Worldwide Sports News

Injury news was on the top of everyone’s mind Sunday afternoon in Chicago. If you are both a Cubs and Bears fan, you were probably more concerned about the injury news than this game. Hopefully, both injured Chicago sports stars avoided any of the worst potential outcomes of rough looking injuries. I once had a facial injury from a struck ball. Mine had a whole different trajectory, but I can absolutely attest to how much the cut above my eye bled. While I physically felt fine (needing 12 stitches along the eyebrow line), I bled more than I could possibly have imagined. So I wasn’t surprised at all with Alex Bregman going straight to the locker room on that. The injury looks bad, but if the orbital bone is intact, I would assume he should be fine in a few days. With the playoffs all but clinched and Pedro Ramirez’s stated best position being third, I could imagine giving Alex Bregman the first two games of the Marlins series off. Obviously, you want to get him back on the proverbial horse, but the thing that matters most is him being ready to go a week from Tuesday.

Between the lines, the news was better. Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Cub offense jumped on the Reds early and David Peterson and three relievers made sure they didn’t need all of that in a runaway win. I had said that a lopsided one would be nice heading into the last week and I’m glad that came to be. On both sides of the ball, what I said in the preview happened. Peterson locked in early (he’s either been very good or very bad) and the Cubs made former first round pick Rhett Lowder work hard and forced him to throw strikes. That was the perfect recipe on Sunday afternoon for the 87th win of the season. They needed it too, as all of the other NL Wild Card hopefuls won Sunday. The Diamondbacks did what they needed to in order to stay alive, but the clock is running out on them and they face elimination early in the week.

PCA was the big story of the day. He extended his Cub lefty homer record in a season to 45. It’s also the most homers by an under 25 player in Cub history. Taking numbers away from Billy Williams and Ernie Banks suggests a spectacular early career path. He also stole a base and needs just two steals in the last week to reach the hallowed ground of 40/40. He pulled into a tie with Kyle Schwarber for the most homers in baseball. I’d hope it was over weeks ago, but PCA should be creeping towards unanimous MVP. You are being pretty stubborn at this point to vote for anyone else. I remember saying he had to get well past Shohei Ohtani in order to win the award and he’s definitely done that. His five-tool play should net that MVP, no questions asked. I know the RBI stat has fallen out of favor, but he’s four off of the major league lead there. He already leads in runs scored. It’s getting to where he is first or just outside of first in every offensive statistic while also being one of the best defensive players in the league and arguably the best.

One of the things about PCA is that he isn’t per se streaky. He was 0-for-10 across the first two games of this series. But he had a big game last Wednesday against the Braves and then another Sunday. With two terrible days in between. One of the key skills of star players is the ability to not get into prolonged slumps and to be able to get very hot, very quickly. He has been such an incredible joy to watch this season.

A hat tip to the rest of the Cub offense. They had 13 hits in total and drew four walks. They slugged three homers off of Reds reliever Carson Spiers who had a terrible day on the mound. Kudos to the Reds for throwing an actual pitcher in the ninth inning while eight runs down.

An off day now ahead of the final six games of the season.

Three Positives:

• It’s gotta be Pete. Homer, double, single, stolen base, three runs, two runs driven in. Simply the Best this season.
• David Peterson. Blessed with a lead before he ever took the mound and then a five run lead after three, he attacked and struck out seven while allowing three hits and a walk. I saw an incredible statistic on the broadcast. He’s actually getting a few less ground balls than he did in New York. But, the opponent’s batting average on ground balls is around 100 points lower as a Cub. Cub defense is incredible and it is a nice pairing. Don’t be surprised if some guys who allow a lot of grounders try to find a way to Chicago.
• Pedro Ramirez had three hits in the game, drove in two runs and scored another. He could be very important for a few days and it isn’t hard to imagine him taking a key plate appearance or two in the postseason. Quite a debut for him.

Game 156, September 20: Cubs 9, Reds 1 (87-69)

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Pete Crow-Armstrong (.147). 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, 3 R, SB
• Hero: David Peterson (.145). 6 IP, 22 BF, 3 H, BB, R, 7 K (W 6-2)
• Sidekick: Alex Bregman (.118). 1-1, BB, RBI, R

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Seiya Suzuki (-.048). 1-5, HR, RBI, R
• Goat: Miguel Amaya (-.033). 0-4
• Kid: Michael Conforto (-.022). 1-5, HR, RBI, R

Notes: Since there seem to always be questions about hitters with a homer and negative WPA, Michael Conforto’s was worth .044 (but his earlier strikeout with the bases loaded was -.043) and Seiya’s homer was .002.

WPA Play of the Game: Pedro Ramirez batted with the bases loaded and two outs with the Cubs up three in the third. He singled, driving in a run. (.088)

Reds Play of the Game: With runners at second and third and two outs in the first inning, the Cubs up one, Rhett Lowder got Nico Hoerner to ground out. (.052).

Note: 10 of 79 plays in this game registered as .000.

Cubs Player of the Game:

Game 155 Winner: Daniel Palencia received 60 of 47 votes.

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Alex Bregman +26
• Pete Crow-Armstrong +25.5
• Carson Kelly +17.5
• Shōta Imanaga +15
• Ben Brown +13.5
• Jameson Taillon -13
• Nico Hoerner -16
• Dansby Swanson -17
• Caleb Thielbar -17.5
• Seiya Suzuki -20

Scoreboard Watching: As noted in the open, all four remaining Wild Card hopefuls won. With each team having six games remaining, the Cubs and Padres are tied (Cubs have the tiebreaker), the Phillies one back and the Diamondbacks three back of Philadelphia. Further, all four teams are off on Monday (as much of the NL is). The Phillies are technically in the worst spot of the three teams currently in the wild card spots, but also have all six games at home. The Diamondbacks finish with a six-game road trip, though it starts in Colorado where the Rockies will again lose 100 games and finish with the worst record in the league. The Phillies host the Brewers, who have won eight of 10 and haven’t let up yet. It should be an interesting final week.

Up Next: That off day Monday and then the Cubs will start having one eye on the playoffs the following week. Their margin is so slim, that they don’t really have any choice other than to make sure their three starters of choice are lined up to throw the three games. Of course, there is immense value in the top Wild Card, so they’ll still fight to the finish for that. But among the six likely playoff teams, there’s no real easy out. The Phillies might be the worst of the six right now today, but some would have had them in the top three a week or so ago.

The Cubs took two out of three from the Marlins (76-80) just over two weeks ago. The Marlins are putting up a fight down the stretch, but also coming up short a lot. Offensively, they are eighth in OPS, though only 23rd in homers. They are second in steals. On the Pitching side, they are 19th in strikeouts, ninth in opponent average and 14th in WHIP. So they are above average offensively and slightly above average pitching. The core of a competitive team exists.

Shōta Imanaga (11-10, 3.80) will start the opener. He’s won his last three starts. allowing four runs over 18 innings, throwing exactly six innings in each. One of those wins was against the Marlins in Miami. The deal is the same as it always is. Keep the ball in the park and he’s incredibly effective because he doesn’t really walk anyone and doesn’t allow a ton of hits. He struck out eight in his last one and the Cubs actually visited the mound during a stretch where he was rolling. I think they are watching very carefully to make sure he’s not tipping pitches and I suspect that’s been a problem of his.

30-year-old Janson Junk (6-9, 4.50) starts for the Marlins. The right hander has just 60 big league appearances and 46 starts at the age of 30. The vast majority of that work is the last two years for the Marlins, a rebuilding team. He’s been a bit worse this year. He was the opposing pitcher and got the loss in that game against Imanaga a few weeks ago. The Cubs didn’t do much with him, though: One run on three hits and a walk. Maybe the second time will be the charm. The Mets were the most recent team to see him for a second time. They put up eight runs in three innings against him. But, just before that he saw the Nationals twice in the span of eight days and the results were almost identical. His 75 pitches against the Cubs last time were the most pitches he’d made in a game since August 17. So expect about four or five innings.

The Marlin bullpen has the lowest opponent batting average allowed. So you want to get to the starter. The weakness of their pen is that they have the 12th most walks allowed. They’ve allowed close to 50 more walks than the Cub bullpen (in only nine more innings).

If the Cub offense does what it does, work consistent plate appearances, start to finish, and Imanaga keeps the ball in the park, I think the Cubs can put together a little streak here.

After sweeping the Mets early last week, the Orioles returned to Baltimore with a clear goal: win their series against the MLB-best Brewers and keep themselves in the playoff race. Instead, Milwaukee won a back-and-forth, extra-inning affair in Game 1 and proceeded to shut out the Orioles over the next 18 innings to sweep Baltimore and put the O’s on the brink of elimination in the Wild Card race.

The math has become very simple for Baltimore. Any combination of two White Sox wins, two Orioles losses or a White Sox win and an Orioles loss eliminates the O’s from postseason contention. This means that Baltimore needs to go 6-0 or 5-1 the rest of the way, while Chicago goes 1-5 or 0-6. The Orioles also need the Astros to lose at least 4 of their last 6 or the Rangers to lose at least five of their last 6.

The O’s open their last home series today against Toronto before closing out the regular season with a three game set in the Bronx. Given that Baltimore is 2-8 against the Yankees, sweeping the Blue Jays (and hoping Chicago loses their series in Kansas City) is the only “realistic” way to keep the Orioles’ postseason hopes alive just a little longer.

Game 1: Monday, September 21st, 6:35pm ET

Probable pitchers: RHP Shane Baz (6-15, 4.11 ERA, 152 Ks) vs. RHP Trey Yesavage (5-5, 3.65 ERA, 91 Ks)

Where to watch: MASN/MASN+

The first of three must-win games vs. Toronto starts with a matchup of the unluckiest pitcher in baseball vs. Toronto’s rookie phenom. Baz has largely been successful in his first season with the Orioles, leading all of Baltimore’s starters with 173 innings while placing second with a 3.61 FIP and 152 Ks. However, his complete lack of run support (3.35 runs/game—third-worst in baseball) has doomed Baz to an MLB-leading 15 losses.

The 27-year-old right-hander has faced Toronto once before this season, in a game that epitomized his lack of luck throughout 2026. Back in June, Baz pitched 5.2 innings in Toronto, allowing 1 earned run and 4 unearned runs in a 6-4 Orioles loss. That game turned on a Gunnar Henderson E6 in the 6th inning, with the error sparking a rally that turned a 4-1 Orioles lead into a 5-4 deficit.

Baz has been strong over his last five starts in Camden Yards, posting a 3.85 ERA while averaging 6+ IP per start. Ironically, the better that Baz has pitched, the worse the Orioles’ record at Camden Yards. In the four starts where Baz allowed 3 ER or fewer, the Orioles went 0-4. Last time out against the Guardians, he allowed 5 ER over 5.2 innings in a 9-5 Orioles win.

The boom-or-bust Baltimore bats will need to solve rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage. The 23-year-old will be making his first start since August 4th after landing on the IL with a knee injury. Yesavage faced Baltimore in back-to-back starts at the end of May/beginning of June. The outing in Baltimore went the rookie’s way, as he tossed 5 innings while allowing 2 hits, 1 ER and striking out seven. His start six days later in Toronto was not as good, with a final line of 5.2, 5 H, 6 ER, 5 Ks and this majestic home run from Coby Mayo.

Game 2: Tuesday, September 22nd, 6:35pm ET

Probable pitchers: RHP Chris Bassitt (8-5, 4.64 ERA, 72 Ks) vs. RHP Max Scherzer (3-8, 6.07 ERA, 54 Ks)

Where to watch: MASN/MASN+

By virtue of the fact that the White Sox and Guardians do not play on Monday, Tuesday is the earliest day the Orioles could be officially eliminated from playoff contention. Birdland will cling to that hope for a miracle as they watch former Blue Jay Chris Bassitt face future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer.

The Orioles’ 37-year-old right-hander has played his best baseball of the season since coming off the IL in the middle of August. Over his last seven outings, Bassitt has a 3.76 ERA and has held opponents to a .269 average. His best start was his last start against another former team, as Bassitt pitched 6.2 innings of one-run ball against the Mets in a 7-1 Orioles win. Two starts ago, the 12-year vet faced the Blue Jays in Toronto, guiding the O’s to a victory with a solid line of 5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB and 5 Ks.

Scherzer may be headed to Cooperstown one day, but his potential final season has been largely forgettable. The Orioles tagged him for six runs over five innings in Toronto 10 days ago, including a leadoff home run from Dylan Beavers. The Orioles have struggled all season to get production from their outfielders, but we could see that trend reverse against Scherzer, as Beavers and Colton Cowser have combined to 5-for-11 with three long balls against the eight-time All-Star.

Game 3: Wednesday, September 23rd, 6:35pm ET

Probable pitchers: TBD vs. TBD

Where to watch: MASN/MASN+

Neither the Blue Jays nor Orioles have announced a starter for the series finale and their decision could largely depend on whether either team is still alive for postseason contention. If the White Sox win their first game in Kansas City and the Blue Jays win at least one of the first two games, the Orioles would come in eliminated from postseason contention. If the Orioles win Game 1 & 2 and the White Sox win their opener vs. the Royals, the Blue Jays would be eliminated from postseason contention.

This used to be Kyle Bradish’s spot in the rotation before he landed on the IL with a sports hernia. Last time through, the Orioles recalled Cade Povich and he delivered 3.2 innings while allowing 3 runs while taking a no decision vs. Milwaukee. Despite Povich’s career ERA of 6.91 vs. Toronto, I’d expect the Orioles to try to bring him back up on Wednesday if they still have a shot at the playoffs, which would require putting someone on the IL. Other options could be a spot start from Albert Suárez or Trey Gibson, with each becoming more likely if the O’s are already eliminated.

This would normally be Dylan Cease’s spot in the Toronto rotation. If the Blue Jays still have a sliver of hope about making the postseason, Cease will surely get the ball. In his only start against Baltimore this year, the 2026 All-Star was his usaully sharp self, limiting the Orioles to 1 run across 5 innings while striking out nine.

At one point it looked like Cease might be in contention for the AL Cy Young award, which could have influenced Toronto’s decision to start him in the series finale. However, with the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler seen as a virtual lock to take home the award, expect the Blue Jays to turn to a spot starter if they are eliminated.

Recaps

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks live to fight another day with comeback win over Yankees – With a 2-0 count against Yankees lefty Brent Headrick, Arenado was a smidge in front of a fastball and pulled it barely foul, the ball sailing just a few feet to the left of the foul pole. He didn’t miss on the very next pitch, launching into the left field seats to give the Diamondbacks a 6-4 lead. “It was pretty cool, obviously, a big moment,” Arenado said. “It just felt good to come through. I feel like I haven’t come through a whole lot with runners in scoring position the way I would like to this year. It felt good to give us the lead and help us kind of take a deep breath a little bit.” In the eighth, he made a barehand grab of a Lombard roller and unleashed a perfect throw to first. “He gripped the baseball as he was picking it up,” Lovullo said. “He picked it up with two fingers. I said, ‘Did I just see what I thought I saw?’ He said, ‘Yes, I grip to throw on those types of plays.’

[Dbacks.com] Arenado’s 2nd-chance slam breathes life into D-backs’ postseason hopes – “The fact that we’ve won a lot of baseball games here over the past 10 years and put ourselves in a good position year after year after year to get to the big dance, I’m proud of that,” said Lovullo. “But that’s never the final destination. “If you’re looking at a full body of work, this state should be proud of what these players do and what they accomplish every single day. I know it’s not the 2001 team. We want to get there. I want to give that team company. I want this community, this state to talk about two baseball teams – that 2001 team and then the current team that’s won a world championship. It just takes a lot of work, and we’re going to figure this out.”

Team news

[SI] Corbin Burnes Blown off Mound in Disastrous 3rd Inning vs Yankees – Burnes has now allowed nine runs in 10.1 innings, for a 7.84 ERA, giving up five homers in the process. His velocity on the cutter, already down to a career low 92.7 coming into Sunday’s game, bottomed out at 90.9. The movement profile on his signature pitch is a shadow of it’s former self as well. Simply put, the cutter doesn’t cut right now. A right-handers cutter, by definition should break glove side. Fully 34% of his cutters thrown heading into today were actually moving to the arm side, not glove side. In Sunday’s outing, 19 of 39, 48% of cutters broke armside. During his peak years that number was about 2-3%, but had crept up to 11-16% in recent years prior to 2026.

[Burn City Sports] The Diamondbacks’ Wild Card hopes come down to these final six games – With six games left on their schedule, the D-Backs are four games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the final National League wild-card spot and five games behind the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres, who are tied for the top wild-card positions. That leaves the club with one simple task: Win as many of its remaining six games as possible and hope the teams ahead of it give it enough of an opening. The first part is obvious, as Arizona now heads to Colorado to take on the Rockies for three games. Then, the Snakes will head to San Diego for their final three games of the regular season — and possibly the most important ones yet if they’re not eliminated by that time.The second part is harder.

[Sporting News] Nolan Arenado refusing to land on IL for Diamondbacks was a good thing – Arenado has been a solid contributor for the Diamondbacks overall this season, and it would make sense for Arizona to protect the veteran third baseman if he wasn’t 100%. But Arenado didn’t want to hit the injured list, refusing a potential placement on the IL. That refusal has been a major boost for Arizona. Since the start of September, roughly around when the Diamondbacks would’ve asked Arenado to hit the IL, he’s been one of the best hitters in MLB. In 16 games and 56 at-bats, Arenado has 18 hits, seven runs scored, two doubles, five home runs, nine RBIs, seven walks, a .321 batting average, and a 1.031 OPS. [Update: now six HR, 13 RBI and a slash of .317/.397/.650 for an OPS of 1.047]

And, elsewhere…

[MLB.com] Red Sox clinch postseason spot that once seemed improbable – Five months ago, it was easy to wonder if chief baseball officer Craig Breslow made the right decision when he dismissed long-time manager Cora and dismissed or reassigned six coaches after just 27 games on a stunning Saturday night in Baltimore. There were no regrets or second guesses by Sunday… The road back to contention started with a four-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway from June 25-28. It continued on July 3, when the Sox began what would become a winning streak of 15 games, tying the franchise record set by the 1946 pennant winners of Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky. And even after that streak was snapped, the Sox shortly thereafter ripped off another nine-game winning streak, giving them the best 30-game stretch (27-3) in team history.

[AP] Atlanta Braves clinch 7th NL East title in 9 years – “I told these guys winning the division is really tough,” [manager Walt] Weiss said. “I know it’s the first step, but it takes six months to do it. It takes everybody, and we used everybody. Virtually everyone that got an opportunity stepped up and helped us win games this year. Special group in that way. Very close group.” Atlanta has won 24 division titles, tying the Dodgers for the most since the inception of the divisional format in 1969. Atlanta has won the NL East 19 times in 32 seasons.” Just felt like they responded well to certain messages,” Weiss said. “I thought the way they competed was high-level stuff. I felt like the makeup of this team was really good. Coming off a tough year, I think a lot of it was getting them to believe that they were still really good.”

Hungry (2026)

• Rating: C
• Dir: James Nunn
• Star: Madison Davenport, Joaquim de Almeida, Tracey Bonner, Michel Curiel

I get why the makers gave this the title they did – obviously a veiled reference to the game, ‘Hungry Hungry Hippos’. Yet I can’t help feeling they missed an opportunity. I mean, Hippocalypse Now was right there… The storyline is basic. A bunch of tourists go on a cruise, piloted by Rodrigo, looking for alligators. Only, something larger, nastier and more rotund shows up to overturn their boat and leave them stuck up trees, hoping for rescue. Fortunately, the hippo responsible is not the rare tree-climbing variety. Help, in the form of former big-game hunter Walker, is slow to arrive. This allows plenty of time for the stranded tourists to bicker with each other, reveal secrets, carry out poorly-considered actions, and fall out of the trees like so many over-ripe mangoes. 

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Jake Cronenworth extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a two-run home run in the bottom of the second inning and he added a second two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead the San Diego Padres to a 7-3 win, and season sweep, over the Miami Marlins at Petco Park on Sunday.

Cronenworth, who got the start at third base to allow Manny Machado to have a DH day, held his own at the hot corner, but it was his offensive performance that stood out. Cronenworth put the Padres on the board with a two-run home run that gave them a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. He later added an RBI-double in the bottom of the fourth inning to make the score 3-0, and added a second two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning that put the game out of reach, giving San Diego a four-run lead.

The offensive outburst by Croneworth was in support of Padres starting pitcher Walker Buehler, who had one of his best starts of the season. His final line is a bit misleading thanks to a three-run home run by Javier Sanoja that pulled Miami within a run with the score 4-3. Buehler had been cruising through his outing and was trying to complete seven innings, but he was pulled after the home run. He finished with a final line of three runs allowed over 6.2 innings. Buehler allowed three hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

The Padres’ offense allowed Buehler to work with a lead throughout the game and even after he allowed the home run to Sanoja in the top of the seventh, Fernando Tatis Jr. offered an immediate response in the bottom of the inning. The superstar connected on a one-out solo home run, giving him 25 homers on the season, that pushed the San Diego lead to 5-3 before Cronenworth added on in the bottom of the eighth inning.

The hot hitting that seemed to take off when the Padres went to Colorado continued in the series finale with the Marlins. San Diego banged out 10 more hits to give them 33 hits throughout the three-game series with Miami. The output at Petco Park over the weekend followed the four-game series against the Rockies where the Padres totaled 52 hits.

With the win, the magic number for San Diego to clinch a playoff berth is two. Any combination of Padres wins and Arizona Diamondbacks losses that equal two will put the Friars in the playoffs. That could come as early as their next game if the Padres win and the Diamondbacks lose. San Diego remains tied with the Chicago Cubs for the top Wild Card spot and one game ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cubs hold the tiebreaker of over the Padres thanks to their head-to-head record this season.

San Diego has the day off today, but travels to Los Angeles for a three-game series against the Dodgers, which begins Tuesday at 7:10 p.m.

Padres News:

• Padres manager Craig Stammen confirmed the team is lining Michael King up to pitch the final day of the season if it comes down to a win-or-go-home game against the Diamondbacks.

• El Paso wrapped up the regular season with a 2-1 loss.

Baseball News:

• The Atlanta Braves completed a sweep of the Houston Astros and clinched the NL East Division.

• The Boston Red Sox clinched a postseason berth with a win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

• Pete Crow-Armstrong almost hit for the cycle and led the Chicago Cubs to a win over the Cincinnati Reds.

• Nolan Arenado hit a grand slam to lift the Arizona Diamondbacks over the New York Yankees.

• Gavin Williams pitched the Cleveland Guardians past the Athletics with a 1-0 win.

• The Toronto Blue Jays used a four-run seventh inning to beat the Texas Rangers.

• The Philadelphia Phillies topped the New York Mets, 7-2.

The Red Sox have clinched a postseason spot. It was… anticlimactic.

The Sox allowed 4 runs before recording a single out yesterday and never made it a competitive game against the Rays, only securing their playoff berth via the Braves defeat of the Astros. They are just 9-8 over the month of September and have dropped each of the last 2 series. The team’s OPS+ of 84 is the lowest monthly mark they’ve posted all season — yes, even worse than the dreadful April (albeit just barely).

After a remarkable roller coaster of a season, we find ourselves in a weird spot. In terms of on-field results, nothing of consequence has really happened this month. The most important things that are happening relative to the Red Sox right now are happening in the trainer’s room. Will Willson Contreras and Ceddanne Rafaela recover in time for the playoffs? Can Roman Anthony find his rhythm after a lengthy injury stint? What can Garrett Crochet and Tanner Houck do, if anything, to salvage two otherwise lost seasons?

This entire month of September baseball has felt less like a playoff race and more like a second spring training. The games don’t matter. It will be an actual, physical struggle to play the final few games of the season. We’re in playoff purgatory.

But the sting of Champagne last night was real. Playoff baseball is coming. And the truth of the matter is that if the Sox give us a memorable October, we won’t care how September felt.

Use this space to talk about whatever you want and, as always, be good to one another.

The Guardians managed to sweep the Athletics this weekend and their magic number to clinch a playoff berth is 3 with 6 to play. (Magic number is six to win the division and get a first round bye).

Zack Meisel and T.J. Zuppe covered the playoff scenarios on the Selby is Godcast today.

We are rooting for the Royals and then Rockies, the Mariners and the Athletics, the Mets and the Twins, and the Orioles and Reds. We want the White Sox, Rangers, Astros and Blue Jays to lose, in other words.

But, today, we take a breath.