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

The Game of the Day

THE PROMISED DUEL DELIVERS: MUNCY'S BLAST BESTS WHEELER, 2 TO 1, AND THE TROLLEY DODGERS SEIZE THE BEST RECORD IN BASEBALL

Wrobleski and Wheeler traded scorn for eight-and-twenty outs apiece of brilliance, one swing of Max Muncy's bat settled the argument and tied him with Ron Cey upon the club's ancient ledger — and the whole affair ended on a five-two-six-four double play the like of which no scorecard was prepared for

The desk marked this engagement in advance as the summer's handsomest pitching bill, and for once the advertisement undersold the goods. At Citizens Bank Park the Phillies' Zack Wheeler was magnificent in defeat — seven innings, nine strikeouts, not a base on balls, at one point buckling Shohei Ohtani's knees with a curveball that ought to be framed — and the Angelenos' young left-hander Justin Wrobleski was very nearly his equal: six and a third innings of one-run baseball, seven strikeouts, his record now eleven-and-two and his earned-run average a sparkling 2.62.

Philadelphia struck the first blow, Alec Bohm's first-inning single cashing Bryce Harper, and for three innings that run looked as though it might wear armor. Then in the fourth Max Muncy got hold of a Wheeler offering and deposited it beyond the fence with Andy Pages aboard — his nineteenth home run of the year, and by the club's historians a blow that ties him with Ron Cey, the immortal Penguin, for fifth place upon the Dodgers' all-time home-run roll. Two runs to one, and so it stayed, through Tanner Scott's five-outs' labor toward his fifteenth save.

The finish deserves its own paragraph. With the tying run aboard in the ninth and the home crowd roaring for one more miracle, the Phillies ran themselves out of the season's strangest ending — a base-running lapse charged to J.T. Realmuto dissolving into a game-ending double play scored five-two-six-four, a rally expiring in a rundown's worth of chaos. Thus the Trolley Dodgers, at four-and-sixty wins against eight-and-thirty losses, wrest the finest record in all baseball from Milwaukee by the width of a half-game — seized on the very night the Brewers were blanked (see the card below) — while Philadelphia remains three games behind Atlanta in the National East. The same two clubs go again this evening in the series' finale.

News Around the League

Twelve Days to the Deadline, and the Fence-Sitters Squirm

The trading deadline of the third of August stands twelve days off, and the wires report scouts scattered across every big-league grandstand. In San Diego the Friars remain squarely astride the fence — their general manager A.J. Preller allowing that buying, selling, both, or neither remain, in his words, 'on the table' — even as their stars round into form. The rumor mills grind on around Baltimore's backstop Adley Rutschman, with Boston, Toronto, and Philadelphia all named among the whisperers; the market for San Diego's fireman Mason Miller, whose five-and-twenty saves share the senior circuit's lead, is described by the sages as extraordinary; and the parlors amuse themselves debating whether Detroit's ace Tarik Skubal shall or shall not wear Dodger blue before the summer is out. The Herald prints the smoke and awaits the fire.

Five Seconds, Three Outs: The Year's First Triple Play

Mark the almanac: the season's first triple play was turned Tuesday night in Houston — and by the losing side. In the eighth inning, with two Astros aboard by way of singles, Jose Altuve rapped a ground ball to the Miami third baseman Leo Jiménez, and five seconds later three men were out — the whole grim transaction conducted quicker than a man can wind his watch. It was the lone flourish of a sorrowful evening for the Fish, who dropped the decision all the same, their eighth defeat running (see the card below).

The Infirmary Ward

A crowded morning among the surgeons. In Texas, Josh Jung — at .294 the Lone Star nine's leading batsman — departed Tuesday's rout early with a troubled calf. In Detroit, the right-hander Jack Flaherty goes to the invalid list with inflammation of the flexor. In Chicago, the wires now reckon the young catcher Kyle Teel's turned ankle may cost him six weeks or twelve — a heavier bill than first feared for the American Central's front-runners. And in Los Angeles, the Dodgers have moved their catcher Will Smith, his neck still barking, to the sixty-day list. The Herald prescribes patience and wishes all four a sound mending.

A Record for the Glove, and a Birthday Gift for the Big Fellow

Two grace notes. The Cubs' center-field acrobat Pete Crow-Armstrong has, by the reckoning of the game's modern surveyors, made the three-and-thirtieth five-star catch of his young career — more than any man since such things began to be counted — the latest specimen robbed from the Tigers on Monday evening. And in Milwaukee, CC Sabathia celebrated his six-and-fortieth birthday by watching his son Carsten Sabathia III, drafted in the twentieth round this summer, sign his first professional papers with the Brewers. The big left-hander gave the game a career; the game, it seems, means to return the favor.

The Almanac: Labor Talk and Cornfield Silks

From the counting-house: the game's labor agreement expires the first of December, the parties having opened their bargaining in May, and the sages agree the question of competitive balance will sit at the head of the table — the players' association declaring this week its wish to preserve the draft in its present form. On a lighter page, the Twins and Phillies have unveiled the special uniforms they will wear amid the Iowa corn for the Field of Dreams engagement on the thirteenth of August, and Cooperstown's induction ceremonies stand but four days off, this Sunday the six-and-twentieth.

The Rest of the Card

THE LAKE ERIE MEN CLIMB BY DEGREES, 5 TO 2, AND BREATHE ON CHICAGO'S NECK

Ryan Jeffers' first-inning homer gave the Minnesotans their moment; Cleveland then took the evening back a run at a time — Steven Kwan's double, Brayan Rocchio's single, a pair of sacrifice flies, and Travis Bazzana's seventh-inning knock in a 5-to-2 verdict. Parker Messick struck out six before yielding to the bullpen, Cade Smith barred the door for his nine-and-twentieth save — most in the American League — and the substitute Kahlil Watson sealed matters with a catch the crowd will describe for a week. At four-and-fifty wins the Guardians now trail the White Sox by nothing more than percentage points.

ONE-AND-TWENTY HITS! THE TAMPA MEN BURY TORONTO, 12 TO 2, AS FORTES FEASTS AGAIN

The Gulf Coast club struck three runs before the Maple Leaf nine had recorded an out of consequence and never looked back, piling up a season-high one-and-twenty hits in a 12-to-2 laugher at the closed-roofed Rogers Centre. Nick Fortes, who homered Monday, drove in four more with a blast and a single; Yandy Díaz added a three-run homer, his fourteenth; Ben Williamson rapped four hits; and Drew Rasmussen steadied himself for the win while Kevin Gausman absorbed the storm. So complete was the rout that Toronto's outfielder Myles Straw pitched the ninth. The Rays hold the American East by two games over New York.

MACHADO TWICE, AND TATIS TO THE MOON: THE FRIARS THUMP ATLANTA, 8 TO 3

Manny Machado homered in consecutive innings — his one-and-twentieth and two-and-twentieth — and Fernando Tatis Jr. supplied the exclamation: a 474-foot thunderbolt, the longest home run struck anywhere this season, among his three hits and three runs driven in. Jackson Merrill went deep besides, Walker Buehler worked into the sixth for the win, and the Friars handled the Tomahawk nine 8 to 3. Atlanta, held to four hits, still rules the National East by three games — every pursuer having lost alongside them.

BLANKED! THORNTON AND THE METROPOLITANS SILENCE MILWAUKEE, 4 TO 0, AND THE BEST RECORD CHANGES HANDS

The league's grandest ledger met the league's humblest, and the humble won. Trent Thornton threw six scoreless innings for his first victory of the year, the Metropolitans rapped thirteen hits — home runs from Jared Young and Luis Robert Jr., three knocks for Francisco Lindor — and the Cream City nine were whitewashed 4 to 0 on four hits. The defeat cost Milwaukee more than an evening: the finest record in baseball now resides in Los Angeles by a half-game, as the standings column coolly records.

LOFTIN AGAIN! THE MISSOURIANS NIP SAN FRANCISCO, 3 TO 2, BY THE SAME QUIET HAND

On Monday it was a bunt; on Tuesday it was a sixth-inning single, but the signature was the same — Nick Loftin delivering the winning run as Kansas City edged the Jints 3 to 2. Carter Jensen supplied a homer, his fourteenth; Noah Avila struck out seven for the win; and Alec Lange closed the account with his ninth save. San Francisco's slide reached a fourth consecutive defeat, and the Bay nine sail for home no happier than they came.

ROCKER AND A THREE-INNING SAVIOR: THE LONE STAR NINE FLATTEN THE PALE HOSE, 10 TO 0, AND TAKE THE WEST

Kumar Rocker allowed a single hit across six innings, and Marco Gonzales — summoned from Round Rock that very day — finished the last three frames for the quaintest of modern artifacts, a three-inning save. Texas battered eighteen hits in a 10-to-0 demolition: four for Brandon Nimmo with his tenth homer, a two-run blast from Wyatt Langford, three runs driven home by Alejandro Osuna. The victory lifts the Lone Star nine past Seattle to the American West's summit by a half-game, while the blanked Pale Hose watch their Central margin shrink to bare percentage points. The one shadow: Jung's calf (see the infirmary column).

SIX IN THE FIRST: THE NORTH SIDERS ROUT DETROIT, 11 TO 2, ON A NIGHT OF ELEVEN WALKS

Pete Crow-Armstrong opened the bottom of the first with a triple and the North Siders never stopped running — six runs in the frame, eleven in all, upon eleven hits and eleven bases on balls, chasing Framber Valdez after two-thirds of an inning. Michael Conforto added a two-run homer, Jordan Peterson threw six and two-thirds scoreless, and the Bengals were reduced by evening's end to pitching their infielders. Dillon Dingler, Monday's hero, salvaged pride with his two-and-twentieth homer in the ninth. The rubber match goes this evening before the national cameras.

PAREDES SWINGS THE FIFTH AND THE ASTROS TAKE IT, 5 TO 3, TRIPLE PLAY NOTWITHSTANDING

Isaac Paredes' three-run homer broke a fifth-inning deadlock, Jeremy Peña had earlier been awarded a home run by the reviewing umpires, and Tatsuya Imai, pitching on thirteen days' rest, fanned eight in six innings as Houston turned back Miami 5 to 3. The Fish authored the evening's marvel — the season's first triple play, executed in five seconds (see the news column) — and Joe Mack struck a two-run homer, but the losing string reached eight all the same. Josh Hader closed for his eleventh save.

GOODMAN'S ONE-AND-THIRTIETH SETTLES A SEESAW IN THE THIN AIR: MOUNTAIN MEN 8, NATIONALS 7

Seven lead changes' worth of argument ended when Hunter Goodman hammered his one-and-thirtieth home run in the eighth, and the Mountain men outlasted Washington 8 to 7. CJ Abrams was magnificent in the losing cause — two two-run homers, his three-and-twentieth and four-and-twentieth, hauling him level with St. Louis's Walker atop the National League at six-and-seventy runs driven in — while Mickey Moniak homered and drove in two for Colorado and Jake McCarthy rapped two hits with a double. Romano sealed it, and the Capital nine fall back to the level line at one-and-fifty apiece.

FIVE IN THE FIRST, AND ADELL AGAIN: THE HALOS HANDLE ST. LOUIS, 5 TO 1

For the third dispatch running the Herald sets down the name Jo Adell, whose two-run homer — his fifteenth — crowned a five-run first inning built on Jorge Soler's two-run double and Vaughn Grissom's single. José Ureña made the early thunder stand with six innings of one-run work, and the Halos took their third straight, 5 to 1, while the Redbirds dropped a fourth in succession. The deadline appraisers in the grandstand, one supposes, took fresh notes.

TEN INNINGS IN THE DESERT: VARGAS SINGLES HOME THE VERDICT AND THE SNAKES ESCAPE, 6 TO 5

The rookie Kohl Drake, making his major-league debut with his mother and father in the stands, gave the Snakes five innings of one-run pitching behind Max Kepler's first-inning three-run homer — and then watched the White Elephants claw the lead away: Shea Langeliers' three-and-twentieth in the eighth, Jacob Wilson's tying two-run blast in the ninth, a sacrifice fly in the tenth for the lead. Arizona answered with the season on simmer: Nolan Arenado singled home the equalizer and Ildemaro Vargas singled home the winner, 6 to 5. Kevin Ginkel, Monday's hard-luck loser, pocketed the win, and the Snakes pull level with Pittsburgh at the final wild-card chair.

BURNS, NEWLY PAID, THROWS FIVE MORE GOOSE EGGS: REDLEGS 4, MARINERS 2

Fresh from signing his new contract, the All-Star Chase Burns threw five scoreless innings toward a twelfth victory against a single defeat, and the Redlegs dispatched Seattle 4 to 2. Elly De La Cruz opened the scoring with his seventeenth homer, Eugenio Suárez and Nathaniel Lowe added blasts of their own, and Pagán closed the ledger. Julio Rodríguez and Weston Wilson homered in reply, but the Puget Sound men surrendered the West's high ground to Texas by a half-game, and Luis Castillo fell to three-and-nine.

Thirteen contests set down this morning, with two more washed from the card — the Pirates at New York and the Orioles at Boston both postponed, to be paid back double this very day. Mark the twin bills: in the Bronx, Cole takes the opener and Fried, restored from the invalid list, the nightcap; at Fenway the Red Sox, their streak idling at fourteen, get two swings at a fifteenth. Elsewhere the desk commends the rubber match in Wrigleyville and the finale in Philadelphia, where the Trolley Dodgers defend their newly seized best record in the land. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~