Worldwide Sports News

87 hitters have taken 100 PA so far in AA leagues so far this season. The best batting line among them belongs to the Blue Jays’ 2024 fourth round draft pick, Sean Keys. Keys played his college ball at Bucknell, putting up ridiculous numbers against pretty pedestrian Patriot League competition. He popped a bit with excellent showings in summer wood bat leagues, particularly a brief cameo in the top tier Cape Cod League the summer before his draft season. After turning pro, he put up good-not-great surface level numbers in Dunedin and Vancouver. His advanced approach allowed him to wait out wild low minors pitchers, leading to big walk totals, but his power production was just solid. Underlying metrics suggested he was doing a lot of things right, though, and so far in 2025 a move up to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats’ lefty-power friendly Delta Dental Stadium has allowed the top line stats to catch up. Keys is hitting .310/.429/.667 with nine home runs in 24 games.

Keys’ offensive calling card is his power. His raw strength is solid average or a little better, but he has an uppercut swing that’s geared to pull balls hard in the air and might allow his game power production to come out as plus. Keys is a solidly built guy at 6’2” and 230lbs and can generate that power without selling out. It’s a simple swing, with just a small toe tap and a pretty direct path to the ball. This season, it looks like he’s quieted down his pre-swing movement in the box and opened his stance just a little. He can look a bit stiff, particularly in his two-handed follow-through, but he’s shown decent ability to get the bat on the ball. Last year his 78% contact rate was a bit above average. It’s fallen to 72% this year, partly because he’s gotten more aggressive but probably also because of better competition. He doesn’t have top tier bat speed, and good fastballs at the top of the zone can beat him. It’s possible the swing tweaks are an attempt to adjust to that. Whether he can reliably catch up to MLB calibre heat will be the biggest question on his offensive upside. If he can, he profiles as a low-ish average but solid OBP hitter who could produce 20-something home runs a season. He didn’t show a marked platoon split last year, but as a lefty he has the advantage of being the big side of a platoon if that ends up being his role.

Defensively, Keys’ only real long term home is at first base. He’s still mostly playing third, and his hands and arm actually look solid there, but he’s got a first base build and is a 30 grade runner. At some point probably just won’t have the range to stick at the hot corner. He has a reputation as a hard worker, and can probably be an above average glove at first with reps. He could probably also stand in left field, but again his speed would be a liability.

Keys is off to one of the most intriguing starts in the Jays’ system, and he has real tools to back it up. His 1.096 OPS is a bit of a caricature, but he’s also clearly better than the .773 he put up last season. Given his defensive limitations he’s unlikely to be a star, but he has everything he needs to be a dangerous bench bat in the near future, and everyday upside if he continues to regularly get to his power against higher level pitching.

The San Francisco Giants’ offense came to life on Tuesday, and it is critical that you understand that “come to life” is a relative term. Life, in living and breathing human being terms, may be binary, but in baseball parlance it is not.

For the Giants, coming to life means they scored exactly five runs, which marked just the 11th time they’ve done that through 36 games this year. It might not be a sign of life for the eight MLB teams that are averaging at least five runs per game.

But the issue with an offense that comes to life is that you never know whether its relationship with the other half of the game will be symbiotic or parasitic. Can life on offense beget life on the mound? Or must life on offense funnel life from a pitcher in order to stay alive?

On Tuesday, it was emphatically the latter. San Francisco’s life in the batter’s box, relative as it may be, came at the direct expense of their life throwing pitches. And the result was a 10-5 loss at the hands of the San Diego Padres.

That’s disappointing enough as is, but disappointment gives way to concern when you get to the critical detail: Logan Webb was on the mound.

We keep waiting for Webb’s season to arrive, and it keeps putting us on hold, and making us listen to that annoying music while we wait. There are flashes though, and Webb treated us to a few right out of the gates. He opened the night by striking out Jackson Merrill, and immediately followed it by K’ing Manny Machado. He did allow a two-out triple to Miguel Andujar, but in vintage Webb fashion, looked utterly unbothered while quickly retiring the next batter.

And on the other end, the offense wasted no time upping its game, and trying to prove to Buster Posey and Tony Vitello that the roster buttons being pressed are not in vain, and that the roster messages being yelled are heard, chef. Jung Hoo Lee quickly started a rally with a leadoff single against old frenemy Walker Buehler, setting the first inning in motion.

