Category: Baseball

Harper named as Gold Glove finalist; Turner, Stott snubbed originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The 2025 Rawlings Gold Glove nominees were announced Wednesday, and a familiar Phillies name is back among the finalists at first base.

For the second consecutive year, Bryce Harper will be in the running for defensive hardware after a strong 2025 campaign.

Harper, 32, began playing first base in July 2023. An outfielder by trade, he was coming off Tommy John surgery and volunteered to step in after Rhys Hoskins’ season-ending injury. What started as a temporary fix quickly became a long-term move.

Harper showed flashes of brilliance at first, giving the organization confidence to make him the full-time starter in 2024. That decision not only gave the Phillies flexibility in the outfield — it also worked.

Statistically, Harper ranked in the 93rd percentile in Outs Above Average (OAA) last season, a range-based metric that quantifies how many outs a player has saved. He earned a Gold Glove nomination, but Christian Walker of the Diamondbacks took home his third straight award.

In 2025, Harper was once again well above average, ranking in the 73rd percentile in OAA. For a player who spent the first 8½ years of his career in the outfield, excelling at a new position in back-to-back seasons is no small feat.

Gold Glove finalists are determined through a combination of manager and coach voting (75%) and the SABR Defensive Index™ (25%), which draws from data tracked by Statcast, Sports Info Solutions and STATS Perform.

Based on those metrics, a few other Phillies had a case to be included.

Trea Turner, who struggled defensively in his first two seasons in Philadelphia (-9 OAA combined), was one of baseball’s best shortstops this year. He ranked fourth at the position in OAA (17) — third in the National League — and played what was easily his most consistent defense since joining the Phillies.

Bryson Stott also had a legitimate argument. Known for his reliability at second base, Stott ranked in the 94th percentile with +8 OAA, good for second at the position in the NL. Milwaukee’s Brice Turang was named a finalist despite finishing at -2 OAA, 21 percent below league average.

Ranger Suárez and Harrison Bader might’ve been in the mix as well, but Suárez’s shortened season due to injury hurt his case, while Bader’s midseason trade from Minnesota split his defensive metrics between leagues.

If Harper beats out Atlanta’s Matt Olson and Cincinnati’s Spencer Steer, he would become just the second Phillies first baseman in franchise history — and the first since Bill White in 1966 — to win the award. The most recent Phillie to take home a Gold Glove was Zack Wheeler, who earned NL pitcher honors in 2023.

The Gold Glovers will be announced Sunday, November 2 on ESPN.

Starling Marte's arrival in Queens for the 2022 season wasn't quite a seismic moment for the Mets, but the impact on that year's team was enormous.

In 118 games that season, Marte slashed .292/.347/.468 with 16 homers, 24 doubles, five triples, and 18 stolen bases. In the outfield, while Marte's range wasn't what it once was, he provided serious value with his arm. 

For his efforts, Marte earned an All-Star nod and received down-ballot MVP support after the season.

And his absence for the last three-plus weeks of the regular season arguably had as much to do with the Mets surrendering first place to the Braves as anything else.

Before Marte was forced out of the lineup on Sept. 7 after getting hit in the hand by a 96 mph fastball from Mitch Keller the day before, the Mets were 85-51.

And while they didn't totally wilt down the stretch before eventually losing the division on a tiebreaker, the offense wasn't the same without Marte -- something that was most apparent when they suffered a three-game sweep at the hands of the Braves in the second-to-last series of the season as New York mustered just seven runs.

Marte returned for the playoffs, but he wasn't himself as the Mets went down to the Padres in three games in the Wild Card Series in front of a Citi Field crowd that spent most of the series shellshocked by how the regular season ended. Just like that, a year where the Mets had legitimate World Series hopes ended before the NLDS.

Marte hasn't come close to replicating his 2022 season over the last three years, with injuries playing a big part. But he had a bounce back of sorts in 2025 and has been a key part of the clubhouse during his tenure.

With Marte set for free agency, should the Mets bring him back?

WHY IT COULD MAKE SENSE TO LET MARTE GO

Since playing 118 games in 2022, Marte has played 86, 94, and 98 games, respectively, over the last three seasons.

A lot of that has to do with the double groin surgery Marte had after the 2023 season -- the groin issues impacted him in 2023 and lingered throughout 2024 while seriously impacting his availability and production. 

Over the last year-plus, Marte's ability to play the outfield on a regular basis also went away.

After starting 85 games in right field in 2024 (and serving as the designated hitter nine times), Marte became mainly a DH option in 2025 as he served in that capacity 77 times and started in the outfield just eight times (six in left field, two in right field).

Entering his age-37 season in 2026, it's fair to believe that Marte will be in a DH only role or in a hybrid role where he isn't relied on to play the outfield much.

If he returns to the Mets, the club would in effect be giving up any kind of defensive versatility with that roster spot. And it's hard to make an argument for doing so since Marte isn't a classic DH.

While Marte has some pop, he slugged just .410 while hitting only nine homers in 2025. That's not going to cut it.

In a world where New York's regular DH for 2026 is someone who was on the roster in 2025, the guess here is that it's Mark Vientos -- though his Mets future is also up in the air.

WHY IT COULD MAKE SENSE TO RE-SIGN MARTE

Despite his limitations, Marte was still an above average offensive performer in 2025 -- posting an OPS+ of .111.

He was also largely healthy, with his only issue being a bone bruise in his knee that kept him out of action for two weeks in July.

It's also likely that Marte will be a relatively inexpensive, one-year option.

That's kind of where the argument ends, though.

While Marte was above average at the plate in 2025, he doesn't mash lefties, which means he isn't really a fit for the short end of a DH platoon.

Meanwhile, his advanced offensive metrics this past season -- except for his bat speed -- all graded out as below average. 

VERDICT

Marte has been an important Met during his four years in New York, but the writing seems to be on the wall here.

With Marte not a strong fit at DH, no longer able to provide much value in the outfield, and with the Mets looking to become a more defensive-oriented team, it's time for the two sides to part ways. 

Blake Snell credits Logan Webb for dominant pitching in playoffs with Dodgers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Los Angeles Dodgers starter Blake Snell has been nearly unhittable throughout the 2025 MLB playoffs.

After another dominant outing against the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1 of the NLCS, Snell gave credit to Logan Webb and his short but impactful tenure with the Giants.

“Going to San Francisco, that’s where I learned to pitch,” Snell said in a recent interview with TNT Sports (h/t @mimic702 on X). “I was around Logan Webb, and man, he’s going seven innings like every game. And I would just talk to him, like, ‘How are you doing it? What are you thinking of?’ And he’s like, ‘Man, I’m just in the zone. You’re just not in the zone enough. You strike too many people out. You’ve got to get in the zone more. Still get strikeouts, but get in the zone. And by doing that, you’re going to get six, seven, eight, you’ll be able to go deeper in games.’

“That year in San Fran was so big for me, just being around Logan and really learning how to pitch.”

Webb has come a long way in his path toward becoming the Giants ace, leading all of baseball in innings pitched (207.0) in 2025.

Snell allowed just one hit and struck out 10, his playoff career best, in eight shutout innings as he led Los Angeles to a 2-1 victory over Milwaukee on Monday at American Family Field. The two-time Cy Young Award winner faced the minimum on just 103 pitches.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stated postgame that it was tough for him to pull Snell and admitted he contemplated keeping the hot hand in to complete the job. Ultimately, the bullpen was called and nearly cost the Dodgers the game. Roberts referred to Snell’s performance as “special.”

Snell has yielded one run in just one of his 21 innings in October.

“The whole postseason, I’ve been pretty locked in, pretty consistent,” Snell told the media after Game 1.

It appears Webb’s advice worked.

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First things first: The fans in an outdoor stadium in Philadelphia are louder than the fans in an indoor stadium in Milwaukee. No contest.

They are respectful and truly nice here. They booed Shohei Ohtani, but half-heartedly, almost out of obligation. In Philadelphia, they booed Ohtani relentlessly, and with hostility.

Here’s the thing, though: It didn’t matter, because the Dodgers have silenced the enemy crowd wherever they go this October. The Dodgers are undefeated on the road in this postseason: 2-0 in Philadelphia, and now 2-0 in Milwaukee.

The Dodgers have deployed four silencers. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow and Ohtani.

Read more:Yoshinobu Yamamoto's stellar complete game helps lift Dodgers over Brewers in Game 2

“It’s amazing,” Tyler Glasnow said. “It’s like a show every time you’re out there.”

The Dodgers won the World Series last year with home runs and bullpen games and New York Yankees foibles, but not with starting pitching. In 16 games last October, the Dodgers had more bullpen games (four) than quality starts (two), and the starters posted a 5.25 earned-run average.

In eight games this October, the Dodgers have seven quality starts, and not coincidentally they are 7-1. The starters have posted a 1.54 ERA, the lowest of any team in National League history to play at least eight postseason games.

“Our starting pitching this entire postseason has been incredible,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations. “We knew it would be a strength, but this is beyond what we could have reasonably expected.

“There are a lot of different ways to win in the postseason, but this is certainly a better-quality-of-life way to do it.”

The elders of the sport say that momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher. In a sport in which most teams struggle to identify even one ace, the Dodgers boast four.

In the past three games — the clincher against the Phillies and the two here against the Brewers — the Dodgers have not even trailed for a full inning.

In the division series clincher, the Phillies scored one run in the top of an inning, but the Dodgers scored in the bottom of the inning.

On Monday, the Brewers never led. On Tuesday, the Brewers had a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first, but the Dodgers scored twice in the top of the second.

On Monday, as Blake Snell spun eight shutout innings, the Brewers went 0 for 1 with men in scoring position — and that at-bat was the last out of the game. On Tuesday, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a complete game, the Brewers did not get a runner into scoring position.

That is momentum. That is also how you shut up an opposing crowd: limit the momentum for their team.

“I do think, with what we’ve done in Philly and in coming here, it doesn’t seem like there is much momentum,” Glasnow said.

Of the four aces, Glasnow and Ohtani were not available to pitch last fall as they rehabilitated injuries, and Snell was pitching for the San Francisco Giants.

In the 2021 NLCS, the Dodgers started Walker Buehler twice and Julio Urías, Max Scherzer and openers Joe Kelly and Corey Knebel once each. Scherzer could not make his second scheduled start because of injury.

Said infielder-outfielder Kiké Hernández: “We’ve had some really good starting pitchers in the past, but at some point we’ve hit a roadblock through the postseason. To be this consistent for seven, eight games now, it’s been pretty impressive. In a way, it’s made things a little easier on the lineup.”

In the wild-card round, the Dodgers scored 18 runs in two games against the Cincinnati Reds. Since then, they have 20 runs in six games.

“We said before this postseason started, our starting pitching was going to be what carried us,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “And so far, it’s been exactly that.”

The starters started their roll in the final weeks of the regular season — their ERA is 1.49 over the past 30 games — not that Hernández much cared about that now.

Read more:Hernández: The Dodgers' latest starting-pitching flex? Make the bullpen a non-factor

“Regular season doesn’t matter,” he said. “We can win 300 games in the regular season.

“If we don’t win the World Series, it doesn’t matter.”

The Dodgers are two wins from a return trip to the World Series. If they can get those two wins within the next three games, they won’t have to return to Milwaukee, the land of the great sausage race, and of the polka dancers atop the dugout.

There may not be another game here this season. They are kind and spirited fans, even if they are not nearly as loud as the Philly Phanatics.

“That,” Glasnow said, “is the loudest place I’ve ever been.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Giants ace Logan Webb, catcher Patrick Bailey named Gold Glove Award finalists originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — As expected, the Giants have two Gold Glove Award finalists. But one of the names is a bit of a surprise.

Catcher Patrick Bailey is a finalist for a third time in three years in the big leagues and should pretty easily win his second straight Gold Glove, making franchise history. The other Giant, though, is pitcher Logan Webb, who made huge strides defensively after years of working on being better at holding runners. Matt Chapman, last year’s winner at third base, was not a finalist after a season impacted by a hand injury.

Bailey looks like a very strong bet to become the first Giants catcher to win multiple Gold Glove Awards and he could win the Platinum Glove, given to the best defensive player in each league. He led the Majors in Fielding Run Value and it wasn’t even close; Bailey finished at 31 and no other MLB player was higher than 22. 

On the hunt for back-to-back Gold Glove Awards 👀 pic.twitter.com/ctlWi1CNgm

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) October 15, 2025

Bailey also ranked as the game’s best pitch-framer, and again it wasn’t close. At 25 Catcher Framing Runs, he was miles clear of NL runner-up Gabriel Moreno, who was at six. He also was among the league leaders in Caught Stealing Percentage and CS Above Average. He nearly doubled the Defensive Runs Saved (19) as the next closest catcher and led all NL position players. 

Assuming Bailey wins his second Gold Glove, he would become the first Giant to do it in back-to-back years since Brandon Crawford in 2014-15. 

Chapman was also looking for back-to-back wins, but a couple of IL stints put him in a hole statistically. He played just 128 games and finished second among NL third basemen in Fielding Run Value, fourth in Outs Above Average and fifth among NL third basemen in Defensive Runs Saved. The frontrunner is Ke’Bryan Hayes, the 2023 NL winner who led the league in just about every advanced metric this year while suiting up for the Pirates and Reds, but Chapman was also behind Chicago’s Matt Shaw and Ryan McMahon, who was traded from the Rockies to the Yankees in July.  

Webb is the newcomer, but this is a long time coming. He has spent a long time trying to get better at controlling the running game, and he always has been strong on comebackers, a necessity as a groundball pitcher. The SABR Defensive Index makes up a percentage of the final voting and the last time their data was released to the public, Webb ranked as the leader among NL pitchers. 

Our Ace.
Our Gold Glove finalist.@LoganWebb1053pic.twitter.com/fiLuGnooBj

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) October 15, 2025

There aren’t a lot of great defensive statistics for pitchers, but Webb led the NL group in Defensive Runs Saved and tied for eighth in the league in Net Bases Prevented. He committed just one error in 207 innings. Rick Reuschel (1987) is the only Giants pitcher to have won a Gold Glove.

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The Dodgers haven’t so much beaten opponents this postseason as they have worn them down. A lineup that underperformed for much of the summer has been relentless, resourceful and unstoppable in the fall.

And deep. Did we mention deep? Because while the Dodgers have stars at the top of that lineup, it’s been the players at the bottom who have done the most damage.

Tuesday’s 5-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series is the most recent example of that. The Brewers managed to keep Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in check, only to see Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman, Kiké Hernández and Andy Pages knock them down repeatedly, combining for seven hits, three runs and three RBIs to give the Dodgers a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series which resumes Thursday at Dodger Stadium.

And that’s been a trend all postseason: The sixth through ninth hitters in the Dodgers lineup are slashing .302/.391/.448 with 14 RBIs and a playoff-best 35 hits in eight games. The top five hitters in the order are batting .235.

“It's just that trust and belief we have in each other that if you don't get the job done, the guy behind you is going to do it,” said Kiké Hernández, whose two hits Tuesday raised his postseason average to a team-high .379. Hernández has also scored a playoff-high seven runs.

“We know that, one through nine, we have the best and deepest lineup in the league.”

And the hits have been important ones, with Teoscar Hernández tying the score with his second-inning home run and Andy Pages, banished to the bottom of the order after managing just a single in his first 27 postseason at-bats, untying it three batters later by doubling in Kiké Hernández.

“I was just looking for a pitch in the zone that I could hit well,” Pages, who drove a 1-1 change-up into the right-field corner, said in Spanish. “Obviously it was really important. It put the team ahead. But more important was that I was able to make good contact.”

Read more:Yoshinobu Yamamoto's stellar complete game helps lift Dodgers over Brewers in Game 2

Making contact and putting the ball in play has been a hallmark of the bottom half of the Dodgers’ lineup — and it’s probably a big factor in its success. Even with his struggles, Pages has struck out just six times in eight games; leadoff hitter Ohtani has fanned more that twice as often.

“Any time you can create traffic, especially in the postseason, it puts a lot of pressure on the opposing pitchers,” Max Muncy said. “And any time you can get guys on base, it just amplifies that and they’re more liable to make mistakes.”

“From the beginning,” Teoscar Hernández added, “it’s putting pressure on the other side. We still have to go there and get our job done.”

The postseason spotlight is one Kiké Hernández and Edman have thrived under before. Hernández is batting .330 in his last seven postseason series with the Dodgers, almost 100 points better than his career regular-season average. And Edman, who matched Hernández with two hits Tuesday, was named MVP of the NLCS last season after hitting .407 in the Dodgers’ victory over the Mets.

“Those guys, they were made for this moment,” Teoscar Hernández, who leads all postseason players with 10 RBIs. “Kiké, I know he's doesn't get a lot of opportunities in the regular season, but he knows what he can do.”

“He was a player who was born for this moment,” Pages added of Kiké Hernández. “He’s demonstrated that. And he keeps doing it.”

Another key to doing well in the postseason, Teoscar Hernández said, is not paying attention to it. Each game, he said, offers another chance for success or failure and in the playoffs, each game — and each at-bat — is magnified.

So it’s all about what you’ve done lately. Play the game, celebrate the victory or mourn the defeat, then flush it and get ready to do it all over again.

Read more:Hernández: The Dodgers' latest starting-pitching flex? Make the bullpen a non-factor

“I know we have big names in our lineup. We have really good players,” he said. “But at the same time, we still have to go there and get our job done. It's not because we had a good lineup that we score a lot of runs. We go there with confidence, with a plan and the just try to execute.”

If they can do that two more times at home this week, the Dodgers can end the Brewers season and give themselves a week’s rest before returning to the World Series for the second time in as many years.

“We’re good. We’re really good,” said Kiké Hernández, who is one of the reasons for that. “The experience, the trust that we have in each other, that if we're down in the game early, we're going to find a way to come back and tie it or take the lead.

“We're 2-0 in the NLCS, but the goal is to win a World Series, not to win two games on the road. And as we're still playing the Milwaukee Brewers, we're going to focus on them and take it one day at a time. We haven't really accomplished anything yet.”

But when they do, expect the accomplishment to come from the bottom up.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Technically, Roki Sasaki was available to pitch in relief for the Dodgers on Tuesday night.

Realistically, he wasn’t.

“I wouldn’t say unavailable,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “But it is unlikely that we will use him.”

The Dodgers had only one potential silver bullet, and it wasn’t even loaded for Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

They still won. They still took the best-of-seven series to a place where it’s out of the Brewers’ diminutive reach.

Read more:Yoshinobu Yamamoto's stellar complete game helps lift Dodgers over Brewers in Game 2

How?

By making their bullpen a non-factor.

The possibility of one of their relievers blowing the game was eliminated by a complete game thrown by Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Another late-inning scare was avoided because of a persistent offense that tacked on insurance runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

With a 5-1 victory at American Family Field, the Dodgers extended their lead in the best-of-seven series to two games to none.

Two more wins and the Dodgers will advance to the World Series for the third time in six seasons. Their dreams of becoming baseball’s first repeat champions in 25 years are starting to take realistic shape.

Ninety-three teams have taken a two-games-to-none lead in a best-of-seven postseason series. Seventy-nine of them have advanced.

In other words, this series is over.

If the Philadelphia Phillies couldn’t overturn a 2-0 deficit against the Dodgers, the tryhards from Milwaukee certainly won’t.

With the next three games at Dodger Stadium and Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell scheduled to start those games, the most pressing question about this NLCS is whether it will return to baseball’s smallest market for Game 6.

Don’t count on it.

The Brewers’ bullpen was supposed to be superior to the Dodgers’, but that advantage has been negated by the Dodgers’ superior starting pitching.

Reaching this stage of October has forced the Brewers to exhaust their relievers, so much so that by the time setup man Abner Uribe entered Game 2 in the sixth inning, he might as well have been Tanner Scott.

The Brewers’ bullpen was suddenly as rickety as the Dodgers’, and that was with Sasaki just spectating.

The uncertainty over Sasaki’s ability to take on an October workload is suddenly in question, and that should make for some nervous moments between now and the conclusion of the postseason.

Sasaki’s failure to close out Game 1 sounded alarm bells, and rightfully so. The converted starter still looked exhausted from his three-inning relief appearance against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the NL Division Series. His fastball velocity has gradually declined over postseason, and he’s the type of pitcher who isn’t nearly as effective when he’s throwing 96 mph instead of 100 mph.

“It’s one of those things that we’re still in sort of uncharted territory with him,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers provided an elegant solution for a frightening problem: Throwback starting pitching.

A day after Snell faced the minimum number of batters over eight scoreless innings, Yamamoto registered three more outs in a three-hit performance.

The only run charged to Yamamoto came on a homer hit by the first batter he faced, Jackson Chourio.

For Yamamoto, the start represented an opportunity for redemption.

Redemption for his loss to the Phillies in the NL Division Series and redemption for his start in this ballpark three months earlier, which marked the first time in either the majors or the Japanese league that he failed to pitch out of the first inning.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy didn’t place much stock in that early-July game in which Yamamoto registered only two outs and was charged with five runs.

Read more:Just how much are the Dodgers charging for World Series tickets?

“He’s going to make the adjustment,” Murphy said. “He’s been really, really good. He’s been one of the five best pitchers in baseball.”

However, Murphy warned, “We’ve studied him, studied him, studied him.”

So when Dodgers catcher Will Smith called for a fastball on the first pitch of the game and Yamamoto delivered it, Chourio was ready to pounce. Chourio sent the ball over the right-field wall to move the Brewers in front 1-0.

The Brewers didn’t score again.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Milwaukee Brewers have used the slogan “Magic Brew” as the tagline for their postseason run.

On Tuesday night, the Dodgers made it feel like the magic was running out.

In their first truly stress-free win of these playoffs, the Dodgers slowly suffocated the Brewers in a 5-1 Game 2 victory in the National League Championship Series, riding a complete game from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a relentless attack from their star-studded lineup to leave the plucky, but overpowered hometown Brewers very nearly left for dead.

In every which way, this one felt like a mismatch.

Milwaukee’s staff ace, Freddy Peralta, couldn’t limit the damage against the Dodgers’ juggernaut lineup, giving up three runs in a 5⅔ inning start.

Milwaukee’s typically opportunistic offense led the game off with a home run, then hardly touched Yamamoto en route to the Dodgers’ first postseason complete-game performance since a José Lima shutout in the 2004 NL Division Series.

Even on defense, the Brewers came up just short. In very nearly the same spot as where he robbed Max Muncy of a grand slam in a mind-bending double play in Game 1, Milwaukee center fielder Sal Frelick drifted back on another drive from Muncy in Tuesday’s sixth inning, made a similar leaping effort at the wall, but this time came up empty as the ball barely cleared the fence.

The Brewers, plain and simple, failed to stack up against the defending World Series champions.

And now, with a commanding 2-0 lead as the NLCS shifts to Dodger Stadium, it would require a major surprise for the Dodgers to let this series return here again.

Despite winning six of their first seven games in this year’s playoffs, little of the Dodgers’ October success had come easy.

In each of their previous three wins (all of which came by just one run), their opponent had the winning or go-ahead run in scoring position in the final inning — including a bases-loaded ninth-inning jam at the end of Monday’s NLCS opener.

In the game before that, the Dodgers let the potential tying run reach base in the eighth. Go back one more contest, and the tying run was at the plate against the team’s shaky bullpen.

On Tuesday, however, there were no late-game theatrics.

Behind Yamamoto’s nine-inning gem, the team imposed its will from the start (well, almost) to the finish.

Only in the first inning, when Jackson Chourio went deep on Yamamoto’s first pitch, did it feel like the Magic Brew was being stirred.

But then, the 27-year-old Japanese right-hander immediately quelled it, turning in yet another historic pitching performance from a Dodgers rotation beginning to make them feel routine.

Yamamoto was unfazed by a string of early traffic, working around a Muncy error in the second, singles in the third and fourth, and his lone walk of the night in the fifth.

He was dominant down the stretch, retiring his final 14 batters while finishing with seven strikeouts on just 111 pitches.

The Dodgers’ offense, meanwhile, quickly staked him to a lead. In the top of the second, Teoscar Hernández tied the score on a towering home run to left before Andy Pages shot a two-out RBI double down the line for a 2-1 advantage.

And from there, the Dodgers didn’t relent, eventually pulling away after Muncy’s home run in the top of the sixth.

With a swing that both stretched the Dodgers’ lead and etched his name into Dodgers postseason history, Muncy took Peralta deep on the right-hander’s final pitch, hitting his 14th career playoff home run (a franchise record) on a scorching line drive to center.

For a brief moment, some in American Family Field cheered, believing Frelick had denied Muncy of a long ball just like he did on the Game 1 double play.

Alas, Muncy kept rounding the bases this time as Frelick revealed his glove to be empty. And from that point on, a crowd of 41,427 watched in relative silence, as the Dodgers scored again in the seventh (on an RBI single from Shohei Ohtani, breaking a one-for-23 slump going back to the start of the division series) and the eighth (on an RBI single from Tommy Edman) to give Yamamoto breathing room to finish his complete-game domination.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Less than a week after their season ended in an American League Division Series loss to Toronto, the Yankees have made several changes to their coaching staff.

According to league sources, the team is promoting hitting coordinator Jake Hirst to the major league staff, moving on from longtime bullpen coach Mike Harkey and first base/infield coach Travis Chapman, and discussing a new role in the organization for beloved assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler.

The Yankees are also bracing for the potential of losing third base/outfield coach Luis Rojas and hitting coach James Rowson to managerial opportunities. Rojas has interviewed for the vacancy in Baltimore, league sources say. The New York Post first reported that Rowson is a candidate for the Minnesota job.

Taken together, these represent significant changes for manager Aaron Boone’s staff. The rest of the staff -- bench coach Brad Ausmus, pitching coach Matt Blake, assistant pitching coach Preston Claiborne, assistant hitting coach Casey Dykes, major league field coordinator and director of catching Tanner Swanson -- will likely be invited to return.

The Yankees value Rojas and Rowson, and would keep both unless another team hires them to manage.

Harkey served as bullpen coach for a total of 16 years across two stints. Pitchers loved his feel for the game and warm personality.

In an email, Harkey said, “Had a great 16 years and I’m very grateful for the opportunity I had with the Yankee organization! I wish them nothing but the best!!”

Hirst, who has coached most of the Yankees’ homegrown players, attracted interest this fall for major league jobs in other organizations.

Roessler, 65, has long been a valued member in the organization, going back to his time in a leading role in player development in the mid-2000s. He later went on to serve as hitting coach for both the Mets and Washington Nationals before returning to the Yanks.

He is beloved by stars like Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, whom he coached both with the Yankees and Nationals. The Yankees were happy with his performance as assistant hitting coach and are considering ways for him to help the organization.

The Yankees are shaking up their coaching staff this offseason.

SNY's Andy Martino reports that longtime bullpen coach Mike Harkey and infield/first base coach Travis Chapman will not be returning next season. Other roles are being discussed, per Martino.

Harkey was the Yankees' bullpen coach for two separate tenures. He was a part of Joe Girardi's coaching staff from 2008-2013 before joining the Diamondbacks as the team's pitching coach for two seasons. In 2016, he returned as the Yankees' bullpen coach under Girardi and then Aaron Boone.

Before coaching, Harkey was an eight-year veteran (1988-97), where he pitched for the Cubs, Athletics, Angels and Dodgers. He finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in 1990, when he pitched to a 12-6 record and a 3.26 ERA.

Chapman was a coach in the Yankees' minor league system before joining Boone's staff in 2022 as first base and infield coach. 

The news comes the same day that the Twins were granted permission to interview Yankees hitting coach James Rowson for the open manager's job. 

Martino adds that Yankees hitting coordintor Jake Hirst could be in the mix for a job on the major league staff and that Rowson is seen as a "legitimate candidate" for the Twins job. 

The recent resignation of John Gibbons as Mets bench coach created a vacancy in the dugout, but it took less than two weeks for the team to choose a new top assistant for Carlos Mendoza's staff.

As first reported by Sports Illustrated's Pat Ragazzo, the Mets are hiring Kai Correa to fill their bench coach void. 

The 37-year-old served in the same role for former Giants skipper Gabe Kapler from 2020-23, and spent the last two seasons as the Guardians' major league field coordinator, among other titles.

Correa, who played collegiately at Puget Sound in Washington state and was born in Hawaii, began his MLB coaching career in 2018, as a coach in the Guardians' farm system. He later became the league's youngest bench coach with the Giants, and managed the final three games of 2023 after the team's firing of Kapler. 

The Mets made one other coaching move on Tuesday, tabbing director of hitting development Jeff Albert to lead the team's major league hitting program. He too willl be in the dugout for the 2026 season, and the Mets will look to hire an additional hitting coach to work under him.

Can you put a price on the experience of enjoying a World Series game at Dodger Stadium?

Yes, and it's a very high one.

The Dodgers put tickets for potential World Series games on sale Tuesday, with the cheapest seat available for $881.95, according to an afternoon review of the team website. That seat — $800 for the ticket and $81.95 for fees — is located at the end of the reserve level, high above the field and next to the foul pole.

World Series prices posted on the website Tuesday ranged as high as $1,510.05. The best seats are sold as part of season packages, so that $1,510.05 seat ($1,371 ticket plus $139.05 fees) is located on the field level, near the foul pole and bullpen.

Read more:Shaikin: Blake Snell replicating what Sandy Koufax achieved 60 Octobers ago

If the Dodgers advance to the World Series and play the Seattle Mariners, the Dodgers would play as many as four home games, starting Friday, Oct. 24. If the Dodgers advance and play the Toronto Blue Jays, the Dodgers would play as many as three home games, starting Monday, Oct. 27.

On Oct. 24, a family of four could get into Disneyland for a total of $796. On Oct. 27, a family of four could get into Disneyland for a total of $676.

Ticket prices are subject to change based on demand.

When the Dodgers put National League Championship Series tickets on sale, the cheapest price was $155. On Tuesday, the cheapest ticket on the team website for Game 3 on Thursday was $168.

However, since the game time has been set at 3 p.m. and weekday afternoon games are not popular, tickets on the resale market could be bought for about $100 Tuesday.

Read more:It took some luck, but good things finally happen to Dodgers' Blake Treinen

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Why Dodgers players refuse to stay at infamous Milwaukee hotel during NLCS originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

MILWAUKEE — There’s postseason pressure, and then there’s the kind that comes from things that go bump in the night. For the Los Angeles Dodgers, it seems both have followed them to Milwaukee.

As the National League Championship Seriesstarted at American Family Field for Games 1 and 2 on Monday and Tuesday night, a different kind of storyline is swirling around the visiting clubhouse — one involving ghost stories, sleepless nights, and a century-old hotel that’s been unsettling Major League Baseball players for decades.

The Pfister Hotel, an elegant landmark in downtown Milwaukee built in 1893, has long been rumored to be haunted. From flickering lights to phantom footsteps, players have whispered about eerie experiences for years. 

Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts has heard enough. Once again, the eight-time All-Star refused to stay there, opting instead for the safety of an Airbnb — as he’s done on every Milwaukee trip since 2022.

“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Betts said last season. “But I don’t want to find out that I’m wrong.”

That superstition — or self-preservation — has now spread through the Dodgers clubhouse. Ahead of Game 2 on Tuesday, Teoscar Hernández admitted that he and his family decided not to stay at the Pfister either after teammates shared their own ghostly encounters since arriving Sunday night.

“I’ve stayed there before and never seen anything,” Hernández told reporters during his pregame media session. “But my wife said she didn’t want to stay there. Then I started hearing stories — lights going off, doors opening, footsteps. I was like, okay, that’s enough.”

For the Dodgers, this isn’t just another road trip. It’s a test of nerves — not just against Freddy Peralta and the Brewers’ elite pitching staff, but against the kind of folklore that seeps into a team’s psyche. Players from Bryce Harper to Adrian Beltre to Pablo Sandoval have all claimed strange encounters at the Pfister, and the stories never seem to die.

“I laid a pair of jeans and a shirt on that table at the foot of the bed,” Harper recalled while staying at the haunted hotel in 2012. “When I woke up in the morning — I swear on everything — the clothes were on the floor and the table was on the opposite side of the room.”

While playing for the Dodgers in 2001, Beltre said he heard knocking at his door while staying at the Pfister, even with the TV and air conditioner turned off.

“I went to take a shower, and I remember putting my iPod next to a speaker,” former Giants’ infielder Pablo Sandoval recalled about his experience at the hotel. “When I came out, it was playing music, and I have no idea why.” Sandoval and teammate Edgar Renteria refused to stay with the rest of the team at the Pfister in 2010.

Sandoval, Harper, and Beltre were not the only MLB players to experience paranormal activities either. Some of the most eerie stories come from former baseball players who stayed there over the years. 

“It was more like a moving light that kind of passed through the room,” said former Cardinals infielder Brendan Ryan to a local TV station. “The room got a little bit chillier.”

“A couple of years ago, I was lying in bed after a night game, and I was out. My room was locked, but I heard these footsteps inside my room, stomping around. It woke me up,” said former Ranger Michael Young. 

“I was on the computer one night, doing my typical shtick — surfing the web, sending an email, editing a photo — and then all of a sudden the lights started flickering,” said former Angels’ pitcher C.J. Wilson. “I’m thinking to myself, I’m going to be so pissed if my computer dies. Then the light just shuts off. And then the TV shuts off. And then the light turns back on, but the light at the front door turns off. I just yelled out, ‘Really?'”So after that, I went back to whatever I was doing on the computer, but then 30 minutes later there’s scratching in the walls. Now I’m thinking, OK, it’s the Midwest, there could be a possum or something in the wall, right? That’s possible, isn’t it? All I knew was that there were definitely noises coming from the wall.”

And finally, former Korean slugger Ji-man Choi was a first baseman also with the Angels when he said he was laying in bed and felt the “presence of a spirt lying in bed” next to him.

Yeah, no thanks. 

But whether you believe in ghosts or not, the legends have become part of baseball’s strange October magic — a mix of tension, tradition, and superstition that defines the sport. And for Betts, Hernández, and the Dodgers, one thing’s for sure: they’d rather face a 100-mph fastball from rookie Jacob Misiorowski than a restless spirit at 3 a.m.

Game 2 of the NLCS between the Dodgers and Brewers continues Tuesday night in Milwaukee — and no matter what happens on the field, the ghosts of the Pfister will be watching closely.