CINCINNATI, OHIO - AUGUST 31: Manny Machado #13 and Dustin Harris #29 of the San Diego Padres celebrate after Machado scored a run in the fourth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on August 31, 2026 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The San Diego Padres had another big inning. But this time the pitching made the four-run fourth inning stand up and the Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-0 to open their three-game series at Great American Ball Park on Monday.
San Diego was able to get to Cincinnati pitcher Brady Singer in the top of the fourth inning with six consecutive hits, which resulted in four runs. The only troubling part for the Padres was how the inning ended. Another failed bunt attempt that resulted in a pop out to the catcher was the first out of the inning and the inning ended one batter later with a ground ball double play.
The Padres opened the top of the fourth with a singles from Manny Machado and Ty France. With runners on the corners, Jackson Merrill brought home the first run of the game with s single through the right side of the infield. Xander Bogaerts followed with a two-run double and San Diego had a 3-0 lead with a runner in scoring position and still no outs. Dustin Harris brought Bogaerts in with another single and the Padres had a 4-0 advantage. Luis Campusano added the the fifth single of the inning to put runners at first and second. The momentum of the inning seemed to come crashing down when Sung-Mun Song popped a bunt into the air at home plate, which was caught for the first out of the inning. Singer was able to get out of the inning when Fernando Tatis Jr. grounded into and inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.
Michael King who had found himself in trouble in the first three innings stranding two runners on base in each frame, locked in with the lead. He worked a scoreless bottom of the fourth, facing just three batters and did the same in the fifth. King returned to the mound in the bottom of the sixth. He found himself in trouble once again and after a hit-by-pitch to put two on with two outs, Padres manager Craig Stammen came out to the mound. King convinced the first-year manager to leave him in the game and he rewarded him for his faith with a first-pitch line drive out to end the frame.
San Diego tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning after Tatis led off with a double to center field. Machado hit a one-out fly ball to right field, which allowed Tatis to tag up and advance to third. France delivered an RBI-single to give the Padres a 5-0 lead and was followed by Merrill with a single to put two runners on before Bogaerts filed out to end the inning.
King finished with six scoreless innings with just four hits allowed. He also walked three batters and hit two more, but he also recorded six strikeouts. Kyle Hart pitched two scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth innings and Wandy Peralta handled a scoreless ninth to help San Diego snap its three-game losing streak.
The Padres will try to make it two in a row and win the series with he Reds today at 3:40 p.m.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 31: Michael Porter Jr. #17 of the Brooklyn Nets looks on from the bench during after the game against the Charlotte Hornets at Barclays Center on March 31, 2026 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ishika Samant/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Heavy.com’s Sean Deveney, in a summary of things left unresolved at summer’s end, reports that the Brooklyn Nets and their high scorer from last year appear to be at an impasse over an extension, raising the possibility that if it continues, Michael Porter Jr. might be on the trade block.
Porter is in an odd spot because he needs an extension as he heads into the final year of his contract, at $40 million. He showed All-Star ability when given more free reign last year, but that was on a bad Nets team. Brooklyn should be better this year, and Porter will need to show he can keep putting up star numbers on a team that is trying. But if an extension does not get done … what then?
Deveney quotes an “Eastern Conference executive” on the possibility:
“I think what he did last year is legit and teams are going to see it that way. But the problem you have is if you trade for him, are you going to extend him and what is the number? The Nuggets overpaid him when they gave him that extension, and if he wants to be paid based on that, that is not going to be an easy sell. If he can accept getting into a salary slot that makes more sense for him, you can make that trade. It’s an expiring deal but the Nets would get a first-round pick for him still.”
Just turned 28, MPJ is now after that big Nuggets contract an expiring deal worth $40.8 million, which is $7 million more than any other Nets player will receive this year. And even though Sean Marks has said all the right things about Porter Jr. and his agent, Mark Bartelstein, has said all the right things about the way the Nets and particularly Jordi Fernandez, have treated him and how happy he is, it is a business and the two sides have different views on what should happen next.
“I’m sure we’ll have those discussions. I think we’ve got time. There’s no immediate hurry right now with Mike. We value him a lot. He had a terrific year last year, arguably his best year as a pro. I give him a lot of credit for that,” Marks said back on July 16. “It’s been great to see what Mike’s done for us. I look forward to having those discussions, and seeing what Mike can do the rest of the summer and the rest of the season.”
So, no urgency?
“No, any time you’re in a hurry, that’s when people make mistakes,” Marks added. “We’ve got a well-thought-out plan here over not only the last couple of years but the couple of years ahead. We’re gonna try and find who the next Nets are gonna be. I don’t think we wanna do anything hastily or in a rush here.”
And indeed, the Nets can extend Porter Jr. at any time up until July 6 of next year. But Bartelstein sees things differently, as presumably does his client. MPJ has recently talked about how he sees his life beyond basketball, but this could very well be his last chance to make the big bucks.
“Michael loves it in Brooklyn. Jordi has been great for him… I think it’s a great fit,” Bartelstein said in a SiriusXM Radio interview at around the same time. “But that’s something Sean and I have to sit down and talk about. The Nets have to ultimately chart out their course for the way they want to go forward, and we have to do the same thing for Michael. If we can make it work where there’s a long-term fit, that would be awesome. But that’s what we’re gonna be talking about in the days ahead.”
Reportedly the two sides have spoken since but beyond that, there’s been little news. As Deveney noted, Porter Jr. wants a deal that will pay him beyond that $40.8 million and presumably over a longer term than the Nets feel comfortable with. Indeed, it would appear that the length of an extension may be a bigger issue than money. With many teams hamstrung by the luxury tax and first or second aprons, the trend is for shorter deals. The Nets, while not anywhere near either, see themselves in rebuild, if not tanking mode, and don’t appear to want to take on big, long term deals. As we reported Monday in our Off-Season Report:
They do not want, at least at this point in the rebuild, to cut long-term deals either. Thus, the impasse with Michael Porter Jr. as well as the team and “mutual” second-year options Minott, Day’Ron Sharpe, Moe Wagner and Keon Ellis agreed to this summer.
Indeed, other than seven rookies with their two-year guarantees on four-year deals, only Terance Mann is owed guaranteed money beyond this season. He’s got $31 million left on his deal. Julius Randle has a player option. The roster is built to turn on a dime and unsentimentally move on.
In addition, a solution suggested by more than one set of pundits now seems unlikely. Yossi Gozlan and Sam Quinn speculated in July that the Nets could use some of their cap space to give Porter Jr. an immediate raise to say $49 million, then fill out an extension at a lower salary, perhaps in the 30 million dollar range? In that configuration, the two suggested, the Nets could sign Moe Wagner to the room MLE at $9.2 million and pay MPJ out of cap space. But since then, Wagner was signed out of cap space, not the MLE, leaving Brooklyn with only $1.7 million under the cap, per Spotrac.
Whether Porter Jr. would have accepted that is another thing. There was no indication of that.
He did speak about contract negotiations Monday in an interview with Peyton Watson, his former teammate with the Nuggets, but that discussion on his Curious Mike podcast focused not on his situation but Watson’s. (Porter sure seemed like he was recruiting the 23-year-old to the Nets at one point earlier in the summer, but the Nets never seemed that interested.)
What could MPJ bring back in a trade? Another first round pick to add to the 13 firsts and 19 seconds they have already banked? What about as a nice piece in a trade deadline deal for a younger player come February? Whoever takes him on whether for a pick or player would also have to talk to Bartelstein about his future and the issues would likely be the same for that team as for the Nets. What’s his market?
Bottom line seems that the Nets do indeed like Porter Jr. as player and team leader — and need him if they’re going to satisfy their fans need for some wins this season, Marks and Joe Tsai seem ready to stay their course, that “well-thought out plan” Marks mentioned.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - AUGUST 21: Sonny Gray #54 of the Boston Red Sox throws a pitch during the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Fenway Park on August 21, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Caleb Bowlin/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Sonny Gray will not start tonight for the Red Sox. He’s not hurt, he’s just getting a little break. “I feel fine,” Gray said. “I think it’s just taking a few days, getting my body recovered, fully recovered, and that was it. Physically, I feel really good. About a month ago, we just talked about it and said, ‘Let’s re-evaluate when we get to [this point].’ So that’s what we did.” The Red Sox have not yet announced who will take the mound tonight, in what will likely be a bullpen game. Reminder: the owners have made September baseball essentially meaningless now.(Ian Browne, MLB.com)
Willson Contreras seems to be in a similar situation with his hamstring. Nothing has happened to it recently and he hasn’t had anything that’s being labeled a setback. Rather, he’s simply been dealing with the balky hamstring for several weeks and is now taking some time to let it recover before the playoffs. “I don’t want to paint the picture that it’s like something way worse happened. Just a recurrence of the same thing,” Chad Tracy said. “The triple, doubleheader, a hard run there. It creeps up again. And he played [Sunday], and just with some irritation again. It’s just to the point where if we need to give him another few days to let it calm down, we’re getting to a point where it’s tough to be short bodies.” (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)
Luckily, Mickey Gasper was able to step right in for Contreras and pick up where he left off. Gasper was disappointed but understanding of the initial decision to send him back to Worcester. “GM is a tough job. Guys are coming back, and decisions had to be made,” he said, “so I understood why I was the man out.” But, in light of the fact that he was literally the best hitter in baseball during his time with the big league club, he did ask Craig Breslow what he needed to do to stay up. (Julian Benbow, Boston Globe)
It’s good that Gray and Contreras are getting some rest before the postseason. But you know what’s really restful? A nice, warm hug. Maybe that’s why Payton Tolle was giving them out on the field last night, even to people he’d never met. “It just kind of happened,” Tolle said about his hug with Dominic Canzone. “I was right there in front of him, like, ‘Bring it in for the big one.” (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)
The opposite of a hug is wishing physical violence on someone, which is what WEEI play-by-play man Will Flemming did during Sunday’s game against the Yankees, when he urged Red Sox players to throw at Jazz Chisholm and fight Austin Wells. Needless to say, Flemming has apologized for being a giant ass. Naturally, though, he couldn’t apologize without also taking other people to task for their behavior: “Since I have been receiving nonstop calls and threats,” he wrote on Twitter, “I felt like it was important to hop back on here and say: My comments during yesterday’s broadcast crossed a line. I’m emotional and a fan at heart and that bled into the broadcast.” (Chad Finn, Boston.com)
ARLINGTON, TEXAS - AUGUST 31: Jacob Degrom #48 of the Texas Rangers throws a pitch during the third inning against the Athletics at Globe Life Field on August 31, 2026 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Rangers 8, A’s 1
Baseball is fun again.
And Jacob deGrom was dominant again.
Bouncing back from a disastrous eight run outing where he was knocked out in the fourth inning, deGrom looked like vintage deGrom once again, facing the minimum 21 batters over seven innings while allowing just one baserunner — Lawrence Butler, on a second inning single — who was then erased on a double play.
This is the second time in his last three games that deGrom has allowed just one hit.
What is interesting is that deGrom is generally either quite good, or not good at all. In 18 starts of his 26 starts, he’s allowed two runs or fewer.
He’s allowed three runs in one start, and four runs in another start.
In his other six starts he has allowed five runs twice, six runs three times, and eight runs once.
The home/road splits are pretty extreme for deGrom this year…he has a 2.42 ERA in 13 starts at home, and a 5.86 ERA in 13 starts on the road. His walk rate is higher on the road, his K rate is lower, and 11 of the 17 homers he has allowed have come on the road.
With 8 Ks, deGrom moved up from 93rd to 88th on the all time strikeout list, passing Catfish Hunter, Dan Haren, Orel Hershiser, Rick Reuschel and Lance Lynn. He’s now 15 behind Aaron Nola, 27 behind Dazzy Vance, 35 behind Sonny Gray, and 52 behind Madison Bumgarner.
The game was far enough out of reach late that the newly-recalled Robby Ahlstrom and Ben “Power to the” Peoples got to go an inning apiece to finish things out. Ahlstrom faced the minimum, but sadly, Peoples allowed a run on two outs, ending both the shutout and the one hitter.
Per Statcast, the A’s had a .132 xBA in the game, so it wasn’t as if they were stinging the ball and just seeing it find gloves. Its the second lowest xBA allowed in a game this season by the Rangers, and the 79th lowest in the majors.
The Rangers scored early and often, putting runs on the board in four of the first five innings and taking a comfy 7-0 lead into the sixth inning.
Ezequiel Duran, anointed the leadoff man for the first time in his career, was 1 for 4 with a walk, and he is now slashing .273/.331/.448 on the year, which I don’t think any of us were expecting.
Duran has also started a game in every spot in the batting order this season, 1 through 9. I’m curious as to how often a player does that.
Justin Foscue homered. Way to go, Justin!
Cody Freeman had a couple of hits, as he continues to play regularly against lefthanded pitching.
It occurred to me when I was doing the lineup yesterday that I hadn’t typed in Nicky Lopez’s name for a while. His last start was on August 19 — since then, he has appeared in just six games, coming in in the middle or late innings. The last two times he has entered the game it was late in a blowout in place of Corey Seager, including in this game.
Seager, incidentally, drew a couple of walks, had a barreled fly out to the wall, and had a hard hit groundout. He’s cooled down from that stretch when he was getting two hits in every game it seemed like, but he’s fine.
Jacob deGrom touched 98.8 mph with his fastball, averaging 97.6 mph. Robby Ahlstrom’s fastball touched 96.4 mph. Ben Peoples maxed out at 95.3 mph with his fastball.
Ezequiel Duran had a 110.9 mph single and a 105.6 mph fly out. Justin Foscue had a 105.7 mph home run. Brandon Nimmo had a 105.6 mph fly out and a 101.5 mph fly out. Jake Burger had a 105.4 mph single amd a 103.2 mph double. Corey Seager had a 105.0 mph fly out. Elias Diaz had a 104.8 mph fly out.
That’s two in a row. The wins, they must continue.
The SHL's Brynas announced that they signed Calle Jarnkrok to a three-year contract on Monday, ending his 13-year NHL tenure. In the last four seasons of his NHL career, the right winger was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, playing a total of 200 regular-season games for the club from 2022-23 to 2025-26.
The final two years of that stint were particularly challenging for the veteran. He played just 75 games in that final pair of campaigns, scoring six goals and eight points in 56 appearances this past year, while his season prior was shortened due to a groin and sports hernia injury.
"I've had two tough years, and it feels a bit sad not to be able to finish over there the way I wanted," Jarnkrok told hockeysverige.se in Swedish. "That's maybe why the decision took a little longer. But now it feels good to have made up my mind."
"Two years ago I couldn't play at all," Jarnkrok recalled. "But last year I came in and felt in really good shape, I scored goals...and then (Berube) put me in the stands. It was a little weird."
The 34-year-old is referencing his hot start to the 2025-26 campaign. In the first three outings of the season, Jarnkrok scored a goal in each game. At that point, he was second on the team in scoring, all while averaging 10:31 of ice time in that span. It was a very short sample size of what was to come, but a great start nonetheless.
After playing another two games for the Leafs and not continuing his scoring streak, he was scratched for game No. 6 of the regular season. He would come in and out of the lineup, but ended up featuring in 18 of Toronto's first 25 games of this past season.
Regardless, Jarnkrok wasn't pleased with how he was managed after the great start he thought he had and coming over the injury from the season before.
"I was very surprised," he said. "I understand that if I don't get to play when I score in every game like I did in the beginning...then it will be tough. It's the GM and the coach who decide, but it was an uphill battle. I did well but wasn't allowed to play. It was tough to motivate myself and keep going.
"It was a lot of fun playing in Toronto, even though the last year wasn't that fun. The whole city loves hockey, just like here in Gavle, and there's pressure with that. I think everyone who plays wants it that way," he added.
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The high-flying Los Angeles Dodgers are priced as hefty 62% moneyline favorites tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium as they search for their fourth straight home victory. The first pitch is scheduled for 10:10 p.m. ET.
My Cardinals vs Dodgers predictions expect L.A. to come out on top here against Michael McGreevy, who is struggling lately.
Who will win Cardinals vs Dodgers today: Dodgers (62%)
For help understanding probabilities, see our odds calculator.
Michael McGreevy is in a rough spell for the St. Louis Cardinals, giving theLos Angeles Dodgersa clear path tonight. The right-hander has a 5.70 FIP over his last two starts with command and homer issues, plus a 5.02 mark over the last month.
The Dodgers are not in peak offensive form, but their 102 wRC+ at home is enough to attack McGreevy.
Eric Lauer has struggled too, posting a 5.50 xERA over his last two outings, but he rarely works deep, and Los Angeles’ bullpen owns a respectable 4.12 FIP over its previous 18.1 frames.
Against a Cardinals lineup with a 77 wRC+ recently, the Dodgers have the better full-game profile.
Play this pick up to 65%.
COVERS INTEL: Lauerhas been much more consistent at home this season, posting a 4.27 FIP, compared to a 5.96 mark on the road.
Cardinals vs Dodgers Over/Under pick: Under 8.5 (47%)
I’m leaning Under 8.5 here, even with both starters carrying some recent risk.
The Dodgers are not exactly tearing the cover off the baseball right now, posting an 88 wRC+ with a poor .084 ISO over the last week. That makes it harder to trust them to fully punish McGreevy, even with his recent command and homer issues.
The Cardinals’ offense is also struggling, and Lauer should not need to be perfect with Los Angeles’ bullpen in decent shape behind him.
The biggest separator is St. Louis’ relief corps, which owns a 2.65 FIP over its last 27 2/3 innings with a 12.04 K/9.
Play this pick up to 55%.
Quinn Allen's 2026 Transparency Record
ML/RL bets: 63-72, -17.90 units
Over/Under bets: 74-57, +5.50 units
Cardinals vs Dodgers weather
Weather at Dodger Stadium looks clean tonight, with clear skies and temperatures falling from 75 F to 67 F. Winds are light to moderate at 7 to 9 mph, and rain chances sit at 0% throughout. No delay concern, with cooler late-game conditions that could slightly limit carry.
Cardinals vs Dodgers odds
Moneyline: Cardinals 39% | Dodgers 62%
Run line: Cardinals +1.5 (56%) | Dodgers -1.5 (45%)
Over/Under: Over 8.5 (54%) | Under 8.5 (47%)
Cardinals vs Dodgers trend
The Los Angeles Dodgers have hit the game total Under in 29 of their last 50 games at home (+6.05 Units / 11% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Cardinals vs. Dodgers.
How to watch Cardinals vs Dodgers and game info
Location
Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
Date
Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026
First pitch
10:10 p.m. ET
TV
Cardinals.TV, SNLA
Cardinals starting pitcher
Michael McGreevy (5-9, 3.86 ERA)
Dodgers starting pitcher
Eric Lauer (8-6, 4.78 ERA)
Cardinals vs Dodgers latest injuries
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change. Not intended for use in MA. Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS - AUGUST 31: Jacob Degrom #48 of the Texas Rangers speaks with umpire Hunter Wendelstedt #21 during the first inning against the Athletics at Globe Life Field on August 31, 2026 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Good morning.
The DMN’s Nate Sanchez writes about the Texas Rangers closing out August with an excellent performance from Jacob deGrom.
Jeff Wilson writes about deGrom rebounding from statistically one of his worst outings last week in Chicago to one of his best outings with Texas last evening.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. - MARCH 2026: Kevin Love (42) of the Utah Jazz looks to pass the ball in the first quarter at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Utah Jazz. (Photo by Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images) | Star Tribune via Getty Images
The NBA’s few remaining notable agents not named Jalen Duren have started flying off the board over the past few weeks. Peyton Watson is now a Cleveland Cavalier. DeMar DeRozan is now a Denver Nugget. Jonathan Kuminga is now a Minnesota Timberwolf? Sure, whatever.
The latest came Thursday when the Heat landed Nick Richards on a one-year, presumably veteran-minimum contract, per ESPN’s Shams Charania. Richards led our late-July list of free-agent options for the Sixers if they missed out on LeBron James, but fortunately, they landed LeBron the day after that piece published. You’re welcome, America.
After signing LeBron and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the Sixers are roughly $1.8 million below their $209.0 million first-apron hard cap. They currently do not have enough space under the first apron to sign anyone to a minimum contract other than undrafted rookies.
Fortunately, minimum contracts begin to prorate downward daily once the regular season begins. By early December, the Sixers should have enough wiggle room to fill their remaining open roster spot, although they’ll likely keep it open until the trade deadline to see which options shake free.
If the following free agents don’t find new homes before the start of the season, the Sixers should at least keep tabs on them as potential in-season options.
Kelly Olynyk, PF/C
Kelly Olynyk averaged a career-low 3.2 points and 1.8 rebounds in 8.6 minutes per game across 42 appearances with the San Antonio Spurs last season. Granted, he was on a roster with four other centers. The Spurs relied on Luke Kornet as their primary backup to French wunderkind Victor Wembanyama, which left Olynyk battling with Mason Plumlee and Bismack Biyombo for table scraps.
The 35-year-old Olynyk might be fully washed at this point of his career. But if nothing else, he’d at least add a different look to the Sixers’ frontcourt behind Joel Embiid, Adem Bona and Ariel Hukporti.
Bona has hit exactly two three-pointers across the first two years of his NBA career, while Hukporti has only one. Olynyk knocked down 12 last year alone and is a career 36.9 percent shooter from deep on 3.0 attempts per game.
Olynyk likely wouldn’t supplant Bona and/or Hukporti as the primary backup to Embiid. But if the Sixers occasionally wanted to trot out lineups with a floor-spacing center, he’d give them the ability to do so.
Kevin Love, C
Speaking of floor-spacing big men… it appears as though Kevin Love is already eyeing a reunion with LeBron, whom he played alongside for four years in Cleveland.
The soon-to-be 38-year-old Love is even older than Olynyk, but he’s still been productive in limited spurts in recent years. He averaged 6.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.4 made threes in only 16.6 minutes per game across 37 outings with the Utah Jazz last season.
Even in his prime, Love didn’t provide much rim protection, but he’s an elite rebounder and an above-average three-point shooter. His locker room leadership and built-in chemistry with LeBron is a plus, too. NBA teams can never have too many Good Vibes guys.
It wouldn’t be remotely surprising if Love winds up snagging the Sixers’ final roster spot at some point this season.
Bruce Brown Jr., SG
During a Bleacher Report livestream on Tuesday, NBA insider Jake Fischer reported Bruce Brown Jr. “would have been in the mix in Philadelphia” had the Sixers not landed LeBron. However, KCP “kind of came as a bit of a package deal” with LeBron, which effectively closed the door on Brown landing with the Sixers this offseason.
“Bruce Brown is going to be playing for some type of playoff-caliber team this season,” Fischer added. “It’s just a matter of where and a matter of when.”
Fischer mentioned the Los Angeles Lakers as one possible Brown suitor, although they already have 16 players on guaranteed contracts. Unless they’re able to salary-dump two of those deals, they already have work to do just to get down to the 15-man roster maximum before they turn their attention to Brown.
If Brown can’t find a new home this offseason, the Sixers should keep tabs on the do-it-all 30-year-old. He averaged 7.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 24.4 minutes per game off the bench in Denver last season, and he was a key reserve in the Nuggets’ championship run during the 2022-23 campaign.
Jeff Green, PF
What’s better than having one 40-year-old on your roster? Having two 40-year-olds on your roster.
Jeff Green just turned 40 on Aug. 28. He shot a career-worst 36.8 percent overall this past season and averaged a career-low 2.2 points and 0.8 rebounds in only 5.8 minutes per game off the bench in Houston, which hardly inspires much confidence. However, he averaged a far more respectable 5.4 points in 12.4 minutes per game while shooting 50.4 percent overall in 2024-25.
The Sixers do seem to be lacking forward depth behind LeBron and Jaylen Brown, particularly at the 3, barring a leap from Justin Edwards. Green is far more of a power forward at this stage of his career than a small forward, but he’d give the Sixers another warm body off the bench to join Edwards, Dean Wade, Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker.
Green did play one season alongside LeBron in Cleveland in 2017-18, and he also won a championship with the Nuggets in 2022-23. He’d mostly be a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option at forward for the Sixers, but his locker room leadership could go a long way as the Sixers look to put aside their egos for the greater good this season.
Drew Eubanks, C
After spending the first three-and-a-half years of his NBA career in San Antonio, Drew Eubanks has bounced between the Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings over the past four seasons alone. The 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds that he averaged during a 22-game stint in Portland in 2021-22 proved to be a mirage, but he’s been steadily productive in limited minutes ever since.
Across that four-year stretch, Eubanks has averaged 5.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.9 blocks in only 15.8 minutes per game while shooting 61.3 percent overall. He’s taken threes sparingly, although he’s 14-of-34 from distance (41.2 percent) during that span.
Eubanks might not be a long-range bomber like Kelly Olynyk or Kevin Love, but as Andre Drummond proved last season, the occasional out-of-nowhere three-pointer from a backup big man can still be demoralizing for opponents. At 6’10” and 245 pounds, he at least has the size to hold down the fort for a few minutes whenever Embiid is off the floor.
Granted, players typically don’t bounce between that many teams for no good reason. One look at Eubanks’ Dunks and Threes page gives a solid clue as to why he’s already become an NBA journeyman.
Tony Bradley, C
Once a Sixer, always a Sixer?
The Sixers acquired Tony Bradley in November 2020 in exchange for Zhaire Smith (sigh). He was the third-string center that season behind Embiid and Dwight Howard, although he did play in 20 games and made eight starts. The Sixers then flipped him and a handful of second-round picks for George Hill at the trade deadline, which blew up in their face almost immediately.
After Bradley’s brief stint with the OKC Thunder, he spent two years in Chicago, 1.5 years in Indianapolis and had a cup of coffee in Atlanta last season. He’d be nothing more than another insurance policy in case Embiid went down with a long-term injury, but that’s still a valuable archetype for the Sixers given Embiid’s injury history.
Granted, having to choose between the likes of Bradley, Eubanks and Green or someone who shakes free at the trade deadline is exactly why the Sixers figure to leave that roster spot open for now. It would behoove them to spend the first few months of the season identifying their new-look roster’s biggest needs before seeking to address those.
BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 22: Pete Alonso #25 of the Baltimore Orioles looks on from the on deck circle during the game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Saturday, August 22, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
This past offseason, Pete Alonso signed the richest deal in Orioles history, trading Queens for Baltimore and a deal for $155M/five years. Through the 138 games of Alonso’s Orioles career, you could argue the Polar Bear has been underpaid.
Alonso has undoubtedly been the heartbeat of an Orioles team that, after last night’s win in Colorado, sits 0.5 GBof the final AL Wild Card spot. He currently leads the Orioles in hits, runs, doubles, home runs, RBIs and OPS. He has an outside chance to become the 10th Oriole with 40+ home runs in a season, will undoubtedly top 100 RBIs and should become the first Oriole since Jonathan Villar in 2019 to play all 162 games. If Alonso isn’t voted as the unanimous Most Valuable Oriole at the end of the season, it would be an injustice.
However, his performance during the second half of the season has put him in the conversation for bigger awards. Since July 1st, Alonso is slashing .305/.394/.558 with 13 homers and 32 RBIs in 51 games. After collecting 20 multi-hit games over the first 87 games of the season, Alonso has 17 in those last 51 contests—including his first four-hit game as an Oriole last week in St. Louis. During the last two months, Alonso ranks fifth in the AL in hits, second in home runs, sixth in RBIs and second in OPS.
For most of the season, Houston’s Yordan Alvarez has been the presumptive AL MVP winner. After all, the Astros’ DH is still on pace to complete the American League’s first Triple Crown season since Miguel Cabrera in 2012. However, Alvarez’s grasp on each of those Triple Crown categories has become more and more tenuous of late. Tampa Bay’s Chandler Simpson (.311) is only five points behind Alvarez (.316) for the AL batting title. After homering twice over the weekend, the Rays’ Junior Caminero tied him with 37 long balls. And after his recent tear, Alonso sits only three RBIs behind Alvarez for the AL RBI lead.
Outside of Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, the last AL MVP winner from a non-playoff team was Alex Rodriguez on the 2003 Texas Rangers—a fact which could play in Alonso’s favor. The Astros are one of many teams participating in the American League’s musical chair of mediocrity. Though currently leading the AL West, Houston only sits one game above .500 and two games above the second-place Rangers.
MVP awards can be largely narrative-driven. Could Alvarez’s MVP narrative survive both the loss of the Triple Crown and the Astros missing the playoffs? It’s possible, but if both of those came to pass, it’d certainly weaken his presumed stranglehold on this year’s MVP.
The Polar Bear could benefit from the reverse narrative. Should the Orioles complete their turnaround and secure a postseason spot, Alonso will undoubtedly get much of the credit for Baltimore’s unlikely comeback. After all, the Orioles traded away two of their best hitters at the deadline, leaving their prize free-agent acquisition as the only reliable force in their lineup. He’s responded by being a steadying force; one that’s given the other members of this lineup time to rise closer to his level.
Alonso winning the MVP is still probably as likely as when the Orioles had a 13.5% chance to make the playoffs. After all, FanDuel still lists Alvarez as a -20,000 favorite to take home the hardware come season’s end. But Alonso is sitting there with the third-best odds at +4500, just behind Caminero.
The Orioles’ 1B is also fighting against the positional value stigma that comes with playing first. Outside of José Abreu’s MVP from the shortened 2020 season, no 1B has won AL MVP since Justin Morneau twenty years ago. The position’s perceived lack of defensive importance means that 1B often get knocked down a peg in value statistics like WAR. Despite his excellent offensive numbers (and playing the best defense of his career), Alonso currently ranks 15th in bWAR.
In all likelihood, Alonso is on his way to the Orioles’ first top 3 MVP finish since Chris Davis in 2013. The Polar Bear is also likely to become the first 1B since Adrian Gonzalez to win Silver Slugger awards in both the National and American Leagues.
It has already been a debut season to remember for the Polar Bear in Baltimore, one that will hopefully end with an Orioles return to the postseason. And while Alvarez’s advantage in the MVP race is likely too great to overcome, Alonso’s season has been MVP-worthy.
ATLANTA, GA - AUGUST 31: Atlanta Braves pitcher Dylan Lee (52) delivers a pitch during the MLB game between the San Francisco Giants and the Atlanta Braves on August 31, 2026 at TRUIST Park in Atlanta, GA. (Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Possibly one of the weirdest positive things about a member of the 2026 Atlanta Braves is that Dylan Lee is second among the team’s pitchers in fWAR, with 2.0. Among all pitchers, he is 71st with that mark. To be clear: every team has five-plus starters and a gaggle of relievers, and Lee is in the top 75 in production. Among relievers, he’s in the top ten, but really smack dab in a big cluster that runs from third to 20th.
Lee was dominant in terms of both peripherals and results-while-he-was-pitching for much of the season. From the start of the season through August 16, he had a WPA over 2.5 and had recorded 26 shutdowns to just five meltdowns. In fact, the tail end of that stretch was 13 consecutive appearances with positive WPA, which accounted for six of his 26 shutdowns. His pitching line was video game numbers-y: a 46 ERA-, 48 FIP-, and a 69 xFIP-. His HR/FB was 5.0 percent (three homers all year, two in the same series against the Orioles). His strand rate was above league average, his BABIP-against was an absurd 2.05, though he was also managing contact to a supreme degree (2.28 xERA, yet still higher than his actual ERA in that span). Basically, he was dominant, but also aided by stuff he couldn’t control amid that dominance. Thanks, universe!
And then, as they do sometimes but not always, things changed for Lee on a dime. Lee has made seven appearances since August 16. He has been saddled with a meltdown in five of them (and shutdowns in the other two). He hasn’t allowed a homer in any, but…
His FIP has been bad in two of the seven;
His xFIP has been bad in four of the seven;
His BABIP-against has been absurdly high in five of the seven;
His xERA/xwOBA-against has been bad in three of the seven (the most recent three); and
His aggregate line for these seven outings is 279/64/117.
The lack of homers hasn’t stopped him from accruing value. His pitching has been pretty bad, but it’s really split between his usual dominance in three outings (not in a row) and issues in four. Yes, two of his top four worst outings by xFIP have come in his bad stretch, but nothing else in his top (bottom?) ten. As you can probably tell by the 279 ERA-, this kind of looks like the universe getting back at him for the hubris and good fortune he enjoyed for pretty much the rest of the season. The only thing that hasn’t stung him in these seven outings has been his HR/FB.
Is this an effect of fatigue? It doesn’t quite look like it. His velocity hasn’t really budged, and is actually up slightly over earlier outings. He’s also gotten more chase. The issue has been fewer missed bats, especially on pitches outside the zone.
The reasons for this are fairly obvious once you look at some pitch plots. For the season, Lee has been relatively adept at spotting his slider on the lower glove-side edge. It sometimes drifts lower (below the zone) and sometimes higher (towards the middle of the plate), but he executes the pitcher’s pitch version of it often enough. Since August 19, it’s become more of a grab bag as to whether it ends up over the plate, too far below the zone, or in an intended spot. More minutely, it looks like it’s just missing below the zone. There’s less of a story with the four-seamer — maybe some are drifting below where he usually places them towards the upper part of the zone but nothing blatant. There’s no huge smoking gun as to why batters are making a bunch more contact on pitches outside the zone rather than missing them as they have. Maybe that’s the mechanism for the universe to get back at Lee…
…but honestly, it’s probably as simple as the fact that his first-pitch strike rate has fallen from about two-thirds before this stretch, to 50 percent in this stretch. That seems a more glaring change than anything else in this seven-outing stretch.
I don’t think there’s any real reason for concern, but I still somewhat expect Lee to catch an Injured List stint, even if there’s little suggest any kind of injury woe leading to performance issues. With a slightly-expanded September bullpen, the re-availability of Ray Kerr and the ability to shunt Brent Suter towards higher leverage, and the Braves’ usual foot-not-really-on-the-pedal approach to pitching management, that’s a way to give him a reset, even if that reset is just from the unrelenting pressure of the universe. If they don’t, though, I’d be surprised to see this rough stretch keep up, unless Lee somehow gets it in his head that he needs to do things differently in September after four-and-a-half months of near-unbridled success.
DETROIT, MI - AUGUST 26: Hao-Yu Lee #50 of the Detroit Tigers leaves the field during the game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Izzy Rincon/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Amid the chaos of the 2026 Detroit Tigers season, we’ve also gotten a strong dose of the future. Kevin McGonigle is now the man in that dugout, and Max Clark is off to a nice start despite his youth. Eduardo Valencia, Ben Malgeri, and Brett Callahan have all shown some good things. The rookies are now occupying half the lineup most days, but the one who came up first during the season and has gotten the longest look is infielder Hao-Yu Lee. Has he done enough to lock up a job in 2027?
The 23-year-old Lee has gotten a much more extensive look than any rookie other than Kevin McGonigle this season, appearing in 90 games in two separate call-ups, and amassing 258 plate appearances. His initial call-up came back on April 17 and lasted until he was optioned back to Triple-A Toledo on June 2. He struggled in that first look at the Show, but less than two weeks later he was back in Detroit as Gleyber Torres went back on the injured list for his oblique injuries.
In that first tour with the Tigers, things were not going well. Of course, he’s a 23-year-old rookie and a solid prospect but far from a blue-chip, top 100 type, so some struggles trying to settle in were to be expected. Lee hit just .205 with a little power, but a 27.6 percent strikeout rate and a very low 4.6 percent walk rate for a 59 wRC+ (100 wRC+ is average if you’re not familiar).
That return to the minors seemed to allow him to take a breath, get back to a better approach at the plate, and apply some of what he’d learned. When he got back to Detroit in mid-June, we saw a much more consistent and confident hitter in the batter’s box. Since that point, Lee has hit .301 with an .802 OPS and a wRC+ of 122. His strikeout rate dropped to 19.3 percent and his walk rate rose to 7.3 percent, much more in line with his work in the minor leagues. Lee’s mix of power, plate discipline, and intensity have all been on display as he rarely gives at at-bat away and has started using the whole field more like he did in the minors.
For the season, Lee is now exactly at 100 wRC+, but the trend has been decidedly positive. The somewhat heavily left-handed hitting Tigers have seen Lee combine with Dillon Dingler and Spencer Torkelson to give them a lot better balance in their lineup, despite the fact that those two have slumped badly in recent weeks.
Based on his work since returning to the Tigers, they have a pretty good young hitter here. He hasn’t quite tapped into his plus raw power as much as we hope to see in the future, but even with seven home runs in essentially a half season of major league plate appearances, Lee has produced roughly average power and again, he’s trending much better since getting demoted in early June for a two week reset.
Based on the bat, Lee feels like a lock to be on the 2027 Opening Day roster. Certainly we’ll have to see how he finishes in September, and he’ll have to prove himself a bit again in spring training next year, assuming we get much of a Grapefruit League calendar after the lockout ends, but Lee does a lot of things well at the plate. He can hit behind a runner on first, he’ll pull balls down the line to left, and with 112+ mph in his bat, the power potential is plentiful if he can elevate a few more balls to the pull side. It’s nice to have a young, right-handed hitter with as balanced a spray chart as Lee does this season. He absolutely is using the whole field, and that can be a minor key to performing well with runners on base and being held there by a defender, opening up holes in the infield defense.
To improve further, Lee probably just needs to trim his chase rate. He didn’t chase that much in the minors, but at the major league level his outside the zone swing rate is up over 30 percent after posting a 22 percent mark at the Triple-A level. Hopefully this is just a matter of experience, as like all his numbers this season, he’s markedly improved across the board in his second stint with the Tigers. The final tantalizing piece of his offensive profile is that Lee has been much better against right-handed pitching than against southpaws. He crushed lefties in the minors, so it may just take time for things to balance out a little more, but the fact that he’s done so well as a right-handed hitter against right-handed pitching bodes well for his playing time and potential to become an everyday staple of the Tigers’ lineup.
The one big flaw here is obviously his defense. Lee is quite mobile for a barrel chested guy with pretty average speed, and he has solid arm strength as well. The problem is his glove, as way too many clear errors have been committed by him this season. In fairness, the Tigers haven’t made it too easy on him as he’s played a mix of second and third base. Lee has always had a tendency to be a little stone-handed particularly when he’s on the move, but it’s been worse in the major leagues so far.
He’s played the equivalent of roughly 55 games at second base, and 22 at third base. At second, he’s a -5 in Outs Above Average, and a -3 in Defensive Runs Saved. At third base, those marks are -4 and -1, respectively. He clearly has the ability to play close to average defense, but these big mistakes have got to be reduced and no doubt Lee is well aware of that fact.
Cleaning up his actions with the glove is the major task for Hao-Yu Lee this offseason. He’s shown enough to be pretty excited about his bat and his general major league future, but to play everyday and become a mainstay in the lineup, A.J. Hinch has to be able to trust him not to flub a play in a big spot, and right now it’s still a work in progress.
If we take a positive tack here, Lee’s intensity and work ethic are well known. We’ve mentioned this in his scouting reports each of the past three years since he came over from Philadelphia in a 2023 deadline deal that sent Michael Lorenzen to the Fightin’ Dombrowskis. He is a driven, high energy player and that extends to his practice as well. Some of his mistakes this season may simply be a result of an amped up young player trying to do too much in his first look at the big leagues.
Still, he’s clearly not going to be a plus defender either. As young as he is, by age 21 or 22 it’s generally pretty obvious if an infielder has good hands or not, and Lee just doesn’t have the high end glovework that could take him to plus defensive territory. That’s fine. He’s just got to put the work in this offseason and find ways to trim some of those big mistakes.
If Lee can just make some modest improvements in that regard, the Tigers are going to love what they have in his game. The bat is already fairly exciting. Getting to the point where they can play him at second and third without fear would make the whole proposition that much better.
Hao-Yu Lee has been a lot of fun to watch this season. He’s battled through the early rookie struggles, and appears to have come out the other side in a much better place, with much more consistent production over the last two and a half months. The confidence and intensity he plays with should serve him well, and he’s rarely looked intimidated or overwhelmed. He’s an easy player to root for with a team first attitude and ferocious drive to succeed. We jokingly had him ranked as “guy likely to be first out of the dugout if a fight breaks out,” last offseason, and that’s an attribute that endears a player to his teammates as well as to the fans.
The trade for Lee was already a nice win when it happened. Now he’s making good at the major league level. If he can clean up his defense and build back toward the better plate discipline he had at the Triple-A level, the Tigers will have a good everyday player here.
Today marks the first day of September, or in baseball terms, the day MLB rosters expand from 26 to 28 players. Each team will be allowed to add one pitcher and one hitter to their active roster as reinforcements for the final stretch run of the regular season.
The Phillies will begin September in pretty good shape. They entered play yesterday tied with the Chicago Cubs for the first Wild Card spot in the National League while sitting with a 4.5 game cushion for a spot in the postseason. The NL East division title is not completely out of the picture either, as the Phillies sit five games back of the Braves with seven still to play against Atlanta. But in lieu of chasing down the Braves, holding the top Wild Card spot will be crucial, as it guarantees the three-game series will be held at Citizens Bank Park.
It will be something to worth monitoring what the Phillies do with these two extra roster spots. The first players up will almost a certainly be depth players. For the pitching side, Kyle Backhus, Max Lazar, and Alan Rangel figure to be the favorites to take the spot. On the hitting side, it will very likely be a returning from the IL Rafael Marchán. If he is not deemed ready or if the team opts to not carry three catchers, Gabriel Rincones Jr., Otto Kemp, Felix Reyes, or one of the newly acquired Kameron Misner or Colby Thomas figure to get the nod.
These initial call ups likely won’t be exciting, but perhaps things get more interesting later in September. With the minor league season wrapping up, perhaps the idea of top pitching prospect Gage Wood becoming an addition to the bullpen grows in possibility. It would also seem that newly signed Nestor Cortes has a spot earmarked for him when he is deemed ready considering he was signed to an MLB deal. Those decisions are likely still at least a week away, but they hold some interesting possibilities.
So, who will be the Phillies September call-ups? Who do you think should be? Will there be some possible surprises a little later in the month?
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - JULY 12: Miguel Sime Jr. #55 of the Washington Nationals on the National League Team pitches in the seventh inning during the 2026 MLB Futures Game at Citizens Bank Park on July 12, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) | Getty Images
With the Minor League Baseball season approaching its end as the calendar gets set to flip to September, fans, coaches, and analysts alike are beginning to fully evaluate the 2026 campaigns of prospects around the league.
Congratulations to our 2026 Minor League Awards Winners!
Hitter of the Year – Seaver King Pitcher of the Year – Miguel Sime Jr. Defensive Player of the Year – Andrew Pinckney Baserunner of the Year – Eli Willits Nationals Way Award – Maxwell Romero Jr.https://t.co/Rd0WVr3wnr
— Nationals Communications (@NationalsComms) August 31, 2026
While there still are games to be played, the Washington Nationals, as of August 31st, have officially released their MiLB system-wide awards. Highly touted prospects like Seaver King (Hitter of the Year) and Eli Willits (Baserunner of the Year) took home awards, but arguably the most impressive recipient was the Pitcher of the Year, 19-year-old right hander Miguel Sime Jr..
It wasn’t much of a surprise to see the hard-throwing righty receive the honor, but it does present a fantastic chance to take a step back and truly admire the development Sime Jr. has had since joining the organization. 2026 was his first professional season, and he’s already done enough to warrant a considerable jump in the Nats’ prospect rankings.
Miguel Sime Jr. delivers another strong outing for the High-A @WilmBlueRocks 🔥
The stats that immediately pop off the page for Sime Jr. are his Earned Run Average, which sits at 2.99 through 23 starts, and his whopping 130 punchouts across just 72.1 innings, a staggering mark of 16.18 per 9 innings, which leads all MiLB arms.
He’s only become more effective since being promoted to High-A, sporting an ERA in the low-2.00s through 13 starts on the back of his triple-digit velocity and devastating off-speed offerings. Walks have remained a large knack on his prospect profile, but the results he’s managed to maintain have been nothing short of outright dominant.
The righty has been especially lethal as of late, allowing just 6 earned runs to score across 28.2 innings since the start of July. His most recent outing was arguably the best he’s looked all year, surrendering only 1 unearned run over 4.0 innings, giving up just 1 hit and punching out 6 batters to just 2 free passes.
A potential move to Double-A could be possible before the season officially concludes, but Washington might opt to continue his development in A+ until he shows more improvement in his command. Sime Jr. will have to refine some of his secondary pitches and take strides with his ability to keep the ball in the zone if he wants to remain a starter long-term, but at just 19, the upside is absolutely tantalizing.
Seeing Sime Jr. in a Nationals jersey is a reality that likely sits multiple seasons away, but his 2026 performance has already put him miles ahead of where many scouts believed his timeline to be at this point in time. Washington is putting together an impressive stable of arms in their minor league ranks, and he could very quickly find himself right in that mix if he keeps this up.
I think you can imagine how frustrated Cubs players must have been after a week-plus worth of losses to the Mariners, Diamondbacks and Reds, three of those in soul-crushing walk-off fashion.
They took those frustrations out on the Brewers Monday evening at Wrigley Field, breaking the franchise record for home runs in a game that was set just last year. Alex Bregman’s three homers — the second time he’s done that this month — led the nine-homer outburst as the Cubs demolished the Brewers 17-3. Sure, three of those home runs were off Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn. So what? They count just the same. Regarding the Cubs hitting off position players this year:
Cubs have now faced ELEVEN different position players this season.
They have a combined 18.47 ERA in 12.2 innings this season (26 runs, 37 hits).
Will this beatdown lead to more wins over the team’s division rival this week? That remains to be seen, but this one was sure a lot of fun.
The Cubs wasted no time in beginning the onslaught. Clay Holmes had an easy top of the first and then the hitting began. Seiya Suzuki drew a one-out walk, and one out later Tyrone Taylor hit the first of the nine long balls [VIDEO].
The Cubs were not done scoring in the first off Kyle Harrison, either. Michael Busch followed that homer with a double and scored on this single by Carson Kelly [VIDEO].
Holmes kept mowing down Brewers hitters, three by strikeout in the fourth, and then the Cubs put together another big inning in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Suzuki homered, the Cubs’ fourth of the game [VIDEO].
The Cubs have now gone back-to-back with homers twice in this game. More on that from BCB’s JohnW53:
The homers by Taylor and Hoerner, then by Suzuki and Bregman were the seventh and eighth times the Cubs have gone back-to-back this season. They did it 10 times in 2025 and 2024, 20 in 2023.
Tonight’s were their 413th and 414th set of consecutive homers in the regular season since 1876 and the 394th and 395th since 1901. They have gone back-to-back-to-back 11 other times.
Again the Cubs were not done in the inning. Taylor singled and Hoerner walked. One out later, Harrison was done for the evening, replaced by Chad Patrick.
Patrick’s first eight pitches were out of the strike zone, resulting in a walk to Kelly that loaded the bases and this RBI walk by Miguel Amaya [VIDEO].
So it’s 9-0 going to the fifth, and again Holmes set down the Brewers in that inning and the sixth without incident. Holmes left after six, having allowed five hits and two walks. His eight strikeouts matched his season high [VIDEO].
It’s still a bit early to make this determination, but based on what I’ve seen so far, I would have no issue sending Holmes to the mound for Game 1 of a postseason series.
Ryan Rolison relieved Holmes and served up a two-run homer to Cooper Pratt, somewhat forgivable in a 9-0 game.
That gave the Cubs an eight-run lead and, with the game in the seventh, put it into position-player pitcher territory. The Brewers obliged by sending Vaughn to the mound, and he threw a collection of pitches labeled “eephus” and “knuckleball” on the Wrigley video boards. “Eephus”? Sure. “Knuckleball”? Not intentionally, I don’t think.
That ball did not reach Waveland — it landed on the back concourse of the bleachers maybe 20 feet from me. It’s now 12-2. Pete Crow-Armstrong and Suzuki followed with singles, but Bregman hit into a double play, with PCA taking third. He scored on this single by Taylor [VIDEO].
Colin Rea entered in the eighth to mop things up. He allowed a run in that inning, but the Cubs put together their final home-run show in the bottom of the frame. Amaya led off with a single and Shaw walked.
The Cubs’ nine home runs break the team record they set against the Cardinals on July 4 of last year, then matched against the Padres on July 1 of this year.
The nine homers ties the National League record, by the Reds, in a 22-3 win at Philadelphia on Sept. 4, 1999.
The Blue Jays hit 10 in an 18-3 win at home over the Orioles on Sept. 14, 1987. The Yankees hit nine twice last season, in a 20-9 rout of the Brewers on March 29 and a 13-3 win over the Rays on Aug. 19. … Six were the most the Cubs had hit in their 463 previous regular-season games against the Brewers, both at Wrigley Field, in a 15-12 slugfest on Sept. 12, 1998, and a 9-1 win on June 24, 2003. This was their 380th game vs. the Brewers since then. They had hit five twice, at Milwaukee in 2010 and at home on Aug. 13, 2015.
Counsell’s remarks about Harrison are important. Harrison’s been one of the best pitchers in the league this year and the Cubs made him “uncomfortable” early and continued throughout — the worst game of Harrison’s career.
Does this carry forward to the next game? Well, of course, baseball doesn’t work that way, you start 0-0 the next day with two different pitchers. But I can’t help thinking that the Cubs were not intimidated by the Brewers, who had won nine of 13 coming into this game. And the Cubs have been pouring on runs recently, never mind that many of them have been off position players. The Cubs’ 742 runs now lead MLB by 16, and that’s 5.38 runs per game, a pace for 871 runs, which would be the first time any Cubs team had scored that many since 1930.
This is also the fourth time this year the Cubs have scored at least 17 runs in a game (and third time in their last eight games!). They haven’t done that since 1936, when they did it five times. The last (and only) time with more? 1930, which was a wacky offensive season when the entire NL hit .303.
Also: Who would have thought that Cubs hitters would pound out nine home runs in a game and have NONE of them hit by Pete Crow-Armstrong? That just shows how many good hitters this team has. The nine home runs also give them the MLB lead in that category with 196, four more than the Nationals. One more note on this game from John:
The Cubs’ 14-run margin of victory tied for their largest ever against the Brewers.
They beat them by 19-5 at home on April 30, 2008. In that game, the Cubs made 17 hits, three fewer than last night, and hit only two home runs, vs. nine last night.
The Cubs had won by 13 runs three times: 16-3 in 2001, 17-4 in 2002 and 15-2 in 2021. All of those games were at Wrigley Field.
Even more on all the home runs hit by the Cubs in August (Bluesky link):
Postseason race note: The Phillies also won Monday so the Cubs remain tied with them for the top wild card spot.
The Cubs will go for two in a row over the Brewers Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field. Matthew Boyd will start for the Cubs and Robert Gasser goes for Milwaukee. Game time is again 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network. There will also be a national broadcast on TBS (outside the Cubs and Brewers market territories).
The Detroit Tigers are priced as slim 52% moneyline favorites when they visit the Minnesota Twins tonight for an important American League Central clash. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET at Target Field.
Detroit's offense has been atrocious lately, so my Tigers vs Twins predictions comfortably back Minnesota to grab another win after blowing out its divisional rivals on Monday.
For help understanding probabilities, see our odds calculator.
This will be a bullpen game for the Minnesota Twins, but that is not necessarily a negative. Andrew Morris has posted a 3.01 xERA over the last month across 11 relief appearances, and Minnesota’s bullpen owns a 3.85 FIP over the last week with minimal home run damage.
The biggest factor is the Detroit Tigers’ offensive collapse. Detroit has a 27 wRC+ over its previous six games and has scored just nine runs during that span.
Troy Melton is having a good season, but he has been more vulnerable lately, posting a 6.33 xERA over his last two outings while allowing 1.42 HR/9.
With the Twins carrying a 110 wRC+ recently, Minnesota has the clear edge.
With Detroit unable to score runs lately, the Under 8.5 presents value.
The Twins’ bullpen is holding its own, and its ability to limit hard contact and avoid major homer damage should prove key against the Tigers.
Detroit’s relief corps has also allowed just 0.82 HR/9 over the last week while posting a 4.10 xERA. That is not elite, but it is stable enough to support this angle.
This would require the Twins to do most of the scoring to push the Over, and I’m more comfortable with the idea of a lower-scoring contest at Target Field.
Play this pick up to 60%.
Tigers vs Twins home run prediction: Kody Clemens (19%)
Kody Clemens has been smacking baseballs over the last week, posting a 60% hard-hit rate and 13.3% barrel rate. During that span, he has clubbed two home runs while consistently putting the ball in the air, carrying a 66.7% fly-ball rate over his previous six contests.
That is notable against Melton amid his issues with the long ball, and the Tigers’ bullpen has also been vulnerable to air contact, posting a 44.7% fly-ball rate over the last week.
After homering Monday, Clemens has multiple paths to going deep again tonight.
Play this pick up to 25%.
Quinn Allen's 2026 Transparency Record
ML/RL bets: 63-72, -17.90 units
Over/Under bets: 74-57, +5.50 units
Tigers vs Twins weather
Weather at Target Field looks warm and clean tonight, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures falling from 86°F to 78°F. Winds are light around 3–6 mph, and rain chances stay low at 2–11%. No major delay concern, and the warm air could slightly help carry.
Tigers vs Twins odds
Moneyline: Tigers 52% | Twins 49%
Run line: Tigers -1.5 (40%) | Twins +1.5 (61%)
Over/Under: Over 8.5 (52%) | Under 8.5 (49%)
Tigers vs Twins trend
The Detroit Tigers have hit the game total Under in 10 of their last 12 games (+7.80 Units / 59% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Tigers vs. Twins.
How to watch Tigers vs Twins and game info
Location
Target Field, Minneapolis, MN
Date
Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026
First pitch
7:40 p.m. ET
TV
DSN, Twins.TV
Tigers starting pitcher
Troy Melton (7-3, 1.86 ERA)
Twins starting pitcher
Andrew Morris (4-7, 3.82 ERA)
Tigers vs Twins latest injuries
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change. Not intended for use in MA. Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
COVERS INTEL: Lauerhas been much more consistent at home this season, 
