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What’s the best way to make an annoying series loss to the 2026 New York Mets look like ancient history? Win a four-game series against a team that was over .500 coming into the series, why don’t you? Indeed, the Atlanta Braves are now riding a bit high following a very strong bounce-back series against the Washington Nationals and their high-powered offense.

Instead, the star of this show over the course of the four games was Atlanta’s high-powered offense as they were able to do damage against a very vulnerable Washington pitching staff. Just how much damage did the Braves end up doing? Let’s get into it, folks!

Thursday, July 30

Braves 5, Nationals 4

After 3 1/2 innings, the Nationals were up 3-0 on the Braves. That is as good as it got for Washington in not just during this game but for the entire series as well. From the sixth inning onwards once the Braves were up 5-3, Atlanta was in near-complete control of this series.

The fourth inning saw Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a deep fly off of the scoreboard in the home bullpen in right-center to put the Braves on the board against Jake Irvin and for the next two innings, the offense came in waves. Mike Yastrzemski hit a big two-run dinger to tie the game in the fifth and then Atlanta ended up putting five runs on Jake Irvin’s line for the night after Ozzie Albies dropped one into the outfield for a two-RBI single that brought us to the aforementioned 5-3 scoreline. Considering the nightmares that this team has had on a near-regular basis against Jake Irvin, this was certainly lovely to witness.

Washington did get a run back in the seventh inning when Luis García Jr. added an RBI triple to what was a big three-hit night at the plate for him (that probably earned him a trip to the Bronx to wear pinstripes for the rest of the season) but outside of that, Washington was unable to do any big damage against the bullpen as Danny Young, Victor Mederos, Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias brought the series-opening win on home for Atlanta on Andruw Jones Hall-of-Fame Bobblehead Night.

Friday, July 31

Braves 6, Nationals 2

From the words “Play Ball,” this was all Braves. Matt Olson smacked one out in the first inning for a solo shot to get Atlanta going and then Jim Jarvis came through and plated Mauricio Dubón with a liner up the middle to make it 2-0. CJ Abrams made it a one-run game in the fourth inning with a solo homer of his own but that was as close as Washington got after the Braves broke out for four runs in the sixth inning. The big shot in that frame was Michael Harris II hitting a laser directly into the Chop House for a three-run dinger that gave the Braves some valuable breathing room.

While this was going on, Bryce Elder did an admirable job when it came to keeping the Nationals quiet. He did have his moments but he was able to avert disaster for the monster part and he largely frustrated Washington while he was on the mound. The only runs that Washington were able to push across the plate were of the solo home run variety and once Andrés Chaparro hit the second homer of the night for the Nats in the ninth inning off of Elieser Hernández, it was too little and too late for the Nats and the Braves essentially cruised to victory in this one.

Saturday, August 1

Braves 8, Nationals 3

The big story in this game was that Martín Pérez was thrust into starting duty just 90 minutes before the game after it became clear that the IL-bound Reynaldo López wouldn’t be able to go due to some knee inflammation. Despite not having much time to prepare, that didn’t stop Pérez from being ready. Sure enough, Pérez ended up delivering his best start of the season where he carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Brady House broke it up with a single but Pérez finished the inning in order to make it seven shutout innings with just that one hit allowed and six strikeouts. This was an absolutely incredible performance from Pérez when you consider the circumstances and the opposition.

Meanwhile, this was another case of Atlanta simply jumping on the Nationals early on and continuing to smother them. Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson went back-to-back for homers in the first inning to get things going against Miles Mikolas and then Drake Baldwin made it 3-0 with an RBI single in the third. Dominic Smith had himself a big moment in the fourth as he led off that frame with a homer and at that point, the Braves were cruising.

The cruise turned into a nice little saunter across the beach in the seventh inning which is when Washington’s bullpen and suspect defense combined for a disastrous inning for the Nationals. The first two runs that the Braves scored came without them swinging the bat to do it — a bases-loaded walk for Dominic Smith made it 5-0 and then Eddy Yean’s first pitch upon entering the game was a wild pitch with the bases loaded that made it 6-0.

Austin Riley then hit one into the gap in left center that Jacob Young nearly made a diving catch on. Instead, he failed to keep it in his glove and two runs scored and we were in laugher territory at 8-0. Washington scored three in the eighth but that was nowhere near enough to keep up with the Braves who clinched the series win with this one.

Sunday, August 2

Braves 4, Nationals 2

Washington got to experience a lead in this series for the first time in what felt like ages for them, as Andrés Chaparro earned an RBI the hard way by taking a curveball to the head from JR Ritchie and then a sacrifice fly from James Wood put Washington up 2-1 in the fourth inning. Again, that’s as good as it got for the Nats as the Braves took control of the game starting from the bottom of the fourth inning.

