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Despite falling behind early, the Royals fought back thanks to the arm of Michael Wacha and timely hits by Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone to win the third and final game of their series against the Miami Marlins, 7-3. The win improves the Royals record to 63-78.

Which means, of course, that the Royals will avoid a 100-loss season, something that a) I didn’t think we’d have to worry about at the start of the season, and b) I very much worried about at the end of July.

The Marlins started hot, setting a franchise record with an extra-base hit in the first plate appearance in each of the first four innings. Heriberto Hernandez led off the game with a home run to left center. Miami could’ve added more in the inning, but Otto Lopez ended up out at home to end the inning. The Marlins extended their lead in the second when Jakob Marsee, who began the inning with a double, scored on Joe Mack’s single, making it 2-0 after 1-and-1/2 innings.

In the bottom of the third, the Royals struck back. After Isaac Collins popped up after an eight-pitch battle, Kyle Isbel singled before Carter Jensen smoked a line drive by the second baseman. The ball reached the wall as Isbel scored and Jensen cruised to third. Two batters later, Caglianone ripped a double to right, driving in Jensen and knotting the score.

But it didn’t stay tied long. Leading off the top of the fourth, Agustin Ramirez launched one over the wall to dead center for his third home run of the year. Wacha retired the next three in order, and the Marlins offense never threatened again.

The Royals grabbed the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth when Jensen continued his hot streak. After homering twice yesterday and tripling earlier in the game, Jensen, with Isbel once more on first, homered again, his 22nd of the season, putting the Royals up 4-3.

So remained the score until the bottom of the eighth when Jensen led off the inning with a double before moving to third on a groundout by Bobby Witt Jr. Cags drove him in again, this time with a liner right over the pitcher’s glove. Salvador Perez then joined the fun with a double to left, scoring Cags. Tyler Tolbert pinch-ran for Perez, stole third, then easily scored on Vinnie Pasquantino’s double to right.

Suddenly, the Royals were up 7-3.

Wacha obtained the win, improving to 9-8, as he tossed yet another quality start. He threw six innings, gave up six hits and two walks, allowed three earned runs (two of which came on homers) while striking out seven. He didn’t look great, but he fought through it, minimizing the damage.

Craig Kimbrel followed before becoming sick on the mound. Nate Pearson replaced him with 1-and-1/3 scoreless innings before Steven Cruz wrapped up things in a non-save situation. All told, the bullpen pitched three innings and only allowed one baserunner.

Kansas City offensive numbers: seven runs on 11 hits, six of which were for extra bases, one walk, and five strikeouts. Jensen finished a single shy of the cycle.

Up next, the Toronto Blue Jays come to town. The Royals just faced the Blue Jays in Toronto, taking two of three. With a win tonight, Toronto improved to 70-71. They are tied for the third and final Wild Card with the Rangers.

Time for the Royals to spoil that.

Left-hander Doug Nikhazy joins Triple-AIowa from the ACL Cubs.

Iowa right-hander Connor Noland goes to the Development List.

Smokies left-hander Jackson Brockett was activated off the Development List.

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs sunk the Columbus Clippers (Guardians), 4-2.

It was a bullpen game today for the I-Cubs. Evan Taylor started and gave Iowa 2.2 scoreless innings. He allowed one hit, walked one and struck out three.

Jaxon Wiggins relieved Taylor in the third inning and posted his seventh-straight scoreless relief appearance. He did, however, allow two hits and walked one over 1.1 innings. Wiggins struck out one.

The win went to Jayden Murray, who relieved Wiggins and pitched two scoreless innings. Murray allowed one hit. He walked one and struck out three.

Ethan Roberts pitched a scoreless ninth and got the save. Roberts gave up one hit. He did not walk anyone and struck out two.

The big blow in this game was a three-run double by catcher Ethan Hearn in the top of the seventh. Hearn went 2 for 4.

Left fielder Jordan Nwogu went 2 for 4 with a run scored.

DH Chas McCormick was 2 for 3 with a walk and one run scored.

Hearn’s triple.

The other run scored on an RBI single by Kevin Alcántara, who was 1 for 3 with a walk.

Knoxville Smokies

The Knoxville Smokies were extinguished by the Chattanooga Lookouts (Reds), 13-3.

Grant Knapp turned in a great start, giving the Smokies five scoreless innings on just three hits. Knapp struck out four and walked no one.

Jackson Brockett gave up two runs in the sixth and five more in the seventh as part of a ten-run seventh inning for the Lookouts. Brockett took the loss with seven runs, six earned, on two hits over 1+ innings. Brockett was wild, walking six and striking out four.

Left fielder Carter Trice was 2 for 5 with an RBI double. He also scored one run.

Second baseman Alex Madera went 2 for 4 with a walk and an RBI single.

Here’s all three Smokies runs that scored in the third.

South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs grilled the Cedar Rapids Kernels (Twins), 7-5.

Starter Nazier Mulé pitched 3.1 innings and surrendered two runs on three hits. It was the kind of start that Mulé used to have a lot as he struck out five and walked six. It took Mulé 76 pitches to get through 3.1 innings and he only had 44 strikes.

Ethan Bell pitched the final 1.2 innings. He gave up the go-ahead run for Cedar Rapids in the eighth when he allowed an inherited runner to score on a single. However, Bell struck out the other five batters he faced.

Kade Snell hit a pinch-hit, walk-off three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth. Snell now has nine home runs this year.

Third baseman Matt Hallbach was 2 for 3. He reached to lead off the bottom of the ninth on catcher’s interference and then scored on Snell’s home run.

Center fielder Leonel Espinoza was 1 for 3 with a walk and an RBI single. He scored twice.

Here’s Espinoza’s single.

Snell’s walk-off blast.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans turned off the Columbia Fireflies (Royals), 5-1.

Kevin Camacho started and picked up the win after going five innings and allowing just one run on six hits. Camacho struck out six, walked one and hit one batter.

Fenuel James had three scoreless innings of relief. James gave up just one hit. He walked one and struck out four.

For the second-straight night, DH Caden Sorrell homered. Tonight he hit a three-run home run in the third inning. It was Sorrell’s fifth home run of the year. Sorrell went 1 for 4.

Third baseman Juan Tomas was 2 for 4 with a steal. He scored on Sorrell’s home run.

Highlights.

The Texas Rangers scored six runs while the Tampa Bay Rays scored zero runs.

After suffering embarrassment at the hand of the A’s yesterday, the Rangers needed to rebound against the team topping the American League. Turns out, it was an easy task for Cal Quantrill.

I’ve been making a bit of hyperbolic sport about Quantrill’s ascension from long relief afterthought to rotation savior in just a manner of weeks but eventually it stops being fodder to mine for laughs and veers fully into being impressive. We’ve arrived at that destination. The Rangers turned to Quantrill to be the series tone-setter tonight and the newly risen ace delivered in spades.

Quantrill kept the AL-best 83-win Rays off the board over his 95 pitches which got him through seven innings of spotless work. To help Quantrill earn a victory, the Rangers broke the scoreless tie with a two-out RBI hit by Justin Foscue off Rays left-handed starter Shane McClanahan.

McClanahan hadn’t been the losing pitcher in a game since right after the All-Star break when he was tagged with a loss back on July 19 in Boston. The Rangers made sure to pin a second loss in the second half on McClanahan when they added three runs in the bottom of the fifth, all with two outs again.

Logan O’Hoppe singled to lead off the inning and scored on a two-out RBI single from team MVP Ezequiel Duran. After Duran stole stole second, Corey Seager crushed a lefty-on-lefty dong to give Quantrill all the wiggle room he never even needed.

The Rangers added a couple more insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth while Jakob Junis and Chase Silseth combined to pitch the remaining two scoreless frames.

There are plenty of hurdles remaining for Texas in the season’s final weeks but you couldn’t ask for a better way to start this series against the AL’s best.

Player of the Game: Quantrill dominated the league’s best squad with seven innings of shutout ball with just a couple of hits allowed and two walks. Quantrill struck out five Rays and earned his seventh win of the season in his 13th start of the year.

Up Next: The Rangers and Rays are back at it tomorrow evening with RHP Kumar Rocker set to take the mound for Texas opposite right handed old friend Nick Martinez for Tampa Bay.

The Friday night first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 7:05 pm CDT and will be aired on the Rangers Sports Network.

Patrick Zalupski should do a roll call for the next ownership group meeting because Cal Quantrill is a majority statistical owner of the franchise. Quantrill, with his effort tonight, is now 4-0 lifetime against Tampa Bay over seven starts as he led the Rangers to a 6-0 win over the Rays.

Quantrill does not light up the radar guns in today’s game of velocity, but his combination of command and repetoire has given the Rays and the league fits this summer:

The Rays last faced Quantrill on July 28th and were held to a single run with just over five innings of work. Quantrill worked seven complete tonight while barely breaking a sweat scattering two singles and two late walks while striking out five. The two singles came on consecutive plate appearances with two outs in the third, but Chandler Simpson was unable to extend the two-out rally. The two walks came in the 7th inning as Quantrill, but Jorge Mateo was unable to move the traffic and allowing Quantrill to spin seven shutout innings on the evening

The righty has now pitched to a 2.34 ERA over his last 11 starts since taking over for the injured Jack Leiter in the rotation. He generated just nine swings and misses in the contest, but primarily used an up/down approach in the zone with his two fastballs while extending the zone with his splitter to get a lot of soft contact in the contest:

The game was never particularly close given the Rays only had a runner reach second base three times on the evening, but the Rangers broke the game open in the the 5th when Shane McClanahan left a changeup up and over the plate. Seager had twice hit deep flyballs off the lefty, but this one went six rows deep into the bleachers:

McClanahan had just five swings and missed in this contest, which was his lowest single-game total of the season. Casey Legumina finished the final three innings of the contest allowing the final two runs while the offense picked up just one more hit by Diaz after the consecutive singles by Fortes and Diaz back in the 3rd inning. A Jonathan Aranda hat trick accounted for half of the six strikeouts on the evening in a game that felt as close as the 73-0 football game I watched on my other screen this evening.

The Mets are hardly alone in having issues at catcher.

But for a team that’s long waited for Francisco Alvarez to establish himself, its patience has been tested again.

Since Alvarez caught his fourth straight game Aug. 11, the Mets haven’t started either Alvarez or Luis Torrens more than two games in a row.

It’s as much an indication of Alvarez’s struggles on both sides of the ball as it is Torrens’ dependability.

And with catchers being such a difficult commodity to find, the Mets could take the duo into next season, but that was never the plan.

Alvarez was expected to get the bulk of the playing time, with the organization hoping he could become more consistent — and healthy.

Alvarez — nearly four years after making his MLB debut with the Mets late in the 2022 season — continues to be prone to both lengthy slumps and injuries.

Lately, he’s found his struggles with the bat.

As the Mets enter their homestand Friday against the Giants at Citi Field, Alvarez is back in an ugly slump, just 5-for-51 with a pair of doubles, four walks and 29 strikeouts in his past 16 games.

Torrens, meanwhile, after getting off to a brutal start to the season, has a .753 OPS since May 10.

The Mets signed him to an extension during the season and held on to him at the trade deadline.

But while they know what they’re going to get out of the former Yankees prospect, Alvarez remains a mystery.

Typically worse against left-handed pitching than versus righties, Alvarez this season has had an especially rough time when facing southpaws, with a .583 OPS, compared with .757 against righties.

Only four of the 124 righty hitters with at least 100 plate appearances against lefties have been worse.

He’s also struck out a career-high 30.6 percent of the time.

The Mets claimed right-hander Cameron Weston from the Orioles and optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse.

The 26-year-old has made one appearance in the majors, tossing an inning for Baltimore in May. He spent most of this season with Triple-A Norfolk, where he’s been mostly ineffective.

To make room on the 40-man roster, catcher Shawn Ross was designated for assignment. Ross was picked up off waivers from the Pirates last month.

Adley Rutschman tormented his former team in his first game back at Camden Yards, hitting two home runs and leading the Red Sox to a 6-5 win in Baltimore.

Batting third for Boston, Rutschman received a standing ovation from the Camden Yards faithful in the 1st, tipping his helmet to the fans who still had plenty of love for the former Oriole. He then repaid that love by launching Brandon Young’s hanging curveball onto the flag court for an early 1-0 lead for Boston.

The Orioles would tie the game in the first on a Pete Alonso sac fly, before Alonso and Luis Robert Jr. provided some fireworks of their own in the 4th. Robert, the newest Oriole, marked his Camden Yards debut by blasting a Jack Bennett fastball into the left-field stands. The Polar Bear then followed suit, golfing a changeup below his knees just out of the reach of Boston’s CF for his 33rd long ball of the season.

Those back-to-back jacks put the Orioles up 3-1, a lead they held until Rutschman came back up in the 6th. With one out and the bases empty, Young tried to challenge his former teammate with a fastball up and in. Rutschman turned on the heater and sent another solo shot to right field to cut the Orioles’ lead in half.

After the Red Sox tied the game at 3-3 in the 7th, the former Baltimore backstop was then in the heart of another rally in the 8th. Jahmai Jones led off the inning with a single to left, bringing up Rutschman with the winning run on first. The three-time All-Star bounced a would-be double-play ball to third; however, a hard slide by Jones at second caused Blaze Alexander’s throw to skip off Alonso’s forearm and allowed Rutschman to go to second.

Like on his home run trots, the Boston catcher didn’t have to run hard to score his third run of the day. Two batters later, Nick Sogard homered off a Yennier Cano sinker at the knees to put the Red Sox up 5-3. The Sogard blast ended Cano’s streak of 48 straight appearances without allowing a homer. Roman Anthony would then take Albert Suárez deep in the 9th for the Red Sox’s fourth homer of the evening, putting Boston up 6-3.

Unexpectedly, that insurance run would prove important as Aroldis Chapman came in for the save in the 9th. After Alonso struck out to begin the frame, Gunnar Henderson slapped a belt-high fastball to left to give the Orioles some hope. That hope grew even more two pitches later, as Christian Encarnacion-Strand turned on a fastball at the top of the zone, blasting a two-run homer to left to chop Boston’s lead down to one.

The thoughts of a comeback quickly faded, however. The future Hall of Fame closer got Leody Taveras to fly out to center for the second out of the inning. Chapman then got ahead of Dylan Beavers 0-2 before blowing a 100mph fastball past the rookie outfielder to secure Boston’s win.

Outside of the two mistakes to Rutschman, Young was excellent for 6.2 innings on Thursday. He struck out the first two batters he faced, fanning Roman Anthony and Mickey Gasper on low splitters. He’d get two quick outs in the 2nd before punching out Jarren Duran on a splitter just off the outside corner.

After Rutschman’s first homer, Young set down the next six Red Sox he faced, with the streak ending on a two-out walk to Anthony in the 3rd. BY would cap that inning with a Gasper flyout to finish the first three innings with only two baserunners and three strikeouts.

The Orioles’ big right-hander ran into his first real jam in the 4th thanks to a brief lapse of control. After two flyouts to start the inning, Nick Sogard walked on four pitches to extend the frame. Young then tried to run a sinker in on the hands of Caleb Durbin, but clipped the Red Sox’s 3B to give Boston two on with two outs. The big Texan got out of the jam by getting Duran to fly out on a high fastball, stranding both runners.

Young breezed through a 1-2-3 5th inning on just 12 pitches. Rutschman’s second homer of the night snapped a streak of 17 straight Red Sox plate appearances without a hit. Young rebounded from that blast by striking out Wilyer Abreu looking on a curveball at the knees. Sogard then lined out to close out another strong frame from the 28-year-old righty.

Having only thrown 81 pitches through six innings, Young got the green light from manager Craig Albernaz to go back out for the 7th. At first, it looked like the right decision, with Durbin lining out after two pitches and Duran striking out on a 3-2 splitter at the knees. However, with two outs, Boston outfielder Eli White poked a first-pitch fastball down the right-field line to put the tying run on second. Albernaz let Young pitch to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who bounced another ball through the right side. The single scored White, tied the game at three and chased Young from the game.

The Orioles’ most reliable starter finished with a line that doesn’t accurately reflect how good he was Thursday. Finishing with 6.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB and 7 Ks, his stats paint the picture of a good but not great start from BY. At times, however, he was untouchable, generating 12 swings and misses and producing 5 Ks on his splitter alone. If not for two mistakes to Rutschman, Young might have earned a win; instead, he finished with a somewhat unjust No Decision.

Thanks to Cleveland losing Thursday, the Orioles remain 1.5 GB of the last Wild Card spot in the AL. Shane Baz takes the mound tomorrow night looking to end Baltimore’s three-game skid.

Box Score

After scoring nine runs in back-to-back games, the Brewers were only able to muster a single run as they dropped tonight’s series finale against the Cubs by a score of 2-1. Logan Henderson put together another great start, but Pete Crow-Armstrong’s two-run homer in the third proved to be all the offense Chicago would need.

With the loss, the Brewers split this week’s four-game series at Wrigley Field. They are now eight games up in the division with 21 games to go.

Both starters — Henderson for Milwaukee and Kevin Gausman for Chicago — kept the opposing offense from doing much through the early innings. Milwaukee had a brief chance in the top of the second after Christian Yelich and Garrett Mitchell both singled with two outs, but Joey Ortiz flew out to center, stranding them both.

In the bottom of the frame, Alex Bregman led off with a double, but Henderson bore down to retire the next three Cubs — Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, and Pedro Ramírez — without so much as allowing Bregman to advance to third.

Henderson was again terrific tonight for the Brewers, going seven innings for the third time in four starts while striking out seven and holding the Cubs to just three hits. The lone blemish on an otherwise nearly spotless outing came in the third after Carson Kelly singled into left field with one out in the third. That brought up Crow-Armstrong, the favorite to win this year’s NL MVP award, who has struggled against the Brewers — he entered today’s game just 3-for-33 against Milwaukee this season. Henderson threw a 2-1 changeup well below the zone that PCA golfed over the center-field fence for a two-run homer.

However, Gausman — who’s had some uncharacteristic struggles this season — matched Henderson every step of the way. Milwaukee immediately got a run back in the fourth on a (monster) two-out solo homer off the bat of Andrew Vaughn, but the Brewers couldn’t muster the tying run despite threatening twice more.

In the fifth, Ortiz and David Hamilton — the Brewers’ eight and nine hitters — both reached and ended up on second and third with two outs, but Gausman got Brice Turang to stare at strike three for the third out. In the sixth, Jake Bauers worked a one-out walk and made it around to third on a wild pitch and a groundout, but Yelich grounded out to strand him. Gausman came back out for the seventh and retired the side in order, as did relievers Ryan Zeferjahn and Ryan Rolison in the eighth and ninth.

Milwaukee won’t have much time away from the Cubs, as the two teams are scheduled to begin a second series — this time in Milwaukee — on Monday. In the meantime, the Brewers will head to Cincinnati to take on another divisional opponent in the Reds for a three-game set. First pitch for tomorrow’s series opener is set for 5:10 p.m., with Shane Drohan starting for the Brewers opposite Rhett Lowder.

I spend too much time on the internet. That has become clear to me, especially over the last year or so. However, occasionally the internet brings good ideas! And that was the case last week.

I was scrolling through Threads and came across this question:

So I’d like to rephrase this for baseball into four questions:

1. If you had to create a Rockies team using nine clones of exactly one current player playing all positions, which player do you think would create the most successful team?
2. If you had to create a Rockies team using nine clones of exactly one former player playing all positions, which player do you think would create the most successful team?
3. If you had to create a Major League Baseball team using nine clones of exactly one current player playing all positions, which player do you think would create the most successful team?
4. If you had to create a Major League Baseball team using nine clones of exactly one former player playing all positions, which player do you think would create the most successful team?

Let us know in the comments!

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

Tarik Skubal faces Quinn Matthews as the Dodgers look to avoid being swept by the St. Louis Cardinals

THURSDAY GAME INFO

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Cardinals
• Stadium: Dodger Stadium
• Time: 7:10 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 (Spanish)

The Red Sox had one hit through five innings against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday.

If you think that was going to stop them, you must not have been paying attention…

Boston, as it has done over and over against throughout the week, took its time to get going and entered the seventh inning trailing and immediately ran into two outs. Double. Single. Tie Game. Boston then took the lead just one inning later, doing so once again with two outs. Single. Fielder’s Choice. Strikeout. Home Run.

It’s not pretty, but this team continues to scratch and claw — scoring 14 runs in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings since Sunday — and was rewarded with a 6-5 victory at Camden Yards.

STUDS

Adley Rutschman: If there was ever a time to rediscover that you’re the best two-way catcher in the game…

Rutschman, in his first game against the team that made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, belted two home runs in one of the coolest subplots of the season. The Red Sox offense literally didn’t have a hit aside from those two until the seventh inning, and when the rest of the club got things going he was on base to score the game-winning run.

ESPN Insights shared that he is now the fourth former top pick to hit a home run in his first plate appearance against the team that drafted him, and first since Kansas City Royals first baseman Jeff King did it against the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1997.

Nick Sogard: OH. HELL. YEAH.

Sogard home runs in his first 91 games? 0. Sogard home runs in his last 15 games? 4.

Jake Bennett: The Red Sox starting rotation hasn’t been able to contain opposing offenses in the last couple of weeks, so this was a fresh breath of air.

Bennett allowed three runs through six innings, which isn’t stellar but it sure is quality and enough for a win. That’s all that matters in September.

Roman Anthony: If he doesn’t hit this home run in the top of the ninth inning, we would have been going to extras.

DUDS

I’ve got nothing.

“CLASS ACT, THAT GUY” MOMENT OF THE GAME

Rutschman didn’t just hit two home runs, but he got two standing ovations in his return to Oriole Park.

Carlos Narvaez, one of the men in which he was traded for, helped facilitate the first when he took a stroll in front of home plate to allow the crowd to cheer the former face of the franchise — with the two sharing a moment together behind the dish whenever the other would step up to the plate.

Cute. Cool. Classy.