As the playoffs approach, get used to seeing what the Yankees did in Sunday’s 2-0 win: an inning each from Brent Headrick, Paul Blackburn and David Bednar.

Actually, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen that trio plenty already this season, and it’s served the Yankees well.

But the Yankees will also have to decide whether it’s sustainable to keep up this pace, since Headrick has pitched the most games in the majors and entered Sunday ninth in the majors among relievers with 73 ¹/₃ innings pitched.

Blackburn is fifth on the list at 76 ²/₃ innings pitched, and among closers, only Cleveland’s Cade Smith has outpaced Bednar’s 64 ¹/₃ innings following Sunday’s victory.

Prior to the game, Aaron Boone said he’d “prefer a little lighter load along the way” with some of the high-leverage relievers, but he noted over the past few weeks, they’ve looked to reduce their workload in order to provide “a bit of a reset.”

But Boone also said as they continue to chase the Rays in the AL East and look to hold off the Red Sox for the top AL wild-card spot, that they’ve “still got to be disciplined not overusing them, even when it’s the most critical game. They’re all ready to roll. Any time we have a chance to win a game, I’m gonna go to them.”

It worked again Sunday, as the three relievers combined to toss three shutout innings in relief of the brilliant Cam Schlittler.

Blackburn, in his first full season as a reliever, said it’s been an adjustment getting used to the workload of a reliever, but he feels prepared to pitch frequently both down the stretch and into the playoffs.

“Mentally, that’s where we are and what we believe in,’’ he said. “We’ll probably pitch every day in the playoffs. We’re ready for that, and that’s a good thing for us. It’s not gonna surprise us. We know how to go out there with whatever we’ve got that day.”

Headrick, who has emerged as the pen’s top lefty this season, credits the work he did in the offseason, both in getting stronger and refining his secondary off-speed pitches to allow for better outings.

“To be able to contribute all season long is something we’re proud of as a group,’’ Headrick said. “We know all these games are a mini-test for the postseason, but we don’t look ahead to the end of the year. We just want to keep going.”

As pitching coach Matt Blake has noted, the Yankees have emphasized giving pitchers complete days off from throwing in an effort to keep them fresh for when it matters most.

He’s aware the plan might not work and they’ll only know at the end of the year.

But Sunday was another outing in which they got just what they wanted.

Being able to leave Kansas City with a big series win but unfortunately missing out on an opportunity to get the Diamondbacks first sweep since July 10-12 against the Dodgers, the Dbacks came back to Phoenix to start their final homestand of 2026 against another team who is also still in the fight for a chance to play October in the Texas Rangers.

Only 0.5 games back of the Padres with 15 games left to play, the time to start sweeping teams instead of just winning the series is now, as the Snakes have to stop relying on other teams to help them out in the race and start to focus on taking care of their own business when it really matters.

Fixin’ To Score Some Runs

After seeing the offense go through the last week or so with an offense that has been borderline non-existent, Saturdays 9 run outburst was a nice change of pace as the Dbacks would actually come through in clutch situations, going 4 for 6 with runners in scoring position and keeping their foot on the gas pedal and not letting up with just a 4-1 lead after 5 innings. 

Brandon and I discussed that it was indeed nice to see them breakout like this, we also questioned why they still seem to go nearly half of every game with a seemingly lifeless approach at the dish before they do all their scoring in one inning and then disappear from then on. We asked ourselves if this is something that is more so on the players, as they are the ones that have to actually perform when it matters, or if hitting coach Joe Mather and the assistant hitting coaches are the ones to look at for the gameplan they are giving these hitters night in and night out.

What the Heel Do You Mean He Was Safe?

After getting an early 1-0 lead in the second innings thanks to a Tim Tawa triple followed by a Pavin Smith RBI single (He’s still not good, I don’t care if he finally came through this one time with a runner in scoring position) the Dbacks looked to be in the driver seat as Big Game Brandon Pfaadt was cruising through 4 innings, looking like he could go well into the late innings of Saturday night’s ball game. Sadly a big 6 run 5th inning from the Rangers would take that hope and spit on it right in front of us as that was all the Rangers would need to score for the rest of the night to hang onto the win.

The big controversy from this game however came during that 6 run inning, where the Diamondbacks were denied a potential inning ending double play as Corey Seager was called safe at 1st base due to Pfaadt’s foot coming off the bag. Torey Lovullo decided to challenge that call and the replays that were shown to the fans made it appear that Pfaadt’s heel was on the bag, but the replay officials in New York decided there wasn’t sufficient evidence to overrule the original call and Seager remained safe at 1st. That turned what could have been a 2-1 deficit going into the bottom of the 5th into the Rangers rallying with 2 outs and putting up 4 more runs.

