Category: Baseball

Pat Murphy is taking the Brewers in seven.

The Milwaukee manager didn’t hold back when discussing the upcoming National League Championship Series against the Dodgers.

“We’re going to do our best to stay with them and beat them in 7 games.”

“We’re gonna be more ready than we were last time, I believe. That doesn’t guarantee anything but we got to be ready for what they say is the best team in baseball, but we think we are,” Murphy said after the Brewers defeated the Padres in the NLDS Wednesday night.

The Dodgers also faced Milwaukee in the NLCS last season, but the Brewers have played arguably better baseball in 2026. LA swept the Brewers on their way to the World Series in 2025.

This year, the Brewers have largely been unstoppable with a roaring offense and NL Cy Young candidate Jacob Misiorowski. In the same way, the Dodgers have also looking sharp with a 100-win season and a lights-out rotation full of aces.

While Milwaukee boasts the best record in baseball, the Dodgers own back-to-back World Series titles to support their efforts in October.

The series won’t be easy for either team.

It’s a matchup poised for great baseball as the small-market Brewers take on the sport’s juggernaut. And the Dodgers have shown that spending money doesn’t guarantee a championship unless a team has all the right pieces.

Several minutes after both the predictable and unthinkable — another team celebrating on the Yankee Stadium turf, this time the Rays after sweeping through the ALDS — three Yankees lingered on the top step of the dugout. They stared. They absorbed. They stored what will be used as fuel. 

Paul Blackburn peeled off the railing and began making his way to the clubhouse. Soon after, Aaron Judge followed. 

And finally, the last Yankee to force himself from watching the revolting sight was the youngest: George Lombard Jr. 

“I’m going to have to learn from it and keep this feeling with it and use that in the work next year,” Lombard said after the Yankees were eliminated Wednesday night in The Bronx. “… It sucks. It hurts. There’s a lot of things that go into it, but yeah, it’s definitely a feeling that you don’t want to feel after your last game. 

“It’s definitely going to be on my mind a lot.” 

The Yankees will not fondly remember 2026, when Judge and Giancarlo Stanton missed much of the season, their replacements did not adequately replace them, and yet another campaign ended in disappointment, but it is at least possible it will be recalled as the year Lombard earned his shot. 

A year that started in Double-A Somerset, where Lombard did not even last a month, ended as the everyday playoff shortstop for the Yankees. 

He showed flashes of brilliance defensively, and his fourth-inning highlight — in which he charged a chopper that had leaped over Max Fried, barehanded it and slung a throw to cut down Junior Caminero — might have been remembered if the game had finished differently. He also showed that he is 21 years old, both with his six-game error streak and in being part of the Game 2 defensive meltdown. 

Offensively, he performed better than expected. The Yankees would welcome further steps, but a prospect known more for his glove and headiness hit .237 with a .699 OPS in his first 42 games before holding his own in October. 

Lombard’s first playoff run, albeit brief, finished at 6-for-18 (.333) with six singles and four strikeouts. On Wednesday, he was a bright spot in stroking a hard-hit single, adding another on a slow roller to third and later walking, using an automated ball-strike system challenge — which has been a strength of his — to earn the trip to first. 

“It was definitely a good experience for the first year,” said Lombard, who replaced Anthony Volpe and José Caballero at shortstop in early August. “I’m going to take everything with me because it’s not the way we want to end going forward.” 

There is little known about the 2027 Yankees infield. Can they really bring back Ryan McMahon, who is owed $16 million for next season, made a costly error in Game 2, was benched in Game 3 and simply did not hit enough this season? Is Jazz Chisholm Jr., who also was benched for the elimination game, a goner as a free agent? Are the Yankees serious about Luis García Jr. possibly getting work at second base, which would open first for Ben Rice? Is Paul Goldschmidt, who wants to keep playing, still an option as a lefty-killer at first? Where do Volpe and Caballero fit? 

The best bet among the group is that Lombard, a 2023 first-round pick whose first taste of major league life included more promise than problems, will be back at shortstop. 

And motivated. 

“Definitely a lot to take from it,” said Lombard, who was particularly upset about Judge, Stanton and Goldschmidt coming up short of a title. “It just sucks to go out like this.”

Hey folks, if you are doing a full detox from baseball in wake of the Yankees’ ugly elimination last night at the hands of the Rays, I totally get it. However, in case anyone here wants to chat about the one playoff game on tonight, I figured that I would throw a thread up, just in case!

The surprising White Sox lead their ALDS, two games to one, but unlike the Yankees, Cleveland won yesterday to force a Game 4. The aggressive White Sox bullpenning finally hit a wall of sorts, spoiling the fun of the first playoff game on the South Side of Chicago in five years. If the Guardians turn the trick again, we’ll be guaranteed of at least some baseball between now and the start of the Brewers/Dodgers NLCS on Sunday night. Game 5 would be Saturday in Cleveland.

With the Yankees out of it, I’m fully rooting for maximum-length series to squeeze however much competitive baseball I can out of the 2026 season, so go Guards. Either way, I’ll be hoping for a miracle in the ALCS and that one of these underwhelming AL Central teams can pull off an upset over Tampa Bay. A lad can dream!

Today’s Matchup:

American League Division Series Game 4

Chicago White Sox vs. Cleveland Guardians (CWS leads 2-1)

Time: 8:00 p.m. EST

TV: TBS/HBO Max, TruTV, Univision

Venue: Rate Field, Chicago, IL

Three of the four Championship Series teams are set, and so far the postseason has gone straight chalk. In the National League, the #1-seeded Brewers and #2 Dodgers will square off for the second straight year. In the American League, the top-ranked Rays are ALCS-bound after sweeping the Yankees, to everyone’s delight. The Rays will wait to find out what opponent they’ll face, which could be decided tonight as the #6-seeded White Sox have the chance to crash the party of top-ranked teams.

Guardians at White Sox, 8:00 PM (TBS/HBO Max) — White Sox lead 2-1

LHP Parker Messick (CLE) vs. LHP Hagen Smith (CWS)

The White Sox failed to sweep the series yesterday, as the Guardians’ offense erupted for nine runs — four more than any other team has scored in the Division Series round — to keep Cleveland’s hopes alive for another day. As you might have heard, it’s been a minute since the White Sox clinched a playoff series at home. To be precise, it’s been 120 years, since the 1906 White Sox won the World Series over the crosstown Cubs at South Side Park. That was before there was televised baseball. Or televised anything. You could only keep up with sports or current events by reading something called a newspaper. Truly wild times.

Anyway, the White Sox have another chance to end that drought tonight. As has been their custom in this postseason, they’re just going to cobble together a bullpen game instead of using a real starting pitcher. The White Sox have used an opener in five of their six playoff games so far, including this one, where rookie lefty Hagen Smith will do the opening honors for the third time. He has pitched 5.2 scoreless innings in his two previous outings as an opener this postseason, so it seems to be working.

The Guardians, by contrast, have a strong starting rotation, and none are stronger than tonight’s hurler, Parker Messick. The 25-year-old lefty was an All-Star this season, going 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA in 32 starts. In his Game 1 outing against the White Sox, though, he labored for 87 pitches in 4.1 innings and gave up two runs in a Guardians shutout loss.

I don’t have a strong preference for who wins this series. I suppose it would be nice for the White Sox to finally celebrate a postseason series win at home after all this time, but if they do, that means we won’t have any more baseball until Sunday. If the Guardians win today, it’ll force a winner-take-all Game 5 in Cleveland on Saturday.

And then there was one… Three of the Division Series finished yesterday. The Brewers and Dodgers both finished off their opponents in four games, and will face off again – as they did last year – starting on Sunday. Milwaukee are 0-3 in NLCS’s: as well as losing to LA in 2026, they did so in 2018, and the Cardinals in 2011. It has been 44 years since the Brewer last World Series appearance: the Pirates (47 years) and the Mariners (never) are the only franchises with a longer pennant drought. Meanwhile, in the American League, the Rays get to chill out until Monday, waiting for whoever prevails betwen the Guardians and White Sox.

If the White Sox win today, there’ll be no baseball until the NLCS kicks off Sunday. So I guess let’s hope for a Guardians victory, so we’ll have something to do over the weekend!

• Cleveland Guardians @ Chicago White Sox (1-2): 5:00 pm, TBS/truTV

Game four of the Guardians/White Sox series. White Sox are up two games to one. They win, they take on the Rays.

Lineups:

The MLB wants to cut the season to a 154 games in the future.

The League Championship Series matchups are almost set.

Wednesday saw the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers move on in the National League, while the Tampa Bay Rays completed a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees in the American League. Now, all eyes turn to Chicago, where the Cleveland Guardians — who won 9-3 yesterday — try to even the series against the White Sox to force Game 5 on Saturday.

Now, let’s get to the details.

Cleveland Guardians (0-2) at Chicago White Sox (2-0) — 6:00 PM MDT

Pitching Matchup: LHP Parker Messick (12-9, 2.56 ERA) vs. LHP Hagen Smith (3-3, 1.29 ERA)

TV: TBS/HBO Max

SB Nation Sites:Southside Sox, Covering the Corner

Lineups:

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

This what they call a must-win game.

Here’s the Guardians lineup:

Here’s the White Sox lineup:

Let’s go, Guardians!

The number of playoff teams is dwindling.

Tonight, the Chicago White host the Cleveland Guardians in Game Four of the American League Divisional Series. It is the only remaining Divisional Series in the playoffs as the other three have concluded, including two last night.

The first team to advance to the League Championship Series was the Los Angeles Dodgers, who easily dispatched the Atlanta Braves in four games. Yesterday, the Rays completed their sweep of the Yankees as the Brewers knocked off the Padres.

The NLCS is set: Los Angeles Dodgers vs Milwaukee Brewers.

The Tampa Bay Rays await the winner of the Cleveland-Chicago series. Chicago jumped to a two-games-to-nothing lead before Cleveland won 9-3 yesterday to live another day.

That day is today.

The White Sox will send out lefty Hagen Smith to open against the Guardians. Smith, the former No. 5 pick, went 3-3 during the regular season over 18 appearances that included one start. Smith pitched 2/3 of an inning yesterday while allowing one hit, two walks, and one earned run while striking out one batter.

Cleveland’s going with Parker Messick, another southpaw. Messick pitched 186-and-1/3 innings this season while finishing 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA, 1.063 WHIP, and 3.07 FIP. He struck out 193 batters while walking 51. The first-time All Star finished with a 6.3 bWAR.

He didn’t fare so well in the first game of this series five days ago as he took the loss as he pitched only 4-and-1/3 innings while giving up four hits, two walks, and two earned runs while striking out six.

Let’s get to the lineups, Cleveland first:

Now, for the White Sox:

Major League Baseball on Thursday announced start times and broadcast schedules for the National League Championship Series.

And, for a second straight series, Dodgers fans were greeted with an inconvenient weekday first pitch.

While Game 1 of the team’s NLCS rematch against the Brewers will kick off at 5 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday from American Family Field in Milwaukee, Game 2 on Monday will begin at 2 p.m. local time in Los Angeles –– similar to the late-afternoon weekday starts the Dodgers had in Games 3 and 4 of their NL Division Series defeat of the Braves this week.

Every other game of the NLCS will be at night on the West Coast.

The series shifts to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 (Wednesday at 5 p.m.), Game 4 (Thursday at 6 p.m.) and Game 5 (Friday at 6 p.m.).

Game 6 (Sunday, Oct. 18 at 5 p.m.) and Game 7 (Monday, Oct. 19 at 5 p.m.) will be back in Milwaukee, if necessary.

All games will be on Fox or FS1.

The Dodgers swept the Brewers at this stage in last year’s playoffs, propelling them to a second straight NL pennant en route to a second straight World Series title.

This year, the club is trying to complete the first NL pennant three-peat since the St. Louis Cardinals of 1942-44 and the first World Series three-peat by an NL team in baseball history.

Here is the full schedule for the NLCS:

Game 1, Sunday: 5 p.m. PT, Fox in Milwaukee

Game 2, Monday: 2 p.m. PT, Fox/FS1 in Milwaukee

Game 3, Wednesday: 5 p.m. PT, FS1 at Dodger Stadium

Game 4, Thursday: 6 p.m. PT, FS1 at Dodger Stadium

Game 5*, Friday, Oct. 16: 6 p.m. PT, FS1 at Dodger Stadium

Game 6*, Sunday, Oct. 18: 5 p.m. PT, FS1 in Milwaukee

Game 7*, Monday, Oct. 19: 5 p.m. PT, Fox/FS1 in Milwaukee

*if necessary

Good evening, y’all.

At this time yesterday, I had posted something along the lines of “can we borrow some runs @/guardians”, because our game was deadlocked and Cleveland was well on their way to the 9-3 final score against the Chicago White Sox to stave off their elimination.

Must be fun to score a lot. I’m not bitter, who said that?

Following our LDS exit, the Yankees and Padres quickly followed suit.

Max Fried was charged with the loss with four runs given up to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Yankees very nearly tied the game with a potential two-run homer off the bat of Anthony Volpe. But an umpire review and spectator interference ruling only allowed one run to score… and that was the difference. Yes, that’s Frenchy in the booth. Absolutely unreal way to lose.

Fernando Tatis Jr. homered for the Padres, but that solo shot was all the Padres would manage in Milwaukee.

The last piece of the League Championship Series could fall into place tonight. The White Sox will take another shot at clinching at home at Rate Field tonight at 8 pm ET. Braves menace Parker Messick will get the ball for Cleveland, opposed by reliever Hagen Smith for Chicago.

The comments are yours for the ALDS, post-elimination clarity, or anything else on your mind. Go forth and opine / reflect / GIF to your heart’s content, baseball sickos. I say that with love, as I am one of you.

Major League Baseball announced game times for the 2026 League Championship Series, which begin with the National League on Sunday, Oct. 11 and the AL on Monday, Oct. 12.

The Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers will meet in the best-of-seven NLCS for the second year in a row. The Brew Crew had MLB's best record in 2026 and hope to avenge last year's embarrassing four-game sweep, which also occurred when Milwaukee was the NL's top seed. Los Angeles won the World Series each of the past two years while the Brewers are one of five teams to never win a title, last reaching the Fall Classic in 1982.

The Tampa Bay Rays have home-field advantage in the ALCS which begins a day after the NL, facing the winner of the Cleveland Guardians-Chicago White Sox ALDS. Tampa Bay has reached the World Series twice in franchise history (2008 and 2020) and is among the other clubs that have failed to win a championship.

The ALCS and NLCS winners will face off in the World Series, which begins Friday, Oct. 23.

MLB teams looking to get into the spirit of the season with their players need to do so before Dec. 2, otherwise, the league is telling teams they should avoid sending holiday cards once the lockout begins. 

While the playoffs are in full swing, the likely lockout has cast a cloud over the MLB postseason, with Major League Baseball executive Dan Halem issuing a 34-page memo to owners and high-level team execs explaining how they should act during a labor stoppage. 

And, according to the memo obtained by The Athletic, holiday cards are a no-no. 

“Sending Players holiday cards or gifts would not be permissible during a Lockout,” Halem wrote in the memo. “Clubs could send holiday cards or gifts to players prior to Dec. 2.”

Among the items Halem outlined in the memo was how MLB’s digital arm would create alternate club websites that scrub any trace of the players’ likeness, though teams will still be able to sell merch with players’ names and images on them. 

It also says that team staffers can attend players’ weddings that they have been invited to, but they cannot discuss business and if a club official runs into a player in public, they “should be cordial.” 

The MLB collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m. 

Halem did write in the memo that the league’s “commitment has been and remains to exhaust every realistic option to achieve our goal of reaching an agreement with the Players Association.”

On Thursday, MLB made several proposals to the MLB Players Association, which included shortening the regular season to 154 games, extending the division series from best-of-five to best-of-seven and allowing the higher-seeded teams in the wild-card and divisional rounds to select their opponent. 

However, all of that would be contingent on the players agreeing to a salary cap. 

The MLBPA called the proposed changes “anti-player” as the league “once again made clear that all of its proposals are contingent on players’ agreement to a salary cap, a system that guts player rights and compensation, as well as its other anti-player proposals.”

An MLBPA statement added: “Players will weigh in on these proposals and we will respond at the bargaining table.”

Three teams advanced to the league championship round on Wednesday night. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers wrapped up their series wins over the Atlanta Braves and the San Diego Padres, respectively. They’ll square off in what should be a pretty epic NLCS. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays completed their dismantling of the New York Yankees, never trailing at any point in the series. The Yankees’ World Series drought going back to 2008 continues.

Tonight, the Chicago White Sox will look to knock off the Cleveland Guardians, and they’d be advised to get it done and not face a Game 5 in Progressive Field against Gavin Williams with all the Guardians bullpen arms on alert. First pitch at Rate Field is set for 8:00 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on TBS.

LHP Parker Messick (12-9, 2.56 ERA) takes on LHP Hagen Smith (3-3, 1.29 ERA)

The Guardians have the clear starting pitching advantage, but Smith has been really good and will probably only look to go four innings before White Sox’ manager Will Venable turns to his deep bullpen.

One Yankees legend is calling for a change.

During the Fox postgame show on Wednesday night after the Bombers were swept by the Rays in the American League Division Series, Alex Rodriguez ripped the powers that be in the Bronx, calling for a “philosophy change.”

“Something has to change,” Rodriguez said, kicking off a long rant. “I’m not talking about personnel, but I’m talking about a philosophy. There has to be a philosophy change. You’ve won 27 titles one way. I’m not saying anyone should lose their job, I’ll make that clear. But [general manager Brian] Cashman has to surround himself with people that know baseball, that understand baseball, that can value both sides of the ball. 

Rodriguez took particular issue with the Yankees’ lack of stability around the diamond, arguing that a team facing elimination shouldn’t still be having to solve so many lineup and defensive questions.

“It’s unthinkable in a game where your season is on the line, and of the nine positions, you don’t know who’s gonna play five positions — first base, second base, third base, center field, and right field because [Aaron] Judge is out. If something doesn’t change, you’re gonna have the same results. We’ve been watching the same movie for over a decade, and nothing changes.”

Rodriguez’s comments echo those made by Judge, who watched from the dugout as he nursed a calf strain, after the 4-3 loss. 

“We’re the Yankees,’’ Judge said. “I feel like [the front office] should go all in and do what they need to do. If we’ve got holes, if it’s finding certain players, whatever we need … They give us a winning team every year. That’s not good enough in New York.” 

It remains to be seen whether change will be at the top this winter. 

Before being eliminated, Cashman seemed to indicate that manager Aaron Boone would be back next season.

“I think Boone’s a really good manager,” he said. “We’re here for a reason. There’s a lot of reasons behind that. And he’s certainly part of that.”

Beyond Boone and Cashman, the Yankees have plenty of questions to sort out on the roster. 

Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham, Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario are among the position players who can test free agency, while closer David Bednar is also set to hit the open market.

Outside of George Lombard Jr. at shortstop, there are a ton of questions on the infield, and uncertainty over how much the Yankees can continue to count on the oft-injured Giancarlo Stanton at designated hitter moving forward.