Well, at least the Yankees don’t have to worry about George Lombard Jr.’s defense for the time being. 

His offense is another story. 

The rookie shortstop’s malaise at the plate continued Saturday afternoon in the Subway Series. After his 0-for-3 day in the Mets’ 12-2 rout, Lombard is 3-for-27 in September and 4-for-34 with 11 strikeouts dating to Aug. 28. His opposite-field grand slam against the Rockies on Wednesday was one of few highlights over the past three weeks. 

“It’s a constant game of adjustments. Pitchers are finding ways to get you out and you’re trying to figure out the opposite,” Lombard said. “I probably have missed a couple of my pitches. It’s every single day trying to make those little adjustments and get my swing off as much as possible.” 

After a quick start at the plate — Lombard homered in his debut on Aug. 4 — he has struggled against major league pitching.

A big issue: missing his pitch, as he referred to. He’s fouling off too many hittable pitches. 

“In this league especially, as good as these guys are, when you get a pitch to handle you need to not [just] put a good swing on it — you need to stick it,” manager Aaron Boone said. “That’s probably where he missed here for a few days.” 

The Yankees, it should be noted, put Lombard in a tough spot, asking the top prospect to produce immediately in the heat of a pennant race. He was bound to hit some rough spots. But he’s glad he has this opportunity. 

“I look at this no different than the adjustments I made at every other level,” said Lombard, who is now batting .217 with an OPS of .620. “The main focus is always going to be winning games and playing to win, trying to put the team in a good spot. That’s always a big focus and the adjustments you work on when you can. 

“You get your work in with the hitting coaches, try to make little changes when you can. The main focus is always playing the game hard and winning games.” 

It’s easy to play the what-if game with the Mets, but after their 12-2 drubbing of Gerrit Cole and the Yankees on Saturday afternoon, it’s hard to ignore what could’ve been had the entire team stayed healthy and gotten off to a better start.

It’s not just Saturday’s score that’s impressive – anybody can put up double-digit runs on a given day – it’s the last week and a half of scores that should have the Mets excited about their potential for next year and beyond.

Over their last nine games, the Mets have scored 76 runs (8.44 runs per game) and are 7-2 during that stretch. Since the trade deadline, New York boasts one of the best offenses in the league and is 22-13.

One player who perfectly encapsulates the entire Mets’ season is Francisco Lindor, who was hurt during the majority of the first half but has been on a tear recently, especially in the power department with two home runs against the Yanks on Saturday. He now has 20 home runs in 91 games and seven in his last 15 games.

“It’s been an uphill fight this whole year,” Lindor said. “It sucks that we haven’t played as much together [as a whole group], but when we do play together and we’re all in the lineup, things like this could happen, you know? 

“This is what we should’ve been doing since the beginning, but it’s part of the journey, it’s part of the year and we’ll try and make the most of it.”

Sure, with the pressure of trying to make the postseason off, some of what the Mets are doing should be taken with a grain of salt. However, during this recent surge, New York has looked competitive and even won some series against multiple playoff teams. 

In fact, if the Mets win Sunday’s rubber game, not only will they have taken the series from the Yanks, they will have won the season’s Subway Series, 4-2.

“If we would have played together from the beginning, there was a lot of injuries and there was a lot of ups and downs – I didn’t play well when I was playing – so if we would’ve, from the beginning, done what we’re doing now it would’ve been a whole different layout,” Lindor said. “But we put ourselves in this position and we can only worry about what we have today. We’ll see what happens next year.”

While the Mets are still not technically eliminated from playoff contention (their tragic number is 3), they are playing the rest of the season out as hard as they can to try and play spoiler as well as playing for the guys in the locker room, both those who will be on the team next year and those who won’t.

“Build on our relationships and try to finish the year as strong as we can,” Lindor said when asked what can be taken from the final two weeks of a season like this one. “Guys would be lying if they [say they] don’t want to have good years, everybody wants to have a good year, whatever a good year means for them. But you try to finish strong, you try to give everything you got and learn each other, continue to build on the relationships.”

The Orioles’ already narrow path to a postseason spot just got a whole lot slimmer.

The O’s suffered a 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays, who jumped all over a visibly fatigued Kyle Bradish for an early five-run advantage and used a cavalcade of eight relievers to shut down the Birds’ bats. As of this writing, the Guardians are trailing in Minnesota, which would keep the O’s three games behind Cleveland for the third wild card spot. But with only 13 games remaining, the math may already be too much to overcome.

Friends, this was not a happy birthday for Kyle Bradish. The newly 30-year-old O’s right-hander was pitching on his birthday for the first time in his professional career, and the only gifts the Blue Jays offered him were a bunch of runs and a whole bunch of hits. Not cool, Blue Jays. Not cool.

The trouble started immediately when Bradish walked the first batter of the game, Brett Bateman. Two batters later, the badly struggling Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — who recently has been getting booed at home even by the notoriously polite Canadians — ripped an RBI double to give the Jays the early lead, one they would never relinquish. Guerrero promptly scored on an Alejandro Kirk RBI single, making it 2-0.

Bradish ended both the first and second inning by fielding a comebacker and turning it into a double play, but his struggles arose again in the third. Bateman greeted him with a leadoff homer, his second of the series and his career. Later in the frame, after a George Springer single, Kirk followed Bateman’s lead with a two-run dinger to left-center to make it a 5-0 game. Bradish ultimately gave up two more hits in the inning before finally escaping.

Bradish didn’t return for the fourth, and frankly he shouldn’t return to the mound again this season. And I don’t mean that as a diss on Bradish. But the guy clearly is beyond gassed. He threw only 71.1 major league innings from 2024-25 combined, with Tommy John surgery in between. Now he’s up to 155 innings this season. It’s been obvious for nearly a month now that Bradish’s pitch movement and command have declined significantly as his innings count has escalated.

It’s understandable that Bradish might be having trouble adjusting to a full season’s workload after missing so much time in the previous two years. What’s less understandable is why the Orioles keep putting him out there. I suppose they’ve felt that they couldn’t afford to shut Bradish down while the O’s are technically within shouting distance of a playoff spot. But come on, guys. Enough is enough. You’re doing a disservice both to the Orioles and to Bradish himself by continuing to pile onto his workload when he’s showing visible signs of fatigue. Why would you sign this guy to a $90 million extension and then be so reckless with his arm? Shut. Him. Down.

The game didn’t get any more interesting after the Orioles fell into their early deficit. Relievers Anthony Nunez and Cam Sanders allowed a run apiece to extend Toronto’s total to seven, while the O’s offense failed to replicate their dynamic performance from the previous night.

The Jays went with a bullpen game today, and for some reason, that’s been the kiss of death for the Orioles’ offense all season long. They just can’t seem to hit when the other team doesn’t have an actual starting pitcher. Could it be a lack of preparation? A lack of focus? Or just bad luck? Whatever the case, every Orioles opponent for the rest of the year should just skip their starters and cycle through random relievers to pitch every game. They’d beat the Birds every time.

Spencer Miles was the opener, and while the O’s worked him for 31 pitches in the first, they came up empty when Christian Encarnacion-Strand lined out to right with the bases loaded. Miles then struck out the side in the second, so clearly the Birds’ signs of life in the first were short-lived. Lefty Joe Mantiply tossed a scoreless third, and Spencer Arrighetti gobbled up the next 2.2 innings, allowing just an unearned run on a Kazuma Okamoto throwing error that plated Gunnar Henderson in the fourth.

The only O’s batter to actually drive in a run — two of them, in fact — was Pete Alonso, who bashed his 299th career home run in the seventh off his former Mets teammate Paul Sewald. Good old Pete. Unless he homers tomorrow, Alonso has a good chance of hitting his 300th career homer at his longtime home ballpark, CitiField, where the O’s play the Mets from Monday to Wednesday. The Polar Bear’s dinger temporarily brought the Orioles within three runs, but it never felt that close.

They didn’t score again. The Blue Jays’ shutdown late-inning duo of Tyler Rogers and Louis Varland retired all six batters they faced in the eighth and ninth, and that was that. The O’s took the loss, one of the precious few they can afford for the rest of the season if they intend to stay in contention. It’s nearly time to run the table or go home.

The early 1990s were famously not always a great time for the New York Yankees. The 1990 campaign where they went 67-95 is on the shortlist for the worst season in franchise history. It wasn’t until George Steinbrenner’s suspension that year that the team actually took time to let young players develop and make moves that would turn the team into the dynasty of the late 1990s.

That being said, they did still win games during the 1990 season. As the adage goes, just about every MLB team wins 50 games and loses 50 games, and your season is decided by how you do in the rest. One of the Yankees’ 50 of 1990 — or 67 to be accurate — came on July 22nd, where they got a wild amount of help from their opponent.

On July 22, 1990, the Yankees were in Minnesota to take on the Twins. While a year later, the Twins would win the World Series in a classic over Atlanta, the 1990 edition of the team would finish last in the AL West, with only the Yankees putting up a worse record in the American League.

On this particular day, the Twins struck first. Facing Yankees starter Andy Hawkins (of losing no-hitter fame), Gary Gaetti led off the second inning with a double and eventually tagged up and scored on a John Moses sacrifice fly.

Twins starter Scott Erickson started the game off with two scoreless innings, but got into some trouble in the third, only some of which was on him. Erickson did hit Roberto Kelly with a pitch to start the inning, but Minnesota shortstop Greg Gagne then threw away a Wayne Tolleson grounder to put two runners on. After a Deion Sanders single loaded the bases, Steve Sax grounded into a double play, which did score a run. Don Mattingly added another RBI single, which was followed by an Oscar Azócar two-run homer. The inning ended after that, but the Yankees had a 4-1 lead. Despite, giving up three hits, including the home run, Erickson wasn’t charged with any of the runs, as they all came after that double play, which theoretically would’ve ended the inning had Gagne not committed his error.

While the Twins got one of those runs back in the fifth, the Yankees answered in the sixth. Azócar singled and then scored on a Matt Nokes single. However, Azócar was greatly aided in that feat by a error by Minnesota right fielder Shane Mack, as his throw to third hit a sliding Azócar.

After that though, the Twins began chipping away at the Yankees’ lead. They scored one in the sixth and knocked out Hawkins. Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett was part of the action as they scored two more in the seventh to tie things up. Then in the eighth, Mack atoned for his error with an RBI triple that gave Minnesota the lead and put them three outs away from a victory. While they didn’t get charged for an error themselves in this one, the Yankees made a defensive miscue of their own in this inning. Pitching Greg Cadaret had Gagne — who scored on the hit — picked off, but the Yankees botched the ensuing run down, allowing Gagne to get back to first safely, and then eventually come around on the Mack triple.

Jim Leyritz started the rally for the Yankees by leading off the frame with a single. Then, once again, the Twins’ defense cost them. On back-to-back plays, third baseman Gary Gaetti and first baseman Kent Hrbek — who made a bold attempt to get a force out at third on a bunt — committed an error each. The latter of those two brought home two Yankee runners to put them back in front. The inning was hardly over there either. Steve Sax and Bob Geren each recorded RBI hits in the inning, as the Yankees put up a five-spot in total, going up 10-6. The inning also only ended because Geren got thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a double. Once again on the “the inning was only still going because of the errors” rule, all five once again went down as unearned ones.

Dave Righetti then came in for the bottom of the ninth. After all that, he needed just 10 pitches to record a 1-2-3 inning and seal the win.

If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that, despite the Yankees reaching double digits, Twins pitchers never actually gave up an earned run in the game, thanks to the errors. Erickson’s ERA went from 3.72 to 3.15 despite being on the mound for five Yankee runs. Reliever Rick Aguilera’s ERA went down a bit even though he got just one of the six batters he faced out and was credited with five unearned runs. If you don’t count games from before like 1920 when gloves were in their infancy and every team made like four errors a game (that’s only a slight exaggeration), 10 is the most runs a Yankee team has scored in a game where they all went down as unearned.

After the game, the Yankees were in a good mood in what had been a tough season. Sax was quoted as saying ”We were talking on the bench, we need to run off about 10 in a row, get close to .500.”

He wasn’t exactly doing the math correctly, as that win got them to 34-57, which is a bit more than 10 away from .500. Still though, they weren’t the biggest screwups on the field that day.

Join us and discuss tonight’s game in the comments below, as the Braves look to put another nail in Philly’s NL East coffin.

