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Alex Bregman walked off the field Sunday, Sept. 20 with a towel pressed to his face and blood running down his cheek. The Chicago Cubs third baseman was hit in the face by a foul ball as he waited in the on-deck circle in the top of the fourth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball park.

Bregman was taken to a local hospital for further testing after the scare in Cincinnati. After the 9-1 win, Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters the ball hit Bregman in the cheekbone, which is swollen, and left a cut on his face. Bregman was evaluated for broken bones.

It happed with two outs and the Cubs leading 5-0. Michael Busch checked his swing on a 1-2 pitch from Reds right-hander Luis Mey, and the ball ricocheted toward Bregman. He dropped to the ground immediately, clutching his face, then got up and walked to the clubhouse under his own power. There was no official diagnosis.

Alex Bregman was hit in the face by a foul ball off the bat of Michael Busch while on deck in the 4th inning. Matt Shaw came in to PH.

We wish Alex a speedy recovery 🙏 pic.twitter.com/4uqCRQvHwE

— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) September 20, 2026

Bregman heating up

Before the injury, Bregman had done damage to the Reds. He drove in a run with a first-inning single, then walked and scored in the Cubs' four-run third inning.

The 32-year-old is hitting .260 with 26 home runs, 88 RBIs and an .801 OPS this season. He signed a five-year, $175 million contract with Chicago last winter. The three-time All-Star won two World Series with the Astros.

On the board early courtesy, of Alex Bregman! pic.twitter.com/oSIvSWvve8

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 20, 2026

What's next for Bregman and the Cubs

The timing is the problem for Bregman and the Cubs. Chicago is on the verge of clinching a playoff berth, needing just one win or an Arizona Diamondbacks loss to lock in wild card spot. If Bregman needs time away, the Cubs have Matt Shaw and Pedro Ramirez to fill in at third base. Neither has Bregman's experience in a playoff race.

Any fracture would change the outlook considerably. Facial fractures around the cheek bone or eye socket can sideline a player for weeks, and a hitter usually has to be cleared before he can face live pitching again.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cubs' Alex Bregman hospitalized after getting hit in face with foul ball

Mariners 2, Rockies 1

Italian food: Kade Anderson, +0.51 WPA, Dominic Canzone
Italian food discourse: The rest of the lineup, -0.48 WPA

Game Thread Comment of the Day

Jays 7 Rangers 2

Bullpen days seem dependent on how the ‘bulk guy’ does. Someone has to do more than a inning, they aren’t going to run 9 guys out there, doing an inning each. Long men tend to (how to put it politely?) not be the best arms. If they were good, they would be starters.

Today we got two guys that went more than an inning:

• Spencer Miles ‘opened’ and went three innings without giving up a run, with four strikeouts. They seem to have given up on the idea of managing his innings, and we won’t know if that is a bad idea until later, but he’s been terrific.
• Spencer Arrighetti threw 2.1 innings. He did give up a couple of runs (on a Jake Burger home run, Brett Bateman almost pulled it back into the park) but those things are going to happen. It was Burger’s 27th home run, so he’s hit them off a lot of pitchers.

After that it was short guys:

• Mason Fluharty gave up a hit and a walk, while just getting one out in the sixth.
• Paul Sewald got the last out of the sixth.
• José Rodríguez, pitching in his second MLB game, threw the seventh. He gave up a single and had a strikeout.
• Tyler Rogers got the eighth give up just a single in the eighth.
• Louis Varland pitched the ninth, even with the big lead. Course he hasn’t pitched in a few days, might as well use him.

Offensively, we got everyone involved. We scored:

• One in the first: Brett Bateman started the game with a walk. Vladimir Guerrero singled him to third. Nathan Lukes brought him home on a sac fly.
• One in the third: Lukes had a one out single. An out later, Sean Keys doubled him home.
• One in the fifth: Bateman again started the inning with a walk. Myles Straw singled. Keys walked to load the bases.
• Four in the seventh: Bateman started this one with a double. Straw walked. Lukes singled in one (Lukes was asked to bunt, failed twice and then singles. Bunts are stupid). Charles McAdoo doubled in two more. Andrés Giménez singled in the seventh run (108.4 mph line drive).

The team had 11 hits. 10 different Jays hit, with Lukes being the only one with two hits.

It wasn’t all good news. Vlad came out of the game with back tightness (after getting a single).

And before the game, we were told that Dylan Cease is being shut down with a tired arm. They are saying it is possible that he could start at the end of the season, if he recovers quickly, but it seems unlikely that the last couple of games will mean anything.

Jays of the Day: Miles (0.16 WPA), Keys (0.14), Bateman (0.13) and Sewald (0.09).

Other Award: Arrighetti (-0.09) and Clement (-0.08).

Tomorrow the Jays start their last road series of the season vs the Orioles. Six games left. They still vaguely have a chance, but just seeing some good ball before the long cold lonely winter (as George Harrison said).

The Texas Rangers scored two runs but the Toronto Blue Jays scored seven runs.

After winning several games where it appeared as though the Rangers weren’t exactly the favorites, today The Shed dwellers had the opportunity to sweep Toronto with their remaining best pitcher Jacob deGrom on the mound versus a bullpen game for the Blue Jays.

This felt like one that the Rangers should have taken to further grab hold of their season with just a week remaining. The magnetic pull of .500 baseball is simply too strong for this squad, however. deGrom was nowhere close to his best, unfortunately. deGrom believes in his club but doesn’t deGrom’s groin or hip or leg or whatever believe in him?

This Rangers team in particular seems to be quite momentum dependent, which means an early lead feels like a requirement for them to have a good day. Maybe Chris Young put together a big group of sulkers, I don’t know. deGrom has been pretty poor at helping them facilitate that this season as he’s been prone to allowing first inning runs.

Indeed, it was 1-0 Blue Jays after the first inning today as deGrom walked the leadoff man who eventually scored the game’s first run on a sac fly. It became 2-0 Jays in the top of the third when deGrom allowed a two-out RBI double to some fella 20 games into his career sporting a .196 batting average.

After the Rangers showed a little life and tied the game in the bottom of the fourth, deGrom came back out and walked the leadoff hitter again and after a couple singles, including one that put Toronto ahead, Skip Schumaker had seen enough which meant another long day for the bullpen.

deGrom finished what is likely his penultimate start of the regular season going 4 1/3 innings on 82 pitches while allowing three runs on five hits with four walks and just two strikeouts. While that’s not good enough for a guy you were hoping could stabilize the staff after cobbling together innings all week, it’s clear that deGrom is also among those who are hobbled. It’s all cobble and hobble right now instead of full speed ahead for the sudden AL West leaders.

Though the Rangers got a couple of big double plays to wiggle out of danger to keep the game close over the next few innings, and even saw a couple of rallies die without tying the score, eventually the dam broke for a bullpen that will be especially glad to see a day off scheduled for tomorrow.

Though still just a 3-2 game into the seventh inning, two of the more trusted arms for Texas — Tyler Alexander and Chase Silseth — combined to allow four Blue Jays runs in the top of the frame and that was that. It’s worth noting also that even if deGrom had been better and put together are lengthier, more deGrom-expected outing, the Rangers also only scored two runs and those two runs came on one swing of the bat.

There was plenty of failure to go around.

Anyhow, here’s the good news: The Astros were swept by the Atlanta Braves so the Rangers retain their lead in the American League West by a single game. Still, it feels like they missed a big chance at adding to that lead and making their route to the playoffs a little more feasible with a dud in today’s finale.

Then again, it was either padding to their scant lead or being .500 again so we knew where this was headed.

Player of the Game: Jake Burger hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth inning that had tied the game before Toronto broke down deGrom and the Texas bullpen and sank the Rangers’ shot at sweeping an AL East squad for a second time on this homestand.

Up Next: The Rangers will take their final scheduled rest day of the 2026 season before beginning their final home series of the regular season on Tuesday night against the National League’s New York Mets.

PHOENIX – Trent Grisham could be on the Yankees’ playoff roster, but he almost certainly will not play in a regular-season game before then.

The Yankees are not planning to activate Grisham off the injured list during the final week of the regular season, partly because he still has boxes to check off in his return from a hamstring strain and partly because of complications in how they construct their playoff roster.

“I know he’s trending to be close, but the activation might be a little complicated,” manager Aaron Boone said Sunday morning at Chase Field.

The issue is that if the Yankees activate Grisham during the regular season, they would either have to option a player to Triple-A or designate someone for assignment to clear a spot on the active roster.

Optioning a player would make them ineligible to be recalled for 10 days (or 15 for a pitcher), meaning the Yankees would not have access to them for the AL wild-card series and potentially the ALDS.

Max Schuemann is expected to be sent back to Triple-A to make room for Jazz Chisholm Jr., who could come off the IL as early as Tuesday, but clearing another spot gets more difficult if everyone stays healthy.

The question then becomes whether the Yankees want to have Grisham on their playoff roster fresh off missing three-plus weeks on the IL, coming back to an uncertain role.

Spencer Jones has taken over center field duties in his absence and hit well (even with some hiccups defensively), especially against left-handers.

With Aaron Judge trending toward missing the wild-card series, Heliot Ramos figures to start in right field against the Red Sox’ left-handers. Could Grisham start in center field against a righty like Sonny Gray, with Jones moving to right field, or be a left-handed pinch-hitting option off the bench?

Before the Yankees have to make that decision, Grisham needs to finish off his running progression to be cleared physically.

“He’s been doing quite a bit,” Boone said. “He’s pretty deep into his running progression, hitting and doing baseball activities. So he’s getting pretty close.”

I’ve written virtually every Sunday gamethread this year as some variation of, “hey, the Sox have a chance to win this series! That would be pretty cool!”

As the meme goes…

I love the competition of the race, but I’m also kind of sick of it, simply from inexperience. I can’t be the only one who bit their nails to the nub with every pitch of that Cleveland series thinking to myself that I truly couldn’t remember the last time White Sox baseball made me that nervous. I love it, but I also forgot the unmistakably unique type of crushing that comes from being on the wrong side of “Team A gets cold and Team B gets hot at the most important point in the season.”

As I wrote last week with regards to the Sox pitching, I’m comfortable with dancing with who brought us here, which in this case is Davis Martin, who’s looked quite solid since his August IL stint. The length that we were getting from him earlier in the season isn’t there, but he’s still allowed just three earned runs in 16 innings since his return. Every game is a must-win at this point, and I suspect that if the White Sox can pull through, it’s going to be because Sean Burke and Martin nutted up when it counted, as they did for so much of this season.

A.J. Hinch isn’t exactly putting a Murderer’s Row out there, especially with another game tomorrow. If the Davis Martin Hype Train is once again picking up steam, this shouldn’t be too much of an impediment to what could be his first quality start since June.

That last quality start of Martin’s also came against a pre-deadline Detroit lineup that still had designs on the playoffs. The Sox will also have the potential advantage of seeing starter Troy Melton for the second time in a month or so, after dinging him around a fair amount back in August to end his Cinderella start to the season.

Time to take care of business. If they can’t, it’ll be hard to argue that they deserve to keep playing beyond this coming week.

First pitch was scheduled for 1:10 p.m. CT, but has been indefinitely delayed due to rain doing rain things. Whenever it does get going, it’ll be broadcast on CHSN with Len Kasper and Darrin Jackson on the call over the radio waves on WMVP AM 1000. See you in the comments!

I’ve written virtually every Sunday gamethread this year as some variation of, “hey, the Sox have a chance to win this series! That would be pretty cool!”

As the meme goes…

I love the competition of the race, but I’m also kind of sick of it, simply from inexperience. I can’t be the only one who bit their nails to the nub with every pitch of that Cleveland series thinking to myself that I truly couldn’t remember the last time White Sox baseball made me that nervous. I love it, but I also forgot the unmistakably unique type of crushing that comes from being on the wrong side of “Team A gets cold and Team B gets hot at the most important point in the season.”

