Well it’s finally over and on the books for 2026. While the season didn’t end on a very good note, let’s instead talk about what went right. After stripping the roster down to the bolts, old school projections systems and Vegas odds had the Cardinals as one of the worst teams in baseball. Many fans claimed the same, this team just would not be able to compete. Did they compete? Well, sort of. It’s not really easy to describe, but since the season just ended, it seems like the best time to recall all that should be praised about Cardinals baseball 2026 edition.

This is a feel-good Cardinals article.

There are some things we, as fans, should feel good about, so let’s feel good about them. It was in some ways a very entertaining season! I won’t be done complaining about the interim state of this team, especially because of the stale finish and bad aftertaste of losing 4 in a row at the end, but that’s for another time. This is a feel-good sportsball article. Let us praise them.

• The Cardinals lead MLB in three of the four double play categories on fangraphs. That said, Masyn Winn and JJ Wetherholt were the best middle infield defensive combo in baseball. I had fun watching it all season, when they weren’t out with injuries. According to Baseball Savant, the statcast metric Infield DP shows that JJ Wetherholt was the second best defender in MLB at turning the double play, with Masyn Winn tied for third! That combo beats any other fielding combo. And ok so, big deal, they turn a lot of double plays… they are also The Top 2 middle infielders at Fielding Run Value. Both are among the best at the Range statistic. Only Pete Crow-Armstrong had more FRV! Now that is a valuable middle infield. The Nationals and the White Sox also were really good at turning the DP, but the Cardinals ran away with it here. (Honorable mention to the Brewers, yet another thing they are good at).
• Alec Burleson keeps getting better at hitting every season, and now that he isn’t playing the outfield, he isn’t a liability on defense. Burly has arrived in 2026! Big time. While Burleson’s wRC+ is about the same as the previous season, Burly raised his ISO from .169 to .193 which resulted in 8 more home runs than 2025 and 11 more doubles! This power surge provided RBI, 116 to be exact, enough to lead all of MLB! It’s been a long while since the Cardinals had a RBI leader: the last time it happened was in 1971! While his offensive season was a resounding success, his improvement on defense was perhaps equally as impressive. Burleson is simply better at playing first base than at the outfield, and this helped him not tank his overall value. Alec was not the most rangey first baseman, but the fact that he was not a liability there was huge. He’s an average defender range-wise. Where Burleson truly shined was at fangraphs Scoops statistic, #4 in MLB… while the new statcast statistic 1B Receiving described Burleson as the best in all of baseball. Go Burly! He should get a haul if they trade him, but he appears to be part of the core team for the foreseeable future.
• Jordan Walker went from on the verge of losing his job in St Louis to being one of the 8 players in MLB to reach the 100 RBI milestone in 2026. His 29 HR was within the top 25 in major league baseball! And most impressive, outside of a Home Run Derby Championship that made him a household name… he went from -1.3 fWAR to 2.8! That is an over 4 WAR improvement! I wonder if any other player made that much of a leap this season, congratulations Jordan Walker! Definitely a feel-good story of the year, he may not be exactly what we want him to be just yet, but I cannot think of a much better turnaround than that as a Cardinals fan. He also more than doubled his stolen base total this year! Going from almost being fired or demoted or traded to an All-Star Appearance and a Home Run Derby trophy is rather amazing! But the 100+ RBI makes him part of the future production core.
• JJ Wetherholt’s debut season was so good defensively that he should get rookie of the year. That is not a popular opinion, but since he was able to start hitting MLB pitching from the get go it made his elite defense shine and it was valuable to the team. For much of the season he looked like a well above average hitter, but all in all not bad for a rookie, 101 wRC+ is a hair above league average. I’ll take it, especially when he’s undoubtedly the best defensive second baseman in all of baseball. And it wasn’t even close. If he is robbed of rookie of the year, which he probably will be, he will still be a part of the feel-good story of 2026. It will be a sham if it is not Wetherholt, since the second highest WAR total was that of Carson Benge, and it wasn’t even that close to Wetherholt. The MVP of the Cardinals team, when going by fWAR, & it’s not even close, sorry Burly. And sorry rookie of the year competition! (maybe they should just give it to the pitcher). And oh yeah, not only is he a 100th percentile fielder, JJ is a 91st percentile baserunner. If JJ doesn’t win, the humans deciding the award are pretending that defense doesn’t matter.
• Riley O’Brien was the poor man’s version of Mason Miller, tied for the NL lead in saves. And he didn’t have the most blown saves on the Cardinals! George Soriano shared that title with him, each having 8 BS. Maybe the most apt abbreviation for any stat. But hey, this is all about the praise and Riley O’Brien mostly got the job done! You cannot deny the fact that he is tied with the league lead in saves. I’m not sure that it means anything, but maybe it will help him down the road.
• The 2026 Cardinals were the 8th best team by baserunning value on Baseball Savant! That is a strength and what they were really good at was the timely stolen base… many of their stolen bases lead to runs.
• Jimmy Crooks as much as we were disappointed was really good at a stat called Catcher Framing Runs, in limited playing time he was the 13th best at it. Pages was good at it too but not quite on Jimmy’s level there.
• Cardinals pitching was #3 in MLB regarding ground ball percentage, which fed the middle-infield double play machine. I’m hoping they keep pitching like this if we are to have elite middle infield defense.
• Michael McGreevy was tied for best in NL with Imanaga at controlling the running game.
• Ivan Herrera tied the Cardinals’ all-time record for hit by pitch! Ivan tied a record dating all the way back to 1910, when Steve Evans got hit by the pitch 31 times. Herrera holds the modern day record, one could say. What a painful achievement becoming a part of Cardinals history!
• Joshua Baez debut game at Wrigley Field will be the stuff of legends for decades. For the first time in MLB history, Joshua Baez hit 3 home runs in an MLB debut game! Absolutely insane. Not many had even hit 2 home runs in their debut game. Baez finished the season well above average at 113 wRC+, a rather promising debut over 108 plate appearances. 7 home runs for 2026, almost half of them in one game! The above average hitting powered by a monster .510 SLG%. The K rate was 30.6%, not so bad. That was one of the most exciting games I’ve ever seen.
• Kyle Leahy converting to a starting pitcher deserves a lot of praise; it was a gamble that paid off. Especially needed when trading away Gray and May! Kyle at up 140 innings, not too shabby for a first year starter! Was he just an innings eater? His Fielding Independent Pitching stats agree with this traditional ERA, Leahy was a good starter this season: 3.60 to 3.66. xERA is not as much of a fan, but all in all, Kyle Leahy is a success. Extrapolate his innings out to 180 IP and he’s a 3.3-3.4 fWAR starter! Pretty good!
• Leo Bernal seemed to solve the catching situation at the last minute, with a 124 wRC+ in 24 games with .189 ISO. That’s a strong hitting catcher! The good news is I don’t know why the power would be an illusion. His statcast looks in the red, especially with hard hit percentage. The defense looked good too outside of the errors (good blocking and an especially good pop time, good framing as well in the small sample of play).
• Luis Gastelum had a rough start in MLB but looked like an old pro by the end of the season. As far as standard rate stats, it’s not a big sample, but only xFIP is enamored with him. However, what I do like a LOT is his 10.80 to 2.95 K/BB ratio! 3.66/1 if you prefer to see it that way. His changeup already had a Run Value of 4, and his sinker was pretty good too. As long as he can limit the home runs, he will be a valuable bullpen arm.
• Last but definitely not least, the debut of Quinn Mathews! The pearled one impressed with 49.1 IP 2.3 K/BB ratio, but what was most impressive was the stability of his rate stats across the board: 3.83 ERA and an equal FIP, a 3.84 xERA matching, and a not too bad 4.14 xFIP. Now is the time for Quinn, as he is nearly 26 years old. He seems ready for a rotation stint in 2027.

Well that’s about all the praise I can heap on this sub-.500 team. It was definitely an interesting season, not boring! I don’t really understand some of the moves made, as they half ass tanked towards the end. But I suppose that’s just a team running on fumes. I’m still wondering why Burleson and Wetherholt sat the last game, as it was too late to tank out for a better draft pick. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of my questions really. There will be a companion piece, but I wanted to celebrate despite the bad aftertaste of the end of this season. Some questions were answered, and many more remain. They are certainly forming a long game here. I guess I’ll just keep following along, and hope the story stays interesting!

Postseason Rooting Rights

I will be rooting mostly for the White Sox to beat the Asstros and advance to see what they can do. I will be upset if that doesn’t happen… I don’t expect them to make it very far but I at least want that to happen. They are what I wanted the Cardinals to be, let’s see how they can turn it around. They’re kind of like if we had a top-notch bullpen and some more home run power.

Also, I’d love to see the Cubs lose during the first round, so I’m also heavily rooting for the Padres. So that’s my AL team and my NL team, got a couple of horses in the race. Go White Sox! Go San Diego! Beyond that, I am rooting for the Phillies because I think they have a better chance at knocking out the Dodgers than the Braves do, I’m not sure why I think that but I guess I don’t trust the Braves rotation. I’d root for either over LA though!

It pains me to root for the Red Sox, but since Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras are over there now, I guess I’ll have to root for them. It’s a little easier since I don’t care if the Yankees win. Should be a good series!

Hoping for a random, super underdog World Series! White Sox vs Padres

1997 Heavy Metal Edition

I continue my ramblings about each year of music in my life, revealing some rather insane heavy metal releases from 1997 now… similar to 1995, I feel like the number of quality metal albums went down, and I’m not surprised since the late 90s is probably the least popular time for heavy metal. Anywho, let’s dive right in to this mire of heavy sounds…

• Düreforsög – ’Knee’ absolute wild genius out of Norway! Complex compositions that blend heavy metal with cartoony fun and a variety of genres. The band is absolutely airtight and super talented, almost seeming like they could play this stuff blindfolded. If you like creative heavy music, this one’s for you! It’s more on the fun side of heavy metal, not quite so dark sounding as the other metal bands of this time period. If you are a fan of bands like Mr Bungle, you’ll need to hear this. However, the unseriousness of this band may drive many away, even though it’s seriously good music. (Norway)
• Fu Manchu – ‘The Action Is Go’ perhaps the polar opposite of the last albums frenetic schizophrenic pace that is about as far removed from Black Sabbath as you can get… FU MANCHU is Orange County’s answer to Black Sabbath sounds. Blend in a heaping dose of skate punk and the ultra thick Sabbath style riffs and sound… An all time classic! If you like 70s rock you might actually like this a lot. Or maybe it’ll be too 90s, you’ll just have to hear it for yourself. Bought this just after I moved to Chicago so it’s a big part of my college soundtrack! You’ll even get some Star Wars references in addition to the muscle car and weed ones. (Southern California)
• Today Is The Day – ‘Temple of the Morning Star’ this band was on a long run of genre-defying creative opuses, and this was their highest peak in popularity. If you want to hear what a legit insane-sounding person sounds like, this is your ticket to rock. This particular album is one of the band’s darkest and heaviest-sounding ones of all. Love it or hate it, you’ll never forget it. The band’s first six albums are among my favorite heavy albums of all time, and this is the first one that I bought. Underground cult classic. (Nashville)
• Fredrik Thorendal’s Special Defects If you are a Meshuggah fan, you need this album to complete your collection. If you haven’t heard it yet, it’ll feel like the lost Meshuggah album. A little less heavy and a little more jazzy, though! This one never gets old. Once you hear it though, you’ll be like, that’s so Meshuggah. If you don’t know the legendary Swedish technical death metal or “djent” band, they sound like alien robots with an angry bald guy screaming at you while everyone is on shrooms. (Sweden)
• Orange Goblin – ‘Frequencies From Planet Ten’ what they call “stoner rock” and this is one of the best albums in the genre! This is another Sabbath worship album, but maybe a little more psychedelic with somewhat leaner guitar sounds. They definitely have that 70’s vibe, though! This album could have been released in many different decades. Perhaps that’s why the followup is called Time Travelin’ Blues! Later albums from Orange Goblin sound more heavy metal, but this one is my favorite of theirs. (England)
• Shrüm – ‘Red Devils And Purple Ringers’ uncovered a hidden gem here! the original bassist of Acid Bath’s first band, it’s equally as creative but features a different vocalist and a slightly different sound as well. Still heavy, but more of a psychedelia thing happening here. I just found this but liked it a lot upon first listen, had to share, not much to say about it other than I’m glad I found it, and a must hear for Acid Bath fans. RIP Audie Pitre the talented bassist at the center of both bands. What made this band truly unique is that they were two bassists and a drummer! (Louisiana)
• Sadistik Exekution – ‘KAOS’ the extremest of extreme metal! Like an absolute storm of shit, being inside a possessed tornado, wondering if the tempo somehow got sped up to infinity, etc. Some guy is screaming at you while you’re having a nightmare inside a spinning tornado house. Probably won’t even sound like music. (Australia)
• Emperor – ‘Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk’ I’m more into the other subgenres of extreme metal, but I know my black metal too, and this is one of the genre’s best albums. With Halloween coming up, it is a good time to start listening to this. Epic winter-at-night fantasy music. (Norway)
• Electric Wizard – ‘Come My Fanatics’ I’m not a huge Electric Wizard fan, but this album has a certain sound about it that is almost as heavy as a black hole as you struggle not to enter its event horizon… but from that first riff, this whole album pulls you in. And there’s an interesting enough variety of sounds here to make it a good full album listening experience. Another 1997 album that sounds more than a bit 1970’s Sabbath! In a good way. (England)
• Assück – ‘Misery Index’ a band name that makes me chuckle every time I see it and wonder why, butt anyway, this is a grindcore/crust punk masterpiece full of succinct ripper tracks averaging only a minute or two. Exemplary of the genre. And probably inspired the band Misery Index! (Florida, duh)
• His Hero Is Gone – ‘15 Counts of Arson’ the soundtrack to the revolution. (Memphis)
• Subarachnoid Space – ‘Almost Invisible’ this was a 90’s psyche rock band that later turned into a metal band, so this should have been listed in last week’s 1997 list… but I remember buying it not long after moving to chicago and playing it every night when I went to sleep… its droney space rock vibes were always an easy way to fade into slumber, coating the city sounds outside in comforting organic guitar goodness. Almost Invisible also would be a good soundtrack for a nice inner voyage… a staycation in an album. (San Francisco)

1997 Music Playlist (heavy metal) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ3MuC2Zpu_k&si=NfLy0pk_FjXH7zCD

1997 Music Playlist (from last week, no heavy metal) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLahubbY3Et4Q&si=FqTfNehr4Gm56JW0

Thanks for reading! and listening! Next week, the critique… and a look at some projections from this spring! Go Southside.

After winning Game 1, the Chicago White Sox can finish off the Houston Astros in the best-of-three American League wild card series on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at Daikin Park.

Chicago's 6-3 victory in the opener was a slog with both teams opting to use an opener, though rookie White Sox southpaw Hagen Smith went three innings to start things off. Houston used eight pitchers in the Game 1 loss after sneaking into the playoffs with an 81-81 record, the worst mark for a postseason team in MLB history.

Sean Burke (11-8, 3.34 ERA) will start Game 2 for the White Sox, while right-hander Hunter Brown (6-4, 3.19 ERA) takes the mound trying to save the Astros' season.

The winner of the series advances to face the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Division Series, beginning Saturday, Oct. 3.

The Philadelphia Phillies have their backs against the wall after a crushing Game 1 loss against the Atlanta Braves, and send ace Cristopher Sanchez to the mound to save their season on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at Truist Park.

Austin Riley hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth in the opener off ace reliever Jhoan Duran, the latest bullpen failure in the Phillies' run of five consecutive postseason trips.

Sanchez went 18-7 with a 2.91 ERA in the regular season for the Phillies. Right-hander Tyler Mahle gets the start for the Braves, who would clinch the best-of-three series with a win and advance to the National League Division Series against the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

If the Phillies win Wednesday, the winner-take-all Game 3 of the wild card series will be played on Thursday in Atlanta.

Where to watch Phillies vs Braves today

• Game time: 2 p.m. ET
• TV channel: NBC
• Live stream: Peacock

Watch MLB playoffs on Peacock

What time is Braves vs Phillies today?

First pitch in Game 1 of the NL wild card series is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET.

Baseball is a numbers game, but when it comes to payroll and the playoffs, teams didn’t simply have to pay to reach the 2026 postseason.

While eight of MLB's final 12 teams are in the top 10 end-of-season payrolls, based on figures from the MLB Labor Relations Department and obtained by USA TODAY, the remaining four are among baseball’s lowest spenders.

That includes the teams with the best records in each league, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. The Brewers’ payroll entering the postseason is $143.5 million, good for 19th in MLB. The Rays’ $98.3 million total is No. 25.

Meanwhile, the Chicago White Sox’s $98 million roster is 26th, while the Cleveland Guardians have the lowest figure at $74.2 million.

The two top 10 payrolls that didn’t make the playoffs this year are the New York Mets — the highest in pro baseball — and 2025 World Series runner-up Toronto Blue Jays, which have the fifth-most expensive roster.

The two leagues’ postseason stables look drastically different.

Combined, the six National League teams have a total payroll of $1.51 billion — with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres all over the $200 million line.

The American League’s makeup is a bit different.

The New York Yankees’ $304.6 million payroll is nearly a third of the league’s $1.03 billion total. And then the three lowest payrolls in the playoffs — the Rays, White Sox and Guardians — are all below $100 million.

On the diamond, though, do payrolls matter as October heats up?

USA TODAY looked back at the 10 previous World Series winners’ opening-day payrolls, per The Baseball Cube, a statistics website founded in 2003 that covers college and professional baseball.

While there has been some variance, seven of the 10 started the season with a payroll of at least $200 million once adjusting to 2026 dollars. And all 10 were above $160 million.

The league’s highest opening-day payroll won the World Series twice — the Dodgers in 2025 and the Boston Red Sox in 2018. While the Mets finished 2026 with baseball’s biggest payroll, Los Angeles entered the season with the biggest payroll on The Baseball Cube’s ledgers and could be the third such instance if they complete the threepeat.

It is worth noting that the 2026 final figures can’t just be directly compared with the historical opening day payrolls. However, after adjusting the previous 10 champions’ opening-day payrolls to 2026 dollars, this year’s opening-day payrolls for Milwaukee, Tampa Bay, the White Sox and Cleveland would all be below every World Series champion since 2016.

This means that if any of those four clubs win this year’s Fall Classic, their opening-day roster would be cheaper, in 2026 dollars, than any other recent champion.

Adjusted for inflation, we'd have to go back to 2005 to find a World Series champion with a smaller opening day payroll than the Brewers' Baseball Cube opening-day $139 million. That year, the Chicago White Sox won the title with a $75.2 million roster that adjusts to about $127 million in 2026.

Methodology: USA TODAY obtained final team payrolls heading into the playoffs from MLB’s Labor Relations Department. Historical opening-day payrolls for World Series champions via The Baseball Cube; inflation adjustments using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U.

2026 MLB postseason payrolls

Final payrolls among playoff teams, via MLB Labor Relations Department

1. Los Angeles Dodgers, $338 million
2. New York Yankees, $304.6 million
3. Philadelphia Phillies, $291.7 million
4. Atlanta Braves, $263.9 million
5. Houston Astros, $249.5 million
6. Chicago Cubs, $248.8 million
7. San Diego Padres, $223.9 million
8. Boston Red Sox, $210.2 million
9. Milwaukee Brewers, $143.5 million
10. Tampa Bay Rays, $98.3 million
11. Chicago White Sox, $98 million
12. Cleveland Guardians, $74.2 million

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: You can't buy a spot in MLB playoffs. Just ask these teams.

Miguel Rojas has remained composed at the field. But away from it, on the precipice of what could be his last postseason run as a player, he hasn’t been able to hold back the tears.

“It’s been hard,” Rojas said in a recent conversation with The Times. “I’m not going to lie. I’ve been crying by myself at home.

“Every time I take a little time to post on my social media about saying thank you, it’s because I don’t want to do a full press conference of telling people, ‘Hey, this is the day that I’m retiring’ because I don’t think I’m good enough. I didn’t play a career that I’m good enough to do that. I’m not going to end up in the Hall of Fame or anything like that. So I’m just going to do it my own way. And whenever I go, I just want the fans, the people around baseball, [to know] how grateful I am for all the moments.”

His last Instagram post was a series of photos of him looking up at the applauding crowd in the Dodger Stadium left-field bleachers. He put it up during the Dodgers’ final regular-season homestand with the caption, “Thank You Dodger Fans” and a blue heart emoji, taking a moment to let it sink in that it could be his last before hanging up his spikes.

Read more:The Dodgers have an old roster. But that isn't necessarily a drawback in October

Rojas hasn’t finalized his retirement decision just yet, however. He’ll reflect more on his future after the final out of the Dodgers’ postseason run.

“From this moment on, it will be kind of like a day-to-day thing,” he said. “And you might get to know that I’m stepping away from the game in an Instagram post, or from me just saying goodbye on a video. I don’t know. I don’t know how it’s going to be, but at this moment, I’m not 100% [certain].”

When Rojas first returned to the Dodgers, he didn’t necessarily expect this chapter of his career to be so meaningful. He’d debuted with the club in 2014 but spent the next eight years with Miami. Then in 2023, the Marlins traded him.

“I came here as a protection piece,” he said. “Like, ‘OK, we’re going to bring this guy in, he can play different positions, he can be our security blanket if something happened with any one of our infielders.’ I didn’t think too much of it. As a player, I was thinking that this is great that is happening to me. I’m coming to the best team in baseball with an opportunity to win a championship, late in my career. I mean, what’s better than that?”

Well, two championships, and a quest for a third.

Over the past four seasons, not only has Rojas established himself as a clubhouse leader, winning the Roy Campanella award three years in a row, but he also became a 2025 World Series hero.

Read more:Plaschke: The Dodgers cannot three-peat without 'That Guy'... but who is he?

“I’m living proof that you never know when good things are going to be happening to you,” Rojas said. “It can be at the beginning of your career, or it can be when you’re like 20 years into your professional career.”

He’s set to become a free agent this winter, once the one-year, $5.5 million deal he signed last December expires. So, the 37-year-old has had to grapple with the reality that his 13-year MLB career could be coming to a close.

“There’s days where I feel like I shouldn’t be retiring,” he said. “There’s days where I wake up in the morning and I say, ‘Yeah, it’s time.’ I’m still going back and forth. I’m not 100% sure that this is the right decision, of stepping away from the game. … When I think about what will be the deciding factor, it will be if this is enough for me, just walk away with what I have. I don’t want to be a bother. … If I’m going to be here next year, it’s going to be because we’re looking for something.”

No matter what, he pictures his future with the Dodgers.

“I wouldn’t play for another team,” he said. “After what happened my last couple years, after winning two World Series here, after becoming a big part of the 2025 season, it would be kind of stupid for me to go anywhere else and part ways with this organization.”

If Rojas doesn’t come back as a player, he’s lined up to join the Dodgers’ player development department, with managerial aspirations down the line.

That vision of the future includes a milestone in his personal life: becoming a citizen of the United States. Rojas is scheduled to take his naturalization test this week, as he first told the Orange County Register.

“I’m really excited about this opportunity and this part of my life, where I become a United States citizen,” he said. “Both of my kids were born in Miami and grew up in the United States. And obviously, my ties with Venezuela will always be where I’m coming from, and I will never forget that. But this is a great opportunity for me, especially after my [playing] career, and I’m looking forward to continuing my career after baseball here in the United States.”

Rojas’ appointment was originally scheduled for January, he said. But relations between his home country of Venezuela and the United States froze the process.

A series of memos from the Department of Homeland Security put a hold on immigration applications from nationals of countries on the department’s “high risk” list, including Venezuela. In early January, the United States captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a covert military operation.

Read more:Shaikin: How the playoffs might impact the lockout, and ... unfair to the Yankees? What?

Rojas has been waiting all year for a letter rescheduling his naturalization test, he said. Finally, last week his wife texted him with the new date: Oct. 2. He’d have to fly to Miami the day before.

That was another advantage of claiming a first-round bye: Rojas won’t have to miss an if-necessary wild-card Game 3.

Instead, he’ll have that final big step in the citizenship application process done before the Dodgers begin their postseason run with Game 1 of the NLDS on Saturday. Rojas will be there as they shoot for a third straight World Series title, a feat no NL team has ever achieved.

“We’re not going to play until we’re 50 and be this good,” Rojas said of the veteran-heavy Dodgers. “But if this is a window that we have to be great, why not try to go after it?”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Dodgers’ back-to-back World Series championships each have been punctuated by the Freddie Freeman Signature Moment.

It is the flair for the dramatic. It is coming through in the clutch, at the clutchiest of times. When you tell your friends about the game the next day, it is the first thing you mention.

Did you see that?

Did you see Freeman hit the walkoff grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, the one that sucked the hype out of the New York Yankees? Gibby, meet Freddie!

Did you see Freeman hit the walkoff home run in the 18th inning of Game 3 of the 2025 World Series, the one in which the Toronto Blue Jays intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani four times and dared someone else to beat them? Freeman did.

The Dodgers don’t really know what you might see out of Freeman when they open this postseason Saturday. For Ohtani and Freeman, two of the top four batters in their lineup, the second half has been a struggle amid injuries.

Ohtani’s odyssey is headline news, and a matter of international intrigue. But Freeman’s inability to hit with power over the final two months, hampered by tendinitis in his right knee, raises this concern: If postseason opponents pitch around Ohtani and dare Freeman to beat them, can he?

“I’m not going to make an excuse,” Freeman said. “I will never blame my knee. I didn’t play very well, and that’s just how it is.”

Freeman’s 16 home runs this season are a career low for a full season.

In the second half, Freeman hit one home run, with a .339 slugging percentage. Miguel Rojas, better known for his glove, also hit one home run in the second half, with a .345 slugging percentage.

Freeman’s career slugging percentage is .505. Since becoming an everyday major leaguer in 2011, Freeman has slugged below .400 in either half of a season just once: in the second half of 2015, when he hit six home runs and slugged .395, amid wrist and oblique injuries.

“I think that the mechanics have changed because they were compromised because of his right knee,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “and so now that his right knee is getting back to full health, I think he’s got to recalibrate the swing, and that’s where we’re at.”

It is one of baseball’s eternal challenges: Some part of your body hurts, you make an adjustment — consciously or subconsciously — so your body doesn’t hurt so much when you play, and all of a sudden your swing is out of whack. Not by much, maybe, but by just enough to miss that 100-mph fastball or that breaking ball you find yourself lunging to reach.

“My body feels good,” Freeman said. “I think that’s the main thing. I feel like it’s in a good spot to be able to do the work and hopefully fix my swing and everything that’s been going on the last couple months.”

In Sunday’s game, Freeman pulled a line drive, close to becoming a home run before it veered foul. Freeman said he mentioned to Roberts that was the kind of drive that had gone missing.

Read more:Who's hot and who's not as Dodgers prepare for the postseason

On Tuesday, Freeman talked about a plan for day-to-day work this week, to make the adjustments in his swing to restore the production. He thought back to the days before Game 1 of that 2024 World Series, when ankle and rib injuries affected his play so obviously that the Dodgers scratched him from the final game of the National League Championship Series.

Then, as now, the Dodgers enjoyed a long break before the next series. This bye might be nice in terms of arranging a pitching rotation, but it is critical for allowing Freeman — and Ohtani — time to make adjustments by day without rushing to try them in a game that night.

“A couple of Octobers ago was probably 100 times worse, ailment-wise,” Freeman said. “I truly feel good right now, physically. So it’s on me now to figure out the mechanics of the swing in the next five days, and I have all the confidence in myself that I will figure that out by Saturday.”

Freeman is 37, with one year left on his contract with the Dodgers. He said the ailing knee should not require offseason treatment.

Read more:Dodgers Dugout: It's official — Dodgers won't win the World Series this year

“I have no pain in my knee right now, so I’m not gonna have any doctor’s appointments or anything,” he said. “So hopefully I’ll be ready to go by spring training next year.”

Spring training is in jeopardy because of the looming lockout. So let’s focus on this postseason, and the opportunity for another Freddie Freeman Signature Moment.

The last team to three-peat: the 1998-2000 New York Yankees. You might have heard of the most valuable player of that 2000 series. If Freeman leads the Dodgers to a parade this October, we can already hear Joe Davis on the call: Freddie, meet Jeter!

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

For much of the week or so building up to the beginning of the MLB playoffs, there was a lot of chatter going on about the postseason format and how goofy it was (to use a kind word) for the second-best team in the American League to be shunted to a Wild Card Series while one with eight fewer wins got a first-round bye and another that was flat-out .500 was given equal treatment with home field in the Wild Card.

The Yankees can’t do anything about it. It is absolutely fair to say that they had chances to avoid this fate by simply the AL East over an upstart Rays team, and despite a more impressive club on paper than Tampa Bay—which finished under .500 in 2025—they fell short of that. If you don’t win your division, then you are subject to the vagaries of the Wild Card. That’s just how it goes, and if the Yankees are fortunate to advance, then they’ll have other repercussions down the road. But the Dodgers were the lower seed in every playoff round last year after the Wild Card Series. In 2023, the Rangers were never the high seed in any of their four series. They both managed; the Yankees must do the same.

Anyway, the Yankees did at least know that by outplaying the Red Sox in the regular season, they were assured of hosting all three potential games of their Wild Card Series showdown at Yankee Stadium. Sometimes, home-field advantage can be overstated, it’s true. In this particular head-to-head, however? Even beyond getting last at-bats, it feels like a world of difference between playing it at Fenway Park and the Bronx. Weird things tend to happen at Fenway with the Green Monster, very limited foul territory, the triangle in center, the sharp turn of the right-field wall up from Pesky Pole, and more. That “weird” axiom holds true in seasons when the Red Sox aren’t good; they can still win those games. So if nothing else, it was a comfort to know that aside from the occasional surprising Short Porch Special, the ballgames would be more straightforward.

Then, of course, there’s the crowd energy. Baseball players live off of it, and though the new Yankee Stadium has had its ups and downs in that department across its 17 years of existence (I was still in college when it opened, yikes), when it brings the vibe, it brings the vibe. Alex Rodriguez’s game-tying homer off Joe Nathan in the 2009 ALDS. Hideki Matsui erupting against the Phillies in the Fall Classic. Raúl Ibañez sending shockwaves throughout the Bronx in 2012. Didi Gregorius, Greg Bird, and more providing huge hits during the 2017 playoff run. Giancarlo Stanton dropping taters on the Guardians in the 2024 ALCS. The crowd was such a huge part of making those moments indelible.

It was at it again last night.

Ben Rice brought the power to a Yankees lineup that was a little uneven until later on. Don’t be fooled by the final score if you happened to miss it! This was a tense, low-scoring affair for most of the night. Payton Tolle was very good for Boston, stymieing the Yanks, stranding runners, and making the platoon adjustments against him look poor. The bottom of the order scratched out a run in the second and Rice went 423 feet to dead center for a second run immediately after Boston skipper Chad Tracy pulled Tolle.

The man responsible for making that hold up was a familiar nemesis to the Red Sox: Cam Schlittler. He brought the stamp to one of those past huge Yankee Stadium moments in 2025 when he broke out to send Boston home in the winner-take-all Game 3 of that Wild Card rumble, firing eight shutout innnings with a dozen strikeouts on 107 pitches. Schlittler was not as efficient this time around, but that didn’t mean the Red Sox had much of an idea about what to do with him.

Schlittler deviated from his standard all-fastball-focused approach, deploying his curve 27 percent of the time to help generate 10 strikeouts and 24 swings and misses. He shook off a lost 10-pitch battle against Adley Rutschman in the first without a sweat and kept steamrolling through the Red Sox lineup.

Aaron Boone was so confident in how he looked that he let Schlittler hang out there for 117 pitches—not that strange a figure from my days of growing up as a fan but nearly unheard-of these days. It was the highest pitch count for a Yankee in the playoffs since CC Sabathia almost single-handedly eliminated the Orioles in 2012 ALDS Game 5. But Cam kept feeding off the crowd and frustrating the Red Sox batters, and in a short series, it was understandably tempting for Boone to see how much of the bullpen’s best he could avoid. That’s a dude.

It worked out, as only Paul Blackburn relieved Schlittler; Brent Headrick warmed up but didn’t pitch, and thanks to Rice, David Bednar never got that far. The Red Sox bullpen let the game get away from them, with Rice tallying an RBI knock during a two-run seventh before really slamming the door with a grand slam off Brayan Bello.

Let’s keep the energy going tonight at 161st and River and see if the Yankees can end this series without needing to sweat out another potential Wild Card Series elimination game. The crowd can only do so much if the guys on the field aren’t capitalizing, but the Yanks sure did a great job of it on Tuesday night.

The playoff fever continues today on the site. Matt will name his Player of the Game for the Wild Card opener, Jonathan will preview tonight’s Game 2 matchup between Max Fried and Sonny Gray. Both will return when Matt recaps the full postseason action across the majors yesterday and Jonathan celebrates the 122nd birthday of 1932 Yankees World Series champion Johnny Allen. Scott will also be back for one last fond farewell to the RailRiders Era. And keep an eye out for Dani throughout the afternoon as he tackles any notable news that comes across the ol’ transom.

Today’s Matchup:

American League Wild Card Series Game 2

New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox

Time: 8:00 p.m. EST

TV:  NBC/Peacock

Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY