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. 46 · Sunday, the Three-and-Twentieth of August, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Reporting 15 contests from the day prior.

The Game of the Day

AROZARENA GIVETH, AND AROZARENA TAKETH AWAY: A LEADOFF BLAST, A HOMER STOLEN AT THE WALL, AND THE LAST WORD IN THE NINTH, AS THE MARINERS OF THE SOUND SINK THE BRUINS, 5 TO 4

On the evening appointed for the debutant Anderson, it is the veteran left fielder who writes the game's first sentence, annotates its middle innings with a glove above the fence, and supplies its closing line with a two-run blast — becoming but the seventh man in the recorded annals to open and to end the same game with home runs

Some games are shared among nine men, and some are simply signed. Saturday evening in Seattle bore one signature in three places: at the top, where Randy Arozarena greeted the Cubs' starter Peterson with a leadoff homer to the center-field expanse, a drive of four hundred sixteen feet by the instruments' accounting; in the margin of the third, where the same man went to the wall in left, climbed at the warning track, and drew back over the fence a ball the Cubs' Amaya had every reason to believe was bound for the seats; and at the bottom, where, in the ninth with the tying run aboard, Arozarena struck a second homer to the self-same quarter of center field and ended the affair, five runs to four. The researchers report that only six men before him — Vic Power and Darin Erstad among the ancients, Pete Crow-Armstrong among the moderns — had ever struck a leadoff homer and a walk-off homer in the one game. 'I think it's my biggest game,' the author allowed afterward, 'I didn't expect to come into the game and hit two home runs and rob one.'

The occasion, as this paper has been reporting since Thursday, had been billed for another man entirely: Kade Anderson, the left-hander of two-and-twenty years whom the Pipeline scribes rank the finest pitching pupil in the minors, making his first bow in the majors. The debut was honorable work — five and two-thirds innings on but seventy-two pitches, five hits, two walks, five strikeouts, the first of them Bregman fanned upon a changeup in the opening frame — until the sixth exacted the debutant's tuition: Bregman and Busch struck home runs upon his final two pitches, and Taylor's ground-rule double off the relief made it four runs to two. 'It was just a blast out there,' the young man said, 'and the way the game finished was truly really cool.'

The finish was indeed the thing. In the ninth, against the reliever Webb, Leo Rivas — the same Rivas whose tenth-inning single ended Friday's affair, as this paper related only yesterday — lined a single to right to bring Seattle within one, took his lead from first, and presently crossed with the tying run ahead of Arozarena's thunderbolt: the second consecutive night the Seattle faithful have gone home upon a walk-off verdict. The reliever Rucker was vaulted to the victory, Webb charged with the wreck. The mariners of the Sound now stand two games from the American's final wild-card chair; the Bruins have dropped three running, and their grip on the National's first chair — with Philadelphia's streak at eight, as the card below attests — grows daily less comfortable.

News Around the League

THE MARTE AFFAIR, CONTINUED: A PHOTOGRAPH FROM A CASINO, AND A MANAGER WHO DECLINES TO MAKE A FEDERAL CASE OF IT

The strangest story of the week, chronicled in these columns since Tuesday, produced its latest chapter from an unexpected quarter: the wires report that Ketel Marte, presently on the injured list and taking his treatments at Salt River Fields, was photographed Friday evening at a Scottsdale casino while his clubmates were engaged with the Reds. The manager Torey Lovullo, who but a day earlier spoke of betrayal and of peace in the same breath, chose this time the language of forbearance: 'Ketel's a grown man, and he can make his own decisions,' he offered, noting that men on the injured list take their treatment in the morning and are not required at the yard thereafter, and that no rule of the club was broken. The wires add that Marte kept his Saturday morning rehabilitation appointment, and that he is expected to address his teammates in the coming days. The club, for its part, would doubtless prefer the subject changed: the Snakes dropped Saturday's engagement to the Cincinnatis, as the card below relates, and sit two games from the National's final chair.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: BOTH OF STANTON'S CALVES CONSPIRE AGAINST HIS SEASON, WEATHERS AWAITS THE PHOTOGRAPHS, AND THE CHAMPIONS COUNT TWO RETURNS COMING

The gravest entry issues from the Bronx, where Giancarlo Stanton — six-and-thirty years of age, the active leader in home runs with four hundred six-and-fifty — has strained the left calf in a fall while running the bases, this upon the right calf that has already twice interrupted his year, and the wires allow that the injury may close his 2026 account entire. The manager Boone declines to rule anything out; the ledger records but four-and-twenty games played. His clubmate Ryan Weathers, whose departure from Saturday's defeat after three and a third innings is noted in the card below, will undergo imaging upon a complaining left forearm.

The champions' ward, by contrast, is discharging patients. Tyler Glasnow, his back spasms quieted, is to be activated to take the ball Tuesday in Atlanta — a date this desk has verified against the schedule — and Shohei Ohtani, absent from the mound since early July with the left knee's complaint, threw thirty pitches to live hitters Saturday and could start a game during the home stand that opens the first of September. 'If it were up to Shohei, he'd be in a game in a few days,' the manager Roberts reported, with the air of a man holding the reins on purpose. Elsewhere: Milwaukee's Woodruff begins a throwing program Wednesday with his shoulder spared the knife, and the Mets' Juan Soto, nursing a calf strain of his own, has reported no fresh progress since his wind sprints of a week past.

THE MILESTONE DESK: STEWART RECLAIMS THE RUNS-BATTED-IN LEAD BY A SINGLE TALLY, AND ALVAREZ'S CROWN OF THREE SURVIVES A DEFEAT

The two-horse race this desk has chronicled all week changed noses again Saturday. The Reds' rookie Sal Stewart, granted a full evening's commerce in his club's eleven-run demonstration at Phoenix, drove home the run that lifts him to seven-and-ninety on the season — one clear of the Cardinals' Jordan Walker, whose club could offer him nothing to drive in during the twelve-to-three calamity at Philadelphia. Walker's clubmate Burleson lurks at four-and-ninety, and the question of whether a freshman may lead the major leagues in runs batted in — a thing no rookie has done since 1950 — remains the finest sustained argument of the season's final month.

In the American, Yordan Alvarez's pursuit of the batter's Triple Crown proceeds even where his club stumbles: Houston's Saturday defeat is recorded below, but the big man's figures — .319, six-and-thirty homers, ninety runs driven in — remain first in all three columns, with Simpson of Tampa Bay eleven points astern in average, Caminero one homer back, and Baltimore's Alonso five runs shy on the third table. And in Toronto the strikeout ledger acquires interest: Dylan Cease, whose near-miss is sung in the card below, now owns two hundred nine, within sight of the club record of two hundred eight-and-forty that Robbie Ray set in 2021.

THE ALMANAC DESK: TO WILLIAMSPORT AT LAST — THE NINTH LITTLE LEAGUE CLASSIC, AND A FIRST FOR BOTH NINES ENGAGED

The pilgrimage this paper has been promising all week is come. This evening at ten minutes past seven, Eastern, the Braves and the Brewers repair to Journey Bank Ballpark at historic Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, there to contest the ninth annual Little League Classic before the smallest and sternest jury in baseball — the young players of the Little League World Series, seated a few rows from the field they dream upon. It is the first appearance in the fixture for either franchise, and the occasion will honor the late, great Henry Aaron and his counsel to 'keep swinging' — words the almanac desk is pleased to reprint without amendment. Mahle takes the ball for Atlanta against the left-hander Drohan; the game travels by the ESPN wire. The desk notes besides that this day closes the Players' Weekend program, whose Spider-Man bats and borrowed stirrups enliven the columns below, and that the regular season's final day stands at the twenty-seventh of September — thirty-five days hence, for those keeping the arithmetic.

