Category: MLB

The Braves were going for a series win on Saturday, in a matchup of back-of-the-rotation starters.

As one might expect, given the pitchers involved, there were baserunners scattered throughout the early innings. The Orioles struck first in the third, as Jim Jarvis committed an error and didn’t make another play on a hard line drive, allowing a run to score. Bryce Elder’s first fly ball of the game allowed a second Baltimore run in the fifth on a Gunnar Henderson homer. It was a very unusual start for Elder as he struck out 8 batters and walked 4, but ultimately completed 5.0 innings with only the 1 earned run on the homer, which the Braves will take any day. Matt Olson correctly challenged a strike 3 call, turning it into ball 4, and ended up scoring on a Michael Harris double for the Braves’ first run, making that challenge pretty huge.

Victor Mederos was first out of the bullpen in the sixth and looked like he had completed 2.0 scoreless innings when he induced a pop-up to shortstop from Pete Alonso, but Jim Jarvis again dropped the ball, landing runners on the corners still with two outs for Gunnar Henderson. Mederos struck out Henderson and was fired up leaving the game, as he had struck out 3 Orioles over 2.0 scoreless innings and continues to look like a nice bullpen find. His outing became even bigger as lefty Ozzie cranked a homer over the right field wall to lead off the eighth inning, tying the ballgame up at 2 runs.

That was all the offense was able to do in the eighth, so Didier Fuentes took over and cruised his way through the eighth with two strikeouts and a soft lineout. After a quiet frame from the bottom of Atlanta’s lineup vs the back of Baltimore’s bullpen, Fuentes was sent back out to hopefully shut down the ninth and send the game to extra innings. Jackson Holliday doubled with one out to create a threat and moved to third on a deep flyout for the second out. A soft single from Beavers in the leadoff spot ended the game, handing the Orioles a 3-2 victory.

Join us tomorrow for the rubber-match in Camden at 1:35 PM ET.

Anticipating a fine pitchers duel on a fine afternoon, I asked who had it better than us at the start of today’s game. The answer ended up being Blue Jays fans.

Dylan Cease, in the midst of a season that is going to end with Cy Young votes if not the award itself, held up his end of the bargain. He threatened to throw a perfect game, in fact, not allowing a single Red Sox baserunner until Caleb Durbin walked in the fifth, and ultimately finishing off a virtuoso complete game performance with 12 strikeouts.

Sonny Gray, on the other hand, did not look so great. Remember the Sonny we saw early in season, the guy who, even when he finished with a perfectly cromulent line, struggled to put hitters away? He was back today. In fact, Gray would get to a two-strike count five times in the third inning alone, failing to retire the hitter each time as the Jays plated five runs and effectively ended the game.

We all know how taxed the Red Sox rotation is going to be down the stretch. Payton Tolle and Jake Bennett are going to run up against innings limits. Connelly Early will, too, when he returns. Patrick Sandoval has looked shaky and Brayan Bello continues to mystify. Garrett Crochet’s arm may or may not be attached to his body — team messaging has been inconsistent on this point. If the Sox are going to make the playoffs, they are going to need Sonny Gray and Ranger Suárez to carry them there. Let’s hope this today represents a minor blip in what will otherwise continue to be a strong campaign for Sonny

The Lonely Stud

Alec Gamboa has now made seven appearances for the 2026 Red Sox. He has allowed hits in only three of those, and runs in only two. In throwing four one-run innings today, he saved the bullpen on what could’ve turned into a much uglier day for the Sox. This is the type of performance that could net the Sox an extra W in the week ahead.

Duds

Pretty much everyone else.

Play of the Game

Hey, at least we got yet another Ceddanne web gem.

Andre Pallante did what the St. Louis Cardinals asked him to do. He was lights out sharp again, but something unusual happened. For once, the Cardinals offense gave him some run support, but it took awhile. Misplays by the Reds didn’t hurt either.

The Cardinals got off to a fast start in the bottom of the 1st inning, but they frankly should have had more to show for it. JJ Wetherholt reached on an error from Elly De La Cruz on a ball up the middle that he mishandled. Jordan Walker reached on another ball that was misplayed by Cruz although this one technically was a single as it soared just barely above Cruz into short left field. Alec Burleson then singled to left which surprisingly scored JJ Wetherholt as he and the Reds appeared surprised that he got the go sign from Pop Warner at third base giving St. Louis an early 1-0 lead.

That would sadly be the only runs the Cardinals would get in the 1st as Iván Herrera struck out and then Lars Nootbaar hit into a double play. It was another moment of Déjà vu as St. Louis scored, but left a lot of runners in scoring position on the table. They would redeem themselves later, though.

The game would cruise along with the Cardinals hanging on to their narrow 1-0 lead while Andre Pallante was dealing. Through the top of the 6th inning, Andre only allowed 2 Reds hits while striking out 7 and walking just 1. This was as good as it gets for Pallante.

His offense would finally wake up in the bottom of the 6th inning. It started when JJ Wetherholt drew a leadoff walk. After Jordan Walker fouled out, the St. Louis offense erupted. Alec Burleson singled and then Iván Herrera doubled which scored both Wetherholt and Burleson giving the Cardinals some breathing room at 3-0.

Fortunately, they were just getting started. Lars Nootbaar walked followed by a single from Masyn Winn to right to load the bases. Bryan Torres got in on the fun as he singled to right making it 4-0 St. Louis. Blaze Jordan added his own single scoring Nootbaar and Winn giving the Cardinals a 6-0 lead. The final tally of the Cardinals 6th was a sacrifice bunt by Nathan Church which scored Bryan Torres upping the St. Louis lead to 7-0. It’s been way too long since I’ve been able to include such a large crooked number for the Cardinals. FINALLY.

The only remaining question Saturday night was whether the Cardinals bullpen could protect Pallante’s great start. Gordon Graceffo took over in the top of the 8th inning. He kept the game refreshingly drama-free keeping the Reds from mounting a threat in the 8th. The 9th inning was a bit more eventful with Gordon giving out a leadoff walk to De La Cruz followed by a single from Sal Stewart. The boo birds started raining down on Graceffo when he walked JJ Bleday to load the bases. He fortunately struck Suarez out looking with a nasty 88 mph changeup for the first out. That same changeup also fooled Stephenson for the second out. All Gordon needed to do was shut down Marte which he did getting a groundout for the final out and barely preserving the shutout.

The St. Louis Cardinals will try to win the series Sunday afternoon as Kyle Leahy will start for the Cardinals. Lefty Andrew Abbott will take the mound for the dastardly Reds. First pitch scheduled for 1:15pm Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium with the TV broadcast being handled by Cardinals.tv.

There was a bizarre moment during Saturday night’s middle game between the Braves and the Orioles. Eli White was pinch-hitting for Mike Yastrzemski in the seventh inning and hit one down the line for what was presumably going to be a double for the outfielder.

Well, it did end up being a double but White stumbled while turning towards second and eventually fell down halfway towards the bag. Fortunately, the throw from Dylan Beavers in right field wasn’t fielded cleanly and White was able to make it into second base with a double after all.

Still, the Braves training staff checked on White and while he did stay in the game, he eventually gave way to Brewer Hicklen once it was his turn to bat.

We’ll have more on the situation as it develops but I suppose you can just chalk this up as yet another bizarre injury moment for the Braves in recent years. Hopefully Eli White is okay going forward.

July has been tough on Jung Hoo Lee.

Tough, especially after a June in which he hit .340 with an .858 OPS and peaked with a two hit night against the Athletics that raised his batting average to a season high .333 on June 23rd. Knocks were coming off his bat like water from a hose. Grounders found holes, flares frolicked in open fields, liners hugged the lines. But for many high contact, low hard-hit guys like Lee the spigot can close just as easily as it can open. The seventh month wasn’t so lucky.

Over 67 at-bats prior to Saturday, he hit just .224 with a .541 OPS. Last night’s 0-for-4 performance saw his batting average drop below the .300 mark for the first time since May 31st. In his first at-bat against Angels’ starter Ryan Johnson, Lee seemed like a completely different person to the hitter he was during his 18-game hitting streak. The right-hander’s two-step motion and sling-y delivery had him flailing. He unhinged a swing on an elevated 2-1 sweeper and the bat nearly flew out of his hands. Next pitch, his helmet flew off whiffing at an inside cutter. Grandson of the Wind? More like Generator of the Wind! It’s jokes like that which made Lee into one of the greatest hitters in recent KBO history. He had had enough. His typically stoic expression turned stony as he walked back to the dugout. It wasn’t the missed cutter that irked him — that was a good pitch — but the breaking ball, lazily flipped out over the plate. Instead of getting off his best swing, he nearly ripped his shoulder out of his socket. That was unacceptable.

An inning later, the offense had Johnson on the ropes. The inherent funk of his motion had bought him a free pass first time through the order, but once the line-up flipped back over for second licks, the situation had changed.

Both Luis Arraez and Heliot Ramos singled. With runners at the corners and one out, Johnson got Eldridge to strikeout, but didn’t have the same success against Rafael Devers and Casey Schmitt. Back-to-back RBI singles got the Giants on the scoreboard and encouraged LA pitching coach Mike Maddux to chat with the 23 year old starter. 

The transcript from mound visit probably went something like this: Hey, man, deep breath, you’re doing fine, just take a deep breath, calm down, one more out and you’re through this inning, just trust your stuff, stick to your game plan, don’t over think anything, stick to your game plan, okay, trust the preparation, you know what you got to do, remember how bad Lee looked  on that sweeper in the last at-bat, jumping out of his shoes, he looked like s*** swinging at that thing, grandson of the wind, more like generator of the wind, haha, like a fan, yeah, so do that again, that’s the game plan,he’s not looking for your breaking ball, you stole a strike with it to start the at-bat, you made him look bad with it for strike two, then you got him with the cutter, pitch him backwards, start with the sweeper, throw that sweeper, trust it, it’ll be awesome, okay, the umpire is coming so I gotta go, you’re gonna do great, I’m so proud of you, sweeper, throw it, okay, see you in a bit, bye. 

The takeaway for Johnson: Throw the sweeper because my coach says so and he believes in me. 

What happened: Johnson threw the sweeper. First pitch. Lee knew he would.  

The 3-run homer was Lee’s sixth of the year, his first since June 23rd, and jump-started a pretty dang pleasant afternoon. He collected a double off lefty reliever Brent Suter in his next at-bat, tracked down an over-the-head liner to end the 4th, and recorded a Dolly Parton assist (9-5) in the 6th.   

Lee wasn’t the only one who enjoyed their day. The deliverer of walk-offs, Rafael Devers, came up a triple shy of the cycle. He picked up Eldridge after his strikeout with a 2-out RBI single in the 3rd, and with two outs again, he ripped a gorgeous line-drive over the wall in left-center. 

A 106 MPH punch like that is not something Suter gives up often. His 29.8% hard-hit rate is in the 95th percentile of pitchers. Like Tyler Rogers, he’s a master of dead-fish contact. He’s also a lefty, and for whatever reason, Devers has been completely baffled by southpaws in 2026. Before his homer, he was batting .181 with .530 OPS and a 49 wRC+, which is about as ineffective as you can get in that split. For most of the at-bat, right up until the end, that season-long struggle was evident. Devers waved over two of Suter’s slow-mo change-ups, and fouled off another with an awkward emergency swing. He didn’t look particularly comfortable at the plate. Suter could’ve kept spinning that offspeed, and eventually, Devers would’ve swung through one — but the reliever decided to get cute and tried to sneak a 90 MPH four-seam fastball by him. Devers clocked it and then CLOCKED it. 

Another three-run swing that pumped up the lead to 9 runs, putting the game out of reach of Los Angeles bats and more importantly, Giants relievers. While the offense efficiently piled up 9 runs on 9 hits over the first four frames, starter Robbie Ray quietly went about his business. The extended time on the bench between halves didn’t bother him. He wasn’t dominant, nor was he batted around. Five of the six hits he scattered across his six shutout innings were singles. He needed just 80 pitches before Tony Vitello elected to give Tristan Beck and eventually Keaton Winn some low-leverage, no-pressure reps.

It wasn’t pretty, nor did it look easy at times — they walked three, hit a batter, gave up three hits and two runs, but they got through it.

9-2 final. Proud of you boys.

When the Phillies struggle on offense as a collective, there is usually a simple recipe for it:

1. The stars slump
2. Everyone starts pressing and swinging at bad pitches
3. There are bad swing decisions

Wash, rinse, repeat.

The offense is in the middle of one of those stretches right now where everyone is trying to do too much, swinging at bad pitches, trying to hit a seven run home run and now, we have a four game losing streak.

And tonight, they even struck first! Trea Turner gets hit by a pitch, Kyle Schwarber doubles, newly shorn Bryce Harper hits a sacrifice fly and all of a sudden, there is a 1-0 Phillies lead and a runner on third base. Little did we know that that was the only run that would be scored on the evening.

On the mound, Tim Mayza was the opener and did a fine job over two shutout innings, giving way to Brian Keller in his major league debut. Keller did give up a home run to Austin Wells, but for the most part, did just fine in keeping the Yankees off the board, only allowing a single run over three innings. Clearly, the coaching staff did not want Keller out there too long, instead opting to go to the bullpen in the sixth inning instead.

In that inning, Kyle Backhus walked the first hitter he faced before getting the next two on strikeouts, giving way to Seth Johnson. Johnson looked like a decent candidate to break out as a reliever, but it just has not come to fruition. He gave up back to back hits to allow Wells to score and give the Yankees the lead.

Meanwhile, the offense was generating some traffic against Weathers, but couldn’t push anything across. In the sixth, they got runners on the corners with Bryan de la Cruz and J.T. Realmuto each singling, but facing Angel Chivilli, Bryson Stott popped out into foul territory to end the threat. The Yankees tacked on another in the seventh on a Jasson Dominguez home run and that was basically that.

The offense is just slumping so badly right now and everyone is trying to swing their way out of it. The Yankees have been pitching well prior to this series and have carried it over into Philadelphia, but still, there should be better at bats coming from this lineup. They’ll try and salvage a game tomorrow night on Sunday Night Baseball with Cristopher Sanchez on the mound, so we’ll see.

The Yankees' pitching staff kept the vaunted Phillies lineup at bay for the second game in a row as they defeated Philadelphia, 3-1, on Saturday night.

Both teams had seven hits, but the Phillies were 0-for-7 with eight left on base.

In the first two games of this weekend series, the Yankees staff has allowed just one run.

Here are the takeaways...

-- The Phillies made Ryan Weathers work early. Trea Turner led off the game by getting hit by a pitch before Kyle Schwarber doubled to put runners on second and third and no outs. Bryce Harper drove in the game's first run with a sac fly, but Weathers worked out of further trouble, getting a ground out and a strikeout. 

Weathers would work out of trouble a few times, getting strikeouts when needed and taking advantage of over-aggressive Phillies hitters.

Weathers pitched into the sixth inning, getting the first two outs and was on the verge of completing the inning, getting Bryan De La Cruz to hit a soft grounder toward the first base side, but Weathers was caught in between going for the ball and covering the base, and De La Cruz made it on safely. That spelled the end of Weathers' night as Aaron Boone went to his bullpen. 

Angel Chivilli was the first out and gave up a single to J.T. Realmuto, but Cody Bellinger covered a lot of ground to get a Bryson Stott flyout in foul territory to end the threat and put a bow on Weathers' night. 

Weathers allowed one run on six hits and one walk while striking out seven across 5.2 innings (97 pitches/66 strikes). 

-- The Yankees lineup struggled yet again. They were shut down by former Yankee Tim Mayza for two innings before giving way to Brian Keller, making his major league debut. But Austin Wells got to the young right-hander, taking him deep to tie the game at 1-1. The blast went 430 feet and Wells took Keller the opposite way for his seventh homer of the season.

New York would finally take the lead in the sixth. Bellinger hit a two-out single to score Wells from second, who led off with a walk. The single was set up when Turner could not come up with a behind-the-shoulder catch in shallow left field on a bloop by Paul Goldschmidt. It would have ended the inning.

-- Jasson Dominguez would tack on in the seventh, taking Jose Alvarado deep to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead. Dominguez hit it 420 feet from the right side.

-- Paul Blackburn pitched two shutout innings after Chivilli, allowing just one baserunner (walk), to lower his ERA to 1.93 on the season. And David Bednar pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to lock down his 20th save of the season.

-- Bellinger finished 2-for-4, but was pulled in the eighth inning after stretching out a single into a double. It looked as if Bellinger came up lame going from first to second base. 

Game MVP: Yankees pitching staff

The combination of Weathers, Chivilli, Blackburn and Bednar kept the Phillies off balance

Highlights

Solo homer for Austin Wells! pic.twitter.com/HGrhNNZ1sE

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 25, 2026

Austin Wells scores off of a Cody Bellinger RBI singlepic.twitter.com/oV5wofBOs2

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 25, 2026

Jasson Domínguez homers to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead! pic.twitter.com/qBrxIn8G6z

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 25, 2026

What's next

The Yankees and Phillies wrap up their weekend series Sunday night. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.

Will Warren (7-4, 4.00 ERA) will take the mound against Cristopher Sanchez (12-4, 2.71 ERA). 

I figure our chances are good to take two out of three from the Washington Nationals in the nation’s capital this weekend, but as I thought when I read over the series preview for this one, I figured this was the one we were most likely to drop. It was a matchup of soft-tossing lefties, with Mitch Bratt going for us in only his fourth Major League start, while Foster Griffin, who has clearly emerged as the ace of the Nationals’ staff this season and who pitched a scoreless inning for the National League in the All-Star Game the other week, was going for them. Sad to say, it went pretty much as I expected.

Bratt, who hadn’t gotten through five innings in his first three starts, was looking good early for us, even as the team around him wasn’t helping him out so much. He pitched around a one-out walk in the first to put up a zero in a 13 pitch inning, and then he put up another zero in the second despite having two strikes called as balls (and not challenged by James McCann, who was behind the dish for us this afternoon) to put the leadoff man on base with a “walk”, followed by Ketel Marte botching an easy double-play grounder with one out that would have ended the inning but instead went for an error. At that point, Bratt should have been out of the inning, but instead, he had runners on first and second with only one out. Much to the young man’s credit, he didn’t get visibly upset or rattled, but instead got back to work and recorded the last two outs efficiently enough that, despite the mishaps around him, he only needed 17 pitches total to close out the inning. This put him at 30 pitches through two, with no runs allowed, which was a very good sign.

Meanwhile, our newly reshuffled top of the lineup—Corbin Carroll batting first, Gabriel Moreno in the three spot, Ketel Marte batting cleanup for the first time in his career—couldn’t do anything against Griffin in their first time through. Our first baserunner was Nolan Arenado, who drew a four pitch walk with two outs in the second, and who was advanced to second by our first hit, a Tim Tawa ground ball single to left. James McCann, batting eighth, couldn’t do anything with it, though, so the game remained scoreless through two.

We finally drew first blood in the top of the third. Paul Waldschmidt beat out an infield single on the ninth pitch of a very good and patient at bat. Griffin then hit Carroll in the ribs with a pitch to put runners on first and second. Perdomo laid down a perfect bunt to advance the runners into scoring position with one out, and then Moreno blooped a single into center that drove in both Waldschmidt and Carroll:

Sadly, as you can see at the end of the clip above, Gabi tried to stretch his single into a double as the throw from center came to the plate, but Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz immediately threw to second and Gabi was out by a mile. Ketel Marte then flew out to right to end things there, but what the heck, we had a lead! 2-0 D-BACKS

The lead was very short-lived, though, as it turned out, as Mitch Bratt came out for the bottom of the third to start his second time through the Nationals’ batting order, and it…. didn’t go great. He struck out James Wood on four pitches to start things off, but then surrendered either walks or base hits to the next seven batters in the Nationals’ lineup. The exact sequence was walk-double-double-walk-single-triple-walk, with four Nationals crossing the plate. Bratt did pick off CJ Abrams as he tried to steal third, thanks in large measure to a great play by Nolan Arenado on the back end, which was nifty, but he wound up getting through the entire Nationals lineup a second time in that inning, finally getting Kelbert Ruiz to pop out to shallow center for the final out. 4-2 Washington

Bratt then surrendered a leadoff single to James Wood to lead off the bottom of the fourth, but that was promptly erased by a quick double play, and a pop-up on the infield for the third out in a good 10-pitch inning for the kid. He did surrender a leadoff home run to CJ Abrams to start the bottom of the fifth, and then gave up a one-out single to Washington center fielder Jacob Young that led to Young then stealing both second and third before young Mitch managed to record the final out and, for the first time in his major league career, completing five innings of work. 5-2 Washington

Meanwhile, after those two runs we’d scored in the third, we didn’t even have another baserunner off Griffin until Ildemaro Vargas led off the top of the seventh with a line single to left. He was promptly erased by a Nolan Arenado one-pitch double play groundout, but Tim Tawa followed that dismal performance with a double to left, and then James McCann singled to right to drive him in. That finally chased Griffin from the game—he had thrown 108 pitches at that point—and it was bullpens all the way home.

Happily, our bullpen put up zeros, with two innings of scoreless ball byu bullpen newcomer and guy I’d honestly never heard of Gerardo Carrillo, and one perfectly clean inning from Taylor Clarke. Sadly, their much-maligned bullpen did the same, retiring the last seven Diamondbacks hitters in order to secure the win for the Nationals.

Loss Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

Heroes: none
Sinister Sidekick: Nolan Arenado (3 AB, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, -10% WPA)
Villain of the Piece: Mitch Bratt (5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, 1 HR, -32% WPA)

In Bratt’s Defense

To be fair, I thought that Bratt actually showed a lot of fortitude, and despite the fact that, yeah, his starting performance lost the game for us, there were some good things:

• The innings he pitched well, he was very efficient (13 pitches in the first, 17 pitches in the second despite the foolery behind him, 10 pitches in the fourth);
• The way he didn’t let Marte’s error behind him mess him up or melt him down, unlike how we’ve seen certain former aces and protein drink spokespeople become unglued;
• The way that he kept grinding through that interminable bottom of the third, despite getting apparently no support from his catcher or his pitching couch (there were no mound visits recorded in that half inning, even though this 23-year-old kid was getting lit up by the best offense in baseball and allowed seven Nationals hitters in a row to reach base).

And that leads in nicely to the Gameday Thread stuff, and the Comment of the Game. It was a reasonably well-attended thread, with 231 comments at time of writing and a number that went Sedona Red. Most of the top rec-getters were various people’s hello posts, so I had to dig into the response comments to find today’s CotG, which goes to VWBeetle, with an assist from kilnborn:

I agree with this wholeheartedly—both comments, in fact. Well said.

So once more we head on into Sunday with the rubber match of a series awaiting us. Kohl Drake takes the mound for us in only his second major league start, while Veteran Presnce (TM) and innings absorber Miles Mikolas goes for Washington. Make sure you have some coffee and/or mimosas ready, as this one is full-on morning baseball, with first pitch scheduled for 10:35am AZ time. TheReal Ramona will have the recap, making this an all-Tucson recap weekend….I hope you can join us!

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!

Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger was pulled from Saturday's game against the Phillies with what the team later called a hamstring injury.

In the eighth, Bellinger hit a bloop single that he stretched into a double. Bellinger seemingly pulled up going from first to second. Bellinger did run the bases to finish the inning, waving off the trainers in the dugout. But once the inning came to a close, the broadcast showed Bellinger walking back to the dugout gingerly and shaking his head at his manager.

Bellinger went 2-for-4 with an RBI single before being pulled.

The Yankees replaced him with Max Schuemann for the remainder of the game.

"Hammy grabbed on him going to second base," Aaron Boone said after the win. "We’ll see what we have. Obviously getting up and see what next steps are."

He added, "I don’t want to speculate too much on it. Looks like it could be something. But we’ll have a better idea getting up, and if we need to get tests and where we go from there."

Bellinger said he hopes to avoid an IL stint but won't know until tests are done.

"It just feels a little tight," Bellinger told the media, including MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. "I really don't think it's anything too serious."

Boone expects the Yankees will piece it together moving forward for however long Bellinger is down for. Boone said with left-hander Cristopher Sanchez set to pitch Sunday's series finale, Schuemann was going to be in the lineup already, so that will likely be who plays in the outfield. 

If Bellinger were to miss time, it would be a big blow to the Yankees, who are already without Aaron Judge. 

Bellinger is slashing .259/.350/.420 with an OPS of .770 to go along with his 11 home runs and 53 RBI. He's also playing Gold Glove-level defense in left field and was this year's All-Star Game MVP.

“He’s a huge member of our team and what we do. And a tremendous all-around player," Boone said of Bellinger's impact. "Hopefully, whether it’s some time or not, hopefully it’s on the minor side, but we’ll see." 

Cody Bellinger exited the game between innings after legging out a double pic.twitter.com/dOpdXv6LRm

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 26, 2026

PHILADELPHIA — Like the Ghost of Trade Deadlines Past, Camilo Doval remains in the Yankee bullpen.

While David Bednar has performed well — and been excellent of late — in the closer role, the other late-game reliever the Yankees picked up a year ago still hasn’t found a role in which he’s had any success with the Yankees.

So far, the Yankees haven’t given up on the hard-throwing right-hander, as they have appeared to with Jake Bird, another bust of the 2025 deadline.

Still, Doval entered Saturday’s 3-1 win over the Phillies having not pitched a scoreless inning in a Yankee victory since June 14.

He’s fallen behind just about everyone in the bullpen, from high-leverage relievers like Bednar and Fernando Cruz to lefties Tim Hill and Brent Headrick, as well as Paul Blackburn and even Angel Chivilli, who has shown promise lately.

After giving up 10 runs — four earned — in three appearances to start the month, the right-hander has tossed two scoreless outings, but still walked four in 2 ⅓ innings.

Aaron Boone, before Saturday’s game, said he wasn’t ready to write off Doval just yet.

“I’m hoping he works his way back into a significant role,’’ Boone said. “We cast off people all the time during a long major league season and the reality is, things change and they can change in a hurry sometimes.”

It’s been nearly a year, though, since Doval arrived from the Giants before last year’s deadline, where he was having a solid bounceback season after an ugly 2024.

But since arriving in The Bronx, Doval has seen his WHIP jump from 1.261 in four-plus seasons with the Giants to 1.473 as a Yankee.

Not only has he given up more base runners, he’s also allowed more homers and struck out fewer batters.

He hasn’t gotten meaningful outs in a win in over a month.

Boone said Saturday the team had tried to get Doval in “positions where it’s the best chance to be successful and hope from there things snowball because there’s a lot of things to like there.”

Other than throwing hard, Doval hasn’t come as advertised with the Yankees, who have seen other relievers emerge in his place.

But the fact Doval can hit triple digits and has the ability to strike people out continues to tantalize the Yankees — and perhaps it will persuade another team to buy low on him at the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

As of now, though, it’s hard to imagine his stock being any lower.

“Guys as talented as Camilo, there are stories every year of guys flipping the script over the course of a year,’’ Boone said. “We hope to do that with Camilo.”

PHILADELPHIA — Aaron Judge continues to feel better in his recovery from a right rib fracture, just not good enough for significant progress. 

Ten days after undergoing imaging on his right rib stress fracture that showed healing but not to the extent that allowed him to be cleared for baseball activities, the Yankees captain remains in a holding pattern while waiting on more healing. 

“I know the last couple days, in my conversations with him before I came on the trip, he felt quite a bit better and was encouraged with how he was feeling,” manager Aaron Boone said Saturday at Citizens Bank Park, before the Yankees defeated the Phillies 3-1. “I know he’s been rehabbing at home, I think he’s coming down here maybe [Sunday]. We’re just in that still letting-it-heal mode to the end.” 

It has now been almost two months since Judge played in a game — May 31 — and the Yankees entered Saturday 22-22 without him.

The Yankees continue to say they expect him back at some point this season, but a timeline for that to actually happen is impossible to know until he is cleared for baseball activities — which won’t be done until another round of imaging shows more healing. 

In the meantime, the Yankees offense has been a shell of itself without the back-to-back AL MVP. 

Since June 1 — the day after Judge played his last game — the Yankees’ four runs per game were the fifth lowest in the majors.

Their 89 wRC+ (weighted runs created, where 100 is league average) was the third-worst.

Their .680 OPS was the fourth-worst, their .223 batting average the second-worst and their .286 on-base percentage the worst.

Their 26 percent strikeout rate was also the worst, and their 7.7 percent walk rate the sixth-worst. 

The Nats needed to win this game in order to stay in the hunt, and that is exactly what they did. In their most important game in years, the Nats held their nerve and battled to a 5-3 win. It was not a perfect performance by any means, but they did enough to get a curly W, which is all that matters.

For the first couple innings, the Nats offense picked up where they left off last night. They looked listless against the soft tossing Mitch Bratt. That made the D-Backs two run third inning even more worrisome. Foster Griffin was shaky early on, having to escape some jams. He could not quite wiggle out of the third inning though. Griffin allowed a 2-run single to one of the games most underrated players in Gabriel Moreno.

However, as this team has done all season long, the Nats responded. They began to figure out Bratt as they faced him a second time. After a Curtis Mead walk and Andres Chaparro double, the boys were in business. CJ Abrams came up with yet another huge hit, doubling in the gap to tie the game.

Abrams made a bone-headed mistake afterwards though, immediately getting picked off. However, the Nats restarted the rally with a walk and a hit. That brought up Daylen Lile, who has not been great with runners in scoring position this season. This time the 23 year old came through, hitting a triple, something he has become famous for. That gave the Nats a 4-2 lead.

It took a while for Lile to get his first triple, but once he did, they are starting to come in bunches again. He now has five triples on the season, after hitting 11 last year as a rookie. Lile has been somewhat disappointing this year, but he is still holding his own for the most part, and is still very young at 23. He has also made some massive leaps on the defensive side of the ball. I am still a big believer in Lile despite a bit of a sophomore slump.

One player who is not having a slump by any definition of the term is CJ Abrams. The Nats shortstop is having a career year, and is only picking things up in the second half. He went 3 for 4 today, finishing a triple shy of the cycle. His solo homer in the 5th made the game 5-2. The Nats did not score after that despite threatening. However, those five runs would be enough today.

Abrams is just having a monster year. He is hitting .293 with a .921 OPS to go along with 25 homers and a Major League leading 79 RBI’s. The speedy shortstop also has 17 steals to go along with that power production. Abrams has been the best offensive shortstop in baseball this season, and it is not particularly close. The Alien has been out of this world in 2026.

As we have discussed, the second half has been a bit of a bugaboo for Abrams the past couple years. However, he has come back from the All-Star Break firing on all cylinders. In his last six games, Abrams is 14 for 25 with 5 homers. You can do the math on the batting average, but all I know is that it is pretty good.

Besides Abrams, the biggest story of the game was the pitching. With trade rumors swirling around him and Abrams, Foster Griffin got the start today. This was not the sharpest we have seen Griffin, but he still went 6.2 innings, allowing three runs. If this is the last, or one of the last starts we see Foster Griffin make in a Nats uniform, all I can say is thank you Foster. He has been such a breath of fresh air and a joy to watch.

Griffin delivering a quality start was not much of a surprise. However, what followed him was a little surprising. Eddy Yean and Clayton Beeter were absolutely fantastic coming out of the bullpen. The duo went 2.1 innings without allowing a baserunner. They shut things down in a drama free manner, which is a pleasant sight for all Nats fans.

Yean in particular has been a revelation for this team. The hard throwing righty is starting to find his way into high leverage spots for the Nats. His power sinker and confident demeanor seem like a fit in the back of the bullpen. It does not take much to rise up the trust tree of Nats relievers, but right now Yean might be on the top of that list.

He is not scared to pound the zone with his power stuff and attack hitters. It is easier for a guy with his velocity to attack guys without fearing the consequences. Yean just has more margin for error, and he knows it. This is just a guy pitching with a ton of confidence.

