WHEN C.J. STROUD got home from a Week 2 practice, he freshened up and started watching tape on the Chicago Bears' defense.

Midway through the session, the Houston Texans second-year quarterback started firing off text messages to his group chat of receivers and tight ends with thoughts on how to attack the opposition.

Stroud included the weekly cut-up clips that quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson and senior offensive assistant Bill Lazor sent him to point out their upcoming opponent's weaknesses.

One message read, "Be ready to cross the safety's face," foreshadowing what would take place in the Texans' lone touchdown in their 19-13 win.

In the second quarter, the Texans faced second-and-28 from the Bears' 28-yard line after wide receiver Nico Collins drew a penalty for slapping Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson. Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik thought the Bears would be in a two-high safety look, possibly running cloud coverage (Cover 6), and called the play the group chat had discussed.

Collins was the isolated wideout and had the post. When Stroud caught the snap, the defensive coverage unfolded as predicted. Collins crossed the face of safety Kevin Byard III and found the window behind linebacker Tremaine Edmunds as Stroud threaded the pass for the score.

That has been the routine for Stroud and his playmakers since he ascended to starter. He fires texts off Wednesday through Saturday explaining how they will attack upcoming defenses, something he first started doing at Ohio State.

"I wanted to bring that to the league, to see if it works, and it has been," Stroud told ESPN. "I just want to keep that going. Just trying to find those little clips of leverage and how coverages are run and stuff like that."

The group chat has been a factor in Stroud's early success (he was named the 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Year and led the Texans to their first playoff win since 2019). In Year 2, Houston is off to a 6-2 start and Stroud ranks sixth in passing yards (1,948) and tied for 10th in touchdown passes (11).

The New York Jets are up next for Stroud and the Texans on "Thursday Night Football" (8:15 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime), and a shorter week means an earlier start to the text string.

Through two seasons, the group has talked about various defensive scenarios, from how to attack Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores' Cover 0 blitzes to New Orleans Saints coach Dennis Allen's red zone Tampa 2 defense and even taking advantage of three-time All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson's trail technique.

Those weekly discussions helped build the connection between Stroud and Collins, who was leading the NFL in receiving yards (567) before being placed on injured reserve (hamstring) following the Texans' Week 5 win over the Buffalo Bills.

DeMeco Ryans, also in Year 2 as the coach of the Texans, said this initiative shows how much Stroud is "dialed into winning."

"I've been around a lot of different quarterbacks," Ryans told ESPN. "The good ones, that's the type of things that they do. Whether it's group chats or getting the group together for meetings and watching extra film on their own, that's what the great quarterbacks do. It's all about the extra."

THE IDEA STARTED during Stroud's two-year stint (2021 and 2022) as a starter at Ohio State. His receiver group contained four future first-rounders: Marvin Harrison Jr., Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Instead of texting, they communicated on Snapchat.

"Everybody was on Snapchat," Stroud told ESPN. "It was cool to talk about looks. And then when you talk about it, and it happens on the field, it's just super dope."

Stroud threw for 85 touchdowns and 8,123 yards in his college career and finished second in the 2021 Heisman race. Harrison, Wilson, Olave and Smith-Njigba all had 1,000-yard seasons with Stroud.

"C.J. was taking control, especially his last year there, and making sure everybody's on the same page and making sure we're doing what we're supposed to be doing," said Smith-Njigba, who's in his second year with the Seattle Seahawks. "It was kind of like a little cheat sheet. It built my confidence, knowing that I know what these guys are doing and what to expect."

Texans practice squad wide receiver Xavier Johnson, a walk-on at Ohio State as a running back and receiver (2019-2023), said the chat benefited him too.

Johnson and Stroud talked about a play in which Johnson would have a checkdown out of the backfield in their opening-round game of the College Football Playoff on New Year's Eve in 2022. They knew Georgia inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson was in a quarters coverage and would be one-on-one versus Johnson.

Instead of checking down, Johnson blew past Dumas-Johnson down the seam. Stroud floated the pass for a 37-yard touchdown with 49 seconds left in the second quarter to put Ohio State up 28-24.

"We saw the look, and we knew that they were doing something that we wanted," Johnson told ESPN. "It was a slight audible from the play that was called in. I was like, 'What do you want to do?' He's like, 'Let's take it.' And so we took it."

Ohio State would go on to lose 42-41 to the eventual national champs, but it's one of the most memorable games of Stroud's career; he went 23-of-34 for 348 yards and four touchdowns. Four months later, the Texans selected him No. 2 overall in the draft.

STROUD DID VARIOUS things to earn his teammates' trust his rookie year, even though he entered training camp in a competition with incumbent starter Davis Mills.

Stroud hosted a bowling event for the offense. He flew his receivers out to Los Angeles to run routes at UCLA. He invited teammates over to have his chef cook for them or watch movies. When the season arrived, Stroud added the group chat in his efforts to build team chemistry.

"It's great, dude," tight end Dalton Schultz told ESPN. "It correlates directly to game day because it's the looks that we're talking about. The whole discourse is just being on the same page. ... [Stroud is] the ultimate teammate, and he wants to win. Doing that, especially so young, it's great. That's leadership."

Wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson's favorite example of the chat from last season came in Week 4 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Stroud was texting the group about how Peterson loved to undercut inside routes. Peterson had done so in the opener against San Francisco 49ers wideout Jauan Jennings on an in-breaking route to force an incompletion.

"C.J. showed us that they're willing to undercut if we go with a heavy inside release," Hutchinson said. "[He said] if you just keep going, he'll eventually undercut you. If they undercut, you just keep it hot. And guess what happened?"

Late in the fourth quarter, Peterson tried to undercut Collins, so he changed his route and cut outside, catching Peterson off guard. Stroud delivered the ball, and Collins sprinted down the sidelines for a 52-yard touchdown to cap a 30-6 win.

Veteran wideout Robert Woods' touchdown against the Saints in Week 6 was Stroud's favorite. Schultz had a deep over route to the middle of the end zone from the 6-yard line with Woods having a drag route. Stroud told the chat when Allen called for the Tampa 2 base, Saints middle linebacker Demario Davis would carry anything vertical. Stroud anticipated Davis would cover Schultz, creating a void. He told Woods to sit in the hole and he would hit him.

"I sent that clip earlier in the week, so just cool to see it kind of pay off," Stroud said. "There's been moments like that this year."

THE CHAT HELPED integrate newcomer Stefon Diggs into the mix when he was acquired in a trade with the Bills in April.

Unfortunately for the Texans, Diggs tore an ACL in the Texans' 23-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday and is out for the rest of the season. Before the injury, Stroud had a passer rating of 104 and completed 73% of his passes when targeting Diggs. Diggs ranked seventh in catches (47) and second on the Texans in receiving yards (496).

"[Diggs] could see the looks that [Stroud] sees," wide receiver Tank Dell said. "Of course we talk throughout practice, but sending a clip of the opposing team and actually looking at what they're doing and [he sees] what 7 is thinking. ... Stef will tell [Stroud] what he sees and [Stroud] tells him what he sees. And they'd be making plays."

Even in the Texans' 34-7 loss to the Vikings in Week 3, the chat communication helped Stroud and Diggs convert a third down when Diggs ran a slant route against Flores' Cover 0 blitz, according to Woods. Against the Colts, Diggs' longest reception of the season (a 49-yard completion) came on a Stroud scramble that was aided by the chat.

"Just finding holes in the defense, knowing how the defense plays. Just staying alive and just knowing that their defense has some gaps in it that's able to be exposed when the quarterback leaves the pocket," Woods said of their use of the scramble drill. "We know how the safeties move, the linebackers move. We know how to manipulate the defense."

A big difference from Year 1 to 2 of the group chat is the addition of Diggs. But the other change is the timing of the messages.

As a rookie, Stroud would text at all times of day, according to Hutchinson. But in Year 2, Stroud tries to send most of his messages before it gets too late at night.

"This year I've been a little early bird. I'm getting a little more rest this year," Stroud told ESPN with a smirk. "Last year I was a night owl. I'm learning to get my rest now."

One of Stroud's favorite parts of the chat is the closeness that it brings between the offensive skill players. It reminds him of the camaraderie at Ohio State.

"The brotherhood in that room is kind of what I had in college with Garrett, Chris, Jackson, Marvin and even all the way to our walk-ons," Stroud said. "Everybody was close, and you kind of look at this team like that."

Seahawks reporter Brady Henderson contributed to this report.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- The unrest began the morning of Oct. 8, when New York Jets owner Woody Johnson walked into coach Robert Saleh's office and fired him in a conversation that lasted only slightly longer than a 30-second timeout.

The turmoil spiked Sunday at Gillette Stadium, where the Jets unraveled in mind-boggling fashion in a last-minute loss to the New England Patriots. It brought interim coach Jeff Ulbrich to the verge of tears in the locker room as he tried to convince his demoralized team that its five-game losing streak is "a moment of darkness," not a permanent blackout.

Over a 20-day span, the Jets changed head coaches, demoted playcaller Nathaniel Hackett, traded for quarterback Aaron Rodgers' favorite wide receiver in Davante Adams and settled a contract holdout with Haason Reddick, an edge rusher who had been in no rush to report to the team that traded for him in April. Amid the upheaval, they tried to rally around a locker room speech from Adams that raised some eyebrows.

Final tally on the 20 days of tumult: Three losses, $20 million out of Johnson's pocket (for Adams and Reddick) and questions about whether the "all-in" Jets might be all-out on the season by Tuesday's trading deadline.

"Status quo is killer," Johnson told a small group of reporters at the league's fall meetings, explaining his rationale behind the coaching bombshell and the acquisition of Adams.

"One of the most talented teams ever assembled by the New York Jets" (Johnson's words on Oct. 8) is on its way to becoming one of the biggest busts in recent NFL history. On this Halloween, the Jets are the scary movie. If New York (2-6) continues to spiral, maybe it can use Vincent Price in an AI-generated voiceover for its 2024 highlight film.

The Jets appeared lifeless in Week 7 and dysfunctional in Week 8, when they became only the second team in the past nine years to burn three timeouts in the first quarter. It's anybody's guess as to what they will look like against the Houston Texans on Thursday (8:15 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime) at MetLife Stadium.

"I know this season's probably crazy, watching this," cornerback D.J. Reed said. "I know the talent of this team, so it doesn't make sense. I know that's how the fans feel. I know they're probably flabbergasted."

The Jets have a future Hall of Famer in Rodgers, and likely Hall of Famers in Adams and tackle Tyron Smith, not to mention a handful of young stars on both sides of the ball. They billed themselves as a Super Bowl contender, with Rodgers saying before the season they were one of eight to 12 teams with a legitimate chance at the Lombardi Trophy.

Now they have a 10.5% chance of making the playoffs, according to ESPN's Football Power Index.

Outside analysts are piling on, suggesting Johnson -- desperate for an ever-elusive championship -- rocked the team's core by sacking Saleh and bringing aboard Adams (Oct. 15) and Reddick (Oct. 20) in the middle of the season.

"It seems like a lot of moves by Woody, and I really don't understand how they add up," former Patriots coach Bill Belichick said on the "Pat McAfee Show" on Monday. "I'd say it's more of a question for him to answer than me. I think, from the outside, it's hard to understand why they would do some of the things they did."

Belichick has no affinity for the Jets because of their 2000 divorce and the 2007 cheating scandal, Spygate, when the Patriots were fined for videotaping Jets defensive signs. But a former NFC general manager, a neutral observer, echoed Belichick's sentiment, saying, "I've been around situations like this. There's no karma, no intangibles. The locker room is filled with highly paid players, not a team. There's no passion."

Which is ironic, because Johnson said he made the coaching change to create a spark he believed was missing during the team's 2-3 start. After 56 games of Saleh (20-36), Johnson wanted to give the popular Ulbrich, their fiery defensive coordinator who didn't have any head-coaching experience at the time, the chance to get the team to where it hasn't been since 2010 -- the postseason.

But Johnson might have underestimated the impact it would have on the locker room. While no player has publicly questioned the move, the change did upset some players, according to two sources close to the situation. One of the franchise's all-time greats, Hall of Fame center Kevin Mawae, told ESPN it was "a head-scratching move for a lot of people on the outside."

ULBRICH HAS A lot on his plate. In addition to managing the game, he's also calling the defensive plays -- a job he refuses to relinquish.

He changed the playcaller on offense, replacing Hackett with passing-game coordinator Todd Downing, and he wants to maintain a semblance of continuity within the team. Therein lies his reasoning for remaining the defensive playcaller and coordinator.

But is he stretched too thin?

"That's a great question," said Reed, who proceeded to give a diplomatic answer.

Reed said it's on the players to execute the plays that are called, no matter who calls them.

Without question, the defense has dipped without the defensive-minded Saleh in the building. When he was fired, the Jets ranked fifth in points allowed per game (17.0). Now they rank 12th (21.3).

The change in responsibilities has put a strain on the entire operation, and the cracks were revealed Sunday on a pivotal 2-point conversion attempt late in the game. The Jets took a delay of game penalty instead of calling a timeout when the play clock was about to expire.

Rodgers took the blame, saying he didn't like the playcall against the defensive look and thought the 5-yard penalty was better than using another timeout. But there was indecision in the moment, rare for Rodgers. In fact, he motioned for a timeout, but the play clock had expired. Ulbrich could've called it, but the communication between Rodgers and the sideline appeared to be amiss.

In the end, Rodgers' 2-point pass from the 7-yard line came up short, and the Patriots responded with a touchdown and 2-point conversion to win 25-22.

In the locker room, Rodgers addressed the entire team. His message, according to team sources: Things need to change quickly, but this is no time for finger-pointing. His voice was raised, but he maintained "a cool head," safety Isaiah Oliver said.

By the time the Jets reached Boston's Logan Airport for the short flight home, Ulbrich already had graded the game tape. He watched it on the team bus. There was no time to waste on a short week.

"To neglect this tape would be criminal," Ulbrich said. "It would be egregious, because there's things that need to be fixed."

WHEN THE BIGGEST underachieving teams in recent NFL history are mentioned, the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles (the so-called "Dream Team") and the 2000 Washington team land at the top of the list. Both collected big names, many of them aging, for what they hoped would be a mad dash toward the Lombardi Trophy.

Washington added Hall of Famers Bruce Smith and Deion Sanders and 1990 No. 1 pick Jeff George, but it never clicked. Coach Norv Turner was fired with three games remaining. Washington finished 8-8.

"I can see some similarities to the Jets," said Vinny Cerrato, Washington's former director of player personnel.

Cerrato said the formula can work, but the team must have a strong culture and the players -- both old and new -- must be willing to buy in. He was a member of the San Francisco 49ers' front office in 1994, when they used the same approach (a collection of marquee free agents on one-year deals) and won the Super Bowl.

Of course, the 49ers already had a championship pedigree. There was no such thing in Washington, where former owner Daniel Snyder coveted players with star power and later coddled them, according to Cerrato, who said the big-name players were invited to hang out in Snyder's office.

"The other players see that and they kind of have control of things," Cerrato said of the Washington situation. "You have to treat everybody the same."

Referring to the Jets, he said: "Some of the players might be questioning Aaron Rodgers right now. If you bring in older guys, they have to be successful, because if they don't have success, you're looking at them like, 'Oh, he was good at one time.' The players might be seeing that in Rodgers."

Statistically, Rodgers, 40, is having the worst start of his career. He's 22nd in Total QBR (50.7), well below his career average (67).

To help the four-time MVP recapture his form, the Jets reunited him with Adams, 31, who requested a trade from the Las Vegas Raiders. In two games, Adams has seven catches for 84 yards on 15 targets.

His chemistry with Rodgers was remarkable during their eight seasons together with the Green Bay Packers, but his 47% catch rate reflects otherwise now. It smacks of a too-little, too-late move by a desperate team, but Johnson wanted to do everything possible to save the season.

It was costly; the Jets picked up Adams' entire remaining salary for 2024 -- $11.7 million. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills traded for a comparable receiver, Amari Cooper, and it cost them $800,000.

You might say the Jets paid a Rodgers tax, but they envisioned Adams as more than an accomplished receiver. They saw him as a culture changer, too.

His postgame speech to the team on Oct. 20, following a 37-15 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, drew raves from Rodgers and Ulbrich. In fact, Ulbrich used it as a rallying cry during the run-up to the game against New England, referencing it in a midweek team meeting.

Adams sensed an alarming "lack of energy and urgency" on the field in Pittsburgh and felt compelled to address it immediately after the game, even though he had been on the team for only a few days.

"It's a sad commentary on the team, that someone from the outside has to tell them what they're doing wrong," the former NFC GM said. One player, asked about how it felt to be called out by a new teammate, smiled and said, "No comment."

When the locker room was opened to the media after Sunday's loss, Adams was nowhere to be found.

Reddick held court after the game, but he refused to answer questions about his holdout, which failed to yield the financial windfall he coveted. His base salary is the same as before the holdout (prorated, it's $8.7 million for the remainder of the season), and he secured some incentives that can help offset some of the $12 million he lost in salary and fines.

It was Johnson who pushed the negotiations across the goal line, taking an active role in trying to secure a key part of the puzzle -- albeit months too late.

Reddick was the Jets' biggest acquisition in the offseason, but the contract dispute robbed them of their No. 1 edge rusher. Asked if he feels in any way responsible for the team's poor record, he replied, "Responsible for what?"

THE JETS WERE in a similar situation in 2002 -- a record of 2-5, coming off a loss in which they blew an 18-point lead. It looked bleak, but they rallied to 9-7, good enough to win the AFC East -- their last division title.

"We had no -- quote, unquote -- superstars," Mawae recalled. "We didn't have an Aaron Rodgers or Brett Favre coming in for that season, with everybody hoping that was the magic formula."

The Jets hope to recreate that kind of magical run, but this is different because of the coaching change. The 2002 team was coached by Herm Edwards, who made the playoffs the previous year -- his first at the helm. Players knew he wasn't going anywhere. There was stability.

The current team is reeling in the aftermath of the franchise's first in-season coaching change since the 1970s, and the likelihood is it will have a new coach (and possibly a new GM) in 2025. The uncertainty can trickle down to the locker room. Players know their fates won't be decided by the current people in the building.

"Once you fire the coach, forget it," Cerrato said. "It's not going to work. Everything has to go right or they're going to shut it down because they know change is coming. With the Jets, they all know. Everybody is going to be fired there."

If they lose to the Texans, dropping to 2-7, Johnson & Co. will be confronted with a decision ahead of the Nov. 5 trade deadline: Do they give up on this once-promising season and start planning for the future?

That would run contrary to everything they've done over the past two years, from the Rodgers trade to the quick-fix moves over the past three weeks. Then again, you never know.

Remember, status quo is killer.

Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco's trial in the Dominican Republic is scheduled to begin on Dec. 12, the attorney's office from Puerto Plata announced on Thursday.

Franco faces charges of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation against a minor and human trafficking, which could result in a sentence of up to 20 years.

The court summoned Franco and the mother of the abused child for the trial after an investigation that opened in 2022. The case will be heard by a panel of three or five judges.

In September, Judge Pascual Valenzuela determined that the accusation and the evidence presented by the prosecution had sufficient merits to warrant a trial.

Franco, 23, was placed on Major League Baseball's restricted list in July, sources had told ESPN, after prosecutors in the Dominican Republic accused him of an alleged sexual relationship with a then-14-year-old girl.

He is also under an MLB investigation under its domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy until the case is resolved.

The Rays gave Franco an 11-year, $182 million extension in 2021, just 70 games into his major league career. He made the All-Star team for the first time in 2023.

ESPN's Juan Recio contributed to this report.

NEW YORK -- Two days before the Los Angeles Dodgers' postseason began, Freddie Freeman felt a twinge in his rib cage when he took a swing during a simulated game. He vowed to ignore it. It's not as if he wasn't already in pain. Over the previous week, Freeman had nursed a sprained right ankle sustained trying to avoid a tag while running to first base. He needed no more impediments. The Dodgers had a World Series to win.

A day later, Oct. 4, after Freeman finished a news conference in which he declared himself ready to play despite the ankle injury, he retreated to the batting cage at Dodger Stadium. He wanted to take some swings in preparation for a live batting-practice session. His side tingled with each of his first dozen swings. On the 13th swing, Freeman felt a jolt through his body and crumpled to the ground.

Unable to even pick himself off the floor, Freeman was helped into the X-ray room next to Los Angeles' dugout. The results were inconclusive, and around 9:30 p.m., he received a call. The Dodgers wanted him to drive to Santa Monica for more imaging. He hopped in the car, then in an MRI tube. Around 11:30 p.m., the results arrived: Freeman had broken the costal cartilage in his sixth rib, an injury that typically sidelines players for months.

Devastation set in. Walking hurt. Breathing stung. Swinging a bat felt like an impossibility.

Freeman's father, Fred, worried about his youngest son, whom he raised after Freeman's mother, Rosemary, died of melanoma when Freddie was 10. He saw the anguish in every minuscule movement. Considering the injuries to his rib and ankle and the lasting soreness from a middle finger he fractured in August, surely Freeman was too beaten up to keep playing. Surely there would be more postseasons, more opportunities.

"I actually told him to stop," Fred said. "I said, 'Freddie, this is not worth it. I know you love baseball. I love baseball. But it's not worth what you're going through.' And he looked at me like I was crazy, and he said, 'Dad, I'm never going to stop.'"

NOT ONLY DID Freeman never stop, he put on one of the Dodgers' greatest Fall Classic performances in history and readied the franchise for its first victory parade in 36 years.

The championship was won in a Game 5 that saw the Dodgers stake the New York Yankees a five-run lead, claw back for a 7-6 victory thanks to one of the most horrific half-innings in the Yankees' storied history, and seal the championship with bravura performances from their bullpen and manager.

Los Angeles never got to fete the Dodgers for their World Series victory in 2020. Beyond the lack of a celebration, the title had been demeaned and denigrated by those who regarded it as a lesser championship, the product of a 60-game season played in front of no fans and a postseason run inside a pseudo-bubble. To the Dodgers, that always registered as unfair, and they used the slight as fuel.

"Twenty-nine other teams wanted to win the last game, too, regardless of the circumstances," said right-hander Walker Buehler, who pitched the ninth inning of Game 5 to close the series for the Dodgers. "Like, everyone that talks about it, fine. ... But 29 other professional, billion-dollar organizations would've liked to have won the last one. And we did."

Los Angeles' fortunes in recent postseasons have belied its evolution into the best organization in baseball. This season, the Dodgers won a major-leagues-best 98 games and their 11th National League West division title in 12 years. Their only championship in that time came in 2020. The Dodgers felt as if they had a World Series stolen from them in 2017 by a Houston Astros team later found to have used a sign-stealing scheme. A juggernaut Boston Red Sox team bulldozed them in five games a year later. The past two years, Los Angeles flamed out in first-round division series.

The Dodgers wanted this championship for so many reasons beyond the obvious. Regardless of a baseball team's talent or payroll -- both areas in which this team finds itself at the game's apex -- October is a baseball funhouse mirror. A team fat on ability can look waifish in a hurry. The short series, the odd schedule, the capacity for a lesser team to beat a better one simply because it gets hot at the right time -- all of it conspires to render April through September inert. Teams built for the six-month marathon that is the regular season aren't necessarily well-constructed for the postseason's one-month sprint. A team's ability to code-switch is its greatest quality.

This year, Los Angeles craved validation for its regular-season dominance. Something to silence those who malign its 2020 championship and chalk up its success not to sound decision-making processes and elite player development but an endless flow of cash. The Dodgers cannot deny the power of the dollar after guaranteeing $700 million in free agency to star designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and another $325 million to Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Ohtani hit 54 home runs and stole 59 bases during the regular season. Yamamoto threw six brilliant innings in his first World Series game. Money plays.

"World Series champions come in all different sizes and shapes and forms," Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. "And there are different strengths that help you win a World Series."

Their lineup was an obvious one. Even a hobbled Freeman is still an eight-time All-Star -- and a former MVP, just like the two men ahead of him in the lineup, Ohtani and Mookie Betts. The Dodgers led major league baseball in home runs and slugging percentage while finishing second in runs scored and on-base percentage . For all the depth the Dodgers' lineup featured, though, the pitching staff was threadbare on account of a mess of injuries. With just three starting pitchers and a half-dozen trusted relievers -- not to mention the necessity of throwing bullpen games, further taxing arms -- Los Angeles required a deft touch with its pitching.

Championships take luck and timing and depth and open-mindedness and savvy. World Series are won as much on the margins as they are in the core. And every championship team features something beyond that, a separator, a je ne sais quoi. Like, say, a starter suffering through his worst season emerging to close out a World Series game. Or someone who refuses to let his broken body impede a quest so meaningful to those who rely on him.

IN 2005, WHEN Freddie Freeman was 15 years old, he was hit by a pitch that broke his wrist. Freeman was scheduled to play for Team USA's 16-and-under national team, and he couldn't let the opportunity pass. So he simply didn't tell anyone about his wrist injury and gritted through the agony.

Almost two decades later, Freeman started Game 1 of the division series against San Diego without publicly divulging his broken rib cartilage. Even the slightest competitive advantage can separate win from loss, and Freeman understood the sort of challenge the Padres posed. They had constructed their roster for postseason baseball: heavy on power hitters and front-line bullpen arms, light on offensive swing-and-miss. San Diego ousted the Dodgers from the postseason in 2022 and was prepared to do the same in 2024.

The Dodgers cherished Freeman's presence, even if he was playing at far less than 100 percent. Their manager, Dave Roberts, told Freeman that simply standing in the batter's box imputed a particular sort of value: the fear of the unknown. If Freeman were healthy enough to play, opponents would figure, surely he could contribute, too. What San Diego didn't know was that every time Freeman strode to fire his compact, powerful left-handed swing, his right ankle felt as if it was about to buckle. And when he whiffed on a pitch, his side screamed silently.

"It only hurts when I miss," Freeman told his father. "So I'm just going to have to stop missing."

In the first game of the series, with his midsection bound by kinesiology tape to stabilize it, Freeman laced a pair of singles. The limp in his running drew attention away from the rib. When he winced after swing-and-misses -- Freeman did so four times in Game 1 of the NLDS -- the ankle served as an ideal cover for the actual nerve center of the pain: his rib. After winning the first game, Los Angeles dropped the next two to the Padres, and his symptoms worsened.

"Every day," Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates said, "I would ask: 'How's your ankle? How's your rib? How's your finger? How's your brain?'"

The 2024 season already had strained Freeman's psyche. In late July, his 3-year-old son, Maximus, was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disorder that necessitated the use of a ventilator and left him unable to walk for a period. Freeman left the Dodgers during the final week of July to take care of Max. Although Freeman returned in early August, when Max was discharged from the hospital and started his recovery, the detritus of the episode remained.

Freeman and his wife, Chelsea, carved days into pieces. Wake up. Get to the afternoon. Then the evening. Then the morning. And repeat.

"It was more just breaking things up, all those small things just to get yourself through," Chelsea said.

"Never think big picture," Fred said.

"And then you look back," Chelsea said, "and you're like, 'Oh, my gosh, we can't believe we went through all that.'"

The perspective helped when the pain in Freeman's rib would not relent. After Game 3, Freeman listened to Fred. No matter how much treatment he received, how much doctors and trainers did to mask the pain, he needed a break. But to require it in an elimination game -- he was despondent. Freeman had signed with the Dodgers on a six-year, $162 million free agent contract in 2022 after a protracted free agency. He joined them following a World Series-winning season with the Atlanta Braves, where he spent the first 12 years of his career. Losing in the division series for the third straight year was not an option. Losing to the Padres again was unthinkable.

When his teammates learned Freeman would sit out Game 4, they rallied around him in the team's group chat. Kiké Hernández, Miguel Rojas, Max Muncy, Betts -- they were in awe of Freeman and what he had done already and offered their appreciation. He had rescued them so many times. They would resuscitate the Dodgers' season in his absence. The offense scored eight runs, and eight Dodgers relievers combined to shut San Diego out. Two days later, with Freeman back in the lineup, Yamamoto threw five scoreless innings, the bullpen added four more and the Dodgers surged into the NL Championship Series against the New York Mets.

Once there, Freeman struggled, mustering only three singles in 18 at-bats and sitting out Game 4 again. The rest of the Dodgers thrived. Ohtani and Betts each whacked a pair of home runs. Muncy, a remnant of the 2020 team, set a postseason record by reaching base in 12 consecutive at-bats. Tommy Edman hit .407, drove in 11 runs and won NLCS MVP as the Dodgers bounced the Mets in six games. They were off to another World Series, another opportunity to substantiate their belief in themselves, where they would face their American League analog in prestige and might: the New York Yankees.

"Freddie doesn't complain about really anything," Chelsea said. "He was getting over four hours of treatment a day, even on days that they weren't playing, just to be able to hope to play in the postseason. So going into the World Series, we had no expectations. We just were hoping he'd be able to play."

HAD THE DODGERS deposed the Mets in five games, the World Series would have started Oct. 22, two days after the conclusion of the NLCS. Instead, the Dodgers had four days off, and in that time something happened. On Oct. 21, the day after Los Angeles celebrated its NL pennant, Freeman rested. On Oct. 22, he went through his usual treatment routine and felt noticeably better. By Oct. 23, the respite and therapy felt as if they were making a demonstrable difference in his recovery. On Oct. 24, the day before Game 1 of the most anticipated World Series in years, Freeman and the Dodgers' staff had identified a cue to unlock the power that had gone missing in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Freeman would tell himself to stride more toward first base. In actuality, he was not doing so; it would leave him vulnerable to outside pitches, which he had made a Hall of Fame career shooting to the opposite field. The idea of doing so, though, prevented Freeman from hunching over as he swung. A more vertical stance, in theory, would allow Freeman to drive the fastballs that had eaten him up in the NLCS, when he went 2-for-13 against them.

"Dad," Freeman told Fred, "my swing is back. It's as good as it's been all year."

Fred had heard this plenty of times before. Sometimes his son was right; sometimes he wasn't. Fred wanted to be optimistic. He needed to see it to believe it.

In the first inning of Game 1, against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, Freeman sliced a curveball down the left-field line and motored toward second base. New York left fielder Alex Verdugo misplayed the ball, an early sign of the state of the Yankees' defense, and Freeman kept running. He chugged into third base, slid, popped up, stared into the Dodgers' dugout, lifted his arms and shook side to side -- the original version of what has become known as the Freddie Dance, a celebration adopted by all the Dodgers for big hits.

At the end of the inning, Freeman was left stranded on third base, his ankle throbbing. While the tenderness in his rib area had abated somewhat and his finger felt good enough to throw the ball normally, the 270 feet of running from home to third reminded Freeman that Humpty Dumpty hadn't been put back together entirely. He tried to joke about it -- Freeman occasionally asked Dodgers assistant general manager Alex Slater: "Can we trade ankles?" -- but his hobbling was a serious reminder that the between-series break was over.

What unfolded that night constituted one of the best opening games in World Series history. Cole and Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty traded scoreless frames until the Dodgers scored a run in the fifth. The Yankees answered with two in the sixth. Los Angeles tied the score in the eighth. And on to extra innings it went, with New York scratching across a run in the top of the 10th. In the bottom of the inning, Gavin Lux walked with one out. Edman -- like Flaherty a trade-deadline acquisition -- singled. Yankees manager Aaron Boone called on left-hander Nestor Cortes, who hadn't pitched in more than five weeks due to an arm injury, to face Ohtani. He induced a flyout.

Boone then intentionally walked Betts to load the bases and face Freeman. Cortes challenged him with a 93 mph fastball on the inside corner, the sort for which his cue was made. He swung, took two steps and lifted his bat with his right hand, Los Angeles' version of Lady Liberty. The ball flew seven rows into the right-field bleachers. Dodger Stadium shook. Roberts was so giddy reveling in the moment that he bumped into the right arm of Gavin Stone, the young right-hander who two weeks earlier had undergone major shoulder surgery.

In the 119 previous years of World Series games, 695 in all, never had a player hit a walk-off grand slam. Freeman doing so in Game 1, then shambling around the bases invoking memories of Kirk Gibson 36 years earlier -- the last time Los Angeles won a full-season World Series -- added a poetic touch to the night, one of the most memorable in Dodgers postseason history.

"Game 1, when he hit the grand slam, felt like we won the World Series," Chelsea said. "Like we were going to win."

While Chelsea knows baseball well enough to understand it's never that easy, in the next few games, Freddie continued to make it look so. He blasted another home run off a fastball in a Game 2 win. His two-run, first-inning shot on a high inside 93 mph Clarke Schmidt cutter in Game 3 gave the Dodgers a lead they held for their second consecutive 4-2 victory. For the series' first three games, Freeman was single-handedly carrying the Dodgers' offense, just the way it had collectively carried him through the NLCS. Muncy was hitless. Betts cooled down. And Ohtani partially dislocated his shoulder sliding into second base during Game 2 and was never a factor in the series.

The presence of Ohtani, who had absconded from the Los Angeles Angels in pursuit of a championship, as well as that of Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, had turned this World Series into a supersized event -- but Freeman was the one owning it. He hit another two-run shot in the first inning of Game 4, marking an MLB-record sixth consecutive World Series game with a home run, his streak dating back to 2021 with Atlanta. The Dodgers' attempt at a sweep fizzled with a third-inning grand slam by Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe and eventually turned into an 11-4 blowout, not exactly a surprise considering Roberts stayed away from using his best relievers in hopes of keeping them fresh for a potential Game 5.

Game 4 marked the Dodgers' fourth all-bullpen effort of the postseason, a staggering number for a team with as much talent as Los Angeles. Consider the names on L.A.'s injured list come October. Longtime ace and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw made only seven starts before a toe injury ended his season. Tyler Glasnow, acquired to help anchor the rotation over the winter, never returned from a mid-August elbow injury. Stone, the Dodgers' best starter this season, was out. So was Dustin May after an esophageal tear. Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan and Tony Gonsolin all were on the shelf following Tommy John surgery, and the Dodgers had signed Ohtani, MLB's first two-way player in nearly a century, knowing he wouldn't pitch in 2024 because of elbow reconstruction.

Losing a rotation-and-a-half worth of starting pitchers would have torpedoed any other team. Los Angeles had figured out how to weather the deficiency, with Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior puppeteering their 13-man pitching staff without excessive fatigue or overexposure to Yankees hitters. It was a delicate balance, one they feared could collapse if Game 5 went the wrong way.

AROUND 3 P.M. on Wednesday, Walker Buehler boarded the Dodgers' team bus to Yankee Stadium, looked at general manager Brandon Gomes and said: "I'm good tonight if you need me." Two nights earlier, Buehler had spun magic in Game 3, shutting down New York in five scoreless innings. He was scheduled to throw a between-starts bullpen session; if he needed to forgo it to instead throw in a World Series game, he was ready.

Buehler is 30 and coming off the worst regular season of his career, winning just one of his 16 starts and posting a 5.38 ERA. He missed all of 2023 after undergoing his second Tommy John surgery and returned a much lesser version of the cocksure right-hander whose postseason badassery earned him a reputation as one of baseball's finest big-game pitchers. His fastball lacked life and his breaking balls sharpness, and with free agency beckoning, Buehler had looked positively ordinary.

This was October, though, and the month has always brought out something different in him. He dotted his fastball in all four quadrants of the strike zone in Game 3, flummoxing Yankees hitters. It revved past them with the sort of carry he displayed over four shutout innings against the Mets in the NLCS. Back, too, was Buehler's self-assuredness. Just in case Gomes and the rest of the Dodgers' staff didn't understand what he meant, Buehler reiterated at the stadium: "If things get a little squirrelly, then I'll be ready."

The game was all Yankees to start. Judge hit his first home run of the series in the first inning. Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with another. An RBI single from Verdugo in the second inning chased Flaherty after he had recorded just four outs. For the second consecutive night, Roberts would need to lean on his bullpen. He went into break-glass-in-case-of-emergency mode. Left-hander Anthony Banda escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second. Ryan Brasier allowed a third-inning leadoff home run to Giancarlo Stanton. Michael Kopech pitched the fourth and wriggled out of a first-and-second-with-one-out situation.

In the meantime, Cole was cruising. He held the Dodgers hitless through four innings. Hernández broke that streak with a leadoff single in the fifth. Edman lined a ball to center that clanked off Judge's glove, his first error on a fly ball since 2017. After Volpe fielded a ground ball and tried to nab the lead runner at third, Hernández almost Eurostepped into his throwing lane, a brilliant bit of baserunning that illustrated the difference between Los Angeles' and New York's fundamentals. Volpe bounced the throw for a second error in the inning, loading the bases.

