The Paul Maurice Effect: How the Panthers coach helped create a monster
-
Kristen Shilton
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Tomas Nosek was experiencing every hockey player’s worst nightmare.
It was overtime in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, and the veteran fourth-line forward for the Florida Panthers was sitting in the box for a delay of game penalty after flipping a puck over the glass with 1:42 remaining in extra time. He could only watch helplessly from there as Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl scored the game winner on the ensuing power play.
That was a devastating moment for Nosek. The response from coach Paul Maurice was to ensure that the crushing feeling wouldn’t linger.
“You just remind him after the game of being down 2-0 to Toronto [in the second round] when that [fourth] line came in and changed everything for us,” Maurice said in his postgame media availability. “And how we are not here [in the Final] without Tomas. It’s a tough break. So, we’ll just make sure he doesn’t eat alone tonight. He’s got lots of people sitting at his table and reminding him how good he’s been to us.”
Nosek didn’t see that kind of empathy coming. The 32-year-old has skated for five NHL clubs in his career and called the interaction with Maurice following his gaffe special compared to other dressing rooms.
“He’s a tremendous person. He said some things that he didn’t need to say, but he said it,” Nosek said. “And that’s what makes him, for me, a really, really good coach and a really good person as well.”
Like Nosek, Maurice has journeyed around the league. It’s at his sixth stop — behind the Panthers’ bench — where he has created his finest work. It’s not just that he has guided Florida to a third consecutive Cup Final, where the Panthers are vying for a second straight title after claiming the organization’s first one 12 months ago. Maurice has been at the center of his team’s cultural movement.
Before Maurice arrived in 2022, the Panthers were a good team on the cusp of greatness. Three years later, Florida is verging on dynastic territory.
That’s not all Maurice’s doing, of course. But whether he takes credit or not, Maurice has been a linchpin in making the Panthers shine, both as a group and individuals.
“Every single guy respects him so much,” forward Sam Bennett said. “When he speaks, everyone’s listening, and I think the team’s really just bought into the culture that he’s implemented into this team. We’re all willing to do whatever it takes and play that hard style that he keeps preaching to us, night in and night out, and we’ve all just bought into that over the years.”
IT WAS JUST PRIOR to Christmas in 2021 when Maurice believed his time was up.
He had been the Winnipeg Jets‘ head coach for nine seasons and could see, with the team limping through a 4-7-2 stretch, that they needed someone else to start calling the shots.
“If you’ll allow me some arrogance, I feel I’m better positioned than anyone to know that they need a new voice,” Maurice said while announcing his resignation. “They need somebody that can get them to that next place.”
Ironically, the same would shortly be true of the Panthers. Little did Maurice know at the time he was the right man for that job. Because when Maurice was bowing out in Winnipeg, he cited a loss of passion for the game itself and swore that without recapturing it, “you can’t be as good as you could be or should be, and that’s how I feel.”
While Maurice was contemplating his future, the Panthers were basking in their present. Florida tore up the NHL with a 122-point showing in 2021-22 to earn the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s top regular-season team. That accolade didn’t serve them well in the postseason though, where Florida flamed out in a second-round sweep by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It was Florida, then, that needed the new voice. After the season, GM Bill Zito parted with interim head coach Andrew Brunette, who had taken over when Joel Quenneville resigned in October following sexual assault allegations reported by Kyle Beach against the Chicago Blackhawks during Quenneville’s tenure there.
Despite how far Brunette had taken Florida, Zito wanted to woo someone else for the permanent role — and Maurice was willing to give his past love one last chance.
It’s been a match made in heaven, in more ways than one.
Maurice was barely in the fold when Zito rocked the hockey world with a blockbuster trade in July 2022, shipping the Panthers’ top scorer Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to the Calgary Flames for forward Matthew Tkachuk.
That haymaker dwarfed the Maurice news, but both acquisitions were integral to redefining the Panthers’ brand. Tkachuk exemplified the type of physically focused structure Maurice was sermonizing. Almost in one fell swoop, Florida had found harmony between a superstar and coach. Easy enough then to get everyone else on board too, what with Maurice’s knack for knowing how to read his room.
“He’s open, honest and speaks his mind,” forward Evan Rodrigues said. “I don’t think he holds back by any means. [He’s] very smart. Knows kind of what to say and when to say it, and does a great job of motivating us.”
1:27
Matthew Tkachuk: ‘When we’re playing at our best, we’re pretty hard to beat’
Matthew Tkachuk speaks with Emily Kaplan about the Florida Panthers’ pursuit of back-to-back Stanley Cup championships and what it would mean for their legacy.
