Aaron Judge had yet another dominant season in 2025, taking home his first career batting title, recording his fourth career 50-plus HR season, and more than likely winning his third AL Most Valuable Player Award.
But, just like the past 10 seasons of his career, he and the Yankees won't be celebrating a World Series title at the end of the year.
"It's tough to describe," Judge said of the team's feeling after the loss. "We didn't do our job, didn't finish the goal. Had a special group in here, lot of special players that made this year fun. But we didn't get the ultimate prize, so we came up short."
Judge did all he could against the Jays, hitting .600 (9-for-15) with one home run, six RBI, four walks, and five runs scored. Overall in the postseason, he went 13-for-26 (.500) with seven RBI in seven games. Still, it wasn't enough.
"I think once again it comes down to the little things," Judge said. "Making the little plays, coming with the big hit. If you don't do that, give teams extra outs, they're going to capitalize on it. What a season for the Blue Jays, doing their thing, winning the division, winning the DS.
"For us, we got to clean a couple things up and we'll be right back here."
Manager Aaron Boone was asked similar questions regarding not winning a title with Judge and what he says to him after another special season.
"That's sports," Boone said. "It doesn't mean it's not going to happen, and he and I wholeheartedly believe that it will. Again, you keep working your tail off to get back to this position and punch through."
"Again, I don't take anything for granted in this game. Being in it my whole life, I know how hard it is to win in the end. I have too much respect for the sport and the competition of it for that."
Judge was asked if it gets harder as he gets older to not end the season in victory, saying he's ready to work even more in the offseason to accomplish that goal. The slugger called the 2025 team a "special group" and was upset to let them down, acknowledging the roster will look a bit different next season.
"Yeah, it's what you play for, you play to win. And when you don't win, it's not a good year," Judge said. "Just got to put in more work, review the season, see what I can keep doing to try to help this team, put them in the best position to win every single night."
He added: "I felt like we were a complete team, up and down the lineup... I liked our chances all year. It was a special group. Just sucks for the guys that might be their last time wearing pinstripes and not being able to have a long run with them and end it in the championship... disappointed we let all those guys down."
The team captain is still unsure what the team is missing to get over the hump, but is ready to "go back to work" and start spring training.
"That's tough to say right now," Judge said. "Once I'll review the season and go through it, I'm gonna have a better answer for you. We had our ups and downs. Tough couple weeks, tough couple months, good months. Just felt like we were just starting to get going here at the end and have a nice little postseason run, but it didn't go our way."
Dodger players look on from the dugout as Game 3 of the NLDS at Dodger Stadium winds down. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
They had them down. They let them up.
They squeezed them down to their last gasps. They backed off and gave them new life.
In any ordinary five-game playoff series, a team leading two-games-to-none can lose a game and maintain a clear advantage. But the heavyweight happenings here between the Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies is no ordinary series. And by losing a potential clinching Game 3 Wednesday night at a stunned and boo-filled Chavez Ravine, the Dodgers are suddenly and dangerously close to blowing it.
The 8-2 defeat to the Phillies in the National League Division Series factually means the Dodgers still lead two-games-to-one with two more chances to close out their favored foe.
But realistically, the Dodgers now face a must-win Game 4 at Dodger Stadium Thursday, as a loss would return the series to Philadelphia Saturday for a deciding Game 5 at baseball’s toughest place to play.
Yes, the Dodgers won twice at Citizens Bank Park to start this series, but could they do it one more time? And, even with both Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell available, would they want to even try?
No, the season is realistically now riding on Thursday and Tyler Glasnow against Phillies' ace Cristopher Sánchez because, on a long and frustrating Wednesday night, the Dodgers couldn’t get it done when they should have gotten it done.
Afterward Dodger manager Dave Roberts preached calm.
“It's pretty close to being flushed already,” he said. “If you look back going into this series and said we'd be up 2-1, we would have banked it with Glas going in.”
He added, “I feel good with where we're at… And it's certainly flushed.”
But it was the Phillies who were supposed to be flushed. The Dodgers had every advantage. Their ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto was on the mound. Their offense was in full gear. The champagne was nearby. They even took a one-run lead after three innings on a Tommy Edman homer.
But Yamamoto blew up, and the Phillies blew past, and then Clayton Kershaw took the mound in the seventh inning and, sadly for the retiring star, things really got ugly.
By the time it ended, the once-unhittable Yamamoto had allowed three runs in four innings, the Hall of Famer Kershaw allowed four earned runs in two innings, and some notably struggling Phillies at the top of their order had gotten healthy.
Kyle Schwarber had two home runs including one that seemed to disappear off the right-field pavilion roof. Trea Turner had three hits. Bryce Harper had two hits. Two Phillies undercard pitchers, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez, allowed one run in seven innings.
Dodger fans were so upset with everything that many of them walked out after Kershaw got hammered in a five-run eighth inning.
It was ugly. It was awful. And now it’s a problem, because the once down-and-out Phillies are revived and refreshed and believing.
That’s trouble, that believing part, and before the game, two Dodgers warned about what happens when that happens.
“Obviously we want to finish this tonight, and we don't want to let anything slip away from us,” Max Muncy said. “That's one of those things, when you talk about momentum, if you don't finish it tonight, you feel like it's slipping away.”
Yeah, well, he’s right, now it’s slipping away.
Despite his postgame optimism, before the gameRoberts warned of the same ominous signs.
“You have these guys on their heels, and you're at home,” said the Dodger manager. “We expect a great, boisterous crowd. We have one of our aces on the mound. So the way we're playing, we want to put these guys away and don't let them up for air.”
Oh, they gave them plenty of air, beginning in the fourth inning when Schwarber led off with a 455-foot homer off the roof of the right-field pavilion. Then the Phillies’ piled on, a Harper single, an Alec Bohm single that scored Harper on a bad throw from center fielder Andy Pages, then a run-scoring fly ball from Brandon Marsh.
