Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

There's a classic Simpsons episode in which the sly businessman Mr. Burns recruits real Major League Baseball players to join his company softball team in order to win a bet. But when the championship is on the line, Mr. Burns pulls eight-time National League all-star Darryl Strawberry for a substitute, Homer Simpson. "You're a left-hander, and so is the pitcher. If I send up a right-handed batter, it's called playing the percentages," Mr. Burns says to Strawberry. "It's what smart managers do to win ballgames."

Last night's starter, Connelly Early, had his first disappointing start as a Major Leaguer, and Payton Tolle didn't look too sharp, either. The reality might be that the lights may be too bright for a couple of rookies, or that they were hoisted into a playoff race too quickly. But this is but a symptom and an unfortunate consequence of a greater problem.

A left foot fracture has kept Bogaerts out of action since August 27, and it wasn't clear if he would be able to play again before the postseason, even if the injury wasn't expected to keep Bogaerts out of any October action. Bogaerts has hit .262/.330/.387 with 10 home runs over 534 plate appearances, for a decent but unspectacular 103 wRC+.

"I think obviously he just wasn't getting miss," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "I don't know if he was being too fine. I thought the stuff started getting a little better that Adames at-bat, but he had count leverage and couldn't put him away. "We need him. It was a perfect opportunity for him to throw up a zero, and we just couldn't get it done. It's baseball. Hopefully after this off day he'll be able to reset and get ready to finish strong."

Even though he missed over 40 games this season, Abreu is still second on the Red Sox in home runs this season (22). He is batting .253 in 2025 with an OPS of .811 and 69 RBIs heading into the final seven games of the regular season.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Steven Kwan tied a season high with four RBIs and the Cleveland Guardians made it 10 straight wins by beating the Minnesota Twins 8-0 on Saturday to sweep a day-night doubleheader without giving up a run. Winners in 15 of their past 16 games, the Guardians are one game back of first-place Detroit in the AL Central after trailing by 11 on Sept. 4 and by 14 shortly before the All-Star break.

Washington center fielder Jacob Young, who made a circus, kicking catch in the fifth inning to rob Brett Baty of an extra-base hit, made the biggest play of the day in the bottom of the ninth when he made a leaping catch at the wall to take back pinch-hitter Francisco Alavarez's potential game-tying home run.

As the Astros head into a critical matchup with the Mariners tonight, Houston will be without one of its key players for at least this game and perhaps beyond. Jeremy Pena was included in the initial lineup but has now been scratched due to left oblique soreness, according to an announcement from the team. Needless to say, losing Pena would be devastating to the Astros' chances of winning the AL West, or even making the postseason given how the standings have narrowed.

No, it hasn't gone as smoothly as he would like, as we would like,

One day after a breakout performance at the plate for Nacho, he'll take a sit due to a minor cut on his hand, as Vidal Brujan takes his place at third base. Drake Baldwin gets the start at catcher after getting a day at DH on Saturday, which also brings Marcell Ozuna back into the lineup at DH. Meanwhile the Tigers go for a fairly different lineup than yesterday, going from facing a lefty in Joey Wentz, to facing a righty in Spencer Strider today.

Well, the Opener part of the equation didn't go so well. The opposite as intended, in fact. Banda got a strikeout against righty Harrison Bader, then gave up a Kyle Schwarber homer to put the Phillies up 1-0, and issued a walk to Bryce Harper. That was the end of his night, as Emmet Sheehan replaced him, and that part of the equation worked out considerably better.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Salvador Perez hit a three-run homer in Kansas City's seven-run first inning and the Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays 20-1 on Friday night. The Royals sent 10 batters to the plate against Max Scherzer (5-4), who exited after recording just two outs and allowing seven hits in the shortest non-injury start of his career. It was Scherzer's shortest outing since facing just one batter while pitching for Washington on June 11, 2021, before leaving with an injury.

The Toronto Blue Jays may be without the services of Chris Bassitt until the end of the regular season. The 36-year-old right hander was placed on the 15-day IL on Saturday afternoon due to back inflammation, ahead of Toronto's game against the Kansas City Royals. Bassitt, who is an impending free agent, had removed himself from his start on September 12 when he pitched five innings of two-hit ball against the Baltimore Orioles in Toronto.

Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette hasn't appeared in a game since September 6. That was the day he collided with Yankees catcher Austin Wells on a play at the plate. While he remained in the game following a rain delay, he was placed on the IL on September 9. Just over a week later it was announced that Bichette would miss the remainder of the regular season.

Murakami is a star for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball Organization. Throughout eight seasons in Japan, he has a .945 on-base plus slugging percentage and 262 home runs. Murakami has also become prominent thanks to his performance in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Murakami, notably, hit a two-run walk-off double against Mexico to send the Japanese team to the finals.

As caught on the game broadcast, the ball bounces away from two fans, one of them a nondescript guy, the other a woman in a Phillies jersey with a distinctive short white-on-black hairstyle. A row or two down, a middle-aged guy picks up the ball, carries it half a row away, and hands it to a kid in his party.

The Astros have placed outfielder/designated hitter Yordan Alvarez on the 10-day injured list with a left ankle sprain, per Chandler Rome of The Athletic, retroactive to September 16th. That open an active roster spot for infielder Isaac Paredes. It was reported earlier that Paredes would be reinstated from the 60-day IL. To open a 40-man spot for Paredes, reliever has been transferred to the 60-day IL. More to come.

The Guardians have won six games in a row and 11 of their past 12 to storm back into the conversation for a spot in the postseason. That includes taking the first two games of a three-game set against their division rival in Detroit, but now if they're going to complete the sweep and extend their winning streak they'll need to take down the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner.

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The Rays (nine games back of a Wild Card spot), Royals (seven games back) and even the Rangers (4.5 games back) are all extreme long shots, meaning that if anyone is going to shake up the AL playoff field, it will be a team that wasn't even included in our poll from two weeks ago: the Cleveland Guardians. Cleveland has won 11 of its last 12 games, and the 80-71 Guards now sit 2.5 games back of Boston for the final Wild Card spot.

As Hayes mentions in the article, cutting down on pro scouts is a league-wide trend. He uses the Cubs as an example, linking to a November 2024 article from Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic detailing that club's move to more analytics and less reliance on traditional scouting. Hayes writes that the Twins, like the Cubs, have been relying more on video in recent years with far less travel for in-person scouting.