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. 67 · Sunday, the Thirteenth of September, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Reporting 15 contests from the day prior.

The Game of the Day

SIX HOME RUNS FALL UPON THE BRONX, AND TWO OF THEM ARE LINDOR'S — A LEADOFF BLOW AND A GRAND SLAM IN THE SAME AFTERNOON, A THING SEVEN MEN HAD DONE BEFORE HIM: METS 12, YANKEES 2

The soft-tossing rookie Thornton throws fire past the great Judge and prophesies his own double play, Cole is reached for three of the six, and the Subway rout before a sold-out house of 46,864 checks the Yankees' pursuit of clinched Tampa Bay at four games

The book on Zac Thornton runs to a single adjective — soft. He is by reputation among the gentlest-throwing pitchers in the major leagues, a man who lives on deception, seven pitches, and the edges of the plate. So when Aaron Judge stood in with two strikes in the first inning at Yankee Stadium yesterday afternoon, he could be forgiven for expecting a feather. What arrived instead was a fastball at ninety-five miles to the hour and a half beyond, on the inside corner, the equal of the hardest pitch the rookie has thrown all season; the great man watched it pass for strike three. An inning later Spencer Jones was frozen by its twin on the outside corner, and by day's end Thornton had thrown six such pitches at five-and-ninety or better across seven innings of two runs, one-and-eighty pitches the whole bill. "I didn't know the numbers of what was coming out of my hand," the young man deposed, "but I was getting good results, so I'm going to keep throwing it like that." His interim manager Green, surveying the fresh buzz cut atop the phenomenon, ventured that the barber deserved an assist.

The bombardment behind him was general. Francisco Lindor opened the contest with a leadoff home run off Gerrit Cole, and closed his afternoon in the eighth with a grand slam, five runs driven in all; the Elias bureau certifies him the eighth man in the game's long history to strike a leadoff homer and a slam in the same engagement. Between the bookends the visitors kept a steady artillery: Soto with his five-and-twentieth, Torrens with a homer and a double besides among three runs driven, Benge with his seventeenth, Jared Young with his ninth — six home runs in sum, three of them charged against Cole, whose line of four and one-third innings, nine hits, and five runs sends him to eight-and-nine and prolongs a September wrestle with the homer bug that the wires have begun to diagnose at length. The house of 46,864, sold to the rafters for the Subway matter, had little to cheer past Bellinger's fifteenth homer and a run-scoring single.

The curiosity of the day belongs to the seventh inning. Two Yankees aboard, one out, and Anthony Volpe — whose grand slam these pages sang two mornings ago — striding to the plate, the manager Green went to the mound himself for what he called a heat check. Thornton not only asked to remain; he predicted, in so many words, that he would coax an inning-ending double play. He then threw a changeup in a fastball count, and Volpe rolled it over, five-to-four-to-three, precisely as advertised. "Pretty impressive to call it like that," Green allowed afterward. The consequences read thus: New York's pursuit of clinched Tampa Bay is checked at four games, the first wild-card chair still theirs by four and a half over Boston, while the Flushing nine — ten games under the waterline yet winners of seven in their last ten — play the spoiler's part with evident appetite. The rubber game goes at 1:35 this afternoon, Scott opposing Schlittler and his league-leading 2.01.

News Around the League

THE MILESTONE DESK: TEN THOUSAND HOME RUNS SINCE THE FLIGHT WEST — BETTS SUPPLIES THE ROUND NUMBER AND MUNCY THE NEXT ONE, ON AN EVENING THE CHAMPIONS LOSE ANYWAY

The ten-thousandth home run struck by the Dodgers since the franchise removed from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958 belongs to Mookie Betts. It came in the first inning at Miami with two out, an 85-mile splitter from Tyler Phillips that wandered to the middle of the plate and departed a measured nine-and-ninety feet past three hundred to left-center — Betts' twentieth of the season. "It's really cool," the great man said, confessing he had not known the round number was pending. "I didn't know that. So, I guess I'll always be remembered for something." Max Muncy followed at once with number ten thousand and one — his eight-and-twentieth of the summer, the two hundred forty-second of his life — and the champions led by two before the first inning was old.

That the evening thereafter went sideways, the streak of eight ending at the hands of the Floridians as the card below records, does not dim the ledger entry. Ten thousand home runs in the California annals alone, and the man who reached the figure is the same who this summer has made a habit of arriving at history's door as if by appointment.

THE RECORD BOOK: THE CAPITAL'S YOUNG PAIR SIGN A REGISTER OF ELEVEN — WOOD'S TWENTIETH THEFT SETS HIM BESIDE ABRAMS IN THE THIRTY-AND-TWENTY BROTHERHOOD

James Wood slid into the record books in the second inning at Nationals Park yesterday, his twentieth stolen base of the season joining his thirty home runs — and because CJ Abrams reached the same twin figures only last weekend, the two young Washingtonians become the eleventh pair of teammates in all the game's history to post thirty homers and twenty thefts in a single season. The register they sign is good company: Lindor and Soto did it for the Mets only last year — the same two men, the reader will smile to note, who spent yesterday afternoon dismantling the Yankees in the lead columns above — and the roll runs back through Griffey and Rodriguez, Beltrán and Wright, to Johnson and Strawberry of 1987. At five-and-twenty and three-and-twenty years respectively, Abrams and Wood are but the second such pair aged five-and-twenty or younger, standing beside Lindor and Ramírez of the 2018 Clevelands; no Washington man had managed a thirty-and-twenty season at all since Soriano's forty-and-forty of two decades past.

"They're both total-package players, and I'm lucky just to be able to sit there and watch them do their thing," said the manager Butera, whose pair credit the first-year first-base coach Corey Ray with the larceny curriculum. Wood, who missed seven-and-twenty games to a strained oblique and has stolen more bases regardless than in all of last season, states the next ambition plainly enough — one more homer ties his career figure, and the thirty-and-thirty club waits beyond. Abrams, for his part, did not stop at the milestone: his theft of third base in the tenth inning yesterday preceded the winning run by a matter of moments, as the card below tells. "That's what great players do," ruled Butera.

THE PRODIGY DESK: SUMMONED AT MORNING, IMMORTAL BY THE THIRD INNING — THE TWINS' RODRIGUEZ STRIKES A FOUR-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FOOT HOME RUN IN HIS FIRST MAJOR-LEAGUE AT-BAT

The season's nursery delivers again. Emmanuel Rodriguez, the fifth-ranked prospect of the Minnesota organization, was called up from St. Paul yesterday morning, written into the ninth place of the order in center field, and in the bottom of the third inning — his first at-bat as a major leaguer — hit a 2-1 fastball from the Cleveland right-hander Aleman a measured four hundred twenty feet for a home run, leveling a game his club would win by a run, as the card below attests. The blow was six years in the transit: injuries held the young man to three hundred three-and-fifty minor-league games across six professional seasons, and the organization's patience with his mending has been a standing item of the prospect wires. "After all these hard-working years and all the time it's taken, I still want to enjoy myself," he had said before the game, his teammate López interpreting. "It's going to be a big moment, but I just want to take the field, enjoy and do my baseball thing."

The Herald notes the calendar's generosity: this is the second début inside three mornings to arrive gift-wrapped, after the Dodgers' De Paula took his first at-bats in Miami on Friday evening as these pages then recorded. September rosters swell, and the game's future keeps introducing itself mid-pennant-race — the Herald holds the door and takes down the names.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: LUZARDO AWAITS THE VERDICT OF THE IMAGING MACHINES, AND THE BATTING RACE'S LEADER IS KEPT IN THE PARLOR BY AN ANKLE

The ward's gravest file thickens. Jesús Luzardo, whose scratching from Saturday's start in Atlanta these pages reported yesterday, underwent an examination by the imaging machines Friday evening on the aching left shoulder, and his next turn is now listed as to-be-determined — words no contender enjoys reading in September. The man himself preaches calm: "not concerned," runs his verdict, appended with a soldier's flourish — "If today was Game 7 of the World Series, I'm throwing, no matter what." The trouble dates from the days after Monday's two-hit blanking of these same Braves; Philadelphia, whose evening without him went as badly as an evening can, as the card below grimly attests, can spare neither the arm nor the time.

