Category: MLB

The Milwaukee Brewers are set to visit Old Friend Willy Adames and the San Francisco Giants this week to begin a six-game West Coast road trip that will also take them to visit the Angels.

Milwaukee, at 66-39, sits atop the NL Central after a solid 7-2 homestand featuring series wins over the Marlins, Mets, and Rockies. On the other side, the Giants, at 44-61, sit just ahead of the Rockies near the bottom of the NL West. They’re 4-6 since the break, with series losses against the Mariners and Royals but a recent series win over the Angels.

The Brewers’ injured list includes pitchers DL Hall (close to returning), Kyle Harrison (close to returning), Joel Kuhnel (close to returning), Rob Zastryzny (TBD), Brandon Woodruff (out for season), Brian Fitzpatrick (out for season), Quinn Priester (out for season), and Angel Zerpa (out for season). Outfielder Brandon Lockridge is also on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Nashville, while fellow outfielder Sal Frelick’s return is TBD as he was recently shut down from baseball activities.

San Francisco is without pitchers Trevor McDonald (TBD), Joel Peguero (August), Matt Gage (August or September), José Buttó (September or out for season), Hayden Birdsong (out for season), Randy Rodríguez (out for season), and Rowan Wick (out for season). Third baseman Matt Chapman could be back for this series after missing the entire month of July, while outfielders Harrison Bader, Jonah Cox, and Victor Bericoto are all shelved. Jung Hoo Lee is also considered day-to-day with elbow soreness.

Jake Bauers leads the Brewer offense with 18 homers, while Brice Turang and William Contreras have both reached the 100-hit threshold with 103 hits apiece. Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell, Cooper Pratt, Andrew Vaughn, and Joey Ortiz have also been key cogs in recent weeks, with Gary Sánchez, Christian Yelich, Luis Lara, David Hamilton, and Blake Perkins rounding things out. As a team, the Brewers are hitting .255/.337/.402 (.739 OPS ranks sixth), with 98 homers (tied for 29th), 535 runs (fifth), and 104 steals (tied for fourth).

Rafael Devers leads the Giants with 22 homers this season, with Casey Schmitt (21 homers) and Willy Adames (18 homers) right on his tail. Luis Arraez leads the Giants with 129 hits this year, as he’s slashing .327/.363/.451 and figures to be a trade chip at the deadline. Lee, Bryce Eldridge, Heliot Ramos, Drew Cavanaugh, and Drew Gilbert are also regulars offensively, with Daniel Susac, Jesus Rodriguez, Grant McCray, and Christian Koss serving as depth. As a team, the Giants are hitting .253/.308/.417 (.725 OPS ranks 15th), with 118 homers (tied for 19th), 436 runs (25th), and 40 steals (28th).

Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill lock things down at the backend of Milwaukee’s bullpen, with Aaron Ashby, Grant Anderson, and Chad Patrick also serving as valuable arms. Craig Yoho, Bryse Wilson, and Garrett Stallings round out the group as the “B” arms after Lance McCullers Jr. was DFA’d over the weekend. As a staff, the Brewers have a 3.43 team ERA (second), including a 3.39 starter ERA (second) and a 3.47 bullpen ERA (fourth). They’ve struck out 1,027 batters (second) over 940 2/3 innings.

Caleb Kilian leads the Giants’ bullpen with 42 appearances and eight saves this year, though he’s blown three opportunities and has a 4.57 ERA. Erik Miller (2.97 ERA over 30 1/3 IP), JT Brubaker (2.74 ERA over 49 1/3 IP), Sam Hentges (2.66 ERA over 20 1/3 IP), and Keaton Winn (3.38 ERA over 34 2/3 IP) have been the best arms for San Francisco’s bullpen, with former Brewer Adrian Houser (4.86 ERA over 87 IP), Dylan Smith (2.81 ERA over 16 IP), and Jason Foley (6.00 ERA over 3 IP) rounding things out. As a staff, the Giants have a 4.38 team ERA (22nd), including a 4.40 starter ERA (17th) and a 4.38 bullpen ERA (21st). They’ve struck out 797 batters (28th) over 925 2/3 innings.

Probable Pitchers

Monday, July 27 @ 8:45 p.m.: RHP Brandon Sproat (3-5, 5.09 ERA, 5.21 FIP) vs. RHP Tyler Mahle (2-9, 5.31 ERA, 4.52 FIP)

Sproat continues to be plagued by some command issues, as he issued four walks in his latest outing against the Mets. The potential is still there, though, as he’s flashed some promising signs at times this season. For the year, he’s 3-5 with a 5.09 ERA, 5.21 FIP, and 91 strikeouts over 86 2/3 innings across 19 appearances (17 starts). The former second-round pick has never faced the Giants in his career.

Mahle, 31, is a familiar opponent from his five-plus seasons with the Reds. On a one-year deal with the Giants, he’s struggled to a league-worst nine losses this year, with a 5.31 ERA, 4.52 FIP, and 77 strikeouts over 83 innings through 16 starts. The 10-year veteran took the loss in his last outing against the Royals, allowing three runs on five hits and a walk while striking out four over five-plus frames. Mahle has made nine career starts against Milwaukee (all while with the Reds), with a 1-3 record, 5.36 ERA, and 63 strikeouts over 45 1/3 innings.

Tuesday, July 28 @ 8:45 p.m.: RHP Logan Henderson (4-1, 3.05 ERA, 2.98 FIP) vs. RHP Landen Roupp (7-8, 3.93 ERA, 3.31 FIP)

Henderson has looked great in a pair of major league cameos over the last two seasons, with a 2.54 ERA and 2.99 FIP over his first 63 2/3 innings, striking out 80. He’s picked up four wins in his eight starts this year, striking out 47 across 38 1/3 innings. He went five innings against the Mets in his last appearance, earning the win as he allowed two runs on five hits and no walks, striking out nine on 80 pitches. This marks Henderson’s first career appearance against San Francisco.

Roupp, 27, is in his third MLB season, and while he has the worst ERA of his career at 3.93, he also has the best FIP of his career at 3.31. Through 20 starts, he’s 7-8 with 113 strikeouts across 110 innings. He went six frames against the Royals in a no-decision his last time out, allowing two runs on four hits and no walks, striking out seven. Roupp has made five career appearances (three starts) against the Brewers, with a 7.16 ERA and 14 strikeouts over 16 1/3 innings. That includes a rough appearance back on June 1, when he allowed eight runs in four innings of work in a loss.

Wednesday, July 29 @ 2:45 p.m.: LHP Shane Drohan (5-4, 3.51 ERA, 3.01 FIP) vs. RHP Logan Webb (5-7, 3.98 ERA, 3.50 FIP)

Drohan has been a reliable arm in Milwaukee’s rotation since stepping into that role a couple of months ago, as he’s taken on a similar role to Tobias Myers in 2024 and Chad Patrick in 2025. The rookie has spanned 82 innings with a 3.51 ERA, 3.01 FIP, and 82 strikeouts. He’s coming off a bit of a rough start, though, as he went six innings but allowed five runs on six hits and a pair of walks, striking out six in a loss. Drohan pitched against the Giants back on June 1, going four innings with two runs allowed on four hits and two walks, striking out five in a no-decision.

Webb, 29, is already in his eighth major league season. After a great month of June that saw him win NL Pitcher of the Month (0.71 ERA, 0.605 WHIP, and 29 K over 38 IP), he’s had a bit of a rough July. Through four starts this month, he’s 0-2 with 19 runs allowed over 22 2/3 innings (7.54 ERA), striking out just 13. Webb has been dominant against Milwaukee for his career, with a 5-0 record, 1.79 ERA, and 54 strikeouts over 50 1/3 innings across eight starts. That includes seven one-hit innings back in June, when he struck out four en route to a win.

How to Watch & Listen

Monday, July 27: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Tuesday, July 28: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Wednesday, July 29: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Prediction

The Brewers once again are the superior team in this matchup, but Roupp and Webb are both tough pitchers. Still, give me the Brewers to eke out two of three.

PHILADELPHIA — Kevin Long is trying to get the Phillies out of their hitting funk that led them to four straight losses heading into Sunday night’s game against the Yankees.

But for a few minutes before the game at Citizens Bank Park, the hitting coach was transported back to the beginning of his coaching career, just after he retired as a minor league player and took over as the hitting coach with Kansas City’s Class-A affiliate in Wilmington, Del., in the spring of 1997.

His first task was to take the organization’s young star, Carlos Beltrán, and help make him a switch-hitter.

Nearly two decades later, Beltrán ended up in the Baseball Hall of Fame, inducted Sunday in Cooperstown.

During his speech, Beltrán said becoming a switch-hitter was the “biggest decision of my career.”

Just shy of 20 years old, Beltrán, a natural right-handed hitter, worked with Long in extended spring training and went on to become one of the best switch-hitters in the history of the game.

“That was my first assignment as a coach,’’ Long said Sunday. “Somebody there thought he should be a switch-hitter and they put that in my hands, which I’m very grateful for. It taught me a lot at a very young age.”

Long, 31 at the time and having topped out at Triple-A as a player, was paired with Beltrán, in his third season in professional baseball.

“It really wasn’t to get him down the [first base] line faster or anything like that,” Long said of the decision to teach Beltrán to hit left-handed. “Maybe he was struggling righty-on-righty. I don’t know. Still, to this day, I don’t know.”

The pair just went to work.

“We hit every day at 10 or 11 in the morning, went to lunch together and came back and hit again,’’ Long said.

Beltrán, who grew up in Puerto Rico, was also still learning English, and Long said the two learned how to communicate together.

“There was a lot of Spanglish going on from both of us,’’ Long said.

Sunday, Beltrán pointed to their time together for helping shape his career on and off the field.

“There’s no doubt that you really helped me change my career,’’ Beltrán said. “People today might see the numbers, the home runs, everything that I did, but you and I remember the words that we put together to try to make that work.”

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Beltrán’s talent was never in question.

“His tools were off the charts,’’ Long said. “The arm, the speed, the power, his bat speed. He was an elite player with an extreme skill set in every area.”

Beltrán mostly struggled at the plate in that 1997 season, but exploded the following year, as he opened the season at Wilmington before jumping to the majors from Double-A in September.

And Beltrán went on to be the American League Rookie of the Year in 1999.

“It was not hard to see how good he could become,’’ Long said. “He could do things on a baseball field no one else could do.”

The pair reunited when Beltrán signed with the Yankees prior to the 2014 season, with Long the hitting coach.

“It was nice to be together again so many years later,’’ Long said. “For us to both have all that success was pretty special.”

And while he wasn’t in Cooperstown with Beltrán on Sunday, he was aware his former player made a point of crediting him.

“It’s a pretty cool story,’’ Long said.

— Additional reporting by Mark W. Sanchez in Cooperstown

The Los Angeles Dodgers may already possess one of baseball’s deepest rosters, but Ken Rosenthal believes their rotation uncertainty makes a pursuit of Tarik Skubal impossible to dismiss.

With the MLB trade deadline approaching, Rosenthal pointed to the health of Shohei Ohtani and several other Dodgers pitchers as the biggest factor shaping the front office’s plans.

“So much depends on how they review the health of their rotation,” Rosenthal said. “Dave Roberts said that Shohei Ohtani experienced discomfort in his knee following his last bullpen session on Wednesday. That led to the cancellation of his bullpen session today.”

Ohtani is still expected to pitch again this season, while Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow are also working toward returns. The Dodgers could eventually enter October with more than enough starting pitching.

Counting on every injured arm to return healthy, however, could derail the teams lofty goal of winning its third World Series in a row.

That is where Skubal becomes difficult to overlook.

“They know one way or another, greater payroll restrictions are coming in the next CBA,” Rosenthal said. “They cannot simply ignore the possibility of adding Tarik Skubal.”

Skubal would represent much more than insurance. The Detroit Tigers much more than insurance left-hander has established himself as one of the sport’s premier starters, combining swing-and-miss stuff with the command required to lead a postseason rotation.

The Dodgers also possess the prospect depth to make a serious offer. Rosenthal noted that Los Angeles has several highly regarded outfield prospects and could potentially include a controllable major-league pitcher such as Emmet Sheehan in negotiations.

Detroit would demand a massive return, particularly because Skubal is not merely a short-term rental. Any package would likely require multiple premium prospects and at least one player capable of helping the Tigers immediately.

That price could ultimately prevent a deal.

Los Angeles already has Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and several injured starters expected to return. Emptying a significant portion of its farm system for another pitcher may appear excessive if the rotation gets healthy before the postseason.

The Dodgers cannot assume that will happen, though. Ohtani’s latest discomfort is another reminder of how quickly pitching plans can change.

Rosenthal was not reporting that a trade is close or that Detroit has decided to move Skubal. His point was that the Dodgers have the resources, urgency and championship window to explore the possibility.

Los Angeles may eventually decide the price is unreasonable.

Ignoring the best pitcher who could become available would be the greater risk.

After everyone lost yesteday, everyone won today! OK, the Pelicans actually split a doublheader.

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs stuffed and mounted the Gwinnett Stripers (Braves), 7-3.

Grant Kipp turned in a solid start, earning the win after allowing one run on four hits over five innings. Kipp walked three and struck out two.

DH Moisés Ballesteros hit a two-run home run in the top of the first inning, his second with Iowa. Ballesteros went 1 for 5.

Center fielder Brett Bateman went 3 for 4 with a double and a walk. Bateman also stole a base. He scored three times and had one RBI.

In the month of July, Bateman is hitting .397/.466/.628 over 19 games.

First baseman Jonathon Long doubled twice in a 2 for 5 game. He had two runs batted in.

Catcher Owen Ayers was 3 for 4 with a double and a walk. Ayers scored once and had one RBI.

Second baseman Owen Miller went 2 for 4 with a double and one run scored. He was also hit by a pitch.

Right fielder Kevin Alcántara was 0 for 3 with a walk and a sacrifice fly. The walk gives Alcántara a 36-game on-base streak for Iowa, which is a new team record. At least going back to 2005, the first year that full game data is available.

Mo Baller’s home run.

Owen Ayers’ guns down a runner trying to steal.

Long’s RBI double.

And Long drives home another runner with a double.

Knoxville Smokies

The Knoxville Smokies took out the Rocket City Trash Pandas (Angels), 6-5 in ten innings.

Starter Kevin Valdez went five innings and allowed two runs on just three hits. Both runs came on a fourth-inning home run. Valdez struck out four, walked one and hit two.

Luke Little retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth and got the win. Little struck out one.

Jacob Wallace came on to pitch the bottom of the tenth and allowed the automatic runner on second to score on no hits. Wallace walked one and struck out two to collect his first save in the Cubs organization.

Third baseman Jefferson Rojas hit a two-out, two-run home run in the top of the tenth that proved to be the winning blast. It was his 15th home run this year. Rojas was 2 for 5 with a double and the home run.

DH Ariel Armas hit a solo home run in the second inning, his second on the season. Armas went 1 for 3 with a walk and scored twice.

First baseman Edgar Alvarez hit an RBI double in the sixth inning. Alvarez went 2 for 4.

Right fielder Andy Garriola was 2 for 5 with a double and a run scored.

The Armas home run.

RBI single for Carter Trice and then the RBI double by Alvarez. Trice went 1 for 4.

Rojas’ clutch home run.

South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs stomped on the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Brewers), 8-3.

Pierce Coppola pitched five scoreless innings, allowing just two hits. He walked one, hit one batter and struck out four.

JP Wheat relieved Coppola to start the sixth and promptly let three runs score to tie the game and had two runners on when Jackson Brockett entered the game. Brockett stranded the two runners and then went the rest of the way, earning the win. Brockett’s final line was no runs on two hits over 3.1 innings. He struck out six and walked on.

Catcher Justin Stransky connected for a two-run home run in the eighth inning. It was Stransky’s fifth home run this season. He went 2 for 4 with three total RBI.

Right fielder Josiah Hartshorn went 2 for 4 with an RBI double. He scored two runs.

Center fielder Kane Kepley was 2 for 4 with a triple and scored on Hartshorn’s double.

Shortstop Angel Cepeda went 2 for 4. Both singles drove in a run, giving him two on the day.

Second baseman Michael Halquist broke the 3-3 tie with a two-run double in the sixth. He went 1 for 3 with a walk and a run scored.

Hartshorn’s RBI double.

Halquist’s double.

Stransky’s home run.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans split a doubleheader with the Hickory Crawdads (Rangers), winning game one 4-1 and losing the second on 9-2.

Riely Hunsaker gave the Birds five scoreless innings, giving up just two hits. Hunsaker struck out seven and walked one.

Anhuar Garcia handled the other two innings for the save. Garcia gave up one run on two hits. The one run was a leadoff home run in the seventh. Garcia walked one and struck out two.

Second baseman Fernando Cruz hit his first Pelicans home run with the bases empty in the seventh in game one. It was his 14th overall home run. Cruz went 1 for 3.

Two batters later, first baseman Edward Vargas cranked a two-run home run, his first of the year and his first since 2023 in the Dominican Summer League. Vargas went 1 for 3.

Third baseman Derniche Valdez doubled twice in a 2 for 3 game. He scored one run.

Cruz’s home run

And Vargas goes deep.

Jordan Henriquez started game two and was responisble for five of the six runs the Crawdads scored in the third inning. The final line on Henriquez was five runs on four hits over 2.1 innings Two of the five runs were unearned. He walked one, hit one and struck out one.

Left fielder Geuri Lubo homered with the bases empty in the top of the seventh. It was Lubo’s sixth home run for the Birds and seventh overall. Lubo went 1 for 3.

First baseman Edward Vargas went 2 for 3.

Lubo’s home run.

NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani’s swing hasn’t looked right since coming back from the All-Star break.

The Dodgers, however, insist it has nothing to do with the two-way star’s lingering knee issue.

Questions about this correlation have cropped up in recent days, with Ohtani starting his second half in an uncharacteristic slump. 

Coincidence or not, he is 7-for-38 with no home runs since receiving a lubricant injection during the All-Star break to address a left knee injury — one that has prevented Ohtani from making a pitching start since July 3.

Granted, Ohtani has been playing through his knee problem since mid-June. And it hardly seemed to hamper him offensively in the month leading up to the All-Star Game, as the four-time MVP hit .273 with 11 home runs, 21 RBIs and a .987 OPS in the 27 games after the injury originated.

On the Dodgers’ post-All-Star-break road trip, though, the 32-year-old was largely a nonfactor as the team’s DH. He recorded just three extra-base hits, albeit with a double in Sunday’s 8-3 loss to the Mets. He struck out 10 times in 41 plate appearances, while only drawing two walks and driving in three runs. Most notably, he wasn’t impacting the ball with his usual pop.

“The quality of contact since the break,” manager Dave Roberts acknowledged Sunday, “has gone down considerably.”

The easy answer would be to point at Ohtani’s knee injury, which regressed following a Wednesday bullpen session in Philadelphia and continues to leave his status as a pitcher unclear.

But when asked about that theory Saturday, Roberts quickly pushed back, citing the slugger’s insistence to the team’s training staff that his injury is not impacting his mechanics at the plate.

Ohtani has not addressed reporters himself since before the All-Star break.

“I can only go by what him and the training staff is telling me,” Roberts said, while refuting the notion that Ohtani’s knee might benefit from him getting a break as a hitter, too. “Unless I hear otherwise, that hitting compromises his health, then I’m going to keep putting him in the lineup.”

Over a long season, of course, occasional lulls are inevitable.

Only a couple months ago, Ohtani hit just .200 with one home run over a 26-game rut, then immediately caught fire and reestablished himself as an MVP front-runner.

Even now, his .907 OPS on the season ranks sixth best in the National League.

Still, Roberts couldn’t pinpoint a reason for Ohtani’s recent decline.

“I feel like he’s just not squaring the baseball up,” the manager said. “There’s a lot of balls that are just mishit.”

Until that changes, speculation about his knee will persist.

COOPERSTOWN — The Mets spent the most money in franchise history, joining the Dodgers to invite the kind of scrutiny that has owners pushing for a salary cap, to field what is currently the third-worst team in baseball and destined for a sell-off.

A well-liked manager has been fired.

Popular stars from past seasons are gone, in some cases leaving without offers from the Mets to retain them.

New additions have, almost universally, disappointed.

The club’s owner has acknowledged there has been “regression” within the farm system.

In nearly every way, it is difficult to be affiliated with the Mets these days.

Into this moment stepped Carlos Beltrán, who did not have to choose the Mets on his Hall of Fame plaque but did, and who did not have to express such pride in the organization but did.

“To Steve and Alex Cohen, I know this year might not look pretty,” the newly inducted Hall of Famer said during his speech on an idyllic and sunny afternoon here, “but what makes me proud is the culture that you have been able to create: making players, families, and employee values [important].

“And especially myself — having experience in different chapters in the Mets organization, I have to tell you guys that I have never been prouder to call myself a Met.”

Beltrán is officially called a Hall of Famer, the star of stars at a ceremony that also enshrined Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent.

Of the estimated 12,000 in attendance, the largest contingent probably was not Mets fans or Braves fans or Giants fans but Puerto Ricans, who were loud with a call-and-answer “Puerto Rico” cheer as he stepped to the microphone.

“We’re proud, man, we’re proud people,” the sixth Puerto Rican elected later said.

With 57 Hall of Famers sitting on the stage behind him, Beltrán used 17 minutes Sunday to tour through his life and career, thank as many people as he could and explain why he forever will be seen as a Met — but only after a pretaped introduction by former teammate Carlos Delgado.

Among those Beltrán thanked: his parents (who heard a message in Spanish), his wife, Jessica, their children, his island, various former coaches and teammates, members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America who voted for him and members who did not, and commissioner Rob Manfred — who presided over the report that named Beltrán (and no other player) as a key figure in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal that helped them win the 2017 World Series.

Not mentioned in the speech was the scheme, which played a part in Beltrán being held out of the Hall until his fourth year on the ballot.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND METS STATS

An otherwise strong reputation as a person and leader, nine All-Star Games, three Gold Gloves and undeniable offensive numbers from a player who blended power and speed like few others — he finished with 435 home runs and 312 steals, joining a 400-300 club that consists of Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Willie Mays and Andre Dawson — ensured he reached baseball immortality.

Forever, his bronze plaque will show that he was a Met and not a Royal, where he also spent 6 ¹/₂ seasons.

With the Mets from 2005 to 2011, Beltrán said he grew the most and became “the best version of myself.”

It is also a place to which he has returned, briefly a manager before the scandal broke in 2020, and now a special assistant to David Stearns, who along with the Cohens was present at the ceremony.

Beltrán’s No. 15 will be retired at Citi Field on Sept. 19, and surely at the event will be another Mets figure whom Beltrán thanked: Terry Collins, who managed Beltrán in 2011.

“You reminded me, Terry, that setbacks don’t really define us,” said Beltrán, who had to overcome several setbacks, most notably a rough first season in Queens. “What defines us is how we respond to them.

“So the fact that you took your time to connect with me, to push me, to encourage me, to challenge me — I appreciate my friend [and] our relationship.”

Of the Yankees, with whom he starred from 2014 to 2016, Beltrán referenced how heavy the pinstripes were, calling the honor of playing for such a prestigious organization “not only a privilege, it’s a responsibility.”

But as became a theme in speech and in his career, he then returned to Queens.

“And then, the New York Mets,” Beltrán, the third Hall of Famer with a Mets cap on his plaque, said to cheers. “Every organization shaped your career. New York shaped my life. It was here where I experienced my greatest success and some of my greatest challenges.

“Playing for the Mets made me a better man and a better leader.”

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — It was an old-school reminder to the way baseball used to be played, the way we looked at the game, and the stats that shaped our opinions Sunday afternoon at the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The new Hall of Fame trio of Jeff Kent, Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones were here to remind everyone that the traditional statistics should still matter. Runs batted in should not be considered a fluke stat in a box score. There really is a clutch element in a players’ psyche. And while everyone is engrossed with on-base percentage these days, even if some sluggers are only clogging the bases by drawing a rash of walks, future Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker has a question for you:

“If driving in runs or scoring runs isn’t important,’’ future Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker said, “then why are we bothering to keep score?’’

Kent, Beltran and Jones, who were inducted into the Hall of Fame with a record 60 Hall of Famers in attendance and 12,000 fans in attendance, certainly represented baseball’s greatest values throughout their brilliant careers.

They didn’t celebrate drawing a walk with a runner on third base with less than two outs, instead wanting to drive them in, not letting the responsibility fall to someone else.

They didn’t sit out games when they weren’t feeling well, or treat the injured list like a paid vacation. They posted, season after season, oftentimes playing in pain, knowing that they were a whole lot more valuable to their teams at 70% than sitting on the bench.

They didn’t try to create a brand. They didn’t try to draw attention to themselves. They played to win, game after game, season after season.

Go ahead, check out their resumes:

Mets right-hander Freddy Peralta said that he believes he “probably” made his final start with the club ahead of the August 3 MLB Trade Deadline.

“I know it probably is,” Peralta said when asked if it crossed his mind that he could be pitching for the club for the final time.

“I have to focus and keep giving the best of myself,” he continued. “If it happens, it happens. I’m thankful and grateful to be part of this organization. 

“I know so far I’ve let them down. I haven’t done what I was supposed to do, but I’m grateful to be here.”

In the game, an 8-3 win for the Mets over the Los Angeles Dodgers, Peralta allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits and two walks over 4.0 innings with three strikeouts

Peralta said that he has not had any conversations with anybody from the organization about him being dealt. 

“I understand how it works, but I can not control that,” he said. “I just have to wait, and come back here tomorrow and the next days and do my best and keep working hard and just keep myself healthy.”

Despite that chatter just being that, the starter admitted that it has been tough to keep the trade noise out of his mind, “especially because I’ve been treated here really good.” 

“My teammates, everybody here in the organization have been amazing,” he said. “It’s not easy to not think about it, but at the end of the day it's business and I have to understand that.”

Over 22 starts this season, Peralta has pitched to a 4.99 ERA and 1.48 WHIP over 113.2 innings.

“We haven’t done what we expected to do, in general, but especially myself,” Peralta said Sunday. “I know I can be way better than this. I still believe in myself. I am born to be a winner and not a loser. 

“I think I have a lot in me, a lot to show. I know it can change because I still have time to make a change, to make it better.”

Carlos Beltrán and Bad Bunny haven’t met yet, but the Hall of Fame slugger and the superstar rapper share a love of family and their beloved Puerto Rico. So while thinking of a way to honor his parents during his induction speech, Beltran pulled from one of Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio’s hits Sunday afternoon at the Clark Sports Center.

Most of Beltrán’s induction speech at the National Baseball Hall of Fame was in English, but he delivered part of it in Spanish to address his parents, Wilfredo and Carmen.

That’s when he quoted Bad Bunny’s “La Mudanza,” one of the songs the Puerto Rican star sang during the last Super Bowl halftime show.

“Un aplauso pa Mami y Papi porque en verdá rompieron.”

(In English, “One round of applause for Mom and Dad because they truly crushed it.”)

“I love that song,” Beltrán said after he was inducted into the Hall along with former DodgersJeff Kent and Andruw Jones before an estimated crowd of 12,000. “I like it because it’s a tribute to our parents.

“I think it’s cool what [Bad Bunny] does with his music. There’s no doubt that he looks for a way to promote Puerto Rico, recognize the family, recognize relationships. I think it was an important moment to mention them and for the fans that follow his music react to those words.”

Beltrán was born in Manati, Puerto Rico, where his father, Wilfredo Beltrán worked at a pharmaceutical company. Carlos Beltrán credits his father with instilling his work ethic by winning “perfect attendance” certificates every year for 35 years at his company. Carmen Beltrán was a homemaker, and Carlos credits her with raising him.

Long before Bad Bunny became one of the most popular artists in the world, Beltrán devoted his work off the field to helping Puerto Rican youths and promoting his island.

