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There is no doubt that 2026 has been a disappointing year for Colorado Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar. After injuries hindered him in 2025 and he put together a strong perfromance with Team Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, hopes were high that Tovar could return to form and propel the Rockies offense.

Unfortunately, he’s mostly done the opposite this season.

You’ll be able to read an in-depth review of his season in the Ranking the Rockies series (which starts next week, by the way). However, as the season winds down, it’s worth noting and exploring the fact that Tovar has actually been better at the plate since the start of August.

Since August 1, Tovar has slashed .279/.325/.404 with 29 total hits, including four doubles and three home runs. In September alone, he is batting .297/.333/.405, going 11-for-37 with a double and a home run along with 10 runs scored. The performance over the last 40 games as been a major improvement for a player who couldn’t seem to buy a hit at times this season, let alone make contact.

So what’s leading to some success lately?

The plate discipline

Tovar entered August with a 25.8% strikeout rate alongisde a .196 batting average and .243 on-base percentage. The 72.3% first-pitch strike rate he carried was the highest in the sport while his 16.3% swinging strike rate was the sixth-highest. Now, a high swinging strike rate isn’t bad if you are coupling that with some predigous power, considering Tovar was behind the likes of Hunter Goodman, Brandon Lowe, and Colson Montgomery.

It becomes a problem when he had the highest swing-rate in baseball at 61.5% but a 73.4% contact rate which ranked 115th in baseball. He also had the third-highest swing rate on pitches outside of the zone along with the highest swing rate on pitches inside the zone, but wasn’t particularly good at making contact with either location.

Things have looked much different in terms swing rate and contact since the start of August. Since August 1, Tovar boasts a first-pitch strike rate of 59.1% which ranks 260th among all players with at least 50 plate appearances. He still swings a fair amount at 57.7% of the time, but he’s down to 12th in that department and has been swinging at pitches out of the zone far less at rate of 39.8% which ranks 29th.

The biggest improvement over the last two months is that Tovar is simply making much more contact, especially on pitches in the strike zone. He has improved his contact rate in the zone to 86.9%, four points higher than it was before August, while lower his contact on pitches outside of the zone.

He may still be striking out 25% of the time, but the slight uptick in walks from 5.6% to 7.0% as a result of his slightly tempered plate aggression is huge for a player like Tovar. He’s never going to be one to draw a lot of walks, but his over aggression on pitches has always been his weakness. There are still issues, but he’s finally making the right adjustments to get back to what he can do well.

Batted balls

With the improved contact, Tovar has been doing something he’s struggled with the majority of the season: hitting the fastball.

Before August, the highest batting average he had against fastballs was a .241 AVG in May. Otherwise, he was hitting below .200, bottoming out at .075 in June. However, the fastball has been handeled nicely over the last seven weeks.

In August, Tovar hit .290 against fastballs and has exploded in September with a .368 AVG. He has still whiffed around 25% of the time, but he is managing to do more against fastballs while seeing them 55% of the time. As a result of catching up to the fastball better, opposing pitchers have increased the usage of offspeed pitches against him.

In the first few months of the season, offspeed pitches came in a little under 10% of the time month-to-month. However, they jumped up to 12% in August and 18.4% in September. He hit over .300 in August but has come back down to a .143 AVG in September has the slower pitches. Breaking pitches will always be Tovar’s bane, especially down and away with two strikes, but the improvement of forcing pitchers to think more because he is timing up the fastball makes it more likely for mistakes to happen that he can take advantage of.

As for when the balls are put in play, there hasn’t been much difference in terms of groundballs, line drives, and fly balls, but there has been some improvement in finding the barrel. Before August, he has a barrel rate of 6.3% but since then has a 7.7% rate which complements his 33% hard hit rate a bit better. There is still room for improvement, but his ability to have more hard-hit line drives off the barrel is generally a good thing. Hopefully, that can then lead to more consistent power in the future. After all, he has now hit double-digit home runs in three of his four full seasons.

Work in progress

There is plenty of work to do for Tovar to get back to the heights of that 2024 season. He’s been in the depths these last two seasons and so getting back to a baseline to build off of is a positive sign. If he can finish the season strong with his current level of play, perhaps he can find the next gear in 2027 to prove he is worthy of his contract and continuing to stick around as a key component for this team.

Ideally, Tovar can find his power again and start collecting extra-base hits and driving in runs. The injuries of 2025 may have taken a toll, something that is hard to recover from, but there is still a quality player in Tovar. If these final two months have been any indication, that player can still contribute in meaningful ways, even if he isn’t the driving force the team had hoped for.

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The glaring Ryan McMahon playoff problem has the Yankees set to once again expand Anthony Volpe’s defensive repertoire.

Volpe, now at second base after transitioning from shortstop, will “probably” play third base in the team’s final five games, Yankees manager Aaron Boone told Talkin’ Yanks.

The team is not planning to do so with Jazz Chisholm, although Boone caveated that statement with a “we’ll see” during his usual midweek interview with the podcast.

The Yankees have six days before they likely welcome the Red Sox — or the AL Central runner-up — to The Bronx for a second straight AL wild-card series and they will use this time to figure out roster construction.

Boone said after the Rays clinched the AL East on Tuesday in the nightcap of the doubleheader that he would consider experimenting with players at certain positions.

The glaring roster question centers on third base.

McMahon has become virtually unplayable due to his shaky defense as of late and horrific offense.

The veteran is hitting just .143 in 15 games since returning from the injured list, going 6-for-42 with one extra-base hit and a .217 on-base percentage.

Against a Boston team filled with lefties, McMahon, who owns a .518 OPS against southpaws this year, becomes an easy fade.

The question is where the Yankees would turn and they have Amed Rosario and Jose Caballero as potential options, although there are flaws with both.

Rosario is a bad defender this year and has not hit lefties like usual, with just a .599 OPS, and Caballero can be rather streaky offensively.

Volpe has tallied just a .695 OPS in 11 games since being recalled, which doesn’t scream must-start, but his righty bat could be needed against potential southpaws.

He also has handled second base rather well since shifting to the position earlier this month with rookie George Lombard Jr. handling shortstop.

Boone added that Lombard will remain at shortstop amid these possible changes.

The complicating factor about Volpe’s postseason role is whether the Yankees trust Chisholm — who is slashing .221/.268/.386 versus lefties — against a southpaw in a three-game series.

If Chisholm is starting, the only other starting route would be third base.

Seeing how Volpe can handle third base opens up the possibility of starting at the hot corner — although that would appear a long shot since he would have, at most, five major-league games at the position before the postseason starts — or potentially entering or shifting in the late innings.

Volpe being able to handle the position could allow the Yankees to optimize their roster in a better fashion in the late innings, with one potential example being a game in which Rosario starts.

Justin Verlander and Kate Upton have been an iconic celebrity couple for years, and one of their funniest moments came after Verlander narrowly lost the 2016 AL Cy Young race.

Nearly 10 years later, Upton’s reaction to her then-fiancée’s loss remains memorable.

“Hey @MLB I thought I was the only person allowed to f–k @JustinVerlander ?! What 2 writers didn’t have him on their ballot?” Upton wrote after Verlander lost to Rick Porcello by five points.

Dodgers star Mookie Betts hosted Verlander on his podcast recenlty as the star pitcher heads toward retirement at the end of the season, and asked about Verlander’s reaction to Upton’s NSFW tweet.

“I was doing MLB Network, they had the three finalists on the air, and as soon as it came out, she was firing,” Verlander said on the “On Base with Mookie Betts” podcast.

“And so we finished the interview and I go down, and she’s like, ‘You’re not going to like it.’ And sure enough, she had fired off a bunch of stuff, and she had another one preloaded, ready to go.

“And I’m like, ‘Kate, stop!’” he added.

Porcello beat Verlander — then with the Tigers and now also finishing his career with Detroit — for his first and only career Cy Young award 137-132.

The five-point difference was the second-closest of any election since voters could add multiple pitchers to a ballot beginning in 1970.

Verlander was not listed on two ballots, but received more first-place votes than Porcello.

As Verlander noted, Upton’s rant didn’t stop with the first tweet.

“He had the majority of 1st place votes and 2 writers didn’t have him on their ballots?!! Can you pick more out of touch people to vote? @MLB,” read the next tweet.

“Sorry Rick but you didn’t get any 1st place votes? You didn’t win. #ByeFelicia @MLB keep up with the times and fire those writers,” she continued.

Verlander is set to make the final start of his career Saturday at home vs. Pittsburgh.

We have two games today, hopefully. Though it seems like it is cold in Baltimore but not raining. Well, cool, not cold.

Game one is at 1:30 Eastern. Max Scherzer (game #500 for Max, and I’d imagine last) and Chris Bassitt are the starters. The losing team will be eliminated from the playoffs. If they split the two games both will be elminated.

Game two is at 6:30 Eastern. Both teams list TBD. Odds are the rest of the season will be TBD. Likely which ever arms are still connected to bodies after game one.

The lineups for game one. No Kirk or Vlad. The Jays are saying that Brett Bateman had another MRI and nothing structural is damaged. He might play again this season (but really I don’t see the point).

The Jays have CJ Van Eyk, John Klein and Chase Lee are in Baltimore. Yohendrick Pinango is also in Baltimore. They get an extra roster spot. I don’t know that all four will be active for game one. I’d imagine some will be added for game two.

Wins would be nice.

The Mets are close to hiring Derek Falvey in a front office role, reports SNY MLB Insider Chelsea Janes.

Michael Marino was first to note the possibility of the Mets bringing Falvey on.

Falvey, 43, worked for the Twins from 2017 until January 2026, when the sides mutually parted ways.

During his time with Minnesota, Falvey -- who has a background in scouting -- served as the executive vice president and chief baseball officer. 

Prior to joining the Twins, Falvey worked the then-Cleveland Indians from 2008 to 2016, when he overlapped with current Mets head of baseball operationsDavid Stearns(who worked in Cleveland from 2011 to 2012).

Speaking in the SNY broadcast booth during this past Saturday's game, Mets ownerSteve Cohen said that the plan was to make some additions to the front office.

"We’re going to try to add certain voices into the front office that I think will be helpful and I know David supports that," Cohen explained. "And I’m looking forward to, when we make those decisions, to announce them."

Cohen added: 

"It doesn’t have to be a GM. It could be other ways to support David and the front office, and I think the whole point is to get more opinions in the front office and people who are either pretty good at evaluating talent or people who have been in those positions before in the front office – in high positions – and help David out and help the team out as far as getting a different point of view."

Diamondbacks News

Diamondbacks Pound Rockies, Gain Ground on Padres
Nolan Arenado continued his hot-hitting ways. Michael Soroka had another strong outing. The Diamondbacks cruised to a win, keeping pace with the Phillies and gaining ground on the Padres.

Cardinals Have Nothing to Regret from Arenado Trade
Despite Arenado’s strong 2026, the trade away from St. Louis still appears to have been very much the right move, not unlike when popular franchise cornerstone Paul Goldschmidt was rightly traded to them by Arizona. Both teams have benefitted fromboth those trades.

Other Baseball News

Full Final 2026 Grades for Each Team
For once, the Diamondbacks’ grade feels pretty fair at C+.

MLB Agent Survey Indicates Players Won’t Budge in Labour Fight
Well, that seems pretty silly. Both sides are going to have to budge at some point or the game never comes back.

How San Diego Has Become Flashpoint in MLB Labour Battle
At a time when Major League Baseball is attempting to upend its economic model by instituting a salary cap, the Padres have emerged as a beacon for players and union officials who believe a level playing field can exist without one.

How Good is the 2026-27 NPB Free Agent Class?
There are certainly some intriguing players expected to be posted should MLB avoid a lockout. However, it is unlikely Arizona would be in on any of them.

The MLB postseason is getting closer, and the list of October-bound teams continues to grow.

The Tampa Bay Rays locked up the American League East on Tuesday, Sept. 22, and with it secured home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs. They're one of several teams that have already punched their tickets to October, while a pair of AL division races and several wild-card battles remain unresolved.

Here's a look at every team that has clinched a playoff berth, plus the clubs closest to joining the 2026 MLB postseason field.

For a lot of the season, there has seemed to be only one obvious choice to end up as the Most Valuable Oriole. You never know if some voters will talk themselves into something silly to stop it from being unanimous. In 2026, it was so obvious that even those people got it right. Pete Alonso was announced ahead of Wednesday’s doubleheader as the Most Valuable Oriole for this season.

The only real downer about Alonso’s first season as an Oriole is the fact that so much of the roster around him was incapable for large stretches of the season of doing its part to make this a good Orioles team. Alonso’s 40 homers, .265/.359/.510 batting line, and 4.6 bWAR (hopefully with more to come over the last five games) were, in some sense, “wasted.” The team will probably be eliminated from postseason contention officially today.

That doesn’t take entirely away from the joy that Alonso has brought to the Orioles. He’s also brought better-than-advertised first base defense. If he doesn’t win a Gold Glove, that would be an egregious snub. He seems excited to be an Oriole in a way that comes along maybe once or twice in a decade, and his sign-off of every interview with “Let’s go O’s” is charming. We can all feel good about that contract going for four more years, at least for now.

The unanimous selection of Alonso marked the first time that the team had a unanimous winner since Cedric Mullins was the choice in 2021. That was the year that Mullins had the 30 home run/30 stolen base season for the Orioles, breaking out at the plate after giving up on being a switch hitter.

The Orioles do not announce the exact vote breakdown, or even who votes for this award. It is a mystery list of media and broadcasters who cover the team. Camden Chat is not included on that list. Ballots are submitted with a first place, second place, and third place, and the winner is tallied based on a points system. It’s easy when it’s unanimous for first place.

What the Orioles do announce is a list of players who did not win but also received votes. These guys were all on at least one voter’s ballot, in addition to the unanimous winner, Alonso: Blaze Alexander, Samuel Basallo, Shane Baz, Kyle Bradish, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Rico Garcia, Gunnar Henderson, Trevor Rogers, and Brandon Young.

Weird votes are typically a fixture of this opaque process. Last year was a bigger “weird vote” year – somebody actually voted for interim manager Tony Mansolino a year ago. Somebody else, or maybe the same person, voted for Dylan Carlson, who was a -0.7 bWAR player for the 2025 Orioles. Most of these guys on the 2026 list were at least good for part of the season and can be somewhat justified as choices. Nobody voted for Craig Albernaz or this year’s negative bWAR outfielders, Dylan Beavers and Leody Taveras.

In the case of Alexander and Encarnacion-Strand, they just didn’t get to play enough to demonstrate more value; their overall performance was good in the games that they played. Alexander missed a bunch of games due to getting bones broken by a hit by pitch. Encarnacion-Strand only arrived in the organization during the season. He might turn out to be a Ryan O’Hearn kind of late bloomer story, or he might turn out to be a Jeremiah Jackson kind of flash in the plan.

When it comes to guys like Bradish, Henderson, Rogers, and Mayo, they weren’t good for significant portions of the season, so their season numbers don’t look like anything special. You have to squint more for some than for others to see the case. Mayo is closing out the season with three excellent months. Henderson has been hitting well since about mid-August and has maintained value with solid shortstop defense – that’s not to say it’s flawless, but the good has outweighed the bad even in what is another disappointing year for him overall. For Bradish, I don’t know. It felt good when he got that contract extension.

For me, Alonso is at the top, followed by Young and Rogers. Young’s surprisingly-good season was probably the only thing that prevented the Orioles from being completely buried in May or June. The team is 19-8 in Young starts this year. Whoever voted for Baz clearly didn’t hold the team’s 10-21 record in his starts against him. Baz probably “deserves” like 15-16 in his starts.

After Alonso and Young, you can make the case for a lot of people as third place, and that’s reflected in the variety of names who also received votes. Rogers was not good in April and May but has looked like a fringe Cy Young candidate ever since. That picks up on last year, when he was a Cy Young-caliber pitcher in the 18 starts that he made. That’s why I’d pick him for the third place spot; Rogers was the MVO winner a year ago.

Somebody’s going to pay Rogers this offseason. I don’t have any hope that it will be the Orioles.

A Pod of Their Own and Home Run Applesauce are hosting their annual Dollars 4 Dingers fundraising event this Saturday, September 26 at the Lion’s Head Tavern. The event starts at 2:00 PM, and all proceeds go to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

For those unfamiliar with Dollars 4 Dingers, in the month of September, fans pledge a dollar amount per home run hit by the New York Mets, or any baseball team the donor chooses, with all of the proceeds going to the NDVH. Now in its eighth year, Dollars 4 Dingers has thus far raised over $77,000 heading into this month. This year, we’ve raised almost $6,000 thus far, and will raise even more this weekend with our annual raffle.

Saturday’s event acts as the unofficial close of the year’s fundraising, and we’ve got some amazin’ prizes for our raffle. If you missed a giveaway this season there will be several included as raffle prizes such as a Carlos Beltrán bobblehead, a Mr. Met Unisphere bobblehead, a Francisco Lindor WWE bobblehead, a Mets squishy dumpling, and a Mets’ K-Pop Demon Hunters jersey. For Seinfeld fans, there will be a Cosmo Kramer bobble and a “Nice Game Pretty Boy” t-shirt.

Art But Make It Sports and Athlete Logos were generous enough to donate some prizes as well. There will be a signed copy of Art But Make It Sports’s book and multiple Mets themed hats courtesy of Athlete Logos.

The Mets’ Double-A affiliate, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, put together amazing prizes for the fundraiser including signed balls from A.J. Ewing, Jefry Yan, Chris Suero, D’Andre Smith, and Jonathan Santucci.

And now for the grand prize (insert dramatic drum roll here). Courtesy of the Amazin’ Mets foundation, a Francisco Lindor signed ball!

The Lions Head has been a fantastic partner for us over the last two years, and this year will have drink specials all day, plus the Mets’ game on so that we can cheer on a meaningless game in a rough season. That shouldn’t deter you from coming, though! There will be delicious drinks, great prizes, and fellow Mets fans to hang out and commiserate with. Misery loves company, after all!

It’s also not too late to make a pledge this season. For every Mets home run hit in September you can pledge any amount of money. No amount is too small for the National Domestic Violence hotline.

We hope to see you all Saturday!

The legend starts with the name. Born Justin Louis Heath, now legally Joba Chamberlain, Joba actually was picked up and assigned to him by his father after a cousin struggled to say the name of a different relative. Chamberlain’s father was born on and grew up on the Winnebago Reservation, giving him access to the exclusive club of Indigenous major leaguers.

Justin Louis “Joba” Chamberlain
Born: September 23, 1985 (Lincoln, NE)
Yankees Tenure: 2007-2013

Growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska, Chamberlain had to work for everything he would eventually earn. After graduating high school, Chamberlain took a year off from school to work and save money for school. He then landed at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. After a dominant freshman year, Chamberlain transferred to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Chamberlain helped the Cornhuskers reach the 2005 College World Series.

Injuries limited Chamberlain in 2006 at Nebraska, but the Yankees still used their supplemental-round pick to select the right-hander 41st overall. Due to injuries, Chamberlain did not get any minor league experience that summer or early fall after being drafted. However, Chamberlain burst onto the scene and shot through the system in 2007.

The Yankees had Chamberlain start the 2007 season with High-A Tampa. After a month of dominating to the tune of a 4-0 record with a 2.03 ERA in seven starts, the Yankees promoted the youngster to Double-A Trenton. Chamberlain kept rolling and was selected to pitch in the Futures Game that summer. On July 20, 2007, Chamberlain made his final start in Double-A against the New Britain Rock Cats. I was actually sitting beside Reggie Jackson, who gave me the first bit of breaking news I ever received… despite giving up three home runs that day, the Yankees were calling the kid up to Scranton.

Chamberlain only needed three games and eight innings of Triple-A baseball before he got the call to the show and Joba Mania took hold of the Bronx. Upon reaching the big leagues, Chamberlain pitched 16 innings without allowing an earned run to begin his career, further fueling the craze. The organization wanted to protect their young blossoming star and created the now-infamous Joba Rules.

Designed by upper management and enacted by manager Joe Torre to prevent injuries, the rules prohibited Chamberlain from pitching on consecutive days, mandated an extra day of rest for every inning he pitched, and required two full days of rest if he threw two innings in an outing. These rules changed over the next few seasons as the team tried to transition him back from the pen to a starter. These rules would be no match for the banks of Lake Erie and the midges of the 2007 postseason.

After posting a 0.38 ERA in 24 innings, Chamberlain and the Yankees were ready for a playoff run in 2007. However, Chamberlain got coated in tiny flies and lost control of the ball. The Yankees lost the game and series, in what has to be one of the biggest what-if moments of modern Yankees baseball.

Chamberlain was built up during the 2008 spring training to be a starting pitcher. However, the club decided to use him in the bullpen to start the season. He had another dominant stretch, and the Yankees decided to transition Chamberlain mid-year into a starting role. He continued to roll until he suffered a rotator-cuff injury in early August, one that was partially attributed to a quick throw by catcher Iván Rodríguez. When Chamberlain returned at the end of the season, the Yankees were eliminated and kept him in the bullpen.

Entering 2009, the Yankees added CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, which gave the young Chamberlain two aces to pitch behind in the rotation. The season was up and down for Chamberlain, but as the innings started adding up, the Yankees brought back Joba Rules. This time, the rule was he could make one start every seven days, then changed back to regular usage but limiting outings to four innings per appearance. The team used Chamberlain out of the bullpen in the playoffs, en route to the 2009 championship.

The 2010 season would be the beginning of the end for Chamberlain in pinstripes. In spring training, he lost the last rotation spot to fellow former prospect Phil Hughes and found himself back in the bullpen. Then, during the 2011 season, Chamberlain found himself under the knife, undergoing Tommy John surgery in June. That injury and recovery was further complicated when he injured his ankle on a trampoline in January of 2012.

Injuries limited Chamberlain to just 22 appearances in 2012. Chamberlain could not catch a positive break, as after battling back, he again got hurt, this time suffering an elbow injury on a broken bat in Game 4 of the 2012 ALDS. The Yankees brought Chamberlain back in 2013 for what ended up being his final season as a Yankee.

Across seven seasons as a Yankee, Chamberlain in total struck out 446 batters across 444.2 innings, had a WHIP of 1.38, and an ERA of 3.85. Chamberlain later pitched for Detroit, Kansas City, and then ended his career down by the lake in Cleveland. Chamberlain announced his retirement on October 4, 2017. Since retiring, Chamberlain has occasionally appeared on television as a baseball analyst and hosts a podcast.

Happy birthday, Joba!

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

If you’ve been a long time follower of my work, you’ve seen me write many times from the perspective of glass half empty, glass half full. I particularly like to do it when you could justifiably look at a game and go either way with the information you got out of it. I thought Tuesday night was one of those games. As usual, your mileage may vary.

The glass is half empty. The Marlins won their 77th game Tuesday night. They are a full 10 games behind the Cubs. I doubt scores are much of a spoiler this time of the year, but all three Wild Card teams finished Tuesday in a three-way tie. So the Marlins are then 10 games out of a playoff spot. If they swept their last five games (it would be very bad news for the Cubs) they would end up with 82 wins. Just better than .500. They are improved, but they are at least one tier removed from the caliber of playoff teams. Struggling to score runs, needing an unearned run to end up with two runs in 12 innings, eventually losing to the Marlins, it’s all not great.

The middle of the road pitching staff Marlins stifled your offense, not for nine innings but 12? Obviously, Alex Bregman was out. Get well soon Alex! The good news with him is that he does appear to have missed all of the worst outcomes. But it still remains to be seen if his field of vision is clear enough for the fine skills necessary for playing baseball. Without him in the lineup we saw something we haven’t seen a ton of. That is, Pete Crow-Armstrong getting intentionally walked. Between his speed and the lineup support he has, that hasn’t been a readily deployed strategy even as he skyrockets to the top of nearly top of seemingly every offensive category.

This game was a real drag. After tying this game, the Cubs had opportunity after opportunity to win it and just could not come up with the combination of plays to make it happen. The bullpen was so good for so long. But ultimately, the collective bullpen ends up with lousy collective numbers. In the end, the Cub bullpen worked seven innings and allowed seven runs, six of them earned. That’s brutal. Surely I’m not the only one who flashed back to Ryan Pressly’s 11th inning from May of last year?

So much not good here.

But also, the glass was half full. This game was probably not playoff caliber. But it did end up having a playoff like feel to it. Wrigley was jumping when the Cubs rallied to tie the game. It’s an interesting thing to me. Ian Happ feels pretty universally loved at Wrigley Field and largely disliked on social media. I’m not sure if I can think of a player with that kind of gap between different portions of the fandom. Pedro Strop is the last polarizing figure I can remember like that. A guy who people either really liked or really didn’t.

The crowd buzzed as the bullpen held the Marlins down, giving the Cubs all of those opportunities to win. Daniel Palencia faced four batters and retired them all. Ryan Rolison faced five batters and retired four. Ryan Zeferjahn wiggled out of a jam. Those are the guys you are going to have to count on out of your pen. Aaron Civale gave up a really rare homer (at least as a Cub), but also faced eight batters and retired six. Your first four choices out of the Cub bullpen (save for maybe Jacob Webb) threw a total of 5.1 innings, facing 21 batters, allowing three hits, a walk and a hit batsman. You’d love for your starter to get a few more outs than that, but otherwise you’d take that as a start.

Palencia particularly seems to be regaining some of his form. Ryan Rolison has been surprisingly good as a Cub and Ryan Zeferjahn… well, he’s an adventure. But the Cubs didn’t lose this one on his watch. Again, not necessarily the bullpen you want, but it’s what you’ve got. You saw reasons to believe they could hold a lead for this team in a playoff atmosphere.

For me, other than the general frustration of a winnable game slipping away, my one frustration is the way modern baseball affects a game like this. We’ve done years of studies and correctly determined that outs are way too valuable a commodity to give away. So much so that it is generally a bad idea to sacrifice bunt. That’s all well and good and given the amount of time I spend looking at WPA and run expectancy, I’m as aware of those things as anyone. Also, all of that math starts slipping away in the bottom half of an extra inning tie game. In that spot it is very much worth it to sacrifice the ghost runner to third to start the inning. But it is darn hard to execute a skill under pressure that you basically never use.

Heavy sigh. There’s always the next one.

Three Positives:

• Pete Crow-Armstrong had a single, double, two walks (on intentional) and his 39th stolen base. I’m going to keep saying that it is a remarkable season weather he reaches 45/40 or not. Our infatuation with round numbers is silly sometimes.
• Daniel Palencia’s four up/four down.
• Ryan Rolison’s five up/four down.

Game 157, September 22: Marlins 8, Cubs 2 (87-70)

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Ryan Rolison (.280). 1.1 IP, 5 BF, H, 2 K
• Hero: Daniel Palencia (.170). 1.1 IP, 4 BF, K
• Sidekick: Michael Busch (.146). 1-4, 2 BB

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Pedro Ramirez (-.328). 0-5
• Goat: Matt Shaw (-.285). 0-4
• Kid: Carson Kelly (-.267). 1-5

Note: Edward Cabrera’s -.175 was the fifth lowest score. Caleb Thielbar was actually a .065 because he got out of a jam the previous inning. So in the end, the cumulative struggles of the offense outweighed that 12th inning, aided by the split inning between Thielbar and Cabrera.

WPA Play of the Game: Caleb Thielbar got Esteury Ruiz to pop foul to first with the bases loaded and one out in the 11th. (.193)

Marlins Play of the Game: Griffin Conine’s RBI single that started the scoring in the 12th inning with no outs. (.181)

Cubs Player of the Game:

Game 156 Winner: Pete Crow-Armstrong received 55 of 91 votes.

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Alex Bregman +26
• Pete Crow-Armstrong +25.5
• Carson Kelly +16.5
• Shōta Imanaga +15
• Ben Brown +13.5
• Jameson Taillon -13
• Nico Hoerner -16
• Dansby Swanson -17
• Caleb Thielbar -17.5
• Seiya Suzuki -20

Scoreboard Watching: Congratulations to the Rays on clinching the AL East title. Diamondbacks win and stay alive, four back of the three wild cards. Phillies win. Padres lose. All three teams are tied for the Wild Card spots. The clock remains very close to midnight on the Diamondbacks season.

Up Next: The Cubs are going to need some length out of Kevin Gausman (9-12, 4.55) to reset their bullpen after this game. In eight starts as a Cub, two of the have gone seven innings (both wins) and has pitched past the end of five one other time, that being last time when he made it 5.2 innings. He allowed a run over five innings as a Blue Jay starter against this Marlins team earlier this year.

Ryan Gusto (1-5, 4.14) starts for the Marlins. The 27-year-old righty has lost two of his last three starts, including one against the Cubs. He allowed five earned runs in 4.2 innings against the Cubs a couple of weeks ago. Let’s hope the Cubs can get their bats going Tuesday.

Find a way, win a game. Celebrate a playoff spot and find the good vibes. We’re going to need them to chase down that top Wild Card spot. It’s still very much on the table.