MLB Player News

Benintendi stole second base in the top of the fourth inning but looked to badly injure his left shoulder as he hung onto the bag. Jarrod Dyson entered to run for him. There should be an update soon from the South Side of Chicago.

This was maybe Rodón’s best outing as a Yankee, as he finished with zero walks, nine strikeouts and whopping 25 missed swings. The lone run against him came on a homer from Brayan Rocchio in the sixth, and both other hits he surrendered were singles. After wearing down quickly in his lone start against the Royals, he paced himself nicely tonight, and he picked up his first career postseason victory in his third try. Game 2 of the ALCS will come Tuesday, with Tanner Bibee and Gerrit Cole slated to start.

Cobb got threw two scoreless before giving up a homer to Juan Soto to lead off the third. After he followed that with a walk to Aaron Judge, he was visited by the trainer, presumably to see if he was having issues with the troublesome finger that put him on the IL in September. He remained in the game and got to two outs, but he was pulled with the bases loaded. The stunning thing was that Stephen Vogt, instead of going to any of his quality relievers, brought in a starter with control issues in Joey Cantillo. Cantillo wound up throwing two run-scoring wild pitches that inning and two more before being pulled in the fourth. The Guardians were never really in the game after that. It’s understandable that Vogt didn’t want to burn out a pen still weary from the ALDS, but if that was the case, he was certainly better off relying on Cobb in a bases-loaded situation in the third.

Soto’s homer was a missile off Alex Cobb, a pitcher he’d also dominated in limited regular-season action the last few years. It was his first homer of this postseason and seventh in 34 games dating back to his time as a 20-year-old sophomore in 2019.

The slam came in a 2-0 game after the Mets walked Francisco Lindor with first base open and two outs in the second. To be fair, Lindor did homer in the first. That was off opener Ryan Brasier, though, and the Dodgers had Landon Knack in the game at that point. Lindor may have a postseason advantage over Vientos with all of his experience, but the choice was between two guys with very similar regular-season numbers, and all margin for error was gone with the bases loaded, whereas there would have been some with the base open working to Lindor. After the homer, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pretty much gave up on winning this one, saving all of his best relievers for Wednesday’s Game 3. Walker Buehler and Luis Severino are the scheduled starters then.

Manaea pitched four scoreless innings before giving up a Max Muncy solo homer in the fifth. Things went south in the sixth. Manaea walked Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández to start the inning and then got a potential double-play grounder, only for Jose Iglesias to turn it into no outs. Manaea was replaced by Phil Maton at that point. Maton gave up a two-run single with one out, but he preserved most of the Mets’ lead by getting Enrique Hernández to ground into a double play. Manaea moved to 2-0 with a 2.65 ERA in three postseason starts.

If this had been another five-game series, the Dodgers probably would have tried a true bullpen day today, like they did in Game 4 against the Padres. As is, they didn’t feel comfortable asking that much of the pen with the potential for seven games in nine days. That made Knack the bulk guy, and he just didn’t have it in this one. Things might have worked out better if not for the decision to intentionally walk Francisco Lindor ahead of a Mark Vientos grand slam, but that’s hardly assured. Knack’s 55 pitches produced just three missed swings and five hard-hit balls.

Kershaw has weighed retirement before, but he didn’t have to think too hard about it this time around, apparently. The three-time Cy Young Award winner can become a free agent this winter or accept his player option with the Dodgers, which guarantees him $7.5 million with a chance to earn an additional $15 million next season.

Rizzo is just two weeks removed from fracturing two fingers. He missed the entire ALDS against the Royals but is not only back on the active roster but in the starting lineup for the Yankees. That will push both Jon Berti and Oswaldo Cabrera back to bench roles.

With the Mets throwing left-hander Sean Manaea, the Dodgers will sit Gavin Lux, move Enrique Hernandez to second base, and insert Pages into the lineup to play center field. It will be the rookie’s first career postseason start.

The Mets will roll out the exact same lineup as they did in Game 1, which means Nimmo will remain in the field despite playing through plantar fasciitis.