Browsing: playoff

RICHMOND, Va. — Justin Leonard stayed patient with his putting on a windy Sunday and watched it pay big dividends with a birdie-par-eagle finished for a 4-under 68 and a one-shot victory over Ernie Els in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.

Leonard won for the second time this year on the PGA Tour Champions and moved into top 10 after the first playoff event for the Charles Schwab Cup.

The top 54 advance to the second postseason event next week in Arkansas.

Els was in control on the back nine of the James River course at the Country Club of Virginia and appeared to steady himself with birdies on reachable par-4 15th and the par-5 16th.

But he bogeyed the 17th as Leonard made his move. After a birdie on the 16th, Leonard hit a hybrid 4-iron to about 20 feet and holed the downhill eagle putt to post at 12-under 204.

Els failed to make a 10-foot birdie putt on the closing hole that would have forced a playoff. He closed with a 72 and shared second place with Thomas Bjorn (68).

Bernhard Langer, the 68-year-old German who has won every year on the PGA Tour Champions since turning 50, was within two shots of the lead until a long three-putt bogey ended his hopes. He shot 72 and finished three back in his bid for a first Champions win this year.

Scott Parel shot 71 and tied for 21st, moving up three spots to No. 53 to advance to the Simmons Bank Championship next week. David Bransdon fell out.

The top 36 after next week reach the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

LOS ANGELES — It’s easy to take Shohei Ohtani for granted. By now, we’ve settled into the rote comfort: He is the best player on the planet, and that’s that. Ohtani’s baseline is everyone else’s peak. He is judged against himself and himself only.

And it’s human nature that when we watch something often enough — even something as mind-bending as a player who’s a full-time starting pitcher and full-time hitter and among the very best at both — it starts to register as normal.

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Which is why his performances on Friday — the unleashing of the full extent of Ohtani’s magic — was the sort of necessary reminder that one of the greatest athletes in the world, and the most talented baseball player ever, is playing right now, doing unfathomable things, redefining the game in real time. And that even when he starts the day mired in an uncharacteristic slump, Ohtani needs only a single game to launch himself into the annals of history.

Where Ohtani’s performance in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series ranks on the all-time list of games will be debated for years. In the celebration following Los Angeles’ 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, though, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stood on the field and said, “That’s the greatest night in baseball history,” and no one cared to argue.

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Over the course of 2 hours, 41 minutes, in front of 52,883 fans, with millions watching domestically and tens of millions more in Japan, Ohtani threw six shutout innings and struck out 10 in between hitting three home runs that traveled a combined 1,342 feet, including one that left Dodger Stadium entirely. It was the sort of game that happens in comic books, not real life — and it was a game that completed a championship series sweep and sent Los Angeles to its second consecutive World Series. It was the kind of night that leaves patrons elated they saw it and also just a little ruined because they know they’ll never see anything like it again. Everyone was a prisoner, captive to perhaps the greatest individual game in the quarter-million or so played over the last century and a half.

It was, at very least, one of the finest displays of baseball since the game’s inception, up there with Tony Cloninger hitting two grand slams and throwing a complete game in 1966 or Rick Wise socking two home runs amid his no-hitter on the mound in 1971. And unlike those, this came in the postseason, and in a game to clinch Los Angeles the opportunity to become the first team in a quarter-century to win back-to-back championships.

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It wasn’t quite Don Larsen throwing a perfect game — but Larsen went 0-for-2 in that game and needed a Mickey Mantle home run to account for his scoring. It wasn’t Reggie Jackson hammering three home runs, either — because Reggie needed Mike Torrez to throw a complete game that night to make his blasts stand up.

Ohtani is the only player who can do this, the offense and the defense — the mastery of baseball, the distillation of talent into something pure and perfect.

Hours earlier, his day had started by navigating the tricky balance of starting and hitting on the same day. His metronomic routine, such a vital piece of his three MVP seasons (the fourth will be made official in mid-November), is upended completely when he pitches. He budgets for the extra time he needs to spend caring for his arm by sacrificing his attendance at the hitters’ meeting, instead getting the intel he needs from coaches in the batting cage about an hour before the game.

Nobody could tell, when Ohtani arrived in the underground cage Friday, that he was mired in a nasty slump that had stretched from the division series through the third game of the NLCS, a jag of strikeouts and soft contact and poor swing decisions and utter frustration that got so bad earlier in the week he had taken batting practice outside at Dodger Stadium, something he never — like, really, never — does. He had decided to do so on the plane ride back from Milwaukee, where the Dodgers had humbled the Brewers with the sort of starting pitching never seen in a league championship series.

