Monday, August 24

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Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.

The Phillies are going for a 10-game winning streak, and it’s all thanks to one of the unlikeliest comeback wins of the season. 

Philadelphia has won nine in a row entering tonight’s series opener against the Mariners in Seattle (9:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV). The Phils are coming for the Braves in the NL East, too — Atlanta has lost seven of 10 games since Philly’s win streak started, allowing the Phillies to close the gap in the division from 9 1/2 games down to three.

This team has some magic going on, and we saw it last night. The Phillies were down four runs to the Cardinals with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, only to pull off an unbelievable rally to win it — on, of course, a 459-foot walk-off Schwarbomb. 

How crazy was their comeback? The Phillies’ win probability dipped all the way down to 0.5% in the ninth … or, from the other perspective, the Cards had a 99.5% chance of winning before the Phils flipped the script on them. 

Only one team has come back to win a game this season from a lower win probability than the Phillies. That was the Giants on June 10 against the Nationals, who had a 0.2% chance to win when they trailed 9-1 entering the eighth inning, only to come back to win 11-10 on Bryce Eldridge’s ultimate grand slam.

Heck, here’s the whole top five for you — if only because there are some fun rollercoaster win probability charts to check out: 

2026 biggest comeback wins 

By winning team’s lowest win probability during the game

1. Giants over Nationals, June 10 — 0.2% win probability 
2-T. Phillies over Cardinals, Aug. 23 — 0.5% win probability

2-T. Twins over Royals, July 30 — 0.5% win probability

2-T. Royals over Angels, April 26 — 0.5% win probability

5. Orioles over Tigers, July 29 — 0.6% win probability

Yesterday’s game was just one of a bunch of magical moments the Phillies have already had on this winning streak. Paul Casella ranks the 10 best ones here.

So now the Phils are on the hunt for win No. 10, with Zack Wheeler on the mound. Wheeler’s normally very reliable for a “W,” but he’s actually in a little bit of a rough patch — he hasn’t gotten a win since before the All-Star break.

The Phillies would be the third team with a double-digit winning streak this season. Two fellow playoff contenders, the Red Sox (with their 15-game winning streak) and the Cubs (with two different 10-game streaks) are the only others. 

 

GAMES OF THE NIGHT

Besides the Phillies going for 10 straight, here are three other games to watch tonight. 

Red Sox at Marlins (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

The Marlins bounced back from a sweep at the hands of the unbeatable Phils to hand out a sweep themselves over the weekend against the Nationals. Miami is 67-64 and only four games out of an NL Wild Card spot, but the Marlins are facing a playoff contender coming off a bounceback sweep of its own in the Red Sox.

Rangers at White Sox (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

This is a matchup of first-place teams — even though the Rangers are one game under .500 at 65-66, that’s good enough to be tied with the Astros atop the AL West. But Texas has a tough schedule coming up. Ten of the team’s next 13 games are against division leaders: the White Sox, Brewers and Rays.

Cubs at D-backs (9:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

This is a big series for the National League Wild Card race, with the Cubs currently holding off the Phillies for the top spot and the D-backs just behind the Padres for the third and final spot. Tonight’s series opener in the desert pits Kevin Gausman against Lego lover Merrill Kelly. 

THE NEWEST ROOKIE OF THE YEAR CONTENDER

The NL Rookie of the Year race is going to be one of the most interesting award races to watch down the stretch, and a new candidate has come roaring in. 

It’s a Mets rookie — but not the Mets rookie you would have expected at the start of the season, when Nolan McLean was a Rookie of the Year favorite.

Now? Carson Benge has officially entered the race.

Benge wasn’t even in our top five NL candidates when we did our last MLB.com Rookie of the Year poll earlier this month. But he’s been so electric over the last few weeks that it’s impossible to ignore him now. 

Benge is a power-speed threat on offense, who’s on a months-long surge at the plate thanks to a change in his batting stance. He’s up to 16 home runs and 19 stolen bases on the season. 

And he’s an impact fielder, too, especially with his rocket arm in the outfield. Benge leads MLB rookies with nine outfield assists, including his ridiculous 103.9 mph throw to the plate last weekend.

The Rookie of the Year competition is still wide-open though, with Reds slugger Sal Stewart, Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt, Rockies first baseman TJ Rumfield and, of course, McLean all making strong cases. This one’s probably going to come down to the wire. 

WINDY CITY HAS 2-SPORT SENSATION

Sami Williams is a two-way star. Not like Shohei Ohtani is a two-way star … but let us explain.

Williams is both a star softball player with the Chicago Bandits in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League … and a star software engineer in the Cubs’ baseball operations department.

Yes, at the same time. Jordan Bastian tells her really cool story today.

First, the softball. Williams was so good in the AUSL this season that she was named the league’s Hitter of the Year. She batted .427 with seven home runs and a league-leading 34 RBIs and led the Bandits to a runner-up finish in the AUSL championship.

Now the baseball ops. Williams is part of an internal software team that helps design systems related to scouting, analytics, projections and other facets of the team’s decision-making processes. Her work for the Cubs earned her the Katy Feeney Leadership Award last year.

And now that the AUSL season is over, she’ll be right back in the office at Wrigley Field in September, just in time for the Cubbies’ playoff push. 

250 FOR 250: BIGGER-THAN-SPORTS MOMENTS

We continue our 250 for 250 series today with the top 10 “bigger-than-sports” moments in baseball history.

You might be able to guess some of the big ones on here: Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, Roberto Clemente cementing his legacy as a Hall of Famer and humanitarian, Big Papi and the Red Sox rallying Boston after the Boston Marathon bombing and more.

These 10 moments meant just as much off the field as they did on it. 

 

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