Category: Sports News

The last two weeks I have been writing in the hopes that the Cardinals make me look bad and go on a red hot streak, suddenly putting themselves in the middle of the wild card chase… but they keep sort of treading water, magnetically attracted to .500 baseball. They cannot sink, but they can only float around the surface. It is perhaps the ceiling of this team, or close to it. Save us, lifeboat! I’m sure things could have gone a little better, but events ended up more promising than expected.

What happened to the Cardinals hot start? I think it relates a lot to the outfield.

Going into May, the Cardinals were 18-13! Jordan Walker was at 148 wRC+. It was a crazy time to be alive. Crazy good! Walker’s May ended up maintaining his line at 150 wRC+. He was carrying the offense to some extent. When you have a hitter like that, it can be more difficult to lose. Eventually, the first major injury of the season happened. But it was not to Jordan Walker.

May 22nd, 2026

Nathan Church left the team injured with a left shoulder strain that tore down our two center fielder run prevent outfield that would mostly make up for Walker’s defense in right field. Nathan Church would not return until June 9th! In my opinion, this was the best outfield setup we could muster this year, because if you hit it to the center or left side of the outfield, you probably ended up in someone’s glove instead of on base. (Of course, Baez and Church should be better, but I don’t know that it is just yet). So, I see this as a major turning point of the season.

We would eventually lose a lot more run prevention in center field, though…

June 8th, 2026

Victor Scott II was demoted due to the return of Lars Nootbaar on June 5th, and because Nathan Church was activated from the Injured List the next day. That’s too many outfielders with your bench full of utility players.

Victor Scott’s demotion was far from surprising, because he was batting at .534 OPS. That’s really, really bad. However, I do believe that our pitching staff from top to bottom, relied on Victor Scott II’s defense. Perhaps especially the bullpen. I know his defensive metrics weren’t quite as flashy this year, but he still mattered a lot as far as run suppression, numbers be damned.

Lars Nootbaar ended up playing 48 games for the Cardinals in 2026, batting at a .687 OPS clip. Nootbaar isn’t as bad in the outfield this year, but his defense is still lackluster. His defense, combined with Church’s less valuable than Scott’s center field defense, wasn’t the answer, because neither were hitting that well. I can see where you might disagree with this narrative, but hear me out…

The Cardinals were 28-21 when Nathan Church went down injured, leaving Victor Scott II with left fielders like Torres, Fermin, Saggese. Not as bad of fielders as Nootbaar, potentially, but not the best options. When Nootbaar was promoted and Scott sent down to AAA, the Cardinals were 35-28. It felt like the team could build upon some success at this point, with the familiar Nootbaar’s return, but the Cardinals have floundered ever since. The production out of center and left field has been a sticking point for the team this season.

And the outfield in general has been centered around Jordan Walker’s hitting, in effect. His defense has been passable, but still a liability despite the amazing throwing arm. The Cardinals would go 9-10 for the rest of June, with Scott’s exit and Nootbaar’s return.

July of 2026, a Helluva (not good) Month

During the month of July, the Cardinals went 10-18 and played 28 games within a possible 27 days, since only 27 days of July were available for regular season baseball. The mighty All-Star Break forced a 4 game detour for the team, while the schedule expected of them a game every damn day, plus one double header. With the summer ramping up, the Cardinals played a ton of baseball, got a long break, then played a ton more baseball. The JJ Wetherholt extension and multiple Cardinal All Star appearances, coupled with Jordan Walker’s Home Run Derby championship, all proved to be distractions rather than the big-time happy moments that they were. Or, the team simply ran out of gas despite the exhibition break. It was not a good month for the win-loss columns.

You might think Jordan Walker’s offense fell off that horrible month, but his floor was in June where he was just a league average hitter. Walker’s July wasn’t scorching hot, but it was well above average. During August, Jordan went on a tear again, this time more of a pure hitter than a power hitter: 136 wRC+. Unfortunately in September, he seems to be hitting the ball more into the ground again and chasing after breaking pitches outside the zone. He’s back to league average so far in September. He will need to turn that around to not leave us remembering a slumping Walker as a recency bias. I think he might put something together down the stretch.

Whatever ruined the hot start for the Cardinals, it was probably bound to happen. No team ever has a perfect, storybook season. Many good teams battle injuries, and who knows what else behind the scenes. Unpredictability reigns supreme. But at least the Cardinals outdid the worst expectations.

What do you think, did losing the double center fielder tandem in LF/CF Church and Scott, create a ripple that could not be righted? Does our pitching staff need rather staunch defense in left and center, with Walker in right and with our particular blend of pitchers? I think it really does. But I’ll never know. I think it needs Winn and Wetherholt in the middle infield even more, but when you add another two elite defenders in the outfield, that really helps. Of course, avoiding injuries always helps too, but it wasn’t until more recently that a wave of injuries happened. It’s just funny that one injury to a young player appeared to create a ripple effect down the timeline of the season. Or are we just following Jordan Walker’s lead on offense?

More On 1996 Music

I’m not a moron! I’m just providing you more on a year of music that I wrote about already last week. All the time I could muster was towards my absolute favorite A+ albums of 1996, including albums by bands The Swirlies, Meat Beat Manifesto, Ministry, Squarepusher, Unwound, and Dr Octagon. All total classics to me.

This week I am going more into my research into 1996, showcasing some albums that I wasn’t expecting to put on the list, plus some classics from my 90s collection that have been with me a while (but were not in my top 6). And of course, my Heavy Metal list for 1996 will have to be postponed! Running out of fumes at the finish line again.

• Polvo – ‘Exploded Drawing’ absolutely epic sounding double album, and one of my favorite album covers. Polvo continue their crusade of melding alternative tunings with math rock and indie on the weird side of things. The magic within the two guitarists creates this weird, mystical sound that is again, not easy to describe… might I recommend the songs “Bridesmaid Blues”, “Snowstorm In Iowa”, and “The Purple Bear”? Can I get a “Taste of Your Mind” hear?
• Bowery Electric – ‘Beat’ if you lived through the 90s, checking out new music all the time, you know the terms shoegaze and triphop. They were two of the primary new genres of the 90s. There were other new genres too, because the 1990s were about innovations if nothing else… but Bowery Electric walked the line between those two super hip music genres. This may be their most minimalist album, but don’t let that turn you off, it’s really quite good ear candy.
• Failure – ‘Fantastic Planet’ Failure’s magnum opus according to the critics, this is where the band starts to command their own production and become next level on that front. I consider the album prior to be just as good, but Fantastic Planet was the album that really put Failure on the map. And they continue to release music today. Great freakin’ alt rock band, not easy to describe their sound as it straddles several genres.
• Rage Against The Machine – ‘Evil Empire’ this album was out for my community college years and it was a good party soundtrack for the times. My friends and I used to call it Rage’s “black sabbath” album. It really rocks, and stands out just as much as their debut. They would never quite match the ferocity of their first two again, but what a high it was. I don’t really agree with much of the internet thinking of them as a bit of a joke, they really meant what they were writing about in the 90’s. And it freakin rocked!
• Stereolab – ‘Emperor Tomato Ketchup’ this was the album that made me a fan of the ‘Lab. I don’t know if anyone calls them that, but I do it affectionately. I love this band! French and fantasticly fun. Some were calling them electronic music around this time, because it was getting popular, but they’re so much more.
• DJ Krush and Toshinori Kondo – ‘Ki Oku’ triphop DJ beats mixed with trumpeter extraordinaire Toshinori Kondo = a winning combination and an all-time downtempo classic listening experience. Sit down, chill the eff out, and hit play for a while.
• Drunken Fish Records Space Rock Comp – ‘Harmony of the Spheres’ stumbled upon this and I love it! The first 3 bands on it, Bardo Pond, Flying Saucer Attack, and Jessamine, are all top notch. Psychedelic rock in the 90s got to be pretty underground outside of the big names, so it’s nice to hear some of this movement.
• TOOL – ‘Aenima’ there was a time where I would have said this was my favorite album of 1996! I still love it as Tool’s best album. And I think the best songs on it are the sleeper cuts like H. and Jimmy. Perhaps even better than the music: the liner notes introduced me to Bill Hicks, Timothy Leary, and Aleister Crowley. And they did always have cool stop motion videos as a big part of the appeal.
• Ween – ‘12 Golden Country Greats’ I bet you thought I wouldn’t put any country music on the list! Here Ween take a sidestep and make a really well-done classic country album with a humorous bent. You’ll either love it or hate it! I find it entertaining and another dimension to a many-headed band.
• Orbital – ‘Insides’ this is one of those electronic music albums that was actually well ahead of its time, but is finally starting to sound a bit dated. Still, it’s worth a listen as a peak into what was very high tech at the time and full of innovative, fun sounds. I must admit I do not listen to Orbital much anymore, but they were a huge influence on me musically, at the time.
• Lycia – ‘Cold’ a goth album for the winter, gotta have that. And it’s a new find! exciting. If you like your music dark, forboding, but eerily beautiful and full of chorused out guitars, this is for you.
• Juggaknots – ‘Clear Blue Skies’ outside of Dr Octagon and DJ Krush, this is my favorite hiphop album of 1996, and a really good find! I know what I like…
• De La Soul – ‘Stakes Is High’ and my other favorite hiphop album of 1996 goes to De La Soul. Somehow I had never heard of this album before, but it’s really good!
• Fiona Apple – ‘Tidal’ is it possible an entire streaming service is named after this album? I kid! But I like Fiona Apple too much to leave Tidal off the list. You probably know this alternative rock classic with nods towards triphop, singer songwriter, pop, jazz and other genres. That voice!

Oh look! I actually had time to put all this into a playlist *including last week’s top 6! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZiGGAEhEUeQ&si=XuBBdaZtTq-GXltW

I have to punt 1996 heavy metal to next week since I value sleep even more than ever. The Cardinals play at 2:45 PM CST in San Francisco today. You can watch on Cardinals.TV. Thursday is an off day, and then the Cardinals throw some Cardinals related festivities this weekend while hosting the first place White Sox (who are 6 games over .500). According to Fangraphs, our fate is all but sealed. There is only a .2% chance of a wild card at this point.

Thinking back about that moment in time, Todd Zeile doesn't talk about the at-bats, the Mike Piazza home run or even the nervousness from that Sept. 21, 2001 game. The first Major League Baseball contest played in New York City after the Sept. 11 terror attacks has been boiled down to those video clips over the years.

But, Zeile, who started at first base that night for the New York Mets, remembers the hugs.

The Mets' first game back at Shea after the attacks was a huge moment for a city that had not had any normalcy in the 10 days since two airliners hit the World Trade Center and sent them crumbling to the ground. Piazza's home run that gave the Mets a 3-2 win that night became the signature image for the nation and history, but for the players on the field it was the emotions.

For Zeile, it was an impromptu moment long before then. Nobody planned it, but after the moment of silence and the national anthem, the players all walked to the middle of the field. The Braves and Mets players met and hugged before the game began.

"It was completely improved, organic hugs in the middle of the field, with guys that were our arch nemesis. It became less about the competition of that game and more about sportsmanship and camaraderie of guys from all over seeing the same thing. The beauty of the moment," Zeile said.

That moment, or really the emotions of all the moments, days, weeks, months and even years after the shock of the attacks is what has Zeile looking back now 25 years later as an executive producer on MLB Network's "When America Took the Field," debuting Thursday, Sept. 10 at 10 p.m. ET.

Zeile took about a decade off after retiring in 2004 to build his production company. He spent two seasons as co-executive producer on FX's "Anger Management" with Charlie Sheen. He got back into baseball as a guest analyst for SNY's Mets coverage.

Now was the time for him to combine both his baseball and film experience to make sure those moments are preserved as well as the Piazza home run and George W. Bush first pitch at the 2001 World Series.

"This, not just the documentary, just us being alive and going through this period, is the closest thing to the history being made in real time," he said. "people are going to read about it and know about it, and I am like 'Oh yeah, I was there for that. I saw that. I felt that.'"

That's why every anniversary he and his Mets teammates, who were at Ground Zero and New York City firehouses in the days after, keep telling their stories. So people don't forget.

Zeile wants to make sure his children and the next generations learn about what happened in the aftermath and the small part baseball played in the recovery.

That brought him back to New York, so he returned to the firehouses he visited in the aftermath of the attacks. He met the young firefighters who were the kids of the firefighters who were at Ground Zero. He saw their pride of carrying on that tradition and keeping the memories alive. That sparked his motivation about getting this on film while those who lived through it are still here to tell the stories for these kids.

