Baseball News
First pitch for today’s series finale in San Francisco is at 4:05 pm ET.
Carlos2 news:Carlos Santana and Carlos Carrasco signed to MiLB deals
Hartman hype train: Grant McAuley’s conversation with Rome Emperor and Braves top prospecct Eric Hartman, who homered again this afternoon
All-Star voting: Five Braves advanced to round 2 voting, which starts tomorrow
There appears to be no game thread, so here’s one…
Los Angeles Dodgers (53-30) at San Diego Padres (43-38), June 28, 2026, 1:10 p.m. PST
Watch: Padres.TV
Location: Petco Park – San Diego, Calif.
Listen: 97.3 The Fan
Please remember our Game Day thread guidelines.
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Cincinnati Reds ace Hunter Greene is on the cusp of a return to the big leagues. If his final tune-up start on Sunday with the AAA Louisville Bats is any indication, he’ll be returning in pretty peak form.
Greene and the Bats took on the Saint Paul Saints on Sunday in Slugger Field, and Greene simply breezed right through them. As Charlie Goldsmith relayed, Greene fired 82 pitches acros 6.1 scoreless frames, allowing only one hit. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out 4 on his day.
The lone hit he allowed came off the bat of longtime big leaguer Orlando Arcia. As the official MiLB account added on Twitter, he topped 100 mph with his heater on the day, too.
Greene, who has missed every Reds game so far this season after undergoing a cleanup procedure in his prized right elbow right before the start of the regular season, should theoretically slide right into the team’s starting rotation by the end of the week. How the Reds accommodate that addition, though, will be worth watching.
Would they skip a start for someone like Chase Burns as an effort to extend his availability down the stretch? Might they option Rhett Lowder, or move him to a long relief role in the bullpen?
Would they consider going to a six-man rotation as a way to ease-off on all parties involved?
The good news is that we’ll get an answer to that question in short order, since it seems pretty damn evident that Greene is back – and ready.
It’s Sunday once more, and you know what that means — it’s time for our weekly social media roundup! After several weeks of Knicks-related excitement, we are back to the normal end-of-school grind, but that doesn’t stop the Yankees’ social media engine from turning. What were the fellas in the ‘stripes up to this week? Let’s find out!
Last Sunday was, of course, Father’s Day, and unsurprisingly, several members of the Yankees community took to social media to thank their fathers, grandfathers, and (in the case of the wives) husbands.
Congrats, Rookie!
Yankee fans who remember the days when the Trenton Thunder was the team’s Double-A affiliate will remember Trenton’s long line of bat dogs. Well, this week, Rookie announced his retirement, working his last game as the team’s official bat dog on Wednesday before officially handing over the family business to his nephew Dash — though he’ll continue to attend the occasional MLB Draft League contest in Trenton. We wish him the best of luck (and all the treats) in his retirement!
This week may not have been as filled with wins as we would have liked, but we still got to pass the Game Belt around.
As usual, Dave Sims took to Instagram with his thoughts after this week’s slate of games.
Willie Randolph decided to celebrate Father’s Day by honoring…Spike Lee, the Knicks superfan who also loves the Yankees.
Related to the fact that Father’s Day was last Sunday, this week’s Question of the Day was, “Which teammate would you let babysit your children?” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the team’s elder statesman, Paul Goldschmidt, was one of the top choices, although it must be said that many of the pitchers looked to Fernando Cruz.
The Dodgers for the first time in their history will play a baseball game that counts in West Sacramento, facing the nomad Athletics for a three-game series beginning Monday night at Sutter Health Park.
It’s a battle of southpaws to start on Monday, with Eric Lauer for the Dodgers and Gage Jump for the A’s.
Beautiful day in the Bay for the 50th win of the season, who says no?
Well, it may be the Braves offense, if last night is any indication. Logan Webb was as excellent as advertised, unfortunately. It’d be great to see some signs of life in this last West Coast road game of the season by solving Robbie Ray to take the rubber match and series.
The Braves’ lone hit last night came from today’s leadoff man Mauricio Dubón, who remains in left field. Otherwise, it’s a familiar sequence of Michael Harris II, Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson, and Drake Baldwin. Baldwin gets the day off behind the plate today with Joey Bart serving as the battery mate for Chris Sale and batting seventh. Mike Yastrzemski started the first two games of this homecoming series, but will sit today with Eli White in right field. Notably, Ha-Seong Kim will start his third consecutive game at shortstop and batting ninth. He worked a walk last night, which I’ll delusionally hope and pray is the beginning of a turnaround.
The Giants will line up as follows behind Ray:
As the excited caption indicates, Heliot Ramos returns from the IL after being sidelined with a right quad strain. He’ll bat sixth as the designated hitter.
With the most experience against Sale, third baseman Matt Chapman will lead off for San Francisco. Victor Bericoto returns to right field after sitting yesterday. Rookie catcher Drew Cavanaugh will get his first day off since debuting Friday as Eric Haase rounds out the lineup batting ninth.
If nothing else, the 9 or 10 pm ET start times are behind us, Braves Country. Today’s first pitch is at 4:05 pm ET.
The St. Louis Cardinals will wrap up their homestand Sunday taking on the Miami Marlins. The Cardinals will start Kyle Leahy while the Marlins will send RHP Tyler Phillips (1-2, 3.09 ERA, 49 SO) to the mound. First pitch scheduled for 1:15pm central time at Busch Stadium with the game TV broadcast being handled by Cardinals.tv.
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Fresh off their seventh walk-off win of the year, which followed the second-biggest win margin in team history, the White Sox try to sweep the Royals out of the palace this afternoon and send them back to Kansas City, where the song says everything is up to date, but the baseball team isn’t.
Facing a Royals lineup that has only managed one run per game so far this series will be lefty Anthony Kay, who has had a very up-and-down June, being belted around by the Yankees and Phillies but dominating not just the very weak-hitting Tigers and Guardians but also the mighty Dodgers. For the season, Kay has an excellent 6-2 record but a meh 4.24 ERA and very poor 5.06 FIP and 1.389 WHIP.
The Royals counter with righty Luinder Avila, who sports a terrible 5.06 ERA, largely because he has trouble figuring out where home plate is, having walked 27 in 42 2/3 innings. Avila has been good his last two times out, holding the Rays and Nationals to one run each, but was crushed by the Astros the game before that, giving up eight runs before being pulled in the first inning.
Avila faces a White Sox lineup which has only had three at-bats against him, those coming on May 14 when he came into the game in relief.
Kay gave faced K.C. in both April and May. Lane Thomas (2-for-6) and Bobby Witt Jr. (2-for-5) hit him well, Salvador Pérez (1-for-7) didn’t.
First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. Central, on a sunny and humid day with temps in the mid-70s and wind in from left around 10 mph. Usual broadcast suspects.
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The Royals have followed up winning 5 of 6, by losing 4 games in a row. In those 4 losses they’ve scored 7 runs, allowed 42. Been no hit for 8.1 innings in one of them and lost 13-2 and 22-1. To say the least, ever since Tuesday night, it’s been rather painful to watch the Royals in action.
The Royals are just 2-7 versus the upstart White Sox, losing the last 6 matchups, in fact the only two wins the Royals have over the Southsiders this season are a pair of 2-0 games. So, when the White Sox score a run against the Royals this season, they are 7-0.
Jac Caglianone was in the lineup today but got scratched due to left groin soreness. Nick Loftin has to be feeling the same to be honest. I don’t say that to poke fun at Nick, because mercy that looked extremely painful yesterday.
Anyways, Bobby Witt Jr. is playing shortstop again today, so that’s a positive. Luinder Avila starts today. It’ll be interesting to see which Avila shows up today.
Here is the Royals lineup.
The Chicago White Sox are 43-38 on the season and winning the AL Central. Imagine hearing that in 2024. They have lost 100 games three straight seasons and were the worst team ever two years ago. “How have they already surpassed the Royals?” I scream into the abyss. Alas, they have a lot of young guys playing well this season, and seem to be getting revenge on KC for the last two seasons.
Lefty Anthony Kay starts today for them. Kay spent the last two years in Japan, and is having a decent season this year, sporting a 4.24 ERA over 76.1 innings. Kay has started twice against KC this season, in total he has gone 11.2 innings, allowing 9 hits, 2 runs, 4 walks and 10 strikeouts.
Here are the White Sox starters behind Kay.
First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. CT and can be watched on Royals.TV. The Royals are off tomorrow before starting a 3-game series at home against Tampa Bay.
Knicks forward OG Anunobywas at Citi Field on Sunday afternoon, throwing the ceremonial first pitch ahead of the Mets' matchup with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Jose Reyes, who previously invited Anunoby to come throw out the first pitch, was behind home plate to catch it.
Anunoby, whose miraculous tip-in gave the Knicks a win in Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, has been a Mets fan dating back to his childhood. Reyes was on the cover of MLB 2K8, and he became Anunoby's favorite player because of that.
The forward averaged 21.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.4 steals in the five-game series as the Knicks clinched their first title in 53 years.
"I used to play baseball so I think I’ll throw a strike," Anunoby said during a brief news conference before throwing the first pitch. "I’m anticipating a strike so I’m really excited."
Here's a look at his first pitch:
To a huge Citi Field ovation, OG Anunoby throws out the first pitch to Jose Reyes! pic.twitter.com/sAu4jQyKI3
— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 28, 2026
Time/Place: 1:40 p.m., Comerica Park
SB Nation Site: The Crawfish Boxes
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: RHP Jack Flaherty (1-8, 5.35 ERA) vs. RHP Hunter Brown (1-0, 1.40 ERA)
| Player | G | IP | K% | BB% | GB% | FIP | fWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flaherty | 15 | 65.2 | 25.5 | 11.1 | 30.3 | 4.10 | 1.0 |
| Brown | 4 | 19.1 | 34.6 | 13.6 | 57.5 | 2.90 | 0.6 |
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Mets 1B/DH Jorge Polanco took a big step in his recovery from Achilles bursitis on Saturday night as he resumed his rehab assignment with Triple-A Syracuse.
The veteran went hitless, but the good news is that he seemingly came out of the game feeling healthy.
“The next step is to play more games to see how that workload feels on my legs, and go from there,” Polanco said in the Mets clubhouse on Sunday, via an interpreter.
Polanco has taken this step before, however. After starting a rehab assignment in June, he was able to play just six games before the soreness in his ankle became too much to weather.
This time around, though, Polanco believes he’s in a better place, physically.
“I think I’ll be able to return, because my leg just feels stronger,” he said. “I’ve put more of a workload in there, but I’ve also been able to recover properly. So I think with that, with being strong, and just having the right plan in place, I think I’ll have a chance to return.”
He later added: “There’s still pain there, but it’s a pain that I feel like I can tolerate… I think I’m in a position right now where my ankle does feel good enough to go out there and play.”
Signed to a two-year, $40 million contract this offseason with the idea of being Pete Alonso’s everyday replacement at first base, Polanco has appeared in just 14 games, hitting .179 with one home run, three doubles, and two RBI.
Polanco has the day off on Sunday, and all minor league levels are off on Monday, giving him a couple days of rest before the next time he takes the field.
Go Rays!
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Here’s the Mariners lineup:
Here’s the Guardians lineup:
Let’s go, Guardians!