PHOENIX (AP) — Aaron Judge is mashing homers at an astounding pace for the New York Yankees. Shohei Ohtani provides the same type of thump for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But it’s the Arizona Diamondbacks who have the best offense in the big leagues — by quite a bit.
The Diamondbacks came into Sunday’s games averaging 5.48 runs per game, a full half run better than the second place team, which is the Yankees at 4.98. Arizona was at it again on Sunday, pulling off a 11-10 win in 10 innings against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Arizona took a 5-0 lead, then trailed 8-5, then tied it up at 8-8, fell behind 10-8 in the 10th and then rallied for three runs in the bottom of the inning for the win. Eugenio Suárez provided the walk-off moment with a bases loaded single to deep right. It was a much-needed win for a franchise fighting with the Padres, Mets and Braves for the three NL wild cards.
The D-backs have a deep, speedy lineup led by Ketel Marte, Christian Walker, Corbin Carroll, Joc Pederson, Jake McCarthy and Suárez. As Sunday proved, no lead is safe when Arizona is at the plate.
“We’re really executing at a high level and it’s not just the slug,” manager Torey Lovullo said after a 14-4 win against the Rangers last week. “It’s patient at-bats waiting for our pitch, putting down the bat, handing it off to the next guy.”
Suarez has been one of MLB’s best players in the second half of the season, batting .320 with 18 homers and 44 RBIs over 51 games coming into Sunday’s games.
The Los Angeles Dodgers boast one of the best lineups in baseball, led by superstars like Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
The problem is they also have to pitch.
A rash of injuries to the pitching staff — including front-line starters like Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw — have left manager Dave Roberts scrambling as his team reaches the most important part of the season. The Dodgers are so thin on the mound that Roberts acknowledged earlier in the week that Ohtani could return to the mound in October after having offseason elbow surgery.
“Anything is possible,” Roberts said. “I hope that’s on his mind as far as motivation for his rehab. The odds of it coming to pass are very slim, but they’re not zero.”
The Dodgers' roster conundrum isn't unique in baseball this season. As the playoffs approach, no team looks bulletproof. In fact, this will likely be the first season since 2014 that no team will reach the 100-win mark in the regular season.
The parity has allowed several teams to stay in the playoff race longer than expected, particularly in the American League. The Detroit Tigers (77-73), Seattle Mariners (77-73) and Boston Red Sox (75-75) still have hope despite hovering around .500.
The Tigers and Mariners are just 2 1/2 games behind the Minnesota Twins for the final AL wild card.
What is the worst regular-season record for a World Series winning team?
The Chicago White Sox are putting up a little bit of a fight to avoid being the worst baseball team in the modern era.
The White Sox won two straight games against the Oakland Athletics during the weekend, improving their record to 35-115. That might not seem like much, but it's the first time they won back-to-back games since June 27-29.
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned it’s you can’t take big league wins for granted,” outfielder Gavin Sheets said. “To get back-to-back wins and get a series win, it feels really good. We have to enjoy these times and keep it going.”
Chicago is trying to avoid the post-1900 record of 120 losses by the 1962 expansion New York Mets. The White Sox are 20-58 at home, one shy of the post-1900 mark for home losses shared by the 1939 St. Louis Browns and 2019 Detroit Tigers.
There are 12 games remaining. That means the White Sox have to go 8-4 to avoid 120 losses.
The 2006 St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series despite finishing just 83-78 in the regular season.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Chicago White Sox's Bryan Ramos, left, celebrates with Gavin Sheets after the White Sox defeated the Oakland Athletics in a baseball game in Chicago, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani awaits his turn to bat in the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jason Allen)
Arizona Diamondbacks' Christian Walker gets high fives from teammates after scoring their second run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday criticized Republican Donald Trump 's promise to deport millions of people who are in the United States illegally, questioning whether he would rely on massive raids and detention camps to carry it out.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual leadership conference that the nation can find both a pathway to citizenship for those who want to come and at the same time secure the border.
“We can do both, and we must do both,” she said.
Trump, for his part, held a rally in Uniondale on New York's Long Island as both candidates took a break Wednesday from campaigning in the toss-up states that will likely decide the Nov. 5 election.
Before heading out to the suburbs, Trump stopped at a Bitcoin cafe in New York City. Trump has recently embraced cryptocurrency and on Monday night helped launch his family's new cryptocurrency venture.
Harris harked back to the Trump administration's immigration policies as she bid for Hispanic support.
“While we fight to move our nation forward to a brighter future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies will keep trying to pull us backward,” Harris said. “We all remember what they did to tear families apart, and now they have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in American history.”
“Imagine what that would look like and what that would be? How’s that going to happen? Massive raids? Massive detention camps? What are they talking about?” she said.
Former president Trump has promised to carry out “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country” if he's elected in November. He has offered no details on how such an operation would work.
Trump, who has leaned into immigration as a top campaign issue, has an advantage over Harris in opinion polling on whom voters trust to better handle the issue.
Meanwhile, the Teamsters labor union declined to endorse either Harris or Trump, saying neither had sufficient support from its 1.3 million members.
Harris had met on Monday with a panel of Teamsters, having long courted organized labor and made support for the middle class her central policy goal. Trump met earlier in the year with a panel of Teamsters, and its president, Sean O’Brien, spoke at his invitation at the Republican National Convention.
Trump's rally Wednesday night was in Uniondale, an area that could be key to Republicans maintaining control of the House. His party is trying to protect 18 Republicans in Democratic-heavy congressional districts that Joe Biden carried in 2020, particularly in coastal New York and California, and going on offense to challenge Democrats elsewhere.
Long Island in particular features one of the most closely watched races, between first-term Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito and Democrat Laura Gillen. D’Esposito is a former New York Police detective who won in 2022 in a district that Biden won by about 15 percentage points in 2020.
Trump posted Tuesday on his Truth Social platform that the GOP has “a real chance of winning” New York “for the first time in many decades." In that same post, Trump also pledged that he would “get SALT back,” suggesting he would eliminate a cap on state and local tax deductions that were part of tax cut legislation he signed into law in 2017.
The so-called SALT cap has led to bigger tax bills for many residents of New York, New Jersey, California and other high-cost, high-tax states, and is an important campaign issue in those states, particularly among those New York Republicans serving in districts Biden won.
Harris' speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute marked the second day in a row that she has tended to constituencies considered key to the Democratic Party.
On Tuesday, she sat for an interview in Philadelphia with members of the National Association of Black Journalists. She decried Trump’s rhetoric and said voters should make sure he “can’t have that microphone again.” She has trips planned later in the week to Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin.
Trump is attempting to return to his campaign cadence after Sunday's apparent assassination attempt as he golfed in Florida. On Tuesday, he traveled to Flint, Michigan, and has not appeared to alter plans for upcoming trips to the nation's capital and North Carolina later in the week.
His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, held an event in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
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Kinnard reported from Houston and Colvin reported from Uniondale, New York. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Washington and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump makes a campaign stop at Pubkey Bar and Media House, Wednesday, Sept.18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris waves to the crowd as she leaves at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Leadership Conference, at Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Leadership Conference, at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Leadership Conference, at Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) leadership conference, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump makes a campaign stop at Pubkey Bar and Media House, Wednesday, Sept.18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Leadership Conference, at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris Vice is interviewed by National Association of Black Journalists members Tonya Mosley, and Gerren Keith Gaynor, with moderator Eugene Daniels, at the WHYY studio in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a town hall event at the Dort Financial Center, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Flint, Mich. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris boarding Air Force Two, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, near Philadelphia International Airport, in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on stage with Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders during a town hall event at the Dort Financial Center, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Flint, Mich. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
