Hi Everyone —
Today’s scorecard comes from Brilliant Reader Hayden — he sat on the couch during the Orioles-Blue Jays game last week as his 7-year-old son was “bopping in and out of the room.”
And for extra fun, he scored the game on top of a Calvin and Hobbes book because … well, does that really need an explanation? Calvin and Hobbes = Pure Joy.
We’ll be highlighting a scorecard every day during the Daily Pennant Race as a part of our “Keeping Score Celebration,” so if you’d like to send one in, you can email us here. Oh, and you can use any score sheet you like, but if you do want one of those nifty JoeBlogs score sheets, you can download it for free here.
There is really nothing quite like the zen of scoring a baseball game. I’ve talked before about my late friend John Royster, who became an editor at Baseball America. John would score multiple games every night; it was quite literally his favorite activity in the world. Once, when I got to call a minor league game (well, with a real announcer in the booth), John asked me to give him the tape.
“Why?” I asked, surprised and kind of proud that he wanted to hear me announce a game.
He didn’t.
“I want to score it,” he said.
I miss John. I miss Redford. God, I love baseball.
THE DAILY PENNANT RACE
The Big News: Shohei again proves baseball is a team game
This is Matt’s famous and hilarious tweet from back in the joyful days of Twitter … back when Shohei Ohtani was playing for the woeful California Angels:
All that was supposed to change when he joined the Dodgers. Well, all that DID change when he joined the Dodgers as he had his historic 50-50 season in 2025 and Los Angeles won the World Series.
But Tuesday night, we got some classic Tungsten Arm action. Shohei threw five no-hit innings against the Phillies and left with a 4-0 lead. Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski got the first out of the sixth inning and then gave up um …
Single to Rafael Marchán
Single to Harrison Bader
Single to Kyle Schwarber
Two-run double to Bryce Harper
Three-run homer to Brandon Marsh
Thank you for playing, Justin Wrobleski; we have some fabulous consolation prizes for you backstage.
But, as you know, Shohei Ohtani is his own thing, so while he did come out as a pitcher, he stayed in as a DH, and in the eighth inning, he hit the 50th home run of the season. The Dodgers, in their long and glorious history, have now had two players hit 50 homers in a season, and both are named Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers tied the game!
And the lamentable Blake Treinen, who seems determined to singlehandedly ruin the Dodgers’ season, gave up the three-run bomb to Marchán that ended the Dodgers’ hopes.
Treinen has been on some kind of run. …
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