Category: Baseball

LOS ANGELES — After naming Tarik Skubal the Game 1 starter of the NLDS earlier on Friday, the Dodgers on Saturday announced that Blake Snell would start Game 2 on Sunday, pushing Yoshinobu Yamamoto to Game 3 on Tuesday in Atlanta.

“We have such talented starters. I think you can roll out any of us in any situation and you’re going to be in a really good spot,” Skubal said Friday of Dodgers rotation depth, echoing comments made this week by Freddie Freeman, Dave Roberts, general manager Brandon Gomes, and others. “I don’t make any of those decisions. I don’t really think about that. They tell me when I’m going, and I’m ready to go that day. That’s kind of how I approach it.”

Roberts told Skubal the news of his Game 1 start one week ago, when he took the left-hander after seven scoreless innings on 75 pitches on September 25 against the Giants in San Francisco.

“I thought in the moment I was going to be able to finish the game, and he’s like get ready for Game 1,” Skubal said. “That’s how I was told, and obviously excited and fired up and ready to go.”

Skubal’s the most likely starter to pitch on four days rest if needed, and Snell and Tyler Glasnow have a history of pitching on four days rest as well. Yamamoto has never started in the majors on fewer than five days rest, with the one notable asterisk his eight-out relief appearance to close out Game 7 of the 2025 World Series. Yamamoto was the rock of the Dodgers rotation each of the last two seasons, the only starter to remain healthy all season in each of 2025 and 2026. Now he’s pushed to Game 3 of the Dodgers’ opening series, but there is method to the madness.

The Braves as a team hit .240/.300/.396 against left-handed pitchers this season, their 91 wRC+ ranking 24th among 30 MLB teams. Hitting southpaws isn’t something that improved for Atlanta, either. Over the final two months of the season they hit just .238/.287/.383 with an 84 wRC+ against southpaws.

Now they’ll face two lefties to start the first two games of the NLDS in Skubal and Snell. But the matchup wasn’t the only consideration.

“A lot of it this series, the possibility of usage, as well as, as we look out, who’s best lined up,” Roberts said Friday. “I think it’s a good process, appreciating that the most important thing is this series right now. But if you have talented arms at your disposal, it’s prudent to kind of map out potentially how they could line up, and that’s just doing your due diligence.”

Should the Dodgers advance to beat the Braves — not a given, obviously — Yamamoto is the ideal Game 2 starter in a seven-game series, because it allows him to pitch the latter on five days rest, while starting in Game 1 or Game 3 would mean needing to be available to start in Game 5 or 7 on four days rest. And Yamamoto starting in Game 3 of the Division Series on Tuesday would line him up perfectly to potentially start Game 2 of the NLCS on Monday, October 12 on five days rest.

And if Skubal is needed again in the NLDS in Game 5 against the Braves, having Snell at the ready to potentially start Game 1 is a nice fallback option to have. Snell started three Games 1 last postseason for the Dodgers, and won two of them, part of an overall 3.18 ERA in 34 innings, and set a Dodgers franchise postseason record with 41 strikeouts.

There’s also the matter that Yamamoto had a 1.77 ERA and 2.93 FIP on in 12 road starts this season, compared to a 3.13 ERA and 3.65 FIP at home, and 14 of Yamamoto’s 20 home runs allowed were hit at Dodger Stadium. Plus starting him in Game 3 gives Yamamoto his first extended rest of the season, having last started on September 23 with only Wednesday night’s closed scrimmage at Dodger Stadium in between.

“If you’re fortunate enough to keep moving on, things start to get more unpredictable,” Roberts said. “So I think that at the outset, if you can kind of line it up in such a way to giving guys ample rest, it just puts you in a better position for more options down the road. That’s kind of some of the math we had.”

It’s showdown at high noon (Central), as two teams that played as even a regular season series as can be match up in an American League Division Series.

The White Sox won the season series, 7-6, with seven of the games being determined by one run, and only one by more than three. The teams were so close in talent that the Sox scored 58 runs and the Guardians 57 over the course of the season. Of course, the old cliché about throwing out the record books pops up now, but sometimes a peek at the books gives a pretty good hint at what’s to come.

What’s to come today is Hagen Smith throwing for the White Sox, just as he started the Wild Card series. He went a scoreless three innings on just 38 pitches in that one, giving up two hits and no walks and getting one strikeout. He faced Cleveland three times during the regular season and they hit just .105 against him, albeit with a .320 OBP due to Smith walking six of 25 batters.

The Sox are quiet about who will follow in a quasi-bullpen game, but against Houston it went Jordan Hicks, Sean Newcomb, David Sandlin and Grant Taylor. It may be mostly southpaws today, given the Guardians lefty-heavy lineup.

There’s no bullpen game for Cleveland, that’s for sure. With the advantage of a first-round bye, the Guardians are marching out their ace, lefty Parker Messick. Messick went 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA and 193 strikeouts in 186 innings in his official rookie season. In four starts against the Sox he was 2-1 with a 2.81 ERA, giving up a .198/.245/.385 slash line.

Last time out against them he gave up three runs in six innings, all of them scoring on a Tommy Pham homer, so it’s no surprise that Pham is in the starting lineup again today, in the 5-slot.

Smith and friends face a Cleveland lineup that came alive in September, enough so to take the AL Central title from the Sox. Will the long break thanks to the opening-round bye give them needed rest, especially for José Ramirez’s hand, or will they be rusty? Only The Shadow knows.

First pitch is scheduled right at noon Central on a perfect fall day — mostly sunny, mid-60s and light wind in from right. Tube coverage is on TBS, truTV, Univision/TUDN and HBO Max, while ESPN 1000 has the radio side.

Last Saturday, Tommy Tanous, the Colorado Rockies Assistant General Manager – Player Development & Scouting, spoke with Purple Row about his first season with the organization.

As a reminder, the Rockies hired Tanous during the offseason as part of their front office rebuild. He is responsible for the organization’s player development and scouting operations. Prior to joining the Rockies, Tanous spent 15 years with the New York Mets.

Below are a few takeaways from that conversation, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

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On joining the Rockies

(It’s been) exciting, fun, great people. That that was probably the nicest surprise. The quality of people that I got to meet and work with here. So overall, it’s been an A-plus experience.

Paul (DePodesta) was my boss with the New York Mets, so I knew him quite well (laughs), and Paul is probably the number one reason why I left a really good situation. I probably wouldn’t have done that for anyone else, but enjoyed working with him so much and just appreciate the work environment he provided. So it was kind of a no-brainer when I got a chance.

On what his of scouting and player development job entails

It depends on the season, depends on the time of year. Going from January to really March, it’s a little player development and a little bit of the draft, and then from March to July, it’s mostly the draft — I’d say probably 80% is looking at players, looking at video, helping the staff, the amateur staff. And then after the draft, it’s mostly player development, going to the affiliates, helping write player plans, and now it’s a little mixture of both in the in the fall, both player development and trying to do some scouting.

You have a schedule. You touch each department a little bit each day, knowing the majority of the time is going to be in player development, but I still want to stay up on the amateurs. So your day is a mix of both, keeping your hand in both, and you have good people that help you, like we do on the amateur side and the PD side. It makes it easier.

On preparing for the draft and drafting specifically for the Rockies

Absolutely it’s taken into account — what we feel like will work here, what’s a little easier to adjust to. All of that’s taken into the evaluations, and Paul and Josh Byrnes have done, and Ian Levin, I should say, too, have done extensive work on that, and it’s been really helpful.

Going into the draft, (I was) very sick. I somehow caught some sort of virus, so for the majority of the draft, I was coughing and hacking, and people were sitting as far away from me as possible. But the draft is just about gaining as much information on players as possible. So constantly busy, constantly talking to the staff, finding out more information, using our analytics department to break down players, using our scouts to break down tools and makeup on these players. So it’s quite busy. It’s a lot of meetings, and it’s a lot of prep for basically a few days of the draft, but what I think are the most important days for the organization.

I ran the amateur department and made suggestions to both Josh and Paul on who our selections would be, but no one person runs a draft. You might have whatever title. It is a total team commitment from our area scouts to the to the cross checkers to the front office. But my day-to-day was to run the draft.

On initial impressions of the Rockies 2026 draft class

So far, so good. Obviously, we took Tyler Bell (No. 4 PuRP) knowing that he was not going to play for us this summer, and Daniel Jackson (No. 12 PuRP) just had a phenomenal start, and Jack Natili (No. 20 PuRP) really really played well. All of the prospects really hit all the benchmarks that we were looking for. Look, time will tell on all drafts. But (we’re) off to a really good start.

On attending the Community College of Rhode Island

I was a junior college kid, and then I coached in junior college, so I just couldn’t seem to get enough of junior college. But how it formed me — I really think you don’t get the benefit of a lot of things that Division I teams get the perks. You have to really want to work in baseball if you’re coaching in a junior college or playing in a junior college. The game needs everything. So that part helped me I think in a lot of ways.

And also the ability to meet other people, as far as there were really smart people in this game, and coming from my background, I always felt a little bit inferior on an intellectual standpoint, and then realized, Wow, I can kind of talk to these people on a baseball level. And then it also provided me with the humbleness of, Wow, there’s a lot more I need to learn.

So I think that’s one of my bigger strengths: I’m not necessarily the smartest person in the room, so I need to listen to a lot of different voices.

On what he wishes people understood about scouting

Just how hard it is to make predictions because that’s what you really are (doing). You’re trying to predict the future, and you’re trying to do it with human beings, and it’s incredibly hard to do. And there’s a lot of failure in it, and you need to learn from that failure. And I think really good scouts learn from mistakes and become better each year and grow almost like an AI machine. That’s really what we’re doing. Why didn’t this work out? Why didn’t this player become what we thought they would be?

So I think you need tremendous resilience. Failure is going to happen. And what are you going to do the next year? And how are you going to get better? I think people think of it as fun. You get to go to games, and they don’t necessarily see the heartbreak in it all the time.

