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Well the Braves won a playoff series and exorcised some demons of recent postseasons past in the process this week against the Phillies. Their reward is facing the death-star Dodgers in a best-of-5 series with a spot in the NLCS on the line.

Game 1 will be perhaps the most challenging, with the Braves opting for a bullpen game and the Dodgers being able to throw a fresh Tarik Skubal on the other side. The Dodgers will be heavily favored in this game and for good reason. The Braves faced Skubal once this season and were able to score two runs off him over 7.0 innings, with a home run coming from Ozzie Albies. To be honest, that is an outcome I would take if you offered it to me right now for how the Braves perform against him today. The big lefty has been incredible for 4 seasons now, with very strong strikeout numbers, an extremely low walk rate, and a solid ground ball rate. His FIP and xFIP have hovered in the mid-2 range since the beginning of 2023. His well-shaped upper-90s fastball from the left side leads his arsenal, with a hard changeup and slider, as well as a sinker make up the vast majority of his remaining pitches. There isn’t a real weakness for Skubal. The Braves will need some luck and a big moment or two against him to put up some runs. Getting him out of the game early sure would help as well.

Meanwhile, the Braves have a talented bullpen to face the Dodgers’ lineup that was second-best in wRC+ in baseball this year. That said, covering 9.0 innings means that we will likely get bulk innings from non-high-leverage options. We will have to hope they can get through those innings without that potent Dodgers offense putting up crooked numbers left and right.

Game Info

Game Time: Saturday, October 3, 4:00 pm EDT

Location: UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA

Watch: FOX

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM, ESPN Radio

The Phillies are not playing baseball for the rest of the 2026 season. In some ways, you’re all free from whatever this season. In some ways, we are all just trapped in whatever they prepare to do for a 2027 season that only might happen.

Given the nature of this season, it feels right to ask a few big picture questions about where everything is going. Dave Dombrowski has been running the team since the 2020-21 off-season and has seen the team make the playoffs in each of the last five seasons. This is the first of which both the regular season record and postseason results went backwards. It’s time to at least ask a few important questions.

Should the Phillies look at 2026 as just a down season or the beginning of a bigger trend?

The Phillies won 95 games in 2024 with the second-best record in the National League and followed that up with 96 wins and the second-best record in the NL again. While both seasons featured quick October exits, the Phillies were clearly at the top of National League World Series contenders given their regular season success.

2026 was a step back. They won eight fewer games than the previous season and backed into the Wild Card series as the sixth seed, needing to win game 162 to even make it. After losing in said Wild Card, it is clear the Phillies are as far from contending as they’ve been in a while.

With all of that said, the core of the roster in both years is basically the same. Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper are still the two best hitters. Trea Turner is still here. The rotation has the same core. Jhoan Duran is still the closer.

There are basically two competing ideas. One is that the core is aging. Kyle Schwarber is almost 34. Bryce Harper is almost 34. Trea Turner is 34. JT Realmuto is 35. Zack Wheeler is 36. Besides Wheeler and Harper, all of these guys regressed to different degrees. It could be very difficult to overcome.

The other, and the path easier to face, is that this season was just weird. They got off to a disastrous start and sometimes that happens. The manager got fired. Trea Turner just had a weird year. Same for JT Realmuto. Kyle Schwarber is still very good even if he regressed from 2025. Bryce went from first base to right field.

It is easy to overreact to one year and start making decisions that set them back further. It’s also easy to underreact and not look for significant changes. The Atlanta Braves won 76 games in 2025 and then bounced back with 94 wins this year thanks to a few smaller changes, some health, and bounce-back seasons from key players. Sometimes you just have a weird year.

Making significant roster changes to the core will also be extremely difficult. Almost every highly paid veteran on the Phillies roster carries trade protection, either because it’s in their contract or because of 10-5 rights.

Is just throwing money at the issue enough or do the problems run much deeper?

At minimum, the major league roster needs at least one new starting outfielder (let’s say it’s not Trea Turner for argument’s sake), a new third baseman, and multiple new left-handed relievers. One of those lineup upgrades probably needs to hit cleanup.

While Jesús Luzardo is getting a big raise with his extension and other’s will see smaller ones, there is some money. Since the Competitive Balance Tax existed, the penalties have reset after every new CBA agreement so let’s assume that happens again.

Maybe they throw a bunch of money at one of the aging outfielders. Maybe it’s Randy Arozarena, or maybe it’s Seiya Suzuki or Ian Happ. Maybe Bo Bichette opts out of his contract with the Mets (I wouldn’t count on it) and is a target. Maybe it’s someone else.

But does money solve this? It might help the 2027 roster but the problems just seem deeper.

Andrew Painter showed plenty of growth as a rookie but that wasn’t exactly the same for Justin Crawford. There were flashes of what it could look like but Crawford regressed hard every time. He still hits too many groundballs and struggles to play a consistent center field. Given that he had an 80 wRC+ on a .317 BABIP, it just seems like there is a long ways to go before he is any kind of capable starting outfielder.

The 2026 roster featured only six players above replacement level according to bWAR. That is troubling and might not be fixable in one offseason.

The farm system is in rough shape. Aidan Miller did not play until September but is playing in the Arizona Fall League. Gage Wood looks like a good pitching prospect but probably needs more time before being a major league contributor. Their best storyline was Bryan Rincon, who broke out with a power surge in the hitting-friendly environment of AA Reading (and a very juiced minor league baseball).

How impactful are the changes around the players supposed to be?

The Phillies will be looking for a new manager and with that will probably come a new coaching staff. The Phillies tried to hire Alex Cora in April after Rob Thomson was fired and it’s hard to imagine them not trying again this offseason. Given his reputation, it is natural to think Cora would bring in some coaches.

The biggest questions will be with Caleb Cotham and Kevin Long. Cotham’s responsibilities with the Phillies run deeper than just being the major league pitching coach. If the Phillies were to let him go, it’s easy to think they would have to backfill that with multiple hires. Given how tied he is to their minor league pitching development, he just seems safe even with a new manager.

Kevin Long is a different question. I obviously have no sourcing and it’s important to remember that Long signed a three year extension last offseason.

But with that said, it’s just harder to see him sticking around. The offense regressed from 9th in wRC+ in 2025 to 28th this past season. Trea Turner regressed hard. JT regressed hard. Brandon Marsh made the all-star team but was a disaster in the second half. The team only had 4 hitters with an OPS above 100 and two of them were Bryan De La Cruz and Derek Hill, clear bench players.

Given the results and an incoming manager, it just seems hard to picture Long remaining as the hitting coach moving forward.

With all of this, how impactful are these changes supposed to be? The core is likely to remain the same and there is only so much a manager, a hitting coach, and others can really change. What are the expectations going to be?

It’s only fitting that the team with the pressure of living up to astronomically high expectations would debut in the playoffs in a game in which the victory appears to be the only plausible result. In a single baseball game, anything can happen, but one could hardly manufacture a more lopsided pitching scenario if they tried for Game 1 of the NLDS between the Dodgers and Braves.

The reigning back-to-back champs gave themselves the luxury of foregoing last postseason’s hero Yoshinobu Yamamoto in favor of Tarik Skubal for the first matchup of this series. Meanwhile, Atlanta needs to find 27 outs from a pitching staff that lacks reliable starting options for this opening game, inevitably turning to a bullpen effort. While we’ve seen in the past teams going this route as a way of capitalizing on a strength, in the Braves’ case it’s nearly purely out of necessity.

With Skubal on the mound at Dodger Stadium, the home team can create a perfect storm against a Braves offense that during the year has struggled against lefties (91 wRC+) and also has had its issues on the road (89 team wRC+). We’ve already seen glimpses of these problems facing lefties in the Wild Card round, as Jesús Luzardo and Cristopher Sánchez looked in control of their outings against Atlanta—Luzardo allowed just one run in five innings, and Sánchez had only one run on the books through six innings until getting pushed past his limit and allowing a couple more runs in the seventh. Dodger fans know all too well about Don Mattingly and leaving starters in too long in the postseason.

Such heavy favoritism might have been intimidating in other circumstances in the past, but for the back-to-back champs, it is easier to simply expect that they can take advantage of this opportunity before facing Chris Sale on Monday—one that was rightfully earned by beating out the Braves for this second seed in the National League.

NLDS Game 1 info

• Teams: No. 2 seed Dodgers vs. No. 3 seed Braves
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Start time: 1 p.m.
• TV: Fox (Joe Davis, John Smoltz, Ken Rosenthal)
• National radio: ESPN Radio (Dave O’Brien, Jessica Mendoza)
• Local English radio: AM 570 (Charley Steiner, Rick Monday)
• Local Spanish radio: KTNQ 1020 AM (José Mota, Luis Cruz)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Yankees are getting a power lefty boost to their bullpen for the ALDS.

Ryan Weathers is on the roster to face the Rays, after the Yankees left him off for the AL wild-card series to give him more time to ramp up from a left forearm flexor strain that sidelined him for the final month of the regular season.

The left-hander, who pitched to a 3.60 ERA in 25 starts this season, is coming back as a reliever, likely limited to one or possibly one-plus inning at a time.

But he still offers real value for the Yankees, with Aaron Boone saying earlier this week he could play a “massive role” moving forward.

The other lefties in the Yankees bullpen are heavily used setup man Brent Headrick and the soft-tossing Ryan Yarbrough.

Headrick lost some velocity late in the season, looking like he might be running out of gas, while Yarbrough is mostly on the roster to offer some length if the Yankees get into a tough spot.

Weathers, meanwhile, was back up to 96 mph in a live batting practice last week.

The Yankees had him throw another on Monday, taking him out of consideration to be on the wild-card roster but ensuring that if they advanced, he would be available to pitch more often in the ALDS, which they now stand to benefit from.

Especially with off days after Games 1, 2 and 4, Weathers has a chance to impact multiple games.

He said on Friday he hoped he would only need one day off in between appearances, though the Yankees will not be rash in how they use him coming back from the injury.

“I feel super healthy enough to be on [the roster],” Weathers said Friday. “Bouncing back really well.”

Aaron Judge is not on the roster for the Yankees' five-game ALDS matchup against the Tampa Bay Rays, per multiple reports.

The Bronx Bombers kick off the series against their AL East division rivals on Saturday evening, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Judge took live batting practice on Friday at Tropicana Field, but has not yet progressed to running the bases or practicing in the outfield.

The superstar slugger continues to work his way back from a right calf strain, which also sidelined him for the team's Wild Card series against the Boston Red Sox.

The Yankees offense fared just fine without their captain in that series, scoring 18 runs across the two-game sweep of their archrivals.

In 66 games during the regular season, Judge slashed .241/.360/.511 with 18 home runs and 41 RBI. He missed more than three months with a right rib stress fracture before returning to the Yankees Sept. 7, hitting his first home run back Sept. 14. The calf injury came two days later.

Meanwhile, Aaron Boone did make one change to the Yankees' 26-man roster for the ALDS; Ryan Weathers - who has not pitched since late August due to a flexor tendon strain in his left forearm, but has been ramping up with live batting practice - has been added to the team's bullpen for the series.

As such, versatile infielder and righty batter Amed Rosario was left off the roster, having been swapped for the southpaw. This makes sense, as the expected Rays starters for the first three games of the series - Drew Rasmussen, Nick Martinez, and Freddy Peralta - are all right-handed pitchers.

Weathers recorded a healthy 3.60 ERA and 1.223 WHIP across 25 starts for New York during the regular season. His strong strikeout rate, walk rate, and ground ball rate indicate his theoretical fit as a bullpen option for the Yankees during the upcoming series.

Our 26 for the ALDS. #RepBX | #Postseasonpic.twitter.com/8Y5ZknJmeg

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 3, 2026

The 2026 Major League Baseball playoffs are on to the best-of-five Division Series with eight teams remaining – and a quadruple header on Saturday, Oct. 3 to get the round underway.

In the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays face the New York Yankees while the Cleveland Guardians meet the Chicago White Sox in two intradivision matchups. In the National League, the MLB-best Milwaukee Brewers take on the San Diego Padres, and the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers meet the Atlanta Braves.

The Yankees, White Sox, Padres and Braves all had to win best-of-three wild card series, while the Rays, Guardians, Brewers and Dodgers all earned a bye through the first round as the top division winners in each league.

The winners advance to the best-of-seven League Championship Series.

What teams are in MLB playoffs?

American League

• Tampa Bay Rays
• Cleveland Guardians
• New York Yankees
• Chicago White Sox

National League

• Milwaukee Brewers
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• Atlanta Braves
• San Diego Padres

MLB playoffs bracket

They’re in a league of their own.

The 3,000 women of Bombshell Baseball Club take game days very seriously — and if they can’t make it to the stadium, they’re dissecting games live in their huge group chat.

“Every single at bat, every out, is being talked about in that moment,” founder Alley Cabral told The Post.

“When the game is on, we are all talking baseball, but then it goes into girls’ families and their marriages and relationship stuff.”

Cabral, 29, a Bronx native, actually quit her corporate job this year to run the club for female fans of Major League Baseball, which she launched via Twitter in October 2024.

Back then, she named it Bronx Bombshells, intending it to be for diehard Yankees fans like herself.

“As a Dominican-American, baseball is my identity. So it was something that I had with my family and my boyfriend, but I didn’t have any girlfriends that actually enjoyed it. And I realized that if I’m feeling alone in this, there has to be other people that are,” said Cabral.

Within a year, she expanded the group to female fans of any MLB team and changed the name to Bombshell Baseball Club.

Now, the ladies are having a ball during the playoffs — especially local Yankees fans, as the team advanced to the ALDS.

“Post-season baseball is my favorite time of the year. It’s when you get to see 162 games worth of fandom hopefully pay off and experience it with the people you love the most,” said Erica Fisher of New Jersey, who has been a member since 2025.

Soon after Cabral started the then-Twitter group, members began encouraging her to organize in-person meetups.

The first one was at Yankee Stadium in April 2025, when eight girls showed up.

In August, 230 women showed up for a Yankees hat event.

“They talk every single day . . . so they literally act like they’ve known each other for years. So, you hear screaming, shrieking, picture taking. Everyone’s running around,” Cabral said.

“Game days are crazy in the best way possible. Because just imagine 30, 40, 50 girls, all congregating in a section.”

In June of 2025, Cabral launched an official online chat for Yankees fans, and by August, added subchannels, so now each team in the MLB has their own.

“So any girl that’s a fan of any team can join and find girls that actually like that team too,” she explained.

“And then we have a main chat where all the girls just talk random stuff.”

Of course, some of the chatter involves swooning over players.

“I think we all have crushes on the players, that’s just how it goes,” she said.

As the club grew in popularity, Cabral hired a team of eight — from Queens, Yonkers, Pennsylvania, Texas and California — to help organize in-person meetups at stadiums around the country, as well as watch parties at bars and restaurants.

“It’s a full-fledged business right now,” she said.

“The way we have income is through revenue from our events and membership. So people have the option to do a free membership, but if they want discounts to events, they have the option to purchase a membership.”

And what will happen when Yankees and Red Sox fans get together?

“We have a strict ‘no fighting’ rule in our group,” Cabral said.

The Yankees are coming off a two-game rout of the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card Series and the Tampa Bay Rays are coming off some downtime, thanks to a first-round bye. 

With this in mind, here are three things to watch as the teams collide in Game 1 of the AL Division Series on Saturday night: 

Rust versus rest

The Rays are fresh, having not played since their regular season finale on Sunday, Sep. 27. They’ve got their pitching set the way they want, with ace Drew Rasmussen starting the opener, and their bullpen arms having had the time to reset. 

But the Yanks are surging with confidence after outscoring the Red Sox, 18-2, over two blowouts that were played without star Aaron Judge, who remains out for the ALDS due to injury. 

Those games were so lopsided that the Yankees did not have to stress their high-leverage relievers and their terrific rotation flexed two strong starts, one each for Cam Schlittler and Max Fried. 

Gerrit Cole will take the mound in Game 1 for New York, with Schlittler is set for Games 2 and 5, if necessary.

So which team has the advantage? Maybe neither, if history is any guide. 

Since this playoff format started, teams that had the bye have won 9 of the 16 five-game sets in the divisional series against the teams that won a Wild Card Series. It is worth noting, however, that in the last two years, teams with the bye have won 6 of the last 8.

The Yankees are rolling in red hot, but it’s hard to believe the Rays, mostly a contact, speed-based team, will be hampered by any layoff rust, especially with Rasmussen pitching. 

Rice could be nice

Ben Rice landed the hammer blow to the Red Sox in the Wild Card, and now he'll be looking to wreak havoc on the Rays in the ALDS.

The lefty slugger excelled against Tampa during the regular season. Rice hit seven homers against them this year in 51 plate appearances, batting .356. 

He was especially successful at Tropicana Field, going 11-for-24 (.458) with five homers and a 1.685 OPS. 

Rice has 10 career home runs against Tampa Bay overall.

His at-bats in Game 1 against Rasmussen should be especially intriguing, because he's the one Rays pitcher who has been able to stifle him.

Rice is 1-for-16 lifetime against the Tampa Bay righty, though the one hit was a home run on July 9 of this year. 

Considering how crucial Rice was in the Yanks’ victory in the Wild Card Series over Boston, this is a matchup with meaning.

Considering how crucial Rice was in the Yanks’ victory in the Wild Card Series over Boston, this is a matchup with meaning.

Glove story

The Rays love to take chances on the basepaths, pushing the pace and trying to inject chaos into an inning. 

Sharp defense when the Rays run is paramount for the Yankees to escapef innings before Rays baserunners become runs allowed.

“If you’re clean there, there’s some outs to be had,” Aaron Boone said on the workout day. “But they do a lot of things really well.” 

The Rays were second in MLB with 164 stolen bases. Chandler Simpson led the AL with 46 steals, but he was also caught an MLB-most 14 times. 

Yankee backstop Austin Wells threw out 14-of-64 runners trying to steal, or 21.9 percent -- a few notches below the MLB average rate of 23 percent.

Per Baseball Savant/Statcast, Wells ranks in just the 23rd percentile for average "pop" time, at 1.97 seconds.

While New York's catcher wasn't tested by a quiet Red Sox offense on the basepaths during the Wild Card round, Wells will certainly have to make plays behind the plate during the Divisional Series against the Rays.

Aaron Judge will sit out the New York Yankees' American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays due to a right calf strain that may threaten his viability all October. 

Judge was not included on the team's ALDS roster submitted in advanc of Game 1 Saturday, Oct. 3, even as he vowed to "do all he can" to play against the Rays after sitting out their two-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox in the wild-card round.

Judge suffered the injury Sept. 16 at Minnesota, just seven games after returning from a rib fracture. He played in just 66 games this season after winning consecutive AL MVP awards. 

Now, he'll cool it a little longer as his teammates take aim at the Rays, who won the AL East in Judge's absence. 

Before the Yankees finished off the Red Sox, Judge got simulated at-bats in at their Class AAA facility in Somerset. After the team flew to Tampa for the ALDS, he worked out at their spring training facility there and also went through the off day workout at Tropicana Field. Manager Aaron Boone did not specify whether Judge had run the bases in his rehab progression, often one of the final steps to a return, but noted he had tested the calf in other fashions.

New York's sweep of Boston marked its first playoff games contested without Judge, 34, since 2015.

The club added lefty starter Ryan Weathers to the roster for this round, as the best-of-five format will require more length from the pitching staff. DH Giancarlo Stanton is also back on the roster, though he didn't get an at-bat in the two-game wild card series as he returns from a lengthy absence due to a pair of calf injuries.

Good morning, LSB.

In his latest Q&A Evan Grant was asked if the Rangers would consider moving their outfield fences in to account for their crappy crappy offense.

Also up for discussion: How possible would a Ron Washington reunion to close out his career be?

See where Sebastian Walcott lands on MLB Pipeline’s final top 100 list of the year.

And The Athletic ranks the MLB ballparks by playoff atmosphere.

That’s all for this morning. Have a great weekend!

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Four days were not enough for Aaron Judge.

The Yankees’ three-time MVP has been left off their ALDS roster Saturday, despite his continued progress from a moderate right calf strain this week after he was also missing from their AL wild-card series roster.

Judge took batting practice at Tropicana Field on Friday and faced live pitching on at least three of the last five days, in an attempt to get back in time to help the Yankees take on the Rays.

But once again, the Yankees deemed that he was not yet ready to return, just two and a half weeks after sustaining the calf injury.

The Yankees withstood Judge’s absence in the wild-card series without a problem, crushing the Red Sox in a two-game sweep.

But trying to take down the Rays without him may prove to be a more difficult task, though doing so would give him a chance to return for the ALCS.

As of Friday, Judge had yet to run the bases, though he started a running progression on Tuesday, shortly before Game 1 against the Red Sox. 

Aaron Boone had left the door open for the Yankees to carry Judge even if he was not a full player until later in the series — likely Game 3 back at Yankee Stadium, away from the troubling turf at Tropicana Field — but in the end, they erred on the side of caution once again.

The Yankees wound up taking 11 pitchers and 15 position players, adding lefty Ryan Weathers and subtracting utilityman Amed Rosario from their wild-card roster.

Weathers should offer a strong boost to the bullpen, with the ability to pitch a high-leverage inning, while Rosario became less useful because of the Rays’ lack of left-handed pitchers.