In the American, meanwhile, Yordan Alvarez sat a second consecutive game in St. Petersburg with a soreness of the right ankle, the souvenir of an awkward step upon third base Thursday evening — he waved off the trainers at the time, as strong men will. The absence ended a run of two-and-sixty consecutive starts, and the manager Espada holds hope for this afternoon's finale. The stakes want no restating: Alvarez still leads the American's batting race at .310 over the sprinter Simpson's .306 — the strangest title argument ever run, which this paper examined at length yesterday, and which resumes the moment he returns, the two principals sharing the Tropicana premises through today. The wires note besides that his August fade has cost him the other two crowns for the moment, Caminero having passed him in homers at forty and Alonso in runs driven — the Baltimore man reaching nine-and-ninety just last evening. The candle burns for shoulder and ankle alike.

THE TRANSACTIONS DESK: TAMPA BAY SUMMONS A MAN WHO THROWS AT ONE HUNDRED TWO — AND THE PRICE ONCE PAID FOR HIM DROVE IN FOUR RUNS ELSEWHERE THE SAME EVENING

The clinched Rays, appetite undiminished, added velocity of the first order to their bullpen yesterday: Brody Hopkins, their seventh-ranked prospect and first among the pitchers, comes up from Durham bearing a fastball that has touched one hundred two miles to the hour and the number eight-and-eighty on his back. The right-hander Cook was optioned to make the room, and Grove was designated for assignment. "It's big, big stuff," ruled the manager Cash, "and we'll see if we can just harness it as many times over the plate as possible" — the strike zone having been, by the club's own admission, the young man's one intermittent acquaintance.

The connoisseur of symmetries will note the provenance: Hopkins came from Seattle in the summer of 2024 as part of the price for Randy Arozarena — and on the very evening of his summons, Arozarena himself struck his three-and-twentieth homer and drove in four runs amid Seattle's nineteen-run carnival in West Sacramento, entered faithfully in the card below. Both ledgers, it appears, are still paying out.

The Rest of the Card

TWO OUT, TWO STRIKES, AND THE CLOSER AHEAD IN THE COUNT — GRICHUK'S NINTH-INNING THUNDERBOLT STEALS THE EVENING BACK, AND THE CENTRAL'S CHAIR WIDENS TO A GAME AND A HALF: PALE HOSE 6, REDBIRDS 5

Chicago's season, which spent Friday night looking over its shoulder, spent Saturday night celebrating on the Busch Stadium grass. The evening had turned against them in the eighth, Bernal's leadoff homer off Taylor putting St. Louis ahead by a run; in the ninth the Redbirds' closer O'Brien — co-holder of the National's saves lead at six-and-thirty — got ahead of Teel no-balls-and-two before walking him, the seventh free pass of the night issued to a lineup that was also struck thrice by pitches. Then, two out and two strikes on him, Randal Grichuk lifted a drive that carried just beyond the leap of the right fielder Scott, and the Pale Hose led six-to-five, and that was the whole of the argument. "He's a battler. Never count him out," deposed the catcher Teel. "Leader of this team. He's always the first one here. Doesn't surprise me." The manager Venable spread the credit wider — the clubhouse, he noted, runs partly on the veteran's vigilance.

The arithmetic is the sweeter part: with Cleveland beaten in Minnesota, the Central's chair is Chicago's by a game and a half, with the magic figure at twelve. And the schedule now supplies the theater September owes: tomorrow evening the Pale Hose call at Cleveland itself, first of two, the division to be argued in person. Murakami, for the record, drove in a run besides; Winn cashed two for the beaten hosts.

THE DEBUTANT'S THUNDER AND THREE QUIET RUNS BESIDE IT — THE TWIN CITIES NINE CLIP CLEVELAND'S PURSUIT BY A RUN: TWIN CITIES NINE 4, CLEVELANDS 3

The afternoon at Target Field belonged to a man four hours into his major-league life — Emmanuel Rodriguez's first-at-bat homer, sung at proper length in the prodigy columns above, leveled the account in the third — and thereafter to the quiet industry of Clemens, Lewis, and Caratini, who cashed the runs that made it stand. Cleveland's reply ran through Bazzana, whose single brought Adell across, but the visitors could not square it; the decision went to Prielipp, and the loss to Aleman, into the annals now as the man who threw the debutant's pitch. The defeat is costlier than a Saturday in September ought to be: the Clevelands fall a game and a half behind the Pale Hose in the Central — whom they host tomorrow, first of two, with the division on the table — and their grip on the American's last wild-card chair is thinned to a single game over surging Toronto. The clubs conclude at 2:10 this afternoon, Bibee taking the ball for the visitors.

KIRK DRIVES IN THREE AND THE CANADIANS ANSWER FRIDAY'S INSULT — THE LAST CHAIR NOW BUT A GAME AWAY: CANADIANS 7, BALTIMORES 3

Toronto, beaten by these same birds Friday evening, replied with a thoroughness that speaks of urgency: Alejandro Kirk singled home one run and homered home two more — three driven in all — while Guerrero doubled and scored twice, Bateman added his second homer of the young career, Giménez doubled a run across, and Clement's sacrifice fly completed the seven. Baltimore's account was written almost entirely by one hand: Pete Alonso's five-and-thirtieth homer, a two-run blow that carries his league-leading count of runs driven to nine-and-ninety — the century mark now one errand away — with the third run a gift of Okamoto's throwing arm, twice errant on the evening. Arrighetti took the decision over Bradish. The Canadians, winners now of six in their last ten, sit but a single game behind Cleveland for the American's last chair — and this afternoon they send Cease and his 2.40 to the hill against Rogers at 1:37, the mathematics finally worth the candle.

PALACIOS CASHES TWO, MADRIGAL ONE, AND THE SUNSHINE NINE TAKE A SECOND STRAIGHT BY A WHISKER — HOUSTON'S HOLD ON THE WEST THINS TO TWO: SUNSHINE NINE 3, HOUSTON NINE 2

The clinched hosts continue to play as though nothing were settled, which is precisely the point — the East's flag, four games their own over New York, remains the stated ambition. Richie Palacios lined a single that brought Mesa Jr. and the sprinter Simpson across together, Madrigal's sacrifice fly added the third, and the bullpen made the slender sum stand, Wells taking the decision over Lambert. Houston's runs were Paredes' twentieth homer and a Diaz single that cashed Altuve, and no more — a second consecutive one-run defeat at the Trop, with the great Alvarez watching from the parlor as the ward above explains. The consequence out west is stern: the Astros' chair is now two games from Texas's reach, the thinnest it has stood in weeks. The set concludes at 1:40 this afternoon, Wesneski opposing Peralta, with the batting race's two principals possibly sharing a lineup card again at last.

