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Playing out the string.
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Brandon Williamson gets the start on Tuesday night in Atlanta as the Cincinnati Reds begin their penultimate series of the season against the Braves.
JR Ritchie will start for Atlanta, and he’ll chuck out the game’s first pitch at 7:15 PM ET.
The Braves have already clinched the NL East and have the slimmest of chances to earn a 1st round bye, so this game is more likely than not nothing more than a footnote of history.
Here’s how both teams will line up to start, however:
Earlier this afternoon, we saw the blueprint for what an Aaron Judge-less postseason run will have to look like: Incredible performance from the starter, good defense, and just enough hitting to get by. The Yankees will look to repeat that in the nightcap of today’s doubleheader, with a crackling starting pitcher matchup.
Max Fried toes the slab in the Bronx, having an excellent season albeit one twice interrupted by injury. He’s rounding out the regular season with one of my favorite statistical quirks, an identical 2.63 ERA and FIP. Had he avoided the IL with a year like this, the Yankees would have two of the likely top three finishers in Cy Young voting, but all we can ask of Max tonight is that he delays the Rays’ champagne celebration at least one more day.
Opposing him is a starter who will get his share of Cy Young votes, although he won’t sniff the award itself. Across 29 starts Drew Rasmussen has posted a four-and-a-half win year by fWAR, and a stellar 4.5-percent walk rate. If you wanna get on against Drew, you have to hit your way aboard, and even then he runs a 44-percent groundball rate. The Yankees are going to have to rely on one big swing a game for a little while, and that’s going to have to be the way they beat Rasmussen.
The Yankees’ lineup features a familiar presence returning from the IL, as Jazz Chisholm Jr. is back from his brief absence and will man the keystone. Max Schuemann was demoted to make room for Jazz on the active roster. If the man has a hot stretch ready for the end of his bumpy walk year, now would be the time to kick it off.
How to watch
Location: Yankee Stadium – Bronx, NY
First pitch: 7:05 pm ET
TV broadcast: YES, Rays.TV, TBS (out-of-market only)
Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY) | WDAE 95.7 FM, WQBN/1300AM (TB)
Streaming: Gotham Sports App, MLB.tv (out-of-market only)
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Here’s the Guardians lineup:
Here’s the Red Sox lineup:
Let’s go, Guardians!
Time/Place: 6:40 p.m., Comerica Park
SB Nation Site:Federal Baseball
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: RHP Drew Anderson (5-6, 3.62 ER) vs. LHP Jackson Kent (1-4, 6.40 ERA)
| Player | G | IP | K% | BB% | GB% | FIP | fWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson | 48 | 102.0 | 25.1 | 9.9 | 49.1 | 4.19 | 0.7 |
| Kent | 7 | 32.1 | 17.9 | 15.2 | 49.0 | 4.37 | 0.4 |
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For the first time since getting traded by the Mets during the offseason, Brandon Nimmo gets a chance to play against his former team.
With New York in Texas for a three-game series against the Rangers, Nimmo was finally able to share his thoughts on playing for and leaving the Mets, what’s gone wrong for New York this season and recently, as well as the Pete Alonso situation at Citi Field that took the baseball world by storm last week.
To kick things off, though, Nimmo expressed excitement over playing his old club, a series that he circled early on after joining the Rangers and one that comes at a time when his team, at 78-78, is in first place in the AL West and leading the Houston Astros by one game.
“I obviously knew this series was coming up and it’s not like it surprised me or anything, so it’s gonna be fun to see those guys again and fun to play against them on the field,” Nimmo said. “It’s gonna be interesting.”
The Mets, of course, have already been eliminated from playoff contention after one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history, but they’ll do their best to play spoiler against Nimmo and the Rangers and end the year on a high note.
In fact, New York has actually played much better since its fire sale at the trade deadline, which is something Nimmo has noticed and is not taking lightly.
“I think it’s been a tale of two stories,” he said. “I think that the team in the beginning, from what I’ve seen from the outside, is much different than the team that they are now. Not just because of the trade deadline, but they seem to be playing better baseball now and so I think it’s a real formidable team over there.
“For us, we’re looking to really go play some good baseball against them tonight because we know that they’re very dangerous. It was obviously not the way that they drew it up for things to start, but that’s baseball. You can’t predict the future.”
It’s true, at 71-85 on Sept. 22, this wasn’t where the Mets pictured themselves before the season started. After trading Nimmo and moving on from a core that wasn’t able to get it done over the last few years, including Alonso, who they let walk in free agency, David Stearns and the Mets still had a plan to compete in 2026.
That plan included a bunch of fresh faces, some old and some new like Carson Benge, who made the team out of spring training and has been a ROTY candidate, as well as A.J. Ewing, who emerged as the team’s everyday center fielder and added a spark when New York desperately needed one.
“Benge seems like the real deal. What a great player all around,” Nimmo said. “…Ewing, seems like he’s got a lot of tools and seems like a great player – obviously playing center field is a really hard thing to do and he’s doing a great job of that.
“From what I’ve seen from the young guys that they have over there, it seems like a really bright future, so I think that they definitely have that hammered down and seems like they’re doing great and good things to continue to come from them.”
From that aspect, moving on from Nimmo, who has four years remaining on his eight-year, $162 million contract, made sense and has worked out for the Mets.
Even Nimmo understands that.
“I honestly just think we weren’t thought of as the solution moving forward,” he said, referring to himself and Alonso. “I don’t think we were blamed for what happened in the past, I think we were just thought of as not the solution going forward. I tried not reading any more into that than that… For me, I didn’t look at it like ‘hey, we blame you guys’ that’s not how I looked at it.”
But while the Nimmo trade has been, for the most part, a clean break, the Alonso situation still looks like a bad breakup.
That was obviously on full display at Citi Field recently when Alonso and the Baltimore Orioles came to Queens for a three-game set which drew boisterous crowds all three nights and came to a head when Alonso hit his 300th career home run to tie the game in the ninth inning.
“There’s a lot of people that love Pete and there’s a lot of people that love what he did for that Mets organization,” Nimmo said about the circumstances. “…People are gonna go watch those franchise guys and root for them.”
Nimmo was also in awe of his former teammate’s performance during that series, but wasn’t surprised by it as he saw it time and time again with the Mets.
“I know Pete and he lives for those moments and there’s very, very, very few people that can live for those moments and come through in them and Pete’s one of them,” he said. “I think [the home run in] Milwaukee probably solidified that for most Mets fans, but I’ve seen it time and time again.”
He continued: “For me, I thought it was a really cool experience for them and the Mets fans and I just think it’s so Pete that like he would go back and do that and put on a show for the fans.”
Part of the reason why fans reacted the way they did during Alonso’s homecoming is because of Stearns' plan to replace him and the lack of production coming from first base this season. The other part was to show Alonso the love that they felt during his time with the Mets – the same love that they showed Nimmo, who spoke about what it’s like playing in New York.
“This is completely different,” he said, referring to the media and public scrutiny. “How much is looked into every single day and the exposure of every single day rather than kind of taking things in stride from month to month. [In New York], it’s like did you do it today or did you not? And you have to own up to that and it’s something that I learned really early on, way back in Brooklyn. I grew up in the system and I figured it out really early on, but when you come from other places and you go into it, it’s completely different.
“Playing in New York is a different animal and it’s good, it’s a really great thing and I think that the New York market is awesome and it’s a great place to win and I developed great relationships there, but it is not for everyone. That is for sure."
Just 6 games to go for the St. Louis Cardinals this season. Tuesday night, it’s the beginning of a 3-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Andre Pallante will get the start for the Cardinals while the Pirates will give the ball RHP Jared Jones. First pitch at PNC Park in Pittsburgh is scheduled for 5:40pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.
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Last night was not a competitive performance from the Nats. The offense did not show up and the pitching put them in a hole. Hopefully the boys can get back to playing like they have the past couple weeks. With only five games to go, this season is almost over. Why not finish strong.
