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Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia is nursing a sore left knee that will keep him out for at least one game. 

Continue for updates.

Pedroia Out vs. Orioles

Tuesday, Sept. 20

WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford relayed the update. 

The fan favorite and franchise icon is one of the most productive and consistent hitters in the lineup nearly every season. Boston is a more dangerous team when the four-time All-Star, former American League MVP (2008) and former American League Rookie of the Year (2007) is playing on an everyday basis.

This season, he’s batting .325/.384/.452 with 13 home runs and 67 RBI over the course of 650 plate appearances.  

Pedroia dealt with injuries during the 2015 season and appeared in only 93 games. It was the first time since 2010 that the second baseman failed to play in at least 135 contests, but he did hit .291 with 12 home runs and 42 RBI when he was healthy.

With Brock Holt away from the Red Sox for two days due to a death in the family, per Bradford, Marco Hernandez will draw the start at second base in Pedroia’s absence. 

According to ESPN.com’s Scott Lauber, Hernandez will bat ninth.  

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Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion hit his 40th home run of the season in Friday’s 5-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels, joining Carlos Delgado and outfielder Jose Bautista as the only players in franchise history to record multiple 40-homer seasons in a Toronto uniform, per Sportsnet Stats.

With the Blue Jays already leading 3-0 in the top of the ninth inning, Encarnacion drove a two-run blast far over the left-center field fence off Angels reliever Homer Bailey.

The insurance runs ultimately proved to be unnecessary, as Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna held the Angels scoreless in the bottom of the ninth to keep his team two games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East.

With his contract up at the end of this season and the Blue Jays already having a ton of money committed to the offensive side, Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball reported Encarnacion could join the Red Sox as a replacement for legendary designated hitter David Ortiz, who plans to retire at the end of this season.

One of MLB‘s most consistent hitters in recent years, the 33-year-old Encarnacion has hit 34 or more home runs in five consecutive seasons, topping out at 42 in 2012.

With 15 games remaining on the schedule, he still has plenty of time to set a new personal single-season best for long balls.

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Much like convenience-store lackey Dante Hicks in Kevin Smith’s seminal 1994 film Clerks, the New York Yankees weren’t even supposed to be here.

They sold their veteran assets at the August 1 trade deadline and fixed their gaze on the future. They surrendered.

Then, a funny thing happened. They started winning—and kept winning. On Sept. 8, yours truly wrote a rosy, they’re-in-this-thing column. 

It’s not over, not mathematically anyway. But after a crushing 7-5 defeat against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday, the Yankees’ playoff hopes are fading fast.

For most of Thursday’s tussle at Fenway Park, New York was in control. The Yanks held a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth. Ace Masahiro Tanaka continued his run of dominance with seven frames of four-hit, one-run ball.

Then, Boston mounted a rally. David Ortiz went deep in the eighth for his 537th home run, passing Mickey Mantle and taking sole possession of 17th on the all-time list (salt, meet wound). And the Sox plated five more runs in the ninth, capped by Hanley Ramirez’s walk-off three-run homer.

There’s stinging symbolic pain mixed in there—losing to the Red Sox and watching a legendary Yankee get eclipsed by a Beantown hero in the midst of his swan song.

The more immediate problem for the Yankees, however, is that the loss dropped them to 77-69. They now sit five games behind Boston for the American League East lead and three games off the pace for the second wild card.

That wild-card gap isn’t insurmountable with 16 games left to play. New York, though, would have to leapfrog not only the wild-card-leading Baltimore Orioles (80-66) and Blue Jays (79-66), but also the Detroit Tigers (78-68) and Seattle Mariners (78-68). 

Stranger things have happened. But if the Yankees miss the postseason, Thursday’s meltdown may be the watershed moment. ESPN.com’s Adam Rubin described it with the “C”-word (no, not that one):

The Yankees have three more games at Fenway, followed by three in Florida against the Tampa Bay Rays and four north of the border against the Jays. After the conclusion of this 11-game trip, they return to the Bronx for three-game sets against the Red Sox and Orioles to close things out.

