Category: Baseball

The Guardians looked rough today in a 6-0 loss to the Tigers. Parker Messick did give up three runs in 6 innings but he also set a career high with 12 strikeouts. He was fantastic tonight. Matt Festa was bad but it wouldn’t have mattered considering we couldn’t score a single run.

The Guardians lineup managed just three hits and one walk. It is simply impossible to win a game with that type of offensive output. On the bright side, Austin Peterson made his MLB debut and struckout three batters in two scoreless innings of relief. It may have been garbage time but it was still very fun to watch and it’s a moment he will never forget.

The Guardians will look to take 3/4 tomorrow. It will be Gavin Williams vs Jackson Jobe at 1:40 pm ET. This is a crucial game for the Guardians.

The professional journey made by first baseman Ty France is highlighted by two seasons that have resulted in at least 20 home runs as part of his game. The other part of his game is his defense at first base, which leads all of baseball this year.

A San Diego product

Drafted out of Tony Gwynn’s SDSU team by the Padres in 2015, France spent three seasons in the Padres’ minor league system. He was placed on the 40-man roster at the end of the 2018 season to avoid the Rule 5 Draft. 

Starting 2019 with Triple-A El Paso, France was called up in April and made his major league debut. He bounced back to El Paso soon after and was called back up in August for the rest of that season.

Originally playing both first and third base, France was blocked by Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer, which resulted in a trade to Seattle during the 2020 COVID season. France played for the Mariners from August 2020 to July 2024 and the slugger was an All-Star in 2022. 

While trying to increase his bat speed, France tweaked his hitting mechanics, which resulted in his worst offensive season in 2024. He hit .234 with 13 home runs. Seattle then traded him in July of 2024; he finished the season with Cincinnati. 

After signing as a free agent with the Minnesota Twins in February 2025, France had another subpar start, hitting .251 with six home runs. Traded to Toronto at the deadline, France played in 37 games for the Blue Jays during their playoff race. He hit .277 with one home run while reaching the World Series. He also won his first Gold Glove at season’s end.

France excels at first base

Switching primarily to first base in the 2022 season, France took note of his poor defensive rating at the position. He spent his offseasons working on improving his defense, culminating in that first Gold Glove.

After the two seasons with offensive numbers he wasn’t satisfied with, France got back to being the hitter he had been before tweaking his mechanics. 

Back home in San Diego

Signing a minor league deal in February 2026 with the team that drafted him, France was guaranteed $1.35 million if he made the Opening Day roster.

Splitting time at first and DH with Gavin Sheets during the spring, France hit .306/.352/.510 with two home runs and 12 RBI to force himself onto the Padres roster. He continued to platoon with Sheets to start the season but asserted himself as the regular starter by midseason. Besides his power surge this season, France hits equally well versus right-handed as left-handed pitching. 

In 115 games and 370 at-bats, France is hitting .295/.363/.519 with an .882 OPS, almost 100 points higher than his closest full-time teammate (Fernando Tatis Jr .794). With 20 homers and 62 RBI, France leads all Padres in average and OPS. His OBP is also the best of all regular starters. An fWAR of 3.3 also leads all Padres by a wide margin. Catcher Luis Campusano, with 56 games and 159 at-bats, is the only teammate who comes close to his production.

France could have been trade bait

With a .500 record approaching the trade deadline in July, multiple teams were expected to pursue France, but the Padres decided to add and not sell. Before that decision, MLB Network looked at what made France successful for the Padres and what other teams might covet.

While leading the Padres offensively, France has been the most consistent Friar this year. He has also shown that his defensive skills can make a real difference to a team that is trying to make the playoffs. 

Currently, France leads all first basemen in Defensive Runs Saved, a defensive metric that reflects how many runs a player saves their team compared to the average player. It includes range, arm strength, double-play ability, and errors. A rating of 10-14 is great, while 15 or above is Gold Glove caliber.

While the MLB Network analysis shows that France excels at lifting low strikes out of the ballpark, his batted-ball data also shows that he is hitting opposite field as much or more than at any other time in his career. France has credited the Padres hitting coaches with helping him stay consistent this season.

“I’ve got to give Steven [Souza Jr.] and the hitting [coaches] a lot of credit,” France said. “When things are going bad, they don’t let it fester. They just say, ‘Hey, this is what we see. This is what you’re doing. Let’s get back to this,’ or ‘Let’s try this.’ So you have to give them a lot of the credit.”

 A Sports Illustrated feature highlighted what France feels is the main reason for his breakout this year. 

France has also said he would like to stay with the Padres after this season. The new ownership could make Padres fans happy by signing France, as well as reliever Adrian Morejon, to extensions after this season.

With only three weeks left in the regular schedule, no other Padre has a chance to have as much of an impact on the team this season as Ty France. This could be A.J. Preller’s best minor league acquisition ever. It is certainly his best of 2026.

LOS ANGELES — Tommy Edman made a fantastic defensive play to rob extra bases, then rounded said bases after a three-run home run that helped the Dodgers to a 6-5 win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.

Down two runs in the seventh inning, Alex Freeland walked with one out and Kiké Hernández singled with two out. That set the stage for Edman, who jumped on a high slider from former Dodgers draft pick Clayton Beeter for a three-run home run, turning the game around.

Edman in five games on the homestand has nine hits in 22 at-bats (.409), what a way to make a living.

“He’s a heck of a ballplayer,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You can put him anywhere on the diamond. Makes plays defensively, takes good at-bats. He has the knack for the big hit. And he’s playing his tail off. Obviously we don’t have Shohei, and to be able to put Tommy in there and really still be productive, it’s great.”

With no Shohei Ohtani in the lineup for a third straight day, the Dodgers were also without two other planned starters with Dalton Rushing scratched with elbow soreness and Max Muncy sick. They still managed to score a pair off Washington’s best starter, Cade Cavalli in the opening frame. Freddie Freeman was hit by a pitch and Mookie Betts singled with one out. Teoscar Hernández continued his solid week or so with an RBI single, and catcher Hunter Feduccia added another.

Tyler Glasnow struck out eight but pitched through traffic most of his night, and allowed four runs.

Glasnow wasn’t the only one having a challenging night. Home plate umpire Rob Drake had four ball-strike calls overturned by ABS challenge in the first three and a half innings, all challenges by Washington. It took until James Wood struck out looking to end the fourth inning for the Nationals to lose a challenge.

That strikeout of Wood left Dylan Crews at third base, and Glasnow also stranded runners on second and third in the second inning and another runner on second base in the third.

Glasnow nearly gave up another extra-base hit to open the fifth inning, but Edman rescued him with this catch to rob Daylen Lile. Glasnow’s “holy shit” reaction says it all.

Glasnow started the seventh inning trailing by a run, but was pulled after a leadoff double by Crews. Crews scored on a double by Lile off Alex Vesia to close the book on Glasnow.

Alex Call was clipped by a pitch with the bases loaded for an insurance run in the eighth. That extra offense was very much needed, as the Nationals threatened after Tanner Scott struck out his first two batters of the frame.

With the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, Scott struck out Abrams to preserve the nail-biter.

Saturday particulars

Home run: Tommy Edman (6)

WP — Alex Vesia (2-1): 1 IP, 1 hit, 2 strikeouts

LP — Clayton Beeter (5-5): 2/3 IP, 2 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk

Sv — Tanner Scott (21): 1 IP, 3 hits, 1 run, 3 strikeouts

Up next

The Dodgers finish things off with the Nationals with a rare super late start on Sunday (7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA). Justin Wrobleski, Bobby Miller, and friends will fill innings in series finale, with left-hander Andrew Alvarez on the mound for Washington. Wrobleski will get the ball first for the home team.

It was a disastrous road trip. 

The San Diego Padres had an opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the trailing Arizona Diamondbacks. Instead they played poorly, losing five out of six games, and are now a half game back in the Wild Card chase.

It was a team-wide failure, for sure. Poor pitching, offense and defense derailed any hope of coming home with a little cushion in the standings. Since going 21-7 from July to late August, the Friars have won two of their last nine games. They have multiple one-run losses, showing no killer instinct or urgency, over that stretch. 

The Friars now have seven series left in the season, beginning this weekend with the New York Yankees. New York will be followed by three against the Washington Nationals for a six-game home stand. 

After an off day, they hit the road again for three against division rival San Francisco Giants and four versus the Colorado Rockies. Those two teams have losing records but this team is seven games under .500 on the road.

They are also 27-36 versus over .500 teams. Four of the coming seven series are against teams that currently have winning records. After the road series against the Giants and Rockies, the last road games are the three against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sept. 22-24. There are 12 at home and 10 on the road.

This is go time for the Padres. If they don’t put the throttle down in all phases of the game, the season will end without any playoff games. It seems obvious that this team is not currently playing like a championship team. Cleaning things up in all parts of the game will have to happen quickly if they have any hope of going anywhere past the end of the regular season.

Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta updates

President of baseball operations A.J.Preller was on the flagship radio station (97.3 TheFan) this morning and provided an update on the status of the two Padres pitchers. Musgrove hasn’t pitched since his rehab start with the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas on Aug. 27. His arm has not rebounded well from his start, experiencing soreness that has kept him from being able to pitch in a game since then. Preller said he is throwing but there is no timeline for his next appearance. Preller also said that Musgrove is sufficiently built up to help the team if it is determined he is healthy enough to pitch.

Nick Pivetta completed a rehab assignment with El Paso on Aug. 30. Preller stated he is in San Diego this weekend for evaluation and could be with the Padres “sooner rather than later.”

It would be a big lift to the team if either one of them could add innings to this pitching staff, either as a starter or out of the bullpen.

Casey Mize

Preller also discussed the difficulties Mize has had since arriving with the team. He has had six starts since the trade deadline. In three of those games he has allowed two or fewer runs. In the other three, he has had big innings, giving up eight, four, and four runs respectively. Overall, he has a 6.67 ERA in 27 innings pitched.

Preller reported there is no injury issue and the issue has been identified as part mechanics and part sequencing. Pitching coach Ruben Niebla is working with Mize to correct those issues so that he can return to the dominant starter he was before being traded.

Offensive offense

Over the last nine games that resulted in two wins, the Padres hit .153 with runners in scoring position. That was a 12-for-78 futility which could explain the five one-run losses over that stretch.

Another issue was all the bunting. There is a place for bunting in the game but the Padres seem too reliant on sacrificing an out to move a runner. It implies that the hitters have no confidence in their ability to swing away for a hit. The last nine games featured four bunts that resulted in pop-up outs. Jake Cronenworth had two of them, Samad Taylor had one and Sung-Mun Song had the other.

Sung-Mun Song on the bench

Song has been particularly ineffective offensively and should only be in the game for defensive purposes to protect a lead. It is too late in the season to be trying to get him going with the bat. 

In 65 games and 121 at-bats, Song is hitting .190/.293/.248 with four doubles and a home run. He has also made some bad baserunning decisions and squares to bunt in some puzzling situations.

Manny Machado is a concern

The Padres stated at the beginning of the season their intention to get more rest for aging veteran Manny Machado. That hasn’t really worked out and we are seeing an injured and tired Machado as the season nears the end.

Battling through the worst season of his career, Machado has had more DH days than in the past but few days off. He and manager Craig Stammen acknowledged that he has worked through the season with multiple injuries.

Machado is known for his desire to post through the year. It is an admirable trait and reportedly he is widely respected in the clubhouse for his desire to play every day. There are diminishing returns with that approach as a player ages and becomes less effective. We might be seeing that time has arrived for Machado.

Ethan Salas arrives

The Padres might not have originally intended to promote top prospect Ethan Salas this year. It can be argued that they didn’t need him until Luis Rengifo injured his knee against Tampa Bay and will now be out for the rest of the year. 

The roster expansion in MLB on Sept. 1 allows all 30 teams to expand their roster by one pitcher and one position player. Before Rengifo and lefty Gavin Sheets were both placed on the injured list, the Padres didn’t need another left-handed bat. Once those two were injured, Salas was the logical choice. 

Salas had a great recovery from the back injury that kept him out of most of the 2025 season. Playing in 96 games between both Double-A San Antonio and Triple-A El Paso, Salas hit .296/.374/.448 with 19 doubles, two triples and 10 home runs with 61 RBI. He had 17 stolen bases in 25 attempts.

Even more impressive are his defensive stats. His 33% caught stealing with El Paso also featured throws consistently hitting low to mid-80’s mph and pop times in the 1.86 to 1.89 seconds. The MLB average for pop time is 2.0 seconds and caught stealing percentages are 21-29%.

At 20-years-old, Salas will continue to add muscle and will add to his power numbers as he matures. He lends a bit more excitement to the end of the 2026 season for the Padres.

Roster changes

Rengifo is lost for the rest of the season after requiring surgery for his torn ACL.

RHP Jhony Brito was the other player brought up for the Sept. 1 roster expansion. He started and relieved this season for El Paso.

Outfielder Samad Taylor returned to the Padres when Sheets was placed on the injured list after aggravating the plantar fasciitis that he has been battling for weeks. It is being labeled as a left foot sprain.

Infielder Sung-Mun Song was recalled from El Paso when Rengifo went on the IL.

Box Score

What looked like a nice early game on a Saturday evening turned into a long night. Both teams went back and forth scoring, with a long rain delay splitting the game into two halves. Unfortunately, the rain dampened an early Brewers’ lead, and they could not recover as they lost 5-3.

The game started with both teams trading home runs. Wiliam Contreras got the Brewers on the board with a two-out solo home run off starter Andrew Abbott, giving the Brewers an early 1-0 lead.

That lead only held until the bottom the inning. With Dustin May pitching, Elly De La Cruz launched a solo home run of his own, tying the game at 1-1. The Reds threatened after that with a Sal Stewart single and stolen base, but May stranded him there.

Both teams traded 1-2-3 innings in the second. In the third, David Hamilton led off the inning with a single. After Chourio flew out, Luis Lara was up to bat. Hamilton went for the steal but Abbott threw to first to try to pick him off. Stewart threw to second and likely would have had him with a good throw, but the throw sailed into left field and Hamilton made it to third. Lara brought in Hamiilton with a groundout, and the Brewers had a 2-1 lead.

May held that lead until the fourth inning. He struck out two of the first three batters he saw, with a JJ Bleday single in-between the strikeouts. Eugenio Suárez worked an eight-pitch at-bat before singling to put runners at the corners. As this was going on, rain started falling harder on the field, and the game entered a rain delay.

The delay lasted for two hours and 22 minutes. Initially, it looked like it would end about halfway through that, but a second wave of rain hit and extended the delay. When the delay ended, both starters were done for the day. May was going to be pulled even if it was a shorter delay, though Abbott might have continued with a short delay.

When the game resumed, Pat Murphy brought in DL Hall. Jose Trevino was the first batter back from the delay, and he tied the game with a single to right. That run was charged to May, and the Reds had a 2-2 lead. Hall struck out Carlos Jorge to end the inning

May’s day came to an early end for the second time in three games, this time thanks to the rain delay. He finished the day with 3 2/3 innings pitched, allowing two runs on five hits with five strikeouts. He only threw 56 pitches, and the rain delay ended his chance at a redemption start.

Both bullpens took over from here. Julian Garcia worked around a walk for a clean fifth. Hall got into a little bit of two-out trouble, allowing a single and a walk, but struck out Bleday to end the inning.

Tejay Antone pitched the sixth for the Reds. He walked Andrew Vaughn but that was all. JoJo Romero took the sixth for the Brewers. He did not fare as well. Tyler Stephenson led off the inning, and he hit a high and inside sinker into the left field stands. Romero got through the next three batters without issue, but the Brewers were now behind 3-2.

The Brewers responded in the next inning against Tony Santillan. Cooper Pratt, Gary Sánchez, and Hamilton hit three straight singles to load the bases with one out. Jackson Chourio tied the game at 3-3 with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Pratt and moving Sánchez to third. After Lara walked to reload the bases, Contreras struck out to end the threat.

Once again, the Reds responded right away. Aaron Ashby took the seventh, and he also gave up a leadoff home run. This time, it was by Matt McLain, who hit a sinker right down the middle out to right field. The Brewers were behind 4-3 now. The Reds kept the pressure up with a Hector Rodriguez single, and initially he stretched it into a double as he just got into second. However, on review, Chourio’s throw got to Brice Turang (who entered the game in the seventh) just in time, and Turang got the tag. That erased a potential double, which kept another run from scoring after Stewart hit a single two batters later. Ashby got out of the inning, though the Brewers were still behind.

Reds’ reliever Brock Burke kept the Brewers in check in the eighth inning. Grant Anderson came in for the eighth inning for the Brewers. After a one-out double by Suárez, Trevino was up at the plate. On a 2-2 count, Anderson spiked a ball in the dirt to Sánchez’s right, but it took a sharp bounce and ended up at the backstop to Sánchez’s left. Sánchez couldn’t find the ball, and Suárez ran home from second. There was a chance to get Suárez at home plate, but Sánchez’s quick throw was off and Suárez scored. It was an unfortunate run that pushed the deficit to 5-3.

With the Brewers down two and facing closer Emilio Pagán in the ninth, Murphy went all-out to try and get the lead. He started off by pinch hitting Christian Yelich for Pratt, but Yelich struck out. Sánchez doubled to get a runner in scoring position, as well as bring the tying run to the plate. Murphy used another pinch-hitter in Jake Bauers, this time for Hamilton. It would have been a very interesting defensive alignment had the game continued, with Murphy pinch-hitting for two of his three infielders, after already pinch-hitting for Joey Ortiz earlier in the game.

The move did work as Bauers drew a walk. Jackson Chourio then loaded the bases with a single to left, putting the go-ahead run at first base. The Brewers had two chances to grab the lead from there. Lara popped out to short for the second out. Contreras then put together a seven-pitch at-bat, and finished it hitting a ball deep to center field. Unfortunately, it was not deep enough, and it turned into a routine fly out to end the game.

Sánchez and Hamilton led the offense with two-hit days. Chourio, Lara, and Contreras each drove in a run. The offense scattered eight hits and four walks in the game, but the Reds’ offense was better with 12 hits and a walk.

Including the delay, this game took five hours and seven minutes. With the game ending just before 11 p.m. Central (midnight Eastern), both teams will barely have twelve hours between games. Tomorrow’s rubber match will take place at 11:10 a.m., and Kyle Harrison will face Brady Singer.

I came into this game feeling as steeped in negativity and creeping doomerism regarding our offense’s recent struggles as I would imagine the rest of you all have been. It is, after all, a rather remarkable thing we achieved over the previous five games—only scoring six runs across forty-five innings, and having failed to drive a runner in who was in scoring position in something like 30 of those innings. So I made a conscious choice, as I was turning on the game and saying hello to the Gameday Thread, to choose to believe that the offense would show up today. And much to my relief, and frankly my surprise as the game dragged on, the offense did!

It honestly didn’t look terrific in the early going. We had Brandon Pfaadt going up against a rookie righthander named Ethan Pecko, and on paper anyway we seemed to have the distinct advantage. Lars Nootbaar led off the top of the first with a six-pitch walk, which seemed like a good sign until he was left standing there as the next three batters flew out to various parts of the Houston outfield.

It looked even more hopeful in the second, when Corbin Carroll—who was bumped down to fifth in the lineup tonight, a move that was long overdue—dunked a ball into shallow center in front of Daulton Varsho and turned on the jets as soon as he left the batter’s box to leg out a nice hustle double. Nolan Arenado then singled on a grounder to left that advanced Corbin to third, giving us runners on the corners with nobody out. But Max Kepler popped out to first on the first pitch he saw, Tim Tawa struck out swinging on three pitches, and Ryan Waldschmidt grounded out to third to strand the runners. It was truly abysmal, especially Kepler’s and Tawa’s ABs.

In the top of the third, Gabriel Moreno hit a two-out double off the wall in left field, but as is often the case with two-out doubles, he remained standing on second base as the final out was recorded. So, in a pattern that has become intensely familar to all of us lately, we had chances and came away with nothing. Boo.

Pfaadt, at least, was doing his job, setting the Astros down in order in the first and the second. He ran into some trouble in the bottom of the third, allowing a leadoff single to Yainer Diaz followed by a Taylor Trammell double to give Houston runners on second and third with nobody out. Rather remarkably, Brandon nearly wriggled off the hook, inducing an infield pop-out and then a strikeoout before intentionally walking AL MVP frontrunner Yordan Alvarez and surrendering an Isaac Paredes single to right that drove in two. 2-0 Houston

If I’m completely honest, that was when I started to really wonder. I mean, Pfaadt had been pitching well, and he continued to pitch well after that, but going by our run production in the previous four games, chances seemed good that the game was basically over. Optimism is hard.

We did get a run back in the top of the fifth, thanks to a leadoff single by Tim Tawa, a Waldschmidt squibber back to the mound that advanced him to second, and a Lars Nootbaar single to right that got him to third. A number of folks in the Gameday Thread seemed cranky that Tawa got the stop sign at third rather than trying to score, and I felt that way, too, because it’s not like we’ve been doing the job of getting folks in from third base for quite a few games now. But, after the Astros pulled their starter and went to their bullpen, Geraldo Perdomo came to the plate and hit a fly ball to deep enough in center field that Tawa was able to tag and score. 2-1 Houtson

Of course, we immediately gave that run right back in the bottom of the fifth in a sequence that wound up adding another earned run to Brandon Pfaadt’s pitching line but which really wasn’t his fault. He surrendered a one-out triple to Cam Smith, the Astros’ right fielder and nine-hole hitter, but induced a grounder to short on his very next pitch. Perdomo made a head’s up play and threw immediately to third to catch Smith, who’d started down the line but tried to go back to the base. That put a runner on first with two outs, Pfaadt then walked Alvarez, this time unintentionally, and Isaac Paredes doinked a fly ball into shallow center that Ryan Waldschmidt misread off the bat, breaking back toward the warning track before realizing that he really needed to be coming in. He wound up having to dive for the ball, he wound up missing, the ball dropped for a single when it really should have been the third out. 3-1 Houston

A guy named Kai Wei Teng came out of the Houston ‘pen for the top of the seventh, and after striking out Max Kepler—who is an ex-doper and who sucks and who shouldn’t be in our lineup again, like, ever—walked Tawa and Waldschmidt to bring Nootbaar to the plate for the fourth time in the ballgame. Teng was pulled for yet anouther Astros reliever, and Nootbaar greeted him with an RBI double to right:

Waldschmidt probably could have scored from third, but once again, the stop sign got thrown up, and again there was gnashing of teeth in the GDT, and two outs later, Ryan was still standing on third. 3-2 Houston

Happily, however, Ketel Marte led off the top of the eighth for us, and while I know a lot of folks still have very mixed feelings about him and his role on the team at this point, he did provide the faithful with a reminder of why he can be a useful guy to have around:

I gotta say, I was really happy to see that, and not just because it tied the game up. But it did, and that’s really the main thing. 3-3 TIE

Josh Hader pitched a scoreless top of the ninth, Jonathan Loaisiga put up a zero for us in the bottom (following zeroes from Ginkel and Morillo in the seventh and eighth) to send us off to extra innings. Ildemaro Vargas, who’d come in to pinch hit for Nootbaar in the ninth, served as our Manfred Man, and Perdomo bunted him to third before Gabriel Moreno singled him home with a line drive out to right center. Brandyn Garcia retired the Astros in order, leaving their Manfred Man stranded, and earning us a much-needed W. 4-3 D-BACKS

Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

Shooting Stars: Brandyn Garcia (1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 K, SAVE, +44% WPA), Lars Nootbaar (4 AB, 2 H, 1 2B, 1 RBI, +30% WPA)
Twinkle, Twinkle: Ketel Marte (5 AB, 1 H, 1 RBI, 1 HR, +13% WPA)
Black Holes of Suck: Geraldo Perdomo (3 AB, 0 H, 1 RBI, 1 K, -20% WPA), Max Kepler (4 AB, 0 H, 2 K, -13% WPA)

After a fairly slow start, the Gameday Thread definitely picked up speed once the offense started to, you know, put up some runs and make things competitive, so we finished out the night with an eminently respectable 306 comments at time of writing. Of the comments that aged well and wound up reflecting the final outcome, I’m giving tonight’s Comment of the Game to Snake_Bitten, for this very true observation:

Yeah. I don’t think Ildemaro Vargas could have sent that pitch over the wall in right to tie the game up and give us the chance to win it in extras. So. Chew on that, haters, I guess.

Stop by tomorrow as we go for a needed series win against the Garbage Pail Kids. Hologram Eddie goes for the good guys; righty and Colorado Rockies castoff Peter Lambert goes for Houston. First pitch is scheduled for 11:10AM AZ time, and if I’m not mistaken ISH will be doing the guest recap. Hope you can join us!

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!

Out-of-Town Scoreboard

Yankees 5, Padres 2
Cubs 6, Marlins 5
Rockies 10, Cardinals 7

So that puts us back in sole possession of the third wild card spot, with San Diego trailing us by 1/2 game. Meanwhile, the Marlins and the Cardinals are now each four games back, so it seems increasingly likely that we’re not going to need to worry about them in the rearview mirror.

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs were sent to Davy Jones’ Locker by the Columbus Clippers (Guardians), 10-5.

Andrew Wantz started and held the Clippers to just one run on three hits over four innings. Wants walked one and struck out three.

Gavin Hollowell pitched one inning in a rehab assignment and allowed one run on two hits and two walks. He did not strike anyone out.

Shelby Miller pitched on back-to-back nights for the first time in his rehab and got the loss. Miller was charged with four runs on two hits and two walks over two-thirds of an inning. He struck out two. However . . .

I should also mention that two of the runs charged to Miller scored after he left the game.

Left fielder Chas McCormick hit a solo home run in the second inning, his 13th on the season. McCormick was a perfect 3 for 3 before he left in the eighth inning after getting hit by a pitch.

Third baseman Owen Miller was 2 for 5 with one run driven in and one run scored.

Center fielder Justin Dean was 2 for 3 with a walk and a stolen base. He scored twice.

McCormick’s home run.

Knoxville Smokies

The Knoxville Smokies blinded the Chattanooga Lookouts (Reds), 4-0.

Dawson Netz and Tyler Schlaffer combined on a three-hit shutout. Netz pitched five innings and got the win after allowing just two hits. He struck out nine and walked two.

Schlaffer finished the game with the four-inning save. Schlaffer allowed just one hit and two walks while striking out seven.

So yeah, the Smokies two pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts.

Right fielder Alex Ramírez went 3 for 4 with a two-run double in the fourth.

Left fielder Carter Trice hit an RBI double in the eighth inning. Then he stole third base and scored on a bad throw. Trice went 1 for 4.

First baseman Miguel Useche was 2 for 4.

All nine strikeouts for Netz.

Ramírez’s two-run double.

South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs detasseled the Cedar Rapids Kernels (Twins), 7-4.

Dominick Reid was strong in his High-A debut, giving South Bend four scoreless innings on two hits. Reid struck out four and did not walk anyone.

The win went to Pierce Coppola in relief. Coppola gave up a run in the eighth and a run in the ninth. His final line was two runs on seven hits over 3.2 innings. Coppola struck out two and walked no one, but he did hit two batters.

JP Wheat was summoned from the pen to get South Bend’s final out and pick up the save. Wheat faced two batters. He hit the first one and struck out the second, which sounds like a perfect Wheat outing.

Shortstop Angel Cepeda went 2 for 3 with a walk. He drove in one run and scored one run.

Center fielder Alexey Lumpuy was 2 for 3 with a bases-loaded walk and three steals. Lumpuy scored twice.

Right fielder Michael Gupton went 2 for 4 with a leadoff triple in the fifth inning. He was stranded there, but scored later on Lumpuy’s bases-loaded walk.

Second baseman Jose Escobar went 2 for 3 with an RBI double and a sacrifice fly for two total RBI.

Escobar’s double was a bit of a gift.

Lumpuy made a great catch in center field.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Rained out. As the season ends tomorrow and the game has no impact on playoff spots, it will not be made up.

The Braves bought themselves some margin for error in avoiding certain catastrophic outcomes by winning Friday’s opener of this four-game Philly series and the first of seven games against the division rivals in the next 10 for Atlanta. That said, they could still easily get themselves into trouble in the standings through these games against the Phillies. They still have a 4 game buffer with only 5 games left against Philly, and with a two game swing for each game effectively, even just winning another two of the five would be a perfectly fine outcome, maintaining a 3 game lead into mid-September. Anything less than that gets fairly dangerous, however, as going 1-4 in these next 5 games against Philly would leave them clinging to a 1 game lead in the division (assuming the teams perform equivalently in the interluding series. Sunday’s pitching matchup would be a good one for Atlanta to take advantage of, with Tyler Mahle having a bunch of success in an Atlanta uniform so far and Aaron Nola having a fairly middling season.

Braves News

Martin Perez dug the Braves a hole the offense couldn’t dig out of in a tight matchup against the Phillies.

MLB News

Bobby Miller was activated by the Dodgers, who will hope he can bolster their pitching staff down the home stretch and perhaps the postseason.

The Yankees are putting centerfielder Trent Grisham on the 10-day IL with a hamstring strain.

On Harry Potter Night at Coors Field, the Colorado Rockies conjured enough magic to hang on for the win in a wizard’s duel against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Saturday night matchup had a number of trappings from recent games: A team struggling to find a single hit until, all of a sudden, an offensive outburst in the middle innings (this time, the Rockies were on the right side of that). Quick lead changes. Lots of errors (again, the Rockies were on the good side of this one.) A shrinking lead.

After all of the drama and mystery, things came together for the Rockies’ 55th win of the season.

The first-year, Mason Adams

After the sorting hat ceremony and picking up his supplies from Diagon Alley, the rookie Mason Adams is settling into his role as a first-year student of the game. Tonight marked his first Coors Field start.

His first two starts have been effective, low-scoring affairs. Across those two starts, he allowed eight total hits and three total runs. Despite the low scores, he hasn’t had much run support behind him and his first win has eluded him.

Adams struggled a little more tonight, relative to his other outings. He gave up eight hits and three runs tonight, matching those totals from his first two games combined. He still put together a strong performance, finding ways to work out of traffic, logging seven strikeouts, and limiting run damage.

After walking the first batter in the first inning, Adams bounced back for a quick out. After a wild pitch advanced the runner, he proved resilient and got two straight strikeouts to end the inning without any damage.

Joshua Báez took Adams deep in the second for a solo home run. He then allowed another runner who would steal second, but again, Adams worked his way out of the inning.

Adams would give up two more runs in the fifth inning before being pulled with St. Louis up 3-0. Despite the hiccups, Adams held his own and continues to grow into a strong starter.

Manager Warren Schaeffer praised Adams after the game: “The heater was good. Both breaking balls were good. A couple good hitters just got him there. But I thought he competed well and was efficient and did a nice job tonight for us. Another step forward for him.”

Accio runs!

A look at the final score wouldn’t tell you the full story of the Rockies offense. The bats donned an invisibility cloak and disappeared early in what felt like another long night for the bats.

Colorado started the game on the wrong side of three straight 1-2-3 innings with three strikeouts in that stretch. The Rockies didn’t get their first baserunner until the fourth inning on a Connor Norby walk. They didn’t get their first hit until the fifth inning, when Cole Carrigg kicked things off with a single and a steal.

Then, the Rockies cast a spell and summoned runs. Lots of them.

With Carrigg on second and one out, Troy Johnston singled and then advanced to second on a throwing error to make it 3-1 Cardinals. An Adael Amador single brought it to 3-2. Things got wild for St. Louis’ starter Matthew Liberatore with a ball four pitch in the dirt that got away, and the game was tied at 3-3.

Liberatore ended his day there at 4.1 innings pitched, five earned runs on four hits, two walks, and three strikeouts.

The runners Liberatore allowed before being pulled were scored, as an error gave the Rockies’ their fourth run and a Norby single notched their fifth. TJ Rumfield doubled to score another.

From no hits to six runs in the blink of an eye, a whirlwind of solid hits and St. Louis errors gave the Rockies a three-run lead.

“Yer a wizard, Brennan!”

After a few runs allowed by Zack Agnos, Brennan Bernardino and the rest of the Rockies bullpen locked in and did their part.

Agnos entered in the fifth inning with a runner on first and two outs. He got the final out to hold the Cardinals’ lead at 3-0. The sixth inning didn’t go as well.

Agnos yielded back-to-back singles to start the inning, and a mound visit couldn’t calm him down, as he allowed a Nolan Gorman double that scored a run, bringing the game to 6-4. He allowed another run on a sacrifice fly before being pulled.

Bernardino was on a streak of eight consecutive appearances without allowing a run. Entering tonight’s game to replace Agnos, he did well despite inheriting a bit of a mess with one out and one on.

He first battled José Fermin for seven pitches before getting him to ground out. Ramón Urías met the same fate next, grounding out to end the inning. Bernardino had a quick, hitless, scoreless night and extended his streak to nine games.

Schaeffer gave a ton of credit to Bernardino for swinging the game.

“Bernie’s been huge all year, tonight was no exception,” he said. “What’s impressive with that is you know they’re going right-right, and it doesn’t matter to Bernie. He can get right-handers out, too, which is a testament to what he’s been doing all year. That was huge. That was a game changer.”

Jaden Hill had a great night as well, posting a flawless 1-2-3 seventh inning with two strikeouts. Nick Frasso was not to be left out of the clean inning fun. After getting Leo Bernal to fly out, he notched back to back strikeouts to work through the eighth.

Do they serve taco’s at Hogwarts?

A big bottom of the seventh put the Rockies into (and beyond) seven run taco territory. Colorado carried a 6-5 lead into the inning and were able to grow it quickly, taking it to Hancel Rincon.

After giving up a single to Tovar to start the inning, Rincon fell apart quickly. He next walked McCarthy on five pitches and then hit Norby with a pitch to load the bases. A Goodman line drive to left scored two and chased Rincon at 8-5.

Brycen Mautz got the first out, but gave up an RBI single to Carrigg and a sac bunt to Veen to make it a 10-5 Rockies lead when all was said and done.

Book Nine: Colorado Rockies and the inning of suspense

Yesterday’s game was one that got away. Colorado’s five-run lead going into the ninth inning felt like it should be good, but leads disappear quickly at Coors. Juan Mejia entered to close things out and, unfortunately, broke the nice scoreless momentum the bullpen had going.

Mejia walked Thomas Saggese, who was brought home faster than the Hogwarts Express can get you from King’s Cross to Hogsmeade after a Fermin double scored him from first to make it 10-6.

César Prieto pinch hit and grounded out, moving Fermin to third. Iván Herrera singled to score Fermin to give the Cardinals their seventh run. Jordan Romano replaced Mejia there.

Romano ran into some speedbumps of his own before getting the job done. Herrera moved to second before a Jordan Walker strikeout turned into trouble as a dropped third strike put runners on the corners. Leo Bernal hit a sharp line drive to right that Mickey Moniak tracked down for the win.

Up Next

The Rockies and Cardinals meet on Sunday afternoon for the final game of the series and their last meeting of the season. The Cards lead the season series 3-2.

Tanner Gordon is expected to start for the Rockies. Gordon is 1-4 through 14 starts and 20 total games, with a 5.18 ERA, a 1.40 WHIP, and 72 strikeouts.

Kyle Leahy is slated to go for St. Louis. Leahy brings a strong 10-4 record into the game through 26 starts, with a 3.13 ERA, a 1.31 WHIP, and 118 strikeouts.

First pitch is 1:10 p.m. MT.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks! 

There’s no way to guarantee Sonny Gray will pitch well when he takes the mound for the Red Sox in a postseason game at the end of the month. However, giving him extra rest going into the September stretch run and seeing him respond by pitching fantastic against a good lineup on the road fighting for their postseason lives certainly feels good right now.

It took Gray just 92 pitches to spin his silky, seven shutout frames this evening, and while the Orioles did manage a few opportunities with a runner in scoring position (they went 0-8), it never felt like Gray was in any real trouble.

If you want to know part of what makes Gray so good and how he keeps guys off balance, look no further than our own Jake Roy, who broke down Gray’s two early strikeouts to Encarnacion-Strand (a guy who had a 1.020 OPS in his last 11 games coming into tonight).

But tonight wasn’t just about Gray, it was about what was fueling him and the entire Red Sox clubhouse.

Last night, Blaze Alexander got very animated following an incident in which he reached out to grab Nick Sogard on an eighth inning double play. The Sox took exception in the moment as both benches cleared, and they apparently took that umbrage into the clubhouse overnight and brought it back today as a little extra motivation to extinguish whatever fading playoff hopes Baltimore has left.

“We want to bury those guys, especially after what that dude was trying to do last night,” Gray said after the game — Illustrating that even after two wins in 25 hours since that spicy moment, it was still fresh on everybody’s mind.

But we didn’t need to wait until after the game to know how the Sox felt on that front, because following Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s seventh inning double, he had a celebration aimed directly at the source of last night’s brouhaha:

It’s not just Kiner-Falefa either. Notice Nick Sogard (the target of Friday’s perceived attack on the pack) and Roman Anthony at the very tail end of the clip. They are loving it!

These guys absolutely had extended words about what went on during yesterday’s game in the clubhouse and rallied around it to draw even closer as a group. The smiles on their faces when Kiner-Falefa mocked Alexander in the middle of the diamond tells you everything you need to know about the chemistry inside those walls.

Want to know something else that’s great for team chemistry? A different guy contributing every night. Saturday’s game included a lineup that was missing Willson Contreras, Ceddanne Rafaela, Caleb Durbin, and Adley Rutschman, and also saw Roman Anthony go 0-5. So what happened? The bottom four guys combined to knock in all five runs in the game. When it’s a different guy every night, the whole group wants to take a sword for one another.

Again, there’s no way to guarantee what happened tonight will matter in a postseason game in a month, but it sure feels good right now.

Studs

Sonny Gray: Seven shutout innings is pretty much an automatic ticket here. He now has 17 wins on the season and a 2.69 ERA.

Eli White: He only had one hit, and it was just a single, but when White came to the plate with the bases loaded and two out in the top of the sixth, neither team has scored since the top of the first inning yesterday when Mickey Gasper homered. White’s hit here broke the stubborn seal, and gave the Sox a lead they would not relinquish.

Trevor Story: Three more hits tonight. He’s got at least one hit in all six games since returning, including multiple hits in four of those games. Please keep serving the crow! I’ll gladly eat it!

Duds

Roman Anthony: It was an unusually rough night for our boy, going 0-5 with three strike outs from the top spot in the lineup.

Jovani Moran: Came into the game in the eighth inning to face three batters and only got one of them out. Greg Weissert had to clean up his mess and prevent the high leverage guys from being needed in this game.

Play of the game:

It’s Kinder-Falefa’s double and him mocking Blaze Alexander at the end of it. Here’s one more look, this time with the clips from both nights shown together:

If you had told me before Saturday night’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies that Matthew Liberatore would have a no-hitter going into the 5th inning, I would have probably called you crazy. That’s exactly what happened as Liberatore defied Coors Field tendencies and came out of the gate firing strikes. Then, the 5th inning happened and some other later innings weren’t great either thanks to poor defense play.

Before we get to Matthew’s potential masterpiece (until the 5th inning), the Cardinals scored first and fast. By fast, I’m referring to the speed that the ball left the bat of Joshua Baez and cleared the left field fence at Coors Field for a laser beam home run in the top of the 2nd inning giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

St. Louis ALMOST added to their lead in the top of the 5th inning when Thomas Saggese led off the inning with a hustle double where he barely got into second while avoiding the tag. That theme would flip-flop on the next play when Nathan Church singled to right and Saggese tried to score from second. He thought his hand reached home plate before the tag was applied, but was called out and the challenge upheld the call which means no soup for Sags. St. Louis would still get some satisfaction with two outs and Iván Herrera slammed a 443 foot shot over the centerfield wall for a 2-run homer giving the Cardinals a 3-0 lead. It looked like a repeat of his game-winning shot from Friday night. BOOM!

No, Matthew Liberatore did not throw a no-hitter at Coors Field as that would have glitched The Matrix. He did give up a leadoff single in the bottom of the 5th inning to Cole Carrigg for the first Rockies hit of the night. Carrigg would steal second and eventually score on a one-out single from Johnston. Jordan Walker’s throw to home would sail through that Rocky Mountain air way over home for an error with allowed Johnston to move up on the play which would prove costly when Amador singled to left scoring him and reducing the Cardinals lead to just one run at 3-2. Two wild pitches later and the St. Louis lead was gone as runners advanced on both throws tying the game at 3-3. That would end Matthew’s night which looked so promising, but then the 5th inning happened. A story we’ve all lived through before this season. It would get much worse before it got better. Luis Gastelum came into the game and McCarthy who had walked stole second. For some reason Leo Bernal decided to throw to second with Tovar on third. Bernal’s ball skipped into centerfield allowing Tovar to score giving Colorado their first lead at 4-3. Norby followed that with a single of his own scoring McCarthy and upping the Rockies advantage to 5-3. But, wait, there’s more. Rumfield hit a sinking shot to center which Nathan Church dove for, but couldn’t catch allowing Norby to score and giving Rumfield a double as the score now stood at 6-3 Colorado. MAKE IT STOP! Fortunately Carrigg struck out for the final out as the Rockies batted around in the 5th.

After a very sloppy error-filled bottom of the 5th, the resilient Cardinals came roaring back in the top of the 6th inning when Leo Bernal and Joshua Baez started the inning with back-to-back singles. Nolan Gorman then lifted a moonshot that hit high off of the centerfield wall which scored Bernal making it 6-4 Rockies.

Baez advanced to third on the play and would score on a sacrifice fly from Thomas Saggese reducing the Colorado lead to just 6-5. That’s all St. Louis would get though after pinch-hitter Urias and Fermin both grounded out to end the Cardinals 6th.

Hancel Rincon, who was in the middle of the ridiculous tilted hat controversy Friday night handled the Rockies without issues in the bottom of the 6th. He stayed in the game after St. Louis failed to score in the top of the 7th, too. The 7th didn’t go as smoothly, though, as he gave up a leadoff single to Tovar and then walked Jake McCarthy. Rincon then plunked Connor Norby to load the bases with no outs. To quote Charlie Brown, “Good grief”. That brought up the dangerous Hunter Goodman who singled in two runners giving Colorado their 3-run lead back at 8-5. That ended Rincon’s night as manager Oli Marmol brought in Brycen Mautz to try and put out the fire. He got a groundout out of Rumfield as Nolan Gorman made a nice play on the ball and threw him out without allowing the runner at third to score. Gorman really flashed some nice glovework earlier in the game, too. The same cannot be said of the Cardinals outfield as balls were thrown too high for cut-off men and, in the case of Joshua Baez, misread a flyball from Carrigg and was unable to recover as it dropped for a single in front of him and another Rockies runner scored making it 9-5 Colorado. Veen followed that below-average defensive effort with a sacrifice bunt that turned into a single as Alec Burleson tried to flip the ball to Bernal at home, but it wasn’t in time and the Rockies lead was suddenly double-digits at 10-5. A double play fortunately ended the hemorrhaging of runs.

There was a decent St. Louis Cardinals defensive play in the late innings as Leo Bernal picked off a runner at first after the safe call was successfully challenged. Nolan Gorman’s diving play in the bottom of the 4th on a ball hit by Rumsfield was a Sportscenter highlight also as he threw him out from the ground so it’s not like all of the Cardinals glovework stunk up Coors Field Saturday night.

The Cardinals final hope in the top of the 9th inning would start with the bottom of the order starting with Thomas Saggese. He drew a leadoff walk to try and get something started. José Fermín was next and he drove a ball to the wall in right-center for a double which scored Saggese making it slightly more interesting at 10-6. Pinch-hitter Prieto grounded out to second for the first out as Thomas advanced to third base. Iván Herrera’s inside-out swing chopped a ball down the right field line for a single which scored Saggese making it 10-7 Colorado. That inspired the Rockies to go to their bullpen for Romano who hoped for a bounce-back effort after he gave up the go-ahead home run Friday night to Herrera. Alec Burleson was the first Cardinal he faced, but he lined out to first which was almost a game-ending double play, but Herrera got back to first in time. Jordan Walker barely extended the game by striking out, but Rockies catcher Goodman couldn’t handle the ball which allowed Jordan to get to first base. Leo Bernal came up as the potential tying run, but he lined out to right to end the Cardinals night. Hard to not view Saturday night’s game as one that should have been won if not for the many Cardinals misplays.

The St. Louis Cardinals wrap up their Colorado vacation against the Rockies Sunday afternoon at Coors Field. Kyle Leahy will pitch at least the first couple of innings for the Cardinals while the Rockies give the ball to RHP Tanner Gordon. First pitch set for 2:10pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.

Some of the Mets top prospects were in action on Saturday. Here's how they did...

2B Emilien Pitre, Triple-A Syracuse

Pitre finished 2-for-5 with a home run, his first for Triple-A since getting promoted, and two RBI. His homer, a solo shot in the seventh, tied the game at 7-7 before  Syracuse allowed seven runs in the eighth inning to lose 14-9. 

Either way, Pitre, who came over from Tampa Bay in the deal that sent Freddy Peralta to the Rays, has done well in 13 games with Triple-A, slashing .277/.346/.426. Unfortunately, he was also picked off first base in the bottom of the first after reaching base on an error.

INF Jefferson Rojas, Double-A Binghamton

The newest No. 1 prospect in the organization had another good day at the plate for the Rumble Ponies, going 1-for-4 with a home run.

The home run was Rojas' 23rd of the season and eighth in 25 games since joining the Mets after being acquired from the Chicago Cubs for Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor.

The 21-year-old is hitting .260 with a .891 OPS with Binghamton.

OF Aiden Robbins, High-A Brooklyn

It's been a disappointing season for the Cyclones, but they've had lots to cheer about since Robbins was promoted from Low-A St. Lucie to High-A Brooklyn. 

Robbins, the 92nd pick in this year's draft, had another strong game at the plate, going 2-for-5 and improving his batting average to .316 in six games with the Cyclones. Overall, the 21-year-old is hitting .281 in his first professional season with five home runs.

INF Colin Houck, High-A Brooklyn

Houck, the Mets' first-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, has had a tough season for Brooklyn but he hit a two-run home run for the Cyclones on Saturday that, at the time, gave Brooklyn a 3-2 lead.

In 98 games, the 21-year-old is hitting .208 with nine home runs and 40 RBI as he struggles to find his footing in New York.

The crooked cap saga continued on Saturday, Sept. 5 when the St. Louis Cardinals showed solidarity with rookie pitcher Hancel Rincón.

A handful of players wore their caps tilted on top of their heads in the dugout ahead of their matchup against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

The MLB's Cardinals broadcast team pointed out the caps and said that members of the Rockies were joining in the "silent form of protest" and wearing their hats tilted, too.

Brad Thompson says that Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer had words with Doug Eddings prior to the game. Eddings told pool reporters that Hunter Goodman asked about Rincon's hat last night.

"And some of the Rockies players on their dugout bench had their caps turned sideways as… pic.twitter.com/HbAZ7p2tYj

— bill durham (@BDurhamSports) September 6, 2026

Also before first pitch, umpire Doug Eddings had a small conversation with Rincón where the two nodded at each other. The Cardinals broadcast team suggested Eddings apologized for his role in the events a day prior when Rincón's cap was a subject of scrutiny in his MLB debut.

Credit where it's due to Doug Eddings. #stlcardspic.twitter.com/MfhXRRSOvT

— bill durham (@BDurhamSports) September 6, 2026

Rookie's hat causes polarizing ejection

On Friday, Sept. 4, St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol was ejected from the Cardinals' 7-6 win over the Rockies. He was arguing with Eddings, who was the home plate umpire, about whether Rincón's cap was improperly tilted.

Eddings said after the game that a Rockies batter asked him if Rincón could wear his hat tilted. The Cardinals broadcast team said Eddings identified Hunter Goodman as the batter to a pool reporter.

Goodman denied being the one to call out Rincón.

“I never once mentioned the hat,” he said, per MLB.com. “It doesn’t matter who’s pitching. I don’t care how they wear the hat. I’m trying to find out where the ball is coming out, and I’m trying to worry about what I’m doing in the box. I’m not worried about how his hat looks."

He commented on how being brought into the controversy has affected him.

“I’ve been getting online stuff about me that I didn’t appreciate for something I didn’t say," he said.

Regardless of how the hat was brought to Eddings' attention, he waited until a few batters after Goodman to do anything.

While Cole Carrigg was up to bat in the sixth inning, Eddings had Cardinals catcher Leo Bernal ask Rincón to straighten out his hat. Bernal lifted his mask and shouted the directive to the pitcher, who shimmied his hat to comply.

After Rincón allowed a triple, an inside-the-park home run and a single, he was taken off the mound and replaced by Justin Bruihl.

I’ve never seen anything like this…

This ump stopped the game & made Cardinals rookie Hancel Rincon straighten his hat, saying nobody will wear it like that on his field. Quickly followed up by the worst revenge call I’ve ever seen.

Suspend him now @MLBpic.twitter.com/wgov05ubXy

— Josh Reynolds (@JoshReynolds24) September 5, 2026

Marmol chirped at Eddings, who then gave St. Louis a pitch clock violation. The manager's emotions flared even more and he walked up to the umpire and started moving his cap around on his head, implying he was upset about the situation with Rincón's hat.

"I had an issue with Doug," Marmol said after the game. "Just Doug. He took it upon himself to tell our rookie pitcher the kid's 'not going to wear his hat on my field that way.' You got Dontrelle Willis, CC Sabathia, Pedro Strop – plenty of guys that have worn it way more tilted. I have an issue with that. That's just a power-hungry move, in my opinion."

Eddings noted that Rincón did not necessarily break a rule with his cap, but the umpire spoke up to prevent distractions.

"I guess it's a little unwritten rule," he said. "They can't wear (their cap) backwards like a catcher. If it's a distraction, like anything on the field, like a glove or something, and someone makes you aware of it, then you kind of address that."

- Contributing: Cesar Brioso

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: St. Louis Cardinals show solidarity with Hancel Rincón after hat debacle

SAN DIEGO — If the Yankees are going to have success in the postseason — especially if they are going to meet the Red Sox in an American League wild-card series — they are going to have to find a way to beat lefty starters.

Saturday was an encouraging day in that regard.

Even without Aaron Judge, who may be just days away from making his long-awaited return to the lineup, the Yankees knocked left-hander Robbie Ray out of the game in the third inning on the way to a 5-1 win over the Padres at Petco Park. 

Ray’s lack of command helped them out, offering four free passes, but the Yankees stayed patient and then attacked to race out to a 5-0 lead before hanging on late as Carlos Rodón and the bullpen combined for a three-hitter.

Ben Rice led the way, reaching base in all five of his plate appearances by going 3-for-3 with two walks while fellow lefty slugger Spencer Jones, in his homecoming series, roped a pair of hits with an RBI off Ray on his first day as the full-time center fielder again after Trent Grisham landed on the injured list.

And Cody Bellinger, the Yankees’ best left-on-left hitter, lived up to it by capping off a four-run second inning with a two-run single.

“Good to see that because, obviously we know we’re going to see our share of lefties, and those lefties [hitters] at different times are going to have to face them,” manager Aaron Boone said. “So good to get some results there.”

Setting up a rubber game Sunday, with Gerrit Cole on the mound against former teammate Michael King, the Yankees (81-61) kept pace with the Rays and remained four games back for the division and 3 ¹/₂ games clear of the Red Sox for the top AL wild card with 20 games left.

After escaping some early trouble, Rodón settled in to toss five innings of one-run ball — the first time he has completed five innings in four starts back from the injured list.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

The left-hander walked three but struck out seven, his most in a game since June 17.

“Obviously, there’s some things I’d like to refine and be more crisp in the zone and just get ahead, especially with that kind of lead, but we win and that’s what matters,” said Rodón, who only gave up a solo shot to Manny Machado in the fourth inning.

The Yankees wasted chances to fully break the game open, stranding 12 men on base, but Michael Fulmer, Brent Headrick, John Schreiber and Tim Hill combined to keep the Padres (74-68) at bay in relief of Rodón.

A day after mustering just one run through nine innings of a 3-2, 10-inning loss, the Yankees wasted little time getting going against Ray, who entered the game with a 3.14 ERA.

On the heels of a three-hit game Friday night, Rice led off the second inning by lining a single to right field and later scoring on a two-out double from Jones, who finished the day batting .400 in 45 plate appearances against lefties this season.

José Caballero, Austin Wells and Paul Goldschmidt followed by each drawing walks on full counts, the last one forcing in a run to make it 2-0.

Bellinger then came through with another left-on-left single, driving in two more runs to put the Yankees ahead 4-0.

Ray finally escaped the inning before any more damage was done, though not before the Yankees forced him to throw 42 pitches in the frame.

“[Ray] is a tough matchup,” Bellinger said. “Just a lot of good at-bats. … It was nice to break through.”

Rice led off again in the third inning and drew a walk before taking off on a hit-and-run with Heliot Ramos, who singled to put runners on the corners. Lombard then cashed in a run by hitting a sacrifice fly to the warning track, scoring Rice for the 5-0 lead.

In two games this series, Rice has now reached base in eight of nine plate appearances while batting .388 with a 1.006 OPS over his last 12 games.

“I told him he was doing his Tony Gwynn imitation, watching him slash it all over the field, too,” Boone said.

Rice was more impressed by Jones, both in the way he has been hitting of late (.365 with a .951 OPS over his last 18 games) and handling all that comes with playing in your hometown.

“Definitely can be a lot — it can be overwhelming at times,” Rice said. “But I think he’s handled it really well. It speaks to who he is. He keeps looking like just a mature big leaguer out there doing his thing and really slows it down well.”

Christian Koss is a little guy. He’s 185 pounds with rocks in his pockets. The graph illustrating how he compares to the rest of the league in terms of contact quality is as blue as Lake Tahoe. His .368 slugging percentage in 2025 has somehow found the space to drop even lower in 2026, falling to .261 with just six extra base hits (1 HR) in 138 at-bats.

I could count his career home run total on one hand.  

Not anymore. Now, nowI needtwo hands, ‘cuz Christian Koss is a bad-a** mutha-f***a who powered-up in Saturday’s 9-5 win over the Mets. He went wild with a pair of taters, his first multi-homer game of his career, and came up a couple feet shy of a third in the 9th. 

His 2-run shot in the 3rd used the elevation of a shoulder-high fastball from starter Zac Thornton to gather altitude and just clear the wall in left. At a hair over four feet off the ground, it was the second highest pitch hit for a home run in the Majors this year, and turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead for San Francisco. 

The next pitch Koss saw, two innings later, was dealt a similar fate.

The kid had turned into a killer. Gone was the lovable nerd, annihilated in two strokes of his battle axe. Boss Koss was born. Cold-blooded and hot-headed. Smoke billowed out of his ears as he rounded the bases.

He spit fire as he entered the dugout, licked his lips with his forked tongue, lusting for more power more praise more violence. 

He held each of his teammates in his blood-glazed gaze and demanded homage.

Bow. Bow to the Boss. 

All city was brought to its knees as legion followed suit. Young, often hapless position players reforged themselves in the image of Koss, becoming all barrels and blasts. Utility infielder Oslevis Basabe hooked one off reliever Jefry Yan in the 8th, his fifth of the year. String-bean Grant McCray tanked one 420 feet to right-center in the 9th for his second in 2026.

And yeah, this guy named Rafael Devers, as both prophet and Koss acolyte, got his licks in his as well.

Devers’s solo shot in the 1st inning off the lefty Thornton (just the second homer the pitcher had surrendered to a left-handed batter all year) heralded Koss’s imminent arrival. 

He echoed Koss’s second in the 5th as well. With the score at 4 to 2, Jonah Cox singled to keep the inning alive for Devers who got a first-pitch breaking ball from Thornton, and like Koss, flipped it over the left field wall for his third multi-homer game this year and 24th of his career. Devers is now at 35 homers on the year, matching his 2025 mark and putting him well-within reach of his first career 40-HR season.

The Mets took the Giants to task with five homers Friday night, and San Francisco returned the favor with six on Saturday. The offense brought the fireworks, and nearly made Anthony Molina’s stellar performance on the mound redundant. As Koss and co. were bashing the baseball around Flushing, Molina held the Mets to just one hit over 5 innings pitched while striking out 6. That solitary knock, a 2-out homer in the 2nd, went in the books unearned after Devers’ fielding error (the slouch) — though it didn’t seem to rattle the right-hander. A walk in the 5th would be the only New York batter to reach base until the 7th.  

That inning brought the only real stress of the game for San Francisco’s pitching.

The Mets notched just their second and third hits of the evening with a one-out flare off Reiver Sanmartin and infield single off debut Giant Joel Kuhnel. Kuhnel then walked the bases loaded before getting Alvarez with a gutsy, disappearing sinker in a 3-2 count. Acting skipper Jayce Tingler (Tony Vitello was ejected in the 2nd for not liking the decision of an umpire review) brought on Carson Seymour who, as is customary for any Giants reliever entering a game, walked the first batter he faced, pushing in New York’s first earned run of the game. Seymour would limit the damage by getting Francisco Lindor to ground out to end the inning. 

Any worry of a late-game meltdown were promptly assuaged by more power balms. Late-game tanks from Basabe and McCray got back that run and then some, helping put Saturday’s contest out of reach and impervious to some more minor bullpen nonsense in the 9th.

Of course, I jest about Koss. He had a great day — but all awe and praise goes to Devers. He’s now homered 6 times and walked 7 times in his last six games. According to Sarah Langs, only two prior Giants players, Barry Bonds (2004) and Willie Mays (1958), have put on such a display in a week. He’s slugging 1.148 over his last seven games (27 AB), and .895 over his last 14 (57 AB). This excess of power oozing from his pores is clearly contagious, affecting anyone who comes in contact with him in the San Francisco dugout. He’s creating monsters. Today it’s Boss Koss. Who will it be tomorrow?