Category: Baseball

San Diego Padres will host the Chicago Cubs in National League Wild Card series originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

On September 4th, the Padres were a half game out of the final National League playoff spot and a full 6.0 games back of the Phillies for the fourth seed. There were real concerns about San Diego even making it to the postseason, let alone hosting the first round.

Then they went on a 17-and-4 rampage punctuated by Saturday night’s 10-7 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks that officially brings the NL Wild Card series to Petco Park.

After trading runs for the first few innings the DBacks had a 4-3 lead in the 4th inning. With two runners on Manny Machado went to the porch for a spell. Machado hit a laser into the Petco Porch in right field. His 30th homer of the season (giving him eight career 30-bomb campaigns, the same number as Hall of Famer and San Diego native Ted Williams) put the Padres on top 6-4 and kicked off a party in the East Village.

In the 5th inning Xander Bogaerts launched a solo homer to left field to make it 7-4 and San Diego put it away with another rally in the 6th. A pair of singles and a walk loaded with bases with two outs for Jake Cronenworth, who lined a single up the middle to plate two more and put it out of reach. San Diego not only makes a 3rd straight postseason appearance for the first time in franchise history, the Friars also win 90 games in three straight years for the first time ever.

Last year they had to go to Wrigley Field, where the Cubs ended their series in three games. This year the Padres will get a chance to return the favor. They’ll host the Cubbies in a best-of-three affair starting on Tuesday. Getting to play that series at home is not insignificant. San Diego has won 50 games at Petco Park this year, one of only five teams in Major League Baseball to get 50 wins at home.

There is one more regular season game to be played, on Sunday afternoon, and that one could have serious playoff implications. If the Diamondbacks win and the Phillies lose, Arizona will knock Philadelphia out of the final playoff spot and grab the 6th seed, then hold a celebration in the visitor’s clubhouse at Petco Park and head to Atlanta to face the Braves in the Wild Card round.

All four of the Wild Card series will be broadcast on NBC and/or Peacock. Game times and broadcast plans will be revealed on Sunday evening.

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ active roster is at 28 and the 40-man roster is at 39.

• Recalled from Triple-A Reno: C Adrian Del Castillo
• Designated for assignment: OF Jesús Sánchez

This is because Gabriel Moreno left yesterday’s game with a balky hamstring, and is limited to DH duties today. The team isn’t comfortable with just one genuine catchers, hence the return of Del Castillo. And a likely farewell to Sánchez, who didn’t exactly deliver the expected impact against RHP expected. He went 2-for-15 with no extra-base hits and a K:BB of 5:1. Let’s just hope we don’t have to rely on Del Castillo’s 55 OPS+.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Moreno has the best chance ever to become the first Diamondback to win a batting title. It’s startling, considering that after the game on June 1, he was hitting just .258. Since then, he has hit .329 over a 93-game span, which takes him ahead by the narrowest of margins:
Moreno: .31064
Arraez: .31040
If Gaby goes 3-for-10 or better over the next two games, and Arraez remains benched, that would do it. Going exactly 3-for-10 would drop Moreno to .31042, giving him the win by two hundred-thousandths. That would be the narrowest victory ever, ten times closer than the 1949 AL one, where George Kell beat Ted Williams, .3429 to .3427. 2-for-9 would drop him to .31027, and give Arraez the title, also by the smallest margin ever.

But that is very much a secondary consideration today. It’s all about the battle of the bullpens, since both Arizona and Philadelphia will be running bullpen games in their contests. I’m sure we all know the situation. The Phillies’ magic number is still two: they need a win and a D-backs loss to clinch. Otherwise, it’ll all come down to the result of the season finales tomorrow afternoon. A win for us and a Phillies loss, on the other hand – as happened yesterday – will mean the D-backs pull level, and control their own destiny. Our playoff odds are up to 30.8%, which is not so far from where they were on Opening Day, at 36.4%!

Phillies’ game was scheduled to start at 4:15 pm, but the weather pushed it back to a currently estimated start time of 4:50 om. That’s close enough to the normally scheduled time of 5 pm, so I’m going with that. Join me for a little pre-game scoreboard watching!

SAN FRANCISCO — In the second-to-last game of the regular season on Saturday, the Dodgers lost their longest-tenured pitcher to a likely season-ending injury.

