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A New York Mets starting rotation that was supposed to be the mightiest force on this or any other planet has become battered, broken and badly in need of a hero.

Enter Thor.

Noah Syndergaard was not the biggest difference-maker in the Mets’ 4-3 victory over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday. That honor belongs to T.J. Rivera, whose first career home run was a go-ahead shot in the top of the 10th inning that erased Jeurys Familia’s blown save.

But none of that could have happened had Syndergaard not first led the way in arguably his most dominant start of the second half. He lasted seven innings, giving up just one earned run on four hits and a walk. He struck out 10, pushing his total for the season to 205.

So it goes for the fire-balling right-hander. Syndergaard now has a 2.43 ERA in 174 innings, and that ERA is trending down in a hurry.

His ERA in his five most recent starts is 1.06. And that comes with 34 strikeouts in 34 innings to boot.

Let’s acknowledge this for what it is: pretty much the only piece of good news the Mets have gotten about their starting rotation in recent days.

Matt Harvey has long since been felled by injury. Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz are more recent victims of the injury bug. Those two could probably use more time to recover, but Rafael Montero’s ouster from the rotation is forcing Terry Collins’ hand. The manager’s considering bringing back both deGrom and Matz to “piggyback” in the same game on Sunday.

“If things are moving forward,” Collins said (via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com), “then we’ve certainly got to take a look at it.”

Meanwhile, the numbers are about as ugly as you’d expect. The Mets have used eight different starters in the last month. Syndergaard has pitched well. The other seven have a 4.46 ERA.

The silver lining is that the Mets keep finding ways to win. Their defeat of the Nationals on Tuesday was their eighth win in their last 10 games and their 17th in their last 23 games. They hold a half-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League‘s second wild-card spot.

Among the many reasons for this is that Syndergaard has been a much-needed rock when his turn comes up every five days. He’s done so stealthily, as Tuesday was his first double-digit strikeout game since June 15. But with that now in the bag, there’s no escaping the sense he’s getting back to being the overwhelming force of nature that had everyone’s attention earlier this season.

The road in between was bumpy. Syndergaard battled a dead arm and elbow trouble in the middle of the summer. Per Brooks Baseball, his velocity responded accordingly with a slight dip in July. He had a seven-start stretch between early July and mid-August in which he didn’t pitch more than six innings.

But things are different now. After drifting upward, Syndergaard’s release point is closer to where it was earlier in the year. And the adjustment process is ongoing.

“I made a slight adjustment in my mechanics the other day that allowed me to get over my front foot quite a bit easier,” Syndergaard said after Tuesday’s game (via ESPN.com’s Adam Rubin). “So I had quite a bit of extra late life on my two-seamer.”

Speaking of that two-seamer, Syndergaard has dusted it off in September:

This is not including Syndergaard’s effort against the Nationals on Tuesday, but the raw PITCHf/x data shows he once again threw his two-seamer in equal tandem with his four-seamer.

It’s not surprising Syndergaard is heating up again as he’s bringing his two-seamer back into the fold. His four-seamer is an outstanding pitch in its own right, sitting in the high 90 mph range with some nifty vertical action, according to Baseball Prospectus. But it serves him best on the glove side of the zone. To work the other edge, he needs his two-seamer.

So, this is the Syndergaard hitters are seeing now: He’s more mechanically comfortable and can work both sides of the plate with high-90s heat. That’s enough for them to worry about, and that’s before they can think about the slider, curveball and changeup that have done the heavy lifting for his strikeout rate (10.6 per nine innings).

This has helped Syndergaard forge an overpowering six-start stretch, and the Mets’ schedule leaves room for three more. Considering the state of their rotation outside Syndergaard, these three starts may be the difference between going home and going back to October.

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

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A potential blockbuster trade between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers came just short of completion before the Aug. 31 waivers deadline.

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Ryan Braun was almost swapped for Yasiel Puig and others before the clock simply ran out:

Braun and Puig were about 20 minutes from being traded for one another two weeks ago, according to several executives with direct knowledge of their trade talks, but the teams ran out of time at the Aug. 31 trade deadline. …

Braun was being traded to the Dodgers, who would pay the entire $76 million in his contract, for outfielder Yasiel Puig, injured veteran pitcher Brandon McCarthy and prospects.

Although the deal reportedly came down to the final prospect in consideration, the two sides couldn’t complete the deal. However, Nightengale adds that “officials vowed to revisit the talks again this winter.”

Braun was once one of the most feared hitters in baseball, winning the 2011 National League Most Valuable Player award and finishing as a runner-up in 2012. However, he admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs in 2013, and his play suffered shortly after.

The 32-year-old player has seen a resurgence in 2016, however, entering Tuesday with a .310 batting average, 27 home runs and 82 RBI. Adding his bat would have provided Los Angeles with a boost heading into the home stretch of the regular season and the playoffs.

Braun was at least intrigued by the possibility of the deal.

“Obviously, I live in Los Angeles in the offseason. I grew up a Dodger fan. When those conversations started, I think it was an interesting position for me to be in,” the outfielder said of the potential move, per Nightengale.

Meanwhile, Puig had been in hot water within the Dodgers organization. The team tried to trade him at the July 31 non-waivers deadline, per Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball, but ended up sending him down to Triple-A. At the time, he had just a .260 batting average and seven home runs on the year.

Los Angeles placed him on waivers, where he was apparently claimed by the Brewers, as Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported, although no trade was completed.

Puig returned to the majors in September and has made a positive impact, hitting three home runs with a .357 batting average in his first seven games back. His improvements could change the terms of a deal with Milwaukee if he’s traded this winter.

Follow Rob Goldberg on Twitter.

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Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson was dealing with a hip injury that caused him to miss three games; however, he is ready to return. 

Continue for updates. 

Donaldson Active vs. Angels

Thursday, Sept. 15

Donaldson was listed in Thursday’s lineup batting second as the designated hitter, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.

Donaldson to Undergo Testing

Wednesday, Sept. 14

Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins told reporters Donaldson will undergo an MRI on his hip, adding the injury has not “significantly” responded to treatment, and there is no timeline for his return.

Donaldson Vital to Jays’ Playoff Push

In his second full season in Toronto, Donaldson is in the midst of another brilliant campaign. He’s hitting .284/.400/.552 with 34 home runs and 92 runs batted in. While it’s an uphill battle for him to win two straight MVPs, Donaldson remains optimistic about the possibility. 

“I feel like it’s kind of hard to do that back-to-back,” Donaldson said, per Steven Loung of Sportsnet. “You don’t see a lot of guys run the ship back-to-back. Look, Manny [Machado’s] having a great year, [Jose] Altuve’s having a great year. Fact of the matter is there’s time.”

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Vin Scully has one of the most familiar voices in sports, but it won’t be heard in the 2016 MLB postseason.

While the longtime Los Angeles Dodgers announcer had already called this his final year in the booth, he explained his final game will be the regular-season finale on Oct. 2, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. 

“Otherwise, I’d be saying goodbye like in grand opera, where you say goodbye 12 different times,” Scully said.

“I’m going to say goodbye at Dodger Stadium the last game with Colorado. I will say goodbye in San Francisco. And then that will be it,” Scully added. “And then I will go home.”

The Dodgers have a four-game lead in the National League West. According to ESPN.com, they have a 99.9 percent chance of qualifying for the postseason either as the division winner or through the Wild Card.

The 88-year-old announcer began his career with the Dodgers in 1950, calling a number of the biggest moments in baseball over the last 67 years. He announced perfect games from Don Larsen, Sandy Koufax and Dennis Martinez as well as a handful of World Series games, including Kirk Gibson’s famous walk-off home run in 1988.

He also announced Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run and Barry Bonds’ record-breaking 71st single-season home run.

MLB Network provided a heartfelt tribute to the legendary broadcaster:

By electing to forgo the postseason, Scully’s retirement won’t be dependent the Dodgers’ success in the playoffs, giving the veteran announcer the sendoff he deserves.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates made a move to bolster their pitching rotation on Tuesday as they cling to their fading postseason hopes.

The team announced it acquired left-handed pitcher Wade LeBlanc in a trade with the Seattle Mariners. Seattle received cash considerations or a player to be named later in exchange for the southpaw.

This comes after the Pirates announced they placed 2015 All-Star pitcher Gerrit Cole on the 60-day disabled list because of right elbow posterior inflammation. Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune confirmed the team shut down the ace for the remainder of the 2016 campaign.

LeBlanc appeared in 11 games with eight starts this year for the Mariners and at least provides some more rotational depth for Pittsburgh after losing Cole. The lefty sports a 4.50 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 41 strikeouts in 50 innings of work this year.

He has also played for the San Diego Padres, Miami Marlins, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels and New York Yankees since he reached the major league level in 2008.

LeBlanc is likely accustomed to switching teams during the season. According to Sam Robinson of Today’s Knuckleball, he was outrighted earlier this year so the Mariners could bring Nori Aoki back to the majors. What’s more, he pitched for the Marlins and Astros in 2013, the Yankees and Angels in 2014 and in Japan in 2015. 

The 32-year-old posted a 3.94 ERA in 2014 for New York and Los Angeles and a career-best 3.67 ERA in 2012 for Miami.

The Pirates are running out of time to make a move in the National League wild-card race. They are six games behind the New York Mets for the second and final spot in that battle and in the middle of a season-crushing slump. Pittsburgh is just 2-12 since it finished off a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers on Aug. 28.

Part of the reason for the struggles is the starting rotation, which ranks a disappointing 22nd in the league with a 4.65 ERA, per ESPN.com. While LeBlanc doesn’t have the track record to suggest he will be a season-saver, he provides another experienced arm for manager Clint Hurdle to use down the stretch.

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With the Pittsburgh Pirates’ playoff hopes fading fast, right-handed pitcher Gerrit Cole will not pitch again in 2016. 

Continue for updates.

Cole Shut Down for Rest of Season

Tuesday, Sept. 13

Per Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune, the Pirates shut down Cole for the rest of the season. 

The Pirates officially announced that Cole has been placed on the 60-day disabled list due to right elbow posterior inflammation. 

Cole spoke about being shut down on Tuesday, per Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

This is yet another setback for Cole after he already went to the disabled list in August with elbow inflammation and dealt with a triceps injury in June that forced him to miss time.

Cole’s first start back from the elbow inflammation injury came on Monday against Philadelphia. He lasted just two innings and allowed four hits, four walks and five runs in a 6-2 loss. 

Cole was an All-Star in 2015 and finished with a 2.60 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 202 strikeouts in 208 innings. He helped lead the Pirates to the playoffs as the team’s clear-cut ace and was expected to assume the same duties in 2016. 

Injuries and inconsistency have caused Cole’s performance to fall substantially this season with a 3.88 ERA, 131 hits allowed and 98 strikeouts in 116 innings. 

Pittsburgh already traded Francisco Liriano and Jon Niese from its starting rotation this year, but it can turn to a handful of options following Cole’s latest injury.

Look for the Pirates to rely even more so on the likes of Ivan Nova, Ryan Vogelsong and Jameson Taillon. Taillon is a youngster who could eventually play the role of shutdown ace if he fulfills his potential.

Shutting down Cole now with the Pirates not likely to make the playoffs will help him be ready for the 2017 season. 

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We’re midway through the final month of the 2016 MLB season and by all accounts, there are still five postseason spots up for grabs.

On the National League side, the Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals look like locks to win the Central and East Divisions, respectively, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are leading the NL West by four games, are a safe bet to reach the postseason in some capacity.

That leaves the San Francisco Giants, New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals fighting for the two remaining spots.

The American League side is far more crowded, with the Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians looking like the only locks for October.

The Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees are all still in the running for the AL East title, while the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros are all within four games of the second wild-card spot.

In an effort to make sense of such a cluttered postseason picture, what follows is a look at each of the remaining contenders’ biggest roadblocks to reaching the playoffs.

Whether it’s a specific area of weakness, a tough remaining schedule or a troubling home/road split, all of the 11 teams still fighting for their postseason lives have at least one significant hurdle to overcome.

Begin Slideshow

With the exception of the Rookie of the Year Award in each league, here’s hoping that those voting for MLB‘s biggest individual honors in 2016 have been filling out their ballots in pencil and not pen.

The races for Comeback Player of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young Award and MVP in the American League and National League remain volatile, with hot-and-cold streaks shuffling the odds and, even this late in the season, adding and subtracting contenders from the field.

While statistics remain the driving force in calculating the odds on the pages that follow, both gut feeling and past voting trends played a part as well.

Let’s take a look at how the races stack up with only three weeks left in the 2016 regular season.

Begin Slideshow

The Boston Red Sox gave David Price ace money over the winter.

Now, finally, after months of wobbling and hand-wringing, he’s giving them ace results.

Price wasn’t awful in the first half. At the very least, he proved he could still miss bats with 140 strikeouts in 124.1 innings. But the 4.34 ERA he lugged into the All-Star break wasn’t what the Red Sox had in mind when they inked him for seven years and $217 million in December 2015.

Price’s early troubles, as Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer outlined in May, seemed to revolve around diminished velocity and less spin on his pitches. He was flat. He was hittable.

Overall, Price’s average fastball velocity this season (92.9 mph) is down a tick from his career mark (94.2). In his most recent start against the Baltimore Orioles, however, he frequently touched the mid-90s.

The result was eight innings of two-run, two-hit ball with nine strikeouts and no walks as Boston rolled to a 12-2 win Monday.

In a dozen second-half starts, Price is 7-2 with a 2.99 ERA. The Red Sox, at 81-62, sit in first place in the potent, competitive American League East, two games ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays (79-64), three up on the O’s (78-65) and five ahead of the New York Yankees (76-67).

Everything, in other words, is coming together for Boston.

“I knew good things were going to happen to me,” Price said, per Jen McCaffrey of MassLive.com. “I’ve had a lot of good things over the course of how many starts it’s been. Whether it’s hard-hit balls going at guys or soft-hit balls not finding the holes, whenever I make a really good pitch, having good things happen, that’s what’s going on for me my past couple of starts. I just want to keep it going.”

On Monday, Price hit a milestone that put him in elite Beantown company, as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe outlined:

Price is a ways off from matching Curt Schilling’s Red Sox legacy. He’ll need a couple of Commissioner’s Trophies and perhaps a bloody sock to do that.

But this is the innings-chewing, strikeout-stacking, rotation-topping stud the Sox thought they were getting. While they would’ve loved to have this guy from April onward, he’s showing up at the best possible time.

The Red Sox have other weapons in the rotation, including 20-game winner Rick Porcello, trade-deadline acquisition Drew Pomeranz, young left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez and knuckleballer Steven Wright, assuming he returns from a shoulder injury.

The offense leads MLB in batting average, runs and OPS. David Ortiz is cranking back the clock in his farewell season, and whippersnappers like Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts are joining the party. If anything propels Boston back to the promised land, it’ll be the bats.

Price, though, has a chance to be a difference-maker.

His career postseason resume is far from sterling, as he owns a 5.12 ERA in 63.1 innings with the Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers and Toronto. Now, he can boost his October legacy and vault into the pantheon of Red Sox heroes.

“We all have that feeling in the clubhouse, out in the dugout,” Price said, per WEEI.com’s Ryan Hannable. “This is a very close-knit group of guys. That is what you want to be part of. That is what makes 162 games plus spring training that much fun.”

A few months ago, “fun” wasn’t a word you’d have connected to Price. Now, it meshes.

Yes, during his recent run of success, the veteran southpaw got starts against the San Diego Padres, Oakland A’s, Rays and Kansas City Royals, all of whom rank among the bottom third in MLB in scoring.

That’s what made Monday’s effort so promising. Price tamed a fearsome Orioles lineup that paces baseball in home runs. The Sox will face the O’s six more times. In addition, they have seven games against the upstart, archrival Yankees and three against the big-swinging Jays.

Price will be tested. He’ll be forced to show his cards.

Judging by recent returns, he could well come up aces.

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

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Kyle Hendricks didn’t make history Monday night at Busch Stadium. But he did make his National League Cy Young Award case loud and clear.

Hendricks came within three outs of becoming just the second Chicago Cubs pitcher to throw a no-hitter against the hated-rival St. Louis Cardinals. He carried a no-no through eight innings before Jeremy Hazelbaker ended it with a solo home run to lead off the ninth.

After a sideshow dust-up between umpire Joe West and Cubs skipper Joe Maddon that led to Maddon’s ejection, closer Aroldis Chapman jogged in to nail down the 4-1 victory.

The Cubs (92-51) kept rolling toward an inevitable NL Central crown. Hendricks, meanwhile, logged eight frames of one-hit, one-run ball with two walks and seven strikeouts, and nudged his ERA to an NL-leading 2.03.

He’s the Senior Circuit’s ERA leader on baseball’s best team. That doesn’t guarantee Cy Young honors, but it shouts audibly.

“My pregame bullpen today was pretty bad, so coming in after that, I tried to simplify even more,” Hendricks said in typically humble postgame remarks on CSN Chicago. 

That approach has been serving him all season. A 26-year-old 2011 eighth-round pick by the Texas Rangers, Hendricks is no one’s idea of a power arm. His fastball sits in the high-80s and tops out in the low-90s. He depends on finesse and location.

This season, they’ve been there for him.

That’s thanks in large part to Hendricks’ changeup, as ESPN.com’s Bradford Doolittle pointed out prior to Monday’s start:

…while Hendricks has a “slow” fastball, the pitch is really quite effective. And any fixation with that pitch ignores the fact that the most important thing about Hendricks’ fastball is that it sets up his changeup, which has become one of the best weapons of any pitcher around. Only three pitchers have thrown more changeups than Hendricks. And his success on that pitch has yielded a haughty strikeout rate (29.1 percent) and a .338 OPS allowed that ranks 14th out of 203 pitchers who have thrown at least 100 changeups.

It’s easy to get lost on this Cubs roster, which features MVP candidate Kris Bryant and a cast of burgeoning bashers as well as reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta, veteran lefty Jon Lester and a bullpen fronted by fireballing Chapman. 

You could argue Hendricks, a pitch-to-contact guy, has benefitted from the best team defense in baseball. And you wouldn’t be wrong.

But let’s stack his numbers up against the NL’s other Cy Young hopefuls and see what you think:

Scherzer is the strikeout leader, and Bumgarner is doing his thing for the even-year San Francisco Giants. Really, with the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Clayton Kershaw derailed by a balky back, this is a fairly wide-open race.

A no-hitter against the Cards would have been an impressive line on Hendricks’ resume. Even without it, though, he’s at the forefront of the conversation.

He’s been especially dominant at Wrigley Field, but he’s fared well everywhere, particularly lately, as CSN Chicago’s Christopher Kamka elucidated:

We’re witnessing a big league breakout, plain and simple. Power pitchers like Scherzer and guys with glittering postseason pedigrees like Bumgarner draw attention.

But fans, the media and awards voters love a good Cinderella story. Hendricks, whose 3.95 ERA in 2015 suggested serviceable starter more than ace, fits the glass slipper.

“I don’t see anyone pitching as well as he’s been,” catcher Miguel Montero said, per Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune.

He’s not the flashiest mound-straddler around. He didn’t quite etch his name in the books Monday.

But if he can string together a few more quality starts, Hendricks will want to clear some room in his trophy case.

For a humble guy, his stats are speaking loud and clear.

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

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