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Because of the weather forecast in Cleveland, Game 5 of the American League Division Series is now a Saturday matinee between the Cleveland Guardians and the Detroit Tigers.

One of those teams will see their season come to an end Saturday. The other will head to the Bronx to face the New York Yankees in the championship series.

Will it be ace Tarik Skubal and the upstart “Gritty Tigs” moving on? Or will the AL Central champion Guardians hold off the underdogs?

We have you covered with pregame predictions, live updates and analysis, followed by our takeaways after the final pitch.

Live updates

Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Guardians, 1:08 p.m.

Series tied 2-2

Pitching matchup: Tarik Skubal (18-4, 2.39 ERA) vs. Matthew Boyd (2-2, 2,72 ERA)

Lineups

Tigers

DH Justyn-Henry Malloy (R)
3B Matt Vierling (R)
LF Riley Greene (L)
2B Andy Ibanez (R)
RF Wenceel Pérez (S)
1B Spencer Torkelson (R)
CF Parker Meadows (L)
C Jake Rogers (R)
SS Trey Sweeney (L)

Guardians

LF Steven Kwan (L)
DH David Fry (R)
3B José Ramirez (S)
CF Lane Thomas (R)
1B Josh Naylor (L)
RF Jhonkensy Noel (R)
C Bo Naylor (L)
2B Andrés Giménez (L)
SS Brayan Rocchio (S)


What is the key to Game 5 for the Tigers?

Jesse Rogers: Just don’t make mistakes and let Tarik Skubal do his thing. The Tigers are likely to get some traffic on the bases against Matthew Boyd — perhaps playing some small ball will come in handy — but not beating themselves will be as important as anything in a hostile environment at Progressive Field. That means not running into outs or making Skubal get four or five outs in an inning. Once Skubal comes out of the game — if he comes out — then it’s on manager A.J. Hinch to exploit the right matchups. He has done it most of the series.

David Schoenfield: That’s essentially my take as well. I feel as if the Tigers need to get a couple of early runs against Boyd before getting into the principal part of the Cleveland bullpen — Cade Smith, Tim Herrin, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase. Especially since you know Guardians manager Stephen Vogt‘s plan has to include Clase perhaps pitching two innings. (Yes, the Tigers have gotten to him in two of his appearances, but I wouldn’t bet on that happening a third time.)

The only trouble here for Detroit: Where are those runs going to come from? Kerry Carpenter wouldn’t have been in the starting lineup anyway against a left-hander, and now his status is unclear after injuring his hamstring in Game 4. Riley Greene? Colt Keith? Parker Meadows? All three are lefty hitters who don’t do much against left-handed pitchers. That means guys such as Andy Ibanez and Justyn-Henry Malloy, not to be confused with Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, will have to step up.


What is the key to Game 5 for the Guardians?

Rogers: They have two options: Squeeze a run or two off Skubal and hope their great bullpen can keep Detroit off the board after Boyd gives them a few innings, or do what they did in Game 2 — outlast Skubal and then score. That’s the formula. Easier said than done. Here’s the bottom line: The way Skubal is pitching, Cleveland will have no chance if Boyd or someone else has a bad outing. So keeping it close is really the Guardians’ only option. Jose Ramirez building off of his last game would help greatly.

Schoenfield: If possible, force Skubal to run up his pitch count and get him out as soon as possible. Unfortunately for the Guardians, one of the things that has made Skubal the best starter in the majors this season is his pitch efficiency. Even in his two playoff starts, he has thrown only 88 and 92 pitches, yet still gone six and seven innings. In the regular season, he went past 100 pitches only four times. If the Guardians can get him to that point through five innings rather than seven, they’ll have a chance. Yes, the Detroit bullpen has mostly been lights out for two months, but we finally saw it bend in Game 4 when it surrendered four runs, and it feels as if Cleveland can do some damage there again. And, yes, Jose Ramirez doing Jose Ramirez stuff would help greatly indeed.


Which team will move on to face the Yankees in the ALCS?

Rogers: I’m not betting against the zone Skubal is in right now. If he had shown any cracks last outing or back when the postseason began, maybe I’d pick Clevleand. The Guardians have already bucked one franchise trend by staving off elimination — they had lost their previous 11 attempts heading into Game 4 — but they’re not going to do it again. But it will be a close game. It would be shocking if it wasn’t.

Schoenfield: I’m going with the Guardians, with a 2-1 victory. Maybe they scratch out a run against Skubal. Maybe they score a couple of runs late against the Detroit bullpen. Either way, I think the Cleveland bullpen — the best in the majors all season — comes up big with the season on the line, and the Guardians pull out a low-scoring win. How about a Ramirez walk-off to win it?

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Ohtani blasts two HRs to halt 10-game drought

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Ohtani blasts two HRs to halt 10-game drought

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.

The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.

Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.

Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.

Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.

Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.

Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Dobbins’ second win over Yanks caps ‘fun’ week

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Dobbins' second win over Yanks caps 'fun' week

BOSTON — Hunter Dobbins had quite the week.

First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.

Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.

A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.

On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”

But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.

“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”

In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.

On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.

“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.

“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”

Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.

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Rockies have worst 70-game mark since 1899

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Rockies have worst 70-game mark since 1899

ATLANTA — Kyle Farmer just shrugged when asked about being part of a Colorado Rockies team that has the fewest wins through 70 games since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.

“We don’t care,” Farmer said after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves left Colorado with a 13-57 record.

The Rockies have the fourth-fewest wins by any team through their first 70 decisions in a season in MLB history, and the fewest since the 1899 Spiders won 12 of their first 70 decisions. Colorado (.186 win percentage) is currently on pace to go 30-132 this season.

“I mean, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Farmer said. “It is what it is. We’ve just got to show up tomorrow and play. There’s nothing you can really say about it except that if it happens, it happens.”

The Rockies made more inglorious history by setting a franchise nine-inning record with 19 strikeouts. That’s a lot of futility for one team to absorb in one day.

The 19 strikeouts by Braves pitchers also set an Atlanta record for a nine-inning game. Spencer Strider recorded 13 strikeouts in six innings, followed by relievers Rafael Montero and Dylan Lee, who combined for six more whiffs.

The only bright spot for the Rockies was the encouraging start by rookie right-hander Chase Dollander, a native of Evans, Georgia, who allowed four runs, three earned, in six innings.

The Rockies have 10 fewer wins than the Chicago White Sox, who have the second-worst record in the majors at 23-48.

Dollander said “just having a neutral mindset” is the key to remaining positive through a season already filled with low points for the team.

“Don’t ride the roller coaster,” Dollander said. “You know, there’s going to be lots of ups and downs in this game. This game is really hard. So it’s just, you know, staying neutral and we just keep going.”

Dollander was the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 summer draft. Among other top young players on the team are catcher Hunter Goodman, who might return to Atlanta for the All-Star Game on July 15, and outfielders Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle.

“You know we’re going to have our time,” Dollander said. “I mean, it’s just one of those things that you kind of learn as you go. I’ve been very fortunate to be here for a little bit now, and I can help us going forward.”

The 34-year-old Farmer said one of his jobs is to help the younger players endure the losses.

“For sure, keeping guys accountable and teaching them the right way to do stuff,” said Farmer, the first baseman whose double off Strider was one of only four hits for the Rockies.

“Keeping their heads up and they’ve got to show up each day and play, no matter our record. It’s your job and you worked your whole life to get here. Enjoy it. This is a great opportunity for a young guy to show what they can do.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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