Dodgers, Astros advance to LCS
ATLANTA — When the Los Angeles Dodgers bolstered their already power-packed lineup with slugging shortstop Manny Machado, this is just what they had in mind.
Plenty of long balls. Another deep run in the postseason.
Next stop, the NL Championship Series for the third year in a row.
Machado drove in four runs — three of them with a seventh-inning shot into the left-field seats — and the Dodgers finished off the Atlanta Braves with a 6-2 victory Monday in the NL Division Series.
Los Angeles took the best-of-five series 3-1 and advanced to face the Brewers. Game 1 is Friday night in Milwaukee.
Coming off a tense victory in Game 3, the Baby Braves grabbed the lead on pinch-hitter Kurt Suzuki’s two-run single in the fourth.
But David Freese, the 2011 World Series MVP with St. Louis, came through again in the postseason. He delivered a pinch-hit single of his own in the sixth off Jonny Venters (0-1), driving home Cody Bellinger and Yasiel Puig for a 3-2 lead with a grounder past backup shortstop Charlie Culberson after Atlanta allowed Puig to steal second uncontested.
Machado finished off Atlanta in the seventh, launching a 1-2 pitch from rookie Chad Sobotka over the Dodgers’ bullpen — his team’s eighth homer of the series. A free-agent-to-be acquired from Baltimore in July, Machado also had a run-scoring double in the first.
Ryan Madson (1-0) earned the win by getting the final two outs in the fifth to escape a bases-loaded jam. Lucas Duda hit a long drive to right that drifted foul with two on in the eighth against Kenta Maeda, then had an inning-ending flyout.
Atlanta’s return to the postseason for the first time since 2013 yielded a familiar result: another postseason defeat.
The Braves have lost nine straight playoff appearances.
Astros 11, Indians 3
CLEVELAND — The Houston Astros are orbiting in October again.
The defending World Series champions advanced to the AL Championship Series for the second straight year, completing a division-round sweep of Cleveland on Monday with an 11-3 lashing in Game 3 helped by two key throwing errors from Indians reliever Trevor Bauer.
Marwin Gonzalez hit a two-run double off Bauer on a shoulder-high pitch as the Astros scored three runs in the seventh inning and closed a series that figured to be much more competitive.
George Springer homered twice, Carlos Correa hit three-run homer for his first hit of the postseason and Houston’s bullpen combined for four scoreless innings as the AL West champions served notice that a second Series title is on their itinerary.
Red Sox 16, Yankees 1
NEW YORK — Brock Holt became the first player to hit for the cycle in a postseason game and the Boston Red Sox routed the Yankees 16-1 on Monday night to grab a 2-1 lead in their AL Division Series.
Andrew Benintendi lined a three-run double and Holt tripled home two more in a seven-run fourth inning that quickly turned the latest playoff matchup between these rivals into a laugher. Handed a big early lead, Nathan Eovaldi shut down his former team during New York’s most lopsided defeat in 396 postseason games.
Boston battered an ineffective Luis Severino and silenced the crowd that emptied out fast on a night when Red Sox rookie manager Alex Cora made all the right moves. By the ninth, backup catcher Austin Romine was on the mound for New York — he gave up a two-run homer to Holt that completed his cycle.
