On the strength of a 10-run, third-inning explosion, the Rangers scored 15 runs on 15 hits in their 15-4 win at Yankee Stadium. The Royals escaped with a six-inning victory against the Cardinals due to inclement weather. With the win, Kansas City maintained its grip on the best record in baseball. MORE: 80 years of night games | Minor league team rocks Batman unis Anthony Rizzo sent a moon shot to right-center field that seemingly hovered in the air for an eternity....

But what about, for lack of a better term, the Non-Stars? The players who’ve put up the most disappointing first halves in baseball, relative to expectations? What would that team look like? FAGAN: The best players not on an All-Star roster — yet Let’s go position by position and find the players who fit the bill: C: Jonathan Lucroy, Rangers Numbers: .263/.311/.375, 4 HR, 20 RBI, 0.1 WAR Why he’s here: Lucroy’s numbers are way down from his career averages across the board, and he’s in danger of posting his lowest OPS since his rookie season in 2010....

Houston’s stellar play on the field lately was also matched in the front office Thursday as general manager Jeff Luhnow made the first major move before the trade deadline by acquiring Scott Kazmir (5-5, 2.39 ERA) from Oakland for two prospects. The trade should send all other American League contending teams scrambling to try and match it. MORE: Where will Justin Upton land? | Mets’ actions speak louder than words...

Conventional wisdom says if a sports book continually holds less on baseball and usually always wins in football, that it would make more sense for a bettor to keep banging the book at its weakness. But even though we’ve all been betting baseball since April on a daily basis, there’s something embedded in our brains that says once football starts, we’ve got to have a piece of the action. It’s a huge part of our entertainment world, and with Week 1 of the NFL season underway, we can’t get enough of it....

MLB odds: Current baseball lines from Vegas During the first few weeks of the season, it appeared the Red Sox were going to be involved in a lot of 8-7 games with weak starting pitching and a power-packed lineup. As things have unfolded, only half of that is true. The starting pitching is as weak as expected with a 5.05 ERA – third-worst in baseball – but the offense has disappeared....

This pandemic-influenced season brings an altered postseason format, with 16 teams getting a nod and with each team opening in a best-of-three round to determine who plays in the LDS. Factor in that the later rounds will be played at neutral-site bubbles, and not much will seem normal. MORE: MLB playoff bubbles, explained Making playoff predictions in baseball is always a fool’s game, given the crapshoot nature of it all, but it’s a fun fool’s game....

Nationals manager Dusty Baker chose those words before NLDS Game 3 to characterize Max Scherzer’s return start after a hamstring injury, but he might have also been describing — with some accidental prescience — Stephen Strasburg’s start Wednesday in Game 4 against the Cubs. MORE: Three takeaways from Nationals’ Game 4 win After being sick for days and trying various antibiotics to kick it, Strasburg said he woke up Wednesday morning, called pitching coach Mike Maddux and told him he was ready to go....

Chicago had its ace on the mound but Jake Arrieta surprisingly struggled through his 5 2/3 innings. He gave up four earned runs on five hits while striking out nine. He also gave up his first home run since Sept. 11. MORE: Best photos from NL Division Series games | Cubs’ most memorable postseason moments Cubs closer Hector Rondon then made things interesting in the ninth inning, when he gave up a two-run home run to Stephen Piscotty, but he got Matt Holliday to ground out to end the game....

For the American League Championship Series, Fox/FS1 telecasts have featured Joe Buck on play-by-play with Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci and former MLB second baseman Harold Reynolds. For its National League counterpart, TBS went with Ernie Johnson up front and former Mets pitcher Ron Darling and Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. Each of these booths have had their strengths, but the weaknesses are so glaring and obvious, it makes the experience of watching on TV more grueling than enjoyable....

The Dodgers are also looking to end a World Series drought. The NL West champions haven’t been to the Fall Classic since Kirk Gibson and Orel Hershiser led the underdog club to a ring in 1988. This time around the Dodgers are long shots again, not only because they are facing the Cubs but also because of the use of key pitchers Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen, each of whom pitched past their comfort zone in the Game 5 NLDS clincher over the Nationals....

The Cubs, obviously, haven’t won a World Series since 1908. Cleveland last claimed the title in 1948. The Dodgers haven’t won since 1988 and the Blue Jays haven’t won since 1993. The Nationals/Expos franchise has never won the championship (though the Washington Senators took the Fall Classic in 1924). It’s kind of refreshing to enter the league championship series without one of the recent Big Four — the Yankees, Cardinals, Giants and Red Sox — in the mix for the second year in a row....

Corey Kluber made a successful postseason debut in dramatic fashion. Not only did he outduel David Price, adding to the left-hander’s playoff misery, he also proved he’s healthy and ready to compete for the long haul. MORE: The 50 best players in the playoffs Not many thought the Indians would lead this best-of-five series 2-0 despite them playing the first two games at home, but here we are. Three things we learned from Cleveland’s Game 2 victory:...

Some of those sound like comic-book sound effects, but they’re actually just baseball stats, which you surely knew, fair reader. But with San Diego ComicCon wrapping up, it brings out the nerd in (most of) us. Baseball in 2019 can best be described as superhero movies pre-2000: There’s a lot of mediocrity with some treats thrown in. It seems like there have been a few dominant squads and the rest of baseball has been just eh at best....

We feel pretty confident you won’t mind. And so we won’t delay. Onto the rankings. MORE: Shohei Ohtani makes history on the mound in latest start 1. New York Yankees May 1 ranking: 3Why they’re here: This team was 9-9 after losing a home game to the Blue Jays on April 20, and to some Yankees fans (at least some vocal ones on Twitter), the sky was falling. Aaron Boone didn’t know what he was doing....

Mejia, who failed three tests for PEDs in a 10-month timeframe, held a news conference on Friday with his lawyer, who blamed his client’s recent positive drug test on MLB and their “dirty cop tactics." MORE: Notable players suspended for PEDs | Best players ever, by the numbers “Mr. Mejia was told … if he did not provide testimony on a particular player they wanted to investigate, they would go out of their way to find him positive a third time,” Mejia’s lawyer, Vincent White said....

Major League Baseball reportedly had planned to send out a memo Monday reminding teams to consider minorities for high-level positions in their organizations but did so Sunday night instead after the Brewers became the seventh team to go that route. According to FOX Sports, MLB quickly dispatched the missive to teams overnight so it wouldn’t look like a direct reaction to the Brewers’ rapid-fire change. Milwaukee announced at 10:17 p....

The reigning World Series champs pretty clearly aren’t done, though. Remember, unlike many teams considered Series contenders looking for trade upgrades (hi, Astros!), the Cubs aren’t locked into a playoff spot. They still have to make the postseason, though it’s worth noting that they were 5.5 games behind the Brewers in the NL Central when they made the trade with the White Sox, and now they’re only 1.5 back in the division....