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

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.

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.

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.

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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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The Yankees didn't allow frustrations from Wednesday's meltdown to fester, as they outlasted the rival Astros, 8-4, on a chaotic Thursday night at Daikin Park.

Here are the takeaways...

-- Astros starter Christian Javier entered Friday with a stellar 1.99 ERA in six career appearances against the Yankees, but it didn't take long for that mark to rise a tad. With two on and two outs in the second inning, Ryan McMahon drew first blood with an RBI single to shallow right that gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead. The two-out rally began with a walk to Austin Wells and a single from Anthony Volpe. Solid production by the bottom-third of the lineup.

-- Carlos Rodón kept batted balls in the park last month, allowing just one home run across six August outings (34.1 innings). But his streak of five starts without a long ball was snapped by Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, who smacked a game-tying solo shot to right-center in the third. Injury was then added to insult moments later, when Jazz Chisholm Jr.appeared to hurt his left knee after tagging out a sliding Jose Altuve at second base. Chisholm hobbled off the field and completed his fourth-inning at-bat (a strikeout), but Jose Caballero entered shortly thereafter as his defensive replacement. The Yankees announced that Chisholm exited with knee contusions.

-- McMahon's second battle with Javier was more impressive than his first. With the score still knotted in the fifth, the Yankees' third baseman jumped on a first-pitch curveball that landed over the left-center field wall for a go-ahead solo blast. Javier then fell into further trouble, loading the bases on singles to Trent Grisham and Ben Rice and a walk to Aaron Judge, and from there, Cody Bellinger increased the lead to 3-1 with a one-out RBI single to right. Javier's night ended on that note -- it was naturally his shortest start against the Yankees thus far.

-- The Astros turned to Enyel De Los Santos to clean up Javier's mess, and he didn't improve the situation. He was issued a pitch clock violation before even throwing to Giancarlo Stanton, and while he ultimately won that at-bat via strikeout, his full-count bout with Caballero was lost due to yet another clock violation. The mental error resulted in a costly walk and pushed the Astros' deficit to three. The Yankees sent all nine batters to the plate in the fifth inning.

-- The groove Rodón settled into was disrupted by some chaos in the sixth. After allowing a leadoff double to Alvarez, a line drive from Altuve that was clearly caught by McMahon at third was ruled a drop and error by umpire Brian Walsh. The Yankees argued that his bobble occurred on the transfer, and while TV replays showed this to be the case, there was no official review and umpires stunningly upheld the ruling. Rodón overcame the mess by inducing a routine double-play grounder, but a poor scoop attempt from Rice at first allowed Alvarez to score and cut the Yankees' lead to 4-2.

-- Rodón recovered from Rice's error after a mound visit, striking out Christian Walker and inducing a flyout of Yainer Diaz. It wasn't a pretty effort from the veteran southpaw, but he still delivered six quality innings that the Yankees sorely needed. Overall, Rodón gave up two runs (one earned) on three hits and two walks with three strikeouts. He also threw 109 pitches, tying his season high. His season ERA now sits at 3.12.

-- Luke Weaver took over in the seventh, but he failed to complete the inning. He served up a pinch-hit leadoff homer to Jesús Sánchez that trimmed the Yankees' lead to 4-3, and despite logging a pair of strikeouts, he proceeded to allow back-to-back singles that forced Aaron Boone to pull the plug. The jam was then handed to Fernando Cruz, who survived a full-count fight against Altuve by striking him out.

-- Any tension the Yankees felt after the seventh waned during the eighth. With two on and two out, McMahon once again came up clutch with an RBI single up the middle that deflected off the shortstop's glove and trickled into right field. Then, two pitches later, Grisham gave the Yankees an even greater sigh of relief by crushing a three-run blast down the line in right to extend their lead to a more comfortable 8-3. Grisham became the seventh center fielder in Yankees history to produce a 30-homer season -- suffice to say, nobody could've predicted him achieving this feat.

-- Cruz returned to the mound for the eighth, and while the inning began with a single to Correa, the veteran right-hander needed only 11 pitches to retire Walker (strikeouts), Diaz (strikeout), and Sanchez (flyout) and eliminate any chance of a rally. The ninth inning belonged to David Bednar, in a non-save situation, and once again, disorder only baseball can create arrived. After a double from Taylor Trammell that set the Astros up with two runners in scoring position with no outs, the Yankees questioned whether Trammell's bat met league rules. The umpires looked at the bat, which had a patch of white/tan on the barrel, but it wasn't deemed illegal. Perhaps black paint had chipped off. A league official seized the bat for review.

-- The pair of early hits and the confusing delay hampered Bednar, who proceeded to give up an RBI single to Alvarez and a walk to Altuve. But the bases-loaded jam with the tying run at the plate didn't escalate -- the veteran righty regrouped and induced two clutch strikeouts of Correa and Walker to seal a much-needed rubber game victory.

Game MVP: Ryan McMahon

McMahon's first three-hit game as a Yankee couldn't have come at a better time. He set the tone and finished 3-for-4 with a homer, two singles, and two runs scored. But credit goes to Grisham, who reached a career milestone with his valuable three-run blast.

Highlights

Ryan McMahon with an RBI single to get the Yankees on the board first in Houston pic.twitter.com/gZpupBm62s

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 5, 2025

Jazz Chisholm Jr. has left tonight’s game in the 4th inning after he appeared to get injured on this play in the 3rd inning.

He took his at-bat in the top of the 4th, but struck out on 3 pitches. pic.twitter.com/FgJJh7VBUq

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 5, 2025

Ryan McMahon with a shot to left! pic.twitter.com/DW7n1XioA5

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 5, 2025

Cody Bellinger knocks in another! pic.twitter.com/E3v2OR7W6t

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 5, 2025

A pitch clock violation on Enyel De Los Santos and Jose Caballero draws a bases loaded walk! pic.twitter.com/Oaqm7Y6psL

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 5, 2025

FERNANDO CRUZ STRIKES OUT ALTUVE pic.twitter.com/JfLaYvmqIj

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 5, 2025

Ryan McMahon’s 3rd hit of the night brings home another! pic.twitter.com/88CdRr0NW1

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 5, 2025

TRENT GRISHAM. 30 HOMERS! pic.twitter.com/G34Jh05GnI

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 5, 2025

What's next

The Yankees (78-62) will fly back home and begin a critical three-game weekend series with the division-rival Blue Jays on Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

RHP Cam Schlittler (2-2, 2.61 ERA) is slated to take the mound, opposite RHP Kevin Gausman (8-10, 3.75). New York currently trails Toronto by three games for first place in the AL East.

The Mets are getting a reinforcement for a big series with the Reds this weekend.

New York activated C Francisco Alvarez from the IL ahead of Friday's series opener in Cincinnati.

Alvarez had been sidelined since Aug. 18 with a right thumb UCL sprain. He's also playing through a broken left pinky he suffered when he was hit by a pitch during his rehab assignment.

The 23-year-old completed five rehab games with Triple-A Syracuse. In that span, Alvarez went 4-for-19 with the backstop launching a grand slam in his final rehab start on Wednesday. He was also playing catcher, including all nine innings in his last few games.

"I feel really good catching and throwing with the thumb," Alvarez. "When I did rehabs, I didn't feel almost anything."

He added: "I'm very excited. I always feel excited when I go to play baseball, it can be anywhere. I feel really excited to play baseball again."

Before the injury, Alvarez was finding his groove at the plate. In his last 15 games in the big leagues, Alvarez was slashing .326/.383/.628 with three home runs and 11 RBI. All three of those long balls came in his last six contests.

With Alvarez's return, Hayden Senger has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. 

Over three nights in Pittsburgh this week, the Dodgers didn’t win a game, despite playing a last-place Pirates club.

They didn’t grow their division lead, despite the second-place San Diego Padres suffering their own three-game sweep. 

And, as veteran infielder Miguel Rojas stressed Thursday night, they simply didn’t look like a team capable of sharing in any joy, despite their constant insistence that better play will materialize.

“I feel like ever since we started playing poorly a couple months ago, the pressure and frustration has been building up on the team,” Rojas said. 

“We know what we’re capable of. We’re playing under the threshold, the goal that we have. But at the end of the day, we gotta put all that aside ... and we have to find some joy and some motivation to come to the ballpark. Not just, ‘I gotta do my job.’ We have to come here and enjoy ourselves around the clubhouse, regardless of the situation.”

The situation, of course, looks bleak, with Thursday’s 5-3 loss to the Pirates sealing a confounding three-game sweep.

Read more:'We need to start playing better.' Slumping Dodgers lose again to the lowly Pirates

“It’s frustrating. It’s embarrassing,” Rojas said. “But we have to be able to turn the page and come tomorrow with a better attitude. ... We have to find a way to enjoy the game a little bit more.”

This loss, granted, was the easiest to explain.

In six scoreless innings, Cy Young frontrunner Paul Skenes was his typically dominant self. Already the major-league ERA leader, the second-year right-hander stuck out eight batters, gave up just two hits, escaped his only real threat by stranding a pair of two-out baserunners in the third inning, and otherwise overpowered the Dodgers with a seven-pitch repertoire headlined by his upper-90s mph sidearm fastball.

His counterpart, two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, was nowhere near top form, giving up five runs in five innings despite largely limiting much hard contact.

The Dodgers (78-62) did finally show some life offensively in the top of the ninth, scoring three times (their first runs since the eighth inning of Tuesday's game) and putting the tying run on base. But by then, it was too little, too late — with the game ending on a three-pitch strikeout by newly called-up catcher Ben Rortvedt, the latest hair-pulling moment in a season of deflation.

“We’re just not playing good baseball, that’s really it,” Snell said. “We’ve got to figure that out. That’s on us to do that. We’ve got to get it going. It’s crunch time right now. Can’t really have excuses.”

Indeed, the Dodgers lead the NL West by only two games — having missed a chance to create distance in the standings after the Padres unexpectedly dropped three straight against the Baltimore Orioles earlier in the week.

They also trail the Philadelphia Phillies by three games for a top-two seed in the NL playoff picture, placing themselves in danger of facing a three-game wild-card series rather than a first-round bye.

With 22 games remaining, the Dodgers would have to be perfect the rest of the way to reach the 100-win mark. At this point, even 90 victories feels far from a certainty, given the team’s 4-12 record in their last 16 against teams with losing records. 

“I want to say it's uncharacteristic, but I think we've done that a lot,” manager Dave Roberts acknowledged afterward. 

And when facing the current best pitcher in the sport, they certainly never seemed poised to change that trend.

Read more:Dodgers Dugout: The 10 best starting pitchers in Dodger history

Skenes set the tone immediately on what had been a rainy evening in Pittsburgh. Shohei Ohtani struck out on a 99-mph heater in the game’s first at-bat. The next seven Dodgers who came to the plate all recorded outs, flailing at Skenes’ mix of four-seamers, sweepers, curveballs and changeups to allow him to quickly find a comfortable rhythm.

It wasn’t until Dalton Rushing — who started in place of an injured Will Smith, as the team’s starting catcher awaited results on a CT scan for a bruised hand he suffered the night before — hit a third-inning fastball high off the center-field wall for a double that gave the Dodgers their first baserunner. But, after an Ohtani walk, Mookie Betts grounded out to retire that threat.

From there, the only other damage Skenes allowed was a fifth-inning single from Rojas. And though the Dodgers’ ability to at least foul off two-strike pitches — they fought off 15 in all — at least got him out of the game after six innings, it was already too late to mount a comeback.

That’s because, unlike the Dodgers, the last-place Pirates (64-77) actually managed to build rallies against another of the game’s other top pitchers.

Snell’s outing was a grind from the start, with Rushing misfiring to first base for an error in the first inning and Betts reacting slowly to a ground ball at shortstop to extend the second.

Snell worked around those jams. In the third, however, he followed a leadoff single by Bryan Reynolds with a pair of wild pitches that got by Rushing. With Reynolds suddenly on third, and the Dodgers’ infield forced to play in, Tommy Pham slapped a single through the dirt for the night’s opening run.

Two innings later, the Pirates broke it open.

In the fifth, Snell gave up three consecutive singles that doubled Pittsburgh's lead. Then, after an intentional one-out walk to Andrew McCutchen, Nick Yorke went after a first-pitch curveball for a two-run double down the line. McCutchen later scored from third on a grounder. 

“It just seemed like today there was some seeing-eye single, balls finding the outfield grass,” Roberts said. “I thought he was good, not great. But again, a little bit unlucky. When you're facing Paul Skenes, you just can't afford to give up runs."

If all that wasn’t enough, the game ended with another regrettable sequence in the ninth. Betts broke up the shutout with a leadoff home run. Singles from Teoscar Hernández, Michael Conforto, Andy Pages and Rojas brought around two more runs with the Dodgers down to their last out.

Then, however, Rortvedt came up as their ill-fated final hope. 

A career minor-leaguer whom the Dodgers acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays at the trade deadline, then called up Thursday after Smith took a foul ball off his hand the night before, Rortvedt struck out after having replaced Rushing an inning earlier. 

Read more:‘Want to see that edge.’ How Dodgers hope Teoscar Hernández turns around difficult season

As Roberts explained postgame, he was trying to get Rushing (a rookie who has been a backup this season, but will likely start the next three games as Smith recovers from his bruised hand) off his feet. Given the way the game had gone, he wasn’t expecting Rushing’s spot in the order (which was due up eighth in the ninth inning) to come back up again.

“Obviously, in a separate world, I would've loved to have had Dalton up there,” Roberts said. “But when you have three hits through eight [innings] and you're down 5-0, just kind of trying to figure out how to preserve him for the next few days, too."

So it goes for the Dodgers right now. Their inconsistent lineup continues to scuffle. Their supposed strength of a rotation hasn’t been able to dominate. And, with their record an incomprehensible 22-30 since July 4, there remains no end in sight to their second-half slide — nor visible signs of anything other than frustration.

“I feel like, as an offense, we’re putting a little bit too much pressure on ourselves, because we feel the necessity of winning. And we’re really forgetting about the most important part, which is playing for each other and having some joy when we play this game,” Rojas said. 

“We all know, when you’re losing baseball games it’s not that fun. But I feel like we have to find a way to put everything in perspective. We’re still in first place. We’re still two games ahead of the Padres. We should be able to have some fun while we’re playing the game, and kind of relax a little bit more. Because I think when this team is together like that, we’re really hard to beat.”

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. exited Thursday's game against the Astros with an apparent knee injury.

In the bottom of the third inning, Jose Altuve tried to advance to second base after a passed ball. Catcher Austin Wells recovered the baseball and threw to second, where Chisholm slapped down his tag on Altuve, who slid into the infielder's left knee.

Chisholm would take his at-bat in the top of the fourth inning, but after he struck out, he gingerly walked back to the dugout. The YES broadcast caught Chisholm in the dugout signaling to the coaching staff that he needed to come out of the game.

The Yankees announced that Chisholm was pulled with knee contusions in both knees. They happened on different plays. The team replaced Chisholm with Jose Caballero in the bottom of the fourth.

Chisholm was 0-for-2 with a strikeout before he left the game.

After the game, manager Aaron Boone gave a short update on Chisholm. 

"I don’t think it’s anything major, that’s the sense right now," he said. "We’ll see how he’s doing tomorrow."

Boone clarified that the first incident happened when Chisholm went down on his right knee for a groundball hit his way. The Yankees skipper believes Chisholm slammed his knee into the ground too hard. 

Jazz Chisholm Jr. has left tonight’s game in the 4th inning after he appeared to get injured on this play in the 3rd inning.

He took his at-bat in the top of the 4th, but struck out on 3 pitches. pic.twitter.com/FgJJh7VBUq

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 5, 2025

The Mets are hoping to fortify their bullpen before the start of the postseason, and Reed Garrett is hoping to be part of the team's plans when he returns from his rehab assignment.

Garrett began his first step toward returning to the club when he took the mound for Double-A Binghamton on Thursday.

Starting the game against the Akron RubberDucks, the right-hander started off hot, striking out the first hitter he faced on three pitches. After a five-pitch lineout, Garrett allowed a single before striking out his final batter on four pitches.

It was a dominant performance for Garrett, who allowed one hit and struck out two batters in his one inning of work. He was also very efficient, tossing just 15 pitches, 11 for strikes.

Garrett was placed on the IL back on Aug. 25 with right elbow inflammation. To make sure Garrett is healthy enough to return, Thursday's outing is the first of likely a few starts in the minor leagues. The minor league regular season does end in September, so there's not too much time for the 32-year-old to get in his reps.

This season, Garrett has produced up-and-down results. He pitched to a 0.73 ERA through May but has since seen his effectiveness wane as the months have gone on. In 54 appearances, Garrett owns a 3.61 ERA with three saves and a 1.22 WHIP.

A couple of strikeouts tonight for Reed Garrett in his first rehab appearance for Binghamton pic.twitter.com/fy8TAkdNnS

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) September 4, 2025