Bullpen Day Magic
Ray Kerr does it again, the Dodgers series comes to Atlanta tied, and 56 days on the labor clock
Allen Hamric
October 06, 2026
Inside the Vault
The sports card newsletter for collectors who want real intel, not hype.
Issue #25 · October 6, 2026 · newsletter.dugoutvault.app
🔒 Vault Trivia — Winner Take All
Last Thursday was the first time the Braves won a winner-take-all postseason game in 30 years. Who did they beat in the last one, and what was the score? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.
Allen's Note
This one is a few days late, and I am glad it waited. Since Thursday the Braves have closed out the Phillies, lost a tough opener in Los Angeles, and then stole Game 2 with a bullpen game started by Ray Kerr, who found out that morning he was pitching. Two-time defending champs, their building, a two-time Cy Young winner on the mound, and we beat them with six pitchers and no starter. The series comes back to Truist tied 1-1 for Game 3 tonight. This is still a shorter issue on purpose. Chop Talk has the whole run, Market Pulse has what a lockout actually freezes for your cards, and What's Dropping has two releases landing tomorrow plus a date correction.
Market Pulse
Fifty-six days. The CBA expires December 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET, and a lockout can start the next morning (Forbes via Yahoo Sports, Sept. 21). Rob Manfred has called an offseason lockout "a positive" because it applies leverage. The owners want a salary cap, the same fight that cancelled the 1994 World Series, and the players have said no in every way they know how. In mid-September the sportsbooks had a lockout at about 92%. Plan for one.
The useful question for a collector is narrower than "will they play in 2027." It is what actually stops on December 2, and what keeps moving. We have a recent test case: the 2021-22 lockout ran 99 days.
During a lockout | What happened last time |
|---|---|
Signings and trades | Frozen. No new-uniform hype until it ends. |
MLB's own player images | Pulled from every official MLB property, headshots included |
New card products | Kept shipping. 2022 Topps Series 1 came out the week of Feb. 9, mid-lockout. |
Opening Day | Pushed from March 31 to April 7, all 162 games made up |
Sources: 2021-22 MLB lockout record; BaseballCardPedia, 2022 Topps; OutKick, June 25, 2026; lockout odds from Oddspedia, Sept. 16.
So the cards keep coming and the news stops. That is the setup. Topps will put Update, Holiday and Series 1 on shelves into a winter with no transactions and no MLB promotion of the players on them. Demand for player cards is built on news, and the news ends the night the World Series does.
The patient play. October is the last live catalyst until spring. If you are holding a playoff-hot player you do not actually want to own through a lockout, the postseason is your window to sell into attention. If you are a buyer, wait. The quiet months after December 2 are when the same cards should be cheapest. Full background in our MLB labor primer.
🪓 Chop Talk — Braves Corner
Thursday, Wild Card Game 3: Braves 6, Phillies 2. Every run came on a homer, with Michael Harris's three-run shot in the first doing the heavy lifting (CBS Sports). Ray Kerr opened with 3⅓ scoreless innings and Chris Sale, on one day of rest, got four outs in relief. Philadelphia beat us in the NLDS in 2022 and 2023, and Atlanta had lost six straight winner-take-all games before this one (MLB.com). Done.
Saturday, NLDS Game 1: Dodgers 5, Braves 3. Same plan, different result. Dylan Dodd opened with three scoreless innings, then Teoscar Hernández hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Kyle Tucker and Max Muncy went deep in the sixth. Tarik Skubal gave LA six innings of one-run ball. Sean Murphy homered and Ozzie Albies hit a two-run shot in the ninth, too late (Dodgers Digest).
Sunday, NLDS Game 2: Braves 3, Dodgers 2. No Sale, so Walt Weiss went to the bullpen again and used six pitchers: Kerr, Grant Holmes, Dylan Lee, Robert Suarez, Didier Fuentes and Raisel Iglesias. Kerr went 2⅔ scoreless with four strikeouts and outpitched Blake Snell, who walked five and needed 90 pitches to get through 3⅔ innings. Freddie Freeman homered against his old team to tie it in the fourth, but Harris answered with three hits and an RBI, and the bullpen held a one-run lead in Dodger Stadium. "He looked like vintage Suarez tonight," Weiss said (MLB.com; Yahoo Sports).
About Kerr. He came up through foster care and junior college, worked at a 7-Eleven, came back from Tommy John surgery, and signed a minor-league deal. He did not throw a pitch for Atlanta until August 17 (FOX Sports). After Thursday he said, "This was just another Thursday. Growing up, I had a hard time. So, this was nothing" (MLB.com). Six scoreless postseason innings later, he is a cult hero in Atlanta.
The Braves fan take. Game 3 is tonight at 6 p.m. ET at Truist: Sale against Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Dave Roberts said it himself after Game 2: "Now it's a three-game series," and two of the three are in Atlanta. If you own a Ray Kerr card of any kind, it is the most important card in your Braves binder.
What's Dropping
Two releases tomorrow, a pre-order that just opened, and one correction. Last week we listed Museum Collection for October 7. Topps now shows November 11, so it moves to the bottom.
OCT 5 · 2026 Topps Cosmic Chrome
Pre-orders opened Monday on topps.com. Space-themed Chrome with Constellation and Anti-Gravity variations and loud refractor parallels. For collectors who buy on looks. Topps has not posted price or box configuration yet.
PRE-ORDER OPEN
OCT 7 · 2026 Topps Allen & Ginter
Tomorrow. Hobby $139.99 at presale, 18 packs, two hits per box across autos, relics, Rip Cards and printing plates. Framed mini non-baseball autos are the fun chase. Built for set builders and mini collectors. Check retail here.
RELEASE DAY
OCT 7 · 2026 Bowman Chrome Sapphire Edition
Also tomorrow, online exclusive. Eight packs of four, one auto and three Sapphire parallels per box, on the Bowman Chrome prospect checklist. Prospect hunters only, and expect it to sell out fast. Bowman Chrome checklist.
RELEASE DAY
OCT 14 · 2026 Topps Update Series
Hobby $109.99, 20 packs, one auto or relic per box. Rookie debuts, deadline trades in new uniforms, and the 1991 Topps insert back for a third year. The last flagship before the CBA runs out. Check retail here.
ROOKIE CARDS
OCT 21 · 2026 Topps Holiday
Mega $29.99, tin $44.99, advent calendar $59.99. Garland-and-ornament borders, a Chrome run, and Hidden Elf cards on 20 players. Stocking stuffers and kid collectors. Check retail here.
GIFT PICK
NOV 11 · 2026 Topps Museum Collection
Corrected date. Presale opened at $409.99 for one eight-card pack with an on-card auto, an auto relic and a relic, and it is already sold out on topps.com. Premium hit chasers only.
PREMIUM
Sources: topps.com product pages for Cosmic Chrome, Allen & Ginter and Museum, checked Oct. 2 and Oct. 5, 2026; Checklist Insider for Allen & Ginter, Sapphire, Update, Holiday and Museum; baseball.cards release calendar; Cardlines October preview.
Hit Reply
Two questions this week.
First: what is your lockout plan? Selling playoff names now, buying in the dead of winter, or ignoring the whole thing and ripping Update like normal? I want to know what people are actually doing with real money.
Second: this issue is about half the length of the last few. Did you like the shorter read, or do you miss The Card Worth Knowing? Tell me which one you would rather get on a week like this.
Hit reply. It comes straight to me and I read every one.
🔓 Vault Trivia — Answer
Cardinals, 15-0
Game 7 of the 1996 NLCS. The Braves came back from down 3-1 in that series and shut out St. Louis 29-0 across Games 5 and 7 (MLB.com). At the time, 15-0 was the biggest blowout in postseason history. Then came six straight winner-take-all losses, until last Thursday.
Inside the Vault · Published by Dugout Vault · Sent by Allen Hamric · hello@dugoutvault.app