Category: Baseball

Good morning, Camden Chatters.

The Orioles, for all their trials and tribulations throughout this 2026 campaign, are on the brink of being a .500 team again. The Birds’ sweep in Sacramento has pushed them to a 68-69 record, the first time since April 30 that they’ve been within a game of .500. On six other occasions since then, they’ve climbed to two games under, only to immediately lose. This time the O’s got over the hump thanks to yesterday’s comeback win against the Athletics. Check out Alex Church’s recap of the exciting finale, which featured a vintage Gunnar Henderson performance and more lefty-mashing Coby Mayo magic.

Back in March, if you’d told me that we would finish August by celebrating the Orioles almost being a .500 team, well…that would have been my first clue that the 2026 season didn’t quite go as planned. Indeed it hasn’t, for reasons that we probably don’t need to rehash. At times the Orioles have appeared to be light years away from contention, sinking to a season-worst nine games under .500 by the of June. But they’ve shown plenty of gumption since then to rally back to where they are now. They’re not exactly steamrolling the league, and plenty of flaws on the roster still remain, but the O’s have been playing a better brand of baseball for nearly two months.

This road trip is a good example. The Birds haven’t been dominant, with their starting rotation in particular showing some cracks, but they’ve managed to get their offense clicking and tighten up their often-shaky defense. The bullpen is a perpetual enigma, constantly working themselves both into and out of jams, but they’ve gotten the job done more often than not.

The O’s absolutely needed to have a winning road trip against three teams that they should be able to beat, and at 5-1, they’ve already clinched that. They took the series in St. Louis and swept the atrocious A’s in three games decided by one or two runs. But the Birds can’t take their foot off the gas pedal now. Three games remain against the Rockies, who are tied with the Angels for the worst record in baseball, and it’s a chance for the Orioles to stack up two or three more wins if they stay focused. The Orioles avoided a letdown in Sacramento and will need to do the same in Colorado. A victory in tonight’s opener would get them back to .500 for the first time in four months.

Yesterday’s win didn’t gain the Orioles any ground in the wild card race but allowed them to keep pace with the Guardians, who routed the Royals earlier in the day. The O’s remain a game behind Cleveland for the third wild card spot. They’re also trying to hold off the Blue Jays, who are a half game back of the Birds, and the Rangers, who are one game behind Baltimore. The Twins, Mariners, and Tigers seem to be falling off the pace, each of them at least four games behind the Guardians, but none of them can be completely ruled out yet in this thoroughly mediocre American League.

The Orioles’ job is simple. Keep playing good baseball and, most likely, good things will happen.

Links

Gunnar Henderson dazzles in dominant performance as Orioles sweep Athletics – The Baltimore Banner

I don’t particularly care for Gunnar’s new beard, but if it proves to be a good-luck charm for his hitting, then I hope he keeps that monstrosity on his face for the rest of the year.

Using critical September games as starting points for Orioles’ 2027 decisions – BaltimoreBaseball.com

Rich Dubroff names some of the players who are auditioning for 2027 roster spots, including Carlos Narváez. Watching Narváez hit, I’m at a loss as to how this guy hit 15 home runs last year.

Alonso avoids serious injury after being hit on brim of helmet – MLB.com

The Polar Bear fortunately seems to be OK after a scary HBP off the helmet yesterday. If he weren’t, you could kiss goodbye to the Orioles’ playoff hopes.

Orioles birthdays and history

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Today would have been the 91st birthday of Orioles legend and Hall of Famer Frank Robinson (b. 1935, d. 2019). The Birds’ acquisition of Robinson from the Reds before the 1966 season was the single most impactful transaction the franchise has ever made. Frank famously won the Triple Crown and was named AL MVP in his debut season with the Orioles, launching them to their first World Series championship in 1966 (and a second in 1970) with his on-field excellence and clubhouse leadership. His legacy in Baltimore will never be forgotten.

Other former Orioles born on this day are outfielder Tim Raines Jr. (47) and five right-handed pitchers: Armando Gabino (43), Ramón Ramírez (45), Mike Hartley (65), Tom Dukes (84), and the Baltimore-born Steve Johnson (39).

Aug. 31 used to be the waiver trade deadline, so the O’s have made a bunch of deals on this date in history:

In 1987, the Orioles traded lefty Mike Flanagan, who’d spent his first 13 years with the Orioles and won the 1979 AL Cy Young Award, to the Blue Jays for righty Oswaldo Peraza and a player to be named. Peraza pitched only one season in the majors, but the PTBNL turned out to be José Mesa, who went on to a 19-year MLB career with 321 saves. Flanagan spent parts of four seasons in Toronto before returning to the Orioles to finish his career.

In 1988, the O’s made a fantastic trade, dealing veteran outfielder Fred Lynn to the Tigers for minor league catcher Chris Hoiles. Hoiles reached the majors a year later and became the best offensive catcher in Orioles history, hitting 151 homers and posting an .833 OPS while spending his entire 10-year career in Baltimore. He was inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame in 2006.

And in 2011, the Orioles made another nifty deadline deal, jettisoning failed closer Mike Gonzalez to the Rangers for reliever Pedro Strop. Strop became the top setup man for the Orioles’ dominant bullpen during their breakout 2012 season, posting a 2.44 ERA in 70 games, and went on to plenty more years of success with the Cubs after the O’s traded him in 2013.

Random Orioles game of the day

On Aug. 31, 1986, the Orioles dropped the finale of a rare six-game series in Oakland, 7-0. The series, originally scheduled as a four-gamer, featured two makeup games for a pair of postponements in Baltimore a couple of weeks earlier, which were shifted to Oakland as back-to-back doubleheaders. The Birds lost five of six, getting shut out in the finale by right-hander Joaquín Andújar. The Orioles managed only four hits against him, two by Eddie Murray, while starter Mike Boddicker gave up five runs in five innings. Dave Kingman and José Canseco homered for the A’s, dropping the Orioles to a .500 record at 65-65.

Free of charge for the discerning reader.

Happy birthday to Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, and a mighty host of others.

Today in baseball history, in 1960 – The Pirates come from behind yet again, defeating the Giants, 7-4. Roberto Clemente hits a two-out, two-run homer and Roy Face closes the game. For the Giants, Willie Mays does his best with a single, double and near-homer his first time up, but falls victim to Face in his final at-bat, a seventh-inning strikeout, representing the tying run at the plate, and other stories as well.

Today in baseball history:

• 1903 – Joe McGinnity wins his third doubleheader this month, stopping the Phils twice, 4-1 and 9-2 and handing losses to Chick Fraser and Bill Duggleby. Iron Joe strikes out nine batters in the opener to win. 
• 1914 – Walter Johnson relieves in the eighth inning with his Senators holding a 3-2 lead over the White Sox. On the first pitch, Jack Fournier hits a home run to tie the game. Fournier’s next at bat up comes in the 10th and he homers again to give the Sox a 4-3 win. This is the first time Johnson has been reached for two home runs in a game by the same batter (Lou Gehrig will match it August 13, 1926).
• 1927 – The Yankees open a home stand by beating the Red Sox, 10-3. Babe Ruth hits home run number 43 and leads Lou Gehrig by two.
• 1931 – Against the Senators’ Lloyd Brown, Lou Gehrig belts his second grand slam homer in three days, but the Senators hang onto second place by beating the Yankees, 6-5.
• 1959 – Sandy Koufax fans 18 Giants to set a National League mark in a 5-2 Dodger win. The game is witnessed by a crowd of 82,974 spectators (60,194 of whom have paid admission), the largest ever for a regular-season game.
• 1969 – Morganna(first-ballot, HOFer?), a well-endowed fan dressed in a mini dress, jumps onto the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium field and kisses the batter, Clete Boyer, on the cheek. The Braves’ third baseman then promptly ends a 1-for-17 slump with a RBI single and goes on an 8-for-15 tear.
• 1974 – Johnny Bench drives in seven runs with a bases-loaded double and grand slam to lead the Reds to a 10-3 win over Montreal.
• 1977 – Hank Aaron‘s mark of 755 career home runs is tied by Sadaharu Oh of the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Pro Baseball.
• 1998 – Oakland OF Rickey Henderson scores the 2,000th run of his career in the Athletics’ 15 – 6 loss to Cleveland. He joins Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Pete Rose, and Willie Mays as the only players to reach the milestone.
• 2008 – CC Sabathia improves to 9-0 with a 1.43 ERA since joining the Brewers, with a one-hitter against the Pirates. The lone hit is a grounder back to the mound by Andy LaRoche which Sabathia bobbles. Brewer manager Ned Yost and LF Ryan Braun both say it was undoubtedly an error and that Sabathia had a no-hitter; an appeal is filed over the ruling, to no avail.

Today in Cubs history:

• 1915 – At the Polo Grounds, Cubs hurler Jimmy Lavender* no-hits the Giants, 2-0.
• 1947 – The Cubs overcome Ralph Kiner‘s 39th homer of the season to defeat the Pirates, 6-3, in Chicago. Doyle Lade goes the distance. Kiner’s homer, with one aboard, gives him 101 RBIs for the year.
• 1948 – Before 45,531 at Wrigley Field, the last-place Cubs beat the first-place Dodgers, 3-0 and 7-2. Hank Borowy stops Brooklyn on one hit in the opener – a single by Gene Hermanski – and faces just 27 batters. He hurls 100 pitches, while Bob Scheffing drives in all three runs. Doyle Lade wins the nitecap.
• 1963 – Trailing Houston, 5 – 1, entering the 9th, Chicago’s Ellis Burton clouts a dramatic two-out grand slam off Hal Woodeshick to give the Cubs a 6 – 5 victory.

Cubs Birthdays:Boots Day, Ramon Webster, Ramón Hernández, Cleo James, Ray Mack, Duke Farrell. Also notable: Frank Robinson HOF. Ray Dandridge HOF. Eddie Plank HOF.

Today in history:

• 1837 – Ralph Waldo Emerson gives his famous “The American Scholar” speech to Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, declares American literary independence from Europe.
• 1888 – The body of Jack the Ripper’s first victim, Mary Ann Nichols, is found in Whitechapel in London’s East End.
• 1897 – Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope (Kinetographic camera), a device that produces moving pictures.
• 1971 – Beatle John Lennon leaves England for the final time, moving to New York City.
• 1972 – Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut wins balance beam and floor exercise gold medals at the Munich Olympics; follows gold in the teams all-round.
• 1978 – Emily and William Harris plead guilty to 1974 kidnapping of American publishing heiress Patty Hearst.
• 1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris.
• 2006 – Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch‘s famous painting “The Scream” is recovered from a raid by Norwegian police; the painting was said to be in a better-than-expected condition.

*pictured.

Triple-A: Syracuse Mets (38-37/30-26)

SYRACUSE 8, LEHIGH VALLEY 0 (BOX)

Everything clicked for Syracuse in this one. On the offensive side, the rehabbing Mark Vientos went yard not just once, not just twice, but three times, driving in five runs, and Ronny Mauricio and MJ Melendez both had multi-hit games with extra base hits. On the pitching side, Kevin Herget, Saul Garcia, Tobias Myers, Chayce McDermott, Joe Jacques, and Zach Franklin combined to throw a no-hitter, Syracuse’s first since 2018, their 5th shutout in their last 10 games, and the 176th no-hitter in International League history.

·  RF Nick Morabito: 1-3, 3 R, BB, SB (42)

·  REHAB ALERT 1B Mark Vientos: 4-5, 3 R, 3 HR (3, 4, 5), 5 RBI

·  1B Nick Lorusso: 0-0

·  SS Ronny Mauricio: 2-5, R, 2B, RBI

·  LF MJ Melendez: 2-5, R, 2B, HR (17), 2 RBI, 2 K

·  DH Eric Wagaman: 1-4, BB, K

·  3B Billy Amick: 1-4, BB, 2 K

·  CF Jose Ramos: 1-4

·  C Shawn Ross: 0-4, K

·  2B Zack Short: 0-4, 3 K

·  RHP Kevin Herget: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

·  RHP Saul Garcia: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

·  RHP Tobias Myers: 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-1)

·  RHP Chayce McDermott: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K

·  LHP Joe Jacques: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

·  RHP Zach Franklin: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

ROSTER ALERT: Syracuse Mets activated RHP Chayce McDermott.

ROSTER ALERT: Syracuse Mets transferred RHP Ofreidy Gómez to the Development List.

Double-A: Binghamton Rumble Ponies (27-42/29-28)

BINGHAMTON 14, READING 5 (BOX)

Having come into this series with the potential to upset the Reading Fightin’ Phils, the Rumble Ponies tripped over their hooves, dropping four of the five games leading to Sunday’s finale, giving Reading a 5.5 game lead over Binghamton for first place in the Northeast Division with 13 games to go. Both teams fought tooth-and-nail, with Binghamton taking the lead and Reading catching up and tying things up twice, but the Rumble Ponies finally jumped out to a four-run lead in the seventh that Reading wasn’t able to catch up to. The top of the Binghamton line-up remained hot, with Mitch Voit, Marco Vargas, and Jefferson Rojas going a combined 10-16 with four doubles and a pair of homers

·  2B Mitch Voit: 3-4, 3 R, 2B, HR (2), 3 RBI, 2 BB, K

·  SS Marco Vargas: 4-6, 2 R, 2 2B, 2 RBI, 2 K, 3 SB (21, 22, 23)

·  3B Jefferson Rojas: 3-6, 2 R, 2B, HR (7), 4 RBI, 2 K, CS (1)

·  DH Jacob Reimer: 1-6, R, 2B, 2 K

·  CF Chris Suero: 0-3, 2 R, 2 BB, K, SB (34), E (15)

·  RF Eli Serrano III: 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 K

·  LF Corey Collins: 1-4, R, 2B, RBI, BB, 3 K

·  C Kevin Parada: 2-5, R

·  1B Jamari Baylor: 0-2, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB

·  RHP Gabe Davis: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K

·  RHP Cristofer Gomez: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

·  LHP Felipe De La Cruz: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, BLK

·  RHP Brendan Girton: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, H (5)

·  RHP Bryce Jenkins: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (4-0), BS (1)

·  RHP Bryce Conley: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

·  LHP Gabriel Rodriguez: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

High-A: Brooklyn Cyclones (25-40/31-28)

BROOKLYN 5, HUDSON VALLEY 2 (BOX)

The top half of the Cyclones order went 6-20 with two doubles, two homers, and three walks, while the bottom of the order went 0-13 with 3 walks. No one Cyclones pitcher looked particularly great, nor was anybody particularly terrible. With the win, Brooklyn moved to 5.5 games behind the first place Frederick Keys, the very same team they will be playing to close out the regular season this upcoming week. While I wouldn’t put money down on anything, never say never, either.

·  SS Sammy Stafura: 2-4, 2 R, 2 HR (20, 21), 3 RBI, BB, K, SB (18)

·  DH Elian Peña: 1-5, 2B, 2 K

·  RF Trey Snyder: 1-5, R, K, 2 SB (8, 9)

·  LF Yonatan Henriquez: 1-3, R, BB, 2 SB (26, 27)

·  CF John Spikerman: 1-3, 2B, RBI, BB, SB (26)

·  2B Colin Houck: 0-2, 2 BB

·  3B Antonio Jimenez: 0-4, K

·  C Chase Meggers: 0-4, K

·  1B Eddinson Paulino: 0-3, R, BB, K

·  LHP Conner Ware: 3.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, WP

·  RHP Elwis Mijares: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-0)

·  RHP Ryan Dollar: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, H (3)

·  LHP Gregori Louis: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, HBP, H (3)

·  RHP Juan Arnaud: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, S (4)

Single-A: St. Lucie Mets (33-33/21-38)

ST. LUCIE 13, DAYTONA 5 (BOX)

St. Lucie split their series with the Tortugas, closing things out almost identical to the way the series started, scoring double-digit runs against Daytona. The Mets’ pitchers were solid-if-unspectacular, with Christian Rodriguez, Ernesto Mercedes, and Jean Brito combining to allow 5 runs over six-plus innings and the rest of the bullpen limiting the Tortugas to three baserunners. Early on, the game was competitive, with the score tied 2-2 going into the fifth, but in the top of the inning, St. Lucie erupted for seven runs, with 2026 additions Ryan Tayman, Kuhio Aloy, Jack Toomey, Jake Ogden, and Aiden Robbins all driving in runs.

·  SS Jake Ogden: 1-4, R, RBI, HBP, BB, E (2)

·  CF Aiden Robbins: 2-5, R, 4 RBI, BB, 2 K

·  C Ryan Tayman: 3-5, 2 R, 2B, 2 RBI, K, HBP

·  RF Kuhio Aloy: 1-6, R, 2B, RBI, K

·  DH Jack Toomey: 1-4, R, RBI, BB, 3 K

·  1B Julio Zayas: 2-5, 2 R, HR (11), 3 RBI

·  LF Branny De Oleo: 1-4, R, 2B, BB, 2 K

·  2B Vladi Gomez: 1-3, 2 R, 2 BB, E (10), CS (2)

·  3B Jeremy Rodriguez: 2-4, 2 R, BB, K

·  RHP Christian Rodriguez: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, HBP

·  RHP Ernesto Mercedes: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (3-3)

·  RHP Jean Brito: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 0 K

·  LHP Luis Sotillo: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K

·  RHP Brett Banks: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

ROSTER ALERT: RHP Jean Brito assigned to St. Lucie Mets from FCL Mets.

ROSTER ALERT: St. Lucie Mets activated LHP Luis Sotillo from the Development List.

ROSTER ALERT: St. Lucie Mets transferred RHP Jose Guevara to the Development List.

ROSTER ALERT: St. Lucie Mets placed RHP Jose Lopez on the 7-day injured list.

Rookie: FCL Mets (24-33)

NO GAME (SEASON OVER)

STAR OF THE NIGHT

Kevin Herget, Saul Garcia, Tobias Myers, Chayce McDermott, Joe Jacques, and Zach Franklin

GOAT OF THE NIGHT

None; System sweep!

September arrives kicking and screaming into this Major League Baseball season, with its dozens of mediocre teams still in contention and just 28 days left to find resolution.

No, we are not yet to the point of calling this week’s key matchups compelling. That day might never come. But we will say things are getting moderately more interesting.

That’s a start.

The coming week will produce a nearly full slate of games every day and just two to four series are virtually devoid of playoff ramifications, and fewer than that if you consider the Cardinals, Pirates and Twins still on the periphery of contention. The rest will have a scent of relevance – and a few are actually pretty important.

With that, a look at five of the bigger series this week:

The Yankees are heading West, and they do so after a pretty cathartic weekend. They played four games against their hated rivals with playoff seeding at stake, and after a tense first couple of matchups, New York awakened in the final two contests, unloading on the Red Sox for a combined 25 runs across two games. It was a triumphant showing, and on the heels of the news that Aaron Judge will traveling with the team to Anaheim, things are looking up.

There’s a real chance here to keep the momentum going, with the Yankees taking on the Angels for three starting tonight. Josh will have you covered with the series preview this morning. Later, Kevin recaps Sunday in the American League, and also profiles Claudell Washington as part of our Yankee Birthday series. And in the afternoon, John discusses the most recent CBA proposals that have been reported.

Today’s Matchup:

New York Yankees at Los Angeles Angels

Time: 9:38 p.m. EST

TV: YES Network, NESN

Venue: Angel Stadium, Anaheim, CA

Questions/Prompts:

1. What was your biggest positive takeaway from this weekend’s series win over Boston?

2. Now that Aaron Judge is traveling with the team to California to ramp up on-field activities, do you expect him to be activated for the next homestand?

They were expansion partners in 1993 and have achieved some remarkable things in Major League Baseball: Two World Series titles, an out-of-nowhere run to a National League pennant and cultivating one loyal fan base that turns out even in the grimmest of times.

Yet as they complete their 34th seasons as major league franchises, the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins will once again take an embarrassing deficiency into the winter:

They’ve never won a division title.

That might sound a little pedantic, given that the Marlins won World Series championships in 1997 and 2003, both coming as a wild card and the latter a truly out-of-nowhere accomplishment. And the Rockies made the playoffs in their first season at Coors Field in 1995 and in 2007 staged a wild run to the World Series, winning 21 of 22 games to sneak in the playoffs and sweep the NL field.

So what’s the big deal if an NL East or West flag doesn’t droop amid the climate-controlled environs of loanDepot Park, or flap in the breeze a mile high in Denver?

Well, this particular dry spell of divisional futility is unprecedented in MLB’s expansion era.

You need only look at the two clubs that came to life five years after the Marlins (occupying the Miami Dolphins’ Joe Robbie Stadium) and Rockies (watching the ball carry in cavernous Mile High Stadium) played their first games.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, defying the slow build ethos expected of expansion teams, won the NL West in 1999, just their second season. They won a World Series championship two years later.

And the Tampa Bay Rays, woefully mismanaged in the years after their 1998 debut, were, thanks to future Hall of Fame GM Andrew Friedman, champions of the vaunted AL East by 2008, appearing in their first World Series that fall.

Every other major league franchise? They’ve all won championships since divisional play began in 1969 and all – with a couple caveats – in far less time than the Marlins and Rockies have failed to do so.

Sure, the former Washington Senators/Texas Rangers franchise needed 36 years to win a division, but they played eight seasons after their 1961 founding before the AL and NL cleaved into divisions. And the former Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals franchise didn’t win a division until 2012, when the Nationals broke in the franchise’s 44th season.

Yet the Expos had the most overall wins among NL East teams in the strike-interrupted 1981 split season and famously held the best record in the majors – 74-40 – and a six-game lead in the East when the 1994 strike shut down the season in August.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Pirates fans and fans across the country.

This week’s question asked you about Termarr Johnson. The second baseman in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system hasn’t quite lived up to his first-round status and is hitting just .239 for his five years in the Minor Leagues and is now down with what is being termed a “serious” injury.

What we asked this week was do you think Termarr Johnson is going to be a bust? Here are the results:

A full 82 percent of Bucs fans are ready to give up on Termarr as a bust for the Pirates. I am definitely behind that. It’s interesting to think that the Bucs took Henry Davis and Termarr Johnson in back-to-back years with designs on improving their hitting, and now neither one of them can hit a lick. That’s an organizational development failure. But that’s a convo for another day.

Don’t forget to check out FanDuel as we head down the season’s home stretch. The Bucs currently sit a six games back in the Wild Card despite winning two games in a row, but you can still grab some MLB Playoff odds and props on home run hitters, leaders, etc…

Thanks for voting. We’ll be back soon with more Reacts!

The theory is things even out over a 162-game season. Yet in the American League West, everyone's finding out the only water level they're going to reach still has them submerged.

Major League Baseball's worst division could have restored some pride to the AL this weekend, when three teams played interleague series and another staged a rematch of the 2025 ALCS. Instead, the Astros, Rangers, Mariners, Athletics and Angels went a combined 3-12, the latter three getting swept.

And the Mariners continued their stunning downfall.

They got trucked in Toronto, where ill-timed pitching changes and an offense prone to disappearing - the Mariners were one-hit over seven innings by 42-year-old Max Scherzer - led to a sweep. The preseason AL favorites dropped to 64-73 and down to No. 25 in USA TODAY Sports' power rankings.

Are they out of the playoff picture? Of course not! They're still in the AL, which means 13 losses in 21 games barely puts a dent in your hopes. Seattle's five games back in both the wild card and West chases. And congrats to the Astros, who clawed above .500 and perhaps might win the division with a non-losing record.

Check back in a month.

A look at our updated rankings:

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: The Yankees are off to the West Coast, and Aaron Judge is coming with them. The plan is for Judge to really start ramping up this week, including taking on-field batting practice. “Hopefully out there, he’ll start to get on velocity and things like that,” Aaron Boone said. “He’ll be part of the pregame stuff and just get more entrenched into getting ready to come back.” Though it’d be a major surprise to see Judge play during this trip, it seems possible that the team’s next homestand could see him return.

ESPN | Jorge Castillo: Rookie George Lombard Jr. left Saturday night’s game after tweaking his knee, and though he’s avoided any structural damage, he’s could still hit the injured list. “It feels fine,” Lombard said. “It’s definitely better than yesterday. It felt a little stiff, and there’s still a little soreness, a little inflammation in there, but not terrible.” Jose Caballero, who was the starting shortstop for the first several weeks of the season, started at short on Sunday. Anthony Volpe is also biding his time at Triple-A, with the erstwhile starter at short having moved around the infield in the last month, taking several starts at second, and even starting at third over the weekend.

New York Post | Mark W. Sanchez: The Yankees called up Luis Gil yesterday, the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year giving the club a fresh arm and taking Yerry De los Santos’ spot on the roster. Things are set up for the Yankees to have something of a bullpen audition in September, as there’s plenty of room in Aaron Boone’s Circle of Trust. Gil could toss his name into the mix, as could Clarke Schmidt, who made a rehab appearance over the weekend. Most everything is up for grabs beyond David Bednar, Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn, so anyone that performs well over the season’s final month could become a factor come October.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Padres fans and fans across the country.

In the end, it was not close. To be honest, that was to be expected.

Ty France was the overwhelming answer to the Gaslamp Ball Reacts Survey poll question this week. “Who has been more impressive so far this season?” Respondents had the choices of France, Luis Campusano, Walker Buehler or Bradgley Rodriguez. Looking back, it would have been appropriate to add Yuki Matsui to the list of candidates as well, but France would probably remain the top choice.

The right-handed slugger has been stellar defensively for the Padres this season, despite a bobble on a play on Saturday night. The fielders, Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Jake Cronenworth all seem to enjoy having a Gold Glove Award winner manning first base. It allows them to make throws without the pressure of having to make them perfect. France himself is not perfect, but more often than not, if he can get to a throw he does and that results in more outs and less traffic on the bases for San Diego pitchers.

France came into the 2026 season as a minor league invite, but he has taken full advantage of his second opportunity with the Padres. There is no reason to think he would not receive a multi-year contract offer that would start in 2027 if the season is not lost due to a lockout. France added to his season totals with a home run int the second game of the series against the Tampa Bay Rays. He is currently hitting .287 after 355 at-bats. He has 19 home runs with 59 RBI and 47 runs scored. France has also walked 30 times. He has been entrenched as the No. 4 hitter in the San Diego lineup and there have been calls from some fans the the Padres to slide him up to the No. 3 spot in front of Machado who has been struggling as of the late.

If France can continue his level of play he should be rewarded in the offseason, but for now his ability to maintain his level of play could be a key factor in whether or not the Padres make the postseason.

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Longtime baseball reporter Francys Romero reported Sunday evening that Cuban OF Lazaro Montes will be called up to the Seattle Mariners, with Daniel Kramer of MLB.com reporting that the move is expected ahead of Tuesday’s game in Boston, coinciding with the expansion of rosters to 28 for September call-ups. Montes is in transit to Boston but is not necessarily expected to be activated for Monday’s series opener at the Red Sox.

Montes has been one of the most powerful sluggers in the minor leagues since arriving in pro ball after training in the Dominican Republic as a teenager. Progressing through the same program that produced Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, the comparisons for the titanic lefty have been common. They’re not quite accurate, however. Montes is a huge kid, a 21 year old listed at 6’5, 210 whose frame is as massive as his smile. Like Alvarez, while he moves well for his size, his gait and foot speed are never going to reflect as plus defensively, though Montes has good baseline athleticism that helps him make many 50/50 plays despite middling range. Moreover, his arm is absolutely massive, a profile similar to an early-career Nelson Cruz. Not just that, but Montes is a high-effort player in all phases, occasionally stunning opponents with his pace and hustle.

But that’s not the main thing Lazaro Montes is all about. The reason he’s been a top-100 prospect and one of the most anticipated hitting prospects in years for Seattle is gargantuan power that’s seen him club 21 homers in 2024 across 542 PA at a teenager, then 32 a season ago between High-A and Double-A, and now 38 big flies in 537 PA across Arkansas and Triple-A Tacoma. At every level, Montes has been a variation of highly consistent, slugging massively, walking prominently, and whiffing most of the time he’s not doing one of those two options.

It’s made for a fascinating profile, with a .247/.365/.556 line this season that features a 14.3% walk rate and a 30.7% strikeout rate. The in-zone contact rate on Montes’ swings (and contact rate overall) is poor enough that there are plenty of folks who simply don’t think he can be a big leaguer in an effective long-term capacity, despite doing devastating damage most of the time he makes contact. Montes has a 71.1% in-zone contact rate and 64.4% contact overall on swings in his ~200 plate appearances with the Rainiers, where Statcast data is tracked throughout the Pacific Coast League publicly. The only qualified hitter worse than that at the big league level is 1B Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox, who is at 70.5% and 60.7% respectively. Nobody else is below 77% for in-zone contact, and even if you drop the big league split to minimum of 200 PAs, it’s only Murakami lower.

The key for Montes is what he does on contact. His hard hit rate in Tacoma is 56.8% per Statcast, which is again a number in company with only Murakami, James Wood, Oneil Cruz, Nick Kurtz, Pete Alonso, and Aaron Judge. His hardest hit ball in Triple-A this year is 116.3 MPH, which ties Wood, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Elly De La Cruz for 8th-hardest in MLB all year. His average exit velocity would be third-highest in MLB behind just Cruz and Wood, right ahead of Yordan. The more likely outcome than instant stardom is something closer to what we’ve seen from Jordan Walker, Coby Mayo, or Jac Caglianone, all of whom share similar offensive profiles, explosive strength, and risk of whiff in their swing.

The choice of Montes makes sense in terms of production, he’s crushed every level at every age he’s been assigned. His profile, however, is an intriguing one to see, and may be indicative of Seattle’s willingness to hope for a hail mary, looking to Lazaro to bring their season back from the dead with a deluge of big flies. Being called up in September will not impact Montes’ ability to be a rookie in 2027, nor disrupt his eligibility for the Prospect Promotion Incentive picks the have ample value to clubs. Whether Montes posts daily or in a part-time role may depend on what the M’s are valuing in their final month of play.

It was the non-catch that kicked off a five-run inning and has the Red Sox irate, especially after the Yankees completed a 16-1 win over Boston in The Bronx.

Ceddanne Rafaela was emphatic Sunday that he had indeed made a diving catch that would have led to the Red Sox outfielder turning a double play.

With a runner on first, Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a fly ball into right-center field in the fifth inning that sent Rafaela to try to make the diving catch.

While it appeared that he did, and Rafaela certainly felt like he did, the umpires ruled that he had trapped the ball and therefore the runners were on first and second. A video review also upheld the call on the field.

“I didn’t have to even watch it,” Rafaela told reporters, according to ESPN. “I know I made the catch. I know when a ball drops and a ball don’t drop. And I know I made the catch.”

Rafaela also took to social media to call out the ruling, posting a zoomed-in image of the ball in his glove along with text that stated that “it’s a man above that saw it.”

He told reporters that he was “mad in the moment” because he wanted to help his pitcher.

“I feel that changed the whole game right there,” Rafaela added

Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy made it a point to note that the video review did not confirm the original call; rather, it merely upheld it.

“I know when you hear ‘call stands,’ not ‘call confirmed,’ that’s a pretty good indicator that they’re saying it’s very difficult to see anything on video for us to overturn on the field,” he said. “So, if you hear ‘call confirmed,’ that’s different. That’s not what you heard.

“We in the dugout feel like our center fielder caught the ball. But if they don’t have anything that they can definitively overturn it, that’s usually where you end up and obviously it’s frustrating.”

The Yankees went on to add runs in the sixth and seventh innings and then scored nine runs in the bottom of the eighth to cement the win.

Yes, Pete Crow-Armstrong blasted another pair of homers on Sunday night just 24 hours after he hit a trio of bombs off Cincinnati Reds pitching during Saturday’s 17-5 embarrassment by the Chicago Cubs. Yes, the Chicago Cubs jumped out to an immediate lead in the process, as PCA’s first blast of the night came in the Bottom of the 1st off Reds ace Chase Burns to open the game’s ledger.

From there on, though, the scrappy Cincinnati club took matters into their own hands on the Sunday Night Baseball national stage, and in doing so head home after a long three-city road trip west with as series victory on which they can most definitely hang their hats.

Hector Rodriguez helped turn the tide with a massive left-on-left three-run homer over the RF wall in Wrigley Field, and both Dane Myers and Tyler Stephenson followed in the Top of the 5th with moonshot blasts into the bleachers beyond the LF wall.

Then, Sal Stewart went to work on the Chicago bullpen in the Top of the 7th with a solo shot out to CF that carried some 418 feet. That blast meant the NL Rookie of the Year frontrunner officially homered in each game of the series.

That gave the Reds a 7-spot, and that was enough for their pitching staff to hold onto in the eventual 7-5 win.

Burns, to his credit, shrugged off the rain delay and early poor umpiring to pour in 5.2 IP of 2 ER ball on exactly 100 pitches before being pulled. He had PCA struck out in their first PA against one another in the Bottom of the 1st in a steady rain, but the home plate ump missed the call (and Stephenson opted against challenging in the game’s first PA for his pitcher), and PCA hit his homer on the very next pitch.

The lone real blemish on an otherwise impressive night by the young core of the Reds was that Elly De La Cruz exited early after hustling down the 1B line out of the box. He was pretty clearly in at least a bit of discomfort, and it was later reported that he’s got some quad tightness.

Fortunately, it appears all parties may be mostly OK. Charlie Goldsmith reported after the game that manager Terry Francona has some confidence that Elly may even be right back in the lineup as early as tomorrow.

Reds 7, Cubs 5, and the vibes sit about as good as they can given everything else that’s fallen by the wayside so far in 2026.

Over the past month, Carson Benge’s case has strengthened. Over the past 28 games entering play Sunday, the Mets outfielder carved out a place in the National League’s Rookie of the Year race with a .952 OPS and an NL-leading 38 hits.

Benge hasn’t thought about his name continuing to pop up in chatter surrounding the award, but “[I] definitely do want it,” he told The Post before the Mets (61-76) lost 6-3 to the Astros. If he won the honor, it’d make him the first Met to do so since Pete Alonso in 2019 and just the third rookie from the franchise this century to take it, joining Alonso and Jacob deGrom (2014). But he’ll need to surge past the other candidates, including the Cardinals’ JJ Wetherholt, the Reds’ Sal Stewart and the Mets’ Nolan McLean, and extend his own tear across the final month of the season.

“It’d be cool,” Benge said before going 0-for-4 as the Mets capped a six-game homestand at Citi Field. “There’s plenty of good rookies around the NL, with one being in our locker room and the conversation, too, but it’d be pretty cool to win it over all those guys.”

It’ll be challenging for Benge to separate from the field. Wetherholt, the St. Louis infielder who went on the injured list Sunday with right wrist tendinitis, has hit .242 with a .743 OPS and the sixth-best bWAR among NL position players (4.6). Stewart, 22, just became the first Reds rookie in franchise history to record a season with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs, and he entered play Sunday with an MLB-leading 104 RBIs — one of two players in the league to hit the century mark.

And McLean, who stumbled early in the season, has collected a 1.76 ERA across his last 11 starts, with the most recent one unfolding Saturday when he allowed just two hits and an unearned run against the Astros.

But then there’s Benge, who has impressed with both his bat and his arm. He played his way onto the Opening Day roster with a strong spring training and then never lost his spot. He became the first Mets rookie since Darryl Strawberry in 1983 to have 15 homers and 15 stolen bases in the same season, and he sits at 16 homers and 54 RBIs for the year. Benge’s right arm has produced outfield assists clocked at 99.9 mph and 103.9 mph.

“I think [he] definitely belongs in the conversation right now with the guy who pitched last night for us,” interim manager Andy Green said Sunday of Benge and McLean. “I know there’s other good rookies throughout the game. I think Carson, throughout the year, shows the ability to bounce back from tough moments really well. Really talented hitter. Can hit any pitch at any time. Even as he goes through funks, he maintains like the right perspective and the right attitude and the right approach.

“I think we knew that’s who he was. It’s great to see it play out on a big league field in the first season.”
Benge said he doesn’t think about what might allow him to stand out from others in contention for the award. He’ll let whoever votes judge that. He hasn’t talked to McLean, a teammate at Oklahoma State before their climb through the minors and to the Mets, about it either.

It might be tough to unseat Stewart, who has the numbers. It might be tough to topple Wetherholt, even if he misses chances to add to his stats while injured. But with his recent tear, Benge has at the very least entered the conversation, inching closer to something the 23-year-old said he thought was possible from when he first started working toward cracking the Mets roster back in spring training.

“I think if not,” Benge said of that thought, “I’m selling myself short. If you’re gonna try and come into the league and not do anything, be average to below average, I don’t think you’re doing it right.”