This week in baseball

Everything you need to know to get caught up

September 28th, 2021

There's a lot of baseball every day. It's part of what makes the sport so great. But we get it, you can't possibly keep up with everything that happens in a week. That's where we come in. Here's a quick refresher on the five most fun moments you may have missed as we enter the final week of the regular season.

1. Believe

The Mariners haven't been to the postseason since 2001 -- a year when they won an MLB-record 116 games and still fell short of the World Series. This year, things looked bleak, with the team's postseason odds dropping under one percent as late as Aug. 11. But as long as there's a mathematical possibility, there's a chance. Though the Mariners entered the week on the outside of the Wild Card spots, the fans and the players never gave up.

On Monday night, one fan even brought a "Ted Lasso"-inspired Believe sign to the stadium. It may have worked: Trailing 3-0 early, the Mariners stormed back to win, 13-4, behind a two-homer game from Mitch Haniger.

2. The Los Angeles Motorcycle (And Baseball) Club

The Dodgers are having an amazing year. They've won 100 games, they may set the record for the best winning percentage by a team coming off a World Series title since 1969 ... and they still may not win the NL West. Oof.

Don't worry, though: The team is still having plenty of fun. To celebrate one of the final road trips of the season, the team decided to celebrate Halloween a little early and everyone dressed up. Leading the way was the starting rotation, who have apparently been watching plenty of "Easy Rider" and "Sons of Anarchy" lately.

There wasn't much of a theme to this one, as Joe Kelly dressed up as the Grinch and Mookie Betts put on his '90s finest, but it's still a far better look than a bunch of guys wearing suits they don't want to be in.

3. The bat dog emerges

One of the best parts of Minor League Baseball -- one that the Majors should really get on board with -- is the bat dog. For those unaware, that's when the bat boy has been replaced with a lovable and pettable pup, who will emerge from the dugout, collect the used bat and bring it back to the bench. Last week during the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons game, Rookie the Bat Dog got a little too excited.

With Cavan Biggio up to bat, Rookie raced out onto the field. When he didn't see a bat, he ran to the mound, looked around for a minute and then realized he maybe shouldn't have been out there at all.

There were no hard feelings though, and Biggio got to hang out with Rookie for a little photo opp afterward. Honestly, this is the kind of delay we really don't mind.

4. The bat toss

The Red Sox and the Yankees still have the fiercest rivalry in the sport -- and this past weekend proved it. Entering Friday, the Red Sox held a two-game lead over the Yankees for the top Wild Card spot. But New York went to Fenway and changed all of that that. After the Yankees won in a blowout on Friday night, Giancarlo Stanton put the exclamation mark on the sweep with a go-ahead grand slam on Saturday night and then drove the stake through Boston's heart with a two-run blast on Sunday.

As the ball arced high over Fenway's Green Monster, Stanton paused to watch it and then unleashed one heck of a bat toss.

Yeah, this is the 21st century Bucky Dent moment.

5. Brother vs. Brother

Brothers may love each other, may look out for each other and might always be there for each other, but when they face off on the baseball field, you know they want to beat each other.

On Monday afternoon, Cleveland's Bradley Zimmer stepped to the plate to face his older brother, the Royals right-handed reliever Kyle Zimmer. On a 1-1 pitch in the bottom of the eighth, Kyle tried to get a slider past his younger brother. That didn't work out so well as Bradley sent it flying into the right field seats. It was the first time since 1975 when the Astros' Joe Niekro went deep against the Braves' Phil Niekro that a brother homered off his sibling.

"I’d say it’s a mix of emotions," Bradley said after the game. "I don’t necessarily pride myself just because I hit that off of my brother. Hopefully, someday, we’ll be on the same team. I’d like to be on the same team. It was fun. It was a little, I guess, redemption. He got me the first time, so I had to make it even."