Is it spring training yet? No — the pennants are being decided, and spring must wait its turn.

THE MORNING HORSEHIDE HERALD

"Every Score Set Down, No Deed Unsung"

~ Being a Faithful Daily Chronicle of the National Pastime ~

Volume I · No. 100 · Friday, the Sixteenth of October, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six

Reporting 2 contests from the day prior.

The Game of the Day

THE LAST BALL OF THE NATIONAL LEAGUE'S YEAR COMES DOWN IN CHOURIO'S GLOVE — DOWN FOUR RUNS BEFORE THE SECOND INNING HAD COOLED, THE BREWERS CLIMB OUT A SIXTH TIME THIS OCTOBER, SWEEP THE TWICE-CROWNED CHAMPIONS FROM THEIR OWN YARD, AND CARRY MILWAUKEE TO ITS FIRST WORLD'S SERIES SINCE 1982: BREWERS 6, DODGERS 4

Shohei Ohtani's three-run homer — his first in two months, ending the longest drought of his career — stakes Los Angeles to a 4-0 lead in the second inning, and Milwaukee answers the way it has answered all month: back-to-back doubles from William Contreras and Jake Bauers, a bases-loaded walk, Garrett Mitchell's go-ahead drive in the sixth and David Hamilton's parting shot in the ninth, while Aaron Ashby records the final nine outs; no club had ever erased a four-run deficit to finish a postseason sweep, and no club had ever been swept by an opponent one October and swept that same opponent the next

The National League's season ended in the glove of Jackson Chourio, on a fly ball that died just short of the left-center warning track at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night, and the noise that followed belonged to the visitors' dugout and to the several thousand Wisconsinites among the 49,104 who declined to go home. They stayed to watch the Warren C. Giles Trophy presented on enemy ground, and they were entitled: Milwaukee has waited 44 years for this, since the 1982 club of Harvey's Wallbangers carried the American League's flag and lost a seven-game World's Series to St. Louis. This pennant is the franchise's first in the National League — and the cry of that earlier October, "Milwaukee, you have a World Series!", belonged by the record not to Bob Uecker but to his partner Dwayne Mosley, Uecker having slipped down to the clubhouse to ready the celebration broadcast. The city may now compose a new one.43

The evening began as the champions' best of the month. Shane Drohan opened for Milwaukee and walked two; Dustin May inherited the second inning and absorbed four runs of it — Andy Pages' single for the first, and then Shohei Ohtani, restored to the leadoff post he had not occupied since September 27, turning a 1-1 cutter into a three-run drive to right-center. It was Ohtani's first home run since August 18, the end of a 115-plate-appearance drought, the longest of his career, whose every barren week this paper has chronicled.38 From 4-0 the ledger turned by installments. Contreras and Bauers struck back-to-back doubles in the fourth, Bauers' a ground-rule bounce worth two runs; in the fifth David Hamilton singled home Sal Frelick and Bauers drew a bases-loaded walk for the tie; in the sixth Garrett Mitchell led off against the left-hander Tanner Scott and hit the go-ahead homer to center; and in the ninth Hamilton — the nine-hole man, two hits, two runs driven in and a stolen base on his evening — added a parting shot off Edwin Díaz's hanging slider.3

The final nine outs belonged to Aaron Ashby, on 39 pitches, and they were not uneventful: he stranded the tying run in scoring position in both the seventh and the eighth, striking out Ohtani swinging with that run at third base. The save ran three full innings in a pennant-clincher, company he shares with only Lance McCullers Jr., Madison Bumgarner, Steve Howe and Vida Blue since the save became an official statistic in 1969; his October account now shows 12 1/3 innings and no runs across six errands.87 The relief corps as a body allowed five runs in 21 2/3 innings of the round, a 2.08 figure, and Joel Romero's victory Thursday meant a reliever won all four games of the series — a thing no best-of-seven sweep had ever shown — and seven of Milwaukee's eight games this postseason, which no club had done either.75

Mitchell's blow deserves its biography. Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at nine years old, he slid to the 20th selection of his draft on the doubts that diagnosis bred, wears an insulin pod wired to his telephone, and has played more games this season than in his first four years combined. On Wednesday he and Bauers struck back-to-back homers off a left-hander — lefty upon lefty, a sequence only Ruth and Gehrig in 1928 and Schwarber and Harper earlier this very month had written before them — and on Thursday he supplied the pennant's deciding run. "It was time to make the big shift," said his father Antony, who reports that his son has always run on doubt as other men run on praise.6

The ledger of the series reads like a page from the game's far shelf. The four-run recovery is the largest ever to finish a postseason sweep, and ties the largest in any pennant-clinching game since the rounds began in 1969, matching the Yankees of 2000 and 2003; Milwaukee trailed in all four games of a series it swept, which no club had done; its six comeback victories in its first eight October games stand alone in the records.5 The Brewers are the fifth club to sweep a reigning champion from a best-of-seven — after the 1990 Reds, 1966 Orioles, 1963 Dodgers and 1914 Braves, every one of whom went on to the World's Series — and the first ever, in this sport, to be swept by an opponent one postseason and sweep that same opponent whole the next, the wound of last year's four-game dismissal at these same hands repaid to the penny. This was the 11th best-of-seven ever played between two 100-win clubs and the first to end in a sweep, and Los Angeles even lost its first October game of the year with Tyler Glasnow pitching, a distinction the man had carried through seven appearances.53 The valedictories were brief. "We got outplayed in all facets," said Dave Roberts. "You remember it," said Pat Murphy of the beatings his club once took in this yard. "You have to have that faith," said the captain Christian Yelich, "and you have to have, like, the belief that you know this group can get it done."34 The World's Series opens Friday next, October 23, at American Family Field, against the winner of the American round — whose state of play the Postseason Card takes up below.142

The Postseason Card

THE EIGHTH MAN IN THE ORDER SENDS HIS BAT SKYWARD AND THE BALL TO THE BLEACHERS — HALPIN'S TWO-RUN WALLOP OVERTURNS AN AFTERNOON SIMPSON'S TRIPLE HAD BRIEFLY STOLEN, WILLIAMS FANS NINE MORE IN FIVE, AND THE CLEVELAND NINE STAND TWO WINS FROM THE WORLD'S SERIES: GUARDIANS 3, RAYS 2

October baseball by daylight, at the one-o'clock hour the rain dictated, and 30,101 fill the lakefront yard anyway; Gavin Williams strikes out nine of the eighteen men he faces and departs early by design, Chandler Simpson's two-strike triple gives Tampa Bay a short-lived lead, and Petey Halpin — a reserve outfielder a fortnight ago — answers with a two-run homer off Griffin Jax and a bat flip his own bullpen scored a ten, before Cade Smith's four-out save sends Cleveland ahead two games to one

The afternoon appointment this paper commended yesterday to readers of flexible luncheon arrangements proved worth the leave-taking. Under a sunny 62 degrees at Progressive Field — the one-o'clock start having been dictated by the evening's forecast — 30,101 turned out on a weekday midday and were repaid in two hours and twenty-eight minutes. Cleveland struck first in the second, Nathaniel Lowe lining a double to right to cash Jo Adell; Tampa Bay answered in the fourth when Chandler Simpson, down to his last strike, lashed a two-run triple past Chase DeLauter to score Yandy Díaz and Victor Mesa Jr. — the speedster's third run driven in of the round, and very nearly the whole of the visitors' offense.10

The reply came from the eighth place in the order. Patrick Bailey singled with one out in the fifth, and Petey Halpin — until a fortnight ago a late-innings defensive reserve, pressed into the lineup in the Chicago round and never since removed — turned Griffin Jax's 96-mile sinker into the right-field bleachers, 105 off the bat, for the lead. The bat went skyward in a high, turning arc. "I just kind of blacked out," Halpin pleaded afterward — October's fashionable alibi, Jake Bauers having entered the same one at the dome on Monday. "It was majestic," certified Steven Kwan; Daniel Espino, warming in the bullpen, scored the flip a ten while confessing he feared the lumber might strike its owner on the way down.11

Gavin Williams made the two runs stand. Five innings, two hits, nine strikeouts — both runs rode Simpson's triple — and a departure at 70 pitches that his manager called precaution rather than necessity. The figures behind the figures: 33 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings this October, a 45.9 percent strikeout rate that is the highest any pitcher has carried through a postseason of ten innings or more, past Corey Knebel's 44.6; no Cleveland pitcher before him had struck out nine or better in three straight postseason starts; and his 45 October strikeouts for the franchise passed Andrew Miller for fourth on the all-time roll, behind Charles Nagy's 55, Orel Hershiser's 54 and Corey Kluber's 47.1012 Behind him Espino, Erik Sabrowski and Hunter Gaddis carried the ball to Cade Smith, whose four-out save ran his month to a 1.00 earned-run average with 13 strikeouts in nine innings. Tampa Bay's consolations were small but genuine: Liam Hicks threw out two Cleveland runners, the first Rays catcher ever to cut down two in a postseason game.12

The visitors' grief is the bats. Three hits and 13 strikeouts on the afternoon; Junior Caminero 0-for-4 with four of them, his first postseason homer still unstruck; the top third of the order — Díaz, Jonathan Aranda, Caminero — a combined 1-for-12. "We have to make adjustments and play our baseball," Caminero said through the club's interpreter, and his manager Kevin Cash asked plainly for bigger at-bats.10 So Cleveland leads two games to one and stands two victories from its first World's Series since 2016 — the fourth time the franchise has held such a lead in a pennant round, having cashed the one in 1997 and let go those of 1998 and 2007 — while Tampa Bay trails at this station for the first time in its history; the scholars note the winner of a third game from a 1-1 tie has taken the series in roughly seven cases of ten.1012 The fourth game is appointed for eight o'clock tonight by the lake, weather permitting, and the Weather Desk sets out the particulars — and the contingencies — elsewhere in this number.2

News Around the League

THE LAUREL DESK: THE MOST VALUABLE MAN OF THE NATIONAL ROUND NEARLY QUIT THE GAME TWO WINTERS PAST — BAUERS, SIX RUNS DRIVEN IN AND A HIT IN EVERY GAME, IS THE FIRST BREWER EVER TO CARRY OFF THE HONOR, AND EITHER AMERICAN FINALIST IS A FORMER EMPLOYER

The hardware followed the story. Jake Bauers, whose twelve-pitch walk turned the second game and whose eleven-pitch homer turned the third — both sieges set out at length in these columns — was named the most valuable player of the National League's round on the field Thursday night, the first man in Milwaukee's history to take the series laurel. The affidavit: a hit in all four games, a team-leading six runs driven in — tied for the most in any postseason series the franchise has played — and in the clincher a two-run double and the bases-loaded walk that drew the game level.9

The man receives the honor at 31, in his seventh season, two winters removed from nearly leaving the game altogether before his wife talked him back onto the field. The regular season that followed ran to 26 home runs and 86 runs batted in, and October has compounded it. "I just let it all come to me," Bauers said. "I didn't chase it." His teammates were less restrained — "No one deserves it more," said Sal Frelick — and his manager chose the house style: "Jake played with a broken toe, he's had shin splints all year, and he's soft," offered Pat Murphy, entirely in jest.9 The footnote the deadball desks will savor: Bauers broke into the league with Tampa Bay in 2018 and spent two seasons in Cleveland's employ, so whichever club emerges from the American round, the World's Series will send the series' most valuable man against a former employer.9

THE WEATHER DESK: THE AMERICAN ROUND'S FOURTH GAME GOES TONIGHT AT EIGHT BY THE LAKE, IF THE SKY ALLOWS — MARTINEZ, WHO BLANKED CLEVELAND TWICE THIS SUMMER ACROSS THIRTEEN INNINGS, MEETS A HOME STAFF ASSEMBLED BY COMMITTEE, AND A WASHOUT WOULD REDRAW THE WEEK

The American League's fourth sitting is appointed for eight o'clock Eastern tonight at Progressive Field, Cleveland leading two games to one — but the sky holds a vote. Rain is in the Friday forecast, the same forecast that moved yesterday's game up to one o'clock in the afternoon, and both commands spent Thursday drawing contingencies. Should the evening prove unplayable, the clubs could pass Friday idle and play the fourth and fifth games Saturday and Sunday by the lake, spending the scheduled travel day, with a sixth game to follow at the Gulf without pause.132

If the game is played tonight, Tampa Bay sends Nick Martinez, a right-hander of career-high employment this season — 31 starts, a 15-6 record and a 3.10 earned-run average — who holds a peculiar mastery of the home side: two starts against Cleveland this summer, thirteen innings, not one run, including seven blank frames in a 1-0 verdict in this very yard in April. Drew Rasmussen stands slated for the fifth game and Freddy Peralta for the sixth.1312 Cleveland's answer is a committee: a bullpen evening in which Joey Cantillo is expected to carry a large share, Tanner Bibee and Slade Cecconi the bulk innings, and Shawn Armstrong — unscored upon in four October appearances — or Daniel Espino may be first out of the gate. A postponement would change the committee's complexion entirely, handing Foster Griffin the ball Saturday on regular rest. "Our guys stay ready," said Stephen Vogt, declining to be alarmed on either count.1312

THE ALMANAC DESK: THE WORLD'S SERIES OPENS FRIDAY NEXT AT MILWAUKEE — HOME GROUND EARNED BY A HUNDRED AND THREE VICTORIES, THE FIRST TWO GAMES AND ANY SIXTH AND SEVENTH BY THE LAKESIDE BREWERY, AND THE AMERICAN CHAMPION TO BE KNOWN BY THEN

The almanac may now be printed in ink. The 122nd World's Series opens Friday, October 23, at American Family Field in Milwaukee, with the second game there Saturday the 24th; the third, fourth and fifth games go Monday the 26th through Wednesday the 28th at the American champion's grounds; and a sixth and seventh, should the argument require them, return to Milwaukee on Friday the 30th and Saturday the 31st.142

The home ground is held on merit, not on league custom: the Brewers' 103-59 was the best record in the majors, a franchise mark, and it outranks whatever the American round produces — Tampa Bay having won 98 and Cleveland fewer still. Every game goes out over the FOX wire. Start times await the league's pleasure, and the opponent awaits tonight's weather; both will be entered in this ledger the morning after they are known.14

THE FAREWELL DESK: ROJAS, AGED SEVEN-AND-THIRTY, TELLS HIS TEAMMATES 'THIS IS IT' — THIRTEEN SEASONS, TWO TITLES, A NO-HITTER PRESERVED WITH THE BACKHAND AND A SEVENTH-GAME HOMER IN THE NINTH, AND NOW A DESK IN THE DODGERS' SCHOOLHOUSE

The last game of the National League's season was also the last of a distinguished career. Miguel Rojas, 37 years old, told his Los Angeles teammates after Thursday's defeat that he had played his final game as an active man: "This is it, guys. This is it." The ledger he closes runs thirteen major-league seasons and 21 years in professional baseball — a 2014 debut with these same Dodgers, remembered for the backhand stop at third base that helped preserve Clayton Kershaw's June no-hitter; eight seasons as Miami's everyday shortstop and captain; and a return to Los Angeles in 2023 for four seasons, 446 games and a .260 average.15

The crowning entries came late, as they sometimes do for the glove men: World's Series titles in 2024 and 2025, and in the seventh game of last autumn's Series against Toronto, a game-tying home run in the ninth inning — a swing that will outlive every fielding chart ever drawn of him. He does not go far: Rojas moves into a player-development post with the organization, the exact title still being lettered. "He built a legacy that we'll be talking about for a long time," said Freddie Freeman; Mookie Betts called him simply "our leader." The Herald tips its cap to a workman of the old school and wishes him a long second career teaching the backhand.15

With this number the Herald's ledger turns one hundred — a hundred mornings of scores set down and deeds sung since this desk first took up its pen, and the chronicle is pleased to mark the occasion with a pennant in it. The forward ledger now reads: the American round's fourth game tonight at eight by the lake, weather permitting, a fifth Saturday at the same address, and a sixth Monday at the Gulf should the argument run on; the National League's business is concluded until Friday next, the 23rd, when the World's Series opens at Milwaukee.213 One league's season ended last night in a glove in left-center; the other's hangs tonight on a rain cloud over Lake Erie. The game, as ever, keeps its own calendar and lets the rest of us guess. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

  1. MLB Box Scores — Friday, October 16, 2026 — Boxscore
  2. Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference
  3. AJ Cassavell, Brewers end Dodgers' three-peat bid with an NLCS sweep of their own — MLB.com
  4. Adam McCalvy, Milwaukee, you have a World Series! 44 years later, this one's for the believers — MLB.com
  5. Sarah Langs, Fascinating facts and stats from Brewers' comeback sweep — MLB.com
  6. Adam McCalvy, Mitchell keeps proving doubters wrong -- all the way to the World Series — MLB.com
  7. Christina De Nicola, Ashby's 9-out save the cherry on top of dominant NLCS for Crew's 'pen — MLB.com
  8. Courtney Hollmon, Ohtani's 1st HR in nearly 2 months not enough for LA in NLCS loss — MLB.com
  9. Christina De Nicola, Bauers takes home NLCS MVP after series filled with signature moments — MLB.com
  10. Keegan Matheson, Go-ahead HR from unlikely source flips ALCS back in Guardians' favor — MLB.com
  11. Tim Stebbins, Which landed 1st? Halpin's epic HR or the 'majestic' bat flip that followed? — MLB.com
  12. Tim Stebbins, Adam Berry and Keegan Matheson, Rays-Guardians ALCS Game 4 lineups, FAQ — MLB.com
  13. Adam Berry and Tim Stebbins, With rain in forecast Friday, how might ALCS Game 4 pitching plans shape up? — MLB.com
  14. What you need to know about the 2026 World Series — MLB.com
  15. Courtney Hollmon, After 13 seasons, 2-time World Series champ Rojas calls it a career — MLB.com