Brandon and I were both in agreement that this was indeed a big momentum swing, it wouldn’t have been as big of a deal if the inning ended with a 3-1 Rangers lead or even a 4-1 lead, but with the way the offense has been swinging it as of late it felt like that sucked all the life and momentum out of the offense and they couldn’t seem to recover and make a comeback.

Death By Errors (And Corey Seager)

In need of a big series win in Sunday’s rubber match the Snakes would have their ace of the 2026 season on the bump as they would need AceRod to do his AceRod things but Corey Seager would decide tro turn back the clock to the 2023 Fall Classic and get the Rangers an early 2-0 lead. Rodriguez would bounce back and settle in a bit with a Gabriel Moreno solo shot cutting the Rangers lead in half going into the 5th.

Looking for a big shutdown inning and getting the offense back in the dugout and ready to get to work again, the Diamondbacks defense picked the worst time to commit 2 very costly errors when they can’t afford any kind of sloppiness down the stretch, with Nolan Arenado botching a grounder that he makes probably 99% of the time and Lars Nootbar getting caught in between wanting to layout for a line drive and letting it one hop to him, thus leading to 2 runners coming around to score.

Brandon and I talked about how those 2 big errors that lead to 3 unearned runs on Eduardo’s statline in the 5th ended up being the deciding factor in Sunday’s crushing defeat as the Dbacks would drop this one by just 1 run. Yes it is a shoulda/coulda/woulda situation, but in a must win game like this one those errors are just something that cannot happen if this team wants to actually catch and overtake the Padres for the final wild card spot.

Time To Reel In A Sweep

Dropping this series while the Padres actually took care of their own business and swept the Giants have the Diamondbacks 2.5 games back and going into a 3 game series against the Marlins, who just took 2 of 3 from the Dodgers and who also swept the Snakes in their earlier series in Miami this year. With the Diamondbacks being more than a month removed from their last series sweep, we both agreed that they are due and due in a big way for another sweep. A 2.5 game deficit isn’t that big of a gap to make up but with how the Padres have been playing as of late (winners of 7 straight) it feels like every game going forwards is a must win if the snakes want to have any hopes in making it into the dance in October and a anything less than either a series win or even a sweep of the Marlins could be the final nail in the coffin for the Diamondbacks playoff hopes in 2026.

Before Sunday’s game, Astros manager Joe Espada gave an update on the status of 3B Carlos Correa:

It has not been determined how many games Correa will require on a rehab assignment, although the Sugar Land Space Cowboys season ends September 20. Whether they will require Correa to play the full week for Sugar Land or just have him get his feet wet to get his timing and get him back to the big league roster to help a floundering offense is unknown.

The Astros offense, usually heavily reliant on it’s big 3 of Jeremy Pena, Yordan Alvarez and Isaac Paredes, has been scuffling with Pena mired in a massive slump and Yordan dealing with a power outage. Only Paredes has continued to produce. Getting Correa back and performing would be a big shot in the arm for the offense.

It is also unknown where Correa will play, with a recent report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic indicating the team is considering Correa at 2B, which would move Alvarez to LF and Altuve to DH.

The Colorado Rockies were eliminated from the playoffs a week ago, but there are still plenty of other teams who will be playing. So far, the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers are the only two teams who have officially clinched postseason berths. The White Sox have a half-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians for the AL Central title; the Houston Astros have a 1.5-game lead over the Texas Rangers in the AL West; the Atlanta Braves have a five-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East; and the Los Angeles Dodgers have a 9.5-game lead over the San Diego Padres.

However, the Wild Card games are where things get a little interesting.

In the American League, the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Guardians own the Wild Cards. However, the Toronto Blue Jays are just one game back and the Texas Rangers are 2.5 games back.

In the National League, the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres are currently in. But the Arizona Diamondbacks are just 1.5 games behind the Padres, and the rest of the NL teams are six games back or more.

All that’s to say, which team(s) will you be rooting for in the postseason? Which storylines are you watching for the rest of the season? Who are you rooting for to get the final postseason spots?

Let us know in the comments!

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We need to see Payton Tolle on the Fenway mound this October. We NEED to see it.

Tolle is forging a real connection with the fans the stands at Fenway. It’s not just the hugs. It’s not just the strikeouts. It’s everything. It’s the way he bounces onto the mound to start each inning. It’s primal scream he unleashes after a big strikeout to end a threat. It’s the fact that he’s a man who finds himself exactly where he belongs, every night at 7:10 PM (or in the case of this oddly timed rain delayed game, 4:55 PM).

Tolle threw 9 straight fastballs for strikes to start tonight’s game against the Royals. An immaculate inning. And it looked so easy that a part of me thought he was just going to keep doing it, just keep throwing heater after heater, strike after strike. (Ultimately, he threw a ball on his second pitch of the second, but he still ended up getting the strikeout of Unc King Salvador Perez.)

From there the Royals didn’t even look interested in trying to hit him. They would not remotely threaten until the sixth, when they put the first two men on only for Tolle to strand them both, finishing his outing with an emphatic swinging K of Matthew Lugo.

Tolle’s fellow phenom, Roman Anthony, has had a more difficult time connecting with the crowd. Dogged by injuries and whispers that he’s perhaps too regular of a presence around Seaport on the weekends, Anthony has far more doubters than a player of his prodigious talent should. He needs more nights like tonight, when he effortlessly laced a gamebreaking single to the opposite field in the seventh.

The Red Sox quietly needed this win, I think. It’s been a sleepy week of baseball around these parts. And with an off-day tomorrow and then a tough final road trip of the season looming, it was important for the Sox to leave Fenway on a high note. Tolle and Anthony — who may be the two most important figures connected with the Sox over the next decade — delivered.

Three Studs

Payton Tolle: All I wanted was for him to escape this game without spraining an ankle trying to field a bunt on wet grass. He delivered far more than that, striking out 7 over 6 and letting the Royals know they had no shot right form the first pitch.

Caleb Durbin: For a while it looked like Durbin’s second inning homer just barely over the monster might be the only run of the game. As it was, though, he would subsequently score the go-ahead run on Roman’s seventh inning knock.

Willson Contreras: Two hits and three times on base is certainly not a bad way to return to the lineup.

Two Duds

Erik Miller: Yikes. He came on for Tolle to start the 7th and just absolutely could not throw a strike, showing terrible control for his first time with the Sox. Unfortunately, this is who has been for most of his career, and we’re going to have to hope this is just a momentary return to old (bad) form.

Aroldis Chapman: This is a harsh dudship. Chapman struck out the side in the 9th and got the save. But, like Miller before him, he also struggled with his control, walking 2 and needing 25 pitches to get through the inning. He’s an old dude who has gone through extended rough patches vis a vis his control before; this is something to keep an eye on.

Play of the Game

I guess it’s not actually one play, but, come on, it’s the entire first inning.

Christian Scott’s best start in six weeks was one of his strongest this season, but it wasn’t enough to get the Mets a Subway Series win.

Two pitches derailed the right-hander Sunday: A splitter that Ben Rice hit into the right field seats leading off the game for the Yankees and the four-seamer Austin Wells crushed for a homer in the third. Those blasts accounted for two of the three hits and the only runs against Scott in the 2-0 loss at Yankee Stadium.

Scott’s start was only the second best in this series rubber game; Cam Schlittler allowed one hit over six shutout innings with eight strikeouts. Scott went six innings and struck out seven.

Scott’s takeaway from his solid performance on such a big stage?

“That I can compete anywhere against anybody,” Scott said. “Cam threw a great game today. When you give up solo home runs and he gives up no runs through six, it’s tough to beat him. But I feel that I can go out and compete against anybody and put my stuff against anybody’s.”

In the larger picture, the Mets received quality starts on consecutive days from two of the young building blocks in their rotation. A day earlier, rookie Zac Thornton allowed two earned runs over seven innings in the Mets’ lone victory in the series.

“It’s good to see them do it here,” interim manager Andy Green said. “I don’t think there is a one of us that knows those two guys that would have doubted they would do it here. Pitchers have bad games. But this park was not going to rattle either of those guys. I don’t see playoff atmospheres rattling those guys. I don’t see anything really getting in their way from being what they can be.”

Scott’s start was his 31st straight in which he allowed four earned runs or fewer, extending his franchise record for a pitcher beginning his major league career. He’s pitched to a 3.76 ERA in 22 starts this season.

“I’m grateful to be here,” said Scott, who missed last season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. “But at the same time, I feel I can help this team win a lot of games.”

Scott said he’s most pleased that he’s transitioned from thrower to pitcher.

“I feel I have been able to locate my off-speed pitches a lot,” Scott said. “I have the cutter, and I am able to throw the changeup more, just rounding out my repertoire and the weapons that I have, but overall I just feel like I have been attacking the strike zone a little bit better than earlier in the year. Just keep that pace up and take it into next year.”