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ATLANTA — It’s almost a cliché to say that a team which falls behind 3-1 in a best-of-seven playoff series has been pushed to the brink. If that’s the case, the Houston Astros went to the brink and a little beyond and survived to tell about it.

The Astros bounced back from a first-inning grand slam clubbed by Atlanta’s Adam Duvall, beating the Braves 9-5 on Sunday and sending the World Series back to Houston for Game 6 on Tuesday. Atlanta still maintains a 3-2 series lead.

To hear Houston manager Dusty Baker tell it, the Astros’ motivation was pretty simple.

“We didn’t want to end here with the celebration here,” Baker said.

Duvall’s slam put a charge into the standing-room-only throng at Truist Park, eager to see the Braves clinch their first title since 1995 and the first since the club moved into its five-year-old park in suburban Cobb County.

At that point, history was not on Houston’s side. The Braves became the first team to score four runs in a potential World Series clincher since the 1961 Yankees, who went on to cruise to a 13-5 win over the Reds to win the title 60 years ago.

On top of that, teams were 45-3 all time when holding a lead of four or more runs at any point of a potential clincher, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Make it 45-4. And Baker, whose 2002 Giants were the last team to blow a lead that big in a World Series clinching scenario, felt like if it had to happen and it’s good that it happened with plenty of game left.

“I always say, ‘if it’s going to happen, let it happen early,'” Baker said. “You don’t want it to happen in the middle of the game or toward the end of the game. The guys came through. That’s what counts.”

In a vacuum, if there is any team that should feel at ease in trying to overcome a four-run deficit with the end of the season staring them down, it’s the Astros. Besides Houston’s extensive postseason experience — five straight trips to the ALCS and three pennants in five seasons — this was baseball’s most prolific offense during the regular season and an attack that managed to become even more productive once the playoffs began.

That is until the World Series began and the Astros struggled to a .206 team batting average during the first four games against Atlanta. Houston was shut out on two hits during Friday’s Game 3 loss and managed just two runs in a 3-2 Game 4 loss on Saturday.

Add up the 3-1 series hole, the early 4-0 deficit in Game 5, the struggles of the offense and it made for a grim scenario to everyone, it seems, except the Astros.

“I say keep fighting,” Astros shortstop Carlos Correa said. “I’m a huge MMA fan, and I’ve seen lots of guys almost knocked out, and they battle back to win the fight.”

The Astros weren’t knocked out by their early deficit and the seeds for that turnaround might have been planted before the game. After two straight days of chill, drizzle and mist meant the infield at Truist Park remained under a tarp before the games, and wiped out batting practice, Sunday’s game was played in cool but dry conditions.

Thus both clubs were able to get on the field before the game and go through their normal pregame drills. This was a particular boon for the Astros, who struggled to acclimate to a park in which they had only played two games prior to this series and none since 2017.

“Today really felt like the World Series because they got to go on the field and see all the people and see all the media,” Baker said. “It felt like the World Series, where the other [games] felt like we were coming out of the dungeon and just going to play. So that was big, the fact that we got to get on the field.”

Whether or not that was the key, the Astros outscored the Braves 9-1 after their early hole, an outburst keyed by the bottom of the order.

Baker shuffled his lineup after the offense’s struggles during the first two games in Atlanta, dropping All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman to seventh in the batting order. Bregman was one of the beneficiaries of the dry conditions, which he took advantage of with extra work in the batting cage before the game.

After managing just one hit over the first four games of the Series, Bregman drove in Houston’s first run with a ringing double in the top of the second, minutes after Duvall’s grand slam.

“I think that was the key of us winning the game right there, bouncing back right away,” Correa said. “Those two runs, Bregman getting the huge double. Getting the confidence all the way up.”

Bregman’s double was just the tip of the iceberg for the bottom of the Houston lineup. Batting eighth, light-hitting catcher Martin Maldonado drove in three runs. And batting as a pinch-hitter in the nine-hole, Marwin Gonzalez stroked a key two-run single.

“Whatever way you bring a run, especially in the [playoffs], is huge,” Maldonado said. “You get good at-bats, whatever the situation dictates. You try to work through it.”

The Astros worked through their dance with the brink of elimination and suddenly are headed back to the heart of Texas, still down, but very much alive. The Braves could have been the first champion since the 2013 Red Sox to celebrate a title on their home field. Now, only the Astros can snap that drought.

“The pressure’s still on us because they’ve got the lead,” Baker said. “They’ve got to win one and we’ve got to win two. But the fact is we are going home.”

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Sources: World Series hero Rojas back to Dodgers

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Sources: World Series hero Rojas back to Dodgers

World Series hero Miguel Rojas will return to the Los Angeles Dodgers for what will constitute his final season in the major leagues, sources confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.

Rojas, 36, agreed to terms on a one-year, $5.5 million contract for 2026 and will help in player development while also assisting the Dodgers front office in 2027, according to a source familiar with the agreement.

Relegated to the bench for most of the playoffs, Rojas was reinserted into the lineup for Game 6 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays and came up with a nifty scoop to complete a miraculous, game-ending 7-4 double play that saved the Dodgers’ season.

Roughly 24 hours later, Rojas hit the tying home run off Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman in the top of the ninth of Game 7, then made a tough play to get a force out at home in the bottom half, paving the way for Will Smith‘s game-winning home run in the 11th.

Rojas debuted with the Dodgers in 2014, returned to them in a trade with the Miami Marlins leading up to the 2023 season and went on to establish himself as a vocal leader on a star-laden team, while also becoming a pivotal resource for Mookie Betts in his transition to shortstop. A gifted fielder throughout his career, Rojas also enjoyed a bounce-back offensive season in 2025, slashing .262/.318/.397 while accumulating 2.1 Baseball Reference wins above replacement in 114 regular-season games.

As the season went on, Rojas spoke openly about his desire to play one more year before transitioning into a coaching role.

The Dodgers will provide him that opportunity.

El Extrabase first reported Rojas’ agreement with the Dodgers.

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Gray: With BoSox, ‘It’s easy to hate the Yankees’

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Gray: With BoSox, 'It's easy to hate the Yankees'

Red Sox pitcher Sonny Gray apparently is looking forward to taking on his new team’s biggest rival, saying he’s happy to be in “a place where it’s easy to hate the Yankees.”

The Red Sox acquired the well-traveled Gray in a trade with the Cardinals last week, adding the durable pitcher to a starting rotation that was thin on options during Boston’s postseason ouster in New York.

Gray already is familiar with the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry after spending parts of two seasons in the Bronx earlier in his career, and the three-time All-Star didn’t mince words when discussing his experience in New York.

“It just wasn’t a good situation for me,” Gray told reporters Tuesday. “It wasn’t a great setup for me and my family. I never wanted to go there in the first place.”

That clearly wasn’t the case for Gray with the Red Sox, who needed the right-hander to waive his no-trade clause in order to complete their deal with the Cardinals.

“What did factor into my decision to come to Boston — it feels good to me to go to a place now where, you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees,” he said. “It’s easy to go out and have that rivalry and go into it with full force, full steam ahead. I like the challenge.”

Gray struggled to a 4.51 ERA — nearly a full run higher than his career numbers — during his 41-game run with the Yankees in 2017 and 2018. New York acquired Gray in a blockbuster deal with the Athletics only to trade him less than 18 months later to Cincinnati, where he began reviving his career with the Reds.

“When that was happening, and we were in Oakland and getting traded — that was a long time ago — I never wanted to go (to New York),” Gray said. “So then I was there, and it just didn’t really work for who I am. … I just wasn’t myself. I just didn’t feel like I was allowed to go out there and be Sonny.”

Gray, 36, has a 3.58 ERA over a 13-year career with the Athletics, Yankees, Reds, Twins and Cardinals. He joins a Red Sox rotation that is led by ace Garrett Crochet but also features a handful of unproven candidates after right-hander Brayan Bello.

Gray is the latest Red Sox pitcher to publicly say that he didn’t enjoy playing for the Yankees.

Star closer Aroldis Chapman said earlier this offseason that he would “retire on the spot” before playing for New York again, adding that he “dealt with a lot of disrespect” from Yankees management.

Gray, who is 66-50 with a 3.51 ERA in seven seasons since leaving the Yankees, acknowledged that he learned a great deal from his time in New York.

“I’ve been a better baseball player, husband, everything from having that experience and going through that,” he said.

Boston’s first series with the Yankees next season will be April 21-23 at Fenway Park. The Red Sox play their first series in Yankee Stadium from June 5-7.

If he ends up pitching for the Red Sox in the Bronx, Gray hinted that things will be different.

“This time around, it’s just go out and be yourself,” he said. “Don’t try to be anything other than yourself. If people don’t like it, it is what it is. I am who I am, and I’m OK with that.”

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St. Pete expects Trop to be ready for Rays’ opener

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St. Pete expects Trop to be ready for Rays' opener

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — City officials in St. Petersburg showed off the newly enclosed dome at Tropicana Field on Wednesday and said they are confident the ballpark will be ready for the Tampa Bay Rays‘ home opener April 6 against the Chicago Cubs following work to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Milton last year.

“We have no concern about being open or ready for Opening Day,” said Beth Herendeen, managing director of City Development Administration. “We hope we keep it that way.”

Some seam work remains on the final panels to close small gaps at the top, and interior repairs are well underway.

Tropicana Field sustained extensive damage on Oct. 9, 2024. High winds ripped sections of the original roof, allowing rain to fall into the stadium bowl for months. Water caused mold and damage to electrical, sound and broadcast systems.

The city contracted ETS, AECOM Hunt and Hennessy Construction to lead the repairs and brought back Geiger Engineering, the dome’s original designer, to help reengineer the roof. The synthetic membranes of Polytetrafluoroethylene are thicker and built to current wind-load codes.

“The roof that was replaced had to be designed to today’s codes,” city architect Raul Quintana said. “It’s a much stronger material than it was 35 years ago, and it’s going to last.”

The Rays played 2025 home games across the bay in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees.

Installation of the new roof began in August, and the final panel was put in place Nov. 21. Some triangular panels still show color variation, with newer pieces beige and earlier ones already bleached white, but Quintana said they will eventually match.

“It took about three months to bleach out the ones that were first installed,” he said.

The air-conditioning system has been reactivated, and contractors are focused on electrical work, seating and sound equipment. The team is upgrading the luxury suites and stadium videoboard.

“Drywall is being hung, seats are being painted, and the catwalk electric is being installed,” Herendeen said. “The new stadium sound system will be installed this month and tested in January.”

New artificial turf is scheduled to arrive in mid-January. Other final updates include new home plate club seats, clubhouse carpet and lockers, and flooring on the outfield deck.

Tampa Bay starts the season with a nine-game trip to St. Louis, Milwaukee and Minnesota.

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