That set the stage for seemingly the only player employed by the Giants who knows how to hit these days, but my goodness does he know how to hit. For the second day in a row, Casey Schmitt (playing second base this time) launched a majestic first-inning moonshot that tickled the fog and hugged the left field line.

Just like that, the Giants had struck first with a pair of runs. With their offense looking lively and their ace on the mound, it didn’t even feel concerning when Xander Bogaerts bopped a solo shot in the second inning, cutting the lead in half.

You had more confidence than a one-game winning streak should afford you, but you felt sure that the offense would get the run back and Webb would settle down.

Right on the former; wrong on the latter.

The offense got the run back and then some in the bottom half of the inning thanks to the final third of the lineup. The seventh, eighth, and ninth hitters — Willy Adames, Drew Gilbert, and Jesús Rodríguez, respectively — all singled with one out. It was the third and final knock in that hit parade that was special: Rodríguez, getting a second straight start behind the dish to begin his MLB campaign, slapped one to right field for his first career hit. Adames, meanwhile, with his head down in reckless hustle, never looked up to see Hector Borg’s stop sign, and ran right through it, challenging Fernando Tatis Jr.’s dynamic arm, and winning ever so slightly.

Lee would follow that up with a fielder’s choice to score Gilbert, and the Giants led 4-1. Life was good, and it was even better when Webb would set down the side in order in the third, once again striking out Giants killers Merrill and Machado.

But soon it would not be very good at all. The fourth inning ended any and all hopes we garnered for an enjoyable baseball game. It started with a one-out, mild-mannered, seeing-eye single by Gavin Sheets. Such is the life of a sinkerballer.

It escalated a pitch later, when Tatis mashed a double to put runners at second and third with one out. Now the Padres were threatening to not just score a run, but get right back into the game.

They scored a run indeed, on a productive groundout by Bogaerts. It cut the score to 4-2, but it also gave Webb the second out of the inning, and escaping mostly intact was still in play. But Tatis would score when Nick Castellanos, who somehow still has a job, singled. And the danger only mounted further when Webb hit Luis Campusano with a pitch, putting the go-ahead run on the bases. And those runs would both score when Sung-Mun Song one-upped Rodríguez with his first career hit, which went for two bases and scored two runs. Take that, Jesús!

Song, who had taken third on an error by Adames on the play, would score easily on a Merrill single, and just like that, the Padres had flipped the game on its head. The inning had started with what felt like a comfortable lead. It had ended with the worst inning Webb has had in ages, and a 6-4 deficit.

It would be the final inning for Webb, who finished with four frames thrown, seven hits allowed, six runs, and four strikeouts (but no walks!). He had only thrown 62 pitches, but Vitello announced after the game that Webb had some leg discomfort, and the training staff wanted to play in safe after a long inning.

Ever the gamer — and in this case, likely ever the truth-teller — Webb was adamant that any soreness he felt had no impact on the way he threw the ball. He just didn’t throw it well, and with that, his ERA ballooned to 5.06.

What came after wasn’t much prettier. JT Brubaker took over for the fifth, and managed to give up two hits and two walks in his only inning, though he somehow allowed just one run along the way. Despite the second and third batters in the sixth inning being right handed, Tony Vitello shockingly opted for Ryan Borucki in the frame, and it went about how you would expect: he didn’t even get through the opening lefty unscathed, as Merrill bopped a leadoff single. After stealing second, he scored on the most predictable of outcomes: Borucki allowing a hit to a righty.

Gregory Santos handled the seventh and eighth, and while his stuff was nasty — and 20 of his 28 pitches were strikes — his second frame featured a single by Song, a stolen base, an RBI double by Merrill, and, just because this is the kind of day the Giants were having, a balked-home run.

The lone clean outing belonged to Joel Peguero, who made his return from the Injured List and pitched a scoreless ninth inning in his season debut. Welcome back, Joel. And happy birthday!

