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  Alden GonzalezOct 9, 2025, 09:56 PM ET

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  ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.

LOS ANGELES — The zeros kept piling up, the pressure kept building, and then, with the bases loaded and two outs in Thursday’s 11th inning, Orion Kerkering, the Philadelphia Phillies’ young reliever, found himself in the middle of chaos. A slow roller off the bat of Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages bounced off his left foot and settled a few steps in front of him. Baserunners were sprinting everywhere, 50,000-plus people were going ballistic. Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto tried to settle everything down by making eye contact with his pitcher and imploring him to make the easy throw to first baseman Bryce Harper.

But panic set in.

“Once the pressure got to me, I just thought there’s a faster throw to J.T., little quicker throw than trying to cross-body it to Bryce,” Kerkering said. “Just a horses— throw.”

The ball sailed toward Dodger Stadium’s backstop, allowing Hyeseong Kim to score the winning run in the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory in Game 4 of the National League Division Series. It eliminated the Phillies, abruptly ending a season in which they believed just as strongly as ever that they might win it all. And it sent the Dodgers to the NL Championship Series for the seventh time in 10 years, their hopes of becoming Major League Baseball’s first repeat champions in a quarter century still very much in play.

“Pure joy,” said Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy, whose team awaits the winner between the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs. “A little bit of laughter because I wasn’t sure what happened. The way everyone was standing around, I thought it was a foul ball at first. But then it just turned into pure joy. I looked over at Andy and he’s upset about a broken bat at first and then he realizes, ‘Oh, I just won the game.’ Just a huge roller coaster of emotions.”

Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia referred to Game 4 as “a heavyweight fight,” but he could have been describing the entire series.

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Dodgers-Phillies was a matchup of two of the sport’s most talented, star-studded rosters, packed with devastating rotations and decorated lineups. The starting pitching shined brightest. Through the first three games, the six traditional starting pitchers in this series — Blake Snell, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers; Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo and Ranger Suarez for the Phillies — combined for a 3.03 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 32â…” innings.

Game 4 played out similarly. Sanchez used his hellish sinker-changeup combination to stifle the Dodgers’ hitters through the first six innings, but Tyler Glasnow matched him pitch for pitch, allowing zero runs and five baserunners. Glasnow was making his first playoff start for his hometown team, after missing out on last year’s run because of an elbow injury, and wound up dominating one of the sport’s best lineups.

Asked what it meant, Glasnow said, “Everything.”

“Just being from here, it’s what I’ve been dreaming of my whole life. And being able to do it tonight was crazy.”

Glasnow exited with cramping issues after 83 pitches and watched Nick Castellanos get the Phillies on the board with an RBI double against Emmet Sheehan. Sanchez took the ball in the bottom of the seventh hoping to provide one more inning and allow Phillies closer Jhoan Duran to take over the final two. The Dodgers did not cooperate. Alex Call drew a one-out walk, and Enrique Hernandez followed with a single, forcing Phillies manager Rob Thomson to turn to Duran earlier.

Two batters later, with two on, two out and first base open, Thomson intentionally walked Ohtani, who was 1-for-17 with eight strikeouts in this series, to set up the right-on-right matchup with Mookie Betts. But Duran missed high with a 3-2, 101.4 mph fastball, bringing home the tying run. It was Duran’s first career bases-loaded walk.

“You’re not expecting that,” Thomson said. “And his ability to throw strikes, really wasn’t expecting that. But it happened.”

Duran and Matt Strahm got the Phillies through the ninth inning, after which they turned to Luzardo, their Game 5 starter, for two more. The Dodgers turned to Roki Sasaki, the much-hyped Japanese pitching sensation who not long ago seemed to be without a role on this pitching staff.

Eight starts into his major league career, Sasaki held a 4.72 ERA and was diagnosed with a shoulder impingement. He spent more than four months on the injured list and struggled to find his fastball velocity until a mechanical tweak at the Dodgers’ spring training facility finally synced him up. The Dodgers, plagued by a beleaguered bullpen, tried him out as a reliever, then watched him dominate the Cincinnati Reds with a triple-digit fastball and a nasty splitter in Game 2 of the wild-card round.

Sasaki did the same against the Phillies in Games 1 and 2, finishing both. In Game 4, he took it to another level.

Nine up, nine down.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called it “one of the great all-time appearances out of the pen that I can remember.”

“I can’t speak enough to his growth and his contribution to this club,” Roberts added. “We’re starting to see something really special in him, and that’s why he was courted so hard in the offseason. But what he’s done now, on the biggest of stages — he’s just scratching the surface.”

The Phillies put the go-ahead run in scoring position in the top of the 11th, but Vesia ended a 10-pitch Harrison Bader at-bat with a strikeout, setting up the winning sequence in the bottom half. Tommy Edman hit a one-out single. Two batters later, Muncy hit another. Hernandez followed by drawing a walk. Then came Pages, who had been going so bad in these playoffs — 1-for-23 with six strikeouts — that Miguel Rojas came out to pinch hit for him in Game 3. Pages swung through a first-pitch sinker way inside, then was late on another one out over the plate.

He broke his bat, producing a 69.5 mph ground ball that carried just enough backspin to prevent Kerkering from fielding it cleanly.

“The first thing I saw was that he didn’t initially field it,” Pages said in Spanish. “But when I saw that he didn’t throw to first and instead went home, the only thing I thought was, ‘There’s no chance at home.'”

Kerkering’s errant throw home marked the 11th time a walk-off run had scored on an error in the playoffs, and just the second time it happened in the clinching game. The Phillies were eliminated via walk-off loss for the fourth time in franchise history — and the first time since Joe Carter’s infamous home run off Mitch Williams in the 1993 World Series.

The Dodgers clinched a playoff series in walk-off fashion for the third time, but they did something even bigger: They got past the Phillies, perhaps the most talented team they’ll face in these playoffs.

“We knew going into it, it was going to be a dogfight,” Hernandez said. “It proved to be that way.”

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MILWAUKEE — Jacob Misiorowski rediscovered the form that earned the flamethrowing rookie so much acclaim in the first few weeks after the Milwaukee Brewers called him up from the minors.

He was throwing heat. More importantly, he was throwing strikes.

Misiorowski fired three innings of scoreless relief while reaching at least 100 mph on 31 of his 57 pitches during the Brewers†7-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of their NL Division Series. He struck out four while allowing one hit and two walks.

It was the type of performance that showcased how much of an impact Misiorowski could make if the Brewers have a long postseason run.

“Miz stepped up,†manager Pat Murphy said. “You guys get all enthralled with MPH. Iâ€m enthralled that he wasnâ€t giving up free bases, kept his composure with runners and that type of thing.â€

Those have been the issues for Misiorowski during his eventful rookie season.

The right-hander garnered so much attention for his overpowering fastball that he was selected an All-Star after making just five starts. In two of them, he won head-to-head pitching matchups with NL Cy Young Award favorite Paul Skenes and three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw.

But heâ€s dealt with plenty of obstacles ever since.

Misiorowski went on the injured list with a bruised left tibia in early August. He returned later that month but allowed 23 runs (22 earned) over 32 2/3 innings from that point on.

His late slide pretty much assured that Misiorowski wouldnâ€t be part of the Brewers†starting rotation for the playoffs, but his pure stuff demanded that he be included in Milwaukeeâ€s postseason plans.

He entered Game 2 with the score tied 3-all in the third inning. Each of his first eight pitches registered at least 102.6, including a top velocity of 104.3.

“I think I was so fired up, adrenaline pumping,†Misiorowski said. “You know, I didnâ€t really know where my feet were, but we landed, so it was fun. It was a lot of fun.â€

When Misiorowski has struggled, he generally has either lost control of the strike zone or struggled to maintain his poise amid adversity. But he managed to balance showing his emotion while also maintaining his focus in Game 2 as he helped the Brewers grab a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

Misiorowski issued a one-out walk to Seiya Suzuki in the third inning but struck out Ian Happ and then got Carson Kelly to hit a grounder back to him.

“We needed to get him before he settled in, and he made some pitches to strike out Happ,†Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “If Ian gets on there, then thereâ€s some pressure on him immediately.â€

Misiorowski was so excited after Kellyâ€s grounder that he ran all the way from the pitcherâ€s mound to first base himself to retire the batter before pumping his fist repeatedly. Misiorowski said afterward he handled the play unassisted because he was worried about overthrowing first baseman Andrew Vaughn.

Even so, Murphy used the moment to offer a reminder to the 23-year-old.

“Youâ€ve got to let him express himself, but then youâ€ve got to watch and see if he comes back to where he needs to be,†Murphy said. “Itâ€s hard. He came off the mound in the (third) inning and he was ranting and raving and I gave him a little, like, ‘OK, stay with it.â€

“Heâ€s here at the highest level for a reason, and heâ€s been through some ups and downs. I think heâ€s pretty aware and pretty on high alert.â€

Misiorowski walked Matt Shaw with two outs in the fourth and gave up a leadoff single to Nico Hoerner in the fifth, but didnâ€t let either runner advance beyond first base and ended up as the winning pitcher.

“I think the whole thing was just staying fired up, staying with that adrenaline pumping, and keep going at what I was doing before in (my) first inning,†Misiorowski said.

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Three days after the New York Yankees got a historic playoff performance from their best rookie pitcher, they were on the receiving end one of an instantly iconic postseason debut by Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Trey Yesavage.

The 22-year-old, who just made his MLB debut on Sept. 15, didn’t have nerves on the playoff stage with 11 strikeouts over 5.1 no-hit innings against the Yankees in Game 2 of the ALDS on Sunday.

Since Yesavage is still on a closely-monitored pitch count having already thrown a career-high 112 innings in the regular season between the majors and minors, he was pulled from the game with one out in the fifth inning to a raucous ovation from the Rogers Centre crowd.

e Jays were leading 12-0 when Yesavage left the game. No one was happier to see him get pulled than the Yankees, who immediately responded by getting their first hit of the game with two outs in the sixth on Aaron Judge’s single.

Cody Bellinger got the Yankees on the board with a two-run homer off Justin Bruihl. It at least ensured the Bronx Bombers wouldn’t be shut out in a playoff game for the first time since Game 3 of the 2022 ALCS against the Houston Astros.

Pitchers making their first career postseason start have generally done very well this October. The Yankees advanced to the ALDS on the strength of Cam Schlittler’s eight shutout innings with 12 strikeouts and no walks against the Boston Red Sox in Game 3 of the wild-card series.

Shohei Ohtani is obviously an established superstar, but he had never pitched in the playoffs until Game 1 against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday. The three-time MVP got hit early, though he rebounded after a shaky start to toss six innings and strike out nine while allowing just three earned runs in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 5-3 win.

Yesavage’s performance might be the most unexpectedly great outing for a first-time playoff starter. He was just drafted 15 months ago with the No. 20 pick in 2024 and started this season in A ball, playing at four different levels before getting called up to the big leagues.

The Blue Jays got their first playoff win since 2016 in Game 1 against the Yankees. If Yesavage keeps pitching like this going forward, they might represent the AL in the World Series for the first time since 1993.

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SEATTLE — Zach McKinstry singled home the tiebreaking run with two outs in the 11th inning and the Detroit Tigers outlasted the Seattle Mariners for a 3-2 victory in Game 1 of their AL Division Series on Saturday.

Kerry Carpenter hit a two-run homer in the fifth for the resurgent Tigers, who squandered a huge lead in the AL Central and nearly collapsed entirely down the stretch before squeezing into the playoffs.

After winning their Wild Card Series at Cleveland, they can take a commanding 2-0 lead in this best-of-five matchup against AL West champion Seattle with dominant ace Tarik Skubal on the mound Sunday.

“All year long, I feel like we were either down or we were up,†McKinstry said. “Weâ€re up right now, and weâ€re getting a lot of wins. Things are going our way.â€

In the first extra-inning game of this postseason, McKinstry pounced on the first pitch he saw from reliever Carlos Vargas, a 99.6 mph sinker, and grounded it up the middle to score Spencer Torkelson from second base.

Torkelson, who walked leading off the 11th, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Vargas earlier in the inning.

Unlike during the regular season, there is no automatic runner placed at second base to begin extra innings in the postseason.

It was the Mariners†second consecutive postseason loss at home that went extra innings. They were beaten 1-0 by Houston in 18 innings on Oct. 15, 2022.

Will Vest worked two perfect innings for the win, and Keider Montero got three outs for his first major league save. Montero extended the scoreless start to his postseason career and put the finishing touches on seven innings of one-run ball by Detroitâ€s bullpen.

The Mariners struck first, thanks to a solo homer by Julio Rodríguez in the fourth inning. Rodríguez, fresh off his second season with at least 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, launched an elevated four-seam fastball from rookie Troy Melton, who was making just his fifth career start.

Seattleâ€s lead didnâ€t last long, though. Carpenter capitalized on an elevated fastball from right-hander George Kirby in a two-strike count, depositing it into the right-field seats to give the Tigers a 2-1 advantage.

Left-handed reliever Gabe Speier was warming up in the Seattle bullpen, but manager Dan Wilson elected to have Kirby face the left-handed-hitting Carpenter.

“We thought George continued to throw the ball pretty well there and still had pretty good stuff and a lot left in the tank,†Wilson said, “and he had been in a couple of tough spots earlier, but really pitched out of it well. And, like I said, (Carpenter) was able to get to the one up in the zone.â€

It was the fifth career homer for Carpenter off Kirby, making him the fourth player in major league history with five or more hits off a particular pitcher — and all of them home runs. It also was the second career postseason homer for Carpenter, who set a career high with 26 during the regular season.

“I tend to see him well,†Carpenter said. “Heâ€s so good, though. He has great stuff, and in the first inning he was really good. So yeah, Iâ€m pretty confident against anybody I go against. I was seeing him well tonight, especially after that first at-bat.â€

Kirby was otherwise sharp in his second postseason start, striking out five across five innings.

Rodríguez ensured the Mariners did not go down easily, poking an RBI single to right in the sixth that tied it at 2.

Seattle closer Andrés Muñoz worked two scoreless innings, the first time he had done so since he was a rookie in 2019 with San Diego.

The Mariners didnâ€t get hits from any players besides Rodríguez and AL MVP contender Cal Raleigh, who chipped in three singles for his third career three-hit game in the postseason.

“All of our bullpen guys, including Troy, even though Troy started, it was a job well done in an environment where the fans were looking to help them get anything started,†Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We would squash the rally every time.â€

Up next

Mariners RHP Luis Castillo is expected to start against Skubal in Game 2. Castillo is 1-2 with a 1.83 ERA in 19 2/3 postseason innings with 19 strikeouts. Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, pitched 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the Wild Card Series opener against Cleveland. He has a 2.03 ERA in four postseason appearances.

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LOS ANGELES — For as many ups and downs as the Dodgers weathered during the regular season, they remained secure in their identity as a battle-tested postseason juggernaut. That applies to those who have been around the team for years as well as some of this year’s newcomers.

Blake Snell may be in his first year in Dodger blue, but this isn’t his first go-round under the bright lights of the postseason. He set the tone for his team with seven innings of two-run ball as the Dodgers beat the Reds, 10-5, in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.

“It wasnâ€t luck that heâ€s won, what, two Cy Youngs,” Mookie Betts said. “He showed it tonight, essentially put us on his back.â€

As the Dodgers got production from up and down the lineup — highlighted by homers from Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman — Snell thrived in his return to the postseason mound. The reigning World Series champions are one win away from advancing to the NL Division Series against the Phillies. Game 2 of the Wild Card Series is set for 6 p.m. PT at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, airing on ESPN, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto opposing Zack Littell.

“It sets us up really well,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Blake was fantastic tonight. You could see he was in complete control.”

The way the Dodgers see it, there’s value in having been here before. There’s nothing like prior experience when it comes to preparing for a deep postseason run.

“As a player,” Hernández said, “you know what to expect, the emotions, the adrenaline and all those things, so you can control [yourself] better and have a better [understanding] of what you need to do just to perform and do good.”

Prior to signing with the Dodgers this past offseason, the last time Snell pitched in the playoffs was 2022, when his Padres made it to the NL Championship Series. But there were no obvious jitters upon his return to this big stage.

Snell struck out nine and worked around four hits and a walk in his longest career postseason start, surpassing his previous high of 5 2/3 innings in Game 1 of the 2020 AL Wild Card Series. He is the first pitcher since Vicente Padilla (2009 NLDS Game 3) to complete at least seven innings in his Dodgers postseason debut.

After six scoreless innings, Snell began to waver a bit in the seventh, giving up a pair of runs on an Elly De La Cruz fielder’s choice and a Tyler Stephenson double. Still, he needed just 91 pitches to complete his outing, the Dodgers’ longest start in the postseason since Jack Flaherty also tossed seven innings in Game 1 of last year’s NLCS.

“It felt good to go deep in the ballgame. Just gotta control that last inning,” Snell said. “But outside of that, I felt really in control, could read swings and just kind of navigate through the lineup the way I wanted to.”

Things got dicey after Snell gave way to the bullpen, which inherited an eight-run lead in the eighth inning. The Reds scored three runs off Alex Vesia, Edgardo Henriquez and Jack Dreyer, who threw a combined 59 pitches — the most in a single postseason inning since pitch counts were first tracked in 1988.

For Roberts, turning to Vesia with that big a lead was an effort to slam the door early. One inning later, the Dodgers’ manager went a different route by calling on Blake Treinen, who struggled in leverage during the regular season.

Treinen responded with a scoreless ninth in which he looked much closer to the lockdown arm who was so key to last postseason’s bullpen.

“All those situations are good for us in the long run,” catcher Ben Rortvedt said. “Those are good things to go through, grow through and learn from.”

The Dodgers don’t see it being as simple as flipping a switch, but there’s something about being back in the postseason that brings out the best in them as a team. They saw it last year, when they barely had the pitching to make a deep run but pulled off a championship anyway.

“I do know we have a group of guys that have experienced the postseason, and we know what it takes to win these games,” Edman said. “We do a good job of slowing the game down, and I think having that experience definitely helps out a lot with guys who are getting locked in at the right time.â€

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Derbyshire head of cricket Mickey Arthur:

“The mindset shift for us has been astronomical in terms of wanting to win, playing a lot more of a brand of more positive cricket which as a captain and coach we’ve driven, and the boys have responded unbelievably well to that.

“When you have a look at the way the guys go about their business out on the ground and the fielding and the intensity and the energy, it tells you where we’re at as a team and I couldn’t be more proud of that because it shows that guys have really bought into it.

“You chase every ball down, you attempt every catch and I think we showed that in this game in heaps.”

“It’s been a phenomenal season for Luis and he’s mostly done that on one leg as well. He goes in for an operation in the next couple of days to clear out his ankle. It just shows again the determination, the drive of him and everybody within our squad to get better. “

Kent head coach Adam Hollioake:

“We didn’t bowl well enough. We didn’t build any pressure throughout and then with the bat, on what’s a very good wicket, we just haven’t capitalised and put on big partnerships, which is kind of what we’ve done all year really.

“We did get off to a good start, (but) no doubt injuries haven’t helped. Keith Dudgeon went down after one game and I think the injuries really compounded after three games.

“We’d won two and drawn one, but during that period Nathan Gilchrist got a concussion, Jas Singh did his ankle. That then put a strain on our fast bowling attack and we were sort of constantly overloading our bowlers.

“I know that’s unlucky, but we’re a professional cricket team and we’ve got to deal with that. We haven’t done that very well and we’re just going to have to be better, me included as a coach, I’m not just pointing the finger at the players.”

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Derbyshire were closing in on a huge victory against Kent when bad light forced a premature end to day three of their County Championship match at Canterbury.

Kent were 135-5 in their seconds innings, still 291 behind, after Luis Reece ripped out their top order with 4-33.

That came after Jack Morley took 5-99 as the visitors dismissed Kent for 271 in the first innings, a lead of 427.

Ekansh Singh and Ben Dawkins both hit career-best scores of 71 and 61 respectively, but when the former was out Kent’s last four wickets went for just nine runs.

Derbyshire enforced the follow-on and Reece reduced them to 20-3 before Joey Evison and Ben Compton offered some resistance. Reece eventually got Evison for 52, but Compton was unbeaten on 55 when the light failed.

The lights were on when play began on time, with Kent on 117-2.

Morley, who removed nightwatcher Michael Cohen with the final ball on day two, struck again in his first full over of the morning, getting Jaydn Denly lbw for a five-ball duck.

Ekansh was given a life when Wayne Madsen couldn’t cling on to a slip catch after he flashed at Ben Aitchison, but Dawkins was strangled as soon as Zak Chappell returned from the Nackington Road End.

Ollie Curtiss got his first first-class runs, but Morley had him brilliantly caught by Martin Andersson at midwicket for 14, leaving Kent on 217-5 at lunch.

Morley claimed his fifth in style by clinging on to a sharp return catch from Ekansh at the second attempt and in doing so he became the first Derbyshire spinner to claim five wickets at Canterbury since Les Townsend in 1931.

There was raucous applause from The Nackington Road End when Joey Evison hit Harry Came for successive boundaries to earn Kent a solitary bonus point, but he then slashed Reece to Aneurin Donald at first slip, before Aitchison got his second strangle of the day when Harry Finch flicked him behind for 14.

Corey Flintoff went for a second-ball duck, hitting Aitchison straight to the sub fielder Nick Potts at square leg and Matt Parkinson lasted four balls before he edged Reece to Wayne Madsen, who took an outstanding one-handed grab at second slip.

There was worse to come as Reece bowled Dawkins for nought with the second ball of the second innings and then had Denly caught behind for four in his next over.

Reece got his third of the innings when Ekansh was caught behind for four, but Compton and Evison steadied things.

The latter was dropped by Amrit Basra off Chappell when he was on 28 in the final over before tea, at which point Kent were 61-3. He was dropped again on 52 when he drove Dal to midwicket, but Donald put him down, apparently while celebrating a catch he hadn’t actually taken.

Donald’s embarrassment was fleeting as Evison chipped Reece to Andersson in the next over and Dal then bowled Curtiss for four but Compton swept Morley for four to pass 50 and bad light stopped play at 17:39 BST, with eight overs remaining.

Match report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay

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