CHICAGO — Pope Leo XIV isn’t paid to be a spokesman for the Chicago White Sox, but he sent a message from the Vatican last week that warmed the hearts of many Sox fans.

“Han perdido! They lost!” Leo said as he waved to the masses in his popemobile.

The brief message was in response to someone yelling “Go Cubs,” an apparent appeal ...Read more

TORONTO — Eyes were red and swollen. Tears were shielded from cameras. Conversations were few, hugs were plentiful and there was at least one audible scream of anger, frustration, sadness — all of it — in a single outburst from a restricted area just for the players.

It was how a clubhouse should feel and sound after a loss of such ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The last time the Dodgers visited Toronto, the Blue Jays organization was at rock bottom.

The club was barreling toward a last-place finish in the American League East in 2024. Its fan base was disgruntled with a sorely disappointing offseason. And the Rogers Centre crowd was booing Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, who spurned the ...Read more

Angels superstar Mike Trout testified Tuesday morning that he knew team employee Eric Kay had a drug problem but that pitcher Tyler Skaggs showed no signs of drug use.

Trout, a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, has played with the Angels his entire 15-year career and is under contract through the 2030 season. He was a teammate of...Read more

The Angels have selected former big-league catcher Kurt Suzuki as their next manager, a source said Tuesday.

Suzuki, 42, was working as a special assistant to general manager Perry Minasian. This will be his first job as a manager.

The Angels have not made an official announcement about Suzuki’s hiring yet.

Suzuki, a product of Cal State ...Read more

SEATTLE — The record says George Springer hit the ball with an exit velocity of 99.1 mph into the left-field bleachers at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Seattleites will tell you it went 300 mph into their hearts.

Viewers from the rest of the world saw Springer use a bat to hit one of the most dramatic home runs in MLB history.

Seattleites will ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — From the outside, the Dodgers know the easy narrative to their season.

About how, after beginning the campaign with the highest expectations imaginable, they spent much of the year failing to live up to the hype.

How, during what was already a dismal second-half slump, they seemed to reach rock bottom when they squandered a no-...Read more

TORONTO — For a franchise steeped in pain and misery, this was an entirely new sensation for both.

Heartbreak isn’t a strong enough word to describe what happened to the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.

Just eight outs away from the first World Series appearance in Seattle history — closer than they’ve ever been — the Mariners ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Milwaukee Brewers learned a valuable lesson last week.

Don’t mess with the “L” flag.

It might have been a coincidence that the Brewers were swept in four games by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series after taking a team photo with the “L” flag following their division series-clinching win...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The decision was looming in June 2021 for the National League to adopt the designated hitter when Rick Wise thought that meant his night — pairing a no-hitter in 1971 with the Phillies with two homers — would never be matched.

“If they do the DH, no one is ever going to break the record,” Wise said. “Maybe it might ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The most interesting candidate to succeed Mike Shildt as Padres manager, at this seemingly early stage?

It’s Ruben Niebla, the team’s pitching coach of the past four years.

I’m surprised to have reached that opinion. Niebla has never managed, nor did he play in the big leagues, and now wouldn’t be the time for a Padres ...Read more

TORONTO — In a game defined by numbers, what they mean, how they’re analyzed, dissected down into percentages and decimal points that help tell the story, these are now the two sitting directly in front of the Seattle Mariners.

48 and 27.

Forty-eight seasons to date of going without, while every other franchise currently in Major League ...Read more

They are still recovering in Detroit after the Tigers’ crushing Division Series loss to the Seattle Mariners when it was reported the other day they will very likely be losing their best player, Tarik Skubal.

The disheartening news, which came via a report from Skubal’s agent Scott Boras’ principal media operative, was that there is a gap...Read more

A new frontrunner appears to have emerged for the Giants’ managerial vacancy — one that comes from a very unlikely source.

According to a report from The Athletic, the Giants are “closing in” on hiring 47-year-old University of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello, who has transformed the Vols into one of the nation’s best collegiate ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Would the Dodgers have paid $4 million for Shohei Ohtani's production on Friday night?

"Maybe I would have," team owner Mark Walter said with a laugh.

Four million dollars is how much Ohtani has received from the Dodgers.

Not for the game. Not for the week. Not for the year.

For this year and last year.

Ohtani could be the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — You. And you. And you too.

You all ripped the Dodgers for standing fairly pat at the trade deadline, despite glaring holes in left field and in the bullpen. Heck, this was the headline in this very newspaper: "Andrew Friedman struck out on the Dodgers' urgent need for a closer."

How ever would the Dodgers return to the World ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — One minute he was burning through the top of the first inning with three flaming strikeouts.

Roar!

The next minute — literally — he was slugging through the bottom of the first by driving a ball 446 feet into the back of the right-field pavilion.

Roar! Roar!

Three innings later he was doing it again, striking out two ...Read more

SEATTLE — As Bryce Miller took a solitary stroll from the bullpen Friday, he did so with an anthem serenading his steps. It was 3:04 p.m., six minutes before the Mariners’ most massive game in recent memory. A sellout crowd at T-Mobile Park applauded his arrival. With a blond mustache and a gritty glare, the Texan looked like a lone outlaw, ...Read more