Talking might be one of Maurice’s greatest strengths — unless it’s about himself. Maurice earned his 1,000th career win when Florida topped Edmonton 6-1 in Game 3 of the Cup Final on Monday, an accomplishment he declined specifically commenting on. But Maurice was touched to hear Bennett’s comments about the Panthers’ esteem for their coach, calling it “a very kind thing” for his top skater to say about how Maurice has handled leading the Panthers.
“If you walk into the room and you just tell the truth,” Maurice said, “whether they want to hear it or not but it’s the truth, and over time you could look back and say what that person told me was the truth, you’ll have respect for that, I think. So I work hard at trying to find the truth every day and then just telling it as simply as I can with the occasional joke slipped in. Most times I’m the only one that thinks it’s funny.”
Carter Verhaeghe can’t suppress a grin when asked about Maurice and the quirks that make him a unique personality in today’s game.
“He’s one of a kind,” Verhaeghe said. “We see his sense of humor with [the media] and he kind of has the same sense of humor with us. He keeps everything light but makes you want to work; and for the right reasons, for each other. At any given time, he knows what the group needs … it keeps us loose and focused at the same time.”
Fortunately for Maurice it’s not his comedic timing that has cemented the Panthers’ status as a destination spot for players — particularly those in search of revitalizing their résumé. While it used to be — and still is — thought that Florida’s lack of state income tax is what drives NHL free agents to their doorstep, the pull of a Panthers’ sweater goes beyond the potential to save some cash. Florida is 141-87-18 under Maurice, a perennial playoff powerhouse and wields some sort of elixir that, when injected into countless newcomers, has resulted in some of their best years ever.
Just ask A.J. Greer.
The veteran signed a two-year deal with Florida this past July 1 and posted a career-high 17 points in the regular season on his way to being a key piece of the Panthers’ impactful fourth line during this postseason run. And the way Maurice has made his unit with Nosek feel important is testament to that skill Maurice has in getting the most from his group.
“Every player that comes into this organization elevates their game and gets to a certain point where you’re like, ‘Wow. Why wasn’t he like this in the other organizations?’ It translates from the head coach,” Greer said. “He’s a lot of different coaches that I’ve had kind of combined into one. He’s kind of just a complete package of being able to motivate us and elevate our games mentally.”
0:36
A.J. Greer helps Panthers regain 2-goal lead
A.J. Greer scores early in the second period to help Florida regain a two-goal advantage over the Hurricanes.
It’s become the standard in Florida that entering the den comes with high expectations for soaring results. No one epitomizes that more than Maurice. There’s a core belief in his system and how he wants to run the team, but personal evolution has taught Maurice to be less rigid in his everyday approach to the game.
“I’ve spent a lot of years in this league grinding and spitting nails every single day,” Maurice said. “It’s too hard to do. You have to be able to find places where you can laugh a little bit and enjoy it. Once you know everyone’s going to work their butt off, it’s easy to do.”
That translates into how Maurice puts the Panthers through their practice paces during the playoffs. Florida didn’t get on the sheet at all after winning Game 3 and held only an optional practice the morning before Game 4. Maurice is open to adjusting the Panthers schedule as they go, and in tune with what players need to be successful, a vital combination that allows Maurice to know when it’s the right time for a skate — and just how long to keep it going.
“In my relationship with these players, [I ask], when was the last time we added a drill or a skate to practice? I haven’t done it in three years,” he said. “All I do is as soon as I think I get them to the threshold, I shut practice down. Then you get to have a good time. If you believe that you’ve worked as hard as you can, then there’s nothing left to do.”
THEY SAY WINNING can change a man. Maurice, apparently, is not one of them. At least not to his team, who are still getting the same ol’ chestnuts from their leader even after hoisting hockey’s holy grail a season ago.
“He [brings] pretty much the same stuff. Nothing really changed,” Anton Lundell said. “I think you guys know, too; he’s got a lot of things to say, so it’s not only one or two things. He always switches it up and rotates his quotes. But it’s fun to be here, and as a group we like him.”
If there has been a shift in Maurice at all it’s been a positive for the Panthers. Florida’s road to the Cup Final this year was rockier than before, oscillating between dominant stretches and spans of adversity that drew questions about their ability to contend for back-to-back championships.
Maurice kept the Panthers even-keeled through those highs and lows until Florida had fully blossomed.
