Category: Baseball

MINNEAPOLIS — George Lombard Jr. got his first taste of champagne celebrations as a big leaguer Monday night. 

The rookie shortstop was a key figure in making sure the Yankees got to do so in style on the back of an 8-3 win over the Twins, a comeback that Lombard helped spearhead with a six-run eighth inning. 

Lombard led off the rally with a rocket double off the wall in left-center field and eventually came home to score on José Caballero’s single up the middle that tied the game 2-2 before the Yankees went ahead. 

“It was really cool,” Lombard said. “Obviously, a big part of the game and doing whatever I can to get on base there.” 

The 21-year-old has fit right in after making his MLB debut in early August, even with some occasional defensive hiccups — the part of the game that was his calling card throughout his minor league career.

He had another in the ninth inning Monday, when he stepped off second base too early while trying to catch a throw from second baseman Anthony Volpe. 

Throughout all of the ups and downs, Lombard has impressed the Yankees with his maturity, which has a chance to serve him well in his first bite at the postseason when the stakes are elevated. 

“Obviously, it’s intense and every single pitch counts and everything matters, but we’re prepared for it,” Lombard said. “It’s going to be the same preparation, same routine. We just got to go out there and do our thing.” 

Clarke Schmidt is likely to be activated off the injured list Wednesday after finishing his comeback from Tommy John surgery, though Boone said Tuesday could also be in play. Monday was not because he would not have been available to pitch on only one day of rest, which he did not do on his rehab assignment. 

Ryan Weathers (left forearm flexor strain), meanwhile, was scheduled to throw his first bullpen session Tuesday at Target Field as he tries to get back from the IL before the end of the regular season. 

Carlos Rodón is the Yankees nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, given annually to the player “who best represents the game of baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.” Rodón and his wife, Ashley, are active through their foundation in providing resources and financial assistance to couples facing infertility and pregnancy loss. 

“What him and Ashley do, we talk about using your platform for good, and they certainly have done that,” Boone said. “They’ve taken some of their personal experiences and hardships and turned them into positives, in and around the country and the world. You love when you see your guys give back whether it’s financially, whether it’s their time, whether it’s their talent, whatever it may be. But certainly the Rodóns have done a remarkable job in the philanthropic job. Proud of them.” 

Fernando Cruz (partially torn UCL) started playing catch over the weekend, keeping in play the long shot of him pitching again this season.

Monday night was a rough one for the Atlanta Braves as not only did they lose the game to the Cubs, they’ve also apparently lost one of their pitchers. It’s been a rough season injury-wise for Reynaldo López and it appears to have gotten even worse. According to Mark Bowman of MLB.com, López will be heading to the IL.

Yeah, that’s very concerning! The shoulder issue that cost Reynaldo López just about the entire 2025 season appears to have popped up on him again and now I’d say that it might be a longshot to see López going forward if that’s the case. López gave up five runs in three innings against the Cubs on Monday night and his velocity peaked at 94.6 mph. That’s a nearly a full tick lower than where it was at during his last healthy season in 2024.

When it comes to the replacement, it certainly looks like the Braves are just going to roll with what they’ve currently got in terms of starting pitching options. JR Ritchie will be starting on Wednesday and Bowman indicated that Ritchie will be staying around. This also means that AJ Smith-Shawver (who pitched in relief during tonight’s game) will also be sticking around to make starts, so that’ll likely be how the Braves get to the end of the regular season.

The Braves have already been handling the rotation on a series-by-series basis and now they have one less option to utilize going forward. We’ll see how the Braves figure this out and hopefully the prognosis for Reynaldo López isn’t as dour as it seems to be.

On Sunday, in their broomstick loss to the San Diego Padres, the San Francisco Giants rolled out a lineup almost entirely devoid of players who had been on the roster when the year began. In the recap, I took note of the almost unfathomable turnover: two players from the Opening Day roster, one player from another team’s Opening Day roster, two players who began the year in AAA Sacramento, two players who began the year on other AAA teams, and two players who began the year in AA Richmond.

As if to one-up themselves on Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Giants turned it up a notch, removing Jung Hoo Lee from the lineup for a veteran off-day. The final tally:

One player from the Opening Day roster (Christian Koss)
One player from another Opening Day roster (Brett Harris)
Two players from AAA Sacramento (Bryce Eldridge and Grant McCray)
Two players from other AAA rosters (Shay Whitcomb and Andrew Knizner)
Three players from AA Richmond (Jonah Cox, Turner Hill, and Scott Bandura)

And for half the game, you, I, and everyone watching the game, were convinced that the Giants were going to get no-hit by Quinn Mathews.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Play Minor League games, win Minor League prizes. Play 95-loss games, flirt with 100 losses, which is still in play if the Giants turn their current four-game losing streak into a 15-game skid. Just tack on 11 more losses, how much can it hurt?

Yes, the Giants didn’t have a baserunner in the first inning, and they didn’t have a baserunner in the second inning, and they didn’t have a baserunner in the third inning, and Eldridge broke up the perfect game with a walk in the fourth inning, and they didn’t have a baserunner in the fifth inning, and then, mercifully, McCray bopped a double to lead off the sixth, and New Rock Bottom watch was called off.

The small victories we uncover this time of year. They really are something, aren’t they?

Stunningly, given the way that Mathews had carved through the Giants lineup, they even converted that first hit into a run, when Koss moved McCray to third on a productive groundout, and Cox brought him home with a single. With that, the deficit was cut in half, from 2-0 to 2-1, and the offense was off and running.

Off and running and stalling, unfortunately. McCray’s hit opened the floodgates for the knocks, but Cox’s RBI did not open the floodgates for the runs. Whitcomb and Hill hit back-to-back singles to open the seventh, but they would never score: Harris bunted them over, but a Lee pinch-hit fly ball fell short of being deep enough to score Whitcomb. After Knizner drew a walk to load the bases, Mathews was replaced by Justin Bruihl, and while McCray fought to the seventh pitch in a tough lefty-on-lefty matchup, he ultimately lost.

It wasn’t their only rally that fell short. Eldridge smacked a two-out single in the eighth, and a pinch-hitting Drew Gilbert made like his first name and drew a walk, but Hill lined one sharply into an infielder’s mitt. Lee smacked a one-out single in the ninth, and a pinch-hitting Drew Cavanaugh (another player who began the year in AA) followed it up with a walk, but McCray struck out and Koss grounded out and the game was over, as meek as it possibly could have been.

The Giants remained in it, however, thanks to the rarest of things (for them, that is): some good run suppression from the pitchers. It began with A Very Landen Roupp Start.

Ever since Roupp’s brilliant first month of the season, you can fit nearly all of his starts into two very similar but very different categories:

• Get into a lot of trouble, but somehow get out of it
• Get into a lot of trouble, and very much don’t get out of it

That’s kind of it. He has bad games, and he has good games where he looks like he might have a bad game but then somehow doesn’t. It’s basically like watching Camilo Doval, except for five innings instead of one, and with a little side sprinkle of bigotry to make you less upset when it doesn’t work.

Except in this game he introduced a third category of start:

• Get into a lot of trouble, somehow get out of it, then get into more trouble and the bullpen can’t get out of it

Roupp gave up a single to the very first batter he faced, but then immediately induced a double play. He walked the next batter, then got out of the inning.

He gave up a leadoff double in the second, followed by a two-out walk, but again got out of the inning.

In the third, it was back-to-back two-out singles that started an ultimately futile Cardinals rally.

After a clean fourth, Roupp got back into trouble in the fifth, ceding a one-out single, a stolen base, and a walk. With 88 pitches to his name, and the Giants being very careful with him these days, Roupp’s night was over. He had bent without breaking time and time again, but his own fate was now out of his hands, and instead in Reiver Sanmartin’s.

Sanmartin gave up on RBI single on the very first pitch he threw, which was followed by a walk, another RBI single, and the slow march to the mound from Tony Vitello.

From there, the Giants bullpen was, shockingly, nearly perfect. Joel Kuhnel escaped the bases-loaded, one-out jam, and tossed in a perfect sixth for good measure. Trent Harris, who I think is no longer auditioning for a role in next year’s bullpen and is instead auditioning for a high-leverage role in next year’s bullpen, was a dominant force in a perfect seventh. Carson Seymour easily worked around a leadoff single in the eighth.

But the damage was done by the bottom of the fifth, and by a Minor League offense. You get what you pay for and, well … I’m guessing none of you are paying much for this.

In a lost season, Devin Williams is trying to establish health, if nothing else, and is nearing a return.

The Mets closer, who has been out since Aug. 7 with a shoulder strain, threw his third session off a mound at Citi Field on Monday and is expected to face hitters for the first time Thursday. If that goes well, he likely would be fast-tracked to the major league pen without a rehab assignment for a season that has less than two weeks remaining.

“He looked good on the mound today,” said interim manager Andy Green, who watched most of the session and cautioned there will be more boxes to check before an official activation. “Stuff was coming out really well.”

