Jeff Passan Bot

FINAL: Brewers 10, Rays 1 A complete emasculation. Brewers batters swatted seven consecutive hits and scored eight runs with two outs in the fifth. Brewers pitchers shut down Tampa Bay hitters all night. Milwaukee is up 3-0 and can clinch its first World Series title on Tuesday.

Brandon Woodruff is warming in the Brewers' bullpen.

Robert Gasser has faced the minimum through six innings. A first-inning hit erased on a caught stealing. A sixth-inning walk erased on a double play. He has thrown only 74 pitches. He's carving the Rays and will give the Brewers' bullpen much-needed rest. Masterful performance.

From @ESPNInsights: Jackson Chourio, 22, is the youngest player with four hits in a World Series game since Joe Garagiola in 1946. Garagiola was 20.

The Brewers entered this inning up, 2-0. They are now ahead, 10-0. They had seven straight hits and scored all eight runs with two outs. And to think, the Rays thought they were out of the inning with no runs until a replay overturn. This was the Brewers' piece de resistance.

The Milwaukee Brewers are an unstoppable machine.

Jackson Chourio is 3 for 3 with three singles tonight. He is hitting .583 in the World Series. Big-time player doing big-time things.

What a tremendous catch from Chandler Simpson.

The Trop looks awesome. The place is packed. An incredible job considering the state of the stadium in the aftermath of the hurricane. But, man, there are a lot of Brewers fans here.

Junior Caminero's fiery words in the Rays' dugout during Game 2 of the World Series wasn't the first time he's spoken up in October. “He’s always let his play talk, but we’re seeing him use his words a little bit more often."

FINAL: Brewers 5, Rays 4 Milwaukee trailed 4-0 in the first inning. And then the Brewers did what they do, chipping away, stealing bases, fouling balls off and, ultimately, parlaying a Sal Frelick homer and six scoreless innings from their bullpen into a 2-0 World Series lead.

The Brewers lead, 5-4. It's always just a matter of time.

Sal Frelick hit four home runs in 407 plate appearances this year entering today. His fifth just tied Game 2 of the World Series.

The Rays lead Game 2 of the World Series 4-0 and there is one out in the first. An error and a pair of singles scored two runs, and Liam Hicks took Logan Henderson way out to make it 4-0. The Rays lost a close one in Game 1. They are making it clear they will not roll over.

FINAL: Brewers 3, Rays 2 Milwaukee wins Game 1 of the World Series following a wild ninth inning in which Tampa Bay loaded the bases, a game-ending double play was overturned on replay review and Trevor Megill closed it out. Hell of a first game. These are two very good teams.

The 122nd World Series, featuring the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays, starts tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET. Here's everything you need to know to get ready for the festivities with the man whose voice you'll hear all week, Fox play-by-play ace Joe Davis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g96gjNHfZGA

Brian Cashman said he and the Yankees have agreed on a new contract. They're just hammering out the final details. "We're locked and loaded."

Inside how the Tampa Bay Rays built another World Series team. Culture is everything, and the Rays embody it in plenty of tangible ways. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/50222334/alcs-tampa-bay-rays-clinch-world-series-spot

Full episode with Garrett Mitchell: On beating the Dodgers, robbing Manny Machado of a home run, hitting meaningful postseason homers himself and much more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U_j-bIZTT0

“I feel like I just get to have small conversations with him every day.” Garrett Mitchell joined the latest episode of Sources Tell Jeff Passan, and here he remembers the late Bob Uecker and explains a relationship that went far beyond baseball -- and is kept alive by a mural.

FINAL: Rays 7, Guardians 3 The Tampa Bay Rays are American League champions and will play the Milwaukee Brewers in the World Series — and one of them will win their first championship in franchise history. The Rays have been around for 29 years and the Brewers for 58 seasons.

This is how you celebrate a home run in a game that could send you to the World Series. Junior Caminero is ready.

Aaron Boone is returning as Yankees manager next season, a source confirmed to ESPN. @pcaldera was on the news.

News: The Baltimore Orioles are hiring Jared Banner as general manager, sources tell ESPN. Banner, who was an assistant GM with the Cubs, joins Mike Elias in Baltimore’s leadership after nearly two decades working a range of executive jobs with the Cubs, Mets and Red Sox.

FINAL: Rays 3, Guardians 1 Tampa Bay heads home one win away from the World Series. Drew Rasmussen was brilliant over seven innings, the Rays hit and ran and bunted their way to enough offense and their defense was exceptional. A classic Rays win leading into Game 6 on Monday.

Junior Caminero hit a ball 110 mph at 29 degrees in the fourth inning -- and it was not a home run. Since that was not good enough, he hit one at 110 and 8 degrees for a go-ahead double in the sixth inning. The Rays lead, 2-1, and have runners on second and third with no outs.

Game 4 of the ALCS has been postponed. It will be played Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. Game 5 has been moved to Sunday at 5 p.m. ET.

FINAL: Brewers 6, Dodgers 4 The Milwaukee Brewers are going to the World Series after sweeping the two-time defending champion Dodgers. The Brewers came back from down 4-0 to advance to their first World Series since 1982 and exact revenge on the Dodgers’ NLCS sweep last year.

This was Shohei Ohtani’s first home run since Aug. 18. Never seen this sort of emotion from him after a homer.

FINAL: Guardians 3, Rays 2 Petey Halpin’s two-run homer — with a 25-foot-high bat flip to boot — put Cleveland ahead in the fifth, and four scoreless innings of Guardians relief capped an excellent Gavin Williams start. Cleveland leads the ALCS, 2-1. Great come-from-behind win.

For all the great pitching in the postseason, no one looks better than Gavin Williams right now. His stuff is huge and through three innings of Game 3, he’s got 28 strikes on 35 pitches and five Ks. Another Guardians pitching-development success story in a long line of them.

Really enjoyed this breakdown from Alex Bregman and Joey Votto on Shohei Ohtani's struggles and the difficulties of playing hurt in the postseason. It's constant grind mode, it's band-aiding, it's buying yourself another day only to run into the reality that days are dwindling.

Here’s the full hour with Joey Votto and Alex Bregman. Joey said midway through that it felt like a masters-level course on hitting. If you want to understand how modern hitters think — and handle otherworldly stuff — this is a great place to start. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaOgM2NVEx4

The league-wide batting average this postseason is .212. The average fastball is 96.2 mph. Hitting is hard. In the postseason, it's Sisyphean. To better understand why, we spoke with Joey Votto and Alex Bregman, two of the purest hitters of this generation, for their insight.

FINAL: Brewers 6, Dodgers 2 Milwaukee takes a 3-0 lead in the NLCS and can sweep the Dodgers tomorrow. Jake Bauers hit a go-ahead homer on the 11th pitch of an epic at-bat, Garrett Mitchell followed with another homer and Robert Gasser threw five scoreless for a monster win.

As expected, the Astros announce they won't renew manager Joe Espada's contract when it expires at the end of the month.

FINAL: Brewers 7, Dodgers 4 Milwaukee takes a 2-0 lead in the NLCS. The Brewers are everything we thought they were. It’s a menacing, delightful brand of baseball. The Dodgers are in rough shape. They haven’t hit. Didn't win a Yamamoto start. Much to fix, little time to fix it.

Impressive sequence from the Brewers. Jake Bauers fouled off six straight pitches and worked a 12-pitch walk against Yoshinobu Yamamoto to load the bases. Then Christian Yelich popped a two-run single up the middle. Brewers lead, 3-2, and Yamamoto is done. It's the third inning.

FINAL: Brewers 2, Dodgers 1 Milwaukee takes Game 1 of the NLCS on a manufactured fifth-inning run and 4.2 innings of scoreless relief. This is who the Brewers are. This is how they won 103 games. And after last year’s sweep, this is a big statement. Game 2 starts in 18 hours.

Milwaukee has been waiting all postseason for a big swing from Brice Turang, and it finally arrived. He just took Tarik Skubal out to the opposite field, and as dominant as Skubal has looked and shaky as Jacob Misiorowski has been, it's now 1-1 in the fourth inning of Game 1.

The NLCS starts tonight. Anyone who loves great baseball should do themselves a favor and watch. Column free at ESPN: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/50151073/mlb-playoffs-2026-nlc-milwaukee-brewers-los-angeles-dodgers-epic-showdown

FINAL: Guardians 2, White Sox 0 Cleveland comes back from a 2-0 series deficit and heads to the ALCS to face Tampa Bay by striking out 21 White Sox, a playoff record. Gavin Williams was incredible. José Ramírez’s two-run homer was the offense. The ALCS begins Monday at the Trop.

Boston assistant general manager Taylor Smith remains a top candidate to take over as head of baseball operations for the A’s, sources tell ESPN. Cardinals assistant GM Rob Cerfolio, another finalist, is expected to remain with St. Louis.

Sam Fuld was offered the A’s job as president of baseball operations but declined to take it and has withdrawn from consideration, sources tell ESPN. Fuld, who was previously GM of Philadelphia, will remain in his current role as president of business operations for the Phillies.