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San Diego Padres Fernando Tatis Jr. is scorching at the plate to open the month of June. Manager Craig Stammen has been reluctant to lock his superstar into one defensive position at either second base or right field because it might limit the offense’s potential. With the need for more run production amid key injuries, the Padres may be forced to place Tatis Jr. at one position to acquire another bat.

In June, Tatis Jr.’s offensive production is .359/.390/.513 with a HR and three RBI, which makes him the lineup’s hottest hitter. Despite his production, the offense still needs another proven batter. Keeping his right-handed superstar at one position allows the front office to pursue potential hitters available on the trade market.

Stammen delays selecting position for Tati

Stammen appears to be indifferent to making such a move. He likes the versatility his lineup offers. However, if the offensive slump continues, it may force the Padres to make a deal.

Granted, Tatis Jr. progressed through the minors as a shortstop before moving to the outfield and becoming a Gold Glove winner. But Jake Cronenworth sustained a concussion that forced Stammen to move Tati back to the infield at second base.

He has deployed Tatis Jr. back in right field and inserted Sung-Mun Song at second against tough right-handed starting pitchers. The latter is a decent fielder, but Song has struggled at the plate. He is hitting .190 with eight hits in 42 at-bats. His offensive struggles will garner further scrutiny if the team’s poor play extends much longer. 

Injuries too much to overcome

The loss of Cronenworth has been a major void, as he looked to regain his offensive proficiency after a slow start to the 2026 campaign. The second baseman was placed on the concussion injury list in early May. Cronenworth has begun light baseball activities, including soft running, fielding, and tossing drills. But there is no guarantee that he will return to the lineup this season.

Now, the Friars are in dire straits with the loss of Ramon Laureano from the starting lineup. He underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right hip. The recovery time is four to five months, which means Laureano will miss the remainder of the 2026 season.

Unfortunately, the injury might have ended his playing career in San Diego, as he is eligible to become a free agent at season’s end. To replace Laureano in the lineup, Gavin Sheets is expected to play the majority of the time in left field.

A decision has to be made

It seems like the front office is delaying adding another piece to the roster until they get confirmation that Cronenworth will not return this season. Choosing a position for Tatis Jr. allows them to do their due diligence on the price needed to trade for a bat. 

The Friars need to find a way to generate more run production from the bottom of the lineup. Adding another hitter will lengthen the batting order. 

It does not matter whether the Padres acquire a second baseman or corner outfielder, as long as they solve their offensive issues. 

But do not wait too long, or your top trade targets might get dealt. 

A low scoring, back and forth affair took a turn in the top of the eighth inning during which the Rays broke a 3-3 tie with a five-run inning punctuated by a pair of blasts from Caminero and Mesa Jr. The Rays left Anaheim with a series loss, but were able to salvage the last of three games against the Halos, avoiding the sweep.

Across nine innings, the Rays used six different pitchers in what was a scheduled bullpen day. The staff did their job and kept this game close long enough for the offense to break out. Legumina opened ahead of Seymour, tossing 1.2 innings. He surrendered the first run of the game in the bottom of the second and struck out one.

Seymour followed and provided 3.1 innings of two run baseball. He walked and struck out three. Kelly, Kimbrel, Cleavinger, and Baker combined to toss the final four innings. They allowed no runs and punched out seven.

Prior the eighth the Rays managed to score three runs. In the third, the Chandler Simpson singled home Mesa Jr. and Aranda to give the rays an early 2-1 lead. The following inning, Williamson hit his first homer of the season and extended the Rays lead to 3-1.

The Angels bounced back and eventually tied the game in the fifth and the 3-3 score would hold until the eighth inning. Sam Bachman came on to replace Brent Suter and promptly issued a leadoff walk to Mullins. Caminero followed with a blast to left field, his fifteenth of the year.

Leading 5- and with one out in the inning, Palacios doubled and later scored thanks to a two out RBI-single by Feduccia. Mesa Jr. then got in on the action and clubbed his second homerun of the season. The blast extended the Rays’ lead to 8-3.

That score would hold and the Rays eventually left victorious. At the plate Arana, Mullins, and Mesa Jr. all tallied a pair of hits. In total, the Rays had eleven hits on the day along with four walks. they struck out only four times.

They Rays will face the Dodgers Monday night as Nick Martinez will pitch opposite Eric Lauer. The Dodgers will enter the night with a record of 45-27 while the Rays enter at 41-27. Both teams hold the second best record in their respective leagues. Should be a fun series.

It’s easy to forget how good pitching can help produce good hitting. The correlation isn’t always guaranteed, isn’t always direct or obvious, but every once and awhile those two different facets of the game sync for a team, and it becomes perfectly clear how much one needs, or feeds, off the other. 

Defenders are also hitters. The Giants field eight two-way players who not only watch, but prepare, for every pitch thrown by the pitching staff. Every missed fastball and spiked slider in every prolonged at-bat in every drawn-out inning takes its toll over a long game or long series. There’s a trickle down effect to all that standing around — it’s not just the pitcher who struggles. It’s hard for the other players to stay vigilant, to stay sharp as the mind wanders and the body tires. Errors are made. Mistakes seem to compound. Outfielders and infielders are like the rest of us, they’re fans of baseball. They love to be involved, to see action. Good pitching gets them gassed up!  

Jung Hoo Lee said as much about Logan Webb’s performance before his run-saving, wall-colliding catch in the 8th inning.

Webb had recorded 23 Chicago hitters in the game so far and wanted a 24th. At the time, the Giants had a three-run lead — but the Cubs had just scored their first run on a throwing error by first baseman Casey Schmitt, and threatened with a runner on second base. Webb’s pitch count had eclipsed the century mark. Manager Tony Vitello went out to the mound to go get his starter and was turned back by his starter. Webb wanted to finish the inning, and even in the far reaches of right field with the afternoon sun in his eyes, Lee could see that.

His teammate’s determination to right the ship was evident from the first frame when he got Pete Crow-Armstrong to swing through a fastball on the sixth pitch of the first at-bat of the game, then turned-two on a comebacker after back-to-back singles.

All game Webb attacked the zone, refused to give into hitters, buckled down with runners on base. He struck out 7 without walking a batter. The last time a Giants starter not named Logan Webb had thrown six complete innings and not walked a batter was Landen Roupp on May 19th, nearly a month ago. The last time a Giants starter not named Logan Webb had even pitched six complete innings (to be clear, a pretty unremarkable feat) was Trevor McDonald on May 27th against Arizona, nearly two-and-a-half weeks ago. Webb had done it twice, throwing 7 shutout frames on June 3rd against Milwaukee, and throwing 8 innings of 1 run ball on June 8th against Washington. Over his entire MLB career, Webb had never thrown 8 complete innings in consecutive starts — until today, thanks to Jung Hoo Lee. 

Michael Busch lined a first-pitch 4-seamer towards the first archway in right. Lee booked it into the corner at the crack of the bat. One eye tracked the ball in flight, the other tried to ignore the disconcertedly solid brick wall that was fast-approaching. We all know the history there. Lee would’ve been forgiven if he pulled up short, not wanting to risk another shoulder injury, another season-ending collision with a stubborn vertical plane. Instead he risked it, secured the baseball, then got decked.

Webb’s start didn’t need that 24th out to be vindicated — he had already gone above and beyond — but the fact that he insisted he stay on the hill, and Lee insisted on catching the baseball, wall be damned, is the kind of symbiosis this team has been lacking. 

Landen Roupp threw 105 laborious pitches and didn’t even make it through the 5th on Friday night. The offense responded with lackluster support, recording just 4 hits and 1 run. On Saturday, Trevor McDonald unraveled in the 4th, with three walks, one hit batter, and two wild pitches in a game in which the batting order managed just a single run again. The starters set a terrible tone. They sunk down into the muck and dragged the rest of the team with them. 

But behind a vintage Webb, the bats responded in kind. They didn’t necessarily look fierce, just dynamic, with balls in play to go along with walks and stolen bases and sac bunts. They blooped and blasted and blooped again. In other words, they got on base, got aggressive, and good things happened. 

San Francisco’s three-run 5th inning started with a single by Lee who took second on Daniel Susac’s bunt. The line-up had been hitless, 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position, over the weekend until Drew Gilbert’s bloop double to left.

Then came the blast. 

Matt Chapman’s seventh homer of the year was his sixth in June. He’s racked up 20 RBIs in the first two weeks of the month. His slash line in 54 plate appearances: .415/ .519/ .902.  

Chapman worked a lead-off walk in the 7th. Another sac bunt by Luis Arraez moved him to second to score on Bryce Eldridge’s RBI lob into left.

In the 8th, Casey Schmitt stole second and was promptly knocked home by Susac single. 

The offense looked focused for the most part. There wasn’t much hemming and hawing, not much dilly-dallying. They played off script by manufacturing some opportunities. They didn’t swing too big, or try to do it too much at once. Small ball, you know. When a runner moved into scoring position, the next guy up punched him home. Webb held the Cubs hitless in 6 at-bats with a runner in scoring position, and the Giants went 4-for-7. 

Sweep dodged!

A.J. Ewing showed again Sunday why the Mets were aggressive in calling him up from the minors when they needed a center fielder earlier this year.

The 21-year-old helped lead them to an 8-1 win over Atlanta at Citi Field, coming up just a triple shy of the cycle.

Ewing has consistently impressed with his speed and defense, but his offense has been choppy, and he began Sunday with just one hit in his prior 11 at-bats.

But against Atlanta, he delivered an opposite-field double in a four-run first inning, hit a single to center in the third and then a homer to right in the fifth.

Carlos Mendoza called Ewing’s performance at the plate versus tough Atlanta right-hander Bryce Elder “impressive.”

“I just want to be myself and stay as simple as possible,’’ Ewing said.

“It shows how he handles stuff, especially after a couple of tough games,’’ the manager said.

Mendoza likened Ewing to fellow rookie outfielder Carson Benge in that both have been able to maintain level heads despite going through the ups and downs of their first season in the majors.

“Similar to Carson, you can’t tell if he went 0-fer or had a good game,’’ Mendoza said. “It’s his ability to stay consistent. He’s gonna use the whole field. He hit a homer to the pull side, play defense and run the bases. He’s a mature guy and is learning, adjusting and developing at the big league level.”

In the never-ending game of musical chairs that is the Mets rotation, Tobias Myers is scheduled to start Monday’s series opener against the Reds in Cincinnati, Mendoza said.

Myers has been at Triple-A Syracuse, where he pitched 2 ²/₃ innings and threw 36 pitches Thursday.

Despite the somewhat limited action, Mendoza said Myers could be stretched out a bit.

“He’s gonna go,’’ Mendoza said when asked if Myers would be used just as an opener. “We’ll see how the game unfolds. We’ve got a pitch count in mind.”

After that, Mendoza said the Mets would figure out the next two games in Cincinnati, although Christian Scott and Nolan McLean are lined up for them.

Myers, acquired along with Freddy Peralta from Milwaukee in the offseason, hasn’t pitched more than two innings in a game in the majors since going 2 ²/₃ on May 2.

President of baseball operations David Stearns said Friday that Myers’ “role is going to be whatever we actually need at that point. … He could pitch at the front of games, it could be more in the swing capacity that we saw at points this year.’’

Coming off an ugly start in his previous outing, Peralta allowed three hits to open Sunday’s game, as the Braves pounced on his four-seam fastball.

So Peralta and catcher Luis Torrens shifted, and he used his four-seamer less, and his curveball, slider and sweeper more.

It helped Peralta get through five innings, although he needed 90 pitches to do so.

“I was able to make pitches when I needed to,’’ Peralta said. “I was looking forward to [pitching] at least six, but some things happened.” 

TORONTO — Over the course of nine innings Sunday, José Caballero played second base, third base and left field, got into his almost-daily argument with the home plate umpire over his usage of the pitch clock, and then capped it all off by crushing a 420-foot home run.

“We got the full experience today,” manager Aaron Boone said with a chuckle after the Yankees’ 8-3 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. “He got the right level of ticked off to really lock him in there.”

And while Caballero’s day ended on a high note with the three-run homer in the ninth inning that gave the Yankees some breathing room — which he clearly enjoyed with a slow trot around the bases — his latest spat with the umpires was not a laughing matter.

With the game tied in the sixth inning, Caballero began arguing with home plate umpire Steve Jaschinski before Spencer Miles could even throw him a pitch. The root of the issue, as it normally is with Caballero, is how he uses the timing rules to his advantage — purposely not looking up at the pitcher until there are eight seconds left on the clock, which is the cutoff time for engagement. Pitchers cannot come set until the hitter has acknowledged them.

But Caballero said Jaschinski told him that “if I looked down, he was going to call a strike on me.”

“They’ve been changing the rules without any warnings ahead [of time],” Caballero said. “I don’t know why they’re doing that. The rules are the rules. Nobody wanted the rules. They invented the rules. They should take care of it. I’m just trying to play with the new system that they got us playing in, it’s not like I invented the rules.”

After Caballero’s extended conversation with Jaschinski — which eventually included crew chief John Tumpane and Boone and got heated at times — Tumpane announced that Caballero received a warning for “intentionally delaying” the game.

Caballero said he just wants clarity on the rules because they are not being enforced consistently. Boone added that he expects to speak with the league about the issue.

“I do the same thing over and over, even from the windup, even from the stretch,” Caballero said. “It’s not my fault the pitchers rush a little bit. You can tell every time the pitchers don’t rush, it’s no problem at all. But whenever they get people on and they start thinking faster and they rush, then that’s when the problem comes.

“But that’s not my fault. I do the same thing over and over. Please, come out here and tell us the actual rule, because I’m kind of confused at this point.”

Giancarlo Stanton will undergo tests Monday to determine how much of a setback he had in his calf after tweaking it running recently. He is no longer expected to return during the upcoming homestand, as he initially was, but it remains to be seen how much more time this will cost him on the injured list.

“He did have a little bit of a setback, to a similar area in the calf,” Boone said Sunday. “I think it’s clearly going to slow him down a little bit. To what level, I don’t know yet.”

Austin Wells (cervical headaches) will “probably” play in some rehab games this week, Boone said, before he is activated off the injured list. He is first eligible to do so Tuesday.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. started the day out of the lineup, with Boone saying he has been beaten up of late — including fouling a ball off his toe earlier this week. But Chisholm entered as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning and walked in all three plate appearances.