DETROIT — As the Seattle Mariners rolled through Monday afternoon’s workout at Comerica Park, getting their bodies moving after an overnight flight and arriving in Detroit at 6 a.m. local time, there was a player noticeably missing on the field.

First baseman Josh Naylor, normally clad in a wool Mariners beanie and customized hockey shirt ...Read more

DETROIT —The Tigers have been on the long, hard road for a while now, under immense pressure since early September. After two tight playoff games in Seattle, nothing much has changed.

You didn’t think it was suddenly going to be clean and easy after all the Tigers have gone through, did you? Same final score in Game 2 Sunday night, same ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — It was quintessential October baseball.

Two starting pitchers dominating two helpless lineups.

A low-scoring contest in which every stranded baserunner felt like a monumental missed opportunity.

A nail-biting affair decided by one team cashing in a rare scoring chance, and the other failing to do the same.

In the bottom of ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — This is over.

Or, from the perspective of the Los Angeles Dodgers, this is just starting.

Because the Dodgers are returning to the World Series.

Technically, they still have to close out their National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. They still have to win the NL Championship Series.

But they will....Read more

NEW YORK — For the second week in a row, the New York Yankees are turning to Carlos Rodón with their season on the line.

As the Yankees’ starter for Tuesday night’s win-or-go-home ALDS Game 3 in the Bronx, Rodón is tasked with cooling off a torrid Toronto Blue Jays lineup that erupted for 23 runs over the first two games.

The Yankees ...Read more

SEATTLE — Sometimes it's not about a team's mettle" or "fortitude" or ability to "battle till the end."

It's not about pixie dust or destiny or any other movie-script cliché.

Sometimes, it's just about a team's best players saying, "Get out of the way — we got this." Game 2 of the American League Division Series on Sunday night proved as ...Read more

MILWAUKEE — Looking for Brewers Fever in downtown Milwaukee on a beautiful October Sunday was a pointless exercise, but it beat watching the NFL games on the first of three potential off days in the National League Division Series.

Other than a “Magic Brew” banner on a few buildings, there was no evidence the city is obsessed with the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — As Clayton Kershaw completed his pregame routine the other day and walked off the field at Citizens Bank Park, I asked him about his postseason debut. That was 17 years and 39 playoff appearances ago, and yet Kershaw remembered it so well that he got his answer out before I got all of my question out.

"I was in the 'pen," ...Read more

ATLANTA — The Braves’ search for Brian Snitker’s successor has at least two advantages in its favor.

One is that the roster is much more ready to win than many of the other teams that are also looking for managers.

Another is that president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos brings an intelligent approach to the ...Read more

SEATTLE — Cal Raleigh cruised home for the go-ahead run and Julio Rodríguez coasted into second base, jumping and danced upon his arrival in the middle of the infield, a celebration matched in style and in intensity by the 47,371 fans inside T-Mobile Park on Sunday evening.

In their biggest game of the year, the Seattle Mariners’ two ...Read more

TORONTO — As the Yankees prepared for Blue Jays rookie Trey Yesavage before Game 2 of the ALDS on Sunday, the only hitter on the team who had faced him chimed in.

“He’s kind of deceptive,” J.C. Escarra told his teammates during a pregame hitters meeting. The third-string catcher, who struck out twice against Yesavage in a Triple-A game ...Read more

All year long, Max Fried was the New York Yankees’ stopper.

In 16 regular-season starts that followed a Yankees loss, Fried went 11-1 with a 1.82 ERA. The Yankees won 12 of those games.

But Fried faltered in Sunday’s Game 2 of the ALDS, delivering his worst start in nearly two months in a 13-7 loss to Toronto Blue Jays that leaves the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Teoscar Hernández does not lack for emotion. He plays with joy, with exuberance, with delight.

The Dodgers know he can hit. We all do. If the emotion dissipates, so can the performance.

Hernández could have been the goat Saturday night, in what would have been the Dodgers' first loss in this postseason. Instead, he hit the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Remember the “Find the Snow Leopard” picture that made the rounds on the internet a while back? The next time you look at it, check to see if the top half of the Phillies batting order is hidden there, too. They’ve officially gone missing. And they’ve taken the Red October magic with them.

There was a lot of second-...Read more

MILWAUKEE — Left-hander Shota Imanaga has an opportunity to help the Chicago Cubs even the National League Division Series.

Imanaga will start Game 2 Monday against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field, manager Craig Counsell announced Sunday before the team’s off-day workout at the ballpark. Imanaga allowed two runs and three ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Standing in the quiet clubhouse after the Phillies’ Game 1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Harrison Bader was optimistic that he would be able to return for the rest of the National League Division Series.

And further imaging he underwent on Sunday confirmed that Bader had not suffered a tear or major strain of his groin, ...Read more

SEATTLE — If you think about it, in one sense, the Detroit Tigers were playing with house money Saturday.

The Seattle Mariners, who won their first division title since 2001, sat and waited for a week as the wild-card series played out, letting the anticipation and anxiety build for Game 1 of the American League Division Series.

On top of ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Two innings into Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night, the Dodgers had been punched in the mouth.

The Phillies had scored three runs off Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the second. Citizens Bank Park was shaking on the scale of a small earthquake. And the Dodgers’ offense was doing nothing against ...Read more