Worldwide Sports News

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. 

Left-hander Drew Pomeranz joined Triple-A Iowa.

Right-hander Kenten Egbert moves from High-A South Bend to Iowa.

We’ve all heard of players on the Des Moines/Chicago Shuttle. Egbert may be the first player ever on the Des Moines/South Bend shuttle.

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs were grazed on by the Buffalo Bison (Blue Jays), 8-5.

Kenten Egbert got the start today and it did not go well. Egbert got hammered for eight runs, five earned, on eight hits over 2.2 innings. Egbert walked five and struck out two.

Drew Pomeranz pitched the fourth inning in his Iowa debut. Pomeranz gave up a two-out walk, but nothing else. He struck out two.

Cobin Martin threw three scoreless innings of relief. The only baserunner he allowed was a leadoff walk in the seventh. Martin struck out one.

Catcher Christian Bethancourt pitched two scoreless innings to close out the game.

Scott Kingery hit a solo home run in the third inning, his second of the season. He also finished the top of the third inning for Egbert, getting a groundout on a 36 mile per hour curve ball. So technically, Kingery hit that home run as a pitcher. Kingery was 1 for 4 at the plate.

Left fielder Owen Miller was 2 for 5 with one run scored.

Third baseman James Triantos went 1 for 4 with a walk and two runs batted in.

Kingery’s home run.

RBI single for Triantos.

Christian Bethancourt bringing the heat.

Knoxville Smokies

The Knoxville Smokies were harried by the Birmingham Barons (White Sox), 10-5.

Starter Koen Moreno went the first four innings and was touched for three runs on four hits. One of the three runs was unearned. Moreno walked two and struck out four.

Erian Rodriguez got the loss after he was banged up for five runs on three hits and three walks over 1.2 innings. Rodriguez also hit a batter. Rodriguez did not strike anyone out.

Third baseman Edgar Alvarez blasted his eighth home run on the year in the fifth inning with two men on. Alvarez went 2 for 5.

Catcher Owen Ayers was a perfect 4 for 4 with a double and a walk. He scored three times.

Center fielder Alex Ramírez went 2 for 5 with an RBI double in the first inning. He also stole a base.

Left fielder Andy Garriola was 2 for 4 with an RBI double and a walk. Garriola also scored a run.

The Alvarez home run.

South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs were kidnapped by the Quad Cities River Bandits (Royals), 7-2.

South Bend got a great start from Alfredo Romero, who pitched five innings and allowed no runs on just one hit. Romero struck out five and walked no one.

South Bend were leading 2-0 going into the top of the ninth, but reliever Ethan Bell and Grayson Moore got rocked for a seven-run inning. Bell took the loss, giving up five runs on four walks and one hit over one-third of an inning. Bell had one strikeout.

Center fielder Kane Kepley cranked a solo home run in the sixth inning, his fourth on the campaign. Kepley was 1 for 3 with a walk.

South Bend had just four hits this afternoon.

Kepley’s home run.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans lost to the Salem RidgeYaks (Red Sox), 7-6.

Brody McCullough started this game on a rehab assignment. He went three innings and allowed one run on two hits. McCullough struck out four and walked one.

The Pelicans tied the game back up in the top of the ninth, but Aiden Moffat was summoned out of the bullpen to pitch the bottom of the ninth. Moffat faced three batters and walked all three of them. That meant that Edwardo Melendez came in with the bases loaded and no one out. Melendez gave up a walk-off single to the only batter he faced.

The game was tied in the ninth because third baseman Yahil Melendez hit a two-run home run in the top of the ninth. It was Melendez’s second of the year. He was 1 for 4 with a walk and two runs scored.

Left fielder Edward Vargas went 2 for 3 with a walk and a run scored.

The Melendez home run.

ACL Cubs

Off day.

Rangers 3, Blue Jays 2

• Herbie brought his passport.
• And I will remind you that every time the Texas Rangers have won the World Series, they have swept a four game series in Toronto that season.
• In what has been a recurring theme in this series, Texas took an early lead, had to deal with some bullpen shenanigans late, but still managed to pull it out.
• Fun fact…by my count, there were exactly 15 plate appearances in this series where the game was tied. In every other plate appearance in this series, the Blue Jays were trailing.
• With one out in the eighth inning of this game, Vlad Guerrero, Jr. lined out, and then Kazuma Okamoto grounded out. Those were the only two plate appearances Jays hitters had in the series when Toronto wasn’t losing.
• Kumar Rocker started the game by allowing a pair of singles, and the cries of dismay over Skip Schumaker not going with an opener, as he has in what have been arguably Rocker’s two best outings of the season, could be heard all around.
• The Jays only recorded two more hits off of Rocker after that, though, with Rocker ultimately going six shutout innings.
• After Rocker got out of the first, the only difficulty he really faced came in the bottom of the fifth. With two outs, Andres Gimenez fisted a single into left, then Corey Seager made a bad throw to first on what should have been an easy 6-3 grounder by George Springer to end the inning. Exacerbating things, Elias Diaz followed that up by throwing behind Gimenez at second during Nathan Lukes’ ensuing plate appearance, but hit him on the helmet with the throw, resulting in the runners being allowed to advance.
• Rocker got Lukes swinging to end the inning, however, and had a nice 1-2-3 sixth to end his day.
• 16 swings and misses for Rocker, including 8 out of 16 swings on his slider. Rocker also got 5 whiffs on 9 swings on his fastball, which normally isn’t a big swing-and-miss pitch for him.
• The Rangers needed length from Rocker, since Jakob Junis and Jacob Latz were unavailable after pitching two straight days on Thursday and Friday, Robby Ahlstrom was unavailable after pitching two straight days on Friday and Saturday, and Joe Ross and Peyton Gray were unavailable after throwing 29 and 39 pitches, respectively, on Saturday.
• That left Cole Winn, Tyler Alexander (who threw 15 pitches on Saturday), and Winston Santos, who has never pitched in a major league game, available from the pen.
• Winn handled the seventh, struck out Gimenez looking, allowed a single to Springer, then gave up a bomb on a hanging slider to Lukes.
• At that point, I thought we were facing defeat. And what a vexing defeat it would have been.
• Joc Pederson homered to lead off the game, leading to hopes that the Rangers would do damage off of Shane “Big Brown” Bieber, who was making just his second start of the year and who wasn’t effective in his first outing.
• Texas loaded the bases with one out against Bieber in the first, but a bad swing decision by Ezequiel Duran on a 2-0 pitch he shouldn’t have swung at led to a 5-2 fielder’s choice for the second out, and Evan Carter struck out swinging to end the inning.
• Again, something that has seemed to happen a fair amount in this series.
• The Rangers had the bases loaded with one out again in the sixth, and actually got a run home on a Elias Diaz single, but Alejandro Osuna followed it up with a hard hit ball to first that turned into a 3-2-3 GIDP.
• The Rangers had some bad luck on balls in play in this game — especially Osuna. Osuna had three balls in play in the game, with xBAs of .470, .470 and .530. They resulted in a pair of double plays and a line out.
• The luck dragons owe Osuna one here.
• The home plate umpire also seemed to have a particularly bad strike zone, as well, with the Jays successfully challenging four pitches. The Rangers had several pitches that looked challengeable, but after Diaz unsuccessfully challenged a ball call in the bottom of the first, Texas didn’t challenge the rest of the way, no doubt in part wanting to save their lone remaining challenge for a key late game situation.
• It had all the hallmarks of a gut punch lost, a game slipping away due to circumstances and misfortune.
• And if the Rangers were going to win, they were going to need Winn to get out of the eighth, and then likely have someone throw a scoreless ninth, because the Rangers were unlikely to score off of Jays reliever Louis Varland.
• Varland has been the second best reliever in baseball this year (no one is touching Mason Miller, who has an insane 0.37 FIP to go with his 0.79 ERA and 1.21 xERA). Varland took over the closer role in late-April. Coming into the game, he had allowed 4 earned runs on the season, and was sporting an 0.82 ERA, 1.94 xERA and 1.54 FIP.
• Varland struck out Alejandro Osuna and Joc Pederson to start the ninth, and with Winston Santos and Tyler Alexander warming, I assumed that Santos was coming into the game unless the Rangers took the lead. Such thought was not encouraging.
• But Josh Jung laced a slider down — but not down enough — into the opposite field gap for a double. Jarred Kelenic, the only non-catcher left on the bench after Justin Foscue hit for Evan Carter in the top of the sixth (awfully early, though with one out and two on in a one run game, it was a big spot, but still…) and then Lopez replaced Foscue, pinch ran for Jung.
• Sometimes fortune smiles upon you at the most unexpected time.
• Such it was here when the first pitch from Varland to Corey Seager went about 55 feet, bounced up and off of Alejandro Kirk, and caromed all the way back to the netting on the base side of home plate. Kelenic, running all the way, made it home easily from second, and the Rangers, unexpectedly, miraculously, had the lead:

• Tyler Alexander, summoned to handle a save situation for the second day in a row, had an uneventful ninth.
• And just like that, the Texas Rangers swept the series, had a four game winning streak, and guaranteed themselves no worse than a .500 road trip.
• When the road trip started, I felt that .500, on three city trip with ten games in ten days, would be a successful road trip. After that, the Rangers would have just 31 road games remaining, compared to 44 home games. Split the road trip, play well on the nine game home stand leading into the All Star Break, and let’s go from there.
• With three games in Cleveland coming up now, a .500 road trip would feel like a letdown.
• The Rangers are also in sole possession of first place as result of the Mariners losing. This is the first time the Rangers have been in first place since April 25, and the first time they’ve been in sole possession of first place since April 17.
• Kumar Rocker touched 96.8 mph with his sinker, averaging 94.5 mph. Cole Winn maxed out at 95.9 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s fastball topped out at 92.6 mph.
• Joc Pederson’s home run was 108.9 mph. Ezequiel Duran had a 106.7 mph single. Jake Burger had a 105.1 mph groundout. Josh Jung had a 104.4 mph single, a 102.0 mph double and a 100.5 mph fly out. Elias Diaz had a 102.2 mph single. Alejandro Osuna hit into a double play on a ball with a 100.8 mph exit velocity.
• Seven down, three to go.

The Dodgers claimed a series win against the San Diego Padres with a 4-2 victory Sunday, widening the gap between division rivals to 10 games.

The Dodgers (54-30), who have the best record in the majors, have won five of the first six games of a three-city trip that ends in Sacramento.

A bounce-back start from right-hander Emmet Sheehan made the Dodgers’ win Sunday possible. He held the Padres to one run, on Manny Machado’s fourth-inning homer, through five innings.

Read more:'He cares about people.' How Dodgers' Dave Roberts got to the cusp of 1,000 career wins

“Maybe being a little more comfortable in my mechanics,” Sheehan said after limiting the Padres to two hits. “But also just the focus in between starts of trying to get a little more execution instead of delivery thoughts. I had seven days, so I got to throw two bullpens this week, which is nice.”

It was the first time Sheehan held an opponent to a single run since May 8, when he threw 4⅔ innings against the Atlanta Braves.

“He just beared down and made pitches when he needed to,” manager Dave Roberts said, “versus feeling it with the mechanics or being uncertain.”

Mookie Betts stayed hot with his bases-loaded, two-run single off Padres starter Michael King to spearhead a three-run rally in the fifth. Betts also singled in the seventh.

Freddie Freeman had an RBI on a nine-pitch walk in the fifth, and Shohei Ohtani drove in the Dodgers’ first run with a single in the third.

“The last six weeks, Shohei’s been out of this world,” Roberts said. “Freddie’s been very consistent all year, and then now we got Mookie this last week on track. So it has been the better part of the season that we haven’t had all three of those guys. You can see it — when those three guys are threats, it just kind of takes a lot of pressure off everybody else.”

Over the three-game series, the Dodgers outscored the Padres 20-12. Here are offensive takeaways from the series:

Tucker ‘grinding’ through

Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker never had been through a stretch like this. He entered Sunday with a .719 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, the lowest he’s had 77 games into a season in his career.

“I feel fine coming to the field and everything, it’s just not being as productive as I normally am, or as I want to be, kind of sucks,” Tucker said in a conversation with The Times a couple of weeks ago. “But I’ve just got to come back for the next at-bat, or the next day, and whatever, and just move on.”

Has battling this uncharacteristic slump taught him anything?

“I’d rather not suck,” he said. “But just try and grab through and just whenever anything works or clicks or whatever, just don’t let it go.”

Tucker has had moments this season when it looked like he was heading toward an offensive turnaround.

In mid-April, he homered twice in three games, including a three-hit performance. In early May, he went on a six-game hitting streak. He hit .303 over a nine-game stretch in mid-June. But none led to sustained success.

So, when Tucker logged three hits, including a home run, on Saturday as the Dodgers routed the Padres 15-3, he was cautious in his optimism. Tucker even nitpicked the nine-pitch at-bat that ended in the pull-side homer.

“There were some pitches I swung at earlier in the at-bat that I thought should’ve gotten the job done earlier, just didn’t put a great swing on it,” he said after the game.

Manager Dave Roberts was more enthusiastic about that at-bat.

“He’s handled it well,” Roberts said. “He’s frustrated, certainly. But he hasn’t run from the work. Even [Friday] night after the game, he was hitting in the cage. … You hear the word ‘grind’ a lot, but he’s grinding. It’s good to see him have some success. I just liked that one at-bat tonight where it was just compete. It wasn’t about mechanics. It was about competing and getting the job done.”

On Sunday, Tucker singled in four at-bats.

Edman’s consistency

There were times last year when utility player Tommy Edman could look at video of his swing and think, “OK, that doesn’t look like how I want it to look.” But there was only so much he could do in the middle of the season, while playing through nagging ankle issues.

“Part of it is kind of just breaking habits that I built last year,” said Edman, who underwent surgery on his right ankle in the offseason. “Was just getting into some bad movements with the lower body, probably just compensating for the ankle, and hips get out of whack, and that kind of stuff. So I’m hopeful that I’ll just be able to keep this up the rest of the year and just be consistent with it.”

Since returning from the injured list on June 16 to make his season debut, Edman is hitting .333 (11 for 33) with a .405 .on-base percentage. He hit his first triple and second double of the season in the Dodgers’ blowout win Saturday.

“I feel like this is kind of one of the rare times where both swings feel good, both from the right and left,” switch-hitting Edman said after that game. “It’s really tough to maintain both swings over the course of the season, so just happy that I feel that way.”

Betts is back

When Betts went three for four, a triple short of the cycle, in the Dodgers’ series finale in Minnesota last week, he couldn’t put his finger on a cue that had snapped his swing into shape over the last couple of weeks.

“Today, I was able to just find something,” he said then. “I don’t even know really what I found. After the home run the first at bat, I wasn’t sure what I did, but I just kind of stayed there. And I think that was the beauty of it. And not really fully knowing and just kind of going to play kind of let me know my training is paying off.”

It continued playing off. That performance kicked off a three-game homer streak. And by the end of his two-week heater, Betts had raised his OPS from .591 to .737.

Read more:Shaikin: Did Padres curse themselves by messing with that anti-Dodgers FTD burger?

By Saturday night, Roberts was ready to declare that Betts was back.

“I say ‘back’ because I just think there’s more intent with him in the batter’s box and a lot less indecisiveness,” Roberts said. “So for me, if he can have that kind of proactive approach, aggressive approach, then everything else is going to take care of itself.”

Betts credited his resurgence to a shift in how he prepares for games. Instead of taking 100 swings in the cage with a specific cue, he’s building up from a blank slate every day.

“I used to have things I would think about that would produce a swing, and now I’m actually just training my body every day,” he said. “So kind of one in the same, but they’re just two completely different ways of going about it. And still trying to get fully used to it, but it’s working, so I’m not changing it.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Dodgers reinforced their dominance over the San Diego Padres on Sunday, taking the weekend finale by a final score of 4-2.

The Dodgers were left hitless over their first two innings against Michael King, but Alex Freeland tallied their first hit with an opposite field single to lead off the top of the third. Chuckie Robinson put Freeland into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, and Shohei Ohtani brought in the game’s first run with an RBI single.

Emmet Sheehan mowed down San Diego’s offense over his first three innings, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out three. His one-run cushion was short-lived as Manny Machado connected for his second home run against him this season in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Freeland reached base for the second time against King with a leadoff walk to begin the top of the fifth inning, but Robinson failed to move him over as the bunt attempt found King’s glove. Ohtani worked the second walk of the inning to give the Dodgers multiple baserunners for the first time, and King subsequently plunked Pages for the second time to load the bases with one out. Freddie Freeman gave the Dodgers the lead back with a walk, and Mookie Betts broke it open with a two-run single, knocking King out of the game after just 4 1/3 innings. Betts added another hit in the seventh inning, finishing the weekend with an average of .333 (4-12), two home runs and six RBI.

Sheehan walked Song for the second time before plunking Fernando Tatis Jr. with two strikes on him and two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. With Samad Taylor representing the potential tying run, Sheehan struck him out for the third time to get out of the jam.

Sheehan’s day was done after 84 pitches, but he put up his best performance in two months. It was the first time that Sheehan allowed just one run since May 8 against the Atlanta Braves, and it was the first time he allowed just one run over at least five innings since April 24 against the Chicago Cubs. His two hits allowed on Sunday are tied for the least amount all season.

Alex Vesia came in relief in the bottom of the sixth inning, but a late reaction to a ground ball from Jackson Merrill allowed the center fielder to reach on an infield single. Merrill got into scoring position on a lazy pickoff attempt from Vesia, and the left-hander couldn’t complete the inning after getting two outs.

Will Klein came in to face Xander Bogaerts, but an RBI single cut the Dodger lead in half. For the second straight inning, the Padres got a baserunner on a hit by pitch with two outs and two strikes as Andujar was drilled to put the tying run on base. Sung-Mun Song represented the potential go-ahead run, but Klein struck him out swinging to get out of the jam.

San Diego threatened Klein again in the bottom of the seventh as Tatis lined a single to right to once again bring the tying run to the plate. Klein got Taylor to strike out for the fourth time, but Tanner Scott came in to face the left-handed hitting Merrill. Scott got him swinging on three pitches to end the threat.

Scott stayed in to face the middle of the order in the bottom of the eighth, but a double from Machado and a hit by pitch to Ty France put the tying run on base with nobody out. Scott managed to strike out Bogaerts for the first out, and the southpaw needed just one pitch to get Andujar to ground into a 5-4-3, inning ending double play.

Edgardo Henriquez notched his first save of the season and just the third of his career, as the Dodgers now lead the season series over San Diego 4-2. The two teams are set to meet at Dodger Stadium for a four-game set beginning Thursday.

Game particulars

• Home runs: Manny Machado (15)
• WP– Emmet Sheehan (4-5): 5 IP, 2 hits, 1 earned run, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts
• LP– Michael King (5-7): 4 1/3 IP, 3 hits, 4 earned runs, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts
• SV– Edgardo Henriquez (1): 1 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts

Up next

Before these two teams square off again, the Dodgers head up to Sacramento to begin a three-game set against the Athletics beginning Monday (6:40 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA). Eric Lauer faces left-hander Gage Jump.

Romy Gonzalez is a good baseball player. He was one of the best hitters in baseball against left-handed pitchers last season. His 162 wRC+ against southpaws last season was ninth-best among qualifiers. Tonight, he makes his return for the Red Sox against Carlos Rodon on the Yankees. While he’s not the flashiest name, it should be a legitimate spark for a struggling offense. Sonny Gray goes for the Red Sox, coming off an 11-strikeout performance against the Rockies. Is a four-game sweep of the Yankees what this team needs to turn things around? Probably not, but it’s a start.

First pitch at 7:20 PM on NBC, Peacock, and WEEI.

Lineups

For the Arizona Cardinals they have two big decisions to make with regards to Monti Ossenfort’s first draft class, and they are two players at premium positions.

Now the question becomes, how will they address each contract situation?

What is interesting is that Paris Johnson Jr. and Michael Wilson seem to be going about their expectations of their next contract a little bit differently.

At least how it is being reported.

What is so interesting is that Wilson is probably better off playing the year out and betting on himself to get from the $18-22 million range to the $26-30 million range.

While PJJ wanting “$40 million a year,” makes sense for the top end left tackles, and maybe PJJ is, but can you pay that to someone who hasn’t played a full season since his rookie year?

The Cardinals also need to be cognizant of how much they’re investing in their “best players” from a three win team. They can control Paris the next two years at reasonable rates (for the position) while Wilson probably needs to prove he is more than just a volume player when the team is down 17+ points.

What do you think?

The Yankees are lucky this series is in Boston, because after three pretty gross outings in a row against the Red Sox, they’d almost certainly booed by the Bronx like the hunter who shot Bambi’s mom. They can get a little bit of good vibes back today by managing a single win in this four-game set, though they’ll need to beat arguably the BoSox’s best in order to do it.

Sonny Gray, who I’m sure many of us remember, has been quite effective from a pure run prevention standpoint. He’s top 20 in baseball by ERA albeit with a 70-inning threshold, but what should be noteworthy is how his strikeouts have disappeared. He sat down 26.7 percent of batters faced last year and over 30 percent two years ago, but manages just a 21.1 percent this year. Far more balls in play are available against Gray, and while he’s juiced his ground-ball rate to something we haven’t seen from him this side of COVID-19. If the Yankees can elevate against him, there are runs on the table here.

Meanwhile, Carlos Rodón will once again take the stage for the Yankees. I don’t want to harp on Carlos too much, he’s a fair pitcher who probably isn’t what you’re paying him to be but his wife is an excellent social media follow. He hasn’t allowed more than three runs a start all year. I hate watching him pitch. He is a laborious viewing prospect, seemingly spotting every hitter an extra pitch and being one of the slowest pitchers in baseball in terms of how long he holds the ball for. Cam Schlittler is the second-slowest, but at least he seems to dock a pitch per hitter rather than donate one. I hope Rodón pitches well, but I doubt I’ll enjoy the journey.

We have a bit of a funky lineup today, with Aaron Boone seemingly try to shake the tree and see if a few runs drop out. Against the righty Gray, Jazz Chisholm Jr. will lead us off for the first time all season–first time as a Yankee actually–and traditional lefty platoon hitter Amed Rosario will DH and bat sixth. This means Paul Goldschmidt is the odd man out, with the league’s oldest position player given the day off. Oswaldo Cabrera also gets his first start since the ugly ankle injury that ended his season early in May 2025.

How to watch

Location: Fenway Park – Boston, MA

First pitch: 7:20 pm ET

TV broadcast: NBC

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY) | WEEI 93.7, WESX 1230 AM, WCCM 1490 AM (BOS)

Streaming: Peacock

For updates, follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.

In a pitching duel at Oracle Park, it was the Braves who faltered, leaving Chris Sale on the hook for a loss despite a good performance in a way that’s frustrating and familiar.

Sage or something stronger may be needed to get the stink of this team, both bats AND gloves. Generally, the Braves were hitting the ball well… to a perfectly placed Giant playing effortless and Ron Washington-coached defense. The Giants, in turn, were hitting bloops and seeing-eye singles that found grass every. Single. Time. 

The good? Ha-Seong Kim worked another walk. It was apparently a beautiful and clear day in San Francisco. Chris Sale threw the fastest pitch he’s ever recorded since 2018. But otherwise? Yikes.

Sale and Robbie Ray went toe-to-toe in throwing up zeroes for the first half. Ray’s perfect game bid was broken up in the sixth inning with an Eli White single. Sale worked around traffic and stranded Giants runners effectively until the bottom of the sixth.

The Braves’ best chance to draw first blood came in the top of the sixth when White’s leadoff single and stolen base, the aforementioned HSK walk, and Michael Harris II productive out to get the runners to second and third. But Ozzie Albies groundout would send us to the cursed bottom of the sixth.

A particularly annoying Luis Arraez single followed by another by Heliot Ramos would set the table for Rafael Devers. He wouldn’t homer here, but he would single on a ground ball to Austin Riley, who then overthrew it over to first. The error allowed a run to score and for Ramos to get to third. Sale would get two swinging strikeouts, but be burned again by his own defense when Ozzie had a throwing error of his own on a play that should’ve ended the inning and instead made it 2-0 Giants.

Sale’s afternoon concluded with six innings pitched, eight hits, two runs (one unearned), one walk, and ten strikeouts. He was relieved by Didier Fuentes, who allowed a single to pinch-hitter Drew Gilbert, a double to Matt Chapman, and a sac fly to Arraez to make it 3-0. After walking Ramos, he was lifted in favor of Dylan Lee, who ended the threat.

And lo, the scoring drought would end in the eighth. Ray got his own taste of his defense making mistakes. Eli White reached on a Chapman error and got to third after a Mauricio Dubón double. But Harris II sac fly would be all they get to make it 3-1 Giants. Robbie Ray’s final line? 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R (unearned), 1 BB, and 2 K. And he did it in 95 pitches (in contrast to Sale’s 94 pitches). Tyler Kinley pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth.

And as we’ve heard before, the Braves may not always win, but they’ll give you a finish. Matt Olson would make it interesting with a double in the ninth, advancing to third on a groundout, and then scoring on a groundout to make it 3-2. Walt Weiss turned to Dom Smith with one out left. He singled and was replaced with pinch-runner Jorge Mateo, who did his job to steal second. The script was scripting for pinch-hitter Mike Yastrzemski to deliver against his former team. But it wasn’t to be.

California was not good to the Braves. Good riddance to 2026 Pacific Time baseball. But the Delta plane awaits to bring them back home where the Cardinals and Mendoza-less Mets await. Here’s to hoping for better results as we flip the calendar to July later this week.

The White Sox and Royals played two games this afternoon, but squeezed them both into nine innings.

For the first 3 1/2 innings, it looked like the game would last until roughly Thursday and end up 46-44. For the next 5 1/2, both relief staffs did really good Mark Buehrle imitations, so the game ended up in 2:52, with KC up by a run.

The Royals scored one in the first off Anthony Kay on a single, stolen base and RBI single by Carter Jensen as he stretched his hitting streak to 19. It only took two batters against Luinder Avila for the Sox to take the lead in the bottom half, after a Sam Antonacci walk and a 407-foot shot into the wind and the bleachers by Miguel Vargas, his 19th blast of the season.

Kay then gave two back in the top of the second on a hit batter, a Colson Montgomery error on a routine grounder (not his day, he was also 0-for-4 with two of Chicago’s six strikeouts), a single and a sac fly, but Avila returned the kindness and handed the Sox back a 4-3 lead on two-out hits by Antonacci, Vargas, and Kyle Teel, the last two with broken bats.

Not one to accept gifts, Kay then gave up another run in the top of the third to make it 4-4, and yet another in the fourth to give the Royals a 5-4 lead. At that point the game had already lasted longer than an hour-and-a-half thanks to a superabundance of pitches (73 in 3 2/3 by Kay, 86 in four by Avila) as well as all the running around the bases by the two teams, who had 13 hits off the starters.

Cue up the second game, in which five White Sox relievers tossed 5 1/3 innings of four-hit, one walk shutout ball (Seranthony Domínguez was even good, probably because he pitched the sixth instead of the ninth), and five Royals out of the pen did even better, giving up just one hit in five innings of work.

It should be noted Bryan Hudson was helped considerably by an excellent throw by Braden Montgomery after Starling Marte lashed a shot down the right field line:

Nailing Marte turned out to be really important at the time, because Salvador Pérez followed with a single to left.

With the surprisingly shutdown bullpen work (especially a surprise for the Royals staff), the 5-4 score at the end of 3 1/2 innings was the same at the end of nine.

The White Sox still won the series and had a 4-2 homestand. Their record is an amazing 43-39, and with a Guardians win the two teams are again tied atop the AL Central. The Sox now head to Baltimore for three games starting tomorrow, followed by four in Cleveland.