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A team playing for the playoffs seemed more inspired than a team playing for pride. 

Or maybe motivation wasn’t a factor and Cam Schlittler’s power was simply overwhelming when matched against the Mets’ second-half pluck. 

Regardless of the reasoning, the Yankees showed why they will play far bigger series this season than the September Subway Series, which marked the last meaningful weekend of the schedule for the Mets. 

Schlittler was dominant to carry a lineup that consisted of just two meaningful swings in a 2-0 shutout of the Mets in front of 45,508 in The Bronx on Sunday afternoon, when the Yankees did not clinch a playoff spot but did claim a set from their red-hot, playing-for-nothing neighbors. 

“Special weekend for the city,” said Schlittler, who watched the Sept. 11 commemoration Friday and then heard Mets fans revel in a blowout win Saturday. “… It was a little frustrating [Saturday] just hearing all the Mets chants. 

“I wanted to make sure I could come in here today and kind of shut that down.” 

The Yankees (86-63) won a fifth out of six, narrowed their magic number to one to clinch a playoff spot and remained four games behind the Rays in the AL East, while the Mets (69-80) have gone 22-14 since a trade deadline in which they waved goodbye to much of their club and waved a white flag. 

Since Aug. 3, Mets season has taken on a different hue, with development more important than details like the score (and yet they have surged). 

Against the front-runner for the American League Cy Young — and perhaps MVP, which would be a rarity that several (though not Aaron Judge) on the Yankees endorsed after Schlittler’s latest gem — Sunday was an opportunity for growth. 

“Anytime you go up against the best, you actually should smile and enjoy the challenge of it,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said, though if there were any smiles Schlittler would have used his heat to erase those, too. 

The young righty was the best pitcher on the day and in the series, bulldozing through the sizzling Mets lineup through six scoreless, one-hit innings in which the Mets never really threatened — apart from accidentally threatening Schlittler’s health. 

His last batter of the matinee was Bo Bichette, who smashed a 111.5 mph comebacker off Schlittler’s right hamstring in a moment that evoked Spencer Jones vs. Clay Holmes. 

“Hard hit, so, it’ll be a fun couple days trying to get that recovered,” said Schlittler, who added that he believed he would make his next start. “I think we’re in a good spot.” 

Apart from the end of the top of the sixth, when Austin Wells grabbed the ricochet and threw out Bichette, Schlittler inflicted more pain than he felt while striking out eight and lowering his ERA to 1.95. Only three qualified Yankees pitchers since 1913 have finished a season with ERAs under 2.00: Spud Chandler (1.64 in 1943), Ron Guidry (1.74 in 1978) and Ray Caldwell (1.95 in 1914). 

The usual trio — Brent Headrick, Paul Blackburn and David Bednar, who struck out a heavily booed Juan Soto in the ninth — locked down a game in which the Mets barely mounted a semblance of a rally, with just two at-bats with a runner in scoring position, and the Yankees’ scoring meant a pair of swings from Ben Rice and Wells. 

Against a solid Christian Scott (six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, two walks), the Yankees only managed three hits, but two of those left the park. 

The first arrived on Scott’s fifth pitch, Rice hooking a splitter that did not dive enough, sending it 333 feet to take advantage of the short porch. 

“They snuck one out at about 315 feet,” Green said after Rice’s 38th dinger of the season. “Would have been nice if we had done that as well.” 

The Yankees lead doubled in the third, when an ice-cold Wells, who entered the at-bat in an 0-for-20 slide, turned on an up-in-the-zone four-seamer and clobbered it to the second deck in right. 

Virtually anything Wells offers offensively is a bonus considering the caliber of arms he is catching. 

“I think ‘valuable’ is a good word — he might be the MVP, too,” Aaron Boone said when asked about Schlittler’s value to the team. “He’s been awesome. … I think it’s got the feel a little bit of: You want to be here seeing it on the day he goes to the mound.”

The late innings have not been a fun time for the Nationals this season. However, that changed this weekend. The Nats overcame blown leads and actually found a way to mount offense and carry the day. They took advantage of a weak Angels bullpen and did just enough to get three one-run wins this weekend.

Riley Cornelio opened for Jake Irvin in this contest, and set the tone with 2 scoreless innings. Outside of a pair of solo homers, Irvin was also solid in his 5 innings of work. Blake Butera brought his right hander back out for the 8th inning, which ended up being a mistake though. Overall, it was a promising outing from both pitchers.

The Nats had a chance for a big inning in the first with the bases loaded and nobody out. However, they could not cash in due to a lack of timely hitting and hustle. James Wood had a chance to open the scoring if he ran hard, but instead he was jogging home. He probably thought that Zach Neto was going to throw to second base, but you still have to run harder.

Overall, it was not the cleanest game for the Nats. They walked 6 Angels hitters and CJ Abrams made a costly error in the 8th. Thankfully, they were playing the Angels who gave the Nats chances to stay in it. For the most part, the Nats took advantage of these opportunities with hustle ironically playing a big role.

The Nats got their first run due to CJ Abrams turning a single into a double with his speed. Yohandy Morales drove in Abrams to make it a one run game. They got the tying run thanks to Brady House beating out what would have been an inning ending double play.

The desire is still mostly there for the Nats. However, the execution and consistency leaves something to be desired. Heading into the 8th inning, this game was tied at 2. Both of these leaky bullpens changed that quickly though.

After Irvin walked the leadoff man, Butera pulled him for Erik Tolman. After lighting the world on fire early on, Tolman has come down to earth a bit lately. He was wild today, walking a batter and allowing a runner to score on a wild pitch. However, got let down by Abrams who booted a routine ground ball.

For most of this season, these blown leads would take a toll on the Nats offense. Thanks to some resiliency and the Angels bullpen, that was not the case today. The boys strung together five hits in the bottom of the 8th to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead. It was a true team effort with Lile, Vivas, Young and Crews all coming through.

As they tend to do, the Nats bullpen made things interesting in the 9th. Jack Sinclair gave up a double on the first pitch he threw. However, he buckled down and got the job done. The man on second ended up scoring after a pair of ground outs but that run did not matter. Sinclair mowed down Zach Neto with 3 sweepers and the ball game was over.

The Nats got their third sweep of the season. After being road warriors who struggled at home for most of the year, that script has flipped lately. The Nats can’t buy a win on the road, but have strung together some impressive home performances. I guess that is just baseball for you.

With their 70th win of the season, the Nats have a few milestones coming up. With two more wins, they will have the most wins in a season since 2019. If they get three more wins, they will avoid a 90 loss season. The Nats could also reach 75 wins with a 5-6 finish to the year. Even though they faded down the stretch, these would all be good signs of progression.

Even though it was the lowly Angels, this series was encouraging. They were finally able to win a few close games. CJ Abrams also looked the best he has in a while. Hopefully this can continue and the Nats can finish the season on a positive note.

It’s not quite true that all’s well that ends well, given that the good ending to this series in no way erases the fact that the Phillies lost said series. But it is true that batting around against a hated rival is really, really fun.

Trea Turner got the Phillies’ first hit on a little bloop, coming against Atlanta starter Grant Holmes; it didn’t look great coming off the bat, but it landed safely— Atlanta, being home to the country’s busiest airport, is used to safe landings. But not all landings are so smooth: Bryce Harper lined a ball to left, and that one did look good off the bat, but Maurcio Dubón dove to snatch it away. Another dive, this one from Matt Olson, took a hit away from Luis Arraez, and the Phillies ended the first without a run.

The Braves got started fast against Andrew Painter with a single from Michael Harris II and another from Olson; the latter of the two put his ball right up the middle. A sacrifice fly from Drake Baldwin put the Braves on the scoreboard first. The Phillies would not take long to respond: Bryson Stott singled, and while he was erased on a ground ball from Brandon Marsh, the Braves failed to turn the double play which would have ended the inning. This would become highly relevant just one batter later, as J.T. Realmuto saw a high four-seamer and decided to send it even higher, watching it arc and sail into the left-center seats for a 2-1 lead.

They’d keep working in the third, with both Kyle Schwarber and Turner walking to begin the frame, but it came to naught on a lineup and double play. That’s some misfortune, and the Phillies would encounter more of it in the bottom fourth, as the Braves used a combination of walks and a single to load the bases with just one away and Ronald Acuña Jr. at the plate. But luck turns, eventually, and Acuña flew out, shallowly enough that no run could score; a great grab from Arraez on an Olson grounder ended the inning.

More good fortune for the Phillies, and of their own making: Realmuto doubled when a ball bounced away from Dubón in left , and Justin Crawford singled to put runners on the corners with none away, ending Holmes’ day. But luck turns, sometimes sooner than you’d like. Ray Kerr came in from the bullpen to get the platoon advantage against Schwarber, successfully inducing a double play (3-4); a Turner strikeout ended the inning.

Alex McFarlane replaced Painter to start the sixth (final line: 5 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K), and worked a 1-2-3 inning. José Alvarado took the seventh, allowing a single to Harris II, then advanced him on a wild pitch. Hey scored an an Olson single, and the game was tied. And then it got worse: another single, then a misaimed ball on an attempt to put out a steal hit Arraez in the hand. Fortunately, Alvarado ended the inning before the Braves could take the lead, but the mood was decidedly sour.

The Phillies got Dylan Lee in the eighth, and Schwarber started things off with a single to right. He was soon sent back to the dugout on a force out, but the Phillies kept rolling, with Harper sending a Lee fastball right into the gap between the range of Olson at first and Mike Yastrzemski in right for a double. An Arraez pop out shifted the mood back to tension. Alec Bohm came to the plate in a tone-setting moment: an out would give the Phillies, already stinging from a seasons’ worth of painful losses to Atlanta, a sense of doom. But Bohm saw to it that fatalism would not rule the day: he smacked a pitch into center-right to clear the bases, giving the Phillies a 4-2 lead. He scored himself when Stott hit a single into shallow center. The skies cleared, the clouds vacated their positions. Optimism emerged like the first shoots of spring (or, for a more seasonally appropriate simile, like the first pumpkin spice lattes of fall).

The Braves pulled Lee; his replacement, Victor Mederos, fared no better, as Realmuto knocked one into center for another run. It was then, to quote a baseball great, Deja vu all over again as Schwarber came back to the plate, and got another single to right, scoring two more. Turner got a second chance too, and this time made good, sending one through the right-side gap for a RBI. 9-2, good guys. Mederos departed, and former Phillie Bailey Falter was tasked with getting the third out, doing so on a strikeout of Harper.

The recently returned Tanner Banks took the eighth, and showed no rust, in the eighth, putting three Braves down in order. He showed some in the ninth, allowing a two-run homer to Olson. On another day, in a tighter game, this would have produced enormous dread, despair, dismay. Today it produced no more than mild irritation. There was a bit more trouble, but nothing to write home about. The game concluded soon after.

The Phillies are 83-67. They’ll start a series in Washington on Tuesday at 6:45.

It really should have been expected when you think about it. There was a lack of energy in the stands at Busch Stadium Sunday afternoon as Michael McGreevy through the first pitch for the matinee game against the Chicago White Sox. After Saturday’s emotional induction of Pujols, Molina and Sherder into the Cardinals Hall of Fame, Sunday’s game was anti-climatic at least at the start. Alec Burleson would have something to say about that later, though.

The Chicago White Sox did not take long before they jumped out to an advantage. In the top of the 2nd inning, Benitendi reached with a one-out single. Peters then doubled which gave the White Sox runners at second and third with just one out. Chase Meidroth lifted a sacrifice fly to center for a 1-0 Chicago lead. Fortunately, McGreevy got Colson Montgomery to ground out without allowing any more runs.

While Michael McGreevy was pitching a fine game, his counterpart David Sandlin was even better for the White Sox for the first half of the game. Through the first 5 innings, he was perfect in a baseball sense. No hits, no walks, no baserunners.

Potential trouble reared its head in the top of the 6th inning when Antonacci led off with a triple. Teel then walked giving the White Sox runners at first and third with no outs, but they would not score as McGreevy got Vargas to fly out to short right for the first out. The crucial play was Murakami grounding to Burleson at first base who fired the ball home to get Antonacci out in a rundown for the second out. Benetendi’s groundout to second ended the White Sox 6th with no runs scored.

The St. Louis Cardinals FINALLY got their first hit and baserunner with one out in the bottom of the 6th inning when Nathan Church lanced a single to right field. Masyn Winn followed Church’s lead by smacking a single of his own to left-center giving St. Louis runners at first and second with just one out. Unfortunately, Bryan Torres struck out on a high fastball for the second out. What looked like it would be an inning-ending groundout from Herrera turned into an opportunity as it went off the glove of White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery allowing him to reach and loading the bases. That caused the White Sox to bring in Chris Murphy from the bullpen to face Alec Burleson. Burly proved clutch as he muscled a double into the right field corner scoring three for the Cardinals giving them their first lead of the game at 3-1.

Michael McGreevy gave the Cardinals a great effort Sunday. He pitched 6 innings allowing just 1 earned run while striking out 6 and walking 3.

Gordon Graceffo took over in the top of the 7th inning to begin another St. Louis bullpen adventure. He had no troubles setting the White Sox down 1-2-3 to keep the Cardinals lead preserved at 3-1. After the Cardinals failed to add to their lead in the bottom of the 7th, Gordon was the Cardinals answer for the top of the 8th inning also. He once again had an efficient and drama-free 1-2-3 half-inning.

More than a few of us wanted the Cardinals to add to their 2-run lead in the bottom of the 8th. Nathan Church got that off to a good start as he led off with a double to left-center. The White Sox then turned to Trevor Richards to keep them within striking distance. Masyn Winn did his part by at least flying out to deep right to move Church to third with just one out. Victor Scott II also did his job by lifting a fly ball to right-center deep enough to be a sacrifice fly, but Church failed to tag up and did not score. Unbelievable. After Herrera grounded out to end the Cardinals 8th, you couldn’t help but wonder if that mental error would end up being costly.

The top of the 9th would be in the hands of George Soriano to hold this Cardinals lead and give them a series win. His first pitch was hit for a single into left by Vargas. You just knew that the potential tying run would come up, didn’t you? After Soriano walked Murakami, the potential go-ahead run came to the plate for the White Sox in the form of Benetendi. All he could manage was a weak flyball to center that didn’t advance either runner. Peters grounded out for the 2nd out bringing up Meidroth. Soriano walked him to load the bases and put the potential tying run at 2nd base with the go-ahead run at first. Montgomery, with 31 home runs for the season, stepped to the plate. He mercifully flied out to center on a 2-2 pitch to end the game. It’s never easy with this bullpen, but we’ll take it.

The St. Louis Cardinals begin a 3-game series against the San Francisco Giants Monday night at Busch Stadium. Quinn Mathews takes the mound for the Cardinals while the Giants have yet to announce a starter. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.

The Orioles and Blue Jays sent their top starters to the mound today as each tried to help his team claim the series win. Dylan Cease was not on his game, but kept the Orioles off the board through the first four innings. Trevor Rogers, on the other hand, looked very good through four innings before falling apart in the fifth. Between the Orioles’ offense failing to capitalize, Rogers’s fifth-inning funk, and a disastrous relief appearance, it spelled another loss for the Orioles.

Things started off so well. Cease struggled with control from the get-go and walked leadoff batter Dylan Beavers. Pete Alonso singled, then Gunnar Henderson worked the first of his three walks in the game. With the bases loaded and no outs, they were poised for a breakout inning against one of the best pitchers in baseball. They failed.

Coby Mayo started his at-bat 3-0, then saw four more pitches: a called strike and three fouls. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Coby took what was called ball four. The call was challenged by the Blue Jays; the ball barely nicked the strike zone.

After that productive but ultimately unsuccessful at-bat, Samuel Basallo and Christian Encarnacion-Strand were the opposite. They struck out too, but looked overmatched (especially Basallo).

Cease threw 33 pitches, which was the only solace in the inning. Rogers, in contrast, needed just 12 pitches in his four-batter first. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled to kick off his big day at the plate.

The Blue Jays took the lead in the second inning. Charles McAdoo singled, then stole second base. With one out, Andrés Giménez hit a pop-up to left field. None of Beavers, Encarnacion-Strand, or Henderson could get to it. Encarnacion-Strand made a diving attempt but it deflected off his glove. Beavers got to the ball pretty quickly after it landed, but McAdoo ran all the way and scored easily. It was an interesting choice given it was hardly a given the ball would fall in, but it worked.

The Orioles had another chance in the third inning, when Henderson and Mayo worked back-to-back walks with two outs. But Basallo popped out on the first pitch to end the inning.

Rogers worked around a Guerrero double and a walk in the third, then pitched a 1-2-3 fourth inning. Guerrero had yet to homer at home this season, which is wild. His double came mere feet from breaking his 0-fer. His drought would only last a little bit longer.

In the top of the fifth, the Orioles tied the game. Beavers doubled, then Alonso singled him in to make the score 1-1. It was Alonso’s 100th RBI this season, tops in the American League. We like Pete! Henderson followed with another walk, but both he and Alonso were stranded.

Then, the bottom of the fifth. Rogers went from holding his own to falling apart in a matter of moments. He got two easy outs to start off. Next up, George Springer, who homered. Then Guerrero, who hit his first Rogers Centre home run of the year. Then Kazuma Okamoto went deep. Guerrero and Okamoto both homered on a full count. Before you could blink twice, the Orioles were down 4-1.

Cease, who walked five batters but only allowed one run, was out after five innings. Rogers came back for a 1-2-3 sixth. His final pitching line: 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 5 K.

After the bullpens took over, the Blue Jays held the Orioles. The Orioles did not hold the Blue Jays.

Beavers singled in the sixth, his third time on base. Coby Mayo picked up his first hit in the seventh. And Leody Taveras singled off tough submariner Tyler Rogers in the eighth. (My daughter, watching along with me: “Why does that guy throw underhand?!”)

Craig Albernaz turned to Yaramil Hiraldo after Rogers exited. Just added to the roster today, the idea seemed to be to have him close out the game barring an Orioles comeback (lol) . He pitched a scoreless seventh inning, though it was bumpy. He issued a walk and gave up Guerrero’s fourth hit of the game. He returned for the eighth inning and things got very bad.

Nathan Lukes walked, then Hiraldo got the next two batters. He was so close to a non-disaster! But Brandon Valenzuela singled, then Myles Straw walked to load the bases. Relief pitcher Cam Sanders had been warming up and was surely ready to come into the game.

As Straw jogged down to first base, the camera panned to Albernez decidedly doing nothing in the Orioles dugout. Hiraldo, who had thrown 43 pitches and clearly did not have it, was left in to face Boston Bateman. He walked Bateman to make the score 5-1. Finally, Hiraldo was removed.

Sanders came in to face George Springer. Springer hit a line drive to left-center field. It looked like it might hang up for Beavers to catch, but sank as he approached. Beavers kind of waved his glove at the ball as it sailed past him and went to the wall. All three runs scored.

A better outfielder would have caught that ball. But even Beavers should have gotten a glove on it and kept the worst from happening. I like what Beavers has been doing at the plate lately, but his defense remains upsetting. Guerrero was finally retired to end the inning. The damage was one.

The heart of the order attempted a comeback in the top of the ninth. Alonso and Henderson singled back-to-back, but Coby Mayo struck out. The Orioles had pinch-hit for Basallo with Jeremiah Jackson earlier in the game, so Yohel Pozo batted instead. He promptly hit into a game-ending double play.

Orioles lose, 8-1. They now sit at 72-78. Tomorrow, they start a three-game series against the Mets in New York. I expect we’ll see Pete Alonso hit his 300th career home run sometime during the series. Something to look forward to.

Earlier this week, my colleague Josh asked whether Cam Schlittler could join Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw as the only pitchers this century to win MVP. With each successive appearance like this one, Josh’s question begins to look more and more prescient. Schlittler was close to untouchable, allowing just one hit across six scoreless innings to hold serve with Dylan Cease in the AL Cy Young race. Ben Rice and Austin Wells provided all the offense with a pair of early solo home runs to right as the Yankees won the rubber game, 2-0, to secure this edition of the Subway Series (and a 3-3 split for 2026 as a whole).

Christian Scott entered this game as one of the best pitcher’s in the NL when it came to his team’s record in his starts, which made it important that the Yankees get on the board early. He offers a rare blend of swing and miss and damage limitation, so it was encouraging to see Rice really get into a 1-2 splitter, lining it just over the wall in right for a classic Yankee Stadium porch job.

As if you needed anything more to play for in the midst of a tense divisional race, Schlittler seemed to be pitching with an added edge this afternoon. He is neck-and-neck with Cease in the AL Cy Young race — also starting today against the Orioles — and likely wanted to answer the humiliation the Yankees faced in their drubbing the afternoon prior. He struck out four in the first two innings, three of those coming against a four-seamer that the whole Mets lineup looked nowhere close to catching up to.

Volpe got his first real test in these four games at second base and answered it with aplomb. He ranged well to his right on a sharp Brett Baty grounder, gloving it and making a jump throw to first, this shorter throwing distance seeming to suit Volpe’s arm better than having to make a similar throw from in the hole at short. In the bottom of the frame, it was his chicken parm brother’s turn to make his mark on this game.

Austin Wells has looked miles more competitive at the plate over the last few months after a truly abysmal start to his season. He’s not giving so many pitches away and he’s not missing as much when he gets what he is looking for. That being said, he entered today’s contest amid an 0-for-20 skid — snapped in loud fashion in his first AB of the game. He ambushed an elevated first-pitch heater at 96 mph, launching it into the second deck in right for his eleventh home run of the year to double the Yankees’ lead, 2-0.

With the way Schlittler was dealing, those two runs must have looked like a mountain to climb to the opposition. The Mets didn’t manage their first hit off him until two outs into the fifth, Baty pulling a 3-1 cutter into the corner in right for a double before a Nick Morabito grounder stranded him at second.

Other than the pair of solo homers, the Yankees offer much resistance against Scott. José Caballero and Rice drew a pair of walks after the Wells homer but that came to nothing. Otherwise it was pretty smooth sailing for the Mets’ second-year starter, who ended with seven strikeouts across his six innings of work including striking out the side in the fifth.

After the contact started to tick up against Schlittler in the fourth and fifth, he answered Scott’s striking out of the side by ringing up Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto to open the sixth (aided by a generous check swing strike three call on Soto by the third base umpire). There was then a scary moment as Schlittler took a 112 mph liner from Bo Bichette off the back of his right thigh, the batted ball missing his pitching hand by inches. He was able to walk off the field under his own power, but went straight down the tunnel to end his outing at 94 pitches with Brent Headrick coming out to open the seventh.

If Schlittler can keep stacking starts like this, his Cy Young hopes and his team’s playoff outlook will keep on improving. It’s his sixth straight outing allowing one or fewer runs, extending his single-season Yankees franchise record to 21 such starts. He had to lean on four-seamer and sinker today, the curveball showing little feel while he wasn’t quite able to finish his cutters, leaving a lot out of the zone to the arm-side. This elevated his pitch count to 94, which in addition to the come-backer were likely the reasons Schlittler couldn’t go really deep in this start given his stuff showed no signs of degrading in his final inning. Schlittler ends the day having given up a hit and two walks with eight strikeouts in six scoreless innings to lower his season ERA below two for the first time since the first week of July.

As they’ve done almost without fail since the start of summer, Headrick, Paul Blackburn, and David Bednar slammed the door after Schlittler’s day ended. They allowed just two hits and no walks in the final three scoreless innings, the three-headed monster nailing down another victory, 2-0, to secure the series over the crosstown rivals.

The Yankees next fly to Minnesota for three games against the Twins. Will Warren is slated to start the opener, facing off against a familiar face from his days with the Orioles in Dean Kremer. First pitch is scheduled for 7:40 pm ET on Monday with the broadcast remaining on YES.

Box Score

Rafael Devers’ brilliant season has come to a close, as has his quest for 40 home runs. On Sunday, ahead of their series finale against the San Diego Padres, the San Francisco Giants announced that their star slugger is headed to the Injured List with a season-ending core muscle injury.

According to the Giants, Devers has been dealing with the injury for most of the season, and will meet with a specialist. Like Matt Chapman, who also had a core muscle injury, Devers could be headed for surgery, though he should have plenty of time to heal up before Spring Training.

Devers ends his first full season with the Giants with a stunning .258/.340/.525 slash line, good for a 135 wRC+ and 3.4 fWAR. Those numbers are even more stunning when you remember just how bad he was slumping to start the season; but since May 1, Devers has been third among all qualified Major League hitters in both OPS (.953) and wRC+ (157). He trails only MVP favorites Pete Crow-Armstrong and Yordan Alvarez in both categories, and also is eighth in the Majors in fWAR during that time (4.1).

The injury will keep Devers from achieving a trio of notable benchmarks, as he ends the year with 37 home runs, 36 doubles, and 98 runs batted in.

Taking Devers’ spot on the roster is outfielder Scott Bandura, who has been called up for his MLB debut. No additional corresponding move was made, as Devers was placed on the 60-Day IL to create a 40-man roster spot for Bandura.

Bandura, who was drafted by the Giants in the seventh round in 2023, has had a spectacular breakout season. The 25-year old lefty, who played college ball at Princeton, started the year with AA Richmond, but was promoted to AAA Sacramento early in the year. After a slow start with the River Cats, Bandura caught absolute fire, and ends his AAA tenure having hit .318/.398/.492 (134 wRC+) with 10 home runs in 94 games. Bandura played quality defense at all three outfield spots with Sacramento, and stole 24 bases in 26 attempts. While this move makes the Giants roster even more crowded — they have 56 players on the 40-man roster — Bandura had played his way into Rule 5 protection, so he was going to need to be added to the roster in the coming months regardless.

Many fans will be wondering why the Giants opted for Bandura over Bo Davidson, but Davidson suffered a mild injury a few games ago after fouling a pitch off his foot.

Just as his first full season in San Francisco was reaching historic heights, Giants slugger Rafael Devers' year is over with 13 games remaining.

The Giants placed Devers on the 60-day injured list Sunday, Sept. 13 with a core muscle injury that has dogged him for much of this season. The club said Devers, who turns 30 next month, will be examined by specialist William Meyers in Philadelphia on Monday and will undergo a procedure the following day if deemed necessary.

Devers certainly went out with a bang: He hit his 37th home run Saturday at Oracle Park against the San Diego Padres, one day after hitting a grand slam. He hit 11 home runs in his last 18 games.

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ active roster is at 28 and the 40-man roster is at 39.

• Recalled from Triple-A Reno: INF Jose Fernandez
• Designated for assignment: OF Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

The end of the Gurriel era in Arizona. Lourdes came over from Toronto along with Gabriel Moreno, in the Daulton Varsho trade, and made an immediate impression, batting .261 with 24 home-runs in 2023, for a value of 2.9 bWAR. He was a free-agent at the end of the season, but re-signed to Arizona on a three-year contract with a value of $42 million. There was also a team option for 2027, which will presumably now become the (rather expensive) $5 million buyout. This deal will not go down as one of Mike Hazen’s finest, Gurriel’s production plummeting after signing: 1.9 to 0.6 to -0.7 bWAR. All told, $47 million for 1.8 bWAR is a poor investment.

We’ll see what today brings, yesterday having brought us the latest in “Season over” reactions from a number of fans. I lose count of how many times that has happened before this year. I don’t think, personally, I’ll start losing hope until we are more than three games behind San Diego, at which point the final series would become irrelevant. But that could potentially happen as soon as tomorrow, and the team can ill-afford to drop a home series, with only 12 games to go after today. Time for Eduardo Rodriguez to step up and do Eduardo Rodriguez things, which he has been doing all year long.

The Diamondbacks have gone 22-7 in his appearances. With three outings still remaining, it’s the most team W’s for a starter since Zack Greinke’s 23 in 2017. If ERod can play his part in two more and reach 24, that’ll be the most since 2011, when the D-backs were 25-8 in Ian Kennedy starts. Unsurprisingly, the franchise record belongs to the Big Unit: in 2002, Arizona went 29-6 with him on the mound. Now, obviously, Rodriguez himself doesn’t have 22 wins. It’s a still impressive 15-5. But over the nine no-decisions, with the Diamondbacks going 7-2, he has a 2.51 ERA. So he has kept the team close enough for the offense to get it done after he left the game. It has truly been an ace-level season.

LeahAZFan will bring you the guest recap post-game, so stick around for that!

The Kansas City Royals will finish their series in Boston at some point today, in a rubber match contest. The Royals won the Friday night contest 3-2, but dropped the late afternoon game on Saturday 5-1.

The Royals are currently 66-83 and are on the brink of finally being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs this season.

Lefty Noah Cameron starts today for the Royals. Here is the Royals starting lineup behind him.

The Red Sox are 81-68 on the season, and very close to securing a playoff berth as the second wild card team, which means like last season, they’d head to the Bronx to take on the Yankees in a best of 3 in the Wild Card round.

It’s rather remarkable that they are in this position considering their horrific start, before they fired almost every coach in the dugout and then didn’t lose for like a month.

Anyways, Payton Tolle, another left hander starts for the Red Sox today. Former Royal, Nate Eaton bats ninth and plays center today for Boston.

After this game, which was pushed back due to rain and is currently in a delay from the pushed back start, is over, the Royals travel to Houston for a three-game series. Whenever this game is started, you can watch it on Royals.TV. Until then, watch the NFL!