The Morning Horsehide Herald

SIXTEEN INNINGS OF FAMINE, THEN A FEAST AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT: WALDSCHMIDT, SUMMONED FROM THE BENCH, ENDS IT WITH ONE SWING — ARIZONAS 5, NORTH SIDERS 4

2026-08-26T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

SIXTEEN INNINGS OF FAMINE, THEN A FEAST AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT: WALDSCHMIDT, SUMMONED FROM THE BENCH, ENDS IT WITH ONE SWING — ARIZONAS 5, NORTH SIDERS 4

Four runs in arrears entering the eighth, without a tally in two evenings, the Sonoran nine collect three against the Chicago bullpen and then send a rookie to the plate cold — whose two-run blast wins the game, draws Arizona within a single game of the National's last chair, and closes the strangest day of Torey Lovullo's summer

For sixteen consecutive innings the Arizona bats had gone without a run — nine of them in Monday's shutout, chronicled in these pages, and seven more on Tuesday evening while the North Siders' Holmes spun a spell of his own: seven innings, two hits allowed, five strikeouts, and not a Phoenix runner permitted past his post. The visitors, meanwhile, had banked their evening early — Happ's three-run blast in the fourth, his three-and-twentieth, and a Busch single in the sixth had the ledger four to none, and the desert crowd had every reason to expect a second consecutive famine.

Then Holmes departed, and the spell went with him. In the eighth, against the reliever Palencia, Moreno doubled home a run and Perdomo singled home two more, and four-to-none had become four-to-three inside a quarter hour. In the ninth, with Fernandez aboard and the pitcher Webb on the hill, Lovullo turned to his bench — and here the manager confessed afterward to a comedy worthy of the vaudeville stage. Twice he asked his hitting men, Mather, Easley, and Denker, whom to send; twice they begged another minute's deliberation; at the last they pronounced their verdict: send Waldy. Ryan Waldschmidt, the rookie, batting for Barrosa with the game moving as Lovullo put it at warp speed, took his instructions, stepped cold to the plate, and deposited a two-run blast into the seats — his third home run of the season.

So ended a day Arizona will not soon forget: begun with its manager tendering an apology to his opposite number (the protocol desk relates the particulars below), and concluded with five runs in its final six outs against a club six games clear of it in the standings. The arithmetic is the sweetest part — the Sonoran nine now stand a single game behind San Diego for the National's final wild-card chair, and the two clubs' fortunes turned on the same midnight hour, as the rest of the card relates.

News Around the League

THE PROTOCOL DESK: LOVULLO TENDERS AN APOLOGY, AND THE LEAGUE PRONOUNCES THE SPYGLASS LAWFUL WHEN WORKED FROM SECOND BASE

The shouting that enlivened Monday's contest in Phoenix has ended in a handshake. The reader will recall that during Arizona's seven-to-none defeat, the Diamondbacks' bench took loud exception to the Cubs' third-base coach Quinton Berry, who was observed relaying to Chicago runners at second base when the Arizona starter Kelly meant to throw his changeup — the runner then wiring the intelligence onward to the batsman. Manager Torey Lovullo, his pitching coach Kaplan, and his bench coach Banister hollered at Berry to knock it off; Chicago's bench coach Flaherty hollered back; and a fine cross-field row was had by all. Lovullo, believing a rule forbade such traffic, carried the question to Michael Hill, the league's senior vice president of on-field operations, and received his answer Tuesday: there is no such rule. Espionage conducted in plain view from the bag is honest labor, as it has been since the deadball days, and the remedy — as every catcher of the old school knew — is to change the signs, not to petition the authorities. Lovullo, to his credit, took the ruling like a sportsman and conveyed his apology to Craig Counsell. That evening Arizona beat Chicago anyway, by means entirely above board, as the lead column attests.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: JUDGE GRADUATES FROM THE TEE TO LIVING PITCHING, SCHMIDT PLOTS A RETURN BY WAY OF THE BULLPEN, AND BUXTON'S HIP SOUNDS ITS ALARM ONCE MORE

From the Bronx, encouraging bulletins: Aaron Judge, whose confinement to the batting tee this paper noted Monday, on Tuesday took his swings against overhand pitching in the indoor cages beneath Yankee Stadium — the first such since his right rib began mending — and ran the outfield besides, his throwing now stretched to a hundred feet. His manager Boone, nodding toward the dugout stairs, offered the medical opinion of the age: he looks good. In the same camp, Clarke Schmidt faced hitters in a live session and stands close to a rehabilitation assignment, the club minded to return him by way of the bullpen for the stretch drive.

The news runs darker in Minnesota, where Byron Buxton departed Tuesday's contest in the seventh inning after chasing a line drive into the right-center gap and pulling up in evident discomfort. The complaint is the familiar one — the right hip that has troubled him since May and twice lodged him on the injured list — and the deceleration required of an outfielder in full flight remains its cruelest test. He is to be examined again Wednesday, and the Twins hold their breath.

THE MILESTONE DESK: STEWART STANDS ONE SHY OF A HUNDRED, ALONSO GATHERS FOUR HITS IN PURSUIT, PETERS STALKS A CLUB RECORD, AND THE CROWN OF THREE GROWS HEAVIER

The hundred-mark watch narrows to a single tally. Sal Stewart of Cincinnati, who stood two short when yesterday's paper went to press, homered in the ninth inning at San Francisco — his eight-and-twentieth — and now sits at nine-and-ninety runs batted in, one stroke from the century. The Cardinal pair who lurk behind him, Burleson and Walker, were held at six-and-ninety apiece by an evening in which their entire club managed one run. In the American, Pete Alonso of the Baltimores put up four hits and four runs batted in at St. Louis, his one-and-thirtieth homer among them, and stands at nine-and-eighty — second in the league's table, now but two tallies behind Yordan Alvarez, whose crown of three grows heavier by the morning: the Houston colossus tripled and drove in his one-and-ninetieth in the Bronx, and leads the American in average at .323, in home runs at six-and-thirty, and in runs batted in, all at once. And on the South Side, the rookie Tristan Peters has now homered in four consecutive games — one shy of the club record of five, set by his own teammate Murakami earlier this summer — of which feat the rest of the card has more to say.

THE ANNALS DESK: NINE PITCHES, THREE VICTIMS — BRADLEY WRITES A PAGE NO TWIN HAD WRITTEN BEFORE

In the fifth inning at Sacramento's grounds Tuesday night, Taj Bradley of the Twins accomplished what no Minnesota pitcher is known to have accomplished in the franchise's long and pitching-proud annals: the immaculate inning — three batsmen retired on strikes, nine pitches, not one wasted. Cortes went down swinging at a splitter that dove beneath the zone; Serven chased a curveball to the same fate; and Bolte, the leadoff man, was frozen by a fastball of 99.8 miles per hour laid on the black at the bottom of the zone. The catcher Caratini confessed afterward that he called the final fastball simply because it was the best pitch, and history could look after itself. That the feat came in a losing cause — the Athletics took the game, four to two — is the sort of joke the pastime reserves for its finest single innings, and the Herald records it here so the annals need not blush.

THE WILLIAMSPORT DESK: MISS RASMUS OF ALABAMA REWRITES THE GIRLS' LEDGER

From South Williamsport, where this paper's attentions lingered all weekend, word of a legend still growing: Kinley Rasmus, the twelve-year-old two-way player out of Phenix City, Alabama — daughter of the former big-league pitcher Cory Rasmus and niece of the outfielder Colby — has set a new record for hits by a girl in the Little League World Series, five and counting, as her nine pulled out a four-to-two victory over the Soundview club of Tacoma to advance toward the tournament's final stages. This on the heels of Monday's work, when she tied Mo'ne Davis's mark of fourteen strikeouts, the most ever recorded by a girl in the Series — the pair of them numbering among just nine girls ever to take the hill at Williamsport. The Herald tips its cap, and suspects it will not be the last time it sets her name in type.

The Rest of the Card

THE APPOINTMENT BY THE PACIFIC IS KEPT: SKENES SPOTLESS THROUGH SIX, KING MATCHES HIM SEVEN, AND CRUZ SETTLES IT IN THE NINTH — BUCS 1, FRIARS 0

This desk directed all eyes to San Diego at Tuesday's close, and the evening repaid the fare. Paul Skenes, whose recent labors had gone unrewarded, surrendered a leadoff double to Tatis on an oh-and-two pitch — a drive measured at 110 miles to the hour — and then nothing whatever: six scoreless innings, three hits, four strikeouts, not a walk, his first spotless start since the twelfth of May. San Diego's King answered with seven blank innings of his own, and the game arrived at the ninth a double cipher — whereupon Oneil Cruz lined his seventeenth home run off the closer Miller for the only run of the night. Montgomery locked the door for his sixth save, the Friars were held to three hits entire, and the Missions have now dropped two one-run decisions running to Pittsburgh — with Arizona, as the lead column relates, drawn to within a single game of their chair.

FIVE RUNS DOWN IN ANAHEIM, AND RAMÍREZ DECLINES THE VERDICT: CLEVELAND NINE 8, ANAHEIM NINE 6, IN TEN INNINGS

The Cleveland nine trailed five to none after two innings — a two-run Grissom homer, a Moore blast, and small-arms fire besides — and a lesser club would have consulted the timetable for the morning train. Instead: José Ramírez, vintage issue — three doubles on the night, five runs batted in: the two-run double in the fourth that began the climb, the equalizing double in the eighth after Grissom's second blast had restored the Anaheim lead, and at last the two-run double in the tenth that decided it. It stands as Cleveland's largest comeback of the season and their first from four or more runs down since August of last year; manager Vogt pronounced the affair a heart-pumper, which the Herald certifies as clinically accurate. The streak runs to six, Smith collected his five-and-thirtieth save, and the final wild-card chair remains Cleveland property for another morning.

NINE RUNNING, AND THE LAST OUT MADE BY TELEGRAPH RELAY: MISSOURIANS 5, CANADIANS 3

The hottest club in the land carried its business abroad and never broke stride. Lugo gave five innings of one-run ball, Salvador Perez supplied the go-ahead single in the fifth, and the veteran Scherzer — now one-and-seven on his sorrowful ledger — absorbed the defeat. Toronto made it interesting with two in the ninth, whereupon the game ended as prettily as any this season: Lukes's two-out knock into the gap was cut off by Collins, wired to Witt, and forwarded to Tolbert at second base, where Lukes was tagged out attempting his advance — a nine-game winning streak sealed by relay post. It is Kansas City's longest run since 2017, and no club in either league is presently hotter.

GASPER STRIKES TWICE, AND DURAN EMPTIES THE BASES IN THE ELEVENTH: HUB NINE 7, FLORIDIANS 3

A close-run affair ran long and then burst. Mickey Gasper homered twice in solo fashion, Miami answered each time, and the clubs traded single tallies again in the tenth — Boston's on a passed ball, the Floridians' on a wild pitch loosed even as the batsman struck out, which is the sort of bookkeeping that keeps official scorers honest. In the eleventh the Hub nine loaded the bases and Jarren Duran cleared them entirely, a grand slam to right-center — his eighteenth homer, four runs batted in — and the count of consecutive Boston victories runs to five, the win to the reliever Gamboa.

THE WEST'S CROWN CHANGES HEADS A THIRD MORNING RUNNING: ASTROS 9, AMERICANS 7, IN THE BRONX

A proper slugging match, thrice tied and turned about as often. Yainer Diaz struck two home runs, the second the equalizer in the eighth, whereupon Yordan Alvarez — the crown of three upon his brow — lashed a triple to put Houston in front and Paredes singled him home for margin. García Jr. homered, doubled, and drove in three for the Americans, and Chisholm brought them within one, but Diaz's single in the ninth restored the cushion and Hader closed the accounts for his nineteenth save. The arithmetic: Houston, at the break-even line of six-and-sixty apiece and with Espada restored to the bench as this paper related only yesterday, reclaims sole possession of the West's crown by half a game over Texas — the third different head to wear it in three mornings.

PETERS MAKES IT FOUR EVENINGS RUNNING, AND THE FIRST INNING DOES THE REST: SOUTH SIDERS 11, TEXAS NINE 7

Six runs in the opening frame off deGrom settled the general question, leaving only the particulars. Chief among them: the rookie Tristan Peters, late of the barnstorming Savannah Bananas, who doubled home two in that first-inning cannonade and later homered — his fourth consecutive game with a home run, a big evening at the plate that left him flirting with the cycle, and now one game shy of the club record of five straight as the milestone desk relates. Antonacci tripled and Vargas and the Montgomerys kept the queue moving; for Texas, Foscue and Burger and Jansen all homered in a losing cause. The Rangers thereby surrender the West's crown they had held for a single day.

EIGHT IN THE FIFTH AND NO MERCY IN MOUND CITY: BIRDS 13, REDBIRDS 1

The Baltimores fell upon St. Louis with a violence rarely seen outside the prize ring. Pete Alonso had four hits inside five innings — a three-run homer, his one-and-thirtieth, among them — and four runs batted in; Encarnacion-Strand homered and drove home three; and the fifth inning alone produced eight Baltimore runs, a parade to the plate that the St. Louis bullpen will see in its sleep. Bassitt cruised to the win, Church's homer supplied the Cardinal run, and St. Louis has now dropped four straight — their hundred-watch pair, as noted above, going hungry.

THREE AT THE FIRST KNOCK, ONE AT THE LAST: TOMAHAWK NINE 4, DODGERS 3

Atlanta greeted Glasnow, making his first start since May, with three first-inning runs — Dubón and Harris singling home a pair and Albies adding a sacrifice fly — though the big right-hander steadied thereafter and the champions drew level by the fourth on singles by Thomas, Feduccia, and Call. There matters stood until the eighth, when Ozzie Albies singled home Olson with the run that decided it; Iglesias closed for his eight-and-twentieth save. A heavyweight engagement between the National's two best records, taken by the home club — and the two nines are appointed to resume hostilities this very evening.

LINDOR SAVES IT WITH THE LEATHER, WINS IT WITH HIS LEGS: METROPOLITANS 3, CREAM CITY NINE 2, IN TEN

The shortstop of the Metropolitans compressed a season's worth of service into two innings. With the bases choked and two out in the ninth of a tied game, Francisco Lindor raced to his right and took Hamilton's soft liner off the turf with a full-length dive, saving the go-ahead runs; in the tenth he crossed with the winning tally when Morel's fielder's-choice bounder was compounded by Hamilton's answering throwing error. Lindor had earlier homered, his thirteenth, and Robert Jr. added his tenth; Yelich's ninth-inning double had briefly rescued Milwaukee. The Brewers, still owners of the game's best record at one-and-eighty wins, have nonetheless dropped two running in Flushing.

CLARK ATONES INSIDE THE SPAN OF AN INNING: DETROITS 4, RAYS 1

The young center fielder Max Clark botched a bad-hop liner in the fourth — the sort of carom that changes direction as if bribed — and was still cursing himself when he stepped in against the left-hander Seymour an inning later. His answer: a go-ahead two-run homer into the right-field seats, the second of his major-league life and his first at Comerica Park, struck with such absorbed attention that he carried his bat nearly to first base. Lee added a late insurance single, Jansen closed for his seventeenth save, and the Tampa men — beaten while the Americans were also losing — hold their lead in the East at three games and a half.

KIRBY FURIOUS, AND THE SOUND MEN KEEP CLIMBING: PUGET SOUND MEN 4, QUAKERS 1

George Kirby was all business by the Sound: seven and two-thirds innings, six hits, a single run, nine strikeouts, with Nola — seven strikeouts of his own — the hard-luck loser. Cal Raleigh, a mere evening removed from the three-homer performance this paper celebrated at length, homered again, his eighteenth, and Canzone's two-run single in the seventh furnished the cushion before Muñoz sealed his four-and-twentieth save. The Quakers have now lost two straight since their nine-game streak was buried, and Seattle has won two straight in the climb back toward the wild-card row.

GOODMAN'S FIVE-AND-THIRTIETH TRAVELS WELL, AND THE CAPITAL GOES HUNGRY: MOUNTAIN MEN 3, CAPITAL NINE 1

Hunter Goodman struck his five-and-thirtieth home run — third in the National's table, behind only Schwarber's nine-and-thirty and Olson's six-and-thirty — and Norby doubled home another in the same fourth inning. Lile answered at once with his seventeenth, but Washington found nothing further, and a fifth-inning Colorado run scored on a wild pitch stood as garnish. Romano closed for his thirteenth save; the Capital nine have now lost eight of their last ten, and the Mountain men, whatever their station in the standings, have avenged Monday's thirteen-to-three drubbing in the same yard.

AN IMMACULATE INNING WASTED, AND THE ELEPHANTS TAKE THE EVENING: ATHLETICS 4, TWINS 2

Carlos Cortes opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the second and Sacramento added two more in the sixth on White's double and Walton's single, which proved sufficient against a Minnesota attack held to four hits. The Twins' consolations were historic rather than arithmetical — Bradley's nine-pitch masterpiece in the fifth, for which see the annals desk — and their anxieties are medical, Buxton's hip having ended his evening early, for which see the infirmary ward. Jump took the win, Alvarado the save, his fourth.

CAVANAUGH EARLY, DEVERS LOUD, AND STEWART'S NINETY-NINTH ARRIVES TOO LATE: FRISCO NINE 3, REDLEGS 1

The Frisco nine did their scoring at the bookends of the evening's first half — Cavanaugh's two-run single in the opening frame and Devers's eight-and-twentieth homer in the fifth — and the pitching did the rest, Cincinnati held to four hits, the win to the young Molina and the save to Seymour. The Redleg run arrived in the ninth by way of Sal Stewart's homer, likewise his eight-and-twentieth, which carried him to nine-and-ninety runs batted in and the doorstep of the century, as the milestone desk relates. Cincinnati has dropped three straight; the Frisco men have quietly won two.

The arithmetic desk reports the American's furniture rearranged yet again. The West's crown, which sat upon two uneasy heads Monday morning and upon Texas alone on Tuesday, this morning passes to Houston by the half-game — the third head to wear it in as many editions. The final wild-card chair remains Cleveland's, its tenant at seven-and-sixty wins against six-and-sixty defeats and winner of six running, with Texas one game astern, Baltimore two and a half, and Seattle, Minnesota, and Toronto three. In the National the chairs read: the Cubs comfortable, Philadelphia at two games' cushion, and San Diego clinging to the last seat with Arizona now a single game behind and Miami four. Tonight the card again runs to the full fifteen engagements, all verified against the schedule: the rubber match in the desert goes at 3:40 by the Eastern clock, the Bucs seek a sweep of the Friars at 4:10, the Cleveland nine and the Anaheim nine resume at 4:07, the Houstons and the Americans take up the crown question again in the Bronx at 7:05, the Royals carry nine straight into Toronto at 7:07, and the champions and the Tomahawk nine stage the second act of their collision at 7:15. Until the next dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Wednesday, August 26, 2026 — Boxscore
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule — Baseball-Reference
Steve Gilbert, Walk-off Waldschmidt! Rookie's pinch-hit HR caps D-backs' comeback vs. Cubs — MLB.com
Steve Gilbert, Lovullo apologizes to Counsell, Cubs after clarification from MLB — MLB.com
Bryan Hoch, Judge takes another step toward return: 'He looks good' — MLB.com
Matthew Leach, After early exit, Buxton (right hip discomfort) to be reevaluated Wednesday — MLB.com
Matthew Leach, Bradley fires first immaculate inning on record in Twins history — MLB.com
Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, She can pitch AND hit! Kinley Rasmus sets a LLWS record — MLB.com
Theo DeRosa, Skenes puts recent struggles behind him against one of MLB's hottest lineups — MLB.com
Tim Stebbins, Vintage J-Ram steals show in Guards' 'heart-pumper' of a comeback — MLB.com
Anne Rogers, Royals take winning formula on road, hang on for 9th in a row — MLB.com
Scott Merkin, Peters homers in 4th straight game, flirts with cycle in big night at plate — MLB.com
Anthony DiComo, Lindor's best shows out on field, at plate in walk-off win — MLB.com
Jason Beck, 'Geeked' Clark makes up for miscue with 1st Comerica home run — MLB.com

THE DESK'S APPOINTMENT IS KEPT, THOUGH NOT AS PHILADELPHIA DREW IT: RALEIGH, LONG BECALMED, STRIKES THREE HOME RUNS, WHEELER IS CHASED, AND THE STREAK DIES AT NINE — MARINERS 9, PHILADELPHIAS 2

2026-08-25T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

THE DESK'S APPOINTMENT IS KEPT, THOUGH NOT AS PHILADELPHIA DREW IT: RALEIGH, LONG BECALMED, STRIKES THREE HOME RUNS, WHEELER IS CHASED, AND THE STREAK DIES AT NINE — MARINERS 9, PHILADELPHIAS 2

The catcher who began the evening batting .159 ends it the thirteenth man in Seattle's annals with a three-homer game — a two-run blast to crown a five-run first, a back-to-back salvo with Young to open the fifth, a solo shot in the seventh — while the Philadelphia nine, riders of a season-best winning streak this paper has chronicled at every length, are sent to bed with two runs and a battered ace

The reader will recall that yesterday's desk note directed all eyes to Seattle at 9:40 Eastern, where Wheeler and his ten victories were to oppose Gilbert, and the Philadelphia nine were to unpack a nine-game winning streak from their westward luggage. The appointment was kept to the minute; the script was burned in the first inning. Philadelphia scratched a run from Bohm's ground-out, whereupon the home nine answered with five — Julio Rodríguez clearing the fence with two aboard for his twentieth, and Cal Raleigh, the switch-hitting catcher whose season has been one long penance at .159, capping the frame with a two-run blast. It was the first sentence of the finest chapter of his life.

For Raleigh opened the fifth with another homer, Cole Young followed him over the wall on the very next argument — the back-to-back salvo that chased Wheeler from the premises — and in the seventh he struck a third, a solo shot off the reliever Shugart, all three driven to the right-field quarter. No man had ever seen him do it: "I had never done that before — at any level. So, hard to fathom, and it was a fun night," the author testified, having gone three-for-three with a walk and lifted his average from .159 to .167. The researchers certify him the thirteenth Mariner to strike three home runs in a game — the last being his clubmate Canzone only last September — and the only other Seattle catcher ever to do it is one Dan Wilson, who now writes the lineup card on which Raleigh's name appears. The manager's fraternity, one supposes, has its own ways of passing down a trade secret.

The wreckage on the other side was considerable: Wheeler, sovereign of ten victories against four defeats at the evening's start, was relieved of nine hits, eight runs, and four home runs inside four innings, and departs at ten-and-five; Realmuto's ninth homer was the visitors' lone late ornament. Logan Gilbert took the decision, his eleventh, on five workmanlike innings. Thus the finest streak of Philadelphia's season perishes at nine — the Philadelphias remain three and a half astern of Atlanta and keep the National's second wild-card chair, so the mourning need not be prolonged — while the Emerald City nine, who gave their faithful two walk-off deliverances Friday and Saturday and then absorbed Chicago's nineteen-run sermon Sunday, have now taken three of four in that yard and stand three games from the American's final chair. The Sound, it appears, declines to be dull.

News Around the League

THE FRONT-OFFICE DESK: HOUSTON AND ITS GENERAL MANAGER PART COMPANY IN THE THICK OF A PENNANT RACE, AND ESPADA RETURNS TO HIS POST

The Houston club and its general manager Dana Brown have parted ways, the club announcing Monday what the wires describe as a mutual conclusion to a tenure begun in January of 2023 — two division titles to its credit, a contract expiring with the season, and a club that has lost six of its last eight engagements. The portfolio passes in commission to the assistant general managers Cook, Dickey, and Huff and to the senior adviser Jeff Bagwell, with the owner Crane overseeing the baseball operations himself through the transition — an arrangement the Herald observes without endorsement, owners' oversight of baseball matters having a mixed record in the annals. The timing is remarkable: the Houstons wake this morning half a game astern of the Lone Star nine in the West, their crown mislaid in idleness. There is gentler news from the same clubhouse — the manager Joe Espada, called away by a family emergency, rejoins his men for this evening's opener in the Bronx, which the schedule confirms for five minutes past seven, Eastern.

THE LABOR QUESTION: MANFRED PLEDGES THAT BASEBALL MEANS TO PLAY IN '27, AND THE HERALD TAKES THE PLEDGE UNDER ADVISEMENT

From the same Williamsport broadcast that appointed next year's Little League Classic — as this paper related Monday — the Commissioner Manfred addressed the graver matter: the collective bargain between the clubs and the players' union expires at one minute before midnight on the first of December, and the question of the 2027 season hangs upon its renewal. "We want to make a deal. We want to play baseball next year. We're planning on playing baseball next year," the Commissioner declared, reporting weekly conferences between the parties. The Herald prints the pledge faithfully and notes what follows it: the owners' chief object in the negotiation is a salary cap, the union's answer that the economic order wants no such overhaul — their asks running instead to a raised minimum wage, a loosened luxury-tax collar, and a fattened bonus pool for the young and underpaid — and the wires' sober assessment that, failing a bargain by the deadline, the likeliest course is a lockout of the players by the owners, shutting the game's business entire. On the merits the Herald's sympathies are of record and lie with the workingmen; as for the owners' capacity to pay, the reader need only consult the counting-house item below, where a franchise has just changed hands for a sum with a b in it.

THE COUNTING-HOUSE DESK: SAN DIEGO'S NEW PROPRIETORS ARRIVE WITH A SONG, TWO JERSEYS, AND THREE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED MILLIONS

The Padres formally presented their new proprietors Monday at Petco Park: Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones, husband and wife, who purchased the franchise at a valuation of $3.9 billion — the grandest price ever fetched by a baseball club — and were approved without dissent by the other nine-and-twenty owners a week past. The hour-long introduction opened with a song of Ms. Jones' own composition and closed with the couple in customized jerseys, and between came the substance: the purchase styled a "family investment," a pledge to spend "ambitiously" yet "judiciously," and repeated homage to the late Peter Seidler, whose open-handed stewardship the faithful of San Diego remember warmly. "We wanna win," Mr. Feliciano summarized. The Herald extends its welcome, notes that forty thousand four hundred forty-seven attended that very evening's twelve-inning engagement — the card below has its sorrows — and files the sale price where it belongs: in the ledger consulted whenever an owner next pleads poverty.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: FAIRBANKS' ARM SOUNDS ITS ALARM AGAIN, TOGLIA AND EMERSON GO UNDER THE KNIFE, AND PHOENIX HOPES FOR MARTE WITHIN THE WEEK

The gravest entry issues from Miami, where the closer Pete Fairbanks — seven seasons a Ray, now the Marlins' keeper of eighteen saves — felt nerve irritation and numbness through his throwing arm in the ninth inning Monday, walked the only man he faced, and departed; the walk became the deciding run, as the card below relates. The complaint is an old acquaintance, having cost him three weeks after a like episode in April — "Both of them weren't good," the patient allowed — and he submits to examinations this day.

Two seasons end upon the operating table. In Cincinnati, Michael Toglia — whose wounded shoulder this paper's ward first recorded Saturday — has his torn labrum repaired Tuesday, the price of a diving catch made in Arizona; the manager Francona reports the man had sworn he could play, which is admirable and immaterial. And in Seattle, the rookie shortstop Colt Emerson, one-and-twenty years of age and owner of an eight-year fortune signed before he had played a major-league game, will have a wrist tendon set right Wednesday, his trying freshman season closed at .190; the club expects him whole by spring, and his clubmate Bryan Woo, pronounced fit, takes his scheduled turn Wednesday. In Phoenix, at last, a hopeful line: the Diamondbacks believe Ketel Marte — whose saga this paper has chronicled past all appetite — may rejoin the lineup within the week.

THE MILESTONE DESK: STEWART STANDS TWO SHORT OF A HUNDRED, THE CARDINAL PAIR LURK AT SIX-AND-NINETY, AND ALVAREZ'S CROWN OF THREE SURVIVES AN IDLE MONDAY

The freshman Sal Stewart of Cincinnati was held without a tally in Monday's whitewash by the Bay, and so stands where he stood: eight-and-ninety runs driven home, master of all baseball's table, two short of the hundred mark and still pursuing the distinction — unclaimed by any rookie since 1950 — of leading the major leagues outright. His shadow has two heads and wears Cardinal red: Burleson and Walker, six-and-ninety apiece, idle Monday and losing no ground. In the American the arithmetic likewise kept the Sabbath: Yordan Alvarez, his club unengaged, holds his crown of three untouched — .320, six-and-thirty homers, ninety runs driven in, first in every column — though the Herald notes Caminero of Tampa Bay one homer astern, and observes that a Triple Crown defended from a deck chair is defended all the same.

The Rest of the Card

TWO IN THE NINTH, TAKEN FROM A WOUNDED HAND: RED SOX 4, MIAMI NINE 2, AND THE COUNT RUNS TO FOUR STRAIGHT

For eight innings Miami had the better of the argument's texture — Alcantara dealing seven innings of one-run ball — and none of its arithmetic: Abreu scored the equalizer on a wild pitch in the eighth, and in the ninth the stricken Fairbanks walked Gasper and departed with the arm trouble the infirmary ward records, whereupon Seigler tripled home the go-ahead run and Sogard singled in another. Chapman barred the door for his thirtieth save. Four straight now for the New Englanders, seven of ten, their wild-card cushion ample; the walk Fairbanks issued became his defeat, and the Miami nine slip to four astern of the National's final chair.

THE MACHINE DOES NOT REQUIRE DRAMA: GULF COAST CLUB 4, TIGERS 1, AND RASMUSSEN MAKES IT SEVEN RUNNING

Drew Rasmussen collected his seventh consecutive victory by the simplest of recipes — six innings, three hits, one run — while Aranda supplied a sixteenth homer and two runs driven in, Simpson dropped a bunt for a run with the insolence of a man batting .312, and Baker sealed his eight-and-thirtieth save. The league leaders thus hold their three-and-a-half-game advantage over the Bronx; the Tigers, whose evening amounted to five hits and Callahan's sacrifice fly, have now dropped six running — one victory in their last ten — and the Motor City's September reading grows grim.

THE SHORTSTOP RETURNS AND THE OFFENSE REMEMBERS ITSELF: POTOMAC NINE 13, MILE HIGH NINE 3

Restored to the lineup, CJ Abrams scored twice, stole twice, and presided over a thirteen-run festival — Daylen Lile the chief celebrant with three hits, a sixteenth homer, and five runs driven in, Vivas adding three hits of his own — while Cade Cavalli struck out seven across six innings for his twelfth victory. "Now we go," runs the clubhouse verdict on the wires. For Colorado, Tovar's two hits and a homer were the ornament on a seventh consecutive defeat; the Mile High nine departed the Capital outscored beyond argument.

SEAGER CONDUCTS, BURGER AND LANGFORD SUPPLY THE BRASS, AND THE WEST'S CROWN FINDS A SINGLE HEAD: LONE STAR NINE 11, CHICAGOS 2

Texas struck early, often, and then again: Seager three hits and three runs driven in with a pair of doubles, Burger a two-and-twentieth homer among his two hits, Langford a fifteenth to close the accounts, fourteen hits in the whole demonstration behind Rocker's eight strikeouts. The visiting defense contributed its own theater — Nimmo at full extension above the right-field fence to rob Benintendi outright — and the home dugout its melancholy: Pederson, denied upon a challenge to the automated ball-strike arbiter, banged his bat and was invited to leave. Peters' two-run homer, the tenth of his year, was all the Chicagos could answer; and with Houston idle, the Lone Star nine take sole possession of the West's chair at six-and-sixty wins against the like number of defeats — a crown at the break-even line, but a crown unshared.

A HOMER FOR THE VISITING PEWS: GUARDIANS 4, SERAPHS 2, AND THE STREAK REACHES FIVE

Austin Hedges, with his parents in attendance, struck a two-run homer — his fifth — that stood as the difference, Kwan collected two hits, and Messick pitched to his tenth victory before Smith closed his four-and-thirtieth save. A fifth consecutive victory for Cleveland, seven of ten by the ledger, and the consequence is recorded in this evening's desk note: the American's final wild-card chair, so long a boarding-house, now holds a single tenant. The Seraphs' consolations were two hits off the bench from Lowe and the certainty of a warm evening in Anaheim.

GAUSMAN DEALS SEVEN SPOTLESS AND THE DESERT GOES HUNGRY: CUBS 7, DIAMONDBACKS 0

Kevin Gausman threw seven scoreless innings on three hits, and his employers, fresh from Sunday's nineteen-run sermon by the Sound, kept the pulpit: Conforto three hits with a twelfth homer, Carson Kelly an eighth, the rookie Pedro Ramírez a triple among his two hits, and a three-run sixth followed by two more in the seventh to end the suspense. The whitewash is Chicago's second consecutive victory; for Arizona it is a graver matter, the Diamondbacks falling two games astern of San Diego in the pursuit of the National's final chair — with, as the infirmary ward relates, hope of Marte's return the week's best medicine.

BUXTON SCORES FROM EVERYWHERE AND THE NINTH-INNING RALLY ARRIVES TOO LATE: NORTH STARS 9, WHITE ELEPHANTS 6

Buxton crossed the plate four times upon three hits, the rookie Culpepper collected four hits, Bell drove home three, and Zebby Matthews carried a commanding evening through seven innings; when the White Elephants awoke for four runs in the ninth — McNeil, Gelof, and Butler doubling in file — the awakening was academic, and Morris recorded the final out for the save. Sixteen hits for the North Stars, who remain two from the American's final chair; for the Athletics, a twelve-hit evening wasted, and a reminder that arithmetic performed in the ninth earns no interest.

TWELVE INNINGS, FOUR HOURS AND TEN MINUTES, AND ONE RUN TO SHOW THE NEW PROPRIETORS: CORSAIRS 3, PADRES 2

On the very evening San Diego's new owners took their bows — the counting-house desk has the ceremony — forty thousand four hundred forty-seven watched the home nine spend twelve innings discovering that the visitors would not oblige. Valdez's fifteenth homer and Flores Jr.'s double built Pittsburgh's lead; a balk and Cronenworth's eighth-inning single leveled it; and in the twelfth Nick Gonzales — he of the .308 average, second in the National's batting table — singled home Triolo for the verdict. Yates profited, Ramírez sealed his second save, and the Padres' grip on the National's third chair holds at two games over Arizona, the evening's four hours and ten minutes notwithstanding.

FIVE RUNS IN TWO INNINGS OFF THE FOURTEEN-GAME WINNER, AND THE SHORN GIANTS SHUT OUT THE REDS: JINTS 5, CINCINNATI 0

The San Franciscans took the field Monday having consigned four men to the infirmary in a single day's transactions — Adames' elbow, Bericoto's knee, Brubaker's ribs, and Eldridge away on bereavement — recalled five from Sacramento to fill the pews, and then played their finest game in a fortnight: five runs inside two innings off Chase Burns, owner of fourteen victories against but two defeats at the evening's start, crowned by Devers' three-run homer, his seven-and-twentieth. Six pitchers passed the whitewash hand to hand, Foley taking the decision. Burns falls to fourteen-and-three; the Reds, blanked on five hits and further bereaved of Toglia — see the ward — find their September arithmetic unimproved.

The arithmetic desk reports a morning of consequence at both ends of the American's ledger. The final wild-card chair, which has been let by the room and by the half-week all month, this morning holds one tenant alone: Cleveland, winners of five running, at six-and-sixty wins against six-and-sixty defeats — and thus, for the first time in this desk's recent chronicle, the chair's occupant sits no lower than the break-even line. The eviction was accomplished upward, Texas departing the wild-card row entirely to take sole possession of the West's crown at the identical break-even figure, with Houston half a game astern in both accountings and this morning without a general manager besides, as the front-office desk relates. Behind Cleveland: Houston at half a game, Minnesota and Toronto two, Baltimore two and a half, Seattle three. In the National the chairs hold — the Cubs, Philadelphia with its streak freshly buried at nine, and San Diego, with Arizona two astern and Miami four. The card this evening runs to the full fifteen engagements, all verified against the schedule: the Brewers send Harrison and his ten victories to Flushing at 7:10; the champions and the Atlantas resume their collision at 7:15, Glasnow opposing Elder; Espada resumes his post as the Houstons open in the Bronx at 7:05; and by the Pacific, Skenes and his hundred-and-seventy-one strikeouts visit San Diego at 9:40. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Tuesday, August 25, 2026 — Boxscore
Cal Raleigh hits career-high 3 HRs as Mariners top Phillies — ESPN
Good company: Raleigh joins skipper as only Mariners catchers with 3-HR game — MLB.com
Dana Brown out as GM of Astros after recent skid — ESPN
GM Dana Brown, Astros mutually agree to part ways — MLB.com
Espada back with Astros after family emergency, will manage opener in Bronx — MLB.com
Rob Manfred, amid MLB labor talks, says 'we want to play' in '27 — ESPN
Alden Gonzalez, Owners thrilled with 'family investment' of San Diego Padres — ESPN
Pete Fairbanks leaves Marlins' loss with nerve irritation — ESPN
Reds' Michael Toglia to have season-ending shoulder surgery — ESPN
Season over for Mariners' Emerson; Woo to make next start — ESPN
D-backs hoping Marte returns to lineup next week — ESPN
'Now we go': With Abrams back in the lineup, Nats' bats come alive — MLB.com
Rasmussen's 7th straight victory showcases Rays' many ways to win — MLB.com
Nimmo says no no! Rangers' RF goes full extension on incredible HR robbery — MLB.com
Pederson ejected after ABS challenge denied, banging bat in Rangers' dugout — MLB.com
Hi Mom! Hedges' HR in front of parents caps memorable night — MLB.com
Gausman spins scoreless gem as Cubs thump D-backs — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule — Baseball-Reference

TWO OUT IN THE NINTH, FOUR RUNS IN ARREARS — AND SIX STILL TO COME: SCHWARBER'S NINE-AND-THIRTIETH SETTLES IT, PHILLIES 6, CARDINALS 4, AND THE STREAK IS NINE

2026-08-24T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

TWO OUT IN THE NINTH, FOUR RUNS IN ARREARS — AND SIX STILL TO COME: SCHWARBER'S NINE-AND-THIRTIETH SETTLES IT, PHILLIES 6, CARDINALS 4, AND THE STREAK IS NINE

Down to their final out at Citizens Bank Park, the Philadelphians load the bases against O'Brien, sovereign of the National's saves table, whereupon Sosa's two-strike double clears them, De La Cruz knots the score, and Schwarber — in his own words reduced to shocked disbelief — launches the two-run blast that makes the winning streak nine and the walk-off the second of the series

Through eight innings Sunday evening at Citizens Bank Park the game belonged wholly to St. Louis, and the ledger said so without ornament: four runs to none, the tallies gathered patiently — Burleson driving home a run apiece in the first and the fourth, Fermín lifting his sixth homer over the left-center barrier in the fifth, Wetherholt cashing another in the seventh. To guard the treasure the Redbirds summoned O'Brien, keeper of three-and-thirty saves and the National League's leader in that commerce, and when he had secured two outs the arithmetic gave Philadelphia scarcely a prayer.

What followed will be retold in that city for some seasons. The bases filled. Edmundo Sosa, down to his final strike, doubled to clear them — Harper, Realmuto, and Crawford racing home in single file — and the deficit shrank to one. Bryan De La Cruz singled, the inning's fourth two-strike hit, and the game stood level at four. Then Kyle Schwarber, whose nine-and-thirty home runs already led the National League, sent the next argument soaring into the Philadelphia night and stood a moment at the plate in what he later called "shocked disbelief," equal to nothing but a tossed helmet, a flung bat, and a slow lap into the arms of the assembled. Six runs in the ninth, all with two out; a 6-4 verdict; a winning streak now nine games long. "We're the Phillies; I can't say I'm really surprised," offered Sosa afterward, and the standings second the motion: nine victories in their last ten leave the Brotherly Love nine three games astern of Atlanta in the East and firmly seated in the wild-card row. It is, the record shows, the second time in three evenings St. Louis has been beaten in Philadelphia at the game's final turn — Friday by Bohm's triple in the tenth, as this paper related Saturday — and the poor Redbirds must now depart while the victors fly west, where a nine-game expedition through Seattle, Anaheim, and Phoenix opens this very night.

News Around the League

THE UNICORN PAWS AT THE GATE: OHTANI THROWS THIRTY PITCHES AT LIVING BATSMEN, AND THE CLUB APPOINTS HIS RETURN FOR THE NEXT HOMESTAND

Seven weeks removed from his last turn upon the mound, Shohei Ohtani faced live hitters at Chavez Ravine before Saturday's engagement — thirty pitches across six simulated plate appearances, his opposite number the convalescing catcher Will Smith — and the Los Angeles management now declares him likely to start during the club's next homestand. The great man last pitched July the third, having compiled eight victories against two defeats and an earned-run figure of 1.79 across fourteen starts before a balky left knee intervened. "If it were up to Shohei," testified the manager Roberts, "he'd be in a game in a few days." The Herald notes that the Angelenos, winners of six running, have scarcely missed a beat in his mound absence — a fact that ought to terrify the rest of the National League rather than comfort it.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: WEATHERS JOINS THE YANKEE SICK-LIST, JUDGE TAKES UP THE TEE, ANTHONY'S RETURN IS APPOINTED, AND PHOENIX LOSES SOROKA

The Yankee infirmary, already crowded, admits another: Ryan Weathers went to the fifteen-day list Sunday with a low-grade flexor strain of the left forearm, though the club professes optimism he pitches again this season. Elsewhere in that ward, Judge has taken to striking a ball from a tee — modest commerce, but commerce — while Fried threw a bullpen of six-and-twenty pitches Saturday and may return when first eligible; Stanton, both calves now in conspiracy against him, may be finished for the year, as this paper reported yesterday.

In Boston the news runs brighter: the rookie Roman Anthony transfers his rehabilitation to Worcester on Tuesday and could rejoin the Boston club during their engagement in New York at the week's end. In Phoenix, darker: the Diamondbacks, whose trying week began with the Marte affair this paper has chronicled, dispatched Michael Soroka to the fifteen-day list with inflammation of the right shoulder, a day after he labored for his command. And in the champions' camp, Glasnow is appointed to come off the list and start Tuesday at Atlanta — where, the schedule confirms, the Dodgers and Braves open their engagement tomorrow evening.

THE MONUMENT DESK: EIGHT HUNDRED POUNDS OF BRONZE FOR THE MAN FROM MAPLE RIDGE, AND TEARS AT TWENTIETH AND BLAKE

Sunday morning outside Coors Field, to the unlikely accompaniment of "Crazy Train," a purple shroud came away and Larry Walker beheld himself fifteen feet tall and eight hundred pounds of bronze, bat hoisted to the sky — the first Hall of Famer of the Colorado franchise, now standing sentry at the main gate at Twentieth and Blake. The man from Maple Ridge, British Columbia, nine-and-fifty years of age, carried his speech gracefully until he reached his father, Larry the elder, seated near at hand, whereupon the tears arrived. In attendance: Ferguson Jenkins, the only other Canadian enshrined at Cooperstown; Todd Helton, the Rockies' other Hall man; and Bob Gebhard, the original general manager who brought Walker to Colorado. The honoree's own verdict on his likeness: "Guess that's a way to slow me down."

THE ALMANAC DESK: WILLIAMSPORT ENGAGES THE JAYS AND THE CUBS FOR THE TENTH CLASSIC, ANNO 2027

The ink was scarcely dry on the ninth Little League Classic — of which more below, the Braves having taken it — when the Commissioner Manfred, joining Sunday night's broadcast from Williamsport, announced the tenth: the Toronto Blue Jays and the Chicago Cubs shall meet at that shrine on Thursday, the nineteenth of August, 2027. The fixture, hosted as ever in connection with the Little League World Series, will mark the annual showcase's tenth year, and Major Leaguers from both nines will spend the day among the twelve-year-olds before the evening's business. The Herald, which watched this year's edition work its particular magic upon grown professionals, pronounces the institution in rude health.

THE MILESTONE DESK: STEWART AT EIGHT-AND-NINETY, TWO CARDINALS LEVEL AT SIX-AND-NINETY, AND THE CROWN OF THREE ENDURES

The freshman Sal Stewart of Cincinnati, undeterred by his club's Sunday defeat in the desert, drove home another run and stands now at eight-and-ninety on the season — still the master of all baseball's runs-batted-in table, still chasing the distinction, unclaimed by any rookie since 1950, of leading the major leagues outright. His pursuers have consolidated: Burleson's pair in the Philadelphia calamity draws him level with his clubmate Walker at six-and-ninety apiece, two St. Louis men sharing second place two tallies astern. In the American, meanwhile, Yordan Alvarez holds his crown of three yet again — a .320 average, six-and-thirty homers, ninety runs driven in, first in all three columns — even as his Houston nine contrive new ways to squander a Sunday, as the card below relates.

The Rest of the Card

THE WOUND IS STANCHED AS ADVERTISED: TAMPA MEN 3, BIRDS 1, WITH MARTINEZ'S THIRTEENTH AND BAKER'S SEVEN-AND-THIRTIETH

The matchup this paper flagged yesterday — Martinez against Baz, a three-game skid to be arrested — resolved precisely as Tampa Bay drew it up: a three-run sixth off singles from Caminero and Simpson, and Baker closing for his seven-and-thirtieth save, most in the American. Martinez's thirteenth victory keeps the Rays three games clear of the Bronx at the head of the East. Baltimore managed two hits all afternoon, both by Cowser, whose ninth-inning homer spared the Birds a whitewash; Baz, game but unlucky, falls to four-and-fourteen.

TWO, THEN THREE, THEN TWO MORE, AND THE PURSUIT IS MAINTAINED: HIGHLANDERS 8, MAPLE LEAF NINE 3

New York kept pace with the leaders by installments — two runs in the second, three in the sixth, two in the seventh, and Grisham's eighteenth homer for punctuation in the eighth — while eleven hits fell about the Toronto defense. Blackburn took the decision to five-and-two; Soriano bore the loss. Kirk's run-scoring single was the visitors' consolation, and the Highlanders remain three astern of Tampa Bay with a homestand against Houston beginning tomorrow.

A MAN MAY CLIMB A WALL AND STILL LOSE THE DAY: GULF STREAM NINE 6, WASHINGTONS 2

The Capital club's center fielder Jacob Young performed the afternoon's great larceny at loanDepot park, scaling the left-center barrier in two distinct climbs — in the manner of a human fly — to rob Heriberto Hernández of a drive struck at a hundred and five miles to the hour, and turning the theft into a double play besides. It availed Washington nothing: Miami fed steadily all evening, Mack and Crews doubling in runs, and the Marlins — one-and-forty victories now against but five-and-twenty defeats in their own yard — sent the Washingtons home from a road expedition concluded at one victory against eight defeats.

SIX RUNS DOWN, THEN SIX IN A SINGLE FRAME: MACKMEN 7, HOUSTON NINE 6, AND THE WEST'S CROWN SITS ON TWO UNEASY HEADS

Houston built a fortress by the fourth — Altuve's fourteenth homer, Paredes' seventeenth, six runs to none — and the Athletics burned it down in the fifth: Serven's three-run blast, Butler's double, Tommy White's two-run single, six tallies in the frame. Max Muncy's seventh homer in the seventh supplied the difference, and the Mackmen, last in the West, had beaten its leaders two days running. The consequence at the summit is remarkable: Houston and Texas now share the division's chair at five-and-sixty wins against six-and-sixty defeats — a crown worn jointly, and below the break-even line at that.

SALVY STEALS A BASE, THE CROWD STEALS A LOOK AT THE CALENDAR, AND THE STREAK REACHES EIGHT: ROYALS 11, MOTOR CITY NINE 7

The morning's baserunning conference at Kauffman Stadium was conducted, by all accounts uproariously, by Salvador Perez himself — and in the second inning the six-and-thirty-year-old backstop made good on his own sermon, swiping second base for the first time since July of 2021 and the first time in his home yard since 2017. "That feels even better than a home run," he testified. Thus inspirited, Kansas City piled five runs in the second behind Loftin's three-run homer and four more in the fifth, Rave clearing the fence, and survived Detroit's four-run reply — McGonigle's fourteenth among it — for an eighth consecutive victory, nine of their last ten. The Detroits have dropped five running.

PETERS AGAIN SUPPLIES THE LAST WORD: PALE HOSE 2, FLUSHING NINE 1, AND SENGA'S LUCKLESS LEDGER READS NOUGHT-AND-NINE

For the second time in three evenings the South Side settled its business at the final swing: Benintendi's double gave Chicago the lead in the eighth, Jared Young's single restored the level in the ninth, and Tristan Peters promptly unrestored it with his ninth homer, a walk-off blast to center. The cruelest line in the box belongs to Senga, who pitched well enough to win most evenings and fell instead to nought-and-nine on the season — a record that ought to be tried before a fairer court.

SIX SPOTLESS INNINGS FROM QUANTRILL, AND THE HOMESTAND CLOSES IN CREDIT: ARLINGTON MEN 5, HALOS 3

Cal Quantrill dealt six scoreless innings on six hits and six strikeouts, Texas banked three runs in the second and two in the fifth, and Latz weathered Neto's twenty-second homer in the late going for his six-and-twentieth save. Kikuchi absorbed the defeat. The Arlington men thus conclude their homestand a game to the good and share the West's summit with Houston — see above for the full accounting of that curious diarchy.

A SWEEP AT ALTITUDE, A FIFTEENTH VICTORY, AND A BEE WITH NO RESPECT FOR THE PROCEEDINGS: LAKE ERIE MEN 7, COLORADANS 2

Cleveland struck five runs inside two innings, Griffin ran his astonishing ledger to fifteen victories against four defeats, and the Guardians completed the sweep for a fourth consecutive win — cementing their joint tenancy of the American's last wild-card chair, of which the desk below has more. The afternoon's strangest wound was inflicted in the sixth, when the Colorado reliever Herget was stung upon the pitching arm by a bee in the very act of his duties ("I'm not a bee expert or whatever," he confessed). The Coloradans have now lost six running, and nine consecutively at their mountain home — a home skid matched in the franchise's annals only by its inaugural nine of 1993.

FENWAY CONTINUES ITS RESTORATIVE WORK: BOSTONS 5, ORANGE AND BLACK 4, AND THE COUNT AT HOME REACHES THREE RUNNING

A three-run fourth — Wong doubling upon a challenged and overturned call, Gasper and Rafaela cashing in behind him — carried Boston past an early San Francisco lead, and though the visitors crept within one in the seventh on a pair of Boston throwing miscues, Chapman barred the door for his nine-and-twentieth save. Three straight now for the Fenway men, seven of their last ten, and the wild-card cushion holds at a comfortable six and a half games.

NINETEEN RUNS, TWO GRAND SLAMS, AND A LONG EVENING BY THE SOUND: CUBS 19, SEATTLE NINE 2

Arozarena opened Sunday's proceedings precisely as he had opened and closed Saturday's — with a homer, his twentieth, the second consecutive evening he greeted the Chicago starter thus — and thereafter the visitors declined all further courtesy. Conforto answered over the fence, Happ delivered a grand slam in the third, Crow-Armstrong struck his three-and-thirtieth in a nine-run eighth, and the rookie Pedro Ramírez added a second slam of his own before contributing again in a three-run ninth: nineteen runs on seventeen hits, and a seventeen-run verdict that washed away three consecutive defeats at a stroke. Civale collected the win; the Seattle nine will be forgiven for burning the scorecards.

TATIS AND MERRILL SUPPLY THE THUNDER, BUEHLER THE QUIET: FRIARS 8, TWIN CITIES NINE 1

San Diego's evening proceeded from comfort to rout: Tatis hammered his seventeenth homer, Merrill his one-and-twentieth, and a four-run sixth put the matter beyond litigation while Buehler took the decision to eight-and-six. A third consecutive victory keeps the Friars in possession of the National's final wild-card chair, two games clear of Arizona's pursuit with Miami four astern.

TWO HITS ARE NOT ENOUGH TO EAT: ANGELENOS 4, BUCCANEERS 0, AND THE SWEEP IS SEALED

Snell and the Los Angeles relief corps rationed Pittsburgh to two hits the whole afternoon, Ohtani scored the game's first run before some spectators had found their seats, and run-scoring singles by Alek Thomas and Feduccia made the rest academic. A sixth consecutive victory completes the sweep of the Buccaneers and keeps the champions — eighty wins now against one-and-fifty defeats — a single game astern of Milwaukee for the best record in all baseball, with the collision at Atlanta opening tomorrow.

FOUR IN THE SEVENTH REDEEM A SORROWFUL SUNDAY: DESERT NINE 5, QUEEN CITY NINE 3

Cincinnati banked three runs in the third and guarded them into the seventh, whereupon Arizona's patience matured all at once: Ildemaro Vargas tripled two runners home, Carroll lifted the go-ahead sacrifice fly, and four runs crossed in the frame. The victory fell to Loáisiga and the seal to Ginkel, a tonic on the very day the club dispatched Soroka to the infirmary — the ward above has the particulars. The Desert nine remain two games back of San Diego in the wild-card hunt; the Reds' September arithmetic grows grim.

THE TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS DEMANDED A HOMER, AND HARRIS OBLIGED IN THE NINTH: ATLANTAS 4, SUDS MEN 2, AT WILLIAMSPORT

At historic Bowman Field, before an audience whose median age required a bedtime, the ninth Little League Classic went to Atlanta. Michael Harris II, hectored good-naturedly before every at-bat by a delegation of twelve-year-olds demanding a home run ("I let them down," he confessed of the earlier attempts, "so eventually I had to do it"), delivered their commission in the ninth — his one-and-twentieth, off the Milwaukee reliever Ashby — to fatten a lead built on Dubón's ground-rule double and Sean Murphy's single. Mahle took the win and Iglesias the save; Harris had earlier homered in nobody's imagination but the children's, which is rather the point of the fixture. The Suds men, though beaten, retain baseball's best record at one-and-eighty wins, six clear of the Cubs in the Central.

Let the record show a small miracle of stillness: the American's final wild-card chair, whose occupancy this desk has recorded in a different arrangement on seven consecutive mornings, this morning kept its tenants. Texas and Cleveland remain in joint possession, now at five-and-sixty wins apiece, with Toronto a game and a half astern, Minnesota and Baltimore two, and Seattle three — though the reader is cautioned that both incumbents sit below the break-even line, and that Houston shares the West's crown with Texas at the identical figure, a diarchy of the barely solvent unusual even by that division's standards. In the National the seating likewise holds: the Cubs, Philadelphia, and San Diego in the three chairs, Arizona two back of the Friars. The card this evening runs to ten engagements, all verified against the schedule: the Phillies carry their nine-game streak and their westward luggage into Seattle at 9:40 Eastern, Wheeler and his ten victories opposing Gilbert; the Rays visit Detroit; the Cubs, fresh from their nineteen-run sermon, open at Phoenix; and the idle Brewers, Dodgers, and Braves sharpen their knives for tomorrow's grander collisions. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Monday, August 24, 2026 — Boxscore
Mark Feinsand, Phils can't lose! Down 4 with 2 outs in 9th, unbelievable rally ends in 9th straight W — MLB.com
Sonja Chen, Ohtani likely to return to mound for start during next homestand — MLB.com
Injuries: Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Woodruff, Soto, Abrams — MLB.com
Steve Gilbert, D-backs lose Soroka to IL, then get key win to maintain Wild Card hopes — MLB.com
Patrick Saunders, Walker statue unveiled at Coors Field: 'Guess that's a way to slow me down' — MLB.com
Blue Jays, Cubs set to face off in 2027 Little League Classic — MLB.com
Courtney Hollmon, Little Leaguers begged for a HR from Harris, and he delivered at the perfect time — MLB.com
Anne Rogers, Salvy's 1st steal since 2021 sparks Royals to 8th straight win — MLB.com
Perla Paredes, Was that Spider-Man scaling the wall for 'unbelievable' catch and DP? — MLB.com
Patrick Saunders, Un-BEE-lievable! Rockies pitcher creates buzz after being stung on mound — MLB.com
Rangers end successful homestand on high note behind Quantrill's scoreless outing — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference

AROZARENA GIVETH, AND AROZARENA TAKETH AWAY: A LEADOFF BLAST, A HOMER STOLEN AT THE WALL, AND THE LAST WORD IN THE NINTH, AS THE MARINERS OF THE SOUND SINK THE BRUINS, 5 TO 4

2026-08-23T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

AROZARENA GIVETH, AND AROZARENA TAKETH AWAY: A LEADOFF BLAST, A HOMER STOLEN AT THE WALL, AND THE LAST WORD IN THE NINTH, AS THE MARINERS OF THE SOUND SINK THE BRUINS, 5 TO 4

On the evening appointed for the debutant Anderson, it is the veteran left fielder who writes the game's first sentence, annotates its middle innings with a glove above the fence, and supplies its closing line with a two-run blast — becoming but the seventh man in the recorded annals to open and to end the same game with home runs

Some games are shared among nine men, and some are simply signed. Saturday evening in Seattle bore one signature in three places: at the top, where Randy Arozarena greeted the Cubs' starter Peterson with a leadoff homer to the center-field expanse, a drive of four hundred sixteen feet by the instruments' accounting; in the margin of the third, where the same man went to the wall in left, climbed at the warning track, and drew back over the fence a ball the Cubs' Amaya had every reason to believe was bound for the seats; and at the bottom, where, in the ninth with the tying run aboard, Arozarena struck a second homer to the self-same quarter of center field and ended the affair, five runs to four. The researchers report that only six men before him — Vic Power and Darin Erstad among the ancients, Pete Crow-Armstrong among the moderns — had ever struck a leadoff homer and a walk-off homer in the one game. 'I think it's my biggest game,' the author allowed afterward, 'I didn't expect to come into the game and hit two home runs and rob one.'

The occasion, as this paper has been reporting since Thursday, had been billed for another man entirely: Kade Anderson, the left-hander of two-and-twenty years whom the Pipeline scribes rank the finest pitching pupil in the minors, making his first bow in the majors. The debut was honorable work — five and two-thirds innings on but seventy-two pitches, five hits, two walks, five strikeouts, the first of them Bregman fanned upon a changeup in the opening frame — until the sixth exacted the debutant's tuition: Bregman and Busch struck home runs upon his final two pitches, and Taylor's ground-rule double off the relief made it four runs to two. 'It was just a blast out there,' the young man said, 'and the way the game finished was truly really cool.'

The finish was indeed the thing. In the ninth, against the reliever Webb, Leo Rivas — the same Rivas whose tenth-inning single ended Friday's affair, as this paper related only yesterday — lined a single to right to bring Seattle within one, took his lead from first, and presently crossed with the tying run ahead of Arozarena's thunderbolt: the second consecutive night the Seattle faithful have gone home upon a walk-off verdict. The reliever Rucker was vaulted to the victory, Webb charged with the wreck. The mariners of the Sound now stand two games from the American's final wild-card chair; the Bruins have dropped three running, and their grip on the National's first chair — with Philadelphia's streak at eight, as the card below attests — grows daily less comfortable.

News Around the League

THE MARTE AFFAIR, CONTINUED: A PHOTOGRAPH FROM A CASINO, AND A MANAGER WHO DECLINES TO MAKE A FEDERAL CASE OF IT

The strangest story of the week, chronicled in these columns since Tuesday, produced its latest chapter from an unexpected quarter: the wires report that Ketel Marte, presently on the injured list and taking his treatments at Salt River Fields, was photographed Friday evening at a Scottsdale casino while his clubmates were engaged with the Reds. The manager Torey Lovullo, who but a day earlier spoke of betrayal and of peace in the same breath, chose this time the language of forbearance: 'Ketel's a grown man, and he can make his own decisions,' he offered, noting that men on the injured list take their treatment in the morning and are not required at the yard thereafter, and that no rule of the club was broken. The wires add that Marte kept his Saturday morning rehabilitation appointment, and that he is expected to address his teammates in the coming days. The club, for its part, would doubtless prefer the subject changed: the Snakes dropped Saturday's engagement to the Cincinnatis, as the card below relates, and sit two games from the National's final chair.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: BOTH OF STANTON'S CALVES CONSPIRE AGAINST HIS SEASON, WEATHERS AWAITS THE PHOTOGRAPHS, AND THE CHAMPIONS COUNT TWO RETURNS COMING

The gravest entry issues from the Bronx, where Giancarlo Stanton — six-and-thirty years of age, the active leader in home runs with four hundred six-and-fifty — has strained the left calf in a fall while running the bases, this upon the right calf that has already twice interrupted his year, and the wires allow that the injury may close his 2026 account entire. The manager Boone declines to rule anything out; the ledger records but four-and-twenty games played. His clubmate Ryan Weathers, whose departure from Saturday's defeat after three and a third innings is noted in the card below, will undergo imaging upon a complaining left forearm.

The champions' ward, by contrast, is discharging patients. Tyler Glasnow, his back spasms quieted, is to be activated to take the ball Tuesday in Atlanta — a date this desk has verified against the schedule — and Shohei Ohtani, absent from the mound since early July with the left knee's complaint, threw thirty pitches to live hitters Saturday and could start a game during the home stand that opens the first of September. 'If it were up to Shohei, he'd be in a game in a few days,' the manager Roberts reported, with the air of a man holding the reins on purpose. Elsewhere: Milwaukee's Woodruff begins a throwing program Wednesday with his shoulder spared the knife, and the Mets' Juan Soto, nursing a calf strain of his own, has reported no fresh progress since his wind sprints of a week past.

THE MILESTONE DESK: STEWART RECLAIMS THE RUNS-BATTED-IN LEAD BY A SINGLE TALLY, AND ALVAREZ'S CROWN OF THREE SURVIVES A DEFEAT

The two-horse race this desk has chronicled all week changed noses again Saturday. The Reds' rookie Sal Stewart, granted a full evening's commerce in his club's eleven-run demonstration at Phoenix, drove home the run that lifts him to seven-and-ninety on the season — one clear of the Cardinals' Jordan Walker, whose club could offer him nothing to drive in during the twelve-to-three calamity at Philadelphia. Walker's clubmate Burleson lurks at four-and-ninety, and the question of whether a freshman may lead the major leagues in runs batted in — a thing no rookie has done since 1950 — remains the finest sustained argument of the season's final month.

In the American, Yordan Alvarez's pursuit of the batter's Triple Crown proceeds even where his club stumbles: Houston's Saturday defeat is recorded below, but the big man's figures — .319, six-and-thirty homers, ninety runs driven in — remain first in all three columns, with Simpson of Tampa Bay eleven points astern in average, Caminero one homer back, and Baltimore's Alonso five runs shy on the third table. And in Toronto the strikeout ledger acquires interest: Dylan Cease, whose near-miss is sung in the card below, now owns two hundred nine, within sight of the club record of two hundred eight-and-forty that Robbie Ray set in 2021.

THE ALMANAC DESK: TO WILLIAMSPORT AT LAST — THE NINTH LITTLE LEAGUE CLASSIC, AND A FIRST FOR BOTH NINES ENGAGED

The pilgrimage this paper has been promising all week is come. This evening at ten minutes past seven, Eastern, the Braves and the Brewers repair to Journey Bank Ballpark at historic Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, there to contest the ninth annual Little League Classic before the smallest and sternest jury in baseball — the young players of the Little League World Series, seated a few rows from the field they dream upon. It is the first appearance in the fixture for either franchise, and the occasion will honor the late, great Henry Aaron and his counsel to 'keep swinging' — words the almanac desk is pleased to reprint without amendment. Mahle takes the ball for Atlanta against the left-hander Drohan; the game travels by the ESPN wire. The desk notes besides that this day closes the Players' Weekend program, whose Spider-Man bats and borrowed stirrups enliven the columns below, and that the regular season's final day stands at the twenty-seventh of September — thirty-five days hence, for those keeping the arithmetic.

The Rest of the Card

HITLESS INTO THE SEVENTH, AND THE ROAD STREAK DIES AT TWO-AND-FORTY: TORONTOS 4, PINSTRIPES 3, WITH GUERRERO RESTORED TO THE LINE

Dylan Cease carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning at the Bronx — his second such excursion of the season, the drought of Toronto no-hitters standing at six-and-thirty years since Dave Stieb's — before Wells' run-scoring single spoiled the bid and the shutout in a single blow; the same blow ended Cease's scoreless streak upon the road at two-and-forty innings, second in the expansion age only to Clemens. Eight strikeouts against five walks the ledger shows, two hundred nine on the season, and Lukes' eighth homer in the eighth proved the winning run when García Jr. answered with a two-run shot and Varland barred the door for his nine-and-twentieth save. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., restored from the concussion list precisely as this paper foretold, collected two hits in his return; the losing pitcher Weathers departed after three and a third with the forearm complaint the infirmary ward records. 'What else can I say about him?' Guerrero asked of his ace, and the desk has no improvement to offer.

TWELVE PITCHES, ONE VERDICT: BREW CREW 4, BRAVES 1, AND THE SERIES IS BANKED BEFORE THE TRAIN LEAVES FOR WILLIAMSPORT

Jake Bauers fouled off seven consecutive offerings from the left-hander Pérez in the third, and upon the twelfth pitch of the argument deposited the ball four hundred thirteen feet away for a two-run homer, his three-and-twentieth. 'That might have been the best at-bat of my life,' the batsman confessed, and his manager Murphy pronounced it 'the epitome of draggin' 'em.' Henderson gave six innings of one-run ball for his eighth victory against two defeats, Ashby closed, and Harris' first-inning double — which briefly staked Atlanta — was all the East's leaders would get. At one-and-eighty wins against nine-and-forty defeats, Milwaukee owns the finest ledger in baseball; both nines now entrain for Williamsport, as the almanac desk proclaims.

THE FISH FEED EARLY AND THE SENATORS STARVE LATE: MIAMI 4, WASHINGTON 2

Three runs inside two innings — Lopez's two-run single and Hernández's nineteenth homer — settled the character of the afternoon before Washington had unpacked, and Marsee's eighth homer answered at once when Tena's single had trimmed the margin. Pérez pitched to his seventh victory, Faucher sealed his second save, and the Floridians, winners of two running and nine-and-thirty games at their own yard, sit four from the National's final chair. The Senators have now dropped eight of ten, and the season grows short of mercies.

SEVEN INNINGS, ONE RUN, AND EVERY PERSONAL LEDGER REWRITTEN: PHILS 12, CARDINALS 3, AND THE STREAK IS EIGHT

The young Andrew Painter, sent down to the minors but weeks ago to learn from failure, returned Saturday to administer a lesson: seven innings — the longest outing of his life — a single run, eight strikeouts, twenty swings-and-misses where his previous best was fourteen, and — for the first time in his career — a full hundred pitches, the last of them clocked at 99.6 miles per hour. His employers meanwhile assembled a dozen runs, Harper's three-run homer and Schwarber's eight-and-thirtieth — the National's largest count — the heaviest blows. Eight consecutive victories for the Brotherly Love nine, who sit three behind Atlanta and hold the National's second wild-card chair; the Mound City men, twelve-to-three losers with Wetherholt's homer the lone ornament, must console themselves with the milestone desk's arithmetic.

TROUT STRIKES THE FIRST BLOW AND THE ANAHEIM NINE PAINT ARLINGTON WHITE: ANGELS 3, RANGERS 0

Mike Trout singled home the game's first run in the opening frame, scored its second himself upon Ballesteros' sixth-inning double, and Grissom added a third in the eighth; the pitcher Johnson and the relief corps made the three stand up entire, Watson closing the account. A whitewash is a hard sequel to a walk-off — the Arlington men, delivered so operatically in the tenth on Friday, managed five hits Saturday and no runs at all, and the defeat costs them sole occupancy of the American's final wild-card chair, of which the desk note gives the full accounting.

IT'S GOT TO BE THE STIRRUPS: BALTIMORES 3, SUNSHINE NINE 2, IN TEN, AS BASALLO TIES IT IN BORROWED HOSIERY AND BEAVERS ENDS IT

Before the first pitch at Camden Yards, Tyler O'Neill decreed orange stirrups and white socks for the whole company, and the rookie Samuel Basallo — arriving late — borrowed his pair from the pitcher Bradish. Thus attired, Basallo strode into the eighth as a pinch-hitter with his club two runs down and struck a game-tying homer of four hundred eleven feet, his seventeenth; in the tenth, Dylan Beavers — another man off the bench — doubled home Taveras against the All-Star closer Baker for the walk-off verdict, Baltimore's four-and-thirtieth pinch-hit run driven in of the season, the most in the majors. 'I liked it out there. Guys looked good,' the manager Albernaz ruled. The Baltimores have won two running and stand one game from the American's final chair; the Rays have dropped three running, their lead upon the league trimmed to three games, and McClanahan's five spotless innings go unrewarded.

TWO OUTS BOUGHT DEAR IN THE EIGHTH: ATHLETICS 4, ASTROS 3

Houston led by two entering the eighth on the strength of Varsho's homer and Peña's run-scoring single, whereupon the visitors assembled a three-run recovery from modest materials — Butler's single through a deflection, Heim's run-scoring ground-out — atop Walton's earlier fourth homer. Medina claimed the decision, Alvarado his third save. The Astros, beaten to exactly the break-even line at five-and-sixty apiece, keep the West's first chair by a single game over Texas — whose own whitewash is recorded above — and Alvarez, hitless fortunes notwithstanding, keeps his three crowns, as the milestone desk attests.

FIVE HOMERS ABROAD, TWO OF THEM BY THE MAN THE SOUTH SIDE BOOED: METS 10, WHITE STOCKINGS 5

Luis Robert Jr., nine seasons a White Stocking and a Met since January, returned to the old premises and struck two home runs — four hundred five feet and four hundred seventeen, the boos rising with each — and his mates added three more from Bichette, the rookie Benge, and Torrens in a ten-run demonstration. 'It feels good to hit homers against any team,' Robert allowed, 'but I will say, it did feel good to hit the home runs here.' Warren took the decision in relief; the Central's leaders keep their chair by three and a half games over Cleveland, and the Mets bank a rare road feast.

THE WEB-SLINGER STRIKES AND THE ROYALS MAKE IT SEVEN RUNNING: KANSAS CITY 3, BENGALS 1

Kyle Isbel, having traded Friday's Buzz Lightyear bat for one done up in Spider-Man's livery on Players' Weekend's closing turn, slung his sixth homer into the right-field seats, and the venerable Salvador Perez added his seventeenth of the year; Wacha pitched to his seventh victory, and the ancient Kimbrel recorded his first save of the season. Seven consecutive victories for the Kansas City nine, eight of ten by the ledger, the liveliest late August in the American's lower reaches; the Bengals, with Lee's homer their lone tally, have dropped four running and slip two and a half from the final chair.

THREE RUNS BEFORE HE FOUND HIS FOOTING, THEN EIGHTEEN OF NINETEEN RETIRED: BOYS IN BLUE 4, ALLEGHENYS 3

The Pittsburghs fell upon Tarik Skubal at once — Oneil Cruz's two-run triple the heavy blow of a three-run first — and then the left-hander, acquired from Detroit in the deadline commerce, closed the ledger: eighteen of his final nineteen batters retired, eleven strikeouts across seven innings, the visitors hitless in their last seventeen turns against him. 'That's the guy that we needed,' the manager Roberts pronounced. Tucker's two-run single in the fifth supplied the winning margin, Scott sealed his nineteenth save, and the champions' fifth consecutive victory holds them two games behind Milwaukee on the game's best ledger — with reinforcements coming, as the infirmary ward reports.

NOTHING FOR EIGHT INNINGS, EVERYTHING IN THE NINTH: CRIMSON HOSE 3, BAY NINE 2

Adames and Knizner had homered early, Sandoval — five and two-thirds strong innings in his return from the elbow operation — had kept Boston within reach, and still the Hub men entered the ninth with nothing on their side of the ledger. Then: White's run-scoring single, Sogard's game-tying double off the Monster, and with the sacks full and one out, Abreu — hitless in five, four times a strikeout victim — grounded one down the first-base line and beat the play at the plate for the walk-off, a fielder's choice upheld upon San Francisco's challenge and celebrated by the tearing of the hero's jersey. The one-and-thirtieth comeback victory of Boston's season keeps the second wild-card chair warm; the Bay nine have dropped three running.

HAVE A DAY, BLEDAY: A DOUBLE, A TRIPLE, A SINGLE, A HOMER — THE EIGHTH CYCLE IN THE ANNALS OF CINCINNATI — AND THE REDS ROUT THE SNAKES, 11 TO 5

JJ Bleday assembled his masterpiece one exhibit at a time: a double in the first, a triple in the third, a single in the fifth, and in the sixth the homer that completed the eighth cycle in the long history of the Cincinnati club, the first since Elly De La Cruz's in 2023. ('I'm just like, please, please, God, please go,' the author said of the final exhibit, 'because I top-spun it.') De La Cruz himself went four-for-six with his one-and-twentieth homer and fell only the triple shy of joining him, McLain added a homer, the rookie Stewart drove home the run the milestone desk celebrates, and Lowder took the decision. Eleven runs, the losing streak snapped; for Arizona, Arenado's homer and the Marte business besides, a day best forgotten.

ADELL'S THUNDER TRAVELS WELL AT ALTITUDE: FOREST CITY NINE 4, ROCKIES 3, AND THE CHAIR IS GAINED

Jo Adell's three-run homer in the fourth — his twentieth — did the day's heavy lifting, Bailey singled home insurance in the sixth, and Cleveland then held its breath as Norby's ninth-inning homer drew Colorado within one before Smith closed his three-and-thirtieth save. A third consecutive victory, and with Texas whitewashed at Arlington, the Forest City men wake this morning in shared possession of the American's final wild-card chair — the accounting the desk note completes. The Rockies have dropped five running, and the altitude no longer explains it.

FIVE RUNS SPENT BY THE FOURTH, AND THE MISSION NINE COLLECT SIX UNANSWERED: PADRES 7, MINNESOTANS 5

Minnesota struck three homers inside two innings — Keaschall, Lee, and the rookie Culpepper — and led five runs to one entering the home sixth, whereupon San Diego reclaimed the whole account: Merrill's twentieth homer had kept the hosts breathing, Cronenworth's two-run double crowned a four-run seventh, France singled home the lead, and Tatis added the insurance. Canning profited in relief, Miller sealed his two-and-thirtieth save. The Mission men's second consecutive victory — seven of ten — keeps the National's third wild-card chair; the Minnesotans fall a game from the American's final one.

The arithmetic desk, which has now recorded a different arrangement of the American's final wild-card chair on seven consecutive mornings, reports today's seating as follows: Texas and Cleveland in joint occupancy at four-and-sixty wins apiece — the Rangers whitewashed out of sole possession, the Guardians winners of three running — with Toronto half a game astern, Minnesota and Baltimore one, Seattle two, and Detroit two and a half; not one claimant yet at the break-even line. In the National the chairs hold their tenants — the Cubs first by four games though losers of three running, Philadelphia second with the streak at eight, San Diego third — with Arizona two back, Miami four, and St. Louis four and a half. The card this day runs again to the full fifteen engagements, and the bill of fare is crowned at Williamsport: the Braves and Brewers in the ninth Little League Classic at Bowman Field, ten minutes past seven, Eastern, as the almanac desk relates in full. Before it: at Philadelphia at 1:35, Sánchez and his sixteen victories seek the ninth straight for the Quakers against St. Louis; at Baltimore at the same hour, the Rays send Martinez and his twelve victories against Baz to stanch a three-game wound; in the Bronx, Soriano opposes Rodón; and in Seattle at 4:10, Imanaga is charged with ending both the Bruins' skid and the home nine's walk-off habit. Until the next dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Sunday, August 23, 2026 — Boxscore
Daniel Kramer, Arozarena hits a homer, ROBS another, then caps it off with a walk-off! — MLB.com
Daniel Kramer, 'Just a blast out there': Anderson shows upside in highly anticipated debut — MLB.com
Steve Gilbert, 'Ketel's a grown man': Lovullo, D-backs hope to move on from Marte drama — MLB.com
Stanton strains left calf while running, might not return in 2026 — MLB.com
Weathers exits start with forearm discomfort, will undergo imaging — MLB.com
Injuries: Yankees, Dodgers, Crochet, Woodruff, Soto, Abrams — MLB.com
Sonja Chen, If it were up to Ohtani, he'd be pitching 'in a few days' — MLB.com
Glasnow set for Tuesday return as Dodgers' rotation rounds into form — MLB.com
Adam McCalvy and Mark Bowman, Everything you need to know about 2026 Little League Classic (7 p.m. ET on ESPN) — MLB.com
Cease's latest no-hit bid gives Jays crucial win over Yankees — MLB.com
Bauers' 'best at-bat of my life' culminates in clutch HR on 12th pitch — MLB.com
Painter crosses off multiple career highs as Phils' win streak reaches 8 — MLB.com
It's gotta be the stirrups! O's walk it off after teamwide wardrobe change — MLB.com
Resilient Robert's HRs ring louder than boos in Chicago return — MLB.com
KC Buzzing over 7 in a row! Isbel quite the web slinger with Spider-Man bat — MLB.com
Sonja Chen, 'That's the guy that we needed': Skubal (11 K's) shows Dodgers what he can do — MLB.com
Red Sox rip Giants' hearts out, then tear Abreu's jersey in walk-off celebration — MLB.com
Patrick Brown, Have a day, Bleday! 8th cycle in Reds history helps snap losing streak — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference

SIX CONTESTS END WITH THE HOME NINE STORMING THE PLATE, AND THE GRANDEST FINISH BELONGS TO PHILADELPHIA: BOHM'S TRIPLE IN THE TENTH, PHILLIES 7, CARDINALS 6

2026-08-22T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

SIX CONTESTS END WITH THE HOME NINE STORMING THE PLATE, AND THE GRANDEST FINISH BELONGS TO PHILADELPHIA: BOHM'S TRIPLE IN THE TENTH, PHILLIES 7, CARDINALS 6

On a night when fully six of the card's fifteen engagements were settled by the last man to swing, the Philadelphias fall behind in the tenth upon Fermín's single, whereupon Bohm lashes the first three-bagger of his season to the deepest quarter of the yard, Harper and Sosa come racing home, and the winning streak stretches to seven

From the Delaware to the Puget Sound, Friday night's dispatches all arrived written in the same hand: the home nine batting last, the winning run crossing in the game's final turn. Six times it happened — in Philadelphia, in Miami, on the South Side of Chicago, in Arlington, in Seattle, and in Los Angeles, each finish chronicled in its proper place below — and the fattest prize of the six was contested in Philadelphia, where the Cardinals and the Phillies traded the lead like men passing a hot stone until the tenth inning finally burned the visitors' hands.

St. Louis struck first, Joshua Báez lifting a two-run homer, his fourth, in the opening frame with Jordan Walker aboard. The Philadelphias pecked their way back against the starter Dobbins — Marsh and Realmuto doubling home runs in the second, Bohm singling home a third in the third — and when Walker answered in the sixth with a two-run blast of his own, his seven-and-twentieth, the home men replied within the half-hour: Realmuto's second double and Crawford's sacrifice fly turned four-to-three into four-to-five. Bryan Torres tied the affair with a single in the eighth, the ninth passed without a verdict, and in the tenth José Fermín — the same Fermín whose two-run single crowned Thursday's larceny in Cincinnati, as this paper related only yesterday — lined the go-ahead run home, and the ninth-inning miracle workers of St. Louis appeared poised to bank a tenth-inning sequel. But Alec Bohm, who had already driven in one run and knocked at the door all evening, met the reliever Gastelum with a sharp drive to the center-field expanse — the first triple of his season, and no man was catching it — and Harper and Sosa crossed with the tying and winning runs while the yard came apart.

The ledger reads richly for the victors: three runs driven in for Bohm, a pair of doubles for Realmuto, nine strikeouts for the starter Luzardo in five and two-thirds, and a seventh consecutive victory — eight in ten — that holds the National's second wild-card chair by two full games and draws Philadelphia within four of Atlanta, beaten at Milwaukee as the columns below attest. For St. Louis the arithmetic is crueler: Walker's two runs driven in lift him to six-and-ninety, a full share of the major-league lead as the milestone desk reports, but the club that stole a game from its last strike on Thursday gave one back from the brink of victory on Friday, and sits three and a half games from the league's final chair. McFarlane took the decision, Gastelum the defeat, and the two nines resume the argument at Citizens Bank Park this very evening.

News Around the League

THE MARTE AFFAIR, CONTINUED: LOVULLO SPEAKS OF BETRAYAL AND OF PEACE IN THE SAME BREATH

The strangest story of the week, chronicled in these columns since Tuesday, acquired its next chapter Friday in Phoenix, where the manager Torey Lovullo walked the finest of lines in his first full accounting of the business — the second baseman Ketel Marte's failure to appear at Fenway Park, the restricted list, and Thursday's long audience at Salt River Fields that this paper described yesterday. The wires report that Lovullo confessed to feeling betrayed by the disappearance, even as he pronounced the Thursday summit worthwhile: 'I thought it was a very productive meeting,' he offered, declining every invitation to particulars that both sides wish kept private, and expressing the hope that all parties may now get back to the baseball. The club's interest in that outcome is not small: the Sonoran nine won again Friday, as the card below relates, and sit a single game from the National's final chair with their second baseman serving out his ten days on the shelf.

THE PROSPECT DESK: THE WATCH ENDS THIS EVENING — ANDERSON TAKES A MAJOR-LEAGUE MOUND AT LAST

The watch this paper opened yesterday closes on schedule. The Mariners' manager Dan Wilson confirmed Friday that Kade Anderson, the left-hander of two-and-twenty years whom the Pipeline scribes rank the finest pitching pupil in all the minors and the fifth prospect of any description, will make his debut this evening in Seattle against the Cubs. The occasion carries its own history: by the researchers' accounting he becomes but the sixteenth pitching prospect ranked among the game's five best to step onto a major-league mound in the twenty-odd years such rankings have been kept. The summons required some shuffling of the watch bill — Bryan Woo's turn has been pushed back, though the club expects no visit to the injured list, and the reliever Carlos Vargas was activated besides. A club three games from the American's final chair, and fresh from the extra-inning deliverance the card below describes, could scarcely have timed the reinforcement better.

THE MILESTONE DESK: WALKER DRAWS LEVEL WITH THE ROOKIE AT SIX-AND-NINETY, AND ALVAREZ'S CROWN OF THREE HOLDS

The race this desk examined at length only yesterday is now a dead heat. Jordan Walker's two runs driven in at Philadelphia — a homer and more, as the lead dispatch relates — lift him to six-and-ninety on the season, drawing him precisely level with the Reds' rookie Sal Stewart, whose club was whitewashed in Phoenix and could offer its young colossus nothing to drive home. Atop all baseball they sit together, with Alec Burleson — Walker's own clubmate — lurking at three-and-ninety, and the question of whether a freshman may lead the major leagues in runs batted in, a thing done by no rookie since 1950, now hangs on a two-horse finish conducted largely within the same division. In the American, meanwhile, the desk renews its report that Yordan Alvarez holds every table that matters: two more doubles Friday in Houston's whitewash of the Athletics left his figures at .321, six-and-thirty homers, and ninety runs driven in — first in average, first in homers, first in runs batted in — and the pursuit of the batter's Triple Crown, unclaimed in the American since 2012, proceeds unbothered.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: PAGES' BROKEN HAND DIMS A CHAMPION'S SEPTEMBER, TOGLIA'S SHOULDER, AND TWO RETURNS PROMISED FOR THIS VERY DAY

The gravest entry issues from Los Angeles, where the All-Star center fielder Andy Pages took a pitch off the left hand in Friday's victory and the examination found a fracture: the wires report an absence of no fewer than four weeks, though the manager Roberts holds to the expectation that his man returns before the season's books are closed. In Phoenix the Reds' Michael Toglia departed in the first inning after a diving catch dislocated his right shoulder, a frightening scene the card below notes. But the ward also has discharges to announce, both promised for this very day: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., whose thunderous rehearsal at Dunedin this paper saluted yesterday, has passed his final concussion examinations and is expected to rejoin the Blue Jays in the Bronx this afternoon, the first day the seven-day list allows; and the Yankees' Max Fried is scheduled to throw from a mound for the first time since the bone bruise in his left elbow returned him to the shelf — a rehearsal, not a return, but the direction is the right one.

THE COUNTING-HOUSE DESK: KASTEN PRONOUNCES THE CHAMPIONS NOT FOR SALE, AND THE HERALD CONSULTS THE LEDGER BEFORE JOINING ANY CHOIR

The president of the champion Dodgers, Stan Kasten, spent part of Friday extinguishing a rumor: amid speculation abroad on the wires concerning the club's future under the owner Mark Walter, Kasten assured the faithful that the franchise is not for sale, and there the matter rests.

The desk pairs the item with the ticking of the labor clock, which grows daily harder to ignore: the collective bargaining agreement between the owners and the players expires on the first of December, the parties having opened their negotiations in May, and the owners' men have already begun rehearsing the old hymn of competitive balance — by which is generally meant, once the verses are parsed, a ceiling upon what a ballplayer may be paid. The Herald has taken the precaution of consulting the ledger before joining the choir, and the ledger declines to weep. By Forbes' own published accounting, not one of the thirty franchises is valued below a thousand millions of dollars — the humblest of them, the Miami club, is prized at a billion and better, and the grandest, the Yankees of New York, at eight billions and two hundred millions — figures that have grown handsomer nearly every year the accountants have kept them. And as for the pennant races the proposed ceiling is advertised to rescue, the postseason record wants no rescuing: seven different champions have carried off the flag in the last ten autumns, the 2023 Series was contested by two wild-card nines — one of them with but four-and-eighty wins to its name — and the best record in all of last season's baseball was posted at Milwaukee, among the smallest of the game's markets. The Herald's sympathies in matters of the purse lie, and will lie, with the men who play the games; it will follow the ledger so its readers need not, and it commends the same arithmetic to the owners' negotiators, who can well afford the subscription.

The Rest of the Card

THE TWO SOVEREIGNS OF THE EARNED-RUN TABLE MEET, AND THE YOUNGER MAN PREVAILS: MILWAUKEES 2, BRAVES 1

The engagement of the weekend, advertised in yesterday's bill of fare, delivered everything but runs. Jacob Misiorowski threw scoreless ball at Chris Sale and the East's leaders, ran his record to thirteen-and-five with his earned-run figure at a scandalous 1.68 and his strikeout count at two hundred sixteen — the National's finest on both counts — and drew from the vanquished Sale afterward a compliment of the very highest order regarding the young man's fastball. The scoring was modest work: Contreras singled home one in the third and Vaughn forced home another, Harris' single in the eighth drew Atlanta within a run, and Megill barred the door for his four-and-twentieth save — though the visitors' evening did include Acuña throwing out the rookie Lara at second base with a peg the instruments clocked at better than ninety-two miles per hour. Milwaukee, at eighty wins against nine-and-forty defeats, owns the finest ledger in baseball by two games; the same two clubs meet again this afternoon before repairing to Williamsport on the morrow.

FOUR HITS SUFFICE WHEN SCHLITTLER DEALS: YANKEES 3, JAYS 1, AND THE STREAK RUNS TO FIVE

Cam Schlittler, proprietor of the American's finest earned-run figure and Friday night of cleats honoring both the Light Side and the Dark, held Toronto to a single tally while his mates made four hits stretch a very long way: Spencer Jones' two-run homer in the second — upheld when the umpires reviewed it — and Caballero's sacrifice fly were the whole account, with Kirk's run-scoring single the visitors' lone reply and Bednar sealing his thirtieth save. The eleventh victory for Schlittler; a fifth consecutive for the Yankees, who sit three games behind the Rays — beaten in Baltimore, as the next item relates — and hold the American's first wild-card chair at a comfortable remove. The Jays expect reinforcement this very afternoon, as the infirmary column reports.

DEVERS RETURNS TO FENWAY AND HOMERS, BUT CONTRERAS HAS THE LOUDER ARGUMENT: HUB NINE 6, FRISCO NINE 4

The return of Rafael Devers to the yard he graced for the better part of a decade supplied the evening's theatre — the visitor declared himself 'very happy to be back,' declined every invitation to relitigate the parting, and proved the sentiment genuine with a homer to the center-field expanse, his six-and-twentieth. But the crowd of thirty-seven thousand reserved its fullest voice for the present tenant of the middle of Boston's order: Willson Contreras answered with a three-run blast of his own, likewise his six-and-twentieth, the centerpiece of a five-run third that also collected a bases-loaded walk and a hit batsman, and Abreu's triple added a sixth run later. Sonny Gray pitched to his sixteenth victory against three defeats — no man in the American owns more — with Chapman closing his eight-and-twentieth save, and the Hub nine hold the league's second wild-card chair at a comfortable remove; the Frisco nine, whatever their traveler's consolations, have dropped two running.

ALONSO'S THIRTIETH, FAIR BEYOND ALL ARGUMENT: BIRDS 5, TAMPA MEN 3

Two nights after the long strike that a review declined to make a homer — recorded in Thursday's edition of this paper — Pete Alonso removed the umpires from the conversation entirely, hammering his thirtieth of the season far inside the left-center bleachers with a man aboard, and adding a run-scoring single besides for three driven in and five-and-eighty on the year, second in the American. The Rays' account was not without its charm — Kenny Piper, a name new to these columns, struck his first homer of the year — but Rogers held the line for his ninth victory and Garcia closed the door. The league's best club has now dropped two running, its lead over the surging Yankees down to three; Baltimore, winners of one, will take its dignities where it finds them.

THREE HOMERS IN THE SIXTH, AND ROGERS — FOUR CLUBS AND COUNTING — ENDS IT IN THE NINTH: SOUTH SIDERS 6, METROPOLITANS 4

Down four runs to nothing after Bichette's thirteenth homer, the Central's leaders staged their recovery all in one frame: Vargas' two-run blast, his nine-and-twentieth, followed in short order by Grichuk and by Colson Montgomery, three homers in a single sixth inning to square the affair. There it stood until the ninth, when Jake Rogers — a catcher claimed off the waiver wire from Boston but a week ago, and the owner of base hits in four different uniforms this season — deposited a two-run homer into the center-field seats with two out, one of the night's six walk-off endings and surely the least probable. The South Siders hold first place in the American's Central; the Metropolitans have lost the services of the evening and, at eight-and-fifty wins, very nearly the season.

SANOJA TIES IT IN THE EIGHTH AND ENDS IT IN THE NINTH: FISH 3, NATS 2

Keibert Ruiz's sixth-inning homer stood as the game's only run until the eighth, when Javier Sanoja singled home the equalizer and Otto Lopez singled home the lead; Washington answered through Lile's run-scoring knock in the ninth, and so Sanoja simply did it again — a ground-ball single through the middle with the sacks occupied, his second run driven home of the night. Fairbanks took the decision. The Fish, winners of nine-and-thirty at their own yard this season, sit four games from the National's final chair; the Washingtons have dropped eight of ten.

WESNESKI'S LONG ROAD BACK RUNS THROUGH FIVE SPOTLESS INNINGS: ASTROS 4, A'S 0

The road home from the surgeon's table is rarely straight, but Hayden Wesneski made it look so Friday: five scoreless innings in his continuing return from the elbow operation, three Athletics hits all evening, and a whitewash that keeps Houston's grip on the West's first chair — one game over Texas, whose own evening is sung below. Yordan Alvarez doubled twice and drove in a run with each, commerce the milestone desk records in full, and Paredes doubled home another. The wandering A's have now lost five running, and at nine-and-forty wins the arithmetic of their season no longer requires a mathematician.

TO INFINITY, AND OVER THE FENCE: MISSOURIANS 5, MOTOR CITY NINE 2, AND THE STREAK REACHES SIX

The liveliest late August in the American's lower reaches rolls on. Kyle Isbel, armed for Players' Weekend with a bat done up in the livery of one Buzz Lightyear, sent a fifth-inning pitch to infinity and beyond the right-center fence, then doubled home an insurance run in the eighth; Pasquantino and the young catcher Jensen supplied homers of their own, and Cameron pitched to his eighth victory with Pearson closing. Six consecutive victories for Kansas City, whose season, whatever its ledger, refuses to go quietly; Detroit has dropped three running and slips two and a half games from the American's final chair, which the item below concerns directly.

NINE INNINGS OF NOTHING, THEN EVERYTHING AT ONCE: TEXAS NINE 2, ANGELS 1, IN TEN, AND THE CHAIR IS RECLAIMED

For nine full innings at Arlington neither club scored a run, and then the tenth spent the whole evening's allowance in minutes: the Angels' Guzman doubled home the go-ahead man, whereupon Wyatt Langford answered with a two-bagger of his own to square it and Ezequiel Duran grounded a sharp single past third to bring Langford home with the verdict, an errant throw chasing the play — another of the night's six walk-off endings. Alexander claimed the decision over Joyce. Eleven hits the Texas nine collected while waiting for two to matter; the reward is sole possession of the American's final wild-card chair, of which the desk note gives the full accounting.

FOUR HITS FOR BAZZANA, AND TWO IN A ROW AT LAST: CLEVELAND NINE 9, MOUNTAIN MEN 1

The rookie Travis Bazzana, whose up-and-down freshman campaign the wires have chronicled since its hot start and All-Star nod, enjoyed the finest night of his young service: four hits and three driven in, the centerpiece of a rout in the thin Denver air that gave Cleveland consecutive victories for the first time in a month. Halpin homered, Patrick Bailey added a three-run shot in the seventh, and Herrin took the decision as Colorado managed a single first-inning tally. The Cleveland nine sit one game from the American's final chair — one of six clubs within two and a half of it, as the desk note relates — while the Mountain men, at fifty wins, play out the string with what grace the altitude allows.

LAWLAR'S THUNDER AND A WHITEWASH IN THE DESERT: SONORAN NINE 9, REDLEGS 0

Whatever weight the week's troubles have laid upon Arizona, none of it showed Friday: Jordan Lawlar homered early and finished with three driven in, seven different men drove home at least one, and Rodriguez pitched to his thirteenth victory against four defeats while Cincinnati was blanked entire. The evening's one dark passage came in the first inning, when the Redlegs' Toglia dislocated a shoulder completing a diving catch, a casualty the infirmary ward records. The Sonoran nine, winners of two running amid the Marte affair the news columns continue, sit one game from the National's final chair; the Redlegs' young colossus Stewart, held without a run to drive home, watched his share of the batting lead become a partnership, as the milestone desk explains.

A BAGUETTE IS BROKEN OVER A FORMER EMPLOYER: FRIARS 6, TWIN CITIES NINE 2

Ty France, bearing a Players' Weekend bat got up to resemble nothing so much as a Parisian loaf, greeted his former club in the first inning with a two-run homer — his eighteenth, and surely the best-dressed — and later added a sacrifice fly in a four-run fifth built of singles from Tatis, Rengifo, and Machado, three driven in for the evening. Clemens' two-run triple had briefly squared matters for Minnesota before Vásquez settled in for his ninth victory. The Friars hold the National's third wild-card chair with seven victories in ten; the Twin Cities nine, beaten from the American's final chair by Texas's late heroics, wake this morning a game behind it.

BREGMAN TIES IT TWICE, BUT RIVAS HAS THE FINAL SYLLABLE: SEATTLE NINE 6, NORTH SIDERS 5, IN TEN

Before the largest home gathering of Seattle's season, the Cubs struck first and hardest — Crow-Armstrong's two-and-thirtieth homer leading off, Bregman following at once with a two-run blast — and Cal Raleigh answered with a three-run shot in a four-run second. When Happ and then Bregman again, in the ninth, hauled Chicago level at five, the affair went to a tenth, where Leo Rivas lined a single to center and Arozarena came home with one more of the night's six walk-off verdicts. The evening's footnote belongs to the visitors' manager Counsell, ejected over a balk call on his own birthday. The North Siders have dropped two running, their grip on the National's first wild-card chair trimmed to five games; the Seattle nine hand the ball this evening to the debutant Anderson, as the prospect desk proclaims.

EDMAN SUPPLIES THE SWEET ENDING, THOUGH THE NIGHT EXACTS A PRICE: TROLLEY DODGERS 5, SMOKY CITY NINE 4, IN TEN

Muncy's two-run homer and Betts' two-run single staked Los Angeles early, Yamamoto turned in another quality start, and still it required extra work: Oneil Cruz squared the account at four with a two-run blast in the eighth, and the game rolled scoreless into the tenth until Tommy Edman lined a single to left, Enrique Hernández crossed, and Friday's ledger of walk-off verdicts reached six. Phillips claimed the decision. A fourth consecutive victory keeps the champions two games behind Milwaukee on the game's best ledger and comfortably atop the West — but the celebration was cut with worry, for the examination of Pages' hand, struck by a pitch mid-game, returned the fracture the infirmary ward reports in full.

The arithmetic desk reports that the American's final wild-card chair has now changed its arrangement on six consecutive mornings of this paper: Baltimore alone on Monday, three cotenants Tuesday, Texas alone Wednesday, Minnesota alone Thursday, Texas and Minnesota in shared occupancy yesterday — and this morning Texas alone once more, the tenth-inning deliverance at Arlington evicting its own cotenant, with the Twins and Guardians a game astern, Toronto a game and a half, Baltimore two, Detroit two and a half, and Seattle three, still not one claimant at the break-even line. In the National the seating holds: the Cubs keep the first chair by five games, Philadelphia — winners of seven running after the morning's lead dispatch — the second by two, San Diego the third, with Arizona one game back, St. Louis three and a half, and Miami four. This day is the second of Players' Weekend, given over by the program to the causes the players champion, and the card again runs to the full fifteen engagements. The bill of fare: in Seattle at 7:15 Eastern, the engagement of the evening — the debutant Anderson against the Cubs, the finest pitching prospect in the minors making his first bow, as the prospect desk relates; in the Bronx at 1:35, Cease and his two hundred one strikeouts visit Weathers, with Guerrero expected back in the visitors' line; at Milwaukee at 2:10, the Braves seek their revenge upon Henderson and his 2.70; at Philadelphia at 6:05, the young Painter takes the ball against the Cardinals with the streak at seven; at Baltimore at 7:05, McClanahan opposes Young and his nine victories; and at Los Angeles at 7:15, Skubal is charged with keeping the champions rolling against the Bucs. On the morrow the Brewers and Braves repair to Williamsport for the Little League Classic, at 7:10 in the evening, there to perform before the smallest and sternest jury in baseball, precisely as this paper has been promising all week. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Saturday, August 22, 2026 — Boxscore
Miz outduels Sale in battle of aces that lived up to the hype — MLB.com
Misiorowski's fastball earns high praise from Sale — ESPN
Acuña unleashes 92.3 mph laser to nab Brewers rookie at second — MLB.com
The Force remains strong with Cy Young hopeful Schlittler — MLB.com
Devers 'very happy to be back' at Fenway, proves it with massive HR — MLB.com
Back at Fenway, Devers shuns talk of messy split — ESPN
How far did Contreras' blast go? We'll let you know whenever it lands — MLB.com
Alonso's 30th homer -- for real this time -- is his latest big swing for O's — MLB.com
Waiver claim Rogers lifts White Sox with walk-off HR vs. Mets — MLB.com
Wesneski powers through return from Tommy John surgery in win vs. A's — MLB.com
To infinity and GONE! Isbel blasts off with Buzz Lightyear Players' Weekend bat — MLB.com
Bazzana's 4-hit game gets Guards back-to-back W's for 1st time in a month — MLB.com
French connection! Ty goes deep with baguette bat — MLB.com
'Just got to keep fighting': Mariners walk off in extras thanks to Rivas — MLB.com
Happy Birthday, you're outta here! Counsell tossed over balk call — MLB.com
Edman's walk off the cherry on top after Yamamoto serves up another quality start — MLB.com
Pages fractures hand on hit-by-pitch, expected to miss at least 4 weeks — MLB.com
Dodgers' Pages exits after taking pitch off hand — ESPN
Toglia exits Friday game after dislocating right shoulder on diving catch — MLB.com
Blue Jays' Guerrero (concussion) likely back Sat. — ESPN
Yankees' Fried set to start throwing off mound — ESPN
Marte, D-backs have 'very productive meeting,' hope to get back to baseball — MLB.com
D-backs' Lovullo 'betrayed' by Marte's no-show — ESPN
Anderson's MLB debut Saturday has M's 'excited' — ESPN
It's nearly Kade O'Clock: Top prospect ready for highly anticipated debut — MLB.com
Kade Anderson set to join list of biggest pitching debuts of the past 20+ years — MLB.com
Kasten reassures fans that Dodgers 'not for sale' — ESPN
Baseball's competitive balance issue, explained — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference
Forbes list of the most valuable MLB teams — Wikipedia
World Series and MLB Playoffs — Baseball-Reference

THE FINAL OUT FALLS OUT OF A GLOVE, AND SIX RUNS POUR THROUGH THE HOLE: CARDINALS 10, REDS 9, IN A NINTH INNING OF TEN RUNS AND NO MERCY

2026-08-21T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

THE FINAL OUT FALLS OUT OF A GLOVE, AND SIX RUNS POUR THROUGH THE HOLE: CARDINALS 10, REDS 9, IN A NINTH INNING OF TEN RUNS AND NO MERCY

Down to their last out and trailing by one at Cincinnati, the St. Louis nine are reprieved when the center fielder Myers drops Wetherholt's routine fly — six runs follow at once — whereupon the Reds answer with four of their own and send the grand-slam man McLain to the plate with the bases full, only to watch Walker, author of the early lead, squeeze the game's last breath at the right-field wall

Of all the entries in a scorebook none is more contemptuous than the routine fly ball — the out so assured that the crowd reaches for its hats before the ball comes down. Thursday afternoon at Great American Ball Park, with two out in the ninth, the Cardinals trailing five-to-four, and the pinch-hitter Pereira just struck out for what should have been the penultimate indignity, JJ Wetherholt lofted precisely that entry toward left-center. Dane Myers ranged a long way to call off TJ Friedl, who had entered only an inning before as a defensive substitution, and the ball struck his leather and fell to the grass. Two runs crossed on the drop — the tying and the go-ahead — and the inning, thus pried open, would not be shut: Burleson singled home a seventh run, Joshua Báez walked with the bases full for an eighth, and José Fermín, who had scored the tying run moments earlier and came round to bat a second time in the frame, lined a two-run single for ten-to-five. Six runs, every one of them after the game stood a strike from ending.

The Reds declined to accept the verdict quietly. The manager Marmol, hoping to spare his closer a day's work amid a grinding stretch, entrusted the five-run cushion to Soriano, and the cushion was promptly devoured: Eugenio Suárez singled home one, the rookie Sal Stewart lined a two-run stroke — his six-and-ninetieth run driven in, a figure examined at length in the news columns — and Stephenson walked with the sacks full to draw within a single tally. So Riley O'Brien pitched after all, and found himself facing Matt McLain — whose grand slam in the sixth, his twelfth homer, had turned a four-to-nothing deficit into the lead St. Louis spent eight innings chasing — with the bases loaded and the game standing on a swing. McLain drove the ball deep to the right-field wall, and Jordan Walker gathered it in for the final out. 'I was very happy with that catch,' O'Brien allowed afterward. 'I was begging him to catch it.'

The ledger will note ten runs in the ninth inning alone, and a symmetry the almanac may never see again: Walker, whose three-run homer in the third — four driven in on the day, four-and-ninety on the season — built the early lead, stood under the ball that ended it; McLain scored the first run of the answering rally and made its last out; and the National's three foremost run-producers — Stewart at six-and-ninety, Walker at four-and-ninety, Burleson at three-and-ninety — were all on the same premises, trading blows. Strzelecki took the decision, Burke the defeat, and O'Brien's three-and-thirtieth save remains the fattest count in the National. The Cardinals, winners of seven in ten, climb to six-and-sixty wins and sit two and a half games from the league's final chair; the Reds — whose Myers, the reader may recall, was the two-homer hero of these very columns on Tuesday — are left eighteen games adrift in the Central, playing, as they have said themselves, for seasons yet to come.

News Around the League

THE MARTE AFFAIR REACHES ITS MEDICAL CHAPTER: AN AUDIENCE AT SALT RIVER FIELDS, AN INFLAMED KNEE, AND TEN DAYS ON THE SHELF

The strangest story of the week, chronicled in these columns since Tuesday's edition, has arrived at something like a resolution. Ketel Marte and his agent sat for several hours Thursday afternoon at Salt River Fields with the Arizona general manager Mike Hazen and manager Torey Lovullo to discuss the events of the past week — the second baseman's failure to appear at Fenway Park on Monday, and his consignment to the restricted list that followed. The magnetic examination of his left knee, forecast in Wednesday's infirmary column, found inflammation, and the club has moved him to the ten-day injured list; because a man cannot be backdated off the restricted list, the sentence runs from Thursday in full. An injection has been administered, and the club's hope is that he returns when the ten days are served, or shortly after. Of the meeting itself, Hazen offered the discretion of a diplomat: 'I'm not gonna get into specifics. I feel like the conversation and meeting was productive... He'll talk to his teammates at some point and we'll go from there.' The Diamondbacks, one game from the National's final chair, will conduct their September with the mystery filed but not fully solved.

THE PROSPECT DESK: SEATTLE REPORTED TO SUMMON THE FINEST PITCHING PUPIL IN ALL THE MINORS

The wires report — by sources, the club not yet confirming — that the Mariners are promoting Kade Anderson, a left-hander of two-and-twenty years who is by the Pipeline scribes' reckoning the best pitching prospect in baseball and the fifth-best prospect of any kind. The figures read like a misprint: across eighteen starts at Double-A Arkansas this season, an earned-run figure of 1.06, with a hundred five-and-thirty strikeouts against a mere thirteen walks in three-and-ninety innings and a third. Selected third overall out of Louisiana State in last summer's draft, Anderson did not throw a professional pitch until this year and has spent the season making the assignment look beneath him. He would join a rotation of Gilbert, Woo, Kirby, and Miller on a club that sits three games from the American's final chair and has just been handled roughly in Milwaukee — which is to say, a club in need of exactly this kind of reinforcement, at exactly this hour. The Cubs arrive in Seattle this evening; the watch begins.

THE MILESTONE DESK MEASURES A ROOKIE AGAINST TED WILLIAMS: STEWART'S SIX-AND-NINETY RUNS DRIVEN IN LEAD ALL BASEBALL

The desk has saluted Sal Stewart's thunder before — his seven-and-twentieth homer turned Wednesday's game in Cincinnati, as this paper recorded — but the arithmetic now demands a fuller accounting. With two more driven in on Thursday, the Reds' rookie stands at six-and-ninety runs batted in through his club's first hundred eight-and-twenty games, the largest figure in either league. Barring calamity he is a near-certainty to become but the seventh rookie of this century to reach a hundred; the seven-and-score plateau of a hundred twenty has been scaled by only seven freshmen since the statistic became official in 1920. And the grandest prize of all is genuinely in play: should he finish atop the major-league table, the Elias scribes certify he would be only the third rookie ever to do it, and the first in six-and-seventy years — Ted Williams led all baseball with a hundred four-and-forty in 1939, and Walt Dropo tied for the lead with the same figure in 1950. The pursuers make the chase delicious: Jordan Walker at four-and-ninety and Alec Burleson at three-and-ninety — the very Cardinals who have spent the week trading blows with Stewart's club, as the morning's lead dispatch attests.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: VLADIMIR'S THUNDEROUS REHEARSAL, GIMÉNEZ'S HAMSTRING, AND A FRIGHTENING PITCH TO MECKLER'S HELMET

The brightest entry issues from Single-A Dunedin, where Vladimir Guerrero Jr., recuperating from the concussion he suffered in a collision at third base a week ago, made his first rehabilitation appearance and treated the Florida State League with appropriate disdain: a run-scoring double struck at nearly nine-and-ninety miles per hour off the bat, two walks, and an early exit with nothing left to prove. The Blue Jays hope to restore him Saturday in the Bronx, the first day he is eligible. 'As soon as he's ready, feeling good and cleared and he feels like he's got his timing, we're going to try to get him back in there,' said the manager Schneider. The same club's ward, alas, admitted a new patient hours later: the shortstop Andrés Giménez left Thursday's victory at the Trop in the fourth inning with tightness in his right hamstring, though an initial examination showed good strength, no magnetic study is scheduled, and the club will see how he feels this day. In Houston, the Angels' rout carried a frightening moment — Wade Meckler took a sinker of better than ninety miles per hour off the helmet in the fifth and walked off under his own power after the trainers' inspection, while Schanuel departed an inning later with soreness in his right side. And the road back grows crowded elsewhere: the wires note Cody Bellinger and J.P. Crawford both began rehabilitation assignments in the minors, each club counting the days.

THE ALMANAC DESK: THE PLAYERS TAKE THE WEEKEND, AND WILLIAMSPORT WAITS AT ITS END

This day begins Players' Weekend, the game's three-day exhibition of its own personalities, returned for a third consecutive year with all thirty clubs participating. The program assigns each day a theme — this day the players' pursuits beyond the diamond, Saturday the causes they champion, Sunday an appreciation of those who carried them to the majors — with custom gear on the field and an auction for the faithful who covet it. The desk notes with approval that the programming includes a sit-down between the former All-Star Yonder Alonso and the Reds' young colossus Sal Stewart — celebrated at length in the columns above — on growing up in Miami with Alonso and Manny Machado as mentors, and a tour of Ozzie Albies' fish collection, which the Herald declines to summarize for fear of spoiling it. The weekend closes where this paper has twice said it would: at Williamsport on Sunday, where the Brewers and Braves — who begin their acquaintance this very afternoon in Milwaukee, as the bill of fare relates — repair to the Little League Classic to perform before the smallest and sternest jury in baseball.

The Rest of the Card

TWO THOUSAND NOTCHES AND A TIPPED CAP: RANGERS 2, NATIONALS 0, AND TEXAS RECLAIMS ITS SHARE OF THE CHAIR

The consolation this paper promised Texas yesterday was redeemed with interest. Jacob deGrom opened the evening at Arlington with swinging strikeouts of Lile and Ortiz — the second of them the two-thousandth of his career — and paused, in the middle of the first inning, to tip his cap to a crowd that understood. He then went about the rest of it: ten strikeouts in all across six scoreless innings, one hit and one walk permitted, both to young Brady House, while Seager's thirteenth homer and Lopez's sacrifice fly supplied the whole of the scoring and Latz closed his five-and-twentieth save. The register is worth the ink: deGrom is the five-and-ninetieth man to reach two thousand strikeouts and the second-fastest ever by games and by innings, trailing only Randy Johnson on the one count and Chris Sale on the other, and only the third to strike his two-thousandth in Texas flannels, after Ferguson Jenkins and Cole Hamels. 'Personal accomplishments are cool, but the goal is to win,' said the author, and his club did both: blanked six-to-nothing by Washington on Wednesday, the Arlington men returned the whitewash within four-and-twenty hours and climb back into a share of the American's final chair. 'Today was kind of vintage deGrom,' offered the manager Schumaker, a man who once batted against the original.

TWO-AND-TWENTY FIRST-PITCH STRIKES IN THREE-AND-TWENTY TRIES: BRONX BOMBERS 6, ORIOLES 1, AND COLE PASSES CLEMENS

The broom came out at Camden Yards, and it was wielded by a man of five-and-thirty throwing strike one as no Yankee has in this century. Gerrit Cole opened two-and-twenty of his three-and-twenty batters with a first-pitch strike — the highest such rate of his career and of any Yankee since at least the year 2000, by the researchers' accounting — and struck out eight across six innings of one-run ball, running his count in pinstripes to one thousand and fifteen — past Roger Clemens, at one thousand and fourteen, for twelfth place on the franchise's all-time strikeout table. 'That's the G.O.A.T.,' said Cole of the man displaced. 'That's a big-time name.' The support was ample: three runs in the third upon Caballero's fielder's choice, Rice's single, and Ramos' double, then sixth-inning homers from García Jr. and Jones, with Chisholm's triple cashing a sixth run and Yarbrough pitching three spotless innings for the save. Beavers' homer was the entire Baltimore reply. The Yankees have won four running and hold the American's first wild-card chair at nine-and-a-half games' remove from the scramble below; the Orioles have lost four running and slip two games from the last one.

HOLMES CARRIES NOTHING-AT-ALL INTO THE SEVENTH: ATLANTAS 2, WHITE SOX 0

In a makeup of a June rainout on the South Side, Grant Holmes — whose rotation seat had lately attracted impertinent questions — answered them by flirting with history: no hits through six innings and into the seventh, until Vargas walked and Benintendi lined a clean single, the only safety Chicago would manage all evening. 'Absolutely, I looked at it every inning,' the pitcher confessed of the scoreboard, a candor the Herald prizes. No Atlanta man has thrown a no-hitter since Kent Mercker in April of 1994, and the manager Weiss let him chase it before the walk and the knock made the question moot; Fuentes then struck out three straight to strand the threat, and Iglesias closed his six-and-twentieth save. Riley drove in both runs — a double in the third, a single in the seventh — and Dubón collected three hits. The victory arrests an Atlanta slide of five defeats in six, administered chiefly by Minnesota's sweep, and opens a stretch of three consecutive first-place opponents: two at Milwaukee beginning this afternoon, the Williamsport finale on Sunday, and the champion Dodgers waiting behind them. 'We got a good team, and we're in first place,' said Weiss. 'It's a good group.'

TWO HUNDRED STRIKEOUTS FOR THE MAN NOBODY SHOULD TOUCH: GUARDIANS 5, JINTS 2

The bill of fare posted Gavin Williams and his eleven victories against the Giants, and the big right-hander delivered a twelfth with a flourish: eleven strikeouts across five and two-thirds innings, carrying his season's count to two hundred and one — the first Cleveland pitcher to reach two hundred since Shane Bieber in 2019, and his ninth game of double-digit strikeouts this year, a total exceeded in all baseball only by Misiorowski. 'It's crazy that anybody touches him in the first place,' testified his left fielder Kwan, who spends such evenings largely as a spectator. Adames' two-run homer was the whole San Francisco account against him; Cleveland had built three in the first upon Ramírez's single, Lowe's sacrifice fly, and Bailey's knock, with Kwan and Rocchio adding singles later and Smith closing his two-and-thirtieth save. The victory seals Cleveland's first series in nearly a month — five consecutive sets had been dropped since late July — and the pillowy August schedule this paper once advertised may finally be yielding its comforts: the Guardians sit one game from the American's final chair.

