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Well, the San Francisco Giants lost in fairly ugly and embarrassing fashion to the Colorado Rockies on Friday night. And now it’s Saturday night, and they’re looking for a little bit of revenge. Let’s see if they can get it.

Adrian Houser takes the mound for the second game of the series, as they look to snap a four-game skid. Houser is 2-4 through 10 starts, with a 5.30 ERA, a 5.06 FIP, and 31 strikeouts to 19 walks in 52.2 innings. He’s been pitching much better lately, though he allowed three runs in 4.2 innings against the Chicago White Sox his last time out.

On the other side is fellow righty Ryan Feltner, who makes his sixth start of the season. Feltner, a 29-year old in his sixth season, is 1-1 with a 6.30 ERA, a 5.81 FIP, and 17 strikeouts to eight walks in 20 innings. He pitched just two innings in his last outing, and gave up two runs against the San Diego Padres.

Enjoy the game, everyone! Go Giants!

Lineups

Giants

1. Willy Adames — SS
2. Luis Arráez — 2B
3. Casey Schmitt — LF
4. Rafael Devers — 1B
5. Jung Hoo Lee — RF
6. Matt Chapman — 3B
7. Bryce Eldridge — DH
8. Eric Haase — C
9. Drew Gilbert — CF

RHP. Adrian Houser

Rockies

1. Jake McCarthy — CF
2. TJ Rumfield — 1B
3. Hunter Goodman — DH
4. Willi Castro — 3B
5. Troy Johnston — RF
6. Ezequiel Tovar — SS
7. Sterlin Thompson — LF
8. Edouard Julien — 2B
9. Brett Sullivan — C

RHP. Ryan Feltner

Game #58

Who: San Francisco Giants (22—35) vs. Colorado Rockies (21-37)

Where: Coors Field, Denver, Colorado

When: 6:10 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

The offense from Saturday’s game against the Miami Marlins was more so what the Mets were envisioning from their group when they entered this expectation-filled season.

On a day where the team honored Bobby Valentine and Lee Mazzilli by inducting them into the Mets Hall of Fame, New York pounded out 10 hits and scored six runs en route to a 6-1 series-clinching win against the Marlins to send the large crowd on hand at Citi Field home with a smile – and not just because they heard Valentine’s speech before the game.

The big hits came off the bats of Jared Young and Hayden Senger, who each hit solo home runs to extend the Mets’ lead in the sixth and seventh innings. However, New York built its lead even before that with a three-run fourth inning with Mark Vientos getting it all started with a ringing double off the left-field wall to drive in the game’s first two runs. The Mets were off from there, scoring another on Marcus Semien’s RBI single. 

Vientos wouldn’t get another hit the rest of the game, but the damage had already been done and gave the first baseman two straight games with an extra-base hit after hitting a mammoth home run on Friday night for his only hit.

“It’s good to see guys like Vientos have good back-to-back games,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “When he’s on he can carry us. We saw that in 2024.”

The three-run fourth inning, in particular, was also nice to see because it came right on the heels of a third inning that went terribly for New York. 

After Semien led off the inning with a double and Vidal Brujan reached first base on a sacrifice bunt that resulted in a throwing error by the third baseman, the Mets had runners on first and third with nobody out. Instead of letting Senger swing the bat, New York elected to have the catcher lay down a safety squeeze bunt which led to Semien being thrown out at home. 

Not long after, Brujan was caught trying to steal third base before Carson Benge ended the inning by striking out and leaving the Mets with nothing after an inning that started so promisingly.

“It’s a hard game. They’re gonna struggle at times,” Mendoza said. “You continue to stay positive, you continue to trust your players that at some point they’re gonna come through.”

Fortunately for the manager, they came through an inning later.

But it wasn’t just the fourth inning, or even Saturday as a whole, where New York’s offense came through. Over their last three games, that coincides with three straight wins, the Mets have scored 19 runs while doing their best to make everybody forget about the disastrous three games in Miami where they scored two runs combined.

What a difference a week can make.

“It’s just good to see some of the guys here playing with some confidence, playing loose and having fun and picking each other up,” Mendoza said. “I think we continue to have good at-bats up and down the lineup… There’s a lot of good things going on offensively top to bottom.”

Box Score

It was a rough day for the young pitching staff. Brandon Sproat was hit hard for five runs as the Astros routed the Brewers 9-2 on Saturday afternoon.

They did start with the lead this time. After a leadoff single from Christian Yelich, he swapped places with Brice Turang on a groundout. With two outs, William Contreras hit a double over left fielder Taylor Trammell and Turang was able to make it home, staking the Brewers to a 1-0 lead.

That lead was tested right away. A one-out double from Yordan Alvarez put a runner in scoring position, and then Sproat hit Trammell with a pitch. He escaped the jam thanks to a groundout from Isaac Paredes, keeping the score at 1-0.

After a quick top of the second for the Brewers, Sproat was challenged again right away. Cam Smith led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on a Braden Shewmake groundout. Jake Meyers then singled to right, but Bauers got to it quick and threw it home for a play at the plate. It took a big hop right in front of Contreras, who caught it and went for the tag of Smith. The call on the field was safe, but it was close and manager Pat Murphy challenged it. On replay, it looked like Smith missed the plate initially and Contreras got him, but the call stood. It wasn’t completely certain that Smith missed the plate on replay. Had it been ruled an out, it likely would have also remained an out.

That challenge would be important for two reasons. Not only did it burn the Brewers’ replay challenge in the second inning, but it also extended the inning. Two batters later, Jeremy Peña homered into the left-field boxes, and the Astros led 3-1.

Sproat recovered for a couple of innings after that. He got through the third and fourth with minimal problems, allowing just a single while striking out three. Meanwhile, the Brewers got one back in the fifth inning. Garrett Mitchell drew a leadoff walk, and then advanced to second on a wild pitch from Peter Lambert. Yelich drew a two-out walk, and then Jackson Chourio singled to center to score Mitchell.

Sproat came back out for the fifth, but a combination of rough pitching and defense ended his day. He started the inning by allowing a single to Peña, which deflected off of Joey Ortiz. Peña then stole second to give the Astros another runner in scoring position. After Peña advanced to third on an Alvarez groundout, Sproat hit Christian Walker with a pitch. That ended his day, and Murphy went to Carlos Rodriguez ouf of the bullpen.

Trammell was the first batter that Rodriguez faced. After an eight-pitch battle, Trammel hit a ground ball right at Andrew Vaughn at first. Vaughn whiffed on the catch, but Turang was right behind him. Rather than take the out at first, Turang threw home to try and get Peña. It was late and Peña scored. It might have been a play the Brewers would have challenged, but with their challenge gone that was not an option. Had Vaughn come up with the ball cleanly, there was a chance for a double play to end the inning. Instead, the Astros had runners at first and second with one out and a 4-2 lead.

The Brewers’ troubles continued with the next batter, Isaac Paredes. He doubled down the left-field line, scoring both Walker and Trammell, and the Astros’ lead was up to 6-2.

Unfortunately, the Brewers’ offense just couldn’t get anything going. They had just one more single from the sixth inning on, and the last 11 batters were retired in order.

Meanwhile, the Astros turned it into a rout in the eighth. After two fly outs to start the inning, Peña singled and Alvarez drew a walk. Murphy went to Jake Woodford, who threw three balls to Walker before a sinker down the middle turned into a three-run home run to right. That made it a 9-2 game, which would be the final score.

Though Sproat had a couple of good innings today, the results were not there again. In 4 1/3 innings, he allowed five runs on six hits. He didn’t walk a batter, but hit two batters with a pitch instead. He also struck out four. After the game, Murphy reiterated that he sees the potential in Sproat, but also stressed that “We’re not going to tolerate too many duds like this”. Sproat may still have some time with both Brandon Woodruff and Logan Henderson on the IL, but when both of them are back, that could force a decision.

The Brewers also were able to save the front end of their bullpen. They only needed to use Rodriguez and Woodford. Rodriguez was charged for three runs and five hits in 3 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out three. Woodford got the final out of the eighth with a strikeout, but allowed the three-run home run (with only one of those runs charged to him).

Meanwhile, the offense had their chances in the game. They had six hits, all coming from the top six batters in the lineup. Vaughn was the lone Brewer with a two-hit game. Contreras had the lone extra-base hit with a double. However, the bottom three in the lineup—Mitchell, Ortiz, David Hamilton, and pinch-hitter Gary Sánchez—went a combined 0-for-10 with one walk and four strikeouts.

Despite the blowout, the Brewers still have a chance to take the series tomorrow afternoon. They’ll have Jacob Misiorowski on the mound, who will face Tatsuya Imai of the Astros.

It may have taken him 16 career starts dating back to his MLB debut on May 4, 2024, but Mets' Christian Scott finally earned his first career win in Saturday's 6-1 victory over the Miami Marlins. 

The 26-year-old battled to get back to the majors after missing the entire 2025 season due to Tommy John surgery and is quietly finding his groove on the mound. He allowed one run with eight strikeouts over 5.0 IP against the Marlins and is now 1-0 on the year with a 2.97 ERA and 38 strikeouts over seven starts.

"It's awesome," Scott said after the win. "It look longer than I would have expected and wanted, but it's nice to have that first one under my belt. I thought the defense played great today. I thought [Hayden] Senger called a hell of a game. Offense stepped up with some big swings. It's nice to get that win for sure."

Manager Carlos Mendoza added that he was surprised to learn it was Scott's first win and called it an impressive outing.

"I know, that's crazy. I didn't know until somebody just told me, cause how well he pitched for us in 2024. I didn't realize that, that's on me I guess," Mendoza joked. "He was really good, man, he was really good today. I thought the sweeper was a pretty effective pitch. He got swing and misses. The fastball, he attacked. We made some good defensive plays behind him. But overall, it was good to see that first one and hopefully first of many."

The skipper believes that if the Mets are going to flip the script on their 2026 season, Scott's success will be a main reason. He then went on to highlight how valuable Scott's development and consistency has been for New York this season with the amount of injuries to the pitching staff.

"Well he's important, right, especially with some of the injuries that we're dealing [with]," Mendoza said. "But we saw signs of that in 2024, like I'm not surprised by it. But man, if we can get that version, which I'm pretty confident we will, that's another factor for us to turn this thing around right there.

"He's too talented, he's got electric stuff, and he's going to continue to help us."

Mendoza was also asked about Scott's evolution since debuting in 2024, noting how his improved secondary pitches have helped him take his game to the next level.

"I think the secondary pitches, the sweeper," Mendoza said. "When he came up in 2024 he was fastball heavy. A fastball that plays at the top of the zone, an explosive fastball. He still has that, but now you got that sweeper, he's got that split, there's a little bit of a cutter there too. So he can get righties and lefties out. There's a lot of different weapons he can go to now."

And Scott agreed, saying having other pitches he can rely on besides his fastball is a big difference from his 2024 self.

"For sure, I agree with that," Scott said. "Just being able to go out and get pitches when certain pitches aren't on. I felt like I was kind of naked out there at some points in '24. But being able to come out, new year, and be able to get outs with multiple different pitches has been huge for me."

Knowing how challenging it is for a young player to miss a season due to injury, Mendoza discussed the challenges Scott has had to overcome and is thrilled to have him back to this level.

"Every time you got to miss a year-plus rehab, you feel like you're on an island by yourself down in Florida," the skipper said. "Could be a lonely place there at times and frustrating at times as well. You got to give him credit, you got to give all the medicals and the trainers and the people that put a lot of hours and a lot of work behind the scenes to get this guy back on track. 

"Like I said, last year, it was hard for him. And the fact that he's now performing, playing, pitching, and helping the baseball team win baseball games, I'm pretty sure he's excited as well."

As Scott will look to earn that second win his next time on the mound, he understands the position he's in and how he can help this team throughout the remainder of the season.

"Means a lot, hopefully doesn't take as long for the second one," Scott said. "Being able to go out there and just go deep in games and give this team a chance to win. The bullpen's been grinding, been working really hard. So being able to go out there and go as long as I can in games will be huge for this team down the stretch. I know that, I'm not oblivious to it, just try to do that on a consistent basis and see what happens."

Here are the lineups. For the Phillies:

For the Dodgers:

Let’s talk about it.

Is it just me, or did anyone else really need that?

Not gonna lie, the Denver Nuggets’ first-round exit is still weighing heavily. Then the collapse of the Colorado Avalanche made things feel a billion times worse. Then, after the Colorado Rockies posted a 13-14 record last month, they’ve gone downhill at 6-19 this month heading into last night. The Ethan Holliday injury news was the final disappointing straw that broke the camel’s back.

Things were feeling a little “wake me up when May ends.”

So some Mile High Magic in the ninth inning for an 8-6 walk-off win over the San Francisco Giants last night felt especially nice. With a five-game losing streak snapped, the Rox will look to get some momentum going in the other direction in a Saturday night showdown.

Ryan Feltner is back and scheduled to start for the Rockies after a stint on the 15-day injured list for ulnar nerve inflammation, followed by a rehab assignment in the minors. Feltner’s return is another bit of much-needed good news, as the Rockies are dealing with a slew of injuries across the lineup. His last MLB start came back on April 23rd, when he left the game with the injury after two innings, giving up two runs on two hits and a walk to the San Diego Padres. Over the course of the beginning of the season, Feltner was 1-1 with a 6.30 ERA across five starts.

In his final rehab start, Feltner pitched five innings for the Albuquerque Isotopes, giving up just one run on six hits with five strikeouts. He progressed nicely while rehabbing in the minors, building up to that efficient start and upping his pitch count along the way. He’ll look to handle his next big test in his return.

The San Francisco Giants are set to start Adrian Houser, who is 2-4 in 10 starts with a 5.30 ERA, 31 strikeouts, and 19 walks. Houser has cleaned up some of his early-season struggles. In four of his first five outings, he gave up four or more earned runs. Since then, he’s on a five-game stretch of surrendering three or fewer earned runs. His last start, this past Saturday against the Chicago White Sox, was the shakiest of that stretch, as he gave up three runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings pitched. His last start against the Rockies came when he was a member of the White Sox, going eight innings and giving up two runs on four hits in a 3-2 win at Coors last July.

The two squads are separated by just a game and a half at the bottom of the NL West. The Rockies look to carry their late-game fireworks into a strong outing tonight to close the gap.

First Pitch: 7:10 PM MDT

TV: Rockies TV

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM , KNRV 1150

Giants SB Nation site:McCovey Chronicles

Lineups:

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

You guys. YOU GUYS. Orioles Magic is very much still alive. And it. Is. Glorious.

The O’s pulled off their most incredible comeback of the year — maybe their most incredible in many years — by storming back from a four-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth for a chaotic 6-5 win over the Blue Jays. Noted Oriole antagonist Jeff Hoffman melted down for the Jays as the Birds sent nine batters to the plate in their thrilling final frame, capped off by Pete Alonso’s walkoff single.

This, my friends, was the definition of a miraculous win. The Orioles entered the bottom of the ninth as a team seemingly destined to a third straight loss, one that was shaping up to be one of their most excruciating of the year. They were dead and buried. No hopes of survival — until the impossible happened.

I tell you, folks. These 2026 Orioles are not for the faint of heart. The last game I recapped was the Orioles’ unbelievable 13-inning win over the Rays on Memorial Day, which I classified as “without question the gutsiest victory of the year.” But now I think we have a new holder of that title.

Let’s jump right in to the epic comeback. To set the stage, the Orioles were trailing, 5-1, after eight innings of total failure with runners in scoring position. The Blue Jays’ lead was big enough that it wasn’t even a save situation, so Toronto manager John Schneider brought in Jeff Hoffman, the team’s former closer who lost the job earlier this year. It was a stress-free, low-leverage situation for the struggling Hoffman to get three easy outs, right?

HAHAHA. Oh, Jeff. You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.

He started the inning without issue, striking out Samuel Basallo, on which the O’s DH tweaked a pec muscle on his last swing. He returned to the dugout in pain, but said after the game that he thinks he avoided serious injury.

At that point, Hoffman’s outing went delightfully haywire. He drilled Coby Mayo on a fastball, giving the Orioles their first baserunner since the sixth inning. Leody Taveras followed with a triple into the right-field corner, plating Mayo to make it a 5-2 game. Things were starting to happen, but still the O’s would need to get three more runs before Hoffman retired two more batters. The odds were overwhelmingly stacked against them.

Not for long. Jackson Holliday ripped an RBI single to right, and suddenly it was a 5-3 game with the possible tying run coming to the plate. Hoffman, instead of buckling down, simply buckled. He hung a slider that Colton Cowser ripped into the right-field corner, putting the possible tying run at second. Wait…is this going to happen?

Hoffman’s meltdown continued as he became utterly unable to throw strikes. He walked Taylor Ward on four pitches. Gunnar Henderson stepped up with the bases loaded, and impressively, he stayed within himself and didn’t swing out of his heels trying to be a hero. Henderson patiently worked a five-pitch walk, forcing home Holliday to make it a 5-4 game.

Schneider had finally seen enough of Hoffman, about four batters too late, giving a Hail Mary call to the bullpen for journeyman Connor Seabold. The right-hander, who probably didn’t expect he’d have to be used in this game, seemed woefully unprepared. He, too, had trouble finding the strike zone, and Adley Rutschman gritted out an outstanding at-bat, taking a 3-2 pitch just off the outside for ball four.

WE. ARE. TIED. Cowser trotted home from third as the Camden Yards crowd of 32,645 went nuts. As the Orioles erupted in their dugout, the energy was drained out a shell-shocked Blue Jays team. The only thing left was for the Birds to go ahead and win it.

Pete Alonso delivered. After taking two balls and a strike, he jumped on a fastball and bounced it through the wide open hole on the right side. BASE HIT!! ORIOLES WIN!! I CAN’T STOP CAPITALIZING EVERYTHING!! The ecstatic O’s poured out of the dugout and ripped Alonso’s shirt off, possibly as some kind of ode to the Tarps Off movement but probably because they were just so excited they didn’t know what to do with themselves.

My goodness. The fans who didn’t leave early got to see one heck of an ending. Which is good, because the eight and a half innings of baseball they saw before that were hardly worth the price of admission.

I would have had a lot more to say about this if the Orioles had lost, but there was a truly tragicomic amount of failure from the O’s offense for most of the game. The Birds squandered one opportunity after another in the most painful ways possible, looking nothing like the offense that eventually exploded in the ninth.

Blue Jays starter Trey Yesavage issued seven walks — seven! — yet somehow gave up only one run, which almost seems mathematically impossible. But every time the Orioles had a rally going, they did the worst possible thing at the worst possible time. Yesavage walked three batters in the third inning alone, and Gunnar Henderson’s RBI single provided the O’s an early 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, with the bases loaded and one out, Alonso hacked wildly at the first pitch — again, after Yesavage walked three of the previous five batters — and grounded into an inning-ending double play. At that point, my frustration with the Polar Bear’s recent play was at an all-time high. I’d say he redeemed himself later.

A nearly identical situation played out in the fourth. Again, the O’s loaded the bases with one out against a wild Yesavage. And you’ll never believe what happened! (That was sarcasm. You will easily believe what happened.) Jeremiah Jackson tapped a grounder to third. Kazuma Okamoto fielded, stepped on the bag, and fired to first. Yup. It’s another inning-ending double play, Jackson’s 10th of the year, tying for the dubious MLB lead. Yesavage ended up gutting out five innings and left the game in line for the win. In a game in which, again, he had seven walks.

The GIDPs didn’t stop when Yesavage left the game. In the sixth, the O’s greeted reliever Yariel Rodríguez with a walk and a single to start the inning, and again they came up empty. Coby Mayo hit the ball hard but directly to shortstop Andrés Giménez, who promptly turned the 6-4-3 twin killing. Goodness. A weak Taveras strikeout ended another utterly deflating inning. At that point the Orioles were 1-for-7 in the game with runners in scoring position, and 1-for-17 in the series. I started to think they’d never get another hit in a clutch spot. Boy, was I glad to be wrong about that.

Meanwhile, Brandon Young delivered a whale of an effort — a season-high 6.2 innings and just two runs — but a porous O’s defense betrayed him in the fourth. With two outs and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at first, Jesús Sánchez lofted a fly ball to deep center. Taveras got a bad break, then got himself turned around as he raced backward, and the ball deflected off his glove as he attempted to make a lunging grab at the warning track. Guerrero raced around the bases to score the tying run. It was scored as a double, but a better center fielder would’ve made the catch with ease.

Taveras wasn’t done with the ugly defense. The next batter, Ernie Clement looped a single into center as Sánchez rounded third. Taveras might’ve had a play at the plate if he had fielded it cleanly. Instead, he dropped the ball on the transfer, allowing Sánchez to score without a throw. It’s been said before, but this O’s outfield defense is a real problem. The Blue Jays took a 2-1 lead.

It wasn’t just the Orioles’ offense and defense that struggled. So too did the bullpen. Anthony Nunez continued his recent swoon by giving up two runs in the eighth, with no help from an again-ineffective Keegan Akin, who let both inherited runners score. Albert Suárez, back with the Birds, gave up a run in the ninth to make it 5-1. And that’s how we got to that aforementioned bottom of the ninth with the Orioles in a deep hole. Without that remarkable comeback, there would’ve been a lot of blame to go around. I don’t know about you, though, but I’m suddenly feeling a lot more generous.

What a comeback. What a victory. These 2026 Orioles, man. Just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in.

Drew Rasmussen put in one of his worst performances of the year, getting through just four innings while giving up five runs.

Four of those runs came in the first, an uncharacteristically poor inning from the Rays righty. He gave up a single and then two walks — this is a guy who had, before today, given up eight walks all season. And then, probably eager to avoid a bases loaded walk, he threw a mediocre cutter to Wade Meckler, a mediocre hitter (with two career home runs), and Meckler hit it out for a grand slam.

In hindsight, the game ended there. But it’s not like the Rays had no chances.

They came up in the bottom of the first inning down 4-0, and Yandy Diaz led off with a home run. Aha, we all thought, the Rays are down but they are going to chip away at this lead!

That optimism seemed to be warranted. Jonathan Aranda singled and Junior Caminero walked. One out later, Chandler Simpson walked to load the bases.

But Ben Williamson struck out. Yeah, that happens. But he struck out looking…on a ball.

OK, Yandy had earlier had an unsuccessful challenge, maybe Williamson thought he’d get grief for wasting the second challenge in just the first inning? But all the strategic thinking around challenges is that you want to use them in a high leverage situation? Like….having bases loaded where a walk drives in a run and a strikeout greatly diminishes your chances of scoring that inning? And in fact, after this strikeout, Nick Fortes lined out and the inning ended.

When the Rays didn’t have bad judgement they had bad luck. They did score twice in the fifth inning, making the score 6-3 — not a blowout! So that optimism returned when they loaded the bases in the sixth. Jonathan Aranda did hit a nice liner into the outfield that could have brought home a few runs, but Joe Adell made a terrific catch for the final out of the inning.

After that, from the Rays perspective, it was garbage time. They went with a recent callup from Durham, Andrew Wantz, a 30 year old reliever, who played the role of putting the game completely out of reach. He gave up 5 earned runs, and he did all that with just two walks and two hits! Impressive! (he also hit two batters, and some of the runs scored when Cole Sulser, replacing him, gave up a home run).

Just hard to find any bright spots today, although the Yandy-Aranda—Junior part of the lineup contributed. Here’s what the rest of the lineup looked like:

It’s one thing when your 7-9 hitters don’t contribute, but when it’s your 4-9 hitters doing so little, well, you aren’t generating much offense.

I know this is a baseball cliche but I think it rings true here. The Rays winning nearly every day was not sustainable, but I don’t think this string of blow-out losses is the way they will be playing for the rest of the year either. Shane McClanahan will try to turn this ship around tomorrow, but he can’t do it alone.

Just when you thought the Royals had run out of ways to lose baseball games.

In case you’re too young to understand the reference in the headline, there was an old Newpaper comic strip called Peanuts by Charles Schulz. One of the running gags was that Charlie wanted to kick a football. Lucy would always promise to hold it for him, but when he ran up to kick it, she’d yank it away, and he’d go flying through the air when there was no ball to meet the resistance of his kick. Another common gag in Peanuts was for Charlie Brown to pitch in a baseball game and have a line drive hit so hard past him that it would send him tumbling and blow all his clothes off. Perhaps that would have been the better metaphor.

This one was 3-0 heading into the seventh inning despite the fact that Seth Lugo had pitched a real gem, allowing only a single earned run while striking out 6 in his third straight quality start. Josh Jung hit a one-out home run in the first. Later, the Royals’ vaunted left-side-of-the-infield each had an error in the bottom of the fourth to help Texas score two more.

In the top of the seventh, the Rangers went away from their middling starter, Kumar Rocker, in a shutout despite the fact that he had only thrown 85 pitches. The Royals immediately went to work against the Rangers bullpen. They scored four runs off of Tyler Alexander and old friend Jakob Junis.

Isaac Collins led off the inning with an opposite-field automatic double. Lane Thomas pinch-hit for Michael Massey but struck out looking on a pitch he probably should have challenged, even though it might have been confirmed. Nick Loftin pinch-hit for Kyle Isbel and yanked a single into left to put runners at first and third for today’s leadoff hitter, Carter Jensen. Carter managed a looping liner to left to score Collins. Bobby Witt Jr. pulled a line drive into left to send Loftin home and then Maikel Garcia, batting third for the second straight day, pulled a single of his own into left to tie the game and put Bobby at third. Up came Vinnie Pasquantino, who, infamously, had not hit for extra bases with runners on all year. He finally changed that with an RBI double to left center, giving the Royals the lead. But Garcia went hopping into third and was almost immediately pulled from the game with what was eventually declared a left hamstring strain. He is almost certainly destined for the IL. Salvador Perez and Jac Caglianone each struck out to end the inning.

Then, in the top of the eighth, you really began to think the Royals might be able to pull this off when Young Carter hit a flyball to left that just kept carrying until it left the field.

In the bottom of the eighth, recently anointed eighth-inning guy, Daniel “Danny Drips” Lynch IV was tasked with getting the game to the ninth with the Royals still in front. He’d been asked to get the final out of the seventh and succeeded but seemed to struggle in the eighth. He was pulled after allowing a run with only one out and two on for John Schreiber. Schreiber, miraculously, got a pop-up for the first out and then Carter Jensen made a fantastic play to catch the final out in foul territory.

The Royals went quietly in the ninth, and on came the artist formerly known as “Lights Out” Lucas Erceg to try to collect the save.

Leadoff home run for Joc Pederson to cut the lead to one. Josh Jung singles on a grounder to Bobby that probably should have been an out, but for Bobby’s second awful throw to first in the game. Brandon Nimmo chopped one to second, but Erceg attempted to intercept it, and instead of perhaps getting two outs, the Royals got none, and the go-ahead run was on. Jake Burger singled to right to tie the game and Ezequiel Duran, who has been tormenting KC this weekend, did the same to complete the comeback, walkoff victory.

Lucas Erceg has pitched three times this week; he has allowed 8 runs while recording only 6 outs. That’s right, he didn’t get a single out today. His ERA has ballooned from 3.26 all the way to 6.33. His SIERA has gone from 2.83 in 2024, to 3.78 last year, to something more than 4.47 this year after today’s game. Either he’s hurt, or he’s simply become very bad. Certainly, there has been an element of bad luck to his appearances, but you don’t pitch that poorly without both bad luck and poor performance.

It feels like the Royals simply can’t continue using him as the closer, but even though Matt Strahm is likely to return tomorrow, he hasn’t been significantly better. Carlos Estévez still hasn’t restarted his rehab assignment. Danny Drips has quietly given up 10 hits and 4 walks while striking out only 7 in 7.2 innings over his last 8 appearances. The next man up might be former Tigers closer Alex Lange, who has had several scoreless appearances recently, but also stopped striking guys out.

I’m not going to pretend like I know how the Royals can fix this. The bad news is, Royals General Manager J. J. Picollo isn’t going to either; he offered up this quote to Anne Rogers in her most recent Royals newsletter:

“The only thing we can do is keep competing, keep believing in ourselves, ask the right questions. Are there things that we can do to help us get back on track? Right now, we’re searching for it.”

Anyway, the Royals will show up at Globe Life Field again tomorrow. Michael Wacha will take the mound for the Royals’ final game in May 2026. Jack Leiter will pitch for the Rangers. The game will start at 1:35 Central. If you plan to watch it, you’ve got a stronger stomach than I do.

When you have an elite offense, you are truly never out of a game. Nationals fans, including myself, are learning that this season. Even when the offense has nothing to offer early in the game, they have the ability to turn it on at any moment. That is exactly what they did in a crazy 7th inning rally this afternoon.

For the first six innings, the offense and the atmosphere was lifeless. It was a nice Nationals Park crowd, but the Padres took the fans out of the game. Xander Bogaerts, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. all homered off of Foster Griffin. The Tatis homer was his first of the season, and he celebrated like a major monkey was taken off his back.

Besides the solo homers, Foster Griffin was solid. He gave the Nats 5 clean innings to keep them in the game. However, getting a rally going against Michael King felt like a tall task. Besides a Drew Millas solo homer, the Nats had nothing to offer against the right hander. It looked a lot like last year, with a steady flow of ground outs. 

Through six innings, King was absolutely cruising, but everything changed in an instant. CJ Abrams started things off with an innocent seeming base hit. Then Jose Tena struck what appeared to be a double play ball. However, Tatis made a bad throw to second base and everyone was safe.

This really seemed to rattle King because he totally lost the zone. He walked the light hitting Jorbit Vivas and then hit Dylan Crews with a pitch to make it a one run game. There were still no outs, and King’s day was done. The craziness continued though. Drew Millas hit what appeared to be a force out to tie the game, but Xander Bogaerts missed the bag at second base and everyone was safe again.

It was very close and the Padres challenged it, but the call on the field was upheld. Former Nats pitcher and current Padres manager Craig Stammen was still not happy, and got himself tossed. It was his first career ejection as a player or manager.

The Nats kept pouring it on from there. Curtis Mead came in to pinch hit and calmly took a walk to get another run in. A couple batters later, Luis Garcia drove in two more with a base hit. However, my favorite run scoring play from the inning came when Daylen Lile beat out what seemed to be a tailormade double play.

Lile’s hustle says a lot about him as a player and the Nats culture. The Nats left fielder has been struggling lately and easily could have not gone 100% down the line. However, he immediately put his head down and went into a full on sprint. He just barely beat the throw and a run came in to score.

Having that extra run made me feel a little more comfortable when Gus Varland totally lost the strike zone in the next inning. Varland got two quick outs before totally melting down. He allowed a run on a double to Machado and then threw 8 straight balls to close out his outing. Clayton Beeter came in and saved the day, but that was a tense situation.

Curtis Mead made things a bit less tense when he blew the game wide open in the top of the 9th. Jacob Young had gotten a bad jump on a squeeze play and got thrown out at home for the second out. Mead picked up his teammate by drilling a double down the line to score two runs and make it 9-4.

As I wrote about today, Mead has been absolutely outstanding for this team. He did not even start this game, but still made a big impact. Mead got that RBI walk in his first at bat and then got a clutch double to ice the game.

Clayton Beeter pitched in front of a raucous Nationals Park crowd that included a large tarps off section. The crowd was chanting and cheering the whole inning. Beeter put up a zero and got the Curly W. The fans were loving every moment of it, and the Nats got over .500 again. 

I wanted to shout out Brad Lord as well, who was an unsung hero in this game. His two scoreless innings helped the Nats stay in the game. He is such a weapon out of the bullpen, and I think he deserves to be put in even higher leverage spots. I love how he goes after hitters.

This was a game where they could have easily rolled over. However, they did not do that and that shows something about the character of this group. Even when it looks grim, the Nats offense can strike at any moment. Now, the Nats have a chance to go for yet another series win to finish out May tomorrow. 

On a day the organization inducted two beloved former Mets into the Mets Hall of Fame, the team followed the cermony with a complete 6-1 victory over the Marlins to win their third in a row.

Before the game, Lee Mazzilli and former manger Bobby Valentine were inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame with a lovely on-field ceremony. Perhaps it is fitting they inducted Valentine in this particular season. If we jump into the Wayback Machine to 1999, Valentine’s job was on the line after GM Steve Phillips spent big in the offseason and the team got off to a sluggish start. The team aqcuired a future Hall of Famer in the season prior, but they missed the playoffs by just one game. In the following offseason the general manager spent big, notably acquiring a third baseman, so they could compete with the Braves in the division and get themselves into the playoffs. Sound familiar?

One day after Valentine’s coaches got fired, the team went on a 40-15 tear to get themselves back into the playoff race and the rest is history. Will that happen with this team? Probably not, but with wins in short supply every step forward is crucial for this team to get back on track.

The main standout was Christian Scott who got the start and his first major league win. He gave up one run and struck out eight in five innings of work. He did walk two but he looked to be in complete control during his outing. He’s certainly come a long way from his shaky first start of the year, and with the question marks surrounding the rotation right now, he has brought some measure of stability.

After the Mets scored three runs in the fourth on a Mark Vientos RBI double and a Marcus Semien RBI single, the team added on with solo home runs from two unlikely sources- Jared Young and Hayden Senger, the first of his major league career. They tacked on another run when Juan Soto drove in Carson Benge and so the team comfotably held a five-run lead. But given how many times Miami came back in the series opener, to the point where the Mets had to win it in extras, the bullpen had to find a way to keep the pesky Marlins off the board.

This time the bullpen was up to the challenge. Cionel Pérez, Huascar Brazobán, Austin Warren, and Devin Williams were perfect and didn’t allow any runs between them.

Taking the series against Miami is a good start but they need to go for the sweep if this team wants to climb out of the cellar and, some how, some way, capture some magic from teams past. Ya Gotta Believe right?

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Win Probability Added

Big Mets winner: Christian Scott, +18% WPA
Big Mets loser: Bo Bichette, -12% WPA
Mets pitchers: +30% WPA
Mets hitters: +20% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Mark Vientos RBI double in fourth, +16.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Liam Hicks RBI single in fifth, -6.9% WPA

The Texas Rangers scored seven runs while the Kansas City Royals scored six runs.

The Rangers finally found one of those bad teams we’ve heard so much about!

After going up 3-0 through most of the game, the Rangers allowed four runs in the top of the seventh to erase a quality start from Kumar Rocker and even survived Chris Martin allowing a two-run home run to put KC up 6-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth.

After scoring a run in that frame to pull a tad closer before a baffling two-out bunt attempt with the tying runs in scoring position, the Rangers went Joc Pederson solo home run, two infield singles, and then a game-tying single from Jake Burger followed a game-winning soft shot single to right field from Ezequiel Duran.

Lucas Erceg got zero outs in the ninth and the Rangers came away with their first two-game winning streak at home since the first homestand of the month.

I can’t imagine there have been many games where both teams at the bottom of their league in scoring each have had a rally in which they got five consecutive hits in an inning but here we are. At least Texas’ came last as a final counter punch to take the game.

Player of the Game: Josh Jung had one of those infield hits that ignited the winning rally in the ninth. He also tied Burger for the team lead with three hits on the day, including a solo home run in the top of the first to help Texas pass the dreaded First Inning Test.

Up Next: The Rangers will try to close out the month of May with their first three-game winning streak since early April with RHP Jack Leiter expected to pitch for Texas against RHP Michael Wacha for Kansas City.

The Sunday afternoon first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 1:35 pm CDT and you can watch it on the Rangers Sports Network.

Blue Jays 5 Orioles 6

All that really mattered happened in the bottom of the ninth:

Jeff Hoffman got the ninth, in what was a non-save spot. Hoffman got a strikeout, hit a batter, gave up a triple and single, scoring a run and putting the tying run to the plate. A double put the tying run on second. A walk loaded the bases. Another walk scored another run.

Connor Seabold, coming into a very bad spot, tying run on third, winner on second with just one out. The first pitch went through Heineman but not far enough to score the run. Then Seabold went 3-0, got back to 3-2 but walked in the tying run. Gotta make him swing. Next batter gets to 2-1 before he singles and that’s the game.

Just kill me.

Before that:

Trey Yesavage had all sorts of problems with the strike zone and yet only allowed one run in five innings. Giving up just one run, while walking seven is either amazing or very lucky. And there was some from aisle one and some from aisle two. Seven walks, but just two hits with four strikeouts. The Jays turned three double plays behind him (in the second, third and fourth innings). One of them was something I’ve never seen before, a ground ball down the third base line, that Okamoto picked up while touching third and threw to first to get the 5-3 double play.

Until Hoffman the bullpen was great:

• Yariel Rodríguez Gave up a walk and a single but had a clean inning, with a strikeout.
• Tyler Rogers went fly out, ground out, ground out.
• Louis Varland, pitching in the eighth, went fly out, strike out, ground out.

On offense, the Jays had troubles with Brandon Young, until the fourth inning. Vladimir Guerrero started the inning with a single. Two outs later, Jesús Sánchez doubled him home and Ernie Clements singled Sánchez home, giving us the lead.

Two more scored in the eighth: Nathan Lukes and Vlad singled to start it. And, after a Daulton Varsho strikeout, Kazuma Okamoto doubled them home.

And one in the ninth. With two outs, Lukes walked and Vlad doubled him home (with the help of some crappy fielding in the outfield, Orioles outfielders are terrible).

We had 11 hits. Vlad had 4, Clement 2. Andrés Giménez and Tyler Heineman had 0 fors.

Jays of the Day: Yesavage (0.16 WPA), Clement (0.14), Sánchez (0.11), Vlad (0.10), Rogers (0.11), and Rodriguez (0.09)

Other Award: Hoffman (-0.51), Seabold (-0.47), Varsho (-0.14), Springer (-0.13) and Gimenez (-0.9).

Tomorrow, the month of May ends, and we have an earlier start (12:15 Eastern). Kyle Bradish (2-6, 3.86). On the Jays side, Spencer Miles will be the bulk guy.