Category: Baseball

36 Years Ago Today

Blue Jays starter Dave Stieb had carried no-hitters into the ninth inning three times before. So, when Stieb took the mound in Cleveland on September 2, 1990, he must have wondered what would happen this time. Here’s what happened those previous three times:

• On September 24, 1988, in Cleveland, Julio Franco broke up the no-hitter with a ground ball that took an unexpectedly high hop, sailing over second baseman Manny Lee’s head.
• In Stieb’s very next start, this time in Toronto against the Orioles, Jim Traber ended the bid with a soft two-out fly ball that dropped between the infielders and outfielders.
• Then, on August 4, 1989, during the inaugural season at SkyDome, Roberto Kelly spoiled a potential perfect game with a two-out double into the gap in the ninth inning.

But the fourth time, everything finally fell into place.

In the ninth, Stieb:

• Got pinch-hitter Chris James to fly out (a pretty deep flyout).
• Struck out pinch-hitter Candy Maldonado.
• Walked Alex Cole (Stieb walked 4, unusual for him).
• And he induced Jerry Browne to fly/line out to right fielder Junior Felix.

Here is the final out:

Cleveland didn’t exactly have a powerhouse lineup in 1990. Their cleanup hitter, Ken Phelps (perhaps best known for a Seinfeld reference rather than his baseball stats), was batting just .155/.288/.198 at the time. In fact, five of their starters had an OPS below .700.

Stieb didn’t feel he was at his best that day. From the Toronto Star game story:

I didn’t have great control. I couldn’t find my release point in the early innings. I hung pitches but got away with them. They helped me out a few times by swinging at bad pitches. They hit balls right at people.

The win was Stieb’s 17th of the season against 5 losses. He finished the game with a 2.91 ERA. He would finish the season 18-6 with a 2.93 ERA, his most wins in a season, setting a new team-high.

I was a huge fan of Stieb—he was fiercely competitive. He would have been a good match for Jose Bautista, but unlike Jose, Stieb wasn’t afraid to stare down teammates who made mistakes. Unfortunately, the team wasn’t at its best when he was in his prime. I’m not sure if he was a bad teammate in other respects, but that kind of behavior probably didn’t make him popular in the clubhouse.

But I wasn’t on the team—I just saw him as the best player on my team and, at the time, the best pitcher in baseball. I admired his drive to win. For much of his career, there weren’t many other Jays worth cheering for.

It is still the only no-hitter in Blue Jays history.

The Atlanta Braves faced off against the Washington Nationals badly needing a win after dropping two in a row in games they should have won on paper with the Phillies trailing close behind.

Today, Grant Holmes made the start looking to cross the 130.0 innings pitched threshold. His opponent was Brad Lord, who has only made four starts. However, Lord has been an opener in all four.

The game did not start well for the Braves. Lord was able to retire the side picking up strikeouts of both Baldwin and Olson. Grant Holmes struck back in the bottom of the first. He was able to get newly returned James Wood to ground out, followed by two more to Ortiz and Crews.

Lord continued his dominance of the Braves by striking out the side in the second. At this point he struck out five of six batters he faced. To not be outdone, Holmes retired the side as well picking up a strikeout. The top of the third finally saw a baserunner when Yastrzemski singled. Riley almost moved him over, but Crews made a sliding catch for the out. Kim grounded out, followed by a Baldwin deep fly that he just missed. Holmes retired his ninth straight hitter in the third.

The top of the fourth is where things got crazy. Acuña singled followed by an Olson strikeout, but then Keibert Ruiz had to be replaced at catcher due to injury. Albies then walked and Harris reached on an error to load the bases for Sean Murphy. With the bases loaded and the second hottest hitter on the Braves the last two weeks up to bat, there was a weather delay.

After about an hour, Riley Cornelio came in to pitch for the Nationals. Murphy smoked the ball, but it was right at Abrams. Yastrzemski just missed a grand slam with a deep fly ball to RF, but the top of the inning ended with the bases loaded.

Dylan Dodd is who came in to replace Holmes in the fourth. He struck out Wood and got Ortiz to ground out. He walked Crews but got Abrams to fly out on a hard hit ball. The fifth started well for the Braves with a Riley singled, but then Kim popped up, Baldwin lined out, and then Riley was caught stealing.

Newly promoted Elieser Hernández came in to pitch the bottom of the fifth. He retired the side to include a strikeout. To start the sixth Acuña singled and stole second, but Olson struck out on a full count. It was his third strikeout of the day. Albies then followed up with a strikeout of his own. In an interesting move, Michael Harris was intentionally walked. Sean Murphy then made up for his bases loaded out and smacked a three-run HR over the left field wall to give the Braves a three run lead. Yastrzemski then struck out, but massive damage had been done.