Williams said that finishing the season healthy and “having a normal offseason is ideal.” If and when he does return, he would rejoin a very different group than the bullpen with which he spent most of the season’s first four months.

Without Williams, Kodai Senga has flashed intriguing stuff as fill-in closer. Nate Lavender has been untouchable in replacing Brooks Raley and A.J. Minter. Daniel Duarte has made a case that he belongs on the 2027 Mets.

“For the most part, they’ve been lights-out,” said Williams, who would be the rare veteran reliever among the group. “I think moving forward it’s going to be really beneficial for a lot of these guys. … The only way to get good in those situations is by being put in them. So I think they’re all getting a lot of really valuable experience.”

Senga has embraced his late-game role but often has noted he feels best as a starter, a job he could not hold on to this year.

A healthy Williams would bump Senga to a slightly lesser role, but Williams sounds intrigued by the possibility of them both pitching in late-game situations.

“He’s 6-for-6 [in save chances]. He’s punching tickets. Throwing 100 [mph] and with a nasty forkball. What else do you want?” Williams said of Senga. “… I’d love to have him in the back end. I can’t really speak to what he wants.”

With the 2-1 loss to the Orioles, which was decided by Gunnar Henderson’s eighth-inning home run against Dedniel Núñez, the Mets (69-81) were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.

A.J. Ewing homered in the fourth inning and has reached base in 12 of his past 13 games, a span in which he has slashed .370/.434/.640.

Senga pitched around two singles in a scoreless, three-strikeout ninth inning and has pitched to a 1.88 ERA since his role was elevated after the trade deadline.

Lefty Cionel Pérez, who has been out with a left forearm strain since July 29, has pitched two scoreless innings in Double-A Binghamton to begin a rehab assignment.

Pérez, who owned a 4.21 ERA in 20 games with the Mets, is expected to pitch with Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday, after which the Mets will “evaluate where he’s at,” Green said.

The Rockies battled, but couldn’t score the run they needed or prevent San Diego’s late insurance runs as they fell 8-7 in a heartbreaker on Monday night at Coors Field.

Colorado trailed 6-1 after four innings, but made a game of it before San Diego’s shutdown, slider-throwing closer Mason Miller posted two strikeouts to earn his 37th save of the season — the Rockies’ only two strikeouts of the game.

“We have lost a lot of tight games this year,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “…The next step is to start winning the one-run games and that happens throughout the game. There’s moments in the first inning, there’s moments in the ninth inning, and every inning in between where we can improve. But we are right there. It’s just a matter of time before we start winning those one-run games.”

The loss was the eighth in a row for the Rockies, while the Padres won their eighth straight. The Rockies are now 1-9 against San Diego this season.

Digging a hole

In the end, it turns out a team that consistently beats up on the Rockies facing a pitcher who gives up his fair share of homers is a bad combo. Manny Machado and Fernando Tatís Jr. each homered early off Tomoyuki Sugano (菅野 智之) to put the Rockies at a disadvantage from the jump.

Sugano gave up two homers for the fourth time in his last seven games as the Rockies once again found themselves down early and without enough offense to come back.

Machado hit a two-out solo homer in the first inning to put the Padres up immediately. In the second inning, Jackson Merrill led off with a single, Xander Bogaerts drew a one-out walk and Rockies killer Jake Cronenworth hit an RBI single to put the Padres up 2-1. Freddy Fermin followed with a sac fly, which set the table for Tatis’ two-run bomb to increase San Diego’s lead to 5-1. Just like that, it was four hits, one walk and five runs.

“Tomo was behind in counts and, therefore, got hit hard like hanging a two-strike breaking ball to Machado in the first,” Schaeffer said. “I just thought he was behind in counts and didn’t get to really see his good stuff with two strikes.

Sugano was hit hard again in the third when he gave up a double to Ty France and Merrill hit his second RBI double as San Diego went up 6-1. Sugano got a double play to get out of the inning and gave up lone singles in the fourth and fifth innings, but didn’t allow further damage. He was pulled after five innings, giving up six runs on eight hits with two stikeouts and one walk.

Stuck in the Mize maze

Casey Mize gave up a two-out double to Hunter Goodman and an RBI single to TJ Rumfield in the first inning when the Rockies briefly tied the game, but then regained control. Rumfield extended his on-base streak to 19 games, which is second-best in Rockies history.

Despite allowing a runner in each of the five innings he pitched, Mize didn’t allow any more runs for the next three innings. In the fifth, Connor Norby singled and Goodman drew a walk, once again providing runners for the hitting machine that is TJ Rumfield. Collecting his second run-scoring hit, the first baseman cut San Diego’s lead to 6-2.

After five innings, Mize gave up eight hits and two walks, but only allowed two runs.

“I thought we played a very good game. I thought we battled all day. We had Mize on the ropes from the get-go, traffic every inning, solid at-bats up and down the lineup. We let ‘em off the hook a few times like with a double play ball [Tovar hit into one in the second inning],” Schaeffer said. “It’s easy when you get down 6-1 and you’re on a seven-game losing streak to mail it in. But the guys in that room didn’t do that and that’s why we’re going to be good here eventually.”

Sticks come alive in late

When Kyle Hart entered the game for San Diego in the sixth and issued back-to-back one-out walks to Adael Amador and Ezequiel Tovar, the Rockies finally took advantage. Jake McCarthy came up clutch with his 10th triple of the season to plate in his 79th and 80th RBIs and cut San Diego’s lead in half.

Norby followed with a sacrifice grounder to score McCarthy and the Rockies were back in the game only down 6-4. Goodman then hit a triple of his own, reaching base for the third consecutive time, but the Rockies rally was done. Unfortunately, when Goodman came back out to catch in the bottom of the frame, he was struggling with left thumb soreness and had to leave the game. The injury came from a head-first slide on his triple.

“He jammed his thumb going into third base. We’ll re-evaluate tomorrow,” Schaeffer said.

In the seventh, Cole Carrigg smashed a 96-mph Bradgley Rodriguez fastball 424 feet to right field to cut the Padres lead to 7-6. The blast was Carrigg’s eighth of the year.

In the eighth, Tovar singled and Norby came up with a huge double that once again cut the Padres’ lead to one at 8-7. But Brett Sullivan, who entered the game after Goodman left injured, and Rumfield each grounded out to strand Norby at second.

In the ninth, Kyle Karros posted an infield single that hit off Miller’s leg, but Amador hit a high-bouncing chopper to end the game.

Bullpen blemishes

Blas Castaño relieved Sugano in the sixth and put up a scoreless 1.1 innings. Mark Manfredi’s outing didn’t go as well. With one out in the seventh, he walked Dustin Harris. Harris then stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch before coming home to score on a France RBI single.

Juan Mejia was able to end the seventh without surrendering any more runs, but he did give up one in the eighth when he gave up two singles and then an RBI double to Harris. Jordan Romano threw a scoreless ninth to give the Rockies a chance.

The Rockies actually struck out the Padres eight times, while only striking out twice themselves (both off Miller in the ninth). Sugano, Castaño, Mejia and Romano all posted two strikeouts apiece.

Up next

The Rockies and Padres will be back at it on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. Kyle Freeland (4-10, 6.37 ERA) is back from the IL and will start for Colorado, while Walker Buehler (8-6, 4.61 ERA)will start for San Diego.

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The 2026 regular season is into its final two weeks, with half of Major League Baseball's divisions still up for grabs.

In the AL East, the New York Yankees have closed the gap on the first-place Tampa Bay Rays and begin a climactic series beginning Tuesday, September 22. The Chicago White Sox are trying to hold off the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central and the Houston Astros barely lead the Texas Rangers with both teams hovering around .500.

The AL wild card's final spot has four teams within three games, the Guardians ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays, Rangers and Baltimore Orioles entering play Tuesday. The red-hot San Diego Padres have opened up some distance for the third NL wild card spot over the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the two teams end the season facing each other at Petco Park.

The regular season ends on Sunday, Sept. 27, with the postseason beginning on Sept. 29.

Here's the latest postseason bracket and standings:

Now accustomed to being featured in fine print for a game in which a beloved former Met earns top billing, Jonah Tong fared better than the last time.

Last time, when Tong took the mound to face off with Jacob deGrom in his return to Citi Field, he did not make it out of the first inning in the worst outing of his career.

A season later — when the 35,800 on hand were cheering for his opponent and booed Tong at one point for walking Pete Alonso — he authored the best outing of his career.

On a night on which fans pined for the past and cursed the present Mets front office, Tong made his best argument yet that he should be a part of the club’s future.

The young right-hander recorded his first quality start in his 11th career major league appearance, completing six innings without allowing an earned run in what became a 2-1 loss to the Orioles on Monday.

“Very, very effective in every way,” interim manager Andy Green said of Tong, who struck out six and allowed one unearned run on four hits and, notably, just one walk. “Demeanor outstanding. … [He] was a bulldog on the attack today, and I think we love seeing that from him.”

The game, though, took a backseat to the singular opponent, virtually everyone on the field who was not Alonso viewed by the crowd as at best an afterthought and at worst an obstruction to the history they desired.

