LOS ANGELES -- As long and pronounced as the path has been, the Houston Astros' ascent to the World Series has been expected. Four years ago, Sports Illustrated proclaimed them the 2017 World Series champions. Before the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers co-opted it, the organization popularized the phrase "trust the process" -- after their attendance ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- There had been a camera trained on Tommy Lasorda, no surprise to anyone who followed the Los Angeles Dodgers with even the slightest degree of interest.

Kirk Gibson blew off an immediate interview on the field, disappearing down the dugout steps. So NBC cut to the replays, with the two images that endure to this day.

Gibson ...Read more

Justin Verlander is back in the World Series.

The former Tigers ace is making his third trip to the Fall Classic and first with the Houston Astros, who will take on the National League-champion Los Angeles Dodgers beginning on Tuesday night.

Verlander did his part in pitching the Astros there: He was named the American League Championship ...Read more

The Mets, Red Sox, and Tigers have picked their next managers. The Nationals are ... the Nationals. It is the height of managerial season, and the Phillies appear content to fill their vacancy at their own pace.

They decided 24 days ago to remove Pete Mackanin from the dugout. It could be at least another week before they choose his replacement...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The red flight of a television camera beckoned, and so Yasiel Puig obliged. He unclenched his jaws and unfurled the hardest-working muscle on the 2017 Dodgers. As the team celebrated bouncing the Chicago Cubs out of the National League Championship Series last week, Puig wagged his tongue for the viewers in Los Angeles before ...Read more

There was no reason for anyone to believe Chris Bosio would be let go as Cubs pitching coach.

Joe Maddon gave all his coaches a vote of confidence last week when asked if he expected all of them to return.

"Of course, yes," Maddon replied. "The staff's done a great job. Our staff's been awesome. And they're tight. It's a tightly knit group. ...Read more

Jose Fernandez never pitched in a playoff game for the Marlins. But his presence was felt in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Saturday between the Houston Astros and New York Yankees.

Houston pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said he drew inspiration from Fernandez before recording the final out to send the Astros to the World ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- You've marveled at the swing, laughed at the brake lights, cheered with the fist pumps.

During the 28 years the Los Angeles Dodgers were absent from the World Series, you think you have watched every second of the greatest moment from the last time they were here, from the video of Kirk Gibson's 1988 walk-off home run that ...Read more

HOUSTON -- Fifty feet from home plate, Jose Altuve's bat hit ground. The baseball touched down 314 feet further, in the third row of the right-field seats. He had swung hard, and he had not let go. The smallest man on the field carried his weapon until he was certain that his fly ball was a home run, that his Houston Astros had a two-run lead, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The absence of Corey Seager felt so unpronounced in the National League Championship Series, yet his name still resounded through the Los Angeles Dodgers' celebration late Thursday night.

In the visitors batting cage at Wrigley Field, the players cradled the Warren C. Giles Trophy, the reward for winning the National League ...Read more

HOUSTON -- The Houston Astros are alive. Before a sold-out Minute Maid Park on Friday night, their hitters awoke from an inconvenient slumber at a necessary time and their acquired ace turned in another gleaming performance.

The Astros staved off elimination, crushed the New York Yankees, 7-1, and forced a seventh game in this taut American ...Read more

The Cubs' elimination from the National League Championship Series showed there's work to be done. Here are five questions entering the offseason:

-- 1. Where does the starting pitching come from?

Not from the minor leagues before 2019. The Cubs won't rush their top prospects, although 22-year-old Venezuelan Adbert Alzolay was promoted to ...Read more