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. 68 · Monday, the Fourteenth of September, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Reporting 15 contests from the day prior.

The Game of the Day

TWO RUNS DOWN, THREE OUTS LEFT — AND A MAN OFF THE BENCH ENDS IT WITH ONE SWING: RAMÍREZ'S PINCH-HIT THUNDERBOLT CAPS A FOUR-RUN NINTH AGAINST THE CHAMPIONS, MARLINS 6, DODGERS 4

An infield scratch, a bunt laid down like a calling card, Sanoja's tying double, and then the walk-off blow into the left-center saloon — Miami's seventh walk-off of the summer takes the season's series from Los Angeles for the first time in five years

The ninth inning at Miami arrived wearing the champions' colors. Los Angeles led four runs to two, Mookie Betts having restored the margin in the top of the frame with a ground-rule double — this a day after his ten-thousandth-in-franchise-annals homer filled these columns — and the visitors stood three outs from salvaging the set's finale. What followed was a rally built of the game's smallest coins and its largest: Xavier Edwards beat out an infield scratch, Jakob Marsee laid a bunt down like a calling card, and Javier Sanoja lined a double into the left-field corner, his thirtieth, to bring both men home and square the account at four. The reliever Scott, charged with the mess, gave way to Stewart — and the manager McCullough reached down his bench for Agustín Ramírez, who had not started the day and finished it instead: a four-seam fastball at very nearly five-and-ninety miles to the hour deposited deep into the Budweiser saloon in left-center, two runs, the game, the series, and the loudest half-minute of the Miami summer. "It's been a tough year for me," the young catcher deposed, "and that moment was a really beautiful moment for me, and I was enjoying every second."

The evening's earlier chapters had belonged to the visitors' nursery. Josue De Paula — whose début in this very park these pages chronicled Friday — collected the first hit of his major-league life and made it a three-run homer, the whole of the champions' early lead in one swing. Miami's answer began quietly in the eighth, Otto Lopez lining a two-run single, before the ninth's full production; the decision went to Fulton, the loss to Scott, now one-and-six.

The consequences are worth setting down slowly. Miami takes the season's series from Los Angeles for the first time since 2021, has now beaten the champions two days running — the eight-game streak these pages watched all week was snapped only Saturday — and banks a seventh walk-off victory of the year, closing an otherwise grey homestand before boarding for nine games on the road, beginning this very evening in the desert. The champions, for their part, keep the West by nine over surging San Diego and open at Cincinnati tonight; but a club that stood three outs from taking the set and left with nothing will spend the flight counting the ones that got away.

News Around the League

THE INFIRMARY WARD: DEVERS' SEASON ENDS AT SEVEN-AND-THIRTY HOME RUNS — THE CORE THAT TROUBLED HIM FOR YEARS FINALLY COLLECTS ITS BILL, AND THE WARD'S ROUNDS RUN LONG

The gravest entry first. Rafael Devers, whose bat has carried San Francisco's autumn — eleven homers in his last eighteen games, seven-and-thirty in all, the most by a Giant since Bonds' five-and-forty of 2004, with eight-and-ninety runs driven besides — goes to the sixty-day invalid list with a core muscle injury he has played through most of the season, and his year is over. He travels to Philadelphia today to see Dr. Meyers, the same specialist who repaired his teammate Chapman's similar complaint last month, with surgery expected to follow. "I think it's something that's bothered him for a few years now and kind of something that was a mystery to him," said the manager Vitello, who noted the man had started 148 of the club's first 149 games and did not want to stop now. The Herald observes that the slugger fell one homer shy of his own career figure, and that a bid for the first forty-homer Giant season since Bonds dies on an operating table's doorstep — a cruel arithmetic for a man under contract to the Bay through 2033, whose consolation must be a whole winter to heal.

The rounds elsewhere: Philadelphia's Luzardo, whose shoulder has occupied this ward three mornings running, is now hoped by the interim manager Mattingly to pitch sometime next week — progress, measured in hope. Houston's Correa travels home for re-evaluation of the surgical ankle, a minor-league rehabilitative assignment ideally to follow within the week. In the Bronx, Schmidt could return from his elbow reconstruction during the Minnesota series that opens tonight. And the champions' ward stays crowded: Freeman rests the aching knee today, Rojas left yesterday's defeat clutching a shoulder, and Ohtani may resume swinging a bat as early as today by the manager Roberts' telling.

THE VALEDICTORY DESK: ONE LAST CLIMB UP THE COMERICA HILL — DETROIT AIMS ITS FAREWELL TO VERLANDER AT THE SEASON'S NEXT-TO-LAST DAY, IN PENCIL BUT IN EARNEST

The Tigers have already promised a Verlander Career Celebration for the regular season's final weekend; now they are trying to deliver the man himself to the hill for it. Justin Verlander, one-and-twenty seasons into the work, signed back to Detroit in February for precisely this homecoming and has been denied it all year — a hip, then a hamstring, his only outing of 2026 a March start in Arizona — but Saturday's mound session, fastballs reported at three-and-ninety miles to the hour, puts him on a schedule: bullpen work this week, a simulated game next weekend, and, if the body consents, a start on Saturday the six-and-twentieth, the season's next-to-last day. "In pencil, we're aiming for that last weekend," said the manager Hinch, careful as a man carrying china. "But we can't have a setback of any sort, and I don't want to make a false promise." The man himself owns the summer's disappointment plainly. The occasion wants no embroidery: Verlander has not pitched at Comerica Park in the home colors since August of 2017, eleven days before the trade that sent him to Houston and his championships. Nine years is a long walk home. The Herald will keep the date in pencil beside him.

THE LAUREL DESK: THE CHATTER AROUND SCHLITTLER TURNS FROM CY YOUNG TO MOST VALUABLE — EVERYONE IN THE BRONX SEEMS PERSUADED BUT THE MAN HIMSELF

Six more innings of one-hit pitching in yesterday's Subway finale — the full account stands in the card below — carried Cam Schlittler to the major leagues' best earned-run figure at 1.95, and carried the conversation around him somewhere grander. "I think valuable is a good word. He might be the MVP, too," ventured the manager Boone. "Just an awesome season, and hopefully there's a lot left in the tank." No pitcher has taken a Most Valuable Player award since Kershaw of the 2014 Dodgers, and the American's ballot is crowded with honest claimants — Houston's Alvarez, Tampa Bay's Caminero — but the fourteen victories, the eight-and-twenty strikeouts past two hundred, and the ERA lead make a case that will not be laughed out of the room. The dissent, charmingly, comes from inside the house: Judge, thrice the award's winner, allows that his teammate is "definitely pitching like an MVP" before noting that they keep a Cy Young Award for precisely this. The man himself declines the whole conversation and asks only for his next turn. The Herald's ledger observes merely that when the season's best pitching argument and its best pennant-race arithmetic wear the same uniform, October tends to settle these debates in person.

THE MILESTONE DESK: FISCHER MAKES IT EIGHT-AND-FORTY — THE BUSH-LEAGUE RECORD OF THE CENTURY GROWS BY ONE MORE, THIS ONE OFF A POSITION PLAYER'S LOB

The minor-league summer of Andrew Fischer, which this paper entered into its milestone columns Friday at seven-and-forty home runs, did not rest there. The Milwaukee prospect struck his eight-and-fortieth Saturday in Biloxi's nineteen-to-one carnival — this one, the wires confess, off a position player pressed into mound duty, the pitch ambling in at a stately seven-and-fifty miles to the hour — extending the largest homer harvest in a minor-league season this century. The connoisseur notes the finer print: eight-and-twenty of the blows have come since his promotion to Double-A, his September line stands at .353/.558/.882, and he leads every full-season bush-leaguer in slugging and OPS alike, with Kittle's fifty of 1982 the last figure left standing above him as the Biloxi schedule reached its final page. Whether the boy got another swing at history, this desk will report when the wires do; what is already banked is a first-round selection of 2025 outrunning every projection set against him, and a Milwaukee organization — its big club long since clinched, as these pages have sung — watching its future arrive ahead of schedule.

THE TRANSACTIONS DESK: ARIZONA PARTS WITH GURRIEL — AN ALL-STAR OF THE PENNANT AUTUMN OF '23, UNDONE AT LAST BY A LEDGER OF INJURIES

The Snakes designated Lourdes Gurriel Jr. for assignment yesterday, and the move reads like a short history of baseball's cruelty to the body. Three years ago the man was the marquee of Arizona's World Series October — an All-Star that summer, four-and-twenty homers, three more in the postseason — and signed a forty-two-million-dollar engagement to stay. Then September of 2025 took a knee ligament, this April a delayed début, a hamstring and an adductor took two more stints on the invalid list, and the sum of 2026 is one-and-fifty games at a career-worst .544 OPS with two home runs. He is two-and-thirty years old, and the club recalled the rookie infielder Fernandez from Reno to take the roster place. The Herald sets down the customary observation: the game's ledger forgets no one faster than a man it celebrated three autumns ago, and a veteran of his pedigree, once clear of the assignment wires, will find some contender curious about what remains in the barrel.

The Rest of the Card

NINETY WINS, FIRST IN ALL THE AMERICAN — AND A RECORD FIFTEENTH SWEEP, TAKEN FOURTEEN-TO-FOUR: GULF COAST CLUB 14, BAYOU CITY NINE 4

The clinched leaders spent Sunday setting figures in stone: the fourteen-run rout completed a weekend sweep of the West-leading Astros — the franchise's fifteenth sweep of the season, a club record and the major leagues' most — and made Tampa Bay the American's first ninety-win club, one-and-thirty games above the waterline. Aranda homered twice, his one-and-twentieth, among three driven; Palacios and Fortes added homers, Mesa Jr. a triple, and the decision went to Peralta. Houston's consolations were Paredes' one-and-twentieth and the return of the great Alvarez to the order after two days of the ankle parlor — a walk in two trips, his .310 still atop the batting race over the sprinter Simpson's .305. The sweep leaves the Astros thrice beaten running, their hold on the West pared to a single game over Texas, while the hosts hold the East by four over New York with thirteen to play.

SIX INNINGS, ONE HIT, AND THE SUBWAY RUBBER TAKEN COLD — SCHLITTLER'S 1.95 NOW LEADS BOTH LEAGUES: BRONX BOMBERS 2, METROPOLITANS 0

The rubber game these pages commended to the reader's lamp went precisely as the arithmetic suggested: Schlittler threw six innings of one-hit shutout pitching, his fourteenth victory, and the earned-run figure settled at 1.95 — the best in the major leagues, and the fuel for the awards chatter recorded in the laurel columns above. The runs were solo work: Rice's eight-and-thirtieth homer, which draws him level with Alvarez two behind Caminero's forty in the American's race, and Wells' eleventh; Bednar sealed it, his four-and-thirtieth. The Bombers thus take the Subway set two games to one and hold their pursuit of Tampa Bay at four, with the first wild-card chair theirs by a wide street; the Metropolitans, whose week of spoiling was genuine while it lasted, open with Baltimore tonight.

THREE HOME RUNS ON THREE CONSECUTIVE SWINGS OF THE ORDER — AND THE ONE IN THE MIDDLE IS VLADDY'S FIRST AT HOME ALL YEAR: MAPLE LEAF NINE 8, ORIOLES 1

The fifth inning at Toronto produced a thing the club had not done in fourteen years: Springer, Guerrero, and Okamoto struck home runs back-to-back-to-back, and the middle blow carried the afternoon's whole story. It was Guerrero's first home run at Rogers Centre in all of 2026 — the 289th plate appearance and hundred-and-fiftieth game of his waiting — struck off Rogers in the fifth, and the man stood at the plate and watched it go. "I know my stadium," he said afterward. "I know when I can stand at the plate." Okamoto's was his two-and-thirtieth, Springer's his fifteenth, and Cease — whose 2.38 these pages sent to the hill with the arithmetic yesterday — took the decision to eleven victories. The consequences: the Jays remain a single game behind Cleveland for the American's last chair, and hold the season's series between them, so a dead heat at the wire goes Toronto's way; Baltimore drifts three behind the Jays and further from the light.

BIBEE'S BOUNCE-BACK AND THREE HOMERS BESIDES, ON THE EVE OF THE SUMMIT — THE CENTRAL'S GAP IS DOWN TO HALF A GAME: FOREST CITY NINE 9, MINNESOTANS 2

Cleveland arranged its affairs precisely as a club would wish on the eve of the fixture of the week: Bibee struck out seven in the bounce-back start the wires had waited on, and the order supplied thunder in triplicate — Kwan's third, Bazzana's twelfth, Adell's one-and-twentieth — while Minnesota's answer was Larnach's thirteenth and little else. Paired with Chicago's stumble in St. Louis below, the arithmetic tightens to its final turn: the Central is now the South Siders' by a half-game only, and the two principals meet in Cleveland from tonight, the division to be argued in person at last. The Minnesotans, whose Saturday belonged to the debutant Rodriguez as these pages sang, greet the Yankees tonight.

THE LEAD SHRINKS TO A HALF-GAME AT THE WORST POSSIBLE HOUR — McGREEVY AND THE GAS HOUSE BULLPEN QUIET CHICAGO ON THE EVE OF CLEVELAND: GAS HOUSE NINE 3, SOUTH SIDERS 1

Whatever momentum Saturday's ninth-inning heroics bought the South Siders, Sunday spent it: McGreevy handled them to his seventh victory, Soriano sealed his fourth, and the three runs of St. Louis were ample against an order held to a single tally. The defeat, set beside Cleveland's rout above, cuts Chicago's hold on the Central to a half-game — the thinnest it has stood all month — on the very eve of the head-to-head set at Cleveland that this desk called the fixture of the week. Three of the last ten now for the Chicagos, who must rediscover their September on the road; the Gas House men, for their part, quietly bank a second straight and greet San Francisco tonight.

THE SINGLE SCALP IS TAKEN, AND HANDSOMELY — PAINTER GRINDS THROUGH THE GEORGIA HEAT, THE BATS DO THE REST, AND THE WILD-CARD SUMMIT IS SHARED: PHILADELPHIAS 9, BRAVES 4

Philadelphia left Atlanta with exactly the one victory this desk said they needed, and it was built the honest way. The rookie Painter wrestled the heat and his own command — one run allowed across a bases-loaded escape in the fourth, Acuña struck out with a fastball at seven-and-ninety in the first — and departed ahead; the order then buried the hosts, Realmuto's eleventh homer among nine runs, with Olson's nine-and-thirtieth the Braves' lone thunder and the decision falling to Alvarado. The ledger reads: the Philadelphias draw level with the Cubs atop the National's wild-card row, five behind Atlanta in the East with twelve to play, and open at Washington tomorrow with their ace's shoulder still in the ward's file above.

THE PROMISED ACE LASTS THREE INNINGS AND CINCINNATI WINS ANYWAY — THE SKID STOPS AT FIVE AGAINST THE LEAGUE'S BEST CLUB: CINCINNATIS 4, MILWAUKEES 3

Yesterday this desk sent Burns and his fifteen victories to Milwaukee carrying Cincinnati's pride; the ace lasted but three innings of two runs, and the pride arrived anyway. Suárez struck his four-and-twentieth homer, the bullpen — Williamson for the decision, Pagán for his three-and-twentieth seal — carried the remainder, and the Redlegs' five-game famine, entered in these pages with sympathy, is ended against the club least likely to permit it. Milwaukee's answer, Bauers' six-and-twentieth and Ortiz's ninth, fell a run short; the clinched Milwaukees, three-and-thirty runs across the set's first two evenings, took the finale philosophically at three-and-ninety wins, still the best figure in either league. The champions of the West arrive in Cincinnati tonight; the Milwaukees cross to Pittsburgh tomorrow.

TWO FROM THE BENCH AND ELEVEN HITLESS OUTS FROM THE BULLPEN — THE CORSAIRS AVOID THE SWEEP AND KEEP THE CANDLE LIT: CORSAIRS 4, BRUINS 3

The bill promised Chandler opposing Boyd, and Chandler collected: eight victories now, with Brandon Lowe sent up from the bench to drive two across and the Pittsburgh bullpen throwing three-and-two-thirds hitless innings behind him — a day after the same unit faltered, the wires note, which is the bullpen's way. Montgomery sealed his thirteenth; Amaya's sixth homer was the Bruins' best argument. The arithmetic stays stern for the Smoky City men — level at five-and-seventy wins and losses, six and a half from the National's last chair with twelve to play — but "there's still a chance," Lowe insists, "we're still playing meaningful games. That's all you can ask for right now." The Bruins, for their part, share the wild-card summit with Philadelphia still, and greet Atlanta at home tonight.

NINE PITCHES, NINE STRIKES, THREE MEN DOWN — TOLLE OPENS WITH AN IMMACULATE INNING AFTER THE RAIN, AND THE SERIES IS BOSTON'S: FENWAY MEN 4, ROYAL BLUES 1

The rain pushed the first pitch to nearly five o'clock, and Payton Tolle spent the waiting well: nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts — an immaculate first inning, but the eighth such frame in all the Red Sox annals — and a fist pumped on the walk off the mound. "I don't think I had seen one in person," admitted the interim manager Tracy. "I have now." The runs came patiently thereafter, Roman Anthony's go-ahead single the hinge and Durbin's thirteenth homer the ornament; Whitlock took the decision in relief, Chapman sealed his four-and-thirtieth, and the veteran Kimbrel absorbed the loss. Boston thus banks the series, holds the second wild-card chair by six clear games, and carries a three-game winning run to Texas for tomorrow's opener.

BUTLER STRIKES TWICE, THE SECOND TIME WITH THE GAME IN HIS POCKET — A SECOND WALK-OFF OF THE SET FOR THE MACKMEN: MACKMEN 8, SEATTLE NINE 7

The West Sacramento set ended as it began, with Seattle walking off the field mid-celebration that was not theirs. Down four runs by the fifth, the Mackmen leveled with four in the seventh — Langeliers' two-run single the heart of it — and after Seattle nosed ahead again, Lawrence Butler ended matters in the ninth: his second homer of the day, a two-run bolt off the closer Muñoz, his sixteenth of the season. It answers Friday's tenth-inning walk-off and Saturday's nineteen-run Seattle reprisal, both chronicled in these pages — a series played entirely in exclamation points. Arozarena homered twice for the Seattle nine, his five-and-twentieth, in a beaten cause; Alvarado took the decision. The same two clubs part ways tonight, Seattle to Anaheim, the Athletics to Tampa Bay tomorrow to try their September mischief on the American's best.

SEAGER'S BLAST TRAVELS FOUR HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT FEET AND THE ROAD DROUGHT DIES WITH IT — QUANTRILL TAKES THE RUBBER MATCH FROM RODRIGUEZ: LONE STAR NINE 7, SNAKES 6

The desert rubber match this desk commended went to Texas, and by way of the season's longest Ranger home run: Seager's first-inning drive, measured at eight-and-fifty feet past four hundred, his eighteenth. Quantrill outlasted Rodriguez, now fifteen-and-six, and Latz sealed his nine-and-twentieth save with the tying run stranded at second — a shaky ninth survived, which is all a ninth must be. The victory ends a drought of genuine antiquity: eight consecutive road series lost since the start of July, the longest such run since 2021, now closed with the club's first road rubber game won since June. The arithmetic sharpens everywhere at once: the Lone Star nine sit one game behind reeling Houston in the West and two from the American's last chair, with Boston arriving tomorrow. The Snakes, Moreno and Arenado homering in the losing cause, fall two and a half behind San Diego and greet Miami's road show tonight.

FIVE RUNS OFF WEBB IN TWO INNINGS, A SEVENTH STRAIGHT, AND THE SWEEP — THE MISSION NINE NOW HOLD THE LAST CHAIR ALONE: MISSION NINE 6, ORANGE AND BLACK 4

The surge has its own momentum now. San Diego fell upon the Bay ace Webb for five runs inside two innings — Machado's seven-and-twentieth homer the heaviest blow — and then handed the evening to the bullpen, which has made a specialty of the late innings all week; the decision fell to the reliever Peralta, with Matsui sealing his first. Seven straight victories, a weekend sweep, and the National's third wild-card chair now held alone: two and a half clear of Arizona, a game and a half behind the Cubs and Philadelphias at the row's head. The Orange and Black, who learned only hours earlier that Devers' season was done — the ward above has the particulars — answered with Knizner's second homer and honest resistance, and their young hands drew the Padres manager's respect: "they're playing their tails off," Stammen allowed. The Mission nine ride the streak to Colorado tonight; the Giants call at St. Louis.

A FOURTH STRAIGHT FOR THE DETROITS AS THE SCHOOLING CONTINUES — GREENE REACHES TWENTY, TORKELSON THREE-AND-TWENTY, AND HUGHES FALLS TO NOUGHT-AND-EIGHT: DETROITS 8, MILE HIGH NINE 1

The matinee at Detroit ran to form and then some: Jobe took the decision, Greene struck his twentieth homer and Torkelson his three-and-twentieth, and the Detroits banked a fourth consecutive victory in a season whose truest business — the Verlander homecoming plotted in the valedictory columns above — waits at the calendar's far end. Colorado's whole account was Amador's fourth homer; the loss fell to Hughes, winless now in eight decisions, and the Mile High nine absorb a seventh straight defeat, their four-and-ninetieth of the year. Detroit crosses to Toronto tonight to play spoiler or kingmaker in the wild-card argument; the Coloradans host surging San Diego, which is nobody's idea of convalescence.

DOWN TWO IN THE EIGHTH, THE SENATORS ANSWER WITH FOUR — LILE'S TRIPLE TURNS THE AFTERNOON, AND THE CAPITAL RUN REACHES THREE STRAIGHT: SENATORS 6, HALOS 5

For the third day running the Capital club found the late chapter to its liking. Trailing four-to-two in the eighth — Ballesteros having struck a two-run homer and Neto his six-and-twentieth, with a twentieth stolen base besides, for the visitors — Washington strung four runs on honest carpentry: Lile's triple the turn of it, singles and Jacob Young's double completing the sum. The Halos clawed one back in the ninth and no more; the decision went to Tolman, with Sinclair sealing the first save of his career. Three straight now for the Senators, whose record-book pair Abrams and Wood — enrolled in the thirty-and-twenty brotherhood in Saturday's columns — keep finding themselves in the middle of victories. The Halos, losers of three running, greet Seattle at home tonight; Washington rests before Philadelphia arrives tomorrow.

The Monday tables, then. In the American: clinched Tampa Bay — first to ninety — holds the East by four over New York, Boston eight and a half astern; the Central is the argument of the hour, Chicago's by a half-game only over Cleveland, and the two clubs settle into Cleveland from tonight to argue it in person; Houston's hold on the West is down to a single game over Texas. The wild-card row: New York and Boston seated comfortably, the last chair Cleveland's by one over Toronto — who hold the season's series between them, the reader will note — with Texas two back. In the National: Atlanta by five over Philadelphia; clinched Milwaukee by ten over Chicago; Los Angeles by nine over San Diego. The wild-card ledger: the Cubs and Philadelphias share the head of the row, San Diego alone in the third chair by two and a half over Arizona, Pittsburgh six and a half back. The desk notes with quiet satisfaction that all five engagements it commended to Sunday's lamp delivered — the Subway rubber to Schlittler, the single scalp to Philadelphia, the chair-hungry afternoon to Cease, the desert rubber to Quantrill, and Cincinnati's pride upheld, though the promised ace needed his bullpen's charity. Tonight's bill is ten engagements, verified against the schedule, and the desk commends four: at 6:40 the Central's summit opens in Cleveland, Newcomb opposing Williams and his thirteen victories; at 6:40 also the champions call at Cincinnati, Skubal against Lodolo; at 7:40 the Yankees open in Minnesota, where the Bronx ward may yet return Schmidt to the colors; and at 9:40 Miami's road show opens in the desert, Alcantara opposing Burnes. The almanac reminds the reader that tomorrow, the fifteenth, is Roberto Clemente Day across the leagues; thirteen 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