LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Latest on the World Series (all times local):8:12 p.m.Jackie Bradley Jr. has tied up Game 3 of the World Series.The Boston outfielder hit a two-out homer off Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen in the eighth inning, evening the score at 1-1.The Dodgers went to Jansen to attempt a six-out save after rookie Walker Buehler overwhelmed Boston for seven innings. Instead, Jansen had another World Series game to forget when Bradley connected to right for his third homer of the postseason.All 10 of Bradley's RBIs in the postseason have come with two outs. Boston manager Alex Cora started Bradley over Andrew Benintendi in Game 3 in a mild surprise, but Bradley delivered a third-inning single and that enormous homer.Jansen has been largely solid in this postseason, but his woes in last year's World Series allowed the Astros to rally late in Game 2 and in Game 5.Boston reliever Matt Barnes kept it even in the bottom of the eighth, striking out Manny Machado with a runner on first to... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Dodgers have seen the future and it's ace-in-the-making Walker Buehler.Except they need him to deliver now.Buehler will try to yank Los Angeles out of a 2-0 deficit against the Boston Red Sox when the World Series shifts to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Friday.Clearly, the Dodgers trust their 24-year-old rookie.He led them to a victory over Colorado in Game 163 that clinched Los Angeles' sixth straight NL West title.The right-hander also pitched well in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series against Milwaukee.Now, the pressure is on the calm and confident kid from Kentucky horse country to keep them out of a potential 3-0 hole."It's a little bit different than a Game 7 tomorrow," Buehler said Thursday, "but at the same time there's a little bit of backs-against-the-wall-type of scenario."Since starting the season at Triple-A Oklahoma City, Buehler has impressed as the heir apparent to three-time NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, who could opt out of the final... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Latest on the World Series (all times local):7:39 p.m.Walker Buehler was removed with a 1-0 lead over Boston after seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball, the longest World Series outing for a Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher since Clayton Kershaw in the 2017 opener.Buehler retired his final 14 batters, striking out seven and walking none. The 24-year-old rookie right-hander fanned his final batter, major league RBIs leader J.D. Martinez, with a 98 mph pitch. Buehler's 108 pitches were his high as a professional.Closer Kenley Jansen relieved to start the eighth.Joc Pederson's home run off Rick Porcello in the third inning remained the difference. The Dodgers are trying to rebound after losing the first two games in Boston.___7:10 p.m.Walker Buehler is pitching quite a gem.Summoning all the poise and polish of Koufax, Hershiser, Kershaw and every great Dodgers moundsman over the years, the 24-year-old rookie has thrown two-hit ball through six innings against the highest-scoring... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Dodgers have seen the future and it's ace-in-the-making Walker Buehler.Except they need him to deliver now.Buehler will try to yank Los Angeles out of a 2-0 deficit against the Boston Red Sox when the World Series shifts to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Friday.Clearly, the Dodgers trust their 24-year-old rookie.He led them to a victory over Colorado in Game 163 that clinched Los Angeles' sixth straight NL West title.The right-hander also pitched well in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series against Milwaukee.Now, the pressure is on the calm and confident kid from Kentucky horse country to keep them out of a potential 3-0 hole."It's a little bit different than a Game 7 tomorrow," Buehler said Thursday, "but at the same time there's a little bit of backs-against-the-wall-type of scenario."Since starting the season at Triple-A Oklahoma City, Buehler has impressed as the heir apparent to three-time NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, who could opt out of the final... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Dodgers have seen the future and it's ace-in-the-making Walker Buehler.Except they need him to deliver now.Buehler will try to yank Los Angeles out of a 2-0 deficit against the Boston Red Sox when the World Series shifts to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Friday.Clearly, the Dodgers trust their 24-year-old rookie.He led them to a victory over Colorado in Game 163 that clinched Los Angeles' sixth straight NL West title.The right-hander also pitched well in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series against Milwaukee.Now, the pressure is on the calm and confident kid from Kentucky horse country to keep them out of a potential 3-0 hole."It's a little bit different than a Game 7 tomorrow," Buehler said Thursday, "but at the same time there's a little bit of backs-against-the-wall-type of scenario."Since starting the season at Triple-A Oklahoma City, Buehler has impressed as the heir apparent to three-time NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, who could opt out of the final... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — J.D. Martinez and the Boston Red Sox made magic with two outs during the American League playoffs.With a World Series title on the line, seems they have plenty left.Martinez delivered a two-out, tiebreaking single , and Boston got all its runs with two down while beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 on Wednesday night for a 2-0 Series lead.Boston has done most of its scoring with two in the books: nine of its 12 runs through two World Series games have come that way, and 36 of 68 for the postseason.Martinez has been the electrifying force for much of that two-out October lightning. He entered Wednesday batting .667 with a 1.515 OPS with two outs in the postseason.Despite playing on the sore right ankle he rolled in Game 1, Boston's free-agent pickup went the other way for a two-run single in the fifth, a two-out knock that snapped a 2-all tie.Martinez has 13 RBIs through 11 postseason games, and seven of those have come with two outs."We just have guys that really do a really... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — J.D. Martinez and the Boston Red Sox made magic with two outs during the AL playoffs.With a World Series on the line, seems they have plenty left.Martinez delivered a two-out tiebreaking single, and Boston got all of its runs with two down while beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 on Wednesday night for a 2-0 World Series lead.Boston has done most of its scoring with two in the books: nine of its 12 runs through two World Series games have come that way, and 36 of 68 for the postseason.Martinez has been the electrifying force for much of that two-out October lightning. He entered Tuesday batting .667 with a 1.515 OPS with two outs in the postseason.Despite playing on the sore right ankle he rolled in Game 1, Boston's free-agent pickup went the other way for a two-run single in the fifth, a two-out knock that snapped a 2-2 tie.Martinez has 13 RBIs through 11 postseason games, and seven of those have come with two outs.The Red Sox entered Wednesday batting .405 with a 1.335... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — The San Gabriel Mountains shimmering in the distance will be a welcome sight for the Los Angeles Dodgers after two chilly, failed nights at Fenway Park.The Dodgers were cold and out of sorts during two games in Boston, falling behind 2-0 in the World Series — a deficit no team has overcome in 22 years.Used to the warm weather and gentle breezes of the NL West, Los Angeles hadn't started a game this year in a temperature below 58. Facing a 53-degree temperature at the start of the opener, the Dodgers lost 8-4. It was just 46 in the first inning Wednesday night, and their performance was just as cold in a 4-2 defeat."This is the first time we've played in obviously weather like this — San Francisco a little bit, but nothing like this," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before Game 2. "So it's an adjustment, and that's part of the home-field advantage and especially being in the bullpen, where you have a little heater, but still have to kind of get hot and stay hot. It's more... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred doesn't foresee any problems if the World Series winner is invited to visit the White House.Both World Series teams have minority managers for the first time, and President Donald Trump has had tense relationships with many minority groups."I think as an institution, Major League Baseball has always had the greatest respect for the office of the presidency," Manfred said. "That doesn't change, no matter who's there. Often we've had situations where individuals, players, whatever, don't agree with all of the policies of the individual that occupies the office. I think the important thing is respect for the office."Manfred addressed a number of topics prior to Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday night, including start times and length of games. Boston's win in the World Series opener took 3 hours, 52 minutes and ended at 12:03 a.m. EDT. Manfred said complaints about World Series start times reflect an East Coast prejudice."When you start... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — Aces were out early in the World Series, where four-plus innings for starters is becoming the new norm.The outings of the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw and Boston's Chris Sale turned into short stories . Each failed to get an out in the fifth inning Tuesday night, just the fourth time both starting pitchers were chased that early in a Series opener and the first since 2004 — also at Fenway Park.They were long gone by the time Boston won 8-4 in what became a predictable postseason battle of bullpens."I say it all the time, and I say it to my son, I've never seen an ugly win," Sale explained in a packed Boston clubhouse. "Obviously the stat line isn't the prettiest thing. It's not exactly how you draw it up or dream about it, but we got a win, so I'm good to go."For a century, aces were baseball's studs, grabbing the mound for Game 1 as if by birthright and not letting go easily. Think Bob Gibson 50 years ago, pitching a five-hit shutout for St. Louis against Detroit with 17 strikeouts... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — Aces were out early in the World Series, where four-plus innings for starters is becoming the new norm.The outings of the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw and Boston's Chris Sale turned into short stories . Each failed to get an out in the fifth inning Tuesday night, just the fourth time both starting pitchers were chased that early in a Series opener and the first since 2004 — also at Fenway Park.They were long gone by the time Boston won 8-4 in what became a predictable postseason battle of bullpens."I say it all the time, and I say it to my son, I've never seen an ugly win," Sale explained in a packed Boston clubhouse. "Obviously the stat line isn't the prettiest thing. It's not exactly how you draw it up or dream about it, but we got a win, so I'm good to go."For a century, aces were baseball's studs, grabbing the mound for Game 1 as if by birthright and not letting go easily. Think Bob Gibson 50 years ago, pitching a five-hit shutout for St. Louis against Detroit with 17 strikeouts... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — Red Sox manager Alex Cora didn't want his lefties to feel left out.Even as Los Angeles loaded its lineup with right-handed batters to face Boston lefty Chris Sale, Cora stayed with Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers against left-handed Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night.Benintendi responded with four hits — going 3 for 3 against the three-time NL Cy Young Award winner — and three runs. Devers drove in one of them to lead the Red Sox to an 8-4 victory in a blustery Series opener."We're facing a guy who's one of the best of all time. And a lot of guys didn't have a lot of experience off of him; the first time a lot of us have faced him. Didn't really know what to expect," Benintendi said. "We had a good game plan. We stuck to it."Benintendi had one four-hit performance in the regular season but had never topped two in a postseason game during his career. The 24-year-old left fielder became just the second lefty ever to have three hits... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — Red Sox manager Alex Cora didn't want his lefties to feel left out.Even as Los Angeles loaded its lineup with right-handed batters to face Red Sox lefty Chris Sale, Cora stayed with Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers against left-handed Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night.Benintendi responded with four hits — going 3 for 3 against the three-time NL Cy Young Award winner — and three runs. Devers drove in one of them to lead the Red Sox to an 8-4 victory over the Dodgers in a blustery Series opener."We're facing a guy who's one of the best of all time. And a lot of guys didn't have a lot of experience off of him; the first time a lot of us have faced him. Didn't really know what to expect," Benintendi said. "We had a good game plan. We stuck to it."Benintendi had one four-hit performance in the regular season but had never topped two in a postseason game during his career. The 24-year-old left fielder is just the second lefty ever to have... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — The first delivery from Ryan Madson was a changeup that bounced past catcher Austin Barnes for a wild pitch, allowing two baserunners to advance.Things hardly got better from there for the previously dependable Dodgers bullpen.Madson and three other relievers failed to slow Boston's bats on a night when ace Clayton Kershaw wasn't at his best, either, and Los Angeles fell to the Red Sox 8-4 in the World Series opener Tuesday.Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has been able to count on his relievers this October. The group is 4-1 with a 1.30 ERA, limiting opponents to a .180 average.Against the AL champions at their chilly home park, though, that group went ice cold in Game 1."You're going to have to go to the 'pen and play matchups, and that's kind of how I saw it, we saw it," Roberts said. "But they got the big hit when they needed it."Kershaw was chased from a 3-3 game in the fifth after walking Mookie Betts and allowing a single to Andrew Benintendi.Roberts gave the ball to Madson,... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — Games averaged 3 hours, 35½ minutes during the playoffs, up 6 minutes from the 2017 postseason and more than a half-hour longer than this year's regular season.Strikeouts have topped hits in seven of eight postseason matchups. Starting pitchers usually don't finish the fifth inning and use of relievers is up markedly in an era when "bullpenning" has become a verb.Have the changes brought about by analytics made baseball less appealing to casual fans?"There's certainly something to be said for that, because ball in play, double plays, defense, that's always exciting," Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said ahead of Tuesday night's World Series opener against Boston. "I know our series there was a lot of strikeouts, but there was the strategy part of it — I think that that's very exciting for a baseball purist that loves to see what managers think and how you can kind of match up against the opposition."Boston's 8-4 win in Game 1 took 3:52, ended at 12:03 a.m. and included... [More]

Sometimes, in the pressure cooker of a World Series, a manager gets distracted by all those indecipherable charts and the trove of analytics he has at his fingertips.Sometimes, he spends too much time flailing around in search of the perfect matchup instead of just watching what's occurring right before his eyes.That's what happened to Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers.In a classic case of over-managing, Roberts helped send his team to an 8-4 loss in Game 1 Tuesday night against the Boston Red Sox by making one move too many in the decisive seventh inning, setting up Eduardo Nunez's three-run homer.The Dodgers were trailing only 5-4, despite another postseason flop by Clayton Kershaw, when Andrew Benintendi led off with his fourth hit of the game — a blooper down the left-field line that somehow managed to elude Joc Pederson before hopping into the stands for a fluky ground-rule double.Roberts hustled to the mound to lift Julio Urias, summoning hard-throwing right-hander Pedro Baez... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — Aces were out early in the World Series, where four-plus innings for starters is becoming the new norm.The outings of the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw and Boston's Chris Sale turned into short stories. Each failed to get an out in the fifth inning Tuesday night, just the fourth time both starting pitchers were chased that early in a Series opener and the first since 2004 — also at Fenway Park.They were long gone by the time Boston won 8-4 in what became a predictable postseason battle of bullpens."I say it all the time, and I say it to my son, I've never seen an ugly win," Sale explained in a packed Boston clubhouse. "Obviously the stat line isn't the prettiest thing. It's not exactly how you draw it up or dream about it, but we got a win, so I'm good to go."For a century, aces were baseball's studs, grabbing the mound for Game 1 as if by birthright and not letting go easily. Think Bob Gibson 50 years ago, pitching a five-hit shutout for St. Louis against Detroit with 17 strikeouts... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — Aces were out early in the World Series, where four-plus innings for starters is becoming the new norm.The outings of the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw and Boston's Chris Sale turned into short stories. Each failed to get an out in the fifth inning Tuesday night, just the fourth time both starting pitchers were chased that early in a Series opener and the first since 2004 — also at Fenway Park.They were long gone by the time Boston won 8-4 in what became a predictable postseason battle of bullpens."I say it all the time, and I say it to my son, I've never seen an ugly win," Sale explained in a packed Boston clubhouse. "Obviously the stat line isn't the prettiest thing. It's not exactly how you draw it up or dream about it, but we got a win, so I'm good to go."For a century, aces were baseball's studs, grabbing the mound for Game 1 as if by birthright and not letting go easily. Think Bob Gibson 50 years ago, pitching a five-hit shutout for St. Louis against Detroit with 17 strikeouts... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — The first delivery from Ryan Madson was a changeup that bounced past catcher Austin Barnes for a wild pitch, allowing two baserunners to advance.Things hardly got better from there for the previously dependable Dodgers bullpen.Madson and three other relievers failed to slow Boston's bats on a night when ace Clayton Kershaw wasn't at his best, either, and Los Angeles fell to the Red Sox 8-4 in the World Series opener Tuesday.Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has been able to count on his relievers this October. The group is 4-1 with a 1.30 ERA, limiting opponents to a .180 average.Against the AL champions at their frigid home park, though, that group went ice cold in Game 1.Kershaw was chased from a 3-3 game in the fifth after walking Mookie Betts and allowing a single to Andrew Benintendi.Roberts gave the ball to Madson, a key piece when LA's bullpen covered 5 1/3 scoreless innings in a Game 7 victory over Milwaukee to close out the Championship Series. Roberts has leaned on Madson... [More]

Sometimes, in the pressure cooker of a World Series, a manager gets distracted by all those indecipherable charts and the trove of analytics he has at his disposable.Sometimes, he spends too much time flailing around in search of the perfect matchup instead of just watching what's happening right before his eyes.That's what happened to Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers.In a classic case of over-managing, Roberts helped send his team to an 8-4 loss in Game 1 Tuesday night against the Boston Red Sox by making one move too many in the decisive seventh inning.The Dodgers were trailing only 5-4, despite another postseason flop by Clayton Kershaw, when Andrew Benintendi led off with his fourth hit of the game — a bloop down the left-field line that somehow managed to elude Joc Pederson before hopping into the stands for a rather fluky ground-rule double.Roberts hustled to the mound to lift Julio Urias, summoning hard-throwing right-hander Pedro Baez from the bullpen.Baez was left off the... [More]