THE MORNING HORSEHIDE HERALD

THE SECOND TICKET OF THE NIGHT IS PUNCHED WITH TWENTY RUNS TO SPARE — TWO PITCHERS, TWO HITS ALLOWED, AND EVERY MAN IN THE ORDER SAFELY ABOARD: SUDS MEN 20, QUEEN CITY NINE 0

An hour or so after Tampa Bay's celebration began, Milwaukee staged its own, and left an exclamation point where other clubs leave a scorecard. The Brewers clinched their eighth postseason berth in nine seasons by the widest margin any club has ever enjoyed on a clinching day — the Elias bureau certifies the twenty-run cushion surpasses seventeen-run affairs by the 2001 Braves and 1996 Yankees — and did it with an economy that borders on insolence: Dustin May gave six innings of two hits, the reliever Stallings carried the last three without permitting a safety at all, and every member of the starting nine recorded a hit among the three-and-twenty. Eight runs crossed inside two innings; eight more piled into the fifth, crowned by Garrett Mitchell's grand slam, the club's first of the year, of which the almanac desk above has more; Brice Turang drove in four to reach ninety on the season, and William Contreras drove in six. Even the defense showed off — the rookie Luis Lara, whose walk-off knock these pages sang on Wednesday, went above the right-center fence to rob Suárez so cleanly that the umpires, seeing the ball vanish, signaled a home run until the young man produced it from his glove. "Air Lara," his center fielder shrugged.

The house took its champagne in moderation: a clubhouse toast, no showers, the manager Murphy spending his remarks on clubhouse men, bullpen catchers, and cooks. "You have to celebrate the moments, no matter how big or how small," said Mitchell, before appending the September qualifier: "We still got a lot more to go." The arithmetic behind the restraint: two-and-ninety wins, a franchise-record six-and-thirty games above the waterline, the Central held by ten over Chicago, and the best record in either league — with the flag itself still formally unclinched. The clubs meet again this evening; the beaten Reds, twice-hit and four times beaten running, may be forgiven for consulting the schedule's fine print.

ON THE CITY'S NIGHT OF REMEMBRANCE, THE FIREFIGHTER'S SON STRIKES THE TELLING BLOW — BELLINGER'S THREE-RUN DRIVE CARRIES THE SUBWAY OPENER: YANKEES 6, METROPOLITANS 4

The evening this paper promised would carry more than baseball kept its word. Boone, Judge, and Cole bore a memorial wreath into Monument Park in the afternoon; the ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Brielle Saracini, whose father captained the second of the stolen airliners, and was caught — by no accident of assignment — by Cody Bellinger, whose own father Clay wore the pinstripes in 2001 and afterward took up the firefighter's helmet in Arizona. In the second inning the son hit a three-run homer off the rookie McLean, Anthony Volpe — yesterday's hero — crossing ahead of him. "Today was a day where it felt bigger than the game, bigger than yourself," Bellinger said. Ben Rice added his seven-and-thirtieth homer, the club's leading count, swinging a bat stamped with the fire department's crest; the chants of U-S-A began with the anthem and never quite subsided.

The game beneath the occasion was honest work. Carlos Rodón, calling the assignment "heavy" and pitching like a man unburdened, gave six and a third innings of two runs, one earned, with eight strikeouts — his longest outing of the season; Headrick speared Lindor's two-out liner with the bases loaded in the seventh; and Bednar earned a five-out save the hard way, escaping a loaded-bases jam in the eighth for the price of a sacrifice fly and absorbing Ewing's ninth-inning homer before Soto banged into the double play that ended it. New York's fourth consecutive victory holds the East's gap at three behind clinched Tampa Bay and stretches the first wild-card chair's cushion to five and a half over Boston, whose own stumble is entered below. The clubs resume at 1:35 this afternoon, Cole taking the ball.

BEHIND AFTER THE NINTH, THE TENTH, AND THE ELEVENTH BEGAN, AND WINNERS ALL THE SAME — KIM TIES IT, BALDWIN ENDS IT, AND THE EAST'S GAP GROWS TO FIVE: BRAVES 6, BROTHERLY LOVE NINE 5, IN ELEVEN INNINGS

The set this paper billed as a possible settling of the National's East opened with a game that may stand as the season's maddest inside nine hundred miles of the Miami carnival. Philadelphia led by a run entering the home ninth and by a run again in both the tenth and the eleventh, and lost anyway — Atlanta rallying in all three innings, the last word belonging to Drake Baldwin, whose double scored Ha-Seong Kim from first base, headfirst across the plate, moments after Kim's own two-out single had leveled the account. The manager Weiss emptied his bench of twelve position players, and three of the four runs Atlanta scored from the ninth inning onward were tallied by borrowed legs: DaShawn Keirsey Jr., promoted only that morning as the ward above records, tore home from first on Murphy's ninth-inning single when the ball was bobbled in center; Brewer Hicklen, sent in for Olson, beat the throw on Dubón's sacrifice fly in the tenth. "People got their money's worth tonight," ruled Olson, whose eight-and-thirtieth homer had opened the scoring in the first inning, several lifetimes earlier.

Sale's seven innings of three hits, Riley's seventeenth homer, and a bullpen that permitted no earned run across four frames underwrote the theatrics; Philadelphia's Hill drove in three with a second-inning double and then, cruelly, supplied the ninth-inning bobble. For Kim, written off at a .068 average in the spring and exiled to Gwinnett by July, it is a second enormous hit in three weeks, and the wires note his tying knock left the bat at one hundred six miles to the hour. The consequence is stern arithmetic: Atlanta's lead over the second-place visitors stands at five with a dozen games to play after Sunday, and Philadelphia — Luzardo scratched, as the ward reports, an opener to face Mahle tonight — must now sweep what remains of the set merely to leave town closer than it arrived.

THE ALLEGHENY PARADE HALTS AT CLARK AND ADDISON — BREGMAN COLLECTS THREE HITS AND HIS FIVE-AND-TWENTIETH, AND THE NORTH SIDERS' OWN SLIDE ENDS AT FOUR: NORTH SIDERS 12, ALLEGHENYS 2

Two streaks walked into Wrigley Field and both were shot. Pittsburgh's four-game winning parade, saluted in yesterday's columns, was dismantled by the second inning; Chicago's four-game losing skid, mourned in the same pages, ended in a sixteen-hit exhibition. Alex Bregman did the heaviest lifting with three hits, his five-and-twentieth homer, and two runs driven; Michael Busch drove in three, Seiya Suzuki collected three hits with a triple among them, and Shota Imanaga carried six innings for his tenth victory. Cruz's first-inning single and Reynolds's seventeenth homer were the visitors' whole reply. The desk notes for the faithful that Crow-Armstrong singled home his eight-and-ninetieth run but left the theft column unmoved at six-and-thirty — the forty-forty ledger still wants four steals, and the calendar now offers but fourteen games. The clubs go again at 2:20 this afternoon, and the bill is the day's pearl: Skenes against Holmes.

MEIDROTH HOMERS TWICE AND IT AVAILS NOTHING — A FOURTH STRAIGHT DEFEAT SHAVES THE CENTRAL'S CHAIR TO HALF A GAME: MOUND CITY NINE 7, WHITE SOX 3

Chicago's evening produced a curiosity and a crisis. The curiosity: Chase Meidroth supplied both early runs with a pair of solo homers, his thirteenth and fourteenth. The crisis: everything else. St. Louis answered patiently and then decisively — a three-run fifth built on Burleson's run-scoring single, Báez's second double of the night, and Bernal's single, with Bernal adding another run home in the seventh — while Graceffo, now the owner of an eight-and-one record, held the visitors quiet through a rain-delayed evening. Burleson's two runs driven lift his season's count to one hundred six, second in the National. The White Sox have now dropped four running, and the arithmetic turns grave: Cleveland's victory, entered below, trims the Central's chair to half a game — the thinnest it has been all September. The Cardinals, for their part, play the spoiler's part with evident relish; the clubs go again at 7:15 tonight.

TWO IN THE SEVENTH, THREE IN THE NINTH, AND THE SUMMIT WITHIN HALF A GAME — ROCCHIO'S DOUBLE SEALS THE LAKE ERIE PURSUIT: LAKE ERIE MEN 5, NORTH STARS 2

Cleveland's chase of the Central's chair, conducted these three weeks with a bailiff's patience, drew within half a game of the wobbling White Sox. Angel Martínez supplied the lead with a two-run homer in the seventh, Bazzana crossing ahead of him; Minnesota drew level within the half-inning; and the ninth settled it — the go-ahead run scampering home on a wild pitch, by the wires' account with Bazzana again the runner, before Brayan Rocchio doubled two more across for the cushion. Smith closed his six-and-thirtieth save behind Gaddis's decision, and the Lake Erie men hold besides the American's last wild-card chair, two clear of Toronto with the tiebreaker long since banked, as this paper has recited to the point of song. The clubs resume in Minnesota at 4:10 this afternoon.

BEAVERS OPENS THE EVENING WITH THUNDER AND FIVE MORE CROSS BEFORE SCHERZER ESCAPES THE SECOND — AND THE ROOKIE TRIO STANDS LEVEL AT ONE-AND-THIRTY: BIRDS 7, TORONTOS 4

Baltimore's evening was decided almost before Toronto batted. Dylan Beavers opened the game with a home run, and the second inning fell in like a poorly built wall: five runs, Kjerstad and Cowser driving in three between them before Beavers returned to single home two more — three runs driven for the leadoff man in all. Chris Bassitt made the early fortune stand across a workmanlike evening while the ancient Scherzer, now two-and-eight, absorbed the damage; Mayo's three-and-twentieth homer supplied the seventh run, and Garcia closed the door after Bateman's two-run homer, his first of the year, made the ninth briefly interesting. The Birds have won two running and stand three from the last chair — obstinate guests at a party they were not invited to.

Toronto's consolation was historic all the same: Kazuma Okamoto struck his one-and-thirtieth homer, and the freshman company this paper convened on Wednesday now stands level — Okamoto, Murakami, and Stewart, one-and-thirty apiece, the only thirty-homer rookie trio the game has ever produced, climbing in lockstep. The Torontos themselves have dropped two running and sit two behind Cleveland's chair; they host the Birds again at 3:07 this afternoon.

THE EIGHTEENTH VICTORY MUST WAIT — KANSAS CITY STRIKES THRICE EARLY, AND THE LEAGUE'S WINNINGEST ARM IS BEATEN AT FENWAY: ROYALS 3, CRIMSON HOSE 2

The errand this paper flagged in yesterday's bill — Gray in pursuit of an eighteenth victory — ended in the ledger's other column. Kansas City reached the great man for single runs in the first and a pair in the third, Carter Jensen doubling twice and scoring twice while Perez, Jensen himself, and Pasquantino cashed a run apiece, and the visitors then defended the small fortune for six innings: Lugo took the decision, and Cruz recorded the final outs for his seventh save. Boston's reply was Gasper's ninth homer and Abreu's run-scoring double, and no more; the Crimson Hose have now dropped three running, though the second wild-card chair remains theirs by five clear games. Gray departs at seventeen-and-five with his figure at 2.76 and his next chance ahead; the Royals, playing out September with the young Jensen — one-and-thirty doubles now beside his three-and-twenty homers — providing the education, have quietly won two straight. The matinee follows at 1:35.

TUCKER EMPTIES THE BASES AND THE CHAMPIONS COUNT TO NINETY — AN EIGHTH STRAIGHT VICTORY ON THE NIGHT OF THE PRODIGY'S DÉBUT: DODGERS 6, FISH 2

Los Angeles made its ninetieth victory of the season look like an errand run before supper. Kyle Tucker supplied five of the six runs himself — a sacrifice fly in the third, then a seventh-inning grand slam, the almanac desk's third exhibit above, with a triple banked besides in a three-hit evening — while Blake Snell struck out eight across five and two-thirds innings of one run, his figure now a gaudy 1.91. Miami's ten hits of scattered singles-and-doubles industry produced only Ramírez's double and Caissie's sacrifice fly, and the champions' eighth consecutive victory — a season's best, stretching the run begun before this paper's week of chronicling their surge — leaves the West's flag number at five. The rookie De Paula's first evening, attended by his weeping father and sung at length in the columns above, came attached to the winning side, as first evenings in that livery generally do. The clubs meet again at 4:10, Glasnow and his unbeaten four-and-nought taking the hill.

SEVEN RUNS INSIDE THREE INNINGS, THEN A LONG AFTERNOON OF HOLDING THE DOOR — DEVERS' GRAND SLAM FALLS TWO SHORT, AND THE FIFTH STRAIGHT IS BANKED: FRIARS 7, BAY NINE 5

San Diego played its scoring like a man spending his whole purse before noon: two runs in the second, five in the third, and not another all evening. Freddy Fermin doubled twice among two runs driven, Bogaerts cashed two with a double of his own, and the unheralded Dustin Harris singled home one run and tripled home another. Then came the holding action — Rafael Devers' fifth-inning grand slam, celebrated dutifully in the almanac columns above, hauled the hosts from seven-to-one to seven-to-five — and the visitors' bullpen simply refused further correspondence, Miller sealing his five-and-thirtieth save. Ray took the decision. The Friars have now won five running, their brightest run of the summer's late innings, and hold the National's last chair by half a game over Arizona, whose own demolition work is entered below — the two clubs fated, as this paper has noted, to conclude the season against one another. The set resumes at 4:05 this afternoon.

CARROLL RETURNS FROM THE EXAMINERS SWINGING, MARTE DOUBLES TWICE, AND NINE RUNS FALL ON TEXAS IN TWO INNINGS: SONORAN NINE 9, RANGERS 1

The back that sent Corbin Carroll to the imaging machines on Tuesday, as the ward then reported, appears to have been given a clean bill: the outfielder struck his twentieth homer among two runs driven as Arizona buried Texas beneath a four-run fifth and a five-run sixth. Ketel Marte doubled twice and drove in three, Moreno singled home two, and Arenado added his four-and-twentieth homer to the pile; Pederson's run-scoring double accounted for the visitors' whole scoring. The connoisseurs' portion of the evening — Martinez's nine-pitch, three-strikeout sixth — is served at proper length in the pitching columns above. The consequences cut both ways along the wild-card row: the Sonoran nine keep their deficit for the last chair at half a game behind San Diego, while Texas, thrice beaten running, drifts three behind Houston in the West and three from the row's last seat — a September chase leaking oil at every joint. The clubs go again at 8:10 this evening, Rocker opposing Pfaadt.

RODRÍGUEZ WINS THE TENTH INNING'S FIRST HALF AND WALTON THE SECOND — THE WHITE ELEPHANTS WALK OFF BEFORE THE SMALLEST HOUSE IN THE LEAGUE: WHITE ELEPHANTS 6, MARINERS 5, IN TEN INNINGS

The evening in West Sacramento was decided twice in five minutes. Julio Rodríguez singled home the go-ahead run in the top of the tenth, and Donovan Walton answered in the bottom with a two-run, walk-off homer — his seventh — before a gathering of 8,682 that made up in noise what it wanted in number. The middle innings belonged to the young: Lawrence Butler's two-run homer built the early lead, and Seattle's answer came from Lazaro Montes, the one-and-twenty-year-old colossus whose four-hundred-seventy-four-foot thunderclap these pages measured on Wednesday, whose third career homer — a two-run blow that leveled the account at four — suggests the large type this desk predicted is being set already. Roycroft took the decision. The Athletics have won two running and seven of ten — the September mischief-maker's badge, worn this year in green and gold — while the Mariners' long season leaks another game. The same clubs close the league's evening at 9:40 tonight.

A FOUR-RUN SIXTH SETTLES THE MATTER IN DETROIT — GREENE TRIPLES AND DOUBLES, DINGLER STRIKES HIS SEVEN-AND-TWENTIETH, AND THE ROX DROP A FIFTH STRAIGHT: MOTOR CITY NINE 6, ROX 2

Colorado scratched ahead on an unearned run in the fifth, and Detroit answered with the game entire: Max Clark leveled it with a homer in the home half, and the sixth produced four more — Riley Greene's run-scoring triple, Dillon Dingler's two-run homer, his seven-and-twentieth with his seven-and-eightieth run driven besides, a count that keeps the young catcher among the American's leading five, and Clark scampering home on a wild pitch. Greene added a run-scoring double in the eighth for good measure — a triple and a double on the evening for the left fielder. Valdez carried six innings for the decision and Jansen sealed his nineteenth save; Veen's ninth-inning single spared the visitors a quieter line. The Motor City nine have won two running and continue the autumn schooling of their young men; the Rox, five times beaten in succession and seven-and-thirty games adrift, are running out of September to lose. The matinee follows at 1:10.

SEVEN DEFEATS, AND ENOUGH — A THREE-RUN EIGHTH ENDS THE CAPITAL FAMINE, WITH VIVAS SUPPLYING THE DECIDING FREIGHT: NATS 4, ANAHEIM NINE 3

Washington's seven-game losing spell, chronicled in these pages with mounting sympathy, was broken at last by an eighth inning of honest work. Trailing by a run — the ancient Trout had opened the evening with his one-and-twentieth homer, and Moore's single had restored the visitors' lead in the seventh — the Nationals stacked three: Pinckney's sacrifice fly leveled it, and Jorbit Vivas doubled two more across for the lead. Moore's ninth-inning double made the margin nervous before Tolman closed his second save; Beeter took the decision. James Wood, whose single had cashed the club's first run, banked his five-and-seventieth run driven in the bargain. The Anaheim nine, one-and-ninety times beaten, played their betters hard once more and lost once more — the spoiler's trade conducted without the spoils. The clubs resume at 4:05 this afternoon.