Category: Baseball

The Red Sox begin the postseason on Tuesday and have scored just 5 runs over the last 5 games. In other words, now would be a great time for the team’s best offensive contributor to return to a lineup that desperately needs a spark. But unless a miracle happens over the weekend, things aren’t looking good. Willson Contreras took batting practice on Tuesday, only for his hand injury to worsen in the subsequent days. He’s still struggling to grip a bat and admitted to tearing up out of frustration. “I’m doing everything that I can to come back and play with the boys and be there with the boys,” he said. “But sometimes you have to listen to your body.” (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)

At least Ceddanne Rafaela has returned. He should be able to give a little lift for the lineup, though he does present a conundrum for Chad Tracy, as the Sox now have too many outfielders and DHs to fit into the lineup at once. With Roman Anthony, Rafalea, and Wilyer Abreu essentially locked into starting spots, Tracy has to decide whether to prioritize Duran’s glove and legs over the platoon DH production of Mickey Gasper and Jahmai Jones. (Sean McAdam, MassLive)

And all of this is occuring against the backdrop of this weekend’s storm. And if you think we’re done dealing with that now that MLB has moved Sunday’s game to today, we’re not. There is still a possibility that one or more of this weekend’s games is moved to Tropicana Field in St. Pete. (Conor Ryan, Boston.com)

With the depressing news about Contreras, the team could probably use a pep talk. If so, Pedro Martinez — as someone who still believed in this team in the darkness of May — is available. “I just feel good about approaching the Yankees this time around. And [the Red Sox] are young, yes. We don’t have the highest expectations about them, but man, for some reason, I just feel so positive,” said the right arm of God. “I just feel so excited that this young group of guys that we have out there are able to do something special. I don’t see anything wrong with these kids, and I don’t see why they shouldn’t give everybody knuckles. Not just the Yankees, but everybody.” (Ian Browne, MLB.com)

If the Sox are going to give everybody knuckles, then Ranger Suarez is probably going to be a part of it. The offseason signing has an outstanding postseason resume, and his final 2026 stats are more or less in line with the numbers he’d been putting up in Philadelphia, even if he sounds slightly disappointed in his performance. “Obviously I think I could have done better,” he said of his season. “But I was happy I was able to finish the season strong.” (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)

The Guardians celebrated a playoff berth last night with a 1-0 win over the Red Sox, but the White Sox beat the Royals so Cleveland’s division lead remains one game with three to play.

Zack Meisel wrote a fun article with different player’s perspectives on the journey to the playoffs.

The Astros and Rangers both won last night. I would say the Astros have the advantage to win the division because they have three left with the Athletics and Texas has three against the Twins.

The Padres have 89 wins, the Cubs 88, and the Phillies 87 heading into the final series of the season. The Diamondbacks are teetering on the edge of elimination with 85 wins. The Phillies hold the tiebreaker over the Padres and the Cubs hold the tiebreaker over the Padres and Phillies. The six seed in the NL will play Atlanta.

Heading into the final weekend of the 2026 Major League Baseball season, two divisions are still up for grabs and there's chaos in the National League wild card race.

Entering Friday's games, the Cleveland Guardians have a one-game lead on the Chicago White Sox (who have clinched at least a wild-card spot) in the American League Central, while the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers are tied at 79-80 atop the AL West, with Houston holding the tiebreaker.

In the NL wild card, the San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies are just about locked in for the three spots – but it's wide-open as to where the trio will finish in the standings. The Padres enter Friday with the best record of the three.

The MLB playoffs get underway on a Tuesday, Sept. 29 with quadruple-header featuring four wild card series games. The best-of-five division series begins Saturday, Oct. 3.

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

Good morning, LSB.

The Rangers bounced back with a series salvaging and perhaps season salvaging win over the Mets.

Kennedi Landry writes about Texas sending the season into the final weekend with the win.

Evan Grant eulogized the Rangers on Wednesday but now says not so fast my friend.

Jeff Wilson says the Rangers seized their second chance after the Astros faltered in Seattle.

Kevin Sherrington is just amazed that this thing is somehow still alive.

The DMN has an attendance update now that the Rangers are done at Globe Life Field for the season. Or are they?!

And Josh Hamilton is the latest guest on Grant’s podcast.

That’s all for this morning. The Rangers start up the final series of the season tonight in Minnesota with Jacob deGrom on the mound for Texas.

Happy Friday and Go Rangers!

Martin Perez came from pretty much out of nowhere, including his own DFA earlier in the season, to chip in handily for the Braves. While he was more fortunate-and-or-availing-himself-of-the-defense than good (73 ERA- but a 104 FIP- and a 107 xFIP-), the Braves weren’t exactly awash in non-Chris Sale effective starters for much of the season, so Perez was far more helpful than not.

Given that, he was probably in the mix for serious innings consideration in any non-Sale, non-Tyler Mahle postseason game… until he hit the shelf with back tightness that hasn’t responded to treatment. The prognosis is unclear, as the earliest he could return would be NLDS Game 3, though there have been suggestions that this is really more of a NLCS-if-we-get-there situation.

Will the Braves miss Perez? That’s the question, I guess. I’m not sure they will, for two reasons.

First, the initial playoff around is a three-game set. There’s a 50 percent-ish chance that it gets settled in two games (the Sale and Mahle games) either way.

Next, the Braves have so many long men that unless you figure Perez was going to be left out for a traditional start, I’m not sure his pitching can’t just be replicated by guys the Braves likely wouldn’t use in the first two games except in a blowout situation anyway. Remember the 73/104/107 line? Well, Brent Suter has an 84/88/86 line on the season and a 44/84/90 line as a Brave. He routinely throws two-plus innings, and has done a fair bit of three-inning outings as well. Ray Kerr’s sample this season is tiny, but his line is 42/95/91 returning from Tommy John Surgery, and he has a 110/106/91 career line. In eight outings, he’s thrown at least three innings three different times. Some combination of Suter and Kerr might be even better than Perez, with the flexibility of inserting a righty in between them if needed.

Where the Braves could miss Perez is if they go Johnny Wholestaff in Game 3 and come out victorious. That might mean eating a loss, or at least an unfortunate pitching situation in the very next game they play… and without Perez, they might need to resort to JR Ritchie or something just to get through that one. But, those chances don’t seem very high compared to all the other outcomes that could happen.

So, with that — how ominously does his injury loom in your mind?

The Yankees will host the Wild Card Series starting next Tuesday -- likely against the Red Sox -- but there are plenty of question marks surrounding the team's roster heading into the postseason.

From potential returns to fringe players, manager Aaron Boone and the rest of the organization will have their work cut out for them to figure out the ideal 26-man roster going into the three-game series.

The Yanks still have three games against the Orioles this weekend, and while they are not playing for anything, they will look to rest starters, overworked bullpen arms, and even try out players at different positions to give them some versatility. 

Going into our predicted roster, we're going to assume everyone stays healthy and the team will go up against the rival Red Sox...

Starting Pitchers (3)

Cam Schlittler: RHP
Max Fried: LHP
Gerrit Cole: RHP

This is the easiest prediction, as Boone has pretty much spelled out that Schlittler, Fried, and Cole will take the mound in the three-game series. Now the order can be debated -- we'd go with the obvious Schlittler-Fried-Cole order -- but saving Schlittler to either save the Yankees' season or close out the series is not a bad idea.

Bullpen (9)

David Bednar: RHP
Brent Headrick: LHP
Paul Blackburn: RHP
Tim Hill: LHP
Will Warren: RHP
John Schreiber: RHP
Ryan Yarbrough: LHP
Carlos Rodon: LHP
Carlos Lagrange: RHP

Here's where things can get interesting. 

GM Brian Cashman didn't acquire a reliever at the deadline, as the price was too steep -- according to him -- and the plan always seemed to move one, two, or three of their starters to the 'pen once Cole, Fried, and Rodon came back from injury. 

The combination of Warren and Ryan Weathers seemed like good bets to get on the roster, giving Boone a righty and a southpaw who can give multiple innings. But with Weathers' injury, he seems out of the running to make the roster until the ALDS. If Weathers were healthy enough, I'd replace Yarbrough or Hill with him. 

That gives Rodon a chance to fill Weathers' role alongside Warren. Clarke Schmidt would also have been on the roster if he didn't recently land on the IL. 

Lagrange is another interesting name. The flamethrower could be called up this weekend to give him some run before the postseason. The Yankees optioned Luis Gil following Thursday's win, so an arm will have to replace him. Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake told the media recently that the organization has had "a lot of talks" about promoting Lagrange.

That's good enough for me, and I could be going out on a limb, but Lagrange's stuff is too good to not see what he's got. 

Outfielders (4)

Cody Bellinger
Spencer Jones
Trent Grisham
Heliot Ramos

Infielders (9)

Ben Rice: 1B/DH
Paul Goldschmidt: 1B
Luis Garcia, Jr.: 1B
Austin Wells: C
Ali Sanchez: C
Jazz Chisholm, Jr.: 2B
George Lombard, Jr.: SS
Anthony Volpe: 2B/SS
Ryan McMahon: 3B

Utility (1)

Jose Caballero: 3B/2B/SS/OF

Let's get the obvious omission out of the way. 

