Category: MLB

The Mets lost 6-2 to the Miami Marlins on Saturday at Citi Field, falling to 47-65 for the season and 7-8 since the All-Star break.

They try for a split of the four-game series with the Marlins on Sunday.

Here are the top takeaways...

-Offense continues to be the Mets’ biggest problem. They’ve scored only eight runs in their last four games, losing three of them, as the absence of Juan Soto is showing.

On Saturday, other than Tyrone Taylor’s two-run home run in the second inning, the Mets had no extra-base hits to go with six singles and put only one runner into scoring position.

-Zac Thornton had his least effective outing since becoming a regular in the starting rotation a month ago, as he allowed four runs, three earned, over 4.2 innings. He allowed nine baserunners, six with hits, three by walks, while getting two strikeouts.

Thornton was hurt early by his defense when Francisco Lindor made an error on the first play of the game, mishandling a routine ball to short.

That led to a run and then Thornton gave up a two-run home run in the second inning to right-handed-hitting Javier Sanoja, who pulled a cutter over the wall in left to give the Marlins a 3-0 lead.

Thornton wasn’t as sharp as he has been in his recent handful of starts, as his pitch count elevated quickly and he was pulled after throwing 94 pitches.

Despite the poor start, the left-hander still has an impressive 2.88 ERA in his six starts this season.

-Taylor’s two-run home run in the second inning continued his hot-hitting over the last month, increasing the intrigue as to whether he’ll be traded by Monday’s deadline.

Since his return from the Injured List on June 26, Taylor is hitting .354 with seven home runs, four doubles, and 14 RBI. He entered Saturday’s game leading the majors in OPS since June 28, at 1.287.

Taylor figures to be valuable to a contender because of his excellent outfield defense, speed on the bases, and his hot bat of late. He can be a free agent after the season so even if he’s in demand, he probably won’t bring back blue-chip prospects in a trade.

-Marlins starter Tyler Phillips, who picked up the win by allowing two runs over five innings, has become a bit of a Mets’ killer in his two seasons with Miami.

In eight appearances against the Mets, including three starts, Phillips has posted a 1.94 ERA over a total of 20 1/3 innings.

-Right-handed reliever Daniel Duarte, who has been a pleasant surprise of late for the Mets, gave up his first runs of the season, touched up for two runs in 1.1 innings, including a home run by Griffin Conine.

Duarte had pitched 11.1 scoreless innings in seven previous appearances over four separate stints with the Mets this season.

-Besides his first-inning error, Lindor misplayed Esteury Ruiz’s ground ball toward second base in the eighth inning, having to double-pump before throwing as he had trouble getting a grip on the ball out of the glove.

The play was ruled a hit, but Lindor would have had the out if he’d played the ball cleanly. Lindor continues to have a below-par season for him defensively.

GAME MVP: Javier Sanoja

Not a lot to choose from in this game, but Sanoja’s two-run home run in the second inning of Thornton gave the Marlins a 3-0 lead. It was only Sanoja’s fourth long ball of the season.

Highlights

Tyrone Taylor launches a monstrous two-run homer! 💥 pic.twitter.com/ooF0cnSXdD

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 1, 2026

Francisco Lindor makes the backhand play and fires to Marcus Semien at second for the out pic.twitter.com/8mOJVWDkjp

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 1, 2026

What's next

The Mets and Marlins complete their four-game series on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:40 p.m.

New York has yet to announce a starter after pulling Clay Holmes from his potential start. The Marlins will send Sandy Alcantara (11-6, 3.82 ERA) to the bump.

Mariners 4, Twins 3

(please imagine this line goes all the way down)

Best Western: Randy Arozarena, .23 WPA; Andrés Muñoz, .21 WPA

Worst Western: Weston Wilson, -.23 WPA

Game thread comments of the day:

Happy:

Less happy, but equally accurate:

Happy August and Happy 150th Birthday to Colorado!

The Colorado Rockies (43-67) ended July with a win to finish the month with a 10-14 record. They look to start the new month off with a series win as they face off against the Kansas City Royals (46-65) for game two of the three-game set.

The Rockies turn to Ryan Feltner for game two. Feltner is 3-5 with a 5.73 ERA across 15 starts. In his last outing, he surrendered five earned runs in five innings of work as the Rockies fell to the Milwaukee Brewers. Feltner worked through some jams early but ultimately struggled to find the zone and allowed a fair amount of traffic.

Kansas City starts Luinder Avila, entering at 5-3 with a 4.95 ERA in 11 starts and 20 total games. He has allowed three or fewer runs in his last four appearances, logging wins in two of those starts.

For something to watch out for across the lineup, yesterday marked Brenton Doyle’s return to the club after recovering from a series of injuries. Much was made of Doyle rejoining a crowded outfield and pushing Cole Carrigg to the bench for the night. Manager Warren Schaeffer commented on the possibility of a lineup with Doyle taking center field and Carrigg shifting to a corner outfield spot, shortstop, or second base.

We’ll get our first look at that reality tonight. Doyle remains in the lineup in center field, while Carrigg makes his first major league start at shortstop, with Ezequiel Tovar taking the night off. With about 48 hours remaining until the trade deadline, more questions will arise as we await movement from the Rockies front office.

Until then, the Rockies will try to add to the Colorado Day festivities with a big win on Saturday night.

First Pitch: 6:10 p.m. MDT

TV: Rockies.TV

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM and KNRV 1150 (Spanish)

Royals SB Nation Site: Royals Review

Lineups:

Luinder takes the ball in Denver. pic.twitter.com/8WqVPOWRbU

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) August 1, 2026

Celebrating Colorado's 150th 🎉 pic.twitter.com/fn4u9vqtNU

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) August 1, 2026

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Hahahahahahaha that was so fun let’s do it again, shall we?

Here’s the Guardians lineup:

Guardians 8/1

S. Kwan CF
J. Ramírez 3B
C. DeLauter DH
R. Hoskins 1B
A. Martínez RF
D. Fry LF
T. Bazzana 2B
A. Hedges C
B. Rocchio SS

P. Messick SP

— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) August 1, 2026

Here’s the Diamondbacks lineup:

Our lineup for today in case you were wondering. pic.twitter.com/zoFSFFSlD5

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) August 1, 2026

Let’s go, Guardians!

The San Diego Padres turned in a dominating performance against the San Francisco Giants in the second game of their series at Petco Park. The San Diego rotation limited the San Francisco lineup to just two hits and the offense broke out for seven runs scoring in four of the eight innings. The Padres used just three pitchers to get through the contest, which means the bullpen will have the majority of its arms available in the third game of the series.

Taking the mound

Walker Buehler (SD) v. Tyler Mahle (SF)

Walker Buehler has become one of just two pitchers in the San Diego rotation who is treated as a true starter. He and Michael King are the two rotation arms who are expected to perform night in and night out when he takes the mound. Buehler holds a 6-5 record and a 5.13 ERA with 91 strikeouts over 100.0 innings pitched in 21 games this season.

Tyler Mahle has appeared in 17 games this season and amassed a 3-9 record with a 4.96 ERA. The Giants are expected to be sellers at the Trade Deadline, so this may be an audition of sorts for Mahle who might be a trade target of other teams around the league. He has only allowed four runs over his last three games, which included a six-inning performance his last time out against the Milwaukee Brewers. Mahle kept the Brewers scoreless and will look to replicate that performance against the Padres.

Batter up!

The San Diego offense banged out 12 hits last night, resulting in seven runs scored. Luis Campusano, Ty France and Jase Bowen all had multi-hit nights and France collected three RBI. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado chipped in with a hit apiece and Jackson Merrill was the only player in the Padres lineup not to record a hit. San Diego will need to have a duplicate performance to give themselves a chance to win their second game of the series.

1. Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
2. Jake Cronenworth, 2B
3. Manny Machado, DH
4. Ty France, 1B
5. Jackson Merrill, CF
6. Xander Bogaerts, SS
7. Sung-Mun Song, 3B
8. Gavin Sheets, LF
9. Luis Campusano, C

Relief corps

German Marquez pitched five innings in relief and earned the save after Bradgley Rodriguez and Yukie Matsui pitched the first four innings. That means the majority of the Padres’ bullpen is intact, rested and ready to be called on by manager Craig Stammen should Buehler run into trouble.

If you love pitching and defense, this was the perfect game for you. Then again, there was not much need for defense in this contest as Drew Rasmussen and four relievers struck out 16 White Sox while scattering five singles in this 1-0 victory. This was a tremendous and needed bounceback from last night’s contest when the White Sox clubbed four home runs in their 6-1 victory.

The only run of the game came from Mr. July, Nick Fortes, who fought off some high heat from Noah Schultz to hit one over Chase Meidroth to drive in Jonny DeLuca from second:

DeLuca stole a base to get into scoring position for that single, but also made a great catch for the first out in the 4th inning to keep Munetaka Murekami at first base instead of multiple runners with nobody out:

Rasmussen had his third consecutive strong outing after the two hiccups to start July. His 10 strikeouts were his best total since the 13 strikeouts gagainst Boston on June 10th and gives him 24 strikeouts and 3 walks over his last three starts. Rasmussen kept the White Sox off-balance with a varied recipe of pitches. The first time through, Rasmussen threw just two changeups on the 47 pitches required to get through the lineup. However, the changeup and sinker took center stage to keep the young hitters off balance. There was a stretch in this contest where Chicago was making solid contact, but Rasmussen adjusted by simply striking out the side in the 6th before he exited the game. Cam Booser came in to force manager Will Venable to use his bench in the 7th, but the trio of hitters after Randal Grichuk’s bloop single in the 7th also went down swinging.

Kevin Kelly came in for an impressive appearance on the heels of him striking out the side against Texas on Wednesday. Kelly picked up a strikeout of Chase Meidroth and Sam Antonacci around a flyout by Quero. Meidroth has had his share of strikeouts this season, but Antonacci is the best contact hitter on the Chicago roater with a 15.4% strikeout rate. Kelly has now pitched to a 0.65 ERA across 27.2 innings under the roof as a key piece of the bridge to Bryan Baker. Kelly gave way to Garrett Cleavinger to face Munetaka Murakami, and the at bat was vintage Cleavinger. The second pitch was upheld by ABS and Murekami was on the defensive after swinging through a 1-1 sweeper. It was the last pitch Murekami would see near the strike zone, yet he could not lay off three consecutive pitches and went down chasing another sweeper:

Bryan Baker came in for his 31st save, albeit with two very close calls. Miguel Vargas sabotaged a first pitch low fastball that took Chandler Simpson to the warning track. Randal Grichuk was the last out of the game, but not before he was just out in front of a hanging changeup that he hit just foul down the line before swinging through a fastball to end the game. Baker only threw six pitches, but his velocity was down in this outing and will likely be absent from the bullpen usage on Sunday for a much-needed day off:

Baker has pitched four times in seven games, but this six-pitch appearance was just what the doctor ordered after him needing 20+ pitches in each of his other appearances this week.

The story behind the story in this game was a challenging strike zone by Alfonso Marquez who had nine calls challenged by the team, and was 1 for his first 6 before winning his last three challenges:

This game was the 10th shutout by the Rays with four of those coming over the last seven games. The club is now 29-3 at home when scoring first in the game and now hand the ball to Griffin Jax to win the series before the club takes off for Colorado after the game.

The Braves have scratched Reynaldo Lopez from his start Saturday night against the Nationals, announcing that Martin Perez will start in his place. This isn’t ideal for an already-taxed pitching staff and we will see what the ramifications are for the rotation. It is unclear the severity of Lopez’ injury, but we will cover that here on the site once we know more.

RHP Reynaldo López has been scratched from tonight’s game due to left knee inflammation. LHP Martín Pérez will now start. https://t.co/g7YIXwgHiW

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) August 1, 2026

This turns tonight’s game into a true matchup of veteran innings-eaters, with Martin Perez facing off with Miles Mikolas. The Braves will have to rely on their bats to get the job done.

Game Info

Game Time: Saturday, August 1st, 7:15 pm EDT

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

Watch: BravesVision

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

So far this series has not gone according to plan. The Nats dropped the first two games, going 0 for 17 with RISP. However, they still have a chance to salvage a split if they win these next two games this weekend. That will be easier said than done against a tough Braves team.

Despite the injury scare last night, first baseman and trade candidate Luis Garcia Jr. is back in the lineup. Nasim Nunez is at second base after a day off. James Wood will be the DH for a second straight night. Jorbit Vivas and Keibert Ruiz also re-enter the lineup. Miles Mikolas will start this contest without an opener in front of him.

– ↑

→ https://t.co/M7AONBLYL5pic.twitter.com/gfWKg3kDND

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) August 1, 2026

With a righty on the mound, the Braves will make a couple tweaks. Dom Smith and Mike Yastrzemski are back in the lineup after sitting yesterday. With Smith in the DH spot, Drake Baldwin will be back behind the plate. Otherwise it is a lot of the same faces we have seen for many years. Reynaldo Lopez came up in the Nats system, but now he is a Brave and will get the start tonight.

Saturday in the park 🏡 pic.twitter.com/b7ymsKFWG6

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) August 1, 2026

Game Info:

Stadium: Truist Park

Time: 7:15 PM EST

TV: Nationals.TV

Radio: 106.7 The Fan

The Nats have stuck around .500 for most of the season, and will look to get back to that mark tonight. This has not been a great week for the boys, but they have a chance to salvage things somewhat this weekend. There are only two more games before deadline day. Follow along in the comments down below and let’s go Nats!

It’s been a pretty good 24 hours for Yankee fans. Will Warren may have put out the best start of his career last night, leading to a Yankee win, and Camilo Doval is no longer a member of this ballclub. The team can turn a good 24 hours into a great one with another win tonight against the Cubs, but hopefully one that isn’t quite so close as the series opener.

Fried will be making his third start since returning from the IL, one against the Pirates that was excellent and one against the White Sox earlier this week that was considerably more mixed. The Yankees ended up beating the Pale Hose 9-5, but Fried went just three innings, allowing a trio of runs on five hits. In fairness to Max, all three runs came in a first inning where he got death-by-a-thousand-cuts’d a bit, looking much better in each successive frame. To view it pessimistically, the Cubs hit better as a squad than the Sox do.

David Peterson, the erstwhile Met, will make his sixth start as a member of the North Side boys, and they have not been a pleasant five previous outings. Peterson has lowered his ERA by almost a full run with the Cubs, but his FIP has shot up to an ugly 5.12 and in those five starts, providing … 0.0 fWAR. It’s an easier assignment for the Yankee hitters today, but then again we’ve seen how that can go already this year.

This is, by my count, the 835th time a lefty has made a start against the Yankees this year. That is only a slight exaggeration — Michael Zeno found that since June 14th, 42 percent of all Yankee at-bats have been against left-handed pitching, by far the highest rate in the majors and further exploiting the losses of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. The lefty-specialist (so to speak) lineup should be familiar to us now, with Amed Rosario and Paul Goldschmidt in their usual places, although at least Rose is DH’ing today to spare us the usual threat he poses at third base. Ben Rice gets a day off as well, a rare one for the best hitter left on the team.

How to watch

Location: Wrigley Field – Chicago, IL

First pitch: 7:15 pm ET

TV broadcast: FOX

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY) | 104.3 The Score, WPPN 106.7 / TUDN (CHC)

Streaming: MLB.tv (out-of-market only)

For updates, follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.

Saturday Night Baseball. #RepBXpic.twitter.com/WOzg6RMK7z

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 1, 2026

Saturday with the squad. pic.twitter.com/mZVcwi0BPA

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 1, 2026

Friday night’s comeback win was about as good as it gets. Down two in the seventh, the Orioles strung together a four-run rally set up by Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s pinch-hit two-run double, and an emotional two-run triple by Gunnar Henderson. It felt like the kind of win that can really carry clubhouse momentum into the next day…

Now, how long exactly this good feeling will last is unclear, because tonight’s assignment is simply brutal. We have arguably the best lefty starter in the game facing an Orioles team that has struggled against lefties all year. Let’s say this is a matchup that ain’t for the faint of heart.

If you don’t know much about Sánchez, here’s some background. The 29-year-old Dominican signed as an international free agent with Tampa at a youngster, then spent the better part of a decade as a Rays farmhand before getting dealt to Philadelphia in 2019. Sánchez didn’t stick in the majors for good until 2023, but now that deal looks like highway robbery. He was named an All-Star in 2024, then runner-up for the NL Cy Young in 2025 after a 13-5 ERA season where he led all NL pitcher in bWAR (8), tied for first in quality starts, and was second in FIP (2.55), third in ERA (.250), fourth in WHIP (1.06), and fifth in strikeouts (212 in 202 IP).

This year, folks, he’s still good, entering this matchup with a 2.73 ERA in 22 starts. His sinker is one of the best in the game. Earlier this year, he even reeled off a 50 2/3-inning scoreless streak, the longest ever by a left-hander and fifth-longest by anyone in MLB history.

In short, prepare yourself for an O’s lineup full of right-handers, and a lot of strikeouts anyway. Coby Mayo is batting leadoff for the first time in his life, and I am curious! New guy Christian Encarnación-Strand is batting sixth, and still OPS’ing over 1.000 for his new team in nine games.

As for Shane Baz, it’s been kind of an interesting first season with him in Birdland. After signing with the O’s in the offseason, he inked a 5-year, $68 million extension before throwing a pitch, then appeared to be bad for his first month or two. But since June, Baz has been nothing to sneeze at. He posted a 3.68 ERA in six starts in June, then an even 3.00 ERA in four starts in July. His last start, which saw him allow one earned run in 4 1/3 innings against Atlanta, dropped his ERA below 4.00 for the first time this season.

He’s got a tall matchup, but it’s cool to see Baz string together good start after good start. Let’s see if it continues. Baz is mostly a mystery to this Phillies lineup, with only Bryce Harper (1-for-4), Bryson Stott (1-for-6), and Trea Turner (3-for-6) having seen him more than three times.

Let’s go O’s!

Orioles lineup

1. Coby Mayo DH
2. Taylor Ward LF
3. Gunnar Henderson SS
4. Pete Alonso 1B
5. Tyler O’Neil RF
6. Christian Encarnación-Strand 3B
7. Leody Taveras CF
8. Jackson Holliday 2B
9. Jake Rogers C

Phillies lineup

1. Trea Turner SS
2. Kyle Schwarber DH
3. Bryce Harper 1B
4. Alec Bohm 3B
5. Brandon Marsh LF
6. J.T. Realmuto C
7. Bryson Stott 2B
8. Justin Crawford CF
9. Bryan de la Cruz RF

Phillies have to win today, right? RIGHT???

Lineups:

The D-backs continue to move on up. Since the last game in San Diego, before the break, they are a National League best 13-5. Their 106 runs scored in that time, is the highest in the majors, with nobody else having even reached a hundred runs. With a +33 run differential, the record has almost entirely been justified. Arizona have their catchers to thank in large part. James McCann and Gabriel Moreno have combined to bat .393 in that time, going 35-for-89 with five home-runs and an insane 26 RBI. Behind them is Ryan Waldschmidt’s .915 OPS, and Ildemaro Vargas is back on the horse, with an .898 OPS over his last fifty plate-appearances.

However, it’s not all good news. Among the dozen Diamondbacks with 20+ PA, positions #10, #11 and #12 by OPS go to the people we would expect to be leading the team, offensively. Corbin Carroll is hitting .179 with a .664 OPS. Geraldo Perdomo is hitting the same, and while still walking more (16) than he has struck out (10), his lack of power holds him to a .659 OPS. And bottom of the heap is Ketel Marte. He has shown the power of Perdomo of late, each man managing only four extra-base hits since July 8th, but without any of the plate discipline. His line is consequently .192/.231/.301 for a .532 OPS.

It’s a good thing that the rest of the team has been able to hold up their end, and keep the offense running well – averaging close to six runs per game of late. If the trio above join in, then this team could be almost unstoppable. But it’s weird that all three of them are misfiring simultaneously.

Texas Rangers @ Houston Astros

Saturday, August 01, 2026, 6:10 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / Rangers Sports Network)

Daikin Park

RHP Jacob deGrom vs. RHP Ronel Blanco

Go Rangers!

Cardinals 1 Blue Jays 5

Three in a row. I think they need six in a row before I start thinking they can get back in the race, but I’ll never complain about a win.

Well, if that was Kevin Gausman’s last start for the Blue Jays, it was a good one. It was very nice seeing him get a standing ovation when John took him out of the game. Good on John for taking him out so he could walk off the field and enjoy the love.

He gave up a lot of hits, 9 in 5.2 innings, but most of them were softly hit. He worked his way out of trouble almost every inning.

He gave up three singles in the third and got out of it without a run scoring. Two singles in the fourth. And then two doubles in the sixth, with the run scoring in that inning.

He also had 4 strikeouts in his 5.2 innings.

Braydon Fisher got the last out of the sixth and the first two outs of the seventh.

Mason Fluharty got the last out of the seventh.

Jeff Hoffman started the eighth. He got a lineout, gave up a walk, got a strikeout and then gave up a double off the right-field wall, giving runners on second and third. But a ground ball at Vlad got him out of the inning.

Tyler Rogers pitched a quick ninth, in a non-save spot.

On offense, we scored:

• One in the third: Davis Scheider walked, after an out (nicely hit line drive by Luis Urías that found a glove, .850 expected bat average), Vlad singled him to second. Kazuma Okamoto flied out. But George Springer singled home Davis.
• One in the fourth: Ernie Clement led off with a single. Myles Straw doubled him to third (Clement thought the ball might have been caught. Straw was waving, yelling for him to go, so he only got to third). And Luis Urías brought him home with a sac fly.
• Three in the seventh: Andrés Giménez was hit by pitch to lead off (he was hit Wednesday too). Vlad followed with an infield single. After Okamoto popped out, Springer doubled in Giménez. And then Alejandro Kirk singled in two more.

We could have scored more. We had nine hits and four walks. Vlad and George had two hits each. Okamoto had a rough day, going 0 for 4 with a strikeout.

Jays of the Day: Springer (0.21), Gausman (0.17, he was getting one no matter what), and Fisher (0.11).

Other Award: Okamoto (-0.13).

Tomorrow we have a 1:30 start time. Max Scherzer (1-4, 9.49, who better be on a short leash) vs. Michael McGreevy (4-9, 3.57).

Join us and discuss tonight’s game in the comments below!

Game Info

Game Time: Saturday, August 1st, 7:15 pm EDT

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

Watch: BravesVision

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan