Ernie Clement goes hitless again in finale

The Padres will face the Dodgers for the third time in the decade; they lost to them in the NLDS in 2020 and 2024 but did beat them in 2022 before falling to the Phillies in the NLCS. Sheets didn’t start tonight because Austin Hays was 7-for-14 with two homers against Kevin Gausman in his career. However, right after Gausman was pulled in the fourth, Sheets was asked to hit against Daniel Palencia and turned around a 100.8-mph fastball. It was his second homer in seven career postseason games. Prior to Tuesday, he had the White Sox’s most recent postseason homer, taking Lance McCullers Jr. deep in the 2021 ALDS.

Pivetta and Kevin Gausman both got 10 outs, but Pivetta allowed two fewer runs, mostly because of the bullpen support; Gausman’s one runner left on base came around to score after Daniel Palencia entered the game, but Bradgley Rodríguez stranded both runners he inherited. Pivetta figures to start again in Game 3 of the NLDS against the Dodgers.

He gave up a double to Nico Hoerner, but he retired the other three batters he faced. After 88 regular-season saves, this is Miller’s first in the postseason. He pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings as a setup man for the Padres in front of Robert Suarez in the Wild Card loss to the Cubs last year.

Gausman allowed two runs in the second, which led to Daniel Palencia getting up in the Cubs pen. Gausman survived that inning and pitched a scoreless third, but Palencia went on to replace him after a one-out double in the fourth. Palencia then gave up a two-run homer to Gavin Sheets to give the Padres a 4-1 lead. Gausman, who turns 36 in January, hasn’t committed to continuing his career after finishing up his five-year, $110 million deal, but there will certainly be interest in him, even after a down year. He might not even have to take a paycut.

New York bludgeoned Boston’s pitching staff for a whopping 18 runs on 26 hits over a pair of games without Aaron Judge (calf), completing a sweep at Yankee Stadium and punching their ticket to the AL Division Series, where they’ll face the division-rival Rays. Bellinger delivered an RBI single against reliever Erik Miller in the fourth inning before breaking this one wide open with a three-run blast off Red Sox setup specialist Garrett Whitlock in the sixth inning, giving the Yankees a comfortable 8-1 advantage at the time.

Contreras was one of the few bright spots as Boston’s ongoing offensive struggles carried into a middle innings of a win-or-go-home battle at Yankee Stadium. He managed to get Boston within a single run by taking Yankees starter Max Fried deep on a full-count offering with two outs in the sixth inning. He wound up reaching base safely in all four of his plate appearances as the Red Sox were sent home following back-to-back blowout losses in New York.

García connected on a sweeper at the bottom of the strike zone from Sonny Gray, sending a blast into the right-field seats in the fourth inning to give New York an early advantage. It looked for a while like his round-tripper was going to be one of the few runs for either side in the contest until the Yankees managed to blow the game wide open with a six-run explosion in the sixth inning.

Crochet took the mound in the seventh inning for his first game action since April 25, with the Red Sox facing elimination and trailing by a single run at the time. It didn’t go well. Simply put, he looked like a pitcher who hadn’t faced hitters in five months, as all four batters he faced reached base safely and eventually came around to score. Spencer Jones reached on a wild pitch and wound up on third base after a throwing error before George Lombard Jr. brought him home with an RBI single. Crochet was lifted after allowing back-to-back hits to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Trent Grisham. It’s difficult to put the blame entirely on him, and he deserves plenty of credit for persevering through his rehabilitation to even have a chance to pitch in this spot, but Crochet simply wasn’t sharp enough in a moment when Boston needed him to keep its playoff hopes alive.

It wasn’t an overpowering performance, but Fried kept putting zeroes on the scoreboard, carrying a shutout into the sixth inning before coughing up a solo homer to Willson Contreras with two outs in the frame. The 32-year-old lefty finished with six strikeouts and only issued one walk. He got plenty of support from New York’s as they piled up nine runs on 14 hits in the one-sided affair. He figures to take the ball at some point in the early stages of the AL Division Series against the Rays next week.