Category: MLB

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Happy birthday to Andrelton Simmons, and a mighty host of others.

Today in baseball history, in 2024 – With Shōta Imanaga pitching the first seven innings, three Cubs pitchers combine for a 12-0 no-hitter against the Pirates at Wrigley Field. Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge pitch one inning each to complete the feat. Imanaga is responsible for all seven strikeouts in the game, while Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong both homer and drive in three runs to lead to offense. It is the first no-hitter by the Cubs in the normally hitter-friendly ballpark since 1972, and other stories as well.

Today in baseball history:

• 1908 – In New York, Walter Johnson opens a series against New York by besting Jack Chesbro, 3-0, allowing six hits in the Washington win.
• 1920 – In Boston, 33,000 are on hand for a doubleheader and to see Babe Ruth return to the Yankee lineup. The Babe hits his 45th homer in the opener to give New York a 5-3 win.
• 1935 – Carl Hubbell subdues the Reds, 6-4, for his 20th win of the season. King Carl scatters 12 hits including three apiece by Kiki Cuyler and Lew Riggs.
• 1961 – Roberto Clemente leads the Pirates to a 9-4 win over the Cardinals. After doubling and scoring the first of three first-inning Pirate runs, Clemente greets newly-inserted reliever Al Cicotte with a line-drive home run worth three more runs.
• 1961 – At Los Angeles, Don Drysdale stops the Giants, 4-0, allowing just two hits.
• 1964 – The Yankees overcome two homers by Ken Harrelson to beat the host A’s, 9-7, in 10 innings. Mickey Mantle and Elston Howard hit back-to-back homers in the fourth inning for New York.
• 1968 – The Dodgers’ Don Sutton allows just three hits and strikes out 12 to beat the Phils, 3-0.
• 1969 – Down 4-1 in the ninth against the Tigers in Detroit, Baltimore gets consecutive home runs from Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, and Brooks Robinson off Earl Wilson to tie. Tom Timmermann then gives up the winning run on a double, sacrifice fly, and Baltimore chop as the O’s win, 5-4.
• 1982 – At Baltimore, Jim Palmer one-hits the Twins, 3-0, for Baltimore to get his 11th consecutive victory. It is Palmer’s second career one-hitter against the Twins.
• 1999 – The Red Sox defeat the Mariners, 4-0, as Pedro Martinez wins his 20th game, striking out 15 batters in eight innings of work.
• 2002 – Randy Johnson pitches a complete game in defeating the Dodgers, 7-1. The Diamondbacks’ ace improves to 20-5 on the year and punches out eight opponents to give him 300 or more strikeouts for the fourth straight season, the first ever pitcher to do so
• 2009 – Roy Halladay pitches a one-hitter to beat the Yankees, 6-0.

Today in Cubs history:

• 1902 – Chicago Orphans rookie Alex Hardy debuts with a 1-0 shutout victory over Brooklyn, and becomes the first 20th century National League pitcher to toss a shutout in his first game.
• 1908 – In a game, the significance of which will not be recognized for another three weeks, the Pirates and Cubs are tied 0-0 in the last of the 10th at Pittsburgh. With two outs and the bases loaded, Pittsburgh’s Owen Wilson singles to CF, scoring Fred Clarke with the winning run. Warren Gill, on first base, does not get to second but stops short, turns, and heads for the dugout, a common practice. The Cubs’ Johnny Evers calls for the ball from Jimmy Slagle, touches second, and claims the run does not count as Gill has been forced. The lone umpire, Hank O’Day, has left the field. When queried, he rules that Clarke had already scored, so the run counts. The Cubs protest to league president Harry Pulliam, but are denied. This is the first time the Cubs try this tactic, but not the last, as the Fred Merkle game will demonstrate.
• 1916 – Reds player-manager Christy Mathewson, pitching his only game not in a Giant uniform, beats his long-time nemesis Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown and the Cubs, 10-8, in the second game of a twin bill, in what is the final career game for both pitching greats. Matty takes a 10-5 lead into the ninth, but wanting to match Brown’s complete game feat, hangs on to record the final three outs in spite of three runs scoring in the bottom of the ninth. In the 25 contests in which the two legends have faced one another, Matty, by winning the last decision, takes a 13-12 advantage over his rival.
• 1935 – The third-place Cubs get two home runs, including a grand slam from Augie Galan, to beat the Phillies at Wrigley Field. Larry French is the winner, 8-2, for his 13th victory.
• 1967 – In the first of two at Wrigley Field, Chuck Hartenstein and the Cubs top the Dodgers, 2-1, in 11 innings. Don Sutton takes the loss and is now 0-7 against Chicago.
• 1972 – The Cubs top the Mets, 2-0, as Fergie Jenkins posts his 19th win. 
• 1998 – Sammy Sosa‘s 57th home run leads the Cubs to a 5-2 win over Pittsburgh. Sosa surpasses Hack Wilson‘s club record set 68 years ago.
• 2020 – Yu Darvish continues his dominant season as he allows just one hit – a solo homer by Matt Carpenter to lead off the sixth inning – and no walks while striking out 11 in seven innings in defeating the Cardinals, 4-1. The Cubs ace is now 7-1, 1.44 on the season.

Cubs Birthdays:Andrelton Simmons*, Jim McAnany, Eddie Waitkus, Red Corriden. Also notable: Mike Piazza HOF.

Today in history:

• 1861 – British Association for the Advancement of Science proposes standard units of electrical measurement (the Volt after Alessandro Volta; the Ohm after Georg Ohm) at its 31st annual meeting (Manchester, England).
• 1888 – George Eastman patents the first roll-film camera and registers the brand name “Kodak”.
• 1950 – “Beetle Bailey” comic strip debuts in 12 newspapers.
• 1965 – Rock group The Who’s van is vandalized with $10,000 worth of equipment stolen while the group is inside Battersea Dogs Home buying a guard dog at the time.
• 1972 – “The Price is Right,” the US’s longest-running games show, debuts on CBS.
• 1998 – Google is formally incorporated by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.
• 2016 – Mother Teresa is canonized by Pope Francis in a ceremony at the Vatican.
• 2025 – Long-lost painting, ‘Portrait of a Lady’ by Giuseppe Ghislandi, is handed over to the Argentine justice system after being discovered in an estate that belonged to the daughter of a Nazi fugitive; the painting was looted in Nazi-occupied Europe, missing for 80 years.

*pictured.

Greetings, Brew Crew Ball community. The Brewers are in the midst of another solid winning stretch, and they’re one step closer to locking up the NL Central with just over three weeks to go in the regular season. After facing the Cubs for four games at Wrigley, they’ll continue their Central schedule with three games against the Reds, three games against the Cubs, three games against the Reds, and three games against the Pirates to get them to mid-September.

Feel free to use this thread to chat about (almost) anything you want: video games, food, movies, non-baseball sports, the Brewers, you name it. As long as it’s appropriate and is allowed by our moderators, it’s fair game here.

You know the drill.

This is now an open thread:

When I learned late last year that the Cardinals intended to make Kyle Leahy a starter, my first impression was….hmmm. I sifted some data on his past as an MiLB starter and was profoundly unimpressed. His starting history, last at AA, was quite similar to many young pitchers who never see a major league mound. Not promising. Yet, we had some more recent data where he was experiencing a fair amount of success as kind of a jack-of-all-trades reliever. Enough that I wasn’t sure what bucket to put him in. Swingman? Multi-inning relief? Leverage reliever? In 2024, he showed some promise. In 2025, he handled all the roles thrown at him adroitly, confounding the predictive stats that preceded him. His 88 IP of relief defied orthodoxy that would suggest overload, and yet he closed the year with a starting assignment! My (first) impression was that he was one of those guys who might be more than a reliever but perhaps less than a full-on regular starter. A tweener in the mold of Colin Rea or Chad Patrick. I wondered if the decision to move him to starter was motivated more by lack of starting depth than it was a real attempt to better leverage his pitching acumen. Like many things, I was willing to see how it turned out, and I put this date in my calendar of articles to write, and I would come back and re-assess. So, here we are.

We now have almost two years of data on Mr. Leahy. Albeit somewhat mixed because of his changing roles, but we are moving beyond small sample size. Starting with some raw counting stats showing what he has accomplished as a starter in 2026, I see he has accumulated 2.4 fWAR through the end of August. That places him 40th among MLB starters, almost in a dead heat with our own Andre Pallante. Some folks would describe this performance as a solid#2. I’m not sure I’d go that far. I look at good rotations (SEA, NYY, PHI) and see that they have multiple starters operating above this level, in some cases a fair bit above (5 pitchers have more than doubled Leahy’s 2.4 fWAR). In reality, in a strong rotation, Leahy’s performance would be 3rd or 4th best. That is nothing to sneeze at. So, overall, he has been pretty good.

Breaking his performance down by month, there are some striking numbers:

Month	FIP	xERA	xFIP	K-BB%	K%	BB%
Apr	5.57	6.28	4.21	8.20%	16.40%	8.20%
May	3.75	6.85	4.32	11.20%	20.70%	9.50%
June	3.01	4.42	4.24	11.10%	19.40%	8.30%
July	3.32	3.35	3.1	20.40%	24.50%	4.10%
Aug	0.87	3.11	2.15	29.30%	32.10%	2.70%
Overall	3.51	4.85	3.69	14.70%	21.70%	14.70%

When I look at any pitcher, these columns are my go-to, first look indicators. My very first? 3.51 overall FIP. I like anything under 4.00, and anything under 3.50 falls in the really, really good category. I was immediately curious about his FIP as compared to xERA and xFIP. I think of FIP as expected ERA based on pitcher controllables. xERA is expected ERA based on context-insensitive batted ball data. Across 3 years of MLB history, Leahy has consistently over-performed his xStats. Some of that is the ballpark he pitches in, some of that is the defense he pitches in front of, and some of that is his innate ability to avoid hard pull contact. It becomes hard to attribute much to good luck, not across 3 years.

What I really notice is that Kyle has improved as the season has gone on, with the inflection point appearing in June. He struggled across the board in April, his predictive stats (FIP) suggested better days in May and by June his actual results started to really improve. Notice how his xERA comes closer to his FIP as the season wears on. Not as much divergence. I note the striking difference in K-BB% from July onward. Something to explore when I mine the pitch-by-pitch data. My personal threshold is I look for a K-BB% of 15 or better. These last two months have been a fair bit better. Sustainable? Interestingly, he has improved both his K% and his BB% as the season has gone on. But that stark change between June and July sure stands out. What gives?

We will get there, but I follow my usual methodology in diving deeper and deeper until I find answers.

To go beyond the stat line, let’s look at some underlying (Statcast) metrics. On the left we see that Leahy has a six pitch assortment, which is it’s own advantage. None of the pitches exhibit extraordinary movement, although that Sweeper sweeps horizontally toward the high end of the average scale, as does the Slider.

These two pitches have plus movement, but I suspect having six pitches he can regularly throw for strikes makes each one of them a little better. First, it is easy for a hitter to eliminate a pitch or sit on one when a 2- or 3- pitch pitcher is having trouble throwing one of his pitches for strikes. Not so easy to do when that pitcher still have 3 more pitches in his arsenal.

Kyle pretty evenly distributes his pitches, also, throwing nothing more than 27% of the time nor less than 13%. His most thrown pitch, like most pitchers, is his FB. 27% is relatively low usage rate, however.

Here on the left, we see some blue (not so hot) and some red (good). Notice that HardHit% in the 2nd percentile. I’m thinking that is a vestige of early season woes. I do notice that FG has his HardHit% at 41% where as Statcast has it at 48%. Why the gap? Are their HardHit calc methods THAT much different?

We will see a chart that shows his rolling average later. HardHit% has steadily declined through the season and is better than average now. In fact, if you look at the table at the top and the chart on the left, you can see evidence that many of the blue lines are lagging his current output. The key question is … is the improvement sustainable, or is the aggregated, full season view more indicative?

On the more positive side, we see that Leahy has a strong GB% and an excellent walk rate. These numbers are in line with his historical norms, such as they are in a relief role.

About that striking change in the June-July timeframe, I got curious, so I went to Fangraphs and graphed out his pitch usage by month and added in hard hit % (shown below). Starting with the HardHit% (the dark blue line), you notice a steady decline as the season goes on, falling below (better than) league average in the June timeframe. I don’t have room for another visual, but I looked and xwOBA follows a very similar trend line. Interestingly, I notice that the downward trend in HardHit% (and xwOBA) follow a similar trajectory to declining reliance on his fastball (the purple line below). Instead, he has added more use of his breaking/off-speed pitches (ie. added more wrinkle to his game) as shown in the red, yellow and blue lines.

The pitch mix influence on HardHit% and xwOBA seems to be correlated. Cause and effect? Let’s continue.

If we look at Stuff+, Leahy’s FB is rated at 93 this year, or below average. That explains why it is getting hit hard and why he is using it less. His Sinker (115) and his Slider (111) Stuff+ ratings are excellent although his Curve (95) and Cutter (93) ratings are below average. I would note that he carries a strong Location+ rating of 105 (overall) and in the aggregate Pitching+ has him as a slightly above average pitcher in 2026 as well as across his career.

Here are some more things to peek at. The chart on the left essentially demonstrates how well Leahy tunnels his various pitches. When a pitcher “tunnels” well, he makes it harder for the hitter to discern spin well enough read what the pitch is going to be by making some or all them appear to spin the same. In this case, Leahy releases his 4-seam and 2-seam (Sinker) fastballs with nearly the same spin direction, but as you can see in the above chart, different movement. I’d personally like to see more differentiation there, but that is nitpicking.

The Sinker has above average rise, but in ways ends up being too much like his four seamer, although independently, the Sinker performs better. Likewise, he tunnels his Change well with the two fastballs, but gets pretty ordinary results, mostly as a result of sub-optimal pitch shape. His change simply doesn’t have enough fade at the end to fool a hitter and the velo difference itself isn’t enough. Notice on the opposite side of the spin cycle sit the sweeper and curveballs. The exact opposite spin on a pitch looks the same to a hitter with sharp eyes (ie. that’s also good tunneling). Guess what? Those pitches, while the spin looks the same out of his hand, the pitches behave radically differently when the get to the plate and they become highly effective. In the end, Sinker-Sweeper-Curve combinations are his bread and butter and show each having positive run value that leans elite. Oddly, his slider is not well disguised, but is still quite effective.

In the end, you have a pitcher with three pretty effective breaking balls (Sweeper, Curve, Slider) and a reasonably good 2-seam Fastball (Sinker). After looking at this, I am a bit surprised about the following:

Order	FIP	xERA	xFIP	K-BB%	K%	BB%
1st time	2.68	3.38	3.31	18.7%	25.8%	7.1%
2nd time	3.19	4.35	3.54	1.5%	21.6%	6.1%
3rd time	6.64	13.19	5.26	3.2%	11.8%	3.6%
Overall	3.51	4.85	3.69	14.7%	21.7%	14.7%

Here I mapped out the same stats as above, but instead of by month, I did by times through the order. Even with a pretty effective four pitch mix, Leahy is largely unable to successfully navigate an order for the third time (beware of SSS – only 19 IP pitched 3rd time through). I suspect some of it has to do with stamina (not being used to a starter’s work load) and perhaps a little bit to do with needing to show more of his breaking pitches early (due to a non-productive fastball) and just flat giving hitters too many looks at them by the third time through. That sinker spin has enough difference that once hitters get some looks, they will pick it up and that will allow them to either sit on it or ignore it, both of which reduce the effectiveness of having a deep arsenal (as it is no longer deep). Time will tell on this one. The fall off in K-BB% the third time through is striking, no?

One last thing I look at…run values for his pitches. This ends up being a little redundant, but there are some interesting tidbits when each pitch is summarized into one value. Why is the 4-seam having so much less run value this year than last? His velo is down more than 1 mph (probably typical in the transition from reliever to starter). Why is his good curveball not quite as good this year? I don’t know. This where comparing Kyle Leahy the reliever with Kyle Leahy the starter becomes challenging. So I note, and wait for more data.

Some questions going forward

So, do we know why his K-BB% has improved so dramatically recently? Is it the refined pitch mix? Will the league catch up to that?

How will his body and his arm react next year after setting new highs in IP and overall workload (pitches, up/downs, steps, etc.)?

Which pitcher is he? The April/May Leahy or the July/August Leahy? Is June the 50th percentile outcome for him? Have we seen floor and ceiling together this season?

Summary

My primary concern with Kyle is his IP and what it will be by season’s end. Pitchers who greatly exceed their prior workloads have a pretty strong tendency to be not as sharp in the following season and subject to greater incidence of injury.

As a pitcher, he seems solid, if unspectacular. His pitch mix, GB% and low walk rate seem like sustainable, steady-eddy results that will likely keep him from being super-volatile, either up or down. I really like how he has improved as this season goes on, and I think it is fair to say he has built on his successful 2025 season very well.

I wonder if we’d like him a lot more if he was doing this at age 24 or 25, than at age 29?

Toledo Mud Hens 2, Indianapolis Indians 1 (box)

Jackson Wolf delivered six hitless innings, and Toledo reclaimed the lead in the eighth to earn its third consecutive win over Indianapolis. Four Mud Hens pitchers combined to allow just one hit while striking out 12.

Wolf’s only two blemishes were a leadoff walk in the second and a hit batter in the fifth. The latter looked like it might have caught the knob of Tyler Callihan’s bat, but there’s no replay to review that in the minors.

Wolf filled up the strike zone over six innings, throwing 54 strikes on 72 pitches. He struck out five with his sweeper and eight overall, generating 13 whiffs on 41 swings. Wolf’s command of his secondary pitches was a thing of beauty today. His sweeper was lethal in two-strike counts and averaged 11 inches of horizontal break.

"it's a swing and a miss"
Another DAY on the Bump for Wolfie pic.twitter.com/jH0SPDFjKP

— Toledo Mud Hens (@MudHens) September 4, 2026

The no-hit line is a bit deceptive. Indianapolis put 10 balls in play against Wolf, including six hard hits, but some good defense from Michael Siani in center field, among others, bailed him out a few times.

Wolf’s only problem was that the offense provided hardly any run support. The Mud Hens squandered an early opportunity in the second, when Siani struck out with the bases loaded. James Outman grounded into Toledo’s second double play of the game earlier in the inning.

Andrew Navigato doubled with one out in the fifth and advanced to third on a groundout, but the Hens stranded him there. They finally broke the scoreless tie in the sixth. Corey Julks doubled with one out, and Jung drove him home with a single to center.

The Holy Sheetz Play of the Game goes to the first RBI of the night !! @sheetzpic.twitter.com/FiOX7A6HKn

— Toledo Mud Hens (@MudHens) September 4, 2026

Hayden Minton preserved the lead and extended the combined no-hit bid in the seventh, working around a leadoff walk. Ty Madden took over in the eighth and struck out the first batter he faced before Nick Cimillo gave the Indians their first hit of the day, a game-tying solo homer to center.

The Mud Hens answered in the bottom half. Jung collected his third base knock of the game, and Outman walked before Seby Zavala bunted both runners into scoring position. Indianapolis intentionally walked Chris Meyers to load the bases, and Navigato brought Jung home with a force out.

Madden returned for the ninth but walked Enmanuel Valdez with one out. Tanner Rainey took over and retired the final two batters, securing the victory and Rainey’s third save.

Jung: 3-4, R, RBI

Navigato: 1-3, 2B (15), RBI, HBP

Julks: 1-4, 2B (15), R

Wolf: 6.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, BB, 8 K

Coming Up Next: The series continues Friday at 7:05 p.m. ET. Toledo leads 3-0.

Somerset Patriots at Erie SeaWolves, postponed

Thursday’s game was postponed due to rain. It will be made up as part of a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 5:05 p.m. ET.

Coming Up Next: The series resumes Friday at 6:05 p.m. ET. Somerset leads 2-0.

Dayton Dragons 9, West Michigan Whitecaps 4 (box)

West Michigan carried a two-run lead into the bottom of the eighth, but Dayton scored seven runs with two outs to hand the Whitecaps their first loss of the series.

The loss left West Michigan two games behind Great Lakes in the Midwest League East with only three games remaining. Great Lakes was rained out Thursday and has four games left, beginning with a doubleheader Friday, leaving the Whitecaps needing to win out and get plenty of help to reach the postseason.

Cale Wetwiska made his High-A debut in this one. He struck out the first two batters he faced but had to escape a jam after a hit batter and a single put runners on the corners. Dayton broke through in the second when a pitch hit Damian Ruiz, advanced to third on a Kyle Henley single and scored on Johnny Ascanio’s sacrifice fly.

Cale Wetwiska strikes out the first batter he faces in High-A. pic.twitter.com/9YaxkxMwIV

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) September 3, 2026

The Whitecaps answered in the third. Bryce Rainer doubled — his second hit of the day — and Beau Ankeney launched a no-doubter to the scoreboard in left-center.

Beau Ankeney absolutely destroys this ball high off the scoreboard in left center for a 2-run homer that gives West Michigan the lead. It’s his 9th home run with the Whitecaps, and his 24th overall this year. pic.twitter.com/QlANxGOy4b

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) September 3, 2026

West Michigan added to its 2-1 lead in the fourth with a single from Cristian Santana and a double to right from Juan Hernandez. Despite the ball going into the corner, Dayton got the relay home in time to tag Santana, who stumbled rounding third. The catcher dropped the ball, though, leading to a quick reversal of the home-plate umpire’s out call.

Juan Hernandez yanks a double to right and Cristian Santana rumbles home from 1st to put the Whitecaps up 3-1. pic.twitter.com/EULevrRdD3

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) September 4, 2026

Wetwiska got through the third 1-2-3, but he gave up a solo shot and two singles while recording only one out in the fourth. Zack Lee took over and stranded both runners, preserving a 3-2 lead.

Stephen Hrustich drove in Jackson Strong with a sac fly to put West Michigan back up by two in the fifth. Lee retired the side in order in the bottom half, but Dayton pulled within one again in the sixth. Jalen Evans got the final out of the inning and worked a clean seventh. He was an out away from getting through the eighth without trouble, but things unraveled.

A double tied the game up, and a single put the Dragons in front 5-4. Consecutive walks loaded the bases, prompting a pitching change for the Whitecaps. Logan Berrier couldn’t stop the bleeding. Back-to-back two-run hits blew the game wide open before Berrier finally ended the seven-run inning.

West Michigan struck out six times against David Lorduy over the final two frames.

Ankeney: 3-4, 2B (6), HR (9), 2 RBI, BB

Rainer: 2-5, 2B (21), R, K

Hernandez: 2-4, 2B (7), K

Wetwiska: 3.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, BB, 4 K

J. Evans (L, 4-5): 2.0 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 2 K

Coming Up Next: The series continues Friday at 7:05 p.m. ET. West Michigan leads 2-1.

Lakeland Flying Tigers 8, Bradenton Marauders 2 (box)

Lakeland launched a pair of three-run homers during a seven-run third inning and cruised past Bradenton to even the series.

Cameron Flukey gave the Flying Tigers four scoreless innings, allowing two hits and three walks while striking out six. He had to work out of trouble immediately after Bradenton’s first two runners reached, but Flukey struck out the next three batters.

Flukey faced another jam in the second after a hit-by-pitch, bunt single and throwing error put runners on second and third, but Mike Jarvis flied out to end the threat.

Flukey generated 10 whiffs on 21 swings, including four with his slider and three with his changeup. His fastball was elite, generating 20 inches of induced vertical break and 8 inches of armside run.

Cameron Flukey records his fourth straight scoreless outing at Low-A 😮‍💨

The Tigers’ 2026 first-round pick racked up six strikeouts over four frames tonight.

Flukey ranks No. 6 in Detroit’s system.

(🎥@tigersMLreport) pic.twitter.com/GCzqNrhvbU

— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) September 4, 2026

The Flying Tigers erupted in the third. Brady Ballinger singled, and Hunter Dobbins doubled before Angel De Los Santos launched a three-run homer to left.

Ángel De Los Santos smashes a 3-run homer to left to give Lakeland the lead. It’s his 3rd home run with the Flying Tigers, and his 9th overall this year. pic.twitter.com/2psKDXR4vq

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) September 3, 2026

Tyson LeBlanc singled, and Jesus Pinto walked before Anibal Salas followed with another three-run shot, making it 6-0.

Anibal Salas destroys this ball for a 3-run homer and Lakeland leads 6-0 in the 3rd. pic.twitter.com/uMSpMQcOyJ

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) September 3, 2026

Cris Rodriguez doubled after the homer and scored on Zach MacDonald’s sacrifice fly.

Cris Rodríguez comes up a few feet short of a homer with this 106 MPH double off the ea in left. pic.twitter.com/KiaYRuY5C4

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) September 3, 2026

Paul Wilson took over in the fifth and struck out three consecutive batters after hitting the leadoff man. Bradenton finally broke through against him in the sixth. Tre Phelps and Brent Iredale opened the inning with singles, and Wilson issued a one-out walk to load the bases before Leonardo Rossell entered. Carl Calixte brought Phelps home with a groundout, but Rossell stranded the other two runners.

Rossell’s command slipped in the seventh. He walked Chris Rembert before allowing a single and another walk to load the bases with one out. Yendy Gomez entered and traded a run for an out on Antonio Pimentel’s grounder before striking out Bralyn Brazoban to end the inning.

Rodriguez restored the six-run lead in the eighth with his third home run of the season, a leadoff shot to right-center. Both of Rodriguez’s extra-base hits came off the bat at 105 mph, the two hardest hits of the day.

Cris Rodríguez gets a 98.5 MPH fastball and lines it at 105 MPH to the opposite field for his 3rd Low-A home run in 6 games. pic.twitter.com/qlOzjdmjRd

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) September 4, 2026

Gomez struck out the side in the bottom half, giving him four strikeouts over 1 2/3 perfect innings. He threw 15 of his 19 pitches for strikes and generated seven whiffs on 10 swings, including six on six swings against his slider.

Xiomer Guacache retired the side in order in the ninth to finish the victory.

De Los Santos: 1-4, HR (3), R, 3 RBI, BB, K

Salas: 2-5, 2B (17), HR (8), R, 3 RBI, K

Rodriguez: 2-4, 2B (4), HR (3), 2 R, RBI, K

Dobbins: 1-3, 2B (11), R, BB, K

Flukey: 4.0 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 3 BB, 6 K

Coming Up Next: Lakeland and Bradenton play a doubleheader Friday beginning at 5 p.m. ET. The series is tied 1-1.

It is a delectable September showdown series pitting longtime rivals: Braves at Phillies, four games in Philadelphia that will go a long way toward determining the winner of the National League East.

And it starts in spectacular fashion: Left-handers Chris Sale of Atlanta opposing Cristopher Sánchez, the 2024 Cy Young Award winner and perhaps this year’s honoree linking up in a rare battle of true aces Friday, Sept. 4.

“We obviously love any time he’s on the bump,” Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson says of Sale. “He’s a bulldog.”

Yet for the Braves, who hold a four-game lead on Philadelphia with 22 games remaining, it’s the rest of the weekend that might better inform their championship chances as summer gives way to autumn.

They have no All-Star answer for Philly’s Zack Wheeler and Jesus Luzardo, who pitch Saturday and Monday. Both strike out more than 10 batters a game and their stuff is well-suited for October. On this superstar-studded Philly squad, Sánchez, Luzardo and Wheeler go 1-2-3 in WAR.

Atlanta? It will counter with left-hander Martín Pérez and righties Tyler Mahle and Bryce Elder, respected arms who nonetheless will not light up the marquee in the NL playoffs the way Philly’s trio, or the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tarik Skubal or Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski can.

In a sense, this weekend may give us a sense whether Atlanta’s good guys are good enough.

“Just consistency,” Atlanta manager Walt Weiss says when asked what he needs from the non-Sale staffers. “Our pitching’s been really good. Pretty much all year. Just continue to do what they’re doing. It’s all about finding consistency in this league.

“It’s tough to do, because it’s a tough league.”

Particularly when injuries wrack the pitching department, as it has the Braves’. Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach and Reynaldo Lopez have missed much or all of this season. Meanwhile, Sale is 37, and Atlanta has run a six-man rotation to cut down his innings and allow him a loose leash on nights he does throw.

He will be on a full week’s rest when he pitches Friday, his last outing a sterling one-hit shutout of the Dodgers Aug. 27. At 144 innings, his tank is still full.

And the results bear that out: Sale has a 2.06 ERA and 177 strikeouts in those 144 innings, helping Atlanta’s rotation post a 3.72 ERA, seventh in the majors.

The rest of the starters? They’ve combined for a 4.14 ERA, a more middle-of-the-pack outcome.

Yet Atlanta may have at least a partial antidote to its decent but not dominant pitching situation.

A 'great pickup' at the deadline

It was virtually lost in the flurry of higher-profile deals at the trade deadline, one that left Atlanta fans grumbling that their GM, Alex Anthopoulos, did not do enough to upgrade the rotation for the stretch.

No, Tyler Mahle, acquired from the San Francisco Giants, did not move the needle much in that first week of August, not when Skubal or Robbie Ray or Clay Holmes were available. Yet something’s happened since Mahle arrived in Atlanta.

It’s just a five-start sample, but Mahle’s output with the Braves compared to the Giants is startling:

His ERA dropped from 5.13 in 18 starts with the Giants to 1.48. His WHIP fell from 1.39 to 0.96, his hits per nine from 9.0 to 7.1. Meanwhile, his strikeout-walk ratio more than doubled, from 2.41 to 6.40.

Weiss credits the Braves and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner for “tightening up his arsenal,” particularly throwing his splitter more often, especially against right-handers. Mahle downplays that notion, claiming he’s the same guy.

Yet a change of scenery undeniably helped.

“I don’t know what to tell you. It’s like a fresh start,” says Mahle. “I have the same stuff I did in San Fran. Same repertoire. There’s nothing to it but fresh start, good baseball team, good coaching staff.

“I went from one of the worst records to one of the best records. It’s pretty crazy. There’s been no hiccup in that transition over here. Everybody here is awesome. Everybody made me feel welcome. Just get here and do your thing.”

It would be a boon for the Braves if he maintains this level. Beyond Sale, there’s not a ton of bat-missing in this Atlanta rotation, which makes the fielding independent pitching marks of their ace (a majors-leading 2.19) and Mahle’s Braves FIP (2.87) stand out compared to Pérez (4.20), Elder (4.71) and Grant Holmes (4.71).

The Braves would love for AJ Smith-Shawver, recently returned from June 2025 Tommy John surgery, to figure heavily in their plans, but he’s been hit hard in four starts and may not have the runway to impact their playoff rotation.

That makes Mahle’s recent run all the more important.

“Great pickup,” says Weiss. “He’s been a big boost to our rotation. He has the invisible fastball guys have a tough time getting to. He commands the ball.

“Man, he’s been more than good for us. He’s been unbelievable.”

Follow the leader

The great unknown: How much will the Braves need “unbelievable” rather than simply serviceable this weekend, in the final three weeks, in the playoffs?

It doesn’t hurt when their No. 1 is a tone-setter.

“It's kind of tough, you know, following up on him,” says Holmes of Sale. “Obviously, the best pitcher I've ever played with. Just following in his footsteps, trying to do what he does, how he prepares.

“It’s a future Hall of Famer. And you don't get to play with those too often, so, when you get the chance, you just take it all in.”

Holmes in some ways epitomizes the middle to back end of Atlanta’s rotation. Four of his past six outings have been scoreless efforts, including a six-inning, three-hit effort against the New York Yankees and a six-inning, one-hit muzzling of the Chicago White Sox – two AL playoff teams.

Holmes given up more than three runs in just two of his career-high 26 starts, one at Coors Field. Elder, a 2024 All-Star who in 149 innings has just 121 strikeouts, is a little more extreme. He’s given up two or fewer earned runs in 14 of his 26 starts, but five or more in six of them.

It is that sort of volatility that can keep managers up deep into October nights. Come playoff time, the Braves will contract their rotation down to two or three and lean more heavily on a bullpen that’s fourth in the majors with a 3.39 ERA.

Perhaps their starters’ stuff will pick up in shorter bursts. Perhaps set-up man Robert Suarez will complete his return from a forearm strain that’s sidelined him since June.

“I’m just excited we have the opportunity to win this division. And go to the playoffs,” says Mahle. “Wherever I end up pitching, great. I just happen to be on a winning team, a team that has the ability to go deep in the playoffs.”

And at the very least, has an ace they can hand the ball to with little hesitation.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Do Braves have pitching beyond Chris Sale? Philly series could turn NL East

The first weekend of September features some critical series in the Major League Baseball pennant races, highlighted by the Philadelphia Phillies hosting the Atlanta Braves for a three-game set with four games separating the two teams in the NL East.

Atlanta has held first place for nearly five months and heads north to Citizens Bank Park with a four-game advantage atop the division. That lead was 9.5 games as recently as Aug. 14 but the Phillies went 21-7 for the month to get within arm's reach.

Other matchups with playoff implications this weekend include the Arizona Diamondbacks visiting the Houston Astros, the New York Yankees facing the San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox hosting the Minnesota Twins in an AL Central showdown.

Here's a look at the latest standings and projected postseason bracket:

Updated: Friday, Sept. 4, 6 a.m. ET

MLB playoff bracket

American League

• Byes: Tampa Bay Rays (1), Chicago White Sox (2)
• Wild card series:
  • Guardians (6) at Astros (3) – winner vs. White Sox
  • Red Sox (5) at Yankees (4) – winner vs. Rays

National League

• Byes: Brewers (1), Braves (2)
• Wild card series
  • Cubs (5) at Phillies (4) – winner vs Brewers
  • Diamondbacks (6) at Dodgers (3) – winner vs Braves

AL wild card standings

Top three teams qualify for wild-card series

1. New York Yankees (80-60) +10 games
2. Boston Red Sox (76-65) +4.5 games
3. Cleveland Guardians (70-70)
4. Texas Rangers (70-71) – 0.5 GB
5. Toronto Blue Jays (70-71) – 0.5 GB
6. Baltimore Orioles (69-72) – 1.5 GB
7. Minnesota Twins (67-73) – 3 GB
8. Seattle Mariners (66-75) – 4.5 GB
9. Detroit Tigers (64-75) – 5.5 GB

NL wild card standings

Top three teams qualify

1. Philadelphia Phillies (79-61) +5.5 games
2. Chicago Cubs (79-62) +5 games
3. Arizona Diamondbacks (74-67)
4. San Diego Padres (73-67) – 0.5 GB
5. Miami Marlins (71-70) – 3 GB
6. St. Louis Cardinals (70-70) – 3.5 GB
7. Pittsburgh Pirates (69-72) – 5 GB

AL East

1. Tampa Bay Rays (83-57)
2. New York Yankees (80-60) – 3 GB
3. Boston Red Sox (76-65) – 7.5 GB

AL Central

1. Chicago White Sox (73-67)
2. Cleveland Guardians (70-70) – 3 GB
3. Minnesota Twins (67-73) – 6 GB

AL West

1. Houston Astros (72-69)
2. Texas Rangers (70-71) – 2 GB
3. Seattle Mariners (66-75) – 6 GB

NL East

1. Atlanta Braves (83-57)
2. Philadelphia Phillies (79-61) – 4 GB
3. Miami Marlins (71-70) – 12.5 GB

NL Central

1. Milwaukee Brewers (87-54)
2. Chicago Cubs (79-62) – 8 GB
3. St. Louis Cardinals (70-70) – 16.5 GB

NL West

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (83-57)
2. Arizona Diamondbacks (74-67) – 9.5 GB
3. San Diego Padres (73-67) – 10 GB

How many teams make the MLB playoffs?

Twelve (12) teams qualify for the Major League Baseball playoffs: three division winners and three wild card teams in each league.

The top two division winners in each league have a bye to the division series .

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB playoff picture 2026: Wild card standings, AL and NL brackets

The Pittsburgh Pirates are in the midst of the last possible push for the postseason as the last month of the season is officially underway. At five games back from a Wild Card spot, the pressure is on for the Pirates to rally, and there are a couple of things they can do to give themselves the best shot possible at the playoffs.

First and foremost the bats have got to stay hot. In a previous game against the San Francisco Giants, they collected the win after they scored 13 runs off of 19 hits. Offensively, these are exactly the kind of performances the Pirates need to string together to give themselves a good shot.

The second half of the season saw the Pirates red hot offense turn stagnant, as the team was littered with injuries and had a lack of production from their leaders. The performances that ensued saw the Pirates go into a bad slump that saw them slip to the bottom of the National League Central. They have surged lately though, and more consistent performances from their lineup will carry a lot of the weight as they try to claw back into contention.

The Pirates’ rotation also has to be dialed in to end the season. All year long the Pirates’ star studded starting pitchers have struggled with consistency. Paul Skenes has looked out of sorts all year, and has unfortunately blown numerous games for the Buccos. However, the rise of Braxton Ashcraft has been essential for the team’s success this year and he has emerged as a leader for the group.

2⃣9⃣ POWS for Lowe‼️ https://t.co/J6TFRb2ryLpic.twitter.com/5oXHPA3Xgm

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) September 2, 2026

Luckily the performances from the rotation have been better lately, but still shaky. Many are calling for Bill Murphy to be replaced after the collapse that his starters have experienced, but Ashcraft dismissed those notions surrounding his coach.

“What I do know is that it’s really easy to point fingers, and everybody is looking for somebody to point their finger at,” Braxton Ashcraft said. “And whether it’s a hitting coach, pitching coach, manager, bench coach, whatever it is, [the] coach is the first place that everybody goes to point their fingers and place blame. I don’t think it’s necessarily fair.”

Ashcraft added that the players on the team owe a lot to their coaches.

“We didn’t get to the big leagues singularly because we had great coaches,” Ashcraft said. “ … The pitching coaches, in my opinion, they work best to keep us in [mechanical] guide rails, to give us reminders when we need reminders, and to bridge the gap between what we do physically and how we attack with our arsenal. And I think that he does a really good job of that.”

If the starters can lock in for the remainder of the season it gives the team a far better shot, and takes a lot of weight off of the offense on slower nights.

More than anything, the Pirates need to beat the teams they’re supposed to beat. It’s a tough stretch to end the year, but the Pirates on paper are a far better team than how they’ve looked at times throughout the season.

The Pirates won their series against the Giants. They should also absolutely win their series against the Los Angeles Angels who sit below the American League West division. Back-to-back series in the Windy City against the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs will be tough, but the team has the benefit of staying in one location for that six-game stretch. Ideally, they split those series against the Chicago teams.

"You guys just gotta keep supporting and we're gonna keep winning" 🤝

Rafael Flores Jr. after hitting the walk-off to secure another Pirates win tonight 🔒 pic.twitter.com/Azc0gflmaV

— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) September 2, 2026

Following the series against the Cubs the team then comes back to Pittsburgh for three straight series against the Brewers, Royals and Cardinals. The Pirates have been mostly great against Milwaukee all season, and being able to win the series against the division leaders would be a great momentum swing to end the year. The Royals are also at the bottom of their division, so that should be a lock for the Buccos. The Cardinals have given the Pirates fits all year, and that may be the toughest opponent they have left to face. St. Louis however is on a downturn. The Pirates then travel to Detroit to end the regular season, a team that they just won against less than a month ago.

It’s going to be an uphill battle for the Buccos to make it to the postseason, but it’s far from over yet. A couple of strong performances in September could put this team over the top and bring Bucctober back to Pittsburgh.

New York Post | Greg Joyce: George Lombard Jr. exited a game against the Red Sox last Saturday with a knee injury, and a fan base held its collective breath. Well, Lombard appears to have escaped serious injury, and now it sounds like he could return to the lineup as early as today. “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse … but it is trending and looking like that is going to be the case,” Aaron Boone said Wednesday. “It’s been progressing every day,” Lombard said, with the rookie having been doing agility drills onfield before games this week.

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Through the first three months of the season, Austin Wells struggled through the worst stretch of his pro career, posting one of the ugliest slash lines of any player in the league. He hit the IL with cervical headaches in June, and still struggled for a couple weeks after returning. But since early-July, Wells has been money, posting a near-.800 OPS while providing his typical excellent framing behind the plate. “It was just kind of the understanding of where my swing was at, and then how I was missing, whether it was actually missing or fouling stuff off I should be hitting,” Wells said. The catcher came through with a huge hit in extra innings Wednesday night, which felt like a milestone moment in what’s been a vital turnaround for the once-beleaguered backstop.

MLB.com | Courtney Hollman: The Yankees, and the rest of the league, have hit the stretch run, and every game from here on out is crucial. Hollman runs through the details of how the Yankees are preparing for the season’s final stages, as they await the return of Aaron Judge and eye the Rays in first place in the AL East. “We’ve got a great opportunity in front of us,” Boone said. “Put ourselves in position, like I’ve said a lot, to realize all our hopes and dreams and our goals. But we’ve got to play well, and hopefully, we’re at our best when it matters the most.” Judge’s arrival is the big potential domino to fall in the coming weeks, but also important is the team’s pitching puzzle. The Yankees will apparently piggyback Will Warren after Max Fried starts against the Padres, while they also weigh their options in the bullpen, with John Schreiber and Michael Fulmer recently added to the mix, and the likes of Clarke Schmidt and Ryan Weathers working back from injury.

Teoscar Hernández stepped into exactly the kind of situation the Dodgers had failed to capitalize on during the past couple of games: runners in scoring position. And with one out in the ninth inning, the Dodgers were running out of chances for a comeback.

Hernández worked a full count against St. Louis closer Riley O’Brien with runners on first and second. Then he got a sinker up and over the middle of the plate, a pitch he could drive. And he did.

Hernández lined it into the left-center field gap. Tommy Edman scored easily, and Mookie Betts slid across the plate head first as the throw came in high and too late.

The Dodgers walked off the Cardinals with a 3-2 victory Thursday, narrowly avoiding a series sweep at Dodger Stadium.

Read more:What Shohei Ohtani’s latest injury scare reveals about Dodgers' late-season plans

“We needed it,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Obviously for seven innings, it didn’t look good at all. Then we found a way to scratch one across. But a win’s a win, however it looks.”

Before Hernández’s walk-off double, the Dodgers (83-57) had taken 26 at-bats with runners in scoring position over two games. Only one of those had resulted in a hit.

Hernández, however, unlocked something on a long fly out he hit in Detroit on Saturday.

“It’s just the way my body was reacting, was more under control,” he said. “I was able to notice everything that I was doing, even though it was an out. …That was the swing that is leading to all the good results that I’ve been having lately.”

Hernández, who entered this series with a .668 OPS against right-handed pitchers, had been struggling for so long that Roberts contemplated a left-field platoon.

“I told Dave, if you feel like you have to use somebody else in there, just do it,” Hernández said. “But know that I am going to keep working and I’m going to try to be ready for the times that you need me.”

On Sunday in Detroit, Hernández hit a home run off Framber Valdez. And when rosters expanded on Sept. 1, the Dodgers decided against bringing up an outfielder who could share playing time with Hernández, betting that he could end his slump.

Hernández went six for 13 in three games against the Cardinals (70-71), with Roberts remarking it was “as good as I’ve seen him versus [right-handers] since April.”

“I’ve always said that we’re better when he’s in the lineup,” Roberts said. “But performance certainly matters, and this series, albeit a small sample, was really good. As you get to the postseason and towards the end of the season, we’ve got to start figuring out who we can play, who we can count on, who’s dependable. And the at-bats he’s taken these last three games, really good.”

Hernández and Edman — hitting leadoff in place of Shohei Ohtani, who got the day off while dealing with a nagging biceps problem — were the only Dodgers with hits Thursday. Edman led the team with four, but Hernández’ second knock was the most important one.

“It was huge to finally get that big hit,” Edman said of Hernández. “We were kind of pressing a little bit in those first two games. Everybody was kind of trying to do too much in the big spots. Teo came through huge in that moment. Just can’t say enough about him, and that was just such a huge at-bat, and able to kind of steal that win today.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

28 years ago, American fell in love with a half-human, half-vampire leather-clad vigilante pledged to fight the undead. And Janzen Tidwell’s fell in love with the middle name “Blade.”

Wesley Snipes’ character is a Daywalker, meaning that unlike the vampires he hunts, Blade doesn’t suffer the debilitating effects of sunlight that vampires face. It gives him a valuable tactical advantage against the bloodsucking hordes, especially since he’s also unaffected by garlic or silver.

Sadly, that is not the case for Blade Tidwell of the San Francisco Giants, who has seen his team lose both games he’s started during the day. Tidwell gave up six runs in 4.1 innings and walked five against the Colorado Rockies in a 13-7 loss August 16, in a game that began at 1:05 PM. Thursday in Pittsburgh, Tidwell walked in a run and let another in on a bases-loaded walk in the first inning, ultimately driving a stake in the heart of his team’s chances to win, in a 5-2 loss.

Although, if the Giants had been wielding wooden stakes Thursday, they would have flailed ineffectually, delivering weak contact to the vampire’s chest or missing his heart entirely. They faced six different Pittsburgh Pirates relievers and collected only two hits, one of which didn’t leave the infield. Giants hitters did draw five walks and a HBP, which led to their only rally, a two-run effort in the 7th where Jonah Cox and Turner Hill drew walks ahead of Jung Hoo Lee’s pinch-hit double.

Lee's done miracles on me 🙏 pic.twitter.com/xalIHfuZT5

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 3, 2026

That was the only inning where the Giants got a runner past first base. Lee’s single cut the Pirates lead to 4-1, but runners on second and third with no one out yielded just one more run, on an RBI groundout from Nate Furman.

If you’re thinking the Giants are walking in a lot of runs this week, you’re right. It’s their third straight game with a bases-loaded walk, though they only had a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch in this one. Logan Webb did it twice on Tuesday and Landen Roupp did it on Wednesday.

Still, Tidwell managed to stay out of trouble for the rest of his day, inducing his final batter to hit into a double play to end the 5th. The 6th inning was when the Giants once again forgot how to catch or throw the ball.

Jake Mangum got his revenge for getting drilled, sort of, when he tried to bunt Oneil Cruz over to second. Reiver Sanmartin threw off-target, Bryce Eldridge alligator-armed the catch as Mangum sped down the line, and Cruz came around to score as the ball rolled away.

Score that: E1, Bucs up by 3. pic.twitter.com/9u9DH96WfI

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) September 3, 2026

Mangum would come around to score when Jared Triolo beat out the relay throw on a double play, a call only confirmed after a Pirates replay challenge. Triolo would drive in Mangum with a sacrifice fly in the 8th off Ryan Walker, completing a very strange game where he had two RBIs and a stolen base despite going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.

Tri does the job and brings in Mangum! pic.twitter.com/3XKd9ZDbSk

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) September 3, 2026

Khristian Curtis (1-0) got the first win of his career by throwing 3+ innings in his third big-league appearance. He did get tagged for the Giants’ only two runs, but when a starter doesn’t go five innings, the official scorer has a lot of discretion in who gets the win. Though the trio of Y0han Ramirez, Luke Weaver and Mason Montgomery all though a perfect inning, Curtis gets the decision on pure volume.

Rafael Devers saw his 10-game hitting streak end and struck out three times, reaching 154 whiffs on the season. It doesn’t really matter what kind of outs Devers is making, and he’s still well below last year’s 192 K’s, but it’s really a bummer to watch. Speaking of excessive strikeouts, congratulations to strikeout aficionado Eugenio Suarez, who passed his citizenship test this week!

Eugenio Suarez will miss his next two games because he's going to take the test that will allow him to become a United States citizen pic.twitter.com/cg4CdIFNAY

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) September 1, 2026

That absence shouldn’t keep him from passing Justin Upton and moving into 10th place on the all-time strikeout list before the end of the season.

Perhaps realizing that next year’s Giants may end up with a plethora of young outfielders, Jonah Cox showed off his versatility by moving from center field to second base in the 8th inning. Cox successfully fielded the one ground ball hit in his direction and covered first on a sac bunt — and caught the ball!

Cox probably has a leg up by being both the fastest guy on the team and a right-handed hitter, considering that Lee, Hill, Drew Gilbert, and Pacific Coast League Player of the Month Bo Davidson all hit from the left side. But it certainly doesn’t hurt his value.

After all, a hybrid outfielder-infielder is almost as valuable as a daywalker, with just one downside. Garlic can protect you from a vampire, but Cox is going to need to wear a cup to protect against bad-hop ground balls on the infield.

Breaking down Phillies-Braves as September starts to feel like October originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Oftentimes, we associate playoff baseball with October.

But in Philadelphia in 2026, it feels a little different. Once the calendar turned to August, it felt like the Phillies hit another gear.

Coming out of the All-Star break, after hosting the festivities all week in their own city, they were sluggish. Then, they put together the second-most wins in a month in franchise history.

Twenty-one victories.

And that has made September feel like October because the club now has two goals before the postseason. It’s no longer just about climbing the Wild Card standings. It’s also about chasing down the Braves, who the Phillies will welcome to town for four games this weekend.

The Phillies trail Atlanta by four games with 22 remaining for both teams. Citizens Bank Park should have a playoff-like atmosphere.

The Braves stand at 83-57, tied for the second-most wins in baseball. They’ve sustained that success throughout the season, especially out of the gate.

Rob Thomson’s Phillies played them six times in April. They lost five of six, and after their April 26 loss in Atlanta, the Phillies fell to 9-19 and 10½ games out of first place.

Fast-forward more than four months and the Phillies are 18 games over .500 at 79-61 heading into this head-to-head matchup.

A wild turnaround.

FRIDAY’S HEAVYWEIGHT DUEL

It’ll be a marquee matchup out of the gate when Atlanta’s Chris Sale and his 2.06 ERA take the mound against Cristopher Sánchez on Friday night.

These two have faced off before. Sánchez allowed three runs, all unearned, over six innings on April 18, while Sale countered with seven innings of one-run ball in the Braves’ 3-1 win.

Sale put together six more scoreless frames against the Phillies a week later, allowing just one hit and striking out nine in another Atlanta win.

The 37-year-old southpaw has shown zero signs of slowing down. He posted a 2.00 ERA in both July and August and enters Friday well-rested. His last start came eight days ago, when he threw a complete-game, 11-strikeout shutout against the Dodgers.

There’s truly no “great” attack plan against Sale.

One positive for the Phillies, though, is how far they’ve come against left-handed pitching. They’ve posted a .751 OPS against southpaws, sixth-best in baseball, since interim manager Don Mattingly took over on April 27.

Before that, under Thomson, they ranked last in batting average (.179), on-base percentage (.270), slugging percentage (.293) and OPS (.563) against lefties.

Sánchez is coming off one of his better starts, too. He had gone seven consecutive outings without completing seven innings before throwing seven scoreless last Saturday in Anaheim.

He enters Friday as baseball’s leader in pitcher WAR and tied for the MLB lead with 16 wins.

MORE PITCHING MATCHUPS

Saturday’s matchup features another left-hander the Phillies have already seen this season.

Martín Pérez threw six scoreless innings against them on April 17, but the Phillies will counter this time with Zack Wheeler. Wheeler is coming off an encouraging outing in Anaheim, where he completed six innings for the first time since July 21 and allowed one run.

On Sunday, Aaron Nola faces Tyler Mahle. Nola’s 4.93 season ERA remains inflated by his difficult first half, but he has posted a 3.43 ERA across 11 starts since the beginning of July.

The home run remains the concern. He has allowed 32 this season, including one in seven of his last eight starts.

Mahle’s 4.25 overall ERA is also misleading. Since joining Atlanta, he has allowed four earned runs over 23⅔ innings, good for a 1.52 ERA.

The series concludes Monday with Jesús Luzardo against Bryce Elder. Luzardo, who was named the National League Pitcher of the Month for August, has 209 strikeouts and a 3.02 ERA. Elder enters with a 4.11 ERA.

WHO’S HOT AND WHO’S NOT

For Atlanta, Ronald Acuña Jr. was slumping to the point that manager Walt Weiss gave him a day off to slow things down. He had struggled following his second injured-list stint of the season.

But over his last seven games, the star outfielder is 10-for-27, good for a .370 average and an OPS north of .900.

Michael Harris II and catchers Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy are also swinging hot bats, but slugger Matt Olson is ice cold. Over his last 60 at-bats, Olson is slashing .167/.219/.250 with just one home run.

On the Phillies’ side, Bryce Harper has a 35-game on-base streak, a stretch in which he has slashed .345/.494/.588.

An absurd amount of success.

Edmundo Sosa is 7-for-15 after a West Coast trip in which he slugged two go-ahead homers in the seventh inning or later. He should be in the lineup against Sale and Pérez.

Kyle Schwarber, meanwhile, has been struggling. His last 30 games haven’t looked like him outside of his electrifying walk-off homer against the Cardinals. He is batting just .183 with a .624 OPS over that span.

The off day, paired with his success against southpaws this season, could help Schwarber get back on track ahead of the biggest series of the season.

THE PHILLIES’ KEY

The patient approach the Phillies have authored and leaned on since the end of July will be tested this weekend.

Over the last month, the Braves’ pitching staff has produced the fourth-highest opponent whiff rate at 27.4 percent and the sixth-highest opponent chase rate.

The Phillies have posted the fourth-lowest whiff rate and 11th-lowest chase rate in that span, a significant improvement from where they were entering August.

Most of Atlanta’s arms have plus stuff and rely on generating soft contact and chase, so this will be a strong test.

As always, if the Phillies begin to see pitches they can handle, they will likely shift to a more aggressive approach. They made a similar adjustment against the Mariners’ fastball-heavy rotation, culminating in their series-finale win over Bryan Woo.

Interestingly, Phillies pitching leads baseball in opponent whiff rate over the last month and ranks fourth in opponent chase rate.

Waiting out either bullpen has not been a productive strategy lately, either. The Braves carry baseball’s best bullpen ERA at 2.03 since August 20, while the Phillies rank third at 2.18.

Something has to give, but it begins with the Phillies’ bats stepping up again.

THE MATH

A four-game series creates a wide range of possibilities.

If the Phillies sweep, the two teams will be tied atop the NL East by Monday afternoon.

If the Phillies win three of four, Atlanta’s lead will be cut to two games.

A split keeps the deficit at four. Losing three of four pushes it to six. An Atlanta sweep would leave the Phillies eight games back with only 18 remaining.

Then there’s the tiebreaker.

Atlanta owns a 5-1 advantage in the season series with seven meetings remaining. Because MLB no longer uses a Game 163 to break ties, the Phillies must win six of those seven games to take the season series.

That means they need to win at least three of four this weekend just to keep the tiebreaker alive.

If the Phillies win three of four, they would need to sweep the final three-game series. If they sweep this weekend, they would need to win at least two of the final three.

There is still nearly a month left in the regular season, but by Monday afternoon, the race for the NL East could look completely different.

Their next meeting will come when the Phillies visit Atlanta for their final three games of the season series from Sept. 11–13.

It was supposed to be a pie stroll.

Another starting pitcher asked too much of the bullpen behind him, the lineup struck out 18 times, and Dan Wilson eventually got ejected in the Mariners 6-4 loss to the A’s on Thursday. Julio Rodríguez also stole three bases to become the first player ever to begin a career with five consecutive 20-20 seasons. But the personal milestone went uncelebrated, as the Mariners dropped their series opener against baseball’s worst team. It will not be a perfect September in Seattle after all.

Anderson got the start for the third time in his career. I was curious how long his leash would be. He’d never thrown more than 80 pitches in a game the minors, then he threw 81 in his debut (which was one or two or several too many). He threw 85 in his second start, though couldn’t quite make it through five full innings before getting the hook. The Mariners are desperate for length from their rotation these days, as they try to limit exposure for the worst bullpen in the majors.

Anderson was fairly efficient in getting through 4 2/3 innings at just 64 pitches, though I wouldn’t describe him as better than OK. He gave up a solo homer in the first on a middle-middle fastball to Zack Gelof. In the second, he gave up a leadoff walk and a pair of singles to load the bases with nobody out; he limited the damage to just one run with a double play and a K. He gave up a leadoff single in the third, got another double play, gave up another single, then got a pop out to escape. Then he breezed through the fourth and the first two outs in the fifth. Again, it was pretty OK.

That’s when the A’s lineup turned over for a third time. Anderson walked Henry Bolte on four pitches, gave up a rocket single to Gelof, allowed him to steal second, and gave up another rocket single to Lawrence Butler to plate a pair of runs. The A’s took a 4-3 lead.

Anderson eventually finished the fifth inning at 79 pitches. His day was done: five innings, four runs, seven hits, two walks, three strikeouts, and eight whiffs. It never felt easy. There were flashes of his pedigree at times, with the occasional big curveball freezing its victim, or a slider inducing a whiff way out of the zone, or a fastball somehow blowing by several batters at just 93 mph. Unfortunately, he also completely lost the zone at times, and caught too much of it at others. The A’s struggled to square him up, but they rarely struggled to put the ball in play.

“Tonight doesn’t hold up to the standard I put on myself and my teammates put on me. Just a little unacceptable tonight,” Anderson said postgame. “The [in]ability to put dudes away when I should have and walks is not really part of what I am as a pitcher. So I’ve got to clean that up.”

I have less heartburn about the Mariners letting Anderson work through these types of growing pains in the majors now that they have a couple extra arms available in the bullpen, to at least ensure his shorter outings don’t butterfly effect their way into Weston Wilson pitching. 

But… we quickly saw why the Mariners need starters to work deeper into games. Carlos Vargas came on for the sixth and gave up a solo homer to Donovan Walton (of all people) to make it 5-3. Vargas then hit Brian Serven (who?), which led to warnings for both dugouts, which led to a Dan Wilson’s latest “Portraits in Exasperation,” which led to Wilson watching the rest of the game from the clubhouse. Vargas gave up another single but escaped without more damage.

Gabe Speier was great in the seventh, striking out the side in order. But Eduard Bazardo couldn’t manage a clean eighth, giving up a run on a walk and three singles. Hoby Milner gave another run on a pair of doubles in the ninth. The A’s collected seven runs on 14 hits and three walks. The Mariners have had the worst pitching staff in the majors for two months. Fair or not, Anderson is now part of it.

The offense was nearly good in this one. They picked up nine hits, drew eight walks, and generally made the A’s miserable at the plate. They also struck out 18 times, and couldn’t seem to collect on their incessant threats.

They hopped on A’s starter Jack Perkins immediately. Randy Arozerana walked to lead off the first, Julio doubled to score him, Cal Raleigh singled to make it two, Cole Young singled behind him, and Lazaro Montes singled to make it three runs in the first. J.P. Crawford loaded the bases with a walk to bring the ninth man to the plate, and it looked like they might end this one early. But Brock Rodden went down swinging on an admittedly pretty cool dropped third strike play that you don’t see a lot, and the threat was over.

That wound up being the first of several missed opportunities. The Mariners got a pair of walks in the second but couldn’t score. They got a pair of walks in the third but couldn’t score. They successfully chased Perkins after just three innings, but they ultimately let him off easy, with seven of his nine outs coming via the K.

After losing the lead in the fifth, the Mariners clawed a run back in the sixth. Arozarena doubled down the left field line, Canzone singled behind him, and Julio made it 5-4 on what should have been a hit, if not for a spectacular effort from Alika Williams to keep the ball on the infield.

But as the bullpen made the task taller and taller, the lineup came up shorter and shorter. The Mariners started a two out rally in the seventh; Arozarena struck out to end it, incidentally throwing his bat down the third base line. They started a one out rally in the eighth; neither Josh Naylor nor Cole Young could deliver. They went in order in the ninth, losing 7-4.

As Jake Mailhot noted in the series preview, the A’s have been the worst team in the majors for quite some time. This was the first game in the final stretch of the season, where the Mariners face the easiest strength of schedule in the majors. That would seem ideal, given they need to play just about perfect the rest of the way if they want to win the division, or even finish with a winning record. They even had a bit of momentum, stealing a series in Boston to begin September with a perfect 2-0 record. Everything was aligned for a miraculous comeback, the one we’ve been waiting for the last five months. But no step forward goes unpunished in this 2026 Mariners season.

It was supposed to be a pie stroll!

BALTIMORE — Adley Rutschman had only positive things to say about his former teammates.

Then he delivered a blow to their postseason hopes.

Rutschman homered twice in his return to Camden Yards, hitting solo shots in the first and sixth innings for the Boston Red Sox in a 6-5 win over Baltimore on Thursday night.

The loss left the Orioles 1 ¹/₂ games out of the final wild-card spot in the American League.

“That’s a heck of a way to make a return,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said. “That was awesome.”

Rutschman received a standing ovation from the crowd — and from the Baltimore dugout — when he came to the plate with two outs in the first.

Then he slugged a 1-1 pitch from Brandon Young over the wall in right field.

It was the All-Star catcher’s 10th homer of the season and second since being traded from the Orioles to the Red Sox in early August. He added another homer in the sixth to cut Baltimore’s lead to 3-2.

Rutschman also received a video tribute between the first and second innings, and he got another big ovation despite having already done some damage offensively for his new team.

“All of it was special, a true testament to them as an organization,” Rutschman said after the game. “They do it right.”

Rutschman hit two homers for the Orioles against Boston on April 24.

He’s the first major league player to have a multihomer game on both sides of the same matchup in the same season, according to OptaSTATS.

Rutschman has battled elbow issues of late, but he was back in the lineup after missing the previous three games. He’s only batting .193 since the trade, but perhaps this is the start of a more productive stretch run.

Baltimore drafted Rutschman No. 1 overall in 2019. His arrival in the major leagues in 2022 was part of a significant turnaround in which the Orioles ultimately won the AL East in 2023 and made the playoffs in 2024.

Nevertheless, the last two years have been a good deal less successful. Though Rutschman made the All-Star team for the third time this year, the Orioles traded him to Boston just before the deadline.

“A lot of memories, a lot of positive experiences. The people in Baltimore have always treated me with an unbelievable amount of respect and love, and I’ve always felt that when I’ve been here,” Rutschman said before the game. “So just a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Rutschman is now in better position to make the playoffs. Boston is almost certain to qualify, currently holding the second wild card. The Orioles could still sneak in, but right now they are in last place in the AL East.

So there was a decent amount at stake once the pregame reunions were over.

“He couldn’t help himself. He stopped into the clubhouse quickly,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said before the game. “A lot of hugs, a lot of crap talk going back and forth. It was good to see him.”

The Dodgers stared in the eyes of a third straight defeat, but a walk-off double by Teoscar Hernández lifted the Dodgers to a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday.

The Cardinals were the first to strike against Tarik Skubal, as after St. Louis put the first two men on with a pair of singles, Joshua Báez smacked the third single of the inning through the right side to bring home José Fermín.

Skubal managed to work a scoreless second inning with a pair of bookend strikeouts while leaving two men on, but the Cardinals broke through in the top of the third with a pair of two-out singles from Leo Bernal and Ramón Urías, plating Iván Herrera and doubling the Cardinal lead. Skubal found himself in a groove over his next two innings, but once again put two men on in top of the sixth inning. After striking out Nathan Church for the second out of the inning, Dave Roberts went to the bullpen, pulling the left-hander after 5 2/3 innings.

The Cardinals accounted for 10 hits against Skubal— all singles— which tied his career high for the most hits allowed in a single start. It was the first time Skubal couldn’t complete six full innings since he tossed five against the Kansas City Royals on Aug. 11. The Cardinals wouldn’t get an extra-base hit until Jordan Walker’s double against Evan Phillips in the top of the seventh inning.

For a Dodgers team that struggled to hit with guys in scoring position the game prior, Thursday’s matchup replicated those same misfortunes. The Dodgers scratched across a pair of baserunners in the bottom of the first inning, third inning and fifth inning against rookie Quinn Mathews, but each time, the offense found a way to be their own obstacle. The Dodgers were able to tack on one run against Mathews, with a wild pitch to Freddie Freeman in the fifth inning sailing past Herrera to plate Tommy Edman in the fifth.

The Dodgers continued to trend in the wrong direction in the bottom of the eighth inning, as they had the bases loaded against right-hander George Soriano. Soriano got Dalton Rushing to go down swinging for the final out to help the Cardinals escape trouble and send the Dodgers to a 1-26 (.038) clip with runners in scoring position their two most recent games.

Tommy Edman finished Thursday with four hits against his old ballclub, and the switch-hitter collected eight hits across 15 at-bats over the three games. His fourth hit was a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning to put the tying run on first base against Riley O’Brien. Mookie Betts would follow Edman with a walk to put both the tying and go-ahead runners on for Teoscar Hernández. On the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Hernández punched a sinker into the left-center field gap, scoring both and saving the Dodgers from the jaws of defeat. The Dodgers now have six walk-off wins on the season.

TEOSCAR WITH THE GAME-WINNER. pic.twitter.com/uS2TiZH8fG

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 4, 2026

The Dodgers and Atlanta Braves are now both four games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the best record in the National League, with the Braves holding the tiebreaker after sweeping the Dodgers in Atlanta.

Game particulars

• WP—Brock Stewart (1-2): 2/3 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts
• LP—Riley O’Brien (3-7): 1/3 IP, 2 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts

Up next

The Dodgers continue their homestand with a three-game weekend series against the Washington Nationals beginning Friday (7:10 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA). Jackson Kent faces Blake Snell.

The Athletics played spoiler with a 7-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners in a nearly three-and-a-half-hour series opener. The A’s pitching staff overcame eight walks with 18 strikeouts, while the offense scored early and late in the team’s 55th victory of the season.

Gelof Lifts Off Early

The A’s took the lead immediately against Mariners starter Kade Anderson. The second batter of the game, left fielder Zack Gelof, hit his 16th home run of the season, a solo shot to right-center field, putting the A’s up 1-0 before the Mariners came to bat.

Gelof wastes no time 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/7sy6SnA57M

— Athletics (@Athletics) September 4, 2026

Back and Forth We Go

The Mariners answered right back. A’s starter Jack Perkins walked Seattle’s leadoff hitter Randy Arozarena, who proceeded to score on Julio Rodríguez’s RBI single. The next batter, Cal Raleigh, hit an RBI single, putting the Mariners up 2-1. With two outs, Lazaro Montes hit an RBI single, bringing home the Mariners’ third run of the first inning.

Seattle sent all nine batters to the plate in the first inning, forcing Perkins to throw 40 pitches. The inning could have been worse had A’s catcher Brian Serven not made a smart play to record the third out at home after a wild pitch.

A’s GIDP Merchants

Seeking a response of their own, the A’s first three batters reached in the bottom of the second, setting up a bases-loaded no-out opportunity.

What transpired next was not surprising to anyone following the A’s this season. Shortstop Alika Williams grounded into a double play, bringing home the visitors’ second run of the game, but grinding the rally to a halt. Anderson then struck out Max Muncy to escape the jam with his team still leading.

In the third inning, Gelof hit into the A’s MLB-high 116th double play of the season, while right fielder Lawrence Butler extended his hitting streak to 12 games. Perkins’ command issues continued, but he worked through traffic to complete two scoreless innings after the three-run first.

Perkins was done after three innings. He allowed three runs on four hits, striking out seven while walking five. That combination highlights the right-hander’s talent, but also the work he needs to do to harness his stuff.

A’s Turn the Tides

The A’s generated a two-out rally in the fifth inning against Anderson. With runners on second and third, Butler lined a two-run single up the middle to give the A’s a 4-3 lead.

smooth like butler 🧈 pic.twitter.com/A2wonQxMNv

— Athletics (@Athletics) September 4, 2026

Right-hander Scott Blewett pitched two scoreless innings with four strikeouts in relief of Perkins.

A’s Add On

In the sixth inning, the Mariners turned to their bullpen with right-handed reliever Carlos Vargas replacing Anderson. With one out, pinch-hitter Donovan Walton hit his fifth home run of the season, a solo shot to right-center field that extended the Athletics’ lead to 5-3.

donnie goes yard LOOK ALIVE pic.twitter.com/8b3h8g7I9O

— Athletics (@Athletics) September 4, 2026

Lead Held For Now

The Mariners opened the bottom of the sixth with two straight hits against new A’s reliever Chris Roycroft. Arozarena scored Seattle’s fourth run on Julio Rodríguez’s RBI force-out. Williams made a nice stop on the play to get at least one out. Roycroft retired the next two hitters, stranding the tying run on second base.

Roycroft got the first two outs of the seventh before letting the next two hitters reach. Right-hander Luis Medina entered and struck out Arozarena to end the inning, stranding the tying run at third.

LUIS MEDINA WITH ONE OF HIS BIGGEST STRIKEOUTS OF THE YEAR TO HOLD THE LEAD FOR THE A'S. 🔥🔥🔥

A NASTY SLIDER TO GET AROZARENA TO SWING WILDLY AND LAUNCH HIS BAT INTO FOUL TERRITORY! #Athleticspic.twitter.com/8F9dQQIAT7

— Uprooted (@uprootedoakland) September 4, 2026

Insurance Runs!

Seeking insurance runs, Jeff McNeil led off the eighth inning with a single against Mariners reliever Eduard Bazardo and advanced to second when Walton walked. With two outs, Muncy grounded an RBI single to left field, scoring McNeil and restoring the A’s two-run lead. The visitors had a chance to score more, but Gelof grounded out with the bases loaded.

Max adds some insurance 💪 pic.twitter.com/kxAgyUaHf4

— Athletics on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) September 4, 2026

Medina returned for the bottom of the eighth. He walked two batters, raising the A’s pitchers total to eight walks tonight. The Mariners wasted another scoring chance as Medina locked in to complete a scoreless inning.

The A’s scored a seventh run in the ninth inning against left-hander Hoby Milner on back-to-back doubles by Jonah Heim and McNeil.

UNC ADDS ON! 👴

Jeff McNeil has ANOTHER two-hit performance to give the A's a three-run lead late! #Athleticspic.twitter.com/oftzikg01S

— Uprooted (@uprootedoakland) September 4, 2026

Left-hander Hogan Harris retired Seattle in order in the bottom of the ninth, securing his 14th save of the season and giving Blewett his first win in the majors this year.

The Athletics will look to win their third straight game tomorrow night. Rookie right-hander Kade Morris will start for the A’s, while the Mariners will counter with right-hander Logan Gilbert.