Category: Sports News

Max posted the big news yesterday. A pair of Royals were given “of the month” titles: Jac Caglianone, Noah Cameron win AL honors for August

At The Star, Jaylon Thompson wrote about Caglianone:

On Thursday, Caglianone was recognized as the AL Player of the Month. He is the 13th different Royal to receive the monthly honor. Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. was the last player to do so. In 2024, he was named the AL’s top player for his July surge. Now, Caglianone joins him — alongside other Royals Hall of Famers such as George Brett, John Mayberry and Mike Sweeney.

And about Cameron:

On Thursday, Cameron was named the AL Pitcher of the Month for August. He joins Royals teammate Jac Caglianone — who was named AL Player of the Month.

It’s the fourth time a pair of Royals have swept the monthly awards. The last time was July 1985 when George Brett and Brett Saberhagen were recognized by the league.

He also profiled Nate Pearson:

“We’ve pursued him for a couple of years just because of the power,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said. “There’s stuff and if you look at our advanced analytics, there are things that jump off the page. … The fastball has always been an outlier and the slider is consistent. When he can be in the zone with his fastball, you can see what he can do.”

Michael Massey also got an award:

And there were also Queens of the Diamond:

Blog time!

Royals Keep named their Hitter of the Month and Pitcher of the Month. Considering the news above, those awards went to, you guessed it: Frank Stallone.

Also at Royals Keep, Kevin O’Brien lists their Royals Minor League Pitchers of the Month:

Albus is not a pitcher who’s going to generate much fanfare at first glance. He’s a 19th-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft out of Abilene Christian, a Mid-Major school. He doesn’t cast an intimidating presence on the mound at 5’11, 180 pounds. Furthermore, the numbers have been fine, but not impressive, for a Minor League reliever.

Last season, he posted a 3.54 ERA in 61 IP with the Fireflies. This season, he has a 4.39 ERA in 26.2 IP with the River Bandits. Thus, it is easy to dismiss him as just “organizational bullpen depth.” However, he had an impressive August that should put Royals fans on notice.

In nine outings and 16.2 IP in August with Quad Cities, he posted a 1.08 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 1.84 FIP, and 29% K-BB%. He has looked in control on the mound, and his quick and efficient style is starting to pay dividends in High-A ball after an initial slow start. For context, Albus made some noise last year in Columbia with an eight-pitch immaculate inning back in late July.

Blog Roundup:

• Darin Watson at U.L.’s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History–1976 Edition: September 3 – Another quiet night on offense means a fifth straight loss
• Brian Burrows at Kings of Kauffman: 3 Royals with the most to prove in the final month of the season
• Trey Donovan at Kansas City Royals on SI: The Kansas City Royals Have Intriguing Relief Prospect in L.P. Langevin

It’s been a while since we’ve done “one-liner” movie reviews. They’re usually a lot longer, of late. However,  I haven’t had a lot of time to write up the movies I’ve watched over the summer. So here are the quick hits.

Casablanca (1942) – An excellent movie that is still very watchable today. What more can I say about it that hasn’t already been said over the last century? Amusingly, I watched this and the next one on a the same airplane trip.

The Day the Earth Blew Up (2024) – If you told competent people to make a Looney Tunes movie in 2024, this is what you’d get. It’s a little out of date, it takes a little liberty with the source material, and it’s a little looney. But I think the creative team loved the originals and did a good job modernizing it for a new audience. I want to see Coyote vs. Acme.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) – I’ve seen it a number of times, but never really watched it with a critical eye. Broderick and Ruck are great. It’s such an 80s movie in so many ways. The movie plays Ferris as the hero, despite him basically just being all ego and justifying it by saying he’s all doing it for Cameron (when he’s really not). The Chicago love letter is nice.

