The Buzz — Tuesday, September 8

Jesús Luzardo

The take Luzardo first career CG shutout, 12 Ks, Phillies win

149 starts without a ninth inning, and then he throws 109 pitches like he had been saving them up. Two hits, one walk, twelve strikeouts, and the Phillies split the series still four back in the East. The whole thing took an hour and fifty-one minutes, and that is not a footnote — it is the portrait: Luzardo working so fast and so cleanly that the Braves never settled in.

Kyle Schwarber's eighth-inning solo homer was the only run, which means the shutout was not insurance. It was the whole ballgame. He is 14-5 with a 2.87 ERA, and the first complete game of his life arrived in a race where the Phillies needed it to be exactly that.

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Pete Crow-Armstrong

The take PCA MVP race talk on 40-HR 30-SB pace plus big games

The 40th home run came Saturday, the 41st came Sunday with two steals attached, and the MVP talk is not projection math anymore — it is a player handing the ballot the counting stats in real time.

He is the first Cub to 40 home runs since Derrek Lee in 2005, and he is sitting on 35 steals with three weeks left. The 40-40 club has six members in the history of the sport. He needs five more bags, and August told you he finishes what he starts: four multi-homer games in the month, a leadoff shot and a walk-off in the same game, a three-homer six-RBI night against Cincinnati, and a Player of the Month award that put .280, 14 home runs, and a 1.069 OPS on the resume.

The case is not just the bat, either. He leads the league in Fielding Run Value and Outs Above Average in center field, which is the part of the MVP argument that does not need a hot streak to hold up. The crowd says frontrunner. The numbers do not argue.

Pete Crow-Armstrong cards on eBay →(paid link)

Aaron Judge

The take Judge activated from long IL stint, back imminently in race

Ninety-nine days, 84 games, and zero rehab at-bats. The Yankees activated Aaron Judge on Monday and expect him in the lineup Tuesday against Colorado, straight off the shelf. He broke a rib diving for a ball in April, played through it for weeks, and hit .248 with 17 home runs in 59 games before the shutdown. The Yankees are 81-62, four behind Tampa Bay with 19 to play. The manager said usage might ease in. The standings do not have a dial.

Aaron Judge cards on eBay →(paid link)

Jeff McNeil

The take McNeil walk-off infield single lifts A's over Jays

Jeff McNeil won the game with a ground ball that traveled 14 feet. The exit velocity was 51.9 mph off a 99.8 mph fastball, the launch angle seven degrees below horizontal — a dribbler to short that he legged out with two outs and the bases loaded. The winning run scored, and the Athletics beat Toronto 6-5 in West Sacramento.

That is not a joke at McNeil's expense. A walk-off line drive is timing. A walk-off dribbler beaten out is want, and the A's have won five of six playing with it. The Jays will remember this one: they erased a four-run deficit, tied it in the ninth, and stayed a game behind Cleveland for the last wild card. Fourteen feet cost them real ground.

Jeff McNeil cards on eBay →(paid link)

Yordan Alvarez

The take Alvarez chasing Triple Crown and MVP as Astros play

He leads the AL in average at .314, is tied for the home-run lead at 38, and leads in RBI with 95 — the Triple Crown is live, and nobody has done it since Cabrera in 2012. But since August 1, Alvarez has three home runs and 13 RBI, and the power has cooled while the average held. The chase is real and it is vulnerable. Houston holds a two-game edge over Texas with the tiebreaker, and every at-bat weighs on both the race and the record. The crown is there. It is not being taken right now.

Yordan Alvarez cards on eBay →(paid link)