Good morning, Purple Row!
There are two games left in the 2026 season, and there is absolutely nothing left for the Rockies to settle in the standings.
There is, however, one oddly specific statistical chase still worth watching.
Jake McCarthy enters Saturday with 30 doubles, 13 triples, 15 home runs and 32 stolen bases. He needs two more triples over the final two games to reach 15 in all four categories.
Individually, none of those numbers jumps off the page, but putting all four together is rarer
than you might think.
Corbin Carroll has done it this season and in 2025, accounting for the only two 15-15-15-15 seasons in the last 10 years.
Before Carroll, you have to go back to 2011, when Shane Victorino did it. Looking all the way back to 2006, the other examples are José Reyes in 2008 and 2006, Jimmy Rollins and Curtis Granderson in 2007, and Carl Crawford in 2006.
That makes just eight such seasons by six players over the past 21 seasons.
McCarthy still needs two triples in two games, so it is very much an outside shot. But it gives the Rockies one more quirky statistical chase before the season ends.
Beyond Colorado, there are only three real races left in the standings.
In the American League, Houston and Texas enter Saturday tied atop the West at 79-81, with the Astros holding the tiebreaker. Cleveland also holds a one-game lead over Chicago in the AL Central.
In the National League, Arizona has stormed to within one game of the sputtering Phillies for the final Wild Card spot. The Diamondbacks have won six straight while Philadelphia has dropped three in a row.
There isn’t much left to the regular season, but there are still plenty of reasons to keep tuning in.
Rockies News & Links
Rockies’ rotation shortcomings have club searching for answers going into 2027 | MLB.com
Thomas Harding digs into Colorado’s biggest offseason problem: a rotation that has spent the season near the bottom of just about every meaningful category and helped drive a brutal late-season collapse. The Rockies are expected to be aggressive in free agency and on the trade market, while also considering more creative ways to piece together innings with the pitchers already in the organization.
Grading Rockies’ Tomoyuki Sugano’s 2026 Season | SI.com
Sugano’s season gets a C-minus from Miguel Mike Medina, though the grade was handed out before he actually made his final start of the year. He then closed things out Friday by allowing four earned runs over 6.2 innings, putting the finishing touch on a season that had some legitimately strong stretches before falling apart late. The grade is a little harsher than I probably would have gone, but it is still a useful look back at Sugano’s uneven one-year run in Colorado.
José Quintana returns to the South Side for what could be his final career start, with his former team chasing an AL Central title | WhiteSoxRoundtable
Sam Phalen looks ahead to José Quintana’s return to the South Side, where the longtime White Sox starter could now complicate Chicago’s push for the AL Central. Quintana spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2012-17 and built a reputation there as one of baseball’s steadier starters before bouncing around the league, making Saturday a pretty fitting setting for what could be his final major-league start.
Renck: Rockies keeping Warren Schaeffer, talking improvement during awful finish is a tough sell | The Denver Post ($)
A brutal 7-28 finish makes the Rockies’ progress a tough sell, and Troy Renck argues that the biggest culprit is a familiar one: starting pitching. He also digs into Josh Byrnes’ support for Warren Schaeffer and a front office willing to rethink everything from rotation usage to unconventional pitching arrangements as Colorado searches for answers heading into 2027.
Around MLB
Aaron Boone’s Anthony Volpe reveal may finally stick a fork in Ryan McMahon before Yankees playoff run | yankeesgoyard.com
Anthony Volpe getting a look at third base could further squeeze former Rockie Ryan McMahon out of New York’s postseason plans. McMahon still brings value with the glove, but his offensive struggles have become increasingly difficult to overlook as the Yankees experiment with other options at the hot corner heading into October.
AL West ineptitude: MLB to have first playoff team with non-winning record after full season | The Athletic
Johnny Flores Jr. puts the AL West’s mess into historical context: Houston and Texas are both 79-81 with two games remaining, meaning the division champion can finish no better than 81-81. That guarantees MLB will have its first playoff team from a full 162-game season without a winning record.
Brewers reach 100 wins for 1st time, lock up home field as No. 1 overall seed | MLB.com
The Brewers reached 100 wins for the first time in franchise history and locked up the No. 1 overall seed. They did it in unusual fashion, too: Milwaukee became the first 100-win team in MLB history without a winning streak longer than five games, and now heads into October trying to avoid the early exits that have tripped up most recent 100-win clubs.
Bregman back in Cubs’ lineup, plays full game days after being hit in face with foul ball | MLB.com
Just days after taking a foul ball to the face and suffering multiple fractures, Alex Bregman was already back in Chicago’s lineup Friday. He went hitless in four plate appearances, but simply getting through a full game was a big step for a Cubs team that will need him healthy for October.
Surging D-backs pull closer in Wild Card race with 6th straight win | MLB.com
Arizona just keeps applying pressure. Steve Gilbert breaks down the Diamondbacks’ sixth straight win, an 11-4 rout of San Diego that pulled them within one game of Philadelphia for the final NL Wild Card spot. Arizona still needs some help, but it owns the tiebreaker and has turned what looked like a long shot into one of the last real races of the regular season.
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