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Go Rays!

Hello, and welcome back to Thursday playoff baseball. Today, there are two games, one that starts at noon and the other that starts around 7 p.m. Theoretically, you can watch both! I mean, if you’re not working.

First Game: Tampa Bay Rays at Cleveland Guardians

• Series tied, 1-1
• 12 PM CST

The first game up is Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, which is tied 1-1 between the Cleveland Guardians (who won Game 1) and the Tampa Bay Rays (who won Game 2). The series now shifts to Cleveland. Originally, it was scheduled for yesterday but postponed until today because of the weather.

For the home team, Gavin Williams takes the mound. Williams, who has the size to play tight end for the Browns, has appeared in three games so far this postseason, including two starts. In those two starts, both against the White Sox, he struck out 11 in 5 innings and then 12 in 5-and-2/3 innings. Overall, he’s pitched 11-and-2/3 innings while allowing two earned runs on six hits and walks while striking out 24. Those numbers are good for a 1.54 ERA, 0.53 FIP, and 0.943 WHIP.

Opposing him is 31-year-old right-hander Griffin Jax. Today will be Jax’s first career playoff start. During this year’s playoffs, he tossed two innings against the Yankees in which one run on one walk and one hit while striking out 4 in a 4-3 Rays victory in New York. He picked up a hold. During the season, Jax pitched in 34 games with 23 starts while pitching just over 112 innings. Somewhat oddly, he never faced Cleveland.

Here are the lineups, first for the Guardians:

For the Rays:

Lest we forget: Cleveland traded Junior Caminero to Tampa Bay for a pitcher who never appeared in a game for them. Whoops.

Game Deux: Milwaukee Brewers at Los Angeles Dodgers

• Milwaukee leads, 3-0
• 7 PM CST

Could tonight be the death knell for the Los Angeles Dodgers? Say it isn’t, Joe!

Actually, fine. As I imagine most people outside of Los Angeles are, I’m rooting against the Dodgers in this series. And if they somehow pull an ‘04 Red Sox, I’ll be rooting against them in the World Series. I like Dave Roberts enough, but I’m tired of the Dodgers constantly winning.

Neither the Brewers nor Rays have ever won a World Series, and Cleveland hasn’t won it since 1948.

Plus, the Dodgers are the only remaining big market team, and with a lockout—NOT A STRIKE—I’d rather see a little guy win it all. It hasn’t happened since the Royals captured the crown.

Alright, enough of that. As of this writing, there isn’t a whole lot available about the lineups. I’m not even sure who’s starting for the Brewers.

L.A., meanwhile, will send out righty Tyler Glasnow. This will be Glasnow’s second start of the postseason after he pitched 4-and-2/3 against the Braves just over a week ago, a game the Dodgers won, 4-1. He only allowed one hit but walked five while striking out the same number.

If the Dodgers want a shot at forcing a Game 5, he’ll need to be sharper. Much sharper.

The ALCS comes back to life today as the Tampa Bay Rays travel to Cleveland to take on the Guardians for the third game of the series. With the series tied 1-1, the Guardians look for a little bit of home-field advantage because historically, the winner of Game 3 when a seven-game set is tied has gone on to win 71 of 102 times.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers are on the brink after the Milwaukee Brewers secured a 6-2 victory Tuesday night to now lead the NLCS 3-0. If they can win tonight, it would be a bit of revenge for the Brewers after they were swept by the Dodgers in the NLCS last year. Milwaukee is also on the brink of reaching their first World Series in 44 years.

Tampa Bay Rays (1-1) at Cleveland Guardians (1-1) — 11 AM MDT

Pitching Matchup: RHP Griffin Jax (8-10, 3.53 ERA) vs. RHP Gavin Williams (14-8, 3.76 ERA)

SB Nation Sites:DRaysBay, Covering the Corner

Radio: ESPN Radio

TV: TBS/HBO Max

Lineups

Milwaukee Brewers (3-0) at Los Angeles Dodgers (0-3) — 6 PM MDT

Pitching Matchup: TBD vs. RHP Tyler Glasnow (5-2, 3.53 ERA)

SB Nation Sites:Brew Crew Ball, True Blue LA

Radio: ESPN Radio

TV: FS1/Fox One

Lineups:

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

The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the couch watching the LCS once again this season.

It’s been 34 years since the Pirates were in the NLCS themselves, where they lost to the Atlanta Braves in seven games. This season, however, they managed to play pretty well against the top teams in the league. Here’s a look at how they did against the final four teams in the playoff bracket.

Cleveland Guardians: 2-1

The Pirates visited Cleveland for a three-game set shortly after the All-Star break. After getting rained out on Friday afternoon, the teams played a doubleheader on Saturday and came out with a split: the Pirates won 7-1 in the afternoon but lost 5-3 in the evening. The Pirates followed that up with another 7-1 victory on Sunday, giving them a series victory.

Tampa Bay Rays: 2-1

The Pirates got a crack at the Rays early in the season, in mid-April, for a weekend series at PNC Park. They pulled out a 5-1 victory against the Rays to start the series but fell 8-7 in 13 innings on Saturday. They finished off the series with a 6-3 victory on Sunday, which gave them a series win and a 13-9 record going into a six-game road trip.

Los Angeles Dodgers: 1-5

The Pirates struggled the most this season against the four top teams in the league when they faced the Dodgers during their three-game set in Pittsburgh in early June. They dropped two out of three and managed to win the middle game of the series 9-8. The Dodgers led 6-1 in the bottom of the seventh, but the Pirates managed to score eight runs in the seventh and eighth innings combined to pull out a 9-8 victory.

When they went to Dodger Stadium in August, they were swept in a three-game weekend set.

Milwaukee Brewers: 7-6

The Pirates got to know the Brewers very well over the course of the season, facing off against their division rival 13 times. In the first half of the season, the Pirates visited Milwaukee in late April, winning 2 out of 3 games and even pulling off a sweep just before the All-Star break, capped off by a 14-5 victory on July 12.

They didn’t find that same success in the second half, losing 3 out of 4 in the first week of August at American Family Field. They played a weekday series in the middle of September, dropping the first two contests at home, but a 7-4 victory on September 17 gave them the season series victory, 7-6.

Overall: 12-13

The record against the Dodgers definitely brings this record down, but overall, the Pirates have proven that they can compete against the top teams in the league. That is a strong sign for what’s to come in 2027.

Well, we’re officially eight days away from the beginning of the 2026 World Series. Next Friday’s series opener looks like it’ll be a battle between a pair of low-payroll teams that aren’t Los Angeles or New York. You gotta know that makes commissioner Rob Manfred and the other owners mad. If you ask any actual baseball fan though, it’s going to be glorious seeing a team that hasn’t won the World Series in decades finally be able to lift that trophy. We got a few more games before we find out the matchup, but if the right team wins today we could know at least have of the teams in this year’s Fall Classic by tonight.

Rays at Guardians (10:00 AM PST)

Based off the first two games this series looks like it could go the distance. What else would you expect from two scrappy young teams like these two? Both organizations are absolutely desperate for the chance to hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy. The Guardians are on a 78-year drought, which is longer than the Rays have even been in existence. Still, they’ve never tasted that final win of the season and won’t let Cleveland get an easy trip to the Fall Classic. This’ll be a critical Game 3 as the team that wins this morning is in the driver’s seat.

The visiting Rays will have right-hander Griffin Jax (8-10, 3.53 ERA) taking the ball for this critical contest. A mid-season acquisition last year, Jax converted to a starter this year to solid results. He was remarkably consistent throughout the year for someone converting to the rotation for the first time in five years. Jax will now be pitching in the biggest game of his life to date as he seeks to get the Rays to within two games of the World Series. Tampa might have a short leash with him though; he only went two innings in his lone postseason start this year, when he allowed just one run on a hit and a walk against the Yankees.

Here’s the Tampa Bay lineup this morning:

As for the Guardians, they have their own righty in Gavin Williams (14-8, 3.76 ERA) taking to the hill this morning. Williams has already made two starts (plus one relief appearance) this postseason, all against the White Sox in the previous round. The 27-year-old has stepped his game up at the perfect time for the Guardians. He’s gotten double-digit punchouts in his two starts but he’ll now be facing a much harder lineup with the Rays. And like Jax, it’s not hyperbole to say this is the biggest game of his life… so far.

And Cleveland’s starting nine, courtesy of skipper Stephen Vogt:

Brewers at Dodgers (5:00 PM PST)

While the Rays-Guardians series looks like it’ll be a battle through the weekend, the Brewers are in complete control over the reigning champion Dodgers, up 3-0 in the series and just one more win away from their first World Series appearance since 1982. Like the Rays, they’ve never tasted the glory of a World Series win so they’re coming into tonight’s game as motivated as you can imagine. The Dodgers just don’t look like they have it this year as injuries and age are finally catching up to them. You never to say it’s a done series prematurely but there’s only ever been one team to come back from an 0-3 deficit and this Dodgers team doesn’t seem like they have the same energy of the ‘04 Red Sox.

The Dodgers will hope that veteran Tyler Glasnow (5-2, 3.53) can prolong their season a couple more days with a strong start. The right-hander has, once again, battled injuries all year but is healthy for when it matters most. He looked like he was ready for the moment in his lone postseason start to date. Glasnow pitched into the fifth inning against the Braves in the previous round, allowing just one run on one hit. His outing wasn’t without its warts as he also issued five free passes to Braves batters. If he does that again then this series might not make it back to Milwaukee.

Milwaukee meanwhile has yet to announce their plans for tonight’s game so stay tuned!

We could find out one team in the World Series by the end of the day. Stakes are getting higher and higher for everyone still alive! Should be another great day for playoff baseball!

It has been a roller coaster career for Michael Massey so far. He flashed good power for a middle infielder in 2023, but not much offensively. He came into his own in 2024, flashing great defense and finishing fifth on the team in home runs with 15, frequently hitting leadoff in the playoffs. But injuries piled up last year – a left ankle sprain, a right wrist fracture, and back issues that caused him to miss over two months of action, and limited him to just 77 games. He came into his first arbitration-eligible season at a crossroads.

And in 2026, Massey had his best season as a big leaguer. One factor was health. While he did begin the season on the injured list with a calf strain, and missed a week with a concussion in September, he generally stayed on the field, appearing in a career-high 131 games. When he played, he contributed, posting a line of .272/.303/.428 with 13 home runs. He was sixth among American League second basemen with a career-high 2.3 fWAR. He was also a finalist for his first Gold Glove Award, after finishing second among all AL second basemen in Outs Above Average and Defensive Runs Saved.

Massey has never been shown significant platoon splits, and this year he actually hit lefties much better than righties. He has shown good plate coverage and a high contact rate of 82.3 percent. His 16.6 percent strikeout rate was third-lowest on the team among semi-regulars, behind only Maikel Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino.

While he is good at making contact when he swings, he does swing a LOT. Out of all hitters with at least 450 plate appearances, he was 25th in swing rate at 52.9 percent (joining two other Royals in the top 25, Salvador Perez and Jac Caglianone). His walk rate went up this year, but was still just 4.6 percent, tied for seventh-lowest in the league. He did post a career-high in on-base percentage, but making outs almost 70 percent of the time still puts him near the bottom of the league in that category.

So through four and a half seasons and 489 MLB games, we have a good idea of what Michael Massey is. He will be 29 by next Opening Day, and the Royals can likely count on him as a good glove at second base, with good pop for a middle infielder, a good lefty bat with no platoon split, but very low walk rates and a propensity to get injured. He is eligible for arbitration for the second time this winter, and will likely earn over $3 million next season.

There is an argument the Royals should look to trade Massey while his value is high, although the team shouldn’t expect a big return. The Royals could “replace him in the aggregate” through some combination of Nick Loftin, Tyler Tolbert, and Isaac Collins, or even look to make a big move to upgrade at the position.

More likely, Massey will begin next year as the team’s starting second baseman, hitting sixth or seventh in the lineup. You can win with a guy like that in your lineup – the 2024 Royals are evidence of that. He is a productive offensive player in his prime, who is a plus on defense, and is still cost-controlled.

But his low on-base skills may cap the impact he can have offensively, and in a lineup full of fellow free-swingers, the Royals need someone who can work a count and get on base consistently. Massey is a useful piece, but if the Royals want to take the next step offensively, they may need more production from second base. Michael Massey took a step forward, but if he wants to be more than a stop gap measure, he will need to take his game to the next level.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A Dodger left-hander, who put video game-like numbers in the regular season, had a colossal dud in arguably the most important game of the year, in no small part by being left to hang out to dry in the seventh inning, before a back-breaking, likely season-breaking, home run. And then, the bullpen let whatever hope still in the building out with great alacrity.

The fact that this paragraph could apply to either Clayton Kershaw or Blake Snell is one of life’s little ironies. Snell became the second pitcher in history to start a playoff game by giving up a home run and have his last pitch in that same game go for a home run. The other pitcher was John Smoltz in Game 3 of the 1991 NLCS.

Considering Snell hadn’t previously allowed a home run all year, the timing is terrible.

If this current era of Dodger baseball started because Rays’ manager pulled Snell too early in 2020, the bookend image of Dave Roberts leaving Snell in too long in 2026 is striking.

Unless you have been mercifully under a rock, the Dodgers have failed, so far, with aplomb in this NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers. Not to take any flowers away from the Brewers: they have played hungrier, angrier, and more effectively than the Dodgers. And now Tyler Glasnow and an offense that has mostly been absent stand between the Dodgers and Cancun.

If you told me that the poor play in this series was from this past July, I wouldn’t disagree. The Dodgers look like they would probably drop a series to the Colorado Rockies right now if given the opportunity. Again, it’s not an unknown problem. Over the past two seasons, you’ve seen this movie; you’ve heard this song.

It’s just unusual to see it in the most important games of the year, this year.

Time is a flat circle

Like the bad, old days, the Dodgers have reacted to adversity in this round by being “confused and stunned like a duck hit on the head.” President Lincoln used that turn of phrase to describe one of his generals after the Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the situation is likely going to resolve itself, one way or another, in less than eight hours after you read this essay.

Five of the last six times there has been a rematch in the LCS in consecutive years, the loser in the first year wins the rematch. The Brewers are one win away from making that bit of recent history, six out of seven times. Moreover, with a win today, the Brewers would be the first team ever to repay a sweep one year by sweeping in the rematch the following year.

The last time the Dodgers were down 0-3 in the playoffs was the 1966 World Series: Koufax’s last ride. The Dodgers ended up being swept and shut out over Games 2 through 4. In a bit of historic irony, last year’s championship team had the lowest batting average for a winning team since the 1966 Orioles.

Sarah Langs reported via EliasSports that there have now been six times when a team has gotten a 3-0 advantage on the reigning champion. Four of these instances have involved the Dodgers: 1963, 1966, 2017, and now. Four of the last five times, the series ended in a sweep. Only the 2017 Dodgers allowed a game five.

Getting ready to look for loose change

The Dodgers have been bad in this LCS; you don’t have to take my word for it. Once again, Max Muncy is singing a slightly more urgent tune than he did after the dud to end Game 2.

I applaud Muncy’s candor, but I must politely disagree on one point: excrement, in a pinch, can be useful.

Based on what we knew then, you can even use it to grow a potato. There’s nothing useful here from the Dodgers over these past three games, no silver lining, no green shoots to build upon, no fun moment with young phenom Josue De Paula to obsess over or expand upon for the pending long winter. Sure, let’s use the most exciting prospect since Cody Bellinger as a decoy.

The figurative harvest has come back with blight, and everything looks dead. But technically, it’s not dead; it’s only mostly dead, and unless you’ve forgotten — shame on you — there’s a big difference between “mostly dead” and “all dead.”

Only one single solitary team has ever climbed the Everest that is a 0-3 best-of-seven hole in baseball: the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

Yes, Dave Roberts sparked the comeback; that’s not the point here. He’s not running. He’s not playing. Heck, last year in Toronto, he badly lost a footrace to Hyeseong Kim, which kept the team loose.

The fact to remember from that ALCS is that Boston took the figurative belt to its bottom in Game 3, losing 19-8 in Boston. The Red Sox looked beyond dead, and it took two extra-inning games to force Game 6 back in the Bronx and returned the belt with aplomb in Game 7.

Yes, the 2004 Red Sox turned it around. There is nothing in the past three games of play to indicate the 2026 Dodgers are about to go on a similar run. But again, the Red Sox looked mostly dead until they weren’t.

The only thing left to lose is pride

In all likelihood, the series and the season are hours away from being over. The Dodgers can either roll over or get mad and finally start punching back. The Brewers have played well, but they haven’t played perfect baseball. There have been opportunities.

A good team finds a way to win. A bad team finds a way to lose. A mediocre team attempts to convince itself and you that they are a good team, only to underachieve until their season ends.

Yes, the 2026 Dodgers won 100 regular season games. That fact and a cookie leaves you with a cookie and a likely forgotten notation in Baseball Reference, unless things drastically turn around.

Talk of a threepeat and talk of history have become a yoke around this team’s neck. So throw it out. It’s like eating a whale: you do it one bite at a time. If the series extends past today, the teams will be playing for free. Why not give everyone something to talk about?

If I had to work for free, I would make a spectacle of it.

Truthfully, I’ve been on house money mode since I was fortunate enough to be at last year’s Game 7. My only fear that game wasn’t a defeat; it was that the team laid an egg and made me feel dumb for making the effort to get to Toronto and back in 48 hours.

Losing is one thing; getting embarrassed is another. The play and the results over the last three games have been the latter. The moments where I haven’t thought that this team was underachieving or skimming by on pedigree and reputation have been far fewer than I would have preferred.

I harbor no illusion that this essay will change anything. Nor am I trying to annoy or aggravate or any other cardinal sin of this profession. I operate under the delusion that the right words can move mountains, or at the very least, make one smile when everyone is frowning.

The 2026 Dodgers could do better and should do better. They have at least one last chance to do so. Again, the Brewers have been better on the field simply by being watchable. If there was a time for this team, our team, to live up to its pedigree, its design, it would be to acknowledge the cold, hard truth that there is no tomorrow unless they outright take it.

Keep clawing and fighting until they tell you to stop. Maybe you become a legend. Maybe you get one last road trip to Milwaukee? Maybe you get to see Tarik Skubal one last guaranteed time in a Dodger uniform? Maybe you get to prevent the indignity of seeing your home fans, some of whom paid $75 for parking, watch another team celebrate at Dodger Stadium?

And if not? Well, then it doesn’t matter what this team did. It simply underachieved when it mattered most, and the rest from them would be silence.

Contracts will expire. Players will move on. Time will move on, and ripping the bandage off with critical analysis can start. Calling out an offense built like a supercar and performing like a busted Honda Civic, calling out a rotation that has underperformed when it has mattered most, and calling out a manager who literally panicked and resuscitated jokes and memes from 2018, 2019, and 2021 that he successfully put to bed over the past two seasons?

Now is not the time for postmortems and requiems. We likely have a lengthy, miserable lockout-aided offseason for those essays. But first, I am a slave to the bit, and we are going to press on, much like I hope that the Dodgers do today.

Because if not now, when?

Three days after the Orioles agreed to a five-year deal with Pete Alonso last December, the Mets signed Jorge Polanco to a two-year, $40 million contract. At the time, the Mets’ front office clearly thought that the switch-hitting veteran would give them good production at the plate, and in the team’s press release about the signing included a comment from David Stearns that the expectation was that he’d spend time at first base and designated hitter while “bouncing around to other positions as needed.”

None of that happened. After a slow ramp-up in spring training that was designed to ease him into the long season because of past injury issues with his legs, Polanco played first base just two times: in the first and second games of the Mets’ season. He started having issues with his lower legs, as his Achilles tendon and heel were mentioned in injury reports in early April, and he spent the rest of the season as a DH.

A variety of injuries kept Polanco sidelined for several long stretches of the season, too, and when he did play, he was historically bad. In just 145 plate appearances over the course of 37 games, Polanco hit .148/.201/.230 with a 20 wRC+. He was worth -1.4 fWAR, which was tied with Noelvi Marte of the Reds for the worst mark in all of baseball. And while that wasn’t the worst single season in Mets history, it’s the only one of the ten worst seasons by fWAR to have happened this century. The last time a Met was that far below replacement level was in fifteen years ago, back when Ronny Paulino put up a -1.2 fWAR season for a very bad Mets team, thought it’s worth noting that Mark Vientos nearly tied Paulino with a -1.1 fWAR of his own this year.

So what went wrong? Having struggled in his first season with the Mariners in 2024, Polanco thrived at the plate as he got the team shifted the vast majority of his playing time to the DH role in 2025. Yes, he had played shortstop, second base, and third base in the past, but the Twins began moving him off short in 2021 and had fully moved him off the position in 2022 with the exception of 30.0 innings that he played there that season. Primarily a second baseman from that season through 2024, he occasionally played third base, too.

That track record, combined with what the Mariners got out of Polanco when they reduced his playing time in the field even further, seemed to suggest that Polanco was moving toward a full-time DH role sooner rather than later. Sure, the Mets might’ve been able to have him cover other infield positions in a pinch, but it would’ve been surprising to see him get significant playing time around the infield. If his legs hadn’t been such a mess on the injury front, maybe he’d have been able to play about as often at first base this year as he played second base for the Mariners last year, but even that would’ve given the Mets a whole lot of innings and games to cover at first.

Even for those of us who were concerned about the Mets’ apparent plan to play Polanco in the field regularly, though, what wound up happening was far worse than what had seemed like the worst-case scenario back on Opening Day. Leg injuries forcing him to move to DH even more than he had last year in Seattle, well, that seemed fairly predictable. You wouldn’t have expected him to fall off a cliff at the plate, though, and you wouldn’t have expected him to last just two games in the infield before he was too hurt to play defense again.

Entering his age-33 season, Polanco presents a massive question mark for the Mets, assuming the team doesn’t decide to part ways with him as it manages its 40-man roster this winter. If he sticks around, a best case scenario would be an injury-free spring training spent exclusively as a DH and something resembling a return to form in that role once the regular season gets underway. The underlying metrics as measured by Statcast don’t paint any more of an optimistic picture than his 2026 stats do, though, and it would a major shock if he were to rebound significantly enough to avoid joining Jed Lowrie and Frankie Montas as one of the Mets’ most infamous signings of all time.

David Peterson came over from the Mets in a trade made well before the deadline, in late June. The Cubs gave up 23-year-old infielder Cole Mathis, who was the team’s second-round pick in 2024 and who has yet to play above A ball.

Peterson made 16 appearances (15 starts) for the Cubs and overall his numbers were good, not great: 3.70 ERA, 1.369 WHIP, 0.9 bWAR.

That ERA is decent, but even that was skewed by a horrific start against the Cardinals July 3, when Peterson was tagged for 10 runs in 3.2 innings. In 14 games (13 starts) after that his ERA was 2.66 and he allowed only seven home runs in 71 innings, with a 3.83 FIP.

Those numbers would play, I think, in the Cubs rotation going forward. It’s still a bit of a mystery why the Cubs didn’t start Peterson in one of the Wild Card Series games. He wound up throwing 1.2 scoreless innings in Game 2 once the Cubs were already behind 4-1.

In some ways Peterson became the forgotten man of the Cubs rotation. He was even shuffled into a relief role when Edward Cabrera made his first disastrous return to the rotation in mid-August. Even then he was productive, getting this important out in the eighth inning Aug. 17 against the White Sox [VIDEO].

Peterson turned 31 in September. He’s another ground-ball type like Clay Holmes and generally keeps the ball in the ballpark (2.3 percent career HR rate). He made $8.1 million in 2026.

I would not be opposed to offering him, say, a three-year, $35 million deal. I think Peterson is much more worth keeping around than, say, Matthew Boyd, who will be 36 in February.

Who says no to that?

Before he had a chance to grow up and become affectionately known as “Babe Ruth’s Legs,” Samuel Byrd was known to his family as Dewey. While growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, Byrd excelled at basketball and baseball for Simpson High School. During his high school days, Byrd also found another sport to love, as he grew up close enough to the golf course to work as a caddie. Remarkably, both played a role in his long-term future.

Samuel Dewey Byrd
Born: October 15, 1907 (Bremen, GA)
Died: May 11, 1981 (Mesa, AZ)
Yankees Tenure: 1929-1934

Following his graduating from Simpson High, Byrd worked as a bricklayer like his father while playing sandlot baseball. That changed in 1926 when the Southern Association’s Birmingham Barons signed Byrd to a contract and promptly sent him to the Jonesboro Buffaloes in Arkansas. In 59 games, Byrd posted a .348 average and led the league in hits.

Following that successful debut, the Barons tried Byrd out with the Knoxville Smokies for the 1927 season. Byrd caught fire again in the hills of Tennessee, batting .331 with 15 home runs. This performance landed him his big break. The New York Yankees purchased Byrd’s contract and assigned the right-handed outfielder to the Albany Senators for the 1928 season.

In Albany, Byrd kept rolling. His batting average jumped to .371, and he hit 18 home runs in 130 games. After that season, it was clear Byrd had a future in the big leagues. The Yankees invited him to spring training, and he made the club to start the 1929 season. The rookie had trouble finding playing time, as the Yankees’ outfield included Ruth, Earle Combs, and Bob Meusel. Wearing number 27 on his jersey, Byrd finished his rookie season with 202 plate appearances and slashed .312/.409/.471.

Meusel vacated left field prior to the 1930 season, but the Yankees used a rotation of players alongside Ruth and Combs. In his second big league season, Byrd appeared in 30 more games than he had as a rookie but only netted 52 more trips to the plate. Of the 92 games he appeared in, Byrd started only 54. This was when the nickname and honorific of being “Babe Ruth’s Legs” took hold, as Byrd was often used to pinch-run or serve as a defensive replacement for Ruth late in games.

The Yankees experienced some change prior to the 1931 season, as Joe McCarthy was brought in to lead the club and Ben Chapman was moved out of the infield to cover the spacious “Death Valley” in left. Byrd was locked in as the team’s fourth outfielder and continued to serve as Ruth’s late-game replacement. Byrd appeared in 115 games that year while starting only 45. In that role, he produced a .270/.349/.395 slash line.

The 1932 season was a magical one for the Yankees. The team won 107 games and went on to sweep the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. For Byrd, the season was much of the same: another solid year serving as the team’s fourth outfielder, batting .297 with a career-high eight home runs in pinstripes. Byrd appeared in one inning of the World Series, as you guessed it, a defensive replacement for Ruth in the final inning of the final game.

Byrd spent two more seasons in the Bronx, continuing to serve as the team’s fourth outfielder and primarily taking over for Ruth at some point during games. In 1933, he appeared in 85 games with 18 starts; in 1934, the numbers were 106 games and 42 starts. Perhaps not coincidentally, once Ruth’s time in pinstripes ended, so did Byrd’s, as the Cincinnati Reds purchased his contract ahead of the 1935 season.

The Reds let the 27-year-old Byrd start 111 games in 1935. In the full-time role, he slashed .262/.322/.406 with a career-high nine home runs. The 1936 season was not as kind to Byrd, as he returned to a reserve role, but he did achieve the rare feat of hitting a Jason Giambi-esque “ultimate grand slam,” a walk-off slam that turned a three-run deficit into a one-run victory against the Pirates. The Reds traded Byrd to the St. Louis Cardinals after the season, but he opted to retire rather than return to the minor leagues and started to pursue golf full-time.

Byrd’s passion and talent for golf were known throughout the majors. Byrd, along with Ruth and other teammates, played as much as they could, and many players at the time agreed that the Yankees’ odd man out in the outfield was actually the leader on the links. After just a few years, Byrd found himself competing at golf’s highest level. He finished third in the Masters in 1941 and fourth in 1942.

When he retired from professional golf in 1949 (incidentally, one year after Ruth’s passing), he had won six times on the PGA Tour while playing in 20 majors with four top 10 finishes. Today he still holds claim as the only person to ever play in both a World Series and the Masters Tournament.

After all his playing days were over, Byrd became a golf instructor. He taught people how to swing a club using a drill he picked up from the Babe himself, keeping a cloth pinned between his arm and body. In 1974, Byrd was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and got to enjoy those honors for seven years before passing away in 1981.

Whether you call him Dewey or Sammy, we wish him a happy birthday!

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

The Phillies made a trade with the San Francisco Giants this trade deadline in which the headliner was Luis Arraez. With an offense that would be considered “moribund” at the time of the deal, getting Arraez was supposed to help revive them (narrator: it did not help revive them). To make the deal happen, the Phillies had to part with a solid prospect in Ramon Marquez, an overpay when considering just those two names. Yet there was a third name there in the deal, one Caleb Kilian.

Did you remember him?

What went right

Well, he helped them get Arraez. That’s something, right?

Oh yeah, he has team control. That’s basically why they traded for him.

What went wrong

He got hurt.

That’s basically it. There was something the team saw in him that made them want to make sure Kilian’s name was included in the deal for Marquez, something they saw and liked. However, an oblique strain basically ended Kilian’s season as he was unable to recover in time to help the team down the stretch and into Atlanta.

Final grade: Incomplete

You can’t really grade anything Kilian did as he threw 48 pitches wearing Phillies red. He was abjectly terrible in one of his appearances with the team, so saying that there is something to build on for future seasons might be a bit of wishcasting. It could end up being in the same vein of the Jonathan Bowlan trade where the team saw the unmolded clay of a relief pitcher that they feel they can turn into a piece of art worthy of a major league bullpen, but we’ll just have to put a pin in it for now.