The Morning Horsehide Herald — the Five-and-Twentieth of September, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Is it spring training yet? No — but the championship season is upon us, a finer thing still.

The Game of the Day

SIXTEEN GAMES A BIG-LEAGUER AND THREE HOME RUNS IN A NIGHT — EVERY BLOW OF LUCAS SPENCE'S LIFE ARRIVES AT ONCE, AND HOUSTON'S HALF OF THE THRONE HOLDS: ASTROS 7, ATHLETICS 5

A rookie summoned from the taxi squad but two days prior — undrafted out of a school few atlases bother with, hitless the night before — strikes the first three home runs of his career in a single evening at West Sacramento: a three-run blow in the second, the tie-breaker in the seventh, and a first-pitch exclamation to open the ninth, five runs driven in entire; only the third man in the game's long history whose first three came at once; and with Texas victorious that afternoon, the blows keep the West's dead heat alive at nine-and-seventy wins apiece with three to play, the tiebreaker still Houston's

Until Wednesday, Lucas Spence was a name on the Houston taxi squad — an undrafted free agent of 2024 out of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, owner of twelve home runs this season split between Sugar Land and Corpus Christi, summoned only because Varsho's wrist gave out. On Wednesday night in Seattle he went hitless in three trips with two strikeouts, late on every fastball he saw. On Thursday he sat with his coaches, moved his hands, found his timing — and then, in the sixteenth big-league game of his life, hit three home runs, drove in five, and may have saved Houston's season.

The first was a three-run blow off the starter Barnett in the second inning, a ball sent 429 feet by the measuring instruments with Walker and Smith aboard: three to nothing. The Athletics answered with four in the third — McNeil's three-run homer and the first of Zack Gelof's two — and there the game hung, four-to-three against, until Paredes squared it with his four-and-twentieth in the sixth. Whereupon the rookie struck again: a solo blow off the reliever Blewett in the seventh for the lead, five-to-four. Walker's seven-and-twentieth made it six in the eighth, Gelof answered once more, and Spence, leading off the ninth, swung at the first pitch he saw from Alvarado and deposited it in the right-field seats. Three home runs, numbered one, two, and three of a career. The registry holds only two other men whose first three arrived in a single game — Zavala of the 2021 White Sox, and the Cardinals' Báez, who managed it in his very debut this August — and now Spence of the 2026 Astros, in a game his club could not afford to lose. "It was really shocking, to be honest," the young man offered. "Just really trying to get base hits, but sometimes you run into a couple of homers." The beaten manager Kotsay put it plainer: "We ran into a hitter tonight that had a career night, and that happens in this game sometimes."

The bullpen, mindful of history even as the rookie Ullola and the closer Abreu were sealing the victory, mounted a salvage operation for the evidence: the bullpen catcher Bracamonte bartered batting gloves and a signed ball to a boy in the stands for the first ball, Abreu near caught the second on the fly, and the third was thrown back to the relief corps by the Athletics' own right fielder Butler — three baseballs bound for a mantel in Edwardsville. The arithmetic they decorate is entered at the October desk: Texas had won that afternoon, so Houston's victory keeps the West a dead heat at nine-and-seventy wins apiece with three to play, the Astros closing at these same Athletics with the Silver Boot tiebreaker still in their keeping. "I enjoy watching young players come up here on the biggest stage there is," said the manager Espada. "We needed some of those kids to step up and do big things, and he just delivered." Yesterday they threw fastballs past him; today his name is in the registry. The pennant races make heroes on short notice.

News Around the League

THE OCTOBER DESK: FOUR CLINCHES BETWEEN LUNCHEON AND MIDNIGHT — THE SOUTH SIDE, CLEVELAND, THE NORTH SIDE, AND SAN DIEGO ALL TAKE THEIR CHAIRS, MILWAUKEE POCKETS THE FIRST SEED ENTIRE, AND THREE RACES RIDE INTO THE WEEKEND

Thursday was the calendar's great day of settling: four clubs clinched their October places between the afternoon and the midnight wires, and the postseason field now wants only the answers to three questions. The White Sox seated themselves first, by nine-to-one at Kansas City — the South Side's first October since it won the Central of 2021, and a resurrection from three consecutive seasons of a hundred defeats, among them the modern record of one-and-twenty-and-a-hundred in 2024. "They have belief in themselves, belief in each other," said the manager Venable. "That can carry you a long way." Cleveland followed within the hour, its one-nothing verdict at Fenway clinching a third consecutive berth and the nineteenth in the franchise book — "This is why we play," said the manager Vogt. "We play to give them an October to remember." By afternoon's end at Wrigley the Cubs had punched their own ticket, a second consecutive October for the first time since the four-year run of 2015 through '18; and by night the Padres had beaten the champions at Los Angeles to bank a third straight autumn for the first time in franchise history, the fifth berth in seven years. That same defeat handed Milwaukee the National's first seed entire — the Brewers, at a hundred wins, now hold home ground for as long as their October lasts, as the card below relates.

The three questions, then. In the American's Central, Cleveland leads Chicago by one with three to play, and the tiebreaker is Chicago's — the Guardians must finish plainly ahead, their closing three at Kansas City while the White Sox host Colorado; the division's winner takes the bye-less third seed and the loser drops to the wild-card row's last chair. In the West, the dead heat holds at nine-and-seventy wins apiece — Houston hosts nothing and travels nowhere, closing its three at the Athletics, while Texas opens three at Minnesota tonight — and Houston's tiebreaker still governs: win alongside the Rangers each day, and the division is Houston's; the loser of this race goes home entirely, and the winner may yet wear a crown with a losing ledger, a curiosity the game has rarely bothered to permit. In the National, one chair remains: Philadelphia, twice beaten running, holds the last wild card by two games over an Arizona club riding five straight victories — the Quakers host Tampa Bay needing to close the account by their own hand, while the Desert nine, whose twelve-run Thursday is on the card, must take at least two of three at San Diego and pray the Sunshine nine do them a service besides.

THE MILESTONE DESK: A STOLEN BASE IN THE FIRST INNING OF A CLINCHER — CROW-ARMSTRONG BECOMES THE SEVENTH MAN OF THE FORTY-FORTY REGISTRY, AND SKENES BANKS TWO HUNDRED STRIKEOUTS A SECOND YEAR RUNNING

Pete Crow-Armstrong walked to open the first inning of the Cubs' clinching afternoon, and was running on the very next pitch — sliding into second before the Miami infield had fairly considered the matter, and into the registry with the theft: forty home runs and forty stolen bases in a single season, the seventh man in the game's history to hold both figures at once and the first Cub ever. The company he joins wants no introduction — Ohtani, Acuña, Soriano, Rodriguez, Bonds, and Canseco — and the Wrigley faithful, who have chanted his initials since his debut, have lately amended the cry to three different letters. "I wanted to put myself in that same conversation as such impressive and great players," said the center fielder, whose five-and-forty home runs share the National's lead besides, "but every day I showed up like, if I took the right base, it was going to help the team." His manager Counsell reckons the season one for the grandchildren's hearing; the operations chief Hoyer settled for the ledger: "There are only so many guys in the game that can even think about accomplishing it."

At Pittsburgh the same afternoon, Paul Skenes struck out his two-hundredth batsman of the year in the Bucs' two-to-one decision over St. Louis — the second consecutive season the young right-hander has reached the figure, and a milestone banked in a game his bullpen finished for him, as the card relates. The pitching ledgers thus close their season's accounts one by one: Misiorowski of the hundred-win Brewers holds the National's strikeout lead at seven-and-forty-and-two-hundred, with Skenes among the four men knotted at an even two hundred behind him.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: THE BATTING TITLE'S KEEPER TURNS AN ANKLE DODGING A TAG — ARRAEZ'S PICTURES ARE CLEAN BUT THE WEEKEND UNCERTAIN, CONTRERAS CANNOT YET SWING FOR BOSTON, AND A WRIST IN HOUSTON OPENED A ROOKIE'S DOOR

The National's batting race may have been decided by an umpire's judgment call. Luis Arraez, whose .310 figure leads the league by two points over Arizona's Moreno, rolled his left ankle in the sixth inning at Philadelphia on Thursday — dodging a tag after a wide throw pulled the first baseman off the bag, only to be ruled out of the baseline for his trouble. He left the field on a trainer's arm, shouting his innocence at the plate umpire from the dugout; the hitting coach Long was ejected for seconding the motion; the X-rays came back negative, a sprain and nothing worse. "I'm hopeful that he can play," said the interim manager Mattingly, "but we'll see" — and with the wild card unclinched and the Wild Card round opening Tuesday, the Quakers can ill afford the subtraction. "That would be rough," the shortstop Turner agreed.

At Boston the news ran no kinder. Willson Contreras, the first baseman whose seven-and-twenty home runs anchor the Crimson Hose order, has not swung a bat in two days — the knuckle he took a pitch upon a week ago still too swollen to grip through. "I mean, it's really concerning," he owned Thursday night, near tears at his locker. "We play to play in October, and it's really frustrating." The manager Tracy reports the improvements subtle and the goal unchanged: to have him for the Wild Card opener Tuesday, most likely in the Bronx. And the ward notes with a wry pen that Houston's misfortune was Houston's making: it was Daulton Varsho's ailing wrist that summoned Lucas Spence from the taxi squad on Wednesday — and the whole of the front page above is what the replacement did with the summons.

THE REMEMBRANCE DESK: TEN YEARS SINCE JOSÉ DAY WENT DARK — THE GAME MARKS A DECADE WITHOUT FERNÁNDEZ

Ten years ago this very morning — the five-and-twentieth of September, 2016 — the game woke to the news that José Fernández was dead at four-and-twenty, lost with two others when his boat went down off Miami in the night. A decade on, the wound keeps its edge. Before Misiorowski and Skenes were appointment viewing, there was José Day, every fifth afternoon in Little Havana, when the ballpark of the Marlins became the place to be in all South Florida — a Cuban boy who fled the island by boat with his mother, and grew into the American Dream in flannels, throwing fire with a grin that filled the building. "He was a ball of energy," remembers Ramos, his old bullpen mate, now at the broadcast table. "That was his superpower — you just felt it when he was around." His teammates of that morning still tell of the clubhouse with the blank stares, the game called without a reason given, the reason understood soon enough.

The Herald kept its colors lowered a long while that autumn, and lowers them again a moment now. Some careers are measured in what was done; his is measured also in what was plainly coming, and the game is ten years poorer for never seeing it. The paper marks the decade, and keeps the name.

THE ALMANAC DESK: A STORM RIDES FOR NEW ENGLAND AND THE SCHEDULE BENDS BEFORE IT — TWIN BILLS BOOKEND THIS DAY, SATURDAY BELONGS TO VERLANDER, AND THE SCHERZER WIRE STAYS SILENT

The weather has taken a hand in the wild-card arithmetic. With a great storm forecast to strike New England this very weekend, the Cubs' Sunday engagement at Fenway Park has been moved forward, so that today's card carries a separate-admission twin bill at Boston — the first game at 1:05, the second at 6:05 — with Saturday evening's contest still scheduled and, by the manager Counsell's cheerful accounting, everything thereafter at the storm's pleasure. "Whatever you want to make us do, we'll do it," said he, a man lately relieved of his clinching worries. "Let's go." The Bronx carries a twin bill of its own this afternoon, Baltimore visiting the Yankees twice before the weekend's page turns.

Two appointments stand ahead. Saturday at 1:10 at Comerica Park, Justin Verlander takes a big-league mound for the last time, against the visiting Pirates — the farewell this paper has kept watch upon all week, and no ceremonial inning if the man himself has any say. And of Max Scherzer, who told the press Wednesday that word on his future would likely come within a day or two, the wires this morning carry nothing yet — the Herald checked both desks and will keep checking. The season's last page falls Sunday the seven-and-twentieth; the Wild Card rounds open Tuesday the nine-and-twentieth.

The Rest of the Card

THE CENTURY IS BANKED AND THE FIRST SEED WITH IT — CHOURIO WALKS, RUNS, AND RETURNS TO STRIKE THE HUNDREDTH'S EXCLAMATION POINT: CREAM CITY NINE 5, QUAKERS 1

The hundredth win this paper saw waiting on Thursday's card arrived on schedule, and with flourishes: tied at one in the eighth, Jackson Chourio pinch-hit for Contreras — lifted for want of hustle on a groundout — walked, stole second, and scored on Bauers' single, whereupon Pratt and Ortiz singled home two more and Chourio returned in the ninth to hit his five-and-twentieth home run for good measure. So Milwaukee stands at a hundred victories, the first club to reach the figure since 2023, the first of the Central since the 2016 Cubs, and the first in the franchise's whole history — the Brewers leaving behind the company of the seven clubs that had never — all without ever winning more than five games running, a thing no hundred-win club had managed before. By midnight, Los Angeles having lost, the National's first seed and home ground throughout were Milwaukee's outright. "I've never been on a 100-win team before," said Bauers, whose go-ahead knock followed what he called a mental recalibration in the batting cage. "Not many people have." Philadelphia's evening, and Arraez's ankle, are entered at the ward; the Quakers' clinch must now wait upon the weekend.

ONE SWING AROUND THE PESKY POLE IS THE WHOLE OF THE SCORING — CANTILLO AND SMITH SEAL CLEVELAND'S THIRD OCTOBER RUNNING: CLEVELAND NINE 1, CRIMSON HOSE 0

Angel Martínez supplied the game's lone run in the second — a 319-foot chip shot by the measuring instruments, curled just around the Pesky Pole in Fenway's right corner, his eighteenth — and Cleveland's arms made it stand: Cantillo took the decision to eleven victories, and Cade Smith closed his one-and-fortieth save, the American's leading figure, against a Boston order held to two hits entire. The victory clinches the Cleveland nine's third consecutive October and the nineteenth berth in the franchise book, with the larger prize still live: the Central's lead stands at one over Chicago with three to play, the tiebreaker Chicago's, the closing hands dealt at the October desk. "One pitch at a time, one day at a time," said Martínez amid the champagne. "Right now, it's time to enjoy. Tomorrow is another day." Boston's greater worry wore a splint, as the ward relates.

FIVE YEARS OF WANDERING END IN AN AFTERNOON — SIX RUNS INSIDE TWO INNINGS AND THE WHITE STOCKINGS TAKE THEIR OCTOBER CHAIR: WHITE STOCKINGS 9, MISSOURIANS 1

The clinch that slipped Chicago's grasp on Wednesday was seized without ceremony on Thursday: six runs inside the first two innings at Kansas City — Vargas singling home a pair, Teel crossing three times and adding his fifth home run in the fourth — and the Missourians' answer confined to Perez's twentieth. Sandlin took the decision, and the South Side is seated in October for the first time since it won the Central of 2021, three seasons of a hundred defeats now formally behind it. "Everybody in here is really friends with each other. There's no egos at all," said Benintendi, who has seen the lean years from inside. "It's been a lot more enjoyable this year." The larger prize stays live: one game behind Cleveland with three to play, the season-series tiebreaker in hand, and Colorado arriving on the South Side tonight.

BOYD'S GEM AND HAPP'S THREE-BAGGER UNCORK WRIGLEY AT LAST — THE NORTH SIDERS CLINCH ON THEIR FINAL HOME HAND: NORTH SIDERS 2, FLORIDIANS 1

Twice the champagne had waited on ice, and on the season's last Wrigley afternoon it waited no longer. Matthew Boyd, the Opening Day man, gave the must-win game a gem for his tenth victory; Marsee's third-inning single had Miami ahead until Suzuki's six-and-twentieth squared it in the fifth; and in the sixth the longest-tenured Cub, Ian Happ, legged a triple and came home on Hoerner's single, Zeferjahn sealing the seventh save. The berth is Chicago's — a second consecutive October for the first time since the run of 2015 through '18 — and Crow-Armstrong's first-inning theft, which put him in a registry of six other names, is sung at the milestone desk. "To be able to celebrate together after all we've been through is pretty cool," said Swanson from behind ski goggles. The road closes the account: three at Fenway, weather permitting, as the almanac explains.

A THREE-RUN SEVENTH SETTLES THE CHAMPIONS AND A FRANCHISE FIRST IS BANKED — THE SAN DIEGO NINE CLINCH, AND HAND MILWAUKEE THE SEED BESIDES: SAN DIEGO NINE 4, ANGELENOS 2

Scoreless into the sixth, the San Diego nine pried the evening open by inches — Harris' sacrifice fly, then a three-run seventh stitched from singles by Hays, the young catcher Salas, and Tatis, who stole two bases besides — while Matsui took the decision over Glasnow and Mason Miller sealed his eight-and-thirtieth save against Ohtani's ninth-inning double. The victory clinches a berth: a third consecutive autumn of October baseball for the first time in the franchise's history, and a fifth in seven years, for a club that sat three games under the even mark in late July amid an eight-game losing streak. "It was do or die," Cronenworth said of those weeks; the deliverance was the bullpen scheme the clubhouse came to call pitching chaos. The defeat cost Los Angeles any claim on the National's first seed, which passed to Milwaukee by the tiebreaker's terms — and these same two clubs play out the string while Arizona arrives in San Diego with designs of its own, as the October desk relates.

FOUR RUNS DOWN, THE PINSTRIPES SEND A FOOTBALLER'S FEET AROUND THE BASES — LOMBARD'S SLIDE, THEN LOMBARD'S THUNDER, TURN THE EVENING ENTIRE: PINSTRIPES 6, SUNSHINE NINE 4

The crowned Rays led four-to-nothing by the sixth — Caminero twice singling home Díaz toward his nine-and-ninetieth run driven in — whereupon the Bronx staged its recovery around a rookie's ankles. Wells' fourteenth home run opened the account; in the seventh George Lombard Jr. doubled home a run and then, with Hopkins' hundred-mile fastball at the backstop, came flying down the line to stop short of the catcher's tag and slap the plate with his hand — a piece of footwork his soccer boyhood explains and the moving pictures have already immortalized — Goldschmidt's knock squaring the game behind him. In the eighth Lombard settled matters with a two-run blow to the second deck, his seventh: at one-and-twenty years and 114 days, the second-youngest Yankee ever to hit a go-ahead homer so late in a game, behind only the Mantle of 1952. "I was in trouble, had to figure something out, and it just kind of happened," said the rookie of the slide. His manager Boone, of the homer: "Absolutely scalded... It's really good to see that."

SIX IN THE FIRST AND EIGHTEEN HITS ENTIRE — THE DESERT NINE COMPLETE THE SWEEP AND CARRY FIVE STRAIGHT INTO SAN DIEGO: DESERT NINE 12, MOUNTAIN MEN 8

Arizona fell upon Denver for six in the first inning — Moreno's three-run homer and Arenado's nine-and-twentieth the heavy blows — and piled eighteen hits in all, McCann homering and driving in two while Eduardo Rodriguez took his sixteenth victory, second-most in the National. Colorado's late thunder — Carrigg's three-run blow among five home runs of the home nine's own — made the score honest without ever making it close. The sweep is Arizona's fifth consecutive victory and keeps the executioner waiting yet again: two games behind Philadelphia with three to play, the path running through San Diego and requiring at least two victories there beside a Tampa Bay service at Philadelphia. "The focus and the talk in the clubhouse has been go 1-0 every day," said McCann. "That's what we've done so far."

ROCKER'S FINEST HOUR AND TWO THUNDERCLAPS KEEP THE THRONE SHARED — THE TEXAS NINE REFUSE TO BLINK FIRST: TEXAS NINE 3, AMAZINS 1

A night after watching Seattle rescue them on the clubhouse televisions, the Rangers rescued themselves: Kumar Rocker turned in one of the finest appearances of his season, Jung's two-run homer answered New York's first-inning run before the frame was out, Seager added his nineteenth in the sixth, and Montgomery sealed his first save. The victory put Texas alone atop the West for some hours, until Houston's evening — the account at the head of this paper — restored the dead heat by midnight. "There's still a pulse. As long as we still have a pulse, we're good to go," said the manager Schumaker, whose club opens its final three at Minnesota tonight. "The scoreboard watching is more fun when you win."

SKENES BANKS TWO HUNDRED AND THE BULLPEN BANKS THE VERDICT — HORWITZ'S EIGHTH-INNING FLY OUTWEIGHS BURLESON'S LEADOFF THUNDER: BUCS 2, REDBIRDS 1

Alec Burleson opened the game with his four-and-twentieth home run — the hundred-and-thirteenth run he has driven home this year, the National's leading figure — and St. Louis got nothing further; Lowe singled home Cruz to square it in the first, and Horwitz's sacrifice fly cashed Simon in the eighth. Skenes struck out his two-hundredth of the season along the way, as the milestone desk sings, with Weaver taking the decision in relief and Montgomery sealing his seventeenth save. The Bucs thus reach one-and-eighty victories playing loose and dangerous; the Redbirds, whose catcher Herrera was charged with two of the evening's errors, play out the string at Milwaukee from tonight.

JORGE'S FIRST AND DE LA CRUZ'S THIRTIETH OUTVOTE THE CHAMPIONS — RODRÍGUEZ'S SIXTH SETTLES A SEESAW AT TRUIST: REDLEGS 7, ATLANTAS 6

On the night a Houston rookie hit his first three home runs, the Redlegs' Carlos Jorge led off the whole evening with the first of his own career — and Atlanta answered with four in the home first, whereupon the two nines traded the lead like men passing a hot stone. Elly De La Cruz reached thirty home runs in the third, Suárez's two-run single gave Cincinnati five, Riley's nineteenth squared the account at five, and Héctor Rodríguez's two-run blow in the sixth — his sixth — proved the last word, Pagán sealing his five-and-twentieth save. The crowned champions of the East, at three-and-ninety wins, lost nothing they need but the evening; the spoilers of the Queen City have now beaten them twice running.

MOORE'S BAT DOES THE HEAVY CARRYING AND THE SERAPHS PLAY SPOILER BY THE SOUND — WOO'S TWELVE VICTORIES CANNOT SURVIVE THE SIXTH: SERAPHS 6, SEATTLE NINE 4

The young second baseman Christian Moore drove home three — a single in the second, the tying pressure of the fifth, and a two-run double off Woo in the sixth that turned the game for good — while Teodosio added two runs driven in of his own and Watson sealed the fourth save. Julio Rodríguez's two-and-twentieth home run had built Seattle's early lead, and it did not hold. The Seattle nine, one night removed from deranging the West's arithmetic in ten innings, thus surrender the favor to the last-place Seraphs; the Angels, at one-and-sixty wins, seem determined to spend the season's final days inconveniencing their betters.

The Friday tables, then — twelve contests entered, four clinches recorded, and three questions left standing with three days to answer them. In the American: Tampa Bay holds the first seed at six-and-ninety wins; New York hosts the Wild Card round from Tuesday the nine-and-twentieth; the Central is Cleveland's by one over Chicago with the tiebreaker in the White Sox' keeping — Cleveland closes three at Kansas City, Chicago hosts Colorado — and the West remains a dead heat at nine-and-seventy wins, Houston closing three at the Athletics with the Silver Boot tiebreaker in hand while Texas plays three at Minnesota; the division's loser goes home. In the National: Milwaukee, at a hundred wins, holds the first seed and home ground throughout; Los Angeles and Atlanta are crowned; San Diego and the Cubs are seated in the wild-card row with the order still to be settled; and the last chair is Philadelphia's by two over Arizona, the Quakers hosting Tampa Bay while the Desert nine visit San Diego needing two victories of three and a service from the Sunshine nine besides. Today's bill of seventeen, verified against the schedule: twin bills at Fenway Park — 1:05 and 6:05, the storm's doing — and in the Bronx, Baltimore visiting twice from 4 o'clock; Pittsburgh at Detroit and Tampa Bay at Philadelphia at 6:40, Sánchez and his eighteen victories taking the ball for the Quakers; the Mets at Washington at 6:45; Cincinnati at Toronto at 7:07; Atlanta at Miami at 7:10; St. Louis at Milwaukee, Cleveland at Kansas City — Williams and his fourteen wins on the hill — and Colorado at the White Sox, all at 7:40; Texas at Minnesota at 8:10, deGrom taking the ball; Arizona at San Diego and Houston at the Athletics at 9:40; the Angels at Seattle at 10:10; and the champions at San Francisco at 10:15. Tomorrow belongs to Verlander at Comerica, and Sunday the seven-and-twentieth is the season's last page, with the Wild Card rounds from Tuesday. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Friday, September 25, 2026 — Boxscore
Baseball-Reference.com — Standings, Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference
Brian McTaggart, Lucas Spence hits three home runs in Astros' win over A's — MLB.com
Adam McCalvy, Brewers win 100th game of 2026 season — MLB.com
Scott Merkin, White Sox clinch 2026 postseason berth — MLB.com
Tim Stebbins and Craig Forde, Guardians clinch 2026 playoff berth — MLB.com
Jordan Bastian, Cubs clinch 2026 postseason berth — MLB.com
AJ Cassavell, Padres clinch 2026 postseason berth — MLB.com
Jordan Bastian, Pete Crow-Armstrong joins 40-40 club — MLB.com
Todd Zolecki, Luis Arraez exits with injury in Phillies' loss to Brewers — MLB.com
Ian Browne, Willson Contreras managing hand injury ahead of Red Sox's postseason — MLB.com
Kennedi Landry, Rangers avoid sweep vs. Mets amid tight AL West race — MLB.com
Bryan Hoch, George Lombard Jr.'s amazing slide to score on a wild pitch — MLB.com
Steve Gilbert, D-backs sweep Rockies to keep Wild Card hopes alive — MLB.com
Christina De Nicola, Remembering José Fernández 10 years after his death — MLB.com
MLB Top Headlines — Skenes reaches 200-strikeout mark for 2nd straight season — ESPN