With the MLB trade deadline still more than 24 hours away, two division rivals have made a series of major moves as they seek to end long playoff droughts.

The Rangers and Angels have made some of the biggest moves we’ve seen in the lead-up to the deadline. Los Angeles, after deciding not to trade Shohei Ohtani, kick-started its playoff push with the acquisition of pitcher Lucas Giolito last week and yesterday acquired two of the best hitters on the market—C.J. Cron and Randal Grichuk—from the Rockies. Texas, meanwhile, acquired two of the best pitchers available in Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery.

Both teams are looking to get back to the postseason after long absences (the Rangers since 2016 and the Angels since ’14) and are locked in tight races. The Rangers currently have a one-game lead over the Angels in the AL West, while the Angels are five games out in the division and four games out in the wild-card race. The moves they’ve made haven’t come cheap, but both teams are counting on their reinforcements to make the risk worth it.

The sense of urgency is greatest for the Angels, who could very well lose Shohei Ohtani to free agency this winter. The team is stockpiling players at the deadline to make what could be a final push to ensure that the two-way star’s tenure in Los Angeles doesn’t end in disappointment. The Angels need the help, too. Ohtani is the only reason their offense is anywhere close to respectable. He leads the team in both runs scored and runs driven in—and by wide margins. With several key players on the injured list (most notably Mike Trout, but also Anthony Rendon, Gio Urshela, Brandon Drury and Taylor Ward), the Angels were in desperate need of offensive help. The acquisitions of Cron and Grichuk fill that need.

Cron is an especially important addition, since the Angels were in serious need of a first baseman. Jared Walsh, the team’s primary first baseman for the past three seasons, was designated for assignment last week after putting up terrible offensive numbers in 28 games this season. Drury and Urshela have also seen time at first this season but are currently injured. Cron gives the Angels a right-handed option at first base to platoon with the lefty-hitting Mike Moustakas.

The Rangers, on the other hand, are a team with few holes. The moves they’ve made have been more about improving on their strengths in hopes of winning a championship. They have the best offense in the majors and have therefore made pitching their focus at the deadline. But it isn’t as though Texas’s pitchers have struggled this season. The team’s starters have posted a 3.88 ERA this season, sixth best in the majors. Nathan Eovaldi has been the club’s best starter, with a 2.69 ERA that ranks third in the majors, but he was placed on the injured list yesterday with a forearm strain. Adding Scherzer and Montgomery gives the Rangers some needed pitching depth, Emma Baccellieri writes:

It’s true that the Rangers spent the winter bulking up their pitching staff and have now spent the deadline trying to bulk it up even more. But sometimes baseball works like that: [Jacob] deGrom was hurt fairly quickly; Eovaldi, for all his success this year, is currently on the IL; [Andrew] Heaney and [Martín] Pérez never matched their outputs from last season. (All four were signed or re-signed this winter.) That the Rangers have been so successful this year, despite all of that, is a credit to their offense and the rest of their staff. And that the front office is now pushing in its chips to bolster the pitching for a stretch run is a credit to its belief in the team.

If the aggressive moves made by the Rangers and Angels are any indication, we’ll see plenty of other significant trades made between now and 6 p.m. ET tomorrow—perhaps starting with Justin Verlander.

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The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal’s attempted between-the-legs flip.

4. Adolis García’s single after a pitch hit the knob of his bat.

3. Giants announcer Dave Flemming and his brother, Red Sox announcer Will Flemming, calling an inning together during the series finale between San Francisco and Boston.

2. Giants safety Jason Pinnock’s absurd one-handed interception.

1. Josh Palacios’s celebration after his walk-off homer for the Pirates.

SIQ

On this day in 2007, the Timberwolves traded Kevin Garnett to the Celtics in exchange for seven players, in what was at the time the largest draft haul for one single player in NBA history. A decade later, which player was traded in exchange for a record eight players?

Kevin Durant
James Harden
Chris Paul
Kawhi Leonard

Friday’s SIQ: On July 28, 1998, the day after setting a record for most career home runs before a player’s first grand slam, which slugger then became just the 18th player in MLB history to hit grand slams on consecutive days?

Sammy Sosa
Mark McGwire
Barry Bonds
Ken Griffey Jr.

Answer: Sammy Sosa. He had hit 246 career home runs before he finally clobbered his first grand slam July 27, 1998, off Diamondbacks reliever Alan Embree.

“That’s twice he’s pulled my pants down and embarrassed me,” Embree said after the game, referring to a homer he gave up to Sosa a month earlier, Sosa’s record 20th for the month. “I have to figure out a way to get that guy out.”

The very next day, Sosa came to the plate again with the bases loaded and hit another grand slam, this time off Bob Wolcott. Sosa said he was thinking, “I like it so much, I’ll do it again.” It made him the 18th player in MLB history to hit a grand slam in back-to-back games and the first Cubs player to do it.

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