Category: Sports News

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Yankees captain Aaron Judge will take a huge step towards a return to play on Monday, as he is scheduled to face live pitching for the first time since suffering his stress fracture. There’s still no word on who will be throwing to Judge, though. To this point, he has faced the Trajekt machine and also took on-field batting practice on Friday. The plan is for the three-time AL MVP to return after a couple of live BP sessions, so we might see him back in the lineup this week.

CBS Sports: After hurting his right hamstring on Friday, the Yankees announced on Saturday that outfielder Trent Grisham had been placed on the injured list. Sunday brought even worse news, as the team deemed the ailment a ‘moderate’ Grade 2 strain, which makes it highly unlikely that the player will return before the end of the regular season. The 29-year-old had already spent some time on the IL in June with the same ailment, so it’s definitely a worrisome development.

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips David Bednar’s splitter is, to put it lightly, a nasty pitch. It has held hitters to a .156 wOBA and has a 36.9 percent whiff rate. As it turns out, he learned the pitch early in his career from Japanese pitching legend Hideo Nomo, who was working with the San Diego Padres, Bednar’s team in 2017, as an instructor.

“I don’t want to say it clicked right away, but it was something I had good feel for and good confidence for early on,” said Bednar. “Obviously, that pitch helped me get to the big leagues, and it’s also helped me stay.”

The current Yankees closer said he wasn’t too familiar with Nomo’s career back then, but after watching some videos, he became enamored with the pitch and wanted to throw it. “After I learned [the splitter] from him, I went and watched the highlights, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I want that one!’” Bednar recalled.

On a stormy Sunday night in September, the Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals, winning the finale 7-5.

Both Justin Wrobleski and Nationals southpaw Andrew Alvarez kept the ice frozen until the bottom of the third inning, as a Max Muncy double and Tommy Edman infield single allowed Mookie Betts to bring home Muncy on a groundout to give the Dodgers their third consecutive early lead.

After three scoreless innings without six strikeouts, the Nationals struck back in the top of the fourth with a lead-off home run from CJ Abrams— his third in seven at-bats against Wrobleski— evening the score at one. Brady House immediately followed with a single, and a double from Daylen Lile put two men on, still with no outs. Teoscar Hernández was unable to track down a fly ball to left from Harry Ford, plating both baserunners and giving Washington a two-run lead. Jacob Young carried the frenzy with a single to center to plate four, ending the night for Wrobleski.

The second half of the regular season has not been kind to Wrobleski, as he has a 7.55 ERA across 31 innings over seven appearances (six starts). His three complete innings on Sunday were the fewest in any start this season.

Brock Stewart managed to clean up the mess made by Wrobleski, and Blake Treinen made his first appearance since June 19, working a scoreless fifth inning to keep the deficit at three runs. The Dodgers responded with a rally against Alvarez in the bottom half, as a Tommy Edman double plated Max Muncy to cut the deficit in half. Brad Lord came in relief and got Mookie Betts to ground out for the first out, but the Dodgers sprayed three consecutive singles to knot the game even at 4.

Bobby Miller made his season debut, making his first big league appearance since May 24 last year, but he struggled to keep the game tied after plunking Dylan Crews with two outs and the bases loaded, finishing with 27 pitches in the top of the sixth inning while letting Washington take a one run lead. The Dodgers managed to put two on with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, but Betts just missed hitting one out to left field to get Washington out of trouble.

Miller worked a spotless seventh inning on 17 pitches, but after Will Smith worked a lead-off walk to start the bottom half against Will Dion, but the left-hander struck out the side in order to keep the Dodgers at bay.

Miller then worked a perfect eighth inning— thanks in part to a Kyle Tucker home run robbery to keep the score at a one-run Dodger deficit— eventually finishing the night with three innings of work allowing just one run.

After Dion recorded the first two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, a single from Alex Call ignited a two-run rally, leading to a Mookie Betts three-run home run to give the Dodgers their first lead since the third inning and their second consecutive game with a go-ahead three-run shot.

Although Edgardo Henriquez allowed a lead-off walk to James Wood, he secured his second save of the season to bring the winning streak to four games. The Dodgers complete their season series against Washington with a perfect 6-0 record.

With their win on Sunday, the Dodgers are now a full game ahead of the Atlanta Braves for the second seed in the National League and are 1 1/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the top seed.

Game particulars

• Home runs— CJ Abrams (30); Mookie Betts (18)
• WP— Bobby Miller (1-0): 3 IP, 1 hit, 1 earned run, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts
• LP— Will Dion (1-2): 2 IP, 2 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts
• SV— Edgardo Henriquez (2): 1 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts

Up next

The Dodgers continue their homestand with a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds beginning Monday (6:10 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA). Chase Burns goes for the Reds while the Dodgers have yet to announce their starter.

Dropping a series in the middle of a playoff push is never a fun time, but after the Dbacks did so while only putting up 1 run and seeing possibly the weakest stretch of offense we’ve gotten out of the snakes in 2026 had fans hoping that going on a roadtrip would be the juice this team needed to get back on track in the batter’s box. Thankfully the Diamondbacks would go from facing one of the hottest teams in baseball in the Philadelphia Phillies to a matchup against the Houston Astros, who are a division leading squad but doing so in a very weak division. The boys in Sedona red have historically struggled in Daikin (formerly Minute Maid Park) as they haven’t won a series in Houston since 2012, when the Astros were still a part of the NL Central, but they would look to their 2 best starters to do their part in securing a series victory in the Lone Star State.

Offense Main-Stays Dead

Friday night’s series opener was sadly more of the same that we’ve seen from this Diamondbacks offense as they would still struggle in every run scoring opportunity that was presented to them (1 for their last 27 dating back to Saturday’s second game of the doubleheader), with their lone run being thanks to a Gabriel Moreno solo homerun.

It wasn’t all bad thankfully as Merrill Kelly continued to show signs of improvement going 6 innings without allowing a single walk (his first start without a walk in over 3 months) in a losing effort. Brandon, Gabe and I all agreed that while the mainstay has been up and down for most of the 2026 season with alternating months of good and bad, seeing him post a 2.89 ERA over his last 3 starts has us hoping that we’ll get the best of Merrill for the final stretch and potentially into October.

KETEL YEAH!

Looking to bounce back from the 3-1 loss on Friday night, the DIamondbacks would look to Big Game Brandon to continue his impressive stretch and limit the Astros offense enough to give the offense some kind of chance to breakthrough and he did just that, going into the 7th and allowing just 3 earned runs and racking up 13 whiffs. The offense would finally wake up as they finally realized that they are indeed allowed to get hits with runners in scoring position, going 4 for 10 with one of them being a Lars Nootbar RBI double in the 7th and a Gabriel Moreno go ahead single in extras. Extras might not have been a possibility without second baseman Ketel Marte as he would come up with his biggest hit since returning from the IL with a game tying blast in the 8th on a pitch that was well below the zone.

The three of us all agreed that Ketel’s homerun in that situation was not only a game changer but a vibe changing shot as it seemed like that was the kind of boost that the lineup needed for the last week or so and they were able to finally get that big hit when they needed it most.

Ace-uardo Dub-riguez

Sunday’s rubber match would be another game where the snakes would rely on their pitching to do a lot of the heavy lifting as they were only able to muster up 3 runs, but thankfully those 3 would be all they needed as they had the Ace-uardo Dub-riguez on the bump. Rodriguez’s day got off to a rough start with a Yordan Alvarez solo shot in the first, but that would be all that the Astros would score off of him as he would settle in to go 6 strong innings and get 19 whiffs, 9 of which came on his disgusting changeup.

The gameplan for teams this year when facing Rodriguez seems to be jumping him early and often, but if they don’t get to him early then good luck the rest of the way as Eduardo through innings 2-8 has an ERA of 1.88. Brandon suggests that the struggles early on could simply be Rodriguez adjusting from his pregame warmups in the bullpen to the actual mound, and the 6.11 ERA for Eduardo in the 1st inning this year could definitely back that idea up.

While AceRod definitely deserves a lot of love for him continuing his winning ways, Gabe also wanted to make sure the bullpen would get their share of the credit as they would end this series going a combined 8.2 IP with 5 hits, 1 earned run, 0 walks and 14 strikeouts, saying that for the first time in the Mike Hazen era he feels confident in any of the arms that are called upon for late game and high leverage situations.

“And We’ll Never Be Royals”

The fellas and I wrapped up the pod looking ahead at the next series on the roadtrip as the Diamondbacks would visit Kauffman Stadium and take on Bobby Witt Jr. the Kansas City Royals. While the Royals haven’t had the year they or their fans expected, their pitching has been very solid as of late as Gabe mentions both Michael Wacha and Noah Cameron, 2 of the probable starters for the Royals in this upcoming series, have both been pitching very well over their last 7 and each have an ERA below 3 in that time. While on the topic of pitching, multiple reports suggest that Diamondbacks would be activating starter Corbin Burnes for his 2026 debut and his first outing since he had to undergo the Tommy John surgery that ended his 2025 season shorter than most hoped.

While Gabe had his eyes focused on the Royals starters, Brandon kept his focus on Royals superstar and face of the franchise in Bobby Witt Jr, as he is far and away the most dangerous bat in the Royals lineup. Whatever the Diamondbacks pitching staff has done to quiet the bats of guys like Pete Crow-Armstrong and Yordan Alvarez they would need to keep that same mojo going into this series and let anyone not wearing #7 do their damage against the Snakes.

SAN DIEGO — The Yankees are off Monday, but their most important player will not be.

Aaron Judge is expected to face live pitching Monday at Yankee Stadium, essentially the last box for him to check — other than building up his stamina — before he returns from a right rib stress fracture, likely at some point this week.

As of Sunday, the Yankees were still figuring out who would actually be throwing to Judge, but it will be his first time facing a live arm as he hopes to skip a rehab assignment in favor of returning sooner after spending three-plus months on the injured list.

The captain indicated Friday that he would likely need to face live pitching “a couple” of times before he is activated, which would seem to rule him out for Tuesday’s series opener against the Rockies.

But Aaron Boone would not say if Tuesday was unrealistic for Judge’s return.

“I don’t know,” Boone said. “We’ll see.”

Before Sunday’s game, Judge ran the bases again and did defensive work in right field.

Jasson Domínguez, who will likely be headed right back to Triple-A as soon as Judge is activated, started in right field Sunday and made a brutal fielding error, though it did not end up costing the Yankees.

Dustin Harris led off with a single to right that took a few bounces to get to Domínguez before he simply whiffed on it, as the ball rolled all the way to the wall and Harris took two extra bases.

“Obviously a play you’ve got to make. Didn’t make it,” Boone said. “Fortunately we were able to get out of that inning, but just didn’t make the play.”

Gerrit Cole was able to strand Harris at third, picking up Domínguez, who went 1-for-4.

Asked if he had a conversation with Domínguez about the play in the dugout, Boone said no.

“Errors happen. You’ve got to catch the ball, obviously,” Boone said. “I don’t know what the conversation would be other than, ‘Let’s go.’”

It will not be Clarke Schmidt pitching to Judge, as the right-hander made his third rehab appearance Sunday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He tossed two scoreless innings with a walk and a strikeout while throwing on three days of rest.

Boone said Schmidt would need “at least a couple more” rehab outings before he could join the Yankees bullpen.

Ryan Weathers (left forearm flexor strain) began his throwing program Saturday following a two-week shutdown. … Giancarlo Stanton (calf strain) has been hitting, with the Yankees not yet ready to rule him out for the rest of the year, though it remains unlikely. … Former Yankee Michael King used Judge’s walk-up song — Pop Smoke’s “Hello” — as his own warmup music Sunday, seemingly a tribute to the slugger on the verge of his return. … After having him in the bullpen this weekend but not using him, the Yankees optioned Elmer Rodriguez to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Call it a winning streak!

Not for the White Sox. Taking two of three from an AL Central rival in what wound up being emphatic 10-1 fashion is always satisfying, but it wasn’t two in a row. No, folks, I’m celebrating me and my absolute heater of 10 wins in 11 recap tries. Put me in every day, Brett!

The box score does betray the tension that underlined the majority of this one. Hosting their first Sunday Night Baseball broadcast as a first place team since 2008, the tone of the game was lively early, though the bulk of the early action was a straightforward redux of the frustrating offensive play the Sox have produced since the All-Star break. They rank near the bottom of the league with a .240 batting average with RISP since then, and it feels like that average should be a lot lower, because getting runners in from the basepaths without the longball has been like pulling teeth lately.

The theme continued with verve for what I’d call the majority of the game — though ultimately, and fortunately, not the entirety of it. Sam Antonacci led off the first and fifth innings with a double, sandwiching back-to-back free bases from the non-brothers Montgomery to open the second frame and preceding Tristan Peters’ own leadoff double an inning later. They even queued up a rally in the third inning, when Miguel Vargas and Andrew Benintendi reached base before Colson Montgomery’s second punchout of the game ended the threat. Colson finished with a golden sombrero, bringing him to 197 on the season. When he presumably reaches the ignominious 200-K milestone, he’ll make the White Sox the only team to have three separate players break the 200 strikeout threshold in a season. Yoán Moncada did it most recently, and I don’t think I need to type the name of the one who did it first.

If you’ve been following the team as of late, it won’t be surprising that almost none of those White Sox rallies resulted in any runs, as Twins starter Bailey Ober labored through 4 1/3 innings with highly-diminished stuff. Still, when the Minnesota pen got the call, only one Sox run had been stuck on the board, as Antonacci did make his way around in the fifth, after Murakami shot a single through the right side:

Remarkably, and I should say unfortunately, it’s the first time since August 9 that Murakami has knocked in a run with a hit that didn’t leave the yard. That day was also the last time until this evening that he had driven in runs on back-to-back days. Ideally, a September recharge will be in the books when the team needs it the most.

On the White Sox pitching side, a motley crew of bullpen arms strung together a masterpiece, seemingly without the use of a premeditated bulk man. Bryan Hudson opened with aplomb, his sixth scoreless outing in eight first-inning tries. But the star of the effort was once again rookie Hagen Smith, who delivered three brilliant innings that bought the offense just enough time for the BABIP gods to begin taking mercy.

After the Peters double in the sixth and subsequent Chase Meidroth walk, Kyle Teel’s fielder’s choice in the infield made it, effectively, a whopping 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position before the two-thirds point of the action. Perhaps Smith’s electricity on the hill gave the offense the jolt they needed. Smith is now up to nine scoreless outings out of his first 10 tries in the majors. With the way he filled up the strike zone and made hitters look silly, ultimately going nine-up nine-down with four outs via punchie, you would truly have no feel for the roiling roller coaster that Smith’s prospectdom took us on for a two-year run.

The jolt finally exploded into a lightning blast after that Teel sixth-inning chopper. Antonacci solidified his charge at Smith for player of the game honors with his third double, tripling the South Siders lead to 3-0.

Some things in baseball remain simple. Tonight, much of it came down to the fact that Twins relievers just couldn’t throw any strikes. Seven walks in 2 2/3 innings from any combination of pitchers isn’t going to cut it, and it eventually led to an additional run in the seventh. A five-run cascade in the eighth put the game away, courtesy of Randal Grichuk’s 12th blast of his comeback summer, Peters’ second double of the game (and 30th of the season) and a comeback blast of his own for Kyle Teel (whose 406 foot blast to dead center was probably the best batted ball we’ve seen from him all season).

Peters is now four extra-base hits shy of 50 on the year, which would make him the 11th Sox rookie to ever reach that plateau, most recently Eloy Jiménez in 2019. It also seems likely that Peters will finish with handily the least home runs of that group (the modern group at least, with all due respect to Willie Kamm’s stellar 1923 effort).

The platoon of Benintendi and Grichuk, who went 2-for-2 with that aforementioned homer after pinch-hitting for the former in the fifth inning, continues to be comically effective. Through roughly a full-season’s worth of 566 at-bats, they’ve reverse-osmosised into a .261 batting average with 68 extra-base hits and 106 driven in.

Rick Hahn: Vindicated? More tonight at 6 p.m.

The Twins did manage to dent the scoreboard on Grant Taylor for a second straight outing, as Brooks Lee became the sixth hitter to go ding-dong-johnson on the Sox relief ace. Taylor looked sharp as ever otherwise, striking out three over what I was happy to find was another two-inning outing. If you want to be a little dishonest and include the 8 2/3 Spring Training innings Taylor posted, he’s now on the precipice of 85 innings in total on the season. Somewhere in the realm of 82-85 regular season innings seems like a reasonable late guesstimate, and if you can pencil in a few more postseason reps, we find ourselves right on the edge of the 100-inning goal that Brian Bannister set out for the LSU product at the season’s outset.

Taylor’s three punchouts tonight also brought him to 97 on the season, putting him on the edge of being the fifth pure reliever in team history to break the century mark. It was most recently accomplished by Liam Hendriks and Michael Kopech in 2021, following Keith Foulke’s legendary (in the SSS slack) 1999 campaign and Terry Forster’s 1972.

The Sox finish their season series against the Twins with an 8-5 record, a repeat of 2025. With Cleveland’s voodoo magic having struck yet again in Detroit this afternoon, that’ll only be good enough to keep pace at 2 ½ games ahead in the Central. But the magic number is 17, and continues steadily dropping.

