A look at what's happening around the majors on Thursday:
OCTOBER OCTANE
Maybe it’s the Southern California air or the indoors atmosphere in Texas, but the ball is really flying this postseason.
With Chad Pinder, Travis d’Arnaud and others powering up, there had been 75 home runs in just 26 playoff games this year through Wednesday afternoon. That was before the Yankees-Rays and Padres-Dodgers started their Division Series matchups.
That average of 2.88 homers per postseason game tops the regular-season mark of 2.57.
The Athletics and Astros combined to connect seven times as the A’s avoided a sweep with a 9-7 win.