The Rest of the Card

HITLESS INTO THE SEVENTH, AND THE ROAD STREAK DIES AT TWO-AND-FORTY: TORONTOS 4, PINSTRIPES 3, WITH GUERRERO RESTORED TO THE LINE

Dylan Cease carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning at the Bronx — his second such excursion of the season, the drought of Toronto no-hitters standing at six-and-thirty years since Dave Stieb's — before Wells' run-scoring single spoiled the bid and the shutout in a single blow; the same blow ended Cease's scoreless streak upon the road at two-and-forty innings, second in the expansion age only to Clemens. Eight strikeouts against five walks the ledger shows, two hundred nine on the season, and Lukes' eighth homer in the eighth proved the winning run when García Jr. answered with a two-run shot and Varland barred the door for his nine-and-twentieth save. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., restored from the concussion list precisely as this paper foretold, collected two hits in his return; the losing pitcher Weathers departed after three and a third with the forearm complaint the infirmary ward records. 'What else can I say about him?' Guerrero asked of his ace, and the desk has no improvement to offer.

TWELVE PITCHES, ONE VERDICT: BREW CREW 4, BRAVES 1, AND THE SERIES IS BANKED BEFORE THE TRAIN LEAVES FOR WILLIAMSPORT

Jake Bauers fouled off seven consecutive offerings from the left-hander Pérez in the third, and upon the twelfth pitch of the argument deposited the ball four hundred thirteen feet away for a two-run homer, his three-and-twentieth. 'That might have been the best at-bat of my life,' the batsman confessed, and his manager Murphy pronounced it 'the epitome of draggin' 'em.' Henderson gave six innings of one-run ball for his eighth victory against two defeats, Ashby closed, and Harris' first-inning double — which briefly staked Atlanta — was all the East's leaders would get. At one-and-eighty wins against nine-and-forty defeats, Milwaukee owns the finest ledger in baseball; both nines now entrain for Williamsport, as the almanac desk proclaims.

THE FISH FEED EARLY AND THE SENATORS STARVE LATE: MIAMI 4, WASHINGTON 2

Three runs inside two innings — Lopez's two-run single and Hernández's nineteenth homer — settled the character of the afternoon before Washington had unpacked, and Marsee's eighth homer answered at once when Tena's single had trimmed the margin. Pérez pitched to his seventh victory, Faucher sealed his second save, and the Floridians, winners of two running and nine-and-thirty games at their own yard, sit four from the National's final chair. The Senators have now dropped eight of ten, and the season grows short of mercies.

SEVEN INNINGS, ONE RUN, AND EVERY PERSONAL LEDGER REWRITTEN: PHILS 12, CARDINALS 3, AND THE STREAK IS EIGHT

The young Andrew Painter, sent down to the minors but weeks ago to learn from failure, returned Saturday to administer a lesson: seven innings — the longest outing of his life — a single run, eight strikeouts, twenty swings-and-misses where his previous best was fourteen, and — for the first time in his career — a full hundred pitches, the last of them clocked at 99.6 miles per hour. His employers meanwhile assembled a dozen runs, Harper's three-run homer and Schwarber's eight-and-thirtieth — the National's largest count — the heaviest blows. Eight consecutive victories for the Brotherly Love nine, who sit three behind Atlanta and hold the National's second wild-card chair; the Mound City men, twelve-to-three losers with Wetherholt's homer the lone ornament, must console themselves with the milestone desk's arithmetic.

TROUT STRIKES THE FIRST BLOW AND THE ANAHEIM NINE PAINT ARLINGTON WHITE: ANGELS 3, RANGERS 0

Mike Trout singled home the game's first run in the opening frame, scored its second himself upon Ballesteros' sixth-inning double, and Grissom added a third in the eighth; the pitcher Johnson and the relief corps made the three stand up entire, Watson closing the account. A whitewash is a hard sequel to a walk-off — the Arlington men, delivered so operatically in the tenth on Friday, managed five hits Saturday and no runs at all, and the defeat costs them sole occupancy of the American's final wild-card chair, of which the desk note gives the full accounting.

IT'S GOT TO BE THE STIRRUPS: BALTIMORES 3, SUNSHINE NINE 2, IN TEN, AS BASALLO TIES IT IN BORROWED HOSIERY AND BEAVERS ENDS IT

Before the first pitch at Camden Yards, Tyler O'Neill decreed orange stirrups and white socks for the whole company, and the rookie Samuel Basallo — arriving late — borrowed his pair from the pitcher Bradish. Thus attired, Basallo strode into the eighth as a pinch-hitter with his club two runs down and struck a game-tying homer of four hundred eleven feet, his seventeenth; in the tenth, Dylan Beavers — another man off the bench — doubled home Taveras against the All-Star closer Baker for the walk-off verdict, Baltimore's four-and-thirtieth pinch-hit run driven in of the season, the most in the majors. 'I liked it out there. Guys looked good,' the manager Albernaz ruled. The Baltimores have won two running and stand one game from the American's final chair; the Rays have dropped three running, their lead upon the league trimmed to three games, and McClanahan's five spotless innings go unrewarded.

TWO OUTS BOUGHT DEAR IN THE EIGHTH: ATHLETICS 4, ASTROS 3

Houston led by two entering the eighth on the strength of Varsho's homer and Peña's run-scoring single, whereupon the visitors assembled a three-run recovery from modest materials — Butler's single through a deflection, Heim's run-scoring ground-out — atop Walton's earlier fourth homer. Medina claimed the decision, Alvarado his third save. The Astros, beaten to exactly the break-even line at five-and-sixty apiece, keep the West's first chair by a single game over Texas — whose own whitewash is recorded above — and Alvarez, hitless fortunes notwithstanding, keeps his three crowns, as the milestone desk attests.

FIVE HOMERS ABROAD, TWO OF THEM BY THE MAN THE SOUTH SIDE BOOED: METS 10, WHITE STOCKINGS 5

Luis Robert Jr., nine seasons a White Stocking and a Met since January, returned to the old premises and struck two home runs — four hundred five feet and four hundred seventeen, the boos rising with each — and his mates added three more from Bichette, the rookie Benge, and Torrens in a ten-run demonstration. 'It feels good to hit homers against any team,' Robert allowed, 'but I will say, it did feel good to hit the home runs here.' Warren took the decision in relief; the Central's leaders keep their chair by three and a half games over Cleveland, and the Mets bank a rare road feast.

THE WEB-SLINGER STRIKES AND THE ROYALS MAKE IT SEVEN RUNNING: KANSAS CITY 3, BENGALS 1

Kyle Isbel, having traded Friday's Buzz Lightyear bat for one done up in Spider-Man's livery on Players' Weekend's closing turn, slung his sixth homer into the right-field seats, and the venerable Salvador Perez added his seventeenth of the year; Wacha pitched to his seventh victory, and the ancient Kimbrel recorded his first save of the season. Seven consecutive victories for the Kansas City nine, eight of ten by the ledger, the liveliest late August in the American's lower reaches; the Bengals, with Lee's homer their lone tally, have dropped four running and slip two and a half from the final chair.

THREE RUNS BEFORE HE FOUND HIS FOOTING, THEN EIGHTEEN OF NINETEEN RETIRED: BOYS IN BLUE 4, ALLEGHENYS 3

The Pittsburghs fell upon Tarik Skubal at once — Oneil Cruz's two-run triple the heavy blow of a three-run first — and then the left-hander, acquired from Detroit in the deadline commerce, closed the ledger: eighteen of his final nineteen batters retired, eleven strikeouts across seven innings, the visitors hitless in their last seventeen turns against him. 'That's the guy that we needed,' the manager Roberts pronounced. Tucker's two-run single in the fifth supplied the winning margin, Scott sealed his nineteenth save, and the champions' fifth consecutive victory holds them two games behind Milwaukee on the game's best ledger — with reinforcements coming, as the infirmary ward reports.

NOTHING FOR EIGHT INNINGS, EVERYTHING IN THE NINTH: CRIMSON HOSE 3, BAY NINE 2

Adames and Knizner had homered early, Sandoval — five and two-thirds strong innings in his return from the elbow operation — had kept Boston within reach, and still the Hub men entered the ninth with nothing on their side of the ledger. Then: White's run-scoring single, Sogard's game-tying double off the Monster, and with the sacks full and one out, Abreu — hitless in five, four times a strikeout victim — grounded one down the first-base line and beat the play at the plate for the walk-off, a fielder's choice upheld upon San Francisco's challenge and celebrated by the tearing of the hero's jersey. The one-and-thirtieth comeback victory of Boston's season keeps the second wild-card chair warm; the Bay nine have dropped three running.

HAVE A DAY, BLEDAY: A DOUBLE, A TRIPLE, A SINGLE, A HOMER — THE EIGHTH CYCLE IN THE ANNALS OF CINCINNATI — AND THE REDS ROUT THE SNAKES, 11 TO 5

JJ Bleday assembled his masterpiece one exhibit at a time: a double in the first, a triple in the third, a single in the fifth, and in the sixth the homer that completed the eighth cycle in the long history of the Cincinnati club, the first since Elly De La Cruz's in 2023. ('I'm just like, please, please, God, please go,' the author said of the final exhibit, 'because I top-spun it.') De La Cruz himself went four-for-six with his one-and-twentieth homer and fell only the triple shy of joining him, McLain added a homer, the rookie Stewart drove home the run the milestone desk celebrates, and Lowder took the decision. Eleven runs, the losing streak snapped; for Arizona, Arenado's homer and the Marte business besides, a day best forgotten.

ADELL'S THUNDER TRAVELS WELL AT ALTITUDE: FOREST CITY NINE 4, ROCKIES 3, AND THE CHAIR IS GAINED

Jo Adell's three-run homer in the fourth — his twentieth — did the day's heavy lifting, Bailey singled home insurance in the sixth, and Cleveland then held its breath as Norby's ninth-inning homer drew Colorado within one before Smith closed his three-and-thirtieth save. A third consecutive victory, and with Texas whitewashed at Arlington, the Forest City men wake this morning in shared possession of the American's final wild-card chair — the accounting the desk note completes. The Rockies have dropped five running, and the altitude no longer explains it.

FIVE RUNS SPENT BY THE FOURTH, AND THE MISSION NINE COLLECT SIX UNANSWERED: PADRES 7, MINNESOTANS 5

Minnesota struck three homers inside two innings — Keaschall, Lee, and the rookie Culpepper — and led five runs to one entering the home sixth, whereupon San Diego reclaimed the whole account: Merrill's twentieth homer had kept the hosts breathing, Cronenworth's two-run double crowned a four-run seventh, France singled home the lead, and Tatis added the insurance. Canning profited in relief, Miller sealed his two-and-thirtieth save. The Mission men's second consecutive victory — seven of ten — keeps the National's third wild-card chair; the Minnesotans fall a game from the American's final one.

The arithmetic desk, which has now recorded a different arrangement of the American's final wild-card chair on seven consecutive mornings, reports today's seating as follows: Texas and Cleveland in joint occupancy at four-and-sixty wins apiece — the Rangers whitewashed out of sole possession, the Guardians winners of three running — with Toronto half a game astern, Minnesota and Baltimore one, Seattle two, and Detroit two and a half; not one claimant yet at the break-even line. In the National the chairs hold their tenants — the Cubs first by four games though losers of three running, Philadelphia second with the streak at eight, San Diego third — with Arizona two back, Miami four, and St. Louis four and a half. The card this day runs again to the full fifteen engagements, and the bill of fare is crowned at Williamsport: the Braves and Brewers in the ninth Little League Classic at Bowman Field, ten minutes past seven, Eastern, as the almanac desk relates in full. Before it: at Philadelphia at 1:35, Sánchez and his sixteen victories seek the ninth straight for the Quakers against St. Louis; at Baltimore at the same hour, the Rays send Martinez and his twelve victories against Baz to stanch a three-game wound; in the Bronx, Soriano opposes Rodón; and in Seattle at 4:10, Imanaga is charged with ending both the Bruins' skid and the home nine's walk-off habit. Until the next dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts