The Buzz — Sunday, September 20

Pavin Smith

The take pinch-hit walk-off HR beats the Yankees

Smith hit a two-run walk-off home run in the ninth inning Saturday to beat the Yankees 5-3, and the crowd is right that the moment was enormous — the franchise was celebrating the 25th anniversary of its 2001 World Series championship, with most of that team on hand, and Smith called the parallel to Luis Gonzalez's Game 7 walk-off pretty cool.

What makes the swing a genuine turnaround is where Smith was on July 9: designated for assignment, hitting .141 after elbow bone-spur surgery. He cleared waivers, rebuilt his timing at Triple-A Reno, and came back as a bench bat. The walk-off left Arizona (81-74) four games behind the Phillies (85-70) for the final NL Wild Card spot with seven games remaining — slim, but alive. The drama was the headline. The standings math is why it mattered.

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Mookie Betts

The take buzz over Betts four-hit three-double Dodgers win

Betts went 4-for-4 with three doubles Saturday and reached base in all five plate appearances — his first three-extra-base-hit game since July 7, 2023, his first five-times-on-base game since April 16, 2024. The bigger number is the stretch: .397/.493/.794 in September with 20 RBIs, a 1.008 OPS across his past 39 games. A week ago he was hitting .249. He is at .261 now, and the Dodgers won their 95th to sit 35 over .500. This is not a hot week — it is a teardown of the slump, arriving as the postseason does.

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Jacob Misiorowski

The take NL Cy Young favorite amid ranking chatter

32 first-place votes, 160 points, unanimous. MLB.com's final 2026 Cy Young poll gave him every ballot, and the numbers underneath explain why nobody argued: 15-5, 1.89 ERA, 243 strikeouts, 0.81 WHIP, opponents batting .160. He leads the majors in ERA, strikeouts, and batting average against — only three pitchers since 1950 have led MLB in all three, the last being Mike Scott in 1986.

The crowd frames this as a velocity story, and 1,053 pitches at 100 mph or harder — the most under pitch tracking since 2008 — is real. But the velocity is the delivery method, not the verdict. The verdict is that the hardest-throwing starter alive also leads baseball in run prevention and miss rate, on a first-place club, in a full workload. The race is over. The chatter should be too.

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Aaron Judge

The take Judge on IL calf strain eyeing possible playoff return

The Yankees placed Judge on the 10-day injured list Saturday with a right calf strain, retroactive to Thursday. His earliest activation is Sept. 27 — the final regular-season game. The AL Wild Card Series begins Sept. 29. Any return is a postseason question, not a September one, and the window between eligible and necessary is two days.

Judge identified the strain as in the soleus, which he said affects running and hitting more than calf strains he has played through before. He offered no grade. Boone, asked about a playoff return, said I don't know and I don't have a timeline on him. I'm not going to predict anything. The plan Judge described — wanting to be back by the postseason — is an aspiration, not a prognosis. A soleus strain with no disclosed grade is a medical blank.

This is also his second major IL stint of an already shortened year. He was 4-for-23 with one home run in seven games back from a rib stress fracture that cost him months, returning Sept. 8 with no rehab assignment. The calf went seven games into that rushed comeback. He is hitting .241 with 18 home runs in 66 games. The Yankees have clinched a berth but trail the Rays in the AL East. The club is in October either way. Whether Judge is — and in what shape — is the only question left, and nobody with a uniform is answering it.

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Pete Crow-Armstrong

The take PCA MVP favorite chasing rare 40-40 with elite WAR

44 home runs, 37 stolen bases — three away from a 40-40 season only six players in MLB history have reached, and none as a Cub. The slash line is .279 with a .946 OPS and 105 RBIs. The number that settles the MVP case is 9.2 WAR, ranking among the best center-field seasons since 1947. The award is locked. What is live is the chase: three steals in the final week-plus would put Crow-Armstrong into one of the rarest clubs in the sport, and that is the number worth watching until the last out of the year.

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