As that chaos and disappointment unfolded on the mound, the Giants’ offense realized that resistance was futile, and tucked their hits into their back pocket for Wednesday’s game (or at least that’s what I’m telling myself). They went down in order in the third, fourth, fifth, eighth, and ninth innings. But while the showing was feeble during that time, it wasn’t devoid of highlights or feels, because in the seventh inning we were treated to one of the most special things in baseball: the first career home run.

No, it wasn’t off the bat of the highly-anticipated slugger Bryce Eldridge, though he did single for his first hit of the year. Instead, it was Rodríguez, who is getting the playing time preference over Patrick Bailey, it seems. With one out in the inning, Rodríguez got a slider from Jeremiah Estrada and, as he did earlier in the day with his single, inside-outed it to right field.

One day the rookie will learn about the disappointments that await hitters who hit fly balls to right field at Oracle Park, but that day will have to wait. Because in just his second career game, Rodríguez took on the arcade and emerged victorious, with his first slow jog around the bases.

I’ll say this much about the Giants following Monday’s desperation promotions: they may still be awful, but they sure are a lot more interesting.

Near the end of Tuesday’s telecast of the San Diego Padres’ 10-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants, broadcaster Duane Kuiper tried to look on the bright side of Matt Chapman’s 0-for-4 night.

“If it’s any consolation,” Kuiper said, “Chapman’s had the longest out in this game.”

That’s how hard it was to find a positive on a night where the Padres overcame early deficits of 2-0 and 4-1 with a five-run 4th inning off Logan Webb. As the Padres were coming back, starter Walker Buehler (2-2) settled down with three straight shutout innings. By the time a Rafael Devers single and Bryce Eldridge’s first hit of the season chased Buehler in the 6th inning, the Giants were trailing 8-4.

Buehler worked 5.1 innings and gave up seven hits and four runs. Three Padres relievers retired 11 of the 12 Giants they faced, with the lone exception being rookie catcher Jesus Rodriguez, who launched an opposite-field blast off Jeremiah Estrada for his first big-league home run.

Rodriguez got his first big-league hit and first big-league RBI five innings earlier, when he slapped the ball into right field and Willy Adames was rewarded by absolutely blowing through a stop sign at third base to score the team’s third run of the game. After a Jung Hoo Lee groundout, 25-year-old Drew Gilbert came around to score, following his 33rd big-league hit earlier in the inning.

The Giants took an early lead on the 29th big-league home run by Casey Schmidt, his sixth of the 2026 season and one that inspired a truly wretched pun from the NBC Sports social media intern.

This author contends that the sheer awfulness of “HOTTER THAN SCHMITT GREASE” doomed the Giants to their defeat Tuesday night. Maybe reading that tweet in the dugout made Webb lose focus, leading to Xander Boegarts’ solo homer that halved the Giants’ lead in the 2nd.

Aside from the Bogaerts blast, Webb cruised for the first three innings until disaster struck in the top of the 4th. Gavin Sheets continued his career-long ownage of Webb with a single, and No. 5 hitter Fernando Tatis, Jr., hitting the lowest in the Padres lineup since his rookie year, doubled to right.

After an RBI grounder from Bogaerts, Webb brushed back Nick Castellanos, which woke up the slumping outfielder, and his single to center score Tatis. Then Webb really did hit a Padre, catcher Luis Campusano. Sung-Mun Song, in his second big-league at-bat, got his first two big-league RBIs with a double off the wall and scored his first major-league run on a Jackson Merrill single.

Webb’s final line: 4IP, 7H, 6R, 4K, but hey, zero walks!

JT Brubaker had a miserable, 38-pitch 5th inning, but escaped having allowed only one run on a Castellanos sac fly despite walking the bases loaded twice. Merrill singled, stole second, and scored in the 6th on a Miguel Andujar (3-for-5) single off Ryan Borucki.

Gregory Santos gave up two runs in a mistake-filled 8th inning, where Song reached on an infield single, stole second and took third on a Rodriguez throwing error, a double from Merrill (he went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs) and a balk. All in all, the Giants’ defense was sloppy all game, with dropped throws, balls bouncing past outfielders, wild throws, and ill-timed balks.

But Matt Chapman really did hit that ball a long way when he flew out to right field in the 4th inning.

The White Sox (17-19) fought to the very end, but the bats were inconsistent with runners in scoring position, and the Angels (14-23) knocked Erick Fedde around as the Good Guys dropped game two of their LA road trip, 4-3. Now just two games under, the South Siders are hopefully just taking the scenic route on the road to .500, because we won’t be seeing it tomorrow. The good news is that since both the Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers lost Tuesday as well, the Sox are still just a half-game back in the division.

It was not Fedde’s night. The Angels hit him pretty hard, and his pitches simply just weren’t as effective. He only drew a 9% whiff rate over his 4 2/3 innings, and his sweeper typically averages around 23%, whereas it recorded only two whiffs (13%) tonight. The righthander came into this game with five home runs allowed, and added three more Tuesday as Mike Trout, Jorge Soler, and Zach Neto all took him deep.

The White Sox provided a small two-run cushion for Fedde to begin the game, quickly loading the bases in the top of the first and actually taking some advantage of it. Chase Meidroth led off the game with a base hit, and a pair of walks from Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery loaded ’em up. Making his first start as a South Sider and batting in the cleanup spot, Randal Grichuk dropped a broken-bat flare over the second baseman to score the first run of the game. In all honesty, the batting order was a bit weak after Montgomery without Munetaka Murakami in the lineup. I wasn’t expecting much with Edgar Quero up to bat, but he (sort of) proved me wrong and drove in the second run on a sacrifice fly out to center, but those two runs were all the Good Guys could push across the plate, 2-0.

That lead lasted for all of 10 minutes as both Trout and Soler launched solo bombs to tie the game up at two, making it a brand new ball game. Fedde maneuvered through the next few innings without many issues, but once the batting order swung around for the third time, Los Angeles started to get to him. This is when Neto struck, hanging for a second at the plate to watch it fly to give the Angels the lead, 3-2.

Trout walked for the second straight at-bat, and Nolan Schanuel doubled to drive him in and give LA a two-run lead, 4-2. Fedde met the end of his night after that, finishing with four runs surrendered on six hits, two walks, three bombs, and two strikeouts. Fortunately, this didn’t severely impact his ERA, which increased to 3.79 after starting the night at 3.23, and hopefully these types of outings don’t become a habit.

After the first inning rally, it took until the seventh for the South Siders to scrape another run across. They got something going in the sixth after Derek Hill reached on an infield single, and Will Venable called on Murakami to pinch-hit. In another universe, he might have hit the game-tying homer, but he did knock a single to put runners on the corners for Sam Antonacci, who flew out to end the inning. Finally breaking the scoring drought, Meidroth mashed his second long ball of the season in the seventh to bring the Sox within one, 4-3.

The bullpen was solid coming in to relieve Fedde, only allowing one base runner while keeping Los Angeles at bay in hopes that the bats could figure something out. For the final 3 1/3, Tyler Davis, Jordan Leasure, and Bryan Hudson shut the Angels down, combining for just one hit (from Hudson) and three strikeouts.

Sure, the three homers from Fedde were a killer, but the Sox had ample scoring opportunities, especially being within just one run. It’s a shame that the hitting couldn’t pull it together.

The Good Guys applied more pressure in the top of the ninth after Antonacci was hit by a pitch, stole second, and then made it to third base with one out and the heart of the order coming up. Vargas walked to bring Colson up with one out, needing just a measly fly ball to tie the game. He unfortunately struck out, but naturally Jared Kelenic walked to extend the inning and loaded the bases up for the second time of the night. A walk is fine, I guess, but with the Angels fan that was screaming his name throughout the entire broadcast, I was hoping that he would tank one out of the park.

That brought us to … Quero with the bases loaded. Just who you want in that situation, the guy with a .425 OPS. Shockingly enough, he rolled over on a ground ball to second to end the game. Unless Drew Romo was completely incapacitated, he should have been available off the bench, and that might have been a good time to use him — the guy that is mashing homers lately — but I digress.

Though they (barely) outhit the Angels again, 8-7, the White Sox weren’t able to convert as they did in the series opener. There were plenty of opportunities to drive in runs, but outside of Grichuk’s base hit in the first, no one else could get the job done, going 1-for-7 with RISP and 11 left on base. Literally any one of those runners would have made for a completely different ball game, but unfortunately, the South Siders won’t be making it back to .500 on this road trip.

