Fan News

Baseball may be the game of summer, but the real excitement comes when the fall air gets crisper and the pressure of every single pitch is magnified.

The long and grueling 162-game slate of the MLB season leads to the playoffs, and ever since the sport instituted an additional wild-card team for each league, there is even more postseason baseball to enjoy.

The 2014 MLB playoffs begin for 10 teams on Tuesday, but that number will be reduced to eight by Wednesday evening. The Oakland Athletics are set to take on the Kansas City Royals, and the San Francisco Giants meet the Pittsburgh Pirates in single-elimination contests to determine which two teams will move on to the best-of-five Division Series.

In what is their penultimate game of the 2014 regular season, the Los Angeles Dodgers entertained the worst-case scenario for a short time after Hanley Ramirez exited Saturday night's game against the Colorado Rockies in the fourth inning.

The St. Louis Cardinals are looking to go into the playoffs as healthy as possible, but this could be a problem with Matt Holliday coming out of Saturday's game early.

New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter's final career games will wrap up in Boston's Fenway Park, and so far Red Sox Nation has shown nothing but class toward the Captain. 

In his second-to-last game, the Boston crowd gave Jeter a standing ovation on his way to the plate for his first at-bat. 

An already rough 2014 season just got worse for Matt Cain.

The San Francisco Giants, via Amy Gutierrez of CSN Bay Area, announced that the veteran starting pitcher, who was already recovering from an elbow injury earlier in the year, had surgery on his right ankle:

Derek Jeter might have given the New York Yankees a memorable moment with a walk-off single in his last-ever home game, but manager Joe Girardi is still not happy about the season.

While the rest of the baseball world was focused on the tribute to the future Hall of Fame shortstop, Girardi kicked off Thursday night's home finale with an angry tirade at the team after a disappointing year.

Derek Jeter's final series as a member of the New York Yankees could end with a whimper. The soon-to-be retired star was taken out in the fifth inning of Saturday's game against Boston at Fenway Park for undisclosed reasons. 

With just two days of games remaining in the 2014 MLB regular season, the complete playoff picture has still not been sorted out, as one playoff spot and two division titles are still up for grabs at this point.

There are a number of teams that managed to stay in contention heading into the final month of the season, but three teams in particular stand out as having entered September with a real chance at making the playoffs, only to squander that opportunity.

Just a handful of games remain in the 2014 MLB season, and nearly every team knows its fate at this point. A few franchises are still holding out hope to make a late charge into the postseason, but the bubble has popped for others.

Strong starts for the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves weren't sustained, as both are on the outside looking in. Then there are the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics, who are still in a dogfight for a wild-card spot.