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Game 4, his teammates were convinced, was going to be a culmination of that extra cage work and the matching of his pitching peers’ dominance.

“You guys asked me yesterday, and I said I was expecting nothing short of incredible today,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “And he proved me wrong. He went beyond incredible.”

After walking the leadoff hitter, Brice Turang, Ohtani struck out the next three hitters, popping a pair of 100 mph-plus fastballs and unleashing the most confounding version of his splitter seen all year. He followed by obliterating a slurve from Jose Quintana in the bottom of the inning for a home run, the first time a pitcher ever hit a leadoff homer in the game’s history, regular season or playoffs.

The strikeouts continued — one in the third inning, two more in the fourth, preceding Ohtani’s second home run, which left 50,000 mouths agape. In the stands, they cheered, and in the dugout, they whooped, and in the bullpen, they screamed: “The ball went out of the stadium!” Alex Vesia, the reliever who would come in after Ohtani struck out two more in the fifth and sixth innings, could not conceive that a person could hit a baseball in a game that far. Officially, it went 469 feet. It felt like 1,000.

“At that point, it’s got to be the greatest game ever, right?” said Vesia, who did his part to help keep it so. Ohtani allowed a walk and a hit in the seventh inning, and had Vesia allowed either run to score, the sparkling zero in his pitching line could’ve been an unsightly one or crooked two. When he induced a ground ball up the middle that nutmegged his legs, Mookie Betts was in perfect position to hoover it, step on second and fire to first for a double play that preserved Ohtani’s goose egg.

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In the next inning, Ohtani’s third home run of the night, and this one was just showing off: a shot to dead center off a 99 mph Trevor Megill fastball, a proper complement to the second off an 89 mph Chad Patrick cutter and the first off a 79 mph Quintana slurve). If it sounds impressive to hit three different pitches off three different pitchers for home runs in one night, it is. To do so throwing six innings, allowing two hits, walking three and striking out 10 is otherworldly.

“We were so focused on just winning the game, doing what needed to be done, I’m not sure we realized how good it really was,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “I didn’t really appreciate it until after. Like, he actually did that?”

Yes. Yes he did. In baseball history, 503 players have hit three home runs in a game, and 1,550 have struck out 10 or more in a game. None, until Friday, had done both. And that’s what Shohei Ohtani does, who he is. For eight years, he has transformed what is possible in baseball, set a truly impossible standard to match, and now, finally, having signed with a franchise capable of giving his talents the largest stage, Ohtani gets to perform when it matters most.

Milwaukee won more games during the regular season than anyone. Regardless of how impotent the Brewers’ offense was this series, they were a very good team, and the Dodgers flayed them. The final game was an exclamation point — and a warning for the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays, whichever survives the back-and-forth American League Championship Series.

Shohei Ohtani awaits. Good luck.

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At 5:37 p.m. Wednesday, Michael Bubleâ€s “Feeling Good” blared from the Dodger Stadium speakers.

Shohei Ohtani came strolling to the plate with a bat in his hands.

There was no one in the stands, of course. Nor an opposing pitcher on the mound. The Dodgers, on this workout day after returning from Milwaukee, were still some 22 hours away from resuming their National League Championship Series against the Brewers. For any other player, it would have been a routine affair.

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Ohtani, however, is not just any player.

And among the many things that make him unique, his habit of almost never taking batting practice on the field is one of the small but notable ones.

Which made his decision to do so Wednesday a telling development.

Over the last two weeks, Ohtani has been in a slump. Since the start of the NL Division Series, he is just two-for-25 with a whopping 12 strikeouts. He has been smothered by left-handed pitching. He has made poor swing decisions and failed to slug the ball.

Last week, manager Dave Roberts went so far as to say the Dodgers were “not gonna win the World Series with that sort of performance†from their $700-million slugger.

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Thus, out Ohtani came for batting practice on Wednesday in the most visible sign yet of his urgency for a turnaround.

