Cup of Coffee: September 10, 2026

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

I went to a sports medicine doctor yesterday morning because my janky-ass shoulder is not getting any better despite over two months of PT. He ordered an MRI, which I'm getting tomorrow. So basically, I'm just like a pitcher. Except (a) my politics aren't as bad as your average big league pitcher; and (b) if I have a torn rotator cuff or whatever I still have to work every day, which hardly seems fair.

And That Happened

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Tigers 7, Twins 2: Colt Keith hit a two-run shot, Dillon Dingler hit a sac fly and had an RBI single, and Riley Greene drew a bases loaded walk as the Tigers win and take the series two games to one. Before this the Tigers hadn't won a series since taking two of three from Cleveland a month ago.

Athletics 2, Blue Jays 0: Brady Basso (4 IP, 3 H, 0 ER) and four West Sacramento relievers combined on a six-hit shutout. One run scored on a wild pitch and the other came in on a Henry Bolte solo home run. Bolte has been hot lately. Dude has four home runs and five stolen bases since the first of the month.

Giants 7, Cardinals 6: St. Louis led 6-1 after six innings but the Giants took the lead thanks to a six-run eighth. Bryce Eldridge singled in two during the rally en route to a three-RBI day while Jung Hoo Lee doubled in two. All of that despite the fact that Rafael Devers – who has carried this team offensively most of the year – was given his first day off in the past 177 games. San Francisco sweeps the three-game set.

Mariners 3, Rangers 2: Kade Anderson allowed just one run over six innings. That came on a first inning homer from Jake Burger but Taylor Ward's RBI single in the second tied it up. Seattle got two more runs on a Cole Young double in the fourth. Corey Seager homered in the eighth but the Rangers still fell short. The sides play the rubber match this afternoon.

Padres 9, Nationals 2: The Nats blew another lead but it was too early in the game to be another blown save. Here it was a 2-0 lead by the top of the third after which they did not score again and after which the Padres put up nine. Jackson Merrill took care of most of that, hitting two homers – a two-run shot and a solo dinger – tripling in two, and driving one in on an infield single for a six-RBI afternoon. It's been a big week for players named Jackson, that's for sure. San Diego sweeps the series. They've won four in a row.

Orioles 9, Guardians 5: A Chase DeLauter two-run homer in the first was answered with an eight-run third for the Orioles. They sent 14 batters to the plate that evening. Dylan Beavers was two of them and he had two hits and three RBI in that frame alone. Coby Mayo homered later in the game. Cleveland missed a chance to put another game between themselves and the Jays in the Wild Card race.

Phillies 11, Astros 7: Hunter Brown and Cristopher Sánchez are two of the best starters in the game but here they gave up 11 runs on 17 hits in 11 combined innings. The Phillies enjoyed a six-run sixth inning with a Kyle Schwarber grand slam accounting for four of them. Trea Turner also homered and he and Bryce Harper each drove in a couple. Jose Altuve's third inning double was his 2,500th career hit.

Angels 6, Red Sox 4: There were a lot of big innings last night. Here the Halos put up a five-spot in the third with Zach Neto hitting a three-run homer over the Green Monster and Jose Siri hitting a two-run shot. Denzer Guzmán homered in the fourth.

Yankees 6, Rockies 1: Luis García Jr. homered in the second inning and George Lombard Jr. hit a grand slam in the third to put this one out of reach in a hurry. Cody Bellinger hit an eighth inning bomb for run number six. Per the Elias folks, at 21 years, 99 days, Lombard became the youngest Yankee to hit a grand slam since Mickey Mantle did it at 20 years, 283 days against Chuck Stobbs of the White Sox at Comiskey Park on July 29, 1952. Will Warren allowed one run on four hits in six innings with eight strikeouts. 

Rays 7, Atlanta 2: Victor Mesa Jr. homered and both he and Chandler Simpson drove in two. Five Rays pitchers held Atlanta to just three hits all night. If this is a World Series preview it's not looking great for Atlanta, as they've been outscored 14-3 in the first two games of this series.

Mets 15, Marlins 14: That score, in isolation, looks like an homage to bad Wednesday night football. Not that the baseball game it actually applied was any sort of work of art. The Mets had an 8-0 lead after three and did their level best to blow it yet, somehow, didn't. Miami scored 11 runs over the final four innings but a six-run seventh inning by New York kept them a step or two ahead the rest of the way.  Francisco Lindor hit a three-run homer, Christopher Morel added a two-run shot while also doubling and singling. There were 15 pitchers used in this game and it took three hours and thirty-eight minutes. Which means it was like every other Rangers-Orioles game back in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Royals 5, Diamondbacks 2: Bobby Witt Jr.'s three-run homer in the fifth broke a 2-2 tie and closed the scoring. Before that Carter Jensen hit a solo shot in the third. Kansas City's first run came when John Rave stole third and then went home on a James McCann throwing error in the second. The Diamondbacks' winning streak ends at four and they fall a half-game behind San Diego for the third Wild Card in the National League.

Brewers 8, Cubs 6: Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, and William Contreras went deep in the first, second, and second innings, respectively, building up an early 6-0 lead. Chourio added an RBI single in the third and Contreras had one of his own in the sixth which, in conjunction with Logan Henderson tossing five innings of two-hit ball, made it 8-1. Milwaukee weathered the Cubs comeback attempt. The Brewers complete the three-game sweep, burying the Cubs a full ten games back in the NL Central.

Pirates 4, White Sox 2: Four Pirates pitchers kept Chicago scoreless through the first six as they deployed eight pitchers in all on this night. Which, however effective, is still an aesthetic disaster of which I have grown tired, but whaddaya gonna do? Esmerlyn Valdez hit a solo shot and Konnor Griffin singled in two runs in Pittsburgh’s three-run seventh. Viva rookies. The Bucs go for the sweep this evening. The White Sox' lead in the Central is still just two games.

Dodgers 14, Reds 1: Yoshinobu Yamamoto did not need to allow just one run on three hits while striking out ten batters over seven innings, but that's what he did.  Mookie Betts, Max Muncy and Kiké Hernández each hit two-run homers and Alex Freeland and Hernández each had RBI doubles. Elly De La Cruz homered in his fifth consecutive game, but he can't do it alone.

The Daily Briefing

Shohei Ohtani finally hits the injured list

Shohei Ohtani has obviously not been right for some time and yesterday the Dodgers finally acknowledged bleedin' reality and placed him on the injured list due to a soreness in his right biceps and left knee.

The the kicker to Ohtani being a two-way player is that he has to be placed on the 15-day injured list like other pitchers, not the ten-day list for position players. Since he has not played for a couple of days the move is retroactive to Tuesday, but that still means that Ohtani won't be eligible to return to action until the final five days of the season.

The Dodgers plan to to call up top prospect Josue De Paula directly from Double-A, where he has raked to the tune of .303/.401/.547 with 27 homers and 104 RBI and 31 stolen bases in 124 games this year. The lefty-hitting De Paula, who is just 21 years-old, is expected to play regularly, at least against righties, while splitting time between left field and DH with Teoscar Hernández.

The only thing the Dodgers have to play for over the league's final to weeks and change is home field advantage in the postseason. At the moment they're a game and a half back of Milwaukee for it in the NL playoffs and they are a game and a half up on AL-leading Tampa Bay if they happen to make it to the World Series. That said, Ohtani has been fairly useless for the past couple of weeks, so losing him at this exact moment is likely not a curse. If he's not healthy for the postseason, however, they'll have bigger problems.

Jazz Chisholm hits the IL

Yesterday the Yankees placed Jazz Chisholm Jr.on the injured list with a thumb sprain. Aaron Boone said that Chisholm will be shut down from baseball activities for at least 7-10 days. Anthony Volpe will be playing second base in his absence.

Chisholm, who is hitting .232/.312/.403 (98 OPS+) with 19 homers and 40 steals, suffered the injury on a slide into second during the ninth inning of Tuesday’s game against the Rockies. Given the timeline, there’s a decent chance that he’s done for the rest of the regular season which has just over two weeks remaining. This will harm New York's chances of overtaking the Rays, though erring on the side of caution and having Chisholm as healthy as he can be for the postseason is probably the higher priority here.

Read the room, Aaron

On Tuesday night Aaron Judge left the Yankees' 5-3 win over Colorado after playing just six innings. Yesterday Brandon Kuty of The Athletic wrote that, at the time Judge was pulled from the game, Judge and Aaron Boone had "a calm but seemingly tense conversation" while standing on the dugout steps, after which Judge grabbed his gear and took it back to the clubhouse.

Judge, it seems, was pissed about not playing the full game. From Kuty:

For the rest of the night, Judge watched the game on the bench, but after being removed early, he had a sour taste in his mouth.

“I respect (Boone),” Judge said. “So, whatever he says, I’m going to do. But I’m not happy about it.”

Judge, who had been out with a fractured rib since May 31, added he hoped to be back in the lineup Wednesday but didn’t say he would.

“Hopefully, I get more than six innings,” he said.

Boone confirmed Judge didn’t appreciate leaving the game early, even though he had been told before the game it was probably going to happen.

“He was not real pleased with me for taking him out,” the manager said after the game.

Which, fine, I get that. But it's also the case that Judge went 0-for-3, it was a close damn game for much of it, and a big reason the Yankees won was that Judge's replacement in the lineup, Heliot Ramos, hit a three-run homer two innings later that iced things for New York.

Under those circumstances one would hope that the team's captain would appreciate that his not being in the game ended up being a pretty good thing. Or at least that he would swallow his pride and not say anything about it.

Other Stuff

A Vivek Ramaswamy batting cage update

An update on yesterday's item on Ohio GOP gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy's pathetic batting cage performance in his little Instagram ad. Seems it was more pathetic than we realize, as a guy who was in the cage the day they filmed it has posted his eyewitness account. Turns out Vivek's people had the pitching machine set at 40 mph, the slowest setting, and Vivek only made contact on five of the 25 pitches.

As the guy in the video notes, hitting a baseball is really hard, and there is no shame in sucking at it. But given the way Republicans posture themselves as the Manly Masculine Party of Many Masculine Alpha Men you deserve to get called out when you turn in such a Beta performance. Also: he didn't have to do this! He could've just stated what his policies will be!

So, great judgment and great execution, Vivek. I cannot wait until you bring your competencies to bear on my state's government.

Please keep the good content coming

Trump encountered a bit of a travel delay on his way down to Dallas yesterday:

A military aide accidentally deployed an inflatable emergency slide on the new Air Force One on Wednesday, delaying President Trump’s departure to Dallas, according to a person familiar with the episode. Mr. Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews that officials were just checking on the slide. He did not acknowledge it had been inadvertently deployed.

It's 100% the case that Trump was lying about it being a "safety check." I think it's 50% likely to be a lie that, as White House sources told the press and as the New York Times reported it above, some aide "accidentally deployed the slide." I strongly suspect that, in reality, the plane, which was hastily converted into Air Force One duty after Trump illegally accepted it as a gift from Qatar, is simply a giant mess of cheap, corner-cutting malfunctioning tech. I further suspect that it's bugged to the gills by Qatar and any number of other countries and various non-governmental organizations, actors, and rogues.

Whatever the case, every new thing we hear about this plane puts me in mind of the operational history of the OceanGate Titan submersible. In its case we only learned about all of the weird and janky shit that happened to it before it's final dive after the fact. With Air Force One we're seeing it play out in real time.

But I'm sure it's safe. Fly it frequently and with confidence, Mr. President! Really put that top-shelf machinery through it's paces! And take as many of your friends and supporters in government and industry with you when you fly! Show it who's boss!

Anthropic: Age of Ultron

This collection of posts from Anthropic execs, made the rounds yesterday:

One of three things is true:

• The claim that AI is going to kill all humans is bullshit, AI execs know the claim is bullshit, yet they are saying it anyway for marketing purposes or other cynical reasons, which is evil and sociopathic and which should have them all called before Congressional hearings after which they should be sued for securities fraud and other related claims;
• The claim that AI is going to kill all humans is bullshit but AI execs genuinely believe the claim, which is evidence that they have all had their brains melted and their critical faculties gutted in which case we need to stop privileging their horseshit in credulous news stories which transcribe their every word or, better yet, stop listening to them entirely; or
• The claim that AI is going to kill all humans is true, in which case these products should be immediately shut down, the companies behind them should be investigated and broken up, and scores if not hundreds of the people behind it all should be prosecuted and imprisoned, with whoever else is left sued into oblivion.

Has to be one of those things. Which is it?

When you know you're doing good work

Sticking with Anthropic, The American Prospect reports that it is building out "an extensive monitoring system to keep tabs on activists who oppose the rapid development of artificial intelligence":

Job postings and interviews with senior security officials at Anthropic show that the frontier AI lab is building out an extensive monitoring system to keep tabs on activists who oppose the rapid development of artificial intelligence.

In addition to monitoring activists in the vicinity of Anthropic executives and keeping tabs on protests near physical Anthropic assets, the firm is also implementing a “pre-crime” approach, attempting to predict incidents before they happen. In some cases, that also means reporting suspects to police before a crime occurs. Anthropic did not respond to the Prospect’s request for comment.

The estate of Philip. K. Dick is gonna sue, that much I can tell you.

Not that I'm super worried about this sort of thing yet. Partially because of that high-on-their-own-supply business mentioned above. But also because how are the gonna create this surveillance regime when their big AI models can barely even tell the time. And I do mean that literally. From Gizmodo:

Last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared on the show Mostly Human to talk about the future of AI, his company, and humanity as a whole. The interview was relatively standard fare—the host, Laurie Segall, got Altman on the record on the demise of Sora, OpenAI sliding in following the Pentagon’s spat with Anthropic, etc. But at one point, she asked Altman to react to a viral video posted by TikTok user @huskistaken in which he asks ChatGPT’s voice model to time him running a mile. The chatbot very obviously makes up a time instead of actually keeping track.

Altman, in response to his bot's inability to set a simple timer, laughed uneasily, said "that's a known issue," and then said “Maybe another year before something like that works well. But we will add the intelligence into the voice models."

Look, I have no idea if AI is going to end the world or turn it into a police state. Maybe it will. Who knows? I never figured on a lot of things that have somehow actually happened over the past decade or so. But I do know that if they can't yet get it to reliably set a timer when asked, it probably has a ways to go before it releases the T-800s, T-1000s, or the Thought Police or what have you.

The foldable iPhone

Yesterday Apple unveiled its newest iPhone. As you may have heard, it's foldable. At the risk of this appearing as though I'm running an ad here (I am not nor will I ever run ads), I'll embed Apple's video explanation/promo because, honestly, it's more direct and to the point than any of the weirdly meandering secondary editorial content I've read about it:

My first thought when hearing "foldable iPhone" a few days ago was "who needs that?" But then I remembered that my first thought upon hearing about the original iPhone was "wait, no keyboard?" And when the iPad came out I thought "that thing's too big to be a useful mobile device and too small to be a useful computer replacement!" Then when AirPods came out I thought "that's dumb, people will lose those and, christ, we lose our headphone jack now?!"

Which is to say: I'm almost always wrong when it comes to consumer hardware, particularly when it comes to Apple. You can say a hell of a lot about that company just like you can say a hell of a lot about virtually every other gigantic corporation, but their hit rate on consumer products over the past 15-20 years or so has been pretty phenomenal. Most of the stuff they do makes sense once you get past the "wha?" reaction and almost everything they make just, you know, works. And works fairly simply and with very little hassle. Which is important if you're like me and most other people and you neither have the time nor the aptitude to optimize or customize your tech (this is not an invitation to Linux devotees to explain to me how much better it is to spend hours optimizing their tech; I'm happy for you but ain't nobody without advanced computer skills and with an actual life got time for that).

So this time, unlike all of the other times, I've decided to hold my kneejerk skepticism and just look at the product and read about how it's described. And, you know what? I can see it. I'm a perpetually late adopter of most tech, but even I can appreciate that this will probably be useful and will probably be popular. The price point – which is high – will keep people like me holding on to our current phones for some time, but I appreciate the larger screen for certain uses and the smaller dimensions for others. I appreciate the ability to have a couple of apps up and usable at once, during those many, many times I am using my phone like a planner. It just makes a lot of sense.

Sometimes you just gotta admit you don't know things. When it comes to new consumer hardware, I'll admit that I don't know things. Well, except for the fact that I've had an iPhone for about 14 years, I've been writing this newsletter on a MacBook Air for six years, that I'm pretty much always using my AirPods, and when I fly I watch movies and shows on my iPad. I don't have the watch because I don't wear watches, but Allison has one. I was skeptical of all of that stuff when it was first announced but it's all pretty useful and it works. So yeah, Apple gets the benefit of the doubt from me when it comes to a foldable iPhone. Even if I'm gonna wait a couple of years to get one.

Have a great day everyone.