a product of Maimonides Park, as he a similarly favorable 23.5% line drive rate, 43.6% groundball rate, and 32.9% flyball rate with a 6.1% HR/FB rate in his 65.2 innings in the complex and St. Lucie in 2025.

The Cleveland Guardians’ season comes down to an afternoon tilt in Chicago. Here are some keys to pushing the series to Thursday:

Manage Emotions and Nerves with a Wildly Hostile, Home Crowd:

There is no doubt that the White Sox fans will be loud and desperate to see their team clinch their first playoff series at home since 1906 and complete an entire redemption of their late-season collapse to lose the AL Central. The literal Pope, ghosts of 2005, and probably even whoever is chosen to throw the first pitch will be present to haunt the current Guardians. This young team will have to shut all that out and focus on playing the best baseball game they can play. They can’t get caught up in thinking about being eliminated and the second-straight October humilation that would entail. They just need to play crisp, fundamental baseball, putting up professional at-bats as hitters and pitchers.

Score Early, Tack on Late:

Shadows will creep into play by about 5 or 5:30PM ET, so the Guardians need to find a way to score. They can’t afford to be shutout by opener Sean Newcomb and whoever comes after him and let it get to the 4th inning not having scored because the 4th-7th innings should be pretty difficult for hitters. By the 8th and 9th, the Guardians will probably see Grant Taylor and/or Hagen Smith AGAIN. They can’t afford to not get to one of these pitchers. They need to take advantage to tack on at least one more run when the shadows are gone and these familiar arms re-emerge.

Hit At Least One Home Run:

It’s very, very hard to win a postseason game without hitting at least one home run. (The White Sox just did it, though, haha. Haha.). So, who is going to hit the Guardians’ first postseason homer? Jo Adell, who should have had one Monday night? Chase DeLauter, Hit a Homer, Take Me Home (for Game 5), Country Roads? Jose Ramirez Back from the Dead? Playoff Rocchio? Patty Barrels? We need a hero, folks.

Have a Quick Hook with Pitchers:

I am very excited to have Daniel Espino start the game, but this needs to be an “all-hands on deck” game for Cleveland. Literally, every pitcher, including Gavin Williams, should be available as needed. I am sure the team has an ideal plan for who will pitch where, but Stephen Vogt needs to be quick to make moves based on swing data, handedness, and the game situation and not hesitate to use arms he hasn’t used yet. Throw the kitchen sink at the White Sox and snuff out rallies without worrying about tomorrow because tomorrow may never come.

Maintain an Overall, Good Approach from Game Two:

Aside from Angel Martinez, I think the Guardians executed a good approach, overall, in game two. They were disciplined to make pitchers work but also aggressive on pitches in the heart of the plate. They can’t afford to have, as I just mentioned, Martinez flailing at uncompetitive pitches. They also can’t afford to have Travis Bazzana, who put up some great at-bats as a whole, take a pitch down the heart of the plate for strike three after working the count full. Do not go up there with a 3-2, 3-1 or 3-0 count looking to take a walk. Look for a pitch you can do damage on and take advantage of it in those situations. The mix of discipline and aggression in game two was right… just gotta get some of those well-hit balls to find grass or the seats, and consistently force White Sox pitchers to get the ball in the zone.

I love this Guardians’ team. I hope today isn’t the last game I get to watch them this year, and I am confident they will do their best to avoid a sweep to a division rival. Let’s go, Guardians!

In reviewing Arizona Fall League rosters for the original draft of this article, Twinkie Town writer Matt Monitto was stunned into silence by what he saw.

“I’m scrolling through the rosters on MLB.com, and I come across Frank Mozzicato, Tate Southisene, and I have to sit back,“ Monitto said in an interview with a mirror. ”These are guys I came across in Out of the Park franchises, and I thought they were computer-generated names. But they’re real?“

Indeed, Royals prospect Mozzicato and Braves prospect Southisene are among those assigned to the AFL by their parent clubs.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve had Mozzicato on one of my teams,“ Monitto added, ”when I did a Royals franchise a few years ago. That just makes it odder.“

When reminded that such oddity did not stop him for rooting for the eventually-demoted Eric Orze in 2026, he simply shook his head.

“I guess there, I had him as a Twin for a good number of seasons, and then he became a Twin. I’m still pulling for him.

“But when it’s other teams,” he continued, “it’s always strange. It’s cool to see Jake McCarthy breaking out for the Rockies, yet it’s a bit weird because he was my Diamondbacks left fielder for a while. And guys like Yohendrick Pinango and Yanquiel Fernandez… I thought for sure the game made up those names. A few years later, they’re in the Show.”

Monitto did not know if the same concept applies to players of MLB The Show as he has not played that game.

“But if so,” he said, “I bet there’s just as much awe… after blinking to make sure the names and players are actually real, of course.”

Morning, all!

Evan Grant wonders how the Rangers can stop being so mediocre, and settles on either spending money or getting young, bringing in the fences at Globe Life, and translating young talent into productive big league talent.

And that’s all I’m seeing this morning.