Outside The Confines: A magnificent moment for the Mets

There are a lot of “big” stories I could lead this post with, but it’s a Friday and instead of a major bummer like “Tony La Russa out indefinitely” (might not be a bummer from a management perspective, but obviously we never want to celebrate anyone being ill) or Justin Verlander’s brilliant comeback season being cut short, I will instead open with a more feel-good story, one that’s just a ton of fun and probably a nicer way to ease into your Friday morning.

If you’re not a big Mets fan, or perhaps not too familiar with reliever Edwin Diaz, you might not be aware that Diaz has a distinct entrance song, which is “Narco” by Timmy Trumpet. It’s distinctive, it’s uniquely him, and this week we got to see an incredible moment in sports when Timmy Trumpet performed the entrance music live in-game as Diaz made his way to the mound. It was, in a word, magical. (Josh hinted this moment might happen in Wednesday’s OTC and lo and behold, it did.)

If you want to read a bit more about the moment, you can read more as Charles Curtis looked at the big moment for USA Today. Nick Selbe also wrote about it over at Sports Illustrated.

Now on to the rest of today’s links.

• Angel Hernandez is still big mad about not working a World Series, but MLB has pointed out it’s not without reason. Story by Jason Owens.
• Spencer Strider made Braves’ pitching history with his 16-strikeout start, shares Matthew Leach.
• Lars Nootbaar has arguably the best name in baseball, but according to Ben Clemens he’s also apparently good at playing the game.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks the Red Sox will need to make big moves this offseason. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• The White Sox are without their skipper indefinitely, so they apparently had a players-only meeting this week to try and re-ground themselves. Story by Scott Merkin.
• Missed that news about Tony La Russa? Jesse Rogers explains why the White Sox manager may not be with the team for quite some time.
• Andy McCullough exposes the Dodgers’ “high class” problems as they deal with their pitching heading into October. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Not the right sport, but Eugenio Suarez can do it all.

• Ben Clemens wonders why the playoff odds for the Orioles are still so low.
• Anthony Castrovince is hedging his bets with nine things he believes are guaranteed to happen before the postseason starts.
• C. Trent Rosencrans has a nice chat with Joey Votto about Albert Pujols. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Shohei Ohtani making history? Must be a day that ends in Y. Ohtani is officially the first MLB player to have 30 home runs and 10 pitching wins in a single season. And there’s still a month to go... (AP)
• Will Laws tries to read into Aaron Judge’s hunt for 61 home runs and beyond.
• David Schoenfield offers up some playoff races that will be must-see baseball in September.
• Some rookie debut magic for the Orioles.

And tomorrow will be a better day, Buster. Make it so.