A SEVENTH STRAIGHT SERIES FOR THE SHORTHANDED JAYS: TORONTO 5, RAYS 1, BEHIND BIEBER'S SEVEN INNINGS

The assignment this paper posted for Shane Bieber was executed in full: seven innings of one-run, four-hit ball at the Trop, opposite the same Seymour whose nine victories the bill of fare had advertised, and the Maple Leaf nine had their seventh consecutive series victory — their first taken inside that dome since September of 2023. The blows were distributed among the deserving: Okamoto's six-and-twentieth homer — every one now a fresh extension of the rookie record this paper saluted Tuesday — plus homers from Lukes and Daz Cameron, his first of the season, and Springer's two-run single. 'The Tampa Bay Rays, they always give us problems,' said Lukes. 'But it felt good to finally punch them back.' The performance is the more remarkable for the casualty list: with Guerrero still convalescing and Giménez departing in the fourth with a tight hamstring — both matters detailed in the infirmary column — Toronto executed a full infield line change mid-game, Clement to shortstop, McAdoo to second, Okamoto across to third, and the reserve catcher Valenzuela manning first. Toronto sits half a game from the American's final chair; the Rays, at six-and-seventy wins, remain the league's class and dropped a series anyway.

SIX IN THE FIRST, AND THE RUBBER MATCH IS SETTLED BEFORE SEATTLE SITS DOWN: CREAM CITY NINE 7, MARINERS 4

Two nights after scoring two-and-twenty and one night after scoring five in defeat, Milwaukee decided the deciding game in its opening quarter-hour: six runs in the first against Kirby, built of doubles from Sánchez, Mitchell, and Hamilton and Ortiz's single, before a single Seattle out had much company. Mitchell finished the evening with two doubles, a homer, and three driven in; the Seattle reply — Donovan's two-run double, a passed ball, Canzone's single — reached four before Patrick, Ashby, and Megill barred the remainder, the save Megill's three-and-twentieth. The Brewers thus take the series two games to one and stand at nine-and-seventy wins against nine-and-forty defeats, the finest ledger in baseball by two full games over Los Angeles — and receive the East-leading Braves this very afternoon in the weekend's marquee engagement, of which the desk note sings below. Seattle departs three games from the American's final chair, with its consolation riding in from Double-A: the Anderson summons, reported in the news columns, may put the minors' best arm in a Mariner uniform in time for the Cubs.

WITT STRIKES THE FIRST BLOW AND THE ROYAL BLUES MAKE IT FIVE RUNNING: ROYALS 6, WHITE ELEPHANTS 2

The liveliest August in the American's lower reaches rolls on. Bobby Witt Jr. opened the home first with a homer, his sixteenth, and finished with three runs scored; Perez and Massey collected three hits apiece, Loftin legged out a triple, and Collins drove in two as Kansas City banked twelve hits and its fifth consecutive victory. The remarkable Dobnak — whose 1.73 figure this paper advertised on Wednesday's bill of fare — wobbled through four scoreless innings without a decision, walking four but yielding nothing, and his earned-run mark now reads 1.58; the relief corps of Thomas, Kimbrel, Schreiber, and Pearson did the rest after Duran's brief adventure. The wandering Athletics, whose entire offense was Serven's and Walton's run-scoring strokes, have now dropped four running, and the Missouri engagement continues this evening with the basement's dignity — such as it is — still under negotiation.

EIGHTEEN RUNS, SEVEN OF THEM DRIVEN HOME BY NETO, AND THE WEST'S LEADERS ARE DRAGGED BACK TO THE WATERLINE: SERAPHS 18, ASTROS 3

An offense that had scored three runs or fewer in twenty of its last thirty games chose Thursday night in Houston to spend a month's allowance. Zach Neto supplied a career evening — five hits and seven runs driven in, on singles in the first and fourth, a three-run homer in the fifth, and a two-run double in the seventh — tying the club record for a shortstop's runs batted in that Freddie Patek set in 1980, while the bottom two-thirds of the order went fifteen-for-one-and-thirty. Guzman's two-run homer in the ninth came off the position player Wade Jr., pressed into mound service to stanch the arithmetic, and Rodriguez claimed the victory with seven innings unblemished by an earned run. 'It was so much fun, especially being on the other side of it,' said Neto, whose club took its first road series in nearly three months. For Houston the consequences are the story: at four-and-sixty wins against four-and-sixty defeats the Astros stand precisely at the break-even line this paper has twice marked for them, their lead in the West a single game over resurgent Texas — though the great Alvarez, doubling in his abbreviated evening, still sits atop all three tables of the batter's Triple Crown, his pursuit unbothered by the wreckage around it.

For the fifth morning running the American's final wild-card chair has been rearranged, and this morning it is shared: the idle Twins and the shutout-dealing Rangers sit together at three-and-sixty wins against five-and-sixty defeats — the chair's fifth arrangement in five editions of this paper, after Baltimore's Monday, Tuesday's three cotenants, Texas alone Wednesday, and Minnesota alone yesterday — with Toronto half a game astern despite beating the league's best club, Cleveland one game back, Detroit a game and a half, Baltimore two, and Seattle three, still not one claimant at the break-even line. In the National the seating holds: the Cubs keep the first chair by six games, Philadelphia — winners of six running — the second by two, San Diego the third, with Arizona one game back, St. Louis two and a half after the morning's larceny in Cincinnati, and Miami four. This day's card runs to the full fifteen engagements, all of them dressed in Players' Weekend colors. The bill of fare: at Milwaukee at 4:10, the engagement of the weekend — the East-leading Braves upon the game's best ledger, with Sale and his 2.16 opposite Misiorowski and his 1.75, the two sovereigns of the National's earned-run table, the latter all but measured for his hardware, as this paper reported Tuesday; at Philadelphia at 6:40, the ninth-inning miracle workers of St. Louis call upon Luzardo; in the Bronx at 7:05, Schlittler — proprietor of the American's finest earned-run figure — receives Toronto, with Guerrero hoping to rejoin the visitors Saturday; at Fenway at 7:10, Webb opposes Gray and his fifteen victories; at Seattle at 10:10, the Cubs arrive as the Anderson watch begins; and at Los Angeles at 10:10, the Bucs are examined by Yamamoto. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Friday, August 21, 2026 — Boxscore
Brenden Schaeffer, Dropped final out leads to 6-run Cards rally in the 9th for stunning win — MLB.com
Kennedi Landry, deGrom reaches 2,000-K milestone in dominant performance, much-needed win — MLB.com
Bryan Hoch, At 35, Cole still making history -- for himself and Yanks — MLB.com
Andy Martinez, Holmes flirts with no-no in bounceback outing to get Braves back on track — MLB.com
Tim Stebbins, Williams fans 11 to reach 200-K milestone for first time — MLB.com
Brian Murphy, Blue Jays bats keep persisting despite the rash of injury scares — MLB.com
Jeremy Rakes, Neto (5 hits, 7 RBIs) paces Angels' hot bats in rout of Astros — MLB.com
Steve Gilbert, Marte meets with manager, GM and is placed on injured list — MLB.com
Brent Maguire, Mariners to call up baseball's top-ranked pitching prospect (source) — MLB.com
Thomas Harrigan, Reds rookie in position for feat not seen in 76 years — MLB.com
Theo DeRosa, Guerrero (concussion recovery) doubles in Single-A rehab game — MLB.com
Everything you need to know about 2026 MLB Players' Weekend — MLB.com
Probable Pitchers — Friday, August 21, 2026 — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference

'TWO NUKES IN THE BOTTOM OF THE NINTH': FLORES TIES IT, LOWE ENDS IT OFF THE FOUL POLE, AND THE CORSAIRS SINK THE TIGERS, 4 TO 3

2026-08-20T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

'TWO NUKES IN THE BOTTOM OF THE NINTH': FLORES TIES IT, LOWE ENDS IT OFF THE FOUL POLE, AND THE CORSAIRS SINK THE TIGERS, 4 TO 3

A catcher who did not start the game homers twice from the bench — the second of them to level the affair in the ninth against the great Jansen — whereupon Brandon Lowe's drive drifts toward foul territory, strikes the pole, and settles the evening at a stroke: the first time since 2014 that Pittsburgh has struck the tying and winning blows by homer in the same late inning, on a night the rested Skenes could not command and won anyway

Kenley Jansen has saved more games than every pitcher who ever lived save two, and Wednesday evening at Pittsburgh the whole weight of that eminence could not buy him three outs. The Detroits had done the patient work: the rookie Jackson Jobe outpitched the celebrated Paul Skenes — who was rested expressly for this assignment, as this paper reported Sunday, and repaid the courtesy by wandering the strike zone for four and a third innings, walking four — and a three-to-one lead, assembled from McGonigle's sacrifice fly and double and Gleyber Torres' run-scoring single, was carried carefully to the late innings. Then Rafael Flores Jr., a catcher who had begun the evening on the bench and warmed himself in the batting tunnel against the mere possibility of employment, pinch-hit in the seventh and deposited a hanging cutter from Waguespack over the left-field wall. And in the ninth, with one out and Jansen dealing his famous cutter, Flores confessed afterward to a simple plan — 'ambush' it — and executed the ambush four hundred and thirty-one feet, bat aloft, the game level at three.

The finishing stroke belonged to Brandon Lowe, and to the architecture. The veteran second baseman lifted a fly ball deep down the right-field line, watched the spin carry it toward disgrace — 'all he could do,' the wire observed, 'was pray and watch' — and heard it clang off the foul pole instead. 'I think the wind pushed it back over a little bit for me,' Lowe allowed, in the tone of a man declining to examine a gift. His seven-and-twentieth homer of the year closed the account at four to three, and the record-keepers were waiting at the door: not since the second of May, 2014, when Pedro Álvarez and Starling Marte did the honors, had Pittsburgh struck the game-tying and game-winning homers in the same ninth-or-later inning, and Flores stands as the first Pirate since at least 1900 with two homers in a game he did not start. 'That was a Cinderella story,' said the young man, sensibly. 'Tie game, homer walk-off. That's what you dream of as a little kid.'

Skenes, who had struck out five and left without a decision, claimed a curious clairvoyance: 'I wasn't surprised. I wasn't expecting it to be two nukes in the bottom of the ninth. But I had a feeling that we were going to win that game.' The ledger distributes the consequences evenhandedly. The relief corps of Doval, Weaver, and Montgomery held the deficit at one until the thunder arrived, Montgomery collecting the victory a night after collecting the save; Jansen is charged with his fifth blown save and a fall to three-and-five; and the Corsairs, at three-and-sixty wins, have their second consecutive series in hand while pressing their noses against the glass of the National's wild-card window. Detroit's arithmetic is grimmer still: a second straight defeat leaves the club a game and a half from the American's final chair, which has, as the desk note relates, changed tenants yet again.

News Around the League

THE FRONT-OFFICE DESK: COHEN KEEPS HIS ARCHITECT BUT AUDITS THE BLUEPRINTS — 'TOO MUCH RISK'

The proprietor of the Metropolitans has rendered his verdict on a curious season, and it is a lawyer's verdict: every decision defensible, the sum indictable. Steve Cohen reiterated Wednesday his commitment to David Stearns, the club's president of baseball operations, through next year's campaign — while allowing that the winter's grand renovation carried 'too much risk.' The particulars of that renovation are well known to this desk: a new coaching staff installed beneath the manager Mendoza, Brandon Nimmo traded to Texas for the second baseman Marcus Semien, and Pete Alonso permitted to walk to free agency and into Baltimore colors — whence, as the card below relates, he nearly haunted the Bronx men this very night. 'When you add new players, a coaching staff and adding players with an injured history and you add risk upon risk,' Cohen reasoned, 'it doesn't mean it has to turn out bad... I see individual decisions that make perfect sense. But when you add it all up, did he take too much risk?' The audit arrives, it must be said, just as the books have begun to balance: the Amazins have won eleven of fifteen since the deadline, the rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing supplying the spark, and Cohen permitted himself the small optimism of a man watching young talent arrive ahead of schedule. 'Winning is better than losing,' the owner observed, a proposition this paper has been unable to refute.

THE CLOSER'S OFFICE CHANGES ITS NAMEPLATE IN LOS ANGELES: DÍAZ'S NECK PASSES ITS EXAMINATION, BUT SCOTT KEEPS THE NINTH

The succession this paper reported yesterday is now formalized. Tanner Scott, restored to the closing post upon Edwin Díaz's consignment to the fifteen-day list, is the Dodgers' man for the stretch run by his manager's plain declaration: 'It's easy to say that he's our best reliever and most consistent reliever,' said Dave Roberts. 'I certainly see him as our closer.' The left-hander answered the proclamation Wednesday night with a perfect tenth inning at Denver — eight pitches, seven of them strikes, a day after throwing seven-and-twenty — for his eighteenth save, and his August ledger reads one run allowed in eight appearances. As for Díaz, the news is the best available to a man on the shelf: the magnetic examination of his troubled neck found nothing structural — 'It went well, and there were no findings,' Roberts reported. 'It was a best-case scenario' — though no timetable attends his return, and September is spoken of in the conditional. The wires note besides that the rotation grows crowded with returning eminences, Glasnow's restoration described as near at hand, while Ohtani, as this paper chronicled Tuesday, continues his own long march back to the mound. The champions, in short, are assembling their October inventory.

THE HERALD SALUTES A MAN WHO WOULD NOT STAY DOWN: TOLMAN REACHES THE MAJORS AT LAST, FIVE SURGERIES AND ONE TERRIBLE NIGHT LATER

The freshest name on the Washington roster carries the season's best story. Erik Tolman, a left-handed reliever of seven-and-twenty years, was summoned from Triple-A Rochester this week by way of the traditional ruse — his coaches inquired whether he might fancy winter ball, then whether he might fancy pitching in Texas, which is where the big club happened to be — and the man's path to that little joke beggars belief. Twice his elbow was rebuilt by the Tommy John procedure, once at Arizona State and once more before he had fairly returned. Then, on a night he can date without hesitation — the second of August, 2023 — he hopped the foul line on his way to the mound at Single-A Fredericksburg, caught his spike, and came down into catastrophe: every ligament of the knee torn, the hamstring pulled from the bone, a nerve ruptured, the feeling gone from his foot, and an emergency room where, for five endless minutes, the physicians discussed the possibility of taking the lower leg. 'I've been through a lot,' he offered Wednesday, in the understatement of the young season. 'I was speechless... I haven't stopped smiling today or yesterday.' The Herald, which traffics daily in walk-offs and whitewashes, notes that no score on this morning's card required more of a man than that summons did.

THE PROSPECT DESK READS THE NEW TOP HUNDRED: A BOSTON SHORTSTOP ASCENDS TO THIRD, AND BALTIMORE'S PRIZE FROM THE RUTSCHMAN COMMERCE GATHERS SPEED

The Pipeline scribes have refreshed their register of the game's hundred finest prospects, and the desk extracts three names for the morning reader. First, Franklin Arias, the twenty-year-old Boston shortstop, now third-ranked in all the minors: the young man has struck three-and-twenty home runs this season — more than his first three professional campaigns combined — and is spoken of as potentially the youngest Red Sock to debut since Devers in 2017. Second, Anthony Eyanson, now Baltimore's second-ranked jewel: the desk reminds its readers that he arrived in the very commerce that sent Adley Rutschman to Boston — whose first Fenway thunder this paper recorded only yesterday — and the right-hander has since added two full ticks to a fastball now touching a hundred, with a promising splitter besides. Third, Theo Gillen of Tampa Bay, twelfth on the register, a young batsman whom injury has harried since his schoolboy days and who, at last healthy, is showing why the scouts never wavered. The almanac reader will note the pleasing symmetry: the game's best club and its most patient sellers both grow richer while the season runs.

THE ALMANAC DESK: A FATHER CALLS HIS SHOT IN WISCONSIN, AND WILLIAMSPORT WAITS ON SUNDAY

Two entries, one of them possibly the finest piece of spectating of the year. At High-A Wisconsin on Wednesday, Sawyer Strosnider — Milwaukee's second-round selection of this summer, out of Texas Christian — struck the first home run of his professional life, a changeup dispatched to right-center at a hundred and three miles per hour off the bat. It was caught on the fly, beyond the wall, by his own father. Scott Strosnider, a restless man who tours the stadium during his son's games, had stationed himself on a private party deck and, challenged by its occupants, offered the following credentials: 'Well, my son's about to hit a home run that I'm going to catch.' The prophecy was fulfilled within the minute. 'Right place at the right time,' shrugged the son, who added a run-scoring double for good measure. Second entry, the long calendar: the Little League Classic arrives Sunday, the three-and-twentieth, when the Brewers and Braves repair to Williamsport to play before the smallest and sternest jury in baseball — the same two clubs, the schedule-makers note, who first meet at Milwaukee beginning Friday. The Herald commends the fixture annually and does so again.

The Rest of the Card

THE PALE HOSE ANSWER TWO WALK-OFFS WITH A WHITEWASH: WHITE SOX 3, CUBS 0, AND URQUIDY SPINS A RELIC OF 1991

Twice walked off at Wrigley, the visitors closed the crosstown engagement by permitting nothing whatever. Sean Newcomb opened with two clean innings, whereupon José Urquidy — a man who was not in the organization when these clubs first met in May — struck out eight of the first nine outs he recorded and finished with six scoreless innings on eight-and-sixty pitches, the first White Sox relief turn of such length, so many strikeouts, and no runs since Melido Perez in 1991. 'The secondary pitches, I was spinning the ball well,' said the author. 'I think it was a little confusing for the hitters.' Benintendi singled home the first run in the sixth and Braden Montgomery doubled home two in the eighth before 40,086 souls; Taylor fanned two in the ninth for his seventh save. The North Siders were blanked, and the reader will note what died with the shutout: Crow-Armstrong's pursuit of a third consecutive game opened with a homer, a bid this paper posted on yesterday's bill of fare. The Central's leaders depart with the finale and a cushion of four games; the rivalry, as ever, kept no standings and took no prisoners.

THE NORTH STARS COMPLETE THE SWEEP AND TAKE THE CHAIR: TWINS 6, TOMAHAWK NINE 4

Three days ago Minnesota was licking Philadelphia-administered wounds; this morning, by the geometry only August can draw, the Twins hold the American's final wild-card chair outright. The finale followed the set's pattern of patient larceny: Kody Clemens doubled home two with the bases loaded in the fifth — struck, be it noted, off the left-handed relief summoned expressly to retire him — and, after Atlanta had leveled the affair at four upon Lane Thomas' single, Albies' sacrifice fly, and a balk, Clemens singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh against another left-hander dispatched on the same errand, Brooks Lee adding a sixth for margin. The rookie Kaelen Culpepper, in the majors barely a fortnight, collected his first three-hit game — 'This kid can hit,' said the manager Shelton. 'We knew that when we drafted him' — and Yoendrys Gómez recorded his twentieth save, a third in as many days. Atlanta has dropped three running, its East cushion shaved to four and a half; the sweep's full arithmetic is rendered in the desk note.

THE DESERT NINE REFUSE TO DROWN AT FENWAY: DIAMONDBACKS 7, FENWAY MEN 6, IN TEN INNINGS

A club that had lost its second baseman to mystery and two games to Boston's bats finally planted its flag. Down five-to-two in the sixth after Nootbaar's two-run homer had crowned the visitors' rally, Boston answered through Mickey Gasper — a three-run blow, his third homer in as many nights, a progression this paper has tracked from its first — and the affair went level to the tenth. There Nolan Arenado, jammed, blooped a single to left that scored Moreno, Fernandez walked home a second with the sacks full, and the spare run proved the decisive one when Contreras' groundout drew Boston within a single tally and no closer. 'I couldn't be more proud of these guys,' said the manager Lovullo, whose week has been chronicled in these columns. 'Winning makes all the bad go away.' The victory snaps a three-game slide and pulls Arizona within one game of the National's final chair; as for the absent Marte, this day brings the magnetic examination of his knee and a sit-down with the general manager Hazen — the next chapter, the clubhouse insists, in a saga it has resolved to stop reading.

NOLA JOINS HAMELS IN THE CLUB LEDGER AND THE QUAKERS MAKE IT SIX RUNNING: PHILLIES 4, GULF STREAM NINE 1

The sweep of Miami was completed by the man the season had nearly written off. Aaron Nola worked seven innings of one-run ball, striking out eight — seven of the victims dispatched by the knuckle curve that has lately recovered its old cruelty — for his hundred-and-fourteenth career victory, drawing him level with Cole Hamels for sixth place upon the franchise's all-time table. 'Lately, I've been feeling pretty good, body and arm,' said the author, whose figure across his last five starts sits at 2.51. Arraez supplied the heavy blow, a two-run homer in the third; Turner doubled home a fourth upon an overturned tag play; Sanoja's sixth-inning homer stood as the whole Miami reply; and Duran closed for his eight-and-twentieth save. The defensive jewel belonged to Brandon Marsh, who scaled the left-field side wall like a boy on the Ashburn Alley climbing apparatus to steal a foul pop — aided, he cheerfully confessed, by a spectator who yanked his hat back at the final instant: 'I gotta thank the guy standing over there... I think he had first dibs on it before me.' Philadelphia has won six running, its longest surge of the year, and stands twelve games above the waterline for the first time; the wires add that Nestor Cortes has been fetched from outside the organization to thicken the rotation. The Fish depart four games from the final chair, swept and sinking.

THE OWNER'S FAVORITE ROOKIE SUPPLIES THE PROOF: FLUSHING NINE 4, PADS 2

Hours after the proprietor's musings on risk and youth, recorded in the news columns above, the youth in question filed his brief. Carson Benge struck a two-run homer in the fourth — his fifteenth — and the Flushing nine held the visitors at arm's length thereafter: Tatis' run-scoring double in the fifth drew San Diego within one, whereupon the eighth restored the margin on Bichette's fielder's choice, abetted by a throwing error, and Jared Young's run-scoring single. Sheets singled home a ninth-inning consolation before Senga closed the door. The decision went to the reliever Lavender, his ledger opening at one-and-nought, with King falling to eight-and-nine, and New York claims the series two games to one. The consequences travel west: the Friars keep the National's final chair, but their cushion over Arizona — whose extra-inning deliverance at Fenway is chronicled above — is this morning a single game, and the schedule offers no idle days in which to hide.

A LONG STRIKE, A STOLEN HOME, AND THE HIGHLANDERS TAKE THREE RUNNING: YANKEES 5, O'S 3

The evening at Camden Yards turned upon a ball that did not count. With the affair level in the seventh, Pete Alonso launched a towering drive down the line and set off hopping in the manner of Fisk, certain of the lead; the magistrates called it foul, the replay glass found the pictures inconclusive, and Alonso, howling at the heavens, was thereupon struck out by the untroubled Headrick. 'That's a really defining call in the game,' said the slugger, whose club's own after-hours survey — conducted, remarkably, by the New York replay men plotting the ball's path along the third-base line — concluded the call was correct. New York pressed the reprieve at once: Lombard Jr. legged out a bases-loaded infield single in the eighth and Chisholm Jr. raced home on a bounced splitter — 'We call that the rope-a-dope,' grinned the manager Boone — to break the tie for good. The particulars otherwise: Baltimore's Holliday stole home in the first, straight-up thievery of the oldest kind; Ben Rice answered with his four-and-thirtieth homer; Alonso's nine-and-twentieth had answered in the third, and Beavers' blow leveled matters in the sixth. Bednar closed for his nine-and-twentieth save, the Highlanders' third straight victory, while the O's slip a game and a half from the final chair.

THE TUGBOAT DOCKS, AND THE ORANGE AND BLACK STEAL A WHITEWASH: GIANTS 1, LAKE ERIE MEN 0

The maiden voyage this paper billed yesterday came off precisely to the chart. Matt 'Tugboat' Wilkinson, before some thirty friends and relations in captain's hats, opened the game with two scoreless innings against the very organization that drafted him and traded him away in the Bailey commerce — six of seven batters retired, the celebrated Invisiball cresting at a stately one-and-ninety miles per hour. 'It was definitely a long-awaited moment,' said the debutant. 'I'm happy it could happen here, of all places.' The heavier hauling fell to Adrian Houser, who followed with five-plus scoreless innings and a fastball touching eight-and-ninety — a 0.72 figure now across his last six appearances — for the victory, and Smith barred the ninth. The run, singular and sufficient, was Bericoto's fourth-inning single cashing Devers. The defeat was cruel bookkeeping for Cleveland's Messick, who owns the third-best earned-run figure in the American and fell regardless to nine-and-eight; his club, lately preparing to feast on a pillowy August schedule, was instead handed its own menu.

ELLY'S LIGHTNING, STEWART'S THUNDER, AND THE QUEEN CITY NINE COME FROM BEHIND: REDS 5, REDBIRDS 4

Cincinnati's evening displayed all three of its crown jewels in a single setting. Chase Burns, laboring without his sharpest edge, ground through five innings of two-run ball with eight strikeouts — 'Just grinding, mentally,' the All-Star allowed. Elly De La Cruz, ranging into short right-center as the relay man, threw a runner out at the plate at 99.2 miles per hour — the fourth-fastest infield assist the measuring machines have recorded, the man himself owning the first three — to keep a scoreless game scoreless. And the rookie Sal Stewart, with St. Louis ahead two-to-nothing in the sixth, struck a three-run homer, his seven-and-twentieth, to turn the ledger over entirely. The Redbirds made it interesting to the last: Jordan Walker's two-run blast in the ninth, his five-and-twentieth, drew within one before Pagán shut the door behind Moll's victory. The clubs part with the season's series concluded and their wild-card errands diverging — St. Louis three chairs' lengths from the last seat, Cincinnati playing, by its own admission, for seasons yet to come.

SEVEN EARLY, SIX SURRENDERED, ONE HELD: GULF COAST CLUB 7, CANADIANS 6

The league's best club continues to win in the manner of a man carrying soup down a staircase. Tampa Bay built a seven-to-one lead by the fourth — Yandy Díaz's two-run homer to open, then a five-run frame composed in the club's signature miniature: a fly ball the Toronto left fielder Sánchez misjudged into a two-run gift, back-to-back bunts by Walls and Simpson that each cashed a runner, and Caminero's groundout — whereupon Toronto spent five innings clawing it back through Kirk's homer and singles beyond counting, McAdoo's double drawing the visitors within one in the sixth. There the arithmetic froze: Rasmussen had done enough for his thirteenth victory, Baker barred the late innings, and the Rays had their eighteenth one-run decision of the season. 'If we win, it doesn't matter,' shrugged Rasmussen, a philosophy his club at six-and-seventy wins can afford. The defeat fell to Scherzer, whose ancient shoulders bore yesterday's billing opposite Rasmussen and now a ledger of one-and-six; the Jays slip a full game from the final chair.

SEVEN IN THE EIGHTH AND THE KANSAS CITY NINE MAKE IT FOUR RUNNING: ROYALS 9, MACKMEN 7

For five innings the wandering Athletics played the better game, McNeil twice driving home runs and a five-to-one lead in hand; then the Kansas City eighth arrived like weather. Seven runs crossed in the frame: Pasquantino — who had homered in the sixth and now singled home another — Isbel's knock, Collins' sacrifice fly to level the affair at five, and then the decisive stroke, John Rave's sharp three-run double that emptied the bases at a blow, Garcia singling home the seventh behind it. Muncy's two-run homer in the visitors' ninth dressed the final margin at nine-to-seven. The victory — Kansas City's fourth running, the liveliest August in the lower reaches of the American — went to the ancient Kimbrel, and the clubs conclude their set this afternoon with the basement's dignity, such as it is, at stake.

THE PAGE IS TURNED WITH SEVEN RUNS IN TWO INNINGS: PUGET SOUND MEN 7, SUDS MEN 5

The response to the worst defeat in a franchise's history was delivered before Milwaukee had fairly taken its seats. Seattle sent all nine men to the plate in the first — Canzone's two-run double and Ward's two-run single the heavy freight — and stacked three more in the second upon Rodríguez's sacrifice fly and Naylor's two-run knock, seven runs that chased the Brewers' starter May before the second inning was done. 'We had our teeth kicked in yesterday,' said Donovan, who reached base four times at the head of the order. 'So I guess it's just how you respond.' The response required defending: Joey Ortiz answered with a homer, a sacrifice fly, and a run-scoring single — three driven in — and Milwaukee crept within two by the eighth before Muñoz closed the door. Gilbert took his tenth victory, and the clubs settle the rubber match this very afternoon at the scene of Tuesday's crime. The Brewers, at eight-and-seventy wins, keep the game's best ledger by a game and a half over Los Angeles; Seattle departs the evening having proven, at minimum, that the page turns.

SEVENTEEN INNINGS OF NOTHING AND COUNTING: CAPITAL NINE 6, LONE STAR NINE 0, AS CAVALLI FANS ELEVEN

The finest pitching of the night was done in Arlington, where Cade Cavalli struck out his first seven outs entire — eight strikeouts by the end of the third, ten by the end of the fourth on a mere sixty pitches — and finished with eleven across six scoreless innings, his shutout streak now standing at seventeen. The register notes that since the franchise came to Washington, only Scherzer and Roark had fanned ten inside four innings; Cavalli, with his eighth consecutive quality start and a 2.12 figure across ten outings, is pitching himself into that company by the week. 'It's just a testament to the process,' said the author. 'Not riding the highs, not riding the lows.' The margin was supplied late: Tena's homer and small carpentry made it three, and Andrés Chaparro broke the evening open with a three-run blow in the seventh. For Texas the defeat was doubly dear — blanked at home, the Rangers surrender the wild-card chair they had held alone but a single morning, and slip two games behind Houston in the West besides. The almanac offers them one consolation: deGrom takes the ball this evening.

A DEBUT, A BULLPEN OF IRON, AND THE STREAK IS ENDED: HOUSTON NINE 3, HALOS 2

The West's leaders arrested their three-game slide by the narrowest sufficient means. The rookie Ethan Pecko, ninth on the club's prospect register, made his major-league debut and battled through three and two-thirds untidy innings — 'It was a little sloppy, but I felt like I battled,' the young man reported, with a candor the Herald salutes — whereupon the relief corps of Sousa, Blubaugh, Okert, Abreu, and Hader delivered five and a third scoreless innings, the continuation of a bullpen ledger that reads 2.21 since late July, the best figure in the game. Vázquez homered, Altuve doubled home the equalizer, and Cam Smith's sacrifice fly supplied the difference; Anaheim's runs had arrived on Guzman's double, awarded amid fan interference. Hader closed, Sousa took the decision, and Houston, at four-and-sixty wins, holds the West by two full games over silenced Texas — with the great Alvarez, whose pursuit of a crown of three this desk charted yesterday, scoring the tying run in workmanlike anonymity.

THE SOUVENIR-CATCHER TAKES THE VICTORY: ANGELENOS 6, MILE HIGH NINE 4, IN TEN, AND THE SWEEP IS NINE

The tenth inning at Coors belonged to the professionals: Freeman's sacrifice fly cashed Pages, Betts singled home Teoscar Hernández behind him — three hits and two driven in for the great shortstop — and Los Angeles had its ninth sweep of the season. The record-keepers append a curiosity: the Dodgers stand four-and-nothing in extra innings, the only club in baseball yet to lose one. Roki Sasaki, crowded into anonymity by his own rotation's eminence, supplied five innings of two-run ball — a 2.31 figure now since the All-Star pause — while Betts' sixteenth homer and Enrique Hernández's two-run blast had built the early lead; Moniak's twentieth leveled matters in the seventh before the extra frame. And the victory itself went to Kyle Hurt — the very reliever who, two nights ago in these columns, caught Ohtani's four-hundred-fifty-two-foot homer in his bullpen glove; the man has now collected a keepsake and a decision from the same week's residency. Scott's perfect eight-pitch tenth, saluted in the news columns, sealed it. The Angelenos, at seven-and-seventy wins with three straight victories and forty of them earned on the road — no club has more — depart Denver a game and a half behind Milwaukee for the game's best ledger; Colorado's consolation is that the caravan has finally left town.

The arithmetic desk reports that the American's final wild-card chair has now changed occupants on four consecutive mornings: Baltimore held it Monday, three tenants shared it Tuesday, Texas sat alone Wednesday, and this morning it belongs to Minnesota — the sweep of Atlanta complete, a half-game clear of the blanked Rangers, with Toronto a game astern, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Detroit a game and a half, and Seattle two and a half: the chair's fourth tenant in four editions of this paper, and still not one claimant at the break-even line. In the National the seating holds but tightens: the Cubs keep the first chair by six, Philadelphia the second by two, San Diego the third, with Arizona now a single game back of the Friars, St. Louis three, and Miami four. This day's card runs to nine engagements, the schedule-makers granting the rest of the company a travel day before Friday's full slate. The bill of fare: at Cincinnati at 12:40, McGreevy opposite Singer in the set's conclusion; at Cleveland at 1:10, Williams and his eleven victories receive the Giants; at the Trop at 1:10, Bieber takes the ball for Toronto opposite Seymour and his nine-and-three; at Kansas City at 2:10, the remarkable Dobnak — a 1.73 figure — opposes the Athletics; at Chicago at 2:10, the East-leading Braves arrive on the South Side for a cross-league examination of the Central's leaders, Holmes against Kay; at Milwaukee at 2:10, Seattle and the Brewers settle their rubber match, Kirby opposite Gasser; and in the evening, Cole at Baltimore at 6:35, deGrom against the streaking Cavalli's Washingtons at 8:05, and the Angels at Houston at 8:10. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Thursday, August 20, 2026 — Boxscore
Aiden Stepansky, Bucs author 'Cinderella story' 9th: Game-tying homer, then walk-off blast — MLB.com
Bill Ladson, Cohen reiterates commitment to Stearns, but says Mets took 'too much risk' in offseason — MLB.com
Patrick Saunders, With Díaz sidelined, Dodgers see Scott as 'our best and most consistent reliever' — MLB.com
Dave Sessions, After overcoming injuries, Tolman called up by Nationals with emotional video — MLB.com
Ben Weinrib, The 10 biggest breakouts on the new Top 100 Prospects list — MLB.com
Sam Dykstra and Ben Weinrib, Dad catches son's 1st pro HR after predicting it was about to happen — MLB.com
Scott Merkin, White Sox get taste of postseason pressure with Crosstown Classic win — MLB.com
Patrick Donnelly, Twins sweep Braves, move into Wild Card position — MLB.com
Steve Gilbert, Arenado's clutch knock in extras caps eventful road trip for D-backs — MLB.com
Aaron Bracy, Nola continues resurgence with 7-inning gem to extend Phils' win streak to six — MLB.com
Aaron Bracy, 'He had first dibs': Marsh thanks fan for aiding with Superman-esque catch — MLB.com
Bryan Hoch, Yanks push past Orioles after disputed foul call on Alonso blast — MLB.com
Maria Guardado, 'Tugboat' kicks off Giants' shutout win with stout showing vs. team that drafted him — MLB.com
Mark Sheldon, Reds' brightest stars shine in comeback win over Cardinals — MLB.com
Adam Berry, Rays take 6-run lead, hang on for dear life: 'If we win, it doesn't matter' — MLB.com
Zach Sweet, Mariners turn the page, flip the script, hold off Brewers for rebound victory — MLB.com
Dave Sessions, Cavalli (11 K's) keeps on rolling as scoreless streak reaches 17 innings — MLB.com
Brian McTaggart, Astros' bullpen remains lights-out to back Pecko's MLB debut — MLB.com
Patrick Saunders, As LA's star-studded rotation nears full health, Sasaki shows why he belongs — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference

TWO-AND-TWENTY TO NOTHING: MILWAUKEE ADMINISTERS THE MOST LOPSIDED WHITEWASH THE MODERN GAME HAS EVER SET DOWN — BREWERS 22, MARINERS 0

2026-08-19T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

TWO-AND-TWENTY TO NOTHING: MILWAUKEE ADMINISTERS THE MOST LOPSIDED WHITEWASH THE MODERN GAME HAS EVER SET DOWN — BREWERS 22, MARINERS 0

A taut one-run affair through four innings dissolves into the widest margin in Brewers history and the worst defeat in all the Seattle annals — one-and-twenty runs across the final four turns at bat, four home runs from the club that hits the fewest, a nine-run eighth against an infielder pressed into pitching, the rookie Lara's first career homer, and poor Rodríguez throwing a live ball into the stands with the count of outs at two

For four full innings Tuesday night in Milwaukee the affair stood one to nothing, and that lone run had been earned by scraping: Jake Bauers, waved home on William Contreras' two-out single in the first, arrived to find Raleigh barring the door, jarred the ball loose in a scrambling slide, and dove back to touch the plate while the on-deck man screamed directions. It was, the wires observed, quintessential Brewers baseball — and it bore no resemblance whatever to what followed. Christian Yelich's three-run homer crowned a five-run fifth and chased the Seattle starter Bryce Miller; David Hamilton struck a three-run blow and Bauers a two-run one in a five-run sixth; and by evening's end Milwaukee had scored one-and-twenty runs over its final four innings at bat. The particulars belong to the record-keepers now: the widest margin of victory in the franchise's history, eclipsing a twenty-to-nothing affair at Pittsburgh in 2010; a tie of the club record of two-and-twenty runs, set at Toronto in 1992 when Yount and Molitor still shared a clubhouse; and a tie for the most lopsided shutout in the major leagues since June of 1887 — the largest ever administered at home in the Modern Era, the twenty-two-to-nothing jobs of 1975 Pittsburgh and 2004 Cleveland having both been done on the road. 'I'd like to order that every night,' said the Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy, a man not famous for gluttony.

The eighth inning graduated, in the phrase of one chronicler, from lopsided to lunacy. Seattle surrendered the pitching to the infielder Leo Rivas, and Milwaukee extracted nine runs from him, among them the first home run of Luis Lara's major-league life, struck with two men aboard. 'Maybe we'll have a celebration for his second career homer when he gets one off an actual pitcher,' offered Yelich, magnanimously. 'But they all count.' The inning's darkest ornament belonged to Julio Rodríguez, who settled under Yelich's bases-loaded fly to center, made the catch cleanly — and chucked the baseball into the stands, having misplaced the count of outs. It was the second out. The magistrates awarded every runner two bases, a twenty-to-nothing lead thereby became one-and-twenty, and Lara singled home the last of it. Milwaukee then dispatched its catcher Gary Sánchez to pitch the ninth, and Seattle could not score even upon him: five hits on the night, a twelfth whitewash suffered this season, and the worst defeat in the whole history of the franchise, surpassing a twenty-one-to-one affair at Houston in 2019. 'This was an embarrassing loss,' said Miller, declining the comfort of euphemism. 'We got our butts kicked.'

The ledger dresses the absurdity in its consequences. Harrison took the decision, his tenth victory against three defeats; the four home runs came from a club that, even after the barrage, owns the fewest in the major leagues at a hundred and seventeen — the game's humblest sluggers, choosing one night to spend a season's allowance. This paper observed Monday that no club had earned its rest more honestly than Milwaukee after seventeen games in seventeen days; thus refreshed, they returned to work at eight-and-seventy wins against eight-and-forty defeats, the finest ledger in baseball, two and a half games clear of Los Angeles and four and a half ahead of the Cubs in the Central. Seattle, which arrived in Wisconsin fresh from taking a series in Houston, departs the evening three games from the American's final wild-card chair — and is obliged, by the almanac's mercies, to return to the very same premises this evening.

News Around the League

THE MILESTONE DESK: OHTANI'S THIRTIETH, SIX SEASONS RUNNING — AND THE SLEEPING ARM STIRS BESIDES

Two dispatches from Denver concerning the same remarkable person. First, the bat: Shohei Ohtani opened the third inning Tuesday by depositing a hanging curveball from Ryan Feltner four hundred and forty-eight feet away, a two-run blow that was his thirtieth home run of the season — the sixth consecutive campaign in which he has reached that plateau. The man simply does not miss the thin air: his hitting streak at Coors Field now runs to two-and-twenty games, within which he has batted better than .400 with ten homers. The scribes add that his hundred nine-and-thirty home runs as a Dodger are the fourth-most any man has hit in his first three seasons with a club, trailing only McGwire's hundred nine-and-fifty in St. Louis, Rodriguez's hundred six-and-fifty in Texas, and Ruth's hundred eight-and-forty in the Bronx — company that requires no introduction. Second, the arm: as yesterday's infirmary column forecast, Ohtani ascended a bullpen mound before the game and threw five-and-thirty pitches, pronouncing the session good with an upturned thumb. 'I could see the next step being him pitching live,' said the manager Dave Roberts, though no timetable attends the man's return to a major-league mound, where he has not stood since the third of July. His pitching ledger waits patiently: a 1.79 earned-run figure across fourteen starts.

THE ROOKIE OF THIRTY YEARS: OKAMOTO'S FIVE-AND-TWENTIETH BREAKS A TORONTO RECORD OLDER THAN SOME TEAMMATES

Let the Toronto ledger be amended: Kazuma Okamoto is now the greatest rookie home-run hitter in the history of the Blue Jays. His five-and-twentieth of the season — a four-hundred-and-forty-two-foot detonation of a Steven Matz changeup in the fifth inning at the Trop, the second-longest blow of his year — broke the tie he had held with Eric Hinske, whose four-and-twenty in 2002 had stood as the franchise mark for four-and-twenty years. The homer also snapped a sixteen-game drought for the big infielder, who arrived this season after eleven campaigns in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball and greets the very word 'rookie' with a shrug. 'I'm 30 years old, so yeah, tough to say,' he allowed, through the club's interpreter. His manager John Schneider required no interpreter: 'He did not miss that ball.' The particulars of the ten-run evening it adorned are rendered upon the card below.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: SODERSTROM'S SEASON ENDS UNDER THE KNIFE, MARTE FLIES WEST, ADELL'S KNEE, AND GAUSMAN'S UNGLOVED HAND

The gravest entry belongs to the Athletics: Tyler Soderstrom, lately consigned to the injured list with an impingement of the left hip, will now have the joint repaired by surgery, and his season is concluded. In Boston, the Marte affair this paper has chronicled since Tuesday's edition acquires a medical chapter: Ketel Marte, still on the restricted list and still unheard-from by his manager — 'I think he's headed back to Phoenix to get some exams done on his left knee,' offered Torey Lovullo, whose information came secondhand — has departed for Arizona and a magnetic examination of the knee that has troubled him since the All-Star pause, or so the shortstop Perdomo reports from their text correspondence. In Cleveland, Jo Adell's finest night as a professional came at a price: the man fouled a ball off his left knee moments before launching the evening's grandest homer, was withdrawn in the eighth with a contusion, and is accounted day-to-day. And at Wrigley, Kevin Gausman's first home start in Cub flannels — the very assignment this paper's bill of fare posted yesterday — ended in the fifth inning by order of a massive cramp in the thumb of his glove hand, of all instruments. 'He's doing well,' reported the manager Counsell, and the card below records how handsomely his relief was covered.

THE ARITHMETIC DESK EYES A CROWN OF THREE: ALVAREZ LEADS EVERY AMERICAN TABLE THAT MATTERS

The morning's leaderboards contain a quiet astonishment that the desk feels obliged to shout: Yordan Alvarez of Houston stands first in the American League in batting average at .318, first in home runs at six-and-thirty, and first in runs batted in at eight-and-eighty — the three tables that together compose the batter's Triple Crown, a feat last managed in the American League by Miguel Cabrera in 2012. The pursuit is genuine on every front: Simpson of Tampa Bay bats .310, Caminero of the same address has five-and-thirty homers, and Dingler of Detroit has driven in two-and-eighty. Six weeks remain, and the desk makes no promises — it merely notes that the sternest irony in baseball currently resides in Houston, where the league's most complete batsman soars while his club, as the card below relates, has lost three running and sits precisely at the break-even line, clinging to the West by a single game.

THE ALMANAC DESK: A TUGBOAT STEAMS INTO CLEVELAND HARBOR THIS EVENING

The connoisseurs of nomenclature are directed to Progressive Field at 6:40 this evening, where the Giants will hand the ball to Matt 'Tugboat' Wilkinson, a twenty-three-year-old left-hander of six feet one and two hundred fifty pounds, for his major-league debut — against the very organization that drafted him in the tenth round of 2023 and traded him away this May in the Patrick Bailey commerce. The man's celebrated weapon is a fastball his admirers call the Invisiball: it averages a mere 89.9 miles per hour, and by the sorcery of a low release point it held Triple-A batsmen to a .172 figure this season. 'He's not scared,' testified his manager Tony Vitello, and the nickname's provenance is equally honest — bestowed at the Little League World Series by his father's best friend, and explained by the bearer thus: 'I wasn't moving too fast around the bases growing up.' The Herald, which has chronicled slower vessels doing heavier work, wishes the Tugboat fair seas.

The Rest of the Card

GRISHAM DRIVES IN EVERY NEW YORK RUN, AND RODÓN RETURNS AS PROMISED: PINSTRIPES 3, BALTIMORES 1

The return this paper's bill of fare posted yesterday was duly made: Carlos Rodón, restored from the injured list to the rotation turn Fried vacated, gave the Yankees four innings of one-run ball in his first appearance since early July. The offense was a one-man operation. Trent Grisham struck his seventeenth homer in the third and, with two aboard in the seventh, lined a single to center that cashed both — all three New York runs on the night, running his season's count to four-and-fifty driven in. Coby Mayo's seventeenth homer supplied the whole of the Baltimore reply, and the Baltimore starter Shane Baz deserved better than his ledger shows: ten strikeouts across six and a third innings, and a fall to four-and-thirteen regardless. De los Santos took the decision in relief and Bednar closed for his eight-and-twentieth save. The Pinstripes have won two running and hold the American's first wild-card chair; the Birds slip a full game from the last one.

THE CHANT NEEDED NO TENTH INNING THIS TIME: CUBS 4, WHITE STOCKINGS 3, AND BREGMAN SUPPLIES THE SECOND WALK-OFF IN AS MANY NIGHTS

The sequel wasted no time announcing itself. Pete Crow-Armstrong, whose leadoff-and-walk-off masterpiece this paper celebrated in yesterday's columns, greeted the White Sox again with a first-inning homer — his one-and-thirtieth, making him but the thirteenth man since 1900 to open his club's next game with a homer after ending the previous one with a walk-off blast, and the first ever to do so when the prior game had begun with his homer too. Busch followed with his fifteenth, Murakami answered with his nine-and-twentieth for the visitors amid a comeback that put the South Side ahead three-to-two, and the late innings ran to form: Bregman tied it with a two-out single in the seventh, the visitors pointedly walked Crow-Armstrong with first base open in the ninth, and Bregman made them regret the courtesy with a single to center — the Cubs' thirteenth walk-off victory of the season, one shy of the franchise record set in 1930. Behind Gausman's cramped exit, chronicled in the infirmary column, Javier Assad threw three scoreless innings to make it all possible. 'Javy put the game back in order for us,' said Counsell. The rubber match arrives at 2:20 this afternoon.

MORENO'S GRAND SLAM LASTS THREE BATTERS: BOSTONS 9, SNAKES 4, WITH RUTSCHMAN'S FIRST FENWAY THUNDER THE ANSWER

For one half-inning the abandoned Arizonas had their evening: down three-to-nothing in the third, Gabriel Moreno cleared the center-field wall with the bases loaded — four runs at a stroke and a four-to-three lead. It survived precisely three batters. Adley Rutschman, in his second home game since the deadline commerce that brought him from Baltimore for a trio of Boston's finest prospects, mauled a two-strike fastball over the right-field foul pole — his first home run in Boston colors, ending a drought of seven-and-twenty games, and the ignition of six unanswered runs. The catcher, who had earlier yanked a two-run single for the game's first tallies, was received in the dugout with the club's traditional Wally mask over his head. 'Not a great visual, and it doesn't smell that bad. I promise,' he reported. Mickey Gasper homered for the second consecutive night — this paper recorded his first of the year only yesterday — and drove in two more; Rutschman finished with three runs batted in; Suarez took the decision. The Snakes have lost three running, their second baseman is on an airplane, and the wild-card arithmetic grows no kinder.

TEN RUNS AT THE TROP, AND THE GHOSTS ARE PAID OFF: TORONTOS 10, SUNSHINE NINE 5

Whatever tribulations the Trop has lately dealt Toronto were answered with interest in the series opener. Alejandro Kirk did the foreman's share — a two-run homer in the third, a run-scoring single in the fourth, three driven in altogether — while Springer and Sánchez had opened the account in the first and Okamoto's record-breaking blast, saluted in the news columns, made it seven. Josh Smith added a two-run homer in the seventh for garnish. The ten runs were Toronto's most since the eighth of July, a span of three-and-thirty games, and they were scored upon the league's best club: the Rays, at five-and-seventy wins, remain the American's class but have now dropped the opener of a set they can ill afford to give away. Soriano collected his tenth victory; the defeat fell to Martinez, whose ledger of twelve-and-four had been among the league's most gleaming. The Jays sit half a game from the final wild-card chair, and their ten-run mood travels well.

ADELL'S CAREER NIGHT LIGHTS THE LAKEFRONT: FOREST CITY NINE 8, BAY NINE 1

The evening's loudest crack came early in Cleveland. Jo Adell, having just fouled a pitch off his own left knee hard enough to summon the trainer, stayed in the box and launched the next mistake four hundred and fifty-five feet into the upper reaches of the left-field bleachers — a three-run first-inning blow, the longest homer of his career and the longest at Progressive Field this season. He was not finished: run-scoring singles in the second and fourth ran his evening to a career-high six runs batted in before the knee, as the infirmary column relates, ushered him out in the eighth. Bryce Eldridge's fourteenth homer was the visitors' entire offense. The victory was Cleveland's first step into a schedule of pillowy softness — the Guardians, nine-and-nineteen since the All-Star pause, spend the rest of August against the league's basement — and Griffin took the decision comfortably. The Bay nine send the Tugboat to the mound this evening, as the almanac desk relates, in search of gentler waters.

TWO HOMERS, ONE GRAND LARCENY: PADRES 5, METS 2, AND TATIS ROBS LINDOR WHERE HE LEARNED THE TRADE

Fernando Tatis Jr. spent his boyhood summers in Queens, a quarter-hour from Citi Field, hitting balls over an apartment-complex wall and vaulting after them; Tuesday he presented the finished craft. He struck the game's first pitch four hundred and fifty-two feet into the second deck, added an opposite-field two-run homer in the fifth — his fifteenth — and in between committed the theft that had the premises buzzing: a full-stretch leap at the right-field corner, glove beyond the fence, hat flying, to strip Francisco Lindor of a grand slam. He let the stadium wonder a moment before flipping the ball from glove to bare hand. 'It's definitely a dream come true as a kid,' he said. 'Man, that's why we play this game.' Machado added his four-and-twentieth homer in the ninth, Ray collected his eleventh victory, and Miller closed for his one-and-thirtieth save against homers from Torrens and Robert Jr. The San Diegos have won eight of ten and hold the National's final chair with both fists; the Mets are left to contemplate the wall in right.

THE ROOKIE'S FIRST HOMER LASTS FIVE MINUTES, AND CRUZ ANSWERS WITH AUTHORITY: BUCCANEERS 4, BENGALS 1

The young Brett Callahan, whose summons this paper has chronicled almost daily — a triple Sunday, a two-run single Monday — struck the first home run of his major-league life in the fifth at Pittsburgh, and Detroit led at last. The lead survived half an inning. Oneil Cruz answered in the home fifth with a two-run homer, his fifteenth; Horwitz singled home a third; and Reynolds added an eighth-inning insurance run, his six-and-sixtieth driven in. Ashcraft worked the decision for his thirteenth victory against five defeats, and Montgomery closed for his fifth save. The defeat drops the Bengals out of the wild-card knot they shared but a day ago, a full game back now; the Buccaneers, at two-and-sixty wins, play the finale at 12:35 this day with Skenes taking the ball — rested, as this paper reported Sunday, expressly for this assignment.

WINN PROVIDES, LEAHY DEFENDS, CINCINNATI STARVES: MOUND CITY NINE 3, REDS 0

The fourth meeting of the set at Cincinnati was a study in sufficiency. Masyn Winn opened the scoring with his fifth homer in the fifth inning, came round again in the seventh upon Fermín's double, and Báez lofted home the third with a sacrifice fly in the eighth; Leahy made the arithmetic stand up for his tenth victory against four defeats, and O'Brien closed the whitewash for his two-and-thirtieth save, the fattest count in the National. The Redlegs, blanked a night after their walk-off jubilation, have the cold comfort of Burns — fourteen victories against two, a 2.47 figure — taking the ball in this evening's finale. The Mound City men have won seven of ten and sit three games from the final chair, with Arizona to climb past besides; the desk merely reports the terrain.

BELL CHALLENGES THE UMPIRE, THEN THE FENCES: TWINS 4, ATLANTA 1

The decisive stroke at Target Field was preceded by a shrewd piece of jurisprudence. Down no balls and two strikes in the first — or so the plate umpire ruled — Josh Bell appealed the second strike to the machines and won, and from the friendlier count of one-and-one drove a splitter into the upper deck in right-center with Jeffers aboard: his seventeenth homer, a twenty-first consecutive game reaching base, and all the runs Matthews would strictly need. Jeffers doubled home two more in the eighth for comfort, Gómez closed for his nineteenth save, and Drake Baldwin's one-and-twentieth homer stood as Atlanta's whole account. The Twins, swept by Philadelphia not a week ago, stand one victory from sweeping the East's leaders in return — such is the season's geometry — and lurk half a game from the American's final chair. Atlanta has dropped two running, though its cushion in the East remains five and a half games thick.

THE SIXTH INNING TURNS ON TWO FAMILIAR HANDS: BROTHERLY LOVE NINE 6, MARLINS 4, AND THE STREAK RUNS TO FIVE

Miami led by two in the sixth at Philadelphia, whereupon the club's steadiest tandem went to work. Alec Bohm doubled home Turner — the man's two-and-twentieth two-bagger — and Bryson Stott lined a two-run single behind him for the lead; Crawford singled home a fourth for margin, and when Hernández drew Miami within one in the eighth, Schwarber restored the distance with a run-scoring single, his four-and-seventieth driven in. Griffin Conine's fourteenth homer and a pair of scrappy middle-inning rallies had built the Miami advantage; it did not survive the arithmetic. McFarlane took the decision, and Raley recorded the first save of his season. Philadelphia has won five running — its longest surge of the summer — and holds the National's second chair by a single game; the Fish sink four back, their fine August work coming undone in the division's least forgiving address.

THREE IN THE NINTH, AND WITT SUPPLIES THE HANDSHAKE: ROYALS 4, ATHLETICS 3

For eight innings Kansas City managed nothing against the visiting pitching — White and McNeil had singled home runs and Muncy walked with the sacks full for a three-to-nothing Athletics lead — and then the ninth arrived with its own opinions. Pasquantino's seventh-inning double had cracked the door; now Tyler Tolbert lined a two-run single to level the affair, and Bobby Witt Jr. followed with the walk-off knock that emptied the home dugout. The victory, Kansas City's third running, went to Duran in relief; the Athletics, whose morning brought the grim Soderstrom news related in the infirmary column, have dropped both ends of the Missouri set thus far and get one more chance at 7:40 this evening. Witt's evening also included his customary larceny — the man sits at three-and-thirty stolen bases, second in the American — and the Royals, whatever their station, are enjoying August more than most.

QUANTRILL THROWS SEVEN BLANK FRAMES AND TEXAS TAKES THE CHAIR ALONE: RANGERS 5, SENATORS 0

The tenancy dispute the desk has chronicled all week was settled, for one morning at least, in Arlington. Cal Quantrill delivered seven scoreless innings while his cotenants lost elsewhere, and Texas, at two-and-sixty wins, holds the American's final wild-card chair in sole possession. The offense required no heroics: a run cashed on Burger's double-play grounder in the first, Justin Foscue's eighth homer in the second, and a three-run third assembled from a replay-upheld fielder's choice, a bases-loaded walk to Foscue, and Freeman's run-scoring single. Washington, held to nothing, has now dropped four running, and the evening's finale at 8:05 offers Cavalli — ten victories, a 3.36 figure — as the visitors' best argument for arresting the slide. The desk notes, as it must, that the chair's occupant remains two games below the break-even line; the American's wild-card race continues to be conducted entirely in the basement.

THE ROOKIE KLASSEN THROWS SEVEN BLANKS AT THE LEADERS: ANAHEIM NINE 3, HOUSTONS 1

The West's leading club was handled with disrespect bordering on the educational. The rookie George Klassen dealt seven scoreless innings at Daikin Park, and Anaheim built its modest sufficiency around him: Schanuel's run-scoring single in the third, Josh Lowe's tenth homer in the fourth, Neto's run-scoring double in the fifth. Cam Smith's seventeenth homer in the eighth spared Houston the whitewash, and Joyce closed for his third save. The consequences outweigh the score: the Houstons have lost three running and stand this morning at three-and-sixty wins against three-and-sixty defeats — precisely at the waterline — their lead in the West shaved to a single game over Texas, while their great batsman Alvarez, as the arithmetic desk relates above, chases a crown of three largely unassisted. The Angels, for their part, play the spoiler's part with evident relish.

OHTANI'S MILESTONE, CASTRO'S DEFIANCE, AND FOUR OUTS FOR SCOTT: BOYS IN BLUE 7, COLORADO 6

The evening at Coors held a milestone, a rally, and a sweat. The milestone is toasted in the news columns — Ohtani's thirtieth, a two-run affair in the third. The middle innings belonged to the visitors' doubles brigade: Tucker — whose home-park travails this paper examined Sunday — lined one into the right-field corner for a run, Teoscar Hernández doubled home Tucker behind him, Freeman lofted a sacrifice fly and later singled home a seventh. But Colorado declined to be scenery: Willi Castro struck his fourteenth homer, singled home another in the ninth, and the Rockies clawed from six-to-one down to within a single run before Tanner Scott — restored to the closing post that very day, Edwin Díaz having gone to the fifteen-day list — recorded the final four outs for his seventeenth save. 'I just wait for the phone to ring, I don't care when,' said Scott. Lauer took the decision. The Dodgers own the best road ledger in baseball at nine-and-thirty wins against five-and-twenty defeats, and their mastery of this particular address — forty victories in fifty-one meetings with Colorado since 2023 — proceeds unembarrassed.

Seven clubs chase the American's final chair, and this morning it belongs to Texas alone: the Rangers, at two-and-sixty wins against four-and-sixty defeats, seized sole possession by winning while both of yesterday's cotenants lost — the Twins and Blue Jays now half a game astern, the Guardians, Orioles, and Tigers a full game, Seattle three, and the whole company still below the waterline. In the National the seating holds: the Cubs keep the first chair by six games, Philadelphia the second by one, San Diego the third, with Arizona two back of that last chair, St. Louis three, and Miami four. This day's card runs again to the full fifteen engagements. The bill of fare: at Pittsburgh at 12:35, Skenes — rested for this very assignment, as the paper reported Sunday — receives the Detroits, opposite Jobe; at Wrigley at 2:20, the crosstown finale, wherein Crow-Armstrong may seek a third consecutive game opened with a homer, a thing done at greatest length by Brady Anderson across four straight in 1996; at Cleveland at 6:40, the Tugboat's maiden voyage, as the almanac desk relates; at the Trop at 6:40, Scherzer takes the ball for Toronto opposite Rasmussen and his twelve victories; and at Milwaukee at 7:40, Seattle returns to the scene of the crime, which the statutes of the schedule-makers apparently require. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Wednesday, August 19, 2026 — Boxscore
Adam McCalvy, 22-0! Brewers' rout of Mariners tied for most lopsided shutout win since 1887 — MLB.com
Zach Sweet, Rodríguez's gaffe a microcosm of worst loss in Mariners history — MLB.com
Jordan Bastian, PCA meets with young fans pregame -- then gives them a show in Cubs' walk-off win — MLB.com
Jordan Bastian, Gausman 'doing well' after exiting start with cramp in non-pitching hand — MLB.com
Ian Browne, In 2nd game at Fenway, Rutschman's 1st Red Sox HR ignites immediate rally — MLB.com
Brian Murphy, With 25th homer, Okamoto breaks Blue Jays' rookie home run record — MLB.com
Patrick Saunders, Ohtani secures 6th straight 30-HR season to keep pace with PCA in tight NL MVP race — MLB.com
Patrick Saunders, Ohtani throws successful bullpen session, could face live hitters soon — MLB.com
Steve Gilbert, Marte returning to Phoenix for MRI on knee, Lovullo focusing on series in Boston — MLB.com
Tim Stebbins, Adell kicks off career night with HR rolling in the deep LF bleachers — MLB.com
AJ Cassavell, Did Tatis make his best defensive play EVER to rob grand slam? — MLB.com
Patrick Donnelly, Bell giving the Twins stability with his bat and leadership — MLB.com
Maria Guardado, LHP Tugboat Wilkinson and his 'Invisiball' to debut for Giants on Wednesday — MLB.com
Athletics' Tyler Soderstrom set for season-ending hip surgery — ESPN
Rookie George Klassen dazzles with 7 scoreless innings as Angels beat AL West-leading Astros 3-1 — ESPN
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule — Baseball-Reference

THREE LETTERS FILL THE WRIGLEY NIGHT, AND THE TENTH INNING ANSWERS THEM: CROW-ARMSTRONG OPENS THE GAME WITH A HOMER, ENDS IT WITH ANOTHER, AND SEALS A SECOND STRAIGHT THIRTY-AND-THIRTY — CUBS 7, WHITE SOX 5

2026-08-18T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

THREE LETTERS FILL THE WRIGLEY NIGHT, AND THE TENTH INNING ANSWERS THEM: CROW-ARMSTRONG OPENS THE GAME WITH A HOMER, ENDS IT WITH ANOTHER, AND SEALS A SECOND STRAIGHT THIRTY-AND-THIRTY — CUBS 7, WHITE SOX 5

The crosstown engagement this paper billed last evening delivers everything promised and history besides — the center fielder leads off the first with his nine-and-twentieth homer, watches the South Siders seize the lead twice, and with a man aboard in the tenth dispatches his thirtieth over the right-field wall to win it outright, becoming the first Cub ever to post consecutive seasons of thirty homers and thirty stolen bases, and but the sixth man in all the game's annals to begin a game with a home run and end it with one

The chant rose out of the Wrigley Field night before the tenth inning was fairly begun — three letters, over and over, forty thousand voices strong — for the faithful had done the arithmetic and knew who was due. Pete Crow-Armstrong had opened the evening's account in the first inning with a leadoff thunderbolt to right, his nine-and-twentieth of the season; now, with Carson Kelly aboard and the crosstown affair knotted at five, he answered his own overture. The two-run blow that cleared the right-field wall was his thirtieth homer of the campaign, and as it carried he wheeled toward his own dugout and flung the bat with a violence the occasion excused entirely. 'I usually black out during those type of things,' the young man confessed afterward. 'I got a good bat flip in — I know that.'

Let the record state what the moment contained. With thirty home runs beside one-and-thirty stolen bases, Crow-Armstrong becomes the first Cub in the franchise's long history to fashion thirty-and-thirty seasons in consecutive years, and but the tenth man ever to do it, joining a register that runs from Willie Mays through Bonds father and son to Witt and Ramírez of the present age; he and Sammy Sosa remain the only Cubs to have done it even once. The Elias scribes add a garland: only five men before him — Vic Power the first, in 1957 — had ever struck a leadoff homer and a walk-off homer in the same game. 'It's been incredible to watch,' said the manager Craig Counsell, and his starter Shota Imanaga, who fanned ten South Siders across six innings in his own right, went further: 'You watch him play, and make the fantastic plays that he does, and you're not really surprised... he always passes it.'

The game deserved its finish. Seiya Suzuki had followed Crow-Armstrong's opening blast with one of his own, back-to-back before an out was recorded, whereupon the visitors clawed to the front on Randal Grichuk's three-run homer in the fourth — the lone blemish upon Imanaga's evening — and, after Nico Hoerner's two-run single (abetted by a Vargas throwing error) had restored the Cubs' advantage, Andrew Benintendi stunned the premises with a two-run go-ahead blow in the eighth. Hoerner, four hits on the night, singled home the leveler in the ninth; Jacob Webb escaped a bases-filled tenth without a scratch; and the stage was thus swept clean for the finale. The ledger takes its own notes: Chicago's North Side club stands at three-and-seventy wins against three-and-fifty defeats, holder of the National's first wild-card chair by six full games and four and a half behind the idle Milwaukees, while the Pale Hose — still masters of the American's Central by four and a half — were reminded that the rivalry keeps no standings. The two clubs reconvene at Wrigley this very evening.

News Around the League

THE CASE OF THE ABSENT SECOND BASEMAN: MARTE FAILS TO APPEAR AT FENWAY, AND ARIZONA INVOKES THE RESTRICTED LIST

The strangest wire of the morning issues from Boston, where the Diamondbacks took the field without Ketel Marte — not injured, not suspended, but simply absent. The second baseman did not appear at Fenway Park for the series opener, owing to what the club would later term a 'personal matter,' and was placed upon the restricted list. The manager Torey Lovullo allowed that he first caught wind of the possibility upon waking Monday morning, and declined to detail his communications with the man. The Herald notes that Marte's knee had already cost him time this month, as this paper's infirmary column has chronicled; what has cost him now is a mystery the club is in no hurry to solve publicly. The Arizonas could ill afford the distraction on the evening's evidence — the particulars of their eleven-to-one undoing are rendered upon the card below — and their grip on the wild-card scramble loosens by the day.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: FRIED'S ELBOW SENDS HIM BACK, RODÓN STEPS INTO THE BREACH, AND SWANSON'S SENTENCE IS MADE OFFICIAL

The Bronx ward reports a revolving door. Max Fried has been returned to the fifteen-day injured list with a bone bruise in his left elbow, the move backdated to Friday — the same joint, be it noted, that cost him better than two months earlier this season, hyperextended rather than struck. The counterweight arrived within the hour: Carlos Rodón, shelved since the third of July with inflammation of his own left elbow, is activated to take the ball this very evening at Baltimore, stepping into the rotation turn Fried vacates. In Chicago, the verdict this paper's ward forecast on Sunday is now official: Dansby Swanson goes to the ten-day list with a strain of the left oblique, having felt his side seize upon a single swing — 'It just felt like my left side kind of tightened up on me,' said the shortstop — a hard subtraction from a Cubs infield in full stretch-run stride. And from Denver, a brighter entry: Shohei Ohtani, whose evening's carpentry is described below, may ascend a bullpen mound as soon as this day, the wires report, in the next step of his long march back to pitching.

COMMERCE AT THE HIGHEST TABLE: THE PADRES PASS TO NEW HANDS BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT

The owners of all thirty clubs have spoken with one voice: the transfer of the San Diego franchise to the group led by Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano has been unanimously approved, the league announced Monday, essentially completing a sale the Seidler family agreed to in May. Jones and Feliciano will jointly lead the ownership, with Feliciano designated the club's control person. The ballplayers marked the occasion in their own fashion, dropping a one-run decision at Flushing hours later — the new proprietors will learn soon enough that the franchise plays its closest games at the least convenient hours.

THE AWARDS DESK TAKES ITS STRAW POLL: SCHLITTLER AND MISIOROWSKI ALL BUT MEASURED FOR THEIR HARDWARE

The wire's latest canvass of five-and-thirty experts on the Cy Young question returns a verdict scarcely worth the suspense: Jacob Misiorowski of Milwaukee was the unanimous choice of every voter in the National, and Cam Schlittler of the Yankees claimed five-and-twenty of the five-and-thirty first-place ballots in the American. The ledger offers no rebuttal. Misiorowski proprietors a 1.75 earned-run figure and two hundred ten strikeouts, both the National's finest by comfortable margins; Schlittler's 2.19 leads the American, with his hundred eighty-nine strikeouts third besides. Six weeks remain for an upset, and the desk, having consulted the arithmetic, declines to predict one.

THE ALMANAC DESK: WILLIAMSPORT ON SUNDAY, AND SIX WEEKS TO THE WIRE

Two entries for the long calendar. First: the Little League Classic arrives Sunday next, the three-and-twentieth of August, when the Brewers and Braves repair to Williamsport to perform before the smallest and sternest jury in baseball — a fixture this paper has commended before and commends again. Second, the hourglass: the almanac fixes the final day of the regular season at the seven-and-twentieth of September, some six weeks distant — which, given the condition of the wild-card furniture described in the desk note below, is either far too long or nowhere near long enough, depending upon the reader's rooting interest.

The Rest of the Card

THE SWEEP IS FORBIDDEN, AS COMMISSIONED: RAYS 7, ORIOLES 6, WITH BAKER TAKING FIVE OUTS FOR HIS FIVE-AND-THIRTIETH

The commission this paper recorded yesterday — Shane McClanahan, activated expressly to prevent a four-game Baltimore sweep at the Trop — was duly executed, though hardly in the manner drawn up. The returning left-hander gave three and a third innings in his first appearance from the injured list, struck out three, and surrendered a four-hundred-sixty-eight-foot moonshot to Coby Mayo, whose evening also included a double and two runs batted in. The O's built a six-to-four lead upon the long ball — Alonso's eight-and-twentieth, Encarnacion-Strand's two-run blow atop a two-run single, four driven in for the young man in all — but the seventh undid them: Aranda singled home one and DeLuca two more, and then Bryan Baker, fresh and unbothered, recorded the final five outs without incident, the first save of such length in his career and his five-and-thirtieth of the season, the largest crop in the game. The Tampa Bay nine, at five-and-seventy wins, remain the American's class; Baltimore's punishment for the defeat is rendered in the desk note's arithmetic.

FIFTEEN STRIKEOUTS AND TWO EARLY RUNS CARRY THE OPENER: CARDS 2, CINCINNATIS 1

The first game of the Cincinnati doubleheader was settled in its opening minutes and defended for two hours thereafter. Alec Burleson lined a two-run double in the first — his two-and-ninetieth runs batted in keep him atop the National's table — and the St. Louis pitching corps spent the rest of the afternoon fanning Redlegs at a prodigious rate: fifteen strikeouts in all, the home nine held to three hits, with Gastelum taking the decision in relief and O'Brien closing for his one-and-thirtieth save, the National's largest count. The lone Cincinnati answer was Dane Myers' fourth homer; the reader is advised to remember the name for approximately one entry.

MYERS TIES IT IN THE NINTH, AND ELLY ENDS IT IN THE TENTH — HIS FIRST WALK-OFF EVER: CINCINNATIS 6, CARDS 5

The nightcap repaid the afternoon with interest. Consigned to the designated hitter's post after an oh-for-four with four strikeouts in the opener — 'I think he knew he was going to lose that one anyway,' deadpanned the manager Terry Francona of the negotiation — Elly De La Cruz found himself at the plate in the tenth with Stephenson aboard and the game level, and laced a double to left that ended it: the first walk-off of the two-time All-Star's career. The road to that moment wound considerably: St. Louis led five-to-four in the ninth behind Herrera's fourteenth homer and Torres' go-ahead single, whereupon the aforementioned Dane Myers — he of the opener's only run — cleared the wall a second time in a single day to force the extra frame. Pagán took the decision; the clubs split the twin bill and remain locked together in the wild-card table's outer orbit, three games from the last chair.

SÁNCHEZ COLLECTS HIS SIXTEENTH, AND A REPLAY GLASS TAKES A RUN OFF MIAMI'S TABLE: PHILADELPHIAS 6, MIAMI NINE 5

Cristopher Sánchez — six-and-ten victories now against four defeats, the National's largest total — ground through six innings of one-run ball at home, and Philadelphia needed nearly every crumb of the lead its small-ball assembled: run-scoring singles by Turner, Arraez, and Bohm, a Schwarber sacrifice fly, and two driven in by Hill, the second upon a bases-loaded walk. The seventh inning supplied the controversy. Down three with the sacks full, Sanoja laced a ball down the first-base line, called foul upon the field; the replay glass ruled it fair, but the magistrates awarded only two runs, returning Lopez to third — a bases-clearing double by any natural reading — whereupon the Miami manager Clayton McCullough delivered his opinion of the proceedings and was invited to leave. Navarreto's first homer of the year and Lopez's ninth-inning single brought the Fish within one before Duran barred the door, his seven-and-twentieth save. The Phils have won four running and hold the National's second chair by a game; Miami departs three back, muttering about geometry.

McGONIGLE THUNDERS, SOMMERS SPRINTS, AND THE DETROITS REJOIN THE CHAIR FIGHT: TIGERS 8, ALLEGHENYS 5

Detroit built its evening at Pittsburgh early and generously: two in the first upon singles by McKinstry and Lee, Kevin McGonigle's two-run homer — his thirteenth — in the second, and a three-run sixth capped by Callahan's two-run single, fourteen hits in the visitors' ledger by night's end. The Alleghenys made their argument in their own sixth, Yorke's bases-clearing double the loudest word of a four-run reply, before Valdez handed matters to the relief corps and Jansen closed for his sixteenth save. The evening's curiosity belonged to the young reliever Drew Sommers, who broke off the mound on a chopper to Torkelson's right and won the footrace to the bag by a stride over Mangum and his elite wheels — 'Thankfully I was just a little bit faster than him,' the pitcher reported. The victory lifts Detroit level with Baltimore and Texas for the American's final chair, of which more below.

SIXTEEN HITS, AND THE ABANDONED ARIZONAS ARE BURIED: HUB NINE 11, DIAMONDBACKS 1

Whatever disorder attended Arizona's morning — see the news columns for the Marte affair — the evening offered no refuge. Boston battered the visitors with sixteen hits, Ceddanne Rafaela alone contributing three doubles to run his season's count to two-and-thirty, Sogard adding two more two-baggers, Contreras his five-and-twentieth homer, and Gasper his first of the year with two driven in. The pitching was arranged in the club's newest fashion: an opener to begin, then Brayan Bello in the bulk role he has lately made an argument in, four and two-thirds innings of one-run ball for the victory — fifty strikes among his six-and-seventy pitches. The Hub nine thus shake off a two-and-seven stumble in emphatic style; Arizona, held to four hits, has dropped two running and slips a game behind San Diego in the chair scramble.

TWICE THEY TESTED THE YOUNG MAN'S ARM, AND TWICE THEY DIED AT THE PLATE: METS 2, SAN DIEGO NINE 1

The whole of this taut affair at Flushing was contained in its first inning. New York scored twice — Bichette singling home one, Robert Jr. lofting home the other — and San Diego promptly ran itself out of the reply. With runners at first and second, France singled to right, whereupon Cronenworth was dispatched home and thrown out by Carson Benge, the ball arriving at very nearly a hundred miles per hour. One batter later Merrill singled to the same address, the third-base coach waved Machado around, and Benge threw him out as well — a hundred and three and nine-tenths miles per hour this time, the first Met ever to cut down two runners at the plate in a single inning. Thus armored, Nolan McLean worked six innings of one-run ball for his ninth victory, Buehler was hard-luck opposite with two hits allowed across six, and Duarte closed. The Metropolitans have won four running; the Friars, whose new owners are toasted in the news columns, were welcomed to the family with a lesson in outfield ballistics.

WITT DRIVES IN THREE AND THE MISSOURIANS MAKE IT TWO RUNNING: ROYALS 9, ATHLETICS 5

Kansas City spotted Jeff McNeil a leadoff homer and then buried the gesture beneath thirteen hits: three in the first upon Garcia's single and Perez's two-run knock, Bobby Witt Jr.'s two-run homer — his fifteenth — in the second, and steady contributions thereafter, Witt finishing with three driven in, a double, and his three-and-thirtieth stolen base, with Caglianone singling home a pair for good measure. The Athletics kept a respectable countenance through White's and Serven's middle-inning homers — three round-trippers in all for the visitors — but Wacha weathered the lot across five innings for the decision and Cruz closed. The Kansas City nine, whatever their station in the ledger, have won two straight; the wandering Athletics have not been so fortunate, and the clubs go again this evening.

FOUR IN THE FIRST FROM THE NEW LEADOFF MAN'S SPARK: MINNESOTANS 4, BRAVES 2

Luke Keaschall, handed the leadoff post for the first time all season, opened the home first with a double and set a four-run rally going before the Atlanta starter had found his footing: Josh Bell's ground-rule double cashed two, Lewis and Clemens singled home the others, and that, remarkably, was the evening's entire Minnesota offense — and enough. The Braves' reply was confined to Acuña Jr.'s two-run single in the fifth, whereupon the Twins' relief corps pitched four and two-thirds scoreless innings to seal it, Adams taking the decision and Gómez his eighteenth save. 'It was good to get the bats going in the first,' offered Keaschall, a man unlikely to be evicted from his new post soon. The Dixie nine, still masters of the National's East by a comfortable margin, have dropped two of three; Minnesota lurks half a game from the American's final chair.

EIGHT HUNDRED SEVENTY-EIGHT FEET OF OHTANI, AND ONE SOUVENIR FOR THE BULLPEN: TROLLEY DODGERS 11, COLORADANS 5

The thin air of Denver received the full Shohei treatment. Ohtani collected four hits — the eleventh four-hit evening of his career — and cleared the fences twice, a leadoff blast in the fifth and a two-run drive in the sixth totaling eight hundred seventy-eight feet of flight, the second of them a four-hundred-fifty-two-foot artifact that landed in the glove of the Dodger reliever Kyle Hurt, stationed in the bullpen and clearly delighted with his keepsake. Muncy's three-run homer, his five-and-twentieth, had opened the breach in the third; Betts drove in two, Pages likewise; and Blake Snell, in the quietest headline of the night, delivered six innings of two-hit, one-run ball for his first victory of the season. The defeat fell to Sugano, roughed for seven runs across five innings, his ledger falling to twelve-and-six. Los Angeles, at five-and-seventy wins, stands two and a half behind Milwaukee for the game's best ledger; the Coloradans' evening is best measured in the souvenirs.

The arithmetic desk reports that the furniture has been rearranged again: the American's final wild-card chair, in Baltimore's sole keeping but four-and-twenty hours ago, is this morning shared by three tenants — the Orioles, the Rangers, and the Tigers, each at one-and-sixty wins against four-and-sixty defeats — with the Twins and Blue Jays half a game astern, Cleveland a full game, and Seattle two: seven claimants, and still not one of them at the break-even line. In the National the seating is more orderly: the Cubs hold the first chair by six, Philadelphia the second by a single game over San Diego, with Arizona one behind the Friars and Miami and St. Louis three back. This day's card runs to the full fifteen engagements. The bill of fare: at Baltimore at 6:35, Rodón makes his return from the injured list for the Yankees, opposite Baz; at Philadelphia at 6:40, Wheeler and his 2.89 receive the Miami nine; at the Trop at 6:40, Martinez — twelve victories against three, a 2.74 figure — takes the ball for Tampa Bay against Toronto; and at 8:05 the crosstown engagement resumes at Wrigley, Gausman handed the ball for the Cubs and the South Siders under every obligation to answer for the tenth inning. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Tuesday, August 18, 2026 — Boxscore
Jordan Bastian, PCA secures 2nd straight 30-30 season -- boosts MVP case -- in epic way — MLB.com
Steve Gilbert, D-backs star Marte placed on restricted list after not showing up at Fenway — MLB.com
Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, Yanks place Fried back on IL with bone bruise in left elbow — MLB.com
Jordan Bastian, Swanson (oblique strain) to IL a crucial blow for Cubs' infield during stretch run — MLB.com
AJ Cassavell, MLB approves Padres' sale to José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones — MLB.com
Jason Foster, AL, NL Cy Young races seem all but decided as Schlittler, Miz dominate latest poll — MLB.com
Patrick Saunders, Ohtani hits 878 feet of HRs ... and eyes possible bullpen session Tuesday — MLB.com
Mark Sheldon, Walk-off for Elly! First career winner lifts Reds to twin-bill split with Cards — MLB.com
Adam Berry, Fresh, strong and efficient, Baker gives Rays 5 outs in his MLB-leading 35th save — MLB.com
Adam Berry, With 3 K's in return to Rays, McClanahan shows he's ready for stretch run — MLB.com
Jason Beck, Sommers shows off wheels and whiffs as Tigers' latest young standout — MLB.com
Bill Ladson, Benge reminds Padres you don't run on him. Twice. In the same inning. — MLB.com
Corey Seidman, McCullough's ejection punctuates frustrating Wild Card setback — MLB.com
Patrick Donnelly, Keaschall's first leadoff at-bat of the year couldn't have gone much better — MLB.com
Ian Browne, Bello bouncing back in bulk-relief role with a vengeance — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference

THE ACE THEY WOULD NOT SELL OUTDUELS THE ACE THEY COULD NOT BUY: BREWERS 6, DODGERS 2, AND THE BEST LEDGER IN BASEBALL RESIDES IN MILWAUKEE

2026-08-17T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

THE ACE THEY WOULD NOT SELL OUTDUELS THE ACE THEY COULD NOT BUY: BREWERS 6, DODGERS 2, AND THE BEST LEDGER IN BASEBALL RESIDES IN MILWAUKEE

Young Logan Henderson, the very arm Milwaukee refused to surrender in its deadline pursuit of Tarik Skubal, faces the great left-hander at Chavez Ravine and betters him across a career-longest seven innings — Bauers raps four hits, the series falls to the visitors three games to one, the season's set is claimed four to three, and the Cream City nine depart the coast with the finest record in all the game

Commerce, the wise men say, is settled at the deadline; Sunday in Los Angeles it was settled on the mound. A fortnight ago the Brewers tried mightily to purchase Tarik Skubal from the Dodgers and would not, it is reported, part with a twenty-four-year-old Texan named Logan Henderson to do it. Sunday the ledger explained itself. Henderson worked seven innings — the longest afternoon of his major-league life, and the first time he had cleared a seventh since his community-college days in Waco — permitting three hits and a single run, that upon Max Muncy's four-and-twentieth homer, walking one and striking out six. Skubal, for his part, was game but outdone: seven hits and two runs across six, one of the pair unearned, and a record now standing at seven-and-seven against Henderson's seven-and-two.

The Milwaukee offense was a study in patience rewarded. An unearned run in the second, gift of the first of Tommy Edman's two errors; Jake Bauers' run-scoring single in the fifth to restore the lead; then the professional's finish — Bauers doubling home Chourio in the seventh, Vaughn singling home Bauers behind him, and two more crossing in the ninth upon Edman's second miscue. Bauers finished with four hits, tying the best day of his career, and closed the series at six-for-thirteen with five walks besides — this the same man who, after the club was swept at San Diego to open the trip, counseled his mates toward calm in language the Herald shall gently paraphrase. 'Whatever happens in October is whatever happens,' he said Sunday, permitting himself a glance ahead, 'but I think the anticipation is we're going to have to get through these guys. We can play with them, and if we execute, we can beat them.' Chourio added three hits and three runs; Andy Pages' one-and-twentieth homer in the ninth supplied the Los Angeles postscript.

The consequences are considerable. Milwaukee takes the series, three games to one, in a rematch of last autumn's one-sided championship series; takes the season's set from Los Angeles, four games to three; and emerges from a gauntlet of seventeen games in seventeen days — ten of them won — at seven-and-seventy wins against eight-and-forty defeats, the best mark in the majors, three full games clear of the Dodgers, five clear of the Cubs in the Central, and two and a half clear of the field entire. 'It was really important to finish the 17-game stretch with a series win,' said Henderson, master of understatement. This day the Brewers rest, and no club in baseball has earned it more honestly.

News Around the League

THE HERALD LOWERS ITS COLORS: TOMMY JOHN, 1943–2026

The saddest wire of the morning comes draped in black: Tommy John, the durable left-hander whose two hundred and eighty-eight victories spanned six-and-twenty seasons and whose name passed from the roster into the anatomy textbook, has died at three-and-eighty years of age. He broke in with Cleveland in 1963 and threw his last pitch for the Yankees in 1989 at six-and-forty; between those bookends came four All-Star selections, consecutive twenty-win campaigns in the Bronx, and the second-most victories of any Modern Era pitcher not enshrined at Cooperstown. But it was a single pitch in July of 1974 — a fastball that ended with what he called a 'crash' in his left elbow — that made him immortal. When Dr. Frank Jobe proposed a never-attempted repair, borrowing a tendon from the pitcher's right forearm, he quoted odds of one in a hundred. 'You're a great doctor and I believe in you. But you're wrong. I will come back,' John told him — and did, missing 1975 entire, then winning twenty games in 1977 and finishing second in the Cy Young balloting, whereupon the writers took to calling him the Bionic Man. The procedure that bears his name has since returned careers beyond counting. 'Just how much of a trailblazer he was,' offered Gerrit Cole, himself among the repaired, '... really writing the script for how to push through it and overcome it.' The Dodgers' Stan Kasten judged that his courage 'can't be overstated'; the Yankee manager Aaron Boone remembered 'one of my favorite windups to imitate.' The Herald dips its masthead to a man who lent the game not merely his left arm but a second chance for every arm that came after — few players have given more to men they never met.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: SWANSON'S SIDE, McCLANAHAN'S RETURN, AND A BRONX WARD IN CONVALESCENCE

The freshest entry is Chicago's: Dansby Swanson departed the North Siders' Sunday defeat with discomfort in his left side, and though the machines will render their verdict, the club already expects a stay upon the injured list — poor tidings for a team that has now dropped two straight. Better news from the Gulf: Shane McClanahan, his back tightness resolved, returns to the Tampa Bay rotation this very night against Baltimore, with sweep-prevention his explicit commission. The Bronx ward reports progress by degrees: Cody Bellinger begins a rehabilitation assignment Tuesday and could return shortly thereafter; Aaron Judge, mending his fractured rib, has progressed to playing catch but not yet to swinging; Carlos Rodón takes an assignment Tuesday, venue undecided. Elsewhere in the ledger: Philadelphia's Trea Turner, who fouled a ball off his knee Saturday, required no imaging and sat Sunday only as a precaution; Washington handles James Wood and his tender oblique with kid gloves; the Dodgers have lodged Justin Wrobleski on the fifteen-day list with forearm inflammation; and Boston has made official the hamstring sentence of Masataka Yoshida, ten days at the least.

FORTY INNINGS, THIRTEEN MILLIONS: CHAPMAN'S OPTION VESTS, AND FOUR HUNDRED SAVES DRAW NEAR

When Aroldis Chapman closed out Saturday's whitewash at Pittsburgh, the ninth inning he recorded was worth rather more than the save it wasn't: it carried him past forty innings for the season, and with them the vesting option in his Boston contract. Let the ledger show: pass the year-end physical, and the flame-throwing left-hander — now eight-and-thirty years of age — wears Boston colors in 2027 at thirteen million dollars. He has earned every cent the old-fashioned way, a 1.17 earned-run figure last season and 1.99 this, with seven-and-twenty saves that tie him for sixth in the game and bring his career count to three hundred ninety-four — ninth upon the all-time table, six shy of the four-hundred summit. 'I feel like home here,' said the man whose fastball once made hitters feel anything but.

THE SHOES MAKE THE MAN, AND NOW COOPERSTOWN WANTS THE SHOES

A charming coda to Saturday's thunder at Wrigley: the Hall of Fame has requested the cleats in which Joshua Báez struck three home runs in his first three major-league at-bats — and the cleats were never his. The rookie arrived for his debut with a dirty pair and white batting gloves, whereupon the veteran Bryan Torres staged an intervention — 'You can't go out like that during your debut. You have to look sharp. You have to wear red' — and requisitioned a clean size-twelve pair from Blaze Jordan's locker, a red belt from a trainer, and batting gloves from José Fermín. Jordan, informed after the fact that history was being made in his footwear, gave the only possible answer: 'OK, 100 percent.' The borrowed shoes now travel to Cooperstown, where the game's first three-homer debut will be commemorated in leather that fit the moment better than it fit the occasion's haste. Of the young man's Sunday encore, see the St. Louis dispatch below — the fates, having spent themselves Saturday, took the day off.

THE ALMANAC DESK: A SABATHIA CLEARS HIS FIRST FENCE, WILLIAMSPORT AWAITS, AND TWO FOR ONE IN CINCINNATI

Three entries. First, the bloodlines: Carsten Sabathia III, twentieth-round selection of the Brewers this summer, struck the first home run of his professional life for Single-A Wilson on Sunday — a three-for-four afternoon that has him nine-for-twenty as a professional — while his father, the Hall of Famer CC Sabathia, threw his arms skyward in the family suite. Second, the calendar: the almanac fixes the Little League Classic for Sunday next, the twenty-third of August, when the Brewers and Braves repair to Williamsport to play before the smallest and most discerning audience in baseball. Third, this day's arithmetic: the Cardinals and Reds play two at Cincinnati — first pitch at 1:40, the nightcap at 6:40 — a full afternoon and evening of baseball for the price of a single admission to the wild-card scramble.

The Rest of the Card

SEVEN WITH TWO OUT IN THE SIXTH, AND THE BIRDS SEIZE THE WILD-CARD CHAIR OUTRIGHT: ORIOLES 10, TAMPA MEN 2

Read it twice if you must: Baltimore, at one-and-sixty wins against three-and-sixty defeats, this morning holds sole possession of the American's final wild-card seat. The Birds thrashed the league's best club a third consecutive time, and did it with the season's biggest inning — seven runs in the sixth, every one of them after two were out, Cowser's two-run homer, Holliday's two-run double, and Encarnacion-Strand's three-run double the heavy blows. Holliday finished with two hits and three runs batted in; Alonso doubled home two for his eightieth run driven in; Rogers gave six sturdy innings. 'We go out there and beat a good team three nights in a row, I don't think it's much of a fluke,' said Holliday, and the schedule invites him to prove it: the four-game sweep is on offer this very evening, with McClanahan activated expressly to forbid it. Tampa Bay, nine straight wins ago the hottest club in the game, has now dropped three running; Vilade's three hits and a homer were the lonely resistance.

THE REDBIRDS ROMP BEFORE THE NATION, ENCORE OR NO: CARDINALS 11, NORTH SIDERS 4

The nation tuned in for young Báez and stayed for everything else. The rookie went hitless in five with the whole country watching — the fates keep their own schedule — but his elders made the afternoon a rout: Burleson went three-for-five with a four-hundred-and-twenty-one-foot homer, his one-and-twentieth to tie the best of his career, four runs batted in raising his season's count to ninety; Walker matched him blow for blow with his four-and-twentieth homer, two doubles, and four runs driven in; and Wetherholt opened the game with a bloop double and came round three times. A six-run fourth broke it open, Dobbins struck out seven across five for the victory, and St. Louis claimed both the series and the season's set from Chicago, seven games to six. 'I know what August can do to you. I know what September can do for you,' said Burleson. The Redbirds, at three-and-sixty wins, sit three and a half from the National's last chair; the Cubs have dropped two straight and now welcome their South Side neighbors for three.

THE SINNER REDEEMED IN THE TENTH: BRONX BOMBERS 4, MAPLE LEAF NINE 3

Baseball's oldest morality play ran Sunday in Toronto. Ben Rice, promoted to the leadoff post in a general shuffling of the order, kicked a ground ball at first base to open the ninth, and the runner he reprieved came round upon Clement's sacrifice fly to undo a 2-1 lead and force extra innings. Whereupon Rice strode to the plate in the tenth and hit the two-run homer — his three-and-thirtieth — that won the game outright. 'You just gotta have as short of a memory as you possibly can,' said the redeemed. 'Obviously, no one's feeling worse at that point than Benny,' added the manager Boone. 'That's this game. That's being a big leaguer.' The victory wasted nothing of Weathers' seven and a third innings of one-run pitching, and survived ten strikeouts from the Toronto ace Cease, whose two hits allowed across six and a third deserved kinder company. Giménez singled home a run in the last of the tenth to restore the terror before Hill closed the door. New York's three-game skid is ended; the Jays' climb pauses a game from the final chair.

OLSON'S MOONSHOT SALVAGES THE FINALE: BRAVES 5, SONORAN NINE 3

Arizona had twice drawn level by solo homer — Moreno's ninth and the elder Vargas' ninth — and seemed intent on stealing the finale as it had taken the series, when Matt Olson settled matters in the seventh with a three-run blast to center, his six-and-thirtieth of the season, drawing him within a single homer of Schwarber's National League lead. Elder gave six innings of one-run ball, Iglesias recorded his five-and-twentieth save with the tying run at the plate, and the Atlantas — still masters of the East at four-and-seventy wins — avoided the indignity of a home sweep at the hands of a wild-card rival. The Snakes, for their part, leave Georgia with the series in their luggage and a date in Boston tonight, one game removed from the National's open chairs.

FIVE IN THE THIRD AND THE BUCS BITE BACK: PIRATES 8, CRIMSON HOSE 3

A day after Gray's masterpiece, Boston's bats returned to their August slumber — five hits, thirteen strikeouts — while Pittsburgh feasted early: two in the first and five in the third, Reynolds twice singling or doubling home runners for two runs batted in, Lowe driving in two more, and Nick Yorke — recalled from Indianapolis that very morning — announcing his return with three runs batted in. Wong's three-run homer in the fifth was the whole of the Boston reply. The victory went, in the modern bookkeeping, to Yates, his first of the season against five defeats; the Smoky City men now turn to greet Detroit, due at their park this very evening.

THE BROOM COMES OUT AT COMERICA: SOUTH SIDERS 7, MOTOR CITY NINE 5

Twice behind — three-nought early, four-one in the fifth — Chicago simply kept swinging until the arithmetic relented, as this club has done all season. Romo began the recovery with a two-run homer, C. Montgomery singled home the equalizer, Murakami untied it in the seventh with his eight-and-twentieth homer — a two-run thunderclap — and M. Vargas matched that homer total with an insurance blast in the ninth. The sweep runs the division lead to five and a half games, the South Siders' fattest cushion since the final day of 2021, the year of their last crown. 'These guys are tired and beat up and they just keep playing,' said the manager Venable, declining for the third time in three days to call it a statement. The Detroit manager Hinch made it for him: 'They're never out of it... They're a very good team, and their record reflects it.' For the Bengals — whose freshly summoned Callahan tripled home two — a third straight defeat leaves them a full game from the wild-card chair they held a week ago.

SEVEN INNINGS OF NOTHING, THEN EVERYTHING AT ONCE: GULF STREAM NINE 7, RED STOCKINGS 1

For seven innings the rubber match in Cincinnati was a pitchers' duel of the severest school — Pérez granting two hits and no runs across six for Miami, Lodolo five scoreless frames for the home nine — and then the dam gave way all in one direction. Hernández opened the eighth with his eighteenth homer, Conine walked home a second with the sacks full, and the ninth brought the deluge: Ramírez's two-run double and Sanoja's three-run homer, five runs against a bullpen abetted by three Cincinnati errors, two of them charged to De La Cruz. Stephenson's pinch homer was the Queen City's single answer. The Floridians take the series and sit three games from the National's last chair; the Reds must regroup by 1:40 this afternoon, when the Cardinals arrive for two.

THREE HOURS OF RAIN, SIX INNINGS OF NOTHING, FOUR BALLS OVER THE WALL: MISSION NINE 5, GUARDIANS 0

The skies over Cleveland delayed the first pitch three hours and eleven minutes; Casey Mize was worth the wait. In his third start since the deadline conveyance out of Detroit, the right-hander scattered three hits across six scoreless innings for his first National League victory, no Cleveland runner passing second base all day. 'When I got out there, it felt normal,' he shrugged. 'It felt like the game started right on time for me.' The San Diego runs arrived by solo subscription — Rengifo, Sheets, Bowen, and Cronenworth each clearing the fence once, with Bogaerts singling home the fifth — and the Padres claimed the rubber game, drawing level with Philadelphia at seven-and-sixty wins apiece for the National's two open chairs. Cleveland, toasted Saturday for its ten-thousandth victory, was reminded Sunday that the ledger of 2026 keeps its own accounts.

THE FLUSHING NINE FINISH THE SWEEP: METS 4, WASHINGTONS 3

Christian Scott pitched into the seventh inning for the first time since his own elbow was rebuilt by the procedure whose pioneer the game mourned this very day — a quiet tribute, whether the young man intended one or not. Behind two runs after three, he steadied entirely, and the bats did the rest: Torrens' two-run homer and Young's run-scoring double reversed the score in the middle innings, and the relief corps — Senga at the last, his third save inside a week — permitted Washington nothing further. Ortiz homered and Ruiz drove in two for the Nats, whose ninth-inning agonies of Saturday became Sunday's quieter regrets. New York has won nine of twelve, and the once-buried New Yorkers now play the spoiler's part with genuine relish.

DOWN FIVE EARLY, SWEEPERS LATE: PHILS 7, TWIN CITIES NINE 5

Andrew Painter first faced Minnesota as a teenaged marvel in the spring of 2023; his elbow gave way within days, and the surgery that followed cost him three seasons. Sunday, facing those same Twins, he was reminded how long the road back runs: a four-pitch walk to open the game, the bases refilled behind him, and Brooks Lee's two-out grand slam — struck on a hung slider one pitch after Lee had hooked its twin just inches foul — before the first inning was done, with Clemens' homer making it five-nought by the third. Whereupon the Philadelphia offense staged its second comeback in as many days: Arraez chipped one home in a four-run sixth crowned by Bohm's three-run homer — this a day after the man's five-hit evening — and De La Cruz singled home the go-ahead pair in the eighth. Duran closed for his six-and-twentieth save, sealing the club's first sweep since June and a lead of one full game over Arizona in the wild-card table.

THIRTEEN RUNS AMONG THE CELLARS, AND THE ROOKIES FEAST: ROX 13, JINTS 7

The connoisseurs of the draft table were served a banquet by the Bay. San Francisco led seven-to-six after five, whereupon Colorado scored seven unanswered: a run home on a wild pitch, Carrigg struck by a pitch with the bases loaded, Moniak's two-run single — three runs batted in on his day — and Sullivan's three-run homer in the seventh. The curiosity of the box score belongs to Amador, who managed but a single official at-bat yet scored three times and drove in three, his first homer of the season doing the heavy hauling in a four-run second. Devers answered with his five-and-twentieth homer, his thirtieth double, and three runs batted in for the Frisco nine, to no lasting avail. The Mountain men take the series among the season's cellar-dwellers — and in the connoisseur's standings, the ones read bottom-up with an eye on next June's draft, thereby cede precious ground.

THE WHITE ELEPHANTS TRAMPLE TEXAS OUT OF THE CHAIR: ATHLETICS 5, ARLINGTON MEN 2

One day in the wild-card seat, and Texas has already surrendered the furniture. Burger's one-and-twentieth homer staked the visitors early, but the Elephants answered with thirteen hits and three homers of their own: Butler's two-run reply in the second, Gelof's two-run blow in the seventh — charged to Junis, activated from the injured list but a day before — and Tommy White's first of the season in the eighth. Lopez gave six innings of two-run ball, the Texas batsmen struck out twelve times, and the Rangers, at one-and-sixty wins, wake this morning a half-game astern of Baltimore with the Washingtons due at Arlington tomorrow. Some seven thousand souls saw the spoilers work; the spoilers, at least, looked pleased.

ONE HIT, ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN PITCHES, ONE MAN: ROYAL BLUES 3, SERAPHS 0

The day's finest pitching belonged to Kansas City's Noah Cameron, who went the whole distance at Anaheim and permitted precisely one hit — a single off the bat of Grissom — with a lone walk and eight strikeouts across a hundred and fifteen pitches, the complete-game whitewash rendered in two hours and sixteen minutes. The series thus produced consecutive shutouts pitched in opposite directions: Detmers' 1-0 gem for the Seraphs on Saturday, answered Sunday by a club that keeps its dignity even in the season's basement. Witt Jr. and Massey supplied homers — the fourteenth and eleventh respectively, Massey adding three hits — and Jensen singled home the third. Anaheim's offense for the afternoon: one single, one walk, and the long walk home.

A STUMBLE, A RECOVERY, AND A SERIES CLAIMED IN THE HOUSE OF HORRORS: MARINERS 3, HOUSTON NINE 2

Sunday night at Daikin Park supplied the season's concentrated essence of Seattle baseball. Arozarena opened the evening with his seventeenth homer, Raleigh added his thirteenth, and Woo carried a lead through six — whereupon the eighth inning turned gothic: a pop fly from Altuve that ought to have been routine instead found grass amid a stumble, the bases filled, and Varsho hooked a would-be dagger just foul before Domínguez struck him out to end the terror. 'Only in Houston would something like that happen,' said Raleigh. 'We always play the craziest games here.' Muñoz, two days removed from a five-run cataclysm on this same mound, closed the ninth without incident for his two-and-twentieth save. Peña and Allen homered for the Houston nine, whose grip on the West continues to loosen — two games now over Texas, with the mariners of the Sound but four back and climbing.

The arithmetic desk reports a change of tenancy: the American's final wild-card chair, occupied Saturday by Texas, belongs this morning to Baltimore — one-and-sixty wins, sole possession, no cotenants — with the Rangers a half-game astern, Toronto and Detroit a full game back, Minnesota and Cleveland a game and a half, and Seattle two and a half: seven claimants, and still not one of them at the break-even line. In the National, Philadelphia and San Diego share the two open chairs at seven-and-sixty wins apiece, Arizona one back, Miami three, St. Louis three and a half. This day's card runs to eleven engagements, the idle Brewers having earned their Monday. The bill of fare: Baltimore goes for the four-game sweep at the Trop at 6:05, McClanahan, his back mended, restored to the Tampa rotation expressly to prevent it, opposite Young and his 9-and-3; the doubleheader at Cincinnati opens at 1:40; Sánchez — fifteen victories, a 2.54 figure — takes the ball for Philadelphia against Miami at 6:40; Detroit seeks its footing at Pittsburgh at 7:05; and at 8:05 the city of Chicago closes its streets for the crosstown engagement at Wrigley, South Side against North, Castillo opposite Imanaga. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Monday, August 17, 2026 — Boxscore
Bryan Hoch, Tommy John, whose surgery blazed a trail for countless players, dies at 83 — MLB.com
Pitchers laud Tommy John as 'trailblazer' — MLB.com
Adam McCalvy, Facing the ace they tried to trade for, Brewers get the last laugh vs. Dodgers — MLB.com
Ian Browne, Chapman triggers his vesting option for '27 — MLB.com
Injuries: Bellinger, Dansby, McClanahan, Wood, Trea, Dodgers — MLB.com
Zach Sweet, Báez's borrowed cleats from historic debut heading to Cooperstown — MLB.com
Clark Fahrenthold, Family affair: Brewers' Carsten Sabathia III hits first pro homer with Hall of Famer dad in stands — MLB.com
Jake Rill, Orioles take sole possession of 3rd Wild Card with 3rd straight win vs. AL-best Rays — MLB.com
Zach Worden, Sweet redemption for Rice, who hits go-ahead blast after error in 9th — MLB.com
Zach Sweet, 'Bleachers are empty': Cards make statement as offense shines vs. Cubs — MLB.com
Brian Dulik, Mize weathers lengthy rain delay, Bowen shines back home in series winner — MLB.com
Scott Merkin, White Sox showing they're the team to beat in AL Central with sweep of Tigers — MLB.com
Paul Casella, Painter prevails after rocky start as Phils rally for first sweep since June — MLB.com
Bill Ladson, Scott pitches into 7th, picks up win as Mets sweep Nats — MLB.com
Daniel Kramer, On the rebound: Mariners take Astros series with key contributors stepping up — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference

THREE SWINGS, THREE THUNDERBOLTS, AND THE RECORD BOOK REWRITTEN: BÁEZ HOMERS IN HIS FIRST THREE AT-BATS AT THE DAWN OF HIS CAREER — CARDINALS 8, CUBS 4

2026-08-16T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

THREE SWINGS, THREE THUNDERBOLTS, AND THE RECORD BOOK REWRITTEN: BÁEZ HOMERS IN HIS FIRST THREE AT-BATS AT THE DAWN OF HIS CAREER — CARDINALS 8, CUBS 4

Summoned from Memphis but a day before, the young outfielder greets the first pitch ever thrown to him in the major leagues with a four-hundred-and-forty-nine-foot thunderclap to dead center, adds a second homer his next time up and a third in the sixth — five runs driven in, a standing ovation from the rival faithful, and the first three-homer debut in the whole recorded history of the game

The Herald has chronicled prodigies before, but it has never had occasion to set down what Joshua Báez did at Wrigley Field on Saturday afternoon, for the sufficient reason that in the annals of more than three-and-twenty thousand major leaguers, no man had ever done it. The Cardinals' No. 3 prospect, summoned Friday from Memphis with his four-and-thirty Triple-A home runs, stepped in against the veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd with two out and a man aboard in the first, beheld a fastball at the letters — the first major-league pitch of his life — and dispatched it four hundred and forty-nine feet to dead center, the ball leaving his bat at nearly nine-and-a-hundred miles per hour. His second time up he worked a full count and ripped a changeup down the left-field line, becoming but the second man since 1900 to homer in his first two career at-bats in a single game, joining Bob Nieman of the 1951 Browns. And in the sixth, facing Boyd a third time, he drove a pitch the opposite way to right — 'I had no idea,' he confessed. 'So I just started running, and then I seen that it went over and I was like, this is insane' — and with it went where no ballplayer had gone before: three at-bats, three home runs, in his major-league debut.

By the eighth the entire premises had surrendered to the occasion. The Wrigley crowd — a rival crowd, be it remembered — stood for the rookie's fourth appearance, and the Chicago pitcher Colin Rea was obliged to cup a hand to his ear to hear the signals over the din. Báez lined out to left; the faithful applauded him anyway. 'It's just unreal,' said the young man, who finished three-for-four with five runs driven in. 'For me to not only get a hit, but hit three home runs is just crazy.' His manager Oliver Marmol, asked beforehand what excited him about the newcomer, had answered that the lad's talent 'doesn't quietly whisper — it screams at you'; afterward he ranked the spectacle with watching Pujols strike his seven-hundredth. The starter Michael McGreevy, who contributed six innings in which every run against him crossed unearned, submitted the day's driest verdict: 'I love when history gives me run support.' Boyd, who surrendered all three blows, tipped his cap in the old manner: 'He's a good hitter. He just got the better of me today.'

The supporting particulars: Burleson struck his twentieth homer and drove in two, Jordan added his second, and the eight runs stood comfortably against the reply of Conforto, whose tenth homer figured among three Chicago runs driven in. The Elias scribes note that no man had previously managed a three-homer game earlier than his tenth career contest; Báez required one. He is likewise the first Cardinal to homer upon the first pitch of his career since a pitcher named Adam Wainwright turned the trick in 2006. The ledger gives the affair consequence beyond the poetry: St. Louis, at two-and-sixty wins, stands three and a half games from the National's final wild-card chair, while the Cubs — still holders of the first chair by six full games — see the rubber match arrive this very afternoon.

News Around the League

THE VERDICT FROM TORONTO: GUERRERO TO THE CONCUSSION LIST, AND THE CANADIANS SHUFFLE THE DECK

The morning's report from Ontario, awaited since Friday's collision at third base, arrived and was grim enough: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been placed upon the seven-day concussion injured list. The club answered with a small mobilization — the left-hander Ricky Tiedemann recalled from Buffalo, the outfielder Daz Cameron selected to the roster — and the skipper John Schneider has installed young Charles McAdoo as the next man up, with results the card below celebrates. 'This definitely feels different than it has for a lot of the year,' Schneider said of his club's late charge, which has now brought seven victories in nine games. 'It feels pretty damn good.' The timing of the injury remains the cruelest part; the standings, as the desk observes below, have rarely been so crowded.

TEN THOUSAND VICTORIES BESIDE THE LAKE

Let the almanac record that Cleveland's franchise, in dismissing San Diego by six runs to one on Saturday, secured the ten-thousandth victory in its history — a summit previously attained, among clubs founded since 1900, only by the Red Sox and the Yankees. 'That's an unbelievable number to get to, and I'm honored to be a part of it,' said the manager Stephen Vogt, whose 2026 edition has supplied rather fewer than its share of the ten thousand — nine wins in seven-and-twenty games since the All-Star pause — but chose the occasion to play the complete brand of baseball its manager has been pleading for all month. The particulars of the milestone conquest are set down upon the card below.

THE TWO-HUNDRED-FORTY-MILLION-DOLLAR MAN TAKES A SEAT

In Los Angeles, the management has prescribed rest for Kyle Tucker, the winter's grandest acquisition, who sat Saturday against Milwaukee — his second benching of the week at home. The affliction is geographic and stark: upon the road the man bats .275 with his customary production, but at Dodger Stadium the figure reads .192 with but two home runs in nine-and-fifty games. 'The splits are stark. I don't think we have a reason behind it,' admitted the skipper Dave Roberts, who observed frustration accumulating in a player famous for showing none. Tucker is promised a return to the lineup this day and all three games at Denver besides; his replacement Alex Call, it must be said, delivered two of the club's five hits in the losing cause.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: SKENES HELD BACK, JUDGE PLAYS CATCH, AND DEGROM AWAITS HIS VERDICT

The gravest entry first: Pittsburgh has pushed Paul Skenes from this day's assignment back to Wednesday against Detroit, the management citing rest for a young arm whose fastball has receded from 98.2 miles per hour last season to 96.8 this — though the man himself pleads ordinary weariness rather than injury. 'Everybody's tired. Everybody's grinding, and we just got to keep going,' said Skenes. In the Bronx ledger: Aaron Judge, fractured rib and all, played catch Friday for the first time since the injury, though the bat stays holstered. In Texas they exhale cautiously over Jacob deGrom, whose early exit with triceps fatigue produced an encouraging examination, though his next turn is accounted unlikely. The small print: Philadelphia's Trea Turner fouled a ball off his right knee Saturday and departed; Boston's Masataka Yoshida left with hamstring tightness; Milwaukee's Brice Turang awaits the machine's opinion of his aching knee.

THE ALMANAC AND DEALINGS DESK: A SHORTSTOP FOR CASH, A NATIONAL AUDIENCE, AND SIX WEEKS TO SETTLE IT ALL

Three entries. First, commerce: the Athletics have sold the shortstop Jonathan Ornelas to Milwaukee for plain cash, and so swift was the conveyance that the man appeared in Brewers flannels that very evening — and was charged with an error for his trouble. Second, spectacle: this afternoon's rubber match between the Cardinals and Cubs goes out to the whole nation upon ABC at a quarter past three Eastern, where young Báez will attempt an encore; the wires observe that no man has ever struck more than three home runs across his first two career games, a record now within a single afternoon's reach. Third, the hourglass: the almanac fixes the final day of the regular season at the twenty-seventh of September — six weeks hence, with every wild-card seat still warm.

The Rest of the Card

MCADOO RATTLES THE WALL AND THE TORONTOS KEEP CLIMBING: CANADIANS 4, HIGHLANDERS 1

With Guerrero consigned to the injured list that very morning, his understudy Charles McAdoo supplied the afternoon's decisive blow — a seventh-inning double off the center-field wall at a hundred and seven miles per hour, inches shy of leaving the premises, scoring the go-ahead run — and added an insurance single in the eighth for good measure. 'It really got the offense going,' the young man said, with some understatement. The Yankee starter Cam Schlittler was hard luck itself, one run across five and a third with seven strikeouts, his league-best earned-run figure settling at 2.19; the New York attack managed four hits, Lombard Jr. driving in the only run. Varland struck out three in the ninth for his eight-and-twentieth save. Toronto has won seven of nine and sits half a game from the American's final wild-card chair; the Bronx men have dropped three running.

TEN INNINGS AT THE TROP, AND THE BALTIMORES TAKE ANOTHER FROM THE LEAGUE'S BEST: O'S 4, GULF COAST CLUB 3

For the second consecutive evening Baltimore inconvenienced the American's finest club. Alonso struck his seven-and-twentieth homer and Encarnacion-Strand his fifth, and the visitors carried a lead into the ninth — whereupon Tampa Bay drew level against Kittredge, the fourth save to spill from his hands this season. The tenth restored order: the deciding run crossed against Baker, and Sanders recorded his third save with the tying man aboard. Seymour struck out nine Orioles in six innings and departed unrewarded. The Rays, at four-and-seventy wins, remain the class of the league but have now dropped two straight; Baltimore, winners of two running, sits half a game from the final wild-card chair.

GRAY THROWS SEVEN BLANK FRAMES FOR HIS CAREER-BEST FIFTEENTH: FENWAY MEN 4, CORSAIRS 0

Sonny Gray, six-and-thirty years of age and pitching like the ace Boston lost when Crochet's shoulder failed, scattered six Pittsburgh hits across seven scoreless innings — working for the first time with the newly arrived Rutschman behind the plate — and collected the fifteenth victory of his season, the most of any campaign in his long career. 'We needed length bad. He gave us length,' said the interim skipper Chad Tracy. Abreu supplied the margin with his two-and-twentieth homer and two doubles besides, and the Fenway men added three in the ninth against Weaver to make the arithmetic comfortable. Boston thus arrests a one-and-six skid; the Corsairs, held to six hits by Gray and company, learn they must also do without Skenes this day, as the infirmary column relates.

THE PALE HOSE TAKE THE SECOND FROM DETROIT AND STRETCH THE GAP TO FOUR AND A HALF: WHITE SOX 4, BENGALS 3

Chicago's grip upon the American's Central tightened another half-turn. C. Montgomery drove in two and Benintendi another, twelve hits in all, while the bullpen — Hicks, Taylor, and Hudson, the last for his fifth save — permitted Detroit a single hit over the final three and two-thirds innings after Kay labored through five and a third. Valencia's sixth homer accounted for two Tiger runs and Torres rapped three hits in the losing cause. 'We play 162. Wherever we end up, we end up,' offered Benintendi, the philosopher of a club that has now won two-and-twenty of five-and-thirty against its own division. Detroit, half a game from the final wild-card chair, has dropped the first two of this heavyweight set.

FOUR IN THE EIGHTH AND THE FISH SWIM PAST CINCINNATI: MARLINS 8, REDLEGS 4

The Queen City men led by a run through seven, whereupon the eighth inning fell upon Antone like a wave: four Miami runs, three of them in a third of an inning, the save spilled and the game reversed. Hernández drove in three for the visitors, Marsee and Mack cleared the wall, and fourteen hits were distributed among the Miami order. For Cincinnati, McLain homered, doubled, and stole a base, and Stewart drove in two to draw level with Abrams atop the National's run-batted-in table at one-and-ninety. The Fish thus even the series and stand three games from the final wild-card chair; the Redlegs have surrendered what the getaway day may yet restore.

SEVEN RUNS WITH TWO OUT IN THE FIFTH, AND BOHM RAPS FIVE: QUAKERS 9, NORTH STARS 1

Alec Bohm went five-for-five with three doubles — the first five-hit evening of his life — and Stott detonated the decisive three-run homer in a fifth inning wherein all seven Philadelphia runs crossed with two men down. The Minnesota starter Prielipp walked three straight at the frame's center, including Arraez — the National's leading batsman at .316 — with the sacks full, and Bohm's single through the middle opened the floodgates. Luzardo struck out nine across six and two-thirds for his eleventh victory. The lone shadow upon the evening was Turner's knee, as the infirmary column relates; the Quakers, at six-and-sixty wins, sit in the three-way knot atop the National's wild-card table.

ONE HIT FOR THE FRIARS AS CLEVELAND CLAIMS ITS MILESTONE: LAKE ERIE MEN 6, PADRES 1

The ten-thousandth victory, saluted in the news columns above, was earned in the old Cleveland style. Cantillo permitted San Diego a single hit across six innings, the visitors' lone run scoring upon a double-play ball in the first, and the relief corps allowed no baserunner thereafter. Kwan and Bailey doubled home runs, the convalescing Ramírez doubled, scored, and added a sacrifice fly, and the seventh brought a double-steal of such larcenous chaos that Cronenworth was charged with two errors upon a single play, DeLauter scampering home behind Kwan. 'That felt kind of reminiscent of old Guards Ball,' Kwan grinned. San Diego's six-game winning streak dies at the lakeshore; the Friars remain knotted with Arizona and Philadelphia for the National's two remaining wild-card chairs.

SINGLES, OF ALL THINGS, CARRY THE DAY IN HOUSTON: PUGET SOUND MEN 10, 'STROS 5

A club that has lived and died by the home run — very nearly half of Seattle's season's runs have arrived via the fence, the largest share in the game — assembled fifteen hits of the humbler variety and administered a thorough beating to the West's leaders, one night after losing to them in the cruelest fashion imaginable. Donovan, restored to the leadoff post, singled home three runs; Young drove in four, capping the evening with his fifteenth homer; Robles tripled amid a four-run second whose punctuation was Young sliding home clean between Naylor's legs. Hancock gave seven sturdy innings. Seattle has now beaten Houston eight times in ten meetings this season and sits five back in the West; the Astros' division lead over Texas is down to two games.

ARENADO STRIKES TWICE AND THE DESERT NINE CLAIM THE SERIES AT ATLANTA: D-BACKS 10, TOMAHAWK NINE 3

Nolan Arenado homered twice — his nineteenth and twentieth — and drove in four, Vargas added a homer and three runs batted in, and Eduardo Rodriguez delivered six innings of two-run ball for his twelfth victory as Arizona seized the series from the East's leaders, Atlanta's fourth home series lost this season. The Atlanta reply amounted to Acuña Jr.'s thirteenth homer and precious little else. 'Everybody in that room believes we can tell a really good story, and our journey is very incomplete,' declared the skipper Torey Lovullo, whose club has won two running, taken series from the Dodgers and now the Braves this month, and sits in the three-way tie for the National's last two wild-card chairs.

MISIOROWSKI KEEPS HIS PROMISE AND THE SUDS MEN STRETCH THE LEAD TO TWO: BREWERS 4, ANGELENOS 1

The young man who vowed to throw the great Ohtani a heater and wish him luck was as good as his word and better: Jacob Misiorowski held Los Angeles to a single run across six innings, his earned-run figure settling at a majestic 1.75 with two hundred and ten strikeouts, both figures the National's finest. Contreras and Ortiz supplied the homers, and Ashby — a starter by trade — closed the final two innings for the first save of his season. The Dodger run was manufactured by the benched-no-more brigade: Call singled and came round upon Ohtani's triple. Milwaukee's lead over Los Angeles for the National's best ledger now stands at two full games, with the rubber match this very afternoon — the bill of fare is posted in the desk note below.

DOWN TO THEIR LAST THREE OUTS, THE AMAZINS STRIKE TWICE: METS 5, CAPITAL NINE 4

Washington carried a one-run lead into the ninth at Flushing, whereupon Cruz was set upon for three hits, two runs crossed, and the Metropolitans walked off winners of two straight. Benge's fourteenth homer and Young's two runs batted in had kept the hosts within reach of House, who drove in three of the Washington runs and homered besides. The victory fell to the animated left-hander Jefry Yan, who furnished the evening's comedy in the top of the frame: he leapt into his celebrated strikeout dance a moment before the umpire declined the call, challenged the verdict, lost it, then struck out Nuñez in earnest moments later and danced a second time, unrepentant. 'I didn't want to look bad, so I had to lock back in,' he explained. The Mets have won seven of ten; the Senators go home lamenting the ninth.

THE LONE STAR NINE CLIMB OUT OF AN EARLY HOLE AND INTO THE FINAL CHAIR: RANGERS 5, MACKMEN 3

Bolte's sixth homer, a three-run affair in the second, staked the Athletics to the early advantage, but Texas answered with patience: a run in the fifth, three in the sixth, and a ninth-inning tally for insurance, Langford's fourteenth homer and two runs batted in leading the charge. Gore ground through five and two-thirds for the victory, Junis — activated from the injured list that very day — bridged an inning without incident, and Latz closed the final two frames for his four-and-twentieth save. The victory snaps a four-game Texas skid and, by the morning's arithmetic, leaves the Rangers in possession of the American's final wild-card chair at two games below the break-even line — with five clubs within a single game of their seat.

DETMERS STRIKES OUT ELEVEN AND WASTES NOT A PITCH OF IT: HALOS 1, ROYALS 0

The finest pitching of the day belonged to Anaheim, where Reid Detmers carried a whitewash through eight innings upon two hits, eleven strikeouts, and not a solitary walk, running his season's count to a hundred and seven-and-sixty, fourth in the American. His opposite Dobnak matched zeroes into the sixth, and the game's only run waited upon the eighth: Frazier doubled and Schanuel drove him home. Joyce closed the ninth with two strikeouts for the save. Kansas City's whole offense amounted to two singles and a stolen base; the Halos have won six of ten, which in the season's basement passes for a heater.

SIX IN THE FOURTH AND WEBB WALKS NO ONE: ORANGE AND BLACK 7, MILE HIGH NINE 1

The Bay men avenged Friday's indignity emphatically. Gilbert struck his sixth homer and drove in three runs, the fourth inning yielded six San Francisco tallies in all, Devers doubled — his nine-and-twentieth two-bagger — and drove in another, and Logan Webb did the professional's work: six innings, four hits, one run, seven strikeouts, and not a walk issued. Lorenzen absorbed his eleventh defeat, and Colorado's brief winning streak perishes at three. The two westernmost cellars conclude their series this afternoon, with the draft arithmetic — the connoisseur's pennant race — hanging in the balance.

The arithmetic desk begs the reader's particular attention this morning, for the American's final wild-card chair has become the most contested furniture in baseball: Texas holds it at one-and-sixty wins against three-and-sixty defeats — two games below the waterline — with Toronto, Baltimore, and Detroit each half a game astern, Minnesota and Cleveland a single game back, and Seattle three. Six claimants within a game of the seat, and not one of them above .500. This day's card runs to fifteen engagements, and two command the front row: at Wrigley Field, a quarter past three Eastern and broadcast to the whole nation upon ABC, young Báez seeks his encore in the rubber match, Dobbins opposite Cabrera; and at Dodger Stadium at ten past four, the National's two finest ledgers settle their series, Henderson and his 2.88 for Milwaukee against Skubal and his 2.93 for Los Angeles, the gap between the clubs standing at two games. The early shift offers Weathers against Cease — he of the 2.40, second-best in the American — at Toronto at 1:37, wherein the Canadians may climb further still. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Sunday, August 16, 2026 — Boxscore
Zach Sweet, 3 HRs in 1st 3 at-bats?! Cards prospect Báez first to accomplish feat in epic big league debut — MLB.com
Sarah Langs, 7 stats and facts to know from Joshua Báez's debut for the ages — MLB.com
Jason Foster, Báez looks to build on historic 3-HR debut today vs. Cubs (3:15 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN App) — MLB.com
Tim Stebbins, Guards ride complete effort to 10,000th win in franchise history — MLB.com
Keegan Matheson, McAdoo channels Vladdy Jr. as Blue Jays continue stunning climb — MLB.com
Aiden Stepansky, Paul Skenes' start pushed back until Wednesday against Tigers — MLB.com
Doug Padilla, As home slump continues, Tucker gets game off vs. Brewers — MLB.com
Injuries: Judge, Ohtani, Vladdy, Marte, deGrom, Red Sox — MLB.com
Daniel Kramer, Donovan, Young star as Mariners put it all together for needed win over Astros — MLB.com
Paul Casella, Red-hot Bohm, Stott showing position change no problem as duo sparks Phils' win — MLB.com
Ian Browne, Gray continues run as Boston's stand-in ace with career-best 15th win — MLB.com
Rick Farlow, D-backs finally putting pieces together as NL Wild Card battle heats up — MLB.com
Scott Merkin, White Sox earn series win vs. rival Tigers but 'still have a lot more to go' — MLB.com
Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, If at first you don't succeed, try (and dance) again! — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference

TWICE DOWN TO THE FINAL STRIKE, HOUSTON RISES FIVE RUNS AT A BLOW: WALKER'S WALK-OFF THUNDERBOLT IN THE TENTH — ASTROS 10, MARINERS 7

2026-08-15T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

TWICE DOWN TO THE FINAL STRIKE, HOUSTON RISES FIVE RUNS AT A BLOW: WALKER'S WALK-OFF THUNDERBOLT IN THE TENTH — ASTROS 10, MARINERS 7

Seattle scores twice in the tenth to seize the lead, whereupon the Houston nine — twice a single strike from defeat against the estimable Muñoz — answers with five runs in the bottom of the frame, Paredes and Varsho supplying the levelers and Christian Walker the three-run blow that empties the dugout, fires the rockets, and stretches the West lead to a season-high three games

Let the reader be advised that the tenth inning at Daikin Park produced seven runs, two lead changes, and one baseball struck so emphatically by Christian Walker that the outcome was never in doubt from the crack of it. The mariners of the Sound had done everything demanded of a visiting club: two runs in the first upon Canzone's single and Naylor's sacrifice fly, a patient recovery after Houston batted round its early deficit, single runs in the sixth and a pair in the eighth to draw level at five, and then two more in the tenth — Robles tripling home one and Rodden lofting home another — to stand three outs from a virtuous road victory with Andrés Muñoz, among the finest closers in the game, upon the hill.

What followed will be recounted in Houston for some while. Twice the count reached its final strike; twice the Astros declined the invitation. Paredes singled home a run — his third driven in of the night — and Varsho singled home the leveler, and then Walker, granted a pitch to his liking, dispatched his three-and-twentieth home run of the season far into the left-field seats with two aboard. Ten runs to seven; fireworks overhead; the entire dugout emptied at the plate. 'To be able to tie it and then force more baseball, and then obviously take the lead, is great,' Walker submitted afterward, with the becoming modesty of a man who has just detonated a ballgame. The earlier chapters ought not be forgotten: Yordan Alvarez opened Houston's account with his six-and-thirtieth home run, the American League's largest crop and a single blow shy of Schwarber's major-league lead, before the hosts stacked four more in the second upon Cam Smith's triple and singles by Peña and Paredes.

The ledger renders the drama consequential: Houston, at three-and-sixty wins, extends its hold upon the American's West to three full games — its most comfortable of the season — over an Arlington club that has now dropped four straight, while Seattle departs six games adrift with but two victories in its last ten. The decision fell to De Los Santos; the defeat, and a seventh spilled save, to the unfortunate Muñoz.

News Around the League

THE MAPLE LEAF NINE HOLD THEIR BREATH: GUERRERO IN THE CONCUSSION PROTOCOL

The gravest bulletin of the evening issued from Toronto, where Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was removed from the Jays' conquest of New York after a chaotic passage at third base in the sixth inning. Racing from first upon an errant throw, Guerrero collided with the Yankee shortstop George Lombard Jr. — the young man's knee meeting the left side of Guerrero's face — and though he rose and completed his journey home with the tying run, he departed the game soon after and now undergoes the full concussion examination. 'You've always got to be careful,' said skipper John Schneider, a man acquainted with such injuries from his own catching days. 'We'll see how he wakes up tomorrow.' The timing is cruel: the Jays have lately been the hottest article in the American's wild-card scrum, and stand now but a single game from the final chair with eight-and-thirty to play. The whole of Ontario awaits the morning's report.

A FIRST SAVE AT ONE HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR, AND THE FRIARS MAKE IT SIX RUNNING

The night's warmest small story belongs to Bradgley Rodriguez, two-and-twenty years of age, who was handed the ninth inning of the Friars' engagement at Cleveland and converted it into the first save of his major-league life — surrendering a leadoff double, then retiring the side with two strikeouts, the last upon a called heater registered at one hundred and eight-tenths miles per hour, the swiftest pitch of the game. 'I'm just very emotional about getting that first save,' the young man confessed. 'The first of many, hopefully.' The established closer Mason Miller, who shares the National's lead at thirty saves, pronounced his understudy 'one of the best relievers in baseball' and professed himself excited in the present tense. The victory, chronicled upon the card below, was San Diego's sixth in succession.

FOUR-AND-THIRTY HOMERS IN MEMPHIS, AND NOW THE BARREL COMES TO THE SHOW

The Mound City club has summoned its No. 3 prospect, the outfielder Joshua Báez, who is expected to make his major-league debut this very day at Wrigley Field. The credentials are considerable: four-and-thirty home runs for Memphis, the largest total in all of Triple-A this season, alongside a .573 slugging figure across one hundred and three games. The wires rank him the nine-and-fiftieth prospect in the game, and St. Louis — whose attack has lately produced three hits in an afternoon, as the card below attests — will not be reviewed harshly for hastening the experiment.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: OHTANI ASCENDS A MOUND, MARTE DESCENDS TO THE TRAINER'S TABLE

The most encouraging admission first: Shohei Ohtani threw four-and-thirty pitches from a bullpen mound before the evening's engagement at Dodger Stadium — his first such session since the July setback that halted his throwing — and employed his full assortment. The stated plan calls for another session or two, then live hitters at least twice, before he pitches in a game; the management contemplates deploying him as a multi-inning opener once he returns. The catchers Will Smith and Dalton Rushing likewise took batting practice upon the field for the first time since their injuries. The debit column: Arizona's Ketel Marte departed the victory at Atlanta in the second inning with soreness of the left knee — an ailment he has been gutting out for some days — and is listed day to day. The Snakes will hold their breath; the man's importance to their wild-card position wants no elaboration.

THE ALMANAC DESK: THE CORN WILL PART AGAIN, AND THE MIDSUMMER CLASSIC GOES TO THE BAY

Three entries for the long calendar. First: scarcely had the Dyersville corn swallowed its last baseball when the league announced the pageant shall return — the Royals and the Red Sox will contest the next MLB at Field of Dreams game on the twelfth of August, 2027. Second: the Giants have been awarded the All-Star Game of 2028, returning the Midsummer Classic to San Francisco for the fourth time and the first since 2007; the 2027 edition remains bound for Wrigley Field. Third, and nearer at hand: the almanac notes the Little League Classic at Williamsport on the three-and-twentieth of this month, Brewers against Braves, a fixture the Herald commends to any reader who enjoys watching millionaires made bashful by twelve-year-olds.

The Rest of the Card

YAMAMOTO DEALS, DÍAZ ATONES, AND THE GAP IS ONE: BOYS IN BLUE 3, BREW CREW 1

The rematch the Herald commended to its readers repaid the vigil. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, made to labor through eight-and-thirty pitches across the first two innings, reorganized his mind — his own account of it — and finished six innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts, the Milwaukee reply amounting to a solitary sacrifice fly. Betts singled home the game's first run, and Pages and Edman supplied solo homers, the former's twentieth. Then came the ninth and Edwin Díaz, the day after the management renewed its faith in him: two walks, a strikeout, and — at last — three outs, his seventh save and his first since the recent spillage. 'At the end of the day, I made my pitches,' said the closer, plainly relieved. Los Angeles stands one game behind Milwaukee for the National's finest ledger, and the clubs meet again this day.

BURNS RETURNS TO HIS ROOTS AND LOCKS THE DOOR: QUEEN CITY NINE 1, FLORIDIANS 0

The pitching bill the desk praised in advance delivered in full. Young Chase Burns, chastened by his roughest outing a week prior, permitted Miami four singles across seven scoreless innings, striking out eight without a walk — 'just getting back to my roots,' he explained, 'throw it down the middle and let it eat.' His opponent Sandy Alcantara matched him frame for frame, three hits and one run across seven, the run arriving upon Eugenio Suárez's double in the sixth. Burke struck out the side in the eighth and Pagán closed for his fifteenth save. Burns stands four-and-ten against two with an earned-run figure of 2.47, third in the National, and Cincinnati has won two running.

HENDERSON RAPS FOUR AND THE STREAK DIES AT NINE: BIRDS 6, SUNSHINE NINE 5

Gunnar Henderson, whose season has been a long argument with his own reflection, went four-for-four at Tropicana Field — two singles, a double, and a two-run homer in the eighth, his twentieth — and Baltimore snapped Tampa Bay's winning streak at nine. Cowser added his tenth homer and Beavers a two-run single. The hosts made a proper fright of the ninth, three runs arriving upon Aranda's two-run single and Caminero's groundout, before Sanders recorded the final out with the tying run aboard. The Rays remain the American's class at four-and-seventy wins; Henderson, by his own telling, is simply playing 'with my hair on fire' again, and the Birds sit a single game from the final wild-card chair.

HOLMES IS PERFECT THROUGH SIXTEEN MEN IN HIS WRIGLEY UNVEILING: BRUINS 3, REDBIRDS 0

Clay Holmes, lately of both New York establishments, introduced himself to the Wrigley faithful by retiring the first sixteen St. Louis batters in order, the sinker boring holes in the afternoon until Fermín's soft single in the sixth dissolved the dream of history. He settled for six and two-thirds innings of one-hit ball, whereupon Seiya Suzuki supplied the entire offense with a three-run blast, his one-and-twentieth. Webb sealed the whitewash for his ninth save. The Bruins have won eight of ten, sit three behind Milwaukee in the Central, and hold the National's first wild-card chair by seven full games.

FOUR HOMERS ON THE ROAD, TWO FROM VARGAS: SOUTH SIDERS 9, MOTOR CITY NINE 5

The opening engagement of a week that may decide the American's Central went emphatically to Chicago. Miguel Vargas homered twice — his six-and-twentieth and seven-and-twentieth, drawing him level with his own teammate Murakami, who also cleared the wall — and Peters added a two-run shot, while Braden Montgomery drove in three upon a single and a triple. The evening was unkind to young Jobe, scored upon at last in his return and charged with six runs before the fourth was done; Urquidy, in his White Sox debut, collected the victory in relief. 'We know that this week means a lot for us,' said Vargas, and the ledger agrees: the lead over Detroit stands at three and a half.

COLE IS BETRAYED BY THE LEATHER, AND KIRK COLLECTS THE SPOILS: JAYS 3, PINSTRIPES 1

Gerrit Cole, facing Toronto for the first time in two years, delivered five spotless innings and was undone in the sixth by his own infantry: McMahon's low throw and a second error by García upon the same play let the tying run cross — the play upon which Guerrero was injured, as the news column relates — and Kirk promptly doubled home the lead before homering in the eighth for good measure. Bieber took the decision with six innings of one-run ball and Varland closed for his seven-and-twentieth save. Grisham's sixteenth homer was the whole of the New York account; the Pinstripes have dropped two running and remain six and a half behind the Rays.

LINDOR STIRS THE SLEEPING METROPOLITANS: METS 4, SENATORS 1

Washington led at Flushing upon House's single through the middle innings until Francisco Lindor, in the sixth, deposited his twelfth homer and woke the premises. Benge singled home the lead, and Young's eighth homer and Bichette's single fattened it in the seventh. Pintaro collected the first victory of his major-league life with two clean innings of relief, and Senga closed for his second save. The Metropolitans, whatever their station in the ledger, have won seven of ten; the Senators have surrendered the season's series.

PFAADT REPEATS HIMSELF, SEVEN BLANK FRAMES AND ALL: SNAKES 2, ATLANTAS 0

For the second consecutive outing Brandon Pfaadt delivered precisely seven scoreless innings upon two hits — this time with seven strikeouts and not a walk — and for the second consecutive outing his ledger brightened, now seven victories against a single defeat. His opposite Chris Sale struck out nine across six innings of one-run ball and was beaten regardless, the run scoring upon Moreno's groundout in the first; Tawa added a ninth-inning homer for insurance. Garcia closed for his fourth save. Arizona thus claims the opener at Atlanta and holds its wild-card seat, though the club departed the park anxious over Marte's knee, as the infirmary column relates.

THE BUCCANEERS BATTER THE CRIMSON HOSE: BUCS 8, BOSTONS 4

Pittsburgh built its victory upon the long ball and the timely double: Rafael Flores Jr. opened the account with his fourth homer and later singled home another, Valdez doubled home two, and Brandon Lowe's three-run blast in the fifth — his six-and-twentieth — settled the argument at seven-two. Young Chandler took the decision with five innings of two-run ball, and Montgomery recorded the final out for his fourth save after the Bostons crept within four. Duran scored twice in the losing cause. The Bucs have won two running; Boston, at five-and-sixty wins, keeps the second wild-card chair but has dropped six of ten.

CAMPUSANO DOUBLES TWICE AND THE FRIARS' STREAK REACHES SIX: MISSION NINE 7, FOREST CITY NINE 5

Cleveland struck first and often — Nathaniel Lowe homering and singling home another, Rocchio clearing the wall — but the Friars answered with five unanswered upon Bogaerts' two-run homer, Tatis' thirteenth, and Campusano's two-run double, the catcher adding a second double and Bogaerts a sacrifice fly in the seventh. King ground through six innings for the victory over Williams, and the rookie Rodriguez closed matters, as the news column celebrates. San Diego, winners of six straight, stand eight behind Los Angeles in the West but hold the National's second wild-card chair; the Cleveland nine have lost eight of ten.

CAGLIANONE DRIVES IN FIVE AND TROUT IS CUT DOWN AT THE PLATE: ROYAL BLUES 7, SERAPHS 6

A proper slugging match in Anaheim. Jac Caglianone drove in five runs by three separate instruments — a two-run single, a two-run homer, his two-and-twentieth, and the seventh-inning single that drew Kansas City level — and Massey, who had opened the scoring with a homer, singled home the decisive run moments later. The Seraphs' case was argued by Schanuel, whose bases-clearing double and later single produced four runs, and Josh Lowe, whose ninth homer briefly restored the lead; it was undone in part by Rave's right arm, which cut down Mike Trout at the plate upon the tying single in the fifth. Cruz closed for his fourth save.

MCNEIL FALLS A TRIPLE SHY OF THE CYCLE AS THE ELEPHANTS PLAY SPOILER: WHITE ELEPHANTS 8, TEXAS NINE 3

The Athletics, whose remaining schedule is thick with contending neighbors, have announced their intention to make mischief, and Jeff McNeil led the mischief-making: a double, a single, a solo homer, and in the ninth a two-run drive down the right-field line that hopped into the seats — a double when he wanted a triple, leaving the cycle a base short. Cortes had opened matters with a bases-clearing double against the wild Rocker, and after Burger's three-run homer drew Texas level, Butler and the deep men restored order. The defeat, Texas's fourth running, drops the Arlington men three behind Houston and half a game from the final wild-card chair.

FREELAND THROWS EIGHT AND THE MOUNTAIN MEN MAKE IT THREE: ROCKIES 5, JINTS 2

In the season's late-summer curiosities division: Colorado has won three running, the latest upon Kyle Freeland's eight innings of four-hit, one-run craftsmanship by the Bay. Johnston tripled home the first run, Veen cleared the wall with a man aboard, and the Jints' reply was confined to Eldridge's thirteenth homer and Devers' ninth-inning double, his eight-and-twentieth two-bagger of the year. Roupp absorbed his twelfth defeat. The two westernmost clubs in the National's cellar meet again this afternoon, bragging rights and draft arithmetic both in play.

The arithmetic desk directs the reader's attention to the American's final wild-card chair, presently occupied by Detroit at three score wins — with the Twins and Rangers half a game behind, the Jays and Birds a full game, and the Cleveland nine a game and a half: six claimants within a game and a half of one seat, and six weeks to sort them. Tonight's card runs to fifteen engagements, and the bill of fare is rich: at Dodger Stadium, a quarter past seven Eastern, the Brewers hand the ball to Misiorowski — proprietor of the major leagues' finest earned-run figure at 1.76 and two hundred four strikeouts besides — opposite Wrobleski, with the National's best record separated by a single game; the young man's stated plan for the great Ohtani is quoted upon the wires in full: 'I'm going to throw a heater. Good luck. Here it is.' Elsewhere, Schlittler and his American-best 2.21 takes the hill at Toronto at seven minutes past three, and Gray, the American's lone fourteen-game winner, pitches for Boston at Pittsburgh. Until the next dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Saturday, August 15, 2026 — Boxscore
Brian McTaggart, Christian Walk(off)! Astros slugger's winning blast caps 5-run 10th in wild win — MLB.com
Sonja Chen, Yamamoto dominates through 6, then Díaz gets redemption with a save — MLB.com
Keegan Matheson, Guerrero exits, in concussion protocol after collision on chaotic play — MLB.com
Keegan Matheson, Blue Jays surging up Wild Card standings -- but holding breath over Vladdy — MLB.com
Zach Worden, Defensive chaos sabotages Cole's gem in 1st start vs. Blue Jays in 2 years — MLB.com
Brian Dulik, Rodriguez, 'one of the best relievers in baseball,' secures 1st career save — MLB.com
Sam Dykstra, After leading Triple-A in homers, Báez bringing his barrel to The Show — MLB.com
Sonja Chen, Ohtani throws off mound; Smith, Rushing take batting practice — MLB.com
Rick Farlow, Marte day to day after exiting early due to left knee soreness — MLB.com
Manny Randhawa, MLB at Field of Dreams to return in 2027 with Royals-Red Sox matchup — MLB.com
Maria Guardado, Giants to host 2028 All-Star Game at Oracle Park — MLB.com
Jake Rill, Henderson heating up with 4-for-4 night as O's snap Rays' win streak at 9 — MLB.com
Mike Petraglia, 'Back to my roots': Burns re-emerges as dominant self in scoreless showing vs. Marlins — MLB.com
Jordan Bastian, Holmes takes perfect game into sixth as Cubs get glimpse of new-look rotation — MLB.com
Scott Merkin, Vargas homers twice as White Sox power up to open critical series with Tigers — MLB.com
Martín Gallegos, McNeil stops just short of cycle as A's begin to play spoiler — MLB.com
Adam McCalvy, Misiorowski looking to bring the heat vs. Ohtani, Dodgers in NLCS rematch — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference

MUNCY MAKES HISTORY, AND MILWAUKEE MAKES OFF WITH THE EVENING: THREE SINGLES IN THE NINTH FELL LOS ANGELES — BREWERS 5, DODGERS 4

2026-08-14T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

MUNCY MAKES HISTORY, AND MILWAUKEE MAKES OFF WITH THE EVENING: THREE SINGLES IN THE NINTH FELL LOS ANGELES — BREWERS 5, DODGERS 4

Max Muncy passes Eric Karros for the most home runs ever struck at Dodger Stadium — with Karros himself at the microphone to call it — and for two innings the Ravine toasts its new record-holder; whereupon Chourio, Mitchell, and Bauers rap three straight singles off the unfortunate Díaz, Megill bars the door, and the Cream City nine departs with its five-and-seventieth victory and the National's finest ledger intact

The evening had written itself a page of history by the sixth inning, and the ninth tore it out and wrote a better one. The historic entry belonged to Max Muncy, summoned from the bench with two aboard and his club trailing by a run: he lifted his three-and-twentieth home run of the season into the right-center seats, and with it passed Eric Karros for the most home runs ever struck at Dodger Stadium — while Karros himself, seated at the broadcast microphone, described the surpassing of his own monument. The blow turned a two-one deficit into a four-two lead and seemed to settle an evening in which Sasaki had wobbled through six innings of two-run ball, the visitors' only scores having arrived by the humblest post: consecutive bases-loaded walks to Ortiz and Hamilton in the fourth.

Then came the ninth, and Edwin Díaz, and the sound of six-and-forty thousand souls falling silent by degrees. Jackson Chourio singled home Ortiz. Garrett Mitchell singled home Hamilton. Jake Bauers singled home Chourio. Three singles, three runs, and every one of the three struck to right field, where Kyle Tucker collected each in turn and could do nothing with any of them. It was the third save Díaz has spilled in his last four chances — a subject upon which the Ravine's management pronounced itself this morning, as the news column relates — and it handed the decision to Hall, who had faced six Los Angeles batters across the seventh and eighth and retired every one, three by strikeout. Megill closed the ninth without incident for his two-and-twentieth save.

The ledger stands thus: five-and-seventy wins against seven-and-forty for the Cream City nine, the National League's finest account, four games clear of the North Siders in the Central — while Los Angeles, at three-and-seventy and nine-and-forty, let slip its chance to draw level with the leaders and must content itself with an eight-game cushion over San Diego in the West. The same two clubs resume hostilities tonight at ten past ten Eastern, Gasser opposing Yamamoto, and the Herald recommends the reader lose no sleep deciding whether to stay up: the answer is yes.

News Around the League

THE CORN PARTS, AND SIX-AND-TWENTY IMMORTALS WALK OUT OF IT

Dyersville, Iowa, got its pageant at last, and the pageant did not disappoint. Before the third MLB at Field of Dreams game, six-and-twenty members of the Hall of Fame emerged from the outfield corn precisely as the ghost players did in the famous moving picture, a procession to raise the hackles on the flintiest scorer's neck. The game that followed belonged to Philadelphia — the score and particulars are set down upon the card below — and above all to Kyle Schwarber, who deposited two baseballs into that same corn, his six-and-thirtieth and seven-and-thirtieth of the campaign, the largest crop in the major leagues. 'Is this heaven?' the Philadelphia wires asked afterward, and answered themselves in the affirmative. The beaten Minnesotans were gracious in their turn, pronouncing the evening one they would cherish for a lifetime — which is, the Herald submits, the entire point of building a ballpark in a cornfield.

DEGROM DEPARTS AFTER TWO, AND ARLINGTON HOLDS ITS BREATH

The gravest news of the evening came from Anaheim, where Jacob deGrom left his start against the Angels after but two innings, the club citing fatigue of the right triceps. The Lone Star staff has absorbed one blow after another this season, and the timing of this one could scarcely be worse: the Rangers have now dropped three straight, sit two games behind Houston in the American's West, and cling to the wild-card scrum by half a game. Such comfort as exists arrives by rehabilitation wire — Jack Leiter has been dispatched to Round Rock to begin working his way back.

THREE THOUSAND INNINGS FOR THE OLD LION

Let the milestone desk record that Max Scherzer, laboring in Toronto flannels against Boston last evening, crossed the threshold of three thousand career innings pitched — only the second active practitioner to reach that figure. The evening's decision went against him, as the card below relates, but five innings of one-run ball from an arm with three thousand frames upon its odometer is its own kind of testimony. The Herald tips its cap to endurance itself.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: TWO ELBOWS, A KNEE, AND SOME BRIGHTER BULLETINS

The overnight admissions: Boston has placed Garrett Whitlock on the fifteen-day list with inflammation of the right elbow; Detroit has lost James Outman to the seven-day concussion list; and Pittsburgh's Endy Rodríguez goes down with an ailing hip. In Milwaukee the ranking worry is Brice Turang, who sat out the Dodger engagement with a balky knee while the club seeks a second reading of his examination. The brighter bulletins: Byron Buxton was activated in time to patrol the Dyersville corn and doubled for good measure; Carlos Rodón struck out seven in a rehabilitation outing and stands on the verge of rejoining the New York rotation; and Shohei Ohtani has progressed to long toss, with work off a mound reported the next station on his return to pitching.

WIRES FROM THE RAVINE: THE CLOSER KEEPS HIS OFFICE

Two dispatches from Los Angeles beyond the evening's defeat. First, the management declared this morning that Edwin Díaz, his three spilled saves in four chances notwithstanding, remains the club's closer — skipper Dave Roberts professing his faith undiminished. Second, on the matter of the club's possible sale: a source tells the Eastern wire that Ohtani would likely decline to exercise the so-called key-man clause in his contract — the escape hatch permitting him to opt out should Mark Walter sell the franchise. The deed to the ballclub may change hands or may not; the great man's services, it appears, are not going anywhere either way.

The Rest of the Card

SCHWARBOMBS AMONG THE CORNSTALKS: PHILS 7, MINNESOTANS 1

The particulars of the Dyersville festival, pageantry aside: Schwarber opened the scoring with a solo blast in the first and added a two-run shot in the fourth — numbers six-and-thirty and seven-and-thirty, both swallowed by the corn — while Nola dealt five innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts for the victory. Marsh added a two-run homer, his seventeenth, and Harper and Stott singled home a run apiece. Young Keaschall's solo shot was the whole of the Minnesota reply, charged ultimately to Bradley, who fell to nine-and-five. The Phils, at five-and-sixty wins, keep their grip on the National's final wild-card chair.

STEWART IS STRUCK, THE BENCHES EMPTY, AND CINCINNATI HAS THE FINAL WORD: REDLEGS 9, PALE HOSE 8

A rough evening on the South Side by every measure. The Redlegs struck three times in the first — Sal Stewart's six-and-twentieth homer followed by Suárez's two-run blow — and tempers followed the baseballs out of the yard: Davis Martin was ejected after striking Stewart with a pitch, the benches emptying for their airing. Chicago twice clawed level or ahead behind Grichuk's pair of doubles, but Stephenson's three-run homer in the fourth restored Cincinnati's command at eight-four, and Suárez — four runs driven in, one of them forced home by a bases-full plunking — kept the hosts at arm's length. Chicago crept within a single run on Quero's third hit of the night in the ninth before Garcia shut the gate for his second save. The Pale Hose still hold the American's Central by two and a half over Detroit; Stewart's nine-and-eightieth run driven in stands second in the National.

NOT ONE STRIKEOUT, AND NOT ONE RUN EITHER: BENGALS 3, LAKE ERIE MEN 0

The Detroit pitchers — Montero across six and a third, Holton in relief, Jansen for the fifteenth save — achieved a whitewash without recording a solitary strikeout, a feat the wires pronounce among the rarest in the pitching art. The runs arrived modestly: a groundout by Dingler, a solo homer by Valencia, a single by Torkelson. Messick deserved better than his defeat, five and two-thirds innings of two-run ball leaving his 2.59 mark third among the American's pitchers. The Bengals sit two and a half behind the Pale Hose and hold the league's final wild-card chair.

ASHCRAFT GOES THE FULL ROUTE AND THE CORSAIRS RUN RIOT: CORSAIRS 13, FISH 1

Braxton Ashcraft delivered the completest of complete games — nine innings, three hits, ten strikeouts — for his twelfth victory, and his confederates buried Miami beneath sixteen hits. Triolo homered (the reviewing magistrates upheld it), Rafael Flores Jr. cleared the wall twice, and Jacob Gonzalez crowned a five-run ninth with a two-run shot. Caissie's thirteenth homer, in the ninth, spared the Fish the indignity of a blanking. Miami slips to two-and-sixty wins and sits two and a half from the wild-card scrum.

ONE SWING FROM WILSON, SIX INNINGS FROM GILBERT, AND NOT A RUN TO SPARE: M'S 1, BRONX BOMBERS 0

In the Bronx, on the mound he confesses he dreamed of pitching upon, Logan Gilbert dealt six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts, and Weston Wilson's second-inning homer off Fried — his fourth of the year — stood as the game entire. Bazardo, Ferrer, and Muñoz, the last for his one-and-twentieth save, carried the single run home like porcelain. The victory arrests a Seattle slide that had reached six games; New York, for its part, wasted five sturdy innings from Fried and still holds the American's first wild-card chair, six and a half behind the streaking Rays.

TOLLE THROWS EIGHT BLANK FRAMES AND DURBIN CLEARS THE SACKS: HUB NINE 7, TORONTOS 0

Young Payton Tolle permitted Toronto two hits across eight scoreless innings — an evening that drew rave notice even from the opposing manager — and Caleb Durbin supplied the thunder: a grand slam in the eighth, his twelfth homer, and five runs driven in altogether. Contreras opened the scoring with a first-inning double. The defeat went to Scherzer on his three-thousandth-inning night, chronicled in the news column above. Boston's second straight victory since arresting its five-game slide keeps the Hub nine in the second wild-card chair at five-and-sixty wins.

CAVALLI CARRIES A NO-HITTER INTO THE SEVENTH AT WRIGLEY: CAPITAL NINE 7, NORTH SIDERS 0

Cade Cavalli held the North Siders hitless into the seventh inning and finished with a single hit allowed across eight, ten strikeouts, and his tenth victory — the latest and loudest chapter in the young man's ascent. Crews doubled home the first run, and Abimelec Ortiz struck a three-run homer in a five-run fifth that settled matters; Gausman absorbed the defeat, his eleventh. The whitewash trims Chicago's account to four games behind Milwaukee in the Central, though the club still holds the National's first wild-card seat by a comfortable six and a half.

TROUT RAPS THREE AND THE HALOS MAKE IT THREE RUNNING: HALOS 7, LONE STAR NINE 0

Mike Trout, the old lion of Anaheim in full August voice, collected three hits and a run driven in — the wires liken his current stretch to the vintage of 2018 — while Ureña spun six scoreless innings for the victory. Josh Lowe and Siri drove home two apiece as the Halos ran their winning streak to three. The evening's costlier news for Texas was deGrom's early departure, set down in the news column above; the Lone Star nine has now dropped three straight and holds the wild-card cellar door by its fingernails, half a game behind Detroit.

A card of nine produced five whitewashes — the arithmetic desk begs the reader to check it, and it holds: three by the count of seven-nought, one by three, and one by the barest one-nought. Tonight the schedule swells to fourteen engagements, and the desk directs the connoisseur thus: the heavyweight rematch in Los Angeles at ten past ten, Gasser opposing Yamamoto and his 2.65; a pitching bill of rare quality at Cincinnati at ten past six, where Alcantara, thirteen-and-six, meets young Burns, thirteen-and-two; the Rays, riding nine straight, at home to receive Baltimore; and in Detroit, young Jobe — unscored upon in the young life of his return — takes the hill against Newcomb of the Pale Hose. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Friday, August 14, 2026 — Boxscore
Adam McCalvy, Brew Crew rallies in 9th to stun Dodgers: 'That's Brewers baseball right there' — MLB.com
Sonja Chen, With Karros on the call, Muncy passes him for most homers at Dodger Stadium — MLB.com
Sonja Chen, Díaz blows third save in a week, and LA misses chance to tie for NL's best record — MLB.com
Dodgers to stick with Diaz despite latest meltdown — ESPN
Source: Ohtani likely wouldn't opt out if team sold — ESPN
26 HOFers emerge from corn at Field of Dreams — ESPN
Paul Casella, Schwarber's blasts, Nola's gem have Phils asking 'Is this heaven?' in Field of Dreams win — MLB.com
Schwarber plants 2 HRs into Field of Dreams corn — ESPN
Despite outcome, Twins gain memories they'll 'cherish for a lifetime' at Field of Dreams Game — MLB.com
Rangers staff takes another hit as deGrom exits — ESPN
Keegan Matheson, Scherzer becomes second active pitcher to reach 3,000 career innings — MLB.com
Brewers' Turang sits; knee MRI to get second look — ESPN
Matthew Ritchie, Rodón on verge of returning to Yanks following 7-K rehab outing — MLB.com
Sonja Chen, Ohtani progresses to long toss; throwing off mound could be next — MLB.com
Scott Merkin and Zach Sweet, After benches clear and Martin gets ejected, Stewart and Reds get final word vs. White Sox — MLB.com
Jason Beck, No K's? No problem: Tigers pull off rare feat in shutout of Guardians — MLB.com
Bill Ladson, On mound where he dreamed of pitching, Gilbert tosses gem to halt skid — MLB.com
Matt Betts, Tolle's evolution into dominant starter even draws rave review from rival manager — MLB.com
Ben Raby, Cavalli flirts with no-hit bid in latest dominant outing -- proving his growth — MLB.com
Rhett Bollinger, Trout throws it back to 2018 with another big night for hot-hitting Halos — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule — Baseball-Reference
Probable Pitchers — Friday, August 14, 2026 — MLB.com

ELEVEN YEARS A BIG-LEAGUER, AND NEVER A NIGHT LIKE THIS: BREGMAN STRIKES THREE CIRCUITS, DRIVES IN SEVEN — CUBS 12, SENATORS 6

2026-08-13T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

ELEVEN YEARS A BIG-LEAGUER, AND NEVER A NIGHT LIKE THIS: BREGMAN STRIKES THREE CIRCUITS, DRIVES IN SEVEN — CUBS 12, SENATORS 6

A Monday spent spelunking the video archives yields a Wednesday for the ages, as the Chicago third sacker authors the first three-homer game of his long and decorated life — Swanson adds a circuit and a two-bagger, Suzuki drives home two more, and the Bruins' eighth victory in ten keeps them three behind Milwaukee with a wild-card cushion of luxurious proportions

The affair began not at the ball orchard but in a dim room on Monday, the Cubs' idle day, where Alex Bregman sat burrowed down a rabbit hole of video archives, comparing the swing of this August against swings from every station of his career — some of the footage a full decade old, older than his major-league life itself. Whatever the gentleman found in those flickering frames, he carried it to Washington and applied it without mercy: a three-run blast in the fifth, moments after Crow-Armstrong's tying two-bagger had leveled a one-all knot, then a two-run shot in the sixth, and a third in the eighth — his fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth of the season, seven runs driven in, both figures the finest of an eleven-year career that had never before contained a three-homer evening.

His confederates were scarcely idle. Dansby Swanson doubled and homered besides — his eighteenth — Seiya Suzuki singled home two, and Crow-Armstrong's double was his four-and-twentieth as the visitors piled up twelve runs. Peterson labored five innings for his seventh victory, and Assad swallowed the final four frames whole for a save of the old-fashioned length. The Senators gave honest resistance — young Lile drove in three, and Ortiz and Tena each cleared the wall — but the unfortunate Cosgrove, charged with three runs while recording but one out, bore the defeat.

The ledger now reads thus: Chicago stands at one-and-seventy wins against fifty defeats, eight victories in its last ten, three games behind Milwaukee in the National's Central — and holding the league's first wild-card chair by a luxurious seven and a half games. When a man eleven years in the trade finds something new in the old films, the Herald observes, the whole division is advised to look to its locks.

News Around the League

NINE UP, NINE DOWN: THE RAYS COMPLETE THE PERFECT VOYAGE

Let the almanac make room, for the Gulf Coast club has done a thing without precedent in its own annals and nearly without precedent anywhere: nine games upon the western seaboard, nine victories, the first unbeaten road trip of such length in the franchise's history — and, the wires attest, only the second time in the whole chronicle of the majors that an East Coast club has swept a West Coast swing of nine. Wednesday's finale in Sacramento, an eight-to-four dismissal of the White Elephants chronicled upon the card below, ran the winning streak to nine straight and the season's account to four-and-seventy wins against six-and-forty defeats — the American's finest ledger, nine and one in the last ten. The connoisseur of omens will note that the Tampa men now fly home to receive Baltimore on the morrow, having misplaced the knack of losing somewhere over the Rockies.

FREEMAN TUMBLES INTO THE ENEMY'S PARLOR, AND RISES SMILING

A gasp went round Chavez Ravine on Wednesday evening when Freddie Freeman, pursuing a foul pop with his customary zeal, went headlong down the steps and into the visitors' dugout — a frightening spill that emptied both benches of their breath. The happy intelligence: the first sacker rose without serious injury, reporting soreness of the shoulder, hand, knee, and foot — 'total body soreness,' by his own cheerful census — and professing himself chiefly glad that his head went unstruck. The champions will take the bruises over the alternative, for the man's bat remains very much required in the pennant arithmetic.

SIX CLUBS OVERTAKEN IN A MONTH: THE PADRES' REMARKABLE ASCENT

The wires pause over a piece of standings archaeology worth the printing: one month ago, the San Diego nine sat buried in the National's wild-card queue with six clubs stacked above them, and their direction at the Trade Deadline was a matter of open debate in their own front office. General manager A.J. Preller chose to buy, and the club has repaid him with interest — five straight victories now, five-and-sixty wins in sum, and as of this morning a wild-card chair held all their own, a full game clear of Arizona and Philadelphia, who must share the bench behind them at level records. Last evening's eleven-inning escape against Milwaukee, set down upon the card below, was the sort of victory that separates the climbers from the climbed-over.

THE YOUTH DESK: A DAUGHTER OF THE BIGS PITCHES ALABAMA TO WILLIAMSPORT

From the junior circuits, a story to warm the flintiest scorer's heart: Kinley Rasmus, daughter of the former big-league pitcher Cory Rasmus, spun a complete-game shutout to send her Phenix City, Alabama nine to the Little League World Series — the town's first such expedition since 1999, seven-and-twenty years in the waiting. The Herald tips its cap to the young lady and notes, for the benefit of posterity, that command of the strike zone would appear to travel in the blood.

THE ALMANAC: THE CORN AWAITS ITS THIRD HARVEST THIS EVENING

Tonight the main attraction arrives at Dyersville: the Twins and the Quakers contest the third MLB at Field of Dreams game, first pitch at half past seven Eastern, carried to the nation by Netflix — the pageant's first staging in four years, the famous diamond in the corn having lately undergone an extensive refurbishment. Philadelphia's Bryson Stott, ever the connoisseur of ceremonial haberdashery, plans custom gear paying homage to Phillies now passed from this world. The prospects christened the same stage Wednesday afternoon, the National League side edging the American in the High School All-American Game. The almanac desk further notes the Little League Classic at Williamsport on the three-and-twentieth, Brewers against Braves, and reminds the record that the regular campaign closes the seven-and-twentieth of September.

The Rest of the Card

ELEVEN INNINGS, ONE WALK-OFF, AND A WILD-CARD CHAIR ALL THEIR OWN: SAN DIEGO NINE 4, MILWAUKEES 3

Twice the visitors poked their noses ahead, and twice the hosts pulled them back by the coattails. Bogaerts answered an early two-nought deficit with his tenth circuit, Cronenworth singled home the equalizer in the eighth, and when Gary Sánchez — who had homered earlier — doubled Milwaukee ahead in the eleventh, San Diego replied in the bottom half: Merrill's sacrifice fly leveled the account, and Campusano lined the winning single to bring Sung-Mun Song dancing home. Morejon pocketed his ninth victory against two defeats; Senzatela, charged in the eleventh with the equalizer and the fatal blow alike, took the loss. Five straight now for the climbers of the news column above; three straight defeats for the Milwaukees, whose Central cushion over the Cubs has thinned to three.

LEWIS DOUBLES TWICE AND THE TWINS OUT-SLUG THE BIRDS: TWIN CITIES NINE 7, ORIOLES 5

Royce Lewis, the centerpiece the wires pronounce restored to his old form at precisely the needful hour, smote two doubles among Minnesota's fourteen hits, and Bell, Caratini, and young Roden — three hits himself — kept the parade moving through a four-run third and a two-run fifth. Baltimore's Beavers had briefly turned the game with a three-run blast in the third, and Taveras homered in the ninth, but Baz was relieved of nine hits and five runs in three innings and fell to four-and-twelve. Matthews took the victory, Gómez the seventeenth save, and the Twin Cities nine crept within half a game of the American's final wild-card chair.

LEAHY BESTS WHEELER HIMSELF, AND THE REDBIRDS TAKE THE SERIES: REDBIRDS 7, QUAKERS 1

The billing read Zack Wheeler, ten-and-three; the evening belonged to Leahy, who dealt five innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts and improved to nine-and-four in a stretch the St. Louis wires call his finest. The hosts pried Wheeler open with four runs in the fifth — Herrera singling, Burleson doubling home two, Walker doubling home another — and Burleson returned in the seventh to finish with three runs driven in, his four-and-eightieth of the season drawing him level with Walker among the National's leaders. Philadelphia managed but Arraez's run-scoring double, dropped the series, and slid into the wild-card tie with Arizona; the Redbirds, winners of seven in their last ten, lurk but two and a half back.

THE PERFECT NINE SEALED IN SACRAMENTO: TAMPA MEN 8, WHITE ELEPHANTS 4

The finale of the immortal road trip (see the leading dispatch of the news column) was settled early: two in the second, one in the third on Mullins' double, and then a four-run fourth crowned by Liam Hicks' three-run circuit, his sixteenth, part of a three-RBI evening. Rasmussen cruised five innings for his twelfth victory while Caminero singled home his seven-and-seventieth run driven in. Gelof and Butler homered late in the Elephant cause, whose Perkins absorbed twelve hits and fell to two-and-nine. Nine straight victories for the Gulf Coast club; eight defeats in ten for the hosts.

VEEN, ONE DAY RECALLED, STRIKES HIS FIRST — AND THE SNAKES SLIP FROM THEIR CHAIR: ROX 6, SNAKES 4

The reader will recall young Zac Veen passing through Tuesday's shuttle desk, recalled from the minors; on Wednesday he introduced himself properly with a two-run circuit, his first of the campaign, to follow a four-run second crowned by Brett Sullivan's three-run blast — all six runs charged to Kelly, who fell to eight-and-ten. Arizona clawed back on Carroll's eighteenth homer and fourteenth triple, but Feltner held the line, Romano notarized the twelfth save, and the Coloradans — the National's rearmost club, and lately a recurring nuisance to this particular opponent — took their second straight from the Desert nine. The defeat is costly: Arizona wakes level with Philadelphia, a game behind San Diego, its wild-card chair now a shared bench.

TWO SACRIFICE FLIES SUFFICE FOR THE SERIES: ASTROS 2, FRISCO NINE 1

The Houston bats spent the afternoon in church, managing no run-scoring hit whatever, and won the series anyway. Down one-nought from the first inning on Bericoto's single, the visitors drew level in the seventh on Velázquez's sacrifice fly and ahead in the eighth on Nick Allen's — the winning run charged to Winn, whose blown save turned into the defeat. Okert took the victory, Hader the seventeenth save, and the Astros fled Oracle Park with the American West's lead preserved at a game and a half over Texas, beaten simultaneously down the coast. The Orange and Black, who parted with one of their best pitchers and their best hitter at the Deadline, gave every ounce they had left.

THE DEADLINE MEN EARN THEIR WAGES AND THE SKID IS SNAPPED: FOREST CITY NINE 6, MOTOR CITY NINE 4

Cleveland's July purchases delivered in a bundle: Griffin labored five innings of one-earned-run ball for his thirteenth victory against four defeats, Jo Adell struck a two-run circuit — his eighteenth — and Nathaniel Lowe stretched to save the ninth-inning throw that helped seal it. Angel Martínez doubled twice, young Genao doubled home a run — his first two-bagger of the campaign — and Smith struck out three across the final four outs for his one-and-thirtieth save, the American's most. Detroit had its moments — Torres homered, Torkelson doubled home two — but Valdez walked five and paid for it. The Forest City nine thus halt a skid that had reached three-and-seven over ten; the Detroits slip to a half-game behind Minnesota in the wild-card queue.

A FOUR-RUN THIRD AND JUNK OF THE FINEST QUALITY: GULF STREAM NINE 8, BUCS 2

Miami batted around to profit in the third — Ramírez doubling home one, Jiménez struck by a pitch with the sacks full, Mack walking home another, Edwards adding a sacrifice fly to his earlier run-scoring single — and Mlodzinski did not survive the frame, charged with four runs in two and a third. Junk, whose surname the headline desk declines to resist, delivered six innings of one-earned-run pitching for the victory, while Conine and Heriberto Hernández added circuits for garnish. Four straight now for the Floridians, two-and-sixty wins and the National's most formidable home ledger, a game and a half shy of the wild-card scrum; the Bucs have dropped three running.

JONES IN THE THREE-HOLE, GRISHAM TWICE OVER THE WALL: PINSTRIPES 10, SEATTLE NINE 5

With Judge and Bellinger both consigned to the sidelines, the management installed towering young Spencer Jones third in the order as a statement of belief, and the lad answered with two doubles and three runs driven in. Seattle had built a four-to-one lead on circuits by Arozarena, Rodríguez, and Canzone, whereupon New York dismantled it piece by piece: Grisham's fourteenth homer, Jones' tying double, a three-run seventh opened by Grisham's go-ahead two-bagger, and Grisham again in the eighth — a two-run circuit, his second of the night, four runs driven in altogether. Blackburn took the win in relief. The Pinstripes hold the American's top wild-card seat at eight-and-sixty wins; the mariners of the Sound have now dropped six straight and sink from view.

FIVE RUNS IN THE EIGHTH AND BOSTON'S SLIDE REACHES FIVE: MAPLE LEAF NINE 6, CRIMSON HOSE 4

For seven innings the game was a taut one-to-one affair, José Soriano — making his first home start in Toronto flannels since his arrival — dealing handsomely, and Contreras's four-and-twentieth homer accounting for the whole Boston offense. Then the eighth: Okamoto singled the go-ahead run home, Clement walked with the bases full, Springer lifted a sacrifice fly, and Straw doubled home two more, all five runs laid at the door of Guerrero, who retired nobody. Boston scored thrice in the ninth before Varland shut the gate for his six-and-twentieth save. Three straight for the Jays; five straight defeats for the Crimson Hose, whose grip on the second wild-card chair loosens by the evening.

MAHLE MAKES THE FRONT OFFICE LOOK PROPHETIC: TOMAHAWK NINE 6, FLUSHING NINE 3

Atlanta declined to purchase a frontline starter at the Deadline, the wires observed at the time, with some tartness; Tyler Mahle, the starter they did purchase, keeps performing like one. Six innings, four hits, a single run, seven strikeouts — never mind the four-and-nine record he carries like borrowed luggage. Thomas, Yastrzemski, and Riley all cleared the wall, Acuña singled home another and doubled besides, and the Braves banked their three-and-seventieth victory. The Flushing nine answered with circuits from Bichette, Robert Jr., and Torrens, and nothing else; Thornton pitched six creditable innings and lost anyway.

CASTILLO STRIKES OUT TEN AND THE SOUTH SIDERS PITCH A WHITEWASH: SOUTH SIDERS 5, QUEEN CITY NINE 0

Luis Castillo, the Deadline acquisition his manager salutes as 'a dog,' showed precisely why the South Siders paid for him: seven innings, one solitary hit, ten strikeouts — a season's best — and not a Cincinnati runner crossed all night. Drew Romo homered and drove in two, Meidroth added a two-run circuit, his twelfth, and Lowder took the defeat despite honest work. The shutout preserves Chicago's grip on the American's Central at three and a half games; the Reds, whitewashed entire, would prefer the whole evening stricken from the record.

OHTANI AND BETTS SUPPLY THE THUNDER, KNACK THE LONG SEAL: BOYS IN BLUE 4, ROYAL BLUES 2

Betts — fourteen the night before, fifteen now — answered Kansas City's first strike with a game-tying circuit, Shohei Ohtani's seven-and-twentieth, a two-run blow in the third, turned the lead for good, and the catcher Feduccia added a solo shot while Lauer dealt six and a third sturdy innings for his seventh victory. Knack recorded the final eight outs for his first save of the year, and the champions completed the sweep of the Royal blues, their third straight win, with the Milwaukees arriving tonight for the collision of the National's two best ledgers. The evening's fright — Freeman's plunge into the visitors' dugout — is chronicled with relief in the news column above.

TROUT COLLECTS THREE AND YOUNG KLASSEN HIS FIRST: SERAPHS 5, ARLINGTON MEN 2

Mike Trout, the old lion of Anaheim, rapped three hits, drove in two, and stole his tenth base, while George Klassen, a pitcher of no previous major-league victories, dealt six innings of five-hit ball to claim his first. Texas led two-to-one behind Seager's twelfth homer until the sixth, when Jose Siri emerged from the bench to double home the equalizer and Ahlstrom was charged with three runs while recording one out — blown save and defeat in a single tidy parcel. Joyce closed the door for his first save of the year. The Arlington men have now dropped two straight and sit a game and a half behind Houston, clinging to the American's final wild-card chair with three clubs breathing within a game of them.

A card of nine this Thursday, and the desk directs the connoisseur's attention as follows: the sentimental centerpiece is at Dyersville, half past seven Eastern, where the Quakers send Nola against Bradley of the Twins in the Field of Dreams game, carried by Netflix to every parlor in the republic. The heavyweight bill is out west at ten past ten, the Milwaukees at the Boys in Blue — four-and-seventy wins against three-and-seventy, the National's two stoutest ledgers colliding under the western lights, with further engagements to follow Friday and Saturday. The early shift offers a rubber match in Detroit at ten past one, Messick and his 2.57 opposing Montero, and the Crimson Hose attempt to arrest their five-game slide in Toronto at 3:07, though the assignment runs through Scherzer, who awaits them. Until the next dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Thursday, August 13, 2026 — Boxscore
Jordan Bastian, 11 years in -- on heels of deep video dive -- 3-homer, 7-RBI game is a first for Bregman — MLB.com
Theo DeRosa, Perfect 9: Rays make history with unbeaten road trip — MLB.com
Rays complete 2nd 9-0 West Coast trip in MLB history with 8-4 win over Athletics — ESPN
Sonja Chen, Freeman smiles through 'total body soreness' after scary tumble into opposing dugout — MLB.com
AJ Cassavell, Here's how the Padres leapfrogged six teams in a month in the NL playoff picture — MLB.com
Max Ralph, Daughter of former big leaguer leads her Alabama team to 1st LLWS in 27 years — MLB.com
Paul Casella and Matthew Leach, Everything to know about tonight's MLB at Field of Dreams Game on Netflix — MLB.com
Paul Casella, Stott bringing angels to infield with homage to late Phillies at Field of Dreams Game — MLB.com
Kelsie Heneghan and Rob Terranova, 11 top performers from the High School All-American Game — MLB.com
Matthew Leach, Twins' 'centerpiece' finding his old form at just the right time — MLB.com
Brenden Schaeffer, Leahy bests Wheeler to continue impressive stretch for rallying Cards — MLB.com
Brian McTaggart, Astros' bats remain quiet, but sneak out a series-clinching win vs. Giants — MLB.com
Tim Stebbins, Deadline additions Lowe, Adell, Griffin deliver as Guardians snap skid — MLB.com
Matthew Ritchie, Moved into 3 hole, Jones rewards faith by fueling Yankees' outburst — MLB.com
Grisham homers twice and drives in 4 as Yankees rally past struggling Mariners 10-5 — ESPN
Keegan Matheson, Eighth-inning rally provides support for Soriano's stellar home debut — MLB.com
Blue Jays erupt for 5 runs in the eighth to beat Red Sox 6-4, extend Boston's skid to 5 — ESPN
Mark Bowman, Mahle making Braves look wise with latest stellar start for Atlanta — MLB.com
Scott Merkin, Castillo shows why White Sox traded for him in 10-K outing: 'He's a dog' — MLB.com
Homers from Ohtani and Betts power Dodgers to a 4-2 victory and a sweep of the Royals — ESPN
Mike Trout leads offense and George Klassen earns 1st MLB win as Angels top Rangers 5-2 — ESPN
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference

SEVENTEEN HITS, ONE GRAND SALVO, AND A LOGJAM AT THE WILD-CARD TABLE: FRIARS 11, BREWERS 2

2026-08-12T11:00:00Z

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

The Game of the Day

SEVENTEEN HITS, ONE GRAND SALVO, AND A LOGJAM AT THE WILD-CARD TABLE: FRIARS 11, BREWERS 2

San Diego falls upon the owners of the game's best ledger with five runs before the second inning is old — Rengifo's bases-full blow the cannonade, Campusano three times a tormentor, and Tatis Jr. ascending to second place in the whole history of Friar slugging — whereby three clubs now sit level as a billiard table, contesting two October chairs

The Cream City nine arrived in San Diego owning baseball's handsomest account, four-and-seventy wins against six-and-forty defeats, and were sent to bed having absorbed an eleven-to-two thrashing — their second defeat running, and the Friars' fourth consecutive victory. The decisive business was transacted early: in the second inning Jake Cronenworth doubled home a run, and Luis Rengifo, a gentleman carrying but two home runs on the season's ledger, selected that moment for his third — a grand slam to left field, four runs across on a single swing, and a five-nought advantage before the visitors had rightly settled into their seats.

The procession scarcely slackened thereafter. Fernando Tatis Jr. struck his twelfth circuit in the fourth — a blow of historical freight, for it carried him past every Friar save one and installed him second upon the club's all-time home-run roll, behind only Manny Machado, his teammate still, who marked the occasion with three hits of his own. Luis Campusano went three-for-four with a homer and three runs driven in, Jackson Merrill doubled home another, and by the close the hosts had amassed seventeen hits while Walker Buehler — six innings, one run — pocketed the victory. The unfortunate Harrison, nine-and-three on the year, was charged with eight runs and did not survive the fifth.

The arithmetic is where the evening turns consequential. At four-and-sixty wins against seven-and-fifty defeats, San Diego now stands precisely level with Arizona and Philadelphia — three clubs at .529, crowding two wild-card chairs, with the Cubs comfortably above the scrum. Milwaukee's lead in the National's Central remains a plump four games, but the Friars have now taken consecutive series from first-place opposition, and they play like men who have read the schedule.

News Around the League

THE CROWN OF CIRCUITS: FOUR CLAIMANTS AT FIVE-AND-THIRTY, THE CLOSEST RACE IN FORTY YEARS

The wires devote their lead column to a spectacle not witnessed in four decades: a home-run race packed four deep. Junior Caminero of Tampa Bay and Matt Olson of Atlanta each struck his five-and-thirtieth last evening, drawing level with Houston's Yordan Alvarez — resident at that figure since late July — and Philadelphia's Kyle Schwarber. Four men, five-and-thirty circuits apiece, and Colorado's Hunter Goodman lurking a single blow behind at four-and-thirty. The connoisseur is advised to keep the almanac handy through September; the crown may be decided by a single evening's swing.

THE CATCHER PRIZE UNVEILED: RUTSCHMAN TAKES HIS BOW IN BOSTON FLANNELS

The debut these pages heralded yesterday is now in the books: Adley Rutschman, Boston's great prize of the Trade Deadline, was formally activated and caught his first game in Crimson employ at Toronto, collecting a single hit and drawing two walks in the five-to-three defeat chronicled upon the card below. The reinforcement could scarcely be more wanted — the Hub nine have now dropped four running — and the veteran Jake Rogers was designated for assignment to clear the perch. One debut does not arrest a slide, but Boston's followers will take the omen over the alternative.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: GREENE AND TREINEN CONSIGNED TO THE LONG LIST, TAILLON'S FEARS CONFIRMED

A somber morning's ledger for the medical men. Cincinnati has transferred Hunter Greene to the sixty-day list with soreness of the right elbow, and Los Angeles has done likewise with the reliever Blake Treinen, his complaint an inflammation of the same joint. In Toronto the examiners returned their verdict on Jameson Taillon, whose early exit from his Blue Jays debut these pages reported yesterday: tendinitis of the right forearm, and a fifteen-day sentence. Miami, for its part, has shelved Kyle Stowers with a strained left hamstring.

The brighter beds: Tampa Bay has dispatched Shane McClanahan on a rehabilitation errand to Durham, Pittsburgh has sent Oneil Cruz to Altoona on the same business, and Kansas City's Vinnie Pasquantino is mending at Omaha.

THE SHUTTLE DESK: SUMMONED AT NOON, PRODUCING BY NIGHTFALL

The day's roster traffic repaid its paperwork with unusual promptness. Texas selected Jarred Kelenic from Round Rock, and by evening he had singled home a run in Anaheim; Cincinnati summoned the first baseman Michael Toglia from Louisville, and within hours he stood in the middle of the eighth-inning uprising that turned the Chicago engagement; and Toronto recalled the reliever Chase Lee from Buffalo, who required but a few innings to collect his first victory of the year against Boston. Colorado, tidying its own shelves, recalled the outfielder Zac Veen and designated Edouard Julien for assignment. The express between the high minors and the show, the Herald observes, has seldom run so profitably on time.

THE ALMANAC: THE CORN IS OCCUPIED ALL WEEK AT DYERSVILLE

The Iowa corn has itself a full engagement book. The minor leaguers christened the Field of Dreams stage Tuesday evening — the wires pronounce the occasion properly magical, nostalgia hanging in the air alongside the humidity — and this very afternoon, at two o'clock Eastern, the High School All-American Game takes the same diamond, the first time the prospect showcase has been staged at Dyersville. The main attraction arrives upon the morrow: the Twins and Phillies contest the Field of Dreams game proper on Thursday evening. The regular campaign's final day, the almanac desk reminds the record, remains the twenty-seventh of September.

The Rest of the Card

THE PRODIGY McGONIGLE DRIVES IN THREE AND THE BENGALS KEEP ROARING: BENGALS 6, LAKE ERIE MEN 4

Young Kevin McGonigle, batting at a cool .288, delivered a two-run double in a three-run fifth and singled home another in the seventh, and Detroit collected its third straight victory — eight of its last ten — despite mustering but six hits. Chase DeLauter and Jo Adell homered in the Cleveland cause and Bibee absorbed his twelfth defeat; Jansen sealed the fourteenth save. The Bengals now breathe two and a half games behind the Pale Hose in the American's Central, while the Lake Erie men have dropped eight of ten and are running short of season.

EURY THE MAGNIFICENT OUTDUELS SKENES HIMSELF: FISH 2, CORSAIRS 0

Eury Pérez, who aspires aloud to the game's first rank of pitchers, presented his credentials in the most direct fashion: seven scoreless innings, three hits, seven strikeouts, with Paul Skenes — no small examiner — in the opposite corner. Esteury Ruiz homered in the third — his sixth — then stole his eight-and-twentieth base and came round on Edwards' single for the second tally, and Fairbanks notarized the eighteenth save. The Fish have won three running and sit two games above level water, hunting the wild-card scrum from two and a half back.

THE ONE-TWO PUNCH LANDS AGAIN: NORTH SIDERS 8, CAPITAL NINE 6

Pete Crow-Armstrong struck his seven-and-twentieth circuit and Seiya Suzuki, batting in his shadow, added his twentieth alongside a run-scoring double, while Alex Bregman crossed three times and homered besides. Washington answered gamely — Abrams' nine-and-twentieth brought his league-leading total to one-and-ninety runs driven in, and Crews and Young also cleared the wall — but the arithmetic favored Chicago, eight victories now in its last ten and holding the National's first wild-card chair by a comfortable six and a half games. Rolison improved to seven-and-one; Webb sealed the eighth save.

FOUR IN THE SEVENTH AND THE BOMBERS ESCAPE AGAIN: BRONX BOMBERS 4, PUGET SOUND MEN 1

For six innings the evening belonged to the pitchers, Woo dealing five scoreless for Seattle and Weathers conceding only Arozarena's fifteenth homer. Then came the seventh and the now-customary New York uprising: Ryan McMahon singled home two and Trent Grisham two more, all charged to the unhappy Rucker, and Bednar closed the seven-and-twentieth save. The manner is nerve-wracking, the manager confesses, but it is working — the Bombers hold the American's top wild-card seat at seven-and-sixty wins. Seattle has now lost five straight, and the backstop Raleigh, hitless again with his average sunk to .159, minced no words about it afterward.

THE ROOKIE BATEMAN PROVES A DUDE, AND THE CANADIANS TAKE ANOTHER: CANADIANS 5, HUB NINE 3

Brett Bateman, a rookie of very recent vintage, doubled home one run and singled home another, and Toronto — scrappy, stubborn, and suddenly warm — collected a second straight victory. Cease struck out seven in five innings without a decision, the fresh-summoned Chase Lee took the win (see the shuttle desk above), and Straw's insurance double preceded Miles' first save. Rafaela and Abreu homered in the Boston cause, and the debutant Rutschman reached three times (see the news column), but the Hub nine have now dropped four consecutive and feel every one of their nine games behind Tampa Bay.

THREE HITS SUFFICE WHERE SIX SCORELESS INNINGS LEAD: ATLANTAS 4, METROPOLITANS 0

The economy of it: Atlanta collected precisely three hits and won by four, for two of the three left the premises — Albies' twentieth and Olson's five-and-thirtieth, the latter drawing him level atop the game's home-run column (see the news desk). Martín Pérez supplied six scoreless innings for his eighth victory, extending a run of shutout work that has the wires talking rotation arithmetic in Atlanta, and three relievers finished the whitewash. McLean deserved kinder — six innings, one run — but the Metropolitans were blanked on four hits, and the Atlantas roll on at two-and-seventy wins.

THREE CIRCUITS IN THREE INNINGS AND THE BALTIMORES ARE OFF EARLY: BALTIMORES 5, NORTH STARS 2

The visitors wasted no ceremony upon Ober: Alonso's six-and-twentieth cleared the wall in the first with a man aboard — his seven-and-seventieth run driven in — Henderson's nineteenth followed in the second, likewise a two-run affair, and Encarnacion-Strand made it three homers in three innings in the third. Young rode the cushion to his ninth victory against three defeats, and Kittredge filed the sixth save. Minnesota, held to two, has lost seven of ten and slides in the wild-card queue.

ON POPE HAT NIGHT, PROVIDENCE WEARS CINCINNATI RED: REDLEGS 5, PALE HOSE 4, IN TEN INNINGS

Before a sellout of eight-and-thirty thousand crowned in papal headgear, Chicago built a four-nought lead on circuits by Doyle, Quero, and Vargas — his five-and-twentieth — with Antonacci's run-scoring double for good measure, and Burke of the home flannels struck out eight across seven fine innings. The visitors unraveled all of it: Suárez homered in the fifth, a three-run eighth arrived on De La Cruz's single and Stephenson's two-run blow, and in the tenth De La Cruz lifted the decisive sacrifice fly. A different Burke — Cincinnati's — took the victory, and Pagán, having won a fourteen-pitch war of attrition along the way, sealed his fourteenth save. The Pale Hose still lead the American's Central, but the cushion thins.

PALLANTE MATCHES THE ALL-STAR ZERO FOR ZERO, THEN HIS FRIENDS FINISH IT: MOUND CITY NINE 2, BROTHERLY LOVE NINE 0

Andre Pallante and Cristopher Sánchez — the latter owning the National's most victories at fifteen — traded six scoreless innings apiece, Sánchez striking out seven to no profit whatever. The decision fell upon the successors: Winn singled home Walker in the seventh off the same-day call-up McFarlane, Pereira added his fifth homer in the eighth, and O'Brien closed his thirtieth save, drawing level with San Diego's Miller atop the National's column. Philadelphia, blanked on five hits, thereby completes its descent into the three-way wild-card knot chronicled above.

THE HALOS ANSWER A HARD WEEK WITH A TIDY THIRD INNING: HALOS 3, LONE STAR NINE 2

All the home scoring arrived in one frame: Neto singled home a run, Schanuel lifted a sacrifice fly, and Grissom doubled home a third, undoing Pederson's two-and-twentieth homer from the first. Bradford pitched seven honest innings for Texas and was beaten anyway, though the fresh-arrived Kelenic singled home a run in the sixth (see the shuttle desk); Fermin took the decision and Natera Jr. the third save. The defeat stings in Arlington: with Houston also beaten, the Lone Star nine remain half a game out of first in the American's West, a rung they might have claimed outright.

KARROS TURNS ONE SWING AGAINST THE DESERT: MOUNTAIN MEN 3, SONORAN NINE 2

Arizona opened as if intent on a rout, Carroll and Marte homering in the game's first six batters, and then scored no more forever. Kyle Karros flattened the evening with a two-run circuit in the sixth — his tenth — and Moniak's sacrifice fly in the seventh completed the reversal. Sugano claimed his twelfth victory with six sturdy innings, Romano filed the eleventh save, and the Sonoran nine, thus upset by the National's rearmost club, awoke to find themselves sharing a wild-card berth with two housemates (see the day's principal dispatch).

WALLS WAITS A YEAR FOR ONE HOMER AND THIRTY MINUTES FOR THE NEXT: SUNSHINE NINE 12, MACKMEN 4

Taylor Walls had not homered in three hundred and eighty days; last night he did it twice inside half an hour, driving in three, and his fellows made the occasion general — Caminero's five-and-thirtieth (see the news column), Díaz's seventeenth, Mesa Jr.'s tenth, and the first circuit of young Carson Williams' major-league life, a three-run flourish in the eighth. Martinez pitched the whole nine innings for his twelfth victory against three defeats. Eight straight wins now for the Sunshine nine, three-and-seventy in sum, and the American's best account grows fatter by the evening; the Mackmen, for their part, have dropped eight of ten.

THE ROOKIE BATTERY CARRIES THE BAY: BAY NINE 4, HOUSTON NINE 1

Whisenhunt wriggled through five and two-thirds innings conceding but a single run, the rookie catcher Cavanaugh collected two hits, a run driven in, and his first stolen base, and Eldridge's twelfth homer supplied the exclamation as San Francisco held Houston to five hits. Peña committed two errors in a forgettable visitor's evening; Alvarez's sacrifice fly — his seven-and-eightieth run driven in, the American's most — was the whole of the Texan offense. Houston's hold on the American's West remains half a game, preserved only by Texas losing simultaneously down the coast.

SNELL STRIKES OUT TEN IN HIS RESURRECTION, AND MUNCY WALKS IT OFF ONCE MORE: ANGELENOS 5, MISSOURIANS 4, IN TEN INNINGS

Blake Snell, absent three months for the removal of loose bodies from his pitching elbow — his sharpening credited by the wires to a high-altitude rehabilitation start — returned with six innings of three-hit, ten-strikeout work before a crowd of nearly fifty thousand. The melodrama followed his exit: Kansas City struck thrice in the eighth against Phillips, Caglianone and Perez singling home runs before an error let in a third, and Betts — who had homered earlier, his fourteenth — leveled matters with a single in the bottom half. In the tenth, the bases full, Max Muncy singled home Ohtani for the second consecutive night of late-inning deliverance from his bat. Halvorsen took the victory, and the champions have quietly won two straight.

A full card of fifteen decorates this Wednesday, and the desk commends the following: at 2:15 the Brotherly Love nine seek their revenge in St. Louis behind Wheeler, ten-and-three with a 2.69 figure; at five past three the Sunshine nine send Rasmussen and his 2.75 against the Mackmen, nine straight in their sights; at ten past four the Brewers attempt to arrest their skid in San Diego with May opposing Ray; and the evening belongs to a pair of American League showdowns upon the national broadcast — the Puget Sound men at the Bronx at 7:05, and the Lone Star nine at Anaheim at ten past ten, half a game of first place riding on Texan shoulders. The sentimentalist is directed to Dyersville this afternoon for the High School All-Americans, and to the same corn upon the morrow, when the Twins and Phillies play the Field of Dreams game proper. Until the morrow's dispatch, keep your scorecards near and your enthusiasms nearer.

~ THE HERALD ~

The Herald Acknowledges Its Debts

MLB Box Scores — Wednesday, August 12, 2026 — Boxscore
AJ Cassavell, Padres rout Brewers, create three-way tie for final two NL Wild Card spots — MLB.com
AJ Cassavell, Tatis climbs to No. 2 behind Manny on Padres all-time HR list — MLB.com
Sarah Langs, Who will be the HR king? We haven't had a race this close in over 40 years — MLB.com
Matt Betts, Deadline prize Rutschman records hit, pair of walks in Red Sox debut — MLB.com
Theo DeRosa, Homerless for a year, Walls socks 2 in 30 minutes as Rays roll to 8th straight win — MLB.com
Sonja Chen, High-altitude rehab start may have been key to Snell's 10-K return from elbow surgery — MLB.com
Sonja Chen, Muncy delivers AGAIN with bases loaded -- this time with walk-off in 10th — MLB.com
Scott Merkin, O holy night! White Sox give Pope Hats to sellout crowd, celebrate HRs with their own — MLB.com
Zach Sweet, Pagán wins key 14-pitch battle, blesses Reds with win on Pope Hat night in Chicago — MLB.com
Jordan Bastian, PCA, Suzuki provide one-two punch as Cubs' offense wears down Nats — MLB.com
Matthew Ritchie, It's nerve-wracking, but it's working: Yanks pull off another comeback win — MLB.com
Bill Ladson, Raleigh doesn't mince words after offensive struggles continue on road — MLB.com
Keegan Matheson, Bateman proving to be 'a dude,' helps Blue Jays stay hot in win over Sox — MLB.com
Mark Bowman, Pérez blanks Mets in encouraging night for Braves' injury-riddled rotation — MLB.com
Christina De Nicola, Pérez passes latest test in quest to be one of MLB's elite starters — MLB.com
Jake Rill, O's use three homers in first three innings to top Twins — MLB.com
Joe Harris, Pallante outduels 2-time All-Star Sánchez -- with a little help from his friends — MLB.com
Jason Beck, Tigers surging so strong even rival Guardians can't slow them down — MLB.com
Kelsie Heneghan, 11 moments and sights that made MiLB at Field of Dreams magical — MLB.com
Ben Weinrib, Here's what you need to know ahead of today's High School All-American Game — MLB.com
Brent Maguire, Pair of AL showdowns on ESPN headlines Wednesday slate — MLB.com
Baseball-Reference.com — Upcoming Schedule and Upcoming Dates — Baseball-Reference