Shohei Ohtani hitting cleanup in Game 4 vs. Braves

Smith draws the opening assignment after throwing 21 pitches in relief during Wednesday’s Game 3 loss to the Guardians. He walked a pair of batters and gave up on hit during the abbreviated outing. The 23-year-old southpaw has been a revelation this season and has allowed just one run over 6 1/3 innings this postseason. Ideally, the White Sox would like to jump out to an early lead before turning the ball over the Grant Taylor with a chance to wrap up the series and advance to face the Rays in the ALCS this weekend.

Mesa connected on a hanging slider from Yankees ace Max Fried, sending a majestic 401-foot moonshot into the front row of the right-field seats to put Tampa Bay ahead with two outs in the sixth inning. It was his lone hit in four at-bats, but it made the difference in a low-scoring showdown in New York as the Rays completed a sweep of their division rivals to punch their ticket to the ALCS for the first time since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. They’ll face either the White Sox or Guardians later this week at Tropicana Field.

Baseball is a game of inches. Literally. Nobody is more aware of that age-old truism than Volpe as the Yankees were unable to stave off elimination and keep their season alive. It looked momentarily like the much-harangued former top prospect was going to have his signature moment at Yankee Stadium before a replay review overturned a potential game-tying home run to left field due to some fairly obvious fan interference in the sixth inning. He struck out on seven pitches against Rays closer Bryan Baker leading off the ninth as the Yankees were swept out of the postseason by their division rivals.

Baker got the call in a save situation for the third consecutive game and managed to once again slam the door. He struck out Anthony Volpe on seven pitches before issuing a four-pitch walk to Spencer Jones. He didn’t look particularly sharp early on, but Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder was able to somehow get him back on track with a timely mound visit. Baker responded by getting Jazz Chisholm Jr. to ground into a force out before striking out Trent Grisham to end the series.

Pages delievered the metaphorical knockout punch for Los Angeles, coming through with a two-run single on a full-count fastball from Atlanta veteran reliever Robert Suarez to put the Dodgers ahead and send their star-studded juggernaut back to the NLCS for the third consecutive season. His heroics were set up by two-out walks to Josue De Paula and Kyle Tucker that loaded the bases. Pages has been much maligned for his postseason struggles over the last two years, but he came through with four hits over the final two games of the series to send Atlanta packing.

Harris was one of the few bright spots for the Braves as they once again were unable to come up with a big hit when presented with plenty of opportunities against Los Angeles, going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position during a brutal series-ending loss. The 25-year-old center fielder gave Atlanta an early lead when he reached on a leadoff single and swiped second base before scampering home on a wild pitch from Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow with two outs in the opening frame. He also doubled to bring the potential tying run to the plate with two outs in the seventh inning.

Muncy went deep for the third time this postseason, supplying a critical insurance run for Los Angeles with a ninth-inning blast to right field off Atlanta closer Raisel Iglesias to put them up by three runs. The 36-year-old third baseman is up to 19 career playoff round-trippers dating back to 2018.

Acuña, who played through a right knee issue for most of the series, finished 2-for-15 with zero extra-base hits as Atlanta’s season came to an end at the hands of the back-to-back defending World Series champions. The 28-year-old stalwart remains one of the more impactful power/speed combo threats in the fantasy landscape and will be an early-round pick in fantasy leagues next spring, despite his seemingly omnipresent injury concerns.