“I feel proud of what he does,” Beltrán said of Bad Bunny. “I think he represents our island. He’s part of our culture, and at the same time he’s doing a pretty good job promoting the island. As a baseball player myself, I try to do the best that I could also to do the same.”

Kent explains how a truck changed his life

Jeff Kent explained why he has kept the 1985 Toyota 4x4 truck that he received from his parents, Alan and Sherry, when he was a teen in Huntington Beach.

“When I was 16 years old I was racing motorcycles and driving my great-grandparents’ old Plymouth Volare,” Kent said during his induction speech. “My dad knew motorcycles weren’t taking me anywhere. He made me a bet. He knew that if I were to earn a college scholarship, he would buy me a pickup truck.

“My dad was a simple guy, a police officer in Southern California, and that was all we could afford in my family at that time. That truck meant everything to me. I quit racing and focused on school and baseball, and won that baseball scholarship, because I got that truck. That truck is still with me. It sits in my garage as a simple reminder that some of the simplest things can change the entire direction of your life.”

Read more:Huntington Beach's Jeff Kent credits his parents for helping fuel his Hall of Fame career

With that commitment to baseball and education while he was a student at Huntington Beach’s Edison High School, Kent secured a scholarship to Cal Berkeley.

Lasorda’s words made an impact on Kent

Kent, who spent the final four seasons of his 17-year career with the Dodgers, quoted the late Tommy Lasorda in his speech.

“The money lies in the RBIs,” Kent said while attributing that quote to Lasorda during his speech.

Kent clearly took that message to heart, driving in 1,518 runs during his career. He didn’t actually get that quote directly from Lasorda. He heard it while sitting around home plate at Cal listening to a motivational talk that longtime Cal coach Bob Milano made the team hear over the stadium’s loudspeakers.

“At Cal Berkeley,” Kent explained, “our manager made us sit around home plate. … He made us sit in the dirt at home plate, and on the loudspeaker he played a motivational tape of Tommy Lasorda.

“And in that speech, 20 minutes in that motivational talk, I got out of that, ‘The money lies in the RBIs.’ That stuck in my brain forever, and it never, never left my brain.”

Jones connects Curaçao to Cooperstown

Jones, a former Braves star who spent the 2008 season with the Dodgers, became the first native of Curaçao inducted into the Hall.

“There’s no easy way to get here from the small island of Curaçao, more than 2,000 miles away,” Jones, a five-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, said during his speech. “But today Cooperstown and Curaçao are forever joined together.

“Being the first Hall of Famer from my island is an incredible moment. That’s why they make such a memorable day. I’m overjoyed to share this day with people from my homeland.”

Jones paid tribute to Hensley Meulens, who became the first native of Curaçao in the majors when he debuted on Aug. 23, 1989, with the Yankees. Meulens played parts of seven seasons in the majors. Almost seven years later, Jones became the second player from his island to reach the majors when he debuted at 19 years old with the Braves on Aug. 15, 1996.

An elite audience

Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax, who was inducted in 1972 and is the longest tenured honoree, was among the record 60 Baseball Hall of Famers to gather Sunday at the Clark Sports Center for the ceremony.

Former Twins and Angels star Rod Carew, 80, powered through to attend the induction.

David Ortiz helped Carew get to his seat on the stage after Carew was introduced to the crowd.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Welcome to the Third Annual Connections Recap. Here are the versions from 2024 and 2025 if you missed them. It will be guided by a Lookout Landing edition of the New York Times game called Connections, in which you try to group 16 words into four groups of four that share a similarity. Here are the directions from the creators:

Find groups of four items that share something in common.
– Select four items and tap ‘Submit’ to check if your guess is correct.
– Find the groups without making 4 mistakes!
Category Examples
– FISH: Bass, Flounder, Salmon, Trout
– FIRE _____: Ant, Drill, Island, Opal
Categories will always be more specific than “5-LETTER-WORDS,” “NAMES” or “VERBS.”
Each puzzle has exactly one solution. Watch out for words that seem to belong to multiple categories!
Each group is assigned a color, which will be revealed as you solve: Yellow is the most straightforward, then green, then blue, and purple is the trickiest. You don’t have to guess in that order.

Here’s the link to today’s puzzle from the New York Times, if you want to play a round to try to get the hang of how the game works.

And here is the link to the version I made for your recap today. It’s on an interactive site, and the main difference between that site and the NYT version is that this version will not cut you off after four wrong guesses. You can continue guessing forever. So if you give up, come back here for the answers. And if you want, I’ve embedded the analog version below as a static image, though you won’t know if you have a group right, thus helping you get the other groups by having eliminated four words. Here’s the link to the interactive one again. Use the interactive one.

And here, after several lines of periods to hide it from view, are the answers and your recap.

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Globe Life Field has been a house of horrors for the Mariners this year, and I’m not just talking about the bad camera angles, the lack of anything to do around the stadium other than a Subway, the AI mid-inning entertainment, the Home Depot aesthetic . . . sorry, I got lost in a digression. The Mariners had lost all five games at the Rangers’ ballpark this season, scoring a total of just seven runs across those five games. The Mariners’ performance in Arlington alone basically accounts for the trouble the team is in right now, entering the game in third place and 2.5 games behind the Rangers, despite having a far superior run differential over both them and the Astros while also getting unlucky and underperforming. So having lost the first two games of this crucial series, this was a game that had higher stakes than you’d have expected. Seattle really needed to win.

The green category tees up the two Hatters, Stetson alumni Logan Gilbert and Jacob deGrom, who faced off for the third time this year. The Rangers won both Round 1 and Round 2, even though Gilbert pitched a touch better both times, in my view. Today, Gilbert pitched a touch better yet again.

It didn’t start great, with deGrom shutting the top of the Mariners’ lineup down on six pitches and Gilbert then giving up a quick run. But in deGrom’s half of the inning, both Cole Young and Dominic Canzone registered hard-hit balls. As for Gilbert, while Joc Pederson’s leadoff double was legit, Wyatt Langford’s single that moved him to third was on a pretty good pitch, and Pederson scored on a lame sac fly before Gilbert got out of the inning on a 58-mph ground ball and a strikeout.

It was a theme that would carry through the starters’ outings.

The Rangers scored two more runs in the fourth, despite never topping a 90-mph exit velocity. The dumbest part of that sequence was when a ball ricocheted off Gilbert’s foot, but don’t sleep on the seeing-eye single that Cole Young corralled, but couldn’t quite flip to second in time given how slowly the ball was moving.

But Gilbert was good, sitting 97 with his fastball and with his slider working for enough outings in a row to call it a trend. No wonder its usage was back up to the one-third mark he’s used when he’s been at his best. The Rangers just managed to cluster all their offense together, while Gilbert retired seven in a row at one point and ten in a row at another.

Meanwhile, the Mariners were touching deGrom up, recording 10 hard-hit balls, including the only barrel either starter would give up, a Cole Young triple struck at 102, somehow slower than his 103-mph lineout in the first. Young scored on a Julio Rodríguez single. But other than that, they were getting BABIPed to death, with several at ‘em balls.

Facing the lineup for the third time and sitting on 86 pitches, deGrom was vulnerable heading into the sixth. The Mariners half-completed the assignment, with base hits from Canzone and Randy Arozarena, but deGrom was pulled for a lefty. Josh Naylor smashed one at 104, but right to the second baseman. Then, Cal Raleigh absolutely let it rip, giving his A-swing to three fastballs that he couldn’t get close to, and Weston Wilson pinch-hit for Luke Raley and watched two pitches sail right down Broadway before whiffing at a pitch up out of the zone.

So, yeah, not a great outing from Cal Raleigh. Yet again. Despite the team and the region going all-in on Cal as the face of the franchise, he’s put up just 0.4 fWAR this year. What should be the heart of the team, Cal, Julio, and Naylor, have combined for a 95 wRC+ and 2.8 fWAR, when their pre-season projections should have had them at about 128 and 10.2 at this point in the season.

But the Mariners have stayed afloat thanks in no small part to the emergence of Young and Canzone.

Coming into the seventh inning, Young had been robbed of a base hit in the first and a double in the fifth to go with the triple he actually got in the third. When he came up with Colt Emerson on in the seventh, he hit the ball at 108.5 mph, his third time in triple digits on the day. This one got through, an opposite field hit to put two on for Canzone.

Canzone, who won the Sun Hat Award on Friday, laid off two uncompetitive pitches from Cole Winn before taking a splitter at the bottom of the zone for a ride. In the comments, Jacob Hausdorf is correctly harping on the fact that Canzone’s swing came through at 84 mph. That’s a top ~5% figure among all competitive swings in MLB this year. The ball left at 111, seemingly just to outdo Young. It was a no doubter, and the understatement of Canzone’s bat drop was the ice cold move in the Texas heat.

Randy, the member of this offense’s heart and soul that has lived up to his potential this season, then made it back-to-back home runs to get the score to 5-3.

Now working with the lead, Gabe Speier was dominant. Having been brought in for the last out of the sixth, he pitched the full seventh too, retiring all four batters he faced with three strikeouts. Some people have said Gabe’s strikeouts are on the way back. Big day for those people.

Eduard Bazardo had a harder time in the eighth, giving up a solo shot to bring the score back within one. But we should not be worried. He looks fine. He’s just had a random cluster of bad outcomes at a time when the team is glaringly on the struggle bus, so it feels worse. And in any event, Canzone got that run right back in the ninth, driving in Julio on a double down the left-field line.

The letter Y is a tricky little fellow, most famously associated with the word “sometimes.” That’s how it’s felt for Mariners’ closer Andrés Muñoz this season. A lockdown reliever for most of his career, he had a few blow-ups and a few close calls in the first half. But he’s turned that right around over his last eight innings. Twice, he was a pitch away from an immaculate inning. His velo’s back into triple digits. And this afternoon, he blew the doors off the Rangers with three ugly-looking strikeouts. For working his way back to his dominant form, and locking down a win the team really needed, Muñoz wins today’s Sun Hat Award.

I’d love to see your results in the comments:

Well, if the Padres series wasn’t dramatic enough for you then hopefully you got enough of it during this series between the Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards! Two games went to extra innings and the only game that didn’t went to a walk off. There was barely anything separating these two ballclubs across the three games, so the Braves can certainly count their blessings that they were the ones who came out of. this series on top since it definitely could’ve ended differently!

Let’s take a quick look at just how intense this series was, shall we?

Friday, July 24

Braves 7, Orioles 6

For the first seven innings of this game, it was mostly frustrating for the Braves as Trevor Rogers had himself a very nice start. The only blemish for Rogers came in the fourth inning, which is when Mauricio Dubón scratched a run past him with a sacrifice fly and then Austin Riley bounced one up the middle to tie the game up at 2-2 at that point. That was the only wobble for Rogers and the Braves soon found themselves down 4-2 heading into the late portion of the game.

The eighth inning was when the drama truly began. Rico Garcia entered the game in relief for Trevor Rogers and Drake Baldwin rudely welcomed him to the game by taking a low pitch and sending it flying into the seats in right-center for a game-tying homer. The Orioles had the go-ahead run at third base in the bottom of the eighth but Elieser Hernández kept his nerve and prevented the run from scoring.

It only got nervier from there, as the O’s proceeded to load up the bases in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Fortunately, a smart intentional walk from Walt Weiss (not the first time we’ll be seeing that during this recap) gave Hernández the opportunity to get Taylor Ward to ground out and send it to extras. The three scoreless innings from Hernández were massive and it was honestly a crying shame that the cold realities of baseball saw him get DFA’d right after the game.

Propelled by the performance, the Braves had a big tenth inning as a result. A hilariously-bad throw to second from Jackson Holliday on a ground ball from Jim Jarvis pushed the Braves out in front and then Matt Olson seemingly broke the game open with a moonshot to right center that made it 7-3 Braves. Smooth sailing from there, right? Wrong! Dylan Lee got the tenth inning and he ended up giving up a sacrifice fly and a two-run dinger to Christian Encarnacion-Strand to bring the O’s within one run. Fortunately, Lee struck out Sam Huff to end the game so yet another late comeback attempt was thwarted by the Braves. Good grief, what a doozy this one was.

Saturday, July 25

Orioles 3, Braves 2

Bryce Elder got the ball to start this one for Atlanta and it was your typical productive Elder start where he did mostly fine for five innings but still couldn’t avoid hanging one for a dinger. This time, Gunnar Henderson was the fortunate recipient of the Elder Hanger and he made no mistake by crushing it out to right-center for a solo shot that put the O’s up 2-0 in the fifth inning. The good news is that Elder was done after the fifth and then Victor Mederos kept Baltimore quiet while he was on the mound for two innings, which gave the Braves the chance to stay in the game.

The Braves slowly but surely got themselves back into the game after they were able to scratch one run past Brandon Young with a productive out from Mauricio Dubón in the seventh inning and then Ozzie Albies bopped one out over the fence in right field for a game-tying solo shot in the eighth. Just like that, the Braves had new life and we were in for another nervy finish during this week’s action.

Unfortunately, the Braves were probably due to roll snake eyes in one of these situations and Saturday night just happened to be the night. An admittedly nervous Didier Fuentes attempted to get through the final two innings but he ended up coming one out short. Jackson Holliday hit a one-out double in the ninth inning and then Dylan Beavers brought him home with an RBI single that walked things off and gave Baltimore the win.

Fuentes wasn’t the only nervous one out there, as Jim Jarvis made a couple of really bad errors with one of those in particular essentially setting the table for Baltimore’s first run of the night. Tough night for the youngsters but that’s baseball for you! Welcome to the Show!

Sunday, July 26

Braves 3, Orioles 2

It sure would’ve been nice for all of the Braves fans out there who wanted to have a nice and relaxing Sunday win to see the Braves acquiesce to those demands and make things easy for the fans. Instead, we got what we got. Despite a strong outing from Reynaldo López and two RBIs from Dominic Smith that gave the Braves a 2-0 lead heading into the eighth inning, drama ensued nonetheless.

Pete Alonso hit a a deep shot to left field for a dinger off of Dylan Lee to make it a 2-1 game and then the ninth inning got nervy because it feels like there have been nothing but nervy ninth innings, lately. Raisel Iglesias walked Christian Encarnacion-Strand to lead off the ninth and as is becoming custom for whenever the leadoff runner gets on against Iggy, you may as well have buckled your seat belts from that point forward.

However, you could make a serious argument that this was not on Iggy, as he induced what looked like a totally manageable grounder from Leody Tavares directly towards Ozzie Albies. Somehow, the ball went through Ozzie’s legs and instead of two outs being on the board, it was runners on the corners with just one out. Jackson Holliday delivered a productive out (via a great play from Ozzie Albies, go figure) to tie the game and Iglesias was able to get the pinch-hitting Jeremiah Jackson to ground out to send the game to extras.

The Braves were quiet in their half of the tenth inning but the Orioles threatened to the point where the Braves were on the very precipice of a painful loss. Danny Young got the ball for the tenth inning and the bases were loaded with nobody out after he walked Dylan Beavers and the Braves gave Pete Alonso the free pass. Baltimore had a 93.6 percent chance of wining the game at this point.

Those chances dropped precipitously to 63.3 percent after Gunnar Henderson lined one directly into Matt Olson’s glove, who then proceeded to beat Pete Alonso to first for an astonishing double play. It was baseball poetry in that all the way back in the first inning, Alonso was the one who completed an unassisted double play. Baseball gives and baseball takes.

A harmless pop fly from Taylor Ward ended the inning and then Austin Riley wasted no time putting the Braves back in front with a hustle double. Atlanta was unable to add any more runs but Tyler Kinley made sure that they didn’t need to. Walt Weiss intentionally loaded the bases in order to force the O’s to use the extremely light-hitting Sam Huff with the game on the line. The decision paid off, as Huff grounded it to Riley who tossed it to Olson to end the game. Phew!

So yeah, Atlanta’s last five wins have been of the one-run variety (and six of the past eight have been one-run wins as well) and those are the types of dramatic, gritty wins that really start to pay dividends in terms of actual wins and the nebulous confidence factory. Staying confident in those types of situations could end up being huge for the Braves once the drama factor ratchets up in October. You could argue that it may not be that big of a deal considering what Baltimore’s record looks like but also the O’s have been playing some really good baseball as of late so it’s pretty impressive to see this Braves team go into Camden Yards and take this series in such dramatic fashion.

Atlanta now heads into a stretch where 13 of their next 17 games will be against divisional foes. They still won’t be seeing the Phillies again until September but for now, they’ll have a chance to really put some serious distance between themselves and the Nationals, Mets and Marlins. 10 of those 13 games will come at home but the first three will take place in New York, where the Braves will be looking to finally take care of business against the Mets. I think we could all do with seeing some nice, comfortable wins but knowing how things have been going recently and also knowing how the season series usually tends to go against the Mets, I’d say that it’s safe to just go ahead and prepare yourself for more drama going forward. Apparently, that’s how the Braves like it for now!