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October 19, 2018 [LINK / comment]

Red Sox win AL pennant, Brewers force Game 7

If nothing else, the postseason series thus far have validated the regular-season accomplishment of the teams that made it into October. The teams with initial home field advantages have won all five series: the Dodgers, the Brewers, and the Astros in the divisional series, and the Red Sox in both the divisional series and the AL championship series. The last time that five of the first six series have been won by the higher-seeded teams was in 2009; the Phillies beat the Dodgers in the NLCS, but then the Yankees beat the Phillies in the World Series, so it ended up being six of the seven postseason series.

The Astros' 7-2 win in American League Championship Series Game 1 came as a shock to fans in Boston, but the Red Sox recovered quickly, winning Game 2 last Saturday by a score of 7-5. Starting pitcher David Pri[ce walked two batters in the fifth inning, but even with two outs, manager Alex Cora yanked him]. In a close game (5-4), Cora just felt he couldn't count on Price. As the series shifted to Houston for Game 3, the Astros had every reason to be confident, but their starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel was ambushed from the get-go. The first three Red Sox batters got hits, and two runs scored. It was a low-scoring game until the eighth inning, when Boston's Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a grand slam to put the game out of reach. Final score: 8-2.

ALCS Game 4 will be remembered (by fans in Houston, at least) for the questionable fan interference call in the first inning, taking away what would have been a game-tying two-run homer from Jose Altuve. I was watching the game in a bar and couldn't hear what was going on, so I was confused for a while. The fan in question (Houston's answer to Steve Bartman?) did make contact with the glove of right fielder Mookie Betts, but it looked to me like it was beyond the vertical plane of the outfield wall and therefore not subject to interference. I don't think it caused Betts to miss the ball in any case. So, those two runs never counted, and that ended up being the precise difference in the score in that game. Boston's closing pitcher Craig Kimbrel was sent to the mound in the eighth inning, and he proceeded to give up a run on a single, a hit by pitch, and a double. In the ninth inning he walked the bases loaded and was lucky to get out of that jam without giving up any more runs, and the Red Sox won, 8-6.

After repeated flubs in postseason games, David Price finally pitched a gem for the Red Sox in ALCS Game 5 last night. He was up against Houston's veteran ace Justin Verlander, who gave up a solo home run to J.D. Martinez in the third inning. Otherwise, Verlander pitched fine -- until Rafael Devers hit a pop fly home run to left center field, adding three runs to Boston's score. The ball barely traveled 350 feet. (It is interesting that the short distance and tall wall in left field at Minute Maid Park was modeled on the home field of the opposing team, Fenway Park.) Houston fans' hopes were lifted in the seventh inning when Marwin Gonzalez hit a solo homer, but the Astros just couldn't capitalize on the few run-scoring opportunities they had, and the Red Sox won, 4-1. And so, David Price redeemed himself in the deciding game of the series, and that's what people will remember.

Houston Astros fans were understandably distraught that their World Champion team could not make it to a second consecutive World Series, and could not even win any of their three games at home, but there is nothing to be ashamed of in losing to a team that is as talented as the Red Sox. George Springer emerged as the breakout slugging champ of Houston, hitting four home runs and getting a .400 batting average in the postseason. (He had 22 homers and batted .265 in the regular season.) Given the two teams' stratospheric regular-season records (Red Sox .667 and Astros .636), one could almost say that the ALCS was in effect this year's World Series.

The National League Championship Series has been a very even back-and-forth matchup, with three of the games being decided by a single run. Clayton Kershaw was pitching for the Dodgers in Game 1, and to the surprise of almost everyone, he was replaced in the fourth inning after giving up five runs (one unearned). The Brewers had a 6-1 lead going into the eighth inning, but then their vaunted bullpen flinched and barely got out of a jam as the Dodgers scored three runs and then one more in the ninth. Brewers 6, Dodgers 5. In Game 2, the Brewers were ahead 3-0 until the seventh inning, and once again the relief pitchers couldn't get the job done. The Dodgers rallied late and won, 4-3.

At Dodger Stadium in Game 3, Milwaukee's Jhoulys Chacin simply outpitched L.A.'s Walker Buehler, as the Brewers won 4-0. Game 4 went into extra innings in a 1-1 tie, and frankly I just couldn't stay awake after midnight. In the 13th inning, Cody Bellinger hit an RBI single as Manny Machado scored the winning run. In Game 5 on Wednesday night Clayton Kershaw bounced back from his rather ugly Game 1 outing and lived up to his superstar reputation, allowing just one run on three hits over seven innings. The Dodgers' 5-2 put the Brewers on the brink of elimination.

Back home in Miller Park tonight, the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Dodgers rather decisively. L.A.'s David Freese hit a solo homer in the first inning, momentarily quieting the boisterous crowd, but they got loud again in the bottom of the inning when the Brewers scored four runs on a remarkable string of singles and doubles. The Dodgers' starting pitcher Hyun-Hin Ryu was totally ineffective, and gave up another run in the second inning. Keeping him pitching through the third inning was obviously a strategic calculation that it was better to let him try to save the bullpen pitchers' arms for the deciding Game 7. The Brewers tacked on two more insurance runs in the latter innings, winning by a score of 7-2, thus forcing a Game 7 tomorrow night.

The 2018 World Series will begin in Boston on Tuesday October 23, and will continue (if necessary) through October 31 -- Halloween!

Miller Park tweaks

Just in time for the ninth inning of NLCS Game 6, about an hour ago, I made a few minor corrections and enhancements to the Miller Park diagrams. The biggest change is in the angles of the grandstand near the left field corner. I also fixed a few inconsistencies in the previous diagrams (2013), and made sure there were grandstand "crease lines" in all of the applicable diagrams. Also, as with Marlins Park, which I updated recently, the diagrams that show the retractable roof sections are generally opaque (looking more "natural"), with just a single "translucent" diagram showing details of the field through the roof.

Miller Park (built in 2001) has not yet hosted a World Series, but that would change if the Brewers manage to beat the Dodgers tomorrow night... The other [such current MLB stadiums] are (showing the older ones first):

• Oriole Park at Camden Yards (1992)
• Safeco Field (1999)
• PNC Park (2001)
• Great American Ballpark (2003)
• PETCO Park (2004)
• Nationals Park (2008)
• Target Field (2010)
• Marlins Park (2012)
• SunTrust Park (2017)

October 12, 2018 [LINK / comment]

Divisional series are over in a flash

On both the American and National League sides, the divisional series came and went almost before you knew it. Whereas last year, two of the four such series went a full five games and only one involved a three-game sweep, this year no series went beyond four games, and two of them involved sweeps. Not good news for the TV networks that depend on advertising revenues from MLB postseason games: TBS and Fox Sports. The last time that only 14 games were played in the first round was 2014, and the last time that fewer games was played was in 2009: 13 games. Since my records begin (2002), the average number of games in divisional series is just a tad under four, i.e., 16 games total.

Another peculiarity of this year's divisional series (and also those of last year) is that in all four cases, the deciding game was won by the visiting team. Given the fact that they all ended after Game 3 or Game 4, that's just another way of saying that the team with the initial home field advantage ended up winning, as expected. Besides 2017 and 2018, the only other year in this century in which the visiting team's clubhouse was the one that got the ritual soaking in beer and champagne in all four cases was 2009. That happened three times in Nationals Park: 2012, 2016, and 2017.

Red Sox thrash the Yankees

Where were we? Oh yes, the Yankees forced David Price into an early exit in ALDS Game 2 last Saturday, thereby splitting the first two games in Boston. Two years ago I wrote "David Price['s] performances in recent postseasons (Detroit 2014 and Toronto 2015) have not exactly lived up to the expectations he set during his earlier years with the Tampa Bay Rays." Well, you cou can add Boston 2016 and 2018 to that list. Price was replaced during the second inning after giving up three runs (a home run by Aaron Judge and one by Gary Sanchez), and that was all the Yankees needed in a 6-2 win.

It seemed the Yankees had the momentum heading back to New York, but then the Red Sox came back with a vengeance, trouncing the Bronx Bombers on Sunday night by a score of 16-1. Amazingly, there was only one home run, by Brock Holt, but more importantly, Holt completed the very first cycle (single, double, triple, homer) in the history of MLB postseason games. That was the most runs scored by a team in any postseason game since the Cardinals beat the Rangers 16-7 in Game 3 of the 2011 World Series. Wanna guess the last time a team scored more than 16 in the postseason? ALCS Game 3 in 2004, when the Yankees beat the Red Sox 19-8! I think we all remember what happened next...

But anyway, the Red Sox took an early lead in ALDS Game 4, as Rick Porcello outdueled the Gentle Giant C.C. Sabathia, and were ahead 4-1 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. For some reason their closer Craig Kimbrel got all jittery, walking two batters, hitting another one, and giving up a hit to make it a 4-3 game. I expected Boston's rookie manager Alex Cora to take him out, but Kimbrel stayed and got the job done, barely. And so the Red Sox advanced to the ALCS for the first time since 2013, when they won the World Series.

Dodgers overcome the Braves

After the Dodgers shut out the Braves in the first two games of the NLDS, there wasn't much the Braves could hope for as the series shifted to Atlanta on Sunday. But the Dodgers' pitcher Walker Buehler gave up three walks (one intentional) and a single in the second inning, and then rookie phenom Ronald Acuñ hit a grand slam to give the Braves a sudden 5-0 lead. That changed the whole atmosphere of the series, and fans in Atlanta (or the suburbs thereof) could finally enjoy themselves. The Dodgers came back with two runs in the third and three in the fifth to tie the game, but then Freddie Freeman hit a solo homer in the sixth, and the score stayed 6-5 until the end of the game.

But the elation in Atlanta didn't last long. The Dodgers score a run in the first inning, and only a clutch pinch-hit two-run single by Kurt Suzuki (a former Washington National) kept the crowd animated, as the Braves briefly took a 2-1 lead. But the Dodgers scored two more in the sixth, and three more in the seventh (on a home run by former Oriole Manny Machado), and they held on to win, 6-2. Having won the National League West Division for the sixth year in a row, and making it to the the NL Championship series for the third year in a row, the Los Angeles Dodgers are favored to win their second straight pennant as the next phase begins in Milwaukee tonight.

Brewers sweep the Rockies

Having lost to the L.A. Dodgers in the playoff game to decide the NL West championship, the Colorado Rockies bounced right back and paid the same "favor" to the dazed and confused Chicago Cubs, who expected to cruise through at least the early phase of the postseason. As the NL Divisional Series began in Milwaukee, the home team had a 2-0 lead going into the ninth inning, whereupon the Rockies staged a late rally to send it into extra innings. But in the tenth inning, a single by former Royal Mike Moustakas scored former Marlin Christian Yelich, as the Brew Crew triumphed 3-2. In Game 2 they won 4-0, and in a big embarrassment for fans at Coors Field in Denver, they beat the Rockies 6-0 on Sunday. Yet another quick exit for a team with high hopes and not much else.

FUN FACT: In both of their recent postseason appearances, the Brewers were eliminated by the eventual World Series champions: in the 2008 Divisional series, when the Philadelphia Phillies went on to beat the Dodgers and then the Rays, and in the 2011 League Championship series, when the St. Louis Cardinals went on to beat the Texas Rangers.

Astros sweep the Indians

The Astros dominated the Indians in the first two games of the ALDS in Houston, and things only got worse as the series shifted to Cleveland for Game 3. George Springer hit two home runs in Progressive Field, with his team piling on with six more runs in the eighth inning and one in the ninth. Final score: 11-3. So the Astros are in a good position to defend their American League pennant, and perhaps their World Series title as well. Before last year, they were a wild card team in both 2005 and 2015. In the former year they made it all the way to the World Series, ultimately getting swept by the Chicago White Sox, and in the ALDS of the latter year they lost to the eventual world champion Kansas City Royals.

NL & AL Championship Series begin

Tonight the National League Championship Series got underway in Miller Park, in beautiful Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sheltered from the frigid air outside. Gio Gonzalez, who was pitching for the Nationals just two months ago, faced the Dodgers' ace Clayton Kershaw. Remarkably, neither pitcher lasted even four innings. The Brewers are ahead 5-1 in the top of the fifth... Gio's record in postseason games is spotty (see October 13, 2017, for example), but maybe with a new team he'll do better. I hope so!

Riverfront Stadium fix

I made a few more tweaks to the Riverfront Stadium diagrams (which had just been updated on August 17), most obvious of which is that the Ohio River is now shown in the upper right corner. The lower-deck diagram now has more detail in the concourse area, showing the inclination of the access ramps. In the 2001 diagram, the location of Great American Ballpark (under construction) is more accurate, the grandstand in right center field extends for one more section (about 20 feet), and the fence in front of the bullpens in right field now has a slight bend; previously, it was straight.

Finally, there is a new diagram, labeled "the site today," showing the street layout where Riverfront Stadium used to stand. Eventually, I plan to do likewise for all other MLB stadiums that have been demolished.

New Rays ballpark?

Courtesy of Mike Zurawski, here is an article about the possibility of a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays in the Ybor City section of Tampa. (That would be across the bay from their current home in St. Petersburg.) One of the main concerns (aside from who's going to pay for it) is making sure that the roof is high enough to avoid awkward bounces by balls hit at a high trajectory. See tampabay.com.

October 3, 2018 [LINK / comment]

Shocker in Wrigley: Cubs are OUT!

Given their large lead in the NL East for most of the season, with the league-best winning percentage until the end, it was surprising enough that the Chicago Cubs had to endure a tie-breaking playoff game against the visiting (upstart) Milwaukee Brewers on Monday. But even with having to play in the National League wild card game against the Colorado Rockies at Wrigley Field last night, you would think their home field advantage would count for a little more. Yet somehow the Rockies' Lyle Freeland outdueled Cubs ace Jon Lester, who walked the very first batter he faced and then gave up a double and an RBI sacrifice fly hit by Nolan Arenado. The score remained 1-0 until the eighth inning, when Javier Baez hit a clutch two-out RBI double to tie the game. And the crowd went wild! The game dragged on until after midnight (1:00 AM here in the east, past my bedtime), and with two outs in the top of the 13th inning the Rockies got three straight hits to retake the lead, 2-1. In the bottom of the 13th, all three Cubs batters struck out, and that is how their season ended, on a most abrupt and terribly disappointing note.

Editorial comment: The idea that a team with the best regular season record in their league (tied in this case) could get knocked out in a single postseason game is just one more reason why they really ought to get rid of the second wild card team and go back to the postseason format that existed prior to 2012.

So after playing in different cities (Denver, L.A., Chicago) for three consecutive days, the Rockies get a day of rest and will take on the Brewers in Milwaukee tomorrow night as the National League Divisional Series begin, while the Braves take on the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

Tonight the Oakland Athletics take on the heavily favored Yankees in New York, in the American League wild card game. Friendly reminder: In postseason baseball, absolutely anything can happen!

Stadium capacities, 2018

Just like last year (August 20, 2017), I have compiled the current-year seating capacity figures for each of the 30 MLB stadiums and calculated changes in capacity compared to 2017. Changes greater than 1,000 are highlighted in yellow. The fact that six stadiums had large increases without any apparent construction going on suggests that there was some kind of agreement among MLB franchises to include normally closed seating sections in the official numbers, to show the real effective capacity. Oakland Coliseum and Tropicana Field are the two most obvious examples of this. But the big puzzler is Yankee Stadium II, which had 53,345 seats when it first opened in 2009, but now has just 47,309, ranking a paltry seventh among MLB stadiums. This raises the question: Where did those 6,036 missing seats go???

SOURCE: Box scores published in the Washington Post
* : Name has changed in recent years.

Along with my updated estimates of fair and foul territory (mentioned on Monday), the above data revisions will soon be incorporated into the Stadium statistics page.

October 1, 2018 [LINK / comment]

Wild & crazy end of the 2018 regular season

There were some big surprises toward the end of the 2018 regular season, such as the late charge by the Colorado Rockies and the Milwaukee Brewers into a tie for first place. The L.A. Dodgers had seemed almost unstoppable since August, with the acquisition of Manny Machado (from the Baltimore Orioles) and some of their other stars back from the disabled list. But the Rockies (which had held first place for much of the summer) weren't daunted and forced their back to the top. Likewise, the Milwaukee Brewers somehow caught up to the Chicago Cubs, winning the last seven games of the regular season (not including today). For a while it seemed possible that the Oakland A's could overtake the Yankees in the quest for home field advantage in the wild card game, but the Yankees pulled out of a September slump and almost swept the Red Sox in Fenway Park during the final weekend of regular play.

As befitting the extremely tense final day of the season, all four teams that were contending for a division title (Rockies, Dodgers, Brewers, and Cubs) not only won their games on Sunday, but racked up double-digit run totals. (See the paragraph on the Nats' 12-0 loss to the Rockies below.)

And, as usual, I have prepared a table that will show all the scores of the postseason games, displayed at the bottom of my Baseball blog page. Note that it only appears in full when viewed in normal "desktop" display mode, not in "mobile" display mode, suitable for cell phones. You can also see that table, along with similar ones for the years going back to 2002 (when I started doing this), on the Postseason scores page.

Playoff games in NL West & Central

The upshot of the division races was that both the National League West and Central divisions were tied, requiring playoff games to decide the division champions: the Rockies facing the Dodgers, and the Brewers facing the Cubs.

Today was the first time that two playoff games had to be played to decided who would win the divisions, and it so happened that in both cases the loser automatically gained a postseason berth as a wild card team. The stakes were perhaps low, since the losers would later get another chance, and the play seemed to reflect that. In the early afternoon game, the Brewers and Cubs were tied 1-1 until the eighth inning, when the Brewers rallied for two more, and that proved to be the difference in their 3-1 win. After that, the Rockies played the Dodgers in Los Angeles, and the visitors just couldn't get their bats to connect. The Dodgers took a 5-0 lead into the ninth inning, whereupon their closer Kenley Jansen gave up home runs to the first two batters he faced. But then he got things under control and finished the game (not a save situation) in the 5-0 victory. (Jansen has missed a number of games since August due to a strange heart condition, and did not even travel with his team to Denver when the played the Rockies last month.) So tomorrow, the Rockies and the Cubs will play each other in a genuine elimination game, on the north side of Chicago in beautiful Wrigley Field.

I noticed that former National Daniel Murphy had one hit in four at bats for the Cubs, ending the season with a .299 batting average. Just one more hit and he would reached the .300 mark -- sort of like Max Scherzer did! It was such a tragedy that his knee took so long to heal this year, so that he didn't even start to play with the Nationals until June, and even then he was taking it easy to prevent a re-injury. Who will he sign with next year? What team needs an aging (and expensive) top-notch veteran slugger with perhaps three high-quality years left in him?

The playoff games are considered regular-season games, so each team could use the expanded 40-man roster, whereas once the actual postseason games begin, their rosters will have to go back down to the normal 25 players.

Nats rock the Rockies, then exit quietly

The Washington Nationals headed west for their final series of the 2018 season, landing in the Mile High City of Denver to face the Colorado Rockies. Joe Ross pitched on Friday night, and he lasted five innings, but the four runs he gave up were too much. In the sixth inning, Dave Martinez took a chance on the often shaky pitcher Sammy Solis, who promptly gave up a home run to the only batter he faced, David Dahl. Next! In a disgusting display of wasted chances that was sadly typical of this year as a whole, the Nationals only scored two runs even though they got 12 hits; a two-run triple by Trea Turner accounted for all the Nats' scoring. So would the Nats end this disappointing season with a lame whimper?

Absolutely not! On Saturday they came out blazing, as Juan Soto hit a two-run double in the first inning and Trea Turner hit a two-run homer after Adam Eaton singled in a run in the second inning, giving the Nats a nice 5-0 lead. Stephen Strasburg was pitching, and he was his old masterful self, giving up just two runs over six innings, while striking out seven. He finished the year with 156 strikeouts, and a 10-7 record thanks to this game. The Nats kept piling on more runs in the late innings (they seem to hit better when they don't really need to), and won by a lopsided score of 12-2. That was their 82nd win of the 2018 season, assuring them of a record over .500 for the year.

Having clinched a winning record for the season on Saturday, there really wasn't much left to play for on Sunday. That being the case, Max Scherzer sat it out, contrary to my supposition that he would seize the opportunity try to beat Walter Johnson's record of 305 strikeouts in a season. Instead, the 25-year old Erick Fedde took the mound, and once again was battered and bruised. He impressed me in some games during the summer, but lately he's just not getting it done. The Rockies hit home runs in every odd-numbered inning, five altogether since Nolan Arenado hit two four-baggers. Well, it was Coors Field... So why couldn't Bryce Harper get at least one home run while in Denver?? Before the series began, he had 34 homers, only two behind the league leader -- Nolan Arenado. To Bryce's credit, he did hit two doubles, including one in his last at-bat of the game, which may just be the final time he plays in a Nationals uniform. Anyway, the final score was Rockies 12, Nationals 0 -- the biggest margin of defeat they have suffered this whole painful year! Going from a 10-run victory one day to a 12-run defeat the next day just makes your head spin.

Coming out on top in four of their last six games gave the Nationals a record of 15-12 for September, their first winning month since May, when they went 19-7. Their 2018 record of 82-80 (.506) is the lowest they have achieved since 2011, when they went 80-81 (.497). But on the bright side, finishing with winning records in seven consecutive years is nothing to sneeze at. See the Washington Nationals page, which now has Nationals' head-to-head matchups, best batting and pitching records, and batting averages for their regular starting position players and ERAs for their starting pitchers. Lest you think that 2018 was all about Bryce Harper and Max Scherzer, please note that Anthony Rendon had a team-best batting average of .308, tied with the Brewers' Lorenzo Cain for fourth place in the National League. Not bad at all! Juan Soto faltered a little toward the end of September, but he still had a batting average of .292, with 22 home runs (third among the Nats) and 70 RBIs (fourth). Pretty darned good for a rookie who didn't even start to play until May 15! FUN FACT: Soto wears the number 22 jersey, matching his home run total! We'll just have to wait until November to see whether the experts pick him or Ronald Acuña for Rookie of the Year.

Marlins Park MAJOR update

Some time after returning from Miami (and Latin America) last year, I realized that the soil in Miami was unsuitable for excavating below-ground playing fields, obliging me to do a quick fix of the profiles in my Marlins Park diagrams. But as so often happens, "one thing led to another," and before you knew it I was ripping out huge portions of the old diagrams and reorienting everything outside the playing field. Accordingly, this update to the Marlins Park diagrams is a fairly big deal.

Among the new details depicted in those diagrams are the retractable windows that provide fans with a view of the downtown Miami skyline, a few miles to the east-southeast. (Note that center field is oriented toward the southeast, a characteristic that is (I believe) shared only by Guaranteed Rate Field (as U.S. Cellular Field is now called) and Great American Ballpark. The windows are open in the 2012 diagram (among others), and closed in the 2016 diagram. (That is when they shorted some of the fences and reduced the distance to center field.) Other details are the long escalator at the end of the grandstand near the left field foul pole, the huge pillars that support the fixed-position roof that hangs slightly over left field, and the concourse area in the lower deck diagram.

To see exactly what changed since the last diagram update in 2016, just click on the diagram image. One of the changes resulted in my estimate of foul territory being reduced from 21,000 square feet to just 19,100 square feet. That and other such data revisions will soon be incorporated into the Stadium statistics page.

On September 17, the other promising rookie with the Nationals this year, Victor Robles, hit a monster home run to left field in Marlins Park. Amazingly, it was his very first home run in the big leagues! The ball sailed over "The Clevelander" club area and into a long balcony in front of a large bar in front of the huge retractable windows, landing right where there is a marker that reads "427." But is it really that far? After considerable effort, I think the distance to that spot is more like 420 feet. But since it is at least 20 feet above the field level, a ball on a normal home run trajectory would probably go another 15-20 feet, so a fair estimate would be 435 feet.

Sadly, attendance at Marlins games plummeted this year, as the loss of Giancarlo Stanton and others left fans with little to hope for. When the Nationals played two games there two weeks ago, fewer than 10,000 people showed up. After all the money spent by taxpayers to bring Marlins fans a long-awaited first class home, it would be a shame if the new ownership group (fronted by Derek Jeter) couldn't invest enough money to build a competitive roster.

One thing you will notice on the Marlins Park page is that all of the photos are high-resolution, showing many intricate details barely hinted at before. During the offseason, I plan to incorporate many more high-res photos on stadium pages...

Marlins Park, with the roof open, from the southwest. (March 5, 2017)

September 26, 2018 [LINK / comment]

Nationals sweep the Marlins

The game began under blue skies, but it started to rain after seven innings and after waiting for about an hour, it was called by the umpires, thus depriving Washington fans of the chance to see Bryce Harper at bat for perhaps the last time in a Nationals uniform. Victor Robles was the undisputed star of the game, getting four hits in five at-bats, including his third career home run. Adrian Sanchez, playing at second base, went three for four, and Spencer Kieboom got three RBIs with his two hits. In his very first MLB outing, Kyle McGowin retired the first 11 batters he faced but was replaced after walking the first two batters in the fifth inning, due a blister. It was an impressive display by the rookies, while veterans Harper, Rendon, and Turner all went hitless. Final score: Nats 9, Marlins 3.

After the game, the Nationals players tossed goodies to the fans who remained for the hour or so after play was suspended. Then Bryce Harper came out of the dugout, and cheers erupted. Today's Washington Post column by Barry Svrluga suggests that Bryce is feeling melancholy about his impending free agent status:

I've always said: If I'm in those plans, I'd absolutely love to be here. ... But if I'm not, there's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing I can do. I would love to play next to Robles or Soto or [Adam] Eaton. I'd love to. But am I in those plans? I have no idea.

Scherzer gets strikeout #300

In one of the few truly uplifting moments in Nationals Park this year, Max Scherzer got his 300th strikeout of the season last night. It came in the seventh inning, as the Marlins' Austin Dean became Mad Max's tenth strikeout victim of the night. It was quite an emotional moment, and I made a point to record it as it was happening for posterity. Anthony Rendon led the offensive charge, with a three-run homer in the first inning and an RBI single later in the game. Final score: Nats 9, Marlins 4. Will Max pitch against the Rockies in the final game of the season on Sunday? The franchise record for strikeouts is 305 (by Pedro Martinez of the Expos in 1997), but the Washington record is 313 (by Walter Johnson in 1910), and that is probably out of reach. But you never know! Max himself holds the Nationals' season strikeout record: 284, in 2016.

In the first game of the series, referred to briefly on Monday, the Nationals beat the Marlins 7-3. Stephen Strasburg struggled mightily in the first inning, throwing over 20 pitches, and was lucky that the Marlins only scored one run. He came out after four innings, having thrown 100 pitches. Anthony Rendon, Juan Soto, and Matt Wieters all hit home runs. That victory put the Nats back at an even 78-78 record, but more importantly thrust them into second place for the first time since June 20! The Phillies have been losing so often lately that the Nationals really should have taken second place several days ago.

Astros clinch AL West

In a testament to how fiercely competitive their rivals the Oakland A's (95-63) have been this year, the Houston Astros (100-58) weren't able to clinch the American League West division title until they had won 100 games! That means the slate of AL postseason qualifying teams has already been set, and all that remains is to see whether the Yankees (97-61) or the A's will host the wild card game. (Ordinarily, I oppose having two wild card teams, but this year illustrates why it can sometimes serve a purpose.)

In the National League, meanwhile, the Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals tonight, thus earning at least a wild card slot in the postseason. It also means that the Chicago Cubs are guaranteed a postseason berth. If the Cubs manage to beat the Pirates tonight (they just lost their lead in the ninth inning, and it's now tied 6-6), they will remain a half game ahead of the Brewers in the NL Central. Otherwise...