#64 Points of rooting interest

All in for the Tarik Skubal-Garrett Crochet mirror season, and more.

The Opener

1. The loss of sports Twitter was really underscored for me when I (somehow???) learned that the Cardinals’ Willson Contreras was suspended six games “for his actions during the bottom of the seventh inning in Monday night’s game” before I learned what his actions during the bottom of the seventh inning in Monday night’s game were. After getting ejected for arguing a strikeout call, Contreras had to be physically restrained from fighting the home plate umpire, threw a bat that hit a coach, and chucked a bucket of Hi-Chew from the dugout onto the field. It was quite the scene. Contreras is appealing the suspension.

2. Oof. Second time this week we’re updating you with a Rangers injury and this one seems especially inauspicious for their dwindling postseason hopes. Nathan Eovaldi has a rotator cuff strain and is likely done for the remainder of the season. We’ve mentioned that Eovaldi was, somewhat quietly, having an otherworldly season. He was slightly below the necessary innings to qualify, but minimum 130 innings, his career-best 1.73 ERA is the lowest in MLB by a lot. 

3. It was weirdly late, but MLB did finally announce the 2026 schedule. A few minutes later, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got engaged and I’m just happy to know I’m not the only one who had the insane thought that she was burying the baseball news. 

What should you be rooting for down the stretch?

By Zach Crizer

August is weird. Baseball has mostly sorted itself out, seemingly, but there are new players on new teams to get used to. Prospects arrive and injuries roil contenders and it all gets very myopic if you, like most people, have a team you follow. But it’s also the time when the bell tolls for a good chunk of the league — either reasonably or, in the case of the Rockies, mathematically.

So it’s time to find new things to latch onto. It’s not shaping up as a particularly chaotic playoff chase, but there are stakes and storylines and things to hope for over the regular season’s final month. I’ll suggest a few. You (and Hannah) can make your own call on whether they’re worthy of your attention.

The Padres

What am I rooting for? For San Diego, currently one game back, to beat the surprisingly mortal Dodgers for the NL West crown.

Why? Well, because any nudge to Go For It would be welcome. And, let’s admit it, seeing the defending champion Dodgers have to battle through the postseason from a wild card spot would add a dose of spice.

Is Hannah rooting for this? Eh, honestly not really! It’s probably perversely good for the labor landscape that the Dodgers have looked relatively fallible this summer (as far as postseason-bound teams go). But I do think that logic could reach levels of diminishing returns if the 98-win World Series winner executes an ambitious offseason only to slip in the standings. In terms of labor incentives, this is a tricky balance. You don’t want spending to be so directly correlated with winning that owners have a credible competitive balance concern, but you also don’t want to discourage the big market teams from splashing their money around in pursuit of greatness. The Dodgers assembled such a should-be superteam that losing the division almost feels like it would call into question the strategy of signing a bunch of stars, which I think would ultimately be bad for the sport. 

That said, I’d be fine with San Diego toppling them in an early October matchup. 

The Royals

What am I rooting for? For the American League’s first club outside the postseason picture to make a run and overtake one of the usual suspects.

Why? Same reason, really. The Royals made some buying moves at the deadline when at least one commentator thought selling was obviously more prudent.​​

I still don’t like their chances, but four games back with a month to go is a surmountable deficit for a club with Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino, the savvy poster who is also homering almost every day right now. I’m willing to be very, very wrong. For the drama.

Is Hannah rooting for this? Sure! I don’t think Witt will really challenge Aaron Judge or Cal Raleigh for AL MVP, but it would be sort of simplistically satisfying for all three AL Wild Card teams to have an MVP candidate (sorry, Boston).

Although, now that I put it like that, I realize I’m more interested in seeing the Red Sox actually in the postseason than the Royals. I definitely want the Mariners to make it because title-less teams in October are an obvious rooting interest. Maybe we could boot the Yankees for basic schadenfreude but — sorry this is big market bias — they just bring a little extra heft to playoff matchups. I’d like the Royals to keep interesting down to the wire, but ultimately I think the Wild Card teams we have are the Wild Card teams I want.

I actually think I talked myself back into accidentally restating the original premise that Zach was trying to thwart: namely that there aren’t enough good teams this season to feel like any of the teams currently outside the postseason picture would be especially compelling or deserving teams if they did sneak in.

Skubal-Crochet singularity

What am I rooting for? A mirror image stat line that makes the AL Cy Young discussion comically impossible.

Why? Look at these numbers! Right now, the AL’s two best pitchers are running about as neck-and-neck as you’ll ever find.

Tarik Skubal: 26 starts, 166 IP, 11.5 K/9, 1.4 BB/9, 0.81 HR/9, 2.28 ERA

Garrett Crochet: 26 starts, 166 ⅓ IP, 11.2 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 0.81 HR/9, 2.38 ERA

We’re basically a slightly-better-than usual run of Crochet strike-throwing from some sort of multiverse situation where two big dominant lefties on playoff teams throw down the exact same stats. If they wind up with ERAs within a tenth of a run and within an inning of each other, I think that will top Khris Davis’ perpetual .247 batting average in the spooky baseball number derby. Hell, maybe they’ll both end up with 2.47 ERAs.

Is Hannah rooting for this? Whoa. Dude. Yes? Weirdly this is the one I’m most invested in. I’m the Mirror Stat Line’s biggest fan as of several minutes ago. This is the thing that could reignite my interest in award voting discourse. Maybe not even re- maybe just ignite. I’m curious if voters turn toward intangibles or dig even deeper into the stats — opponent strength, Statcast percentiles, etc. 

A big 50-homer club

What am I rooting for? For two or more hitters to join Cal Raleigh in bashing 50 homers. Kyle Schwarber, Shohei Ohtani, Eugenio Suarez and Aaron Judge are already at 40 or more. Junior Caminero is at 39.