Category: Sports News

(1-3) Glendale Desert Dogs 4, (1-2) Mesa Solar Sox 3

Box Score

Statcast

• Owen Carey, RF: 1-4, .393 OPS
• Tanner Baumann, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 11.57 ERA
• Owen Hackman, RP: 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 3.38 ERA
• Tyler LaPorte, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
• Logan Samuels, RP: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 3.00 ERA

It was a busy day for all of the Braves relievers that were sent to Arizona. Braves arms were responsible for 5 2/3 of Glendale’s ten innings with four pitchers making appearances, and the results for the crew were mixed. With a 1-0 lead on the table Tanner Baumann was brought in to try to keep Mesa at bay while insurance runs followed, and the inning got off to a concerning start. Baumann had trouble finding the strike zone with anything and walked the first two hitters he faced, but he wiggled out of it to maintain the lead. He forced two ground balls off of his sinker, one of which turned into a double play, and the fifth inning was a smoother affair. Baumann never really found any of his secondaries, but his sinker was an effective pitch for him and kept him mowing through batters with two strikeouts in the fifth inning. Owen Hackman came in during the 7th inning with a lead that had been extended to three runs, and it took every ounce of effort for him to keep any lead safe. Hackman started off hot with a strikeout, but after running the next count to 1-2 an errant fastball hit the batter and derailed the entire inning. Hackman gave up a solid single, then his own throwing error scored the first run and put the tying run on base. Another base hit on what was honestly not a bad pitch brought home the next run, but Hackman received his first dose of good luck with an assist from his buddy in right field. Owen Carey threw out the runner trying to go first- to-third, giving Hackman his second out and putting him in position to shut the door on the inning with a strikeout of the next hitter.

Tyler LaPorte escaped the eighth inning and held on to Glendale’s one run lead, but it was awfully close to going south for him. His pitch execution wasn’t awful, but the Solar Sox hitters were able to make good swings when they needed to and started the inning with a hit and a walk. LaPorte gave up his hardest contact to the third hitter, but the ball found the second baseman for a force out and saved a run from scoring for the moment. LaPorte’s best at-bat came with his dismantling of the next hitter for an easy strikeout on straight sliders, but he had to get lucky and escape thanks to a hard hit ball finding a glove after leaving a slider over the plate to the next hitter. It goes in the books as a scoreless inning, but LaPorte didn’t make it too easy. We can talk more good news/bad news with Logan Samuels. The good news is his whiff numbers. He diced up hitters with his changeup and totaled ten whiffs on 18 swings in his 1 2/3 innings of work. The bad news was that Mesa managed some hard contact against him. The first was on a sinker that stayed up in the strike zone, a pitch that was the worst Samuels made in the ninth inning and led to a hard-hit double to lead off the inning. The next is one that you would be hard-pressed to blame on him. An infield single, even on a hard hit ball, is rarely the pitcher’s fault, and it’s less so his fault when the batter had to golf a chopper inches off the ground and beat the ball to first base. Samuels made french toast out of everyone else, so even though the game goes on his record as a blown save it was ultimately a well-pitched game that happened to not go his way. Owen Carey made an appearance in this game outside of his defensive work, notching an infield single in the ninth inning. It’s still his defense that was the highlight, though. Carey saw a ton of fastballs in this game but still kept chasing pitch after pitch outside of the strike zone and it led to ugly results. He made a lot of contact but none of it was quality, and pitchers don’t even have to make particularly good pitches to get him to swing right now.

During their history, the Royals have had several players who were overlooked, especially on a national level. David DeJesus comes to mind, as does Kevin Appier, who was criminally underrated.

Another player whose excellence slipped past us was shortstop Rey Sanchez, who unfortunately toiled for the Royals through some of their bleakest seasons. And for a team that has set the gold standard for bleak seasons, that is saying something.

Sanchez, a native of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, broke into the majors with a 13-game stint with the Chicago Cubs at the tail end of the 1991 season. He collected his first hit with an eighth-inning single off the Pirates’ Doug Drabek on September 17 at Three Rivers Stadium.

Sanchez spent most of the next six seasons as the Cubs’ starting shortstop, putting up steady but unspectacular numbers. The Cubs sent Sanchez to the Yankees in a 1997 trade deadline deal, and he hit .312 in 38 games for the Yanks and got a taste of the postseason.

He signed a free-agent deal with the Giants in the offseason and enjoyed a solid year in San Francisco, slashing .285/.325/.361 while playing his usual spectacular defense.

The Royals had been employing Shane Halter and Mindy Lopez at short, and in the offseason, Herk Robinson made one of his best free-agent acquisitions by bringing in Sanchez on a one-year deal.

Sanchez had the best year of his career as a Royal in 1999, slashing .294/.329/.370 over 134 games while finishing second in the league in Defensive WAR.

That was enough for the Royals to ink Sanchez to a two-year deal in the offseason, and he was even better in 2000 and 2001, leading the league in Defensive WAR both seasons. He wasn’t too shabby with the bat, either, hitting .273 in 2000 and .303 in 2001.

All told, his Kansas City tenure lasted for 377 games, and he was worth 9.3 WAR while hitting a combined .289. About that defense. Sanchez wasn’t an acrobat like, say, Ozzie Smith, though he did have some spectacular plays. Sanchez was smooth. He got to every ball in his zip code, made a slick pickup and threw sweet, chest-high throws to first each time. He made it look so routine that it was easy to miss the beauty of it.

I saw Sanchez play once, on July 25, 1999 , George Brett Day at the K. It was impossibly hot that day, as late July in Kansas City tends to be, at least according to Ichiro. Carlos Beltran melted early in the game and had to be removed. The Oakland A’s jumped out to a large early lead before the Royals found their footing. Down 11-5 going into the bottom of the sixth, the Royals tacked on three runs to make it interesting.

The Royals came up in the bottom of the ninth trailing by three. Jermaine Dye stroked a leadoff double off A’s closer Billy Taylor. Joe Randa sent the heat-stricken crowd into hysteria with his second home run of the day. Jeremy Giambi punched a single through the left side of the infield. At this point, manager Tony Muser elected to go for the loss. He had catcher Tim Spehr lay down a bunt. Now, you can imagine that Spehr, being a catcher, was not particularly fleet of foot. He wasn’t. He stole nine bases in an eight-year career. Didn’t matter to Muser.

Spehr laid down a beauty and somehow, someway, beat it out. Runners on first and second, down by one, no outs and Rey Sanchez coming to the plate. This is what I wrote about that at-bat several years ago.

Now the crowd was going nuts. Probably heat delirium. Muser, never one to go for the win, had Rey Sanchez bunt the runners over. This is just an insanely stupid move. Nobody out, runners on first and second, the crowd and your team going nuts…and you bunt one of your best hitters into a sure out. Sanchez could handle the bat. The man hit .294 in 1999 over 479 at-bats. Let. Him. Hit.

After the Muser out, the A’s gave Johnny Damon an intentional pass. That brought Carlos Febles to the plate. He did what you would expect, looking at a third strike right down the middle. Bases loaded, two outs, down by one. Scott Pose came to the plate and bailed out Muser with a single to center. Hansen scored to tie it, but pinch-runner Steve Scarsone was thrown out at home in a close play to end the inning. The crowd was still going bananas.

The Royals ended up winning in spite of their manager when Jermaine Dye blasted a two-run homer over the right-field wall in the 10th.

In July 2001, the Royals traded Sanchez to the Braves, where he got into the playoffs. Sanchez bounced around a little after that, spending 2002 in Boston, where he primarily played second base, before splitting 2003 between the New York Mets and the Seattle Mariners. He spent 2004 in Tampa before ending his career with a 23-game stint with the Yankees in 2005.

Overall, it was a pretty darn good career: 15 years. Almost 1,500 games with a career batting average of .272 and almost 21 career WAR. I know people scoff at batting average today, but to me, it still means something, especially when you play defense like Sanchez did. Over his career, Sanchez handled 6,632 chances with only 112 errors. That’s a smooth .983 fielding percentage. Unbelievably, he never won a Gold Glove.

Omar Vizquel won the 2000 and 2001 awards for shortstop. Tough competition in those days.

Despite only playing two and a half seasons in Kansas City, Sanchez’s production places him among the best shortstops, not named Witt, that the Royals have ever employed.

The Dodgers’ outlook wasn’t as dire as it might’ve looked after the Game 2 loss at home, just as it is not as ideal as it could appear following a Game 3 win on the road against the Braves’ ace. When it comes to their fate in this specific series, the Dodgers are well positioned to advance, but with the ultimate goal in mind of another World Series title, the problem remains the same: a team that right now seems only capable of winning with elite pitching and has yet to generate a run that hasn’t come via the long ball.

Three runs in five innings against Chris Sale is about the best-case scenario for a team that was shut out the last time it faced the future first-ballot Hall of Famer. And yet, they could have done a lot more damage off the left-hander, with him on the ropes for most of the game before Kiké Hernández’s two-run shot started the scoring in the fourth.

Whatever the offense did or did not do against Sale, it chased him off the game with just 15 outs, a crucial objective in this game. Against four different Braves relievers, though—not including Didier Fuentes, unused in this one after a masterful Game 2 performance—the Dodgers offense failed to add a single run of insurance, increasing the pressure on Yamamoto and their two star relievers, who finished this one out: Tanner Scott and Edwin Díaz, neither of whom has what you’d describe as unconditional trust.

Evidently, strong pitching has been a reality of this series on both sides, with these two offenses combining for a single hit with a runner in scoring position. For the Dodgers, though, it hasn’t looked like it matters who is on the mound for Atlanta—running into one or two is achievable even against the very best; in fact, they did it against Sale and Fuentes, the Braves’ two most talented pitchers. Stringing hits together for a big rally like this team is more than capable of doing and hasn’t been a part of their NLDS performance.

While for the Dodgers offense, it doesn’t appear like it matters who is on the mound; on the opposite side, it’s a different scenario. Tarik Skubal and Yamamoto were dominant, and that’s a big reason why the Dodgers won those two games. Now, can this Dodgers team win if Tyler Glasnow brings anything other than his A+ game, which we’ve seldom seen in the postseason? The bullpen, as we’ve seen, will likely be effective, but not bulletproof. It took very little for Game 2 to go off the rails, and for that scenario not to repeat itself, the offense must find a higher gear.

Perhaps if we’re to take a more positive view, the lack of damage in Game 3 had more than its fair share of bad luck. Teoscar Hernández, for instance, had three hard-hit balls and no hits to show for it—Freddie Freeman nearly had another home run, and Mookie Betts continues to get on at a terrific clip in the leadoff spot, even if he doesn’t have the runs to show for. Moving forward, though, the threat must be capitalized on more often.

Good morning everybody and happy Wednesday!

The Division Series continues across baseball, so let’s get you caught up on that and more.

MLB Postseason scores…

• Yoshinobu Yamamoto was brilliant yet again as the Dodgers sailed past the Braves in a 3-1 win to take the series lead 2 games to 1.
• The Padres brought ace Michael King out of the bullpen to secure yesterday’s pivotal 4-3 win over the Brewers, pulling the series to a 2-1 Brew Crew lead.

In Mariners news…

• Zach Hereth at Seattle Sports analyzed the Mariners’ effectiveness with the ABS challenge system this year.
• Over at The Stranger, our own Isabelle Minasian put a bow on the incredibly disappointing 2026 Mariners season.
• On October 21, History Café is presenting a special program on Black Baseball in Washington. Go check it out!

Around the league…

• Major League Baseball is experimenting with new rules for outfield positioning at this year’s Arizona Fall League.
• Alex Cora told the Phillies he is not interested in managing in 2027. Philadelphia previously approached him about their opening mid-season but turned to Don Mattingly after Cora said no.
• The ESPN staff interviewed players, coaches, and executives around the league to read their pulse on how much this year’s playoffs will affect the coming labor dispute.
• Patrick Dubuque at Baseball Prospectus eulogized the 2026 Houston Astros. ($)
• Believe it or not, there’s a chicken tender scandal happening at Oracle Park in San Francisco. It seems they’re thinner than they used to be.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Last night, the National League (NL) Division Series continued with two Game 3s. The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Atlanta Braves 3-1 to take a 2-1 lead in the series, while the San Diego Padres staved off elimination with a 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

This afternoon, there is a full slate of playoff action. In the American League, the Chicago White Sox will attempt to sweep the Cleveland Guardians, while the New York Yankees will look to prolong their season as they welcome the Tampa Bay Rays to the Bronx.

On the other side of the bracket, the Dodgers and Braves will play Game 4 in Atlanta, with the Braves hoping to force a decisive fifth game. Across the country, the Padres will look to win a second consecutive game in front of their home fans and send the series back to Milwaukee for a winner-take-all Game 5.

With the Athletics not in the playoffs, the organization’s focus has turned to its first true search for a new general manager in nearly three decades. Aside from a few rumored candidates, there has not been much buzz about who will succeed longtime executive David Forst, a role the team hopes to fill by the start of the World Series.

While most A’s players are spending these days resting and preparing for next season, a handful of the team’s minor leaguers are playing in the Arizona Fall League (AFL), an annual showcase for some of baseball’s top prospects. Many youngsters use the opportunity to expand their skillsets or get crucial at-bats or innings they missed this season because of injuries.

Among the A’s contingent, catching prospects Davis Diaz and Cole Conn are two players to keep an eye on. Both versatile players advanced to Triple-A this season and could compete for the major league backup catcher spot next season.

Of the pitchers, only right-hander Kenya Huggins is currently ranked on MLB Pipeline’s list of the A’s top 30 prospects. Right-hander Jay Dill and left-handers Tucker Novotny and Grant Richardson could crack the list if they pitch well in the AFL.

Which A’s minor leaguer will perform the best in the AFL? What are your predictions for how the rest of the playoffs will unfold?

A’s Coverage:

• ’Be a sponge’: No. 19 prospect leads A’s Fall League group with do-it-all mentality
• Zack Of All Trades Tries To Get One More Win: In Court
• A’s mulling a few names to fill David Forst’s vacancy as GM
• Important Dates For The Athletics This Offseason
• 12 A’s Players Out of Options Heading Into 2027
• A’s part ways with assistant hitting, quality control coaches
• After an outfield collision left him paralyzed, every gain in rehab is a big win for A’s Ryan Lasko
• Athletics’ Zack Gelof sues Tigers after hitting metal fence
• Why 2027 Athletics Will Be Completely Different Team
• A’s Las Vegas ballpark cost rises to $2.1B, public funding delayed
• A’s say Las Vegas hospitality club memberships already sold out
• 2026: Year Of The “Didn’t See That Coming!”
• A’s Hoping Luis Severino Chooses to Stay
• Where the A’s Plan to Use Zack Gelof in 2027
• Last MLB game in West Sacramento? Why A’s 2026 season deserves a eulogy
• ‘Road Trip Mike’ on the move to wherever his beloved A’s go
• Wheat/Chaff Updates As Season Winds Down
• Devin Taylor: Athletics 2026 Minor League Player Of The Year
• Henry Bolte Is the A’s Next Budding Star
• Determining Athletics’ Offensive MVP for the 2026 Season
• Notes From Star-Studded Rockies-A’s Instructional League
• 2027 Infield Landscape Ever Changing
• “Fast Movers” Might Be Key To Contention
• Billy Beane comments on the job Mark Kotsay has done this season.
• Should Mark Kotsay return in 2027? A’s Players Weigh In
• What the A’s Hiring Mike Rizzo would Signal and the Questions it Would Raise
• Athletics Considering James Click For GM Vacancy
• Get the best of Athletics Nation on the new SB Nation app

MLB News & Interest:

• Yamamoto (10 K’s) dazzles, putting Dodgers 1 win from return to NLCS
• Here is MLB Pipeline’s 2026 All-Rookie Team
• How do broadcasters handle accusations of bias in the playoffs? ‘You really can’t win’
• Less than 2 years later, Crochet trade return trio paying huge dividends for Chicago
• Padres Activate Walker Buehler Onto NLDS Roster
• Was Miller tipping pitches? Closer — and Brewers’ skipper — both say no
• Mariners Announce Surgeries For Cal Raleigh, Josh Naylor
• These 5 MLB teams missed the playoffs. Why they could break through in 2027
• First home playoff clincher in 120 years? White Sox on cusp of making it happen
• Breslow, Tracy: Red Sox not overly reliant on analytics
• Roman Anthony Expected To Avoid Offseason Surgery
• Red Sox View Curtis Mead As Early Favorite For Second Base Job
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

This thread breaks down how the A’s can make right-hander Jack Perkins more reliable.

What steps can the A’s take this offseason to improve their pitching staff and defense for 2027?

Yesterday marked the birthday of legendary former A’s and Raiders announcer Bill King.

A’s in AFL update.

It was only fitting that Christian Yelich hit a ground ball to shortstop where Xander Bogaerts fielded the ball and completed an unassisted double play to help the San Diego Padres secure a 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of the National League Division Series at Petco Park on Tuesday night.

Bogaerts was instrumental at multiple points throughout the game. His diving stop deep in the hole at shortstop in the top of the fifth inning did not take away a hit, but it did keep the Brewers from scoring a run. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Bogaerts hopped over a ground ball off the bat of Miguel Andujar. Bogaerts also avoided the broken bat of Andujar which was right behind the ball. The play by Bogaerts combined with the distracting broken bat caused Milwaukee shortstop Cooper Pratt to throw short to first base. The ball skipped past Jake Bauers and went into foul territory. Andujar reached safely and Bogaerts slid into home to give San Diego a one-run lead on what proved to be the winning run.

Michael King took the mound in relief in the top of the eighth inning and got through the top half of the frame without much trouble. The Padres were unable to add to their lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. On a night when San Diego did not have Mason Miller who was placed on paternity leave prior to the start of the game, and Adrian Morejon who seemed to be unavailable, King returned to the mound in the ninth and got the first two outs. He then allowed a walk to William Contreras and a walk to Bryce Tourang. Yelich came to the plate and on the first pitch after a mound visit from Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla, King got the Brewers captain to ground into a game-ending double play to help San Diego stave off elimination.

Nick Pivetta started on the mound for the Padres and left the game after 4 1/3 innings with a 2-1 lead. There were runners at second and third base and Jason Adam was called on to try to strand them there. Adam induced a shallow fly ball to left field that was caught by Dustin Harris for the second out, but Pratt tested Harris and raced home and slid in safely well ahead of the throw to make the score 2-2. Jake Cronenworth changed that with a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning which put the Padres back in front, 3-2.

Bogaerts was not the only San Diego player to make game saving plays on defense. Jackson Merrill took away extra bases when he ran deep into the left-center gap and made a sliding backhanded catch to take away extra bases from Jackson Chourio. Merrill followed that up with a play in the top of the third inning with a play in the right-center gap to take away an extra-base hit from Sal Frelick, prompting a response from Brewers manager Pat Murphy.

San Diego will face its second elimination game in as many days when the Padres and Brewers meet tonight at 7 p.m. for Game 4.

Padres News:

• The Padres had a disappointing weekend in Milwaukee and came back to Petco looking to avoid elimination.

• Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribunebelieves this series deserves at least a Game 4, if not more.

Baseball News:

• Yoshinobu Yamamoto recorded 10 strikeouts to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Atlanta Braves.

• Today is going to be a busy day for baseball.

The Arizona Fall League is only a few games into its five week schedule. The Tigers have some players to follow out there, including top prospects Bryce Rainer and Zyhir Hope, infielder John Peck, hard-throwing relief prospect Jalen Evans, along with starting prospect Win Scott. We’ll be updating their progress weekly throughout the Fall League season. However, the most interesting note from the fall developmental league is an unannounced experiment with defensive positioning for outfielders.

The Fall League is generally designed to provide competition and development for prospects who missed time during the regular season. At times, players will go out there even when they didn’t miss much time if there’s something specific, like a positional change, that they’re working on. The Fall League has also been used as a laboratory for a lot of rule changes the league has implemented over the last few years.

Banning extreme infield shifts started as a Fall League experiment, as did the pitch clock and the ABS challenge system. MLB uses it as a testing ground, and other rule changes, like checked swing challenges, have been tried but not implemented in the major leagues, or anywhere else in the minor leagues. At least not yet.

Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs is out covering the AFL and reported today that the league is experimenting this season with restricted positioning for outfielders this time around. You should read his full description, and the league’s response to his inquiries here. Essentially though, they seem to be experimenting with forcing corner outfielders to stay within a certain distance of their respective foul lines, while playing relatively shallow as well.

It was back in 2023 that MLB decided to limit shifts for infielders, requiring all of them to stand on the dirt until the pitch is delivered, and stopping the second baseman and shortstop from shifting to the other side of second base. These changes haven’t had any noticeable effect on ground balls going for hits.

One would assume that the league wouldn’t have implemented the shift limits if they didn’t at least work in the AFL, but that’s just an assumption, as it hasn’t changed the amount of ground balls going for hits in the big leagues. Perhaps teams simply positioned their first baseman a little more toward second base or slightly deeper to help make up the difference. Maybe they started favoring defensive ability as a bigger part of their first base equation. Whatever the league thinks up, teams and players are going to adapt.

The overarching issue the league can’t seem to solve to its satisfaction is the strikeouts. They would do well to stop bothering to try. Teams, notably the Tigers among them, have gotten a lot better at training batspeed with their hitters. With that is likely to come a greater emphasis on contact hitters. If you know you can build light hitting contact guys into major leaguers with at least average raw power, then contact is going to become a lot more valuable commodity in the draft, and that might be the only antidote to the reign of swing and miss stuff around the game. The Tigers already have Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark in this vein, and teenaged shortstop prospect Jordan Yost and others might follow suit in time.

Young players in top shelf high school competition and in college are already seeing velocity that would’ve blown the hair of major league hitters back years ago. It’s going to take time to see if the younger crop of hitters coming up is better suited to put more balls in play. Instead of drafting pre-fabricated sluggers with major swing and miss issues, teams might be able to take light-hitting young players with elite hand-eye coordination and bat control into more power threats, keeping power in the game while also getting some ways toward defeating the tyranny of the whiff.

My only point here is that everything the league does to manipulate outcomes and increase offense has failed, and the sharpest teams quickly adapt and exploit changes. Sticking outfielders close to the foul lines would certainly be a much more difficult change to deal with from a pitching and defensive standpoint. Of course, so would simply making outfielders play without gloves. You want old school? We can go all the way back. This kind of thing can get silly in a real hurry.

The shift bans did nothing of note. Forcing pitchers to abandon their sticky substance of choice didn’t help offenses. Nor did the pitch clock. Nor has the ABS system. The league says they want more offense, but since they dejuiced the baseball, they don’t want crazy home run numbers and a full, three true outcomes, style of game either. What they really want is fewer strikeouts, and nothing they’ve tried has been remotely successful. Trying to manipulate defenses to allow more balls in play to go for hits is just gimmicky in my book, but more importantly it just hasn’t done any good, and probably won’t unless they go to some real extremes.

So far, this is very much just the experimental phase of any changes to outfield positioning. Probably we’ll see them experiment with some different ideas in the next few years. Maybe nothing will ultimately come to pass. The question is still just what people actually want to see, and how any of these things can actually accomplish what the league seems to want to accomplish when so many competing changes are going on all at the same time. We’ve seen more stolen bases with the bigger bases in use, and stolen bases are great action plays. Won’t that lead to prioritizing catcher defense over offense? There’s always a reaction. We might add stolen bases, but cut into catcher offense due to greater demand for arm strength and accuracy.

Personally, I would like the league to just chill out for a while and see how teams and players adapt to the enormous amount of changes they’ve already made. Throw in the varying springiness of different batches of baseball, and the league has created all sorts of little mini eras over the last decade. Comparing say, Justin Verlander’s career to Cy Young’s, is already kind of impossible. In the future, all this artificial manipulation of game elements is only going to add more and more layers of complexity to those sorts of evaluations.

We’re only four seasons from the National League adopting the designated hitter full-time. Now we have shift bans, bigger bases, pitch clocks, sticky stuff checks, the three batter minimum rule for pitchers, the Pitchcom system, the ABS challenge system, and a planned checked swing challenge system coming soon. There was a time when replay was controversial. Rapidly changing rulesets have come fast and furious ever since.

Some of these changes have been positive, and some haven’t, and we might all have different views as to which is which. There’s nothing wrong with experimenting in the Arizona Fall League or in the independent leagues, looking for ways to improve the game. It would just be nice to have a moratorium at some point so we can actually let things play out. Give teams time to study things and adapt and innovate on their own. The Brewers more than anyone, but the Rays as well, started bunting way more often this year. Maybe that will be part of the equation as well. Baseball often provides its own adaptations and counter balances if we just give it time, but it still looks like the league intends to keep trying to manipulate the game to make it look the way some in MLB committees want it to look. We can only hope for a point at which the players are allowed to just play the same game for a few years. They might come up with better, or at least more organic solutions, but only if there is finally an era with some consistency.

Down two games to none to the Rays is the worst possible spot for the Yankees to be heading into Game 3 of the ALDS on Wednesday night. But there are a few positives – not with their play so far, obviously – that they can cling to as they try to save their season. 

They have lefties scheduled to start Game 3 and Game 4 (should they make Game 4 necessary, anyway). They’re at home and, let’s be honest, there’s really no chance they play as poorly as they did in Game 2’s flop fest. Right?

Right?!!?

Here are three things to watch in Game 3 as the Yankees try to prevent the Rays from a second big celebration in the Bronx, where they cliched the AL East last month: 

Friendly confines

Can the Yanks take advantage of home field and prove the resiliency they’ve been talking up since their Game 2 humiliation? The Rays had a clear advantage in the first two games at Tropicana Field – the speedy turf plays to their strengths, they know the backdrop the dome’s roof gives to fly balls, and they were awfully difficult to beat there, going 55-26 at home. 

The Yankees were 46-34 at Yankee Stadium this season, including 4-2 against Tampa Bay. So they weren’t as dominant a home squad as the Rays were. But they’re also built to thrive on the short right field porch. They hit the most home runs at home this season and had the eighth-best home OPS. 

Of course, the Yankee offense has been stymied by Rays pitching this series – Ben Rice and Austin Wells have two hits apiece, but the rest of the lineup is an unfathomable 1-for-46 (.022). The Rays are starting road warrior Nick Martinez, a Fordham product who had a 2.38 road ERA this year, including a 2.25 in two starts in the Bronx.

A loud, supportive crowd behind them should help. At least at first. Boot a few early, like Game 2, and that atmosphere will likely change. 

Fried factor

Homers are not really the Rays’ game, but it’s worth noting they only hit 36 of them against left-handed pitchers this season, tied with the Marlins for the fewest in MLB. Only five teams had a worse OPS against southpaws than Tampa Bay. The put-it-in-play Rays batted 15 points lower against lefties than righties during the regular season. Still, they’re so good that they were 31-17 in games started by left-handers.

And Max Fried, of course, is not your average MLB lefty. Neither is Game 4’s scheduled starter Carlos Rodón. Fried allowed one run in six innings in his start in the Wild Card Series and the Yanks could use a repeat in Game 3.

Tampa Bay likely will insert righty Ryan Vilade into the lineup – he hit seven homers and had an .818 OPS against lefties this year. Junior Caminero hits every kind of pitcher (eight homers, .916 OPS against lefties) and Yandy Díaz (eight homers, .780 OPS against southpaws), will be his usual challenge. 

Decisions, decisions!

Aaron Boone said on Tuesday’s off-day that he was "considering a couple of things" in terms of lineup changes. He’s used eight lefties and George Lombard Jr. so far in the series, but the huge platoon tilt has not worked. The Yanks have scored just twice, both on Rice solo homers, own a .369 OPS, and are striking out more than usual.

Oof!

They could use José Caballero at third instead of Ryan McMahon, who made an error on the first play of Game 2 and is 1-for-7 in the postseason. After Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s poor-judgment night at second base in Game 2, does he come out? Anthony Volpe could start there. 

With Fried -- a groundball pitcher -- on the mound, the Yanks need defense.

New York might be giving up a couple of supposed platoon edges by replacing two lefties with two righties against the righty Martinez, but it might be worth it. Martinez thrives on soft contact, so maybe Caballero’s speed translates into an infield hit that could jump-start an inning. 

MLB divisional series action Wednesday, Oct. 7 is headlined by the Tampa Bay Rays, who are just one win away from sweeping the New York Yankees in Game 3 and securing their spot in the American League Championship Series.

The Rays opened the series with a 1-0 victory, thanks to a masterful performance from Drew Rasmussen, who held the Yankees hitless until two outs in the eighth inning. Jonathan Aranda’s solo homer off Yankees ace Gerrit Cole proved to be the difference, giving Tampa Bay an early advantage and setting the tone for the series.

Game 2 saw the Rays capitalize on the Yankees’ defensive struggles, with Richie Palacios delivering a clutch two-run single in the fifth inning. The Rays won 5-2 for a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

Now, the Rays have a chance to clinch a spot in the ALCS with a win, while the Yankees are fighting to avoid elimination and keep their playoff hopes alive.

More: White Sox, Dodgers, Rays, Brewers can all advance with MLB playoff wins today