On how the player-development side of his job works

One of the major things in Paul and Josh’s vision is having more of a handoff. Once we draft the player. We just don’t send him to player development, and they’re shocked to learn like, “Oh, we have this player. What are his tools?” That should all be done prior to the draft. So we include player development while we’re drafting.

Nic Wilson, Matt Daniels — our hitting and pitching (coordinators) — they were involved in all our drafts. So when we drafted a player, they had already scouted that player. Part of my job is to make that transition a lot easier into professional baseball, and then working with Jesse (Stender) and Chris Forbes, try to make sure that these players are given every opportunity to really get better at their weaknesses and their strengths, and put together drill packages that are going to emphasize that. They’re pros, so I feel a ton of confidence in our play development.

On his favorite and least favorite parts of his job

Favorite part of my job? I tell you what it’s not. It’s not writing reports. That’s not my favorite.

I think once you get to the game and settle in, and the unraveling of a player and trying to discover what that player is going to be is probably the most enjoyable. Like you’re a detective, and you’re trying to peel this onion back. That’s probably my favorite part.

(My least favorite part is) travel. As I get older, it is hard to put up with delays on planes, rental car shuttles that don’t come. It is by far. I love the job. I’ll never not want to be at a baseball game or be involved in it. But getting there is a real pain in the neck.

On what he likes about working for the Rockies

The fans, how good they are to come out to games by far. I’ve worked in situations where if the team wasn’t playing particularly well, nobody came to the ballpark. So when you go there and you see the support, it’s really kind of special in professional sports what they have there.

Closing thoughts

I especially appreciated Tanous’ comments about drafting players and trying to predict what would and might not work for the Rockies.

Also, as a community college teacher, I really appreciated his comments on what he learned from studying at and coaching for a community college. Tanous is surrounded by Ivy Leaguers, and I respect how he respects what his background brings to his perspective.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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The MLB postseason is back in action today, as all four Division Series get underway. In the American League, it’s a pair of intradivisional matchups, as the AL Central’s Guardians and White Sox battle while the AL East’s Rays and Yankees are also looking to make it to the ALCS. In the NL, the Brewers will take on the Padres, while the Dodgers begin their run to a three-peat against the Braves.

Cleveland Guardians vs. Chicago White Sox (Game 1 @ 12 p.m. CT, TBS & HBO Max)

The Guardians, who locked up the No. 2 seed in the AL despite only 85 wins in the regular season, are set to begin their playoff run on Saturday afternoon at Progressive Field. Like several other teams here, the Guards have become a regular in the postseason, as this is their eighth appearance in the last 11 seasons. Since making the World Series in 2016, however, they haven’t had a deep run in the playoffs — they’ve made the ALCS just once (in 2024), bowing out in the ALWCS or ALDS in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2025. Even so, they have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, headlined by Parker Messick and Gavin Williams. They’ll take on the White Sox, who took out the AL West-winning Astros in Houston this week. Chicago is young and hungry, coming off their first playoff series win since they won the World Series back in 2005. They have a power-heavy offense behind Colson Montgomery, Miguel Vargas, and Munetaka Murakami, but they have one of the worst pitching staffs among the remaining playoff squads.

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves (Game 1 @ 3 p.m. CT, FOX & FOX One)

The Dodgers are the Dodgers, so I don’t think I need to say much about them. Led by Shohei Ohtani and a plethora of other veterans, they’ve won the last two World Series, making the playoffs every year since 2013 and making it to at least the NLCS in seven of the last 11 seasons. The Braves eked out a series win over the Phillies in the NL Wild Card Series, and they’re looking to make a run in the postseason for the first time since winning the World Series in 2021. They also have a bunch of veterans leading the way, with ace Chris Sale, closer Raisel Iglesias, and offensive pieces that include Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Drake Baldwin, and Michael Harris II.

Tampa Bay Rays vs. New York Yankees (Game 1 @ 5:30 p.m. CT, TBS & HBO Max)

The Rays, like the Guardians and Brewers, are a small market team that has become a regular in the playoffs. While they didn’t make the last two postseasons, they reached five consecutive years from 2019 to 2023, including a World Series appearance in 2020. They’re led by Junior Caminero on offense, with Jonathan Aranda and Yandy Díaz supporting him in the heart of the lineup. On the mound, Tampa has former Brewer Drew Rasmussen, who finished the year with a 2.67 ERA over 172 innings. They also have one of the best closers in baseball with Bryan Baker, who finished the year with 41 saves and a 1.44 ERA. The Yankees, whose offense looked pretty meh for a good chunk of the season, took it to the rival Red Sox in New York this week, scoring nine runs in both Wild Card games even without star Aaron Judge. They have a good mix of veterans like Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm, and Paul Goldschmidt to go with their young guys in Ben Rice, Luis García, Spencer Jones, and George Lombard Jr. On the mound, they have the three-headed monster of Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole, and Max Fried to start games, with David Bednar closing things out.

Milwaukee Brewers vs. San Diego Padres (Game 1 @ 7:30 p.m. CT, FS1)

Paul dug deeper into this matchup in yesterday’s series preview, so I’ll keep this short. The Brewers have one of the most balanced offenses in baseball, and while they play small ball extremely well, they just don’t hit homers — will that work in a postseason environment? They also have a great pitching staff, led by Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson in the rotation and Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill in the bullpen. The Padres were arguably the best team in baseball after the All-Star break, as the offense found life behind Fernando Tatis Jr. Michael King anchors what is a pretty mediocre rotation, but they have one of the best bullpens in baseball with Mason Miller closing games and Yuki Matsui, Adrian Morejón, and Jason Adam setting him up.

Before Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, Dave Winfield (along with Dave Parker) was the definitive “Holy (bleep) that guy is huge!” star. Although his Yankees tenure was clouded by a tumultuous relationship with George Steinbrenner, Winfield deserves to be remembered as a great Yankee who made those 80s teams memorable despite never winning a ring.

David Mark Winfield
Born: October 3, 1951 (St. Paul, MN)
Yankees tenure: 1981-90

Winfield’s athletic abilities were already quite apparent in his youth. He starred in both baseball and basketball in high school and college. Following his time at the University of Minnesota, he was drafted by teams from not one, not two, but three pro leagues — in addition to MLB’s Padres and the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings took a flier on Winfield even though he hadn’t played college football. Thankfully, the hulking phenom chose the diamond.

The Padres thrust Winfield into the fire, having him skip the minor leagues entirely and placing him on their major league roster. While he wasn’t exactly a star from the word go, he was a productive regular almost immediately, hitting .277/.331/.383 (106 wRC+) across 154 PAs in 1973 as a 21 year-old. 

From there, Winfield continued to steadily improve, going from 1.9 WAR in ‘74, to 2.8 in ‘75, and 4.6 in ‘76. In 1977, he earned his first All-Star selection; he returned to the Midsummer Classic every year from then on until 1988. His pièces de résistance came in 1979, when he slashed .308/.395/.558 (161 wRC+) with 34 homers and a league-leading 118 RBI while winning a Gold Glove in right field. His 7.8 WAR paced the National League, even though he finished 3rd in MVP voting. Bet all the keyboard warriors were furi- oh right they didn’t exist back then. 

All this was more than enough to catch the eye of George Steinbrenner, who was eager to add another ring after consecutive titles in ‘77 and ‘78. In December 1980, the Yankees made Winfield the richest player in baseball with a ten-year, $23 million contract. Winfield almost made the Boss’ dream come true in ‘81, posting a 139 wRC+ in the strike-shortened regular season before showing out on both sides of the ball in the ALDS and ALCS. Here’s the large baseball man robbing Tony Armas of a home run in ALCS Game 2:

However, the season ended on a sour note for Winfield and the Yankees. The Dodgers won the World Series in six games, and Winfield was limited to just one hit in 22 at bats. In a show of poor comedic timing, he asked for the ball after his lone hit, a single. Needless to say, this did not sit well with George Steinbrenner, and the two would become bitter enemies for the remainder of Winfield’s time in the Bronx.

The 1981 season would be the Yankees’ only postseason appearance during Winfield’s tenure. However, that was no fault of Winfield’s, who kept producing at a high level well into his thirties. Although modern defensive metrics suggest that his sterling defensive reputation at the time wasn’t wholly deserved, there is absolutely no doubt about the quality of his bat.

In terms of batting average, Winfield’s best year came in 1984, when he locked horns with a young Don Mattingly for the AL batting title. The teammates were tied going into the very last game of the season, but Mattingly won the title by going 4-for-5, raising his average to .343, while Winfield went 1-for-4, finishing the year at a .340 clip. Here’s a clip of him from that year showing not only his sheer strength, but the impressive plate coverage that allowed him to hit for such a high average:

On the other hand, saber-enthusiasts like me would point to 1988 as Winfield’s best season in pinstripes. That year, he slashed .322/.398/.530 for a 157 wRC+, the fourth-highest mark in the majors. What makes this even more impressive is that he did this at 36 years old. To put this into context, Giancarlo Stanton was in his age-35 season when he surprised us all by posting a 157 wRC+ in 77 games last year. Now imagine him being just as good this year, except over a full season. Can you? I certainly can’t. Among all qualified seasons by batters aged 36 or above since 1947, Winfield’s 1988 ranks 19th, tied with 1971 Willie Mays and 2001 Edgar Martinez.

All told, in his time as a Yankee, Winfield hit .290/.356/.495 with 205 homers and 818 RBI. No matter how you slice it, he was worth every penny of his contract. And yet, George Steinbrenner, famously afflicted with a severe case of “what have you done for me lately”-brain, made it his personal mission to antagonize Winfield at every turn.

In 1985, after the Yankees faded late in the season and ceded the division lead to the Toronto Blue Jays, the cantankerous owner derided Winfield in the papers, saying, “Where is Reggie Jackson? We need a Mr. October or a Mr. September. Winfield is Mr. May.” In 1987, Steinbrenner began to withhold payments owed to Winfield to be donated to the Winfield Foundation, founded in 1977 to provide relief and opportunities to struggling families in his hometown of St. Paul. Steinbrenner accused Winfield of misappropriating funds for personal gain, circulating unfounded reports in the media in an attempt to undermine the star player’s credibility.

