Category: MLB

Good morning.

Shawn McFarland writes that the Texas Rangers displayed their ability to rebound with a series finale win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday.

Kennedi Landry writes about Jake Burger’s two home run day in Sunday’s victory being fueled by a change in facial hair.

McFarland notes that with Nathan Eovaldi nearing a return, the Rangers are figuring out what role he might have down the stretch.

Kevin Sherrington writes that the Rangers only have a few weeks left to decide if they’re going to be playing next month.

And, the baseball folks at ESPN make some stretch run predictions for how things might go in the final month of the season.

Have a nice day!

Sunday afternoon saw a terrific catch be Tyrone Taylor in left field, robbing a homer, as well as Pete Crow-Armstrong’s 40th homer. One of those two things has now happened by a left-handed hitter just twice in all of Cubs history. One of the things playing for the Cubs, be it PCA hitting his 40th homer of the season left handed or anyone who contributed to 62 Cub homers in August, is that when you talk about history, you are talking about 150 years. Being the first or even one of the first to do something is incredible. You’re talking about a century and a half of history.

And so it is that Pete Crow-Armstrong slowly drifts where no Cub has ever been. Sammy Sosa once had a season with 66 homers and 18 steals. As near as I can tell, that is the homer plus steals record by a Cub. Pete is now sitting at 73. His 40/30+ season is a Cub first. His 40 homers as a lefty is the second ever. Pete is a couple of months younger than Ernie Banks as the youngest Cub ever with 40 homers. He’s in some pretty rarified territory.

Unfortunately, none of that matter all too much on Sunday. Clay Holmes did not have his best stuff. To my untrained eye, this was a cruel matchup. Marlins starter Tyler Phillips threw several pitches at or below the strike zone. Holmes wasn’t working down near that low part of the strike zone. So the Marlins benefitted from several low strikes and it didn’t seem like the Cubs did much or at all. For what it’s worth, the Cubs broadcast said that home plate umpire Ben May grades out as pitcher friendly. The eye test wouldn’t argue. It was a throwback to ball from the 90’s that I remember watching with a wide strike zone. In this case, it was low. I didn’t wait to see the ump scorecard, but as near as I could tell watching the live broadcast, a few pitches in key spots went the Marlins way. It happens. I’m not trying to make excuses. They played well. The Cubs didn’t execute over and over. The team that played better won.

It’s certainly an unfortunate day. Combined with the historic homer, it’s a really tough day. A day that felt like one to celebrate so quickly turned to a lopsided game in the other direction. For whatever reason, Holmes was off. It looked to me, again, a lay person, that he had a ton of arm side run on his pitches and an awful lot of them were ending up out of the strike zone. Obviously, that’s all very easy for me to say and I’ve no doubt if there was some simple mechanical thing that could be cleaned up, the Cubs would have cleaned it up.

It’s always tough though when a game like this happens. Holmes has felt so invincible. No one is ever fully impervious to an off day. Holmes wasn’t. And this one just got away. You hate to see it, but really it is what it is. Cub pitchers walked six batters, three of those scored. They hit a batter and that one scored. So they really gave away a ton of runs in this one. The entire team is built around not walking hitters and making plays defensively. The team isn’t really strong enough to survive when either of those things go awry.

On to Milwaukee. Hopefully the Cubs can grab a couple of wins there.

Three positives:

• Nothing really more positive than Pete Crow-Armstrong with a homer and a sacrifice fly on the day. Another good day in one of the best seasons any of us will ever witness.
• Seiya Suzuki had a double and drew a walk in the game.
• Daniel Palencia worked the eighth inning and got a strikeout and a double play around a walk. It’s unfortunate to see him working in such a lopsided game, but there isn’t a lot of runway left for him to get right.
• A hat tip to Shelby Miller and Justin Steele putting in different kind of work over the weekend as they try to get a look with the big club before playoff rosters are set. Both men have had difficult journeys back to a major league mound and have had to put in a ton of work. Both men appear close to a return.

Game 144, September 6: Marlins 10, Cubs 3 (81-63)

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Michael Conforto (.093). 1-3, BB
• Hero: Tyrone Taylor (.092). 1-3, 2B
• Sidekick: Pete Crow-Armstrong (.090). 1-3, HR, SF, 2 RBI, R

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Clay Holmes (-.547). 4.1 IP, 23 BF, 6 H, 3 BB, 8 ER, 2 K (L 2-3)
• Goat: Nico Hoerner (-.084). 1-3, DP
• Kid: Michael Busch (-.077). 0-3

Note: Preliminary indication has Holmes as a bottom 10 WPA score of the year, possibly checking in ninth or tenth.

WPA Play of the Game: Pete Crow-Armstrong’s game tying homer with two outs in the fifth. (.142)

Marlins Play of the Game: Heriberto Hernandez’ solo homer in the bottom of the fourth gave the Marlins the lead. (.132)

Cubs Player of the Game:

Game 143 Winner: Ryan Zeferjahn with 70 of 98 votes.

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Pete Crow-Armstrong +26.5
• Alex Bregman +26
• Michael Conforto +14
• Ben Brown +13.5
• Javier Assad +12
• Jameson Taillon -13
• Nico Hoerner -14
• Seiya Suzuki -15
• Dansby Swanson -17
• Caleb Thielbar -17.5

Scoreboard Watching: Brewers won (up 7 on Cubs). Braves won (4.5 up) over the Phillies (0.5 back). Diamondbacks won (5 back). Padres won (5.5 back). Dodgers won (5.5 up). Just under three weeks to go and it’s tight for the No. 1 seed overall in the NL and tight for each of the Wild Card slots. 2.5 games separate those top three teams. 5.5 games separate the next four teams. One team is going to miss landing in a chair when the music stops. If baseball ended today, that would be the Padres.

The Cubs move on to Milwaukee for the final three games of the regular season between the two NL Central rivals. The division is all but wrapped up, but both teams have plenty to play for. Matthew Boyd (8-3, 4.05) starts for the Cubs. Boyd allowed three runs in 5.1 innings against the Brewers last week and will be looking to improve on that.

Robert Gasser (4-5, 4.57) starts for the Brewers. He allowed two earned runs in 4.1 innings before departing a game between these teams last week. He too will be looking to improve. Like so many Brewers, his ERA is almost a full point better at home (4.05 in 8 starts) than on the road (5.01 in 9 games, 8 starts).

This is the best matchup on paper. Let’s go get the first one.

One week ago, the Orioles were flying high. They were in the midst of a successful road trip that had them back to .500 for the first time since April and just half a game out of the AL’s final wild card spot. Colton Cowser’s walk-off web gem in Colorado felt like a sign from the universe that, despite how “rocky” the season had been to this point, it was all gonna work out.

Fools! All of us.

Since the moment that ball hit Cowser’s glove above the center field fence in Denver, the Orioles are 0-6. They have been outscored 25-13, been shutout twice, own an OPS of just .558, and have seen their playoff aspirations go up in smoke.

As of this writing, the Orioles are now four games back of the AL’s final wild card spot. Baseball Reference gives them just a 4.4% chance to the make the postseason. It’s not an impossible path, especially with a series against the Guardians starting this afternoon, but let’s not kid ourselves. It’s not happening for this club. They’ve treaded water all season, and this most recent series against the Red Sox is what finally made them drown.

As a fan, it’s heartbreaking to see this team you care so much about totally collapse with a postseason chance on the line. But at the same time it’s hard to not feel some sort of relief in knowing that this frustrating season is coming to an end with a bit of closure. There’s no one moment or circumstance to be pointed to and said “Well, if they had just avoided that, everything would have come together.” No. This team was never going to figure it out.

Hopefully it will also be a sign to the Orioles organization that they have a lot internal reflection to do this winter.

It was easy enough coming out of 2025 for the front office to point fingers several different places to avoid blame. There were injuries up and down the roster. Several young players in prominent roles were still growing. The starting rotation was just missing a piece or two. On and on the list could have gone.

It’s tough to run that same “analysis” back after this season. Sure, there were injuries again, but that’s true for every team. Those young players that were supposed to continue their upward ascension have stalled as supporting cast rather than emerging stars. And the rotation added three pieces, including one that was handed a long-term deal and has stayed healthy all summer.

The outcome has been a team that runs (mildly) hot and (ice) cold, but is inherently flawed.

The biggest failure has come in the assembly of the offense. It was supposed to be a juggernaut that carried the team. Instead, they rank 15th in MLB in runs scored, 11th in home runs, 26th in batting average, 16th in on-base percentage, and 23rd in slugging percentage. An absolute disaster.

It’s even worse if you look at some of the individual performances. Gunnar Henderson (99 wRC+), Samuel Basallo (99 wRC+), Colton Cowser (94 wRC+), and Jackson Holliday (88 wRC+) have all been disappointments. That’s not to say that have all been consistently bad. There have been moments where each of them has shown their promise, but they were supposed to be the core of an unstoppable, homegrown lineup.

Those struggles may reveal a deeper organizational problem. The development of young bats at the minor league level is what had evaluators around baseball excited about the Orioles future. The club had prioritized those types of prospects and had done well to groom them through the farm system. But now, almost all of them are hitting a wall once reaching the majors. Henderson even had years of success at the highest level and now looks like a shell of himself. Holliday has never performed like the future star he was supposed to be. Cowser at least has developed into an elite defender in center. Basallo deserves a little grace given his injury woes that followed a solid start to the season. Regardless, alarm bells should be going off in the warehouse.

As a group, these Orioles simply don’t do anything particularly well on offense. They are a subpar “three true outcomes” team years after that approach has fallen out of fashion. It’s a brutal brand of baseball to watch, and it doesn’t even come with the desired outcome of regularly scoring a bunch of runs. Rather it turns into recurring and extended slumps where opposing pitchers mow through the lineup with ease because when the walks and home runs aren’t stacking they have nowhere else to turn.

There have been positives, of course. Pete Alonso (140 wRC+, 33 home runs) has been worth the big contract he earned over the winter. Blaze Alexander (121 wRC+), when healthy, has emerged as a useful contact-oriented utility piece that can fit all over the field. Christian Encarnacion-Strand (124 wRC+) came up late in the year and filled the black hole that opened at third base after Jordan Westburg’s preseason injury. Coby Mayo has become a left-handed pitcher’s nightmare (209 wRC+ vs. LHP) while starting to improve his approach against righties as well. Maybe the Orioles do have something on their hands there. But the bad continues to outweigh the good.

The degree to which the Orioles botched the construction of their lineup has obscured the progress made on the pitching side of things.

Shane Baz (3.5 fWAR) and Trevor Rogers (3.2 fWAR) have been two of the 25 most valuable starting pitchers in MLB this year. Kyle Bradish has faded recently, but has been generally solid in his first season back after Tommy John surgery, and is now signed in Baltimore long term. Brandon Young has been so much more valuable than could have been expected, and now seems like a lock for the 2027 rotation. The group will need to add an arm of some significance this offseason, especially if Rogers signs elsewhere, but the building blocks for a good group are there.

At the same time, the Orioles bullpen has turned into one of the better and deeper units in the sport. Their 5.0 fWAR is seventh-best in MLB, and they also rank in the top 10 in ERA (3.91), xERA (3.65), and FIP (3.81). Is there any one single dominant arm in the bunch? Eh, not so much, but few teams can turn to this many different options with at least some level of confidence, and they expect to have fully healthy versions of Félix Bautista and Ryan Helsley in 2027. Again, this is a solid starting point

But how much credit should the front office get for the pitching when the part of the team that was supposed to be their calling card, the lineup, has been such a problem?

Many in the fan base have been calling for Mike Elias’ head for a while now, dating back to the offseason that followed the team’s meltdown in the second half of 2024. Those cries grew louder last winter, and they may be at all-time high right now.

It is possible that Elias gets the boot this offseason. After all, he is the architect of this team, and it sounds like his boss isn’t thrilled with recent events. Orioles’ control person David Rubenstein described himself as “embarrassed” by the team’s decline. Those comments came after a winter that saw him pony up cash for Alonso’s big deal and an extension for Baz, plus recent long-term deals for Basallo and Bradish.

At the same time, Rubenstein has generally been complimentary of Elias and evidently feels confident in the team’s process, even if the results have not been ideal. Add in what is expected to be an atypical offseason for MLB amid a labor dispute, and you could start to see the ownership group preferring stability for another year.

Whatever happens, a shakeup of some kind should be the bare minimum to expect. Maybe that means Elias needs new voices in the room and moves on from his friend Sig Mejdal or others. Or maybe it means the introduction of a General Manager that is separate from Elias and his “President of Baseball Operations” title, to at least provide an external perspective, though Elias would still be the lead executive in that scenario. Or they could try another coaching staff churn, though that hasn’t changed much the last couple of seasons.

At the moment, it’s unclear what the plan will be. But what is unquestioned is that the Orioles have burned through what was supposed to be a return to greatness. Elias and his crew have failed at their stated goal of building a perennial winner in Baltimore. They should not be rewarded for that. That may not mean Elias himself has to go, but there absolutely has to be change coming.

The Atlanta Braves had one of their most dramatic wins all season yesterday to secure a season tiebreaker against the Philadelphia Phillies. If they win today, it will give them a six game lead. With only three games left against each other before the season ends, a win today could be huge.

Grant Holmes will be taking the mound for the Braves. As we all know by now, he does not go deep into games so the bullpen needs to be ready. Holmes has been up and down as of late. In his last five starts he has given up zero earned runs in has last start and in order from there he has given up six, zero, three, and zero runs respectively. He seems to be dominate when he is on, but terrible when he is not. Hopefully the trend will not continue because base on his last five games he is due to give up at least three earned runs.

Holmes has not faced the Phillies since April, but faced them twice in a five day span. In his first start he went 4.2 innings and held them to two runs on four hits to include a HR. In his second start he tied his second longest start with 6.0 innings pitched. He gave up three earned runs on seven hits while walking three and striking out four. The Braves won both games.

No player on the Phillies has more than nine at-bats against Holmes. Kyle Schwarber has an OPS of .904 and two HRs against Holmes, but only a .143 average. Bryce Harper only has four at-bats against him, but has done massive damage with a HR, .500 average, and 1.964 OPS. Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs has been successful with a 1.334 OPS and Trea Turner has a 1.158. The rest of the roster has struggled. No other player has an OPS north of .625.

Jesús Luzardo is coming to the mound and is having arguably the best season of his career. He has pitched 169.2 innings thus far and has a 3.02 ERA, 2.86 FIP, and a SO/BB ratio of 4.10. Although the Braves have already played the Phillies six times, but Luzardo has not faced them yet this season. There are four different players on the Braves that have at least twenty-two at-bats. Of these four Ozzie Albies has a .625 OPS, Matt Olson has a .518, Austin Riley has a .694, and Lane Thomas has a 1.503 OpS with four HRs.

I think it is fair to say that Thomas needs to be in the linuep this afternoon.

The Braves have proven this series that their path to victory is to get to the bullpen, so the goal today should be to tire out Luzardo to get to the bullpen as soon as possible. On paper, the Braves have a hill to climb, but it can be done, especially if Lane Thomas is in the lineup and continues to rake against today’s All-Star SP.

First pitch is at 1:05 EDT.

Game Info

Game Time: Monday, September 7th, 1:05 pm EDT

Location: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA

Watch: BravesVision

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

The Braves have already taken two games in Philadelphia and currently hold a five game lead with 19 games left to play. They have the season tiebreaker over the Phillies now, always important in this age of no more tiebreaker games to determine winners of something. Even with one more game here in Philadelphia between the two and more games this coming weekend in Atlanta, it’s fair to ask the question:

Is the race for the National League East over?

Things can happen, of course, so maybe we should wait until next weekend happens to fully figure it out, but after that deflating loss yesterday, now is the time around these parts.

The Detroit Tigers’ Double-A affiliate, the Erie SeaWolves, is the only one of the Tigers full season minor league teams to reach the postseason this year. That’s a credit to manager Tony Cappuccilli, who survived a lack of pitching prospects to get the SeaWolves to the postseason for the fifth straight season. With the A-ball season now done, the question is whether the Tigers might prioritize getting some of their top prospects at the High-A level a little more work and some postseason experience by promoting them to Erie.

Cappuccilli really had little to work with on the pitching side in the first half of the season. Lefty Joe Miller, a 26-year-old not ranked anywhere, was his top starting pitcher. Knuckleballing veteran Kenny Serwa struggled, as did options like RHP Max Alba, and crafty, soft-tossing lefty Carlos Peña. There really weren’t any legit relief prospects available to him either. Triple digit sinkerballer Moises Rodriguez was at least effective despite pretty weak peripheral numbers, but then he missed all of July with an injury. For the most part, Cappuccilli and his staff had to make due with a lot of older org pitchers in both the rotation and the bullpen. So it’s pretty impressive that they managed to turn things around in the second half, despite not really getting a ton of reinforcements on the pitching side. So perhaps some reinforcements are in order now.

Left-hander Ben Jacobs, the Tigers third round pick in the 2025 draft, is currently in peak form and challenging 2026 first rounder Cameron Flukey for top pitching prospect in the Tigers farm system. With improved mechanics and extension this year, Jacobs is getting down the mound better, throwing harder, and regularly getting 18-19 inches of ride (induced vertical break) on his fourseamer. His slider has really gotten more consistently sharp in recent weeks, and he packs a good changeup and a solid curveball as well. He holds a 34.5 percent strike out rate, which is outstanding, though his walk rate is somewhat too high at 11.2 percent.

Jacobs quickly breezed through Single-A Lakeland in just a few outings back in the spring. He had some trouble with walks and home runs after the jump to High-A West Michigan in May, but over his last six starts has really hit a new level. He’s allowed just four runs in his last six starts, collecting 43 strikeouts, and allowing 10 walks and 15 hits across 31 innings of work. He’s thrown 92.1 innings this year, but he threw 83.2 innings in his junior year at Arizona State, so he really hasn’t been pushed much beyond his college workload yet.

The SeaWolves could definitely use a pair of good starts from Jacobs to close out their regular season this week, and then in the postseason. RHP Lucas Elissalt is another nice breakout pitching prospect, who jumped from High-A to Double-A in early August, and has given the SeaWolves a nice boost in the second half. Beyond that they’re still working with a lot of veteran minor league starters without major league time in their futures. Giving Jacobs a look at a better class of hitters, and giving him experience preparing for a high pressure postseason start seems like a great way to close out his 2026 season. He still has work to do on his command, and we’d like another bump on his velo next season, but he’s not too far from 50 future value (FV) status, and he’s pitching his best ball right now. I love the idea of challenging players when they’re in really good form, and I like the idea of giving players a look at the level they’ll tackle fully next year before the end of a season. It would be good for both Jacobs and the SeaWolves if the Tigers would send him to Cappuccilli to finish the season.

The other interesting option is to promote top prospect SS Bryce Rainer. It’s been a wild season for the recently turned 21-year-old who missed most of his pro debut in 2025 after an injury required shoulder surgery. A good defender with speed, a huge arm, a patient, possibly too patient, approach at the plate, and 70 grade raw power, Rainer has struck out a ton, walked a ton, and done a whole lot of damage since moving up aggressively to High-A in mid-April.

Because of the injury, Rainer had less than 50 games out of high school ball when he reached High-A West Michigan. That was a highly aggressive promotion, probably sparked as much by the need to play Jordan Yost at shortstop full-time in Lakeland as because Rainer was really ready to handle it. He struggled mightily in May, striking out a ton, and then in June went nuts, hitting six homers and posting a 1.140 OPS. Another slump followed in July, but in August and September the damage has been prodigious yet again, while at the same time, Rainer has struck out in just over 40 percent of his at-bats since August 1.

In contrast to Jacobs, this isn’t really a case of a guy in the midst of a breakout. Rainer is still hammering fastballs and the occasional breaking ball or offspeed mistake, and doing a lot of damage. However, he’s also swinging and missing a fair amount, and taking an incredible amount of called third strikes. It’s a really strange combination. His 14.2 percent whiff rate isn’t good, but it’s not egregious for a power hitter at that level. Particularly one this young and inexperienced. However, his 19.8 percent called strike rate says he’s still taking a whole lot of pitches for strikes. Even accounting for a lesser caliber of umpiring, that’s a lot of called strikes.

It’s hard to call his approach passive considering the violent fury and all fields power in his left-handed swing, but it’s actually true. Unless he sees something up in the zone that he likes, he often doesn’t swing even with two strikes. Rainer does not chase out of the zone much at all, just 20.9 percent of the time, which is outstanding. He’s gone through a litany of adjustments to his batting stance and overall hitting mechanics, which have gotten him back to making a lot of extremely hard contact up to 115 mph off the bat, but he doesn’t really defend the zone or alter his approach appreciably with two strikes. He just continues to wait for a fastball he can crush, and if a pitcher drops in a good breaking ball, changeup or splitter on him, good on them.

If Rainer is promoted, he’ll get to join his new teammates on a road trip to Reading, PA to play the Fightin Phils for six games to close out the regular season. You’re not promoting him straight into the postseason. He’ll have a week to get to know everyone before they tackle the Richmond Flying Squirrels at home on September 15 to start the postseason. And he wouldn’t necessarily take plate appearances away from Erie’s better hitters either. Peyton Graham is having a nice year, but he’ll be 26 in January and is hanging on as a possible utilityman prospect. He can play second base and he’s played some outfield, including center field as well. The SeaWolves do need him in the lineup, but Rainer is already a more consistent, solid shortstop anyway.

The Tigers should really move Jacobs up. Lucas Elissalt has been pitching well and I like him quite a bit too, but Jacobs would be the best pitcher on the squad. If he made two more starts he’d probably finish with 101-102 innings pitched on the year. That’s ideal for a college pitcher in his first pro season.

With Rainer it’s a lot less certain that he really helps the cause. There’s certainly a chance that he’d see a lot more pitchers challenge him, and that might go very badly for those pitchers. But he might also be carved up by pitchers that can throw strikes without feeding him many cookies for a while at that level. It just seems like a good experience to take into the offseason for him. He may well struggle with Double-A pitching, but this late in the year, the good Double-A pitchers have already moved up, and Rainer would face a lot of arms that were in High-A part of the year anyway. And he’s going to see them a lot more next year. Might as well get a good look now.

Rainer is a good bet to need a lot of Double-A time before he advances, but even if he doesn’t reach Triple-A until 2028, he’ll still only be 22 years old. That’s a perfectly brisk pace for all but the elite pure hitting prospects in the game. To me, it seems like a good idea to acclimate him a bit right now with a taste of high pressure baseball to take into the offseason. The Tigers have done a bit of this sort of thing before, so I just think there’s a fair chance Rainer gets the call.

The SeaWolves have played really well in the second half, despite only really having Zyhir Hope, Thayron Liranzo, and Elissalt on hand as really notable prospects. It would be good for the team, and probably for Jacobs and Rainer, to reinforce them now for the final push. Still, of the two, Jacobs is by far the more ready and impactful player for the SeaWolves roster right now. They could definitely use help in the rotation, so Jacobs at least seems like a good bet to get the call.

Two wildcard hopefuls meet at Camden Yards for three games beginning today.

The Guardians are 73-71 and a -14 run differential, since August 4th 14th in team wRC+ at 98 wRC+, 21st in baserunning runs above average at -0.9, fourth in Defense at 2.2, 16th in starting pitcher ERA 4.06 (4.31 FIP), and fifth in bullpen ERA at 3.07 ERA (2.83 FIP).

The Orioles are 69-75 and a -29 run differential, since August 4th 18th in team wRC+ at 96 wRC+, 20th in baserunning runs above average at -0.9, 19th in Defense at -3.2, 14th in starting pitcher ERA at 4.15 (4.10 FIP), and fourth in bullpen ERA at 3.09 (3.43 FIP).

Can’t say this series looks awesome on paper. But, it’s time for the backend of the Guardians rotation to figure things out and for their hitters to be better.

Matchups:

Game One, Monday, 1:35PM ET: Cantillo, LHP vs. Rogers, LHP

Game Two, Tuesday, 6:35PM ET: Bibee RHP vs. Young RHP

Game Three, Wednesday, 6:35PM ET: Griffin, LHP vs. Baz, RHP

Since August 4th, watch out for Pete Alonso at 179 wRC+, Coby Mayo at 147 wRC+, Gunnar Henderson at 129 wRC+, Colton Cowser at 113 wRC+, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand at 111 wRC+.

Meanwhile since August 4th, the Guardians have been led by Chase DeLauter 171 wRC+, Angel Martinez 131 wRC+, Steven Kwan 127 wRC+ and Patrick Bailey 113 wRC+. They are gonna need something from Nathaniel Lowe, Jo Adell, Jose Ramirez and Travis Bazzana to win this series. Oh, and let Rocchtember continue.

Rangers 8, Rays 6

• That was a rather impressive little come-from-behind victory, no?
• It feels weird to call it a come-from-behind victory when the Rangers were only behind for the first few innings, though.
• It seems like when you talk about a come-from-behind victory, you’re talking about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat late in the game. Not putting up a 4 spot in the fourth to draw even, and then taking the lead for good the next inning.
• It was one of MacKenzie Gore’s less inspiring outings, as he was unable to either dominate or fool the Rays hitters.
• 68 pitches for Gore, in three innings plus a couple of batters. The Rays swung 33 times, and made contact 29 times. Just four swings and misses out of 33 swings is pretty poor.
• And Gore only had 7 called strikes, as well. It wasn’t a matter of the Rays being patient and taking a lot of strikes.
• Whereas in his starts Gore has had issues putting batters away, racking up a high number of pitches per plate appearance, Gore faced 20 batters on Sunday.
• Again, facing 20 batters while recording just 9 outs is pretty poor.
• In fairness, while 11 batters reached safely against Gore, one of those was due to a Cody Freeman error, and another was the result of an intentional walk. Take those out and he retired half of the other eighteen batters he faced.
• Yeah, that doesn’t make it sound much better.
• The MacKenzie Gore inning was the second, when he faced ten batters and allowed four runs, giving up five singles, the intentional walk, and the unintentional walk.
• We should be relieved he left the bases loaded, I guess, and kept the Rays from piling on more runs that inning.
• One can note that Gore gave up several not-terribly-well-hit hits that inning, including a bunt single that scored a run, if one is feeling generous.
• Gore got chased in favor of Trevor Williams after allowing a single and a double to start the fourth. One would say that Skip Schumaker was treating it as a must-win game, going and getting Gore that early, but then, one wouldn’t normally use Trevor Williams for the second day in a row in a must win game.
• Williams gave up a sac fly for the final run on Gore’s ledger, but the six innings the Ranger pen had to handle generally went pretty well. Tyler Alexander gave up a run in the seventh, but the Rangers had a two run lead at that point, so it was less upsetting than it would otherwise have been.
• Schumaker also used Jacob Latz and Jakob Junis in reverse order, with Latz, who picked up the loss the night before while throwing 22 pitches, going into the game to face the top of the order in the eighth, and then Junis pitching the ninth after a Corey Seager home run extended the Ranger lead to two.
• Apparently Schumaker was going to use Latz for the ninth when it was just a one run lead, but once Seager made it a two run game, he decided on Junis.
• Impressive work from the bats. 12 Rangers hits and 5 walks. That’s a lot of baserunners.
• Jake Burger was responsible for the first three Rangers runs, with a solo homer in second and a two run homer in the fourth.
• That second homer made it a 5-3 game, and turned a game that felt like it was basically over already into a game where the Rangers maybe had a chance.
• Corey Seager reaching on a two out E6 with two on extended the inning, setting the stage for a Justin Foscue double to tie the game. The following inning, an Elias Diaz drove home Jake Burger with the go-ahead run, and Ezequiel Duran had a two out single to give the Rangers an insurance run.
• It was a 3 for 5 game for Duran, if you’re keeping track at home, which I’m sure you are. He’s now slashing .277/.337/.457 on the year.
• The Rangers also had four different DHs in the game, which is kind of fun. Logan O’Hoppe started the game at DH, then Joc Pederson pinch hit for him, then Cam Cauley pinch ran for Pederson after he walked, then Danny Jansen pinch hit for Cauley with two on and two out in the eighth.
• So the Rangers are two games below .500 heading out to Seattle. They play three games there, and could get buried and more or less knocked out of the playoff race with a bad series in the Pacific Northwest, or they could do well and continue to hang in there.
• Baseball Fever. Catch it.
• MacKenzie Gore hit 96.5 mph with his fastball, averaging 94.5 mph. Trevor Williams reached 90.6 mph with his fastball. Chase Silseth touched 96.1 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s fastball maxed out at 92.5 mph. Jacob Latz’s fastball touched 96.3 mph. Jakob Junis topped out at 92.2 mph with his fastball.
• Ezequiel Duran had a 108.6 mph single and a 100.2 mph single. Jake Burger had a 105.7 mph home run and a 103.9 mph home run. Logan O’Hoppe had a 105.2 mph single. Brandon Nimmo had a 104.9 mph groundout and a 102.4 mph groundout. Elias Diaz had a 102.1 mph single. Corey Seager had a 101.7 mph home run.
• Now an off day. Just 18 games left for the Rangers. In the regular season, anyway.

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The Philadelphia Phillies head into today's series finale against the Atlanta Braves as a clear 60% moneyline favorite, behind Jesus Luzardo. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET at Citizens Bank Park. 

However, my Braves vs. Phillies prediction and MLB picks see real value in Atlanta's underdog price, with Grant Holmes taking the hill. 

Who will win Braves vs Phillies today: Braves moneyline (41%)

For help understanding probabilities, see our odds calculator.

Atlanta Braves righty Grant Holmes has been throwing the ball well lately. He owns a 2.47 FIP over his last two outings, with no home runs allowed and strong command.

Holmes also faces a Philadelphia Phillies lineup that has not been performing recently, posting a 72 wRC+ over its last six contests. He already has a pair of quality starts against Philly this season, too.

Jesús Luzardo is also in solid form with a 2.95 FIP over his previous 13 2/3 innings, but his 50% hard-hit rate during that span shows some vulnerability.

Atlanta owns a respectable 94 wRC+ vs. lefties and a 106 wRC+ over the last two weeks, giving the visitors a slight offensive edge.

Play this pick up to 50%.

COVERS INTEL: Jesus Luzardo has allowed a 41.5% hard-hit rate across his last five starts. On the season, his average sits at 33.5%. The lefty isn't untouchable right now, and the Braves can capitalize.

Braves vs Phillies Over/Under pick: Under 7.5 (47%)

I’m leaning toward the Under, even with a low total of 7.5. Neither offense is flourishing, and I don’t expect either starter to get shelled.

Philadelphia’s bullpen has shown some vulnerability over the last week with a 5.12 FIP and home run issues, but that number is a bit inflated by a poor showing from the relievers on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Braves’ relief corps is dealing, posting a 2.76 xERA during that same span with strong command and minimal long-ball damage.

The finale should stay controlled offensively in Philadelphia, and I'd play this pick up to 55%.

Braves vs Phillies home run prediction: Ronald Acuna Jr (15%)

Ronald Acuña Jr. is scorching hot at the moment. He owns a .440 average over his last six games while going deep three times, and his ISO also sits at .440 during that span.

His 52.4% hard-hit rate recently supports the power surge, and the Phillies’ bullpen has been vulnerable to the long ball lately. Acuña also homered off a Philadelphia reliever in yesterday's game, giving this angle some immediate matchup relevance.

For what it’s worth, Acuña has swung it well against Luzardo in his career, although it's a small sample.

Play this pic up to 20%.

Braves vs Phillies weather

Weather in Philadelphia looks excellent today, with clear skies and temperatures sitting in the high-70s from first pitch through the afternoon. Winds are light around 5-6 mph, humidity is comfortable, and rain chances are 0% throughout. No delay concerns, and conditions look mostly neutral.

Braves vs Phillies odds

• Moneyline: Braves 41% | Phillies 60%
• Run line: Braves +1.5 (59%) | Phillies -1.5 (42%)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 (54%) | Under 7.5 (47%)

Braves vs Phillies trend

The Braves have cashed the Under in 24 of their last 35 road games for +13.30 units and a 35% ROI. Find more MLB betting trends for Braves vs. Phillies.

How to watch Braves vs Phillies and game info

Braves vs Phillies latest injuries

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Meet the Mets

The Mets looked fairly hopeless and bad through their first seven times up, but against all odds and tradition, they suddenly looked good and became winners.

Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, MLB.com, Newsday, New York Daily News, New York Post

Prior to Sunday’s victory, the Mets sent leaping Jefry Yan to Syracuse and recalled Tobias Myers in his place.

In a lost season with a lot of young players on the roster, having a stretch of struggles and failure ends up teaching them enough to be beneficial when it’s all said and done.

The Jonah Tong who joined the Mets yesterday morning is not only a year older than the Jonah Tong who debuted last year, but a year more mature and wiser.

If the Mets called up Mark Vientos looking for some sort of defensive improvement at first base, they’re severely disappointed thus far.

Around the National League East

Staging a late comeback with four runs over their final six outs, the Braves left Philadelphia with a 5-4 win over the Phillies and a fairly secure five-game lead in the NL East.

Using a technical term from the annals of the sport, the Marlins beat the hell out of Clay Holmes in his first bad start as a Cub in a 10-3 triumph.

In Sunday’s latest game, the Nationals coughed up another late lead, letting the Dodgers sneak off with a 7-5 win in a game where C.J. Abrams crossed the 30-homer plateau.

Around Major League Baseball

Joe Morgan, a veteran of four big league seasons as a player and another four as manager of the Boston Red Sox died on Sunday at 95 years old.

Not even a week after claiming him off waivers from the Mets, Luis Robert Jr. was placed on the 10-day injured list by the Orioles with a bit of hamstring discomfort.

Umpire Doug Eddings’ apology to Hancel Rincon for stopping the game to make him straighten his hat only came after an official reprimand from Major League Baseball the night before.

Pete Crow-Armstrong became the second player in baseball this season to hit 40 home runs and, if all goes well, he’ll add the 40-steal mark to that statline over the next three weeks.

On the career milestone front, Aroldis Chapman saved his 400th big league game in the Red Sox’s sweep-clinching win over the Orioles.

Gerrit Cole found himself in the history books once again, though in a derogatory sense this time, as he became the first pitcher to ever give up three consecutive home runs to start a game twice in his career.

Dave Roberts is hopeful that Shohei Ohtani can return to the Dodgers’ lineup today after a stretch of four straight games with the four-time MVP on the bench.

Peyton Tolle struck out a dozen Orioles in the Red Sox final game in Baltimore and even found the time to do a push-up on the mound while facing Pete Alonso.

The capper to a really bad week for Ketel Marte, his third inning line drive went directly off the helmet of Geraldo Perdomo standing near first base and sent him out of the game.

This Date in Mets History

On this date 10 years ago, news that the Mets signed Tim Tebow first came out.

After leading for approximately 0 seconds in four games and winning three of those games, the Guardians go to Baltimore today looking to see if they can get and maintain a lead.

Here’s Zack Meisel’s write-up of the Guardians’ doubleheader sweep. Tim Stebbins wrote up the finale here.

Ralphy Velazquez smoked a huge homer yesterday.

Around MLB:

The Orioles, Astros, and Blue Jays lost and the Rangers and White Sox won.

Garrett Cleavinger had a 3.31 ERA and 3.40 FIP through July. Since the beginning of August, however, the results haven’t been there, with a 10.38 ERA and 6.79 FIP. He has even improved his first pitch strike rate from the high 50s to the low 70s between both samples, so it’s not like his command has completely disappeared. We’ll look at his key performance indicators to see what’s going wrong:

Cleavinger is really not doing anything fundamentally different compared to what he was doing most of the year before August. His underlying data is still solid and suggests the pitcher the Rays trusted earlier this season is still there. A .385 BABIP has played a major role in his recent rut while a subtle shift in his fastball location has made his stuff a little less deceptive. That BABIP is roughly 100 points higher than his .283 career mark. Some of that is almost certainly variance, but his recent fastball location issues may be contributing at the margins.

Cleavinger has allowed a .390 wOBA for his career on fastballs located on the arm-side third of the zone compared to a .212 wOBA on fastballs located on the glove-side third. He primarily throws both of his fastballs across the zone glove-side and down to that optimal spot as evident in his heat map from March through July:

But lately he’s been missing more to the arm-side as we can see in his August through September heat map:

The fastball still plays there to some extent, but more importantly it loses some of the cross-fire deception and awkward angle Cleavinger creates when spotting it glove-side. He throws his breaking ball to a similar spot across the zone, so landing the fastball there helps the two pitches play off each other. Failing to consistently hit his fastball locations diminishes the effectiveness of his arsenal. He loses some of the deception and tunneling that makes his entire pitch mix difficult to attack.

Because Cleavinger’s delivery doesn’t appear meaningfully different, I wonder if the problem could be addressed through his visual cue rather than a mechanical adjustment.

When Cleavinger throws his fastball, his catcher initially sets up high and near the middle of the zone before sliding toward the glove-side target. Here’s the setup, which is typically more in on lefties:

A similar cue is used against righties, although it’s typically closer to the middle of the zone:

Because Cleavinger still looks like himself mechanically, a potential solution to getting his fastball glove-side and down again could be to shift the catcher set-up. He’s missing arm-side with a high and middle cue, so shifting the cue to high and more glove-side could help him in regaining feel for locating his fastball. This wouldn’t necessarily need to be a permanent change. Cleavinger has a long track record of spotting his fastball at its intended location. The idea isn’t to change his target, but to change the visual cue he uses to find it.

With Cleavinger already on the IL, the timing could actually work in his favor. The break gives him an opportunity to work through the adjustment without having to solve it in a game, but there is some risk in making an adjustment this late in the season. Relievers live on routine, and changing a visual cue in September could create more uncertainty if it doesn’t immediately improve his command. With the postseason approaching, there’s little margin for experimentation.

Cleavinger doesn’t need to reinvent himself. His underlying performance suggests the pitcher the Rays trusted earlier this season is still there. He needs the BABIP pendulum to swing back toward him and, more importantly, needs to regain the fastball location that makes his unusual delivery and arsenal so difficult to hit. If he can consistently get back to glove-side and down, the rest of his arsenal should follow.

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers didn’t call up an outfielder when active roster limits expanded on September 1, and in fact subtracted an outfielder with Alek Thomas sent back down to the minors. That meant no platooning of either struggling corner outfielder.

“We didn’t bring up an outfielder. That’s part of the bet on Teo, that he can right the ship,” manager Dave Roberts said on Tuesday. “That’s kind of where we’re at.”

Teoscar Hernández hit a go-ahead home run in the Dodgers’ win on August 30 in Detroit, then followed that up with a solid first week of the homestand. In his last seven games, Hernández has 11 hits in 26 at-bats (.423) with a home run, three doubles, four walks, and eight RBI.

Fourteen of Hernández’s 21 batted balls since last Sunday were hard-hit, including 13 with an exit velocity of at least 100 mph. Hernández found success in an old swing, one he used to success in 2024 and the start of 2025 before injuries made it difficult to execute the specific swing mechanics. Now healthier, Hernández talked with Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register about what’s working:

“Last year, I used it before I had the injury. That’s the way I was hitting,” said Hernandez, who got off to an excellent start in 2025. “Then when I came back, I was doing the same thing but I was feeling it (in his injured leg) so that’s why I stopped. This year when I got my hamstring issue, I had to get rid of it because it was putting so much pressure on the hamstring.

Links

At their Down on the Farm newsletter, Owen Riley and Maxfield Lane outlined some prospects who were and weren’t called up on September 1. They analyzed the Dodgers options of James Tibbs — who is not eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this December — and top prospect Josue De Paula, who is. They acknowledge De Paula’s defensive shortcomings, but nonetheless both advocated for the Dodgers calling up the 21-year-old straight from Tulsa. From Riley:

De Paula is too good for Double-A; he’s doing everything right with no red flags and very impressive contact metrics for a guy who is also blasting home runs at a 30+ per season pace. You won’t convince me that the Dodgers lineup looks better with Enrique Hernandez in it against LHP than it would with De Paula. This potential addition grades out top half, but not right at the top, for me, since it is only really relevant in the playoffs. Isolate to just October, though, and I do think De Paula has the potential to be a difference maker—a high-risk, high-reward play.

Kevin Baxter at the Los Angeles Times profiled Dodgers chairman and owner Mark Walter, currently under federal investigation for his insurance dealings. Among the tidbits in the article is this, which matches previous direct statements that the Dodgers are not for sale:

A source close to Walter not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times he has an interest in selling Chelsea if the terms are right but insisted there is no desire to sell the Sparks, the PWHL, his investment in professional squash or, more prominently, his stake in the Dodgers.

Good morning. From our top story, it appears silly season came early this year.

• Cardinals manager Oli Marmol was ejected after home plate umpire Doug Eddings told rookie pitcher Hancel Rincon that he couldn’t wear his cap at an angle. (The Athletic sub. req.) Steve Berman with the story.
• Here’s a non-paywalled version of the Marmol/Eddings/Rincon fiasco by Cesar Brioso.
• Eddings said Rockies hitter Hunter Goodman asked about the cap, but Goodman denied that he said anything about Rincon’s cap. (The Athletic sub. req.) Brendan Kuty with the story.
• The next day, all the Cardinals (and some of the Rockies) wore their caps askew in solidarity with Rincon during pre-game warmups.
• Ken Rosenthal reports that MLB told Eddings that he acted inappropriately (The Athletic sub. req.) in telling Rincon to wear his cap straight.
• Eddings ended up apologizing to Rincon and Marmol. By the way, Rincon got sent back to Triple-A Memphis after all this. So it sounds like this is all over.
• A new report by Paolo Torre raises new questions about Mark Walter’s purchase of the Dodgers and their lucrative TV deal. Gabe Lacques has a summary and a link to the podcast.
• Congratulations to former Cub Aroldis Chapman who became the ninth player to record 400 saves this weekend. Ian Browne with the highlights.
• Sticking with Boston, former Red Sox manager Joe Morgan died at 95. Our condolences go out to his friends, family and the Red Sox organization. Also, this is not the Hall-of-Fame second baseman Joe Morgan, who died a few years ago.
• Gabe Lacques reports that the Red Sox are placing outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela on the injured list and are not calling up former top prospect Kristian Campbell.
• About Kristian Campbell. Julian McWilliams goes in-depth on the Driveline revolution in hitting and how it has done more harm than good to players like Campbell. McWilliams admits that the Driveline approach has benefitted many hitters, but some like Campbell have been left behind.
• Maddie Lee reports that the Dodgers Shohei Ohtani may return to the lineup this week after missing four-straight games. However, his return to pitching seems more and more unlikely this season.
• Alden Gonzalez has five questions about the rest of Ohtani’s year.
• Jack Baer noticed that the Dodgers dropped outfielder Kyle Tucker to eighth in the lineup and Tucker hit his first home run in Dodger Stadium since mid-June.
• Brent Maguire has eight injured players who could make an impact with their return the rest of the season.
• Theo DeRosa has some teams that could play spoiler this September.
• Jay Jaffe has a new way of showing how the Giants have been so disappointing this year.
• Sticking with Northern California disappointments, Ben Clemens points to the Athletics’ pitching to explain why Sacramento has been so terrible.
• Zack Meisel, Cody Stavenhagen and Tim Britton look at the poor teams chasing the final Wild Card spot in the American League and note that some teams might earn easier playoff matchups by losing more games. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Bob Nightengale wants to toughen the rules to reduce the number of position players pitching. He also has some other notes, one of which clearly demonstrates that he doesn’t understand WAR.
• Eno Sarris reveals a new metric to evaluate a pitcher’s command. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Mark Feinsand explains why the Tigers should be more optimistic about 2027.
• Diamondback Geraldo Perdomo left the game on Sunday after getting hit in the head with a line drive while running the bases.

• And finally, Brian Murphy has MLB’s ten greatest games of all time.

Most fans don’t recognize his name, but Fred Ocasio has been a mainstay with the Colorado Rockies since 1998, working entirely in the lower minors. His résumé is extensive.

He began as a hitting coach with the AZL Rockies in Tucson before moving to the High-A Salem Avalanche for a year. He then moved back to the west coast as a hitting coach for the Short-Season Tri-City Dust Devils before taking over as manager in 2006. Ocasio managed the Dust Devils through the 2012 season, and then went back to the East Coast ahead of the 2013 season, where he then managed the Low-A Asheville Tourists for two years before Warren Schaeffer took over in 2015.

In 2015, Ocasio moved up to manage the Modesto Nuts and then the Lancaster JetHawks. However, from 2019-2021, he took a step back from coaching and served as a supervisor for the Spokane Indians, where he basically oversaw the coaching staff to make sure everything was running smoothly.

But the in 2022 season, the manager spot opened up for the Arizona Complex League. Ocasio threw his hat in the ring and got the job, where he has been since.

Early roles

Ocasio didn’t always have dreams of being a coach, but he knew it was something he could pivot to if his own professional career didn’t pan out. He played just 41 games in the minors before moving into coaching.

“I played a couple of years in the minor leagues, and then what made me pivot was that I was not good enough to continue playing,” he said.

“So the Rockies gave me a chance to be a coach in 1998. When I left college and signed as a free agent, I always had the dream that I was going to be a big leaguer, but I was realistic. I’d seen other guys play, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m not as good as those guys.’ I wanted to play Minor League Baseball just to get the experience and hopefully down the road, it would help me get a coaching job. And eventually that’s what happened.”

He started his coaching career as a hitting coach before moving into a managerial role, but he enjoyed aspects of both roles.

“As a hitting coach, my favorite part is obviously getting to work with the position players – the work that you do in the cages, the day in and day out work with them, watching them in the game and seeing how they improve throughout the year. That’s always been my favorite,” he said.

“The most important thing – and one of the things that I love watching – is when you get a kid, and he gets here, and he’s at one point in his career, and then you see him by the end of the season, you see all of the improvements he’s made. That’s always good to see. But then as a manager, it’s a little bit more because now you work with the pitchers, the hitters and the catchers. Obviously, creating relationships with all the players and getting to know them is the main thing with these guys.”

Building relationships is Ocasio’s MO, something he truly enjoys, and he makes sure to find commonalities with his players as quickly as possible.

“I always try to pick something that I think they like, or I ask questions,” he said. “It could be what college they come from, and then I could go, ‘Well, I played at Oklahoma State,’ and we go from there. It could be fantasy football. It could be golf. I always try to get something. I try to find out what kind of stuff they like and then if it’s something that I like too, we’ll go from there.”

But he also knows the importance of learning about their families, especially because for many of his players, this is their first time playing professional baseball or even being in the United States. For players to feel comfortable and play hard, they need to know how much their coaches care.

“I like to create relationships with the players because they want to know that you care for them,” he said.

“And then once you do that, once they see that, they’ll play for you. They’ll play hard, and obviously that’s something that I like to do. I like to make sure that the players feel comfortable around me, and I joke around with them. If I need to be hard on them, I’m hard on them. But I like to joke around with them, and I like to create those relationships so that they know, ‘Hey, this guy cares about me.’”

Setting the foundation

Ocasio returned to rookie ball in 2022, where he has stayed. Since then, the ACL Rockies have finished in the Top 4 three separate times, including their win in 2026, and made the playoffs in four of his five seasons. Additionally, Ocasio has won Manager of the Year twice in his five seasons. (More on that later.)

But he loves working with rookies because “the players are eager to learn.”

“They want to work, and when you get these young kids and they start the season (in one place) and by the end of the season – or maybe by the end of spring training when you see them again – you see an improvement,” he continued. “You say, ‘Wow, remember that kid when he came here? He was just 17 or 18 years old and he couldn’t do this or he did that, but look at how much better he’s doing it now.’ And just their growth and how you can see them grow as a professional baseball player and as a human being — just knowing that they’re getting better and seeing how they’re growing.”

And the ACL specifically is unique because he is not only helping players adjust to playing professional baseball, but also helping many of them adjust to living in the United States.

“That’s one of the main things, with me being bilingual and these kids coming from Puerto Rico, the Dominican (Republic), Venezuela, Mexico – all of these Spanish-speaking countries,” he said. “And then I go down to the Dominican – we have the academy down there – twice a year. Sometimes I just go once a year, but I go down there, get to know them, and talk to them – especially the ones I know who are coming over here.”

Once they get stateside, he makes sure to know that he’s got their backs.

“I stay in the hotel where they stay so I always tell them, ‘Look, this is my phone number. Call me at any time with whatever. If you need to go to the grocery store, I’ll take you to the grocery store. If you need to go to the bank, if something happens in the room and you need my help in the lobby, just give me a call,” he said. “Obviously you do stuff at the fields – you manage and you help them on the field – but off the field, I always want to make sure that they know I’m here for whatever they need.”

Additionally, similar to Triple-A, the ACL sees a lot of players making appearances in addition to their regular roster. This year in particular, Jared Thomas and Griffin Herring made rehab assignments in the ACL, while Jordan Romano made a few starts after he was signed to a minor league deal just to get him acclimated to the new organization.

So that’s something that Ocasio and his staff balance throughout the season.

“We work around everybody,” he said. “We have our schedule that we do with the ACL team and a lot of these rehab (assignments), when they come in town – depending where they are in their rehab – they join the team.

“So they practice with the team,” Ocasio continued. “Some of the kids that are not ready to practice are doing more training room stuff, or maybe they’re not ready to practice with the team, but they need flips in the cages or extra ground balls. We’ve got a few coaches down here, so we always have somebody to either throw extra BP or hit extra ground balls, or just be there for those rehabs that come. But most of the time, once they’re ready to start playing the game, they just incorporate with the team.”

One shining moment

This year was special for Ocasio and his team because they won the ACL and took home hardware for their coaching efforts.

“It was very nice,” Ocasio said of the win.

“Winning a championship is not easy, no matter what league it is, and for this team to be able to play the way they played this year and were able to finish and actually win the championship was awesome. I was telling them from day one, ‘Hey, this is the group that is going to do it.’ And they believed, and they worked hard, and they got it done.”

He also gave credit to his staff for their help along the way.

“It felt good. It’s obviously always good and it feels good to be named Manager of the Year,” he said, “but one thing I told the group here with the Rockies and the ACL is that for me, I feel it shouldn’t be Manager of the Year. It should be Staff of the Year because I was the manager here, but we had some hitting coaches, we had some pitching coaches and catching coaches. It was a group thing, we all did it together. We all worked hard every day to get these players better and work with them. So I was named Manager of the Year, but for me, it’s Staff of the Year.”

The friends made along the way

Ocasio has had a long tenure with the Rockies and has coached many players including Juan Uribe and Matt Holliday. But he also coached another notable Rockie: current manager Warren Schaeffer.

“I was the manager in Tri-City and Schaeffer was drafted that year,” Ocasio recalled. “He came first actually to Tri-City, back when we had those two teams – Tri-City and Casper in the short season. So when he got drafted, they sent him to Tri-City. He was going to be with that team, and I don’t remember if it was one or two practices that he was there. We were doing a mini camp, and then something happened in Casper where I got a call saying, ‘We need a shortstop. We need somebody that can play defense.’ And I said, ‘Well, Schaeffer’s your guy.’ So the he ended up going to Casper and starting his career in Casper as a baseball player.”

Schaeffer remembered it a little bit differently.

“When I first got drafted in ‘07, I went to Tri-City not knowing what to expect. He was the manager there. I was there for, like, four days, and Freddie shipped me out to Casper,” Schaeffer recalled. “We still joke about that today — he needed some guys that could hit, so he shipped me out. But Freddie’s the best. I mean, he’s literally the best. He wins everywhere he’s at. He finds a great atmosphere. He’s so much fun to be around. Everybody jokes with him. He’s a really, really good baseball man. Freddie’s just a Rockies staple.”

And Schaeffer remembers his time with Ocasio fondly.

“He’s just the same guy every day,” he said. “He’s never in a bad mood. He’s always for the player. He likes to have a good time. Everybody’s unique in how they coach and how they manage, and Freddie’s definitely unique.”

Ocasio is also proud of how Schaeffer worked his way up the Rockies’ system.

“It’s awesome to watch him (manage the Rockies). He’s a very, very good baseball person and an awesome human being,” he said.

But Schaeffer made sure to emphasize one thing: The importance of having your best teachers in the lower levels to set a foundation for the rest of an organization.

“Well, it’s been an age-old debate,” he said. “Since I’ve been coaching – especially in a development-centered organization like ours – a lot of people always say that you want to have your best teachers in the lower levels and pay them more than anybody else because when you’re coming in and the guys are freshly getting drafted or getting onboarded with what we’re trying to do, it’s a daily grind. It’s a process everywhere you’re at – High-A, Low-A, Double-A, Triple-A. It’s a daily grind, but it’s all different. And to have guys like that, like Freddie, who are great teachers at that level and they are persistent and keep doing every day.

“It’s ultra important.”

On the Farm

Triple-A:Albuquerque Isotopes 10, Tacoma Rainiers 6

Charlie Condon (No. 2 PuRP) was a one-man wrecking crew for the Isotopes today, scoring nine of their 10 runs. Oh, and he also hit two grand slams — one in the third inning and another in the eighth. His other RBI came off a double in the fourth inning, and the 10th RBI came from Sterlin Thompson (No. 16 PuRP) when he walked with the bases loaded to set up Condon’s first slam.

The slams were set up as such. In the third inning, Bryant Betancourt singled and Conner Capel popped out. Then Drew Avans singled, Nic Kent was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Thompson walked to load them again and then Condon happened. In the eighth, Cappel doubled, Avans hit a sac bunt, Kent walked, Thompson was hit by a pitch, and then Condon happened again.

Kent and Braxton Fulford were the only Isotopes without a hit.

The Rainiers (Mariners) put up a fight, though. They struck first, scoring three runs in the second inning. They also battled back in the fifth with two more runs, and their final was scored in the eighth to tie the game at six (and then Condon said ‘hold my beverage’ in the next inning).

On the pitching side, Case Williams pitched just 1.1 innings and allowed three runs on one hit with four walks and one strikeout. Blake Adams came in after him, pitching 3.1 innings and allowing two runs on eight hits with a walk and a strikeout. Evan Shawver got the hold with his 1.1 innings of work (3 hits, 1 BB); Andrew Baker blew the save in his 1.2 innings (2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K); and TJ Shook earned the win in his final 1.1 perfect innings.

Double-A:Reading Fightin Phils 6, Hartford Yard Goats 2

The Yard Goats were less fortunate in their matchup against the Fightin Phils (Phillies). They mustered eight hits, but only two came around to score. Kyle Karros continued his rehab assignment, going 2-for-4 with a walk, and Dyan Jorge went 3-for-4 with a triple, a run scored and a strikeout. The two RBI came from Zach Kokoska, who went 1-for-4 with a home run, a run scored, two RBI and a strikeout.

Reading jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning when Bryan Rincon led off the game with a walk and then Pedro León homered two batters later. Raylin Heredia then walked, stole second, and advanced to third on a balk. Then Raider Tello homered to put the Phils up 4-0. The Goats fought back in the fourth when Jorge singled with two outs and stole second, and then was driven home when Kokoska homered. But the Phils piled on more runs in the eighth when four-straight players reached to score two more runs and make the score 6-2.

On the pitching side, Sam Weatherly opened and pitched just 1.2 innings. He allowed four runs on three hits with three walks, a strikeout and two homers. Cade Denton came in to relieve him, pitching 5.1 scoreless innings and allowing three hits, one walk and three strikeouts. Nathan Blasick pitched the final two innings, allowing the two runs on four hits with a walk and a strikeout.

High-A:Spokane Indians 10, Everett AquaSox 4

The Indians made a statement in their final game, beating the AquaSox (Mariners) by a score of 10-4. Every Indian who had a hit had at least two, except for Jacob Hinderleider who went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Max Belyeu (No. 23 PuRP) didn’t record a hit, but he drew a walk, while Juan Castillo just went 0-for-2 before being pinch hit for.

Ethan Hedges and Robert Calaz each had three RBI. Hedges went 2-for-4 with a double, a home run, three RBI, two runs scored and a strikeout. Calaz went 2-for-4 with two home runs, three RBI and two runs scored. Dalis went 3-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored.

Everett scored first when Luke Stevenson singled to kick off the game and Luke Suisbel walked. Two batters later, Brandon Eike doubled to score Stevenson. But in the bottom of the first, Belyeu walked and Derek Bernard grounded into a force out to get Belyeu. But then Hedges doubled to score Bernard from first. Dalis then homered to tack on two more runs, and Calaz grounded out. But then Tanner Thach doubled and Hidalgo singled to make the score 4-0. Everett struck again in the third with another run, but then two batters into their half, Calaz homered to make the score 6-2. Back-to-back singles and a sac bunt then set up Hinderleider to sacrifice in Thach, and a single and a homer into the fourth made the score 9-2.

The Indians scored again in the seventh when Calaz hit a leadoff homer, and that was it for them. But the AquaSox were able to knock in two more runs in the ninth to make the final score 10-4.

On the pitching side, Yujanyer Herrera threw five innings and allowed two runs on four hits with three walks and six strikeouts. Luke Hansel relieved him for the final four, allowing two runs on five hits with one walk and two strikeouts to earn the save.

Low-A:San Jose Giants 5, Fresno Grizzlies 3

The Grizzlies were not as lucky in their final game, as they fell to the Giants (Giants) 5-3.

San Jose kicked things off right out of the gate when Lorenzo Meola hit a leadoff homer. Luke Nixon then doubled and Dario Reynoso struck out. But then Jeremiah Jenkins was hit by a pitch and Drew Smith singled to score Nixon. They scored again in the third when Nixon walked to lead things off and Reynoso struck out again, but then Jenkins singled and Drew Smith grounded out to score Nixon. In the fifth, Reynoso led off with a double and was scored two batters later by a Smith single to make things 4-0.

The Grizzlies finally got on the board in the fifth when Jesus Freitez tripled, Cort MacDonald doubled to score him, and Kyle Fossum singled to score MacDonald. Sebastian Blanco then doubled to score Fossum and put the Grizzlies within on, but they were unable to capitalize on the pitching change after that. The final run of the game was scored in the ninth when Yanzel Correa got two quick outs, but then hit Meola, who stole second, and allowed a hit to Nixon to make the final score 5-3. The Grizzlies went 1-2-3 in the ninth, when Carlos Renzullo was called out on strikes to end it.

Ronny Ugarte went 2-for 4 with a strikeout. MacDonald went 3-for-4 with a double, a run scored and an RBI. And Freitez, Fossum and Blanco each had one hit apiece.

On the pitching side, Tanner Sagouspe was the only pitcher to not allow a run, pitching a scoreless seventh and eighth in which he didn’t allow a hit nor a run, and only walked one while striking out three.

Sac-bunt extraordinaire Veen embracing new role with Rockies | MLB.com

Zac Veen has had a few clutch hits this week, including two late safety squeezes against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday and Saturday. He also had a clutch hit late in yesterday’s contest, as well as one on Wednesday that set up the walk-off win against the Baltimore Orioles. Thomas Harding spoke with Veen about his new role and how he’s fitting in with this team since he was called up just a few short weeks ago, and asked Warren Schaeffer a little bit about how he constructs his lineups throughout the game.

With Orioles in Denver, Holliday family creating more memories at Coors Field | Denver Gazette ($)

It was a special series for both the Rockies (who won two of three games against the Orioles) and Jackson Holliday, as he recorded his first home run at the ballpark he grew up going to with his dad, Matt, and brother, Ethan, who is now in the Rockies organization. Kevin Henry caught up with the elder brother about his memories, as well as gets an update on the younger brother as he recovers from a stress fracture in his foot that ended his 2026 campaign.

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