“The other way to say it is that, if I hit, we will win,†Ohtani said in Japanese when asked about Roberts†World Series quote earlier Wednesday afternoon. “I think he thinks that if I hit, we will win. Iâ€d like to do my best to do that.â€

In Roberts†view, Ohtani has already started improving from his woeful NLDS, when he struck out nine times in 18 trips to the plate against a left-handed-heavy Philadelphia Phillies staff that, as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman emphatically put it, had “the most impressive execution against a hitter I’ve ever seen.â€

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In Game 1 of the NLCS against the Brewers, Ohtani was 0-for-two but walked three times; twice intentionally but another on a more disciplined five-pitch at-bat to lead off the game against left-handed opener Aaron Ashby.

The following night, he went only one-for-five with three more strikeouts, giving him 15 this postseason, second-most in the playoffs. But he did have an RBI single, marking his first run driven in since Game 2 of the NLDS. He followed that with a steal, swiping his first bag of the playoffs. And earlier in the game, he scorched a lineout to right at 115.2 mph, the hardest heâ€d hit a ball since taking Cincinnati Reds pitcher Hunter Greene deep in the teamâ€s postseason opener.

“The first two games in Milwaukee, his at-bats have been fantastic,†Roberts said Wednesday, before heading out to the field and watching Ohtaniâ€s impromptu BP session.

“That’s what I’ve been looking for. That’s what I’m counting on,†he added, while noting the careful approach the Brewers have also taken with the soon-to-be four-time MVP. “You can only take what they give you. So for me, I think he’s in a good spot right now.â€

Shohei Ohtani puts the ball in play in the third inning during Game 4 of the NLDS. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Ohtaniâ€s overall numbers, of course, continue to suggest otherwise. His .147 postseason batting average is second-worst on the team, ahead of only Andy Pages. His seven-game drought without an extra-base hit is longer than any he endured in the regular season.

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“The first thing I have to do is increase the level of my at-bats,†Ohtani said in Japanese. “Swing at strikes and not swing at balls.â€

On Wednesday, Ohtaniâ€s slump also led to questions about his role as a two-way player, and whether his return to pitching this season (and, this October, doing it for the first time in the playoffs) has contributed to his sudden struggles at the plate.

After all, on days Ohtani pitched this season, he hit .222 with four home runs but 21 strikeouts. On the days immediately following an outing, he batted .147 with two home runs and 10 strikeouts.

His current slump began with a hitless, four-strikeout dud in Game 1 of the NLDS, when he also made a six-inning, three-run start on the mound.

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And in days since, Roberts has acknowledged some likely correlation between Ohtaniâ€s two roles.

“[His offense] hasnâ€t been good when heâ€s pitched,†Roberts said following the NLDS. “Weâ€ve got to think through this and come up with a better game plan.â€

Ohtani, on the other hand, pushed back somewhat on that narrative during Wednesdayâ€s workout, in which he also threw a bullpen session in preparation for his next start in Game 4 of the NLCS on Friday.

While it is “more physically strenuous†to handle both roles, he conceded, he countered that “I donâ€t know if thereâ€s a direct correlation.â€

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“Physically,†he added, “I donâ€t feel like thereâ€s a connection.â€

Instead, Ohtani on Wednesday went about fixing his swing the way any other normal hitter would. He went out on the field for his rare session of batting practice. Of his 32 swings, he sent 14 over the fence, including one that clanked off the roof of the right-field pavilion.

“Certainly, there’s frustration,†Roberts said of how heâ€s seen Ohtani handle his uncharacteristic lack of performance.

But, he added, “that’s expected. I don’t mind it. I like the edge.â€

“He’s obviously a very, very talented player, and we’re counting on him,†Roberts continued. “Heâ€s just a great competitor. He’s very prepared. And thereâ€s still a lot of baseball left.â€

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Aaron Boone’s future as the manager of the New York Yankees remains unclear, but if he does return, there will be some changes to the coaching staff.

According to Andy Martino of SNY and Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, the Yankees won’t be retaining bullpen coach Mike Harkey or first-base coach Travis Chapman.

“Had a great 16 years and I’m very grateful for the opportunity I had with the Yankee organization!” Harkey told Martino. “I wish them nothing but the best!”

Other changes could follow. As Kirschner noted, “Pitching coach Matt Blake and catching coordinator Tanner Swanson have club options, and bench coach Brad Ausmus’ and third-base coach Luis Rojas’ contracts expired.”

Harkey had two stints as the Yankees’ bullpen coach, first between the 2008-13 seasons and later between 2016-25. The bullpen was a major weakness for the team, however, with a number of players taking a step back in their roles, most notably Devin Williams.

Chapman held a number of roles in the team’s farm system before joining the MLB staff in 2022 as both the infield coach and first-base coach. Kirschner noted that he was “lauded [internally] for his ability to pick up tells from opposing pitchers and relay that information to batters,” though New York’s infield defense regressed in 2025, highlighted by Anthony Volpe’s rough season at shortstop.

As for the team at large, the Yankees reached the playoffs for the seventh time in eight seasons under Boone but failed to win the World Series yet again. The 2025 season was marked by major bouts of inconsistency, while the pitching staff was undressed by the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS.

Boone’s seat feels hot, and it’s a bit peculiar that the Yankees haven’t either fired him or publicly expressed confidence in him since being eliminated from the postseason last week. Either way, changes are happening to the team’s coaching staff.

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While the 2025 FedEx Cup Playoffs ended months ago, another pro-golf post-season is about to begin: the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Playoffs. The regular season ended on Sunday at the SAS Championship, the last chance pros had to sneak into the top 72 to earn a spot in the first playoff event.

Former PGA Tour and current PGA Tour Champions players Kirk Triplett and Brandt Jobe ended up on opposite sides of the bubble, at 72 and 73, respectively. It was a tough reality for Jobe, made tougher still by the shockingly low amount of earnings that kept him from a playoff spot: just $201.

Brandt Jobe is Champions Tour playoff bubble boy: ‘Can I cuss?’

Jobe has had a long career on the PGA Tour Champions. He acknowledged as much is his post-tournament press conference on Sunday at Prestonwood C.C. in the aftermath of his painful playoff ouster.

“This is my 10th year, so I’m pretty lucky. Tenth year without really having a clear path and I’ve had a clear path, so I can’t be disappointed,” Jobe said on Sunday. “I remember coming out here saying if you give me five years, that would be great, and I got 10. If next year’s 10 tournaments, 12 tournaments, whatever it is, embrace it and hopefully build on the last couple few months of what I did.”

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His frustration at getting knocked out of the Charles Schwab Playoffs before they even began was more apparent with the first words he uttered in his press conference.

“Can I cuss?”

His mood was understandable. Jobe, who is 60, collected four runner-up finishes and $9 million in earnings during his PGA Tour career. He added two wins on the PGA Tour Champions, most recently at the 2019 Boeing Classic.

But this season, and this week, did not go as Jobe had hoped it would. He played in 17 tournaments in 2025 and earned only one top-10 finish. A T61-finish (eight over) at the SAS Championship left him with $221,861 in official money for the year.

On the PGA Tour Champions, each dollar won accounts for one point in the Charles Schwab Cup standings. So Jobe’s $221,861 equated to 221,861 points. That put him in 73rd place, one spot out of making the first playoff event, next week’s Dominion Energy Charity Classic.

Triplett, the last man in at 72nd, finished with $222,062 in official money, or 222,062 points. Jobe was just $201 dollars short of making the playoffs, a 0.1% difference.

Kirk Triplett narrowly sneaks into PGA Tour Champions playoffs

Triplett, 63, has eight career PGA Tour Champions victories, though he hasn’t entered the winner’s circle since a two-win stint in 2019. In total, he’s pulled in $11,972,995 on the senior circuit.

In his PGA Tour career, Triplett won three times and finished with over $14 million in on-course earnings.

But his winnings in 2025 were minuscule in comparison. In 22 starts, Triplett failed to record a top 10 and took home $222,206. But it was good enough to pip Jobe and make the Charles Schwab Playoffs, and the importance of that achievement was clear from his post-round comments on Sunday.

“I hate to say it, but it’s like the most meaningful golf I played this season,” Triplett said. “I’ve just been 40th, 50th. My best finishes are in the 20s and 30s. I’m not playing well but I’m not managing my game well and I’m not competing well and all of those things are snowballing. I look around, I don’t see too many guys older than me doing it, so you know that here’s a reason, right, because otherwise, whether you get tired — I think it’s just energy. You’ve done it for so long, you’ve been successful.”

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The tiny margin by which he overcame Jobe was not lost on Triplett, either, which over the course of the season he said boiled down to “one stinking shot.”

“This is the thing, right?” Triplett said. “You play 22 events. $200? My partner and I are sitting at the team championship and I decide — he says, ‘I’m going to go catch a flight,’ right? I decide to withdraw because it’s just inconvenient, I don’t want to miss my flight. There’s a couple grand right there that would throw me up three places. So the little decisions that you make like that. And if you’re a Monday morning quarterback in this game, man. I tell all these young players I talk to a lot of times, I say, ‘You want to really, really see something interesting? Take one shot off every day’s score and see how much money, what a difference that makes at the end of the year. One stinking shot, one stinking shot.’”

The competition between Triplett and Jobe ultimately came down to Sunday’s final round. Whoever finished higher would take the final playoffs spot, and the other would head home with no chance of earning their PGA Tour Champions card for next season.

“Hey, it’s gritty out there, go out there and whoever gives up first is probably going to lose. I don’t think either Brandt [Jobe] or I gave up,” Triplett said on Sunday. “You should have seen us, we played together on Friday, we did not look like two guys who could break 80 two days in a row. I mean, we were awful. So both of us summoned up something at least coming down the stretch.”

While Jobe’s 2025 campaign is over, Triplett plays on. But he still has plenty of work left to earn his playing privileges for 2026. Triplett will have to play well enough next week to improve his ranking to 54th to qualify for the Simmons Bank Championship, the second playoff event.

The task gets harder from there. Only the top 36 players in the standings will qualify for the playoff finale Charles Schwab Cup Championship and, in doing so, earn their 2026 PGA Tour Champions cards.

MADRID — Marco Penge beat fellow Englishman Daniel Brown in a playoff to win the Spanish Open on Sunday and secure a spot in next year’s Masters and Open Championship.

Penge relinquished a four-shot lead but came out on top with a birdie on the first playoff hole to win his third European tour title this year.

“Dan and Joel (Girrbach) played great today, they were holing putts and I just couldn’t really get it in the hole, it felt like I was really up against it,†Penge said. “But I felt like I managed myself really well and I actually think tee to green, I feel like I played really solid. It doesn’t matter the putts, I think I used them all yesterday, but obviously holing that one there was worth the wait.â€

It was the first time the national tournament offered the winner an automatic spot for the Masters and the British Open.

“It’s crazy,†Penge said about playing in the Masters. “It’s a golf course that I’ve always wanted to play, because I feel like my game sets up really good for it.â€

Penge, who shot a 1-over 72 on Sunday, finished tied with Brown at 15 under for the tournament.

Brown, whose 31st birthday was on Saturday, started five shots back but he made a run after shooting a 4-under 67 in the final round. That was despite dealing with a right shoulder ailment that required treatment during the back nine. He forced a playoff with a birdie on the final hole.

The 27-year-old Penge also won at the Danish Golf Championship and the Hainan Classic.

Girrbach (69) was four shots back to start the day. The Swiss player finished third at 14 under for the tournament.

Home-crowd favorite Jon Rahm, who was seeking a record fourth Spanish Open title, wasn’t really in contention at the start of the final round, but he closed with a 6-under 65 to finish in a tie for ninth.

Shane Lowry, who like Rahm was back in action after helping Europe win the Ryder Cup in New York last month, didn’t make the cut at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid in the Spanish capital.

SHANGHAI — Jeeno Thitikul came from four shots down with five holes to play to force a playoff with Minami Katsu, before producing another extraordinary shot on the fifth playoff hole to claim the LPGA Shanghai and become the first two-time LPGA tournament winner of the season on Sunday.

Top-ranked Thitikul’s 63 was the round of the day and included seven birdies and an eagle. The Thai player’s 24-under 264 closed what had appeared to be a comfortable margin for overnight leader Katsu of Japan, who had started the day two shots ahead and extended that to four after the 13th.

But the Thai player reeled that in with birdies on the 14th, 15th and 16th, before an incredible eagle with the ball bouncing along the mottled 17th green of Qizhong Garden Golf Club in Shanghai to draw level.

Katsu (65) could only respond with a birdie of her own at the 17th, but had another birdie chance on the final hole to claw back the victory only for the ball to slide past the hole and forcing the playoff.

Pars through the first four playoff holes, rotated between the 18th and the 10th, included Katsu having two birdie putts to win only to narrowly miss the hole on both.

On the fifth playoff hole the deadlock was broken as a brilliant approach by Thitikul placed the ball 3 feet away, while Katsu’s second shot fell short of the green at the par-4 18th.

Katsu’s chip for birdie was impressive but missed, leaving Thitikul a simple birdie putt to close out a remarkable victory nearly two years after losing in an epic nine-hole playoff to Celine Boutier at the LPGA Malaysia.

From disappointment to delight

It was Thitikul’s second win of the season after claiming the Mizuho Americas Open in May and helped ease the disappointment of her inexplicable four-putt meltdown on the final hole at the Kroger Queen City Championship last month.

“What happened on the last event (was) definitely still in my mind, but like to be able to prove myself again this tournament, which is … like a dream come true and you know, I’m not carrying a thing on my shoulder,†she said.

Minjee Lee, who won her third major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June, shot 68 on Sunday for a 19-under 269 as her challenge faded through the middle part of the round for a third-place finish.

Jenny Bae had a round of 69 and finished in a tie for fourth with Miyu Yamashita (67) of Japan and Somi Lee (69) of South Korea at 17-under 271.

Defending champion Ruoning Yin of China carded a final round of 68 to finish in a tie for 26th.

The Shanghai event is the first of five tournaments in Asia. There are two weeks in South Korea, including the International Crown team event, and other tournaments in Malaysia and Japan.

Oct 12, 2025, 06:48 AM ET

SHANGHAI — Jeeno Thitikul came from four shots down with five holes to play to force a playoff with Minami Katsu, before producing another extraordinary shot on the fifth playoff hole to claim the LPGA Shanghai and become the first two-time LPGA tournament winner of the season on Sunday.

Top-ranked Thitikul’s 63 was the round of the day and included seven birdies and an eagle. The Thai player’s 24-under 264 closed what had appeared to be a comfortable margin for overnight leader Katsu of Japan, who had started the day two shots ahead and extended that to four after the 13th.

But the Thai player reeled that in with birdies on the 14th, 15th and 16th, before an incredible eagle with the ball bouncing along the mottled 17th green of Qizhong Garden Golf Club in Shanghai to draw level.

Katsu (65) could only respond with a birdie of her own at the 17th, but had another birdie chance on the final hole to claw back the victory only for the ball to slide past the hole and forcing the playoff.

Pars through the first four playoff holes, rotated between the 18th and the 10th, included Katsu having two birdie putts to win only to narrowly miss the hole on both.

On the fifth playoff hole the deadlock was broken as a brilliant approach by Thitikul placed the ball three feet away, while Katsu’s second shot fell short of the green at the par-4 18th.

Katsu’s chip for birdie was impressive but missed, leaving Thitikul a simple birdie putt to close out a remarkable victory nearly two years after losing in an epic nine-hole playoff to Celine Boutier at the LPGA Malaysia.

From disappointment to delight

It was Thitikul’s second win of the season after claiming the Mizuho Americas Open in May and helped ease the disappointment of her inexplicable four-putt meltdown on the final hole at the Kroger Queen City Championship last month.

“What happened on the last event (was) definitely still in my mind, but like to be able to prove myself again this tournament, which is … like a dream come true and you know, I’m not carrying a thing on my shoulder,” she said.

Minjee Lee, who won her third major title at the Women’s PGA Championship in June, shot 68 on Sunday for a 19-under 269 as her challenge faded through the middle part of the round for a third-place finish.

Jenny Bae of the United States had a round of 69 and finished in a tie for fourth with Miyu Yamashita (67) of Japan and Somi Lee (69) of South Korea at 17-under 271.

Defending champion Ruoning Yin of China carded a final round of 68 to finish in a tie for 26th.

The Shanghai event is the first of five tournaments in Asia. There are two weeks in South Korea, including the International Crown team event, and other tournaments in Malaysia and Japan.

• 

  David SchoenfieldOct 11, 2025, 08:30 AM ET

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  • Covers MLB for ESPN.com
  • Former deputy editor of Page 2
  • Been with ESPN.com since 1995

A baseball team’s season doesn’t really come down to one play, or two plays, but if you’re a loyal fan of the Philadelphia Phillies, the final play of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers will live in your nightmares for a long time.

Orion Kerkering’s throwing error, leading to the Phillies’ elimination in Game 4 of the NLDS, is another addition to the list of heartbreaking postseason defeats. It’s a long list, of course, because that’s what playoff baseball does. But there were two other short throws from Game 2 that might have also impacted the outcome of the series: (1) Trea Turner’s throw that was wide right to catcher J.T. Realmuto, allowing Teoscar Hernandez to beat the tag and slide in safely and leading to a four-run rally for the Dodgers, and (2) Max Muncy firing a perfect throw to Mookie Betts on a bunt attempt in the ninth inning that nailed Nick Castellanos at third base as the Dodgers held on for a 4-3 victory.

It’s easy to think about the what-ifs — what if either throw went a few inches the other way? Or if Kerkering threw to first base instead of home? But it’s not as simple as a few throws, although those plays highlight the small margin of error in the playoffs.

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The Phillies’ season is also over because the big names didn’t hit. During this four-year run of what you might call the Bryce Harper/Kyle Schwarber era, they reached the World Series — somewhat surprisingly — in 2022 but haven’t made it back despite having some of the top front-line talent in the sport. In fact, the Phillies are 3-10 in their past 13 postseason games and 2-8 in their past 10.

In those 10 games, they’ve hit .195 as a team. Harper hit .206 with one home run and three RBIs. Schwarber hit .162 with three home runs and four RBIs, two of those home runs and three of the RBIs coming in Game 3 of this series. The others around them didn’t fare any better in those 10 games, with Turner, Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh each hitting under .200.

As the Phillies soak up a disappointing end to 2025, you have to wonder if this might be the end of this era of Phillies baseball. Schwarber, Realmuto and Ranger Suarez are free agents this offseason. Zack Wheeler will attempt a comeback following thoracic outlet syndrome surgery — though his timeline is uncertain. Aaron Nola is coming off a 6.01 ERA. And to top it all off, their four most valuable position players this season were all 32 or older.

The Phillies have had a remarkably stable roster of core players during this four-year run, and though they might look very different in 2026, one thing is for certain: Harper is not going anywhere. Signed through 2031, he has connected with the fans of Philadelphia like few athletes do in their adopted cities. He also knows their pain.

“I know fans are upset. I know the city’s upset. Obviously, it’s warranted. We’re upset in here as well,” Harper said after Game 4. “Our daily life is Phillies baseball. This is our family in here. This is what we do. We want to win not just for ourselves, but for everybody that watches us play. … I want to hold the trophy and that’s the goal every single time you get into spring training.”

While most people in baseball don’t believe the Phillies will let Schwarber go, not coming off his 56-homer campaign, the reality of the situation is clear: This is an aging roster with a high payroll. They have a committed owner in John Middleton, who has run top-five payrolls, and a future Hall of Fame executive in Dave Dombrowski, who knows how to build teams loaded with star players, but throwing more money at older players feels risky, even for a team coming off a 96-win season and trying to win the World Series.

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The organization is at a critical juncture, one that eerily resembles another Phillies era: the 2007-2011 teams that won five consecutive NL East titles and the World Series in 2008. If anything, that group was even more talented than this one — and the best of those teams was the 2011 squad that won 102 games, only to lose in the NLDS. But look what happened to those Phillies as the front office tried to keep winning with the same team:

• In 2012, they finished 81-81.

• In 2013, they finished 73-89.

• In 2014, they finished 73-89 and in last place in the division.

• In 2015, they hit rock bottom and finished an MLB-worst 63-99.

The similarities between the Phillies of the past four years and those 2007-2011 teams are more than a little eerie:

1. That 2011 NLDS ended with a 1-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals and on an atypical final play, when Ryan Howard grounded out and blew out his Achilles.

2. The ace of the 2011 staff was Roy Halladay, who won 19 games and posted 8.8 WAR. He was never the same again, suffering a shoulder injury the next season and winning just 15 more games in the majors. Wheeler, who had posted 5.0 WAR before this season ended when a blood clot was discovered near his right shoulder in August, will have to overcome a major injury at age 35 — the same age as Halladay in 2012.

3. The average weighted age (based on playing time) of the 2011 Phillies position players was 31.5, the oldest in the NL. The average age of the 2025 Phillies position players was 30.3, second oldest in the NL.

4. The 2011 Phillies had locked themselves into some hefty long-term contracts for older players. Howard had signed a five-year, $125 million extension in 2010 that didn’t begin until the 2012 season and was worth minus-5.0 WAR over those five seasons. Cliff Lee had signed a $120 million extension running through 2015, but he got hurt and won just four games in 2014, not even pitching in 2015. They banked on Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins to remain stars as they entered their age-33 seasons in 2012, but that didn’t happen.

The 2025 Phillies have similar issues with Wheeler making $42 million the next two seasons, Nola signed all the way through 2030, and are banking on Harper and Turner remaining productive as they enter their age-33 seasons in 2026.

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It’s also hard to imagine the Phillies suddenly rebuilding. That’s not in the nature of Middleton or Dombrowski. Even with the uncertainty with Wheeler, they have another ace in Cristopher Sanchez, plus Jesus Luzardo for one more season. We might finally see top prospect Andrew Painter enter the rotation in 2026. Taijuan Walker is still around for another year, so even if they don’t re-sign Sanchez, the rotation could be solid, although a lot of that depends on Nola bouncing back. Closer Jhoan Duran is under team control for two more seasons, so Philadelphia at least finally has some stability in the ninth inning. The other key relievers will be back, including Jose Alvarado, if his $9 million club option is exercised (not a sure thing given his PED suspension made him ineligible for the postseason).

On the position player side, Castellanos ($20 million) and Walker ($18 million) come off the books after 2026, so that’s money that can go to re-signing Schwarber. They also have a pair of highly touted prospects in shortstop/third baseman Aidan Miller and outfielder Justin Crawford, who should both be ready at some point in 2026, so that’s an opportunity to weave in some younger players.

There’s also the question of who will be managing this group for the long run. While Rob Thomson is under contract through the 2026 season, there are always rumblings that it might be time for a change after a string of painful playoff exits.

Despite that potential uncertainty, Thomson has no doubt about what the Phillies will have planned for 2026: “John [Middleton] is going to spend money. He wants to win. He wants a world champion. There’s good years ahead, no doubt.”

That may very well be the case. It’s easy to envision the Phillies right back in this position next October, hoping Harper and Schwarber get hot at the right time, hoping the right throws are made this time, hoping the whims of postseason baseball go their way. History, however, also suggests that’s hardly a sure thing.

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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 10: Jorge Polanco #7 of the Seattle Mariners celebrates after hitting the game-winning RBI single during the fifteenth inning against the Detroit Tigers to win game five of the American League Division Series at T-Mobile Park on October 10, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

The deciding 15-inning Game 5 of the Mariners-Tigers American League Division Series was a five-hour exercise in beautifully exhausting tension.

In a game with 115 plate appearances, there was never one where a batter for the trailing team stepped to the plate without a chance to at least tie the game.

The Mariners stepped to the plate in the bottom of seven innings with a chance to walk off to the American League Championship Series, and they finally did so in the 15th inning when Jorge Polanco singled to right to drive in J.P. Crawford.

The game was also an exercise in exhaustion for many East Coast baseball fans as it finished much later than a normal game, which is to be expected for 15 innings. The game ended at 1:07 a.m. But considering this was a 15-inning nail-biter, the game was a remarkable example of just how much quicker baseball, even the longest games, are being played these days.

While this game went past 1 a.m. ET, it is the 14th-latest finish in the postseason since 2015. So while some may be bleary eyed this morning, last night wasnâ€t the battle against sleep that the 2017 NLDS game between the D-backs and Dodgers. Thanks to a brutal (for the East Coast) 10:30 p.m. start time, that game didnâ€t finish until 2:08 a.m. ET despite being a not particularly long (for 2017) gametime of 3:37.

Hereâ€s a look at the latest finish times in the postseason since 2015. Any East Coasters who made it to the end of the wondrous 18-inning 2018 World Series game between the Dodgers and Red Sox deserves a commendation of some sort.

SeasonGAme
TYPEScoreEnd
TIMEGame
LENGTHMINUTES
PER BATTER2018W. CardRockies 2, Cubs 1 (13)1:04 a.m.4:552.892025ALDSMariners 3, Tigers 2 (15)1:07 a.m.4:582.592020NLDSDodgers 12, Padres 31:12 a.m.4:042.742018ALCSRed Sox 8, Astros 61:13 a.m.4:332.972019NLDSNationals 4, Dodgers 21:14 a.m.3:372.892015WSRoyals 5, Mets 4 (14)1:18 a.m.5:092.692016WSCubs 9, Guardians 31:19 a.m.5:093.862020NLDSDodgers 5, Padres 11:32 a.m.3:543.002017WSAstros 13, Dodgers 12 (10)1:38 a.m.5:173.232017NLDSDodgers 3, D-backs 11:44 a.m.3:363.092022NLDSPadres 5, Dodgers 31:54 a.m.3:462.902017NLDSDodgers 9, D-backs 52:08 a.m.3:372.782018NLCSDodgers 2, Brewers 1 (13)2:25 a.m.5:153.122016NLDSGiants 6, Cubs 5 (13)2:43 a.m.5:042.872018WSDodgers 3, Red Sox 2 (18)3:30 a.m.7:203.36

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