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. 45 · Saturday, the Two-and-Twentieth of August, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Reporting 15 contests from the day prior.

The Game of the Day

SIX CONTESTS END WITH THE HOME NINE STORMING THE PLATE, AND THE GRANDEST FINISH BELONGS TO PHILADELPHIA: BOHM'S TRIPLE IN THE TENTH, PHILLIES 7, CARDINALS 6

On a night when fully six of the card's fifteen engagements were settled by the last man to swing, the Philadelphias fall behind in the tenth upon Fermín's single, whereupon Bohm lashes the first three-bagger of his season to the deepest quarter of the yard, Harper and Sosa come racing home, and the winning streak stretches to seven

From the Delaware to the Puget Sound, Friday night's dispatches all arrived written in the same hand: the home nine batting last, the winning run crossing in the game's final turn. Six times it happened — in Philadelphia, in Miami, on the South Side of Chicago, in Arlington, in Seattle, and in Los Angeles, each finish chronicled in its proper place below — and the fattest prize of the six was contested in Philadelphia, where the Cardinals and the Phillies traded the lead like men passing a hot stone until the tenth inning finally burned the visitors' hands.

St. Louis struck first, Joshua Báez lifting a two-run homer, his fourth, in the opening frame with Jordan Walker aboard. The Philadelphias pecked their way back against the starter Dobbins — Marsh and Realmuto doubling home runs in the second, Bohm singling home a third in the third — and when Walker answered in the sixth with a two-run blast of his own, his seven-and-twentieth, the home men replied within the half-hour: Realmuto's second double and Crawford's sacrifice fly turned four-to-three into four-to-five. Bryan Torres tied the affair with a single in the eighth, the ninth passed without a verdict, and in the tenth José Fermín — the same Fermín whose two-run single crowned Thursday's larceny in Cincinnati, as this paper related only yesterday — lined the go-ahead run home, and the ninth-inning miracle workers of St. Louis appeared poised to bank a tenth-inning sequel. But Alec Bohm, who had already driven in one run and knocked at the door all evening, met the reliever Gastelum with a sharp drive to the center-field expanse — the first triple of his season, and no man was catching it — and Harper and Sosa crossed with the tying and winning runs while the yard came apart.

The ledger reads richly for the victors: three runs driven in for Bohm, a pair of doubles for Realmuto, nine strikeouts for the starter Luzardo in five and two-thirds, and a seventh consecutive victory — eight in ten — that holds the National's second wild-card chair by two full games and draws Philadelphia within four of Atlanta, beaten at Milwaukee as the columns below attest. For St. Louis the arithmetic is crueler: Walker's two runs driven in lift him to six-and-ninety, a full share of the major-league lead as the milestone desk reports, but the club that stole a game from its last strike on Thursday gave one back from the brink of victory on Friday, and sits three and a half games from the league's final chair. McFarlane took the decision, Gastelum the defeat, and the two nines resume the argument at Citizens Bank Park this very evening.

News Around the League

THE MARTE AFFAIR, CONTINUED: LOVULLO SPEAKS OF BETRAYAL AND OF PEACE IN THE SAME BREATH

The strangest story of the week, chronicled in these columns since Tuesday, acquired its next chapter Friday in Phoenix, where the manager Torey Lovullo walked the finest of lines in his first full accounting of the business — the second baseman Ketel Marte's failure to appear at Fenway Park, the restricted list, and Thursday's long audience at Salt River Fields that this paper described yesterday. The wires report that Lovullo confessed to feeling betrayed by the disappearance, even as he pronounced the Thursday summit worthwhile: 'I thought it was a very productive meeting,' he offered, declining every invitation to particulars that both sides wish kept private, and expressing the hope that all parties may now get back to the baseball. The club's interest in that outcome is not small: the Sonoran nine won again Friday, as the card below relates, and sit a single game from the National's final chair with their second baseman serving out his ten days on the shelf.

THE PROSPECT DESK: THE WATCH ENDS THIS EVENING — ANDERSON TAKES A MAJOR-LEAGUE MOUND AT LAST

The watch this paper opened yesterday closes on schedule. The Mariners' manager Dan Wilson confirmed Friday that Kade Anderson, the left-hander of two-and-twenty years whom the Pipeline scribes rank the finest pitching pupil in all the minors and the fifth prospect of any description, will make his debut this evening in Seattle against the Cubs. The occasion carries its own history: by the researchers' accounting he becomes but the sixteenth pitching prospect ranked among the game's five best to step onto a major-league mound in the twenty-odd years such rankings have been kept. The summons required some shuffling of the watch bill — Bryan Woo's turn has been pushed back, though the club expects no visit to the injured list, and the reliever Carlos Vargas was activated besides. A club three games from the American's final chair, and fresh from the extra-inning deliverance the card below describes, could scarcely have timed the reinforcement better.

THE MILESTONE DESK: WALKER DRAWS LEVEL WITH THE ROOKIE AT SIX-AND-NINETY, AND ALVAREZ'S CROWN OF THREE HOLDS

The race this desk examined at length only yesterday is now a dead heat. Jordan Walker's two runs driven in at Philadelphia — a homer and more, as the lead dispatch relates — lift him to six-and-ninety on the season, drawing him precisely level with the Reds' rookie Sal Stewart, whose club was whitewashed in Phoenix and could offer its young colossus nothing to drive home. Atop all baseball they sit together, with Alec Burleson — Walker's own clubmate — lurking at three-and-ninety, and the question of whether a freshman may lead the major leagues in runs batted in, a thing done by no rookie since 1950, now hangs on a two-horse finish conducted largely within the same division. In the American, meanwhile, the desk renews its report that Yordan Alvarez holds every table that matters: two more doubles Friday in Houston's whitewash of the Athletics left his figures at .321, six-and-thirty homers, and ninety runs driven in — first in average, first in homers, first in runs batted in — and the pursuit of the batter's Triple Crown, unclaimed in the American since 2012, proceeds unbothered.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: PAGES' BROKEN HAND DIMS A CHAMPION'S SEPTEMBER, TOGLIA'S SHOULDER, AND TWO RETURNS PROMISED FOR THIS VERY DAY

The gravest entry issues from Los Angeles, where the All-Star center fielder Andy Pages took a pitch off the left hand in Friday's victory and the examination found a fracture: the wires report an absence of no fewer than four weeks, though the manager Roberts holds to the expectation that his man returns before the season's books are closed. In Phoenix the Reds' Michael Toglia departed in the first inning after a diving catch dislocated his right shoulder, a frightening scene the card below notes. But the ward also has discharges to announce, both promised for this very day: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., whose thunderous rehearsal at Dunedin this paper saluted yesterday, has passed his final concussion examinations and is expected to rejoin the Blue Jays in the Bronx this afternoon, the first day the seven-day list allows; and the Yankees' Max Fried is scheduled to throw from a mound for the first time since the bone bruise in his left elbow returned him to the shelf — a rehearsal, not a return, but the direction is the right one.

THE COUNTING-HOUSE DESK: KASTEN PRONOUNCES THE CHAMPIONS NOT FOR SALE, AND THE HERALD CONSULTS THE LEDGER BEFORE JOINING ANY CHOIR

The president of the champion Dodgers, Stan Kasten, spent part of Friday extinguishing a rumor: amid speculation abroad on the wires concerning the club's future under the owner Mark Walter, Kasten assured the faithful that the franchise is not for sale, and there the matter rests.

The desk pairs the item with the ticking of the labor clock, which grows daily harder to ignore: the collective bargaining agreement between the owners and the players expires on the first of December, the parties having opened their negotiations in May, and the owners' men have already begun rehearsing the old hymn of competitive balance — by which is generally meant, once the verses are parsed, a ceiling upon what a ballplayer may be paid. The Herald has taken the precaution of consulting the ledger before joining the choir, and the ledger declines to weep. By Forbes' own published accounting, not one of the thirty franchises is valued below a thousand millions of dollars — the humblest of them, the Miami club, is prized at a billion and better, and the grandest, the Yankees of New York, at eight billions and two hundred millions — figures that have grown handsomer nearly every year the accountants have kept them. And as for the pennant races the proposed ceiling is advertised to rescue, the postseason record wants no rescuing: seven different champions have carried off the flag in the last ten autumns, the 2023 Series was contested by two wild-card nines — one of them with but four-and-eighty wins to its name — and the best record in all of last season's baseball was posted at Milwaukee, among the smallest of the game's markets. The Herald's sympathies in matters of the purse lie, and will lie, with the men who play the games; it will follow the ledger so its readers need not, and it commends the same arithmetic to the owners' negotiators, who can well afford the subscription.

