MLB Bullets plays through the pain

The biggest story in MLB right now is Javier Baez batting left-handed and that’s not even my beat.

• Orioles first baseman Chris Davis had to be held back in a dugout altercation with manager Brandon Hyde in Wednesday’s game.
• Mark Brown has more on what happened between Davis and Hyde and notes that the Orioles to not intend to discipline Davis over the incident. Playing for the Orioles is punishment enough. And having to keep Davis on your team is punishment enough for Hyde.
• The Mets recent hot streak has been the talk of baseball, but Zach Kram notes that the Mets are still the same flawed team as they were before, but that might just be good enough to snag a playoff spot in the flawed National League.
• Stephanie Apstein notes that the Mets recent hot streak coincides with a streak of playing bad teams and she’s skeptical that they can continue to keep winning against good teams. She does note that the Mets themselves have no doubts that they can keep winning.
• In an attempt to keep winning, the Mets signed reliever Brad Brach. You’re probably familiar with his situation.
• And the Mets are considering signing recently-released second baseman Joe Panik. Panik, a native New Yorker, is reportedly interested in joining the Mets as well.
• As the Mets rise, the Phillies have been dropping and Bob Nightengale speculates that manager Gabe Kapler’s job may be in jeopardy. Nightengale can’t find any member of the Phillies who wants to see Kapler take the fall, even anonymously. He also notes that the Giants are likely to hire Kapler if the Phillies fire him.
• The Pirates have been the worst team since the All-Star Break and R.J. Anderson writes that raises a lot of questions about what direction Pittsburgh will take this offseason. There’s probably going to be an “Everything Must Go” sale this winter, and that might include the Pirates front office as well.
• This is getting a lot of attention, and that’s why MLB is doing it. The White Sox and Yankees are going to play at the “Field of Dreams” site in Dyersville, Iowa. I agree with Craig Calcaterra on this. “Field of Dreams” is a pretty crappy movie. But as a Hawkeye, I am thrilled to see the first ever major league game played in the state of Iowa.
• Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres left Tuesday’s game with an injury, but he’s going to avoid a trip to the injured list. He’s considered day-to-day.
• Jay Jaffee looks at the injuries that the Yankees have suffered this season. Torres, DJ LeMahieu and Austin Romine are the only Yankees position players who have managed to stay on the active roster all season.
• Red Sox pitcher David Price went on the IL with a wrist injury.
• Brewers outfielder Lorenzo Cain is day-to-day after fouling a ball off his knee.
• Robert Murray talked to Cain who told him that he plays through pain because that’s what his idol Torii Hunter did. Cain said he learned a lot from talking to Hunter. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Braves rookie Austin Riley suffered a knee injury after a weight room mishap.
• Eddie Matz checks in on the independent Atlantic League to see how the new rules they are experimenting with are working. The first guy to steal first base didn’t even realize he’d done it.
• Nicholas Bakalar reports on a recent study that indicates that professional baseball players live longer than other American men and other pro athletes. Middle infielders live longer than catchers. Also, some interesting data that pro ball players tend to die of different things than the public at large.
• Ben Clemens looks at what adjustments that Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has made that has turned his season around for the better.
• Ben Lindbergh wonders how many records is Mike Trout going to break when his career is all said and done. Or at least how many leaderboards he’ll be near the top of.
• Everyone knows Ted Williams is the last man to hit .400 in MLB. Tom Verducci profiles that last two players to hit over .400 at any level of organized baseball (in at least 400 at-bats).
• Blue Jays rookie Bo Bichette did something that no one since Ted Williams has done—get an extra-base hit in nine-straight games in his rookie season. And Bichette has done it in his first 11 games.
• The Reds claimed pitcher Kevin Gausman off of waivers and Dan Szymborski looks at Gausman’s struggles and looks at what the Reds will have to do to fix this reclamation project.
• I’ve covered the health and insurance issues surrounding former Cubs (and four other teams) pitcher Micah Bowie before. Now it’s nice to report that the Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.) has stepped in to pay for the health care that Bowie needs to survive.
• Peter Gammons looks back at the career of outfielder Matt Murton and the deadline trade that sent him to the Cubs back in 2003. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Gabe Lacques examines the latest trend in ballpark construction—smaller parks to better handle smaller attendance numbers.
• The Cardinals are changing their “StL” logo for next season. The changes are small and you probably wouldn’t have noticed them if I hadn’t just told you about them. (h/t Hardball Talk)
• What does the law say about on-field brawls? In any other context, they’d call in the police and make arrests.
• Joe GIrardi has been named the manager of Team USA for the qualifying rounds for the 2020 Olympics.
• The Twins turned a triple play—their second triple play in two weeks.
• This is the part of our program dedicated to first pitches. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton threw a strike on his first pitch—on the second try. His first attempt went horribly wrong. (video) I mean, not 50 Cent wrong, but still wrong.
• And tennis pro Monica Puig threw a strike to home plate with her first pitch at Great American Ballpark—except she didn’t throw the pitch, she hit it with her tennis racket. This is the kind of new first-pitch technology that will allow this country to catch up with the Koreans. So, bravo! Also, I was promised the Cubs wouldn’t have to deal with Puig in Cincinnati anymore.
• And finally, a nine-year old boy named Colt took to social media to say he was thinking of quitting playing baseball. That is, until Dodgers Cody Bellinger and Clayton Kershaw talked him out of it. Man, I’d start playing baseball again if Bellinger and Kershaw asked me to. Even though I would know they were only doing it to humiliate me. Jerks.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.