Blake Butera is making a couple alterations to his lineup. The struggling Abi Ortiz is out of the lineup in favor of Andres Chaparro. Yohandy Morales plays DH, which means the outfield consists of Daylen Lile, Dylan Crews and James Wood. CJ Abrams will shift to second base as well. Keibert Ruiz will do the catching tonight. Riley Cornelio will open for Jackson Kent.
The Tigers are adding two exciting left handed rookies to this lineup. Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark are both in there tonight. Clark will play center, while McGonigle plays third base. Both Dillon Dingler and Riley Greene are on the bench tonight. Swingman Drew Anderson will get the start for Detroit tonight.
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Game Info:
Stadium: Comerica Park
Time: 6:40 PM EST
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan
Hopefully the Nats can put up more of a fight in this one. They had been playing some solid baseball. We are getting very close to the end of the season and I do not have many more game threads to write for a while. I will miss this! Follow along in the comments down below and let’s go Nats.
The San Diego Padres are here to stay. They only need one more win (and one Arizona Diamondbacks loss) to clinch the postseason on Tuesday night versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Friars throttled the Miami Marlins, sweeping the away team and outscoring them 22-11 in the series sweep.
The Friars got an incredible performance from Walker Buehler. The starter went 6 2/3 innings and was nearly perfect through the first six. The trouble came in the seventh when Buehler surrendered a three-run shot to Javier Sanoja. Thankfully, San Diego’s offense has been rolling lately. The lineup has scored a ridiculous 80 runs in their last 11 games, for an average of 7.3 runs per game. They’ll need that to continue to clinch versus the Dodgers.
It seems like L.A. is pitching a bullpen game tonight. Stewart was announced as the starter for the Dodgers, but will likely only cover the first 1-2 innings as an opener. The right-hander owns a 2.55 ERA across 24 2/3 innings pitched this season. It’s been tougher lately though, with Stewart surrendering three runs in his last seven appearances.
It seems likely that Justin Wrobleski will appear to cover the middle innings. He had a phenomenal start to the season, but has struggled since with a 4.40 ERA in his last 15 games and a dismal 7.62 ERA in his last 23 2/3 innings. Wrobleski hasn’t faced San Diego this season.
King has been the Padres’ ace this season. He’s stepped up in a major way after an injury-plagued 2025 campaign. The right-hander owns a 3.03 ERA with a 1.16 WHIP through 181 innings pitched. He’s been even better down the stretch, with a 2.73 ERA in his last 15 starts (89.0 IP) and a 2.01 ERA in his last seven (44.2 IP).
Not only that, but King has pitched quite well versus Los Angeles this season. The righty has surrendered six runs across 17 1/3 innings pitched against the Dodgers. Most of that damage came on June 28, with King surrendering four runs in 4 1/3 innings. In his other two starts, King pitched a seven-inning shutout and a six innings of two-run ball.
Jake Cronenworth has been more than due lately. He’s batting .229 on the season with a dismal .637 OPS. That said, he plays above-average defense all around the diamond and has been quite the utility player for San Diego. He became so much more than that on Sunday afternoon, putting together his first multihomer game of the season. Cronenworth is currently on a 10-game hitting streak and has batted .464/.516/.786 in his last seven games.
Machado has been DH-ing quite a bit lately. It’s possible that his hand is injured and the Padres are making sure their star third baseman will be ready come playoffs. He’s actively winced multiple times at the plate since seeming to injure it during San Diego’s recent road trip.
With Buehler pitching six pristine innings before collapsing in the seventh, only three relievers needed to be used. Kyle Hart got the final out of the seventh before Bradgley Rodriguez came in. He pitched a scoreless eighth and Mason Miller started warming up with the score at 5-3. That changed quickly when Cronenworth knocked in his second homer of the day, but Miller still came out to finish the game.
With the off day on Monday, the Padres will have their whole ‘pen available for their series opener in L.A. That said, those who will be readily available are Griffin Canning, Kyle Hart, Yuki Matsui, Adrian Morejon, David Morgan, Wandy Peralta and Randy Vásquez. King shouldn’t have too many troubles, but the Friars have options if their ace struggles.
