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Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs died from a mixture of the opioids fentanyl and oxycodone combined with alcohol, causing him to choke, according to a toxicology report released today by the Tarrant County, Texas medical examiner's office. The 27-year-old pitcher was found dead in his Texas hotel room on July…

Major League Baseball said Thursday that the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox will play a regular-season game next season at the site of the baseball field in Dyersville, Iowa, made famous in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams. The league begins construction next week on a temporary 8,000-seat stadium on the site…

UPDATED with final World Series ratings, other broadcast shows: The second to last episode of The Walking Dead with Andrew Lincoln was on, but America went out to the ball game last night as the Boston Red Sox won the World Series and the New Orleans Saints pummeled the Minnesota Vikings on the NFL and NBC's Sunday Nig…

UPDATE: Fox claims 13,564,000 viewers tuned in to Game 4 of the World Series, projecting to its fifth straight nightly win in prime time, with the total audience peaking at 16,772,000. Fox averaged an audience of 14,146,000 across Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox Streaming platforms. Game 4 was the most-watched game on Fox…

UPDATED WITH FINAL NUMBERS:  The 18-inning drama between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night goosed the World Series ratings on two Fox platforms. While television scored 13,251,000 fans for prime time –  down 4% from Game 2 – Fox Deportes and Fox Sports Digital celebrated increases. Fox…

UPDATE 4:20 PM: The World Series is taking a night off as the 2-0 Boston Red Sox and the struggling Los Angeles Dodgers move America’s pastime out West after Game 1 and Game 2 in Beantown. With Game 3 set for tomorrow night in the City of Angels, the final numbers from last night’s Game 2 reveal that Fox is also…

UPDATE, 3:55 PM: Game 2 of the 2018 World Series is about to start very soon but the final numbers of last night's Boston Red Sox's winning Game 1 certainly show some room for improvement, at least over the past few years. Scoring a 3.7/17 rating among adults 18-49 and 13.8 million viewers, the almost four hour game…

(UPDATED with NBA and MLB metered market results) If you're into sports, last night was an early Christmas of sorts with big games across the television landscape. However, except for Larry Fitzgerald’s playful sack of his ex-teammate-turned-sideline commentator Kurt Warner, it was not a good Thursday Night Football…

The TBS telecast of ALCS Game 1 between the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox generated the top program of the day across all of cable and broadcast TV based on metered market delivery. The game, which the Astros trampled the Red Sox 7-2, averaged 5,821,000 viewers. Compared to the 2016 ALCS Game 1, the viewership…

Internet giant Tencent has reached an agreement with Major League Baseball to live stream games and highlight programs in China. Under terms of the multi-year agreement, Tencent will live-stream 125 games on exclusive basis to computers, mobile devices and via over the top platforms. Tencent plans to commemorate the…

This news isn’t likely to cheer Clayton Kershaw up, but ESPN said today that Thursday’s 2018 MLB opener for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants drew the sports net’s best opening-day numbers in six years. The 1-0 victory by the hated Giants at Dodger Stadium was seen by 1.67 million viewers, also making…

Facebook Watch and Major League Baseball have reached a deal that will see 25 weekday games — one a week — streamed exclusively and live worldwide on the social media giant during the 2018 season. It’s the first major sports deal for Facebook, and will also mark the league’s first digital-only national broadcasts. The…