This was a must win game, and the boys rose to the occasion. There were still some missed opportunities on the offensive side of the ball, but they did enough. Tomorrow, they will close out this series against the D-Backs with a huge rubber match. They will face another rookie lefty in Kohl Drake, so hopefully they can take advantage of that. With the deadline looming, every game is amplified, especially against a direct Wild Card contender like the D-Backs.

Shohei Ohtani’s throwing program has stalled, with the Dodgers star canceling a bullpen session the team had tentatively scheduled for Saturday.

“Just doesn’t feel 100%,” manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani’s left knee. “And because I think that the last ‘pen that he had, there was a little bit of regression. So we want to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”

It was going to be Ohtani’s second bullpen since receiving an orthovisc injection in his knee on July 12. He threw a roughly 30-pitch side session on Wednesday.

Read more:Kyle Tucker homers again, shows flashes of his past form in Dodgers' win over Mets

It’s unclear when he’ll throw off the mound next. But Roberts said he’s still optimistic that Ohtani will return to the rotation sometime in August.

“It was obviously not ideal, him throwing his last bullpen and going backwards, essentially,” Roberts said. “So obviously that’s disappointing because you throw a bullpen to continue to build up. So that was disappointing. But as far as worry, concern, we don’t have any of that.”

Roberts described a “fluid” process, with plenty of input from Ohtani, as he and Dodgers continue to navigate the knee issue. Because only pitching seems to be aggravating the injury, Ohtani will continue to play at designated hitter.

“From his words, the hitting, the running, as he has done the last couple nights, doesn’t affect him,” Roberts said. “So I can only go by what he and the training staff are telling me. So, unless I hear otherwise, that hitting compromises his health, then I’m going to keep putting him in the lineup.”

The Dodgers had initially hoped the injection and time off leading up to the All-Star break would allow him to get past the discomfort in his knee and not have to worry about managing it for the rest of the season.

Read more:Jeff Kent starting to feel like a Hall of Famer this weekend

Though Ohtani feels better than he did before the break, according to Roberts, the team wasn’t envisioning this kind of start-and-stop buildup.

The schedule does the Dodgers some favors. The off day Monday allows them to get through this coming week without filling Ohtani’s spot in the rotation. But in order to keep all their starters on a six- to seven-day rotation, they’ll have to find a replacement — whether that be a bullpen day or another starter — by the first week of August.

Starting pitcher Blake Snell (arthroscopic elbow surgery) is on track to be close to a return from the injured list by then. In his second rehab start this month, he threw 2⅔ innings (49 pitches) for triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday.

He’ll be targeting four innings in his next start, according to Roberts. When asked if he’d need another rehab outing after that, Roberts said: “Let’s just get through that next one. Get through four innings and kind of read and react from there.”

Injury updates

The Dodgers are set to welcome back utility player Kiké Hernández (strained left oblique) and closer Edwin Díaz (arthroscopic elbow surgery) from the injured list early in next week’s homestand.

Hernández is set to be activated Tuesday, as the Dodgers open a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners, Roberts said. And Díaz likely will return Wednesday, sliding back into the closer role that Tanner Scott has held in his absence.

Tyler Glasnow (back spasms) threw about 25 pitches in a one-inning live batting practice session Friday, Roberts said. He’s scheduled to throw to batters again next week.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Blue Jays 6 Red Sox 0

Dylan Cease went nine complete, giving up just one hit (with three walks and twelve strikeouts). He was just amazing, even with Dan telling us he wasn’t throwing as hard as usual.

And the offense did the job.

We got:

• Five in the third: With two out….Nathan Lukes doubled. Vlad singled him home. Kazuma Okamoto singled. And George Springer hit a home run (making up for a base running error the inning before. Springer was on second, Yohendrick Piñango lined a soft one to center, Springer, apparently, thought it would land, but Ceddanne Rafaela made the catch coming in and doubled up Springer. It wasn’t that tough of a catch).
• One in the ninth: Andrés Giménez led off with a single. An out later Lukes doubled. Then Vlad singled home one. Lucky for Vlad, it was deflected by the pitcher, or it would have been an easy out.

We had 15 hits, 14 more than the Red Sox.

Vlad and Ernie had three hits each. Lukes, Springer, Varsho, and Giménez had two each. Brandon Valenzuela and Piñango/Myles Straw (sharing is caring) had 0 fors.

Jays of the Day: Cease (0.27) and Springer (0.26) Honourable Mention to Vlad.

Other Award: Lips (-0.10).

Tomorrow is a 1:30 start time. It is great to start every game at a different time. Kevin Gausman (4-9, 4.91) will try to make up for last start. Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.15) starts for the bad guys.