George Kirby kept the Braves on the ground for seven innings, but the Mariners struck out 16 times while watching an early lead slip away.

Andrés Muñoz allowed the go-ahead homer to Matt Olson in the ninth inning Tuesday, giving the Braves a 3-2 win. The Mariners had gotten out to an early lead on a two-run home run from J.P. Crawford in the third. But they picked up just one more hit the rest of the way, rarely threatening while, again, punching out 16 times.

The highlight of the game, however, was another strong start from Kirby. It’s been a weird season for him so far. He’s walking more and striking out fewer batters than ever, but he entered the day with a 56.5% ground ball rate — the fifth best in baseball. His 2.84 xERA suggests the approach has been working, but even he’s not quite sure where all the grounders are coming from.

“Guys are just kind of hitting them on the ground, honestly,” Kirby said after the game. “I think that’s just kind of what happens when you try and get strike one. You’re in the zone a lot throwing quality strikes. So, the more ground balls, the better. Helps me go deeper in games and eventually get the swing and miss when I need it.”

Here’s how his first pass through the order went: 

1st inning: Groundout, groundout, strikeout
2nd inning: Groundout, single, groundout double play
3rd inning: Strikeout, weak fly out, ground out

The plot below doesn’t reflect Tuesday’s outing, in which Kirby posted a 65% ground ball rate, but it’s clearly a trend. We’ve simply never seen this type of contact from him before.

The other, less-fortunate trend for Kirby in the early going is a noticeable dip in effectiveness on the second turn through the order. He entered the day with a stellar 2.79 FIP on the first pass and a less flattering (but not terrible) 4.21 FIP on the second. 

That issue “technically” cropped up again in the fourth inning. Ozzie Albies and Olson picked up back-to-back singles, and Mauricio Dubón doubled them home to tie the game at 2-2. The contact wasn’t particularly hard, and it was mostly on the ground, so it’s not like he was getting rocked.

“I don’t think they made any good swings in that inning,” Kirby said of the fourth. “I thought I executed really well, it just kind of found a hole. So I’m gonna keep doing my thing, keep inducing weak contact, and those will eventually go my way off the bat.”

The flukey double from Dubón was hit at just 66 mph down the right field line.

Kirby mixed his pitches effectively throughout the game, helping keep a great Braves’ lineup off balance. He really leaned on his sweeper, throwing it 36% of the time — the most he’s thrown in a game this season. He was even throwing it 30% of the time to lefties, or about double his rate from his previous seven starts. He was clearly trying to back door the pitch, starting it way outside before scraping the outer part of the zone.

It often worked. In his final at bat of the game, Kirby started Mike Yastrzemski with a changeup right over the center of the plate, which he was clearly not expecting. Then he threw a biting hook that Yastrzemski chased at his toes. Kirby followed with two 96+ mph fastballs up, and Yastrzemski fouled them off. Then came the sweeper, looking like a fastball way up and away before landing right on the outer black for a called strike three.

“Tonight Garv did a good job establishing the outside to lefties with the sweeper, getting them to lean over and then attacking with heaters and then crowding them with spin. So, got a a lot of good weak contact…We game-planned to steal them back-door. I feel like that’s always been a good pitch of mine, I can get it there whenever I want to. And then with two strikes, I was able to get it down below the plate when I needed to. I’m always working on that pitch, trying to get some swings and misses.”

The paired pitches tool from FanGraphs illustrates just how tough it is for a batter to offer at that backdoor pitch:

Kirby’s final line was seven innings, six hits, one walk, four strikeouts, and a 65% ground ball rate. It’s sixth time in eight starts Kirby has gone at least six innings, and he’s now two-thirds of an inning short of Max Fried for the most in the majors.

“As a starter, I want to go as deep in the game as possible and give my team the best chance to win. So if it’s ground balls, great, strikeouts, awesome, if it’s a little bit of both, even better,” Kirby said.

Jose Ferrer came on in the eighth with the game stilled at 2-2. He delivered another impressive outing: strikeout, strikeout, pop out. He lowered his FIP to 2.31 in 18 innings, making him one of the top 15 relievers in baseball this year. Hhis role is only going to increase with Gabe Speier and Matt Brash each on the injured list.

Dan Wilson turned to Muñoz in the ninth with the game tied 2-2. He hung a slider not quite middle-middle but clearly within the reach of Olson, who deposited it over the center field wall at 110 mph. It was a leadoff homer that gave the Braves a 3-2 lead, which wound up being the final score.

It was the third home run Muñoz has allowed this season and raised his ERA to 6.00. He also picked up two more strikeouts to raise his K/9 to 15.00. He has a 3.81 FIP and 2.34 xFIP. This pesky homer problem crops up from time to time with Muñoz, mostly because he’s a reliever. A few bad outings looks like a streak when they come one inning at a time. The stuff continues to look dominant. I’m not worried.

Then there’s the Mariners lineup. Again, they struck out 16 times Tuesday. Cal Raleigh returned at DH after three days dealing with “general soreness” in his side, and he struck out three times. Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena, Mitch Garver, and Cole Young each struck out twice. Crawford also struck out twice, but he did this as well:

It’s the second homer in as many nights for Crawford, who swatted a tremendous go-ahead blast in Friday’s 5-4 win. He’s clearly seeing the ball well right now, drawing walks, avoiding strikeouts, and elevating to the pull side. Yes, the defense is worse than ever and unplayably bad — not an ideal for a team with several other DHs. But in general, Crawford remains with the team because he’s a solid hitter who can occasionally get scorching hot. His contact quality has outpaced his results most of the season, and the results are starting to come.

That’s the only positive thing to say about the offense Tuesday.

The Mariners will look to take the series Wednesday afternoon, with Bryan Woo facing Martín Pérez. The Braves have not lost a series in 2026.

On the same day that manager Torey Lovullo called the entire starting rotation into his office to tell them they needed to pick up the pace, Dbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez did just that and then some. ERod put this team on his back tonight shutting down the Pirates offense taking some of the pressure off his team and allowing them to get back to .500 on Cinco de Mayo as they beat the Pirates 9-0.

Eduardo Rodriguez was commanding all of his pitches to all parts of the zone today. His final line was 7 innings pitched, allowing only 2 hits, while walking 3, and striking out 7.  Early in the game he did a great job of getting some strikeouts on the curveball low in the zone. The curve is a pitch that ERod has not used much historically but tonight it was critical. That low curveball opened up the top of the zone for his fastball later in the game which generated a 47% whiff rate striking out 4 Pirates hitters. In the words of Jim McLennan earlier on twitter, only 2 AZ pitchers this year have thrown 7 shutout innings and Eduardo Rodriguez is both of them. Tonight’s outing lowered ERod’s season ERA down to 2.50, far and away the best of the starting rotation and I don’t even have to check.

The Dbacks offense got off to a great start in this one pushing across 2 runs in the first inning also pushing Pirates starter Bubba Chandler to 38 pitches. The Pirates actually had their bullpen up in the first and would’ve likely pulled Chandler had 1 more batter reached in the inning. Rather than continue to focus on getting the Pirates starter out of the game, the Arizona offense would proceed to have the next 7 batters get retired in order. This game was looking like it was going to be closer as the offense failed to record a hit in innings 2-5, however their patient approach would pay off in the 6^th inning as they sent 9 men to the plate and scored 5 runs blowing the game open.

The offense did do a much better job tonight staying patient at the plate walking 7 times creating a lot of base traffic and setting up some timely hits. Certainly a positive sign for an offense that has been perhaps overly aggressive in recent weeks. The most timely of the hits were a pair of doubles in the 6^th inning by Gabi Moreno and Geraldo Perdomo. It was also great to see some of Ketel Marte’s early season tough like start to dissipate tonight as he hit a triple, a single, scored 2 runs, and 2 RBI. Tonight was a good example of what this offense can do when they take their walks and cut down on the chase.

This was only the 2^nd win of 5 or more runs this season. Certainly a welcome beginning of the homestand for a team that has played so many high leverage close games. All eyes will be on Michael Soroka tomorrow night as he faces Paul Skenes. If Soroka can get back to the form he showed earlier in the season and keep this momentum rolling in the starting rotation, that could be a big boost for this team. Perhaps we will be able to look back on today as the day the starting rotation got back on track following a timely group meeting? Let’s hope!