The Rest of the Card

THE TWO SOVEREIGNS OF THE EARNED-RUN TABLE MEET, AND THE YOUNGER MAN PREVAILS: MILWAUKEES 2, BRAVES 1

The engagement of the weekend, advertised in yesterday's bill of fare, delivered everything but runs. Jacob Misiorowski threw scoreless ball at Chris Sale and the East's leaders, ran his record to thirteen-and-five with his earned-run figure at a scandalous 1.68 and his strikeout count at two hundred sixteen — the National's finest on both counts — and drew from the vanquished Sale afterward a compliment of the very highest order regarding the young man's fastball. The scoring was modest work: Contreras singled home one in the third and Vaughn forced home another, Harris' single in the eighth drew Atlanta within a run, and Megill barred the door for his four-and-twentieth save — though the visitors' evening did include Acuña throwing out the rookie Lara at second base with a peg the instruments clocked at better than ninety-two miles per hour. Milwaukee, at eighty wins against nine-and-forty defeats, owns the finest ledger in baseball by two games; the same two clubs meet again this afternoon before repairing to Williamsport on the morrow.

FOUR HITS SUFFICE WHEN SCHLITTLER DEALS: YANKEES 3, JAYS 1, AND THE STREAK RUNS TO FIVE

Cam Schlittler, proprietor of the American's finest earned-run figure and Friday night of cleats honoring both the Light Side and the Dark, held Toronto to a single tally while his mates made four hits stretch a very long way: Spencer Jones' two-run homer in the second — upheld when the umpires reviewed it — and Caballero's sacrifice fly were the whole account, with Kirk's run-scoring single the visitors' lone reply and Bednar sealing his thirtieth save. The eleventh victory for Schlittler; a fifth consecutive for the Yankees, who sit three games behind the Rays — beaten in Baltimore, as the next item relates — and hold the American's first wild-card chair at a comfortable remove. The Jays expect reinforcement this very afternoon, as the infirmary column reports.

DEVERS RETURNS TO FENWAY AND HOMERS, BUT CONTRERAS HAS THE LOUDER ARGUMENT: HUB NINE 6, FRISCO NINE 4

The return of Rafael Devers to the yard he graced for the better part of a decade supplied the evening's theatre — the visitor declared himself 'very happy to be back,' declined every invitation to relitigate the parting, and proved the sentiment genuine with a homer to the center-field expanse, his six-and-twentieth. But the crowd of thirty-seven thousand reserved its fullest voice for the present tenant of the middle of Boston's order: Willson Contreras answered with a three-run blast of his own, likewise his six-and-twentieth, the centerpiece of a five-run third that also collected a bases-loaded walk and a hit batsman, and Abreu's triple added a sixth run later. Sonny Gray pitched to his sixteenth victory against three defeats — no man in the American owns more — with Chapman closing his eight-and-twentieth save, and the Hub nine hold the league's second wild-card chair at a comfortable remove; the Frisco nine, whatever their traveler's consolations, have dropped two running.

ALONSO'S THIRTIETH, FAIR BEYOND ALL ARGUMENT: BIRDS 5, TAMPA MEN 3

Two nights after the long strike that a review declined to make a homer — recorded in Thursday's edition of this paper — Pete Alonso removed the umpires from the conversation entirely, hammering his thirtieth of the season far inside the left-center bleachers with a man aboard, and adding a run-scoring single besides for three driven in and five-and-eighty on the year, second in the American. The Rays' account was not without its charm — Kenny Piper, a name new to these columns, struck his first homer of the year — but Rogers held the line for his ninth victory and Garcia closed the door. The league's best club has now dropped two running, its lead over the surging Yankees down to three; Baltimore, winners of one, will take its dignities where it finds them.

THREE HOMERS IN THE SIXTH, AND ROGERS — FOUR CLUBS AND COUNTING — ENDS IT IN THE NINTH: SOUTH SIDERS 6, METROPOLITANS 4

Down four runs to nothing after Bichette's thirteenth homer, the Central's leaders staged their recovery all in one frame: Vargas' two-run blast, his nine-and-twentieth, followed in short order by Grichuk and by Colson Montgomery, three homers in a single sixth inning to square the affair. There it stood until the ninth, when Jake Rogers — a catcher claimed off the waiver wire from Boston but a week ago, and the owner of base hits in four different uniforms this season — deposited a two-run homer into the center-field seats with two out, one of the night's six walk-off endings and surely the least probable. The South Siders hold first place in the American's Central; the Metropolitans have lost the services of the evening and, at eight-and-fifty wins, very nearly the season.

SANOJA TIES IT IN THE EIGHTH AND ENDS IT IN THE NINTH: FISH 3, NATS 2

Keibert Ruiz's sixth-inning homer stood as the game's only run until the eighth, when Javier Sanoja singled home the equalizer and Otto Lopez singled home the lead; Washington answered through Lile's run-scoring knock in the ninth, and so Sanoja simply did it again — a ground-ball single through the middle with the sacks occupied, his second run driven home of the night. Fairbanks took the decision. The Fish, winners of nine-and-thirty at their own yard this season, sit four games from the National's final chair; the Washingtons have dropped eight of ten.

WESNESKI'S LONG ROAD BACK RUNS THROUGH FIVE SPOTLESS INNINGS: ASTROS 4, A'S 0

The road home from the surgeon's table is rarely straight, but Hayden Wesneski made it look so Friday: five scoreless innings in his continuing return from the elbow operation, three Athletics hits all evening, and a whitewash that keeps Houston's grip on the West's first chair — one game over Texas, whose own evening is sung below. Yordan Alvarez doubled twice and drove in a run with each, commerce the milestone desk records in full, and Paredes doubled home another. The wandering A's have now lost five running, and at nine-and-forty wins the arithmetic of their season no longer requires a mathematician.

TO INFINITY, AND OVER THE FENCE: MISSOURIANS 5, MOTOR CITY NINE 2, AND THE STREAK REACHES SIX

The liveliest late August in the American's lower reaches rolls on. Kyle Isbel, armed for Players' Weekend with a bat done up in the livery of one Buzz Lightyear, sent a fifth-inning pitch to infinity and beyond the right-center fence, then doubled home an insurance run in the eighth; Pasquantino and the young catcher Jensen supplied homers of their own, and Cameron pitched to his eighth victory with Pearson closing. Six consecutive victories for Kansas City, whose season, whatever its ledger, refuses to go quietly; Detroit has dropped three running and slips two and a half games from the American's final chair, which the item below concerns directly.

NINE INNINGS OF NOTHING, THEN EVERYTHING AT ONCE: TEXAS NINE 2, ANGELS 1, IN TEN, AND THE CHAIR IS RECLAIMED

For nine full innings at Arlington neither club scored a run, and then the tenth spent the whole evening's allowance in minutes: the Angels' Guzman doubled home the go-ahead man, whereupon Wyatt Langford answered with a two-bagger of his own to square it and Ezequiel Duran grounded a sharp single past third to bring Langford home with the verdict, an errant throw chasing the play — another of the night's six walk-off endings. Alexander claimed the decision over Joyce. Eleven hits the Texas nine collected while waiting for two to matter; the reward is sole possession of the American's final wild-card chair, of which the desk note gives the full accounting.

FOUR HITS FOR BAZZANA, AND TWO IN A ROW AT LAST: CLEVELAND NINE 9, MOUNTAIN MEN 1

The rookie Travis Bazzana, whose up-and-down freshman campaign the wires have chronicled since its hot start and All-Star nod, enjoyed the finest night of his young service: four hits and three driven in, the centerpiece of a rout in the thin Denver air that gave Cleveland consecutive victories for the first time in a month. Halpin homered, Patrick Bailey added a three-run shot in the seventh, and Herrin took the decision as Colorado managed a single first-inning tally. The Cleveland nine sit one game from the American's final chair — one of six clubs within two and a half of it, as the desk note relates — while the Mountain men, at fifty wins, play out the string with what grace the altitude allows.

LAWLAR'S THUNDER AND A WHITEWASH IN THE DESERT: SONORAN NINE 9, REDLEGS 0

Whatever weight the week's troubles have laid upon Arizona, none of it showed Friday: Jordan Lawlar homered early and finished with three driven in, seven different men drove home at least one, and Rodriguez pitched to his thirteenth victory against four defeats while Cincinnati was blanked entire. The evening's one dark passage came in the first inning, when the Redlegs' Toglia dislocated a shoulder completing a diving catch, a casualty the infirmary ward records. The Sonoran nine, winners of two running amid the Marte affair the news columns continue, sit one game from the National's final chair; the Redlegs' young colossus Stewart, held without a run to drive home, watched his share of the batting lead become a partnership, as the milestone desk explains.

A BAGUETTE IS BROKEN OVER A FORMER EMPLOYER: FRIARS 6, TWIN CITIES NINE 2

Ty France, bearing a Players' Weekend bat got up to resemble nothing so much as a Parisian loaf, greeted his former club in the first inning with a two-run homer — his eighteenth, and surely the best-dressed — and later added a sacrifice fly in a four-run fifth built of singles from Tatis, Rengifo, and Machado, three driven in for the evening. Clemens' two-run triple had briefly squared matters for Minnesota before Vásquez settled in for his ninth victory. The Friars hold the National's third wild-card chair with seven victories in ten; the Twin Cities nine, beaten from the American's final chair by Texas's late heroics, wake this morning a game behind it.

BREGMAN TIES IT TWICE, BUT RIVAS HAS THE FINAL SYLLABLE: SEATTLE NINE 6, NORTH SIDERS 5, IN TEN

Before the largest home gathering of Seattle's season, the Cubs struck first and hardest — Crow-Armstrong's two-and-thirtieth homer leading off, Bregman following at once with a two-run blast — and Cal Raleigh answered with a three-run shot in a four-run second. When Happ and then Bregman again, in the ninth, hauled Chicago level at five, the affair went to a tenth, where Leo Rivas lined a single to center and Arozarena came home with one more of the night's six walk-off verdicts. The evening's footnote belongs to the visitors' manager Counsell, ejected over a balk call on his own birthday. The North Siders have dropped two running, their grip on the National's first wild-card chair trimmed to five games; the Seattle nine hand the ball this evening to the debutant Anderson, as the prospect desk proclaims.

EDMAN SUPPLIES THE SWEET ENDING, THOUGH THE NIGHT EXACTS A PRICE: TROLLEY DODGERS 5, SMOKY CITY NINE 4, IN TEN

Muncy's two-run homer and Betts' two-run single staked Los Angeles early, Yamamoto turned in another quality start, and still it required extra work: Oneil Cruz squared the account at four with a two-run blast in the eighth, and the game rolled scoreless into the tenth until Tommy Edman lined a single to left, Enrique Hernández crossed, and Friday's ledger of walk-off verdicts reached six. Phillips claimed the decision. A fourth consecutive victory keeps the champions two games behind Milwaukee on the game's best ledger and comfortably atop the West — but the celebration was cut with worry, for the examination of Pages' hand, struck by a pitch mid-game, returned the fracture the infirmary ward reports in full.

The arithmetic desk reports that the American's final wild-card chair has now changed its arrangement on six consecutive mornings of this paper: Baltimore alone on Monday, three cotenants Tuesday, Texas alone Wednesday, Minnesota alone Thursday, Texas and Minnesota in shared occupancy yesterday — and this morning Texas alone once more, the tenth-inning deliverance at Arlington evicting its own cotenant, with the Twins and Guardians a game astern, Toronto a game and a half, Baltimore two, Detroit two and a half, and Seattle three, still not one claimant at the break-even line. In the National the seating holds: the Cubs keep the first chair by five games, Philadelphia — winners of seven running after the morning's lead dispatch — the second by two, San Diego the third, with Arizona one game back, St. Louis three and a half, and Miami four. This day is the second of Players' Weekend, given over by the program to the causes the players champion, and the card again runs to the full fifteen engagements. The bill of fare: in Seattle at 7:15 Eastern, the engagement of the evening — the debutant Anderson against the Cubs, the finest pitching prospect in the minors making his first bow, as the prospect desk relates; in the Bronx at 1:35, Cease and his two hundred one strikeouts visit Weathers, with Guerrero expected back in the visitors' line; at Milwaukee at 2:10, the Braves seek their revenge upon Henderson and his 2.70; at Philadelphia at 6:05, the young Painter takes the ball against the Cardinals with the streak at seven; at Baltimore at 7:05, McClanahan opposes Young and his nine victories; and at Los Angeles at 7:15, Skubal is charged with keeping the champions rolling against the Bucs. On the morrow the Brewers and Braves repair to Williamsport for the Little League Classic, at 7:10 in the evening, there to perform before the smallest and sternest jury in baseball, precisely as this paper has been promising all week. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts