Kelly and Carter to lead young New Zealand A squad in South Africa

Nick Kelly and Joe Carter will captain a young New Zealand A squad touring South Africa this month, with the team set to play three one-dayers and two four-day matches.Kelly, who will take charge of the white-ball side, and Carter, set to lead in the red-ball fixtures, head a 15-player squad with an average age of just 25. The squad includes ten New Zealand internationals.Among the most notable names are Muhammad Abbas, Zak Foulkes, Mitch Hay, Bevon Jacobs, and Rhys Mariu – all of whom have impressed on the international stage over the past six months.Related

  • O'Rourke out for at least three months with back stress fracture

  • Adithya Ashok turns to Tamil roots while spinning a future with New Zealand

  • Hay, Abbas among fresh faces on New Zealand contract list

  • 'Outstanding' Foulkes savours record debut performance

Foulkes starred on Test debut in Zimbabwe, taking a record-breaking 9 for 75 – the best figures by a New Zealander on debut. Abbas set a record in March for the fastest half-century on ODI debut, smashing one in 26 balls against Pakistan.Wicketkeeper-batter Hay was a regular feature in New Zealand’s white-ball squads last summer, setting a T20I world record with six dismissals in a single innings and rescuing New Zealand with an unbeaten 99 in an ODI against Pakistan in Hamilton.Jacobs and Mariu have both impressed in limited international appearances, with Jacobs hitting an unbeaten 44 on T20I debut and Mariu scoring an ODI fifty in just his second game.Two changes have been made from the New Zealand A squad that toured Bangladesh earlier this year, with Jacobs and Test quick Matt Fisher coming in. Auckland pacer Simon Keene and Jacobs are the only players in the squad yet to appear for New Zealand A.Joe Carter will lead in the red-ball fixtures•Mallikarjuna/KSCA

Keene, 22, has impressed in domestic cricket with a first-class century and three five-wicket hauls in just 21 matches for Auckland.One player missing from the squad is Northern Districts allrounder Kristian Clarke, who was unavailable for selection after suffering a side strain during a recent New Zealand A camp.The team will be coached by Northern Districts assistant coach Daniel Flynn, who takes on the head coach role for the first time. He will be supported by NZC high-performance coaches Bob Carter and Graeme Aldridge.Flynn, a former international himself, is relishing the opportunity to lead a side filled with both emerging and established talent.”It’s an exciting blend,” Flynn said. “We have guys who’ve already had a taste of international cricket, and experienced domestic cricketers who are trying to push their case for that next level. “While development is a key focus, Flynn stressed that the team is also heading to South Africa with a strong emphasis on performance. “We’re obviously going there to perform and win games of cricket,” he said. “But we’re also conscious of balancing that with the development of the guys and the opportunity the tour presents for them.”The squad departs for South Africa on August 24, with the tour set to begin on Saturday, August 30.New Zealand A squad: Muhammad Abbas, Adithya Ashok, Joe Carter (red-ball captain), Josh Clarkson, Matt Fisher, Zak Foulkes, Mitch Hay, Curtis Heaphy, Bevon Jacobs, Simon Keene, Nick Kelly (white-ball captain), Jayden Lennox, Ben Lister, Rhys Mariu, Dale Phillips.

فيديو | فودين يسجل هدف مانشستر سيتي الأول أمام ليدز يونايتد

باغت فريق مانشستر سيتي خصمه ليدز يونايتد بهدف مبكر، خلال مباراة الفريقين ببطولة الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز لموسم 2025-2026، مساء اليوم السبت.

ويستقبل مانشستر سيتي نظيره ليدز يونايتد على ملعب “الاتحاد” ضمن مباريات الجولة الثالثة عشر للدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز “البريميرليج”.

اقرأ أيضًا | ليفربول يخطط لتوجيه ضربة لـ مانشستر سيتي لحل أزمة خط وسط الفريق

ونجح فيل فودين في تسجيل هدف التقدم لصالح مانشستر سيتي وذلك في الدقيقة الثانية من عمر المباراة أمام ليدز.

الهدف جاء بعد تمريرة رائعة من ماتيوس نونيز وصلت إلى فودين الذي سجل في شباك ليدز بنجاح، ومنح فريقه التقدم سريعًا. هدف فودين في مباراة مانشستر سيتي وليدز 

South Africa are selecting based on character rather than just stats now

South Africa’s Test captain, currently on an injury layoff, looks back at the team’s memorable draw in Pakistan

Temba Bavuma27-Oct-2025Professional cricketers get used to missing matches through injury but it’s never easy when you miss out on moments like our eight-wicket victory in the second Test, in Rawalpindi to level the series against Pakistan. You are obviously super-happy and proud of the guys and their achievements, but selfishly, as a player, you want to be there. You want to have contributed to the cause in some form.Being out of action with a grade-two calf tear is frustrating but the interval has been enjoyable in terms of readjusting and tinkering with my training programme. Over the last few weeks I have generally started my day with a session with the biokineticist in the morning, followed by a batting session. I have then done strength and conditioning sessions with my trainer based at the Wanderers Stadium.My rehab has been a collaborative effort between Lions and the national side. Ziyaad Mahomed, Lions’ physiotherapist, and Proteas’ physiotherapist Sizwe Hadebe have been administering my rehab and plenty of communication has flowed between them. Tumi Masakela, CSA high-performance strength and conditioning coach, took over from the physiotherapists once they were happy that I was able to train pain-free. I’m at that point now where everything I’m doing is pain-free whether it’s batting or running.Related

South Africa prepare for spin-slaught in Tests against Pakistan

Maharaj: 'Old-fashioned Test cricket' helped us claw back

Stats – First-class Harmer enters elite wicket-takers' club

Harmer's six-for helps South Africa ease to series-levelling win

Rabada: South Africa 'a young team that wants to do the dirty work'

In my absence, Aiden Markram has captained the side and led well, especially in the second Test. For us as South Africans, we are not super-accustomed to the subcontinent, so it will take us a little longer to adapt to the conditions and start getting the feel from a field-setting and bowling-changes point of view. I think Aiden had a stronger sense of that in the second Test, which was seen in the way he used his bowlers, found the balance between attack and defence, and placed fielders at the right angles. I thought his handling of the spinners, especially, which is never easy to get right, was good and they were a lot more effective for those conditions.Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer were superb. Kesh is doing Kesh things and is really cementing himself as one of the best spin bowlers we’ve produced as a country. He is a wily character and he knows how to read you as a batter and is able to adapt his skill to what the opponent is doing. When playing against him, I feel like you have to make the play.That is generally the case when facing good bowlers. They don’t often give you bad balls and you sometimes have to score off their good balls. Kesh gets the ball to drop and angle, utilises the crease, and he is always in the game.Simon, who took his 1000th first-class wicket during the second Test, is a silent warrior. He actually reached out to me after the Test Championship final and said that he’s still available to play South African cricket. He expressed that’s still his goal, and it was exciting to hear that. I then had a conversation with the coach, Shukri Conrad, to get him back involved. I’m glad he’s returned to the fold, and looking at the Tests we’re going to have on the subcontinent, it made a lot of sense. The partnership between Simon and Kesh will become a formidable one, especially in subcontinental conditions. I also like the competitiveness between them. We also have Senuran Muthusamy and Prenelan Subrayen to support them, and Aiden, who can turn his arm over as well.South Africa have an attack tailored for the subcontinent with Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer in their ranks•Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty ImagesSen was a well-deserved Man of the Series against Pakistan. He contributed with the ball in the first Test and the bat in the second. It would have been nice for him to get to the three-figure mark, but the way he’s come into the team, he’s really bolstered our resources from both a batting and bowling perspective. He took 11 wickets and scored 106 runs, but he’s an unassuming character; he’s not loud and gets his job done. Whenever the opportunity is there, he tries to grab it with both hands. I’m sure the guys would have celebrated hard for a bloke like Sen.What we have been able to do well and something which has served us, is selecting based on character rather than simply basing it on stats. Character is a big thing for us as a team and everything we do, we do it for each other. It’s knowing you have individuals, who on their day will make the play for the team.A great example of that came from Kagiso Rabada with the bat. We obviously all know him with the ball. But, for me, with him making a play like that, making 71 runs in the second Test, it was probably the defining moment in the game. I hear they call him “Brian Charles” Rabada now!KG killed all energy within the Pakistani team. It was always going to be tricky for them going into their second innings and trying to play with any great deal of confidence, having suffered that at the hands of Kagiso and his bat.

He’s “better” than Arteta: Edwards in Liverpool bid to hire Slot upgrade

Liverpool haven’t been very good this season. That’s an understatement, too, with Arne Slot’s side having fallen so far below expectations after so dominantly winning the Premier League last year.

Though the Reds have stopped the rot that was spreading after nine losses from 12 fixtures in all competitions, winning at West Ham before drawing against Sunderland at Anfield, there is still so much to be desired from this group, whose mini-revival is presently built atop a house of cards.

Whether the head coach finds the formula that will shift Liverpool back into a winning outfit is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that performances and results have been so far below the firmly set standard that it beggars belief, and Slot needs to make changes before he finds himself on borrowed time, with potential successors already being touted in the media.

Liverpool looking at Slot replacement

According to Caught Offside, Liverpool chiefs Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes are putting serious thought into appointing Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner to replace Slot.

Glasner, 51, has defied the odds at Selhurst Park over the past few years, winning the FA Cup in May and then the Community Shield (against Liverpool) at the start of the current campaign. They are currently fifth in the Premier League.

It’s important to stress that there have not been any talks with Palace or the Austrian’s entourage. FSG remain committed to guiding their Dutch coach through this storm.

However, if it doesn’t abate, sources indicate Glasner is emerging as the preferred candidate to take the Anfield hot seat.

What Oliver Glasner would bring to Liverpool

Glasner has achieved great things with Crystal Palace, and his past Europa League-winning success with Eintracht Frankfurt corroborates the claim that he is a “top-five manager in the world”, as suggested by one English football content creator.

Though appointing Glasner would require something of a tactical transformation on Merseyside, with the Palace boss typically fielding a 3-4-2-1 formation, he is relaxed about the minutiae of his systems, which are interchangeable and open to tweaks. This tactical pliability suggests that he could be an interesting pick from the FSG hierarchy.

Glasner gets it. And, moreover, he speaks with the clarity and intellect to throw down with any top manager in the Premier League, perhaps even having the credentials to wage tactical battle against the likes of Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta.

The ever-outspoken Jamie O’Hara has even gone as far as to suggest that Glasner is “a better manager” than Arteta, with his trophy-winning credentials and the instant level-up he has overseen in south London bearing testament to that claim.

O’Hara’s football allegiances may lend themselves to a dislike of the high-flying Gunners project, but there is something to be said of Glasner’s success in taking over a Palace side that had lost their way under Roy Hodgson and have since achieved superstardom, plying their craft in Europe and enjoying new status as multi-trophy holders.

There is an urgency to Palace’s creative play that does not detract from their grace and elegance. They have created more big chances this season than both Arsenal and Liverpool. In fact, Manchester City are the only outfit with a higher count at this stage.

Man City

35

46

Chelsea

25

41

Brentford

21

41

Crystal Palace

18

41

Arsenal

27

40

Palace’s inherent playmaking prowess under Glasner’s wing suggests that he could be the perfect fit for a Liverpool side chock-full of devastating attacking quality.

Things might have gone stale in Slot’s system, but Glasner would prove the likes of O’Hara right by joining the Anfield side and elevating this Reds side back to illustrious heights.

Glasner could be the project manager Liverpool need to rival Arteta and Arsenal and reclaim their place on their perch, should Slot indeed face the axe in the coming months.

Liverpool ace who's fallen off a cliff looks like "Fabinho in his final year"

Liverpool’s draw against Sunderland illustrated a litany of problems Slot is still dealing with.

ByAngus Sinclair Dec 4, 2025

Liverpool submit club-record bid and £500,000-a-week salary for Real Madrid star

Liverpool are probing the market for reinforcements after a poor start to the Premier League season and could now be ready to break their transfer record in the process.

Despite returning from the international break determined to arrest their slump in form, the Reds were on the end of a comprehensive defeat to Nottingham Forest that hammered home some of the frailties Arne Slot has been trying to address since the beginning of the campaign.

Nevertheless, David James is a firm believer that Liverpool can still have a solid season despite losing six of their last seven top-flight matches, claiming that the Champions League may be where they are most likely to earn success.

He told BBC Sport: “Liverpool do not recruit for one season, they recruit for the future. I believe with the players they signed they can be good, but I was one of those that expected them to be fine from the get-go.

“The test for Arne Slot as manager is whether he can turn this around. Not winning the title this season doesn’t make it a bad season. Comparatively it does compared with last season but he wasn’t expected to win it last season. He has already ticked that box if we are looking at the broader picture. The Champions League now becomes more important and winning it would justify everything this season.”

PSV Eindhoven visit Anfield in midweek as the Reds bid to move well into the top eight of the league phase, which would result in an automatic place in the last 16 if they were able to finish the job.

January and beyond will be pivotal for Liverpool as they look to build for the challenges ahead, and they could now be willing to shatter their transfer record to land a premium target.

Liverpool submit club record bid for Federico Valverde

According to reports in Spain, Liverpool have submitted an offer worth over £131 million for Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde. The Reds would also be willing to make the Uruguay international, who Toni Kroos called one of the ‘top three’ players in the world, their highest earner on over £500,000 per week.

Liverpool's record signings ranked

Willing to double his current wage at the Santiago Bernabéu, the Reds see Valverde as someone who could revolutionise their midfield after falling into a sticky patch under Slot. Simply put, he fits their tactical framework and England’s reigning champions are ready to convince him that Anfield is a place where he can thrive.

Internally, there is debate at Real Madrid over whether letting one of their high-profile stars leave the club would offer up the opportunity to invest elsewhere, as the size of the offer has caused discourse within Los Blancos’ higher ups, something that may give Liverpool a fighting chance of landing their man.

Federico Valverde at Real Madrid

Appearances

339

Goals

32

Assists

35

With any transfer more likely to occur in the summer, it now remains to be seen whether Valverde will become a statement addition on Merseyside.

Men's Ford Trophy to kick off NZ domestic calendar again

“Aligning the domestic and international schedules by format was well received by the playing and coaching groups last year,” NZC chief cricket operations officer Catherine Campbell said

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Aug-2025The men’s Ford Trophy (one-day competition) will kick-off New Zealand’s domestic summer for the second year in a row. The Ford Trophy will start on October 25, followed by the women’s Hallyburton Johnstone Shield (HBJ) taking off on November 15.NZC had changed the order of the men’s domestic competitions last year after two decades to offer different pitch conditions across formats, as well as to better align with the international schedule.”Aligning the domestic and international schedules by format was well received by the playing and coaching groups last year, so we’re continuing that this season,” NZC chief cricket operations officer Catherine Campbell said in an NZC release. “It helped our domestic bowlers build-up their bowling loads initially through one-day cricket, which better prepared them for the physical demands of four-day cricket later in the season.”It’s not always possible to line the fixtures up like that, but this season we’ve been able to again with the Ford Trophy being played over the top of England’s white-ball tour of New Zealand, and the Plunket Shield providing a good run-up into the West Indies Test series.”At the start of the season perhaps the pitches are a bit less batter friendly, which presents opportunities for the bowlers to make a big impact on the game. By the second half of the season in February, conditions generally are more batter friendly.”With the Women’s ODI World Cup in India ending a few weeks before the start of the HBJ Shield, Campbell expects a lot of the New Zealand international players to return to domestic cricket after the global event.”The WHITE FERNS will come back from the 50-over world cup and we’d expect many of those players to be available for HBJ,” Campbell said. “We are also playing another North v South series in the week leading up to Christmas, which adds a little extra context on performances.”All that should allow players to go into Super Smash in some good domestic form.”The Basin Reserve in Wellington will host the one-day finals weekend, with the men’s eliminator on February 20, the women’s grand final on February 21 and the men’s grand final on February 22. Fourteen venues across New Zealand will host the domestic one-day fixtures this season, ranging from Queens Park in Invercargill in the south to Cobham Oval in Whangārei.The women’s team of Otago and Canterbury men will be chasing their third consecutive one-day titles this season.Like last season, the one-day competitions will be split by the first half of the Plunket Shield and the full Super Smash.The Plunket Shield schedule is set to be released on August 13, with the Super Smash fixtures to follow on August 18.