Ultimately, Steinbrenner would ruin himself in his quest to tarnish Winfield’s name. The Yankees owner made a deal with gambler and alleged Mafia associate Howie Spira, paying him $40,000 in exchange to dig up dirt on Winfield. Spira publicly accused Winfield of betting on baseball, and commissioner Fay Vincent launched an investigation. However, no evidence was found of Winfield ever betting on baseball; what was uncovered was Steinbrenner’s clandestine deal with Spira. Vincent ordered Steinbrenner to resign as general partner of the Yankees and banned him from team operations for three years, and that was that.

At that point, Winfield had had more than enough. In May 1990, he waived his no-trade clause and accepted a trade to the California Angels, where he would play the following season as well. In 1992, at 40 years of age, Winfield played a crucial role on the championship-winning Blue Jays, hitting 26 homers and driving in 108 in the regular season, and coming up with the decisive blow in Game 6 of the World Series, an 11th-inning, two-run double. So much for the “Mr. May” moniker!

After three more years in the majors, two with his hometown Twins and one final year with Cleveland, Winfield called it quits. His career numbers are truly staggering; 465 homers, 3110 hits, and a .283/.353/.475 line over 23 seasons. In 2001, in his first year of eligibility, he was elected to the Hall of Fame.

Dave Winfield was a truly elite player who shone brightly in the Bronx. It’s a shame that he only had one chance to play in the postseason as a Yankee, but that shouldn’t cloud our appraisal of what he contributed to this franchise. For the better part of a decade, Winfield provided Yankee fans with top-level play, even as his teams could not quite reach October. He deserves to be remembered as one of the Yankees’ best free agent signings of all time, and just simply as a Yankees great.

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See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

The Baseball Gods have lined up over 10 consecuive hours of baseball for you to view this Saturday as both the National League and American League Division Series begin.

First pitch in Cleveland between the Guardians and Chicago White Sox will be thrown at 1:00 PM ET byt breakout lefty Parker Messick as the Pale Hose attempt to continue their miracle return to the postseason. Chicago took the Wild Card Series over the Houston Astros after a series of 100 loss seasons had buried them in the depths of the AL Central, adding a postseason series victory to their ledger for the first time in 20 years. Rookie Hagen Smith, who was drafted three picks after the Cincinnati Reds selected Chase Burns 2nd overall in the 2024 MLB Draft, gets the start for Chicago with game coverage on TBS.

Following that game will be the Atlanta Braves on the road against their old NL West foes the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tarik Skubal, acquired from the Detroit Tigers for precisely this time of year, will start for LA on a day when temperatures in southern California are expected to soar into the triple digits, while Atlanta’s starter is still TBD this morning. The Braves shrugged off the Philadelphia Phillies in the Wild Card round just yesterday before catching a flight to the west coast. FOX has this broadcast.

The New York Yankees continue their quest for their first World Series title since the Second Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of the Spanish Succession on the road in Tampa against the Rays this evening. Righty Drew Rasmussen will throw the game’s first pitch at roughly 6:30 PM ET while righty Gerrit Cole will start for New York. That game will also be carried by TBS.

Saturday’s nightcap will feature the Milwaukee Brewers hosting the upstart San Diego Padres, who seemingly haven’t lost a baseball game in a month. Fireballer Jacob Misiorowski will start for the Beers opposite former Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray for the Friars, with first pitch there set for 8:30 PM ET. This game will be carried by FS1.

Pack your coolers with some cold ones and drop a few tube meats on the grill – this Saturday is packed with playoff baseball (just not of the Cincinnati variety)!

The opening day of Major League Baseball's best-of-five Division Series features a full slate of four games, beginning with the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Guardians at 1 p.m. ET.

The Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers are the second game of the day at 4 p.m. ET at Dodger Stadium, with scorching temperatures of 100 degrees expected in Southern California. In a matchup of AL East rivals, the Tampa Bay Rays host the New York Yankees at Tropicana Field at 6:30 p.m. ET. In the nightcap, the San Diego Padres visit the Milwaukee Brewers, who had MLB's best record in the regular season.

Game 2s of the NLDS will be played on Sunday, while the American League series get a day off and will resume with their second games on Monday, Oct. 5.

Here's a look at Saturday's quaduple-header:

MLB playoff schedule, games today

• Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Guardians, Game 1 at 1 p.m. (TBS/truTV/HBO Max)
• Atlanta Braves at Los Angeles Dodgers, Game 1 at 4 p.m. (FS1/FOX Deportes/FOX One)
• New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays, Game 1 at 6:30 p.m. (TBS/truTV/HBO Max)
• San Diego Padres at Milwaukee Brewers, Game 1 at 8:30 p.m. (FS1/FOX Deportes/FOX One)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB playoff games and schedule today: Quadruple-header on deck

It’s only fitting that the team with the pressure of living up to astronomically high expectations would debut in the playoffs in a game in which the victory appears to be the only plausible result. In a single baseball game, anything can happen, but one could hardly manufacture a more lopsided pitching scenario if they tried for Game 1 of the NLDS between the Dodgers and Braves.

The reigning back-to-back champs gave themselves the luxury of foregoing last postseason’s hero Yoshinobu Yamamoto in favor of Tarik Skubal for the first matchup of this series. Meanwhile, Atlanta needs to find 27 outs from a pitching staff that lacks reliable starting options for this opening game, inevitably turning to a bullpen effort. While we’ve seen in the past teams going this route as a way of capitalizing on a strength, in the Braves’ case it’s nearly purely out of necessity.

With Skubal on the mound at Dodger Stadium, the home team can create a perfect storm against a Braves offense that during the year has struggled against lefties (91 wRC+) and also has had its issues on the road (89 team wRC+). We’ve already seen glimpses of these problems facing lefties in the Wild Card round, as Jesús Luzardo and Cristopher Sánchez looked in control of their outings against Atlanta—Luzardo allowed just one run in five innings, and Sánchez had only one run on the books through six innings until getting pushed past his limit and allowing a couple more runs in the seventh. Dodger fans know all too well about Don Mattingly and leaving starters in too long in the postseason.

Such heavy favoritism might have been intimidating in other circumstances in the past, but for the back-to-back champs, it is easier to simply expect that they can take advantage of this opportunity before facing Chris Sale on Monday—one that was rightfully earned by beating out the Braves for this second seed in the National League.

NLDS Game 1 info

• Teams: No. 2 seed Dodgers vs. No. 3 seed Braves
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Start time: 1 p.m.
• TV: Fox (Joe Davis, John Smoltz, Ken Rosenthal)
• National radio: ESPN Radio (Dave O’Brien, Jessica Mendoza)
• Local English radio: AM 570 (Charley Steiner, Rick Monday)
• Local Spanish radio: KTNQ 1020 AM (José Mota, Luis Cruz)

The Phillies are not playing baseball for the rest of the 2026 season. In some ways, you’re all free from whatever this season. In some ways, we are all just trapped in whatever they prepare to do for a 2027 season that only might happen.

Given the nature of this season, it feels right to ask a few big picture questions about where everything is going. Dave Dombrowski has been running the team since the 2020-21 off-season and has seen the team make the playoffs in each of the last five seasons. This is the first of which both the regular season record and postseason results went backwards. It’s time to at least ask a few important questions.

Should the Phillies look at 2026 as just a down season or the beginning of a bigger trend?

The Phillies won 95 games in 2024 with the second-best record in the National League and followed that up with 96 wins and the second-best record in the NL again. While both seasons featured quick October exits, the Phillies were clearly at the top of National League World Series contenders given their regular season success.

2026 was a step back. They won eight fewer games than the previous season and backed into the Wild Card series as the sixth seed, needing to win game 162 to even make it. After losing in said Wild Card, it is clear the Phillies are as far from contending as they’ve been in a while.

With all of that said, the core of the roster in both years is basically the same. Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper are still the two best hitters. Trea Turner is still here. The rotation has the same core. Jhoan Duran is still the closer.

There are basically two competing ideas. One is that the core is aging. Kyle Schwarber is almost 34. Bryce Harper is almost 34. Trea Turner is 34. JT Realmuto is 35. Zack Wheeler is 36. Besides Wheeler and Harper, all of these guys regressed to different degrees. It could be very difficult to overcome.

The other, and the path easier to face, is that this season was just weird. They got off to a disastrous start and sometimes that happens. The manager got fired. Trea Turner just had a weird year. Same for JT Realmuto. Kyle Schwarber is still very good even if he regressed from 2025. Bryce went from first base to right field.

It is easy to overreact to one year and start making decisions that set them back further. It’s also easy to underreact and not look for significant changes. The Atlanta Braves won 76 games in 2025 and then bounced back with 94 wins this year thanks to a few smaller changes, some health, and bounce-back seasons from key players. Sometimes you just have a weird year.

Making significant roster changes to the core will also be extremely difficult. Almost every highly paid veteran on the Phillies roster carries trade protection, either because it’s in their contract or because of 10-5 rights.

Is just throwing money at the issue enough or do the problems run much deeper?

At minimum, the major league roster needs at least one new starting outfielder (let’s say it’s not Trea Turner for argument’s sake), a new third baseman, and multiple new left-handed relievers. One of those lineup upgrades probably needs to hit cleanup.

While Jesús Luzardo is getting a big raise with his extension and other’s will see smaller ones, there is some money. Since the Competitive Balance Tax existed, the penalties have reset after every new CBA agreement so let’s assume that happens again.

Maybe they throw a bunch of money at one of the aging outfielders. Maybe it’s Randy Arozarena, or maybe it’s Seiya Suzuki or Ian Happ. Maybe Bo Bichette opts out of his contract with the Mets (I wouldn’t count on it) and is a target. Maybe it’s someone else.

But does money solve this? It might help the 2027 roster but the problems just seem deeper.

Andrew Painter showed plenty of growth as a rookie but that wasn’t exactly the same for Justin Crawford. There were flashes of what it could look like but Crawford regressed hard every time. He still hits too many groundballs and struggles to play a consistent center field. Given that he had an 80 wRC+ on a .317 BABIP, it just seems like there is a long ways to go before he is any kind of capable starting outfielder.

