PudnerSports.com: September 2026

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Schwarber's 3 homers in 4 at bats put Phillies 1 win from 2026 title

Kyle Schwarber made it three homers in four at-bats, counting the game-winner to end the 2-1 win over the Dodgers in the previous game, as the Phillies crushed Tampa Bay 8-3 to move within one win of their first Statis-Pro World Series title.

Schwarber started the scoring with a two-run double in the first inning, then homered in the third and fifth to finish with five RBI. The win puts Philadelphia in control of the three-team championship pool.

Phillies One Win Away

The path from here is much simpler than it looks: Philadelphia needs one more win to become champion. Tampa Bay and the Dodgers need to keep winning to stay alive. Tampa is the only team that does not control their destiny - the also need the Dodgers to beat the Phillies for them to stay alive.

Tampa Bay plays at Los Angeles next, with former Met Freddy Peralta facing Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

If the Dodgers beat Tampa, the Rays are eliminated. The Dodgers would then need to beat Philadelphia and beat the Phillies again in a winner-take-all finale for the title.
If Tampa beats the Dodgers, Los Angeles is eliminated. Tampa would then need the Dodgers to beat the Phillies in the pool finale to keep them from clinching, and then Tampa would also need to beat Philadelphia twice in a row to win the title.
Any Philadelphia win ends the season with the Phillies as champions.

So Philadelphia is one win away, while either challenger must run the table from here to see which two teams are added to the annual update of Statis-Pro champions and runners-up.

2025 - LA Dodgers beat Seattle again

2024 LA Dodgers beat Seattle

2023 Houston beat Chicago Cubs

2022 LA Dodgers beat NY Yankees

2021 Boston beat LA Dodgers

2020 LA Dodgers beat Tampa Rays

2019 Houston beat Washington

2018 Arizona beat Cleveland

2017 Boston beat Chicago Cubs

2016 Houston beat Chicago Cubs

Pos	1st inning	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	Final
Phi	4	0	1	0	2	0	1	0	0	8
TB	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	3

Pos	PHI	AB	R	H	RBI	Extra	Bats	Home Run!	SP	OPS
SS	Trea Turner	4	2	1	1	HR	RN	33 to 35	A	0.774
1b	Luis Arraez	4	2	3	0		LN	41 to 42	C	0.828
LF	Brandon Marsh	4	1	1	0		LN	28 to 33	B	0.814
DH	Kyle Schwarber	4	3	3	5	2hr,2b	LP	17 to 25	C	0.852
RF	Bryce Harper	4	0	0	0		LP	26 to 31	C	0.823
3b	Alec Bohm	4	0	1	1		RN	33 to 34	D	0.756
2b	Bryson Stott	4	0	1	0		LN	28 to 31	A	0.722
C	J.T. Realmuto	4	0	0	0		RN	27 to 31	C	0.704
CF	Justin Crawford	4	0	0	0		LN	33 to 33	A	0.701
BatAv	0.278	36	8	10	7

PB-	PHI	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Strikeout!	Th	ERA
4'-7	Aaron Nola	4.2	4	3	3	3	8	26 to 45	Right	3.98
2'-7	Tanner Banks	1.1	0	0	0	1	2	25 to 45	Left	3.79
2'-7	Max Lazar	1	1	0	0	0	1	27 to 45	Right	3.95
2'-8	Orion Kerkering	1	0	0	0	0	2	22 to 48	Right	3.51
2'-8	José Alvarado	1	1	0	0	0	1	21 to 53	Left	3.26
		9	6	3	3	4	14

Pos	TBR	AB	R	H	RBI	Extra	Bats	Home Run!	SP	OPS
SS	Wander Franco	3	1	2	0	sb	SP	27 to 32	A	0.785
3b	Junior Caminero	3	1	1	1		RP	26 to 34	D	0.850
1b	Yandy Díaz	3	0	0	0		RN	32 to 33	D	0.780
RF	Jake Fraley	3	0	1	0	sb	LN	27 to 28	A	0.714
LF	Gavin Lux	3	0	1	1		LN	28 to 28	D	0.694
1B	Liam Hicks	4	0	0	0		LN	27 to 27	D	0.700
CF	Cedric Mullins	4	0	1	0		SN	24 to 26	A	0.683
C	Nick Fortes	4	0	0	0		RN	26 to 27	D	0.660
2b	Richie Palacios	3	1	0	0		LN	26 to 26	B	0.680
BatAv	0.200	30	3	6	2	no extra

PB-	TBR	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Strikeout!	Th	ERA
4'-7	Joe Boyle	0.1	5	4	4	0	0	22 to 51	Right	3.92
4'-7	Ryan Pepiot	2.2	2	1	1	0	3	23 to 47	Right	4.02
4'-7	Steven Matz	2	2	2	2	0	0	27 to 44	Left	4.06
2'-7	Kevin Kelly	1	1	1	1	0	2	27 to 45	Right	3.70
2'-7	Manuel Rodríguez	1	0	0	0	0	2	25 to 44	Right	3.66
2'-8	Garrett Cleavinger	1	0	0	0	0	1	21 to 54	Left	3.22
2'-8	Griffin Jax	1	0	0	0	0	2	22 to 55	Right	2.94
		9	10	8	8	0	10

Here is the scoresheet of the Phillies blowout win.

Tampa Steal 7 Bases to Shock Snell and Ohtani to Beat Dodgers 8-2

The Los Angeles Dodgers seemed to be cruising toward a fifth Statis-Pro Baseball championship with eight straight wins heading into our three-team World Series. Then Kyle Schwarber's ninth-inning, game-winning homer handed them their first loss, and Tampa Bay followed by stealing seven bases to shock the Dodgers 8-2.

The Dodgers went 4-0 in the first two pools — preliminary and semifinal — but are now 0-2 in the Championship Pool. If a team loses three games during the initial four-game, home-and-home pool play, it is eliminated. That means the Dodgers must win their rematches against both Philadelphia and Tampa Bay to stay alive for their fifth Statis-Pro World Series championship.

You can play the free Statis-Pro Baseball game here: https://tinyurl.com/3y8ckrv7.

The Dodgers had outscored their first eight opponents 54-18 before their 2-1 loss to Philadelphia, but this game was trouble almost from the moment Shohei Ohtani took the mound.

Wander Franco opened by hitting a grounder to the normally sure-handed Freddie Freeman, who won Game 7 of our 2025 Statis-Pro World Series with a 13th-inning home run. Freeman bobbled it for an error, and Franco promptly stole second and third while the next two batters were retired. Those were the first two of Franco's four steals in the game and seven stolen bases for Tampa Bay.

The scrappy Rays have only the 23rd-highest payroll in baseball at $107 million, but actually have a better record in real MLB play than the Dodgers, who are neck-and-neck with the Mets for the largest payroll at $336 million.

With two outs and Franco on third, Jake Fraley walked and stole second. Gavin Lux then had a chance for a Clutch Batting (BD) play, which occurs occasionally when a batter comes to the plate with runners on base.

In our version, the BD play produces one of three results: any Random Number that would normally be a single on the batter's card (11-21 for Lux) becomes a bases-clearing double; any number that would normally be an extra-base hit or deep drive (22-33) becomes a home run; and any higher number becomes a foul ball, with the batter remaining at the plate.

Lux drew a 17, turning what normally would have been a single into a two-run double and giving Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead.

The Dodgers came back to tie the game 2-2 in the top of the fifth, but Franco walked in the bottom half, stole two more bases and scored on a Yandy Díaz single to make it 3-2. That proved to be the winning run.

Junior Caminero later scored on a Jake Fraley sacrifice fly to extend the lead, and Drew Rasmussen earned the win with five innings of work.

Tampa Bay eventually pulled away for the 8-2 victory, dropping the previously unbeaten Dodgers to 0-2 in Championship Pool play.

We are now halfway through pool play, with Philadelphia at 2-0, Tampa Bay at 1-1 and the Dodgers at 0-2. Each team still has a rematch against the other two teams to complete pool play.

Below is the box score, followed by a photo of the scoresheet.

