Baseball

HOUSTON – Asked what went wrong for his Tampa Bay Rays, manager Kevin Cash invented a word. “We got Verlandered,” Cash said. Justin Verlander looked every bit the October ace, Jose Altuve polished his postseason resume and the Houston Astros kept rolling, beating the Rays 6-2 on Friday to open […]

YOKOHAMA – Alex Ramirez is going to play this one by the numbers. That goes for the lineup he’ll field against the Hanshin Tigers in the first stage of the Central League Climax Series and also his starting pitcher. Kenta Ishida will get the call over ace Shota Imanaga for […]

The Chunichi Dragons are parting ways with former major leaguer Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has been given an opportunity to sign with another team for next season as he works his way back from a right shoulder injury. On Friday, Dragons president Hiroyuki Kato told reporters the move was made to […]

NEW YORK – Mickey Callaway went 11-1 in his first 12 games as manager of the New York Mets. After that, nothing ever seemed to go smoothly for him again. Following more than a year of near-constant speculation about his job security, Callaway was fired Thursday by the Mets after […]

ATLANTA – Marcell Ozuna and Kolten Wong each hit two-run doubles in the ninth inning as the St. Louis Cardinals overcame shaky defense and a wild finish to extend Atlanta’s postseason misery, holding off the Braves 7-6 in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Thursday night. The […]

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – When he got to second base, Yandy Diaz stole a glance back toward the dugout and saw all his teammates going crazy. He gleefully kept running. Out for two months, no matter. Diaz slugged baseball’s lowest spender into a playoff matchup with mighty Houston, Charlie Morton silenced […]

OFUNATO, IWATE PREF. – Flame-throwing high school pitcher Roki Sasaki said Wednesday he had registered for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Oct. 17 draft and suggested he would play for any team that drafted him. The announcement, made during at a news conference in Iwate Prefecture, threw cold water on the hopes […]

SEATTLE – With his first major league season barely in the books, lefty Yusei Kikuchi is already mapping out plans for his 2020 season with the Seattle Mariners. “I’m going back to the fastball,” Kikuchi said recently. Kikuchi went 6-11 this year with a 5.46 ERA after signing with the […]

The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters agreed to a one-year contract with manager Hideki Kuriyama after the Pacific League club finished the 2019 season with a disappointing fifth-place finish. Next year will be Kuriyama’s ninth season with the Sapporo-based club, making the 58-year-old’s stint in the dugout the longest in team […]

WASHINGTON – Washington’s Juan Soto delivered a bases-loaded single against Josh Hader that scored three runs with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, and the Nationals rallied to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in the NL wild-card game Tuesday night. After Hader loaded the bases by hitting […]