Category: Sports News

We’re back in the National League today after spending yesterday watching the two AL matchups. The White Sox are one win away from the ALCS one year after losing 100 games. The Rays handled business themselves, beating their division-rivals and league-wide hated Yankees and now find themselves on the cusp of the next round as well. Both series take a beat today so we’ll have to wait and find out what happens next until tomorrow.

As for today, we got a one quality matchup on the mound with a couple aces going in Atlanta. Runs may be scarce in that contest. Meanwhile back in California it’s a couple mid-rotation pieces so all the runs are coming tonight.

Los Angeles Dodgers at Atlanta Braves (6:00 PM EDT)

The Dodgers won the first game of the series before dropping the second game on Sunday night. The reigning champions feel more vulnerable than they have over the past couple of years and that happens to older teams. Still, their the reigning champions so there’s no way you can count them out. Especially when the series is tied. If I’m Atlanta though, you did what you needed to do by stealing a win in Los Angeles.

The Dodgers are turning to Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (14-9, 2.53 ERA) for the first time this October. The right-hander was nearly untouchable in the postseason last year and LA is hoping for more of the same this go around. If he continues to be that dominant today then the Dodgers could be one win away from the NLCS by the end of the day.

Atlanta meanwhile has their ace up their sleeve as lefty Chris Sale (14-9, 2.16 ERA) gets the call for the must-win Game 3. In most other years Sale would be on his way to a Cy Young Award with those kind of stats, but unfortunately for him the Brewers have someone who is just a little better. Still, if you’re Atlanta you have to feel good about your chances with your ace on the hill. If they can score a couple runs off Yamamoto they could take tonight’s contest and set themselves up for a clinching scenario in front of the home crowd tomorrow.

Here’s how Los Angeles will line up today:

Today's #NLDS Game 3 Dodgers lineup at Braves: pic.twitter.com/aYZ2IfRsZV

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 6, 2026

And here’s Atlanta’s lineup:

Game 3. #LetItFlypic.twitter.com/qEtGsjSSjq

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) October 6, 2026

Milwaukee Brewers at San Diego Padres (9:30 PM EDT)

This series has been fantastic. The Brewers came away with the win in Game 1 thanks to some controversy involving a roof, and then followed that up with a walk-off win against arguably the best closer in the sport. That’s put the #1 seed just one win away from the NLCS and a rematch with the Dodgers for a trip to the World Series. And at this point it’s starting to feel as though they’re the only ones standing between the Dodgers and a third straight championhip.

They’ll have mid-season trade acquisition Dustin May (7-9, 4.70 ERA) on the bump for them tonight. May was solid during the first half with the Cardinals before his trade to Milwaukee to reinforce the middle of their rotation. While he took the ball every turn, his stats with Milwaukee have fallen off. He’s been used in shorter bursts with the Brewers so it wouldn’t be shocking to see a quick hook for the right-hander if he’s struggling early.

The Padres meanwhile will ask Nick Pivetta (3-2, 2.86 ERA) to help them stay alive in these playoffs. The 33-year-old missed the majority of the year with an elbow strain that many thought would require season-ending surgery. He’s successfully avoided that and provided the Friars with a boost in their rotation. Now they’ll be asking the world of him as they face the prospect of seeing their season end if they can’t pull out the win tonight in front of their home town crowd. No pressure.

Here’s Milwaukee’s starting nine with a chance to punch their ticket to the next round:

Taking this show on the road

📺: FS1
📻: WTMJ#WinOurWaypic.twitter.com/rEbwMvfZk9

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 6, 2026

And the Padres’ lineup for this must-win contest:

Updated lineup for tonight’s Game 3 of the NLDS (Gavin Sheets scratched with a stiff neck; will be available off the bench): https://t.co/4ckk4KVs4epic.twitter.com/IUmio0TvRf

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) October 6, 2026

So how do you guys think today goes? Do the Brewers finish the sweep and punch their ticket to the NLCS? Can the Dodgers bounce back and take Game 3? Some exciting baseball tonight!

Dodgers at Braves

Series tied, 1-1

First pitch: 6:00 PM EDT
TV: FS1/FOX ONE
Probable pitchers: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, RHP (LAD); Chris Sale, LHP (ATL)

Brewers at Padres

Brewers lead, 2-0

First pitch: 9:30 PM EDT
TV: FS1/FOX ONE
Probable pitchers: Dustin May, RHP (MIL); Nick Pivetta, RHP (SDP)

We have a pair of NLDS games on tap today.

In the early game, the Braves host the Dodgers with the series tied at 1 game apiece. 5:00 p.m. Central start time on FS1.

In the late game, the Padres, having lost two heartbreakers in Milwaukee, try to stave off elimination. 8:30 p.m. Central start time on FS1.

Talk about it here…

The Los Angeles Dodgers might have to borrow the blueprint for beating Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale from an unlikely source.

The lowly Los Angeles Angels.

The Angels finished the regular season with the second-worst record in baseball but also humbled Sale, the 10-time All-Star, at Anaheim Stadium April 6 in what remains Sale's worst outing of the 2026 season. It's what the Dodgers need as they prepare to face the 6-foot-6 left-hander in Game 3 of the best-of-five NLDS tied one game apiece with Atlanta Tuesday, Oct. 6.

The blueprint starts with aggression: April 6 at Anaheim Stadium, Angels shortstop Zach Neto hit the first pitch he saw, a 95-mph four-seam fastball, for a 400-foot home run.

The blueprint shifts to patience: Sale retired nine batters in a row heading into the bottom of the fourth when he hit Angels outfielder Jorge Soler. It was an opening, a piece of string from Sale’s ball of yarn beginning to unravel.

Then the Angels pulled that loose piece of yarn. With a base hit. Two consecutive walks. Another hit batter. When the inning ended, the Angels led 4-1.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Angels went back to aggression: Joe Adell jumped on a first-pitch fastball, blasting a 411-foot home run and giving the Angels a 6-1 lead. Suddenly Sale gave way to a reliever in a game the Angels won 6-2.

Beyond the Dodgers offense

The offense is only part of the blueprint, of course. That night at Anaheim Stadium, when the Angels roughed up the Sale, Angels ace Jose Soriano muffled the Braves' bats.

He pitched eight innings, allowed only one earned run and struck out 10 batters. Basically, he outsale-d Sale, who gave up six earned runs in four innings – statistically, his worst outing of the year.

Dodgers vs. Chris Sale: a tale of two teams

So how can the Dodgers use the blueprint?

Aggression at the outset would make perfect sense. Mookie Betts, likely to bat leadoff, has as much success against Sale as any current Dodger.

Betts is 7-for-16 (.389) with two doubles and a home run.

Freddie Freeman should have the confidence to swing with aggression, too. Against Sale, Freeman is 5-16 (.313.) with two doubles and two home runs.

Teoscar Hernandez should be afraid to take his thunderous swings. Though he’s struck out 10 times in 24 plate appearances against Sale, Hernandez also has homered and doubled twice against the Braves star pitcher.

It’s unlikely Shohei Ohtani will break out of his slump against Sale. He is 3-for-15 (.200) with a double and five strikeouts and is struggling at the plate.

And as Soriano did for the Angels, it’ll be up to Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto to help hold the Braves’ offense in check.

Dodgers make big adjustments to lineup

The Dodgers have made adjustments to their lineup for Game 3. The most notable is Ohtani's move to fifth in the batting order, the lowest he's hit since 2020. Ohtani batted leadoff for the Dodgers before injuries left him on the injured list in September. He is 2-for-8 with two strikeouts in the first two games of the NLDS.

Freeman will bat second, moving up from fourth, and Teoscar Hernandez will bat third, moving up from fifth.

Enrique Hernández will get the start at third base ahead of Max Muncy and bat ninth.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers can borrow blueprint to beat Braves' Sale from unlikely source

Joe Davis, the play-by-play voice of both the Los Angeles Dodgers' TV broadcasts and the lead voice on Fox Sports' Major League Baseball coverage, will miss Game 3 of the National League Division Series because of voice issues, The Athletic first reported.

Davis, 38, will be replaced by veteran broadcasting staple Kenny Albert for the Tuesday, Oct. 6 game.

The NLDS between the Dodgers and Braves is tied, 1-1, entering Game 3, with both teams' aces − Atlanta left-hander Chris Sale and Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto − scheduled to pitch. First pitch is at 6 p.m. ET. Game 4 is scheduled for Wednesday at Atlanta's Truist Park.

Keep up with Dodgers-Braves Game 3 with our live blog, here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Where is Joe Davis? Why Kenny Albert is filling in on Dodgers-Braves Fox telecast

The struggles of the Cincinnati Reds offense as a whole during the 2026 regular season has been documented well – here, there, and everywhere. The top-heavy nature of the lineup featured a back-beat that was mostly non-existent for months at a time, and overall the latter outweighed the former by season’s end.

They ranked dead last in team wRC+ at 91, after all (and we’ll have more on that on Friday).

Along the way, though, they did manage to jump to the top of the team leaderboards in a rather unique way, whether by distinct coaching towards a particular test or by sheer luck. And given which other teams (and their potent bats) rank right next to them, it might be the one thing on which they can offensively hang their hat when looking back at this otherwise dismal year.

No team – not a single one – posted a higher collective launch angle than the Cincinnati Reds. Their 16.2 degree figure was the best in the sport, with the high-octane Chicago Cubs up in 3rd at 15.9 degrees and the mighty New York Yankees tied for 4th at 15.4 degrees. Innocence by association isn’t everything, obviously, but it’s hard not to notice when some of the best put-together lineups also excel at something the Reds did (and it’s worth pointing out the Los Angeles Dodgers ranked just past that tie for 4th in 7th at 15.1 degrees). Those team don’t operate on hunches, they actively seek to rank well where they end up ranking well, and in this particular category it was somehow the Reds ranking on top.

Launch angle is not an end-all, be-all metric, however. Sometimes it could reflect that you pop the ball up too much, and if you strike out so much that you don’t feature enough batted ball events it doesn’t matter that you do smack line drives when you actually make your one contact for the game. Batted Ball Events (BBE) is notable here particularly since no team in the sport had fewer than the Reds did, their 3,893 mark nearly 500 fewer than the league-leading Tampa Bay Rays. The Cubs, for reference, again ranked well here at 4th.

Launch Angle Sweet-Spot % tends to to help narrow the focus of all of this. It tracks how often players (or teams, in this instance) hit a ball between 8 degrees and 32 degrees, effectively reducing how often a pop-fly would help skew an overall launch angle. The Reds, to their credit, ranked 4th in the game here, trailing only the likes of the Detroit Tigers, Dodgers, and Coors-leaning Colorado Rockies. Pair that with ranking 4th in average exit velocity, and it’s clear the Reds did a better-than-expected job of hitting line drives and hitting them hard relative to their peers.

Again, though, these two stats come with their quirks. Strikeouts don’t factor into the denominator when calculating LA SwSp%, and the Reds struck out a lot. Average exit velocity doesn’t factor in the zero mph velocity of striking out, either, and if it did the Reds number would sink by a large margin.

The lone concern here – aside from the striking out profusely part – is that two of the Reds who ranked best in terms of launch angle and LA SwSp% were Tyler Stephenson and Eugenio Suarez, the latter of whom got hot just as the Reds were falling out of the race for good and actually finished is overall disappointing 2026 rather well. Both of them, of course, will almost certainly reach free agency within days of the end of this year’s World Series, taking their launch angle talents to another team that seeks them. JJ Bleday found the sweet spot pretty often while Matt McLain’s 20.7 degree launch angle ranked 14th among qualified batters, but a large chunk of the one decent stat where the Reds ranked well in 2026 is still about to walk to another team, with no clear launch angle darlings in the upper minors ready to step in and replace them.

And before you flush this topic down the toilet, it’s worth pointing out some of the names that rank among the Top 20 on these particular lists. Cal Raleigh, Isaac Paredes, Zach Neto, PCA, and Mickey Moniak all rank among the Top 10 in launch angle, with Byron Buxton (20th), Kyle Schwarber (21st), and Kevin McGonigle (23rd) and featuring prominently, too. Yordan Alvarez, and Riley Green sandwich Stephenson in the Top 10 in LA SwSp%, with Mookie Betts and Steven Kwan both in the Top 10, too. Two of the Brewers best hitters (Brice Turang and Jake Bauers) just missed the Top 20, as did Freddie Freeman (22nd) – Nick Kurtz of the A’s ranked 19th.

It didn’t all pan out in the end, of course. Too many holes in swings, too many streaks, too little overall contact. But at least there may be a methodology underlying all of this if the Reds could just find a few more bats competent enough to make it happen.

Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani took the news that he was hitting fifth in Game 3 of the National League Division Series so well that he responded with a joke.

As manager Dave Roberts tells it, when he laid out his thoughts on the lineup against Braves ace Chris Sale, Ohtani said, “In all honesty, I was going to come to you in September and say, why don’t you hit me seventh?”

Regardless of how poorly Ohtani has hit lately, the news came as a shock on Tuesday. And it reflected the aggressive read-and-react approach Roberts is going to take with the best-of-five series tied through two games.

Fifth is the lowest Ohtani has ever hit in the Dodgers’ starting lineup. He hasn’t hit fifth or lower in a starting lineup since 2020 with the Angels.

Read more:Dodgers vs. Braves Game 3 live updates: L.A. leads in eighth inning

For most of the season, through ups, downs and injuries, Ohtani has led off. When he returned from the injured list with five games left in the season, Roberts started batting him second against left-handed pitchers, with right-handed hitting Mookie Betts batting ahead of him.

But in eight postseason at-bats so far, Ohtani has recorded just two hits, both singles.

“This is just a Sale thing, and also who I feel is going to come out of the bullpen tonight,” Roberts said, making clear that he doesn’t plan to bat Ohtani fifth against all left-handed pitchers in the postseason. “So [Wednesday] versus [right-hander Tyler] Mahle, it will look different.”

Against Mahle, however, Roberts said Ohtani won’t necessarily lead off, citing Mahle’s neutral-to-reverse platoon splits. But Ohtani won’t hit fifth, Roberts said. Sale is a special case.

The last time the Dodgers faced Sale, he shut them out for nine innings. All time, Ohtani has a .517 OPS against Sale in the regular season, and he went one for seven against him this year.

“It might give him a different look, let the game come to him a little bit later,” Roberts said. “I don’t think it’s a pressure thing. I do think it’s something where he wants to do more. But in that same breath, I do think that there’s going to be a couple big spots today where he’s going to be at bat.”

In the Dodgers’ first two postseason games, Ohtani’s plate discipline has wavered, making it difficult to pinpoint the root of his struggles. Does it all come down to approach? Could his nagging left knee and right biceps problems be contributing to his poor performance?

The Dodgers aren’t looking for him to be the hero every game, and trying to do so could even exacerbate his problems at the plate. For the lineup to click, however, he does need to be more productive.

Read more:Fred Claire, former Dodgers GM whose team won the '88 World Series, dies

“He’s a very good self-evaluator, a very extremely high competitor and expects a lot from himself,” Roberts said. “I still think he’s very confident. But Sale’s a different monster. He’s tough, certainly against lefties.

“But I still think [Ohtani’s] confident. So now with that, just getting him back in the zone — and that’s easier said than done, I understand that.”

On Tuesday, Roberts also inserted right-handed hitting Kiké Hernández into the lineup, batting ninth and playing third base. And he kept right-handed hitter Miguel Rojas in the lineup, moving him from third to second and starting utility player Tommy Edman on the bench. Left-handed hitting third baseman Max Muncy will also be available off the bench.

“Tommy, he’s been going through it in the last couple of months, and it’s been a grind for him on both sides of the plate,” Roberts said. “Hasn’t had a whole lot of success against Sale — the heater up, the ball down below, with a flat swing. … Getting Kiké involved right now, I think it’s added intensity, urgency. I just think he’s going to put forth some good at-bats, and you’re not giving up anything on the defensive side.”

Today's #NLDS Game 3 Dodgers lineup at Braves: pic.twitter.com/aYZ2IfRsZV

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 6, 2026

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

ATLANTA — Dodgers manager Dave Roberts wasn’t bluffing.

As he had hinted during the team’s off day on Monday, the Dodgers made significant lineup changes for Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Tuesday, reconfiguring their batting order and inserting a couple extra right-handed bats into their lineup ahead of a daunting matchup with Braves left-handed ace Chris Sale at Truist Park.

Shohei Ohtani is batting fifth for the Dodgers today

Miguel Rojas and Kiké Hernández also in there against Chris Sale pic.twitter.com/gfHC88uNd6

— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) October 6, 2026

The biggest change: Two-way star Shohei Ohtani being dropped from the two-hole down to the No. 5 spot — the lowest he has hit since the 2020 season with the Angels.

“I had a good conversation with him last night, told him my thoughts,” Roberts said. “And he completely understood.”

Indeed, the move wasn’t unexpected, after the physically diminished slugger opened this series with just two singles in a two-game split back in Los Angeles.

By moving Ohtani down, the Dodgers were trying to limit the number of times he potentially faces Sale (who has held him to a 3-for-15 mark in their previous head-to-head matchups). The club is also hoping to see a better approach from the four-time MVP, after he struck out twice on Sunday while repeatedly chasing pitches outside the strike zone.

“He wants to do whatever will help the team,” Roberts said, noting that Ohtani joked he almost came to Roberts during his injury-hampered slump in September to say, “Why don’t you hit me seventh?”

That, of course, was tongue-in-cheek.

But Ohtani’s acceptance of Tuesday’s lineup move –– which Roberts emphasized was just a one-day adjustment to the matchup with Sale –– felt genuine to the veteran manager.

“I just feel this gives us the best chance to beat the Braves today,” Roberts said. “To combat Sale, to combat what they’re going to throw after Sale. And I feel good about it.”

The Dodgers took other measures for their showdown with Sale — who topped even his 2024 Cy Young Award-winning performance this season by going 14-9 with a 2.16 ERA, including a five-hit shutout of the Dodgers when he last faced them in August at Truist Park.

At third base, the left-handed-hitting Max Muncy was replaced for a second straight game by veteran Miguel Rojas, who was batting sixth.

At second base, slumping switch-hitter Tommy Edman was swapped out for veteran playoff performer Kiké Hernández, who will get his first start of this year’s postseason as the No. 9 hitter.

“Today, we know we’re in for a battle,” Rojas said. “We know what he’s going to feature. We know his stuff. It comes down to execution on the day … We are going to have to fight every pitch, every out. And that’s what we’re in for.”