Recaps

[AZ Central] Brandon Pfaadt battered by homers as Diamondbacks drop finale to Cubs - Some losses over the course of a baseball season sting, like ones that got away. Some are frustrating, because of what they meant or how they unfolded. Others can almost feel palatable. Sunday’s 5-2 Diamondbacks’ defeat to the Cubs was among the latter. “We definitely feel pretty good about taking three out of four from these guys,” centerfielder Alek Thomas said. “They’re a good team. Good pitching staff, good hitters, good coaches. To come out of here with a lot of positives is pretty cool.” Their lead over the Marlins for the third and final spot shrunk to half a game, with the Reds 1.5 games back

[dbacks.com] ‘We’re going to be fine’: D-backs hold heads high after series win - By the time they touch down in the Big Apple, outfielder Alek Thomas said they will have moved on from the frustrating loss. “Leaving here, it’s going to sting a little bit for a while,” Thomas said. “Once we get to New York and get settled in there, I think we’re going to be happy about the success we had here. We definitely feel pretty good about taking three out of four from these guys. They’re a good team, good pitching staff, good hitters, good coaches. So to come out of here [with three out of four] was pretty cool.”

[SI] Poor Decisions, Sloppy Play Cost D-backs in 5-2 Loss to Cubs - Pfaadt proceeded to surrender solo homers to three of the first five batters faced... During his post game press conference Lovullo seemed to have a tough time articulating what went on in the decision making process. Clearly the change the Cubs made to the lineup threw things off however. “We wanted to give [Pfaadt] a clean inning to start, that’s first of all, once we determined we were going to go with an opener. It was my decision. We just felt like they would chop up their lineup a little bit differently and we’d be able to manage it exactly how we wanted.”

Team news

[USA Today] Christian Walker emerging from shadows to lead Diamondbacks - “I can almost laugh about it now,’’ Walker says. “But it was tough. There were a lot of emotions, man, a lot of moments. There was a time where I felt like entertaining the idea of going and playing overseas, and Japan, just trying to make some money and get a little financial security for my family. It was frustrating. You understand the business side of things and how a lot of it is outside of your control, but in the same sense, it’s like, ‘Man, it feels unfair to work your whole life for something and then feel like you have to just wait for somebody else to leave their job.’’’

[Fangraphs] The NL Cy Young Race Is Still Wide Open - The truth is that with less than four weeks to go in the season, no NL pitcher — not Spencer Strider, Blake Snell, Justin Steele, Zac Gallen or Zack Wheeler, just to run through a partial list of names — has a particularly strong statistical case to win. While each candidate’s remaining few starts may provide some clarity before voters send off their ballots, the race as it stands is worth a closer look... I’m glad that each starter has at least a few more turns to make his case. Perhaps that will provide some clarity where none exists now.

And, elsewhere...

[MLB.com] Yankees no-hit into 11th inning — but walk off in 13th - Milwaukee held the Yanks hitless through nine innings, then a 10th, as Sal Frelick and Joey Wiemer collided on Frelick’s sensational catch near the right-field wall that robbed Anthony Volpe of what could have been a game-winning hit, leaving Wiemer with a mouth full of blood. Oswaldo Cabrera denied the Brewers what would have been the first 11-inning no-hitter in AL/NL history, ripping a game-tying run-scoring double with one out in the 11th. Just when the Yanks seemed sunk by a pair of 12th-inning runs, Giancarlo Stanton blasted a game-tying two-run homer into the Bombers’ bullpen, and on the game went.

[MLB.com] Who are MLB’s best first basemen in 2023? - The heartbeat of Arizona’s offense might be Walker, a former Orioles castoff who has become one of the best sluggers in baseball. Walker ranks 11th in OPS in the National League (.855) and is in the midst of another 30-homer, 90-RBI season. After going through a bit of a slump in July, he hit .302 with six home runs and 19 RBIs in August and has already mashed two homers in September. Plus, after winning a Gold Glove in 2022, Walker leads all first basemen with 11 Outs Above Average.

Dunkirk (2017)

Rating: C

Dir: Christopher Nolan
Star: Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Tom Hardy, Harry Styles

It’s probably me. This is one of those films where I can appreciate the effort, understand the stylistic choices made, and be impressed by the technical aptitude. Yet it all still leaves me unmoved. Turns out there is a hard limit to the number of times I can see people either fall into, or be fished out of, the English Channel, before it begins to get old. Nolan seeks to tell the story from a range of different perspectives. However, I didn’t feel all of them were sufficiently well-developed. Nolan has also deliberately kept the dialogue to a minimum. Again, I see why, except there’s a reason why silent movies faded away. Not that this is exactly mute, of course, with Hans Zimmer’s droning score becoming overbearing by the end.

Read more.

22 years ago today, we had a friend visiting from New York, whose film had screened at ASU the previous evening. When the second plane hit the WTC, he turned to us and said, “I don’t think I’m going home today.” Where were you on 9/11, and what are your memories of it? Also, this was an actual cartoon at the time: