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. 64 · Thursday, the Tenth of September, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Reporting 15 contests from the day prior.

The Game of the Day

NINE-AND-TWENTY RUNS, FIVE-AND-THIRTY HITS, AND THE TYING RUN DIES AT THE VERY LAST — MIAMI'S CAST-OFF RETURNS TO HAUNT THE HOUSE THAT RELEASED HIM: METS 15, MARLINS 14

An eight-run lead is squandered entire, rebuilt by six in the seventh, and besieged again to the final out — Torrens drives in four, Lindor homers and squeezes the last pop-up, and Christopher Morel, discarded by these very Marlins in June, enters as a pinch-runner and leaves with a home run against his former employers, the sweep sealed by the last pitcher New York had

The ball went up off Graham Pauley's bat with the tying run aboard and one out to spare, hung a moment in the Miami night, and came down in Francisco Lindor's glove — and only then, at the absolute end of the accounting, was the maddest game of this September finally closed. Nine-and-twenty runs. Five-and-thirty hits. Nine-and-forty men aboard the bases, by the wires' patient arithmetic, and not one error in the entire carnival. "That's as crazy a game as you will see," ruled the interim manager Green, reaching for the gridiron to explain it: "We got the two-point conversion and the touchdowns for the win."

The shape of the thing defies sober typesetting, but the Herald will try. New York battered Junk for six runs in the second — in which inning Brett Baty drove in a run and departed limping, his left knee barking, a misfortune the ward below attends — and when Christopher Morel, the man sent in merely to run for him, stepped to the plate in the third, he struck a two-run homer to make it 8-0. Mark the name well: Miami released Morel in June, New York signed him to a minor-league paper on the first of July, and here he stood in his old yard, three hits in four tries, three runs driven, his first home run in the new livery struck against the old. The Marlins answered as though insulted — three in the fourth, five in the sixth, level at eight — whereupon New York stacked six more in the seventh, the reliever Ekness retired not a single man, and Luis Torrens finished the evening with four runs driven while Lindor's eighteenth homer rode the tide. Still Miami came: twenty hits in all, three runs driven apiece for Marsee and Mack, two apiece for Conine, Lopez, Caissie, and Pauley, two runs in the eighth, three more in the ninth, until the margin stood at a single run.

Whereupon the manager Green played his final card, for there was nothing left beneath it: Tobias Myers, seventh pitcher of the New York evening and the last man available, entered with the tying run at first. Sanoja singled. Myers struck out Caissie, and Pauley's pop found Lindor, and the Mets had swept Miami entire — their fourth straight victory, a third consecutive series taken, and a record of one-and-twenty wins against twelve defeats since the club sold at the deadline and was pronounced dead. The tables grant these clubs nothing — both were excused from the pennant conversation long since — but the Herald submits that no October engagement will be stranger. "It kind of felt like we were going to score no matter what," said Lindor, and for one night in Miami that was true of everyone. The surge travels next to the Bronx, where the Yankees await Friday evening.

News Around the League

THE OHTANI FILE, NEXT CHAPTER: THE GREAT MAN GOES TO THE INVALID LIST TO SAVE THE BAT FOR OCTOBER, AND THE DODGERS SUMMON THE PRODIGY DE PAULA

The file this paper has kept open all week reaches its melancholy conclusion. Shohei Ohtani, held out of the lineup for the sixth time in seven games, was placed by Los Angeles upon the invalid list to rest the ailing left knee and right biceps — the same pair of complaints that, as these columns recorded Tuesday, had already closed the two-way question for the year. The bat now joins the arm in furlough, with October the whole of the calculation. "Talking to the doctors and training staff, there was not much certainty that he'd be in a much better place," allowed the manager Roberts. "With that, just taking it off the table seemed like the best course of action."

In the great man's stead arrives youth of the first water: the club will summon Josue De Paula, the sixth-ranked prospect in all the game by the wires' reckoning, a one-and-twenty-year-old who battered Double-A pitching at a .303 average with a .401 on-base figure. He is to make his major-league début Friday in Miami — the schedule confirms the champions open there that evening — with the designated-hitter post his runway while Ohtani mends. "He doesn't run from velocity. He controls the strike zone," testified Roberts. The champions, it must be said, hardly limp: their seventh consecutive victory is sung in the card below.

THE MILESTONE DESK: TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED HITS FOR ALTUVE, AND DE LA CRUZ HOMERS A FIFTH STRAIGHT NIGHT WITH VOTTO'S SEVEN IN VIEW

In the third inning at Philadelphia, Jose Altuve doubled off Sánchez, and the ledger of a sixteen-year Houston life turned a page few men ever reach: two thousand five hundred hits. The résumé beneath the number reads like an inscription — a Most Valuable Player award, two world's championships, nine All-Star summers, seven Silver Sluggers — and the whole Houston bench rose to the top step while even the Philadelphia infielders Turner and Arraez crossed party lines to shake the little great man's hand. "It was a great moment," said Altuve, whose club nonetheless lost the evening, as the card below relates. "I'm really sad we lost the game, but you know, we come back tomorrow."

And in Los Angeles a milestone still in the making: Elly De La Cruz turned on the very first pitch Yamamoto offered him — ninety-seven miles to the hour, no matter — and drove it to center for his six-and-twentieth homer of the year, a career high, and his fifth consecutive game with a home run. No switch-hitter in Cincinnati's long annals has ever homered in five straight; the club record entire is Votto's seven, set in 2021, and stands now but two games distant. The blast was the whole of the Cincinnati evening, as the card below must confess.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: CHISHOLM'S THUMB COSTS THE YANKEES THEIR BASE-STEALER, VOLPE IS RECALLED FROM EXILE, AND BATY LIMPS BUT SMILES

The ward's newest admission is a costly one. Jazz Chisholm Jr., whose forty stolen bases stand second in the American, sprained his right thumb sliding into second base Tuesday evening, and the imaging has sentenced him to the ten-day invalid list — no baseball whatever for seven to ten days, which places the remainder of the regular schedule in honest doubt. "It's definitely a blow," conceded the manager Boone, mourning the timing above all, for the man had lately been enjoying his best stretch of the summer. The corresponding summons, the wires report, goes to Anthony Volpe, lately of the minors, where by one clubhouse account he "became Barry Bonds all of a sudden" — the young man was named his league's player of the week for the trouble.

Elsewhere the ward reports in brief. In Miami, Brett Baty's left knee sent him from the game in the second inning, but the manager Green found him smiling afterward — "He thought he was going to be OK. We'll see what he's like and get a better feel." In Baltimore, the news is grimmer still for a club that can least afford it: Gunnar Henderson sat out entirely with the sore left knee this paper reported yesterday, and Blaze Alexander's back spasm has ripened into a ten-day sentence of his own. Swift mending to every name above — the Herald keeps its candle lit.

THE FRACAS DESK: A LATE SLIDE AT SECOND BASE EMPTIES BOTH BENCHES IN CHICAGO, AND NOT A MAN IS EXPELLED

The seventh inning at Rate Field produced the evening's theatre. With the bases loaded, Pittsburgh's Ramírez coaxed the double play that ended the White Sox threat — whereupon the second baseman Sam Antonacci, sliding late and, in the visitors' judgment, with a flourish of elbow, came up jawing with his opposite number Brandon Lowe, and in a moment both benches and both bullpens had emptied onto the grass. No blows were struck, no man was ejected, and the umpires contented themselves with warnings all around.

The testimony afterward split precisely as one would expect. "I just didn't like the slide. Said my piece and walked away," deposed Lowe. "Bad slide the first night, bad slide tonight, and just kind of tired of it." Antonacci pled the statute: "Completely legal play. If you go look at the rulebook... you can slide as late as you want as long as you keep contact with the bag." And then the line that gives the quarrel its true weight, from the young Chicago infielder: "These are playoff games." On that much, at least, both parties agree — the standings consequences of the evening are entered in the card below.

THE ALMANAC DESK: SPRING HAS A DATE — ALL THIRTY CAMPS OPEN ON FEBRUARY THE NINETEENTH, AND THE HERALD MARKS ITS CALENDAR IN RED

Amid the September arithmetic arrives a dispatch addressed, the Herald flatters itself, to this very desk: the league has published its spring schedule for 2027, and all thirty clubs of the Cactus and Grapefruit circuits will open their exhibition play upon a single day — February the nineteenth. The first morning's bill includes the Dodgers against the White Sox at their shared Camelback grounds and the Yankees calling upon the Blue Jays at Dunedin. The regular campaign follows with an opening night on March the four-and-twentieth and the traditional full Opening Day of fourteen games upon the five-and-twentieth.

The reader will forgive this paper a moment's self-regard, for the question stitched into its masthead — is it spring training yet? — now possesses its next appointed answer, one hundred sixty-two days distant as of this morning's press. The desk notes the present season has business left to conduct first, and turns back to it forthwith.

The Rest of the Card

A SIX-RUN SIXTH CROWNED BY SCHWARBER'S GRAND SLAM, HIS FOUR-AND-FORTIETH, AND THE GAP TO ATLANTA NARROWS TO THREE: PHILADELPHIAS 11, ASTROS 7

Houston built a 6-4 lead on the visitors' industry — Paredes driving in three with his nineteenth homer, Alvarez reaching six-and-ninety runs driven — and watched it burn in a single Philadelphia sixth: the reliever King let all four men he faced reach, one by an error, before Kyle Schwarber, the game's leading home-run maker, unloaded the bases against Blubaugh for his four-and-fortieth. Cristopher Sánchez absorbed ten hits and six runs yet banked his seventeenth victory, the National's best count, with Harper and Turner adding two runs driven apiece. The Philadelphias thus stand three behind Atlanta in the East, while Houston keeps the American West's chair by two over Texas, whose own defeat is entered below. Altuve's milestone double, struck in the losing cause, is celebrated at proper length in the columns above.

TWO HITS IN FIVE INNINGS FROM JAX, THREE HITS ALL EVENING FROM ATLANTA, AND THE MAGIC NUMBER FALLS TO TWO: GULF COAST CLUB 7, BRAVES 2

The second act of the summit went as the first: Tampa Bay struck early and often — three in the second, three more in the fourth, Mesa Jr.'s eleventh homer among the freight and Mateo driving in two — while Griffin Jax permitted but two hits across five innings and four relievers closed the books. Atlanta managed three hits entire — Baldwin's three-and-twentieth homer and a run driven by Olson the whole of the scoring — and has now dropped three running while its lead over Philadelphia thins to three; the wires note the once-fearsome lineup is drawing open concern with October near. The Gulf Coast club's own arithmetic gleams: with Texas and Toronto both beaten, the magic number for an October berth stands at two, and the wires certify the ticket could be punched at this very afternoon's finale — a sweep coupled with another Texas defeat would do it, as would a victory attended by a White Sox loss tonight. Martinez and his fourteen victories takes the ball at 12:15.

EIGHT RUNS IN A SINGLE THIRD INNING OVERTHROW THE FIFTEEN-GAME WINNER, AND HARD-LUCK BAZ IS PAID AT LAST: ORIOLES 9, GUARDIANS 5

This paper set the bill yesterday — Cleveland's Griffin and his fifteen victories against the hard-used Baz — and the evening inverted it with a vengeance. DeLauter's two-run homer had Cleveland ahead early, whereupon Baltimore fell upon Griffin for eight runs in the third, seven hits inside two and a third innings, Dylan Beavers driving in three and Mayo adding his two-and-twentieth homer; the eight-run frame matches the club's largest of the season. Shane Baz, so long the American's patron saint of unrewarded labor, carried five and two-thirds for his sixth victory against fifteen defeats. The wounded hosts — Henderson and Alexander's absences are recorded in the ward above — took two of three from the very club holding the last chair, and stand three games from it; Cleveland's own grip on that chair thins to a single game over Toronto, with the rubber arithmetic of the Central spelled out in the Chicago dispatch below.

THE FIRST YANKEE SLAM OF THE YEAR, STRUCK BY THE YOUNGEST HAND TO STRIKE ONE SINCE MANTLE: BRONX BOMBERS 6, MILE HIGH NINE 1

The Stadium waited all season for a grand slam and received it from its youngest man: George Lombard Jr., one-and-twenty years and nine-and-ninety days old, turned Sugano's slider the opposite way in the third inning with the bases full — the club's first slam of the year, and no Yankee younger has struck one since Mickey Mantle turned the trick twice in the July of 1952. "That's up there — a legend in the game, and especially here," allowed the young shortstop, whose four runs driven put him in a ledger since 1920 otherwise occupied at that age only by Mantle and Gehrig. Warren made it stand with six innings of one run and eight strikeouts for his tenth victory; García Jr. and Bellinger added homers, and New York — a season-best one-and-twenty games above the waterline — holds its distance at four behind Tampa Bay. The captain's convalescence proceeds; his lieutenant's does not, as the ward above reports of Chisholm.

THE SWEEP IS SEALED, THE LEAD SWELLS TO TEN, AND A FIVE-RUN NINTH ARRIVES TOO LATE TO SAVE THE BRUINS: BREW CREW 8, BRUINS 6

Milwaukee finished what it began: Gausman was struck for seven runs inside four innings — Chourio, whose thunder decided Tuesday's affair as this paper sang, adding his three-and-twentieth homer, with Contreras and Yelich driving in three apiece — and Henderson carried five innings for his tenth victory against three defeats. Chicago's five-run ninth against the relief made the score respectable and nothing more. The accounting is stern: the Bruins lost five of seven to Milwaukee inside ten days, have dropped four running, and since the thirteenth of August have played at a 10-16 gait while a wild-card cushion that measured seven games and a half melted to a chair behind Philadelphia. "We don't have time to sulk," testified Happ, correctly. The desk adds that Crow-Armstrong's theft column stood unmoved at six-and-thirty — the forty-forty ledger still wants four steals, and the calendar now offers but fifteen games.

MERRILL DRIVES IN SIX ON THE HOTTEST AFTERNOON PETCO PARK HAS EVER KEPT, AND THE SENATORS' SEVENTH STRAIGHT DEFEAT COMPLETES THE SWEEP: SAN DIEGO NINE 9, SENATORS 2

At ninety-five degrees the thermometer certified the hottest first pitch in the yard's history, and Jackson Merrill matched the weather: four hits in five visits, the go-ahead triple in the third, then two home runs both struck the opposite way, six runs driven in all — a season's best. The afternoon carried its comedy besides: Buehler, animated on the mound, argued his manager Stammen out of a third-inning hook, only for the pair to recall too late that the pitching coach had already visited that inning — the second visit removed him by statute, Hart escaped the bases-loaded jam, and the rout proceeded. San Diego has won four running, swept Washington entire, and holds the National's last chair by half a game over Arizona, whose stumble is recorded below; the Senators' seventh consecutive defeat deepens a September without mercy.

WITT DRIVES IN THREE, THE ROOKIE JENSEN STRIKES HIS THREE-AND-TWENTIETH, AND THE SNAKES SURRENDER THE LAST CHAIR: ROYALS 5, SNAKES 2

Kansas City's evening was built on a three-run fifth and two swings: Bobby Witt Jr. drove in three with his eighteenth homer, and Carter Jensen — the fourth man in the rookie thirty-homer conversation this paper convened Wednesday — struck his three-and-twentieth, the road to the record trio's company now seven blasts long with fifteen games to walk it. Lynch gave five innings for the victory; Arenado's three-and-twentieth homer was the visitors' consolation. The freight travels west: Arizona's defeat, coupled with San Diego's sweep above, drops the Snakes from the National's last chair by half a game — the two clubs, the wires note, conclude the season against one another, a reckoning now thirteen days distant.

FIVE STRIKEOUTS OF SPOTLESS RELIEF FROM EISERT, A QUARREL AT SECOND BASE, AND THE CORSAIRS TAKE ANOTHER FROM THE SOUTH SIDERS: CORSAIRS 4, SOUTH SIDERS 2

Pittsburgh's staff passed the evening around like a parcel — eight men in all, Eisert's two and a third hitless innings and five strikeouts the finest wrapping — while Griffin drove in two and Valdez supplied his seventeenth homer. Chicago's answer was chiefly Murakami's one-and-thirtieth blast, which draws the rookie level with Montgomery atop the club's count, and two late bases-loaded threats that died unconsummated, the second in the fracas the news columns above record. The Corsairs have won three running and eight of ten — September's most honest mischief-makers. The South Siders' consolation is arithmetical and considerable: with Cleveland, Toronto, and Texas all beaten, the divisional magic number falls to fourteen and the October-berth number to thirteen, and the wires observe the club still holds the season's edge on the Guardians with three games in Cleveland opening Monday.

TEN STRIKEOUTS FOR YAMAMOTO, FOURTEEN RUNS BEHIND HIM, AND A SEVENTH STRAIGHT FOR THE BOYS IN BLUE: BOYS IN BLUE 14, REDS 1

Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out ten across seven innings of one-run, three-hit work — matching the best strikeout count of his American life — and his mates made the margin absurd, batting around in a six-run fourth of relentless small ball, the club's first six-run inning since June. Betts, Muncy, and Tucker all homered, and Enrique Hernández drove in four with a blast of his own. The champions' seventh consecutive victory is a season high; the sweep of Cincinnati leaves the West's magic number at six, and the wires allow an October berth could be sealed as soon as the weekend's set in Miami — where the prodigy De Paula, as the columns above report, will début. The lone Cincinnati run was De La Cruz's historic fifth-night homer, sung at length in the milestone desk; the Reds have dropped three running.

KEITH SUPPLIES THE EARLY FREIGHT, HOLTON THE QUIET MIDDLE, AND THE MATINEE RUBBER BELONGS TO DETROIT: TIGERS 7, TWINS 2

The rubber match this paper flagged for the afternoon lamp went to the home nine at a canter: Detroit struck twice in the first and thrice in the third against Matthews, Colt Keith driving in two with his tenth homer and Dingler adding two more, while Montero, Holton, and three relievers parceled out the innings — Holton's two spotless frames taking the decision. Minnesota's runs rode a pair of solo blasts in the fourth, Clemens's six-and-twentieth homer and Bell's nineteenth — the whole of the visiting offense. The Tigers thus take the set two games to one; both clubs play out September for the education of their young men, of whom Detroit's McGonigle — a double shy of nothing, his six-and-twentieth two-bagger banked — remains the most diverting pupil.

FIVE ARMS WEAVE A SHUTOUT IN SACRAMENTO, AND THE MAPLE LEAF NINE SLIP BACK BELOW THEIR WATERLINE: MACKMEN 2, MAPLE LEAF NINE 0

The seesaw this paper has ridden with Toronto all week tips downward once more. Five Athletics arms — Basso's four scoreless to open, Blewett for the decision, Alvarado for the seal — spun a six-hit shutout, and two runs sufficed, Bolte's tenth homer the only one driven in by any bat. Lorenzen, pressed into the bulk innings, absorbed his twelfth defeat on two runs' evidence. The Maple Leaf nine thus stand a game below the waterline at three-and-seventy wins against four-and-seventy defeats, one game behind Cleveland's last chair — the tiebreaker, this paper has recited until it can sing it, banked in Toronto's favor — and the arithmetic above notes their defeat also fed Tampa Bay's magic number. Okamoto, whose historic thirtieth these pages celebrated Wednesday, was held in check with the rest.

DOWN FIVE ENTERING THE EIGHTH, THE ORANGE AND BLACK STRIKE SIX TIMES AND STEAL THE EVENING WHOLE: ORANGE AND BLACK 7, CARDINALS 6

St. Louis had banked six runs against Tidwell and the relief, Bernal driving in three with his second homer, and led 6-1 with six outs wanting when the eighth inning turned pirate. Six San Francisco runs crossed against Winquest and the reliever Soriano — the young giant Bryce Eldridge driving in three, his season's count now two-and-fifty, with Lee adding two more — and Harris recorded the last three outs for his first save. Wilkinson took the decision; Soriano was charged the blown save and the defeat. The Cardinals, thrice beaten running, drift six and a half games from the National's last chair; the Orange and Black, long past table arithmetic, have won three straight and continue the schooling of Eldridge, whose education this paper audits with pleasure.

ANDERSON'S SIX STRONG INNINGS STAND AT THE LAST, AND THE LONE STAR NINE'S CHASE SURRENDERS A PRECIOUS GAME: SEATTLE NINE 3, LONE STAR NINE 2

Anderson gave Seattle six innings of a single run for his first victory of the year, and the home nine made two-run economies suffice — Young driving in two, Ward the third — while Muñoz worked around a walk in the ninth for his six-and-twentieth save. Texas's thunder came in solitary claps, Seager's seventeenth homer and Burger's six-and-twentieth, the latter closing the account to one in the eighth before the door shut. The defeat is dearer than its size: the Lone Star nine fall two behind Houston in the West and a game and a half from the last chair, and their loss rang the first bell in Tampa Bay's clinching arithmetic above. The clubs go again at 4:10 this afternoon, deGrom opposing Gilbert — a bill worth any reader's lamp.

A FIVE-RUN THIRD AT FENWAY SETTLES THE RUBBER MATCH, AND NETO'S THREE RUNS DRIVEN CARRY THE HALOS: HALOS 6, FENWAY MEN 4

The last-place spoilers of Anaheim, having halted Boston's winning parade Tuesday as this paper recorded, took the rubber game besides. A five-run third off Bennett did the work entire — Zach Neto striking his five-and-twentieth homer among three runs driven, with Siri and Guzman adding blasts of their own — and Johnson carried six innings for the victory, Joyce sealing the ninth. Boston's answer came in installments, the rookie Anthony's fourth homer and Abreu's four-and-twentieth among it, but Bennett's five-plus innings of six runs decided the argument early. The Fenway men have dropped two running yet hold the wild-card row's second chair in comfort, six games clear; the Halos, ninety times beaten, continue to conduct themselves like a club that has not read the standings.

The tables this Thursday morning read thus. In the American: Tampa Bay holds the East by four over New York, with a magic number of two for an October berth; the White Sox keep the Central by two over Cleveland, their own numbers standing at fourteen for the flag and thirteen for the berth; Houston keeps the West by two over Texas. The wild-card row: New York and Boston in comfort, the last chair Cleveland's by a single game over Toronto, Texas a game and a half back, Baltimore three. In the National: Atlanta by three over hard-charging Philadelphia; Milwaukee by ten over Chicago; Los Angeles by eleven over San Diego with a magic number of six. The wild-card ledger: Philadelphia's first chair now a game and a half clear of the Cubs, and the last chair San Diego's by half a game over Arizona, with Pittsburgh five back. Today's bill is a slender one — five engagements only, all verified against the schedule, and every one carrying freight. At 12:15 the finale in Atlanta, Martinez opposing Pérez, with Tampa Bay's clinching scenarios laid out in the card above; at 1:05 Javier against Wheeler in Philadelphia; at 4:10 the pearl of the day in Seattle, deGrom opposing Gilbert with Texas's season leaking; at 7:05 Feltner against Fried in the Bronx; and at 7:40 in Chicago, Jones opposing the White Sox's astonishing Smith, he of the 0.56 figure. Friday restores the full board of fifteen, the Subway meeting of Mets and Yankees among them. The almanac notes Roberto Clemente Day upon the fifteenth; seventeen mornings remain to the season's final page on the seven-and-twentieth, and the Wild Card rounds open on the nine-and-twentieth. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts