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A monster night from Marsh powers Phillies to win over Rangers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

ARLINGTON, TX – Before and after the trade deadline, both Dave Dombrowski and Rob Thomson talked of more offensive production being needed from within. Especially when it came to power. Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper can’t be the only true long ball or gap-hitting threats in the lineup.

The trade for outfielder Harrison Bader brought hope for another slugging bat, but also somewhat overcrowded an already platooning group of left and center fielders. And while Thomson said he has still not exactly figured out who will be mostly manning those positions for the stretch run, one player’s arm seems to be being raised higher and higher – much like his batting average.

Since an 0-for-31 stint in April left him at 4-for-42 on the season, centerfielder/leftfielder Brandon Marsh has gone 66-for-210, a .314 average. More recently, since July 25 he’s 17-for-35 (.486) with six doubles and four home runs in those 12 games. And a telltale sign may have happened Friday against the Texas Rangers in the fifth inning when Thomson allowed Marsh to hit with a runner on first and a lefthander came out of the bullpen.

All Marsh did was hit his second double of the evening, to go with a home run and a single in the game, leading the Phillies to a 9-1 win over the Rangers. They are now 66-49 on the season and lead the New York Mets by 3.5 games as they lost to the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday.

“To be honest, I’m just trying to take it at-bat by at-bat, day by day,” said Marsh. “I’m really just trying to stick to the approach, stay stubborn, just let the body work.

“I do my best to try and treat it the same way (facing a left hander). Them bringing in (Robert) Garcia was a little bit of a shock, but they’re going to their guy to try to get out of a situation and keep them in the game. I totally understand it. I do treat it like as a little challenge, but I feel like the more I do that the more I press. Just got to stay relaxed and treat it like any other at-bat.”

Cristopher Sánchez not only continued his domination throughout the league but proved again how high his maturity level has risen as he overcame a shaky first inning and finished the night with six innings pitched and just one earned run. He improved to 11-3 on the season.

He threw a whopping 25 pitches in the first inning while allowing a run and three hits. In the following five innings, he allowed no runs, just three more hits and threw a total of 100 pitches. He struck out six.

“Just staying calm and staying focused throughout that situation,” said Sánchez. “I think that’s one of the keys that got me through it today. They were showing me something else than what I had thought. I just tried to pitch to the opposite of what they were trying to do.”

The Phillies grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first as Schwarber blasted his 41st home run of the season, this one hitting three-quarters of the way up on the foul pole. It was his fourth homer in the past five games. The Phils put three more on the board in the fourth when Marsh led off with a line drive home run to right. After Otto Kemp and Bryson Stott walked, Trea Turner drove them in with a double down the left field line and the Phillies opened the lead to 4-1.

A bases-loaded double in the ninth by Bryson Stott knocked in two and a three-run home run by Turner turned the game into a route. Turner finished the night 2-for 4 with five RBI, a pair of walks and a stolen base.

“I think the power is there,” said Turner of the team. “Marshy has been swinging the bat really well, Nick has been hitting some homers, Kyle is obviously doing his thing, Bryce is going good. We talked about that power a lot in the first half and it’s starting to come out all down the lineup, not just one person and I think that makes a big difference.

Max Kepler, who started in left Friday, is among those trying to win the majority of playing time in left. Though he went 0-for-4, he didn’t disappoint his manager. “First at-bat he got the runner over, runner at second base, nobody out (on a dribbler to first after a Marsh double.

“Then he got jammed up a little bit the next couple at-bats and then he hits a bullet (hard liner to right). Outfielder made a great play. All in all, he did his job. You can’t control what happens after you hit the ball. As long as you hit it hard, that’s what you want.”

The way the pitching worked out Friday was almost exactly the way Thomson hopes it plays out for the rest of the season and in the playoffs. Have a starter, in this case Sánchez, give six or so strong innings, followed by an inning apiece from relievers (in Friday’s case Matt Strahm and Orion Kerkering), and then have closer Jhoan Duran nail it shut. Problem was, after Duran got warmed up, the Phillies put five on the board in the ninth. And Sánchez was his usual self.

“We’ve put a lot of innings on him the last couple of starts” said Thomson. “I think he was up a little bit today and just didn’t have the finish to his pitches that he normally does. But he grinded and battled through some adversity and got through it.”

Saturday, the platooning/auditioning will continue, as Thomson said he will start Harrison Bader against the great Jacob deGrom. Marsh’s lefthanded bat probably will be in the lineup against the righthander. Heck, he’s making the case that he should be in there against anybody. Maybe he’s making the manager’s decision a little bit easier.

“It was a really good offensive night,” said Thomson, “Nine walks, eleven hits and we put a lot of pitches on the pitching staff. It seemed like we had traffic early but just didn’t capitalize. Finally we got it done in the ninth.”

Several reasons Kai-Wei Teng's first MLB win in Giants victory worth celebrating originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Finally, the music was back to blasting in the Giants’ clubhouse. Strobe lights danced across the ceiling and a team tradition was reignited for all the right reasons after their first home win in exactly four weeks to the date.

As beer and who knows what were sprayed all over Kai-Wei Teng, he couldn’t see what was going on around him. He could barely even breathe. He also wouldn’t dare change a second of his Giants teammates celebrating his first MLB win. 

“It was a pretty special experience,” Teng said through interpreter Andy Lin. “I couldn’t even breathe when I was in the beer shower. I couldn’t even see. I couldn’t open my eyes. I just smelled some stinky stuff. I didn’t even know what that was.”

Kai-Wei Teng kept the game ball and lineup card from his first MLB win tonight 👏 pic.twitter.com/U4zcGojdqT

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 9, 2025

With two left-handed hitters atop the Washington Nationals’ lineup, Giants manager Bob Melvin used lefty reliever Matt Gage to open Friday night’s game at Oracle Park, coming back from a six-game road trip. Gage was able to sit the Nationals down in order, handing the ball over to Teng, who easily had the best performance of his young MLB career in the Giants’ 5-0 win to start off a nine-game homestand. 

Teng’s night began by striking out cleanup hitter Nathaniel Lowe in three straight pitches, making him look perplexed at a changeup that dropped off the table and into Patrick Bailey’s glove. He then struck out the next batter, Josh Bell, and retired the first six batters he faced. The sixth out ended on the defensive play of the night from the player who figured to grab the biggest spotlight. 

The story of the game was supposed to belong to rookie Drew Gilbert’s MLB debut, a former first-round draft pick acquired from the New York Mets in a trade one week ago that sent reliever Tyler Rogers to the Big Apple. Gilbert chased down a sliced liner down the right-field line and made a crowd-pleasing diving catch, stumbling but still finding a way to snag the ball into his glove. 

“I almost lost my footing in the first once I went over the line, so thankfully I was able to hold onto the ball,” Gilbert said. “I think I was OK with my face. Might have got a little dirt on it, but otherwise I was OK.” 

Throughout his five shutout innings, Teng, 26, kept finding ways to get out of adversity. James Wood doubled off the right-field wall to start the third inning, only to see Teng retire the next three batters. In the top of the fourth, he ran into his most trouble of the night, finding himself with the bases loaded and no outs. After a mound visit from Giants pitching coach J.P. Martinez, Teng forced a groundout to first baseman Rafael Devers on the first pitch, throwing Bell out at home plate. 

It's a shutout at @OracleParkSF

Gage ➡️ Teng ➡️ Lucchesi ➡️ Buttó ➡️ Beck ⛔️ pic.twitter.com/DKZ10m1syI

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) August 9, 2025

Just two pitches later, a curveball from Teng turned into an inning-ending double play. 

“Those are the biggest three outs of the game,” Melvin said. 

Teng credited Martinez with calming him right when he needed it most. 

“It helped me to settle down, just take a deep breath and figure out what kind of strategy and pitches I’m going to pitch and face the next batter,” Teng said. “It helped a lot.” 

The start to Teng’s major league career was far from calm. He pitched 11 innings out of the bullpen last season and allowed 12 earned runs with eight walks and seven strikeouts. Teng has bounced back and was enjoying a strong minor league campaign for Triple-A Sacramento this season, where he walked 3.5 batters per nine innings and struck out 14.3 batters per nine innings ahead of his return to the majors last Saturday. 

But because of one rough inning, Teng was tagged for five earned runs in a loss to the New York Mets over 3 1/3 innings. Like he did Friday night in front of more than 38,000 Giants fans, Teng wasn’t deterred from the ups and downs of baseball.

His final inning of his first big league win came against the Nationals’ one, two and three hitters in the lineup. Teng took them down in seven pitches, finishing his night by striking out Brady House on a sweeper that ended in the other batter’s box. 

