Padres clinch, but it wasn\u2019t easy<\/p>\n
Sure, there were just three MLB games on Monday night as the league prepares for its final week of the regular season, but that doesn\u2019t mean there wasn’t anything worth recapping. The Brewers<\/a> and Padres<\/a>, for one, had an 11-inning, back-and-forth nail biter, with San Diego not only coming out on top in the end, but clinching a postseason spot in the process.<\/p>\n The Padres got on the board first, scoring on a balk, but Caleb Durbin<\/a> tied it up for the Brewers in the top of the second before Christian Yelich<\/a> drove in a pair of runners with a single. Jose Iglesias<\/a> hit a second-deck home run in the fifth to cut the lead to 3-2, and then it was Luis Arraez<\/a>\u2019s turn in the seventh:<\/p>\n Both teams would remain scoreless for a few frames after that. Bryce Johnson<\/a> did his part in making that the case in the ninth, with Yelich up again: he lashed a ball into left that easily could have been extra bases if it got past Johnson, but instead, a diving stop made it into the first out of the inning.<\/p>\n Milwaukee countered with their own Brice in the 10th \u2014 Brice Turang<\/a>. Sal Frelick<\/a> hit a ball up the middle that Iglesias snagged with a nifty little spin move on the grass, but Turang was nearly halfway home before Iglesias could fire off a throw. He beat the tag, and the Brewers were up 4-3.<\/p>\n Temporarily, however. Gavin Sheets<\/a> would drive in a run on a ground out in the bottom of the 10th, scoring Arraez and extending the game to the 11th. Reliever Bradgley Rodriguez<\/a> entered into the game and held Milwaukee scoreless in the top half of the inning, giving Freddy Fermin<\/a> \u2014 acquired from the Royals<\/a> at the trade deadline \u2014 the chance to be the hero. He took it.<\/p>\n San Diego is now in the postseason for the fourth time since 2020 after going 13 years without a single appearance. The NL West isn\u2019t officially decided yet, but with the Padres 2.5 back of the Dodgers<\/a> and just five games left to each of them on the schedule, it\u2019s looking like it\u2019s going to be Los Angeles wearing the crown once more. That barely matters, though, since the NL West is the lowest-seeded division this year barring a complete collapse from the Phillies<\/a> paired up with the Dodgers winning the majority of their remaining games; the important thing is that San Diego made it at all, and are not fighting for the final wild card spot like the Reds<\/a> and Mets<\/a>.<\/p>\n Peralta notches No. 200<\/p>\n Lost in all the madness of this extra-inning affair was the performance of Brewers\u2019 starting pitcher Freddy Peralta<\/a>. Balk aside in the first, he was his usual high-quality self: Peralta went five innings allowing 2 runs while striking out 6 batters \u2014 the fifth of those punch outs was his 200th of the season.<\/p>\n While not a career-high \u2014 Peralta struck out 210 in 2023 \u2014 it is the third year in a row that he\u2019s reached at least 200 strikeouts. Notable not just because it\u2019s a round number, but also because Peralta is currently at his career-high in innings, at 174.2. That\u2019s a lot of strikeouts for not a lot of innings, and it\u2019s helped to power his best season so far.<\/p>\n What part of “don\u2019t hit it to Jacob Young” are you not getting?<\/p>\n MLB teams, please, we\u2019ve been over this already. Did you not see what Jacob Young<\/a> did to the Mets\u00a0on Sunday<\/a>? What he\u2019s been doing to teams all season long? The Braves<\/a> tried to get around it by hitting a ball in front of Young instead of behind him, but the results were the same.<\/p>\n Remember when runners just kind of stopped testing Ichiro Suzuki\u2019s arm in right field after realizing that the risk\/reward ratio just wasn\u2019t in their favor? Try pulling the ball or something, keep it away from center when Young is out there.<\/p>\n Braves win their 9th in a row<\/p>\n While Atlanta failed to heed the advice of not hitting baseballs at Young, it didn\u2019t end up mattering in the end: they crushed the Nationals<\/a>, 11-5, and won their ninth-straight game in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a tough year for the Braves, but finishing strong matters even if it\u2019s not going to net them a postseason spot or even a .500 record. They have dealt with injuries and ineffectiveness from starting position players and usually reliable members of the rotation, but there have also been plenty of bright spots. Drake Baldwin<\/a> looks like one of the better offensive catchers in the game. Chris Sale<\/a> has missed some time, but he\u2019s looked like a pitcher who could win another Cy Young when he is on the mound. Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/a> came back from ACL reconstruction looking a lot like Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. \u2014 these are all vital pieces of information for next year\u2019s Braves team, and give hope that there is life to this core yet even if some tweaking (and some better luck) are in order.<\/p>\n Speaking of Acu\u00f1a, he went yard against the Nationals, so here\u2019s that:<\/p>\n What a grab!<\/p>\n If you aren\u2019t familiar with Drew Gilbert<\/a> yet, well, he\u2019s been the guy in the Giants<\/a>\u2019 dugout biting his teammates\u2019 jerseys and giving high-energy high fives to the point of becoming a mascot for them. He used all that energy for something more productive in-game on Monday night, running at full speed across the outfield to catch this ball off the bat of Thomas Saggese<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gilbert didn\u2019t exactly stick the landing \u2014 that was a hard fall! \u2014 but he also didn\u2019t drop the ball. Unfortunately for San Francisco, the team as a whole\u00a0did drop the ball: the Cardinals<\/a> would end up winning, 6-5, tying the two in the standings at 77-80. Neither of them are eliminated yet, as far as mathematical possibilities go, but both St. Louis and San Francisco are 3.5 back from a wild card spot that the Reds currently hold via tiebreaker with the Mets, with the Diamondbacks<\/a> just one back of that pair and 2.5 ahead of the other. Leapfrogging three teams is going to be tough, especially with the Giants and Cardinals fighting each other here to start.<\/p>\n
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