Category: Sports News

Pete Crow-Armstrong stole his 40th base of the season Thursday, Sept. 24, and with it, he did something no one has ever done wearing a Cubs uniform.

With the 40 steals and 45 home runs, Crow-Armstrong joined MLB's 40-40 club.

He becomes the seventh MLB player to steal 40 bases and hit 40 home runs in the same season. Jose Canseco was the first to get there in 1988, Barry Bonds did it in 1996, Alex Rodriguez in 1998, Alfonso Soriano in 2006, Ronald Acuna Jr. in 2023 and Shohei Ohtani in 2024, when he completely blew past it and became baseball's first 50-50 player.

Three of those members of the 40-40 club also won the MVP award that season. Crow-Armstrong is certainly the leader in the clubhouse for the NL's version of that award as well.

It took him longer than it probably should have.

Crow-Armstrong had 36 steals by Sept. 8, including two in a game gainst the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 7, then didn't add another in the next four games before swiping his 37th of the season against the Atlanta Braves on Sept. 14. It wasn't that he stopped trying, but pitchers stopped giving him much to run on. He got there anyway with three games to spare.

#NotDeadYet The Padres beating the Dodgers did put a cramp into the chances of beating them. But our playoff odds still ticked up fractionally, to 8.1%, thanks to the Phillies losing again – and, of course, the victory over the Rockies. We go into today, with the Padres and Cubs both having a magic number of 1, so a win for them OR a loss by the D-backs, would clinch them a wild-card spot. The Phillies sit at 2 for their number, so would need both results to go in their favor to eliminate us. As ever, we would like all three teams to lose, but the most important thing remains the D-backs continuing to take care of their own business.

More scoreboard watching in order eventually, though we are the first game to get under way today. The Phillies game against the Brewers has its first pitch scheduled for 3:05 pm, Arizona time. Meawhile, the Padres-Dodgers game will not get under way until 7:10 pm. So we may not know our fate until the end of the day. Though if Arizona don’t win, things could be over with a Phillies victory. Eduardo Rodriguez has the task of ensuring the D-backs keep rolling. He faced the Rockies twice in May, and went 0-1 despite pitching well enough, allowing three earned runs (all at Coors) over 12.1 innings. Here’s to his first W of the year.

It’s been a tough year for the Colorado Rockies in their home ballpark. After another loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks last night, the Rockies are 32-48 at home this season and are 131-191 overall since the start of the 2023 season.

The obvious struggles at home have been the pitching. The Rockies have a 5.75 ERA at home, which isn’t the worst in baseball thanks to the Athletics, but that pertains to the pitching staff as a whole. The starting pitching has a 6.46 ERA at Coors Field this season, by far the worst in baseball. The first inning has also been a nightmare, where the Rockies rotation owns a 7.41 ERA, over a full run higher than the next team.

Avoiding the sweep seems like a tall task.

Tanner Gordon (1-5, 6.01 ERA) will make the start for the Rockies. Coors Field has been a struggle for Gordon this season, where he owns an 8.20 ERA in 12 appearances, including seven starts. In 56 innings, he has allowed 15 home runs and given up 82 total hits. He hasn’t had much trouble in the first inning alone, but through the first three innings, he has a 7.71 ERA. He struggled in his last outing against the San Diego Padres, allowing seven runs on 10 hits over three innings of work. In September, Gordon has a 12.34 ERA in 11.2 innings, failing to throw five complete innings and giving up at least eight hits in each start. Gordon throws a lot of strikes, which is good, but oftentimes to the point where he becomes too hittable over the plate.

In three career starts against Arizona, Gordon has a 13.94 ERA in 10.1 innings. He made two starts in 2025, allowing 13 runs on 17 hits over 9.2 innings with eight strikeouts and a walk. He has strikeout potential, but a gritty team like the Diamondbacks that will take advantage of pitches over the zone has been an issue he’ll have to fight against today.

Eduardo Rodriguez (15-7, 2.89 ERA) starts for Arizona, trying to end his regular season on a high note. Rodriguez has had an incredible bounce-back year, serving as the rock of the Diamondbacks rotation amid the injuries and underperformance of other players. He has been a workhorse, tossing 183.2 innings, the second-most in a season of his career. In his last start, Rodriguez gave up seven runs on five hits over 5.1 innings against the New York Yankees. His command has been shaky all season, but the strikeout totals have remained strong to mitigate the danger for the most part.

He last faced the Rockies on May 21 when he threw seven shutout innings, allowing just four hits while striking out four against one walk. In his career against the Rockies, he’s 3-1 with a 4.21 ERA over eight starts, while boasting a 3.42 ERA over four career starts at Coors Field.

First Pitch: 1:10pm MT

TV: Rockies.TV

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)

Diamondbacks SB Nation: AZ Snake Pit

Lineups:

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On Tuesday, the Detroit Tigers announced that starting catcher Dillon Dingler was the recipient of the team’s 2026 Heart and Hustle award. There couldn’t be a more deserving candidate. Dingler put the team on his back for months in the middle of the season, playing everyday and producing as the best catcher in baseball on both sides of the ball. His defense, his leadership, his bat, and the extra workload he shouldered are all to his credit. He ran out of gas in mid-August and it’s been really rough ever since, but it was still a very successful season for the Tigers primary backstop.

The problem is how to project him going forward. Clearly he hasn’t fully unlocked some new level at the plate where we should expect greatness like we saw in June and July. He’s likely going to end up with basically the same run production he had in 2025 when he posted a 108 wRC+. Currently, he’s at 109 wRC+ for 2026, and that’s despite posting back-to-back months below a 50 wRC+ mark to close out the season. After hitting a 4.1 fWAR mark last year, he’s currently at 5.0 fWAR even in 2026, ranking him the 14th most valuable position player in baseball. Per Baseball Reference, those marks are lower at 3.2 rWAR for 2025, and 4.2 rWAR this season, but B-Ref doesn’t use Statcast’s detailed catching metrics and weighs catcher defense a little lighter as a result.

Either way, the key to Dingler was always his defensive ability. He grades out as the most valuable defensive catcher, and one of most valuable defenders at any position in baseball. Per Statcast, Dingler is fifth in blocks above average with 11. He and the Blue Jays’ Brandon Valenzuela are tied for the lead in framing with eight runs saved. In throwing and pop time he remains near the top of the leaderboard firmly in plus territory. He draws good to elite grades in all elements of the catching position.

This was the reputation when Dingler made his way slowly through the minor leagues before debuting in August of 2024, four years after he was drafted out of Ohio State in 2020 with the first pick in the second round of the amateur draft. Dingler was always an elite catcher in the minor leagues. His offensive production was the more difficult part of the equation. He spent parts of three seasons stuck in Double-A Erie, slowly cutting down his strikeouts, and finally in 2024 at the Triple-A level, he posted a strikeout rate of 20.3 percent with a walk rate of 10 percent, and finally looked ready to go. He didn’t hit the ground running after taking over from Carson Kelly, who was traded to the Texas Rangers at the 2024 trade deadline, but his two full seasons at the major league level now show him as an above average hitting catcher who is one of the top defenders in the league.

In 2026, he started out with pretty typical production, but in June and July, he went nuts, and he did it by massively improving his production against sliders. Sliders in particular have always given him trouble, while he’s feasted more on sinkers and north-south offspeed pitches like splitters or straight changeups. This year it was offspeed stuff that really gave him trouble. Left-handers with good changeups were a problem for him all year long.

What’s particularly notable about this, is that improvement against the slider, and struggles with changeups and splitters, meant that his production was a lot better against right-handed pitching. Dingler currently holds a 129 wRC+ against right-handed pitchers, which is outstanding, but just a meager 66 wRC+ against left-handed pitching this season. Lefties who can spot sinkers away and occasionally back foot a breaking ball, can otherwise lean on their offspeed pitch and tie him up this season. That’s a complete reversal of his splits from 2025, when he mauled lefties for a 169 wRC+ and managed just an 89 wRC+ mark against right-handed pitching.

Dingler made some adjustments to his setup that might explain the increased production against right-handed pitching, particularly against sliders. He started setting up in an open stance, and then using his leg kick, which is basically the same both seasons, to get himself back into a more neutral position with his shoulders and hips square. He also stopped laying off his barrel over his shoulder, and is getting the bat into a more vertical position right before he starts to load his hands. The stance changed helped him keep from flying open against right-handers, which always had left him pretty vulnerable to their sliders. Instead, he preset himself open in his initial stance, and then used his leg kick to rotate back into a fully loaded but more neutral, squared off position at pitch release.

The change to his barrel angle wasn’t major, but presumably by keeping the bat more vertical rather than laid off over his right shoulder, he was able to get the barrel down to the zone earlier and catch more balls with loft, producing the huge surge in power we saw for much of the season. That might explain his improved ability to hammer sliders and the occasional changeup even when they were below the zone. In fact, during his red hot stretch in June and July, he often appeared to be hunting sliders down, knowing he was crushing those pitches with good loft and doing a ton of damage.

So what went wrong? There really isn’t a simple answer other than fatigue, but while that might explain a month long slump, by now you’d expect things to be coming around. Still he has played a lot. Even with AJ Hinch giving him more rest as Eduardo Valencia has settled in, Dingler is still going to finish with 143 or 144 games played this year, assuming one day off in the final series against Pittsburgh. He appeared in 126 games in 2025. He currently has 594 plate appearances compared to 469 in 2025. And yet, he’ll actually finish the season having caught less games than in 2025. His bat was so needed in their lineup after their collapse in May, that Dingler picked up a lot of extra shifts as the designated hitter on days off from behind the plate. Of course, there’s still plenty of work on a DH day, and that lack of full days off certainly could have caught up to him in August.

Take a look at Dingler’s pitch chart for his extra base hits this season. Below, you’ll see the same chart from 2025. He was clearly emphasizing hunting pitches down this year and doing a lot more damage on them, whereas he had a little more neutral bias in his pitch chart in 2025. The stance and barrel angle adjustments played a part as well, but the results indicate clear intent to hunt the ball down in the zone or even below it if necessary, while letting the high fastballs go by. This worked until August, and perhaps by then his legs were just gassed. Tired legs are stiff legs, and that ability to sink into his legs and leverage these lower pitches into the air likely suffered for it.

So, should we just expect that a better rested Dingler will get back to destroying the baseball in 2027?

Well, I think we can expect above average production again, but the fact is that Dingler is a pretty streaky hitter and will remain so without some amazing improvement in his plate discipline. He’ll need to readjust to the adjustments pitchers made to him after months of getting torched. Beyond that, players who chase a lot and don’t walk much just tend to be more erratic in their production, and plate discipline has always been a bit of a problem for Dingler. His walk rate in 2024 was a miserable 3.9 percent. In 2025 it was 4.9 percent, and in 2026 he raised it a bit further to 5.6 percent, but this is still roughly two percent lower than league average. At least he’s trending in the right direction.

Here’s his production by month. Obviously the highs and lows are somewhat BABIP dependent. It’s not as though he’s starting striking out a crazy amount either, though those numbers have certainly trended the wrong way. A combination of bad luck and fewer hard hit balls in the air is to blame for his production crumbling in early August, and it hasn’t come around in September despite playing a little less.

As the low walk rates after May indicates, Dingler’s chase rates, or O-Swing percentage, remain on the high side. In 2024, he chased 36.7 percent of the time. In 2025 he cut that to a more palatable 30.2 percent, but then reverted back somewhat in 2026 to 33.7 percent. League average this year was 32.9 percent, so he’s not a disaster in this regard, but he strikes out more than average, and walks less than average, so there is certainly room for improvement. We’re probably not going to see that though. Instead, recently having turned 28 years old, this is just who Dillon Dingler is as a hitter. He’s going to have stretches where he’s chasing too much and caught between hard and soft stuff, and he’ll have runs where he’s a dominant hitter doing a lot of damage because he does make plenty of hard contact despite the strikeouts. There’s no need for more, because Dingler is more than enough already.

Dingler’s value is tied directly to his skills behind the plate, and the Tigers need to put themselves in positions where they aren’t riding an elite defensive catcher into the ground because they need maximum offensive production out of him too. That’s only going to become more relevant as he nears 30.

His work ethic, intelligence, and leadership all draw rave reviews from his coaches and teammates, leading to Dingler being voted the Tigers’ Heart and Hustle award winner this season. He’s going to give them everything he’s got, and this year they may have just drained the tank long before the season neared its endpoint. Pushing for more, especially as he’s into his late 20’s, is a bad idea. The Tigers have a lot of bats without a real defensive home. Sorting out that group and getting the most offense possible out of them is a necessity so that Dingler can just do what he does best, and catch as many games as possible.

Despite the collapse in August and September, it’s been an outstanding overall season for Dillon Dingler. He’ll finish the season as one of the top 20 position players in the game. Between him, Kevin McGonigle, Riley Greene, and now Max Clark, the Tigers look like they’ve got more than enough high end talent to get back to contention next year from an offensive perspective. The problem is getting enough out of the other positions on the field to balance out the lineup and the team’s defensive needs. Sort the rest of the roster out, and just let Dillon Dingler be Dillon Dingler next year. The Tigers, and his longer term career outlook, will be better for it.

The Yankees were officially eliminated from the AL East title race by the Rays’ win in the second game of the doubleheader on Tuesday. They managed to temporarily stave off elimination thanks to a dominant performance by Carlos Rodón in the first game of the day’s twin billing. With eight scoreless innings, he equalled his longest outing in a Yankees uniform to lower his season ERA to a sterling 2.67. Given the gravity of the performance and the game, it was a no-brainer to select Rodón for our Sequence of the Week.

We join Rodón facing Liam Hicks to lead off the top of the second. With one of MLB’s best run suppressors in Nick Martinez on the mound for the Rays, the task ahead of Rodón is a tough one. Hicks has proven an inspired pickup from the Marlins by the Rays at the deadline, batting .305 with a 143 wRC+ in 123 plate appearances since making the switch from the Atlantic Coast to the Gulf Coast, which explains why the catcher is batting cleanup for Tampa Bay.

Rodón starts Hicks with a first pitch four-seamer at 93 mph, Ali Sánchez setting a target low and away.

Rodón nails his spot with this fastball, painting the corner for called strike one. Hicks must be looking for something on the inner half, because he watches it go by without a thought of offering.

It appears Rodón is satisfied with the way that pitch felt coming out of the hand, because he goes right back to that pitch-location combo.

Same pitch, even better execution. Rodón paints the bottom edge of the zone with this 93 mph four-seamer for strike two called. It’s obvious at this point that Hicks is hunting something he can pull given the bat has not left his shoulder, and this is the last pitch you want to be trying to get out in front of.

At this point, Hicks has to defend that corner of the strike zone. Establishing the four-seamer for called strikes there has Hicks perfectly set up for the wipeout slider down and away out of the zone as he’s now forced to look away.

It’s the right idea but just without the execution to match. Rodón pulls this slider a hair, bouncing it beyond home plate for ball one. It looks like a ball low out of the hand, making for a pretty easy take from Hicks.

Rodón is still in the driver’s seat with the count 1-2. He’d be well within his rights to try another slider low and away, this time trying to execute it closer to the zone. However, he elects to go back to the four-seamer, if not for the strikeout then to set up a future slider.

Even though Rodón fails to elevate this four-seamer where he wants it and ends up leaving it in a pretty dangerous place, the 19 inches of induced vertical break keep the pitch above Hicks’ barrel, leading to a foul ball rather than a ball in play. What’s more, as we are about to see, this fastball is the perfect setup pitch for a chase slider.

By continuing to prove that he can land his four-seamer on the outer edge of the zone, Rodón keeps the door open for Hicks to chase a slider.

Rodón unleashes a dandy, this slider looking like a strike out of the hand before falling off the table for the swinging strikeout. This kind of slider is so tough to lay off because it remains over the plate for the entire journey toward home, the sharp downward movement carrying it into an unhittable location. Rodón can thank the prior four-seamer for the outcome of this slider.

Look at the way the slider and the four-seamer that immediately preceded it look exactly the same coming out of Rodón’s hand. Rodón landing that four-seamer where he did set a perfect target for him to tunnel the subsequent slider. Hicks really never had a chance at distinguishing the two pitches from each other and goes down with a weak hack.

Here’s the full sequence:

Rodón is hitting his stride just in time for the playoffs. Over his last eight starts he has a 1.67 ERA with less than one home run allowed per nine, allowing two or fewer runs in all eight of those appearances. He really can’t do much more when it comes to making a case for the postseason rotation. The competition is fierce, with Cy Young frontunner Cam Schlittler starting early on and Aaron Boone looking likely to pick 2024 ace Gerrit Cole and 2025 ace Max Fried for the two other Wild Card Series starts. Even with Rodón’s recent excellence, he could be out of luck unless they advance. Still, Rodón has certainly earned the opportunity and is someone I would absolutely feel confident handing the ball.

We’ve written a lot about Rodón’s evolution as a starting pitcher to being a more well-rounded complete package thanks to the mastery of changeup and sinker. I certainly do not want to downplay this transformation and how key it is for his longevity. However, this outing was something of a throwback start for Rodón — a glimpse of the peak version from his days in Chicago and San Francisco. He whiffed over 30-percent of batters on his four-seamer and over 40-percent on his slider, that deadly pitch pairing the hallmark of his earlier years. This AB in particular was vintage Rodón, with each four-seamer exhibiting at least 19 inches of induced vertical break — well above the threshold that is considered elite — and his slider dropping two inches more than its season average. If he can hold onto the feel of this start, the Yankees will have a real weapon in the playoffs, be that out of the rotation or the bullpen.

It’s hard to believe, but today marks the final home game of the regular season for the Atlanta Braves. Where does the time go?

For Atlanta, it will be trade deadline acquisition extraordinaire Tyler Mahle who makes his final tune up start of the season before (presumably) pitching game two of the National League Wild Card Round next week.

Mahle has been incredible since the trade in early August, making eight starts with a 1.28 ERA, 2.85 FIP and 3.27 xFIP. He’s done a tremendous job of keeping the ball in and around the strike zone with 44 strikeouts and just seven walks over 49 innings, and he’s limited hard contact with just four batters hitting a baseball over the fence since joining the Braves. Mahle’s run of excellence extends to even before the trade; since returning from an injury on June 24, the veteran righty owns a 2.37 ERA, 3.19 FIP and 3.60 xFIP over 15 starts. As a pending free agent, Mahle has made himself some serious money over the past three months. We’ll see if his future involves Atlanta.

The Reds will counter with Brady Singer, who has had a dreadful season with Cincinnati. The 30-year-old righty has career-worst numbers across the board (or pretty close to it) with a 5.67 ERA, 5.55 FIP and 4.67 xFIP. His biggest issue is the home run ball, where he has surrendered an astounding 31 of them in 154 innings. We’ll see if the Braves bats, which have been pretty lifeless in the series so far, can get to Singer on Thursday night.

First pitch from Truist Park is set for 7:15 p.m. ET. In addition to all the usual places to watch and listen to the game, it will also be broadcast on Fox Sports 1.

With a playoff spot on the line, the White Sox are desperate for a win and to finish off the Royals for good in this midday matchup.

David Sandlin is on the mound for the White Sox. Ideally, he can eat some innings for the overtaxed bullpen, since Will Venable is busy setting them up to fail in the opener role. My two favorite Italians are at the top of the lineup, with Sam Antonacci leading off and Kyle Teel batting second and catching. Andrew Benintendi will DH, batting fifth.

Randy Dobnak (3-4, 3.08 ERA) will get the start for the Royals. We’ll see their usual lineup and hope the likes of Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino won’t drill our pitching again today.

Grab some lunch and mute your work email, because first pitch is at 1:10 p.m. CT. You can watch on CHSN or listen on ESPN Chicago 1000.

New York Mets @ Texas Rangers

Thursday, September 24, 2026, 1:35 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / Rangers Sports Network)

The Shed

LHP Zac Thornton vs. RHP Kumar Rocker

Go Rangers!