Category: MLB

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The Milwaukee Brewers are one win from the first World Series title in franchise history.

They needed one inning Monday night to get there.

Milwaukee scored eight runs with two outs in the fifth and beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 10-1, in Game 3 at Tropicana Field. No team had scored eight two-out runs in a World Series inning, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Seven Brewers in a row hit safely, a first in any postseason game, according to OptaSTATS.

The Brewers lead the series 3-0. Twenty-five teams have taken that lead in a World Series. Twenty-one finished the sweep.

None lost.

Game 4 is Tuesday night, in the same building.

Here’s who’s looking at great offseason memories and who will be reliving this series with regrets:

ST. PETERSBURG — Junior Caminero had just made a great play to start the inning, he was ready when William Contreras came to the plate. He knew the play he wanted to make.

"I already had in mind going to second base," the Tampa Bay Rays third baseman said through an interpreter. "Once I got the ground ball, I was going to second base all the way."

He didn't get the out. The Milwaukee Brewers scored eight runs before the Rays recorded another out. All eight runs came with two outs in the fifth inning and turned a two-run deficit into a 10-run hole in Game 3 of the World Series at Tropicana Field.

Milwaukee became the first team to score eight two-out runs in a World Series inning, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Brewers lead the series 3-0 and can win the first championship in franchise history Tuesday night in the same building.

Seven straight, two-out hits for eight runs across three pitchers in the top of the fifth inning carried the Brewers to a 10-1 pummeling of the Tampa Bay Rays. For the second time in franchise history, the Brewers will have a chance to win their first World Series championship in franchise history tomorrow night.

For the second time this season, the Brewers stared down their former ace, Freddy Peralta. And for the second time this season, they hung at least five runs on him to force him off the mound before the sixth inning.

Their process of getting to Peralta began much like every other game has this postseason: patience and persistence. In the top of the first inning, the Brewers offense forced Peralta to throw 20 pitches. In the midst of the large load of early throws, both Jackson Chourio and Christian Yelich collected their first of many base hits of the night.

To complement a great offense, great pitching is often needed, a recipe that the Brewers have cooked up time and time again this season. Tonight was no different for the Brewers’ southpaw Robert Gasser. With perhaps the start of the postseason so far, Gasser allowed his lone hit of the night in the bottom of the first inning on a lead-off knock from Yandy Díaz. From that moment onward, Gasser was lights out, retiring the next 15 batters he faced before allowing a lead-off walk to Victor Mesa Jr. in the bottom of the sixth.

While Bobby Diesel cooked, the Brewers offense continued to grind down Peralta, finally dishing out their first blow of the ballgame. Following a David Hamilton popout, Chourio quickly collected his second base hit of the game. After a Jake Bauers walk, Christian Yelich also grabbed his second hit of the game, this time driving in Chourio to give the Crew a 1-0 lead. On the very next pitch, William Contreras went opposite field to extend the Brewers’ lead to 2-0.

Then came the time when Brewers fans across the country said, “I’m sorry it had to come to this,” as they watched their former ace and his teammates get bullied apart. Chourio collected the team’s sixth hit with one out in the top of the fifth inning. Following Bauers’ flyout to center field, Yelich walked to put two men on. Then, Junior Caminero made a play that he’ll be thinking about moving forward, as instead of throwing out the meandering Contreras down the line, he went for the force play at second. Yelich had the manager get his foot into the bag a split second before the ball was caught. The play on the field was ruled out until Pat Murphy’s challenge said it wasn’t, which in turn loaded the bases with two outs.

Cam Booser replaced Peralta on the mound following the overturned challenge, which then sparked the first of seven straight, two-out hits. The first one came on a Brice Turang bleeder up the middle that was misplayed to score two runs. Then Garrett Mitchell singled to extend the Brewers lead to 5-0, which was followed up with the third straight hit that was a Cooper Pratt double to drive in two more. Sal Frelick got his extra-base hit after being robbed a couple of innings prior to shoot the Crew’s score up to 8-0. After David Hamilton singled to make it 9-0, Chourio conveniently bounced a double off the Culver’s sign in right-center field to cap the Brewers’ lead at 10-0.

Gasser continued to dominate in an efficient way until he was pulled after 75 pitches through six innings. Following his departure, we saw two scoreless innings from Antonio Senzatela as he worked his first innings since the San Diego series. Finally, for the first time since the 2021 National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, Brandon Woodruff made his return to the mound in postseason play. Many didn’t know what to expect from Big Woo, nor did they know how long he was going to last, but to be able to see a glimpse of the past in the present was enough to forget his two-out RBI single he allowed to Díaz.

With that, the Brewers complete a statistical oddity, as they will finish the year a perfect 7-0 on the 26th day of the month. During games played on the 26th of the month, the Brewers outscored their opponents, 64-10. They’re officially one win away from history, with a chance to accomplish what no team has done in the modern era: Sweep the championship series and the World Series.

Brandon Woodruff made his triumphant return to the mound, pitching the last inning of the Milwaukee Brewers' 10-1 rout against the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 3 of the World Series.

Woodruff threw 18 pitches, allowing the Rays' only run on two hits and one strikeout. But his return itself was victory enough after he hadn't pitched since July 4 due to right shoulder inflammation.

And after the Brewers took a 3-0 World Series lead, Woodruff revealed the original plan for his return: He was going to start Game 4, as an opener, and go as long as he could.

Instead, as Game 3 turned into a rout, manager Pat Murphy checked to see if Woodruff wanted the ninth.

He jumped at the chance.

"With the fans that were here tonight, it was incredible," Woodruff told reporters in St. Petersburg, Florida. "We still gotta win one more game. That's the priority. I'll soak this one in tonight.

"And maybe I'm crazy, but I'll try to be ready for tomorrow. We got one more to win."

Woodruff hadn't pitched since going 3⅔ innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 4. Once his shoulder flared up for a second time after spending nearly two months on the injured list in May and June, Woodruff was supposed to undergo season-ending surgery in August. However, he gradually started feeling better and opted for another attempt at building up his arm strength.

Miguel Rojas retired from the big leagues almost two weeks ago when the Los Angeles Dodgers were swept out of the NLCS by the Milwaukee Brewers, but he'll be taking the field one more time before officially hanging up his cleats.

Rojas and the Miami Marlins announced via Instagram on Monday that the 37-year-old infielder will suit up for los Tiburones de la Guaira in their "Choque de Gigantes" (Clash of the Giants) series against Navegantes del Magallanes at loanDepot Park on Nov. 14 and 15.

"This will be my farewell," Rojas told El Extra Base in Spanish in September. "I want to do it publicly over here (in Miami). ... Tiburones were a fundamental part of my life and my career and if it wasn't for Tiburones, I wouldn't be the Major Leaguer that I am today. I owe them so much."

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It's a homecoming on two fronts for Rojas, who played with Tiburones in the Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional (LVBP), the Venezuelan winter league, for 10 years from 2009-'19 and once more in the 2023-24 winter season. During that time, Rojas played the majority of his big league career with the Marlins, arriving in Miami in 2015 after being traded from the Dodgers before LA reacquired him ahead of the 2023 season.

"It's funny because it was one of the first moves I did when I got here was trading Miggy Ro away," Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at the team's end of season press conference. "And to look at his career and have him have a chance to come back and be such a big part of those two championship teams, and for him to go out the way he did, leaving everything on the field.

"Can't say enough about the guy, the competitor, the teammate and we look forward to are hopeful that he's impacting us in the future as well."

That last part of Friedman's sentence might already have gotten a head start as Rojas was spotted at the Arizona Fall League on Monday working with several top prospects within the Dodgers organization. He's made no secret of his goal of being a manager someday, but that journey will start after Rojas gets one last farewell.

"I want to put on the uniform one more time," Rojas said. "On the 14th and 15th, I want to put on the number 19 to say goodbye to the fans in Miami. ... in a place that's like a home away from home."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers legend Miguel Rojas to play one last game for Venezuelan team in Miami

Freddy Peralta’s turnaround with the Rays may be coming to a disappointing end after the right-hander had a rough exit in Tampa Bay’s 10-1 Game 3 loss to the Brewers.

Peralta gave up two runs in the third inning, but the wheels really fell off in the fifth inning when the Brewers scored eight runs. 

In the third, the former Brewer and Met pitcher gave up a hit and a walk before Christian Yelich hit a bloop single to left field to score Jackson Chourio from second to give Milwaukee a 1-0 lead. 

William Contreras singled in the next at-bat to score Jake Bauers from second and extend the Brewers’ lead to two. Peralta got Brice Turang to ground out to end the inning, but he once again found himself in trouble in the top of the fifth. 

After Peralta loaded the bases with two outs, Rays skipper Kevin Cash made the decision to take Peralta out of the game and hand things over to Cam Booser. Brice Turang immediately hit a single and drove in two more runs. 

Peralta was charged with five runs on seven hits over 4 ⅔ innings with four strikeouts and three walks. 

“I was analyzing, like trying to see, and the key for them was that they weren’t trying to do too much,” Peralta said, according to MLB.com. “They weren’t trying to hit homers or all that. What I saw tonight [is] they were just waiting for a good pitch and just tried to hit the ball.”

It was a disappointing end for what has been a huge turnaround for Peralta since he was dealt by the Mets to the Rays at the trade deadline. 

The World Series showdown between the Rays and Brewers had a special feeling for Peralta, who spent the first eight seasons of his major league career in Milwaukee. 

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — If it were a prize fight, they would have stopped it in the fifth round.

If it was a World Baseball Classic game, they would have stopped it after seven innings.

If it wasn’t a nationally-televised game, they may have begun showing re-runs of Gilligan’s Island.

The Milwaukee Brewers put on an old-fashioned whooping on the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 3 of the World Series Monday night, winning 10-1, and all but mathematically ending this mismatch of a World Series.

The Brewers are up 3 games to 0, and don’t be surprised if the entire state of Wisconsin jumps on flights Tuesday, turning Tropicana Field into their own personal playground to watch them win their first World Series championship history.

The Brewers, who tied a postseason record with eight consecutive victories, now have a chance to go where only the 1976 Cincinnati Reds “Big Red Machine,"1 has ever gone, sweeping a League Championship Series and a World Series.

In a series that was expected to be riveting with these two small-market teams, has turned into a massacre.

The Tampa Bay Rays were hoping a change of scenery would jumpstart their struggling offense, however it was the Milwaukee Brewers that made a statement. The Brewers have been the better team this entire series and that was never more apparent than Game 3 where they rode an eight-run inning to a 10-1 win.

The Rays turned to ALCS MVP Freddy Peralta in Game 3 in hopes that he could hold Milwaukee’s offense in check. He worked out of a jam in the first inning and put up another zero in the second thanks to a great play by Chandler Simpson in left field on a deep drive by Sal Frelick.

The Brewers broke through in the third on RBI singles by Christian Yelich and William Contreras to take a 2-0 lead. Peralta held them in check in the fourth and then came within an eyelash of getting through the fifth.

Peralta retired David Hamilton to start the inning but then allowed a single to Jackson Chourio. Jake Bauers flew out for the second out but then walked Yelich to put runners at first and second. Contreras then sent a grounder into the hole that Junior Caminero fielded and fired to second for what appeared to be a force out. However, the play was overturned after the Brewers challenged and replay showed that Yelich beat the throw to second.

Rays manager Kevin Cash would go to his bullpen for lefty Cam Booser and that is where things completely unraveled. Milwaukee opened the floodgates with seven straight hits with two outs. By the time the dust had cleared, eight runs had scored and the score was 10-0. The Brewers sent 12 men to the plate in the inning and scored the eight runs without a home run.

It wasn’t just the offense for the Brewers. Game 3 starter Robert Gasser allowed a leadoff single to Yandi Diaz in the first inning. He allowed a walk in the sixth inning that was erased on a double play. He faced the minimum through six innings on just 75 pitches. Gasser has made three starts during the postseason at San Diego, at Los Angeles and then in Game 3 in Tampa and has allowed just one run over 15 innings.

Chourio entered the series MVP chat with four hits and two runs scored. He is 8-for-14 in the series with four runs scored, two RBIs and three stolen bases. Contreras added three more hits of his own and is 7-for-14 at the plate in the series and was perfect on four ABS challenges. All nine Brewers in the starting lineup scored at least one run and eight of the nine finished with at least one hit. Diaz accounted for the Rays’ only run with a run-scoring double in the ninth.

The win pushes the Brewers to the brink of their first-ever championship. Neither team has announced a starter for Tuesday’s Game 4 but Monday’s blowout allowed Milwaukee to give their top relievers another day of rest. No team in World Series history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit.

It's been 14 years since there a was a sweep in the World Series with the most recent four-game championship won by the San Francisco Giants in 2012. It's currently the longest drought between sweeps in World Series history.

The Milwaukee Brewers have a 3-0 lead in the 2026 World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays and can secure the franchise's first-ever championship with a win in Game 4 on Tuesday at Tropicana Field.

There have been 19 clean sweeps in World Series history with two more – 1907 and 1922 – ending 4-0 with a tie. There was a stretch from 1998-2005 where it happened four times in eight years.

Hers's a look back at the sweeps in Major League Baseball's Fall Classic:

The Milwaukee Brewersstormed out to a 10-0 lead in Game 3 of the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday, Oct. 26, a stunning double-digit advantage in a Fall Classic that had been on a razor's edge.

