Category: Sports News

It’s been a little more than 12 hours since the Guardians walked off the White Sox in yet another heartbreaking loss, but despite having their backs against the wall in the AL Central race, they still control their destiny from here on out.

The Good Guys hold the tiebreaker over Cleveland after Monday’s win, but walking away with a series victory would really help keep the South Side train on the tracks in the stretch run. Lefthander Anthony Kay is on the mound for the White Sox, making his 29th start (31st appearance) of the season in what is likely the most important game he will start in 2026.

Prior to the South Siders dropping today’s lineup, the White Sox announced a few roster moves to round out the 40-man roster after José Urquidy was designated for assignment yesterday. Righthander Drew Thorpe has officially been cleared from the 60-day IL but was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte, once again not getting the call back up to the big leagues. It’s possible the Sox would rather Thorpe fully work through his rehab and be fully ready for next season, which is likely why Noah Schultz a call up yesterday instead.

On top of that, outfielder Tommy Pham was suddenly reactivated from the 10-day IL, and will shockingly get the start as a DH while batting … cleanup. No, I am unfortunately not making this up. With this move, Edgar Quero was optioned back down to Charlotte, leaving the South Siders with a standard amount of catchers (two) on the roster, with Kyle Teel and Jake Rogers.

The legend has it that Pham ran into GM Chris Getz on the elevator last night and said he was “ready” … and now is batting cleanup in today’s crucial intradivisional game. Those who have been mostly riding the bench perhaps have done themselves a disservice if they’ve been taking the stairs lately! One elevator conversation was apparently all it took — and if we know anything, Tommy approached Getz with enormous clarity and decorum —and now Pham is batting in the 4-hole despite only taking ONE major league at-bat in the last several months.

Simply because I, and many others, are complaining about Pham being in the lineup for no reason at all for a crucial game, he’s surely going to go 3-for-4 with a homer. And if so, bravo. But let it be known that the process is bogus from the start.

On the bright side, Kay has been excellent in three starts against Cleveland, and owns a 1.69 ERA across 16 innings. The Guardians own just a .182 batting average against the lefty, who holds an 89.7% left-on-base percentage (LOB%), so he’s been efficient at stranding the few Clevelanders who even make it on base. Kay owns a 4.53 ERA this season, but has struggled a bit in his last few starts, reaching a 6.17 ERA across his last 35 frames with 24 earned runs at a 1.40 WHIP. His two September starts have been a bit rough, and in his two starts so far in September (8 1/3 IP), the lefty has accumulated an 8.64 ERA. Kay has been known to lock in and work out of jams this season, however, so with his success over Cleveland so far I am feeling positive about him today.

The same can’t be said (for me) about the batting order. The top looks solid, knowing that Chase Meidroth, Randal Grichuk, and Miguel Vargas have been seeing the ball really well lately, and the three tagged five RBIs in Tuesday’s game. I’ve yapped enough about how dumb it is that Pham is hitting cleanup, so I am just going to bypass that. Whatever.

Munetaka Murakami is getting a much-needed break after striking out four times in yesterday’s game, and three more times Monday. With that, Vargas will take over at first today while Colson Montgomery slots in at third, batting seventh, and Luisangel Acuña will play in back-to-back games at shortstop. Brenton Doyle is also back int he lineup, but batting sixth this time around, which is probably fine considering he actually made contact with the ball yesterday. The South Siders desperately need an offensive breakout game, and only time will tell if this lineup can beat lefthander Parker Messick.

Chicago White Sox Lineup

Similar to Kay, Messick has been excellent against the South Siders, just as he has been the entire season. In 29 starts (172 1/3 innings), Messick owns a 2.51 ERA, and has struck out 178 batters, which ranks 16th across MLB. In three starts against the White Sox, the lefty owns a 2.29 ERA and has surrendered just five runs against them, allowing just a .169 batting average. In 12 hits, the South Siders have mashed three bombs and struck out 21 times, essentially living and dying by the long ball — as they have for a good chunk of the season. I’d take a few bombs, today, however.

