Lots to report on this off-day, including the fact that the Tampa Bay Rays are the 2026 AL East Champions! They clinched the division on an off-day at home as the Orioles fell 8-5 to Boston. That makes 5 straight division titles and 6 in 7 years. Here are the MLB wild card standings since all the division races seem well in hand:
The Orioles have clinched a wild card and will host the Wild Card Game, but who's coming to Baltimore is anyone's guess with 4 teams within one game of the second wild card. Texas has been much better since we sent them Heston Kjerstad and they also picked up Danny Santana from the Blue Jays. The Rays travel to Chicago and Texas next week to end the season so they could have a say in who makes it. The wildcard race is wild as well in the NL, with Washington holding a slight advantage and 3 other teams within a game for the second wild card.
September 21: Sent P Christian Little (herniated disc) to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment.
Here we go again with Little, who will start the do-or-die Game 3 for the Bulls tonight in Indianapolis.
This in from the league office:
Durham Playoff Update: Good news and bad news from Indianapolis. The good news is that the Bulls won 7-0 to stay alive and force a Game 4 of the International League Championship Series. The bad news: Christian Little started and had to leave after striking out the first batter with a recurrence of his herniated disc, and will miss another 1-2 weeks. It's looking dicey now for his playoff prospects. Relieving Little was our top pitching prospect and no it wasn't Jack Leiter. Andy Aparicio is ranked the #2 prospect overall in baseball by BNN and I don't know how much I've talked about him here but he spent this season at AA Montgomery, mostly in the bullpen although he made a few starts late in the season. Tonight he took over in the 1st after the original plan was to take over around the 4th or 5th, and he was brilliant going 5 1 0 0 1 2, leaving after he allowed the first Indy hit of the game in the 6th inning. He has a shot of making next year's team but will probably start at Durham. Jhon Diaz was 2-4 with an RBI and Juan Mendez was 2-5 with 3 RBI as Little, Aparicio, Cole Patten, Nick Frasso (who got the final out in the 8th when it was 4-0 and two men were on) and Wesley Sweatt combined for the shutout.