Andrew Brenner directed the documentary and he had to figure out how to tell the story of one of the most infamous events in recent history with a fresh lens.

What Zeile and Brennen wanted from the film wasn't another retelling of the 10 days everybody knows about: Shea Stadium as a staging area for rescue workers and the Piazza home run. The pieces he was interested in were the ones that "had been at least lost or never told."

He wanted to make sure the story was about the months and years after, the "continued involvement and the continued passion that baseball as a whole has had for the (9/11) community." That's the community he lived through it with in 2001 and the families that are still connected to it now. That thread is what made the collaboration with MLB feel so different to him.

Zeile admits he was not sure baseball should have been played so soon after the attacks. Nobody was. What changed his mind is the trip the players took to Ground Zero.

"I recognized that the fire department and police department needed a little bit of a break from what they were doing, and baseball gave them that reprieve," he said. "It gave up more confidence to not feel like we were intruding or doing something that could be deemed inappropriate."

And after, as the Mets hit the road, something unusual happened.

"There certainly was a sense of pride, because we were representing New York and wherever we went guys (from other teams) would ask us 'What's it like there?' Or say 'I like that you are wearing the (NYPD and FDNY) hats' or 'How's the city?'" Zeile said. "It gave us an identity that was a little bit different, maybe a responsibility, in our interactions with other teams."

Those moments and the community that came out of the tragedy is what Zeile hopes people remember from this film.

They found three families with connections to baseball that were affected by the tragedy, they told the story of Joe Maddon, who was on the West Coast, but who lost a dear friend on one of the planes, and they found the story of the Secret Service agent who dressed up as an umpire and went on the field for George W. Bush's emotional first pitch of Game 3 of the 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium.

Brenner, who was 22 and in Hoboken on that day, remembers driving out of town and listening to the news on the radio. He said that he and Zeile used those memories and emotions, but also wanted to zoom out from just those moments in New York that have been so well documented.

One moment from making the film that has stayed with Brennen more than any other was of a boy who was nine at the time of the attacks. He is one of the families woven through the documentary and he told the film crew that he can no longer separate what he actually remembers about that day from what he's simply been told happened.

"When he said that, it really struck me that putting together a film like this gives people like that a chance to learn," Brennen said. "It's so personal, so raw, they share these gut-wrenching emotions with us. But at certain times, they don't really know exactly what happened.

"It's a great way for people to learn some new stories and never forget."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The hugs at Shea Stadium that still define former Met’s post-9/11 memories

Toledo Mud Hens at Iowa Cubs (cancelled)

They were rained out in Iowa on Tuesday, postponing the long-awaited Tigers debut of River Ryan. The game doesn’t matter in the International League standings, and won’t be made up, so we should see Ryan start Wednesday’s game at 1:10 p.m. ET.

Erie SeaWolves 6, Reading Fightin Phils 1 (box)

With a postseason spot secured already, this series doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it’s one last road trip to help prepare for the Eastern League postseason. They won the League title in 2023 and 2024 under Gabe Alvarez, before getting bounced in the postseason under Andrew Graham last year. Now Tony Cappuccilli will take his turn. There were no signs of Ben Jacobs or Bryce Rainer joining the roster. They did get Chris Meyers and Luke Taggart added to the roster from Toledo to pitch in.

Max Alba got the start, and he managed to pitch to contact for five innings of one-run ball.

Meyers drew a leadoff walk in the top of the third. Luke Shliger stayed red hot with a two-run shot to right field. The left-handed hitting catcher has been on fire since getting promoted to Erie, and now has four homers in 15 games with the SeaWolves with pretty decent strikeout to walk numbers to boot. He was released by the Giants back in July and looks like a quality pickup for the Tigers though he’ll turn 25 this month. Shliger is decidedly on the small side for a catcher at 5’7” but he looks reasonably good behind the plate, and the Tigers are good at coaching catcher defense. Of course, that’s one of the few things the Giants do well too.

Seth Stephenson followed Shliger with a single, and after Peyton Graham took a called strike three, Woody Hadeen singled Stephenson to third and then stole second. Zyhir Hope did the job, lifting a sac fly to score Stephenson, and Thayron Liranzo singled in Hadeen, though the catcher was cut down trying to take second on the play.

Alba allowed his run on a solo shot in the bottom of the third, and so it was 4-1 at that point. Meyers came through with a solo shot in the top of the fourth to make it 5-1.

Zyhir Hope drilled a triple off the top of the wall in the fifth but was stranded.

Tanner Kohlhepp handled the sixth, and Shliger came back for more, leading off the seventh with a solo shot to left field for a 6-1 lead.

Kohlhepp was strong through the seventh as well, and Taggart handled the eighth and ninth without much trouble to wrap this one up.

Shliger: 3-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 HR

Stephenson: 2-4, R, SB, 2 K

Hadeen: 1-3, R, BB, K, SB

Hope: 1-2, RBI, 3B, K

Alba: 5.0 IP, ER, 3 H, BB, 2 K

Coming Up Next: It’s a 6:45 p.m. ET start in Reading on Wednesday.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Pirates fans and fans across the country.

This week’s question asked you about Pittsburgh Pirates manager Don Kelly. All that we know about Kelly’s deal was that he was extended. The Pirates did not release for how long. If they want out, there’s a real chance he has no guaranteed money left on his deal.

So while the Pirates have been better of late, and at 72-73, are fast approaching the Mendoza Line again, but I think we all wanted and hoped and expected playoffs this season, and the Bucs need a miracle for that.

The question is, do you expect Don Kelly back next season or are the Pirates moving on?

Cast your vote, tell us in the comments, and we’ll be back soon with the results!

MLB.com | Max Ralph: One of the joys of this season has been getting more access to Joey Votto’s analysis as one of the savvier players in recent MLB history. I’d encourage you to look up some of his other breakdowns of players today, but we’re going to focus on his thoughts on the newly-returned Aaron Judge. Votto raves about Judge being the greatest hitter of all time (his 176 career wRC+ IS third best in the game’s history), in particular because of his ability to still find pull-side power in a Stadium built more for lefties.

CBS Sports | Roto Staff: Jazz Chisholm Jr. had to leave late in Tuesday’s win over the Rockies, after seeming to overextend something in his hand on a stolen base attempt in the ninth inning. Jazz tried to play through it in the bottom half but was eventually yanked. If it’s a burgeoning thumb problem, expect at least a day off for the second baseman on Wednesday.

Baseball Prospectus | Daniel R. Epstein ($): Once again, the Yankees have made one of the sport’s best bullpens seemingly out of wholecloth. David Bednar was always the big name in the ninth inning, but the other higher-leverage arms, like Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick, were certainly not top of our minds at the beginning of the season, nor where they considered much by PECOTA, the proprietary projection systems BP uses that the Yankees have a habit of outpacing.

ESPN | Jeff Passan: Baseball’s in a bad place, where overblown player salaries have teams struggling to make money and proving the need for a salary cap. Of course baseball’s also in a great place where two new owners can make up brand new teams and make a bunch of money!

Kidding aside, Passan walks us through six possible expansion franchises, including trendy spots like Nashville and returning a team to Montreal. The big viable city, in Jeff’s eyes? Salt Lake City, Utah.

Lazaro Montes hit the longest home run ever recorded at T-Mobile Park, and the Mariners continued to pitch like the worst staff in the majors.

The Mariners took their latest bludgeoning on Tuesday with a 10-5 loss to the Rangers. Bryce Miller got the start and was bad and brief, and the bullpen folded behind him. The Mariners are last in the majors by just about every pitching category since the All-Star break, and there’s no sign it will let up any time soon.

The bad pitching made Tuesday’s game long, boring, miserable, and predictable, except for one play:

Lazaro Montes got a middle-middle fastball from Cal Quantrill in the fourth inning and hit it a very long way. It was the longest home run hit at T-Mobile Park in the Statcast Era. I can tell you the metrics — 116.1 mph, 24 degrees, 474 feet — but you really have to witness it yourself.

I’ve never seen a batter hit one on the concourse in center field. Most of the very impressive homers that get hit in Seattle are going to the Hit-It-Here Cafe, or the bleachers in left. The homers that land in the space between left-center and right-center tend to have impressive metrics, but rarely have the same visual effect, since most batters are physically limited to the first few rows.

That’s what I thought would be the case when Montes flipped his bat and implied a homer. I’m aware of his infinite power, and I didn’t doubt it would impress. But when the camera turned to center and started to zoom, I thought “wow, this might get halfway up,” which alone would have deserved a good amount of space in this recap. Instead, it just kept going and going and going, so far up into the stands that I couldn’t tell where it landed on the first few replays. When I eventually realized what he’d done, I just… I don’t know — I really don’t know what I’ve witnessed.

The only thing that comes to mind is this Carlos Peguero homer from 2013, which might have gone further, but landed somewhere out of frame limiting the effect.

Montes’ blast was most of the Mariners offense on Tuesday. They scratched across nine hits and a walk, and picked up a couple more runs in garbage time. But five runs just isn’t enough when the pitching staff gives up 10.

Miller made his second start after being moved to the bullpen in late August. He never actually got an appearance as a reliever because Emerson Hancock landed on the injured list shortly after the decision, allowing Miller to slot back into the rotation. In his first start last week, Miller was pulled in the middle of the fifth inning after just 63 pitches, implying the org still sees him in something of a hybrid role going forward.

It’s hard to say what the plan was meant to be on Tuesday. Miller threw 84 pitches — close to a starter’s workload — but only made it through 3 2/3 innings before getting the hook. Whether this was a true start or a cold open or some pork-themed invention, Miller didn’t execute. He picked up six strikeouts and 10 whiffs, but gave up three walks and four hits, and often seemed to spin his wheels, unable to put batters away with any sort of efficiency. He eventually handed the ball to the bullpen with the bases loaded in the middle of the fourth inning.

“It’s frustrating,” Miller said after the game. “Too many long at-bats. It felt like everything was five to nine pitches… Overall, I gotta do a better job with having quicker innings, quicker at-bats, and not having to burn the bullpen.”

Any hope for Miller in this one died pretty quickly. In the first inning, he threw a first-pitch, middle-middle fastball to Corey Seager, who mashed it 418 feet to right. (This felt like a very long home run at the time).

Miller entered the fourth down just 2-0, but was already at 63 pitches. After loading the bases with two singles and a walk, Dan Wilson went to José Ferrer to try to escape the inning. Ferrer gave up a hard grounder that went right through Cole Young at second base to make it 4-0.

That kind of felt like the game. Sure, Montes’ homer brought the Mariners back within one in the bottom of the frame. But they still had five innings left to cover with a bad and overworked bullpen. I feel like I’ve written some version of this in every recap I’ve done the last few months. This was the dynamic that led to 22-0 and 19-2 losses in Miller starts last month, for instance. Had the Mariners not had an off day Monday, that might have been the case again. Instead, the bullpen was rested and everyone was available for a normal-bad pitching performance. Eduard Bazardo got shelled in the fifth, giving up five runs on a pair of homers. Cooper Criswell gave up another run in the seventh. Carlos Vargas, Mickael Rucker, and Hoby Milner each managed clean innings.

The Mariners needed seven pitchers to throw 193 pitches to scratch and claw and fight their way to only allow 10 runs in this one. Kade Anderson gets the ball tomorrow, and since he’s also on a fairly strict pitch count, this could be the start of another very long week.

The cliché is to compare Major League Baseball’s regular season to a marathon.

On Tuesday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts used the mile as his analogy instead.

“The third leg is the hardest leg,” Roberts explained, drawing a comparison to the four laps run in mile-long 1600-meter races. “I think it’s just kind of like that.”

Indeed, the Dodgers came flying out of the gates at the start of this year, reaching Independence Day with five more wins than any other team in the majors.

But then, in a repeat of last season, came an early second-half slide, with the club going 23-26 over its subsequent 49 games.

The third lap was taking its toll –– especially for an aging roster coming off back-to-back World Series marches.

“You can layer in the fact that we’ve had a lot of seasons together, and played a lot of baseball,” Roberts said.

“They call them the dog days for a reason,” newly acquired pitcher Tarik Skubal added.

This week, however, has brought another familiar turn in the Dodgers’ pursuit of a third-straight title.