Matt Olson led that fourth inning off with a game-tying solo shot and then some more poor defense from CJ Abrams (who put on a defensive disasterclass over the course of these four games) helped push the Braves in front in the fifth inning. You know it was bad when even the BravesVision commentary duo of Brandon Gaudin and C.J. Nitkowski were openly talking about how it’s probably time to move Abrams to second base. Between this and the Mets TV crew expressing concern for Connor Thomas when he was wearing a nasty beatdown in New York, it’s been a week of empathy for NL East commentary crews.

Anyways, a sacrifice fly from Mike Yastrzemski in the seventh inning brought us to the final score of 4-2 and that was ensured thanks to the bullpen once again coming into the game and throwing up zeroes. Dylan Dodd, Didier Fuentes, Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias each picked up the baton and ran with it and once they crossed the finish line, the Braves had a broom in their hands and swept the Nationals out of town.

Now that’s more like it! The Braves essentially put Washington into selling mode on their own with their dominance in this series. The bats were able to do some real damage in this series, with Mike Yastrzemski in particular having a lot of success against Washington’s lineup during the three gamers where he played. Ronald Acuña Jr. also announced his return to Cobb County with a pair of dingers over the course of this series and the usual suspects like Matt Olson, Michael Harris II, and even Dominic Smith coming up big over the course of the series. The lineup appears to be clicking again (weak Nationals pitching staff or not) and that’s encouraging to see as we head into the crucial month of August.

Also, a lot of credit has to be given to the pitching staff for coming up huge as well. This is a Nationals offense that leads baseball in runs scored by a very comfortable margin and only trails the Dodgers by two points for the team lead in wRC+ heading into Sunday’s action. Atlanta held Washington to fewer than five runs in each of the four games, which has been a very tough task for nearly any pitching staff that’s come up against this lineup this season. The only thing I can compare this to is when the Yankees swept the Nationals in D.C. with a 5-3 win, a 4-2 win and then a 5-3 capper.

It also serves to set the record straight a bit after the Braves did keep the Nationals quiet in their last trip to Cobb County, only for that to be a bitterly disappointing series for Atlanta’s offense. This time, the bats came up huge over the course of these four games. Combine this nice run of form from Atlanta since the All-Star break with the Phillies falling back closer to the rest of the NL East pack and things are now feeling very good as far as the divisional race goes.

Whether or not this team has what it takes to make a deep run in October for the first time since 2021 will likely require some more trade deadline activity that’s also similar to what happened in 2021. Alex Anthopoulos has already bolstered the outfield depth with the addition of Lane Thomas from Kansas City and I think at this point, we’re all waiting on a starting pitcher (or two). As well as Atlanta’s rotation fared during this season against that imposing Nationals lineup, a lot of the overall success had to with the bullpen once again coming up huge.

Grant Holmes went 4.2 innings and gave up three runs. Bryce Elder essentially walked a tightrope for six innings against this lineup. Martín Pérez came up huge but he only did so on 90 minutes notice because Reynaldo López is now on the IL. J.R. Ritchie only went four innings, himself. The rotation absolutely needs to be addressed once the deadline comes and goes — otherwise, you’d have a safe bet on your hands when it comes to predicting that this season’s ride could end due to a starter not named Chris Sale getting lit up and the bullpen not having enough energy to pick up the slack once October comes around. Things are going well, sure, but they could potentially be better with some additions. We’ll see what happens tomorrow!

LOS ANGELES — New Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal will be his Dodgers debut on Tuesday at Wrigley Field in the middle game of a road series against the Chicago Cubs.

The Dodgers on Sunday finalized their trade for Skubal, winner of the last two American League Cy Young Awards with the Detroit Tigers. Pitcher River Ryan plus minor leaguers Zyhir Hope and Brady Smith were sent to the Tigers in the deal.

Skubal last pitched for Detroit last Wednesday, throwing 92 pitches in 6 2/3 innings against the Baltimore Orioles at Comerica Park. On the season Skubal has a 2.79 ERA in 16 starts, with 116 strikeouts and 14 walks. He’ll be on five days rest on Tuesday against the Cubs, in what will be his first career start at Wrigley Field.

“Tarik will slot in for us on Tuesday,” Dodgers president of baseball operations said on Sunday at Dodger Stadium. “Eric Lauer has been unbelievable for us, and he’s kind of sliding into more a bullpen role right now.”

Lauer was acquired via trade from the Blue Jays on May 17 after getting designated for assignment by Toronto. The veteran left-hander has appeared in nine games for the Dodgers — eight starts and one bulk relief appearance following an opener — and has done everything that was asked of him and then some. Lauer has a 2.96 ERA and 4.06 xERA with the Dodgers, who have won all nine of his appearances, with 30 strikeouts and 13 walks in 51 2/3 innings.

Justin Wrobleski will start Monday and Roki Sasaki on Wednesday against the Cubs, sandwiching Skubal. The Dodgers also have Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Emmet Sheehan in the rotation, and Blake Snell is expected to be activated after one more rehab start on Tuesday for Triple-A Oklahoma City. Those six starters, before considering the eventual returns of Tyler Glasnow — who starts a rehab assignment this week — and Shohei Ohtani — who will play catch when the Dodgers are in Chicago — make for a crowded rotation, which is why Lauer has been floated as a candidate to be traded before Monday’s 3 p.m. PT deadline, perhaps somewhere where he might get a chance to start.

“Obviously as we get guys back, we’ll figure it out. The world changes day by day. We hope we have those problems,” Friedman said. “We’re still having a number of conversations on a number of different fronts. We’re always trying to balance, keeping one eye on the present and one on the future. A lot of different conversations on a lot of different fronts. How likely is tough to say, but we’ll continue to work through tomorrow.”

Skubal, who was in West Sacramento with the Tigers to play the A’s this weekend, wasn’t in the Dodgers clubhouse during media availability before Sunday’s game, but he’s expected to join the team at Dodger Stadium at some point on Sunday, then head to Chicago with the team on Sunday night.

“Obviously that was the only team he knew, a lot of great memories,” manager Dave Roberts said of Skubal’s time with the Tigers. “But he’s excited to be a part of this.”

The Yankees started their deadline dealing on Saturday sending off Camilo Doval to the Pirates, but that was an ancillary move to what their plans were. This team was always going to be buying, and it was only a question of who they would target and how many pieces they would get. Now the first domino has fallen, as they’ve swung a deal with the Washington Nationals to get infielder Luis García Jr.

García is having his best offensive season to date in his age-26 season, and he’s been one of the best hitters across the National League. He leads the NL in slugging percentage with a .560 mark, and owns a 134 wRC+ in 104 games with 23 home runs clubbed. García doesn’t take many free passes, only sporting a 4.3 percent walk rate, but he hits at a high enough clip to still get on base decently well.

In breaking the news, ESPN’s Jeff Passan is also reporting that the Yankees have sent a package of four prospects over to the Nationals for García, and MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand is reporting that said package consists of pitchers Ben Grable (an undrafted free agent who recently appeared in the Futures Game), Yovanny Cruz (signed this past November as a minor-league free agent) Jack Cebert (a 2025 15th-round pick), and Jake Bird (a Trade Deadline bust from 2025). That’s not a lot of prospect capital spent to improve an offense that has felt incredibly lackluster without their captain Aaron Judge present.

The fit on the field will be interesting to see as the Yankees have acquired a bat that plays predominantly on the right side of the infield. García has played 93 games at first base this year, where the team already has Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt working in a platoon, and played 129 games at second base last season where Jazz Chisholm Jr. currently sits. No matter what, in the short term, there’s a clear void at DH with Giancarlo Stanton still out and no obvious return date in sight.

We’ll have plenty more over the next few hours as the trade details emerge and we get a picture of where he’ll fit in with New York, but the Yankees have undoubtedly added some life back into their lineup when they’ve desperately needed it.

Anthony Kay dealt, the White Sox offense punished Tampa Bay pitching mistakes, and Chicago felt control of this game virtually from start to finish, culminating in a 9-1 victory for the South Siders that keeps them three games ahead of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central entering the post-deadline stretch.

It was a career day for Kay, by virtually any measure. He completed a career-high 6 1/3 innings, blanking the American League leaders while scattering seven hits and flashing some leather to boot, helping himself out of a couple of tough jams with acute defensive chops. He faced a career-high 27 hitters and didn’t issue a free pass until the very last one, coming an eyelash away from going without a walk or a hit batsman for the first time this season. These are the kinds of games scouts envisioned when the Mets made him a first round pick out of UConn a decade ago.

The lefty’s typically scattershot command was as locked in this afternoon as we’ve ever seen it. Kay threw 60 of his 89 pitches for strikes and kept nearly every one of his sweepers, cutters and sliders in the vicinity of the plate, limiting hard contact. While he did allow nine hard-hit batted balls, all but one of them came on either a fastball or changeup, and Tampa’s inability to get good wood on anything with spin on it contributed to their stranding the bases loaded twice without a run, in the fourth and sixth innings.

Kay’s ERA now sits at a very solid 4.01 in an even 110 innings, the most he’s thrown in America since his 133 2/3 minor league innings in 2019. He averaged just more than 150 innings per season over his two years in Japan, so he’s still got a while to go before he hits anything unprecedented. Even though underlying and expected stats think Kay’s been the beneficiary of a healthy amount of good luck, one has to imagine the White Sox are feeling like their $5 million-per-year deal with Kay has been well worth the investment.