While warming up in the bullpen during the Dodgers’ 4-3 win over the Giants, veteran reliever Blake Treinen suffered a potentially serious shoulder injury, according to manager Dave Roberts.

While Treinen will go for imaging on Sunday, he is heading for the injured list and is not expected to return in the playoffs.

“I don’t know if it was a complete blowout, but really unfortunate,” Roberts said. “His season’s over, unfortunately.”

A 38-year-old right-hander who played key roles in each of the Dodgers’ three recent World Series titles in 2020, 2024 and 2025, Treinen has been plagued by arm issues the last two years. This season, he missed 2 ½ months with inflammation in his right elbow. Last year, he missed almost three months with a forearm problem. And after the 2022 season, he underwent a shoulder surgery.

The Dodgers had been trying to manage Treinen’s usage carefully since his latest return in early September, giving him just seven appearances in the four weeks he had been back.

However, he felt something on a single warmup during Saturday’s game. The pain was bad enough to send him straight back to the clubhouse alongside a trainer.

“It’s gut-wrenching for us,” fellow reliever Alex Vesia said. “Blake’s one of our leaders out there in the bullpen.”

Treinen had already appeared to be a playoff roster bubble candidate previously, with a 3.64 ERA in 36 games this year. Still, the Dodgers had been encouraged by a recent uptick in velocity and were still hoping to have the 12-year veteran as a postseason option — especially given his 43 career games of playoff experience, highlighted by a heroic 2 ⅓-inning outing in their title-clinching victory in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series. 

Instead, his season — and, as a pending free agent, perhaps his Dodgers career, as well — now suddenly appears to be over.

“I saw him and hugged him,” Roberts said. “It’s just unfortunate.” 

Arizona Diamondbacks (86-74) at San Diego Padres (89-71), September 26, 2026, 5:40 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Petco Park – San Diego, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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SAN FRANCISCO — In Blake Snell’s final start of the regular season on Saturday, the stats didn’t matter so much.

Just that his previously ailing groin was no longer an issue.

The last time Snell pitched, of course, his late-season health status was thrown into sudden doubt. He managed just one inning during his Sept. 16 start in Cincinnati.

He made an early exit because of tightness in his left groin. And for a few days, there was concern about what it would mean for his postseason availability — and the state of the Dodgers’ rotation.

Those fears died down quickly, though.

Over the last week, Snell’s groin improved enough to throw a couple of bullpen sessions.

Thus, for one final time before the playoffs, he took the mound in the Dodgers’ 4-3 win against the Giants on Saturday and assuaged any health concerns for good (or so the Dodgers hope).

“I think, honestly, it’s the best-case scenario, in that [we were able to] get him back on the mound, know that he’s healthy, so he’s got assurance, we’ve got assurance,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Added Snell: “I didn’t feel it at all today. I didn’t really even think about it today, so that’s a really good sign. So definitely happy about where I’m at.”

Snell certainly wasn’t sharp at Oracle Park. Though he allowed just one run, he managed only four innings on an inefficient 77 pitches, failing to reach the five-inning target Roberts had roughly set before the game.

Still, all the Dodgers wanted to see was him get through the day healthy.

“To be able to pitch today, get 77 pitches, that’s big,” Snell said.

Roberts acknowledged there was some consideration given this week to just skipping Snell’s last start and letting him rest up for the playoffs, perhaps by giving him a session of live batting practice instead.

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However, the club was wary of giving the two-time Cy Young Award winner too long of a pre-October layoff.

And though he has a history of left groin issues — battling three separate episodes over the last half-decade that each sidelined him for at least three weeks to a month — Roberts noted there was enough improvement with Snell’s groin to throw him out one more time.

“I was confident. We were confident. But I think it’s still good to see it,” Roberts said. “And it’s good also that we got it out of the way, that rust off, versus whatever game in the postseason, then he’s rusty, and you’ve got to kind of pick up the pieces in a playoff game.”

The Dodgers will need more out of Snell in the playoffs than they got on Saturday, when he gave up five hits, struck out only three batters and (despite not issuing a walk) didn’t always seem thrilled with his command and execution.

“Got a big week ahead of me,” Snell said. “Lock that in and get ready for the [playoffs].”

Still, on the whole, he finished the 2026 regular season with sterling numbers when he pitched, going 4-1 with a 1.90 ERA in nine starts — having missed much of the campaign with a shoulder injury that sidelined him for the first month, then a surgical procedure to remove loose bodies from his elbow after just one initial outing back.

For the National League Division Series, Snell seems poised to slot in as the Dodgers’ Game 3 starter — likely behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 1 and Tarik Skubal in Game 2, though Roberts was adamant Saturday that no decisions about the pitching staff have yet been made.

If the Dodgers save Snell for Game 3 — which would be in a week and a half on Oct. 6 — it would give the 33-year-old even more time to keep rounding back into form and ensure that his groin will not linger as an impediment.

Saturday, however, took care of much of that worry.

“I think I’m past it,” Snell reiterated.

Now, the Dodgers will know for certain what they have with their starting pitching group, going into the playoffs with Yamamoto, Skubal, Snell and Tyler Glasnow having all gotten through their final regular-season starts.

Last October, Snell was crucial for the Dodgers, posting a 3.18 ERA in six outings despite a pair of five-run starts while battling his shoulder problem in the World Series.

This fall, Snell has even bigger goals in mind.

“I want to be better than what I was last October,” he said.

After Saturday, “I think I can definitely do that,” he added.

Saturday Night Massacre puts Phillies' season on the brink originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Six weeks of spring training. Six months of regular season. And now it all comes down to this for the 2026 Phillies.

Game 162.

The Phils continued their horrific late-season nosedive in an ugly 12-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at rainy Citizens Bank Park on Saturday night.

Their once firm postseason hopes, now a flicker, will be decided on the final day of the regular season Sunday afternoon.

Zack Wheeler (13-5, 3.06) will pitch against Tampa Bay’s Nick Martinez (15-5, 2.94), who was an All-Star this season. The Phillies had hoped to save Wheeler for their playoff opener Tuesday. But now they need their ace right-hander just to get there.

Saturday night’s loss was the Phillies’ sixth in the last eight games. They were out-hit, 17-7. They have lost four in a row, scoring just three runs in those games. That’s called coming up small when it matters most.

The Phillies are 9-14 in September. On the first day of the month, they held the first wild-card playoff spot with a 6 ½ game lead over Arizona, the team they are now desperately trying to hold off for the third and final wild-card spot. The Phils entered this final six-game homestand on Tuesday with a four-game lead over Arizona.

As the Phillies game ended in defeat Saturday night, the Diamondbacks were losing at San Diego. An Arizona loss would keep the Phils in control of their own destiny, meaning a win Sunday would put them in the postseason.

Sixty-two years ago, the Phillies blew a 6 ½ game lead with 12 games to play, costing them the National League pennant.

That 1964 collapse haunted the franchise until it finally won a World Series in 1980. This collapse is different because the team is vying for a playoff berth, not a spot in the World Series. But the ineptitude of it all remains painful, just the same, and the fans aren’t happy. Saturday night’s crowd was announced at 43,076, technically a sellout, but there were plenty of no-shows on a chilly, rainy night. Those who did show up exercised their lungs and their Philadelphia civic right to boo. They did so as early as the first inning.

With lefty Jesús Luzardo on the injured list and no starting pitching depth to speak of, the Phillies turned their desperate eyes to Aaron Nola. The veteran right-hander started the game on just two days’ rest. It was the first time he’d pitched on short rest in his 12-year career. It did not go well.

The Phillies did not expect Nola to pitch more than two or three innings. He lasted just one. He faced seven batters and gave up four extra-base hits and three runs. One of the hits was a two-run homer by cleanup man Junior Caminero with two outs.

A parade of relievers followed Nola. Tanner Banks and Chase Shugart kept things close. Jose Alvarado did not. The left-hander picked up Shugart in the fifth, allowed an inherited runner to score and was charged with three of his own after giving up a hit and three walks, one of which was intentional.

Alvarado has reverse splits. Lefties entered the game hitting .333 against him while righties were hitting .235. With first base open, manager Don Mattingly called for Alvarado to walk the dangerous Caminero, a right-handed hitter with 42 homers. The next batter, lefty-hitting Victor Diaz, stroked an RBI single to center.

The Rays continued their assault on Phillies pitching with three runs against Jose Urquidy in the sixth. Desperate for arms, the Phillies picked up Urquidy off waivers from the Chicago White Sox just nine days earlier. His reward for picking up innings Saturday night could be being let go on Sunday as the Phillies could need a roster spot to activate Luzardo for all-hands-on-deck work behind Wheeler.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. There wasn’t supposed to be this level of drama on the final day of the season. But that’s what the Phillies have brought upon themselves. Sad. But true.

(More coming…)

Here’s the Guardians lineup:

Here’s the Royals lineup:

Let’s go, Guardians!

The result of Blake Snell’s final pitch Saturday, a fastball that San Francisco Giants third baseman Shay Whitcomb lined into left field, mattered far less than the fact that the left-hander had passed the 75-pitch mark without incident.

Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández threw out Whitcomb at second. And Snell walked off the field to complete a four-inning start in the Dodgers’ 4-3 win.

“Definitely needed to pitch today,” Snell said of his first start in a week and a half. “Definitely showed that. I was trying to go up and in, I was missing up and away. Even the last pitch of the game, I try to go up and in and miss right down the middle. I don’t know the last time I did that. It’s been a while.”

The Dodgers (99-62) entered locked in as a No. 2 seed for the playoffs. So, the stakes of their last two games of the regular season boiled down to health and preparation for the postseason. There was no better example of that give-and-take than Snell’s five-hit, one-run start.

Read more:Dodgers' Blake Treinen likely to miss playoffs after sustaining injury in bullpen

Because Snell left his previous start with tightness in his left groin, the Dodgers planned for a short outing Saturday, prioritizing his health for the postseason.

“We were confident,” Roberts said of Snell’s recovery from the injury. “But it’s still good to see it. And it’s good also that we got it out of the way, that rust off — versus whatever game in the postseason, then he’s rusty, and you’ve got to kind of pick up the pieces in a playoff game. So I thought today it was really best-case scenario.”

The only run Snell gave up was the result of a double, stolen base and sacrifice fly in the third. He had three strikeouts and no walks.

Snell’s changeup was about two miles per hour faster than usual, something he wants to address before his next start. And he wants to hone the release on his curveball. But his slider, the pitch he would be most worried about if his groin injury wasn’t resolved, had promising velocity and shape.

“To throw a 92 [mph] with good horizontal break, and to see the trust I had in the back leg when throwing that, that’s a really good sign,” Snell said.

Snell said he thinks he’s fully past the injury, and didn’t even think about it during the start.

“Definitely happy about where I’m at,” he said. “Now, it’s a big week for me. Catch has to be great, bullpens have to be great. I’ve really got to focus on getting in my legs, and the consistency of every throw. So to be able to pitch today and learn all of that is bigger than I could ever really express.”

Snell, who missed time because of a late spring training build-up and arthroscopic surgery in May to remove loose bodies from his left elbow, finished the regular season with just 42⅔ innings pitched. But he posted an impressive 1.90 ERA in that time.

The team considered replacing Snell’s start Saturday with a live batting practice session, Roberts said, which would have still given Snell feedback from hitters, but in a more controlled environment.

“We gave him and the training staff every out to do so,” Roberts said. “But there was a lot of confidence that he’s in a great spot.”

Read more:Shaikin: Dodgers' three-peat hopes rest on their four aces — and bottom-of-order production

Snell’s recent workload was another reason for the Dodgers to be conservative with his workload Saturday. Over the past two weeks, he’s only thrown one inning.

“So there’s a balance between getting your work in, making sure you feel good coming out of it,” Roberts said. “Even for example, I could’ve pushed Tarik [Skubal in his start Friday], given his efficiency. But to me, to what end?”

Snell should be full-go for the playoffs, Roberts said. But count Snell among the Dodgers players who can benefit from the wild-card bye.

“This is still an important one,” Roberts said of Snell’s start Saturday, “to go into it feeling good, to then take that extra six, seven, eight days.”

Six to eight days off would line Snell up to start Game 2 or 3 of the National League Division Series. But Roberts declined to tip his hand on rotation order. The days off give the Dodgers extra flexibility to line up their pitching.

“You’re looking at, the first series, who could pitch on regular [rest], who needs extra, how potentially the next series lines up,” Roberts said. “How you can ... maximize those four guys. And I do think with those four guys, it doesn’t matter the opponent, so that’s not a variable.”

Roberts also said alternating between right- and left-handers was not a variable.

“To be honest with you, you could put them all in a hat, and you could make a case for any order you put them in,” Roberts said.

Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the stalwart of the rotation, certainly has performed to the level of a Game 1 starter, both this season and in a heroic World Series run last year.