Also like last season, they have begun a return to form just as October has appeared on the horizon, matching a season-long win streak on Tuesday by collecting their sixth victory in a row with a 3-2 defeat of the Cincinnati Reds.

“You get that second wind in September,” Roberts said.

“Everyone’s kind of turning up the intensity a little bit,” Skubal echoed.

It was at almost this exact point last season when the Dodgers made a similar shift following a late-summer slump. On Sept. 6, they were walked off for a second-straight night by the Baltimore Orioles. They were in a dogfight in the NL West after a 22-32 slump.

From there, though, they closed the regular season on a 15-5 tear, locked up the NL West crown in the final week of the regular season, and proceeded to win nine of their first 10 playoff games en route to a second-consecutive title.

This year, the turnaround has begun a few days earlier. And this time, another strong finish should put the club in an even better playoff spot.

With Tuesday’s win, the Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the NL West is already down to seven. More importantly, they are now 2 ½ games up on the Atlanta Braves for the National League’s No. 2 playoff seed –– which would not only come with a bye, but perhaps put the Dodgers on the easier side of the NL postseason bracket (as things stand, the No. 2 seed is likely to face either the Braves, Dbacks or Padres in the Division Series, while the currently top-seeded Brewers would likely be in line for a more daunting matchup with either the Phillies and Cubs).

“We realized [the magic number] was 7 because they put it on the scoreboard,” Teoscar Hernández joked afterward. “But we’re not thinking about October right now. We’re thinking about just playing the game, win games and just be ready for it.”

Just as important as playoff positioning, after all, is the way the team has been playing to right the ship this week.

It starts, fittingly, with starting pitching, where the Dodgers on Tuesday watched Skubal deliver his most efficient outing with the team.

For his first since arriving in Los Angeles, and his second time all season, the two-time Cy Young Award winner worked into the eighth inning in a 94-pitch effort, allowing just two runs (both on a monstrous 444-foot Elly De La Cruz homer in the third) over 7 ⅓ frames to lower his ERA in seven Dodgers starts to 2.93.

The lineup, meanwhile, has made such production on the mound count –– thanks to renewed production at the plate from several important veteran bats.

Will Smith opened the scoring on Tuesday with his first home run since coming off the injured list. Then Hernández continued his blistering return to form with three hits and a walk, including a triple that nearly went for an inside-the-park home run (he was thrown out at home on a whopping 105 mph relay throw by De La Cruz at shortstop) and a tie-breaking RBI single in the fifth. He is now 16-for-32 over his last nine games.

“This just changes the dynamic of our lineup,” Roberts said of Hernández. “Especially when there’s still some guys that aren’t swinging the bat well.”

That includes Shohei Ohtani, was back out of the lineup on Tuesday while being load-managed.

And yet, the Dodgers didn’t break their stride, or lose any momentum in a stretch run that has seen them steadily gain steam.

“The fourth leg is the easiest,” Roberts said, referring back to his mile metaphor, “because you see the finish line.”

Three of the Mets’ new prospects were in the middle of things for their respective clubs again on Tuesday night. 

Both Billy Amick and Emilien Pitre enjoyed strong showings for Syracuse. 

Amick was on-base two times facing his old teammates with the St. Paul Saints, leading off the second with a single, then crushing a solo shot to deep left-center in the top of the fourth. 

The slugger was retired each of his next two times up, but is now up to 36 homers total on the minor league season, six of which have come up at the Triple-A level. 

Pitre enjoyed a strong night, reached three times of his own. 

He drove in the opening run of the game with a single in the first, drove in another in the third, then drew an eight-pitch walk with nobody out in the fifth. 

The 23-year-old seems to be finding his groove following his promotion to Syracuse, now hitting .283 with a .367 OBP and .782 OPS through 15 games at the new level. 

Meanwhile down in Double-A, Jefferson Rojas had a rare quiet night at the plate, but he was able to reach another milestone for the season. 

With his stolen base in the bottom of the fifth, Rojas officially joined the 20-20-20 club. 

While he hasn’t been showcasing his speed too much since joining Binghamton, the 21-year-old is now up to 20 stolen bases, 24 homers, and 25 doubles on the Double-A season.

Rojas has a few more days to add to those numbers, as the Rumble Ponies wrap up their season this weekend.