Pos	1st inning	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	Final
LAD	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2
TBR	2	0	0	0	2	2	0	2	x	8

Pos	LAD	AB	R	H	RBI	Extra	Bats	Home Run!	SP	OPS
DH	Shohei Ohtani	2	1	0	0		LP	23 to 32	A	0.958
RF	Kyle Tucker	4	0	1	1		LP	25 to 28	A	0.827
3b	Max Muncy	3	0	1	1	2b	RP	18 to 26	D	0.861
1b	Freddie Freeman	4	0	0	0		LP	28 to 33	C	0.832
CF	Andy Pages	4	1	1	0	2b	RP	27 to 34	C	0.839
C	Will Smith	3	0	2	0		RP	25 to 28	D	0.790
SS	Mookie Betts	4	0	0	0		RP	28 to 32	C	0.783
LF	Teoscar Hernández	4	0	0	0		RP	26 to 32	C	0.771
2b	Tommy Edman	4	1	1	0	sb	SN	27 to 31	B	0.706
		32	3	6	2

PB-	LAD	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Strikeout!	Th	ERA
2'-9	Shohei Ohtani (L)	4.1	3	4	2	4	9	22 to 55	Right	3.46
2'-8	Blake Snell	1.1	4	2	2	0	2	21 to 56	Left	3.54
2'-7	Brock Stewart	1.1	0	0	0	0	0	22 to 55	Right	3.62
2'-7	Blake Treinen	0.2	3	2	2	0	1	23 to 52	Right	3.79
2'-7	Edgardo Henriquez	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	27 to 45	Right	3.80
		8	10	8	6	4	13

Pos	TBR	AB	R	H	RBI	Extra	Bats	Home Run!	SP	OPS
SS	Wander Franco	4	3	1	0	4sb,2b	SP	27 to 32	A	0.785
3b	Junior Caminero	4	0	2	2		RP	26 to 34	D	0.850
1b	Yandy Díaz	5	0	1	0		RN	32 to 33	D	0.780
RF	Jake Fraley	2	1	0	1	sb,sf	LN	27 to 28	A	0.714
LF	Gavin Lux	4	0	2	2		LN	28 to 28	D	0.694
1B	Liam Hicks	3	0	0	0		LN	27 to 27	D	0.700
CF	Cedric Mullins	4	2	2	0	2sb	SN	24 to 26	A	0.683
C	Nick Fortes	3	1	1	0		RN	26 to 27	D	0.660
2b	Richie Palacios	4	0	1	1		LN	26 to 26	B	0.680
BatAv	0.303	33	7	10	6	7sb

PB-	TBR	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Strikeout!	Th	ERA
2'-8	Drew Rasmussen (W)	5	4	2	2	3	1	25 to 46	Right	3.72
2'-7	Edwin Uceta	1.2	1	0	0	1	1	22 to 54	Right	3.63
2'-8	Garrett Cleavinger	1.1	0	0	0	0	3	21 to 54	Left	3.22
4'-7	Jesse Scholtens	1	1	0	0	0	1	25 to 44	Right	3.92

Below is the photo of the scoresheet.

Perfect No More! Schwarber HR Ends Dodgers Hopes of 4-4-4 Playoff Sweep

The Los Angeles Dodgers barely survived two close games against the Boston Red Sox in the semifinal pool to sweep their second straight round in the Statis-Pro playoffs with a chance to go 12-0 if they could Sweep the World Series as well.

It look promising when they put together three straight first inning singles capped by another huge RBI by Freddie Freeman to take a 1-0 lead. However, an unearned run off Tarik Skubal in the 5th inning tied it and it was still 1-1 going into the 9th when Edwin Diaz relieved.

Schwarber had struck out on fat pitches just a couple of numbers from his home run range in the last game and this one, but on this one he did not miss, drilling a ball DEEP in Dodger Stadium, which is quite the hitters park now with a 11-57 homer range on a deep drive - and it was a 47 to barely get out with the game-winner.

The first of the three teams to win 4 games wins the title:

Philadelphia 2 wins

LA Dodgers 0 wins

Tampa 0 wins

Philadelphia at Tampa

LA Dodgers at Philadelphia (if Philadelphia goes 4-0, they sweep; the other team with the better run differential is runner-up)

If necessary:

Tampa at LA Dodgers

LA Dodgers at Tampa

If one team is 3-1 then another team would be 3-1 or 2-2, then the two continue to play each other until one has 4 wins to claim the World Series.

If all 3 teams are 2-2, then seed them 1 through 3 based on run differential and play in the following order until one team has 4 wins (if they are tied in run differential then use fewest runs allowed and if that is tied then record for all rounds is 3rd tie breaker and run differential for whole tournament is 4th tiebreaker and finally highest power ranking in actual MLB play).

#2 at #1

#3 at #1

#3 at #2

#1 at #2

At that point, 10 games would have been played, so one team would have to have 4 wins to take the title.

Here is the box score.

Pos	PHI	AB	R	H	RB I	Extra	Bats	Home Run!	SP	OPS
SS	Trea Turner	4	0	1	0		RN	33 to 35	A	0.774
1b	Luis Arraez	4	0	0	0		LN	41 to 42	C	0.828
LF	Brandon Marsh	4	0	0	0		LN	28 to 33	B	0.814
DH	Kyle Schwarber	3	1	1	1	gw-HR	LP	17 to 25	C	0.852
RF	Bryce Harper	3	0	1	0		LP	26 to 31	C	0.823
pr-RF	Johan Rojas	1	0	0	0	sb	RN	32 to 32	A	0.652
3b	Alec Bohm	4	0	0	0		RN	33 to 34	D	0.756
2b	Bryson Stott	3	1	0	0		LN	28 to 31	A	0.722
C	J.T. Realmuto	3	0	1	1		RN	27 to 31	C	0.704
RF	Adolis García	2	0	0	0		RP	24 to 28	B	0.729
ph-cf	Justin Crawford	1	0	1	0		LN	33 to 33	A	0.701
		32	2	5	2

PB-	PHI	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Strikeout!	Th	ERA
2'-8	Zack Wheeler	6	3	1	1	2	10	22 to 51	Right	3.20
2'-8	Orion Kerkering	2	0	0	0	0	3	22 to 48	Right	3.51
2'-9	Jhoan Duran	1	1	0	0	0	1	22 to 52	Right	2.78

Pos	LAD	AB	R	H	RBI	Extra	Bats	Home Run!	SP	OPS
DH	Shohei Ohtani	3	0	0	0	sb	LP	23 to 32	A	0.958
RF	Kyle Tucker	4	1	1	0		LP	25 to 28	A	0.827
3b	Max Muncy	4	0	1	0		RP	18 to 26	D	0.861
1b	Freddie Freeman	3	0	2	1	hpb	LP	28 to 33	C	0.832
Pr	Tyler Fitzgerald	0	0	0	0	sb	RN	27 to 27	A	0.650
CF	Andy Pages	4	0	0	0		RP	27 to 34	C	0.839
C	Will Smith	4	0	0	0		RP	25 to 28	D	0.790
SS	Mookie Betts	3	0	0	0		RP	28 to 32	C	0.783
LF	Teoscar Hernández	3	0	0	0		RP	26 to 32	C	0.771
2b	Tommy Edman	3	0	0	0		SN	27 to 31	B	0.706
		31	1	4	1

PB-	LAD	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Strikeout!	Th	ERA
2'-9	Tarik Skubal	8	2	1	0	0	12	22 to 55	Left	2.79
2'-8	Edwin Díaz	1	1	1	1	0	2	21 to 58	Right	3.03

Phillies Win 1st Statis-Pro World Series Game in a Decade

Since we resumed our Statis-Pro seasons in 2016, the Philadelphia Phillies had yet to make a World Series — until now.

In an epic duel of lefties, Cristopher Sánchez won the battle by facing only one batter above the minimum — 25 batters in eight innings. The only run he allowed came after the Rays put runners on first and third, when he induced a double-play grounder.

Trea Turner made that hold up with a two-run homer with two outs in the sixth inning to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead.

There were also a few platoon moves in the lineup to avoid having the two dominant left-handed starters able to record strikeouts on 11-13 against other lefties. In particular, Adolis García batted ninth because lefty Shane McClanahan was starting for Tampa Bay, and that may have made the difference in the game.

García would have been out to end the sixth inning with Tampa Bay still up 1-0, but instead the random number "88" was turned into a single because it was a lefty-vs.-righty matchup. That kept the inning alive for Turner's two-run homer. García then doubled in an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning for the final 3-1 margin.

For the Rays, the only run came after a leadoff double by Cedric Mullins in the top of the third inning, followed by a single by Nick Fortes and then the go-ahead run scoring on a double-play grounder.

See this years format and the past 10 Statis-Pro World Series champions below the box score of this epic pitchers duals.

Pos	TBR	AB	R	H	RBI	Extra	Bats	Home Run!	SP	OPS
SS	Wander Franco	4	0	1	0		SP	27 to 32	A	0.785
3b	Junior Caminero	4	0	1	0		RP	26 to 34	D	0.85
1b	Yandy Díaz	3	0	0	0		RN	32 to 33	D	0.78
RF	Justyn-Henry Malloy	3	0	0	0		RN	23 to 24	D	0.704
RF	Jake Fraley	3	0	0	0		LN	27 to 28	A	0.714
1B	Liam Hicks	3	0	0	0		LN	27 to 27	D	0.7
CF	Cedric Mullins	3	1	1	0	2b	SN	24 to 26	A	0.683
C	Nick Fortes	3	0	1	0		RN	26 to 27	D	0.66
2B/be	Nick Madrigal	1	0	0	0		RN	27 to 28	B	0.671
be/2b	Richie Palacios	2	0	0	0		LN	26 to 26	B	0.68
	Batting Ave. 0.138	29	1	4	0	0.137931034

PB-	TBR	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Strikeout!	Th	ERA
2'-8	Shane McClanahan	7	3	2	2	0	8	23 to 53	Left	3.35
2'-7	Bryan Baker	1	2	1	1	0	3	23 to 53	Right	3.65


Pos	PHI	AB	R	H	RBI	Extra	Bats	Home Run!	SP	OPS
SS	Trea Turner	4	1	2	2	HR,SB	RN	33 to 35	A	0.774
1b	Luis Arraez	3	0	0	0		LN	41 to 42	C	0.828
LF	Brandon Marsh	3	0	0	0		LN	28 to 33	B	0.814
DH	Kyle Schwarber	3	0	0	0		LP	17 to 25	C	0.852
RF	Bryce Harper	3	0	0	0		LP	26 to 31	C	0.823
3b	Alec Bohm	3	0	0	0		RN	33 to 34	D	0.756
2b	Bryson Stott	3	0	0	0		LN	28 to 31	A	0.722
C	JT Realmuto	3	1	1	0		RN	27 to 31	C	0.704
RF	Adolis García	3	1	2	1	2b	RP	24 to 28	B	0.729
	Batting Ave. 0.179	28	3	5	3	0.178571429

PB-	PHI	IP	H	R	ER	W	K		Th	ERA
2'-9	Cristopher Sánchez	8	3	1	1	0	9	23 to 47	Left	3.15
2'-9	Jhoan Duran	1	1	0	0	0	1	22 to 52	Right	2.78

New Format for Our First Three-Team World Series

We chose a slightly different format from the previous pool for this first-ever three-team World Series. The pool-play format used throughout this season will start the same way, with each of the three teams playing a home-and-home against the other two.

If one team wins all four initial pool games — as the Dodgers have done so far in both pools to get here — then that team is the World Series champion by a four-games-to-zero margin. The other two teams then play one more game, if necessary, to claim second place, with the winner recorded as the runner-up on our all-time World Series list.

If two teams finish 3-1 in pool play, the third team is eliminated and those two teams throw their aces against each other, with the winner declared the World Series champion by a four-games-to-three margin over the other team.

If all three teams go 2-2, they are seeded based on run differential and continue playing until one of the three reaches four wins, with the better seed having an advantage because the teams play in this order:

The #1 seed plays the #2 seed. The #1 team then plays the #3 seed. If the #1 seed wins both games to improve to 4-2, that team is declared World Series champion, while the other two teams play each other, with the winner recorded as the runner-up.

The same applies if the #2 or #3 seed reaches four wins first. If all three teams end up 3-3, the #3 seed is eliminated and #1 plays #2, with the winner becoming World Series champion by a four-games-to-three margin.

Here is the box score from Game 1. With the win, the Phillies will play the Dodgers next.

Here are the past champs: