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Well, the A’s dropped the first game of this four-game set with the Astros last night. The final series of the season continues this evening as the weekend gets underway with a nightcap against Houston. The Athletics’ loss paired with the Angels’ win yesterday means that Los Angeles still has a chance to pass our A’s so let’s get the win tonight and clinch fourth place once and for all.

On the other side of the ball, thanks to both Texas teams winning last night the two squads are still tied atop the AL West, fighting with the Rangers for the division (and therefor their last path to the playoffs). At 79-80 they still have a chance to finish with either a losing or winning record, regardless of if they win the division. Let’s make sure they finish with at least a .500 record. That means we’ll need to take two of three. Think our A’s have it in ‘em to play spoiler a few more times?

The Athletics have left-hander Jacob Lopez on the bump this evening making his 24th and final start of the season. It’s definitely been an up-and-down year for the southpaw as he started the year in the rotation before faltering so hard he found himself back in the minor leagues. He’s worked through the adversity however to have worked his way back into the rotation and overall thrive. That is, until his last start. That was easily the worst appearance of his career as he allowed 10 (!) earned runs to the Guardians in less than three innings of work. That has skewed his overall ERA on the year but he’s in general ending the year on a good note. That likely won’t be enough to guarantee him a rotation job next spring but he could be one of the top depth options for next year’s squad.

Here’s how the lineup for game two looks this evening:

The A’s are going with their usual starting lineup again tonight, with minimal changes from yesterday. And why mess with a lineup that put up five runs? Tonight’s scorecard will see the return of Tommy White to the lineup playing first and batting eighth, taking Joshua Kuroda-Grauer’s spot in the lineup. That’s the only major difference, with the rest of the changes coming on the defensive side of the ball. McNeil moves to second base, Walton to shortstop to accommodate White on the infield.

As for Houston, they have their top arm on the bump in this one. Right-hander Hunter Brown is getting the ball for his 20th start this season. After missing most of the first two months of the year Brown has helped stabilize a shaky Houston rotation thanks to his team-leading 3.26 ERA. He lines up to take the ball for Houston in their first playoff game if they make it to October.

And the Astros’ starting nine tonight shapes up like this:

Can’t let Alvarez kill us. Or for that matter Spence, who nearly single-handed beat us last night with a three-home game (his first three career homers, go figure). If we can handle them then we should be able to stick around and sneak out our 64th win. Let’s go A’s!

Follow the Game:
Watch:
Athletics – NBCSCA

Listen:
Athletics -Talk 650 KSTE, KVMX 92.1/105.5, A’s Cast

Arizona Diamondbacks (85-74) at San Diego Padres (89-70), September 25, 2026, 6:40 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Petco Park – San Diego, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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The Cubs came to Boston Friday hoping they could win a couple of games and maybe still get home games next week in the Wild Card Series.

Instead, after losing the doubleheader nightcap 2-0 to the Red Sox, there’s a mathematical chance they could be dumped into the third wild card spot and wind up facing the Braves in Atlanta

This time, the Cubs went just 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position — but that’s because they didn’t really have many RISP. All the Cubs’ seven hits on the night were singles. The top run-scoring offense in MLB has looked almost completely impotent over the last five games, scoring a total of nine runs, losing four of them.

This, obviously, is not good.

Let’s take a look back.

The Cubs didn’t have anyone past first base until the top of the fifth. In that inning, Nico Hoerner led off with a single and two outs later, Matt Shaw singled Nico to third. But that was that when Pete Cros-Armstrong grounded out.

Meanwhile, David Peterson was throwing well over the first five innings. He got some defensive help from Shaw in the fourth [VIDEO].

Peterson threw five innings, allowed three hits and two walks, and struck out six. Here’s more on Peterson’s evening [VIDEO].

More on Peterson from BCB’s JohnW53:

David Peterson went into Friday’s game having pitched 61 innings since the All-Star Game break, with a 2.95 ERA. That tied him with Sonny Gray for 20th best since then. With his five shutout innings Friday, his ERA is down to 2.73.

I would not hesitate to start Peterson in a Wild Card game, especially if it’s against the Phillies (though that’s looking unlikely, more on that coming).

Javier Assad took over from Peterson and threw two very good innings, the sixth and seventh, while the Cubs offense remained moribund.

Then Assad got in trouble in the bottom of the eighth with a leadoff walk. One out later (and after the Cubs unsuccessfully challenged that Connor Wong didn’t re-touch second on a fly to right), Assad was replaced by Ryan Rolison. Rolison struck out Roman Anthony, but then issued a walk to Jahmai Jones.

And then Wilyer Abreu doubled off the Green Monster and both runners scored, and you just knew that was going to be it for the Cubs, who went down 1-2-3 in the ninth.

“Sad” facts, as John called them in his message to me:

The Cubs have tallied nine runs runs in their five games. They have scored in only seven of their last 51 innings, starting with the sixth last Sunday at Cincinnati.
…
The Cubs had been shut out by the Red Sox in only one of their previous 28 regular-season games, by 17-0 at Boston on April 27, 2024. They also were blanked, 1-0, in Game 1 of the 1918 World Series, played at Comiskey Park on Sept. 5, 1918. The pitcher for the Red Sox was Babe Ruth.

So everyone’s now off to Florida to play the third game of this series Sunday afternoon. In the meantime, here are the permutations for the Cubs.

The Cubs are 88-73. The best record they can finish with is 89-73, obviously.

If the Cubs are 89-73, the Phillies would have to get to 90-72 (sweep the Rays) to finish ahead of them. The Padres have to go only 2-1 to finish ahead of the Cubs. If both of those teams do that, the Cubs would play the Braves. That could also happen if the Cubs lose Sunday. Then the Phillies would have to go 2-1 and the Padres just 1-2 to finish ahead of the Cubs.

So we’re still kind of in a holding pattern to see who the Cubs will be playing, and where. At this point, the only way the Cubs could still play at home is if they win Sunday and the Padres get swept and the Phillies win no more than two of their three against the Rays. So yes… I’m saying there’s still a chance.

The Cubs will have a rare Saturday off. Their flight to Florida is supposed to arrive well after midnight tonight and they and the Red Sox will both rest up before they play Sunday afternoon at 2:05 p.m. CT at Tropicana Field, televised on Marquee Sports Network. Please stick around BCB on Saturday, as we’ll have plenty here, including a game thread that will post at 5 p.m. CT so you can follow along with the Phillies and Padres games, which start at 6:15 p.m. CT and 8:40 p.m. CT, respectively.

At this time we don’t know who will start for the Cubs on Sunday. It could be Shōta Imanaga, it could be some kind of modified bullpen game… as always, we await developments. The Red Sox, whose postseason series against the Yankees is locked in, are likely to also use some sort of bullpen game on Sunday.

Hopefully the Cubs bats show up in Florida. They’ve been absent in Chicago and Boston all week.

With a nor'easter forecasted to hit the area, the Washington Nationals announced that the start time for Saturday's matchup with the Mets has been moved up.

Originally scheduled for 4:05 p.m., the new first pitch is now set for 12:35 p.m. as a precautionary measure.

Jonah Tong (2-2, 4.21 ERA) is scheduled to make his final regular season start against Connelly Early (7-5, 3.44 ERA). 

It's unclear whether Sunday's season finale will also be affected by the weather, but for now, that game is set for 3:05 p.m.

This final series between NL East foes is important in terms of draft positioning. The Mets entered the weekend set two games behind Washington in the standings. A Mets sweep will allow New York to avoid the basement of the division, but also give them a lower pick in the upcoming MLB Draft.

Brayan Bello gave Boston four innings and handed it to rookie Jedixson Páez, who turned around and gave them five more. Combined: nine innings, seven hits, zero Cubs runs—nine innings they were lucky to get in, with the rain circling Fenway all afternoon.

David Peterson matched Bello through five for Chicago. Neither team did much with what they had. The Cubs were making contact. They were just finding gloves.

Then came the eighth. Peterson was gone, Javier Assad got yanked, Ryan Rollison was in, and Wilyer Abreu doubled to right to score two. Assad took the loss.

Final: Red Sox 2, Cubs 0.

The Sox came into this doubleheader wanting to keep the bullpen from taking a beating before the final regular season game. Páez going five innings as a rookie—quietly one of the better pitching performances of the day—was exactly the kind of thing they needed. They sweep the Cubs and head to Tropicana Field to finish the 2026 regular season out.

Studs

Jedixson Páez — Five innings. Zero runs. He came in after Bello in the fifth and just kept going—through a Cubs lineup with its own playoff stakes, through whatever the weather was doing, through the innings where any mistake ends a shutout. The rookie threw the longest outing of the two-man combo and walked away clean. That’s the headline here. Beyond impressive for a spot call-up.

Brayan Bello — Four solid innings to set the table. He’s been one of the better starters in the AL since August and this was him doing his job—keeping the game zero when it needed to stay zero, letting Páez take it from there. Honestly starter Bello is acquiring reliever Bello’s powers and I trust him a little more.

Wilyer Abreu — Three hours of scoreless baseball, and when the game finally broke open, it broke on his bat. Two runs, eighth inning, that was the whole night.

Duds

The Red Sox offense — Four hits in nine innings. They won really because Wilyer’s double was the whole ballgame, and the timing couldn’t have been better. But two runs against a team they’ll never see again isn’t exactly what you want to carry into a playoff series at Yankee Stadium. They’ll need more than that next week.

Play of the Game

Wilyer’s double in the eighth. Three hours of scoreless baseball, a rookie pitcher on the mound, rain somewhere overhead—Abreu stepped in and ended the whole thing with one swing.

Shota Imanaga doesn’t need anyone else’s help celebrating.

The Cubs pitcher went viral after repeatedly blasting himself in the face with beer during the team’s wild clubhouse celebration after clinching a spot in the postseason Thursday.

Naturally, Imanaga had an explanation for the madness.

“This is Japanese style,” Imanaga said while holding a bottle in each hand. “Japanese misogi.”

Imanaga then turned both bottles toward himself and sprayed the beer directly onto his head and face, bobbing up and down into the streams as his teammates laughed around him.

“Self-service!” Imanaga said.

The Cubs leaned into the moment themselves, posting the video on social media captioned: “Who needs bottle service when you have self-service?”

During an interview with Marquee Sports Network’s Taylor McGregor amid the clubhouse celebration, Imanaga was showered with champagne by his teammates.

His response?

“Yummy!”

Chicago officially punched its postseason ticket with a 2-1 victory over the Marlins at Wrigley Field, securing a playoff berth for the second consecutive season.

Seiya Suzuki tied the game with his 26th home run of the season in the fifth inning before Nico Hoerner drove home Ian Happ for the eventual winning run in the sixth.

Pete Crow-Armstrong also stole his 40th base of the season in the victory, giving him 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases and making him just the seventh player in MLB history to accomplish the feat.

Imanaga has played his part in getting Chicago back to the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

The 33-year-old left-hander went 11-10 with a 3.74 ERA while remaining a fixture in Chicago’s starting rotation throughout the season.

He also recorded 171 strikeouts in 173 ⅓ innings pitched in 2026.

Last year, the Cubs went 92-70 and took care of the Padres in the wild-card round before falling to the Brewers in five games in the NLDS.  

Imanaga, who was an All-Star two seasons ago, turned 33 earlier this month and has a career 3.44 ERA and a 35-21 record.

The long-shot chance of Fernando Cruz pitching again this season is now shot.

The Yankees transferred Cruz to the 60-day injured list on Friday, essentially ruling him out for the entire postseason after the reliever was trying to make a comeback from a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament.

Cruz said earlier this week he was “100 percent” ruling out surgery at this point, and hoped to become an option in the coming weeks if the Yankees advanced.

He was slated to throw a second bullpen session on Thursday, though it remains to be seen whether he will just shut it down now that his season is all but over.

The 36-year-old journeyman had emerged as an important part of the Yankees bullpen over the last two seasons, though he became less effective this summer as he tried to pitch through his elbow issues before finally getting imaging in late August that revealed the partial tear in the ligament that usually leads to Tommy John surgery.

“I’m not going to accept that — I’m not going to say I have a partial tear,” Cruz said on Wednesday. “I’m not going to accept it. I had real good inflammation, real stiffness and irritation. People can say it’s a partial tear, but in my heart, it’s not a partial tear. 

“I’m gonna go through it. I’m gonna beat this.”

The Yankees transferred Cruz to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Alexander Cornielle, whom they promoted to eat innings in Friday’s doubleheader nightcap.

Getting this thread up an hour earlier than normal, so we can use it follow along the Rays-Phillies game which, of course, is key to proceedings here. The Philadelphia magic number is two, meaning that if the Rays sweep them, we can afford one loss. Or if we sweep San Diego, we can afford the Phillies to win one. I think I’ve got that right. Card subject to change, as they say. Right now, that game is in the fifth inning, and the Rays are 2-0 up, which is good. There’s no doubt the pressure will currently all be on the Phillies, and if results today go as we hope, that is only going to increase over the remainder of the weekend.

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ active roster is at 28 and the 40-man roster is at 40.

• Recalled from Triple-A Reno: RHP José Cabrera
• Placed on the 15-day injured list: RHP Corbin Burnes (right shoulder inflammation; retro to Sept. 22)

There’s no doubt that Burnes’s results since coming off the IL had not been what we hoped to see. The bar for an improvement was quite low, but a 7.84 ERA across 10.1 innings was below even that. While I’m sure there is enough legitimate cause for concern to pass the scrutiny of MLB’s physicians, it’s certainly true that the D-backs could not afford any implosions with their post-season hopes so slim. Though they had won all three of Corbin’s outings, it was very much a case of “despite” not “because”, the offense averaging seven runs per game. It looks likely to be a bullpen game tomorrow, so hope Brandon Pfaadt can give us six frames or more tonight.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it, even though it causes Twidiots’ heads to explode. The current landscape is so utterly skewed towards the Dodgers, with revenue 50% more than any other team in the division, and 129% more than the D-backs. This is “competitive balance”, according to Manfred. In reality, it’s no surprise they’ll have won the last five divisions in a row, by an average of eleven games, if the current standings hold. Under those circumstances, all the D-backs can realistically hope for, is to compete for a wild-card spot. And here we are, 160 games in and still competing for a wild-card spot. Can’t ask for more than that.

The final weekend of this season is all about Justin Verlander, celebrating the final bow of one of Detroit’s greatest players of all time and a sure-thing first-ballot Hall of Famer. On Friday, ahead of the Tigers’ game against the Pirates, Verlander was surrounded by family, friends, and former teammates to kick the weekend off. He gave a touching speech, and then his daughter Genevieve threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the game.

Genevieve, only eight years old, seems to have taken a few pointers from her proud papa, because she stood confidently on the pitching mound and threw out a perfect first pitch, something we’ve seen fully grown adults falter on time and time again. You’d expect no less from the daughter of a superstar pitcher, but she also did it in style, sporting some boots that probably might not be advisable for most pros, but she made it look easy. Don’t think even JV himself could have done that well in a skirt and ankle boots.

Verlander spoke to the press about helping Genevieve prepare for her big moment.

When even folks on Twitter are hyping her up, you know she did a great job.

Congrats to Justin and Genevieve Verlander for the perfect moment to celebrate the start of JV’s farewell weekend. And who knows, maybe we’ll see GV again at a future WPBL draft.

CC Sabathia could laugh about it Friday because of everything that followed the decision. 

The World Series title in 2009. The three All-Star Game appearances. His 132 victories, 3.81 ERA and 1,700 strikeouts in pinstripes in 11 seasons. 

But before he decided to join the Yankees, Sabathia was intimidated by New York City. He saw other players come here and get swallowed up by the pressure of the big city. 

Then, he let general manager Brian Cashman into his home. 

“We had the initial meeting at the winter meetings in Las Vegas. I wasn’t convinced, I was still looking for other options,” Sabathia, a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2025, who received 86.8 percent of the vote, recalled. “I flew home that night. ‘Cash’ came to my house that night. He sat down on the couch with me and Amber. He was like, ‘I’ve waited three years. There were other guys I could’ve signed but I didn’t sign because I was targeting you to come here. I know you can change my clubhouse, I know you can change the structure of the way this team is.’ … That conversation was the reason I ended up signing.” 

Clearly, it was a very good decision.

Sabathia helped lead the Yankees to their 27th and most recent title, and became a favorite of teammates and fans alike. 

On Friday, his No. 52 jersey was retired. When he arrived in The Bronx in 2009, the big left-hander couldn’t have imagined joining all the great Yankees in Monument Park. He had been part of these ceremonies before, but this was obviously different. 

“That ceremony was incredible, surreal,” Sabathia, 46, said. “I was saying out there I have so many famous teammates whether it’s Mo [Mariano Rivera], Derek [Jeter], Andy [Pettitte]. So I’ve been at the ceremony a bunch of times but to have that ceremony be for me is special and to have my family out there was cool.” 

Sabathia was joined by his wife Amber, mother Margie and two of his children. The ceremony included video messages from Jorge Posada, Paul O’Neill, Bernie Williams and former Yankees manager Joe Girardi. Teammates Jeter, Dellin Betances, Pettitte and Chris Young were a part of the festivities. 

Sabathia was presented with a blue blazer, a framed version of his plaque and retired number, along with a ring commemorating his career. 

He threw out the ceremonial first pitch to son Carsten, a first baseman in the Brewers minor league system, after becoming the fifth member of the 2009 World series champions to have his number retired by the Yankees. The others are Jeter, Pettitte, Rivera and Jorge Posada. 

“I never envisioned myself going into Monument Park and I think that was the reason why I was so scared to come here is because you don’t ever think you’re going to win the Yankee fans over or the city over,” Sabathia said. “So to be able to be sitting here now, playing here 11 years, is an incredible feeling and that’s why I’ve said the last couple of weeks this feels bigger to me than the Hall of Fame because I know what was at stake when I came here.”

After CC Sabathia’s No. 52 retirement ceremony and a rather forgettable Game 1 of Friday’s doubleheader, the New York Yankees will take the field again and face the Baltimore Orioles in the nightcap. The Bombers already know that they will host the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card round, and the O’s are already eliminated from playoff contention.

As a result, this is merely a tune-up game for New York, but that’s certainly not insignificant ahead of another edition of their rivalry with the Sox. Brandon Young will take the ball for Baltimore, trying to wrap up a solid year. The 28-year-old followed up his mediocre 57.2-inning cameo last year with a very solid campaign in 2026, with 151.2 frames of a 3.62 ERA, a 4.53 FIP, and 127 punchouts. He is not a star, but did more than enough to win a long-term spot on the O’s staff.

The Yankees, with that series against their bitter rivals looming, didn’t announce their starting pitcher for Game 2 of the doubleheader until just about 10 minutes ago. Long reliever Ryan Yarbrough gets the nod for his second start of the season; he last pitched on Tuesday. His only other start of 2026 was the second game of another doubleheader against the Dodgers, when he went 2.2 shutout innings back on July 19th.

Yarbrough is obviously not built up length-wise to go deep in this one either, but the expectation is that Will Warren will pitch a couple innings as preparation for the playoffs. He last pitched on Sunday in Arizona. Big things were expected from Warren this season, and while he didn’t exactly develop into an ace, he has been steady as a rock with a 4.02 ERA in 152.1 innings. A team would take that from its No. 5 starter any day of the week. David Bednar, Brent Headrick, and Paul Blackburn can only pitch so much, so Warren could certainly make a positive impact in the ‘pen.

Also keep an eye on the bullpen for Alexander Cornielle. A career minor-league signed before the season, the right-hander made 16 starts for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and was activated to the big-league roster between games with matinee starter Brendan Beck optioned. If he appears tonight or Sunday, it will be his MLB debut.

From this point forward, everything the Yankees do on the field will be with the Red Sox in mind, so don’t expect an all-out effort from those expected to be on the Wild Card Series roster. Indeed, there isn’t a ton of overlap between the Game 1 lineup and the Game 2 starting nine, as the Yankees are avoiding using too many players if possible. Indeed, the Game 1 infield went Paul Goldschmidt/José Caballero/George Lombard Jr./Anthony Volpe from first to third, and Game 2 has Luis García Jr./Jazz Chisholm Jr./Volpe/Ryan McMahon, with Volpe giving Lombard a spell by shifting over to his familiar six for the first time since his early-August demotion. Cody Bellinger tags in for Heliot Ramos in left, while Ramos shifts to right and Amed Rosario takes a seat. Austin Wells will catch and Spencer Jones is the only one starting the same position in both games, in center.

How to watch

Location: Yankee Stadium – Bronx, NY

First pitch: 7:30 p.m. ET

TV broadcast: YES, MASN

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280

Streaming: Gotham Sports App, MLB.tv (out-of-market only)

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