Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Bob Milano, an Oakland kid who played catcher at Cal and then became the winningest baseball coach in school history, has died. He was 85. Milano retired following the 1999 season with 688 career victories. He was inducted to the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004 and had his jersey number 7 retired by the school. The school confirmed Milano's death on Monday afternoon.

Roberts said right-hander Brock Stewart has been throwing to hitters in Los Angeles this weekend and will go out on a "quick" rehab assignment this week, just one or two appearances.

MLB vet Jose DeLeon still waits for his first decision win of 2025 in a WooSox uniform; he may not end up getting it, as this was his best chance. The Mets had just one hit against him with two outs in the sixth. In the end, giving up four walks on the day caught up to him, as number three and number four came consecutively, followed by that one hit in the worst possible place, an RBI double to let Syracuse claim the lead. Jovani Moran came in and allowed two more batters to score, doing the team in.

The Braves will hit this offseason at a reasonably-sized crossroads. I think that's pretty clear, clear enough that I will almost certainly have a post early in the offseason where the title is some variation of, "The Braves are now at a crossroads." There is the potential to say a lot about where the Braves go from here, what they do next, and how they enter their next franchise phase

I think we should stop talking about October to be honest with you. There's a lot of stuff going on and we have to play better. I'm not saying we're in a bad spot, but I think we have to wait to see if October is part of this.

That's not the case in this instance, however, as manager Dave Roberts told reporters ( including Fabian Ardaya) on Friday that Sasaki dealt with "a calf situation" during his rehab that extended the time he could be allowed to spend in Triple-A. He'll make at least one more start in the minors, per Roberts, at which point it's possible he'll move back into pitching in MLB games.

Anthony Volpe's underwhelming season has made the shortstop a topic of controversy in the Bronx, and more attention was generated this week when it was revealed that Volpe has been playing with a small tear in his left shoulder labrum since May 3. Trying to play through this shoulder problem has clearly impacted Volpe's performance - not only has he hit .197/.248/.378 in 418 plate appearances since suffering the injury, Volpe's formerly excellent defense has drastically fallen off.

After Wenceel Pérez's RBI double put Detroit ahead in the top of the 11th, López started the bottom half with an infield single that advanced automatic runner Joey Wiemer. Heriberto Hernández's RBI fielder's choice scored Wiemer before Johnston drove a slider from Rafael Montero (1-2) over the wall in right-center. It was Johnston's first career multi-homer game. Josh Simpson (3-2) got the last two outs in the top of the 11th for the win.

Smith, 30, has enjoyed a career year with the Dodgers this season as he's hit .296/404/.497 and landed his third consecutive All-Star appearance. Unfortunately, he was struck by a foul ball on his throwing hand on September 3. He sat out for nearly a week before he returned on September 9, but he hasn't appeared in a game since. Manager Dave Roberts had previously described the issue as a matter of pain tolerance for Smith,

Sasaki began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Aug. 14 and has made five starts for the Dodgers' top Minor League affiliate. That's come with mixed results, though Sasaki did finish with a season-high five strikeouts in his outing this Tuesday. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was pleased with Sasaki's start, and in particular due to his fastball velocity hovering around triple-digits throughout the 4.2 innings pitched. Next was a meeting between Sasaki and Dodgers leadership to determine a course of action moving forward.

One thing is for certain: Friday night had better not be the last time Sandy Alcantara takes the mound for the Miami Marlins in 2025. Sandy could have thrown a perfect game Friday night, narrowly outdueling fellow former Cy Young winner Tariq Skubal of the Tigers, and that would still be true. No matter how epic, no matter how packed loanDepotPark was or wasn't, the Marlins have to finagle things to let Alcantara take the mound during the final weekend of the season.

The Phillies have been without ace right-hander Zack Wheeler in their rotation since August 15, and late last month it was announced that he had been recommended for surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome. Today, the Phillies revealed to reporters (including Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic) that Wheeler is set to go under the knife on September 23. At the time of the club's original announcement about Wheeler needing surgery, it was suggested that the procedure typically came with a 6-8 month recovery timeline.

Dean predicted 86 wins, which was the lowest number of the crew, and it feels like it would take a monumental failing to end up there by the evening of September 28th. Mike, you were right there at 87 wins. The rest of the crew was anywhere between 89 and 92 victories for the 2025 campaign. And that actually sounds reasonable.

The Phillies announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Walker Buehler and placed left-hander Jose Alvarado on the 15-injured list, moves which were previously reported. Alvarado's injury wasn't specified in that earlier reporting but the Phils announced it as a left forearm strain, retroactive to September 11th. The severity is still unclear. To open a 40-man spot for Buehler, righty Matt Manning has been designated for assignment.

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Mike Elias quietly received a promotion in the offseason, per reporting from Ken Rosenthal and Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic. His previous title with the Orioles was general manager but he was promoted to president of baseball operations before the 2025 campaign began. Today's report adds that the O's plan to hire a GM to work under Elias. The title change is largely ceremonial.

The Sox had ample opportunity to take the game today and complete the sweep, but sadly that did not happen. RISP opportunities were squandered, the pitching wasn't stellar, and Aroldis Chapman reminded everybody that he's human and couldn't keep the A's from walking off the last game of the series. Oh well. We had a split road trip, so I guess it could've been worse.

Sauer was designated for assignment by the Dodgers over the weekend when Dalton Rushing was placed on the injured list and Chuckie Robinson was called up. After clearing waivers, the Dodgers elected to release Sauer back to free agency. More news: Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani Predicted to Win NL MVP in a 'Landslide' Sauer, 26, joined the Dodgers this offseason on a minor league deal. The right-hander ended up making the roster for the Tokyo Series, but didn't appear in either of the two games. He was then optioned back to Triple-A ahead of the domestic season opener.

Snell gave the Dodgers six shutout innings while allowing just two hits and two walks. He also struck out a season-high 11 batters. The only time the Rockies put a runner in scoring position was in the fourth inning with two outs, which was the result of a walk and a stolen base by Ezequiel Tovar. Other than that, Snell only allowed two singles and didn't allow them to advance.

Earlier this week Alex Cora won his 600th game as the Red Sox manager. He was already third all-time for managerial wins in Boston, having passed Pinky Higgins (560 wins) earlier this season. He now trails only Terry Francona (744) and Joe Cronin (1071) on the all-time list. That's some good company. In fact, Joe Cronin's clubs managed a .539 winning percentage for him over 13 years while Cora is sitting at .538.

The bullpen further shut down Syracuse as it took them until the ninth to gather even one run or even their second runner in scoring position of the night. In hindsight, this game was finished rather quickly: Mikey Romero, who otherwise struck out three times on the night among the team's 14, got his fifteenth home run (across Portland and Worcester) with just one recorded out in the second inning.

Things were quiet for the first couple of innings until the third inning rolled around. That's when Marcell Ozuna led it off with a double that eluded Seiya Suzuki's glove in right field and went off the bricks below the Chop House. Immediately after Ozuna scampered to second with a double Arizona Fall League invitee Nacho Alvarez Jr. brought him home with a double of his own to break the deadlock in Atlanta's favor.

"Oh, he's a real (postseason) option," Roberts said. "I don't know what capacity, but when you're playing meaningful games, young player, you're looking at how they handle their emotions. And Emmet is, I like to use the word unflappable, and it's a huge compliment. And he's unflappable."

That aside, though, it's at least marginally interesting to think about final win totals that will or won't be sufficient to make the playoffs this year. 86 was the magic number last year for both the Tigers and Royals; the Diamondbacks somehow made the playoffs with 84 wins in 2023. In the inaugural season of this stupid playoff system, it was again 86 wins, in benefit of the Rays.

There is sincere regret in the words of Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker when he mentions what life in baseball has cost him. His son Troy, now a hitting coach for the Houston Astros, played baseball growing up, and Snitker recalls seeing only three innings of Troy's high school career, due to the natural scheduling conflict for someone working in Major League Baseball.