The dog days of summer are upon us. The time of year when the season seems never-ending, a perpetual hamster wheel begins at 7:05 p.m. But these games are as important as any, and the playoff situation, especially in the National League, is changing in real time. Clubs that have held steady spots for months are looking tenuous, while slow starters are on the rise.
Here’s everything important that happened over the weekend.
Houston was 12 games under .500 on May 8.
The pitching rotation was a hospital ward. The loyal third baseman Alex Bregman couldn’t land a single hit. The expensive, highly praised bullpen was losing runs like a Styrofoam boat. Headlines like “Is the Astros dynasty over?” flooded the timeline.
It seems that the rumors about Houston’s death were greatly exaggerated.
The Astros are now seven games over .500 and tied with the similarly up-and-coming Seattle Mariners atop the AL West.
The Astros stormed into historic Fenway Park over the weekend and rubbed their dirty shoes on Boston’s carpet, sweeping the Red Sox into the dustbin. Human battering ram Yordan Alvarez hit 6 for 10 over the weekend, with three home runs. Bregman, slowly getting his season going from the mat, added seven hits, four of them extra-base hits. On Saturday, rookie pitcher Spencer Arrighetti delivered the best start of his young career, striking out 13 Sox in seven innings.
This team still has more weaknesses than its predecessors. The three-man bullpen monster with Josh Hader, Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly was more solid than dominant. First base remains a weak spot. Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander, who made a rehab start on Sunday, has been out since June 9 with neck problems.
Yet that blue and orange monster under the bed, that bogeyman lurking in the shadows, seems well on his way to making his eighth consecutive ALCS appearance.
The Mariners won’t let themselves be defeated
Seattle’s rotation is so good, the kind of group that can roll out of bed and win you a series if your lineup shows up even a little bit. In a home sweep of the Mets, the Mariners’ starting pitchers combined to allow just one run in 19 innings, culminating in a 12-1 loss on Sunday Night Baseball, which marked the first time ESPN’s prime-time game was in Seattle since June 6, 2004.
Franchise face Julio Rodríguez returned from a high ankle sprain on Sunday and went 0-for-5, but the rest of Seattle’s normally sluggish team stepped up. Catcher Cal Raleigh, who may be one of the most underrated outfielders in baseball, hit two home runs. Second baseman Jorge Polanco contributed a long ball and two more hits. The Mariners sent Mets starter Luis Severino to the showers early before crushing former Mariner Ryne Stanek in a third of an inning for four runs.
Seattle now embarks on a nine-game, three-city road trip with showdowns against the Tigers, Pirates and Dodgers. The race for the AL West is heating up.
And luckily for the Mets, their two division colleagues in Philadelphia and Atlanta also had weekends to forget.
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A decay for eternity at Coors
The injury-plagued Braves limped into Denver on Friday with a five-game losing streak. More importantly, Atlanta was unable to win the NL wild card for the first time all season. After losing the opening game at Coors Field, the Braves woke up on Saturday and scored 11 runs in a cathartic victory. On Sunday, Atlanta led 8-2 until the eighth inning. The rain seemed to be passing. Better days are ahead.
Instead, the Braves’ bullpen collapsed, allowing seven runs in the penultimate frame, giving Colorado an improbable 9-8 victory. Anything is possible in the wide, thin air of Coors Field, but this was a shocking showing from Atlanta’s bullpen. With the Mets spending all weekend in Seattle, playing with their food, Atlanta still holds a half-game lead over the third NL wild-card spot. But with seven games left on a big West Coast trip — San Francisco and Anaheim are next — the Braves are in danger of slipping even further.
NLCS remake
Arizona has the best record in baseball since the All-Star break. Philadelphia has the worst record in baseball (excluding the White Sox category) since the All-Star break. The two teams met in the desert for a four-game NLCS rematch. They were two teams destined for October baseball, trending in opposite directions during the dog days of summer. And when the dust settled, Arizona had left little doubt.
After losing their opener on Thursday, the Diamondbacks spent most of the weekend crushing the Phillies’ pitchers, winning Friday’s game thanks to a walk-off home run by injured backup catcher Adrian Del Castillo before scoring 11 and 12 runs, respectively, against Philadelphia’s vaunted team on Saturday and Sunday.
Arizona, which has a sparkling 17-5 record since the break, looks to be a pretty formidable opponent for the postseason. Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez, two pivotal points in the rotation, both returned from long IL stints last week. Reigning NL Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll has finally turned his season around. The Snakes are tied with San Diego at the top of the wildcard standings, just 3.5 games behind the all-powerful Dodgers in the division. Catching LA is not completely out of the question.
Philadelphia built such a large division lead in the first half that a complete capitulation is extremely unlikely. The Phillies are now heading home after a long West Coast road trip in which they went 4-6. Things looked better in a key series win in LA against the Dodgers, but a lackluster performance in Phoenix puts the Phillies under the microscope again. There is still plenty of time to sort things out.
A few others
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The Dodgers swept the Pirates at Chavez Ravine, where he gave Paul Skenes the worst start of his career on Saturday before a walk-off knock from Tesocar Hernández sent everyone home happy on Sunday. It was a huge win for the Dodgers, who need to keep winning to leave the D-backs and Padres behind. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, has lost seven games in a row and is out of the playoffs for good.
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The oriole won two out of three against the Ray in Tampa but failed to get a sweep on Sunday. Most notable for Baltimore is the emergence of rookie Jackson Holliday. The baby-faced infielder struggled during a two-week assignment in April but has hit five home runs in 11 games since being called back up on July 31.
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The Yankees survived the Rangers in the Bronx to keep pace with Baltimore at the top of the AL East. Jazz Chisholm Jr., a late signing from the Yankees, hit two more home runs, giving him seven in 13 games since his trade from Miami.
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The waves Boys took both games from the terrible White Sox and are now just three games out of the wild-card race. If the Cubs could play every game for the rest of the year against the SouthSiders, who have now lost three games in a row after ending their 21-game losing streak, life would be bright.
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The Twins won both games of a doubleheader against the Guardian to get within 1.5 games of their division rival, but Cleveland held Minnesota to a tie to extend their lead back to 3.5. Guardos closer Emmanuel Clase made his 34th and 35th saves of the season, leading the league.