The good news is, that’s a lot of games against their division rivals. “The teams that we’re trying to catch, we’re playing,” third baseman Chase Headley said, per Newsday‘s Anthony Rieber.

The bad news is, those teams have potent offenses capable of laying waste to a pitching staff.

Outside of Tanaka, the Yankees rotation is one crooked question mark. And the bullpen, after the deadline trades of Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller, is no longer an unmitigated strength. Newly anointed closer Dellin Betances is having a strong season, but he coughed up the homer to Ramirez and looked gassed. 

“Everyone’s tired this time of year,” skipper Joe Girardi said of Betances, per Newsday‘s Erik Boland. “We’re fighting for our lives.”

This isn’t a eulogy for the 2016 Yankees. That would be premature. And we’re not suggesting New York’s future is less bright than it was a few weeks ago.

The Yankees have MLB‘s best farm system, per Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter. They have enviable young talent on the big league roster, including bust-out rookie catcher Gary Sanchez, who collected two more hits Thursday.

And they have arduous contracts coming off the books, meaning they’ll have Benjamins to burn in the ludicrously loaded 2018 free-agent class. 

But this surprising, house-money playoff run appears to be fizzling like a fumbled soda can on a cement floor. FanGraphs gives the Yankees a 7.1 percent chance of playing past Game 162. That could be generous.

It’s not over. But even if it were, you’d have to tip your cap. For a club that wasn’t even supposed to be here, these Yanks have done all right.

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

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Forget shoulders—the Toronto Blue Jays‘ season rests squarely on Josh Donaldson’s right hip.

Donaldson underwent an MRI on Wednesday, per the Associated Press (h/t USA Today). The results were unknown as of this writing, but the injury has been enough to keep the reigning American League MVP out of the lineup for the last three games.

The hip tweak ostensibly occurred when Donaldson stepped awkwardly on first base in a game against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday, per MLB.com’s Alykhan Ravjiani. But it was apparently a cumulative problem.

“Pretty much all season long it’s been—not necessarily my hip—but pretty much lower body injuries all season,” Donaldson said, per Ravjiani. “That’s more of the gradual thing, and then all of a sudden I felt it in my hip where I didn’t feel like I was able to perform.”

Whatever the genesis, the injury undoubtedly has Jays fans on edge, as this tweet, courtesy of Sportsnet.ca’s Tim Micallef and Sid Seixeiro, perfectly illustrates: 

You don’t need to be reminded how important Donaldson is to this Toronto team, but we’ll remind you anyway. He ranks fourth in the AL with 6.6 WAR. He’s second on the Jays in home runs (34) and RBI (92) and paces the team in OPS (.952).

Yes, the three-time All-Star third baseman was mired in an 0-for-23 slump that may have been a result of the lower-body troubles he alluded to. But he’s the beating heart of this offense, no two ways about it. If he’s out much longer, or if he returns at significantly less than 100 percent, Toronto is probably hosed.

After losing 8-1 Wednesday to the cellar-dwelling Tampa Bay Rays, the Jays (79-66) are clinging to the AL’s second wild-card slot. But they’ve fallen into third place in the AL East, behind the first-place Boston Red Sox (81-64) and wild-card-leading Baltimore Orioles (80-65). 

The Detroit Tigers (78-67), Seattle Mariners (77-68) and upstart New York Yankees (77-68), meanwhile, are breathing down the Blue Jays’ neck. If they continue the trend that’s seen them go 3-9 in September, they’ll likely finish out of the postseason money.

Toronto’s issues go deeper than Donaldson. Other key hitters, including Jose Bautista and Russell Martin, have faltered. Right-hander Aaron Sanchez, once in the Cy Young Award conversation, owns a 5.00-plus ERA since the start of August. And the bullpen has suffered some hiccups.

“I don’t see how much lower it can go,” skipper John Gibbons said after Wednesday’s defeat, per the Toronto Star‘s Rosie Dimanno. “I’m optimistic that this will turn and turn in a hurry.”

If it doesn’t, Toronto will spiral earlier than expected into an uncertain offseason. 

Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, cornerstones of an offense that lit the world on fire during the 2015 division-title run and is again among baseball’s most powerful, will hit the market this winter.

In a weak free-agent class, it’s probable both men will command contracts beyond the Blue Jays’ modest means. They could end up signing with either the Yankees or Red Sox, both of whom have gaudy payrolls, solid MLB talent and fertile MiLB farms.

The Jays have some pieces of their own in the pipeline. But it’s a stretch to expect adequate Bautista and Encarnacion replacements from a system Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter ranked No. 19 in baseball.

As Scott Stinson of the National Post aptly opined, “If there is a chunk of the fanbase that is exceedingly anxious now, it will take every one of the city’s recently opened marijuana dispensaries to calm nerves should the heart of the lineup move to the neighbouring rivals.”

The Jays aren’t necessarily sunk—this season or going forward. An upcoming four-game set against the lowly Los Angeles Angels offers an opportunity to get healthy in more ways than one.

But former Boston general manager Ben Cherington—whom Toronto hired as its new vice president of baseball operations Wednesday, per Sportsnet.ca’s Ben Nicholson-Smith—has his work cut out for him if he’s going to keep the club competitive with its big-spending, heavy-hitting division rivals.

It’s too early to talk about windows closing just yet. But unless the Jays find a way to right this ship posthaste, Donaldson’s hip won’t be the only thing that’s hurting.

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

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The New York Yankees reportedly added another bat to their roster for the stretch run Wednesday.

Citing sources, Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball reported the Bronx Bombers signed Billy Butler to a deal. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports confirmed the news.

This comes after the Oakland Athletics released the designated hitter Sunday, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Butler struggled with Oakland this season, slashing .276/.331/.403 with four home runs and 31 RBI in 85 games. The production was a far cry from the numbers he put up for the Kansas City Royals in his prime, when he hit .313 and drilled 29 home runs with 107 RBI in 2012.

He was part of the Royals team that reached the World Series in 2014 before losing to the San Francisco Giants.

In all, the 30-year-old is slashing .289/.354/.441 with 146 homers in his career.

It wasn’t just a drop-off in his power numbers that preceded Oakland’s decision to release Butler. Slusser chronicled a fight he had with then-teammate Danny Valencia in August.

Slusser cited multiple sources who said Butler told an equipment representative that Valencia lied about using off-brand cleats only during pregame warm-ups and “allegedly told the representative that the company should drop Valencia’s endorsement deal.”

The players then pushed each other before Valencia reportedly hit Butler in the head.

Rosenthal suggested the Yankees will use their newly acquired hitter against left-handers, whom they will face seven times in the next 11 contests. However, Butler has hit three of his four home runs this year and 26 of his 39 long balls from 2013 to 2015 against righties, per ESPN.com.

As of Wednesday, the Yankees were four games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East and two games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the AL’s final wild-card spot.

Butler hasn’t been the force he once was during the 2016 campaign, but he is a proven bat who can help an offense that has struggled for much of the year. As of Wednesday, New York’s 610 runs scored ranked 22nd in the big leagues.    

Butler may not be a season-saving presence in the lineup, but the Yankees offense needs a boost as the club chases a playoff spot.    

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The Toronto Blue Jays announced the hiring of former Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington as their new vice president of baseball operations Wednesday.

Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet received word from the team. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet noted Cherington’s role will focus on player development.

Cherington, 42, had been out of Major League Baseball since resigning as the Boston Red Sox general manager in August 2015. His departure was part of an organizational shuffle that saw Dave Dombrowski take over Boston’s baseball operations.

The Red Sox won the 2013 World Series under Cherington’s watch but were in the midst of back-to-back last-place finishes when he resigned.

The team made the playoffs just once during his tenure. However, he acquired a majority of the young stars who are leading Boston’s playoff push in 2016.

“I don’t mind talking about my own shortcomings, my mistakes,” Cherington told the Boston Globe‘s Alex Speier. “I think there is plenty we did right over time. I don’t mind talking about the things that we didn’t or that I didn’t—even things I would do differently. In that sense, I’m fine being in the dunk tank.”

Cherington began his career in 1998 with a short scouting stint with the Cleveland Indians. He then spent more than a decade in the Red Sox organization, working his way up.

Cherington joins a Blue Jays front office that has seen its fair share of shuffling over the last year. Ross Atkins joined as the general manager in December following a lengthy stint with the Indians. He replaced Alex Anthopoulos, whom the team let go after a half-decade of up-and-down performances.

With the team sitting at 79-66 entering play Wednesday, it wouldn’t seem Atkins’ job is in jeopardy. But having two cooks in the kitchen could create an interesting dynamic. Even if Cherington’s job is mostly on the player-development side—where he has a strong resume—there’s always a risk in adding someone else with a World Series ring and GM experience.

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.

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New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge suffered an oblique strain in his team’s 3-0 win Tuesday night over the Los Angeles Dodgers. He’s been placed on the 15-day disabled list, per Jesse Spector of Sporting News.

Continue for updates.

Judge Likely Out for Season

Wednesday, Sept. 14

Speaking to reporters, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said he doesn’t think Judge will return this year, per Brendan Kuty of NJ Advance Media.

The injury came in the bottom of the fourth inning. During an at-bat against Dodgers starter Julio Urias, Judge called for the trainer after swinging and missing on a changeup and fouling off a fastball:

Judge stayed in the game to finish the at-bat but made way for Jacoby Ellsbury to start the fifth.

The 24-year-old figures to be a big piece of the Yankees going forward. At the start of the season, Baseball Prospectus ranked him as the top player in the organization’s minor league system. He sits fourth on MLB.com following New York’s midseason acquisitions of Clint Frazier and Gleyber Torres.

Gary Sanchez’s breakout has largely resulted in Judge getting overshadowed, though. Judge is also batting .179 with four home runs and 10 RBI in 95 plate appearances.

While it would be nice for Judge to continue getting at-bats in the majors, there’s little sense in putting him at further risk for injury with so little time left in the season. The Yankees are still in the playoff hunt, but given his struggles at the plate, it’s doubtful Judge would help New York’s postseason chances all that much.

The Yankees announced Rob Refsnyder will start in right field for Wednesday’s 4:05 p.m. ET game against the Dodgers. An outfield of Ellsbury, Refsnyder and Brett Gardner is likely manager Joe Girardi’s preference going forward with Judge unavailable.

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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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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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The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays combined for an unusual feat in Thursday’s game at Yankee Stadium, playing the first MLB contest all season that included multi-homer efforts from three different players, per Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN Stats & Info).

Completing the feat were Yankees catcher Brian McCann, Rays outfielder Kevin Kiermaier and Rays outfielder Steven Souza, with each player contributing two apiece.

Yankees first baseman Tyler Austin also went deep for a walk-off win at the bottom of the ninth inning, but despite the total of seven home runs, Thursday’s game ended with a reasonable 5-4 score in favor of the Bronx Bombers.

Each of the seven homers was a solo job, with the game’s other two runs—both scored by New York—coming on an RBI single and an error at the bottom of the first inning.

Prior to Thursday, it had been more than two years since any MLB game featured three multi-homer performances, dating back to May 23, 2014, when Giancarlo Stanton, Mark Reynolds and Garrett Jones did the honors in a 9-5 victory for the Milwaukee Brewers over the Miami Marlins, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Thursday’s victory was the fifth in a row for a surging Yankees team that finds itself right in the thick of the American League playoff hunt, despite selling off a number of veteran players before the trade deadline.

New York is now just four games behind the Boston Red Sox for first place in the American League East, and only two games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the final wild-card spot.

Tampa Bay, on the other hand, owns the AL’s second-worst record, sitting at 59-80 after Thursday’s tough loss.

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