The New York Yankees won the AL East title for a first-round bye in the playoffs, rolling to a 10-1 rout of the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night behind Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gerrit Cole.
Judge hit his major league-leading 58th homer, going deep for the fifth straight game and increasing his RBIs total to 144, the most in the big leagues since Ryan Howard's 146 in 2008. Stanton hit his 27th homer and had four RBIs, and Cole pitched 6 2/3 innings of two-hit ball.
Judge and Stanton homered in the same game for the 14th time this year, tying Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in 1961 for the most in Yankees history.
When Cedric Mullins hit a game-ending groundout to shortstop Anthony Volpe, the Yankees came out of the dugout and formed a brief jumping huddle between the mound and second base.
New York improved to 93-66 and will open its 59th postseason at home Oct. 5 in a best-of-five Division Series against a winner of next week's wild-card round. The Yankees will have five days off following Sunday's regular-season finale.
Orioles ace Corbin Burnes allowed two hits in five innings with one walk and nine strikeouts. He came out after 69 pitches and is likely to start Baltimore’s postseason opener on Tuesday. Burnes had a 1.20 ERA in five September starts.
The Orioles, who failed to sweep the three-game series, hold a three-game lead in the race for the top wild card.
Trying to hold off AL Central champion Cleveland for home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs, the Yankees have a one-game lead and hold the tiebreaker over the Guardians.
Dodgers rally past Padres to secure NL West
Will Smith hit a tying, two-run homer and the Los Angeles Dodgers scored three more runs in the seventh to beat the San Diego Padres 7-2 and clinch the NL West title.
The rally was dampened by an apparent injury to All-Star slugger Freddie Freeman, who left the game after awkwardly colliding with Luis Arráez and the first base bag trying to avoid being tagged for the second out of the inning. Freeman grabbed at his lower right leg before hobbling off the field.
The Dodgers (95-64) had not clinched at home since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, when cardboard cutouts replaced fans. The last time fans were on hand for a clincher at home was 2018.
A sellout crowd of 52,433 packed Dodger Stadium for the finale of the crucial series between the top two teams in the NL West. Both teams had already clinched postseason berths.
The Padres led 2-0 as Joe Musgrove pitched six shutout innings.
But the Dodgers got to him in the seventh. Musgrove gave up a leadoff walk to Max Muncy. Smith followed with a 426-foot blast to center, tying the game at 2-2. It was the Dodgers’ first home run of the three-game series.
Pinch-hitter Kiké Hernández singled and took second when Andy Pages reached on catcher’s interference by Kyle Higashioka. Shohei Ohtani singled and Hernández scored on an error, while Ohtani was safe at second on Fernando Tatis Jr.'s throwing error.
Pages and Ohtani scored on Mookie Betts’ single, making it 5-2, and Pages added a two-run, two-strike, two-out homer in the eighth.
Athletics win final game in Oakland
JJ Bleday hit an RBI single and made a highlight-reel catch in center field, Shea Langeliers had a sacrifice fly, and the Oakland Athletics went out winning in their final scheduled game at the Coliseum by beating the Texas Rangers 3-2 on Thursday.
¶Bleday and Zack Gelof delivered defensive gems to delight a sellout crowd of 46,889 under a cloudless blue September sky. Fans alternated chants of “Sell the team!” and “Let's go Oakland!” amid the mixed emotions and nostalgia at the Coliseum, where the A's have played since 1968 and enjoyed so many memorable moments.
The ninth inning featured two fans jumping the fences to run onto the grass, bottles being thrown into center field and smoke bombs set off and tossed into right. Toilet paper and other debris also came down before manager Mark Kotsay took the microphone after the game with a heartfelt thank you to the fans and one last round of “Let's go Oakland!"
The A’s plan to play the next three years in Sacramento with hopes of opening a new ballpark in Las Vegas ahead of the 2028 season.
Green “SELL” banners hung from the outfield railings as fans were treated to a trip down memory lane. Former left-hander Barry Zito sang the national anthem to huge applause, while Rickey Henderson and Dave Stewart tossed out ceremonial first pitches.
The current A's entertained, too.
Bleday made a diving catch on his right side to rob Carson Kelly of a hit on his line drive in the seventh. And the hometown fans got one more chance to see flame-throwing closer Mason Miller on the mound.
A’s starter J.T. Ginn left to a loud standing ovation after allowing two runs on five hits over 5 1/3 innings, and the pitcher then applauded right back by clapping his glove.
Oakland's bullpen followed him with 3 2/3 scoreless innings, with Miller recording the final four outs for his 28th save, which leads all major league rookies. He has converted his last 16 opportunities dating to June 18.
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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