Hernández stayed in to pitch, and it was clearly the right decision. He gave up a single to Wood, but that was the only baserunner he surrendered. Max Kranick came in to pitch for the Nationals and the Braves took full advantage. Riley popped up, but then Kim doubled. Drake Baldwin walked and then superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. made history as the fastest player in MLB history to have 200 career HRs and 200 career steals to make the score 6-0.

Olson struck out for the fourth time today, and Albies grounded out, but the game was blown open. Hernández continued to prove the front office right by pitching his third inning in the seventh. He surrendered a walk, but that was the only baserunner. Hernández finished his return with 3.0 innings of zero earned runs, one hit, one strikeout, and one walk.

The Braves continued to pile it on in the eighth. Harris lined out, but Murphy walked. Yastrzemski then double to put two on. Austin Riley then came in clutch with a two run single to ice the game.

The Braves almost got more too. Riley moved over on a wild pitch and Kim walked. This led to a pitching change where Matt Waldron came in. Waldren then retired the next two hitters. Didier Fuentes then came in to pitch the eighth. He gave up a singled, but then followed that up with back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout.

José Tena came in to pitch for the Nationals in the ninth. Olson finally did not strike out, but he did line out. Ozzie Albies walked, and then Brewer Hicklen came in to hit for Harris and walked. Sean Murphy then came in clutch yet again with a single that scored Albies. The scoring ended when Yastrzemski hit into a double play.

Victor Mederos then came in to pitch the ninth and retired the side.

The story today was how Grant Holmes looked fantastic and even though he was cut short due to rain, newly promoted Elieser Hernández took over and got the job done. The pitching as a unit only gave up two hits against one of the top scoring offenses this season.

The offense finally broke out of their shell as well, led by by Sean Murphy who had a HR and four RBI and Ronald Acuña had three hits to include a history making HR to make him the fastest player to record 200 career HRs and 200 steals.

The Braves are off tomorrow before their much looked forward to series against the Phillies on Friday.

It’s been a long time coming but Ronald Acuña Jr. finally got off the hump here on September 2 against the Washington Nationals. For the first time since August 15, Acuña put one over the fence and this time, it allowed him to hit a pretty unique milestone. For starters, Acuña now has 200 home runs over the course of his career — a very nice round number to reach.

He also had a stolen base earlier on — his 20th of the season and the 225th of his career. The dinger put Acuña into rarefied air when it comes to the career 200-200 Club. Sarah Slangs of MLB.com shared the stat that Acuña pulled off the feat in just 904 games, which is now the fewest amount of games that anybody has done it in.

It’s certainly been a long time coming but there’s definitely a sense of relief that Acuña was finally able to get the milestone dinger and judging by the reaction from the dugout, everybody down there was pretty thrilled to see Acuña hit that particular mark. As far as the season goes, it’s certainly encouraging to see the Braves start putting some big numbers on the board for a road game — especially with a huge series in Philadelphia looming large this weekend.

The Braves are currently up 6-0 on the Washington Nationals and will be hoping to hold onto that lead so that they can go into Philly with a winning record. For the immediate moment, though, it’s time to congratulate Acuña for reaching the 200-200 club in record time as far as games go. Here’s to 200 more of each! Well, maybe not stolen bases and it’ll certainly be a tall feat to hit 400 dingers as well, but who knows what the future holds for Ronald Acuña Jr. and the Braves?

The Mets have reinstated 29-year-old right-handed pitcher Justin Hagenman from the 60-day injured list, and they’ve optioned 26-year-old right-handed reliever Dylan Ross back to Triple-A Syracuse to clear a spot on the active roster.

Hagenman last pitched in a major league game last September, and after hitting the injured list with a rib fracture back in mid-March, he didn’t get into a minor league game until he appeared with the Single-A St. Lucie Mets on August 18. In 9.1 innings over the course of that appearance and one each with Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse, he had a 2.89 ERA. He’ll start for the Mets tonight as they play the rubber game of their three-games series against the Rays.

Ross finally made his major league debut in the Mets’ loss last night. While he was called up to the big leagues for the first time last September, he didn’t get into a game. And while his 6.25 ERA and 5.61 FIP in the minors this year might not have been the most encouraging stats, his debut went well, as he threw a scoreless inning.

Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees’ top American League opponents are up to through the Rivalry Roundup. The AL East is well-trodden ground there, but with the final month of the season just ahead, we’re going to take a peek around MLB as a whole and check in with each of the other five divisions. Who’s surprising? Who’s underwhelming? Who’s simply mediocre at the moment? Read on and find out.

Note: All records and stats are for games played as of Tuesday morning.

First Place: Los Angeles Dodgers (82-55)

Top Position Player: Andy Pages (4.0 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (4.1 fWAR)

The rich got richer at the trade deadline, adding two-time American League Cy Young Tarik Skubal in a deal with the Detroit Tigers, giving the Dodgers arguably the deepest starting rotation in baseball — when healthy, that is, which has been basically never. And yet, despite that, Los Angeles has been merely treading water for the past two months: they followed up a 13-11 July with a 13-14 August that included a stretch in which they lost eight out of nine, including seven straight. They’ve dealt with quite a few injuries: Shohei Ohtani has not yet returned to the mound, Andy Pages has been on the shelf since August 22nd with a left hand fracture, Roki Sasaki, Blake Treinen, and Edwin Díaz aren’t expected back until the middle of the month, and catchers Will Smith and Dalton Rushing were just activated from the injured list last night.

None of this matters, though. The Dodgers have a commanding lead in the division, a quartet of healthy aces in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Skubal, Tyler Glaswow, and Blake Snell, a small army of arms on the mend, and a lineup that, even with down years from Mookie Betts, Kyle Tucker, and Teoscar Hernández, still ranks second in the league in OPS+ (110) and fourth in runs/game (4.89). Until anyone says otherwise, they are the team to beat, not just in the National League West, but in all of baseball.

Second Place: San Diego Padres (73-65)

Top Position Player: Fernando Tatís Jr. (3.8 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Mason Miller (3.1 fWAR)

In the days leading up to the trade deadline, speculation ran rampant that the Padres were going to be sellers, with the Yankees trying to pry one of Adrian Morejon or Mason Miller from them in order to bolster the team’s bullpen. That, ultimately, did not come to pass, as the Padres decided to push all their chips into the middle of the table and add at the deadline instead, bringing in Robbie Ray and Casey Mize to reinforce the rotation and Luis Renfigo to lengthen the lineup. Those moves turned out to be the right move, as the Padres went 17-11 in August to put them squarely in contention for the third Wild Card spot.

How did the Padres manufacture that strong month to bring them right back into the thick of the playoff hunt? Although the lineup has, on the whole, been underachieving this season — Father Time is coming on fast for Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts in particular — Tatís Jr., Jackson Merrill, and Ty France have been dominant of late, posting wRC+ of 146, 136, and 138 in the month of August, respectively. Their pitching staff, meanwhile, has been strong of late, with Randy Vásquez (2.57 ERA in August), Walker Buehler (3.16 ERA), Michael King (2.21 ERA), and Ray (3.42 ERA) doing just enough to hand leads to one of the most dominant bullpens in baseball — a recipe which has given them the best ERA in baseball in August, 3.04. In truth, they probably have been overachieving a bit, but at least they’re doing so at the right time.

Unfortunately for them, however, Renfigo’s season is done after tearing his ACL and MCL in Tampa Bay.

Third Place: Arizona Diamondbacks (73-66)

Top Position Player: Corbin Carroll (4.4 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Eduardo Rodriguez (2.9 fWAR)

After a middling August in which they went 15-14, the D-Backs have lost a tiny bit of ground to the Padres, and have fallen back into the third place in the division and out of the third Wild Card spot (albeit just barely). That being said, if there’s any team in a position to make a run down the stretch, it’s Arizona. Six starters, including trade deadline acquisition Lars Nootbar, have an OPS+ above 100, and three players — Corbin Carroll, Gabriel Moreno, and Geraldo Perdomo — are in line to finish the season with at least 4 fWAR. Their pitching staff, meanwhile, looks to get Corbin Burnes, Michael Soroka, and Zac Gallen back from the injured list, even if Gallen has not been his All-Star self since he was a Cy Young finalist in 2023, he’s at least a starting pitcher… and the D-Backs are currently low on those.

Of course, none of these are the real story in Arizona right now. At the moment, everybody is focused on long time second baseman Ketel Marte, who recently returned to the team after going AWOL for the fourth consecutive season. While Arizona is definitively a much better team with him than without him (even though his 108 OPS+ is a far cry from his career baseline), this is a story that will cast a shadow over the team for the rest of the season — and, given the fans’ and team’s response, until he gets traded this winter.

Fourth Place: San Francisco Giants (57-81)

Top Position Player: Luis Arráez (3.8 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Logan Webb (2.9 fWAR)

There is perhaps no better indication of just how bad the season has gone for the San Francisco Giants than the fact that the player who accrued by far the most fWAR for them was batting cleanup for the Philadelphia Phillies last night (Rafael Devers comes in at a distance second with 2.5). Not surprisingly, their offense has been absolutely atrocious since sending Luis Arráez to Philadelphia and Heliot Ramos to the Bronx, with their 88 wRC+ in August fifth-worst in baseball. Between the trades and the injuries to Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Harrison Bader, they have exactly two hitters who can truly be feared, Devers and the rookie Bryce Eldridge, while Drew Gilbert and Jung Hoo Lee have been simply average too just-above-average.

The pitching staff has been better, but only slightly. Due to a flood of injuries and deadline departures, out of the six starters and five relievers that Baseball-Reference lists as the team’s “main” pitchers for the year, only two, Logan Webb and Landen Roupp (the latter of whom leads the league in losses) are currently on the active roster. Somehow, their 4.23 ERA and 2.8 fWAR in August only ranks in the bottom third. Still, it’s not enough to salvage what has been a disastrous campaign for the Giants, who are somehow making the pre-John Harbough New York Giants look like geniuses in comparison after refusing to move on from much-maligned first-year manager Tony Vitello.

Last Place: Colorado Rockies (52-86)

Top Position Player: Hunter Goodman (2.6 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Kyle Freeland (1.1 fWAR)

And somehow, the Giants aren’t the worst team in their own division. That distinction belongs to the Colorado Rockies, who are barely holding off the Athletics and Angels in the race to the bottom of the Major League Baseball standings. And yet, their disaster season represents a major step up from their 2025 campaign, and not just because they have already guaranteed that their final record will be significantly better than last year’s 119-loss season: between Hunter Goodman, Kyle Karros, and T.J. Rumfield, they have at least three players who look like they can be part of the solution, and not further parts of the problem. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

Outside of that, the season has pretty much been a disaster. Tomoyuki Sugano and his 5.23 ERA has been their best starter, while Jordan Romano — he who blew two saves against the Yankees earlier this season — has been their most consistent reliever. Now in his fourth full season, 24-year-old shortstop Ezequiel Tovar has taken a major step back for the second consecutive season, and his 47 wRC+ is by far the worst among qualified hitters. Mickey Moniak has been good as the designated hitter, but he is a free agent at the end of the season.

The Mariners will look to keep their perfect September alive and steal a series in Boston.

After a five-game losing streak to wrap up one of the worst months in franchise history, the Mariner rocked the Sox off Boston last night in Lazaro Montes’ debut. They’re back at it this afternoon with a chance to take the series and improve to 2-0 in the final month of the season. It’ll take something close to perfection to claw back into the race at nine games under .500 with 23 left to play.

Bryce Miller is on the bump in his first start since being moved to the bullpen. He never actually made a relief appearance, as Emerson Hancock went down with an injury shortly after. This will be Miller’s first time on the mound in 10 days. Perhaps the time off will have him back to where he was in his first few outings of 2026, when his velocity was electric and he looked like a tip-top pitcher. We haven’t seen that version of Miller in months. The Mariners lost his last two starts by a combined score of 41-2, partially because he couldn’t make it through five innings.

Miller will face Patrick Sandoval, who’s exactly the type of not-very-good-but-crafty lefty that’s given the Mariners fits all season. That’s largely because the versus-lefty lineup tends to include players like Weston Wilson and Jhonny Pereda, as is the case this afternoon. Montes is not in the lineup a day after his spectacular debut.

Lineups

Game Info:

First Pitch: 1:10 p.m.

TV: Mariners.TV

Radio: Ol’ Reliable

The Dodgers offense showed up finally on Tuesday night, but eight runs were not enough to overcome the terrible pitching performances by Eric Lauer and those that followed him. If the Dodgers muster even half of that on Wednesday, they should be in pretty good position as Yoshinobu Yamamoto takes the mound.

In his last outing, Yamamoto went 6 1/3 innings, allowing only a leadoff homer to Braves catcher Drake Baldwin, and then nothing else as he went toe-to-toe with Chris Sale. Sale of course completely shut down the Dodgers going for the complete game shutout, as the Dodgers couldn’t muster anything against him.

It was indicative of what has happened to Yamamoto throughout most of his career and especially this August, as he had a 1.95 ERA and only a 1-2 record to show for it. L.A. has scored three or more runs behind him only twice in his past six starts, and five of those games were decided by one run, giving him little margin for error while he’s on the mound.

This time the Dodgers will be facing the Cardinals bullpen. Ryan Fernandez went 1.2 innings in Tuesday night’s game, but every other arm in the ‘pen hasn’t seen much usage in the last few days and should be fresh and ready to go.

Yamamoto has faced the Cardinals twice before, and has yet to allow a run in 11 innings pitched.

Wednesday game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Cardinals
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Start time: 7:10 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

The line-up above shows Cabrera as the “starter”: it’s quite possible he will end up throwing most innings today, but the actual first pitcher to take the mound today will be Taylor Clarke, in what looks likely to be a vaguely bullpen game for Arizona. There haven’t actually been too many of those this year for Arizona, compared to previous seasons. It’s hard to get an exact count, but simply looking at games where the “starter” has lasted two or fewer innings, seems to be the first bullpen game of 2026. The only <= 2 IP starts were Michael Soroka’s injury-curtailed one, and Ryne Nelson’s 0.1 IP, 8 ER outing.

There were two bullpen games last year, both with Jalen Beeks as the opener. But 2024 had six of them, starting as early as April 30 with Brandon Hughes. And if you’re thinking “who?” there, you’re probably not alone. Admittedly, there was a fairly good excuse. That was the famous “bee delay” game, which ended up icing Jordan Montgomery. But there was a genuine opener used by Arizona on May 20, when Joe Mantiply started in Dodger Stadium, and pitched a scoreless inning. It feels like it was something which was very much in vogue around the 2023-24 seasons, but has since fallen out of vogue.

There had been whispers in some circles that we might see Corbin Burnes come off the IL for this outing. But the team decided he was still not quite ready for prime-time. He would only have been able to throw about 45 pitches, and the team wants more. Torey Lovullo said, “We’re going to continue to allow Corbin to increase that overall pitch count in a setting we can control… He’s going to go out there and compete. We want to put him in the best situation possible for when he does re-enter our rotation, that he can pitch a little bit deeper into the game and not leave a little bit of a blank spot.” Should see him next week.

Don’t forget, we now have the SB Nation app available. Download it here:

• Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sb-nation/id6789240983
• Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sbnation.app

It’s the fourth inning of a scoreless game and the Atlanta Braves are knocking on the door with the bases loaded and one out in the top half of this frame. We’ll have to wait and see if the Braves can cash in on the opportunity since some inclement weather that had been knocking on the door at Natioanls Park finally came through and made it too bad to play in.

So on that cliffhanger, we wait. Stay tuned right here as we’ll have updates for you as they come in. In the meantime, why don’t you give the new SB Nation App a whirl? We’ve got more information for you right here in case you’d like to try it out!

UPDATE [2:52 p.m. ET]: If you’re watching the TV broadcast, this won’t be a surprise. The grounds crew in Washington appears to be removing the tarp and play could be resuming in the near future. For what it’s worth, CJ Nitkowski guessed that it might be sometime after three, which it would have to be considering we’re knocking on the door of 3 o’clock.

UPDATE [3:00 p.m. ET]: Alright, we got a start time. 3:20 p.m. ET, folks. Lock in, everybody.

One reason why the Orioles are where they are right now is they just can’t keep up a consistent high level of play. This is playing out in miniature over the first two games against the Rockies. Monday’s game brought the highest of highs with Colton Cowser’s amazing game-ending home run robbery to give the Orioles a fourth straight victory. Last night brought frustration and disappointment as the Orioles lost a game against a starting pitcher they had no business losing a game against.

Now, the Orioles need a win in the series finale so that we can all feel a little better. Losing two out of three to the Rockies, one of MLB’s worst teams, would not be a very auspicious beginning to the September stretch run that the Orioles are going to have to make. You can’t go around scoring two runs per game in Coors Field, against the Rockies pitching staff and get anywhere good. They lost a game to the Guardians with last night’s loss, so now they’re 1.5 games back – tied with the Rangers – in the wild card race.

It’s maddening with these guys. They should be better than this, even with all of the challenges they’ve faced this season. They just aren’t. Maybe they can be better over the final 23 games. They probably need to go 14-9 from this point on. Or, you know. Maybe they can’t be at least as good as that.

We are running a poll this week that is asking Orioles fans which area of the team they are most worried about when it comes to postseason contention. Have you voted yet? I’ll make it easy for you and embed it right here:

The performance of the hitters over the first two games of this series may tilt the poll a particular way. We’ll see! Results will be shared on Friday or Saturday.

Orioles lineup

1. Jackson Holliday – DH
2. Pete Alonso – 1B
3. Gunnar Henderson – SS
4. Luis Robert Jr. – LF
5. Samuel Basallo – C
6. Coby Mayo – 3B
7. Dylan Beavers – RF
8. Blaze Alexander – 2B
9. Colton Cowser – CF

Trevor Rogers gets the start for the Orioles. As you all probably remember, he’s been pretty good since June 1, though he was also not good in his last start, giving up six runs in five innings. It did not help the season ERA. He’s going to need to have a good September in order to get that number down to 3.something before the end of the season.

I hope Luis Robert Jr. makes a nice first impression on Orioles fans in his first start. I actually don’t have any hopes but it would be nice if he did it anyway.

Rockies lineup

1. Jake McCarthy – LF
2. Connor Norby – 3B
3. Hunter Goodman – C
4. TJ Rumfield – 1B
5. Cole Carrigg – CF
6. Jordan Beck – RF
7. Adael Amador – DH
8. Ryan Ritter – 2B
9. Ezequiel Tover – SS

Familiar face Tomoyuki Sugano is starting for the Rockies. He has an ERA over five. These guys better score more than two runs. Preferably more than four.

Athletics of some location out west @ Texas Rangers

Wednesday, September 2, 2026, 1:35 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / Rangers Sports Network)

The Shed

LHP Jacob Lopez vs. LHP Cody Bradford

Go Rangers!

Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees’ top American League opponents are up to through the Rivalry Roundup. The AL East is well-trodden ground there, but with the Trade Deadline behind us, we’re going to take a peek around MLB as a whole and check in with each of the other five divisions. Who’s surprising? Who’s underwhelming? Who’s simply mediocre at the moment? Read on and find out.

First Place: Milwaukee Brewers (85-53)

Top Position Player: Brice Turang (4.2 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Jacob Misiorowski (5.7 fWAR)

After the trade deadline, I made my perspective known in these pages about the Brewers’ strategy — namely that winning on the margins without a cast of superstars is all well and good in the regular season, but tends to turn into a liability in October. Well, Milwaukee has unsurprisingly continued to win since then, including against their biggest NL rival. They took three out of four in Los Angeles against the Dodgers to secure the tiebreak and make the top seed in the NL just that little bit easier. If they stay the course in September, that first round bye is all theirs.

There are superstars on this roster, to be clear. Jacob Misiorowski leads MLB in ERA, FIP, WHIP, and strikeouts. He’ll obviously be a nightmare for opposing lineups to face. Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan have been capable complementary rotation arms, and their bullpen remains rock-solid.

On the hitting side, Jackson Chourio is finding his stride at the right time — he posted a .914 OPS in August. If he can continue to produce at that echelon, suddenly my argument against the Brewers gets ricketier. That said, one wonders whether Brice Turang, Jake Bauers, and Garrett Mitchell will be able to replicate the regular seasons they’ve had once they face the best of the best on the mound.

Second Place: Chicago Cubs (78-60)

Top Position Player: Pete Crow-Armstrong (9.3 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Ben Brown (2.0 fWAR)

It felt like every game involving the Cubs this month had some fireworks. Sometimes, they were running up the score against the Mariners; other times they were blowing late leads to the Diamondbacks. In the last week of August alone, they lost 10-8 to the Reds, won the very next contest 17-5, and put up 17 runs against the Brewers in the final game of the month. The people having the most fun with this team are the impartial fans. Like me! I’ve been watching these guys a lot.

I don’t think the Shohei Ohtani industrial complex, powerful as it is, will be able to deny Pete Crow-Armstrong from claiming the NL MVP this year. He has made a habit of either beginning or ending games with home runs — sometimes, he’ll even do both, like in a crosstown bout with the White Sox. He’s the commander of the league’s best offense, which boasts a 117 wRC+, well above the Dodgers’ second place mark of 109.

The questions lie in the pitching staff. The Jed Hoyer-led front office did a solid job adding veterans Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes to shore up a rotation which has been bitten hard by the injury bug. (More bad news on that front: their biggest breakout arm, Ben Brown, suffered a setback in his recovery from a neck injury and will remain on the shelf.) The Cubs have 10 pitchers on the injured list — all but one of those guys are on the 60-day. Can they outslug their problems on the hill? They may have no choice.

Third Place: St. Louis Cardinals (68-70)

Top Position Player: JJ Wetherholt (4.4 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Andre Pallante & Kyle Leahy (2.4 fWAR)

The Cardinals now reside in the mushy middle following a promising start to the year in which it appeared they may have been ahead of schedule. POBO Chaim Bloom’s project to reshape a team which was decidedly behind-the-times before his arrival is still a work in progress; St. Louis has the league’s 22th-ranked offense by wRC+ and the 20th-ranked pitching staff by ERA-. They’ve been playing above their weight class by doing the things the Cardinals always do well: induce soft contact, play good defense, and get hits in high-leverage spots.

The top of the St. Louis lineup seems to be largely set for the next few years: JJ Wetherholt as the toolsy tablesetter at the top ahead of Jordan Walker and Alec Burleson, two power bats with more contact chops than you’d expect. Joshua Báez announced his arrival bombastically with homers in his first three at-bats in the Show, something no one else has ever done. The construction zone begins after those guys. And this rotation won’t knock your socks off with high-caliber stuff or elite results anytime soon. They’re perfectly solid, not much more than that.

The future picture for the Cardinals is a bit of an odd one; with the Cubs and Brewers bidding to remain atop the food chain for quite a while, do they try to aggressively punch their way back into the playoff picture, or do they bide their time for regression to come for their rivals? Obviously, the upcoming offseason labor theater will also factor into these tough decisions as well.

Fourth Place: Pittsburgh Pirates (67-71)

Top Position Player: Brandon Lowe (3.6 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Paul Skenes (4.1 fWAR)

Were the season a little shorter, these Pirates may have stuck around in the playoff race a bit longer. But attrition has hit the Bucs rather hard, particularly in the rotation. Veteran Mitch Keller is out for the year with an injury to his teres major injury, Jared Jones and Bubba Chandler have been inconsistent, and Paul Skenes is having a down season by his stratospheric standards. Manager Don Kelly has moved to more of a six-man rotation to give Skenes more time between his starts, and that strategy has allowed him to rebound from a rough July. At the end of the day, the playoff odds for a team with the NL’s longest postseason drought continue to dwindle.

The Pirates were hitting their way to relevance this season with one of the highest scoring lineups, but that offensive production has waned. In August, they hit just .217/.398/.334 as a team. That’s a 50-point drop in average from the previous two months, and a 90-point drop in slugging from July. The dog days are not kind to this seafaring crew by the Allegheny. Not even Oneil Cruz hitting a home run off Mason Miller was enough to make up the difference.

I’m sure Pirates fans were chagrined by the news that Angels’ owner Arte Moreno finally took a hint and sold his team on Tuesday, sparking sudden optimism that one of the most moribund franchises in MLB — and the only one with a longer playoff drought than Pittsburgh — can finally turn the corner to relevance. Fans in western PA have been longing for Bob Nutting to do that very thing for a long time. I suppose they’ll keep on hoping.

Fifth Place: Cincinnati Reds (65-73)

Top Position Player: Elly De La Cruz (4.6 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Chase Burns (4.2 fWAR)

These Redlegs sure could use a break. Early in August it was announced that All-Star pitcher Hunter Greene would need to undergo a second Tommy John surgery, meaning Cincy will probably be without the former second-overall pick until 2028. The news cast a funerial pall over what was already a rough year in Queen City.

The youth movement that never seems to come to fruition did see some big strides this season. First baseman Sal Stewart deservedly made the All-Star team, as did fireballer Chase Burns — who, like Greene, was once drafted second overall. Elly De La Cruz hasn’t set the world on fire, but has remained a very, very good player. It just isn’t enough to make up for all the places where this team remains deficient. Cincinnati’s team wRC+ of 92 is the second-worst figure in baseball. Their 4.68 staff ERA is tied for fourth-worst.

This anecdote probably sums up the season as well as anything else: last week, the Reds placed veteran Eugenio Suárez and outfielder TJ Friedl on waivers. These decisions are often kept private due to the emotional nature of placing a well-respected player on waivers — and manager Terry Francona was irate that the news escaped the room. That both players ultimately went snubbed by the rest of the baseball likely only added to his consternation. In Suárez’s case, he’s got some more important matters at hand: the popular slugger will be stepping away from the team to take the naturalization test as he seeks to become an American citizen.

San Diego Padres fans have been waiting to see top prospect Ethan Salas in the big leagues for years. That wait is now over.

Salas, who is 20 years and 93 days old, made his MLB debut for the Padres’ road game against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday. In doing so, he became the youngest catcher to play in an MLB game since the legendary Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez debuted at 19 years old in 1991.

This is good company for Salas to share, as Pudge Rodriguez was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017, on what was his first ballot.

Of course, Salas still has a very long way to go before being deemed a Hall of Famer. But the 20-year-old has plenty of time to make his mark in the big leagues.

The Padres signed Salas as an international amateur free agent in 2023, giving him a $5.6 million signing bonus. He was just 16 years old at the time, but wasted no time progressing through the Padres’ organization.

Salas was then promoted to the Padres’ big league roster on Tuesday and got his first start on Wednesday, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout in his first three plate appearances. He produced a .296 average and an .822 OPS in 96 games in the minor leagues this season, and is seen as an extremely gifted defensive catcher.

This is a period of change for the Padres’ organization, as the team was sold to José E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, for $3.9 billion last month.

The future looks bright in San Diego, largely because of Salas.

Why didn’t the Angels match the offer from the Dodgers that Shohei Ohtani ultimately accepted? Because Arte Moreno didn’t want to.

Why did the Angels blow $245 million on Anthony Rendon? Because Moreno said so.

Why didn’t the Angels finalize an agreed-upon trade in which they would have received Andy Pages from the Dodgers? Because Moreno didn’t want to.

Why did the Angels invest $240 million in Albert Pujols or $125 million in Josh Hamilton? Because Moreno believed in them.

Almost every major decision that resulted in the Angels missing the postseason for the last 11 years can be traced back to Moreno.

Under Moreno, the Angels’ most important decision maker wasn’t the general manager.

It was the owner.

The anticipated change in this dynamic is the primary reason the Angels will have a chance to return to prominence once Stan Kroenke officially takes over as the team’s owner. Kroenke, who owns the Rams, has agreed to purchase a controlling share of the Angels from Moreno.

Judging by how Kroenke operates his other sports teams, expect baseball decisions to be made by baseball people rather than a super fan who happened to become wealthy enough to buy the team.

Unlike Moreno, Kroenke is not a micromanager.

Kroenke is what a sports team wants in an owner. He trusts the people under him to do what they were hired to do and provides them with financial support.

Which is why head coach Sean McVay is the most important person on the Rams. Or why manager Mikel Arteta holds that distinction with Arsenal of the English Premier League.

In football or soccer, a franchise’s vision is often provided by the head coach or manager. In baseball, the vision comes from the head of the baseball operations department.

But former general managers Jerry Dipoto, Billy Eppler or Perry Minasian were never granted the level of autonomy McVay and Arteta have received from Kroenke. 

McVay was the driving force behind the Rams’ trade for quarterback Matthew Stafford. Arteta played a similar role in Arsenal’s acquisition of midfielder Declan Rice. 

Moreno stuck the Angels with Pujols and his massive contract, then tasked Dipoto, Eppler and Minasian to work around that mistake.

“But I would say this on Arte’s behalf,” interim general manager John Mozeliak said. “He cared about this team as much as anyone.”

The problem with Moreno wasn’t that he didn’t care. 

The problem was that he cared too much and couldn’t resist making decisions he lacked the expertise to make.

His temper further complicated the situation.

“I get too pissed off to be on Instagram,” he once said.

While the joke demonstrated a measure of self-awareness on Moreno’s part, it wasn’t a laughing matter for the Angels, who were at the mercy of his impulses. 

Perhaps the most egregious example of this came before the 2020 season. Wanting to clear payroll, the Dodgers agreed to send Joc Pederson and Ross Stripling to the Angels for infielder Luis Rengifo and two minor leaguers. As part of the deal, the Dodgers threw in a 19-year-old Pages.

But the trade was contingent upon the completion of a separate deal the Dodgers were making with the Boston Red Sox for Mookie Betts. In his impatience, Moreno scrapped his team’s trade with the Dodgers.

Whoops.

Moreno did Kroenke at least one huge favor by clearing the decks for the new owner to rebuild the team as he wants.

Rendon’s contract will be off the books, and the only players currently under contract for next season are Mike Trout and Yusei Kikuchi.

In Mozeliak, the Angels have an interim general manager. 

In Kurt Suzuki, they have a lame-duck manager.

The challenge for Kroenke will be to find the person who will be to the Angels what McVay is to the Rams, what Arteta is to Arsenal – or what Andrew Friedman is to the Dodgers.

That won’t be easy.

Steve Cohen has committed significant resources to the New York Mets since he purchased them in 2020. Cohen thought he found his Friedman in David Stearns, but that Stearns’ appointment hasn’t translated into the kind of success the owner envisioned.

Kroenke knows there aren’t any guarantees. Before McVay, there was Jeff Fisher, and before Arteta, there was Unai Emery.

Nonetheless, Kroenke’s first step as owner promises to be a step forward for the Angels.

Moreno won’t be calling the shots for them anymore.