Author’s Note: I scheduled this post the day before the Yankees and Mariners clinched playoff spots. My thoughts on the Yankees remain the same, and all I want for the Mariners is to make a deep playoff run.

Don’t worry, I’m going back to the normal structure in my Weekly Wrapup. I just had to dive into the possibility of an MLB strike in my last wrap-up; the other baseball news and events in the last month faded into the background. Don’t worry; you’ll get a full pointing and laughing at both the Mets and the Yankees. And then laughing until I cry at the Tigers. And speaking of the Phillies (well, the Phillies in 2024)…

This past month has been a blur of both exemplary and unsatisfactory play. After losing to the Mets at Citi Field, wherein their bats fell just as silent as they did in last year’s NLDS, they then took three of four against the Braves. They annihilated the Braves in the first game by scoring 19 runs. Kyle Schwarber hit four home runs in the first game against the Braves, a feat that iconic home run hitters like Barry Bonds*, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays have not reached. Dave Dombrowski, PAY THIS MAN!

I’m used to my Phillies failing to score runs after amassing double-digit runs on a team, but I did not expect us to win the next two games. That shows how bad the 2025 Braves season has gone. A healthy Braves team would have handily won the next three games instead of just the final game. We then won a potential postseason series preview against the Brewers and took three out of four against the Marlins. Of course, everyone will remember it for Phillies Karen² rather than the Phillies’ stellar performance against a team where anything less than a series win would have been a massive disappointment for a playoff contender.

The Phillies chose to match getting swept to sweeping the Mets at home, furthering the Mets’ freefall. They then took a series against the Royals and then clinched a playoff spot against the Dodgers while I was sleeping. I do expect the Phillies to lose the series against the Diamondbacks, but losing said series would have hurt worse if we hadn’t secured a playoff berth before facing the Snakes. And we also got the NL Leas-I mean, the NL East. The Phillies and Mets are the only competent teams in the division—the Braves are injured, the Marlins are deep into the second rebuild in five years, and the Nationals are Rockies and White Sox levels of trash.— All the Phightins are left fighting for this season is the #1 seed in the National League. While they do have a slim chance of doing so, let’s hope they give the Brewers grief.

Before I look at the playoff picture in both the American and National Leagues, I wanted to mention the teams that have clinched a spot in the postseason.

Brewers (postseason spot and the NL Central Division Title), congrats on doing it for Uecker and making it, yet again, into the playoffs. You were the first MLB team to 50 wins and have had an amazing regular season record. Your pitchers, including Jacob Miserowski, have turned into aces, and your hitters are tough outs. I just hope the NLCS is legendary! No, I am not calling my shot. I’ve been there with my Phightins before, and it DOES NOT end well. I just want a good series from both teams. That is all.

Phillies (postseason spot and the NL East division title), congrats on clinching a playoff spot! You know what you have to do—win. Get to it.

The Cubs (Wild Card spot) clinched a playoff spot? Nice! They deserve a playoff berth that didn’t happen during the 2020 COVID season. It helps when players like Nico Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong have breakout seasons. It also doesn’t hurt if the pitching is doing well.

Of course, the Dodgers (postseason spot) clinched a playoff spot. It doesn’t matter if half their lineup is a walking hospital ward; the high-end talent of Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts will help power a candidate for the Most Injured Team award to a playoff berth. Let’s see if the injuries catch up with them in the postseason.

Blue Jays (postseason spot) give Toronto an October to remember by clinching a postseason berth. I have one thing to say to you: do not choke. The Leafs have already disappointed the Greater Toronto Area, and I would like for you not to do so for their sanity.

Padres (postseason spot)— I’m glad you clinched it on the most dramatic game of all—an 11-inning walk-off thriller!— My only advice for Padres fans is to please avoid making any distasteful raps about any postseason opponents you will face.

While the Brewers, Dodgers, Cubs, Padres, and Phillies clinched postseason and divisional berths, the second and third wild cards remain up for grabs. While the Padres have all but clinched the second Wild Card spot, the Mets' free fall has led to the Cincinnati Reds tying with the Mets for the final Wild Card spot. (more on the Mets later in this Weekly Wrapup)

Even if teams are eliminated or waiting for the “eliminated from the playoffs” graphic to appear on social media, they can still play “spoiler” and hinder other teams’ chances of making it to the postseason. Arizona is one of them, as its series win against the Giants has all but doomed the team to missing the playoffs.

The same goes for Atlanta, as its sweep of the Tigers has helped Cleveland surge to a tie in the AL Central. Also, look out for the bottom feeders in the Nationals, Pirates, and Rockies. The Mets did not beware the Natitude, and have now lost a series to them. They’re now out of a postseason spot; they should thank their lucky stars that every single baseball blog is focusing on the Tigers, so they aren’t looking at how they blew a 5.5-game lead at the top of the NL East.

The only team that has clinched a playoff spot is the Blue Jays. Beyond that, the playoff race is wide open. The Blue Jays have first place in the NL East, and the Mariners are currently tied with the Astros for first place in the AL West. We may very well see the Astros miss a postseason where they can bang on their trash cans. The Tigers have seen a 15-game lead on the AL Central dissolve into a tie with the Cleveland Guardians.

All I have to say about this collapse is this—are the Tigers okay?— They’re 5-11 in September, and while I compare them to the 2024 Phillies, at least they had an over .500 record last September (15-11, thank you, baseballreference.com). The Tigers have imploded while Cleveland kept winning. Now they head to Cleveland for a three-game series against the Guardians, where they have to pray that they at least take the series. If they fail, it will be the greatest AL Central collapse since last year’s Twins.

With regards to spoiler teams, I’d be wary of the Oakland Sacramento Athletics. They have a veritable Murderer’s Row with the likes of Nick Kurtz unleashing his horrors on any pitch he desires and Brent Rooker.

When the Mets collapse in a game or blow a division lead, fans of division rivals or even baseball fans watching in shock love to use the term “LOL Mets”. While it would be easy for me to dedicate this segment to simply laughing at the Mets, I can’t ignore the other disappointment in New York, that is, the New York Yankees. Why not talk about how both New York baseball franchises make their fans check football scores or start counting down the days until the NHL⁴ starts?

The Yankees heard about the Dodgers’ scouting report and chose to manifest it into existence in 2025. While last year’s Yankees’ fielding was okay (save for the fourth inning in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series that Yankees fans choose not to think about), this year’s Yankees’ fielding is atrocious. While they are a respectable 15th in errors committed (17, thank you very much), they have had multiple games with four or more errors. To further the embarrassment, they did so against division rivals in the Blue Jays and Red Sox. Anthony Volpe has become a scapegoat. And while they do have talented hitting, in particular Giancarlo Stanton³, Aaron Judge, and Jazz Chisholm Jr., if they make it to the postseason, their fielding can keep humming along or turn into the error-riddled mess we have witnessed multiple times in the regular season. While I’m hoping for the latter as a Yankees hater, I know Yankees fans are hoping for the former outcome.

2007 called; they want another stunning regular season collapse. The Mets stood in first place in the NL East. While they blew a 5.5-game lead at the top of the NL East in June, they still kept up with the Phightins. They swept a series against the Phillies in their home ballpark! They then squandered that series win by going on an eight-game losing streak. Many of their losses came against the Guardians, Giants, and Brewers—teams who have either clinched a playoff spot since then (Brewers) or were in the playoff hunt (Giants, Guardians). While they did take series against the Braves and Tigers, they lost the bulk of their series against the Nationals, Marlins, and Reds. This skid has put them out of a playoff spot and dependent on far too many teams to collapse with six games left to play. Time to play the song!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Anthony Rizzo and Clayton Kershaw’s retirement. I felt so much joy watching Anthony Rizzo and Clayton Kershaw play baseball. Rizzo hit towering home runs and had amazing defense on first base. In fact, his steady foot led to the Cubs winning the World Series in 2016. While he tailed off a bit as a Yankee (thank you, Yankees trainers, for mismanaging a CONCUSSION), he still will have a plaque in the Cubs Hall of Fame. Congrats to Rizzo on an amazing career, and here’s to crushing it as an ambassador for the Cubs!

Clayton Kershaw is Sandy Koufax for 21st-century Dodgers fans. Like Koufax, he dominated opposing batters, amassing 3,045 strikeouts through a spasmodic windup that made it hard for batters to find any way to get a hit against him.¹ Unlike Koufax, he did not get career-ending injuries, although Father Time did catch up to him in the 2020s. The Dodgers did clinch a playoff spot in his last regular-season start of his career, so at least there’s that achievement. Congrats to Kershaw on an amazing career; as a fan of a rival team, I hope Playoff Kershaw reappears. Pretty please with a cherry on top?