The Yankees saw their season come to a bitter end Wednesday night in a 5–2 loss to the Blue Jays in Game 4 of the American League Division Series. While Toronto is heading to the championship series for the first time in nine years, the Yankees yet again experienced another postseason letdown as their hitters ran out of firepower in the late innings of the game.

The Blue Jays' $500 million man Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had no such issue this series, homering in each of the first three games of the series. He followed that up with a hit and an RBI in Game 4 and watched as his teammates helped finish off the AL East powerhouse in the Bronx.

Afterward, Guerrero held back tears taking in the special moment. That didn't last for long, though, as the Toronto star slugger was later seen partying it up in the locker room.

At one point, Guerrero joined the Fox Sports MLB crew for a postgame interview, and he couldn't resist teaming up with David Ortiz to rib a pair of Yankees legends, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.

"DAAAA YANKEES LOSE," Guerrero said, eliciting lots of laughs all around. Big Papi loved it, and repeated his signature line after him. The two then did it in sync one more time just for good measure:

Too good.

The Blue Jays are set to host Game 1 of the ALCS on Sunday against either the Tigers or Mariners.

Baseball’s greatest rivalry takes center stage on Sunday Night Baseball with the New York Yankees hosting the Boston Red Sox for the rubber match of this three-game set. 

Boston made an incredible comeback on Friday night to win the series opener, but the Yankees’ bats responded on Saturday, scoring 14 runs behind three Ben Rice homers. 

New York enters Sunday’s matchup as the favorite, but it has not played well over the last three weeks, allowing Boston to close the gap between the teams in the AL East standings. 

Here’s a look at the odds, probable pitchers, key players to watch and my best bet for Sunday’s standalone matchup. 

Red Sox vs. Yankees Odds, Run Line and Total

Run Line

Red Sox +1.5 (-175)Yankees -1.5 (+145)

Moneyline

Red Sox: +114Yankees: -135

Total

8.5 (Over -110/Under -110)Red Sox vs. Yankees Probable PitchersBoston: Kutter Crawford (4-7, 3.47 ERA)New York: Luis Gil (9-4, 3.41 ERA)Red Sox vs. Yankees How to WatchDate: Sunday, July 7Time: 7:00 p.m. ESTVenue: Yankee StadiumHow to watch (TV): ESPNRed Sox record: 48-40Yankees record: 55-36 Red Sox vs. Yankees Key Players to WatchBoston Red Sox

Rafael Devers: There may not be a hotter hitter in baseball right now than Boston Red Sox star Rafael Devers. Over his last 10 games, Devers is hitting a ridiculous .368 with a 1.297 OPS, slugging five homers, including one on Saturday. Can he carry the Boston offense on Sunday? 

New York Yankees

Luis Gil: The electric rookie got off to a fast start for the Yankees this season, but he’s come back to earth as of late. Gil’s ERA has jumped from 1.82 on June 4 to 3.41 entering this start, and he’s walked 13 batters over his last four starts. That being said, he did lead the Yankees to a win over the Sox on June 14, pitching five innings of one-run ball. 

Red Sox vs. Yankees Prediction and Pick

The Yankees bounced back from a bad loss on Friday night, scoring 14 runs on Saturday to beat Boston and even this three-game set, but can they pull off a win on Sunday Night Baseball?

I'm not sold on it, especially with the struggling Gil on the mound. The rookie had been lights out through the first 2.5 months of the season, but his ERA has skyrocketed over his last few starts, and he’s been prone to the long ball – allowing one in four of his last five outings – as well. 

Gil did allow just one run over five frames in his last start against Boston, but his lack of command as of late is something to worry about for Yankee fans. He's allowed 13 walks in his last four starts, giving him very little margin for error — especially against an offense like Boston's.

I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Red Sox win this game, especially since Crawford kept the Yankees in check in a 9-3 Boston win the last time he faced New York. 

Jamie Carragher criticised a struggling Liverpool star as the Reds were dealt another humiliating defeat at Anfield, this time at the hands of PSV Eindhoven.

Curtis Jones admits he's out of "answers" after Liverpool defeat

Where do Liverpool go from here? This is no longer a blip. The Premier League champions are in a full-blown crisis that not even Anfield could protect them from against Nottingham Forest and PSV. Their crown has been ripped from their head in ruthless fashion and serious questions are being asked of manager Arne Slot.

Curtis Jones looked a man defeated at full-time, as he admitted that he doesn’t have the “answers” to Liverpool’s current form, which has seen them lose nine of their last 12 games in all competitions.

The academy graduate told reporters: “I don’t have the answers. Honestly, I don’t. I’m saying that to everybody. It’s just unacceptable. I don’t even have to wait to think about it. I’m past being angry inside.

“I’m at the point now where I just don’t have the words. It’s hard because I’m playing for the team I support. I’m a fan, and I’ve seen this club all my life. In a long, long time, I haven’t experienced a Liverpool team going through a period like this with results like these.

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“But at the end of the day, we still have that badge on our chest. And until that badge is gone, we’re always going to fight. We’re going to try and get this team back to where it needs to be, show everyone again what this club is about and why people call it the best team in the world. But right now, we’re in the s***, and it needs to change.”

Carragher also didn’t hold back behind the scenes on CBS, ripping into Ibrahima Konate after the Frenchman endured another disastrous outing at Anfield.

Carragher rips into Konate after "sackable" PSV performance

Caught on camera watching the game behind the scenes on punditry duty for CBS, Carragher slammed Konate and claimed that it was a “sackable offence” for Slot to start the struggling defender against PSV.

Konate, who is out of contract in the summer, has been one of the most disappointing players in Liverpool’s recent run and continued his struggles against PSV – missing his interception for their third goal.

Once again, he found himself hooked in the second-half as Slot desperately attempted to turn the game around. By the time that the defender departed the game in the 76th minute, Konate had made just three tackles and won zero aerial duels on another evening to forget.

It’s a timely reminder that, despite breaking their transfer record twice in the summer, Liverpool made a major mistake when they missed out on Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi.

As bad as Konate & Van Dijk: £85m Liverpool duo cannot start together again

The Tigers can feel good as they near the final month of the 2025 MLB season. After sweeping the Astros this week and winning eight of their last 10 games, they seem to have come out of the slump they hit midway through the year.

Detroit was one of the hottest teams at the start of the season, but cooled off toward the All-Star break when they lost four games going into the break followed by eight of their first nine games after the Midsummer Classic.

That slump naturally brought out concerns from Tigers fans who initially thought their team was on track to contend for their first World Series title in over 40 years. Those worries don't bother manager A.J. Hinch though.

"I think we should just thank them for being passionate enough to care," Hinch said, via 97.1 The Ticket.

The Tigers not only have seemingly emerged from their slump, but regained their lead in the American League Central. Detroit holds a 9.5-game lead over the Royals and a 10.5-game lead over the Guardians, as well as the best record in the league. Hinch knows they can't slow down, but is glad to have the passion from Detroit as they head down the final stretch of the season.

"We’re still going to run the race, we still have a lot of games left, we’re still going to play our game, but I love the emotions that come with sports and respect them for loving us," said Hinch. "I don’t fault people for caring or being super passionate. That’s the kind of city that we want (to play in). But don’t forget to love on us a little bit when things are bad."

The Tigers have given reason for their fans to feel excited again, but they'll need to build off their momentum to keep them feeling confident as the postseason approaches.

The Red Sox beat the Yankees 1-0 in New York on Friday night. Max Fried gave up four hits and zero runs in six innings, but the Yankees offense disappeared as they dropped the second game of the weekend series to their rivals.

Boston was already up 1-0 when Jarren Duran led off the top of the ninth with a walk and then stole second. Ceddanne Rafaela then hit a hard groundball to shortstop Anthony Volpe who thought he caught Duran leaning towards third, but replay showed he had turned to watch Volpe field the ball and headed back to second in time to beat a throw to Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Duran was safe and Chisholm threw it to first too late to get an out there either. Fans were perplexed by Volpe's decision.

Asked about the play after the game, Boone defended his shortstop's decision as "heady."

"It's obviously not the right play, but I mean, it's a little bit of a heady play too," said Boone. "He almost caught a guy off in scoring position there and then he doesn't come around to score anyway. Makes a really good play on the contact play. I mean are we really going to dive into that one a lot? I mean, I get it. He wasn't out, but it's kind of a heads up, you know, almost got a guy. Napping. And really if Duran doesn't affect the throw where he's getting back Jazz still might complete the play so you know, not the right play probably, but in some ways a heads up play too."

Boone is right that Volpe almost got him and Duran didn't score so what's the big deal? However, Boone has developed a reputation for being too forgiving of Volpe's brand of baseball and hearing an MLB manager say the wrong play was kind of right because it almost worked might is just odd.

After Friday's game the Red Sox have pulled back ahead of the Yankees by a half-game in the AL East and currently lead in the Wild Card standings.

The Dodgers have been dominant this postseason as they've only dropped one game on their route to the World Series, where they could become back-to-back champions.

If it's not broke, then don't fix it, they say. And, Los Angeles seems to be following that motto as they announced the same starting pitcher rotation for Games 1 and 2 that the team used in the NLCS vs. the Brewers. Blake Snell will start Game 1 on Friday, Oct. 24 in Toronto, followed by Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting Game 2 on Saturday, Oct. 24 in Toronto, per ESPN's Alden González.

Snell pitched in Game 1 of the NLCS vs. the Brewers, which the Dodgers won 2–1. He recorded 10 strikeouts and just one hit over eight innings. Milwaukee's only run came in the ninth inning when Snell was out. The two-time Cy Young Award winner has been dominant all postseason so far, and will be looking to continue that with a Game 1 win.

Yamamoto pitched the entire nine innings of Game 2 vs. the Brewers, which resulted in a Dodgers' 5–1 win. He recorded seven strikeouts, and had three hits and one home run hit against him.

If the Dodgers continue with their starting pitcher rotation as they did in the NLCS, then Tyler Glasnow would start in Game 3 and Shohei Ohtani would start in Game 4. So far, no decision on those games has been reported.

MLB is ushering in a new television era for baseball fans, as the league has reportedly landed new media deals with NBC, Netflix and ESPN, according to .

Here's a quick breakdown of what each deal looks like, as well as what it means for MLB fans.

MLB welcomes back old friend in NBC

Watching baseball on NBC was commonplace in the 1980s and '90s, and the history between league and network dates all the way back to the 1940s. And while NBC was last seen on the nationally-televised baseball stage during the 1999 World Series, the network is officially back into the fold when it comes to broadcasting MLB. According to Marchand, NBC will dole out almost $200 million per season to MLB for the rights to broadcast , as well as the first round of the postseason, which includes four wild-card round series. Much like for NBA fans, watching baseball on a Sunday night on NBC is bound to deliver a nostalgic feel. Given that NBC also broadcasts football and basketball on Sunday nights, any television conflicts with those two sports will result in MLB games shifting over to NBC's streaming service, Peacock. The wild-card round games are reportedly expected to be divvied up between NBC and Peacock.

MLB welcomes new friend in Netflix

Netflix, which has entered the sports streaming world in recent years to mixed results, adds baseball to its catalogue in MLB's new deal. Per Marchand, Netflix will pay MLB roughly $50 million per year to stream the standalone Opening Day prime time game, the Home Run Derby and “Field of Dreams” game. This means MLB fans looking to watch Yankees-Giants in primetime on March 25, as well as the Phillies-Twins in the Field of Dreams game in August of 2026 (previously on Fox), will be tuning into Netflix.

MLB (sort of) reconciles with ESPN

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred had seemingly signaled a break-up with ESPN in the form of a memo, citing the network's “minimal coverage” of baseball. But the two sides are back together, albeit with a different look. While ESPN won't be on the nationally-televised baseball stage anymore in the form of , the wild-card round and the Home Run Derby, the network still ended up finding value in the new deal. According to Marchand, ESPN will still be on the national TV scene in the form of 30 exclusive weeknight games during the season. Additionally, ESPN will effectively pay MLB $1.65 billion over three seasons—the going price it would have paid for —for the MLB.TV package. This means that ESPN will control the rights for all 30 teams‘ out-of-market games, as well as the in-market game rights to six teams: the Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Minnesota Twins, Colorado Rockies, and Seattle Mariners. Marchand reports that ESPN has not yet decided how it wil sell MLB.TV, but it is expected to be at the same $150-per-year price tag that consumers had been paying when it was under league control.

The players will want to play their part in making it an experience of a lifetime

Shashank Kishore in Jammu19-Feb-2020The Gandhi Science College ground in the heart of Jammu is nestled inside the 120-year-old campus of the institution formerly known as Prince of Wales College. Here, students casually stroll across the huge lawn, play cricket or football in vast open areas, eat (scrambled eggs) and drink in one of many small shacks that have set shop inside the campus. Some sit and study.In general, there’s a casual vibe. It’s a throwback to olden times. Since mobile internet is non-existent, after all, despite restrictions having been lifted, people are actually seen talking to each other.Suddenly, though, things go quiet. Somewhere close by, there are police vehicles, one can hear the sirens. Nothing to worry about – a security drill is being conducted in the campus and police vehicles, armed security officers and around 100 policemen are present, entrusted with looking after the two teams – Jammu & Kashmir and Karnataka, the Ranji Trophy quarter-final contestants. But if you wanted to see the players – Manish Pandey is the big star – you weren’t going to be denied.Irfan Pathan, the former India allrounder, continues to draw his fair share of attention and adulation. To many of the locals, he’s one of their own. Irfan is a “man of the masses”, as a J&K Cricket Association official puts it. Soon after the team finishes training, he calls the group for a mid-pitch meeting and gives them a pep talk. After they disperse, he begins his own fitness session by first doing a few stretches and then having a bat in the nets. The fans who had earlier made a beeline for Pandey are now cheering for Irfan. The security presence notwithstanding, everyone gets a slice of the players. Some even get to click selfies with their stars.ALSO READ: Mission Jammu-Kashmir – when ‘champions’ play, anything can happenJKCA is anticipating a good crowd for the historic Ranji Trophy quarter-final•Shashank Kishore/ESPNcricinfo LtdOutside the ground, different corners of the campus are being spruced up. The huge open area is dotted with pots of plants along the driveway. The fence surrounding the ground receives a fresh coat of paint. (tents) are erected in one corner to seat VIPs and former J&K players, all special invitees. The JKCA is going out of its way to ensure it’s all systems go for what their captain Parvez Rasool calls the “biggest match we are hosting”.This is still a small venue but the excitement is palpable. The main pavilion block smells of fresh paint and the players’ and match officials’ area “has never been so clean”, a local officer says. The dressing rooms, which were earlier under a tent, have been redone. Fresh massage tables have been put in place and orders have gone out for several kilogrammes of blocked ice to facilitate ice baths.Until today, the main players’ block had just two operational toilets that were in such a state that people had to hold their noses when they went in, according to a player. That’s changed. Or, as someone jokingly put it, they have been “inaugurated”.The biggest issue, however, was in installing a big enough sightscreen. Rasool says that as players, they have never been finicky of the white patch of cloth behind the bowlers’ arms. Sometimes, play has carried on even after the screens have blown away. Here, efforts are on to weld two solid frames, much bigger than usual, to accommodate for any extra covering players may need.There’s a special medical tent set up, not just for players, but for the spectators too, because they expect students and fans, in general, to turn up in large numbers. “As many as 1000 spectators can sit under tents with chairs, if we get more, we will increase it,” a venue official said.The JKCA has made every effort to spread the message it’s not often such a big game comes to Jammu and that entry is free. News that the local team is in the quarter-final only for the second time in Ranji Trophy history has found its way into living rooms as special shows have been lined up on local television.In short, you get the feeling of a big North Indian wedding, where you’re never truly set and ready until the bride and groom walk in. Many J&K players have never seen this much attention to detail previously for a home game. The grandeur, the effort to make this a spectacle, has blown them away. Now, they will want to play their part in making the spectacle an experience of a lifetime for the locals.

There has been some criticism against the opener for his strike-rate but on Tuesday he put that all to bed

Mohammad Isam03-Mar-2020By breaking his own 10-year old record, Tamim Iqbal has given another reminder that his appetite for big runs is far from over. In the last eight months, he has been sending some strong signals that he is gearing up for a new phase in his career, but not many paid attention.During a self-imposed hiatus from the game last year, Iqbal topped up his fitness under Ben Coleman, a world famous trainer, in Bangkok. He was in the frontline of the players strike last October, too, and last month, he set the national record for the highest individual first-class score with his unbeaten 334.But up until this superb 158 against Zimbabwe, his international return in January didn’t include one of his trademark big knocks. And because it is Iqbal, a noted match-winner in the Bangladesh side for a long time, criticism wasn’t too far away. The anxiety surrounding the team’s all-time highest run-getter in ODIs came to a head when batting coach Neil McKenzie had to do a deep-dive in a press conference.McKenzie explained that the questions about Iqbal’s strike-rate were unfair, and that all he needed to do was hit two extra boundaries in the Powerplay to appease the naysayers. Iqbal struck 10 in the first 10 overs in this game, and 20 in total, apart from the three sixes.ESPNcricinfo LtdIt looked like a strong riposte to the questions asked about his intent and the lack of big runs since his international comeback. Among his first 10 fours, were two shots that looked very forceful – a pull over midwicket and a chip over wide mid-on – while the rest were picked up through cover or behind square on the leg side.Then till he reached his hundred, Iqbal consolidated to make up for the loss of Mushfiqur Rahim, as he and Mahmudullah batted conservatively till the last 10 overs. Iqbal made his last 58 runs off 30 balls, with six fours and three sixes, as the fourth wicket partnership changed gear. He finished on a strike-rate of 116.17, having batted for 45.4 overs, which is no mean feat.The recent criticism of Iqbal’s batting is rooted in his cautious approach during the World Cup, where he made good starts but didn’t capitalise. He later admitted that he ‘made bad decisions’ as the pressure to perform became too much.Iqbal’s return to top level saw him making a cautious fifty against Pakistan in a T20I in Lahore. It drew criticism as Bangladesh lost the game meekly but really, wouldn’t it have been stranger if he had gone out in that game and started smashing everything knowing the rest of the batting line up was very inexperienced?Over the last five years, Iqbal has worked out three separate methods for each format, and has been a mostly successful opener. Bear in mind, Bangladesh don’t provide featherbeds at home for their batsmen, who also have to face tough conditions in away matches too.His numbers since the 2015 World Cup suggest that he has come of age, although he would have liked to score some more runs in T20Is. Nevertheless, like he had provided stability to an often volatile opening stand for Bangladesh all those years ago when he started his career, he is now providing stability in a side slowly devoid of experience.Iqbal’s hunger for runs is what should mostly matter for the Bangladesh team, and if his method works out in the end, his experience at the international level should be reason enough to give him the leeway to get things right.

From Nairobi to Lord’s, Durban to Rajkot, and all points in between

Himanshu Agrawal18-May-2020What We’re WatchingThe coming of age: Nairobi, Lord’s and Sydney
India were reeling from the sting of the match-fixing scandal when the 2000 ICC Knockout got underway in Nairobi. With two of their experienced middle-order batsmen serving bans, they were forced to turn to youth. Into the side came Singh, only 18, and a star of India’s Under-19 World Cup triumph earlier that year. Batting for the first time in international cricket, he immediately showed he belonged, scoring 84 off 80 balls against an Australia attack that included Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie.Two years later, India, chasing 326 in a tri-series final against England, were 132 for 4 when Singh walked in. That soon became 146 for 5. You know what happened next: the partnership with Mohammad Kaif, the tense finish, and the sight of an ecstatically shirtless Sourav Ganguly on the Lord’s balcony. Some of Singh’s shots that day, as you can see here, were truly jaw-dropping.Come 2004, in a tri-series game in Sydney, he stitched together 213 with VVS Laxman, 139 of which came from his own blade. The shots flowed all around the ground, and one of the high points of this video is a pull off Jason Gillespie: the sound of the ball leaving his bat leaves the commentators purring.The years of plenty
Even as he piled up an impressive highlights reel, Singh could be maddeningly inconsistent in his early years. From the start of 2005 to the end of 2007, however, he was easily one of the world’s top ODI batsmen, scoring 2975 runs at an average of 46.48, with six hundreds.He was indispensable in this period, a clinical middle-order finisher. Pakistan bore the brunt of his power and timing, across formats. He scored his first two Test hundreds against them, in 2004 and 2006, and was a constant scourge, along with MS Dhoni, during the ODI series in Pakistan in 2006; the best of his innings in that series was probably his unbeaten 107 – made while battling a hamstring injury – in a brilliant chase of 287.A year later, Singh showed just how destructive a six-hitter he could be. First, he hit seven sixes in a 46-ball 83 against Bermuda in the 2007 World Cup, in India’s mammoth total of 413. It was barely a consolation in a tournament that India crashed out of in the group stage, but it was a warning for what was to follow six months later. Look away, Stuart Broad.”How d’you like the crust on that?” Kevin Pietersen called Yuvraj Singh a pie-chucker, but he didn’t do badly with the ball at all•Getty ImagesThose six sixes powered Singh to a fifty off just 12 balls – still the fastest fifty in all T20 cricket. In India’s next match of that inaugural World T20, the semi-final against Australia, he continued his rampant run by smacking 70 off 30 balls, including the longest six of the tournament,The destructiveness of his T20 hitting could carry over into ODIs too; in Rajkot in 2008, he smeared 138 off just 78 balls against England, while wearing a brace to protect his injured back. He scored another hundred in the next game, in Indore, and took that form into the 2008-09 tour of New Zealand, where he hammered 87 off just 60 balls in Christchurch.The electric fielder, the “pie chucker”
India are now a top-class fielding side, but it wasn’t always so. Singh played his part in the transformation, and in the early part of his career he was a livewire at backward point, capable of turning short, wide hit-me balls into wicket takers with his feats of athleticism. Two of his most memorable catches helped turn around the Champions Trophy semi-final of 2002: a leaping, two-handed grab at full stretch to send back Graeme Smith, and a sensational swoop at short fine leg off a top-edged sweep from Jonty Rhodes. Oh, and he had a fantastic arm too.Singh’s left-arm spin appeared entirely innocuous, but he varied his pace and release angles cleverly and made some good batsmen look foolish. Kevin Pietersen famously called him a pie chucker, but Singh had the last laugh, dismissing Pietersen five times in international cricket. You can see from this gleeful celebration just how feisty their rivalry was.More What We’re Watching