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5 Seam Fastball
By RivalCharts · Thursday, October 1, 2026

The 5 best things in baseball we’ve seen this week. Batter up!

#1 ⚾
AP · the last pitching change
On Sept. 26, in the final start of his career, Justin Verlander retired the leadoff man in the sixth. A.J. Hinch walked out — and Verlander’s 7-year-old daughter, in a No. 35 jersey, sprinted past him to the mound. Verlander hugged her for more than 15 seconds, then walked off hand-in-hand with her.
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Best mound visit of the year. Nobody talked mechanics.

#2 ⚾
Sportsnet · the season finale
On Sept. 27, George Springer (37) and Max Scherzer (42) played what may be their final games for Toronto. Scherzer went seven innings for his 225th career win. Asked about the day, catcher Brandon Valenzuela said he cried “like four times today.”
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Four is a normal number. Ask any travel-ball parent on the last day of the season.

#3 ⚾
Driveline Baseball · YouTube
“What 430 Youth Pitchers Taught Us About Velocity” — two pitchers, same age, same size, nearly identical arm action: one throws 75, one throws 59. The harder thrower produced 18% more peak force on the force plates. Elbow speed was dead even. 50,000 views in six days, about 12 times their usual.
watch →

The arm wasn’t the difference. The legs were. Strong kids throw hard, so the radar gun can wait.

#4 ⚾
Dominate The Diamond · YouTube short
“Struggling with the Big Fungo? Try a Little League Bat!” Seventeen seconds: if your fungo is wild or your practice is dragging, grab a glove, grab a little league bat, and shrink the field.
watch →

For every coach who has whiffed on a fungo in front of the whole team. That’s all of us.

#5 ⚾
AP · the wild card opener
On Sept. 29, down 3-2 in the eighth, Austin Riley hit a three-run homer off All-Star closer Jhoan Duran and the Braves beat the Phillies 5-3 in Game 1. Riley hit .219 in the regular season. Duran had allowed two homers in 61 games.
read recap →

His line after: the postseason is a clean slate. Say that to the kid in your dugout who’s 0-for-August.

⚡ Crazy stat of the week
45 homers. 41 steals.

Pete Crow-Armstrong finished the regular season with 45 home runs and 41 stolen bases — the seventh 40-40 season in MLB history, and the first ever by a Cub. He played all 162 games. The glove may have been better than the bat: his +27 Fielding Run Value is the best by any outfielder since Statcast tracking began in 2015.

💎 From our data
Same staff: 16 walks or 34.

One 12U travel book, full spring charted: ten pitchers, 1,743 pitches, 491 batters faced. Five of the ten threw 60% strikes or better on the season. They faced 351 batters and walked 16. The other five faced 140 batters and walked 34. The strike-throwers gave up 67 runs while getting 228 outs; the rest gave up 34 runs while getting 80. Before your next arm learns a third pitch, get him over 60% with the first one.

See a full report → First one’s free with code FIRSTPITCH

What’d you think? Hit reply and tell me the best play you saw this week — the good ones end up in next Thursday’s five.

Every count · Every tendency · Every arm — rivalcharts.com

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