The most lopsided World Series game in history was Game 2 of the 1936 World Series, an 18-4 New York Yankees win against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. There have been two 13-run beatdowns through the years, most recently the Arizona Diamondbacks' 15-2 win to force Game 7 in 2001.

Here's a look at the biggest one-sided contests in World Series history:

Biggest World Series blowouts

• 14 - 1936 Game 2: Yankees over Giants 18-4
• 13 - 2001 Game 6: Diamondbacks over Yankees 15-2
• 13 - 1960 Game 2: Yankees over Pirates 16-3
• 12 - 2007 Game 1:Red Sox over Rockies 13-1
• 12 - 2002 Game 5: Giants over Angels 16-4
• 12 - 1982 Game 6: Cardinals over Brewers 13-1
• 12 - 1968 Game 6: Tigers over Cardinals 13-1
• 12 - 1960 Game 6: Yankees over Pirates 12-0
• 12 - 1951 Game 5: Yankees over Giants 13-1
• 11 - 1996 Game 1: Braves over Yankees 12-1
• 11 - 1985 Game 7: Royals over Cardinals 11-0
• 11 - 1959 Game 1:White Sox over Dodgers 11-0
• 11 - 1934 Game 7: Cardinals over Tigers 11-0
• 11 - 1911 Game 6: Athletics over Giants 13-2

Daniel Kramer of MLB.com reports that the Mariners will host managerial candidates Joe Espada and Jason Kanzler for in-person interviews this week, per multiple sources. While it’s not clear if the choice will be between those two, it has been rumored the Mariners want to have a decision made by the end of this month, and these two candidates have already progressed past the virtual interviews stage.

Kanzler and Espada have something in common: both served on the coaching staff of the 2022 World Champion Astros under Dusty Baker. They also both share playing experience at smaller colleges, with Kanzler coming out of SUNY-Buffalo and Espada the NAIA University of Mobile, although Espada was drafted in the second round; Espada played professionally about twice as long as Kanzler, although neither ever played in the big leagues.

Post-playing, their careers begin to diverge. After Espada’s playing career was done he went directly into coaching with the Marlins, building a coaching resume that saw him progress through the Marlins system, join the Yankees as a special assistant to the GM, and manage Team Puerto Rico in the WBC; he was added to the Astros’ big-league staff in 2017 and was promoted to manager in 2023.

Kanzler, on the other hand, took a while to settle into his coaching career, working first as a teacher in the Katy School District in Texas (where he won Rookie Teacher of the Year) while building his own performance training business. The Astros were his first big-league job; he came on in 2019 as a minor-league hitting coordinator and worked his way up to the big-league staff in 2022. His big leap forward came in 2024, when the Cubs hired him as director of player development.

Other than experience, the starkest difference between the two is in age: Espada is 51; Kanzler, just 36, which would make him the youngest manager in baseball other than the Nationals’ Blake Butera, who at 34 was the youngest manager in baseball last year by six years. That being said, Butera exceeded expectations in his first year of managing the Nationals, and his staff and players spoke positively about his tenure; on the other hand, one would hope the Seattle Mariners, one year removed from playing in the ALCS, are hopefully in a more secure spot than the current Washington Nationals.

It would behoove the Mariners to have someone in place as quickly as possible, in order that their chosen candidate can begin work on filling the vacancies left at the big-league level after the Mariners parted ways with the vast majority of their coaching staff after the season ended. There’s also a competition element at play here: two teams from within their own division are looking for new managers, and other teams are making their own coaching moves, especially on the hitting coach side. But what’s more important than any artificially self-imposed deadline is getting this choice right as the Mariners restructure essentially their entire big-league coaching staff, and attempt to reshape their organization into something with a more clear identity.

October 26, 2005, is a date that will forever live in the hearts of White Sox fans. An out-of-nowhere, 99-win juggernaut ended an 88-year World Series drought.

Now, 21 years later, a shorter but still ignominious era ended not with a bang, but a soft rawr.

The entirely-predictable has finally happened, as the White Sox play-by-play broadcaster John Schriffen’s contract was not extended by the White Sox, and 2026 will be the last of perhaps the strangest three-year stretch in White Sox broadcasting history.

There will be many of Schriffen’s defenders putting out their lamentations at the quick and seemingly unfair ending to a young broadcaster’s career in Chicago. This, however, will not be one of them.

Schriffen was perhaps the worst broadcaster not only in White Sox history, but perhaps in all of MLB annals. Now of course, there’s no comparing him to men who threw their careers away with a flippant or careless slur … as Castellanos hits a drive into left-field for a home run. That will make it a 4-0 game … but Schriffen is going out in a way that seems somewhat quaint and old-fashioned in today’s viral cancellation climate.

He was just bad at his job.

Looking back, John came into this role at the worst and lowest point in this franchise’s history. The 2020-21 championship window had shut as quickly as it had been open. The 2023 team had just wrapped up the first of three consecutive 100+ loss seasons. So naturally, Jerry Reinsdorf decided that uber-talented, multi-network PBP man across multiple sports and Chicagoland native White Sox fan Jason Benetti was just taking too much of Jerry’s precious airtime doing Friday Night Baseball on Apple or Sunday Nights on ESPN and let Jason out of his contract early…ONLY FOR HIM TO IMMEDIATELY BE HIRED BY THE GO**AMNED DETROIT TIGERS (who, ironically, just extended Benetti’s contract at the end of the 2026 season).

And who, pray tell, did Jerry decide was the best choice to take over this mantle?

John Schriffen. A broadcaster with experience calling downballot ESPN the Ocho-level sporting events. And in an eerie recall of Ozzie Guillén’s expedited quitting (leading to a lethargic Robin Ventura dimming his status in fan memories with an unmemorable four-year stint, including a breathtaking September collapse in 2012), this was John’s first year ever as a lead PBP man in the majors.

Now, could I have been a little bitter and upset at this man being gifted a position that was the best thing going for the organization? Yes. No doubt. Could I have accepted John as the new guy if he was even just replacement-level quality behind the mic? Eventually, yes.

The moment I knew Schriffen was going to be an abject failure was during the Spring Training of the Year That We Must Never Speak Of, as the Sox were in a very long losing streak, and some Sox player with a uniform number in the 90s got a walk-off hit for the first win of the spring. And Schriffen uttered the phrase that will probably be burned into my brain until I pass away and my atoms are spread across the universe:

SOUTH SIDE! STAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNDDDDD UPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!

It was February. The Sox were terrible, and about to make history proving just how terrible they could be. And John decided that this was THE moment. Drop the catch phrase that would become the next “Put it on the Board!” and cement his legacy among the greats.

It did not.

There were so many more moments: Hyping up Tommy Pham’s outburst in Milwaukee (We ain’t taking that!), wondering out loud that maybe the Sox were just catching teams at the wrong time (said during one of the multiple 10+ losing streaks in 2024 and getting a classic deadpan reaction from Stoney), Bill VEEck (as in EEK), the flame war with multiple Score radio hosts, dropping a giant nacho helmet in the booth on camera (I thought Jerry hated having his broadcasters eat on company time?), and, well, this has already gone on long enough.

No wait, I have one more. The moment when everyone knew it was over-over. On a bright Sunday afternoon in Kansas City, the best Sox team to come out of absolutely nowhere in years, one win away from clinching a playoff spot no one could have predicted … and who is on the call for a potential clinching win?

Steve Stone and … Connor McKnight.

Schriffen was the wrong guy, at the worst time.

He was nice to me and my dog on Dog Day, but I will not apologize for being glad he will not be calling games for my favorite baseball team.

The Dodgers fell short of the ultimate goal, but it was a special final run for Miguel Rojas.

Rojas spent the past four seasons in Los Angeles, where he emerged as a clubhouse leader and beloved veteran. The recently-retired infielder named four Dodgers teammates that are his closest friends: Kiké Hernández, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Max Muncy.

“We’re called the viejitos because they started calling us the dinosaurs, old players, old guys. They didn’t know if we could still do it,” Rojas said on MLB Network.

“In some form, we showed the world that we were able to do it.”

Rojas returned to the Dodgers for a second stint in 2023 and played a key role for the back-to-back World Series titles. Most notably, Rojas hit the game-tying home run in Game 7 of the 2025 Fall Classic.

While LA couldn’t three-peat, the Dodgers’ aging roster proved it could be one of the best teams in the National League with 100-regular season wins.

After the Dodgers were eliminated in the National League Championship Series, Rojas confirmed the 2026 season was his final year in Major League Baseball. However, Rojas isn’t quite done with the sport as he is set to play for the Tiburones de La Guaira club in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.

The Dodgers World Series hero will play in special games for the team on Nov. 14 and 15 at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

Rojas won’t be apart of the Dodgers in 2027, but Freeman, Betts and Muncy will continue spearheading the clubhouse leadership cemented by Rojas. There’s also Hernandez returns to LA as a free agent this offseason.