Category: MLB

Box Score

Milwaukee jumped all over San Diego starter Griffin Canning early, scoring three runs in each of the first two innings, and Kyle Harrison turned in another gem to deliver a 7-1 victory. After taking two of three from the Padres, the Brewers have now won six of their last seven games.

Canning started the bottom of the first inning with a strikeout of Jackson Chourio, then completely fell apart, walking the next four batters to bring home the Brewers’ first run. With just one out, the Padres had already sent Ron Marinaccio to warm up in the bullpen. Luis Rengifo came to the plate with the bases still loaded, worked the count to 3-2, and grounded a two-run single into right field to give the Brewers an early 3-0 lead.

Rengifo's FOURTH hit in the last 24 hours drives in two ‼️ pic.twitter.com/2ACYIOAQV9

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) May 14, 2026

Canning stayed in the game and managed to retire Garrett Mitchell and Sal Frelick without allowing another run. He came back out for the second inning and allowed a single to David Hamilton on his second pitch, then threw the ball away on a pick-off attempt. The speedy Hamilton ended up on third, and after Chourio flew out Turang doubled into the gap in left-center to knock him in.

This guy is unstoppable@BRiCEcTuRANGpic.twitter.com/VT4D5FODgq

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) May 14, 2026

At this point, Marinaccio was ready, but Padres manager Craig Stammen left Canning in to face William Contreras, who hit an infield pop-up, and Gary Sánchez, who smoked another double into the same gap to bring Hamilton home. Andrew Vaughn singled to score Sánchez, and that would be all for Canning.

We have six runs and we're still in the second inning…

→ https://t.co/eycfmE2vgmpic.twitter.com/AhtrEbYbxZ

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) May 14, 2026

After Canning exited, each team was only able to manage a single run, so the game ended with a score of Brewers 7, Padres 1. Milwaukee scored again in the fourth on a Vaughn double and Rengifo single, while San Diego got their lone run in the ninth inning.

The Brewers’ pitching staff — led by Harrison — didn’t allow a single earned run all game. Harrison delivered a beauty, allowing just five hits and no walks over five shutout innings while striking out seven. He got into a couple jams, but rebounded each time to escape without allowing a run.

Grade Kyle Harrison's start today vs. Padres | Brew Crew Ball

Milwaukee is now 6-2 when Harrison starts, and he still hasn’t allowed more than two runs in any outing this season. His off-speed stuff looked great, his fastball touched 98 mph, and he now has a 2.09 ERA on the season. For a Brewers team built around young pitching, Harrison has quickly become a dependable presence in the rotation and continues to put up elite numbers.

Kyle Harrison, Nasty 81mph Back Foot Slurve. 😨 pic.twitter.com/kliiM9XPVk

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 14, 2026

Also, for all the (justified) talk about the Brewers needing more production out of the left side of the infield, Luis Rengifo has been playing better and better. Rengifo was great this series — he now has seven hits in his last three games and has made a couple nice plays at third base. David Hamilton isn’t ever going to hit twenty home runs, but he’s gotten his on-base percentage up to .327 and leads the league in bunt base hits. When those two guys are contributing, the Brewers’ offense looks even better.

Heck of a play by Rengifo to end the inning

→ https://t.co/68EQQYUZ6Zpic.twitter.com/lOFu1U1Do9

— Brewers.TV (@BrewersdotTV) May 14, 2026

First pitch for tomorrow’s series opener against the Twins is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. Joe Ryan will go for Minnesota, while the Brewers have yet to announce a starter.

The Cincinnati Reds offense needed a blowout in the worst of ways, and boy, did it ever get one on Thursday in Great American Ball Park.

After having dropped a pair of regrettable games to the rebuilding Washington Nationals to already clinch losing yet another home series, the Reds exploded against Nats starter Foster Griffin – a lefty, at that – in a 15-1 thumping that felt like a lot of pent up aggression being unloaded on the baseballs.

JJ Bleday led the charge with a breakout game that Reds fans won’t soon forget. He slugged a pair of homers, including a huge 3-run one off the lefty Griffin, and later added an RBI single that left him with a 3 for 5 day with 2 dingers, 2 runs scored, and a blistering 6 RBI. Scooping him up off the non-tender heap and watching him develop immediately into an offensive force is the kind of thing that makes you think of one Scooter Gennett, though I do certainly hope a) I’m not getting too far ahead of myself and b) Bleday isn’t going to completely obliviate after just two good years.

Anyway, that was more than enough offense on the day given that ace Chase Burns was on the bump for the Reds. He delivered once again, firing another 6.0 IP of scoreless ball, this time with 7 K against just a pair of scattered hits and pair of walks. He needed 95 pitches to clear that, did so with ease, and turned the ball over to his bullpen with the game in-hand and a tidy 1.87 ERA on the season next to his name.

He’s a bona-fide ace, and he just made the 17th start of his big league career.

The Reds played add-on late after Joey Wiemer was summoned from the outfield to pitch, but that should only slightly diminish the contributions of Dane Myers (3-run dinger off Wiemer), Ke’Bryan Hayes (his second of an actual 2-hit game!), et al. It was a textbook get-right game, one that the Reds can hopefully channel as they take their talents up north to Cleveland for a weekend series against the Guardians.

“We have to be better than this.”

I don’t know if Torey said this phrase the past week. Probably not.

Difference with previous seasons, in my opinion, is that this team was never bound for play-offs. The starting pitching has become worse over the years, with several big signings not living up to the money they signed for and an ace that never became one and does not seem to bounce back. Apart from the one in shackles.

The last time we had a decent bullpen is almost a decade ago. Ever since it is a patchwork, but an ugly one. Yes, many big money signings do not pan out, but there are also other big money signings that do pan out.

The batting lineup was terrific over the past seasons, and the Diamondbacks did not seize the opportunity to bank on it. With several sluggers gone, there is not much left.

The Diamondbacks cannot do better than this. Lovullo said “we will be fine” after the series against Texas. What is fine? A .500 team? Probably. I had them pegged below .500 at the beginning of the season, so .500 would be fine, I guess. A disappointment none the less. A lost season once again.

Whenever you feel down, at least you always have the Colorado Rockies to cheer yourself up.

No news in Colorado.

Maybe you don’t remember, but the Colorado Rockies made a change in their front office the past off-season. The son of owner Dick Monfort became team president, former Diamondback general manager Josh Byrnes came over from the Dodgers and was made general manager, though he will report to new president of baseball operations Paul Podesta, who came over from the NFL Cleveland Browns with a big thank you from Deshaun Watson.

They didn’t do much, as expected. They let starting pitcher Germán Márquez go, he signed with the Padres. Instead they signed a trio of starting pitchers to a one year contract: Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana and Tomoyuki Sugano. The batting lineup saw Thairo Estrada and Orlando Arcia leave, instead Willi Castro was signed to two-year contract, while the Rockies also traded for our Jake McCarthy, infielder Edouard Julien from the Twins and first baseman TJ Rumfield from the Yankees. On paper, you could say the Rockies became better, though it is hard to believe they could be anything worse than the 43-win team from 2025.

Manager Warren Schaeffer is allowed to continue to let the Rockies do whatever they want to do on the field.

It is easy to laugh about the Rockies, but they are not that far behind the Diamondbacks, at the moment: 3.5 games. Since May 4 the Diamondbacks have a batting line of .184/.281/.290, which is just 1 WRC better than the last placed batters of the San Diego Padres over the same time period. The Rockies are not that much better, by the way, with a .235/.291/.394 batting line.

Since May 1, the Rockies are 3-8, but have been able to get some runs in. At the moment of writing they are wrapping up a series against the Pirates, and scored 6 off Mitch Keller in 5.2 innings, who got the win in his matchup before that against the Diamondbacks, when we couldn’t muster more than 2 runs off him over 6 innings.

So, yeah, you could say that the doctor’s prescription is to take a trip to Denver, get some fresh air and get better, though given the state of the Diamondbacks, you might wonder if the Rockies are able to take advantage and make things look even worse for Arizona.

One to gladly do so will be Jake McCarthy, who obviously is enjoying a fine season so far in Denver. His .288/.356/.500 batting line and 129 OPS+ is one of the best on his team. Especially the past two weeks McCarthy has been on fire with a 217 WRC+. Jake is taking more walks and hitting the ball a lot harder than he did in Arizona. His BABIP is similar to that of two seasons ago, so it isn’t that surprising that McCarthy is enjoying success in Colorado. It is a bounce-back season like he did two years ago. Painful though that it is happening in Colorado, especially with the hindsight of having Alek Thomas designated for assignment recently.

Matchups.

Game #1 Fri 05/15 6:40 PM MST, Merrill Kelly (ARI) vs Kyle Freeland (COL).

• Merrill Kelly. 5 GS, 26.0 IP, 2 W-3 L, 7.62 ERA, 6.64 FIP, 1.92 WHIP, 20/18 K/BB. $18,000,000.
• Kyle Freeland. 6 GS, 30.0 IP, 1 W-4 L, 6.00 ERA, 5.47 FIP, 1.47 WHIP, 28/8 K/BB. $16,000,000.

The strike-percentage is still bollocks and BABIP said Merrill Kelly was lucky against what is probably the worst team in the MLB right now. But, we will take those 7 innings and 1 run against to have ourselves think that Kelly will become the mainstay once again. He really needs to improve his command though.

Thankfully, Merrill will go up against Kyle Freeland. Freeland had a great start of the season, but injured his shoulder before a start against the Padres on April 12. He hasn’t been himself since returning from a stint on the injury list and got knocked around against Reds, Braves and Phillies (16 earned runs in 14.1 innings).

Freeland has faced the Diamondbacks 22 times in his career, with a lifetime 5.94 ERA and 4-9 win-loss record, though his stats at Coors Field are better against the Diamondbacks than at Chase Field. Last time he pitched against the Diamondbacks was in 2024, at Coors, and Freeland got a no-decision, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings.

Kelly saw the Rockies twice last season, and got a win in both of his matchups, one at Chase (7 shutout innings) and one at Coors (6 innings of 3 run ball). In total, he has faced the Rockies 17 times, taking 9 wins and 3 losses. With a 4.12 ERA in 9 games, with 5 wins, you could say he performs well in Colorado’s thin air environment.

Game #2 Sat 05/16 7:10 PM MST, Eduardo Rodríguez (ARI) vs Tomoyuki Sugano (COL).

• Eduardo Rodríguez. 8 GS, 48.0 IP, 4 W-0 L, 2.25 ERA, 4.19 FIP, 1.21 WHIP, 33/22 K/BB. $21,000,000.
• Tomoyuki Sugano. 8 GS, 42.0 IP, 3 W-3 L, 4.07 ERA, 5.61 FIP, 1.19 WHIP, 24/12 K/BB. $5,100,000.

Last time I wrote about Eduardo Rodríguez, I was a bit bullish on his recent performances back then. He continued to deliver two gems after that, against the Pirates and Mets. With just 1 earned run over his past two games, 15.1 innings, there isn’t much to criticise, although it is obvious he won’t be able to deliver such a performance game after game unless he becomes Eduardei Rohtani.

Sugano is an unfamiliar face for the Snakes, as he has never faced the Diamondbacks before in his career. That makes sense as this is only the second season for the 36-year old Japanese pitcher in the MLB. Last season he was a back-end starter for the Baltimore Orioles.

Sugano was performing very well until recently, but lost his latest two matchups, giving up 9 runs in 10.1 innings against Phillies and Mets. According to statcast he has the staggering amount of 7 different pitches: 4-seamer, split finger, cutter, sinker, slider, sweeper and curveball. All that off-speed and breaking ball arsenal is to hide a weak fastball collection (his 4-FB averages below 93 mph). Sugano has good command and hardly walks a batter.

Game #3 Sun 05/17 1:10 PM MST, Michael Soroka (ARI) vs Michael Lorenzen (COL).

• Michael Soroka. 8 GS, 43.1 IP, 5 W-2 L, 3.53 ERA, 3.18 FIP, 1.32 WHIP, 47/12 K/BB. $6,750,000.
• Michael Lorenzen. 10 G, 9 GS, 44.0 IP, 2 W-5 L, 6.55 ERA, 4.92 FIP, 1.84 WHIP, 31/14 K/BB. $7,750,000.

After the stinker against Milwaukee, Soroka pitched well against Pittsburgh and Texas and you could fairly say that he is de facto our top of the rotation, together with Eduardo Rodriguez. Who would have thought that at the beginning of the season? Soroka has faced the Rockies just once in his career and that was last season. At Coors Field he pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks. Despite striking out 9, he had to settle with a loss.

Michael Lorenzen has huge arms and therefore deserves to be on the Expendables. Ever since leaving Cincinatti, he has been mildly successful as a starting pitcher for several teams, last season in Kansas. With the Royals he pitched against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field and delivered 7 painful shutout innings, mowing 7 snakes down and snatching a win.

This season he has struggled, though seems to have been somewhat unlucky, although how unlucky can you really be when the lineup of two of the worst teams (Astros and Mets) scored 14 runs off you in less than 8 innings? Lorenzen has good control, but his command is off this season. He averages 94 mph on his fastball and also handles a changeup (normally his best pitch), sinker, curve, cutter, sweeper and slider.

TV: NESN

First Pitch: 6:45 p.m. ET

The Red Sox send their main pitching acquisition to the mound in search of a series win (weather permitting) Thursday night. Ranger Suarez faces the Philadelphia Phillies for the first time. He also makes his first start since leaving his last outing with hamstring tightness on May 3 against the Houston Astros. 

Here’s who the Red Sox will send to the plate Thursday night.

Series finale at Fenway. pic.twitter.com/VUg7hWKp0r

— Red Sox (@RedSox) May 14, 2026

The Phillies counter with Jesus Luzardo. Philadelphia’s current lefty has had a remarkably unlucky start to 2026 with a 5.77 ERA despite just a 2.95 FIP. 

A rainy day in Boston ☔#RingTheBellpic.twitter.com/KS1W5hcvKo

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 14, 2026

Another Thursday of Blog Lord game coverage, another coveted reverse jinx. I fixed Kody Clemens a couple weeks ago, and now hopefully the same can be said for Zebby Matthews after he delivered the best start of his career. 

This Miami lineup is sneakily talented, but you wouldn’t know it if you only watched this series opener (Ober 89 pitch Maddux) and closer. Matthews cruised through the seven innings, allowing just four hits and one walk while racking up five strikeouts and nine roundball outs. For a guy with home run issues like Zebby, that last number is particularly encouraging. 

The only real threat the Marlins put together came in the very first inning. Back-to-back singles from Liam Hicks and Otto Lopez put two runners on for the middle of the lineup, but Matthews quickly retired the next two batters to escape the jam. From there, everything was on cruise control. Following the two first inning singles, Zebby retired 19 of 22 batters he faced and not a single one reached second base. All said and done: seven shutout innings on just 83 pitches. That’s how you save the bullpen after last night’s SWR disaster-class. 

On the offensive side, things got off to an inauspicious start for the hometown nine. The first three Twins batters reached base to load ‘em up with no outs, but lefty Braxton Garrett struck out Josh Bell, Victor Caratini, and Luke Keaschall for a good old fashioned Twins NOBLETIGER. 

The first three batters reached AGAIN to start the second, but Austin Martin made sure not to waste it this time. A ground rule double broke the seal and plated the first two Twins run of the afternoon. Bell and Caratini each redeemed themselves in the inning as well, with a Bell double scoring two more and a well-placed groundout allowing Minnesota’s fifth run of the inning to come in. 5-0 Twins after two. 

A James Outman RBI single scored one more for the good guys in the third, but things went very quiet for the bats until the eighth inning after Miami finally scratched one across home. After 13 straight Twins outs, Luke Keaschall hit a one-out single. A two out walk brought up Outman, who again delivered an RBI hit, this time a double that scored Keaschall and Ryan Kreidler. Austin Martin followed with his second hit of the day for good measure to make it 9-1. 

Game, series, match. We’ll see you tomorrow night for the border battle with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

Thanks to the relative mid-ness of the entire American League outside of Tampa and New York, the Twins (at 20-24) sit just 3.5 games out of the division and 1.5 games out of a wild card spot a quarter of the way to the season. The competition is talented and won’t stay down forever, but the bullpen has been significantly better in recent weeks with some young additions and the Twins are right in the thick of things. Better yet, the team should start looking even better over the next few weeks as Taj Bradley, Mick Abel, Cole Sands, and Alan Roden start to work their ways back. Plus, they have 4-5 top 100 prospects on the doorstep that still should contribute at some point this season. 

Don’t count this group out quite yet!

STUDS

• Zebby Matthews: 7 IP, 0 R, 4 H, BB, 5 K, just 83 pitches
• Greatest Twin of All Time Ryan Kreidler: 2-3, BB, 2 R
• Austin Martin: 2-4, R, 2B, BB, R, 3 RBI
• James Outman???: 2-3, 2B, BB, 2 R, 3 RBI

DUDS

• No duds Twins win!!!!
• One small dud for Matt Wallner for getting demoted but the past two times that’s happened he’s come back and been the Twins’ best hitter. Let’s do that a third time.

Comment of the game goes to SooFoo for correctly identifying the Byron Buxton injury cause. 

Thursday notes…

• STREAKING THE WRONG WAY: If the Cubs lose tonight, they will match their longest losing streak, five games, immediately after any of their 26 winning streaks of at least 10 games since 1901. They lost five straight after winning 10, May 6-17, 1917, and after winning 11, July 25-Aug. 4, 1944. They also lost four in a row after winning 13, May 5-19, 1928. Then they won three, lost, won and lost, for a record of 4-6 starting with the loss that snapped the winning streak. They were 3-7 in the next 10 in 1917 and 2-8 in 1944. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• TRYING TO AVOID THE SWEEP: The Cubs last were swept in three games at Atlanta on Sept. 26-28, 2023. They won the finale in 2024 to avoid a sweep, then lost the first and won twice last year. The Cubs have been swept in 12 three-games series and one four-game series at Atlanta. This is their 189th series there. The Cubs lost the first two games, then won the third, of eight series, and lost the first three, then won the fourth, twice. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• WHERE ARE THE BATS?: The Cubs have made no more than five hits in each of their last four games. Since 1901, they had three streaks of five games, in 1955, 1981 and June 16-20, 2021. They had a six-game streak May 4-12, 1961. The current streak is their 14th of four since 1901 and their fifth since 1955. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Ron Santo’s sixth-inning homer broke a 2-2 tie and the Cubs held on to defeat the Padres 3-2 at Wrigley Field. Milt Pappas threw a complete game and the contest ran just one hour, 55 minutes. It happened 55 years ago today, Friday, May 14, 1971.

Cubs lineup:

Series finale starters. ⤵️

Watch the game live on @WatchMarquee. pic.twitter.com/f1D7Vx6TbB

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 14, 2026

Braves lineup:

Sale start! #BravesCountrypic.twitter.com/DwbzNuR6Jy

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 14, 2026

Ben Brown, RHP vs. Chris Sale, LHP

Ben Brown threw exceptionally well last Friday against the Rangers, throwing four no-hit innings, with 31 strikes in 46 pitches, allowing just one walk.

He’ll likely be allowed to go a bit farther tonight, though I wouldn’t expect more than maybe 65 pitches or so, with Javier Assad still available to back him up.

Brown made two relief appearances against the Braves last year totaling 2.1 innings, with one hit, two walks and two runs allowed, with five strikeouts.

Chris Sale has always been a very good MLB starter — when he’s healthy. That was the case in 2024 when he won the NL Cy Young Award. Last year he made just 20 starts, but still was a 4 bWAR pitcher.

This year, he’s been exceptional in eight starts, with a 2.20 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 49 innings. Last year he started against the Cubs Sept. 10, 2025 in Atlanta and allowed seven hits and three runs in five innings. Carson Kelly homered against him. Alex Bregman is 6-for-24 with two homers against Sale.

Here is the weather forecast for the area around Truist Park.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Braves site Battery Power. If you do go there to interact with Braves fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.

You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.

The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

The Phillies wrap up the series against a former friend. Here are the lineups, let’s discuss.

For the Phillies:

A rainy day in Boston ☔#RingTheBellpic.twitter.com/KS1W5hcvKo

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 14, 2026

For the Red Sox:

Series finale at Fenway. pic.twitter.com/VUg7hWKp0r

— Red Sox (@RedSox) May 14, 2026

Juan Soto wasn’t too concerned after fouling a ball hard off his ankle during his at-bat in the bottom of the third in Wednesday night’s walk-off win over the Tigers. 

Soto completed the AB, then took his next turn in the sixth. 

But concern certainly grew from Mets fans when the star outfielder was lifted for a pinch-hitter with two men on and two outs in a tie ballgame in the seventh. 

X-rays came back negative, and Soto told reporters Thursday that they were simply trying to play things safe.

“I’ve done it before,” he said. “I wasn’t able to push at that point, it was getting slow, so I was just trying to make the smart move but I know how to handle it.”

Soto was deemed well enough to jump right back into the Mets’ lineup for Thursday afternoon's series finale, and he showed no ill-effects as he put together a much-needed big day at the plate. 

The left-handed slugger was retired in each of his first two at-bats but then delivered in his next two, lining a two-out go-ahead single in the bottom of the fifth before hitting a solo homer to center leading off the seventh. 

He came into the day hitting just .146 with three RBI and a .502 OPS over 11 games in May. Those numbers improved after Thursday's performance.

“It’s always great to come through for your team,” Soto said. “Definitely in a big situation with guys in scoring position there, just trying to bring them in and take the lead, I think it’s huge.”

New York, of course, held on from there to secure the series sweep of the Tigers. 

With those three come-from-behind victories now in the books, the suddenly hot Mets have now taken three of their last four series and have won eight of 12 games thus far in May as they gear up for a highly-anticipated Subway Series over the weekend against the suddenly slumping Yankees.

“It shows we’re capable of doing whatever we want,” Soto said. “At the end of the day it’s all about us -- what we want to do is right there in front of us, we just have to go out there and get it.”

The Mets and Yankees have certainly had different starts to their 2026 seasons. The Yankees are 10 games over .500 and at times have looked prime for another deep October run. The Mets, meanwhile, are 18-25, and have been one of the more disappointing teams around the league. 

But baseball can be a funny game, and as of late, the tides have turned. The Yankees have lost six of their last eight games, while the Mets completed a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers on Thursday afternoon behind a five-homer day from the offense and seven strong innings by Nolan McLean. 

Add all of that up, and this weekend’s Subway Series at Citi Field should be must-watch baseball. 

“Subway Series are always special,” said Carlos Mendoza, who served on the Yankees coaching staff before becoming the manager in Queens. “It brings an extra energy, it’s gonna be packed, it’s gonna be electric. They’re fun. But again, control what you can control, come back tomorrow and take care of business one day at a time. But it’s always fun, the Subway Series.”

Another Met who has experience on both sides of the Subway Series is Juan Soto. After one prolific season with the Yankees, Soto, of course, signed a massive 15-year contract with the Mets.

Soto switching teams has been a huge topic of conversation between Mets and Yankees fans, and the outfielder knows the energy will be ratcheted up at Citi Field this weekend.

“The vibe that you feel in the stadium outside is just great,” said Soto, who hit one of the Mets’ five homers on Thursday. “The fans, the field and everything just feels different, and it feels great to be out there.”

One of the biggest factors of the Mets’ sweep of the Tigers was the injection of energy provided by rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing, with Ewing hitting his first major league home run in Thursday’s win. 

Ewing may be a man of few words, but he admitted that he’s very much looking forward to his first taste of the crosstown rivalry.

“Absolutely,” he answered when asked about looking forward to the series. “100 percent.”

It’s old news by now, but it’s worth remembering some of these smaller stories in what figures to be a long season of losing. The other night, the Giants outfielders performed a final out act?… dance?… behavior?… performance? that received a strong response from those empowered to deliver and enforce a “Knock it off.” If you’ve already forgotten news from two days ago:

There’re Drew Gilbert, Harrison Bader, and Jung Hoo Lee smashing their cups together as all bros do in celebration after the final out of a baseball game. Yep. A tradition as old as the game itself. Totally normal stuff, right? WRONG! Obviously!

When I was in 8th grade, our boys’ basketball team set out to go 12-0 that season and when we got to around 7-0 or 8-0 we were really feeling ourselves. I went to a small Catholic school, and when we celebrated a little too hard after a couple of made shots on the opponents’ court to clinch that 7th or 8th straight win, on the following Monday we were taken into the convent garden and scolded by our principal, Sister Catherine, and the head of the parish himself, Father Lannigan. We were lined up, told that we were to immediately stop all forms of celebration and to play the game “like gentlemen.”

I don’t think we went undefeated that year (maybe 11-1?), but what I do remember is that talking to, in part because of Father Lannigan’s borderline farcical Irish brogue, but also because it felt unfair. It wasn’t formative in that I learned a valuable lesson about sportsmanlike conduct, but that I learned how powerful the spectators’ experience is on a performance. The audience matters more than the performance or the performers because it’s their feedback that delivers the enduring value judgment, either through paying money to watch or being a critic, formally or informally as a fan.

So, if Buster Posey doesn’t like what he’s seeing — even with the easily accessible experience of being a player — then that’s the end of that. If you don’t think it’s Buster who’s trying to prevent this particular memory from being a part of his business, consider this: as Andrew Baggarly reminds us in his newser from last night’s loss (and, if anyone doesn’t follow our recaps with Baggs’s work right after, you’re missing out — he’s been on a real heater with his write-ups during this eventful Dodgers series), Posey is a proud baseball traditionalist:

Although Giants president Buster Posey has publicly stated his disdain for fraternization between opponents, there’s an understanding that Adames is who he is. There should be room for a social butterfly to exist even in an organization that hired manager Tony Vitello to instill the kind of fighting spirit that could antagonize opponents at times.

Like letting Luis Arraez play second base in order to sign him, looking the other way while Willy Adames exchanges hot goss with his fellow millionaires was the cost of acquiring the player. But letting Drew Gilbert bang his teammates in public? It’s too much, and Gilbert is easily sanctioned.

That’s going to do it for most baseball fans. Most baseball fans recoil at the notion of seeing anything vaguely human on a baseball field. Just baseball, spitting, scratching, high fiving, and butt slapping. Nothing more. The hint of sexuality — especially homosexuality — is the sort of thing that might trigger apoplexy in spectators and shareholders. And like everything meaningful in the world, keeping shareholders happy is all that matters.

Going back to that scolding at the convent, for the rest of the season we were assigned a chaperone. A teacher from another grade would attend all of our games and reported back to Sr. Catherine and Fr. Lannigan. We didn’t run afoul of the fun police the rest of the season, and we probably learned a lesson that we are always going to represent more than ourselves. That name on the jersey isn’t just our team; it’s everyone at our school and in that community. We 8th graders had offended the sensibility of some parents for high fiving and “YEAH”-ing on the court a little too hard in the moment and, okay, I’ll admit, there was one guy who held his hand up after making a three, running backwards a few steps, then turning that hand around and talking to it — so, you know, as a decrepit sports blogger now, I guess I can see a little bit why the decrepit people tasked with educating children and maintaining the school’s reputation might’ve been a little annoyed.

The Giants added a couple of new investors in the offseason and the last thing Buster Posey wants them to see is the players on the payroll acting “weird” or “obscene.” Or maybe he personally doesn’t feel it’s appropriate for Giants players to behave that way on the field — though, I’d hope nobody would dare invoke the “won’t somebody think of the children?!” reaction when most kids aren’t awake to see that celebration. But to add Drew Gilbert and Tony Vitello and a bunch of other big personalities to a team and then ask them to not be themselves just seems like another bad idea by a team that has had a lot of them over the past few years.

Players of a losing team having a little fun after one of their few wins by doing something people could see on TV for 25+ years on The Simpsons or How I Met Your Motherdoesn’t really strike me as controversial, even as we live in a culture now fully captured by conservative values, but then again, it (gasp) went viral! So, maybe that had everything to do with it. Forget that baseball players are generally odd ducks and what they find interesting or amusing or exciting is usually far afield from what the average baseball viewer or non-player does — “that ain’t right” is a trump card the outsider gets to play most of the time. If the Giants were winning a lot, perhaps that could’ve Uno reversed the outcome.

Anyway, here’s a good image from a bad site.

Hopefully, this shameful episode will remind baseball players to refrain from doing anything they find to be fun while in view of the cameras.

While it was certainly a team effort, the collective of Mets’ rookies contributed a huge part to the club’s 9-4 win over the Tigers in the finale of their three game set this afternoon at Citi Field. The team worked through first inning trouble to come out on top for their third straight comeback victory over Detroit.

Nolan McLean started the game off with a strikeout of Kevin McGonigle on a curveball that hung up on the zone a little too much. That lack of sharpness, despite the result, would be a bit of an omen for his day. A walk to Cole Keith and a single to Riley Greene put two on and, after a pop out by Dillon Dingler, Gage Workman cranked a three-run home run to put the Tigers up 3-0.

But unlike just about every stretch of the 2026 season thus far, the A.J. Ewing-era Mets feel like they’ve got some fight in them, and as they’ve done the last two nights, they came back.

Ewing was the sparkplug, leading off the third inning with a solo home run against Keiber Montero to cut the lead to just two. Montero and McLean both worked around some baserunners early, with just the long ball affecting the score early on.

The long ball would tie the game, too, when MJ Melendez walked, followed by Brett Baty hitting a two-run shot off the top of the fence in left-center in the fourth. Montero would start the fifth, but a Carson Benge single and stolen base would lead to a call to the bullpen ahead of Juan Soto. Left-hander Tyler Holton would be first out of the Tigers’ relief corps, and instantly gave up an RBI single, putting the Mets ahead for the first time all day.

Next up was Mark Vientos, who turned on a Holton meatball and deposited it over the Great Wall of Flushing to put the Mets up 6-3.

As noted earlier, McLean did not have his best stuff today, but seemingly was able to get past every obstacle after that initial home run. In the fourth, Workman doubled to lead off the inning, but some poor baserunning on a single by Zach McKinstry saw Workman thrown out at third by Melendez, a call confirmed by replay. One batter later, McLean got an inning-ending double play off the bat of Spencer Torkelson. That inning, which saw two hits, was wrapped up on exactly four pitches thrown: two pitches to Workman, one to McKinstry, one to Torkelson.

In the fifth, Wenceel Pérez led off the inning with a single, but was picked off by McLean on a replay-assisted call. And so even though he only had one one-two-three inning and wasn’t throwing his best stuff, McLean showed up and fought his way through.

McLean would come out for the seventh and promptly hit Torkelson. But, as he did all game, he bucked up and fought through, ending the game exactly as he started it: striking out McGonigle. It’s very possible that the game was bookended by the National League Rookie of the Year striking out his American League counterpart. Seven innings, six hits, seven strikeouts, three walks, one hit batsman.

The rest of the team showed up, too. In the bottom of the sixth, the Mets added to their lead when a Marcus Semien walk, an Ewing single, and a safety squeeze by Hayden Senger led to the seventh run of the game against Enmanuel De Jesus.

Juan Soto led off the seventh with a solo home run off of Brenan Hanifee to put the Mets up by 5. Tobias Myers pitched the eighth for the Mets and gave up a solo home run to Dingler. However, Semien hit the foul pole on the first pitch he saw from Ricky Vanasco in the bottom of the inning to make it 9-4.

Craig Kimbrel pitched an uneventful ninth for the Mets to secure the win and the sweep. The Mets have now won three of their last four series and finally looked like a competitive team, even though it was against a team that is struggling mightily.

The Mets hit five home runs, the rookie combo of Benge and Ewing each collected two hits, and aside from Bo Bichette, every starter contributed a hit or an RBI to the game.

This was only the third time in Mets’ history that the Mets came back from multiple runs down to win each game in a series (against the Giants in 1969 and against the Phillies in 2012). This was a fun three games.

The Citi Field portion of the Subway Series kicks off tomorrow night with a hell of a pitching duel when Clay Holmes faces off against Cam Schlittler.

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Box scores

MLB.com
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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Brett Baty, +27.0% WPA
Big Mets loser: Bo Bichette, -10.0% WPA
Mets pitchers: -1.0% WPA
Mets hitters: +51.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Baty’s two-run homer, +24.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: George Workman’s three-run homer, -25.4% WPA

It’s no secret that Harry Ford’s start to the 2026 season was less than ideal. Acquired this offseason from the Seattle Mariners for Jose A. Ferrer, many expected Ford to step in day one and be the Nationals’ starting catcher, but the Nats front office felt he could benefit from some time in Triple A to work on his defense.

It is clear the trade had an effect mentally on Ford, as he looked nothing like himself through his first month in the Nats organization, posting a .182 batting average and racking up just 3 extra base hits on the month. As a result, he saw his prospect stock drop somewhat, falling off MLB Pipeline’s newest top 100 rankings.

Eyes have turned away from Ford and towards other prospects on the farm, especially at the lower levels, but while fans have watched the offensive outbursts of Eli Willits and Devin Fitz-Gerald, Ford has quietly begun to find himself again offensively in May. Through 9 games in the month, Ford has a .241 batting average, 0.90 BB/K ratio, 1 home run, and .367 wOBA, much improved from his .198 average, 0.38 BB/K ratio, 0 home runs, and .247 wOBA in April.

The biggest difference for Ford in May has been the return of his bat-to-ball skills, as after an unusual April where Ford posted a 31.6% whiff rate and 78.5% Zone-Contact rate, he has cut the whiff rate down to 23% and increased the Zone-Contact rate to 88.6% in May. Ford has been making more contact this month while also lowering his chase rate, going from the 73rd to the 90th percentile in chase rate. The hit tool is the driving force of Ford’s offensive profile, and after seemingly losing it during his first month as a Nat, he’s gotten back to his 2025 levels.

Since May 1st, Harry Ford has a:
.367 wOBA
82nd percentile Barrel%
96th percentile BB%
82nd percentile Z-Contact% and 90th percentile Chase%
66% PullAir%

The young Nats catcher had a rough start after a tough transition, but he has found his footing pic.twitter.com/AzSvv0x8ki

— Paul Cubbage (@PaulCubbage23) May 14, 2026

The area where Ford is still looking to find himself again is in the power department, as although he got his first home run of the year the other day, his average exit velocity of 85.1 MPH is well below his 88.8 MPH mark in 2025. The good news is that, while the exit velocities aren’t there yet, Ford is doing everything right to maximize his power output when they are, as his 82nd percentile barrel rate and 66th percentile pulled flyball rate in May are both above average and allow someone with average raw power like Ford to still hit 15-20 home runs a season.

The overall numbers for this season at Triple-A will not look clean for Ford for a while, but after spending 5 seasons climbing the Seattle Mariners minor league system, it can be expected that he might not fully acclimate to baseball with a new club on the other side of the country immediately.

Ford is slowly but surely getting comfortable at Triple A for the Nats, and the results are getting back to where he and the Nationals organization expect them to be. Stack up a few more weeks of offensive success, and Ford could find himself back in the big leagues, this time as the starting catcher for the Washington Nationals.

Among Yankees regulars, only Austin Wells and Ryan McMahon had a lower wRC+ than Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s 72 mark before Wednesday’s game against the Orioles. To say that the second baseman’s season has been a disappointment to this point would be an understatement.

Before taking the field on Wednesday, Chisholm’s slash line was at .200/.280/.320 with four home runs, 11 stolen bases, and a 29.2 percent strikeout rate in 168 plate appearances. As you can see, his production is down across the board. You can tell Jazz is frustrated by how things are going, and he recently acknowledged that he’s “not swinging well.” He did say, however, that he’s working hard to get back on track. Chisholm summed up his slump, probably without knowing he did.

The strikeout rate is higher than last year’s 27.9 percent, but the difference is not that big between this year and last. The most worrisome development about Chisholm’s 2026 campaign has been his horrible contact quality metrics, and that suggests that, well, he’s really not swinging well. It might be a timing issue, a mental block, or a mechanical problem, but his batted ball metrics are awful, probably as bad as they have ever been.

The main issue is that Chisholm is just not barreling the ball. A year after ranking in the 91st percentile in barrel rate with 15 percent, he is at 5.9 percent, in the 30th percentile. That’s a huge dropoff. Additionally, Chisholm’s 35.3 percent hard-hit rate is well-below average and significantly down in comparison to last year’s 43.3 percent.

In 2025, the mercurial second baseman had a .346 xwOBA. This season, it’s down to a stunningly low .263. A whopping 94 percent of the league has a higher mark than that. His .481 expected slugging percentage last year is considerably higher than 2026’s .312.

So far, Chisholm’s contact metrics are so bad that xwOBA even thinks he has been a tad lucky. That .263 mark is lower than his .274 wOBA. His 73 mph average bat speed is not too much lower than his 73.9 mph in 2025, so the power is still there.

If he’s healthy, the Yankees have enough reasons to believe he will eventually figure things out and the talent will speak for itself. Chisholm is, at least, stealing bases and playing solid defense. But the team needs him to hit, too. He appears to be having a particularly bad time with breaking pitches — after posting a .326 xwOBA last year against this specific pitch type, he is at an alarmingly low .205 in 2026. Additionally, Chisholm might be too passive at times. His zone swing percentage is at 60.7, the lowest since his rookie season by a considerable margin, and his first-pitch swing percentage is at 31.5, his lowest mark since 2023. It’s all about having good takes, working the count, and putting up good hacks on hittable pitches, so he should eventually get to where he wants to be. A little more aggressiveness should also help him.

Expecting Chisholm to be a 72-wRC+ hitter when he finished the last two years at 111 and 126, respectively, would be foolish. However, denying that he has a lot of work to do to get his best swing back would be, too. Baseball is a game of constant adjustments, and Chisholm will need to spot the problematic areas and work on them to improve. He’s too good to be this bad, if that makes sense.

It’s been a tremendous season of Cubs baseball so far with the team putting together two 10-game winning streaks and still in the midst of a 15-game home winning streak before Memorial Day. Neither of those events have happened since 1935, and you know when a team with a 150-year history is doing things that haven’t been done in more than 90 years good things could be on the horizon.

Unfortunately, there are also storm clouds brewing for Major League Baseball as a whole. Earlier this week the MLBPA and MLB presented their opening proposals for this offseason’s looming CBA negotiations. Al already covered the main headlines from Tuesday’s meeting. I’m not going to rehash that here. “Reading the CBA leaves” will be a periodic column here at BCB covering some of the elements that may not be getting the headline on a particular day, but are just as important to understanding the coming CBA battle. Sometimes, like today, it will highlight stories from the last year that are important context for current conversations, other days it might look at under-covered stories from the negotiations or historical context from previous CBA negotiations.

As I was reading coverage of this week’s meeting, I couldn’t help but think of a couple of developments in the last year that really color how contentious the bargaining next offseason could be, specifically, how things actually went when Commissioner Rob Manfred acted on his preferred strategy of “to get directly to the players.”

That’s a reference from this section of Evan Drellich’s piece in The Athletic:

MLB has not explicitly said it will propose a cap but commissioner Rob Manfred has made many references to major economic change.

“The strategy is to get directly to the players,” Manfred said last summer. “I don’t think the leadership of this union is anxious to lead the way to change. So we need to energize the workforce in order to get them familiar with or supportive of the idea that maybe change in the system could be good for everybody.”

It’s curious that Manfred believes his best strategy is to go straight to the players considering the MLBPA has long been opposed to a salary cap. Frankly, MLB heading into clubhouses to hash out their preferences with the players seems akin to union busting tactics that require employees to attend management led meetings that suggest management has the best interest of employees at heart.

Apparently some players felt similarly last summer as MLB made their tour of clubhouses. Who can forget the tension that arose between Manfred and Bryce Harper when MLB visited the Phillies clubhouse last season? Here at reading the CBA leaves we’re all about refreshing your memory:

Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper stood nose to nose with Rob Manfred during a meeting between the Major League Baseball commissioner and the team last week, telling him to “get the f— out of our clubhouse” if Manfred wanted to talk about the potential implementation of a salary cap, sources told ESPN on Monday.

The confrontation came in a meeting — one of the 30 that Manfred conducts annually in an effort to improve his relations with every team’s players — that lasted more than an hour. Though Manfred never explicitly said the words “salary cap,” sources said the discussion about the game’s economics raised the ire of Harper, one of MLB’s most influential players and a two-time National League MVP.

That’s not a “friendly meeting” to talk about what MLB believes is in the players’ best interest. That’s a team leader reacting in a pretty predictable way to MLB campaigning for the economics behind their salary cap argument in a team clubhouse.

In fact, last offseason we got more information about that meeting in Newsweek and via the Agent Provocateur podcast that I wrote up for BCB at the time:

Manfred was visiting with the Phillies as part of an annual visit he hosts with all 30 clubs’ players. Harper reportedly told Manfred to “get the (expletive) out of our clubhouse,” when Manfred mentioned the idea of a salary cap. Manfred reportedly replied by saying he would not leave and continued the meeting.

Those details from ESPN were the only details on the altercation until a new report from sports agent Allan Walsh. During an appearance on “Agent Provocateur,” Walsh reported that, later, a “deputy” of Manfred’s allegedly threatened Harper.

“Don’t ever say that again to the commissioner,” Walsh said, quoting what was allegedly said to Harper. “Don’t ever disrespect him again publicly like that. That’s how people end up in a ditch.”

It later came out this was Mark DeRosa who was “making a bad joke” as Molly Knight posted on Bluesky:

To be clear, I love DeRosa as much as any Cubs fan who cheered for the team circa 2007. I’m also not sure it’s that much better to have likeable guys who are great on TV cracking jokes to current players about ending “up in a ditch” for disrespecting the Commissioner of MLB.

The bottom line is there is a lot of subtext buried in Rob Manfred’s friendly campaign to chat with the players directly. According to the excellent CBA primer published at ESPN this week, last time a disconnect between the MLBPA Executive Committee and the rank and file players is what ultimately ended to lockout:

Near the end of the previous CBA negotiations, the executive committee — a group of active players elected to represent their peers — unanimously recommended rejecting the owners’ last offer. However, the rank-and-file overwhelmingly voted to go back to work, rejecting the advice of their leadership.

A question, then, will hover over these forthcoming talks: Will the rank-and-file be in lockstep with whatever direction the union leadership points? A critical element during the players’ strike that ended the 1994 season and impacted the start of the 1995 campaign is that, generally speaking, the players maintained a resolute front with the leadership and the players unified. — Olney

It seems plausible that fissure is what Manfred and company are hoping to exploit as one place to gain leverage on pushing a salary cap and floor in this year’s negotiations. That’s an argument MLB has failed to win in the past and it’s a key element to keep an eye on as the sides stake out their ground for the terms of the next CBA.