The Dodgers keep rolling, the Brewers are in, and the Rays have punched their ticket in dramatic fashion.
Los Angeles opened the weekend with a 6-2 win over the Marlins on Friday, stretching its winning streak to eight games. Kyle Tucker delivered the big swing with a seventh-inning grand slam, and the Dodgers now sit 11 games up in the NL West while trailing Milwaukee by just two games for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Milwaukee made its own statement in a much more lopsided way. The Brewers locked up a postseason berth by steamrolling the Reds 20-0 on Friday.
Garrett Mitchell launched a grand slam, Jackson Chourio and Joey Ortiz each piled up four hits, and William Contreras and Brice Turang both added three-run homers in the rout. For Cincinnati, it was the end of a brutal three-day stretch that started with a 14-1 loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday and included a mechanical problem with the team plane that pushed the club’s arrival in Milwaukee back until late Thursday evening.
One odd bit of cross-sport trivia: only two of the 15 all-time matchups between the Packers and Bengals have ended with a margin of 20 points or more.
Tampa Bay followed with the kind of finish that sends a team straight into October. Junior Caminero drilled a two-run homer in the ninth inning Friday to lift the Rays to a 3-1 walkoff win over the Astros and send them to the playoffs for the first time since 2023.
The Rays are 88-59 and still own the AL’s best record, while the victory kept them three games ahead of the Yankees in the AL East. Caminero’s homer was his AL-leading 40th of the season, putting the third baseman behind only Kyle Schwarber, who has 44, and Pete Crow-Armstrong, who has 41, among all big league hitters.
The wild-card picture remains crowded in both leagues. In the National League, the Padres and Diamondbacks both won Friday, leaving San Diego with a half-game edge over Arizona for the final wild card spot.
The two NL West rivals are set to meet in a season-ending three-game series starting September 25, though both teams could still wind up in the postseason. The Cubs and Phillies are each 2.5 games ahead of San Diego for the top two wild card positions.
In the American League, the Guardians now hold a two-game lead over the Blue Jays for the last wild card berth. Cleveland is also just a half-game behind the slumping White Sox in the AL Central, and the two clubs open a key three-game series Monday in Cleveland. The Sox have dropped four straight.
In Other News...
Brewers Top Pitching Prospect Suddenly Faces A Serious New Concern
The Brewers pitching pipeline took a hit this week when Nashville placed Tyson Hardin on the 7-day injured list retroactive to Sept. 10. Hardin has been one of Milwaukees top prospects, and the move now puts a hard stop on what had been a season worth tracking closely for the organizations future on the mound.
No details were released on the nature or severity of the injury, but the timing points toward Hardin likely being done for the year. For a club that has kept one eye on its recent game results and another on the road ahead in the playoffs, losing a pitcher with that kind of profile adds another layer of uncertainty to an already important stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Just Sent A Message About Their Biggest Supposed Weakness
With the best record in baseball and a run differential that dwarfs everyone else, the Brewers have spent this season making an old baseball argument feel a little outdated. Milwaukee does not look like a classic slugging powerhouse on paper, especially with the club ranking near the bottom in home runs, but the lineup has still found ways to put pressure on opponents and pile up runs in bunches.
Thats the part worth watching now: the Brewers have already authored two historic 20-plus run shutout wins, and their power production has ticked up since August. For a team long framed around pitching, contact and defense, that kind of late-season offensive lift suggests Milwaukee may be chipping away at the one weakness people keep assuming will matter most when the games get bigger. [Read more 🡒]
Pat Murphy Made Sure Brewers Didn't Celebrate Too Much
A 20-0 rout of the Reds was enough to send the Brewers back to the postseason, and Pat Murphy made sure the moment was celebrated with some perspective. After the clincher, the Milwaukee manager gathered the team for a toast, recognizing how much the group had already accomplished while reminding everyone the season still has more left to chase.
Murphy also made a point of extending the credit beyond the clubhouse regulars, noting the work done by the people around the team who help keep a long season moving. The Brewers are in the playoffs for the fourth straight year, but the tone around the celebration suggested the bigger prizes are still in front of them. [Read more 🡒]