The squad gets to enjoy a breather at home tomorrow, getting a rest day before the Pirates come to town. Sean Burke is lined up to take the ball on Tuesday opposite flamethrowing rookie Bubba Chandler, and while Wednesday’s Bucco of the day has yet to be announced, it seems like the Sox will be fortunate enough to miss Paul Skenes this time around. One can never be sad about this, even accounting for his recent troubles. First pitch on Tuesday is at 7:10 p.m. CT, and we’ll see you there!

MVP
Sam Antonacci: 3-for-4, 3 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI

Runners-Up
Hagen Smith: 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K
Tristan Peters: 3-for-5, 2 2B, 3 R, RBI

Cold Cat
Colson Montgomery: 0-for-4, BB, R, 4 K

Runners-Up
Brenton Doyle: 0-for-1, K
Braden Montgomery: 0-for-3, R, 2 BB, K

The emergence of Jared Young “is real,” David Stearns contended Friday, which further suggests the Mets will plan to retain the reliable first base/DH type who plays enough defense and is capable against righty pitching.

Bringing the lefty-hitting Young back in the same role (while presumably giving the switch-hitting Jorge Polanco another shot) would create an opening for a righty-hitting complement who can crush lefty pitching and hold his own at first base — a job Mark Vientos has not run with this season.

Among the data the Mets hope to collect during a lost September is whether Vientos can be counted on, particularly defensively, next season. Vientos’ latest round of auditions did not start well.

Naturally a third baseman whose lack of mobility moved him off the spot, Vientos received another look at first Sunday and committed another error in what became a 4-2 win over the Giants at Citi Field.

During the fifth inning, Christian Koss cueballed a grounder that Vientos said had “weird spin.”

“It started like on the foul line and ended up to the right of me, so it was just a weird one,” said Vientos, who was unable to knock it down and allowed Koss to reach second and lead runner Drew Cavanaugh to make it to third.

“It was a tough play,” interim manager Andy Green added before also referencing the spin. “… It’s a play he expects to make and we expect him to make.”

The play did not end up costing a run, with Christian Scott and Nate Lavender striking their way out of trouble, but it will be one more play that works against Vientos in roster discussions this winter.

Among 40 players who had logged at least 100 innings at first base entering play, Vientos ranked 39th in Outs Above Average.

Stretching back to before the hand fracture that cost Vientos almost eight weeks, he has committed six errors in his past 13 games at first base. He spent much of Sunday morning working on picks and footwork around the base with several coaches, including bench coach Kai Correa, but if he is making progress, it is not tangible.

“I think as the year goes on, I’m feeling more and more comfortable with the position,” Vientos said.

The Mets were happy to put up with Vientos’ defense in 2024 — at third base, primarily — because his bat forced its way into daily lineups. But what once looked like a breakout, 27-homer, .837-OPS season is looking more like an aberration.

Last year and this year, he has struggled against righty pitching. He remains a force against southpaws — against whom he owns an .899 OPS with eight home runs in 104 plate appearances this year — and in today’s game, there are not many righties who consistently crush lefties, which helps Vientos’ cause.

But it is still difficult to squeeze that one tool onto a roster if he cannot offer much on defense or hit righty pitching, especially because he cannot be optioned to the minors.

It is possible Vientos, who is set to reach arbitration for the first time this offseason, is playing for his Mets future, but that is not how he thinks of these September games.

“I’m just here playing games, enjoying the time with my teammates and having fun,” Vientos said.

Sorry for the late recap, but the Guardians won yet another walk-off game from the Tigers, besting them 3-2 in the 10th inning.

Shoutouts to Steven Kwan and Travis Bazzana who had two hits a-piece, to Brayan Rocchio who found a way to hit a game-tying home run into a stiff breeze,

and to Daniel Schneemann for the walk-off single rifled to right.

Shoutouts to Gavin Williams, who had a bad first inning but shut the Tigers out for the next five innings, striking out 11, and to the electric bullpen of Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and CADE SMITH WHO WAS AS DOMINANT AS I HAVE EVER SEEN HIM STRIKING OUT FIVE OF SIX BATTERS.

This was a great series. They need, now, to find a way to win a series in Baltimore starting tomorrow and then in Minnesota following that. The Blue Jays lost so the Guardians, again, lead in the wildcard and the White Sox won, so they are still 2.5 back for the division.

A good day for our Guardians who have one more homestand this season… UNLESS October has something different to say.