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

WASHINGTON – Kyle Schwarber's epic first half was paused Tuesday, June 23, when the Philadelphia Phillies slugger was scratched from their lineup with lower back tightness.

The indomitable DH, whose 29 home runs lead the major leagues, entered this series against the Nationals on a significant heater, combining with teammate Bryce Harper to go 12 for 17 with six home runs over two games Saturday and Sunday against the New York Mets. He now has 369 homers for his career.

But shortly before game time against Washington, Schwarber was scratched from his No. 2 spot in the lineup; the Nos. 3-7 hitters all moved up a spot with Edmundo Sosa inserted in the eighth spot at DH.

Phillies manager Don Mattingly said the decision to scratch Schwarber came seven minutes before the game, when his back tightened up. He attempted to swing and could not do so effectively. But Mattingly said Schwarber "said he was feeling better already," as the game went on, and that Schwarber has managed such tightness in the past.

He is considered day-to-day.

Sosa went on to drive in five runs, including a two-run double in the Phillies' eight-run ninth inning, in their wild 14-9 victory over the Nationals.

Schwarber has played in 75 of the Phillies' 79 games. He played in at least 155 games in his first four years in Philadelphia, including 162 last season, hitting a National League-best 56 home runs before signing a five-year, $150 million contract over the winter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kyle Schwarber injury: MLB home run leader removed from Phillies lineup

The St. Louis Cardinals continue their streak of 7 home games-in-a-row with game 2 against the Arizona Diamondbacks Tuesday night. Kyle Leahy gets the start for the Cardinals while the Diamondbacks are scheduled to start LHP Eduardo Rodriguez. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45pm central time at Busch Stadium and the broadcast will be available on Cardinals.tv. Note that JJ Wetherholt is at shortstop tonight and Jose Fermin is at second.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is planning for right fielder Kyle Tucker to be out for the rest of the series against the Minnesota Twins, after he left Monday’s game with low back spasms.

Roberts hopes to write Tucker into the lineup Friday, when the Dodgers open a three-game series in San Diego, after three days off, plus most of the game Monday.

“Hopefully he [can take] advantage of this, obviously to get right, but also kind of a mental reset,” Roberts said. “Hopefully the four days will suffice.”

Tucker, who said he felt a little better Tuesday but still sore, especially when rotating, is “pretty confident” that he’ll be able to avoid the injured list. And if he can take swings on Wednesday, he’ll probably be on track for that Friday return.

“But if he doesn’t, then we’ll have probably a tougher decision on Friday,” Roberts said.

Read more:Dodgers defeat Twins, but lose Kyle Tucker and catcher Dalton Rushing

Tucker, who has a .707 on-base-plus-slugging-percentage this season, has had a slow offensive start to his Dodgers’ tenure. He wasn’t ready to make any declarations about the potential benefits of time off to reset.

“Maybe,” he said. “We’ll see after I get back. We’ll see how that goes.”

The news on catcher Dalton Rushing, who exited Monday’s game to rule out a concussion, was more straightforward.

Rushing hadn’t yet gone through the second round of concussion testing needed to clear him to play when Roberts addressed the media Tuesday afternoon. But Rushing had told Roberts he was ready to play.

Read more:Dodgers great Justin Turner answers your questions, names his favorite baseball guy

“That doesn’t carry too much weight until I hear from the medical staff,” Roberts said. “But it is good to know that he said he’s good to go. My hope is that he’ll be available off the bench in some capacity.”

As a downpour hammered the tarped field early Tuesday evening, it was unclear when exactly the Dodgers would be playing. But despite plenty of rain in the forecast Tuesday evening, the teams and Major League Baseball identified a window for the game.

The Twins announced an estimated 5:05 p.m. PDT first pitch, representing a 25-minute rain delay.

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

In a true race to the bottom, two teams tied for the fewest wins in the entire sport are set to square off in Coors Field tonight with the Red Sox taking on the Rockies. If the Red Sox lose and the Giants beat the A’s later this evening, Boston will stand all alone as the team with the fewest wins in baseball.

On the mound is Sonny Gray, who has actually proved to be the guy most capable of cooking up wins for the Sox this year. He enters the proceedings with an 8-1 record, and the team is 9-4 overall in his 13 starts. If they win tonight, Gray will be responsible for just shy of a third of all the team’s victories this season. (What an amazing acquisition by our fearless leader Craig Breslow!)

For the Rockies, it will be Boston native Sean Sullivan taking the mound. He brings with him a 10.29 ERA and also some history of being at the 2004 Red Sox victory parade as a two-year-old. In other words, on paper this matchup seems to heavily favor the Red Sox, But if you’ve watched this team attempt to play baseball all year, you know that underperforming what’s supposed to happen on paper is kind of the Red Sox’ main thing, so I’m bracing myself for more of that tonight.

⚾️ First Pitch: 8:40pm — Coors Field, Denver Colorado

📺 TV: NESN

📻 Radio: WEEI

To be fair, yesterday’s defeat wasn’t too bad, as these things go. It was a one-run loss on the road, to a team ahead of us in the standings, and was entirely due to the absence of any clutch hits – not something over which it’s generally believed a team has much control. As noted in the recap comments, the “Deserve to Win” was skewed massively in favor of the Diamondbacks. It was certainly better than getting thumped at home by the Twins. But moral victories only go so far, and Arizona find themselves at risk of falling below the .500 mark, for the first time in over a month.

The last time the D-backs dipped under an even record was in mid-May. Victory on May 17 in Coors Field pulled them up to 22-23, and kick-started a five-game winning streak for the team. Modest, but Arizona hasn’t had one any longer than that since August 2024. Since then, the team has dipped to .500 on a couple of occasions, before and during the series in Cincinnati. However, the Diamondbacks won on both occasions, to avoid slipping to a losing record. The Cardinals promise to be a tougher opponent, but the team does have their ace, Eduardo Rodriguez, going this afternoon.

The turnaround in E-Rod is remarkable. Over the four seasons combined previous to this one, he made 82 starts, and was worth a total of four bWAR. The great bulk of that (3,2) came in 2023. But he’s already at 2.8 bWAR, and we’re not even quite at the half-way mark in 2026. I am a little bit nervous, since he seems afflicted by the K-phobia which has impacted many of our pitchers (most notably Merrill Kelly). Rodriguez’s strikeout rate is a career low 6.6 per nine innings, and he’s benefiting from a .256 BABIP, also a career low. That’s despite a 27% line-drive rate, exactly in line with his figure each of the previous three seasons. Fingers crossed, because given our rotation, the last thing we need is regression.

Coming off of Monday’s roller coaster of a game that ended in a walk-off win, the South Siders look to take another game over Cleveland in the AL Central Division race behind righthander Sean Burke. The righty was lights out in one of the best starts of his career against the Yankees last week, tossing 7 1/3 innings to complete the game, allowing just one run and a walk while striking out eight along the way. This will be Burke’s 12th actual start, but his 16th appearance of the season as Chicago has opted for an opener a few times given Burke tends to struggle through the first when he starts. As much as I tend to hate the “opener” idea, the numbers back up Will Venable’s decision as Burke’s stats are stronger as a reliever than as a starter.

Entering the game out of the bullpen, Burke has posted a 1.80 ERA and a .174 opponent batting average while walking less batters – 6.5% walk rate vs 9.3% – and striking them out at a higher rate: 28.3% K% compared to 22.4% as a starter. To be fair, he has thrown 56 frames to start a game while having an opener for 25 innings, but his first inning 6.55 ERA and 1.45 WHIP are the highest against the rest of his inning splits. He last started a game against the Dodgers a couple of weeks ago and allowed four earned with two bombs, five walks, and six strikeouts, but the game before that, he did have an opener but still gave up three with two homers and five walks. Baseball can be a weird game.

The good news for Burke is that the Guardians team batting average against right-handed pitching ranks 28th in baseball, with just a .685 OPS, the fifth-worst in the league. Despite that, rookie second baseman Travis Bazzana has been excellent all season for Cleveland, slashing .274/.373/.469 and amounting to an .842 OPS. He has also been on a heater for the last seven days and in 21 at-bats, Bazzana’s 1.577 OPS is the third-best in MLB and he trails only Yandy Díaz with a .577 on-base percentage, even reaching base three times Monday and scoring twice against the South Siders. Bazzana will hold down the leadoff spot for the Guardians, but Burke will need to be ready for additional batting threats in Kyle Manzardo and Brayan Rocchio, with the latter knocking three hits last night.

Cleveland Guardians Lineup

With lefthander Parker Messick on the mound for the Guardians, the South Siders are rolling with a righty-heavy lineup for Tuesday’s matchup. Messick has been one of the top pitchers in the league pretty much since he was called up last season, and ranks third in the American League (ninth in MLB) with a 2.70 ERA in his 86 2/3 innings. Thankfully for the Good Guys, they rank fourth in MLB with a .764 OPS against left-handed pitching while leading all of baseball with 37 home runs. With that, Miguel Vargas will lead off while still holding down first base, and though Chase Meidroth is usually the go-to in the leadoff spot, he will be batting third behind our right-handed DH king: Randal Grichuk. Yesterday, Grichuk mashed his eighth bomb and third pinch-hit homer of the season, and his .858 OPS on the year definitely gives the Sox some power to round out the lineup.

Kyle Teel will get some rest after his first game back in the majors, with Drew Romo taking over behind the plate. Tristan Peters will also have the day off as Junior Perez platoons into center with the left-handed matchup.

Chicago White Sox Lineup

It is once again a beautiful night for some baseball, and ideally we see a much better night from the bullpen … unless Burke wants to go ahead and toss a complete game, that would be fine too. Game time temperature will be right around 70º with sunny skies, and first pitch will take place at 6:40 p.m. CT on the South Side. Tune into the TV broadcast on CHSN or listen in on the radio at ESPN Chicago AM 1000. How about a series win?

Here’s the Guardians lineup:

Let's get one tonight.#GuardsBall | #VoteGuardspic.twitter.com/SOR1mSxaO6

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) June 23, 2026

Here’s the White Sox lineup:

Gear up, it's gameday! pic.twitter.com/PvmNOE1ufY

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) June 23, 2026

Let’s go, Guardians!

Colorado Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said today that pitcher Chase Dollander underwent internal brace surgery on his right elbow on Monday. Schaeffer described the procedure as successful.

“Everything went well,” Schaeffer said. “Everything seemed to have gone well.”

Depending on the type of tear, an athlete may be better served by having a surgeon repair the ligament and adding support for the elbow.

The Rockies confirmed that Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas performed the procedure.

One clear benefit of UCL repair with an external brace allows the athlete to return to playing faster. UCL surgery typically requires one year of rehabilitation.

Dollander was removed from a May 14, 2026, game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second inning.

He was unavailable for comment.

Purple Row will update this story as more details become available.

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First Pitch: 6:40 PM CDT

TV: Twins.TV

Radio: TIBN, WCCO 830, The Wolf 102.9 FM, Audacy App, LosTwins.com

Know thine enemy:True Blue LA

Joe Ryan was going to start today, but he’s got some sort of illness, so Kendry Rojas gets the unenviable task of pitching to the Dodgers.

The Dodgers will trot out Justin Wrobleski, a lefty with a 2.72 ERA in 12 starts this year. He features a fastball, a slider, a sinker he primarily throws to lefties, along with a change-up and a curve-ball.

Joe DeMayo and guest co-host Jim Duquette deliver the latest episode of The Mets Pod, as the Mets deliver another uninspiring week of baseball. 

Joe and Jim break down what's broken with Freddy Peralta, David Peterson, and the starting rotation, plus look towards the lineup after the return of Francisco Lindor. 

The guys also discuss both buying and selling at the trade deadline, go Down on the Farm to check in on an improving Kevin Parada, and answer Mailbag questions about a specific strategy for David Stearns at the deadline, and the practice of favoring left/right splits in lineup decisions.

Be sure to subscribe to The Mets Pod at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For the seventh consecutive Wednesday, Shohei Ohtani will be on the mound for the Dodgers, to close out the series against the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis.

Right-hander Joe Ryan, who was originally tabbed to start on Friday, will be on the mound for the Twins in the series finale.

Tuesday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Twins
• Ballpark: Target Field, Minneapolis
• Time: 4:40 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

After escaping with an extra-inning win by the skin of their teeth yesterday, the Brewers will have a chance to secure a third straight victory tonight in Cincinnati. Brandon Sproat will get the ball for Milwaukee opposite Nick Lodolo.

Sproat is an immensely talented pitcher, but has struggled to put it all together in his first year with the Brewers. He’s allowed at least three runs in six of his seven last appearances, the lone exception being his start against the A’s on June 10th (6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 K). Hopefully Sproat can bounce back against a Reds lineup that is set to welcome Elly De La Cruz back from the injured list.

Lodolo, though more established than Sproat at the major-league level, is in a similar position. He was worth nearly five WAR last season, posting a 3.33 ERA and 1.079 WHIP across 29 starts, but has struggled to a 6.12 ERA through eight starts this season. In his last appearance, he gave up eleven hits and seven runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Mets.

With the left-handed Lodolo on the mound, Garrett Mitchell (.545 OPS vs. LHP, .820 OPS vs. RHP), Sal Frelick (.438 OPS vs. LHP, .681 OPS vs. RHP) and Christian Yelich will get the night off. Yelich has historically performed much better against right-handed pitching, though he’s actually posted stronger numbers against southpaws this season (albeit in a limited sample).

Regulars Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, and William Contreras make up the top of the lineup, followed by certified lefty masher Andrew Vaughn and Jake Bauers. Gary Sanchez (.968 OPS vs. LHP) will catch and bat sixth. Rounding out the bottom of the order are Blake Perkins, Cooper Pratt, and Joey Ortiz.

Finally, a couple of roster notes from this morning:

• RHP Peter Strzelecki is back in the Brewers’ organization on a minor-league deal after electing free agency when Milwaukee designated him for assignment on May 17. Strzelecki briefly signed with the Yankees, but opted out of that deal last week and has now returned to the Brewers.
• INF Luis Rengifo (-0.4 WAR in 57 games this season) has officially been released after going unclaimed on waivers.

As always, you can catch tonight’s game on Brewers.TV, WTMJ 620, and the Brewers Radio Network. First pitch is set for 6:10 p.m.

Round ✌️ in Cincy

📺: https://t.co/eycfmE2vgm
📻: WTMJ#ThisIsMyCrew x @NicoletLawpic.twitter.com/sWB6vXBYxF

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) June 23, 2026

Elly's back!

Powered by @PNCBankpic.twitter.com/FaubUkzlp8

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) June 23, 2026

As an offensive slump continues for the Braves, Tuesday’s lineup reflects a team trying a number of different things to try and figure things out in the second game of Atlanta’s series at the San Diego Padres.

Michael Harris II, who hit fifth in each of his three games since returning from another brief absence due to lower back discomfort, is back atop the lineup for Tuesday’s 9:40 p.m. EDT game at Petco Park.

Mauricio Dubón, who has been atop the lineup, takes Harris’ fifth spot in the lineup and will hold down the shortstop spot.

The Braves also moved Drake Baldwin, who is 1-for-25 with 15 strikeouts since homering in his first at-bat off his injured list stint, down from his customary second spot in the lineup to sixth while he works his way out of the slump.

Additionally, Rowdy Tellez will make his first start with the Braves as the designated hitter in the No. 8 lineup spot after he made five pinch-hit appearances in his first five games with Atlanta since he was promoted earlier this month.

That is happening because the Braves are playing a usual DH candidate in Dominic Smith in the field. He’ll hit cleanup and make his first start in left field since he was with the Mets in 2021.

How we're lining up tonight ⤵️#BravesCountrypic.twitter.com/SoKWWt9KE5

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) June 23, 2026

The Padres are using Wandy Peralta as an opener, but are expected to use right-hander Griffin Canning (1-5, 6.64 ERA) as their bulk pitcher Tuesday.

Most of the Braves’ lineup hasn’t faced Canning much, considering he’s made just two career starts against Atlanta. Harris and Austin Riley are each tied for the second-most at-bats on the roster against Canning with four apiece.

Matt Olson, though, has extensive experience against Canning, dating back to each of their time in the American League West. Olson is only 4-for-19 (.211) against Canning, but has two homers, a double and three RBIs. Those are the only two Braves homers against Canning, but other batters have had more success against him, with a combined .303 batting average and .488 slugging percentage against him.

The Padres made less sweeping changes to their lineup, but did move Samad Taylor up from ninth in the order to second. Gavin Sheets replaces Ty France at first base after DHing Monday, and Sung-Mun Song is in at second base and hitting ninth.

Round two. pic.twitter.com/Kk4dxLarjb

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 23, 2026

No Padres hitters have faced Braves starter JR Ritchie, who is making his eighth career appearance (seventh start) and his second in a row against a National League West team.

It seems like runs may be a bit easier to come by this time on both sides with the pitching matchup at play. Does that work in the Braves’ favor to force a Wednesday rubber match?

Go Rays!