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PHOENIX — First they took down the National League Central champions. Then they knocked out the NL West champions. Of all the rousing Arizona Diamondbacks victories this October, though, their 6-5 come-from-behind win in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on Friday against Philadelphia might have best illustrated who the Diamondbacks are.

Not the most well-known. Not the most talented. But in baseball, in the crapshoot that is the postseason, none of that matters.

“Hopefully when we do things like this,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said, “the baseball world sees that the Arizona Diamondbacks are a damn good baseball team.”

How could anyone conclude otherwise after Arizona tied the series Friday? It wasn’t just the dramatic, score-tying, pinch-hit two-run home run from outfielder Alek Thomas off Craig Kimbrel in the eighth inning or the go-ahead RBI single from catcher Gabriel Moreno four batters later. Short on starting pitching, the Diamondbacks cobbled together a bullpen game that could have spiraled into a disaster but instead kept the score close enough for the team’s too-young-to-know-any-better core to deliver.

Thomas, Moreno, All-Star outfielder Corbin Carroll and shortstop Geraldo Perdomo are all 23 years old — and each has excelled at some point this postseason in which the Diamondbacks went from the team with the worst record on the field to two wins from the World Series.

“There’s a lot of excitement in that clubhouse,” Lovullo said. “We have a lot of 23-year-olds that go out and perform at a high level, and then when it’s time for them to act like 23-year-olds, they do. And that’s a lot of fun for me to watch. It’s a great moment for this organization.”

The moment was particularly satisfying for Thomas, who in May was demoted to Triple-A, where he spent a month. He returned and played well enough to earn a nomination as a Gold Glove finalist in center field, but after going hitless in Philadelphia, where the Phillies won the first two NLCS games, Thomas started on the bench in Games 3 and 4. He pinch-ran Thursday and scored the game-tying run in the first comeback win of the series. And he entered Friday’s game with an even more acute opportunity.

Kimbrel, who had allowed a walk-off hit the previous night, entered in the eighth inning of Game 4 with Philadelphia ahead 5-3. He promptly allowed a leadoff double to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Following an Evan Longoria lineout, Thomas came in for third baseman Emmanuel Rivera — a move that almost didn’t happen, as Lovullo considered saving him for later in the game and using rookie Jordan Lawlar to bunt.

He stuck with Thomas, whom Kimbrel worked inside with curveballs and fastballs until the count ran full. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Kimbrel tried to paint a 94-mph fastball on the outside corner. Thomas pulled it anyway, and it flew 412 feet into the night, landing in the pool over the right-center-field fence at Chase Field, where the crowd of 47,806 erupted, doing its best imitation of the Citizens Bank Park crowd that has buoyed the Phillies all October.

“I trust Torey and I trust the coaching staff,” Thomas said. “So just stay ready at all times. And that’s what I was doing. Definitely not going to hang my head about not being in the lineup, but I knew at some point they were going to call me and just got to be ready.

“A lot of people didn’t think we would be here, and honestly none of that mattered,” Thomas continued. “We believed in the guys in the clubhouse and our coaching staff and everybody in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. Definitely just a crazy, crazy season, crazy playoffs.”

The wild ending capped a phenomenal day of baseball that included the Houston Astros moving to within one win of the World Series. The Phillies looked as if they’d wind up there, too, particularly as Arizona stumbled in the middle innings. The starting-pitching matchup did not exactly suit the heft of the game. Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sanchez hadn’t started a game in 26 days. Arizona’s Joe Mantiply is a left-handed reliever. Both put up zeroes in the first before Arizona scratched runs across in the second and third, chasing Sanchez and beginning a parade of eight pitchers for Philadelphia. The Diamondbacks matched them, with Kyle Nelson and Miguel Castro allowing runs in the fourth (Kyle Schwarber’s 19th postseason home run, a record for left-handed hitters) and fifth innings to tie the score.

Philadelphia took control in the sixth. Rookie left-hander Andrew Saalfrank, so good since his September debut, walked the bases loaded to begin the inning. Rivera bounced a throw to Moreno at home on an Alec Bohm groundball, and it kicked away, allowing a pair to score and staking the Phillies to a 4-2 advantage. The teams traded runs in the seventh before the eighth-inning implosion by Philadelphia’s bullpen.

“Belief is a very powerful thing,” said Longoria, the team’s wizened veteran at 38. “So I think we kind of proved that in the first two series, just really clicking and putting pressure and continuing to do that. Now that we’re in the NLCS, it’s like we’re starting to get back to what we were doing in those first couple series, and that’s a scary thing.”

Scariest, for Philadelphia, is how quickly its cloak of invincibility has been pierced by a group that is too young to know how precocious it is.

“Their payroll is higher than ours,” Perdomo said. “They’re good. They’re really good. If you see our lineup, it’s a lot of guys who are 23. But we can play with them. We’re showing that.”

They’ll get a chance to show it again in Game 5 on Saturday night, with about as good of a starting-pitching matchup as October can offer: Phillies ace Zack Wheeler against Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen. In Game 1 of the series, Wheeler twirled six excellent innings — the only blemish was a Perdomo two-run homer — while the Phillies touched up Gallen for three home runs in the first two innings.

With both bullpens drained by the past two days, no game this postseason may rely more on the starters than Game 5.

“I’d be shocked if that one’s 6-5,” said Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald, who struck out three in the ninth to secure the save in Game 4. “It’s going to be a bad day to be a hitter with those two guys, but maybe 2-1 wins it.

“And we are as scrappy as anybody.”

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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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