Worldwide Sports News

Right-hander Jason Flores became the ninth Texas Longhorns player to enter the NCAA transfer portal with the news of his departure from the Forty Acres breaking on Tuesday.

Portal Update

RHP Jason Flores has entered the transfer portal

The Soph righty made 9 appearances and 2 starts with a 6.75 ERA over 12 IP

Flores is currently with @HarwichMariners in the Cape Cod.

Big arm talent – will be interesting to see where he ranks on @64Analytics

— Zachary Symm (@ZachAtTheDisch) June 23, 2026

The 6’1, 240-pounder has two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Out of Garland Naaman Forest, Flores was a well-regarded prospect in the 2024 MLB Draft, but chose to honor his commitment to Texas and play for head coach Jim Schlossnagle. Perfect Game ranked Flores as the No. 76 player nationally and the No. 22 right-handed pitcher.

A power hitter who played multiple positions around the diamond in high school, Flores focused on pitching in college thanks to a fastball that reaches into the mid-90s and a high-spin curveball.

In Austin, Flores wasn’t able to capitalize on his upside, struggling to command the run on his fastball on the way to hitting 14 batters in 32.1 innings as a freshman. Flores was hard to hit, though, as opponents batted .205 against the big right-hander, who notched a 4-2 record and 2.78 ERA in 14 appearances, including five starts.

As a sophomore, Flores struggled to make his stuff match up with his results, failing to earn a role as the midweek starter despite two opportunities and failing to factor into the weekend bullpen, as well. In 12 innings over nine appearances, Flores had a 6.75 ERA thanks to a 7-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio and opponents hitting .333 against him with 16 hits allowed. Flores also hit four batters and threw two wild pitches.

Schlossnagle continued to speak glowingly about Flores and his upside, including superlative efforts in simulation games during practice, but in limited chances, Flores wasn’t able to translate that success into real games.

No longer considered an MLB Draft prospect, Flores will now look for an opportunity elsewhere.

Texas Rangers pitcher Jack Leiter underwent surgery today to remove a loose body in his ankle, per the beats. While the expectation is that he will be back before the end of the season, exactly when he will be able to return is not clear, with Evan Grant indicating Leiter wouldn’t be back before August at the earliest.

The injury to Leiter’s ankle was suffered on April 22, when he tripped on the on-deck circle in an effort to back up a throw. He’s been pitching through it, but it apparently has been impacting him, and reports over the weekend said that a recent scan indicated that the ankle had gotten worse.

Cal Quantrill is filling in for Leiter in the rotation for at least the start today. Jose Corniell, who has been a starter throughout his career in the minors, was called up to take Leiter’s place on the active roster, and could be a rotation option as well.

The Rangers will no doubt be hoping that Jordan Montgomery, who started a rehab assignment this past weekend and pitched one inning for Frisco, will make good enough progress in his return from Tommy John surgery that he would be an option after the All Star Break.

After putting up a 3.86 ERA and 4.15 FIP in 2025, Leiter’s numbers have gone backwards in 2026, as he’s posting a 5.29 ERA and 4.76 FIP on the year. One would think that trying to pitch through the ankle injury contributed significantly to that.

Welcome back to our series on the innovations the Yankees pitching department is making with the sinker! They’ve dusted off the pitch from a period of league-wide dormancy and have a renewed focus on disseminating it across as much of their pitching room as are willing to use it. Last month, I kicked off the series by looking at the way Cam Schlittler has incorporated the sinker into his arsenal and how that decision helped launch him to the stratospheric heights he is now pitching at.

For our second entry in the series, I’d like to turn to one of Schlittler’s rotation mates in Ryan Weathers. Acquired in a trade from the Marlins over the winter, Weathers was seen as an able deputy in the rotation while Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón recovered from their respective elbow injuries. Perhaps that is selling him a bit short, becuase with three years of team control and an enticing arsenal, it was easy to feel that Weathers was just scratching the surface of his abilities in his first five big league seasons and that he was someone the Yankees pitching coaches could mould into a rotation cornerstone for the present and future.

Weathers started off on a roll with a 3.00 ERA and 3.31 FIP across his first eight starts. But then he hit a serious rough patch giving up at least five runs in four out of five starts before steadying the ship a touch in his latest outing. The primary culprit for Weathers’ recent woes has been the long ball, the 26-year-old southpaw giving up ten home runs in his last six starts. He has allowed 16 on the year, which is sixth-worst among qualified pitchers. I believe the reason for this is his particular style of pitching.

Just looking at the raw metrics, you would think that Weathers’ four-seamer would be his most effective weapon coming in with an average velocity of 96 mph and over 15 inches of induced vertical break. However, it is tied for the 14th-worst four-seamer among the 571 pitchers who throw the pitch, worth -7 runs according to Statcast’s Run Value metric, which tells you how many runs a pitch is better or worse than average based on outcomes. Nine of the 16 home runs he has surrendered have come against the four-seamer, and I think I’ve discovered the reason why.

Generally when you throw a high-velocity, high-spin four-seamer, you want to target the top of the zone, particularly up and in to righties as a lefty pitcher. This keeps the pitch above the hitter’s swing plane, making it difficult to barrel and even harder to pull in the air with power. The problem for Weathers is that he likes to pitch his fastballs low in the zone, where it is much easier to do damage against the four-seamer.

Below is a heat map of all the four-seamers Weathers has thrown this season:

That hot zone down and in to righties is the problem area, as revealed when looking at all the home runs Weathers has allowed so far:

That is such a dangerous spot to throw the pitch to righties. Because it holds its vertical plane and remains flat through the zone, it becomes the perfect pitch to lift in the air when thrown there. It falls right in their natural swing plane whereas a sinker’s downward movement helps the pitch avoid the barrel low in the zone.

And that would be my prescription for Weathers: exchange out all those down and in four-seamers for down and in sinkers. The good news is it appears he is already starting to do that. Weathers is throwing the sinker a career-high 19.6-percent of the time as compared to just 3.1-percent of the time last year with the Marlins. This has come almost exclusively at the expense of the four-seamer, which is now sitting at a career-low usage rate of 27.8-percent, way down from 45.3-percent last season.

What’s more, the characteristics of the pitch have improved since he joined the Yankees. Last year with the Marlins, Weathers’ sinker averaged 20.6 inches of drop and 16.5 inches of arm-side movement. This year, it is averaging 21.8 inches of drop and 17.9 inches of arm-side movement, making it a top-30 sinker in the league when it comes to horizontal movement vs. average. This combined with Weathers’ ability to command the pitch at the bottom of the zone has made it his most effective pitch per Statcast’s Run Value at +3 runs. In addition, it is way better than the four-seamer at limiting damage, with a .400 SLG against as opposed to a .675 SLG against the four-seamer.

Finally, I believe further improvements with the sinker can facilitate a potential move to the bullpen. It’s between Weathers and Will Warren for demotion from the rotation once Max Fried returns from his elbow injury. Weathers and Warren have performed at a roughly similar level when looking at their expected metrics, but I just shudder at the though of Warren entering a game in the later innings with runners on base given his struggles pitching from the stretch.

Furthermore, I think Weathers’ stuff plays up way more in a bullpen role. Weather has triple digits in his arsenal when he pitches at maximum effort, whereas Warren hasn’t hit 96 mph since mid-May. The Yankees need more swing and miss in their bullpen, and Weathers narrowly edges Warren in that department. We’ve seen the way guys like Clay Holmes and Tim Hill have leaned on the sinker to limit damage coming out of the bullpen in recent years and I think a similar opportunity exists for Weathers should he find himself squeezed out of the rotation.

Here are the lineups. For the Phillies:

Zeus day ⚡#RingTheBellpic.twitter.com/GONTFVNuMU

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) June 23, 2026

For the Nationals:

we put together a little lineup for tonight

→ https://t.co/iUBDqlACVspic.twitter.com/JTTCRJ9YPe

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 23, 2026

Lets’s talk about it.

The Seattle Mariners have activated star outfielder Randy Arozarena from the 10-day injured list, where he’d been sidelined for the minimum number of days since a tweak that occurred while running hard for a bang-bang play at first base on June 13th. Arozarena has been an iron man by modern MLB standards, taking just two days off in 2025 despite dealing with some degree of hamstring discomfort a season ago, and having played 151+ games every season since 2022. It was his first trip to the injured list since 2021 and just his second as a pro.

The swift return of their left fielder is a massive boon for Seattle, whose pre-existing weaknesses against left-handed pitchers were exacerbated dramatically over the weekend against a few strong southpaws on the Boston Red Sox. Arozarena entered Tuesday as the 30th-best position player in MLB by fWAR (2.3) and 27th by bWAR (2.6) despite his 10 days shelved, making him a top-10-12 outfielder MLB-wide and top-5 in the American League. His .291/.377/.448 line and 139 wRC+ has been accompanied by 19 steals in 23 attempts. While at times he might need MapQuest in left field, Seattle’s first place positioning is due massively to their 31 year old free agent to be.

Arozarena is also back in time to build on those numbers, as he is sixth in American League All-Star voting just behind of his teammate in center, Julio Rodríguez. Ahead of him are deserving-but-injured superstars Aaron Judge and Mike Trout, as well as consistent standouts Byron Buxton and Cody Bellinger.

As a corresponding move, the Mariners optioned OF/1B Connor Joe to Triple-A Tacoma. Joe was pulled up frantically following Arozarena’s injury, but not able to make it swiftly enough to reach the ballpark initially. That led to the Moonlight Graham moment of Curtis Washington Jr., the 26 year old 19th-round pick who was plucked from High-A Everett for a night on the bench in T-Mobile Park. Seattle’s 40-man roster remains full at 40.

The Chicago Cubs today added right-handed pitcher Jayden Murray to the 26-man roster. In a corresponding move, right-handed pitcher Gavin Hollowell has been optioned to Triple-A Iowa.

Murray is 29 and was acquired Saturday, June 20, from the Houston Astros for minor league infielder Cameron Sisneros. He will wear uniform No. 70 — the first Cub to wear that number since manager Joe Maddon left after the 2019 season.

Murray was a 23rd-round pick of the Rays in 2019 out of Utah Tech and was acquired by the Astros in 2022 in a three-way deal with the Rays and Orioles that also involved former Cub Trey Mancini. In 17 games (16 relief appearances, one start) for Houston over the last two years Murray has posted a 4.68 ERA and 1.560 WHIP, with 10 walks and 18 strikeouts over 25 innings. Here is his pitch selection chart for this year:

Hollowell was recalled on June 16 and made three appearances with the Cubs, posting a 4.91 ERA (2 ER/3.2 IP) with two strikeouts and five walks.

Today’s game preview will post shortly at 4 p.m. CT.

Season Record: 37-40

Week Record: 2-4

Series Record: 12–12, 1 split

GAME 72: 2-4 Loss vs Minnesota Twins
GAME 73: 2-12 Loss vs Minnesota Twins
GAME 74: 3-9 Loss vs Minnesota Twins

GAME 75: 9-7 Win vs San Diego Padres
GAME 76: 4-5 Loss vs San Diego Padres
GAME 77: 4-3 Win vs San Diego Padres

The Rangers had nothing on Minnesota last week. Couldn’t do anything against them, and the random off day in the middle of the series didn’t do anything to turn it around either. 

They faired much better against San Diego over the weekend, winning yet another series.

Alas, their series record remains at .500. 

While Ezequiel Duran has been in a bit of a funk, Wyatt Langford seems to have hit a stride, now having hit five homeruns since coming off the injured list.

Texas had an incredible win on Friday with Jacob deGrom but it sure didn’t seem like they would. Before the Rangers even game to bat for the first time in the game, they were down five runs. However, they did something stunning, and scores six runs in the bottom of the first.

It feels rare when Rangers answer back so quickly and so hard.

Hopefully something that can continue doing to win series.

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BetMGM’s branding presence with MLB will continue for the foreseeable future.

Key Takeaways

• BetMGM and MGM Resorts International renewed their partnership with MLB, extending a relationship that began in 2018.
  
  
• The online operator will continue to be featured on multiple league platforms.
  
  
• BetMGM operates in nearly a dozen jurisdictions that have an MLB team.

The online sportsbook and casino announced a multi-year extension Tuesday with the pro baseball league that began when MGM became the first operator to be MLB’s official sports betting partner in 2018, enhancing the operator’s visibility on multiple platforms.

“Major League Baseball offers one of the most engaging, data–rich experiences in sports, and this renewal underscores our shared commitment to innovation, integrity, and responsibility,” BetMGM chief revenue officer Matt Prevost said in a statement. “Together, we're enhancing how fans experience the game, from defining moments on the field to legendary experiences at marquee events like MLB All-Star Week." 

Under the extension, BetMGM will continue to receive exposure across MLB's media platforms, including MLB Network, Apple TV broadcasts, and the league's website in the U.S. and Canada. The responsible gaming partnership feature, GameSense, will also remain.

BetMGM will also keep developing online casino games featuring pro baseball, and MGM Resorts, which owns 50% of BetMGM with Entain, will continue to be MLB’s exclusive resort and casino partner. 

Visibility increasing 

BetMGM also expects its marketing presence with MLB events, including MLB Awards Week in Las Vegas, to grow. 

“MGM Resorts and BetMGM have been great partners to baseball for nearly a decade,” said Uzma Rawn Dowler, MLB chief marketing officer and senior vice president of global corporate partnerships. “We're excited to continue our relationship and together help create more unique experiences for our fans.”

Not only is BetMGM a league sponsor, but the online operator also has partnerships with nine MLB teams, including big-market teams in the Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, and New York Yankees. 

BetMGM operates online sports betting in 22 U.S. states, including nearly a dozen jurisdictions where at least one MLB team resides. BetMGM also has partnerships with the NBA, WNBA, NHL, and NASCAR. 

MLB's broader gambling strategy

MLB also has an integrated partnership with FanDuel, the No. 1 market-share online sportsbook and iGaming operator in the U.S. It wasn't the first league to partner with sportsbooks after PASPA was overturned in 2018, but it was among the earliest major leagues to embrace gambling sponsorship revenue.

MLB signed an unprecedented memorandum with the federal regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in March and partnered with prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket to build new contract trading standards. MLB wants input on what markets are offered, something other leagues are seeking as well, and a seat at the regulatory framework table to help protect the integrity of the sport.   

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

The final West Coast trip of the season for the Braves started in brutal fashion Monday night in San Diego.

The hot-and-cold offense which has been a lot more cold of late was at its coldest in the opener, stranding eight runners in a 1-0 loss to the Padres.

The Braves will put JR Ritchie (1-2,4.54 ERA) on the mound Tuesday night hoping to level the series.

The rookie’s first two appearances back have been a real mixed bag. His relief appearance after Spencer Strider’s early exit at the Mets (2 H, 0 R over 5 IP) was very good. His first start back last Wednesday against the Giants (5 R, 5 H, 3 HR in 5 IP) was not.

Walks continue to be an issue for Ritchie, who has issued 21 free passes in 35 2/3 innings this season. He’s issued three or more walks in four of his seven appearances.

Maybe a Padres lineup which ranks last in the majors in batting average (.219), slugging percentage (.363) and scoring (3.86 runs per game) will be what Ritchie needs to rediscover his form, having not thrown more than five innings since he did so in each of his first two career starts.

While the Padres haven’t officially announced a starter, it sounds like it will be right-hander Griffin Canning (1-5, 6.64) getting the nod. He had a delayed start to his season as he finished up recovery from a torn left Achilles.

It didn’t start well for him, with an 0-4 record and 7.16 ERA in six May starts. But two of his three June starts have been at least solid and he’s coming off his first win of the season, allowing one run on four hits over 4 1/3 innings last Wednesday against the St. Louis Cardinals.

As with Ritchie, walks have been an issue. He’s walked 25 batters against 41 strikeouts in 42 innings. He’s also allowed eight home runs — as many as he had given up in 16 starts and 76 1/3 innings this season.

Canning, who was with the Mets last season, made his first two career appearances against the Braves the last two seasons. He lasted a combined seven innings across the two starts, giving up seven runs for a 9.00 ERA with nine hits allowed, six strikeouts and one walk.

Could this be what awakens the dormant Braves’ offense, most notably from Drake Baldwin’s extended slump since his return from the injured list?

Now 1-for-25 with 15 strikeouts https://t.co/zpilc3xKMq

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 23, 2026

Let’s find out in another edition of Braves After Dark.

Game Info

Game Time: Tuesday, June 23rd,9:40 pm EDT

Location: Petco Park, San Diego, Calif.

Watch: BravesVision, Gray TV

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

The Return of Shane. It sounds like an old time western, starring Glenn Ford with Walter Brennan in it to give comic relief.

I try not to expect too much out of a guy coming off rehab, but it is hard not to hope for a great game. And Shane has come back from injuries before.

As I mentioned, in the open thread, I’m spending today on my bike. The MS ride is this weekend and I haven’t been riding near enough. But the ligament tears in my foot, plus the crappy weather we’ve been having, and a certain amount of laziness, I’ve only had half a dozen rides this spring.

The forecast for the weekend isn’t great, I think we’ll be riding in the rain.

Anyway, I’m doing this together long before they put up lineups.

It would be nice to get above .500, but the Astros have a pretty good starter going too, Peter Lambert is 6-4, with a 3.23 ERA and has a 1.93 ERA in his last three games.

Go Jays Go.

A lot has happened since Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, Ryan Walker, and Sam Hentges protested the Giants’ Pride Night, and as with everything that’s happened in this country, it’s devolved into a circus. But rather than come at this from the responsible, community-driven angle that the Actually Good writers on this site have done already, I’ll stick to baseball, because I think there’s a sneaky weird problem for the team that has nothing to do with a good chunk of the fan base losing faith in and enthusiasm for the team.

On Friday, Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred continued MLB’s slow walk towards banning Pride Nights by responding to Senator Josh Hawley‘s letter of “grave concern” over the league engaging in “a pattern of discrimination […] against baseball players who profess their Christian faith.” In the letter, he makes it clear that this terrible episode is the Giants’ fault, that the team’s “communication with players was inadequate and not clear.” This letter was sent the day after the DOJ opened an investigation into the league for the same sort of discrimination. Given all this, have Buster Posey’s hands been tied?

Along the lines of the league and the team needing to be careful with what they say and do given the government’s scrutiny (and penchant for punitive measures), does this open investigation into the league now prevent the team from doing anything “negative” with Roupp, Brubaker, Walker, or Hentges? They can’t option the optionable, cut the cuttable, or demote the demoteable? Now, before you go closing the window thinking I’m getting conspiratorial, here are some actual facts.

Hawley, who memorably stoked the (metaphorical) flames on January 6th, posted Manfred’s letter to his Musk Account but underneath this post:

@MLB Commissioner writes to me and admits they were wrong to threaten the Giants players over Bible verses and promises never to fine or discipline these players – or any players for their religious beliefs

Indeed, Manfred writes, “The players were neither fined nor disciplined, nor will they ever be.” Hawley characterizing it as a “promise” is a good play for his audience, as American discourse involving religion or politics rarely rises above childish thinking. Now, if the Giants want to option or DFA Ryan Walker after his next meltdown, Hawley can point to that and say, “Promise broken!”

Now, would a reasonable person conflate what happened with the players’ protests, the league’s uniform policy, and the team’s right to manage its roster? No, but a person can very easily be made unreasonable through propaganda, or simple repetition. Liberal, anti-Christian San Francisco is taking out their bad season on their good Christians. Fox News and the internet are the Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen of shaping reality.

A standard baseball transaction for a poor performance ought not to fall into the realm of “punishment,” but with the Department of Justice weaponized against them, it stands to reason that the league and the team will be extra careful in how they treat these players. What would that do to the Giants’ already pitiful roster?

Landen Roupp

Well, here’s the thing: the rest of the Giants’ season is an experiment, and so Roupp won’t lose his rotation spot no matter what. He’s rocking a 6.64 ERA / 3.94 FIP here in June, but these are the rough rapids teams must ride when trying to build up their inexperienced players. Roupp is still pretty inexperienced from an innings standpoint (237.1 IP over three seasons), and he’s just 26.1 innings away from last year’s total. Recall that Roupp’s injury track record has limited his playing time for his entire pro career. He’s been as valuable as Logan Webb this season (1.8 fWAR to 1.9), but he also has the 10th-highest walk rate (3.7 BB/9) of any qualified starter.

I’m sure most people (myself included) figured Roupp would be a part of the team’s plans long-term. The thing is, he’ll be 28 next season. Let’s see if he can reach even 130 innings this season. It’s not that he shouldn’t have been considered part of the next good Giants team, it’s just that his importance might be a bit overblown. As a developed prospect contributing to the big league roster, sure — he’s a narrative buster (the narrative being that the Giants have been bad at developing prospects since the championship era). But he’s not an ace, not the next Logan Webb. And as time goes on, he might wind up being a solid #3 or great #4.

But would moving him to the pen for a stretch or towards the end of the season just to keep his arm fresh trigger the DOJ? Maybe. The best thing to do then is to just let him pitch, and let the chips fall where they may.

Ryan Walker

He was extremely unpopular with the fan base before he protested the rainbow hat, but it looks like their hatred has only given him strength? He has allowed just 3 baserunners in 3.2 innings since being recalled on June 12th, but we’ve seen Walker’s performance act like a roller coaster before, including this season. A 5.40 ERA through his first 6 appearances, 1.29 through the next 6, then 7 earned in his next 3.1 innings which got him optioned to Triple-A. The next Ryan Walker Trainwreck is maybe only a couple of innings away. Are the Giants really going to hold a roster spot for him the rest of the season for fear of running into trouble with the league or “the law?”

Well, yeah, because Buster Posey and Zack Minasian haven’t really been able to get anyone better.

Sam Hentges

After missing all of 2025 it wouldn’t be a surprise if Hentges takes some innings to get on a roll or — and, perhaps, more likely — hit a wall just as the fatigue/workload catches up to him. Under those circumstances, a team might slow play him or phantom IL him. Might the Giants be too shy to try either option? He has another year of team control attached to his name, and so it might be in the best interest of the club — in a dreadful year — to preserve some talent they think can help next year’s team, if they think that one’s going to be any good.

Hentges’s 2.84 ERA in 12.2 innings is good, but his FIP has been rising all season thanks to those walks. It’s up to 4.44, which is quite a bit higher than his career average (3.33).

He’s out of options, though, and so the Giants really only have “phantom IL” and limiting playing time as their options should they want to hold on to the player. Relievers are supposed to be fungible, and relievers who walk a lot of batters especially so, but the DOJ might not even be the reason why they don’t mess with him too much. It’s simply the case that they need strikeout stuff in the bullpen, and he has it.

It’s also the case that he’s been lumped into this matter by Hawley and the evangelical rabble rousers when MLB only made contact with the three players who wrote on their hats. But now Hentges has an opportunity for special treatment if he ever feels jilted by the club like, say, Tom Murphy once did.

JT Brubaker

I never really understood the affection for the player. A mid-90s sinker that didn’t get a lot of outs paired with a 2,500+ rpm slider that did. His utility to the team — besides being able to write on his hat WITH REALLY BIG LETTERS — seems to be pitching multiple innings.

But he’s basically been fine this season, too. The majority of his appearances (19 out of 26) have been when the team is trailing. Only 6 times has he appeared with the lead and only once when it’s tied. He’s in spots that you might give to Adrian Houser following his move to the bullpen, but even that move is temporary until the Giants trade Robbie Ray and/or Tyler Mahle, so, we’re just not going to see Brubaker very much — unless Tony Vitello plans to line up all of these relievers after Roupp starts, as he did in Roupp’s last game.

---

But this is a role you could tag with all three of the relievers in this group: not for use in high leverage situations. They are not the best options out of the bullpen. In theory, that should make them the most replaceable, with the guys currently being asked to get key outs moving down the pecking order and bumping one of them should the Giants acquire more talented relievers. Which, would a team want to acquire any of these guys? Not because of the protest baggage, but because the DOJ might start scrutinizing them?

On the active roster, Erik Miller, Dylan Smith, and Tristan Beck are the other relievers with options and Trevor McDonald has one, too. It just seems a little wacky to hold three spots in the ‘pen for a trio who might not be on the active roster of any other team. On the other hand, the Giants don’t have anything more to lose by holding on to them. Can Ryan Walker turnaround his career? Can Sam Hentges regain his form? Will Brubaker simply out-pitch others who might seem like a better fit?

The Giants were committed to these guys before, during, and after their protest, so the league and the government coming along to tell them they’d better not try anything probably hasn’t added any tension to their plans, and as a thought experiment it seems pretty clear that except for maybe Ryan Walker the roster was setup to feature these guys in these specific roles long before Pride Night. And, as a bad season is really good at illustrating, even if the team wanted to improve, they don’t have any better options now or going forward.

For the Friar Faithful, tonight’s win felt like a massive sigh of relief. Despite the San Diego Padres only scoring one run, it was all they would need as Michael King went seven scoreless innings for the second time this season.

King needed a start like this almost as much as the Friars did. He’s had a tough stretch lately, but acted as a stopper for San Diego on Monday night. The Padres will look to win the series in Game 2 against the Atlanta Braves tonight.

Taking the mound

JR Ritchie (ATL) v. Griffin Canning (SD)

Ritchie had an impressive start to his rookie year with Atlanta but has since fallen off a bit. He’s struggled with inconsistency, causing him to post a 4.54 ERA and 1.37 WHIP through 35 2/3 innings.

With the injuries that have marred the starting rotation, Ritchie has been thrust into a role he likely wouldn’t be in otherwise. The underlying stuff is tantalizing, but San Diego’s lineup should be able to tag the righty for a few runs.

Similar to Ritchie, Canning has had some major problems with consistency. In his last three starts, he’s surrendered one run, seven runs and one run in each. That’s led to him having an overblown 6.64 ERA.

That said, he’s been better lately. The Padres have started using an opener for Canning and it’s seemed to help. He had one of his best starts of the season against the St. Louis Cardinals last week, giving up just one run to the Cards.

Batter up!

The offense did just enough to back up their pitching staff, scoring one run on a Manny Machado homer. Despite the Braves’ pitching staff walking a ridiculous seven batters, including Xander Bogaerts three times, the Padres couldn’t bring any of them to home plate. They’ll need to be better with their situational hitting if they hope to beat Atlanta tonight.

1. Fernando Tatis Jr., 2B
2. Samad Taylor, RF
3. Jackson Merrill, CF
4. Manny Machado, 3B
5. Gavin Sheets, LF
6. Xander Bogaerts, SS
7. Ty France, 1B
8. Will Wagner, DH
9. Rodolfo Durán, C

Blake Hunt could start behind the dish, though Durán has worked behind the plate more until Freddy Fermin returns from concussion protocol. That said, with Hunt on the way out soon, the Padres could decide to play him one more time.

Taylor batted in the ninth spot in the order for the first time since he pinch-hit for Durán in his Padres debut. He’s looked comfortable batting second and could return there after going 0-for-3 at the bottom of the order.

Relief corps

With King pitching flawlessly, only Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller had to be used in Monday night’s game. Morejon covered a perfect eighth inning before Miller entered in a save situation. He recorded two outs before giving up a single and a walk. He struck out Mike Yastrzemski to end the trouble.

That saves the ‘pen for tonight, with Jason Adam, Kyle Hart, Ron Marinaccio, Yuki Matsui, David Morgan and Wandy Peralta all available. Adam has struggled lately, but will look to rebound from a tough series against the Texas Rangers.

Texas Rangers lineup for June 23, 2026 against the Miami Marlins: starting pitchers are Cal Quantrill for the Rangers and Sandy Alcantara for the Marlins.

The Rangers play game two in Miami. They are looking to extend a winning streak, and get back to the dreaded one game under .500 mark. Still no Corey Seager. Brandon Nimmo is DHing.

The lineup:

Pederson — 1B

Langford — CF

Nimmo — DH

Jung — 3B

Duran — SS

Osuna — RF

Kelenic — LF

Higashioka — C

Lopez — 2B

5:40 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are +134 underdogs.