MLB

2:50 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” ARLINGTON, Texas — For a National League Championship Series that seems to relish bringing the improbable to life, even this was outlandish. It was the ninth inning of Game 2, and Atlanta

11:46 PM ET Associated Press SAN DIEGO — Jose Altuve was the American League MVP in 2017 when his Houston Astros sometimes knew exactly what pitches were coming. Now, he doesn’t even know where his own throws are going. Altuve committed his fourth throwing error this postseason and third of the AL Championship Series on

1:40 PM ET MLB InsidersESPN Just hours before Clayton Kershaw was scheduled to take the mound in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Atlanta Braves, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced the left-hander won’t make his start because of back spasms and rookie Tony Gonsolin will take his place. What does the injury mean for

7:00 AM ET Sam MillerESPN.com Close ESPN baseball columnist/feature writerFormer editor-in-chief of Baseball ProspectusCo-author of “The Only Rule Is It Has To Work” You can sign a great player, but that’s just about writing a bigger check than anybody else. You can draft a great player, but that’s just about your pick coming before somebody

11:35 PM ET MLB InsidersESPN The 2020 MLB playoffs are down to the final four teams with the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, and Tampa Bay Rays left standing in the League Championship Series. Starting with Sunday’s ALCS Game 1 showdown between the Astros and the Rays in San Diego through the moment

7:00 AM ET It began with Freddie Freeman. Literally. Spin the clock back to 2013. Freeman had completed his third season as the Atlanta Braves‘ everyday first baseman, taking over at age 21 after a cup of coffee in the majors near the end of 2010. During those first three years, the Braves won 89,

1:20 AM ET Pedro GomezMLB Close ESPN’s Pedro Gomez covered the Oakland A’s home and away nearly every day from 1992-97 for the San Jose Mercury News and Sacramento Bee and then became the national baseball writer and later a general columnist at the Arizona Republic before becoming an ESPN bureau reporter in 2003. SAN

The Astros’ ALCS roster is out. Houston added reliever Chase De Jong for their matchup against Tampa Bay, giving them 14 pitchers and 14 position players. Dropped from the LDS round was outfielder Chas McCormick, who not only has not been used during the playoffs, but has yet to make his big-league debut. Bradford Doolittle,

8:00 AM ET ESPN.com staff Jae C. Hong/AP Photo Even though only one division series among the MLB quartet of matchups went the full five-game distance, we’re back in action after a one-day break with the American League Championship Series of the 2020 MLB playoffs getting into gear, pitting the defending AL champs from Houston

11:10 PM ET We’ve gotten used to seeing the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series. The Tampa Bay Rays? Not so much. The Astros bashed their way into their fourth straight ALCS, the longest streak since the 1998-2001 Yankees. Houston scored 33 runs and hit 12 home runs in its four-game division series

1:50 PM ET When the No. 1 seed in a Major League Baseball postseason bracket wins its series to advance, it’s worth celebrating a bit, right? But when it’s the Tampa Bay Rays taking down their biggest rivals in the AL East division, the New York Yankees, it’s worth savoring every minute of the experience,

11:18 PM ET ESPN News Services With one swing of the bat, Mike Brosseau put the Tampa Bay Rays into the AL Championship Series on Friday night. But he insisted afterward that the home run off Aroldis Chapman was especially sweet because of where it put the Rays — and not what it did to

11:00 PM ET MLB InsidersESPN It came down to a winner-take-all between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays to determine the last spot in the next round of the MLB playoffs, but the final four teams for the League Championship Series are officially set. Here are the stars, turning points and takeaways from

12:02 PM ET ESPN News Services Whitey Ford, a Hall of Fame pitcher who won more World Series games than any other pitcher, died at the age of 91, the New York Yankees announced Friday. A family member told The Associated Press on Friday that Ford died at his Long Island home Thursday night. The

7:00 AM ET In the 1970s, influential psychologist Paul Ekman identified six basic emotions experienced in all human cultures. I’m not sure if he studied sports fans, but I’m guessing you had one of the following six reactions to the Houston Astros beating the Oakland Athletics on Thursday and moving on to the American League

1:25 AM ET If you like offense, this is the series for you. The Los Angeles Dodgers boast a deep and powerful lineup that led baseball in runs scored, while the Atlanta Braves scored just one fewer time than L.A. this season. There are few teams in baseball that match the Dodgers group highlighted by

7:23 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Get used to them, America — the Houston Astros aren’t going anywhere just yet. Tainted by one of the biggest cheating scandals in baseball history, beset by injuries when the season restarted and burdened by their own underperformance throughout the summer, the Astros, at their best at the perfect

2:50 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” ARLINGTON, Texas — They played this year, amid the fear and the death and the anguish and discomfort, so they could have a night like this. The baseball game staged here Wednesday