CHICAGO — The Chicago White Sox rebuild was well ahead of schedule with their run to the American League Division Series.

Some think the rebuild is done and the Sox are onto their next phase, only needing to add a few pieces to the puzzle to get back to the postseason, as they did after the pandemic-shortened 2020 season with Lance Lynn, Liam...Read more

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — That was more like it.

The Rays used the speed and versatility of their offense to score three runs in the fourth inning Tuesday and rode that outburst, Freddy Peralta’s dominant six shutout innings and a solid bullpen night to a 3-1 victory that evened the best-of-seven American League Championship Series with the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani emerged from the visiting dugout at American Family Field with a bat in his hand, and the mass of media members scattered in foul territory up the third-base line shifted his way, pulled by the magnetic force that is Ohtani's stardom.

Monday marked the third straight day Ohtani had hit on the field, after a multi-...Read more

MILWAUKEE — Mookie Betts slapped his bat with his free hand after tipping a slider from Brewers right-hander Abner Uribe back into catcher William Contreras' mitt.

Betts had been setting the tone for the Dodgers from the leadoff spot all postseason, taking good at-bats against some of MLB's best starting pitchers. But there wasn't much he ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Once brimming with life, the Dodgers’ historic quest has curled up into a withered heap.

The three-peat is dying.

The three-peat is slowly, agonizingly having the life squeezed out of it by a collection of hardscrabble Midwesterners with no regard for stardom or status.

After two games of the National League Championship ...Read more

MILWAUKEE — Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto stood on the same mound Monday where just a year ago he’d thrown a complete game and was pummeled by Brewers fans’ chants:

“Yel-li, Yel-li”

This time, en route to the Dodgers’ 7-4 loss to the Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, Yamamoto had only lasted 2...Read more

MILWAUKEE — First and foremost, the Dodgers wanted Tarik Skubal on their team. When they pursued him at the trade deadline, they saw him as a rare player who could raise their World Series odds.

It didn’t hurt, of course, that by acquiring him they prevented other postseason contenders involved in the Skubal sweepstakes, including the ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — It was late June, and the Rays had just moved back into first place.

They were bunting, they were stealing bases, they were grabbing the attention of baseball folk not accustomed to seeing an old-school offense succeed in the 21st century.

Which is right around the time the Rays tweaked their formula.

Again.

Oh, they were ...Read more

CLEVELAND — Three years after knocking out Tim Anderson, Cleveland Guardians third baseman José Ramírez knocked the Chicago White Sox out of the postseason.

Or did the White Sox knock themselves out?

It was hard to tell after the Guardians beat the Sox 2-0 in Game 5 of the American League Division Series on Saturday at Progressive Field, ...Read more

CLEVELAND — The Chicago White Sox had been in this position before — down, but not out.

The Sox trailed the Cleveland Guardians by two runs in the sixth inning of the win-or-go-home Game 5 of the American League Division Series. But they had the bases loaded with two outs and their cleanup hitter Munetaka Murakami coming to the plate.

The ...Read more

The pursuit of history is not inexorable. And just because the Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers a year ago on the way to their second straight World Series championship, that’s no reason to just assume a rerun. (But you probably already knew that.)

Then again, there’s this bit of history:

In 143 years of Dodgers (and Trolley Dodgers, ...Read more

MILWAUKEE — The National League Championship Series starts Sunday. The series could have been decided on Aug. 1.

That was the day the Dodgers traded for Tarik Skubal. The Milwaukee Brewers wanted him badly, but they declined to include a promising young pitcher in the deal.

So, on Sunday, the scenario the Brewers most hoped to avoid comes ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A growing scrum of reporters around Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers' president of baseball operations, in the locker room Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the Atlanta Braves to advance to the National League Championship Series, didn't put a damper on the celebration.

Tanner Scott stuck upside-down beers in Friedman's ...Read more

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