MLB

1:13 AM ET This is not how the San Diego Padres would have preferred to draw up their first postseason series victory since 1998. They played three games against the St. Louis Cardinals and their starting pitchers threw a combined six innings. They used eight pitchers in a Game 1 loss, used nine pitchers in

6:21 PM ET ESPN News Services CHICAGO — Garrett Cooper homered against Yu Darvish in a two-run seventh, hard-throwing rookie Sixto Sanchez dominated for five innings and the Miami Marlins won their first playoff series in 17 years, beating the Chicago Cubs 2-0 Friday to complete a two-game wild-card series sweep. Miami will face Atlanta

7:00 AM ET ESPN.com staff Just when it looked as if we might have only one game Friday after gorging on playoff baseball the past two days, Fernando Tatis Jr. happened and we have a postseason doubleheader: Game 2 of Marlins-Cubs and the winner-take-all Game 3 between Tatis’ Padres and the Cardinals. Here’s what you

2:49 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” You’re looking at the wrong thing. It’s understandable. A bat goes flying in the air, end over end, propelled into the night in a fit of passion, and it inevitably draws every

3:36 PM ET ESPN News Services ATLANTA — Ian Anderson dazzled in another shutout performance for Atlanta, and the Braves won a playoff series for the first time in almost two decades by sweeping the light-hitting Cincinnati Reds with a 5-0 victory Thursday. Ronald Acuna Jr. had three hits for the National League East champions,

7:00 AM ET ESPN.com staff The MLB playoffs frenzy turns up the heat Thursday with five (count ’em, five) elimination games. We’ve already said goodbye to the Twins, Blue Jays and Indians, and either the White Sox or A’s will be kicked off the American League island. In the National League, the Reds, Cubs, Padres

3:00 PM ET MLB InsidersESPN For the first time in the history of the MLB playoffs, there will be eight postseason games played on a single day. Wild Card Wednesday began with a Cincinnati Reds–Atlanta Braves extra-inning thriller and the Houston Astros‘ sweeping the Minnesota Twins out of the playoffs. Then the Miami Marlins took

6:07 PM ET ESPN News Services Miami Marlins center fielder Starling Marte suffered a non-displaced fracture of his left pinkie after getting hit by a pitch Wednesday, but there is optimism that he could continue playing, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers. Marte was hit in the hand on a fastball by Chicago

7:00 AM ET For the first time ever we get eight MLB playoff matchups in a single day! Whether you are a National League fan waiting for your series to start or an American League fan seeing if your team can move on (or stay alive) — or just a baseball fan ready to sit

6:21 PM ET MLB InsidersESPN The 2020 MLB playoffs began Tuesday with four American League Wild Card Series. The Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland A’s as Lucas Giolito flirted with perfection. The Houston Astros, who finished the 2020 season with a losing record, topped the Minnesota Twins to extend Minnesota’s record playoff losing streak

1:21 PM ET CHICAGO — Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks will start Game 1 of their NL Wild Card Series against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday, manager David Ross announced. The decision was between Hendricks and Cy Young contender Yu Darvish. Darvish will take the ball in Game 2. “I [feel] like I have two aces,”

7:00 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Someone asked about the best thing I saw in the 2020 Major League Baseball regular season, and my answer was baseball. Not a titanic Ronald Acuna Jr. home run or a dazzling

4:46 PM ET Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced Monday that Kyle Higashioka — not Gary Sanchez — will catch Gerrit Cole in Game 1 against the Indians on Tuesday. Cole had a 1.00 ERA in four starts this season with Higashioka behind the plate, but posted a 3.91 ERA in eight starts with Sanchez. “He

12:55 PM ET The Washington Nationals did not make it into this year’s MLB playoffs, so Major League Baseball will crown a different team as champion in 2020. Can the Los Angeles Dodgers get over the final hurdle and take home their first championship since 1988? Or could the Tampa Bay Rays win their first

7:00 AM ET MLB InsidersESPN It’s time for the MLB playoffs! After a wild sprint to the finish that needed every day of the regular season to determine the seeding, the real fun begins. For the first time, 16 teams will enter the postseason and just a few short days later half of them will

7:15 PM ET It will be a Major League Baseball postseason like we’ve never seen before: 16 teams, no fans, played in neutral-site ballparks after the first round of the MLB playoffs with a World Series at a new stadium that most players have never seen hosted by a franchise that has never won a

10:40 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Welcome to the most potentially chaotic day in baseball history. It’s easy to fall prey to the moment and hyperbolize, but, no, what Sunday has in store is legitimately mad. When Major

10:05 PM ET ESPN News Services NEW YORK — DJ LeMahieu is on the verge of a first in more than a century of Major League Baseball: the first player to win undisputed batting titles in both the American and National Leagues. Luke Voit is about to become a more common name atop the leaderboards