The Diamondbacks turned a night honoring their 2001 champions into another walk-off memory, and this one came with a playoff push still hanging in the balance.
After the pregame ceremony celebrating the franchise’s World Series-winning team, Arizona finished the job in dramatic fashion against the Yankees. Ildemaro Vargas worked a walk to put a runner aboard in the bottom of the ninth, then pinch-hitter Pavin Smith ended it with a two-run homer. The win locked the Diamondbacks into at least a .500 season, even though they remain four games out of a playoff spot with seven games left.
Across the league, Carson Benge kept making his own kind of history in New York. The Mets right fielder went 3-for-4 with a walk from the cleanup spot in yesterday’s win over the Phillies, and his second-inning homer got New York on the board.
He came through again in the eighth with a check swing dribbler that scored Francisco Lindor and pushed the Mets to their tenth and final run. That last hit was his 156th of the season, moving him past Pete Alonso for the most hits in a season by a Mets rookie.
Alonso, now with the Orioles, had held the mark with 155 hits in 2019.
Trey Mancini also had a notable day, though his moment was about closure rather than a box score line. He announced his retirement last month after parts of eight big league seasons, and yesterday he signed a ceremonial one-day contract with the Orioles so he could retire with the team he spent the most time with.
Baltimore drafted Mancini in 2013, and he played for the club from 2016-22. His Orioles run included his return from colon cancer in 2020, his comeback in 2021 that earned him AL Comeback Player of the Year honors, and a mid-season trade to the Astros the following year.
In all, he hit .270/.334/.463 with 117 home runs as an Oriole.
Out in the AL West, the Rangers grabbed control after the Astros stumbled again. Houston fell 6-3 to the Braves, and Texas answered with a 6-2 win over the Blue Jays to move into first place.
Jordan Montgomery picked up the victory with 3 2/3 scoreless innings of bulk relief, while the Rangers’ lineup tagged Jays starter José Soriano for six runs, five earned. The 77-78 Astros are now a game behind Texas in the division and two games back of the White Sox for the final Wild Card spot, which puts real pressure on their path to the postseason.
Both the Rangers and Astros have seven games left, and each still has two series coming against losing clubs.
In Other News...
Rangers Face A Joc Pederson Decision They Cannot Get Wrong
Joc Pederson has now missed five straight games with a fracture in his left hand after taking a pitch, and the Rangers are trying to sort through a leadoff spot that has become even more unsettled at the worst possible time. His willingness to play through the pain adds another layer to the conversation, especially with Texas heading into a critical series against the Blue Jays and needing every at-bat to carry more weight.
The Rangers have already leaned on other options atop the lineup, which has only sharpened the question of whether it makes sense to rush Pederson back while he is still limited and coming off a slump. For a club trying to steady its offense and avoid a misstep in a key stretch, this is the kind of decision that can shape more than one series. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Win Raised One Big Question In A Tight Playoff Race
Kumar Rocker gave the Rangers exactly the kind of steady start they needed in a game with so much riding on it, working 4.1 scoreless innings before Toronto finally pushed across a run in the fifth. Texas also got production from Wyatt Langford and Corey Seager, but the bigger story was the way the lineup kept forcing the issue, drawing a season-high ten walks and helping turn a close matchup into another important step in a tense September chase.
The win left Texas tied for first in the A.L. West and still firmly in the Wild Card mix, which is what makes the next stretch so interesting. The club keeps finding ways to stay in the race even when the pieces do not line up perfectly, and with the standings this crowded, every night like this can reshape the conversation almost as much as it changes the score. [Read more 🡒]
Sebastian Walcott Just Put A Real Rangers Decision In Play
Sebastian Walcotts rise through the Rangers system is moving again, with the infielder set to jump from Double-A Frisco to Triple-A Round Rock after Frisco finished its season. It is a quick stop, but an important one, especially for a player who came back this spring from internal brace surgery and still managed to put together a strong run at Double-A.
Round Rock will only have him for the final two days of its season, but the timing matters for Texas because Walcott is already viewed as one of the organizations top prospects. The late promotion gives the Rangers another look at how he fits against upper-level pitching, and it also puts a real decision in play about how soon he might be part of the major league mix. [Read more 🡒]