2:36 AM ET ARLINGTON, Texas — The settings change, the circumstances evolve, and yet it always seems to come down to Clayton Kershaw getting stretched a little too far, a promising bullpen failing to pick him up, a high-powered offense coming up small, a well-oiled machine breaking down at the worst possible time. The backdrop
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Astros manager Dusty Baker tabbed rookie righty Luis Garcia to start Game 5 of the ALCS against the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday. Garcia, 23, will making his first appearance of the postseason. He made his big-league debut for Houston during the regular season, making five appearances with a 2.92 ERA. He started once, facing
12:51 PM ET The Tampa Bay Rays will use right-hander John Curtiss as their opener and the Houston Astros will go with rookie Luis Garcia in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series on Thursday. Curtiss was 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA in 25 innings during the regular season. He has a 10.38 ERA
7:00 AM ET ARLINGTON, Texas — Clayton Kershaw‘s 2020 season at times seemed to resemble a dreamscape. There was the vintage summer, which saw him tap back into the type of stuff that seemed to be lost forever. And the dominant postseason opener, a stark reminder of the flaws in the narrative of his playoff
7:00 AM ET MLB InsidersESPN The heat is turning up in the 2020 MLB playoffs, as two teams that seemed to be on the ropes — the Astros and Dodgers — punched back Wednesday, making both championship series a little more interesting. Here’s a breakdown of the games, some numbers to know, a hot take
1:14 AM ET Pedro GomezMLB Close ESPN’s Pedro Gomez covered the Oakland A’s home and away nearly every day from 1992-97 for the San Jose Mercury News and Sacramento Bee and then became the national baseball writer and later a general columnist at the Arizona Republic before becoming an ESPN bureau reporter in 2003. SAN
1:20 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” ARLINGTON, Texas — Before conducting the autopsy of the blowout that was Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night, a reminder: There is no physical prize for winning
7:03 PM ET ARLINGTON, Texas — The Los Angeles Dodgers were hoping to ride whatever momentum they built in Tuesday’s ninth inning into Game 3, and they wound up doing so in unprecedented fashion. The Dodgers, losers of the first two games of this best-of-seven National League Championship Series, scored 11 runs in Wednesday’s first
1:45 AM ET In the age of analytics in baseball, a lot of longtime fans still appreciate the old-school ways. As baseball’s oldest manager, Houston‘s Dusty Baker has plenty of old school in him. It turns out his ace pitcher is pretty happy about that. Baker bucked metrics-fueled trends in pitcher usage during the sixth
4:31 PM ET ARLINGTON, Texas — Clayton Kershaw will start Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed after his team’s 15-3 rout of the Atlanta Braves in Wednesday’s Game 3. Kershaw suffered back spasms during a Saturday bullpen session and was scratched from his originally scheduled Game