As I wrote last week with regards to the Sox pitching, I’m comfortable with dancing with who brought us here, which in this case is Davis Martin, who’s looked quite solid since his August IL stint. The length that we were getting from him earlier in the season isn’t there, but he’s still allowed just three earned runs in 16 innings since his return. Every game is a must-win at this point, and I suspect that if the White Sox can pull through, it’s going to be because Sean Burke and Martin nutted up when it counted, as they did for so much of this season.

A.J. Hinch isn’t exactly putting a Murderer’s Row out there, especially with another game tomorrow. If the Davis Martin Hype Train is once again picking up steam, this shouldn’t be too much of an impediment to what could be his first quality start since June.

That last quality start of Martin’s also came against a pre-deadline Detroit lineup that still had designs on the playoffs. The Sox will also have the potential advantage of seeing starter Troy Melton for the second time in a month or so, after dinging him around a fair amount back in August to end his Cinderella start to the season.

Time to take care of business. If they can’t, it’ll be hard to argue that they deserve to keep playing beyond this coming week.

First pitch was scheduled for 1:10 p.m. CT, but has been indefinitely delayed due to rain doing rain things. Whenever it does get going, it’ll be broadcast on CHSN with Len Kasper and Darrin Jackson on the call over the radio waves on WMVP AM 1000. See you in the comments!

Earlier this month, Shohei Ohtani was ruled out from pitching again this season.

But on Sunday, a pitcher from his high school alma mater scaled the mound at Dodger Stadium.

Yuuri Teramoto, a first-year student at Hanamaki Higashi High School, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Dodgers’ series finale against the San Francisco Giants. Teramoto plays on Hanamaki Higashi’s girls baseball team.

Teramoto was one of 50 high school students chosen by Iwate prefecture to visit the United States as part of an exchange program. This is the 150th anniversary of Iwate’s founding, as well as the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Teramoto’s first pitch was caught by Iwate native Roki Sasaki, who is from the coastal town of Rikuzentakata and lost his father in the tsunami.

Teramoto is from the southern island of Kumamoto but said she was in part inspired by Ohtani to attend high school in Iwate, which is on the northern part of Japan’s mainland.

“He’s someone I admire,” Teramoto said in Japanese. 

Like Ohtani, she added, “My dream in the future is to go to the United States.”

Hanamaki Higashi is also the high school alma mater of Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi and Miami Marlins prospect Rintaro Sasaki.

Teramoto said her team practices using a pitching machine donated by Ohtani.

“We used the machine every day and we’re very grateful,” she said.

Among the homegrown arms in the Mets rotation, Jonah Tong still has the most to prove.

Flashes of dominance have emerged from the 23-year-old rookie, but consistency is lacking. This was evident again Sunday, when the right-hander fell into an early hole, and his team never recovered in a 7-2 loss to the Phillies at Citi Field.

“I think I need to do a better job,” said Tong, who allowed two runs in the opening frame. “Especially, that first inning set the tone, but I feel like I competed well through it. But my job is to limit the damage and go out there and keep competing.”

Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and Zac Thornton have all performed at a high enough level to begin next season in the rotation. The wild card is Tong, who has pitched to a 4.21 ERA in six appearances this season. In three starts since his recall this month from Triple-A Syracuse, he’s pitched to a 4.60 ERA.

On Sunday, he allowed four earned runs on five hits and four walks over 4 ²/₃ innings, departing after 95 pitches. It followed a start against the Orioles in which he did not surrender an earned run over six innings.

“I don’t think he was far off today,” interim manager Andy Green said. “The changeup has been really good for him since he’s been up. He’s got a lot of strikeouts with it. … Even if he doesn’t have the greatest feel for that, we have got to find a way to reintroduce that and keep that a part of the mix. That pitch is very important for him.”

Green was asked about Tong’s chances of cracking the rotation to begin next season.

“He definitely has a chance,” Green said. “I think we have kind of painted the landscape for a lot of young guys that [the front office] is likely to go sign some people. We’ll have a lot of guys who have established themselves at that point in time, so the chance is heightened if he pitches really well, if his stuff gets better, if the strikes are there. I think all those things are possible for Jonah.”

The Mets, who split the four-game series, completed their 2026 home schedule at 36-45. They will play at Texas and Washington this week, with six games to conclude the season.

Tong walked Kyle Schwarber in the first inning and watched the Phillies DH score the first run on Luis Arraez’s sacrifice fly. Alec Bohm’s RBI single widened the Mets deficit to 2-0. Bryce Harper also singled in the inning.

Trea Turner’s RBI double in the third inning extended the Phillies lead to 3-0 after Schwarber walked leading off. Arraez’s RBI single gave the Phillies their fourth run.

“Some credit to Schwarber’s two walks,” Green said. “They weren’t walks where the pitcher has lost it. They are battle walks where he fouled off a number of pitches. The first and third [innings] started that way, and that’s where the runs came.”

The Mets were overmatched by Cristopher Sánchez, a National League Cy Young Award candidate who allowed two earned runs on six hits over 6 ¹/₃ innings with six strikeouts. Sánchez began the day with a 7.5 bWAR this season — the highest among all pitchers.

Bo Bichette homered in the sixth for the first run against Sánchez. Brett Baty delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in the seventh that sliced the Phillies lead to 4-2.

Kodai Senga allowed three runs in the eighth and was removed after recording only one out. The right-hander’s appearance was his first since Tuesday, when he surrendered Pete Alonso’s 300th career homer — a game-tying blast in the ninth inning.

With a chance to secure the division title, the Braves had a challenging pitching matchup, with Martin Perez on the mound vs Hunter Brown and the Astros.

Baserunners were scattered early, with a Baldwin walk leading off the game and an additional error in the top of the first, followed by three soft singles in a scoreless home frame. The scattered baserunners continued with no runs until Jose Altuve drew first blood with a solo homer in the 4th inning.

Ronald Acuna created a chance for the Braves in the fifth that Olson was unable to convert and the Astros came right back with two singles and a walk against Perez to load the bases with one out. Unfortunately, that was the end of Martin’s outing, as Victor Mederos entered the game and escaped with a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning. A walk from Harris and a very fortunate double from Dubon gave the Braves a huge chance to make good on Mederos’ good work with men on second and third with no outs in the sixth. Ozzie made good on that threat with an RBI single, before Mike Yastrzemski broke things open with a three-run homer.

Next out of the bullpen for Atlanta was one AJ Smith-Shawver and he looked quite good. AJ touched 100 on the radar gun and struck out two Astros in a 1-2-3 frame. He got the seventh and once again recorded two strikeouts in a scoreless frame, this time working around a ground ball single. An effective Smith-Shawver out of the bullpen would be a nice addition to the Braves’ bullpen, especially as a multi-inning option, as they only have two real playoff starters.

Ray Kerr entered the game in the eighth and allowed a shallow homer but otherwise kept the Astros off the board with one strikeout and two groundouts. Dylan Dodd got the ninth with no further run support and a 4-2 lead.

If you’re a St. Louis Cardinals fan, you’re going to miss this no matter if you’re willing to admit it today or not. The final home game of the season wrapped up Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium and in a few weeks, many of us will long for the days when there was the potential for a Cardinals game to hang out at. Quinn Mathews gave the home fans a great start to the game and Herrera and Wetherholt provided some offensive support, too. However, baseball games are 9 innings and not 5 which has been a problem for St. Louis the second half of this season. This time, though, there would be offensive heroes later in the game to save the day.

While Quinn Mathews was flashing the pearls on the mound, the St. Louis Cardinals bats didn’t wait until the late innings to score for a change. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Iván Herrera did something he hasn’t done much of since the All-Star break. He turned on a 93 mph four-seam fastball from Nationals starter Irvin and sent it flying 375 feet barely above the left field wall for a 1-0 St. Louis Cardinals lead.

The Washington Nationals would play some small ball in the top of the 2nd inning as Lile and Ford hit back-to-back one out singles giving Washington runners at first and third with just one out. Lile scored when Young hit a sacrifice fly to center tying the game at 1-1.

The Cardinals were given a gift that resulted in getting the lead back in the bottom of the 3rd inning when José Fermín led off with a double. After Nathan Church popped out, Fermín would advance to third on a wild pitch from Irvin with JJ Wetherholt at the plate. JJ would follow that with a solid single to right-center scoring Fermín and giving the Cardinals a 2-1 lead.

If each of us had a nickel when a Cardinals game has gone south in the 5th or 6th inning this season, well we’d all have a lot of nickels and one would be added to that jar Sunday afternoon. After Quinn Mathews had a very efficient first 5 innings, the 6th would jump up and bite him. He gave up a leadoff single to House. JJ Abrams of the Nationals made that hurt when he turned on an 84 mph Mathews slider and blasted it 397 feet into the right field stands for a 3-2 Washington lead. It could have been worse if not for the rifle disguised as a throwing arm on Jordan Walker. Lile ripped a double into the right field corner that he tried to turn into a triple. Big mistake as Jordan Walker nailed him at third base for the second out of the inning.

The St. Louis Cardinals would not have another runner in scoring position after the 3rd inning until the bottom of the 7th inning when Leo Bernal drew a leadoff walk. Three batters later, he was advanced to second on a single from Fermín giving St. Louis runners at first and second with two outs. Unfortunately, Nathan Church flew out for the final out of the inning with no runs scored.

Manager Oli Marmol chose Luis Gastelum to handle the top of the 8th inning after Quinn Mathews completed 7 full innings for the Cardinals. Quinn gave up 7 hits, 3 earned runs while striking out 3 and walking 2. Gastelum had no problem taking care of the Nationals in the 8th shutting them down with a flyout and two strikeouts.

The Cardinals would pull even in the bottom of the 8th inning. It was Iván Herrera again who would catch up to a 97 mph four-seam fastball jolting it 439 feet over the left field fence tying the game 3-3.

After the Nationals walked Jordan Walker, Leo Bernal made them pay with as he took the 7th pitch he saw from Washington reliever Tolman and launched it 424 feet into the right field seats for a 5-3 Cardinals lead! Welcome to the emerging new St. Louis Cardinals core, Leo Bernal!

Riley O’Brien came in to try and lock down the home finale in the top of the 9th inning and he was assisted by defensive replacement Victor Scott II in left field who made a diving grab on a line drive off the bat of Crews for the first out. Riley then got Lile to pop out to short for the second out. Ruiz grounded out for the last out of the game in a no-drama (for once) 9th inning for St. Louis.

Just 6 games to go for the St. Louis Cardinals this season. Tuesday night, it’s the beginning of a 3-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Andre Pallante will get the start for the Cardinals while the Pirates will give the ball RHP Jared Jones. First pitch at PNC Park in Pittsburgh is scheduled for 5:40pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.

Another day at the office, another pitiful performance by the Kansas City Royals. For the third straight game, the bullpen coughed up a late lead and they were defeated, this time 4-3 by the Pirates.

Michael Wacha did everything he could, going 5.2 innings, allowing 4 hits, 2 runs, walking 4 and striking out 5, he also threw 113 pitches.

The Royals jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, Bobby Witt Jr. and Jac Caglianone hit back-to-back one out singles, to make it 1st and 3rd for Salvador Perez. The Captain came through, singling to center, making it 1-0 in the top of the first.

Oneil Cruz led off the bottom of the 4th, with a solo homer to tie the game at 1. Wacha got two quick outs in the bottom of the 6th, but a pair of back-to-back walks doomed him, as Spencer Horwitz blooped a go-ahead single making it 2-1.

In the top of the 7th, John Rave bunt singled to 3rd, and scored on Vinnie Pasquantino’s pinch hit go-ahead two run homer. 3-2 KC.

Nate Pearson got the bottom of the 8th for the Royals, allowing a leadoff single to Ryan O’Hearn, then Rafael Flores Jr. hit a long go-ahead two-run homer for the Pirates making it 4-3.

With two outs in the top of the 9th, Luke Maile hit a double off the wall in right, going to third on a fielding error by Jake Mangum. Isaac Collins pinch hit for Kyle Isbel and of course weakly flew out to right field and the Royals lost again.

The Royals finish their final road trip of the season, 2-7 and 28-53 on the road this season and are 67-89 on the season overall. They are off tomorrow before playing the White Sox and Guardians next week at home to end their season.