The Guardians are rolling with a near-identical lineup as yesterday, and the Good Guys need to just take it one at-bat at a time and maintain clean defense. Despite the left-handed hitters struggling a bit against left-handed pitching, that essentially gets thrown out the window when Cleveland plays the Sox. Travis Bazzana and Steven Kwan both own two of the top-four batting averages against White Sox lefties, so it’s best not to assume that because their splits say so, they might not hit well today.

Cleveland Guardians Lineup

First pitch will take place at 12:10 p.m. CT, but will be airing on ESPN this time around. Nothing like a good ole’ national TV broadcast with Tommy Pham batting cleanup! You can also tune into the radio broadcast, still at ESPN Chicago AM 1000. Hopefully when we’re back together later, I’m writing up a less sad article than I did last night. Time for a series W against the Guardians.

All eyes are on the Yankees as they make their 61st postseason berth with the division still in sight, but it’s also a great time to see prospects shine from the Yankees’ farm system. The Arizona Fall League will get underway in the next few weeks, and the Salt River Rafters will have six Yankees prospects on the roster to watch.

Dax Kilby, the Yankees’ No. 2 prospect and MLB’s No. 85 prospect overall, is one of the most notable names of the bunch. He was their top pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. Despite battling a hamstring strain that has limited him to 36 games this season between the Single-A affiliate Tampa Tarpons and FCL Yankees, the 19-year-old shortstop is an exciting hitter who’s managed to turn some heads.

The Arizona Fall League will provide ample opportunity for Yankees prospects to stand out and potentially generate some buzz about bumping up in the minors. Kilby will be joined by fellow shortstop and Yankees No. 12 prospect Core Jackson, who has 14 home runs, 41 stolen bases, and a .819 OBP in 101 games between the Hudson Valley Renegades and Somerset Patriots.

First baseman Kyle West and righty pitchers Mack Estrada, J.T. Etheridge, and Chris Veach will also be joining Kilby and Jackson among the Yankees’ contingent on the Salt River Rafters squad.

In addition to the Yankees, the Salt River Rafters are also affiliated with the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Twins, and Nationals. The league kicks off with the Rafters facing the Desert Dogs at 1:30 p.m. on October 3. You definitely won’t want to miss the AFL Home Run Derby and Fall Stars game before all the action comes to a close on November 13th. Pinstripe Alley will have regular updates on the best of the AFL throughout the season.

The Jays and Tigers play at 3:00 Eastern.

The Jays, either during or after last night’s game, decided to change around the starting pitching plans for the rest of the way.

• Today Scherzer still starts.
• Thursday off-day.
• Friday Dylan Cease, instead of Arrighetti and bullpen.
• Saturday Jose Soriano
• Sunday Arrighetti/bullpen.

And, Max, no pressure, but you need to get us some innings tonight. I really expected some pitching moves this morning. I’m still expecting them, but they better announce them soon.

The team figures Trey Yesavage will join the roster again Sunday or Monday and will take part in a bullpen day. And Shane Bieber is hoping to be back before the end of the season too.

As much has the bullpen day exploding, the offense has to start doing offensive type stuff. They have run up against a couple of good pitchers in this series, but they are going to have to figure out how to hit guys, even if they are good.

This is the lineup that is going to try to score today:

Kevin Glew tweets that W.P. Kinsella died 10 years ago today. Beyond Shoeless Joe, he wrote a number of books I enjoyed. We got to meet him, a book store near us had a night with him and he was everything you’d want him to be funny, personable, and full of interesting stories.

And it is Tim Raines birthday. He turns 67 today. He is one of those guys to whom I owe some of my baseball fandom. He showed the value of getting on base, getting into scoring position. He came up as a second baseman, but those were the days when base runners tried to take the second baseman out of the game. The team knew he was too valuable to put him in a spot where guys were trying to take out his legs.

He also taught me that teams sometimes focus on the wrong things. They moved him to center field when Andre Dawson left the team. He was great, but his throwing arm wasn’t great. Instead of blaming the crappy players on the team for not winning, they blamed his arm and moved him back to left. Bad teams often blame the wrong things for losing.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Tim.

In last night’s 4-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals, Hunter Brown went the first 5 innings for the win, allowing 1 run on 2 hits, walking 3 and striking out 10.

After the game, Brown spoke to reporters and acknowledged that Astros pitching guru Brent Strom taught him a new pitch:

Brown threw 51 of his 91 pitches for strikes. He earned 15 called strikes and generated 15 swings and misses.

Brown was credited with throwing his new slider 6 times, generating one swing and miss and a groundout.

He generated 4 swings and misses on his four-seam, 3 on the sinker, 5 on the knuckle curve, and 2 on his cutter.

Hunter Brown with an effective 5-pitch mix has got to be pretty intimidating for hitters.

The Yankees reinstated Clarke Schmidt from the 60-day injured list ahead of today’s series finale in Minnesota. The team also optioned right-handed reliever Bradley Hanner to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and designated Oswaldo Cabrera for assignment.

It’s the end of a long road back for Schmidt, who hasn’t pitched on a major league mound since July 2025 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. At the time, Schmidt was in the midst of establishing himself as one of the Yankees’ best starters, running a 3.07 ERA across 164 innings between 2024 and 2025. 

Schmidt won’t have enough time to build up to a starter’s workload prior to the postseason, but he has a real chance to make an impact in the Yankee bullpen. He’s been used in one-to-two inning stretches in the minors, where his fastball has sat around his customary 94 mph. Beyond David Bednar, Paul Blackburn, and Brent Headrick, the Yankees have little set in stone in their bullpen, leaving a wide opportunity for someone like Schmidt to grab a meaningful role with a strong showing in the final two weeks of the season.

The Yankees had to manage their 40-man roster as a result of this move, and Cabrera was sadly the casualty. Schmidt coming off the 60-day IL necessitated clearing a spot on a full 40-man. Cabrera, who has spent most of the season at Triple-A after recovering from a gruesome knee injury last year, drew the short stick. The Yankees could have plausibly transferred Fernando Cruz to the 60-day IL, but instead opted to keep hope alive for a return from Cruz.

MINNEAPOLIS — The Yankees have sent one of the longest-tenured and most beloved players in their organization packing.

Oswaldo Cabrera was designated for assignment Wednesday to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for the Yankees to activate Clarke Schmidt off the 60-day injured list.

It was a surprising move, considering that Cabrera seems likely to be claimed by another team after batting .288 with a .790 OPS this year at Triple-A.

He played three games for the Yankees this season, but has spent most of it at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after finishing off his comeback from a grueling broken ankle that he suffered on a slide home last May in Seattle.

“Very difficult,” manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday at Target Field. “One of the parts of the game that are tough. You’re fortunate to come across – and I feel like I’m blessed to have a lot of guys on this team that you just admire and respect and love doing the job with on a daily basis, and Oswaldo’s right there at the top of that list. Just who he is, how he goes about things, how he treats people, the competitor he is, the teammate he is. So those are hard things all the time. 

“The good thing is Oswaldo’s come back from a very difficult injury and had a really good year down in Triple-A, he’s playing really well. So, hopefully this is just one of those things. I’m confident Oswaldo will go on to have a very good career and hopefully it’s still with us.”

The 27-year-old utilityman still has another minor league option remaining after this season, increasing his value if a team should claim him.

The Yankees could have gone another route to open a spot on the 40-man roster, but doing this preserves as much pitching depth as possible while also leaving the door open for Fernando Cruz to pitch again this season (instead of transferring him to the 60-day IL as he attempts to come back from a partially torn UCL).

Cabrera’s path back to the Yankees had also become more difficult with the addition of fellow utilityman Max Schuemann, Anthony Volpe adding some defensive versatility before being recalled and José Caballero already serving as a superutilityman in the big leagues.

Cabrera entered the organization in 2016 out of Venezuela, making him the second-longest tenured member behind only Aaron Judge.

Past summaries:

• So far, so good through mid-April
• Even better in late April
• May-be they’re just really good
• Late May just good, rather than absurdly awesome
• A June swoon so far
• Awful
• Fake it and maybe make it
• With some luck, back on the horse
• Dwelling in the dog days of August
• All we do is accumulate wins

There were a few overarching themes in play in the first half of September for the Braves:

• They are still great at accumulating more wins than warranted by their production
• They are also great at beating the Phillies
• The two things above have made them overwhelmingly likely to win the division for the first time since 2023
• The schedule was very tough, and they did okay-ish
• But, this team still isn’t playing well by an objective measure

Put the above together, and the Braves went 7-7 in September’s first half. That 7-7, though, was well-scattered, as they went 4-3 against the Phillies, capturing the tiebreaker and more or less cementing their spot atop the division unless they suffer a late September collapse and the Phillies actually get it together enough to win a bunch of their remaining games. Still, as I describe below, this hasn’t exactly been a triumphant ride to the division title. Yeah, the schedule has been a gauntlet, but the Braves are once again winning games moreso than doing a bunch of stuff that leads to winning games.

How did the Braves do recently?

As noted, they went 7-7. 12 of those 14 games were against contenders, but they went 6-6 in those games while also going 1-1 against the Nationals. In terms of game-by-game odds, yeah, they should’ve gone 7-7. One thing this stretch featured was their two lowest-win odds games of the years, both in Philadelphia. They did indeed lose both of those games. To date, the Braves have lost all four of their games where their pre-game odds were below 40 percent, and have gone 11-5 in games where their pre-game odds were above 60 percent. In some ways, this feels intuitively “right” to me, even if there’s no real reason why that shuld be the case.

Production-wise, it’s more or less the same story. The Braves finished 23rd in position player fWAR in the first half of September, including 22nd in offensive inputs and 21st in offensive inputs. They finished 17th in pitching fWAR, with relative ranks of 11th, 21st, and 21s in ERA-, FIP-, and xFIP-, respectively. Both the rotation and the bullpen were basically in that same place. With their total of 1.0 fWAR each in the position player and pitching buckets over these 14 games, the Braves “should have” gone 6-8. They went 7-7. Surprise, surprise, they did it again.

Ranks aside, the September numbers are underwhelming so far: a 91 wRC+ with a marginal xwOBA overperformance, and a 93/106/107 (again, ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-) pitching line. That doesn’t feel like a team that has largely survived a September gauntlet to nearly sew up a division crown, but here we are, as we have been.

How are the Braves doing on the season?

Well, again, they have MLB’s fourth-best record. It looks like they’ll finish with 94-95 wins, unless something strange happens. They are almost certain to win the division, but very unlikely to catch the Dodgers or Brewers. Right now, though, they’re 20th in position player fWAR, though they’re at least 13th in xwOBA and seventh in team defense (park effects ding their offense, while xwOBA isn’t park-adjusted). It’ll feel strange if/when they win the division with a sub-100 wRC+, but again, here’s where we are.

Amusingly, for all the droning and hand-wringing about the pitching both in the offseason and at the Trade Deadline, it’s actually been pretty good. The Braves are up to tenth in pitching fWAR, with an average rotation and top-ten bullpen. The rotation’s line is 89/102/98; the bullpen’s line is 81/93/97. Perhaps one reason the Braves win a lot of games relative to production is that bullpen ERA-x/FIP gap: it’s easier to win when you allow relatively few runs, and fewer runs than you “should,” late in the game.

The Braves do have the league’s fifth-best run differential, but are only ninth in BaseRuns. Only three teams have outperformed their BaseRuns more than the Braves, but one of those is the Phillies, so ha ha ha, I guess. The disparity with WAR-wins is a currently-insane 12. There’s more to say about the wins versus WAR-wins and BaseRuns versus WAR-wins differentials, but not here.

How are the hitters doing?

At this point, I don’t really even know how to say anything new.

These last 14 games were a stars-and-scrubs effort. Mike Yastrzemski and Ronald Acuña Jr. did some great stuff and got fortunate. Drake Baldwin was solid. Mauricio Dubon and Ha-Seong Kim were also there. Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies basically went full-on tire fire. Michael Harris II and Sean Murphy didn’t help. That’s the team, and that’s not great.

For the season as a whole, you basically have the team’s front four doing stuff, and everyone else…not doing doing stuff. Dubon has at least provided value via defense and versatility, but the back half of the starting crew has been pretty damaging to the team’s production. It’s still kind of amazing the Braves are where they are given the table above.

The wOBAs and xwOBAs have largely normalized for everyone. There’s a bit of “Albies has stolen the mojos of Baldwin and Acuña” but not much.

That said, and totally in keeping with this season as whole, guess who led the team in WPA for these 14 games among position players? First, Murphy, and then Kim just 0.01 WPA behind. Both guys had two huge games as part-time players. The Braves will take it.

How are the pitchers doing?

It was a good two weeks for HR/FB for the starters. Grant Holmes and Martin Perez were big beneficiaries despite problematic peripherals. Chris Sale and Tyler Mahle were worse than they have been peripherals-wise, but the lack of homers helped. The less said about AJ Smith-Shawver and Reynaldo Lopez at this point, the better.

The season-long stats are largely familiar to y’all at this point. Sale and Mahle rule, Perez has been decent, Holmes still doesn’t really have the juice to be an average-y starter, and so on and so forth.

Reliever-wise, Didier Fuentes was a beast these two weeks, but when is he not? Ray Kerr also reappeared and was surprisingly really good in a longer relief role. Kerr, in particular, managed three multi-inning outings, and earned shutdowns in two of them despite them being medium-leverage appearances. Between Kerr and Suter, the Braves seem very wealthy in “lefties who can avoid having to use multiple relievers to mop the game up,” which is not a super-useful thing to be wealthy in, but will probably help give guys rest that they may or may not desperately need down the stretch.

See you at the end of the season. Hopefully there’s no reason to skip one of these, though the short turnaround to the Wild Card round is awkward.

If you have any thoughts on how to amend these for next year, or do something different as a check-in, I’m all ears. These were in some ways easier to do than my old monthly recaps, but somewhat less fun though maybe more informative. That said, I don’t know if I have the time to do the old monthly recaps anymore, but maybe next year will be a lot easier than this year.

Diamondbacks News

Extra Inning Loss Squanders Opportunity to Close on San Diego
Getting just one more runner home from scoring position in any of the final five innings changes the shape of the series and season drastically.

Arenado Makes Early Injury Due to Thumb Injury
The Diamondbacks really cannot afford to lose their third baseman at this point.

Cardinals Made Right Move Trading Nootbar
So far, this has been a win-win sort of trade. Arizona has benefitted from an improved Nootbar. St. Louis has benefitted from the promotion of Baez to fill Nootbar’s place on the roster and the pitching prospects have picked up right where they left off at the deadline.

The good news there is Crisantes hitting his third home run since joining the Reno Aces. The bad news is, they lost the game anyway. The worse news is, the Diamondbacks organization has probably seen Drey Jameson play his last game for them.

Additional note to that. Jameson missed Thompson with a 98 mph fastball that went behind the hitter. But, Jameson isn’t a quitter, so he went back to the well and threw another 98 mph heater at Thompson. Jameson has reportedly already been suspended.

Other Baseball News

Pete Alonso Hits 300th HR in Victory Over Mets
Alonso, the longtime Met, launched his 300th career home run against his former club. That did nothing to dampen the standing ovation the Citi Field crowd gave him for achieving the feat.

MLB Teams with Potential 2026 Managerial, Front Office Changes
The consensus seems to be that Mike Hazen is probably safe, given his multi-year contract and the fact that Arizona is still in contention for the playoffs. There is less certainty about Lovullo, whose contract expires at the end of the season. The looming 2027 lockout is likely to play a major part in some decisions, including potentially the retention of Hazen and Lovullo.

Cubs Shut Down Shelby Miller
Old friend-turned-nemesis-turned-friend alert.

Let’s Help Jack Reacher Remember Some Guys
Just a bit of fun with how some aliases are derived.

Sandy Alcantara, Quality Starter
Examining how Sandy Alcantara has become the modern definition of workhorse.