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. 54 · Monday, the One-and-Thirtieth of August, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Reporting 14 contests from the day prior.

The Game of the Day

THE FINAL OUT FALLS UPON THE BUFFET INSTEAD: RAYS 5, PADRES 4, IN ELEVEN INNINGS

Two out in the ninth, two runs down, and the left fielder Taylor gloves the last fly ball at the warning track — whereupon the low wall of Tropicana Field, carved down a generation ago for the convenience of home-run thieves, performs its old trick in reverse: the ball spills from the glove onto the buffet tables beyond, a game-tying two-run homer for DeLuca by way of the defense itself, and two innings later Mateo lines the winning single as Tampa Bay completes its record-tying fourteenth sweep of the season

The ball game at Tropicana Field ended twice on Sunday before it consented to end properly. The first ending came with two out in the ninth, the Sunshine nine trailing three runs to one with Caminero aboard, when Jonny DeLuca lifted the untouchable Mason Miller's offering to the left-field corner and Samad Taylor ran it down at the warning track, glove outstretched, the final out apparently secured. But Taylor's momentum carried him into the lower portion of the wall — the very section cut down years ago so that Carl Crawford might more easily rob homers, the section that made Longoria's Game 162 blast of legend possible — and as he struck the fence the ball hopped free of the leather and dropped upon the 162 Landing buffet on the far side. A game-tying two-run homer, delivered by the defense's own hand. "Obviously," said DeLuca, "I love that wall." Taylor kept his own books differently: "I don't know if it goes down as an error in the books, but in my mind, it's an error. It hit my glove and should be caught."

The arithmetic against that ninth inning had been nearly absolute. San Diego stood nine-and-fifty wins and no defeats this season when leading after eight innings; Tampa Bay stood two wins and eight-and-forty defeats when trailing after them; and only two men had taken Miller over a fence since he first drew a San Diego paycheck a summer ago. Caminero, whose leadoff single began the resurrection, pronounced the verdict from first base the moment the ball dropped: "I said, 'Oh, the game's over right there. We're winning no matter what.'" The prophecy required two more innings' patience. The San Diego nine pushed their free runner across in the eleventh by wild pitch and France's sacrifice fly, whereupon the home half answered in kind and then some: Hicks singled, the pinch-runner Piper stole second, Simpson was walked intentionally to load the bases, and DeLuca's bouncer to short was bobbled by Bogaerts, the tying run scoring — before Jorge Mateo lined the first walk-off hit of his major-league life over Taylor's head in left. "It feels great," said Mateo. "I wish that it was like that every single day."

The ledger takes the full measure of the afternoon. The sweep of San Diego is Tampa Bay's fourteenth of the season, most in all baseball and the equal of the franchise record; the winning streak runs to four; and at two-and-eighty wins against four-and-fifty defeats the Rays keep the American's best record, their lead in the East four games and a half over New York. Caminero's seven-and-thirtieth homer, struck off the left-hander Ray in the fourth, draws him dead level with Houston's Alvarez atop the American's home-run table. "That's probably the most exciting one we've had this year," ruled the starter Rasmussen, and the manager Cash, who learned the ball was over the wall only when "everybody started yelling at me," did not dispute it. The Pads depart swept clean out of Tampa Bay, half a game now separating them from Arizona's wild-card chair, their afternoon further vexed by the seventh inning's ejections — the protocol desk below has that correspondence. The clubs part ways this evening: the Mets call at the Trop at 6:40, while San Diego opens at Cincinnati.

News Around the League

THE MILESTONE DESK: AT TWO-AND-FORTY YEARS, SCHERZER CLIMBS PAST PERRY INTO NINTH ON THE ALL-TIME STRIKEOUT LEDGER — AND RAMÍREZ CREEPS UPON TWO ROUND NUMBERS AT ONCE

Max Scherzer, aged two-and-forty years and four-and-thirty days, chose Sunday in Toronto to remind the almanac he is still writing in it. Ten strikeouts across seven innings — a single hit and a single walk against them, as the card below relates — carried his career count to three thousand five hundred five-and-thirty, past the late spitballer Gaylord Perry and into ninth place on the all-time strikeout ledger. It was, the researchers add, the hundred-and-fifteenth game of ten strikeouts or better in Scherzer's long life, a total exceeded only by Nolan Ryan's 215 and Randy Johnson's 212. "I respect who's on this list," said the old campaigner. "To be moving up the top 10 all-time means something." The Herald, which has lately made a habit of chronicling the elder statesmen — Sale's shutout Thursday, Skubal's homecoming Friday — enters Mad Max's Sunday beside them with pleasure.

The desk notes a quieter pair of approaching round numbers in Cleveland: José Ramírez's two-run homer in Sunday's rout — his first over a fence since the sixth of June, a five-week exile for a fractured hamate bone intervening — brings his career accounts to 296 homers and 997 runs batted in, four blasts and three runs driven home shy of the three-hundred-and-one-thousand pairing that would place him among the game's most select company. "When you get that guy going, we all go," testified his young pitcher Messick.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: ELLY'S QUADRICEPS SOUNDS AN OLD ALARM IN THE HOUR OF VICTORY, BUXTON GOES TO THE INVALID LIST, AND ALONSO'S HELMET EARNS ITS WAGES

The ward's gravest watch is kept in Chicago, where Elly De La Cruz — two hits to his credit in Cincinnati's win — was lifted before the seventh with tightness in the left quadriceps, the selfsame muscle that hobbled his 2025 for months. "I don't think it's very bad," offered the manager Francona, who confessed to double-teaming his shortstop into leaving, "but we need to get him looked at." The examination comes today. In Minnesota, Byron Buxton's right hip — whose alarm this ward has sounded since the spring — has at last claimed him: the center fielder goes to the ten-day invalid list with an impingement, dated back to the seven-and-twentieth. In Sacramento, the Baltimores drew a collective breath when Pete Alonso took a fastball of 94.6 miles to the hour upon the brim of his helmet in the eighth; the slugger went down, rose, and took his base under his own power. "Pete was fine, came out fine," reported the manager Albernaz. "He was typical Pete in the dugout." And in the Bronx, Aaron Judge packs a suitcase: the captain travels with his club on its western swing to ramp up his activities — on-field batting practice among them — with a September return from the rib fracture still the ambition, though likely not upon this trip. "I'm sure it will be ramped up and a lot more involved," said the manager Boone. The Cardinals' rookie Wetherholt, whose Rookie of the Year candidacy these pages weighed only yesterday, goes to the ten-day list with tendinitis of the right wrist.

THE RESTORATION DESK: THE SEPTEMBER GATES SWING INWARD — ANTHONY AND STORY REJOIN THE BOSTON RANKS, MARTE RETURNS TO THE DESERT THIS VERY EVENING, AND SMITH TO THE CHAMPIONS TUESDAY

On the eve of September's expanded rosters, the invalid lists are giving men back. Boston activated Roman Anthony and Trevor Story from the sixty-day rolls on Sunday, and both announced themselves directly, each doubling in the Bronx defeat the card below records. In Arizona, Ketel Marte's ten-day term expires today, and the club intends him in the ranks for this evening's engagement with Philadelphia at Chase Field — the final chapter, the Diamondbacks devoutly hope, of the saga that began when their second baseman failed to appear at Fenway Park on the seventeenth of August. The manager Lovullo, who has received the man's private apology, holds that a public one would serve: "He doesn't know how powerful that would be if he did something like that." And the champions expect their catcher back Tuesday: Will Smith, three months idled by an inflamed disc in the neck, is to be activated when Los Angeles opens its homestand against St. Louis, his rehabilitation assignment complete. "The experience, the calmness in the box, the managing of the pitching staff — all that stuff is crucial," his manager Roberts has said of what returns with him.

THE PROTOCOL DESK: THE CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE NATIONAL'S WEST ACQUIRES A SAN DIEGO CHAPTER — TATIS SURRENDERS HIS ARMOR PIECE BY PIECE

The lively correspondence between the umpiring estate and the National League's western clubs — a week's running feature in these pages, from Vitello's ejections to Webb's first to Wotus dispatched at the lineup-card exchange — has now enrolled the Padres. In the seventh inning at Tropicana Field on Sunday, Fernando Tatis Jr. laid down a bunt, reached when the reliever Booser threw wildly, and sprinted to second — whereupon the first-base umpire Blaser ruled him out for having run too far inside the first-base line, and the base hit was unwritten. The manager Stammen sprang from the dugout and was ejected by the crew chief Fletcher; Tatis followed him to the showers, pausing to strip off his protective armor piece by piece and slam each to the ground for emphasis. "It's a rule made for somebody who hasn't played the game," the right fielder testified afterward. "I just got a base hit taken away from a really tough series. They didn't care to explain. I felt like I played this game for a very long time and I should deserve some answers." Stammen's brief was more lawyerly: "If you're running at the base straight-on and the throw doesn't touch you, it didn't really affect the play." The Herald, noting that the rule in question predates every man on the field, forwards the correspondence to the league offices without further comment.

THE SANDLOT DESK: CURAÇAO TAKES ITS SECOND WORLD TITLE OF THE LITTLE LEAGUES, AND A NEVADA GIRL WRITES A LINE OF HISTORY IN THE LOSING CAUSE

From Williamsport comes word that the boys of Pariba Little League of Willemstad, Curaçao, are champions of the Little League World Series, eleven runs to two over Paseo Verde of Henderson, Nevada — the island's second title, and its first since the 2004 nine that sent Jurickson Profar and Jonathan Schoop on to the big leagues. Down two runs early, the islanders answered with De Lanoi's two-run single, Martina's run-scoring double, and a four-run fifth crowned by De Windt's bases-loaded double, while their pitching trio scattered five hits. The Herald tips its cap besides to the vanquished: Nevada's outfielder Carsynn Meyer became the first American girl ever to play in a Little League World Series title game, and but the second of any nation, following Japan's Sayaka Tsushima in 1998. Tiny island, big bats — and a big footnote for the annals.

The Rest of the Card

A DISPUTED TRAP, A FIVE-RUN FIFTH, AND THE SEASON'S SERIES GOES TO THE PINSTRIPES: YANKEES 16, RED SOX 1

The rubber match this paper flagged yesterday morning turned on a half-second in the right-center gap: Rafaela's diving try in the fifth was ruled a trap, the Crimson Hose lost their challenge — "I didn't even have to watch it. I know I made the catch," the aggrieved center fielder insisted — and the Pinstripes poured five runs through the opened door, Heliot Ramos's three-run blast, his first in New York flannels, leading the flood. The rout ran on from there: Austin Wells struck two homers and drove in five, Goldschmidt added his eighteenth among three runs batted in, Caballero a three-run shot of his own, and Chisholm stole twice more to reach forty, the American's best figure, while Warren carried the ball into the eighth for his ninth victory. The freight matters more than the tonnage: New York takes the season's series from Boston seven games to six — the very October tiebreaker yesterday's number weighed — and holds the top wild-card chair by four games, the tiebreaker in its pocket besides. Anthony's and Story's returns were Boston's chief consolation, as the restoration desk relates.

ONE HIT, TEN STRIKEOUTS, AND HISTORY IN THE BARGAIN: JAYS 7, MARINERS 0

The elder Scherzer's afternoon — seven innings, Raleigh's fourth-inning double the only hit against him, one walk, ten strikeouts, and ninth place all-time seized from Gaylord Perry, as the milestone desk sings above — would have carried the day unassisted, but the Canadians supplied ornament anyway: Kirk's two-run homer in the first, Okamoto's eight-and-twentieth, Guerrero's run-scoring double, and Giménez's two-run single in the eighth. Three straight now for Toronto, a game and a half from Cleveland's wild-card chair; the Seattle nine, blanked and four times beaten running, limp to Boston for this evening's engagement.

HENDERSON STRIKES TWO HOMERS AND A TRIPLE, AND SEVEN UNANSWERED RUNS FINISH THE SWEEP: BALTIMORES 8, ELEPHANTS 5

Down five runs to one by the third in Sacramento, the Baltimores were carried home on Gunnar Henderson's back: a leadoff homer in the first, an infield single, a three-run blast to the right-field berm in the fifth that took the lead for keeps, and an opposite-field run-scoring triple in the eighth — four hits in four trips, two homers, five driven in, with a pair of rally-killing gems at shortstop besides. "It was an outstanding all-around game for Gunnar," ruled the manager Albernaz, and the shortstop, whose summer has run below his own high standard, credited a rare Friday's rest: "It was nice to have nothing to really think about." Mayo's three-run homer in the fourth had begun the seven-unanswered procession; Bassitt took the win, Cano the save, and the sweep of the Elephants leaves the O's — three straight victories, seven of ten — a single game from Cleveland's last chair. Alonso's helmet is the ward's business above; tonight the swing continues at Colorado.

RAMÍREZ RETURNS TO THE FENCE-CLEARING TRADE, AND THE SWEEP IS DECLINED WITH EMPHASIS: GUARDIANS 11, ROYALS 1

Twice beaten in the set and facing the broom, the Forest City nine administered an eleven-to-one correction: José Ramírez homered — his first since June, of which drought the milestone desk has the fuller account — among four runs batted in, Nathaniel Lowe drove home three with his fifteenth, the rookie DeLauter doubled twice, and Adell added three runs batted in of his own while the young Messick held Kansas City to a single run across six innings for his eleventh victory. The Kansas City nine's astonishing surge, chronicled in these pages all week, thus settles at twelve victories in fourteen games; Cleveland's grip on the American's final wild-card chair is one game over Baltimore, a game and a half over Toronto — and the Canadians themselves call at Progressive Field beginning Tuesday.

ACUÑA LEADS OFF THE TENTH, OLSON ENDS IT, AND SEVEN STRAIGHT RIDE THE BROOM: BRAVES 3, ROCKIES 2, TEN INNINGS

The Tomahawk nine made harder work of the Coloradans than the tables suggested they might — Murphy's homer, his second inside four days, and Acuña's run-scoring single built a two-run lead, McCarthy's fourteenth and Norby's eighth-inning single clawed it level — but the tenth restored the natural order: Acuña singled leading off, and Matt Olson lined the walk-off knock to right, Atlanta's seventh consecutive victory and a sweep to close a spotless six-game homestand that began by sweeping the champions themselves. "We're worlds apart from where we were a week ago," said the manager Weiss, whose club at two-and-eighty wins stands dead level with Los Angeles for the National's second first-round bye. The schedule grants no breath: San Francisco calls this very evening at 6:05 for a makeup engagement, Molina opposing Elder.

CROW-ARMSTRONG STRIKES TWO MORE, BUT BURNS AND THE ROOKIE STEWART CARRY THE NIGHT: REDS 7, CUBS 5

The order Sosa placed Saturday, this paper's lead of yesterday, has swollen beyond the grocer's arithmetic: Pete Crow-Armstrong opened Sunday night with a leadoff blast off Burns's fastball of 98.9 miles to the hour and closed it with a ninth-inning shot off Pagán — five homers in two games, a feat managed by Swanson at the turn of this very July, and before him by no Cub since Kingman in 1979 and Billy Williams in 1968 — his August count of fourteen the most in a month by any man of four-and-twenty years or fewer since Griffey the younger in May of 1994. The Bruins lost anyway, and therein the rub: Chase Burns pitched to his fifteenth victory against three defeats, the rookie Sal Stewart homered in a third consecutive game — his one-and-thirtieth, his National-leading runs-batted-in count now at one hundred five — and Stephenson, Myers, and the young Rodríguez (three driven in) added blasts of their own. A third straight defeat for Chicago and a third series lost running; the wild-card cushion holds at four and a half, but Milwaukee arrives at Wrigley this very evening, as the desk note appoints. De La Cruz's quadriceps is the ward's worry above.

DURAN SUPPLIES A HOMER AND A GROUND-RULE DOUBLE, AND THE GAME'S BEST RECORD TAKES ONE ON THE CHIN: RANGERS 7, BREWERS 4

The Texas nine spotted Milwaukee two first-inning runs and then ran off seven unanswered: Ezequiel Duran's fifteenth homer leveled the account, his two-run ground-rule double took the lead in the fifth, and Pederson's four-and-twentieth added margin before Burger and Freeman singled home the sixth and seventh — three runs batted in for Duran, whose "energetic spark," as the wires put it, has become the Arlington offense's signature. Sánchez's two-run homer in the seventh trimmed the account for the Milwaukees, whose four-game winning streak dies at five-and-eighty wins against two-and-fifty defeats — still the game's best ledger by a distance. Alexander took the decision, Latz his seven-and-twentieth save; Texas, two games from Houston's crown and two from the wild-card row, hosts the Elephants tonight while the Brewers proceed to Wrigley and the appointment below.

PEÑA OPENS THE SCORING, AND WADE CLOSES THE ARGUMENT FROM THE BENCH: 'STROS 6, METS 3

Jeremy Peña greeted the first pitch of consequence with his seventeenth homer and later singled home a second run, but New York answered through Lindor and Soto, whose first-inning blasts briefly promised a Queens evening of resistance. The sixth settled it: LaMonte Wade Jr., summoned from the bench, struck a go-ahead two-run homer — his third — and Varsho's seventh-inning groundout cashed two more amid a Young throwing error. Pecko took his first victory of the season, Hader sealed his one-and-twentieth save, and the Houston nine depart New York with two series claimed on the excursion — the Pinstripes' scalp among them — their crown in the West two games clear of Texas. The Flushing nine, six-and-seventy times beaten, greet Tampa Bay tonight.

TWO INCHES OF GLOVE, ONE RUN ALLOWED, AND THE SWEEP OF THE SERAPHS IS SIGNED: PHILLIES 5, ANGELS 2

Zack Wheeler, winless since the twelfth of July, sat down with his counselors this week and found the culprit in a graph: his glove hand had sagged two inches. Restored to proper altitude, he held Anaheim to a single run across six innings — his first turn of six full since late July — while Realmuto and Sosa supplied homers, the latter's seventh taking the lead for good in the seventh inning, and Harper doubled home the fifth run past a failed Angel challenge. "Just bring the front arm up a little bit and go from there," the ace shrugged. Kerkering sealed it, the sweep makes four straight for Philadelphia, and the Anaheim nine have now dropped seven running. Tonight the Philadelphias call in the desert, where Marte returns — the restoration desk above has the delicacies.

GLASNOW CARRIES THE FINALE ALONE, AND TEOSCAR SUPPLIES THE THUNDER: DODGERS 6, TIGERS 1

The assignment that fell to Tyler Glasnow when the unicorn's Sunday was scratched — as yesterday's ward recorded — was discharged without incident: the right-hander ran his ledger to four victories without defeat, and Teoscar Hernández, robbed of a homer in this very yard on Saturday by Báez's basket catch, settled accounts with a two-run blast in the sixth among his two runs batted in. Muncy singled home an insurance run, Betts and Freeman doubled, and the Angelenos took the series from the Bengals two games to one, McGonigle's run-scoring single the home nine's whole account. At two-and-eighty wins the champions remain level with Atlanta for the second bye; Smith's Tuesday return, and the roster's September reinforcements, are the restoration desk's business above.

VALDEZ AND TRIOLO CLEAR THE FENCES, AND BURLESON'S HUNDREDTH ARRIVES IN A LOSING CAUSE: PIRATES 5, CARDINALS 4

The Buccaneers built their lead on Esmerlyn Valdez's two-run homer, his sixteenth, and Triolo's third, and then survived a St. Louis reply that came in waves — Herrera driving home two, and Alec Burleson singling home the run that brought his season's account to precisely one hundred runs batted in, the century this paper saw him standing one shy of on Friday morning. Ashcraft pitched to his fourteenth victory against five defeats, among the National's best figures, and Montgomery held the ninth for his seventh save. Two straight for Pittsburgh; the Mound City nine, twice beaten running and five games from the last chair, lose Wetherholt to the ward above besides.

KEASCHALL PUNCTUATES, MATTHEWS PROSECUTES, AND THE MINNESOTANS TAKE THE FINALE: TWINS 5, WHITE SOX 1

Matthews pitched deep into the evening for his ninth victory, the Central's leaders held scoreless until the ninth, while the Minnesota attack did its business early — Bell singling home two among his pair of runs batted in, Larnach doubling home two more in the first, and Keaschall's ninth homer supplying the seventh-inning punctuation. The White Stockings' account was Montgomery's ninth-inning single; their grip on the Central nonetheless holds at three games and a half over Cleveland, and they proceed to Houston for this evening's meeting of division leaders. Minnesota, Buxton-less as the ward relates, hosts Detroit tonight.

EIGHT INNINGS OF SILENCE, THEN SIX RUNS AT THE STROKE OF NINE: MARLINS 6, NATIONALS 2

The Miami nine carried a blank scorecard into the ninth inning at Washington, two runs in arrears to Nuñez's double and Lile's sacrifice fly, and then produced the entire evening's offense in a single frame: Marsee struck by a pitch with the bases loaded, Mack's sacrifice fly worth two runs by the grace of Pinckney's throwing error, and Otto Lopez's tenth homer to crown the six-run outburst. Fulton collected his first victory, the Washingtons' late-inning arithmetic collapsed entire, and the Fish — three games and a half from the National's last chair — renew the quarrel on the same grounds this evening at 6:45.

The tables on August's final morning, surveyed once around. In the American: Tampa Bay's lead in the East is four games and a half over New York, whose season's-series tiebreaker over Boston is now banked; the White Sox hold the Central by three and a half over Cleveland; Houston keeps the West by two over Texas; and the wild-card row reads New York, Boston, and Cleveland's last chair by one game over Baltimore, a game and a half over Toronto, and two over Texas. In the National: Atlanta by five in the East, Milwaukee by eight in the Central, Los Angeles by nine and a half in the West — and the second bye remains a dead heat, Atlanta and the champions locked at two-and-eighty wins apiece for a second consecutive morning. In the wild-card row the Cubs and Phillies share the top chairs at seven-and-seventy wins, Arizona holds the last with San Diego half a game astern, Miami three and a half back, and St. Louis five. Tonight's card runs to twelve engagements, all verified against the schedule, and the desk directs the reader's eye to three: at 6:05 the Giants call at Atlanta for a makeup engagement, Molina opposing Elder; at 7:40 the appointment yesterday's number twice made comes due at Wrigley Field, where Milwaukee and Chicago — first and second in the Central, eight games between them — open four straight, Harrison opposing Holmes; and at 9:40 the Phillies open in the desert, where Marte's return is the restoration desk's story above. The Yankees, with their traveling captain, open at Anaheim at 9:38; and when the morrow comes it brings September, the eight-and-twenty-man rosters, and a regular season with its final day — the seven-and-twentieth of that month — at last in distant view. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts