Freddie Freeman will be in search of more round numbers and a bit of major league history when he leads the Los Angeles Dodgers into the series finale Wednesday against the visiting Detroit Tigers.

Also in view for the Dodgers (93-57) is a three-game sweep of the Tigers (70-81) after a 3-2 victory Tuesday on Max Muncy’s game-ending RBI single in the ninth inning. Los Angeles is on a five-game winning streak.

Freeman already has reached 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases, becoming the first Dodgers first baseman to hit both marks in a single season. And with two hits Tuesday against the Tigers, Freeman is just two shy of his first 200-hit season.

No first baseman in major league history has ever recorded 20 home runs, 20 steals and 200 hits in a single season.

“I just always try to be the best baseball player I can be,” Freeman said. “When I’m hitting, try to be the best hitter, when I’m on defense I’m trying to be the best fielder and when I’m on base, I want to be the best base runner. When it’s all said and done, I want people to say he was a good baseball player. I want it to be the whole thing.”

Also in view is 60 doubles, with Freeman recording his 56th on Tuesday. The last players to reach 60 doubles in a season: Charlie Gehringer and Joe Medwick … in 1936.

Despite all of it, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts looks at a different category when determining just how great Freeman’s season has been.

“I think for me, it’s more of looking at the runs scored,” Roberts said. “He has scored over 120 runs this year and that speaks to the base running and the ability to get on base, steal second base, go first to third.”

Hoping to benefit from Freeman’s run production is Los Angeles rookie right-hander Bobby Miller (10-3, 4.02 ERA), who will take the mound Wednesday in his first career appearance against Detroit.

The Tigers will counter with their own rookie in right-hander Reese Olson (4-7, 4.30), who will be making his 20th appearance and 17th start. He will be facing the Dodgers for the first time.

Olson is just 2-2 over his past four starts, but has a 1.50 ERA in those 24 innings and has taken a no-hitter into the sixth inning in each of his past two outings.

In the two wins, Olson went seven scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox on Sept. 2 and gave up one run in six innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday.

“He’s been incredible,” the Tigers’ Matt Vierling said of Olson. “He’s young, and he looks even younger than he is. And he just goes out there every time, and you know you’re going to get a good chance to win. He’s going to put up some quality innings. He’s been phenomenal for his first year.”

Spencer Torkelson and Parker Meadows each hit home runs for the Tigers on Tuesday, but closer Alex Lange blew his second save attempt in his past three appearances. Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera singled to move into sole possession of 16th place on the all-time hit list at 3,167, passing Adrian Beltre.

–Field Level Media

The Milwaukee Brewers will continue their quest for another National League Central title when they visit the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night.

The Brewers (85-66) have split the first two contests of this four-game series with the Cardinals (67-84). Milwaukee dropped a 1-0 decision in the series opener on Monday night before prevailing 7-3 on Tuesday to reduce its magic number to win the division to six games.

“A lot of good little things tonight added up to a win,” said Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who earned his 700th managerial victory. “Offensively a lot of guys did stuff. Pitching-wise, a lot of guys contributed. Just a good team win.”

Right-hander Adrian Houser (6-4, 4.53 ERA) on Wednesday will make his second start for Milwaukee after recovering from a minor elbow injury.

The Brewers have allowed three runs or less in 10 of their last 12 games, and two runs or less eight times during that span.

“It feels like we’re all getting healthy and everybody’s feeling good,” Houser said last Thursday after winning his previous start over the Miami Marlins. “We’ve had some good starts … to really refresh the bullpen on this long run. I think everybody is getting to where they want to be.”

Houser allowed the two runs on five hits in five innings in that victory over the Marlins. He struck out five and did not walk a batter.

This will be Houser’s first start against the Cardinals this season. He is 4-5 with a 3.19 ERA in 14 career games against them, including 11 starts.

The Brewers could see the return of outfielder Christian Yelich for this game. He had a good workout Tuesday while trying to overcome chronic back problems.

“It’s certainly tricky,” Counsell said. “It’s worth playing this day-by-day. Because of how he did (Tuesday), we do have optimism about the next few days.”

The Cardinals on Wednesday will turn to left-hander Zack Thompson (5-6, 4.34), who saw his three-game winning streak halted Friday with a 5-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in his most recent start. He allowed four runs on five hits and two walks in five innings.

The Phillies scored all four runs in the first inning, with Nick Castellanos’ three-run homer doing most of the damage.

Jason Isringhausen, a special adviser to player development for the Cardinals, was in the dugout for that game, and he gave Thompson some input.

“I give Zack kudos because we changed something between the first and second inning,” Isringhausen told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He went out there, and without a hitch, went out there and did it and gave up one hit in four innings. He’s like, ‘I wish I could have that first thing back.’ I said to him, ‘That’s a learning experience.’ You live and you learn, and now he’s got it. Now he’s got to keep working and build on it.”

This will be Thompson’s first career start against the Brewers. He is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA in four relief appearances against them.

The Cardinals will play without outfielder/first baseman Alec Burleson, who left Tuesday’s game after sustaining a broken thumb during a head-first slide into third base.

Burleson joined a mounting casualty list that includes outfielders Tyler O’Neill (foot sprain) and Dylan Carlson (ankle surgery) along with infielders Nolan Gorman (hamstring strain) and Brendan Donovan (elbow surgery).

–Field Level Media

As the Chicago Cubs look to continue their season dominance of the Pittsburgh Pirates, All-Star Justin Steele aims to rebound from a rare rough outing.

Aiming to get back on track, Steele will try to help the Cubs build on a needed victory from the opener of a series that will continue Wednesday night against the visiting Pirates.

Entering Tuesday night’s game as a loser of five straight and eight of 10, Chicago (79-72) broke out with four homers — including a grand slam for Alexander Canario’s first career home run — in a 14-1 victory over Pittsburgh (70-81).

The Cubs have outscored the Pirates by an 88-28 margin while winning 10 of their 11 meetings this season. Chicago currently occupies the third and final wild-card berth in the National League.

“It was just nice to take a breath,” said Cubs manager David Ross, whose team totaled 33 runs in the previous 10 games.

“Giving everybody a positive boost. … Hopefully, we can carry this in.”

Meanwhile, Steele (16-4, 2.73 ERA) ranks among the major league leaders in wins, ERA, winning percentage (.800), WHIP (1.14) and quality starts (22). However, he allowed a season-high six earned runs to go with seven hits and two walks in six innings of Friday’s 6-4 loss at the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Despite those numbers, the left-hander doesn’t think it will take much to bounce back.

“Just execute the pitches a little bit better,” Steele said. “I made a few mistakes, and (the Diamondbacks) did what they were supposed to do.”

Steele also wasn’t at his most dominant at Pittsburgh on Aug. 24 but earned one of those quality starts by allowing three runs (two earned) and six hits over six innings in a no-decision.

It was one night later that scheduled Pittsburgh starter Mitch Keller (12-9, 4.04) stymied the Cubs. The right-hander yielded four hits and struck out six over eight scoreless innings in a 2-1 victory.

Keller is 3-1 with a 2.77 ERA in his last six starts and also went eight innings Thursday against Washington. He scattered two hits and fanned seven without a walk during a 2-0 victory.

“I think just being able to go out there and use all the pitches that I can use just keeps them off balance,” Keller said. “It’s the execution of the pitches, and making different pitches look like different things so we can get them off balance.”

Chicago’s Dansby Swanson, who hit a two-run homer Tuesday, and Pittsburgh native Ian Happ, who has reached base in 57 straight games against the Pirates, are a combined 12-for-29 with five doubles vs. Keller. The Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki is 3-for-4 against him, and with a homer and three hits Tuesday, is batting .355 with 10 home runs and 29 RBIs in his last 37 games.

Nico Hoerner is only 1-for-6 vs. Keller but is batting .370 during a career-best 13-game hitting streak.

Pittsburgh’s Connor Joe is just 5-for-55 in his last 16 games, but he is 4-for-6 vs. Steele. Meanwhile, teammate Ke’Bryan Hayes is 3-for-7 with a double and home run against the Chicago ace.

Hayes, who homered Tuesday, is batting .333 with nine home runs and 27 RBIs in his last 36 games.

–Field Level Media

New York Mets right-hander Kodai Senga probably isn’t the pitcher the Miami Marlins want to see right now.

The Marlins (79-73), who are a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs for the third and final wild-card berth in the National League, will host the Mets (70-81) on Wednesday evening in the finale of their three-game series.

But Senga is 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in two starts against the Marlins this season.

Then again, Senga has been good against just about everybody this year, as he is 11-7 with a 2.95 ERA overall.

In fact, he likely is contention for NL Rookie of the Year honors and also the Cy Young Award.

“He’s got to be thought about for those awards. He has to be in the discussion,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said of Senga, a 30-year-old who won 104 games with a 2.42 ERA while playing pro baseball in his native Japan from 2012-22.

“A lot of those awards are decided by how you end your season, and he’s doing his part.”

Showalter is right.

Senga is 4-2 with a 2.47 ERA in 11 starts in the second half of this season. Better yet, he is 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA in three September starts.

Using his famed “ghost forkball” and a 95-to-99-mph fastball, Senga is one of just two pitchers in the majors this year with an ERA lower than 3.00 and a strikeout rate of at least 11 batters per nine innings. The other is San Diego’s Blake Snell, a favorite for the NL Cy Young Award.

Senga, however, will face a Marlins team that has won four of its past five games, including a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Mets on Tuesday night.

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker was thrilled with the win even though his team made two errors and one glaring base-running mistake.

“Not all wins are pretty,” he said. “That was not our cleanest game. It was messy.”

The Marlins played on Tuesday without star second baseman Luis Arraez, who leads the majors with a .354 batting average. He sprained his left ankle after bobbling a ball and stepping on it during pre-game fielding practice and is considered day-to-day.

The Marlins also got a scare in the seventh inning when reliever A.J. Puk was hit in the back by a 97-mph liner off the bat of New York’s Brandon Nimmo.

However, Schumaker said after the game that Puk is “fine.”

On Wednesday, the Marlins will start rookie right-hander Eury Perez (5-5, 3.06 ERA). Perez, 20, has fared well at home, posting a 3-1 record with a 1.69 ERA in eight starts.

However, the slender 6-foot-8, 220-pound phenom seemingly has run out of gas in the second half of the season. He went 5-3 with a 2.36 ERA in 11 first-half starts. In seven second-half starts, he is 0-2 with a 4.11 ERA.

Perez has yet to face the Mets in his career.

On the injury front, the Marlins saw the return of outfielder Bryan De La Cruz on Tuesday. After missing four straight games due to a right ankle injury, he went 1-for-4.

For the Mets, rookie third baseman Brett Baty missed his sixth straight game due to a groin injury.

–Field Level Media

An early lead and three home runs were the formula for the Toronto Blue Jays to enjoy a stress-free night at Yankee Stadium and keep pace in the tight American League wild-card race on Tuesday.

The Blue Jays will attempt to replicate their productive showing Wednesday night when they continue a three-game series with the New York Yankees.

Toronto (84-67) is bidding for its first five-game run since winning six straight from April 23-29.

The Blue Jays followed their three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox with a 7-1 win over the Yankees on Tuesday. George Springer hit his 57th career leadoff homer five pitches in. Bo Bichette reached three times and scored the tiebreaking run on a single by Cavan Biggio and hit a two-run homer for his first homer since Aug. 20.

“A win is a win no matter how it comes,” said Bichette, who is 7-for-39 (.179) in 10 games since returning from a strained quadriceps on Sept. 8. “It doesn’t matter, so you just got to do it again tomorrow.”

The Blue Jays hit at least three homers for the 16th time this year and the first time since a 13-9 win at Colorado on Sept. 1. Their productive night kept the Jays one game ahead of the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers for the AL’s second wild-card spot.

“I thought we swung the bats really well,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “That’s a good recipe for a win.”

The Yankees (76-75) will attempt to avoid their third straight loss and falling back to .500 after being held to one run or less for the 27th time this year. Gleyber Torres hit an RBI double, but New York struck out 12 times, had three at-bats with runners in scoring position and was held to six hits.

“Some days it’s the pitcher, some days it’s the hitter,” Torres said. “I don’t want to make any excuses, but we have to play better. As a team we have to play better.”

Kevin Gausman (11-9, 3.40 ERA) will start for the Blue Jays on Wednesday after being unable to complete five innings in two of his previous three starts. Gausman followed a four-inning outing at Colorado with 10 strikeouts in eight innings against Kansas City on Sept. 9 but allowed four runs and six hits along with six walks in 4 2/3 innings of Thursday’s 9-2 loss to the Rangers.

Gausman is 9-7 with a 3.28 ERA in 29 career appearances (23 starts) against the Yankees. The right-hander last faced the Yankees on May 16 in Toronto when he struck out 10 and allowed three runs over seven innings of a no-decision.

Michael King (4-6, 2.77) will continue his transition to the rotation when he makes his seventh start. The right-hander is 1-2 with a 1.93 ERA as a starter this year and took the loss Thursday in Boston despite allowing one run in 4 2/3 innings.

King is 2-1 with a 3.75 ERA in 16 appearances against the Blue Jays and made two starts against them on June 17, 2021 and Sept. 21, 2020.

–Field Level Media

The San Diego Padres are finishing the 2023 season the way manager Bob Melvin hoped they would — and are winning.

The Colorado Rockies are finishing the 2023 season the way manager Bud Black hoped they would — and are losing.

Wednesday afternoon in San Diego, the Padres will go for a three-game sweep of the Rockies and a seventh straight win.

“Getting that one was big,” Melvin said Tuesday night after Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run, walk-off homer to give the Padres a 2-0 win in a game that started with Cy Young Award candidate Blake Snell pitching seven no-hit innings.

“We answered every zero right to the last pitch,” Black said. “I love the way we’re competing.”

But while the Padres (74-78) have won six straight games — double their previous longest winning streak of 2023 entering this stretch of games– and are 8-3 over the past 11, the Rockies (56-95) have lost three straight and are 8-20 over the past month.

Seth Lugo (7-7, 3.83 ERA) will start for the Padres on Wednesday while fellow right-hander Chase Anderson (0-5, 6.00) will go for Colorado.

But the matchup isn’t as one-sided as it appears.

Like Snell on Tuesday, the 35-year-old Anderson pitched seven no-hit innings in his most recent outing last Friday against the San Francisco Giants, allowing one run on five walks with seven strikeouts.

And like Snell, who was at 102 pitches after seven no-hit innings Tuesday night, Anderson was at 101 pitches after seven innings against the Giants — and that was the first time he reached triple digits in pitches since June 21, 2019. Plus, it was Anderson’s third start since returning after missing eight starts due to right shoulder inflammation.

“I’m not going to risk Chase Anderson’s career for a chance at a no-hitter,” Black said.

Anderson was in agreement. Fast forward to Tuesday night, and Snell and Melvin agreed on the same point.

And while Anderson is 0-5 with the Rockies, Colorado is 7-8 in the 15 games he has started since he was claimed on waivers from Tampa Bay on May 12.

Anderson is 3-1 with a 3.88 ERA and 58 innings pitched in 10 career starts against the Padres. In four previous starts at Petco Park, Anderson is 1-0. However, he hasn’t faced the Padres since Aug. 7, 2018, while with the Milwaukee Brewers, and he hasn’t had a decision against San Diego since June 28, 2015.

The Padres are 10-14 in Lugo’s 24 starts this season. Lugo has doubled the innings he pitched last year while working out of the bullpen for the New York Mets, and his 131 2/3 innings pitched are a career high. He has struck out 126, also a career-best tally.

Lugo will make his third start this season against the Rockies. He is 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA in 14 innings against them this year, allowing four runs (three earned) on nine hits and three walks with 16 strikeouts in 14 innings.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Angels’ 2023 season has been an utter disappointment following the All-Star break, but something else happened over the summer that should leave the organization and fans excited about next spring.

First baseman Nolan Schanuel.

After a sizzling summer debut, Schanuel and the Angels will face the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday evening in the second contest of their three-game series in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The season began to unravel for the Angels (68-83) following the Aug. 1 trade deadline when the team chose to be a buyer rather than a seller, acquiring Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk and Dominic Leone.

Since that date, the Angels have a 12-32 record (.273) after Tuesday’s series-opening 6-2 loss, the team’s sixth setback in a row.

That percentage is lower than the overall one of the last-place Oakland Athletics, who are playing just north of .300 ball.

However, Schanuel — a first-round pick (11th) in this year’s draft — has been a bright star during a record-setting debut after being called up 40 days after his selection.

He is hitting .284 following an 0-for-3 night with a walk in the opener. He has reached base in all 23 games so far.

That mark broke the club record set by Darin Erstad (15 games) in 1996 and is the longest such streak since Christopher Morel started his Chicago Cubs career by reaching base in 22 straight games in 2021.

“It’s just really impressive just the way he’s slowed things down in the box since Day 1,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “He’s looked comfortable. He knows the zone as well as anybody I’ve seen.”

Tampa Bay (93-59) used a four-run eighth inning to beat former Rays reliever Aaron Loup on Tuesday.

Mired in a 3-for-37 slump, infielder Osleivis Basabe rapped a two-run double to snap a 2-2 tie and send the Rays to their third win in four meetings with the Angels this season.

With everyone scoreboard-watching as the second-place Rays pursue the Baltimore Orioles for the top spot in the AL East, Basabe had some advice with 10 games left.

“Everyone has to be focused to give the best of themselves, and I think we’ll be all right,” he said through a translator.

The Rays will turn to right-hander Aaron Civale (7-3, 3.06 ERA) on Wednesday for his ninth start with the team since being acquired from the Cleveland Guardians at the trade deadline.

In 13 starts for Cleveland, Civale went 5-2 with a 2.34 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP. However, he is 2-1 with a 4.43 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP with Tampa Bay.

Most glaringly, Civale yielded just an average of 6.8 hits per nine innings with the Guardians but 9.3 with the Rays.

In his lone career start vs. the Angels on May 19, 2021, Civale earned the win by tossing seven innings and yielding four hits and two runs, including a solo homer by Jared Walsh.

Returning from an illness, left-hander Reid Detmers (3-10, 4.77) will make his 27th start Wednesday and will try to win for the first time since Aug. 16.

In his lone career outing against the Rays on May 10, 2022, Detmers recorded the franchise’s 12th career no-hitter in a 12-0 win. He struck out two and walked one.

–Field Level Media