Is it spring training yet? No — but the championship season is upon us, a finer thing still.

THE MORNING HORSEHIDE HERALD

"Every Score Set Down, No Deed Unsung"

~ Being a Faithful Daily Chronicle of the National Pastime ~

Volume I · No. 39 · Sunday, the Sixteenth of August, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Reporting 15 contests from the day prior.

The Game of the Day

THREE SWINGS, THREE THUNDERBOLTS, AND THE RECORD BOOK REWRITTEN: BÁEZ HOMERS IN HIS FIRST THREE AT-BATS AT THE DAWN OF HIS CAREER — CARDINALS 8, CUBS 4

Summoned from Memphis but a day before, the young outfielder greets the first pitch ever thrown to him in the major leagues with a four-hundred-and-forty-nine-foot thunderclap to dead center, adds a second homer his next time up and a third in the sixth — five runs driven in, a standing ovation from the rival faithful, and the first three-homer debut in the whole recorded history of the game

The Herald has chronicled prodigies before, but it has never had occasion to set down what Joshua Báez did at Wrigley Field on Saturday afternoon, for the sufficient reason that in the annals of more than three-and-twenty thousand major leaguers, no man had ever done it. The Cardinals' No. 3 prospect, summoned Friday from Memphis with his four-and-thirty Triple-A home runs, stepped in against the veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd with two out and a man aboard in the first, beheld a fastball at the letters — the first major-league pitch of his life — and dispatched it four hundred and forty-nine feet to dead center, the ball leaving his bat at nearly nine-and-a-hundred miles per hour. His second time up he worked a full count and ripped a changeup down the left-field line, becoming but the second man since 1900 to homer in his first two career at-bats in a single game, joining Bob Nieman of the 1951 Browns. And in the sixth, facing Boyd a third time, he drove a pitch the opposite way to right — 'I had no idea,' he confessed. 'So I just started running, and then I seen that it went over and I was like, this is insane' — and with it went where no ballplayer had gone before: three at-bats, three home runs, in his major-league debut.

By the eighth the entire premises had surrendered to the occasion. The Wrigley crowd — a rival crowd, be it remembered — stood for the rookie's fourth appearance, and the Chicago pitcher Colin Rea was obliged to cup a hand to his ear to hear the signals over the din. Báez lined out to left; the faithful applauded him anyway. 'It's just unreal,' said the young man, who finished three-for-four with five runs driven in. 'For me to not only get a hit, but hit three home runs is just crazy.' His manager Oliver Marmol, asked beforehand what excited him about the newcomer, had answered that the lad's talent 'doesn't quietly whisper — it screams at you'; afterward he ranked the spectacle with watching Pujols strike his seven-hundredth. The starter Michael McGreevy, who contributed six innings in which every run against him crossed unearned, submitted the day's driest verdict: 'I love when history gives me run support.' Boyd, who surrendered all three blows, tipped his cap in the old manner: 'He's a good hitter. He just got the better of me today.'

The supporting particulars: Burleson struck his twentieth homer and drove in two, Jordan added his second, and the eight runs stood comfortably against the reply of Conforto, whose tenth homer figured among three Chicago runs driven in. The Elias scribes note that no man had previously managed a three-homer game earlier than his tenth career contest; Báez required one. He is likewise the first Cardinal to homer upon the first pitch of his career since a pitcher named Adam Wainwright turned the trick in 2006. The ledger gives the affair consequence beyond the poetry: St. Louis, at two-and-sixty wins, stands three and a half games from the National's final wild-card chair, while the Cubs — still holders of the first chair by six full games — see the rubber match arrive this very afternoon.

News Around the League

THE VERDICT FROM TORONTO: GUERRERO TO THE CONCUSSION LIST, AND THE CANADIANS SHUFFLE THE DECK

The morning's report from Ontario, awaited since Friday's collision at third base, arrived and was grim enough: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been placed upon the seven-day concussion injured list. The club answered with a small mobilization — the left-hander Ricky Tiedemann recalled from Buffalo, the outfielder Daz Cameron selected to the roster — and the skipper John Schneider has installed young Charles McAdoo as the next man up, with results the card below celebrates. 'This definitely feels different than it has for a lot of the year,' Schneider said of his club's late charge, which has now brought seven victories in nine games. 'It feels pretty damn good.' The timing of the injury remains the cruelest part; the standings, as the desk observes below, have rarely been so crowded.

TEN THOUSAND VICTORIES BESIDE THE LAKE

Let the almanac record that Cleveland's franchise, in dismissing San Diego by six runs to one on Saturday, secured the ten-thousandth victory in its history — a summit previously attained, among clubs founded since 1900, only by the Red Sox and the Yankees. 'That's an unbelievable number to get to, and I'm honored to be a part of it,' said the manager Stephen Vogt, whose 2026 edition has supplied rather fewer than its share of the ten thousand — nine wins in seven-and-twenty games since the All-Star pause — but chose the occasion to play the complete brand of baseball its manager has been pleading for all month. The particulars of the milestone conquest are set down upon the card below.

THE TWO-HUNDRED-FORTY-MILLION-DOLLAR MAN TAKES A SEAT

In Los Angeles, the management has prescribed rest for Kyle Tucker, the winter's grandest acquisition, who sat Saturday against Milwaukee — his second benching of the week at home. The affliction is geographic and stark: upon the road the man bats .275 with his customary production, but at Dodger Stadium the figure reads .192 with but two home runs in nine-and-fifty games. 'The splits are stark. I don't think we have a reason behind it,' admitted the skipper Dave Roberts, who observed frustration accumulating in a player famous for showing none. Tucker is promised a return to the lineup this day and all three games at Denver besides; his replacement Alex Call, it must be said, delivered two of the club's five hits in the losing cause.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: SKENES HELD BACK, JUDGE PLAYS CATCH, AND DEGROM AWAITS HIS VERDICT

The gravest entry first: Pittsburgh has pushed Paul Skenes from this day's assignment back to Wednesday against Detroit, the management citing rest for a young arm whose fastball has receded from 98.2 miles per hour last season to 96.8 this — though the man himself pleads ordinary weariness rather than injury. 'Everybody's tired. Everybody's grinding, and we just got to keep going,' said Skenes. In the Bronx ledger: Aaron Judge, fractured rib and all, played catch Friday for the first time since the injury, though the bat stays holstered. In Texas they exhale cautiously over Jacob deGrom, whose early exit with triceps fatigue produced an encouraging examination, though his next turn is accounted unlikely. The small print: Philadelphia's Trea Turner fouled a ball off his right knee Saturday and departed; Boston's Masataka Yoshida left with hamstring tightness; Milwaukee's Brice Turang awaits the machine's opinion of his aching knee.

THE ALMANAC AND DEALINGS DESK: A SHORTSTOP FOR CASH, A NATIONAL AUDIENCE, AND SIX WEEKS TO SETTLE IT ALL

Three entries. First, commerce: the Athletics have sold the shortstop Jonathan Ornelas to Milwaukee for plain cash, and so swift was the conveyance that the man appeared in Brewers flannels that very evening — and was charged with an error for his trouble. Second, spectacle: this afternoon's rubber match between the Cardinals and Cubs goes out to the whole nation upon ABC at a quarter past three Eastern, where young Báez will attempt an encore; the wires observe that no man has ever struck more than three home runs across his first two career games, a record now within a single afternoon's reach. Third, the hourglass: the almanac fixes the final day of the regular season at the twenty-seventh of September — six weeks hence, with every wild-card seat still warm.

The Rest of the Card

MCADOO RATTLES THE WALL AND THE TORONTOS KEEP CLIMBING: CANADIANS 4, HIGHLANDERS 1

With Guerrero consigned to the injured list that very morning, his understudy Charles McAdoo supplied the afternoon's decisive blow — a seventh-inning double off the center-field wall at a hundred and seven miles per hour, inches shy of leaving the premises, scoring the go-ahead run — and added an insurance single in the eighth for good measure. 'It really got the offense going,' the young man said, with some understatement. The Yankee starter Cam Schlittler was hard luck itself, one run across five and a third with seven strikeouts, his league-best earned-run figure settling at 2.19; the New York attack managed four hits, Lombard Jr. driving in the only run. Varland struck out three in the ninth for his eight-and-twentieth save. Toronto has won seven of nine and sits half a game from the American's final wild-card chair; the Bronx men have dropped three running.

TEN INNINGS AT THE TROP, AND THE BALTIMORES TAKE ANOTHER FROM THE LEAGUE'S BEST: O'S 4, GULF COAST CLUB 3

For the second consecutive evening Baltimore inconvenienced the American's finest club. Alonso struck his seven-and-twentieth homer and Encarnacion-Strand his fifth, and the visitors carried a lead into the ninth — whereupon Tampa Bay drew level against Kittredge, the fourth save to spill from his hands this season. The tenth restored order: the deciding run crossed against Baker, and Sanders recorded his third save with the tying man aboard. Seymour struck out nine Orioles in six innings and departed unrewarded. The Rays, at four-and-seventy wins, remain the class of the league but have now dropped two straight; Baltimore, winners of two running, sits half a game from the final wild-card chair.

GRAY THROWS SEVEN BLANK FRAMES FOR HIS CAREER-BEST FIFTEENTH: FENWAY MEN 4, CORSAIRS 0

Sonny Gray, six-and-thirty years of age and pitching like the ace Boston lost when Crochet's shoulder failed, scattered six Pittsburgh hits across seven scoreless innings — working for the first time with the newly arrived Rutschman behind the plate — and collected the fifteenth victory of his season, the most of any campaign in his long career. 'We needed length bad. He gave us length,' said the interim skipper Chad Tracy. Abreu supplied the margin with his two-and-twentieth homer and two doubles besides, and the Fenway men added three in the ninth against Weaver to make the arithmetic comfortable. Boston thus arrests a one-and-six skid; the Corsairs, held to six hits by Gray and company, learn they must also do without Skenes this day, as the infirmary column relates.

THE PALE HOSE TAKE THE SECOND FROM DETROIT AND STRETCH THE GAP TO FOUR AND A HALF: WHITE SOX 4, BENGALS 3

Chicago's grip upon the American's Central tightened another half-turn. C. Montgomery drove in two and Benintendi another, twelve hits in all, while the bullpen — Hicks, Taylor, and Hudson, the last for his fifth save — permitted Detroit a single hit over the final three and two-thirds innings after Kay labored through five and a third. Valencia's sixth homer accounted for two Tiger runs and Torres rapped three hits in the losing cause. 'We play 162. Wherever we end up, we end up,' offered Benintendi, the philosopher of a club that has now won two-and-twenty of five-and-thirty against its own division. Detroit, half a game from the final wild-card chair, has dropped the first two of this heavyweight set.

FOUR IN THE EIGHTH AND THE FISH SWIM PAST CINCINNATI: MARLINS 8, REDLEGS 4

The Queen City men led by a run through seven, whereupon the eighth inning fell upon Antone like a wave: four Miami runs, three of them in a third of an inning, the save spilled and the game reversed. Hernández drove in three for the visitors, Marsee and Mack cleared the wall, and fourteen hits were distributed among the Miami order. For Cincinnati, McLain homered, doubled, and stole a base, and Stewart drove in two to draw level with Abrams atop the National's run-batted-in table at one-and-ninety. The Fish thus even the series and stand three games from the final wild-card chair; the Redlegs have surrendered what the getaway day may yet restore.

SEVEN RUNS WITH TWO OUT IN THE FIFTH, AND BOHM RAPS FIVE: QUAKERS 9, NORTH STARS 1

Alec Bohm went five-for-five with three doubles — the first five-hit evening of his life — and Stott detonated the decisive three-run homer in a fifth inning wherein all seven Philadelphia runs crossed with two men down. The Minnesota starter Prielipp walked three straight at the frame's center, including Arraez — the National's leading batsman at .316 — with the sacks full, and Bohm's single through the middle opened the floodgates. Luzardo struck out nine across six and two-thirds for his eleventh victory. The lone shadow upon the evening was Turner's knee, as the infirmary column relates; the Quakers, at six-and-sixty wins, sit in the three-way knot atop the National's wild-card table.

ONE HIT FOR THE FRIARS AS CLEVELAND CLAIMS ITS MILESTONE: LAKE ERIE MEN 6, PADRES 1

The ten-thousandth victory, saluted in the news columns above, was earned in the old Cleveland style. Cantillo permitted San Diego a single hit across six innings, the visitors' lone run scoring upon a double-play ball in the first, and the relief corps allowed no baserunner thereafter. Kwan and Bailey doubled home runs, the convalescing Ramírez doubled, scored, and added a sacrifice fly, and the seventh brought a double-steal of such larcenous chaos that Cronenworth was charged with two errors upon a single play, DeLauter scampering home behind Kwan. 'That felt kind of reminiscent of old Guards Ball,' Kwan grinned. San Diego's six-game winning streak dies at the lakeshore; the Friars remain knotted with Arizona and Philadelphia for the National's two remaining wild-card chairs.

SINGLES, OF ALL THINGS, CARRY THE DAY IN HOUSTON: PUGET SOUND MEN 10, 'STROS 5

A club that has lived and died by the home run — very nearly half of Seattle's season's runs have arrived via the fence, the largest share in the game — assembled fifteen hits of the humbler variety and administered a thorough beating to the West's leaders, one night after losing to them in the cruelest fashion imaginable. Donovan, restored to the leadoff post, singled home three runs; Young drove in four, capping the evening with his fifteenth homer; Robles tripled amid a four-run second whose punctuation was Young sliding home clean between Naylor's legs. Hancock gave seven sturdy innings. Seattle has now beaten Houston eight times in ten meetings this season and sits five back in the West; the Astros' division lead over Texas is down to two games.

ARENADO STRIKES TWICE AND THE DESERT NINE CLAIM THE SERIES AT ATLANTA: D-BACKS 10, TOMAHAWK NINE 3

Nolan Arenado homered twice — his nineteenth and twentieth — and drove in four, Vargas added a homer and three runs batted in, and Eduardo Rodriguez delivered six innings of two-run ball for his twelfth victory as Arizona seized the series from the East's leaders, Atlanta's fourth home series lost this season. The Atlanta reply amounted to Acuña Jr.'s thirteenth homer and precious little else. 'Everybody in that room believes we can tell a really good story, and our journey is very incomplete,' declared the skipper Torey Lovullo, whose club has won two running, taken series from the Dodgers and now the Braves this month, and sits in the three-way tie for the National's last two wild-card chairs.

MISIOROWSKI KEEPS HIS PROMISE AND THE SUDS MEN STRETCH THE LEAD TO TWO: BREWERS 4, ANGELENOS 1

The young man who vowed to throw the great Ohtani a heater and wish him luck was as good as his word and better: Jacob Misiorowski held Los Angeles to a single run across six innings, his earned-run figure settling at a majestic 1.75 with two hundred and ten strikeouts, both figures the National's finest. Contreras and Ortiz supplied the homers, and Ashby — a starter by trade — closed the final two innings for the first save of his season. The Dodger run was manufactured by the benched-no-more brigade: Call singled and came round upon Ohtani's triple. Milwaukee's lead over Los Angeles for the National's best ledger now stands at two full games, with the rubber match this very afternoon — the bill of fare is posted in the desk note below.

DOWN TO THEIR LAST THREE OUTS, THE AMAZINS STRIKE TWICE: METS 5, CAPITAL NINE 4

Washington carried a one-run lead into the ninth at Flushing, whereupon Cruz was set upon for three hits, two runs crossed, and the Metropolitans walked off winners of two straight. Benge's fourteenth homer and Young's two runs batted in had kept the hosts within reach of House, who drove in three of the Washington runs and homered besides. The victory fell to the animated left-hander Jefry Yan, who furnished the evening's comedy in the top of the frame: he leapt into his celebrated strikeout dance a moment before the umpire declined the call, challenged the verdict, lost it, then struck out Nuñez in earnest moments later and danced a second time, unrepentant. 'I didn't want to look bad, so I had to lock back in,' he explained. The Mets have won seven of ten; the Senators go home lamenting the ninth.

THE LONE STAR NINE CLIMB OUT OF AN EARLY HOLE AND INTO THE FINAL CHAIR: RANGERS 5, MACKMEN 3

Bolte's sixth homer, a three-run affair in the second, staked the Athletics to the early advantage, but Texas answered with patience: a run in the fifth, three in the sixth, and a ninth-inning tally for insurance, Langford's fourteenth homer and two runs batted in leading the charge. Gore ground through five and two-thirds for the victory, Junis — activated from the injured list that very day — bridged an inning without incident, and Latz closed the final two frames for his four-and-twentieth save. The victory snaps a four-game Texas skid and, by the morning's arithmetic, leaves the Rangers in possession of the American's final wild-card chair at two games below the break-even line — with five clubs within a single game of their seat.

DETMERS STRIKES OUT ELEVEN AND WASTES NOT A PITCH OF IT: HALOS 1, ROYALS 0

The finest pitching of the day belonged to Anaheim, where Reid Detmers carried a whitewash through eight innings upon two hits, eleven strikeouts, and not a solitary walk, running his season's count to a hundred and seven-and-sixty, fourth in the American. His opposite Dobnak matched zeroes into the sixth, and the game's only run waited upon the eighth: Frazier doubled and Schanuel drove him home. Joyce closed the ninth with two strikeouts for the save. Kansas City's whole offense amounted to two singles and a stolen base; the Halos have won six of ten, which in the season's basement passes for a heater.

SIX IN THE FOURTH AND WEBB WALKS NO ONE: ORANGE AND BLACK 7, MILE HIGH NINE 1

The Bay men avenged Friday's indignity emphatically. Gilbert struck his sixth homer and drove in three runs, the fourth inning yielded six San Francisco tallies in all, Devers doubled — his nine-and-twentieth two-bagger — and drove in another, and Logan Webb did the professional's work: six innings, four hits, one run, seven strikeouts, and not a walk issued. Lorenzen absorbed his eleventh defeat, and Colorado's brief winning streak perishes at three. The two westernmost cellars conclude their series this afternoon, with the draft arithmetic — the connoisseur's pennant race — hanging in the balance.

The arithmetic desk begs the reader's particular attention this morning, for the American's final wild-card chair has become the most contested furniture in baseball: Texas holds it at one-and-sixty wins against three-and-sixty defeats — two games below the waterline — with Toronto, Baltimore, and Detroit each half a game astern, Minnesota and Cleveland a single game back, and Seattle three. Six claimants within a game of the seat, and not one of them above .500. This day's card runs to fifteen engagements, and two command the front row: at Wrigley Field, a quarter past three Eastern and broadcast to the whole nation upon ABC, young Báez seeks his encore in the rubber match, Dobbins opposite Cabrera; and at Dodger Stadium at ten past four, the National's two finest ledgers settle their series, Henderson and his 2.88 for Milwaukee against Skubal and his 2.93 for Los Angeles, the gap between the clubs standing at two games. The early shift offers Weathers against Cease — he of the 2.40, second-best in the American — at Toronto at 1:37, wherein the Canadians may climb further still. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts