Oct 4, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Detroit Tigers third baseman Zach McKinstry (39) hits an RBI single in the eleventh inning against the Seattle Mariners during game one of the ALDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
SEATTLE — Zach McKinstry singled home the tiebreaking run with two outs in the 11th inning and the Detroit Tigers outlasted the Seattle Mariners for a 3-2 victory in Game 1 of their AL Division Series on Saturday.
Kerry Carpenter hit a two-run homer in the fifth for the resurgent Tigers, who squandered a huge lead in the AL Central and nearly collapsed entirely down the stretch before squeezing into the playoffs.
After winning their Wild Card Series at Cleveland, they can take a commanding 2-0 lead in this best-of-five matchup against AL West champion Seattle with dominant ace Tarik Skubal on the mound Sunday.
“All year long, I feel like we were either down or we were up,” McKinstry said. “We’re up right now, and we’re getting a lot of wins. Things are going our way.”
In the first extra-inning game of this postseason, McKinstry pounced on the first pitch he saw from reliever Carlos Vargas, a 99.6 mph sinker, and grounded it up the middle to score Spencer Torkelson from second base.
Torkelson, who walked leading off the 11th, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Vargas earlier in the inning.
Unlike during the regular season, there is no automatic runner placed at second base to begin extra innings in the postseason.
Will Vest worked two perfect innings for the win, and Keider Montero got three outs for his first major league save. Montero extended the scoreless start to his postseason career and put the finishing touches on seven innings of one-run ball by Detroit’s bullpen.
The Mariners struck first, thanks to a solo homer by Julio Rodríguez in the fourth inning. Rodríguez, fresh off his second season with at least 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, launched an elevated four-seam fastball from rookie Troy Melton, who was making just his fifth career start.
Seattle’s lead didn’t last long, though. Carpenter capitalized on an elevated fastball from right-hander George Kirby in a two-strike count, depositing it into the right-field seats to give the Tigers a 2-1 advantage.
Left-handed reliever Gabe Speier was warming up in the Seattle bullpen, but manager Dan Wilson elected to have Kirby face the left-handed-hitting Carpenter.
“We thought George continued to throw the ball pretty well there and still had pretty good stuff and a lot left in the tank,” Wilson said, “and he had been in a couple of tough spots earlier, but really pitched out of it well. And, like I said, (Carpenter) was able to get to the one up in the zone.”
It was the fifth career homer for Carpenter off Kirby, making him the fourth player in major league history with five or more hits off a particular pitcher — and all of them home runs. It also was the second career postseason homer for Carpenter, who set a career high with 26 during the regular season.
“I tend to see him well,” Carpenter said. “He’s so good, though. He has great stuff, and in the first inning he was really good. So yeah, I’m pretty confident against anybody I go against. I was seeing him well tonight, especially after that first at-bat.”
Kirby was otherwise sharp in his second postseason start, striking out five across five innings.
Rodríguez ensured the Mariners did not go down easily, poking an RBI single to right in the sixth that tied it at 2.
Seattle closer Andrés Muñoz worked two scoreless innings, the first time he had done so since he was a rookie in 2019 with San Diego.
The Mariners didn’t get hits from any players besides Rodríguez and AL MVP contender Cal Raleigh, who chipped in three singles for his third career three-hit game in the postseason.
“All of our bullpen guys, including Troy, even though Troy started, it was a job well done in an environment where the fans were looking to help them get anything started,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We would squash the rally every time.”
Up next
Mariners RHP Luis Castillo is expected to start against Skubal in Game 2. Castillo is 1-2 with a 1.83 ERA in 19 2/3 postseason innings with 19 strikeouts. Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, pitched 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the Wild Card Series opener against Cleveland. He has a 2.03 ERA in four postseason appearances.
Oct 4, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies in the first inning during game one of the NLDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
PHILADELPHIA — Shohei Ohtani struck out not once, twice, three times but four — four! — straight times and almost snuffed a late Dodgers rally.
The Oh-4 nearly cost Los Angeles.
Good news for the Dodgers, Ohtani the ace was about as good as he needed to be on the mound — with a little pop from teammate Teoscar Hernández to help along the way — for the two-way star to win his playoff pitching debut.
With more than 45,000 Phillies fans against him, Ohtani settled down after a three-run second to strike out nine over six innings and lead the Dodgers to a 5-3 win over Philadelphia on Saturday night in Game 1 of their NL Division Series.
Ohtani retired 15 of the final 17 batters he faced, and the right-hander held Trea Turner, NL home run and RBI champion Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper to 0 for 9 with five strikeouts against him.
Even when Ohtani’s bat went cold, he warmed up over 89 pitches in a deep outing for him.
“The reason why I’m a two-way player is because that’s who I am, and it’s what I can do,” Ohtani said through a translator.
Hernández rallied the Dodgers with a three-run homer after Ohtani struck out with two runners on base in the seventh inning, and three Los Angeles relievers combined for three scoreless innings.
Alex Vesia retired pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa with the bases loaded in the eighth to preserve the lead. Roki Sasaki worked the ninth for his first career save.
Ohtani and Sasaki are the first Japanese-born starter and reliever to earn a win and a save in the same postseason game.
“This epitomizes compartmentalizing. He’s essentially two people in one night, in one game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “To kind of look at the at-bats that he took tonight and how he struggled offensively, but to separate that and just be a pitcher, and weather that inning. And to go out there and give us six innings, keep us in the ballgame, I just don’t know any human that can manage that, those emotions, and how do you not take that to the mound? So, yeah, we continue to just witness history.”
Ohtani stepped on the field shortly before the first playoff start of his career and was booed so voraciously by Phillies fans, they drowned out the hype video playing on the big screen.
A three-time MVP, Ohtani had admitted to nerves about playing in front of a crowd — much less facing the NL East champions’ loaded lineup — known for tormenting fans through four hours of hell.
Phillies fans taunted Ohtani with elongated chants of “Shoooo-hei!” as he gamely tried to match the moment for the Dodgers.
“I was a little nervous imagining myself out there on the mound,” Ohtani said. ”But once I was on the mound and on the field, that went away and it was really me focusing.”
Ohtani led off the game at the plate and struck out on three pitches against Cristopher Sánchez. Ohtani was called out on strikes in the third and fifth.
Ohtani whiffed again in the seventh with no outs and two runners on against Matt Strahm. Following a Mookie Betts popout, Hernández silenced a roaring Phillies crowd with an opposite-field homer to right off Strahm for a 5-3 lead.
Ohtani struck out three times against Sánchez for the second time this season. Only two other pitchers this season fanned Ohtani three times in a game.
He’s been mired in a career hitting funk in Philly.
In the regular season, Ohtani has yet to hit any of his 250 homers in Philadelphia. He’s batting .250 lifetime in Citizens Bank Park with just two extra-base hits and four RBIs over 12 games and 44 at-bats. He’s struck out 16 times.
The Japanese sensation didn’t pitch for the Dodgers last season while recovering from a second elbow surgery, in September 2023. He still became the first player with at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases as the Dodgers won the World Series over the New York Yankees.
The 31-year-old Ohtani has slowly built up his pitch count this year and struck out 62 batters over 47 innings with a 2.87 ERA in 14 regular-season starts.
The Dodgers hope a day off before Game 2 on Monday night can help Ohtani with the rest he needs to make a strong return for a potential Game 4 or Game 5 start.
“I think, for Sho, we can’t even begin to fathom what it’s like to do both things, especially with the added intensity of the postseason,” Dodgers president Andrew Friedman said before the game. “I think getting a day off between Games 1 and 2, after Game 2, I think it’s all helpful. There’s no question it’s taxing. It’s taxing on everybody. And then you layer on his ability to do both, and it’s challenging.”
Dodgers players (from left) Tommy Edman and Alex Call celebrate with Freddie Freeman after scoring on a two-run double by Kiké Hernández in the sixth inning of a 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
It wasn’t an impassioned speech. But it proved to be a prescient point.
In the hours before Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night, the Dodgers' offense was gathered for their typical pregame hitters meeting when Aaron Bates, one of the hitting coaches, spoke up and offered a reminder to the room.
In this series, Bates knew there would be moments of adversity. And in this ballpark, where 45,000 crazed Philadelphia Phillies fans have created one of the best home-field advantages in all of baseball, the Dodgers needed to be ready to react and respond.
“The intensity and the fans were going to be there early in the game,” he told them, as infielder Miguel Rojas later recalled.
“If something happens early, if Schwarber hits one 800 feet and the roof blows off this place, don’t worry about it,” he added, according to third baseman Max Muncy, “Because when they’re dead silent in the seventh or eighth innings and we’re winning, that’s all that’s gonna matter.”
In the nine innings that followed, that’s exactly how the script played out.
The Phillies landed an early punch, ambushing Shohei Ohtani with a three-run second inning that had Citizens Bank Park shaking on the scale of a small earthquake.
Then the Dodgers answered back, rallying to a resilient 5-3 win that gave them an all-important leg up in this best-of-five series.
“It’s a message that, when you hear it, it sounds silly,” Muncy said of Bates’ pregame reminder. “But, there’s a lot of truth to it. When you come into places like this, it’s very hostile, it’s very loud.”
It certainly was in the second inning, when J.T. Realmuto hit a two-run triple that opened the scoring and knocked the defending champions to the mat.
But as they’ve shown so often over the last two Octobers, even when they’re down they never seem to be out.
“Get through the loud crowd and that sort of thing,” Bates said, modestly downplaying his hitters’ meeting speech. “Just make sure you stick to your plan, stick to the course. And we did a good job doing that.”
The Dodgers shrugged off the early adversity, with Ohtani allowing no further damage over a six-inning start; finishing his postseason pitching debut with nine strikeouts and four monumental scoreless frames after the second.
Their lineup, meanwhile, chipped away at the deficit, chasing Phillies ace and Cy Young Award candidate Cristopher Sánchez from the game on Kiké Hernández’s two-out double in the sixth.
In the seventh, the actual knockout blow arrived on a game-deciding swing from Teoscar Hernández. With two outs in the inning, and the Phillies on the verge of an escape, he blasted a go-ahead three-run home run.
Just like that, South Philadelphia fell silent.
“When you can hear a pin drop in the stadium, that’s the ultimate feeling in baseball,” Muncy said. “I felt like the people in the upper deck could hear us cheering in the dugout.”
Early on in Saturday’s game, the Phillies’ daunting home stadium was providing the opposite environment.
Sánchez was carving Dodgers hitters up with wicked sinkers and fall-off-the-table changeups. On the other side, Ohtani ran into trouble in the bottom of the second.
The inning started with a walk to Alec Bohm, when Ohtani missed with a full-count fastball. That was followed by a single from Brandon Marsh, who got a down-the-middle fastball in a 2-and-2 count and shot a base hit to center.
As Ohtani tried to settle down, a chorus of taunting chants — Sho-Hei! Sho-Hei! — came raining down around him.
Then, pandemonium was unleashed on one Realmuto swing.
After missing with a first-pitch slider to Realmuto, Ohtani left a 100.2 mph heater in the heart of the zone. The location rendered the velocity irrelevant. Realmuto barreled it up, sent a line drive screaming into right-center, then chugged all the way to third after the ball got past Teoscar Hernández in the gap.
A fly ball two batters later — which served as a sacrifice fly thanks to Hernández’s inability to cut the ball off on Realmuto’s triple earlier — made it 3-0.
In the moment (and with the way Sánchez was pitching), it felt like an almost insurmountable lead.
In the dugout, however, the Dodgers thought back to Bates’ pregame message.
They were staggered, but didn’t submit. They were rattled, but not wrecked.
“Gotta give credit to Aaron Bates on that one. He made sure all the hitters knew about it,” Muncy said. “You just got to find a way to weather that storm and understand what the end goal is."
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani delivers during the third inning against the Phillies on Saturday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The turnaround began with Ohtani, who despite striking out four times as a batter followed Realmuto’s triple by retiring the next 10 he faced. His only other trouble came in the fifth, when the bottom two hitters in the Phillies’ order reached base with one out. But even then, Ohtani buckled down, getting Trea Turner to line out and Kyle Schwarber to swing through a curveball that ended the inning.
On the night, Ohtani and the Dodgers’ relievers limited the Phillies’ big three of Turner, Schwarber and Bryce Harper to just one hit in 11 at-bats.
“I use the word compartmentalize a lot, but this epitomizes compartmentalizing,” manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani. “To go out there and give us six innings, keep us in the ball game, I just don't know any human that can manage that, those emotions. How do you not take [the hitting struggles] to the mound?”
Eventually, the Dodgers’ offense found life too.
With two outs in the sixth, and Sánchez having given up only two hits all night, Freddie Freeman sparked a rally with a five-pitch walk. Tommy Edman took a sinker the other way to put two aboard.
That brought up Kiké Hernández, who continued his habit of October heroics by jumping on a slider from Sánchez that caught a little too much plate. Hernández roped a line drive down the left-field line. Freeman and Edman scored, with the latter running through a stop sign before sliding safely across the plate.
Just like that, Sánchez was knocked out of the game. What had been a raucous crowd earlier suddenly grew tense.
Then, in the seventh, Teoscar Hernández made the comeback complete.
Teoscar Hernández celebrates after hitting a three-run home run in the seventh inning for the Dodgers against the Phillies on Saturday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
After Andy Pages led with a single and Will Smith (who entered the game in the fifth inning after missing the wild-card round with a fractured hand) was hit by a pitch from David Robertson, the Phillies summoned top left-handed reliever Matt Strahm and watched him get Ohtani to strike out for the fourth consecutive time (something he had done in a game only once before in his career).
By getting Strahm on the mound, however, the Dodgers had favorable right-on-left matchups. Mookie Betts couldn’t take advantage, popping out to third for the second out. Hernández, on the other hand, didn’t miss, sending an elevated fastball sailing high into the autumn night.
“I watched videos [of him]. He likes to go up in the strike zone. I think that's when he's stronger,” Hernández said. “[I was] not trying to overswing or anything like that. Try to bring in one run to tie the game. But he left it over the strike zone.”
And as the ball landed in the right-field stands, the once rollicking ballpark fell into a stunned silence.
Back in the dugout, Muncy said, “a lot of people were yelling at Bates, like, ‘Hey, you were right!’”
Bates, once again, deflected when asked about the moment.
“We were really just excited that Teo got him eventually,” he said. “It was a great swing, using the whole field. That’s what Teo does. He stuck to his plan throughout the day. And then they make a mistake and he gets him.”
