Kuzul

The late innings have become a minefield for the San Francisco Giants. On Monday, there was another explosion.

In a crucial, borderline must-win game against the archrival Los Angeles Dodgers at Chavez Ravine, the Giants carried a 1-0 lead into the ninth inning.

Ace Madison Bumgarner did his thing, twirling seven innings of no-run, one-hit, 10-strikeout ball and getting into an inevitable benches-clearing staring contest with Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig.

The Giants, meanwhile, plated a single run against Clayton Kershaw when third baseman Eduardo Nunez tapped an infield single, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored on a wild pitch.

It had the makings of a momentum-shifting win for the Giants, who came into the game trailing Los Angeles by five games in the National League West and locked in a tight battle with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets for a wild-card slot.

Instead, an eerily familiar monster reared its ugly head. The Giants bullpen coughed up the game.

Lefty Will Smith and right-hander Derek Law combined for a scoreless eighth. But Law gave up a single to Andrew Toles to start the ninth, and southpaw specialist Javier Lopez surrendered a base hit to Corey Seager to put runners at the corners.

At that point, Giants skipper Bruce Bochy summoned Hunter Strickland, whose fastball can touch triple digits. Strickland got two strikes on Justin Turner, but he ultimately allowed a game-tying single.

By the time Adrian Gonzalez knocked in the walk-off run with a two-bagger, it all seemed a foregone conclusion.

This San Francisco pen has been a gaping liability, no two ways about it. And the club is running out of time to stop the bleeding, even year or no.

The Giants have now blown 28 saves on the season—eight in September alone—putting them in the mix with the Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox for the MLB lead.

Former closer Santiago Casilla owns nine of those blown saves and has lost his gig to a tepid closer-by-committee approach.

So far, the committee is mired in bureaucracy.

There are pieces, including veterans such as Lopez and right-hander Sergio Romo, who have played a role in all three of the club’s recent championship runs. Strickland, with his radar-gun-singeing fastball, has closer potential. Really, the bullpen hasn’t been entirely dreadful, as it ranks exactly in the middle of the NL pack with a 3.65 ERA.

But as Monday’s loss demonstrated, the Giants don’t have the secret formula to lock down close games. They are vulnerable in the final frames, when so many pennant-race and postseason games are decided.

“It’s been the most trying season for me getting the bullpen in order,” Bochy admitted, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Now, he’s running out of time. Yes, the Giants (79-71) are tied with the Cardinals for the second wild-card position entering play Tuesday. But five of their remaining 12 games are against those same first-pace Dodgers, while the Cards and Mets have softer schedules.

Even if San Francisco manages to back into the postseason, its bullpen woes make the team vulnerable.

The rotation has Bumgarner, backed by co-ace Johnny Cueto, trade acquisition Matt Moore and Jeff Samardzija. The lineup has October-tested bats such as Buster Posey and Hunter Pence.

Unless the relief corps congeals quickly, however, it might not matter.

The words “dumpster fire” come to mind. Just ask Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post:

As mentioned, we’re in a year divisible by two. In 2014, the Giants won the National League Championship Series on a home run by former first base prospect-turned-emergency-outfielder Travis Ishikawa. So it’s tempting to predict some sort of out-of-nowhere turnaround.

Heck, the Giants signed 41-year-old former prospect Joe Nathan, whom they traded to the Minnesota Twins in 2003. He could capably fill the Ishikawa role.

Things don’t have to work that way, though. There isn’t any even-year magic; not really. Just ask the Tooth Fairy.

The Giants have an unsettled bullpen, to put it kindly. They have a crummy bullpen, to put it harshly. And they have two weeks to figure it out.

They’re twisting through a minefield. They could make it. But bet on more explosions.

All statistics current as of Monday and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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The San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers are archrivals, and tensions boiled over Monday during the first game of a three-game series.

Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner and Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig exchanged words before the teams’ benches and bullpens cleared after the end of the seventh inning. MLB shared video of Puig grounding out to Bumgarner and the ensuing scuffle:

Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times passed along the interaction between the two:

“I just ran,” Puig said, per MLB.com’s Jack Baer and Chris Haft. “He was looking in my direction. He asked me why I was looking in his direction, and I then asked him why he was looking at me. That’s it.”

“I didn’t hear what was going on. He tried to stare me down or something. That’s what it looked like to me,” Bumgarner said, according to Baer and Haft.

This is not the first time Bumgarner and Puig have gotten into an argument on the field. They exchanged pleasantries in 2014, after Puig hit a home run and celebrated with a bat flip:

On Monday, Puig notched the Dodgers’ only hit off Bumgarner, a two-out double in the second. The San Francisco ace tallied 10 strikeouts in seven innings before exiting, but the Giants bullpen surrendered two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning in a 2-1 loss.

“All I know is Yasiel took a check swing, ran hard down the baseline and didn’t say a thing. He heard something from Bumgarner and he responded. I know our guy didn’t initiate,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, per Baer and Haft.

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Tim Tebow‘s baseball journey began Monday, as he was issued his jersey and reported to the New York Mets’ instructional league team.

Majestic Athletic, the uniform provider for MLB, posted a picture of Tebow’s No. 15, while Jerry Crasnick of ESPN shared a photo of Tebow’s batting practice bats.

SportsCenter posted a picture of Tebow’s arrival, while the New York Times‘ David Waldstein provided another of Tebow on the diamond:

Tebow signed autographs prior to his workout, with one child asking Tebow if he knew Peyton Manning, per Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal.

Once Tebow took the field, he accidentally “airmailed” a throw from 45 feet, per Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball, who said it went “over his throwing partner and [the] fence.” Heyman later shared a photo of Tebow in uniform:

Afterward, Tebow spoke to the media, saying he had “no interest” in returning to the NFL.

“I’m ready for that grind,” Tebow said of the lifestyle of a minor league baseball player, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. “I think a lot of people for some reason think of my life that would be hard for me. Two months ago, I was in the Philippines for three weeks (on a Christian mission), taking bucket baths…hiking mountains to villages where nobody has been before.”

Tebow told Anthony Rieber of Newsday last week:

I’m excited about it. I really am. I’ve loved the game of baseball. Hitting a baseball is one of my favorite things to do in sports. I’m excited about the journey, the challenge, the difficulties, all of it. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and it’s something that’s definitely exciting for me.

Tebow’s foray into baseball has drawn a number of skeptics. He hasn’t played baseball competitively since high school and is entering at an age when he’ll have little developmental time. He last played in the NFL four years ago, and it would have been perhaps more realistic had he made this attempt in 2012.

Tebow was nevertheless impressive enough in his well-publicized August tryout to draw interest from multiple teams before he settled on the Mets.

Ian Levin, the Mets’ director of minor league operations, told Crasnick:

Development comes from all different areas. There’s on-field development that comes from the coaches and playing games, and there’s off-field development from your peers and the environment. I haven’t spoken to Tim yet, but from everything I’ve seen about him, he’s a very positive person and obviously a hard worker who’s become successful in his own right.

It’s unclear how much playing time Tebow will get during the short schedule. The Mets are slated for just five games against other teams in the instructional league, though they will have intrasquad scrimmages as well. But as long as Tebow is on the roster, rest assured more eyes will be watching than ever before.

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.

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Just two weeks remain in the 2016 MLB regular season, and while a handful of teams appear to be locks for the postseason, a number of playoff spots are still up for grabs.

The Chicago Cubs became the first team to officially clinch a playoff berth on Thursday, while the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers are also in comfortable spots atop their respective divisions.

That leaves the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals to duke it out for the two wild-card spots in the National League, and it’s shaping up to be quite the battle with those three teams separated by two games in the standings.

On the American League side, the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers are sitting pretty, but the AL East is still a dogfight with the Boston Red Sox holding a three-game lead.

The Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners, and Houston Astros are all within four games of one another in the push for a wild-card spot, with the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees fading out of the picture but not technically eliminated just yet.

Meanwhile, non-contenders are taking a long look at some of their young talent while simultaneously trying to play the role of spoiler.

At any rate, there was a good deal of shuffling in this week’s rankings (like always) as we head down the homestretch.

One thing remains true: These rankings are a fluid process as teams move up or down based on where they ranked the previous week. If a club keeps winning, it will keep climbing—it’s as simple as that.

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It’s probably too late to add two of fantasy baseball’s most intriguing waiver-wire candidates.

Although it feels like years ago, Taijuan Walker caused giddy drafters to pat themselves on the back after posting a 1.44 ERA, 25 strikeouts and three walks in April. As everyone rejoiced the Seattle Mariners starter’s breakout, his season unraveled.

Walker decayed into free-agent fodder—until last Tuesday, when he struck out 11 batters during a three-hit, complete-game shutout. The dominant display against the Los Angeles Angels, who 10 days earlier tagged him for six runs before he could escape the first inning, put the 24-year-old righty back on the map.

Meanwhile, 35-year-old outfielder Curtis Granderson also faded into obscurity by hitting .221 on the heels of last year’s resurgent campaign. For all of his struggles, the veteran outfielder has compiled 28 homers after going deep twice in extra innings on Saturday.

Despite batting a moribund .193 after the All-Star break, he also has 13 homers. For those critical of his 51 RBI—part anomaly and part a byproduct of leading off most of the season—the New York Mets are now batting him cleanup behind Yoenis Cespedes.

Walker and Granderson both would have made the cut if their Yahoo Sports ownership rates hadn’t climbed above 50 percent. Look their way if still on the waiver wire, but everyone else can focus on these players instead.

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Hello and welcome to the first stop on the Bleacher Report MLB 300: first base.

The rankings ahead are the first in a series that will lead to the top 300 players in Major League Baseball for 2016. They feature 25 first basemen, most of whom abide by the heavy-hitting tradition of first base. As such, hitting talents account for the majority of the 100 possible points each player can earn:

• Hitting: 35 points
• Power: 40 points
• Baserunning: 10 points
• Defense: 15 points

This is the same scoring pattern that the first three iterations of the MLB 300 used, but there is one major difference this year. Rather than use the events of 2016 to project for next season, this year the focus is strictly on 2016. Think of these rankings as year-end report cards.

For more on how the scoring and ranking work, read ahead. 

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Peas and carrots. Kim Kardashian and attention. The St. Louis Cardinals and the postseason. Some things just go together.

The Cards don’t make the playoffs every year—but it sure seems like they do. The last time they didn’t was 2010.

St. Louis is poised to make its sixth consecutive late-October foray, which would move the franchise into third place on the all-time list.

The New York Yankees reached the postseason 13 straight times from 1995 to 2007, and the Atlanta Braves accomplished the feat 14 straight times from 1991 to 2005 (excluding the strike-interrupted 1994 season).

Yes, if everything were decided Sunday, the Cardinals would be on the outside looking in. The juggernaut Chicago Cubs have wrapped up the National League Central. And at 78-71, St. Louis trails both the San Francisco Giants (79-70) and New York Mets (80-69) in the wild-card scramble.

Things looked especially bleak for the Cardinals after they lost the first two games of a four-game set against San Francisco on Thursday and Friday.

But they rallied back, notching a 3-2, come-from-behind win Saturday and blanking the Giants 3-0 Sunday at AT&T Park behind young right-hander Alex Reyes.

With the wild-card race all but knotted, the Cards can look ahead to a relatively easy slate.

They get three games in Denver against the sub-.500 Colorado Rockies (though Coors Field is an adventure) and then three games at Wrigley Field against a Cubs team that won’t be firing on all cylinders with the division in hand.

After that, they go home for four against the woeful Cincinnati Reds and three with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have also dipped below .500.

The Mets’ schedule is even softer, with 10 of their final 13 games coming against the Braves and Philadelphia Phillies.

The Giants, meanwhile, clash six more times with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who lead the NL West and will be intent on burying their longtime rivals.

It’s an even year, so you can’t count San Francisco out despite its dreadful second-half record. The Mets are vulnerable after adding Jacob deGrom to their list of done-for-the-season pitchers, as Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer pointed out.

The point is, St. Louis has a realistic chance of snagging one of the NL’s two wild-card berths. FanGraphs puts it at 43.5 percent compared to 89.6 percent for the Mets and 66.4 percent for the Giants. Given the Cards’ history of excellence, that seems a touch pessimistic.

After that, who knows?

The Cardinals offense ranks third in the NL in runs scored and OPS. Bust-out rookie shortstop Aledmys Diaz is back from a thumb injury and joins reliable contributors such as third baseman Matt Carpenter and catcher Yadier Molina. 

In the starting rotation, veterans Adam Wainwright and Mike Leake own plus-4.00 ERAs, but Reyes and the 24-year-old Carlos Martinez offer hope for both the present and future.

This team isn’t perfect. And if it does punch a playoff ticket, it’ll likely face either the Giants and Madison Bumgarner or the Mets and Noah Syndergaard in the one-and-done Wild Card Game. If St. Louis survives, the Cubs would be waiting.

For now, however, the Cards can call on their deep reserve of postseason-push experience. They can exploit the schedule. They can keep their foot pressed firmly on the gas, the Cardinal way.

“This is playoff baseball already for us,” said second baseman Kolten Wong after Saturday’s victory, per ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon. “We’re playing every single game like it’s our last.”

Not everyone’s a believer. On Saturday, KSDK’s Dan Buffa didn’t mince his words: “‘Deserve has got nothing to do with it,’ some say. Well, I disagree. The 2016 St. Louis Cardinals don’t deserve to be in the playoffs.”

Yet here they are, standing on the edge of a half-dozen straight postseason appearances. A quiet dynasty in the making. 

Biscuits and gravy. Donald Trump and hair jokes. The Cards and October. 

Some things just go together.

All statistics and standings current as of Sunday and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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It would be easy to fill out this week’s MLB All-Dud team with members of the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals, two teams that have faltered in must-win weekend series against the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants, respectively.

But believe it or not, there have been far worse individual efforts from players on contending teams around the game than anyone on either of those clubs. That includes Texas center fielder Ian Desmond, who no longer looks like a sure thing to be named American League Comeback Player of the Year.

As was the case last week, players on contending teams who deliver dud-worthy performances will get the nod over those not on contending clubs as we fill out our 10-player roster, which features one player per position, including a designated hitter and starting pitcher.

Who joined Desmond on this week’s squad? Let’s take a look.

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The injury bug has been trying to block the New York Mets from returning to the World Series in 2016. Credit the Mets for putting up a strong resistance.

But the fight has finally been lost.

Jacob deGrom was set to return from a forearm injury Sunday, thereby restoring a power arm to a diminished starting rotation. So much for that. Rather than taking the mound against the Minnesota Twins, Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com reported deGrom likely won’t pitch again this season.

“Jacob has had issues with the ulnar nerve in his right elbow, which is not unusual after Tommy John surgery, even during the time after that surgery,” Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said, per Bloom. “He will not pitch tomorrow. I think it’s unlikely he will pitch the rest of the season. We’ll see.”

The right-hander didn’t have any trouble in a Friday bullpen session, but he felt pain after making a throw while shagging balls during batting practice Friday. That convinced the Mets to shut him down, and it’s likely to lead to offseason surgery.

So it goes for the Mets. Losing a pitcher with a 2.74 career ERA fits with a trend of bad breaks that, as James Wagner of the New York Times highlights here, has all but destroyed their Opening Day roster:

The bottom list may not include Steven Matz, but that might just be a matter of time. The Mets have not yet offered a return date from a bum shoulder for the young left-hander.

According to ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark, they haven’t been brimming with optimism:

If Matz can’t return, at least the Mets still have Noah Syndergaard and Bartolo Colon for the stretch run and the postseason. But they only have Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman and Gabriel Ynoa after them. Even if Matz does return, his workload will surely be limited.

The good news is deGrom‘s absence and Matz‘s up-in-the-air status don’t necessarily kill New York’s chances of making the postseason.

The Mets hold a two-game lead on the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League‘s second wild-card spot. The Cardinals are not playing well, and the Mets have the advantage of playing only one winning team, the Miami Marlins, in the closing weeks of the regular season.

Plus, the bad vibes shouldn’t mask how well the Mets are playing. They’ve won nine of their last 12 games.

Assuming the Mets do indeed close on a wild-card berth, they’d be in good shape to take the next step. They’re on track to play the San Francisco Giants, who are backing into October as the NL’s worst second-half team. The Mets have Syndergaard, an electric pitcher who happens to be red-hot, slated to start the Wild Card Game on Oct. 5.

Even if the Mets get past the Wild Card Game, they’ll have these guys waiting for them:

At 94-53, the Chicago Cubs have already clinched the NL Central and are running away in the race for the NL’s top seed. They’ll await the winner of the Wild Card Game, ready to unleash the league’s most well-rounded attack in their quest to end their 108-year championship drought.

Of course, it was the Mets who pushed the drought from 107 to 108 when they swept the Cubs in last year’s National League Championship Series. Daniel Murphy, now with the Washington Nationals, had a big hand in that, but Chicago’s inability to handle New York’s power pitching was the deciding factor.

Should the Mets and Cubs meet again in this year’s NLDS, the Mets won’t be able to go back to the power pitcher. The only dominant pitcher from last year’s NLCS still at full health is Syndergaard. If he pitches in the Wild Card Game, he would only be available for one start in the NLDS.

It’s true what they say about nobody being able to predict baseball. And that may go double for postseason baseball—an entirely different animal.

But sorry, it’s hard to imagine the Mets beating the Cubs in a five-game series with just one start from Syndergaard. The Cubs would have a better offense, a better defense and arguably a better bullpen than the Mets. Getting just one start from Syndergaard would render the Mets unable to match up with Chicago’s starting foursome of Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks and John Lackey.

If the Mets were to pull off a miracle and survive into the NLCS, they’d run into that same matchup problem against either the Los Angeles Dodgers or Washington Nationals. The Dodgers have an excellent trio in Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda. The Nationals have lost Stephen Strasburg, but they still have Max Scherzer, Tanner Roark and Gio Gonzalez.

Thinking this far ahead may be pointless. Having Syndergaard lined up for a likely matchup against the Giants in the NL Wild Card Game gives the Mets a good shot at advancing, but it wouldn’t be automatic. The Giants have Madison Bumgarner lined up for Oct. 5, and we all know what he can do under pressure.

If deGrom had been able to return Sunday, it would be possible to paint a more optimistic picture of the Mets’ future. His presence likely wouldn’t have impacted the Wild Card Game, but the Mets could have used him twice against the Cubs. Under those circumstances, we could be looking at the Mets as just the team to challenge Chicago’s status as the obvious favorites in the National League.

But now there’s no arguing with the odds. FanGraphs gives the Mets a 13.0 percent chance of going to the NLCS, a 4.2 percent chance of going to the World Series and a 1.6 percent chance of winning it all.

The odds say it’s not happening, and with deGrom out of the picture, they may even be a little generous.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The Cleveland Indians’ already-thin starting rotation was dealt a huge blow Saturday when Carlos Carrasco suffered a fractured finger on his pitching hand.  

Continue for updates. 

Carrasco Likely Out for Season

Saturday, Sept. 17

According to Chris McCosky of the Detroit News, Carrasco was diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture of his fifth metacarpal and is likely done for the regular season.

Carrasco suffered the injury on his second pitch of the game, when Detroit Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler hit a line drive that caromed off the pitcher’s hand.

After Cleveland’s medical staff examined Carrasco for a couple of minutes, Jeff Manship replaced him on the mound.

While the team has not announced an official timetable for Carrasco’s return, MLB.com’s Jason Beck noted Tigers third baseman Nick Castellanos, who suffered the same injury, has not played in a game since Aug. 6. 

The timing of Carrasco’s injury is devastating for the Indians, who entered play Saturday with a seven-game lead over the Tigers in the American League Central with a magic number of nine to clinch the division. 

The Indians rotation was already without All-Star Danny Salazar, who was diagnosed with a forearm strain that will keep him out for three to four weeks.

Coming into the season, Cleveland’s strength was its starting pitching depth. Corey Kluber remains the team’s ace and a strong Cy Young candidate, but the injuries to Carrasco and Salazar leave manager Terry Francona with Trevor Bauer as his No. 2 starter and Mike Clevinger and Josh Tomlin in the next two spots with no clear option for a fifth starter to finish the regular season. 

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