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Ryan McMahon started Friday night’s game against Kansas City on the bench thanks to one of the worst starts to the season of any hitter in the majors. 

He entered as a defensive replacement, with the Yankees clinging to a one-run lead in the top of the eighth. 

So, naturally, he came up in the most important at-bat of the game. 

And this time, McMahon — who hadn’t had an extra-base hit all season or driven in a run since Opening Day — delivered in a 4-2 win in The Bronx. 

McMahon’s opposite-field two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth came after Camilo Doval gave up the lead in the top of the inning and following Ben Rice’s two-out single. 

“It’s no secret I’ve been struggling a little bit,’’ said McMahon, who entered with the second-worst slugging percentage in the majors of anyone with more than 40 plate appearances. “This game is super humbling. All you can do is keep working.” 

That’s what McMahon did, hitting in the cages throughout the first half of the game before he replaced Amed Rosario at third to start the eighth and the Yankees up by a run. 

His approach didn’t change, even when Aaron Boone told him heading into this series his playing time would be sparse, as the Yankees are set to face lefty starters against both the Royals and the Red Sox in Boston next week. 

“He’s had success for a while,” Boone said. “He knows he’s capable, but when you’re going through it, it can be tough. … This game will bring you to your knees. The good ones handle it.” 

David Bednar closed it in the ninth as the Yankees won for just the third time in their last 10 games. 

It came against a Royals team that’s in a five-game losing streak and has dropped nine consecutive games to the Yankees — dating back to the 2024 ALDS. 

Cam Schlittler provided another excellent start, allowing just an unearned run in six-plus innings. 

The right-hander retired the first 11 batters he faced, perfect until Vinnie Pasquantino singled to left with two outs in the fourth. 

In the sixth, holding a two-run lead provided by Rice’s homer in the fourth off the excellent Michael Wacha, the Yankees faltered. 

Schlittler walked Maikel García with one out — just Schlitter’s second walk of the season. 

But Schlittler then got Bobby Witt Jr. to hit a fly ball to deep center, where the slumping Trent Grisham camped under it — and had it bounce off his glove for a two-base error. 

With runners on second and third and one out, Pasquantino grounded to first to score García and make it 2-1 before Schlittler got Salvador Pérez to finish the inning. 

The first two batters reached in the seventh off Schlittler and lefty Brent Headrick entered. He struck out Jac Caglianone, got pinch hitter Jonanthan India to pop out and, after making a throwing error into center on a pickoff attempt, got another pinch hitter, Starling Marte, on a comebacker to preserve the one-run lead. 

But Doval took over in the eighth and allowed a game-tying, two-out solo shot to Pasquantino that just reached the stands in right. 

The Yankees bounced back, as Rice continued to mash and delivered a two-out single to set up McMahon. 

“You want to play [well],” McMahon said. “It doesn’t feel good letting your brothers down. I’ve been sick and tired of it, honestly.” 

Despite the lengthy drought, McMahon said his attitude hasn’t changed: “It’s always the same. Go win the game.” 

On Friday, he — and the Yankees — did.

The Royals have now lost five straight. Those five losses all have a lot in common. The most obvious similarity is that they were all close games decided in the seventh inning or later. Tonight’s was the first game where they lost by more than a single run. It did, unfortunately, continue the streak of a different reliever blowing the game. John Schreiber blew it on Sunday, then Nick Mears blew it on Tuesday, Eli Morgan lost it on Wednesday, Lucas Erceg lost it on Thursday, and tonight it was Alex Lange’s turn.

Of particular note to me is that Matt Strahm has only pitched in one game this week. It’s not an excuse, but with him unavailable, guys are being forced to pitch innings they otherwise wouldn’t and throwing off routines like that or asking guys to pitch in higher leverage than they’re used to could be a contributing factor. Since we haven’t heard of any injury, I’ve wondered if he (and other pitchers in the bullpen) might be ill and that could be contributing as well. But we won’t know unless someone asks manager Matt Quatraro and he gives an honest answer.

OK, so those are the negatives. I want to spend some time on the positives for a bit before we call it a night.

• Michael Wacha pitched 6 innings, giving up 2 runs on 6 strikeouts and 3 walks. That raised his ERA to 1.00. He has been otherworldly good and doesn’t show any signs of stopping.
• Vinnie Pasquantino hit a home run for the second game in a row. This one was as impressive as some of the outs he hit in Detroit, but we’ll take what we can get.
• Jac Caglianone struck out three times, but also had a line drive, opposite-field single.
• Cam Schlittler has been one of the best pitchers in baseball to this point and the Royals forced him to triple his season walk total and to exit the game after 6+ innings by exhibiting patience – especially as the game went on.
• Carter Jensen didn’t let the pressure of Yankee Stadium or the game situation deter him from walking twice.
• The losses get easier to bear the more we’re exposed to them. I’m a lot less frustrated about tonight’s game than I was the last four losses.

OK, yeah, that’s probably enough. The Royals will try again to snap the skid tomorrow. Noah Cameron (3.94 ERA, 4.15 SIERA) will face off against Will Warren (2.45 ERA, 3.29 SIERA). Don’t forget it’s an East Coast afternoon game, so first pitch will be at 12:35 Kauffman time.

WASHINGTON – Jen Pawol was behind the plate for her first major league game in the automated balls and strikes challenge system era. And the first woman to serve as an ump in a Major League Baseball game stood her ground against the so-called robots.

Pawol called balls and strikes for the San Francisco Giants-Washington Nationals game Friday, April 17 and withstood a pair of challenges from Giants catcher Daniel Susac, with a pair of ball calls upheld quickly by the ABS system.

By the third inning, the Giants were out of challenges, while the Nationals successfully appealed a pair of calls during San Francisco’s 10-5 victory.

To be sure, this was a solid standoff early in this ABS era.

Entering Friday’s game, players were successful on 54% of their challenges to umpires, and the typical game averaged 4.05 challenges. Pawol saw exactly four challenges and won two of them.

Of course, ABS is relatively old news for those umpiring in Class AAA in recent years, where ABS was first deployed on a trial basis.

Even after last year’s trade with the Rockies, we all should’ve known to some degree that Ryan McMahon wasn’t exactly going to be an Alex Rodriguez-type of third baseman at the plate. That being said, his struggles to start 2026 have gone way below what anyone could’ve reasonably hoped for. He’s even lost a lot of at-bats to Amed Rosario, who was signed specifically just to play against lefties.

However on Friday night, McMahon played the hero at the dish, as his go-ahead homer gave the Yankees a 4-2 win over the Royals, and avoided them wasting another good start from Cam Schlittler.

The Yankees’ offense was mostly held in check through the first couple innings, but eventually they broke through in the fourth. With Cody Bellinger on after a single of his dropped in for a hit, Ben Rice took Michael Wacha deep for his sixth homer of the season.

The Royals got one of those runs back in the sixth, although you could hardly blame it on Schlittler. With one out, he walked Maikel Garcia but then got Bobby Witt Jr. to hit a deep fly ball that should have been the second out. However in the windy conditions, Trent Grisham took an awkward route to the ball and then couldn’t fully glove it, as the ball went in and out, allowing Witt to reach safely and Garcia to go to third. That led to Garcia scoring when Vinnie Pasquatino grounded out in the following at-bat. Schlittler did a good job after that, striking out Salvador Perez to strand Witt.

However, Schlittler then allowed the first two Royals’ batters in the seventh to reach base, leading to Aaron Boone going to the bullpen. Brent Headrick came in and eventually got out of the inning, but not before a scare of his own making, as he committed an error while making a pickoff throw to second base.

For the game, Schlittler ended up going six innings, allowing one run on three hits. He did triple his walk total on the season, but that number just went from one to three.

The Yankees missed out on a chance to add back to their lead in the bottom of the seventh, but Aaron Judge, of all people, grounded out to end the inning. Camilo Doval then came in for the eighth. He got two quick outs and seemed to be headed towards a clean inning, but Pasquatino got him for a porch job homer to tie things up.

In the bottom of the eighth, it appeared that the lineup was going to go down quickly in order, as they mostly had in the time since Rice’s homer. The inning was left up to Rice again, who came through with a single to keep it alive. That brought McMahon to the plate, as he had come in as a defensive replacement for Rosario prior to the top of the eighth.

Despite all that’s been said about his slow start to the season, we can give him a break on this day. McMahon homered to left, just getting one to clear the top of the wall for a two-run, go-ahead blast.

With the lead back, the Yankees brought David Bednar in for the top of the ninth. He issued a leadoff walk, but came back to get the next three outs, striking out the final two batters to seal the victory.

The series against the Royals will continue tomorrow afternoon at 1:35 pm ET. Will Warren is expected to take the ball for the Yankees, with Noah Cameron going for Kansas City.

Box Score

The Phillies stunk something awful tonight. The offense decided not to show up yet again, a theme that is starting to become a recurring one, but that should course correct in due time.

What isn’t going to course correct itself is that Taijuan Walker again put his team behind in the first inning and then proceeded to make sure they didn’t have a chance to get back in the game in the second inning. When it was over, the Braves had a 6-0 lead and the game was virtually over.

The first inning problems that Walker has had this year continued unabated when he allowed the first three hitters to reach to load the bases. Hope sprung when he somehow got a strikeout and a groundout that maybe he’d get out of the inning further unscathed, but a single made it 2-0. The Phillies had a golden chance to at least answer back somewhat in their half of the frame when they loaded the bases with one out against Martin Perez, but a pretty rough at bat by Edmundo Sosa snuffed out the rally. In the second, the Braves tacked on four more runs, the biggest blow a three run home run by Austin Riley that essentially sealed the game.

Atlanta got three more runs, but who really cares when the offense decides to bury their heads in the sand in yet another loss at home? Walker ate a few innings for the bullpen, which saw Tim Mayza and Tanner Banks have good outings, Chase Shugart and Orion Kerkering not. The team is struggling badly right now.

The real issue this evening is Walker.

Zack Wheeler is going to make his final start of the rehab process on Sunday, where he’ll hopefully make his next start on the road with the Phillies. The idea is that Walker is going to go to the bullpen to serve as a low leverage long reliever, waiting to jump back into the rotation if/when there is a reason to replace someone, but at this point, what is the actual point? I’ve thought that Walker has done his job admirably these past few years, giving the team a fifth starter that might give a solid start, might not. He’ll at least eat a few innings in each game he pitches, but the regularity with which he puts the Phillies in a hole during his starts warrants a long conversation about his ever returning to the rotation for the Phillies.

It just can’t happen again.

We don’t know their plan for him for real. Maybe he just gets sent packing on his way when Wheeler returns, maybe he does indeed go to the bullpen. Whatever it is, he just needs to get out the spot he currently holds in the rotation for the good of the team.

The Orioles and Guardians traded zeros for six innings before Cleveland took a commanding lead in the seventh. Daniel Schneemann launched a no-doubt grand slam with two outs in the seventh, and Baltimore appeared destined for its fourth straight loss. Fortunately, this team had other plans. The O’s exploded for six runs in the top of the eighth. Weston Wilson delivered a two-run double, and Jeremiah Jackson hit a go-ahead, three-run home run to lead Baltimore to a 6-4 win at Progressive Field.

Both teams threatened early and often without breaking through. Baltimore starter Chris Bassitt ran up his pitch count while laboring through five scoreless frames, and the Orioles failed to bring in a runner in scoring position in each of the first three innings.

The Guardians finally struck first with what felt like a knockout punch in the seventh inning. Steven Kwan started the rally with a seemingly harmless grounder that Jackson failed to field at second base. Chase DeLauter followed with a hard-hit double off reliever Grant Wolfram, and Cleveland found itself in business with two in scoring position and nobody out.

Craig Albernaz made the easy decision to walk José Ramirez with the open base, and the Orioles nearly escaped without any damage. Wolfram struck out Kyle Manzardo for the first out, and new pitcher Anthony Nunez struck out Rhys Hoskins for a big out number two. Unfortunately, the escape act stopped there. Nunez caught too much of the plate with a fastball, and Schneemann blasted Cleveland to a four-run lead.

The Orioles had not scored in the first six innings and suddenly trailed by four. The lead felt insurmountable—until it wasn’t.

Baltimore loaded the bases in the top of the eighth without swinging the bat. Taylor Ward worked a leadoff walk, Pete Alonso got hit by a pitch, and Dylan Beavers worked a free pass to load the bases. Cleveland summoned left-handed reliever Erik Sabrowski, and Baltimore counted with pinch-hitter Johnathan Rodríguez. Rodríguez squared up a first pitch fastball but lined it directly to the right fielder. Ward tagged and raced home for Baltimore’s first run of the game.

Leody Taveras continued Baltimore’s patient approach by working the count to 3-2. Home plate umpire Nate Tomlinson punched out Taveras on a pitch below the zone, but the ABS challenge system allowed Taveras to reach and reload the bases.

Albernaz continued to empty the bench against the lefty and sent Wilson to the plate. Wilson got a middle-middle fastball and made the most of his opportunity. The former Phillie smacked the hardest hit ball of his career with a 110 MPH double off the tall wall in left field. Alonso and Beavers raced home to cut the lead to one, and Wilson barely beat a strong throw to second base.

Coby Mayo chased what should have been ball four for the second out, and Jackson stepped in with the tying and go-ahead runs on base. Jackson, fresh off a costly error in the previous inning, wasted no time making up for his mistake. The 26-year-old went to a knee with a big swing, and the ball traveled 390 feet to left center. The Orioles led 6-to-4.

Rico Garcia kept his brilliant season going with a clean eighth. Cleveland nearly brought the tying run to the plate when first base umpire Mark Wegner ruled that Pete Alonso pulled his foot off the bag, but replay corrected his mistake and sent the game to the ninth inning.

Ryan Hesley walked Ramirez before striking out Manzardo and retiring George Valera to earn the save.

Bassitt made some incremental improvement today by completing five frames for the first time in four starts. Bassitt kept the Guardians off the scoreboard, but Cleveland made him work. The 37-year-old threw only 56 of 100 pitches for strikes over five innings.

Five shutout innings is a reasonable result from a backend starter, but it doesn’t exactly match the “innings eater” label. Bassitt struggled to miss bats, and Cleveland hitters rarely looked overmatched. He struck out two, walked four, and allowed four hits.

Bassitt retired the first batter he faced before loading the bases on a pair of walks and a base hit by Manzardo. The veteran used a well-located curveball to generate an infield fly for the second out, and he retired Schneemann with a ground ball to escape the inning unscathed.

Samuel Basallo erased a leadoff single in the second by making a strong throw on a stolen base attempt. Bassitt overcame a leadoff single by Stephen Kwan in the third and a leadoff single by Hoskins in the fourth. The next test came in the fifth inning. Kwan and Ramirez walked and moved into scoring position after a wild pitch, but Bassitt struck out Manzardo to end the threat.

Colton Cowser made a nice running catch in foul territory but banged his knee off the wall in the fifth inning. Cowser stayed in the game but was eventually lifted for a pinch hitter. Albernaz emptied the bench tonight, and the skipper said after the game that Cowser was okay despite suffering a knee contusion.

The thrilling come back also brought Baltimore back to .500 at 10-10. The Orioles have played some chaotic games over the last week, and it’s always fun to be on the right side. Baltimore will look to carry the momentum into tomorrow with Dean Kremer on the mound at 6:10 p.m.

Ryan McMahon became the unlikeliest of heroes as his two-run homer lifted the Yankees to a 4-2 win over the Royals on Friday night in the Bronx.

McMahon entered Friday's game with just five hits on the season, all singles. He also didn't start, with manager Aaron Boone opting to go with the more consistent Amed Rosario.

Subbing in for defense in the eighth, McMahon came up with a runner on and two out with the game tied. The left-hander took a changeup down in the zone the other way for an opposite-field blast.

Here are the takeaways....

-Cam Schlittler had his good stuff on Friday. After allowing three runs in his last start, which was also his worst of the season, the young right-hander was filling up the zone and overwhelming the Royals hitters with his fastball that hit 99 and sat around 97 mph.

He was perfect through 3.2 innings before Vinnie Pasquantino lined an opposite-field single.

Schlittler was cruising until the sixth. He walked Maikel Garcia with one out before Bobby Witt Jr. put a charge into one that went to deep center. Trent Grisham seemed to have a bead on it, but the ball hit the heel of his glove for a two-base error. Schlittler limited the damage, allowing an unearned run on a groundout before striking out Salvador Perez to get out of the inning with a 2-1 lead.

Schlittler would start the seventh, but a leadoff walk and single forced him out of the game, and Brent Headrick was the first arm out of the bullpen. Headrick got a strikeout, pinch-hitter Jonathan India to fly out on a nifty backwards catch by Ben Rice in foul territory, and -- after a throwing error on a pickoff attempt at second -- got Starling Marte to ground out softly to get out of the inning and put an end to Schlittler's line.

Schlittler tossed 93 pitches (63 strikes) across six-plus innings, allowing one unearned run on three hits, two walks, while striking out six.

-The Yankees entered the game second in the majors in PA/BB (8.18) and pitches per plate appearances (4.08), but had a plan to be aggressive against Michael Wacha early, with three of the first four batters swinging on the first pitch. Aaron Judge picked up a one-out double but was stranded by Cody Bellinger (strikeout) and Giancarlo Stanton (popped up).

That extended to six of the first eight batters, but they didn't lead to positive results until the fourth inning. Bellinger hit a leadoff bloop single and two batters later, Rice went down and launched a changeup down in the zone over the short porch in right to put the Yankees up 2-0. On a windy night in the Bronx with hard-hit balls dying in the outfield, Rice's 103.3 mph laser cut through the wind.

-The Yankees threatened in the fifth after Jose Caballero led off with a walk and moved to second on a groundout. Caballero stole third, catching the Royals third baseman sleeping. Judge walked and stole second without a throw, but Bellinger flew out to center as the Royals got out of the jam.

New York had another chance in the seventh with two runners on and two outs for Judge. But Judge grounded out to third. The Yankees were 0-for-5 with RISP and left six runners on base.

-After Headrick, Camillo Doval was called on to pitch the eighth. After getting the first two out, Pasquantino took a Doval sinker deep to right field to tie the game at 2-2. It was the same spot that Rice took Wacha deep.

David Bednar came on for the save in the ninth and, after walking the leadoff hitter, got the next three batters in order to lock down the win.

-Rosario, starting against a right-hander instead of McMahon, went 0-for-3 but had two of the top five hardest hit balls in the game according to StatCast.

-The Yankees entered Friday with 25 stolen bases, the most in the AL and tied with Miami for the second-most in the majors. They added to that total with two more swipes. Caballero logged his ninth stolen base of the season, which now puts him in first in the AL.

Game MVP: Ryan McMahon

McMahon was able to put his struggles behind him for one night and ended up being the hero.

Highlights

BEN RICE!

Yankees lead 2-0! pic.twitter.com/u2gCgrVp0f

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 18, 2026

RYAN MCMAHON IN THE CLUTCH!

YANKEES LEAD 4-2! pic.twitter.com/PVW79dJXxp

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 18, 2026

What's next

The Yankees and Royals play the middle game of their three-game series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:35 p.m.

Will Warren (1-0, 2.45 ERA) will take the mound while Noah Cameron (1-0, 3.94 ERA) opposes him for Kansas City.

When the Texas Rangers swept the Seattle Mariners over three games last week, I don’t think anyone blamed the Mariners’ starting pitching. So the good news is that the Mariners are slated to throw the same three starters back at the Rangers this weekend, beginning tonight with Logan Gilbert. Gilbert is fresh off what I rated as his best start in a year, with his slider finally looking as crisp as it had in 2024.

The bad news is that the Mariners’ offense will have to face the same three starters the Rangers threw at them, beginning tonight with deGrom. Gilbert v. deGrom would be a compelling matchup on the strenght of their pitching alone, but the narrative adds a little something to the mix on the basis that they’re both alumni of Stetson University. They’re two of just ten Hatters to make it to MLB. While they both pitched great when they faced off last Monday, the Rangers ultimately eked out a 2-1 victory.

This is in the Game Info section below too, but something cool about this game is that the Mariners are back on basic cable: Tonight’s game will be simulcast on both Mariners TV and KING 5. And that’s not all! Ryon Healy will be joining Aaron Goldsmith in the booth to do color commentary. I’m not sure what to expect in terms of insight, but I do think his himbo energy will be a perfect foil for Goldy. For a preview, enjoy this video the Mariners produced shortly after the trade that brought him to Seattle. Come for Mitch Haniger eating normal food back before he went off the rails, but stay for Ryon melting at the dessert at 0:57.

Revisit the other Ryon highlights compiled by Matthew Roberson here.

Lineups

The Mariners will roll with what’s become their standard lineup against righties.

The Rangers will roll with Joc Pederson and a weirdly dour-looking deGrom. No really, why is this the promo photo?

Injury Updates

• Víctor Robles is still not allowed to throw for a couple more weeks
• Carlos Vargas has started playing catch but won’t begin a full buildback routine until late May
• Patrick Wisdom has an oblique strain and will be going to the IL. Rob Refsnyder is back from paternity leave to take his place on the 26-man anyway.
• Bryce Miller will start a rehab assignment tomorrow in Tacoma. Read more here.

Game Info

First pitch: 6:40 PDT
TV: KING 5 and Mariners TV
Radio: Old Reliable

The Atlanta Braves entered Friday’s series opener against the Philadelphia Phillies hot. The Phillies…did not.

That showed up on the field as the Braves jumped out to a big lead early and coasted to a 9-0 throttling of the Phillies in the first game of the three-game set at Citizens Bank Park, earning their major-league-leading fourth shutout of the season.

Martín Pérez and Jose Suarez combined for the shutout (a truly crazy thing to write), giving up just six hits and three walks while stranding eight runners.

Austin Riley sparked the offense with a pair of homers, giving him three in the last two games after he had none through 18 games this season.

The game didn’t seem to be going down this path when both teams had prime scoring chances in their respective first innings. The Braves loaded the bases with no outs, while Philadelphia did so with one out.

Atlanta struck for two runs on a groundout and a Mike Yastrzemski infield single before Pérez escaped the jam to keep the Phillies off the board. As it turned out, that set the tone for the game.

The Braves took command in the second inning when they plated four runs, all with two outs. Matt Olson’s RBI single made it 3-0 before Riley’s first homer doubled that advantage to 6-0, bringing out the boo birds in Philly.

Phillies right-hander Taijuan Walker (1-3, 9.16 ERA) was rocked by the Braves lineup, allowing seven runs on seven hits over four innings, striking out four and walking three.

Pérez (1-1) escaped the first-inning jam he put himself in with a hit-by-pitch, single and walk with a strikeout of Edmundo Sosa on an elevated fastball and by inducing a J.T. Realmuto flyout to left.

He managed just one 1-2-3 inning across his six shutout frames but consistently navigated trouble, scattering four hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Through four games (three starts) this season, the veteran has allowed five runs over 20 1/3 innings for a 2.21 ERA.

Atlanta tacked on two more in the eighth on Michael Harris II’s third homer of the season, a two-run shot for his third hit of the night, and Riley closed out the scoring with a line-drive solo shot to right.

Suarez preserved the shutout as well as the bullpen by working the final three innings, working around two hits and a walk.

A familiar face was back at T-Mobile Park on Friday.

“Hello, hi, yes, it’s me, I’m back. Yes, hi, hello,” said Bryce Miller in his familiar Texas accent as he ambled down the clubhouse hallway, greeting the assembled media like a visiting dignitary in a receiving line.

It’s been a long layoff for Miller, who hasn’t pitched since February 26th, when he made his first start of spring and then promptly went on the IL with a left oblique injury. The injury is unrelated to the right elbow injury that kept Miller out at times for last year, but it’s not less frustrating for the amiable Miller, who – as is typical – joked about his injury in a media availability prior to Friday’s game.

“I was on a 27 year streak without an oblique injury, so if I restarted it, that gives me another 27 or so.”

Miller said he didn’t learn a new pitch during his long layoff, despite “scouring” social media looking for one, but said he has been messing with his cutter and trying out a new grip on his slider that he picked up from Houston’s Bryan Abreu; he’s curious to see how the slider will play in Seattle’s colder air after it was really “depthy” in Arizona.

“I’m just trying to get some kind of breaking ball I can get more whiff on. That’s something I struggled with the last few years, so hopefully this is the one – I’ve tried every slider grip possible. This is one I think I’ll be able to throw in any count, and hopefully have a little bit of leeway if I do miss. The slider of the past kind of felt like if I missed it, it kind of got punished.”

Miller will have a chance to try out his new slider when he makes his first rehab start for Tacoma tomorrow, although he’ll only have about two innings and 30 pitches to work on it. His next start will progress to three innings and 45 pitches, and then on to four, five, and six innings and 60-plus pitches. Mariners GM Justin Hollander says Miller will be on an every-sixth-day schedule, allowing him to pitch once per series on the minor-league schedule. Miller will alternate between Tacoma and Everett when those teams are at home over the next month, allowing him to remain close to T-Mobile Park.

The thing the Mariners have been monitoring with Miller is how quickly he’s been bouncing back after outings. What was slowing Miller earlier in the rehab process was lingering soreness for days after he’d thrown; that soreness abated and then eventually disappeared, at which point the team determined it was time to send him out on a rehab assignment.

“It was kind of a roller coaster of a rehab process,” said Miller, “because I’d get to a point where it felt really good, and then I’d throw a bullpen, it’d go really good, velo would be great, and then the next couple days I just wouldn’t recover quickly enough.”

But Miller said he finally has gotten to the point where he bounced back quickly after a bullpen, feeling “100% completely normal” in the days following his last outing.

“Over the last week, 10 days, we’ve gotten to the point where he feels great all the time,” said Hollander. “He doesn’t feel any aching or soreness while he’s throwing, and he doesn’t feel any soreness afterwards. So that’s the progression.”

While the team will be monitoring Miller’s mechanics over his rehab outings, making sure he’s not changing anything to compensate for any lingering injury, they probably won’t need to wThere’s been no downturn in Miller’s stuff, which was looking great in his lone spring training outing before he was shut down with the oblique injury. His fastball has been up – 98 and touching 99 – consistently through his bullpens.

Miller says the thing he’ll be focusing on is all the little details he didn’t get to do with no spring training or competitive games, things like pitching on a pitch clock, holding a runner, or doing pickoff moves, something he said Logan Gilbert—who completed his first successful big-league pickoff to first last homestand—has offered to help him with.

“I’ve seen him for ten minutes in there, he’s already brought it up,” said Bryce.

Miller also this recent spate of injuries, after a lifetime of being fortunate in that regard, has taught him the importance of controlling what he can control.

“I’ve just been really trying to make sure I do everything I can to take care of my body, make sure I’m ready to go, not skip anything on the prep side, nothing on the recovery side. And then if I do all that and something happens, then it’s out of my hands, but I can’t look back and be like, damn, if I would have just prepped a little more, maybe it would have been fine.”

The question hanging over all of this is: what does the team do when Miller is ready to return to the big-league club while his replacement Emerson Hancock has been so effective? Hollander, unsurprisingly, says that’s a bridge the organization will cross when it comes.

“There’s one thing that I never lie there at night, not able to sleep, thinking about, and that’s what if we have too many good starting pitchers. It’s just not a thing that happens to almost anyone. If we get to be a month from now and that’s what happens, we’ll figure it out. We haven’t made any decisions on that whatsoever.”

“And truthfully, God bless us if it’s a problem we have thirty days from now.”

Bibee was okay today. Gave up a lot of hard contact but managed to navigate through 6 innings without giving up a run.

On both sides of the ball, Daniel Schneemann was unbelievable today.

In the 5th, he made this superman catch to nab this Taylor Ward 102mph grounder.

In the 7th, Kwan reached on error, DeLauter doubled, and Jose was intentionally walked. Both Manzardo and Hoskins made outs, but Schneemann obliterated this fastball to right-center.

Armstrong came on in the 8th and loaded the bases (all reached via walk), and then Sabrowski gave up a sac fly and an absolute missle of a double down the line in left. Brogdon came on and immediately gave up a 3-run homer to Jeremiah Jackson.

Jose walked 4 times today, and only got home once.

It’ll be Gavin Williams vs. Dean Kremer tomorrow

It is Friday night.

The Orioles have beaten the Guardians, 6-4, storming back from a 4-0 deficit late in the game on the strength of a go-ahead Jeremiah Jackson home run. Chris Bassitt started the game with five rocky but still scoreless innings, Weston Wilson had a clutch hit before the homer, and Rico Garcia and Ryan Helsley closed the door to bring the Orioles back up to .500.

YOU KNOW WHAT MUST BE DONE.

For their first West Coast road trip of the year, the Chicago White Sox need to find some gold. They’re looking to do so against the hot Athletics, who are 9-4 in their last 13 games. It’ll be a tall task, but if the Sox were able to dig deep and sweep the Toronto Blue Jays, they’ll have to find that same energy against the A’s to turn the season around.

Ahead of tonight’s series start, the Sox made the following roster move:

Doug Nikhazy has two career MLB games under his belt, his most recent — coming the same year he made his debut — on July 4, 2025. Drafted as a starting pitcher in 2021’s second round, Nikhazy will take up a bulk-innings role in the bullpen.

With the bullpen acting as a revolving door to begin this season, the stable Davis Martin will take the bump for the South Siders, and he’s been a bright spot for the struggling Sox. For one, he’s been the only Sox starter to notch a seven-inning start this season, although the Sox did lose that game, 2-0, against the Kansas City Royals. Second, while this game takes skill, we all know it takes luck too, and Martin has been on the receiving end. Between too good to be true 2.50 ERA (5.07 xERA) and being in the bottom 10% for ground ball and hard-hit rates as a pitcher known for inducing the ground ball, Davis has been able to overcome the numbers and help manufacture a couple of wins for the Good Guys. Hopefully, tonight, the numbers and luck continue to feed off each other for a White Sox victory.

Longtime AL Central foe and former White Sox (for 13 starts!) Aaron Civale will share the mound with Martin this evening. In his first season with the Athletics, Civale has been worth his one-year, $6 million deal so far: Across three starts, Civale is pitching to the tune of a 1.72 ERA (3.72 xERA) and has only given up three earned runs while coming off a 5 2/3-inning shutout performance against the New York Mets. Unlike Martin, Civale has yet to pitch into the seventh inning, and I know our Sox would love nothing more than to head into the A’s bullpen early.

Here’s the lineup looking to make it happen:

Given his eight-way tie for second on the MLB triples leader board, Andrew “Wheels” Benintendi (2) finds himself leading off while the normal leadoff hitter, Chase Meidroth, drops down to the eighth spot.

In the home dugout, the A’s will assemble like so:

To counteract the wheels of Beninchickentendies, Tyler Soderstrom and Max Muncy, with one triple apiece, will bat fourth and sixth. In a five-way tie for third on the MLB leader board with six home runs, Shea Langliers bats second.

For your late-night West Coast viewing pleasure, you can catch tonight’s Sox game on CHSN at 8:40 p.m. CT.

The Jays are in beautiful, downtown Phoenix, Arizona (well, I don’t know if it is beautiful or not), for three games against the Diamondbacks. Yet another park with a retractable roof. I remember how strange it was when the Jays had the retractable roof, all those years ago. They had real grass in Phoenix until 2019 when they put in fake grass. They say it was to save water, as Arizona does have water supply issues.

My parents did the snowbird thing to Arizona, every year, for many years, Yuma. I haven’t been there, but it seemed like a nothing little place in the desert. One of the ways I’m different than they were: I like the idea of going somewhere new, instead of going to the same place all time. But then, they had their friends and activities there.

I’d like to go to Phoenix sometime. Not in the next three years, but maybe sometime after that.

Go Jays Go

DENVER –– Freddie Freeman has made a future Hall of Fame career out of a simple offensive approach.

“My dad always taught me: Hit the ball to left field,” he said.

Which, during his childhood in Orange County, made Garret Anderson his favorite baseball player to watch growing up.

“As a left-handed hitter, seeing him be able to hit line drives to left field whenever it felt like he pleased, he could do it,” Freeman said. “He made me, as a little boy, love watching the game of baseball.”

That’s why Friday’s stunning news of Anderson’s death, at age 53, struck an especially somber chord for Freeman –– who not only idolized Anderson as a kid but eventually forged a personal relationship with the three-time All-Star as his own MLB career took off.

“You always hear, ‘Don’t meet your heroes,’” Freeman told The California Post. “But then I got to meet him, and I was like, ‘I’m glad I did.’ Because he was a beautiful man. And I wish he was still here. He meant a lot to so many people … I’m at a loss for words really.”

An avid Angels fan in his adolescent years, Freeman always marveled at Anderson’s approach in the box and the ease with which he sent so many of his 2,529 career hits screaming the other way over the shortstop’s head.

It served as inspiration for Freeman’s own game, giving him a role model to look up to as a similarly tall, lanky left-handed hitter always looking to go to the opposite field.

“I just loved watching Garret hit and Darin Erstad play defense,” Freeman recalled of going to Angels games as a kid with his dad. “When you’re taught to hit the ball to left field, and then you see a major leaguer who is pretty much doing what you’re being taught to do, you gravitate toward him.”

Eventually, Freeman’s own career would bring him into Anderson’s direct orbit.

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In 2009, they were in spring training together with the Braves, when Freeman was just a teenage prospect and Anderson was a 16-year veteran who had just left the Angels.

While Freeman relished his brief interactions with Anderson in that year’s camp –– he still vividly recalls stretching alongside him on the field –– he never mentioned his childhood admiration to his new, elder teammate.

Instead, it wasn’t until 2019 that Anderson “finally caught wind” he’d been Freeman’s favorite player, the Dodgers star joked.

And before long, they formed a connection while crossing paths around Orange County.

Turned out, Anderson’s children went to school at Orange Lutheran, where one of Freeman’s uncles worked and got to know the Anderson family.

In recent years, Freeman and Anderson also became occasional golf partners, playing together at Shady Canyon Golf Club in Irvine.

Freeman’s favorite memories of Anderson were from every time he visited Angel Stadium with the Dodgers. If Anderson was there, Freeman would wave over Dodgers team photographer Jon SooHoo to get a picture of them.

“Like, ‘Jon! Jon! Get me and my favorite player!’” Freeman recalled with a laugh.

Like the rest of the baseball world, Freeman said he was shocked to learn of Anderson’s passing Friday. 

“53 is too young,” he said. “Getting to know him, and how nice and genuine and wonderful of a human as he was –– it doesn’t make sense.”

At one point, he almost got choked up while describing the impact Anderson had on him.

“To say he ‘was‘ my favorite baseball player is really saddening to me,” Freeman said. “But I don’t wanna talk about the sad stuff because he brought so much joy to so many people.”