Opposite the 31-year-old lefty, Rays starter Griffin Jax had solid stuff himself, setting down eight Sox hitters on strikes without issuing a walk. But a pair of first-inning errors — one by Jax himself — led to a pair of unearned runs before most of the fans had found their seats, and the Rays trailed the entire way thereafter. Jax was otherwise quite sharp, with the only other Sox damage coming on a back foot breaking ball that caught too much of the plate and too much of Andrew Benintendi’s barrel, for his 12th homer and 57th run driven in on the season. It was still less remarkable than Benintendi’s first trip around the bases, which saw him push Colson Montgomery around the plate with some flag football moves on a bizarre stolen base attempt.

It’s already been a magical season full of magical moments, but the most unlikely thing the 2026 White Sox have done yet might be the rehabilitation of Benintendi’s standing with the fanbase. His OPS since being unknowingly helmet-taped by Sam Antonacci in early May is now north of .840, and despite being fully DH-bound he’s producing more than enough runs to justify a roster spot. He may not look rejuvenated in the traditional sense, but three-and-a-half years into his tenure on the South Side, Benintendi has a clear of a place on the team as he’s ever had.

Benintendi struck first against Jax, but the offensive star of the show for the victors was Everson Pereira, who entered the lineup as a late replacement for the scratched Braden Montgomery and responded with a homer, a double and four runs driven in. It’s been somewhat of a revenge tour for Pereira against the team that traded him last winter, as he previously homered twice against his former squad when they met in Chicago last April.

Pereira’s sixth-inning double brought the Sox lead to 5-0, and when Grant Taylor slammed the door upon entering the game for Kay with one on and one out in the seventh, the candle felt all but extinguished for Tampa Bay. Matching two-run blasts from Pereira and Miguel Vargas in the ninth inning simply salted it away. It also made for Vargas’s 50th extra-base hit of the season, matching his total from 2025 in nearly a hundred fewer trips to the plate.

On the back end, Duncan Davitt failed to find similar success to Pereira against his former organization, allowing Ben Williamson to take him deep on the first pitch of the ninth inning to get Tampa Bay on the board and earning himself a ticket back to Charlotte after the game. Those Rays fans who stayed to the end were rewarded no further, though, with a 9-1 Sox victory etched into the books. This despite an 11-9 advantage in the hit column to the home side, who hadn’t lost a series at Tropicana Field in over two months.

The Good Guys are off tomorrow, taking a flight to Boston for a three-gamer with the surging Red Sox before returning home for a critical series against the Guardians next weekend. Starters have yet to be announced, but with Monday off and Erick Fedde officially shifting to the bullpen, our Sox should be able to send out Davis Martin, Sean Burke, and Luis Castillo in more or less whatever order they wish. They appear to set to see some combination of Sonny Gray, Ranger Suárez, and Payton Tolle, if Boston’s recent rotation holds. First pitch from Fenway Park is on Tuesday at 6:10 p.m. CT, and we’ll see you there!

MVP
Anthony Kay: 6 1/3 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

Runners-Up
Everson Pereira: 2-for-4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI
Chase Meidroth: 2-for-3, BB, 2 R

Cold Cat
Drew Romo: 0-for-4, 3 K

Runners-Up
Munetaka Murakami: 1-for-5
Sam Antonacci: 0-for-5

Seth Lugo was bad and Aaron Bummer’s Royals debut was worse as the Royals fell to the Rockies 8-1.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that Brian Henry wrote that the Royals needed to learn from not trading Seth Lugo last year. Lugo put an exclamation point on that point today with just a hair over 24 hours remaining before the 2026 trade deadline. Lugo ended up pitching 5+ innings and allowed 5 runs while walking 5 and striking out only 3. Rumors continue to persist that he is considered valuable on the trade market, but the Royals still seem disinclined to do anything with either him or Michael Wacha.

Meanwhile, they added Aaron Bummer to the roster today with Luinder Avila heading to the IL. Bummer might not be long for the roster as the Royals will probably summon the newly acquired Lucas Braun to pitch in Avila’s vacated rotation spot later this week. Bummer debuted in relief of Lugo with the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth inning. He gave up a 2-run double, a 3-run home run, and another RBI double before escaping the sixth inning.

Nate Pearson and Steven Cruz each put up a quality inning of relief, so that was nice, I guess.

The Royals scored their lone run in the second inning when Luke Maile singled home John Rave. Jac Caglianone had a one-out double in the third inning, and that was the last hit KC would get off of Kyle Freeland until one out in the ninth when Salvador Perez hit his own one-out double and Starling Marte added a single. Still, Freeland worked around both for the first Rockies complete game since 2022. It was also Freeland’s first career complete game, which leaves Eduardo Rodriguez as the only pitcher in MLB history with 250+ starts and no complete games.

I don’t really have anything else to tell you about this game. The Royals are off tomorrow; the trade deadline is at 5 PM Central, so look out for Starling Marte and John Schreiber to be traded for your Royals-related entertainment tomorrow. At least Bobby Witt Jr. is scheduled to return Tuesday, barring a setback the likes of which have seemed to plague the Royals this year.

I don’t know what I expect anyone to do about this. I am not sure there is anything that realistically can be done about this. But ye gods, the Yankee offense is putrid. Rancid. Foul. Pick your adjective. Regression and injury have laid waste to the Yankees and there is no 6-foot-7, three-time MVP and single-season home run king riding to the rescue any time soon.

We’ll see what if anything the Yankees do at the deadline to bolster the offense (live editing update: hello, Luis Garcia Jr.) but I have strong doubts it will be enough to make a meaningful difference. Too many automatic outs litter the lineup. Accordingly, the pressure on the pitching staff is extraordinary. On Sunday, Gerrit Cole and the Yankee bullpen were up to the challenge and got just enough offense to eke out a series win, finishing this road trip at 6-4.

Cubs starter Colin Rea entered today with one of the worst K% in all of baseball – in the 12^th percentile, to be exact. So of course, a lineup that only a 2013 Yankees fan could love proceeded to strike out five consecutive times to start. Not until Jazz Chisholm Jr. put a ball in play to end the second inning did a Yankee hitter manage to square up Rea. It’s not what you want.

In the third, we got an all-too-brief glimpse of what happens when you make contact with the baseball. After Ryan McMahon led off the frame with a single to right, José Caballero demolished a Rea offering to center field. Suddenly, the Yanks led 2-0.

It was the first time in 42 innings that New York scored more than one run in an inning. Gross! (But at least the streak was over.)

Gerrit Cole, meanwhile, picked up where he left off in his last start. He spun three scoreless innings to start Sunday, finally yielding a run when Michael Busch hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.

Unfortunately, the offense went back to its factory setting (feckless) after the Caballero home run. So, Cole had no room for error. In the sixth, that looked like it would haunt the Yankees. Pete Crow-Armstrong walked and Seiya Suzuki singled, putting runners on first and third with no one out. Cole retired Busch on a fly out but a terrible throw from Jasson Domínguez allowed both runners to advance, killing the possibility of a double play.

Cole struck out Alex Bregman but a walk to Ian Happ ended Cole’s day, after 99 pitches with the bases loaded and two outs. Brent Headrick entered and, after falling behind Nico Hoerner, 3-0, induced a harmless fly ball to center. Crisis averted. Cole’s final line: a perfectly cromulent 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K.

Headrick came back out for the seventh and struck out the side, passing the ball to Paul Blackburn, who’d also have to be flawless given the Yankees’ narrow lead. Blackburn managed to get a pair of outs but also walked two Cubs, including PCA, who drew his third free pass of the day. It feels like a year ago you would have had to physically restrain PCA in the batter’s box to get him to walk multiple times in a game. That extension looks more like a steal for the Cubs every day.

But with runners on the corners and needing four more outs to escape Chicago with the win, Boone went to David Bednar. Facing childhood friend Ian Happ, Bednar got the first of the four, extinguishing the threat and sending the contest to the ninth.

The Cubs’ last gasp got a bit sticky with the tying run at second and two out. But Bednar struck out pinch-hitter Michael Conforto to earn the four-out save. Breathe, everyone. The man continues to be nails in the ninth as his first calendar year as a Yankee comes to a close.

Join us tomorrow back in the Bronx after this 10-game road trip. The Cardinals come to town for a three-game set. Michael McGreevy versus the presumptive favorite for the AL Cy Young Award, Cam Schlittler. First pitch is at 7:05 pm ET. (And stay tuned for more on Luis Garcia Jr.!)

Box Score

Not much went right for the Mets on Sunday.

Off the field they continued what's shaping up to be a massive trade deadline sell-off, shipping Freddy Peralta out to the Tampa Bay Rays in a deal for three prospects.

On the field their offensive struggles continued, as they went a combined 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left a total of 10 men on-base, suffering their 11th shutout loss to the season.

One of the lone positives, though, was the performance from Robert Stock.

The 36-year-old right-hander was spectacular making his first MLB start since 2021, mowing down the Marlins lineup across a career-high five innings of work.

“Really impressive, his stuff is good,” interim manager Andy Green said.

Stock retired the first six batters he faced before running into some trouble following two singles in the third, but he was able to set down Kyle Stowers on strikes to strand the pair.

The righty followed that with a perfect fourth, but the Marlins were able to finally break the scoreless tie in the fifth, as young catcher Joe Mack smacked a solo homer to right.

Stock retired the next two to end his strong big-league return with just the one run allowed on three hits while striking out four over five terrific frames.

“It felt great,” he said. “Thinking about where I was a couple of months ago where I couldn’t even put my arm over my head to pitching today in Citi Field, it was as much of a dream come true as could be.”

Stock, a career journeyman, spent the past four months progressing his way back in the minor league after undergoing thoracic outlet surgery in March.

He impressed in his eight rehab appearances down there and was able to  carry that success over into his MLB return, putting him in the mix for a rotation spot with the selling Mets down the stretch.

“He should take a lot of pride in the way he threw the baseball today,” Green said. “He earned the right to be in the conversation at this point in time, and we'll definitely have that conversation.”

It’s Sunday once more, and you know what that means — it’s time for our weekly social media roundup! As the Bronx Bombers have spent a week-long vacation in Chicago, back here in the state of New York, a pair of former Yankees (even if they weren’t exactly known for their times in the Bronx) were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. On its own, that means we’ve got a full week on this week’s social media roundup, but even beyond the annual celebration of baseball history, we have a lot on tap this week. So without further ado, let’s get started!

Cooperstown

Last weekend, Andruw Jones (NYY 2011-12), Carlos Beltrán (2014-2016), and Bill White (2026 Buck O’Neil Award winner, former Yankees broadcaster, first Black play-by-play announcer in baseball history) were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Now a year since his induction, CC Sabathia took the opportunity to reflect on his own experience as well.

Wells’ Burritos

In Philadelphia, Austin Wells revived his long-dead breakfast burrito account. Since then, he has a .728 OPS (his season OPS is .536). Coincidence? I THINK NOT.

On the Road Again

With the Yankees on an extended road trip, the members of the broadcast teams had some fun hanging out with some old friends. In Philadelphia, Meredith Marakovitz had dinner with family and friends and took a picture with the man who engineered Philly’s second-greatest underdog win, Rocky Balboa (the first is, of course, Kris Jenkins, whose buzzer beater in 2016 helped Villanova upset UNC). Dave Sims also visited the Art Museum as well, although he didn’t take a photo with Rocky, and then went to a Holy Cross reunion.

In Chicago, though, things got a little bit crazy. We had a monsoon prior to one game, which Michael Kay described as apocalyptic, and Suzyn Waldman thankfully shared some pictures of it.

Then, the broadcasters got to sample some pop-up sushi.

Game Belts

The Yankees’ catchers featured heavily in this week’s Game Belts, which included Ali Sanchez receiving one for hitting his first career home run.

Pitching Posts

This past week, Kervin Castro took the opportunity to celebrate making it back to The Show, while Cam Schlittler took to his Instagram story last Friday night to thank Brent Headrick escaping a bases loaded jam and preserve the shutout, leading the Yanks to a 1-0 victory over the Phillies in which yours truly was in attendance.

LeBron Nonsense

When LeBron James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, all of Philadelphia directed all their attention towards basketball. In fact, that night, the Phillie Phanatic welcomed him to the city by trying to dunk over a Knicks fan wearing a Patrick Ewing jersey, only to miss the dunk (the Phanatic still celebrated anyway, because, well, it’s the Phanatic). Not surprisingly, the Yankees’ minor league teams, who had some fun with James’ free agency, had to comment about James’ decision.

Although, the Renegades got it a touch wrong. The Knicks swept the Sixers, and it wasn’t all that difficult either.

Question of the Day

For this week’s Question of the Day, the Yankees players were asked their favorite phrase in baseball lingo.

Later in the week, the fans were brought into the shenanigans, as the YES Instagram asked fans to identify which color is the YES Network shade of blue — a game that would be more difficult if not for the fact that the logo is literally right in the account’s profile picture.

The Yankees are acquiring Luis Garcia Jr. in a deal with the Nationals, according to SNY MLB Insider Chelsea Janes.

New York is sending four RHPs to Washington -- Ben Grable, Yovanny Cruz, Jack Cebert and Jake Bird.

Garcia is an interesting fit in the Bronx, having spent the majority of this season playing first base, but he'd certainly provide a much-needed boost to their shorthanded offense.

New York, of course, is down All-Star's Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger to injury.

Garcia shook off a bit of a slow start to the season to become one of the more productive bats in the NL, racking up an league-leading .560 slugging percentage and an impressive .880 OPS.

He's also already topped his career-high's in triples (five), homers (23), and RBI (76).

The 26-year-old will look to continue adding onto those numbers now playing in a home ballpark in the Bronx that should be a perfect fit for his power-hitting left-handed swing.

Garcia figures to take over the bulk of the 1B at-bats against righties, with Ben Rice as the DH.

He’s also seen some time at second base during his big-league career.

The Texas Rangers scored three runs but the Houston Astros scored seven runs.

While Kumar Rocker was fighting for his life early in this one, the Rangers waited until the fifth inning before reaching base for the first time against some dude who had a 5.72 ERA for the Colorado Rockies last season. By that point, it was 3-0 Astros and Texas was lucky it wasn’t much, much worse.

When Brandon Nimmo walked to lead off the top of the fifth for Texas’ first base runner, Houston had already had ten opportunities with RISP and had delivered on just one of them. That Jose Altuve RBI single in the bottom of the third ricocheted off Rocker for Houston’s only RBI base hit in their first nine chances through the game’s early innings.

The Astros didn’t need a runner in scoring position to score their next two runs as leadoff man Jeremy Pena hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth with a runner on first. That two-run blast was yet another barrage from Houston that came with two outs, something they did often over the weekend. No surprise there. After all, they convincingly swept the series.

Following Nimmo’s walk a half inning later, the Rangers finally got to Houston starter Peter Lambert for a rally that produced two runs to bring Texas back in the game. Ironically the Rangers had two scoring hits in their first two at-bats with runners in scoring position. They would not collect another hit with RISP in three more opportunities, however.

They did eventually tie the game though when Nimmo hit a solo home run in the top of the seventh off Steven Okert for some lefty on lefty crime. The Rangers extended their rally in that inning with an opportunity to take the lead but Nicky Lopez struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch on a ball way out of the zone.

You’d anticipate that perhaps he would have challenged that call but Rangers catcher Elias Diaz had already wasted Texas’ two challenges trying to shepherd Rocker through his early trouble innings. Nevertheless, while Diaz had a bad game, home plate umpire Todd Tichenor was terrible. I was enjoying going through this debut ABS year without knowing the name of the day’s home plate umpire only for it to happen in the season’s most important game to date.

A half inning after Lopez’s phantom strikeout, the Astros immediately scored plenty off Texas’ dreadful bullpen to render any umpire related bellyaching moot. Cole Winn in particular was bad, allowing the eventual winning run that Tyler Alexander had put on base and then loading the bases against the bottom of Houston’s lineup to set up a golden chance for the Astros.

If you’ve observed anything from this series — or this season, really — you know how that turned out. At the very least, no one had to sweat out the final innings after Yordan Alvarez’s 87th double of the series made it 7-3. Manager Skip Schumaker even got to hit the showers early after getting ejected. If Schumaker was attempting to fire up his moribund club, it worked about as well as most of the things Skip Schumaker tries.

And so the Rangers have lost five games in a row, are 2.5 games out of first place, and have their worst mark since they were two games below .500 back on June 26.

Player of the Game: Nimmo, I guess.

Up Next: The marathon continues with Texas returning home to take on the Giants beginning tomorrow night. The Rangers haven’t listed a starting pitcher but San Francisco is expected to go with RHP Logan Webb in the opener.

The Monday evening first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 7:05 pm CDT and you can watch it via a national telecast on ESPN.

The Yankees won Sunday's rubber match against the Chicago Cubs by a score of 3-2 at Wrigley Field.

Here are the key takeaways...

-- Gerrit Cole had a strong outing on the bump. The right allowed just three hits his first two times through the order, though the Cubs got to him for a run in the fourth inning thanks to a Seiya Suzuki double and a Michael Busch RBI single.

He got in some trouble in the sixth, though, walking Pete Crow-Armstrong before allowing a single to Suzuki to put a couple of runners on. Then, on a flyball to right, both runners were able to tag up and move up 90 feet as Jasson Dominguez sailed his throw over the cutoff man to third base, making yet another mental mistake in the outfield.

Cole later walked Ian Happ to load the bases with two outs, and at 99 pitches, his afternoon ended there. Brent Headrick went to a 3-0 count but got Nico Hoerner to fly out to end the threat and close Cole's line at 5.2 innings, one earned run on four hits with five strikeouts and three walks.

-- Jose Caballero got the Yankees on the board in the bottom of the third, smacking a two-run homer to left-center off of Cubs starter Colin Rea. Caballero, who had a pair of hits on the afternoon, now has 11 homers on the season, and his blast ended up being all that the Yankees needed.

-- How great has Headrick been out of the Yankees bullpen this season? Not only did the lefty get out of the bases-loaded jam in the sixth, but he then struck out the side in the seventh. He lowered his season ERA to a miniscule 1.42.

-- After Paul Blackburn allowed a couple of runners to reach in the eighth, Aaron Boone went to closer David Bednar in a four-out save situation. Bednar got Happ to end the eighth, and while he allowed a walk and a stolen base in the ninth, he struck out Michael Conforto to close out the win.

-- It was a tough day for the top of the Yankees lineup. Trent Grisham and Ben Rice combined to go 0-for-8 with four strikeouts, with Rice accounting for three of those strikeouts himself.

Game MVP

Caballero, who provided just enough offense.

Highlights

José Caballero two-run homer! pic.twitter.com/pKegUNZfbw

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) August 2, 2026

Next up

The Yankees return home for a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals, starting on Monday night at 7:05 p.m.

Cam Schlittler and Michael McGreevy are scheduled to pitch.

The Colorado Rockies’ bats are as hot as the temperatures in Denver this afternoon, as they lead the Kansas City Royals 8-1 in the seventh inning behind a Kyle Freeland gem.

There’s still a lot of baseball left, so it’s OVERFLOW THREAD time!

Here are the lineups:

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

On the eve of the 2026 MLB trade deadline, the Tampa Bay Rays have bolstered their starting rotation by acquiring right-handed pitcher Freddy Peralta from the New York Mets in exchange for three prospects: OF Aidan Smith, INF Emilien Pitre, and RHP Gary Gill Hill.

Peralta, 30, was acquired by the Mets prior to the start of the 2026 season. The veteran hurler had been the ace of the Milwaukee Brewers for several years prior to the trade. Unfortunately, Peralta’s time in Flushing has been less than ideal, compiling a 4.99 ERA | 4.45 FIP over 22 starts during his Mets’ tenure. During his time Milwaukee from 2020 through 2025, Peralta was stellar, compiling a 3.33 ERA | 3.60 FIP; the Rays hope to get this version of the veteran hurler.

Heading to New York are three prospects.

Outfielder Aidan Smith was acquired by the Rays as part of the return for Randy Arozarena at the 2024 trade deadline. There was hope that he’d develop into a premier prospect and looked on his way to doing so registering a 158 wRC+ immediately following the trade. However, Smith has been unable to rise past High-A and holds a 68 wRC+ on the season.

Infielder Emilien Pitre was the Rays 2nd round pick in 2024 and has been an above-average offensive perfomer since joining the Rays organization thanks to an excellent ability to draw walks which significantly boosts his on-base percentage. He recently received a promotion to Double-A where he was hitting .323/.451/.492 over 163 plate appearances.

Gary Gill Hill at one time was among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects but he has been unable to take that next step in his development and has since seen his prospect status plummet. Gill Hill was originally selected by the Rays in the 6th round of the 2022 draft, meaning he’d be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason. The 21-year old was in Double-A and had a 4.49 ERA | 4.60 FIP over 108.1 IP.

After a three game series in which they scored exactly three (3) runs over 27 innings, I think I’m going to need to see proof of life photos for the Rays offense.

We’ll get to the errors and pitching mistakes, I promise, but when a team scores only one very late run, we need to start and end our critique with the hitters.

Today, the Rays got eleven hits and walked once, so it’s not like they had no opportunities. But almost all those hits were singles, and nearly all from the same three guys (Vilade, Caminero and Simpson) so those guys singled their way on to base and no one could drive them in. The only extra base hits came in the bottom of the ninth, at which point the game was entirely out of reach and no doubt the Rays were facing whoever the White Sox use for mop up duty.

Rays hitters didn’t strike out much, but they kept pounding the ball into the turf, grounding out twelve times, two of which were turned into double plays.

The game got off to an inauspicious start. Jax got into first inning trouble, with two men on base. But there were already two outs and it would have been possible to get out of the top of the first scoreless. But alas. First, Jax bobbled a not very challenging dribbler and could not get a runner at first, which allowed a run to score. Then the infield somehow failed to get either runner in a double steal that plated run number two.

I usually only post Rays highlights in these recaps, but I’m so disgusted with this inning I’m going to post a low light:

The White Sox scored again on a Benintendi solo home run in the fourth, but the Rays had a good chance to get back in the game in the bottom of that inning, loading the base on three singles (with an out coming on the one really well hit ball, 111 mph from Caminero, caught at the warning track). But neither Williamson nor DeLuca could get a run home.

Craig Kimbrel relieved Jax in the sixth, and I was hopeful when he got two quick outs. Was this going to be…a clean inning? Well, he gave up a walk. And a second walk. OK, could it at least be a scoreless inning? Nope. Hard hit double, two RBI, 5-0 Chicago.

But wait, the Rays came back swinging in the bottom of the inning. Once more, they loaded the based on three singles. With two outs, Ben Williamson came up to try to get the Rays on the board. But he grounded out weakly to short. Inning over.

And for the finishing touch, newcomer Alex Cook, pitching his second inning, yielded a two-run homer to Everson Pereira.

Oops that was not the finishing touch. Because Cook was replaced by Chris Roycroft, and HE gave up another two-run homer to Miguel Vargas, and giving the White Sox their eighth and ninth runs.

The Rays offense avoided total humiliation when Ben Williamson hit a solo home run in the ninth, and it was a little fun watching three White Sox fielders do a ninth-inning Keystone Kops routine tracking down a foul ball (unfortunately for the Rays one of them did catch it, fortunately for all the them, no one got hurt). Too little, too late.