BALTIMORE — Bryan Baker closed out a playoff sweep of the New York Yankees for the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night, all while his former organization made national headlines over layoffs involving Mr. Splash and the Oriole Bird.

If you’re an Orioles fan, where do you even begin?

This week’s layoffs across the organization’s business ...Read more

CHICAGO — The road to the American League Championship Series for the Chicago White Sox or Cleveland Guardians will include one more game at Progressive Field.

The Sox fell short in their attempt to win the AL Division Series for the second straight night, losing 9-5 to the Guardians in Game 4 on Thursday in front of a sellout crowd of 39,920...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As Dave Roberts delivered his victory address, dressed in a gray cap and a gray T-shirt that commemorate a triumph the Dodgers consider merely a speed bump on the road to the main event, the manager was not shy.

"There is no more talented team than the Los Angeles Dodgers," Roberts told his players amid clubhouse floods of ...Read more

ATLANTA — And you thought the bullpen was going to be the weakest branch.

In the four aces, you trusted. The Dodgers' stellar starting rotation of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow? A quartet who can strong-arm anyone.

And you probably figured Freddie Freeman would get it going. You had faith in playoff risers ...Read more

NEW YORK — Typically a man of many words, Jazz Chisholm Jr. refused to answer a handful of questions after the Rays swept the Yankees in the ALDS on Wednesday night.

Why couldn’t the Yankees get it done against the Rays? What was his reaction to being benched for Anthony Volpe in the Bombers’ most important game of the season? Was he ...Read more

NEW YORK — The Yankees’ season ended with Aaron Judge sidelined.

After determining he wasn’t ready to return from a late-season calf strain for the ALDS, the Yankees knew they would have to advance at least one more round without the three-time American League MVP to give him another chance to return in these playoffs.

That didn’t ...Read more

The situation was dire at the start and desperate before too long.

And devastating at the end, as the Padres were left to watch the Brewers celebrate on their field.

A 3-1 loss in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday night at Petco Park ended the Padres’ season, as their offense struggled to the finish and a parade of ...Read more

NEW YORK — The fans certainly made their presence felt on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

Just not in the way they had hoped.

Fan interference was at the center of the Yankees’ season-ending 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 3 of the ALDS. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Anthony Volpe flew a deep shot to the left-field wall that...Read more

NEW YORK — Getting to pop bottles and celebrate in the Yankee Stadium visitors’ clubhouse for the second time in 15 days was quite exciting for the Rays after Wednesday’s 4-3 American League Division Series-clinching win.

Even better is that they’re now four wins from going to the World Series.

In sweeping the Yankees, the Rays ...Read more

NEW YORK — Jeffrey Maier nearly had company.

With the Yankees on the brink of elimination, Anthony Volpe appeared to hit a game-tying two-run home run in the sixth inning of Wednesday night’s ALDS Game 3 against the Tampa Bay Rays in the Bronx.

But in a season-altering twist, an official review found that Volpe’s blast had some help.

...Read more

He pounded his chest twice as he left the batter’s box, and all of Dodgers nation rocked to the beat.

Andy Pages did it. He finally did it. He finally broke out of his baffling two-year October slump with a hit so powerful, he didn’t even have to climb over Kiké Hernández to get it.

How powerful? With one smooth swing he broke a tie by ...Read more

CHICAGO — Whether it was called new Comiskey Park, the Cell, the Rate or just Sox Park, the ballpark at the corner of 35th Street and Shields Avenue has been unloved over most of its 35-year existence.

Derided as the “Ball Mall” after opening in 1991, it eventually underwent a series of changes to improve the game-day atmosphere for ...Read more

ATLANTA — The Dodgers punched their ticket to the National League Championship Series with a 4-1 win in Game 4 of the division series on Wednesday at Truist Park.

It is the ninth time in the last 14 seasons that the Dodgers advanced to at least the NLCS, and they will be seeking their sixth World Series in 10 seasons starting Sunday against ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Chicago White Sox were aiming to party on Wednesday in front of their home fans.

But the Cleveland Guardians had other ideas.

The Guardians scored four runs in the third inning on the way to defeating the Sox 9-3 in Game 3 of the American League Division Series in front of a sellout crowd of 40,590 at Rate Field.

Jo Adell had ...Read more

Justin Verlander isn't very good at this whole retirement thing.

Barely a week after he threw the final pitch of his legendary major league career, Verlander, the iconic Tiger, was back to work this week as a member of Fox's team of studio analysts for the Major League Baseball playoffs. Verlander joined Derek Jeter, David Ortiz and Alex ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Alex Cora won’t be the Phillies’ next manager after all.

For the second time in six months, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski offered the job to Cora, and for the second time, Cora turned it down, a source familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak about it said late Tuesday night. (The news was ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Jim Palmer sought a conversation. According to the Orioles legend, he couldn’t even get a text back.

During his appearance on the BMore Sports Podcast in an episode released last week with fellow Orioles Hall of Famer Mike Bordick and broadcaster Jerry Coleman, Palmer, a longtime Mid-Atlantic Sports Network analyst, recalled ...Read more

The Padres kept it going.

There will be a second home game.

A Game 4.

There is a chance.

With no space at all between them and the wall they have so proudly been up against and fought their way back from so much of the season, they beat the Brewers 4-3 in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.

After losing the first two games of the...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres will be without closer Mason Miller for at least Game 3 of the National League Division Series.

Miller was placed on the postseason paternity list about 40 minutes before the scheduled first pitch of the Padres’ game against the Brewers at Petco Park on Tuesday.

Left-hander Wandy Peralta replaced Miller on ...Read more

ATLANTA — The Dodgers went into Game 3 of the National League Division Series knowing they couldn’t be so reliant on the home run, especially with Braves ace Chris Sale on the mound. And yet, in a 3-1 win, it was the home run ball, paired with a masterful performance on the mound from right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, that secured the ...Read more