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

Giants' red-hot offense fuels Carson Seymour's first MLB win against Cardinals originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

With Wild Card aspirations in mind, the Giants’ hot bats didn’t succumb to the fresher, early-September climate at Busch Stadium on Friday night.

The bats stayed scorching hot, with San Francisco tying a season-high 18 hits against the Cardinals in its series-opening 8-2 win. 

After early back-to-back home runs from Rafael Devers and Willy Adames, the Giants extended their longest streak of games with a home run since the franchise moved to San Francisco to 18, assuring manager Bob Melvin that his team, which has won 11 of its last 12, is hard to contain. 

Rafi wasting no time getting the Giants on the board 🚀 pic.twitter.com/MIg7LwI2Lx

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 6, 2025

“We go into the game feeling good about our offense, and there’s a reason for it over the last 18 games, whatever it’s been,” Melvin told reporters on Friday. 

“It’s contagious, just like it goes the other way. Right now, offensively, we feel like we’re as good as we’ve been all year, with [Patrick Bailey] hitting well, [Drew Gilbert] at the bottom of the lineup and getting production from [Casey Schmitt] and everyone else. It just feels like we’re a tough team to handle right now.” 

"We're a tough team to handle right now."

Melvin knows the Giants' offense is on a roll after tonight's season-high 18 hits pic.twitter.com/3QVjugA6JO

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 6, 2025

In his second career start, right-hander Carson Seymour delivered a solid outing, lasting a career-high five innings without allowing a hit in any of his first four.

The end result? 

The 26-year-old pitcher, to Melvin’s surprise, earned his first victory in the big leagues. 

“Coming in, we were kind of up in the air on what we were going to look at,” Melvin admitted to reporters. 

“It was probably going to be something like three (innings), but not only did we score some runs, he pitched probably as well as we’ve seen him pitch this year.” 

Bob Melvin lauds Carson Seymour after his first career win 👏 pic.twitter.com/5932eEszSu

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 6, 2025

Additionally, on the offensive front, Jung Hoo Lee tied a career high with four hits, while Patrick Bailey contributed three. 

Sitting four games back of the New York Mets for the National League’s third wild-card spot, the Giants, once again, demonstrated why they’re the hottest team in baseball.

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Phillies' outfielders power the way to series-opening win over Marlins originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Phillies’ bats certainly made the weekend trip to Miami. 

Behind four home runs and 16 hits, the Phils notched a 9-3 win Friday night to begin their three-game series with the Marlins. Every member of the Phillies’ lineup had at least one hit. 

Cristopher Sanchez earned the win by tossing seven innings and conceding six hits and one run. The southpaw struck out five and walked one. Through 28 starts, he’s 12-5 with a 2.60 ERA.

Sanchez took the mound with a lead. Trea Turner singled, Kyle Schwarber singled, and Bryce Harper’s bloop to left field landed just inside the foul line for an RBI knock. 

With a 4-for-5 game Friday, Turner’s batting average sits at a National League-best .305. Everyone else is under .300. He’s gone 43 for 100 in his last 22 games.

Marlins righty Valente Bellozo kept Miami’s deficit at 1-0 in the first. J.T. Realmuto ripped a 2-2 cutter to deep right-center, but Joey Wiemer made a leaping catch. Brandon Marsh then lined out to third base and Schwarber was miles away from avoiding a double play. 

Nick Castellanos sat for the third time in the last four games and Max Kepler started again in right field against Bellozo. In the second inning, Kepler crushed a juicy changeup into the right-field second deck. He lined an RBI single in the seventh, too.

The Marlins got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third. Victor Mesa Jr. chopped an infield hit over the 6-foot-6 Sanchez’s head. Javier Sanoja followed with a ground ball down the left-field line that drove him in. 

Sanchez was sharp overall. He threw plenty of elite changeups in and around the bottom of the zone, recorded 13 ground ball outs and never encountered any real trouble. Sanchez only needed 82 pitches over his seven innings.

The game wasn’t tight for long. The Phils teed off in the fourth against Miami reliever Lake Bachar.

Realmuto picked up a leadoff hit and Marsh deposited the ninth pitch of his at-bat to a nearly identical spot as Kepler’s blast. Harrison Bader clobbered a no-doubt back-to-back dinger, smashing a hanging slider to put the Phillies up 5-1. That shot meant all three of the Phils’ starting outfielders Friday had a homer through four innings. 

Though the Phillies missed out on bases-loaded chances in both the fifth and sixth innings, they cruised into full blowout mode with a four-run seventh. Bryson Stott nailed a three-run homer to reach double digits for the fourth consecutive season.

The 82-59 Phillies will look for a third straight series win Saturday at 4:10 p.m. ET. The Phils’ Jesus Luzardo (12-6, 4.05 ERA) will face the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara (8-11, 5.66 ERA). 

The Mets are asking a lot from their young arms.

Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong have already come up and contributed in the midst of a playoff push. 

Next up? Brandon Sproat. 

Sproat will join them this weekend to make his highly-anticipated debut during Sunday’s series finale against the Reds, the team trailing the Mets in the NL wild-card race. 

Certainly a big challenge, but one the Mets are confident Sproat is up for. 

“He earned it,” Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s another guy that had to work, had to fight to get to this point. It wasn’t easy for him early on this season, but his last few starts he’s been a completely different guy -- he was frustrated when he didn’t get the call, now here he is. 

"You don’t want to put too much pressure on him -- just go out there and be yourself, but you have to give him a ton of credit and it’s another win for the scouting and development team, it’s going to be really fun to see.”

Sproat was widely-regarded as the organization’s top pitching prospect entering this season, but he quickly dropped behind both McLean and Tong on the depth chart as they soared through the system. 

His early-season results also didn’t help, posting an ugly 6.69 ERA over his first nine outings. 

After making some tweaks over the past few months, though, the 24-year-old has been able to rebound nicely and he’s pitched to a much-improved 3.19 ERA over his last 17 appearances. 

His most recent outing was arguably his best during that stretch, as he struck out nine batters and walked just two over seven scoreless innings.  

It's those signs of a front-line arm that president of baseball operations David Stearns says solidified the Mets’ decision to give him the call.

“We’ve seen it over the last two-two and a half months now,” Stearns said. “He’s carried his velocity consistently into games, his secondary offerings have picked up in consistency and crispiness, he’s throwing his changeup more which has helped.

“We’ve seen a number of really positive trends -- he is still a young pitcher, this is still his major-league debut, but we feel confident that he can come up and compete at the level, and we look forward to watching him take the mound on Sunday.”

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone questioned the legality of a bat used by Houston Astros outfielder Taylor Trammell during Thursday's series finale.

Down by five runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Houston mounted a comeback by starting off the inning with a single by catcher Victor Caratini and a double off the wall by Trammell. After the at-bat, Boone asked the umpires to check the bat used by the 27-year-old because of its "discoloration."

Rule 3.02(c) by Major League Baseball bans the usage of a "colored bat in a professional game" unless approved by the league.

The crew chief, Adrian Johnson, took the bat and called a review to verify the legality of the discoloration on barrel.

After the review, the bat was confiscated by the umpires, authenticated and sent to the league office to be inspected, according to Astros manager Joe Espada.

"The bat was worn down a little bit," Espada said. "He uses that bat all the time and I guess they thought it was an illegal bat.

"I thought it was … whatever," he added.

Boone said they noticed the color of the bat earlier in the series and brought it up to the league officials on Thursday.

"You're not allowed to do anything to your bat," Boone said after the game. "I'm not saying he was … we noticed it and the league thought it maybe it was illegal too."

After the game, the outfielder remained confused.

"I feel kind of defensive right now, more so a test of my character, like I'm going to willingly do that," Trammell said. "Just kind of lost on that thing, and if anyone knows me, knows I'm never going to cheat or anything like that."

Trammell, who played a couple of games for the Yankees last season, stayed on second base. The Astros later scored a run on a single by designated hitter Yordan Alvarez but the Yankees held on to win the game 8-4.

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

For the first time since returning from the IL, Aaron Judge is back in right field for the Yankees, who begin a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night at Yankee Stadium.

Prior to Friday's game, Judge had been strictly serving as a DH due to the flexor strain in his right elbow that caused him to miss nearly two weeks shortly after the All-Star break. It will be the first time Judge is in the outfield since July 26.

With Judge back in right field (and batting third), Giancarlo Stanton assumes his position as the DH and is hitting fifth. 

Due to his own fielding deficiencies, Stanton had been the odd-man out many times while Judge was the DH, as New York would only play Stanton in the outfield during home games due to the smaller dimensions of right field at Yankee Stadium. On the road, Stanton would mainly only come in for pinch-hitting assignments, which was a big blow for the Yankees' offense.

Now with both players in the lineup and at their ideal positions, New York is at full strength as it aims to commandeer first place for the division from the Blue Jays, who are 3.0 games in front entering play on Friday.

Hopefully a return to DH for Stanton will break him out of his recent slump in which he has just one hit (a home run) in his last 21 at-bats.

Meanwhile, Judge has been on a tear offensively lately after enduring a slump of his own over the last month.

Mets right-handerKodai Senga, who has struggled since returning from a hamstring injury on July 11, has given his consent to be optioned to the minor leagues.

Because of a stipulation in his contract, Senga had the ability to refuse the assignment. 

SNY MLB Insider Andy Martino reports that the minor league stint for Senga should last about two starts, adding that the pitcher's relationship with the Mets is "in very good shape." Martino notes that Senga "felt respected by the process and consented without issue."

With Senga sent to Triple-A Syracuse, the Mets added recently-signed reliever Wander Suero to the active roster.

"As we talked to Kodai throughout this, I think it became clear that, from both of our perspectives, this was the right thing to do for the team and the player," Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said ahead of Friday's game in Cincinnati. "Kodai has a very set routine, he feels very confident in his routine. So a role transition at this point didn't feel like the right thing to do for either party.

"I think Kodai also recognizes that the results right now aren't what he's looking for, what we need. He wants to figure this out. We think getting him a little bit of time away from elite competition, away from the pressure of a playoff race is the right thing to do. He was amenable to it and we certainly appreciate that."

It's been a tale of two seasons for the 32-year-old Senga, who had a 1.47 ERA in 73.2 innings over his first 13 starts of the year before getting injured.

He suffered a hamstring injury while covering first base during his start on June 12, and did not return until July 11.

Senga fired 4.0 shutout innings in his return, but has not been right since then.

In eight starts from July 21 to Aug. 31, Senga posted a 6.56 ERA (6.11 FIP) in 35.2 innings while allowing 39 hits (including eight home runs) and walking 22.

During the aforementioned eight-start span, Senga failed to complete 5.0 innings on five occasions, and never pitched more than 5.2 innings in any start.

Senga's struggles came to a head against the woeful Marlins in his last outing, when he surrendered five runs on seven hits in just 4.2 innings.

After that outing, Carlos Mendoza was non-committal about what would be next for Senga, saying all options were on the table. The right-hander's next start would've come on Sunday against the Reds in Cincinnati, but Mendoza said on Wednesday that David Peterson and Jonah Tong would be starting on Friday and Saturday, respectively, adding that Sunday's starter was to be determined.

It was reported on Thursday that Brandon Sproat will be starting on Sunday, in what will be his major league debut.

"The plan is for him to go and throw a couple of bullpens before we put him in a game," Mendoza said Friday about the plan for Senga. "So we're looking at potentially a game over next weekend. So for him to work on his mechanics, we got to get him back in sync."

As far as Senga, he has cited issues with his mechanics as one of the reasons for his downturn. 

"There’s definitely some frustration," Senga said through an interpreter following his performance on Aug. 31. "I’ve never experienced something like this for this extended period of time. There’s some confusion why I’m not able to perform, but at the same time, when I’m able to prepare well and able to do what I’m capable of out there, I know that I’m able to put up a good performance."

Senga, who signed a five-year deal for $75 million ahead of the 2023 season, is under contract through 2027. His contract contains a conditional club option worth $15 million for 2028 that would kick in if he has Tommy John surgery or a right elbow injury that keeps him on the IL for 130 or more days between now and then.

The Yankees are adding another veteran bat to the mix ahead of their crucial weekend set with the Blue Jays. 

Austin Slater has been reinstated from the injured list. 

Slater had been sidelined since suffering a hamstring strain on Aug. 4 against the Texas Rangers. 

His initial timeline called for a four-to-six week recovery.

The 32-year-old was able to work his way into five minor league rehab games over the past week, and now he’s been deemed ready to make his return.

Slater appeared in just three games with the Bombers prior to the injury. 

He was acquired from the White Sox ahead of the trade deadline to provide a boost against left-handed pitching. 

Now back healthy, it’ll be interesting to see how Aaron Boone utilizes Slater down the stretch. 

In a corresponding roster move, J.C. Escarra was optioned to Triple-A following Thursday’s win over the Astros. 

Here are five things to watch and predictions as the Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays play a three-game series at Yankee Stadium starting on Friday night...

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5 things to watch

AL East crown in sight

This weekend series is the final time the Yanks and Blue Jays face each other in the regular season, and it's a big one. Entering Friday, the Blue Jays hold just a 3.0 game lead over New York for first place in the AL East. 

A sweep by New York would leave the Yankees and Blue Jays in a relative tie -- Toronto has the tiebreaker -- but it would put the pressure on the Jays with just a few weeks left in the season. The AL East crown is important because it will likely be one of the top two seeds in the American League playoffs, thus avoiding the three-game Wild Card round. 

Can the Yankees win the series to get even closer to Toronto? Or will the Jays put the Bombers in the rearview? 

What's Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s status?

Chisholm exited Thursday's series finale with the Astros with contusions in both knees, which puts his availability for some, if not all, three games of the series in jeopardy.

If Chisholm does miss time, Jose Caballero will likely be his replacement in the starting lineup. Caballero has been very good since being traded to the Yankees at the deadline. In 24 games, he's hitting .270 with two home runs -- he had two in 86 games with the Rays in 2025 -- with eight stolen bases. But Chisholm's power and athleticism would be missed, especially as a left-handed hitter against the Blue Jays' right-handed starters. 

Can the bullpen get right?

The Yankees' bullpen has been an Achilles heel for the team all season and this week especially. The Yanks were on the verge of winning their series against the Astros on Wednesday, but the bullpen blew a three-run lead. Devin Williams' meltdown -- with the help of a certain home plate umpire -- led to their defeat.

It was a bit shaky on Thursday. Luke Weaver allowed a run on three hits in his 0.2 innings of work, and the Astros almost came back on David Bednar after the closer allowed the tying run to the plate with a five-run lead heading into the ninth. 

The bullpen will need to be better against a dangerous Toronto lineup.

What version of Anthony Volpe will we see?

