Pirates 2, Cubs 1: And with that the Pirates are going to the playoffs. It’s so strange, though, how even though it’s the franchise that has lost for the past 20 years — even though it’s just the laundry that has been shut out so long — that we sort of passively put all that […]

25 years ago today was a disappointing day for Blue Jays ace Dave Stieb. Well, there were plenty of good things about it. He got the win, and a starting pitcher always likes that. He got a complete game; pitchers take pride in that. He even got a shutout, and that’s a feather in anyone’s […]

Thirty years ago today, one of baseball’s great milestones was achieved. Longtime Phillies ace Steve Carlton joined the 300-win club, becoming just the 16th member of the club. Eleven of the members played the heart of their careers in either the 19th century or the Deadball Era. Walter Johnson became the club’s 10th member in […]

Orioles 5, Red Sox 3: Chris Davis with a two-run single in the 12th to win the game. Wei-Yin Chen gave up 11 hits but somehow only three runs in five and two-thirds. Baltimore remains one back in the Wild Card. The Sox’ magic number for the division remains at three. Braves 5, Nationals 2: They’re […]

Rangers 7, Rays 1: The Rangers finally snap the skid. Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus homered and drove in three runs each to pull Texas back into a tie with Tampa Bay at the top of the Wild Card standings. Indians 5, Royals 3: Kansas City took a 3-0 lead into the sixth with the Indians […]

Twenty years ago today, the Boston Red Sox suffered a loss from hell. It wasn’t the most important or meaningful loss in franchise history. It isn’t up there with the Bucky Dent or Aaron Boone games. But of all the painful losses in meaningless regular-season games, it was among the most horrible. On Sept. 18, […]

Rays 6, Rangers 2: A homer and three RBI for Wil Myers as the Rays send the Rangers spiraling ever further into despair. Because the Indians lost too, the Rangers didn’t fall out of the Wild Card slot, but they did fall out of the top spot, meaning that they’re now closer to falling out […]

Back when the season was just a few weeks old I wondered if the next stage in baseball’s evolution would be a reversal of the “you start the game, you finish the game” adage for starting pitchers. The theory was that we would see starting pitchers’ innings per game continually decrease (especially in the National […]

Mets 1, Marlins 0: There were 12 pitchers in this game. Eleven of them didn’t allow any runs, including both starters, Dillon Gee and Tom Koehler. Travis d’Arnaud singled off Zach Phillips in the 12th for the game’s only run. All of those zeroes made me think of one of my favorite movies of all time. Quite […]

Twenty-five years ago, one of the rarest achievements in baseball happened, as someone threw a perfect game. That someone was Reds pitcher Tom Browning, and on Sept. 16, 1988, he retired all 27 batters he faced against the Dodgers. That Browning would achieve perfection against the Dodgers is notable because all they did was win […]