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The New York Yankees’ World Series drought extended to 17 years on Wednesday when the Tampa Bay Rays ended their season with a sweep in Game 3 of the ALDS on Wednesday night. The Yankees have plenty of missed opportunities to think about over the offseason after scoring only five total runs in the series, but a fan interference call that robbed New York of the potential game-tying run in the bottom of the sixth inning will linger as the biggest sliding doors moment of the series.

There were two outs in the frame when Anthony Volpe stepped up to the plate. On a 1-0 count, he drilled a ball to left field that was originally called a home run. As pandemonium took over Yankee Stadium, the umpires reviewed the play and determined a fan caught the ball before it cleared the fence. The play was ruled a ground rule double with the runner on first base scoring. That would be the final run of the game on either side. The Rays beat the Yankees, 4-3, and it’s possible it could have been a different game with the fan interference.

Ultimately, it looks like the umps got it right, and awarding the Yankees with even one run on the play was probably a little bit generous. We’ll never conclusively know if Volpe’s ball would have gone over the fence, though. Watch the play here and judge for yourself:

Every baseball fan of a certain age immediately thought of Jeffrey Maier when they saw this play. It was 30 years ago when the 12-year-old Maier reached over the wall to grab a Derek Jeter fly ball before it cleared the fence, which was ruled a homer. The Yankees went on to win the World Series. This time, they were caught on the wrong side of fan interference — though, again, you can make the argument that the runner from first may not have scored depending on how it all played out without the interference.

Here’s another angle. To me, it looks like the umps made the right call — but I can’t say it with 100% certainty. Would this ball have gone over the wall? Judge for yourself:

Here’s the official statement from the MLB Replay Center, via long-time New York Post columnist Joel Sherman:

MLB statement from the Replay Center: “After viewing all relevant angles, the Replay Official definitively determined the spectator interfered with the ball over the field of play. The ball would not have left the playing field nor would it have been caught. The call is OVERTURNED, there was spectator interference and no home run. Additionally, the Replay Official scored one run and placed the batter-runner at second.

The fan was escorted out of Yankee Stadium after the play:

The reality is that the Yankees blew a golden opportunity this season. The American League was down all year, and New York clearly had the best pitching rotation in the league. Aaron Judge’s injury certainly hurt, but the Yankees’ payroll is still $308 million compared to just $95 million for Tampa Bay. The team with the No. 3 payroll in baseball shouldn’t be getting swept by the team with the No. 28 payroll under any circumstances.

Yankees fans were not happy after the game:

The Rays advance to the ALCS to face the winner of the Chicago White Sox vs. Cleveland Guardians series. The Yankees are home for winter.

Would you or anyone you know be interested in managing a major league baseball team? If so, you just may be qualified to take on the job in Philadelphia! Preference shown if your name includes “Alex” or “Don” or if you hold Canadian citizenship.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• ICYMI, Alex Cora turned down the Phillies managerial opening for the second time this year.
• In the wake of getting spurned by Cora again, the Phillies may once again turn towards Don Mattingly. ($)
• The Athletics are targeting Phillies president of business operations Sam Fuld, who previously served as GM under Dave Dombrowski from 2021-2024, for one of their top executive roles. ($)

MLB news:

• Miguel Rojas did not play in last night’s Game 4 against the Braves as the Dodger infielder is dealing with lower back soreness.
• How Manny Machado and a sushi dinner helped revitalize the Padres. ($)
• MLB is testing an experimental new rule in the Arizona Fall League that involves outfield positioning in a similar manner as the new infield positioning rules.

Hello, friends.

There are now 167 days until the next scheduled Orioles game. Developments this week are a further signal that the chances of the 2027 season beginning as scheduled are not 100%. The Orioles, as you’ve probably already heard, laid off a bunch of business operations and game day staff, including the person who performs as the Oriole Bird.

The Baltimore Banner’s sources offered what I think is an obvious falsehood that this is unconnected from the coming lockout. That’s laughable. Every owner knows they are going to lock out the players on December 1. The commissioner himself likened this negotiating tactic to shooting the players with a .45.

Cutting whatever expenses they can when they are about to interrupt their actual baseball revenue is another way they are hoping to gain leverage to inflict enough pain upon the players that the players are forced to accept a bad deal in the coming labor negotiations. These greedy people do not care whose lives are disrupted along the way to that destination, be they team employees or fans.

They have tried various schemes to expand their own coffers before they do the lockout as well. Consider this year’s new business of forcing season ticket plans to be either 20- or 40-game plans instead of the old 13- and 27-game plans. One supposed “perk” of the expansion is that you could sell back roughly a third of your tickets for credit next year. Oh, how convenient! Now the Orioles have that money in the bank whether there are games or not.

There is nothing that you or I can do about any of this except to use what little platform that we have to say that it sucks. It sucks that the team has done this. The easily-guessed cynical motives for doing it suck. They are bad and they should feel bad. They will not feel bad, and that also sucks.

For now, there are a few more weeks of playoff baseball to divert some attention from that reality.

The Dodgers wiped out the Braves last night. I’d like to see their quest for a three-peat halted as soon as possible. I’ll have to wait for the NLCS. Brewers-Padres finished after I went to sleep, but that series is either over or traveling today, leaving the spotlight on the American League. I hope the winner is up to the task of keeping LA out of the World Series.

The Guardians were able to keep themselves alive by winning on the road yesterday, avoiding a sweep with a 9-3 victory over the White Sox. Chicago can still finish off Cleveland with a win today. That will be the only game happening today, since, fortunately for all of us, the Yankees were eliminated in a sweep last night. What at one point seemed to be the tying run was taken off the board on replay due to fan interference with a home run. Let us all shed a tear or two as we wonder what might have happened if this replay existed in 1996.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

Jon Meoli’s information about the Orioles general manager search (The Baltimore Banner)
Meoli’s reporting is that “the candidate set includes up-and-coming player development leaders from other organizations” – which is what I want to hear – and then this goes on to add, “to help reinforce (manager Craig) Albernaz’s agenda of raising the standard.” If that was and is the skipper’s agenda, he did mighty poorly in enacting it in year 1 in the organization.

Are Orioles shortcomings a matter of focus or talent? (Steve on Baseball)
Steve Melewski notes that the veteran players on the team strongly suggested, without naming specific names, that it’s more about focus than about talent.

Weddings in. Holiday cards out. Internal MLB memo sets rules for lockout. (The Athletic)
The league is making sure everything is lined up to do it. No Christmas cards for players from teams this year, unless they get mailed around Thanksgiving, before the lockout happens.

Early Orioles action in the Arizona Fall League (Orioles On The Verge)
They are liking what they are seeing from the Orioles prospects out in Arizona in the first few days.

Could Coby Mayo play in right field? Jim Palmer floats the idea. (The Baltimore Sun)
Prospect writers have been banging this drum almost since Mayo was drafted, and the Orioles have steadfastly refused to make any attempt to implement it. Could that change before next season?

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 2012, the Orioles evened the ALDS against the Yankees with a 3-2 victory that saw Wei-Yin Chen pitch well, Chris Davis deliver a two-run single, and Mark Reynolds drive in what proved to be the game-winning run in the sixth inning. This left the best-of-five series at 1-1.

In 2023, the Orioles did not even the ALDS against the Rangers. Texas obliterated Grayson Rodriguez and had a 9-2 lead after three innings. Though the O’s made it interesting late, with an 11-8 final score, the bad outing from Rodriguez just dug too much of a hole for them to get out of. The series left Baltimore with the O’s in a 2-0 hole.

There is one current Oriole who has a birthday today. Or have they designated him for assignment lately? No, he’s still on the 40-man roster. Happy 37th birthday to Albert Suárez, who takes his revolving door a lot better than I would. Former Orioles who were born today: 2021 three-game pitcher Manny Barreda, 2005 outfielder Keith Reed, 1988 pitcher Mike Morgan, 1972-74 infielder/outfielder Enos Cabell, and 1960 two-game pitcher Bob Mabe.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker (1890), author Frank Herbert (1920), civil rights activist Jesse Jackson (1941), actress Sigourney Weaver (1949), and singer-songwriter Bruno Mars (1985).

On this day in history…

In 1871, a series of fires broke out across the Midwest following months of drought. Among these was the Great Chicago Fire, which killed over 300 people and left as many as 100,000 homeless in its aftermath.

In 1918, then-Corporal Alvin York led an attack against a German machine gun nest that led to 35 enemy soldiers killed and another 132 captured. York, eventually promoted to sergeant, received the Medal of Honor for this action. Six of the 17 Americans who were in York’s patrol were killed in the fighting.

In 1956, Yankees pitcher Don Larsen pitched a perfect game in Game 5 of the World Series, giving the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven against the then-Brooklyn Dodgers. It took seven games to settle it, with the Yankees, unfortunately, going on to win Game 7 by a 9-0 score.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on October 8. Have a safe Thursday.

Once again, the Yankees season ended not with a bang, but a wet fart and a whimper. This current era of the Yankees under the helm of Aaron Boone just cannot seem to get out of their own way in the games that matter most. For whatever reason, be that mentality, clubhouse culture, individual makeup, what have you, these teams largely perform during the regular season but wilt when the lights are the brightest. There are no quick or simple solutions; it doesn’t feel like something you can fix with an addition here or a managerial change there.

Before we attempt to solve this existential crisis of identity, perhaps we can dull the throb of our open wounds by remembering the final positive moment of what was a more painful than pleasurable Yankees’ 2026 season. Our Player of the Game from ALDS Game 3 goes to Anthony Volpe.

Volpe endured a brutal fourth season in the big leagues. He missed the first month-and-a-half while rehabbing from an offseason surgery to repair a partially torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder. He found playing time hard to come by upon his return with José Caballero performing decently enough at short. He hit to roughly his career averages while managing to rein in the errors for three months, but with the Yankees desperately needing an injection of energy amid a late summer swoon, he found himself demoted to Triple-A for five weeks with top prospect George Lombard Jr. making an immediate impact upon his MLB debut.

A mechanical tweak in the minors seemed to unlock something, and he tore the cover off the baseball to force his way back to the majors. In his final 14 games he posted a 95 wRC+ while taking reps at second and third, creating an opportunity to be added to the postseason roster. He appeared in just two playoff games but made the most of his opportunity, going 3-for-7 with an RBI.

Following Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s mental lapses in Game 2, the Yankees had to make a change, and Volpe got the nod to start at the keystone. His first opportunity to bat came with two outs in the second of a scoreless game. Lombard stood on second following a one-out single — the Yankees’ first baserunner off Nick Martinez. To put it bluntly, the approach wasn’t great. He took a called strike one on a cutter that just nipped the top rail of the strike zone, but then chased a sinker in off the plate to quickly fall behind, 0-2. He fouled off a four-seamer off the top rail to stay alive, but then was miles early whiffing through a mistake changeup that Martinez grooved middle-middle to strand Lombard at first. To be fair to Volpe, you can understand why he was early swinging at that changeup after seeing three straight elevated fastballs. However, in the playoffs you have to punish the limited number of mistakes you get, and Volpe failed to do so here.

Volpe’s next opportunity arrived in fourth. Ryan Vilade reestablished the Rays’ one-run lead with a solo shot off Max Fried in the top half. Lombard led off the bottom of the frame with a single, but an Austin Wells GIDP immediately erased it. This time, Volpe was able to work a deeper count, spitting on a sinker and a changeup just off the corner low and away and fouling off a sinker on the corner just under his hands while also missing another mistake from Martinez, fouling off a center cut 2-1 sinker. Martinez attempted to climb the ladder with a four-seamer, but it was one high fastball too many. Volpe made the necessary adjustment to his swing path and lasered a line drive single off Martinez’s back to keep the inning alive and force Martinez to exit the game with the trainer. That proved to be a critical blow in more than one sense as Spencer Jones ambushed lefty reliever Ian Seymour for an opposite field double, Volpe racing home from first to score the tying run.

The next AB is the one that cemented Volpe as the Player of the Game. The Rays hit their second home run of the night off Fried in the sixth, this one a two-run blast from Victor Mesa Jr. to grab a two run lead with four innings to play. Lombard reached for the third time, this time on a successful ABS challenge to earn a one-out walk. That brings Volpe to the plate facing a tough matchup against hard throwing hybrid starter/reliever Griffin Jax.

Jax attempts a get-me-over breaking ball to steal a called strike one, but the sweeper lands low for ball one. It appears Volpe completely sells out for the fastball on the next pitch, because he spins on a 96 mph sinker off the plate inside, getting the bat head out early to pull the ball with power in the air to left. The deep fly ball was initially ruled a game-tying two-run home run as it appeared to barely scrape over the wall in left just over Mesa’s leaping attempt. However, the side angle replay view definitively showed a Yankee fan in the first row reach into the field of play and deflect the ball into the crowd. The Yankees had to settle for an RBI double to cut the deficit to one.

In his final AB, Volpe struck out swinging in a seven-pitch AB against AL saves leader Bryan Baker to lead off the ninth as he once again whiffed through a pitch in the heart of the zone. It was a disappointing end to a battle of an AB as Volpe was late on the heater and got his barrel path all wrong after seeing three changeups and guessing wrong. All the same, the Yankees do not score two of their three runs if not for their much-maligned infielder.

On a personal level, I am really happy for Volpe that he was able to contribute in such a meaningful way in the Yankees’ final game of the season. There has never been any doubting that Volpe cares or the work he puts in. As a homegrown shortstop from the New York metro area, there is a subsection of the fanbase that will never be satisfied with anything less than Derek Jeter levels of production.

That is not to glaze over the undeniable shortcomings in his game. After four straight seasons posting a wRC+ between 82 and 88, we can say with more than a little confidence that we have seen Volpe’s true talent level as a below average bat. He lacks the range and arm strength to be much better than league average with the glove at short.

However, his commitment to helping the team however he is asked should be commended and opens doors for him to be a net asset in the future. Even in limited reps, he looks way more comfortable at second than at short, and if the mechanical adjustments from his demotion stick, it is not out of the question that he could approach league average production at the plate.

Despite the valiant fight back, the efforts to extend the season fell just short. For the third year in a row, the Yankees were forced to watch their postseason opponents celebrate on their own home field in Yankee Stadium. The question for the offseason and indeed a fundamental question for ownership and the front office is whether this is an acceptable outcome. Does simply making the playoffs qualify as a successful season? It depends who you ask.

Making a list of all the things that should be on the Houston Astros offseason agenda:

Hire a GM

Dana Brown is now out of the organization. The idea of a caretaker GM who can just keep the machine running is long gone. They need a team builder. A visionary with a plan of what the team should look like, how it can best function, to bring it back to true prominence and once again be a real World Series contender.

Extend or replace Joe Espada as manager

The fact the organization hasn’t yet decided on Joe Espada’s fate is simply cruel. He’s been a loyal employee for 9 years, beloved by coaches and players. He deserves to know if he is staying or going. Many of the coaches’ fates are tied to Espada’s fate, and stringing them along isn’t right. Make the decision, and the either get Joe in on the GM meetings or let him get to interviewing elsewhere.

Extend or trade SS Jeremy Pena

The Astros really should have landed this extension last season, and maybe they were going to before Pena switched agents and hired Scott Boras. Boras likes to take his guys to free agency.

Pena is the team’s catalyst at the top of the lineup. They really have no in-house replacement defensively or offensively. Carlos Correa came here to play 3B, and we have no idea what the result of his torn ankle ligament will have on his mobility. Playing shortstop will put the most strain on Correa’s body. Their young shortstops in the minors aren’t ready yet, with their best prospects still in A ball.

Is Pena the next guy in the line with Biggio, Bagwell and Altuve s an Astro for life, or is he the next guy in line with Springer, Correa, Bregman, Cole and Tucker who were great players with championship pedigree who were allowed to walk away?

Find a new home for 1B Christian Walker

This is not meant to be a Walker hit piece. Simply, the Astros have too many infielders and not enough spots, and Walker is the most expendable. Whether its Isaac Paredes at 1B or Carlos Correa at 1B, or maybe even Jason Schiavone at 1B, it cannot be Walker again next season. The HR and RBI are valuable, but the awful average, low on base, the strikeouts, the missed opportunities – he just hasn’t lived up to expectations and Paredes has exceeded expectations. When Correa has been healthy, he has performed, and his injury this season was a complete freak accident.

They will have to eat significant money to move Walker, but since he only has one year left on his deal, it should be reasonable enough to make this move. They will have to work with him on a new home as he does have a limited no trade, but this relationship needs to end.

Adjust the responsibilities of Jose Altuve defensively

Altuve is a franchise icon, but Father Time started winning the battle with future Hall of Famer in 2026. Altuve’s defense regressed badly, and his offensive stats are better when he DHs than when he plays 2B. He needs to be alleviated of the toll playing the field takes on his body to keep his bat at the best level he is currently able to perform at.

This means Altuve should be DHing half the games he plays. That means Yordan Alvarez will need to DH only half the games he plays, and not the overwhelming majority. Yordan’s offensive numbers are actually even better when he plays OF, Altuve is better as a DH.

To get Jose through 3 more years relatively healthy, help him on his quest for 3000 hits, and keep him at his potential best, this needs to be the play forward.

Sign a legitimate outfielder who can hit

After season in which the offensive production the Astros got from their outfielders was disgracefully low, they need to find at least one legitimate outfield bat. Ideally, this person can at least play a capable LF. They cannot be a total slug in the field.

They will need a CF who can really go get it, and they have a few options in their system who could be that guy if they can get their bats straight. The team had hopes for Zach Cole last season, but he followed his breakthrough season with a disaster of a year, though he seemed to finally find his bat in September. It’s possible they could experiment more with Cam Smith in CF as well. Whoever plays CF has to be able to cover a lot of ground, because adding Yordan to the field for 70+ games will put extra area to cover for their CF. Getting another OF who can really hit will be important this offseason.

Find a number two starter

They tried Mike Burrows, he failed. They tried Tatsuya Imai, he failed. They hoped Cristian Javier would have returned to his 2022 form, but he has not and maybe won’t ever.

This team needs a real number 2 starter behind Hunter Brown. Adding a legit 2 along with Hunter, Javier, Wesneski and Lambert allows you to make a competition for the final spot, and not be stuck with multiple pitchers who failed you in 2026.

Extend or replace Bryan Abreu

Despite his brutal start to the season, Abreu was very solid from May 1 on. There’s a good chance he wants to go on the free agent market and get a chance to be a closer somewhere on lucrative multi-year deal. So re-signing him is unlikely.

If Abreu leaves, they need a new 8th inning bridge to Josh Hader, and turning that over to either AJ Blubaugh (inexperienced) or Steven Okert (whom they have to re-sign as well but is far more likely) isn’t going to suffice. They need a legitimate high leverage reliever to be the new setup guy.

Solidify the bullpen

Blubaugh is likely to have a more important role in the pen, as a single inning reliever who will probably have some high leverage. Blubaugh could possibly be the new 7th inning guy.

The team needs to re-sign Okert, who established himself as the team’s stopper this season. He was crucial to the team as the guy who slammed the door to stop a rally, regardless of the situation or inning.

They could likely have other young/inexperienced arms in the pen like Logan VanWey, Miguel Ullola, and Roddery Munoz. With all those young arms, they need some veterans with experience, and they need to be capable of at least being a mid-leverage guy.

I don’t expect all of those young guys to be in the pen, and I do expect at least one of the starting pitchers who doesn’t make the rotation to be in the pen as a swingman/long reliever.

It’s a long list. Let’s see how many of these things they actually get through.

As Dave Roberts delivered his victory address, dressed in a gray cap and a gray T-shirt that commemorate a triumph the Dodgers consider merely a speed bump on the road to the main event, the manager was not shy.

“There is no more talented team than the Los Angeles Dodgers,” Roberts told his players amid clubhouse floods of champagne and beer. “This is the best organization in sports, top to bottom. We’re smarter. We’re better. And we’re tougher.”

The Dodgers had eliminated the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series. For the three-peat, that’s one postseason party down and two to go.

“This one is going to be special,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “We have the motivation of winning three times in a row. That’s all we can think about right now. It’s never going to be easy in baseball. You have to go through tough things. But this team showed it before, and it showed it in this series.”

Indeed it did. Rojas joked — or maybe he was not joking — that everyone expects the Dodgers to win every game by 10 runs. In this four-game series, they outscored the Braves by a total of six runs, and no game was decided by more than three runs.

Read more:'That's why he stayed in the lineup.' Andy Pages' clutch hit carries Dodgers back to NLCS

Now come the Milwaukee Brewers, the team that put up baseball’s best record this season, in a rematch of last year’s NLCS. The Brewers also put up baseball’s best record last season, and the Dodgers swept them in the NLCS.

Nothing is guaranteed in October, not even the Dodgers in the World Series. For the Dodgers, here are four positive signs and four warning signs:

Green flag

The Dodgers have the oldest group of position players in the league, so they cherished the bye that gave them five days off before the division series. By eliminating the Braves without needing the full five games, the Dodgers afforded themselves three days off, rather than one, before the league championship series.

“It is huge, to get us a little rest,” said shortstop Mookie Betts, who turned 34 on Wednesday. “We’re all old. So we need a little rest going into these postseason games. They’re a lot. They’re a lot more than what people think.”

Even better: Since the Dodgers did not need Tarik Skubal to start a Game 5 in the division series, they can start him in Game 1 of the NLCS, followed by Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2. The Dodgers need four victories in the NLCS, and that rotation clears the way for Skubal and Yamamoto to combine for four starts in the series.

Red flag

Hitting home runs is nice, but you’re unlikely to win a postseason series on home runs alone. In the first three games of the NLDS, the Dodgers scored all their runs on home runs.

In the series, they went one for 16 with runners in scoring position.

“It speaks to the multitude of ways we can win a game,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, “but, from a quality of life perspective, it would sure help if we could cash some of those opportunities in. So that’s obviously something that stands out.”

Mitigating factor: The Braves went one for 23 with runners in scoring position.

Green flag

The Dodgers and Braves each hit 204 home runs this season. In the NLDS, the Dodgers outhomered the Braves, 8-2. Max Muncy hit three to do it all by himself.

The Braves scored eight runs in the four games, including one in each of the two games in their home ballpark, and collected a total of 18 hits. Michael Harris II had six hits in the series; none of his teammates had more than three.

The Braves batted .145 in the series.

“Let’s be real, right? Our postseason is going to rely on our pitching,” Muncy said. “It always is. It always will. You’re not going to go out there and get 15 hits a night in the postseason. You’re just not.

“So, if you can limit the amount of runs the other team is getting, you’re going to do a pretty good job. Our pitching staff was unbelievable this series. For us to continue on, it’s going to rely on the pitching staff.”

Red flag

Just as the Dodgers got to set their NLCS rotation by ending the NLDS early, so did the Brewers. So, just as the Dodgers get the chance to start Skubal, the Brewers get the chance to start flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski, the presumptive NL Cy Young Award winner.

Read more:Plaschke: He finally did it! Dodgers' Andy Pages ends two-year postseason slump at the perfect time

Misiorowski beat the Dodgers in his lone start against them this season, a 4-1 victory in which the Dodgers collected five hits — three by players who did not appear in the NLDS: backup outfielder Alex Call and backup catcher Hunter Feduccia.

Mitigating factors: Kyle Tucker and Will Smith did not play that day.

Green flag

Roberts has won more postseason games than any manager except Joe Torre — the man who managed the New York Yankees teams that were the last to three-peat (1998-2000).

This season was not smooth, but the NLDS displayed Roberts’ ability to integrate young players (Josue De Paula), long-injured players (Edwin Díaz, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow) and October players (Kiké Hernández) into key spots for a postseason series, as well as to get Shohei Ohtani to buy into batting as low as fifth after not batting lower than second in three seasons with the Dodgers.

It is not just about the “high-end talent,” as Friedman likes to say, or the money, as opposing fans like to say.

“Equally as important was the depth of talent we have,” Friedman said, “and the number of guys that had an impact on this short series, I think, speaks not only to the depth of talent but also to their level of preparedness and Doc’s willingness to use them in key spots, and the trust he instills in them.”

Red flag

The Dodgers got production from the bottom of their order in the NLDS: Tucker and Andy Pages came alive, the three home runs from traditional October hero Muncy, a home run from traditional October hero Hernández, even a clutch walk from rookie De Paula.

That still leaves a problem that cropped up time and again over the regular season and again in the NLDS: inconsistency atop the lineup.

Betts, Freddie Freeman, Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and Will Smith combined for 13 hits in the series and a .176 batting average.

Green flag

In the month of July, Tucker never had a four-game hitting streak.

In the month of September, he had one.

In the four games of the playoffs, he has one!

Baseball!

That could be much more than a statistical oddity. This season, we heard more about his contract (four years, $240 million) than his home runs (17, a career low in a full season) his strikeouts (105, a career high) and his on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.715, just below Atlanta utility man Mauricio Dubón).

If Tucker sparkles in October, no one will remember the regular seasons, and Dodgers fans will remember him fondly forevermore. Ask Mickey Hatcher.

Red flag

The Dodgers still don’t know what to reasonably expect from Ohtani, gritting out the postseason despite discomfort in his left knee and right arm.

In 13 at-bats in the NLDS, Ohtani had two singles and struck out four times. He scored his only run of the series Wednesday, when he walked, stole second, took third on one error and scored on another error.

Ohtani still has not hit a home run since Aug. 18. The Dodgers prefer to say Wednesday’s game shows he can impact the game with his speed, and with his power threat.

“He’s the best player in the world,” Friedman said. “And at some point, it’s going to click for him, and the other team’s going to be in big trouble.”

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

And you thought the bullpen was going to be the weakest branch.

In the four aces, you trusted. The Dodgers’ stellar starting rotation of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow? A quartet who can strong-arm anyone.

And you probably figured Freddie Freeman would get it going. You had faith in playoff risers Max Muncy, Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández — and in the Dodgers’ playoff-proven offense overall.

You were not, however, so bullish on the bullpen.

Read more:'That's why he stayed in the lineup.' Andy Pages' clutch hit carries Dodgers back to NLCS

That was the proverbial, annual question mark entering the best-of-five National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, whom the Dodgers vanquished with a 4-1 victory Wednesday at Truist Park to set up an NL Championship Series rematch with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Edwin Díaz, the Dodgers’ purported closer, had a disastrous, injury-marred first season with the team — or he was having one.

That left Tanner Scott — last season’s purported closer — handling the bulk of the ninth-inning duties this season, and he finished with a career-high 25 saves. But you were going to have to see him sustain that in the postseason to believe in Scott, whose first season with the Dodgers also was so disastrous that he wasn’t even included on the playoff roster.

The Dodgers are paying Díaz $69 million and Scott $72 million. A steep price and a sign of how badly the team wants to avoid having to turn to starting pitchers to finish off important postseason games, as they have in the past with Julio Urías, Walker Buehler and, last season, Yamamoto.

But until now, the Dodgers haven’t had much but frustration to show for their investment in Scott or Díaz — who were two names among four, including Roki Sasaki and Evan Phillips, that manager Dave Roberts suggested could close games in the playoffs.

It was a tangled trust tree that needed lots of water.

Or how about champagne? Maybe ice-cold beer?

Because after Alex Vesia, Edgardo Henriquez, Scott and Díaz combined to get the final 13 outs of Game 4 without giving up a run, they helped lead the charge in the clubhouse afterward, dousing one another to celebrate.

In the series, the Braves went one for 23 (.043) with runners in scoring position. That, according to OptaStats, is the second-lowest such batting average in a postseason series in history — and it doesn’t happen without a bullpen being locked in; the Braves went 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position against the Dodgers’ relief pitchers.

In the deciding Game 4, Vesia took the baton from Glasnow with two outs and two runners on in the fifth, got the inning’s final out on one pitch and came back out in the sixth. He gave up a double but got Drake Baldwin to line out before handing the ball to the hard-throwing Henriquez, who hit 100 mph or higher on 11 of his 15 pitches, retired five of six batters and earned his first postseason win.

Then Scott had the inning of his Dodgers career in the eighth — sitting down the Braves’ 3-4-5 hitters with a nasty array of sliders and fastballs. He punctuated his performance with a fastball on the corner that ended the inning and wound up costing Atlanta its final ABS challenge.

And, finally, in closing, Díaz.

He earned his second consecutive save with an efficient, eight-pitch, 1-2-3 inning. He isn’t the closer, not officially. But, darn, is he important: “For us to win the World Series,” Roberts said, “he’s got to be a relevant part of this equation … I’ve got to trust him.”

The way Díaz is dealing, why wouldn’t he? Díaz has given up just one hit in three postseason innings. And he’s feeling good.

“The last two nights it’s been amazing,” Díaz said. “That’s why I came here, to win games and close games like this one. So I’m really happy.”

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, raved about Díaz’s resilience, referencing the roller coaster of a season that included an 8.68 earned-run average, neck and elbow injuries, a stint on the injured list and in triple A.

“He would say, ‘Hey, I’m ready to come back,’” Friedman said. “And it was like, ‘Hey, we need to see more, we need to see this really lock in.’ And at every turn, he said, ‘Whatever you guys need … anytime you want me to pitch, I’ll be ready.’

“It was never a question of the heartbeat and his ability to handle these moments. It was about just getting him right mechanically and getting back to the stuff that we’ve all seen over the years.”

Vesia is similarly impressed with his friend Scott’s resurgence.

Read more:Plaschke: He finally did it! Dodgers' Andy Pages ends two-year postseason slump at the perfect time

“Going back to last year with ups and downs and adversity and all that stuff, we definitely leaned on each other,” said Vesia, who missed the World Series after the October death of his newborn daughter, Sterling Sol.

“And, you know, for this year to watch [Scott] really take off and have a great year, it’s been awesome, you know? It’s really awesome. With the closing role being undefined and all that stuff, he stepped up. Every year, there’s always guys that step up.

“Now, we got eight more.”

Eight more wins to three-peat, and no weak links anywhere.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The 2026 season is officially in the books for the New York Yankees. They were 93-68 in the regular season, swept the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card Series, and then promptly got swept by the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS. It’s the second straight year only going this far into the Postseason, both times getting bested by a rival that took the division by storm after sitting near or outright in the cellar the previous year, and it stings much like every elimination does even if it felt like a foregone conclusion heading into Wednesday night.

The actual game feels more like a backdrop to the opening dialogue of what will be a tedious and lengthy offseason, but let’s get through the facts of the matter first. Max Fried took the mound looking to extend his team’s season by one more day and instead took the loss as he kept surrendering the lead back over to Tampa Bay. The back-breaker came in the sixth as a two-out single rocketed just past Fried’s head to extend an inning where he finally looked in control, and moments later he coughed up a two-run shot to Victor Mesa Jr. Aaron Boone went out to collect his starter after that, but he got out of the dugout one batter too late to make it matter.

The offense was slow to get going against Nick Martinez, but they posted their best collective effort of the ALDS for what it’s worth. Ben Rice went 1-for-4 and knocked in the first of the Yankees’ three runs in the third inning, Spencer Jones walked twice and drove in the second run with a double in the fourth, and Anthony Volpe had a two hit night including a fly ball to the wall in left that a fan illegally brought over the fence briefly making us all think he’d tied the game. Volpe would have to settle for an RBI double after review, but it was nearly the biggest hit of the season and he deserves his flowers for showing up after Aaron Boone inserted him into the starting lineup looking for a spark of life. George Lombard Jr. also deserves to be in the positive side of the ledger after going 2-for-3 with a walk and run scored, rebounding well defensively after the disastrous Game 2 performance that he played a role in.

Unfortunately, the Yankees had no home runs in the cards compared to the Rays launching a pair of them, and the long ball was the difference maker last night. They also got nothing from the remaining five spots in the lineup: Luis Garcia Jr. had the only hit of the bunch, Austin Wells had a quiet 0-for-3 night after being one of the only bats alive in the Trop portion of the series, Cody Bellinger completed a dreadful ALDS showing with an 0-for-4 capstone, Jose Caballero didn’t find his footing with the two at-bats he got starting at third, and then there was Trent Grisham. The Yankee center fielder got placed in the leadoff spot by Boone ahead of Rice to work some tough at-bats and get potentially get on board for the team’s offensive MVP to have someone to drive in. Instead, mirroring the results he gave the team all season after accepting the qualifying offer over the offseason, he proved inadequate for the role he was suddenly given — 0-for-5 with three strikeouts including whiffing badly to end the game with the tying run on base and Rice standing in the on-deck circle.

I don’t want to be too harsh to Grisham in that spot specifically — he’d been out for all of September and clearly wasn’t adjusting well trying to jump back into the lineup. He probably shouldn’t have been given the task of leading off, but Boone felt he had to do something different after the offense minus Rice looked so atrocious in Games 1 and 2 and perhaps cooked too hard. Speaking of Boone, there will be plenty of discussion in the coming days about his performance this season and in October specifically and whether it is time to part ways. The manager remains an incalculable part of the equation in building a baseball team, but while the team and staff are clearly fans of his its hard to overlook the amount of disappointing results the Yankees have had under his stewardship. Many will say its time for a new voice if nothing else, and I can’t exactly argue against that even if I doubt it will come to it. The organization likes him, and they don’t see these failures as critically as those outside the org do. I can’t make a split second decision on how I feel about him — I thought he did a solid job guiding the team through one of the worst regular seasons they’ve had offensively in the Judge era, but the same flaws keep dooming them every postseason and they’ve just never looked capable of beating a team that they weren’t definitive favorites to beat. The possibility of losing Matt Blake should they part ways with Boone is very real though, and I think he’s one of the few coaches in the game that are genuinely game-changing to have on the staff.

There will be months and months to debate this and more about the Yankees, as they’re officially in offseason mode now. Several people said that the season really ended on May 31st, when Aaron Judge went on the IL with his rib injury, and they weren’t exactly wrong. The team nosedived offensively without him, and even though they were also rocking the best pitching staff they’d fielded in decades it wasn’t enough to balance the scales in the end. The me that watched this team throughout the summer probably would’ve been surprised they even won a round in the playoffs, but damn if I didn’t buy back in on fool’s gold with how they looked in the ALWCS. Boston was obviously a worse team than Tampa Bay, but the Yankees had torched Tampa’s bullpen in the season series as well and had found a winning formula wearing down Boston’s starters to get to that soft underbelly of a ‘pen. They couldn’t do the same here, getting worked over by Drew Rasmussen in Game 1 before failing to do much against the bullpen even after getting into it relatively early in Games 2 and 3.

It’s a bit maddening to say over and over again, but the Yankees’ season ends with them having tripped over their own shoelaces. Tampa was the better team this series, but I don’t think they looked unbeatable by any means. The prize was there for the taking, and they just couldn’t come close to rising to the occasion. Another ALDS flameout is in the books, and they’ll have to live with an extremely unsatisfactory showing being their lasting legacy.

Today the postmortem begins some closure as Peter provides the Player of the Game honor for Game 3, and then Kevin has the playoff roundup featuring the Dodgers and Brewers advancing to the NLCS. Jonathan covers Ping Bodie’s brief Yankees career on his birthday, and then Peter will return to go over how Gerrit Cole battled in his Game 1 start for the Sequence of the Week.