NEW YORK (AP) Giancarlo Stanton remained out of the New York Yankees lineup for the third straight game and Aaron Hicks was moved up to third in the batting order for Game 4 of the AL Championship Series against the Houston Astros on Thursday night.

Limited by injuries to 18 games during the regular season, Stanton homered in the series opener and missed the next two games because of a strained right quadriceps.

Stanton ran on the field before Thursday's game, but Boone already had made up his mind to keep Stanton out of the starting lineup.

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NEW YORK (AP) Astros manager AJ Hinch says he will remove his team from the field if fans at Yankee Stadium again throw objects at Houston players.

Right fielder Josh Reddick said fans tossed water bottles, baseballs and other objects debris at him during Game 3 on Tuesday night.

CHICAGO (AP) The Chicago Cubs shook up their player-development operation, with Matt Dorey taking over as senior vice president of player development and directors of pitching and hitting being appointed.

Dorey, Chicago's director of amateur scouting the past six years, was previously a scout for the Boston Red Sox and a college coach.

CLEVELAND (AP) Indians catcher Roberto Perez had surgery to remove bone spurs in his right ankle.

The team said Perez underwent the arthroscopic procedure Thursday in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The 30-year-old Perez is expected to be fully recovered by spring training in February.

WASHINGTON (AP) Nationals manager Dave Martinez is an optimistic sort, a live-in-the-moment guy who loves his mantras and his mottos, whether it's telling players to "go 1-0 today" or to "stay in the fight."

Rough as things were when Washington was 19-31 and people were wondering whether Martinez was in over his head and might get fired, he never wavered. Just as important, neither did the support he received from GM Mike Rizzo and team ownership.

NEW YORK (AP) Yankees manager Aaron Boone wasn't sure Wednesday what his lineup for the next day's Game 4 of the AL Championship Series would look like.

Gary Sanchez will be behind the plate, though - whether many in the Bronx want it that way or not.

WASHINGTON (AP) As the Washington Nationals moved a party 86 years in the making from their ballpark's infield to a booze-filled clubhouse, manager Dave Martinez paused near the dugout and thrust the silver NL Championship Series trophy overhead, to the delight of loud, delirious fans still in the stands.

Who would have thought this was possible five months ago, when the team was flailing, trade talk was swirling around Washington and folks figured Martinez's job was in jeopardy?

LOS ANGELES (AP) The bat used by Babe Ruth to slug his 500th career home run in 1929 is going up for auction, nearly 75 years after he gave it to a friend whose family has kept it ever since.

Ruth became the first player to reach the coveted plateau on Aug. 11, 1929, hitting a solo shot for the New York Yankees off Willis Hudlin at League Park in Cleveland.

From one corner of a sullen clubhouse came the glass half full view of the St. Louis Cardinals' season.

"People did not think we were going to be here," veteran pitcher Adam Wainwright said. "I think if you had asked Cardinals (fans) in spring training if we got to the NLCS, would they be happy? Most of them would probably say yes."