“He’s the same guy, the same coach,” defenseman Gustav Forsling said. “Maybe even better, probably. He’s really good. He’s still very much looking at every game and he’s reading into everything. And he’s giving us the best chance to win every night.”
That might be Maurice’s greatest superpower — an ability to instill confidence. Whether Florida is up or down in a postseason series — as they have been at times this spring — the Panthers don’t panic. They don’t crumble. Stumble, maybe. But the safety net is there. It comes from Maurice and his philosophies that are well-received because they work. Florida can trust that if it follows his lead, good things happen.
And the Panthers could be days away from proving that fact. Again.
“I don’t think he’s changed since winning [the Cup]. He’s the same,” Bennett said. “He can be hard on us. He’s hard on us when he needs to be. And then he’s relaxed with us when he knows that we need [it], so I think he really does have a good feel for what our team needs. We all have the most respect for him.”
HOUSTON — Astros starter Framber Valdez said he apologized to catcher Cesar Salazar after hitting him in the chest with a pitch Tuesday night, but the left-hander insisted it wasn’t intentional.
Valdez appeared to shake off Salazar on a 1-0 pitch with the bases loaded and Trent Grisham of the New York Yankees at the plate in the fifth inning. Salazar then urged Valdez to step off the mound, but he proceeded with the pitch, which Grisham launched to deep left field to give New York a 6-0 lead in an eventual 7-1 win.
On the second pitch to the next batter, Valdez hit Salazar in the chest with a 93 mph pitch, raising questions about whether he was upset about what happened in the Grisham at-bat and if it was intended.
Valdez said it was not.
“What happened with us, we just got crossed up,” Valdez said in Spanish through an interpreter. “I called for that pitch, I threw it and we got crossed up. We went down to the dugout and I excused myself with him and I said sorry to him and I take full responsibility for that.”
Valdez was then asked directly if he did it on purpose.
“No,” he said. “It was not intentional.”
Valdez and Salazar were talking when reporters entered the clubhouse after the game, and Valdez said they had sorted things out.
“We were able to talk through it,” he said. “We spoke after the game … at his locker and everything’s good between us. It’s just stuff that happens in baseball. But yeah, we talked through it and we’re good.”
Salazar also was asked about what happened on the pitch where he was hit.
“The stadium was loud,” he said. “I thought I pressed the button, but I pressed the wrong button. I was expecting another pitch, but it wasn’t it.”
Salazar said Valdez didn’t hit him on purpose.
“No, me and Framber we actually have a really good relationship,” he said.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
-
David Schoenfield
With each postseason expansion throughout MLB’s history, the value of division races has diluted. In the wild-card era, you can finish in second place — or even third or fourth — and still win the World Series.
Does that make September less exciting? There’s no doubt it brings more teams and more fans into the mix. And a big game is still a big game, even if there is slightly less tension in a Red Sox-Yankees or Mets-Phillies series than there otherwise might be if both teams already know they’re going to make the playoffs.
Thus, we’re mostly left with wild-card races and battles for seeding to occupy our time and scoreboard watching. That still offers plenty of fun, still makes September the best month on the baseball calendar, and there’s still a lot of sweating going on when your closer walks two batters in the ninth trying to protect a one-run lead. The 12 postseason slots aren’t completely locked up, so if you’re a fan of the Mets or Mariners, you can’t breathe easily just yet — not until a playoff spot is clinched and the champagne uncorked.
September is here, believe it or not. We have races to decide. Let’s rank their potential excitement level over the final month.
1. National League West race
Standings: Los Angeles Dodgers up 2 games on San Diego Padres
What’s at stake: This is the best rivalry going on in the majors right now. The teams don’t like each other, the fans don’t like each other, and there’s still that element of David trying to knock out Goliath as the Padres seek their first division title since 2006 and their first World Series title ever. The teams have met three times in the NL Division Series since 2020 — with the Dodgers winning in 2020 and 2024 and the Padres victorious in 2022 — and with another rematch possible, home-field advantage could be key.
Do the Dodgers need to win the division? No, they will still be more focused on getting the pitching staff healthy and ready for October than on getting consumed in the race to win the division. It would probably mean more to the Padres, who want to finally beat their I-5 rivals in something besides that one playoff series. On the other hand, San Diego is probably a little better equipped for a short wild-card series, as it can ride its bullpen for the two or three games.
Series to watch: Somehow, the schedule-makers thought it would be a good idea to not have the Dodgers playing the Padres in September. The Dodgers finish with a road trip to Arizona and Seattle while the Padres end at home against Milwaukee and Arizona. The Dodgers won the season series, so they own the tiebreaker.
Dodgers player to watch: Blake Snell has been a notable second-half pitcher in his career and has a 2.54 ERA since returning from the injured list in August, but he hasn’t been quite as dominant as when he gets on one of his patented hot streaks (such as the second half last year, when he had a 1.45 ERA and .130 average allowed). The Dodgers won last season despite a beat-up rotation that wasn’t even all that effective in the playoffs. But the bullpen has been nowhere near as strong this season as in 2024, so they’ll need that dominant version of Snell down the stretch and in October.
Padres player to watch: Ramon Laureano has been the team’s best hitter since he was acquired at the trade deadline, slashing .305/.354/.581 with seven home runs and 23 RBIs in 28 games. He helped keep the offense afloat in August as Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. each hit just one home run on the month and Jackson Merrill has been injured. Laureano’s production has been great, but the Padres need more power from their big two.
2. American League East
Standings: Toronto Blue Jays up 3 games on New York Yankees, 3.5 games on Boston Red Sox
What’s at stake: This has been the wildest division race all season. The Blue Jays were eight games back in late May when they fell under .500 but have now held first place since July 3. The Yankees fell as many as 6.5 games back in August before cleaning up against the Washington Nationals and Chicago White Sox this past week to draw closer. The Red Sox were 41-44 on June 30, but only the Brewers have a better record since that date. The Yankees have a plus-134 run differential, whereas it’s plus-56 for the Blue Jays and plus-102 for the Red Sox, so you wonder why they’re even in this position. However, New York is 5-8 in extra-inning games (the Blue Jays are 8-4) and hasn’t played well against Toronto and Boston (5-15).
Series to watch: Blue Jays at Yankees (Friday-Sunday); Red Sox at Blue Jays (Sept. 23-25); Yankees at Red Sox (Sept. 12-14). All three season series have already been clinched: The Blue Jays over the Red Sox and Yankees and the Red Sox over the Yankees. That will leave the Yankees on the short end of any tiebreaker.
Blue Jays player to watch: Toronto acquired Shane Bieber at the deadline even though he was still completing his minor league rehab from Tommy John surgery. He has allowed three runs in two starts for the Blue Jays, striking out 15 with no walks in 11⅓ innings. It’s just two starts, but he looks like he did when he was the Cleveland ace, plus he has allowed the Jays to go to a six-man rotation. Don’t be surprised if he ends up as the Game 1 starter in the postseason.
Yankees player to watch: Aaron Judge is still probably the MVP favorite, but after missing 10 days with a flexor strain in his right elbow, he hasn’t been quite the same, hitting .241/.417/.506 with six home runs and 12 RBIs in 24 games in August. Though those are still good numbers, it seems fair to call it a slight slump by Judge’s recent historic standards — and it’s not the same level of production as before his injury. He also still hasn’t played the field, which limits the red-hot Giancarlo Stanton to pinch-hitting duties when the Yankees are on the road (manager Aaron Boone has been willing to play Stanton in right field at Yankee Stadium, where there’s less ground to cover).
Red Sox player to watch: Sixty-nine games into his career, 21-year-old rookie Roman Anthony has made it clear: He’s going to be a big star. Sure, he can cut his strikeout rate a bit, but he already has A-plus plate discipline and has the second-highest hard-hit percentage in the majors behind only Kyle Schwarber. And Anthony is also quickly learning to lift the ball, slugging six home runs in August after hitting one each in June and July.
3. National League race for No. 2 seed
Standings: Milwaukee Brewers hold No. 1 seed with 5.5-game cushion; Philadelphia Phillies up 1 game on Dodgers, 3 games on Padres
What’s at stake: The Phillies hold a comfortable lead over the Mets in the NL East, so they have about a 90% chance of winning the division, but Philadelphia is neck and neck with the pair of NL West rivals for the second-best record in the NL. Home-field advantage isn’t a must to win a World Series — we’ve seen wild-card teams take it all, such as the Rangers in 2023 when they were the fifth seed in the AL — but the Phillies have an extreme home/road split this season, going 45-23 in Philadelphia and 34-35 elsewhere. They’re hitting .275 with an .808 OPS at home, .239 with a .693 OPS on the road.
Series to watch: Phillies at Dodgers (Sept. 15-17). The Phillies finish with a six-game homestand against the Miami Marlins and Minnesota Twins, which looks like a favorable way to end the season.
Phillies player to watch: Kyle Schwarber, of course, and Cristopher Sanchez as he takes over the role of staff ace from the injured Zack Wheeler. But the bullpen has been the issue the past two postseasons for the Phillies, which puts Jhoan Duran on the spot as well. Acquired from the Twins at the trade deadline to take over as closer, Duran has mostly done the job, but he blew one save against the Nationals, picking up the loss, and then lost another game against the Mets when he allowed four straight hits without getting an out.
4. American League race for top two seeds
Standings: Detroit Tigers hold No. 1 seed and are up 0.5 games on Blue Jays, 3.5 games on Yankees, 4 games on Red Sox and 4.5 games on Astros
What’s at stake: Bragging rights? Momentum heading into the postseason? Home-field advantage? Sure, all those things are nice, and the Tigers have a notable home/road split (44-25 versus 36-33), so securing that top seed, which they’ve held much of the way in the AL, would be the final touch on an excellent regular season. Still, if you’re manager A.J. Hinch, you’re not going to burn out your rotation in September just to get that top seed. If the Astros climb closer to the Tigers and Blue Jays, however, it will get more interesting as teams want to avoid that wild-card series if possible.
Series to watch: Tigers at Yankees (Sept. 9-11); Tigers at Red Sox (Sept. 26-28); Yankees at Astros (Tuesday-Thursday); Astros at Blue Jays (Sept. 9-11)
Tigers player to watch: The Tigers have been searching for a No. 2 starter behind Tarik Skubal all year. Jack Flaherty has been inconsistent all season and had three starts in August where he allowed five or more runs. Casey Mize has a 7.20 ERA over his past eight starts. Chris Paddack? No. Maybe it’s 41-year-old vet Charlie Morton, who has a 4.61 ERA in his five starts with Detroit, as he has mixed in three excellent outings with two bad ones (although he fanned 10 in one of the bad ones). No matter what, there are going to be a lot of bullpen games for the Tigers in the playoffs when Skubal isn’t pitching, especially since the pen was much better in August after struggling in June and July (and adding some depth at the deadline).
5. American League West
Standings: Houston Astros up 2 games on Seattle Mariners
What’s at stake: The Mariners haven’t won a division title since … hold on here, scrolling through the years on Baseball-Reference.com … that’s right, the 116-win season in 2001. The Mariners made some weird pact with the baseball gods that season, which for some reason didn’t include them making the World Series after their historic regular season but did include them not making the postseason again until 2022. That’s right: They remain the only franchise never to appear in the Fall Classic. Winning the division would increase their odds just a bit and allow them to set their rotation for the ALDS.
Series to watch: Mariners at Astros (Sept. 19-21). The season series is tied 5-5, so the winner of this series gets that crucial tiebreaker edge. Of note: The Mariners have lost five consecutive road series and are 1-6-1 (they split a four-game series) in their past eight. The Astros have managed to keep their grip on first place despite going 12-13 in July and 13-15 in August. They’ve won every full-season AL West title going back to 2017.
Astros player to watch: Yordan Alvarez returned last week after being out since early May with a hand injury. He homered in his second game back and didn’t strike out in his first five games. The Astros have even started him twice in left field, allowing them to give Jose Altuve a DH day. Bottom line: If Alvarez is producing, a below-average offense suddenly looks at least like an average — or better-than-average — offense. With Alvarez, Altuve and Carlos Correa, it’s 2019 or 2021 all over again, two seasons that ended with the Astros playing in the World Series.
Mariners player to watch: How much does Cal Raleigh have left in the tank? He’s sitting on 50 home runs but also hit .194 in July and .173 in August. He’s still doing damage with the long ball and has had 17 home runs and 36 RBIs over the two months, but he’s not carrying the offense as he did in the first half.
6. American League Wild Card
Standings: Mariners hold third wild-card spot and are up 2.5 games on Kansas City Royals, 3 games on Texas Rangers and 4 games on Cleveland Guardians
What’s at stake: By no means are the Mariners out of the AL West race against Houston, but they also haven’t played well enough to pull away in the wild-card fight, even after everyone declared them a sure-thing playoff team following the acquisitions of Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor at the deadline. But given Seattle’s recent history of just missing the playoffs — two wins short in 2021, one short in 2023 and 2024 — Mariners fans are understandably nervous about blowing it, especially with the Royals and the Rangers refusing to go away.
Series to watch: Mariners at Royals (Sept. 16-18); Royals at Guardians (Sept. 8-10); Rangers at Guardians (Sept. 26-28). The Royals finished one game ahead of the Mariners for a wild-card spot last season, so this looks like the key series. The Mariners have one three-game series in Houston starting Sept. 19. If they can survive this current road trip — they just went 1-2 against Cleveland and now head to Tampa and Atlanta — that series looms large as well.
