Category: Baseball

This spring training, there were two Mariners stories that stood out: Emerson Hancock, who showed up to camp with increased velocity and an expanded arsenal; and Cole Young, who showcased improvements on both sides of the ball. The question, as it always is in spring, was if those improvements would be sustainable.

Tonight, the calendar freshly turned to June, those two players—along with rookie Colt Emerson (who had his own spring training storyline) and not-rookies Josh Naylor and Randy Arozarena—combined to deliver the Mariners their seventh straight win, continuing to buoy the team above the .500 mark they’ve so miserably been circling most of this season, as the Mariners defeated the Mets 3-2.

It didn’t necessarily seem that this would be the case. After the Oakland series, the Mariners had lulled some people (not me) into a false sense of security in their ability to perform against left-handed pitching, something that’s been a bête noire for the team all season given the lefty-heavy nature of the roster, the injuries/ineffectiveness of their right-handed options, and the overall stop-and-start nature of an offense that was designed to do damage from top to bottom. That wasn’t the case today as the Mariners hitters struggled against Sean Manaea, making boatloads of quick, weak-contact outs. The only damage against Manaea was a left-on-left home run in the third (technically Manaea’s second inning, as the Mets used an opener because it’s apparently 2016 in the Bronx) by Colt Emerson, his second big-league barrel:

That is just…an objectively beautiful swing from Colt “the scouting reports love to lie about me” Emerson.

But one solo home run over six innings will, generally, Not Cut It, even when the person on the mound is Emerson Hancock, spinning another gem. Hancock was very good today, but not perfect, and that not-perfect caught up with him on two solo homers, both in three-ball counts: one game-tying in the fifth and one go-ahead in the sixth (and to Marcus Semien! Just his second of the year!)

But this feels like damning with faint praise for Hancock, who again was very good, showing off yet another wrinkle in his pitch mix by digging deep in his arsenal to add in his rarely-thrown curveball (he threw six today, after having thrown only 16 all year), dialing up his cutter usage against a lefty-heavy Mets lineup. The north-south movement of the curveball provides a solid counterpoint to Hancock’s more east-west arsenal, such as his cutter, which he was able to spot on both sides of the plate tonight and throw at varying velocities in seemingly any count.

“I think [the cutter] gives you an option early,” said Hancock postgame. “It gives you an option behind in the count, or even late. And I think with that pitch, all my pitches, I’m just trying to be as creative as possible, be able to have as many options as I can.”

But it looked like Hancock was on his way to being a tough-luck loser despite pitching so well – six innings, seven strikeouts, no walks and just the two homers – until the seven inning when the Mets, who have been using Manaea as a swingman, replaced him with Brooks Raley, who loves giving up home runs to Mariners like Josh Naylor loves shoes. Naylor immediately made them pay for that decision, skying a game-tying home run to right field.

The Mariners couldn’t add on after that despite a Cole Young single, so Dan Wilson went to Matt Brash in the eighth. Brash hit the first batter he faced, MJ Melendez, but Cole Young was able to bail him out on a nicely turned double play and then Matt helped himself out with a truly vicious strikeout of Marcus Semien. The only bummer about that inning was that Josh Naylor disappeared, replaced by Patrick Wisdom at first base; Dan Wilson later confirmed Naylor was removed with back spasms, felt on the home run swing, and he is day-to-day.

But back to that double play for a second: this was an inflection point in the game, with the Mets threatening against Brash, who was shaky in his last outing. Young’s heads-up play (I strenuously object to the official MLB video title for this clip which is “Mariners turn interesting double play”), where he successfully fields the ball, tags the runner, fires to first cleanly, and makes sure he doesn’t obstruct the runner, all in a matter of moments, is the kind of reflexive, instinctual play Young used to make in the minors all the time but disappeared at the big-league level in his rookie season as he struggled to get his bearings at second base. Not that this is a doubt by now but the improvements from spring training did make the trip north.

“That was a really heads-up play,” said Wilson. “I gotta believe he took a page out of Naylor’s book from the other day, too, very similar kind of play…that’s what we’ve seen at second base all year from Cole…we talk about his slow heartbeat, and that was another moment where he just did what he had to to get the double play. Huge for us.”

Young himself deflected when asked if he was indeed taking a page out of Naylor’s book, saying he wasn’t exactly sure what the rule was but he “figured it out.” How did he figure it out?

“I asked the umpire,” he said. “I honestly didn’t know, but good to know, now.”

Andrés Muñoz pitched the ninth for the Mariners, facing Luis Torrens and the top of the lineup, and it was nice to see Muñoz put together a clean 1-2-3 inning. It was less nice to see Julio go down hacking against Devin Williams in the bottom of the inning, followed by Victor Robles grounding out and Randy Arozarena also striking out hacking, sending the game to extras for the second day in a row.

Gabe Speier took the tenth to face the lefties stacked in the middle of New York’s lineup. Speier opened the inning by striking out Juan Soto in a full count, prompting the Mets to put in pinch-hitter Mark Vientos for lefty Jared Young, owner of one of the Mets’ two home runs that night. Speier struck him out. When this series is over Mets and Mariners fans might have some similar bellyaching to do about platoons. Speier followed that up by getting rookie A.J. Ewing to pop out, keeping the Mets’ Manfred Man standing at second. It was maybe the sharpest we’ve seen Speier all year, and if the upshot of the piggyback is it allows vintage Gabe Speier to re-emerge, I might have to reconsider my reservations.

The Mets called upon yet another lefty, A.J. Minter, to deal with the Mariners in the bottom of the tenth, curious given that Patrick Wisdom was leading off instead of the injured Naylor – but again, Wisdom couldn’t make the most of the platoon advantage, striking out. However, Randy Arozarena was the runner at second, and having drawn a couple of throws and generally made a pest of himself, he took off for third as Wisdom struck out, putting the winning run on base with just one out and making Cole Young’s job a little easier.

I have been sitting on these numbers for a while because the sample size is so small but we’ve gotten enough to where Young finally has over 50 plate appearances in high-leverage situations. In those situations, his slashline is .273/.396/.500. Dan Wilson has praised Young’s “slow heartbeat” multiple times this season, but it’s different when you see it in action. Young took a cutter off the plate away, and Minter went back to the same spot; he reached out and flicked a little hit into left field for the game-winner, exactly one year and one day after his debut walk-off (this one traveled just a bit further).

If the Mariners are going to keep control of the AL West while their starting catcher and biggest off-season acquisition are shelved, it’s going to need to come from contributions from players like these: a rookie sensation Emerson, a resurgent Hancock, a sophomore no-slump Young. So far, all three are proving their spring awakenings are here to stay.

The stats were bonkers in this one.

The Rockies drew 10 walks and added two more free passes through hit by pitches, which should lead to numerous runs. On defense, the Rockies committed four fielding errors, which should result in a loss. When it comes to pitching, Kyle Freeland gave up a grand slam to Jose Siri.

Through it all, the Rockies persisted, rallying for two comebacks — including a five-run eighth inning — to pull out a hard-to-believe win on Monday night.

With the game tied 8-8, the Rockies had to dial up another comeback in the ninth. It was small, but mighty enough to win as Kyle Karros singled, Jake McCarthy doubled and TJ Rumfield hit a sac fly to drive in the winning run.

“That was not a normal game. They gave 12 free passes. We kicked the ball a bunch tonight and threw it around sloppily, but somebody’s got to win that game,” said Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer. “I thought the boys showed incredible resilience, bouncing back multiple times, just sticking with it and throwing up really good at-bats all night long, despite the horrendous defense.”

Big hits in the 8th

After the big hits had been elusive all game, they finally came in the eighth inning for the Rockies. Sterlin Thompson and Kyle Karros led off the frame with back-to-back doubles. When Thompson scored, it cut the Angels lead to 6-4. Jake McCarthy followed with a walk and Tyler Freeman singled to score Karros to cut L.A’s lead to 6-5. That’s when Hunter Goodman handled things, hitting his 14th homer of the year and putting the Rockies up 8-6.

The Rockies hit around in the inning, which marked the 10th time this season when the Rockies scored five or more runs.

“We’ve had some good innings this year, but that was a big one,” Schaeffer said.

The Rockies seven, eight and nine hitters, Edouard Julien, Thompson and Karros, combined to draw three walks, produce four hits score three runs and drive in two. That helped McCarthy add more of a spark in the leadoff spot as the outfielder homered, doubled, scored two runs and walked twice.

“Jake was awesome,” Schaeffer said. “It makes such a difference when the bottom of the lineup gets on base like that.”

Nothing is easy

Unfortunately for the Rockies, Jaden Hill wasn’t at his best in the bottom of the eighth. The reliever gave up a leadoff walk and then a single to bring the go-ahead run to the plate. With only recording one out, Hill was pulled for Antonio Senzatela. He gave up a triple to Jorge Soler, which tied the game, but then he got out of the inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, Senzatela got one out on one pitch, but then gave up a single. Siri then hit a groundball to Ezequiel Tovar, who touched second and gunned the ball to first for a double play.

The Angels challenged the out on speedy Siri, but the ruling on the field was confirmed and Senzatela earned the win to improve to 5-0 (even though he also got the blown save).

It ain’t grand

Despite giving up two singles and a long fly ball to the warning track, Kyle Freeland made it through the first two innings with a clean sheet. When he gave up back-to-back singles to Donovan Walton and Jorge Soler to lead off the third, it was a sign of a rough inning to come. Even though he retired the next two batters via two lineouts, including Mike Trout, Jo Adell put the Angels on the board with an RBI single to cut the Rockies lead to 2-1.

Oswald Peraza kept the rally going with an infield hit to load the bases, which teed up a grand slam Jose Siri. In one frame, the Rockies went from up 2-0, to trailing 5-2.

Freeland bounced back in the fourth with a three-up, three-down inning that was capped off with a Trout strikeout. Outside of the satisfaction of striking out one of the best hitters in baseball, the K marked Freeland’s 986th career strikeout, which moved him into second place above Jorge De La Rosa on the all-time Colorado franchise list. He now trails only Germán Márquez’s 1,069.

Freeland finished the day with four strikeouts (987), but gave up six runs (five earned), on seven hits with one walk in 5.2 innings. As proof of the Freeland’s struggles this season, the outing dropped Freeland’s ERA from 8.08 to 8.06. However, Schaeffer was still impressed with Freeland’s outing.

“I thought Free threw the ball well. He maintained his velocity all day, put the ball where he wanted, and the changeup was really working,” said Schaeffer, who blamed the bad defense for too much of the scoring. “He competed against nine right-handers, which is hard to do. Kudos to him. He battled and got us through 5-plus with a bullpen that’s been taxed of late.”

An early road advantage

The Rockies jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first when Tyler Freeman drew a walk and advanced to second on a throwing error on a failed pick off at first. Troy Johnston took advantage with a slow single up the middle to plate Freeman and put Colorado up 1-0.

McCarthy doubled to lead with a walkoff homer. The 397-foot shot to center field was his fourth of the season.

In the fifth, Thompson hit an RBI single to cut L.A.‘s lead to 5-3. Through seven innings, the three runs on four hits were all the Rockies could muster. Going into the eighth, the Rockies were 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and had left 10 runners on base. They also had drawn eight walks and were hit by two pitches.

In other words, the Rockies had their chances, but couldn’t capitalize. It didn’t help that in the game the Rockies struck out 11 times — five recorded by Ezequiel Tovar. Schaeffer was still happy with his team’s offensive approach.

“The whole game, even though we did punch out 10 times, I thought the at-bats were excellent tonight,” Schaeffer said.