The crowd wanted an Alonso moment — preferably the 300th homer of his career, regardless of the fact he was playing for the opposing team — and thus Tong, a popular top prospect, was briefly the enemy.

During Alonso’s third-inning plate appearance, he smoked a long, would-be homer that went foul to left field and would have brought the crowd to its feet — if the crowd were not already on its feet cheering for the Baltimore first baseman. Alonso returned to the plate and walked, which elicited boos and a Tong smile.

“I think next time [the fans] got to give the pitcher a little more love, too,” said Francisco Lindor with a smile after praising the love the fans showed Alonso.

“We’re proud of the young kid on the mound that stepped off the mound,” Green added. “Didn’t let anything derail him, attacked every hitter, pitched as well as he possibly could.

“… He’s taken some real major strides, and it’s fun to see.”

The real strides have come after Tong took real steps back, struggling after being arguably rushed to the majors last season and working on both arsenal and arm-angle tweaks with Triple-A Syracuse this season that made it a year of lessons rather than major league breakthroughs.

But he pitched well enough in August to earn another major league chance in September. And he might be coming out on the other side of what he acknowledged has been a “long year” stronger.

“I think [the 2026 struggles are] something I’m going to have to live with, and I’m happy for it,” Tong said. “I mean, there’s a lot of times in life that you’re going to struggle, and the best learning happens through that. I welcome it.”

Monday's 8-3 comeback at the Minnesota Twins gave the Yankees the series-opening win, their sixth victory in their past seven games and a playoff spot entering the 2026 regular season's final two weeks.

"You start back in February and the goal is to go play in October and go win a championship," New York manager Aaron Boone told YES Network near the dugout at Target Field after the game, which brought the Yankees to 87-63. "And we've checked that first box and have that opportunity now, and obviously there's a lot of important games still in front of us here the rest of the way, but we're excited that we'll be able to take our shot. Feel like the group's coming together at the right time, but today's a good day."

The Tampa Bay Rays lead the American League East by 3.5 games, but the Yankees have a chance to take the division with next week's four-game series at Yankee Stadium.

They do so with Aaron Judge, who homered in his sixth game back from a three-month absence on the injured list, among those entering the mix as the Yankees ramp up against the Twins (70-80).

"It's one thing as a team we try to talk about every series ... as we get down the stretch -- just clean up the little mistakes, trying to fin-tune the situational hitting," Judge said. "So, I was just trying to do a job there. You've got guys on base, guys in scoring position. Either move 'em over or drive 'em in. So, I'm just happy to drive in add more runs there and let our pitchers do the thing."

What makes the 2026 Yankees different from New York's World Series contenders of the past decade?

"Got a lot of grit," Judge said. "Even going into tonight's game -- Twins put some good at-bats against us. They go up 2-1. The offense wasn't really going. But we found a way to fight back there."

Entering Tuesday's 7:40 p.m. start in Minnesota, continuing the three-game series with the Twins, the Yankees possess the AL Wild Card's first spot by a sizable margin over the Boston Red Sox (82-68) and Cleveland Guardians (76-75).

"It's what you've got to deal with as a major league club," Boone said. "We've certainly had our fair share (of adversity) this year, and I feel like the guys have persevered through that to this point. "There's a lot of grit in there with these guys, which I love. And we're used to playing in tight, difficult situations, and hopefully that's something that serves us well in the month of October."

Angels 6, Mariners 4

The Big A: Cal Raleigh, +0.09 WPA
The Big F: Kade Anderson, -0.19 WPA

Game Thread Comment of the Day

It’s another week here at BCB After Dark: the coolest spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re so happy you decided to stop by. Come on in. There’s no cover charge. The dress code is casual. We still have a few tables available. The hostess will seat you now. Bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

Last week I asked you who you thought should be the National League Rookie of the Year. There didn’t seem to be much debate as 71 percent of you voted for the Reds’ Sal Stewart. St, Louis second baseman JJ Wetherholt came in second with 21 percent.

Here’s the part with the music and the movies. You’re welcome to come join us there.

Next week will mark the 100th anniversary of John Coltrane, so it might be a good time to go back and remember his genius. In 1965, just two years before his death, Trane released his best-selling album and the one that many consider his masterpiece: A Love Supreme. In fact, it’s considered among the top jazz recordings ever made.

This is a music video that his estate made earlier this year to go with “Part 1—Acknowledgement,” the first track on A Love Supreme. Besides Coltrane on tenor sax, this number features McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on double bass and Elvin Jones on drums.

Most of this video was shot at the famous Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey, where A Love Supreme was recorded with the aid of engineer Rudy Van Gelder.

First off tonight, I want to acknowledge the passing of legendary designer and costumer Bob Mackie (gift article) at the age of 87. As someone who grew up watching Cher and Carol Burnett on television, some of my earliest memories included his work. Of course, the Mackie-designed dress that Burnett wore in her “Went with the Wind” parody is still today one of the greatest visual jokes ever committed to television. Burnett’s line of “Thank you. I just saw it in the window and I couldn’t resist it” just took the bit up to 13. That dress now belongs to the Smithsonian.

Of course, Mackie didn’t just dress Cher and Burnett. As the obituary notes, he also designed outfits for Tina Turner, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minelli and others. Pretty much every star from that era wore Bob Mackie clothes and pretty much every designer since then has been influenced by him one way or the other.

Costume designers are an underrated and under appreciated part of movies and television. Often they work in anonymity. But Bob Mackie, along with Edith Head, were two designers who became household names anyway.

Now on to tonight’s movie.

You Never Can Tell is a 1951 movie, written and directed by Lou Breslow, that stars Dick Powell as a dog. No, really. Wait. It gets even better.

King, played by Hollywood veteran Flame, is a German Shepherd war hero who inherits six million dollars from his eccentric owner. So far, so good. Peggy Dow (who, according to IMDB.com, is still with us at 98) plays Ellen Hathaway, the old man’s secretary who is placed in charge of the dog. She also stands to inherit the money when King dies.

Charles Drake plays Perry Collins, who served in the K-9 Corps with King, shows up at Ellen’s door wanting to reconnect with King. He also immediately starts wooing Ellen and the $6 million he controls.

King, of course, turns up dead by poison. He goes up to animal heaven where he asks the lion named Lion who runs the place to return him to earth to solve his murder. King’s wish is granted and he is sent back to earth as private investigator Rex Shepard. A filly named Golden Harvest goes with him as his trusty secretary, Goldie Harvey (Joyce Holden).

Of course, Rex/King knows who killed him, he just has to find a way to prove it to humans.

That set up is pretty much all you need to know. Rex is a dog in Dick Powell’s body. Rex is both a dog and a tough-as-nails Sam Spade-style detective with a trusty secretary, who is also a horse. He needs to solve his own murder. He likes to eat kibble and dog treats and curl up onto his late-master’s favorite chair. He likes his hamburgers raw.

Much of the humor revolves around Powell and Holden acting like animals in human bodies. Powell does incorporate a lot of dog-related behavior, like the way he scratches his nose. Holden’s Goldie speaks with a thick Kentucky accent. She likes to go to track and she makes a lot of money betting on her granddaughters. Despite being in a human body, Goldie can still run 35 miles per hour.

We find out very quickly who the killer and the answer is not a surprise. The only suspense becomes how a dog is going to prove it. As a noir satire, You Never Can Tell is fine but a bit tame. It’s silly fun, but if you want a tighter noir satire, you want the Carl Reiner’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.

Still, You Never Can Tell is one of those bonkers concepts that make watching it worthwhile. Powell and Holden really do get a lot of milage out of the ridiculousness. While the noir satire isn’t sharp, it is present and kind of clever. Overall, You Never Can Tell is the kind of movie that if you described the plot to me, I’d say “There’s no way I’m not watching that.” Luckily, the film didn’t make me regret that instinct.

I couldn’t find any trailers or scenes for You Never Can Tell, but it is available to watch until September 23 on the Watch TCM app if you have a cable or satellite subscription to TCM.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.

It has been suggested by some that grabbing the third Wild Card spot in the National League is preferable to the first one. Quite honestly, it’s something that I’ve considered as well. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that the Brewers look like the best team in the National League. They have the best record. The Dodgers still look formidable, but they also look flawed and injured. The Braves are comfortably in the three slot as the division winner with the worst record and that seems unlikely to change.

Right now, the Cubs are the first Wild Card team. If they hold that position, they’ll open the playoffs with a best-of-three series at home against the second Wild Card, which is likely to be the Phillies. It could also be the Padres.

Were the Cubs to win that first series, they would then play the Brewers in a best-of-five series, with Milwaukee hosting games 1,2 and 5. In other words, just like last year.

However, were the Cubs to fall to the third Wild Card, they would play a best-of-three series in Atlanta and then face a Dodgers team that looks more vulnerable in the second round.

To be clear: NO ONE IS ARGUING THAT THE CUBS LOSE GAMES ON PURPOSE. For one, two bad things could happen if they do. The first is that they only fall to the second Wild Card, which would mean the same matchups except no games at Wrigley in the first round. The other bad thing is obvious: the Diamondbacks get hot and the Cubs miss the playoffs altogether.

However, it does seem like putting off a possible matchup with the Brewers until the Championship Series (with the chance that Atlanta, San Diego or Philadelphia knocks them out in the Division Series) is preferable to facing them in the Division Series. And it does seem like the Dodgers are a better matchup for the Cubs than the Brewers are. Just compare their record this year against LA and Milwaukee.

Of course, the problem with finishing third would be that the Cubs would have to win two out of three games on the road in the Wild Card series to get to either the Brewers. Maybe that makes a difference. Maybe it doesn’t make enough of a difference.

So with the caveat that the Cubs should try to win every game, would you feel better if the Cubs secured the first Wild Card or the third? (The second is definitely bad.)

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The Cincinnati Reds lost again on Monday night, this time back home in Great American Ball Park. It came at the hands of the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers, and the loss officially eliminated the Reds from postseason contention with roughly two weeks of games left to be played as they finally dipped to 10 games under .500.

Of course that’s how this season’s final nail was hit.

Anyway, while the Reds lost 4-1 after Tarik Skubal sliced and diced their eyeballs all night, at least superstar Elly De La Cruz managed to show the rest of the world that he, at still just 24 years of age, is about to be the single most dominant force on a baseball diamond for a handful of years.

He just recently wrapped up a stretch of homering in five straight games. If how hard he hit his 457 foot blast out of GABP tonight is any indication, he may well be en route to finishing the 2026 season as a whole on a similar tear.

This one went out of GABP altogether.

Too bad it just missed taking the Toyota Tacoma with it along the ride.

About three hours before the first pitch of his first game at Citi Field as a visiting player, Pete Alonso walked into the batting cage outside the Mets clubhouse, on the home side. Visiting players rarely, if ever, wander that deep into enemy territory. But, as became clear immediately, this was no usual visiting player.

“The [redacted] polar bear!” Francisco Alvarez exclaimed, his gerund of choice not fit for print.

He opened his arms wide and gave Alonso a hug, which is exactly how everyone at Citi Field treated him Monday.

The irony, of course, almost goes without saying: The only people at Citi Field who seemed to think the Mets were better off without Alonso were the ones who made the decision not to pursue him in free agency.

In the baseball sense, that is settled business now. Alonso is the heart and soul of the Orioles now. He will be for the next four seasons. The Mets failed to fill the void, if it were possible that anyone not named Pete Alonso could fill that void at all. Maybe no one could.

Because in the emotional sense, nothing about Alonso’s departure is settled business. The grief has not been processed. Acceptance has not yet grown roots.

The front office was wrong. The 2026 Mets were not better without Pete Alonso. And the 2026 Mets were always going to be judged on whether they were better without Pete Alonso. The original skeptics are credible critics, for the moment.

Alonso has already answered several sessions worth of questions about the Mets’ unwillingness to negotiate for his return. His answers to Monday’s were sparklingly diplomatic, honed and practiced. For example: He said he did not take it personally when the Mets didn’t chase him this winter.

“When you have a really good opportunity, you have great dialogue, you don’t necessarily want to, kind of, ruin that. So for me, I didn’t want to look anywhere else because Baltimore was putting in a tremendous effort,” said Alonso, who then emphasized how happy he is as an Oriole.

“Two things can be true at the same time: I’m very happy and appreciative of my time that I spent as a Met, and I’m beyond grateful and appreciative of the Baltimore Orioles.”

Alonso spent 15 minutes answering comparable questions from a gaggle of reporters three rows deep, then apologized for departing as he scurried back to the visitors’ clubhouse in his bare feet.

When he took the field for batting practice, fans in Alonso jerseys cheered. When he stepped in the cage during batting practice, they cheered again. They roared when his name was announced in the starting lineup, then chanted it for several seconds.

When the national anthem was over, they chanted his name again, even though he was not on the field.

When he finally took the field to stretch, they chanted his name again, at which point he tipped his cap to the crowd -- only to have the game production team press play on his tribute video. This required him to tip his hat again.

Alonso stepped in the box and the crowd stood until he tipped his helmet to them. They chanted his name for most of his at-bat. After he popped out, they cheered to “Fire Stearns.” And when a ground ball up the line got by current Mets first baseman Brett Baty, they cheered “Pete Alonso” again.

“It’s one of those that, you see him on the other side like, ‘Wow, those are great numbers. That’s Pete Alonso,’” Francisco Lindor said after the game.

“But at the same time, you look in our clubhouse and you say, ‘The guys that we have are capable of helping us win games. We haven‘t stayed healthy and we haven’t put the season together.‘ As a person, I do miss him, for sure.”

While the Mets have struggled, Alonso is not exactly cruising to the postseason, either: His Orioles, though technically still alive for the third American League Wild Card spot, are three games out with 11 games to play.

Alonso went 0-for-3 with a walk Monday. He did not subject Citi Field to the torture of watching his 300th career homer come for another team, though he still has two games to do so.

No, on Monday night, the baseball fates had another twist in mind: When his Orioles took the opener 2-1, they officially eliminated the Mets from postseason contention.

The Dodgers celebrated clinching a postseason berth with a champagne toast. Simple. Restrained. Leaving room for larger celebrations to come.

“The message was, ‘We haven’t come close to playing our best baseball yet,’” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 4-1 win over the Reds on Monday. “And here we are with 12 games left, getting a ticket to the postseason. And that says a lot about this entire organization. And just to finish strong.”

It marked the Dodgers’ 14th straight playoff berth, tying a record set by the Atlanta Braves from 1991 to 2005.

“It’s different than anything I’ve experienced, for sure,” Tarik Skubal said of the understated celebration. “But I think it just speaks to the people in this room and what they expect out of this team. That was cool. A little toast and move on. Forget it happened. We’ve got more to accomplish.”

Read more:Dodgers might be forced to leave Edwin Díaz off postseason roster

Most teams don ski goggles to celebrate with champagne and beer showers. The Dodgers will save the messier celebration for clinching the division. Their win over the Reds (70-80) trimmed that magic number to three.

It was fitting that Skubal, the Dodgers’ big trade-deadline acquisition, was on the mound for the clincher. He’s progressively improved in his eight starts with the Dodgers. And on Monday, he breezed through seven shutout innings, allowing just four baserunners (three singles and a walk).

“I think a lot of the struggles have been me versus me,” Skubal said. “Thinking too much out there, not competing the way I know how to compete. Just thinking too much about pitch selection at times and trying to be too fine and not challenging guys.”

He has grown more comfortable with the pitching coaches and his catchers, and it has brought out a better version of him. Skubal seems to be peaking at the right time — just as Roberts hoped for the team as a whole.

Even after clinching the division likely this week, the Dodgers (91-59) will be playing for seeding, aiming for at least a first-round bye.

“It’s always helpful in the sense of giving your guys a break to reset,” Roberts said. “But given all the tax and where our guys are health-wise, to get that week would be huge. So we’ve still got to play well to finish out the season to get to that point.”

The position-player group has been hit the hardest down the stretch.

Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (right biceps and left knee), center fielder Andy Pages (left hand fracture) and backup catcher Dalton Rushing (sprained right elbow) are on the IL. First baseman Freddie Freeman was out of the lineup Monday managing right knee soreness, and second baseman Miguel Rojas was playing through shoulder soreness after aggravating a longstanding partial tear in a labrum.

“You’ve got to give credit to the front office,” said Teoscar Hernández, who hit a two-run homer Monday. “They put together a really good team, [a] deep team that has a little bit of too much of everything. A lot of pitchers, a lot of position players here, players that can play all over the field. We’re one of the oldest teams. We know [injuries] are going to happen throughout the season. So, we’ve just gotta be ready, and the team has to be ready, and everybody else.”

Here are more specific injury updates provided by Roberts:

— Ohtani is set to hit off a tee Tuesday. Up until this point, he’s been working out, lifting and undergoing treatment.

— Pages hit softer balls Monday and will advance to hitting baseballs in the cage Tuesday. “He’s trending really well,” Roberts said.

— Freeman is expected to return to the lineup Tuesday, but Roberts will continue to keep a close eye on him. “Where we’re at in the season, an IL is not an option in the sense of — I personally don’t think we have a better option,” Roberts said. “So I don’t think it needs to be 10 days. But could it be more than one? That’s a fair question. And I’ve got to talk to the training staff, Freddie, and ultimately make that decision. But I don’t think IL would make sense at all.”

— Rojas did not receive a cortisone injection as he had initially predicted when he hurt his shoulder Sunday. But he said it’s still a possibility as he manages pain in his shoulder. The Reds have left-handed starters scheduled for two of the four games, making Rojas’ right-handed bat valuable.

“Right now it’s front of mind, it’s not great,” Roberts said of the Dodgers’ injury situation. “But I will say this: Once you get to October, athletes have a magical way of feeling better. It happens every single year, where there’s that extra adrenaline that athletes get when you get to the postseason.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.