Chad Tracy told us not to look very much into the order of the rotation this week, but it’s hard not to note that Payton Tolle is starting tonight exactly one week before the Wild Card series begins, and Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez are set to go tomorrow and Thursday. That feels like a Game 1, Game 2, and Game 3 setup for New York, but again, we’ll still have to wait a few more days for official word.
Regardless of how the Sox choose to stack the deck, this will be Tolle’s final tune up before the showdown against the Yankees, so how he looks here will be even more important than the result of this game for the Red Sox.
On the contrary, this game means everything to Cleveland. Despite entering the night three games behind the Red Sox, they’re currently leading the AL Central by a game over the Chicago White Sox, and if the season ended today, they’d actually get a bye and wouldn’t even have to play in the Wild Card round.
To help them maintain control of that bye, they have their ace Parker Messick on the mound, who enters the evening with a 2.57 ERA and 186 strike outs on the season.
Switching gears to the Red Sox lineup, the biggest note is that Roman Anthony is again in left field and Jarren Duran starts the night on the bench. This is becoming the theme against left handed starts, which is obviously noteworthy for next week because Carlos Rodon and Max Fried are both left handed.
⚾️ First Pitch: 6:45pm — Fenway Park. Boston, MA
📺 TV: NESN
📻 Radio: WEEI
Join us in the game thread below!
In a surprising move in the last week of the season, the Pirates are cutting ties with one of their mid-season acquisitions.
The Pirates activated reliever Kirby Yates off the 15-day injured list on Tuesday and designated right-hander Camilo Doval for assignment.
Doval was acquired from the New York Yankees two days before the trade deadline. He pitched in some high-leverage situations during his two months in black and gold.
It wasn’t a failure of a tenure, but not a good one either. In 20 games, Doval posted a 3.79 ERA but a 1.74 WHIP over 19 innings of baseball.
He struck out 23, but walked 13 batters and dealt with consistent control issues that plagued him in New York.
Doval has one year of club control remaining, and comes as a slight surprise that the Pirates moved on from him. Pittsburgh traded Double-A catcher/first baseman Omar Alfonzo to the Yankees for Doval, who ranks 28th in New York’s farm system, per MLB Pipeline.
It’s a sign the Pirates were willing to non-tender Doval later in the offseason, but moved past him faster than many expected.
He led the National League in saves (39) with the Giants in 2023, but has never regained the dominant form he found years ago in San Francisco.
The Pirates host the St. Louis Cardinals for the final home series of the year beginning Tuesday at 6:40 p.m.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are starting a three-game set inside PNC Park against the St. Louis Cardinals.
On the mound for the Cardinals is Andre Pallante (12-7, 3.70 ERA), who is coming off one of the worst starts of the season in his last appearance against the San Francisco Giants on September 15. Pallante only went 5 innings, giving up eight hits and six earned runs in a 10-3 defeat at Busch Stadium. The 6 earned runs marked the highest total of Pallante’s season, which has included 27 starts.
This is Pallante’s second appearance against the Pirates this season. He pitched against them on April 29 at PNC Park, going six innings and giving up five hits and one run in a 5-4 victory for the Redbirds.
Jared Jones (4-6, 4.17 ERA) is getting the ball for the Pirates in what could be the final start of the season for him. In Jones’s last start on September 16 against the Milwaukee Brewers, he went five innings, giving up seven hits and three earned runs in a 5-4 loss at PNC Park. However, the loss was credited to Carmen Mlodzinski, who surrendered two runs in the seventh inning.
Location: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA
Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet Pittsburgh
Pitching Matchup: Andre Pallante (12-7, 3.70 ERA) vs. Jared Jones (4-6, 4.17 ERA)
BD community, this is your game thread against the San Francisco Giants. Chime off in the comments section below.
A milestone night for Zack Wheeler as Phillies move to doorstep of postseason originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
A start that couldn’t have begun any better ended in a most frustrating way for Zack Wheeler on Tuesday night.
The veteran right-hander set a club record by opening the game with seven consecutive strikeouts – including the 2,000th of his career — only to walk off the mound a victim of the oldest adage in baseball.
It’s a game of inches.
Ultimately, Wheeler was a happy man. His Phillies rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-4, and lower their magic number for clinching a postseason berth to two.