Freeman hit a foul ball off his foot late in the game and didn’t return to field in the bottom of the eighth. Schaeffer said the Rockies will know more on Tuesday about the severity of the injury.

Up next

The Rockies and Angels will be back in action Tuesday at 7:38 p.m. MDT. Tomoyuki Sugano 菅野 智之 (4-4, 4.01 ERA) will get the start for the Rockies, while LHP Grayson Rodriguez (2-1, 7.53 ERA).

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It was a frustrating start to the season for Sean Manaea. 

The left-hander struggled to find his velocity during spring training and he ended up landing in more of a mop-up role out of the Mets’ bullpen early on. 

Instead of putting his head down, Manaea keep on grinding. 

He put in a ton of work with pitching coach Justin Willard, and is finally starting to see all of that paying off.   

The veteran has found more success with an uptick in velocity over his past few outings, leading to him receiving an opportunity in the Mets’ starting rotation. 

“You have to give him credit,” Carlos Mendoza said. “When it was hard for him he was basically the last guy out of the bullpen and he never put his head down -- you saw him doing long toss and all of the drills we put him through.

“When you see the velo now starting to come up, we know the strike-showing ability, but now the cutter and the sweeper throwing strikes -- that’s the guy that we saw in 2024.”

And that’s the guy that the Mets saw on Monday night, as well.

Manaea was absolutely spectacular serving as the bulk reliever for the first time this season, piecing together his best and longest outing to this point. 

He lost a left-on-left matchup with 20-year-old Colt Emerson, allowing a solo homer to right in the bottom of the third, but otherwise cruised his way through Seattle's lineup. 

The southpaw gave up just one other baserunner on a walk and struck out four over 5.0 innings. 

Manaea’s velocity increased again, and he's now held his opponent to one run in three straight appearances. 

“I’ve just been taking things day-by-day,” he said. “Just building each day and coming in with a plan, and slowly but surely I’ve just been feeling really good on the mound.”

It remains to be seen if it’ll be as a straight starter or bulk reliever again, but Manaea is in line to take another turn in the rotation the next time around. 

Record: 32-27. Pace: 88-74. Change on 2025: +4.

May finished in rough shape for the D-backs beating swept in Seattle. For much of tonight, it looked like June would start the same way. While Eduardo Rodriguez had kept the team in the game, the Arizona bats appeared still be circling on a luggage carousel at Sky Harbor. They had managed just one hit through five innings from Dodgers’ starter Emmet Sheehan, and it looked like the one run the visitors had scored would be enough. However, home-runs from Tommy Troy in the sixth, and Nolan Arenado in the seventh gave the D-backs a lead, and Ketel Marte added welcome insurance in the eighth, becoming the first Arizona hitter to reach double digits in home-runs for 2026.

Rodriguez started off with a crisp 12-pitch first, retiring the Dodgers in order. Corbin Carroll then doubled into the right field corner with one out in the bottom of the inning. I’m sure he was hoping for another three-bagger, but a decent carom off the fence meant Corbin stayed, wisely, at second. Neither Geraldo Perdomo nor Nolan Arenado could get him home, however. Worth noting: that was the only baseball for the Diamondbacks to touch the outfield grass all night. E-Rod had a much more stressful second inning. The first two reached, and it required some good defense by Ildemaro Vargas (below), coming home to nail the runner, before Rodriguez left the bases loaded, and the game still scoreless.

In fact, here’s probably a good place to praise the Arizona defense tonight. Vargas and Jorge Barrosa may both be unable to hit water if they fell out of a boat, but their gloves stood up in this one. Barrosa had a couple of excellent diving plays in center field. In addition to saving a run at home, Vargas started a key double-play in the eighth inning, after Shohei Ohtani had singled to put the then-tying run on base with no outs. All three plays can also be found on the reel above. It wasn’t all good. Tommy Troy whiffed on a diving catch attempt in the third inning, which helped set up the game’s opening run for LA. But he’s hardly a natural left fielder, and given subsequent events, we will forgive him.

Yes, this game was definitely one where the W goes to the pitching and defense. Rodriguez was hardly overpowering, with just three strikeouts from the 24 batters faced. But he ground his way through six innings, and stopped the Dodgers from extending the lead. One of Eduardo’s Ks was quite amusing, however. He faced Miguel Rojas, and on 1-1, threw a pitch called a strike by home-plate umpire Rob Drake. Rojas challenged, and it was overturned by the narrowest possible margin, less than 0.1”. The next pitch was another strike… until another successful Rojas challenge, by a 0.1” margin. Rodriguez threw two more strikes, the last one surviving Rojas’s third challenge of the at-bat, for a K.

As noted above, Arizona was clinically unable to deal with Sheehan’s slider through five innings. He had retired fifteen D-backs in a row, through the first out of the sixth. Then Troy atoned for his role in the Dodgers’ run, by depositing his first MLB homer into the left-field bleachers, tying the game at 1-1. It was suddenly a brand-new ballgame, with three innings left. Arenado certainly seemed to think so, chasing Sheehan from the game in the seventh, after catching a slider for his eighth home-run of the year. Then, just when we were thinking Paul Sewald would have to protect the narrowest of margins, Troy dropped down a perfect two-out bunt, and Marte lasered his 10th over the fence, for a 4-1 lead. [All three HR and the bunt above]

Rodriguez left after six innings, allowing one run on five hits and a walk with three strikeouts. That reduced his season ERA to 2.24. through a dozen starts. It’s the lowest to that point for Arizona since Patrick Corbin’s 1.98 ERA after twelve appearances in 2013. He didn’t quite get the 100th win of his career this evening, but I’d say he deserved it. The W instead went to Taylor Clarke for his scoreless seventh with a pair of strikeouts. Clarke now has an 0.36 ERA over 24.2 innings since his disastrous Opening Day outing in Los Angeles. With a little help from Vargas, Garcia faced the minimum in the 8th, and Paul Sewald completed the win, notching save #15 with a 1-2-3 ninth (and that’s the OVER officially locked in there for Place Your Bets!)

It’s not often a team will win a game while going just 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position. But the D-backs did so tonight, with another comeback victory. Not a great night for the offense, batting 5-for-29 overall, with no walks. But the home-runs were just enough, and if five hits is rarely enough to prevail, it certainly helps when your pitching holds the opposition to just one run. It was just what was needed after a very dispiriting series against the Mariners (whom, I note, walked off the Mets for their seventh win in a row tonight – so it’s not just us!). Hopefully that’ll set the tone for the rest of the series. Cardinals lost, so we’re back in sole possession of the second wild-card.

Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com
No place like home: Eduardo Rodriguez, +20%
Home is where the HRs are: Troy, +17%; Arenado, +17%; Garcia, +12%
No fixed abode: Geraldo Perdomo, -9%

Thanks to all who showed up in the GDT, gritting it out when things looked tough. 269 comments isn’t at all bad for a Monday night. We were all on top form, with a slew of Sedona Red comments, a number reaching eight or more recs. Well-played everyone. But I have to give it to ercil:

Tomorrow, it’s the same two teams, as this four-game set continues. Starting for the D-backs will be the pleasant surprise which has been Michael Soroka, with another 6:40 pm first pitch. See you there!

Hot off four straight wins to end their homestand, the Mets were once again heading to the West Coast to play some baseball. This time they were facing the Seattle Mariners, with some great starting pitching to test their lineups. Emerson Hancock was making the start for the Mariners, and Austin Warren was starting for the Mets, though he was just opening the game before Sean Manaea would get the bulk of the innings.

The start of the game was quiet for both sides. Austin Warren pitched a scoreless inning before being pulled after hitting Randy Arozarena with a pitch, and Manaea took over and finished the second inning without allowing a run. The first run allowed by Mets pitching was a solo home run to Colt Emerson to put the Mariners up by one run. Emerson Hancock took it further, throwing four hitless frames for the Mariners.

But the Mets finally got their first hit at the same time they got their first run, a solo home run from Jared Young to lead off the fifth inning and tie the game. And Marcus Semien repeated the feat in the top of the sixth, hitting another solo home run for the Mets’ second run–and hit–of the game, putting the Mets ahead by a run.

Sean Manaea made it through five innings allowing just the one run, getting pulled after the sixth inning having allowed just the one run, with a hit and walk allowed and four strikeouts, a great effort from Manaea. Brooks Raley came in to start the seventh, and he gave up a game-tying home run to Josh Naylor. He wasn’t able to make it through the whole bottom of the seventh, getting pulled after allowing a two-out single to Cole Young in favor of Luke Weaver. 

Weaver got them out of the seventh and through the eighth, tallying a scoreless inning and a third, allowing no hits and striking out one. Williams led them through a perfect ninth to get them to extra innings.

The Mets were unable to get another hit after Semien’s sixth inning homerun, and it came back to bite them. After being unable to bring the extra runner into score in the top of the tenth, A.J. Minter got one out before allowing a game-winning single to end the game in the tenth.

The four game winning streak was brought to a halt, and the Mets offense went back to looking anemic. They could only muster two hits against an admittedly-great Mariners pitching staff, and their own pitching was out-duelled in that aspect. They get another crack at the Mariners on Tuesday, with Jonah Tong likely getting the bulk of the innings against Logan Gilbert (though there may be another opener for the Mets).

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Sean Manaea, +19% WPA
Big Mets loser: A.J. Minter, -38% WPA
Mets pitchers: -13% WPA
Mets hitters: -37% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Marcus Semien’s sixth inning home run, +17.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Josh Naylor’s seventh inning home run, -24.8% WPA

The Mets were walked off by the Seattle Mariners 3-2 on Monday night at T-Mobile Park.

Here are some takeaways...

- The Mets weren't able to get anything going against Seattle's Emerson Hancock the first time time through the order, as he retired the first 12 batters he faced and didn't have to work through a three-ball count until two outs in the fourth. 

- New York was finally able to get to Hancock in the middle frames, though, as both Jared Young and Marcus Semien stayed red-hot leading off the fifth and sixth (respectively) with solo shots. Young's evened things up at one apiece, and then Semien's gave the Mets their first lead. 

- Austin Warren and Sean Manaea did a tremendous job of matching Hancock. Warren retired the side in order in the first, then he hit the leadoff man in the second before Manaea took things over, and he used a routine double-play to dance his way out of a two on and one-out jam. 

Colt Emerson got to Manaea for a solo homer with one out in the third, but the lefty quickly settled back into a groove, retiring the next 11 batters in order, with some help from another terrific diving play by A.J. Ewing in center. 

- Manaea was outstanding his first time back in the Mets' rotation, allowing just that hit and a walk while striking out four across five innings of work. That not only match Manaea's longest outing of the season, but it was also the longest by any Mets reliever to this point on the year. 

- Brooks Raley was greeted rudely after the seventh inning stretch, as he immediately served up a homer to Josh Naylor leading the inning. It was the fourth hit of the ballgame to that point -- all of which were solo homers -- and was the second long ball Raley's allowed this season. 

- Luke Weaver extended his scoreless streak, retiring four batters across the seventh and eighth, then Devin Williams struck out two in a perfect ninth to push this one to the Mets' league-high 12th extra-inning game of the season.

- The Mets failed to cash in the free runner with two strikeouts and a popout in the top of the 10th, and the Mariners were sure to make them pay, ending the game on Cole Young's opposite-field walk-off single against A.J. Minter. 

- New York managed just two baserunners (a HBP and the free runner) after Hancock left the ballgame, as Seattle's high-powered bullpen finished the night with four hitless innings. The free runner was the Mets' only time reaching scoring position and they struck out 12 times. 

- Juan Soto went 0-for-4 with a strikeout leading off the 10th, ending his on-base streak at 15 games. 

Game MVP: Cole Young 

The 22-year-old reached three times and played hero in the late innings. 

Highlights

JARED YOUNG!

The Mets' first hit and baserunner of the night is a home run! pic.twitter.com/UhmntN3gQ7

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 2, 2026

A.J. EWING TO THE RESCUE! pic.twitter.com/LziFIOg04f

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 2, 2026

Marcus Semien destroys one to left for the lead!

Homers on back-to-back days! pic.twitter.com/As5RmGoAbx

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 2, 2026

Juan Soto loves his psychopaths pic.twitter.com/42WQSrx49l

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) June 2, 2026

What's next

The Mets and Mariners continue the series on Tuesday night at 9:40 p.m. on SNY.

Jonah Tong is expected to work in bulk relief against Logan Gilbert. 

Experience won out over youth as Eduardo Rodríguez outdueled Emmet Sheehan to lead the Diamondbacks to a 4-1 win over the Dodgers. The reigning back-to-back champs rolled into town with the Diamondbacks having scored only three runs in their last two games—and for a team that managed to hit three home runs, the Diamondbacks offense could’ve done a lot more than just those four runs, even if they turned out to be more than plenty for the home squad. The Dodgers even took the early lead but allowed one home run in each of the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings to surrender control of this one, with those first two coming against Emmet Sheehan before Ketel Marte gave the Diamondbacks a bit of cushion with a two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth against Jack Dreyer.

What was a cruise control outing for Sheehan got quickly undone by solo shots to Tommy Troy and Nolan Arenado. Because Sheehan was removed right after that second home run, he left the game on the hook for the loss, his second of the year, even though he didn’t record a single pitch with the Dodgers trailing. Inducing a lot of soft contact but without a ton of whiffs, Sheehan paid the price on a couple of mistakes against Troy and Arenado on a fastball down the middle and a slider that didn’t break enough, respectively. There is a symmetry to acknowledge with Troy and Arenado being the two players to go yard—while Troy was hitting the first long ball of his career, Arenado was making it an impressive 33 homers against the Dodgers, two shy of the Giants for the team he has hit the most home runs against in the bigs.

Sheehan’s performance covering six-plus innings with just two runs is seen in a worse light because Eduardo Rodríguez was up to his usual tricks this year. The Diamondbacks ace allowed one base runner per inning, and Shohei Ohtani, who was responsible for two of the Dodgers’ five hits against Rodríguez, helped the visiting team open the scoring in their only run against him. Ohtani led off the third with a double, stopped at third after another double from Andy Pages that was nearly caught, and then came around to score on an RBI groundout from Freddie Freeman. It was too early for Arizona to play the infield in, and with the Dodgers’ offense falling silent after that, it proved to be the correct decision. Mookie Betts and Kyle Tucker were easily retired, and the Dodgers stranded a runner in scoring position in that inning.

Before Marte upped the D-backs’ lead to 4-1, the Dodgers had an opportunity to get back in this game. As was the case when they scored their only run of the game, Ohtani once again came up as the leadoff man at the top of the eighth and did his part by getting on thanks to an infield single that Marte couldn’t field cleanly. The rest of the offense was unable to do anything with it, and a double play quickly ended the threat. Shortly thereafter, Marte left the yard for his 10th homer of the season.

Game particulars

• Home runs— Tommy Troy (1), Nolan Arenado (8), and Ketel Marte (10)
• WP— Taylor Clarke (2-1): 1 IP, 2 strikeouts
• LP— Emmet Sheehan (3-2): 6.1 IP, 3 hits, 2 runs, 3 strikeouts
• SV – Paul Sewald (15): 1 IP

Up next

After a successful Dodger debut, Eric Lauer will look to replicate the success he had against the Blue Jays, facing the Diamondbacks. Enjoying quite the resurgence with Arizona, Mike Soroka hopes to make it three straight quality starts. The first pitch will be at 6:40 p.m. (PT).

It had been a long and difficult 0-for-21 skid for Brice Turang, who had seen his batting average drop from .291 down to .263 heading into Monday night’s game. That all changed as Turang snapped his skid with an opposite field double in the first inning and ended up reaching base four times to help lift the Brewers to a 16-2 victory over the Giants.

The Giants got up early on a two-run homer from Matt Chapman off Shane Drohan. But the Brewers offense had their starter’s back, promptly putting up seven runs in the bottom half of the 2nd, sending ten men to the plate.

It got started with a leadoff walk from Jake Bauers after a successful ABS challenge on a 3-2 pitch. Following a flyout from Andrew Vaughn, the next six Brewers batters reached base. Sal Frelick doubled, Luis Rengifo and David Hamilton singled, Christian Yelich walked, Jackson Chourio doubled, then Turang tripled. William Contreras supplied a sac fly to bring home the seventh run of the inning and secure the 7-2 lead.

“You had a big inning there. That’s a big inning against a good pitcher. That’s a good sign. You think about Bauers challenge there, that started the whole thing.” Murphy said.

That was all Shane Drohan needed to finish cruising through his four innings of work, allowing just four hits and striking out five. He was followed by Chad Patrick, DL Hall, Grant Anderson, and Jake Woodford out of the bullpen.

The Brewers offense kept supplying insurance runs, though. A bases loaded GIDP from Contreras in the 4th brought home another run. Andrew Vaughn had a 2 RBI single with the bases loaded in the 6th inning. Then RBI singles in the 7th by Yelich and Chourio brought home two more.

Then in the 8th, the Giants put a position player, Buddy Kennedy, on the mound. The Brewers put up four runs against him to make it 16-2.

Pat Murphy elected to give some rest to Brice Turang and Andrew Vaughn as the game got out of hand. That meant bringing Blake Perkins into the game in the outfield as Jake Bauers moved to first base.

“I just wanted to get Turang off his feet for an extra half hour and to be honest I wanted to get Perk— Perk’s been maybe the most unlucky hitter we’ve had. The numbers are ridiculously bad. He’s hit some balls tremendously hard, especially right handed, so I wanted to get him some at-bats.” Murphy said.

The Giants also made a line change and removed a number of their starters, including Willy Adames, who was 0-for-3 on the night.

This game was well in hand since the 2nd inning as the Brewers offense just continued to demolish one of the worst teams in the league. Everyone in the starting lineup reached base at least once and eight of the nine had at least two hits. The only one who didn’t was William Contreras, who ended up with a pair of sac flies.

The Brewers had 18 hits on the night and drew 11 walks. It was one of their most impressive offensive performances of the season.

They’ll look to do it all again tomorrow in support of Kyle Harrison, who will be facing his old ballclub.

Now, for my second least favorite series of the Guardians’ season.

I despise the Yankees. I endure so much generational trauma when we play them. This is only my second least favorite series because playing them in Cleveland is worse.

The Guardians are 34-27 with a +1 run differential, 16th in MLB with a 97 wRC+, 16th in baserunning runs above average at -0.4, 11th in Defense at -4.8, 7th in starting pitcher ERA at 3.69 (3.98 FIP) and 13th in bullpen ERA at 3.83 (3.68 FIP).

The Yankees are 36-23 with a +98 run differential, 2nd in MLB with a 117 wRC+, 10th in baserunning runs above average at 1.4, 8th in Defense at -1.4, 1st in starting pitcher ERA at 2.97 (3.35 FIP) and 10th in bullpen ERA at 3.59 (3.89 FIP).

Literally the only thing the Guardians do better than the Yankees is relief Fielding Independant Pitching which doesn’t matter because Cleveland’s defense is worse and they have replaced injured Erik Sabrowksi with Will Dion and Tim Herrin.

The Yankees are very good. The Guardians are mediocre. That’s what the numbers say. We will see if that plays out on the field, or not.

MATCHUPS:

Game One, Tuesday, 7:05PM: Cantillo vs Schlittler

Game Two, Wednesday, 7:05PM: Williams vs. Cole

Game Three, Thursday, 7:05PM: Cecconi vs. Rodon

I never make predictions. But I predict the Guardians will endure their first sweep of the season by an opposing team. This series is gonna be painful.

Look forward to seeing these Yankees tattoo Guardians’ pitchers: Ben Rice 188 wRC+, Aaron Judge 150 wRC+, Cody Bellinger 141 wRC+, Paul Goldschmidt 140 wRC+, Amed Rosario 129 wRC+, and Anthony Volpe 128 wRC+.

Look forward to seeing three elite starters on the Yankees wipe the floor with our Travis Bazzana 137 wRC+, Brayan Rocchio 129 wRC+, David Fry 122 wRC+, Chase DeLauter 120 wRC+, Rhys Hoskins 108 wRC+, Jose Ramirez 107 wRC+ and Angel Martinez 102 wRC+.

Enjoy, folks. I am sure I won’t.

No pitchers, no problem. As long as you have Tristan Gray on your team, he’ll give you enough runs to make sure your suddenly shaky pitching staff can pound the strike zone with ease. It wasn’t all the Twins’ journeyman infielder, but he’s already had a few big swings when they needed it most this season.

The Twins only managed a single hit against David Sandlin when they faced him last week, but they were able to triple their previous hit total in the first inning alone. Brooks Lee and Kody Clemens singled to put two men on for Minnesota. Sandlin then struck out Josh Bell before Trevor Larnach came up clutch with a two-out single to give the Twins an early lead.

The Pirates evened the game in the third thanks to another Victor Caratini mistake. With a man on third base and two outs, Caratini dropped a foul tip that would have ended the at-bat and the inning. Given an extra strike and out, Andrew “bad against everyone except Joe Ryan” Benintendi singled two pitches later to knot the game at one apiece. The way the Twins have been swinging lately, that seemed like a mistake that could cost the game. Luckily, Tristan Gray had something to say about that.

After a hard hit Bell double to start the fourth inning and a couple of baffling baserunning mistakes, the Twins looked like they were going to squander a potential big inning. But famed grand slammer Tristan Gray came to the plate with the bases juiced and only needed to see two pitches to put a well-placed curveball into the right field bleachers. Big dong, big inning, big 5-1 lead.

The White Sox immediately answered back in the fifth with back-to-back homers from Miguel Vargas and, guess who, Benintendi to bring the game to 5-4. But the Twins were finally seeing the ball well and capitalized for the second straight inning. In the bottom of the fifth, five straight Minnesota batters reached base to start the inning and score a pair of runs, and sac flies from Luke Keaschall and Gray gave the Twins a couple extra runs to boot. With the exhausted state of Minnesota’s pitching staff and an entire week until their next day off, the insurance runs were much needed.

After Ryan’s solid six innings, Kody Funderburk and Yoendrys Gomez threw a scoreless inning each. With a five run lead, manager Derek Shelton turned to Travis Adams who gave up a single and second home run to Vargas to give the home fans a fright, but buckled down and got the next two White Sox batters to finish the game. Twins win!

STUDS

• Tristan Gray: 1-3, 5 RBI, GRAND SALAMI
• Trevor Larnach: 2-3, R, RBI, BB
• Josh Bell: 2-4, R, 2B

DUDS

• NO DUDS TWINS WIN!!!

We’ll see tomorrow night for a fun matchup between exciting rookie Connor Prielipp and breakout All-Star candidate Davis Martin. Don’t worry though, Tristan Gray is hitting 1.000 against Martin for his career.

The Texas Rangers scored two runs while the St. Louis Cardinals scored one run.

Tonight’s game was so low scoring you’d think it were played at The Shed pre-Chris Young turning off the run suppression machine last week.

The Rangers starters have been doing their part to keep runs down of late. In fact, after five scoreless from Jacob deGrom in tonight’s opener, Texas starters have gone 27 innings combined without allowing a run. That’s the second longest scoreless streak from members of the rotation in franchise history.

The last time a Rangers starter allowed a run was when Nathan Eovaldi coughed up a couple in the third inning against Houston last Thursday. Tonight deGrom had a relatively easy time keeping the spotless stretch alive. Aside from running his pitching count a little higher than he’d probably like, deGrom got better as the game went along.

The veteran deGrom allowed four hits with only one of them going for extra bases as he worked around a two-out second inning double from Victor Scott with Nolan Gorman matching his third base counterpart Josh Jung in footspeed on the bases to hold up at third base on the two-bagger.

That eventually erased threat followed a first inning where it seemed like Texas had left their gloves in Arlington as a couple of misplays in the infield forced deGrom to have to wiggle out of a first inning jam. The first inning has been deGrom’s kryptonite all year so it was nice to see him escape with a zero on the board, which paved the way for more to come.

Though he lasted just five innings on 91 pitches, deGrom also walked only one batter and struck out eight in his first win on the road since beating the Los Angeles Dodgers back in mid-April nine starts ago.

Meanwhile, while deGrom was dealing, the Rangers lineup were getting similar treatment from Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy. However, Texas was able to break through with a run in the top of the fourth via a two-out RBI double from Ezequiel Duran which scored Brandon Nimmo all the way from first base.

The Rangers tacked on another run an inning later when Joc Pederson worked his way back from an 0-2 count to line a single up the middle to score Danny Jansen who had walked and stolen his first base of the season.

The Rangers couldn’t add to the lead that inning despite a rally and it nearly cost them in such a close game as St. Louis scored their first and only run in the bottom of the sixth with a two-out solo home run by Masyn Winn off Peyton Gray in the first frame after deGrom had exited.

But after some shaky games from the bullpen over the last week or so, the high leverage relief arms were up to the task tonight as Tyler Alexander, Jakob Junis, and Jacob Latz each tossed a scoreless inning apiece to shepherd the Rangers to their first four-game winning streak since taking four in a row at the end of March.

Player of the Game: deGrom produced a solid start and Pederson deserves praise for his RBI hit that ultimately proved the difference, but Duran got the ball rolling with his two-out RBI double that got Texas on the board. Later, he utilized his speed to pressure St. Louis third baseman Gorman into a poor throw on an infield single where he reached second base to represent a potential insurance run in a one-run game in the ninth.

The Rangers flubbed the chance and Duran didn’t score which meant we had to sweat out the bottom of the ninth a little more than we should have but Duran has continued to come up with big hits for a Rangers lineup that often has a shortage of them.

Up Next: The Rangers and Cardinals are back at it tomorrow with RHP Nathan Eovaldi passed the starter scoreless streak baton for Texas opposite RHP Dustin May for St. Louis.

The Tuesday evening first pitch from Busch Stadium is once again scheduled for 6:45 pm CDT and will be aired on the Rangers Sports Network.

Michael McGreevy gave the St. Louis Cardinals a quality start, but he was not quite up to the level that Jacob deGrom was as the Rangers managed to eek out a 2-1 win against the Cardinals Monday night at Busch Stadium.

Jacob deGrom looked like a pitcher who has won the Cy Young Award twice. He gave the Texas Rangers 5 full innings allowing just 4 hits with 1 walk and 8 strikeouts. The Cardinals had some opportunities against him, but were unable to put any runs on the board during his 5 inning stint. Michael McGreevy also had an impressive night. He tossed 6 full innings allowing 5 hits and 2 earned runs with just 1 strikeout while giving Texas 2 walks.

Texas would get their runs in the 4th and 5th innings against McGreevy. In the top of the 4th inning, Brandon Nimmo delivered a one-out single. That was followed by a double by Ezequiel Duran which scored Nimmo from first giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead. In the top of the 5th, McGreevy walked Jansen which would come back to haunt him. Jansen stole second and then advanced to third when Lopez singled. Joc Pederson would come through with a single up the middle scoring Jansen doubling the Texas lead to 2-0.

With deGrom out of the game in the bottom of the 6th inning, the Cardinals bats would come alive (somewhat) when Masyn Winn turned on an 85 mph changeup and deposited it into the left field seats cutting the Rangers lead in half making it 2-1 Texas.

Justin Bruihl gave St. Louis 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief until he gave up a single to Lopez in the top of the 8th inning and then he advanced to second when Joc Pederson hit into a fielder’s choice. Ryne Stanek was brought in to keep the Rangers from adding to their lead. He got Josh Jung out on a good lateral play by Masyn Winn who covered a lot of ground to his left and then threw out Jung. Stanek then hit Nimmo giving Texas a first and third scoring opportunity bringing up Jake Burger. Ryne was fortunately able to get Burger to go fishing for a diving slider to end the Rangers 8th inning.

George Soriano was the Cardinals answer for the top of the 9th inning. Duran started the inning with an infield single that Nolan Gorman made worse with a throwing error that gave Duran second base. Osuna then followed with his own infield single making it first and third with no one out for the Rangers. Soriano came through with a clutch strikeout of Carter and a pop-out by Jansen. George struck out Lopez to keep Texas close at 2-1 going into the bottom of the 9th inning.

The St. Louis offense had been quiet after Masyn Winn’s home run in the bottom of the 6th with no baserunners in either the bottom of the 7th or 8th innings. In the bottom of the 9th, the Rangers brought in Jacob Latz. Bryan Torres grounded out to start the Cardinals 9th. Masyn Winn whiffed on a ball nowhere near the strike zone. That brought up Nolan Gorman. He managed to work a full count against Latz before fouling off a couple pitches. Unfortunately, there would be no David Freese bottom of the 9th magic as Gorman struck out on the 8th pitch ending the Cardinals night with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Rangers.

The St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers will tangle again Tuesday night as Dustin May will try to match his excellent last start for the Cardinals while Nathan Eovaldi will take the mound for the Rangers. First pitch is set for 6:45pm central time at Busch Stadium. Game broadcast will be handled by Cardinals.tv.

The Royals have been looking for answers, trying to find something, ANYTHING, to break the horrid stretch of baseball recently. They finally found something tonight. And they did not have to do a bunch of small ball for it.

The Reds were starting a little-used reliever with control problems as an opener. The Royals made them pay. Carter Jensen led off with a walk, Bobby Witt reached on a HBP, and Cags walked to load the bases for Isaac Collins, who struck out. With two outs, Lane Thomas came to bat. The pitcher threw a middle-middle fastball to Thomas, who blasted the ball at 106mph and 409 feet into the left field seats, drawing boos from the sparse crowd. First inning grand slam, spotting Luinder Avila four runs before he threw a pitch.

And that was just the start.

In the fifth inning, Witt just missed a homer on a pitch he golfed into the left-center field gap. It bounced off the top of the fence, and JJ Bleday, the left fielder, seemed very confused. Like his glove got stuck in the wall or something. Witt ended up on second with a double. After a Pasquantino out, up came Jac Caglianone. He got a slider that hung in the middle of the zone, and dang he did not miss it. An impressive 108mph, 419 foot bomb to deep left-center field, an oppo-taco. Those were the fifth and sixth runs of the night.

The Royals added another run in the sixth. Nick Loftin walked and advanced to second on maybe the worst pickoff attempt I have ever seen. The Reds pitcher, Brandon Leibrandt, was half-assing a bunch of throws to first base, apparently worried about Loftin stealing. Well, he eventually badly missed a throw that skipped to the tarp in foul territory. No matter – Leibrandt went down 3-0 to Witt, who was intentionally walked with first base open and two outs. Pasquantino finally knocked in a run by sneaking a line drive between the first and second basemen.

Michael Massey hit his fifth homer of the season in the seventh inning to add another insurance run. They got a lot of insurance! But they still wanted a bit more – they tacked on their ninth run of the game in the ninth inning with two singles and a sac fly.

I feel like that does not totally do justice to the offensive outburst. The second inning was the only one in which the Royals did not have a baserunner. They had 13 total hits – Kyle Isbel was the only player who did not reach base (Jensen did not get a hit but did get a walk). The top 5 exit velos in the game were all Royals, and 8 of the top 10 were Royals. They went 3-12 with runners in scoring position and left 9 guys on base and still scored 9 runs!

And, oh, by the way, Luinder Avila threw five innings of one-run ball. It wasn’t clean – he had four walks and gave up a homer to JJ Bleday on an extremely hittable fastball – but it was enough! Schreiber, Lange, Black, and Morgan (that’s a law firm, not a bullpen, you can’t fool me Royals) combined to finish off the game, though Morgan did give up a run on a single and a double. He made up for it I guess by getting all three outs by strikeout, limiting the damage. They struck out seven guys in their four innings of relief.

While it is just one win in the grand scheme of things, and the Royals still find themselves in a deep hole, this game was really nice to watch. Like finding an oasis in a desert.

The Royals are now 23-37. The Reds are 30-29. They play again tomorrow at 6:10pm US Central time.

Which is more painful, losing a blowout? Or climbing back into a blowout and then losing by just one run?

From the Rays standpoint, this game felt like one of those punishments imposed by the gods in Greek myth. Like Sisyphus, on several occasions the Rays seemed poised to roll that boulder back up the hill, chipping away at the early Detroit lead, only to have it roll back down (as each Rays reliever allowed the Tigers to score yet again).

How did the Rays find themselves in this situation? Well, the “make Griffin Jax a starter” project hit a bump. In the first inning, the converted reliever gave up three base hits, one a very well-struck double, and two runs, before retiring the Tigers in the first inning.

But it turns out that was just the warm up. Because in the third innings Jax’s outing went from “a little shaky” to “full blown stinker.” He walked the leadoff batter and then proceeded to give up not one, not two, but three home runs. And this to a Tigers team that was ranked 29th out of 30 teams in runs scored this season. Imagine if he had been facing a team with a strong offense!

Jax was pulled after four innings (and six runs). The next man up was Trevor Martin, and bless him for getting through three innings and saving other arms, but he got into the home run game as well, giving up two solo shots.

Cole Sulser was tapped to pitch the eighth inning. The good news? No home runs. The bad news? He still allowed two more runs via base hits. In case you’ve lost count, that brought the Tigers total to ten.

It’s not like the Rays didn’t have their moments, and even more chances to have more moments. For one thing, they drew eight walks. That creates a lot of opportunities.

They also got two monster home runs, each with runners on base, and each providing a glimmer of hope that the Rays could come back.

First, Junior hit a two run homer in the fourth inning. That made the score 6-2, with a lot of innings to go.

Later, Ryan Vilade hit a three run homer in the sixth inning, which made the score 8-5, still with plenty of time remaining.

And these homers weren’t baby dingers either. Junior’s was 110.4 mph and it traveled 422 feet.

Here’s Vilade’s, which was 110.1 mph and traveled 438 feet.

Our final glimmer came in the eight inning. The Tigers walked the bases loaded, and then Nick Fortes drove in two runs with a double — a chopper up the third base line that took a lucky (for the Rays) carom — making the score 10-7. And Ben Williamson then singled home two more, and we were at 10-9.

Oh, if only Rays pitches could have stopped the bleeding at, say, eight runs!

As if the loss were not discouraging enough, the Rays lost two players to injury tonight. Taylor Walls left the game with a tight hamstring, a problem that had kept him out of the line up from time to time. And Chandler Simpson left after sliding into second base; it seemed that his batting helmet flew off an hit him in the mouth. There was a lot of blood, but presumably this isn’t a serious injury.

To the Rays: next time your opponents try to hand you a win, with eight walks and some spotty fielding, I’d advise you to take it.

Tomorrow Steven Matz takes the mound, let’s hope he has that last rough start in the rear view mirror.