The Royals set a franchise record for the number of consecutive scoreless innings in their win last night:

With another shutout in their series-clinching 3-0 victory over the Nationals on Wednesday at Nationals Park, the Royals have pitched 26 consecutive scoreless innings, beginning with the third inning on Sunday, setting a new franchise record and breaking a 24-inning scoreless streak that lasted from June 9-12, 1976, and was repeated from May 17-20, 2015.

This is exactly the kind of pitching the Royals will need in October, and after Wednesday’s win, they’re getting closer to that goal.

Davy Andrews of FanGraphs examines why the Royals recently reached their L7:

Six of those seven losses were decided by one or two runs. They just kept finding a way to lose because they were cursed. At a certain point, that’s just the simplest explanation. For Kansas City to end its winning streak, the team needed the luck of facing a Nationals team that had lost six of its last seven games, was already on its fifth consecutive losing season, and was playing like it was desperate to throw a game away. In other words, the only thing that saved the cursed Royals was facing a team that was somehow even more despised by the creators of the universe. Because if there’s one thing the baseball gods love, it’s anything that fits well into a baseball writer’s pre-existing narrative.

Keith Law makes his price recommendations with some mentions of the Royals ($):

Skubal will probably win this award unanimously or nearly unanimously, which is arguably the story of this year—only one of the five awards is dramatic in my opinion, the others should all be pretty obvious. That the Royals took two players in the top five, one of whom was acquired in one of the best deals of the offseason, is pretty remarkable to me. Burnes and Gilbert both get a boost for logging so many innings in the five-and-dive starter era, which pushed them above guys like Houston’s Framber Valdez and Ronel Blanco, who had lower ERAs but didn’t pitch as much (and in Blanco’s case, probably had a lot of help from defense/luck).

The Padres pulled off a game-winning triple play on Tuesday night to secure a spot in the postseason.

The White Sox social media team had to get creative amid constant losing streaks.

Rowdy Tellez was released by the Pirates, just four batting appearances short of a $200,000 bonus.

Former A’s players sharply criticized John Fisher for his recent letter to fans.

The remaining two games of this week’s crucial Mets-Braves duel will be postponed until Monday due to Hurricane Helene.

Baltimore right-handed pitcher Grayson Rodriguez will not pitch again this season.

Left-handed Yankee pitcher Nestor Cortes’ postseason status is uncertain as he battles a flexor muscle injury.

UNLV – ranked for the first time in program history – loses its starting quarterback after failing to fulfill NIL obligations.

As I have long said, the evidence is mounting that sports betting is an evil and legalizing it was a bad idea. ($) Missouri will be voting on sports betting this November.

PSA: Don’t give your phone to the police.

In a showdown between the windshield of a Cybertruck and a microfiber cloth, the cloth won.

Fans of the show Bridgerton were defrauded with a themed ball with admission prices of up to $1,000.

Your song of the day is Blackout by Breathe Carolina.