Category: Baseball

It's been another frustrating year for Ronny Mauricio. 

Now 25 years old, Mauricio is wrapping up another season where injuries robbed him of an opportunity to establish himself as a regular at the big league level. 

His biggest shot came earlier this year when the Mets lost Francisco Lindor to a calf injury, but Mauricio was forced to the IL himself after just seven games due to a fractured thumb.

The young infielder would miss a couple of months, and upon returning, found himself once again glued down at the Triple-A level where he was tearing the cover off the ball. 

Mauricio was called back up to the majors last week following Jared Young’s scary injury at first base, but he has appeared in just one game since then. 

Mauricio is expected to work his way into the lineup for Saturday’s middle game against the Nationals, but still won’t log more than 20 games in the big leagues this season. 

With no more minor league options remaining heading into next year, Andy Green was asked about the former top prospect's outlook moving forward. 

“He missed a lot of time, that was a nasty knee injury,” the skipper said. “He’s come back and the athleticism has returned. I don’t see any residual effect from that -- from my vantage point, people come back from injuries all the time.

“Does it make life harder? Sure. Does he have every opportunity to still turn this into a good career? Sure, he does. The path forward for him is to impact the baseball consistently, and if he can, minimize the chase.”

Mauricio certainly was able to do that again in Triple-A this year, hitting .261 with 18 homers and a .793 OPS. 

Mets Lineup

Francisco Lindor – SS
Juan Soto – LF
Bo Bichette – 3B
Mark Vientos – DH
Carson Benge – RF
Francisco Alvarez – C
Marcus Semien – 2B
A.J. Ewing – CF
Christopher Morel – 1B

SP: Justin Hagenman – RHP

Nationals Lineup

James Wood – DH
Andres Chaparro – 1B
Brady House – 3B
Dylan Crews – RF
CJ Abrams – SS
Jacob Young – CF
Daylen Lile – LF
Keibert Ruiz – C
Jorbit Vivas – 2B

SP: Andrew Alvarez – LHP

Broadcast Info

First pitch: 6:45 PM EDT
TV: WPIX
Radio: Audacy Mets Radio WHSQ 880AM, Audacy App, 92.3 HD2

It’s been rumored for several days, but now it’s official: Game 162 for both the Cubs and Red Sox will be played Sunday afternoon at 2:05 p.m. Central time at the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Red Sox had already moved Sunday’s scheduled game to Friday afternoon, where the teams played at Fenway Park and the Red Sox won 4-3. So technically this is Saturday’s scheduled game, moved to the Trop and it will be played at the same time all the other Sunday games will take place, in the 3 p.m. Eastern time hour.

The teams got lucky that the nor’easter that is going to make a washout of the Boston-area weekend held up long enough for them to play two games at Fenway Park on Friday. Honestly, they should have just moved the entire series to Florida — this forced the Cubs to take flights on consecutive days. The teams were given Saturday off because their flights from Boston were both scheduled to arrive at the Clearwater airport well after midnight. (MLB teams going to play the Rays generally fly to Clearwater and stay in that area as it’s closer to the Trop than the Tampa airport is.)

If you’re in the Tampa Bay area and want to go to this game, you can buy tickets at this link.

Thus the Cubs will have a rare off day Saturday. I’ll have some content posted here during the day Saturday and I’ll also post a game thread so all of you can follow Rays/Phillies (6:15 CT) and D-backs/Padres (8:40 CT).

We still don’t know, as of the time of this post, where the Cubs will be playing Tuesday or who their Wild Card opponent will be. As always, we await developments.

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Detroit Tigers, September 25, 2026, 6:40 p.m. ET

The Pittsburgh Pirates are coming in the home stretch with the start of the final series of the year against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park.

In game number 160 of the season, the Pirates will trot out Bubba Chandler, who is making his 30th start of the year. Chandler is 8-9 with a 4.34 ERA in 151.1 innings pitched so far this year. In his last start against the Kansas City Royals, Chandler pitched 4 innings, giving up 8 hits and 3 earned runs as the Bucs won 6-5. Pittsburgh has won each of its last 3 appearances with Chandler on the mound, so there’s a good chance he could finish the season off on the right foot.

The Tigers are going with Jackson Job, who was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 MLB draft. Job has only made eight starts this season, including his last appearance against the Chicago White Sox on September 19. He pitched six innings, giving up four hits and three runs in a 3-1 loss in the Windy City.

The Tigers came into the season with a lot of hype, but injuries to players like Jobe stunted their growth, leading to them missing the playoffs for the first time since 2023.

Location: Comerica Park, Detroit, MI

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet Pittsburgh

Pitching Matchup: Bubba Chandler (8-9, 4.34 ERA) vs. Jackson Jobe (2-3, 3.98 ERA)

BD community, this is your gameday thread for today’s game against the Detroit Tigers. Chime off in the comments section below.

Texas Rangers lineup for September 25, 2026 against the Minnesota Twins: starting pitchers are Jacob deGrom for the Rangers and Joe Ryan for the Twins.

Game 160. Let’s keep the pressure on Houston.

The lineup:

Nimmo — RF

Jung — DH

Seager — SS

Langford — LF

Duran — 3B

Lopez — 2B

Burger — 1B

Carter — CF

Jansen — C

7:10 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are -118 favorites.

INSERT SOMETHING RE FIRST GAME HERE

Now we get starter Bello back on the mound! He looked incredible in Tampa and hopes to keep that momentum going for his final regular season start.

⚾️ First Pitch: 5:35 PM EDT – Fenway Park, Boston, MA

📺 TV: NESN

📻 Radio: WEEI

Red Sox lineup vs. Cubs tonight, with Ceddanne Rafaela not in there:

Anthony RF
Jones LF
Abreu DH
Story SS
Sogard 1B
Monasterio 3B
Duran CF
Kiner-Falefa 2B
Wong C
—
Bello P

— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) September 25, 2026

Second game is set.

Watch the game live on @WatchMarquee. pic.twitter.com/e1vfCKaVIH

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 25, 2026

Pope Leo XIV has said that in his role he does not play favorites, but on his way to Paris on Friday, Sept. 25, it was hard not to notice his smile when he was asked a baseball question.

On the papal plane, a reporter asked the Chicago-born pope whether he'd had anything to do with the White Sox reaching the playoffs. He smiled.

"No comment," he said, according to video posted by NBC News. "Great things happen in Chicago."

Technically that was a no comment, but it didn't sound much like a denial

Asked @NBCNews’s Rome correspondent to see if Pope Leo XIV had thoughts on the @whitesox making the playoffs and it actually happened. pic.twitter.com/OR4PANBaKx

— Greg Rosenstein (@grosenstein) September 25, 2026

Two years ago, the White Sox went 41-121, the most losses in baseball's modern era. They lost 102 more last season. On Thursday, they beat Kansas City to clinch their first postseason berth since 2021. According to MLB.com, they're the first team to reach the playoffs after two or more consecutive 100-loss seasons.

So, Robert Prevost, a White Sox fan, was elected pope in May 2025. Less than a year and a half later, his team is headed to the postseason. The pope did not say if that was a coincidence or not.

Pope Leo's White Sox fandom

Leo was born in Chicago and grew up in south suburban Dolton, and his baseball loyalty has never been in doubt. Soon after his election, video surfaced of him in the stands at Game 1 of the 2005 World Series against Houston. That series brought the South Side its first championship in 88 years.

His brother John cleared up any doubt in an interview with WGN-TV.

"He was never a Cubs fan, so I don't know where that came from," John Prevost said. "He was always a Sox fan."

The pope has shown he can needle the other side of town too. Last October, a few days after Milwaukee ousted the Cubs, someone in St. Peter's Square called out "Go Cubs!" during his weekly general audience.

"Han perdido," Pope Leo shot back. "They lost!"

White Sox celebrate being the Pope's team

The White Sox have embraced the connection. On Aug. 11, they gave Sox-themed pope hats to nearly 41,000 fans at Rate Field. Later that month, the Rev. Tom McCarthy, a South Side priest, brought one to the Vatican and gave it to the pope in person. The team shared the photo on social media.

Now, the White Sox have a playoff spot and the pope rooting for them. So, as the pope said, will great things happen in Chicago?

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What the pope said when asked if he helped the White Sox reach October

Visiting the Giants in their final regular-season series, it should be noted that it was through beating up the lower class of the NL and AL as well that the Dodgers built their way towards a 97-win record. After possessing baseball’s top records against winning teams a season ago, the Dodgers have extracted more overall wins out of simply handling the inferior teams.

With no more games against clubs with a record over .500 in the regular season, we can confirm the Dodgers will have a .500 record against them, winning 36 of 72. Meanwhile, regardless of other results this last weekend, the Dodgers will finish with MLB’s best record versus losing teams—already accumulating 61 wins against them—and even amidst that contrast, a 6-4 record versus their biggest rivals doesn’t jump off the page quite like you’d expect.

In fact, Los Angeles needs a sweep here to at least even the success of the previous two campaigns, having last dropped a season series to San Francisco in 2021—the year of their unbelievable record that cut off the Dodgers’ sequence of NL West titles.

Tarik Skubal will take the ball for this series opener, wrapping up a curious stretch in his schedule facing the same two teams over the span of four appearances—with back-to-back outings against the Giants following two straight versus the Reds. Skubal’s latest outing against the Giants was his worst one in Dodger blue, allowing four runs in five innings, but even that wasn’t enough to stop this team’s streak of six wins when their prized left-hander takes the mound.

Friday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Giants
• Ballpark: Oracle Park, San Francisco
• Start time: 7:15 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

The Phillies begin their final series of the 2026 regular season as the Tampa Bay Rays come to town. The Rays have secured their playoff spot, while the Phillies still have some work to do in order to make the postseason.

Cristopher Sanchez will make his final start of another strong season. He is 18-6 with a 2.93 ERA.

Sanchie starts the series#RingTheBellpic.twitter.com/kDuef1s6hl

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) September 25, 2026

Freddy Peralta goes for the Rays. After an awful start to his season with the Mets, Peralta was traded to the Rays and has been improved, putting up a 3.60 ERA in nine starts.

Game time is 6:40 PM and will be televised locally be NBCSP.

Anyone who watched the 2026 Mariners could easily point to areas where the team failed, but Cal Raleigh, meeting with the media on Thursday, was unflinching in his assessment of what went wrong this season.

“I think there’s a lot of areas you can point to. I think ultimately, I think it was a lack of focus, a lack of execution, a lack energy at times. Defense was not good all year, controlling the running game was not good all year. Playing bad on the road all year, hitting with runners in scoring position was definitely not good. I’d say those were some key points that I kind of look at.”

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the baseball season?

One thing Raleigh is steadfast in is not blaming injuries for the team’s poor performance, shutting down that line of questioning immediately.

“Every team deals with that. Guys are going to go through aches, pains, injuries. So it’s silly to use that as an excuse. 29 other different ball clubs are dealing with the same thing that we are, and you can’t use that as an excuse. And we’re definitely not going to. It came down to play on the field, and it was not executed.”

But fans were there. They saw the lack of execution. They are less interested in the why, and more in how it’s going to get better. Unfortunately, in order to get to the second part – knowing how to fix it – it is necessary to first understand what went wrong, and why. But that’s a more complex discussion that first involves figuring out where to assign blame, and how much of it goes where. It’s not a one-size-fits-all answer, notes Raleigh.

“I don’t think it was one thing,” said Raleigh. “I think we could point to a lot of things that that went wrong, but I don’t think it was one thing. I don’t think it was one person. I don’t think it was one department that failed this year. I think it was a collective failure, unfortunately.“

“Ultimately, yeah, the players are the ones playing every single day, 162. I think if you ask everybody, typically it’s going to fall on the players. But like I said, I think there’s not one person or one group that it falls under. I think it’s a collective effort. I think it’s all the way from the top, to all the way to the bottom, and that’s a tough pill to swallow.”

While the players are, as Cal points out, ultimately the ones on the field, it’s clear from his comments they aren’t the only ones in charge of turning around this miserable season next year. Deficiencies that showed up early in the season as far as the roster went were only exacerbated by injuries and ineffectiveness, especially in the pitching staff, which suffered the biggest drop in WAR from the first to the second half as starters stuttered and bullpens imploded.

“We need more depth in the bullpen,” said Raleigh. “I mean, we honestly do. We need to get some more whiff. We need to get some more guys that can punch some tickets here and there.”

But beyond adding pieces, Raleigh says the core of pitchers who make up the rotation need to return to form or maybe change tactics. He seems to feel other teams have figured out the Mariners pitchers plan of attack, and the focus now needs to be on counter-attacking aggressive hitters rather than allowing them to ambush first pitches.

“The starters, they got to continue to get better. They’ve been one of the best rotations in all of baseball for the last few years, and and like I said, you can talk to all of them, and they’re probably disappointed with how they did. When I when I’m watching the game back there, I’m seeing a lot of very aggressive teams, very aggressive teams, even teams that aren’t [usually] aggressive. And when I look at that, it’s going to come down to execution. It’s not not necessarily all the time about winning your 0-0s, your 1-1s. It’s about executing a pitch and how can we get this guy out.”

“I saw a lot of very aggressive hitters and guys that were were ready to go from you know pitch one because that’s kind of in our DNA. We’ve got to continue finding ways to combat that. I think we’ve done a great job of that, and creating pitchers [who attack the zone] and having guys that are really good at doing that. But at the end of the day, it’s about wins, it’s about execution. It’s not about chasing a stat or, or doing anything like that. So it’s just about getting better, and I don’t know if maybe we were complacent in that fact. Maybe we were. Maybe we weren’t. Maybe it was just unlucky. Maybe it wasn’t. But it’s finding a way to, ‘how can we get better? How can we combat those things that other teams are doing to us?’”

Beyond just the core of pitchers, Raleigh said the core of players as a whole has to do better. Yes, injuries decimated the bullpen and that depth has to be rebuilt, and every team always wants to get better, but the core members of the team as a whole have to play better.

“I said it right at the right at the deadline. The core is here. The core is here, and this core got us where we were last year. But ultimately, that core has to get better as well. It’s not always bringing in extra pieces that are gonna help. Do we need to bring in more people in certain areas of the game? Yes, 100%. We need to get better, and that’s always gonna help. But at the same time, when you look at the core guys, I think you can look at most of the guys, and they will tell you that they did not have the season they wanted, and team-wise, we didn’t have the season we wanted. Ultimately we failed. That’s the easiest way to put it.”

What caused this team-wide failure across the core? Raleigh noted there might have been times where the team stagnated when they needed to take a step forward, failing to make adjustments and finding the kind of edges that great teams do.

“Every facet can be better,” he said bluntly. “I think we—myself included—we could have done a better job of of preparing and continuing to get better throughout the year. I think sometimes in the game you can get a little stagnant at times, like, ‘I got to rest my body’ or ‘I got to make sure I’m ready for the game at 7 o’clock,’ which is ultimately, what you want to do.”

“But you also have to continue to get better and continue to get stronger as the year goes on, and we just never did. We never made those adjustments we had to make. We didn’t get better in the areas that we were deficient in, and we just kind of stayed stagnant the whole time. We were relying more on catching a lucky streak rather than to keep preparing better, to keep getting better, keep finding those those edges to to find ways to to win ball games, whether it was defensively holding runners, hitting with runners in scoring position, finding a way to get through six innings instead of five from the starters…there’s lots of different things. Taking an extra bag here and here, things like that. And and it just never got there. Never got there.”

Raleigh is an admirer of Seahawks coach Mike McDonald, and has clearly absorbed McDonald’s message of “chasing edges”, or finding small ways to edge out an opponent. Again, his comments reflect some frustration with the status quo and a lack of innovation, as well as a lack of execution.

“You can’t rely on the bullpen or you can’t rely on the big home run every single time. We have to be able to win in different fashions, win in different ways. Find a way to sneak out those one-run ball games. I don’t think we were very good in one-run ball games this year. I think it was right around .500. Like I said before, the road record was poor, we got swept too many times. It’s finding a way to edge out those games. It’s—I heard this phrase the other day, ‘chasing edges.’ How can we win one game here and there, one extra game a month? That’s six, seven extra wins. Now we’re tied for first, or we’re we’re in first place. It’s cliché to say it’s the little things, but those are what win you ball games, and those are things we did not do this year.”

Raleigh’s biggest takeaway is not letting this become a habit, pointing out that it if happens once, it’s an unfortunate event; if it happens twice, it’s a habit.

“We’ve got to figure out why why that happened, and and there’s going to be lots of talks, lots of discussions throughout the off season to make sure that doesn’t come back next season. Every single aspect needs to be geared towards how can we win this ball game today. Not taking days off, not letting one thing slip through the cracks. Because once that happens, it’s a domino effect, right? Like you let one thing slide, then you let another thing slide. The next thing you know, you don’t know what’s going on. There’s no standards. There’s no accountability. There’s no dynamic of who we are and what we do, and and I think that’s what’s going to be looked at this off-season.”

The 2026 season was certainly a slide for the Mariners. Now Cal Raleigh, his teammates, and the rest of the organization – top to bottom – have to reset those dominoes and figure out how to not let them fall again. Raleigh seems to have a vision: chasing edges every day, stopping slides before they start, being less predictable as a pitching staff, cleaning up sloppy play on the field. Now, he has an off-season to implement it.

The MLB postseason is finally upon us, and the No. 4 seed Yankees are kicking things off by facing the Red Sox in the Wild Card Series, just as they did in 2025. New York will end the season at least four games better than Boston, but as they say, all records reset to 0-0 come October — or very-late September in the case of the 2026 season.

The Red Sox defeated the Cubs on Friday afternoon to officially clinch the No. 5 seed, meaning the Yankees will have home-field advantage by starting the postseason in the Bronx. They already knew they would be hosting, but it wasn’t yet official that they would face Boston. Per MLB’s Sarah Langs, this will be the seventh all-time postseason meeting between the Yanks and Red Sox, tied for the second-most common matchup in league history and trailing only the 12 famous Yankees/Dodgers World Series rumbles. New York and Boston have each won three series apiece in the playoff head-to-heads.

You won’t want to miss all the action in the best-of-three series, with the winner advancing to face the Rays in the American League Division Series in a race for the pennant.

Here’s all the information you’ll need to know to tune into every game. Unsurprisingly given all the hubbub that usually surrounds Yankees/Red Sox, all three will be night games, beginning at 8 p.m. EST. (The other three Wild Card Series start times can be found here.) Below are the start times, pitching matchups, and more preview informtion.

Why the Yankees can win the World Series
Red Sox offense preview
Red Sox pitching preview

How to watch Yankees vs. Red Sox in Wild Card Series

Game 1

Date: Tuesday, September 29
Pitching Matchup: RHP Cam Schlittler (NYY) vs. LHP Payton Tolle (BOS)
First Pitch: 8 p.m. EST
Channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock

Game 2

Date: Wednesday, September 30
Pitching Matchup: LHP Max Fried (NYY) vs. RHP Sonny Gray (BOS)
First Pitch: 8 p.m. EST
Channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock

Game 3*

Date: Thursday, October 1
Pitching Matchup: RHP Gerrit Cole (NYY) vs. LHP Ranger Suarez (BOS)
First Pitch: 8 p.m. EST
Channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock

*if necessary

Alec Gamboa is not a starter. At least not at the Major League level caliber. But when the Red Sox needed someone to open a doubleheader on the last Friday of the regular season, they handed it to him anyway—and the Cubs made him pay for it quickly.

Tyrone Taylor doubled in the first inning to put Chicago on the board. Miguel Amaya followed with a two-run double in the second. Three runs in two innings, Clay Holmes cruising, and the Sox in a hole before most of Fenway (whoever was going to brave the risk of weather) had settled into their seats.

Then the defense took over.

Caleb Durbin threw Matt Shaw out at the plate in the second inning to keep the Cubs from stretching it further. Isiah Kiner-Falefa made a sliding grab in the third. Andruw Monasterio came up with a diving catch in the fourth. Not glamorous plays in the box score, but they kept 3-0 from turning into 5-0, and that mattered later.

Roman Anthony was (finally) doing Roman Anthony things all afternoon. He went 3-for-3 with a walk and his fingerprints are on both comeback sequences that mattered. He got things started in the third when he scored on a Dansby Swanson throwing error to make it 3-1. Stayed alive. Kept the at-bats meaningful.

It stayed there until Adley Rutschman. With two on in the fifth against Caleb Thielbar, Rutschman hit a two-run double to tie the game. That’s the at-bat the rest of this recap hangs on. There’s no comeback without it.

The Cubs went to Aaron Civale in the seventh. Anthony tripled to right field, then Connor Wong stepped up and hit the go-ahead double. Red Sox 4, Cubs 3.

