The Baseball Buffet for 9/27/2025

Issue #410

The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

The 184th day of the season featured a full slate of Friday games:

• STL 1, CHC 12 - Colin Rea pitched nearly six innings of shutout ball (5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K), while Miles Mikolas (5 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) gave up three HR to Nico Hoerner, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Michael Busch (as noted in yesterday’s Buffet, this continues the success that Crow-Armstrong and Busch have had against Mikolas!). The Cardinals finally managed one run in the top of the seventh, but then the Cubs piled on seven more in the bottom of the frame, including a grand slam by Seiya Suzuki. Worth noting that Crow-Armstrong’s HR was his 30th, giving him a 30/30 season since he has 35 SB.

• MIN 1, PHI 3 - Christian Vázquez hit a HR, but Aaron Nola otherwise did great and seemed like his old self (8 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K), a promising sign for Phillies fans for the postseason. Edmundo Sosa hit a HR for Philadelphia, and Jhoan Duran struck out two in the ninth to earn his 32nd save.

• CHW 10, WAS 9 - The White Sox scored four in the top of the first, and then built up an 8-2 lead through five innings. But Chicago’s pitchers let up six HR on the day, including three by Luis Garcia Jr., and one apiece by Josh Bell, CJ Abrams, and Daylen Lile. That power display gave the Nats a 9-8 lead after eight innings, but then Jose Ferrer gave up a 2-run HR to Colson Montgomery in the top of the ninth, and Grant Taylor struck out two in the bottom of the frame while earning his 6th save.

• BAL 4, NYY 8 - Trevor Rogers ended his otherwise strong season on a down note (3 IP, 3 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K), giving up three 2-run HR in three innings—two by Giancarlo Stanton, and one by Aaron Judge. The Orioles had homers from Jordan Westburg and Tyler O’Neill off Yankees’ starter Will Warren (5 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 7 K). But then five New York relievers kept the Orioles off the board the rest of the way, including David Bednar closing out the game with two strikeouts in the ninth.

• TBR 2, TOR 4 - Junior Caminero and Jonathan Arranda hit back-to-back HR in the second inning, but the Jays quickly tied the game up and then later took the lead in the fifth from a 2-run HR by Nathan Lukes. Four Blue Jays’ relievers combined to throw four scoreless innings, with Jeff Hoffman securing his 33rd save.

• DET 3, BOS 4 - Kyle Harrison struck out six in three innings, but also allowed seven hits and three runs before being forced out in the top of the fourth. Boston’s bullpen was solid after that, with six guys keeping the Tigers from scoring. Casey Mize did well (5.1 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K), but then Kyle Finnegan let up a run in the eighth which tied the game. Tommy Kahnle gave up a triple to Ceddanne Rafaela in the bottom of the ninth that drove in Romy Gonzalez for the walk-off win—and Boston securing a spot in the playoffs.

• TEX 7, CLE 3 - The Rangers scored four in the top of the first, including Alejandro Osuna hitting a 3-run HR. Kyle Manzardo hit a 2-run HR in the bottom of the frame to cut the early Texas lead in half. Jack Leiter settled in after that though, striking out 10 in 7 innings of work (7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K). The Rangers added three more runs in the seventh to pull away, with Joc Pederson 2-4 with a walk and 2 runs on the day, and Cody Freeman going 3-5 with 2 RBI.

• NYM 2, MIA 6 - Francisco Lindor led off the game with a HR, his 31st of the year. The Mets scored a second run that inning, but then Sandy Alcantara settled in after that (7 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K). The Marlins scored all six of their runs in the fifth inning, including Connor Norby hitting a 2-run HR. Tyler Phillips finished off the game with a four-out save, his 4th of the year.

• PIT 9, ATL 3 - Matt Olson hit a solo HR in the bottom of the first, but the Pirates came back with four runs in the top of the second, including a 2-run HR by Tommy Pham. Michael Harris II hit his 20th HR in the sixth, but then Spencer Horwitz hit a solo shot in the seventh, and a 3-run HR in the ninth as the Pittsburgh pulled away at that point.

• CIN 3, MIL 1 - Milwaukee scored first with a run in the third inning, but then the Reds scored three across the middle frames. Both bullpens did well after that, with Emilio Pagán eventually locking down his 31st save. This was a crucial win for the Reds since the Mets lost yesterday, as Cincy has the head-to-head tie-breaker advantage in the wild card race.

• HOU 3, LAA 4 - This one was all about the Angels’ veteran players. Kyle Hendricks allowed a HR to Christian Walker in the fourth inning, but otherwise did well striking out 8 over 5 innings (5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K). Mike Trout hit 2 HR, including a go-head dinger in the bottom of the eighth. Kenley Jansen then came in and struck out three in the ninth for his 29th save.

• LAD 3, SEA 2 - George Kirby struck out 10 in only 5 innings (5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K), but also gave up a 2-run HR to Kiké Hernández in the third inning. The Dodgers meanwhile used seven pitchers and foiled the Mariners attempts to get much going, as they were 1-13 with runners in scoring position and left 12 guys on base overall. Tanner Scott struck out two in the ninth to earn his 23rd save.

• AZ 4, SDP 7 - Arizona scored early from solo HR by Ketel Marte in the first and Jake McCarthy in the third. Zac Gallen had been doing well but then gave up a two-out grand slam to Fernando Tatis Jr. in the fourth inning. The Padres tallied 12 hits in all, with Luis Arráez going 4-5 with a double. Mason Miller struck out three as part of a four-out save, his 22nd of the season.

• KCR 3, ATH 4 - Jonathan India got the scoring going with a 3-run HR in the top of the fourth. Jacob Wilson then hit a bases loaded double in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game. Still tied 3-3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Shea Langeliers hit a walk-off double that drove in Max Schuemann for the winning run.

• COL 3, SFG 6 - The Giants jumped on Germán Márquez early (4.1 IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K), with homers by Willy Adames, his 29th of the year, and Heliot Ramos, his 21st. Giants rookie starter Trevor McDonald did pretty well, striking out 10 in 7 innings (7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 10 K), with the three runs allowed coming from a HR by Ezequiel Tovar in the fifth. Ryan Walker struck out two in the ninth for his 17th save.

Standings

I am providing current standings as part of The Baseball Buffet, with the image being a modified version of the text-based standings at Plain Text Sports. Here also is a link to the official standings at MLB.com.

Notes:

• The Yankees won their sixth in a row, but the Blue Jays also won, so they remain tied atop the AL East. However, Toronto has the tie-breaker advantage (head-to-head this season).

• Detroit and Cleveland both lost, so they remain tied in the AL Central. But the Guardians hold the head-to-head record tie-breaker.

• The Reds won and the Mets lost, so they now have the same record, but the Reds own the tie-breaker for the final NL Wild Card spot.

• Current Wild Card Leaders: In the AL it is NYY, BOS, and DET; in the NL it is CHC, SDP, and CIN. See MLB’s 2025 Postseason Watch for the current bracket and more.

Today’s Trivia Question

Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio stole his 20th base of the year yesterday, giving him a second 20/20 HR/SB season. At still only 21 years old, that makes him the youngest to ever have two such seasons—can you name the previous youngest player with two 20/20 seasons?

Who’s on the move?

In this section I won’t list 26th-man moves, or every time a team shuttles relievers back and forth to AAA to keep a stock of fresh arms in the bullpen. I’ll focus on the biggest, more impactful demotions, promotions, and injury list changes (for a full list, see all the latest MLB transactions).

🤕 Placed on the IL

• TEX RP Cole Winn - 15-day IL (right rotator cuff strain)

• TEX RP Chris Martin - 15-day IL (thoracic outlet syndrome)

• TBR CF Everson Pereira - 10-day IL (low back inflammation)

🚼 Placed on the Paternity List

• TEX SS Josh Smith

📝 Claimed off Waivers

• The Atlanta Braves have claimed SP Alek Manoah off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays. This is a quiet move late in the year, but could be interesting for the Braves next year and beyond if Manoah can make a comeback. He was outstanding back in 2022 when he went 16-7 with a 2.24 ERA, coming in third in the AL Cy Young Award voting. Since then he has struggled with both performance and injuries, but at AAA Buffalo this year he had a 2.97 ERA with 30 K in 38.2 innings across ten starts.

League Leaders

Paul Skenes lowered his already low ERA in his final start, and so finished his second major league season with a sub-2.00 mark:

• 1.97 - PIT Paul Skenes

• 2.21 - DET Tarik Skubal

• 2.43 - HOU Hunter Brown

• 2.49 - LAD Yoshinobu Yamamoto

• 2.57 - PHI Cristopher Sánchez

• 2.59 - BOS Garrett Crochet

• 2.68 - MIL Freddy Peralta

• 2.80 - CIN Andrew Abbott

• 2.86 - NYY Max Fried

• 2.87 - SDP Nick Pivetta

• 2.94 - SEA Bryan Woo

• 2.97 - TEX Jacob deGrom

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.

📅 On September 27…

• 1905: Bill Dinneen throws a no-hitter. “The Pilgrims' Bill Dinneen, who had not thrown this month because of a sore arm, pitches the fourth no-hitter of the season. The White Sox have 26 official at bats against him in the 2-0 Boston win, their first loss to Boston after ten straight wins. Chicago gets revenge in the nitecap, whipping the Pilgrims, 15-1. With the A's losing yesterday to the Tigers, Chicago now heads for Philadelphia, trailing by three percentage points. The Pilgrims will play 11 twinbills this month, winning two, losing two, and splitting seven.”

• 1928: Lefty Grove strikes out the side on nine pitches... and hits a HR. "For a remarkable second time in five weeks, Lefty Grove strikes out three batters on nine pitches, this time victimizing the White Sox (Moe Berg, Tommy Thomas and Johnny Mostil) in the 7th inning. Grove also starts the A's scoring with a solo home run and wins, 6-3, his sixth straight win over Chicago and his 24th of the year. Not until Jim Bunning, in 1959, will another American League hurler strike out the side on nine pitches."

• 1931: A very close batting title race. “The most desperately contested battle for individual honors takes place in the race for the National League batting title. Chick Hafey, who reported late due to a contract dispute, goes into the final doubleheader with the Reds batting .353, four points over Bill Terry, last year's champ. Hafey gets only two hits in eight times at bat to drop to .349. Bill Terry's Giants are playing archenemy Brooklyn at Ebbets Field. Brooklyn, in its last game as the Robins, wins 12-3, behind Watty Clark. Terry gets only one hit in four times at bat. The title goes to Hafey, who bats .3488 to Terry's .3486. Jim Bottomley, Hafey's Cardinal teammate, goes 4 for 8 and finishes at .3481. The Cards win, 6-2 and 5-3, to win 20 of 22 with the Reds. The nightcap is called on account of darkness after three innings with no score, and will turn out to be the final contest between managers Wilbert Robinson and John McGraw, one-time friends and business partners, but now bitter enemies. McGraw has the edge, 197-190, with five ties.”

• 1940: A rookie beats Bob Feller in a critical game. “Besides Bobo Newsom (21-5), Schoolboy Rowe (16-3), and Tommy Bridges (12-9), the Tigers' pitching staff combines for a losing record. Needing one victory to gain the title, manager Del Baker decides to withhold Newsom and Rowe and picks Floyd Giebell, an obscure rookie just called in from Buffalo. Giebell shuts out the Indians, 2-0, to beat Bob Feller, who gives up just three hits. Not eligible for the World Series, Giebell will never win another game in the major leagues. During the game, unruly Cleveland fans shower the field with fruit and vegetables. At one point, a basket of green tomatoes is dropped onto Tigers C Birdie Tebbetts' head while he sits in the bullpen.”

• 1953: Final St. Louis Browns game before they move to become the Baltimore Orioles. “In a fitting finale, St. Louis plays its last game as the Browns and loses its 100th game, 2-1, to the White Sox in 11 innings. Next season the team will move to Baltimore and will become the Orioles. Reserve 1B Ed Mickelson drives in Johnny Groth in the 4th inning for the last run of the Browns franchise.”

