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

Jacob deGrom deserves the NL Cy Young

Back on Sept. 16, Jacob deGrom took on the Red Sox for seven innings and came out of it mostly unscathed, striking out 12 Boston batters and giving up only one walk. He did allow three runs, but it's the Red Sox — they roll out of bed and three runs are on the board by accident. The point is that deGrom once again put his team in position to at least have a chance to win the game, and once again his team let him down.

The Mets lost that game 4-3, and deGrom didn't figure into the official decision. He's had a lot of those games this season, and the pitcher's results paint a bleak picture of a guy who's been struggling with hard luck on a bad team. With that being said, everything else about deGrom's production on the mound reads as a clear Cy Young candidate, if not a clear favorite to win the trophy.

He's sitting on a 1.78 ERA, a 2.05 FIP and has shrunk all of his peripheral stats to microscopic levels. Most of those same stats have him at the top of the leaderboards for starting pitchers, and it's clear that he deserves some sort of recognition for the amazing season that he's been having. The good news is that awards voters have proved that they aren't living in the stone age of pitcher analysis anymore, so it's likely that deGrom will indeed win the Cy Young. It would be truly deserved and also proof that sometimes good things do happen to the Mets!

Cleveland takes care of business in the Central

The baseball world got its first champagne shower this past week (the Red Sox had a "toast" to celebrate their spot in the playoffs) after the Cleveland Indians completed what's been inevitable since before the All-Star break by clinching the AL Central. That's now three in a row for Cleveland, and this is probably the easiest one of the trio of divisional titles.

The Tribe clinched the division in style as well. They pummeled the Detroit Tigers to the tune of a 15-0 victory, which sums up how they've punished the AL Central this year. The only team in that division that really seemed like it had a competitive pulse coming into this season was the Minnesota Twins. However, they faded away pretty quickly and with the Tigers, Royals and White Sox all deciding to punt on 2018, this made for a crystal-clear path to a divisional title for Cleveland.

With the Red Sox managing to pull away from a good Yankees team and the AL West giving us two other really good teams in the form of the Astros and Athletics, it's easy to overlook Cleveland. However, with Jose Ramirez having an MVP-caliber season and Francisco Lindor actually being pretty close to him in that regard, this is not a team that should be ignored in October. I've said this before, but this is a reminder that this team could go toe-to-toe with the rest of the AL's best.

The Orioles pick up a rare victory with Braille uniforms

On Tuesday, the Orioles lost yet again. The box score for that game may forever read out as a 6-4 victory in favor of the Blue Jays, but Baltimore should be remembered as the real winners for a promotion it had at Camden Yards that night.

The O's made history as the first American pro sports team to wear uniforms with Braille lettering front and center on their uniforms. Even the nameplates on the back of the jerseys were printed in Braille. It was part of a cooperative effort with the National Federation of the Blind, which is based in Baltimore. As such, the team went all out to make sure that blind fans felt welcome at the ballpark, which was very cool.

There were still plenty of jokes on social media about how the O's were paying tribute to umpires with their uniforms, but the thing that should be remembered is that a pro sports team went out of its way to pay tribute to a group that may have felt marginalized as fans of the game. If you can do that, then you've done something good and the Orioles can at least take that as a big victory this season.

Three Down

Trevor's "Story" turns into a nightmare

A couple of weeks ago, I used this space to sing the praises of Trevor Story after Colorado's shortstop unleashed a trio of massive moonshots during a single game. It was a loud reminder of just how good Story has become, and it was another example of how he's been a big reason why the Rockies have stayed in the playoff race for so long.

Unfortunately, Trevor Story's story took a turn for the worse this past week when he ran into elbow issues that normally plague pitchers. He exited Monday's game against the Dodgers early, and there were initial reports that Story could be dealing with a damaged UCL that could potentially require Tommy John surgery.

While the injury prognosis for Story has improved, his injury could end up proving to be a massive blow to Colorado's chance to make the playoffs. It's totally understandable for Colorado to drop games against a Dodgers team that is heating up at exactly the right time, but you have to imagine that the Rockies would much rather have a healthy Story, and they definitely missed him at Dodger Stadium. For Colorado's sake, here's hoping that the injury isn't as serious as initially reported.

Red Sox fans "acquire" 2018 divisional banner and hold it for ransom

The Boston Red Sox have won the AL East. In fact, the banner has been printed and is ready to hang on the exterior of Fenway Park. We know that the banner exists because a couple of fans managed to get their hands on it earlier this week.

The fans claimed that they found it on a highway and didn't know it was the banner until they took off the wrapping. What makes this story even crazier is that the fans then decided that the best path to take was to immediately shake down the Red Sox for money and/or free stuff in exchange for returning the banner.

They reportedly always intended on returning it, but the fact that they actively attempted to hold it for ransom before giving it back was absolutely hilarious and also what cast a shadow of suspicion on their side of the story. The company that made the flag already made a replacement for the team, which means that the one the fans "found" is now worthless. Still, you have to be amazed at their audacity to try to get box seats in exchange for a divisional title banner.

AL's run of interleague dominance ends

It's totally understandable if you weren't paying much attention to the Royals/Pirates game on Monday. After all, the Royals have been playing out the string for a long time now, and the Pirates' attempt at making a run in the NL Central quickly died off and they're also looking forward to next season. Basically, these were two teams that didn't have much to play for, but it did end up in a walk-off win for the Pirates. So that had to have been fun for the fans who got to witness it.

It also ended up being a big win for the National League, ensuring that it would win the overall interleague series against the American League, which actually breaks up a run of dominance on the AL's part. As FanGraphs noted, it's been 14 years since the NL proved itself as the superior league in interleague play. For the first time since 2003, the NL has finally broken the hex.

Part of the reason has to be the fact that the American League, as a whole, is a bit top-heavy. Yes, there are juggernauts like the Red Sox, Yankees, Astros and A's. However, one only has to look at the AL Central to see what's going on. Cleveland is a great team as well, but it was a one-horse race in its division for the majority of the season. The other four teams in the Central were rebuilding, and that was the story of the 2018 American League. Either you were really good or you were terrible, and there were more teams who were leaning toward the latter descriptor. That could be why the AL finally ceded control to the NL this year.