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. 43 · Thursday, the Twentieth of August, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Reporting 15 contests from the day prior.

The Game of the Day

'TWO NUKES IN THE BOTTOM OF THE NINTH': FLORES TIES IT, LOWE ENDS IT OFF THE FOUL POLE, AND THE CORSAIRS SINK THE TIGERS, 4 TO 3

A catcher who did not start the game homers twice from the bench — the second of them to level the affair in the ninth against the great Jansen — whereupon Brandon Lowe's drive drifts toward foul territory, strikes the pole, and settles the evening at a stroke: the first time since 2014 that Pittsburgh has struck the tying and winning blows by homer in the same late inning, on a night the rested Skenes could not command and won anyway

Kenley Jansen has saved more games than every pitcher who ever lived save two, and Wednesday evening at Pittsburgh the whole weight of that eminence could not buy him three outs. The Detroits had done the patient work: the rookie Jackson Jobe outpitched the celebrated Paul Skenes — who was rested expressly for this assignment, as this paper reported Sunday, and repaid the courtesy by wandering the strike zone for four and a third innings, walking four — and a three-to-one lead, assembled from McGonigle's sacrifice fly and double and Gleyber Torres' run-scoring single, was carried carefully to the late innings. Then Rafael Flores Jr., a catcher who had begun the evening on the bench and warmed himself in the batting tunnel against the mere possibility of employment, pinch-hit in the seventh and deposited a hanging cutter from Waguespack over the left-field wall. And in the ninth, with one out and Jansen dealing his famous cutter, Flores confessed afterward to a simple plan — 'ambush' it — and executed the ambush four hundred and thirty-one feet, bat aloft, the game level at three.

The finishing stroke belonged to Brandon Lowe, and to the architecture. The veteran second baseman lifted a fly ball deep down the right-field line, watched the spin carry it toward disgrace — 'all he could do,' the wire observed, 'was pray and watch' — and heard it clang off the foul pole instead. 'I think the wind pushed it back over a little bit for me,' Lowe allowed, in the tone of a man declining to examine a gift. His seven-and-twentieth homer of the year closed the account at four to three, and the record-keepers were waiting at the door: not since the second of May, 2014, when Pedro Álvarez and Starling Marte did the honors, had Pittsburgh struck the game-tying and game-winning homers in the same ninth-or-later inning, and Flores stands as the first Pirate since at least 1900 with two homers in a game he did not start. 'That was a Cinderella story,' said the young man, sensibly. 'Tie game, homer walk-off. That's what you dream of as a little kid.'

Skenes, who had struck out five and left without a decision, claimed a curious clairvoyance: 'I wasn't surprised. I wasn't expecting it to be two nukes in the bottom of the ninth. But I had a feeling that we were going to win that game.' The ledger distributes the consequences evenhandedly. The relief corps of Doval, Weaver, and Montgomery held the deficit at one until the thunder arrived, Montgomery collecting the victory a night after collecting the save; Jansen is charged with his fifth blown save and a fall to three-and-five; and the Corsairs, at three-and-sixty wins, have their second consecutive series in hand while pressing their noses against the glass of the National's wild-card window. Detroit's arithmetic is grimmer still: a second straight defeat leaves the club a game and a half from the American's final chair, which has, as the desk note relates, changed tenants yet again.

News Around the League

THE FRONT-OFFICE DESK: COHEN KEEPS HIS ARCHITECT BUT AUDITS THE BLUEPRINTS — 'TOO MUCH RISK'

The proprietor of the Metropolitans has rendered his verdict on a curious season, and it is a lawyer's verdict: every decision defensible, the sum indictable. Steve Cohen reiterated Wednesday his commitment to David Stearns, the club's president of baseball operations, through next year's campaign — while allowing that the winter's grand renovation carried 'too much risk.' The particulars of that renovation are well known to this desk: a new coaching staff installed beneath the manager Mendoza, Brandon Nimmo traded to Texas for the second baseman Marcus Semien, and Pete Alonso permitted to walk to free agency and into Baltimore colors — whence, as the card below relates, he nearly haunted the Bronx men this very night. 'When you add new players, a coaching staff and adding players with an injured history and you add risk upon risk,' Cohen reasoned, 'it doesn't mean it has to turn out bad... I see individual decisions that make perfect sense. But when you add it all up, did he take too much risk?' The audit arrives, it must be said, just as the books have begun to balance: the Amazins have won eleven of fifteen since the deadline, the rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing supplying the spark, and Cohen permitted himself the small optimism of a man watching young talent arrive ahead of schedule. 'Winning is better than losing,' the owner observed, a proposition this paper has been unable to refute.

THE CLOSER'S OFFICE CHANGES ITS NAMEPLATE IN LOS ANGELES: DÍAZ'S NECK PASSES ITS EXAMINATION, BUT SCOTT KEEPS THE NINTH

The succession this paper reported yesterday is now formalized. Tanner Scott, restored to the closing post upon Edwin Díaz's consignment to the fifteen-day list, is the Dodgers' man for the stretch run by his manager's plain declaration: 'It's easy to say that he's our best reliever and most consistent reliever,' said Dave Roberts. 'I certainly see him as our closer.' The left-hander answered the proclamation Wednesday night with a perfect tenth inning at Denver — eight pitches, seven of them strikes, a day after throwing seven-and-twenty — for his eighteenth save, and his August ledger reads one run allowed in eight appearances. As for Díaz, the news is the best available to a man on the shelf: the magnetic examination of his troubled neck found nothing structural — 'It went well, and there were no findings,' Roberts reported. 'It was a best-case scenario' — though no timetable attends his return, and September is spoken of in the conditional. The wires note besides that the rotation grows crowded with returning eminences, Glasnow's restoration described as near at hand, while Ohtani, as this paper chronicled Tuesday, continues his own long march back to the mound. The champions, in short, are assembling their October inventory.

THE HERALD SALUTES A MAN WHO WOULD NOT STAY DOWN: TOLMAN REACHES THE MAJORS AT LAST, FIVE SURGERIES AND ONE TERRIBLE NIGHT LATER

The freshest name on the Washington roster carries the season's best story. Erik Tolman, a left-handed reliever of seven-and-twenty years, was summoned from Triple-A Rochester this week by way of the traditional ruse — his coaches inquired whether he might fancy winter ball, then whether he might fancy pitching in Texas, which is where the big club happened to be — and the man's path to that little joke beggars belief. Twice his elbow was rebuilt by the Tommy John procedure, once at Arizona State and once more before he had fairly returned. Then, on a night he can date without hesitation — the second of August, 2023 — he hopped the foul line on his way to the mound at Single-A Fredericksburg, caught his spike, and came down into catastrophe: every ligament of the knee torn, the hamstring pulled from the bone, a nerve ruptured, the feeling gone from his foot, and an emergency room where, for five endless minutes, the physicians discussed the possibility of taking the lower leg. 'I've been through a lot,' he offered Wednesday, in the understatement of the young season. 'I was speechless... I haven't stopped smiling today or yesterday.' The Herald, which traffics daily in walk-offs and whitewashes, notes that no score on this morning's card required more of a man than that summons did.

THE PROSPECT DESK READS THE NEW TOP HUNDRED: A BOSTON SHORTSTOP ASCENDS TO THIRD, AND BALTIMORE'S PRIZE FROM THE RUTSCHMAN COMMERCE GATHERS SPEED

The Pipeline scribes have refreshed their register of the game's hundred finest prospects, and the desk extracts three names for the morning reader. First, Franklin Arias, the twenty-year-old Boston shortstop, now third-ranked in all the minors: the young man has struck three-and-twenty home runs this season — more than his first three professional campaigns combined — and is spoken of as potentially the youngest Red Sock to debut since Devers in 2017. Second, Anthony Eyanson, now Baltimore's second-ranked jewel: the desk reminds its readers that he arrived in the very commerce that sent Adley Rutschman to Boston — whose first Fenway thunder this paper recorded only yesterday — and the right-hander has since added two full ticks to a fastball now touching a hundred, with a promising splitter besides. Third, Theo Gillen of Tampa Bay, twelfth on the register, a young batsman whom injury has harried since his schoolboy days and who, at last healthy, is showing why the scouts never wavered. The almanac reader will note the pleasing symmetry: the game's best club and its most patient sellers both grow richer while the season runs.

THE ALMANAC DESK: A FATHER CALLS HIS SHOT IN WISCONSIN, AND WILLIAMSPORT WAITS ON SUNDAY

Two entries, one of them possibly the finest piece of spectating of the year. At High-A Wisconsin on Wednesday, Sawyer Strosnider — Milwaukee's second-round selection of this summer, out of Texas Christian — struck the first home run of his professional life, a changeup dispatched to right-center at a hundred and three miles per hour off the bat. It was caught on the fly, beyond the wall, by his own father. Scott Strosnider, a restless man who tours the stadium during his son's games, had stationed himself on a private party deck and, challenged by its occupants, offered the following credentials: 'Well, my son's about to hit a home run that I'm going to catch.' The prophecy was fulfilled within the minute. 'Right place at the right time,' shrugged the son, who added a run-scoring double for good measure. Second entry, the long calendar: the Little League Classic arrives Sunday, the three-and-twentieth, when the Brewers and Braves repair to Williamsport to play before the smallest and sternest jury in baseball — the same two clubs, the schedule-makers note, who first meet at Milwaukee beginning Friday. The Herald commends the fixture annually and does so again.

The Rest of the Card

THE PALE HOSE ANSWER TWO WALK-OFFS WITH A WHITEWASH: WHITE SOX 3, CUBS 0, AND URQUIDY SPINS A RELIC OF 1991

Twice walked off at Wrigley, the visitors closed the crosstown engagement by permitting nothing whatever. Sean Newcomb opened with two clean innings, whereupon José Urquidy — a man who was not in the organization when these clubs first met in May — struck out eight of the first nine outs he recorded and finished with six scoreless innings on eight-and-sixty pitches, the first White Sox relief turn of such length, so many strikeouts, and no runs since Melido Perez in 1991. 'The secondary pitches, I was spinning the ball well,' said the author. 'I think it was a little confusing for the hitters.' Benintendi singled home the first run in the sixth and Braden Montgomery doubled home two in the eighth before 40,086 souls; Taylor fanned two in the ninth for his seventh save. The North Siders were blanked, and the reader will note what died with the shutout: Crow-Armstrong's pursuit of a third consecutive game opened with a homer, a bid this paper posted on yesterday's bill of fare. The Central's leaders depart with the finale and a cushion of four games; the rivalry, as ever, kept no standings and took no prisoners.

THE NORTH STARS COMPLETE THE SWEEP AND TAKE THE CHAIR: TWINS 6, TOMAHAWK NINE 4

Three days ago Minnesota was licking Philadelphia-administered wounds; this morning, by the geometry only August can draw, the Twins hold the American's final wild-card chair outright. The finale followed the set's pattern of patient larceny: Kody Clemens doubled home two with the bases loaded in the fifth — struck, be it noted, off the left-handed relief summoned expressly to retire him — and, after Atlanta had leveled the affair at four upon Lane Thomas' single, Albies' sacrifice fly, and a balk, Clemens singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh against another left-hander dispatched on the same errand, Brooks Lee adding a sixth for margin. The rookie Kaelen Culpepper, in the majors barely a fortnight, collected his first three-hit game — 'This kid can hit,' said the manager Shelton. 'We knew that when we drafted him' — and Yoendrys Gómez recorded his twentieth save, a third in as many days. Atlanta has dropped three running, its East cushion shaved to four and a half; the sweep's full arithmetic is rendered in the desk note.

THE DESERT NINE REFUSE TO DROWN AT FENWAY: DIAMONDBACKS 7, FENWAY MEN 6, IN TEN INNINGS

A club that had lost its second baseman to mystery and two games to Boston's bats finally planted its flag. Down five-to-two in the sixth after Nootbaar's two-run homer had crowned the visitors' rally, Boston answered through Mickey Gasper — a three-run blow, his third homer in as many nights, a progression this paper has tracked from its first — and the affair went level to the tenth. There Nolan Arenado, jammed, blooped a single to left that scored Moreno, Fernandez walked home a second with the sacks full, and the spare run proved the decisive one when Contreras' groundout drew Boston within a single tally and no closer. 'I couldn't be more proud of these guys,' said the manager Lovullo, whose week has been chronicled in these columns. 'Winning makes all the bad go away.' The victory snaps a three-game slide and pulls Arizona within one game of the National's final chair; as for the absent Marte, this day brings the magnetic examination of his knee and a sit-down with the general manager Hazen — the next chapter, the clubhouse insists, in a saga it has resolved to stop reading.

