9:30 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 — Get used to this. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves, who will play a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday for the privilege of moving on to the World

2:40 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

9:43 PM ET Randy Arozarena has done it again. The Tampa Bay Rays rookie outfielder hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning off Lance McCullers Jr. to give the Rays the early lead over the Houston Astros in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Saturday in San

8:30 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 — In 1790, when the United States held its first census, one surname stood above all others. Nearly 6,000 white families, and more than 33,000 people, were called Smith. Today,

2:53 AM ET A few months before Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash was born, his 2020 American League Championship Series counterpart, Dusty Baker, supposedly co-invented the high five with his late Dodgers teammate, Glenn Burke. Cash was born on Dec. 6, 1977, and Baker had been a major leaguer for a nearly a decade.

7:58 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Major League Baseball’s postseason bubble appears to be working as a defense against the coronavirus. MLB players extended their streak of consecutive days with no new positive COVID-19 tests to 47 through Thursday. Players did not have positive tests in 55 of the previous 56 days, the

12:59 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 — One night after a record-setting run-scoring performance, the Los Angeles Dodgers couldn’t muster more than one hit against a rookie with seven career starts and are now on the

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

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

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 that his ace pitcher is pretty happy about that. Baker bucked metrics-fueled trends in pitcher usage Wednesday during