The Odyssey (2026) – Worth seeing in a theater, though we didn’t see it in IMAX or whatever. Feels kindof like Gladiator did when it came out back in 2000. Hand an excellent director good source material and a blockbuster budget and they deliver a blockbuster. Bonus points to Nolan for doing it with an “unfilmable” story.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) – This is the first MCU Spider-Man movie that felt like a Spider-Man movie rather than Peter Park, Junior Avenger (and Iron Man protege). As a Spider-Man fan, this was a nice new start after No Way Home was a celebration of the entire big screen franchise.

Clue (1985) – Have also seen it many times. For as big a cast as it has, it’s not quite as funny as it should be. But it’s really buoyed by Tim Curry’s manic energy. RIP.

Wicked (2024) – Deserving of its plaudits. Looks great, acted great, sounds great, and directed great.  Deserved to win more than 2 Oscars. I’m not a big musical guy, but that aspect only drags the movie a little in this half.  And it’s more than made up for by the spectacular bookend duo of “No One Mourns the Wicked” and “Defying Gravity”.

Wicked: For Good (2025) – There’s nothing terribly wrong with it. However, the payoff isn’t as satisfying or as clean as you hoped from the great setup.  Perhaps there was just too much going on in the first part and too much padding in the second part. You could cut it as they get on the train to Oz.  But if you did that, it would come at the cost of the there-aren’t-enough-superlatives “Defying Gravity” finale.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) –Like Casablanca, what more can I say about a classic that’s nearly a century old?Saw it twice this summer. The first time was at The Sphere in Las Vegas. I loved being able to see the scene where Oz bursts into Technicolor on the big screen. The second time I watched it was after we watched Wicked.

Masters of the Universe (2026) – I thoroughly enjoyed it. The comedy was good, it looked pretty, and there was a great earnestness in the whole endeavor. The plot was a little clunky and I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea to invest $200m on a mostly dormant and forgotten franchise. But if they make a She-Ra sequel, I’d watch

Masters of the Universe (1987) – Did not get to see because it was not on Amazon and I’m not paying for it. C’mon, Bezos – it can’t cost that much.

The Martian (2015) – This feel-good celebration of science is also deserving of its accolades. I think it would be impossible to not cut a few corners with science for the drama, but I think there’s an honest attempt to be mostly realistic.  Also, I thoroughly enjoy the problem-solving genre of “competence porn”, as this has been described.

Project Hail Mary (2026) – It’s hard to not compare this to “The Martian”. I think I liked the former a little more – it’s a bit more tangible, a bit less Treknobabble. However, this has the wonderful buddy pic dynamic that you don’t see as often in science fiction.

FYI: We started the MCU with our son last week. So expect those reviews to start trickling out over the next year, probably in phases.

Idina Menzel is an amazing singer who had kids singing “Let It Go” for a decade.  Her version of “Defying Gravity”, the initial well-known version, is a Broadway classic that has quotes like “silliest, most inspiring, most enduring song in recent Broadway history” splashed all over its Wikipedia page.  To reinvent it enough to make it a new classic for a new generation – it’s an amazing performance by Cynthia Erivo, accompanied by Ariana Grande. I wasn’t exaggerating when I called it superlative-defying above. I can’t get through the song without getting goosebumps at least a time or two from the raw vocal power.

Though the current ultra-humid atmospheric soup we call “air” belies this observation, autumn is right around the corner. Before embarking on Labor Day plans later today, let’s widen the aperture from the Minnesota Twins and look around Major League Baseball to see how each division is shaping up for the stretch run…

AL Central

• We know the drill: the current 1st place club (Chicago White Sox) could technically still finish 5th while the current 5th place club (Kansas City Royals) could technically still finish 1st. Shake the container and maybe the Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, or our Twins could sort to the top. Your guess is as good as mine.

AL West

• The Houston Astros & Texas Rangers have spent the majority of summer’s dog days slightly leapfrogging each other for the top spot. But now after struggling all season long, the Seattle Mariners have re-emerged as a potential threat (5.0 GB). The rub: none of these teams are all that good. There is a very real chance the West crown could be captured with a sub-.500 record. Yuck.

AL East

• The American League has two solid squads—maybe three—and they all reside on the Eastern Seaboard. The Tampa Bay Rays have been the Junior Circuit’s premiere club all year, with the New York Yankees consistently 3-5 games back. The Boston Red Sox are probably a little too far out—7.5 GB—to make a division run, but they are locked into a Wild Card berth and will be a tough out in the tournament.

NL Central

• The Milwaukee Brewers have this one in the bag—the only remaining drama being whether they will procure the #1 National League seed and be able to unleash The Miz (Jacob Misiorowski) at home. The Chicago Cubs are also cruising to a WC slot thanks to Pete Crow-Armstrong’s MVP push.

NL West

• As per usual at this time of year, the Los Angeles Dodgers are not battling fellow West teams—they are trying to maul Milwaukee for that top bunk. Meanwhile, the San Diego Padres & Arizona Diamondbacks—two teams nearly 10 games above .500—are in a dogfight for the final Senior Circuit WC entry.

NL East

• As per their usual pattern, just when you think “the Atlanta Braves’ window has probably closed”, they make a legitimate title run (in the hunt with LAD & MIL for the top NL spot). However, those ever-pesky Philadelphia Phillies lurk just 4.0 GB. Whether as a wild card or division champ, the Fightin’ Kyle Schwarber’s will be a pernicious postseason opponent.

Have an enjoyable and safe holiday weekend. When you return to reality, the weather may cool down but one thing will be for certain: the pennant races will only be heating up!

The San Francisco Giants spent much of the year acting as though the waiver wire did not exist. But they’re now ending the season by trying to make up for lost time.

On Thursday, the team announced that it had claimed infielder Brett Harris off of waivers. Harris had been designated for assignment by the Boston Red Sox two days prior. To make space for Harris on the 40-man roster, pitcher Keaton Winn was moved from the 15-Day Injured List to the 60-Day Injured List.

Harris, a 28-year old right-hander, was a seventh-round pick by the Athletics in 2021, out of Gonzaga. He made his MLB debut in 2024 and has played in the Majors for the A’s in each of the past three seasons, while also appearing in games for the Red Sox this year.

He’s never really been able to find his bat in the Majors, as he holds a career .192/.307/.286 slash line in 216 MLB plate appearances. But he’s done a good job working counts, and he plays very strong defense at third base, while also being able to handle first and second. He’s spent most of this year in AAA, where he’s hit .293/.405/.459 for a 119 wRC+ with both the A’s and Red Sox affiliates. The Giants optioned him to Sacramento, so he’ll get a chance to lace up cleats for three different AAA teams this year.

While Harris could find himself in the Majors with San Francisco this year, especially if Christian Koss, Osleivis Basabe, Shay Whitcomb, or Nate Furman were to suffer an injury, it’s highly unlikely that he survives the upcoming offseason roster crunch. The Giants have a whopping 14 players on the 60-Day IL currently, meaning their 40-man roster has 54 names on it. That number will have to get trimmed down to 40 when the season ends, and lower still when the team wants to make Rule 5 protections and sign free agents. And not only is Harris unproven, but he’ll be out of options after this season.

But adding Harris now gives the Giants some extra depth in the infield for the rest of the season. And it also gives them a good chance of slipping him through waivers in the offseason, and then outrighting him to Sacramento to keep him in the system.

What time do the Giants play today?

The Giants kick off a three-game road series against the New York Mets today at 4:10 p.m. PT.

If you frequent Over The Monster, you may already know I absolutely detest MLB’s bloated current playoff format. Way too many teams get in, you can win your division and end up not making the LDS, and the September spotlight strays away from the spectacular squads who spent the first 130 games proving themselves to alternatively focus on flawed teams trying muster 83 wins and grab the final Wild Card spot. Nasty, nasty stuff!

But I’m not here to complain about the overarching gripes I have with the system today, or at least not as much as I usually do. Instead, I want to dive into another bizarre byproduct of this increasingly swollen playoff structure, and how the Red Sox may be positioning themselves to take advantage of it. Specially, I want to underscore how baseball in 2026 is more about small sample size, readiness, rest, and randomness than it’s ever been in its history.

You’d never know it by the way we talk about baseball now — WAR, wOBA, wRC+, BABIP, xFIP, and every other stat that needs a large sample size to normalize dominates the conversation — but in terms of being one of the last teams standing in the middle of October, being good at the right time is increasingly more effective than being good a majority of the time.

So before we join the Red Sox and go to meet the baseball devil, we have to stop and take a moment to marvel at the irony. In an age where we can calculate everything to the point that 99% of the audience will stop caring about the details in the quest to create the best team on paper, having the best team on paper over 162 games has actually never mattered less.

We can track exit velocities and spin rates, we can track arm angles and run production, we can track defensive metrics and zone ratings, and then we can add it all up, throw it in a formula that would make an MIT grad blush, and determine who the best of the best are in a league of large sample samples. That’s all great, except for the fact that having the best team isn’t necessarily how you get to the World Series anymore.

Instead, it’s more about having the hottest and healthiest players over a very specific window. It’s a road the sport’s been trending down for the better part of the last 30 years, but thanks to the gluttonous owners and their dopey third Wild Card that was specifically spawned to salivate their insatiable search for more money, we’ve arrived in baseball hell.

For most of MLB history, the most direct (and really only) path to get near the World Series was to win as many regular season games as possible. But now, the path to and through the playoffs involves this awkward two step process we really haven’t ironed out yet.

1)Don’t suck! (Just be a handful of games over .500 in the regular season and you’re probably getting in the playoffs.)

2) Play your best baseball for somewhere between three and eight games spread over a twelve day stretch when the regular season ends.

I don’t think we talk anywhere near enough about how ridiculous that second bullet is in determining a champion. Once you’ve got a team on paper that can win 85 or more games (a pretty low bar), surviving that klutzy corner of the calendar where the schedule resembles anything but a typical baseball stretch for a fortnight becomes orders of magnitude more important for your chances of winning a World Series than adding regular season wins to you total. It sucks, but it’s very much the reality.

In terms of strategy, being one of the twelve best teams in the sport over 162 games isn’t all that difficult — or at least not compared to what it’s taken to make the playoffs in the past — But being specifically good over a less than two week stretch where you may have more off days than game days is quite a sticky wicket, and it flies right in the face of conventional baseball wisdom.

So with that, what type of team on paper would be best equipped to handle such a strange stretch of baseball? Here’s a list of items that comes to my mind from the pitching side:

• Elite starting pitching at the top of the rotation.
• Healthy starting pitching at the top of the rotation.
• Rested starting pitching at the top of the rotation.
• Elite relief pitching at the back of the bullpen.
• Healthy relief pitching at the back of the bullpen.
• Rested relief pitching at the back of the bullpen.

And here’s a much more complicated list from the positional side:

• Power in your lineup.
• Situationally aware players in your lineup.
• Clutch players in your lineup.
• Guys who can lock in / get in a groove quickly from regular to postseason game atmospheres in your lineup.
• Guys who can make adjustments with two strikes in your lineup.
• Healthy players in your lineup.
• Rested players (but not too rested) in your lineup.
• Speed and strong platoon options on your bench.

Doesn’t this largely sum up the Red Sox September dilemma? They don’t really have a healthy or rested roster right now, but it sure looks like they’re hell bent on getting one by the time September 29th rolls around, even if that means letting go of the rope a few times during a stretch that historically means pennant chase.

Garrett Whitlock to the IL to get some rest in late August? Sure. Tyron Guerrero the same right now? Why not? Push Sonny Gray back in the rotation? Yep! Align Payton Tolle’s starts so that he’ll have an extra off day all the way through the end of the season and be perfectly positioned to start Game 2 of a Wild Card series? Absolutely!

Did you purchase tickets to Tuesday’s game and get to see Jedixson Paez give up eight runs in 3.2 innings? That’s too bad, but the Red Sox weren’t making that one a priority.

On Wednesday, Dan Secatore wrote a great piece here on OTM about Adley Rutschman’s nagging elbow injury and how it’s important to beware of trade deadline hype. Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s still Okay to get hyped if you believe that suffering through Connor Wong for a bunch of games now means you might get a big playoff performance from Rutschman in a few weeks. I don’t care if Rutschman bats half his weight for the Sox in the regular season if helps him go 3-5 with a home run on September 29th. And I don’t care if he rests his elbow now if it better allows him to throw out the potential tying run in the ninth inning at second base on September 30th. Small sample size baby! That’s the game we’ve been reduced to.

Yesterday, our own Tim Crowley even took it one step further and went on to ponder if falling to the No. 6 seed would give the Red Sox an easier path through the playoffs. Again, all this is made possible because of the safety net of the completely unnecessary third Wild Card.

Oh, and as dirty as this feels, I can’t even blame the club for these actions. Just two weeks ago, I wrote about how Willson Contreras should’ve been put on the IL to rest up for when the games matter more. This is the reality when FanGraphs gives you a 97.1 percent chance to make the playoffs, but just a 0.3 percent chance to win the division.

Because do you know what else FanGraphs says about Boston’s chances? They have a 6.5 percent chance to win the World Series (over 20 times higher than their chances of winning the division). So you’re better off trying to fatten up those odds by prioritizing health and rest in September when the other two figures are virtual locks.

Again, it’s not really baseball, it doesn’t feel right on the night’s you’re doing it, and there’s no guarantee it’s even going to work, but if you think it’s going to bump your World Series odds, you get out your quill and sign the pact with the baseball devil.

Oh, and while we’re down this portal to hell, do you want to really get in the sheets with Satan? How about rooting for the Yankees? Currently, New York is just 3.0 games behind the Rays for the AL East lead with a SIGNIFICALLY easier schedule. Not only do the Rays still have to play Texas, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Houston and Boston, but they also have a four game set with the Yankees at Yankee Stadium near the end of the month in games 156 through 159.

If the Yankees draw close enough, Tampa and New York being better than the Red Sox over 162 games could actually work to Boston’s advantage if they each end up burning resources during the final few games of the season trying to win the division. The Red Sox meanwhile can spend that weekend exchanging love letters with the Cubs admiring how awesome each of their ballparks are and end up fully rested up for Tuesday, September 29th.

I don’t know if it will work, but I do know those first two legs of the MLB postseason are a complete mayhem machine, and figuring out how best to survive MLB’s crunch from twelve teams to four is the new holy grail of championship building. The sport has thoroughly and publicly figured out how good baseball teams are built in large sample size, but it hasn’t figured it out in small sample size yet.

Again, I don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like (nobody does), but I can take a guess; and it’s pretty clear the 2026 Red Sox are trying to align themselves to tackle that puzzle. It’s no longer about the marathon, it’s about positioning and peaking at a very specific moment. The Sox are trying to do this with a bunch of things we can see above the surface, and I’d bet my bottom dollar they’re also doing it with things we can’t see below the surface.

That’s the story of September. That’s the deal they’re making with the baseball devil. The sins may come with a very hefty price tag for throwing away some of these games down the stretch, but if the Red Sox do manage to punch their playoff ticket, navigate through the mess, and make it all the way to Game 7 of the World Series, it will all appropriately pay off on Halloween night. That’s just the sort of thing a baseball fanatic might sell their soul for.

Good morning, Camden Chatters.

Well, gang, the vibes are…not great. The Orioles finally returned to Camden Yards last night after nearly two weeks on the road, but what could’ve been an uplifting series-opening victory against the Red Sox turned sour in the late innings. There were plenty of reasons for the O’s loss, which I’ll get to momentarily, but the biggest factor was that Adley Rutschman did Adley Rutschman things, only this time against the Orioles instead of for them.

It was an emotional night for Orioles fans as the Birds’ former #1 overall pick and franchise cornerstone played his first game in Baltimore as a member of the opposing team. Rutschman received a loud, extended standing ovation before his first at-bat in the top of the first, and another one after the inning when the Orioles played a tribute video on the Jumbotron. Adley was noticeably appreciative of the crowd, doffing his helmet and holding his hand to his heart, and his greetings with his former teammates were no less joyful (Pete Alonso gave him a hug in his first at-bat, aw).

And then Rutschman went out and beat the Birds, hitting not one but two home runs off an otherwise dominant Brandon Young and setting the stage for Boston’s late comeback. Ugh. Talk about a bittersweet reunion. Personally I was hoping we could see Adley succeed but his team fail miserably. We only got the first part of that.

Seeing Rutschman stomp the Orioles just opens old wounds about Mike Elias’s decision to trade him. On a baseball level, it made sense, and the O’s did get a nice haul of prospects. But man, I wish the Orioles, not the Sox, could be the team that’s locked into a playoff spot right now, with Adley helping to lead them to victory. But of course, that would have required the Orioles to put together a more competent team around him.

Last night’s loss laid bare the many problems that plague the Orioles right now. Their bullpen has collapsed, with almost no reliever proving to be a reliable option at the moment. Even Yennier Cano, who’s been the best of the lot for most of the season, fumbled yesterday by coughing up the go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth. Before that, the O’s had a chance to get out of the inning on a double play, but Blaze Alexander spiked the relay throw to keep the Sox alive. So, yeah, bad defense is still an issue for the Orioles, too.

First-year manager Craig Albernaz continues to befuddle everyone with his inexplicable in-game tactics. Last night he astoundingly let Carlos Narváez hit for himself with two on and two out in a tie game in the seventh. Why even have three catchers on the roster if you’re not going to pinch-hit for Narváez in such a crucial situation? Samuel Basallo, Jackson Holliday, Heston Kjerstad, and Colton Cowser were all available on the bench, and while the Sox did have a southpaw on the mound, I’d take my chances with any of those left-handed hitters (or Yohel Pozo, if you insist on a righty) instead of Narváez, who is 5-for-55 as an Oriole and has a .486 OPS against lefties this year. Compounding the blunder, Albernaz did pinch-hit for both Coby Mayo and Luis Robert Jr., two far better hitters than Narváez, just one inning later. What are we doing here, buddy?

Overall, the Orioles just seemed fatigued, which is understandable considering their brutal travel schedule of late. Since Aug. 25, they’ve traveled to the Central Time Zone (St. Louis) to the Pacific (Sacramento) to the Mountain (Denver) and back to the Eastern (Baltimore), all without a single day off. The schedule makers did the O’s no favors, and the Birds may be paying the price.

That’s the third loss in a row for the Orioles, who remain 1.5 games behind the losing Guardians for the third wild card spot, but have now fallen a full game behind both the Rangers and Blue Jays. The O’s have yet to win since Colton Cowser’s game-saving catch in Colorado on Monday. I was hoping we’d eventually look at that play as the moment that sparked the Orioles into a playoff run. Instead, we might eventually look at that play as the last time we felt good about the Orioles this season.

Links

Rutschman on returning to Baltimore: “It’s a lot of feelings going on” – School of Roch

Same, Adley. Same.

Kyle Goon: For one night, Adley Rutschman forces Orioles fans to ask ‘What if?’ – The Baltimore Banner

That feeling is going to last for more than one night, I think. There are still three more games in this series for Adley to hit a bunch more home runs.

If Orioles make playoffs, would starters be strong enough to help? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com

There’s a Jim Mora quote that perfectly sums up my response to this headline.

Orioles birthdays and history

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Former Orioles born on this day include catcher Mark Kolozsvary (31), infielder Luis López (56), right-hander Doyle Alexander (76), and the late first baseman Eddie Waitkus (b. 1919, d. 1972).

On this date in 1957, Orioles 18-year-old right-hander Jerry Walker threw a 10-inning shutout to beat the Senators, 1-0. What were you doing at age 18?

In 1969, the Orioles pulled off a ninth-inning comeback in Detroit in most impressive fashion. Down by three runs, they led off the ninth with three consecutive homers by Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, and Brooks Robinson to tie the game. Later in the inning, a Mark Belanger RBI groundout sealed the Birds’ 5-4 come-from-behind win.

Exactly a year later, Brooks Robinson contributed to another O’s win by going 5-for-5 with two home runs at Fenway Park to top the Red Sox, 8-6. Brooks loved hitting on Sept. 4, apparently.

In 1982, 36-year-old right-hander Jim Palmer threw a one-hit shutout to beat the Twins, 3-0. (And at twice Jerry Walker’s age!) It was Palmer’s 11th consecutive victory, improving his record to 13-3.

And on this day in 2012, the Orioles demolished the Blue Jays in Toronto, 12-0, behind an 18-hit explosion and Zack Britton’s seven shutout innings. The win pulled the O’s into a first-place tie with the Yankees, marking the first time in 15 years that the Orioles had been in first place in September.

Random Orioles game of the day

On Sept. 4, 2018, the Orioles…actually won a game! That’s a season where they finished 47-115, so it’s a legitimate surprise to discover a win on any given date. The O’s beat the Mariners in Seattle, 5-3, thanks to a four-run rally in the seventh. Reñato Nunez tied the game with a homer and Jonathan Villar, Joey Rickard, and Trey Mancini each collected an RBI in the frame. Even Chris Davis, well into his late-career collapse by then, contributed an RBI single in the ninth. Alex Cobb threw a quality start to run his record to 5-15, and Mychal Givens notched the last five outs for the save. The win “improved” the Orioles to 41-98. It snapped a four-game losing streak, though they started a six-game skid the next day.

The Detroit Tigers are moving on to the second leg of their current American League Central road trip starting on Friday with a doubleheader against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field. The opener of the four-game series is a make-up for a matchup originally scheduled for June 14 that was postponed due to weather.

On Friday afternoon, right-hander Keider Montero will get the start for the visitors. It will be the 25-year-old’s third outing against the Guardians this year, having earned a loss in his first appearance back in May after giving up three runs in five innings; he earned a win in his second start against the AL Central rival with 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball in August. Both games were in Detroit.

Taking the mound in the second game is left-hander Andrew Sears, who will be making his first-ever MLB start. He has produced mixed results out of the bullpen so far, but hopefully, the just-recently-turned 24-year-old can find a groove as a starter.

For Cleveland, southpaw Logan Allen takes the hill in the first game of the doubleheader for his second start of the 2026 campaign. The 27-year-old spent most of the season at Triple-A Columbus — having hurled for the big league club in a pair of games during May and July — before being recalled in mid-August for his latest stint in the majors.

For the nightcap, another left-hander, Foster Griffin, gets the call for the 28th time this summer. The 31-year-old saw the Tigers last month at Progressive Field, spinning five frames of three-run (but one earned run) ball en route to his 13th win in a 6-4 final.

Make note that the second game of the doubleheader will be broadcast on Apple TV, while the first game will be shown on Detroit SportsNet and MLB.tv.

Detroit Tigers (64-75) vs. Cleveland Guardians (70-70)

Time (ET): 2:10 p.m. ET, 7:15 p.m. ET
Place: Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio
SB Nation Site:Covering the Corner
Media: Detroit SportsNet, Apple TV, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network

Game 140: RHP Keider Montero (9-8, 3.24 ERA) vs. LHP Logan Allen (0-0, 3.77 ERA)

MONTERO

ALLEN

Game 141: LHP Andrew Sears (0-1, 6.75 ERA) vs. LHP Foster Griffin (15-4, 3.21 ERA)

SEARS

GRIFFIN

The Braves, at CBP, with the NL East lead on the line. Enough said.

On to the links.

Phillies news

Is Aidan Miller making his return soon? ($)

The farm system is having a moment.

A rookie makes a star look silly, and the the clubhouse takes notice.

MLB news

Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 4 on Wednesday, and didn’t play yesterday.

Which deadline deals worked, and which didn’t?

And another take on the same.

Adley Rutschman made his return to Baltimore.