High N Tight Saturday!

🧨 First Pitch — Musical Chairs

October baseball has delivered plenty this opening week — late-inning heroics, bullpen meltdowns, controversy. Pure theater.

And as we head into the next round, one matchup has classic written all over it: Dodgers–Phillies. That’s the one you cancel plans for.

But while the spotlight’s on the field, there’s drama spinning off it too: the annual managerial carousel. Teams left out of October are cleaning house and shopping for their next savior.

The openings stretch from the Rockies to the Nationals, the Twins to the Giants, and of course, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Seven jobs. One giant recycling bin.

The possible candidates? Retreads. Same names, different hats. Bud Black. Brandon Hyde. Dave Martinez. Derek Shelton. Rocco Baldelli. And yes, David Ross, fired two years ago, itching for a comeback.

Baseball can do better than regifting the same ugly sweater every Christmas.

Where are the fresh faces?

Where’s the next Craig Counsell? The next Stephen Vogt? The hungry bench coach who can actually connect with today’s players?

And in Anaheim — where losing seasons are practically a lifestyle — the Angels are flirting with Albert Pujols. A legend with a bat, sure. But giving him the dugout just because he hit 700 bombs? That’s nostalgia dressed up as strategy.

October baseball is supposed to be about new heroes. The dugout deserves them too.

👍 The Good — Schlittler Time

Cam Schlittler. A name Red Sox fans will be muttering all winter.

With the Yankees’ season on the line — win or go home — they handed the ball to a rookie with just 85 days in the bigs. And boy, did he answer.

Eight shutout innings. Twelve strikeouts. Zero nerves. The Yankees blanked their bitter rivals, 4–0, and punched a ticket to the ALCS.

The twist? Schlittler grew up in Massachusetts, a diehard Sox fan dreaming of pitching at Fenway. Instead, he ended Boston’s season. Pure heartbreak in New England. Pure joy in New York.

Red Sox fans heckled his family online — even his mom — something Schlittler later called “disappointing.” It only fueled the fire. Careful what you wish for, Boston.

Afterward, Aaron Boone summed it up: “A star is born tonight.”
Start spreading the news — the Yankees are moving on.

👎 The Bad — Human Error at Worst Time

Baseball is a game of inches — and sometimes those inches are everything. At Wrigley Field, a brutal blown call left the Padres fuming. Down 3–1, rallying in the 9th with Xander Bogaerts at the plate.

The pitch missed. Ball Four. Instead? The ump rang him up. Strike three. Game, series, season — over.

The broadcast didn’t bother sugarcoating it: “Next year, that’s a helmet tap in a millisecond.” Translation: in 2026, when ABS finally arrives, that pitch gets overturned faster than you can say Angel Hernández.

The Padres screamed. The crowd in Wrigley roared. Human error at the worst possible time — unless you’re wearing Cubbie blue. That’s October baseball: equal parts drama and injustice, until the Robo Umps arrive.

🙈 The Ugly — Mets Collapse, Cohen Grovels

Yes, it’s October — but we’d be remiss not to mention the team that spent big and missed the dance.

The Mets built a $340 million roster for October glory. Instead, they have a front-row seat on the couch.

After coughing up a late-season lead and watching the postseason vanish, owner Steve Cohen went into damage control — issuing a public apology and calling the year “unacceptable.”

Then came the purge: several coaches shown the door, while manager Carlos Mendoza somehow kept his chair.

When a billionaire is groveling to fans while his $340 million toy face-plants — that’s not just ugly baseball. It’s the same old Mets, just with a shinier checkbook

🚦 One for the Road — Stitched in Sacramento

This season, the Athletics treated West Sacramento like nothing more than a layover on the road to Vegas in 2028. They complained about the minor-league park’s quirks, refused to wear the city’s name on their uniforms, and even managed to dampen enthusiasm for the River Cats, Sacramento’s longtime team.

It felt less like a new chapter and more like a grumpy hotel stay.

But this week came a small twist: in 2026, the A’s will roll out alternate jerseys with “Sacramento” stitched across the chest. It’s a modest nod to the city that’s carried them through this awkward in-between stage.

Of course, a wordmark can’t erase empty seats, minor-league griping, or years of bad faith. But for a franchise seemingly allergic to goodwill, even a little embroidery feels like progress.

Sacramento finally gets its name on the unis — now if the A’s could stitch together a few wins.