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			<title>Latest MLB News &amp; Videos from FOX Sports</title>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Jun 2026 14:17:42 -0400</pubDate>
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					<![CDATA[Yoshinobu Yamamoto Comes 4 Outs Short Of Perfect Game, Loses No-Hitter In Ninth Inning]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/yoshinobu-yamamoto-comes-4-outs-short-perfection</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/yoshinobu-yamamoto-comes-4-outs-short-perfection</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
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				    <![CDATA[Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a gem, but he narrowly missing out on a no-hitter and perfect game.]]>
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				<pubDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2026 19:15:57 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Yoshinobu Yamamoto was inches away from perfection. Yamamoto struck out seven hitters while throwing 109 pitches over 8 1/3 innings. The Dodgers ace came four outs from a perfect game and three from a no-hitter, while leading the Dodgers to a 7-1 victory against the White Sox on Saturday. He was through 7 2/3 innings when White Sox infielder Chase Meidroth hit a ground ball at Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, who failed to field it cleanly, allowing Meidroth to reach base on an error. Yamamoto still took a no-hitter into the ninth inning, but conceded a solo home run to Tristan Peters, the first batter of the frame. After forcing Edgar Quero to fly out to center field, Yamamoto was replaced with left-handed reliever Alex Vesia, who finished out the game. Before Betts' error, Yamamoto was on track for the first perfect game since New York Yankees' starter Domingo German in June 2023. Then Peters' home run prevented Yamamoto from pitching the first complete-game no-hitter since his now-teammate Blake Snell did so as a member of the San Francisco Giants on August 8, 2024, against the Cincinnati Reds. Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw remains the latest pitcher to toss a complete-game no-hitter for the franchise when he completed the feat against the Colorado Rockies in 2014. The Dodgers also pitched a combined no-hitter against the San Diego Padres on May 4, 2018. Sandy Koufax remained the only Dodgers pitcher with a perfect game, which came on Sept. 9, 1965. Yamamoto has already etched his place in Dodgers' history books as he won World Series MVP when the Dodgers took down the Toronto Blue Jays last October. While he didn't make more history on Saturday, Yamamoto continued to show his stellar form. After starting the season with a 3-4 record through nine starts, he's found the win column in his last four outings. Over that span of 28 2/3 innings, he's allowed just 14 hits and three earned runs, while striking out 24 batters. He's also increased his total to eight quality starts.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Jacob Misiorowski Sets An MLB Velocity Record During Complete-Game Shutout]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/jacob-misiorowski-sets-velocity-record-mlb-starting-pitcher</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/jacob-misiorowski-sets-velocity-record-mlb-starting-pitcher</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Milwaukee Brewers RHP Jacob Misiorowski set the record for the fastest pitch thrown by an MLB starting pitcher during the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 22:21:07 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[History was a matter of when, not if, for Jacob Misiorowski. The moment came during the first inning of the Milwaukee Brewers' game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday. Misiorowski clocked 105 miles per hour on the radar gun when he blew a pitch passed Phillies' leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber, striking him out. Misiorowski's 105 mph pitch set the record for the fastest pitch thrown by an MLB starting pitcher. Misiorowski has been flirting with this milestone since the Brewers promoted him to the majors in June 2025. He averages 100 mph on his four-seam fastball. He's clocked at least 10 pitches over 104 mph. In Friday's first inning, not only did he set the velocity record for an MLB starter, but he threw 10 fastballs over 102.3 mph as he struck out the side. He continued to throw a complete-game shutout, striking out 15 batters over nine innings, needing just 95 pitches to finish the outing. His 15 strikeouts on 95 pitches are the most ever in an outing in which a pitcher threw fewer than 100 pitches. Over 14 starts during the 2026 season, Misiorowski owns an 8-2 record. He leads the majors with a 1.34 earned run average, 131 strikeouts and a .74 WHIP. He's also helped the Brewers jump into first place in the National League Central. Misiorowski is competing with Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sanchez, the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani and the Pirates' Paul Skenes to start the All-Star Game for the National League, and for the NL Cy Young award.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Tarik Skubal, Other Pro Athletes Credit Tiny New Scope for Faster Recoveries]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/tarik-skubal-other-pro-athletes-credit-tiny-new-scope-faster-recoveries</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/tarik-skubal-other-pro-athletes-credit-tiny-new-scope-faster-recoveries</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Several top pro athletes and their surgeons say a modern version of an old tool is shaving weeks off the recovery time for certain injuries. And some top doctors think this is only the beginning.]]>
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				<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:01:59 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Several top pro athletes and their surgeons say a modern version of an old tool is shaving weeks off the recovery time for certain injuries. And some top doctors think this is only the beginning. Cy Young Award winners Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell let doctors use the instrument on their prized elbows. Connor Hellebuyck, the 2025 Hart Trophy winner as NHL MVP, trusted it to address issues in his knee. Several NFL players have turned to it, too. It’s called the NanoNeedle scope 2.0, a miniaturized, flexible version of the traditional arthroscope. It's very early — there is little published research on the model — but it is accumulating an impressive list of proponents. "Every time I’ve used it, including when I started using it in the lab, different types of procedures occur to me that we could do," said Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the head team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Rams. An arthroscope is a pencil-like tube with a camera that goes into joints, expands the area with salt water or saline, and projects an image onto a screen. Then doctors insert secondary instruments in the same area to perform the surgical procedure. With the diminished size — 1.9 millimeters in diameter, compared to 4 millimeters for a traditional scope — the NanoNeedle is designed to cause less pain, inflammation and tissue damage, leading to a faster recovery. It uses much less fluid than a traditional scope, and it also is proving to be a valuable tool when it comes to diagnosing the extent of certain injuries. "Basically, we’re able to accomplish anatomic type of work and repair with far less surgical trauma," ElAttrache said. Star Athletes Have Returned Ahead Of Schedule After NanoNeedle Procedures The NanoNeedle was used when Skubal had a loose body removed from his left elbow by ElAttrache on May 6, and again when Snell had a similar elbow surgery on May 19. When Skubal — a two-time AL Cy Young Award winner who is eligible for free agency after this season — was placed on the injured list, the Detroit Tigers said the ace would be sidelined for two to three months. But he is expected to return on Saturday after pitching five scoreless innings in a rehab start on Sunday — a turnaround of about 5 1/2 weeks. ElAttrache said he has used the NanoNeedle scope with four patients, but he declined to identify the other two cases. Snell had a bigger operation that also involved the sculpting of a spur, but ElAttrache is optimistic about the timeline for the left-hander's return to the Dodgers. "The percentage of time out, I think, is going to be about half the time for Snell," ElAttrache said. Hellebuyck, a three-time Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL’s top goalie, had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Nov. 22. He was expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks, but he was back in net for the Winnipeg Jets after three weeks. Dr. James Voos, the head team physician for the Cleveland Browns, said he has used the NanoNeedle during procedures on five Browns players, including center Luke Wypler's ankle fracture surgery. "Ankles and elbows I think are areas where it has had very great utility and then rapidly adopted," said Voos, who also serves as the president of the NFL Physicians Society. "And we’re finding more and more uses in the knee and shoulder." In addition to his duties with the Browns, Voos is the chair of the orthopedics departments at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He already has seen benefits when it comes to the treatment of younger athletes. "There are some very challenging elbow injuries in gymnasts and baseball players that the previous cameras were too large for the joint," Voos said. "They’re designed for adult joints. So the smaller camera allows us to see and work in these smaller spaces. In pediatrics and adolescence, that was more challenging and potentially caused more damage before, some more soft tissue damage." NanoNeedle Has Been In The Works For a Few Years, And It's Still Evolving The NanoNeedle was developed by Arthrex, a Florida-based company that makes medical supplies. Voos is an educational consultant for Arthrex, and ElAttrache has worked with the company for more than 30 years. The initial version was created in 2019, according to Ryan Kellar, a senior product manager at Arthrex. There was another version that came out in 2023 before the current model — with upgraded visualization, processing and imaging — was released in August. "This is our third iteration," Kellar said. "We already have the fourth iteration coming in the fall. That fourth iteration is going to be everything that this conventional scope is at all the less invasive benefits of nano arthroscopy. So we really believe that nano is the next foundation of less invasive orthopedic care for general population, as well as kind of a gold standard for athletes." Dr. Kyle Hammond, the head team physician for the Atlanta Falcons and head orthopedic surgeon for the Atlanta Hawks, has used the NanoNeedle in a teaching setting as an orthopedic surgeon at Emory Healthcare and assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine. But he hasn't used it on a patient yet. Hammond said other companies have made similar devices for needle arthroscopy, but he praised the quality of the camera and the video feed with the NanoNeedle, along with its ease of use. "It really has basically become very similar to what our standard arthroscopy equipment is," he said. "It’s just on a smaller scale." The current version of the NanoNeedle is disposable, raising questions about cost versus the expense of sterilization for the reusable traditional arthroscope. Like anything in science, Hammond said, more usage and research are needed to assess the benefits of the new design versus the standard version of the scope. "To kind of determine if they have true efficacy over the standard of care, they have to be used for a long period of time and you have to collect data and you kind of have to prove that from a statistical model," Hammond said. Dr. Brian Cole, the head team physician for the Chicago Bulls, said the level of adoption will depend in large part on the willingness of clinicians to incorporate the scope into their workflow. "There’s a sort of econometric analysis on top of a healthcare analysis at the same time," said Cole, who also is a consultant for Arthrex. "But I would say directionally, this is where we’re going. Less invasive, cost-effective, predictable, eliminating problems that we might or could have with existing technology. So, in that regard, this is very innovative, you know, in my opinion, and it’s consistent with the direction we’re going in." Reporting by the Associated Press.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Brewers Star Jacob Misiorowski's 2026 Season By The Numbers]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/brewers-ace-jacob-misiorowski-100-mph-by-the-numbers</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/brewers-ace-jacob-misiorowski-100-mph-by-the-numbers</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski is off to an unreal start in the 2026 MLB season. Here's his performance by the numbers.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:32:31 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA["The Miz" has a different meaning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Jacob Misiorowski wowed the baseball scene in 2025 and has taken his game to the next level through his first 13 starts of the 2026 MLB season. Here's the budding superstar's 2026 campaign by the numbers: 0A: Misiorowski has pitched a shutout in six of his last seven starts. 0B: He hasn't given up a run in the second inning. 0.23: Misiorowski had an 0.23 ERA in May. You read that correctly. 0.69: Misiorowski has struggled in the fifth inning this season, where he has recorded a combined 0.69 ERA (believe it or not, that was indeed sarcasm). 1: Misiorowski's 1.50 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 2.23 expected ERA and 2.21 expected FIP (fielding independent pitching) are all first in MLB. 1.01: He has a 1.01 ERA in road outings (six of Misiorowski's 13 starts have come away from Milwaukee). 1.38: Misiorowski has a 1.38 ERA in the first, third and fourth innings. 2.5: Opponents have a combined 2.5% barrel percentage against Misiorowski, which ranks in the 96th percentile of MLB, according to Statcast. 3: He has surrendered no more than three runs in a start this season. 3.3: Misiorowski's 3.3 WAR (wins above replacement) is third among pitchers. 4.6: He's giving up just 0.46 home runs per nine innings, which is fourth in MLB. 7: Misiorowski has pitched through the seventh inning in four of his last five starts. 10: He has totaled double-digit strikeouts in five outings. 13: Misiorowski has given up just 13 earned runs. 37.8: Misiorowski has a 37.8% whiff percentage, which is in the 98th percentile of MLB, per Statcast. 41: He has given up just 41 hits. 62.7: Misiorowski is throwing his four-seamer 62.7% of the time, per Statcast. 100: Misiorowski leads MLB with a 100 mph average fastball velocity, according to FanGraphs. 102: In a May 8 start at home against the New York Yankees, Misiorowski began the game with 10 consecutive pitches that were thrown at least 102 mph. 103.7: In a June 6 road outing against the Colorado Rockies, Misiorowski threw a 103.7 mph pitch, the fastest on record by a starting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (2008-present), per MLB's Sarah Langs. 116: His 116 strikeouts lead the sport. 151: Opponents are hitting a combined .151 against Misiorowski, the lowest batting average against a pitcher in MLB. 191: His 1.91 FIP is second in the sport. 274: Misiorowski's 274 ERA+ is second in MLB.]]>
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					<![CDATA['He Wants To Dominate': Will This Be Astros Slugger Yordan Alvarez’s MVP Year?]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/will-yordan-alvarez-win-first-american-league-mvp</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/will-yordan-alvarez-win-first-american-league-mvp</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Yordan Alvarez is healthy and mashing again, putting him in play to win both his first MVP and MLB's first Triple Crown since 2012.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:31:58 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[ANAHEIM, Calif. — With Aaron Judge on the injured list and Shohei Ohtani thriving in the other league, the door is open for a new contender to win the American League MVP award for the first time since the shortened 2020 season. Is this finally Yordan Alvarez’s year to take home the honor? "It’s something I think every player wants, but right now I’m not thinking about that," Alvarez told me through his interpreter earlier this week in Anaheim. "I’m not that type of player, to have that kind of pressure that I have to win that award." It’s not that the Houston Astros slugger can’t handle it, to be clear. This is the same player who catalyzed Houston’s 2022 championship run with a walk-off home run off Seattle Mariners left-hander Robbie Ray in Game 1 of the American League Division Series and cemented it with a go-ahead blast off Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Jose Alvarado in Game 6 of the World Series. Alvarez has consistently produced in pressure-packed moments on baseball’s biggest stage, slashing .314/.417/.628 with 11 home runs over his last four postseasons. It just isn’t his modus operandi to try to garner individual attention, even amid what might end up the best offensive season of his eight-year career, especially while trying to lift a fourth-place Astros team that’s searching for its way. But as much as Alvarez deflects when asked about it, those around him know what winning MVP would mean to him. "I think it would be a huge deal for us as an organization and as his manager, and I think his teammates [would] be ecstatic about it, but Yordan will never talk about that," Astros manager Joe Espada told me. "He’ll never admit that he would love to do that. I know deep inside he would love to do that, and we all know he’s that good, but he’s a humble man." According to Alvarez’s teammate Christian Walker, that humble nature shouldn’t be misconstrued as a lack of competitiveness or drive. There’s a serenity to Alvarez when he steps to the plate, but it’s like a lion stalking his prey before pouncing. "He’s quiet, he’s calculated, but do not confuse that with lack of caring," Walker told me. "This guy wants to win, and he wants to dominate this league, and I think he’s in a position to do both of those things." Alvarez describes himself as "very competitive" and even "kind of stubborn." He said those attributes have helped him thrive at the plate and keep a positive mentality, no matter how he’s feeling physically or how much time he might have missed due to injury. From 2020 through 2025, Alvarez played in only 590 of the Astros’ 870 games as knee, hand, oblique and ankle injuries sidelined him at different points. But he has still hit at least 20% better than league average every season of his career, and since entering the league in 2019, his 165 wRC+ — 65% better than league average — is the second-highest mark in MLB behind only Judge (183). "I’m hard on myself," Alvarez said. "I have high standards. Even if I don’t meet those high standards, I feel like the numbers are still going to be good." In August 2020, Alvarez underwent surgery on both of his knees. A year later, he recorded the highest batting average in ALCS history (.522) and outhit the entire Boston Red Sox lineup over the final two games of the series to send Houston to the World Series. The Astros lost in six games that year but won in six the next, thanks largely to Alvarez’s 