JAKARTA, Indonesia – Formula E is set to race in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta for the first time this coming season, adding to the list of cities featured on the 2019-20 ABB FIA Formula E Championship calendar.

Jakarta joins Seoul and London as another new venue for fans to look forward to in season six, with the race in Indonesia scheduled to take place on June 6.

A full grid of 24 cars and the most competitive line-up in motorsport, including new manufacturers Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, will navigate their way around the National Monument in Merdeka Square in the center of the city.

The circuit, like all locales visited by Formula E, is subject to homologation and approval by the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

“The calendar for this coming season of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship was already shaping up to be something special, but to add another race in Asia … and Indonesia in particular, is incredibly exciting,” noted Formula E co-founder Alberto Longo. “Indonesia has an affinity with motorsport – hosting races and events in the past and developing drivers who’ve progressed up the ladder – as well as having an extremely engaged and growing fan base. On top of that, it’s also an emerging market for electric vehicles, with increased investment already being made to push production and clean up the air around the cities. Formula E wants to play a part in that positive change and with the most competitive grid of manufacturers in motorsport, I can’t wait to go green in Jakarta on June 6 next year.

“Thank you to both Ikatan Motor Indonesia and the city of Jakarta for making it happen and collectively supporting the wider electric movement.”

As the fourth most populated country on the planet – behind only China, India and the USA – Indonesia is an important strategic market for Formula E, helping to inspire future generations to embrace clean energy and in turn, tackle the effects of air pollution.

The track layout and circuit configuration will be revealed at a later date, along with the updated calendar and full list of dates and destinations for season six, following the next FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in October.

ATLANTA – Superior Essex Communications, a leading manufacturer and supplier of communications cable in North America, has partnered with Noah Gragson and JR Motorsports for the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs.

In honor of the start of the playoffs, Gragson’s No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro will have a new look this weekend at Richmond Raceway, where Superior Essex optical fiber cable enables communications to the track’s scoreboard.

The vehicle’s updated scheme features Superior Essex logos on the hood, rear quarter panels and other locations on the race car.

“We’ve been working with Noah since early on in his professional racing career, and we couldn’t be prouder to take our partnership to the next level by supporting him as he drives the No. 9 Superior Essex racecar in the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs,” said Brian Ensign, Vice President of Marketing, Superior Essex Communications. “Noah is an immensely talented driver and a great brand ambassador, and we are excited to grow with him as he continues his already successful racing career.”

Gragson enters the opening round of the Xfinity Series playoffs as the eighth seed, just 50 points shy of the series lead. The opening round begins Friday night, under the lights at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.

“I’m ready to get the playoffs started this weekend in Richmond,” said Gragson. “I’ve always really enjoyed racing there; we came close to getting the win there last year, and we had good speed with our No. 9 Superior Essex/Switch/JRM Chevrolet earlier this year. Hopefully, we can unload with that same speed on Friday and keep this positive momentum going.

“We all know what’s on the line now, so we just need to go out, execute and do our jobs.”

In the latest episode of the Brandel Chamblee Podcast with Jaime Diaz, the fellas weigh in with their thoughts on an epic Solheim Cup and who was really PGA Tour Player of the Year, Rory McIlroy or Brooks Koepka.

Chamblee also dives into the state of golf instruction with thoughts you must hear.

Check out the full podcast below:

In this episode of the 1Up Podcast, Gary Williams is joined by Lanny Wadkins and Hale Irwin. They discuss "the greatest generation" of golfers, what it’d be like for them to coach today’s players in a Ryder Cup, and more.

Click below to listen:

Zinedine Zidane is under pressure at Real Madrid following the 3-0 defeat at Paris Saint-Germain, according to ESPN FC sources.

After winning three successive Champions League titles, Zidane left his post as Madrid manager in summer of 2018 only to return in March 2019 following a difficult campaign which saw replacements Julen Lopetegui and subsequently Santiago Solari sacked.

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But the Frenchman has struggled to bring about a reversal of fortunes, winning just five of his 11 games last season. And, despite Madrid making six signings in the summer, sources have told ESPN FC that members of the board feel "the squad is very strong and is not being maximised."

However, despite the worrying defeat to PSG in the Champions League, Zidane remains "upbeat" about the situation at the club, according to ESPN FC sources.

