Happy Labor Day, Novak Djokovic! Enjoy the holiday!
Couple of 36-year-olds duel in D.C. The Rays’ Charlie Morton (1-1, 4.82 ERA) matches pitches with the Nationals’ Max Scherzer (3-2, 3.95 ERA). Tampa Bay, the new beast of the East, has opened up a 6 ¹/₂-game lead on the Yankees with less than 20 games to play. Morton will be making his second start off the injured list. Took a two-inning test in The Bronx and passed, keeping the Bombers off the board. He’s scheduled to lengthen his stay today, maybe 3-4 innings tops. Scherzer comes off a subpar outing. Took the loss when the Phillies tagged him for three runs in six innings. The 2019 World Series champs have plummeted to the basement in the NL East and return home where they are 4-12 on the year. We will take them though, expecting Max to rebound while Morton takes a quick shower. 20 units on the Nats.
Mets stuck it to us good. Amazin’s had 17 hits and pounded Philly 14-1. Pete Alonso with a pair of polar bear shots. Jacob deGrom (12 K’s over 7 innings) outpitched Aaron Nola. … Cut our losses when the Giants doubled up the D’backs 4-2. Arizona scored twice in the opening frame, but San Francisco played long ball, hitting three, to prevail. Split leaves us at -573 marichals.