Cole bore down, striking out Lux and Ohtani, and Betts squibbed a ball at 49.8 mph toward Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo. Even with the English spinning the ball away from the first-base bag, Rizzo likely could have tagged first to end the inning. He expected to flip the ball to Cole, who anticipated Rizzo would take the out himself. Once Rizzo realized Cole had not covered the bag, he shuffled toward first. Betts beat him there, and the mental blunder gave the Dodgers their first run of the day.

Freeman served a single on an inner-third, two-strike, 99.5 mph fastball -- the hardest pitch Cole threw all season -- to center for two more runs. And on another 1-2 pitch that caught too much of the plate, Teoscar Hernandez drove the ball 404 feet to center field. Because it hopped against the wall instead of over it, Freeman hauled all the way from first to home. Just like that, a 5-0 advantage had evaporated into a 5-5 tie.

Yankee Stadium, minutes earlier a madhouse, flatlined. Buehler had adjourned to the weight room, loosening his arm with a yellow plyometric ball. He saw Slater, who works out during the game to calm his nerves.

"Is it squirrelly yet?" Buehler asked.

It was squirrelly, all right. Friedman had come downstairs to consult with the rest of the front office about the logistics of finding a lie-flat airplane seat to fly Yamamoto back to Los Angeles ahead of the team for a potential Game 6. Now, instead of expending energy on that, they focused on how the Dodgers would possibly secure the final 15 outs of the game if they could steal a lead.

Inside the dugout, Roberts and Prior were doing the same. They were counting on left-hander Alex Vesia for more than one inning. With his pitch count run to 23 after weathering a bases-loaded situation by getting Gleyber Torres to fly out to right field, Vesia was done after the fifth. Buehler had returned to the dugout, and Prior asked whether he had thrown all day. No, Buehler said. He offered his services to Roberts, who told him to head to the bullpen, which he did at 10:08 p.m. When Buehler arrived, he saw Brent Honeywell, whose 7 innings in the NLCS had helped keep the Dodgers' bullpen fresh, and Joe Kelly, the veteran not on the roster because of an injury.

"What the f--- are you doing here?" Honeywell said.

"I just came out here to hang with you and Joe," Buehler said.

Brusdar Graterol, the Dodgers' sixth pitcher of the night, walked the first two hitters in the sixth and allowed the Yankees to take a 6-5 lead on a Stanton sacrifice fly. After a third walk left runners on first and second, Roberts summoned Blake Treinen, the Dodgers' best reliever, to face Volpe, who grounded out to second on a full count.

"I owed it to them to exhaust every possible resource to give them the best chance to win the game," Roberts said. "At that point, I'm just counting outs."

The math was not in his favor. Left in the bullpen were the Game 4 starter, rookie Ben Casparius, and Honeywell, who had gotten tagged for four runs the previous night, along with veteran Daniel Hudson, who had surrendered Volpe's grand slam. Treinen took care of the seventh in order, and the Dodgers greeted Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle rudely, loading the bases with two singles and a four-pitch walk. Boone signaled for closer Luke Weaver, who had pitched in Games 3 and 4, and he worked the count full before Lux lofted a sacrifice fly to center field. Ohtani reloaded the bases on another error via catcher's interference before the second sac fly of the inning, from Betts, gave Los Angeles a 7-6 advantage.

Roberts was ready. About 20 minutes earlier, Buehler had thrown five balls to the bullpen catcher to ensure his arm would be ready. It felt fresh. Hudson began warming up as well, and Buehler later rejoined him. Roberts wanted to stick with Treinen as long as he could, and the decision looked fateful after Judge doubled and Chisholm walked. Roberts, not Prior, walked to the mound. A pitching change seemed imminent. He considered putting Hudson into the game to face Stanton, whose seven home runs this October set a Yankees postseason record.

Roberts did not realize that Hudson's forearm was screaming as he warmed up. Hudson had fashioned a 15-year major league career despite two Tommy John surgeries within one calendar year from 2012 to 2013, typically a career ender for pitchers. Forearm tightness is a telltale sign of elbow troubles, and Hudson foresaw catastrophe if Roberts called on him to pitch.

"If Doc brought me in," Hudson said, "I was going to blow out again."

When Roberts arrived at the mound, he put his hands on Treinen's chest.

"I just wanted to feel his heartbeat and just kind of look him in the eye and say, 'What do you got?'" Roberts said. "And he said, 'I want him.' And so I said, 'All right, you got this hitter.' Because my intention was for him to get one hitter."

On a middle-middle first-pitch sinker, Stanton sent a lazy fly ball to short right field. Roberts planned to hook Treinen there. Treinen avoided eye contact with Roberts. Out of the corner of his eye, Roberts saw Freeman.

"I give Freddie credit," Roberts said. "Freddie was waving me off. He kind of subtly kind of said, 'Hey, let him stay in.' So then I trusted the players, and Blake made a pitch."

He struck out Rizzo on a backfoot slider, his 42nd pitch of the night, and bounded off the mound and into the dugout, lead secure. Roberts knew his next move. He was going to use his projected Game 7 starter as his Game 5 closer and win the damn World Series.

When the bullpen door swung open in the ninth inning and Buehler jogged to the mound, his wife, McKenzie, sitting in the stands, started to sob. Their baby daughter, Finley, was asleep on McKenzie's shoulder, and the tension of the moment was eating at her, and the tears didn't stop -- not after Volpe grounded out to third, not after Austin Wells swung over a full-count curveball and not after Verdugo flailed at a 77.5 mph curveball in the dirt that won the Dodgers a World Series that 29 other professional, billion-dollar organizations would've liked to have won.

Buehler exulted. His teammates swarmed him. Every time the Dodgers win a series, Buehler fetches his phone, opens Instagram and captions a triumphant photo with the same two words, all caps: WHO ELSE. He means the Dodgers, yes, but there's more to it, this manifestation of the best version of himself in October, something with which Freeman and his fellow champions are familiar.

"That's how I feel about myself," Buehler said. "Who else is going to do it? Who else is going to be out there? Who else is supposed to do this? We've got 30 guys that believe that same way. And I was just the one in the spot to do it."

ADRENALINE STILL FLOWING, booze serving as a mighty analgesic, Freddie Freeman walked around the Dodgers' clubhouse around 2 a.m. with only a slight limp and little sign of pain in his side. He sheathed his middle finger because the Dodgers had given theirs to all of those who called 2020 a Mickey Mouse title and suggested they couldn't win a real one.

"He couldn't even walk two days ago," Chelsea said. "Getting out of bed, literally yesterday, he looked like he was 100 years old."

On Wednesday night, into Thursday morning, onto the plane ride back to Los Angeles, Freeman felt like a kid. Like Ohtani, Freeman came to Los Angeles for this. To win. To feel greatness. If the price of that is the return of pain that eventually will subside, he gladly paid it.

"I gave myself to the game, to the field," Freeman said. "I did everything I could to get onto that field. And that's why this is really, really sweet. I'm proud of the fact that I gave everything I could to this team and I left it all out there. That's all I try to do every single night. When I go home and put my head on that pillow, I ask if I gave everything I had that night. And usually it's a yes. One hundred percent of the time it's a yes. But this one was a little bit sweeter because I went through a lot. My teammates appreciated it. The organization appreciated it. And to end it with a championship makes all the trying times before games, what I put myself through to get on the field, worth it."

He did it for Buehler, who walked around shirtless inside the clubhouse and on the field, trying and failing to avoid champagne-and-beer showers, including one from Ohtani that doused the cigar in Buehler's mouth. "Shohei," he said. "This is a Cuban!" Buehler beamed at what he had done -- what they had done -- to fortify the external validation the Dodgers had held internally for four years.

"I still very much see this as the second one. I don't see them very differently," Buehler said. "But do it on the road, in New York, against the Yankees. It's emphatic."

He did it for Kiké Hernández, who, with the flag of Puerto Rico wrapped around his shoulders, said: "What are they going to say now? That this one doesn't count?" And for Ohtani, who knows how hard baseball is more than anyone and still had the temerity to say: "Let's do this nine more times." And for everyone else in the organization, including Kershaw, who at 36 has been with the Dodgers organization for half his life.

Just after the presentation of the commissioner's trophy on the field, Kershaw looked at his 9-year-old daughter, Cali, and tried to explain that they were finally going to get their parade, the one COVID-19 stole from them.

"All the people get to celebrate," Kershaw said. "Isn't that awesome?"

"Are you crying?" Cali said.

"No, I'm not crying," Kershaw said. "Happy tears. Happy tears. OK. I'm done crying. I'm done crying."

He stopped and looked around. Kershaw wants to pitch again, for the Dodgers, because however others view the organization, it represents home.

"I stopped caring about what other people that weren't a part of it thought a long time ago," Kershaw said. "It felt real to me. So I'm going to always have that one. But we get to have a parade. We're going to get to do a parade in L.A. on Friday. Basically a culmination of those two championships. It's going to be incredible. I've always wanted to have a parade. I've always wanted to do that. I feel like I missed out on it in 2020. So I think it's going to be pretty awesome."

Freeman did it for himself, too. For him, this is just the beginning. Some of the injured starters will return next season, and the Dodgers will enter the season as favorites to become the first back-to-back World Series winners since the Yankees won three straight championships from 1998 to 2000. Brian Cashman was the general manager of those teams, and he walked through the bowels of Yankee Stadium to the Dodgers' clubhouse to congratulate Friedman. While he was waiting, Freeman walked by.

"Congrats, man," Cashman said. "Hell of a series."

It was. Maybe not the dream series of seven games or even the last one in which the Dodgers and Yankees met for a title. That one, in 1981, lasted six games, with the first five all decided by three or fewer runs, and was also won by the Dodgers. It included a Game 3 started by Fernando Valenzuela, the Dodgers legend who died last week. His presence will be felt on Friday -- what would have been his 64th birthday -- along the 45-minute parade route, a celebration of all things Dodgers.

The merriment Wednesday stretched deep into the night. On the clubhouse speakers, Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" played, an appropriate soundtrack. The Padres weren't. The Mets weren't. The Yankees weren't.

Nobody is like these Dodgers, champions of the baseball world.

Barcelona have rewarded Fermín López's early-season form with a new contract that keeps him at the Catalan club until 2029 and includes a release clause of 500 million ($544.4m).

López, 21, missed some this season with a muscle injury but played 45 minutes in Barcelona's impressive 4-0 rout of Real Madrid in the Clásico last weekend.

That followed an eye-catching individual outing in Barça's 4-1 win over Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League last week, in which he provided two assists.

López came through the club's famous La Masia academy, spending time on loan at Linares before being promoted to the first team during previous coach Xavi Hernandez's time in charge.

In the 2023-24 season, he played 42 games and scored 11 times. His performances last season earned him a spot in Spain's victorious Euro 2024 team, though he did not see much playing time.

He did feature heavily at the Paris 2024 Olympics where Spain beat hosts France to claim the gold medal in the under-23 competition.

Barcelona are top of LaLiga after 11 games, six points clear of Madrid in second.

Borussia Dortmund have again dominated the German football headlines this week, and sadly not for the right reasons.

The sense that Schwarzgelben are falling hard continues apace on the back of successive defeats at FC Augsburg and VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal, respectively. That, after under-fire first-year coach Nuri Şahin had been widely criticised -- including in this space -- for his second-half tactical and personnel switches at Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League that helped turn a 2-0 advantage into a 5-2 defeat.

Saturday's performance in the Fuggerstadt lacked tempo and punch, and BVB got what their uninspiring play deserved after Donyell Malen had given them an early lead. To be charitable, the Wolfsburg trip always looked likely to be laced with difficulties for Şahin, who could barely cobble together a team of fit players and had to improvise by, for example, deploying Pascal Gross at right-back and Julian Brandt as a sitting midfielder.

The fact is, though, Dortmund, after conceding to Wolfsburg substitute Jonas Wind on 117 minutes, have lost lost out on the short route to a trophy and there is scant evidence that the longer journeys necessary to win the Meisterschale or Henkelpott (the German name for the Champions League trophy) will bear any fruit.

Dortmund have put together a strange sequence of results this season: perfect at home in all competitions, while dismal away. On-pitch leadership has been in short supply, whether from goalkeeper Gregor Kobel and club captain Emre Can, which speaks to a certain overall Verunsicherung (uncertainty.)

The good news is Saturday's Topspiel will be in front of 81,365 and of course BVB's famous Gelbe Wand (yellow wall). The bad news is Dortmund's opponents are a very capable RB Leipzig side, coached by Marco Rose. Yes, the same Rose who oversaw the Schwarzgelben in 2021-22 before being unceremoniously dismissed in a move that took many of us by surprise.

Rose, a Leipziger by birth, has been at the RBL helm for more than two years and the fit -- style and personality wise -- just feels right, helped to by a considerable background working at sister club, RB Salzburg.

Level at the top with Bayern Munich are the Bundesliga's Bollwerk (bulwark) with only three goals conceded. Goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi is enjoying one of his best starts to a season, while Willi Orban remains of the most able defensive leaders in the Bundesliga -- in addition to offering a genuine attacking threat at set plays.

Even without Xavi Simons and Xaver Schlager, both out for the medium- to long term, there are enough component parts to put the fear in BVB. Lois Openda, with five league goals to his name this term, was clocked as the fastest player across all Bundesliga games played last week.

Leipzig prevailed in both meetings with Dortmund last season and have been victorious in two of their past three visits to the Signal Iduna Park.

Injuries may again mean a patchwork-quilt quality to BVB, with the possibility of the struggling Can having to line up at right-back in place of Julian Ryerson.

BVB failed the first test they faced against a German Champions League team when thumped 5-1 by VfB Stuttgart. If it goes completely awry for them on Saturday evening, how much patience will managing director for sport Lars Ricken and CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke have with Şahin? The signals I'm getting are that they still feel it's still too early to make a change, but another defeat would have the alarm bells ringing loudly.

Can Leverkusen-Stuttgart deliver more fireworks?

Ask anyone who avidly follows the Bundesliga which games last season brought the most entertainment, verve and general excitement, and they'll tell you: the epics between Bayer Leverkusen and Stuttgart.

It's no overstatement. Die Schwaben gave the eventual champions the runaround at times in all three competitive meetings, and only a late Jonathan Tah headed winner for Leverkusen in the wild DFB-Pokal quarterfinal the separated them.

Back in August, I witnessed first-hand while commentating for viewers around the world at the BayArena, another night of DFL-Supercup intensity. Again, Leverkusen left it late, this time a Patrik Schick leveller sending the curtain raiser to penalties before die Werkself got to hold aloft their third trophy in 2024.

So, Friday night again under the Bayer-Kreuz promises to be a can't-miss experience.

Xabi Alonso has heavily rotated his squad recently, making eight changes ahead of the past two competitive matches. Tuesday's 3-0 Pokal win over Elversberg saw Leverkusen conserve energy in the second half, clearly with Friday in mind.