In what was likely his final start of the regular season, Wheeler struck out 11 batters in 5 2/3 innings but couldn’t hold a 3-0 lead as the Brewers reached him for a single run in the fourth and two in the sixth.
Garrett Mitchell scored the Brewers’ run in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly. He initially reached base on a soft pop up that clanged off back-pedaling third baseman Bryson Stott’s glove and was ruled a hit.
Both of the runs in the sixth came with two outs after catcher J.T. Realmuto narrowly missed gunning down David Hamilton as he reached third base on the front end of a double steal.
After the double steal, William Contreras smacked a soft liner to center field to score two runs and tie the game. Contreras’ hit, on a first-pitch sinker that was in and off the plate, came off the bat at just 83 mph and sailed inches beyond the lunge of shortstop Trea Turner. The next batter, Jake Bauers, stroked an 80-mph ground-ball single just out of Turner’s range, ending Wheeler’s night at 101 pitches.
Wheeler could conceivably start the season finale Sunday against Tampa Bay. But if the Phillies wrap up a postseason berth before then, he would be held out of the start and saved for the postseason opener next Tuesday. If that ends up being the case, Wheeler will finish the regular season with a 3.06 ERA in 27 starts, not bad for a guy who missed the final six weeks of the 2025 season with a blood clot in his right shoulder and surgical procedure to remove a rib.
The Phillies’ bats came alive with three two-out runs in the eighth inning. Bryson Stott broke the tie with a single up the middle and a second run scored on an errant throw. Brandon Marsh then doubled home the third run, capping a three-RBI night. He belted a two-run homer in the second inning. It was his first homer since August 13, a span of 80 at-bats.
Jhoan Duran allowed a run in the ninth before closing it out.
Wheeler’s seven straight strikeouts to open the game broke the team record of six, set by Brandon Duckworth on August 5, 2001 against the Dodgers.
More coming…
Alex Bregman update: Here
Tuesday notes…
Cubs lineup:
Marlins lineup:
This year is a tale of five Shōtas:
First nine starts: 2.32 ERA, 0.902 WHIP, only 5 HR in 54.1 innings
Next seven starts: 7.41 ERA, 1.274 WHIP, 15 (!) HR in 37.2 innings
Next seven starts: 1.77 ERA, 1.180 WHIP, only 5 HR in 40.2 innings
Next four starts: 7.13 ERA, 1.528 WHIP, 8 (!) HR in 17.2 (!) innings
Next three starts: 2.00 ERA, 0.778 WHIP, only 1 HR in 18 innings
Three of those guys are Cy Young candidates. The other two are DFA candidates. Which one will we get tonight?
The good news, perhaps, is that one of the most recent three starts was Sept. 4 against the Marlins in Miami, where he held them to three hits and one run, with no home runs. Just do that again, Shōta.
Janson Junk was Imanaga’s opponent in that Sept. 4 game and he held the Cubs to three hits and one run in five innings. The Cubs won the game off the Marlins bullpen.
Since then Junk has not gone past the third inning in two starts, one vs. the Mets (who scored eight runs off him) and one vs. the Diamondbacks, who he held to just one run. It appears he’s on a pitch limit of about 75 or so, as he hasn’t thrown more than that in about a month. So the patient Cubs should try to wait him out with walks and get him out early.
Here is the weather forecast for the area around Wrigley Field.
Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit the Marlins site Fish On First. If you do go there to interact with Marlins fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.
The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.
You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).
At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.
The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.
You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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Texas Rangers lineup for September 22, 2026 against the New York Mets: starting pitchers are MacKenzie Gore for the Rangers and Sean Manaea for the Mets.
We begin the stretch of the final six games of the season. The games that will determine whether the Rangers win the American League West, or are staying home for the playoffs, or maybe, a sliver of a chance, they are the Wild Card team.
Are you a little nervous? I am.
The lineup:
Langford — LF
Seager — SS
Jung — 3B
Burger — 1B
Nimmo — RF
Duran — CF
Foscue — 2B
Diaz — DH
Jansen — C
7:05 p.m. Central time. Rangers are -127 favorites.