The Phillies pitching held, but their lead was still 3-1 when Kershaw dramatically took the mound in the seventh and survived a wild rally for one inning.
The Phillies put two runners on base against Kershaw on a Turner single and Schwarber walk, but, with the crowd roaring with every pitch, Will Smith picked off Schwarber and Kershaw survived the threat.
Then, an inning later, he didn’t, as JT Realmuto led off with a home run and the inning didn’t end until Schwarber had also homered again, sandwiched around a walk, a botched grounder by Muncy, and a single.
And to think, it all started so sweetly.
The evening began when World Series hero Steve Garvey threw out the first pitch and then, during the traditional pregame greeting, added an adjective by saying, “It’s time for Dodger championship baseball.”
The Phillies seemed rattled. The Dodgers looked confident. And the Chavez Ravine crowd was excitedly smelling blood.
Early in Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday, the Dodgers had all the momentum. They’d already taken each of the first two games of this best-of-five set in Philadelphia. Their best pitcher this season, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, had started his night with three scoreless innings. The Phillies, most of all, appeared to be pressing, with Trea Turner leading the game off with a curious bunt and Brandon Marsh misplaying a ball in the bottom of the first with an over-aggressive dive that gifted Mookie Betts a triple.
Then, after a questionable pitching change from Phillies manager Rob Thomson in the bottom of the third, Tommy Edman greeted newly inserted left-hander Ranger Suárez with a leadoff home run to open the scoring.
As Edman rounded the bases, and Dodger Stadium erupted around him, the Dodgers looked well on their way to an NL Championship Series berth.
In postseason baseball, however, momentum can be a fickle thing. Every new inning brings the potential for a plot twist. Every at-bat carries the threat of a turning point. And every single pitch can prove to be the difference.
“You never know in the playoffs,” Kiké Hernández said before the game, “which pitch is going to win you a game.”
On Wednesday, in the Phillies' come-from-behind, elimination-staving 8-2 victory, the pitch that swung the Dodgers’ loss came with no outs in the fourth.
Just moments after Edman had put the Dodgers in front, slumping Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber answered with a statement — clobbering an elevated Yamamoto fastball for a staggering 455-foot home run that went bouncing off the roof of the right-field pavilion.
“It's ridiculous how far that ball went,” Turner said.
“[It] just sort of woke everybody up and got a lot of energy going in the dugout,” Thomson added.
With one titanic swing, Schwarber had given the flat-lining Phillies a breath of new life.
And with the score tied 1-1, their previously dormant offense quickly opened the floodgates.
Philadelphia slugger Kyle Schwarber celebrates after hitting a home run in the fourth inning against the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NLDS on Wednesday night. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Phillies scored twice more off Yamamoto in the fourth, then ambushed Clayton Kershaw in a five-run eighth inning that put the game away.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, could never mount a response offensively, failing to even get Phillies closer Jhoan Durán into the game.
Now, the dynamics of this series have shifted, with the Phillies — who will start their ace, Cristopher Sánchez, in Game 4 on Thursday — needing just one more win to get the NLDS back to home soil for a decisive Game 5.
“Obviously there’s still a lot of pressure on us, but pressure is a privilege,” Betts said. “We’re going to do what we always do. Tomorrow is a new day.”
Wednesday was certainly a new kind of day in the context of this series, serving as a complete reversal from Games 1 and 2.
For the first time in the matchup, the Phillies' star hitters outshone their Dodger counterparts.
Schwarber’s game-altering blast was his first hit of the series (snapping an 0-for-9 skid), and his first of two home runs on the night. Turner tripled his NLDS hit total in a three-for-five, two-RBI showing. Bryce Harper also reached base twice while drawing a walk.
Ohtani, meanwhile, went hitless in five at-bats to fall to one for 14 in the series with seven strikeouts. And while Betts had two hits, including his first-inning triple, the duo behind him couldn’t take advantage, with Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman going a combined 0 for 7.
“We definitely had a chance and we didn’t capitalize on it,” said third baseman Max Muncy, who had two hits but also rolled into a double play that ended one of the Dodgers’ best threats in the sixth inning. “That was kind of the story of the night — we had a lot of chances, and we didn’t get the big hit to come through.”
In an unexpected development, the Phillies’ pitching plan also proved to be better; silencing the pregame criticisms of their decision to start Aaron Nola (who had a career-worst 6.01 ERA this season) and use Suárez in relief.
Nola pitched two scoreless innings, striking out Hernández and Will Smith (who made his first start of the playoffs after recovering from a hand fracture) to strand Betts at third in the bottom of the first.
And though Suárez’s night started with the home run by Edman (the switch-hitter who was able to flip to his stronger right-handed side with the southpaw on the mound), he settled down for 15 scoreless outs after that, working around four more hits and a walk to get through the seventh.
Yamamoto, on the other hand, lost control following Schwarber’s mammoth home run to lead off the fourth — which came in a 2-and-0 count that forced Yamamoto to throw a fastball over the plate.
“My plan was to stay away, outside, but I fell behind,” Yamamoto, who lacked feel for his secondary pitches Wednesday, said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “So I went in a little bit, and then I paid the price.”
Harper immediately followed with a single on a hanging splitter. Alec Bohm did the same on an inside sinker, sending a grounder up the middle that got through the infield. Andy Pages fielded the ball in center, but short-hopped his throw to third base in an effort to gun down Harper. When Muncy couldn’t block it, the ball bounced into the dugout to allow Harper to score and Bohm to advance to third. Marsh added insult to injury with a sacrifice fly in the next at-bat.
Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto stands on the mound after giving up a home run to Kyle Schwarber in the fourth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Things didn’t get much better for Yamamoto from there. He gave up a double to J.T. Realmuto later in the fourth. Back-to-back singles to begin the fifth chased him from the game.
Yamamoto’s final line: Four-plus innings, three runs, six hits, one walk and only two strikeouts. It was the shortest start from the Dodgers’ rotation this postseason, tied Ohtani’s Game 1 outing in this series for the unit’s most runs allowed, and was Yamamoto’s first time with more hits allowed than strikeouts since July 7.
“If I could have minimized the damage in that [fourth] inning,” Yamamoto said, ”I think maybe the result might have been a little bit different."
Instead, the Dodgers’ slim hopes of a comeback were dashed with Kershaw on the mound in the eighth.
Making his first appearance of the postseason, Kershaw had skirted trouble in the seventh before being sent back out for a second inning of work (in part because the Dodgers were without left-hander Tanner Scott, who was not at the ballpark Wednesday because of a personal situation, Roberts said).
Hoping to keep the game close, and force the Phillies to use the warming Durán for a six-out save, Kershaw was instead pummeled, giving up a leadoff home run to Realmuto, a two-run single to Turner and another two-run homer to Schwarber that bounced off the top of the right-field wall.
With that, a crowd that was anticipating a sweep in the early innings of Wednesday’s game somberly filed to the exits — trudging toward Game 4 with the Dodgers still leading this series, but knowing all their momentum had suddenly evaporated.
“Going into tomorrow, we want to keep pressure on any way possible,” Schwarber said. “Go out there, play great defense, take great at-bats, [play] 27 outs, and go from there.”
Yankees left fielder Cody Bellinger, who has a player option for the 2026 season, is welcome to return to the Bronx after the team was eliminated in Game 4 of the ALDS.
After the Yankees' 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Wednesday, ending their season, the outfielder was asked if he is planning to exercise his player option.
"Obviously, things to discuss with family and the agent and the business side of it all," Bellinger said. "Tonight, I'm just going to soak it all in and be a part of the group one more time."
Bellinger, 30, slashed .272/.334/.480 with 29 home runs and 98 RBI in 152 regular season games this year, helping the Yankees make it back to the postseason. While there, the former NL MVP performed well, despite his less-than-stellar numbers. In the seven playoff games this year, Bellinger slashed .214/.258/.393 with an OPS of .651. He hit one home run, two doubles and drove in four runs while playing very good defense.
Unfortunately, in Game 4, while Bellinger made a terrific sliding catch to prevent runs from scoring in the first inning, he went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, including striking out swinging in the ninth inning to end the game.
While the season didn't end the way Bellinger and the Yankees wanted, the 31-year-old looked fondly on his time in the Bronx and with his teammates.
"I had an unbelievable time putting on this uniform. Yankee Stadium, the fans, the organization, the culture that these guys have created in this locker room," he said. "It really is special. It's such a fun group, a fun group to be a part of. We came up short and that part stinks for sure because we had a really really good group here."
Manager Aaron Boone was asked about Bellinger and Trent Grisham -- who is set to be a free agent this offseason -- and whether he hopes they return to the Yankees in 2026.
"The thing I'll say about them is they're a big reason why I was so excited about this club down the stretch and at this point. Just really proud of who those guys were and are and what they became as players, as driving forces for our team," Boone said. "But in those two cases, the two people those guys are in the room every single day and what they brought to the table as teammates every single day, I appreciate that. And I'm grateful to get to have managed those two guys. Who knows? Hopefully, in both cases, I get to keep doing it."
New York acquired Bellinger and $5 million in cash considerations last December through a trade with the Chicago Cubs for right-handed pitcher Cody Poteet.
He originally signed with the Cubs on a one-year contract entering 2023, including a mutual option for 2024, which saw him slash .307/.356/.525 while hitting 26 home runs and 97 RBI over 130 games. It was his best season since 2019. That year, his age-23 season, Bellinger's career-best campaign included a .305/.406/.629 slash line with 47 home runs and 115 RBI in 162 regular season games.
After the 2023 season, Bellinger declined his mutual option and became a free agent. He re-signed with the Cubs in February 2024 on a three-year, $80 million contract that included opt-out clauses after the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Bellinger slashed .266/.325/.426 with 18 home runs and 78 RBI over 130 regular-season games in 2024 for the Cubs.
"I get business," Bellinger said last December while discussing Chicago's decision to trade him after he opted into his clause for 2025. "Very good at separating the business and the baseball, and I'm the baseball player and there's business in this game, so I just want to prepare and play the best baseball that I can play."
Cody Bellinger says he'd welcome a return to the Yankees if he opts out of his contract:
"I had an unbelievable time putting on this uniform. Yankee Stadium, the fans, the organization, the culture that these guys have created in this locker room. It's special." pic.twitter.com/Ov93n3eGjF
Full disclosure: the Buffalo Sabres aren't particularly interested in the NHL's individual awards. But who's kidding who -- you always like to perform well, and that's somthing the league de facto acknowledges by handing out end-of-season honours.
But where are the true individual award front-runners in Buffalo? There are some outside possibilities for Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin to win the Hart Trophy, and for Dahlin to also take home the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman.
After that, there's pretty much no other Sabres players who will be in the mix for an individual award this coming season. For instance, there's not going to be a Vezina Trophy-winner from the Sabres. Their small army of goaltending options -- including Ukko-Peka Luukonen, Alex Lyon, veteran Alexandar Georgiev -- and in net does not inspire you to imagine Buffalo will have the best netminder in the league this season.
Meanwhile, the Sabres don't have a true front-runner to win the Calder Trophy as the league'stop rookie. And imagining Buffalo will have a leader in the Art Ross Trophy is stretching the bounds of credulity. This Sabres team probably won't have a player who proves they're a top-10 talent in the league, and that will be reflected in the league's individuals.
In a best-case scenario, Thompson will raise the bar for himself and begin challenging in the Maurice 'Rocket' Richard race as the best goal-scorer in the game. Toronto Maple Leafs star center Auston Matthews will be the front-runner to win this year's goal-scoring race, but if Thompson can score 50 goals and 100 points, the Sabres are going to be thrilled.
That said, Buffalo isn't going to win the Jim Gregory Award as the best GM in the game, and Lindy Ruff isn't going to win the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's best coach. It's possible in theory both Ruff and GM Kevyn Adams find ways to get the Sabres into the post-season, but is it probable? No, this writer believes Buffalo will struggle to climb the ladder, both in an individual manner and as a group.
And this writer believes the Sabres won't make the playoffs -- leading to be changes next summer or sooner. Adams and Ruff have their future wrapped up with one another, and there's no question their lack of success running the Sabres will keep them in job limbo at this time next year.
When you look at the league's top teams, you see that most, if not all teams that are high-end playoff teams have elite players who contend for individual awards all season long. And the Sabres' lack of high-end, superstar performances is one of the reasons Buffalo is looking like a long-shot of making it into the playoffs.
It's accurate that the Sabres do have talent -- they just don't have enough of it. And somehow, some way, they need to figure out a way to squeeze into the playoffs by any means neccessary.
Jack Roslovic, one of the top NHL UFAs left, signed a one-year contract with the Edmonton Oilers late Wednesday.
The news of the $1.5-million deal came during the Oilers' season opener against the Calgary Flames.
Roslovic, 28, recorded 22 goals and 17 assists for 39 points in 81 games with the Carolina Hurricanes last year. He added another goal and three assists in nine playoff games. He's had two 22-goal seasons and passed 40 points twice in parts of nine NHL seasons.
The center, who can also play right wing, had a one-year, $2.8-million contract last season, so his cap hit is $1.3 million less on his new deal. Before that, he had a two-year contract with a $4-million cap hit.
Edmonton is Roslovic's fifth NHL team and fourth in the past three seasons. The Winnipeg Jets drafted him 25th overall in 2015. The Columbus Blue Jackets traded for him and Patrik Laine in January 2021. In 2023-24, the New York Rangers acquired Roslovic at the NHL trade deadline, and he signed with Carolina that summer.
In 526 career games, Roslovic has 102 goals, 158 assists and 260 points while averaging 14:12 of ice time. He also has three goals and 17 points in 45 playoff games, including eight points in 16 games during the Rangers' run to the Eastern Conference final in 2024.
With Roslovic, the Oilers are now over the salary cap ceiling by about $2.8 million, according to PuckPedia. With left winger Zach Hyman on long-term injured reserve for at least October, the Oilers can exceed the cap ceiling by up to Hyman's $5.5-million cap hit.
Edmonton recalled forwards David Tomasek and Isaac Howard on Tuesday. Tomasek has a $1.2-million cap hit, while Howard's is $950,000. Those two, along with Matthew Savoie ($886,666), are exempt from waivers in case the Oilers want to avoid the waiver wire when clearing cap space upon Hyman's return. Noah Philp is also on the Oilers' roster, and he's on a two-way contract that typically goes to players in the system.
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There are a lot of new faces populating the Pittsburgh Penguins' roster this season, especially on the left side of the Penguins' blue line.
And one of those players is settling into his role quite nicely so far - which could be revelation for the Penguins and their top blueliner.
Defenseman Parker Wotherspoon - who signed a two-year, $2 million deal this summer - has been paired with Erik Karlsson since the beginning of training camp, and the early returns on the Penguins' new top pairing have been promising.
Wotherspoon, 28, was selected in the fourth round (112th overall) by the New York Islanders in 2015, and he spent the last two seasons with the Boston Bruins. In 55 games last season, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound defenseman registered one goal and seven points to go along with 75 hits.
But the beauty in Wotherspoon's game is in its simplicity. The steady, stay-at-home blueliner plays such a low-event style of hockey that lies in stark contrast to his partner, who is one of the most high-event players in the league.
And maybe that contrast is why the pairing has worked well so far - and why they showed so well in the Penguins' season-opening 3-0 shutout win against the New York Rangers on Tuesday.
"I thought we played good," Wotherspoon said. "I thought we moved the puck pretty well, got up ice, defended well. I don't think we spent too much time in our d-zone, so, it was a good start. There's still some things to grow on. It's a long season, but I think we did a good job handling it for the most part.
"He's such a good player. It makes it easier to just get him the rock, and he'll make a good play. So, it's been good."
Karlsson, 35, is and has been a good player for a very long time. And that's why the Penguins acquired him in the summer of 2023 - following a 101-point Norris-winning campaign - but it's been a bit of a mixed bag ever since.
It's not easy to tandem with a high-risk offensive talent like Karlsson. He requires a partner who is almost entirely risk-averse, and that partner could very well be Wotherspoon. Karlsson is at his best when he's activating and noticeable, and Wotherspoon is at his best when he's virtually unnoticeable.
And that's what came to fruition on Tuesday. Setting aside a second-period shift that included a turnover from each of them, the pairing played some really good hockey. They had a 62.1 percent expected goals share, and they allowed only two high-danger chances against the entire night.
Wotherspoon is aware of what his role is and what the strengths of his game are. And he wants to use those strengths to allow Karlsson to play to his own - which is something that he's still working on.
"Just watching him in the o-zone, he's got his head up, he's looking for a screen... he's seeing the play come before it even happens," Wotherspoon said. "That's one thing I've got to get a little bit better at... Just get that head up, make those plays, wait for it to come, and just have that patience on the blue line like he does with the puck. He's so phenomenal with it."
Of course, it's still very early, and a lot can happen during the long season. But, for now, the Penguins' new top pairing - featuring two players who couldn't be more different - looks as though it could be a pretty formidable one.
And Karlsson hopes that he and his newfound defense partner can continue to get better and better.
"I think it's been good," Karlsson said. "He's a good skater, a good puck-mover, and he's got some experience. So, hopefully, we can continue to find some chemistry."
LOS ANGELES – With one swing of the bat, Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber went a long way (455 feet, to be exact) into helping his team capture a must-win game, prolong a season and probably squash a lot of sports radio talk calling for his manager’s ouster.
And after that, the Phillies throttled the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-2, to cut the deficit in this best-of-five Divisional Series to 2-1. Game Four will be Thursday 6:08 p.m. ET.
Manager Rob Thomson held true to his pre-game promise that Aaron Nola would be his starter and lefty Ranger Suarez would be his piggyback. It was just the strange way in which it happened that had many in the Delaware Valley probably scratching their weary heads.
Though he struggled through two base runners and 22 pitches in the first inning, Nola got the Dodgers out in order in the second, the last a strikeout of pesky Andy Pages. That had Nola at 31 pitches, 21 for strikes, one hit and three strikeouts. It also got him a seat on the bench.
Thomson called on Suarez to start the third and his first pitch to nine-hole hitter Tommy Edman, a 93 MPH fastball, landed five rows deep in left for a 1-0 Dodgers lead. You could almost hear the Philadelphia groans all the way on the West Coast.
But Schwarber then silenced both sides of the country, including the sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium, by hitting his monster home run almost out of the historic venue to tie the game the very next inning, starting a three-run blitz in the fourth that propelled the Phillies to the win.
Schwarber’s first home run of the night ignited the team that had lost two close games at home, his second was a direct kill-shot on the Dodgers, a two-run blast that gave the Phillies an 8-1 lead and closed out a five-run, eighth inning off Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw.
If this game was written out as a plan by Thomson, it couldn’t have gone any better, beginning with the starting pitching situation.
“They pretty much did exactly what we wanted,” said Thomson of Nola and Suarez. “We wanted to use those guys as close to (closer Jhoan) Duran as we could to save some of the bullpen for tomorrow if we won. Nola was really good. The plan was to go one time through the lineup and Ranger was on (leadoff hitter Shohei) Ohtani. Ended up with (Tommy) Edman leading off the third. He’s 1-for-20 with nine strikeouts against Ranger, and he hit the first pitch out of the ballpark. But, they executed perfectly.”
So did the Phillies in all aspects of the game throughout the cool Southern California night.
After Schwarber’s first homer, Bryce Harper singled and then so did Alec Bohm to center. Harper aggressively went from first to third, drawing a throw from Dodger centerfielder Andy Pages. The ball and Harper arrived about the same time, but the ball got through third baseman Max Muncy and went into the Los Angeles dugout. That allowed Harper to get home and gave Bohm third. Brandon Marsh followed with a sacrifice fly to left and the Phillies had life in a 3-1 lead.
“Yeah, big swing,” Harper said of Schwarber’s first home run. “It’s pretty cool to be able to watch him do that. Seen him do it all year. Never seen a ball go up like that, especially in L.A. at night. Super impressive. I’m glad we got on the board early. Noles threw the ball great. Ranger threw the ball great. Took a commanding lead and were able to hold it.
“It’s good anytime you go first to third and make something happen. It’s a really hard throw to make in any game. Trying to go from first to third there, make something happen, and I was able to do that. Scored and then Marsh hit a ball to the outfield and scored Bohmer there. Big time getting up 3-1 there. That’s still a really good team over there. We’ve just got to come in here and do our job and understand that we’re a really good team as well and just try to go 1-0 again tomorrow. I said it the other day, the first of three and not worry about anything else. Got to come into tomorrow and win that game and get back to Philly.”
Patience was preached as the proper approach for the Phillies offense in facing Dodger starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Wednesday. If the Phillies were trying to bluff their strategy, they didn’t do a very good job of it as the first four hitters of the game swung at the first pitch with no success. But that would certainly come later. Especially in the form of Schwarber.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be in a lot of postseason games in my career and it’s just a testament to baseball,” said Schwarber, now with 23 postseason home runs, which is third all-time. “It doesn’t matter if you’re hitting .100 or hitting .500. Did you win the game at the end of the day? That’s all that matters. That’s why it’s such a fun format. You’re just grinding and find a way to win a baseball game and sometimes it’s going to work out and sometimes it’s not going to work out.
“I think just trying to get back there and respond after they scored a run is a big thing for us. We’ve done a really good job, during the course of my time here, we’ve done a really good job of responding whenever something goes against us. You can look back at the first couple of games. We were in striking distance every single time, there in the ninth inning, too, in Game Two. We responded. That’s something that we have a knack for here. It’s just nice to get the answer back and then a great at-bat and we just kept it going.”
And it all started with the unorthodox, but followed plan, of Thomson to have Nola get through the lineup once and then go to Suarez, who hadn’t seen an inning yet in these playoffs.
“He didn’t tell me how long it was going to be, he only told me that it was going to be a piggyback start,” said Suarez, who gave up five hits and one run in his five innings. “But my mentality was to go as deep as I could in the game, obviously win, which was the most important thing, and then just keep the score as close as I could so I could give the guys a chance to win tonight’s ball game. And after that first pitch homer that I gave up, I just kind of settled down and that was the rest of it.”
Had this been a boxing match, the Phillies had the Dodgers on the ropes multiple times, but failed to deliver that knockout blow early, leaving two runners on base in both the fifth and seventh innings. They finally did deliver the haymaker in the eighth when they sent nine batters to the plate and gathered nine hits.
Trea Turner, Schwarber and Harper, who entered the game 2-for-21 with 11 strikeouts in the series, sparked the Phillies offense by going 7-for13 on Wednesday with four runs scored and five RBI.
Everything just seemed to work out the way it was planned.
“It’s the postseason and I’d do anything I can to help the team,” said Nola. “I knew what the situation was and loved watching Ranger go out and dominate those five innings he threw. Really kept us in the game guys exploded with the bats. That’s Kyle, man. He’s the best and he stays under control all the time. Never gets too high or too low. Comes up with big hits when we need them and he did again tonight.”
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin was one of the team's best players on Tuesday night, notching two assists in their 3-0 win over the New York Rangers.
His skating was also top-notch, and he had good chemistry with Anthony Mantha and Justin Brazeau. He set up Brazeau's first goal by making a nice little play off a faceoff before Brazeau roofed a puck past Rangers star goaltender Igor Shesterkin.
He also got the primary assists on Brazeau's second goal, an empty-netter that iced the game late in the third period before Blake Lizotte made it 3-0.
Those two assists got Malkin's all-time point total up to 1,348, which ranks 31st in NHL history. He is one point away from tying Mats Sundin for 30th all-time and two away from passing him.
Malkin will have the opportunity to pass other NHL legends on the NHL's all-time points list this year, including Brendan Shanahan, Guy Lafleur, and even Mike Modano.
His first opportunity to break into the top 30 will be on Thursday when the Penguins play the New York Islanders inside PPG Paints Arena for the home opener.
Wednesday was the second time this postseason the Yankees leaned on rookie flamethrower Cam Schlittler to save their season. And while the young right-hander did just that in the Wild Card series, there would be no repeat result in Game 4 of the ALDS against the Blue Jays.
But that's not for a lack of trying on the part of Schlittler.
Schlittler gave the Yankees their best outing from their starter in this series. He threw 88 pitches (69 strikes) through 6.1 innings, allowing two earned runs on eight hits and no walks. For most teams, that's enough to win, but the offense fell flat against Toronto's bullpen game as New York fell 5-2.
"Schlitt was good tonight," manager Aaron Boone said after the game. "Didn’t have the dominant swing-and-miss stuff. I thought pitched really effectively, was filling up the strike zone. I thought he made a lot of key pitches when he needed to, mixed well. Gives up a run in the first inning but doesn't flinch. I thought he was really efficient with obviously a good offensive club.
I thought he threw the ball really well tonight. Not the dominant one that he came off of, but he gave us a really good chance to win a baseball game."
In Game 3 against the Red Sox, Schlittler had one of the best postseason pitching performances by a Yankee, striking out 12 batters. On Wednesday, he could only get two outs via K, as the contact-heavy Blue Jays fouled pitches off and put the ball in play constantly. Again, as Boone said, Schlittler pitched well enough to win, but the sting of the loss is not lost on the team or the 24-year-old.
"It’s frustrating. I’ve only been here for three months, can’t imagine how some of the guys feel who have been here the whole season," Schlittler said of the feeling in the locker room after the loss. "You have to learn from it and didn’t feel like we were in an elimination game, I felt like we were playing good ball. Fuel for next year."
Schlittler went 1-1 with a 1.26 ERA and 14 strikeouts in his two postseason starts. If you combine the regular season and postseason, including Wednesday's start, Schlittler allowed two or fewer runs in 12 of his 16 starts.
In the first three games of the ALDS, Luis Gil, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon allowed 15 runs across eight innings pitched. Schlittler was the only one of the four to record an out in the fourth inning. While it didn't go New York's way, the future seems bright for Schlittler who broke out to the baseball world in this postseason.
Schlittler, who was called up in July, said he developed as a player, person and teammate while with the Yankees and that he will use this postseason loss to fuel him going into 2026.
"The end goal is the same. Just try to fuel the fire and take it into your offseason training and get ready for spring training and get ready for next season," he said. "It’s not the way we wanted to end, but I didn’t feel like our backs were against the wall. A lot of people cherished their time here, that’s the greatest thing about the Yankees, we are so close and we developed as teammates. It’s not going to be easy, the game is going to always take from you. Have to learn from it and take it into next season."
"Foundationally, we are excited about Cam and his future and what he can become in our rotation moving forward," Boone said of Schlittler's future. "He had a phenomenal season and finished strong tonight."
If Schlittler can take that next step, the Yankees will have a formidable rotation heading into October. A returning Gerrit Cole will anchor the rotation that will feature Fried, Rodon and Schlittler. There may not be another team with a better starting quartet than that.
NEW YORK — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer each drove in a run, and eight Toronto pitchers shut down the New York Yankees in a 5-2 victory Wednesday night that sent the Blue Jays to the American League Championship Series for the first time in nine years.
Nathan Lukes provided a two-run single and Addison Barger had three of Toronto's 12 hits as the pesky Blue Jays, fouling off tough pitches and consistently putting the ball in play, bounced right back after blowing a five-run lead in Tuesday night's loss at Yankee Stadium.
AL East champion Toronto took the best-of-five Division Series 3-1 and will host Game 1 in the best-of-seven ALCS on Sunday against the Detroit Tigers or Seattle Mariners.
Those teams are set to decide their playoff series Friday in Game 5 at Seattle.
Jeff Hoffman retired Austin Wells with the bases loaded to end the eighth and earned a four-out save for the Blue Jays, headed to their eighth AL Championship Series. Toronto's only pennants came in 1992 and '93, when the club won consecutive World Series crowns.
Ryan McMahon homered for the wild-card Yankees, unable to stave off elimination for a fourth time this postseason as they failed to repeat as AL champions.
Despite a terrific playoff performance from Aaron Judge following his previous October troubles, the 33-year-old star slugger remains without a World Series ring. New York is still chasing its 28th title and first since 2009.
Lukes made it 4-1 with a two-run single after an error by Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. cost rookie starter Cam Schlittler a chance to get through the seventh with an inning-ending double play.
Myles Straw, who came in off the bench for outfield defense, added an RBI single in the eighth after Alejandro Kirk's leadoff double.
With the score tied 1-all, Ernie Clement singled leading off the Toronto fifth and went to third when No. 9 batter Andrés Giménez bounced a single through the middle. Clement, who had nine hits in the series, scored on Springer’s sacrifice fly.
Toronto opener Louis Varland, who gave up game-changing homers Tuesday to Judge and Chisholm in relief, became the first pitcher in major league history to lose a postseason game and start the next day.
Varland worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, and a parade of seven relievers followed. None of them got more than five outs - but all were effective.
On the other side, Schlittler joined Dakota Hudson (2019 for St. Louis) as the only rookies in big league history to make their first two postseason starts in potential elimination games.
Schlittler was coming off one of the most dominant pitching performances in playoff annals, when he struck out 12 and walked none over eight innings to beat rival Boston 4-0 in the winner-take-all Game 3 of their Wild Card Series last Thursday at Yankee Stadium.
This time, the 24-year-old right-hander fell behind 1-0 after six pitches. Springer hit a leadoff double and scored when Guerrero lined an 0-2 cutter just inside the right-field line for an RBI single.
With two on, left fielder Cody Bellinger sprinted 113 feet for a sliding catch at the line that saved at least one run - maybe two.
Batting ninth, McMahon tied it when he fought back from 0-2 to a full count leading off the third and reached across the plate to hook an 83 mph sweeper from left-hander Mason Fluharty over the short porch in right field for his first postseason homer.
The 6-foot-6 Schlittler struck out only two, but he didn’t walk a batter in 6 1/3 efficient innings. He was charged with four runs - two earned - and eight hits.
Toronto went 4-3 against Detroit this season and 4-2 versus Seattle.
And one of the rookies made history in a different way as well.
19-year-old defenseman Harrison Brunicke - one of the Penguins' top prospects - became the first skater born in South Africa to play in an NHL game. The only other player in NHL history from South Africa to take the ice was goaltender Olaf Kolzig, who was the longtime netminder for the Washington Capitals in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Harrison Brunicke makes history on opening night! 🇿🇦 #NHLFaceOff
The 6-foot-3, 201-pound rookie blueliner, like Kolzig, was born in Johannesburg, RSA. Brunicke's parents, Kim and Dean, grew up in South Africa and relocated to Canada when Brunicke was young. He picked up hockey once they moved, and the rest is history.
Brunicke - selected 44th overall by the Penguins in 2024 - was invited to Team Canada's World Junior camp last season, but a broken wrist sustained last November kept him from participating and, ultimately, representing Canada at the 2025 World Junior Championship. He and Ben Kindel, 18, both made the Penguins' NHL roster out of training camp and debuted in Tuesday's 3-0 win over the New York Rangers, and Brunicke is fighting to stick around the NHL for good with the big club.
In 41 games for the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL last season, Brunicke registered five goals and 30 points.
Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs got the nod over Tristan Jarry for Tuesday's opening-night game against the New York Rangers and didn't disappoint.
Silovs, who was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks for forward Chase Stillman and a 2027 fourth-round pick in July, stopped all 25 shots he faced in the Penguins' 3-0 shutout victory over the Rangers. His glove-hand looked a little shaky at the start of the game, but once he settled in, it was smooth sailing the rest of the way, saving 2.5 goals above expected.
The decision to start Silovs came as a little bit of a surprise since Jarry was the slight favorite to start going into the game, but head coach Dan Muse wanted to reward Silovs for his strong training camp and preseason. Silovs responded with a great effort and became the second goalie in franchise history to pitch a shutout in his first start with the team. It was also his first career regular-season shutout in the NHL.
Silovs was over the moon about his performance during a post-game interview with SportsNet Pittsburgh's Hailey Hunter.
"I mean, it's great. Guys competed, so many great blocks, great individual effort," Silovs said. "You know, it's like team effort, and I felt comfortable. The guys did a good job, and the result showed us."
Muse spoke about Silovs after Wednesday's practice and was also impressed with his performance during Tuesday's game.
"He showed it yesterday," Muse said. "He’s gained some really good experiences in his career so far, and he’s obviously still a relatively young guy, and I think those things all stack up. To have that run that he had last year and then to have the playoffs before, and you also look at some of the different experiences that he has had in international play, he's not that old. So, he's got all these things already, and you own those now. You own those experiences and you carry them with you."
"So, now you go into a new experience there to get the game one start on the road at Madison Square Garden. I thought you saw that poise, and he made some big saves early, too. I always feel like with guys, that sometimes that can help somebody into a game a little bit. It's not by design that we were killing a penalty with a minute to go, but those things happen. The guys did a great job, but he had to come up there with some saves, and I thought he was really able to build off that start and obviously carry it through the entire game."
Silovs has more than earned the start for Thursday's home-opener against the New York Islanders, and if he also plays well in that game (assuming Muse gives him the nod), he could also start Saturday's game against the Rangers at home. It would send a message to Jarry that the 1A goaltender spot is wide open this season.
Jarry came into training camp and the preseason as a slight favorite for that spot, but after giving up three goals on 19 shots during the Penguins' last preseason game against the Buffalo Sabres, Muse opted to go with Silovs, who was the second-best goaltender during camp.
He came into camp riding a lot of momentum from last season, guiding the AHL's Abbotsford Canucks to the Calder Cup. He was the MVP of the Calder Cup Playoffs, winning 16 games and finishing with a 2.01 goals against average and a .931 save percentage. Before that, he started for the Canucks in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs and helped them reach Game 7 of the second round against the Edmonton Oilers, but they ultimately fell.
Silovs has the talent, but he just has to bring it on a consistent basis. Tuesday was a good first step in that direction.
Puck drop for Thursday's home-opener against the Islanders will be at 7 p.m. ET on SportsNet Pittsburgh. The Penguins lost three of the four meetings against them last year and have lost seven of their last 10 against them overall.
When Pittsburgh Penguins' winger Rickard Rakell came into training camp this season, he was doing it on the back of a career year that saw him register 35 goals and 70 points.
More than likely, he expected to be seeing more time alongside Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin and a solidified role on the power play. What he probably did not expect, however, was to be put into a somewhat unfamiliar role.
Since the beginning of camp, Rakell has regularly been deployed on the Penguins' penalty kill unit, which is something he hasn't done a lot over the course of his 14-year NHL career. According to MoneyPuck, going into this season, Rakell had only played 84 total minutes shorthanded, with 67 of those minutes being compiled over two consecutive seasons from 2018-20 with the Anaheim Ducks.
Until Tuesday's season-opening 3-0 win against the New York Rangers, Rakell had not recorded a minute of shorthanded regular season ice time with the Penguins. It may be pretty uncharted territory for the 32-year-old veteran, but he feels like it's going pretty well so far.
"I mean, so far, I haven't been on for a goal yet," Rakell smiled. "So, obviously, I feel good about that."
Part of new head coach Dan Muse's philosophy with the penalty kill seems to be using regular power play forwards on the units, which includes guys like Rakell and Bryan Rust, who is currently out with an upper-body injury but skated with the team Wednesday. Muse believes that using power play players in shorthanded situations can be advantageous for a lot of reasons - especially since there is a factor of predictability for them.
Rakell agrees with that assessment.
"I've played on the power play for a long time," Rakell said. "You see some things on the ice, and when I'm studying to get better on the power play, I look at different players, and then I know what their habits are going to be. So, hopefully, that will give me a chance to make some reads and use my hockey sense to disrupt their plays and, hopefully, create something off of that. Just take it as it goes, I guess."
Another thing it seems like the Penguins are emphasizing on the penalty kill this season - at least, based off of the early returns from the pre-season and from game one - is that they want to pressure the opposing power play units a bit aggressively to try to get them out of structure - which tends to open up chances the other way.
And using players like Rakell - who are familiar with the inner workings and structural components of a power play - on the penalty kill should lend to teams making a few more mistakes here and there and opening up opportunities to force turnovers.
"I think that's a big part of it," Rakell said. "You know where the dangerous areas are, and then, just go from there. I know that a lot of things can happen. The power plays are usually not in structure as soon as you turn the puck over, and hopefully, we can start creating chances the other way with that. Like, not cheat for offense on the PK, but throughout the year, there could be some chances going the other way."
And this line of thinking - as mentioned before - is exactly what makes Muse want to put intelligent power play players like Rakell on the penalty kill.
"We view him as a responsible player, a player that can be trusted on the defensive side," Muse said during the pre-season. "You get a player like him, he's got a little bit of time there on the penalty kill... [it's] good to see. Sometimes, players like him that have spent a lot of time on the power play, they think like power play players. So, they're able to anticipate plays really well. You combine that with his defensive awareness, really good stick... it's something that we want to see. So, we're going to continue to look at that."
Of course, it's early, and there is plenty of time for situations to evolve. More responsibility in more situations probably also means a slight uptick in ice time for Rakell throughout the season, which, in theory, could be a tiny adjustment for a player who is already near the top of the minutes chart among forwards.
But, it's not something Rakell has noticed up to this point, and given how Muse has split ice time between the lines pretty evenly through the pre-season and through the season opener, it may not pose much of an issue at all.
Regardless of what happens, though, Rakell is embracing the chance to play a new role for the Penguins - even if the situation ends up changing a bit when that certain teammate in a similar position returns to play.
"It's kind of just an idea that came up," Rakell said. "Rusty's out of the lineup. So, perhaps this is my opportunity."
Natalia Bryant is the creative director of a short film released by the Lakers on Wednesday. The recent graduate of USC's School of Cinematic Arts is the daughter of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. (Amy Sussman / Getty Images)
Natalia Bryant has made her debut as a creative director with a short film that features a subject matter with which she's very familiar.
The 70-second piece is called "Forever Iconic: Purple and Gold Always," and it's all about the worldwide impact of the Lakers — something Bryant has experienced throughout her life as the oldest daughter of one of the Lakers' great icons, Kobe Bryant.
The film, posted online Wednesday by the Lakers, is a fast-paced tribute to the team and its fans. It features a number of celebrity cameos — Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani takes batting practice wearing a Lakers cap; current Lakers star Luka Doncic yells "Kobe!" as he shoots a towel into a hamper; fashion designer Jeff Hamilton creates a number of Lakers jackets; actor Brenda Song obsessively watches and cheers for the team on her computer; Lakers legend Magic Johnson declares, "It's Showtime, baby!"
Mixed in are shots of regular fans paying tribute to the team in their own ways.
“This project was an amazing, collaborative environment with such creative people and we all came together to try and portray the Lakers’ impact, not only in L.A. but around the world," Natalia Bryant said in a statement released by the Lakers. "Everyone has their own connection to the Lakers. I hope those who already love this team watch this project and remember what that pride feels like. And if you’re not a Lakers fan yet, I hope you watch this, and it makes you want to be.”
Bryant, who graduated from USC's School of Cinematic Arts in May, included some famous Lakers clips, such as LeBron James arguing, "It's our ball, ain't it?" and her father hitting a buzzer-beating shot against the Phoenix Suns during the 2006 playoffs.
"Such an honor to be apart of this project!" Bryant wrote on Instagram. "Thank you @lakers for having me join as creative director💛lakers family forever"
Lakers controlling owner and president Jeanie Buss also posted the video on Instagram.
"Cheers to the millions of fans around the world who make the Lakers the most popular team in the NBA!!" Buss wrote. "You are the best fans in the league. Congratulations and huge thanks to the amazing @nataliabryant who helped bring this film to life for her creative director debut."