For Game 2, it would make sense to choose a pitcher who’s comfortable starting on four days rest. Then, thanks to a pair of off days built into the series, both the Game 1 and Game 2 starters could be available to throw in an if-necessary Game 5.

Read more:Tarik Skubal dominates in final tuneup before playoffs in Dodgers' win over Giants

Skubal has pitched on regular rest this season more than any of his rotation mates, making him a strong option to take the ball in the second game.

If the Dodgers do, indeed, go in that direction for Games 1 and 2, Snell would then be the natural choice for Game 3, on eight days’ rest. And right-hander Tyler Glasnow could take an if-necessary Game 4.

The Dodgers, however, don’t need to finalize their pitching decisions just yet.

“I love our starters,” Snell said. “I love the staff, the way we push for each other to be great and support each other. So, I can’t wait. It’s what we’ve all been waiting for, and now it’s time to prove it.”

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Go Rays!

Blake Snell looked healthy in his final regular season start and Kiké Hernández homered in the ninth inning to give the Dodgers a 4-3 win over the Giants on Saturday afternoon at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

Snell allowed only one run in his four innings and at the very least showed no limitations from leaving his start with left groin tightness on September 16 in Cincinnati. The Dodgers weren’t going to push Snell on Saturday, but more wanted to make sure he got one more start in before the postseason starts in a week.

“If he can go five innings and come out of it feeling great, that would be fantastic,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters at Oracle Park earlier Saturday, as shown on SportsNet LA. “There’s a balance between getting your work in and making sure you feel good coming out of it.”

Snell threw 77 pitches in his four innings so he wasn’t all that efficient, though he didn’t walk anyone and threw his two fastest pitches of the season — first-inning fastballs at 98.6 mph and 98.2 mph — while averaging 96.8 mph on the fastball on Saturday.

The lone run came when Jonah Cox doubled to open the third inning, stole third base, and scored on a sacrifice fly.

San Francisco swiped two bases Saturday off Snell, who has allowed 10 steals in his nine starts this season. But Snell has limited the damage by simply not allowing many people to reach, with only 25 hits and 14 walks in 39 2/3 innings, a .260 on-base percentage since returning from the injured list.

Snell since returning allowed only five runs, never more than one in any start. On the season he did not allow a home run, his 42 2/3 innings the seventh-most by a Dodgers pitcher in the live-ball era without giving up a long ball.

Just like last Sunday at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers did the bulk of their damage after Matt Wilkinson left. The rookie left-hander, who pitched five scoreless innings in Los Angeles before the Dodgers scored single runs in the next three innings to complete a weekend sweep, on Saturday held the Dodgers without a run until Mookie Betts hit one into the left field seats in the third inning.

Betts has seven home runs in September, after hitting five combined home runs in July and August. It’s been a month to remember for Betts, who raised his seasonal OPS from .701 at the start of September to .783 now, with just one day remaining in the regular season.

Wilkinson was done after three innings, and the Dodgers immediately responded with four singles and a walk in the fourth inning to score two runs.

San Francisco clawed back with single runs in the seventh and eighth innings, before Hernández took Trent Harris deep to open the ninth inning.

Treinen hurt

Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen injured his shoulder while warming up in the bullpen, likely ending his season. More on that here.

Saturday particulars

Home runs: Mookie Betts (23), Kiké Hernández (4)

WP — Evan Phillips (3-2): 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 strikeout

LP — Trent Harris (0-1): 1 IP, 2 hits, 1 run

Sv — Tanner Scott (25): 1 IP, 1 hit, 2 strikeouts

Up next

One more regular season game to go, with the Dodgers and Giants starting at roughly the same time as nearly everybody else in the majors on Sunday (12:05 p.m., SportsNet LA).

In a meaningless end-of-season matchup, Brent Suter served as the opener for Atlanta, as the Marlins threw their own opener in Jack Ralston.

It ended up being about an ideal game for Atlanta. Everyone stayed healthy, the offense got in a decent rhythm, there weren’t any pitching blowups, and it was an enjoyable, comfortable win. Michael Harris looked good in the leadoff spot, Ha-Seong Kim had a decent game, and they got homers from Baldwin and Dominic Smith. See the recap as it happened below.

Atlanta struck first with a reassuring leadoff double from Michael Harris, an Acuna groundout to move him over to third, and an Olson sac fly to bring him home. Brent Suter solidified the lead with a scoreless first, with some help from a great jumping catch by Ronald Acuna.

A Yastrzemski walk and a Dominic Smith home run tacked on another two for Atlanta in the second and they weren’t done. Ha-Seong Kim drew a walk against former Braves’ prospect Victor Vodnik, followed by a ground ball single from Harris and another groundout from Acuna to bring home a run for a 4-0 lead. The Braves were able to plate another two in the fourth with a Kim triple that was pretty well-hit, a soft Harris double, and singles from Olson and Baldwin. Suter was able to complete a third scoreless inning before giving way to Dylan Dodd. Dodd gave up a shallow solo homer for Miami’s first run and a single, hit batsman, and single brought another run home. The singles were pretty soft, but a run counts on the scoreboard for a 6-2 Braves lead. The fish brought another run back on a soft single and a ringing line drive triple against Robert Suarez.

Michael Harris hit another single in the ninth and Drake Baldwin homered to make it an 8-3 game, as the cherry on top of a great comfortable win in Miami.

Join us again tomorrow for the last game of the regular season at 3:10 PM ET in Miami.

The St. Louis Cardinals will invade American Family Field again Saturday night for game 2 against the Milwaukee Brewers. Quinn Mathews will put on the pearls for his final start of the season Saturday night for St. Louis while it will be former Cardinals starter Dustin May taking the mound for the Brewers. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10pm central time Saturday night and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.

1. JJ Wetherholt (L) 2B
2. Iván Herrera (R) DH
3. Alec Burleson (L) 1B
4. Jordan Walker (R) RF
5. Leo Bernal (S) C
6. Nolan Gorman (L) 3B
7. Bryan Torres (L) LF
8. Masyn Winn (R) SS
9. Nathan Church (L) CF

With just two games left in the regular season, time is running short to tie (i.e., catch) the Cleveland Guardians for first place in the AL Central and the associated free pass to the ALDS via the American League’s No. 2 seed. Naturally, that makes tonight’s final night game of the regular season a must-win — and as should be clear from the above, the White Sox could not have written a better script to send off their season.

Former ace/No. 2 starter Davis Martin takes the mound, for the White Sox, on paper a nice advantage with most matchups. And while you might not expect much of a starting pitcher challenge from a 57-win Rockies team, we’re catching a couple of Colorado’s weakest to finish the season. That begins with Old Friend Jose Quintana taking the mound for the purples on Saturday.

Jose is pitching to a 5.40 ERA over 10 starts, and believe it or not he’s lucky to have that modest an ERA given 18 walks against a mere 22 strikeouts this season. At 37, he’s just about done for his career, and he will retire as the best Columbian-born MLB pitcher ever. He also forever remains the best, if not only, “lottery ticket” pickup for the White Sox by GM Rick Hahn.

The White Sox have their “vs. lefties” order rolled out tonight, which unfortunately is missing Chase Meidroth (hamstring) but includes Tommy Pham (GM intimidation). However, with the shift of Sam Antonacci to second base opening up left field for Randal Grichuk, there may not be a lot lost without Meidroth despite how scorching hot he was for the Kansas City series.

Mild roster news comes from the maternity ward, as Jake Rogers is on the verge of becoming a dad and thus has taken the weekend off for paternity leave; Drew Romo, close enough to the club to have been featured as a non-rostered participant in the beer and champagne showers on Thursday, slots in Rogers’ stead.

Finally, for the many of you who have lost faith in Chicago’s ability to tie (overtake) Cleveland here in the season’s waning days, note that a few Royals are licking their chops at the prospect of digging in against tonight’s Guardians starter Tanner Bibee:

The Royals and Guardians tip off at the same 6:10 p.m. CT the White Sox do, and all season finale games run at the same time tomorrow, so it will be quite the scoreboard-watching weekend.

CHSN/WMVP-AM/La Ley 107.9 FM on your dials as usual, and Chrystal O’Keefe will be around to supply your celebratory recap postgame.

Well, folks. It’s been a…well I was going to say it’s been a good season. But it hasn’t. So I’ll say, “It’s been a season.”

This is my last game preview for the 2026 Royals calendar. I, along with the rest of the usual suspects, will be posting discussion threads for the playoffs, but even if I think you should pick a team to root for, there just isn’t the same emphasis on previewing those games.

Anyway, let’s do this one more time for this year.

Michael Wacha will take the mound for the Royals. He needs to pitch 5.2 innings to reach 200 for the season for the first time in his career. The Royals probably need him to pitch eight or nine if they’re going to win the game, based on how atrocious the bullpen has rebounded to be over the past week or so. Lest you doubt me, the team had a 4.03 bullpen ERA until the Pirates series; that’s not good, but it’s not horrendous. Since then, they have a 6.10 ERA, second-worst in baseball, only to the Angels.

The Guardians will send out Tanner Bibee. I had a sense that I had written about him in a game preview earlier this year. I was right! He faced Wacha back on August 28th, and I had this to say about him then:

The other good news, at least relative to the remainder of the weekend, is that the Guardians will counter with Tanner Bibee. Two years ago, Bibee was the Guardians’ ace. No longer. Now he’s on something of a Michael Wacha trajectory where he pitches better than you think, but not as well as anyone hoped after those first couple of seasons. And, importantly, he’s right-handed. That sets him apart from the other two starters the Royals will face this weekend.

I also noted that his most-used pitch is the cutter and that the Royals should look out for it. That’s still true. They apparently didn’t heed my advice last time, as Bibee’s pitching wasn’t the problem in that game; he allowed only one run in six innings. It’s just that Wacha pitched the best game of his Royals’ career: 8 shutout innings with no walks, 4 hits (all singles), and 10 strikeouts. It would be swell if Wacha replicated that effort again tonight.

Lineups

Hey look, the Royals like the word penultimate, too!

Nick Loftin went on the paternity list earlier today, ending his season. So, with Maikel Garcia getting the day off, Josh Rojas is back in there one more time. Kyle Isbel gets the day off in favor of shifting John Rave to center and putting Isaac Collins in left field. Hopefully they’ll play better defense than they did last night.

With their playoff seed wrapped up Tuesday night, the Yankees have played four (and will have played five) games in which the results do not matter. 

Apart from obligation, the main point of this stretch for the club is to ensure each hitter and pitcher is feeling well at the right time. In that way, perhaps Luis García Jr.’s effort in an otherwise meaningless nightcap of Friday’s doubleheader will matter. 

The slugging first baseman/DH, who has been cold for most of the month, put together some of his most encouraging at-bats in the 6-3 win over the Orioles. 

In the fourth inning, against righty Brandon Young, García crushed a fastball right back up the middle — 105.3 mph off the bat — right into the glove of shortstop José Barrero, which was “really good to see,” manager Aaron Boone said. 

After a sixth-inning walk, García grounded an RBI single up the middle against lefty Grant Wolfram in the seventh. 

“He’s such a good hitter that you know it’s going to come around,” Boone said. “Kind of hoping the timing of a little lull here the last 10 days or so is just in time to heat up at the right time.” 

Prior to the game, García — who had been so good in August after coming over from the Nationals at the trade deadline — was hitting just .224 with a .579 OPS in his first 18 September games. 

Perhaps most notably, he had walked once and struck out 18 times in the span. 

“He’s just been kind of mis-hitting some balls where it feels like he’s on time for some for the last week or 10 days,” Boone said Friday. “Where he ends up with the lazy fly ball to the outfield, where he’s just off there a little bit.” 

The left-on-left at-bat against Wolfram was particularly encouraging considering the pitchers the Yankees are about to see. García is among the best bats in the game against right-handed pitching (.865 OPS) and often benched against lefties (.653 OPS), and the Red Sox’s staff is loaded with southpaws. 

It will be curious to see how Boone deploys García in the wild-card series. If Paul Goldschmidt starts at first base against a lefty and Ben Rice — who has hit lefties better than García — starts at DH, García likely would be a powerful bat off the bench. 

Also standing out in the nightcap was Ryan McMahon, who may be making a (very) late argument for October playing time. 

After coming through with a double and a single, the third baseman is 4-for-8 with a homer and six RBIs in his past two starts. Previous to this spurt, he had not tallied a multi-hit game in his past 21 tries, a brutal stretch in which he hit .143 with a .387 OPS. 

Consider it one more thing for Boone to consider on Tuesday, when he will choose McMahon (mostly for his third base defense), Amed Rosario (for his righty bat), or José Caballero or Anthony Volpe (who are more balanced options) as his starting third baseman against Boston. 

Due to the heavy rains and winds expected especially later in the afternoon, Sunday’s regular-season finale with the Orioles was moved up to 1:05 p.m.