Category: Sports News

The latest news and info about the Houston Astros:

Yordan Alvarez is tired of losing, and he let his teammates know about it:

Astros starting pitching has been this feeble since 2013:

Meanwhile, the starting pitching was probably the best part of the 3 game sweep the Astros just endured at the hands of the Atlanta Braves to close out the home portion of the season:

Carlos Correa spoke about why his attempt to come back this season was thwarted, and if he would be open to changing positions again:

It has been four years since the Astros parted ways with Yuli Gurriel. Four years of first base failure. Here’s how bad it’s been:

Could a former front office member be heading back to Houston?

From Bob Nightengale:

– While Mike Elias’ job is safe as the Orioles president of baseball operations, there continues to be a shuffling of the front office desk.

While Matt Blood, vice president of player and staff development, was let go earlier in the month, now longtime assistant GM Sig Mejdal, who was with Elias in Houston, was demoted and no longer is in charge of the team’s analytics department.

An inability to score runners from 3rd base with less than 2 out has doomed the Astros all season:

It’s really gonna hurt if 82 wins is all it takes to win the AL West and the Astros don’t get there:

Ken Rosenthal believes that right now, Yordan Alvarez should be MVP

Astros legend Larry Dierker reflects on his career:

Another scout is leaving the organization:

The Dodgers and San Diego Padres have faced off the postseason three times, in every even year dating back to 2020. For that streak to continue, it would likely need to happen one round later than the previous three matchups.

At the moment the Dodgers have the second-best record in the National League, two games behind the Milwaukee Brewers. But with six games remaining for both teams, Los Angeles needs nine of 12 outcomes to go their way to overtake Milwaukee for the No. 1 seed. Conversely, the Dodgers are up four games on the Atlanta Braves and need only three of 12 outcomes to go their way to clinch the No. 2 seed, which would earn them a bye past the wild card round and into the NL Division Series.

The three Dodgers-Padres postseason tussles have all been in the NLDS. The Dodgers swept away San Diego in Texas in 2020, then the Padres returned the favor by beating the 111-win Dodgers in four games in 2022. Two years later was the best battle of the three, with the Padres holding a 2-1 series lead over the Dodgers, who held San Diego scoreless for the final 24 innings of the series to survive and advance.

MLB playoffs are structure such that the No. 1 seed in each league plays the winner of the wild card series between the No. 4 and No. 5 seed, while No. 2 takes on the series between No. 3 and No. 6. Entering Tuesday, the NL wild card is a tight race

NL wild card standings

Chicago Cubs 87-69
San Diego Padres 87-69
Philadelphia Phillies 86-70
– – – – – – – – – –
Arizona Diamondbacks 82-74
*through September 21

The Cubs were 5-1 against the Padres and 6-1 against the Phillies, so would hold any tiebreakers, and Philadelphia was 6-0 against San Diego. Arizona’s last gasp might lie in their final three games against the Padres this weekend, if the Diamondbacks aren’t eliminated by then.

The point is any of those three teams could finish in just about any order from the fourth to sixth seed based on this final week. If the Padres end up the six seed, that would line them up for a potential NLDS against the No. 2 seed Dodgers, provided San Diego beats the No. 3 seed Braves.

But if the Dodgers are the No. 2 seed and the Padres are fourth or fifth, that means they couldn’t meet until the NLCS. Teams in the same division meeting in the postseason has only been possible since 1995, and two NL West teams have met in the NLCS only once — in 2007, the Diamondbacks ran into Rocktober and were swept in four games by the Colorado Rockies.

Divisional matchups in the League Championship Series has happened a total of 12 times:

1996 ALCS: Yankees over Orioles
1997 NLCS: Marlins over Braves
1999 ALCS: Yankees over Red Sox
1999 NLCS: Braves over Mets
2003 ALCS: Yankees over Red Sox
2004 NLCS: Cardinals over Astros
2004 ALCS: Red Sox over Yankees
2005 NLCS: Astros over Cardinals
2007 NLCS: Rockies over D-backs
2008 ALCS: Rays over Red Sox
2011 NLCS: Cardinals over Brewers
2023 ALCS: Rangers over Astros

Tuesday game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Padres
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Start time: 7:10 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA, TBS (out of market)
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

Yankees right-hander Clarke Schmidt underwent testing on his right biceps after experiencing soreness on Sunday and looks to have avoided a serious injury.

Manager Aaron Boone told reporters before Tuesday's doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium that Schmidt "looks like he’s in a pretty good spot" following the results of the tests. 

While it appears Schmidt, who was recently activated off the 60-day IL, averted disaster, his availability is still in question. Boone said the right-hander will play catch on Tuesday to see how available he can be and what the next steps are.

Schmidt has appeared in one game this season, when he pitched 0.2 innings against the Minnesota Twins on Sept. 16. He allowed two hits while striking out two on 24 pitches (13 strikes) during his outing. The Yanks called the 30-year-old's number once again on Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but Schmidt experienced "cramping" in his right biceps while warming up and had to cut it short.

"Nothing structural, it was more precautionary," Schmidt said after the game. "Given the circumstance coming back from surgery, I don’t want to push through anything. All the testing was fine – nothing with the shoulder, nothing with the elbow."

Schmidt had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow in July of last year and has a history of injuries over the last few seasons, including a right lat strain and right rotator cuff tendonitis.

After making 32 starts in 2023 as a full-time starter for the first time in his career, Schmidt has made a total of 30 starts since.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. expected to be back Tuesday

The Yankees will be getting some reinforcements for the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader as they are expected to activate Chisholm from the IL, per Boone.

Chisholm has been out since Sept. 9 with a right thumb sprain, and the infielder's return should give New York's offense a nice boost.

In 134 games this season, Chisholm is slashing .232/.312/.403 with 19 home runs, 55 RBI and 40 stolen bases. He was on fire prior to the injury, hitting .391 (18-for-46) in his last 15 games.

I have a busy day so let’s have an Open Thread.

It sounds like Brett Bateman’s injury isn’t too serious, which is good to hear. I’d be ok when them sitting him the last five games.

The Sun has a story ‘Who’s to blame for Dylan Cease’s breakdowns?‘ Hmmmm who ever invented baseball? Throwing a baseball, that hard, snapping off spin, doing it over and over isn’t really something an arm was developed for.

What do I want to see in the last five games? I don’t know really, I’d like to see some good plays. I’d like to see some of the young guys play. I’m guessing they will have to call up a couple of the young starters. Scherzer will start tonight. José Soriano will start one. And Trey Yesavage will start one (which will be a bullpen day). That leaves two. CJ Van Eyk? Grant Rogers? I don’t know if they will want to start the major league clock on anyone. Maybe Chad Dallas will get a start? Josh Fleming?

Anyway, use the thread to discuss anything you’d like. Baseball related or not.

I realize I’m jumping the gun here by six games and the Mariners are not mathematically eliminated yet, but I mean…(/gestures at entire cosmically cursed existence of the Seattle Mariners Baseball Club). This party is all but over. But, I’m going to try and steer the discourse into a more positive direction because, hey, it wasn’t all bad! There were a lot of exciting, fun, emotional, and unique moments in the 2026 Mariners season.

Here are a few of the more obvious ones:

Randy Day (AKA The Day Randy Woke Up and Said “I am going to kill the Cubs myself”)

Just spectacular and it really put an exclamation point on the career season Randy was already having at that point. I hope the Mariners can bring him back, but if not, I will miss him dearly and we’ll always have 2026 Randy, Destroyer of Worlds.

Colt Emerson’s first career walk-off

Before we found out Colt Emerson was playing hurt, boy, he had a great first few weeks in the show. Here he smashes a line drive into right field through the lefty shift and then gets thrashed around a bit by his teammates as tradition dictates. Hope to see more of this next season and lots more, Colt!

The Cal Raleigh 3 dinger game

In what will surely be a sneaky hard trivia question one day, a finally healthy and resurgent Cal Raleigh blasted three home runs against the Phillies in Seattle after enduring months of what can only be called The Worst Season Ever to Follow a 60 Home Run Season. So in a few decades, if you see a trivia question about “What season did Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh hit three home runs in one game?”, just remember it came AFTER his career year in 2025. You’re welcome.

Lazaro Montes hits the longest home run in Safeco Field/T-Mobile Park history

This is probably my favorite because I’m fascinated by this enormous, violent-swing-having lad. This ball landed in the center field concourse, which is a landing spot that was previously unthinkable to just about every Mariners fan who has watched games at our marine layer-drenched stadium since 1999. Maybe it was the warm night air in combination with one of the, uh, “home run-prone” baseballs in the mix combined with a swing that could supply enough wind energy to power a small nation that produced this massive 474 foot blast. Regardless, it happened and it was special. Hope to see many more!

Okay, let’s hear from y’all in the comments!

What was your favorite moment, storyline, or player achievement during the 2026 Mariners season?

Your answers may help fuel nominations for this year’s annual Lookie awards, so let’s see what you got. And don’t worry, there will be plenty more opportunities to doom and gloom about all the things that went wrong in 2026 (someone should write a book about it, honestly), but let’s see those silver linings for now.

The Milwaukee Brewers have the best record in baseball at 98-58. They’ve essentially clinched a bye for the Wild Card round, and it is just a matter of whether or not they will have homefield advantage throughout the entire playoffs.

Or at least, the entire playoffs before they get eliminated.

This is the Brewers’ fourth straight National League Central title, and the eighth time in the last nine years that they’ve made the playoffs. There’s a belief in baseball that if you make the playoffs enough times, eventually, things will break your way, and you’ll win a World Series.

Eventually has yet to come for the Brewers. Not only have they not won the World Series, but they also haven’t even made it there during this run. The closest they came was in 2018 when they lost 4-3 in the NLCS to the Dodgers. Last year, they once again faced the Dodgers in the NLCS, and went down without much of a fight, getting swept. They had homefield advantage in 2025, and all it resulted in was scoring a total of two runs across their two NLCS home games.

Will this year be any different for the Brewers? They seem to have a roster capable of winning it all. They’ve scored the second-most runs in baseball. They have a strong front of their rotation, and a bullpen capable of holding leads.

But they’ve seemed to have the necessary pieces in past years as well, and it hasn’t mattered. Maybe “eventually” simply hasn’t happened yet, or maybe they’re a great regular season team that lacks an extra something for the playoffs?

Opposition research: Logan Henderson

Most of us are familiar with Brewers’ ace Jacob Misiorowski who is very likely to win the NL’s Cy Young award this season. But one star pitcher does not a rotation make, and if the Brewers want any chance of winning a World Series, they’re going to need to get good starts from Mis’ rotation mates.

A good place to start is rookie righthander Logan Henderson. Henderson was called up at the beginning of 2025, and immediately impressed, striking out 29 batters in his first four starts. However, he experienced elbow inflammation which ended up sidelining him for almost the entire season.

After spending most of the early season in AAA, Henderson was recalled to the majors in May and had a string of strong starts before a back strain sent him to the Injured List. Since returning in July, he picked up where he left off. He hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a start and has a 2.51 ERA on the season.

It’s understandable that the Brewers want to be cautious with a promising young pitcher, but it is somewhat concerning that he’s already had two notable injuries in two years. But that might work out in the Brewers’ favor if he’s relatively fresh for the playoffs.

Hating on the Brewers

For a while, it seemed like the Oklahoma City Thunder were following the Brewers’ example as a team that left Seattle only to repeatedly fall short in the playoffs every year. Except the Thunder finally won a title in 2025, something the Brewers have yet to do, and really only came close once – and that was in 1982.

Maybe it’s because they play in a small market, or maybe it’s because of all their past playoff failures. But nobody will view this team as a serious contender until they actually win the World Series.

Remembering a guy who played for both the Phillies and Brewers

After spending his early career with the Braves, Wes Helms was traded to the Brewers. For a second, it looked like Milwaukee might have stolen him when he hit 23 home runs in 2003. But he couldn’t follow up on that success, and after basically being relegated to a bench role over the next two seasons, he left as a free agent after 2005.

Helms had a strong season at the plate as a part-time player with the Marlins in 2006, and the Phillies signed him, hoping he could adequately replace David Bell at third base. Instead, he actually made Phillies fans feel slightly wistful for Bell.

There was a three-way split of playing time at third base among the 2007 Phillies: Abraham Nunez – who could field, but couldn’t hit, Greg Dobbs – who could hit, but couldn’t field, and Helms, who couldn’t do either. Somehow, the Phillies overcame the black hole at the position to win the NL East.

Realizing they needed a better option, the Phillies signed Pedro Feliz after the season, and released Helms, who went on to spend three seasons as a lousy bench player for the Marlins.

Additional thought about the series

The Phillies seemingly have more to play for this series, as they can still finish as any of the three Wild Card seeds or miss the playoffs entirely. The Brewers will likely be more concerned with getting their team ready for the playoffs.

You’d think that would be an advantage for the Phillies, but it is hard to understand this team much of the time. You don’t want your team to “peak at the wrong time,” but with one week until the playoffs begin, this seems like the right time for heretofore slumping hitters like Brandon Marsh and J.T. Realmuto to get their acts together.

Go Rays!

This four-game tilt against the Rays in the penultimate series of the season had the chance to be a blockbuster showdown to decide the division. However, the Yankees losing two out of three to the Diamondbacks removed a lot of the jeopardy from this series, New York now needing to sweep just to avoid being eliminated from the AL East title race and depending on a very unlikely collapse from Tampa in their final series of the season to keep the divisional door the slightest bit ajar. All the same, this could be a preview of a prospective ALCS showdown, so I expect both teams to come out firing. The first game of today’s doubleheader is a makeup of the rainout from May 23rd.

Carlos Rodón finds himself in the unexpected position of being on the postseason rotation bubble. Cam Schlittler and Max Fried are seemingly locks which would pit Rodón against Gerrit Cole for that final spot if they roll out a three-man rotation. It almost comes down to a style choice at that point — Rodón walks almost three times as many batters as Cole, but surrenders about half as many home runs per nine. He’s a good choice to start a game against the Rays — in six starts against Tampa with the Yankees, Rodón has a 3.69 ERA and 31.3-percent strikeout rate in 31.2 innings. In 15 starts this season, Rodón is 6-3 with a 2.95 ERA (142 ERA+), 3.69 FIP, and 83 strikeouts in 76.1 innings.

The Rays have a maddening habit of transforming other teams’ castoffs into rotation stars. This season’s example is longtime journeyman Nick Martinez, who had pitched as a swingman the previous four years in San Diego and Cincinnati. Martinez owns the lowest walk rate (3.5-percent) of any qualified starter, using deception and precise command to induce soft contact. He’s technically got a six-pitch mix but usually sticks with sinker, changeup, cutter, and four-seamer. In 29 starts, Martinez is 15-4 with a 2.94 ERA (142 ERA+), 3.98 FIP, and 101 strikeouts in 171.1 innings.

This is more or less the Yankees’ go-to lineup for the rest of the regular season with Aaron Judge on the IL. Heliot Ramos and Spencer Jones are both going to get a lot of run out in the outfield, so it was encouraging to see them both hit home runs against the former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes in their last game. José Caballero gets the start over Ryan McMahon at third and sounded eager to make an impact against the team that traded him to the Yankees at last year’s deadline.

The Rays have their three-headed slugging monster atop lineup and then stack the bottom two-thirds with speed. Junior Caminero is third in MLB with 41 home runs giving him back-to-back 40-HR seasons. Chandler Simpson is MLB’s stolen base leader with 46 and third in batting average at .309, but is the only qualified hitter in baseball without a home run this season.

How to watch

Location: Yankee Stadium – Bronx, NY

First pitch: 1:05 pm ET

TV broadcast: YES, Rays.TV

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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