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• Dodgers blow out Mets in Game 1 of NLCS

  The Los Angeles Dodgers tied an MLB post-season record for consecutive scoreless innings by opening the National League Championship Series with Sunday's 9-0 rout of the New York Mets.

  Jack Flaherty allowed just two hits through the first seven innings before relievers Daniel Hudson and Ben Casparius finished off the three-hit shutout to extend Los Angeles' streak of scoreless innings to 33, matching the longest run in a post-season set by the Baltimore Orioles during the 1966 World Series.

  The top-seeded Dodgers have now won their last three games by shutout, having blanked the San Diego Padres in Games 4 and 5 of the NL Division Series to advance after losing two of the first three matchups.

  Los Angeles also got plenty of offence to take a 1-0 lead in this best-of-seven series. Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman each had two hits and a run batted in, while Mookie Betts knocked in three runs with a double in the eighth inning.

  Ohtani did have a streak of 36 straight successful stolen base attempts come to an end when he was thrown out in the second inning, the NL MVP favourite's first time caught stealing since July 22.

  The Dodgers had a 3-0 lead at that point after taking advantage of control issues from Mets starter Kodai Senga, who was making just his third MLB appearance in 2024 after missing extensive time with shoulder and calf injuries.

  Senga walked Betts, Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez in succession as the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out in the first. Two batters later, Max Muncy singled to center to drive in Betts and Freeman for a quick 2-0 advantage.

  Los Angeles extended the margin in the second after Gavin Lux drew another walk off Senga to begin the bottom of the inning. Tommy Edman followed with a sacrifice bunt in front of Ohtani's single to center that plated Lux for a 3-0 lead.

  Senga lasted just 1 1/3 innings while surrendering three runs, two hits and four walks.

  The Dodgers piled on further with three runs in the fourth. Edman drove in Enrique Hernandez with a single and later scored when Mets right fielder Starling Marte misplayed Ohtani's base hit to allow both runners to take an extra base. Freeman sent Ohtani home with a single two batters later to put New York at a 6-0 deficit. 

  Flaherty, meanwhile, did not allow a hit until the fifth inning and retired the final eight batters he faced in a dominant performance. The mid-season trade acquisition finished his night with two walks and six strikeouts.

  Betts capped the scoring in the eighth with a double that cleared the bases after the Dodgers had loaded them on a Hernandez single, an error and a walk to Ohtani.

  The sixth-seeded Mets, who previously knocked out two division winners in the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies during this post-season, will attempt to rebound in Monday's Game 2 at Dodger Stadium. Sean Manaea will start for New York against Los Angeles' Walker Buehler. 

   

   

   

• MLB: Guardians beat Skubal, Tigers to advance to ALCS

  Lane Thomas hit a grand slam off Tarik Skubal and Cleveland beat the Detroit Tigers 7-3 on Saturday in Game 5 of their AL Division Series, moving the Guardians into another postseason matchup against the Yankees.

  Cleveland will meet New York in the AL Championship Series, setting up another playoff matchup between two teams that have crossed paths six previous times in October. They last met in 2022, with the Yankees taking their ALDS in five games.

  Game 1 is Monday in the Bronx.

  Thomas had five RBIs for the Guardians, who weren't expected to contend this season. But they won the tough AL Central under first-year manager Stephen Vogt, and Cleveland is still alive with a chance to end a World Series title drought stretching to 1948.

  The Guardians had to take down Skubal, the front-runner for the AL Cy Young Award, to keep it going. The left-hander had not given up a run in 24 consecutive innings - 17 in this postseason - before the Guardians tagged him in the fifth for five runs, tying the most he allowed in 2024.

  Cleveland had three singles in the inning – one on an infield roller – to load the bases before Skubal hit Ramírez on the left hand to force in a run.

  That brought up Thomas, who hit a three-run homer in Cleveland's 7-0 win in Game 1.

  The center fielder connected on Skubal's first pitch, sending it just over the 19-foot-high wall in left-center field.

  When the ball touched down, the Guardians' dugout emptied and the screaming, red-clad Progressive Field crowd erupted in celebration.

  As has been the case all season, Vogt leaned on his MLB-best bullpen, which showed some wear and tear.

  After Thomas hit his homer, the Tigers threatened in the sixth, scoring a run on a single by Jake Rogers and loading the bases with two outs. But Hunter Gaddis struck out Kerry Carpenter, who won Game 2 with a three-run homer in the ninth.

  The Tigers, though, kept clawing and closed to 5-3 on Colt Keith's one-out RBI double in the seventh. Eli Morgan came in for Cleveland and struck out both batters he faced.

  Thomas hit an RBI single in the eighth to put the Guardians up by three, and that's when Vogt turned to All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase, the AL's saves leader, to put the Tigers away.

  Throwing one 100 mph fastball after another, Clase got the final six outs. When he retired Keith on a routine grounder to first, the Guardians could finally exhale and plan for their first ALCS visit since 2016.

• 'He's a modern-day Babe Ruth' - Piazza heaps praise on record-breaking Ohtani

  Former Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza believes Shohei Ohtani is a "modern-day Babe Ruth" after his record-breaking season in MLB.

  Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to exceed 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season last month.

  So far, he has 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases and hit a three-run homer in his postseason debut when the Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres last weekend.

  This season, he also surpassed Hideki Matsui's record of 175 for the most home runs by a Japanese player in MLB history (now 225).

  And Piazza, who played for the Dodgers between 1992 and 1998, believes Ohtani has already cemented himself among the greats of the game.

  "So, he's probably a once-in-a-lifetime player that you're going to see," Piazza told Stats Perform. "I mean, you see players throughout history, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, guys that have done exceptional things, and I think he's no different.

  "I mean, the fact that you have the size, the combination of power and speed and he can pitch. I mean he's kind of like a modern-day Babe Ruth.

  "Babe Ruth was a great pitcher that a lot of people don't remember him as a pitcher and then ended up hitting over 700 home runs. So, he kind of redefined the sport. I think what Otani is doing now, and I think it also shows the impact and now the effect of Japanese players in the major leagues.

  "I was fortunate to play with the first modern ball player, Hideo Nomo, who played for the Dodgers in '95. And ever since then, he was kind of the first pioneer. And now you're seeing Japanese players that want to prove their value in the major leagues. Before, it wasn't so prevalent.

  "I mean, up until '95, there was only one in the '60s. So, I think that's another thing that he's done. He's encouraged a lot of attention for Major League Baseball in Japan, and so I mean he's a very special, special talent."

  Ohtani's performance against the Miami Marlins on September 19 has been called "one of the greatest" single-game performances in history after he became the first 50-50 player and became the 16th player in MLB history to reach 10 or more RBI in a single game.

  He also broke the Dodgers record for RBI in a single game and the most home runs in a single season for the franchise.

  Asked if he thought Ohtani was the best baseball player he had ever seen, Piazza added: "He still has some time, I think, to put together a career. I mean he's only been here, what, maybe five years now?

  "I think the one thing about baseball is that the true test of greatness would be over, like at least a decade. I'm curious to see if he starts to pitch again, if he starts to pitch and he is effective on the mound, and if he continues his forward hitting, his very hot hitting, and the speed too.

  "Because when you play that type of game, when you're stealing, and you're running a lot, it is stressful on the body. So, I think the durability thing will start to come in over the course of the next four or five years for him.

  "But he can do it. I mean he's physically strong, the size and the speed, so I'm not ready to say he's the greatest player ever. But he's on a great path and I think the only limits that he has will be if he can stay healthy."

  Ohtani represents Japan internationally and could be set for an appearance at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 as baseball is reintroduced to the slate.

  Piazza, who is currently the manager of the Italian national baseball team, thinks Ohtani has the ability to revitalise baseball players as global stars, especially if he does appear at the Games.

  "I think baseball has been limited in their markets because, obviously, the United States, Latin America and the East, the Far East, Japan and Chinese Taipei, Taiwan, and Korea. But I think you're right [that he could revitalise interest]," Piazza said.

  "I mean, the fact that he's doing some very special things in this new media age, because players can get more exposure than when I played.

  "I mean, I only played in the 90s. And there wasn't a lot of people in Europe that knew, obviously, of what I was doing, obviously, in Japan because I was playing with Hideo Nomo. But that's probably the only reason.

  "So yes, I think we're in a new age of multimedia and social media. I think he definitely has a chance to become a world star, which is rare for baseball, because baseball has always been, as I said, limited to those markets not so big in Europe and in Asia and, as I said, Latin America, so we'll see. I think he, if anybody, could do it he can."