The Houston Astros left three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander off the roster on Tuesday for their AL wild-card series against Detroit but did include injured slugger Yordan Alvarez.

Verlander struggled in his return after missing almost two months with a neck injury this summer. The 41-year-old right-hander went 2-2 with a 9.26 ERA in five starts in September.

Astros Manager Joe Espada said Verlander was professional when told of the decision and said he could be on the roster for future rounds if the team advances. Verlander last pitched Saturday, allowing three runs in six innings against Cleveland.

Alvarez missed the end of the regular season with a right knee sprain and hasn’t played since Sept. 22. The 27-year-old, in Tuesday’s lineup as the designated hitter, is a career .295 hitter with 12 homers and a .949 OPS in 58 postseason games.

• As expected, Atlanta won’t have NL Cy Young Award contender Chris Sale for its NL wild-card series at San Diego. The left-hander was scratched from the late game in Monday’s doubleheader against the Mets with back spasms, and the Braves said he wouldn’t be available until at least the Division Series.

The Braves also left off starters Spencer Schwellenbach and Grant Holmes after they pitched Monday. Starters AJ Smith-Shawver and Bryce Elder were included.

• Kansas City’s Vinnie Pasquantino was on the roster for the AL wild-card series at Baltimore, returning from the injured list after breaking his right thumb on Aug. 29.

Baltimore’s roster includes little-used right-handed reliever Colin Selby — he appeared in three games with the Orioles this season and two with the Royals — instead of righty Matt Bowman. Starting pitcher Albert Suárez is not on the roster.

•Sal Frelick returned to the Milwaukee Brewers’ lineup for the start of the playoffs without needing to worry about hitting any metal if he crashed into a wall again.

Frelick bruised his hip Friday when his left side made contact with the metal chain link inside a window in American Family Field’s right field sidewall that had no protective padding. As the Brewers started their NL wild-card series with the New York Mets on Tuesday, padding had been added to cover that window.

SEASON STATS: Major League Baseball’s average attendance rose 0.9% this season, increasing in consecutive years for the first time since 2011-12.

MLB drew 71.35 million fans over 2,413 gates for an average of 29,568, its highest since 30,042 in 2017, the commissioner’s office said..

Five teams topped 3 million, down from eight in 2023.

The Los Angeles Dodgers topped the major leagues at 3.94 million and have led each year since 2013, other than the 2020 season without fans.

Philadelphia was second at 3.36 million, followed by San Diego at 3.33 million, the New York Yankees at 3.31 million and Atlanta at 3.01 million.

They were followed by the Chicago Cubs at 2.91 million, St. Louis at 2.88 million, Houston at 2.84 million, Toronto at 2.68 million and Boston at 2.66 million.

• The average time of a nine-inning major league baseball game dropped to 2 hours, 36 minutes in the second year year of the pitch clock, the lowest since 1984.

The average was down 4 minutes from 2023 and 28 minutes from 2022. It had not been this low since 1984’s 2:35.

DIAMONDBACKS: Owner Tom Kendrick said he is the person responsible for signing pitcher Jordan Montgomery, who underperformed this season after joining Arizona on a hefty free-agent contract.

The defending National League champion Diamondbacks missed the playoffs after finishing the regular season tied with the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves with an 89-73 record. But the Mets and Braves owned tiebreakers over Arizona because they won the season series and earned wild-card spots.

The Diamondbacks were left to reflect on the season, and Kendrick told Arizona Sports on Monday that he was the person pushing for the signing of Montgomery, who helped the Texas Rangers beat Arizona in the World Series.

Kendrick was expecting much more from Montgomery, who went 8-7 with a 6.23 ERA after signing a $25 million, one-year deal.

“If anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you’re talking to the guy that should be blamed,” Kendrick said. “Because I brought it to (the front office’s) attention. I pushed for it. They agreed to it – it wasn’t in our game plan. You know when he was signed – right at the end of spring training. And looking back, in hindsight, a horrible decision to invest that money in a guy who performed as poorly as he did. It’s our biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint. And I’m the perpetrator of that.”

The 31-year-old left-hander agreed to a contract in March and wound up missing nearly a month of the season with a knee injury. He finished with 83 strikeouts in 117 innings after eventually moving to the bullpen.

AWARD: John Sterling, Gary Cohen and Skip Caray are among the finalists for the Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting.

Caray, Jacques Doucet, Tom Hamilton, Duane Kuiper and Ernie Johnson Sr. are holdovers from the 10-man ballot last year, when Boston Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione earned the honor.

Sterling, Caray, Rene Cardenas and Dave Sims were new this year after not appearing on last year’s ballot, the Hall said.

Joe Buck, Ken Korach and Dan Shulman were on last year but were dropped.

This is the third of four consecutive elections that will consider broadcasters whose careers extend into the wild-card era, which began in 1995. The pre-wild-card era will be considered in 2026 voting for the award presented during the Hall of Fame’s 2027 induction weekend.

The winner will be announced Dec. 11 at the winter meetings in Dallas and honored during the Hall’s July 26 awards presentation, a day ahead induction ceremonies.

A broadcaster must have 10 continuous years of experience with a network or team to be considered, and the ballot was picked by a subcommittee of past winners that includes Castiglione, Marty Brennaman and Eric Nadel along with broadcast historians David J. Halberstam and Curt Smith.

Voters are 13 past winners — Brennaman, Castiglione, Costas, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Jaime Jarrín, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Al Michaels, Jon Miller, Nadel, Bob Uecker and Dave Van Horne — plus historians Halberstam, Smith and former Dallas Morning News writer Barry Horn.