PHILADELPHIA — Twenty-one floors above the Las Vegas Strip, on a Saturday in January 2019, the Phillies made their first pitch to Bryce Harper.

John Middleton stressed his commitment to winning, a point the owner would hammer home a month later over dinner. Then-general manager Matt Klentak talked about the up-and-coming prospects in the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Twice last month, teams intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani to face Mookie Betts instead. Both times, the eight-time All-Star and former MVP emphatically reacted after making them pay.

There was an extra-inning home run on Sept. 3 against the Angels, a game-sealing, three-run blast in which Betts pointed at the sky, emotionally ...Read more

MILWAUKEE — Pete Alonso had yet to have a signature moment in the postseason. After six years with the only big league team he had ever known, it looked as though the Polar Bear was about to go out with a whimper.

Instead, he sent the Mets to the NLDS with a bang.

With the Milwaukee Brewers up 2-0 in the ninth inning, Alonso came up to the ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Mike Elias could have leaned on context to dull the pain.

The postseason, with its tiny samples and outsized consequences, will always confound a baseball rationalist to some degree.

But the Orioles’ executive vice president and general manager did not pretend everything was OK Thursday, less than 24 hours after his team lost a...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The quote was so apt, Major League Baseball used it on social media to promote the Southern California showdown in this year's National League Division Series.

"This," San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado said, "is what everyone wanted to see."

The Dodgers, it turns out, included.

"Me, I wanted San Diego," outfielder ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers have switched their rotation for the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres, moving Yoshinobu Yamamoto to Game 1 on Saturday night in Chavez Ravine and Jack Flaherty to Game 2 on Sunday night.

Flaherty, the right-hander who was acquired from the Detroit Tigers at the trade deadline, was ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The Padres welcomed the largest crowd in Petco Park history on Tuesday in Game 1 of the National League wild-card series. Then they topped that number with the 47,705 who viewed Wednesday’s clincher against the Atlanta Braves.

After breaking attendance records in back-to-back years with 3.3 million fans filing through turnstiles...Read more

CHICAGO — It was a beautiful day for Game 1 of the wild-card series on Tuesday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

The sun was out, the weather was perfect, the field was in fine condition and the local media was on hand to provide their takes.

The only thing not cooperating was the Chicago Cubs, the main occupants of the facility that will soon be ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — The so-called king of preparation didn’t seem to have anything prepared for his opening remarks.

Buster Posey rattled off some platitudes and truisms before a riff where he remembered some guys. When he ran out of old, legendary Giants to name-drop, he started naming his contemporaries in the game.

There was no talk of ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The Padres might have to do this without Joe Musgrove.

Wednesday’s victory over the Braves punched the Padres' ticket to the NLDS against the Dodgers, but Musgrove walking off the mound in the fourth inning with right elbow tightness was sure to cast a shadow on the ensuing celebration.

ESPN’s broadcast showed Musgrove ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The Padres kept going, so they are still going.

In ways both exhilarating and worrisome, Wednesday night’s 5-4 victory that swept the Atlanta Braves from the National League wild-card series, was emblematic of how the Padres have operated all season.

A five-run second inning, their starting pitcher exiting with elbow “...Read more

SAN DIEGO — It’s the same question every year.

Who has enough pitching to win it all?

The 1984 Padres looked like they did … until the World Series, when their starters crumbled.

The 1998 Padres seemed to.

Then Kevin Brown took a liner to the shin, Donne Wall tossed a fat one and Mark Langston piped a fastball to Tino Martinez with the...Read more

BALTIMORE — The Orioles’ season ended meekly with their bats failing for a second straight night in a 2-1 wild-card loss to the Kansas City Royals.

Here are five things we learned from Wednesday’s game at Camden Yards:

For all their talk of professional calm, the Orioles’ bats again went silent when it counted

They swore no one felt ...Read more

MILWAUKEE — The Mets‘ comeback magic lasted another 7 1/2 innings before the Milwaukee Brewers got the big hit they needed to stay alive in the NL wild-card series.

With the Mets holding on to a 3-2 lead, right-hander Phil Maton gave up a game-tying home run to rookie sensation Jackson Chourio in the bottom of the eighth, his second of the ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Orioles outfielder Colton Cowser suffered a fractured left hand when he was hit by a pitch during a season-ending 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of the American League wild-card series, the team announced.

With the bases loaded in the fifth inning, Cowser was struck by a 97.3-mph sinker from Royals reliever Angel ...Read more

HOUSTON — The Tigers keep doing it their way, the only way they know, the most remarkable way possible. Call it chaos, character, clutch. Pick a description, pick a player, the Tigers use them all.

They just rolled into Houston and swept away a venerable playoff team, out with the old, in with the new. They did it by mixing and matching, and ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The Kansas City Royals are headed to the American League Divisional Series.

On Wednesday, the Royals earned a 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. KC swept the best-of-three AL wild-card series and will face the New York Yankees in the ALDS.

Game 1 of the ALDS begins on Saturday, Oct. 5.

The ...Read more

BALTIMORE — In the end, the Orioles were never able to get their offense right.

After trying for months to jump-start an underperforming lineup, the Orioles’ season ended Wednesday with a 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of the American League wild-card series at Camden Yards.

Injuries to their pitching staff threatened to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Facing a third straight postseason that will begin with a five-day bye week — and still reeling from the early eliminations that followed the first two the last couple of years — the Dodgers changed up some things ahead of their Saturday opener in the best-of-five National League Division Series.

As opposed to the last two ...Read more