Essex's young and old combine as Westley, Allison tons down Glamorgan

231-run stand between 36-year-old club captain and 20-year-old rookie sets up home win

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay20-Aug-2025

Charlie Allison hit his first List A century•Getty Images

Tom Westley and Charlie Allison chalked up career-best List A scores while posting a 231-run third-wicket partnership that underpinned Essex’s third successive Metro Bank One-Day Cup victory.The Essex captain’s 141 was his eighth List A century, while Allison’s 131 was his first in the white-ball format but his fourth of a summer in which the 20-year-old has established himself as a forceful and elegant middle-order stroke-maker. As a statistical curiosity, both players’ innings lasted 113 balls.Allison slammed five sixes and 15 fours, while Westley chipped in with 16 fours and three sixes. Simon Harmer made sure the target was beyond Glamorgan with a 22-ball cameo including four sixes in 42 and then ripped through the visitors’ brittle batting with best bowling figures of 5 for 47.Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson smashed four sixes in a defiant 36-ball 64, and Asa Tribe a pedestrian 71 from 79, but it only delayed the inevitable in a day-night match that barely reached nightfall. The reigning champions, still without a win this season, succumbed to 181 all out to lose by 190 runs inside 33 overs.Having elected to bat on a well-used hybrid wicket, Essex lost both openers inside the first eight overs. Matt Critchley attempted to loft Zain ul Hassan straight down the ground, instead hitting high but barely clearing the square, before Robin Das fizzed a delivery from Ned Leonard low to backward point.However, Essex’s tentative start gave way to a free-flowing partnership. Both batsmen dealt almost exclusively in boundaries for a spell, Allison hitting three in an over from Dan Douthwaite. He also added back-to-back fours off Carlson, the first through extra cover, the second a very late cut, before launching the off-spinner over long-off for six.Westley was no less aggressive, whipping Leonard through midwicket, driving the same bowler through the covers and next ball hooking a third boundary. Allison brought up the century partnership with a second six over long leg off Ben Morris. A third six over extra cover off Asa Tribe took Allison beyond his previous best of 85 as well as marking the pair’s 150-run stand. Soon after, he turned Leonord off his legs to reach a 92-ball hundred.Neither player gave a chance until Westley, on 99, drove uppishly to short extra cover where he was dropped by a leaping Henry Hurle while reaching three figures from 93 balls.Eddie Byrom dropped Allison at deep square leg on 126 but made amends shortly after when he held on at cow corner to give Tribe the first of two wickets in four balls. Luc Benkenstein sliced to long-off to give Hurle some compensation.Westley added two more sixes but fell to a similar catch in a similar position to the same fielder as Allison to complete the symmetry of their respective innings.Harmer kept up the barrage before he was caught in the deep from the last ball of the innings to give ul Hassan a third wicket.Jamie Porter struck with his first ball in Glamorgan’s reply when he had Byrom edging to slip and Shane Snater upped the pressure when Hurle nicked behind in only the fifth over.However, Kiran Carlson took up the challenge almost single-handedly. He dominated the first fifty runs of the 78-run third-wicket stand, to which Tribe contributed just seven, and reached his own half-century from 31 balls with an audacious reverse-sweep off Harmer for his third six. A fourth maximum, to cow corner off Benkenstein, followed before he fell, driving Harmer to mid-off.Then the collapse began in earnest. Will Smale lasted just four balls before attempting a lavish sweep against Benkenstein and was lbw. Billy Root didn’t hang around much longer, sweeping Harmer to the square-leg boundary, while ul Hassan’s three-ball stay ended when he was caught behind. Harmer claimed a simple caught-and-bowled to remove Douthwaite and then bowled Tribe for his fifth wicket.

Man Utd now on red alert to sign “spectacular” Real Madrid star in shock £69m deal

Manchester United are now on red alert in the race to sign a Real Madrid star ahead of Manchester City in a shock £69m deal next year.

Amorim "angry" at "frustrating" West Ham draw

Like the rest of Old Trafford, Ruben Amorim was left angered by Man United’s 1-1 draw against West Ham. The Red Devils were in control for the large part and deservedly got their opener through unlikely goalscorer Diogo Dalot in the second-half, but that’s when things started going wrong.

With seven minutes remaining, the visitors sent a timely reminder of United’s struggles courtesy of Soungoutou Magassa, who scored his first Premier League goal to snatch a point for West Ham.

Amorim, left frustrated at full-time, told reporters: “Yeah, it’s frustrating, it’s angry. That’s it.”

The former Sporting CP manager also pinpointed where things went wrong, saying: “Yeah, but there are second halves that we lose control of the game.

Today, I think it was not that case. Maybe after the first goal, we lost some second balls and Matheus [Cunha] won one or two second balls there and made it a transition.

“We try to defend all the time far from the goal because we knew it. They tried to make a cross, win a corner. Like it happened, long ball, they win a second ball against three guys of us in the defence. So, we need to be better in the second half.”

Any assumption that United have turned a corner under Amorim is quickly evaporating and the Old Trafford boss desperately needs further reinforcements in 2026.

Midfield stars such as Conor Gallagher and Elliot Anderson have already been mooted, but United could still set their focus on welcoming Rodrygo from Real Madrid. The Brazilian is attracting plenty of interest and could yet swap the Bernabeu for the Premier League.

Man Utd on red alert in Rodrygo race

According to reports in Spain, Man United are now on red alert in the race to sign Rodrygo next year and could land the talented winger ahead of rivals Man City, as well as a number of other Premier League sides.

The Brazilian has struggled for game time under Xabi Alonso – starting just three La Liga games all season – and looks destined to leave Real Madrid next year.

Sparking a flurry of interest, Madrid reportedly value their winger at around €80m (£69m). Whether INEOS and others deem that fee reachable for a player who’s yet to impress Alonso remains to be seen, however.

Man Utd now rivalling Liverpool to sign £87m forward who Klopp loves

The Red Devils have joined the race for a new attacker, who has made an impressive start to the campaign.

ByDominic Lund Dec 5, 2025

At his best, Rodrygo played a key part in Madrid’s success in the Champions League and in La Liga. Now, he’s been cast aside to hand United the opportunity to land arguably their best signing yet under Amorim.

Dubbed “spectacular” by former Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti in 2023, Rodrygo is still just 24 years old and is full of potential – even if he’s forced to realise it with a move to Old Trafford in 2026.

Amorim's £150k-p/w star just had his worst game for Man Utd vs West Ham

Eugenio Suárez’s First Major October Moment Couldn’t Have Come at a Better Time

SEATTLE – These are the moments we hold dearest. When everything seems to come together perfectly, as opportunity meets joy. For someone like Eugenio Suárez, a 34-year-old veteran of 12 major league seasons and four teams and a .186 hitter in his second go-round with the Mariners, everything he loves most was within his grasp.

It did not matter that it happened as he was squeezed between a box truck and a concrete wall in a hallway outside the Mariners’ clubhouse Friday night. On the greatest night of his peripatetic baseball life, he held tight to his wife, Genesis, and his daughters, Nicolle and Melanie.

“This part is the best part of everything,” Suárez said. “This is something that you dream of. To be honest, to see the happiness of my daughters and my wife—they’ve been incredible supporting me—is the best.”

Oh, and that home run? The one that will take its place next to The Double by Edgar Martínez 30 years ago among the biggest moments in 50 seasons of Seattle baseball? The one that came with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of a tie game and put the Mariners one win from the World Series for the first time? The home run that made yet another manager pay for getting too cute running these postseason games? The home run off a Seranthony Domínguez 3–2 fastball that gave Seattle a roof-shaking 6–2 victory?

Yeah, that was not bad, either.

Genesis and the girls had flown in from Miami only the previous night, getting here around midnight. They arrived just in time, just as their daddy did.

“It makes it even more special,” Suárez said. “They were coming from Miami, a long way. Just for them to come such a long way and for me to do it in front of them is … I don’t know, it’s something. It’s something else.”

Suárez is known to be one of the good guys of the game with such a professional reputation that when the Mariners acquired him for a second time, this time from the Diamondbacks in a trade deadline deal, there was more talk about how he fit into the clubhouse than his 36 home runs. He finished with 49 homers, tying a career high, but his bat otherwise was a bust in the final two months of the regular season. Those 53 games are moot now, subsumed by a gigantic home run that should never have happened this way but for the cooperation of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Cal Raleigh kickstarted the Mariners rally with a solo home run, following a head-scratching decision by Blue Jays manager John Schneider. / Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images

The Blue Jays were six outs away from going home needing one win for their first pennant in 32 years. Their 2–1 lead was facilitated by too-cute maneuverings from Seattle manager Dan Wilson, who with a 1–0 lead, pulled his best starter, Bryce Miller, who had thrown 10 shutout innings in this series against Toronto, His first two options out of the bullpen each allowed run-scoring hits to create the deficit.

As in a sloppy tennis match, it then became the turn of Toronto manager John Schneider to make an unforced error. The last, biggest at-bat in the way of a Toronto win was Cal Raleigh, the major league home run leader, who was leading off the eighth inning for Seattle. The right and obvious move is to bring in your best reliever, your closer, for the biggest at-bat remaining. You do not save him to pitch the ninth inning against the bottom of the lineup. The game was on the line .

And yet Schneider never had his closer, Jeff Hoffman, a 10-year veteran with 33 saves, warming. The manager brought in Brendon Little, a workmanlike lefty who had pitched only five times this year with a one-run lead in the eighth.

All series, Scheider has been partially driven by the Law of Exposure—the theory that the more opposing hitters see the same reliever over the course of a series the less effective the reliever becomes. It sounds plausible. Only it ignores track records, experience, stuff and what the scoreboard tells you.

“I wanted to see that part of the lineup see different guys,” Schneider said, as the 2-3-4 hitters were coming up for Seattle. “We talked about it all series. Little’s been one of our best pitchers in big spots. Tough guy to elevate. Cal’s a really good hitter.”

Behind home plate, about 20 rows back, Todd Raleigh, Cal’s dad and a veteran college coach, could scarcely believe it. The most dangerous part of the lineup was coming up for what should be the last time and the closer was not in the game.

“Yes, I was very surprised,” Todd said.

Cal, a switch hitter, had not taken a right-handed swing in a week. Todd knew that did not matter. As soon as Cal was old enough to stand, barely one year old, Todd put a big-barreled red plastic bat in his hands and practically handed him a soft ball for him to hit. Todd showed baby Cal how to switch his hands on his grip depending on whether he was swinging right-handed or left-handed. Nearly from the cradle, Cal Raleigh was a born switch hitter.

“I never wanted my boys to think one side was a strong side and one side was a weaker side,” Todd said.

Little threw one sinker. And then another. Cal took both. And then a third. This time he swung right-handed for the first time in a week. Raleigh hit it so high it was in the air for five seconds. For five seconds, an eternity for the outcome of a batted ball to be held in doubt, all of T-Mobile Park was an enormous snow globe, a tableau of wonder frozen in time. Necks craned, breath ceased, hope and fear filled the void. Left fielder Nathan Lukes drifted and drifted under it until his back was against the wall.

When the baseball finally landed, the game was tied. Raleigh had his 64th homer of the year. If anything, Schneider got burned by one of his best traits: his admirable faith in his entire roster.

“I trust every single guy on this roster, you know,” Schneider said. “It’s hard. No one feels worse than Little. No one feels worse than Ser right now, or me. But I trust every single guy on this roster.”

For the second time this series, Schneider pulled ace Kevin Gausman early, only to see his bullpen get beat by Raleigh and the Mariners. / Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images

In Game 1, Schneider pulled his ace, Kevin Gausman, after just 76 pitches in which only a homer by Raleigh ended a streak of 16 straight batters retired. The Toronto bullpen lost the game. Schneider admitted he “had a hard time sleeping” after that decision.

In Game 5, he pulled Gausman quickly again, this time with 91 pitches after a two-out walk in the sixth. The Mariners were happy to see Gausman gone after they chased vainly at his splitter like trying to swat gnats in a windstorm. Gausman had 15 swings and misses, the most in his 11 career postseason games. Thirteen whiffs came on the 23 times Seattle tried to hit his splitter.

Louis (Everyday) Varland pitched out of the inning with a walk, but Schneider had started the bullpen carousel, which should not be a top priority. Schneider would commit the kind of unforced error that should never happen in October: losing a lead and a close game late without ever using your closer.

“Yeah, I thought about it, for sure,” Schneider said about putting Hoffman on Raleigh. Weirdly, Schneider put Hoffman on Raleigh in the eighth inning the previous night in a blowout win, 8–2. Hoffman retired him on a pop-up.

“Again, I think being … decisions are hard,” Schneider said. “I think being convicted in a process is important. You make a decision, and you leave it behind you. It’s part of baseball. Second-guessing is part of it.

“Thought about it, for sure. And, again, we have relied on every single guy on our roster to get a lot of wins this year. So I could have done that, and then you think about who do you want in the ninth inning, who do they have coming up? So, yeah, we talked about that situation, for sure. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”

The ninth inning would have been the bottom of the lineup. The game in the balance was when Raleigh stepped into the box to lead off. Little walked two batters, forcing Schneider to pull him. Still no Hoffman. Dominguez was next. Suárez is not a great two-strike hitter (.127), but he is dangerous because he retains his “A” swing. His homer was his 15th with two strikes.

The limb Scheider chose on his decision tree enabled Suárez a short time later to be sitting in the interview room with his two daughters by his side. Suárez originally signed in 2008 with the Tigers as a 17-year-old from Venezuela. Seventeen years later, this is the first time he is playing in a League Championship Series. Tears welled in his eyes as he tried to comprehend the meaning of what he had just done.

“Today was very special not only because I hit the grand slam,” he said, “but I give the opportunity to my daughters and my wife watching. They came here last night for this type of game. And I’ve been waiting for this. I just feel so grateful right now and feel so good because we’re going to Toronto with an opportunity in front of us to go to a World Series.

“I have a good amount of beautiful moments in my career, but today is something else.”

There will be pictures, many pictures, by which to remember the moment. Suárez following his long flyball to right field, the first fastball he hit the other way for a homer since July. Suarez floating around the bases, all the while saying a prayer of thanks. Suarez putting his hands together in the shape of a heart as he crossed home plate. Suarez looking for Genesis and the girls in the stands.

But no frame will hold the moment he shared the best night of his baseball night with his family. That is forever preserved in his heart.

Braves Take Flier on Former Blue Jays All-Star Pitcher Days After Release

In 2022, pitcher Alek Manoah was the toast of Toronto, having nearly won a Cy Young Award as a sophomore for a 92-win Blue Jays team. With the second-lowest seasonal ERA (2.24) in team history in his back pocket, the future seemed limitless.

Multiple injuries and demotions later, Manoah is simply trying to save his career. Perhaps sensing a potential low-risk flier, the Braves claimed the Homestead, Fla., native off waivers Friday with three games to go in the regular season.

Manoah has not pitched in the big leagues this year after undergoing UCL surgery in 2024. He did pitch for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, starting seven games and going 1–1 with a 2.97 ERA and 30 strikeouts.

In five big-league starts in 2024, he went 1–2 with a 3.70 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 24 1/3 innings. He struggled to a 5.87 ERA in 19 starts in '23, going 3–9.

Atlanta, which is finishing 2025 strong after months of poor play, hosts the Pirates in a three-game set beginning Friday to close out the franchise's 150th season.

Game
Register
Service
Bonus