NOLA JOINS HAMELS IN THE CLUB LEDGER AND THE QUAKERS MAKE IT SIX RUNNING: PHILLIES 4, GULF STREAM NINE 1

The sweep of Miami was completed by the man the season had nearly written off. Aaron Nola worked seven innings of one-run ball, striking out eight — seven of the victims dispatched by the knuckle curve that has lately recovered its old cruelty — for his hundred-and-fourteenth career victory, drawing him level with Cole Hamels for sixth place upon the franchise's all-time table. 'Lately, I've been feeling pretty good, body and arm,' said the author, whose figure across his last five starts sits at 2.51. Arraez supplied the heavy blow, a two-run homer in the third; Turner doubled home a fourth upon an overturned tag play; Sanoja's sixth-inning homer stood as the whole Miami reply; and Duran closed for his eight-and-twentieth save. The defensive jewel belonged to Brandon Marsh, who scaled the left-field side wall like a boy on the Ashburn Alley climbing apparatus to steal a foul pop — aided, he cheerfully confessed, by a spectator who yanked his hat back at the final instant: 'I gotta thank the guy standing over there... I think he had first dibs on it before me.' Philadelphia has won six running, its longest surge of the year, and stands twelve games above the waterline for the first time; the wires add that Nestor Cortes has been fetched from outside the organization to thicken the rotation. The Fish depart four games from the final chair, swept and sinking.

THE OWNER'S FAVORITE ROOKIE SUPPLIES THE PROOF: FLUSHING NINE 4, PADS 2

Hours after the proprietor's musings on risk and youth, recorded in the news columns above, the youth in question filed his brief. Carson Benge struck a two-run homer in the fourth — his fifteenth — and the Flushing nine held the visitors at arm's length thereafter: Tatis' run-scoring double in the fifth drew San Diego within one, whereupon the eighth restored the margin on Bichette's fielder's choice, abetted by a throwing error, and Jared Young's run-scoring single. Sheets singled home a ninth-inning consolation before Senga closed the door. The decision went to the reliever Lavender, his ledger opening at one-and-nought, with King falling to eight-and-nine, and New York claims the series two games to one. The consequences travel west: the Friars keep the National's final chair, but their cushion over Arizona — whose extra-inning deliverance at Fenway is chronicled above — is this morning a single game, and the schedule offers no idle days in which to hide.

A LONG STRIKE, A STOLEN HOME, AND THE HIGHLANDERS TAKE THREE RUNNING: YANKEES 5, O'S 3

The evening at Camden Yards turned upon a ball that did not count. With the affair level in the seventh, Pete Alonso launched a towering drive down the line and set off hopping in the manner of Fisk, certain of the lead; the magistrates called it foul, the replay glass found the pictures inconclusive, and Alonso, howling at the heavens, was thereupon struck out by the untroubled Headrick. 'That's a really defining call in the game,' said the slugger, whose club's own after-hours survey — conducted, remarkably, by the New York replay men plotting the ball's path along the third-base line — concluded the call was correct. New York pressed the reprieve at once: Lombard Jr. legged out a bases-loaded infield single in the eighth and Chisholm Jr. raced home on a bounced splitter — 'We call that the rope-a-dope,' grinned the manager Boone — to break the tie for good. The particulars otherwise: Baltimore's Holliday stole home in the first, straight-up thievery of the oldest kind; Ben Rice answered with his four-and-thirtieth homer; Alonso's nine-and-twentieth had answered in the third, and Beavers' blow leveled matters in the sixth. Bednar closed for his nine-and-twentieth save, the Highlanders' third straight victory, while the O's slip a game and a half from the final chair.

THE TUGBOAT DOCKS, AND THE ORANGE AND BLACK STEAL A WHITEWASH: GIANTS 1, LAKE ERIE MEN 0

The maiden voyage this paper billed yesterday came off precisely to the chart. Matt 'Tugboat' Wilkinson, before some thirty friends and relations in captain's hats, opened the game with two scoreless innings against the very organization that drafted him and traded him away in the Bailey commerce — six of seven batters retired, the celebrated Invisiball cresting at a stately one-and-ninety miles per hour. 'It was definitely a long-awaited moment,' said the debutant. 'I'm happy it could happen here, of all places.' The heavier hauling fell to Adrian Houser, who followed with five-plus scoreless innings and a fastball touching eight-and-ninety — a 0.72 figure now across his last six appearances — for the victory, and Smith barred the ninth. The run, singular and sufficient, was Bericoto's fourth-inning single cashing Devers. The defeat was cruel bookkeeping for Cleveland's Messick, who owns the third-best earned-run figure in the American and fell regardless to nine-and-eight; his club, lately preparing to feast on a pillowy August schedule, was instead handed its own menu.

ELLY'S LIGHTNING, STEWART'S THUNDER, AND THE QUEEN CITY NINE COME FROM BEHIND: REDS 5, REDBIRDS 4

Cincinnati's evening displayed all three of its crown jewels in a single setting. Chase Burns, laboring without his sharpest edge, ground through five innings of two-run ball with eight strikeouts — 'Just grinding, mentally,' the All-Star allowed. Elly De La Cruz, ranging into short right-center as the relay man, threw a runner out at the plate at 99.2 miles per hour — the fourth-fastest infield assist the measuring machines have recorded, the man himself owning the first three — to keep a scoreless game scoreless. And the rookie Sal Stewart, with St. Louis ahead two-to-nothing in the sixth, struck a three-run homer, his seven-and-twentieth, to turn the ledger over entirely. The Redbirds made it interesting to the last: Jordan Walker's two-run blast in the ninth, his five-and-twentieth, drew within one before Pagán shut the door behind Moll's victory. The clubs part with the season's series concluded and their wild-card errands diverging — St. Louis three chairs' lengths from the last seat, Cincinnati playing, by its own admission, for seasons yet to come.

SEVEN EARLY, SIX SURRENDERED, ONE HELD: GULF COAST CLUB 7, CANADIANS 6

The league's best club continues to win in the manner of a man carrying soup down a staircase. Tampa Bay built a seven-to-one lead by the fourth — Yandy Díaz's two-run homer to open, then a five-run frame composed in the club's signature miniature: a fly ball the Toronto left fielder Sánchez misjudged into a two-run gift, back-to-back bunts by Walls and Simpson that each cashed a runner, and Caminero's groundout — whereupon Toronto spent five innings clawing it back through Kirk's homer and singles beyond counting, McAdoo's double drawing the visitors within one in the sixth. There the arithmetic froze: Rasmussen had done enough for his thirteenth victory, Baker barred the late innings, and the Rays had their eighteenth one-run decision of the season. 'If we win, it doesn't matter,' shrugged Rasmussen, a philosophy his club at six-and-seventy wins can afford. The defeat fell to Scherzer, whose ancient shoulders bore yesterday's billing opposite Rasmussen and now a ledger of one-and-six; the Jays slip a full game from the final chair.

SEVEN IN THE EIGHTH AND THE KANSAS CITY NINE MAKE IT FOUR RUNNING: ROYALS 9, MACKMEN 7

For five innings the wandering Athletics played the better game, McNeil twice driving home runs and a five-to-one lead in hand; then the Kansas City eighth arrived like weather. Seven runs crossed in the frame: Pasquantino — who had homered in the sixth and now singled home another — Isbel's knock, Collins' sacrifice fly to level the affair at five, and then the decisive stroke, John Rave's sharp three-run double that emptied the bases at a blow, Garcia singling home the seventh behind it. Muncy's two-run homer in the visitors' ninth dressed the final margin at nine-to-seven. The victory — Kansas City's fourth running, the liveliest August in the lower reaches of the American — went to the ancient Kimbrel, and the clubs conclude their set this afternoon with the basement's dignity, such as it is, at stake.

THE PAGE IS TURNED WITH SEVEN RUNS IN TWO INNINGS: PUGET SOUND MEN 7, SUDS MEN 5

The response to the worst defeat in a franchise's history was delivered before Milwaukee had fairly taken its seats. Seattle sent all nine men to the plate in the first — Canzone's two-run double and Ward's two-run single the heavy freight — and stacked three more in the second upon Rodríguez's sacrifice fly and Naylor's two-run knock, seven runs that chased the Brewers' starter May before the second inning was done. 'We had our teeth kicked in yesterday,' said Donovan, who reached base four times at the head of the order. 'So I guess it's just how you respond.' The response required defending: Joey Ortiz answered with a homer, a sacrifice fly, and a run-scoring single — three driven in — and Milwaukee crept within two by the eighth before Muñoz closed the door. Gilbert took his tenth victory, and the clubs settle the rubber match this very afternoon at the scene of Tuesday's crime. The Brewers, at eight-and-seventy wins, keep the game's best ledger by a game and a half over Los Angeles; Seattle departs the evening having proven, at minimum, that the page turns.

SEVENTEEN INNINGS OF NOTHING AND COUNTING: CAPITAL NINE 6, LONE STAR NINE 0, AS CAVALLI FANS ELEVEN

The finest pitching of the night was done in Arlington, where Cade Cavalli struck out his first seven outs entire — eight strikeouts by the end of the third, ten by the end of the fourth on a mere sixty pitches — and finished with eleven across six scoreless innings, his shutout streak now standing at seventeen. The register notes that since the franchise came to Washington, only Scherzer and Roark had fanned ten inside four innings; Cavalli, with his eighth consecutive quality start and a 2.12 figure across ten outings, is pitching himself into that company by the week. 'It's just a testament to the process,' said the author. 'Not riding the highs, not riding the lows.' The margin was supplied late: Tena's homer and small carpentry made it three, and Andrés Chaparro broke the evening open with a three-run blow in the seventh. For Texas the defeat was doubly dear — blanked at home, the Rangers surrender the wild-card chair they had held alone but a single morning, and slip two games behind Houston in the West besides. The almanac offers them one consolation: deGrom takes the ball this evening.

A DEBUT, A BULLPEN OF IRON, AND THE STREAK IS ENDED: HOUSTON NINE 3, HALOS 2

The West's leaders arrested their three-game slide by the narrowest sufficient means. The rookie Ethan Pecko, ninth on the club's prospect register, made his major-league debut and battled through three and two-thirds untidy innings — 'It was a little sloppy, but I felt like I battled,' the young man reported, with a candor the Herald salutes — whereupon the relief corps of Sousa, Blubaugh, Okert, Abreu, and Hader delivered five and a third scoreless innings, the continuation of a bullpen ledger that reads 2.21 since late July, the best figure in the game. Vázquez homered, Altuve doubled home the equalizer, and Cam Smith's sacrifice fly supplied the difference; Anaheim's runs had arrived on Guzman's double, awarded amid fan interference. Hader closed, Sousa took the decision, and Houston, at four-and-sixty wins, holds the West by two full games over silenced Texas — with the great Alvarez, whose pursuit of a crown of three this desk charted yesterday, scoring the tying run in workmanlike anonymity.

THE SOUVENIR-CATCHER TAKES THE VICTORY: ANGELENOS 6, MILE HIGH NINE 4, IN TEN, AND THE SWEEP IS NINE

The tenth inning at Coors belonged to the professionals: Freeman's sacrifice fly cashed Pages, Betts singled home Teoscar Hernández behind him — three hits and two driven in for the great shortstop — and Los Angeles had its ninth sweep of the season. The record-keepers append a curiosity: the Dodgers stand four-and-nothing in extra innings, the only club in baseball yet to lose one. Roki Sasaki, crowded into anonymity by his own rotation's eminence, supplied five innings of two-run ball — a 2.31 figure now since the All-Star pause — while Betts' sixteenth homer and Enrique Hernández's two-run blast had built the early lead; Moniak's twentieth leveled matters in the seventh before the extra frame. And the victory itself went to Kyle Hurt — the very reliever who, two nights ago in these columns, caught Ohtani's four-hundred-fifty-two-foot homer in his bullpen glove; the man has now collected a keepsake and a decision from the same week's residency. Scott's perfect eight-pitch tenth, saluted in the news columns, sealed it. The Angelenos, at seven-and-seventy wins with three straight victories and forty of them earned on the road — no club has more — depart Denver a game and a half behind Milwaukee for the game's best ledger; Colorado's consolation is that the caravan has finally left town.

The arithmetic desk reports that the American's final wild-card chair has now changed occupants on four consecutive mornings: Baltimore held it Monday, three tenants shared it Tuesday, Texas sat alone Wednesday, and this morning it belongs to Minnesota — the sweep of Atlanta complete, a half-game clear of the blanked Rangers, with Toronto a game astern, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Detroit a game and a half, and Seattle two and a half: the chair's fourth tenant in four editions of this paper, and still not one claimant at the break-even line. In the National the seating holds but tightens: the Cubs keep the first chair by six, Philadelphia the second by two, San Diego the third, with Arizona now a single game back of the Friars, St. Louis three, and Miami four. This day's card runs to nine engagements, the schedule-makers granting the rest of the company a travel day before Friday's full slate. The bill of fare: at Cincinnati at 12:40, McGreevy opposite Singer in the set's conclusion; at Cleveland at 1:10, Williams and his eleven victories receive the Giants; at the Trop at 1:10, Bieber takes the ball for Toronto opposite Seymour and his nine-and-three; at Kansas City at 2:10, the remarkable Dobnak — a 1.73 figure — opposes the Athletics; at Chicago at 2:10, the East-leading Braves arrive on the South Side for a cross-league examination of the Central's leaders, Holmes against Kay; at Milwaukee at 2:10, Seattle and the Brewers settle their rubber match, Kirby opposite Gasser; and in the evening, Cole at Baltimore at 6:35, deGrom against the streaking Cavalli's Washingtons at 8:05, and the Angels at Houston at 8:10. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts