TWiB Notes - Sept 14 - 20

[Frayed Knot]

It's the penultimate week for MLB's regular season as it is for TWiB Notes.

Biggest series of the early week is in Cleveland where the White Sox, who had seen their lead snipped down to 1/5 game over the Guardians, are in Cleveland where they took Game #1 to up their lead to 1.5 G (they had been as many as +5.5 in mid-August). And the bigger problem for the ultimate loser of the AL Central race is that 2nd place is hardly a guarantee of a WC slot. The Guardians currently hold the 3rd place WC slot but are just 1.0 G in front of Toronto, 1.5 in front of Texas, 3.0 ahead of Baltimore, and 4.5 on top of the Tigers. So even a slightly weak finish combined with any one of FOUR teams getting hot and it's no October for you.

 

The Braves are at Wrigley while the Phils go to Washington so that gives the Phightin's a ray of hope given their current 4.5 G deficit. And while there are fewer moving parts in the NL, like the AL no second place NL club is assured of anything as the Phils Cubs, Padres & DBacks fight for three openings. The Snakes, who are hosting the Marlins, are the current squad on the outside looking in.

[Frayed Knot]

Guardians down one going into bottom 9th vs ChiSox went: Single, K, Walk, GO, 2-RBI walk-off 2B

 

[Frayed Knot]

Siddown Pete!!!

[Frayed Knot]

Guardians win the rubber game of the series this afternoon to drop the ChiSox out of 1st place for the first time since July 3rd. Sox take solace in the fact that they finish out the season with the Tigers (4), @ Royals (3), and Rockies (3) while the Guardians have the slightly harder path of ATH (3), at BOS (3), and KC (3)

 

The Twins led the Yanx 2 - 0 heading into the 9th. ... and then remembered they were the Twins and gave up two two-out runs..  Both teams have been trying to lose the game since. Currently in the bottom of the 13th ... and now the Twins win on an error as I was tying this sentence. George Lombard just whiffed on a slow bouncer. It was just a comedy of extra-inning errors which included the Twins having 1st & 2nd no one out in bottom 12 then going pick-off then an immediate first pitch GiDP -- so three outs on one pitch with the game on your racket (as they'd say in tennis).

 

 

Oh, and Judge was lifted for a PH in the 6th inning with 'lower leg tightness' less than a week after coming back from a three month long absence (though nothing to do with the leg in that case).

[Frayed Knot]

Two more HR for PC-A tonight. Now 44 for the year as they start etching his (rather lengthy) name onto the MBP trophy. Cubs 7 - Braves 2 in the 8th

Given their positions and ages, this is a bigger loss than Alonso.

[Frayed Knot]

On 9/16/2026 at 5:35 PM, Frayed Knot said:

Oh, and Judge was lifted for a PH in the 6th inning with 'lower leg tightness' less than a week after coming back from a three month long absence (though nothing to do with the leg in that case).

Turns out this was less than a minor deal because BACK to the IL goes da Judge. This effectively ends his regular season and, with the Yanx now extremely unlikely catch and pass the Rays for a first round Bye*, this puts him in jeopardy of missing the opening round of playoff games which start just 11 days from now..

 

 

* Yanx currently a full five games back with ten to play. Now four of those ten are against the Rays but it would essentially take a sweep (plus help) because, while three of four is nice, that wouldn't be enough to give NYY the season series edge meaning they are effectively six games out at this point. So, at minimum, they need to sweep AND play at least one game better than TBR over those five non-H-2-H games. And doing it without Judge just makes it that much harder.

[Frayed Knot]

Playoff worthy series this weekend (for at least one of the teams involved):

- Cubs @ Reds

- A's @ Guardians

- Red Sox @ Tampa

- Tigers @ White Sox

- Blue Jays @ Texas

- Braves @ Astros

- Yanx @ DBacks 

- Marlins @ Padres

- Giants @ Dodgers

[Frayed Knot]

The DBacks using their final home series of the season to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their lone WS win. Nice coincidence.that tonight's opponent happens to be none other than ... the Yanx!

If GMSIII were still alive he'd be denouncing the league for intentionally embarrassing him and the schedule makers for being 'anti-Yanqui'.

[MFS62]

Some MFY notes.

Cam Schlitler has the lowest road ERA in the American League since Walter Johnson - over 100 year ago.

Aaron Judge has had as many  injuries as a kid trying to get out of gym class.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Alex Bregman, who's been having a terrific August + September after a very slow start to 2026, suffered facial fractures after taking a foul ball in the face while in the on-deck circle. He's posted a post-injury mug shot of himself and it ain't pretty.

But he's got eight days for it to heal (assuming the Cubs don't blow their playoff slot) so we'll see how things go.

 

[ashie62]

The threads are appearing in a different format?

[whippoorwill]

Ouch! 🤕 

[whippoorwill]

Is there one for this week?

Anyway, does anyone know why all of tomorrow’s games are at 3 ish?

[Frayed Knot]

The final week of TWiB was kind of shoved aside by the 'Post Season Picture Comes into Focus' thread.

All games on Sunday are scheduled for 3 PM Eastern, no matter what time zone you're in, so that any last day drama for playoff hopeful teams will play out in different cities simultaneously. They've been doing this for several years now and it's actually one of the good ideas MLB has come up with in this century.

[whippoorwill]

Very cool!😎