{"id":870035,"date":"2026-10-04T02:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T02:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/870035\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T02:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T02:48:13","slug":"three-peat-seeking-dodgers-open-playoffs-with-a-win-rays-hold-off-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/870035\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-peat seeking Dodgers open playoffs with a win, Rays hold off Yankees"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n The Los Angeles Dodgers, chasing a rare World Series three-peat, opened their Major League Baseball playoff campaign with a 5-3 win over Atlanta on Saturday as the Tampa Bay Rays rode a one-hit gem from pitcher Drew Rasmussen to a 1-0 win over the New York Yankees.<\/p>\n

Six strong innings from pitcher Tarik Skubal and home runs from Teoscar Hernandez, Kyle Tucker and Max Muncy propelled the Dodgers over the Braves.<\/p>\n

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\n Skubal, the reigning two-time Cy Young Award-winner acquired from Detroit at the trade deadline in August, delivered in his first post-season start for the Dodgers, settling down after surrendering an opening single to retire 15 straight batters.<\/p>\n

In sizzling, 100-F (38c) temperatures at Dodger Stadium, Skubal gave up just two hits, including a solo homer to Sean Murphy in the sixth, and had ample support from the Dodgers offense as Los Angeles seized a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five National League division series.<\/p>\n

“I think I was just trying to match the temperature out there,” said Skubal, whose fastball hit 101 mph in the second inning. “It was a hot one.”<\/p>\n

Hernandez gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead with a 431-foot fourth inning blast off Atlanta relief pitcher Victor Mederos, who had walked Freddie Freeman.<\/p>\n

Tucker doubled the lead with a two-run shot into the Braves’ dugout in the sixth inning with Muncy adding a solo homer two batters later.<\/p>\n

Ozzie Albies belted a two-run homer for the Braves to slice the deficit to 5-3 in the ninth inning before the Dodgers closed it out.<\/p>\n

The game was one of four second-round series openers on Saturday.<\/p>\n

In Florida, Rasmussen held the Yankees without a hit through eight and two-thirds innings.<\/p>\n

Yankees catcher Austin Wells broke up his bid for just the fourth no-hitter in MLB post-season history with a double down the first-base line with two out in the eighth.<\/p>\n

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\n But Wells’s inexplicable attempt to reach third saw him thrown out on a perfect relay from Victor Mesa Jr to shortstop Taylor wells to third baseman Junior Caminero.<\/p>\n

“Just obviously not a good decision there,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But (the) biggest issue is just Rasmussen shutting us down.”<\/p>\n

With Yankees star Aaron Judge sidelined for the series by a nagging calf injury, New York sent slugger Giancarlo Stanton to the plate as a pinch hitter in the ninth — his first at-bat since April.<\/p>\n

But Rays reliever Ryan Baker retired all three batters he faced in the ninth to secure the victory.<\/p>\n

Rasmussen struck out 10 and walked two over eight innings in front of a raucous 40,000-strong crowd at Tropicana Field to make Jonathan Aranda’s third-inning home run off Gerrit Cole stand up.<\/p>\n

“Honestly my heartbeat was about a thousand beats a minute,” Rasmussen said. “I just let (catcher) Liam (Hicks) call the game and did my best to try and execute the pitches he called.”<\/p>\n

The Chicago White Sox, fueled by a two-run home run from Munetaka Murakami, beat the Guardians 3-0 in Cleveland for a 1-0 lead in their AL division series.<\/p>\n

Murakami belted his first MLB post-season homer to give the White Sox a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning, launching a pitch from Parker Messick 440 feet to the right-field seats at Progressive Field.<\/p>\n

The towering shot also scored Miguel Vargas, who had singled to left field to open the frame.<\/p>\n

After three straight seasons with 100 or more defeats the White Sox finished the regular season with an 84-74 record, snagging the sixth seed in the American League and ousting the Houston Astros in two games in the Wild Card round.<\/p>\n

Cleveland had their chances, leaving the bases loaded in both the third and fourth innings.<\/p>\n

The Milwaukee Brewers, top seeds in the National League after winning 103 regular-season games, host the surging San Diego Padres in Saturday’s late game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Dodgers, chasing a rare World Series three-peat, opened their Major League Baseball playoff campaign with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-870035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}