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• Ohtani, Judge both unanimous picks for MVP awards

  Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were both unanimously selected to win Most Valuable Player Awards in their respective leagues on Thursday.

  Judge collected all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. garnered all 30 second-place votes.

  Yankees outfielder Juan Soto finished third with 21 third-place votes.

  Ohtani was an unanimous MVP for the third time, receiving all 30 first-place votes and 420 points in voting by the BWAA. New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor was second with 263 points and Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte third with 229.

  It is the second AL MVP award of Judge's career after he also won the award in 2022.

  Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers, 144 RBIs and 133 walks while hitting .322. He also drew a league-high 133 walks and posted a spectacular 1.159 OPS.

  Witt topped the big leagues with a .332 average, hitting 32 homers with 109 RBIs.

  With two MVP Awards to his name, Judge is the seventh player in Yankees history to win multiple MVPs. He joins Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Alex Rodriguez.

  There was an extended stretch over the summer where Judge was on a pace to reach and possibly break his own single-season home run record (62 in 2022). The same goes for a bid at a Triple Crown.

  The stretch that truly defined his season began on April 27. Judge entered play on that day in Milwaukee with a .178 batting average and .674 OPS on the season. He had only four home runs with 35 strikeouts across 27 games.

  Over his next 100 games, through August 23, Judge hit .378 with 45 home runs. It was the first time in MLB history a player batted higher than .375 with 45-plus homers in a stretch of 100 games within a single season.

  Ohtani was unanimously voted AL MVP in 2021 and 2023 as a two-way star for the Los Angeles Angels and finished second to Judge in 2022 voting. He didn’t pitch in 2024 following elbow surgery and signed a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers last December.

  Ohtani hit .310, stole 59 bases and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs exclusively as a designated hitter, becoming the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. He helped the Dodgers to the World Series title, playing the final three games with a torn labrum in his left shoulder.

  Ohtani is the first primary DH to win an MVP. He joins Frank Robinson for Cincinnati in 1961 and Baltimore in 1966 as the only players to win the MVP award in both leagues.

  The Japanese sensation is the 12th player with three or more MVPs, joining Barry Bonds (seven) and Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout (three each).

• Dodgers erase 5-run deficit, beat Yankees to win World Series

  The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second World Series championship in five seasons, overcoming a five-run deficit with the help of three Yankees defensive miscues and rallying on sacrifice flies from Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts in the eighth inning to beat New York 7-6 in Game 5 on Wednesday night.

  Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, Alex Verdugo’s RBI single chased Jack Flaherty in the second and Giancarlo Stanton’s third-inning homer against Ryan Brasier built a 5-0 Yankees lead.

  But errors by Judge in center and Anthony Volpe at shortstop, combined with pitcher Gerrit Cole failing to cover first on Betts' grounder, helped Los Angeles score five unearned runs in the fifth.

  After Stanton’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly put the Yankees back ahead 6-5, the Dodgers loaded the bases against loser Tommy Kahnle in the eighth before the sacrifice flies off Luke Weaver.

  Winner Blake Treinen escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the bottom half by retiring Stanton on a flyout and striking out Anthony Rizzo.

  Walker Buehler, making his first relief appearance since his rookie season in 2018, pitched a perfect ninth for the save.

  Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers’ record-setting $700 million signing and baseball’s first 50-homer, 50-steal player, went 2 for 19 with no RBIs and had one single after separating his shoulder during a stolen base attempt in Game 2.

  Freddie Freeman hit a two-run single to tie the Series record of 12 RBIs, set by Bobby Richardson over seven games in 1960. With the Dodgers one out from losing Friday’s opener, Freeman hit a game-ending grand slam reminiscent of Kirk Gibson’s homer off Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in 1988’s Game 1 that sparked Los Angeles to the title.

  The Dodgers earned their eighth championship and seventh since leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles - their first in a non-shortened season since 1988. They won a neutral-site World Series against Tampa Bay in 2020 after a 60-game regular season and couldn’t have a parade because of the coronavirus pandemic.

• Volpe hits grand slam as Yankees avoid World Series sweep

  Anthony Volpe hit a grand slam and New York’s bullpen tossed five scoreless innings as the Yankees avoided a World Series sweep with an 11-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.

  Freddie Freeman homered for his sixth straight Series game, hitting a two-run drive in the first inning for the second straight night and again stunning the Yankee Stadium crowd.

  Game 5 is Wednesday night, with the Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and the Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty meeting in a rematch of Game 1.

  Twenty-one of the previous 24 teams to take 3-0 Series leads went on to sweeps, all but the 1910 Philadelphia Athletics against the Chicago Cubs, the 1937 Yankees against the New York Giants and the 1970 Baltimore Orioles against the Cincinnati Reds. All three of those Series ended in five games.

  Seeking to become the first team to overcome a 3-0 Series deficit, New York surged ahead 5-2 on Alex Verdugo’s RBI grounder in the second and Volpe’s drive against Daniel Hudson in the third. Volpe turned on a first-pitch slider at the knees and drove it into the left-field seats.

  Volpe came across with New York's first run when he walked after falling behind 0-2 in the count in the second inning. He also doubled and stole two bases.

  Austin Wells and Gleyber Torres added homers for the Yankees, who broke open the game with a five-run eighth. New York had scored just seven runs in the first three games.

  Los Angeles closed within 6-4 in a two-run fifth that included Will Smith's homer off starter Luis Gil and an RBI grounder by Freeman. Despite a sprained right ankle, Freeman beat a relay to avoid an inning-ending double play on what originally was ruled an out but was reversed in a video review.

  Wells hit a second-deck homer in the sixth against Landon Knack, and Verdugo added another run-scoring grounder in the eighth ahead of Torres' three-run homer off Brent Honeywell.

  Tim Hill, winning pitcher Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza strung together five innings of one-hit relief with seven strikeouts, and the Yankees avoided what would have been their first losing Series sweep since 1976.

  New York's Aaron Judge drove in his first run of the Series with an RBI single in the eighth and is 2 for 15 in the four games. Dodgers sensation Shohei Ohtani also is 2 for 15 after going 1 for 4 with a single, his first hit since partially separating his left shoulder in Game 2.