#MLBVideos: Cubs clinch Postseason berth, Shohei Ohtani teases outfield idea | Morning Lineup (MLB Daily Recap)

Cubs clinch Postseason berth, Shohei Ohtani teases outfield idea | Morning Lineup (MLB Daily Recap)

Players wait in the dugout 3 to 2 in the air, left field, there’s hat, he’s got it ballgame. The Cubs are headed to the postseason from mlb.com. This is the morning Lineup podcast. I’m your host, Mandy Bell. Today is Thursday, September 18th and the Cubs spent their Wednesday afternoon popping champagne bottles. Justin Verlander continued to prove that age is just a number and shoe Otani teased the idea of getting back out in the outfield. We’ll cover all of this and everything else that happened yesterday. All in under 10 minutes. Let’s get to it. Not everyone is quick to put the champagne on ice when they’re on the verge of clinching a postseason berth, especially when the division title is still technically up for grabs, but the Cubs weren’t taking any chances when o’neil Cruz flew out to Cubs left fielder, Ian Happ to solidify Chicago’s 8 to 4 victory over the Pirates. Happ gave a slight fist pump as he hustled into the infield to start the celebration. That’s been nearly a decade in the making. It’s been since 2020 since the Cubs were last in the playoffs a year in which celebrations were basically limited to fist bumps because of the Covid 19, 19 pandemic. Before that Chicago worked its way into the playoffs in 2018, but they opted against celebrating because they wanted to wait until they claimed the division crown, but they didn’t. So there was no doubt champagne Showers were on deck. The Cubs still have more to play for before October baseball gets here. They currently sit five games back of the first place Brewers for the NL Central title. Now as we quickly inch closer to the end of the regular season, that math becomes more difficult to pull off, especially when these two don’t face each other again this year, but it’s not impossible. Plus the Cubs own the tiebreaker against Milwaukee regardless of what spot they end up in. They’ll be playing in October and all that matters is making sure Wednesday celebration isn’t the only one they’ll have in 2025. The goal now is to bring home another world series title. The Giants on the other hand, are still fighting for a shot at securing an NL wild card spot after fighting back from a 10 game deficit just over a month ago. And Justin Verlander has been a huge part of that success. Yes, that’s right. 42 year old Justin Verlander has stepped up to carry this pitching staff like the veteran that he is the man who just hit 20 years of his time has found a second gear in the second half of the season and entered Wednesday’s start having given up just three runs on 17 hits in his previous 24 innings. The story was no different against the Diamondbacks seven shutout innings today for Justin Verlander. That will probably be it for him. What a start again by the future Hall of Famer. That was seven scoreless innings for Verlander allowing just three hits with two walks and three strikeouts. The problem was as it’s been when Verlander has been on the rubber run support or lack thereof. Verlander departed the game in a scoreless tie. It stayed that way until the 11th inning when a combination of a single, double sacrifice fly and another single, put up a five spot to give the Giants a 5 to 1 victory lines, one into left field base hit. Here comes cost rounding third heading home, here comes mccarthy throwing and it is five to nothing giants. So the Giants are too back of the Mets for the last wild card spot, but let’s get back to Verlander really quickly because we can’t just gloss over how impressive his performances have been. According to Sarah Langs. This is the first time in his career that Verlander has allowed one or zero runs over a four outing span. The only other pitcher age 42 or older to do so in a four start span over the last 125 seasons was Roger Clemens in 2005. This doesn’t sound like a man who’s ready to hang up. The cleats just yet. 2025 has been the return of Shohei Otani. The pitcher. Could it also be the return of Shohei, the outfielder more after the break even before the Dodgers beat the Phillies five to nothing. Shoe O Tani was stealing all the headlines and no, it was not because of this. He smashes the ball right center field. It is gone. Yeah. And let’s be real. This win was powered mostly by a stellar 12 strikeout performance by Blake. He finishes off seven scoreless innings with his 12th strike out of the night. Instead most of the Otani talk was all about whether he’ll play in the outfield during the playoffs. Why? Well, L A may want to explore some different bullpen options in October and Otani s name has come up in conversation, but that may present a problem per baseball’s current rules when Otani starts game on the mound and is replaced, he’s able to remain in the game as the designated hitter. But if he were to start the game as the DH and Then pitch in relief, the Dodgers would lose the DH once Otani pitching appearance was done, that’s going to be a no go for the Dodgers who will want Otani in the batter’s box as much as possible. A possible solution putting Otani in the outfield. He hasn’t played there since 2021 with the Angels and hasn’t taken reps there all season. So Dodgers manager dave Roberts didn’t seem fully committed to this idea when he was asked, but Otani said he’s ready to play if he’s called on elsewhere around baseball. The Guardians have done everything in their power to make a run at a postseason berth. The last few weeks, they picked up their sixth straight win last night by defeating the Tigers forward to nothing. All they needed was a Red Sox loss and suddenly they’d just be 1.5 games out of contention. Instead, Sogard Swings rolls it to second. Gello collects home with a long time and the Red Sox walk it off 54 an extra inning walk off infield single gave the Red Sox a 54 win over the A’s and now they found themselves in a tie for the last two, a wild card spots but more on that in a second, the Guardians are 2.5 games back of the wild card, but they’re also 4.5 behind the first place Tigers for the A L Central title with the series finale today and another three game series against the division f next week in Cleveland. Nothing is impossible. Ok. So back to the tie in the wild card, the Astros and Mariners have been going toe to toe for the A L West crown after Seattle’s timely 10 game winning streak, they slid into the top spot. But after they fell, snapping that streak to the Royals 7 to 5 as the city closer, carlos Estévez picked up his 40th save of the season. The Mariners dropped back into the wild card and the Astros while they beat the Rangers 5 to 2. Thanks largely to a clutch two run homer by Jose Altuve that moved Houston atop the A L West leaderboard. So to recap, the Astros are in first in the A L West. The Mariners and Red Sox are tied for the final two wild card spots and the Guardians are 2.5 games back. The Yankees who own the top A L wild card spot beat the Twins 10 to 5 as Trent Grisel hit two homers along with the Giants. The Reds are also chasing down the Mets for that last nl wild card spot. Cincinnati first baseman Spencer Steer drove in five runs in the Reds 62 win over the Cardinals. Meanwhile, the Mets fell to the Padres 7 to 4 despite juan Soto hitting his 41st homer of the season because, well, Manny Machado hit his 14th career grand slam to put San Diego on top. So both the Reds and the Giants are two games behind the Mets while Arizona is 1.5 for the rest of yesterday’s scores visit mlb.com coming up today, the Guardians will try for a critical sweep of the Tigers as they desperately cling to their playoff hopes and it’s set up to be a good one. Tanner by will take on Tarik Skubal who had to remove himself from his last start after feeling tightness in his side. First pitch is slated for 110 pm Eastern time. That’s all for today’s morning lineup. Will leach will get you caught up to speed on all things baseball tomorrow. As always, please be sure to give us a rating and a review and share this episode with the baseball lovers in your life. Thanks for listening and have a great day.

All of the important storylines from 9/17/2025 across MLB including: The Cubs punch a ticket to the postseason for the first time since 2020, Shohei Ohtani teases the idea of getting back to the outfield (and later hits HR No. 51), Justin Verlander turns back time, plus more!

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