We have a three game series with the Orioles, at Rogers Centre, starting tonight.

The Orioles are two games behind us, and three games out of the last wild card spot.

They have had a rough time of it lately. They are 2-7 in their last nine games. I hope that continues.

They are a good offensive team, 5th in the AL in runs per game, at 4.50 (Jays are second from the bottom at 4.01).

They are 11th in runs allowed per game at 4.68 (Jays are 6th at 4.27).

The scheduled starters are:

• Tonight: Chris Bassitt (6-5, 4.96) vs. Max Scherzer (2-7, 6.03). Does kind of make you wonder about how the standings would be if we had re-signed Bassitt instead of Scherzer.
• Tomorrow: Kyle Bradish (7-13, 3.91) vs. TBD.
• Sunday: Trevor Rogers (10-9, 4.15) vs. TBD (who seems to get overused).

The team has to decide if they want Dylan Cease to have an extra day of rest this time through the rotation. Odd are they will announce who is starting the second and third game as soon as I publish.

The Orioles offense is centered around:

• Pete Alonso: Hitting .268/.363/.498 with 34 home runs, 97 RBI, 74 walks and 4.0 bWAR.

Other ‘top WAR’ players:

• Gunnar Henderson: .219/.303/.395 with 22 home runs, and leads the league with 647 PA and a 2.4 bWAR.
• Colton Cowser: .213/.306/.364 with 13 home runs, and a 2.0 bWAR.

They seem to be using a ‘bullpen by committee’, with no reliever in double figured in saves:

• Andrew Kittredge: 3.83 ERA, 9 saves, 5 blown saves. Batters are hitting .282/.320/.431 against him.
• Rico Garcia: 3.03, 7 saves, 6 blown, 18 holds. Batters are hitting .180/.254/.338 against him.
• Anthony Nunez: 4.02, 3 saves, 7 holds. Batters hitting .208/.305/.340.
• Grant Wolfram: Lefty.4.86, 1 save, 12 holds. Lefties hit .281/.354/.382 against him.
• Yennier Cano: 3.20, 3 saves, 13 holds. Batters hit .221/.278/.291.

We still don’t have to run the table. Taking two of three would be good. We play them again in our second last series of the season. Hopefully, those games will still mean something to us by then (or maybe we’ll have wrapped up the Wild Card spot) (let me dream please).

I’m going to be missing for most of today. Taking our middle boy (and my name sake) out for a birthday supper. And I have to make dessert. He asked for a dessert I used to make when he lived here. It is nice to know he has fond memories of something I did for him. So, unless there is major news, there likely won’t be much posted today (other than the GameThread).

In 1903, the American League launched a New York franchise to compete with the senior circuit’s Giants. They set up shop in Washington Heights at one of Manhattan’s highest points, taking the apropos name of Highlanders. Despite their status as an expansion team, they got off to a strong start, posting winning campaigns in each of their first two seasons. Before their third, they added a pitcher who’d had intermittent success in independent ball but carried with him some question marks. He’d end up spending four years in New York’s rotation at a critical period in their development.

William Johnston Hogg
Born: September 11, 1881 (Port Huron, MI)
Died: December 8, 1909 (New Orleans, LA)
Yankees Tenure: 1905-08 (as New York Highlanders)

Bill Hogg spend his life in a state of perpetual motion. Born in Missouri, his father was a railroad agent who followed the lines out West, ending up in Pueblo, Colorado by the time Hogg was 10. Young Bill played baseball on the sandlots of Pueblo, showing enough with his right arm to earn a spot on the local Class B pro club at 18. He quickly established a reputation as an uneven talent, showcasing superlative speed and movement on his pitches but struggling with control.

Hogg joined up with the Seattle Clamdiggers of the Class B Pacific Northwest League in 1902, where he began experiencing the injuries that would dog him throughout his career. After pitching through a sore arm, he eventually broke it. It was a turning point for the young hurler. “Ever since my arm was broken I have caught particular Cain when I exercise my whip strenuously,” he’d say years later. “After I take a full turn in the box I can’t sleep for a couple of nights…there’s no relief.”

Nonetheless, he returned in ‘03, pitching well enough to draw the attention of the Portland Browns of the Class-A Pacific Coast League. He made the jump after a row with Seattle manager Dan Dugdale reportedly led to fisticuffs, ending his run with the team. But his time in Portland would end nearly as soon as it began. After a “drunken quarrel on the streets of Portland,” the club suspended Hogg. He spent the year bouncing between three different teams but won 33 games, earning a spring training invite in 1905 from the fledgling Highlanders.

Hogg earned a spot on the team, making his MLB debut on April 25 against the Senators. “He was cool, had lots of speed, good control of his side arm delivery, and whisked the ball over the edges of the plate,” read an encouraging report from The Washington Post. He ended up cracking the rotation as the season went on, a berth he’d hold down for most of the next three seasons. Hogg had his best year in 1906, winning 14 games along with a 2.93 ERA in 25 starts for a squad that would finish three games back of the White Sox for the pennant.

On the heels of that strong campaign, Hogg was nearly involved in a trade that would have transformed baseball forever. The Highlanders dangled their rotation piece for a talented 20-year-old outfielder who’d yet to reach his potential. At the 11th hour, the Tigers decided to hang on to Ty Cobb. He’d win his first of 12 batting titles the next year, and the rest is history.

