MLB Player News

No surprise here. The Dodgers have consistently stated over the last month that Ohtani wouldn’t pitch in the playoffs. He hasn’t pitched this year and that’s not going to change in the World Series as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. Ohtani is the clear number one pick in fantasy drafts for next season, when he will pitch and hit.

The Rafters went 10-for-10 stealing bases against Cardinals catching prospect Leonardo Bernal, who had actually been 2-for-3 throwing out basestealers in five previous appearances for Glendale. Durbin is hitting .283/.411/.500 in Arizona after coming in at .275/.388/.451 in a 2024 season spent mostly in Triple-A. He’s probably not the future at second base for the Yankees, but he could turn up as a stopgap at some point.

Hughes, the 10th overall pick in the 2022 draft, is making his way back from Tommy John surgery, with his three AFL starts representing his first action since July 2023. He has a 6.75 ERA to date, but so does everyone else in Arizona. He’s struck out nine and walked three in eight innings.

Kavadas played in 124 games this year, the last 30 in the majors with the Angels, but the Halos sent him to Arizona anyway, and he’s thus far gone 10-for-30 with a 16/11 K/BB ratio. The soon-to-be 26-year-old is trying to prove that he should be the Angels’ primary DH next year, but he didn’t help his cause by hitting .183/.283/.333 over 106 plate appearances in his first audition. It’s also probably the case that the Angels will want to reserve DH time for both Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon next season, which would be good news and bad news for Kavadas; if those two DH, there might not be room on the roster for Kavadas initially, but at least it would ensure that the Angels don’t bring in a full-timer for that spot and keep the door wide open for him when one or both get hurt.

All five hits were singles for Baldwin, who is off to a .350/.395/.500 start in 43 plate appearances for the Javelinas. He’s splitting time with Padres prospect Ethan Salas behind the plate, so he was DHing last night.

There were no real surprises among the players’ awards picks. Shohei Ohtani won NL Outstanding Player, Tarik Skubal claimed AL Outstanding Pitcher and Chris Sale took home both NL Outstanding Pitcher and NL Comeback Player. Colton Cowser and Jackson Merrill got the Outstanding Rookie awards. Tyler O’Neill, who played in 113 games in the second-best season of his career, was AL Comeback Player.

There is no one hotter on the planet than Giancarlo Stanton right now. The 6-foot-6 slugger golfed a homer on the inner-half of the plate out to left field with an exit velocity over 116 mph off Jack Flaherty to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. It’s the fourth consecutive game that Stanton has homered in the playoffs, the sixth of the postseason and the 17th of Stanton’s career.

Chisholm Jr. stole second off Anthony Banda in the sixth. He really showed off his wheels in the 10th, as he singled, stole second, stole third and came around to score on an infield single by Anthony Volpe that gave New York a 3-2 lead. It looked like that would be the game-winning run, but the Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers had other plans. Chisholm will look to keep up the good work but on the winning side in Game 2 against the Dodgers on Saturday.

In his last postseason start, Flaherty was shelled for eight runs over three innings. That didn’t carry over at all. The right-hander had some traffic over the first two innings, but he was outstanding from that point on until Giancarlo Stanton golfed out a homer to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Flaherty struck out six, walked one, and showed the secondary stuff that was necessary to get this New York lineup out. He’ll likely start Game 5 of the World Series, if a Game 5 is necessary.

Cole and Jack Flaherty were both excellent in the first game of the series, battling zero-for-zero for the first four frames. Cole finally gave up a run after a triple by Enrique Hernandez — on a play that Juan Soto could have (should have?) made — and a sacrifice fly from Will Smith. Cole looked outstanding, but the Yankees didn’t do enough offensively to make it matter. He’ll likely start Game 5, if necessary, but Game 4 can’t be completely ruled out.

What a game. Freeman certainly didn’t appear to be bothered by the ankle, and that was obviously early on when he was able to pick up a triple in the first inning after Alex Verdugo misplayed the baseball. A three-bagger is nice, but obviously what will be remembered was a two-out, bases-loaded homer off Nestor Cortes that secured a 1-0 lead in the Fall Classic for Los Angeles. Game 2 will be Saturday, with Carlos Rodon on the mound for New York and Yoshinobu on the bump for the Dodgers.