RJ Hamster
It’s September, but ‘these are playoff games’
Monday, September 14
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.
How big is the White Sox-Guardians series that starts today? Let’s just ask one of the stars playing in it.
“This is why you play. This is meaningful baseball. These are playoff games,” Chicago shortstop Colson Montgomery said. “This is determining your season. Come out flat, season is going to be over. I think we are going to be pretty juiced up for it and it’s going to be fun.”
He’s not lying. This is the series that could decide the American League Central. In a week full of series with big playoff implications, Sox-Guards just might be the biggest.
With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the White Sox (76-73) hold a half-game lead over the Guardians (76-74) in the division. Now the two teams are playing their final three head-to-head games.
Tonight’s series opener in Cleveland is set for 6:40 p.m. ET on MLB.TV.
We have a full preview of the series up today from our two beat reporters, Scott Merkin and Tim Stebbins. But here’s where things stand right now:
The White Sox, one of baseball’s biggest surprises this season, have led the division for nearly all of the second half. Their lead grew to as big as 5 1/2 games on Aug. 16. But the Sox have slumped down the stretch — they’ve won just four of their last 14 games.
The Guardians have been here before. They’ve won the division three of the last four years, and just last season, they pulled off a massive September comeback to overtake the Tigers. Now they have a chance to do the same to the White Sox — and with a much smaller deficit than Cleveland faced in 2025.
There are a bunch of playoff implications tied to this series.
First of all, the winner of the series will emerge as the leader of the division. And the winner of the Central will have a good shot at earning a first-round playoff bye as the AL’s No. 2 seed.
There’s also the tiebreaker between the two teams. The White Sox hold a 6-4 lead in the season series with the Guardians, meaning they need to win just one game here to clinch the tiebreaker. The Guardians would need a sweep to do so.
And then there’s the AL Wild Card race. The pressure is on both the White Sox and Guardians to win this series, because the team trailing in the division will be thrown into a wide-open competition for the third and final Wild Card spot.
The Guardians currently hold that spot, but they’re just one game ahead of the Blue Jays and two ahead of the Rangers. There’s no guarantee that the second-place AL Central finisher will make the playoffs.
GAMES OF THE NIGHT
Besides White Sox-Guardians, there are two potential playoff clinches and more on the line tonight.
Dodgers at Reds (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
The Dodgers can clinch a playoff spot with a win tonight and join the Brewers and Rays in the 2026 postseason field. (They could also clinch if the Padres lose to the Rockies AND the D-backs lose to the Marlins.) And who better to pitch Los Angeles into the playoffs than new ace Tarik Skubal?
Orioles at Mets (7:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Pete Alonso returns to Citi Field for the first time since leaving the Mets for the Orioles in free agency. He’s chasing history, too — Polar Bear Pete needs just one home run to reach 300 for his career. It just might come against his old team, for whom he’s the franchise home run leader. And guess who else in this game is sitting on 299 career homers? Alonso’s former teammate, Francisco Lindor. The race to 300 is on.
Yankees at Twins (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
The Yankees are the second team that can clinch a postseason spot with a win tonight. (They’d also clinch if the Blue Jays lose to the Tigers.) And if they do clinch, they’re going to celebrate. As Aaron Judge said: “If you don’t get in, you can’t win a World Series, right? So you’ve got to celebrate that.”
THE LATEST ON THE PLAYOFF RACES
We’ve gone over the stakes in the AL Central and the potential clinches for tonight. Now here’s a look at the other key developments in the playoff races over the weekend:
• The Rays and Brewers both clinched postseason spots with big wins on Friday. Tampa Bay did it first on an electric walk-off home run from Junior Caminero, and the Brew Crew followed soon after with a 20-0 drubbing of the Reds to return to the playoffs for the eighth time in nine years.
• The Padres have won seven games in a rowand now lead the division-rival D-backs by 2 1/2 games for the third and final NL Wild Card spot.
• The Astros were swept by the Rays over the weekend, allowing the Rangers to pull within one game in the AL West after a big swing by Corey Seager led them to a series win over the D-backs.
• The Braves took two of three games from the Phillies in their final head-to-head series, increasing their lead in the NL East to five games. Philadelphia is still tied with the Cubs for the top Wild Card spot but has to take care of business the rest of the way to stay ahead of the Padres and D-backs.
• The Cubs got a series win over the Pirates to keep pace atop the NL Wild Card standings, and they hold the tiebreaker over the Phillies. Chicago has 12 games left to secure home-field advantage for the Wild Card round.
ICHIRO, 52-YEAR-OLD ACE
Fifty-two-year-old Ichiro hasn’t lost his … fastball?
That’s right — a mere month after slugging eight home runs in the Mariners’ Alumni Home Run Derby, Ichiro took to the mound to throw a 127-pitch shutout with 17 strikeoutsagainst a Japanese high school girls All-Star team at the Tokyo Dome.
It’s become something of a tradition for Ichiro to pitch in … and dominate … these games, where he loves to put up ludicrous stat lines.
A couple of years ago, he threw a 116-pitch shutout while topping out at 86 mph. A couple of years before that, he pitched another 17-K game.
Looks like he’s still got it. Ichiro even batted leadoff and knocked two hits — while playing alongside Hideki Matsui and Kaz Matsui.
You can watch the entire game on YouTube.
VOTE NOW FOR CLEMENTE AWARD
The 2026 Roberto Clemente Award nomineeswere announced today, and you can help pick the winner:
The Roberto Clemente Award is presented each year to the player who best represents the game through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.
MLB celebrates its annual Roberto Clemente Day tomorrow.
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