It may not be Thanksgiving quite yet, but I’d like to make a toast to the City of Detroit. Sure, your football franchise is irrelevant, your hockey team is a shell of what it was and the best thing about your city is the bridge to Canada, but you do have the Detroit Tigers. We would like to thank you for giving them to us for an easy win to get the White Sox back on track.

After back-to-back collapses at the hands of the Cleveland Guardians, the White Sox scored three runs in the first inning yesterday vs. Detroit, and dared the kitty cats to do something about it. Much like they have all season (and all decade, really), the Tigers laid an egg when it mattered most and the White Sox are back atop the AL Central thanks to their handy-dandy tiebreaker.

Unfortunately, thanks to their monthlong collapse, the White Sox still have work to do. There’s certainly pressure on the Guardians, but with their next series being against the Athletics at home, it’s mostly on the White Sox to keep up.

With a bullpen that is also absolutely gassed, they’ll need more length from their starters, as no team this season has gotten less out of its rotation in terms of innings load. To wit, it’s been more than a month since a starter has gone six innings, and that can’t continue for much longer.

Drew Sandlin gets the task for the White Sox Friday night, and he came close to snapping the streak his last time out, perfect into the sixth inning on Sunday at St. Louis. Despite mixed results overall during his first taste of the majors, Sandlin has crushed it all season at Triple-A and ran a streak of five minor league starts allowing more than a run just once. And his work vs. the Cardinals earlier this week was as impeccable as you’re going to get from the White Sox rotation. Hopefully the home crowd will give Sandlin some juice, and he can will his way to a strong start.

The Tigers will throw out Andrew Sears. While he may look like a high school robotics teacher, he’s seen some success at the major league level — with the operative word being, “some.” Means has started in two of his four appearances and it seems his performance comes down to the flip of a coin. In a relief appearance against Kansas City in late August, he surrendered five runs in four innings. He followed that up by blanking the Los Angeles Dodgers in his next outing.

Everything looked bright when he limited Cleveland to one run in his first career start, in just under six innings of work. Unfortunately for him, Means quickly followed that up by allowing four runs in under five innings in his next outing. His best two outings were against two good teams and his two worst outings came against two of the worst teams in baseball. The good news is that if Means shuts us down, that means we’re a good team, right?

As every game has felt for Chicago lately, expect the unexpected. There is no doubt that Chicago could blow Detroit out, but there is also zero doubt they could get ran out of the park by a guy with goggles we haven’t seen since the 1980’s NBA.

Ease your nerves with some wise words from Tom Cappello:

Here is the starting lineup for the Chicago White Sox:

Here is the starting lineup for the Detroit Tigers:

First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. CDT. The game will be televised on CHSN and can be heard on ESPN Chicago 1000. Drop your predictions and thoughts down below!

There is not much on the line at Coors Field this weekend.

The Colorado Rockies enter tonight’s series opener at 56-97, three losses away from their fourth consecutive 100-loss season. They are 4-11 in September and 7-23 over their last 30 games, turning another difficult year into an ugly finish.

The Seattle Mariners reached the ALCS last season and entered 2026 looking poised to build on it. Instead, they arrive in Denver at 71-82, six games back of first place in the AL West and even further back in the Wild Card race.

Seattle remains a much more competitive team than Colorado, but several parts of last year’s formula have slipped. The pitching has been roughly similar, the defense has been among the worst in baseball, and the offense has fallen from a 113 wRC+ in 2025 to a roughly league-average 102 this season.

The biggest drop has come from Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez. Raleigh went from 60 home runs and a 161 wRC+ last year to a 96 wRC+ this season, while Rodríguez has fallen from 126 to 102 — turning what began as another hopeful season in Seattle into something much different.

The grind continues tonight.

Rookie Gabriel Hughes will make his 13th major-league start. He remains in search of his first win and enters 0-8 with a 6.37 ERA over 59.1 innings.

Against the Yankees on Sept. 8, Hughes generated 13 whiffs and struck out six over five solid innings. Five days later, Detroit repeatedly extended at-bats and forced him to throw 70 pitches in two innings. He allowed five runs and two home runs while generating just six whiffs.

Hughes has held hitters to an 87.2 mph average exit velocity (82nd percentile), a 29.9% hard-hit rate (96th percentile) and a 5.4% barrel rate (84th percentile), while his 4.04 FIP sits well below his ERA. The larger issue has been finishing hitters.

Seattle counters with Bryan Woo.

Woo is 12-9 with a 3.88 ERA and 163 strikeouts, including a 1.93 ERA and 0.76 WHIP over his last seven starts. One six-run outing against Philadelphia accounts for most of the damage during that stretch; across the other six starts, he has allowed just three earned runs in 38 innings.

Woo works from a lower arm slot, around 24 degrees, and changes his mix by handedness. He leans on the four-seamer and slider against lefties, with a sinker and changeup mixed in, while right-handers see a heavier four-seam/sinker combination with the sweeper as his primary breaking ball.

Both fastballs sit around 96 mph, with the slider around 89 mph, the changeup around 88 mph and the sweeper dropping into the low 80s.

Woo’s whiff rate is 24.7% (48th percentile), while he has walked just 5.3% of opposing hitters (95th percentile). Still, he has allowed some firm contact — an 89.3 mph average exit velocity (31st percentile) and a 42.0% hard-hit rate (20th percentile) — and much of it has come in the air, with a 38.1% ground-ball rate (28th percentile).

That makes his first career start at Coors Field especially interesting.

TJ Rumfield and Jake McCarthy enter play fifth and sixth in the National League in batting average, with Rumfield at .301 and McCarthy at .295. Cole Carrigg has slugged .633 with three home runs over his last 30 at-bats, while Hunter Goodman, with his 38 home runs, returns to the middle of the lineup.

The Details…

First Pitch: 6:10 pm MDT

TV: Rockies.TV

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)

Mariners SB Nation Site: Lookout Landing

Lineups:

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks! 

For most of the 2026 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers have had to navigate their roster like a stout ship dashing through a storm. 

Shoulders. Elbows. Backs. Necks. Knees. Hands. Biceps. Blisters. And now, with October quickly approaching, Blake Snell’s groin. 

In what is turning out to be an annual occurrence, the Dodgers have spent much of their pursuit of history trying to outrun the injured list, and the numbers show just how bruised and battered baseball’s powerhouse has been. 

According to RotoWire’s latest MLB injury severity rankings, the Dodgers currently sit 11th among all 30 teams with a 75-point score, including 11 players on the 60-day injured list and six on the 10- or 15-day IL. RotoWire’s model assigns greater weight to long-term absences, giving five points for every 60-day IL placement and three for shorter 10- or 15-day stays.

Ironically, this is the first time the Dodgers have fallen out of the top 10 in the rankings this season. At the end of August they were 8th, and have consistently been in the top 10 throughout the year. Maybe, their slip to 11th is coming at the perfect time. 

The Dodgers have already secured their 14th consecutive postseason appearance and clinched the NL West for the 13th time in 14 seasons. Now comes their attempt to become the first National League franchise to win three consecutive World Series championships.

That attempt will come with some of their biggest stars fighting through injuries. 

Superstar Shohei Ohtani is still on the 15-day IL with lingering left knee and right biceps issues, but Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman recently told the California Post that Ohtani is “progressing well,” and he expects him to return before the end of the regular season. 

All-Star closer Edwin Diaz has been battling several injuries throughout the season but was activated on Friday after being sidelined since Aug. 18 with neck inflammation. 

All-Star center fielder Andy Pages remains on the IL with a fractured left hand, but could be activated during the Dodgers final homestand. 

Tyler Glasnow is back in the starting rotation, but missed more than three months with lower back spasms before returning in late August. Snell opened the season sidelined by shoulder fatigue and underwent elbow surgery in May and didn’t return until August. 

On Wednesday in Cincinnati, he lasted just one inning before left groin tightness forced him from the game. A source told the California Post the decision to remove him from the game was “precautionary,” and Snell himself said he expects to make his next start. 

Roki Sasaki has been sidelined since Aug. 27 with a blister on his pitching hand, and Will Smith recently returned after missing nearly three months with neck inflammation. 

The Giants and Orioles are the only two teams in RotoWire’s study that have more than 100 points on their severity score due to the amount of players currently on the 60-day IL. 

Currently there are 526 roster players currently on injured lists across all 30 teams. 

According to Spotrac, the Dodgers have had 26 different players on the IL this season and lead the league in total days players have been on the injured list with 2,194. They trail only the New York Yankees ($91.4 million) with an estimated cash total of $83 million in players salaries on the IL this season. 

The Dodgers survived six months of baseball’s version of a demolition derby and still won the West. The question now isn’t whether they were good enough to survive the regular season.

It’s whether enough of them will be healthy enough to survive October and bring home a third straight World Series title.

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Toronto Blue Jays @ Texas Rangers

Friday, September 18, 2026, 7:05 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / Rangers Sports Network)

The Shed

RHP Dylan Cease vs. RHP Kumar Rocker

Go Rangers!

There is a little bit of Jays news this afternoon:

• Michael Lorenzen has been DFAed.
• José Rodríguez has been called up.
• Anthony Santander is playing in the outfield for the Bisons.
• Andres Gimenez is dealing with a hamstring, but it is ‘feeling better’. He will be available off the bench tonight.
• Trey Yesavage threw a side session in Texas.
• Shane Bieber will throw a side session tomorrow.

Rodríguez came to us from the Dodgers, in trade for Sebastian Rodriguez on September first this year. Jose is a 25-year-old right-hander. He has pitched in 28 Triple-A games this year, with a 4.50 ERA. in 38 innings, he’s allowed 30 hits, 23 walks and 51 strikeouts. That’s a lot of strikeouts (and a lot of walks). He throws high 90s.

Lorenzen….well, you know.

Tonight’s lineups:

Clinging to ever-fainter AL wild card hopes, the Orioles are back in Baltimore to play the MLB-best Brewers over the penultimate weekend of the 2026 regular season. No big deal or anything, but the Orioles probably need to sweep this series, and definitely need to at most lose a single game, to hold on to that tenuous hope.

It’s not an impossible task. The Orioles have had some good baseball against good teams at times this year. They are capable of playing well. They are also fully capable of not playing well, reflected in their records against teams like the Yankees (2-8) and Red Sox (4-9). Not being competitive against two of their AL East rivals is one reason why they are where they are.

Scoreboard watching is almost entirely irrelevant. The Orioles have to win enough to get themselves to 83 wins and then see what happens. If the Orioles do win tonight, the best thing for their slim chances beyond that would be if the Guardians beat the Athletics and the White Sox lose to the Tigers. It’s better for the Orioles if the White Sox are the third wild card team rather than the Central leader because the O’s have the head-to-head tiebreaker over Chicago, which they don’t over Cleveland.

Again, though, it doesn’t matter if the Orioles don’t go 8-1. Maybe they could go 8-1 and it still wouldn’t matter! That’s the problem with how many games they’ve blown that they should have won this year, such that they now face a three game deficit with nine games to play. They have had some bad luck this year, to be sure, but mostly the players who were supposed to play well have not played well, with the exception of Pete Alonso. I like that guy.

Orioles lineup

1. Dylan Beavers – LF
2. Pete Alonso – 1B
3. Gunnar Henderson – SS
4. Coby Mayo – 3B
5. Samuel Basallo – C
6. Christian Encarnacion-Strand – DH
7. Colton Cowser – CF
8. Jeremiah Jackson – 2B
9. Leody Taveras – RF

Cade Povich has been recalled to make the start for the Orioles. I am on the record as a Povich disliker, chiefly because of his poor last two seasons in the majors, when he had a 5.21 ERA. Through seven games of this season, he’s done much better at a 4.05.

The Brewers are a bit worse against lefties as compared to righties, at least in terms of their team OPS. Perhaps in tonight’s game, Povich will be a good enough lefty to capitalize on that platoon advantage. That’s not to say it will be easy. Even with that weaker split as a team, the Brewers have gone 33-14 in games started by lefties. Wow! The Orioles, if you are wondering, while much better than they began the season, are 24-25 in those games.

Brewers lineup

1. Jackson Chourio – LF
2. Brice Turang – 2B
3. William Contreras – C
4. Andrew Vaughn – 1B
5. Christian Yelich – DH
6. Joey Ortiz – 3B
7. Garrett Mitchell – CF
8. Luis Lara – RF
9. Cooper Pratt – SS

The Brewers starting pitcher, Dustin May, began the season with the Cardinals, where he posted a disappointing 4.38 ERA (89 ERA+). Milwaukee acquired him at the trade deadline and he’s been worse for them (4.91 ERA, 85 ERA+). Orioles fans are well acquainted with the fact that this means little for how the team’s hitters will perform against a particular pitcher.

Just days after his return from a lengthy absence, Aaron Judge is once again heading to the injured list, a heavy blow for a Yankees team with great postseason aspirations that relies on the presence of their star player. Although the news broke today, Judge will be officially placed on the IL on Saturday, leaving the Yankees short a healthy player for tonight’s matchup against the Diamondbacks.

There has been a heavy cloud in Yankee land ever since Judge left Wednesday’s game against the Minnesota Twins in the sixth inning of an eventual 5-4 loss. Now, we know for sure that he is out for nearly the entire remainder of the season (Jon Heyman reports that he could be activated for Game 162).

According to Judge, he felt a problem in the first inning but initially decided to play through it before eventually leaving with right leg discomfort that’s been diagnosed as a calf strain. In the game, Judge struck out in both of his plate appearances before giving way to pinch-hitter Heliot Ramos, who took over in right.

Moving forward, it’s a glass-half-empty, half-full scenario; considering this injury is unrelated to his previous issue, it mostly depends on how you want to look at it. Clearly, it’s severe enough that, at the very least, the Yankees decided to err on the side of caution, removing their star hitter from the home stretch.

As far as Judge’s replacement on the roster is concerned, since the official IL placement will come on Saturday, the Yankees can’t announce who is coming up, but all expectations are that Max Schuemann will get the nod. The utility player formerly of the A’s last appeared in the bigs roughly a month ago, accumulating 87 plate appearances in 41 games off the bench for the Yankees this season with a pair of home runs.

The Athletics begin a three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians tonight, looking to bounce back from a three-game sweep by the Tampa Bay Rays earlier this week. Cleveland is battling the Chicago White Sox for the American League Central division title, giving the A’s an opportunity to play spoiler should they emerge with the series victory.

Before the game, the A’s made a small roster move.

The club optioned left-hander Joe Rock to Triple-A one day after he made his Athletics’ debut. Rock failed to retire any of the three Rays batters he faced, allowing one hit and two walks before exiting with the bases loaded and no outs.

Right-hander Mason Barnett, promoted to start tonight, takes Rock’s place on the A’s big-league roster. The 25-year-old has bounced between the majors and the minors this season. When Barnett was first called-up earlier this year, he primarily worked in relief. Injuries and struggles from other pitchers later moved him into the A’s rotation, where he struggled over four starts before being sent back to Triple-A.

Barnett enters his 19th game and fifth start of the season with a 1-4 record, a 7.08 ERA, a 1.62 WHIP and 38 strikeouts in 40 2/3 innings. He will make his first career start against the Guardians this evening. With the A’s rotation in flux, a strong outing could help Barnett earn another opportunity to start before the end of the season.

Here’s the A’s lineup for the series opener:

It appears that A’s manager Mark Kotsay learned little from Thursday’s defensive struggles. Versatile Zack Gelof fits best on the dirt, particularly at third base and second base, yet, he is starting in left field — the same position where he injured his knee trying to catch a fly ball in Detroit earlier this season. The move allows the A’s to further evaluate defensively challenged Tommy White at third base.

With Shea Langeliers restricted from playing defense, Jonah Heim, who has struggled at the plate and behind it, will catch. Michael Stefanic receives a rare start, while Denzel Clarke is once again out of the starting lineup despite collecting a single, a walk and two stolen bases yesterday. Clarke, the Athletics’ best defensive outfielder, needs playing time after missing nearly the entire season because of injuries.

The Guardians, meanwhile, are rolling with the opener strategy. Right-hander Daniel Espino will be the first pitcher Cleveland sends to the mound. The 25-year-old has shown incredible perseverance to reach the majors. Cleveland’s former top prospect was once hailed as the next great arm to emerge from the team’s highly-regarded pitching development system. Then, a string of injuries nearly derailed his career before it could begin.

Given Espino’s injury history, he has worked in relief since making his MLB debut in June. This will be his second time serving as the opener in his last three games. Espino pitched two innings in his first outing as an opener, so it seems likely he will last that long again today before turning things over to a new pitcher.

The starting nine for Stephen Vogt’s Guardians:

Barnett and the rest of the Athletics’ pitching staff will have to tread carefully because Cleveland’s lineup is more potent than the one the A’s faced when these teams met in Sacramento in May. Trade deadline acquisitions Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe have added power to a lineup anchored by future Hall of Famer Jose Ramirez, while second baseman Travis Bazzana and right fielder Chase DeLauter have been two of the American League’s top-performing rookies.

Time to return to winning ways and cause some chaos in the American League Central. Let’s go, A’s!

Follow the Game:
Watch:
Athletics – NBCSCA

Listen:
Athletics – Talk 650 KSTE, A’s Cast