Have you ever heard the saying, “I don’t have to be faster than the bear; I just have to be faster than you?”
Because that’s kind of what this is for Devon Levi.
Levi doesn’t have to prove he’s better than Frederik Andersen. He has to prove he’s better than Tristan Jarry, and he’ll have however long Andersen is out to do it. When Andersen returns, the Edmonton Oilers will have three goalies and only two positions available. At some point, somebody will have to go.
This is Levi’s chance. It might be the best chance he’s ever had in his NHL career.
Andersen is expected to miss training camp after suffering an injury during an offseason training session, and the Oilers haven’t given a timeline for his return. That leaves Jarry and Levi as Edmonton’s two healthy NHL goalies entering camp and, presumably, the regular season.
Levi was buried so deep in the Buffalo Sabres prospect pool that he never really got looked at the way he could have elsewhere. He entered the NHL as one of the Sabres’ top prospects and played seven games immediately after leaving Northeastern University in 2023, then started 21 games as a rookie the following season. Buffalo kept adding goalies around him, including Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, which started a series of events that led Levi to spend much of his time in Rochester.
Levi has appeared in 39 NHL games over three seasons and has a 17-17-2 record with an .894 save percentage. Those numbers don't establish him as an NHL goalie, and his time in Buffalo never established that either. He has spent much of his professional career moving between leagues while trying to get enough NHL starts to show where he belongs.
Edmonton can give him those starts now.
Jarry enters camp with the inside track because of his experience and contract, though his standing with Oilers fans isn't particularly strong after last season. He has been around the NHL for years, has been an All-Star and has handled a starter's workload before. His recent seasons have also included enough poor stretches that fans are not unreasonable for not trusting him.
Once Andersson gets healthy, Mike Babcock and his staff will have seen who should back him up between Levi and Jarry.
Edmonton has no reason to run Jarry through every preseason game while Andersen is unavailable, and Levi needs to spend time in the NHL at this point in his career. He's 24 years old now. Another season spent waiting for occasional opportunities won't do him much.
Jarry will have the same opportunity, of course, but his job isn't protected simply because he enters camp having been in the NHL longer.
Now, there are fans out fans wondering "what about Connor Ungar."
Ungar has gotten a lot of attention after his first professional season in the AHL, but he still needs time. Goaltending development rarely benefits from skipping steps, and another season in the AHL gives Ungar more needed time to develop before he makes that next step.
There is no reason to push him into the NHL in September, especially when Levi is already there.
He's played in the NHL before, albeit for fewer games than Jarry, and has reached the point where Edmonton needs to find out whether he can be an NHL goaltender. Buffalo never gave him a long runway to answer that question, and his path kept getting crowded by other goalies.
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 31: Tyler Heineman #31 of the Los Angeles Angels scores behind Austin Wells #28 of the New York Yankees, to take a 1-0 lead, during the third inning at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on August 31, 2026 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Yankees seemed to be a team that could do no wrong on Sunday when they sent the Red Sox home with a 16-1 thumping that left many among their commentariat more than a little salty. That’s a heck of a win to build some momentum on as the final full month of the regular season awaits. Better yet, they got to fly out to Orange County to take on the lowly Angels, riding a seven-game losing streak and playing obligatory, meaningless ball.
But momentum is a fickle thing. Just because a team can catch fire after a great game doesn’t mean they will. It doesn’t shield them from a ridiculously poor performance the following night. That was perhaps a nice way of putting the Yankees’ effort in the series opener. Elmer Rodríguez plunked two batters with two outs before allowing both runners to score, José Caballero committed a pair of ugly errors in the field, and the offense checked out early in a 10-1 loss best placed in a filing cabinet in a dingy basement somewhere. The Bombers lost a game to the Red Sox in the Wild Card race, and remain 4.5 games back of the Rays in the AL East.
Rodríguez encountered his first bit of adversity in the third inning, allowing a leadoff double to ninth-place hitter Tyler Heineman. Heineman had allowed two Yankees to advance into scoring position back in the first when he lost track of a ball in the dirt. His starter Walbert Ureña worked around it, and the double made up for the mistake. But Rodríguez appeared well on the way to working around that double until he issued a two-out walk to Wade Meckler to extend the rally. Vaughn Grissom followed with a jam shot to center which found plenty of room in front of Trent Grisham, allowing Heineman to score for a 1-0 Angels lead.
An inning later, Elmer re-established himself by grabbing a pair of routine outs, including his fifth strikeout of the night against Josh Lowe. Then, he plunked consecutive batters on runaway curveballs to bring up the top of the order for the third time and get the bullpen to warm up behind him. Zach Neto had gotten his ticket punched each of his first two times up against Rodríguez, but the third time was the charm as he punched a single through the left side to bring another costly two-out run home.
The Bombers tried to grab the final out at third, but were unsuccessful, and Neto was able to slink to second in the meantime, giving Mike Trout an opportunity with two runners in scoring position. Now fully untethered from any semblance of command he had shown in the first three innings, he let a fastball leak over the inner half; all Trout had to do was flip it around. Two runs scored on his base hit, the Angels suddenly led 4-0, and Elmer was out of the game.
Hitting consecutive batters with two outs is a particularly exasperating unforced error. It’s particularly strange that the curveball, a pitch he seemed to have on a string early in the evening, was the culprit both times. He churned out two absolute jalopies off the assembly line in quick succession. That those dud curves happened to strike the eighth- and ninth-place hitters only made it more inexcusable, since it gave RBI chances to two of the only guys in the Angels lineup who can reliably cash in on those mistakes.
Ureña, on the other hand, took the missed Yankee opportunity at the top of the show and ran with it, retiring 11 straight batters after that little wild pitch. I’m sure the Yankees had watched plenty of film on the 22-year old righty, but facing his tricky pitch mix capped off by a dastardly changeup that misses barrels and keeps balls in the yard. Ureña used his mix to clip the Yankees’ wings for half the night, until a rocket from Spencer Jones got the Yankees out of containment and on the board.
Jones’ eighth homer of the year was an impressive clout, but it was just a solo shot, and didn’t give the Bombers any additional kindling to roar back to life. The Halos promptly responded with a leadoff chalk-hugging double from Grissom and a sinking line drive from Christian Moore that Jones, even with his long strides, couldn’t make up enough ground to grab. In a flash, the solo homer was nullified.
But this loss felt just a little too dignified. We needed a true circus play to expunge all the good vibes that might have accompanied Sunday’s evisceration of the Red Sox.
Fulmer tried to pick the speedy Moore off at second base. Caballero appeared to be looking elsewhere as the ball clonked off his glove and into center field. Moore aggressively cut the bag at third and dashed for home the wishes of his base coach, daring a defense caught on its heels to make a play.
The thing about the Yankees is those kinds of dares tend to work without any trouble. This gamble from Moore was anything but. Trent Grisham’s throw in from center had no juice on it, so Luis Garcia Jr. dashed over from first in an attempt to relay it home. He threw the ball roughly fifteen feet wide of home. I wish I could say that sequence surprised me, but I’m not exactly new here.
Luis Gil entering in the sixth inning to make his first Major League appearance since April 26th only served to give this contest an even more ersatz quality. Gil did his job and appeared to induce a routine double play ball to shortstop, which would have ended the inning. But Caballero had not done anything good in the field tonight, and he wasn’t about to start here. He booted the grounder, then rushed a low throw to first that Garcia failed to scoop. Inning-ending double play? Try no outs and another run scored.
I remind you this team shoved their biggest rival—and closest peer in the Wild Card race—into a locker yesterday. But those sorts of rousing victories in the past have never stopped them from pulling this kind of malarkey shortly afterward. Such was again the case here.
Jones’ home run in the fifth marked Ureña’s only blip as he continued his splendid rookie campaign with seven strong innings. The Yankees appeared as desperate to get this game over with as the poor saps who had stayed up to watch them. The Angels understandably wanted to make this moment last, so they grabbed three runs off David Bednar in the eighth to put themselves in double figures. Truly awful stuff from everyone involved.
Good news came in before first pitch tonight, as the Mets eked out a 3-2 victory over the Rays in St. Petersburg. Even as the Mariners blew a late lead against the Red Sox and let them escape with a win in the 10th, the Yankees still had a great chance to gain ground in the divisional battle. Shockingly, they refused to take advantage of the opportunity, losing a laugher to one of the worst teams in baseball; a team playing out the string on an utterly lost decade, dead in the water. The Yankees played necromancers tonight.
At least it’s Gerrit Cole bump night tomorrow. The Orange County native and UCLA Athletic Hall of Famer will take the hill at The Big A against a major what-if guy: Grayson Rodriguez. First pitch is once again due for the refreshingly honest time of 9:38pm ET on YES.
In this week’s Injury Report, the Red Sox lose Willson Contreras to a hamstring strain. The Nationals could be getting James Wood back on Tuesday. And Aaron Judge could be returning to the Yankees lineup sometime next week. All that and more as we highlight the most relevant injury news around the league this week.
⚾️ Baseball is back! MLB returns to NBC and Peacock in 2026! In addition to becoming the exclusive home of Sunday Night Baseball, NBC Sports will broadcast MLB Sunday Leadoff, “Opening Day” and Labor Day primetime games, the first round of the MLB Draft, the entire Wild Card round of the postseason, and much more.
Willson Contreras (hamstring)
Contreras was pulled from Sunday’s blowout loss to the Yankees with hamstring tightness. The Red Sox then placed him on the 10-day injured list on Monday with a left hamstring strain, an issue that Contreras has reportedly been dealing with for about a month. The 34-year-old first baseman will now get at least the next week and a half to rest. The hamstring issue can explain his August struggles, as he’s hit .217 in the month. Mickey Gasper was recalled to take his place on the active roster and fill in at first base.
The Braves have won seven straight, PCA is surging toward MVP honors, and the Orioles are finally approaching .500.
D.J. Short
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James Wood (oblique)
CJ Abrams (back)
Wood could be back in the Nationals lineup on Tuesday or Wednesday during a two-game set against the Braves. The 23-year-old star has been out since August 4 with a left oblique strain and took batting practice on Friday before playing seven innings and hitting a home run in a rehab game with Double-A Harrisburg on Sunday. Manager Blake Butera stated Wood would get Monday off before deciding when he’d be activated. There was some thought that Wood wouldn’t need a rehab assignment, but he wanted to see some live pitching before returning. Meanwhile, keep an eye on Abram’s status on Tuesday. He was scratched from Monday’s lineup against Miami with back tightness, though it’s thought to be precautionary.
Aaron Judge (rib)
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Monday that Judge could be ready to return to the Yankees lineup during the team’s next homestand, starting on Tuesday, September 8 against the Rockies. The 34-year-old star has been out of action since early June with a rib fracture. Despite the extended absence, it seems as though he’ll bypass a minor league rehab assignment and join New York as soon as he’s ready to return to game action.
Konnor Griffin (finger)
Griffin may be ready to return from the injured list when first eligible on Friday for the team’s series opener against the Angels. The 20-year-old shortstop started a minor league rehab assignment with Double-A Altoona on Sunday and went 1-for-3 while playing seven innings. He’s been out of action since early July with a torn ligament in his left ring finger.
JJ Wetherholt (wrist)
Masyn Winn (thumb)
The Cardinals lost both starting middle infielders over the last week. Winn had sat out a handful of games with a thumb issue before he was diagnosed with a fracture that landed him on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 22. The 24-year-old shortstop has already been swinging a bat with significant improvement and could return as soon as Tuesday when first eligible. Meanwhile, Wetherholt was placed on the 10-day injured list on Sunday with right wrist tendinitis. There’s no word on how much time he’s expected to miss. The 23-year-old second baseman has enjoyed an excellent rookie campaign, slashing .242/.343/.370 with 17 homers, 88 runs scored, and 14 steals across 586 plate appearances.
Xavier Edwards (thumb)
Edwards was removed from Sunday’s game against the Nationals after colliding with Jorbit Vivas on a slide into second base, leaving with thumb and elbow discomfort. He was diagnosed with a left thumb sprain and placed on the 10-day injured list on Friday. There’s no timetable for a return, but the Marlins will certainly want to get him back quickly as long as they remain in the playoff hunt. The 27-year-old second baseman is having a strong season in Miami, hitting .282/.361/.376 with six homers and 20 steals over 137 games.
Emerson Hancock (groin)
A groin issue for Hancock surfaced while making a diving play at first base against the Blue Jays on Friday, though he remained in the game, allowing five runs over five innings. The team then placed him on the 15-day injured list on Sunday with a left adductor strain, sidelining Hancock for at least the next two weeks. The Mariners had been operating with a six-man rotation, but could revert to a five-man while Hancock is unavailable. While he hasn’t been quite as successful in the second half, he’s still enjoyed a strong breakout season, posting a 3.57 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and 126 strikeouts over 138 2/3 innings.
Byron Buxton (hip)
Buxton initially left last Tuesday’s game against the Athletics with a re-aggravation of his hip injury. After sitting out three games, the team placed him on the 10-day injured list with a right hip impingement. Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll told reporters last week that the 32-year-old outfielder could be looking at offseason hip surgery, so there’s a chance Buxton could be shut down if the Twins fall out of contention. Top prospect Walker Jenkins was recalled to take Buxton’s place on the roster after hitting .308 with 12 homers and 17 steals across 69 games with Triple-A St. Paul.
Joe Ryan (glute)
Ryan is getting closer to a return to the Twins rotation. The 30-year-old right-hander is set to make a rehab start with Triple-A St. Paul on Tuesday and is aiming to get to around 50 pitches. He’s been out of action since early August with a glute strain. Assuming he comes out of his rehab start feeling well, he could be in line to make the following start with the Twins.
Connelly Early (elbow)
Early, on the 60-day injured list with left elbow inflammation, is on track to begin a minor league rehab assignment on September 8. Out since late June with the elbow issue, there doesn’t seem to be much chance of him giving the Nationals anything but a few shorter appearances if he’s able to return at all before the end of the season.
The Yankees were defeated by the Los Angeles Angles 10-1 in the series opener on Monday night.
Here are some takeaways...
-- Elmer Rodriguez put together his best big-league outing to this point his last time out, but the Angels were able to take advantage of some ineffectiveness this time around. The youngster held them off the board in the first and the second, but two out hits in the third and fourth chased him from the ballgame.
All in all, he allowed four runs on four hits, three walks, two HBP, and five strikeouts over 3.2 innings.
-- The Yankee offense was held in check by Walbert Ureña over the first four-plus innings, but Spencer Jones provided them with some much-needed life, crushing a one out solo homer deep over the right-center wall in the top of the fifth to cut into the four-run deficit.
The youngster is up to eight home runs on the season, five of which have been over his last 30 games.
-- Michael Fulmer and New York's defense immediately gave that run back to the Angels. Christian Moore blooped in an RBI double that bounced away off of a sliding Jones' glove in shallow right, then scored a run of his own as a pair of throwing errors on a pickoff attempt brought him in from second.
Fulmer was charged with his first earned run across six outings since joining the Yankees.
-- Luis Gil was also hurt by the Yankee defense in his first MLB appearance as a reliever. Gil struck out three in his first frame, but not before Jose Caballero committed his second error in as many innings, forcing him to throw more pitches and bringing in LA's seventh run of the game.
Gil followed that with a scoreless second inning, working around a one out HBP.
-- David Bednar was called upon for the eighth inning in a six-run game, and he was roughed up pitching for just the second time over the last 10 days. Bednar gave up three runs, two of which scored on a Vaughn Grissom double, which gave him three hits and four RBI in the ballgame.
Coming into the night, Bednar had allowed just two runs (one earned) in August.
-- Other than Jones' homer the Yanks weren't able to get much else going against Ureña. The righty held them to just that one run on five hits while walking none and striking out eight batters across seven strong innings. His ERA is down to 2.85 during his impressive rookie campaign.
-- With the two miscues from Caballero, the Yanks lead MLB in errors from the shortstop position (39).
Game MVP: Walbert Ureña
The youngster continued his great rookie season with seven innings of one-run ball.
CINCINNATI (AP) — San Diego Padres second baseman Luis Rengifo will undergo season-ending surgery for a torn ACL in his right knee.
The Padres announced Monday that imaging showed a full tear of the ACL. The injury had initially been diagnosed as a knee sprain.
Rengifo was injured in the seventh inning of a 7-6 loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday when he threw across his body toward home and fell to to the infield dirt. Rengifo needed assistance getting to his feet before he was driven off the field in a medical cart.
The play happened when two Tampa Bay players were near third base at the same time and Cedric Mullins broke for home. Rengifo was chasing Taylor Walls when he made the throw and immediately went down.
Rengifo started the season with the Milwaukee Brewers, who released him on June 23. He hit .205 in 57 games with the Brewers.
The 29-year-old appeared in 38 games for the Padres, hitting .292 with four homers.
Things were calm until the third inning, when Anthony Kay saw a little base path trouble after a throwing error and a walk put two runners on. Yordan Alvarez sent Nick Allen in to score with a ground out, but a fly out straight to Sam Antonacci ended any further damage.
The White Sox knotted the score 1-1 right away, as Colson Montgomery doubled in the top of the fourth with one out, Chase Meidroth singlingand him home. Tristan Peters was plunked, and in a pickoff attempt, the ball got away, sending Meidroth to third. Antonacci picked up a walk (without being hit!) to load the bases with two outs. Houston starter Peter Lambert’s command in the fourth drastically dropped, as he walked Munetaka Murakami to force in the lead run. Miguel Vargas left the bases loaded with a liner to second, but the Good Guys were up, 2-1.
Braden Montgomery got caught in-between on a Cam Smith liner to right, and as has happened too frequently that ball skipped past him for a triple. Kay was frazzled by the three-bagger, so much so that Nelson Velázquez crushed a home deep and high to left, making it 3-2, Astros.
It got worse from there, as the White Sox mustered no offense while Houston added on. In the fifth, three singles loaded the bases, with just one out. Instead of a pitch that would prompt a ground-ball double play to end the inning and keep the score tight, Kay walked in a run. Kay bounced back with a K, but with two outs was pulled in favor of Trevor Richards, who surrendered a double to Smith double and stretching the deficit to 6-2.
Three walks sandwiched around a fielder’s choice out packed the sacks for the Sox with two outs. As old friend Bennett Sousa came into the game for Houston, righty pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk stepped up to the plate. But on the first pitch, Grichuk sent one straight to the glove of left fielder Taylor Trammell, ending the frame.
Colson Montgomery homered in the seventh to trim the lead to 6-3, but that was it for any offense. Richards managed to shut the Astros down for the rest of his outing, and Houston-area local Tyler Davis took the mound in the eighth for a 1-2-3 inning with his entire family cheering him on — a light moment in an otherwise frustrating game.
With two outs, Meidroth picked up Chicago’s 10th walk of the game, but Brenton Doyle went down swinging for his second K in two plate appearances, handing the Astros a win.
With less than a month to go before the official start of the 2026-27 NHL regular season, the Pittsburgh Penguins will have a lot of decisions to make regarding their roster.
Of course, the biggest story during this year's training camp will be which prospects, if any, crack the opening night roster. Lineups and deployment will also be an interesting thing to watch out for, especially since there will be legitimate positional battles at all three junctures for the Penguins.
As intriguing as things will be on the forward and goaltending fronts, though, the blue line will be equally as interesting to keep an eye on.
With the left side being, pretty much, anyone's game, the right side is a bit of a different story. On the right, two longtime NHL veterans in Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang will populate roster spots - and their respective careers are in much different places right now.
Karlsson, 36, is coming off his best year as a Penguin, as his 15 goals and 66 points in 75 games as well as his spectacular play down the stretch of the regular season earned him Team MVP honors last season. He is, by all measures, still a top-pairing defenseman who can play at an elite level on a playoff team.
As for Letang? The 39-year-old has put together an impressive 20-year career in the NHL with the Penguins, registering 178 goals and 806 points in 1,235 career games. His production wasn't bad for a player his age last season, either, with three goals and 34 points in 74 games.
However, aside from the production falling off with age, it's the other parts of his game that have become a bit of a concern. He no longer has the wheels to be the effective one-on-one defender he used to be, and he can't get himself back in plays on the backcheck like he used to. His defensive zone reads are becoming an issue, the turnovers are a concern, and he isn't quite as effective in transition as he used to be.
Letang's minutes were reduced to 21:41 per game on average last season, which was almost a two-minute dip from the 2024-25 season. According to Moneypuck, he also had the worst mark among Penguins' defensemen in expected goals against per 60 minutes (3.44), and his on-ice expected goals share of 49.4 percent was also the worst mark among the eight Penguins' defensemen with more than 300 minutes of ice time.
It's understandable to give Letang some benefit of the doubt here, especially since he had a rotating carousel of defensive partners throughout the season. He seemed to have a fair bit of chemistry with Brett Kulak in the short time he spent in Pittsburgh last season, and he did play better with Sam Girard in the last few games of the regular season and into the playoffs.
But, at this point, it's reasonable to suggest that Letang and the Penguins may benefit from slowly reducing his minutes. That is not necessarily a suggestion that Letang should be out of the lineup, as sheltered minutes could help maximize his performance in those minutes. Letang still has the capability of being a serviceable NHL defenseman, so as long as he is willing to adapt his game to be a bit more calculated and less risk-averse than it was in his younger years.
Down the stretch, we did see that a bit with him and Girard. Girard, 28, is a decade younger and plays a comparable style to Letang's at the same age, and as they got used to playing with one another, Letang took a bit more of a backseat to Girard joining the rush and jumping up on the play.
If he continues to develop chemistry with Girard and can tap into that style of play moving forward, he'll still be a valuable part of the Penguins' defensive corps. But whether he should be doing this in top-four minutes is a different story.
Karlsson will be the top right defenseman for this team, but he is also in the final year of his contract. Depending on how the season goes for the Penguins, he is a potential trade candidate, should he be willing to move. They also just acquired Kaedan Korczak from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for left defenseman Parker Wotherspoon, and although the Penguins are intrigued by Korczak, he's still largely a wildcard and has not been tested in a top-four role.
Then, there's Harrison Brunicke - just named Pittsburgh's top prospect on our annual Top-20 Penguins' Prospects list - who will more than likely make a strong case for himself at training camp, just as he has done in the past two years. If both Brunicke and Korczak put on strong camp showings, how will the Penguins manage Letang? Could he potentially play his off-side? Will one of them unseat him for a second-pair role?
To start the season, the last thing is a bit unlikely. But, especially as the season goes on, it's a distinct possiblity, especially if either one of Brunicke or Korczak gain any kind of momentum.
Regardless, the Penguins are set to have some tough decisions to make about their blue line, and Letang's role is going to be one of the biggest questions heading into the 2026-27 season.
One of the Mets’ top picks from the year’s draft class is already taking another step.
Third rounder Aiden Robbins has been promoted to High-A Brooklyn.
Robbins generated some first-round buzz heading into the draft, but he ended up falling partially due to questions over his ability to hit breaking balls consistently.
The slugger from Texas has shown no such issues to this point.
He posted a strong .286 average with two doubles, four home runs, 16 RBI, and a .826 OPS over his first 20 games hitting towards the top of St. Lucie's lineup.
Robbins spent most of his time in center, but also appeared in the corner spots.
The 21-year-old has already jumped up into the top-10 in some organizational rankings, and he only figures to continue rising if he can keep this success up to finish the year in Brooklyn.
Robert Stock can sleep well Monday night knowing he accomplished something against the Tampa Bay Rays that he had never done before in his MLB career: pitch into the sixth inning.
Not only that, but after going a career-long 5.1 scoreless innings against the American League’s best team, the right-hander earned his first win since 2019 and his first as a starting pitcher following the Mets’ 3-2 win over the Rays.
“It’s really cool,” Stock said about getting the win. “It takes a whole team to win the game and we saw that tonight with how great the defense was, how good the hitters were in the second half of the game. It’s great when you step back and you look at how long it’s been and I can both feel good about the team and myself.”
Yes, the defense made some nice plays behind him like Christopher Morel’s leaping catch with the bases loaded to end the fifth inning, but Stock was in total control against Tampa Bay and was the best version of himself that New York has seen this season.
Even more impressive? The outing came with the Mets in a 1-0 pitcher’s duel for most of the night and right after a rough start against the Milwaukee Brewers (MLB’s best team) where Stock allowed 10 hits and seven runs.
“The stuff’s really good. It’s always been really good,” said interim manager Andy Green. “It’s strikes. When he forces them to swing he does really well. I think he maybe ran into Milwaukee where some balls found holes, but more or less when he’s in the strike zone he’s been really good for us.”
Overall, Stock owns a 5.88 ERA in six starts for New York this season. However, if his two worst starts are removed, the right-hander has allowed two earned runs in 19 innings, more than acceptable for a 36-year-old journeyman who hadn’t started a major league game since 2021 (ironically with the Mets).
Of course, Stock would love to go deeper in some of those starts, but at least now he “finally” knows what that feels like and perhaps has it in him again in the future.
“That’s the job you’re getting paid to do so I finally did it one time,” he said.
ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - AUGUST 31: Juan Soto #22 of the New York Mets talks with Junior Caminero #13 of the Tampa Bay Rays prior to a game at Tropicana Field on August 31, 2026 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) | Getty Images
At some point, there is a conversation to be had about Yandy Diaz and his reluctance to challenges.
Tampa Bay, down one run in the ninth, Diaz came to the plate as the go-ahead run, with Richie Palacios on first.
Strike one was above the zone, and Diaz, as Diaz does, took a long glare at home plate umpire Austin Jones to say he disagreed with the call instead of simply tapping his helmet.
You can’t take the challenges home with you, as the Rays had both available.
Strike two was a forkball down the middle, and strike three barely grazed the zone, as Diaz went down looking, and the Rays went down valiantly, 3-2 in a close one at One Tropicana Drive.
How did we get to a 3-2 final, you may ask? Let me get you there.
The Metropolitans would strike first, as Mark Vientos would ground into a double play that scored Bo Bichette.
Tampa Bay had their big opportunity against Robert Stock, who had the best outing of his MLB career, when the Rays loaded the bases on three singles with no outs in the fifth.
They came up empty-handed.
Taylor Walls popped out, Diaz struck out swinging, and Jonathan Aranda lined out to former Ray Christopher Morel in left field.
Stock’s final line would go as follows; 5 IP, 4 R, 0 BB.
Vientos would announce his presence with authority again, as he jumped on an Ian Seymour changeup and deposited it into the left-center field seats. 2-1 Mets.
Seymour had another quality start, going 6.1 IP while allowing three runs and striking out ten, finishing the month of August leading the American League in punchouts.
The straw that broke the Flappy Boy’s back proved to be a Marcus Semien fly ball that left fielder Chandler Simpson got a bad read on, and didn’t take charge on, resulting in a Francisco Alvarez single that would plate another run.
We do it again at 6:40 EST from Tropicana Field, with Freddy Peralta toeing the slab against his former mates in orange and blue.
DYERSVILLE, IA - AUGUST 11: Gabe Klobosits #36 of the Iowa Cubs shakes hands after winning the MiLB Field of Dreams game between the St. Paul Saints and the Iowa Cubs at MLB Field at Field of Dreams on Tuesday, August 11, 2026 in Dyersville, Iowa. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
It’s a new week here at BCB After Dark: the grooviest hang for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Thanks for stopping by. It’s always nice to see a familiar face. There’s no cover charge and the dress code is casual. We still have a few tables available. The hostess will seat you now. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Last week I asked you if you’d rather the Cubs re-sign Kevin Gausman or Matthew Boyd for next season. With the caveat that Gausman has made some noise about retiring, 48 percent of you would rather Gausman be back next year. One-third of you think Boyd is the better bet to re-sign and the rest of you think that the Cubs shouldn’t re-sign either one.
Here’s the part with the jazz and the movies. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. But if you don’t, you can skip it. Or you can skip the baseball part. You’re our guest.
We’re honored to feature another episode of Jazz Casual, the NET (forerunner of PBS) program hosted by jazz writer Ralph Gleason. Tonight’s featured performer is saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. He’s got a heck of a band backing him up with his brother Nat Adderley on cornet, Joe Zawinul on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Louis Hayes on drums.
This is from 1961.
I went to see Coyote vs. Acme this weekend and I thought about that writing up, but I also watched the 1956 Douglas Sirk-directed melodrama Written on the Wind, and I know you’d rather I write about that. So . . . what’s that?
You know that there are a lot of people out there already who are writing about Coyote vs. Acme?
But Dorothy Malone won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Written on the Wind. Will Forte is not winning an Oscar.
OK, fine. Tonight we’ll talk about Coyote vs. Acme.
Let’s get one thing out of the way first. Coyote vs. Acme is a terrific film. Not only is it funny, which is what is most important, but it’s also fresh and different. It’s a sharp satire of modern life with an existential twist. I had to sit through five or six previews for animated family movies before the film started (which is sad because there were no children at the showing that I saw) and during the last preview I turned to my wife and said “My god. They’re all the same damn film.” Well, Coyote vs. Acme isn’t the same movie as every other family film on the market. It’s got a point of view that’s all its own. I know that Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is the gold standard for any animated/live action hybrid movie. I re-watched Roger Rabbit last week and I think Coyote vs. Acme belongs in the same breath as that classic. It’s that good.
In case you don’t know the history of the film, it started as an article in The New Yorker way back in 1990. There were several attempts to make a film out of it over the next 25 years, but they were always blocked by Warner Brothers, who owns all of the rights to the Loony Toons cartoons. About ten years ago, director James Gunn convinced Warner Brothers to make the movie. The fact that Warner Brothers was actively trying to lure Gunn away from Disney at the time was probably what convinced them.
So the film was made with a script from Samy Burch and directed by Dave Green. It was finished, shown to test audiences and it scored highly. But then Warner Brothers was bought out by Discovery and new CEO David Zaslav decided that it was one of three films, along with Batgirl and the animated Scooby-Doo film Scoob! Holiday Haunt that would be written off as a tax loss. To get that tax write-off, these films could never be shown to the public.
Batgirl was unfinished and still needed tens of millions of dollars of CGI effects and re-shoots before it was completed. It was also, according to those who’d seen the rough cut, terrible. The Scooby-Doo movie was almost finished, but no one thought it was much more than the kind of direct-to-video kids film.
But people had seen the completed Coyote vs. Acme and publicly said how good it was. So there was a campaign to get Warner Brothers Discovery to reverse its decision and release it or sell it to another distributer. That went on for over a year as many platforms offered to buy it, but WBD wanted to make a lot more than the $30 million they’d get as a tax write-off. Eventually, tiny independent distributer Ketchup Entertainment agreed to buy the film for $50 million.
We need to thank the people at Ketchup. Will Forte stars as Kevin Avery, a cynical, downtrodden cartoon accident lawyer. He’s takes the cases of cartoon characters who are injured in one way or another and settles with the giant Acme Corporation for a few hundred bucks every time. Since they’re cartoon characters, they aren’t permanently hurt when they get hit with a falling anvil, so each case is only worth a few hundred bucks. For Acme, that’s pocket change so they pay them out immediately.
Wile E. Coyote sees one of the ads for the law firm of Avery, Jones & Maltese (named after three legendary men behind the Loony Toons cartoons) and decides to make a claim. But Wile E. doesn’t just have one claim. As anyone who’s seen a Roadrunner cartoon knows, he has thousands of claims against Acme products that malfunctioned. On top of that, Wile E. Coyote refuses to settle. Against Kevin’s strong advice, he refuses every settlement offer, pitching this tiny strip mall law firm against the most powerful conglomerate in the entire world.
On Mr. Coyote’s side is Paige Avery (Lana Condor), Kevin’s intern and niece. She has all the “let’s change the world” energy of someone fresh out of law school. She’s the only one in the office who wants to win this case.
Acme is represented by John Cena playing Buddy Crane, a far more successful old law school classmate of Kevin’s. Buddy is a bully, as is the entire Acme corporation. He’s constantly belittling Kevin and trying to get them to settle. In lieu of a settlement, he’ll settle for destroying Avery, Jones & Maltese. Buddy is the villain, but Cena has some terrific comic chops. His interrogation of Tweety Bird in Tweety’s lisp, for example, is laugh-out-loud gold.
Coyote vs. Acme plays out as a legal conspiracy thriller and we soon find out why Acme is so eager to settle. There’s a wonderful sub-plot involving “Peter Lorre” (one of the many stars of the ‘40s that the Loony Toons cartoons used to put in their stories) and Tweety’s Granny. Dr. Lorre is the cartoon threatening to expose “Project Sisyphus,” which behind everything that Acme does.
There’s a ton of wicked satire in the film about how the system is rigged against the little guy by corporations that own everything, including the government. You have to consider the anti-corporate message and especially the anti-conglomerate message could not have gone over well with David Zaslav. Acme is all-powerful because they own everything. There’s no way to beat them. But Coyote vs. Acme does get in a shot by calling Warner Brothers “A wholly-owned subsidiary of the Acme Corporation.” Maybe that’s victory enough.
That brings back that “Projects Sisyphus,” or the Greek myth of a man condemned to roll a boulder up a hill for all of eternity, only for it to roll back down when it approaches the top. You should be able to see the parallels between Sisyphus and Wile E. Coyote, who is condemned to endlessly chase the Roadrunner and never catch him. But it also takes a cue from Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus, who argued that meaning is not gained through victory but through the struggle. To slightly mis-quote Camus, “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Wile E. Coyote happy.”
Not only is Wile E. Coyote Sisyphus, Kevin is as well. At the beginning of the film, he’s dead inside. It is only through taking on an impossible task that he can never win (along with the encouragement of his perky niece) does he find meaning and ultimately, happiness. Forte’s Kevin is the one character (well, maybe Wile E. Coyote) who has a real growth arc in the film and he pulls it off.
Coyote vs. Acme is primarily a comedy and not a philosophical tract, and it delivers in the comedy department. If you laugh at all the cockamamie devices that blow up in Wile E. Coyote’s face, they’re all here and more. Most of the Loony Tunes characters make an appearance and they all get to do their schtick. In fact, if you’re a Loony Toons fan, there are a ton of inside jokes that fly by so fast and furious you’ll probably miss some of them.
And that’s maybe the one sad part of Coyote vs. Acme. As I noted, there were no children that I saw at the showing that I saw, although admittedly it was a Sunday morning showing that was half-full. Four generations grew up watching these cartoons in the theaters or on television, but they are mostly unfamiliar to today’s kids who grew up on YouTube and a constant supply of new cartoons. Coyote vs. Acme is certainly funny enough even if you aren’t familiar with the Loony Toons universe, but it really goes to another level if you get the references.
Coyote vs. Acme is a little guy film that somehow took on an all-powerful corporation and won. No matter how much money it makes at the box office, Coyote vs. Acme is a winner.
Here’s the trailer for Coyote vs. Acme.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the other stuff.
The Springfield Cardinals, the Cardinals Double-A affiliate, announced they were changing their name for 2027. This continues a trend of minor league teams abandoning traditional names, especially ones tied to their parent club, in favor of unique and often offbeat nicknames.
So as of next year, there will be just nine teams left that share a name with their parent club.
Worcester Red Sox (Triple-A)
Dunedin Blue Jays (Low-A)
Iowa Cubs (Triple-A)
South Bend Cubs (High-A)
Syracuse Mets (Triple-A)
St. Lucie Mets (Low-A)
Fredericksburg Nationals (Low-A)
Palm Beach Cardinals (Low-A)
San Jose Giants (Low-A)
Dunedin, St. Lucie, Palm Beach and San Jose are owned by their parent club.
There are two others, the Reading Fightin Phils and the Lakeland Flying Tigers, that have names that sort of micmic their parent club.
The trend away from sharing a name with the parent club are driven by a few factors. The biggest was the affiliate “musical chairs” that used to happen before the minor leagues were re-organized in 2021. If a team called themselves the “Pirates” and then all of a sudden they were an Orioles affiliate, that was a problem. It’s not much of a problem anymore, but it was a big reason the trend started in the first two decades of this century.
Teams also want their own identity and branding to tie themselves to their community. On top of that, a lot of fans attending minor league games really have no idea what the minor leagues are, believe it or not. Gwinnett said one reason they changed their name from “Braves” to “Stripers” was because they found that many fans believed that it was actually the Atlanta Braves who would be playing in Gwinnett. Admittedly, these were probably not baseball fans who are just going with a larger group. But those people buy tickets and concessions.
Of course, the biggest reason why teams change their names is that they sell merchandise. I own a Smokies hat (Tennessee, not Knoxville) and a Myrtle Beach cap. I own Eugene and Boise caps from when they were Cubs affiliates. I haven’t bought Iowa and South Bend caps because they’re too similar to the Chicago Cubs hats I already own. Teams have “alternate” identities because they sell. Cute and goofy nicknames are also popular with children, who are the next generation of fans that the minor league should be trying to grow.
The Cubs affiliates have clearly resisted this trend. In fact, when South Bend went from a Diamondbacks affiliate to a Cubs affiliate in 2015, they changed their name from “Silver Hawks” to “Cubs” to further tie themselves to their new parent club. Iowa did the same thing back in 1982, going from “Oaks” to “Cubs,” but that was at least a decade before the off-beat name trend started. What’s more interesting is that the I-Cubs have resisted this trend and has kept their name the same for 44 years, even if they have had multiple “alternate” identities over the years, including throwback “Oaks” games.
(When the I-Cubs were founded, they were an Oakland affiliate, which helps explain the name, although they kept it through their stint as a White Sox affiliate and one year as a Cubs affiliate.)
So should the Cubs two affiliates change their name? Should one of them? Neither of them? Personally, I find it a bit frustrating to deal with Iowa and South Bend and having to call both of them the “Cubs” and keeping them and the parent club straight, although fortunately Iowa can be called the “I-Cubs.” (“SB Cubs” has never caught on.) It would make my life easier if South Bend went back to Silver Hawks or anything else, but they don’t ask me. I’d probably also be more likely to buy a cap if they were more different from the major league team’s. Do both need to change? Probably not. In my mind Iowa has seniority, but South Bend probably doesn’t see it that way.
So should Iowa, South Bend or both change their name? And if so, what? Give your suggestions in the comments.
Thank you for stopping by. We always like to see a friendly face. Please get home safely. Call a ride if you need one. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next time for more BCB After Dark.
The 2026-27 season is on the horizon for the New York Islanders, so it's time to preview the season and highlight expectations for the team and each specific player.
Perhaps the single best story in all of hockey right now might just be the return of Semyon Varlamov to the hockey.
Varlamov, 38, underwent a double-knee replacement and has not appeared in the NHL since November 2024. The journey he's gone through since then to work his way back to this point where he's considered healthy and NHL ready is astounding.
He played two rehab games with the team's then-AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders at the very end of the season, going 2-0 while making 46 saves out of 49.
Varlamov's return also can end the carousel of backups behind Ilya Sorokin, as both David Rittich and Marcus Hogberg struggled behind Sorokin, forcing the Russian into extra starts down the stretch of the last two seasons.
A healthy and strong Varlamov can change all of that and will give the Islanders two goalies they can trust.
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - APRIL 07: Cody Williams #5 of the Utah Jazz walks backcourt during the first half of a game at Smoothie King Center on April 07, 2026 in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tyler Kaufman/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The only thing less rewarding than watching Cody Williams play basketball was holding to the hope that he could develop into a talented NBA-level contributor.
The second lottery pick of the tanking era, the Utah Jazz selected Williams with the 10th overall pick in what was a putrid NBA Draft class. We knew it would be a comparatively garbage crop of talent — you could smell the stench months in advance — yet Utahns still celebrated Williams’ selection at the time.
A former 5-star McDonald’s All-American with an elastic wingspan, a 41.5% clip from three-point land in his freshman season at Colorado, and stardom in his DNA, Williams was a great proposition at that point in the draft. In theory, he was a low-danger prospect dredged from a draft pool of filth.
In practice, however, it took no time at all for Jazz fans to wallow in the melancholy of a rebuild apparently prolonged for yet another season.
He was incredibly disappointing in his first two years with the Jazz, posting stat lines that should be buried in the archives, far away from the eyes of impressionable, vulnerable youth.
Williams isn’t the worst basketball player ever, nor should he be treated as a villain or disease that must be eradicated. I tend to exaggerate for effect.
In fact, I have long been a supporter of Williams. Call it homerism, blind optimism, or poor player evaluation skills, but I still believe that there’s a world in which Williams develops into a good or even great piece of a competitive team.
He’s still only 21 years old. And though the “young = good” fallacy is still prevalent in NBA circles, I still believe that given the right training and plenty of patience, Cody Williams has the potential to be an effective NBA-level player. Patience runs thin at the highest level of basketball, and the Jazz apparently burned through their supply when they dealt Williams for a role player and a stack of bills.
The Jazz saw him in practice. They saw him in games. They had seen enough, and they quit on the second lottery pick of the post-Gobert-Mitchell era just seven months after trading Taylor Hendricks.
The key difference between the Hendricks and Williams trades? Hendricks played a key role in bringing Jaren Jackson Jr. — a multiple-time All-Star and former Defensive Player of the Year — to Utah. Williams yielded Josh Green, a player suspected to be little more than a situational outside weapon in the short-term and a tradable contract in the long-term.
Not exactly a resume-builder.
Though it spanned just two seasons, the era of Cody Williams dug up feelings in his supporters akin to the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Please allow this article to serve as a therapy session. A moment of safety from the harsh realities of Utah Jazz basketball in the past 24 calendar page flips or so, and a calming gulp of oxygen as we move toward a better future.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – APRIL 1: Cam Johnson #23 of the Denver Nuggets strips the ball from Cody Williams #5 of the Utah Jazz during the second half of their game at the Delta Center on April 1, 2026 in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Five Stages of Cody Williams
Denial
On draft day, Cody Williams was seen as an underwhelming but promising prospect. He has fantastic measurables, standing at 6’8” with a 7’1” wingspan; he fit comfortably into the archetype of a modern NBA wing. Toss into the mix the fact that Williams hit 41.5% of his three-pointers at Colorado, and it seemed all he needed to transform into a dependable 3-and-D player was a few hundred hours in the weight room.
As unrefined as his game still was, Williams was always going to be a project. Surely, given enough time, he could gain the physicality and ball skills of his older brother, Jalen, right?
Anger
It didn’t take long before Williams’ uninspiring production frustrated Jazz fans, many of whom (Williams’ ride-or-die supporters) clung to denial while the remainder slipped into the second phase.
He had basically fallen out of Will Hardy’s rotation in the early stages of his sophomore season, never leaving the bench in 5 of the first 14 games of the season. Cody had visibly lost all confidence in his jump shot, and for good reason — 21.4% is an abysmal three-point rate for a wing, and even worse for a player who knocked down a sizzling rate from distance in college.
…On just 1.7 attempts per game. That’s a low sample size that might have been a bit deceptive for Utah’s scouts, considering 41.5% looks much more appealing than 0.7 made three-pointers per game. Now shooting more than that at the NBA level, Williams can’t seem to find the net on open looks (he gets plenty of those).
He just scored 35 points in a G League game — where is that guy when he suits up for the Jazz?
The Jazz could have just gone the safe route and taken Matas Buzelis. Heck, Isaiah Collier and Kyle Filipowski are outplaying Williams, and they were drafted 20 picks later.
It seems the Jazz had been fooled or simply missed in the 2024 NBA Draft lottery.
Bargaining
But he’s not even a real top-10 pick anyway, right? After all, his draft class was atrocious. Remember Zaccharie Risacher? Tijaun Salaun? Reed Sheppard? Rob Dillingham? These were all top-10 picks, and none of them have behaved as such since entering the NBA. The number-one overall pick, Risacher, was unceremoniously traded from Atlanta this offseason, and it wasn’t headline news in the slightest.
When you think about it in this frame of mind, Cody Williams isn’t a true top-10 prospect when compared to prospects typically in his draft range. He’s a project, after all, so it would be unrealistic to expect him to play well in just his second season.
These are the lies we told ourselves. These are the rationalizations we voluntarily internalized to protect ourselves from the truth that we expected more from a lottery pick.
We celebrated every routine positive. Praised him for making the right play on defense or for dunking when he had a gently obstructed runway to the basket. Williams wasn’t what we hoped, so we moved the goalposts to qualify him as a success, even if unknowingly.
Depression
In his third year at the Summer League, he was still a non-factor. Look at who AJ Dybantsa has to keep help defense at bay: Tre Johnson and Will Reily have been awesome during the Summer League.
Yet with Darryn Peterson claiming the defense’s attention, and against lesser competition, Cody Williams still shrank. He crept in the shadows. He was timid, cautious, and sickeningly irrelevant on the court.
It all came to a head when he posted a zero-point effort in 23 minutes of playing time. This was rock bottom for those still holding to the tattered remains of their Cody Williams stock. Dejected, sobbing, and crumpled into a heap on the concrete, we clenched our fists upon understanding what we saw wasn’t a larval stage of his development — it was an unforgiving telegram from reality.
Acceptance
This didn’t fully arrive until he was dealt to Minnesota.
Discarded for a bench wing who scored fewer than 5 points per game last season, Cody Williams was packaged with John Konchar in a trade that sent the pair to Minnesota.
Maybe Cody Williams will become a shade of the player many hoped he could become in Utah. The T-Wolves could have a plan to dig out the perfect version of the 21-year-old wing, and that perfect version may come back to haunt the Jazz in the years to come. Maybe.
But in Utah, the nightmare is over now. You’re safe. The Utah Jazz have traded Cody Williams, and he cannot hurt you anymore.
Calvin Barrett is the Associate Editor for SLC Dunk. Originally from Springville, Utah, he currently lives in Japan and has covered the NBA and college athletics since 2024.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - AUGUST 31: Payton Tolle #70 of the Boston Red Sox delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park on August 31, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Paul Rutherford/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Payton Tolle is one of the best stories of the 2026 season. A thoughtful prospect writer brought him to my attention early last year, knowing my affinity for a good four-seamer, a thick ‘stache and a mien that would be equally at home on a small fishing boat off the coast of Bangor in 1890 as he is on a pitching mound. Tolle wears his emotions openly across his face and through his body; the joy, the devastation, the playfulness. To be pitching at the level that he is requires skill and effort, but part of Tolle’s charm is the authenticity woven within all that baseball work. Maybe this won’t resonate to anyone else, but there are a lot of guys who present as baseball players first and humans as a secondary classification. Tolle is distinctly a human playing baseball, and it’s one of the highest compliments I can pay (see also: Gutierrez, Franklin or Wilhelmsen, Tom, among others).
It came as little surprise, then, when Tolle cited the Turnpike Troubadors as one of his favorite musical acts. There’s the Oklahoma connection, of course, with both hailing from the Sooner State, but that same authenticity runs through every song Turnpike performs. And that’s courtesy of Evan Felker, the band’s lead singer and one of the finest songwriters of the generation.
No one here needs to read any more about the Seattle Mariners today. Honestly, we’re all probably good for the rest of the year on consumption of Mariners content, but regardless of their record this is still a community, and community means continuing showing up for one another. In gratitude for you all, I offer a selection of some of my favorite Turnpike Troubadors lyrics and songs. I hope that in the ragged place baseball usually occupies, maybe they’ll prompt that thrum of recognition in your chest that only good art can inspire.
“Come back from the dark somehow Finally living in the here and now No sign of a thundercloud following you Don’t take it personal, the world don’t turn around you Hold on to the moment like it’s heaven passing through” – Heaven Passing Through
“And I would buy for you a diamond Or myself some gasoline If I can’t afford you darlin’ Then I can’t afford to dream And is it time I should be movin’? Is it time I settle down? Will I sit still or will I feel the wheels a-spinnin’ ’round?“ – Diamonds and Gasoline
“You can try to put the past behind It’s on your clothes like burning pine Is it gin or turpentine you keep in your canteen? If pressure makes a diamond babe, I still might come out clean” – A Cat in the Rain
“Well, that old scene is always comin’ to me, I I see you standin’ with your husband and your child And you’re a picture of strength, and grace and beauty And me, I’m just a fool in a supermarket aisle” – 7 & 7
“And we’re caught up in the riffraff, circlin’ ’round the sun It takes a whole lot of blood and tears just to really love someone But when it comes back around, that’s Heaven on Earth You never know ’til the end, my friend, what your love is really worth” – Pay No Rent
“Death doesn’t leave with the best part of you” – On the Red River
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - AUGUST 31: Minnesota Twins right fielder Luke Keaschall (15) celebrates next to Detroit Tigers second baseman Gleyber Torres (25) after hitting a double during the first inning of the MLB game between the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins on August 31st, 2026, at Target Field in Minneapolis, MN.(Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Luke Keaschall was a much-needed spark plug, Walker Jenkins doinked his first MLB homer off the right field pole, Jeffers added two bombs of his own, his first since the last day of July, and Taj Bradley delivered one of his best starts of the season when the Twins most needed it. It was a fun night at the ballpark when the Twins really needed a win!
Let’s start on the offensive side. Facing Jackson Jobe, the former top pitching prospect in all of baseball, the Twins struck in the first inning, as they are wont to do of late, with a leadoff double from Keaschall eventually coming around on Kody Clemens sac fly. And then things went eerily quiet for Minnesota’s hitters, also as they are wont to do of late.
They had chances to add on before the game exploded, but still didn’t hit well with runners in scoring position despite the big number on the scoreboard. They went 2-9 with RISP against actual pitchers, with an added hit off of position player Zach McKinstry in the eighth to juice the stats. A leadoff double from Kaelen Culpepper in the third gave them a good run scoring opportunity, but a Jenkins pop out and Brooks Lee GIDP after a Keaschall single kept the game at 1-0 after three innings.
Clemens came back around and added a run on his own in the fourth inning, a no-doubt solo shot over the dock in right field to put the Twins up 2-0. They had another great opportunity to add on that inning with the bases loaded and just one out, but the rookies Culpepper and Jenkins both popped out to end the threat.
Then came the fifth inning when things finally broke open. Keaschall reached first base on an error by the Tigers’ third baseman. Hao-Yu Lee couldn’t get the grip on a soft grounder hit his way, trying to get it quickly to nab a hustling Keaschall. Keaschall then stole second easily off one of the best defensive catchers in baseball, Dillon Dingler. Keaschall had third easily in the same at-bat as well, but Clemens fouled off a pitch to send Luke back to second. Clemens eventually walked before Ryan Jeffers hit a three run blast to give the Twins their first comfortable lead of the night.
It won’t come through in the box score, but this entire scoring opportunity only came around because of Keaschall. His speed and hustle caused the initial error, while the young kid dancing around second base clearly got in Jobe’s head and caused him to lose Clemens on a walk and give Jeffers a heater he could handle.
Keaschall has been digging out of his self-imposed hole since his terrible April, but he’s simply done nothing but hit after that. Since May 1st, the young Twin has hit .298/.399/.434 for a 140 wRC+, 15th best in baseball, and he’s been even better lately with a .325/.423/.519 batting line since July 1st. That production delivered a 163 wRC+, fifth best among qualified batters in that stretch, trailing only likely NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong, likely AL MVP Yordan Alvarez, Pete Alonso, and Steven Kwan. His lack of defensive ability remains a huge question, but the kid can absolutely hit and should be Minnesota’s leadoff hitter for the next half decade, at least.
The Twins added more in the sixth off of Yilber Diaz, who you may remember from his Diamondbacks days a couple months ago when the Twins scored seven runs off him. Diaz has now pitched in three games this season, two of them coming against the Twins. Against non-Minnesota based teams, Diaz has a sparkling 0.00 ERA. Facing the Twins, that number is a less sparkling 37.13. I’m not an expert, but that seems too high.
Though, Diaz has no one to blame but himself. He walked Lewis, Jenkins, and Keaschall to load the bases for Brooks Lee, who delivered a sharp line drive to right field, scoring two. Lee then tried to advance to second base and got tagged out, but doing so allowed Keaschall to fly around the bases to score from first on a single. Keaschall Khaos!
On the pitching front, it was a great, uneventful night from Taj Bradley. He lost his command a bit as the game went on, with the solo homer he allowed, two of his three walks, and a hit by pitch all coming in the sixth or seventh innings, but he once again flashed the brilliance that has Twins fans and coaches alike dreaming of him pitching in October. He was overpowering Detroit hitters all night, touching 100 MPH into the seventh inning and racking up nine strikeouts, while showing the ability to induce ground balls to get out of jams.
Jeffers added his second homer in the 7th inning, another run off of Diaz, though that might have been a mercy to Detroit, putting the Twins up by eight and allowing them to use a position player for the eighth inning. That allowed rookie phenom Walker Jenkins to take a pitch about a foot in off the plate and force it off the right field foul pole, his first dong of (hopefully) many more to come. A homer is a homer no matter who it’s off of, but Jenkins is the first player in Twins history to have his first home run come off a position player. Just like we drew it up.
Nothing like an easy Twins win to start your week. Just five more to go this week, boys.
Walker Jenkins: first single dong night of career, dong doinked delightfully
DUDS
NO DUDS TWINS WIN!!!!!
STANDINGS UPDATE
Who knows if this will be relevant next week, but for now it still is!
AL Central:
White Sox (72-64)
Guardians (69-68) — 3.5 GB
Twins (66-72) — 7.0 GB
AL Wild Card
Guardians (69-68)
Orioles (68-69) — 1.0 GB
Rangers (68-70) — 1.5 GB
Blue Jays (68-70) — 1.5 GB
Twins (66-72) — 3.5 GB
The White Sox and Orioles are still in action as I write this, so things will shift a bit. The Twins are still right in the thick of things though with head-to-head matchups with the White Sox, Guardians, and Rangers still to come. Making up 3.5 games in a month isn’t crazy, but leaping four teams to do so is another story. The Twins likely need to win every series (at a minimum) from here out, so tonight was a good start!
Team Reporter Tony Brar Leaving Oilers: "I Arrived Chasing a Dream. I Leave Ready To Chase Another" After eight seasons as a beloved gameday fixture, the versatile Oilers TV host bids an emotional farewell to Edmonton while preparing for a major new career chapter.
Do The Oilers Have What's Needed To Land Hellebuyck?: Should They Try?As Winnipeg’s star netminder hits the trade block, Edmonton faces a high-stakes dilemma involving massive cap hits, roster depth, and the missing pieces needed for a blockbuster deal.
Is Stuart Skinner The Starter In Winnipeg?Stuart Skinner signed with the Winnipeg Jets on July 1 with a pretty clear job waiting for him.
D.J. Short
