New York Post | Greg Joyce: After last night’s loss to the Blue Jays, the Yankees sent Yovanny Cruz and Spencer Jones down to Triple-A. The moves clear two spots on the active roster, which will be taken presumably by Gerrit Cole and José Caballero today. This would all but confirm that the Yankees will go ahead with Anthony Volpe and Caballero both on the roster, so it’ll be interesting to see how they decide to give them both regular reps since Aaron Boone has spoken so highly of Caballero’s ability at the six.

MLB | Bryan Hoch: The 2026 Yankees sure have endured their fair share of injuries, but here’s some positive news on that front for a change: tests showed that Trent Grisham’s left knee hasn’t sustained any structural damage. The center fielder appeared to be experiencing discomfort in his knee after sliding into second base on a second inning bloop double during Wednesday’s contest, exiting the game in the top of the fifth. An IL stint would have been a real test for the Yankees’ outfield depth – already stretched thin with Jasson Domínguez’s injury – but it looks like they have avoided the worst case scenario. Exhale.

ESPN | Kiley McDaniel: Noted prospect guru Kiley McDaniel has released an update to his Top 50 MLB prospect rankings. Yankee fans rejoice; the crown jewel of their system, George Lombard Jr., ranks 10th, ahead of such notables as the Guardians’ Travis Bazzana and the Blue Jays’ Trey Yesavage. According to McDaniel, Lombard Jr.‘s improved contact rate this year has considerably brightened his outlook. Although the shortstop has cooled off in Triple-A after a blistering start in Double-A, his contact rate gains have held so far despite the promotion. Here’s hoping his bat passes the test; the defense was never the question.

The Wall Street Journal | Jared Diamond: ($) In the fall of 2020, Ivy League baseball had yet to resume, leaving then-Dartmouth player Ben Rice with nowhere to play. His solution? Make his own damn league. Well, maybe “league” is a bit strong, but he, along with some Harvard players, organized scrimmages for local college players at a facility in Worcester, Massachusetts. In this piece, Diamond sheds light on the various hurdles that Rice had to clear in his path to the major leagues as a player with limited exposure. Thank heavens the Yankees noticed the slugger; I shudder to think where they would be now without him.

The Athletic | Chris Kirshner: ($) The emergence of both Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice as elite players comes at a crucial time, argues Kirshner. With core players Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, and Giancarlo Stanton all well into their thirties, and a front office that spends less time at the top end of the free agent market, the Yankees desperately needed a homegrown talent that could sustain their window of contention – now they might have two. I implore the Yankees to protect them at all costs; please encase them in bubble wrap at all times when they’re not on the field. Just don’t forget to add holes for breathing.

Introduction

As Spring Training was getting underway this year, I wrote up an article on how the Diamondbacks might be able to improve themselves defensively as they attempted to navigate their way back into the playoffs. That argument centered on two changes: roster changes/upgrades and individual improvement from several younger players becoming increasingly comfortable and confident in their respective positions. It’s something of a bugaboo that I’ve been harping on for over a year now. In my opinion, excellent fielding not only protects pitchers but is also some of the most entertaining and rewarding parts of the game as it allows the players to demonstrate their otherworldly athleticism. Now that we’ve gotten past the quarter pole of the 2026 season, we have enough data to start teasing out some trends and conclusions on how those changed dynamics have played out to this point in the season. Overall, depending on your preferred metric, the D-Backs have definitely been better defensively so far with Baseball Reference putting them at third in the league by defensive runs saved (DRS), fifth by outs above average (OAA), and Fangraphs measuring them out at seventh – all of which represent significant improvements year–over–year.

Roster Improvements

This dynamic was probably the one I felt most confident about as it felt like a no-brainer to improve two lackluster defenders in Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez with excellent ones in Carlos Santana and Nolan Arenado respectively. Well, you can take this as exhibit #983 of why I’m not a baseball general manager. Santana has been functionally a non-factor this season after straining an adductor all the way back in the beginning of April while Arenado has been anywhere from excellent to mediocre depending on the outlet. Instead, the team has leaned on rookie Jose Fernandez and Ildemaro Vargas to fill in at first base with surprisingly positive results – especially considering it’s neither of their natural positions. Fernandez came up in the minors mostly as a shortstop and third baseman with just 17 appearances at first in the minor leagues, but he’s been able to utilize the excellent range that made him such an exciting shortstop prospect to hold his own at first base. Meanwhile, Vargas is having a career year by nearly every measure and his glovework has been no exception with excellent DRS ratings. It should be noted that both Vargas and Fernandez are not well rated by Fangraph’s version, but we’ll have to save those differences for another time.

Individual Improvements

Once again, both Geraldo Perdomo and Gabriel Moreno have been defensive standouts for the team as they continue to cement themselves as stars in their own right. But in my article from February, I highlighted that Moreno’s bigger issue has been staying healthy and on the field rather than any type of skill gap. Sadly, he has once again struggled with that aspect of his game by missing nearly three weeks of action already – this time for an oblique strain to go along with his long list of maladies. Meanwhile, even as Perdomo has struggled to regain the MVP-caliber offensive contribution he displayed last year, he’s managed to (mostly) maintain his defensive prowess. This is another situation in which different ratings land in very different places. According to Baseball Savant, Perdomo has stepped back slightly by OAA and arm strength while Fangraphs has seen him accumulate nearly half of his rating from last year. Regardless of the specific nuances though, it seems like both of them have mostly maintained their defensive skills to buoy slow starts offensively – here’s to hoping they can keep it up for the rest of the season.

The Angels led for five innings before crumbling late en route to a 10-inning, 3-2 loss to the Athletics on Thursday night at Angel Stadium, all in front of a sparse crowd featuring fiery “sell-the-team” chants from shirtless fans in the upper deck.

With the bases loaded and one out in the top of the 10th, the A’s Zack Gelof hit into a fielder’s choice groundout off reliever Ryan Zeferjahn.

Angels second baseman Adam Frazier had trouble getting the ball out of his glove after catching shortstop Zach Neto’s throw. That allowed Nick Kurtz to reach home as the go-ahead run.

Gelof was initially called out, but the A’s won the challenge — and ultimately the game 3-2.

“Yeah, [Frazier] looked like he just couldn’t get the ball out of his glove,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “You know, one of those things where the ball got in, and he was doing everything right to turn it, just couldn’t get out of his glove.”

The Angels were unable to tie against A’s reliever Mark Leiter Jr., who earned the save, despite having runners on the corners and zero outs in the bottom half of the frame. Zeferjahn (2-2) took the loss.

Nolan Schanuel gave the Angels a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a two-run homer. But the Angels’ offense, which has been outscored 84-32 since a May 9 loss in Toronto, continued to struggle.

“They believe,” Suzuki said of the Angels’ spirit, specifically on offense. “Every inning, you got all the guys — they’re all up there, rooting guys on and believing that we’re going to put up runs, and really, we’re just not. And it’s not for a lack of effort; it’s not for a lack of anything like that. We just need to find ways to score runs, that’s all.”

The Athletics took advantage of the small deficit, as Darell Hernáiz and Nick Kurtz hit RBI singles in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, to tie the game and force extras.

Angels starter José Soriano surrendered two runs and six hits over 6 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts. A’s starter Luis Severino surrendered two runs on three hits over seven frames with 10 strikeouts.

“I’ll take away the positive things,” Soriano said. “[I] got into the seventh, but couldn’t complete the inning, but I feel good (about) the way I pitched today. I helped the team the most I can … I control what I could control … I battled; I feel good about that.”

Read more:Athletics rally to beat the Angels in extra innings

After failing to split the four-game series with the AL West-leading A’s, the Angels have dropped four consecutive series and hold an MLB-worst 17-34 record.

That has prompted a growing group of fans to gather shirtless in the upper deck at Angel Stadium and chant that owner Arte Moreno should “sell the team.” The chants could be heard on the Angels’ TV broadcast.

The players, meanwhile, are trying to string together enough good plays to score more wins.

“Really just trying to get the rhythm going of just piling on good at-bat after good at-bat after good at-bat,” Angels right fielder Jo Adell said. “We just haven’t really had that rhythm. It’s like a good at-bat here, and we struggle to kind of pile up after one another and get that rhythm going. We’re hoping to, at some point, find what that is; we’ve had it, we know what it is. But it’s just one of those things, baseball can kind of just slip away from you.”

The road ahead doesn’t get any easier for the Angels. The Angels host the Rangers (24-25), who are a close second in the AL West and riding a two-game winning streak.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

On Thursday night, the Arizona Diamondbacks were able to begin the weekend series against the Colorado Rockies with a walkoff win to push the team’s winning streak to a season-long 5 games. This team has now won 9 of their last 12 games.

This game was won due to the continued success of this Arizona pitching staff. Eduardo Rodriguez continued his run as the ace of this staff throwing 7 scoreless innings tonight. The 7 scoreless innings tonight drop his season ERA to a minuscule 2.24 as he continues to be the leader of this rotation. ERod continued his approach mixing up his pitches more this season vs previous seasons and getting lots of ground balls because of it. It has been such a massive development for this team continuing to get so much length from their starting rotation. Cant be overstated the importance of this.

Another equally enormous performance tonight came from Kevin Ginkel in the 8^th inning getting out of a bases loaded 1 out jam and keeping it a tie game at 1-1. Juan Morillo began the inning, and after getting some planned rest and not throwing much the past week appeared very rusty. Morillo loaded the bases and then hit the batter walking in a run and putting this bullpen in a precarious position. Fortunately, Kevin Ginkel came in and completely overpowered the next 2 Rockies hitters keeping the score where it was and giving the team a chance to win the game. Kevin Ginkel regaining the dominant form we have seen from him in previous seasons has been such a massive development in the early going for this team.

The offense really was disappointing tonight. The Rockies threw a starter who had never even started a professional game in his career before, and he held the Dbacks offense scoreless through 5 innings while only allowing 2 baserunners. Definitely not what you would expect, but the Dbacks hitters continued to chase pitches outside of the zone playing right into the pitcher’s hands.

Dbacks hitters were able to draw 8 walks, mostly off the Rockies bullpen, but the Dbacks were still only able to score just 2 runs despite all of the free passes.

Good teams can win baseball games in multiple ways, and this team this season has shown the ability to win slugfests as well as the pitching duels like we saw tonight. This is definitely an encouraging development from my perspective as it has seemed like in year’s past this team could only win games by bludgeoning teams to death with offense. The Dbacks will look to keep the momentum going tomorrow night as they will give the ball to Michael Soroka.

The biggest negative for me of this game, was the reporting from Bob Nightengale during the game that this was the smallest crowd at Chase Field since May of 2023 at just 14,761 fans. C’mon guys! We have got to do better than that! Especially when this team is winning games! I would greatly encourage people to try and show up to the ballpark this holiday weekend and give these guys some energy at home! They deserve it! Especially with the big replica jersey giveaway this weekend. LFG!

The Yankees needed to make a tough decision to bring Gerrit Cole and Jose Caballero back from the IL and optioning prospect Spencer Jones was the solution.

The team announced late Thursday that Jones and RHP Yovanny Cruz were optioned back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The corresponding moves were not announced, but with Cole slated to start Friday's series opener against the Rays and Caballero's 10-day IL stint set to end, those are the likely changes to the roster.

For Jones, the call-up felt like a long time coming for the 25-year-old. With his power numbers opening eyes in the minors, 35 long balls in 2025 and 11 this year, many wanted to see if his skills could translate with the Yankees. But the outfielder just couldn't get it going in his time in pinstripes.

In 10 games in the bigs, Jones had four hits (all singles) in 24 at-bats, with three walks, two RBI and a stolen base. He also struck out 12 times, an issue the slugger has had his entire professional career.

Across 33 games in Triple-A this season, he has struck out 46 times in 120 at-bats. He had 179 punchouts in 438 at-bats between Double-A and Triple-A. 

Cole will take the spot of Cruz, 26, who made his MLB debut on Wednesday against the Blue Jays. The right-hander was electric, striking out three batters in his two innings of work. On Thursday, Cruz wasn't as effective. He allowed a hit and hit a batter while getting just one out. 

He'll return to the minors, where he held a 3.00 ERA and struck out 23 batters in 18.0 IP across 15 appearances with the RailRiders. 

Offense was tough to come by as the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks squared off in the desert to kick off the series. A spectacular pitching duel highlighted the night as the Rockies ended up losing 2-1 on a Diamondbacks walk-off single.

The Amazing Agnos

Making his first start since high school, Zach Agnos was incredible on the mound. Coming into the game, the Rockies were hoping to get at least four innings out of Agnos, but got much more than that. Showing command of all his pitches, Agnos kept the Diamondbacks off balance as he worked quickly and efficiently, firing 71 pitches, 49 for strikes, over five innings of work while collecting four strikeouts and allowing just one walk, just the third Rockie all-time to have that stat line in his first career start. He also induced three groundouts and six flyouts. The baserunner for Arizona didn’t come until Adrian Del Castillo drew a one-out walk, and the lone hit Agnos gave up was a soft line drive by Ketel Marte with two outs in the same inning.

While it wouldn’t have been great for him to get more run support and leave with a lead instead of a 0-0 tie, the fact that he matched the veteran Eduardo Rodriguez pitch-for-pitch through five innings is a major feather in his cap and may warrant another start in five days.

A Threatening Rattle

The Rockies then turned to Blas Castaño, who had impressed in his Rockies debut against Arizona last Sunday, out of the bullpen to start the sixth inning.

Things got a little hairy out of the gate as Castaño walked Ryan Waldschmidt and surrendered a single to Marte to put runners on the corners. Corbin Carroll then grounded into a force out, thanks to a nifty play by Chad Stevens, that drove in the run to give the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead. Castaño then dug himself into a bit more of a hole as he loaded the bases by walking Geraldo Perdomo and hitting Nolan Arenado with a pitch. Stevens again came through defensively to start a double play off the bat of Ildemardo Vargas to end the inning.

The Diamondbacks threatened in the following inning as Castaño allowed a single and a walk. He managed to get Waldschmidt to strike out for the second out and then got Marte to hit a ball on the ground to first base. Willi Castro had a peculiar play as he just needed to touch the bag, but seemed to forget how many outs there were and turned to fire to second base to try and turn a double play. Luckily, Ezequiel Tovar was able to cover the bag for the force out.

The Amazing Rodriguez

As good as Agnos was for the Rockies, Rodriguez was just as good for the Diamondbacks and then some. The Rockies didn’t get their first base runner until the fourth inning, courtesy of a walk by Castro, and didn’t get their first hit until the fifth inning. Rodriguez ended up going seven innings, allowing just four hits while striking out four. He threw 63 of his 99 pitches for strikes and induced a whopping 10 ground-outs, including a couple of crucial double-play balls.

The Rockies’ best chance to score against him came in the fifth inning. Tovar led off the inning with a double to right field. Kyle Karros then ripped a ball to third base and was robbed of a hit by Arenado, who was playing even with the bag, anticipating a bunt. Jake McCarthy then reached on an infield single to put men on the corners with one out. Braxton Fulford then laid down a bunt in front of the mound for a squeeze play, but it went right to Rodriguez, who then flipped it to the plate to get Tovar. Troy Johnston then flew out to end the inning.

Rox Equalize

Once Rodriguez was out of the game, the Rockies found some momentum against reliever Juan Morillo, who hadn’t allowed a run since May 2. Johnston got things started with a one-out single and was followed by a pinch-hit single from TJ Rumfield, and another Castro walk to load the bases. The birthday boy, Tyler Freeman, was then hit by a pitch to drive in the run and tie the game up 1-1 and keep the bases loaded.

Kevin Ginkel then entered the game on the mound with the Rockies looking for the big hit to take the lead. Unfortunately, Hunter Goodman popped out softly to the catcher, and Tovar grounded out to third base to end the inning.

Tough Luck Loss

After Seth Halvorsen escaped the eighth without giving up a run, Juan Mejia wasn’t as lucky in the bottom of the ninth. Having allowed two walks in the inning, Mejia was close to sending the game to extra innings as he faced Corbin Carroll with two outs. Carroll won the batter, however, sending a ball into right field that Freeman was unable to send home to catch the winning run.

The Rockies managed six hits in the game, but went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They struck out six times and had two walks. The Diamondbacks only had four hits and went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Meanwhile, walks turned out to be a huge difference maker as the Rockies’ bullpen issued seven walks after Agnos departed.

Up Next

The series continues on Friday with Tomoyuki Sugano (4-3, 4.02 ERA) taking the mound for Colorado. Michael Soroka (6-2, 3.49 ERA) will take the pill for Arizona. First pitch is scheduled for 7:40 am MDT.

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