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

It crushes Keith Hernandez to see his beloved Mets exhibit a nonchalant attitude about the importance of defense at his former position.

The former Gold Glove-winning first baseman zinged the Amazin’s during Wednesday’s 4-3 road loss to the Brewers about the team’s lack of emphasis on having a good glove at first base.

“It seems like in today’s game, they don’t give first base enough credit,” Hernandez said during showing Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn stretching for an out .

“Certainly, the Mets don’t.”

Hernandez is known for valuing fundamentals — “good fundies,” as he calls them — and often criticizes teams during broadcasts when they turn into the “Bad News Bears.”

The Mets employed Pete Alonso at first base for the previous seven seasons, and though no one would confuse Alonso for a Gold Glover, he worked hard to be serviceable or better.

This season, the Mets have taken the “Moneyball” idea of first base being “not that hard” and hoping that a rotating cast of players can provide manageable defense.

The Mets rank 23rd in defensive runs saved with a -3 mark, according to FanGraphs.

The team uses Mark Vientos at the position though he’s better served as a designated hitter and has employed Jorge Polanco though he had minimal experience in his lengthy career.

Jared Young and Eric Wagaman have also had their turn.

Baseball Savant ranks Young (+1), Polanco (0), Wagaman (-1) and Vientos (-8) in terms of their effectiveness as measured by outs above average.

It would be one thing if the Mets were offsetting that lack of defensive with offensive production, like they did in the Alonso years, but their first basemen this year aren’t holding up their end of the bargain.

They are slashing .220/.281/.397 and have a combined -0.6 fWAR, ahead of only the Diamondbacks.

The ineffectiveness both offensively and defensively from their first basemen is a reason why the Mets are 43-60 and in last place in the NL East and sure to be trade deadline sellers.

At the end of the day on paper, it’s going to go down as a four-game series win at home for the Braves over the Padres. If you look at these two teams and their current records, it’s not something that appears to be shocking. The Braves are now one of only three teams in baseball with 60 wins, so that’s cool. With that being said, we all know the recent history that the Braves and Padres have so the fact that Atlanta was able to finally take a series against this crew feels like a bit of a breakthrough.

With that being said, it certainly wasn’t easy and this wasn’t a case of the Padres not playing the Braves extremely tough. The three wins for Atlanta could’ve gone either way and they were extremely nervy to watch near the end of each of those wins. Fortunately, Atlanta did hang on and now we’ve got a happy series recap to look forward to. Let’s get into it!

Monday, July 20

Braves 3, Padres 2

Bryce Elder’s first start since July 9 ended up being a successful one, which was a sight for sore eyes considering how this team had fared against the Padres heading into this series. Indeed, the only two blemishes on Elder’s line for the night were of his usual variety — meaning that he hung two pitches and they both got demolished.

Manny Machado (what else is new) and Ty France (on Elder’s final pitch of the game) ended up being the beneficiaries but other than that, Elder ended up with a very solid line of six innings pitched, four strikeouts and just one walk allowed and five hits given up. Elder was in dire need of a start like this and fortunately it came against a team that the Braves have been struggling against recently.

Those two mistakes on Elder’s part ended up being the only runs that the Padres would push across on the night, as Danny Young and Victor Mederos came up huge in order to make sure that Atlanta’s slender lead held up. The Braves got there thanks to a homer from Michael Harris II in the fifth inning that tied it up at one, an RBI double from Joey Bart that pushed the Braves in front in that same fifth inning and then a dinger from Ozzie in the sixth that gave the Braves the insurance that ended up being enough for them to win. This was certainly a nervy one but Atlanta was able to squeak it out in the end in order to get the series started off on the right foot.

Tuesday, July 21

Padres 8, Braves 3

The first three innings of this game went pretty well for Atlanta, as the Braves pushed ahead to a 2-1 lead early on. Then the middle innings rolled around and things got away from Reynaldo López and the Braves. Jackson Merrill led off the fourth by tying it up with one big swing and then Fernando Tatis Jr. continued to be one of the most dangerous hitters in all of baseball with runners in scoring position as he drove in Xander Bogaerts to push the Padres ahead by two. The Padres homered to lead off the fifth as well, as Manny Machado delivered yet another big hit against the Braves and the fifth inning ended up being the end of the line for López in what turned out to be an underwhelming start.

Manny Machado then added another homer to his tally (again, what else is new for him against the Braves) in the sixth inning and then after the Braves got a run back in the seventh thanks to Bradgley Rodriguez balking in a run, Fernando Tatis Jr. got that run back (and then another one on top of that) in emphatic fashion. JR Ritchie threw Tatis a curveball that didn’t fool him at all. 474 feet later, it was 8-3 Padres and that’s how yet another loss to the Padres ended.

Wednesday, July 22

Braves 7, Padres 6

It is just never easy with the Padres, huh! Good grief! Somehow, a game where the Braves were up 7-1 at one point was tight throughout, as even that bit of breathing room didn’t last long for Atlanta against San Diego. The Braves got a run off of Michael King in the first inning but any aspirations of this being a breakout game against King were immediately squashed as the Braves were unable to get much of anything going against King from that point forward.

Fortunately, Martín Pérez was up to the task of keeping the Padres quiet for at least a few innings and the bullpen was able to continue holding San Diego at bay until the seventh inning. That’s when Didier Fuentes gave up a dinger on an 0-2 pitch to Jackson Merrill to make it a tie game at one run apiece.

Then the bottom of the eighth inning rolled around and the stuff started hitting the fan. San Diego left the bases loaded in the seventh and they wound up cursing their luck for the rare missed opportunity (against Atlanta, at least) as the Braves put a crooked number on the scoreboard once they got to swing the bat in the eighth inning. Jim Jarvis put Atlanta ahead with an RBI double and that was the beginning of the hit parade. Brewer Hicklen mashed an RBI double down the line and then Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Dominic Smith all delivered RBI singles of their own to bring us to the aforementioned 7-1 scoreline.

Victor Mederos was called upon for the ninth inning and honestly, this felt like Walt Weiss was really trying to see just how long this magical run that Mederos has been on during this homestand would last. Unfortunately, this was when the bubble burst because San Diego ended up tagging him for four runs — including two on an RBI triple from Fernando Tatis Jr. because the man is just a machine while batting with RISP.

The triple made it 7-4, which meant that it was time for Raisel Iglesias and even then, Iggy somehow gave up Luis Rengifo’s first home run since September 2025. In a stunning twist of fate, Manny Machado did not add to Atlanta’s misery at this point as he struck out and then Iggy sat down Ty France on a called strike three to avoid what would’ve been a nightmarish loss to the Padres. Thank you for not losing on So So Def Night, Braves.

Thursday, July 23

Braves 6, Padres 5

The second inning of this contest was emblematic of how it’s felt to watch the Braves play the Padres over recent years. Chris Sale had just gotten done pitching a scoreless first inning but ran into trouble after a seeing-eye single, a single off a ball that Mauricio Dubón lost in the sun and a hit-by-pitch. Sale wisely pitched around Fernando Tatis Jr. in the bases-loaded situation and ended up conceding a run in the process via a walk but you figure that was better than conceding four. Unfortunately, Sale ended up conceding three runs in the inning anyways after Luis Rengifo struck again. Rengifo looped in an RBI single on an 0-2 pitch with two outs to make it 3-0 Padres after two innings.

The rest of the game ended up emblematic of things being different for the Braves against the Padres this time around — still tough, but different! The comeback began with Michael Harris II rudely welcoming bulk pitcher Griffin Canning to the game with a solo shot in the bottom of the second inning and then a big fourth inning pushed Atlanta out in front. Ozzie led off the fourth inning by bopping one into the seats in right-center field and then Dominic Smith had his first really big moment in a while as he crushed a changeup from Canning and sent it flying into the Chop House to put the Braves in the lead with one colossal swat.

Chris Sale didn’t give up any more runs after that strange second inning (and ended up striking out 11 batters) and so the Braves ended up cruising into the final stage of the game with the lead. They got what appeared to be just another insurance run in wild fashion after Drake Baldwin hit a dinger on a pitch that has to be seen to be believed.

Baldwin’s insane dinger ended up being crucial after Ty France homered off of Tyler Kinley in the ninth to make it 6-5. The Padres attempted a two-out rally against Raisel Iglesias in the ninth but Iggy was able to close the door and ensure that the Braves were finally able to figure out a way to slay their boogeyman over the course of a four-game series.

I’m scratching my head right now trying to figure out a more stressful four-game series win for the Braves than what we just witnessed. The three Braves victories were all by one run and they had to pull out two of those victories while the Padres had the potential go-ahead run either on base or at the plate. Atlanta even lost the series on run aggregate as they scored 19 runs to San Diego’s 21 but they won the series in the only category that counts and that’s all that matters.

Still, these games could’ve gone either way and it very well could’ve been another nightmare against the Padres. Fortunately it wasn’t and now the Braves have actually turned this homestand into an incredibly-productive 5-2 run to start the second half of the season. It’s especially nice considering that the Phillies have stumbled coming out of the break and the Marlins have crashed back down to earth, themselves. Plus with the way the offense has been hitting throughout the month of July, you really get the feeling that the Braves are back to being in serious control of things in the NL East after wobbling throughout the month of June.

Drake Baldwin appears to have returned to the form that made him one of the most dangerous-hitting catchers in all of baseball, Michael Harris II continues to have a big season at the plate, the same goes for Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley continued to show signs of potentially getting out of this season-long slump that he’s been in. With Matt Olson continuing to be steady at the plate as well, it’s very good sign for the Braves to see all of these guys doing damage at the plate and their efforts went a long way towards ensuring that Atlanta would get out of this four-game series by taking three out of four.

There’s not going to be a lot of rest for the weary, though. Fresh off of finding a way to vanquish their personal boogeyman, the Braves will now be traveling to Baltimore to face off against an O’s team that has been pretty hot in July. They may not be on a winning streak anymore but the Orioles did end Boston’s double-digit win streak so Baltimore won’t be a pushover by any means. With that being said, as long as the Braves can continue to produce at the plate like they have so far during July, I think we’re back to liking Atlanta’s chances against anybody that they face on a nightly basis. We’ll see what happens, though!

What was originally an off-day for the St. Louis Cardinals is now an afternoon make-up game versus the Arizona Diamondbacks. Michael McGreevy is the scheduled starter for the Cardinals while Brandon Pfaadt gets the ball for the Diamondbacks. First pitch is scheduled for 4:15pm central time at Busch Stadium. TV broadcast will be handled by Cardinals.tv.

The sun beat down on the assembled Dodgers players, coaches and staff members as they waited in silence for the real emcee of the event, President Trump, to emerge from the building behind them.

In front stood rows of chairs — with four-inch yellow cushions on them, as Trump made sure to point out in his closing remarks — and onlookers who had donned blue Dodgers snapbacks.

In fact, the new-look Rose Garden, slabs of white stone replacing grass, became a character of its own, the focal point for the first two minutes of Trump’s speech recognizing the 2025 World Series champions.

“It was always wet,” Trump said after making his grand entrance more than 10 minutes after the Dodgers had taken their place in front of the crowd. “You know, the White House is built on a wetland. … And I decided to do something about it. And this has become an incredible place for dining and for news conferences and for events like this.”

This event was the Dodgers’ second White House visit in as many years, in a new venue. It provided new material, and some active participants, for the Trump show Thursday afternoon.

As he retold the winding story of the Dodgers’ World Series for almost 20 minutes, Trump played to not only the audience, but the players behind him, shaking their hands when they came up in his speech, and the two men flanking him, Dodgers chairman Mark Walter and manager Dave Roberts.

“This was truly a great World Series, right?” Trump said, turning to his right.

“Maybe the best in history,” Roberts said.

Trump took detours from his written speech to wax poetic about Babe Ruth, and harp on how closely he’d watched the postseason, detailing his own reaction to Shohei Ohtani’s 10-strikeout, three-homer game in the NLCS, and catcher Will Smith’s foot re-tapping the plate in Game 7 of the World Series.

“I was having a little bet with the prime minister of Canada,” Trump said. ”I had a little bet. I was not feeling so good for a little while.”

Roberts quipped: “Neither were we.”

But even Trump, a New Yorker, seemed to predict a three-peat.

“This is really a special team,” Trump said. “And I wouldn’t be surprised to see them back again.”

This trip came with scheduling complications for the back-to-back World Series champions.

The timing for a visit didn’t work out when the Dodgers were in town to play the Nationals in April for a day-game laden series. So, they used their single off day on a three-city East Coast road trip to make a pit stop in Washington, wedging the visit between games against the Phillies and Mets.

The decision to visit the White House again raised debate among some Dodgers fans, who argue Trump’s anti-immigration policies have harmed many of the team’s supporters. But Roberts has continually tried to downplay the political messaging associated with the visit.

“I hope when you watch our guys play, you can be proud and say these guys do things the right way,” Roberts said in his succinct speech. “Their names are everywhere on social media, in the news. But when it comes to winning 11 games in October or 13 last year, these guys all come together unselfishly.

“And you never know what moment is going to present itself, but we have all these guys here that are ready when called upon. So we’re very fortunate to have these guys, and hopefully we got more Dodger fans. So thank you very much, Mr. President.”

Retired Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw made the trip to join the well-represented current team. Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, who told reporters that he preferred to spend the day with his family, and reliever Edgardo Henriquez were the only 2025 Dodgers currently on the active roster who did not attend.

Roberts and World Series heroes Miguel Rojas and Will Klein also visited with senators on Capitol Hill Thursday morning.

As invested as Trump was in the 2025 World Series, he fully acknowledged some gaps in knowledge about the 2026 season.

“I’ve been a little busy with Iran and some other things,” he said. “If I know too much, you wouldn’t be happy. I wouldn’t be doing a good job if I know too much.”

A playful back-and-forth with Kershaw suggested that Trump hasn’t been following the Dodgers’ 2026 regular season all that closely.

“I watched him beat a lot of our teams that were supposed to do well,” Trump said. “They didn’t do too well against him, and he’s still pitching well, I bet, right?”

Gently corrected by Roberts, Trump said: “You could pitch right now, if they needed you, you’d be out there, right?”

“No, sir,” Kershaw said to laughs.

“And he’s smart!” Trump said.

Trump also appeared to mix up Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto when he detailed Yamamoto’s World Series heroics while reading from his notes and then ad libbed, “And he hit real well, too.”

After the speeches, Walter presented the president with a personalized World Series ring and Dodgers jersey.

Read more:Plaschke: Are the Dodgers tone deaf? White House visit is an insult to their fans

Walter, too, has been in the news recently. The visit falls days afterBloomberg reported that two insurance companies controlled by Walter, as well as the Guggenheim Partners, where Walter is chief executive, are being investigated by federal prosecutors for potential financial improprieties.

No charges have been filed. Representatives from the parent company of the insurance firms as well as from TWC Global — the Walter business empire that controls his sporting investments, including the Dodgers and Lakers — have told reporters they are cooperating with the investigation.

“Do I have to report this?” Trump joked as he examined the World Series ring — presidents have to disclose expensive gifts. “I don’t want to report this.”

Neither Trump nor the Dodgers took questions, as was the case last year. Trump invited the team to the Oval Office, where he presented them with Trump challenge coins.

But before leaving the stage, the president segued back into renovations to the White House grounds. The show had come full circle.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

WASHINGTON –– Nine months removed from their epic Game 7 triumph in last year’s World Series, the Dodgers’ 2025 championship was recognized one final time on Thursday, with the two-time defending champions being welcomed back to the White House by President Trump for the second-straight year.

After drama surrounded the organization about whether or not they would visit the White House this year, the Dodgers made a one-day trek down to the nation’s capital on Thursday. During an off-day on their current road trip, they were hosted by Trump during a ceremony in the Rose Garden.

“I’m thrilled to say welcome back to the White House,” Trump said. “And maybe we’ll see you again next year, I hope.”

So began a late-afternoon commemoration, in which members of the team gathered with the president on a stage alongside both of their recent Commissioner’s Trophies.

For the better part of 20 minutes, Trump praised the club’s accomplishment from last October, calling them a “special team” and last year’s World Series “among the most thrilling championships in the history of the sport.”

“This is a very special event,” Trump said. “Because it’s the Dodgers. And they’re world champions.”

White House trips have become a common occurrence in recent years for the Dodgers, who visited with President Biden in 2021 following their 2020 World Series victory before returning last April in the wake of their 2024 title.

For this year’s trip, most holdovers from last year’s roster were in attendance, with the exception of Mookie Betts (who decided to skip the event to spend time with his family) and Edgardo Henriquez, as well as those currently on the injured list and not traveling with the team (such as Kiké Hernández and Will Smith).

Now-retired pitcher Clayton Kershaw also flew in to join his old teammates –– and was asked by Trump at one point, “If they needed you [now], you’d be out there, right?”

“No, sir,” Kershaw, who has become a special advisor in the Dodgers’ front office, quickly responded with a grin.

Owner Mark Walter, team president Stan Kasten and executive vice president Lon Rosen (who is also now president of the Walter-owned Lakers) were present, as well. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes were not, having stayed back from the team’s road trip this week ahead of MLB’s upcoming trade deadline.

“I just want to say that we’re very grateful to be here,” manager Dave Roberts said after accompanying Trump onto the stage alongside Walter, who also gave a short address.

“We did something that hasn’t been done in [almost] 30 years, going back-to-back as World Series champions,” Roberts added. “And we are going for a three-peat.”

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Speaking before a crowd that featured members of both Congress and his cabinet –– including Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump noted is a “big Dodger fan” –– Trump highlighted many of the standout moments and contributions from the Dodgers’ 2025 campaign.

He called Roberts a “hell of a manager,” Shohei Ohtani an “international legend,” and also singled out the performances of Max Muncy, Freddie Freeman, Will Klein, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Miguel Rojas and Andy Pages, shaking hands with each of them.

Trump then shared his own memories of watching the Dodgers’ title trek, from Ohtani’s historic three-homer, 10-strikeout performance in the National League Championship Series (“I said to myself, ‘That’s the greatest game ever played by one person”) to the 18-inning marathon victory in Game 3 of the Fall Classic (“It was a long one, but it was amazing”).

During the World Series, Trump joked that he had a particularly close rooting interest in the Dodgers to beat the Toronto Blue Jays, having made “a little bet with the Prime Minister of Canada” going into the matchup.

“I was not feeling so good for a little while,” Trump quipped, referencing the Dodgers’ three-games-to-two-deficit entering Game 6.

“Neither were we,” Roberts chimed in with a chuckle.

Alas, the Dodgers prevailed, mounting a comeback that Roberts said epitomized the character of his club.

“I hope when you watch our guys play, you can be proud and say, ‘These guys do things the right way,’” Roberts said.

After the speeches from Trump, Roberts and Walter –– who said, “we hope to be back here again next year” –– the Dodgers then presented Trump with a custom No. 47 jersey and personalized World Series ring, before he invited the group into the Oval Office to conclude the ceremony.

“This is really a special team, with special winners, champions,” Trump said. “Just unbelievable. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see them back again.”

A semi-random stop over for the D-backs in St. Louis, on their way to Washington. This is the make-up of a game which was rained out at Busch Stadium on June 25. Much to the ire of Paul Sewald, who clearly felt there was enough warning for the game time to have been moved up, and the cancellation avoided. It’d be nice if he successfully closed out a save opportunity in this afternoon’s game. A win would definitely be helpful, since we go into this game in sole possession of the third wild-card, but by the narrowest of margins over the Cardinals and Pirates (who are off today). Victory would put us 1.5 up on St. Louis and a game over Pittsburgh.

The bullpen looks in a better state today. The blowout win yesterday allowed Torey Lovullo to run out debutant Gerardo Carrillo for an extended spell – his 42 pitches was a season high. With a 12-run lead in the ninth, he then turned to Ildemaro Vargas, who became the first Arizona position player to pitch in a win. And, as far as I can tell, the first player to pitch the day after having a walk-off hit. I’m still digging into this, mostly from the angle of the surprisingly high (218!) number of pitchers to get walk-off hits. There’s only one of those after 1994 though: Randy Keisler of the Reds did so in the 14th inning of a game against Washington in 2005. More on all that some off-day.

I won’t be about for the end of this. Going off with Mrs. SnakePit, the SnakePitette and her teenage stepdaughter, SurlySnakette, to the Titanic exhibition in Scottsdale. Which explains the home-page picture: it is not intended as a visual representation of Sewald’s season trajectory as our closer. Curious to see what it’s like. Hopefully, considerably shorter than the 195 minutes of James Cameron’s version (I was largely on #TeamIceberg for that one). Pretty much all I know about the disaster, comes from the movie. Which I’m sure was an entirely factual and accurate representation of events. Report to follow tomorrow, I imagine.

Some team will give the Cincinnati Reds something semi-tangible for the services of Brady Singer. The veteran righty eschewed a miserable start to the season and has turned things completely around, pitching to a 2.92 ERA and 3.56 FIP across 52.1 IP during his last 9 starts. That includes his typical durability as well as pitching into the 7th inning in four of those outings.

That’s got a bit of value even if he will be a free agent at season’s end. Someone will give the Reds something, even if it’s likely to be a lottery ticket we won’t hear about for years down the road. Singer, admittedly, at least gives the Reds front office an avenue to a legitimate (even if far off) prospect.

The thing is, the rest of the free agents to-be on the Reds roster don’t actually afford the front office that opportunity right now given how poorly they’ve collectively performed this season. That’s certainly the case for Eugenio Suarez and his $15 million deal, while Caleb Ferguson ($4.5 million) and Pierce Johnson ($5.5 million) have both chipped in with sub-par seasons out of the bullpen. Even Brock Burke’s durability (league-high 51 appearances and 2.79 ERA) are sunk by a plummeting K-rate, just a 1.38 K/BB, and unsightly 4.45 FIP so far in his first season with the Reds.

Could the Reds potentially get something back of value for Tyler Stephenson? Perhaps, as valuing catchers (especially in the age of ABS challenges) is a bit diffucult to do. Still, the number of times catchers get traded into pennant races mid-year with how hard it is to learn entirely new pitching staffs is woefully small, and it’s hard to envision any club going over the top to land a backstop with just a 94 OPS+ at this juncture.

Even Nathaniel Lowe, whose 116 OPS+ this season matches his career number, will be a hard sell for the Reds. They’ll likely get something for him as teams search for 1B/DH types who can hit RHP, but there’s a reason Lowe couldn’t even land a big league deal guaranteed this offseason in the first place.

The reality is that aside from Singer, and Stephenson if you squint, the Reds really aren’t going to get much for the rest of their pending free agents. The group of Suarez, Ferguson, Burke, Johnson, and Ty Steves have the prorated portion of roughly $34.2 million left on their contracts, or just shy of $13 million between now and the end of the season. So, if the Reds are truly going to move them for next to nothing in return player-wise, they’ll be moving them simply to try to recoup some of that $13ish million that is still owed their way.

In Suarez’s case, they’ll likely have to eat a couple million of even that prorated total just to get a team to take a flyer on him, which they’ll still undoubtedly do due to there being enough streakiness in his bat to make his first half numbers a bit more irrellevant. They’ll take him for that reason, sure, but they aren’t going to pay the Reds as if he’s actually been a 49 dinger a season guy to do so.

So, it’s $13 million for the Castellinis to decide over. Is it worth a $13 million gamble that the Reds, at 47-54 and 5.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot right now, might have a miracle run in them down the stretch now that Hunter Greene is back? There are still a half-dozen teams ahead of them in that chase, of course, and even when this team shot out to a 20-11 record to start the year they never once looked good enough to play the kind of ball they’d need to play down the stretch to make it reality. Or, rather, is having $13 million back in the checkbook to spend (or pocket) in other ways next year and punting this season completely into the sun the look they want to give off after so many other years of premature disappointment?

Some times during teardowns and sell-offs, it’s about moving old pieces for new pieces because the someone actually wants the old ones elsewhere. This time, though, it’s going to come down to just cold, hard cash. I think we all know what that means with this ownership group, though.

KANSAS CITY — For too much of this season, in manager Tony Vitello‘s eyes, the Giants have been playing as if they have “everything to lose.” He’d like to see more of the opposite.

“And that’s understandable,” Vitello said. “It’s one of the most, if not the most, proud organizations in the MLB. We’ve got a lot of talent on the roster. But I think somewhere along the line, we were a little late to the party on flipping that switch a little bit.”

At this point, 18 games below .500 (42-60) and 22 ½ back of the Dodgers, you could say Vitello’s squad has nothing left to lose. And never has that mindset been more evident than the past two times a Giants player has taken off from first base attempting to swipe second.

Bryce Eldridge and Daniel Susac made it safely, just as the Giants’ previous 10 base stealers had before them. San Francisco is 12-for-12 on steals in 16 games in July, already matching its most in one month with still more than a week of games left to play.

It might be too late for it to matter, but it’s never too late to improve an area that has been a problem, especially if it can carry over into next season. Even with their recent uptick, the Giants still only have six more stolen bases (39) than the league’s least successful running team, the Tigers (33). Dating back to 2022, no team has been less aggressive on the basepaths. 

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“We’ve tried to be more aggressive,” Vitello said. With calls from the dugout, “We’ve tried to be a little bit more ambitious about initiating just a straight steal.”

But in the case of Eldridge and Susac, neither of whom would call themselves particularly fleet-footed, the steals weren’t a product of a call from the coaching staff. Both players possess sprint speeds in the bottom 40% of big leaguers, among the four-slowest Giants.

But each of them took off on his own.

Eldridge didn’t even need to get his uniform dirty to notch his first career stolen base.

“He was basically just giving it to me,” Eldridge said. “They didn’t think I was going to run, and I don’t blame them. … Guys don’t really pay attention to me on the bases, so that’s something I can take advantage of. I’ve really got nothing to lose in that situation.”

Music to Vitello’s ears.

“With Bryce,” the manager joked, “it’s a hold-your-breath moment, to be honest with you.”

Susac wasn’t as fortunate. He scraped his hand on a slide into second that showed his inexperience on the basepaths — and made him the butt of some jokes.

But consider the thought process.

“I just saw the first pitch was a little slow, and with the clock being at like five (seconds), I was like, I don’t think he’s gonna pick, so I’m just gonna take off and take my chance,” Susac said. “Obviously it ended up working out. But I’m definitely not a burner by any means, so I pick and choose my spots.”

Again, that’s the kind of smart-but-carefree ball Vitello would like to see more of.

“It goes to show you he’s fully capable of doing those things,” Vitello said. “We were kind of joking about the slide out there when we made a pitching change. … It wasn’t ideal.”

Both steals came when the Giants were trailing late in the game and with two outs in the inning, and neither resulted in anything more. But they shared something else in common: Players trying to make something happen on their own. Susac wanted to put himself in scoring position for Luis Arraez; Rafael Devers was at the plate when Eldridge took off.

Jesus Rodriguez later dropped down a successful sacrifice bunt.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that was the theme of a recent hitters’ meeting.

“A couple of the team leaders spoke up [Tuesday] in the offensive meeting about don’t be afraid to wait for the coaches to initiate anything,” Vitello said. “Whether you see an opportunity for a bunt, or an opportunity to run, anything like that, don’t be afraid to try and create.”

There’s nothing the Giants can realistically do about their dashed postseason dreams. But they can control the mindset they take to the ballpark each day.

“You’re not playing like you have nothing to lose because you don’t care,” Vitello said. “But I think a little bit more of a loose and a little bit more of a carefree approach could benefit us.”

If José Caballero is going down — and it seems as if he is, now forced to begrudgingly adjust a routine he had perfected — he is going down swinging at Major League Baseball.

The Yankees shortstop, whose pre-pitch habit designed to take advantage of every allowable second of the pitch clock became the subject of an MLB crackdown — without any warning — Wednesday, still was upset a day later and said the league knows it is “wrong.”

“It’s very easy to simply invent rules and change the world’s most beautiful sport and then not be responsible for those mistakes,” Caballero said in Spanish in an Instagram post Thursday. “They know they’re wrong but it’s very difficult to accept that a regular player, who only wants to play the sport he has always loved, can adapt and use it in his game.”

All season — and far earlier than that, toying with the timer since he was a Mariners minor leaguer even before the majors adopted the clock in 2023 — Caballero has used a technique that appeared to be within the rules and yet led to frequent arguments with opposing pitchers and home plate umpires.

To prevent quick pitches or pitchers pitching to unprepared batters, hitters must make eye contact with the pitcher with at least 8 seconds on the clock.

And thus Caballero would refuse to look at the pitcher — perhaps playing with his bat or staring into the dugout or crowd — until there were 8 or 9 seconds left.

Doing so 1) put pressure on the pitcher, who had to be engaged at that moment to ensure an automatic ball would not be called, 2) provided the pitcher the least allowable amount of time to then release the pitch and 3) often annoyed the pitcher, which a pest like Caballero considered an advantage.

That changed Wednesday, when MLB instructed the Yankees-Pirates umpiring crew to police the routine by enforcing an on-the-books rule that restricts hitters from attempting “to deceive a pitcher into beginning their windup or coming to the set position.”

The league’s sudden focus on the routine followed an incident Monday in which Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana became irked at Caballero’s clock manipulation, which led to words being exchanged and the dugouts emptying.

During the opening game of Wednesday’s doubleheader, Caballero was issued a pitch-clock violation in the sixth inning for the same pre-pitch procedure he has always used, which prompted arguments, hitting coach James Rowson getting tossed and, ultimately, a strikeout in a Yankees loss.

“Maybe my English is so bad that I don’t understand,” the Panamanian, who has a good command of the language, said after the game, “but ‘deceiving’ kind of means that you’re trying to trick someone. And I’m not trying to trick someone because I do the same thing over and over.”

After the game, manager Aaron Boone called the league’s lack of warning to Caballero and the Yankees “embarrassing.”

The league’s reasoning, according to the umpires, was that Caballero has been “warned all season.”

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

“We were instructed not to warn him,” crew chief Adrian Johnson told a pool reporter. “We were instructed to violate him. That’s what it is. It’s a violation.”

What is a violation?

“It’s talking about when he gets in [the batter’s box], he’s not allowed an inordinate amount of time looking down, trying to get the pitcher to cause a violation,” said home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott. “There’s no other hitter that gets in the box [and] takes the amount of time that Caballero does while looking down and not making eye contact with the pitcher. Obviously, it’s caused a lot of problems in the past. It’s not going to be allowed anymore.”

As heard on YES Network, on-field microphones caught Caballero repeatedly telling the umpires they were “picking on me.”

It seems as if that accusation is now aimed toward the league.

“Bottom line,” Caballero wrote in his post, as interpreted by Carolina Sánchez Calabese, “they are in charge and will do and undo whenever and however they want and everyone else has to be silent and obey.”

The cadence of the long baseball season lends itself to lots of streaks. Nobody in a Cubs uniform understands that better this year than Nico Hoerner. The Cubs second baseman has had an unusually streaky season that saw a red hot April fade into a soul-crushing slump beginning in May that had fans wondering if perhaps there were lingering effect from the ball that hit him in the helmet on April 29. Whether there were lingering effects of that or not, Nico’s been on another torrid tear since the All-Star break so today I wanted to take a closer look Nico’s 2026 season and what fans can expect going forward.

An MVP April

Hoerner signed his six-year, $141 million extension in March, and instead of the predictable post-deal letdown, he came out of the gate playing like a top-five player in the National League. Through the season’s first month, he was doing everything, slashing .291/.370/.449 while striking out just 9.6 percent of the time with an uncharacteristic four home runs on top of his normal elite defense. His wRC+ of 129 indicated he was 29 percent better than league average at creating runs for a Cubs team that looked like they might just steamroll the division. That extension was looking like a bargain for a player who might be leveling up on the power front, like this leadoff home run in Tampa Bay in early April [VIDEO].

The slump

Baseball is nothing if not capricious, however, and one of the worst stretches of Nico’s career followed his hot start to the 2026 season. From May 1 until the All-Star break Hoerner slashed .202/270/.263. He lowered his strikeout rate to 6.9 percent, but nothing else was really going right. What’s pretty strange about the whole affair is nothing in the numbers really looked off. His hard hit rate was about 4 percent higher in April, but a 29.6 percent hard hit rate vs. a 25.1% hard hit rate shouldn’t really be the difference between hitting .300 and hitting at the Mendoza line. Similarly, he pulled the ball slightly more in April (38.3 percent) v. 33.3 percent in the months that followed. But again, nothing that screamed a change in approach that should cause the type of fall off the Cubs were seeing from Hoerner.

In fact, the one stat that looks like an outlier during this 63-game stretch was an uncharacteristically low .216 BABIP. That mark is .081 off the .297 BABIP Nico put up in March and April, and .084 off his career mark of .300. I’ll spare you every set of permutations I ran at FanGraphs looking for correlations, only to land on “this really looks like bad BABIP luck,” as you can see below:

A resurgence since the All-Star break

The good news about slumps that are luck-based rather than skill-based is that they almost always tend to regress to the mean. While it may seem counterintuitive, regression can be good or bad depending on the direction of the outlier. In Nico’s case, that could mean the hot streak he’s had since the All Star Break may be the start of his season returning to his career norms.

Since the All-Star break Nico’s hitting .407/.407/.481. with a slightly elevated 11.1% strikeout rate and an uncharacteristic stretch of not talking a walk. Admittedly, a six-game, 27 plate appearance sample size is minuscule, but if Nico’s struggles over the last two-plus months are truly the result of batted-ball luck, as I suspect they might be, this hot start since the break is possibly the beginning of another hot streak. That would be good news for a Cubs team fighting to stay at the top of the National League Wild Card standings with 60 regular season games left to play.

2023 Yankees first-round pick George Lombard Jr. entered the season with questions about his offense. Scouts, fans, and media all agreed that his defense was—and is—MLB-ready, but there were still doubts about his ability to hit big-league or high-minors pitching right out of the gate.

It’s safe to say that Lombard has done his best to put those concerns to rest. Even though they still exist to some extent, which is natural for a 21-year-old with no college baseball experience, Lombard is showing that his promotion to the majors is a matter of time. It’s safe to say that the shortstop prospect and top name in the Yankees’ system has gotten so much better at the sweet science of hitting, and he is now knock, knock, knocking on the door of Yankee Stadium.

The highly athletic Lombard is now on a 15-game hitting streak (interrupted by an injured list stint) in which he entered play yesterday slashing an incredible .400/.475/.860 with five dingers, a 1.335 OPS, a 222 wRC+, and 14 runs scored. In fact, he did this on his first game back from the shelf last week:

Lombard began Wednesday batting .249/.389/.414 with five long balls, eight stolen bases, and a 116 wRC+ in 45 games and 211 plate appearances on the season in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. This comes after slashing a robust .312/.400/.571 with a 157 wRC+ in 20 games and 90 trips to the plate in Double-A Somerset to open 2026.

Lombard’s incredible ability to make adjustments is evident if you zoom in to his game log with the RailRiders. After a brief adjustment period from the moment he was promoted to Triple-A on April 29th until May 16th, he slashed a putrid .127/.351/.127 with a .479 OPS and a 58 wRC+. Yes, he drew some walks, but wasn’t a good hitter and took a little while to get going.

From that point forward, however, Lombard has hit a jaw-dropping .316/.427/.607 with 13 doubles, seven round-trippers, a 1.033 OPS and a 161 wRC+ in 143 plate appearances. It’s not a huge sample, but it’s significantly more than nothing and enough to get people’s attention.

It will be interesting to see how Lombard impacts the Yankees’ Trade Deadline. New York could theoretically call him up at any point when they deem he’s ready, but it seems most likely that if it happens, it will be once August 3rd has come and gone and they know what their depth chart looks like at the six in the home stretch. If, say, Anthony Volpe ends up on the move, then it would be logical to see Lombard come up and bump José Caballero to his more natural utility role. Unlike other occasions in which fans have clamored for his name as an MLB option, this time he does seem ready for the challenge.

It is, of course, also possible that Lombard is the key man in a big swing, as much as it seems more probable that they’ll keep him. If the Yankees do indeed hold onto him and give the kid a chance to contribute in the next few weeks, he could give the team a significant boost. His excellent defense would go a long way toward fortifying the left side of the infield, and we know it can be a liability sometimes. His bat, however, will dictate his ceiling and how much he can help this season.

Lombard hasn’t shown any marked platoon issues in the 67 games he has played in the high minors this year. He boasts a 1.123 OPS against lefties, and a .813 mark while facing righties: he is much better vs. southpaws but can more than hold his own vs. right-handed hurlers. It is worth noting that he has needed a little bit of an adjustment at each level, so it might take a bit for everything to click (if indeed it does; remember that Volpe was the can’t-miss name not so long ago, as was the since-departed Oswald Peraza before him).

The Yankees can afford to keep Lombard a few more weeks in Scranton while they work out their strategy, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that he doesn’t really have much left to prove there. The promising prospect, once a slick-fielding, light-hitting infielder with limited potential, is blossoming into a future star with the glove and with the bat.

Following a disappointing series loss to the New York Yankees that concluded with another bullpen meltdown, the Pittsburgh Pirates return home to begin a stretch of games that could define their aggressiveness at the trade deadline.

The Pirates are 53-50 and entered Thursday just a half-game back of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the final wild card in the National League.

Arizona comes to PNC Park on Monday, but first a three-game weekend series against the Cubs sets the table for Yinzerpalooza Weekend.

Pittsburgh is 4.5 back of Chicago, which holds the top wild card in the NL, but 

The Bucs took two of three from the Cubs at Wrigley Field in mid-April, nearly sweeping the series before the bullpen gave the lead up (a sign of what was to come), and split a four-game set in mid-May. 

The teams haven’t played each other in two months and have both been defined by their offense during that stretch.

A year after finishing bottom five in nearly every offensive category, the Pirates are first in hits per game (9.1), tied for first in batting average (.261), second in on-base percentage (.339), second in runs scored (5.3), third in slugging (.424), and third in OPS (.763). 

Shockingly, the Pirates have hit more home runs (132) than the Cubs (128) after totaling only 117 last season, dead last in baseball.

The Pirates have won 27 games at PNC Park in 2026 (27-24), while the Cubs have the same win total away from Wrigley Field (27-23). 

The Bucs are 17-12 against the NL Central in 2026 after only winning 19 games against the four teams last season (19-33). 

On paper, the Pirates have the upper hand with the starting pitching matchups, including two All-Stars.

Jared Jones will oppose Matthew Boyd on Friday night. Paul Skenes takes the hill on Saturday against Shota Imanaga, a lefty who has notoriously dominated the Pirates. Braxton Ashcraft will go to the mound in the finale against former Pirate Jameson Taillon.

The Pirates have been bad against left-handed starting pitchers and are tied for the third-fewest wins against southpaws.

Don Kelly’s lefty-heavy lineup is 9-20 against left-handed starters, tied with the Marlins (9-16) and just better than the Royals (8-21) and Mets (7-20) for the poorest performances in all of baseball.

It’s something the Pirates must improve upon moving forward if they’re going to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

The bullpen remains a mess and hasn’t been positively addressed all year, longing for the trading deadline on August 3 to fix all the problems. 

A losing streak could change the Pirates’ level of aggressiveness a week and a half from now, benefiting the rest of the division.

Pittsburgh is battling Arizona, Miami, Washington, and St. Louis for the final wild card, but does have a chance to chase down Chicago for a bigger prize.

The Pirates’ top three starters are pitching, and it’s pivotal that the Bucs win the series to gain ground on the Cubs and continue their success in the NL Central.

Is Mason Miller on the trade block? That’s the question teams around Major League Baseball want answered.

The San Diego Padres reliever is the best closer in baseball, sporting a 0.86 ERA with 78 strikeouts across 41.2 innings pitched this season. Miller has accrued a 2.1 bWAR in 2026, but his success has been overshadowed by the struggles of his team.

The Padres are three games below .500 and 15 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. With the trade deadline quickly approaching, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller will have to decide whether to keep or part ways with their closer.

Robert Murray of Fansided reports the Padres are unlikely to trade Miller.

However, that doesn’t mean Preller won’t listen to interested teams. The Padres essentially gutted their farm system to acquire the coveted Miller from the Athletics last summer, so the offer would need to be enticing enough for Preller to deal the 27-year-old just a year later.

The Padres sent their No. 1 prospect Leo De Vries to the Athletics in addition to three other minor league players.

In Murray’s words, the Padres would “need to be blown away” in order to trade Miller.

Despite the rollercoaster season, San Diego is only 3.5 games shy of the final Wild Card spot. So, there’s a chance the Padres reach the playoffs. It’ll be up to Preller whether he wants to roll the dice, but as always, San Diego is expected to be active at the deadline.

What remains a mystery is the route the front office will choose to go this summer — buying or selling.

Had it all the way – what a completely normal and resounding series win for your Atlanta Braves. Win number 60 and taking three out of four from the Padres at home… Per the game notes, the Padres have beaten the Braves more than any other team since the beginning of last year (10-3), so this feels particularly sweet.

Chris Sale did his job, and the math checks out to me that four home runs are greater than one. The Braves loved the longball in this come-from-behind win at Truist Park this afternoon. 

Chris Sale’s rocky second inning was not entirely on his shoulders. A Gavin Sheets single, a Freddy Fermin single, and Jake Cronenworth HBP had the bases loaded with two outs. Mauricio Dubón’s misplay in left field would loom large when Sale walked Fernando Tatis Jr. to give the Padres their first run. He had Luis Rengifo down 0-2, but Rengifo’s single to right drove in two to make it 3-0. 

Sale settled in nicely after that, and the offense had their marching orders.

The Padres, weirdly half-committed to their last-minute plan to use an opener, sent out reliever Kyle Hart to start the game. He only needed five pitches to throw up a zero and looked like he was in great shape to continue mowing down Braves hitters. But the Padres gave the ball to planned starting pitcher Griffin Canning to start the second. And for that, we thank them. 

The good for Canning – he lasted two more innings than the last time he faced the Braves a month ago. Other than immediately giving up a tank to Michael Harris II to lead off the second, he even had a stretch of retiring six Braves. 

But that streak came to an end in the bottom of the fourth, courtesy of Ozzie Albies. His solo homer chipped away at the Padres lead to make it 3-2. 

After a Matt Olson popup, a Harris II single and Dubón reaching on catcher’s interference set the table for a sorely-missed sight: a big Dominic Smith moment. An absolute bomb to the Chophouse gave the Braves the 5-3 lead. 

And so the score would stay for a bit. Chris Sale racked up double-digit strikeouts, ending his day with eleven. He surrendered five hits and walked one in his six innings of work. Dylan Dodd replaced him and threw a perfect inning with one strikeout.

Catching for three straight days didn’t phase Drake Baldwin. The reigning NL Player of the Week is an absolute freak (complimentary), golfing a home run in the seventh to make it 6-3 Braves. Spoiler alert: this would be a much more important homer than it seemed in the moment!

Do you get deja vu? Because it became two straight games where the Braves offense tacked on some insurance runs that felt like “nice to haves” before every single one ended up being crucial. Things went from comfortable to concerning in the top of the eighth when Tyler Kinley gave up a two-run homer to the hot-hitting Ty France to make it a one-run game. Danny Young entered and got Gavin Sheets to fly out to center to end the frame. 

The Braves wouldn’t get any more breathing room in the bottom of the eighth with Harris II, Dubón, and Riley going down quickly. 

Raisel Iglesias, just like last night, was tasked with getting three outs to seal a win for the Braves. He started solidly facing two pinch-hitters at the bottom of the Padres order, striking out Sung-Mun Song and getting Jackson Merrill to fly out to left. “A one-run game is dramatic enough, Iggy,” I said. “But it could be spicier,” he seemed to reply. Consecutive singles from nine-hole hitter Jake Cronenworth and Tatis Jr. built up the familiar dread and brought Luis Rengifo to the plate. Rengifo had been a menace this series AND had a homer off Iggy last night. Cool cool cool.

One changeup for a swinging strike. A second changeup, fouled off. And finally, a four-seam fastball for strike three. Raise your arms up to the sky and/or unclench, lunchtime crowd. Braves win another close one, 6-5.

Happy flight! Old friend Pete Alonso and his Orioles await the Braves as they begin a three-game set in Baltimore starting tomorrow night. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers already have enough Shohei Ohtani injury concerns, as the two-way superstar is currently not pitching because of lingering left knee irritation.

These concerns took another form during the Dodgers’ 9-5 win against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.

A video of Ohtani jumping out of the Dodgers’ dugout moments after the win has surfaced on social media. In the video, Los Angeles outfielder Alex Call is seen jumping next to Ohtani, and Call’s left cleat spikes Ohtani’s right elbow while both are hurdling over the dugout barrier.

Ohtani jerked his arm away before grabbing it, clearly in pain. He walked away for a few moments, seemingly trying to collect himself and shaking out his arm, before turning back around to the Dodgers’ handshake line.

It appears that Ohtani is now fine, as there hasn’t been any reports or indications that the incident created an actual injury.

But Call needs to be more careful with his body awareness, as the Dodgers can’t afford their best player and baseball’s biggest star to miss any more time because of an errant cleat slicing his arm.

The most recent update regarding Ohtani’s knee is that he had a bullpen before Wednesday’s game, marking the first time Ohtani had thrown off a mound in exactly two weeks.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts noted that Ohtani’s doing so was a, “big sign”, but there’s still no timeline for when he might return to the mound in an actual game.

Ohtani has said he believes the irritation stems from putting too much pressure on his front landing leg when throwing, while Roberts has also described it as “wear and tear” from Ohtani being a full-time two-way player this season.

Thankfully, Ohtani’s recovery timeline doesn’t appear to also factor in the arm abrasion he might’ve suffered from Call’s cleat on Wednesday.