AJ Hinch: ‘We left 15 guys on today and that paints the picture’.
AJ Hinch: ‘We left 15 guys on today and that paints the picture’.
Los Angeles – Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out nine while pitching into the seventh inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers broke it open with a four-run sixth inning to beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-4, on Wednesday night and advance to the National League Division Series.
After hitting a franchise playoff-tying five home runs in a 10-5 win in the NL Wild Card Series opener Tuesday, the Dodgers eliminated the Reds by playing small ball and rapping out 13 hits – two fewer than in Game 1. Mookie Betts went 4 for 5 with three doubles.
The Dodgers advanced to face the Phillies in the NLDS starting Saturday in Philadelphia. The teams last met in the postseason in 2009, when the Phillies beat the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series for the second straight year.
After the Reds took a 2-0 lead in the first, Yamamoto retired the next 13 batters.
The Dodgers rallied to take a 3-2 lead before the Japanese right-hander wiggled his way out of a huge jam in the sixth. The Reds loaded the bases with no outs on consecutive singles by TJ Friedl, Spencer Steer and former Dodger Gavin Lux.
Austin Hays grounded into a fielder’s choice to shortstop and Betts fired home, where catcher Ben Rortvedt stomped on the plate to get Friedl. Yamamoto then retired Sal Stewart and Elly De La Cruz on back-to-back swinging strikeouts to end the threat.
With blue rally towels waving, Yamamoto walked off to a standing ovation from the crowd of 50,465.
He got the first two outs of the seventh before leaving to a second ovation. The right-hander allowed two runs, four hits and walked two on a career-high 113 pitches.
For the second straight night, the fans’ mood soured in the eighth. Reliever Emmet Sheehan gave up two runs, making it 8-4, before the Reds brought the tying run to the plate against Alex Vesia. He got Friedl on a called third strike to end the inning in which Sheehan and Vesia made a combined 41 pitches. On Tuesday, three Dodgers relievers needed 59 pitches to get three outs in the eighth.
Rookie Roki Sasaki pitched the ninth, striking out Steer and Lux on pitches that touched 101 mph.
The Dodgers stranded runners in each of the first five innings, but they took a 3-2 lead on Kiké Hernández’s RBI double and Miguel Rojas’ RBI single that hit the first-base line to chase Reds starter Zack Littell.
Shohei Ohtani’s RBI single leading off the sixth snapped an 0-for-9 skid against Reds reliever Nick Martinez. Betts added an RBI double down the third-base line and Teoscar Hernández had a two-run double that extended the lead to 7-2.
Yamamoto could have had a scoreless first but Teoscar Hernández dropped a ball hit by Hays that would have been the third out. Hernández hugged Yamamoto in the dugout after the Japanese star left the game.
Stewart’s two-run RBI single with two outs eluded a diving Freddie Freeman at first for a 2-0 lead. It was Cincinnati’s first lead in a postseason game since Game 3 of the 2012 NLDS against San Francisco.
Yankees force decisive Game 3
New York – Jazz Chisholm Jr. zipped all the way home from first base on Austin Wells’ tiebreaking single in the eighth inning, and the New York Yankees extended their season Wednesday night with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Game 2 of their AL Wild Card Series.
Unhappy he was left out of the starting lineup in the opener, Chisholm also made a couple of critical defensive plays at second base that helped the Yankees send the best-of-three playoff to a decisive Game 3 on Thursday night in the Bronx.
“What a game. I mean, it has been two great games, these first two,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “A lot of big plays on both sides.”
In the latest chapter of baseball’s most storied rivalry, the winner advances to face AL East champion Toronto in a best-of-five Division Series beginning Saturday.
“Should be a fun night,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.
Ben Rice hit an early two-run homer for the Yankees on the first postseason pitch he saw, and Aaron Judge had an RBI single that went off the glove of diving left fielder Jarren Duran. New York got three innings of scoreless relief from its shaky bullpen after starter Carlos Rodón put the first two batters on in the seventh.
Devin Williams worked a one-hit eighth for the win, and David Bednar got three outs for his first postseason save. Judge pumped his fist when he caught Ceddanne Rafaela’s flyball on the right-field warning track to end it.
Trevor Story homered and hit a two-run single for the Red Sox, who won the series opener 3-1 on Tuesday night behind ace lefty Garrett Crochet.
With the score tied in the seventh, Chisholm saved at least one run with a diving stop to his right of an infield single by pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida.
“Unbelievable play,” Rice said. “That’s what you are going to get from him – just a guy who will give 110% every play.”
Story then flied out with the bases loaded to the edge of the center-field warning track to end the inning, and fired-up reliever Fernando Cruz waved his arms wildly to pump up the crowd.
“I almost got out of his way,” Boone said, drawing laughs. “There’s a passion that he does his job with, and it spilled over a little bit tonight. I am glad it was the end of his evening at that point.”
Said Rice: “I felt like I could see every vein popping out of his head.”
Chisholm also made a tough play to start an inning-ending double play with two on in the third – the first of three timely double plays turned by the Yankees.
“He’s a game-changer,” Judge said. “He showed up at the park today and had the biggest plays for us.”
There were two outs in the eighth when Chisholm drew a walk from losing pitcher Garrett Whitlock. Chisholm was running on a full-count pitch when Wells pulled a line drive that landed just inside the right-field line and caromed off the low retaining wall in foul territory.
Right fielder Nate Eaton made a strong, accurate throw to the plate, but the speedy Chisholm barely beat it with a headfirst slide as Wells pumped his arms at first base.
“Any ball that an outfielder moves to his left or right, I have to score, in my head,” Chisholm said. “That’s all I was thinking.”
With the Yankees threatening in the third, Cora lifted starter Brayan Bello from his first postseason outing and handed the game to a parade of relievers who held New York in check until the eighth.
Padres beat Cubs in Game 2
Chicago – Manny Machado hit a two-run homer, Mason Miller dominated again and the San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs 3-0 on Wednesday, sending their NL Wild Card Series to a decisive third game.
Jackson Merrill hit an early sacrifice fly as San Diego avoided elimination after losing 3-1 on Tuesday. Dylan Cease struck out five in 3 2/3 innings before handing the ball to his team’s hard-throwing bullpen.
“That’s what postseason is about, man,” Machado said. “It’s a beautiful thing to be playing here in front of these crowds and with what’s at stake.”
The finale of the best-of-three series is back at Wrigley Field on Thursday.
The playoff-tested Padres are looking for a repeat of 2020, when they dropped Game 1 in the special pandemic wild-card round before advancing with two straight victories against St. Louis. Machado also homered in Game 2 of that series.
“There’s still a lot at stake just like there was today,” Machado said. “Our backs are still up against the wall, so go out there and try and play our best baseball for the next 27 outs.”
Chicago finished with four hits. The franchise is making its first appearance in the playoffs in five years, and it hasn’t advanced since it eliminated Washington in a 2017 NL Division Series.
“I think the first two games is really what you expected in this series, and I think tomorrow will be a lot of the same,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. I think we’re made for that. We’re going to have to produce more offense tomorrow; there’s no question. We didn’t do enough offensively today.”
San Diego jumped in front on Merrill’s flyball to right off Andrew Kittredge in the first, driving in Fernando Tatis Jr. Kittredge started for Chicago as an opener, and the right-hander was replaced by left-hander Shota Imanaga in the second.
The Cubs threatened in the fourth, putting runners on first and second with two down. Adrian Morejon then retired Pete Crow-Armstrong on a bouncer to first.
“Adrian came in and was just outstanding, really fantastic,” San Diego manager Mike Shildt said.
The Padres added two more runs on Machado’s 404-foot drive to left off Imanaga in the fifth. Tatis reached on a leadoff walk and advanced on a sacrifice ahead of Machado’s 12th career playoff homer.
“That splitter was meant for down in the zone and just hung a little bit,” Imanaga said through a translator, “and for me it was like, why did that happen and something I’m going to think about, make those adjustments that I need to.”
The three runs were more than enough for San Diego’s bullpen, with Miller and Robert Suarez combining for 14 pitches of over 100 mph.
Morejon pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings before Miller showed off his electric stuff while striking out five consecutive batters. The 6-foot-5 right-hander reached 104.5 mph on a called third strike to Carson Kelly in the seventh that was the fastest pitch in the postseason since Statcast started tracking in 2008.
Miller, who was acquired in a trade with the Athletics on July 31, struck out the side in the seventh in his postseason debut on Tuesday. The eight straight Ks tied the postseason record set by Josh Hader in 2022.
Miller was pulled from Game 2 after he hit Michael Busch with a slider with two outs in the eighth. Suarez retired Nico Hoerner on a liner to right before working a one-hit ninth for the save.
“You’ve got to get pitches to hit,” Counsell said. “If players of this talent don’t give you pitches to hit, it’s tough to get hits. They did a pretty darned good job of that today.”
Twins begin search for next manager
Minneapolis – The next manager of the Minnesota Twins will inherit an uncertain outlook for next season, with an in-flux ownership group yet to determine what the payroll will be and the front office thus unable to promise whether certain players will remain on the roster.
President Derek Falvey, after the firing of manager Rocco Baldelli on the heels of a fourth absence from the postseason in five years, said the Twins don’t know what level of spending on player salaries will be approved by chairman Joe Pohlad and his partners.
One reason for that is the two investment groups who are in the process of completing their minority stakes in the franchise will have input on that number. The other is that the Twins haven’t started postseason evaluations and wouldn’t normally have done so even in a year without a manager search or ownership-related shuffles.
But for all the consternation that has built up within a frustrated fan base over the cost-cutting by the Pohlad family over the last two years, the focus of the baseball operations department has fallen sharply on player development – and how to try to stop a troubling recent trend of top prospects stagnating or regressing. With a well-regarded farm system offering plenty of near-term potential for the major league roster, the Twins must find a way to capitalize on it.
“The type of manager we’re going to hire is going to be able to blend all of the things that will come with any type of team you have,” Falvey said inside the clubhouse at Target Field on Tuesday. “You need to develop at this level. Certainly for any team, but for mid-market teams, you’re always going to be developing at the big league level. It’s not always going to be a free agent-only team. We know that. That’s no secret to anybody here. So you need someone who’s going to be a partner in that growth and development.”
Falvey said the blame for the young player development problems was not being placed on Baldelli, who won three AL Central titles in seven seasons. The Twins exercised earlier this year an option on Baldelli’s contract for 2026, before they decided – collectively, including Pohlad – a new voice was needed for a club that first collapsed down the stretch in 2024. Falvey also said the 19-35 record after the trade deadline and the exit of 10 players off the major league roster did not factor into the dismissal, insinuating that the leadership started considering a change this summer.
Now the Twins are competing with seven other teams with manager vacancies, including three that fired skippers during the season and have not yet decided whether to keep the interim replacement or go elsewhere. Whoever the new manager is in Minnesota will have convinced Pohlad, Falvey and general manager Jeremy Zoll of an effective plan for getting the most out of young hitters like Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee, who were prone to too many extended slumps this season.
“I felt like this roster had a lot of talent on it that could go perform,” Falvey said. “And we didn’t collectively perform to that talent level.”
Bochy not a candidate for Giants’ vacancy
San Francisco – Giants executive Buster Posey doesn’t consider his former manager Bruce Bochy a candidate to fill the vacant position again for San Francisco.
Posey, the club’s president of baseball operations, said Wednesday he had spoken to Bochy a couple of days earlier and mentioned there could be a position for the 70-year-old in the organization – just not the managerial job.
“The door’s always open here for some sort of role,” Posey said during a news conference at Oracle Park. “I don’t see us going that route with Boch.”
The Giants fired Bob Melvin on Monday after his second season ended with an 81-81 record – one more victory than last year – and a fourth straight missed playoff opportunity.
Later Monday, the Texas Rangers announced a mutual parting with Bochy after three seasons that featured the organization’s first World Series championship in 2023.
Posey expressed the hope of finding someone who could provide stability for years to come on the dugout’s top step as the club tries to become a regular contender again, but he didn’t provide any details about the process except that interviews are happening this week. Under Bochy, the Giants won biennial World Series championships in 2010, ‘12 and ’14.
“We had a pretty consistent stretch of not playing good baseball,” Posey said. “… There’s a lot of good things in place, but ultimately we did not achieve our goal this year.”
When Posey took over in his current job at this time last year to replace Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ longtime catcher committed to three seasons. And he is still planning to fulfill that agreement.
“I’m fully committed, but I think the focus has to be on the present,” the 38-year-old Posey said. “That’s the way I try to look at it. Would I like to do it longer, sure, but I think the focus has to be in the moment.”
Playoffs schedule
Wild-card round
(Best-of-3; x – if necessary)
American LeagueDetroit vs. Cleveland
(Series tied 1-1)
Tuesday: Detroit, 2-1
Wednesday: Cleveland, 6-1
Thursday: Detroit (Flaherty 8-15) at Cleveland (Cecconi 7-7), 3:08 p.m. (ESPN)
New York vs. Boston
(Series tied 1-1)
Tuesday: Boston, 3-1
Wednesday: New York, 4-3
Thursday: Boston at New York (Schlittler 4-3), 8:08 (ESPN)
National LeagueChicago vs. San Diego
(Series tied 1-1)
Tuesday: Chicago, 3-1
Wednesday: San Diego, 3-0
Thursday: San Diego (Darvish 5-5) at Chicago, 5:08 (ABC)
Los Angeles vs. Cincinnati
(Los Angeles wins series 2-0)
Tuesday: Los Angeles, 10-5
Wednesday: Los Angeles, 8-4
Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.
Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.