The 2026 roster featured only six players above replacement level according to bWAR. That is troubling and might not be fixable in one offseason.

The farm system is in rough shape. Aidan Miller did not play until September but is playing in the Arizona Fall League. Gage Wood looks like a good pitching prospect but probably needs more time before being a major league contributor. Their best storyline was Bryan Rincon, who broke out with a power surge in the hitting-friendly environment of AA Reading (and a very juiced minor league baseball).

How impactful are the changes around the players supposed to be?

The Phillies will be looking for a new manager and with that will probably come a new coaching staff. The Phillies tried to hire Alex Cora in April after Rob Thomson was fired and it’s hard to imagine them not trying again this offseason. Given his reputation, it is natural to think Cora would bring in some coaches.

The biggest questions will be with Caleb Cotham and Kevin Long. Cotham’s responsibilities with the Phillies run deeper than just being the major league pitching coach. If the Phillies were to let him go, it’s easy to think they would have to backfill that with multiple hires. Given how tied he is to their minor league pitching development, he just seems safe even with a new manager.

Kevin Long is a different question. I obviously have no sourcing and it’s important to remember that Long signed a three year extension last offseason.

But with that said, it’s just harder to see him sticking around. The offense regressed from 9th in wRC+ in 2025 to 28th this past season. Trea Turner regressed hard. JT regressed hard. Brandon Marsh made the all-star team but was a disaster in the second half. The team only had 4 hitters with an OPS above 100 and two of them were Bryan De La Cruz and Derek Hill, clear bench players.

Given the results and an incoming manager, it just seems hard to picture Long remaining as the hitting coach moving forward.

With all of this, how impactful are these changes supposed to be? The core is likely to remain the same and there is only so much a manager, a hitting coach, and others can really change. What are the expectations going to be?

Well the Braves won a playoff series and exorcised some demons of recent postseasons past in the process this week against the Phillies. Their reward is facing the death-star Dodgers in a best-of-5 series with a spot in the NLCS on the line.

Game 1 will be perhaps the most challenging, with the Braves opting for a bullpen game and the Dodgers being able to throw a fresh Tarik Skubal on the other side. The Dodgers will be heavily favored in this game and for good reason. The Braves faced Skubal once this season and were able to score two runs off him over 7.0 innings, with a home run coming from Ozzie Albies. To be honest, that is an outcome I would take if you offered it to me right now for how the Braves perform against him today. The big lefty has been incredible for 4 seasons now, with very strong strikeout numbers, an extremely low walk rate, and a solid ground ball rate. His FIP and xFIP have hovered in the mid-2 range since the beginning of 2023. His well-shaped upper-90s fastball from the left side leads his arsenal, with a hard changeup and slider, as well as a sinker make up the vast majority of his remaining pitches. There isn’t a real weakness for Skubal. The Braves will need some luck and a big moment or two against him to put up some runs. Getting him out of the game early sure would help as well.

Meanwhile, the Braves have a talented bullpen to face the Dodgers’ lineup that was second-best in wRC+ in baseball this year. That said, covering 9.0 innings means that we will likely get bulk innings from non-high-leverage options. We will have to hope they can get through those innings without that potent Dodgers offense putting up crooked numbers left and right.

Game Info

Game Time: Saturday, October 3, 4:00 pm EDT

Location: UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA

Watch: FOX

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM, ESPN Radio

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Yankees are getting a power lefty boost to their bullpen for the ALDS.

Ryan Weathers is on the roster to face the Rays, after the Yankees left him off for the AL wild-card series to give him more time to ramp up from a left forearm flexor strain that sidelined him for the final month of the regular season.

The left-hander, who pitched to a 3.60 ERA in 25 starts this season, is coming back as a reliever, likely limited to one or possibly one-plus inning at a time.

But he still offers real value for the Yankees, with Aaron Boone saying earlier this week he could play a “massive role” moving forward.

The other lefties in the Yankees bullpen are heavily used setup man Brent Headrick and the soft-tossing Ryan Yarbrough.

Headrick lost some velocity late in the season, looking like he might be running out of gas, while Yarbrough is mostly on the roster to offer some length if the Yankees get into a tough spot.

Weathers, meanwhile, was back up to 96 mph in a live batting practice last week.

The Yankees had him throw another on Monday, taking him out of consideration to be on the wild-card roster but ensuring that if they advanced, he would be available to pitch more often in the ALDS, which they now stand to benefit from.

Especially with off days after Games 1, 2 and 4, Weathers has a chance to impact multiple games.

He said on Friday he hoped he would only need one day off in between appearances, though the Yankees will not be rash in how they use him coming back from the injury.

“I feel super healthy enough to be on [the roster],” Weathers said Friday. “Bouncing back really well.”

Aaron Judge is not on the roster for the Yankees' five-game ALDS matchup against the Tampa Bay Rays, per multiple reports.

The Bronx Bombers kick off the series against their AL East division rivals on Saturday evening, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Judge took live batting practice on Friday at Tropicana Field, but has not yet progressed to running the bases or practicing in the outfield.

The superstar slugger continues to work his way back from a right calf strain, which also sidelined him for the team's Wild Card series against the Boston Red Sox.

The Yankees offense fared just fine without their captain in that series, scoring 18 runs across the two-game sweep of their archrivals.

In 66 games during the regular season, Judge slashed .241/.360/.511 with 18 home runs and 41 RBI. He missed more than three months with a right rib stress fracture before returning to the Yankees Sept. 7, hitting his first home run back Sept. 14. The calf injury came two days later.

Meanwhile, Aaron Boone did make one change to the Yankees' 26-man roster for the ALDS; Ryan Weathers - who has not pitched since late August due to a flexor tendon strain in his left forearm, but has been ramping up with live batting practice - has been added to the team's bullpen for the series.

As such, versatile infielder and righty batter Amed Rosario was left off the roster, having been swapped for the southpaw. This makes sense, as the expected Rays starters for the first three games of the series - Drew Rasmussen, Nick Martinez, and Freddy Peralta - are all right-handed pitchers.

Weathers recorded a healthy 3.60 ERA and 1.223 WHIP across 25 starts for New York during the regular season. His strong strikeout rate, walk rate, and ground ball rate indicate his theoretical fit as a bullpen option for the Yankees during the upcoming series.

Our 26 for the ALDS. #RepBX | #Postseasonpic.twitter.com/8Y5ZknJmeg

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 3, 2026

The 2026 Major League Baseball playoffs are on to the best-of-five Division Series with eight teams remaining – and a quadruple header on Saturday, Oct. 3 to get the round underway.

In the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays face the New York Yankees while the Cleveland Guardians meet the Chicago White Sox in two intradivision matchups. In the National League, the MLB-best Milwaukee Brewers take on the San Diego Padres, and the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers meet the Atlanta Braves.

The Yankees, White Sox, Padres and Braves all had to win best-of-three wild card series, while the Rays, Guardians, Brewers and Dodgers all earned a bye through the first round as the top division winners in each league.

The winners advance to the best-of-seven League Championship Series.

What teams are in MLB playoffs?

American League

• Tampa Bay Rays
• Cleveland Guardians
• New York Yankees
• Chicago White Sox

National League

• Milwaukee Brewers
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• Atlanta Braves
• San Diego Padres

MLB playoffs bracket

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What teams are in MLB playoffs? See the full bracket and schedule

They’re in a league of their own.

The 3,000 women of Bombshell Baseball Club take game days very seriously — and if they can’t make it to the stadium, they’re dissecting games live in their huge group chat.

“Every single at bat, every out, is being talked about in that moment,” founder Alley Cabral told The Post.

“When the game is on, we are all talking baseball, but then it goes into girls’ families and their marriages and relationship stuff.”

Cabral, 29, a Bronx native, actually quit her corporate job this year to run the club for female fans of Major League Baseball, which she launched via Twitter in October 2024.

Back then, she named it Bronx Bombshells, intending it to be for diehard Yankees fans like herself.

“As a Dominican-American, baseball is my identity. So it was something that I had with my family and my boyfriend, but I didn’t have any girlfriends that actually enjoyed it. And I realized that if I’m feeling alone in this, there has to be other people that are,” said Cabral.

Within a year, she expanded the group to female fans of any MLB team and changed the name to Bombshell Baseball Club.

Now, the ladies are having a ball during the playoffs — especially local Yankees fans, as the team advanced to the ALDS.

“Post-season baseball is my favorite time of the year. It’s when you get to see 162 games worth of fandom hopefully pay off and experience it with the people you love the most,” said Erica Fisher of New Jersey, who has been a member since 2025.

Soon after Cabral started the then-Twitter group, members began encouraging her to organize in-person meetups.

The first one was at Yankee Stadium in April 2025, when eight girls showed up.

In August, 230 women showed up for a Yankees hat event.

“They talk every single day . . . so they literally act like they’ve known each other for years. So, you hear screaming, shrieking, picture taking. Everyone’s running around,” Cabral said.

“Game days are crazy in the best way possible. Because just imagine 30, 40, 50 girls, all congregating in a section.”

In June of 2025, Cabral launched an official online chat for Yankees fans, and by August, added subchannels, so now each team in the MLB has their own.

“So any girl that’s a fan of any team can join and find girls that actually like that team too,” she explained.

“And then we have a main chat where all the girls just talk random stuff.”

Of course, some of the chatter involves swooning over players.

“I think we all have crushes on the players, that’s just how it goes,” she said.

As the club grew in popularity, Cabral hired a team of eight — from Queens, Yonkers, Pennsylvania, Texas and California — to help organize in-person meetups at stadiums around the country, as well as watch parties at bars and restaurants.

“It’s a full-fledged business right now,” she said.

“The way we have income is through revenue from our events and membership. So people have the option to do a free membership, but if they want discounts to events, they have the option to purchase a membership.”

And what will happen when Yankees and Red Sox fans get together?

“We have a strict ‘no fighting’ rule in our group,” Cabral said.