The Dodgers are back in the National League Championship Series, and it’s a rematch with the Milwaukee Brewers, with both teams closing out their Division Series on Wednesday night.

The NLCS begins on Sunday night in Milwaukee, with exact series start times to be announced.

But first, some more after the Dodgers closed out the Atlanta Braves in four games in the NLDS, including manager Dave Roberts telling the team in the celebratory visitor’s clubhouse at Truist Park, “We talked about this. There’s no more talented team than the Los Angeles Dodgers. We’re the best organization in sports, top to bottom. We’re smarter, we’re better, and we’re tougher.”

Roberts during his pre-celebration speech singled out a handful of players for their effort this season, including Edwin Díaz, who has looked considerably better since returning from his neck inflammation in late September. Díaz has worked his way back up the trust tree and closed out each of the Dodgers’ last two wins in Atlanta.

Roberts expanded on the thought during his postgame meeting with media.

“He’s had a tough season. He’s been hurt. He was having trouble with his delivery and went on a long rehab assignment. But to get him pitching the way — that’s the reason why we got him. The last two nights, that’s the reason why we acquired a guy like Edwin Diaz. He’s one of the great closers in the game,” Roberts said. “For him to be pitching his best right now, that’s what you hope for, and I give him a lot of credit.”

Díaz pitched three games during the series, pitching three scoreless innings, with three strikeouts among his 10 batters faced. He allowed a leadoff double in the ninth inning of Game 3, but stranded him.

“The team trusts me. I think that was the most important thing for me, the team trust me. They give me the ball every single day. And the last two nights it’s been amazing,” Díaz said in the interview room in Atlanta. “That’s why I came here to win games and close games like this one. So I’m really happy right now.”

Links

• Andy Pages had multiple hits in each of the last two games of the NLDS, and had the game-winning two-run single in the seventh inning of Game 4, after four hits in 51 at-bats and only one RBI in 16 games last postseason. Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic wrote about the turnaround for Pages.
• After leaving Game 3 in the eighth inning with lower back pain, Miguel Rojas was unavailable in Game 4 after still feeling after effects on Wednesday. Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register has more on the veteran infielder.
• Davy Andrews recapped NLDS Game 4 for FanGraphs.

For almost the entirety of 2026, Baltimore felt the absence of a real closer. Sometimes it’d be Tyler Wells. Sometimes Yennier Cano. They’d even sometimes throw Grant Wolfram out there in the ninth, though they should have known better. None of this was by design. In August 2025, the Mountain toppled—Félix Bautista, one of the best closers in the game, went down with shoulder problems, and missed over a year after surgery, on top of a UCL injury the year before. His intended replacement was Ryan Helsley. The two-time All-Star with St. Louis had had a rough finish to 2025 with the Mets, plagued by accusations of pitch-tipping, but he came to Baltimore on a two-year, $28 million deal to replace the injured Bautista, and for about a month, looked like the guy was once one of the best closers in the American League. Then his right elbow started acting up, and Hellboy’s first season in the orange and black never got back on track.

Helsley made his first impression for Baltimore on Opening Day, and boy, was it a doozy. Hellboy pitched a scoreless ninth against the Twins to save a 2-1 win, striking out the side on 19 pitches. Six of those pitches hit 100 MPH, and one reached 101.9. That was the hardest pitch thrown by an Oriole since Bautista hit 102.3 in 2023. For a staff that threw only five triple-digit pitches combined in 2024 and 2025, that was a big change. Helsley also showed a new splitter to go with his fastball and slider. “That was the best we’ve seen Hels,” Craig Albernaz said afterward.

The good results continued from there. Helsley entered an April 21 game against the Royals with a 1.93 ERA and six saves. That night he had his first real dud as an Oriole. He threw only nine strikes in 22 pitches and walked two, and his second wild pitch let Maikel Garcia score the winning run. It was the first time since 2019 that Helsley had thrown two wild pitches in one outing, though it looked like a simple off night. He bounced back and saved a win over the Astros on April 28. You wouldn’t have known it then, but this would be Hellz Bellz’s last appearance for a month and a half.

At the end of April, Helsley was shelved with right elbow inflammation. He said he had felt something about a week earlier and assumed it would go away. Testing came back clean, and Albernaz said the level of concern was “not high at all.” At the time, Helsley was 7-for-7 in save chances with a 2.53 ERA and 15 strikeouts over 10.2 innings. His seven walks were higher than you’d like, but he was doing what a closer is supposed to do.

Helsley didn’t return to the mound until June 17, six weeks and two rehab outings at Norfolk later. Helsley said he felt “pain-free” and like “my normal self,” but he also said he would need “a couple outings or so” to readjust. His first appearances back were bumpy, and he had a 7.71 ERA over five games after returning. He had started to settle in, with no earned runs over his last three outings, when the elbow flared up again. On July 1, Helsley felt discomfort while warming up for a save chance against the White Sox, and he went back on the IL two days later. This time, Albernaz said the concern was “high.”

That was the end of Helsley’s season, though it took a while to become official. He was moved to the 60-day IL in July, gathered opinions on his elbow, and eventually returned to a mound for a scoreless rehab inning at Norfolk on September 12. With only a week left in the season, the Orioles decided not to rush him back and shut him down on September 19. “We decided,” said GM Mike Elias, that rushing Helsley back “might not be the wisest play,” adding that the club would “gear him toward 2027.”

Overall, Helsley finished the year with a 4.11 ERA over 15.1 innings in 17 games, going 8-for-9 in save chances. Those numbers aren’t great, but they mostly reflect the time around his injuries. Before his elbow became a problem, he was looking like just the answer the Orioles needed.

There’s no question that without him, the bullpen was certainly weaker. Albernaz went to a closer-by-committee type of thing, but this approach never really replaced Helsley’s ability to close out a game. This was true even on, maybe especially on, September 19, when the 6’8” Bautista returned after 14 months away, the same day Helsley was shut down. It was apparent, though, that Bautista wasn’t fully “back,” either.

The question now is what happens with Helsley’s contract. His deal includes a $14 million player option for 2027. After an injury-plagued year, it would be surprising if he passed up that money to test free agency, so I expect him back. That would give the Orioles two closers with big-time stuff in Helsley and Bautista, though neither one is a sure thing health-wise. If both are healthy, Albernaz could have a strong late-inning pair, and Cano could stay in the setup role where he’s been at his best.

Helsley’s track record helps. He led the majors with 49 saves and a 2.04 ERA for the Cardinals in 2024, and he’s a two-time All-Star. His 2025 with the Mets was a mess, with a 7.20 ERA in 22 games, but his first month in Baltimore suggested that stretch was a blip and not the start of a decline.

Relievers are volatile, and elbow trouble in back-to-back half-seasons is worrying for a pitcher who relies on throwing 100 MPH. Still, the Helsley we saw in April was a real difference-maker. If the Orioles can get that version back for a full season in 2027, it would go a long way toward helping them get back into contention.

The Braves’ season came to end on Wednesday night. It’s hard to tie a nice bow on the narrative arc with the loss: Tyler Mahle was good, the bullpen was not, and the Braves were neither done in by one of their particular strengths nor a specific, exceptional weakness. The offense started out very well with a novel approach of jumping on pitches early, but by June, it had descended into incoherence, going very passive for no reason at all. There wasn’t any semblance of consistency or purpose in the summer and fall, either, and I guess you could say the same applied to the postseason as well.

Looking ahead, I think figuring out offensive identity and then shaping the roster and/or approach accordingly is the key offseason action item, to the extent there’s any latitude for action items this offseason as it is. But, before we get there, I guess we’ll pause for one more rumination.

The season is over. The Braves were supposed to be good, and they were “good” in the standings. The production didn’t quite match the win total (to a ludicrous degree, really), but that didn’t stop the Braves from exorcising some franchise demons by A) winning a playoff series and B) having that win come against the Phillies, who knocked two much better Braves teams out of the tournament in 2022 and 2023. But, their ride also ended there, as they suffered a power outage (and really, an offensive outage altogether) in the NLDS.

So, satisfied? Gratified? Something else? Or was anything other than hoisting the trophy going to be a failure for you? Personally, I just feel pretty weird, and nothing in the playoffs really changed that (I definitely pay less attention to the playoffs, so it was never going to). I don’t know how the Front Office thinks about the equivalent of solving the problem wrong and getting the right answer anyway, but that’s more or less what happened, so eh. I’d give the season a B if I had to grade it U.S. school system-style, but even that doesn’t quite capture the weirdness of having to slap a score on what happened with the Braves in 2026.

Yesterday brought a bit of a whirlwind of Phillies managerial news. First, it was reported that Alex Cora, the presumed favorite to land the job after he initially turned down Dave Dombrowski’s overtures in late April, spurned the Phillies again. Then it was reported that the Phillies managerial search may be over before it ever really started, as it’s possible that they may turn back towards interim manager Don Mattingly.

It was one of the worst kept secrets in baseball that Dombrowski coveted Cora and practically everyone assumed that deal would get done very quickly after the Phillies finished playing. However, here we sit exactly a week after the Phillies were eliminated, and we’re essentially right back to where we were in April with the Phillies missing out on their top option and perhaps “settling” for Mattingly. It is obviously still early in the offseason, so things can change on all fronts. Perhaps Cora changes his mind, and this was all a leverage play. Maybe the Phillies realize there are more people that can manage a baseball team besides just Cora and Mattingly. Regardless, the question of who will be manning the dugout the next time the Phillies take the field is still very much unanswered.

So, who do YOU think will be the Phillies manager in 2027?

The National League Division Series has wrapped up, and the stage is set for an NL Championship Series rematch between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers.

After the Braves won Game 1, the Dodgers responded with two straight wins in Atlanta. In the decisive Game 4, Andy Pages emerged as the hero, delivering a clutch bases-loaded single in the seventh inning that drove in two runs and ultimately propelled LA to a 4-1 victory, winning the series and securing a place in the NLCS.

With the win, the Dodgers continue their quest for a third consecutive World Series title.

For the second consecutive year, the Dodgers will face the Brewers in the NLCS. Milwaukee rebounded from a narrow 4-3 defeat in Game 3 and ultimately clinched the series with a 3-1 victory over the San Diego Padres in Game 4.

Here is a look at the NLCS schedule, as the Dodgers and Brewers prepare to battle for a spot in the World Series.

More: Dodgers survive Atlanta. Their greatness - and flaws - will be for all to see in NLCS

Meet the Mets

How do you solve a problem like Brett Baty?

Around the National League East

The Braves lost 4-1 to the Dodgers at home which eliminated them from the playoffs.

Ronald Acuña Jr. partnered with Kalshi which makes him the first MLB player to promote predicition markets.

The Marlins are watching the playoffs from home and they have some questions facing the organization if they don’t want a repeat performance next season.

Despite their subpar performance in the playoffs, the Phillies might again turn to Don Mattingly to be their manager next season.

The Nationals are hopeful Jack Sinclair can become a late-inning weapon for them next season.

Around Major League Baseball

The Yankees were swept by the Rays and elminated from the postseason after a controversial fan interference call.

Andy Pages’s bases loaded single helped propel the Dodgers over the Braves.

The Guardians avoided elimination against the White Sox with a 9-3 win in Chicago.

The Brewers defeated the Padres 3-1 to move on to the NLCS.

Sam Fuld and Jared Banner are two of the candidates the Athletics are interested in for their open general manager position.

Major League Baseball sent out a memo to organizations about what they can and cannot do during a lockout.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Steve Sypa reviewed the Brooklyn Cyclones’ 2026 season.

This Date in Mets History

On this date in 2000, Bobby J. Jones shut down the Barry Bonds-led Giants to send the Mets to the NLCS.

Aaron Judge has done some version of this exit interview every autumn for a decade now, standing in front of cameras, trying to explain why this generation of Yankees -- his generation of Yankees -- cannot get October right.

But this time, as the Yankee captain atoned, a cheer and laughter floated out of a meeting room where a mix of coaches and a few lingering players were debriefing out of sight.

The only acknowledgement Judge gave the outburst in the moment was a long stare over the cameras in that direction. As soon as the cameras dispersed, however, Judge walked over to the meeting room, peered through a crack in the door, then walked in. He walked out a few seconds later. Asked then if hearing the laughter and cheering bothered him, he sighed.

"You know the answer to that," he said.

An hour had passed since the last out, long enough for the initial sting to pass for some. For Judge, however, the pain and pressure are just compounding. A few minutes earlier, Aaron Boone had described the clubhouse as "broken" by the loss, and in most corners, it seemed that way. Ben Rice looked dead-eyed as he brushed off every question about his own success and declared the year a failure. Max Fried’s blank stare rivaled Rice’s, and he seemed no closer to getting over the pitch that turned into Ryan Vilade’s eventual game-winning swing in the fifth.

Even Jazz Chisholm Jr., who has earned a reputation for nonchalance, could not hide how he was affected by the outcome: He refused to stand in front of the usual Yankees backdrop, gave several "no comments," and lashed out briefly at his manager and fans alike while also explaining how much he loves to be a Yankee. Everyone processes disappointment differently, of course.

But Judge is feeling it more acutely than most. He is 34 now, officially old enough to wonder how many more chances he might get. Every October is a referendum on his legacy, on this Yankees era, on him as a player and him as a leader and the franchise to which he committed his career. Yet whether because of or despite him, whether in talent or mindset, the Yankees always seem to lack that elusive October mettle.

"There’s a standard to winning a championship. It’s black and white. It’s a no-brainer. It’s every day you show up to work, every little thing you do is are you working towards a championship or you’re not?" Judge said. "I think that’s the biggest thing: Everybody in the room understanding you have to bring it every single day. Especially here in New York, you have to bring it every single day. There’s no days off. Yeah, it just comes down to the little things." 

Judge has spent all those years thinking about little things, both on the field with his finely tuned swing, to the way he chooses every word carefully in moments like these. Exactly what little things he meant is in the eye of the beholder, though everything from the Yankees defense in Game 2 to their inability to apply consistent offensive pressure on opponents might have qualified.

Perhaps a better defensive roster, with fewer hit-first types who play the same position, could have helped them withstand the Rays' tendency to pepper the defense. Perhaps a more versatile offensive roster, with a few more players whose contact skills put pressure on a defense, could have helped them avoid prolonged offensive futility in the regular season and falling just short in Game 3.

"We’re the Yankees. I feel like [Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman] should go all in and do what they need to do. If we got holes, if it’s finding a certain players or personnel, whatever we need, you gotta go out there and get it," Judge said. "That’s why I signed back here to play with the Yankees: To fight for a championship every single year. To go all in. That’s what I do every offseason, to get ready to give this team and this city everything we’ve got. I expect them to do the same."

By all accounts, Judge tried to give the Yankees what he could on a strained calf muscle in this postseason, even though Boone and others decided he wasn’t ready. Judge expressed frustration when Boone all but ruled him out of the Wild Card Series before his star had personally conceded. Two weeks after an injury that takes double that time to heal in the best scenario. He pushed his calf through live batting practice sessions in the hopes of being ready for the Division Series, too.

"I’m feeling great," he said, when asked if he felt he could have played. "That’s why I was pushing for it."

But for all the public back-and-forth about whether he would be available this series or next, Cashman said Wednesday Judge did not come as close to being ready for the ALDS as the superstar’s posturing made it seem.

"Physically, he wasn’t in a position to -- in the end, he wasn’t physically able to," Cashman said. "I know what he would like to do, but that’s the warrior in him. Physically, he wasn’t a choice."

Judge addressed the Yankees after the loss, though he said he wanted to keep the message "in house." He does that with most things, except the things he wants to make sure everyone – including the Yankees front office – hears clearly.

"I want to trade for everybody, sign everybody every single year, but I know that’s not realistic," Judge said. "[The front office] give us a winning team every year, but that’s not good enough here in New York. We’re the Yankees. You have to go out there and expect championships and go all in every year."

Next time Judge’s season ends, he will be 35. This ultra-deep Yankees starting rotation will be a year older. Health is no guarantee for him or for them. On his watch, the Yankees are enduring the second-longest World Series drought in franchise history. For the captain of the Yankees, another October without a championship can never be a laughing matter.

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres were only able to avoid heartbreak for a single night.

The Padres suffered a 3-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday, Oct. 7 at Petco Park, ending their postseason.

San Diego’s clubhouse was somber, with players reflecting on the season after exchanging handshakes and hugs.

“They are so special,” Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. said about his team after going 1 for 3 with a home run and a walk. “We went through so many ups and downs this year. We became one (after) we went through every battle and just stuck together. It was an enjoyable group to play baseball with.”

The Dodgers beat the Braves in four games to win the National League Division Series, and have advanced to their eighth National League Championship Series in the last 11 years with Dave Roberts at the helm. But before we dig into the celebration and aftermath from Game 4, here are a few leftover notes from the Game 3 win.

Ken Rosenthal, who worked this NLDS for Fox, wrote at The Athletic how manager Roberts made a rare appearance in a pregame hitters meeting before Game 3. From Rosenthal:

Roberts wasn’t thrilled with the Dodgers’ offensive effort in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, a 3-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves. So, with the series tied and his team set to face one of the best pitchers in the sport, the manager wanted to send his hitters a message.

“It was just to kind of try to put them in a mindset that it’s an elimination game, to challenge them to be more exhausted emotionally because they’re playing every single pitch,” Roberts said. “I wanted Chris Sale to know he was in a fight. I think we accomplished that.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s latest brilliant postseason start on Tuesday earned the praise of Gabe Lacques of USA Today, who notes how Yamamoto is earning his place alongside many notable historical postseason stalwarts.

“Yama is the Dodgers’ rock and his three-year exploits – a 2.14 ERA, 58 strikeouts to 13 walks in 63 innings – are, era-adjusted, growing just as impressive as the Koufaxes and Pettittes and Bumgarners,” Lacques wrote.

Michael Baumann at FanGraphs extolled Yamamoto’s effort in Game 3, and yet another appearance of October Kiké Hernández.

Molly Knight at her The Long Game newsletter also extolled Yamamoto’s postseason prowess, calling him “an absolute playoff monster who can throw six different pitches for strikes in any count while never breaking a sweat.”

The Orioles signed pitcher Luis De León out of the Dominican Republic in December 2021. His signing bonus was just $30,000. A high-strikeout, high-walk pitcher, De León struggled in the Dominican Summer League in as a 19-year-old, but slowly began working up the ranks of the minors. By the end of 2025, he had worked his way up and finished the season with three games with the Double-A Baysox.

The 2026 season brought big changes for De León. He returned to Double-A and made 19 starts with disappointing results. Now 23, De León struck out nearly 30% of batters but walked over 11%. He had a good ground ball rate, but allowed a ton of baserunners.

Despite his troubles, De León was promoted to Triple-A Norfolk on August 1st. He made three starts at that level before the Orioles moved him to the bullpen. The move made sense. De León didn’t look capable of rising above the starting pitchers in Baltimore, and the Orioles needed bullpen help. With his hard slider and strikeout ability, the bullpen seemed like a good place for him. He made just four bullpen appearances with Norfolk before being called up to the big leagues.

It was a rude welcome for De León, who was inserted into a high-leverage situation on his first day. He gave up a home run, took the loss, and probably felt like a real Oriole for doing so (I kid…or do I?). He also took the loss in his second career MLB game; he took the loss again after Yennier Cano allowed his inherited runner to score. After watching the first two games of his time, I was ready for De León to go back to the minors to work on some things.

But then, things got better. De León got into six more games before the end of the season. He gave up four hits and two walks. He didn’t allow another run. It was a very small sample size, but he started to look like a good pitcher. His emergence was a nice part of a mostly frustrating end of season.

So what is in store for De León next year? The Orioles might try him as a starter again, with a longer stretch at Norfolk. But I believe his future is as a relief pitchers as he has continually struggled as a starter in the minors. A hard-throwing lefty is valuable out of the bullpen, and De León gained about a mile per hour on his fastball as a relief pitcher in the majors.

De León has the talent to succeed; it’s just a matter of if he can control the strike zone. He did so in his 10 MLB games, though it’s foolish to draw conclusions from 9.1 innings. If you were going to, you’d also have to worry about his strikeout rate being half what he had in the minors. Even so, the performance was a nice early audition for next year, when you expect he’ll get the chance to make the team out of spring training.

Until the recent influx of talent into the farm system, De León was the highest-ranking pitcher on the Orioles’ prospect lists. Back in May, FanGraphs ranked him as the team’s third-best prospect overall, with this to say about him:

De León still has command-related relief risk and a bit more because of his fastball’s vulnerability against righties, though it eats lefties alive. His delivery is atypical for a big league starter and it detracts some from his strike-throwing, but it also makes hitters uncomfortable

…

[W]e know De León can hold big velo across as lot of innings and that his secondary stuff (especially his splitter) can finish hitters.

MLB Pipeline placed De León as the #8 prospect in 2026, with the following to say:

De León has always had inconsistent command, and his control can unravel when his mechanics fall out of sync. But his stuff plays up when he’s repeating his delivery and staying on top of his release, and he’s shown improvement in the free-passes department, slicing his walk rate every season as he’s matured. If he can consistently throw all of his pitches for strikes and limit the walks, his weapons give him the ceiling of a mid-rotation starter, with the raw stuff to impact a big league bullpen even sooner.

He fulfilled that last part, but time will tell if he finds his way to being a competent starter.