What a strange season. Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium a man intended to propose marriage to his girlfriend. But he fumbled the ring like a knuckleball, with no one knowing where the thing would end up. The whole section looked for it. Fans used their cell phones as flashlights, parents sent their kids under the seats to search, and all the ballpark was invested in the drama. When the Jumbotron captured the woman’s face alight as she found it—for of course it is she who does the finding, which is why he was asking—the Bronx erupted in wild cheers. Naturally she accepted, and weirdly the Yanks beat the Red Sox 6-4 to keep their improbable wild card playoff hopes alive for one more day.

Monday night the Mets played the Marlins in the Miami club’s first game since the star pitcher 24-year-old Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident Sunday morning. Marlins second baseman Dee Gordon stepped to the plate in the bottom of the first and occupied the right-handed hitter’s batter’s box as a tribute in emulation of his late teammate and friend. Gordon took one pitch, and switched to the left-handed side, from where he won last year’s National League batting title with a .333 average. He took another pitch, and then on the 2-0 offering drilled his first home run of the year into the upper deck. Gordon was crying rounding the bases, and when he touched home, he saw that Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud was, too.