Rookie Royce Lewis hit two home runs in his return from injury, Pablo Lopez pitched effectively into the sixth inning and the Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 Tuesday in their wild card series opener.
The win snapped Minnesota’s 18-game postseason losing streak, the longest in MLB history, as the Twins won their first playoff game since 2004.
Lewis, who had been sidelined for the last two weeks with a strained left hamstring, went deep off Toronto starter Kevin Gausman in each of his first two career postseason at-bats and was responsible for all three of Minnesota’s runs.
Lopez scattered five hits and two walks over 5 2/3 innings to earn the victory in his second career playoff start.
Three relievers worked 2 1/3 innings before Jhoan Duran got the final three outs to secure Minnesota’s first home postseason win since Game 1 of the 2002 ALCS at the Metrodome.
Kevin Kiermaier drove in Bo Bichette with a sixth-inning single for Toronto’s only run.
The Twins will look to win their first postseason series since 2002 on Wednesday when they send veteran Sonny Gray to the mound. Former Twin Jose Berrios is slated to start Game 2 for Toronto.
Diamondbacks chase Burnes, rally by Brewers
Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte and Gabriel Moreno each hit home runs off Corbin Burnes, and the Arizona Diamondbacks rallied to take Game 1 of their wild card series against the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-3.
Carlos Santana singled in Christian Yelich in the first inning, and Tyrone Taylor hit a two-run homer in the second to give Milwaukee a 3-0 lead.
The D-backs responded with home runs by Carroll and Marte in the third to tie the game, then took the lead on Moreno’s solo shot in the fourth. Christian Walker’s two-run double in the ninth provided insurance for Paul Sewald, who earned his first career postseason save.
Burnes needed 92 pitches to get through four innings, allowing four runs, five hits and two walks.
Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt was chased in the third inning, but six pitchers from the Diamondbacks’ bullpen combined to close the game with 6 1/3 scoreless innings.
Wheeler stifles Marlins in Phillies’ win
Zack Wheeler turned in a stellar start and Jose Alvarado preserved the lead with a key strikeout to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 4-1 victory over the Miami Marlins in their wild-card opener.
Wheeler limited Miami to one run and five hits over 6 2/3 innings without a walk and eight strikeouts.
Alvarado fanned Yuli Gurriel with two runners on in the seventh to end Miami’s threat. He retired two batters in the eighth before Jeff Hoffman got the third out.
Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth to seal the win.
Alec Bohm’s RBI double in the third opened the scoring and Bryson Stott delivered an RBI single in the fourth for a 2-0 lead.
Cristian Pache’s single later in the inning extended the lead and Nick Castellanos doubled home Philadelphia’s fourth run in the eighth.
The Phillies will try to book a return trip to the NLDS with a win in Game 2 on Wednesday.
Rangers blank sloppy Rays behind Montgomery
Jordan Montgomery scattered six hits over seven innings and the Texas Rangers extended the Tampa Bay Rays’ playoff woes with a 4-0 win in Game 1.
Montgomery retired 14 of his last 16 batters and fanned pinch-hitter Junior Caminero to end his outing with five strikeouts and no walks.
The left-hander also made the defensive playoff game, diving to make a catch on Jose Siri’s bunt along the first-base line with runners at the corners in the second.
Tampa Bay lost its sixth straight postseason game dating to Game 2 of the 2021 AL Division Series against Boston.
Corey Seager and Josh Jung drove in runs and Texas benefited from four errors by the Rays, who are hitting .133 while scoring just one run in their last three playoff defeats.
Tyler Glasnow allowed four runs and six hits in five-plus innings with eight strikeouts and five walks.
Sale, Skubal win MLB's Cy Young Awards
Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal and Atlanta Braves lefty Chris Sale were each named the winner of their respective league’s Cy Young Award on Wednesday.
The announcement was hardly a surprise after each ace won their league's pitching triple crown during the 2024 regular season.
This is the first Cy Young for both pitchers.
Skubal, who turned 28 on Wednesday, enjoyed a break-out year in his fourth full MLB season, and was a unanimous winner, receiving all 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The Kansas City Royals' Seth Lugo finished second and Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase finished third in the balloting, which was completed before the play-offs.
Sale received 26 of 30 first-place votes, while Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler finished second, ahead of Pittsburgh Pirates righty Paul Skenes, who was selected as the National League Rookie of the Year on Monday.
The 35-year-old Sale has come close to winning the award before, finishing as runner-up to Cleveland's Corey Kluber in 2017, with five other top-five finishes in voting since his first full season in the majors in 2011.
Since the inception of the Cy Young Award in 1956, there have been 16 pitchers to win his league's pitching crown. And now, every one of them has also won that year's Cy Young.
Skubal and Sale each won an MLB-best 18 games, while Skubal led all pitchers with 228 strikeouts – three more than Sale. Sale's ERA of 2.38 was just a tick better than Skubal's 2.39.
Both were dominant down the stretch in leading their teams to the play-offs, with Sale permitting two earned runs or fewer in each of his final 18 regular-season starts, though he was unable to pitch in the season final or the Braves' NL Wild-Card series loss to the San Diego Padres because of a back injury.
Skubal posted a 1.94 ERA in his final nine outings, and then threw 13 shutout innings in his first two play-off starts in helping the Tigers surprisingly reach the American League Division Series. He ended up going 1-1 with a 2.37 ERA in three post-season starts.
Skubal became the fifth Tiger to win the Cy Young trophy – and first since Max Scherzer in 2017 – and Sale is the fifth Brave to earn the award – and first since Hall of Famer Tom Glavine in 1998.
Despite several close calls in Cy Young voting for Sale, he has dealt with injuries for the past five seasons, and was limited to a total of 151 innings over the past three years for the Boston Red Sox.
In his first season with the Braves, however, he threw 177 2/3 innings and was awarded the NL Comeback Player of the Year Award last Thursday.
Dodgers erase 5-run deficit, beat Yankees to win World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second World Series championship in five seasons, overcoming a five-run deficit with the help of three Yankees defensive miscues and rallying on sacrifice flies from Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts in the eighth inning to beat New York 7-6 in Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, Alex Verdugo’s RBI single chased Jack Flaherty in the second and Giancarlo Stanton’s third-inning homer against Ryan Brasier built a 5-0 Yankees lead.
But errors by Judge in center and Anthony Volpe at shortstop, combined with pitcher Gerrit Cole failing to cover first on Betts' grounder, helped Los Angeles score five unearned runs in the fifth.
After Stanton’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly put the Yankees back ahead 6-5, the Dodgers loaded the bases against loser Tommy Kahnle in the eighth before the sacrifice flies off Luke Weaver.
Winner Blake Treinen escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the bottom half by retiring Stanton on a flyout and striking out Anthony Rizzo.
Walker Buehler, making his first relief appearance since his rookie season in 2018, pitched a perfect ninth for the save.
Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers’ record-setting $700 million signing and baseball’s first 50-homer, 50-steal player, went 2 for 19 with no RBIs and had one single after separating his shoulder during a stolen base attempt in Game 2.
Freddie Freeman hit a two-run single to tie the Series record of 12 RBIs, set by Bobby Richardson over seven games in 1960. With the Dodgers one out from losing Friday’s opener, Freeman hit a game-ending grand slam reminiscent of Kirk Gibson’s homer off Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in 1988’s Game 1 that sparked Los Angeles to the title.
The Dodgers earned their eighth championship and seventh since leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles - their first in a non-shortened season since 1988. They won a neutral-site World Series against Tampa Bay in 2020 after a 60-game regular season and couldn’t have a parade because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Volpe hits grand slam as Yankees avoid World Series sweep
Anthony Volpe hit a grand slam and New York’s bullpen tossed five scoreless innings as the Yankees avoided a World Series sweep with an 11-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.
Freddie Freeman homered for his sixth straight Series game, hitting a two-run drive in the first inning for the second straight night and again stunning the Yankee Stadium crowd.
Game 5 is Wednesday night, with the Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and the Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty meeting in a rematch of Game 1.
Twenty-one of the previous 24 teams to take 3-0 Series leads went on to sweeps, all but the 1910 Philadelphia Athletics against the Chicago Cubs, the 1937 Yankees against the New York Giants and the 1970 Baltimore Orioles against the Cincinnati Reds. All three of those Series ended in five games.
Seeking to become the first team to overcome a 3-0 Series deficit, New York surged ahead 5-2 on Alex Verdugo’s RBI grounder in the second and Volpe’s drive against Daniel Hudson in the third. Volpe turned on a first-pitch slider at the knees and drove it into the left-field seats.
Volpe came across with New York's first run when he walked after falling behind 0-2 in the count in the second inning. He also doubled and stole two bases.
Austin Wells and Gleyber Torres added homers for the Yankees, who broke open the game with a five-run eighth. New York had scored just seven runs in the first three games.
Los Angeles closed within 6-4 in a two-run fifth that included Will Smith's homer off starter Luis Gil and an RBI grounder by Freeman. Despite a sprained right ankle, Freeman beat a relay to avoid an inning-ending double play on what originally was ruled an out but was reversed in a video review.
Wells hit a second-deck homer in the sixth against Landon Knack, and Verdugo added another run-scoring grounder in the eighth ahead of Torres' three-run homer off Brent Honeywell.
Tim Hill, winning pitcher Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza strung together five innings of one-hit relief with seven strikeouts, and the Yankees avoided what would have been their first losing Series sweep since 1976.
New York's Aaron Judge drove in his first run of the Series with an RBI single in the eighth and is 2 for 15 in the four games. Dodgers sensation Shohei Ohtani also is 2 for 15 after going 1 for 4 with a single, his first hit since partially separating his left shoulder in Game 2.
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