baseball

Major League Baseball is cancelling the 2020 All-Star game over concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic and restricting on mass gatherings, the league says.

Major League Baseball owners will submit a proposal to the players' union to start its 2020 season in July without fans.

If the proposal is approved by the baseball players' union, Opening Day would take place around July 4 weekend and spring training would start in early to mid-June.

Teams would play around 82 games in the regular season compared to the standard 162 games and would only play opponents in their own division or teams in the same geographic area. The proposal would also expand the playoff pool from 10 to 14 by adding a wild card match-up in each league.

In the 1956 World Series, the New York Yankees were playing the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers — a rematch of the 1955 series.

Spoiler alert: The Yankees went on to win, and they did it with the help of pitcher Don Larsen, the only player to have pitched a perfect game in the World Series.

Upon first glance, Ricardo Nagaoka's photographs look like they're of Japan. Asian faces are surrounded by hallmarks of Japanese culture: ikebana, origami, baseball and kimonos. It's subverting this expectation that delights him the most.

"We read these visual cues and we instinctively say, 'Oh, this is probably in Japan,'" Nagaoka says. "I like making images that challenge what we initially believe."

The Washington Nationals beat the Houston Astros 6-2 in Game 7 of the World Series in Houston.

It is the Nationals' first championship since the franchise moved to Washington, D.C., in 2005.

The Nationals are also the first team in MLB history to win the World Series by winning four games as the visiting team.

Washington won despite being dominated by Houston starter Zack Greinke for better than six innings. The Nationals scored all of their runs in the last three innings.

Updated Wednesday at 2:05 a.m. ET

The Washington Nationals avoided elimination by beating the Houston Astros 7-2 in Game 6 of the 2019 World Series, forcing a Game 7 in Houston on Wednesday.

But even a Series-defining Game 7 could have a tough time matching the tension and drama of Game 6 which featured a controversial call that appeared to kill — at least temporarily — a Washington rally.

Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg was the winning pitcher, lasting eight and a third innings, striking out seven while allowing only two runs on five hits.

The Houston Astros have fired Assistant General Manager Brandon Taubman following an uproar about comments he shouted at a group of female reporters on Saturday.

Updated at 5 a.m. ET Thursday

The Washington Nationals beat the Houston Astros 12-3 in Game 2 of the 2019 World Series in Houston.

The Nationals broke through what had been a pitchers' duel in the seventh inning, sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring six runs.

The Nats opened the game by scoring two runs with a walk and a single, followed by a double by third baseman and Houston native Anthony Rendon off Astros ace Justin Verlander.

Updated at 1:35 a.m. ET Wednesday

The Washington Nationals beat the Houston Astros 5-4 in Game 1 of the 2019 World Series, led by Juan Soto who homered and doubled in his first Series game.

Soto also had a single and a stolen base to go with his 3 RBIs. The young standout turns all of 21 on Friday.

President Trump has resumed talks with Major League Baseball owners after his administration blocked a historic agreement that would have allowed Cuban baseball players to join MLB teams without having to defect.

But the White House made clear that in exchange for revisiting any decision, it wants MLB, like other groups with ties to the island, to urge Cuba to reduce its long-standing cooperation with Venezuela's socialist government.

Being remembered for a mistake is hard. Being the living symbol of 86 years of futility is just about impossible.

But that's exactly what Bill Buckner was to Boston Red Sox fans for nearly 20 years.

Buckner, an All-Star baseball player who played in the major leagues for 22 years, died Monday. He was 69.