Three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer could face a 10-game suspension after being ejected from the New York Mets' 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers after checks for a sticky substance.
The Mets right-hander pleaded his innocence with the umpires checking the pitcher's hand and glove for a sticky substance on three separate occasions, eventually tossing him from the game prior to the fourth inning.
Under MLB rules, if a player is deemed to have violated the rules on sticky substances, they will receive an automatic 10-game ban, which can be appealed.
Scherzer was left bewildered by the decision, yelling "it's rosin" upon umpire Phil Cuzzi's call to eject him from the game, before reluctantly exiting.
"I'd have to be an absolute idiot to try to do anything when I'm coming back out for the fourth," Scherzer told reporters. "He said my hand is too sticky, and I said, 'I swear on my kids' life that I'm not using anything else. This is sweat and rosin, sweat and rosin.'
"I don't get how I get ejected when I'm in front of MLB officials doing exactly - exactly - what you want and being deemed my hands too sticky when I'm using legal substances, I do not understand that."
In the umpires' pool report, plate umpire Dan Bellino said the stickiness of Scherzer's hand worsened from the initial second-inning inspection to the third inspection in the fourth inning when he was ejected.
"As far as stickiness, this was the stickiest it had been since I've been inspecting hands, which goes back three seasons," Bellino said.
Cuzzi added: "I said this to Buck and to Max, it really didn't matter to us what it is. All we know is that it was far stickier than anything that we've felt certainly today and anything this year, and so in that case, we felt as though he had two chances to clean it up, and he didn't."
Scherzer became only the third pitcher to be ejected for violating the updated foreign substance policy, after Seattle's Hector Santiago and Arizona's Caleb Smith, both in 2021. Both copped 10-game bans.
Phillies beat Mets on Castellanos' walk-off single to even NLDS at 1
Nick Castellanos once again delivered a clutch hit for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Castellanos, who led all of MLB with four walk-off hits this season, sent the Phillies to a 7-6 win over the New York Mets with a game-ending single with two outs in the ninth inning off Tylor Megill to even the NL Division Series at one game apiece.
Philadelphia needed Castellanos' heroics after Mark Vientos hit a two-run homer with one out in the top of the ninth to tie the score at 6-6. It was the second two-run homer of the day for Vientos, and Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo added solo shots for New York.
The Phillies trailed 4-3 in the eighth until Bryson Stott lined a two-run triple down the right-field line off Mets closer Edwin Díaz to put Philadelphia ahead. Stott later came around to score on J.T. Realmuto's grounder.
Philadelphia was held off the scoreboard until the sixth inning when Bryce Harper hit a two-run homer and Castellanos followed with a solo blast two pitches later off Mets starter Luis Severino.
Game 3 between these NL East rivals is Tuesday in New York.
Padres crush six homers to rout Dodgers in Game 2
The San Diego Padres tied an MLB play-off record with six home runs in a 10-2 pounding of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 for their first win in this NLDS series.
The game took an ugly turn in the seventh inning, when fans at Dodger Stadium threw baseballs at San Diego left fielder Jurickson Profar, as well as trash on the warning track near the Padres bullpen. The game was delayed for 12 minutes.
Profar was in the middle of a couple of heated moments. In the sixth inning, he exchanged words with Dodgers catcher Will Smith after starting pitcher Jack Flaherty hit Fernando Tatis Jr. with a pitch, and in the first inning, Profar reached over the wall to rob a potential home run by Mookie Betts and promptly stared down some fans.
Tatis hit a pair of home runs, while David Peralta and Jackson Merrill each hit two-run homers, and Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Higashioka added solo shots.
Yu Darvish held Los Angeles to one run and three hits over seven innings, while the top of the Dodgers' batting order struggled.
Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 4, Betts was hitless in a sixth consecutive play-off game and Freddie Freeman struck out and flied out in two at-bats before exiting after five innings with discomfort in his sprained right ankle.
Ohtani hits 3-run homer in postseason debut as Dodgers rally past Padres
Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer in his postseason debut, Teoscar Hernández’s two-run single gave Los Angeles its first lead in a playoff game in two years, and the Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 7-5 in their NL Division Series opener Saturday.
Manny Machado's two-run homer off Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, also making his first playoff appearance, put Los Angeles in an early 3-0 hole.
Ohtani quickly bailed out the Dodgers with his two-out homer that tied it 3-all in the second inning. The Japanese superstar went deep with fans chanting “MVP! MVP!” His shot travelled 372 feet to right field, the sellout crowd of 53,028 recording it all on their phones.
San Diego went ahead 5-3 before the Dodgers rallied with three runs in the fourth.
Tommy Edman scored on a wild pitch by reliever Adrian Morejon, who took the loss. Ohtani had a broken-bat single and later scored, along with Mookie Betts, on Hernández’s single off Jeremiah Estrada that put the Dodgers ahead 6-5.
It was their first lead in a postseason game since the seventh inning of Game 4 against the Padres in the 2022 NLDS. Los Angeles was swept by Arizona in a Division Series last year.
Trailing 7-5, the Padres had the potential tying runs on base with two outs in the ninth. Fernando Tatis Jr. singled off Blake Treinen before Jurickson Profar walked to bring up Machado, who struck out swinging.
Mets rally again for another win
Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo sparked another comeback in New York’s electric run through the National League playoffs, helping the Mets score five runs in the eighth inning against a pair of All-Star relievers as they rallied for a 6-2-win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of their Division Series.
Phillies ace Zack Wheeler struck out nine and limited the Mets to just one hit over the first seven innings but was lifted after a startling 30 swings-and-misses over 111 pitches.
New York then pounced on Philadelphia relievers Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm in the eighth.
In true Mets fashion this October, the Mets had to rally, not just on the scoreboard, but on a gut-check in each at-bat.
Francisco Alvarez hit a leadoff single against Hoffman before three straight batters reached base after facing 0-2 counts. Francisco Lindor worked a walk from his 0-2 count and Vientos followed with a tying single. Nimmo laced a go-ahead single off Strahm past a drawn-in infield for the 2-1 lead.
After Pete Alonso lofted a sacrifice fly for a 3-1 lead, Jose Iglesias singled and J.D. Martinez greeted Orion Kerkering with an RBI single. Starling Marte’s sacrifice fly capped the uprising.
The Mets have scored 18 runs in the eighth and ninth innings over six games since Monday. New York joined the 1980 Phillies and 1999 Mets as the only teams to win consecutive playoff games after trailing in the eighth inning or later.
Verdugo lifts Yankees over Royals
Alex Verdugo hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning and saved at least one run with a sliding catch along the left-field line, boosting the New York Yankees to a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals in their AL Division Series opener.
New York’s Gleyber Torres and Kansas City’s MJ Melendez hit two-run homers in a back-and-forth game in which the Royals wasted leads of 1-0, 3-2 and 5-4 and the Yankees failed to hold 2-1 and 4-3 margins.
Kansas City pitchers tied its season high with eight walks, forcing in a pair of runs in the fifth inning. The Yankees were just 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position before Verdugo lined a single off loser Michael Lorenzen to make it 6-5.
Verdugo’s hit scored Jazz Chisholm Jr., who singled leading off and stole second on a play allowed to stand following a video review. Yankees manager Aaron Boone started Verdugo in left over rookie Jasson Domínguez in a defense-influenced decision. Verdugo entered the game in a 2-for-34 skid at the plate.
With the Yankees trailing 3-2, Verdugo made a sliding catch on Michael Massey’s fourth-inning fly just inside the line to strand two runners. The ball hit Verdugo’s right wrist just below his glove and bounced off his chest before he grabbed it with his bare left hand.
Four Yankees relievers combined to allow only an unearned run over four innings after ace Gerrit Cole allowed four runs in five-plus innings. Clay Holmes, dropped from his closer’s job last month, worked 1 2/3 innings for the win. Luke Weaver got four straight outs with three strikeouts for the save in his postseason debut.
Yankees star Aaron Judge went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, and Royals standout Bobby Witt Jr. was 0 for 5, barking at plate umpire Adam Hamari after a called third strike in the ninth.
Guardians strike quick, blank Tigers
Lane Thomas highlighted a five-run first inning with a three-run homer and the Cleveland Guardians unleashed their lights-out bullpen to complete a four-hitter in a 7-0 win over the Tigers in an AL Division Series opener.
Thomas' shot - on his first career postseason swing – off reliever Reese Olson helped the Guardians cool off the Tigers, who stormed into the playoffs with a second-half surge before sweeping AL West champion Houston in the wild-card round.
Tanner Bibee pitched 4 2/3 innings before Guardians manager Stephen Vogt swung the door open to baseball's best bullpen to finish off the Tigers.
Cleveland's relievers combined for 4 1/3 hitless innings to finish and match the largest shutout victory margin in club postseason history. Detroit struck out 13 times and didn't get a runner past first in the final four innings.
The shutout was the worst in Detroit playoff history since Game 1 of the 1945 World Series.
Cleveland's bullpen was as advertised. Rookie Cade Smith replaced Bibee and struck out all four batters. Tim Herrin fanned two in the seventh, Hunter Gaddis pitched the eighth, and Emmanuel Clase, who led the AL with 47 saves, worked the ninth.
David Fry added a two-run double for the AL Central champion Guardians, who were unaffected by not playing for almost a week with a first-round bye.
MLB: Alonso's go-ahead, 3-run homer in 9th sends Mets to NLDS
Pete Alonso delivered a clutch, three-run homer off closer Devin Williams in the ninth inning and the New York Mets rallied for a wild 4-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night to win their NL Wild Card Series.
The Mets' comeback victory in the decisive Game 3 gave them their first playoff series win since claiming the NL pennant in 2015. They advance to a Division Series beginning Saturday at rival Philadelphia against the NL East champion Phillies.
The Brewers, making their sixth playoff appearance in the last seven years, still haven't won a postseason series since reaching Game 7 of the NL Championship Series in 2018.
Milwaukee appeared to have the victory in hand after Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick broke a scoreless tie by opening the seventh inning with back-to-back homers off José Buttó. Tobias Myers and three relievers had combined on a two-hit shutout through the first eight innings.
Twelve straight Mets had been retired when they opened the ninth against Williams, a two-time NL reliever of the year who had earned the save Wednesday in Milwaukee’s Game 2 victory.
But Francisco Lindor opened the ninth by walking on a 3-2 pitch. After Mark Vientos struck out, Brandon Nimmo singled to put runners at the corners.
That brought up Alonso, who has 226 career homers in six seasons but hadn’t gone deep since Sept. 19.
After getting ahead 3-1 in the count, Alonso sent a 3-1 changeup over the wall in right field to give the Mets the lead.
Edwin Díaz pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to earn the win and David Peterson, making his first relief appearance of the season, worked the ninth for his first major league save.
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