The Morning Horsehide Herald — the Nineteenth of July, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

The Game of the Day

TWELVE IN UNBROKEN SUCCESSION! ABREU THUNDERS TWICE MORE AS THE CRIMSON HOSE STORM BACK UPON THE LEAGUE-LEADING RAYS, 7 TO 6

Down three tallies in the seventh, Boston authors a four-run resurrection crowned by Wilyer Abreu's second two-homer evening in as many nights; the ancient Chapman bars the door for his one-and-twentieth save while the Sunshine nine drop a fourth straight and feel the hounds at their heels

The Crimson Hose of Boston have ceased merely winning ballgames; they have taken up the habit of insisting upon them. On Saturday at Fenway Park the division-leading Sunshine nine of Tampa Bay carried a 6-to-3 advantage into the home seventh — built upon round-trippers from Victor Mesa Jr. and Jonny DeLuca — and looked for all the world to be the club that would at last stanch the Boston tide. The tide had other instructions. Masataka Yoshida chased home a run with a groundout, Ceddanne Rafaela doubled home another, and then Wilyer Abreu — who had already put one over the wall in the third — struck the decisive blow, a two-run shot to right-center, his fifteenth of the summer and his second two-homer performance in as many evenings, to turn six-to-five into seven-to-six in the space of a single swing.

From there the arithmetic was left to Aroldis Chapman, who slammed the door upon the ninth for his one-and-twentieth save, making a winner of the reliever Watson and a hard-luck loser of Cleavinger. The victory is Boston's twelfth in unbroken succession — ten wins in their last ten, not a defeat among them — and lifts the Hub nine above the level line at nine-and-forty against eight-and-forty, a perch they have not enjoyed in many a moon.

For Tampa Bay the evening was a fourth consecutive sorrow, and the ledger grows uncomfortable: their lead in the American East stands at but two lengths over the idle New Yorkers, with Boston now seven back and closing like a squall off the harbor. First place remains theirs; the comfort of it does not.

News Around the League

The Deadline Nears, and the First Dominoes Topple

The trading season is no longer all whisper: the right-hander Aaron Civale has been dealt from the Athletics to the Chicago Bruins, a mending patch for a North Side pitching corps much thinned by misfortune. The rumor wires, meanwhile, clatter louder by the hour — Detroit's ace Tarik Skubal remains the market's crown jewel, his name coupled ever more boldly to the deep-pursed Dodgers even as he dealt his latest gem (see the card below), and the sages count seven bubble clubs yet undecided whether to buy, to sell, or to stand pat as the month's end bears down.

Baltimore Opens the Vault: Bradish Signed for Five Years More

The Baltimores, six straight wins to the good and evidently in a spending humor, have inked the right-hander Kyle Bradish to a five-year extension of contract — reported at ninety millions of dollars, a sum that makes him the highest-paid pitcher the franchise has ever carried. The message to the American East is unmistakable: the Birds intend their present warming trend to be no passing weather.

Tidings From the Surgeon's Tent

Grimmer wires from the infirmary. In the Bronx, Aaron Judge has been removed to the sixty-day invalid list — the latest imaging of his aggrieved elbow shows healing, but not yet enough to loose him upon baseball activities, and another examination awaits before any throwing is sanctioned. In Milwaukee the news is crueler still: Brandon Woodruff is bound once more for the surgeon's table and shoulder repair, while the Brewers soldier on already deprived of the regulars Sal Frelick and Brice Turang.

A Twin Bill Ordained in the Bronx, and a Duel Worth the Price of Both

Saturday's meeting of the Boys in Blue and the New York Americans was postponed, and the two pennant-heavy clubs are ordered to settle accounts this very day in a day-and-night doubleheader at the Stadium. The opener offers a duel to make the connoisseur tremble: Los Angeles sends Yoshinobu Yamamoto (nine victories, a 2.85 mark) against young Cam Schlittler, whose 2.05 earned-run average leads all the American League. October, one suspects, is taking notes.

The Almanac: Cooperstown Beckons

One week hence, on the six-and-twentieth of July, the National Baseball Hall of Fame holds its induction ceremony at Cooperstown, where the newest immortals shall be ushered into the game's marble pantheon. The Herald shall have its colors flying.

The Rest of the Card

A TWIN BILL SPLIT ON THE ERIE SHORE: THE CORSAIRS TAKE THE OPENER, 7 TO 1, BEFORE BAZZANA'S WALK-OFF BLAST STEALS THE NIGHTCAP FOR CLEVELAND, 5 TO 3

The doubleheader ordained by Friday's smoke was duly joined, and honors were divided. In the opener Pittsburgh's Jared Jones — whose remarkable run of thirty consecutive batters retired came at last to its end — nonetheless fanned nine across five frames, while Esmerlyn Valdez, Nick Gonzales, and Jacob Gonzalez all went deep in a 7-to-1 romp that pinned the loss on Williams despite his eleven strikeouts.

The nightcap belonged to the Forest City nine. Trailing three-to-nothing in the eighth, Cleveland clawed level, and in the ninth the young second sacker Travis Bazzana struck the first walk-off home run of his career — a two-run shot to center with Steven Kwan aboard — for a 5-to-3 verdict that keeps the Guardians breathing upon the neck of the division-leading White Sox.

BIEBER SPINS SIX SCORELESS AND A SINGLE TALLY SUFFICES; THE TORONTOS BLANK THE WHITE STOCKINGS, 1 TO 0

A pitchers' quarrel of the old school in Toronto, where Shane Bieber threw six scoreless innings and George Springer's fourth-inning single — chasing home Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — furnished the game's entire offense. Varland sealed the 1-to-0 whitewash with his twentieth save, and Martin of the Chicagos wore a loss he scarcely deserved. The two clubs take the matter up again this very noon.

THE BRUINS BREAK EARLY AND COAST PAST MINNESOTA, 6 TO 2

The North Side Bruins laid five runs upon the board inside three innings — Michael Busch homering and Miguel Amaya and young Pedro Ramírez doubling in the damage — and Matthew Boyd did the rest, rising to six-and-one on the season in a 6-to-2 decision. The Minnesotans could answer only with Kody Clemens, whose pair of home runs accounted for both their tallies and lifted his season's count to eighteen.

SCHWARBER'S THREE-AND-THIRTIETH LAUNCHES THE QUAKERS PAST THE AMAZINS, 6 TO 1

Kyle Schwarber wasted no ceremony, depositing his three-and-thirtieth home run into the seats in the very first frame with Trea Turner aboard, and the Quakers of Philadelphia never looked back in a 6-to-1 handling of the Amazins. Turner added a blast of his own — his resurgent bat the talk of the town — Bryce Harper singled home two more, and Jesús Luzardo collected his ninth victory. Philadelphia stands but two lengths behind Atlanta in the senior East.

THE MOUNTAIN MEN ERUPT FOR TEN; CINCINNATI BURIED BENEATH THE ROCKSLIDE, 10 TO 3

Rare thunder in the thin air: the Mountain men of Colorado battered the Queen City nine by ten runs to three, six of them heaped up inside the first two innings and TJ Rumfield's thirteenth home run tossed atop the pile for emphasis. Sugano claimed his ninth victory for the winners; Jose Trevino homered twice in a losing cause, the whole of Cincinnati's dignity and most of its offense.

ELEVEN INNINGS IN HOUSTON, AND O'NEILL SETTLES IT; THE BALTIMORES MAKE IT SIX STRAIGHT, 4 TO 2

The Baltimores and the Houston nine required eleven innings to settle their differences, and it was Tyler O'Neill who settled them — first with a game-saving catch and throw in the extra frames, then with the go-ahead single in the eleventh, Leody Taveras adding another for a 4-to-2 final. Yordan Alvarez's ground-rule double had dragged Houston level in the tenth, but the Birds would not be denied a sixth consecutive triumph, with Sanders recording the save.

THE SUDS MEN, SHORT-HANDED AND UNBOTHERED, OUTLAST MIAMI, 8 TO 6

Deprived of both Frelick and Turang, the Suds men of Milwaukee spotted the Gulf Stream nine a three-run start and then banded together to run them down — Jackson Chourio singling home two, Garrett Mitchell and Christian Yelich each doubling home a pair more in a six-run surge across the sixth and seventh. Griffin Conine's three-run blast in the ninth made the count a nervous 8-to-6 before Megill secured his fifteenth save. Miami has now dropped five in succession.

THOMAS AND PEREZ GO DEEP AS THE KANSAS CITY NINE HANDLE SAN DIEGO WITH DISPATCH, 6 TO 1

The Kansas City nine made short work of San Diego, Lane Thomas opening with a two-run home run and the venerable Salvador Perez adding his twelfth later on in a 6-to-1 decision behind Daniel Lynch. Fernando Tatis Jr.'s solo shot was the whole of the Mission nine's reply, and the luckless Canning sank to one-and-eight.

ARENADO STRIKES HIS OLD MATES A BLOW; THE SONORAN NINE TOP ST. LOUIS, 5 TO 3

In the desert the Sonoran nine built a five-run cushion — Nolan Arenado doubling home two against the club that once employed him, Ketel Marte scoring and driving in more — and then withstood a late Cardinal push, Jimmy Crooks's ninth-inning homer arriving too late to matter in a 5-to-3 result. Brandon Pfaadt took the win and Sewald his three-and-twentieth save; the Cards and their wild-card perch grow no more comfortable.

THE ARLINGTON MEN TRADE BLOWS WITH ATLANTA AND LAND THE LAST ONE, 7 TO 6

A proper slugging match in Georgia, the advantage changing hands and changing again: Joc Pederson and Evan Carter homered for Texas against blasts from Michael Harris II and Eli White, before Brandon Nimmo's two-run single in the sixth put the Arlington men ahead to stay, 7 to 6. Latz survived a Mauricio Dubón double in the seventh to notch his nineteenth save — the Texans' first triumph since play resumed, and one that keeps them atop the American West by a length and a half.

JULIO RETURNS AND WINS IT IN THE TENTH; THE PUGET SOUND MEN EDGE THE BAY NINE, 4 TO 3

Julio Rodríguez, restored at last to the Seattle lineup, marked the occasion in the grand manner — his sacrifice fly in the tenth chased home Victor Robles and decided a 4-to-3 affair. The Bay nine had led three-to-nothing behind home runs from Rafael Devers and Willy Adames until young Cole Young erased the whole deficit with a single three-run swing in the seventh. Ferrer was the pitcher of record for the Puget Sound men.

GINN FLIRTS WITH IMMORTALITY AGAIN AS THE MACKMEN POUR FIFTEEN RUNS UPON WASHINGTON, 15 TO 1

One day after absorbing a three-and-twenty-run humiliation, the Mackmen returned the cosmos to balance at the Senators' expense: fifteen runs, home runs from Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom, and Carlos Cortes, and a bases-clearing double from Shea Langeliers in a 15-to-1 landslide that snapped their ten-game skid. The finer artistry belonged to JT Ginn, who carried a no-hit bid into the seventh — six and a third innings, a single hit, nothing across — his second such flirtation of the summer, rare air indeed for an Athletics arm.

SKUBAL, SERENE AMID THE RUMORS, SILENCES THE SERAPHS; TORKELSON TWICE DEEP IN A 7-TO-NOTHING ROUT

With half the league's front offices whispering his name, Tarik Skubal answered in the only language he speaks, throttling the Seraphs of Anaheim in a 7-to-nothing whitewash. Spencer Torkelson did the heavy carpentry with two home runs — a three-run shot in a four-run first and a solo clout in the fifth — and the Motor City nine strung a second straight win while the Anaheims dropped a fourth straight.

Fifteen contests set down this morning, and the column inches strain to hold them: Boston's streak swells to an even dozen, Bazzana walks off his first, Ginn grazes immortality a second time, and the Baltimores pay a king's ransom to keep Bradish in the fold. Today the Bronx hosts two ballgames for the price of one, with the American League's stingiest arm awaiting the champions in the opener — the desk suggests you arrive early. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~