The calendar has flipped; we are officially in the homestretch of the MLB season. Some teams are surging, others are sinking, and some are just trying to tread water in the ever-changing playoff picture.
Let’s run through a few key takeaways from the weekend.
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Phillies take three of four from Braves, put one hand on NL East title
The Braves rolled into Philadelphia on Thursday scorching hot, fresh off a sweep of the Twins. In front of them, a golden opportunity: They sat five games adrift of their NL East-leading rivals with four games on the docket. After experiencing so much woe in the City of Brotherly Love the past two Octobers, Atlanta had a chance to shift the narrative.
That’s not how things went.
The Braves left Philadelphia on Sunday evening immensely frustrated. Their foes took three of four and are now a sturdy seven games ahead in the division. Atlanta coughed up a 4-0 lead on Thursday, was shutout 3-0 by a masterful Zack Wheeler performance on Saturday and fell 3-2 in 11 innings on Sunday. These were winnable games. The Phillies were far from dominant.
But as has so often been the case at Citizens Bank Park in recent memory, the Phillies came up big when it mattered. The free-swinging Nick Castellanos was the hero of the weekend, delivering the go-ahead, two-run blast on Thursday and the walk-off knock on Sunday.
Besides an Atlanta romp in their lone win Friday, it was another series of classics between these two clubs that keep providing splendid ball games whenever they meet. Whether they will play once more this autumn remains to be seen. Atlanta’s grasp on the final NL wild-card spot is slipping; the Mets are just one game back in the rear-view mirror.
Dodgers create distance in NL West
Like Atlanta, Arizona had a magnificent chance this weekend to close ground on a division title. The Snakes entered a four-game set against Los Angeles at home just four games back in the NL West. But the Dodgers, the ever-inevitable Dodgers, took a pair of wonky, raucous wins on Friday and Saturday to ease any worries.
Arizona bounced back with a blowout victory Sunday and has a chance to even the series in the wraparound game on Monday, but a split favors the Dodgers. The D-backs have been one of MLB’s best teams for months now, but their bullpen couldn’t hold down the vaunted Dodgers lineup on Friday and Saturday.
L.A. is about to enter a particularly interesting slice of its schedule. After a brief two-gamer against the Angels, the Dodgers have nine games on the docket against the Guardians, Cubs and Braves. We’ll know a lot more about the NL West race soon.
Cubs sweep the Nationals, inch back into playoff picture
Emerging into view, through the thick haze of National League mediocrity, ride the stampeding Chicago Cubs.
On July 30, the day of the trade deadline, the Cubs sat a distant seven games back of the last NL wild-card spot. Between them and October baseball was a quintet of so-called contenders that included the since-capitulated Reds, Cardinals and Pirates.
Instead of pushing his chips into the pot, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer shuffled the deck chairs, or so it seemed. The team’s biggest acquisition, former Rays all-star third baseman Isaac Paredes, felt more about solidifying that position for the next few seasons. Key reliever Mark Leiter Jr. was shipped off to the Bronx. The Cubs didn’t punt or pull the plug, but they certainly didn’t bolster their roster. Their rivals in St. Louis, meanwhile, were quite active, adding Tommy Pham and Erick Fedde for the playoff push.
But since Deadline Day, the Cubs are 20-8, the best record in MLB. And this past weekend, Chicago continued its post-deadline surge, besting the Nationals three times in the nation’s capital. After nail-biters Friday and Saturday, the Cubs released the hounds on Sunday, mollywhopping the Nats 14-1. Coupled with Atlanta’s poor weekend, the North Siders are now just three games behind the Braves for that final wild card.
Their resurgence has been driven by an offensive turnaround. Linchpin shortstop Dansby Swanson has finally started to hit. The outfielder duo of Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki have been raking. Rookie center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is blossoming into a real difference-maker.
And Chicago’s schedule is relatively cushy the rest of the way. They’ll play Pittsburgh this week, and they have showdowns remaining with Washington, Colorado, Oakland and Cincy. A three-game gap this time of year is still a formidable proposition, but the Cubs have put themselves back into the conversation. A month ago, that felt extraordinarily unlikely.
Mets beat White Sox, who, sigh, have lost 10 in a row again
The Mets did what they had to do, calmly dispatching the lowly South Side trainwreck to claw within a single game of the final NL wild-card spot. Enough ink has been spilled on the calamity that is the 2024 White Sox, so let’s focus on the Mets, whose starters allowed just two earned runs all weekend.
Southpaw Sean Manaea, who now has a 2.61 ERA over his past 13 starts, was brilliant on Sunday, delivering seven scoreless. Francisco Lindor homered again as he tries to make the NL MVP race an actual race. New York heads home for a six-game homestand against the Red Sox and Reds. Hope, my friends, is a dangerous thing.
Yankees drop series at home to Cardinals, cede ground in AL East
Two Austin Wells homers propelled the Bombers to a win in the opener, but starting pitching stinkers on Saturday and Sunday doomed the Yankees to a second straight series loss to a subpar NL team. In Game 2, Will Warren surrendered four runs in four frames. A day later, Nestor Cortes was punished for five in four. The Yankees made ferocious comebacks in both games but couldn’t finish the job. A horrendous defensive showing from Juan Soto on Sunday doomed New York in a crushing 14-7 defeat.
Top prospect Jasson Dominguez was not called up when rosters expanded Sept. 1, so the team looks set to stick with underperforming veteran Alex Verdugo. The tattooed outfielder had a strong weekend at the dish, but that wasn’t enough to save the Yankees, who are now just a half-game up on the Orioles. Baltimore took care of business this weekend by taking two of three against a bad Rockies team.
Astros mop Royals, Mariners fall on faces … AL West looks done
‘Twas a big statement weekend for Houston, which took all four games at home against a surging Royals club. A quartet of Astros starters — Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez, Yusei Kikuchi and Ronel Blanco — allowed just one earned run across 25 2/3 innings of work. Yordan Álvarez continued on one of his trademark tears, ripping two more homers after his three-homer day in Philadelphia last week. Houston, which was once 10 games back of Seattle in the division, now holds a solid, six-game lead after the Mariners dropped two of three to Anaheim.
Kansas City, suddenly losers of five straight, is still 4.5 games ahead of Boston for the third AL wild-card spot. But this weekend brought quite a vibe shift for K.C., which took three of four from Cleveland last week and looked set to make the AL Central a battle. Instead, the Royals got bashed around by Houston and lost slugging first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino to a broken thumb. He’s out for six to eight weeks.
The Royals were extremely active on the waiver wire following Pasquantino’s injury, adding a trio of veteran bats before the Sept. 1 deadline for players to be playoff-eligible. Tommy Pham, Yuli Gurriel and Robbie Grossman are all somewhat past their primes, but a hot month from one of them could be huge for a Royals team that desperately needs to right the ship.
