Paul Skenes is the Pirates’ Roberto Clemente Award nominee, linking elite pitching with a growing charity profile. He donates $100 per strikeout to the Gary Sinise Foundation, with 2025 donations surpassing $158,000. Clemente’s legacy emphasizes character and community; Skenes’ path from USAF Academy cadet to Pirates ace embodies that mission. Past Pirates Clemente winners Willie Stargell and Andrew McCutchen anchor the lineage. Fans can vote at mlb.com.

Cardinals late-season notes spotlight Michael McGreevy as a budding mid-rotation anchor, with 86 innings and a 3.75 FIP signaling upside for 2026. The rest of the rotation battled HRs and inconsistency, led by Sonny Gray’s 4.43 ERA and Miles Mikolas’s innings-eating but homer-prone work. Liberatore showed spring-time promise, while Pallante, Fedde, Leahy and Matz provided depth but mixed results. West Coast finales vs Brewers and Giants shape keeper-league decisions, with a hopeful closer glance toward Cubs games to close 2025.

Wyatt Langford joins an elite Rangers 20-20 club, becoming the youngest to reach 20 HR and 20 SB. He completed the feat with his 20th stolen base in a win over the Astros, after hitting his 20th homer on Aug. 30. Ian Kinsler previously owned the youngest 20-20 mark (at 25 in 2007), while Toby Harrah first accomplished the feat for Texas in 1975. Marcus Semien and Adolis García did it years ago for the Rangers, and Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs remains a younger 20-20 standout this season.

Chicago pulled within a win of clinching a playoff berth with a 4-1 victory over Pittsburgh. Michael Busch punctuated the night with a leadoff homer and went 3-for-4, while Cade Horton steadied after a rough first inning to lock down the win as Chicago trimmed its magic number to one. Paul Skenes, entering with a 2.03 ERA, exited after 3 2/3 innings as the Cubs pushed across three runs in the opening frame and added insurance later. The series finale looms with division and home-field implications still alive for the Cubs.

Skenes endured a rare rough outing, allowing three runs on seven hits over 3.1 innings as Pittsburgh fell 4-1 to the Cubs at PNC Park. Busch opened the scoring with a solo homer, Crow-Armstrong RBI singled, Cruz answered with an RBI triple, and Happ added a sac fly as Chicago built a cushion. The Pirates’ skid continued, with Skenes tying a career high in hits allowed while the Cubs offense did its damage early and often.