Madrid signed Eder Militao, Eden Hazard, Ferland Mendy, Luka Jovic, Rodrygo and Alberto Soro, while they also welcomed back James Rodriguez from a two-year loan spell at Bayern Munich.

Yet they failed to sign midfielder Paul Pogba from Manchester United, who was Zidane's No. 1 choice and there are concerns the club have been left short in middle of the pitch.

Sources have told ESPN FC that, while important players within in the dressing room believe Zidane is "not the same as before," and there is also a fear among certain players regarding rumours of the potential replacements, with Jose Mourinho the most likely.

Ex-Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri is another potential candidate while former players Raul and Aitor Karanka have also been mooted.

Madrid travel to leaders Sevilla on Sunday with the derby against Atletico the following Saturday following a midweek home match against Osasuna -- who recently drew with Barcelona.

Toss Afghanistan opt to bowl v Zimbabwe

Afghanistan will bat first against Zimbabwe in the fifth match of the T20 tri-series in Chattogram. Already assured of their place in next week's final, Afghanistan made three changes to their playing XI, handing an international debut to allrounder Fazal Niazai.

The match is essentially a dead rubber for both sides, but the occasion will still have some context as it marks Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza's final game for his country. Zimbabwe's most-capped player in this format, Masakadza announced his retirement from international cricket ahead of Zimbabwe's departure for Bangladesh and will be leading his team out in his 66th T20I, and 310th game for Zimbabwe overall. Zimbabwe, still searching for their first win of the series, named an unchanged XI to that which lost to Bangladesh on Wednesday.

"Bittersweet," Masakadza said of the occasion at the toss. "It's my last game. I would have wanted it to be under better circumstances, but it is what it is. It's still another game for us and an international for Zimbabwe. We've never beaten Afghanistan in a T20 so hopefully we can do that today, and that can be my send-off."

Aside from handing the 29-year-old Niazai a debut, Afghanistan also tinkered with their middle order and bowling attack. Karim Janat, Najeeb Tarakai and Fareed Ahmad will sit this match out, while wicket-keeper batsman Shafiqullah slots in to the top order and seamer Dawlat Zadran comes back to play his first T20I in more than two years.

The pitch being used tonight is the same as that used on Wednesday night, upon which Bangladesh racked up 175 for 7. It is expected to encourage the batsmen once again, though play a little more slowly as the evening goes on.

"It doesn't matter, whether we're in the final or not," Rashid Khan said. "We have to play positive cricket. We shouldn't change our momentum, and we have to be 100% in batting, bowling and fielding. To be playing on my birthday, as I was this time last year when I got [the] Man-of-the-Match [Award] against Bangladesh, is pretty special."

Afghanistan: 1 Hazratullah Zazai, 2 Shafiqullah, 3 Fazal Niazai, 4 Asghar Afghan, 5 Mohammad Nabi, 6 Najibullah Zadran, 7 Gulbadin Naib, 8 Rahmanullah Gurbanz (wk), 9 Rashid Khan (capt), 10 Dawlat Zadran, 11 Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Zimbabwe: 1 Brendan Taylor (wk), 2 Hamilton Masakadza (capt), 3 Sean Williams, 4 Regis Chakabva, 5 Tinotenda Mutombodzi, 6 Ryan Burl, 7 Richmond Mutumbami, 8 Neville Madziva, 9 Kyle Jarvis, 10 Ainsley Ndlovu, 11 Chris Mpofu

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Don "Wink" Martindale thinks Sunday's quarterback showdown between Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes can become the next great sports rivalry.

"Just as an NFL fan, as a fantasy owner, if you will, the NFL is in good hands with these young quarterbacks," Martindale said Thursday. "And I think you're going to see two great quarterbacks in this game. We might be seeing the next [Tom] Brady-[Peyton] Manning matchup, [Muhammad] Ali-[Joe] Frazier, Magic [Johnson]-[Larry] Bird. You don't know, but the excitement of it [is undeniable]."

The spotlight is on the quarterbacks Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, where the Ravens (2-0) play the Chiefs (2-0).

Entering their second seasons as starters, Jackson and Mahomes are the hottest quarterbacks in the NFL right now. They are the only quarterbacks of the Super Bowl era to have recorded better than a 70 percent completion rate with seven touchdowns and no interceptions over the first two games of a season.

Their 14 combined touchdown passes without an interception are the second-most in NFL history heading into a quarterback matchup, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. It trails only Fran Tarkenton and Craig Morton in 1969 (18 touchdown passes, 0 interceptions combined heading into Week 6 meeting).

Jackson downplayed the buzz about Sunday's game being about him and Mahomes.

"It's Ravens vs. Chiefs," Jackson said. "I don't really look at it like I'm competing against him. I'm competing against his defense, if anything. I depend on my defense to do a great job of stopping him, and my job is to score points. That's what I'm going to do."

Jackson lost his only meeting to Mahomes. In December, the Chiefs beat the Ravens 27-24 in overtime. Jackson and Mahomes combined for 588 yards of total offense and four touchdown passes.

There are only 10 days left in MLB's regular season, but five playoff spots are still up for grabs. As the hunt for October comes down to a few huge late-season series, we're about to find out who's in and who's out.

Here's what we'll be watching this weekend:

There's still a lot to be decided in the NL playoff chase, with Cardinals-Cubs the big matchup, and Pirates-Brewers and Nats-Marlins also impactful series. Among the four teams fighting for three spots (NL Central, two wild cards), what single factor will have the biggest role in determining who's in and who's out?

Eddie Matz: Washington's schedule. The Cards, Cubs and Brewers all play six games during the final week of the season. Meanwhile, thanks to having no off day and playing a makeup doubleheader, the Nationals are slated for eight games over the final seven days. That'd be tough sledding for any club, but especially so for the Nats, whose bullpen has about as much depth as a kiddie pool. It doesn't help that Washington's competition next week (the Phillies and Indians) is the toughest among this quartet of contenders. If the Nats manage to hang on and make it to the wild-card game, they certainly will have earned it. (But I don't think they're going to earn it.)

Sam Miller: The Brewers' bullpen. The other three teams in the race all have relatively traditional workhorse rotations -- each has four starters who will qualify for the ERA title, and the Brewers have none. Rather, like last year, their September success has come with the congealment of the bullpen, pieces picked up throughout the year, or shuffled into new roles, or simply peaking at the right time. This month has been the Milwaukee bullpen's finest, with season-best walk and strikeout rates and a season-best ERA. That's crucial: The Brewers' rotation is built to go four or five innings per start -- only two starters have gone deeper than that this month, only two have thrown as many as 90 pitches, and none has gone seven or thrown 100. Milwaukee showed us last year what a hot bullpen can do in short, urgent bursts, and they're trying to do it again, with an almost all-new cast (plus Josh Hader).

David Schoenfield: I'm going with the Cubs' offense -- the one currently playing without Javier Baez and that just got Anthony Rizzo back after that sprained ankle -- improbably he was on a scooter Wednesday and started Thursday. I mean, how far can Nico Hoerner carry this team on his back? The Cardinals and Nationals also have a little more margin for error, and the Brewers have the easiest schedule, so the Cubs have their backs up against the wall. They will also end the season with six games on the road -- where they are a miserable 31-44 this season. They will also be reminded of how the offense tired down the stretch last year. Good luck, boys.

In the AL, the series to watch are Red Sox-Rays, Rangers-A's and the interleague Phillies-Indians matchup (Sunday Night Baseball, 6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), with Tampa Bay, Oakland and Cleveland in the running for the two wild-card spots. Same question as above: What is the most important factor in the AL playoff race?

Matz: Healed hurlers. The A's have welcomed back stud left-hander Sean Manaea and top prospect Jesus Luzardo. Reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell and early season breakout star Tyler Glasnow have returned to the Rays. Meanwhile, the Indians haven't been quite as fortunate, as ace Corey Kluber remains sidelined and fellow right-hander Carlos Carrasco has been limited to six outs or fewer since coming back earlier this month. For a Cleveland team currently on the outside looking in, that's suboptimal.

Miller: Caveat: Sometimes really good teams rest their players as they gear up for their playoff assignment, and sometimes really bad teams are, by September, hot or filled with great call-ups. But the schedule gap between the A's and the Rays is about as wide as Oakland could hope for: The Rangers, Mariners and Angels have a combined winning percentage of .441, and half of their good players are out for the year. Meanwhile, the Red Sox, Yankees and Blue Jays are a combined .535. (Cleveland's opponents: .483.) Again, that's not destiny. But baseball games are zero-sum affairs, and every ounce of quality your opponents have is as significant as whatever ounces you, yourself have. It makes it really unlikely the A's could lose this by any method other than total collapse.

Schoenfield: The A's lead the wild-card race and have that easy schedule, so I think they're in. So I'm looking at the Rays and Indians and point to the Tampa Bay rotation ... bullpen. As Eddie said, Snell and Glasnow just returned, but Snell went only two innings and Glasnow has gone two and three. That means Kevin Cash has to get a lot of work from his relievers in games those two start. It's remarkable, really: Charlie Morton has been the only constant in the rotation all season. In the bullpen, keep an eye on Nick Anderson. Since he came over from the Marlins, he has pitched 18 innings, given up nine hits, struck out 35 and issued zero unintentional walks.

The Year of the Home Run continues unabated, with the Twins and Yankees on the verge of reaching 300 each. In five words (no more, no less), sum up your feelings on this season's long-ball binge.

Matz: Triples are way more exciting.

Miller: Eras, not players, break records.

Schoenfield: It was fun at first.

PICK 'EM TIME

Setting aside Thursday's opener to the four-game Cardinals-Cubs series, which team will take two of three (or three of three) this weekend at Wrigley?

Matz: The Russell-less, Baez-less and Rizzo-less Cubs have been able to get by recently against mediocre competition. The Cards are far from mediocre these days. Therefore, I'll take them.

Miller: Somebody should mention that the Cubs have been invincible at home this year, though I don't really believe that's likely to persist. Still, even regular, non-invincible home-field advantage is significant, and the Cubs are now past Jack Flaherty in this series and get to skip the resurgent Adam Wainwright. So I'll take them against the three worst FIPs in the Cardinals' rotation, without much conviction.

Schoenfield: The Cubs dig down and take two of three weekend games. Because Nico Hoerner. And because we want a four-way tie between the NL Central teams and the Nationals.

Among the players on the seven teams fighting for a playoff spot (Rays, A's, Indians, Nationals, Cardinals, Cubs and Brewers), who will have the most total bases this weekend?

Matz: Drawing the Pirates for the final stretch of a pennant chase/MVP race is like getting the million-dollar question on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" when you have all your lifelines left. And your uncle is a writer on the show. And he just had dinner at your house and told you what the million-dollar question (and answer) was going to be for your upcoming episode. Sadly, Christian Yelich is not an option. So I'll take Keston Hiura.

Miller: Baseball is weird and anything can happen, but drawing the Marlins for the final stretch of a pennant chase/MVP race is like getting a Final Jeopardy category on which you did your doctoral research. I'll take Anthony Rendon.

Schoenfield: Funny thing, Nicholas Castellanos is playing these days like the baseball version of Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer. And speaking of the Daily Double, that's what Castellanos hits every day. He's only four doubles shy of becoming the first player since 1936 to reach 60 doubles.

TWO TRUE OUTCOMES

Home run hitters

Matz: Yordan Alvarez

Miller: Eugenio Suarez

Schoenfield: Jorge Soler

Strikeout pitchers

Matz: Yu Darvish

Miller: Shane Bieber

Schoenfield: Lance Lynn for the title

A year ago, the Oakland A's had one of the best offenses in baseball. But, in a strange quirk, they were easily the league's worst against high-velocity fastballs: a league-low .191 batting average against pitches over 95 mph, a league-low .268 weighted on-base average, a league-low 72.3 percent contact rate.

Strange quirks like this don't matter much in a long season. Only about 12 percent of pitches are over 95 mph, and if you can smash everything else it washes out. But in the postseason, there are far more high-velocity fastballs, and an entire season can come down to one game against a flood of them. The quirk looks like a real liability when, say, you draw the New York Yankees in a winner-take-all wild-card game:

• Luis Severino: 36 of 87 pitches over 95

• Dellin Betances: 8 of 25 pitches over 95

• David Robertson: 0 of 12 pitches over 95

• Zack Britton: 6 of 13 pitches over 95

• Aroldis Chapman: 12 out of 17 pitches over 95

That's 154 pitches, 62 of them over 95 mph, more than triple the regular-season rate. The A's scratched out only two runs, and in retrospect you could convince yourself the game was over before it began.

And the playoff team that hit 95-mph fastballs best last year, you might ask? It was the Boston Red Sox, as a matter of fact. The World Series champs.

There's a reasonable hypothesis here: That, beyond overall team quality, a playoff team's chances might also be affected by how well it can hit high-velocity fastballs. All of the playoff teams this year have good offenses during regular-season baseball, but postseason baseball isn't regular. The terrain shifts: More innings go to relievers (and to starters pitching in relief). More innings go to the very best pitchers. Adrenaline and high stakes might give pitchers extra oomph. As a result, about twice as many pitches are delivered faster than 95 mph in the postseason. This has remained true even as 95 has become more common in the regular season. Last year, about one in four postseason pitches was at least 95, and almost half of fastballs were.

If the terrain shifts, then it should favor the team that most thrives on the new terrain, the way a clay court might favor one great tennis player over an equally (but differently) great tennis player.

This October, there is an intimidating Against High-Velocity story looming, in Los Angeles. The Dodgers are fantastic against high velocity, almost stunningly so. The Astros, a seemingly equal superteam in most respects, have been quite poor against high velocity this year. We know both of these teams are great, but are we moving to a clay court that favors one team over the other? Are the Dodgers built for October in a way Houston isn't? Will the reasonable hypothesis survive testing?

Let's answer three questions: Are we measuring the right thing? Is the thing we're measuring real or fluke? Does it matter enough to matter?

Are we measuring the right thing?

It's not enough to say the Dodgers hit .276/.354/.485 against 95-plus and the Astros hit only .234/.335/.390. For one thing, that only captures each team's performance on pitches that end at-bats. If the Dodgers foul off a first-pitch fastball down the middle, or chase a 2-0 fastball out of the zone and miss it, they would be failing against those pitches but without affecting their slash line.

So we can't just look at wOBA. We have to look at wOBA and chase rate -- to see what percentage of pitches out of the zone the team is wisely laying off -- and whiff rate, so we're tracking hitter performance throughout the at-bat. We might even look at pull rate, and isolated power.

For another, those stats don't capture the degree to which each team is better or worse than usual on that specific terrain. We already know each team has been tremendously successful this year, and if the Astros hit .234/.335/.390 against every pitch, of every velocity, all the time, it wouldn't much matter if 10, 20 or 99 percent of pitches came in so fast. They would succeed equally, regardless of the shifting terrain. The point here is to see if these teams are particularly suited to, or particularly vulnerable to, faster pitches.

To figure that out, we looked at how each team did against 95-plus, compared to how they did against all other fastballs, and we did it for all five measures listed above: wOBA, chase rate, whiff rate, pull rate and isolated power. We then ranked the teams in each of the five measures, and sorted them by their cumulative rankings. (We also looked at high-velocity performance relative to performance against all other pitches, not just slower fastballs; the results were about the same.)

The Dodgers' wOBA on fastballs 95 mph and up was actually higher than their wOBA on slower fastballs, the only team in baseball that was true. The average team was about 88 percent as productive on high-velocity fastballs. The Twins, at 99 percent productivity, were next among probable playoff teams. The Astros, at 78 percent productivity, were last among probable playoff teams and 29th among all teams.

But, as we said, these capture only the final pitch of each at-bat. By chase rate, the Dodgers were second-best in baseball, and best among probable playoff teams -- they don't chase any more often at 95-plus than they do against slower fastballs. The Astros were 22nd. (The Twins, who hit high-velocity hard, also chase a lot. They were 17th in baseball at this relative chase rate.) And by whiff rate, the Dodgers were again second-best in baseball, trailing only the Washington Nationals. The Astros were slightly better than average.

Only the Dodgers were great at all three of these skills: patience, contact and slugging. They also ranked first in relative isolated power and sixth in relative pull rate. Among probable, or possible, playoff teams, the Dodgers were better than the Astros, Rays, Brewers, Twins, Cardinals, Yankees, A's, Cubs and Indians across all five measures. They're a 95-plus powerhouse, and it shows up not just in one part of hitting but across the whole process.

Here's how the probable playoff teams, and possible playoff teams, rank, by relative performance on 95-plus:

1. Dodgers
2. Twins
3. Cardinals
4. Nationals
5. Braves
6. Brewers
7. Yankees
8. Cubs
9. Indians
10. A's
11. Astros
12. Rays

Is the thing we're measuring real or fluke?

Any time we're looking at split stats, especially in a single season, there's a good chance the intriguing characteristic we've identified is actually just the result of slicing numbers a million different ways into ever-smaller samples. I'm not personally worried about the Cubs' road performance this year or the Twins' "clutch" performance. Random events cluster in seemingly non-random ways.

But "against 95 mph" isn't necessarily random, any more than "against curveballs" or "against high pitches" is. Plausibly, it's a separate skill some major leaguers have and others don't.

To test that, we looked at the past six years of individual players' performance against 95-plus, relative to their overall performance, and then found the correlation from each year to the next. (A correlation of 1 would mean a perfect correlation from one year to the next and a correlation of 0 would show none at all. We limited this to players who qualified for the batting title in both years -- about 90 players per pair.)

There has been, in those six years, a fairly consistent correlation in players' relative contact rate: The lowest correlation in any of those paired years is 0.3, the highest is 0.47, and the average is 0.37. That's about the same as the year-to-year correlation in a hitter's overall batting average on balls in play: some fluke, some skill.

There has been some, but considerably less, correlation in the players' relative wOBA: 0.12. Very weak.

Which is to say the thing we're measuring seems to be both real and small-sample fluke: Some players really are better at this than others, but in a single year there's a fair amount of noise. Which is both good for the Dodgers (and Nationals, who have whiff and chase rates comparable to the Dodgers) and bad for the Astros (and Rays), but not as bad as the lead to this article would have you believe.

Does it matter enough to matter?

Regardless of how much better the Dodgers are on this metaphorical clay court, does it matter enough to tilt our expectations? There are, yes, more 95-plus pitches in the postseason, but they are still a minority of all pitches in a game -- and an even smaller minority of all baseball in a game -- and the skill gap between clubs is almost certainly smaller than we've observed in the regular season. Furthermore, just because a club can hit 95-mph fastballs doesn't mean they can hit pitchers who throw harder than 95. They might just be cheating, and leaving themselves more vulnerable to off-speed pitches.

So has it mattered? By one way of looking at it, maybe. Understand, first, that all teams hit worse in the postseason, just as nearly all teams hit worse against harder fastballs than against slower ones. In the past three years, teams overall have been about 84 percent as productive in the postseason as in the regular season (by wOBA).

But teams that have shown the most 95-plus skill (measured by relative wOBA and relative contact rate) have done better than that. Teams that ranked in the top third of the league in high-velo performance were about 88 percent as productive in the postseason as in the regular season. Teams in the middle third were 82 percent as productive. Teams in the bottom third were 77 percent as effective.

On the other hand: They haven't really won more games. Over the past three years, there have been 106 total postseason games. The team that had shown more 95-plus skill (again, measured by relative wOBA and relative contact rate) in those 106 games has gone 54-52 -- an inconsequential difference. If this skill is real, on a teamwide basis, and if it plays up in the postseason, it hasn't proved to be much of a factor. Crucially, both this paragraph and the previous one are based on just 106 games between evenly matched opponents. They're so noisy our ears should hurt.

We started with an anecdote: the A's, the Red Sox. But the postseason has an anecdote for every position. The 2016 World Series matched two teams who had both struggled, relatively speaking, against high velocity in the regular season, but plowed through their opponents in the playoffs. The 2016 Texas Rangers were fantastic against high velocity, and they got swept in the division series. That's the nature of the postseason: It's all small samples, and you never know which of hundreds of tiny factors is going to be the one that matters that time. Most won't. Mostly, being the best team is the best you can hope for.

Last Friday, the Dodgers played the Mets. Noah Syndergaard, the hardest-throwing starter in the league, pitched against them, and he threw 65 pitches of at least 95 mph. They hit him well -- four runs in five innings -- and beat him for the second time this year. The next day, they faced another 95-plus machine, and this time Jacob deGrom shut them out. And then the day after that, they faced Zack Wheeler, whose 95-mph fastball mostly kept the Dodgers in check -- until they broke through in the eighth and ninth against two relievers, both of whom were also regularly topping 95. It's nice for the Dodgers to know they have that skill in their back pocket. Sometimes, against a pitcher like Syndergaard, it might be the difference. But sometimes, against a pitcher like deGrom, it might not matter at all. It doesn't make the Dodgers invincible this October, but if there's one thing they've learned from six consecutive postseason appearances, it's that you can never collect enough little advantages.