Royals player to watch: Is it too late to toss Bobby Witt Jr. into the Judge/Raleigh MVP debate? He’s making a late run with his outstanding all-around game and just had his best month of the season. With Vinnie Pasquantino mashing home runs and some trade acquisitions chipping in, Kansas City is peaking at the right time. The Royals have played well for two months now and have a pretty soft schedule for the final month.
Rangers player to watch: The Rangers looked out of it, and they’re going to be without Nathan Eovaldi for the rest of the season — and likely Marcus Semien as well — and Corey Seager for some period of time following an appendectomy. But they just won three series in a row. Without Eovaldi, Jack Leiter has to continue to pitch well: He has a 2.88 ERA over his past 11 starts and just tossed back-to-back excellent games.
Guardians player to watch: Cleveland is barely hanging in there, taking two of three against the Mariners as Kyle Manzardo hit big home runs in wins Friday and Saturday. He’s hitting .273/.362/.545 since July 12, giving Cleveland a much-needed power source other than Jose Ramirez.
7. National League East and NL Wild Card
Standings: Phillies up 6 games on Mets in division; Mets up 4 games on Cincinnati Reds in wild card
What’s at stake: The Mets temporarily made the division race interesting again after sweeping Philadelphia early last week but then lost three of four at home to the Marlins. That’s unacceptable if you want to win the division. The Reds continue to falter, so the Mets’ wild-card spot looks reasonably safe, though they are just .500 since May 1.
Series to watch: Mets at Phillies (Sept. 8-11); Mets at Reds (Friday-Sunday). With next week’s four-game series, the NL East remains in play even though it would take an epic New York comeback combined with a Phillies collapse for the Mets to win the division. They’ve already clinched the season series over the Phillies with a 7-2 advantage. Meanwhile, the Reds have a chance to put pressure on the Mets with a three-game series in Cincinnati before New York’s trip to Philadelphia.
Mets player to watch: Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong. The Mets’ rotation has scuffled for a while, so suddenly the season rests heavily on their two prized rookie starters. McLean won his first three starts, allowing just two runs in 20⅓ innings. Tong, who led minor league starters in ERA and strikeouts, beat the Marlins in his debut Friday, striking out six in five innings with no walks while showcasing the changeup that allowed him to dominate the minors.
Reds player to watch: What’s happening with Elly De La Cruz‘s power? He hasn’t homered since July 31 and has just one in his past 58 games.
8. National League Central
Standings: Brewers up 6.5 games on Chicago Cubs
What’s at stake: This is another David vs. Goliath matchup. Milwaukee, of course, is Goliath. The Cubs won the NL Central in the COVID-shortened season of 2020 but haven’t taken a full-season division title since 2017. Given the Brewers’ lead with no signs of faltering, the odds are slim that Chicago can chase them down.
Series to watch: The two teams are done for their season series, and the Cubs took it 7-6, so at least they own the tiebreaker.
Brewers player to watch: Closer Trevor Megill landed on the IL a few days ago with a flexor strain in his elbow after blowing three saves since mid-August, so Abner Uribe takes over. If the Cubs have a chance to catch the Brewers, it might be because the Milwaukee pen, which has been worked hard, burns out in September, especially with the Brewers in the midst of playing 19 games in 18 days.
Cubs player to watch: Kyle Tucker slumped as he played through a hairline fracture in his right hand for two months. He finally broke out with three home runs in two games and has hit over .400 his past nine games. The Cubs’ offense was horrid in August — Pete Crow-Armstrong also struggled — and they’ll need Tucker and the rest of the lineup to rebound in September.
9. American League Central
Standings: Tigers up 9.5 games on Royals
What’s at stake: This one is all but over — though, it’s not impossible for the Royals. The Mets blew a seven-game lead in 2007 with 17 games to play. The 1995 Angels entered September with a 7.5-game lead and lost the division in a tiebreaker game. The 2009 Tigers were up seven games on Sept. 6 and blew it. The 2011 Braves had an 8.5-game lead in the wild-card race at the start of September and missed the playoffs. And during that same season, the Red Sox were leading the Yankees in the AL East and nine games up on the Rays — who would catch them on the final day of the season to win the wild card. So … you never know.
Series to watch: The Tigers and Royals are done playing each other, with Detroit winning the season series 9-4.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment11 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024