Outside The Confines: Fighting with the Friars

We’re down to the final two weeks of the season. The one thing the Cubs have to play for is keeping the Cardinals out of the playoffs.

• The Padres season has gone downhill fast of late and emotions boiled over as Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. got into a shouting match in the dugout during Saturday’s game.
• Ken Rosenthal, Dennis Lin and Britt Ghiroli have some background on what happened between the two Friars stars. (The Athletic sub. req.) The authors seem to think that there’s a leadership problem in San Diego, and that road leads straight to manager Jayce Tingler’s office.
• This article was written before the dustup, but several Padres players tell Kevin Acee that the team is trying too hard.
• Jay Jaffe notes that the Wild Card races have gotten interesting because of several contending teams that are having poor second halves. And you can believe the Padres are one of those teams.
• This article by Jayson Stark got a lot of attention over the weekend. Stark reports from the minor league Low-A West, where a 15-second pitch clock has not only sped up games, but it’s decreased strikeouts and home runs and created more balls in play. (The Athletic sub. req.) The question is would this translate to the majors and would a pitch clock fix most of the problems that baseball has at the moment?
• Steve Gardner has six players who could be critical to their team’s success over the final two weeks.
• Owen McGrattan writes that the Athletics’ disappointing bullpen might be the biggest reason the team misses the playoffs.
• Neil Paine notes that the strength of the Dodgers has been their depth, which has allowed them to survive poor or missing seasons from several stars.
• Zach Kram looks at Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes, who could be the first pitcher to ever win the “sabermetric pitching triple crown”: most strikeouts per nine innings; fewest walks per nine and fewest home runs per nine.
• Andrew Baggarly argues that despite Kris Bryant’s defense being much less than advertised, he’s still a good fit for a long-term deal with the Giants. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Andrew Simon has a list of veteran one-team players who could be free agents at the end of the year.
• MLB will require all non-playing personnel to be vaccinated if they want to be on the field or in any other restricted area (like the clubhouse or dugout) in the postseason.
• White Sox manager Tony LaRussa and pitcher Mike Wright were suspended for throwing at Shohei Ohtani.
• Baseball fans were worried that Ohtani had thrown his last pitch of 2021, but he struck out 10 over eight innings on Sunday, although the Angels lost to the A’s 3-2 in 10 innings.
• Sarah Langs explains how Starling Marte could end up with the highest batting average in the majors this year yet he won’t win a batting title. Eddie Murray accomplished the feat in 1990 as well.
• Cesar Brioso explains why former White Sox great Minnie Miñoso is considered the “Jackie Robinson of Latin ballplayers.” And yes, I agree with him that Miñoso should be in the Hall of Fame.
• Nationals catcher (as well as former Cubs catcher—and the Tigers, of course) Alex Avila announced that he is retiring at the end of the season.
• Ben Clemens asks if you have two players with identical wOBA stats, would your team rather have the one with a higher batting average or the higher slugging percentage?
• The Astros’ Kyle Tucker purposely got picked off third base to keep the Diamondbacks from appealing the play before where Yuli Gurriel left third base too early on a sacrifice fly.
• Brewers minor leaguer Noah Campbell played all nine positions in the last game of the year on Sunday and finished up the game by recording a save.
• Dan Connelly has the story of the unlikely friendship between Orioles pitcher Brooks Kriske and Orioles all-time great Brooks Robinson. (The Athletic sub. req.) Robinson met Kriske’s dad when the pitcher was a small boy and Kriske’s dad told the Hall-of-Famer that he named his son after him. Robinson has been a friend to the Kriske family ever since.
• Kevin Armstrong (with photos from Brian Frasier) has the story of how the Double-A Somerset Patriots went from having a stadium submerged under water after Hurricane Ida to playing games on the field just a week later. It was a heroic effort by the entire Patriots staff, but especially the grounds crew.
• Reds rookie TJ Friedl hit his first major league home run over the head of Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts. Betts, aware that it was Friedl’s first home run, got the fan to throw him the ball from the stands and then gave the fan an autographed bat in return. That’s a nice gesture from a veteran player on the other team.
• And finally, a history of the 2021 New York Mets as told through 15 tweets by owner Steve Cohen.

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