A new week begins in MLB and the final week of the daily article. Thursday will mark the last day that I’ll be doing it, as my focus shifts fully to football and my availability to jumping on more of our VSiN shows frees up without the heavy lift of the MLB piece six days a week in the mornings. September has historically been a tough month for me while in the content creation space because there are so many other things pulling you in different directions.
However, I’ll echo what I said at the end of The Run Line last night. I can’t thank everybody enough for reading. For being open-minded about a lot of stats and concepts that may not have been familiar to you when this started. For the questions and the positive (or constructive) feedback about the article. Hopefully I can end on a high note as another way to show my gratitude, but I wanted to say a few words and will say a few more on Thursday. I really appreciate the time every single reader has taken this season. It means the world to me.
Reds/Pirates: Cincinnati exploded for 23 runs on the road in this series, taking two of three from the Pirates. We’ve seen a quality Reds offense at home, but the road numbers have lagged well behind all season long. This would seem to be a big indictment on the Pirates’ pitching and it probably won’t get any better the rest of the way.
Mets/Phillies: A wild back-and-forth game fell the way of the Mets by a 10-9 count on Monday. New York actually took three of four in the series with that win, despite trailing 4-0 after the first inning. The Phillies did get some good news that Bryce Harper took some swings and is targeting a September return, but the weekend news that Seranthony Dominguez is on the IL really hurts. It had an impact on Sunday and will continue to have an impact with a bullpen that has been pretty inconsistent, but had been pretty strong for a while. I think Philly will continue to struggle in late-game situations without him, so I’d be less inclined to bet full games with them until (if) he’s back.