lordstanley

Oh dear, Yankees' pen blow another game. Not Bednar this time. But after the Rangers score 1 in the 9th to tie it, deadline acquisition Jake Bird serves up a 3-run home run walkoff in the 10th to lose it. After tonight the Yankees will be 5.5 games behind Toronto and 3 games behind Boston in the East, and they're only 1.5 games up on Texas for the final wildcard. They're not in a shoo-in to make the playoffs.

Mets return the favour after loading the bases with 1 out. On to extra innings.

Tigers have averaged 6.4 runs scored the past 8 games and have scored 6 or more runs in 6 of those 8 games. Last night’s shutout was the outlier.

Tigers win! 1:58 time of game. 6-2 in past 8 after the 1-12 stretch. Unlikely to gain ground on Cleveland or Houston who are both winning big, but KC is losing big and Toronto begins shortly. Update: Mets have just scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 6th after the Guardians scored 5 runs in the top of the 6th, so it's 5-3 with plenty of ball left to play.

You can't walk someone with 2 outs and a 3-run lead.

Double plays helping us tonight.

Another putout for Wallner!

Good call by Andy Dirks, he saw that coming! 5-3 Tigers.

Exactly.

Tie game!

1-0 after 4. Each team with 1 hit. Someone needs to tell this punk to stop striking out Tigers.

No Tigers struck out in the 3rd inning. Baby steps.

You build for the playoffs by having Andy Ibanez available to pinch hit.

Even when a 98-win team is playing an 86-win team, a playoff tournament can resemble a crapshoot. But that will even moreso be the case if you have a bunch of 90-wins vs 94-wins matchups.

One of my favourite movie scenes is set in Vienna. From the movie Before Sunrise with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.

Morton: 6.0 IP, 1R, 4H, 1BB, 6K

This series has lived up to expectations

That was our chance. 1-0 Phillies at the 7th inning stretch.

0-0 after 1. I have low expectations for this game. So if Morton can give 5-6 innings with, say, 2 runs then that might be a satisfactory outcome win or lose, because it would indicate he might make a real contribution the rest of the way.

So the three teams to care about - Guardians, Jays and Astros - all lose, so good day so far. And the Yankees also lost which means their record in the past 45 games is 17-28!

Houston has lost to Boston and now is 3 games behind the Tigers and Jays in the race for a bye into the ALDS

Somehow I picture quiet baseball analysts more as the murderer than the murder solvers. I bet Dexter pored over box scores and advance stats in his free time away from the police lab, when he wasn’t stabbing.

Don't all events at Tennessee speedways need to start with a prayer? If so, won't be able to top this one.

Astros lose to Boston. Astros are again 2.5 games behind the Tigers, just as they were at the All Star Break.