TATIS HOMERS AND TWICE STEALS, THE JINTS' FOUR HOMERS GO FOR NOTHING, AND THE SURGE BY THE BAY RUNS TO SIX STRAIGHT: PADS 7, JINTS 6

San Diego's September surge rolls on — six victories running now, the last chair of the National held by a game and a half — though the evening by the Bay asked everything of them. Tatis struck his one-and-twentieth homer and stole two bases besides, his season's count of thefts reaching four-and-thirty; Merrill added his five-and-twentieth; and Dustin Harris — a quiet difference-maker in these pages two mornings running — drove in three more. San Francisco answered with four home runs — Devers' seven-and-thirtieth chief among them, Gilbert, Whitcomb, and the rookie Cavanaugh supplying the others, the last man's first of his major-league life — and still came up a run light, King banking his eleventh victory over the reliever Perdomo. The nightcap of the league's day goes at 7:20 this evening, Pivetta opposing Webb, with Arizona's stumble below keeping the arithmetic friendly.

SKENES DEALS LIKE HIMSELF AND IT IS SPENT LATE — O'HEARN DRIVES IN ALL THREE, AND STILL THE CUBBIES COME BACK: CUBBIES 4, SMOKY CITY NINE 3

Pittsburgh got the version of Paul Skenes that terrifies the league — the wires pronounce it a return to ace form — and contrived to lose anyway, the late innings coming apart as late innings will. Ryan O'Hearn drove in every Pittsburgh run, his eighteenth homer among the freight, and the visitors carried the lead deep before Chicago's patient correction: Busch's nineteenth homer and Ramírez's sixth anchored the reply, the decision falling at the last to Rolison — nine victories now against a single defeat — while the loss went to the reliever Soto. The comeback keeps the Cubbies first in the National's wild-card row, ten adrift of clinched Milwaukee in the division but four-and-eighty wins strong; the Smoky City nine, twice beaten running, drift six and a half from the last chair. The set concludes at 2:20, Chandler opposing Boyd.

A THIRD STRAIGHT HELPING, THIS ONE BY TEN — ACUÑA AND HARRIS SUPPLY THE THUNDER, THE VISITORS SUPPLY THE ERRORS, AND THE EAST'S GAP RUNS TO SIX: ATLANTAS 12, QUAKERS 2

Whatever Philadelphia came to Atlanta to settle is being settled against them. The third defeat of the set was the least dignified: Acuña struck his seventeenth homer among two runs driven — his career-long habit of tormenting this particular opponent now the wires' running theme — while Harris homered and drove in three, Baldwin cashed two more, and the innings were salted with Philadelphia misplays, Bohm and Stott each charged with an error. Mahle took the decision; Raley absorbed the loss; Harper's eight-and-twentieth homer and Crawford's third were the visitors' whole dinner. The ledger this morning is as stern as it has read all summer: Atlanta by six, its magic figure at seven, and the Quakers — thrice beaten running, their ace in the imaging machines' waiting room as the ward reports — must win today's finale at 1:35 behind Painter against Holmes merely to leave Georgia with a single scalp.

THE DESERT ANSWERS FRIDAY'S NINE WITH SIX OF TEXAS'S OWN — LANGFORD HOMERS, DURAN CASHES TWO, AND THE WEST'S SECOND PLACE CREEPS WITHIN TWO: TEXAS NINE 6, DESERT NINE 2

Friday's nine-run humiliation was returned with interest inside four-and-twenty hours. Langford struck his seventeenth homer, Duran drove in two to reach eighty on the season, and Jung, Nimmo, and Díaz cashed one apiece as Texas handled Pfaadt roughly and handed Garcia the decision. The consequences run in two directions at once: the Texas nine, with Houston beaten at the Trop, draw within two games of the West's chair, while the Desert nine slip a game and a half behind San Diego for the National's last seat, their winners' business of Friday undone at a stroke. The rubber game goes at 4:10 this afternoon and is among the day's best bills: Quantrill against Rodriguez, whose fifteen victories and 2.55 sit in the National's first rank.

THE STREAK STOPS AT EIGHT ON THE NIGHT OF THE TEN-THOUSANDTH — PAULEY CASHES TWO, GIBSON OUTLASTS GLASNOW, AND THE FLORIDIANS BANK ANOTHER SCALP: FLORIDIANS 4, ANGELENOS 3

The champions' eight-game march, chronicled in these pages to the point of monotony, was halted by the club that specializes in puncturing its betters at home. Los Angeles took its two-run lead on the famous first-inning pair — Betts' ten-thousandth-in-franchise-annals homer and Muncy's immediate echo, both certified in the milestone columns above — and thereafter went quiet, while Miami assembled its four with the lunch-pail: Pauley homered and drove in two, Lopez and Sanoja cashed one apiece, and the bullpen held the door. The defeat is charged to Glasnow, his first of the season against four victories, with Gibson taking the decision; the West's arithmetic is unmoved in substance, Los Angeles by ten with the flag figure at five. The set concludes at 1:40, Sheehan opposing Pérez.

THREE-AND-THIRTY RUNS IN TWO EVENINGS — MITCHELL DRIVES IN FOUR MORE, TURANG REACHES TWO-AND-NINETY, AND THE CREAM CITY MACHINE ROLLS A FIFTH STRAIGHT: CREAM CITY NINE 13, REDLEGS 9

A night after the twenty-and-nothing clinching carnival, Milwaukee scored thirteen more — three-and-thirty runs across two evenings against the same opponent, who may be forgiven for checking the schedule's exits. Garrett Mitchell, whose grand slam crowned Friday's rout, homered again and drove in four; Turang struck his nineteenth with two more runs driven, his season's count reaching two-and-ninety; Contreras added his seventeenth and three driven; and Patrick took the decision in the loose-jointed affair. Cincinnati's nine runs — Suárez's three-and-twentieth homer, three driven by the rookie Brito, De La Cruz cashing another — bought nothing but arithmetic: the Redlegs have now dropped five running. The finale at 2:10 brings the set's one genuine terror for the hosts: Burns, fifteen-and-three with a 2.73, takes the hill for the visitors against Gasser — though at three-and-ninety wins, the best record in either league, Milwaukee may receive even aces philosophically.

NINETEEN RUNS AND FIVE HOME RUNS — YOUNG DRIVES IN FIVE, AROZARENA FOUR, AND FRIDAY'S TENTH-INNING INDIGNITY IS AVENGED AT COMPOUND INTEREST: MARINERS 19, ATHLETICS 1

Walked off in the tenth on Friday, Seattle returned to West Sacramento and emptied the arsenal. Five home runs — Crawford's eleventh, Arozarena's three-and-twentieth, Canzone's two-and-twentieth, Cole Young's seventeenth, and the first of Arroyo's season — anchored a nineteen-run procession in which Young drove five across, Arozarena four, Arroyo three, and nearly every man in the order took a portion. Woo carried the decision to twelve-and-nine and was, remarkably, charged with the evening's untidiest moment, an error of his own making, there being nothing else to mark against the visitors' ledger. The Athletics' reply was a single run; their September mischief-making, seven victories in ten entering the night, absorbs its rudest interruption. The same clubs conclude at 4:05 this afternoon, Miller opposing Lopez.

SEVEN INNINGS, FIVE HITS, ONE RUN, NO WALKS — SUAREZ'S SECOND STRAIGHT GEM STOPS THE SKID AT THREE, AND ONLY THE BOY JENSEN ANSWERS: BOSTONS 5, MISSOURIANS 1

Boston's three-game stumble, entered with concern in yesterday's columns, was ended by the steadiest arm on the premises. Suarez gave seven innings of five hits and a single run, striking out eight and walking none — his second consecutive seven-inning gem, a run of form the man credits to a mechanical adjustment lately made — and the decision carries him to seven-and-four. Kansas City's whole reply was the work of Carter Jensen, the young catcher these pages saluted only yesterday, whose four-and-twentieth homer accounted for the run; Witt stole his fortieth base in the losing cause, drawing level with Chisholm one behind the sprinter Simpson's league-leading one-and-forty. The Bostons thus keep the second wild-card chair with a cushion of six clear games, and this afternoon at 3:05 send Tolle against Cameron for the set's conclusion.

ELEVEN RUNS AND A THIRD STRAIGHT FOR THE BENGALS — McGONIGLE STRIKES HIS SEVENTEENTH, LEE DRIVES IN THREE, AND GOODMAN'S EIGHT-AND-THIRTIETH IS WASTED ON THE MOUNTAIN AIR: BENGALS 11, COLORADANS 7

Detroit's autumn schooling of its young men produced its noisiest recitation yet: eleven runs, with McGonigle's seventeenth homer atop the pile, Lee driving in three, Keith stealing a base and cashing a run, and the supporting parts — Torres, Greene, Clark, Torkelson — each carrying freight in a third consecutive victory, Brieske taking his first decision of the year. Colorado's consolation was substantial where it was personal: Hunter Goodman struck his eight-and-thirtieth homer among three runs driven, a figure that lifts him into a share of the National's third place in that column, and Tovar added his eleventh. It bought no relief in the standings — the Coloradans have now dropped six running, their ninety-third defeat banked with a fortnight yet to endure. The matinee follows at 12:10, Hughes opposing Jobe.

ABRAMS STEALS THIRD IN THE TENTH AND THE MISPLAY DOES THE REST — A SECOND STRAIGHT FOR THE CAPITAL NINE, WON AT THE LAST STEP: CAPITAL NINE 6, SERAPHS 5, IN TEN INNINGS

The record-book afternoon of the columns above wanted only a proper ending, and got one. Level at five after nine, Washington put CJ Abrams aboard in the tenth, watched him steal third with the green light his manager had quietly granted — "that's what great players do," Butera ruled — and brought him home moments later when Ford's bounder to short was mishandled by Neto, the winning run scoring on the error. It closed an afternoon of honest back-and-forth: Abrams had doubled home a run, Young singled home another upon a challenge overturned, and Ortiz's single cashed two, while the ancient Trout scored on Meckler's double and Grissom's two-run homer, his eleventh, gave the visitors their innings of hope; Guzman and Ballesteros added the Seraphs' late pair, and Sinclair took the decision. Two straight now for the Capital nine after the seven-game famine these pages mourned all week — and both principals of the thirty-and-twenty brotherhood in the middle of everything, which is where the record book found them. The set concludes at 1:35 this afternoon.

The Sunday tables, then. In the American: clinched Tampa Bay holds the East by four over New York, Boston eight and a half astern; the White Sox keep the Central by a game and a half over Cleveland, the magic figure twelve, with the two principals meeting in Cleveland tomorrow evening — the fixture of the week, by this desk's lights; Houston's hold on the West is pared to two over Texas. The wild-card row: New York by four and a half over Boston, Boston six clear of the field, and the last chair Cleveland's by a single game over Toronto, with Texas two further back and Baltimore three. In the National: Atlanta by six over Philadelphia with its figure at seven; clinched Milwaukee by ten over Chicago; Los Angeles by ten over San Diego, the flag number five. The wild-card ledger: the Cubs and Quakers hold the first two chairs, the last seat San Diego's by a game and a half over Arizona, Pittsburgh six and a half back. Today's bill is the full board of fifteen, verified against the schedule, and the desk commends five engagements to the reader's lamp: at 1:35 the Subway rubber game in the Bronx, Scott opposing Schlittler and his league-leading 2.01; at 1:35 Philadelphia tries to escape Atlanta with a single scalp, Painter against Holmes; at 1:37 Cease, at 2.40, takes the hill for chair-hungry Toronto; at 2:10 Burns, fifteen-and-three, carries Cincinnati's pride into Milwaukee; and at 4:10 the desert rubber match, Quantrill against Rodriguez. The almanac reminds the reader that Tuesday the fifteenth is Roberto Clemente Day across the leagues; fourteen 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 next dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts