9-22-25
Only three games on the schedule today in the MLB. The MLB.TV Free Game was the Cardinals at the Giants. Justin Verlander was starting for the Giants. I wondered what his record was since I knew he’d had a rough season.
In the bottom of the first, Heliot Ramos hit a lead-off homer to give the Giants a 1-0 lead. Also in the inning, Nolan Arenado took an error on a low throw to first from third. The ball was dropped on the other end, but it was still a great effort. How rare is it to see an Arenado error?
In the second, the Giants’ third baseman, Matt Chapman, was charged with an error on a ball down the line. The inning ended on a double play with a pair of base running errors by the Cardinals. This play was scored: 6-2-5-4. Cardinal manager, Ollie Marmol, argued the call for some unknowable reason. I wrote to warn Aunt Judy, as I assumed she was watching.
Chapman would make a great play on a bunt in the third. Right after, his error from the second inning was changed to a double. Coincidence? Cards singled in a run to tie it, 1-1. In the fourth, the Cards scored via a walk and then a stolen base with the Giants’ catcher, Patrick Bailey, dropping the ball, and then a double. 2-1 Cardinals.
The Giants’ broadcast was doing their usual good job of showing the crowd with lots of happy kids and parents. Look, see! There’s one family-friendly activity here in San Francisco! In the booth, the broadcasters were showing off some new gloves. One oddity on the field, there was something like a large stripe in centerfield. I don’t know if that was intentional by the groundskeeper, or some other event had made the mark on the field.
In the bottom of the fourth, Bailey drove in the tying run. The Giants then loaded the bases with Ramos bringing in a pair of runs with single, 4-2 Giants. He was thrown out on the play trying to get back to first after rounding the bag, as the Cardinals threw behind him.
In the top of the fifth, Ivan Herrera tied it with a two-run homer, 4-4. Verlander was getting slapped around since last inning. After Arenado doubled, there were runners on second and third. That was four hits in a row with no outs. Verlander got one out, but an error behind him drove in a run. The second baseman ate the ball on a grounder, which was scored as a fielder’s choice and an error. Verlander came out and another run scored on an FC to make it, 6-4 Cards. A caught stealing ended the inning.
In the bottom of the fifth, Rafael Devers led off with a homer to make it closer, 6-5. In the sixth, Bailey got thrown out at second trying to stretch a single and forgetting he’s a catcher. In the top of the eighth, an error by Chapman began the inning. Bailey made a good play on a sacrifice, but there was no additional damage done.
The Cards won this comedy of errors, 6-5. This had to have been one of the worst-played games I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe these two teams are actually still in contention to get into the playoffs. The Cardinals jumped the Giants in the Wild Card standings. This probably wrecked the Giants’ postseason hopes. As per the lovely Laura Britt on the postgame show, Verlander took the loss and his record is 3-11.
I got some bonus coverage with the Brewers versus the Padres. It was 3-3 after 9 innings. The Brewers went up 4-3 in tenth. In the bottom, just as I tuned in, I saw Aggie great, Joey Ortiz, make great play at second. The Padres did tie it up. In 11-th, Joey had an infield hit, but Brewers didn’t score as a bases loaded DP ended it. The Padres walked it off in bottom for a 5-4 win. This clinched a playoff spot for Padres. The full house in San Diego went crazy, as fireworks went off over the stadium.
Meanwhile, I suppose I have to mention the main chatter in the MLB today: the Tigers have blown a 15-game lead down to 1 game over the Indians. Tuesday, these two teams begin a three-game series. This kind of snuck up on me (as it apparently did the Tigers), as I’d been happily anticipating seeing the Tigers in the playoffs.
9-23-25
I only got a little baseball today from some bonus coverage from an extra innings game between the Marlins and the Phillies. The Marlins did win it in the 11-th. The game was running late and most of the crowd was gone, so I assume there was a rain delay at some point. The hardcore Philly fans stuck around to boo the loss.
A nice co-worker brought me back a Brewers pin from going to a game last week. She had a good time there. Her family had a tailgate and Barrelman (pictured on the bag) came over and sang, “Happy Birthday” to her. Sigh. Not so nice was the scoreboard watching. The Tigers lost the first game of their series with the Indians. They are now tied in the standings.
9-25-25
It happened. The Indians beat the Tigers last night to take the lead in the AL Central and they have the tiebreaker on them. There was a terrible and nice story about the previous game. Tarik Skubal had been uncharacteristically wild and hit an Indians batter in the face. The player ended up at the hospital. Skubal visited him the next day and apologized and was forgiven. Also last night, the Mariners won the AL West. The A’s beat the Astros for the seventh straight time this season. That might explain the M’s winning the West.
My final weekday day regular season game was the Rangers versus Twins. (I’ll hopefully get a couple of playoff day games next week.) This time there wouldn’t be a Chihuahuas game on at the same time (unfortunately for today). It was the Rangers’ final home game and they left the roof open, which let a strong breeze into the stadium. On the first pitch of the game, Byron Buxton homered to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.
Nobody realized at the time that would be all of the scoring for most of game. High foul balls blown out of play by the wind, but not out of the park. Top of the eighth, broadcaster Eric Nadel speculated that the shadows on the field were really limiting the offense today. Balls from the pitchers were coming out the dark into the light at the plate.
Both teams were subbing a bunch late like this was a blowout game. Maybe it was after Buxton homered again in the eighth, but this time with two on. Thank goodness he hit that, because otherwise it would have been an even more embarrassing loss. 4-0 Twins was the final. Nadel seemed happy for the Rangers’ offensive futility to be over for the day. They only had one runner in scoring position for the game. Now the Rangers will face the Indians for their final series. It’s going to be a playoff atmosphere in Cleveland. Will the Rangers roll over or play spoiler.
At Aggie Soccer during halftime, I looked up MLB scores and the Tigers won to even it up with Cleveland. After the game, I started listening in the car to the Rockies at the Mariners. It was 6-0 M’s in the fifth. My reception was not so great at home and the game wasn’t that great anyway. The Mariners started pulling their star players out late. In the ninth, Hunter Goodman drove in a run for the Rox. It was his 90-th RBI of the season. The final was 6-2 Mariners. The radio reception of course cleared up as soon as the game ended.
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