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Good morning! Last night, Chad Tracy gave at-bats to two pinch-hitters in the 8th inning: lefty killer Jahmai Jones and utility infielder Andruw Monasterio. Jones did his job in the 8th, singling to start the inning in place of Mickey Gasper, but would subsequently strike out to end the game in the 9th. Jones was a platoon revelation when he first arrived in Boston, but he’s cooled off since then (a .200 batting average over his last 12 games), and his positional inflexibility makes him a difficult roster fit. Monasterio did not do his job last night. He struck out with the bases loaded, putting an end to the biggest threat the Sox had all night.

In light of last night’s events it’s time to ask: Is it time for Romy Gonzalez to get another crack? Romy theoretically combines the best of both Jones and Monasterio — he’s a lefty-killer and a utility infielder. He struggled mightily in his (rushed) return to the Sox earlier this year and has recently been battling a nagging injury lately, but his AAA line reads .344/.400/.505 with 3 homers and 6 doubles. He could inject some pop just as the Sox look like they could use a little extra juice.

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

Hall-of-Fame outfielder Tim Raines was one of the faces of Canadian baseball in the 1980s—an adroit hitter and fast-twitch baserunner whose 808 career steals ranks fifth all time. By the mid-90s, he had won a batting title, accumulated 2,295 hits, reached 50 steals in eight seasons, and been named an All-Star seven times in his prime with Montreal, before a strong yet less spectacular five-year stint in the South Side. But a taste of World Series glory had always eluded Raines until he came to the Bronx in 1996.

With his prime years behind him, Raines donned the pinstripes and brought his wealth of experience to a club on the rise; while the Yankees, for minimal cost, brought an additional marquee name into the fold alongside elder statesman Wade Boggs. Despite injuries which limited his playing time in New York, Raines won two World Series rings with the Yankees in 1996 and 1998.

Born: September 16, 1959 (Sanford, FL)
Yankees Tenure: 1996-98

Raines was, commensurate to his preternatural athleticism and agility, a three-sport athlete who played baseball and football in addition to running track for Seminole High School in Florida. He was selected by the Montreal Expos in the fifth round of the 1977 Draft, behind pitchers Bill Gullickson and Scott Sanderson. Raines, though, was the prize. The young switch-hitter broke out as a rookie in 1981, securing his first of seven straight All-Star selections in the National League and establishing himself as one of the most feared (and consistently successful) base stealers in the league.

In that strike-shortened season, the Expos defeated the Phillies in the expanded playoffs before falling in a five-game NLCS to the Dodgers. Raines, who went 5-for-21 in the series with no steals, would never make the playoffs with Montreal again. He would be 33 the next time he suited up in October—with the White Sox, who fell to the defending champion Blue Jays in the ALCS. His performance in that series was far more Raines-esque: 12 hits in 29 at-bats.

Raines took a step back offensively in his final two years with Chicago as he reached the end of his prime. Now in his mid-30s, his teammates and coaches wanted him stealing fewer bases, though Raines maintained he was still as quick as ever. The White Sox, unconvinced, dealt him away a few days after Christmas 1995. Minor league pitcher Blaise Kozeniewski was the lone player the Yankees parted with for Rock.

With a fresh start in a new organization, Raines relished the opportunity to play with an organization which had gone out of its way to bring him in for a championship quest. Yankees GM Bob Watson gave him a contract extension right after trading for him. He arrived right on time to bolster a roster poised to begin a dynastic run.

While Raines fractured his thumb and missed time from May to August in 1996, he proved a useful contributor for the Bombers when healthy, with a characteristically high .383 on-base percentage and 20 doubles bolstering his slugging percentage to .468. In a postseason timeshare at left field with slugger Darryl Strawberry, he contributed 11 hits in 13 appearances.

While he never plated a run himself, he scored seven times as the Yankees ran the table in the American League playoff. He started Games 2, 3, and 4 of the World Series, scoring the go-ahead run of Game 4 on Steve Avery’s bases-loaded walk of Wade Boggs in the 10th inning. Raines had himself walked to catalyze the two-run rally which wiped away the 2-0 series deficit into which the Yankees had fallen. Raines, who memorably made the final catch of that game while slipping and falling on the warning track, did not take the field again in the Fall Classic, but New York finished the reversal in six games, giving the veteran his long-awaited World Series ring in his 16th full season.

Raines returned for 1997, continuing to produce when he saw the field. His 74 games played constituted only a modest uptick from the year before, but he remained highly productive with a .321/.403/.454 slash line. However, despite hitting a three-run home run in Game 1 of the ALCS against Cleveland, the Yankees were denied their title defense, losing in six.

Raines re-upped with the Yankees ahead of 1998, a year in which he served as the top reserve player for one of the greatest teams in baseball history. Despite being more of a backup, Raines appeared in more games than he did in the previous two seasons, eclipsing the 100-game threshold for the only time in pinstripes. The reliable veteran continued to be an absolute pain for pitchers to get out, as his on-base percentage once again hovered close to .400 for the whole season. On June 10th, he picked up his 800th career stolen base in where else but Montreal’s Stade Olympique, where his star was born in the 1980s. He became just the fifth player in MLB history to reach that milestone.

Now 38, Raines was increasingly stashed at DH, then struggled in the 1998 playoffs and largely rode the bench, with Chili Davis getting the majority of the plate appearances there. Still, when he wasn’t on the field, he had a front-row seat to the finest incarnation of this Yankee dynasty—including all four games of their decisive World Series sweep in San Diego.

With two World Series rings in hand, Rock could easily have walked off into the sunset as a man with nothing more to prove—but like many a baseball lifer, he couldn’t give the sport up. Not even after he was diagnosed with lupus in the middle of the 1999 season did he hang up his spikes. The treatment he had to undergo for the autoimmune disease cut short his one-year cameo with the Oakland A’s—and while he attempted to rejoin the Yankees in 2000, he didn’t make the roster.

Still, he continued playing. In 2001, Raines, already inducted into the Expos’ Hall of Fame, returned to the club and played 47 games in his old colors before taking the field with his son, Tim Jr., with the Orioles at the tail-end of the season. Even after that, he snuck in one last season with the Marlins before finally retiring at age 43.

Raines’ late retirement meant a rather delayed start to his Hall of Fame eligibility, which began in 2007. Initially, he received little serious interest from voters, but as the 2010s wore on and he neared the end of his decade on the ballot, the sabermetric community—as well as his contemporaries—rallied for his induction, as they would later do for Edgar Martinez and Larry Walker in those players’ final year of eligibility. At last, in 2017, Raines got his plaque in Cooperstown.

While the man they called “Rock” finished his career as the most efficient base stealer of all time among those who even approached his body of work, Tim Raines was not that dynamic force at the top of the lineup once he came to the Bronx. But his other skills—his outstanding contact ability, discerning plate discipline, and the ability to plug gaps and pick up doubles—hadn’t gone anywhere. Those skills allowed him to assist the Yankees as they made the leap from franchise in limbo into an era-defining dynasty.

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

None of the San Diego Padres pitchers could find an answer for Cole Carrigg of the Colorado Rockies and the San Diego State product had a huge night finishing 4-for-5 with a single, a double and two home runs with two runs scored and five RBI to hand the Padres a 9-3 loss at Coors Field on Tuesday.

Carrigg connected on single in the first inning, but was thrown out attempting to steal second base. He hit a game-tying two-run home run in the bottom of the third inning and doubled in the bottom of the fifth. Wandy Peralta replaced Walker Buehler in the bottom of the fifth after the Carrigg double, which meant he would have to face a new pitcher in his next at-bat. That pitcher was Randy Vasquez and Carrigg turned in a 13-pitch turn at the plate that ended with a three-run home run to right field that gave the Rockies a 7-3 lead. Vasquez was able to strike Carrigg out in his final at-bat but the performance from Carrigg was all Colorado would need to snap the San Diego eight-game winning streak.

The Padres started the game with a bang when Fernando Tatis Jr. connected on a leadoff home run. They took a two-run lead in the top of the second when Luis Campusano connected on a solo home run. Carrigg hit the two-run home run to tie the game, but San Diego regained the lead with another solo home run, this time from Austin Hays, in the top of the fifth inning. That marked the end of the scoring for the Padres despite the fact that they finished with 11 hits in the game. San Diego was 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position in the game while Colorado finished 4-for-10. Outside of Carrigg, that was the difference in the game, the Padres could not string hits together and did not get hits when they had opportunities to drive in runs.

Buehler lasted just 4.2 innings and allowed two runs on seven hits with a walk and a strikeout. Peralta was abysmal and allowed four runs on four hits with a hit batter and one strikeout over 0.2 innings pitched. The only real positive to come from the game was Vasquez finished the final 2.2 innings and saved the high leverage bullpen arms for San Diego who have been taxed recently. He allowed three runs on five hits with a strikeout.

The Padres will try to start a new winning streak when they play the third game of the series against the Rockies today at 5:40 p.m.

Padres News:

• Lake Elsinore and San Antonio are heading in different directions this week.

• Padres prospect Alex McCoy was named to the Arizona Fall League roster.

Baseball News:

• The Milwaukee Brewers clinched the NL Central title.

• Pete Alonso returned to Citi Field as a member of the Baltimore Orioles and hit his 300th career home run against the New York Mets.

• The Atlanta Braves moved a game closer to clinching the NL East with a win over the Chicago Cubs.

• The Philadelphia Phillies lost a pitcher to the IL and lost a game to the Washington Nationals, 6-3.

• Esteury Ruiz hit a three-run double to lead the Miami Marlins over the Arizona Diamondbacks in extra innings.

The Mets conclude a three-game series against Pete Alonso and the Orioles at Citi Field on Wednesday night at 7:10.

Mets Notes

• Francisco Lindor enters play on Wednesday with 299 career home runs
• A.J. Ewing is hitting .380/.448/.620 with three homers and three doubles in 58 plate appearances over his last 13 games
• Robert Stock allowed three runs on five hits while walking two and striking out four in four innings against the Marlins in Miami during his last start on Sept. 9

Today's Lineups

Happy Wednesday, everyone! We are enjoying a little unexpected winning streak, and I, for one, would like to see it go as long as possible, because winning baseball games is the most fun. We’ve got some little news bites to get you through your day, including looking at who the successes and disappointments of the Tigers’ season are (not a lot of surprises there) and Justin Verlander is the Tigers’ Roberto Clemente Award candidate for his work with veterans.

We also look at some controversial topics like whether now is the time the Braves should sell, and whether or not Shohei Ohtani should give up pitching for good.

So let’s just get into it!

Detroit Tigers News:

• ESPN released a list breaking down the biggest successes and disappointments on each MLB team. For the Tigers, the results are unsurprising. Writer Bradford Doolittle singled out Kevin McGonigle as the biggest success of the season, and there aren’t many who would argue that the rookie’s breakout year has been magical to watch. He said:

McGonigle [has surpassed] the six-win mark on the way to a probable AL Rookie of the Year award. An even better race: Can McGonigle walk more than he strikes out as a 21-year-old rookie? He’s at 88 walks and 89 strikeouts, so it’s going to be close.

In terms of the biggest disappointment? The trade of Tarik Skubal. While most of us looked at the trade as inevitable, Doolittle pointed out how one-run games in particular—the extra-winnable games of the season—really went against the Tigers and could have given them a better opportunity to win, and as a result, potentially keep Skubal on their roster.

Given the circumstances, the Tigers did the right thing in trading Tarik Skubal. Still, it’s disappointing that Detroit’s struggles in close games left the team in that position. While you can point to pitching injuries and other factors for the Tigers’ disappointing record, it all still might have worked out if Detroit wasn’t a surreal 26 games under .500 in games decided by one or two runs.

• The Tigers celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

• Learn more about why Justin Verlander is the Tigers’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award.

MLB News:

• Is Gavin Williams a legit ace?
• How Noah Cameron’s worst pitch actually made him better.
• Is it time for Shohei Ohtani to give up pitching for good?
• Chatting pitching with Sean Doolittle.
• Checking in on the likely leaders for Cy Young Award voting.
• And according to this poll, the likely winners might very well be unanimous selections. (Because MLB voters are notorious for voting for the most deserving candidate, right?)
• Why height actually matters a lot when it comes to baseball.
• The San Francisco Firebells are dominating the WPBL postseason.
• Arizona Fall League rosters have been revealed.
• Garrett Crochet could be on his way back, what could his return mean for the Red Sox?
• The Dodgers just clinched their 14th straight postseason berth, tying an MLB record.
• The wild story of a banned minor leaguer who changed his name to sneak back into the majors.
• Gerrit Cole needs to stop blaming the ABS for his pitching woes.
• Aaron Judge helped the Yankees clinch a postseason berth with his first home run after coming back from the IL.
• Some milestones we could see achieved in the final weeks of the season.
• Why are so few Puerto Rican players represented in the majors?
• Pete Alonso was moved by the warm welcome he received in his return to Citi Field.
• Why does one Braves’ investor think now is the ideal time to sell the team? ($)
• Major sports franchises need to do more to protect their players from the threats of angry bettors as sports betting increases.
• Terry Francona was relieved by reports that the Reds wouldn’t be doing any major shakeups in their front office.
• Jim Bowden offers the perspective of a former MLB exec when it comes to labor negotiations. ($)
• Yasiel Puig has been convicted, so why hasn’t he been sentenced? (S)
• What a wild at-bat

• Here are the 2026 Roberto Clemente Award Nominees.

• A good reminder on Roberto Clemente Day.

• MLB owners are being tight-lipped about the looming offseason drama.

What would you call the opposite of a baseball manager’s “circle of trust”?

Because that’s where the Cubs are probably going to have to send Jacob Webb after yet another blown save, yet another two-run homer served up, yet another game where it’s clear he can no longer be used in high-leverage situations.

The numbers are horrific. In his last eight appearances, Webb has thrown 6.2 innings and has a 14.85 ERA, 2.100 WHIP, 14 hits and four walks allowed and the worst part, four home runs — all of which either gave the other team the lead or tied the game. In those eight games, Webb had four blown saves.

Convert even two of those save opportunities and the Cubs are a lot more comfortable in the Wild Card race. Unfortunately, these games are in the books and they are, at the moment, not.

All right, that’s out of my system, let’s look back at the Cubs’ 6-3 loss to the Braves, all of Atlanta’s runs scoring via three two-run homers.

Kevin Gausman had a rough first inning — 25 pitches — but got out of it scoreless. The Cubs put two runners on in the bottom of the inning via a pair of two-out walks, but could not score.

The Cubs took the lead in the bottom of the second. Michael Busch led off with a single and advanced to second on a walk by Matt Shaw.

Pedro Ramirez’s single scored Busch to make it 1-0 [VIDEO].

Miguel Amaya then sacrificed Shaw and Ramirez up a base, putting runners on second and third with one out. Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a ground ball to second and Shaw was thrown out at the plate. Seiya Suzuki then struck out, so the Cubs had just one run to show for all that traffic.

Gausman settled down and retired 10 straight Braves from the last out of the first through the fourth. The Cubs extended their lead in the bottom of the fourth. Busch led off with a walk and Shaw’s infield single moved Busch to second.

Then this happened [VIDEO].

That throw… what was that? That play should have resulted in at least one out. Instead, Busch scored to make it 2-0 and Shaw wound up on third, where he scored on this sac fly by Miguel Amaya [VIDEO].

About the Cubs’ two-sac night, from BCB’s JohnW53:

The Cubs went into Tuesday with nine successful sacrifice bunts, tied with the Braves and Twins for the second fewest. The Tigers had eighth; the Yankees, 10.

The Cubs were 11th in sacrifice flies with 43, one behind the Braves and Royals.

Tuesday’s game was the first this season in which the Cubs had at least one of each. They had not done it since May 26, 2025. They had played 260 games since then before Tuesday.

So it’s 3-0 Cubs going to the top of the sixth. Gausman had been sailing along, but a one-out single by Drake Baldwin followed by a two-run homer by Ronald Acuña Jr. made it 3-2. Gausman gave up another hit and a hard-hit line drive out and then was removed in favor of Daniel Palencia, who ended the sixth with a fly ball to right.

The Cubs did not score in the bottom of the sixth and that’s when Webb entered the game. Honestly, I was surprised Craig Counsell didn’t just leave Palencia out there — he’d thrown only two pitches to retire Mauricio Dubon to end the sixth.

Webb, as I noted above, did not have a good game. The two-run homer he allowed to Ozzie Albies gave Atlanta a 4-3 lead.

Still, that’s not insurmountable — usually. But the Cubs bats went silent. After Shaw led off the sixth with a single, the next 12 Cubs went down in order.

Meanwhile, Edward Cabrera made his Cubs relief debut. And actually, it was going along pretty well until a two-run homer by Baldwin in the ninth put the game out of reach. Cabrera threw 40 pitches — maybe too many for his first outing out of the bullpen? I do still think Cabrera can be a useful weapon in relief. He touched 99 with his four-seamer several times, and that, combined with his 94 mile per hour changeup, can record outs — but again, maybe in shorter bursts.

Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].

In that clip, Counsell doesn’t sound like he’s going to take Webb out of that circle of trust, and he really needs to. He notes that the team is giving up “too many home runs.” Ya think? This cannot keep happening:

Fortunately, all the other teams in Wild Card competition with the Cubs — the Phillies, Padres and Diamondbacks — also lost Tuesday, so no ground was lost and the Cubs still have the top wild card spot by half a game over the Phillies. The Cubs lead the Padres by 1.5 games and the Diamondbacks by four. Arizona’s loss reduced the Cubs’ magic number to clinch a postseason spot to 6.

The Cubs still have a chance at a series win over the Braves Wednesday evening at Wrigley Field. Shōta Imanaga will take the mound for the Cubs and JR Ritchie, just recalled from Triple-A by Atlanta, goes for the Braves. Game time is again 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.

I’m shamelessly stealing from the comments, because it’s a long season and I had nothing else for today anyway.

Didier Fuentes is 12th among relievers with 2.0 fWAR. He also ranks in the top 15 in WPA, which isn’t really something he did alone, but is a bit of a tiebreaker when others are close.

He’s not going to win. There are five position player rookies in the NL with more than 2 fWAR, including JJ Wetherholt, who has 4.4 while underhitting his xwOBA by .030. (If he weren’t underhitting it, he’d probably ge some downballot MVP votes.) The Mets’ Carson Benge has 3.5 fWAR and hasn’t missed any time with injury. TJ Rumfield has a .375 wOBA / 125 wRC+, though the former is very Coors-addled and he’s outperforming his inputs. Sal Stewart has 31 homers.

On the pitching end, you have Nolan McLean as the “full-time starter as a rookie” option (3.1 fWAR, about 170 innings), as well as Logan Henderson as the “pitched super-well but only up for like half a season” option (2.3 fWAR, under 90 innings).

But, Fuentes is still ninth in the NL in rookie fWAR, so maybe he gets some recognition, even if it’s not much. He does actually lead all NL rookies in WPA, but again, I don’t expect that to carry the day. It is pretty funny, though.

What do you think?

No news is good news. That’s not always true (few fans feel this way during trade deadline season), but it’s arguably true during the final days of the campaign, where news can really mean only one thing: an injury. And this was so yesterday, as the Phillies placed Jesús Luzardo on the 15 day IL with the shoulder inflammation that had caused him to miss his last start. A return for the postseason is possible but certainly not guaranteed.

There’s no question that this is a major blow for the team. So today’s question is: how does it change your outlook for the rest of the season?

Colton Cowser made a game-saving catch against the Rockies on August 31. The grab took the sports world by storm and lifted the Orioles back to .500 for the first time in four months. The play also preserved Baltimore’s spot as a contender for the third and final wild card spot.

With the benefit of hindsight, Cowser’s home run robbery of Jake McCarthy probably marked the high point of another disappointing season. The Orioles proceeded to lose their next six games (two in Colorado; four against Boston). Everyone chalked the Rockies result up to fatigue at the end of a long road trip, but the Birds came home and got taken behind the woodshed. Adley Rutschman hit multiple home runs during his return to Camden Yards, and Baltimore’s offense tallied only one run over the final three games of the four-game set.

And just like that, the season was lost. The Orioles took two-of-three from Cleveland when they desperately needed a sweep, and the O’s dropped two-of-three in Toronto.

In most years, the Orioles would have lost the privilege of competing for a playoff spot long before September. The third wild card spot, paired with a mediocre American League (outside of the AL East), allowed Baltimore one last chance to compete, but the team let that opportunity slip away.

Let’s put aside the early injuries to guys like Jordan Westburg and Zach Eflin. We can even look beyond the deadline sale of Rutschman, Taylor Ward, Tyler Wells and Dean Kremer. The Orioles held possession of the third wild card spot a little over two weeks ago. If I had told you back in March that the O’s would possess a wild card spot with a month to play, would you have taken that deal? I know that I would have. I would have anticipated a better record, but the playoff spot is the selling point there.

It’s clear that the 2026 season was a failure, but how would you evaluate the last three weeks? Did Craig Albernaz and his team ever really have a real chance of making the postseason? If so, what did they do wrong?

The final two games in Colorado cannot be discounted. I don’t care if the Orioles had spent a full month on the road. Baltimore, desperate for wins, had the luxury of facing the only team in the National League with a winning percentage that begins with the number three.

The team summoned Luis De León—the team’s seventh best prospect according to MLB Pipeline—to join the team in Colorado. The 23-year-old had started in 22 of his 26 appearances in the minors this year, but Baltimore gave the lefty a few relief reps before adding him to its major league bullpen. Albernaz immediately thrust the rookie into a high-leverage situation, and De León surrendered the go-ahead homer in a 4-2 loss.

It’s fair to wonder if De León should have even been with the team, let alone working in a leverage situation during his debut. The Orioles needed a fresh lefty in the bullpen, but they opted to go with a prospect that wasn’t exactly pounding down the door (6.50 ERA over 18 Triple-A innings) over a guy like Cade Povich.

The bullpen continued to bite the team as Andrew Kittredge and Grant Wolfram both blew saves in the series finale. Kittredge, one of the only experienced relievers in the bullpen, clearly lost a step in the second half. But did Albernaz mismanage the bullpen, or was he simply working with a bunch that shouldn’t be expected to deliver?

The four-game sweep at the hands of Boston all but put the final nail in the coffin. The Orioles, facing their former franchise player for the first time, all but crumbled under the pressure. The O’s failed to score on Friday and Saturday before exploding for one run in the finale. Do you blame the front office for the bats going to sleep? Can you blame the skipper?

The team deserves credit for claiming Luis Robert Jr., but the outfielder hit the injured list shortly after his arrival. Gunnar Henderson finished 3-for-13 with 0 RBIs in the Boston series. Samuel Basallo hasn’t hit since returning from the injured list. Carlos Narváez quickly reminded everyone in Baltimore what a true backup catcher looks like at the plate. Blaze Alexander attempted to manufacture a spark before returning to the injured list.

Baltimore entered last night with a season-low .650 team OPS in the month of September. Despite all the team’s struggles, the Orioles still managed to post an OPS in the .700s during every other month of the season.

It’s understandable that the pitching staff started to run out of gas. The rotation was filled with guys approaching a career high in innings pitched. Brandon Young, the starter with the highest WAR (2.1), had been pitching above his level all season. But at the end of the day, the bullpen didn’t have the dudes. The offense, with respect to Pete Alonso and Coby Mayo, didn’t have the juice.

The Orioles were the benefit of a weak field, but they proved to be the weakest of the bunch. Albernaz deserves some heat for how things unfolded this year, but it’s not like he managed this team out of a playoff spot. Players like Jackson Holliday and Colton Cowser did not take the step that everyone expected. Ryan Helsley got banged up, and Félix Bautista never returned.

This roster just didn’t have the talent to make the playoffs this season, and it will need to make several improvements if it hopes to compete next year.

Rangers 4, Red Sox 2

• And that’s three in a row.
• Oh damn…just realized that this has gotten us to the much feared and hated one-game-under-.500 spot again.
• That’s been a bit of a stumbling block this season, hasn’t it?
• But that is the next game’s problem, not this game’s problem.
• This game featured some gritty gutty work from Jacob deGrom, who was originally scheduled to make his next start on Wednesday. But with the urgency of the Rangers’ current situation and Monday’s off day, the Rangers could move deGrom up a day and still have him start on regular rest.
• Doing so also means that deGrom would be slated to start in the Sunday series finale against the Blue Jays.
• Despite an ongoing groin issue which deGrom had to manage, he gave the Rangers five strong innings, with the blip being a two run Nick Sogard homer in the third inning.
• deGrom has now allowed just nine hits in his last four starts, and just 16 hits in his last six starts.
• Oh, and he struck out eight batters in the game, allowing him to pass Aaron Nola on the all time strikeout list.
• deGrom is now tied with Dazzy Vance for 86th on the all-time K list.
• There’s been not enough people named Dazzy in the world in recent years. Someone needs to look into that.
• Rangers hitters didn’t do a lot in the game, but they did enough, putting up a four run inning in the second, with all the runs coming with two outs, and with the broadcast feed not working, so none of us watching at home were able to see what was happening.
• I bet it was exciting, though.
• Also exciting? A bases loaded situation in the fifth, an inning that started with deGrom’s first hit by pitch of the season, and was followed by a catcher’s interference. With two outs and the bases full, a seven pitch Adley Rutschman at bat ended with a 3-2 ground out, and also ended deGrom’s night at 92 pitches.
• Meanwhile, in the eighth, an infield single, a fly out and a walk was followed by Robert Garcia being lifted for Jacob Latz, who was asked to get the final five outs. After a groundout moved the runners to second and third, Trevor Story was intentionally walked, leading to another lengthy at bat, this time by pinch hitter Andruw Monasterio, finally ending in a 3-2 swinging K.
• I can say now that those bases loaded jams were exciting because things turned out okay. I’d use a different adjective if things had turned out poorly.
• Corey Seager’s bloop single brought home the final two runs of the second inning for the Rangers. He was 2 for 4 in the game. Since returning from the injured list the first time in early June, he is slashing .280/.359/.511 in 206 plate appearances.
• That’s pretty good, I think.
• Cleveland won, so the Rangers are still a game and half back in the Wild Card race, and the Astros won so the Rangers are still a game back in the A.L. West. Toronto, however, lost, so the Rangers moved ahead of the Jays in the Wild Card chase, and now have no one between them and Cleveland.
• Oh, and Martin Perez won his 100th career game. That’s neat.
• Jacob deGrom topped out at 98.8 mph with his fastball, averaging 97.0 mph. Chase Silseth hit 97.3 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander touched 92.7 mph with his fastball. Robert Garcia’s fastball reached 92.1 mph. Jacob Latz maxed out at 97.5 mph with his fastball.
• Corey Seager had a 108.8 mph single. Brandon Nimmo had a 106.3 mph single. Ezequiel Duran had a 105.3 mph single. Danny Jansen had a 103.9 mph single. Jake Burger had a 101.9 mph groundout. Wyatt Langford had a 101.9 mph fly out.
• Eleven games to go.