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The Texas Rangers scored a run but the Arizona Diamondbacks scored nine runs.

It’s pretty ironic that in the span of about an hour, the 2026 Texas Rangers were laid to rest at Chase Field.

I’ve watched nearly 150 games of this baseball team this season and have written about how a moment or sequence was “like the entire season in a nutshell” so often that I’m pretty sure I’ve developed a peanut allergy.

How about we try this sequence on for size:

In a 0-0 game in the top of the fifth, Skip Schumaker offered up a free out by asking Nicky Lopez to bunt before the Rangers scored the first run of the game off last season’s failed savior Merritt Kelly only to see the middle of the order leave the bases loaded and viciously squeeze all the air out of the balloon despite the fresh lead.

In the bottom of the inning, MacKenzie Gore, whose starts have bled together at such a predictable cadence that it has begun to feel like he has given up four runs in some random inning every other day for these last six months, allowed a double, walk, ground-rule double, and then go-ahead two-run double without collecting an out.

Schumaker finally saw enough and brought in Jakob Junis, who you may recall allowed four runs without registering an out in yesterday’s tragedy. Junis immediately allowed the fourth run to score.

Now down 4-1, if you’re wondering if Texas showed some fight or pride after a demoralizing but familiar turn of events, the answer is a resounding no. Instead, they saw nine pitches and they went for nine strikes for an immaculate inning with each strikeout coming via a swing and miss each more pathetic than the last.

In the bottom of the inning, the Diamondbacks scored five more runs.

Pass the Planters.

Player of the Game: Josh Sborz.

Up Next: The Rangers will be on the field for a baseball game tomorrow in Arizona. Or maybe it will be a wake. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 pm CDT.

Heroes, zeros and the inside pitch from the Yankees’ 6-4 win over the Mets on Friday night in the Subway Series in The Bronx:

Hero 

Cody Bellinger, whose father Clay was a member of the 2001 Yankees, hit a three-run homer in the second inning that gave the Yankees a lead they didn’t give up. 

Zero 

After allowing just five runs — four earned — over his previous five starts, Nolan McLean had an uncharacteristic poor start, as the Yankees tagged him for five runs in five innings. McLean also gave up a career-worst 10 hits. 

Unsung hero

Carlos Rodón had his longest outing of the season, tossing 6 ¹/₃ ⅓ innings, despite Aaron Boone saying he’s not fully built up. 

Key Stat

5: With Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick struggling, David Bednar was called on with one out in the eighth inning and the bases loaded. He got out of that inning and despite giving up a leadoff homer to A.J. Ewing in the ninth, picked up his second five-out save of the year. 

Quote of the night

“The energy in the crowd was special. I’m glad it felt like … you want a ballgame to feel like. I thought a lot of people were here having a great time on what, for many, is a difficult day.” 

— Aaron Boone on the atmosphere at the Stadium. 

Nolan McLean’s Subway Series debut won’t be included among his rookie season’s greatest hits. 

The right-hander yielded a career-high 10 hits (including two homers) on Friday in the Mets’ 6-4 loss to the Yankees in The Bronx. 

Cody Bellinger’s three-run homer in the second inning inflicted most of the damage against McLean. In the fifth, Ben Rice cleared the left field fence against him, widening the Mets’ deficit to 5-1. McLean was removed after the inning at 101 pitches. 

“If you don’t have your best stuff, teams are going to beat you,” McLean said. “I didn’t have my best stuff tonight, and the Yankees are a good team. They came out and beat me.” 

The rough outing snapped a string of five straight starts in which McLean allowed two earned runs or fewer and pitched at least six innings. Overall, he had lasted at least six innings in 13 of his previous 14 starts. 

McLean was shaky from the start, allowing three singles and a walk in the first inning to fall into a 1-0 hole. After Spencer Jones delivered an RBI single with the bases loaded in the inning, McLean eluded further damage by getting George Lombard Jr. to ground into an inning-ending double play. 

Though McLean got two fast outs in the second, he surrendered consecutive singles to Anthony Volpe and Rice before Bellinger homered on a full-count curveball into the right-field seats. It was the first career homer McLean surrendered on a curveball. 

“There’s some pitches I probably could have thrown a little bit better, and there’s times in a game, too, where you make pitches and they don’t find gloves,” McLean said. “It felt like those first two innings a lot of that was happening. Bellinger with a big swing, that kind of sealed the deal and a lot of the damage in that second inning.” 

Carson Benge’s right arm helped McLean avoid trouble in the third: Luis Garcia was erased trying to stretch a leadoff single into a double as Benge threw a strike to Francisco Lindor. 

Rice’s blast in the fifth left McLean with multiple homers allowed in a game for the first time since July 30, when he surrendered two to the Marlins. 

McLean didn’t lose sight of the night’s significance, with pregame ceremonies dedicated to the 25th anniversary of 9/11. 

“Awesome fans, awesome city,” he said. “I think ultimately that is what is most important about tonight: People who died trying to help others and people who were in those buildings. It’s awesome to see that many people show up and support it.”

Nolan McLeandid not have his best outing Friday against the Yankees, but the Bombers still left their 6-4 win impressed with the Mets rookie.

It was the first time the Yankees saw McLean, yet they picked up 10 hits off of him -- a career-high against the right-hander -- and broke a string of strong starts, but it wasn't necessarily easy. 

The Yankees pushed across a run in the first, but could not capitalize further after getting the bases loaded. A successful ABS challenge led to a three-run bomb by Cody Bellinger in the second. From there, McLean pitched two scoreless frames before Ben Rice hit a solo shot in the fifth. 

"His stuff’s really good," Rice said of McLean after the game. "It’s moving in all different directions, it’s nasty, he throws hard. You have to try and get him in your zone as best you can."

According to manager Aaron Boone, that was the game plan against McLean on Friday. Swing at pitches in the zone and force McLean to throw it there.

"Swing decisions were excellent," Boone said. "You have to control the zone against him because of the movement of his pitches. Whether he’s spinning it, that sinker that’s kinda running, or the four-seam that’s taking off. But he’ll leave the zone a little bit and you have to make sure you bring him in the zone, and I thought we did that."

McLean came into this game completing at least 6.0 innings in 13 of his last 14 starts, and allowing two or fewer earned runs in 15 of his last 17 starts. Those numbers put McLean in the NL Rookie of the Year discussion.

And while Friday's five-inning start may have set those ambitions back, it's clear that McLean is being recognized by the best hitters as a legit pitcher.

Aaron Judge, who walked, hit a single and struck out in three at-bats against McLean, was asked about his team's success of late and the two-time defending AL MVP couldn't help but give McLean his flowers while praising his own squad.

"To get to a pitcher like McLean, he’s one of the best young pitchers in the game," Judge said. "He’s got some amazing stuff. For us, to put a couple of crooked numbers on him and hold off their offense that started getting going there in the end. Just got to keep it rolling." 

It’s been said that it’s not how you start, but how you finish. That’s a good thing because Matthew Liberatore’s first pitch of the game got torched, but he didn’t finish poorly at all. Would that be enough for the St. Louis Cardinals to win the first game of their homestand against the Chicago White Sox? The Cardinals offense and bullpen would ultimately have to answer that question. Fortunately, the middle of the Cardinals lineup would show up big time.

After a brief rain delay, Matthew Liberatore threw his first pitch which was a 93 mph four-seam fastball. It left the bat of Chicago White Sox leadoff man Chase Meidroth faster than that and traveled 398 feet into the left field plants for an immediate 1-0 White Sox lead. Former Cardinal Randall Grichuk followed that with a double to the right field wall and it looked like the wheels might come off of Liberatore’s wagon right out of the gate. Fortunately, he pitched around the Grichuk double and a walk later in the first only allowing that lone White Sox run on the homer.

The Cardinals bats answered in the bottom of the 1st inning when they were gifted a base when White Sox starter Anthony Kay hit Iván Herrera with a pitch. Alec Burleson made them pay when he ripped a double into the right field corner which scored a hustling Herrera tying the game at 1-1.

St. Louis would take the lead in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Leo Bernal ripped a double into the left-centerfield gap. Thomas Saggese singled to center which moved Bernal to third. Leo then scored when Masyn Winn grounded out to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead.

We all had a sense of the wrong kind of Deja vu in the top of the 3rd inning when Chicago White Sox leadoff man Chase Meidroth launched an 88 mph Matthew Liberatore changeup into nearly the same spot he hit his first home run over the left field wall tying the game 2-2.

The Cardinals bats did not go for a nap for a change as St. Louis rallied for another run in the bottom of the 3rd inning when Jordan Walker led off with a solid single to center then advanced to second on a groundout from Alec Burleson. Joshua Báez added a single of his own to center which scored Walker giving the Cardinals a 3-2 lead.

Matthew Liberatore would get the Cardinals 1 out into the top of the 5th inning before he would be lifted by manager Oli Marmol for Gordon Graceffo. He would leave with a runner on 1st with a line of 4 1/3 innings pitched allowing 6 hits and 2 earned runs striking out 2 and walking 3. Not his best start of the year by far, but not his worst either and he did keep the Cardinals in the game unlike a few other outings. Graceffo would run into potential trouble for his part of the 5th as the White Sox would eventually load the bases with a walk and hit-by-pitch, but he’d strike out Peters to end the White Sox threat with no runs scored.

I haven’t heard an official nickname given, but I like the idea of Alec Burleson, Joshua Báez and Leo Bernal being known as the “killer B’s”. They lived up to that billing in the bottom of the 5th when they followed a nice Jordan Walker double to left with a single, double and single consecutively to give the Cardinals 3 more runs to increase the lead to 6-2.

Oh, the eternal question (or at least the one for the second half of this season) is whether the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen could hold that lead. Luis Gastelum entered the game in the top of the 6th inning and trouble appeared to follow him. After getting Montgomery to ground out for the first out, Antonacci and Teel both reached on singles to give the White Sox a scoring threat with runners on first and second with just one out. That situation was worsened by a Gastelum walk to Meidroth which loaded the bases for Randall Grichuk. Luis struck him out as Grichuk helped the cause by swinging at some balls out of the zone. It would come down to a crucial at-bat by Miguel Vargas. He connected with an 85 mph sweeper and drove it to the centerfield wall that Nathan Church bumped into as he caught the ball for the final out of the White Sox 6th. Whew!

The St. Louis defense had some nice highlights Friday night, too, especially Nathan Church who made two difficult catches including one in the top of the 7th where he slammed into the centerfield wall saving reliever Justin Bruihl some heartache.

Joshua Báez came about as close as you can come to hitting a home run in Busch Stadium without actually hitting a home run in the bottom of the 7th inning. He turned on an 89 mph slider and hit it off of the padding at the top of the left field wall that came back into the field of play which was confirmed to be a double after a crew chief’s review. He would eventually score anyway when Leo Bernal smacked a RBI single to left making it 7-2 Cardinals.

Bruihl would not get bailed out in the top of the 8th inning when he hit Antonacci with a pitch and then gave up a single to Teel allowing the White Sox runners on first and third with no outs. That inspired Oli Marmol to remove Justin for Ryne Stanek. He struck out Meidroth who had homered twice earlier in the game for the first out in the White Sox 8th. That brought up Munetaka Murakami who has 31 home runs on the season, but Stanek got him to ground into a force out at second for the second out, but a run scored on the play reducing the St. Louis lead to 7-3. Stanek would escape the top of the 8th when Vargas grounded out to Urias at third for the final out helped by a nice play by Burleson at first who had to be creative snagging the throw from Urias.

I remember the days when the St. Louis Cardinals would have a 4-run lead going into the top of the 9th inning and I’d feel comfortable with that number. This year? Not so much. Riley O’Brien was brought in to handle the middle of the White Sox lineup starting with Colson Montgomery. He struck him out on 3 pitches. No problem. Next up was Benintendi. He flew out innocently to Victor Scott II who was a defensive replacement in right. Tristan Peters was the last home for the White Sox. He grounded out weakly to Burleson. No drama in the 9th? Pinch me, I must be dreaming. More of this please!

The Cardinals will have a big Saturday with the entrance into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame by Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina and Bill Sherdel Saturday night starting at 5pm. After that, it will be game 2 of the weekend series as Kyle Leahy will start the first few innings for the Cardinals. Luis Castillo gets the start for the White Sox. First pitch Saturday night is set for 6:15pm and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.

Carlos Rodón looked like a postseason pitcher on Friday night — and just in time. 

The lefty, who’s been bothered by elbow issues this season, dominated against the Mets in possibly his best start of the year in a 6-4 win in The Bronx. 

Rodón pitched a season-long 6 ¹/₃ innings and allowed two runs, only one earned, while striking out eight, also a season-best. 

“I thought he threw the heck out of the ball,’’ Aaron Boone said. 

Wearing an FDNY hat, as the Yankees commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Rodón called it “an honor to be able to pitch” on the emotional night. 

While he hadn’t given up more than two runs since his return from elbow inflammation, Rodón had been unable to provide much length prior to Friday’s start. 

As the Yankees look to fortify their October rotation, Rodón very much fit the part against a Mets lineup that’s hit better of late. 

He was hurt by a leadoff walk to Mark Vientos in the second, as Vientos scored later in the inning- due in part to Spencer Jones’ fielding error in center. 

But following Marcus Semien’s one-out single in that second inning that led to an unearned run, Rodón retired 15 of the next 16 batters he faced before Carson Benge’s base hit ended his night with one out in the seventh. 

Rodón was at 93 pitches and the Yankees haven’t let Rodón hit the 100 mark yet this season. 

So Paul Blackburn entered and struggled and a run-scoring single by A.J. Ewing knocked in Benge for the only other run permitted by Rodón. 

Still, the Yankees will take this kind of performance from Rodón, who didn’t make his season debut until May following offseason elbow surgery. 

Rodón hit the IL again in late June and missed over a month, dealing with elbow inflammation. 

Since his return, Rodón entered Friday having allowed just five earned runs in four starts, but he’d pitched just 17 ²/₃ innings. 

His previous outing in San Diego had been Rodón’s most effective, as the left-hander struck out seven and gave up just one run and a pair of hits- but he walked three in five innings. 

On Friday, Rodón allowed only one walk, and it was to Vientos. 

“He had better strike-throwing,’’ Boone said of Friday’s start. “He’s been really effective [and] really limiting hits, but walks have hurt him and his ability to get deep in games.” 

If Friday was any indication, Rodón could be moving past that and as long as he stays healthy, should be a key factor down the stretch and into the playoffs. 

“He’s been in a good place throughout the year when he’s healthy,’’ Boone said.

The Guardians pulled out a huge victory in the series opener in Minnesota, and it would once again be off the back of some excellent pitching. Parker Messick looked incredibly solid again, as he got through 5.1 innings, striking out 5, and giving up just 3 hits. He would only be touched for 1 run, when the Twins strung together 2 of their 3 hits off him back to back in the 2nd inning. After that, he was able to keep the Twins quiet.

In a similar fashion, Taj Bradley was able to keep the Guardians’ offense in check, giving up just 1 hit through 6 innings. The Guards were able to draw 4 walks off him and made a handful of very loud outs, but couldn’t find any outfield grass.

After the 6th, it would become a battle of the bullpens. The Twins brought in A.J. Minter to pitch the 7th, and the Guardians came out swinging. The first 3 hitters would all swing at the first pitch they saw, and after a Travis Bazzana single, Angel Martínez would crank an absolute moonshot 445 feet into the 2nd deck in left center field, giving the Guardians a 2-1 lead.

The twins would answer back in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single by Kaelen Culpepper, making it a 2-2 game. That would be all the scoring until the 9th. 

Travis Bazzana lead off the 9th with a walk, his 4th time reaching base in the game. After David Fry popped out attempting to bunt Bazz to 2nd, it would be Martínez again coming up big lining a double down the right field line, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with just 1 out. Angel Genao would pinch hit for Austin Hedges and draw a key walk to load the bases and bring up Mr September himself, Brayan Rocchio. On the 2nd pitch of the at bat, Yoendrys Gómez would spike a changeup that got away from Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers, allowing Bazzana to score the go ahead run on the wild pitch. Rocchio would cap off the AB by smoking a 2 run double in the right center field gap, giving the Guardians a 5-2 lead.

In the bottom half of the 9th, it would be Cade Smith on to get the save. After a pop foul out to David Fry and PH single, Cade would get a weak ground ball off the bat of Walter Jenkins to first baseman David Fry. He would step on the bag and throw a perfect seed to Rocchio, who tagged out the runner, completing the double play and sealing a 5-2 victory for the Guardians. All in all, Cade Smith needed just 9 pitches to throw a scoreless 9th for his 36th save of the season.

The Guards look to lock up a series win tomorrow afternoon at 4:10 pm Eastern time. At the time of writing, the probable starter for the Guards is unknown, but it sounds like an opener situation leading to Joey Cantillo (9-9, 4.00 ERA) as the bulk guy out of the pen. The Twins’ probable starter is listed as Connor Prielipp (4-7, 5.25 ERA).

The Braves had ‘em all the way. Yep, had ‘em all the way. At least, that’s what we’ll tell ourselves whenever a scintilla of a memory of this game pops into our brains, right? It took 12 innings, a brief blip from Chris Sale, and run-scoring scrambles in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh, another huuuuge hit from Ha-Seong Kim, and finally, a walkoff rope off the bat of Drake Baldwin, but the Braves ultimately prevailed in the opener of the final series against their division rivals.

How do you recap this game? It felt like living a few different lifetimes. I guess we’ll just go sequentially, but this is a game that warrants watching the highlights.

After a 45-minute weather-related delay, things got started and Sale pretty much picked up where he left off. The top of the Philadelphia order went down on a flyout and two nasty strikeouts. Aaron Nola retired the first two Braves he faced, but then Matt Olson broke a two-week homerless slide with a slice the other way that juuust managed not to go foul and instead became his 38th longball of the year. A homer from the recently homer-shy Braves offense seemed to be an auspicious sign, but things quickly took a turn for the worse.

After the first two outs of the eighth, Edmundo Sosa caught a Sale slider and yanked it for a single. Sale then issued a rare walk to Bryan De La Cruz of all people, and then hit J.T. Realmuto with the next pitch, loading the bases.

***Derek Hill complaints interlude***

I freakin’ hate the Derek Hill 2026 phenomenon. In case you’re not aware, Hill is A) massively outhitting a terrible xwOBA, B) has an insane amount of WPA despite not actually performing well in higher leverage consistency, but C), most annoyingly, the White Sox traded Hill and some international bonus pool money to the Phillies for essentially nothing of value, after Hill played a key role in starting that whole Braves June swoon thing before the trade. If not for Derek Hill, this series probably wouldn’t even have much drama. Anyway…

***Interlude end***

Hill couldn’t get a hold of Sale’s 1-1 four-seamer down the middle, but he did get a hold of the next pitch, barreling it for a bases-clearing double that turned the game around. It’s possible that if the Braves were actually playing Hill to pull, Michael Harris II could have flagged it down, but that is absolutely not where they were playing him.

Sale recovered to strike out Kyle Schwarber, and then he pretty much resumed his business-as-usual pure domination. He faced just one over the minimum the rest of the game, with a leadoff walk erased on a double play and a two-out Luis Arraez the only other non-out yielded by him and his defense. Sale finished with a 6/2 K/BB ratio in seven innings of work — not hyper-dominance, but another strong outing for the ace.

Unfortunately for the Braves, they couldn’t really do much against Nola, either. They put two on with two out in the bottom of the second, but Nola struck out Sean Murphy on three pitches. In the third, Ronald Acuña Jr. doubled and Olson walked, but Harris and Mauricio Dubon couldn’t bring them home via weak contact. There was another runner stranded in the fourth, and Acuña hit into a double play to erase a Baldwin leadoff single in the fifth… only for Ozzie Albies to hit into a double play of his own after Nola clipped Dubon in the sixth.

In the seventh, though, things got a little closer. Leading off the frame, Austin Riley scooped an 0-1 sinker below the zone from Nola and absolutely demolished it, 110 mph off the bat and an estimated 434 feet of distance, to make it a 3-2 game. Mike Yastrzemski followed with a bloop single, and then Murphy barreled one to center… but that one was caught. Still, the Phillies removed Nola and inserted Jose Alvarado. The big left-hander punched out both Baldwin and Acuña, blowing away the latter on 98 mph inside the zone.

Dylan Lee and the defense got through the eighth (walk, double play, flyout), but Alex McFarlane (the guy victimized by Acuña in Philadelphia) got three outs in the air around a bloop single by Dubon in the bottom half of the inning. Bryce Harper blooped a double into the corner off Lee in the ninth, and Lee eventually gave way to Mederos, but the Phillies were kept off the board.

So, in the ninth, the Phillies went to Jonathan Bowlan, not wanting to use Jhoan Duran three days in a row. Bowlan struck out Riley, but Yastrzemski connected for a seeing-eye single, giving him a perfect 3-for-3-with-a-walk evening. And then, all hell broke loose for pretty much the rest of the game.

Murphy swung at an 0-1 slider from Bowlan and hit a hard smash between the second base bag and Trea Turner at shortstop. DaShawn Keirsey Jr., who was called up today to replace the injured Lane Thomas and had pinch-run for Yastrzemski, blazed around the bases. This probably would have set up a first-and-third situation, except that Hill misplayed the ball in center, and Keirsey sprinted home, tying the game. The Braves could’ve won it right then, but they didn’t — Bowlan plunked Baldwin, but then Acuña flied out and Olson’s hard-hit ball towards center was easily cut off by Turner for the third out.

So, the tenth, with Raisel Iglesias on the hill. Pinch-hitter Justin Crawford singled on Iglesias’ first pitch to score the free runner. The Phillies didn’t do much else, and Chase Shugart came on to pitch for the home half of the inning. Harris moved Brewer Hicklen (pinch-running for Olson as the free runner) to third with a groundout, and Dubon skied a first-pitch sweeper about neck-level to center, just deep enough for Hicklen to score. Both Hicklen and Dubon were so pumped about this turn of events — I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone go quite so berserk over a regular season, non-walkoff sacrifice fly.

The 11th started promisingly as Turner fouled out against Didier Fuentes on the first pitch. And, it did end promisingly, but not without a lot of drama. On a 2-0 pitch, Harper hit what probably should’ve been a fairly routine liner to Olson, but it didn’t end up a clean play and the Phillies had runners on the corners. Fuentes got ahead of Arraez 0-2, but the latter then pulled off his bread-and-butter, a 68 mph go-ahead single through the left side on a 99 mph fastball on the inner edge. A strikeout, a walk, and a grounder sent the game to the fateful bottom of the 11th.

Things first looked really bad (after looking really good): Riley grounded out, failing to advance the runner to third. The Phillies swapped to veteran lefty Brooks Raley. Then, Dominic Smith, who came in to play first because of Hicklen pinch-running for Olson, popped out on the first pitch. Uh-oh. It was all up to Ha-Seong Kim, but we’ve seen this story before: Kim smashed a hanging changeup 106 mph into left field, tying the game. Up next was Drake Baldwin, and that’s where this one ends. Baldwin battled Raley for a few pitches, and then hooked a sweeper on the low-outside corner into the right-center gap for a walkoff double. Kim flew around the bases, and no throw came… with Kim’s bellyflop, the Braves pushed the division lead back to five games and avoided a Sale start letdown.

The series continues tomorrow evening.

Josue De Paula made his major league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers as the defending champions earned a 6-2 victory against the Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park on Friday, Sept. 11.

He will serve as the designated hitter for the Dodgers for this weekend series, filling in for two-way star Shohei Ohtani. Those are big shoes for the organization's top prospect to fill.

The move to call up De Paula from the minor leagues was made official before Friday’s game, after Ohtani was placed on the injured list due to right biceps inflammation. 

De Paula, at 21 years and 110 days old, batted seventh in the lineup and became the youngest Dodgers player since Alex Verdugo on Sept. 2, 2017.

He also became the first Dodgers position player called up from the AA level while totally skipping AAA since Steve Sax in 1981.

Coming into Friday’s game, Mets starter Nolan McLean had allowed four earned runs in his last five outings and was making a great final push for the National League Rookie of the Year award.

But on Friday against the Yankees, the right-hander wasn’t at his best and gave up five earned runs on a career-high 10 hits allowed in five innings. The big blow came in the second inning when Cody Bellinger took him deep for a three-run shot that gave the Yanks a 4-1 lead, one they wouldn’t relinquish in an eventual 6-4 win.

“If you don’t have your best stuff, teams are gonna beat you and I didn’t have my best stuff tonight,” McLean said. “The Yankees are a good team and they came out and beat me.”

While McLean admitted to not having his best stuff overall on Friday night at Yankee Stadium, he said the pitch to Bellinger, a curveball down in the zone, was where he wanted it.

“I was happy where I put that pitch,” McLean said. “I didn’t wanna leave the zone too much and not get the swing and put him on base. He was able to kinda dig it out and kinda ride through his front side a little bit and put it in the seats. It’s unfortunate, but that guy’s good at baseball too so it’s part of it sometimes.”

The home run was the first McLean has allowed on his curveball, a pitch that has mystified hitters since the rookie entered the league.

It wasn’t just the homer by Bellinger, though, that did damage against McLean. 

In the first inning, the rookie was put in immediate danger following two singles and a walk before a third single in the inning brought home a run. The right-hander also fell behind a lot of hitters and interim manager Andy Green thought he could’ve been more aggressive, especially on the inside of the plate.

“I think Nolan had the opportunity to probably attack in more than he did today and you can feel from the beginning they were living out over [the plate], so it wasn’t necessarily his best day,” Green said. “There was opportunity to probably get in more aggressively than he did though.”

As for Bellinger’s home run, Green agreed with his young pitcher that the lefty slugger “hit a couple of nice pitches.” Bellinger finished 2-for-4.

Not only was McLean’s start the first of the Subway Series, but it also came on the 25th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11, which put things into perspective for the 25-year-old who was just a couple of months old when the events transpired.

“It was awesome. Awesome fans, awesome city,” McLean said of the energy at the stadium. “I think that’s what’s ultimately most important about tonight – the people who died trying to help others and the people who were in those buildings; it’s awesome to see that many people show up and support it.”

The Braves had ‘em all the way. Yep, had ‘em all the way. At least, that’s what we’ll tell ourselves whenever a scintilla of a memory of this game pops into our brains, right? It took 12 innings, a brief blip from Chris Sale, and run-scoring scrambles in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh, another huuuuge hit from Ha-Seong Kim, and finally, a walkoff rope off the bat of Drake Baldwin, but the Braves ultimately prevailed in the opener of the final series against their division rivals.

How do you recap this game? It felt like living a few different lifetimes. I guess we’ll just go sequentially, but this is a game that warrants watching the highlights.

After a 45-minute weather-related delay, things got started and Sale pretty much picked up where he left off. The top of the Philadelphia order went down on a flyout and two nasty strikeouts. Aaron Nola retired the first two Braves he faced, but then Matt Olson broke a two-week homerless slide with a slice the other way that juuust managed not to go foul and instead became his 38th longball of the year. A homer from the recently homer-shy Braves offense seemed to be an auspicious sign, but things quickly took a turn for the worse.

After the first two outs of the eighth, Edmundo Sosa caught a Sale slider and yanked it for a single. Sale then issued a rare walk to Bryan De La Cruz of all people, and then hit J.T. Realmuto with the next pitch, loading the bases.

***Derek Hill complaints interlude***

I freakin’ hate the Derek Hill 2026 phenomenon. In case you’re not aware, Hill is A) massively outhitting a terrible xwOBA, B) has an insane amount of WPA despite not actually performing well in higher leverage consistency, but C), most annoyingly, the White Sox traded Hill and some international bonus pool money to the Phillies for essentially nothing of value, after Hill played a key role in starting that whole Braves June swoon thing before the trade. If not for Derek Hill, this series probably wouldn’t even have much drama. Anyway…

***Interlude end***

Hill couldn’t get a hold of Sale’s 1-1 four-seamer down the middle, but he did get a hold of the next pitch, barreling it for a bases-clearing double that turned the game around. It’s possible that if the Braves were actually playing Hill to pull, Michael Harris II could have flagged it down, but that is absolutely not where they were playing him.

Sale recovered to strike out Kyle Schwarber, and then he pretty much resumed his business-as-usual pure domination. He faced just one over the minimum the rest of the game, with a leadoff walk erased on a double play and a two-out Luis Arraez the only other non-out yielded by him and his defense. Sale finished with a 6/2 K/BB ratio in seven innings of work — not hyper-dominance, but another strong outing for the ace.

Unfortunately for the Braves, they couldn’t really do much against Nola, either. They put two on with two out in the bottom of the second, but Nola struck out Sean Murphy on three pitches. In the third, Ronald Acuña Jr. doubled and Olson walked, but Harris and Mauricio Dubon couldn’t bring them home via weak contact. There was another runner stranded in the fourth, and Acuña hit into a double play to erase a Baldwin leadoff single in the fifth… only for Ozzie Albies to hit into a double play of his own after Nola clipped Dubon in the sixth.

In the seventh, though, things got a little closer. Leading off the frame, Austin Riley scooped an 0-1 sinker below the zone from Nola and absolutely demolished it, 110 mph off the bat and an estimated 434 feet of distance, to make it a 3-2 game. Mike Yastrzemski followed with a bloop single, and then Murphy barreled one to center… but that one was caught. Still, the Phillies removed Nola and inserted Jose Alvarado. The big left-hander punched out both Baldwin and Acuña, blowing away the latter on 98 mph inside the zone.

Dylan Lee and the defense got through the eighth (walk, double play, flyout), but Alex McFarlane (the guy victimized by Acuña in Philadelphia) got three outs in the air around a bloop single by Dubon in the bottom half of the inning. Bryce Harper blooped a double into the corner off Lee in the ninth, and Lee eventually gave way to Mederos, but the Phillies were kept off the board.

So, in the ninth, the Phillies went to Jonathan Bowlan, not wanting to use Jhoan Duran three days in a row. Bowlan struck out Riley, but Yastrzemski connected for a seeing-eye single, giving him a perfect 3-for-3-with-a-walk evening. And then, all hell broke loose for pretty much the rest of the game.

Murphy swung at an 0-1 slider from Bowlan and hit a hard smash between the second base bag and Trea Turner at shortstop. DaShawn Keirsey Jr., who was called up today to replace the injured Lane Thomas and had pinch-run for Yastrzemski, blazed around the bases. This probably would have set up a first-and-third situation, except that Hill misplayed the ball in center, and Keirsey sprinted home, tying the game. The Braves could’ve won it right then, but they didn’t — Bowlan plunked Baldwin, but then Acuña flied out and Olson’s hard-hit ball towards center was easily cut off by Turner for the third out.

So, the tenth, with Raisel Iglesias on the hill. Pinch-hitter Justin Crawford singled on Iglesias’ first pitch to score the free runner. The Phillies didn’t do much else, and Chase Shugart came on to pitch for the home half of the inning. Harris moved Brewer Hicklen (pinch-running for Olson as the free runner) to third with a groundout, and Dubon skied a first-pitch sweeper about neck-level to center, just deep enough for Hicklen to score. Both Hicklen and Dubon were so pumped about this turn of events — I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone go quite so berserk over a regular season, non-walkoff sacrifice fly.

The 11th started promisingly as Turner fouled out against Didier Fuentes on the first pitch. And, it did end promisingly, but not without a lot of drama. On a 2-0 pitch, Harper hit what probably should’ve been a fairly routine liner to Smith (who came in to play first after Hicklen pinch-ran for Olson), but it didn’t end up a clean play and the Phillies had runners on the corners. Fuentes got ahead of Arraez 0-2, but the latter then pulled off his bread-and-butter, a 68 mph go-ahead single through the left side on a 99 mph fastball on the inner edge. A strikeout, a walk, and a grounder sent the game to the fateful bottom of the 11th.

Things first looked really bad (after looking really good): Riley grounded out, failing to advance the runner to third. The Phillies swapped to veteran lefty Brooks Raley. Then, Smith popped out on the first pitch. Uh-oh. It was all up to Ha-Seong Kim, but we’ve seen this story before: Kim smashed a hanging changeup 106 mph into left field, tying the game. Up next was Drake Baldwin, and that’s where this one ends. Baldwin battled Raley for a few pitches, and then hooked a sweeper on the low-outside corner into the right-center gap for a walkoff double. Kim flew around the bases, and no throw came… with Kim’s bellyflop, the Braves pushed the division lead back to five games and avoided a Sale start letdown.

The series continues tomorrow evening.

With the South Bend season over, first baseman Josiah Hartshorn, shortstop Angel Cepeda and outfielder Michael Gupton were promoted from South Bend to Knoxville.

Knoxville second baseman Drew Bowser, second baseman Dom Krupinski and right-hander Jacob Wallace were moved to the Development List to make room.

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs scrambled the Toledo Mud Hens (Tigers), 9-3

Terrific start tonight for Braxton Garrett, who allowed just one unearned run on two hits over five innings. Garrett walked two and struck out four as he picked up the win.

First baseman Kevin Alcántara hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning. It was his 20th home run this year, 21st counting the one in the majors. Alcántara went 2 for 4 with a walk and two runs scored.

Second baseman James Triantos doubled twice in a 3 for 4 night. He drove in two.

Third baseman Owen Miller went 3 for 5 with a stolen base. He drove in one and had one run scored.

DH Owen Ayers was 2 for 5 with a double. He had one RBI and scored one run.

Right fielder Chas McCormick opened the scoring with an RBI single in the first inning. McCormick went 2 for 5 with a double.

Center fielder Justin Dean was 2 for 5 with two runs scored.

The Jaguar’s three-run blast went 393 feet.

Some snazzy defense at shortstop by Jackson Cluff.

Triantos with a nice piece of hitting to drive in two.

Knoxville Smokies

The Knoxville Smokies dethroned the Birmingham Barons (White Sox), 8-7.

Starter Jake Knapp allowed one run in the first, one in the second and three more in the third. Knapp’s final line was five runs on three hits over 2.2 innings. One of those hits was a solo home run in the first and another one was a three-run home run in the third. Knapp walked five and struck out two.

Grayson Moore relieved Knapp in the third inning, retired the next seven batters in order over the next 2.1 innings and got the win. Moore struck out two.

Tyler Schlaffer gave up two runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it close, but then he retired the side in order in the seventh. That left things up to Tyler Ras, who was six-up, six-down in the eighth and ninth innings for the save. Ras struck out four.

Catcher Ariel Armas hit a two-run home run in the third inning, his seventh on the season. Armas went 1 for 5.

DH Alex Ramírez went 3 for 4 with two walks and two steals. He scored once.

Center fielder Kane Kepley was 2 for 5 with a walk and four steals. Kepley scored twice.

In his Double-A debut, shortstop Angel Cepeda went 2 for 4 and scored one run.

Right fielder Josiah Hartshorn also made his Knoxville debut. Hartshorn was 1 for 3 with two walks and a sacrifice fly. He also stole a base. Hartshorn had two total RBI and scored one run.

Smokies baserunners went 11-for-11 in stealing bases tonight. Second baseman Alex Madera was 1 for 2 with three walks and two steals. He scored one run. Shortstop Karson Simas was 1 for 4 with a walk and two more steals. Simas scored one run and drove in one.

The 19-year-old Hartshorn’s first hit in Double-A.