MLB Page 968 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Only One Other Royal Was Told About Edinson Volquez's Father's Death
When Edinson Volquez came out after six innings, his wife and children were waiting for him in the clubhouse. GM Dayton Moore gave them the use of the manager’s office, where they could be alone and discuss whatever they needed to. It still isn’t clear whether Volquez knew yet that his father had di...

You Just Can't Ever Count The Royals Out
At this point it’s a cliche to write about how the Royals never quit, how they fight until the last at-bat, how they’re never out of a game, how they grind out wins....

Alcides Escobar Hits First Pitch, Leadoff Inside-The-Park Homer
Alcides Escobar, who just finished absolutely demolishing the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS, continued his torrid hitting by leading off the bottom of the first with an inside-the-park home run on the first pitch he saw. Sure he had a lot of help from the bumbling Mets outfield, but that’s pretty da...



Report: Former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro To Be Red Sox First-Base Coach
We have ourselves a reverse Jim Tomsula situation: man leaves prominent position for a job he’s wildly overqualified for. Ruben Amaro was the Phillies GM up until last month, when the team declined to renew his contract. Now, according to a report from ESPN, Amaro will be taking over a position as t...

Alcides Escobar Had One Of The Best Playoff Series Ever For A Leadoff Hitter
The Kansas City Royals are headed back to the World Series after beating the Blue Jays last night. Jose Bautista was tremendous, hitting two monster homers, but Lorenzo Cain scored in the bottom of the eighth off of a Eric Hosmer single. It was an illustrative breakdown of the two team’s styles: Tor...

MLB Wants Teams To Chill Out With Their Champagne Celebrations
Celebrating a clinch with a clubhouse champagne shower (or a beer slip ‘n slide) is a baseball fixture dating back to the 1960s, according to this interesting ESPN account of the tradition’s evolution. But in recent years it’s become as managed and regulated—and sponsored—as anything else baseball h...

The Pitcher Who Couldn't Lose
Bronson Arroyo was in some small town near Los Angeles, the name of which he doesn’t remember, and he was thinking about getting old. He and a friend had stopped at a diner to get a bite to eat, and he couldn’t help but notice all of the old men seated around them. He recalls this moment a few weeks...

Don Mattingly And The Dodgers Have Reportedly Parted Ways
CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman is reporting that the Los Angeles Dodgers and manager Don Mattingly have come to a mutual agreement to part ways....

Daniel Murphy Makes No Sense
“I can’t explain why the balls keep going out of the ballpark,” Daniel Murphy said after his MLB-record sixth consecutive playoff game with a home run, “but they do.” ...

What The Hell Was Kyle Schwarber Doing In Left Field?
Kyle Schwarber wasn’t the reason the Cubs lost Game 4. ...

Here's Your Gallery Of Sad Cubs Fans
The Cubs won 97 games this season, tied for their most regular season wins since 1945. In the playoffs they laid waste to the Pirates in the Wild Card game and the Cardinals in the NLDS. Going into the NLCS against the Mets, Cubs fans were very excited. This was their year to break the curse. Back t...

Daniel Murphy Strokes Another Dong
Daniel Murphy’s cherry on top of the ongoing destruction of the Cubs was his sixth straight game with a home run—setting a new postseason record—and his seventh home run in these playoffs, one behind the record for an entire postseason held jointly by Barry Bonds, Carlos Beltran, and Nelson Cruz. He...

The Cubs Defense Was A Hot Mess
The Cubs were only charged with a single error in Tuesday’s 5-2 loss to the Mets, but boy does that ever understate how poorly their defense played....

What The Hell, Daniel Murphy Hit Another Home Run
You keep figuring Daniel Murphy has to cool off, and then he keeps blasting the ball out of the park. Tonight’s solo shot to center came in the third inning, putting the Mets up 2-1 (it’s now 2-2). ...

The Blue Jays' Pitching Was So Bad They Had A Position Player Take The Mound
Here is how ugly things were for the Blue Jays tonight: Cliff Pennington, the Jays’ utility infielder, came in to pitch in the ninth. According to Elias he became the first exclusive position player to pitch in the postseason, and it went about as well as expected. In one-third of an inning Penningt...

Bartolo Colon Heads To The Locker Room, Eats It
Shortly after Game 2 of the NLCS, Bartolo Colon attempted to return to the clubhouse. It didn’t go so well....

That Troy Tulowitzki Ejection Sure Was Strange
MLB is lucky last night’s Royals-Blue Jays game was a victory for the Jays, because if the Royals had pulled ahead late and Troy Tulowitzki hadn’t been there to bat in the bottom of the ninth, all of Canada would be calling for home plate umpire John Hirschbeck’s head....

The Blue Jays Bludgeoned the Royals In Just Two Innings
The Royals traded for Johnny Cueto to be their postseason ace, and in the deciding Game 5 of the ALDS he was exactly that, giving up just two runs across eight innings in the 7-2 victory. The Royals didn’t need Cueto to be that good tonight, but they did need him to avoid pitching putridly. He wasn’...