2022 postseason heroics against the Phillies. That season, Alvarez had an OPS over 1.000 and finished third in MVP voting behind Judge and Ohtani. It was the closest he has come to winning the award, due to both the brilliance of Ohtani and Judge over the ensuing years and the injuries that have prevented the Astros slugger from challenging for the honor. Four years later, though, a path has opened up for Alvarez, who is once again bouncing back from an injury-shortened season. He leads all of MLB in OPS, slugging and total bases. Over the past 58 years, only one player — Miguel Cabrera in 2012 — has won a Triple Crown. Alvarez, who ranks first in the AL in home runs, second in batting average and tied for third in RBIs, could challenge for it, though he thinks it’s too early to have that discussion. His ability to read pitchers and not fall victim to their plan of attack, he believes, is paramount to his success. "Every year, the league is harder on what they try to do with you," Alvarez said through his interpreter. "Knowing how to adjust is part of it. I’ve been able to, thankfully, do it." Unfortunately for Alvarez and his MVP case, his team is 31-39. But in the dismal American League, the Astros are still only four games out of a wild-card spot. Plus, Alvarez’s biggest competition right now for MLB’s top individual honor is playing for an even worse Kansas City Royals club (28-41). Bobby Witt Jr. leads the AL in WAR, teaming his .799 OPS with 24 steals and exceptional defense at shortstop. Alvarez can’t help his cause similarly with his legs or his defense, but his offense is so exceptional that it might not matter. He leads Witt, and nearly every AL player, in every major hitting category. There are no obvious blemishes in Alvarez’s offensive package. He’s hitting .328 against fastballs and .326 against off-speed pitches, and he’s slugging .658 against breaking balls. He has an OPS over 1.000 against both righties (1.068) and lefties (1.057). He ranks in the top 10 among all qualified hitters in barrel rate and hard-hit rate, and he doesn’t sell out to access his power. Alvarez has the highest walk rate of his career (15.3%) this year, nearly as many walks (46) as strikeouts (53), and one of the 40 lowest whiff rates among all qualified hitters. "I think the reason he’s in a category of his own is the consistency to hit everything hard," said Walker, who has hit behind Alvarez all month. "You look at the big production guys, they tend to be 30 or 40 homer [hitters] but bring a lot of strikeouts with that. Their averages tend to be a little bit lower. This guy, when he’s not hitting homers, he’s hitting 112-mph doubles in the gap. It’s so impressive, the consistency. For me, that’s what stands out the most, is his ability to compete." He’s also one of the most clutch hitters in the sport. Alvarez has demonstrated that skill in postseasons past, and he’s doing so this year with an OPS over 1.100 with runners in scoring position. It’s in those moments, Walker told me, when he sees Alvarez’s quiet competitiveness manifest. "It’s hard to quantify, because he doesn't have big reactions after at-bats," Walker said. "It’s not a show of emotion, but you can feel it. You can feel it when he comes through in a big moment. He hits a three-run homer to give us the lead and hits home and comes back in the dugout, and you can just see it in his face." This year, Alvarez is accessing more of his pull-side power, allowing him to turn his barreled baseballs into home runs, but he’s still spraying singles all over the field. When fellow Astros left-handed hitter Joey Loperfido was in the minor leagues, and even before he got drafted by Houston, he liked to watch Alvarez’s swing because he admired how the slugger used the opposite field. "Just how powerful he is to left-center, how he’s able to stay on some pitches, especially left-on-left, and go the other way … one of the best to ever do it," Loperfido told me. This season is arguably Alvarez’s best, but the 28-year-old is not yet satisfied. "I think I can be better," he said. In what way? "Everything."]]>
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					<![CDATA[Last Night In Baseball: The Cubs Avoided Dropping Under .500... For Now]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/cubs-rockies-dodgers-pirates-mets-rangers</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/cubs-rockies-dodgers-pirates-mets-rangers</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[The Cubs are trying to climb out of a hole, the Dodgers took a series from the Pirates, Pete Alonso crushed a baseball, the Marlins are on a roll and more from Thursday's MLB action.]]>
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				<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:54:16 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don't worry, we're here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn't have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: It’s been a rough road for the Cubs of late. Sure, there was the 10-game losing streak — it’s not great when you can basically cancel out an earlier 10-game winning streak, but hey, at least Chicago has had two of those this season — but the performance of the Cubs since the end of that stretch is also a significant issue. Chicago hasn’t quite rebounded: the Cubs are 6-8 in their 14 post-streak games, and had lost three games in a row and the first two of their series against the Rockies. "Had," because Chicago was able to defeat Colorado on Thursday, avoiding a sweep while also keeping above .500 in the process —  the Cubs entered the game at 34-34, in danger of having a losing record for the first time since April 14. Crisis averted for now, but obviously Chicago is going to need to improve, fast, for the danger to actually dissipate. Center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong showed off his defense early — it’s not just that he has the range to make difficult catches look routine, but PCA also can make the grabs that are even tougher than that. In the top of the fourth, Crow-Armstrong would also kick off the rally that decided this game. He singled to right against Rockies’ starter Ryan Feltner, then stole second base. First baseman Michael Busch singled PCA to third, then left fielder Ian Happ walked to load the bases. Up came right fielder Seiya Suzuki, and he cleared the bases with one swing. An 89.7 mph slider, left up in the zone, and sent 400 feet to left. That would be all Chicago needed, but the Cubs would keep scoring. Busch singled in a run in the next inning, then Happ had a sac fly to make it 6-2, Chicago. Third baseman Alex Bregman — who has had a tough time getting going in the first season of a five-year, $175 million deal — launched a two-run homer in the seventh, as well, his sixth of the year. The Cubs would end up winning, 9-3, which moved them into a tie for third in the NL Central and allowed them to pick up games on both the Cardinals and Pirates, and half-a-game on the division-leading Brewers, who were not in action on Thursday. There’s still a lot of talent on this team, but it needs to get going, soon, or else Chicago is going to have a deeper hole to climb out of than the one it’s already in. Lucky for them, even with these struggles, the Cubs are just one game out of a wild-card spot thanks to their earlier success. It wasn’t all bad news for the Rockies on Thursday. Rookie center fielder Cole Carrigg, in his third game in the majors, hit his first big-league home run. It was a good one, too: Cubs’ starter Edward Cabrera left a slider middle-middle after throwing a ton of pitches down and out of the zone, and Carrigg launched it 418 feet to right field. Carrigg was a second-round pick of Colorado in the 2023 MLB Draft, and a year ago was considered a top-100 prospect in some circles. While he had a rough debut at Double-A last summer, Carrigg hit .338/.414/.529 in 57 games at Triple-A this season, earning him a call-up to the bigs. The Pacific Coast League is extremely hitter-friendly — the average hitter this year is at .270/.363/.430 — but considering Carrigg’s issues with making quality contact or hitting for any power a year ago, his results were still a positive step forward even with adjustments for that. It’s been a tough June so far for Juan Soto and the Mets, but both had wins on Thursday. New York’s star left fielder, whose OPS had dropped from .970 to .883 in the first 10 days of the month, launched a solo home run in the seventh inning against the Cardinals — it was his first homer of June, and also ended up being the game-winning hit. New York finally reached 30 wins by hanging on to this 5-4 lead, and sits at 30-38 at the bottom of the NL East. Not helping the Mets’ cause at all is the recent play of the Marlins, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Things won’t get any easier for New York this weekend: the Mets take on the MLB-leading Braves for a three-game series, and while Ronald Acuña Jr. is on the IL with a hamstring injury, the rest of Atlanta’s formidable team is still there. Tigers’ third baseman Colt Keith has hit homers in the majors before. Twenty-six of them, in fact, 13 per year. But for whatever reason in 2026, the 24-year-old had yet to go yard. That changed on Thursday during an 11-0 Tigers win where all but one hitter in Detroit’s starting lineup picked up at least one hit, and every one of them got on base and scored at least once. The entire dugout knew Keith hadn’t had a long ball yet, and the way you can tell is because of the reception that greeted him when he got back there post-homer. Or, rather, the lack of reception. The silent treatment: it’s an oldie, but a goodie. It was a bit of a win-lose situation for the Dodgers against the Pirates on Thursday, as two-way star Shohei Ohtani exited early due to knee inflammation, while starting pitcher Justin Wrobelski suffered a right hamstring contusion and had to leave, as well. Neither injury is serious, however, so the "win" part of that equation still gets to be the big focus. Before Ohtani left the game, he hit his second dinger in as many days, a 391-foot liner to right-center that came off his bat at nearly 108 mph. That was Ohtani’s 13th homer of the year: he’s now batting .305/.421/.543, leading the National League in both on-base percentage and OPS (.964). The Pirates finally scored in the bottom of the fifth, when they were already down 5-0 — that came on a solo home run by catcher Rafael Flores, his first in the majors. Pittsburgh would end up scoring four total in the fifth, but just couldn’t catch up before they ran out of game. The Dodgers ended up winning, 8-6, and took the series in the process. Still, the Pirates played Los Angeles well — the bullpen needs to get under control, however, as basically every negative thing that happened for Pittsburgh in these three games was because of the pen’s poor performance. Major free agent acquisition Pete Alonso hasn’t been quite what the Orioles hoped just yet. He’s on the field constantly, having played in every game for Baltimore so far, but the production has been hit or miss. On Thursday, though, Alonso managed to hit his 15th homer of the year to cap a six-run third inning. And he crushed it: 439 feet, off the bat at 110.6 mph and out of there in a hurry despite the high launch angle and distance. Alonso is now batting .243/.320/.455, which is productive and all — his OPS+ is at 118, comfortably above league-average — but he’s lagging well behind the pace of last season with the Mets, when he had an NL-leading 41 doubles to go with 38 homers, leading to a .524 slugging percentage. Thursday was a reminder of what he can do when he’s on his game, and it helped the O’s to a 7-5 win against the Mariners and series split. As promised, part of why the Mets not playing well of late has been even more of a problem than usual is because the team they are directly chasing — the fourth-place Marlins — keep on winning. Miami rattled off its fifth win in a row to sweep the Diamondbacks, and did it by coming out on top in a pitching duel. Merrill Kelly was great for Arizona, going six innings with just four hits and two runs allowed, but Tyler Phillips threw five shutout innings for the Marlins before handing it over to the bullpen, which got Miami the rest of the way in a 2-0 dub. All told, Marlins’ pitching went nine innings with three hits, three walks, no runs and 13 strikeouts — Kelly was great, but Miami’s pitchers were much better. The Marlins might be 11.5 back in the NL East, but sit just two back of a wild-card spot. Even better for them, the Diamondbacks were 4.5 up on Miami for one of those, but are now just 1.5 up after getting swept. Not exactly a great run for Arizona, however, the Marlins are a team it needs to beat, especially when there are already seven other teams ahead of the D-backs for a wild card at the moment. In mid-May, Corey Seager was in the midst of the worst slump of his career, and then ended up on the IL before it actually ended. He returned from the lower back inflammation that pushed him to the IL a week ago on June 5, and promptly ended the hitless streak by hitting his first home run in nearly a month. Since then, Seager hasn’t exactly been lighting it up like the old days, but he’s been significantly more productive than he was prior to his time away. The Rangers’ shortstop went yard again on Thursday, and is up to .238/.273/.524 since his return. Again, not great! But considering he didn’t have a hit at all for 27 at-bats and struck out 11 times in that stretch, and had to rest due to back problems, even a little bit of production should create some optimism. Just last year, Seager batted .271/.373/.487 in 102 games, helping him produce a six-win season by wins above replacement. The 32-year-old should still have plenty left in the tank, but he has to get right first. The homer did have meaning outside of Seager's slow recovery, as well: it was the 230th long ball of his career, moving him out of a tie with Nomar Garciapparra for the 10th-most by a primary shortstop in MLB history, per Baseball Reference. Next up? Jimmy Rollins at 231. The Rangers would end up winning, 4-2, with Seager's home run the eventual game-winner. Texas is back at .500 again, and just one game behind the Mariners in the AL West while sitting one up on the Athletics for a wild-card spot.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani Exits Early Against Pirates Due to Left Knee Inflammation]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-exits-early-against-pirates-due-left-knee-inflammation</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-exits-early-against-pirates-due-left-knee-inflammation</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
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				    <![CDATA[The Los Angeles Dodgers are cruising atop the National League West with an eight-game cushion, but they may have to navigate a brief scare involving Shohei Ohtani.]]>
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				<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 22:53:12 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[The Los Angeles Dodgers are cruising atop the National League West with an eight-game cushion, but they may have to navigate a brief scare involving Shohei Ohtani. The two-way superstar was removed from Thursday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was diagnosed with left knee inflammation after being pinch-hit for in the seventh inning. Ohtani hit his 13th home run of the season in the third inning and also added a single and two walks, reaching base in all four of his plate appearances. It was not immediately clear when he first began to feel discomfort in his knee. This isn’t the first injury scare Ohtani has dealt with this season after previously dealing with a right-hand injury. He was briefly removed from a late May game after being hit on the right hand by a pitch and was diagnosed with a bruise, though he did not miss any time. His status will be worth monitoring moving forward, as he’s not only been a key presence in the middle of the Dodgers’ lineup but also an important part of the rotation. Ohtani has firmly put himself in the Cy Young conversation this season with his mound performance. Ohtani has posted a 6-2 record with a 1.06 ERA and a 0.84 WHIP, along with 73 strikeouts in 67.1 innings pitched this season. There is no timetable for his return to the field, but manager Dave Roberts did not sound concerned about Ohtani missing an extended period of time. "Not high," Roberts said of his concern. "I think we try to be smart about it. Talked to the trainer and said he had a behind-the-knee, little hamstring…Just wanted to be smart and not push it."]]>
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					<![CDATA[While Trade Rumors Persist, Freddy Peralta Leads By Bringing Mets Together]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/while-trade-rumors-persist-freddy-peralta-leads-bringing-mets-together</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/while-trade-rumors-persist-freddy-peralta-leads-bringing-mets-together</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
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				    <![CDATA[Freddy Peralta may not be with the Mets at the end of the season, but he's making an impact on the clubhouse while he's there.]]>