I don't believe Aaron Judge will be on the roster, nor should he. Simply, I don't trust him playing in the outfield right now, and if he has to DH, that clogs up first base and the DH spots. It's also not like he was mashing the ball when he returned from his rib injury (4-for-23 with 13 strikeouts, one walk, and one home run). 

Let Judge rest up, and hopefully he's well enough to play the outfield in the ALDS should New York advance. 

I feel the same about Giancarlo Stanton. He clogs up the DH/1B spot and would only be useful in a pinch-hit opportunity. That leaves Ramos, Jones, Bellinger, and a returning Grisham to man the outfield. Caballero can also play out there in a pinch.

As for the infield, Amed Rosario is the odd man out. He's redundant with McMahon and Caballero able to play third base. And Volpe learning the position gives the Yankees another right-handed option. 

Today marks the beginning of the last series of the regular season across Major League Baseball. After this weekend, 18 teams will head home for the winter while the other 12 teams will officially begin the hunt for a championship with the MLB postseason beginning on Tuesday. 

The Phillies of course are right in the thick of the postseason field, even if they have not as of yet clinched their spot officially. They are engaged in an extremely tight race for the three Wild Card slots in the National League, with the Phillies, Cubs, and Padres all separated by no more than two games. That’s who currently occupies the three slots with the Arizona Diamondbacks still alive and fighting for their lives on the outside looking in. This weekend will determine who is officially in as well as seeding. The latter of course will determine who plays where and when. The impending nor’easter hitting the east coast of the country will be a factor in all of this as well, as the Cubs are playing in Boston and have already had one of their games retooled into a doubleheader in anticipation of heavy rain all weekend. 

There are numerous possibilities on where the Phillies will be by the end of the weekend. They could be playing one of the Cubs, Padres, Braves, or possibly the Diamondbacks. They could be playing in Atlanta, in Chicago, in San Diego, in Arizona, or even at home. There’s still a slight chance they could be one of those teams heading home for the winter, although that is unlikely considering the Padres and Diamondbacks play each other this weekend, making the math difficult for both teams to make the postseason while keeping the Phillies out.

So, where will the Phillies stand at the end of this final series of the regular season? 

The Orioles were officially eliminated last night. The White Sox beat the Royals 9-1, just as they were supposed to, and clinched a Wild Card spot. Munetaka Murakami drank champagne and told us, lo and behold, he’s Japanese. And the Orioles, meanwhile, watched, helpless to their fate. At 78-81, the best they can do now on the season is finish .500.

Next year needs to be different, but the people are mostly going to be the same people. We’re not getting a new manager or a new GM: Craig Albernaz is back for a second season, and Mike Elias is staying put. Don’t hold your breath for another splashy winter, either. The club could and should, as our own Tyler commented, sign a front-line starter. But as for the lineup, they’ve already committed five years and $155 million to Pete Alonso, who, to be fair, has more than held up his end with 41 homers, an .871 OPS, and a newly-minted Most Valuable Oriole award. But it’s hard to picture ownership doing that twice, especially after trading Adley Rutschman at the deadline. So the reinforcements have to come from inside the house.
 

And we’d better hope that they do, if we fans are to have a prayer of watchable baseball next year. This season, despite working with an all-new hitting staff, the Orioles’ offense was great undiversified: a whole lot of swinging and not much else. As we enter the final weekend of the ’26 season, the offensive stats are gloomy. The Birds are hitting .233 as a team. Even accounting for the league-wide offensive downturn, that’s 28th of 30 teams in baseball, and only the Mariners are worse in the American League. Baltimore’s .707 OPS ranks 23rd in the majors and 11th of 15 in the AL. The home runs, to be fair, didn’t go missing: 194 of them, counting for 10th in MLB and fourth in the AL. But 41 of those belong to Pete Alonso. Take him out and the rest of the roster hit 153, which is about where the Blue Jays and Guardians finished, at the bottom. A lineup that can’t hit for average and gets on base at a .313 clip needs every one of those homers to come with runners on, and many didn’t.

If outside reinforcements aren’t forthcoming, this puts a lot of weight on the existing lineup. I want to highlight just a few key bats. Only one had a year to feel good about, and he’s the one we expected the least from.

Coby Mayo

Mayo came into the season a young hitter who hadn’t made it yet. Impressively, considering his peers who were higher-rank and round He’s leaving it as the only one who clearly did: .225/.293/.463 with 24 homers in 130 games, good for a 112 OPS+. The power is real. The on-base percentage is a problem, since under .300 is thin even for a slugger. If he gets that closer to .320 and keeps the pop, he’s a 30-homer bat in the middle of the order. He doesn’t need a bounceback; he just needs a repeat performance.

Tyler O’Neill

Gah,how dreary. Back in December 2024 outfielder Tyler O’Neill signed a three-year, $49.5 million deal that’s looking worse and worse, and he’s got one more year left on the deal. So far, the Orioles have gotten 139 games of .206-ish baseball for their troubles. O’Neill hit .199 with nine homers in 54 games in 2025, and .212/.300/.377 with 10 homers in 85 games this year (a 92 OPS+). His 2026 started with a concussion stint after he fainted from dehydration in April, and it ended on the IL with shoulder inflammation. The talent is there, but now he’s had 19 trips to the injured list across his career.

Colton Cowser

Cowser came into spring with a real shot at the everyday center field job. Then he hit .167/.255/.188 over his first 23 games, struck out more than 30 percent of the time, and spent the rest of the year platooning in center with Leody Taveras. To his credit, he added a leg kick, worked his way back, and finished at .223/.313/.365 with 13 homers (93 OPS+). Thanks to his defense, that was still worth 2.4 bWAR. Cowser has the lowest bar of anyone here. With his glove, a league-average bat makes him a solid regular. But the high-contact guy of his days back at Sam Houston State has gone MIA for now.

Jordan Westburg

Westburg didn’t play at all in 2026. He had an oblique issue in the spring, then elbow pain that a PRP injection didn’t fix, and he had Tommy John surgery in May. Elias says a return “as a full player in the early part of 2027 is very much in play.” The worry is what the talented Westburg’s floor really is. The third baseman broke his hand in 2024, a string of injuries held him to 85 games in 2025, and now he’s missed a full season. Healthy, he’s a 2024 All-Star who can play third or second. Whether he’ll be healthy is the real question.

Jackson Holliday

Holliday’s season went sideways before it started. He had hamate surgery in February, didn’t debut until May 19, and missed the final week with inflammation in his other wrist before undergoing surgery this week. In between, he hit .229/.300/.340 with seven homers, an 83 OPS+, in 98 games. Hamate injuries are notorious for sapping power even after the bone heals, so it’s fair to call this a lost year. Still, that’s three big-league seasons without a league-average bat, and his name came up in trade talks this summer. He turns 23 in December. That’s young, but the grace period won’t last forever.

Gunnar Henderson

Here’s the guy I was really thinking about when I wrote this. In 2026, Henderson hit .225/.310/.405, a 102 OPS+. That’s a precipitous drop from 2025 (.787 OPS) and tumble off a cliff from 2024, when he hit 37 homers, posted a 155 OPS+, and got into the MVP conversation. This year, Gunnar still put up 3.4 bWAR, because he played 157 games at shortstop and the glove was good. But the Orioles need more. They need Gunnar to be the best player on the team, especially now with Adley gone. There will be a lot of soul-searching about what happened to Gunnar Henderson’s lost offensive season this year, and what can be done for 2027. If the Orioles do get the 2024 Henderson back, the whole lineup looks a whole lot scarier. If they don’t, nothing else on this list can make up for it.

So, reasons for optimism?

The best-case scenario is that everyone here but Mayo has already been better than he was in 2026, and Mayo’s best is happening right now. Westburg’s absence and Holliday’s wrists are about injuries, not skill, and that kind of bad luck doesn’t usually hit twice in a row. The bad case is that every fan says “he’s been better before” about every slumping player, and the Orioles have now spent two years waiting for the young core to take the next step together. I’d bet on the core, but I don’t know if I’d bet much.
 

Did anything of note happen at Wrigley Field on Thursday afternoon? On a day that looked absolutely beautiful and at a generally pleasant time of the year to be at the Friendly Confines, I hope a few of you were there for this one. For anyone who was, I’m genuinely jealous. I’ve spent many days and many nights in that park and have almost universally loved my time there. I’ll forever miss it.

It started with Pete Crow-Armstrong walking and stealing second to reach the 45/40 plateau. A season that is truly for the ages. So many words have been said about his season that anything I can come up with will be repetitive. But, I tip my hat to the youngster. His stardom was apparent quickly upon taking the field for the first time in the Cubs organization and with each stop, seemingly each passing month, that star has burned brighter and brighter. The friendship and bond that has developed between PCA and Seiya Suzuki has been terrific. So it is no surprise that Seiya found himself musing that he believed that Pete is capable of 50/50. No pressure, kid. That would be an incredible encore.

Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising, then, that Seiya hit a homer on Pete’s big day. It was the homer the Cubs needed. For those who weren’t watching the Marquee broadcast, you missed an uncanny statistic. I believe the stat was starting from August 1. The Cubs are 0-13 when they fail to homer. With Thursday’s win, they are 26-13 when they do. That’s an incredible number. They got the long ball and finally the pitching staff got the memo. That is, clearly the Cubs were good for two runs per game this weekend. They scored exactly two and no more in all three games. Matthew Boyd got the message and held the Marlins to one and two relievers made it hold up.

It’s the Marlins and not any of the five other NL teams that will eventually be in the playoffs, but it’s not nothing that over 27 regulation innings in this series, the Cub pitching staff held the Marlins to five total runs. You could spend the next week whining about what the Cubs aren’t. Or, you can imagine what this team is technically capable of and just enjoy the ride.

It wasn’t just Seiya behind the offense, though. And it wasn’t just a big day for Pete. There was definitely a feeling that Ian Happ was playing his last regular season home game as a Cub. I get that there is a significant longevity difference between Happ and Suzuki, but it was hard not to have the impression that it was Ian’s last game at home for the Cubs, but not for Seiya. Maybe I’m reading too much into something that wasn’t there. Ian is the longest-tenured Chicago athlete right now and received his due respect from the Wrigley faithful. Hat tip to Ian for the leadoff triple in the sixth inning that led to the decisive run. Nico Hoerner came up with the key hit to get him home and then Boyd, Daniel Palencia and Ryan Zeferjahn held it down.

What if, bear with me, Zeferjahn is good? You don’t have to squint a lot to see it. Now would be as good a time as ever for that to be true. Further, his team control stretches beyond this year and with no significant change to the free agency system could belong to the Cubs through the end of the decade. The stuff definitely can play. The only question is if he ever puts it all together. All the skills are there. It’s only a matter if he can find the sequencing and learn the skills of a leverage reliever, particularly the skills of a leverage reliever in a media crucible like Chicago.

For that matter, Daniel Palencia could also be with the Cubs through the end of the decade. With all of the Jed Hoyer can’t build a bullpen and the Cubs can’t develop relievers memes, it’s possible that he traded for both with the Cubs finishing the development on Palencia after obtaining him. Maybe not. Maybe one or neither never get there. But they could. The Cubs just might have two dynamic relievers in house. The conversation about development of pitchers can be one where people move the goal posts. How much involvement entails development? Palencia played six games total, 14.1 innings outside of the Cub organization. Did they not theoretically develop him?

Anyway, that’s an argument for another day. But I’m happy to devil’s advocate on behalf of the Cub organization. They are definitely not a top tier draft and development organization. But it’s disingenuous to say they are a bottom tier one either. There are definitely misses, but there are a lot of hits too. There are less home runs than you’d like. I won’t argue with that. But there are plenty of hits in draft and development too.

I was happy to see the team pop some corks. It’s a good experience for the team. It was so apropos that Craig Counsell took only a short amount of time to address the team in the locker room after the game. And he called out one group in the organization. It was the training staff. Talk about a group that had to work overtime this year and surely lost a lot of sleep at times.

On to Boston. Let’s look at the numbers.

Three Positives:

• Boyd. Seven innings, one run. The hero the team needed. He started Opening Day and then he was the guy on the hill when they clinched a postseason appearance for a second straight year since he got here.
• Seiya Suzuki seemed to have let some of the stress out of the park with his game tying homer.
• Ian Happ with a triple leading off the sixth, leading to the second run.
• Hat tips to Nico Hoerner, Daniel Palencia and Ryan Zeferjahn.

Game 159, September 24: Cubs 2, Marlins 1 (88-71)

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

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Matthew Boyd (.318). 7 IP, 27 BF, 5 H, 2 BB, 1 R, 3 K (W 10-5)
• Hero: Seiya Suzuki (.178). 2-3, HR, BB, RBI, R
• Sidekick: Ryan Zeferjahn (.167). IP, 3 BF (Sv 3 Cubs, Sv 7 total)

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Michael Busch (-.123). 0-4
• Goat: Carson Kelly (-.114). 0-3
• Kid: Dansby Swanson (-.106). 0-3

WPA Play of the Game: Seiya Suzuki’s solo homer with one out in the fifth inning tied the game. (.163)

Marlins Play of the Game: Jacob Marsee singled with two outs and a runner on second in the third inning, giving the Marlins an early 1-0 lead. (.120)

Cubs Player of the Game:

Game 158 Winner: Dansby Swanson received 23 of 43 votes.

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

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

• Alex Bregman +26
• Pete Crow-Armstrong +25.5
• Shōta Imanaga +15
• Ben Brown +13.5
• Michael Conforto +12
• Jameson Taillon -13
• Dansby Swanson -15
• Nico Hoerner -16
• Caleb Thielbar -17.5
• Seiya Suzuki -18

Scoreboard Watching: The Phillies lost. They are now a game behind the Cubs and the Cubs own the tie breaker. That puts the Cub magic number at 2 as to the Phillies. The Padres were playing late as I was writing. They were up 4-0. It looks like they’ll remain one ahead of the Cubs (with the Cubs still owning the tie breaker). That puts the Cub magic number at 4 as to the Padres. The Phillies have kept the Diamondbacks alive with their late struggles. The Diamondbacks are just two back of the Phillies.

Up Next: Phillies host the Rays who have locked up home field advantage through the AL playoffs. The Padres host those Diamondbacks who are trying to crash the party. That’s going to be a wild weekend. The Cubs travel to Boston where the Red Sox are already locked in as Wild Card two in the AL and will visit their old pals from New York for a best of three Wild Card series. Just for fun, the Cubs get to play a double header on Friday. If Google hasn’t misled me, 70% of doubleheaders in 2026 resulted in splits. I was surprised to see that historical data shows sweeps happen about as often as splits with the data bouncing around year to year. Sweeps have a slight historical edge.

We check back with Fangraphs. They have the teams splitting two close ones. Clay Holmes (6-8, 3.25) starts the first game. Clay is 0-2 with a 9.39 ERA in three September starts. The Cubs gave him a full week off before making this start. He was 2-2 with a 1.55 ERA in five August starts. We need August Holmes back. He didn’t face the Red Sox this year. David Peterson (9-8, 4.96) starts game two. David is 2-1 with a 4.05 ERA this month (4 starts) and was 1-0 with a 2.83 ERA in August (5 starts, one relief appearance). As I said the last time, Peterson a a Cub has either been excellent or terrible with nothing between really.

MLB.com is only listing one of the two Red Sox starters. That is Brayan Bello (6-7, 4.49). He’s made 25 appearances for the Sox, 10 of them starts. Last time out, he allowed one run to the Rays over eight innings. He’s been terrific in two September starts (1 run in 13 innings). He did have a relief outing where he allowed four runs in three innings of work. He’s bounced in and out of their rotation all year and he’s done well with it. It appears that Alec Gamboa is likely to start the other game. Gamboa is 1.0 with a 1.16 ERA over 31 innings. He’s made two starts in 20 appearances. His longest outing of the year is just four innings and he’s topped out at 63 pitches and that was back in July. He’s not thrown even 30 pitches this month. So this is a true opener, albeit a fairly dominant one.

The Cubs will not see the front end of the Red Sox rotation. It’s very likely they won’t see anyone with any kind of nagging injuries. I wouldn’t imagine they’ll put any of their relievers into particularly strenuous positions, though most of them will probably work at least a little to stay on rotation. Prepare for a weird weekend and both teams griping about the decision making.

Hopefully, the Cubs can find some wins in all of this.

Happy Friday, everyone. We’re heading into the final Tigers’ series of the season, and as devastating as it is to be done in September, we have the final bow of Justin Verlander to look forward to this weekend. It’s sure to be an emotional outing at the park (which we can only call Comerica a little bit longer), so hopefully if you have the opportunity, you’ll get out and enjoy the final few games we have left this year. Meanwhile, division rivals the White Sox have clinched the Central, which is a pretty wild feat if you consider how terrible they were the past two years, so you almost have to give them props for the bounceback. (Wouldn’t it be nice?)

We’ve got lots of fun stuff to watch if you’re at the office and don’t want to think about anything but baseball, including podcast episodes featuring Max Clark and Justin Verlander, so plenty to occupy you heading into the weekend, when we’ll be celebrating all things JV.

So let’s get right into it.

Detroit Tigers News

• In case you missed this bit of delightful news yesterday.

• The delightful Max Clark joined the Tigers’ podcast this week.

• Some really lovely sentiments here from Hao-Yu Lee.

• Insert wide-eyed emoji here.

• If you want to get deep with Justin Verlander before his final game this weekend, he joined Mookie Betts for a one-hour podcast chat that’s available on YouTube.

MLB News

• It’s hard not to like this guy.

• And on the note of the White Sox, I think this fact would be really incredible if they weren’t the division rivals of the Tigers.

• An interesting discussion starter…

23 Years Ago

Moments like these always make me feel old—I never would have guessed this happened so long ago.

Carlos Delgado hit four home runs against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (before they changed their name). This rare feat has occurred only six times in American League history and just 18 times in MLB history. Delgado became the 15th player ever to accomplish it and remains the only Blue Jay to do so. The most recent player to achieve this was J.D. Martinez in 2017 with the Diamondbacks.

The game took place at the Skydome, where the Jays won 10-8.

Delgado’s homers:

• Delgado’s first home run was a three-run shot in the opening inning, with Frank Catalanotto and Vernon Wells on base. That gave the Jays an early 3-0 lead.
• His second home run was a solo shot in the fourth inning, making it 4-1 Jays. Later that inning, Orlando Hudson hit a ground-rule double to extend the lead to 5-1.
• Delgado’s third was a solo home run leading off the sixth inning, tying the game at 6.
• His fourth home run came in the eighth inning, again tying the game—this time at 8. The Jays would go on to score two more runs that inning: Eric Hinske tripled and scored on a Bobby Kielty sacrifice fly, and Mike Bordick homered in the next at-bat.

On the pitching side:

• Pete Walker started the game and pitched five innings (plus two batters into the sixth, surrendering a home run and a triple), allowing three earned runs. He appeared in 23 games that year, making seven starts with a 4.88 ERA. Over his eight-year career, four were with the Jays. He became Toronto’s bullpen coach in 2011 and the pitching coach in 2012. I wonder what his career would have been like if it had today’s Pete Walker as a pitching coach. Likely not that much different, but you never know.
• Vinnie Chulk came on in relief, recording a flyout before allowing a walk, a triple (3 RBI, Marlon Anderson), and a home run (Toby Hall). He surrendered three earned runs while recording just one out. Chulk spent the first four years of his eight-year career in the Jays’ bullpen.
• Dan Reichert recorded the final two outs of the sixth, pitched the seventh (allowing a solo home run), and got two outs in the eighth while yielding another run. He finished with 2.1 innings pitched, allowing five hits, two walks, and two earned runs, with three strikeouts. Reichert’s five-year MLB career concluded that season with the Jays, posting a 6.06 ERA in 15 appearances.
• Trevor Miller got the final out of the eighth and pitched the ninth to earn the win. Miller had a 13-year career, appearing in 79 games for the Jays that year with a 4.61 ERA. He played for eight MLB teams and returned to Toronto in 2011 for six more appearances.

Delgado finished with six RBI, 16 total bases, and a .724 WPA. The four home runs brought his season total to 41; he’d finish with 42, the second-highest mark of his career. He remains the Jays’ all-time home run leader with 336 and ended his MLB career with 473.

Other notable performances included Reed Johnson (2-for-4, .201 WPA), Eric Hinske (1-for-4 with a triple and walk, .193 WPA), and Orlando Hudson (1-for-3 with a home run, .109 WPA).

The win improved the Jays to 84-75, securing third place in the AL East, 14.5 games behind the Yankees, where they would ultimately finish the season.

The Mets open a three-game series against the Nationals in Washington, D.C. on Friday night at 6:45 on PIX11.

Mets Notes

• Francisco Lindor enters play on Thursday with 299 career home runs
• Carson Benge is hitting .292/.353/.447 (.800 OPS) with 18 home runs, 20 doubles, and 77 runs scored in 132 games since April 23

Today's Lineups

Rangers 3, Mets 1

• I feel better now.
• Not that I’m, like, feeling confident in the Rangers winning the division or anything like that.
• But they at least won a game. The losing streak was halted, and we were reminded that, okay, yes, the Rangers are capable of winning a game.
• Kumar Rocker pitched pretty well in his final regular season start of the season, which is good to see.
• I made sure to put “regular season” in there because we are trying to maintain a level of optimism, even if it is just performative optimism.
• The Rangers still have a chance of making the playoffs, after all. Win one more game than Houston does over the final three, and Texas is in.
• Fangraphs puts the odds of that happening at 28.7%. Roughly the likelihood of Kaz Okamoto or James Wood striking out this season. Roughly the likelihood of Evan Carter getting on base in any given plate appearance this season.
• Rocker allowed a run in the first, then not another one, going five innings in all. The slider was working well, as he got 8 whiffs in 16 swings on it, and allowed just one hard hit ball off of the slider.
• That’s pretty much the Kumar Rocker story, though, isn’t it? If the slider is working well, Rocker does well. When the slider isn’t doing its thing, he struggles.
• One baserunner allowed by the relievers over the final four innings, no one reaching scoring position. Not a problem.
• Jordan Montgomery got what I was hoping would be his first career save. As it turned out, he got a save in 2024 for Arizona, so it is his second career save. Not quite as fun.
• The two run first inning homer by Josh Jung answered the one run that the Mets scored in the top of the first. Corey Seager chipped in with an insurance solo homer in the sixth, to make it less anxiety-inducing, less nail-biting.
• One of the less important things for this weekend to watch is whether Seager homers in this final series. If he does, that will get him to 20 home runs for the season. It would be his fifth straight 20 home run season, and the seventh of his career.
• There’s always a sort of numbness that sets in as the end of the season approaches. Here we are, knowing that there are three games left for the 2026 Texas Rangers.
• And its possible there are more, that there will be playoff games, and that hope sustains us to a certain extent.
• But there are no more regular season games at the Shed this year. Just one more series, and the book will be closed for the 2026 regular season.
• It seems like it goes slowly, then that it is going on forever, and then the end is looming way too soon.
• Kumar Rocker topped out at 96.0 mph with his fastball, averaging 94.3 mph, and 96.0 with his sinker, averaging 94.2 mph. Robert Garcia hit 95.0 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s fastball maxed out at 92.7 mph. Chase Silseth hit 96.6 mph with his fastball. Jordan Montgomery’s sinker touched 91.4 mph.
• Corey Seager had a 107.5 mph home run. Josh Jung had a 104.3 mph home run. Elias Diaz had a 102.7 mph groundout.
• Okay, let’s go sweep Minnesota and hope the Astros lose at least one of their remaining games.

The Atlanta Braves announced Thursday that left-hander Martín Pérez is headed to the 15-day injured list with inflammation in his lower back. The move is retroactive to September 21. In a corresponding move, the club called up righty Elieser Hernández. 

It’s unfortunate timing as the Postseason is right around the corner, but skipper Walt Weiss said that things are “mapped out.” 

Pérez has been effective this season, manufacturing a 3.04 ERA through 30 games. He’s recorded 102 strikeouts in 142 innings. 

More Braves News:

The Braves dropped their home regular season with a 7-6 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

MLB News:

The Houston Astros placed outfielder Daulton Varsho on the 10-day injured list with left wrist inflammation. The move is retroactive to September 23.

The New York Yankees placed right-hander Clarke Schmidt on the 15-day injured list with right bicep neuritis. The move is retroactive to September 21.

From the Feed:

Which matchup are you hoping the Braves get in the Wild Card round?

Shohei Ohtani is back in the lineup and the Dodgers saved their best starting lineup for the final five games of the regular season. So far, the team has gone 2-18 with runners in scoring position while scoring just three runs over their two consecutive losses to the San Diego Padres.

Ohtani was one of three Dodgers with an extra-base hit over their last two games, as the two-way superstar is 3-9 with a double, an RBI and a walk since returning. Thursday’s game in particular saw connect for two hits while smacking two deep fly balls that died on the center field warning track in their 4-2 loss, and the three weeks off have evidently helped him mitigate the unease he felt at the plate at the start of the month.

Andrew Friedman admitted the obvious, that the injuries to both his biceps and knee hampered his production at the plate, reports Jack Harris of the California Post, and he noted that he isn’t the most transparent when it comes to his physical health.

“There’s no question [the injuries] affected him,” Friedman said. “I think the fact that he feels as good as he does right now is certainly encouraging. Now it’s about making sure that holds.”

“He’s not always the best reporter of how he feels,” Friedman said. “Freddie [Freeman is] the same way. Clayton Kershaw. I’ve been around a lot of these guys that feel like their job is to be out there to help the team however they can, and sometimes will downplay some things that are bothering them.”

Despite Tyler Glasnow being dealt the loss in his final tune-up on Thursday, he impressed early on by flirting with a no-hitter through his first five innings while also racking up a season-high 11 strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings.

As the Dodgers begin to construct their ideal postseason pitching staff, Glasnow’s name is all but certain to be fixed into the rotation, and the right-hander stated that he’s in a good rhythm entering October while speaking to with the media postgame.

Last postseason, the Dodgers weren’t as fortunate to obtain a first-round bye, having to embark on a four-series gauntlet in their eventual success of becoming baseball’s first repeat champions in a quarter century.

With a much stronger regular season this time around, the Dodgers for the first time since 2024 will have that extra period of rest to prepare for their quest for a three-peat. The most significant factor for their first-round bye will be allowing players dealing with nagging issues to become as healthy as can be come October 3, per Sonja Chen of MLB.com.

“I think we all know why it’s important,” Freeman said earlier this week. “There’s a lot of us kind of limping toward the end here, a lot of aches and pains this year. It’s good to get those guys back on the field, get some ABs in them and then rest up and get some more ABs during the lives and whatever we do here in that week to get us ready for [NLDS Game 1].”