Like it or not, the summer is wrapping up. Here in the northeast the humidity is gone, the leaves are starting to turn, and beach season is drawing to a close. Of course, one of the good things that comes with the change of season is the MLB stretch run and playoffs. The races for the playoff are firing on all cylinders right now, and with no recording planned for Austin and yours truly, I wanted to bring you a written edition of ATH. Before we go around the majors, let’s talk New York locals, as we would on a regular episode.

Yankees

New York’s walking wounded wrapped up the weekend with a 8-3 over the visiting Jays, winning the series in the process. This finishes up a twelve-game stretch against sub-500 opposition, a stretch I said they needed to 8-4 or better in, and what do you know, they went 8-4 on the nose. The improved play has pulled them to within three games of the division leading Rays, who have scuffled lately allowing New York back in. They continue to get nice production from youngsters like George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones, who has really come on as of late, while they also welcomed back Cody Bellinger from the IL on Sunday.

Meanwhile the pitching keeps doing its job, in spite of more injuries, as Ryan Weathers went down Saturday. Manager Aaron Boone is optimistic Weathers will be back either in the rotation or in the pen, but time will tell as his forearm heals. Boone was less than optimistic about Giancarlo Stanton, who was confirmed as done for the season having now pulled his other hamstring, while recovering from injuring his other leg earlier this season. It feels like this may be the end of Stanton in the Bronx, he served this team very well when healthy, but ultimately his body has failed him late in his career, a sad end to an impressive run. With the Stanton situation settled, all eyes are on the health of Aaron Judge, who is now rumored to return mid-September when the bombers face the Rockies.

Mets

It was a tough weekend for the Mets in the Windy City, as their push towards .500 was slowed by the first place pale hose. First there was Friday, a game the Metropolitans led 4-0, until they surrendered 3 straight homers and then were walked off by Sox new comer Jake Rogers. The walkoff was made all the worse by lefty Jeffrey Yan’s celebration of what looked like the third out of the inning…only for the at bat to continue and the game to eventually end in Chicago’s favor.

They bounced back nicely with a 10-5 win on Saturday night, a game that was punctuated by a pair of Luis Robert homers against his old team. With a chance to win the series on Sunday, the offense was shutdown by a host of White Sox pitchers, as Chicago deployed a few opener type arms in this one. The Mets fell behind in the 8th, only to tie it in the 9th, but that didn’t last very long. Chicago center fielder Tristan Peters stepped up and homered off of Kodai Senga, a ball AJ Ewing very nearly robbed. Despite the two brutal losses there is still plenty to like about how this team is playing right now, and that’s a positive development as most of this roster will return next year.

First Base

Never Say Die: That’s spirit of Philadelphia, at least according to Rocky Balboa. But the Fightin’s were down to their last out Sunday at home and so was their eight-game win streak. Trailing 4-0 in that situation has the win probability almost at zero, but they managed to load the bases and put on good at bat after good at bat. They got a couple of big hits to get even thanks to Edmundo Sosa and Bryan De La Cruz getting. That brought Kyle Schwarber up with the winning run at first. The big man did what he does best, he smashed a game winning 459-foot blast to dead center to push the streak to nine straight wins! This recent run by the Phils has them at 73-58 on the year, and now just 2.5 games behind the division leading Braves, who they will see twice in September. Keep an eye on that rivalry as we wrap up the season.

Second Base

Rays Get Stung: While the Phillies are rolling in the NL, the AL East leading Rays are scuffling at the moment, thanks to some ugly series losses. Tampa is just 3-7 in their last ten, with two series losses to the Orioles and a split with Toronto in the last week. In this stretch it’s really been a little bit of everything that has slowed the Rays down. The pitching has underperformed, the bats have gone a bit silent, and their usually fundamentally sound club has made some mistakes. Their division lead over the Yankees has shrunk to just three games, so they’re going to have pull the nose up soon.

Third Base

Padres Stay Classy: There is taking the long way around to success and then there is the Padres, who have spent most of the year in the mud, until the last few weeks. Starting just before the trade deadline, San Diego got the train on the tracks and since then they’re coasting. They won again Sunday, capping a sweep of the Twins, making their record 71-60 in the season having gone 7-3 in their last ten games. What’s been the key to this turnaround? Offense, offense, offense. The big guns of Tatis, Machado and Merrill have returned to their usual form, while being backed up Jake Cronenworth and Luis Rengifo, both of whom have swung it well as of late. Mix this offensive “explosion” in with an improved pitching staff and pen, and you have yourself a dangerous team. They are now two games ahead of Arizona for the last playoff spot, a race that I’d expect to come down to the wire in the NL. If San Diego gets in, they feel like a dangerous team to clash with,

Home Plate

Have You No Shame?: If you want to see a team devoid of any pride at all, look no further than the Mariners. Seattle came into the season with massive expectations, but they have come nowhere near meeting them. Their offense is a mess, their pitching has at times underperformed, and manager Dan Wilson has looked overwhelmed. Two dramatic wins this weekend against the Cubs aside, they really embarrassed themselves giving up some football type scores. There was 22-0 the other night in Milwaukee, which was followed by a 19-2 loss Sunday at home to the Cubs. They don’t belong anywhere near the playoffs yet in this criminally bad AL they only trail a playoff spot by three games. They’re a sad shell of the squad that made it to game 7 of the ALCS last year, and efforts like these are a slap in the face to the fans.

Walk Off

May Have to Cancel the Card: Let’s end in our walk off section with a may be a costly walk off homer for one lucky fan. As I mentioned above in our Mets section, new White Sox catcher Jake Rogers sent one into the seats to end the game against the Mets send the Southsiders home happy. If you watch the highlight above, you’ll notice a fan come down to the row the ball landed in and come up with the loose baseball, before joining in the celebration. But upon a closer look in the clip below, it sure looks like her purse was open and when she jumped up and down everything in it went over the outfield wall. It would seem based on the tweet below she has all of her belongings, and as hard as that is to believe, I’m certainly relieved for her as everything in there looked like a goner in the highlight package, and we’re even more glad here at The Breakdown that she enjoyed the ballgame so much!

That will do it for this edition of ATH, we’ll be back with another pod next week! Stay tuned for more content in the days ahead! Check out our Instagram feed for special gameday and promotional content. Our podcasts are available on Spotify. Visit the Rangers Ed Shop by clicking the link on our homepage. Check out our mailbag page to join the conversation here on the site and on our friends show, The Rangers Ed Podcast! We’ll be back with more soon.