Monthly Archives: October 2025

18 Oct

stunning start

There have been 75 leadoff home runs in MLB postseason history, No. 75 coming courtesy of Shohei Ohtani as part of his epic performance on Friday night. A Mississippi native hit one of those 75 homers and another Magnolia State product was victimized by a big one. But first, Ohtani. What he did Friday night — the magnum opus of his career, some are calling it — began with a first inning unlike anything ever seen. As the Los Angeles Dodgers’ starting pitcher against hapless Milwaukee, he struck out the side after issuing a leadoff walk, then grabbed a bat and belted a 446-foot homer, his third postseason leadoff blast. He would hit two more homers — including a 469-foot bomb that left Dodger Stadium — and strike out seven more batters in six-plus innings, propelling the Dodgers to a 5-1 win, a sweep of the NLCS and a berth in the World Series. “I think we’re going to be talking about this forever,” said Freddie Freeman, Dodgers first baseman and Mississippi Braves alum. Simply stunning. Back in 2017, Brian Dozier, the Tupelo native and ex-Southern Miss star, enjoyed a moment that stunned the crowd at Yankee Stadium. Playing for Minnesota, in his first postseason appearance, Dozier led off the American League Wild Card Game with a bomb off Luis Severino. However, the Yankees would rally to win the one-game showdown 8-4. Back in 1986, Boston took the field at Fenway Park for Game 3 of the World Series holding a 2-0 lead in games over the Mets. Oil Can Boyd, the Meridian native and ex-Jackson State star, was on the bump for the Red Sox, and Jackson Mets alum Lenny Dykstra yanked Boyd’s third pitch out of the park, sparking a four-run first inning and a 7-1 Mets win. New York won that unforgettable Series in seven games.

17 Oct

it happened one october, take 5

On this date in 1989, Game 3 of the World Series between Oakland and San Francisco was postponed because of the horrific earthquake that struck the Bay Area. Former Mississippi State stars Will Clark and Jeff Brantley were on that Giants club. When the Series resumed 10 days later, Oakland won 13-7 at Candlestick Park to go up 3-0 en route to a sweep. Clark went 1-for-4 with two punchouts in the rescheduled Game 3, and Brantley yielded one of Oakland’s five homers. Neither made it back to the Fall Classic in their outstanding MLB careers. Grenada native Dave Parker, nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career, was on that A’s team; he went 2-for-9 with a homer (in Game 1 at Oakland) and collected his second World Series ring.

17 Oct

‘so you’re telling me …’

It has been done. The Milwaukee Brewers can hang their hopes on that fact. Once — once — in MLB history a team has come from down 3-0 in games to win a best-of-7 series. That team was the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who pulled off that incredible feat against the New York Yankees. The other 40 teams who faced that mountain tumbled off. Julio Borbon, the Brewers’ first-base coach (and a Starkville native), has been a lonely man in this National League Championship Series. The Brewers, and their contingent of former Biloxi Shuckers stars, simply haven’t hit — or scored — against the Los Angeles Dodgers’ array of strong arms: nine hits and three runs in the three games. And tonight at Dodger Stadium, they face Shohei Ohtani. He did not have a dominant season on the mound (2.87 ERA in 14 appearances) but did beat Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park in the NLDS. And he’s Shohei Ohtani, who throws 100 and features a wide variety of off-speed weapons. Milwaukee was one of the highest-scoring teams in MLB this season and posted the best overall record. But their hitters have not come through in this series. Former Shuckers Jackson Chourio, Sal Frelick and Brice Turang — dynamic forces in the lineup all season — are a combined 3-for-33. William Contreras, the former Mississippi Braves catcher and a two-time All-Star, is 0-for-10. So here they are: Down 3-0. On the brink of elimination. On the road. Facing Ohtani and a rested L.A. bullpen. It’s a steep climb, to say the least. “It’s going to take more than what we’ve shown so far,” Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin said in an mlb.com story. And it has been done. Once.

16 Oct

it happened one october, take 4

On this date in 2021, Austin Riley ripped a game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving Atlanta a 3-2 win over Los Angeles in the opener of the National League Championship Series at Truist Park. Ex-DeSoto Central High standout Riley, who had homered earlier in the game against Tony Gonsolin, delivered the clincher off Blake Treinen, scoring Ozzie Albies from second base with one out. Riley — who has 169 career homers and five more in postseason play — hit .250 with five RBIs as the Braves won the 2021 NLCS in six games en route to the World Series title, the team’s first since 1995.

15 Oct

it happened one october, take 3

On this date in 1946, Pascagoula native Harry “The Hat” Walker delivered his famous game-winning hit for St. Louis in Game 7 of the World Series against Boston. Walker’s seventh hit and sixth RBI of the series came in the eighth inning at Sportsman’s Park and scored Enos Slaughter, who dashed home all the way from first base. St. Louis won 4-3. Walker batted .412 in that Series but just .237 during the season; he hit .363 and won a National League batting title the next year with Philadelphia. On the losing side on Oct. 15, 1946, was Boo Ferris, the Shaw native and ex-Delta State coaching legend. He had started that game for Boston but was pulled in the fifth. He won Game 2 of the Series.

15 Oct

impressive debut

In an Arizona Fall League replete with highly ranked prospects, Cade Smith certainly looked like he belonged in his first appearance. The former Mississippi State standout, pitching in relief for Mesa on Tuesday night, threw three hitless innings, walking one and fanning five. The 23-year-old right-hander is ranked No. 19 among New York Yankees’ prospects by MLB Pipeline. He started his 2025 minor league season on the injured list and worked through three levels over the summer, finishing at High-Class A Hudson Valley. For the year, Smith was 2-1 with a 2.50 ERA in 11 starts. He went 6-7, 3.65, in A-ball in 2024. Smith was drafted in the sixth round in 2023 after three solid seasons at State, where he pitched for the College World Series champs as a freshman in 2021. He has a championship pedigree, having won two Class 6A state titles at DeSoto Central High. The Yankees’ system is stacked with pitching prospects, including lefty Pico Kohn, a 2025 draftee from MSU who is already rated their No. 14. … In other Yankees news, ex-MSU infielder Travis Chapman will not be retained as the club’s first-base/infield coach, per various reports. He has been on the MLB staff since 2022. P.S. Several Mississippi products are on track to be MLB free agents after the World Series concludes, per a recent report from mlb.com, and among them is Drew Pomeranz, the Ole Miss product who pitched so well for the Chicago Cubs this season. The 37-year-old lefty, back in the big leagues in 2025 after four injury-prone years away, recorded a 2.17 ERA in 57 regular season games and a 1.50 in the postseason. “I just wanted to get out there and pitch one more time, and here I am, however many appearances later,” he recently told marqueesportsnetwork.com. “It just doesn’t feel real sometimes. But I don’t take one single second for granted here, not at all.” Some team is sure to sign him for 2026. Other free agents-to-be include Adam Frazier (Mississippi State), Hunter Renfroe (MSU), Chris Stratton (MSU), Kendall Graveman (MSU) and Tim Anderson (East Central CC). All but Frazier were released during the season. … Brandon Woodruff (MSU), who had a bounce-back year with Milwaukee, is a potential free agent, though his contract contains a mutual option, so he is likely to be back with the Brewers. The team is still alive — barely — in the National League Championship Series, and Woodruff has said he hopes to come off the IL should they make the Fall Classic.

14 Oct

it happened one october, take 2

On this date in 2014, McComb native Jarrod Dyson, inserted as a pinch runner, scored the go-ahead run in the sixth inning for Kansas City in a 2-1 win against Baltimore in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. The win put K.C. up 3-0 in the series, and the Royals would eliminate the Orioles the next day at Kauffman Stadium, advancing to the World Series. Southwest Mississippi Community College alum Dyson, a .269 hitter with 36 steals that season, played in all four ALCS games as a sub but did not get a hit. Baltimore was managed by ex-Mississippi State star Buck Showalter.

14 Oct

numbers game

A few relevant numbers from Monday night’s Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, won 2-1 by Los Angeles at Milwaukee:
8-6-2 — The scoring for the never-before-seen double play turned in the fourth inning by Milwaukee, including two putouts by catcher William Contreras, the former Mississippi Braves standout. Brewers center fielder Sal Frelick, former Biloxi Shuckers standout, started the bizarre play with a bobble-and-catch off the wall and then a perfect throw to shortstop Joey Ortiz for the relay.
15 — Career postseason home runs by ex-M-Braves star Freddie Freeman, including the one in the sixth inning that put the Dodgers up 1-0.
3 — Walks in the top of the ninth inning, one of which forced in a run, issued by Shuckers alum Abner Uribe.
3 — Walks issued by Dodgers pitchers in the bottom of the ninth, including one to Shuckers product Isaac Collins, who scored the Brewers’ lone run.
7 — RBIs this postseason by the Brewers’ Jackson Chourio, the ex-Shuckers star whose ninth-inning sac fly put Milwaukee on the board.
11 — Number of times the Brewers struck out, 10 against Blake Snell and one against Blake Treinen, who got Shuckers alum Brice Turang to swing and miss to end the game.
3 — Number of former M-Braves who played, including L.A. defensive replacement Justin Dean. (Freeman and Contreras were teammates on Atlanta’s 2021 title team.)
5 — Number of Shuckers alums who played, including rookie Collins, who got his first postseason start, in left field.
1 — Loss for Milwaukee in seven meetings with Los Angeles in 2025.

13 Oct

it happened one october, take 1

On this date in 1960, Pittsburgh’s Bill Mazeroski hit his famous walk-off home run in Game 7 of the World Series, stunning the New York Yankees and much of the baseball world. Mississippi natives Joe Gibbon and Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell won rings — the only ones they would get in lengthy big league careers — thanks to Mazeroski’s blast at old Forbes Field. Gibbon, from Hickory via Ole Miss, yielded three runs in two appearances in that Series, and Leakesville’s Mizell took the loss as the starter in Game 3 and had a 15.43 ERA over two appearances. The Yankees, who had won six championships in the 1950s, outscored the Pirates 55-27, losing Game 7 10-9.

12 Oct

whatever it takes

Everybody digs the long ball nowadays, not just chicks. Milwaukee is not a team that lived by the long ball this season — the Brewers’ 166 home runs ranked 22nd among MLB teams — but the Brewers launched three on Saturday night, which was enough to beat Chicago 3-1 and claim Game 5 of their National League Division Series at American Family Field. Former Mississippi Braves standout William Contreras homered off Ole Miss product Drew Pomeranz in the first inning, Andrew Vaughn homered in the fourth and ex-Biloxi Shuckers star Brice Turang went deep in the seventh. The Cubs’ lone run was a Seiya Suzuki bomb. Home runs win games, the stats show: Teams that out-homer their opponents in a game win more than 70 percent of the time; the percentage is even higher in postseason games. The Brewers, in their first NL Championship Series appearance since 2018, will face Los Angeles, which led the NL in homers with 244, 55 of them by presumptive MVP Shohei Ohtani. Freddie Freeman, the former M-Braves star, hit 24 homers for the Dodgers. The Brewers’ leader was Christian Yelich with 29, followed by Shuckers alums Jackson Chourio (21) and Turang (18). And yet, don’t sell the Brewers short. They beat the Dodgers six straight times in the regular season en route to the league’s best record. The Brewers seemingly are just good at doing whatever it takes in a given game. “It’s a team that deserves and earned their way for the right to go to the World Series. That’s a good baseball team,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said in an mlb.com piece. The Brewers hit three solo homers Saturday, and their pitching — they were first in the NL in staff ERA — made those runs stand up. Jacob Misiorowski, the rookie All-Star who pitched in Biloxi just last year, delivered four great innings in relief to earn the win, and Abner Uribe (Shuckers ’22-23) retired six of the seven he faced to get the save. As Manny Randhawa writes for mlb.com, they “are the very definition of the phrase ‘greater than the sum of its parts.'” Many of those parts came up through the pipeline from Double-A Biloxi. P.S. The last time Milwaukee played in the NLCS, in 2018, the Dodgers were the opponent. A home run was a highlight in Game 1 of that series: Brandon Woodruff, the Mississippi State product from Wheeler, hit a bomb off Clayton Kershaw — back when pitchers still batted — and won the game with two clean innings out of the bullpen. L.A. won the series in seven. Woodruff currently is on the injured list and won’t be available for the NLCS.