Lot of great starters out there today: gausman , scherzer, sale, woodruff, wheeler, Ryu, McCullers and gray.

Tough day for the contenders. Red Sox, Mets, Yanks, Reds all lose, Cards down 5-1. Only the Phils have come through so far (over the Brewers but it barely matters what the Brewers do in Sept).

Only 12 games on a holiday.

Speaking of the holiday why is it that teams travel on Sundays of a three day weekend. Why wouldn’t the series cover the holiday weekend ?

Red Sox lose a heartbreaker. After being up 7-1 in the 2nd, the Rays just kept coming. Every time the Sox got ahead, the Rays just pegged it back. Sox committed 4! costly errors and surrendered 19! hits. It was not a great effort either on the bump or in the field. The bats kept pounding away though. This team, for most reasonable Sox fans, has continued to provide unexpected success and continues to play with house money as far as I'm concerned. If(and that's a big if) they make the WC game, I'll be chuffed. Maybe pull off a good Sale start and parlay that into the next round; who knows but it is fun to follow.

NL LEAST STANDINGS thru Monday

ATL 72-64 ---
PHI 71-66 1.5 (blowout W)
NY.. 69-69 4 (soul-crushing choke by EDiaz for the L)

ignoring LA/SF, the other NL WILD CARD goes to one of:

SDP 73-64 ---

CIN 73-66 1 (L)
PHI 71-66 2
STL 69-67 3.5 (L)
NY.. 69-69 4.5

AL WILD CARD thru Monday (TWO slots)

NYY 78-59 +0.5 (L)
BOS 79-61 --- (brutal L)

SEA 75-62 2.5 PLAYING NOW
TOR 74-62 3 (W)
OAK 74-63 3.5

Only 12 games on a holiday.

I find it hard to believe that MLB can’t arrange the schedule to have all the teams playing on a holiday - it did so for more than a century, IIRC. A holiday game should have higher attendance & TV ratings than whatever midweek game is sacrificed. Weird.

updates w SEA L

AL WILD CARD thru Monday (TWO slots)

NYY 78-59 +0.5 (L)
BOS 79-61 --- (brutal L)

TOR 74-62 3 (W)
SEA 75-63 3 (L)
OAK 74-63 3.5