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This baseball game had a lot of things that most baseball games don’t have. Here’s a list of those things.

1. A No-Hit Bid

Sonny Gray took a no-hitter into the eighth inning. He had everything working for him. His fastball and cutter each held strike rates over 80%, while his sweeper and curveball returned four whiffs apiece. He threw first-pitch strikes to 20 of 24 hitters, and lived on the edges once he was ahead. He clearly tired as the game went on due to a few too many deep counts, but the start was fantastic nonetheless.

The last three Red Sox starters have taken no-hitters into the fifth inning or later. While that’s obviously an outlier, it’s what the front office had in mind when putting this team together. That style of baseball is largely unsustainable over 162 games, but it sure is fun to watch when it’s working.

2. Caleb Durbin remaining hot

In the fourth inning, Caleb Durbin singled in two runs. Coming into tonight, he had a 0.963 OPS with 10 RBIs in June. Tonight, he was 1-4 with two more RBIs, a run scored, and two stolen bases. It took him a while, but he’s starting to look like the player Red Sox fans thought they were getting from Milwaukee.

3. A pair of Yankees fans got engaged in the stadium

Whose terrible idea was that? Which one of them wanted to get engaged at Fenway Park? What a terrible idea.

4. Tyron Guerrero in a high-leverage spot

It was Guerrero, not Garrett Whitlock or Justin Slaten, who came in to relieve Sonny Gray after the no-hit bid was broken up. He pitched to two hitters, getting a groundout and a flyout to keep the score at 2-0. Whitlock pitched four times this week, and they likely wanted to stay away from him, but it’s still notable that Guerrero was the trusted arm in that spot.

5. An Enthusiastic Umpire

I don’t have any video evidence, but the umpire was very excited about ABS reviews. He really seemed to enjoy announcing the result of the review to the stadium. I love people who love their job.

6. An absolute meltdown by Wilyer Abreu

In the ninth inning, with a runner on first and second, Ben Rice flew out to deep right field. For some reason, Abreu attempted to throw the runner out who was trying to advance to third with a two-run lead. The throw got away from everyone, the runner scored, and the runner on first advanced all the way to third. The next hitter hit a ground ball that was able to score the runner and tie the game.

In the tenth inning, Abreu dropped a fly ball that would have been a double play had he caught it. His throw also got away, allowing the hitter to advance to second and later score. Just a nightmare of a game in right by Abreu.

7. Roger Clemens made an explicit joke

Roger Clemens also joked about being aroused by Sonny Gray’s mechanics in response to a question about the pitch clock, which was weird. In general, the booth had very little chemistry. I guess that’s what happens when you never work together.

8. Tsung-Che Cheng Recording An RBI

Recording an RBI is a game that most baseball games include. It’s on this list because the guy who recorded it only has one career RBI. This one also happened to come in the tenth inning to tie the game.

9. A RED SOX WALK-OFF WIN

A day after getting into another altercation with a fan yesterday. He was testy with the media after the game, denying that anything had happened. I’m not sure specifically what happened, but it was definitely something. He came off the bench on Sunday and came to the plate with the winning run on third.

Personally, I think it’s kinda bullshit that he gets to pump his chest and answer all the questions after a walk-off hit just one day after clamming up and not answering any questions. Nobody cares what I think about media etiquette, though, so I’ll just sit happily with this win.

That’s the Red Sox’s longest winning streak of the season, and it brings them back to ten games under 0.500. I don’t want to believe in this team, but it’s kind of hard not to, given the strength (or lack thereof) of the American League. The smart move is to sell off pieces at the deadline. The fun move is to try to make the playoffs and pitch teams to death when you get there. Before you jump on me, I know we’re less than a week removed from losing a series to the Colorado Rockies. This team is not going anywhere. But what if they do…

The Washington Nationals come to town tomorrow. Let’s keep it rolling.

BOSTON — A late rally gave the Yankees a chance to finish a brutal weekend on a high note.

Instead, somehow, it only delayed the misery.

On a night when Sonny Gray took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, Aroldis Chapman and the Red Sox defense melted down in the ninth inning, and the Yankees took the lead in the 10th, it still all came crumbling down for them in the bottom of the 10th to deliver one last knockout punch on the way back to New York.

After the Yankees took their first lead since Thursday night with two runs in the top of the 10th, the last-place Red Sox came back to win it in the bottom of the frame against Fernando Cruz, as Jarren Duran’s walk-off single lifted them to a 5-4 win that finished off a four-game sweep Sunday night at Fenway Park.

“Obviously a terrible weekend for us,” manager Aaron Boone said.

“It’s one of those crap moments of the season, crap times of the season where you have a really rough weekend against a division rival. But you got to get over it quickly and understand we got a homestand starting [Monday].”

On a weekend in which they were dominated by Red Sox starting pitching — Connelly Early, Payton Tolle, Jake Bennett and Gray combined for 26 ⅔ innings in which they gave up just three runs, 10 hits and six walks while striking out 28 — the Yankees (48-35) have now dropped eight of their past 11 after suffering their first four-game sweep to their archrivals since 2018.

The Red Sox (36-46) had not won four straight games all season until this series.

Asked how the Yankees make sure this does not turn into something worse than an awful four games, Boone leaned into the adversity.

“That’s what we do, baby,” he said. “You got to love this stuff. You got to eat this stuff up. It’s a sickness. That’s what the grind is. We got a really good freakin’ team. We played crappy on this trip kind of, feels bad, kind of pissed off. But it’s what we do. It’s what you sign up for. We’ll dig ourselves out of it and get it going here in short order. Bottom line is we didn’t play well this weekend and we got to do better.”

A month that began with the Yankees losing Aaron Judge to the injured list (his timeline for a return is still very fuzzy) is nearing an end with the club looking like it is feeling the effects of not having the back-to-back AL MVP in its lineup — along with Giancarlo Stanton and Trent Grisham.

The Yankees had survived the early going, despite their IL continuing to grow, by getting contributions from different players up and down the lineup on any given night.

But now, they have all gone cold at the same time, resulting in a four-game sweep in which the Yankees combined to hit just 17-for-128 (.133) with 10 walks.

“I think the success they had this weekend, they were very good at executing,” said Amed Rosario, who broke up Gray’s no-hitter with a single in the eighth inning and then put the Yankees ahead 3-2 with an RBI single to lead off the top of the 10th.

The night had begun like the last few before it, with Gray mowing down the Yankees.

Tolle had retired the first 16 Yankees on Friday night before Bennett carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning Saturday.

Gray took flirting with history a step further before another former disgruntled Yankee, Chapman, flushed it in the ninth.

But even after the Yankees rallied and went ahead in the 10th — all without Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was ejected in the sixth — thanks in part to right fielder Wilyer Abreu’s second error in as many innings, Cruz could not finish it off in the bottom of the inning.

He left pitches up that turned into a single, double, sacrifice fly and then Duran’s walk-off winner.

“Great teams go through this,” Cruz said. “The best teams go through stretches like this. Champions and great teams in history go through stretches like this, especially games like this.”

But those teams make sure the bad stretches don’t extend too long, which is what the Yankees will be up against when they open a critical homestand Monday.

“We got outplayed,” said Carlos Rodón, who gave up two unearned runs (after an Oswaldo Cabrera fielding error) across five innings. “Although they’re last in the division, they’re still a solid club. They play good baseball. They make things happen, they’re aggressive.

“You got to turn the page and go out [Monday] and win a game. That’s it. Winning cures everything.”

I don’t personally believe in the “June Swoon.” I do believe that the Yankees play genuinely poor baseball for about 30-50 games every summer, but I don’t subscribe to it just being a June thing, so I think it’s odd when a loss or two makes people immediately say “June Swoon” regardless of the bigger picture.

But the summer swoon is very real, and it usually starts in Fenway Park. Each of the last four seasons, the Yankees have started their summer swoons with a bad series loss in June in Boston. Now, those swoons usually bleed badly into July and August, but they start at some point in late June. Here’s a stat I found yesterday that’s genuinely jarring:

Yankees in Fenway Park since 2019:
June: 1-15
Every other month: 23-15

That doesn’t really make sense, especially when the Sox haven’t finished with a definitively better record once since their last World Series title in 2018. Unfortunately, the Yanks just can’t win here in this month. So it goes.

The first hour-plus was exclusively on Peacock and NBC Sports Network due to a non-major golf tournament hogging NBC’s airspace, which is surely a great sign for MLB’s new partnership with the network. If you didn’t watch it, you didn’t miss much early. Sonny Gray dominated a bruised and battered Yankees’ lineup for seven no-hit innings, and despite a passable game by Carlos Rodón and good bullpen work, it looked like another sleepy loss.

And then, they showed life. They took advantage of Boston’s mistakes and got back off the mat, rallying off nemesis Aroldis Chapman to hand him a blown save in the ninth before taking a 4-2 lead against Justin Slaten in the 10th. But of course, Fernando Cruz got hammered by the bottom of the order and allowed three runs, losing a back-breaker in extras. They did everything right on both ends to take a late lead, but Boston’s struggling offense put together great at-bats and swings to get it done to beat the Yanks, 5-4.

Gray got things started for the BoSox with a strong first inning, winning a long battle with known leadoff hitter Jazz Chisholm Jr. before retiring the next two hitters quickly. Rodón walked Wilyer Abreu with two out, but responded with a strikeout of Willson Contreras to get through the first.

The second and third were more of the same. Gray went 1-2-3 in both innings, while Rodón held serve. After another shutdown inning by the former Yankee wearing red and white, the Sox finally got to Rodón. An error by Oswaldo Cabrera at third base (making his first appearance in the majors this year) and a swinging bunt that moved the runners over allowed Caleb Durbin to continue coming up big with a two-run single to center field to open the scoring.

Things nearly spiraled way out of control for the All-Star lefty, but Rodón bounced back to strike out Tsung-Che Cheng. Meanwhile, the Yankees continued to not be able to touch Gray, only mustering an Amed Rosario walk with two outs in the fifth in the next two innings. Rodón bounced back to toss a scoreless fifth, continuing a streak of solid outings for him, but the offense was giving him nothing.

If you want a sequence that describes how things are going, the top of the sixth ended with Gray striking out Chisholm on a check swing on a ball in the dirt. The home plate umpire, Todd Tichenor, didn’t even defer to the third-base umpire, ruling he went around on his own. The replay showed he probably didn’t even swing, let alone go around enough to not ask the base umpire. Chisholm argued, threw a helmet, and got ejected. Not fun.

Paul Blackburn got the ball to relieve Rodón and showed him how it’s done, retiring the side in order on seven pitches against the same hitters who gave Rodón fits in the fourth. Gray kept on keeping on in the seventh, officially going on no-no watch, while Blackburn once again worked efficiently.

Finally, someone got on base. Rosario, who had the only walk against Gray in two strong at-bats, lined a single up the middle to break up the no-hit bid after 7.1 innings. Chad Tracy pulled the plug on his starter, inserting Tayron Guerrero to face Cabrera and Austin Wells, who both went down quietly. Wells had a few long fly balls on Sunday, but he hit them to dead center instead of plunking them off the Green Monster about 15 feet to the right. Rats.

David Bednar needed some work with the recent uncompetitive ninth innings, so he went out there and tossed a 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth. Former Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman came on for the ninth, and as he does so often, made it interesting.

José Caballero got it started with a single to left field before a walk to Anthony Volpe put the tying run on base. Chapman, pitching his third game in four days, was tipping badly and fell behind Ben Rice 3-0. While he induced a flyout after that, his defense decided to take the rest of the play off, scoring Caballero and moving Volpe to third in a circus play.

Paul Goldschmidt came on to pinch-hit for Jones and fought back from 0-2 to hit a Baltimore chop with the infield in. A slightly off-line throw from Durbin and a nifty slide by Volpe tied the game at two and handed Chapman his second blown save of the year and first ever in 12 opportunities against the Yankees.

Bednar stayed on for the bottom of the ninth and worked around a Contreras single with a 6-4-3 double play to send this game to extras. An extra-innings game on the road? Usually no bueno.

Slaten took over for Boston and got ahead of Rosario quickly, but ripped a 1-2 pitch to right field, where Wilyer Abreu couldn’t make the play on a snowcone effort, booting the ball and allowing Max Schuemann to score as the ghost runner. It was Abreu’s second misplay in as many innings.

Another defensive miscue by the Sox on the throw to the plate there allowed Rosario to get into scoring position, which meant a sac bunt by Cabrera and a swinging bunt by Wells were all they needed to push a crucial second run across, making it 4-2 heading to the bottom of the 10th.

Cruz would be tasked with locking things down in the bottom of the inning against the bottom of the order, which he did not do. Anthony Seigler led off with a single, Masataka Yoshida ripped a double down the line, and Cheng tied it with a sac fly. Jarren Duran took advantage of the five-man infield and hit the ball where nobody was in right field to walk it off.

That encapsulates the series. The best of the Yankees not executing against the worst of the Red Sox. The four men who conducted that rally are either Triple-A call-ups or were deeply struggling. They were facing arguably the Yankees’ best reliever. They seemed perfectly positioned to salvage the finale by doing what Boston did on Thursday, capitalizing on defensive miscues and shutting the door.

But that’s June in Fenway for the Yanks: what can go wrong, will go wrong.

There’s no time to lick their wounds, as the Yankees return home for another three-game set with the Tigers that will hopefully help wake them up. It’s Ryan Weathers against Casey Mize at 7:05 pm tomorrow on YES.

Box Score

The Yankees rallied to score two in the ninth to tie the game and two in the 10th to grab a lead, but New York allowed three in the bottom of the 10th as the Red Sox completed a four-game sweep with a 5-4 win Sunday night at Fenway Park.

The game began just like the previous two: The Boston Starter was unhittable. Sonny Gray retired the first 14 Yankees he faced and didn’t allow a hit through 7.1 innings, and was just masterful. 

It appeared to be all for naught as New York rallied. But a three-run bottom of the 10th sank the Yankees (48-35) for their eighth loss in their last 11 games. Boston (36-46) has now won seven in ten.

It was a series to forget for the visitors: Four losses with little offense to speak of and costly errors in the opening game of the series and the finale. At the plate, the Yanks didn’t get a hit until the sixth against Payton Tolle on Friday, the fifth against Jake Bennett on Saturday, and the eighth against Gray on Sunday before a bullpen meltdown in the 10th.

The Yanks finished with three hits and went 1-for-6 with RISP and left four on base. This marked the third time in franchise history they had three hits or fewer in three straight games (1908 and 1914), per Katie Sharp.

Here are the takeaways...

-- Fernando Cruz, with the automatic runner at second and looking to protect a two-run lead, allowed a leadoff single by Anthony Seigler to right and then Masataka Yoshida, in as a pinch-hitter, ripped a fastball up in the zone for a double to right to put two in scoring position. A Tsung-Che Cheng sac fly to right tied the score as both tunners moved up.

After ball one to Jarren Duran, manager Aaron Boone went out to the mound to set up the Yanks' five-man infield. It didn't matter as after Duran whiffed on a great splitter, a hanging splitter was ripped into right for a base hit to walk off the Yanks.

The Red Sox had just three hits in the first nine innings and got three in the 10th, coming through with two hits (plus the sac fly) in two chances with runners in scoring position.

-- After nothing had gone right for the Yankees, things turned when Aroldis Chapman, pitching for the third time in the series, gave the Yankees life in the top of the ninth. José Caballero, who grounded out twice against Gray, blooped a single to left and Anthony Volpe, who entered for Jazz Chisholm Jr., walked to put two on base.

The Red Sox then had a huge mistake: Wilyer Abreu caught a fly to right and then sailed his throw back into the infield so horribly that Caballero, who was tagging on the play, scored from second and Volpe advanced all the way to third base as the tying run.

Paul Goldschmidt, in as a pinch-hitter, muscled a ball up the middle and Volpe beat the throw with a great slide at the plate. Chapman recovered to strike out the next two, including pinch-hitter Max Schuemann.

-- Abreu had another moment to forget in the 10th as he had a ball in his glove on a lopping liner from Amed Rosario, but dropped the ball. Instead of a potential double-play (Schuemann was way off second), his throw home kicked past the catcher, putting another runner on second. After a sacrifice bunt for the first out, Austin Wells' swinging bunt plated another run on a great read and slide by Rosario.

Rosario was the Yanks’ first baserunner of the night, working an eight-pitch walk with two down in the fifth and and got the first hit off Gray, smashing a single up the middle with one out in the eighth. He finished 2-for-3 with an RBI as the official scorer curiously gave him a hit for his 10th inning ball that Abreu dropped, which counted as the lone hit with RISP on the night.

Wells was robbed of a hit with a bloop to right as Abreu made a sliding catch in his first time up. He finished 1-for-4.

Caballero, who grounded out in each of his first two times up against Gray, before his bloop single started the comeback. He finished 1-for-4 with a strikeout.

-- Volpe finished 0-for-1 with the walk.

-- Chisholm Jr., batting in the leadoff spot for the first time as a Yankee, struck out swinging to start the game, losing an eight-pitch battle. Chisholm went down swinging a second time to end the sixth and got tossed by Adam Hamari as he didn’t like that the home plate umpire called him for offering at strike three rather than asking the third base ump. He finished hitless in three at-bats.

-- Ben Rice saw two pitches in his first two at-bats against Gray: flying out to the warning track in left-center in the first and a lazy fly to right in the fourth. He grounded out on a full count to start the seventh. He finished 0-for-4

-- Jasson Domínguez went hitless in three at-bats, striking out looking twice on balls on the inside corner; the latter saw him lose the Yanks’ first challenge. 

-- Cody Bellinger put a charge in the first pitch he saw, but it went for a 342-foot fly out to the corner in right, which would have been gone in 18 for 30 parks, including in Yankee Stadium. He saw three total pitches in his first two at-bats before he went down swinging on the fourth pitch of his third at-bat against Gray. He finished 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

-- Spencer Jones went down swinging at a two-seamer first at-bat, went down swinging at a sweeper in his second time up, and went down swinging at a sweeper in his three times up against Gray. 

-- Oswaldo Cabrera, making his first appearance on the season, was hitless in two at-bats with a strikeout, swinging through a sweeper in the dirt against Gray. He finished 0-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt.

-- Carlos Rodon issued a walk with one out in the first, but didn’t allow a hit in the first two frames with a pair of strikeouts on 34 pitches. The lefty had his good stuff working early, and it really showed in the third as he struck out the side to give him five strikeouts and 12 whiffs on 26 swings (46 percent), with six coming on 11 swings against the changeup.

Things went awry in the fourth, as a walk and an error by Cabrera on a bouncer to third put two on base. The lefty made a lovely play on a high chopper for the second out, but with two in scoring position, Caleb Durbin smacked a 3-1 fastball over the plate into center to score two on the first base hit of the night.

The fastball was a curious pitch call, as Durbin had swung through back-to-back changeups to strikeout in his first at-bat and saw four straight changeups from Rodon to start his second at-bat.

After back-to-back walks sandwiching around a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake, Rodon got Cheng swinging to strand three and end the 37-pitch frame. The lefty bounced back with a nine-pitch fifth to close his account: 5.0 innings, two runs (both unearned) on one hit and four walks with six strikeouts on 96 pitches (55 strikes).

-- Paul Blackburn, after dealing a six-pitch, 1-2-3 sixth, allowed a one-out single in a scoreless seventh thanks to a 4-6-3 inning-ender. David Bednar, who had a strikeout in a 20-pitch eighth, allowed a leadoff bloop single but erased it with a 6-4-3 twin killing in a scoreless ninth.

Game MVP: Sonny Gray

He entered the eighth inning on 91 pitches and with a walk, his lone blemish. A one-out single, one batter after recording his ninth strikeout of the evening to give him 2,000 in his MLB career, saw him exit. Without ever being overpowering, the crafty veteran got 14 whiffs on 46 swings (43 percent) and added 18 called strikes, keeping any hard contact to the middle of the park. A no-decision.

Highlights

THIS GAME IS TIED! pic.twitter.com/x690zUYIcY

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) June 29, 2026

What's next

The Yanks return to The Bronx for a six-game homestand, starting with three against the Tigers.

Ryan Weathers (3.95 ERA, 1.142 WHIP in 86.2 innings) gets the ball for Monday's 7:05 p.m. first pitch. Detroit will counter with righty Casey Mize (2.95 ERA, 1.069 WHIP in 58.0 innings).

One of the things I’ve always appreciated about baseball is the lack of an exact mold that everything must fit into.

Players of all different body types can be stars (see: Jose Altuve, Jacob Misiorowski, Cal Raleigh, etc.). The playing field is not required to be uniform making every ballpark have little unique quirks. Almost every aspect of baseball allows for variety that enhances the viewing experience.

This brings me to one of my favorite little ways for a player to stand out: their batting stance.

After more than a hundred years, you would think that the optimal way to contort a human body in preparation to swing a baseball bat would have been found and widely adopted. While stances have gotten a bit more homogenous over time, practically every player still does something visually distinct from their peers.

So, which Rockie has/had your favorite batting stance to watch?

Is there a classic that you wish one of the new guys would adopt or is there someone currently on the roster that has become a fast favorite? Do you like the loose and tall vertical bat of someone like Tyler Freeman or is the coiled over-the-shoulder horizontal bat of a TJ Rumfield more your jam?

Whoever it is, let us know in the comments! Bonus points for visual evidence.

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

BOSTON — It seemed like Jazz Chisholm Jr. was determined to exit Sunday night’s 5-4, 10-inning loss to the Red Sox well before it was over.

The second baseman, hitting leadoff for the first time this season, was tossed after striking out to end the top of the sixth for arguing a checked-swing third strike.

Chisholm was upset with home plate umpire Adam Hamari, who made the call and didn’t check with third base ump Clint Vondrak.

As Chisholm turned to argue vehemently with Hamari at the plate, first base coach Dan Fiorito raced to home plate to try to calm Chisholm, with manager Aaron Boone soon following from the dugout.

None of it stopped Chisholm from continuing to argue. When he slammed his helmet as Boone talked with Hamari, Chisholm finally was tossed by first base umpire Todd Tichenor, the crew chief.

“We tried to keep him in the game in that situation [and] tried to distract a little bit,” Boone said of his attempt to prevent the ejection. “They gave him a little bit of rope to argue his case, and the helmet going in a certain direction probably cost him.”

Chisholm was replaced in the lineup by Anthony Volpe, while José Caballero moved from short to second base.

“I never like when guys get tossed,’’ the manager said. “Everyone once in a while, a guy gets tossed. I don’t want him out of the game and tried to rein it in there.”

Boone added he thought the checked swing was “at least borderline. My quick view from the first base dugout was that he didn’t [swing].”

The Yankees — and Chisholm — lost that argument but still came back to tie the game in the top of the ninth and take the lead in the 10th before blowing it in the bottom of the 10th for their fourth straight defeat.

When Chisholm was ejected, they still were being dominated by ex-Yankee Sonny Gray, as the right-hander didn’t allow a hit until the eighth.

For Chisholm, it was another low point in what’s been a rocky season. He got off to a rough start to the year with a .611 OPS through the end of April, but he was productive for most of May.

That was followed by a disappointing last three-plus weeks.

“I feel like he’s been solid now for a couple months, but I always feel like with Jazz, there’s so much more,” Boone said before the game. “[We’re] waiting for him to really catch fire. I feel like he hasn’t caught fire yet at all this year. I feel like after a really slow start the first few weeks, I feel like he’s been steady the last couple months. But you’re always waiting on that hot streak that you know he’s capable of.”

The Milwaukee Brewers will face yet another NL Central rival this week, as they’re welcoming the Cincinnati Reds to town for four games. Given that Milwaukee played the Reds less than a week ago, I won’t do my full recap of both teams.

After the Brewers swept the Reds at Great American Ballpark, Milwaukee returned home to host the Cubs. They took the opening game of the series behind another strong showing from Jacob Misiorowski before dropping the final two of the series, though they still hold a 5.5-game lead on the division with July on tap.

On the other side, the Reds bounced back nicely in Pittsburgh this weekend, taking two of three from the Pirates as the offense finally showed up (19 runs over three games).

In injury news, the Brewers’ only real update is the return of Jared Koenig, who was activated from the injured list on Friday. His return is big for a Brewer bullpen that went from a surplus to a deficit of left-handers in rapid fashion — Milwaukee’s current IL consists of four bullpen lefties, which left Aaron Ashby as the lone healthy lefty before Koenig’s return.

The Reds didn’t get anyone back, but they did lose outfielder Blake Dunn and right-hander Tony Santillan. Santillan was put on the injured list with an oblique strain, meaning he’ll be out until at least after the All-Star break, while Dunn is currently listed with a TBD return after being shelved with a right elbow sprain.

As a reminder on these two teams’ offenses, the Brewers rank in the top 10 in most offensive categories despite ranking near the bottom in homers, with just 73 as a team (tied for 26th entering Sunday). The Reds, on the other hand, have 100 homers (ranks 12th), but they rank in the bottom-third of the league in OPS (.700) and runs scored (346).

Milwaukee’s pitching staff ranks near the top of the league in ERA (3.42 ERA ranks second) and strikeouts (first with 788 over 716 2/3 innings), while the Reds rank near the bottom in both (4.51 ERA and 652 strikeouts both rank 23rd).

Probable Pitchers

Monday, June 29 @ 6:40 p.m.: LHP Robert Gasser (1-3, 4.50 ERA, 5.14 FIP) vs. LHP Nick Lodolo (2-2, 5.59 ERA, 5.38 FIP)

Gasser, who hasn’t pitched since last Sunday in Atlanta, has made six starts this season, totaling 30 innings with a 4.50 ERA, 5.14 FIP, and 31 strikeouts. He’s looked solid in his last two outings against the Guardians and Braves, totaling 11 2/3 innings with two runs allowed on six hits and three walks, striking out 12. Gasser’s lone appearance against the Reds (last September) was a bit of a strange one on the stat line, as he went 2 2/3 innings, allowing four runs (none earned) on four hits and two walks, striking out three. He took the loss despite a 0.00 ERA.

Lodolo, 28, has had a bit of a disappointing season with a 5.59 ERA, 5.38 FIP, and 38 strikeouts over 46 2/3 innings, though he’s coming off a solid outing against these Brewers. He went four innings in that one, allowing no runs on two hits and a walk while striking out six on just 75 pitches before being removed after a comebacker off his left wrist. In seven career appearances (six starts) against Milwaukee, Lodolo is 1-1 with a 2.52 ERA and 35 strikeouts across 35 2/3 innings.

Tuesday, June 30 @ 6:40 p.m.: RHP Brandon Sproat (2-4, 5.43 ERA, 5.07 FIP) vs. RHP Rhett Lowder (3-5, 4.81 ERA, 4.68 FIP)

Sproat, who had a really rough first couple of months of the season, has looked a lot better in his last few outings. While he still has a 5.43 ERA and 5.07 FIP across 69 2/3 innings, his only real blemish in his last two outings is a pair of homers, one of which was, unfortunately, a grand slam. Against the A’s, Guardians, and these same Reds, he totaled 15 2/3 innings with five earned runs on seven hits and three walks, striking out 19. His last appearance was easily the best of those, as he went six scoreless against Cincinnati, allowing just one hit and a hit by pitch while striking out 10 on 80 pitches. Outside of that, Sproat’s only other appearance against Cincy came in his debut last season, when he went six innings and allowed three runs with seven strikeouts. Let’s hope this outing is more like last week’s.

Lowder, 24, is having a pretty “meh” season thus far, with a 4.81 ERA, 4.68 FIP, and 48 strikeouts across 58 innings through 12 starts. His last appearance came against Milwaukee last week, as he allowed three runs on eight hits and a walk, striking out six across 5 2/3 innings in a 6-5 loss. That was Lowder’s second career appearance against Milwaukee, as he’s now 0-2 with four runs allowed and 12 strikeouts over 9 2/3 innings.

Wednesday, July 1 @ 7:10 p.m.: LHP Shane Drohan (3-2, 3.12 ERA, 3.15 FIP) vs. LHP Andrew Abbott (5-4, 3.90 ERA, 5.05 FIP)

Drohan, who has become the sixth man of Milwaukee’s rotation, has been solid in this role his last few times out. He’s 3-2 with a 3.12 ERA, 3.15 FIP, and 52 strikeouts over 52 innings this season, and his last five appearances have come as a starter. He went 4 1/3 innings against these Reds in his last appearance, allowing no runs but giving up five hits and three walks while striking out five on 98 pitches. He’ll look to provide more length in this outing.

Abbott, 27, was an All-Star last season in his third year with the Reds, but he hasn’t been quite as sharp in 2026. While he still has a 3.90 ERA, that outpaces his 5.05 FIP by more than a run, and he’s striking out batters at a much lower clip, with just 70 over 90 innings. He got hit for four runs (three earned) over 5 1/3 innings in his last appearance against the Pirates, striking out six in a no-decision. In eight career starts against the Brewers, he’s 3-4 with a 3.74 ERA and 44 strikeouts across 45 2/3 innings. That includes three starts last season, when he went 1-1 with eight runs allowed over 18 1/3 innings (3.93 ERA).

Thursday, July 2 @ 1:10 p.m.: RHP Jacob Misiorowski (9-3, 1.45 ERA, 1.84 FIP) vs. TBD

Misiorowski remains among league leaders in most major pitching stats, including sitting atop the leaderboard in ERA (1.45), FIP (1.84), strikeouts (146), and WHIP (0.768). He picked up another win his last time out against the Cubs, going six strong innings with eight strikeouts and one run allowed on two hits and four walks. While he didn’t face the Reds in the most recent series, he did make two appearances against them last season, though without much success. He went 3 2/3 total innings over a start and a relief appearance, allowing seven runs (six earned) on seven hits and six walks, striking out six, though if you’ll recall, that really rough start was the game in which Milwaukee trailed 8-1 only to ultimately win 10-8.

While the Reds haven’t yet announced a starter for Thursday’s series finale, this would be Chase Burns’ spot in the rotation, which would make this a true pitchers’ duel. Burns, 23, has looked fantastic in his second MLB season, as he has a 9-1 record with a 2.36 ERA, 3.17 FIP, and 112 strikeouts over 91 2/3 innings this season. The Brewers missed him in his last turn through the rotation, but he got roughed up by the Pirates over the weekend, allowing five runs on nine hits while striking out 10 over six-plus innings. His only appearance against Milwaukee came last September, when he pitched 1 2/3 innings in relief, allowing no runs on no hits and a pair of walks while striking out four.

How to Watch & Listen

Monday, June 29: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Tuesday, June 30: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Wednesday, July 1: Exclusively on ESPN/ESPN App; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Thursday, July 2: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Prediction

As I’ve mentioned before, this may be the most important stretch of the season for the Brewers, given how many games they’re playing against the NL Central. I don’t think that’s lost on Pat Murphy & Co. Give me Milwaukee to take two of three.

SAN DIEGO — Emmet Sheehan was not pitching for his job Sunday.

That didn’t mean, however, it wasn’t a high-stakes outing.

Entering the day, the 2026 season had not gone anywhere near what the 26-year-old right-hander planned. He began the afternoon with an ERA over 5.00. He’d given up multiple runs in all but one of his first 14 starts. His fastball velocity and execution of secondary stuff had been inconsistent all year.

Things seemed to reach a tipping point last week when, after Sheehan gave up six runs in 3 ⅓ innings to the Orioles, manager Dave Roberts ominously said “he’ll get a start this next one, and we’ll see where it takes us.”

And while Roberts’ tone had softened by Sunday morning — the skipper clarified that Sheehan still “has plenty of leash” to figure things out, especially with the Dodgers lacking any viable rotation replacements in the wake of River Ryan reaggravating a hamstring injury in Triple-A last week — the pressure on the third-year big leaguer and former top-prospect talent was nonetheless mounting.

“It’s got to be better,” Roberts declared. “This is a good test.”

In the Dodgers’ 4-2 win over the Padres, Sheehan earned a passing grade with his best start in months. 

He held the Padres to one run over five innings. He struck out five batters and yielded only two hits. And for the first time in a while, he finally flashed some long-lost consistency with his stuff.

“He knows that there’s more in there,” Roberts said pregame. “Obviously, we think the world of Emmet. He’s got really good stuff. There’s been times where it’s good until it’s not. I think the main thing is, this is just a good opportunity for him to go out there and give us a chance to win a series.”

Sheehan did so by going on the attack early, leaning heavily on his mid-90s mph fastball to get ahead in counts before consistently snapping off curveballs, sliders and changeups to put hitters away.

His command wavered a bit as the day went on, leading to two walks and a hit batter. He also hung a fourth-inning slider to Manny Machado that was launched to left for a solo home run.

But at the most pivotal moment of his outing, Sheehan bore down.

With two aboard and two outs in the fifth, he buried a curveball — a pitch he had tweaked with assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness during a pair of between-starts bullpen sessions this week — that Samad Taylor chased in the dirt.

The strikeout retired the side and sent Sheehan skipping off the mound for the final time at 84 pitches with an emphatic pound of his mitt.

“You got to try to separate the process from the results as much as possible,” Sheehan said. “Which is pretty hard to do when you’re not pitching well and losing games.”

Indeed, washing away the frustrations of his ongoing struggles had been a challenge for Sheehan throughout the first half of the season.

At times, as his fastball velocity dipped earlier this year and his breaking stuff failed to induce its typical swing-and-miss, Sheehan found himself getting bogged down with thoughts about his flawed delivery. When pressure mounted and he faced jams that called for him to simply compete and make pitches, he instead only spiraled as ugly innings piled up.

“When you don’t feel great, it’s an easy default to focus on your mechanics and try to feel something,” Roberts said. “But in the heat of the moment of a game, you have to find a way to get past that and be external and get the hitter.” 

That’s what Sheehan did Sunday, with the strikeout of Taylor — who Roberts said was going to be his last batter of the day — serving as an exclamation point on an outing the team is hoping can jump-start his season. 

“Like I told him after the game, this is something for us to build on,” Roberts said. “Keep going to work this week and be ready for your next one.”

Frustration boiled over for Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the sixth inning on Sunday. 

With Sonny Gray and the Red Sox no-hitting the Yankees for the third consecutive night, Chisholm got himself tossed from the ballgame arguing a check-swinging strike three. 

Home plate ump Adam Hamari elected not to appeal to third, much to the infielder's dismay. 

A heated Chisholm turned and argued with Hamari, before eventually spiking his helmet, which resulted in him being thrown out for the remainder of the night. 

Steve Cohen will be “speaking soon,” the Mets owner told a fan on social media Sunday morning. 

It was one of several posts on X that Cohen made Sunday to fans amid the disastrous season that led to the firing of manager Carlos Mendoza on Friday and a continued free fall for the Mets, who dropped two of three games to the Phillies over the weekend. 

“Steve what’s the plan moving forward,” the fan asked the Mets owner. “Do you plan on speaking? I know many, many fans want to hear you speak. This season has been soul crushing.”

Cohen did not indicate when Mets fans would hear from him, and he did not further address his take on the team’s current standing. 

The Mets owner did spend some time on the social media platform, pushing back on a narrative online that a fan had been kicked out of a game at Citi Field in a viral video on Friday night for holding up a “Fire Stearns” sign, referring to the Mets president of baseball operations, David Stearns. 

“I’m cool with fans expressing themselves and carrying signs,” Cohen claimed in his response to one fan about the alleged incident. “I’m not cool when fans around him are complaining that he was ruining their day at the ballpark. He was belligerent and was asked to be more considerate to paying customer around him. Unfortunately, he refused.”

When another fan questioned Cohen’s explanation, he responded to the post as well. 

“Other than from my head of ballpark operations. Why let the facts get in the way of a narrative,” Cohen wrote in response to a user who said that “I haven’t seen anyone back up this claim” about his previous social media post.

The frustrations come with the Mets having lost their fourth straight series after a 5-4 loss to the rival Phillies on Saturday.

They’re 35-49, 15 games out of first place in the NL East and 9.5 games removed from the final National League wild-card spot despite one of MLB’s top payrolls.

Cohen has owned the Mets since 2020, and the club has seen more downs than ups under his stewardship, making the playoffs just twice.

The Mets made it the NLCS in 2024 before losing to the Dodgers in six games and lost to the Padres in the wild-card series in 2022. 

They went through an amazing collapse last season after going 45-24 by June 12, but then went 38-55 and missed the playoffs on the final day of the 2025 season.