Still, the attitude he’d preached before the game had helped the Dodgers jump back in front. And from there, a new-look bullpen plan managed to collect the final nine outs.
Projected Game 4 starter Tyler Glasnow came on in relief of Ohtani in the seventh and pitched a scoreless inning that ended on a double-play ball. He left behind a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, but was bailed out when Alex Vesia got a fly ball to end the inning.
The ninth belonged to newly ascendant closer Roki Sasaki, who continued his late-season resurgence as a reliever by working around a one-out double to Max Kepler to collect his first career save.
And when the final out was recorded, somber Phillies fans filed out into a quiet night.
“We knew we were going to be winning in the seventh inning. He said it,” Rojas said, referring to Bates’ speech one more time. “He said that we were going to have an opportunity to come back in the game, and it happened. The guys stuck together. ... That’s why we’re a team.”
The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani reacts to striking out the Philadelphia Phillies' Kyle Schwarber to end the fifth inning in Game 1, a moment Ohtani said was "a scene that decided the direction of the game." (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
On the mound, he self-destructed in a second inning that nearly placed the game out of his team’s reach.
In the batter’s box, he struck out four times for only the seventh time in his career.
A two-way player for the first time in a postseason game, Shohei Ohtani didn’t save the Dodgers on Saturday night.
Instead, Ohtani was the one being saved in a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of their National League Division Series.
He was saved by Tyler Glasnow, Alex Vesia and Roki Sasaki, who combined to shut down the lethal Phillies lineup over the last three innings.
He was saved by a two-run double by Kike Hernández in the sixth inning that reduced their deficit to 3-2.
He was saved by a three-run blast by Teoscar Hernández in the seventh that moved them in front, 5-3.
Ohtani said in Japanese of Hernandez’s go-ahead homer: “It was a wonderful moment. I think it was the kind of moment that made you think, ‘This is the postseason.’”
The victory cleared a path for the Dodgers to defend a World Series title that once felt indefensible. By stealing the road win necessary to advance, the Dodgers have taken control of this best-of-five series against the Phillies, who could be the greatest obstacle in their World Series defense.
The Dodgers should have the edge in starting pitching over the next two games, as Blake Snell is scheduled to start Game 2 on Monday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto Game 3 on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
If a fifth game is required to decide this NLDS, Ohtani will be able to pitch on six-days’ rest.
Who could have imagined the Dodgers would be in this position after a game in which Ohtani staggered through a three-run second inning that left him looking as if he was eaten alive by the notoriously hostile Citizens Bank Park crowd?
“He’s not always going to be perfect,” Roberts said.
That being said, Roberts was quick to point out Ohtani’s contributions.
How after that brutal second inning, Ohtani pitched four scoreless innings to keep the Dodgers within striking distance. How Ohtani showed bunt and stepped out of the batter’s box in his ninth-inning at-bat as part of a plan to buy more time for Sasaki to warm up to close the game.
Ohtani sounded particularly proud of how he struck out NL home run king Kyle Schwarber for the third out of the fifth inning. The Phillies stranded two runners.
“I think it might have been a scene that decided the direction of the game,” Ohtani said.
The Dodgers scored two runs in the next innings and three in the inning after that.
“To kind of look at the at-bats that he took tonight and how he struggled offensively, but to separate that and just be a pitcher and weather that [second] inning and to go out there and give us six innings and keep us in the ballgame, I just don’t know any human that can manage those emotions,” Roberts said.
The comeback was necessary because of a second inning that started with a walk by Alec Bohm. Midway through the at-bat of the next hitter, Brandon Marsh, the Citizens Bank Park crowd started to taunt Ohtani.
Sho-hei!
Sho-hei!
Marsh singled. Ohtani responded by reaching back and throwing a 100.2-mph fastball over the heart of the plate to J.T. Realmuto, who launched a rocket into right-center field.
Heavy-footed right fielder Teoscar Hernandez failed to cut off the ball, which skipped to the outfield wall. Bohm and Marsh scored.
Realmuto reached third and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Harrison Bader.
Just like that, the Dodgers were down, 3-0.
This was not the start envisioned by the Dodgers, who set up Ohtani to be the star of this series.
The Dodgers didn’t send Ohtani to the mound in either of their two games of the previous round against the Cincinnati Reds.
By starting Snell and Yamamoto in the wild-card series, the Dodgers were able to save Ohtani for Game 1 of their series against the more formidable Phillies.
The Dodgers entered the NLDS reveling in the history about to be made by Ohtani, the most valuable player as a designated hitter last season back in the October spotlight to pitch in the postseason for the first time.
“I think as he takes the mound for the bottom half [of the first inning], I’m going to take a moment just to appreciate him doing something unprecedented,” Roberts said before the game.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman went as far to make the case that Ohtani was underrated.
“I just don’t think the human brain can comprehend what he does and how difficult it is and how he is elite at both,” Friedman said. “The passion he has for hitting and the passion he has for pitching, it doesn’t seem like there’s enough passion to go around, but there is with him.”
Ohtani didn’t pitch last season as he was recovering from an elbow operation he underwent in 2023. Friedman recalled the diligence with which he rehabilitated.
“It wasn’t just about pitching for him,” Friedman said. “It was about pitching really well.”
Ohtani didn’t pitch really well on Saturday night, but he will have a chance to pitch really well in the days and weeks ahead.
TORONTO -- Luke Weaver said after the Yankees’ 10-1 ALDS Game 1 loss on Saturday that he has been trying to clean up tells in his delivery, and that the effort to do so has caused him to overthink.
Now, after two consecutive postseason outings in which he has faced three batters without recording an out, Weaver wants to stop worrying about tipping and return to his old form.
That old form, of course, has proven elusive for Weaver all season. Aaron Boone managed him nimbly through the season, quietly moving Weaver to softer lanes against the bottom of opposing orders in order to restore his results and confidence.
When a pitcher openly muses about tipping, his confidence is clearly not at its peak. The Yankees brought this to Weaver’s attention about a month ago.
The question now is how many opportunities the team will give Weaver to get his mind right. A running internal debate/discussion in the organization has been whether Boone should prioritize Weaver over Fernando Cruz in his pecking order, or vice versa.
On Saturday, Weaver and Cruz both struggled, while Camilo Doval pitched two perfect innings. Doval is a former All-Star closer for the San Francisco Giants.
After the Yankees’ pen struggled in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against Boston, I asked a high-up person in the organization what they could do to improve and adjust their pen on the fly. This is the aspect of their roster that stands most clearly between the Yanks and a championship. That person suggested using Doval in higher-leverage situations.
Boone said that he hoped Doval would be available in Game 2 despite pitching the two frames.
“That's kind of how he finished the season,” the manager added. “His last few were really good. I feel like he cleaned up some things within his setup and his delivery. Yeah, that was really efficient, really good, attacking the strike zone with, obviously, that stuff. Another encouraging one for Camilo."
What is Warren’s role?
The Yankees like Will Warren despite choosing Luis Gil over him to start Game 1. But what is Warren’s role in this postseason?
When Gil struggled in the second inning, Boone got the lefty Tim Hill up in the bullpen along with righty long man Paul Blackburn. Why not Warren behind Gil?
“If I was going to go early to the pen, I wanted to get a situation where I had Hill where he was going to get most of the lefties without pinch-hitting early in the game,” Boone explained. “And then at some point, depending on leverage of the game, Will comes into play.”
My understanding is that the Yankees would use Warren for high-leverage outs but more likely length -- just not in a spot like the one in which Boone called for Hill, where several lefties were due up.
Because of off days, Max Fried will be able to start Game 2 and a potential Game 5 on full rest.
On that Judge at-bat
Any time Aaron Judge bats in a big spot in the postseason, the referendum begins on what the result will mean for his October reputation and legacy. Given his numbers, those talking points are mostly fair.
But a closer look at Judge’s bases-loaded, no outs strikeout against Kevin Gausman in the sixth inning shows how that at-bat would have challenged just about anyone.
Asked if he was “overanxious,” Judge said, “I wouldn’t say overanxious, if you saw the whole at-bat. But in the end, I didn't get the job done.”
Here’s what he meant by seeing the whole at-bat: Gausman’s first pitch was a 97 mph fastball low and away for a strike. A pitcher’s pitch. Judge went on to take a few close ones and foul off a few tough ones.
The eighth pitch of the at-bat was a 3-2 splitter that appeared headed to the same area as the first-pitch fastball. That Pitching Ninja guy on Twitter shows this kind of tunneling. I’m trying to do it verbally here, which is not as illustrative. But stay with me.
After the ball left Gausman’s hand, Judge had the usual millisecond to decide if it was going to be in the zone, like the fastball. He considered the spin and path of the ball, then fired. But it was a nasty splitter, diving away for what would have been ball four.
Basically, when Gausman executes that pitch, as he did here, the batter has very little chance. If it looks like a strike to Aaron “Best Hitter on Earth” Judge, imagine how the rest of the league would have flailed at it.
Why Boone didn’t pinch-hit for Rice
Ben Rice struggled in Game 3 of the Wild Card series against lefty Connelly Early’s breaking ball, and did the same in his first two at-bats Saturday against Gausman’s splitter. Gausman is a righty, but that pitch kills lefties.
During the Yankees’ sixth-inning rally, Bellinger followed Judge’s strikeout with a bases-loaded walk, making it a 2-1 game. Then Rice stepped to the plate. Some in the industry wondered why Boone didn’t pinch-hit Paul Goldschmidt, who hits soft stuff well and is 10-for-22 lifetime versus Gausman.
The answer is simple and reasonable: righty reliever Louis Varland was ready in the bullpen. Swapping in Goldschmidt would have simply given Toronto manager John Schneider a matchup he wanted. Varland came in to strike out Giancarlo Stanton.
It’s fair to wonder why the Yankees did not start Goldschmidt, given that history.
Oct 4, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk (30) is doused by catcher Tyler Heineman (55) after winning game one of the ALDS against the New York Yankees for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
TORONTO — Alejandro Kirk and Vladmir Guerrero Jr. powered the Toronto Blue Jays to yet another home win over the New York Yankees, snapping a postseason losing streak that stretched back almost a decade.
Kirk hit two solo home runs, Guerrero also connected and the Blue Jays won a playoff game for the first time since 2016 by thumping the New York Yankees 10-1 in Game 1 of their AL Division Series on Saturday.
Nathan Lukes had two hits, three RBIs and a diving catch, and Andrés Giménez added two hits and drove in a pair as the AL East champion Blue Jays used 14 hits to snap a seven-game postseason skid.
Toronto’s previous playoff win came in Game 4 of the 2016 American League Championship Series against Cleveland. The Blue Jays lost that series in five games.
Toronto was swept out of the wild-card round at Tampa Bay in 2020, at home against Seattle in 2022 and at Minnesota in 2023.
“To win one was nice,” Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman said. “To win one at home in front of our fans that have been awesome all season was really special.”
Gausman allowed one run and four hits in 5 2/3 innings for the win.
Guerrero went 3 for 4 with two RBIs. He opened the scoring with a two-out drive in the first inning, the first postseason homer of his career, and added a sacrifice fly in Toronto’s four-run seventh.
“He always kind of raises his game when he plays the Yankees,” Gausman said. “What a night for him.”
Guerrero entered with three hits and one RBI in six previous playoff games.
“There was a little bit of a different feel about Vlad today,” Toronto manager John Schneider said.
Kirk hit a first-pitch homer in the second, his first in the postseason, then added a second shot off Paul Blackburn to begin a four-run eighth. He’s the first Mexican-born player to homer twice in a postseason game.
“It feels amazing to me, but it’s work paying off,” Kirk said through a translator.
Kirk has homered five times in his past three games dating to the final weekend of the regular season.
Toronto won for the seventh time in eight home games against New York this year. The Blue Jays went an AL-best 54-27 at home in the regular season.
The Blue Jays won eight of 13 regular-season meetings with the Yankees overall, giving them the tiebreaker for the AL East title after both teams finished 94-68. That gave Toronto a first-round playoff bye while it awaited the winner of the Wild Card Series between New York and Boston.
Making his third career postseason start, Yankees right-hander Luis Gil allowed two runs on four hits in 2 2/3 innings. The 2024 AL Rookie of the Year took the loss.
“They were hunting the top of the zone a little bit and, I thought, put a lot of good swings on them,” New York manager Aaron Boone said.
The Yankees didn’t put a runner in scoring position until Anthony Volpe doubled to begin the sixth. Austin Wells singled Volpe to third and Trent Grisham walked to load the bases. Gausman struck out Aaron Judge but walked Cody Bellinger to bring home a run.
Judge went 2 for 4 with a single and a double, making him the only Yankees player to reach base more than once.
Up next
Blue Jays rookie RHP Trey Yesavage is expected to start against Yankees LHP Max Fried in Game 2 of the best-of-five series Sunday. Yesavage, who rose through four minor league levels this season, went 1-0 with a 3.21 ERA in three September starts. Fried, a three-time All-Star, went 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA in the regular season. He pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against Boston.
It’s not just Aaron Judge’s fault, of course. There were Yankee failures Saturday across multiple departments in the opener of the AL Division Series, from starting pitching to the bullpen to a lineup that didn’t deliver in yet another loss in Toronto.
But the lingering moment, at least for Yankees fans smarting over an enormous chance missed in a game that would devolve into a laugher, might come from the stressful sixth inning with Judge at the plate. The bases were loaded, nobody out, in a still-taut game. The Yanks were down by two runs.
Kevin Gausman, the Blue Jays starter, was rolling, but Judge is a longtime nemesis – the Yankee star owned a 1.283 OPS against Gausman entering Saturday. His lifetime six homers off Gausman are the most he’s slugged off a single pitcher. It was, as Gausman would put it later, "Mano y mano.”
Mano Gausman won. He got Judge to swing at a low splitter – obviously a ball – on a 3-2 pitch, capping an eight-pitch battle with a crucial K. Gausman walked in a run, but the Jays ultimately escaped the inning, allowing just that one run. Reliever Louis Varland struck out Giancarlo Stanton to end the threat and Toronto went on to a 10-1 victory.
“In the end, you know, I didn’t get the job done,” Judge told reporters in Toronto. “That’s what it comes down to.”
And so the October scrutiny will continue for Judge. He’s clearly one of the greatest hitters of this, or any, era. In the postseason, it’s too much to ask for anyone to reproduce the outsized numbers he’s stacked up during the regular season. But he’s a career .217 hitter this time of year after going 2-for-4 Saturday. (He’s actually having a strong postseason so far, batting .400).
But, fair or unfair, he probably needs to wreck a series himself to get full credit from pinstriped fans. A World Series wouldn’t hurt, either, obviously.
But all that’s not just on him, just like the blame for the loss in the Division Series isn’t solely his to own. After Judge, the Yankees had Cody Bellinger, Ben Rice and Giancarlo Stanton coming to the plate. Plenty of thump there, too, but Gausman and Varland wriggled (mostly) free.
Overall, the Yankees were outhit, 14-6, and were just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Let’s go back to the Yanks’ big chance. Gausman’s splitter was particularly dangerous against the aggressive Yankees and, as the at-bat against Judge went on, it was easy to think he’d use it as his out pitch. But he set it up beautifully by first throwing a 97 mile-per-hour four-seamer inside to Judge, which Judge fouled off. Then Gausman threw an 86-mph splitter outside that dipped below the strike zone. Judge swung and missed.
“I kind of threw some pitches that I got away with, to be honest, early in the at-bat,” Gausman said in the interview room. “But I thought the pitch before really set up the split down and away. In that moment, to be honest, I'm fine walking him. He can blow that game right open with one swing. So kind of knowing that, the whole at-bat I was trying to go down and away with the split, left a couple kind of too good.
“But that was a good pitch. I thought the pitch before definitely set it up.”
“That’s a huge, huge strikeout of a guy who’s going to be the MVP of the league, probably,” Toronto manager John Schneider added. “You’re kind of going to feed on the emotion a little bit, too, to be honest with you. But that’s the last thing you want to see (Judge at the plate in that situation).”
Judge lamented that he had swung at ball four. “You guys all saw it,” he told reporters.
There’s no question the game changes if the Yankees come away with more than one run there. Maybe their bullpen usage changes and Luke Weaver, who has let all six batters he’s faced reach base this postseason, does not get the ball. Yankees relievers allowed eight runs in 5.1 innings in total, though, so it wasn’t just Weaver. And starter Luis Gil was unimpressive, too.
Clearly, Judge and his teammates must forget Saturday’s dud. One way to do that is to start dreaming about how the pitching lines up for them going forward. Max Fried starts Game 2 on Sunday – he was 11-1 with a 1.82 ERA in 16 starts after a Yankee loss this year – and he’ll be followed by Carlos Rodón in Game 3 and then Cam Schlittler, the rookie sensation who overwhelmed the Red Sox in the clincher of the Wild Card series, in Game 4.
Judge will continue to get chances. It’s probably worth believing in him, regardless of Octobers past. Maybe it’s worth continuing to believe in the Yankees, too, despite the way Saturday sagged.
Judge does. “I like our chances,” he said. “We’ve got to keep getting those opportunities and we’re going to come through when we need to.”
Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Jackson Chourio (11) doubles (1) on a ground ball to Chicago Cubs left fielder Ian Happ (8) during the first inning of their National League Division Series game on Saturday October 4, 2025 at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
MILWAUKEE — Jackson Chourio sparked Milwaukee’s fast start at the plate, and Freddy Peralta delivered a steady performance on the mound.
The Brewers looked more than ready for October.
Chourio capped Milwaukee’s six-run first inning with a two-run single, and the Brewers trounced the Chicago Cubs 9-3 on Saturday in Game 1 of their NL Division Series.
Hoping for a breakthrough after years of playoff frustration, Milwaukee showed off the same approach that helped the team roll to baseball’s best record during the regular season. The Brewers ranked third in the majors in scoring this year despite finishing just 22nd in homers.
It was more of the same in the team’s postseason opener. The NL Central champions had 13 hits and no home runs, while three solo drives accounted for Chicago’s offense.
“The home runs are so important these days, (but) this is scrapping hits together, keeping the line moving, all the cliches that you can think of,” said Blake Perkins, who had two hits for the Brewers.
“It’s fun to be a part of, and I think we all build off of each other. I’m kind of sitting there, too, (thinking), like, ‘Dang, how are we doing this?′ sometimes. It’s a cool feeling, and it’s really fun to be a part of.”
The only issue for the Brewers on Saturday was Chourio’s right hamstring tightness. He departed in the second after becoming the first player with three hits in the first two innings of a playoff game.
Game 2 of the best-of-five series is on Monday night.
Chourio, who missed a month of the regular season with a strained right hamstring, underwent an MRI after the victory. Manager Pat Murphy said the injury “could be devastating,” while Chourio sounded much more optimistic.
“Physically I feel good, and I feel in a position where I’m ready to keep going and keep competing,” he said through an interpreter.
Staked to an early lead, Peralta permitted two runs in 5 2/3 innings. His nine strikeouts tied Don Sutton, Yovani Gallardo and Brandon Woodruff for the Brewers’ single-game playoff record.
Michael Busch, Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner homered for Chicago.
Brewers-Cubs games in Milwaukee generally have divided crowds because of all the people who make the 90-mile trip from Chicago, but that wasn’t the case Saturday. The vast majority of spectators were Brewers fans waving yellow towels and booing Cubs manager Craig Counsell.
“It didn’t seem 50/50, for sure,” Murphy said. “It felt like a home game. It definitely felt like a home game. They were difference makers.”
Counsell, who grew up in the Milwaukee area, is the winningest manager in Brewers history, but he left for Chicago after the 2023 season. He has been jeered whenever his name has been mentioned over the American Family Field loudspeaker since he departed.
Counsell’s decision to start Matthew Boyd on short rest didn’t work out. The All-Star left-hander was lifted with two out in the first.
The Brewers scored four runs or fewer in their last nine regular-season games. They had gone 2-11 in their last 13 playoff games, scoring over four runs in just one of those contests and failing to exceed five runs in any of them.
This time, they had six runs by the end of the first, matching their highest scoring playoff inning in franchise history.
After Busch opened the game with a 389-foot drive over the wall in right-center, Chourio, Brice Turang and William Contreras started the bottom half of the first with consecutive doubles.
“I made a few mistakes early,” Boyd said. “A little too much plate to Turang and Contreras. It ends up being the difference in the game right there.”
Contreras scored from second when Hoerner mishandled a slow grounder from Sal Frelick. Perkins capped an 11-pitch at bat with a two-out RBI single to center.
Michael Soroka walked Joey Ortiz to load the bases and allowed a two-run single to Chourio.
“Bottom line, they had really good at-bats,” Counsell said. “They hit balls hard. They spoiled pitches. The Perkins at-bat was just a great at-bat. You’ve got to give him credit for that.”
Boyd had only three days of rest after throwing 58 pitches in the Cubs’ 3-1 Wild Card Series Game 1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday.
Milwaukee added three more runs in the second. Caleb Durbin delivered a two-run single before Chourio’s infield hit made it 9-1.
Chicago’s Aaron Civale, who started the season with Milwaukee, and Ben Brown combined for 6 1/3 innings of shutout relief.
Yankees reliever Luke Weaver is having a postseason to forget.
After allowing two runs without recording an out in Game 1 of the Wild Card series against the Red Sox, the right-hander had a repeat performance against Toronto on Saturday in the first game of the American League Division Series.
With the Blue Jays up just 2-1 in the seventh, Weaver was called upon to keep Toronto scoreless as he started the inning. Daulton Varsho worked a five-pitch walk before Anthony Santander lined a single to right field, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Andres Gimenez then singled through the right side of a drawn-in infield to score one.
After three batters, that was it for Weaver. Fernando Cruz would allow two of Weaver's runners to score, closing the book on the 32-year-old's night. Weaver allowed three runs on two hits and one walk, without recording an out, again.
"Not a stuff issue," manager Aaron Boone said of Weaver after the loss. "Obviously, command is usually a strength for Weave. Losing the first guy in four pitches there and then looked like a couple of change-ups that just kind of were flat and up and over the plate that Santander got and Giménez with the drawn-in infield. It can click like that, because the stuff is there. We've just got to get him locked in with his delivery."
Weaver's delivery and mechanics became a point of discussion after Saturday's 10-1 loss, and all of it came from Weaver himself.
"The results haven’t been good. There’s been a lot of internal factors. I don’t want to get too crazy into it, but there’s been adjustments that I’ve had to make based on things people are seeing. It just hasn’t lined up," Weaver explained after the game. "It’s pretty late in the adjustment period. It’s just not lining up out there. I don’t feel like myself. I don’t feel like my mind is completely clear to go out there and attack. I do feel physically strong, I do feel mentally strong overall. There are just some factors that are building up and I’m just not executing at the clip I want to."
"There's been a lot of internal factors. I don't want to get too crazy into it, but there's been adjustments I've have to make based off of things that people are seeing. It just hasn't really lined up. It's been pretty late in the adjustment period and it's just not lining up… pic.twitter.com/zI8RhEeLv4
Weaver became the Yankees' most reliable reliever last season, allowing him to overtake Clay Holmes as the team's closer through their playoff run a year ago.
However, with the addition of Devin Williams in the offseason and then David Bednar at the trade deadline, Weaver's role has been more of a bridge to the ninth inning. This season, he's pitched to a 3.62 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP, up from last year, but a lot of that has come of late. He pitched to a 9.64 ERA in 12 appearances in September, buoyed by a couple of blowup outings earlier in the month, but was still solid heading into the postseason.
In his final six appearances (5.2 IP), Weaver allowed just one hit and one walk. However, that hasn't translated to the playoffs as of yet.
Despite trying to combat pitch tipping, Weaver says he feels close and is competitive. He points to the soft contact teams have gotten off of him in his two postseason outings so far, but the adjustments he's making aren't taking, and his patented changeup is staying up in the zone. For Weaver, who is a free agent after this season, the adjustments have "become a lot," and he is going to go back to what he was doing before.
"Ultimately, I’m at a point where I’m just full send and none of that’s going to matter anymore," he said. "I’m going to be what I think is best for me and attack and what I need to do."
He later added, "Baseball seems overwhelming at the moment when the results aren’t on your side. I don’t walk away from these outings being too hard on myself. Ultimately, I’m really close. I’m not giving up balls out of the yard or hard contact. It comes down to pitch selection, execution and relying on our guys on the field to make plays."
Weaver was pressed with follow-ups about the perceived tipping but he didn't want to go too deep on it, but wanted to make his feelings known.
"I just got to be tidy, clean, go out there and give myself the best chance," he said. "Ultimately, too, at the same time, you have to keep your brain clean; the moments already big, you don’t need more things stacking on your plate."
Despite the tough outings, Weaver's teammates remain confident that the reliever can still get it done.
"Things haven't gone his way, but everybody in this room has confidence in him to go out there and do his job," Aaron Judge said of Weaver. "He's been a special piece of this team since he came over here."
And Weaver has a history the Yankees can lean on. In 12 appearances last October, Weaver was great, pitching to a 1.76 ERA and converting four saves along the way.
But while it's unknown when his next postseason appearance will be this year, Weaver remains confident in his stuff. And that given an opportunity, he will continue to compete for his teammates.
"I’m not going to allow two outings to dictate my time here. You can certainly say what you like, but ultimately, I feel confident in our team, I feel confident in myself," he said. "It’s not like I’m throwing 93 [mph], I’m throwing 97, it’s coming out really good. I’ll make the adjustments, I’ll do it. I’ll leave everything out on the field. It won’t be a matter of trying, a matter of letting myself roll over. I’ll compete with anyone in this entire world or I’ll die trying."
The Yankees hope to avoid a 0-2 deficit when they play the Blue Jays in Game 2 of the ALDS on Sunday.
Luis Gil was terrific for the Yankees down the stretch.
The right-hander threw well enough that he earned himself the ALDS Game 1 start.
Things, however, did not quite go as planned on Saturday afternoon.
Gil was knocked out of the game by the high-powered Blue Jays over just 2.2 innings of work, allowing two runs on four hits (two homers) in what was his shortest outing of the season.
He gave up a two-out solo shot to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the bottom of the first, and then Alejandro Kirk made him pay for another mistake with a no-doubt solo blast of his own leading off the second.
The righty came back out for the bottom of the third, but was pulled after giving up a two-out single to Guerrero.
“They were hunting the top of the zone and put some good swings on him,” Aaron Boone said. “You live with the two solo shots, we were still in the game there and he did enough, we felt like we could piece it together from there.”
As things played out, though, the Yanks were unable to piece this one together.
The offense wasted a golden opportunity with Toronto’s Kevin Gausman on the ropes in the sixth, as Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton struck out with the bases loaded in a close ballgame.
The Jays' offense was sure to make them pay for that an inning later, as they jumped all over the struggling Luke Weaver to score four more times in the seventh, officially putting this one away and securing the series advantage.
“Not the result we wanted,” Gil said through an interpreter. “You want to execute your pitches against this lineup, but at the same time they’re big-league hitters, they’re there to swing the bat and they were able to do that tonight -- but I have full confidence in my teammates and I know we’re going to come back strong tomorrow.”
The stroll to the outfield for his pregame warmups couldn’t have been any cooler for Phillies starting pitcher Cristopher Sánchez. And neither could his reaction.
Sánchez, about to make his third playoff start in the first game of the NLDS against the defending World Series champion Dodgers, took his cap off and raised his long right arm to the frenzied, early-arriving crowd who were showering him with adulation.
Turns out, the red-clad fans were just practicing their cheering before Sánchez’ acknowledgment, because then it became deafening.
The sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park was never silent during a heartbreaking 5-3 loss to the Dodgers, who took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series with Game 2 scheduled for Monday night. Sánchez kept the powerful Dodgers silent for most of his outing, as he allowed just four hits and two earned runs during his 5 2/3 innings.
But that wasn’t good enough, as Los Angeles took the lead for good the next inning when Teoscar Hernandez bombed a three-run, two-out homer off reliever Matt Strahm to lead the Dodgers to the win.
While Sánchez stated his outing wasn’t good enough for the win, his performance will go a long way into his march as a top starter in this league, because he knows how to make that happen.
“We lost tonight so personally I don’t care about how I did individually,” he said after striking out eight. “If we lose then I don’t feel good. One pitch changed the game for us and for me personally.
“Individually, even if I perform well, or whatever I do, if we lose the game then I don’t feel good. We’re a team. If we win then we win together and if we lose then we all lose together. I don’t feel good about losing.”
And that’s where he is, personally and professionally, in a nutshell. He has grown as much mentally as he has in height the past few years, in which he sprouted to six feet, six inches tall. His pitching can be documented by stats. His growth as a leader and top pitcher in the league is seen a bit differently. Like Saturday night.
“He was, again, really good,” said Rob Thomson. “The strike throwing ability. The changeup was filthy tonight. 65 percent strikes, 18 whiffs, 17 out of 24, I think, first pitch (strikes). He was fantastic. He really was.”
You could really bottle those quotes from the manager and insert them after almost all of Sánchez’ starts this season. He’s become that good. Good enough that the national media, who don’t see him that often, were overly impressed throughout the park.
It was just the third playoff start for the 28-year-old and the first since being anointed the team’s ace after Zack Wheeler was shelved by a blood clot near his right shoulder that ultimately required surgery.
Sánchez has embraced the new role with the passion of a veteran, but with the understanding that you never stop absorbing the lessons in this crazy game of baseball.
“To learn and to always learn,” Sánchez said of what he could take from last night’s devastating loss. “There’s always new things that you can learn from everything that you get. Learn from those things on this outcome and I think there’s a lot of things that we have to improve but take the good out of it and learn from it.”
As much as a crowd like Saturday’s can give adrenaline to a player, the withdrawal can also be real. Perhaps a little of that hit Sánchez during his outing.
“Yeah, he looked great,” said catcher J.T. Realmuto. “I thought it looked like he got a little tired there that last inning. He started falling behind hitters, wasn’t quite commanding his fastball the same as he was early on. But other than that inning he looked his old self. He was great.
“It’s not that he was at a ton of pitches but there’s a ton of energy out there. These games are draining. I looked up one point in the fourth inning, and I was exhausted. I couldn’t believe it was only the fourth inning. I can’t imagine what a starting pitcher feels like. That’s just part of the playoffs and for me, I think just the command of his pitches was a little off there in that last inning.”
He left the game with two outs in the sixth, having given up those two runs. His demeanor was much different than it had been earlier in the night when he went to the outfield for that warmup session. His shoulders were slightly shrugged, the frustration readable on his face. But as he spoke to the media following the game, Sánchez was thoughtful about what had happened, honest with his performance and professing his belief of team first.
In the short term, it is a hard loss for this team in a playoff series against perhaps the best team in baseball right now. In the long term, an experience gained by their top pitcher.
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Aaron Judge missed on a big chance, two Yankee bullpen cogs wobbled and Alejandro Kirk homered twice Saturday as the Blue Jays routed the Yankees, 10-1, in the opener of their ALDS at Rogers Centre in Toronto.
Toronto also got a much better outing from their starter, Kevin Gausman, than the Yankees did from Luis Gil,who was yanked after only 2.2 innings. The Jays scored four runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to wreck a tight game.
The Yanks will try to even up the series Sunday in Game 2. They were the second-best road team in MLB this year, but that has not translated to Toronto. They are now 1-7 at Rogers Centre this year.
Toronto’s Game 1 victory was the Jays’ first postseason win since Game 4 of the 2016 AL Championship Series. Toronto had been mired in a seven-game playoff losing streak.
Here are the takeaways...
- The baseball world has been waiting for Judge, who took a .212 postseason average into Saturday, to have a breakout October and he had a key opportunity in the sixth inning of Game 1 with the Yanks down, 2-0. The inning started when Anthony Volpe swatted a ball off the left-field wall for a leadoff double. Austin Wells followed with a single and Trent Grisham walked, loading the bases and bringing up Judge, who entered the game with a career average of .354 against Gausman and six home runs. After a tense, eight-pitch battle, Judge struck out, swinging and missing at a Gausman splitter that dove out of the strike zone. Gausman set up the outside pitch by throwing a 97-mph fastball inside to Judge, who fouled it off. The Yankees scored when Gausman threw four straight balls to Cody Bellinger, but they could not tack on. Gausman retired Ben Rice on a popup for the second out and then Toronto manager John Schneider replaced Gausman with righty Louis Varland. With Giancarlo Stanton up and a 1-2 count, Varland threw a 101-mph fastball past Stanton’s hard cut for the final out of the inning.
- Judge has been hitting so far this postseason -- he was 2-for-4 in Game 1 with a single and a double and is batting .400 this October with a .905 OPS.
- Except for the bases-loaded walk, Gausman was excellent for Toronto, getting quick outs and using his mid-80s splitter to generate whiffs. The Yankees swung at the pitch 17 times and missed 10 of them, according to Baseball Savant. Overall, Gausman allowed one run and four hits in 5.2 innings, striking out three and walking two. He had only 50 pitches after five scoreless innings, but the Yankees made him work in the sixth inning and though he got Judge in a big spot, the Jays went to the bullpen for the final out of that frame.
- Yankee starters were mostly excellent in the first round victory over Boston, fashioning a 1.33 ERA and delivering 20.1 innings in three games. But that ended quickly in the ALDS. Gil lasted only 2.2 innings and gave up two runs and four hits. He struck out two and walked none. He gave up two early home runs and the Jays looked pretty comfortable against him. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homered in the first inning and Kirk slammed a 392-foot homer in the second. Gil is generally adept at suppressing home runs – he allowed 0.8 per nine innings this season and his career mark is around one per nine.
- Guerrero’s homer was a solo shot and his first longball since Sept. 5, a span of 90 plate appearances. It was also Guerrero’s first career playoff homer and perhaps a start at altering the October perception of him – he came into the game with a career average of .136 and a .422 OPS in his first six career postseason games, all losses. Guerrero also made a terrific defensive play at first in the second inning, a diving, backhand snare of a Ryan McMahon liner that he took to the first-base bag for an unassisted double play. He finished the day 3-for-4 with two RBI.
- Luke Weaver’s woes this postseason continued when he came in to start the seventh, an inning that devolved into a four-run bonanza for Toronto. Weaver walked Daulton Varsho leading off and then gave up a single to Anthony Santander. The lone glimmer of that particular play came when Judge threw the ball all the way to third, perhaps lessening some of the concerns about his injured elbow. But with first and third against Weaver, Andrés Giménez singled through a drawn-in infield to drive in an insurance run and put Toronto up, 3-1. Weaver has faced six batters so far in the playoffs and all of them have reached base. He was removed in favor of Fernando Cruz. But, one out later, Cruz allowed a two-run double to Nathan Lukes and a sac fly to Guerrero, ballooning Toronto’s lead to 6-1. According to the Fox broadcast, the Jays were 71-4 when scoring five-plus runs, the best such mark in MLB.
- Kirk hit his second homer of the game, leading off the eighth inning, connecting against Paul Blackburn. Including his homer flurry at the end of the regular season, Kirk has five home runs in his last three games.
- Perhaps the Yankees could’ve kick-started their offense early against Gausman, but they came out on the wrong side of a quirky play. Grisham seemed to foul a ball off his toe leading off, but umpires did not see it, and Yankee arguments did not sway them. The ball went to Guerrero for a 3-unassisted, giving Gausman an easy, first-pitch out.
Game MVP: Alejandro Kirk
Kirk, who became the fourth player in Blue Jays history to have a multi-homer game in the playoffs.
ATLANTA — Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos said Saturday he hopes to move quickly as he begins his search for a successor to Brian Snitker as manager but that he has not conducted any interviews.
Snitker, 69, announced Wednesday he won’t return after 10 seasons as the Braves’ manager.
Even though Snitker’s decision wasn’t a surprise, Anthopoulos insisted he wasn’t going to begin compiling a list of candidates before giving the manager time to finalize his plans.
When asked what the Braves would have done if Snitker wanted to return for the 2026 season, Anthopoulos said: “He would have been back. That’s why we were going to wait and give him the time he needed.”
Former Braves catcher and Chicago Cubs skipper David Ross told The Associated Press on Thursday he wants to manage again. Ross said an opportunity to manage the Braves “would be amazing.”
Anthopoulos insisted “we do not currently have a list” and said “I wanted to get some things done internally” before beginning his search.
“I will now turn my attention to the manager,” Anthopoulos said. “... We have not spoken with anybody.”
Snitker led the Braves to the 2021 World Series championship as the highlight of almost a half-century with the organization. He will remain in an advisory role and will be inducted into the team’s hall of fame next season.
Anthopoulos said he and Snitker have an agreement on a five-year term as senior adviser but added that could change.
Two coaches on Snitker’s staff have experience as a manager. Bench coach Walt Weiss is Colorado’s former manager. Third base coach Fredi González is a former manager with Atlanta and the Marlins.
There has been speculation that other possible candidates are former Braves infielder Mark DeRosa and Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty. Former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker was named the Texas Rangers’ skipper on Friday night.
“Before Skip Schumaker was named, there were eight openings,” Anthopoulos said. “That’s a lot of openings. ... That makes it incredibly challenging.”
Anthopoulos said his timeline to make a hire could be impacted if he focuses on a candidate who is also of interest to another team.
“Of course as soon as possible with so many openings,” Anthopoulos said when asked how soon he hopes to make a hire. “You can’t just rush it or force it. ... You’d love to be able to do it sooner than later.”
Snitker posted a record of 811-688 as manager. He ranks third in franchise history in wins, trailing Bobby Cox (2,149) and Frank Selee (1,004). He led the Braves to seven postseasons, including six NL East titles.
Three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer was left off the Toronto Blue Jays’ roster for their AL Division Series against the New York Yankees along with injured shortstop Bo Bichette and right-hander Chris Bassitt.
Scherzer was 1-3 with a 9.00 ERA in his last six starts, including a Sept. 7 loss to the Yankees as New York took advantage of the 41-year-old right-hander tipping pitches with his changeup.
An eight-time All-Star, Scherzer was 5-5 with a 5.19 ERA in 17 starts after agreeing to a one-year, $15.5 million contract. He didn’t pitch between March 29 and June 25 because of right thumb inflammation.
He has a 221-117 record with a 3.22 ERA, winning World Series titles with Washington in 2019 and Texas in 2023. Scherzer is 7-8 with a 3.78 ERA in 30 postseason games.
Bichette, second in the major leagues to the Yankees’ Aaron Judge with a .311 batting average, hasn’t played since Sept. 6, when he sprained his left knee in a collision with Yankees catcher Austin Wells. Bassitt, who was 11-9 and led the Blue Jays in wins, hasn’t pitched since Sept. 18 because of lower back inflammation.
Toronto included 13 pitchers, but only Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber and Trey Yesavage, a 22-year-old right-hander who debuted Sept. 15, finished the season in the rotation. Toronto chose four left-handers against lefty-heavy New York: Justin Bruihl, Mason Fluharty, Eric Lauer and Brendon Little.
New York added right-hander Luis Gil, who was set to start Saturday’s opener and dropped right-handed relief Mark Leiter Jr., who was active for the Wild Card Series against Boston but didn’t pitch.
The defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers added three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw and left-hander Anthony Banda to the roster for their NL Division Series against Philadelphia while dropping right-hander Edgardo Henriquez.
Kershaw, a 37-year-old, is slated to pitch in relief. The 11-time All-Star says he will retire after the postseason.
Infielder Otto Kemp and outfielder Weston Wilson were on the Phillies’ roster and right-handers Jordan Romano and Lou Trivino were left off.
Right-hander Ben Brown was added to the Chicago Cubs’ roster against the Milwaukee Brewers and left-hander reliever Taylor Rogers was dropped. Rogers pitched a hitless inning in the Wild Card Series against San Diego.
Milwaukee included hard-throwing rookie right-hander Jacob Misiorowski and left-hander Robert Gasser while leaving off first baseman Rhys Hoskins.
From the moment Harrison Bader slipped on a Phillies uniform, it just made sense.
The energy. The defense. The all-out style of play.
Since arriving from the Twins at the Trade Deadline, Bader has injected Philadelphia with exactly the kind of spark that wins in October.
A veteran of nine seasons on his sixth club, Bader joined a crowded outfield mix that already included Nick Castellanos, Brandon Marsh and Max Kepler.
Before the swap, he was putting together a solid season in Minnesota, tallying 25 extra-base hits in 96 games with a .778 OPS. His bat was red hot in July — five homers, a .914 OPS and 11 RBIs in the month.
Three weeks after the trade, Castellanos told reporters that Bader had been frustrated with his playing time, understandable for a guy swinging the bat well before the trade. His first few weeks in Philly were rough, hitting just .171 in his first 41 at-bats.
Then came August 20th against Seattle, when Rob Thomson gave him the nod, and Bader took off. From that point on, he slashed .346/.390/.522 with 15 extra-base hits to close out the regular season.
His impact went far beyond the numbers. Bader, who primarily played left field with Minnesota, immediately stabilized center field for Philadelphia. His 85th-percentile sprint speed was on full display, flagging down balls gap-to-gap from Monty’s Angle to the bullpen — complete with his trademark crab-walk backpedal.
When Trea Turner landed on the injured list in late September, Thomson moved Bader into the leadoff spot, and the results spoke for themselves. Over 13 games atop the order before the final homestand, he hit .339, sparking an offense that notched nine wins, including a sweep of the Mets and a statement series victory in Los Angeles.
“Winning baseball is a universal language,” Bader said. “We all come from different places, but the goal’s the same. The only focus for me was taking advantage of the opportunity to help this team win.”
That mindset made him an easy fit in a clubhouse full of veterans who’ve lived the highs and lows of Red October.
“There are no cliques here,” Bader said. “It’s about doing your job and executing. You gain respect by playing winning baseball.”
It’s the same approach that made him a postseason hero in the Bronx. In 2022, Bader homered five times in nine playoff games for the Yankees — experience that fuels his confidence now in Philadelphia.
“You can’t play hero ball,” he said. “It’s about having a good at-bat, passing the baton, doing the little things that win a series.”
Bader has worked tirelessly to evolve as a hitter. After an injury in 2023, he spent last offseason reworking his mechanics with a biomechanist in Tampa.
“I didn’t want to go back to who I was — I wanted to be someone new,” he said. “The game’s about evolving.”
He certainly evolved. This mechanical change has allowed Bader to exhibit strong offensive production against right-handed pitchers.
Coming into 2025, Bader posted a career .775 OPS versus left-handers and a .670 against righties.
This season, Bader’s splits are reversed, which can be beneficial as you generally face more right-handed pitching. His OPS against righties is .845 (344 AB), while it’s .689 versus southpaws (157 AB).
Off the field, Bader’s personality has become just as impactful as his play. He actually inspired teammates to join his “crop top” pregame routine during the summer heat.
“I’d never tell another grown man to wear a crop top,” Bader laughed. “But it shows how together this group is.”
And then there’s his appreciation for the city itself.
“The fans here make this place special,” he said. “They share the same passion we do. I’m grateful to compete in front of that energy.”
In just two months, Bader has become everything the Phillies could have hoped for, and he’s a reminder of what makes this group so dangerous in October.
He’s been here a short time, but in every sense, Harrison Bader already feels like a perfect fit for Philadelphia.