• 1963: The Houston Colt .45s field a lineup of all rookies. “Using a lineup of nine rookies the Colt .45s lose, 10-3, to the Mets. The lineup includes P Jay Dahl, 17 (making his debut); C Jerry Grote, 20; 1B Rusty Staub, 19; 2B Joe Morgan, 20; 3B Glenn Vaughan, 19; SS Sonny Jackson, 19 (also making his debut); and outfielders Brock Davis, 19, Aaron Pointer, 21, and Jim Wynn, 21. Dahl loses his only major league game at 17 and will die in an auto accident at 19. Houston 2B Joe Morgan will play 22 years, and 1B Rusty Staub, 23. Pointer singles for his only hit this year: his sisters will do better with a top-ten hit of "Fire," by Bruce Springsteen.”

• 1973: Nolan Ryan establishes the modern-day single-season strikeout record. “The Angels' Nolan Ryan fans 16 in 11 innings, beating the Twins, 5-4. The final strikeout victim, Rich Reese, is the 383rd of the season for Ryan, enabling him to surpass the major-league record set by Sandy Koufax in 1965. Ryan opts to skip his next start on the 30th, thus passing on a shot at 400 K's.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Mike Schmidt (1949)

• Hall of Famer, and considered by many to be the greatest all-around 3B ever

• Drafted by the Phillies in the second round in 1971, and went on to have an 18-year major league career with Philadelphia

• Started out slow, but by 1974 was an All-Star and led the NL with 36 HR. That was his first of 12 All-Star seasons, and his first of eight years leading the NL in HR, with a high of 48 in 1980

• Scored 100+ runs seven times and posted 100+ RBI nine times

• Had some speed on the bases early in his career, with four seasons of 15+ SB, including a high of 29 SB in 1975

• Struck out a lot, leading the NL four times and having 1,883 in his career; but also walked a lot posting 100+ BB seven times and leading the NL four times

• Outstanding defensively at 3B, winning 10 Gold Glove Awards

• Won three NL MVP Awards (1980, 1981, 1986)

• Overall slugged 548 HR, with 1,506 runs, 1,595 RBI, 174 SB, a .267/.380/.527 slash line, and 151 OPS+

Whit Wyatt (1907)

• 16-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1929-1945

• Injuries led him to be often ineffective during the first half of his career, which was mostly with the Tigers and White Sox

• From 1939-1944 he played for Brooklyn, and was an All-Star four times, including in 1941 when he led the NL in wins with a 22-10 record to go with a 2.34 ERA

• He had a 19-7 and 2.73 ERA the following season

• Overall had a 106-95 (.527) record, 3.79 ERA, and 106 ERA+, but for Brooklyn was 80-45 (.640) with a 2.86 ERA and 128 ERA+

Jon Garland (1979)

• Drafted in the first round (10th overall) by the Cubs in 1997

• Traded while still in the minors to the White Sox, he went on to play 8 of his 13 major league seasons for them

• Won 12+ games seven times, include 18 wins in both 2005 and 2006

• Overall had a 136-125 (.521) record, 4.37 ERA, and 103 ERA+

Currently active players who were born on September 27 include WAS Mitchell Parker, MIN Simeon Woods Richardson, LAD Alex Call, SFG Drew Gilbert, AZ Adrian Del Castillo, and KCR Ángel Zerpa.

Today’s Matchups

Today we have a full slate of Saturday games (15), so there are lots of possibilities. Some games and pitchers that jump out to me are:

• DET vs. BOS is a particularly important gave for the Tigers, but they’ve got a challenge in facing Boston’s rookie pitcher Connelly Early, who has been great in his first three starts (1.88 ERA, 22 K in 14.1 IP). As of the time of this writing, Detroit’s starter hasn’t been announced.

• PIT vs. ATL is a game that doesn’t matter for this season, but features two interesting pitchers in 23-year old rookie Bubba Chandler (4.56 ERA, 25 K in 25.2 IP) for the Pirates, and the Braves countering with Spencer Strider (4.45 ERA, 126 K in 119.1 IP).

• CIN vs. MIL is game two of this important NL Central series, with the Reds fighting to make the playoffs. They’ve got Andrew Abbott (2.80 ERA, 145 K in 161 IP) throwing today, while the Brewers will go with rookie Robert Gasser for his second start of the year and eighth in the majors overall.

• LAD vs. SEA is two good teams with two good pitchers in Tyler Glasnow (3.30 ERA, 103 K in 87.1 IP) and Logan Gilbert (3.43 ERA, 168 K in 126 IP).

Also on the bump today are SFG Justin Verlander, NYM Clay Holmes, PHI Ranger Suárez, and SDP Michael King,

HR Watch

Predicting who might hit a HR on any given day is a challenge. But here are a few to consider based on opposing SP past performance:

• NYY Aaron Judge, small sample but is 6-7 with 2 HR vs. BAL Tomoyuki Sugano

• STL Lars Nootbaar, 4-12 with 2 HR vs. CHC Jameson Taillon

• STL Nolan Gorman, 5-16 with 2 HR vs. CHC Jameson Taillon

• STL Alec Burleson, 6-17 with 2 HR and 2 doubles vs. CHC Jameson Taillon

• SFG Rafael Devers, small sample but is 2-4 with 2 HR vs. COL Kyle Freeland

Hits Watch

If you play MLB’s Beat the Streak mobile game, or otherwise bet on/parlay players to collect hits, I’ll try to provide some good options in this section. In addition to the HR Watch guys listed above, here are some others to consider based on opposing SP past performance:

• STL Nolan Arenado, 11-27 with a double vs. CHC Jameson Taillon

• SFG Heliot Ramos, 5-13 with a HR, a triple, and a double vs. COL Kyle Freeland

Who is streaking?

Active hit streaks

• 14 - SDP Luis Arráez - is batting .393 over these 14 games, and is now hitting .292 on the year. This hot streak just came a bit too late for him to creep up on the batting average leaderboard to take a fourth title. With four hits yesterday however, he is now leading the NL with 180 hits.

• 12 - SEA Josh Naylor

• 10 - COL Blaine Crim

• 9 - ATL Drake Baldwin

• 8 - STL Brendan Donovan

• 8 - CHW Colson Montgomery

• 7 - PHI Alec Bohm

• 7 - SDP Ryan O’Hearn

• 7 - BOS Masataka Yoshida

• 7 - AZ Ketel Marte

• 7 - CHW Miguel Vargas

• 7 - WAS Josh Bell

• 7 - STL Iván Herrera

Active HR streaks

• 2 - WAS Josh Bell

• 2 - NYM Francisco Lindor

• 2 - CHC Seiya Suzuki

• 2 - SDP Fernando Tatis Jr.

• 2 - LAA Mike Trout

• 2 - HOU Christian Walker

• 2 - PHI Otto Kemp (9/23 and 9/24)

• 2 - SDP Jose Iglesias (9/22 and 9/23)

Who might struggle today?

Betting against any given player to not get a hit is tough, as guys in the starting lineup get at least one hit in a game more often than not. That said, here are some guys who clearly have struggled against their opposing SP today:

• MIL Blake Perkins, 1-14 with 5 K vs. CIN Andrew Abbott

• SDP Ramón Laureano, 1-14 with 4 K vs. AZ Eduardo Rodriguez

• COL Mickey Moniak, 1-10 with 4 K vs. SFG Justin Verlander

• LAA Luis Rengifo, 1-11 with 3 K vs. HOU Hunter Brown

⚾ Enjoy the games today!⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

Before Jackson Chourio, the youngest player to have two 20/20 HR/SB seasons was Mike Trout, who did got his second one on his 22nd birthday in 2013 (according to this article by Adam McCalvy at MLB).

Good Reads

Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.

• Every team wants to win the World Series ... but these teams need to do it NOW, by Anthony Castrovince at MLB, 9/26/2025

• The best pitches we'll see this October, by Jared Greenspan at MLB, 9/25/2025

• Stats of the Week: Carroll's D-backs 1st, Skenes' ERA that starts with 1 and more, by Sarah Langs at MLB, 9/26/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.

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