Connect with us

Published

on

Four teams. Two spots in the World Series up for grabs. The league championship round of the 2023 MLB playoffs is in full swing with both the ALCS and NLCS now underway.

In the American League, the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros met in the early game, with the Rangers beating Houston for a second straight day to grab a dominant 2-0 series lead before heading to Arlington. Then, the Philadelphia Phillies jumped all over the Arizona Diamondbacks early — and held on late — to take a 1-0 NLCS lead.

We have you covered with takeaways and updates from both ballparks.

Key links: Full playoffs schedule and results

Takeaways

play

0:32

Kyle Schwarber hammers first pitch to right for solo home run

Kyle Schwarber wastes no time putting the Phillies on the board with a solo home run to right field on the first pitch of his at-bat.

Philadelphia Phillies 5, Arizona Diamondbacks 3: The Phillies entered this NLCS as heavy favorites to beat the Diamondbacks and after a whole lot of early thunder against Arizona starter Zac Gallen, those odds now change to heavy, heavy favorites. Kyle Schwarber blasted a first-pitch home run to lead off the bottom of the first — with a Herculean 117 mph exit velocity. Two batters later, Bryce Harper launched another first-pitch home run off a four-seamer. In the second inning, Nick Castellanos tied Reggie Jackson’s mark of five home runs over three postseason games by going deep against yet another Gallen four-seamer.

Meanwhile, Zack Wheeler cruised into the sixth inning, retiring 15 in a row at one point. Give the Diamondbacks credit for scrapping their way back into this game and making it interesting, but now comes an uphill scenario. The feeling going into the series was the Diamondbacks had to fare well in the Gallen/Merrill Kelly starts since they will have to rely heavily on their bullpen in Games 3 and 4. Now they’ve lost a Gallen game while the Phillies’ offense remains on fire in becoming the first team in postseason history with 12 home runs over a three-game span.

As always, Citizens Bank Park was loud and happy, and it’s becoming more and more clear that it feels like a huge home-field advantage for the Phillies. They improved to 11-2 in the postseason there over the past two years, including 5-0 this October. — David Schoenfield


play

0:32

Jonah Heim’s 1st postseason HR gives the Rangers a 5-1 lead

Jonah Heim hammers a solo home run to left field to give the Rangers a 5-1 lead over the Astros.

Texas Rangers 5, Houston Astros 4: The defending champion Astros are in a whole heap of trouble. There were several fulcrum-type moments in Game 2 in which the Astros seemed to be on the verge of tipping things back to familiarity, or at least the kind of dynamic we’ve come to expect from this bunch in the playoffs. But starter Nathan Eovaldi, manager Bruce Bochy and the Rangers responded every time.

This is what the playoffs are about: winning the big moments. The highlight reel for this dynamic was Eovaldi’s Houdini job in getting out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam with no runs scoring. Those were the three highest-leverage plate appearances of Eovaldi’s outing and he won them all.

The Astros kept chipping away with the long ball and that created some drama for the late innings. But Bochy went out on a limb to give Jose Leclerc a shot at a four-out save, which he completed despite issuing two walks before that first out in the bottom of the eighth. As has happened so many times when Bochy makes a postseason call, his players answer. The Rangers are up 2-0 with the next three games slated for Globe Life Field and Max Scherzer taking the hill in Game 3. — Bradford Doolittle

Relive the day

Continue Reading

Sports

Pirates ball-crusher Cruz accepts HR Derby invite

Published

on

By

Pirates ball-crusher Cruz accepts HR Derby invite

Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz accepted an invitation on Tuesday to compete in Monday’s Home Run Derby in Atlanta.

Cruz is the fifth player to commit to the competition, held one day before the All-Star Game. The others are Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves, Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, James Wood of the Washington Nationals and Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins.

Cruz, 26, is known for having a powerful bat and regularly delivers some of the hardest-hit homers in the sport. His home run May 25 at home against the Milwaukee Brewers had an exit velocity of 122.9 mph and was the hardest hit homer in the 10-year Statcast era.

But Cruz has never hit more than 21 in a season, and that was in 2024. He’s on track to set a new high this year and has 15 in 80 games.

Cruz has 55 career homers in 324 games with the Pirates.

Cruz will be the first Pittsburgh player to participate in the Derby since Josh Bell in 2019. Other Pirates to be part of the event were Bobby Bonilla (1990), Barry Bonds (1992), Jason Bay (2005), Andrew McCutchen (2012) and Pedro Alvarez (2013).

Overall, Cruz is batting just .203 this season but leads the National League with 28 steals.

Among the players to turn down an invite to the eight-player field are two-time champion Pete Alonso of the New York Mets, Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies and 2024 runner-up Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals.

Defending champion Teoscar Hernandez of the Los Angeles Dodgers recently turned down a spot as a consideration to nagging injuries.

Top power threats Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers also are expected to skip the event.

Continue Reading

Sports

Yanks moving Chisholm back to 2B after 3B stint

Published

on

By

Yanks moving Chisholm back to 2B after 3B stint

New York Yankees All-Star Jazz Chisholm Jr., after making 28 starts in a row at third base, is moving back to second base starting with Tuesday’s game against the Seattle Mariners, manager Aaron Boone said.

Boone confirmed the change on the “Talkin’ Yanks” podcast on Tuesday.

Chisholm, who is batting .245 with 15 home runs, 38 RBIs and 10 steals in 59 games, has recently been bothered by soreness in his right shoulder, which he said is an issue only on throws.

He said he prefers to play second base and prepared in the offseason to exclusively play in that spot before injuries played havoc with Boone’s lineup card, starting with Chisholm’s oblique injury in May.

Third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera went down with a season-ending ankle injury on May 12.

DJ LeMahieu manned second base while Chisholm was at third, but Boone has a better glove option in Oswald Peraza, a utility man with a stronger arm plus defensive skills across the infield.

LeMahieu, 36, is batting .266 with two home runs and 12 RBIs this season.

Continue Reading

Sports

White Sox reinstate OF Robert (hamstring) from IL

Published

on

By

White Sox reinstate OF Robert (hamstring) from IL

The Chicago White Sox reinstated outfielder Luis Robert Jr. (hamstring) from the 10-day injured list Tuesday.

Robert, 27, has struggled this season through career lows in batting average (.185), on-base percentage (.270) and slugging percentage (.313). Through 73 games, he has amassed just 16 extra-base hits (eight doubles, eight home runs) in 285 plate appearances.

He does have 22 stolen bases in 28 attempts and is just one shy of his career- high in steals.

In a corresponding move, the White Sox optioned infielder Tristan Gray to Triple-A Charlotte. Gray was just recalled before Monday night’s game but did not play.

Continue Reading

Trending