Author: MLB Baseball News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games

The Athletics faced the Cincinnati Reds in the middle game of this three-game interlegaue series. Once again, A’s starter Jacob Lopez turned in a quality start and gave his team a chance to win, only to receive no help from the bullpen and a struggling offense in a 3-2 loss, the Green and Gold’s seventh straight defeat.

Early Action

The A’s took the lead before most fans found their seats. The first batter of the game, right fielder Lawrence Butler, hit his seventh home run of the season against Reds starter Rhett Lowder to put the visitors in front 1-0.

LEADOFF LAW 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/bw8ZRclYnh

— Athletics (@Athletics) August 5, 2026

Lopez prevented an immediate response from the Reds, striking out the side in the bottom of the first inning. The Reds tied the game the following inning. With two outs, right fielder Noelvi Marte stole second base and then scored on catcher Jose Trevino’s RBI single.

Both teams Waste Scoring Chances

Lopez minimized the damage by striking out the next batter for his sixth strikeout of the game through two innings. The A’s southpaw recorded two more strikeouts in the third inning as the Reds stranded the go-ahead run at second base.

In the fourth inning, a walk and a single gave the Athletics their first scoring opportunity with a runner in scoring position. However, the A’s could not capitalize, as Donovan Walton grounded right back to Lowder to end the inning and keep the game tied at 1-1.

Reds Take the Lead

The Reds took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. Second baseman Matt McLain hit his ninth home run of the season, a two-out solo shot off Lopez. The inning ended when Butler threw out Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz as he attempted to stretch a single into a double.

Back and Forth We Go

Cincinnati’s lead did not last long. With one out in the sixth inning, Athletics left fielder Tyler Soderstrom singled, then raced around the bases to score the game-tying run on catcher Jonah Heim’s RBI double.

Heim ties it up 🤝 pic.twitter.com/HOHaBE5FkI

— Athletics (@Athletics) August 6, 2026

That was all the A’s offense mustered, as Lowder retired the next two hitters and stranded the go-ahead run at second base. The Reds’ right-hander completed six strong innings, allowing two runs on four hits. He did a good job of keeping the ball on the ground, inducing eight groundouts.

A’s Bullpen Blows

In the bottom of the sixth, the A’s brought in right-handed reliever Hayden Juenger. Lopez turned in another solid start, allowing two runs on four hits over five innings. He struck out nine, and more importantly, walked just one batter.

At 87 pitches, Lopez could have returned to start that inning, but A’s manager Mark Kotsay decided to switch pitchers, a decision that ultimately backfired. Juenger found himself in trouble immediately, allowing back-to-back singles to begin his outing. The first hit was a play he should have made, as it was a grounder hit directly back at him. The hosts regained the lead, 3-2, on Marte’s one-out sacrifice fly.

After both teams pushed across a run in the sixth inning, neither team scored in the seventh and eighth, keeping the Reds’ one-run lead intact heading into the final frame. A’s right-hander Scott Blewett pitched two scoreless innings of relief to keep the game within reach.

Last night, the Athletics put up a fight against Reds’ closer Emilio Pagán, but tonight he retired the side in order to secure his second consecutive save and the Reds’ second straight series victory.

In Cincinnati’s hitter-friendly ballpark, the A’s offense delivered another disappointing performance, remaining quiet for most of the contest. The trio of A’s players who recently received contract extensions — Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom and Lawrence Butler — combined for just two hits, a lack of production the team cannot afford with so many of its starters sidelined by injuries.

Speaking of injuries, if Wilson’s ailments are affecting his performance, it may make sense for the A’s to give him additional time to recover, especially with the team’s playoff hopes out of reach.

It seems like the Athletics may not win a game for the rest of the season. This evening’s loss makes the A’s losers of 12 straight series and winless in their last 14 series played.

Tomorrow morning, the team will look to salvage the series finale and finally end its losing streak. Right-hander Mason Barnett will start for the A’s. He will be opposed by Reds’ talented left-hander Andrew Abbott, who will look to take advantage of the injury-depleted A’s lineup.

Jefry Yan struck out his first big league hitter in the sixth inning Wednesday night. He celebrated with a style all his own.

He jumped off the mound, hung in the air for a beat and came down with one leg shot out underneath him, most of the way into a split.

Jefry Yan records his first career strikeout and has the celebration to match! pic.twitter.com/2aW0HdrViM

— MLB (@MLB) August 6, 2026

This had been one of the most anticipated moments of what is left of the New York Mets' season.

Yan has been doing some version of this for five years, through the Marlins system, winter ball at home in the Dominican, a season in Japan and a Rockies spring training that turned him into a clip everybody had seen by April. Some nights it's finger guns. Some nights he calls the out himself, arm cocked like an umpire.

He has gotten a lot of practice recently. He touched 101.6 miles per hour with his fastball this month and struck out better than half the hitters he faced. He also walked almost one in six.

He turns 30 this month. The Angels signed him at 16, he blew out his elbow at 19, and he spent five years outside of affiliated baseball, roofing houses in Arizona and delivering appliances.

So, he's earned the right to enjoy his time on the mound. It's just that other teams in the big leagues may not find it as enjoyable. Asked if the big leagues called for him to tame it down a bit, he said no.

Interim Mets manager Andy Green told reporters that opposing clubs have mostly decided he's harmless, a guy enjoying himself rather than a guy running them down. Hopefully for Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor, teams continue to feel that way down the stretch when they are fighting for a playoff spot against the Mets.

For New York fans though, at least this is something exciting and fun after what has already been a brutal season.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Mets pitcher Jefry Yan nearly did the splits after first MLB strikeout

Jefry Yan celebrated accordingly after his long-awaited first MLB strikeout. 

The Mets’ 29-year-old rookie reliever fanned Guardians pinch-hitter Angel Martínez during his big league debut Wednesday in the Amazin’s 6-5 win in 10 innings at Progressive Field, then immediately unveiled the wild celebration that made him a viral sensation in the minor leagues.

Yan jumped into the air, kicked his legs apart and landed before emphatically pumping his arms.

Jefry Yan records his first career strikeout and has the celebration to match! pic.twitter.com/2aW0HdrViM

— MLB (@MLB) August 6, 2026

After allowing two singles and a walk, the left-hander later struck out Chase DeLauter and got Jo Adell to ground into a force out to finish a scoreless sixth inning.

Yan had promised to bring his trademark celebration with him after the Mets promoted him from Triple-A Syracuse this week.

“I am going to continue to go out there the same way,” Yan said through an interpreter Tuesday. “I am going to go out there with the same type of emotion, the same type of fun — have fun like I am playing a kids’ game, like I always have.”

The moment marked the end of a long journey for Yan, who signed with the Angels as a teenager but underwent Tommy John surgery and was out of professional baseball. 

He worked as a roofer and returned to the mound through a men’s league in Arizona and later pitched in the Marlins organization, Japan and the Rockies’ system before joining the Mets.

Yan recorded a 3.24 ERA and 77 strikeouts across 41 2/3 innings between Double-A Binghamton and Syracuse this season before finally getting the call up to the majors.

Detroit Tigers (55-58) vs. Seattle Mariners (55-59)

Time/Place: 9:40 p.m., T-Mobile Park
SB Nation Site:Lookout Landing
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: RHP Drew Anderson (4-4, 4.24 ERA) vs. RHP Bryan Woo (7-8, 4.56 ERA)

Player	G	IP	K%	BB%	GB%	FIP	fWAR
Anderson	40	63.2	28.3	8.7	47.9	3.80	0.5
Woo	21	120.1	24.5	5.2	38.6	3.20	2.9

2/3 in Seattle

⚾️ 9:40 PM ET
📺 @WatchDSN
📻 @971theticketxyt
🏟️ T-Mobile Park pic.twitter.com/vf3oAhytBP

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 5, 2026

Back at it for Game 2 with Bryan on the bump. #TridentsUppic.twitter.com/Fak8KMwjB0

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 5, 2026

ARLINGTON, Texas — Believe it or not, there are still opportunities for this Giants team to reach new lows, and they just might be barreling toward a big one.

Or should we say, the big one hundred.

It’s a black mark only worn once before in the proud-and-storied franchise’s almost century and a half of playing baseball on both sides of the country. 

And yet it might be the most appropriate way for this miserable season to end.

The Giants (48-67) marched one step closer to their second 100-loss season Wednesday. 

For the most part, their pitchers didn’t look like they belonged in the big leagues, and neither did their starting lineup in an uncompetitive 6-0 loss to the Rangers, who had lost six straight before taking two of three from the trade deadline’s biggest sellers.

That’s probably because this Giants roster as currently constructed barely qualifies as major league, to say nothing of the manager who was in college this time last year.

San Francisco’s fire sale left it with MLB’s fourth-youngest roster and a lineup in the series finale that featured players who started the year in the minor leagues in six of its nine spots. Carson Whisenhunt, who started the game and was gone by the end of the fourth inning, also spent a large portion of this season in the minors.

“They’re here, so they’re major leaguers,” said Tony Vitello, the first-year skipper. “They’re in that locker room, and we’ve got the organization to represent. So find a way. … It just might be a great challenge. But that’s why we’re all here.”

Whisenhunt missed the strike zone on 10 of his first 14 pitches and walked three batters before being rocked for three extra-base hits that resulted in an early 4-0 deficit.

Carson Seymour, one of six new players called up this week, took over and proceeded to surrender the biggest hit yet, a solo home run Brandon Nimmo snuck over the left field fence.

Bryce Eldridge, maybe the one rookie who belongs, got ahold of a first-pitch changeup Cody Bradford left over the plate and sent it to the warning track, but it was contained by the biggest part of the ballpark. That was the best piece of contact any Giants hitter made against the Rangers starter who, like most of the hitters he faced, also spent most of this year in Triple-A.

Eddys Leonard ripped a 106.7 mph double for his first career major-league hit, and Rafael Devers lined a single at 106.2 mph. But the Giants failed to drive in either batter, and a toothless lineup was shut out for the 11th time this season. Nobody has been blanked more often.

What it means

The franchise responsible for greats such as Willie Mays, Barry Bonds and the man currently in charge, Buster Posey, has been around in some form dating back to 1883. They’ve been playing 162 games since 1962, four years after the Giants’ move to California.

Yet, the futility of the 1985 team that finished 62-100 has never been matched, before or since.

That’s because it’s a hard thing to do to play that poorly over 162 games. Since the American League moved to the modern schedule in 1961, and the NL a year later, there have only been 96 teams to finish a season with triple digits in the loss column.

For this Giants team to get there, they would have to finish the year 14-33 over their final 47 games, a 114-loss pace that, believe it or not, would be worse than any stretch this season.

That might seem far-fetched, and maybe it won’t transpire that way, but consider the roster that Vitello will manage the rest of the way. 

A pitching staff that was already among the worst in the majors lost its most effective starter and its two filthiest relievers in trades to contenders. Their most exciting and dynamic hitter (Luis Arraez) is wearing a different uniform, their most consistently productive bat (Casey Schmitt) recently had season-ending surgery and Matt Chapman may not make it back, either.

Although Posey did well to bolster the farm system with his five deadline deals, the moves left the MLB roster that was already among the league’s worst seriously depleted.

You have to wonder if they’re capable of avoiding ignominious history.

A plane flew over Wrigley Field ahead of Tarik Skubal's Los Angeles Dodgersdebut on Tuesday, Aug. 4. It was supposed to read, "The Dodgers ruined baseball"... if it weren't upside down.

The fumbled stunt, funded by sports gambling company Underdog, was intended as a jab at the back-to-back World Series champions — and their projected $322 million payroll — in the wake of their blockbuster trade for the best pitcher in baseball.

"We just want to say what every fan is already thinking," Underdog said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. And in that aspect, they accomplished just that. Just look at the replies under Jeff Passan's tweet when he broke news of the trade on Saturday night.

"They ruined the sport I love," wrote @murphyJacks0n.

"We need a lockout," @owennoble81 tweeted. "This is crazy."

And from several more accounts, "the Dodgers have ruined baseball."

Dave Roberts sat behind the podium at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 2. The Dodgers had just acquired Skubal in exchange for prospects Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith the night before. The dust had yet to settle on the bombshell trade that added the reigning back-to-back Cy Young winner to the back-to-back World Series champions — and to a rotation that, when healthy, includes 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani when Roberts was asked by legendary Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke if he felt "unbeatable."

"We gotta play well," Roberts said. "Baseball's baseball. We gotta play the games, but I like our club."

But in the four games since acquiring Skubal, the Dodgers have done anything but.

They dropped Sunday's series finale to the Boston Red Sox in a sloppy 8-4 blowout at home before flying to Chicago for a three-game series against the Cubs. After dropping each of the first two games in similar uninspired fashion — including Skubal's debut on Tuesday — LA found itself again in an early hole at Wrigley Field on Wednesday.

Eric Lauer, who has been a stabilizing presence in the rotation since his arrival via trade from the Toronto Blue Jays in May in the wake of injuries to Glasnow and Snell, was knocked around for six earned runs — tying his total from the entire month of July — on 11 hits and he gave up two homers to Pete Crow-Armstrong in four innings. This time, however, the Dodgers finally showed fight with a five-run eighth inning thanks to a pair of big swings from Ohtani and Max Muncy. Mookie Betts also had an encouraging 4-for-5 day at the plate, none bigger than his line-drive single to left field earlier in the frame to advance Kyle Tucker to second and set the table for Muncy.

But their early struggles proved too much to overcome. The Cubs held on for a 7-6 win, cementing the second consecutive series in which the Dodgers have been swept and pushing their season-worst losing streak to six games.

"I liked the fight," Roberts told reporters postgame. "It sucks to lose. It absolutely does, but we're going to win again."

A baseball season is a rollercoaster. No team, not even the Dodgers and their seemingly infinite money, cruises its way through 162 games. The Dodgers are in a slump, a bad one, but nothing more. They'll get Snell back in the rotation sometime in the near future, and Glasnow's timetable isn't far behind now that he's begun a rehab assignment with Single-A Ontario. August is not October.

That's exactly what fans of MLB's other 29 teams are afraid of.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The 'bad for baseball' Dodgers are just bad ... for now

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ 40-man roster is at 40.

• Recalled from Triple-A Reno: LHP Philip Abner
• Reinstated from the Paternity List: C Gabriel Moreno
• Placed on the 15-day injured list: RHP Ryan Thompson (strained lower back)
• Optioned to Triple-A Reno: C Adrian Del Castillo

An unsurprising return to the roster for Moreno, with an equally unsurprising optioning of Del Castillo. The other move is a little more of a surprise. Thompson has certainly been struggling badly since the break. He had a 2.88 ERA in the first half, about as good as any Diamondbacks reliever. But in the eight appearances since, things have taken a dramatic turn for the worse:
Ryan Thompson post-break: 6.1 IP, 17 H, 9 ER, 1 HR, 4 BB, 3 K, 12..79 ERA
Part of that is undeniably bad luck – a .519 BABIP! – but if there is a physical cause behind the fall-off, that’s probably good news. The return of Abner does give the team another left-handed option out of the bullpen. Incidentally, Blake Walston pitched a clean inning in his first rehab appearance for Reno.

Elsewhere, an interesting line-up tonight, with both Ketel Marte and Nolan Arenado getting scheduled rest days. Marte has been struggling almost as much as Corbin Carroll of late. Over his last 24 games, he has a line of just .178/.246/.290 for an OPS of .535. Corbin has, at least, been providing value on the base-paths and with his gloves. But since the start of July, Marte has been worth -0.3 fWAR, the lowest value of anyone on the active roster; Carroll is at +0.1. What’s amazing is that, over the same time, James McCann has been almost as valuable as Gabriel Moreno, despite appearing in only one-third the number of games.

We also see Lars the Noot going up to the top of the order. It’s something we’ll likely only see him doing against a right-handed starter like Casey Mize tonight. But it’s likely better than have Carroll or Geraldo Perdomo batting in the #1 slot. Over their 21 starts combined there, the pair have hit just .148, going 12-for-81, with an OPS of .562. Let’s hope that Tiny can show some of the same patience he did in his D-backs debut last night, drawing a pair of walks. After E-Rod’s blow-up and the subsequent loss for the D-backs, the importance of tonight’s game for both sides has become magnified.

Spotify has done me dirty with this “Work From Home” mix, you guys. I’m listening to the worst song right now (“If You Love Her”, by Forest Blakk), and it’s perhaps the worst song I’ve ever heard outside of that one Christmas song about the shoes. It’s so bad the rest of the press box asked me what I was looking at to have such a disgusted look on my face. It’s the schmaltziest, most saccharine bit of dreck I’ve heard in a long time, and I was around for the summer “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)” was on the radio every five seconds. It’s one of those songs that’s highest ambition is to be a wedding reception first dance, and if my betrothed insisted on it as a first dance song I’d reconsider the whole marriage. It’s so bad, it’s making me think music as a concept was a mistake, or perhaps even having ears in the first place. And I would still rather listen to this song on an endless loop than ever think about last night’s game ever again.

Lineups:

News:

Carlos Vargas was at T-Mobile Park throwing to live hitters. He should head out on a rehab assignment within the next week.

Carlos Vargas throwing to live hitters today at T-Mobile Park | Lookout Landing

Kate also wrote on Taylor Ward’s arrival and role as envisioned by Jerry Dipoto and the Mariners front office.

New Mariner Taylor Ward is not just here to walk (but that’s okay too)

Today’s Game Information:

Game time: 6:40 PT

TV: Mariners.TV with Aaron Goldsmith, Ryan Rowland-Smith and Dave Valle/Jay Buhner, with Angie Mentink serving as field reporter

Radio: 710 AM Seattle Sports, with Rick Rizzs and Dave Valle/Jay Buhner

NB: For your planning purposes, Valle will be on the TV side innings 1-3 and 8-9, and on the radio in innings 4-7; Buhner will be on the opposite schedule.

San Diego Padres (59-55) at Arizona Diamondbacks (60-54), August 5, 2026, 6:4o p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Chase Field – Phoenix, Ariz.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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Wednesday night lineup. pic.twitter.com/Qx02AfVbXB

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 5, 2026

Game 3 on deck.

Get https://t.co/epBmrbYHsx for $17.99 this week. pic.twitter.com/niE8zfUVy3

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) August 5, 2026

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I listened to most of the Giants 6-nuthin’ loss to the Texas Ranger while driving on the freeway. The context was fitting. The stretch of I-95 from Portland, Maine to Boston, like much of east coast road travel, is tree-lined. While for a Californian, the dense summer growth of the woods and the thick green of its foliage is unique, its novelty, on a long-ish car ride, wears off quickly. There’s just nothing to look at or break-up the monotony — no expansive valleys with mountains in the distance, no ocean cliffs, no passes to climb or grades to descend. Occasionally there’s a bridge over a river, or a rest stop, or a pond, and I find myself trying to gulp down those small changes in environment as I rush past at 75 MPH before the white pine or maple or birch or whatever the trees are quickly close in, creating a tunneling effect that numbs, and makes one aware of the sound of your tires rolling against the concrete. 

The rest of the 2026 season is going to be exactly that: one painfully long and dull east coast car ride. Something to get through with little to look at or distract.

Wednesday’s loss in Dallas was just another mile on this road to nowhere. Tony Vitello had few righty counter-punches to the Rangers lefty starter Cody Bradford. The line-up went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base. Those numbers suggest a level of threat that wasn’t really palpable though. Only two San Francisco runners reached third base in the entire game — one in the 1st and the other in the 9th.

Carson Whisenhunt, once again, looked perplexed on how to find his way out of the 4th inning. He had limited tools — or just did not know how to use them — when dealing with Texas’s line-up the second time through. Facing Rangers batters for the first time, he held them hitless with 4 strikeouts. But when the line-up flipped over in the 3rd, five of six would reach, with two singles, two doubles and a triple, scoring four two-out runs. There were some clear mistakes in terms of location, especially with his fastball and slider.

It was his third walk, to base-stealing threat and number-9 hitter Evan Carter, that got pulled from the game.

That’s really it. There is nothing of substance or interest to report from this one. The small, insignificant, and individual scratchings on the box score are our literature now, our cheap entertainment to pass the time. Inevitably, someone in the car gets so bored they just start reading roadside signs out loud, or making statements about what they see beyond their window, with little commentary or discretion. Bryce Eldridge batted first. He hit a long fly out to deep center, he singled, and there’s a McDonalds. Eddys Leonard got another start in left and bagged his first Major League hit with a double in the 2nd, and Historic Kennebunkport. Drew Cavanaugh finally notched his first Major League extra base hit with a two-bagger of his own in the 9th. Nate Furman pinch hit for Buddy Kennedy, and got everyone to lean in in the 8th inning with the Giants down 6-0 — would he get his first knock too? A bird soared overhead. Maybe a hawk? Or even an eagle of some kind…? Furman walked on five pitches. Nah…just a turkey vulture.

There was a point on the drive, somewhere in southern Maine, maybe in the 4th when Leonard popped up with two on to end the 4th, or when Willy Adames chased out of the zone for the second out with Cavanaugh in scoring position in the 5th, that I really zoned out. Perhaps Tony Vitello, or Ron Washington, or Rafael Devers experienced the same thing — going glassy-eyed as they stared out from the dugout at the field in front of them. Nothing ahead on the horizon. The trees on either side of the road blurred. My gaze panned slowly from my side mirror, to my speedometer, to the hair on my knuckles to the license plate of the Honda Element I had been chasing for miles. I couldn’t stop myself, and read it out loud: LOL LIFE.

CHICAGO — Two weeks ago, Dave Roberts was declarative.

Shohei Ohtani, he said then, “is going to be the MVP of the National League.”

By Wednesday morning, however, the Dodgers manager sounded less sure.

While Ohtani remains one of the best hitters in baseball, his inability to pitch lately has opened the door to a potentially competitive MVP race.

And the player who has stepped right through it: Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, who staged an epic duel with Ohtani in the Cubs’ 7-6 win over the Dodgers on Wednesday at Wrigley Field.

“He’s having a heck of a year,” Roberts said of Crow-Armstrong pregame. “He has rightfully made it a lot closer than most people expected.”

Indeed, as the Cubs completed a series sweep that sent the Dodgers to a season-worst sixth straight defeat, the two superstar sluggers went back-and-forth with heavyweight blows.

Ohtani led off the top of the first with his 25th home run of the season. Crow-Armstrong then did the same in the bottom half of the frame to match that total.

Crow-Armstrong then followed with an RBI double in the second, punctuating a two-run rally, and another two-run home run in the fourth, helping push the Cubs to what became a 7-1 lead.

Ohtani, however, wasn’t done, either, recording his own multi-homer game with an opposite-field two-run blast in the eighth that — after Max Muncy had hit a three-run bomb earlier in the inning — brought the Dodgers back within a run before their wild comeback bid fell narrowly short.

“I guess today for me, what was cool was just getting to watch him from a different angle,” said Crow-Armstrong, who got a rare start as designated hitter that allowed him to study Ohtani’s swing from up close. 

“I do think they were going toe to toe,” Roberts added. “Obviously, there’s a lot of talk about those two guys being the front-runners for the MVP. And they both showed up. You can see that they hear what’s being said about them. And that was fun for the fans.”

For the Dodgers, the loss undoubtedly still stung.

They extended their season-long losing streak, suffering consecutive sweeps to the Cubs and Red Sox after having previously gone winless in just one series all year.

They have also started to slip in the standings, now tied with the Braves for the No. 2 seed in the National League playoff picture (and the an all-important first-round bye that comes with) after owning the best record in baseball just a few days ago.

“You just got to kind of put your head down,” Roberts said.

“Right now, the priority is to win one game and stop the negative flow,” Ohtani added in Japanese.

As far as the MVP race is concerned, however, Wednesday was a thrilling exhibition; offering an exhilarating reminder of why Crow-Armstrong and Ohtani are now seen as MVP co-favorites.

“I haven’t followed the race, [but] I have followed what Pete’s doing,” Roberts said pregame. “He’s figured some things out with the bat … which has made him more of a complete player. So, yeah, he’s having an MVP-type season.”

At this point, even public betting odds are largely split between the two players.

“Simply put, just having your name in the same conversation as someone as profound as he feels, it’s awesome and it’s a nice nod,” the 24-year-old Crow-Armstrong said, amid a career-best campaign in his fourth MLB season.

“There’s really no point in worrying about it at this stage,” Ohtani, whose four career MVP awards trail only Barry Bonds for most all time, countered when asked of the race postgame. “Numbers go up and down, so depending on the time, it changes whether you’re in a favorable position. Right now, the priority is to win one game and stop the negative flow.”

Offensively, Ohtani’s numbers are still a shade better than Crow-Armstrong’s: Ohtani was hitting .297 with 26 homers, 70 RBIs and an NL-best .953 OPS at the end of play Wednesday. Crow-Armstrong was at .288 with 26 homers, 69 RBIs and a .938 OPS that ranked third in the league.

But, for as good as Ohtani was on the mound earlier this year (8-2 record, 1.79 ERA in 14 starts), the fact his ongoing knee injury has kept him from pitching in more than a month has negated his typical two-way advantage.

“It’s getting better little by little,” Ohtani said of his knee Wednesday, but without being able to offer a specific timeline to begin ramping up on the mound again.

If anything, Crow-Armstrong’s daily defensive contributions (he leads all MLB players in outs-above-average and ranks top 10 in defensive runs saved) and base-running prowess (his 28 steals are fifth most in the majors) have given him more surplus value beyond his performance at the plate.

According to FanGraphs’ combined wins-above-replacement metric — which accounts for hitting and pitching production, and is often a bellwether for MVP voting — Crow-Armstrong has been worth a full WAR more than Ohtani, outpacing him before Wednesday 7.5 to 6.4.

“You remember seasons like this. You cherish seasons like this,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters, without wading into the MVP debate. “That’s the best part.”

Ohtani has had plenty of similar campaigns himself, of course, having won all four of his prior MVPs by unanimous first-place votes.

And a little more than a month ago, he seemed to be on a glide path to do so again.

But as the Dodgers have let the competition catch up in the standings, so too has their two-way star for the game’s highest individual honor.

And while Ohtani might downplay his budding rivalry with Crow-Armstrong, the Cubs’ young outfielder came out of Wednesday eyeing an even loftier team-wide goal.

“I would feel much more accomplished taking [the Dodgers] down at some point,” Crow-Armstrong said, before later adding: “I would be crazy to say that I don’t want to win an MVP, but if we’re talking about having priorities straight, I think mine are pretty straight.”

Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel went directly to Shohei Ohtani’s competition for NL MVP with his gripe.

Ebel, who coached Cubs star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic this year, gave him grief for serving as the designated hitter on Wednesday. He couldn’t play center field every day?

Ohtani and Crow-Armstrong had just traded leadoff home runs, so Crow-Armstrong told reporters that he shot back with: “Well, it took your guy 10 pitches, it only took me one.”

He was exaggerating slightly. Ohtani’s leadoff homer came on the seventh pitch of the at-bat against Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga. And that, of course, wasn’t really how Crow-Armstrong felt.

Read more:Dodgers drop sixth straight game, also lose Dalton Rushing to UCL tear

“A [seven]-pitch at-bat to start the game and finish it off with a 110 [mph] ball at 20 degrees is pretty ridiculous,” Crow-Armstrong said.

The National League MVP race transformed into a head-to-head showdown between the frontrunners at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, as the Dodgers fell to the Cubs 7-6.

“Over the course of a season, there’s a lot of ups and downs,” Ohtani, a four-time MVP, said through interpreter Will Ireton. “It’s too early to think about that. So in a way for me it’s more important for the team to win and for me to contribute to that.”

Though Crow-Armstrong played along with the MVP talk, he came around to a similar sentiment.

“I would be crazy to say that I don’t want to win an MVP, but if we’re talking about having priorities straight, I think mine are pretty straight,” he said. “It’s not on the forefront of my mind. It’s fun to joke about and it’s fun to acknowledge and I think it’s absolutely OK to pay attention to. But it’s not following me up to the plate.

“If you guys want to talk about all this back and forth, like, I really should go get in the lab and start pitching. I really should.”

Ohtani was considered the runaway MVP favorite early in the year, while his pitching performance also put him in the Cy Young conversation. But his extended absence from the mound (left knee issue) and Crow-Armstrong’s contributions on offense and defense have made the race more interesting.

Crow-Armstrong entered Wednesday leading the majors in fWAR (7.5), followed by Ohtani (6.4).

“Simply put, just having your name in the same conversation as someone as profound as [Ohtani] feels, it’s awesome and it’s a nice nod,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s cool. But … I would feel much more accomplished taking them (the Dodgers) down at some point. I want to see this group (the Cubs) in October because I think it’ll be a dangerous, dangerous group in the playoffs.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts irked Cubs fans a week and a half ago when, asked to evaluate Ohtani’s season overall, he said he’ll still be the NL MVP.

“I haven’t followed the race,” Roberts said before the game Wednesday. “I have followed what Pete’s doing, and he’s figured some things out with the bat. “He’s having a heck of a year. And he has rightfully made it a lot closer than most people expected. He’s had a tremendous season.”

That continued in the finale of the three-game series, for Crow-Armstrong and Ohtani.

Ohtani, struck first, notching the 32nd leadoff homer of his career and 29th as a Dodger, breaking a tie with Davey Lopes for the second-most in franchise history, behind Mookie Betts (32).

In the bottom half of the inning, Crow-Armstrong matched Ohtani with a tying blast.

The next inning, he delivered a two-run double, and in the fourth, he mashed a two-run blast off the right-field scoreboard to put the Cubs up 5-1.

Not to be outdone, Ohtani led off the fifth inning with a single, but the Dodgers failed to score. Then in the eighth, he made it his first multi-homer game of the season, with a two-run shot that trimmed the Cubs’ lead to 7-6.

“He’s a great player,” Ohtani said of Crow-Armstrong. “But I’m really focused on myself on the hitting side of things right now, really working towards hopefully getting back on the mound and working on that side of the game as well.”

Ohtani’s timeline back to the mound is nebulous at this point. Roberts didn’t have a specific day circled to resume playing catch, and Ohtani didn’t provide one, either.

“It’s getting pretty good day by day,” Ohtani said of his knee. “It’s hard to tell at this point what the schedule is going to look like. First I need to do [weighted plyo balls], then go into long toss, then go into a bullpen progression. Rather than rush the progression of this I would rather make sure we’re headed in the right direction. But making sure we’re taking the right steps.”

The Dodgers’ rotation depth means he doesn’t necessarily need to build up to a full starter’s workload by the end of the year. Ohtani said he’d leave the timing of his progression up to the front office.

“Any innings we get from him are bonuses, given he’s a two-way player,” Roberts said. “Whether it’s one inning, two innings, three innings, I’m not too concerned about the timeline. … I certainly see him as a starter, but how much he could give us, to then have somebody [piggybacking] behind him, that we don’t know yet.”

Read more:Dodgers squander Tarik Skubal's quality start in team debut

Freddie Freeman pulled

Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman left the game in the bottom of the fifth inning after a pitch hit his right hand. But X-rays came back negative, Roberts said.

“I obviously didn’t come out of that at-bat because I knew it hit my bat as well,” Freeman said. “It hit bat, then hand and pinched my hand onto the bat. Next pitch, I swung. I could swing, and I swung again. As the adrenaline wore off, pain got a little bit more.”

Freeman said he expects to be ready to return to the lineup by the Dodgers’ next game, against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Dodgers left Chicago Wednesday, but not before a local hot dog stand trolled the back-to-back World Series champions.

The Chicago Cubs completed a three-game sweep over the Dodgers with a 7-6 victory at Wrigley Field.

The Wieners Circle posted a picture to social media of their logo with a message included on the bottom.

“Swept those mothertuckers back to La La Land,” the marquee sign read.

The restaurant’s Instagram caption continued to poke fun at the Dodgers, who signed top free agent of the winter Kyle Tucker to a four-year, $240 million deal in the offseason.

“Goliath @dodgers came to town with their all star team and the @cubs brought out the
@ktuck_30 is a $60 mil a year replacement level player #mvpete,” the caption read.

This isn’t the first instance where the Dodgers were mocked throughout the series at Wrigley Field. During Tarik Skubal’s Dodgers debut, a sign flew over the stadium that stated LA was ruining baseball.

Tucker spent the 2025 season with the Cubs, where he batted .266 with 22 home runs and 73 RBIs across 136 games. The performance in Chicago earned him an All-Star selection, while Tucker also dealt with multiple injuries throughout his first and only campaign with the Cubs.

Many Cubs fans felt burned by Tucker’s decision to sign elsewhere in free agency last winter, and evidently that feeling still exists amid the outfielder’s visit to Wrigley Field this week. The Cubs, one of the premier teams in the National League, present a threat to LA in the postseason.

Though the Dodgers certainly have their best performance throughout the road series, the playoffs typically tell a different tale for the juggernaut.

The Dodgers have lost eight of their last 10 games, suffering consecutive sweeps in their last two series against the Cubs and Boston Red Sox. Despite the rough stretch of games, manager Dave Roberts assured the media his team isn’t spiraling down the stretch.

“There’s certainly no panic,” Roberts said. “We’ve been through a lot of these things, this core group of guys. I think that you just got to kind of reset, flush it, find a way to win a game, and not let it just compound.”