SweetSpot

          What we learned: Desperate teams make playoff push

          Fill-in center fielder JaCoby Jones rose to the challenge for the Tigers on Wednesday, with two hits and two runs scored, including this game-winner. Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire

          As the calendar turns to September, we look forward to learning which teams are best at handling the pressure and which new names are about to be household names. Fortunately for us, the final day of August provided both those things, too.

          1. It's all about "finding a way": I like to use the expression "Grand Theft Baseball" to describe the kinds of wins that a few teams got on Wednesday. This is the time of year when teams play desperately and the cliché "finding a way" works its way into the lexicon a couple of times a day.

          It was Astros starter Mike Fiers who first brought it up after Houston rallied from two runs down in the eighth inning to beat the Athletics, thanks to (among other things) a pair of triples and a wild pitch. The biggest takeaway from this one was the work of the Astros' bullpen: four scoreless innings, six strikeouts.

          The Tigers found a way, down a run in the eighth inning against White Sox starter Chris Sale, tying it against him and winning against David Robertson in the ninth. Fill-in center fielder JaCoby Jones rose to the challenge again, with two hits and two runs scored, including the game winner.

          At the end of the day, the Tigers were tied with the Orioles for the second AL wild-card spot, with the Astros one game behind.

          The Mets, who lost second baseman Neil Walker to season-ending back surgery, got a huge eighth-inning three-run double from Kelly Johnson to beat the faltering Marlins, in a game in which they squandered many earlier opportunities. The Mets still trail the Cardinals by 1 ½ games for the second NL wild card.

          And the Yankees bullpen bettered that of the Astros (and the Royals), throwing seven hitless innings to win another tight game and move within 2 ½ games of the Orioles for the second wild-card spot.

          None of these four teams may make the postseason. But they're at least doing what they can to make things exciting the rest of the way.

          Fiers, spared a loss by his team's comeback, essentially spoke for all of the teams fighting to stay relevant.

          "That's how this team is. We don't stop, we battle. No one takes their at-bats off, no one takes pitches off, and we just find ways to win. It's always fun watching this team, and it should be good going forward."

          2. Red Sox possibly solve one problem but still have a bigger worry: After Wednesday's win over the Rays, Boston announced it will recall top prospect Yoan Moncada on Friday, and it's likely he'll be given a chance to unseat Travis Shaw and Aaron Hill at third base.

          But the Red Sox lineup isn't their biggest concern. If you bought a newspaper in Boston on Wednesday, you might have seen the harsh headlines about the team's eighth-inning struggles. Those continued on Wednesday, with Fernando Abad and Junichi Tazawa blowing a two-run lead on a day on which Brad Ziegler was out with the flu.

          My Stats & Info colleague Jason McCallum shared this note: Koji Uehara was injured on July 19 and has not pitched since then. Since July 20, the Red Sox bullpen has a 7.02 ERA in the eighth inning when the score is within two runs. That is easily the worst in baseball during that span. The major league average is just under 3.00.

          The solution is probably some combination of Ziegler and Joe Kelly, who has excelled in a relief role in Triple-A. In 16 innings, Kelly has allowed one run and struck out 25.

          3. Want to give the Dodgers trouble? Start a lefty: In the last two weeks of August, L.A. faced six left-handed starters. Though the Dodgers did score without issue against Madison Bumgarner and Mike Montgomery, the other four held them scoreless. Tyler Anderson joined Jon Lester and no-hit bidders Matt Moore and Brandon Finnegan in putting up zeroes. Anderson beat the Dodgers for the second time this month.

          Corey Seager, Adrian Gonzalez and Justin Turner were fine against lefties in August, but here are some of the others: Yasmani Grandal (.167, three hits), Enrique Hernandez (.120, three hits), Josh Reddick (.120, three hits), Howie Kendrick (.097, three hits) and Chase Utley (.077, one hit). Those are troubling numbers.

          "Left-handed pitching has been our Achilles heel," said manager Dave Roberts.

          Wonder if this will influence whether Yasiel Puig finds his way back to Los Angeles?

          Against right-handed pitching, the Dodgers seem to be fine, especially given their comeback from six runs down in their second game of a doubleheader on Wednesday (and the game-winning grand slam by rookie Andrew Toles).

          4. Matt Moore looks like he’ll be all right: Giants manager Bruce Bochy played it safe, pulling Moore after 92 pitches in his first start following the 133-pitch near no-hitter on Aug. 25 against the Dodgers. Moore pitched 5 ⅓ innings and allowed one run, striking out seven in a win over the Diamondbacks.

          As ESPN Insider Eno Sarris noted for Fangraphs earlier Wednesday, Moore is now mixing in a cutter with greater regularity. He threw 12 of 20 for strikes on Wednesday, a similar strike rate to when he threw 28 against the Dodgers.

          Moore posted a 3.16 ERA in August, hurt by 20 walks in his first five starts.

          If he can find the plate with regularity, he could be very important in September. His 7.7 percent hard-hit rate in August was second best among starters in the majors. His .178 opponents’ batting average ranked fourth.

          5. Stephen Cardullo is a name worth knowing:

          “It’s a great story of perseverance.”

          -- Rockies manager Walt Weiss on Cardullo, his first baseman

          Cardullo is one of those great September stories, who just happened to be called up a few days early. Cardullo had a 29th birthday to remember, homering in each game of the Rockies' doubleheader with the Dodgers.

          The Elias Sports Bureau shared that Cardullo is the fourth player to homer in each game of a doubleheader on his birthday, the first since Tony Perez did so for the 1972 Reds. He's also the second player to hit his first two career home runs on his birthday. The other was then-Cubs outfielder Angel Pagan against the White Sox in 2006.

          Cardullo was a 24th-round pick out of Florida State (where he was a walk-on-turned-All-American). He played two years in the Pioneer League before getting cut, then spent four years in Independent League baseball, the last three with the Rockland Boulders in the Can-Am League. Cardullo signed with the Rockies prior to this season and flourished with Albuquerque in the Pacific Coast League, hitting .308 with 17 home runs before his recall.

          Cardullo is the kind of guy who, when his Independent League team visited the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown last year, went instead to the pay-as-you-go batting cage to work on his swing.

          "We were watching before his first home run, and he's got these little idiosyncrasies that only we would notice," Boulders manager Jamie Keefe told us Wednesday night. "He has his right hand on the bat and his left hand off, and he's talking to himself, saying, 'Use my bottom hand. Use my bottom hand.' Sometimes he'll say, 'Let's go, let's go.'

          "Quirky is a good word for him. He's a guy who took swings in the cage at 4 a.m. in [shorts], shower shoes and socks. We couldn't be happier for him. This is why I do what I do."