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				<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 18:52:42 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[CITI FIELD (New York) – While speculation about his future continues to circulate outside the clubhouse, Freddy Peralta isn’t paying any attention. Instead, the veteran right-hander has focused on something much closer to home: bringing his teammates together. "He made this place his house right away," Juan Soto told me on Thursday about Peralta's positive impact this season. "He's fitting in with all the players. He's bringing the energy." If the New York Mets (30-38) continue to slide down the National League East and Wild Card standings, Peralta is their top candidate to be dealt before the Aug. 3 trade deadline. Despite that possibility, Peralta has emerged as one of the players most responsible for building chemistry within the Mets clubhouse through team brunches and dinners, road gatherings and family-oriented events away from the ballpark. For Peralta, tuning out external noise and investing in relationships inside the clubhouse are essential to the team’s success. Rather than following social-media chatter or trade speculation, the starting pitcher has concentrated on creating a support system for teammates navigating the grind of the 162-game season. "I'm not too involved in social media," Peralta told me at his locker on Thursday. "I think that's a dangerous place. Even when you're doing really good, it makes you think that you are a superhero. So I don't take social media seriously. I never did. I've always been that way. I'm just focusing on what happens in here and on the field. That's it. I don't worry about the noise outside." Even if Peralta isn’t worried about being traded or his upcoming free agency, he’s only human. There’s an argument to be made that it’s affecting him. Peralta allowed six earned runs in six innings on Tuesday against the St. Louis Cardinals, which elevated his season ERA to 4.04. While his fastball remains one of the best pitches in the major leagues, there have been some disappointing trends. Peralta’s strikeout rate (23.4%) is the lowest it’s ever been in his nine-year career. His walk rate (9.5%) is the highest it’s been since 2021. He’s giving up a ton of hard contact; 40% of balls put in play off Peralta have an exit velocity of 95 mph or more. Despite Peralta’s uneven season, if the Mets decide to be sellers at the deadline, they’re in possession of the top starter on the trade block — outside the possibility that the Tigers shop reigning American League Cy Young Award-winner Tarik Skubal. The starting-pitching market is devoid of arms that have durable track records as Peralta does. He has a career ERA of 3.62, and he has made at least 27 starts in each of the past four full seasons. Contenders will be heavily interested if Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns opts to go down that road. Either way, Peralta is staying out of it. Since the day he joined the Mets in late January and fielded questions about a possible contract extension, he has been focused on the present. "I don't care what people say, good or bad," Peralta said, wearing his usual easygoing smile. "I just try to be myself. At the end of the day, if we win, the people are going to be happy. If we're losing, they're not going to be happy." At the beginning of spring training, Peralta said he wanted to get his new teammates together for bonding moments throughout the year, and he’s stayed true to that promise. "He's inviting guys to breakfast," Juan Soto said of how Peralta is encouraging a tight clubhouse culture. "He's always open for anything with his teammates. He's always planning something. He's always had time for everything. It's really cool to see, when you see a guy that's been in this league so long, and the way he's handled himself, even when he's had a rough start to the season, he's still being the same guy. It's really tough to find a guy like that." Every road trip, the Mets try to get at least one full team dinner together. Sometimes it’s brunch. Other times it’s breakfast. Eating together and spending time away from baseball have helped Mets pitchers and position players get to know each other better. "Most of the time, I'm the one," Peralta said when asked who’s organizing their get-togethers. "But I think because I've been doing that, more people are becoming more free about it, and then sometimes they do the invitations. We've been together, we've been sharing some good moments, even in tough situations, you know? It's something that makes us feel like a family here." "It’s like the other half of the game," Mets veteran pitcher Sean Manaea said of the team dinners. "You get close to your teammates and pull for each other a little bit more." Near the end of Peralta’s tenure with the Milwaukee Brewers, he used to invite his teammates over to his house for cookouts after day games. Those cookouts became so routine that players stopped asking to come over; after years of get-togethers, they knew the deal. The veteran has always believed that it’s beneficial for him and his teammates to spend time together off the field, bonding over conversations that don’t necessarily revolve around baseball. But that doesn’t mean Peralta is always picking up the bill. Veterans on the team, including Francisco Lindor, often share that responsibility. That is, when they’re not pulling a prank on one of the Mets rookies. In San Francisco during the team’s first road trip this season, Peralta and Lindor told rookie outfielder Carson Benge that it was his turn to pay for dinner. "I said, ‘My credit card doesn’t go that high,’" Benge told Peralta and Lindor at the time. "'It’s not going to go through.'" Lindor said of Benge: "At first, he definitely thought he was going to pay. But at the end of the day, we were always going to take care of him and everybody else." Particularly as a rookie, when it’s all too easy to dwell on mistakes or mull over at-bats, Benge has found those team dinners helpful to get his mind off baseball. "I think it's really important because sometimes, during the season, most of the guys don't have family here," Peralta said. "Sometimes you don't want to be by yourself thinking. When you leave this place, you don't want to be thinking about this place anymore until the next day. So I think that's a good way to see it, to make you relax and really enjoy it." This year’s Mets team, in particular, needed a player like Peralta — several of his teammates describe him as happy-go-lucky and always positive — to foster camaraderie because there are so many new faces in the clubhouse. Since last year’s disappointing playoff miss, the Mets turned over a third of their roster. They brought in eight players from other organizations and promoted two top prospects by the beginning of May. While Peralta’s leadership off the field has been instrumental to the Mets building a rapport, the pitching staff needs him to find consistency in the face of adversity. The 30-year-old has allowed four or more runs in three of his last four outings, all of which came after right-hander Clay Holmes went down with an injury. In 14 starts this season, he has a 1.32 WHIP, indicating he’s allowing more baserunners than he’d like, leading to inflated pitch counts and longer innings. Peralta is averaging 5 ⅔ innings pitched per start. "The numbers are showing a little worse than what I have done," Peralta said. "Situations in the game, things that happen that I cannot control, and now they affect my numbers, affect me. But at the end of the day, I’m mentally prepared for all this. I just have to keep competing and giving my best every five days." For Peralta, the formula hasn’t changed. He can't control trade rumors, just as he can't control every bounce or defensive play that shapes his final line. What he can control is staying off social media, showing up for his teammates, and finding ways to help the team win. And as long as he's wearing a Mets uniform, that's where his attention will stay. His focus, he insists, remains right where it’s been all season: not on the noise outside the clubhouse, but on the people inside it.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Last Night In Baseball: The Pirates Got To Shohei Ohtani, The Pitcher And Hitter]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-pirates-first-place-white-sox-yankees-athletics</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-pirates-first-place-white-sox-yankees-athletics</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
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				    <![CDATA[The Pirates made life difficult for Shohei Ohtani, the Yankees swept the Guardians, the White Sox are in first(!), Max Scherzer reached a milestone and more from Wednesday's MLB action.]]>
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				<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:43:31 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don't worry, we're here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn't have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: Even Shohei Ohtani has off nights. Of course, his off night on Wednesday involved allowing — gasp — three earned runs over 6 ⅔ innings, and going a mere 1-for-5 at the plate with a run and two RBIs. Of course, Ohtani had only the one hit because he was robbed of a home run early, when Pirates’ left fielder Bryan Reynolds kept a ball in the yard in the third. That would end up mattering for more than just Ohtani’s personal boxscore, too: Pittsburgh ended up defeating the Dodgers in a one-run game, and that would have been a two-run dinger for Ohtani. As for home runs that did make it to where no one could catch them, check out right fielder Tyler Callihan getting his first big-league homer. And a wet one, at that, 427 feet away into the Allegheny. The celebration was short-lived, however: in the sixth, the Dodgers got back on the board against reliever Carmen Mlodzinski, who had entered the game an inning earlier. Center fielder Andy Pages singled, first baseman Freddie Freeman walked, third baseman Max Muncy drew a free pass, too, and then rookie left fielder Ryan Ward did the only sensible thing one can do with the bases juiced. Ohtani was cruising at this point, so the Dodgers put him out there for the seventh inning — a complete frame would have qualified him for the ERA title, as he would have as many innings pitched as Los Angeles has played games this season. It wasn’t meant to be, however: Ohtani allowed a two-out RBI double to second baseman Brandon Lowe, and then Alex Vesia came on in relief before allowing Lowe to score, too. That was not just the first time that Ohtani allowed three runs in a start this year, but the first time two runs have been scored in the same inning against him. Hey, there’s a reason that subhed says "looked mortal (for him)" you know. It also wasn’t the end of Pittsburgh’s scoring. Callihan went yard again, hitting his second career dinger, too, to give the Pirates a 7-4 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. First baseman Spencer Horwitz would add a two-run homer later in the frame to make it 9-6, Pirates, and while the Pirates’ bullpen would try to give this game away, too, it fell just short of doing so: Gregory Soto gave up just two runs in the ninth, stopping the Dodgers right before they could tie. That makes Thursday’s matchup the rubber game, and it's a huge one for the Bucs. It’s been a disaster week for the Guardians, as this was a chance to prove they belonged against a top AL team in the Yankees. A chance to either take advantage of the White Sox having to face the MLB-leading Braves, or at least keep ahead of Chicago thanks to both teams drawing a tough assignment. Instead, Cleveland was swept by the Yankees, losing 7-5, 3-2 and on Wednesday, 8-4. Tied up 3-3 in the top of the sixth, center fielder Trent Grisham laced a triple to right field off lefty starter Tyler Messick. José Caballero — back but in the outfield while Anthony Volpe struggles at shortstop, again — then hit a sac fly to drive Grisham in and give New York a 4-3 lead. Volple, who has a .660 career OPS and has been even worse than that in 2026, would actually deliver here, however, doubling to score Caballero. The Yankees would keep piling on, but there was no need, as the Guardians only managed one more run for the rest of the game. The Yankees have won four in a row, the Rays three, leaving the two tied atop the AL East despite New York’s sweep — Tampa Bay simultaneously swept the flailing Red Sox with a 7-5 W on Wednesday. As for the Guardians, well… …with a win on Wednesday combined with Cleveland’s defeat, the White Sox have sole possession of first place in the AL Central. The White Sox, who lost 102, a modern-record 121 and 101 games in the last three seasons. First place! In nearly mid-June! For a team that won half as many games as it lost over a three-year stretch — no, really: 162-324, from 2023-2025. Horrific, that. But now they are 36-31 and atop their division. Incredible stuff. To add another exclamation point to the mix, Chicago got there by defeating the MLB-best Braves, again. The White Sox bested their former ace, Chris Sale, thanks to current ace Davis Martin twirling six shutout innings, while the bullpen combined to allow only one run to the Braves’ lineup. Tuesday’s hero, rookie Braden Montgomery, had an impressive follow-up to his walk-off homer. Montgomery went 2-for-4 with two doubles — including one off Sale — as well as a run scored. No small thing in a 2-1 win: he’s already making a difference, along with all the other young players the White Sox have brought to the roster over the course of the last calendar year or so. Entering the eighth inning, the Giants were down 9-1 to the Nationals thanks to a two-inning, seven-run outburst from Washington. That deficit did not last: third baseman Matt Chapman led off the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer, then first baseman Rafael Devers followed with a shot of his own to make it 9-3. Devers, by the way, is batting .254/.327/.521 with 23 extra-base hits since May 3 after a horrific April. Right fielder Jung Hoo Lee — who extended his hitting streak to 18 games earlier in the contest — walked, as did designated hitter Bryce Eldridge. Catcher Daniel Susac then doubled in Lee, and outfielder Drew Gilbert pushed Eldridge across with a ground out, cutting the lead to 9-5. A wild pitch by new pitcher Orlando Ribalta then scored Susac, capping a five-run inning. The Nationals would get one back in the top of the ninth, a reminder of how difficult coming back with so little game left can be. Challenge accepted by the Giants: Gus Varland came on in relief of Ribalta for the bottom of the ninth, and promptly allowed back-to-back doubles to second baseman Luis Arraez and Matt Chapman; 10-7, Nationals. Devers would then walk, causing Mitchell Parker to relieve Varland, but Parker gave up a single to Lee to load the bases for Eldridge. On the third pitch, an 80.1 mph slider inside, Eldridge unloaded. With no outs, Eldridge hit a walk-off grand slam to propel the Giants to victory. They had been down eight runs at the start of the previous inning, and even allowed another in between, and it didn’t matter. What a win for San Francisco. Look at this play by Blue Jays’ pitcher Tyler Rogers. It’s one you have to see to believe. Bonus: look at Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s face as the play is happening. He can’t believe Rogers pulled off this flip, to the point that he can’t hide his surprise as he’s in the act of catching it! The Blue Jays ended up losing to the Phillies, 7-4, but hey. What a highlight that is. And while we’re on the subject of the Blue Jays. Toronto’s starting pitcher, Max Scherzer, did allow five runs in 3 ⅓ innings, leading to that loss. However, he also picked up four strikeouts in his limited time on the mound, enough to reach and surpass 3,500 punch outs for his career. Scherzer is just the 11th pitcher in MLB history to strike out at least 3,500 hitters, and, at 3,503, he’s also just seven strikeouts away from pushing Hall of Famer and legend Walter Johnson out of the all-time top-10. Whether Scherzer can ascend any higher after that is a mystery, given how his season has gone to this point, but in seven more strikeouts, we will see another new entry into the top 10, and maybe the last one for… ever? At least for decades, unless Chris Sale pitches effectively into his mid-40s. Mike Trout, getting a day at DH, did not waste any time getting the Angels on the board against the Astros. In the bottom of the first, he drove the second pitch he saw — a 94 mph four-seamer — 404 feet to center to put Los Angeles up 1-0. And while Astros’ right fielder Cameron Smith managed a game-tying dinger of his own in the top of the eighth… …all that ended up doing was forcing extra innings, as neither team could put another run on the board before the 10th. Houston failed to push their gifted runner across in the top of the inning, even with a wild pitch moving Jeremy Peña over to third. That gave the Angels a chance to play for one run to win, and they did just that: pinch-hitter Donovan Walton bunted Nick Madrigal over to third, and then center fielder Jose Siri got the hero spot and singled in the game-winner. The Angels have not been good in 2026, and this was a chance for the Astros to capitalize as they tried to get back into contention in an AL West that hasn’t been very good on the whole. Instead, they dropped this series against Los Angeles, and found themselves further in the hole than when they began, at 31-39 and 5.5 back. The Athletics have had a very powerful week in Las Vegas so far, and that continued on Wednesday. While this wasn’t a high-scoring affair — the A’s defeated the Brewers, 4-3 — there were still a couple of mega blasts to admire. First, DH Carlos Cortes took a 91.7 mph cutter from reliever Chad Patrick, and sent it back 461 feet in the other direction. Well, that’s the estimate, anyway. It’s unconfirmed if it ever actually came down from up there. Not to be outdone, right fielder Lawrence Butler took one over the batter’s eye in center field just a couple of batters later. Another 91 mph cutter, and this one caught way too much zone. The result? A 463-foot homer, a couple feet further than Cortes’ shot. Again, if Cortes’ dinger landed, anyway. They might need to move the walls back even further in the new Vegas ballpark that’s being built for the A’s. Just in case, you know? This has been a brutal season for the Padres’ offense, and Fernando Tatis Jr. has been part of that. He's been playing second base of late, since San Diego has loads of outfield options, and just hasn’t had much to provide offensively unless you’re comparing him to some of the other Padres’ hitters. He had a four-hit performance on Tuesday, however, and on Wednesday managed to hit just his second homer of the year — a walk-off shot to give the Padres a 5-4 W. Tatis is now batting .397/.431/.544 with six extra-base hits over his last 16 games — he still needs to rely less on singles to be convincingly back, but this is a significant improvement for a Padres team that needs whatever kind of offense it can muster right now.]]>
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					<![CDATA[How Roki Sasaki Is Turning Into The Pitcher The Dodgers ‘Hoped To Get']]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/how-roki-sasaki-turned-into-pitcher-dodgers-envisioned</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/how-roki-sasaki-turned-into-pitcher-dodgers-envisioned</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[A new pitch, added velocity and better command have transformed Roki Sasaki into the pitcher the Dodgers envisioned when they signed him.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 21:03:07 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers believed "The Monster of the Reiwa Era," a title bestowed upon Roki Sasaki after the Japanese phenom broke Shohei Ohtani’s high school velocity record, was still somewhere inside the 24-year-old right-hander, waiting to be unleashed again through the right series of tweaks and adjustments. They were determined to let Sasaki iron out his deficiencies at the big-league level, hoping to reap the rewards once everything clicked into place. After a volatile year trying to help Sasaki rediscover the form that had talent evaluators salivating before his jump to Major League Baseball last season, the Dodgers’ patience is paying off. The monster, finally, might be awake again. "This is the guy that we saw on video in Japan and that we hoped to get," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Friday after Sasaki struck out a career-high 10 batters in seven scoreless innings against the Angels. When the Dodgers won the Sasaki sweepstakes in January 2025, many of their executives and evaluators believed they were getting a pitcher with a ceiling as high as any player in Major League Baseball — "Cy Young caliber," general manager Brandon Gomes said — but one who would likely need time to reach his potential. Sasaki himself recognized this during the recruiting process, asking prospective suitors how they planned to help him find his top form again after his velocity ticked down in his final season with the Chiba Lotte Marines. Rediscovering that consistent velocity and production has been a challenge for Sasaki and the Dodgers. The version of Sasaki that once reached 101 mph during a 194-pitch complete game as a 17-year-old, the one who touched 102 mph while dazzling at the 2023 World Baseball Classic and struck out 135 batters in 91 NPB innings later that year, was not the one that arrived in Los Angeles last year. Sasaki dealt with injury and inconsistency during his first taste of the big leagues in 2025, registering a 4.72 ERA with nearly as many walks (22) as strikeouts (24) over eight starts. His four-seamer averaged just 96.1 mph, and he spent much of the year sidelined with a shoulder impingement. He returned late in the season as a reliever and saw his velocity tick up as a key cog out of the bullpen during the team's championship run, but the Dodgers maintained their belief that he could be a difference-making starter long term. They committed to keeping him in the big-league rotation in 2026, even amid another turbulent start to the year. Through his first five appearances, Sasaki had an ERA over 6.00. Command and control issues persisted, his confidence wavered, and opponents were hitting over .300 against him. Some wondered at the time whether Sasaki might need to shift back to the bullpen or work out his control issues at Triple-A. But the talent on the Dodgers’ roster — and, specifically, in a rotation that has the lowest ERA in MLB — gave them leeway that other teams do not possess. They could afford to be patient because Sasaki’s struggles were not sinking them. So they stuck with him. And in late April, a breakthrough occurred, one that could transform Sasaki’s major-league career. During a bullpen session in San Francisco, Sasaki began toying with a harder splitter, one that more closely resembled the version of the pitch from his peak in Japan. It tunneled better off his fastball than his slower forkball, which he struggled to throw for strikes. "He wanted to find something that was a little more comfortable in his hand, something that didn’t necessarily pop out and have the visual of the knuckleball like his forkball does," Dodgers assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness told me. "It was kind of something that he had talked about, and we loved the idea of him having an option. I mean, he’s such a talented arm, so to be able to give him an off-speed option to allow him to access the zone, we were ecstatic." Days later, Sasaki took the pitch into a game on April 25 and threw it nearly half the time. He surrendered three homers and four runs in the start, but his new-look splitter yielded four strikeouts and helped him pepper the zone more than he had in any of his previous four starts. Finally, he looked in control. "Just like us as hitters, you gotta find tweaks sometimes," said nine-time All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman. "He found his tweak, and he’s taken off." The addition of the harder splitter, Roberts told me, is when everything changed. Over his past seven starts since adding the pitch, Sasaki has a 3.12 ERA with 43 strikeouts and nine walks in 40.1 innings. Prior to adding the pitch, Sasaki had a 20% strikeout rate and a 14.1% walk rate. Since introducing the harder splitter, he has a 26.5% strikeout rate and a 5.6% walk rate. His 21% K/BB ratio since April 25 ranks in the top 10 among all National League starters who’ve pitched at least 40 innings over that stretch. "Certainly now, I think we can all agree that the floor for Roki is much higher, and the expectation every time he takes the ball is high," Roberts said. "And he’s earned that. I think if you look at the last six or seven starts, it’s been as good as any starter in the big leagues, the consistency of performance. Really proud of him." Of course, there are other factors at play beyond the splitter adjustment. Sasaki worked all offseason searching for a third pitch to pair with his fastball and splitter, which seemed like a necessity if he wanted to stick long-term as a starter. He has found success with a harder gyro slider that opponents are hitting .184 against this season. Along with the new-look splitter, he now has multiple reliable secondary weapons to pair with a fastball that is ticking back up in velocity. "I feel like everything is kind of coming together now," Sasaki said through his interpreter. For the first time all year, Sasaki eclipsed 100 mph in a start against the Phillies on May 30, firing a 100.1 mph fastball to Kyle Schwarber and a 100.4 mph fastball to J.T. Realmuto while allowing one run and striking out seven. Sasaki has now averaged over 98 mph on his fastball in each of his past two starts. He expressed confidence that he can maintain that jump in velocity, which he attributed to multiple factors. "I can’t pick just one," he said through his interpreter. "Building small things, little by little, that’s why it’s clicking." While some pitchers might become more erratic the harder they throw, the opposite appears to be the case for Sasaki. He has allowed two walks or fewer in each of his past eight starts, and he has gone five innings or more in each of his past seven starts with a WHIP under 1.00 over that stretch. Over his past four starts, he has a 1.48 ERA. "We saw it [last year] where it was, really, you know, we all felt sorry for him and sad for him," Roberts said. "Now, he’s, like, arrived as an adult and a major-league player and a real confident player." Sasaki’s most recent outing, during which he threw his fastest pitch as an MLB starter — 100.6 mph — while surrendering just two hits and two walks over seven scoreless innings in a 1-0 win, was his most encouraging and overpowering. Six of his career-high 10 strikeouts came via the new-look splitter, which opponents are hitting .154 against. "Now, it just feels like every time he runs out there, we’re gonna get a start like this," Freeman said. Finally, the pitcher the Dodgers heard so much about was in front of them. He’ll have to keep it going, but it appears that the "Monster of the Reiwa Era" has arrived.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Bryce Eldridge's Grand Slam Completes Comeback, Giants Stun Nationals 11-10]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/eldridges-grand-slam-caps-wild-comeback-as-giants-rally-from-8-down-in-8th-to-stun-nats-1110</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/eldridges-grand-slam-caps-wild-comeback-as-giants-rally-from-8-down-in-8th-to-stun-nats-1110</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Bryce Eldridge's grand slam contributed to San Francisco Giants 10 runs in the final two innings for an 11-10 victory against the Nationals.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 20:59:08 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Bryce Eldridge hit a game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the ninth to cap an incredible comeback by the San Francisco Giants, who scored 10 runs over the final two innings of an 11-10 victory against the Washington Nationals on Wednesday. San Francisco trailed 9-1 before rallying for five runs in the eighth and five more in the ninth to stun the Nationals and avert a three-game sweep. Big league teams trailing by at least eight runs in the eighth inning or later had lost 4,291 consecutive games since Cleveland stormed back from 10-2 down to beat Tampa Bay 11-10 on May 29, 2009, per Sportradar. Matt Chapman had four hits, including two home runs — his second coming as part of back-to-back homers with Rafael Devers in the eighth to set up the comeback. Jung Hoo Lee singled to extend his hitting streak to 18 games for the Giants, the longest active stretch in the majors. Luis Arraez and Chapman hit consecutive doubles to begin the ninth. Devers walked and Lee singled to load the bases before Eldridge drove a 2-0 slider from Mitchell Parker (2-3) into the right-field arcade for the rookie's fourth home run. Lee raised his arms in celebration before the ball went over the wall. James Wood hit his 18th home run for Washington. Daylen Lile added four hits, and Curtis Mead also homered on a day when every Nationals' starter had a hit while seven players drove in at least one run. Washington, which had already clinched its fifth consecutive road series win, was on the verge of finishing a 5-1 trip before collapsing in the ninth. Revier Sanmartin (1-0) retired six batters to earn the win. He gave up Mead's leadoff homer in the ninth that made it 10-6, but that insurance run wasn't enough for Washington. Wood got the Nationals going in the third when he crushed a high 3-1 fastball from starter Robbie Ray and sent it over the center-field fence. Washington scored three runs in the sixth and added three more in the seventh before the Giants rallied. Ray allowed five runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. Up next Nationals: RHP Zack Littell (6-4, 4.76 ERA) faces the Seattle Mariners on Friday. Giants: Had not announced a scheduled starter for Friday’s home game against the Chicago Cubs. Reporting by the Associated Press.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Max Scherzer Becomes 11th Major League Pitcher with 3,500 Strikeouts]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/max-scherzer-becomes-11th-major-league-pitcher-3500-strikeouts</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/max-scherzer-becomes-11th-major-league-pitcher-3500-strikeouts</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Max Scherzer came off the injured list and promptly reached another milestone.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 20:47:02 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Max Scherzer came off the injured list and promptly reached another milestone. Unfortunately for Scherzer, it didn't stop his season-long struggles. The Toronto pitcher reached 3,500 strikeouts when he caught Philadelphia slugger Kyle Schwarber looking at an 86 mph change up to begin the game Wednesday night. Scherzer raised his arm as fans rose for a brief standing ovation before Trea Turner's at bat. A three-time Cy Young Award winner and eight-time All-Star, Scherzer is the 11th pitcher in big league history with 3,500 strikeouts. Walter Johnson (3,509) is 10th on baseball’s career list. Scherzer’s former teammate Justin Verlander (3,554) is the only other active pitcher to reach the mark. Scherzer added to his tally by striking out Turner, but Bryce Harper followed with a home run that bounced off the top of the wall in left wall and went out. Alec Bohm made it 4-0 with a three-run homer in the third. Scherzer has made six starts and allowed nine home runs in 22 innings. Scherzer struck out four in 3 1/3 innings, pushing his career total to 3,503. He exited after an infield single by Justin Crawford. Schwarber greeted Mason Fluharty with a homer to make it 6-0. Scherzer walked three and allowed five runs and five hits. His ERA rose from 9.64 to 10.23. Toronto activated Scherzer off the 15-day injured list (right forearm tendinitis and left ankle inflammation) before the game. He hadn't pitched since allowing seven runs in 2 1/3 innings against Cleveland on April 24. Right-hander Connor Seabold was designated for assignment. Scherzer returned to the reigning American League champions in February, signing a $3 million, one-year contract. Reporting by the Associated Press.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Last Night In Baseball: A Historically Rare Walk-Off For A White Sox Rookie]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/white-sox-braden-montgomery-dodgers-freddie-freeman-athletics-las-vegas</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/white-sox-braden-montgomery-dodgers-freddie-freeman-athletics-las-vegas</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[A White Sox rookie makes an immediate impact, the Dodgers have a wild inning, Freddie Freeman hits a milestone, the A's hit dinger after dinger and more from Tuesday's MLB action.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 10:02:15 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don't worry, we're here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn't have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: Braden Montgomery made his major-league debut for the White Sox on Tuesday, after being called up earlier in the day. The former first-round pick of the Red Sox in 2024 came to Chicago in the Garrett Crochet trade before the 2025 season, and was then ranked a top-100 prospect by numerous publications in each of the last two years. He has thrived both at Double- and Triple-A this season after a three-level stint in 2025 saw him end his campaign at the former, and now he’s in the majors and expected to play all the time. Good thing he was slotted into the lineup on day one, too, because it ended up winning the White Sox their game against the Braves. Montgomery batted sixth in the lineup and ended up going 2-for-5 with a run and three RBIs, the first of which came on a single in the fourth to cut the Braves’ lead to one, and the other two? A two-run, walk-off home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and the White Sox down 5-4. This is a storybook kind of ending for a debut, and it’s also just not something that happens in MLB often. Montgomery’s walk-off homer in his debut is just the fifth instance ever in the league’s lengthy history. The last was over a decade ago, when Carlos Pérez pulled it off for the Angels, in 2015, and outside of the very odd stretch where there were back-to-back seasons, there is usually considerable time in between them. Montgomery’s name is in the history books now, however, and even better for Chicago is that it came on a night when the first-place Guardians lost: the White Sox are now just half-a-game out of first place in the American League Central, and three games up on a wild-card spot. Chicago lost 102 games in 2025, a year after setting the modern loss record with 121 defeats in 2024. Things are changing in a hurry on the South Side. This is what much of Tuesday’s Pirates-Dodgers game looked like while Paul Skenes was on the mound. And this is what it looked like after Skenes exited. Skenes went six innings and allowed two runs on six hits and a pair of walks. The pitcher that came on in relief of him, Wilber Dotel, didn’t record an out and allowed six runs. Brandon Bidois, who relieved Dotel, gave up another four and was also pulled mid-inning. The next two relievers the Pirates used managed to get out of the next 2 ⅓ innings unscathed, but it was too late: the Dodgers would win, 12-2, despite Skenes giving up just two runs over six. That 10-run seventh was the cause of it all — it was relentless. Catcher Dalton Rushing singled to start the inning, then second baseman Alex Freeland followed with a single of his own. A throwing error by Pirates’ backstop Henry Davis on a pickoff attempt allowed Rushing to score, and then DH Shohei Ohtani doubled in Freeland. Center fielder Andy Pages would homer, as seen above, then first baseman Freddie Freeman walked leading to a single by shortstop Mookie Betts. At this point, there were still no outs, and then Bidois entered the game. He walked third baseman Max Muncy to load the bases for right fielder Kyle Tucker, who reached on a fielder’s choice — but not one that registered an out — that scored Freeman. Left fielder Ryan Ward then singled in Betts to make it 8-2, and it was only then that the first out was recorded: Rushing struck out in his second at-bat of the inning. Freeland and Ohtani then both walked with the bases loaded to bring in two more runs, Pages logged the second out on a sac fly that scored another run and Freeman finally ended the scoring with an RBI single that made it 12-2. And exhale. The good news for the Pirates is that a loss in a game with a 10-run inning counts the same in the standings as any other. The bad news for Pittsburgh is that the bullpen is and has been a problem, and will continue to be until it gets some new arms in it. That single in the seventh for Freeman was more than just the one that tied a bow on the Dodgers’ offensive explosion. It was also career hit No. 2,500 for Freddie Freeman, making him the only active player with that many and just 500 hits from joining the still-rare 3,000-hit club. Freeman had 153 hits in 2024 and 164 in 2025. He is on pace for 171 in ‘26 (though, he will surely take more days off and drop that pacing by a few eventually), which would have him roughly 400 away from 3,000 by season’s end shortly after turning 37 years old — Freeman’s birthday is in mid-September. Freeman is still just such a good hitter, even in his mid-30s. He will surely someday see a real decline, but he’s maybe 3.5 good seasons away from becoming just the 34th player in MLB history to collect at least 3,000 hits, and given he’s hitting .284/.366/.481 right now, "3.5 good seasons" still feels very doable. Freeman, by the way, is just 15 hits shy of entering the top 100 all-time: Jimmy Ryan and Buddy Bell are currently ahead of him, and if he does get another 100 hits in 2026, he’ll finish the season ranked 84th. The Reds struck early, going up 2-0 on the Padres with runs in the second and third innings, but then their offense shut down. San Diego had a similar situation, answering with a pair in the bottom of the third to tie the game up 2-2. But then there was silence from the Padres’ bats for the rest of regulation as well. Though, some of that has a lot to do with the play of Cincinnati’s defense — if not for Blake Dunn out in right field, San Diego would have had its first lead of the game in the eighth inning. Dunn started the game in center, even, but moved over to right in the bottom of the seventh after Dane Myers came into the game as a pinch-hitter and then stayed in the lineup. So it’s possible that this catch isn’t even made without Dunn shifting over. Both the Padres and Reds scored a run in the 10th, but Cincinnati put two on the board in the 11th. And guess who started the inning already on second base, and scored what would end up being the game-winning run? That’s right, Blake Dunn, courtesy a home run by rookie third baseman Sal Stewart. There is a bright side in defeat for the Padres here, at least. The team has not been hitting well for… most of 2026, actually. Third baseman Manny Machado had two hits and showed a little life offensively, though, while center fielder Jackson Merrill got over the Mendoza Line with a pair of hits. And Fernando Tatis Jr., playing second base, went 4-for-6 at the top of the lineup. None of this means San Diego’s bats are fixed, but of late there might be some signs that things are improving. And they have to, soon. Las Vegas Ballpark, where the Athletics are currently hosting a homestand, is an offensive haven. If you weren’t aware of that already, the two games that have already been played there this week should do the trick. On Monday, the Athletics and Brewers combined for 29 runs and a whole lot of hits and even more total bases. On Tuesday, the scoring was down, but the big knocks were not: the A’s went yard five times in a 7-5 win over Milwaukee. First baseman Nick Kurtz got things started for the A’s with a shot to right-center that. Rookie center fielder Henry Bolte then crushed his first big-league homer an inning later, blasting an 86-mph changeup 446 feet to right-center, just under 107 mph off the bat. Bolte, by the way, spent his 2026 before his call-up playing his home games in this same ballpark on the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators — he batted .364/.446/.807 with 10 homers in those 30 games. Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom would add another dinger in the fifth, this one a shorter 354-foot shot, but it got out of the park in a hurry. Backstop Jonah Heim would go big just a couple of batters later, taking a changeup on the outside part of the zone 426 feet away to center field to make it 6-3, Athletics. And the last dinger came off the bat of second baseman Zack Gelof, who also managed to take a pitch up and away in the zone — a 98.2 mph four-seamer — and drive it over the wall in center, 427 feet away. Here is the thing about this park. It has the second-highest elevation of any stadium used for MLB games, behind only Coors Field in Colorado. It’s much hotter in Vegas than it is in Denver, however — the game-time temperature was 94 degrees — so in addition to the thin air, it’s also warmer air, which makes baseballs travel even further, and unlike with Chase Field in Arizona, there isn’t the option of closing the roof and cranking the air conditioning to change the environment on a real hot one. The park’s dimensions are designed to account for this to a degree, as it’s 340 feet down the lines, 380 feet to left- and right-center and 415 feet to straightaway center, with a 13-foot fence in much of left field to account for the pull power of right-handed hitters. But between the altitude, temperature and the fact that the wind blows out without impediment, well. There’s a reason the Aviators are hitting .317/.393/.514 in home games this year, and that their pitchers have a 6.28 ERA in that stadium, and it doesn’t necessarily come down to the quality of the players playing there. Enjoy the offense, and just know that future free-agent pitches from the A’s to pitchers will focus on how not like Las Vegas Ballpark their new home is being designed to play like. Royals’ shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. gets a lot of attention for his bat — and he should — but his defense seems to get better and better each season after a rough start in the majors. It’s not just his .277/.352/.451 line that has him leading the American League in wins above replacement, but that he can easily make plays like this, all the time. Just don’t hit the ball in Bobby Witt Jr.’s direction anymore. Simple, right? You guys are pros make it happen. The Phillies handled the Blue Jays in their series opener on Monday, and Tuesday was looking like a second W for Philadelphia late. While the two had been tied 1-1 since the sixth, the Phillies broke the scoring drought in the top of the ninth to take the lead, on a double by second baseman Bryson Stott that drove in first baseman Bryce Harper. That’s not how things would end, however. Closer Jhoan Duran came on in the ninth to shut Toronto down, but instead, he allowed a leadoff single to left fielder Jesús Sánchez, who was replaced by pinch-runner Myles Straw. Right fielder Yohendrick Piñango then singled Straw to third, and Daulton Varsho ended as a pinch-runner for him, representing the winning run. Varsho would then steal second, and a wild pitch by Duran brought Straw home and moved Varsho to third. There were still no outs when catcher Brandon Valenzuela strode to the plate, and while Duran fired a 99.9 mph fastball to the lefty, he also left it middle-middle. Duran, even with giving up these runs, has a 2.08 ERA on the season — he’s a shutdown closer, and the expectation when he comes in is that the other team is toast. Here, though, some sloppiness combined with some good pieces of hitting, and the Jays came away with the dub. Between his early struggles and an oblique strain that resulted in his first IL stint, Mariners’ backstop Cal Raleigh won’t be matching his historic 2025 this season. Getting him back is a priority for a Seattle team trying to shed a slow start that was caused by far more than just Raleigh, however, and it’s looking like it’s almost time. Big Dumper went deep twice on Tuesday in a rehab appearance with Triple-A Tacoma. The Mariners were victorious on Tuesday at the big-league level, with DH Randy Arozarena hitting a walk-off homer against the Orioles to give Seattle a 6-5 win, and they sit three games up in the AL West at present. They are going to need more than they have right now to threaten the best teams in the league, however, and getting Raleigh back will be huge for that. On June 1 against the Rays, Tigers’ catcher Dillon Dingler went 4-for-5 with four runs, a double, four RBIs and two homers. Last night against the Twins, Dingler had a repeat performance, going 4-for-5 with three runs, a double, four RBIs and another pair of dingers. It’s been some June for him so far, as he’s batting .393/.438/1.000 with five long balls in seven games. Dingler didn’t need to go quite so hard this time around — the Rays’ game was a 10-9 win for the Tigers, this one a 10-4 affair — but it does serve as fuel for what has been his best season in the bigs to this point. Dingler was already one of the better-hitting catchers out there — not a star like Cal Raleigh or Will Smith, but significantly better offensively than most backstops — but this year he’s raised that profile: he’s hitting .248/.329/.528 with 16 homers, and is one walk shy of last season’s total amassed over 126 games.]]>
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					<![CDATA[The Red Sox Should Be Sellers At The Deadline With Multiple Prime Trade Candidates]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/from-dugout-why-red-sox-should-sellers-who-trade-candidates</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/from-dugout-why-red-sox-should-sellers-who-trade-candidates</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Craig Breslow, the Red Sox chief baseball officer, is having a lot of conversations about how his front office will pilot MLB’s Aug. 3 trade deadline. But it seems like those discussions are not reflecting their reality.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:28:01 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Craig Breslow, the Red Sox chief baseball officer, is having a lot of conversations about how his front office will pilot MLB’s Aug. 3 trade deadline. But it seems like those discussions are not reflecting their reality. The Red Sox (27-37) are last in the American League East, 11 ½ games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, and 4 ½ games out of a Wild Card spot with six teams in front of them. They’re not a serious threat to win the World Series. They have several trade chips whose value may never be higher. Yet they’re still masquerading as potential playoff contenders. "It's been true industry-wide," Breslow said in New York over the weekend about how he would characterize trade talks. "There are a lot of teams that probably feel pretty similarly to us, which is to say that they have confidence in their rosters, they know they're not playing as well as they're capable of, and really nobody has put the postseason out of reach. So there are a bunch of teams that are in it right now that are thinking along the same lines as we are." The Red Sox are fooling themselves if they believe buying instead of selling is the best move for their immediate and future success. Their offense has hit the fewest home runs (49) in Major League Baseball. Boston’s .376 slugging percentage and 90 wRC+ are both ranked 26th in the majors. ESPN reported this week that the Red Sox are aggressively looking to add a right-handed bat, and that they’re even willing to take on money. (That's puzzling, considering they had an opportunity to spend more money on an impact bat in the offseason, but more on that later.) The larger point is that their offensive problems won't be solved by simply acquiring a power hitter at the deadline. The Red Sox don’t walk much (7.8%, ranked 27th in MLB), they don’t slug (.131 ISO, 29th in MLB), they hit a ton of weak ground balls (44.1% GB rate, 5th in MLB), and they’ve scored the second-fewest runs in baseball (250) behind only the Padres. First baseman Willson Contreras is supplying all the power in the lineup, and the Red Sox could use an extra slugger, to be sure. But that’s not going to help them play better on the margins. The lineup is poorly constructed. One way to overcome that is to change their approach at the plate, emphasize small-ball, steal bases, and execute sacrifice flies and bunts. But looking at the rest of the mediocre field, and understanding that 10 of 15 AL teams are playing sub-.500 baseball, is a trap. The danger of a weak playoff race is that the Red Sox are convincing themselves that they’re one hot streak away. "We need to run our own race," Breslow said when asked whether the weak state of the AL could drive the Red Sox to be buyers. "We need to make sure that we get our house in order. We need to play better. We need to win more games. At that point, we can figure out where we are relative to the league. But the first thing is we need to build on the progress that we've seen offensively over the last month. And then make sure that we're pitching consistently well. We need to win games for any of this to happen." The reality is, the Red Sox actually have a handful of compelling players they could be shopping in the weeks leading up to the deadline. Closer Aroldis Chapman is, by far, Boston’s most attractive trade chip. At 38 years old, Chapman has a 0.46 ERA and 33.8% strikeout rate across 20 games (13 saves) and 19 ⅔ innings. Several teams are desperate for an elite closer with proven postseason experience, who’s also a rental on a one-year deal. Chapman could net the Red Sox a top-100 prospect or multiple upper-minors prospects. It’s a no-brainer to deal him. Veteran right-hander Sonny Gray is another logical candidate to dangle in front of contenders. He’s 7-1 with a 3.20 ERA in 11 starts and 56 ⅓ innings pitched. His fastball has looked elite this season, and he’s improved on his hard-hit rate, with 37% being his lowest since 2021. Contenders always want starters at the deadline, and Gray’s postseason experience and reliable innings make him an attractive asset. The Red Sox could get a near-MLB ready arm or mid-tier prospects for Gray. Boston should also be entertaining blockbuster deals for outfielder Jarren Duran, who has started to heat up at the plate. After hitting .170 with a .481 OPS and one home run in 26 games in April, Duran hit .261 with a .879 OPS and nine home runs in 27 games in May. Rival executives might be weary of his attitude in the clubhouse after being involved in controversial off-field altercations and emotional reactions. But he’s still a fascinating player for his speed, defense and left-handed bat, with two more years of team control. Boston would likely need an overwhelming offer to move him. Right-handed reliever Garrett Whitlock and designated hitter Masataka Yoshida could also join those three players on the trade block. With so many valuable candidates, the Red Sox should be using the deadline to shore up prospects and MLB-ready players. They can accelerate their 2027 window, rather than chasing an 84-win season that might be good enough to sneak into the playoffs, because that’s how weak the AL is. But the team doesn’t show much promise beyond an early October exit. That being said, Red Sox fans are right to doubt whether Breslow can engineer the best returns for the attractive pieces he has, and how he’ll handle those hauls. We’re approaching the one-year anniversary of Breslow’s infamous Rafael Devers trade, and it sure looks like the San Francisco Giants won the deal. Of course, the Giants gave up a lot of players and are paying Devers over $31 million per year. And even though Devers has not yet panned out the way the Giants had hoped, he posted a .949 OPS in May, he still owns a .847 career OPS, and they have plenty of time to figure it out together. The Red Sox, meanwhile, botched the Devers trade the minute they let third baseman Alex Bregman sign with the Cubs over this past offseason. Devers entered 2025 having played seven seasons at third base in Boston. But the Red Sox had just signed Bregman to play third base, and Breslow and company were not up front with Devers about switching positions. So they traded him to San Francisco. Entering 2026, Bregman wanted to stay in Boston. But the Red Sox were unwilling to sign him due to disagreements over Bregman's requests: a long-term contract with a no-trade clause and less deferred money. Then, the Red Sox traded away most of Devers’ return package, which consisted of four players. Since they were counting on Bregman to be their long-term solution at third base when they made the decision to trade Devers, and then Bregman signed with the Cubs, they were caught with their tail between their legs entering 2026 without a third baseman. So in February, they traded away one of the best return pieces from the Devers' haul — left-hander Kyle Harrison — to Milwaukee for Caleb Durbin, Andruw Monasterio, and Anthony Seigler. Durbin, who was brought in as their primary third baseman, has an OPS+ of 55. Monasterio is also playing at replacement level, with a 0.2 WAR in 35 games. Meanwhile, Harrison has turned into an elite pitcher for the Brewers. His 2.72 ERA is ranked 12th-best among NL starters who have pitched at least 50 innings this year. So Breslow’s track record to this point should be enough for Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy to appoint a different front-office leader ahead of another important trade deadline. But according to a recent report from the Boston Globe, the Red Sox are not considering firing Breslow. In his third season, Breslow will continue to be the man in charge amid the team’s chaotic and disappointing year. The organization has regressed since qualifying for the postseason last year. On April 25, the Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora and six of his coaches. They were 10-17 at the time, and are 17-20 since interim manager Chad Tracy took over. The Red Sox have roughly seven weeks to find consistency in the win column, but it shouldn’t take that long to reach a decision. Sell.]]>
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					<![CDATA[MLB Rookie Of The Year Races: JJ Wetherholt, Kevin McGonigle Set The Early Pace]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/al-nl-rookie-year-race-kevin-mcgonigle-jj-wetherholt-murakami</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/al-nl-rookie-year-race-kevin-mcgonigle-jj-wetherholt-murakami</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[With over a third of the season in the books, here are the kids you need to watch in the Rookie of the Year races in both leagues.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:41:22 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Munetaka Murakami’s home-run party has been put on hold as he deals with a hamstring injury, but the Rookie of the Year race continues forward in what should be an interesting battle the rest of the way. From World Baseball Classic standouts to phenom middle infielders to surprising stars on the mound, the game is clearly in a good place when it comes to young talent. After breaking down the Cy Young race at the end of May, here’s our way-too-early check-in on the top AL and NL Rookie of the Year award contenders: AMERICAN LEAGUE The Frontrunner By wins above replacement, the 21-year-old has been the most valuable rookie in MLB. In fact, McGonigle and Kansas City Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. are the only MLB shortstops worth more than 3.0 bWAR this year. McGonigle leads all rookies in hits and on-base percentage, ranks second in doubles and OPS and has more walks than strikeouts on the season. The Contenders The polarizing NPB star has given the White Sox everything they could have hoped for while catalyzing Chicago’s terrific start to the season. The embodiment of a three-true-outcome slugger, Murakami ranks third in MLB in home runs and also has the fifth-highest strikeout rate and fourth-highest walk rate among all qualified hitters. Add it all up, and he has been the most productive rookie hitter in MLB. However, his hamstring strain could put a … well, strain … on his Rookie of the Year hopes. One of many Cleveland ROY contenders, Messick has the distinctive honor of also possibly challenging for a Cy Young Award. He has been the most productive rookie pitcher in baseball and ranks third among all qualified AL starters in ERA behind only Cam Schlittler and Nick Martinez. Messick has earned his way to this point, picking up wins against the Dodgers, Braves and Phillies among his six victories. Basallo is a bit banged up, but the 21-year-old slugger ranks second in slugging, third in homers and fourth in OPS among all qualified AL hitters. He is prone to chase and whiff, but his quality of contact is among the best of any rookie in MLB. He ranks in the top 30 among all qualified hitters in average exit velocity. He doesn’t have the power of his teammate on the list, Murakami, but Peters should be getting more attention in the ROY race. Acquired for cash considerations from the Rays, the 2021 seventh-round pick of the Brewers is taking advantage of his first extended MLB action. He leads all qualified AL rookies in batting average, ranks third among AL rookie position players in both bWAR and fWAR and brings elite center field defense. Bazzana got a late start compared to his fellow Cleveland teammates on this list, so his counting stats lag behind other top contenders. But the top prospect is making the most of his opportunity. He has an OPS near .800 and is already tied for the AL rookie lead in stolen bases in just 37 games. If Everything Breaks Right Since his electric start, during which he joined Trevor Story as the only two players in MLB history with four home runs through their first three regular-season games, DeLauter has just three home runs over his past 60 games. He’s now hitting only slightly above league average, but his elite plate discipline and strong underlying numbers suggest better days ahead. Tolle began the year at Triple-A, but he shouldn’t be going back anytime soon. He struck out 11 batters and allowed one run to the Yankees over six innings in his first start of the year on April 23 and hasn’t looked back, registering the lowest ERA (2.28), WHIP (0.97) and opponents’ batting average (.192) and the highest strikeout rate (27.3%) of any qualified AL rookie starter over his eight starts this season. For both Tolle and Yesavage, if they can build on their short sample so far, they’ll put themselves in the Rookie of the Year conversation. We’ve already seen the potential for Yesavage, the 2025 postseason standout who had a 2.84 ERA over three World Series appearances. A shoulder issue delayed his start to the year, but he has a 3.16 ERA through eight starts. Okamoto trails only fellow NPB standout Murakami for the most home runs and RBIs by a rookie this year. Okamoto has run hot and cold in his first MLB season — he’s only hitting slightly above league average overall — but he has caught fire in June again. He’s hitting over .400 in his first six games of the month and is consistently making hard contact, but he will likely need to cut down his 31.9% strikeout rate if he hopes to make a run at the top rookie award. AL Honorable Mentions: Sam Antonacci, 2B/OF, Chicago White Sox; Connelly Early, SP, Boston Red Sox; Brandon Valenzuela, C, Toronto Blue Jays; Colt Emerson, SS/3B, Seattle Mariners NATIONAL LEAGUE The Frontrunner By WAR, the Cardinals’ 2024 first-round pick is lapping the National League field. Wetherholt provides value across the board, hitting well above league average, running the bases well and leading all MLB second basemen defensively in outs above average. His .358 on-base percentage is the highest mark among all qualified NL rookies. The Contenders Stewart has cooled off since his blistering start — he had an OPS over 1.000 through his first 27 games — but he still leads all qualified NL rookies in most offensive categories, including hits (62), home runs (12), doubles (13), RBI (40), slugging (.455) and OPS (.803). He has also stolen 10 bases, adding some value on the basepaths in addition to his power. The Pirates’ wunderkind, the top prospect in all of baseball at the time of his call-up on April 3, struggled out of the gate — not that surprising, considering he was 19 years old at the time — but was starting to find his groove when he hit the injured list with a forearm strain. Griffin hit over .300 in May and currently leads all NL rookies with 14 stolen bases, though he remains sidelined with his arm injury. One of the favorites to win the Rookie of the Year honor after starring late last season, McLean had an ERA over 4.00 at the end of May. But that mark is down to 3.98, and McLean leads all NL rookie pitchers in strikeouts (82) and fWAR (1.2). His expected ERA is even better this year than it was last year, suggesting better days ahead. Expect him to challenge for the top NL honor by year’s end. After a dreadful start to the year offensively, Benge is turning it on. He had a five-hit day Sunday while finishing a double short of the cycle and is batting .328 since May 3. Benge is tied for second among NL rookies in hits and steals, and the underlying numbers support the surge. If Everything Breaks Right Rumfield had the highest OPS among qualified NL rookies in May and took home Rookie of the Month honors. He ranks second among NL rookies in hits, slugging and OPS and is third in RBIs. It’s a bit bizarre to have a 30-year-old here, but the veteran lefty still has rookie status after spending the past three years in Japan. Griffin is 7-2 with a 3.63 ERA in his first year back stateside, already tallying more than twice as many wins as the next closest NL rookie starter. He leads all qualified NL rookies in WHIP and has been effective despite a four-seamer that sits in the low 90s. Waldschmidt didn’t make his MLB debut until May 8, but the 2024 first-round pick hit over .300 through his first 19 games. He has fallen back down to earth over the past week and is still looking for his first home run, but the speedy outfielder leads all qualified NL rookie hitters with a .278 batting average. Eldridge is not yet qualified with fewer than 100 plate appearances to this point, but Giants manager Tony Vitello is finding him more consistent opportunities now. The 21-year-old slugger is slashing .429/.488/.657 over his past 10 games. His .812 OPS is the highest mark among all NL rookies with at least 50 at-bats this season. Honorable Mentions: A.J. Ewing, OF, New York Mets; Moisés Ballesteros, DH/C, Chicago Cubs; Bubba Chandler, SP, Pittsburgh Pirates; Logan Henderson, SP, Milwaukee Brewers]]>
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					<![CDATA[Major League Baseball's Over-35 Hitters Face Steepest Production Drop-Off in Decades]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/major-league-baseballs-over-35-hitters-face-steepest-production-drop-off-decades</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/major-league-baseballs-over-35-hitters-face-steepest-production-drop-off-decades</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[It's a tough time to be a veteran MLB hitter these days.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:33:41 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Nolan Arenado was slugging his way through the month of May when the Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman woke up one morning with an ailment that's familiar to those who felt invincible in their 20s but have advanced to their mid-to-late 30s. His back hurt. Not bad. Not enough to keep him out of the lineup. But it was one of those inexplicable moments that comes with being an aging Major League Baseball player — threatening to derail a hot streak for an eight-time All-Star who just turned 35. "There's more aches and pains," Arenado said. "There's just a little more work in the gym, getting prepared for the game, than there used to be. That's a learning curve. "I've always been in the gym, always did that stuff, but there's definitely more maintenance." Arenado got past the minor back issue and is continuing a bounce-back season in the desert, batting .256 with eight homers and 30 RBIs through Monday's games. He's among a group of the 35-and-older crowd getting solid results at the plate, joining Los Angeles Dodgers veterans Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy, along with Houston's Christian Walker. But it's a small club that's become smaller over the past decade. MLB hitters who are 35 or older have combined to provide just 5.6 WAR (Wins Above Replacement, per FanGraphs) through roughly the first 1/3 of the season, continuing a trend that's accelerated over the past decade. In the early 2000s, older stars were the norm in the big leagues. It peaked in 2003 when older hitters combined for 71.3 WAR, with a group highlighted by Barry Bonds, Frank Thomas, Kenny Lofton, Luis Gonzalez and Jeff Bagwell. So what's changed? Let's look at some of the reasons why MLB is skewing younger this days: Analytics like younger players Baseball's analytical era can be traced back to the work of Bill James in the 1970s and 1980s, but terms like WAR, wOBA, BABIP, and OPS+ didn't start to become widespread in the big leagues until at least the late 2000s. Suddenly, the eye test wasn't enough for MLB general managers. Cold, hard numbers were in. And — overwhelmingly — those numbers showed that the best years for a big league hitter usually come from their mid-20s to early 30s. That's directly correlated to MLB teams locking up young players to long-term contracts. Arizona's Corbin Carroll, Detroit's Kevin McGonigle, Pittsburgh's Konnor Griffin, Kansas City's Bobby Witt Jr. and Seattle's Julio Rodriguez are among dozens of promising players who were signed to lucrative deals well before they reach free agency. Spending on veterans is no longer in vogue. Walker — a three-time Gold Glove first baseman who has hit nearly 200 career homers — signed with the Astros for a relatively modest $60 million, three-year deal after the 2024 season when he was 33 years old. "I think it has a lot to do with the ability to measure guys’ value on the field," Walker said. "For a long time, WAR didn’t exist, wRC+ wasn’t a stat, right? So, you went off of the optics or this guy’s a good clubhouse guy or he’s got experience, he’s been to a World Series." Velocity has exploded during their careers Today's young stars have come of age in a game where velocity is king, but it wasn't that way when Freeman and others broke through. The average MLB fastball in 2026 is north of 94 mph, with 18 qualified pitchers averaging at least 96. When Freeman debuted 17 years ago, the league-wide average was under 92 and no qualified pitchers averaged at least 96. Arenado said that one of the first things that becomes tougher for MLB veterans is the ability to handle really good fastballs — particularly inside. It makes for tough matchups against pitchers like Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski, who routinely throws 100 mph. "I feel like just the general age of the levels and the development is trending younger and younger," Walker said. "And there might be something to that — like your best bullets might be when you’re 27 years old." Big league teams value flexibility more now, too Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has Freeman and Muncy in his lineup on nearly a daily basis. He also played in the big leagues until he was 36 years old, retiring in 2008, giving him some personal experience on the aging process. "The hardest part is to expect and want the same output you've always had, but not be willing to change the equation," Roberts said. Roberts said the process is different for every player. Some need to work out more. Some less. Others need more sleep. Diet becomes more important. The tricky part is that the habits that brought you to the big leagues might not be the same ones that will keep you there in your mid-to-late 30s. Walker, who didn't become a starter in the big leagues until he was 28, said he's embraced getting older and enjoys analyzing his blood tests that might signal what's causing vitamin deficiencies or inflammation. The tests also show how much alcohol might affect his body or the importance of a good night's sleep. "For myself, no real magic recipe, just chalk it up to being a late bloomer," Walker said. "My age is older than most guys, but service time isn’t. I haven’t been in the big leagues for 20 years or anything like that. Just fortunate that I still can help the team." Arenado embraces change Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he believed there were two main reasons Arenado was still having success in his 14th big league season. First, he gave credit to the D-backs' hitting coaches. But maybe most importantly, Arenado has listened to those coaches, embraced change and found new ways to have success. "There's an adjustment to work habits and mindset once you get to that level where things aren't as easy as they used to be," Lovullo said. "Some say ‘I’ve had my career, it's not as easy as it once was, and I want to shut it down.'" Later he added: "It's fun to watch Nolan Arenado have all this success, but he's worked his butt off. He's working as hard as any 22 or 23 year old we have on this team." Reporting by the Associated Press.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Brewers Vs. Athletics: Absurd 29-Run, 12-Inning Game By The Numbers]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/brewers-athletics-12-inning-game-las-vegas-ballpark-by-the-numbers</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/brewers-athletics-12-inning-game-las-vegas-ballpark-by-the-numbers</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[The Milwaukee Brewers and Athletics combined for 29 runs in a 12-inning showdown. Here are more numbers from the game.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:32:55 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Las Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world, a billing it lived up to on Monday night as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Athletics in a 15-14, 12-inning game at Las Vegas Ballpark in Paradise, Nevada, the future full-time home of the A's. Here's the unreal offensive display by the numbers: 2: Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz and left fielder Tyler Soderstrom each hit two home runs. 3: Six players recorded at least three hits: Kurtz, Soderstrom, Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers, Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn, Brewers left fielder Jackson Chourio and Brewers catcher William Contreras. 4A: Vaughn hit a game-tying, two-run double in the ninth inning for the Brewers, evening up the score at 10-all and ultimately forcing extra innings. Milwaukee had previously trailed by four runs (9-5) entering the seventh inning. 4B: Both teams scored four runs in the 10th inning. 4C: Both teams had four players drive in at least two runs. 4D: On a bizarre note, there were only four doubles and zero triples. 7: Both teams used seven pitchers. 9A: The number of runs scored in the third inning; the Brewers scored three runs in the top half of the inning, and the A's scored six runs in the bottom half of the inning. 9B: Vaughn — who had a game-high four hits — Kurtz and Soderstrom each racked up nine total bases. 10: Ten players had a multi-hit performance; the Brewers had six players do as such, while the Athletics had four. 11A: The number of home runs the two teams combined for; the Athletics hit seven home runs, while the Brewers hit four long balls. 11B: The number of total walks (the Brewers drew six walks, while the Athletics drew five). 12A: There were 12 runs driven in with two outs. 12B: The number of innings it took to settle this game. 16: The number of times a pitch was challenged via the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System, which is an MLB high. 17: The number of players who recorded a hit. 21: A combined 21 runners were left on base, 11 by Milwaukee and 10 by the A's. 29A: The number of runs the two teams combined for. 29B: The Brewers have been part of the only two 15-14 MLB contests over the last 25 years, the other one coming in a win over the Washington Nationals on Aug. 17, 2019. 34: The number of hits the two teams combined for; Milwaukee had 18 hits, while the A's had 16 hits. 254: This game lasted four hours and 14 minutes (254 minutes), which is the longest game in MLB this season, per MLB.com.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Last Night In Baseball: Yankees, Guardians Go Extra In Division-Leader Clash]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/yankees-guardians-brewers-athletics-las-vegas-angels-trey-mancini-rays-red-sox</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/yankees-guardians-brewers-athletics-las-vegas-angels-trey-mancini-rays-red-sox</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[The Yankees and Guardians clashed in a key series for both, the Brewers and A's could not stop hitting, the Angels got oh-so-close, Trey Mancini is back and more from Monday's MLB action.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:04:11 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don't worry, we're here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn't have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: The Yankees and Guardians are both in first place in their respective divisions — New York essentially tied with the Rays in the AL East, Cleveland 1.5 games up on the White Sox in the AL Central — making this week’s series between the two not only a test for each but necessary for sticking at the top. This is doubly true since the Guardians haven’t been great against teams over .500, while the Yankees are not only worse in that regard, but are now without Aaron Judge thanks to injury. The opening game was a banger, with the Yankees coming out on top, but it took extra innings to get that result. The Yankees tied things up 5-5 in the top of the eighth when DH Paul Goldschmidt — who also opened up the scoring with a homer in the first — grounded into a force out but pushed a run across in the process. The score would stay 5-5 until extras, in no small part thanks to this incredible double play that ended the eighth. Second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a ball right between the legs of reliever Cade Smith, but shortstop Brayan Racchio didn’t lose sight of the ball, snagging it right at second and spinning while on the ground to get the first out then throw to first for the second. The Yankees would threaten again in the 10th, however, and had a challenge to use at the perfect time: after an intentional walk to first baseman Ben Rice, new DH Max Schuemann, who had entered earlier as a pinch-runner, challenged a high strike call and ended up walking to load the bases with one out. This was bad news for the obvious reasons, but then there was the fact that left fielder Cody Bellinger was next up. Bellinger has been having an excellent season — he’s hitting .276/.373/.474 — and here drove in two runs with a single to left to put New York up 7-5. The Guardians would end up trying to answer back in the bottom of the 10th, with right fielder Angel Martínez leading off the inning with a walk to put two on. David Bednar would retire the next two batters, however, and then got Rocchio to ground out to end the game. The Yankees were able to keep pace with the Rays — they are .003 points behind them in winning percentage, not even enough to be half-a-game back — while the Guardians failed to put some more distance between themselves and the White Sox in the standings. There are two games left in this series for both of those situations to change, however. The Athletics started a home series in their future home of Las Vegas on Monday, and this probably wasn’t actually a taste of what A’s baseball is going to be about when it settles in for good. And that would be for the best, or else they will never be able to convince a pitcher to join them. The A’s hosted the Brewers, and the two combined for 34 hits, 11 walks, 82 total bases, and 29 runs. The two teams managed to score 29 runs while still stranding 21 total runners — the entire game was made out of offense, and then it just kept going because it was still tied at the end of nine. It almost wasn’t, however. The A’s were up 10-8 in the top of the ninth, trying to secure the W, and then first baseman Andrew Vaughn happened. Or happened again, really, since he had a home run back in the third to make it 4-3. Here, Vaughn drilled a 292-foot two-run double to make it 10-10. And while the Brewers didn’t score again in regulation, they opened up extra innings with a barrage. Left fielder Jackson Chourio made it 11-10 with a sac fly, then catcher William Contreras, with two runners still on, demolished a ball 463 feet to center to make it 14-10. The A’s were not deterred: backstop Shea Langeliers hit an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th, then first baseman Nick Kurtz hit his second homer of the day to make it 14-13. Jonah Heim would come in as a pinch-hitter right after Kurtz’s blast, and tied things up with a back-to-back solo shot. Somehow, both teams went scoreless in the 11th — exhausted from all of that scoring beforehand, of course — and then the Brewers came up in the 12th with DH Christian Yelich starting on second. He stole third, which set up what ended up being the game-winning play. Chad Patrick came on in relief to close things out for the Brewers in the bottom of the 12th, and the A’s immediately tried to play for one run in order to tie things up and keep the game going. Shortstop Alika Williams dropped a sac bunt to move Zack Gelof over to third, but that was as close as the Athletics could get. Langeliers struck out swinging, Kurtz was handed an intentional walk and second baseman Jeff McNeil couldn’t get the job done. Incredibly, all of this still resulted in fewer extra-base hits than the Brewers hit on Sunday — Milwaukee had 10 then. Maybe throw fewer strikes to these guys for a few days, just to be safe. The Angels took on the Astros in Houston on Monday, and this one had to go to extras to be resolved, as well. The Astros tied things up in the sixth on a double by right fielder Cam Smith, but then shortstop Zach Neto picked up his one hit of the day — a huge one — to give the Angels the lead back, 4-3. Los Angeles gave up the lead again, however, with first baseman Christian Walker hitting an RBI single to once again tie the game and force it into extra innings. The Astros would score again in the top of the 10th when center fielder Jake Meyers — who had entered the game much earlier as a pinch-hitter and then stuck around — popped out to second base. That resulted in a play at the plate, but Angels’ backstop Logan O’Hoppe missed the throw from Nick Madrigal and allowed Jose Altuve to score the go-ahead run. Los Angeles nearly made it even in the bottom of the 10th, but the Angels once again didn’t have any luck on a play at the plate. With no outs and Mike Trout the starting runner at second, left fielder Jose Siri singled to left, and Trout tried to stretch it into a run. Instead, Brice Matthews made a strong throw and nailed Trout for the first out of the inning. This was bad enough, but it got worse when the game ended on a line out to left — maybe Trout would have scored there, on what would have been the second out of the inning. There was some good news from the Angels’ game for non-Astros’ fans, though. Trey Mancini returned to the majors for the first time since 2023, with 1,043 days in between big-league games. And he hit an RBI single in his first at-bat back, too. Mancini, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer in 2020, didn’t play in the pros in 2024 despite signing with the Reds, and nearly retired before inking a minor-league deal with the Diamondbacks last season instead. He’s played well at Triple-A in the Angels’ organization this year, and got a shot when a roster spot opened up thanks to Los Angeles putting infielders Vaughn Grissom and Adam Frazier on the IL. And he went 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI in his big return game, too! The Mariners defeated the Orioles 6-3 on Monday, and while baseball is a team sport, it’s also one with some huge hits. And Seattle’s first baseman, Josh Naylor, had the biggest hit you can get to win it for the M’s. Naylor’s fifth-inning grand slam put the Mariners up 5-1, and while the Orioles would cut into the lead a little, it wasn’t enough. Naylor hasn’t actually been hitting for much power this year, as part of the team’s collective early season struggles, but he’s been at a far more respectable .312/.365/.439 with five of his seven homers since April 22, a 39-game stretch: before this, Naylor was batting just .170/.253/.261, and his overall numbers are still digging out of that considerable hole. Entering play on Monday, the Nationals were 0-29 in games where they were trailing entering the ninth inning, per MLB Stats. Make that 1-29 now, after a three-run effort in the ninth erased the Giants’ lead and gave the dub to Washington. Keaton Winn took the mound in place of Logan Webb for San Francisco, and while he got outfielder James Wood to strike out to start his outing, DH Luis Garcia Jr. followed with a double. First baseman Curtis Mead was then hit by a pitch, a passed ball moved both runners over and then shortstop CJ Abrams hit a two-run single to tie the game, 3-3. Abrams would then steal second, and left fielder Daylen Lile sent him home to give the Nationals their first lead since the sixth inning, which the Giants immediately erased in the bottom of the frame. Not this time, though: DH Rafael Devers walked to open the bottom of the ninth, and right fielder Jung Hoo Lee singled him into scoring position, but first baseman Bryce Eldridge ended the threat by striking out swinging. Cristopher Sánchez might not be threatening to break the all-time scoreless streak anymore, but it turns out he’s still great at that whole pitching thing. With the Phillies taking on the Blue Jays in Toronto, Sanchez went seven innings while allowing four hits, a walk and two runs against 10 strikeouts. The only reason his ERA climbed is because it was already so absurdly low that two runs in seven innings was able to make it go all the way up to 1.54. Sánchez got some help, too, with right fielder Adolis García bashing his third homer in as many games, a three-run shot 406 feet to left-center off of Patrick Corbin. That would be enough for Philadelphia to get the win, but the Phillies added another two runs later — final score, 5-2. Toronto is still struggling to find their way back to .500 after a rough start to the year, but the Phillies have managed the feat and are now 36-30, good for second place in the NL East. The Red Sox cannot hit, which is not news, but Monday served as a reminder of this. Boston went down in order in the first inning, and then were greeted by DH Yandy Díaz on the other side — he immediately extended his on-base streak to 22 games with a leadoff homer on the first pitch he saw. Now, Boston’s pitching is much better than its offense, and limited Tampa Bay to three runs on the day. The problem is that the lineup scored just the one, so the Rays were able to win 3-1 on the strength of five shutout innings from the bullpen following the departure of starter Ian Seymour. Tampa Bay remains in first place in the AL East — again, .003 points of winning percentage ahead of New York, a tie for all intents and purposes — and needs to take advantage of this flailing Red Sox team while the Yankees take on the Guardians, in order to widen that gap as much as possible. So far, so good.