Remember when Volpe was killing it at the plate in Chicago? In the four-game set on the Southside, Volpe went 6-for-14 with a home run and five RBI. In the three games against Houston, the young shortstop went 1-for-11 with five strikeouts.

The Yankees' offense is good enough that Volpe's offense isn't needed, but when he's on, it lengthens the lineup. He's also coming up with runners in scoring position a lot and falling short. When the longball isn't working for the Yanks, they need to manufacture runs, and even moving runners over with productive outs seems to be tough for Volpe at the moment.

For a huge series like this, the Yanks will hope the Chicago version of Volpe shows up.

Cam Schlittler setting the pace

The Yankees will have Schlittler, Luis Gil and Max Fried starting for them in this series, and a good start from Schlittler could set the tone for the weekend. Schlittler has been on fire, pitching at least six innings in three straight starts while allowing just one run in that span (18.2 IP). The young right-hander has jumped Will Warren as the team's third-most reliable starter, and a strong performance on Friday could cement him as a potential Game 3 starter in a playoff series.

Although that potential is a ways away still, the Yankees hope the youngster can give them the best chance to win the series opener and put the pressure on Toronto.

Predictions

Who will the MVP of the series be?

Trent Grisham

After going against a trio of right-handers and driving in seven runs in Houston, Grisham will continue his hot stretch.

Which Yankees pitcher will have the best start?

Max Fried

The southpaw has been excellent in his last few starts and that will continue when he takes the mound on Sunday.

Which Blue Jays player will be a thorn in the Yankees' side?

George Springer

Springer has been a thorn for the Yankees since his Astros days. But this season, he's been amazing. In his last seven games against the Yankees, he's 12-for-24 with four home runs and 12 RBI. 

The Mets open a three-game series against the Reds in Cincinnati on Friday at 6:40 p.m. on SNY.

Here's what to know about the game and how to watch...

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Mets Notes

• Juan Soto is hitting .301/.463/.710 with 12 home runs, 28 RBI, 30 runs scored, and 10 stolen bases in 123 plate appearances over his last 26 games dating back to Aug. 6
• Francisco Alvarez is returning from the IL. Before getting injured, Alvarez had been a force at the plate following his brief stint in the minor leagues. In 71 plate appearances over 21 games from July 21 to Aug. 17, he slashed .323/.408/.645 with four homers, six doubles, one triple, 13 RBI, and 14 runs scored
• David Peterson is looking to rebound from his worst start of the season, when he allowed eight runs in just 2.0 innings against the Marlins on Aug. 30

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Anyone getting off the elevator outside the Colorado Rockies’ clubhouse in the bowels of Coors Field is greeted by the logo from the 2007 World Series, the only one the Rockies have played in.

Around the corner, near the entrance to the visitor’s clubhouse, the walls are covered with drawings of Dante Bichette, Todd Helton, Larry Walker, Andrés Galarraga and other former Rockie greats. The youngest of those players is 52 and has hasn’t played for a dozen seasons, giving the whole tableau the feel of a tattered and worn museum exhibition.

Colorado has made the playoffs just twice in the last 15 seasons, winning no postseason games over that span. The Rockies last won a playoff game in 2009.

This year the team has the worst record in the majors, have already lost 101 games for a third straight season and their run differential of minus-364 heading into the weekend is the worst for any team in at least 125 years. The team’s fWAR, or FanGraphs wins above replacement, is a big-league low 2.0.

In other words, it’s a mess.

Read more:A gondola to Dodger Stadium? How about a gondola to the Big A?

Yet the Rockies, who were eliminated from playoff contention long ago, just may factor in who wins the National League West. Because after they finish a three-game series with the second-place Padres this weekend in Denver, they come to Dodger Stadium for three games with the first-place Dodgers beginning Monday. After that, they head to San Diego for four more with the Padres.

But as the Rockies prepare for those showdowns, they are focused on neither a glorious past nor a dismal present. The team is concentrating instead on what it insists will be a bright future, one that will arrive sooner rather than later.

“We can win,” said Warren Schaeffer, the team’s interim manager. “We can absolutely win here. And we’re going to win here. It’s just a matter of time.

“But why not get the ball moving right now in the right direction?”

The big question is how to get that ball rolling. The team has finished with a winning record just twice since 2010 and last three seasons have been the three worst in franchise history.

Digging out of that deep hole, said veteran infielder Kyle Farmer, will first require changing the culture and expectations around the team by refusing to accept losing. That may already be happening: The Rockies’ 11 wins in August were a modest total but it was the most in a month for them this season. Building on that momentum gives the team something to play for in the final month of an otherwise lost season.

“We’re starting to create an identity with the team,” Farmer said. “The last part of the year is really important as long as we can keep winning games.”

How fast the Rockies rebuild will depend in part on the depth of their farm system and how they use it. That’s not exactly encouraging news since Colorado’s collection of prospects ranks in the bottom seven in baseball in multiple surveys.

And that rating has slipped precipitously since the start of the season.

That’s a problem for a team that has spent more than $146 million on its opening-day payroll just once. The Dodgers agreed to pay Shohei Ohtani alone $70 million a season, although much of that money is deferred. To compete, the Rockies are going to have to strengthen their farm system and loosen their wallet.

“You constantly look at how you’re going to carve the path forward,” said Chris Forbes, the team’s director of player development. “Right now is a great time to evaluate what we have that’s ready, or maybe closer to ready, in the farm system and who you want to go forward with as you try to clear your path for 2026.

“I think that’s the space that we’re in right now. You truly have to find out who you want to go forward with.”

For a small-market team like Colorado, the margin for error is small since its can’t afford to buy its way out of a mistake. For that reason Forbes said he takes character and makeup into account in both signing and promoting players.

Read more:Kyle Schwarber's four-homer game was historic, but his harmless popup averted controversy

“You try to kind of grow that way. And some guys are going to get it and rise to the top. And some guys are going to fall on the wayside and kind of point fingers,” Forbes said.

As for the second part of that equation, the spending part, that will be determined by general manager Bill Schmidt, a former coach at Anaheim’s Magnolia High who has never seen his team finish higher than last in the National League West as full-time GM. Schmidt declined multiple requests to be interviewed for this story.

Yet despite the losing, the Rockies are drawing more 30,000 fans a game at Coors Field, 15th in the majors and better than the playoff-bound Detroit Tigers.

“A lot of time they are cheering for the other team,” Schaeffer said of the fans. “But they are here.”

The nucleus of young, talented players the team has to build around could soon have those fans rooting for the home team.

Catcher Hunter Goodman, 25, has made great strides in his first full big-league season and led the team with 27 homers and 83 RBIs while slashing .280/.326/.526 heading into the Padres’ series. Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, 24, is an exciting player who won a Gold Glove and led the league in doubles last season and Kyle Karros, the son of former Dodger star Eric Karros, has played well since his promotion from the minors last month.

Karros, 23, is one of 17 players on the Rockies’ roster who has yet to turn 26 and one of 17 who spent at least part of the season in the minors. How fast those young, inexperienced players develop will determine how fast Colorado becomes competitive.

Schaeffer, 40, also figures to have a big say in how long that turnaround takes. A baseball lifer, Schaeffer has spent the professional portion of that life with the Rockies, who took him in the 38th round of the MLB draft — a round which no longer exists — the same year Colorado made its lone trip to the World Series, where it was swept by the Boston Red Sox. An infielder, Schaeffer hit .214 over six minor league seasons before retiring as a player to become a minor league manager in the Rockies system.

He joined the big-league team as the third base and infield coach in 2023, then was asked to finish the rest of 2025 as manager after Bud Black was fired after winning just seven of the first 40 games this season.

Schaeffer, who has the mien of Marine drill instructor, is animated and intense. But he can also be as calm and understanding as a high school counselor, making him a good fit for one of the youngest rosters in the major leagues. And while he’s popular in the clubhouse, he’ll likely remain an interim manager until a decision is made on a full-time replacement for Black this fall.

“He’s done a great job changing the culture around here,” said Farmer, a former Dodger who played for two other teams before signing a one-year deal the Rockies last fall. “You know it starts at the top and Shake has done an incredible job.

Read more:Former baseball commissioner Bud Selig says salary caps are 'working well' in other sports

“I think guys are going to look forward to seeing him next spring starting [with] a clean slate and building a culture from the get-go.”

In the meantime, Schaeffer said the rest of this season will be as much about learning as it will be about winning.

“You can either look at it as we’re trying to not do something like not have the worst record — and you make bad decisions when you think like that,” he said. “[Or] you can also think these games provide an unbelievable opportunity for the players to earn a position for next year and the future when we become a winning team."

The walls outside the Rockies clubhouse testify to the fact the team has won before. The challenge now is to make it happen again.

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Rex Hudler pestered plate umpire Larry Barnett for a game-used baseball, one with the orange laces and number “8” stamp to commemorate Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games record in Camden Yards on Sept. 6, 1995, to no avail.

“He said, ‘No way, you’re gonna have to catch a third out or get a foul ball,’ ” said Hudler, the Kansas City Royals broadcaster who played second base for the Angels the night Ripken broke Gehrig’s record. “ ‘They’re all numbered and counted, and you can’t have one.’ ”

Hudler thought he had one when Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro sent a flare into shallow right-center field with two outs in the bottom of the third inning, but Angels right fielder Tim Salmon called him off and made the catch.

“We’re running into the dugout, and I’m yelling at him, ‘What are you doing? That was my ball!’ ” Hudler said. “And King Fish had this big grin on his face, he kept running and said, ‘Haha Hud, you’ll get one.’ ”

When the game became official after the top of the fifth, and Ripken passed the Iron Man by playing in his 2,131st consecutive game, Hudler took the field and watched as Ripken took an iconic victory lap around the stadium, high-fiving fans, hugging teammates and delaying the game for 22 minutes, 15 seconds.

Ripken shook hands with every player in the Angels dugout — ”And when does that happen?” he said on a Hall-of-Fame podcast — and shared a warm embrace with Angels hitting coach and Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew.

“I told him, ‘You’ve been great for all these years and very consistent in what you’ve done, and one day I’ll see you in the Hall of Fame,’ ” Carew said. “What a record that was, to be healthy for that long.”

Hudler was standing at his second-base spot when Ripken started his lap, but by the time Ripken returned to his dugout and was greeted by his family, Hudler was standing on the pitcher’s mound.

“I had been in this little dream for however long it took him to go around the stadium, wandering, watching him, following him, just enamored by what he was doing, and the next thing I know, I’m on the mound,” Hudler said. “I quietly turned and walked back to my position.”

When the game finally resumed, the Orioles loaded the bases with two outs, and up stepped Ripken, who hit a two-run homer off Angels pitcher Shawn Boskie in the fourth inning.

“Palmeiro was on second base and he said, ‘Hud, it’s only fitting, look who’s coming up, the baseball gods are here,’ ” Hudler said.

Only this time, the gods smiled on Hudler, who was actually drafted ahead of Ripken in 1978 — Hudler was a first-round pick of the New York Yankees and Ripken a second-round pick of the Orioles — but spent his entire 13-year big-league career as a utility man, while Ripken became a Hall-of-Famer.

“I went back to my position and said, ‘God, have him hit it to me, please,’ and Cal flared the first pitch over my head toward right-center,” Hudler said. “It was kind of a loopy liner, and I remember running, looking up at the ball, and it was in slow motion. I had never fielded a ball in my 21-year career that was in slow motion.

“As I’m running, I’m thinking, ‘That’s a six-carat diamond,’ it looked like a jewel, and I told myself, ‘Hud, you’re gonna break your neck for this. You can’t let this ball drop.’ My adrenaline and speed carried me under it, and when I caught it on the run, I shook my arm three times in disbelief. God answered my prayer on the field! It was unbelievable.”

Hudler sprinted off the field, ignoring teammates wanting to high-five him in the dugout for saving two runs, and into the visiting clubhouse, where he stashed the ball in his locker for safekeeping.

“I secured my precious gem,” Hudler said. “I have never caught a ball more valuable than that.”

Ripken, it turned out, was a gift that kept on giving. After the Angels’ 4-2 loss, Hudler was speaking to writers when an Orioles clubhouse attendant interrupted the scrum to present Hudler a shiny black Ripken bat signed with the message:

“To Hud, we go a long way back, you going ahead of me in the draft and all, but now, I feel like you feel when you strike out with the bases loaded: visibly shaken! All my best, Cal Ripken Jr., Sept. 6, 1995.”

Hudler was floored. He had asked Ripken for an autographed bat that May, when the Orioles were in Anaheim, and he was surprised one didn’t arrive when the Angels were in Baltimore in early June and the Orioles were in Anaheim again in late-August.

“I was speechless, I didn’t know what to say,” the always loquacious Hudler said. “Cal signed a bat for me that night. It was so classy. How could he think of me?”

The bat and the ball he caught to end the fifth inning — Hudler got the ball signed two years later — are featured in a special Cal Ripken shrine in the man-cave of Hudler’s Kansas City home.

And to think, this would not have been possible had a work stoppage not delayed the start of the 1995 season until late April and reduced the season to 144 games, placing the Angels, with no Orioles rainouts, in Baltimore when Ripken tied and broke Gehrig’s record.

“I looked at the schedule in April, and a light went off in my brain that these would be historical games of great magnitude,” Hudler said. “I told our old traveling secretary, Frank Sims, that I needed three extra rooms in Baltimore for Sept. 4-6, and he goes, ‘Kid, whattaya mean? That’s so far away.’

“I kind of played it off. I didn’t want to tell him why. Then a week before we went to Baltimore, Frank asked me if I wanted to sell any of those rooms because there were no rooms available. I said, ‘Heck no!’ Three of my best friends who I grew up with in Fresno came out with their wives. Great memories for them, too.”

As cool as it was to be part of Ripken’s historic night, it was bittersweet for the Angels, who were in the middle of an epic collapse in which they lost 29 of their last 43 games and blew an 11-game American League West lead, joining the 1978 Red Sox, 1969 Cubs, 1964 Phillies and 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers in baseball infamy.

Their 5-3 win over the Orioles in the Sept. 4 series opener snapped a nine-game losing streak. The Angels lost nine straight again from Sept. 13-23 to fall two games behind the Seattle Mariners.

They rallied to win their last five regular-season games to force a one-game playoff for the division, but they were crushed by the Mariners and then-ace Randy Johnson 9-1 in that game.

“That was a painful swoon, and it cost us the division, but to be part of that Ripken celebration when your team was struggling so badly took the pain away,” Hudler said. “I was honored to play in those games, because I’m sure one of those lineup cards is in Cooperstown, and that’s the only way I ever got into the Hall of Fame.”

This story originally appeared in "Memories and Dreams," the official magazine of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. For more stories like this about legendary heroes of the game, subscribe to "Memories and Dreams" by joining the Museum's membership program at www.baseballhall.org/join.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Jayson Stark was 16 years into what is now a 46-year Hall of Fame baseball-writing career when he walked into Baltimore’s Camden Yards on the night of Sept. 6, 1995, knowing exactly what was about to happen and having no idea what to expect.

Baseball’s most iconic moments are usually spontaneous in nature — the thunderbolt of Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of last October’s World Series or Kirk Gibson’s World Series Game 1-winning shot off Dennis Eckersley in 1988; Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th homer in 1974; the climax to Don Larsen’s World Series perfect game in 1956.

But Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. breaking New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games streak to become baseball’s all-time Iron Man 30 years ago? Heck, you could see this one coming 2,131 miles away.

“Baseball history is normally unexpected — you don’t know when it’s going to be made, how it’s going to be made — and when it happens, that’s where the goose bumps come in,” said Stark, who writes for The Athletic and was a baseball columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1995.

“But in this game, everybody walked through the gates knowing exactly what was going to happen and when it was going to happen. The game was going to be halfway over, Ripken was going to have this record, and what more was there going to be? And boy, was I wrong. I’ve never been more wrong about any night I’ve spent at the ballpark.”

Three decades after he broke Gehrig’s record by playing in his 2,131st consecutive game against the Angels, a streak that began in 1982, Ripken insists there was no plan for how he would celebrate when the game became official.

But neither he nor Major League Baseball could have written a better script for what transpired after Orioles second baseman Manny Alexander caught Damion Easley’s popup to end the top of the fifth inning, and blue-collar Baltimore witnessed the passing of the Iron Man torch to its lunch-pail-carrying son.

As a sellout crowd of 46,272 that included President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio and Frank Robinson rose to its feet and the banners on the B&O Warehouse behind the right-field bleachers changed from 2,130 to 2,131, fireworks erupted and balloons and streamers soared into the air.

Ripken had jogged into the dugout but emerged for eight curtain calls, waving to the crowd and tapping his heart. He took off his jersey and gave it to his wife, Kelly, near the dugout. He hoisted his 2-year-old son, Ryan, into his arms and kissed his 5-year-old daughter, Rachel. He waved to his parents, Cal Sr. and Vi, in an upstairs luxury suite.

“It was really weird to have a stoppage in the middle of the game — it was like a rain delay,” Ripken said on a recent Hall of Fame podcast. “I kept getting called out for curtain calls, and Rafael Palmeiro said, ‘You’re gonna have to take a lap around this ballpark.’ Bobby Bonilla was standing right there and said, ‘Yeah, you gotta do that.’ ”

The teammates came out of the dugout and pushed Ripken down the first-base line, and off Ripken went on a victory lap around the stadium that delayed the game for 22 minutes and 15 seconds and helped pull baseball out of the doldrums caused by a nasty work stoppage that forced the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.

Ripken started down the right-field line, shaking hands with fans in the front row. Around the outfield he went, greeting police officers and members of the grounds crew. Some fans tumbled out of the bleachers as Ripken leaped to high-five them. He exchanged hugs with the Orioles relievers.

“You start shaking hands and seeing people in the stands you had seen before — some you knew, some who you just knew their faces — and then it became more of a human experience,” said Ripken, who had homered in the fourth inning. “By the time I got around and past the bullpen, I [couldn't] have cared less if the game started again.”

Around the left-field corner and down the left-field and third-base lines Ripken went, high-fiving fans, shaking the hands of everyone in the Angels’ dugout and embracing Angels hitting coach and Hall of Famer Rod Carew and slugger Chili Davis. Ripken even hugged the umpires.

The burst of a thousand flash bulbs lit up the stadium. Fans wiped away tears as they watched Ripken circle the field, and the thunderous applause never waned throughout the delay.

“The way the whole thing developed, it just felt organic and authentic, because it spoke to the power of numbers in baseball,” Stark said. “That was so much more than a number. It connected the moment to one six decades earlier. It connected Cal Ripken to freaking Lou Gehrig. It evokes memories and emotions unlike numbers in any sport.”

Even ESPN chose the pictures unfolding in Camden Yards over a thousand words, with ever-garrulous announcer Chris Berman turning off his microphone for 19 minutes before finally saying, “A moment that will live for 2,131 years … we will never see anything like this again.”

Ripken amassed 3,184 hits and 431 homers during his 21-year career. He won a World Series title in 1983, an American League rookie of the year award in 1982 and AL most valuable player awards in 1983 and 1991. He was a 19-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glove Award winner and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.

But when he reflects on “The Streak,” which grew to 2,632 games before he pulled himself out of the lineup 10 minutes before the Orioles’ regular-season home finale against the Yankees on Sept. 20, 1998, he doesn’t elevate himself over any coal miner or schoolteacher who got up every morning and went to work.

“To me, the meaning of the streak is just showing up every day, being there for your team, trying to meet the challenges of the day,” Ripken said. “A lot of people thought I was obsessed with the streak and was obsessed with Lou Gehrig. I always laugh and say, I’d rather have more home runs than Hank Aaron and more hits than Pete Rose.

“But as an everyday player, there was a sense of responsibility instilled in me by my dad and the Orioles that your job is to come to the ballpark ready to play, and if that manager decides that you can help them win that day by putting you in the lineup, then you play.”

Read more:Jo Adell is a one-man wrecking crew as the Angels beat the Royals

The blue-collar work ethic that fueled The Streak and the class and style Ripken displayed that summer helped revitalize an industry that was still reeling from a devastating strike and long labor dispute that also forced the 1995 season to be reduced to 144 games, with a late April start.

“I think it was the single most important moment in the revival of baseball, the recovery of baseball, from that strike,” Stark said. “People just unloaded on our sport, and I just couldn’t get past the pain that whole season.

“And then Cal Ripken reminded everybody of what makes baseball special and what makes baseball different from every other sport on that night, with that record. The whole sport should be grateful to Cal for what he did.”

This story originally appeared in "Memories and Dreams," the official magazine of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. For more stories like this about legendary heroes of the game, subscribe to "Memories and Dreams" by joining the Museum's membership program at www.baseballhall.org/join.

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

How Giants' win streak amid turnaround has impacted their MLB postseason odds originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s been a thrilling stretch for the Giants, but they actually are not atop the leaderboard in terms of the greatest shift in playoff odds over the past week. That honor belongs to a franchise legend.

From last Thursday through this Thursday, Bruce Bochy’s Texas Rangers saw their postseason odds improve by about 12 percent, per Baseball-Reference’s formula. The Rangers won six straight before dropping a couple to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, but they also got plenty of help. The Seattle Mariners currently hold the third and final Wild Card spot in the American League and they dropped two of three in Cleveland last weekend before getting swept by the Rays this week.

In the National League, the Giants are hoping for a similar collapse from the pack in front of them, and they have put themselves in a position to capitalize if it happens. 

Winners of 10 of 11, the Giants are suddenly very much alive in the NL postseason race. Baseball-Reference gives them an 11.1 percent chance and FanGraphs has them at 4.3 percent. 

While that latter number is still extremely low, it’s a heck of a lot better than it was a couple of weeks ago. When they left San Diego last month after dropping three of four, they sat at 0.7 percent. The next night, a blown lead in Milwaukee cost them another game and dropped their FanGraphs’ odds to 0.4 percent.

The season was effectively over — and then the lineup decided to simply flip a switch. 

The Giants have scored 7.8 runs per game over the past 11 games, batting a combined .311 with a .908 OPS and more than two homers per game. Led by Rafael Devers and Willy Adames, the Giants have homered in 17 consecutive games, a San Francisco-era franchise record. During their 2-13 stretch at home in late July and early August, they never homered in even three consecutive games, and did it back-to-back games just once. 

“Seventeen is a lot, especially when you play in our park,” manager Bob Melvin told reporters in Denver on Wednesday. “It’s been a huge part of the resurgence at this point and it’s been mostly those guys in the middle of the order that we signed here long-term to do exactly that: Drive in runs, hit homers and hit for power.”

Everything has changed overnight, allowing the Giants to actually pursue October baseball, but they still need plenty of help. 

Aside from the obvious point that they have to continue to take every series and possibly pile up sweeps, the Giants need a team ahead of them to fall apart. The positive after the series at Coors Field is that they at least have multiple options now. 

The New York Mets hold the third Wild Card spot and sit four games ahead of the Giants, but they have the tiebreaker thanks to a sweep at Oracle in late July that helped push Buster Posey to sell at the deadline. The San Diego Padres have lost eight of 10 and sit five games ahead of the Giants, but again, they hold the tiebreaker. 

The Giants are essentially five back of the Mets and six back of the Padres, while sitting a game up on the Cincinnati Reds and 1 1/2 ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks. The latter two teams in the race will play a huge part in the Giants’ hopes down the stretch.

They visit Busch Stadium this weekend and then host the Cardinals on the final homestand of the year. They’ll also visit the Diamondbacks and host them, and do the same with the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers, who have plenty of issues of their own but lead the Padres by two games in the NL West. The final three games of the year will be against a Colorado Rockies club that the Giants have gone 8-2 against this year. 

The schedule isn’t difficult, although with the exception of the Rockies, the Giants won’t face any team that has packed it in. In St. Louis and Phoenix, they’re also hoping for a miracle. Those four series figure to be hard-fought, and any series against the Dodgers is a difficult one. 

The math says the Giants are a long shot to play in October, but stranger things have happened, and it’s where we come back to the Rangers. Their manager, Bochy, was in San Francisco in 2010 when the Giants overcame a six-game deficit with 32 to play. 

Until playoff odds hit 0.0 percent, teams will always hope for the best, and the Giants have at least put themselves in position to make things interesting. They’ll aim to make up a bit more ground over the next week while the Mets face the Reds and Phillies. 

“Better late than never, I guess, right?” Chapman said Wednesday. “It’s been a lot of fun. We obviously hit a rough patch, but I feel like we’re really coming into our own right now and playing good baseball. We’re really just trying to keep it rolling.”

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