The beer-induced celebration is a feeling and smell that will last a lifetime for Teng. The real celebration was 15 hours ahead in Taiwan, where Father’s Day was celebrated the same day Teng took the mound. Teng became the ninth Taiwanese-born pitcher in MLB history to earn a win, and the first since Wei-Chung Wang in September of 2019.

“I want to thank my dad for supporting me over the past 18 years. Anything related to baseball he was always there for me, and I’m just so glad he was there to support me,” Teng said. “I want to say I love you to my dad.”

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Mets manager Carlos Mendozaraised some eyebrows when he said his team is unable to make adjustments after Wednesday's loss to the Guardians.

Some took it as the skipper calling out his coaches and the players for not being able to figure out Guardians starter Gavin Williams, who was two outs away from pitching a no-hitter. It was the culmination of a terrible homestand where the team went 1-5 and have lost eight of their last nine games. 

And a large part of the slump has been the Mets' offense. Since the All-Star break, their team's OPS is .639, last in MLB, and their .213 batting average ranks 29th in baseball. 

Despite those numbers, the president of baseball operations, David Stearns, voiced his confidence that the offense will turn itself around.

"I believe in our guys," Stearns told the media prior to Friday's series opener against the Brewers. "Clearly, everyone’s frustrated. Players are frustrated. At times, I’ve been frustrated. But I believe this is a good offensive team, I believe in the process we have in place and I’m confident we’re going to see that going forward."

Stearns was then asked about the team's hitting coaches and whether they should be to blame for the team's offensive struggles.

"No. I have confidence in our hitting coaches," he said. "They have track records and lead and put together quality offenses. This is, at times, baseball. It will drive you crazy when you have talented players that go through stretches like this. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a lineup where we’ve had stretches where we haven’t performed up to our capabilities. It’s frustrating and everyone is working as hard as they can to turn this thing around. And I think we will."

Mendoza was asked about the coaches before Friday's game, as well, but the Mets skipper echoed Stearns in giving them a vote of confidence.

"I think they are good at what they do," Mendoza said. "Making sure they get the message across. Extremely hard workers. Day in, day out not only the physical work but putting together game plans, starting pitchers, working on the mechanics. There’s a lot that goes behind the scenes. They are really good at what they do."

Stearns did acknowledge Mendoza's lack of adjustment comments from Wednesday, saying that it's a reasonable criticism and there have been discussions, but it's an "easier said than done" situation. But he believes in the veteran players to make those adjustments in-game, especially from the top of the lineup.

Over their last 15 games, entering Friday, Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo have gone a combined 48-for-232 (.206) with nine home runs and 68 strikeouts.

That inconsistency has put the Mets behind the eight ball in a lot of their games, but the team remain confident they will bounce back.

"I don’t have a silver bullet answer for [the inconsistency]," Stearns said. "We’re not the first good team to have periods in the season where we’re not clicking. I understand it’s unique when you have the quality of players at the top to go through some struggles at the same time. I completely understand why that raises some questions and why that raises frustration. But at the same time, we have to trust that these are really good players. They believe in themselves. As an organization, we certainly believe in them, and I have full faith that they are going to snap out of it. And we’re going to see a good offense."

"We got really good hitters. That’s where it starts," Mendoza said. "They’re really good players, they’ve done it before. When you’re going through it, it gets noisy. When you look at our players, when you look at that locker room there’s a lot of talent there. They’ll get out of it."

Mets prospectsNolan McLean and Brandon Sproatare "putting themselves in the position" to be called up, president of baseball operations David Stearns said while answering a question about the two right-handed pitchers before Friday's game on SNY.

"I think it's all part of the equation," Stearns said when asked how much "roster flexibility" factors into McLean and Sproat remaining with Triple-A Syracuse. "So, the roster situation's part of the equation. Ensuring that we treat their development appropriately is part of the equation.

"They're doing a great job. I think they're putting themselves in the position, when and if we have a need, we feel confident going down there and getting an arm. And we're going to continue to factor them in as we go through the rest of the season."

Stearns echoed his previous sentiments about timing.

"I think, ideally, you'd have some runway," he said. "I also understand that, sometimes, the realities of a major league season don't allow you to do that. So, ideally, yes -- if you're calling up someone like that, you'd like them to have a multiple-start runway. That would be my expectation, but there are no absolutes in this thing. Sometimes, we have to adjust to what the season gives us."

At the same time, Stearns kept his options open.

"I don't think we'd close the door on anything right now, especially as we get into the second half of the month, into September, where we have a little roster flexibility, you have the extra pitcher," he said. "I think it opens up a variety of different possibilities.

"We're in early August, and that is well into the season. We're in a pennant race. There's also a lot of baseball left. A lot of things are going to happen over the next month and a half, and we're going to put our roster and pitching staff in the best position to help us going forward."

McLean and Sproat, both 24, are Nos. 4 and 5 overall in SNY contributor Joe DeMayo's midseason top 30 prospects.

In 15 games (12 starts) for Syracuse this season, McLean is 5-4 with a 2.81 ERA and 1.09 WHIP.

Sproat, meanwhile, is 7-5 with a 4.10 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 22 starts for Syracuse this year.

What we learned as Rafael Devers, Casey Schmitt homer in Giants' win over Nats originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO – Home had been a broken heart for the Giants before returning to Oracle Park on Friday night. 

The Giants dropped all six games on their previous homestand, as well as their last eight dating back to July 12, which was tied for their second-longest home losing streak in the San Francisco era. They made sure not to tie the record of nine with a 5-0 win against the Washington Nationals to start a nine-game homestand over the next 10 days.

Every facet of the game – offense, defense, baserunning and pitching – was a positive for the Giants. Between Matt Gage and Kai-Wei Teng, nine straight Nationals came to the plate without reaching base to begin the game. The bullpen then continued to do their job, too. 

Rafael Devers and Casey Schmitt each homered, the Giants outhit the Nationals 10-4 and all but two of their batters recorded at least one hit.

Casey Schmitt MOONSHOT ☄️ pic.twitter.com/TTfumEWUMc

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 9, 2025

Here are three takeaways from the Giants’ first home win in exactly four weeks.

Open And Shut

In between starts for rookie Carson Whisenhunt and 42-year-old Justin Verlander, the Giants went the non-traditional route of using an opener to start their three-game series with the Nationals. The decision couldn’t have gone any better for Gage and manager Bob Melvin. 

Gage took down the Nationals in order, needing only 17 pitches to do so. He induced two straight fly outs to begin the game and ended his one inning, striking out Brady House with a nasty slider. His night was done, passing the torch to Teng. 

And Teng took the Giants as close to the finish line as they could have hoped. 

Teng made his first MLB start last Saturday and was tagged for five runs over 3 1/3 innings against the New York Mets. His fortunes were much better on Friday, throwing five scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Teng ran into trouble in the fifth inning when the Nationals loaded the bases without any outs. 

Just three pitches later, Teng clawed his way out of the jam. He forced a force out on a grounder to first base and then got Jacob Young to ground into an inning-ending double play. The right-hander allowed three hits, one walk and struck out four over five strong innings.

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When Drew Gilbert swung through a changeup to strike out in his first MLB at-bat Friday night, he licked his lips and looked back at the mound as if he now knew he belonged. Butterflies could drift away. Everything quite literally could only go up from there. 

Any frustrations he had from that at-bat didn’t follow him to the outfield. The Giants lost a defensive weapon in the way Mike Yastrzemski manned right field, but Gilbert already gave him a run for his money in his first game sporting the orange and black. Gilbert raced to the right-field corner with two outs in the top of the third inning and perfectly executed a face-first dive to the delight of Giants fans. 

What a catch by Drew Gilbert 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Tiu0lk0sXW

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 9, 2025

At the plate, Gilbert wasn’t as fortunate. The 24-year-old who turns 25 next month followed his strikeout with two groundouts and a pop out. Gilbert, in five games for the Sacramento River Cats, was 7-for-14 with two triples and a double since being acquired from the Mets.

Bye, Bye Baby

The Giants and Nationals combined for a lowly 12 runs over three games earlier this season. San Francisco scored seven of those runs, tallying for more than half that total Friday night in the second series of the season between these two teams. 

Leadoff batter Heliot Ramos scorched a line drive to center, marking how well the Giants saw the ball all game. Dever immediately one-upped Ramos, hammering a 427-foot homer to give the Giants an early lead they held onto all night. Matt Chapman, two batters late,r added another run with a single to center that scored Willy Adames.

RAFI BOMB 💥 pic.twitter.com/C7Vo1qdjNa

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 9, 2025

This was a night about the Giants rounding the bases. Chapman doubled later in the game, and Patrick Bailey unhitched the trailer for his third triple of the season after having two in his first two years in the big leagues. Singles, doubles and even triples will never live up to the long ball, though.

The party continued when Schmitt joined Devers in jogging the bases with a deep shot of his own in the sixth inning. The two-run blast improved the Giants’ record to 23-6 when they hit multiple home runs in a game this season.

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Aaron Judge's return to the fold as a designated hitter has consequently meant less playing time for Giancarlo Stanton, but the Yankees still envision the veteran slugger seeing more action than usual this weekend.

While the Yankees' home series opener against the rival Astros on Friday night will feature Stanton on the bench for a third straight game, manager Aaron Boone believes there's a "good chance" that Stanton rejoins the starters as an outfielder on Saturday afternoon, with lefty ace Framber Valdez slated to pitch.

"We'll see, assuming how today goes. He'll do some work out there today," Boone said of Stanton's plan Friday. "The thought will be probably getting him out there tomorrow. [He looks] good. ... G's usually brutally honest in those situations. So I think he's feeling good about where he's at and the week he's had. ... Hopefully get through today and having him play tomorrow."

The risks associated with Stanton playing the field remain obvious. He's highly susceptible to lower-body injuries due to limited mobility from past ailments, and the Yankees have essentially made the outfield off-limits to him since 2023.

But the 35-year-old still believes he can contribute as a fielder, and until Judge is cleared for in-game throwing as he works his way back from a right elbow flexor strain, Stanton's willingness to test his defensive skills again offer the club more versatility.

After all, the Yankees should want Stanton in the lineup as much as possible. Since making his 2025 debut in mid-June -- he missed 70 games with tendinitis in both elbwos -- he's slashed .268/.340/.528 with 10 home runs and 28 RBI across 37 games. Stanton grounded into a double play as a pinch-hitter in Tuesday's loss to the Rangers.

"I do know he would like to have [the outfield] in play, to have it as an option," Boone said. "It would be nice to have on, at least, a small level in play. Just to add another layer of flexibility. But we've got to feel like, physically, he's able to do that and it's not taking anything away from him too."

At this point in the season, with the Yankees in the midst of a summer downturn that could bump them out of an AL wild-card spot by Sunday night, having an eager Stanton available on a near-daily basis works best. 

Of course, Stanton has needed to wipe the dust off his glove this week in preparation for the assignment, but he's played more than 1,100 games as a big league outfielder. And both he and the Yankees feel he can still field the position well enough, in spite of the injury fears.

"There's always risk when you don't play the game," Boone said. "I do feel like, physically, he's in a good place to do this on a limited basis. And that's why we've spent the last week, 10 days, ramping it up and seeing how he's doing with it. ... He's always been a quality outfielder. Some range is going to be limited, obviously, but I do feel like he'll make the plays that need to be made."

The balancing act with Stanton should stick around a little while longer with Judge restricted -- the Yankees' captain began throwing from 90 feet on Wednesday and Boone expected the same arrangement for Friday.

Giancarlo Stanton is doing outfield work this afternoon.

Aaron Boone said pregame that there's a "good chance" Stanton will play in the outfield tomorrow pic.twitter.com/wZOjBIDCR5

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) August 8, 2025

Why Athletics' young starters are under microscope amid ‘important' stretch originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Athletics are far out of the playoff race entering the final third of the MLB season, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to play for.

The team’s exciting lineup — one of the youngest in baseball — has continued to impress throughout most of the year, but the Athletics’ inexperienced crop of starting pitchers has had encouraging performances since the All-Star break as well.

Though starter J.T. Ginn picked up the loss Friday night against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, manager Mark Kotsay continued to be optimistic about his staff. He emphasized the importance of this stretch, particularly for his trio of emerging starters: Ginn, Jacob Lopez and Jack Perkins.

“Obviously, Lopez is ahead of them with the amount of starts he’s had and a little more innings this year,” Kotsay told reporters postgame. “As far as Ginn and Perkins, these are important weeks for them, and obviously, tonight wasn’t terrible. I mean, three runs in five innings. Our offense just couldn’t help him out.

“But for Perk tomorrow, it’s another young guy that’s going out there. He’ll be limited on the pitch count — probably into the 80s — but for him to go out and have a good start is important.”

Mark Kotsay details the importance of strong outings from the Athletics' young starters at this point in the season pic.twitter.com/A0KCsmJ8Rj

— Athletics on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) August 9, 2025

Ginn struggled in the first inning, allowing back-to-back homers to Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle after nearly completing a 1-2-3 frame. But that would be all the Orioles could muster against Ginn and the A’s bullpen.

“Outside of that, I mean, he had nine strikeouts,” Kotsay said of the 26-year-old Ginn. “I thought he got back focused into the zone and really pounded it and did a good job from the second to the fifth.”

As a whole, this rotation has improved significantly in the second half of the season. Before the All-Star break, A’s starters managed just a 5.00 ERA; that mark was down to 3.65 entering Friday’s contest, according to Stathead.

Ginn arguably had the two best starts of his young career in late July, while Lopez hasn’t given up a run in his last two outings. Perkins, meanwhile, will make his second career start Saturday as the rookie looks to find his footing in the rotation.

If this up-and-coming group of starters can continue to perform at a similar level to their hitting counterparts, the Athletics could be a dangerous team sooner rather than later.

Pitching help and outfield decisions happening soon for Phillies originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

ARLINGTON, TEXAS – Rob Thomson has had a long career in the major leagues, so there probably aren’t too many situations that he hasn’t been through. But the recent amount of film-watching he’s done and reports that he’s read concerning players that are either rehabbing or just amping themselves up to get back to the big club is, no doubt, dizzying.

Now is a good time for the manager, as just about all is positive right now and it seems as though the Phillies might be getting some welcomed reinforcements shortly to help them with their stretch run.

“There’s a lot of them,” Thomson said from his office before his team took on the Texas Rangers in the first of a three-game series.

So, let’s start with the pitchers. Aaron Nola pitched Wednesday for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs and went 3.2 innings, gave up four hits, one run, walked two and struck out four. He threw 69 pitches, 40 for strikes.

“I watched all the tape and command was really good,” Thomson said. “He had a rough first inning, 28 pitches in the first inning, something like that. But he bounced back really well. I thought he threw the ball really well.”

Nola will start again Tuesday for Lehigh Valley and then possibly be back up with the Phillies the following Sunday. “I think so, yeah. I mean there’s a chance,” Thomson said.

Relievers José Alvarado and David Robertson also put in time with the Iron Pigs recently, as Alvarado pitched an inning on Thursday and Robertson pitched both Wednesday and Thursday.

“Back-to-back,” Thomson said of the right-handed Robertson. “15 pitches two days ago, five (Thursday) just to clean up an inning so we checked just about every box we needed to check. If he feels good, we’ll activate him on Sunday.”

As for Alvarado, Thomson seemed blown away by his performance on Thursday. “And Alvarado was unbelievable. 97, 98, I thought I saw a 99 in there. 15 pitches, I believe, and he just looked right. Cutter was fantastic.” Alvarado pitched the one inning, gave up a hit and struck out two. Eight of his 12 pitches were strikes. He can pitch again in the majors beginning August 19th.

Starter Zack Wheeler, originally slated to pitch Friday against the Rangers, was pushed back to Sunday as Thomson revealed earlier this week his ace was dealing with shoulder soreness for a few weeks now. In his four starts since throwing a one-hit, complete game on July 6, Wheeler has allowed 27 hits, including six home runs and 13 earned runs in 23.2 innings for an ERA of 4.94. Very un-Wheeler like numbers. But after an MRI showed no damage, it seems it’s business as usual for him.

“He had a bullpen today as long as he comes in fine tomorrow he’s starting Sunday,” said Thomson. And there you have it.

Outfield questions

Following the trade deadline last week – which brought in outfielder Harrison Bader, along with closer Jhoan Duran – Thomson said that he would be platooning his outfielders for “the next six games,” in order to get a better feel of who he would be using and when. Well his time is about up, but it appears the manager is giving himself some extra time.

“Yeah, I’m going to try and mix it up a little bit in the next couple of days because I want to find out who’s hot, who’s not and go from there,” he said. (Max) Kepler had a good day the other day (home run and double on Wednesday) and is swinging the bat pretty well lately. I really like Bader. (Brandon) Marsh is a guy, (Nick Castellanos) Casty’s an everyday guy, so I got to figure it out.” Friday’s outfield consisted of Kepler in left, Marsh in center and Castellanos in right against righthander Merrill Kelly. “Bader is going to play tomorrow and that’s all I’m going to give you,” Thomson said.

Bohm plans soon to come

Third baseman Alec Bohm is going to start playing on Sunday for Lehigh Valley, Thomson said. Otto Kemp was at third on Friday, but he has also played some left field since being called up in early June, further complicating the outfield decision. We should find out shortly what the game plan is.

At the end of the 2019 minor-league season, Alex Call looked at his hitting numbers, then looked himself in the mirror.

A former third-round draft pick who had already changed organizations once, he knew he had just had the kind of year that typically portends a short professional career.

As a 24-year-old outfielder at the double-A level in the Cleveland Guardians organization, Call had taken 325 plate appearances that year with the Akron RubberDucks. In 93 of them — a rate of nearly 30% — he recorded a strikeout.

It wasn’t the only ugly stat in a season that saw Call bat just .205, reach base at a .266 clip and hit only five home runs. But it was the biggest sign of a fundamental flaw plaguing the right-handed hitter’s game.

“That,” he recalled recently, while reflecting on what became a turning point moment in his career, “just wasn't gonna get it done.”

Read more:Shohei Ohtani's Ruthian feats are not enough as bullpen melts down against Cardinals

Six years later, Call joined the Dodgers as a trade deadline addition last week with a polar opposite reputation. Now, the defensively versatile outfielder is one of the harder outs in all the majors. Since the start of last season, his .297 batting average ranks eighth among MLB hitters with at least 350 plate appearances. More important, over that same span, he ranks top 60 in strikeout rate and walk rate (with a 55-to-39 ratio overall), and 22nd in chase rate; consistently putting together some of the better at-bats in all the sport.

“This guy’s just a straight grinder, works at-bats,” general manager Brandon Gomes said after the Dodgers acquired Call from the Washington Nationals in exchange for two pitching prospects. “Playing against him, he’s always incredibly frustrating to try to game plan for and get out.”

“I’ve faced Alex a few times,” added future Hall of Fame left-hander Clayton Kershaw. “He’s tough against lefties, a great defender. A good add, for sure.”

The Dodgers, of course, could have made splashier adds at the deadline. They were linked to All-Star caliber names, including Steven Kwan of the Guardians, but didn’t splurge to pay such inflated deadline prices.

Instead, they settled for Call, who was a smaller name but came with team control through 2029. They put their faith in his overhauled offensive skill set, hopeful a personal transformation more than half-a-decade in the making will make him a key piece in their pursuit of a second straight World Series title.

“That is my whole game,” Call said on the day he arrived with the club. “I am going to grind out at-bats, put the ball in play, take my walks, make it tough on the pitcher, lengthen out the lineup.”

The origins of that mindset date to that 2019 season, and the pandemic-altered year that followed.

Entering 2020, Call committed to a change at the plate. In what was a crowded pipeline of outfielders in the Guardians system — highlighted at that time by Kwan, who has since blossomed into one of the best left fielders in the game — he recognized he needed a new identity. If he was going to reach the majors, it was going to start with simply working better at-bats.

“It’s a bad feeling,” he said, “having a cloud hanging over your head after a season like that.”

The only problem: COVID-19 came, the 2020 minor league season was canceled, and Call (like so many other minor-league long shots clinging to big-league dreams) was left effectively on his own.

So, he found different ways to improve his bat.

As the baseball world shut down, Call bought a portable Junior Hack Attack hitting machine with a self-feeding ball dispenser. And everywhere he went that year — from spring training housing in Phoenix to his childhood home in Wisconsin to his family’s offseason residence in Indiana — he sought out any place “I could find a hitting cage and an outlet” to use it, he said laughing.

His focus was simple. Work on hitting fastballs up in the strike zone. Eliminate what had been one of the biggest holes in his swing.

“For me, it's just about having that mentality to where, it doesn't matter if I have two strikes or if it's an 0-0 count,” he said. “Believe I'm comfortable in every situation. I'm going to put the ball in play.”

By that winter, Call sought out a more advanced piece of training technology as well.

Over the previous couple years, a company called Win Reality had begun manufacturing virtual reality hitting goggles — using data-driven models, actual video and computer-generated images to recreate virtual at-bats against real pitchers from a hitter’s point of view inside Oculus-style headsets.

A handful of MLB teams, including the Dodgers, had invested in the system for their teams. In the months leading up to the 2021 season, Call decided to do the same for himself, buying the $300 product (and paying for its annual $200 software program) to help couple his new swing with a more discerning approach.

“[I was] just really practicing the zone,” Call said. “Knowing what pitches are my strengths and what pitches I don't want to swing at until two strikes. Developing that plan and developing that approach.”

The training paid off.

At the start of the 2021 season, Call was sent back to double-A Akron. When he arrived, he was informed by manager Rouglas Odor that he would only be slated to play 2-3 games per week — a quick reminder of how far down the organization depth chart he’d fallen.

“I remember him being very disappointed,” Odor, now the Guardians’ big-league third-base coach, recalled this week. “But he took ownership of his career, and didn’t let what I told him affect him.”

Call’s chance arrived that May, after Kwan went down with a hamstring injury. And almost immediately, his COVID-year changes took effect. Over 180 plate appearances, Call hit .310, drew 21 walks and — just as he’d hoped — cut his strikeout rate by half, punching out only 26 times.

“He was a totally different hitter,” said Odor, who had also been Call’s manager during his dismal 2019 campaign. “Defensively, he was already to play in the big leagues. He made some unbelievable plays … But offensively, he found his stroke. His plate discipline was more consistent. And he had an unbelievable season.”

By the end of the season, Call had been promoted to triple-A. The next July, he earned a promotion to the majors.

The ascent from there wasn’t linear. In August 2022, he was designated for assignment and claimed off waivers by the Nationals. In 2023, he played in 128 big-league games but hit only .200, sending him back to triple-A for most of last year.

Still, his plate discipline didn’t waver (he struck out only 78 times in his 439 plate appearances in 2023, an 18% rate, while also drawing 53 walks). His VR routine only became more ingrained, seeing upward of 54,000 simulated pitches (or, essentially 25 seasons’ worth of throws) through his headset each year, as he told the Washington Post last month.

It all has clicked over the last calendar year, with Call following up a productive return to the majors at the end of 2024 with his best full-season performance this term.

“The type of player that I am, I can hit the ball over the fence, but it's not really my full game,” Call said. “So for me, it was about trying to create as many opportunities to get on base as possible … I have to be able to hit the ball at good angles.”

Call is one of only four players with at least 200 plate appearances this season (along with Kyle Tucker, Gleyber Torres and Geraldo Perdomo) who strikes out less than 15% of the time, chases less than 20% of the time and whiffs less than 20% of the time. He has hit .236 with two strikes (better than everyone else on the Dodgers except Hyeseong Kim).

He had his first standout game with the Dodgers on Wednesday, when he singled, doubled and made a catch while crashing into the left-field wall to save an extra-base hit.

Read more:Hernández: Mookie Betts sounds depressed, but he isn't giving up on snapping his hitting slump

Eight at-bats into his Dodgers career entering Friday's game, he has also yet to strike out once.

“I’m always proud of players like Alex, because he wasn’t this big prospect, but he became an everyday big-league player,” Odor said. “He had the urgency to make something happen in order to reach his goal, and his dream.”

And now, Call is aiming to take his career one step further — to be not just a productive big-league bat, but one capable of playing an impactful role on a title-contending club in Los Angeles.

“I always knew that I could do it and be an established major leaguer,” Call said. “It’s just, sometimes it takes a little bit of time. And I'm grateful that I was given that time, and just continued to get better.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Red Sox claim catcher Ali Sanchez off waivers from Blue Jays originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Red Sox made a roster move on Friday, claiming catcher Ali Sanchez off waivers from Toronto. The move puts the Red Sox’ 40-man roster at the full 40 players, filling the vacancy left by Jorge Alcala being designated for assignment earlier this week.

Sanchez, 28, made his MLB debut in the 2020 season, though he’s played just 46 games at the big league level. Overall, he’s hitting just .186 with a .461 OPS in 131 plate appearances. This season, albeit in a limited sample size of eight games, he’s hit .238 with a .571 OPS for Toronto.

At the Triple-A level this year, he’s hit .279 with a .766 OPS, with six home runs, seven doubles and 28 RBIs.

What this addition means for the Red Sox’ catching tandem was not immediately evident.

Sanchez has no minor league options, so the Red Sox made the acquisition knowing that a corresponding move would be necessary to make room on the active roster. That move will almost assuredly come at the catcher position.

The team has primarily utilized rookie Carlos Narvaez behind the plate, as he’s started 79 of Boston’s 116 games this season. Narvaez has had a breakout campaign, with a .729 OPS and 27 starts as the team’s cleanup hitter.

The flip side of Narvaez’s excellent season has been the downfall of Connor Wong. The 29-year-old is posting career lows across the board, including a .160 batting average and .179 slugging percentage. In 106 at-bats, he’s produced just two extra-base hits, and he’s driven in just two runs.

He’s carved out a role as Brayan Bello’s primary catcher, but the offensive abyss when Wong is in the lineup has certainly been a difficult issue for manager Alex Cora to navigate all season long.