Mickey Togs

The New York Yankees were supposed to have the advantage in starting pitching. They were supposed to have more power than the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Bronx Bombers, even with their fundamental flaws, were supposed to make this an epic World Series.

Well, two games in, and you wonder if it’s going to be two more games and out. The Dodgers overpowered the Yankees, 4-2, on Saturday, and lead the World Series 2-0, confident when they return back to Los Angeles from New York, they’ll have a World Series trophy in their carry-on luggage.

The Dodgers, who came into the World Series with only three healthy starters, have outpitched the Yankees, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto never giving the Yankees a chance.

Yamamoto completely overwhelmed the Yankees, giving up just one hit in 6⅓ shutout innings, his longest outing since June 7 when he pitched seven shutout innings against these same Yankees.

The only mistake he made was trying to sneak a fastball past Juan Soto  in the third inning, which ended up going 386 feet into the Yankees’ bullpen. Yamamoto left to a raucous standing ovation by the crowd of 52,725.

The outing was even more painful for the Yankees considering they were one of the finalists for Yamamoto’s services when he left Japan last winter, only to be outbid by the Dodgers’ 12-year, $325 million offer.

It’s the 12th Fall Classic meeting between the Dodgers and Yankees, by far the most prolific of any postseason matchup. But this will mark the first meeting between these two teams since 1981. The Dodgers won the championship that season, but the Yankees have won eight of the previous 11 matchups. Since the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, they are 2-2 in World Series against New York.

The Dodgers earned home-field advantage throughout the postseason by finishing with 98 wins, the best record in baseball. The Yankees won 94 games, the best record in the American League and third-best record overall, with the 95-win Phillies in between.

The Yankees beat the Guardians in five games in the American League Championship Series, clinching the pennant on Saturday night in Cleveland. It’s the first trip to the World Series for New York since 2009.

Juan Soto smashed a three-run home run in the 10th inning on Saturday that lifted the New York Yankees over Cleveland 5-2 and into their first World Series since 2009.

The 25-year-old Dominican outfielder crushed a fastball from Cleveland pitcher Hunter Gaddis over the centerfield wall to score the deciding runs in a thriller that sent the Yankees into their record 41st World Series overall.

Earlier on, Giancarlo Stanton had hit a two-run homer in the sixth to level the match at 2-2.

“It’s the best feeling in the game whenever you win and take your team to the World Series,” said Soto. “It’s the best feeling you can ever have. That’s what we play for.

“We did a really good job since day one. We’ve been working hard. Now we’re the best team in the American League.”

In an uncanny display of dominance throughout the 2024 National League Championship Series, the Dodgers have left the Mets reeling. Approaching game four, fans anticipated a thrilling matchup, but the Dodgers had other plans, continuing their bludgeoning of the Mets with a decisive 10-2 victory. This brings their series lead to a commanding 3-1, having outscored the Mets 30-9 overall.

The game’s tone was set from the very first inning when Jose Quintana, a postseason hero for the Mets, gave up a solo shot to Shohei Ohtani. It wasn’t just any home run; it was his first postseason hit without runners on base, setting an early tone that would haunt the Mets. Quintana managed to shake it off momentarily and closed the inning without further damage—a false promise of stability for what was to come.

But by the next inning, the Dodgers were unstoppable. The floodgates opened wide in the third, with a Tommy Edman double and an Enrique Hernandez single that plated two.

Though the Mets loaded the bases in the bottom of the third, only a single run scored off a scrappy effort by an injured Brandon Nimmo, who narrowly beat out a double play.

The Dodgers, however, showed no mercy, extending their lead with two runs each in both the fourth and sixth innings, before sealing the deal with an eighth-inning flurry. At this point, the Mets faced their toughest predicament yet—a daunting 3-1 series deficit in the NLCS.

With their World Series aspirations hanging by a thread, the Mets find themselves at a critical juncture. 

The Buffalo Bills piled further misery on the New York Jets with a 23-20 victory at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The Jets were playing for the first time since head coach Robert Saleh was dismissed, but interim coach Jeff Ulbrich was unable to steady the ship.

Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen threw for two touchdowns and ran another to help his side to victory after two successive defeats.

Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw for 294 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception in a back-and-forth encounter.

Rodgers’ efforts helped New York to a 10-7 lead after the first quarter but they trailed 20-17 at half-time, despite a stunning Hail Mary pass from the four-time NFL Most Valuable Player, which was claimed by Allen Lazard.

Greg Zuerlein kicked the Jets level in the third quarter, but Tyler Bass registered a field goal of his own with three minutes and 43 seconds remaining to deliver victory.

It is a third straight defeat for the Jets, who fall to third in the AFC East on 2-4, behind the Miami Dolphins and the Bills, who lead the division on 4-2.

The Guardians (formerly called the Indians) and Yankees have been around for a long time. Cleveland is a charter member of the American League, which was established in 1901, and the Yankees were born two years later.

In the 121 years during which both have been Major League franchises, they have met in the postseason six times: 1997, 1998, 2007, 2017, 2020 and 2022. In that span, the clubs have been pretty evenly matched, with New York winning 15 games and Cleveland winning 12. 

Prior to the advent of the Wild Card in 1994, both were in the AL East and therefore did not match up in the playoffs.

Including this year’s AL Championship Series, the seven meetings between the Guardians and Yankees are topped only by the 11 times the Yankees and Dodgers faced off in the playoffs as the most common postseason matchup in MLB history.

The Cincinnati Bengals defense made enough plays to support an offense that got surprisingly little going, and they managed a17-7 victory over the New York Giants.

Both teams had a tough time executing anything. Daniel Jones threw a horrible interception as he was getting pressured, and missed on several other throws. The Bengals’ offense wasn’t much better but at least Cincinnati found one unexpected highlight.

Burrow, who never had a run longer than 23 yards in his first 57 NFL games, took off on a third-and-18 and just kept running because there were no Giants defenders around him. He scored on a stunning 47-yard touchdown. It was a nice play for Burrow, but also a red flag that the Giants allowed Burrow to break a run like that.

Both teams needed a win. The Giants were 2-3 coming into the game and the Bengals were 1-4. And it was there for the taking, but neither team seemed too excited to grab it.

The Dodgers had MLB’s best record this season and won a five-game NLDS against an impressive Padres team, but no team has been hotter for longer than the Mets.

Mets vs Dodgers

The Jets have shockingly fired head coach Robert Saleh on Tuesday after a 2-3 start to the season.

Saleh was 20-36 as the Jets coach five games into his fourth season on the job. The Jets entered the 2024 season with Super Bowl aspirations as quarterback Aaron Rodgers returned from a season-ending injury in 2023.

The Jets have not looked good in the early part of the season, though, and have dropped the last two games. The final straw was a 23-17 loss to the Vikings in London on Sunday, a game in which Aaron Rodgers threw three interceptions and the offense looked lost for much of the game.

Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich will be the interim head coach.

Saleh had one year remaining on the contract he signed in 2021.

For five-plus innings Wednesday the sellout crowd at Citi Field waited patiently for the chance to erupt, and finally Francisco Lindor’s mighty bat delivered a sixth-inning grand slam.

The New York Mets defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1, and head to the National League Championship Series.

Lindor went ahead 2-1 in the count before launching a 99-mph fastball over the fence in right-center to start the countdown party. Nine outs later, the Mets celebrated the first home clincher in Citi Field’s 16 seasons of existence.

It was just the latest dramatic blast for Lindor, whose ninth-inning homer in Atlanta on Sept. 30 in the first game of a doubleheader helped clinch a postseason berth for the Mets.

The Phillies were the NL East champions, but that designation got them exactly one playoff victory. The Mets, who entered the postseason as a wild card with the No. 6 seed, needed a victory on the final day of the regular season just to reach the playoffs. They followed with two victories in three games to win the NL Wild Card Series in Milwaukee.

Reed Garrett, David Peterson and Diaz combined on four scoreless innings in relief behind a superb start from Jose Quintana.