In ’07, the injuries that he’d been playing through began to catch up to Hogg. He missed over a month with a sprained shoulder and a separate illness. The issue came to a head in ‘08, as Yankees president Frank Farrell suspended Hogg due to poor conditioning when a sore arm kept him off the mound. Clark Griffith, the future Hall of Famer who’d spent 20 years as a player before becoming the Highlanders’ first manager, defended his player, whose maladies he believed to be genuine. This disconnect between the skipper and his front office may have played a role in Griffith’s midseason firing, which opened him up to manage and, ultimately, own the Washington Senators.

Before the ‘09 season, Hogg’s contract was sold to the Louisville Colonels of the American Association. He continued to struggle with his health during his lone season in Louisville, but still won 17 games as an important contributor as the Colonels won the league’s championship. After the season, Hogg and a teammate went down to New Orleans to continue playing semipro ball. It was there that the 28-year-old would succumb to his health issues, dying on December 9, 1909. The cause of death was what was then called Bright’s disease but would now be called nephritis of the kidneys, the discovery of which vindicated a man who had unfairly been branded lazy for his difficulty staying on the field. While Hogg’s time in the major leagues was brief, he showcased a remarkable combination of talent and perseverance to perform effectively while dealing with a debilitating illness, playing a key role on several of the first AL teams in New York.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong enters the weekend series against the Pirates with 41 home runs and 36 stolen bases, perhaps on pace for the seventh 40/40 season ever and first by an Cub.

Earlier this week I asked you how many steals you thought PCA would wind up with.

Here’s what you said:

This seems about right, from 4-8 more steals in the Cubs’ final 15 games.

In addition, if he hits two more home runs he’ll have more than any Cubs left-handed hitter ever. Hall of Famer Billy Williams hit 42 in 1970.

Here are the answers to the two national questions asked this week, both were about predicting this year’s league pennant winners.

A close call between the Brewers and Dodgers among voters, with the Cubs third.

To me, the American League is a closer call. Really, only the Rays and Yankees are good teams in that league; the rest is a toss-up. Things could get interesting if either the Rays or Yankees get upset before the ALCS.

Thanks for participating in this week’s survey!

This edition of SB Nation Reacts is sponsored by FanDuel.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

In Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Astros at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies offense put together perhaps the most undisciplined displays of hitting MLB has ever seen.

They faced Christian Javier, Houston’s right-handed starter who is a shell of the pitcher that famously threw six no-hit innings against them in Houston’s combined no-hitter in Game 4 of the 2022 World Series. He entered Thursday’s finale with a 5.98 ERA in 14 starts, and yet, the Phils were once again stymied by him, tallying just three hits.

But even worse was the method in which they failed.

The Phillies saw 65 pitches thrown out of the strike zone against the Astros on Thursday and they swung at more of those pitches out of the zone than not. That 52.3% chase rate is the highest number ever recorded since it became a trackable number in 2009.

So yes, the Phillies are chasing at the plate, but it goes beyond just what we see on the field.

They’re also chasing their ultimate goal of a World Series title.

Are the two related?

Following the arrival of Luis Arraez from the Giants at the beginning of August, the offense underwent a much-publicized transformation.

Suddenly, a team that had for years been among the worst offenders in chasing pitches out of the strike zone was resisting their primal urges. A team that, for the first five months of the 2026 season, had the lowest on-base percentage in the sport, was getting on base more than any other. A team that had one of the highest strikeout rates had the lowest, and a team that had one of the lowest walk rates, had the highest.

• Through July: .303 OBP (30th), 7.8 BB% (28), 23.7 K% (25)
• 8/1 through 8/23: .367 OBP (2nd), 11.6 BB% (1), 14.5 K% (1)

It was a remarkable turnaround, one that was really difficult to comprehend. How could a team that had, for so many years, displayed such an aggressive approach at the plate suddenly change their stripes as a collective unit? Some credit was being heaped on Arraez, at least on the reduction of strikeouts, although Arraez is not known to be one of the most patient hitters at the plate, either.

We all wondered, could it last?

It did not. Beginning with their west coast road trip in Seattle, the Phils left their patience on the plane. Since the start of their three-game series against the Mariners, they have a .293 OBP (4th-worst), 7.6 BB% (22nd), and 21.5 K% (19th).

Their 34.9% chase rate over that stretch is tied for 8th-highest. From August 1 through 24, it was 31.5%, 21st.

After Thursday’s game, Bryce Harper acknowledged the Phils essentially handed Javier an easy day, and noted these kinds of efforts cannot happen.

Once the calendar flips to October, it’s not suddenly going to become easier not to chase. Learn the habits now and they’ll become habits when it matters most.

As the team chases their elusive World Series title, the pressure will only mount. And in recent seasons, when pressure has mounted on the Phils, particularly in the postseason, their chasing leads to more chasing.

And that’s the point. When the Phillies had their magical ride to the World Series in 2022, the only thing they were chasing was ending their 11-year postseason drought. And make no mistake, they did not play well in the season’s final month, almost choking that away. But after finally earning the final wild card spot, they were done chasing. They were in the moment, with no pressure on them, and played the best baseball we’ve seen from them during this five-year run of success.

Things are different now. The weight of postseason failures are heavy and this team presses as a result. They’re constantly chasing that moment, chasing that home run in a big spot, chasing that 2022 and ‘23 feeling again.

For a few weeks, they stopped doing that. They let pitchers come to them. They took their walks. They passed the baton. As a result, they scored a lot of runs and won a ton of games.

It’s hard to imagine the Phillies playing with patience in a pennant race and in October, but Harper is right.

If they don’t get back at least a little of what they did for the first three weeks of August, it’s likely going to be another short run of postseason baseball in October for them.