Three Up, Three Down: The MLB hot/cold report

Shohei Ohtani leaves with a bang

It appears that our journey with the pitching-hitting hybrid known as Shohei Ohtani will be coming to an end in the near future. There was a glimmer of hope for fans when Ohtani was allowed to start a game this past Sunday. Sadly, it appears the elbow issues that everyone was aware of when he signed have come to the forefront once again, as the prodigy will have to undergo Tommy John surgery to repair his torn UCL.

You're probably wondering why this is in the "Up" section since I just hit you across your head with such a bummer of news surrounding one of the game's most exciting players. While it is indeed true that we probably won't see Shohei Ohtani pitching until the 2020 season at the earliest, that doesn't mean that Ohtani is going quietly into that good night.

Instead, Ohtani decided to defy the baseball gods and their verdict upon him by going out and hitting dingers on the day of his diagnosis. Indeed, Ohtani started as a DH for the Angels on Wednesday night and proceeded to hit not just one, but two home runs against the Rangers. It's such a shame that he's going to be on the shelf for such a long period of time, because we're going to miss gargantuan feats like what he pulled off on the same day he got the bad news.

Yankees will give Andrew McCutchen another playoff chance

Andrew McCutchen hasn't quite had one of those seasons that brings back memories of what he was doing during his prime with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but he still has been productive enough to where he can definitely help a team down the stretch. Sure enough, he caught the eye of the New York Yankees, who acquired him from the Giants as a bit of an insurance policy in case Aaron Judge doesn't exactly come back from his injury in prime condition.

This is good news for McCutchen because it means he's going to get another crack at the playoffs. The Pirates made it to the postseason three times between 2013 and 2015. However, two of those appearances were just one-game wild card stints, so we've really only gotten to see McCutchen do his thing in the playoffs just once. It's one of those cruel baseball fates that feels like a robbery.

Knowing this means that we neutral fans now have a bit of an upshot to rooting for the Yankees to win their presumptive wild card game, since we'd get to see McCutchen finally have a shot at a deep playoff run — even if it's the new, weirdly clean-shaven version of the former Pirates superstar.

Trevor Story furiously adds another chapter to his...story

So let's talk about Trevor Story for a moment. Specifically, let's discuss how this man went absolutely bananas on Wednesday night against the Giants. Before we discuss this, let's get the whole "it's Coors Field" thing out of the way, because when you really examine what Story did during this game, it's safe to say that he probably would have done this in any ballpark in America.

With that being said, the man hit three homers and each of them was incredibly impressive. He hit the first one while he was falling down, and it "only" went 459 feet. He topped that by hitting his second homer of the night an incredible 505 feet. Five-hundred-and-five feet! Story wasn't done writing this latest chapter in his book, as he decided to be merciful and actually give the fans in the seats a chance to catch one by hitting one there instead of into the concourses of Coors Field.

Story has been having a pretty good season, and he's established himself as an upper-echelon shortstop during his third full season in the bigs. While there's nowhere near as much hype now as there was when he went on that memorable tear as a rookie, it's still clear that he's not done writing his Story yet (I'm sorry), and there are still plenty of twists and turns left to be put in this particular book.

Three Down

The playoff drought is likely to continue in Seattle

It's really sad to see as a neutral observer, but it appears that the wheels are coming off for the Mariners. They got off to a great start, and it seemed like they would be in the fight for a playoff spot to finally end that dreadful postseason drought of theirs. But unfortunately it seems like they're going to be doomed to yet another season of October-less baseball.

Seattle has slowed considerably in the second half and has clearly given way to the likes of the Astros and Athletics when it comes to the divisional race. What makes matters worse is that the clubhouse seems to be going through some turmoil as well amid reports that there was an altercation in the clubhouse before their game on Tuesday.

The Mariners ended up losing that Tuesday night game against the Baltimore Orioles, who are currently in a race for the bottom when it comes to historically bad teams in baseball history. That was the perfect cap to what was a bad day for Seattle. Maybe next year will be the year?

Cole Hamels riles up Brewers fans before Brewers wallop Cubs

On Monday afternoon the Brewers and Cubs played an exciting game at Miller Park, which ended with the Brewers pulling off a 4-3 win in extras. The crowd was electric, and that was mostly because the audience was split between the local loyalists and the loud interlopers from Chicago. You could even argue that the majority of the crowd was in favor of the Cubbies, which is what Cole Hamels told reporters following the game.

In fact, he went as far as to say that the rivalry between the Cubs and Brewers isn't real because there are more Cubs fans in the house than Brewers fans. Now, I am not a major league baseball player or professional athlete in general, but I know enough to tell you that it's never a good idea to fire up the other team's fan base with comments like that.

Sure enough, the Cubs got walloped 11-1 the next night, and the Brewers fans made sure to let the Cubs fans in the building know all about what they were witnessing. For all we know, this may not be the last time the Cubs will have to visit Milwaukee for games during this campaign. I'd imagine that the fans in Wisconsin will remember Hamels' comments and get especially loud should these two teams meet in October.

Braves continue NL East tradition of throwing away wins

As far as the NL East is concerned, it's beginning to look like the team that represents that division in the playoffs will have survived to the end rather than having simply won it. The Phillies recently suffered an embarrassing loss that was covered in this space, and it seems as if the division-leading Braves were determined to top that.

And they may have succeeded on Wednesday afternoon. Atlanta took a 7-1 lead going into the eighth inning against a Red Sox team that was mostly resting its regulars since it was a noon start. This didn't stop Atlanta's bullpen from giving up six runs in the eighth to turn it into a tie game.

Freddie Freeman hit a home run to put the Braves back in front, but the bullpen once again capitulated to the Red Sox and gave up a game-winning two-run homer to Brandon Phillips. Yes, that's the same Brandon Phillips who has not played since September of last year. The saddest part is that the Phillies really couldn't take advantage of it because they lost two out of three to the Marlins. They're limping to the finish line in the NL East.