Dynasty
Nastiest GIFs
The List
Dynasty
Nastiest GIFs
The List
+

MLB News & Moments You Should Know: 9/26/2024

The Phillies lock down the bye, Ohtani helps out, and Toronto eats.

Asher Dratel
MLB Morning News 9/26/2024

Stay updated on everything baseball with our morning MLB News & Moments articles. We’ve got you covered to keep you in the know.

 

Today’s Headlines

 

Red October Rolls Again

With their 9-6 win over the Cubs on Wednesday and a Brewers 2-1 loss to the Pirates, the Phillies clinched a bye in the first round of the playoffs, and they’re still technically in play for top seed, I believe.

But they didn’t do that all on just any night. No, Wednesday was Fan Appreciation Night at Citizen’s Bank Park. This year it was Brandon Marsh’s turn to address the Philly Phaithful prior to the game:

I guess it worked, and I have no doubt that the fans in Philadelphia will, indeed, bring it.

Not The Postseason, but Post The Season

There are no Game 163s anymore, but we are getting some weird Twilight Zone bonus baseball this year thanks to Hurricane Helene, which pushed some absolutely torrential rain up into the Atlanta area. This meant the postponement of not one, but two showdowns with the Mets that were supposed to make up the mid-week series.

As of Wednesday night, the Mets are tied with Arizona for the second and third wildcard spot, and both are a full game up over Atlanta, so to say that these two rescheduled games may have some Serious Implications would be understating it. There’s a possibility that by the time the weekend is over, this is all moot depending on how New York, Atlanta, and Arizona do in their respective series that don’t involve playing directly against each other, but I’m kind of really hoping that Monday is a make-or-break doubleheader. That would be pretty incredible stuff.

Here’s the current playoff odds picture, according to FanGraphs:

To be a bit more specific:

  1. New York: 70.2%
  2. Arizona: 68.3%
  3. Atlanta: 61.5%

The Diamondbacks breaking their losing streak with their 8-2 win over San Francisco moved all of those teams around by almost 7% each!

All of that said, Helene’s track hasn’t exactly been a surprise coming into Wednesday, and these teams had enough time and advance notice to get these games in on schedule. It’s all conjecture no matter how things end up shaking out come next week, but it could make for some juicy drive-time radio What If? calls.

Dodgers Within A Win Of The Division

Speaking of division-rival series with big implications, there’s one happening in L.A., too! The Dodgers pulled off a 4-3 win over San Diego last night, with a Michael Kopech save to go with it, to even the series at one game apiece but more importantly, lower their magic number to 2:

They’ll look to win the series and clinch the NL West tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Padres no longer control their own destiny when it comes to winning the division, although they’re already locked into the Wild Card at worst.

Oh, also some guy on the Dodgers named Shohei Ohtani tied another record? I dunno, seems pretty mundane these days.

Overall, Ohtani went 2-for-3 with a walk, a run, and a pair of RBI on top of the SB, making his contributions the difference in the win. I feel like I say that a lot. $700m seems like a bargain.

By Jove, It’s Jobe!

Top pitching prospect Jackson Jobe finally got to make his MLB debut last night:

It was in the ninth inning of a 7-1 rout over the Rays, but hey, still counts! He threw a total of nine pitches, seven for strikes, giving up a single hit. No punchouts, though. Disappointing.

Meanwhile, that’s four wins in a row for the Tigers, who are suddenly tied with the Royals(?!) for the second and third AL Wild Card spot. They’re two games up on the Twins and while I’m posting fun Playoff Odds graphs:

That’s pretty cool stuff.

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

The Final Days Of The Coliseum

Thursday will mark the ignominious end of the Oakland A’s. Well, they play one more series over the weekend, but this afternoon will mark the last home game in Oakland for the team before notably terrible man and team owner John Fisher uproots the team for Sacramento and maybe someday Las Vegas. You’d think he might have a plan for a home for the team at this point but expecting non-embarrassing things like “competence” out of the guy is asking entirely too much. Yesterday fans tried to abscond with their seats (they were stopped, unfortunately,) but Oakland faithful are still trying to get keepsakes from their local field:

Oh, also they’re still loudly demanding Fisher do the right thing:

Oh, in case you didn’t already hear about it, too, all of the Coliseum workers are just getting kicked to the curb when the gates close the last time.

What’s The Glizzy Conversion Rate?

Ok sorry, I get worked up about what an absolute trash bag full of trash Fisher is, but here’s some fun stuff out of Toronto:

That’s…a lotta dogs! Specifically, it’s an average of 4,493 per game over the season! Or to be more specific when it comes to the average Torontonian’s endless hunger for tubular packaged meat, 8,985 dogs per home game. Hot dog!

Late Milestones

The season may be winding down for most teams, but guys are still out here setting new highs for themselves and their franchises. Well, tying them, at least?

It’s been a lost year for St. Louis, but it’s certainly not Ryan Helsley’s fault, and he’s got a sparkling 2.07 ERA to go with all them saves. And the Cards have won 81 games total this season, meaning that Helsley is personally responsible for ensuring 59% of his team’s wins. I think I’ve pointed this out before, too, as it’s been a theme this year, but it seems both pretty high and pretty cool.

Aaron Judge also did Aaron Judge things and hit his 57th homer of the year in another losing effort to clinch the AL East, but his ninth-inning, three-run blast put him at 142 RBI for the year, which is (unsurprisingly) a career-high, but also helps break a record-holding drought in baseball at large:

I hope he hits two homers per game for the rest of the year and breaks his own AL HR record too, just for fun.

Marcus Semien also got himself to a big, round milestone number in the first inning en route to a win over Oakland last night:

He ended the night 1-for-5, so he’s just at 1,500 hits even as you read this! Assuming you’re reading it before he plays on Thursday, that is. Unless he goes 0-fer. But I’m not gonna root for something like that.

Injuries and Other Moves

 

âš¾ The Royals removed Michael Lorenzen from his start last night as a “precaution” due to “lower body fatigue”.

âš¾ Bo Bichette will require surgery to repair his broken finger. The Blue Jays are saying he should be ready to go for Spring Training, although the fact they’re even hedging that seems…not great.

âš¾ The O’s will be without Grayson Rodriguez for the rest of the year, postseason included. Manager Brandon Hyde said this isn’t due to a setback, but that the recovery isn’t progressing very quickly and there just isn’t enough time for him to ramp back up, and the focus is on 2025 now.

âš¾ The Yankees are sending Nestor Cortes Jr. to the IL with a flexor strain. He’ll be on the shelf until at least the ALCS, if he returns at all/the Yankees make it that far. For whatever it’s worth, Nestor does say the ligament is intact.

âš¾ The Astros won’t be taking Yordan Alvarez to Cleveland for the final road series of the year. He’s “still not doing baseball activity, but is feeling better.”

 

Articles You Should Read

 

Why the Royals Were Cursed – Davy Andrews, FanGraphs

Talking to Statues With Juan Marichal, Last Man Standing From Giants’ Bronze Age – Daniel Brown, The Athletic (sub req’d)

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

Is It Legit?

Closing Time

Starting Pitcher Streamers

Asher Dratel

Asher hails from Brooklyn, wears a 2008 Joba Chamberlain jersey to every Yankees game he attends, and pronounces BABIP funny. Appreciator of Beefy Lad dingers and beers. @asherd.xyz on Bluesky.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Account / Login