baseball Page 52 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Aaron Judge finally lives up to expectations
For years, many believed that Aaron Judge had everything to be a real superstar, the face of MLB....

A few MLB postseason storylines you might not know
As the baseball playoffs begin, you already know the big storylines....

The last playoffs
A few years ago, I was in a bar and got into an argument with a semi-regular (who I didn’t much care for) about which sport has the best postseason. He was a real #PleaseLikeMySport hockey fan, and I had felt (and still do) that the MLB playoffs had surpassed the NHL playoffs as the most enjoyable. ...

The San Francisco Giants, the ones who stood out
I had about four different drafts of this in my head before I actually sitting down (or in my case, stand up, as I work in reverse) and writing it. I wanted to proclaim the Giants as the anti-rebuild success story, which they kind of are. But not wholly, because it’s one year....

Why are fans OK with this?
MLB would like us to think that there was a poignant moment in the A’s-Astros game, and to a lesser extent the Mariners one. It’s when Carlos Correa and Kyle Seager were pulled from the game mid-inning to receive a standing ovation from the crowd. ...

No wild-card chaos
Most seasons, on the last day, we hope for some kind of chaos to hit MLB’s playoff system. I think, deep down, it’s because people want to see the wild-card sham proven to be just that. Because having teams play a game just to play a game to get into the playoffs after 162 games and six months is pr...

Order out and settle in: Today is gonna be a really good baseball day (and night)
All of the games in Major League Baseball are scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, so that if and when playoff races come down to Game 162, nobody has an advantage of taking the field already knowing what their pennant race rivals have done....

When is the best time to pay attention to baseball?
Baseball season is six months long, and reaching its dramatic conclusion this weekend, with the American League wild cards and the winner of the National League West still to be decided....

SEE IT: Fernando Tatis Jr. launches one out of Dodger Stadium
We’ve addressed the Cubs’ buffoonery this morning already, so let’s get to matters on the field — especially Fernando Tatis Jr. turning a baseball into a moon rock....

The Cubs are the dumbest
There are people out there, who — unlike me — didn’t fire the Cubs as a fan back in July after they completed their three-year sandbagging of the roster that brought them their first World Series win in 108 years. That should have been enough to see Wrigley be more desolate than the Atacama, but tha...

Rays playing 5D chess up in here
Analytics have taken over the world of baseball. Depending on who you ask, you’ll get one of three responses:...

Devin Williams to miss postseason for dumbest of reasons
In the dumbest injury at the worst time department, we’d like to announce Brewers reliever Devin Williams as this year’s recipient....

Javy Báez has quietly turned his season around with the Mets
It’s easy to forget that the Mets have existed recently. The biggest news coming out of Queens since they’ve fallen out of playoff contention have been Francisco Lindor and Javy Báez’s “thumbs down” debacle, Jacob deGrom getting hurt more often than Mr. Glass from Invincible, and a TikTok trend invo...

Massive regular-season win streaks mean nothing in the playoffs
The Cardinals’ team-record winning streak has gotten St. Louis into the playoffs, but the old saying in baseball is that momentum is only the next day’s starting pitcher, and as good as the Redbirds have been in September, bringing home a first World Series championship since 2011 remains a longshot...

Lighten up, Wainwright
I understand that every team in every sport is desperate to make the “only the guys in this room believed in us” the rallying cry of their team. It’s easier to think you’re the underdog, and when you’re a professional athlete you need anything and everything to drive through an interminable season. ...

MVP debates make my ass weary
I’ve come to the conclusion that a big part of being a member of the baseball media is just justifying your existence. Which is why they spend most of the time turning stuff into a debate that isn’t really a debate. Nothing is worse than individual awards, where distilling what “valuable” means has ...

Bradley Zimmer has family bragging rights for life
You remember playing baseball in the street with your siblings? Your brother or sister would also play the role of both announcer and pitcher. They’d toe the rubber and come up with some absurd scenario every time like “Two outs, full count, bottom of the ninth, down by three, bases loaded, Game 7 o...

Rooting for maximum chaos in the AL wild-card race
With just six days left in the MLB regular season, the AL wild card race is tighter than Batman’s tights. Five teams, all within four-and-a-half games. These are the types of races dreams are made of. We’ve even got a few series between the teams involved. It’s all lining up perfectly, just as Major...

...If it weren’t for those meddling Mariners
Friday, July 23. If you’re an A’s fan or player, you wake up feeling pretty good. I’d say it’s a beautiful day in the Bay Area, but July tends to be pretty miserable there. And anyway, you’re in Seattle this morning, and it is lovely there. As far as your team’s fortunes, everything is ok. Not great...

Lions on cutting edge of losing
Quite often throughout a baseball season, you’ll hear an announcer say something to the effect of, “That’s why you come to the ballpark, because you just might see something you haven’t before.” And technically, that’s true. That gets harder and harder to do as time goes on and we see more and more ...