The Morning Horsehide Herald — the Six-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

THE MORNING TAKES THEIR ACE AND THE EVENING ANSWERS WITH ELEVEN — ARIZONA'S SIXTH STRAIGHT DRAWS THE WILD-CARD NOOSE TO A SINGLE GAME: DIAMONDBACKS 11, PADRES 4

Burnes is sent to the invalid list at midday, his shoulder inflamed, on the very eve of his appointed start; whereupon Nootbaar strikes the night's first blow with a home run, Perdomo triples and doubles and drives home four, Arenado strikes his thirtieth and Lawlar his sixth, and Mize is chased beneath seven runs in four innings, Pfaadt carrying the verdict into the eighth — and Philadelphia having been blanked at home by Tampa Bay the selfsame evening, the Phillies' hold on the National's last wild card stands at one game with two to play, the tiebreaker already in Arizona's pocket

The day dealt Arizona its blow before luncheon. Corbin Burnes, fifteen months rebuilt from elbow surgery and but three starts into his return, was placed on the fifteen-day invalid list with an inflamed shoulder — this on the very eve of the start appointed him, with the club's whole October riding on the weekend. A nine six victories deep in a streak might have read the omen and shuddered; the men from the desert elected instead to render the question of Saturday's pitcher nearly academic, and Jose Cabrera was summoned up from Reno to fill the roster's hole while the lineup went about filling the scorebook.

Lars Nootbaar struck the night's first blow, depositing an early Casey Mize offering in the right-center seats before the first inning was minutes old. By that frame's close, Perdomo had tripled a run home and Carroll had lifted a sacrifice fly; before Mize escaped the fourth — he did not, in truth, escape it — the sidewinders had struck him for seven runs on seven hits, three of them home runs: Nootbaar's eighth, Arenado's thirtieth, Lawlar's sixth. Perdomo finished with four runs driven in, and Brandon Pfaadt, handed riches, carried the ball into the eighth inning of an 11-4 verdict before a packed house at Petco Park, whose home club — its berth long since secured — let slip its chance to seal the fourth seed and now hears Chicago's spikes a game and a half behind.

The arithmetic is the story, and it is written in two cities. In Philadelphia the same evening, the Phillies were whitewashed by Tampa Bay, 2-0 — their twelfth blanking of the year and third straight defeat — and so the lead Arizona has chased since it stood six games and a half on the first of September is now a single game, with two to play. The tiebreaker, be it noted, is already Arizona's: the clubs split their six meetings and the next criterion fell to the desert, so a dead heat at season's end sends the Phillies home. Philadelphia still holds the pen — any combination of Phillie victories and Arizona defeats summing to two closes the book — but the club that could not lose a week ago now cannot stop winning, six straight since a Friday defeat in the Bronx, and its clubhouse speaks of something magical riding with them.

The clinch this paper saw within Philadelphia's reach on Wednesday remains unsigned four days later, and the ghosts of 1964 are being spoken of aloud in that city. Tonight the sidewinders try San Diego again, Buehler taking the ball for the Friars, while Philadelphia gets Tampa Bay once more — and every scoreboard in two time zones will be read twice.

News Around the League

THE OCTOBER DESK: CLEVELAND AND CHICAGO BOTH WIN AND THE CENTRAL STAYS ONE GAME APART WITH A BYE FOR THE TAKING — THE WEST'S DEAD HEAT SURVIVES BY MUTUAL FAILURE, AND THE BRONX PREPARES FOR BOSTON

Two days remain, and the American's two open questions each held their ground. In the Central, Cleveland and Chicago both banked victories — the Guardians untidily, the White Sox emphatically — and so the Guardians' lead stands at one game, with the tiebreaker in Chicago's keeping, as this paper has noted, meaning Cleveland must finish a game clear or yield the crown. The stakes are handsomer than a pennant flag alone: the Central's winner is assured the American's second seed and its first-round bye, the West's champion being unable to better one-and-eighty wins, while the Central's loser — though richer in victories than the West's champion by any arithmetic — must travel as the sixth seed to that very champion's yard when the Wild Card rounds open Tuesday. A guest with more wins than its host: October has staged stranger things, but not many.

In the West, the dead heat survived a fourth consecutive night, this time by mutual failure: Houston spilled six runs through a dropped relay in the sixth at West Sacramento, Texas was thumped by ten in Minnesota, and the co-tenants of the throne remain nine-and-seventy wins apiece — each, remarkably, two games under the break-even line — with the Silver Boot tiebreaker still in Houston's keeping. Win its last two and Houston is champion of the West, whatever Texas does.

The one October pairing already engraved: New York and Boston, the wild card's first and second seeds, will open at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday — the seventh postseason meeting of the game's oldest quarrel. In the National, the last berth is the front page above; the remaining suspense is seeding, where San Diego's defeat and Chicago's twin setbacks leave the Cubs a game and a half behind the Friars for the top wild card, with the Cubs holding but a single game to play.

THE MILESTONE DESK: DE LA CRUZ STEALS HIS WAY INTO CINCINNATI'S THIRTY-THIRTY REGISTRY — ALONSO BREAKS THE FOUR-WAY TIE AT THE AMERICAN'S SUMMIT, AND A RECORD NOBODY COVETS FALLS ON THE SOUTH SIDE

Elly De La Cruz doubled home two in Toronto, then stole third on the very next pitch — his thirtieth theft, joined to thirty home runs, making him only the fourth Red in the franchise's long history to post a thirty-thirty season, after Eric Davis, Barry Larkin, and Brandon Phillips. Nine of his home runs have come in September alone; the club's evening ended 6-5 the wrong way, but the register does not care.

The American's home-run crown, a four-way knot at one-and-forty when this paper recorded it in Thursday's dispatch, is a knot no longer: Pete Alonso struck twice in the Bronx matinee and stands alone at three-and-forty, two clear of Alvarez, Caminero, and Rice with two mornings left. In the National, Crow-Armstrong and Schwarber remain locked at five-and-forty apiece — though the Cub has but one game remaining to the Phillie's two.

And on the South Side, a record was set that no man ever campaigned for: Colson Montgomery struck out for the two-hundred-four-and-twentieth time this season, the most whiffs any batsman has recorded in a single campaign since the game began counting. The Herald notes, in fairness to the young man, that his club is bound for October and he has swung hard the whole way there.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: JUNG'S HAND IS BROKEN IN ARLINGTON'S DARKEST HOUR — GASPER'S BICEPS LIKELY COSTS HIM OCTOBER, AND ARRAEZ'S PICTURES COME BACK UNKIND

The ward filled cruelly on the season's next-to-last Friday. In Minnesota, Texas lost more than a game: Josh Jung took a four-and-ninety-mile fastball from Joe Ryan off the right hand, stayed in long enough to score, and learned afterward the hand is fractured. "Devastated — period," said the man himself. He had batted .341 since returning from the invalid list a fortnight ago, and the Rangers' ledger reads 53-50 with him in the order, 26-30 without.

In Boston, Mickey Gasper — whose late-season thunder this paper saluted but three days past — wrenched his right biceps merely swinging through a sweeper in the matinee, and his manager pronounced the injury significant and likely to take him from the October roster. The ripples reach the whole batting order: Duran to left field against the right-handers, Anthony to the designated place.

And in Philadelphia, where no bad news travels alone, the batting title's keeper got his pictures back: Luis Arraez's sprained left ankle, turned dodging a tag on Thursday, drew from interim manager Don Mattingly the grim verdict "kind of not a great one." His availability for the final games — and for the postseason the Phillies are still trying to reach — is very much in doubt.

THE HERALD LOWERS ITS COLORS: BILL GILES, WHO GAVE PHILADELPHIA HALF A CENTURY, PETE ROSE, AND THE PHANATIC, IS DEAD AT TWO-AND-NINETY

William Giles, son of the National League president Warren Giles and for more than fifty years the animating spirit of the Philadelphia club, died Friday at his home in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, at the age of two-and-ninety. He came to the Phillies in 1969 to mind the business side and ended by owning a piece of the whole enterprise, organizing the syndicate that bought the club from the Carpenter family in 1981 and serving as president and chief executive until 1997, chairman thereafter, and chairman emeritus to the last. It was Giles who persuaded Ruly Carpenter to sign Pete Rose for the club that won it all in 1980, Giles who helped conjure the Phillie Phanatic into green and permanent existence, and Giles whom the National League made its honorary president in 2001. Citizens Bank Park stood for a moment of silence before Friday's game. The Herald lowers its colors for a man who understood that the game is also a show, and made the show worthy of the game.

THE ALMANAC DESK: THE NOR'EASTER WINS ITS SERIES WITH BOSTON — THE SEASON'S FINAL GAME REMOVES TO A FLORIDA ROOF, AND THIS AFTERNOON BELONGS TO VERLANDER AT THE PARK WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

The storm this paper flagged in Friday's dispatch has now redrawn the schedule entire. Having already forced Friday's twin bill, the nor'easter bearing down on New England has driven the Red Sox and Cubs clean out of Boston: the league has ordered their season finale played Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, the clubs flying south Friday night to idle through Saturday under clearer skies. The Cubs' objection to a hasty Saturday date — "they never move games up... within a five-day window of a starting rotation," manager Craig Counsell had protested — was accommodated, and so the 2026 season will close, for two northern clubs, beneath a Florida roof.

And this afternoon at ten minutes past one, at Comerica Park in Detroit, Justin Verlander takes a big-league mound for the final time, against Pittsburgh — the valedictory this paper has kept vigil over since it was named. The regular season's last day is tomorrow, the six-and-twentieth being its next-to-last; the Wild Card rounds open Tuesday, the nine-and-twentieth. Attend today's game if you are within a day's ride of Detroit, reader. There will not be another.

The Rest of the Card

ANTHONY STRIKES THRICE AND THE MATINEE GOES TO THE BOSTONS — TWO CUBS CROSS THE PLATE IN ONE SCRAMBLE AND STILL THE OPENER IS LOST: BOSTONS 4, CUBS 3

The twin bill played to outrun the weather opened with Roman Anthony reaching base four times, hitting safely thrice, and scoring thrice, two doubles and a triple among his afternoon's work, while Rutschman drove home two of Boston's four. Chicago's third run arrived by way of a curiosity — Busch and Swanson sliding across the plate in the same instant on Amaya's knock, a photograph's worth of tangled Cubs — but the visitors got no nearer; Weissert took the decision and Burgos sealed it. Gasper's fifth-inning departure is entered, grimly, at the ward.

THE NIGHTCAP IS A WHITEWASH AND FENWAY'S HOME SEASON CLOSES ON A SWEEP — ABREU'S DOUBLE CASHES BOTH RUNS: RED SOX 2, CUBS 0

The evening game needed only Wilyer Abreu's two-run double, his eight-and-thirtieth two-bagger of the year, and four hits total to finish the sweep — Chicago out-hit Boston seven to four and scored nothing for it, Paez taking his first victory of the campaign. So ends regular-season baseball at Fenway Park for 2026, on the highest of notes for the home nine; the two clubs' actual finale rides south to St. Petersburg, as the almanac desk records, and the Cubs limp toward it having dropped a game and a half behind San Diego for the top wild card.

BEAVERS DRIVES HOME FOUR AND ALONSO STRIKES TWICE TO STAND ALONE ATOP THE AMERICAN — THE O'S SPOIL THE BRONX MATINEE ENTIRE: ORIOLES 10, YANKEES 2

Baltimore's afternoon was a thirteen-hit procession: Beavers homered and drove in four, Jackson added a blast of his own, and Pete Alonso struck his two-and-fortieth and three-and-fortieth of the season — three runs driven home, and sole possession of the American's home-run lead, as the milestone desk attests. Suárez took the win against Beck, and the champagne-tested Yankees looked, for an afternoon, like a club with its trunk already packed.

WARREN RESTORES ORDER BY NIGHTFALL AND THE HIGHLANDERS TAKE THE NIGHTCAP — VOLPE'S PAIR SETTLES THE SPLIT: HIGHLANDERS 6, ORIOLES 3

The nightcap belonged to Will Warren, eleven victories now against six defeats, whose commanding turn read like an audition for October work; Volpe drove home two and Rice, McMahon, and the rest chipped in doubles enough for a 6-3 verdict and a split of the day. Beavers homered again for Baltimore — his ninth, his second of the day — a footnote of persistence in a lost season. New York's eye is already on Tuesday, when Boston comes to the Bronx for the two rivals' seventh meeting of an October.

TEN STRIKEOUTS BUY SÁNCHEZ NOTHING AND THE TAMPA MEN PASS THE WHITEWASH HAND TO HAND — PHILADELPHIA'S TWELFTH BLANKING FALLS AT THE CRUELEST HOUR: TAMPA MEN 2, PHILLIES 0

Cristopher Sánchez gave the Phillies seven innings and ten strikeouts and was beaten anyway, his record falling to 18-7 on a first-inning single by DeLuca and Fortes' sixth home run in the second. Freddy Peralta answered with five and a third scoreless frames and four relief hands passed the shutout to Baker, whose one-and-fortieth save banked Tampa Bay's seven-and-ninetieth win. Forty thousand at Citizens Bank Park — having stood in silence for Bill Giles before the first pitch — spent the later innings booing the home nine, whose predicament the front page sets out in full. Harper singled and clapped toward his dugout in the sixth; whether encouragement or desperation, the town could not say.

TORKELSON'S THUNDER, AND A TRIPLE BESIDE — THE BENGALS OUTLAST SEVEN PITTSBURGH RUNS ON THE EVE OF THE FAREWELL: BENGALS 8, SMOKY CITY NINE 7

Spencer Torkelson supplied a home run, his six-and-twentieth, a triple, and three runs driven in, and Dingler added two more as Detroit survived a seven-run Pittsburgh evening — Flores Jr. homering and driving in three among the visitors' answering fire. Jobe took the decision and the ancient Jansen recorded his two-and-twentieth save, tidying the stage for this afternoon, when Verlander gives Comerica its valediction.

CREWS STEALS TWO AND HOMERS BESIDES — THE CAPITAL NINE MAKE IT THREE STRAIGHT AT THE METS' EXPENSE: CAPITAL NINE 7, METS 6

Dylan Crews homered, stole two bases, and generally conducted himself like a man auditioning for next April, while Abrams drove home two to reach a hundred and five on the season as Washington took its third in a row, 7-6. Bichette homered and drove in a pair and Benge struck his twentieth for New York, whose season now has one page left; Varland won it and Gray closed it — the latter's first save of the year.

OKAMOTO DRIVES HOME THREE AND TORONTO SHADES A SEESAW — DE LA CRUZ'S MILESTONE EVENING GOES UNREWARDED: TORONTOS 6, REDS 5

Okamoto's three runs driven in tipped a back-and-forth affair at the Rogers Centre, Fluharty improving to 7-1 and Varland banking his five-and-thirtieth save. For Cincinnati, De La Cruz doubled home two and stole his way into the thirty-thirty registry — the milestone desk gives the honor its due — and Suárez struck his six-and-twentieth, but five runs on twelve hits proved one short of six on ten.

NINE INNINGS, ONE HIT, NOT A RUN — EURY PÉREZ WALKS THE WHOLE ROAD ALONE AND ATLANTA IS SILENCED ENTIRE: MIAMI NINE 3, BRAVES 0

The deed of the night that decided nothing and deserves everything: Eury Pérez went the distance at loanDepot park and permitted the champions of the East precisely one hit — nine innings, one walk, eight strikeouts, nine-and-twenty men faced, a hundred and five pitches, and the whole business transacted in two hours and one minute flat. Mack and Conine supplied home runs, Hernández singled home Marsee, and the crowned Braves, whatever they were resting for, were made to look mortal in the meantime. The Herald's masthead promises no deed unsung; consider this one sung.

THREE LEADS SQUANDERED, THEN FIVE RUNS ON SIX WALKS IN THE NINTH — CLEVELAND'S UGLIEST VICTORY MAY PROVE ITS DEAREST: GUARDIANS 12, ROYALS 9

No painter will hang it, but the ledger accepts all styles: Cleveland blew three separate leads at Kauffman Stadium before mounting a five-run ninth built chiefly of six bases on balls, three of them forcing runners home, to escape 12-9 and keep its one-game hold on the Central. Martínez drove home four and Ramírez two — the latter also committing two errors, in the spirit of the evening — while Kansas City's Jensen homered twice and drove in five in a gallant losing cause. "We have no idea how we're going to find a way to win," allowed manager Vogt, "but we're going to continue to try to find a way to win every night." With the bye riding on it, the Herald recommends he keep trying.

MURAKAMI STRIKES TWICE AGAINST HIS OLD TOKYO ADVERSARY — CHICAGO'S ANSWER TO CLEVELAND ARRIVES INSIDE THE HOUR: WHITE SOX 6, ROCKIES 1

Munetaka Murakami greeted Tomoyuki Sugano — his old adversary from the Japanese leagues, and once his World Baseball Classic teammate — with two home runs, his four-and-thirtieth and five-and-thirtieth, driving in three before the tenth sellout crowd of the season at Rate Field, 35,778 strong. He had twice homered off Sugano in Japan; some correspondences survive an ocean. Burke took his eleventh win, Teel drove home two, and the White Sox — showing, in the words of their own beat man, no celebration hangover whatever — kept their deficit at one game with two to play.

TURANG DRIVES HOME THREE AND THE HUNDRED-AND-FIRST IS BANKED — THE BREW CREW TUNE FOR OCTOBER AT ST. LOUIS'S EXPENSE: BREW CREW 8, GAS HOUSE NINE 4

Milwaukee's machine, first seed long since pocketed, added a hundred-and-first victory for the shelf: Turang doubled twice and drove home three to reach seven-and-ninety runs batted in, and Bauers added a pair. St. Louis supplied thunder without consequence — Herrera, Walker, and Burleson all homered, the last's two runs driven in stretching his National-best ledger to a hundred and fifteen — but Uribe and the relief corps held the line from there.

KEASCHALL EVERYWHERE, AND deGROM'S LAST REGULAR TURN GOES AWRY — TEXAS'S HALF OF THE THRONE TAKES A TEN-RUN BEATING: TWIN CITIES NINE 10, RANGERS 2

On the night Texas could least afford it, Minnesota administered a 10-2 thrashing: Keaschall doubled, tripled, stole a base, and drove home three, Clemens struck his seven-and-twentieth with three runs batted in besides, and Joe Ryan took the decision. Jacob deGrom, making the final regular-season start of his campaign, absorbed the loss — and the evening's true cost was dearer still, Jung's broken hand being entered at the ward. Texas remains level with Houston atop the West only because Houston lost too.

ALTUVE DROPS THE RELAY AND SIX SPILL THROUGH THE SIXTH — THE ATHLETICS PLAY SPOILER AND THE WEST'S KNOT HOLDS: ATHLETICS 6, ASTROS 5

Houston's hundred-and-sixtieth game turned on a single dropped ball: with none out in the sixth at West Sacramento, Altuve let Peña's relay fall from his glove at second base, a double play dissolved into nothing, and the Athletics poured six runs through the opened door. Walker's eight-and-twentieth and Smith's one-and-twentieth kept the visitors close, and a late rally fell one short against Harris's save. "Really bad," said Altuve of the drop. "Not a good feeling." The consolations are two: Texas lost as well, and the Silver Boot tiebreaker still rides in Houston's saddlebag — win the last two, and the West belongs to the Astros outright.

NETO'S SEVEN-AND-TWENTIETH AND MOORE'S THREE DRIVEN HOME — THE HALOS PLAY OUT THE STRING WITH SPIRIT BY THE SOUND: HALOS 7, MARINERS 5

Two clubs long since excused from October played anyway, as the schedule insists: Zach Neto doubled twice, homered, and stole a base, Moore drove home three, and Detmers — whose two hundred eleven strikeouts stand fourth in the American — took the win. Canzone's three-and-twentieth and Arozarena's triple kept Seattle in it to the end; the end came regardless, 7-5.

SKUBAL'S SEVEN SPOTLESS AND TEN STRUCK OUT — TWO SECOND-INNING THUNDERCLAPS ARE ALL THE CHAMPIONS REQUIRE BY THE BAY: DODGERS 2, BAY NINE 0

Tarik Skubal's regular season closed like a vault door: seven innings, three hits, not a walk, ten strikeouts, and the Giants dismissed 2-0 on Hernández's and Pages' second-inning home runs off Marte. Behind him the October machinery clicked once in rehearsal — Sasaki with a perfect eighth for his first hold, Scott with a perfect ninth for his four-and-twentieth save — and the champions banked win eight-and-ninety with their rotation's edge gleaming.

The Saturday tables, then — seventeen contests entered, two of them twin bills played against the weather, and every race alive into the season's final two days. In the American: Tampa Bay holds the first seed at seven-and-ninety wins; New York and Boston are engraved for Tuesday in the Bronx; Cleveland leads Chicago by one for the Central and its bye, the tiebreaker Chicago's — Cleveland plays tonight at Kansas City at 7:10, Colorado visits the South Side at the same hour — and the West is a dead heat at nine-and-seventy wins, Houston at the Athletics and the Angels at Seattle at 9:40, Texas at Minnesota at 4:10. In the National: Milwaukee sits on a hundred and one wins and the first seed; Philadelphia's lead over Arizona for the last wild card is one game, Tampa Bay at Philadelphia at 7:15 and Arizona at San Diego at 8:40 tonight; San Diego leads Chicago by a game and a half for the top wild card. The day's other cards: the Mets at Washington; Pittsburgh at Detroit at 1:10, where Verlander says his farewell; Cincinnati at Toronto at 3:07; the champions at San Francisco at 4:05; Atlanta at Miami at 4:10; St. Louis at Milwaukee at 7:10. Tomorrow is the season's last page — one line of it to be written, of all places, under a Florida roof. Until the next dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Saturday, September 26, 2026 — Boxscore
Baseball-Reference.com — Standings, Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference
Steve Gilbert, 'Something magical' going on as surging D-backs narrow Wild Card gap to 1 — MLB.com
Jared Greenspan, How the D-backs can pass the Phillies for the final NL Wild Card spot — MLB.com
D-backs place Corbin Burnes on IL in midst of wild-card push — ESPN
Todd Zolecki, 'Have to find a way': Urgency setting in after Phils' 12th shutout loss of year — MLB.com
Missed chance to lock up No. 4 seed prompts questions about Mize's playoff roster case — MLB.com
Tim Stebbins, Guardians squeeze out unsightly win over Royals in AL Central race — MLB.com
Brian McTaggart, Consequential 6th in loss to A's could prove costly for Astros' AL West hopes — MLB.com
Scott Merkin, Murakami homers twice as White Sox stay laser-focused on AL Central race — MLB.com
Mark Sheldon, With swipe of third, Elly becomes 4th Reds player to secure 30-30 season — MLB.com
White Sox's Montgomery sets single-season strikeout record with 224 — ESPN
Kennedi Landry, 'Devastated': Rangers lose Jung to right hand fracture — MLB.com
Ian Browne, Significant biceps injury likely to sideline red-hot Gasper for postseason — MLB.com
Todd Zolecki, 'Not a great one': Arraez, Phils get tough news with left ankle sprain — MLB.com
Bill Giles, longtime Phillies owner and executive, dies at 92 — ESPN
Red Sox-Cubs finale set to be played Sunday at Tropicana Field — ESPN
Yankees, Red Sox to meet in playoffs for 7th time — ESPN
deGrom's final regular-season start goes awry as Rangers drop critical game — MLB.com
Skubal cruises before Sasaki, Scott prep for postseason roles — MLB.com
Warren dominant in potential playoff role as Yanks prep to face Red Sox — MLB.com
Safe! ... and safe again! Cubs narrowly escape logjam as 2 runners score at same time — MLB.com
Peralta punctuates late-season surge with 5 1/3 scoreless in Philly — MLB.com
Red Sox sweep twin bill vs. Cubs to end regular-season play at Fenway on high note — MLB.com