Game Info

Game Time: Saturday, September 12, 7:15 p.m. ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

Watch: BravesVision

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

Texas Rangers lineup for September 12, 2026 against the Arizona Diamondbacks: starting pitchers are Kumar Rocker for the Rangers and Brandon “Booty So” Pfaadt for the D-Backs.

Texas tries to get it together in Arizona. Josh Jung is back. That’s a positive, right?

The lineup:

Pederson — DH

Seager — SS

Jung — 3B

Nimmo — RF

Duran — CF

Langford — LF

Burger — 1B

Lopez — 2B

Diaz — C

7:10 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are +110 underdogs.

Saturday was the second straight clunker for Gerrit Cole.

After allowing four homers in the loss against the Padres in San Diego a week ago, the Yankees right-hander came into Yankee Stadium looking to clinch the Subway Series with a win over the Mets. However, the Mets took Cole deep three times en route to a 12-2 victory. 

While Cole bounced back from the early homers against the Padres -- going seven innings and allowing four runs -- the same wasn't true against the Mets. The Amazin's pushed across five runs and banged nine hits off of Cole -- both tying season highs -- as he was chased after just 4.1 innings. 

After the game, Cole was asked what he believes the reason for the uptick in homers is and the former Cy Young winner was straightforward with his observation.

"The hitters are seeing the ball well and being able to deliver good strikes to it, regardless of the pitch type or the location," he said after the loss.

When asked if it's something Cole can change on his end, the 36-year-old wasn't sure, but offered that it's something he needs to figure out.

"I think it’s something we gotta figure out for sure. It’s one of those times in the season where you have to start making adjustments," Cole explained. "Sometimes adjustments are hard. But that’s the demand of the game. Have to find a way to get through it and move forward."

"Stuff looked ok but not getting it to places he needed to get to and they made him pay for it today," manager Aaron Boone said of Cole's start. "They didn’t miss. That was a little bit of it too. They were fouling pitches off and getting to balls and there wasn’t much swing-and-miss because he wasn’t getting it to spots."

The Yankees skipper said that despite the last two starts, Cole is having a great year and that the Mets were a hot team that hit him around. 

Boone is right. Cole returned from Tommy John surgery in late May, and despite the physical progression needed, the right-hander was dealing before San Diego. He made five August starts where he allowed a combined eight earned runs over 30.2 innings (2.35 ERA) and allowed three runs in 5.1 innings against the Angels on Sept. 1 before the Padres and Mets got to him. 

However, there are some underlying concerns. Cole's swing-and-misses are down, which he acknowledged is "something we need to tackle," and the looming reality that, physically, he's still trying to bounce back from major surgery. Boone says Cole's arm isn't getting tired, and Cole said he's pleased with how he feels physically, considering he's coming off of Tommy John. 

But Cole couldn't rule out whether this is just part of the progression from his surgery. 

"Hard to pin it on one thing," Cole said. "Again, at a certain point, starting pitchers throughout the year have to make adjustments. Hitters are good, offenses are good. High-stakes games with good offenses- sometimes they teach you lessons like today."

Despite the results, Cole isn't concerned. He says he's healthy and his experience should benefit him in figuring out what adjustments need to be made to be more effective.

"It’s not easy. It’s a tough game," Cole said. "Have to make hard adjustments; that’s why it’s the big leagues." 

Cole added, "Hitters are really good. There’s credit to be dished out, but at the same time we expect better. That’s what we’ll be chasing."

And Boone has those same expectations.

"I expect him to be right next time."

The Yankees hope Cole is right as they head to the final two weeks of the regular season. After the loss, the Rays hold a 3.5-game lead in the AL East with a massive four-game series between the Yankees and Tampa Bay coming up. 

Even if the Yankees don't catch Tampa for the AL East crown, they'll need Cole to make a deep playoff run this October. 

"It's not easy. It's a tough game, got to make hard adjustments. That's why it's the big leagues."

Gerrit Cole talks about making the adjustments to get back to form: pic.twitter.com/U7gX7CEHnR

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 12, 2026

That… that was not quite the way I’d have drawn up another Cubs win, but we will take them any way they come.

The Cubs defeated the Pirates 4-3 on an eighth-inning two-run rally in which they had only one hit. This, after hitting two home runs off Paul Skenes and going behind thanks in part to a rare Nico Hoerner error.

Let’s begin at the beginning, shall we?

Clay Holmes dispatched the Pirates scoreless in the first, then after the first two Cubs were easy outs in the bottom of the inning, Michael Busch went oppo [VIDEO].

About Busch’s blast, from BCB’s JohnW53:

Michael Busch’s home run was the 28th by a Cub that has been the team’s first hit of a game. That is nearly one every five games. Busch had done it once before, on July 18, at home vs. the Twins. Pete Crow-Armstrong leads by far, with 10. Seiya Suzuki has four; Alex Bregman, three; Busch, Michael Conforto, Ian Happ and Dansby Swanson, two; and Nico Hoerner, Matt Shaw and Tyrone Taylor, one.

Busch’s blast went a long way [VIDEO].

That’s where the score stayed until Pedro Ramirez led off the third with a home run [VIDEO].

Watching Skenes pitch, he is a different guy than he was a year ago. His velocity has dropped from “elite” (100 or over) to “above average,” hitting 96-97 most of the time. That can be hit, as the Cubs showed. He was getting swings and misses mostly on his slider. He’s still a very good pitcher, obviously, but will he ever recover the level he was at for the first two years of his career? That remains to be seen.

More on Skenes from John:

This was Paul Skenes’ 85th career start. It was just the eighth in which he has allowed multiple home runs, with five of them this year. He gave up three just once: at home vs. the Cubs, on May 1 of last year. The Cubs won the game, 8-3.

The Cubs have hit seven homers off him. No other team has hit more than three.

Michael Busch became the first batter to hit two homers off Skenes. Pedro Ramirez was the 36th to hit one.

Anyway, Holmes and the Cubs nursed that 2-0 lead into the sixth, when Brandon Lowe, who has killed Cubs pitching all year, led off with a single. Then came the aforementioned Nico error, which might have wound up a double play or at least a force out. Instead, the Pirates had two men on and nobody out. One out later, Ryan O’Hearn launched a homer and the Bucs led 3-2.

Holmes then loaded the bases on a walk, single following a fly to left and another walk. Craig Counsell called on Jacob Webb to face Oneil Cruz and — be honest now — you didn’t much like that matchup. I sure didn’t. But Webb got Cruz to ground to second to end the inning.

The Cubs couldn’t do anything in the sixth or seventh. Webb threw a scoreless seventh after a leadoff walk, and hopefully this outing will help him build confidence back. Ryan Rolison threw a 1-2-3 eighth and then the Cubs got to work after Skenes was lifted for Gregory Soto.

Ramirez led off with a double, but the next two Cubs were retired, including PCA on a called third strike. I think he was looking slider and Soto rammed a fastball right down the middle.

Then Soto lost the zone almost completely. He hit Alex Bregman and walked pinch-hitter Seiya Suzuki to load the bases.

Counsell sent Matt Shaw up to bat for Ian Happ and Shaw worked a walk to tie the game at 3 [VIDEO].

I don’t know if you can tell from that clip but the energy level from the 39,422 in attendance was tremendous at Wrigley Saturday afternoon. Loud and engaged on every pitch in that inning.

That continued when Nico came to bat and Soto hit him, forcing in the lead run [VIDEO].

The Cubs will take runs any way they can get them, of course, and now had a one-run lead to protect in the ninth.

Rolison was left in the game. The first batter was pinch-hitter Rafael Flores Jr., who hit a ground ball to Bregman that Alex couldn’t handle and it went for a hit. Rolison then retired the next two Pirates on fly balls, and Counsell called on Ryan Zeferjahn to face Bryan Reynolds.

You know, I’m not sure I’d have done that either, but I can see what Counsell is doing here — trying to figure out who’s going to close games and give some relievers tough situations to see how they handle them.

Zeferjahn struck out Reynolds to end the game — but not until after an ABS challenge [VIDEO].

Again, I’m not sure the tremendous crowd energy comes across well in the video clips. Everyone in the ballpark was really into every pitch, almost a playoff atmosphere. This isn’t the way I’d have drawn up this win, but wins are wins and the Cubs will certainly take it. More from John:

This was the Cubs’ 42nd come-from-behind win — more than half of all 83 total wins. Going into today, only two teams had more: the Diamondbacks, 44, and Dodgers, 42. The Brewers and Padres had 40.

So the Cubs have a chance to go a full game up on the Phillies for the top wild card if the Braves can defeat Philadelphia again this evening. Tyler Mahle will start for the Braves and the Phillies are going with a bullpen game, started by Tim Mayza. That game begins at 6:15 p.m. CT.

As for the Cubs, they’ll go for the sweep of the Pirates Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Matthew Boyd will start for the Cubs and Bubba Chandler goes for Pittsburgh. Game time Sunday is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.

After a complete drubbing of the Cincinnati Reds last night, 20-0, to clinch a berth in the postseason, the Milwaukee Brewers are back for more against their NL Central foe.

The Brewers have a magic number of 4 to clinch the NL Central coming into tonight’s game. The Chicago Cubs did win their afternoon contest against the Pirates, which means the Brewers can no longer clinch on Sunday and the earliest they could possibly be crowned is on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

While it’ll be difficult for the Brewers offense to replicate the kind of offensive outburst they had on Friday night, they have been swinging the bat quite well of late. Jackson Chourio has especially been on a roll, batting .379/.404/.621 (39-for-103) with 6 HR and 18 RBI in his last 23 games.

To no surprise, Chourio is back in the leadoff spot for tonight’s game. He’ll be followed by Brice Turang and Jake Bauers atop the order. Christian Yelich, William Contreras, and Garrett Mitchell form the middle of the order. Then the bottom of the order has Sal Frelick in right field, Cooper Pratt at short, then David Hamilton at third base.

After a clutch home run robbery last night from Lara and a career-high 4 hit game from Joey Ortiz, neither of them are in the starting lineup for tonight’s game.

The Reds will have right-hander Brady Singer on the mound. He works primarily with a sinker-slider combo. The Brewers recognize Ortiz’s struggles against right-handed sinkers, which is likely contributing to him not being in the lineup tonight. The last time Singer was out on the mound, it was against the Brewers. He didn’t pitch particularly well, allowing six runs over 5 IP, but the Reds still won.

Singer is having a tough season, with his ERA experiencing a full run increase over last year. He has a 5.03 ERA in 2026 in his 28 starts.

The Brewers will be countering with Shane Drohan, who has a 7-5 record and a 4.09 ERA on the year. Drohan faced the Reds his last time out and had a tough game, allowing six runs in 4 IP. Ironically, that was the only game of that Reds series last weekend that the Brewers won.

Drohan will face a Reds lineup that’s led by Dane Myers, Elly De La Cruz, and rookie sensation Sal Stewart at the top of the order. Tyler Stephenson, Eugenio Suarez, and JJ Bleday form the middle of the Reds lineup. Then Juan Brito, Hector Rodriguez, and Ke’Bryan Hayes round out the bottom of the lineup card for manager Terry Francona.

Can the Brewers continue their push for 100 wins for the first time in franchise history? Can they make their NL Central magic number dwindle a little bit more? We’ll find out. First pitch is at 6:10 PM.

TONIGHT’S GAME: The Houston Astros (75-73) and Tampa Bay Rays (88-59) play the 2nd game of this 3-game set tonight at Tropicana Field.

RHP Peter Lambert (8-8, 3.67 ERA) will start for the Astros as he takes on Rays LHP Ian Seymour (9-6, 4.33 ERA). Tonight will be Lambert’s 4th career app. vs. TB and his 2nd career start/app. at Tropicana Field.

ASTROS-RAYS: The Astros are 2-2 vs. TB thus far this season. HOU took 2 out of 3 games from the Rays when they met at Daikin Park earlier this season, July 3-5.

Astros-Rays History: The Astros are 45-50 all-time vs. TB in the regular season.

Postseason: The two clubs have met twice in the postseason, with the Astros defeating TB in the 2019 ALDS, 3-2, and the Rays topping the Astros in the 2020 ALCS, 4-3.

THE LAMBO: RHP Peter Lambert is making his club-leading 26th start of the season tonight. In his last start on Sunday vs. ARI, Lambert pitched 7.0 strong innings (3 ER) but took the loss in a 3-2 defeat.

Vs. The Rays: In 3 career app. (2 GS) vs. TB, Lambert is 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA (2ER/12.2IP). Lambert defeated the Rays on July 5 of this season at Daikin Park, hurling 5.2 scoreless innings in a 2-0 Astros victory.

At The Trop: Tonight will be Lambert’s 2nd career start/app. at Tropicana Field. His other was on Aug. 24, 2023 while with COL (5.0 IP, 2 ER, ND in 5-3 loss).

100 CLUB: Tonight will be Lambert’s 100th career ML appearance and 61st ML start.

CAM CAN: Cam Smith is 6×14 (.429) on the current road trip with 3 HR and 4 RBI. He homered in all 3 games at PHI on the 1st stop of the trip. Smith is hitting .290 (9×31) in Sept. with a .998 OPS.

ROAD WARRIORS: Tonight is the 5th game (2-2 thus far) of a 6-game road trip for the Astros. Since going 1-9 on the first road trip of the 2026 season, the Astros have gone 37-26 (.587) on the road since April 14, which ranks 3rd in the Majors in that span. More recently, they are 21-14 (.600) on their last 6 road trips combined (includes current trip).

TOUGH DRAWS: Including tonight, in the last 4 games, the opposing starters that the Astros have faced have a combined won-loss record of 52-21. They are: LHP Cristopher Sánchez (17-5), RHP Zack Wheeler (12-5), RHP Drew Rasmussen (14-5), LHP Ian Seymour (9-6).

MEASURING UP: The Astros are 29-21 (.580) vs. teams currently at .500 or above. They own a .500 or better record vs. several clubs that are in the AL postseason hunt: 5-1 vs. BOS, 5-2 vs. CWS, 4-2 vs. CLE, 2-2 vs. TB, 9-4 vs. TEX, 3-3 vs. NYY, 3-3 vs. TOR.

NOTHING FINER THAN YAINER: C Yainer Diaz is hitting .367 (11×30) in the month of September with a .920 OPS.

Multi-Tasking: Diaz has tallied multiple hits in each of his last 5 starts, going 10×19 (.526) in that span.

THE HIT MAN:Jose Altuve collected his 2,500th career hit on Wed. night at PHI, becoming the 103rd player in ML history to reach this milestone. Freddie Freeman was the last player to reach 2,500 hits, which happened on June 9 of this year at PNC Park vs. PIT. Freeman (2,587) and Altuve (2,503) are the 2 active hits leaders in the Majors.

ON THE OFFENSIVE: The Astros are 2nd in the AL in HR (193) and SLG (.409), T-3rd in OPS (.724) and 6th in runs scored (663).

SLOW AND STEADY RECOVERY: Since starting the season with a 20-31 record after 51 games, the Astros are 55-42 (.567) in their last 97 games (since May 22). That is the 2nd-best record in the AL in that span, behind only the Red Sox.

STARTING STRONG: In the last 11 games, Astros starters have combined for a 2.73 ERA (17ER/56IP) . The Astros are 6-5 in that span. Additionally, the Astros are 10-7 in their last 17 games, during which the starters have posted a combined 3.13 ERA (29ER/83.1IP).

TRIPLE THREAT: Yordan Alvarez, who is a solid candidate for the AL MVP Award, currently ranks 1st or 2nd in the AL in all three Triple Crown categories. He enters today leading the AL in batting avg. (.310), while ranking 2nd in HR (38) and RBI (96). Alvarez also leads the Majors in OPS (1.017), SLG (.590) and OBP (.427).

Rare Feat: Since Carl Yastrzemski won the AL Triple Crown in 1967, there has been just one Triple Crown winner in the Majors, Miguel Cabrera in 2012 (AL).

CHALLENGING STRETCH: The Astros are 6-5 thus far while in a stretch of playing 13 cons. games vs. opponents with winning records (CWS, ARI, PHI, TB). 2 of those opponents are leading their respective divisions (CWS, TB), one currently holds a WC spot (PHI) and another that is 0.5 game out of a WC spot (ARI).

BIG WES: Tomorrow’s starter, RHP Hayden Wesneski, is 3-0 in his last 4 starts with a 1.57 ERA (4ER/23IP). For the season, he is 5-1 with a 3.35 ERA in 8 starts (Astros are 7-1 in his starts).

DOWN ON THE FARM: The Fayetteville Woodpeckers have advanced to the Carolina League Championship Round after sweeping Fredericksburg, in their 1st round playoff matchup. Fayetteville will face the Charleston RiverDogs for the Carolina League championship in a best-of-three series, beginning on Sunday in Charleston. Games 2 and 3 are scheduled to be played at Fayetteville.

TODAY IN ASTROS HISTORY:2021 – Rookie OF Jose Siri gets his first Major League start and makes it one of the best ever, tallying 4 hits with 2 HR and 5 RBI in a 15-1 win over the Rangers at Globe Life Field. Siri had 4 Major League at-bats but no starts prior to his big night.

2020 – At Dodger Stadium, the Astros erupt for 5 runs in the top of the 9th off Kenley Jansen for a dramatic, 7-5 win over the Dodgers. The Astros tally 6 hits in the 9th off Jansen, who does not record an out.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Saturday, September 12, 5:10 p.m. CT

Location: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, FL

TV: Space City Home Network

Radio: KBME 790 AM & 94.5 FM HD2; TUDN 102.9 FM HD2 (Spanish)

Saturday evening’s game between the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers will likely include an odd feature not usually observed in Major League Baseball.

Reds pitcher Jose Trevino will potentially be unavailable. That’s Reds catcher Jose Trevino, who has pitched in each of the last two games in which the Reds have played.

Cincinnati wrapped up their series in Los Angeles mid-week with a 14-1 drubbing by the Dodgers. Then, they flew to Milwaukee just to find a way to play worse. Friday saw them completely dismantled at the hands of the Brewers to the tune of a 20-0 final score.

Cincinnati had multiple pitchers allow at least 8 earned runs. Milwaukee was up 17-0 so early that it was an honest conversation whether they should use a position player on the mound to save innings on their relievers with the game already so out of reach. Trevino, who allowed 3 ER in 2.0 IP, actually performed better than both Andrew Abbott and Luis Mey, even if he did so while leaning hard on his 22 mph eephus.

It was a game so embarrassing it wasn’t worth covering. That’s on the back of a game that was so embarrassing (and late) it wasn’t worth covering, either. That’s where this Cincinnati Reds club finds itself 147 games into this disastrous 2026 season, with the only thing left to see being whether they choose to pick themselves up off the mat or simply let it bleed out.

Something is woefully amiss within this organization. And if nothing changes yet again this winter, well, we’ll know it’s all by design.

With Carlos Correa getting closer to returning to the Astros, questions have arisen about how the team would formulate their lineup when he was ready to rejoin the team. While Correa has exclusively taken ground balls at 3B during his rehab and manager Joe Espada has stated that Correa would play 3B upon his return, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic had a report today that offered another idea:

The concept of Correa at 2B instantly leads to thoughts of “if he has a serious ankle injury he is returning from, wouldn’t playing 2B make him more vulnerable to another injury” immediately after the thought of “but Correa has never played 2B before”. While the first listed thought would seem to be true, the second one is definitely true.

Carlos Correa has never played 2B. He’s never played on the right side of the infield.

On recent editions of AREA45 on 95.7 The Fan, I have hypothesized of Carlos Correa potentially playing 1B after this season, with the Astros moving on from Christian Walker. While Correa would make a great target at 1B standing 6’3”, Correa is notably superior defender at 3B than Isaac Paredes, who does have experience playing 1B. Paredes stands 5’11”, the same height as Walker.

The idea of Correa playing 2B would require Yordan Alvarez to be the everyday LF and Jose Altuve to become the team’s regular DH.

While it may not be tenable for a full season, it could certainly be a working plan for the final week of the season and the playoffs.

Jose Altuve is having a career-worst season both offensively and defensively. Altuve is a -11 OAA (Outs Above Average). For comparison, last season Altuve was a 0 OAA, making him league average. -11 OAA grades Altuve as the worst defensive 2B in MLB. It is a sharp fall defensively for the Astros aging icon.

Correa’s athleticism should allow him to play the position well, but an occasional misplay by being out of position should be expected for playing someplace he has never played before.