Willson Contreras didn’t play game one—his hand still won’t let him swing without pain. Ceddanne Rafaela sat out too. You can file away what Boston did to Chicago’s depleted lineup, but you can also file away that a team down 3-0 didn’t pack it in. The seventh inning happened.

Game 2 is next. They went ahead and won the first one.

Studs

Roman Anthony — 3-for-3 with a walk. On base four times. Scored on the error in the third to keep Boston in it, tripled in the seventh to set up the go-ahead, and was just relentless all afternoon. This was his game.

Adley Rutschman — utschman’s two-run double off Thielbar tied it and gave the whole thing a different shape. That’s what you pay for.

Connor Wong — Go-ahead double in the seventh coming in for Mickey Gasper. Simple entry in the ledger, but a needed go-ahead run.

---

Dud

The first two innings — Three runs on Gamboa before anyone got comfortable. Fair amount of that is on Gamboa, fair amount is just what happens when you open with a reliever and it doesn’t work. The Sox survived it. They shouldn’t count on that against a full-strength playoff opponent.

The wind — How many times did the wind knock balls down today? Yes for better with potential Cubbies homers knocked down, but also it’s a hamper on an already struggling offense for the Sox.

Play of the Game

Rutschman’s two-run double in the fifth. Down 3-1, two runners on, Cubs holding a lead that had felt comfortable since the second inning—and Rutschman turned the whole situation. That swing is why the seventh inning got to mean something.

The Guardians coming to town to end the season rubs salt in the wound of this season. Cleveland has been completely ordinary. They were at .500 a few games into September, and yet they have already clinched a playoff spot and are in control their own destiny to win the division this weekend, one game ahead of the White Sox. If only the Royals could have bee mediocre this year.

The Guardians have actually scored fewer runs than the Royals, yet have a winning record. That should give you an indication of how different their pitching staffs are.

Cleveland Guardians (83-76) vs. Kansas City Royals (68-91) at Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO

Guardians: 4.11 runs scored/game (27th in MLB), 4.09 runs allowed/game (8th)

Royals: 4.23 runs scored/game (23rd), 4.94 runs allowed/game (26th)

Angel Martinez is hitting .395/.395/.895 with four home runs in his last 10 games. Steven Kwan is hitting .350/.438/.423 since the All-Star break. Rookie Chase DeLauter is hitting .325/.377/.469 against left-handers. Jo Adell is hitting .237/.311/.396 in 45 games with the Guardians since being acquired from the Angels.

José Ramírez has just 12 home runs, his fewest total since 2016, and his 94 wRC+ is his worst since 2015. Chandler Simpson is the only qualified hitter with fewer home runs than Kwan. Brayan Rocchio is hitting .216/.271/.313 on the road. The Guardians are 27-21 in one-run games. Cleveland has the third-best success rate at stealing bases at 83 percent.

Gavin Williams leads MLB with 244 strikeouts. He pitched seven shutout innings his last time out and has a 2.92 ERA in his last 11 starts. Noah Cameron has a 2.01 ERA over his last 11 games.

Lefties are hitting .239/.301/.450 against Tanner Bibee. Bobby Witt is a career .370 hitter (10-for-27) with three home runs and five walks against him, while Salvador Perez is 2-for-24 (.083). With 5.2 innings, Michael Wacha can become the only American League pitcher to reach 200 innings pitched this year.

The Guardians have not yet announced a starter for the finale, it will likely depend if they have anything left to play for at that point. Daniel Lynch gave up a career-high nine runs in four innings in his last start against the White Sox.

The Guardians once again had a very good pen, with a collective 3.48 ERA, sixth-best in MLB, with the best strikeout rate. Cade Smith has the fourth-highest strikeout rate among all relievers, and over the last two seasons combined he has 5.3 fWAR, second behind only Mason Miller among relievers. He leads MLB with 41 saves, and has not blown a save since August 5, and has not given up a run in his last 12 outings. Hunter Gaddis has given up just three runs in 23 innings over his last 24 games. Righties are hitting just .137/.283/.235 against lefty Erik Sabrowski with a 43 percent strikeout rate.

The last series of the year is bittersweet in a season like this. The Royals will finish in last place and you want to quickly put this season in the rearview mirror. On the other hand, the next regular season Royals games isn’t for another six months – if there’s no work stoppage. From everyone at Royals Review, thanks for spending this disappointing season with us, and we hope to see some better baseball next year!