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

The Detroit Tigers are expected to make the safe play.

Faced with a number of painful rebuilding years on the horizon, the Tigers are expected to hire veteran Ron Gardenhire as the manager to guide the young team into the future, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

The person requested anonymity because the Tigers have not ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expressed increased confidence that shortstop Corey Seager will be ready for the World Series, should the Dodgers advance.

Seager played catch Wednesday at Dodger Stadium. He is scheduled to take swings off a batting tee Thursday, which is considered a significant test of his injured lower ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Alex Wood could not contain Chicago Cubs second baseman Javier Baez, the lineup could not defuse the effective wildness of Chicago starting pitcher Jake Arrieta and the Los Angeles Dodgers could not topple Cubs closer Wade Davis as they missed a chance to sweep in the National League Championship Series, falling 3-2 in Game 4 in front...Read more

NEW YORK -- This week, Dallas Keuchel mentioned two particular joys of his job as a Houston Astros starting pitcher. One is when he takes the mound for the first inning, his nerves cresting within him. He likes to take one deep breath and soak in the stadium's atmosphere. The other is when he warms up in the opposing bullpen and hears alcohol-...Read more

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