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. 42 · Wednesday, the Nineteenth of August, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Reporting 15 contests from the day prior.

The Game of the Day

TWO-AND-TWENTY TO NOTHING: MILWAUKEE ADMINISTERS THE MOST LOPSIDED WHITEWASH THE MODERN GAME HAS EVER SET DOWN — BREWERS 22, MARINERS 0

A taut one-run affair through four innings dissolves into the widest margin in Brewers history and the worst defeat in all the Seattle annals — one-and-twenty runs across the final four turns at bat, four home runs from the club that hits the fewest, a nine-run eighth against an infielder pressed into pitching, the rookie Lara's first career homer, and poor Rodríguez throwing a live ball into the stands with the count of outs at two

For four full innings Tuesday night in Milwaukee the affair stood one to nothing, and that lone run had been earned by scraping: Jake Bauers, waved home on William Contreras' two-out single in the first, arrived to find Raleigh barring the door, jarred the ball loose in a scrambling slide, and dove back to touch the plate while the on-deck man screamed directions. It was, the wires observed, quintessential Brewers baseball — and it bore no resemblance whatever to what followed. Christian Yelich's three-run homer crowned a five-run fifth and chased the Seattle starter Bryce Miller; David Hamilton struck a three-run blow and Bauers a two-run one in a five-run sixth; and by evening's end Milwaukee had scored one-and-twenty runs over its final four innings at bat. The particulars belong to the record-keepers now: the widest margin of victory in the franchise's history, eclipsing a twenty-to-nothing affair at Pittsburgh in 2010; a tie of the club record of two-and-twenty runs, set at Toronto in 1992 when Yount and Molitor still shared a clubhouse; and a tie for the most lopsided shutout in the major leagues since June of 1887 — the largest ever administered at home in the Modern Era, the twenty-two-to-nothing jobs of 1975 Pittsburgh and 2004 Cleveland having both been done on the road. 'I'd like to order that every night,' said the Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy, a man not famous for gluttony.

The eighth inning graduated, in the phrase of one chronicler, from lopsided to lunacy. Seattle surrendered the pitching to the infielder Leo Rivas, and Milwaukee extracted nine runs from him, among them the first home run of Luis Lara's major-league life, struck with two men aboard. 'Maybe we'll have a celebration for his second career homer when he gets one off an actual pitcher,' offered Yelich, magnanimously. 'But they all count.' The inning's darkest ornament belonged to Julio Rodríguez, who settled under Yelich's bases-loaded fly to center, made the catch cleanly — and chucked the baseball into the stands, having misplaced the count of outs. It was the second out. The magistrates awarded every runner two bases, a twenty-to-nothing lead thereby became one-and-twenty, and Lara singled home the last of it. Milwaukee then dispatched its catcher Gary Sánchez to pitch the ninth, and Seattle could not score even upon him: five hits on the night, a twelfth whitewash suffered this season, and the worst defeat in the whole history of the franchise, surpassing a twenty-one-to-one affair at Houston in 2019. 'This was an embarrassing loss,' said Miller, declining the comfort of euphemism. 'We got our butts kicked.'

The ledger dresses the absurdity in its consequences. Harrison took the decision, his tenth victory against three defeats; the four home runs came from a club that, even after the barrage, owns the fewest in the major leagues at a hundred and seventeen — the game's humblest sluggers, choosing one night to spend a season's allowance. This paper observed Monday that no club had earned its rest more honestly than Milwaukee after seventeen games in seventeen days; thus refreshed, they returned to work at eight-and-seventy wins against eight-and-forty defeats, the finest ledger in baseball, two and a half games clear of Los Angeles and four and a half ahead of the Cubs in the Central. Seattle, which arrived in Wisconsin fresh from taking a series in Houston, departs the evening three games from the American's final wild-card chair — and is obliged, by the almanac's mercies, to return to the very same premises this evening.

News Around the League

THE MILESTONE DESK: OHTANI'S THIRTIETH, SIX SEASONS RUNNING — AND THE SLEEPING ARM STIRS BESIDES

Two dispatches from Denver concerning the same remarkable person. First, the bat: Shohei Ohtani opened the third inning Tuesday by depositing a hanging curveball from Ryan Feltner four hundred and forty-eight feet away, a two-run blow that was his thirtieth home run of the season — the sixth consecutive campaign in which he has reached that plateau. The man simply does not miss the thin air: his hitting streak at Coors Field now runs to two-and-twenty games, within which he has batted better than .400 with ten homers. The scribes add that his hundred nine-and-thirty home runs as a Dodger are the fourth-most any man has hit in his first three seasons with a club, trailing only McGwire's hundred nine-and-fifty in St. Louis, Rodriguez's hundred six-and-fifty in Texas, and Ruth's hundred eight-and-forty in the Bronx — company that requires no introduction. Second, the arm: as yesterday's infirmary column forecast, Ohtani ascended a bullpen mound before the game and threw five-and-thirty pitches, pronouncing the session good with an upturned thumb. 'I could see the next step being him pitching live,' said the manager Dave Roberts, though no timetable attends the man's return to a major-league mound, where he has not stood since the third of July. His pitching ledger waits patiently: a 1.79 earned-run figure across fourteen starts.

THE ROOKIE OF THIRTY YEARS: OKAMOTO'S FIVE-AND-TWENTIETH BREAKS A TORONTO RECORD OLDER THAN SOME TEAMMATES

Let the Toronto ledger be amended: Kazuma Okamoto is now the greatest rookie home-run hitter in the history of the Blue Jays. His five-and-twentieth of the season — a four-hundred-and-forty-two-foot detonation of a Steven Matz changeup in the fifth inning at the Trop, the second-longest blow of his year — broke the tie he had held with Eric Hinske, whose four-and-twenty in 2002 had stood as the franchise mark for four-and-twenty years. The homer also snapped a sixteen-game drought for the big infielder, who arrived this season after eleven campaigns in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball and greets the very word 'rookie' with a shrug. 'I'm 30 years old, so yeah, tough to say,' he allowed, through the club's interpreter. His manager John Schneider required no interpreter: 'He did not miss that ball.' The particulars of the ten-run evening it adorned are rendered upon the card below.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: SODERSTROM'S SEASON ENDS UNDER THE KNIFE, MARTE FLIES WEST, ADELL'S KNEE, AND GAUSMAN'S UNGLOVED HAND

The gravest entry belongs to the Athletics: Tyler Soderstrom, lately consigned to the injured list with an impingement of the left hip, will now have the joint repaired by surgery, and his season is concluded. In Boston, the Marte affair this paper has chronicled since Tuesday's edition acquires a medical chapter: Ketel Marte, still on the restricted list and still unheard-from by his manager — 'I think he's headed back to Phoenix to get some exams done on his left knee,' offered Torey Lovullo, whose information came secondhand — has departed for Arizona and a magnetic examination of the knee that has troubled him since the All-Star pause, or so the shortstop Perdomo reports from their text correspondence. In Cleveland, Jo Adell's finest night as a professional came at a price: the man fouled a ball off his left knee moments before launching the evening's grandest homer, was withdrawn in the eighth with a contusion, and is accounted day-to-day. And at Wrigley, Kevin Gausman's first home start in Cub flannels — the very assignment this paper's bill of fare posted yesterday — ended in the fifth inning by order of a massive cramp in the thumb of his glove hand, of all instruments. 'He's doing well,' reported the manager Counsell, and the card below records how handsomely his relief was covered.

THE ARITHMETIC DESK EYES A CROWN OF THREE: ALVAREZ LEADS EVERY AMERICAN TABLE THAT MATTERS

The morning's leaderboards contain a quiet astonishment that the desk feels obliged to shout: Yordan Alvarez of Houston stands first in the American League in batting average at .318, first in home runs at six-and-thirty, and first in runs batted in at eight-and-eighty — the three tables that together compose the batter's Triple Crown, a feat last managed in the American League by Miguel Cabrera in 2012. The pursuit is genuine on every front: Simpson of Tampa Bay bats .310, Caminero of the same address has five-and-thirty homers, and Dingler of Detroit has driven in two-and-eighty. Six weeks remain, and the desk makes no promises — it merely notes that the sternest irony in baseball currently resides in Houston, where the league's most complete batsman soars while his club, as the card below relates, has lost three running and sits precisely at the break-even line, clinging to the West by a single game.

THE ALMANAC DESK: A TUGBOAT STEAMS INTO CLEVELAND HARBOR THIS EVENING

The connoisseurs of nomenclature are directed to Progressive Field at 6:40 this evening, where the Giants will hand the ball to Matt 'Tugboat' Wilkinson, a twenty-three-year-old left-hander of six feet one and two hundred fifty pounds, for his major-league debut — against the very organization that drafted him in the tenth round of 2023 and traded him away this May in the Patrick Bailey commerce. The man's celebrated weapon is a fastball his admirers call the Invisiball: it averages a mere 89.9 miles per hour, and by the sorcery of a low release point it held Triple-A batsmen to a .172 figure this season. 'He's not scared,' testified his manager Tony Vitello, and the nickname's provenance is equally honest — bestowed at the Little League World Series by his father's best friend, and explained by the bearer thus: 'I wasn't moving too fast around the bases growing up.' The Herald, which has chronicled slower vessels doing heavier work, wishes the Tugboat fair seas.

The Rest of the Card

GRISHAM DRIVES IN EVERY NEW YORK RUN, AND RODÓN RETURNS AS PROMISED: PINSTRIPES 3, BALTIMORES 1

The return this paper's bill of fare posted yesterday was duly made: Carlos Rodón, restored from the injured list to the rotation turn Fried vacated, gave the Yankees four innings of one-run ball in his first appearance since early July. The offense was a one-man operation. Trent Grisham struck his seventeenth homer in the third and, with two aboard in the seventh, lined a single to center that cashed both — all three New York runs on the night, running his season's count to four-and-fifty driven in. Coby Mayo's seventeenth homer supplied the whole of the Baltimore reply, and the Baltimore starter Shane Baz deserved better than his ledger shows: ten strikeouts across six and a third innings, and a fall to four-and-thirteen regardless. De los Santos took the decision in relief and Bednar closed for his eight-and-twentieth save. The Pinstripes have won two running and hold the American's first wild-card chair; the Birds slip a full game from the last one.

THE CHANT NEEDED NO TENTH INNING THIS TIME: CUBS 4, WHITE STOCKINGS 3, AND BREGMAN SUPPLIES THE SECOND WALK-OFF IN AS MANY NIGHTS

The sequel wasted no time announcing itself. Pete Crow-Armstrong, whose leadoff-and-walk-off masterpiece this paper celebrated in yesterday's columns, greeted the White Sox again with a first-inning homer — his one-and-thirtieth, making him but the thirteenth man since 1900 to open his club's next game with a homer after ending the previous one with a walk-off blast, and the first ever to do so when the prior game had begun with his homer too. Busch followed with his fifteenth, Murakami answered with his nine-and-twentieth for the visitors amid a comeback that put the South Side ahead three-to-two, and the late innings ran to form: Bregman tied it with a two-out single in the seventh, the visitors pointedly walked Crow-Armstrong with first base open in the ninth, and Bregman made them regret the courtesy with a single to center — the Cubs' thirteenth walk-off victory of the season, one shy of the franchise record set in 1930. Behind Gausman's cramped exit, chronicled in the infirmary column, Javier Assad threw three scoreless innings to make it all possible. 'Javy put the game back in order for us,' said Counsell. The rubber match arrives at 2:20 this afternoon.

MORENO'S GRAND SLAM LASTS THREE BATTERS: BOSTONS 9, SNAKES 4, WITH RUTSCHMAN'S FIRST FENWAY THUNDER THE ANSWER

For one half-inning the abandoned Arizonas had their evening: down three-to-nothing in the third, Gabriel Moreno cleared the center-field wall with the bases loaded — four runs at a stroke and a four-to-three lead. It survived precisely three batters. Adley Rutschman, in his second home game since the deadline commerce that brought him from Baltimore for a trio of Boston's finest prospects, mauled a two-strike fastball over the right-field foul pole — his first home run in Boston colors, ending a drought of seven-and-twenty games, and the ignition of six unanswered runs. The catcher, who had earlier yanked a two-run single for the game's first tallies, was received in the dugout with the club's traditional Wally mask over his head. 'Not a great visual, and it doesn't smell that bad. I promise,' he reported. Mickey Gasper homered for the second consecutive night — this paper recorded his first of the year only yesterday — and drove in two more; Rutschman finished with three runs batted in; Suarez took the decision. The Snakes have lost three running, their second baseman is on an airplane, and the wild-card arithmetic grows no kinder.

TEN RUNS AT THE TROP, AND THE GHOSTS ARE PAID OFF: TORONTOS 10, SUNSHINE NINE 5

Whatever tribulations the Trop has lately dealt Toronto were answered with interest in the series opener. Alejandro Kirk did the foreman's share — a two-run homer in the third, a run-scoring single in the fourth, three driven in altogether — while Springer and Sánchez had opened the account in the first and Okamoto's record-breaking blast, saluted in the news columns, made it seven. Josh Smith added a two-run homer in the seventh for garnish. The ten runs were Toronto's most since the eighth of July, a span of three-and-thirty games, and they were scored upon the league's best club: the Rays, at five-and-seventy wins, remain the American's class but have now dropped the opener of a set they can ill afford to give away. Soriano collected his tenth victory; the defeat fell to Martinez, whose ledger of twelve-and-four had been among the league's most gleaming. The Jays sit half a game from the final wild-card chair, and their ten-run mood travels well.

ADELL'S CAREER NIGHT LIGHTS THE LAKEFRONT: FOREST CITY NINE 8, BAY NINE 1

The evening's loudest crack came early in Cleveland. Jo Adell, having just fouled a pitch off his own left knee hard enough to summon the trainer, stayed in the box and launched the next mistake four hundred and fifty-five feet into the upper reaches of the left-field bleachers — a three-run first-inning blow, the longest homer of his career and the longest at Progressive Field this season. He was not finished: run-scoring singles in the second and fourth ran his evening to a career-high six runs batted in before the knee, as the infirmary column relates, ushered him out in the eighth. Bryce Eldridge's fourteenth homer was the visitors' entire offense. The victory was Cleveland's first step into a schedule of pillowy softness — the Guardians, nine-and-nineteen since the All-Star pause, spend the rest of August against the league's basement — and Griffin took the decision comfortably. The Bay nine send the Tugboat to the mound this evening, as the almanac desk relates, in search of gentler waters.

TWO HOMERS, ONE GRAND LARCENY: PADRES 5, METS 2, AND TATIS ROBS LINDOR WHERE HE LEARNED THE TRADE

Fernando Tatis Jr. spent his boyhood summers in Queens, a quarter-hour from Citi Field, hitting balls over an apartment-complex wall and vaulting after them; Tuesday he presented the finished craft. He struck the game's first pitch four hundred and fifty-two feet into the second deck, added an opposite-field two-run homer in the fifth — his fifteenth — and in between committed the theft that had the premises buzzing: a full-stretch leap at the right-field corner, glove beyond the fence, hat flying, to strip Francisco Lindor of a grand slam. He let the stadium wonder a moment before flipping the ball from glove to bare hand. 'It's definitely a dream come true as a kid,' he said. 'Man, that's why we play this game.' Machado added his four-and-twentieth homer in the ninth, Ray collected his eleventh victory, and Miller closed for his one-and-thirtieth save against homers from Torrens and Robert Jr. The San Diegos have won eight of ten and hold the National's final chair with both fists; the Mets are left to contemplate the wall in right.

THE ROOKIE'S FIRST HOMER LASTS FIVE MINUTES, AND CRUZ ANSWERS WITH AUTHORITY: BUCCANEERS 4, BENGALS 1

The young Brett Callahan, whose summons this paper has chronicled almost daily — a triple Sunday, a two-run single Monday — struck the first home run of his major-league life in the fifth at Pittsburgh, and Detroit led at last. The lead survived half an inning. Oneil Cruz answered in the home fifth with a two-run homer, his fifteenth; Horwitz singled home a third; and Reynolds added an eighth-inning insurance run, his six-and-sixtieth driven in. Ashcraft worked the decision for his thirteenth victory against five defeats, and Montgomery closed for his fifth save. The defeat drops the Bengals out of the wild-card knot they shared but a day ago, a full game back now; the Buccaneers, at two-and-sixty wins, play the finale at 12:35 this day with Skenes taking the ball — rested, as this paper reported Sunday, expressly for this assignment.

WINN PROVIDES, LEAHY DEFENDS, CINCINNATI STARVES: MOUND CITY NINE 3, REDS 0

The fourth meeting of the set at Cincinnati was a study in sufficiency. Masyn Winn opened the scoring with his fifth homer in the fifth inning, came round again in the seventh upon Fermín's double, and Báez lofted home the third with a sacrifice fly in the eighth; Leahy made the arithmetic stand up for his tenth victory against four defeats, and O'Brien closed the whitewash for his two-and-thirtieth save, the fattest count in the National. The Redlegs, blanked a night after their walk-off jubilation, have the cold comfort of Burns — fourteen victories against two, a 2.47 figure — taking the ball in this evening's finale. The Mound City men have won seven of ten and sit three games from the final chair, with Arizona to climb past besides; the desk merely reports the terrain.

BELL CHALLENGES THE UMPIRE, THEN THE FENCES: TWINS 4, ATLANTA 1

The decisive stroke at Target Field was preceded by a shrewd piece of jurisprudence. Down no balls and two strikes in the first — or so the plate umpire ruled — Josh Bell appealed the second strike to the machines and won, and from the friendlier count of one-and-one drove a splitter into the upper deck in right-center with Jeffers aboard: his seventeenth homer, a twenty-first consecutive game reaching base, and all the runs Matthews would strictly need. Jeffers doubled home two more in the eighth for comfort, Gómez closed for his nineteenth save, and Drake Baldwin's one-and-twentieth homer stood as Atlanta's whole account. The Twins, swept by Philadelphia not a week ago, stand one victory from sweeping the East's leaders in return — such is the season's geometry — and lurk half a game from the American's final chair. Atlanta has dropped two running, though its cushion in the East remains five and a half games thick.

THE SIXTH INNING TURNS ON TWO FAMILIAR HANDS: BROTHERLY LOVE NINE 6, MARLINS 4, AND THE STREAK RUNS TO FIVE

Miami led by two in the sixth at Philadelphia, whereupon the club's steadiest tandem went to work. Alec Bohm doubled home Turner — the man's two-and-twentieth two-bagger — and Bryson Stott lined a two-run single behind him for the lead; Crawford singled home a fourth for margin, and when Hernández drew Miami within one in the eighth, Schwarber restored the distance with a run-scoring single, his four-and-seventieth driven in. Griffin Conine's fourteenth homer and a pair of scrappy middle-inning rallies had built the Miami advantage; it did not survive the arithmetic. McFarlane took the decision, and Raley recorded the first save of his season. Philadelphia has won five running — its longest surge of the summer — and holds the National's second chair by a single game; the Fish sink four back, their fine August work coming undone in the division's least forgiving address.

THREE IN THE NINTH, AND WITT SUPPLIES THE HANDSHAKE: ROYALS 4, ATHLETICS 3

For eight innings Kansas City managed nothing against the visiting pitching — White and McNeil had singled home runs and Muncy walked with the sacks full for a three-to-nothing Athletics lead — and then the ninth arrived with its own opinions. Pasquantino's seventh-inning double had cracked the door; now Tyler Tolbert lined a two-run single to level the affair, and Bobby Witt Jr. followed with the walk-off knock that emptied the home dugout. The victory, Kansas City's third running, went to Duran in relief; the Athletics, whose morning brought the grim Soderstrom news related in the infirmary column, have dropped both ends of the Missouri set thus far and get one more chance at 7:40 this evening. Witt's evening also included his customary larceny — the man sits at three-and-thirty stolen bases, second in the American — and the Royals, whatever their station, are enjoying August more than most.

QUANTRILL THROWS SEVEN BLANK FRAMES AND TEXAS TAKES THE CHAIR ALONE: RANGERS 5, SENATORS 0

The tenancy dispute the desk has chronicled all week was settled, for one morning at least, in Arlington. Cal Quantrill delivered seven scoreless innings while his cotenants lost elsewhere, and Texas, at two-and-sixty wins, holds the American's final wild-card chair in sole possession. The offense required no heroics: a run cashed on Burger's double-play grounder in the first, Justin Foscue's eighth homer in the second, and a three-run third assembled from a replay-upheld fielder's choice, a bases-loaded walk to Foscue, and Freeman's run-scoring single. Washington, held to nothing, has now dropped four running, and the evening's finale at 8:05 offers Cavalli — ten victories, a 3.36 figure — as the visitors' best argument for arresting the slide. The desk notes, as it must, that the chair's occupant remains two games below the break-even line; the American's wild-card race continues to be conducted entirely in the basement.

THE ROOKIE KLASSEN THROWS SEVEN BLANKS AT THE LEADERS: ANAHEIM NINE 3, HOUSTONS 1

The West's leading club was handled with disrespect bordering on the educational. The rookie George Klassen dealt seven scoreless innings at Daikin Park, and Anaheim built its modest sufficiency around him: Schanuel's run-scoring single in the third, Josh Lowe's tenth homer in the fourth, Neto's run-scoring double in the fifth. Cam Smith's seventeenth homer in the eighth spared Houston the whitewash, and Joyce closed for his third save. The consequences outweigh the score: the Houstons have lost three running and stand this morning at three-and-sixty wins against three-and-sixty defeats — precisely at the waterline — their lead in the West shaved to a single game over Texas, while their great batsman Alvarez, as the arithmetic desk relates above, chases a crown of three largely unassisted. The Angels, for their part, play the spoiler's part with evident relish.

OHTANI'S MILESTONE, CASTRO'S DEFIANCE, AND FOUR OUTS FOR SCOTT: BOYS IN BLUE 7, COLORADO 6

The evening at Coors held a milestone, a rally, and a sweat. The milestone is toasted in the news columns — Ohtani's thirtieth, a two-run affair in the third. The middle innings belonged to the visitors' doubles brigade: Tucker — whose home-park travails this paper examined Sunday — lined one into the right-field corner for a run, Teoscar Hernández doubled home Tucker behind him, Freeman lofted a sacrifice fly and later singled home a seventh. But Colorado declined to be scenery: Willi Castro struck his fourteenth homer, singled home another in the ninth, and the Rockies clawed from six-to-one down to within a single run before Tanner Scott — restored to the closing post that very day, Edwin Díaz having gone to the fifteen-day list — recorded the final four outs for his seventeenth save. 'I just wait for the phone to ring, I don't care when,' said Scott. Lauer took the decision. The Dodgers own the best road ledger in baseball at nine-and-thirty wins against five-and-twenty defeats, and their mastery of this particular address — forty victories in fifty-one meetings with Colorado since 2023 — proceeds unembarrassed.

Seven clubs chase the American's final chair, and this morning it belongs to Texas alone: the Rangers, at two-and-sixty wins against four-and-sixty defeats, seized sole possession by winning while both of yesterday's cotenants lost — the Twins and Blue Jays now half a game astern, the Guardians, Orioles, and Tigers a full game, Seattle three, and the whole company still below the waterline. In the National the seating holds: the Cubs keep the first chair by six games, Philadelphia the second by one, San Diego the third, with Arizona two back of that last chair, St. Louis three, and Miami four. This day's card runs again to the full fifteen engagements. The bill of fare: at Pittsburgh at 12:35, Skenes — rested for this very assignment, as the paper reported Sunday — receives the Detroits, opposite Jobe; at Wrigley at 2:20, the crosstown finale, wherein Crow-Armstrong may seek a third consecutive game opened with a homer, a thing done at greatest length by Brady Anderson across four straight in 1996; at Cleveland at 6:40, the Tugboat's maiden voyage, as the almanac desk relates; at the Trop at 6:40, Scherzer takes the ball for Toronto opposite Rasmussen and his twelve victories; and at Milwaukee at 7:40, Seattle returns to the scene of the crime, which the statutes of the schedule-makers apparently require. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts