CHICAGO -- After battling first-half fatigue, succumbing to the Brewers in a three-game sweep in mid-September and overcoming the Nationals in a draining five-game division series, the Cubs' 2017 season is on subsisting on fumes.

The ominous task of repeating as World Series champion reached the critical stage after the deeper and refreshed ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Yu Darvish stepped outside the batter's box as his eyes registered the location of the last pitch. It was a fastball from Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr., like the three pitches before it, and it was not a strike, like the three before it. Darvish roared and chucked his bat into the grass. The trajectory of the lumber was not majestic ...Read more

A new terminology has entered baseball vernacular: "bullpenning."

It started with a phone call ... to the bullpen.

Cubs fans got a major dose of it during the team's run to the 2016 World Series title, especially when manager Joe Maddon pulled starter Kyle Hendricks with two outs in the fifth inning of Game 7 and his team leading 5-1.

In the ...Read more

NEW YORK -- Three pitches into Monday's fourth inning, Aaron Judge galloped onto Yankee Stadium's warning track and hurtled into its right-field wall to retrieve a deep drive. As ball met glove, Judge's oversized torso smashed into an advertisement that foretold the night's events.

GREATNESS AWAITS, it read.

In the bottom of the inning, Judge ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Carl Edwards Jr. had lost his way.

But panicking wasn't an option.

The Cubs relief pitcher calmly wandered the maze of hallways outside the team's clubhouse at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night after a 5-2 loss in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.

He was looking for an exit.

"It's not easy to remember," he said...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- On the 29th anniversary of Kirk Gibson's walk-off blast, the Los Angeles Dodgers added another chapter to franchise lore when Justin Turner thundered a game-winning, three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Dodgers a 4-1 victory in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs.

...Read more

Cubs manager Joe Maddon said he will meet with Major League Baseball executive Joe Torre before Sunday's Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

Maddon said Torre reached out to him following Maddon's ejection in Saturday's night's Game 1 after Maddon voiced his displeasure with MLB's obstruction rule, in which catcher Willson ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Fatigue didn't set in Saturday night for the Cubs as much as another outbreak of control problems, an ineffective bullpen and a dormant offense.

By the time manager Joe Maddon released some frustration in the form of an ejection, the Dodgers were putting the finishing touches on their 5-2 victory in Game 1 of the National League ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- America was introduced to Chicago's pop tax controversy Saturday night at Dodger Stadium, a reminder that you never know what Joe Maddon is going to do next.

Livid over the play-at-the-plate ruling that overturned an out call and gave the Dodgers a seventh-inning run in their 5-2 win over the Cubs in Game 1 of the National League...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Kyle Schwarber tapped his bat on outside corner of home plate and dug his left foot into the dirt in the left-handed batter's box Saturday night.

Clayton Kershaw was standing 60 feet, 6 inches away.

Schwarber took ball one, and so his first at-bat against the three-time Cy Young Award winner had begun.

The result, a groundout ...Read more

-- The situation: With the game tied 2-2 entering the bottom of the sixth inning, Cubs manager Joe Maddon took starter Jose Quintana out of the game in favor of reliever Hector Rondon. Chris Taylor stepped into the box to lead off for the Dodgers.

-- What happened next: Rondon, who was left off the division series roster but replaced Justin ...Read more

LOS ANGELES--The noise already felt deafening when Chris Taylor started to clap. He was a few strides away from second base. His go-ahead homer, the deciding stroke in a 5-2 Los Angeles Dodgers victory over the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, had already disappeared beyond the outfield fence. The applause from ...Read more

HOUSTON -- In the middle of the Houston Astros' second consecutive victory over the New York Yankees, Minute Maid Park became a playground, and major leaguers morphed into pre-teen pickup basketball players.

The Yankees had a man on second base in Saturday's fifth inning, trailing the Astros by one run. Justin Verlander whipped a slider across ...Read more