It's hard to imagine this not being a night of attacking fireworks with Florian Wirtz, Granit Xhaka and Victor Boniface on one side and then Deniz Undav plus the in-form Jamie Leweling and El Bilal Toure on the other.

Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro told me a few weeks ago, they always have a shortlist of potential future coaches as a matter of professionalism. If this happensto be Alonso's last season -- and that's by no means definite -- it would be logical to imagine Stuttgart's Sebastian Hoeness appearing at the top of that list.

Bielefeld are, in fact, very real

In the past 30 years in German life, it has become a matter of satire to say that the city of Bielefeld doesn't actually exist. Well, its existence was very real in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday night as Arminia Bielefeld, now in the 3. Liga, put Union Berlin, currently fourth in the Bundesliga, to the sword.It was my personal favourite Pokal match or the week in front of 26,117 at the Bielefelder Alm.

Bielefeld coach Mitch Kniat promised a game auf Augenhöhe (at eye level) in terms of willingness to run and working against the ball. His players made an energetic start and Marius Wörl's outrageous long-range finish, after an errant pass by Andras Schäfer, put Arminia on their way. Andre Becker added a second goal -- set up by the impressive Wörl -- with just under 20 minutes to go.

You might remember Bielefeld were in the Bundesliga before the Abstieg (demotion) struck in 2022. Thereafter they went sliding straight down to the 3. Liga.

Now they'll fly the flag for the league they play in when the draw for the Pokal third round is made in Dortmund on Sunday by Andre Schnura, who delighted fans all over Germany with his saxophone music during Euro 2024.

Unrivaled, the upcoming three-on-three women's basketball league, added its 30th player for its inaugural season Thursday, but she won't be the last.

The league will have not 30 but 36 players -- six teams of six -- for its first campaign, co-founder Napheesa Collier announced, with Indiana Fever center Aliyah Boston later revealed as the league's 30th signing.

"We're able to do this because we outperformed our financial projections, and so now we get to do something that we wanted to do in the future, which is give more people spots in Unrivaled," Collier, of the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, said in a social media video.

"This is such an amazing time in women's sports and we're so thankful to all the positive people who have come out and supported us."

Collier and New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart founded the league to provide players an alternative to earning money overseas during the WNBA's offseason. The season will be eight weeks long during the WNBA's offseason, and players who join Unrivaled will receive equity in the league.

Boston, 22, was the first overall pick of the 2023 WNBA Draft and the 2023 Rookie of the Year. In two seasons in the league, she has started all 80 possible games for Indiana and averaged 14.2 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals per game.

Other stars who have joined Unrivaled include Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese, Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd and Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale.

Unrivaled plans to make an aggressive bid to add Fever star Caitlin Clark, with an offer of more than $1 million per season expected, Front Office Sports reported this week.

"We're always going to have a roster spot for Caitlin Clark," Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell told Sportico. "We're not applying a full court press the way people think. We are letting her decompress from basketball. ... She knows that we have a spot for her when she's ready."

Information from Field Level Media was used in this report.

NEW YORK -- Nine-inning games in the World Series averaged 3 hours, 19 minutes in the second year of the pitch clock, up from 3:01 in 2023.

The Series average was 3:24 in 2022 and 3:38 in 2021, the last season before the PitchCom electronic pitch-calling device. The 2023 average was the fastest since 1996.

Mid-inning pitching changes increased to 5.2 from 3.8 in 2023 and 2.5 in 2022. World Series runs per game rose to 10.0 from 9.3 in 2023 and 5.8 in 2022. Pitches increased to 315 from 298, the highest total since 2018.

The overall postseason game average remained at 3:02, down from 3:23 in 2022 and 3:37 in 2021.

This season's regular-season average of 2:36 declined four minutes from 2023 and 28 minutes from 2022. It had not been this low since 1984's 2:35.

MLB shortened the pitch clock with runners on base by two seconds to 18 ahead of the 2024 season while keeping it at 15 seconds without runners on base.

NEW YORK -- After 42 seasons, Bob Costas is retiring from baseball play-by-play.

Costas had done games the past couple seasons for MLB Network and TBS Sports. His final games were the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals.

Costas' contract with TBS expired at the end of the season, but his plans to retire from baseball play-by-play had been in the works for over a year.

The Athletic was the first to report on Costas' baseball play-by-play retirement. Costas plans to address his decision at a future date.

Baseball has always been Costas' favorite sport. He called games on NBC from 1982-89 and again from 1994-2000. He was one of the announcers for the 1995 World Series and then the main play-by-play voice for the Fall Classic in 1997 and '99.

He joined TBS in 2021 to serve as studio host for its coverage of the National League Championship Series and then called games the past three seasons. TBS has had a package of Tuesday night regular-season games to go with its postseason coverage since 2022.

Costas had also done games on MLB Network since its start in 2009. He will continue to do some work for the network on key events, including the Baseball Hall of Fame announcement.

In 2018, he received the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcast excellence from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Costas is also known for being the prime-time host of NBC's Olympics coverage from 1992 to 2016, and he has made appearances as a commentator on sports issues on CNN.

Eight members of the Baltimore Orioles elected free agency on Thursday, including Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes and slugging outfielder Anthony Santander.

The right-handed Burnes, 30, was 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA in 32 games in his first season with the Orioles after being traded by the Milwaukee Brewers, with whom he won the National League Cy Young Award in 2021.

Santander, also 30, hit .235 in 2024 but had 44 home runs and drove in 102 runs.

Also taking the step were right-hander Brooks Kriske, left-handed pitcher John Means, catcher James McCann and outfielder Austin Slater. Outfielder Daniel Johnson and right-handed pitcher Burch Smith chose free agency instead of accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.

Elsewhere around the league, right-handed pitcher Lucas Giolito exercised his $19 million player option for the 2025 season, the Boston Red Sox announced.

The move was expected after Giolito, 30, had surgery in March on his pitching elbow. The internal brace repair to his ulnar collateral ligament kept him from playing in his first season with the Red Sox after signing a two-year, $38.5 million offseason contract with Boston that included a player option for 2025.

An All-Star in 2019 for the Chicago White Sox, when he also finished sixth in American League Cy Young Award voting, Giolito has struggled in recent seasons, delivering a 4.90 ERA in 2022 and a 4.88 mark last season when he went 8-15 while pitching for the White Sox, Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland Guardians.

In eight major league seasons, Giolito is 61-62 in 180 appearances (178 starts) and has a 4.43 ERA with 1,077 strikeouts in 1,013 innings.

Meanwhile, the White Sox declined to exercise their 2025 option on infielder Yoan Moncada, who will receive a $5 million buyout and become a free agent. He signed a five-year, $70 million contract extension after the 2019 season.

The White Sox acquired Moncada, now 29, in December 2016 as part of the trade that sent left-hander Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox. Injuries limited him to 92 games in 2023 and 12 games in 2024.

With the White Sox, he appeared in 739 games with a .254 batting average, 93 homers and 338 RBIs.

The St. Louis Cardinals declined the options on right-handed pitchers Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn and Keynan Middleton.

Gibson, 37, was 8-8 with a 4.24 ERA after signing with the Cardinals last November. He earned $12 million last season and had an option for the same amount in 2025. He will receive a $1 million buyout.

Lynn, 37, signed a one-year, $10 million contract for 2024 with an $11 million option for 2025. He was 7-4 with a 3.84 ERA.

Middleton, 31, underwent season-ending flexor repair surgery on his right forearm in June and didn't pitch all season.

He last pitched in 2023 with the White Sox and New York Yankees, finishing 2-2 with a 3.38 ERA and two saves in 51 relief appearances.