Cup of Coffee, September 24, 2026

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

Four days of the regular season left and there are still a lot of postseason questions remaining. As is always the case at this time of the season we talk through them in the relevant recaps below.

And That Happened

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Mets 7, Rangers 2: Juan Soto hit a two-run homer in the third, Texas tied it up by the fifth and then Marcus Semien homered against his old mates in the eighth to give the Mets the edge. Then Brett Baty added a pinch-hit grand slam in the ninth to make it a laugher. Nolan McLean had a great outing, allowing just two over seven innings. Meanwhile . . .

Mariners 6, Astros 5: . . . Houston lost too, keeping them and the Rangers tied for first place in the West with an amusing 78-80 record.

The Astros started this one well, with an early 4-0 lead capped by a two-run homer from Yandy Díaz, but the Mariners came back, with Dominic Canzone tying things up at four with an RBI single in the fifth. Díaz struck again with a Manfred Man-scoring triple in the top of the tenth but Josh Hader blew it, walking two of the first three batters he faced in the bottom of the tenth to load the bases, then walking Julio Rodríguez to force in the tying run. His next pitch was a high and fat one to Josh Naylor who lined it into center for a single to plate Randy Arozarena for the walkoff win.

Texas has one more game against the Mets today and then finishes with three games at Minnesota. Houston finishes the season with a four-game set in West Sacramento starting tonight. Both teams have to win out and hope the White Sox lose out the rest of the way if they want a Wild Card. That's highly unlikely to occur, so it's win the division or bust for the sad sack leaders of the AL West.

Red Sox 1, Guardians 0: Ceddanne Rafaela was playing his first game since missing two weeks with a quad strain and in his first at bat he lined a ball off the wall in left and grabbed at his right hamstring as he rounded first. He stayed in to run the bases but was pulled when the inning ended. So yeah, that sucks. After the game Rafaela said he felt like he'd only have to miss a game or two, but I'm guessing we'll get a more official update later today.

In any event Rafaela's replacement in center, Jarren Duran, had a nice evening, going 2-for-3 and was singled in by Andruw Monasterio in the sixth for the game's only run. Sonny Gray tossed six shutout innings and three relievers finished off the five-hitter. It was weird that it was this close as Boston batters got ten hits off of Guardians starter Foster Griffen but managed only one run over six.

Royals 5, White Sox 4: Chicago blows a chance to catch Cleveland, as the Royals built a 4-0 lead in the first off of Bryan Hudson. The Sox tied it up by the third and it stayed knotted at four until the seventh when Maikel García doubled in Bobby Witt Jr. to put Kansas City up for good.

Cleveland has one more against Boston today and finishes the season on the road in Kansas City to face these Royals. Chicago finishes their series against Kansas City this afternoon and then hosts the Rockies at home to close out the regular season. They still hold a three-game lead over Texas and Houston for the final Wild Card so even if they don't catch Cleveland they appear to be postseason bound but it's not an officially done deal just yet. And after leading the division for most of the summer it'll be a bit of a drag to only get a Wild Card, but if you would've told White Sox fans before the season that they'd be a Wild Card team I imagine they'd have been thrilled.

Nationals 4, Tigers 2: It was a scoreless tie until the sixth when the Nats strung together a bunch of singles to take a 1-0 lead after which Yohandy Morales hit a two-run homer. They picked up another run on a seventh inning James Wood groundout. Washington has won eight of its last 11 games. On a vastly extended timeline that sort of pace might get them back into contention. Sadly, however, they, like the rest of us, are prisoners of finite championship seasons, the existence of the Gregorian calendar, and the realities of axial precession.

Orioles 4, Blue Jays 2; Orioles 4, Blue Jays 2: In the first game Baltimore picked up a couple of runs in the second and then got a two-run jack from Pete Alonso in the fifth. Chris Bassitt (5 IP, 7 H, 2 ER) pitched better than Max Scherzer (5 IP, 4 H, 4 ER) but Scherzer did strike out seven, which gives him 3,550 for his career. His old teammate, Justin Verlander, has 3,554 and has one more start before he hangs 'em up. If Verlander only strikes out a couple in a short Saturday night start I wouldn't be shocked to see Scherzer demand to pitch on short rest on Sunday in an attempt to pass him up and then retire one or two Ks up on him. Or at least that's how I write the script in my head.

As for whether that actually was Scherzer's last big league appearance, he said after the game that he'll likely have something to say about his future, "in the next couple days." So stay tuned.

Oh, and the loss eliminated the Jays from postseason contention. Womp womp.

If Toronto had won the nightcap they actually would've eliminated the Orioles, so there was a "from Hell's heart I stab at thee" situaish afoot, but they blew that one too. Trey Gibson pitched shutout ball into the seventh. Christian Encarnacion-Strand homered and singled in two. In other news Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is not making friends, so things aren't ending well for Toronto in 2026.

Twins 4, Giants 2: Luke Keaschall homered and hit a sac fly while Walker Jenkins and Josh Bell each singled in runs. Twins starter Connor Prielipp went five and a third and allowed two runs and the pen shut San Francisco out the rest of the way. Minnesota takes two of three from the Giants.

Brewers 4, Phillies 1: The first four games to finish yesterday – the Nationals win, the Jays-O's doubleheader, and Minnesota's win over San Francisco finished with final scores of 4-2. This one was the fifth game to finish, and all Philly had to od was score one final, meaningless run to keep the streak alive but they didn't. Lame. The Brewers got homers from Brice Turang and Christian Yelich and a two-run single from William Contreras. Logan Henderson allowed one over five.

Cardinals 5, Pirates 1: Matthew Liberatore held the Pirates to one run while working into the sixth. JJ Wetherholt went 3-for-4 and knocked one in.

Yankees 9, Rays 2: New York beats the hungover Rays thanks to a grand slam and an RBI single from Ryan McMahon, who had a five-RBI night. Ben Rice hit two solo homers and George Lombard Jr. had a dinger of his own. Gerrit Cole allowed two while working into the sixth. New York goes for the series win today.

Atlanta 3, Reds 2: Matt Olson homered in the sixth, Austin Riley hit a game-tying homer in the seventh, and regulation ended with it knotted at two. Atlanta held serve in the top of the tenth and won it in the bottom half when the Manfred Man was bunted over to third after which Mauricio Dubón singled him in. There will be a rubber match this evening.

Marlins 3, Cubs 2: It was scoreless for the first five but Kyle Stowers hit a two-run homer in the top of the sixth, Dansby Swanson answered with a two-run single in the bottom half, and a Joe Mack groundout put the Marlins up 3-2 in the seventh. Cubs starter Kevin Gausman left the game in the sixth inning after his left shoulder – his non-pitching shoulder – "grabbed on him a little bit" after he applied a tag on a Miami baserunner. With this loss and Arizona's win over Colorado, the Cubs have still yet to clinch a postseason slot. The magic number is one so it's all but inevitable of course.

Diamondbacks 5, Rockies 3: Arizona is what's keeping Chicago from clinchig, so they have to lose just one game. They did not do that here, as Corbin Carroll had a two-run triple to cap a four-run first inning to help Arizona keep their slim playoff chances alive. Also interesting: Gabriel Moreno had three hits to raise his average to .310. Luis Arraez currently leads the league with a .312 mark so the final four games of the season will decide the NL batting title. Remember when we cared about batting titles?

Athletics 7, Angels 3:  Donovan Walton hit a three-run homer and Henry Bolte had four hits including an RBI double to help the A's to an early lead that they held onto. The loss is Los Angeles' 98th of the year with four to go. No Angels team has ever lost 100 games in the franchise's 66-season history. They'll have to take three of four from the Mariners in Seattle to avoid it happening in 2026.

Padres 5, Dodgers 1: Manny Machado homered and drove in three. Shohei Ohtani returned from the injured list and went 1-for-4 with a single, a walk and two strikeouts. One of the Ks came with the bases loaded to end the fourth inning. He had a long fly out to center that fell just short of the wall. Figure that goes out if he's armed and fully operational. The Padres still haven't clinched a Wild Card spot but their magic number is one and they sit a game ahead of both Chicago and Philly for the top Wild Card spot. The Dodgers need either one win or one Atlanta loss this weekend to clinch second seed in the NL and thus earn a bye for the Wild Card round.

The Daily Briefing

This weekend's Cubs-Red Sox series could be fun

There's a big, early-season Nor'Easter heading toward Boston that, per the National Weather Service, "will rapidly intensify and bring strong winds, heavy rainfall, and major coastal flooding impacts to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Coasts through this weekend." There's also a Cubs-Red Sox series this weekend that will likely matter for postseason seeding and home field advantage.

The heavy stuff is supposed to hit Saturday evening and last through Sunday. They have already tried to get ahead of that by moving Sunday's game and scheduling a doubleheader on Friday. Saturday's game is currently scheduled for 7:15 PM, but they could move that to an afternoon start to get ahead of the weather. Leaving Sunday to chance seemed like madness, so it's probably smart that they're not doing that. Of course not everyone's happy with that – Craig Counsell beefed about how weird it is to "move games up" in a rain situation which creates chaos with the pitching, but whaddaya gonna do?

In the past MLB has moved critical late-season series that were threatened by hurricanes to neutral locations in domed stadiums, but there is no indication that MLB is considering that right now. It'd be hard to do that logistically anyway. The Marlins and Blue Jays are both playing in their domes this weekend. Tropicana Field is open if they need it I suppose, or they could consider moving things inland to a place like Pittsburgh but all of that is a logistical hassle and it's unclear if those venues are available anyway.

If the Friday twin bill/Saturday day game shift doesn't prevent a rainout the sides would likely try to play on Monday. Which would suck for both of them given that they're Wild Card teams who will begin postseason play on Tuesday, but that's how the game rolls.

Aaron Judge may or may not be ready for the Wild Card series

On Tuesday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that he does not expect to have Aaron Judge available for the Wild Card series, saying, "we're planning on him not being a part of that." Yesterday Judge said that he intends to be ready for Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series, saying "that's what the plan is. Try to get my body ready so I'm ready to go."

Having Judge or not having Judge will, obviously, make a big difference in the Yankees' postseason prospects. But I'm more amused at Boone and Judge talking past each other because it seems like the third or fourth time since Judge came off of his long IL stint this season that he's either contradicted what someone on his team said or otherwise did not go along with the expected flow of ballplayer communications.

Let's call it Judge's "difficult" period, maybe. That time in which he decided to start doing his own thing.

The Mets are gonna hire Derek Falvey

The Athletic reported yesterday that the New York Mets are going to hire former Minnesota Twins’ president of baseball operations Derek Falvey for a front office position. Falvey’s future title is not known but, per The Athletic, he is expected to "hold a significant role in the Mets’ decision-making process" and that he'd likely be a senior advisor, special assistant or vice president of some type. Falvey would report to David Stearns, with whom he worked previously when both were with the Guardians organization.

Falvey and the Twins did one of those "mutually agree to part ways" things in late January, but it was wholly unexpected and came at a time when teams rarely if ever reshuffle the front office. The real story there is pretty obvious: Tom Pohlad took over as the team's new executive chair and took the position that the Twins were in "win-now" mode despite the fact that the club had massively slashed payroll and shipped off talent in a pretty dramatic fashion. That's an obviously bad situation for a baseball operations executive to be in and it speaks well of Falvey, I think, that he assessed the situation as a bad one for himself and bailed. Reporters who cover the Twins say that Falvey seemed "relieved" during the press conference in which he announced his departure and it's hard to blame him.

But the Twins' loss is the Mets gain as, under Falvey’s leadership, the club reached the postseason four times, earning a wild-card spot in 2017 and winning the division in 2019, 2020 and 2023, usually with fewer resources at his disposal than most other teams.

Other Stuff

Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time

The sort of foreshadowing I saw in two news items yesterday is certainly welcome but even I gotta admit that it's getting a little heavy handed.

First, the Washington Post reported on last year's resignation of the architect of the White House ballroom, revealing that he clashed with Trump over design features that the architect believed violated building safety codes:

James McCrery II withdrew from the project last October after warning repeatedly that Trump was insisting on a preliminary design that did not provide adequate emergency exit routes or fire-containment measures, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.

Trump brushed off McCrery’s concerns, they said, and the president countered that no building codes apply to White House construction.

“I am the code,” Trump said.

Mr. President, don't let them question your authority! You make sure they build that ballroom to your exact standards! And to show them exactly who's boss, you should make the first event in your wonderful, beautiful ballroom an elegant candlelit affair. We're talking old school, taper candles in large floor-stand candelabras. Dessert should be bananas foster prepared tableside and entertainment should be Sivi Afi "Fire Knife" dancing in honor of your most beautiful Samoan territorial possessions. I think it'd be an excellent way to open your grand project!

Second:

As President Donald Trump fights to rename the Kennedy Center after himself, administration officials are circulating a list of government sites that could have his name affixed to them in some way, according to people familiar with the effort.

One landmark that has emerged in the discussions among administration officials has raised eyebrows: Ford’s Theatre, the playhouse where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.

Another masterful gambit, Mr. President! And the moment it's renamed you should hold a command performance of a play in which a Great American such as yourself really sticks it to the snooty European types who don't respect him. And you should absolutely insist that you be seated in the theater's best box. And make sure you yell "Sic semper tyrannis!" midway through the play. It means "everyone loves me and I am so popular!"

Great Moments in Cognitive Surrender

If you use Meta products like Facebook or Instagram you have no doubt seen them attempting to push the AI product "Muse," which Meta touts as an "artificial intelligence agent." Basically, it functions as an autonomous personal assistant. All it asks is that you give it your permissions and your passwords and your credit card numbers and all of your other relevant personal data and let it do whatever it thinks is best with it, so, hahaha, no, neither I nor anyone with a lick of sense is going to use it any time soon.

But the New York Times' tech reporter Eli Tan is cool with it, and in his article about his experience with Muse – he named his particular AI agent "Wren" – he shows just how much he qualifies for the task under the parameters I set in the previous paragraph:

Muse is the first consumer A.I. agent from a major tech company that has become publicly available. The tech industry sees agents as the next frontier, far more capable than chatbots. Agents can roam the internet, sign in to websites, fill out spreadsheets and make phone calls on behalf of people — and that’s just the start.

To test Muse, I experimented with it nonstop for two weeks, giving over many aspects of my life to it. I had to trust Muse with my most personal data, which included connecting it to my bank accounts and email . . . I quickly gave Wren access to my bank accounts and apps like Google Docs, Gmail, Ticketmaster, OpenTable and Google Sheets, which all struck partnerships with Muse. From there, the experiments began.

Grifters and conmen used to have to put in actual work to find their marks but this chucklehead is advertising himself to them. What a time to be alive!

Tan then explained the things it had Muse do, which included "setting my fantasy football lineups" which I foolishly thought was a leisure activity people did for purposes of experiencing pleasure, but apparently it's just another task to delegate. Though given that AI evangelists also talk about how they have their bots read and summarize books, create art, make playlists, and pick out gifts for loved ones for them it makes a lot of sense that they'd forego the rest of the business of living a human life as well. To close out the story Tan had Muse annoy and lowball a Facebook Marketplace seller, so it's adding to the rich tapestry of civilized society in countless ways.

I actually – in all sincerity – do believe that automated personal assistants are a thing that will be pretty common in the future. Like, I can see use cases for it even in my relatively luddite existence. I hate making calls, filling out forms, and doing administrative crap and I can see a world in which technology keeps me from having to deal with that stuff as much as I do. But (a) I'll be damned if I'm going to let a company as notoriously irresponsible as Meta have all of my personal and financial information absent a world-class robust regulatory framework over such things, which we currently do not have; and (b) I'm never going to fall into the dystopian trap of letting technology do the things in life that are supposed to be part of actual living. The things that challenge me creatively and intellectually. The things that bring me joy. Down that road lies madness.

Finally . . .

This is not exactly a big news item even in entertainment circles, but I wanted to note that Pete Byrne, the singer from the 1980s band Naked Eyes died back on September 14 (though it was just reported yesterday). He was 74 and they say he died after a brief illness.

There were many, many bands bigger than Naked Eyes back in their brief heyday. They only had four top-40 hits in the US – only three in their native England – and disbanded after just two years without having ever having toured in their original incarnation. Like I said: not the most major band that ever happened. I presume that even most people who are really into 80s new wave only know two of their songs. One being "Promises Promises," which made it to 11 on the US top 40.

The other is their most famous song: the synthpop cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song "Always Something There to Remind Me," which hit number 8 in the States. Years before that it was a chart success for Lou Johnson and then Sandie Shaw. The original demo version of the song was recorded by Dionne Warwick. It went unreleased at the time but you hear it every so often in various contexts.

I won't advocate for Naked Eyes' version being the best take on that song. It lacks the playfulness and wistfulness that makes Bacharach/David songs truly shine, and the other three artists I mentioned handled that end of things better. But it was the first one I heard. And it, along with Human League's "Don't You Want Me," both of which I first encountered in 1982, were the two new wave/synth songs which really grabbed me and helped form my then just-emerging independent musical tastes.

The Beatles and 1950s 1960s pop and rock hits were handed down to me by my parents' generation. Guitar rock of the 1970s was a thing I first heard through my brother and older kids in the neighborhood. But new wave/synth stuff was mine and mine alone, and the Naked Eyes' "Always Something There to Remind Me" was a big, big part of that. To this day those chiming bells, the synth-created orchestration, and the shuffling drums of that track still grab me. And Byrne's subdued, melancholic baritone remains buried deep within my psyche and likely always will be. In some ways it's the quintessential sound of the smarter parts of 1980s British pop. And whether I realized it at the time or not, I think I always judged whatever new thing came down the pike in part based on whether the singler pulled off that wounded but detached vibe that Byrne did on that timeless song.

Rest in peace, Pete Byrne.

Have a great day everyone.