MLB

Aaron Judge ain't a rookie when it comes to celebrating his first postseason win ... 'cause the star slugger brought out the big (gold) guns for the Yankees' victory over the Twins Tuesday night.

Judge and his teammate Didi Gregorious went all-out for the team's champagne celebration after winning their wild-card game 8-4 ... poppin' massive bottles of Ace of Spades.

FYI -- a regular bottle of Ace of Spades will set you back around $300 ... so it's an expensive booze shower.

But don't worry, the Yanks have a day off before taking on the Cleveland Indians in the ALDS on Thursday.

Milwaukee Brewers minor league prospect Bubba Derby is a hero -- selflessly throwing his body over other people to shield them from bullets during the Vegas massacre ... and now he's telling his story.

The 23-year-old pitcher was attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival with family and friends when the shots rang out. Derby says he shielded two girls he met that night. His cousin threw his body over his girlfriend.

Fortunately, they all survived. The women have since found Derby on Facebook and thanked him for his heroic actions that night.

Derby says he's still haunted by the events -- and feels horrible for the people who didn't make it out.

But Derby says through all the carnage, he saw real acts of heroism -- people risking their lives to help others and law enforcement sprinting towards the gunfire to try and stop the shooter.

Watch the video.

Hours after Derek Jeter's ownership group closed on the purchase on the Miami Marlins ... #2's wife, Hannah Jeter, hit the town -- lookin' like $1.2 billion!!!

Hannah was spotted out shopping in Tampa on Monday -- with witnesses saying she hit up a high-end shoe shop and a fancy salon before meeting up with her new MLB owner husband.

Derek reportedly has a 4% ownership stake in the group that bought the Marlins -- but appears to have serious pull when it comes to personnel decisions.

Former New York Yankee Pat Kelly says he and his girlfriend getting booked for assault was just a "misunderstanding" ... and "everything's good" now that he's outta the slammer.

TMZ Sports broke the story ... Kelly and his GF, Marina Cernova, were arrested at the London Hotel in NYC on Sunday after Marina called cops to report Pat had beaten her.

Both Pat and Marina were jailed for misdemeanor assault ... 'cause police say Marina also punched Pat in the face.

But when we got Kelly outside Manhattan Criminal Court ... he told us he was A-OK -- though he did seem kinda annoyed that our guy wouldn't give up his sources.

5:40 PM PT -- Pat and Marina were both released from jail and were issued temporary restraining orders to stay away from each other.

5:20 PM PT -- Kelly's attorney Alex Spiro tells us, "Pat denies all wrongdoing and will answer the charges in court."

1:55 PM PT -- Law enforcement sources tell us Pat told cops he was sleeping in his hotel room early Sunday morning when his girlfriend entered with a key he'd given her. That's when they got in the argument, at which point he says she punched him in the face, causing him to react by grabbing her by the arm and pushing her.

Former New York Yankee Pat Kelly and his girlfriend were busted in NYC over the weekend for assault ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell us Pat was arrested Sunday at the London Hotel in midtown along with his girlfriend, Marina Cernova.

We're told they engaged in a verbal dispute, and she punched him in the face. She told cops he grabbed her right arm and pushed her, which she says caused pain and bruising. She called cops around 2:40 AM to report Pat had beaten her.

Cops arrested and booked both of them for misdemeanor assault ... we're told they're still in jail.

Albert Pujols won't have to cough up a single cent to the cousin who sued him for $27 MILLION in a case related to a fatal police chase in Missouri.

Long story short ... Albert was being sued by his cousin Wilfrido Juan Pujols -- a former baseball prodigy who was a passenger in a 2007 police chase in which a man was struck by the car and killed.

Wilfrido's brother was driving and cops say the guy was messed up on booze and drugs at the time. Wilfrido, however, was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Still, Wilfrido says Albert and his wife were involved in crafting an email that went public -- which wrongly painted Wilfrido as a murderer. He wanted $27 mil for defamation.

But after spending more than a year in court, the judge ruled that Albert did nothing wrong -- and kicked Wilfrido's massive lawsuit out of court.

Cardi B -- who has the #1 song in the country -- says NFL owners need to hire Colin Kaepernick ASAP or she'll boycott NFL Sundays and start watching baseball instead ... on whatever day baseball is on.

The "Bodak Yellow" rapper told Billboard that people need to stop pressuring the NFL players to boycott because they need to make a living ... the real pressure needs to be on the owners.

"You can't really be mad at the players," Cardi said ... "These people need their jobs too. Are you gonna pay them? Be mad at these goddamned team owners."

She also trashed Trump -- referring to him as "Carrot Face."

As for Colin, he's in game shape -- at least he looked buffed up and ready to play out in NYC on Monday morning.

Seems MLB legend Dave Winfield wants to see MORE baseball players following Bruce Maxwell's lead when it comes to national anthem protests.

FYI, Maxwell became MLB's first kneeler this weekend -- with the Oakland A's catcher demonstrating during the national anthem in the wake of Donald Trump's "son of a bitch" comments.

So, when we saw Winfield at LAX, we asked for his thoughts.

"It's a new era -- new causes, new objections to the way things are ... it's a protest we should listen to," Winfield told TMZ Sports.

Winfield added this message for the kneelers -- "Nothing changes overnight. Keep doing what you're doing."

They've lost 15 of their last 20 -- but the L.A. Dodgers should still be considered one of the FAVORITES when the playoffs roll around ... so says Bob Costas.

The legendary broadcaster was at LAX when we brought up the most depressing topic in Los Angeles ... how the once mighty Dodgers have fallen in a big way.

Bryce Harper's one of baseball's most built dudes at 6'3'', 230 pounds ... but you wouldn't know it in this pic he just shared with his MASSIVE uber driver.

Of course, that's not just any driver ... that's Aurangzeb Khan ... an 8-foot cabbie that bills himself as the "World's Tallest Man."

Khan actually ain't THE tallest guy on the planet (we did some digging) ... but he's up there. Just look at the size of his paw on Bryce's shoulder!

Harper was waaay stoked to get matched with the real-life giant ... cheesin' hard on his way to Atlanta's SunTrust Park.

MLB commish Rob Manfred just dropped the hammer on the Red Sox ... fining the club an "undisclosed amount" of money for stealing signs using banned electronic devices.

Baseball investigators determined the BoSox violated MLB rules by "sending electronic communications from their video replay room to an athletic trainer in the dugout."

While Manfred did not specify the amount of the fine ... he did say the cash would go towards Hurricane Irma relief in Florida.

The Sox weren't the only ones lighter in the wallet ... the commish says he determined the Yankees broke a rule prior to the '17 season, so he fined them also.

The amount ... "lesser undisclosed amount" -- also going to storm relief.

We spoke with Manfred last week in D.C. while he was still conducting the investigation ... and he told us the scandal was just a "reflection of competitive activity between two clubs."

David Ortiz wants to make baseball fun again ... and definitely doesn't think unfurling huge protest banners at the ballpark is the way to do it.

We got Big Papi at LAX Thursday -- the Red Sox legend tells us he's not down with the Boston fans who brought the controversial banner to the game Wednesday night ... even though it was speaking out against racism.

Ortiz suggests making political statements at a game -- no matter what side somebody's on -- are a bad idea because people are always going to get the wrong idea ... so he's against it.

As Papi put it ... "You don't wanna add more s**t to the s**t that is already out there."

FYI ... the 4 fans who brought the banner to Fenway were ejected.

Good news Dodger fans ... the team's epic collapse ain't NOTHING to fret about -- so says ex-GM Ned Colletti, who assured TMZ Sports that everything was A-OK when we got him out in Beverly Hills.

Okay, so here's the thing -- the Dodgers are in the middle of an EPIC slump, losing 16 out of their last 19, and seeing a 20 game NL West lead shrink down to 9.

They've won their last 2 though, and we guess that's enough for Colletti to pop some champagne ... 'cause when we found him in the 90210 he told us, and all the fans, to just CHILL.

Darryl Strawberry says there's only one thing that saved him from the despair of drug addiction ... God ... telling TMZ Sports it was the man upstairs who was finally able to pull him from his habit.

We got Straw out in NYC and asked him what finally helped him kick the notorious cocaine addiction that derailed his MLB career, and the World Series champion's answer was simple.

"My faith, my faith in God, and my wife, Tracy."

Straw chronicles his struggles kicking the white stuff in his new book "Don’t Give Up on Me: Shedding Light on Addiction," but it's clear the former All-Star has his head on straight now.

MLB home run leader Giancarlo Stanton is NEVER getting to home plate with pop singer (and twerk queen) Lexy Panterra ... and that's coming DIRECTLY from Lexy, who says the two are just friends.

And they're gonna stay that way ...

We got Lexy at Poppy (NEW HOLLYWOOD HOTSPOT ALERT) and asked her if any of the fake chemistry in their steamy music video could turn real.

That's when she did what MLB pitchers have been avoiding all year -- went right into Giancarlo's zone ... but this time it was his FRIEND ZONE.

Watch the video below, coulda been hot together.

Everybody relax ... MLB commish Rob Manfred says allegations the Red Sox stole signals from the Yankees with an Apple Watch just proves how competitive they are!!!

No, really ... that's what he told us!

We saw the Commish in D.C. this week and asked him about the biggest scandal in baseball -- claims a Red Sox trainer used an Apple Watch to relay Yankees signals to Boston players to give their hitters an advantage.

"Look, I think it's a reflection of competitive activity between two clubs," Manfred told TMZ Sports ... "I'm sure we'll investigate and reach a resolution that preserves the integrity of the game."

When asked if the Red Sox would forfeit the wins from the games in question, Manfred said, "I'm not gonna talk about potential discipline at this point. We haven't even completed the investigation."