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Yankees Defeat Guardians In Extras For 2nd Straight Win Without Aaron Judge]]>
				</title>
				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/yankees-defeat-guardians-extra-innings-without-aaron-judge</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/yankees-defeat-guardians-extra-innings-without-aaron-judge</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[The New York Yankees offense came alive in clutch time, overcoming Aaron Judge's absence to beat the Cleveland Guardians.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 23:09:04 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Cody Bellinger hit a two-run single with the bases loaded in the 10th inning and the New York Yankees defeated the Cleveland Guardians 7-5 on Monday night. Paul Goldschmidt and Ryan McMahon homered for the Yankees, who won for the first time in four extra-inning games this season. Angel Martinez connected for a two-run homer in the fifth to give the Guardians a 5-4 lead before Goldschmidt's grounder in the eighth drove in Trent Grisham to tie it. With Ali Sanchez as the automatic runner in the 10th, Ben Rice was intentionally walked with one out. Max Schuemann challenged a called strike three on a full count and got it overturned to ball four, loading the bases. The Guardians pulled their infield in, but Bellinger's base hit to left field off Shawn Armstrong (1-1) drove in Sánchez and Rice. David Bednar (2-3), the seventh Yankees pitcher, struck out three in 1 2/3 hitless innings for the win. He retired five of the six batters he faced. Martínez was mired in an 8-for-61 slump before his two-run shot to right-center off Paul Blackburn in the fifth. It was Martínez's first homer since May 17 against Cincinnati. After Rice drew a walk in the first, Goldschmidt connected on a cutter from starter Gavin Williams and drove it into the left-field bleachers. Goldschmidt has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games, batting .314 (16 for 51) with three homers and 13 RBIs during that span McMahon led off the fifth with a shot to left on a low curveball to put the Yankees up 4-3. New York had runners at the corners with one out in the eighth when Cleveland shortstop Brayan Rocchio made a diving stop on Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s hard-hit grounder up the middle. Rocchio touched second base with his glove, pivoted and then threw out Chisholm at first from his right knee to complete the double play. Reporting by The Associated Press.]]>
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					<![CDATA[2026 AL, NL MVP Odds: Aaron Judge Injury Shakes Up AL Race]]>
				</title>
				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/2026-al-nl-mvp-odds</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/2026-al-nl-mvp-odds</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Baseball is going to have a new MVP in the American League. See the latest odds.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:54:18 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[A lot of history has a chance to be made when it comes to the MLB MVP awards this season. Let's check out the odds for the AL and NL MVP race at FanDuel Sportsbook as of June 5. This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports. American League MVP Bobby Witt Jr.: +135 (bet $10 to win $23.50 total)Yordan Alvarez: +160 (bet $10 to win $26 total)Ben Rice: +440 (bet $10 to win $54 total)Nick Kurtz: +1100 (bet $10 to win $120 total)Julio Rodriguez: +2500 (bet $10 to win $260 total)Junior Caminero: +2700 (bet $10 to win $280 total)Shea Langeliers: +2700 (bet $10 to win $280 total) What to know: We're going to have a new AL MVP. It was announced Thursday that Aaron Judge will miss at least four weeks with a stress fracture in his ribs, and with that, his name fell off the board. Judge's three MVP awards are tied with a host of MLB legends for the third-most all-time, including Yankee icons Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra. However, he'll have to wait to get his fourth, according to the current odds. The new name atop the board is Kansas City's Bobby Witt Jr., who is fourth in the AL in hits and second in stolen bases, as well as one of the game's best infielders. Just behind him is Houston's Yordan Alvarez, who currently leads the AL in batting average and home runs, and is second in hits and RBIs. National League MVP Shohei Ohtani: -900 (bet $10 to win $11.11 total)Kyle Schwarber: +1400 (bet $10 to win $150 total)Corbin Carroll: +2200 (bet $10 to win $230 total)Juan Soto: +2700 (bet $10 to win $280 total)James Wood: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total)Matt Olson: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total)Bryce Harper: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total) What to know: It appears Ohtani is gonna do this thing again, mostly because of his pitching. At the plate, he's not having the season fans have become accustomed to, but when you combine his hitting with what he's doing on the mound, he's far and away the game's best player. In 10 starts, he's 6-2 with a ridiculous 0.74 ERA and 0.76 WHIP. Last season, Ohtani won back-to-back NL MVP awards for the first time since Albert Pujols did it in 2008 and 2009. He also won the AL MVP in 2023, making him the first player in MLB history to win MVP back-to-back in each league. This year, if Ohtani is to win NL MVP, he will make a dent in Barry Bonds' record of four straight MVP wins (2001-2004). All four of Ohtani's MVP wins have been unanimous, with him receiving all 30 first-place votes. He has the second-most MVPs in history, trailing only Bonds' seven.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Last Night In Baseball: Braves Sweep Pirates And Extend MLB Wins Lead]]>
				</title>
				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/braves-brewers-angels-dodgers-yankees-red-sox-bobby-witt-jr</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/braves-brewers-angels-dodgers-yankees-red-sox-bobby-witt-jr</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[The Braves remind everyone they're for real, the Brewers dropped 10 extra-base hits on the Rockies, a pair of 5-hit games, Jazz Chisholm borrows Aaron Judge's power and more from Sunday's MLB action.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:54:38 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don't worry, we're here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn't have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: "The Braves swept the Pirates" is the kind of thing that, a year ago, wouldn’t have made many waves. After all, Atlanta was scuffling and struggling to stay relevant amid significant injuries to key players, while the Pirates were, scientifically speaking, "not good." What a difference a year makes, though: the Braves entered this series leading Major League Baseball in wins, and the Pirates were 34-29, 7-3 in their last 10 and in second place in the NL Central, just 4.5 back of the Brewers, with Milwaukee holding the third-best record in the National League. Not dominant yet, no, but the 2025 team finished 71-91, so, it’s still a massive improvement in play and reasons to be optimistic. Which all makes Atlanta sweeping Pittsburgh meaningful: this was a challenge for a nascent, promising Pirates team, and one that they failed to meet head on. And for the Braves, it helped show that this really is a dominant squad. It should be noted, though, that Atlanta won by a combined seven runs in these games, and by just one on Sunday to secure the sweep. Pittsburgh was actually up 2-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, as Bubba Chandler — who came on to pitch at length following the use of an opener in the first — had made it through five innings unscathed, allowing one hit and no walks. His final inning began with a throwing error by third baseman Tyler Callihan, however, and then he walked Mike Yastrzemski and Jorge Mateo to load the bases with one out. Chandler was lifted for lefty Evan Sisk after Michael Harris II entered the game as a pinch-hitter, to give the Pirates the platoon advantage, but it didn’t work out. Harris drilled a bases-loaded triple, and it was 3-2, Braves just like that. The Pirates haven’t had the best starting pitching going, but the performance of the bullpen has made it even more of a problem — its collective ERA is 4.14, in large part because it’s allowing far more walks (4.3 walks per nine compared to 3.0) without doing anything else better to make up for it. This is something the team is going to have to address to hang with clubs like the Braves in 2026, but the good news is that the Pirates are, for a change, talented enough for "just fix the bullpen" to be a genuine path. The Brewers took out the Rockies, 12-4, and swept Colorado on the road in the process. What stands out the most, however, is that Milwaukee had 17 hits on Sunday, and 10 of those were for extra bases. Ten! That’s a season-high for the Brewers, and pretty difficult for anyone to come back from. Third baseman Luis Rengifo hit a double. Left fielder Jackson Chourio hit two of ‘em. Center fielder Garrett Mitchell had a pair, as well, and a triple on top of that. Backstop Gary Sánchez had a double and the lone homer of the day from the Brewers, while shortstop Joey Ortiz had just the one hit, but made sure it was for extra bases by smacking a two-bagger. Amazingly enough, there wasn’t just the one triple, but two: first baseman Andrew Vaughn hit the other. The Rockies walked just three batters, and good thing, too, because Milwaukee would have had even more runners on base for all of these big hits. As it was, scoring a dozen on a Sunday gave the Brewers not just the sweep, but also made them the third team in the majors to reach 40 wins this season — all three are in the NL, with the Braves (45) and Dodgers (42) the other two. The Tigers are… let’s say, a ways away from 40 wins. But on Sunday they still managed to have an exciting W all the same. Detroit’s rookie shortstop and third baseman — he played both yesterday, even — Kevin McGonigle is the one who made it happen, too. In the fourth, down 1-0, McGonigle tied things up with a 420-foot blast to right field off of Mariners’ starter Luis Castillo. He would end up coming to the plate five times, and go 2-for-4 with a walk, homer, a run and three RBIs — the last of those came in the bottom of the ninth, with two runners in scoring position. McGonigle singled on a ball that deflected off of the glove of a leaping Cole Young at second and went into right field, allowing both Zach McKinstry and Wenceel Pérez to score and giving the Tigers the dub. They call it a game of inches for a reason, folks. McGonigle, by the way, is hitting .291/.394/.426 and has produced 3.5 wins above replacement at this point, thanks to that line and his glove. He’s having a hell of a rookie campaign, even if the Tigers’ struggles are obscuring that somewhat. Twenty-five years ago, the eventual 2001 World Series champion Diamondbacks featured ace starting pitcher Randy Johnson, as well as veteran starter/reliever Bobby Witt in the final season of his MLB career. Yes, that Bobby Witt, the father of Royals’ star Bobby Witt Jr., who just happens to be 25 years old and change right now. Yes, time is incessant and ever-marching forward, that’s how it works, but hey. Here’s a photo of Randy Johnson holding Witt Jr. in his arms, side-by-side with one taken on Sunday when he was chatting up the now 25-year-old Witt outside the Royals’ dugout. The meeting of a legend and a future legend right there. The Giants are hitting lately, which feels very weird for anyone who has paid any attention to the Giants for an uncomfortably long time, but on Sunday they also managed to win against the Cubs without pulling out the big bats. Right fielder Jung Hoo Lee extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a single in the first, scoring first baseman Rafael Devers… …but San Francisco wouldn’t score again in regulation. The Cubs managed to tie things up with a single from DH Moisés Ballesteros in the third, but neither team managed anything else until extras. The pitching was the strength for both squads here, as Giants’ starter Trevor McDonald allowed the one run, while five relievers followed and all pitched a scoreless inning each. The Cubs weren’t much worse, getting mostly similar production from their pitchers, except a second run was allowed in the 10th — that’s when third baseman Matt Chapman singled in the go-ahead run, one the Cubs wouldn’t answer. Chicago is now 7.5 back in the NL Central and half-a-game out of a wild-card spot after dropping this series to San Francisco; the Giants are doing much worse, and are a team the Cubs need to be beating to keep pace in a highly contested NL Central and wild-card picture, but that’s not how things went down this weekend. On May 4, Phillies’ left fielder Brandon Marsh was hitting .309/.339/.487. That’s pretty great and all, but he was just getting started. Marsh had consecutive three-hit games in his next two to kick off a seven-game hitting streak that also included a four-hit performance, and has gone without a hit in just six of the 29 games he’s played since. During each game of the Phillies’ weekend series against the White Sox, Marsh went deep. During this stretch that goes back over a month now and covers 110 plate appearances, Marsh is batting .369/.400/.563 with nine extra-base hits and 38 hits overall. He’s been on fire, even if the power wasn’t there for part of it, but that seems to be coming back around now. Philadelphia won on Sunday, 9-5, thanks in part to Marsh going 2-for-4 with a walk, two runs, two RBIs and a homer, and he’s currently leading qualified players in batting average across the majors thanks to hitting .338. His current 142 OPS+ would be a career-high over a full season: Marsh has been a good hitter for a few years now, but he’s already produced more WAR in 2026 than he did in 2025 as a whole. The Dodgers might have won the weekend series against the Angels, but Sunday’s game was all Los Angeles. No, no, the other one. The Angels hit hard and early, and responded to a typical big inning from the Dodgers late by having an even bigger one themselves. The star of all of this was catcher and No. 9 hitter Sebastián Rivero, who went 5-for-6 with a double, four singles, a run and six RBIs. The Dodgers scored five runs in the loss — Rivero outpaced them by himself. He singled in the first to put the Angels up, 2-0, then drove in two more runs with another single in the fourth to get the score to 4-1. A third single resulted in a fifth RBI and a 9-5 Angels’ lead, and then he scored that same inning on a home run by shortstop Zach Neto. Rivero would then get his fifth hit of the day, a double, to give the Angels their final run in a 13-5 W. After this five-hit game, Rivero is batting just .220/.264/.260 on the season — it truly came out of nowhere for the defense-first backup catcher. Not to be forgotten, though, is that right fielder Jo Adell had a four-hit game himself. Adell had four runs and two RBIs, as well as his 10th homer of the year and 10 total bases on the day. A big game like this isn’t exactly normal for Adell, either, but it’s less of a surprise, at least! Rivero wasn’t the only one with a five-hit day on Sunday, as Mets’ rookie right fielder and leadoff hitter Carson Benge also managed the feat. Benge went 5-for-5 against the Padres, tallying three runs, two RBIs and 10 total bases thanks to a triple and a homer being part of the fun. New York picked up a 7-3 win against San Diego, winning the series in the process and rebounding from a 3-2 defeat on Saturday. The Mets remain in the NL East basement, but it’s still too early to ignore that they aren’t perfectly healthy yet and are just five games back of a wild-card spot despite myriad issues. As for the Padres? They need to start hitting again eventually. That is the truth of things on multiple levels. The Diamondbacks defeated the Nationals, 5-1, and the highlight has to be this catch from right fielder Corbin Carroll. For one, it’s just a great catch in general, but there’s just enough style to how Carroll snatches it out of the air with his glove nearly touching the outfield grass that elevates it to baseball art. Look at that slide! That grab! See? Art. Carroll also went 1-for-3 with a walk, two runs and an RBI, and that one hit was a dinger, so he had himself a game even if it doesn’t pop out of the boxscore like the pair of five-hit performances. Who knows exactly when Aaron Judge will be back patrolling the Yankees’ outfield and terrorizing opposing pitchers, thanks to a stress fracture in his rib cage that has him on the IL. He tried to play for as long as he could, putting off an extended break, but bones are supposed to be whole and not broken, so once his performance couldn’t be sustained, it was time. Judge is gone, but his bats? His bats are still there. And the Yankees should think about using them in his absence. Second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. did so in the bottom of the eighth against the Red Sox on Sunday, after going 0-for-3 with three strikeouts in his previous trips to the plate. Here, though? Dinger. If the Yankees can’t have Aaron Judge in the lineup for maybe as long as two months, depending on his recovery, then at least get him to make the bats homer-ready for his teammates. Share the wealth, big guy, New York’s lineup is going to need it.]]>
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					<![CDATA[4 Takeaways From Red Sox-Yankees As AL East Rivals Split Series]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/red-sox-yankees-4-takeaways</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/red-sox-yankees-4-takeaways</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Aaron Judge didn't feature in this edition of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry but his bat sure did.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2026 19:48:27 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Yankee Stadium (NEW YORK) – Even though baseball's most iconic rivalry didn’t quite have the same buzz as we’re used to with Aaron Judge sidelined by injury and Boston languishing at the bottom of the AL East, the Yankees and Red Sox still delivered. No matter the circumstances, when these two historic franchises share the same field, the pressure is heightened and the excitement always draws an enormous crowd. Sure, the stakes weren’t as high. But the rivalry still felt bigger. Here are my takeaways from the series split in the Bronx: 1. Lessons Learned With Judge Out Spencer Jones, the Yankees’ top outfield prospect, returned to the lineup on Friday night with a new frame of mind. Red Sox right-hander Sonny Gray found out the hard way. In his first at-bat since being called up from Triple-A to replace the injured Judge, Jones turned an eight-pitch at-bat into a 101-mph single to center field. The 25-year-old rookie gave Gray a headache all night. Gray tried to change his approach against Jones in their next meeting in the fourth inning, trying to get Jones to chase pitches outside like he did last month, when he was called up for a cup of coffee in the major leagues. But Jones didn’t bite. He waited for something better down the middle, eventually ripping an RBI double down the first-base line to right field. Hitting sixth, Jones went 3-for-3 in his return to the big leagues, showing that he had learned a thing or two during his two-week minor-league demotion. "I kind of used it as motivation," Jones told me in the clubhouse on Sunday. "Before I got called up the first time, I always wondered if how I played was good enough." Jones hit .167 (4-for-24) with three walks and 12 strikeouts in his brief, 10-game stint with the Yankees in May. The lefty-swinging outfielder went back down to the minors, focusing on the exact areas he needed to improve. He made subtle changes in the batter’s box, standing in different positions against certain pitchers, particularly lefties. He cleaned up his swing. He focused on being more intentional on defense and worked on getting jumps before stealing bases. He also has more confidence in his abilities this time around. Though he still hasn’t hit a home run in the major leagues, the power is there. It’s a small sample size, but his 96.9 average exit velocity and 77.6 mph bat speed are both considered elite. The homers will come, Jones said, because he no longer feels like he’s "drinking out of a firehose," like he did the first time he was called up. "It’s only been a couple of days, but for me, I know what it feels like," Jones said of the pressure to perform for the Yankees. "That was part of being in the minor leagues. It’s like, how do you bottle that feeling and replicate that feeling, where it’s like, I won’t let those things affect me." 2. The Contreras Trade Is Paying Dividends For Willson Contreras, this was nothing new. The Red Sox first baseman has carried the lineup all year, so putting on a show in a visit to the Bronx was no different. In Friday’s series opener, Contreras delivered a go-ahead RBI single and a two-run home run that broke the game open in Boston’s 5-3 win over the Yankees. His two-run shot was his first-career home run at Yankee Stadium, and Contreras stopped in his tracks and admired all of it. Craig Breslow, Boston’s chief baseball officer, is known for some pretty lopsided trades — we’re coming up to the one-year anniversary of his jaw-dropping Rafael Devers’ trade — but acquiring Contreras from the Cardinals isn’t one of them. Since Contreras joined the Red Sox in December, he leads the offense in batting average, home runs, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, and walks. The Red Sox gave up three pitching prospects in the deal for Contreras, with the biggest piece being right-hander Hunter Dobbins for St. Louis. Breslow acquired Contreras for the right-handed pop from his bat, and he’s become a stabilizing, veteran force in an otherwise young and unproven Red Sox lineup. "We need to make sure we get our house in order," Breslow said in the visitor’s dugout at Yankee Stadium on Friday. "We need to play better, and we need to win more games. … The first thing is to continue to build on the progress we’ve seen offensively over the last month." Without Contreras, the Red Sox offense would be unwatchable right now. Even with his help, Boston is ranked 25th in wRC+ (91), 26th in slugging (.378), 25th in OPS (.694), and 27th in walk percentage (7.9%). Contreras has days when he can carry the team, like he did in Friday’s win. But even on Sunday, he was the only Red Sox hitter to put a run on the board when he lined an RBI single to left field, which extended his on-base streak to 18 games. Contreras is doing his job. What about everyone else? 3) How Is Judge's Bat Still Getting Action? While Judge is catching bench splinters, his bat is still getting plenty of action. Jazz Chisholm Jr. used Judge’s bat to hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 6-1 win over the Red Sox on Sunday. That was Chisholm’s second time using Judge’s bat; he tore his oblique the first time he used it, on April 29, 2025, and missed five weeks on the injured list. On Sunday, Chisholm knew not to swing as hard. "Sometimes you need a little bit more weight," Chisholm said. "And a little bit less on your swing." Did Chisholm ask Judge’s permission before using his bat? "Definitely didn’t ask him," Chisholm said. "You know, it’s like a big brother, little brother thing." The Yankees are in the early days of navigating life without Judge, who went on the injured list Friday with a stress fracture on the first rib on his right side. He’s expected to miss two months recovering from the fracture, waiting for the bone to heal before he can begin swinging again. The results have been a mixed bag, with the Yankees going 2-3 in the five games they’ve played without Judge anchoring the lineup. But there are reasons for optimism from the offense. Ben Rice homered off Red Sox veteran right Sonny Gray on Friday, hours after Judge was placed on the IL, to become the team leader in homers with 18 this season. Trent Grisham, batting fifth instead of leading off on Sunday, had an excellent day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with an RBI single in the eighth. Cody Bellinger mashed his ninth home run of the year on Sunday with a tie-breaking solo shot to right. Paul Goldschmidt continued to pile on hits against left-handers. And after Amed Rosario and Grisham swiped a bag each in the eighth inning Sunday, the Yankees are tied with the Guardians for the most stolen bases (64) in the American League. "I think this offense is capable of a lot more than people realize," Jones said. "I think there’s a lot of speed on this team. There’s a lot of different ways to win baseball games. And the guys are super close. All the position players are super tight-knit. Everybody’s rooting for each other. It’s such a solid unit that it’s like, obviously it sucks to have the captain go down. But I truly believe that the people in this room are more than enough to pull together wins and play good baseball without him." 4. Suárez Outduels Schlittler Red Sox left-hander Ranger Suárez and Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler engaged in a good, old-fashioned pitcher’s duel on Sunday, though it didn’t go the distance. Schlittler gave up a run in the fifth, while Suárez threw 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball. Since April 11, Suárez has gone 2-2 with a 2.38 ERA over his last 10 starts. The southpaw has allowed one run or fewer in seven of those 10 outings. It’s too bad his bullpen couldn’t hold a 1-1 tied game in eighth inning. Besides a couple of clunkers against Atlanta and Cleveland this month, Suárez has been solid on the mound in the absence of injured ace Garrett Crochet. "Your focus as a starter is to get deep into the games," Suárez said after his outing on Sunday. "It was good to be out there and throw into the seventh inning. I know the past few starts haven’t been that long, but that’s what you strive for as a pitcher." There will always be a little extra juice when Cam Schlittler takes the mound against the Red Sox, and on Sunday he was under pressure to bounce back. Schlittler recorded the worst start of his career his last time out, coughing up five runs (four earned) over 4 ⅓ innings against Cleveland last week. Against the Red Sox, his favorite childhood team, Schlittler’s fastball velocity recovered and he looked more like himself. It helped that the Red Sox are the worst team in baseball against cutters, which he used nearly as much as his four-seam fastball to blow past batters in the series finale. Schlittler cemented himself in Yankees-Red Sox rivalry lore when he gave it some new ammo last October. He pitched eight scoreless innings and recorded 12 strikeouts in Game 3 of the 2025 Wild Card Series to eliminate the Red Sox from the playoffs. After that shutout start, Schlittler revealed he was extra motivated to silence Boston because the Weymouth, Massachusetts native had been receiving inappropriate messages from Red Sox fans, comments that he said crossed a line. He used his frustration as fuel for the game. "The velo was there, and the movement was a little better," Schlittler said of his performance against the Red Sox on Sunday. "I was still a little sloppy, but definitely better than last week and that’s all I can really take from that." 4 ½. What’s Next? The Yankees and Red Sox will meet again in just a couple of weeks, when Boston hosts New York for a four-game series beginning June 25 at Fenway Park. The Red Sox come back to the Bronx at the end of August for what will unexpectedly be another four-game series. Saturday’s postponed game was moved to August 29 as part of a split doubleheader at Yankee Stadium.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Kyle Freeland Passes Aaron Cook to Become Rockies' All-Time Innings Pitched Leader]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/kyle-freeland-passes-aaron-cook-become-rockies-all-time-innings-pitched-leader</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/kyle-freeland-passes-aaron-cook-become-rockies-all-time-innings-pitched-leader</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Kyle Freeland, the left-handed pitcher who grew up close to Coors Field, became the Colorado Rockies’ all-time leader in innings pitched against Milwaukee.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2026 18:06:38 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Kyle Freeland, the left-handed pitcher who grew up close to Coors Field, became the Colorado Rockies’ all-time leader in innings pitched Sunday against Milwaukee. The Denver native got Luis Rengifo to fly out in the fifth inning to take over the top spot. That out to center put Freeland at 1,312 2/3 innings for his career and one-third ahead of Aaron Cook, the sinkerball specialist who notched 1,312 1/3 innings for Colorado from 2002-11. The crowd gave Freeland an ovation as he tipped his cap in appreciation. Freeland has never shied away from pitching at the hitter friendly park in part because he's spent so much time throwing at higher elevation. He went to high school about 15 minutes from Coors Field. As a kid, he showed up in the seats to watch plenty of Rockies games. Freeland was taken with the eighth overall pick by Colorado in the 2014 first-year player draft. The 33-year-old made his major league debut on April 7, 2017, in a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Entering the day, Freeland was 66-96 with a 4.67 ERA. He had two strikeouts against the Brewers to give him 989 for his career. In April 2022, Freeland signed a five-year extension that runs through the 2026 season. He has a player option for 2027 if he logs 170 innings this season. Reporting by the Associated Press.]]>
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					<![CDATA[2026 MLB Trade Deadline Rumors Tracker: Red Sox' Expected to Trade Aroldis Chapman]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/2026-mlb-trade-deadline-rumors</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/2026-mlb-trade-deadline-rumors</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Here are the latest whispers and trade rumors currently shaping the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline.]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:56:06 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[The early-season dust has settled, but the trade market is already heating up as front offices across the league begin to separate the contenders from the sellers. Here are the latest whispers and trade rumors currently shaping the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline. June 7 The Boston Red Sox are expected to be among the most active sellers at the MLB Trade Deadline in August, with closer Aroldis Chapman emerging as one of the team’s most likely trade candidates, per USA Today. "Boston Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman is expected to join his eighth different team, and potentially be in the postseason with his sixth different team," Bob Nightengale wrote. "He is the top reliever available on every contender’s target list, converting 28 consecutive saves dating back to last season, one shy of his career record." Chapman has appeared in 20 games for the Red Sox this season and has been highly effective, drawing interest from multiple contenders. He has recorded 17 saves with a 0.46 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP over 19.2 innings. May 10 The San Francisco Giants could be headed toward a fire sale after a sluggish 16-24 start that has them sitting fourth in the National League West. The Giants are exploring ways to move several major contracts as they look toward the future, according to USA Today. That includes the remaining money owed to Jung Hoo Lee ($85 million), Willy Adames ($161 million), Rafael Devers ($226 million) and Matt Chapman ($125 million). If they are able to unload those contracts, it would mark a dramatic shift toward a long-term rebuild. The San Francisco Giants are expected to make pitcher Robbie Ray their biggest trade chip at the deadline, while several executives told USA Today that the club could also listen to offers for ace Logan Webb.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Red Sox And Yankees Postponed Due To Rain, Doubleheader Set For Aug. 29]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/red-sox-and-yankees-postponed-due-to-rain-to-play-doubleheader-on-aug-29</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/red-sox-and-yankees-postponed-due-to-rain-to-play-doubleheader-on-aug-29</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Boston’s game at the New York Yankees on Saturday night was postponed due to rain and rescheduled as part of a day-night doubleheader on Aug. 29]]>
				</description>
				<pubDate>Sat, 06 Jun 2026 21:32:54 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Boston's game at the New York Yankees on Saturday night was postponed due to rain and rescheduled as part of a day-night doubleheader on Aug. 29. The tarp was placed on the field about an hour before the 7:35 p.m. scheduled start and rain started about an hour later. Cam Schlittler will start Sunday for the Yankees and Will Warren will open a three-game series in Cleveland on Monday. Ranger Suarez will start Sunday for Boston. Boston has won six of its last seven games at Yankee Stadium after taking Friday’s series opener 5-3. New York is 1-3 since captain Aaron Judge was sidelined by a stress fracture in a rib. Tickets from the postponed game can be used for the 1:05 p.m. game on Aug. 29 and tickets for the original Aug. 29 game can be used for the 7:15 p.m. game. Reporting by the Associated Press.]]>
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					<![CDATA[Cubs Capitalize On Giants' Error For Eighth Walk-Off Win, Beat San Francisco 3-2]]>
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				<link>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/michael-busch-singles-in-10th-cubs-benefit-from-giants-error-to-beat-san-francisco-32</link>
				<guid>https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/michael-busch-singles-in-10th-cubs-benefit-from-giants-error-to-beat-san-francisco-32</guid>
				<category>mlb</category>
				<description>
				    <![CDATA[Michael Busch singled in the 10th, allowing Dansby Swanson to score on an error as the Chicago Cubs edged the San Francisco Giants 3-2.]]>
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				<pubDate>Sat, 06 Jun 2026 18:24:29 -0400</pubDate>
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				    <![CDATA[Michael Busch singled to right in the 10th inning, allowing automatic runner Dansby Swanson to advance from second and score on an error, and the Chicago Cubs edged theSan Francisco Giants 3-2 on Saturday. Leading off the 10th, Busch grounded the ball to right off Sam Hentges' 2-2 slider.Victor Bericoto charged the ball but couldn't come up with it and was charged with an error. That allowed Swanson — who was slowing at third — to continue home. The Cubs won for only the seventh time in their last 26 games. Pete Crow-Armstrong's second solo shot of the game, with two outs in the ninth off Keaton Winn, tied it at 2-2. The Cubs center fielder added two singles on a 4 for 5 afternoon to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games. Crow-Armstrong, who made a nifty sliding catch in the sixth, has 11 home runs. Ryan Rolison (5-1) worked around a walk, pitching a scoreless 10th for the win. Hentges (1-1), who entered in the 10th, took the loss. Rafael Devers cracked a solo shot in the sixth and Matt Chapman hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth to put the Giants ahead 2-1, but their three-game-win streak ended. Both starters, Chicago's Ben Brown and San Francisco’s Landen Roupp, were sharp. Brown allowed no runs and one hit while striking out five, walking one and hitting a batter in 5 1/3 innings. Brown exited after a season-high 87 pitches in his sixth start since joining Chicago’s rotation on May 8. Roupp gave up one run on three hits in 5 2/3 innings, striking out five and walking three. The Cubs left slumping shortstop Swanson out of their starting lineup, but he entered as a pinch automatic runner in the 10th. The two-time Gold Glove winner entered the game batting just .180. Crow-Armstrong hit his first solo shot in the sixth, hammering Roupp's high sinker deep to right to tie it at 1-1. Up next Giants RHP Trevor McDonald (2-3, 4.50 ERA) faces Cubs RHP Jameson Taillon (2-5, 5.13) on Sunday night. Reporting by the Associated Press.]]>
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