Category: MLB

Giants receive full Shohei Ohtani experience through first two games vs. Dodgers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — Heliot Ramos was never a pitcher when he was growing up, but if he had the skill set to be a two-way player, he knows which direction he would choose. 

“If I was him,” he said of Shohei Ohtani, “I would hit.”

Ramos pointed out that Ohtani seems to be the same guy every night at the plate. Even his outs look hard, and he’s a threat to go deep every time he digs into the dirt. As a pitcher, Ramos said, you can have the occasional bad day. Saturday did not qualify for Ohtani. 

The game’s best player had his longest start since coming back from right elbow surgery, allowing just one hit in three innings to get the Dodgers going in a game they would win 2-1. Ohtani already has made an impact on this rivalry as a hitter, but Saturday was his first time facing the Giants as a pitcher for the Dodgers, and he certainly embraced the moment. Ohtani struck out the side in the first inning, hitting 100 mph. 

“He was attacking everybody, he has a good fastball,” Ramos said. “He looked pretty good today.”

3 batters, 3 strikeouts for Shohei Ohtani ⛽️ pic.twitter.com/m8CctcmuUc

— MLB (@MLB) July 12, 2025

The problem for the Giants was not that Ohtani dominated. They kind of figured that was coming, but their hope was that they could at least get his pitch count up and get him out of the game relatively early. Instead, Ohtani got through the first two innings on 23 pitches, which allowed him to go out for the third for the first time since his surgery. 

The bigger problem was that the Giants then did just about nothing against righty Emmet Sheehan, who took over in the fourth. Their lone run came in the eighth, when they had the bases loaded with one out. Rafael Devers hit a sacrifice fly but Matt Chapman grounded out. 

That wasted a strong performance by Landen Roupp, who got shelled at Dodger Stadium last month. Roupp never even pulled up the video of that game to review what went wrong. He was ready to move on, and on Saturday he allowed two runs over six. 

“I just had full control of everything,” he said. “Last outing there at Dodger Stadium, I just didn’t have a feel for anything. Today that was different and I was able to get through six.”

Roupp was on the mound well after Ohtani walked off, but that didn’t mean he was done with him. He got Ohtani to roll over twice on curveballs early in the game and then struck him out with a nasty sinker in the fifth, two innings after Ohtani had finished pitching. 

“I didn’t want to go back to [the curveball] because I figured he was looking for it,” Roupp said. “I stayed hard there and put a pitch at the top of the zone and got the call.”

Roupp finished the first half with a 3.27 ERA. He has given the Giants a reliable third option, and he said he’s looking forward to getting back home to North Carolina next week and doing some hunting.

Ohtani is also headed to the South, but he’ll be in Atlanta at the 2025 MLB All-Star Game. Through two games of this series, he has shown every bit of why he’s a perennial All-Star. A day after hitting a ball into McCovey Cove, he struck out four Giants. 

“It was crazy,” Roupp said. “Going into today, I was kind of shocked he was still leading off just because you have to throw your pregame bullpen, but he does it so well.”

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The Yankees were never going to be able to find a like-for-like replacement for Juan Soto in the outfield after the slugger swapped Queens for The Bronx this offseason. But former MVP Cody Bellinger has carried plenty of the load.

After a three-homer night against his former employers, the Chicago Cubs, on Friday night, the outfielder now has 16 long balls on the season with 54 RBI and a solid .285/.340/.498 slash line for a .838 OPS (131 OPS+ and 131 wRC+). Could Bellinger find himself as an eleventh-hour addition to the American League roster for the All-Star Game? The Yankee and AL skipper said he didn’t know but had been lobbying for the outfielder’s inclusion.

“I tried to make my case for him the last couple days,” Aaron Boone said before Saturday’s matinee. “Even before [Friday] night’s exclamation point, felt like he was worthy. You never know, obviously there’s been a lot of changes [to the roster] over the last few days of people in for each other. I really don’t know.”

The Yankees are already sending four to Tuesday's game, starter Aaron Judge and reserves Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Carlos Rodon, with Max Fried going, but not on the roster after dropping out.

After a terrible slump in May, Bellinger's left-handed swing has looked pure as he's batting .406 with a 1.162 OPS during his 16-game hitting streak.

“Feels great,” he said after a Yankee Stadium curtain call in Friday’s win. “That was a cool moment.”

Bellinger, who arrived as a part of the Cubs' salary dump of his $27.5 million contract for the 2025 season, was looking to continue a career resurgence after his Dodger career fell apart in his final two years in Los Angeles. His NL Rookie of the Year season in 2017 and NL MVP in 2019 seemed like distant memories when he posted a .193 average and .611 OPS over his final 239 games.

After modest success during two seasons in the Second City, his time in New York is off to a fine start, and the added pressure of Soto’s departure and the weight of the pinstripes isn’t affecting the son of a former Yankee.

“Chill,” was the first word Boone used to describe the outfielder on the eve of his 30th birthday.

“He’s a grinder, he’s a gamer,” the skipper continued. “He’s a really good athlete. His speed and the way he moves, and just being able to do really everything on the baseball field, really stand out, which is not surprising for a former MVP. He does a lot of things really well on the diamond.”

That athleticism has been very apparent in the outfield with his four outs above average (91st percentile) and four fielding run value (84th percentile), and a 28.4 feet per second sprint speed (79th percentile) on the bases. Off the field, his addition to the clubhouse has been just as good.

“He’s a really good teammate, the right kind of pro that you want, there’s a lunch pail element to him,” the skipper said. “There’s a blue-collar way about him, but he’s also very laid back and easy to be around, too.”

Yanks resilient amid roller coaster streaks

Friday night's 11-0 drubbing pulled them to 2.0 games back in the AL East as the Yanks pushed the winning streak to five games, which of course followed a six-game losing skid that saw them fall from the top spot in the division. What has it been like for Boone and the club to ride that roller coaster?

“Feels like for the most part we’ve played good baseball, the two six-game losing streaks really kinda put a damper on that,” the manager said. “In and around that, I feel like we’ve been solid.”

Boone praised his clubhouse for being “so good at dealing with the day-to-day and the struggles, the highs and the lows” to make sure they stay on the right track with the right “mindset and focus.”

The response: The current five-game streak equals the club’s high-water mark for consecutive wins this year, which they did twice previously. And despite a spate of injuries to starting pitchers – Gerrit Cole lost for the year in spring training, Luis Gil still waiting to make his season debut, and Clarke Schmidt lost to Tommy John this mont – they are they sit at 53-41 (.564), they still have the fourth best record in the AL heading into the break.

“Dealt with some attrition, obviously, with some guys going down,” Boone continued. “But the one thing, we’re sitting here, 90-plus games in with a long way to go, we’ve given ourselves an opportunity to be the team we want to be.

“We’re not a finished product yet. We have lofty goals and aspirations, and that remains the same. Hopefully, over these final couple of months, we put ourselves in a position to be in the playoffs and play a consistent band of baseball, that’s what we’re working towards.”

Gil inching closer and closer

Last year's Rookie of the Year is getting closer to his 2025 season debut.

Boone said Gil will begin his minor league rehab assignment on Sunday at Double-A Somerset.

The right-hander faced live batters before in late June and "looked really good" in what was an "important" step, the skipper said at the time.

"I think he was 95, 96 (mph)," Boone said June 21 about Gil's fastball velocity. "It looked every bit of that. Just the metrics on the four-seam was really good, too. And I thought he was in control of himself, too. So, free and easy. I thought he executed some really good changeups."

Gil has been on the 60-day injured list since March 24 with a right lat strain. He pitched to a 3.50 ERA and 1.193 WHIP in 151.2 IP over 29 regular-season starts for the Yankees last year.

What we learned as Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers shut down Giants' offense in loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — After Friday night’s thrilling win, both Logan Webb and Willy Adames mentioned that there was a bit too much Los Angeles Dodger blue in the seats at Oracle Park. A day later, it was even worse, particularly in the bleachers, and this time the visitors were the ones who got to celebrate. 

The Giants lost 2-1, managing just three hits in a game that was over after two hours and 11 minutes. This series is tied, with MLB All-Stars Robbie Ray and Yoshinobu Yamamoto set to pitch the first-half finale on Sunday. 

The Giants trailed all afternoon, and had just one hit off Shohei Ohtani and “bulk innings” pitcher Emmet Sheehan through seven innings. Sheehan, a young right-hander, made his first career start against the Giants and always has dominated them, but they knocked him out in the eighth with a walk and two singles. 

Lefty Alex Vesia entered with the bases loaded, and Rafael Devers cut the deficit in half with a deep sacrifice fly.

Rafi puts the Giants on the board 💪 pic.twitter.com/92fl79N0rP

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) July 12, 2025

With the tying run on third, Matt Chapman grounded out. The Giants went down quietly in the ninth as the Dodgers snapped their seven-game losing streak. 

Roupp’s Revenge

The Dodgers crushed Landen Roupp at Dodger Stadium last month, scoring six runs and knocking him out in the second inning. On Saturday, Roupp found all the right answers.

The second-year righty allowed just two runs — one earned — over six innings while throwing a career-high 104 pitches. Roupp was flawless against his pitching counterpart, Ohtani, getting two soft grounders and then freezing him with a sinker in the fifth inning. He also struck out Mookie Betts twice and Freddie Freeman once.

A good day for Landen Roupp, who got roughed up at Dodger Stadium last month. He allowed two runs — one earned — in six innings and struck out eight while throwing a career-high 104 pitches. Roupp posted a 3.27 ERA in the first half, which ranks 13th in the National League. pic.twitter.com/4El5jUz8lb

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) July 12, 2025

The first run against Roupp came in the second, after Michael Conforto reached on an infield single and alertly took third when Adames made a throwing error on another infield single. Conforto, who is having an all-time Revenge Series, scored on a grounder. 

The Dodgers tacked on a more traditional run in the sixth as Roupp got into triple-digits with his pitch count. After a Conforto single and walk of Andy Pages, Hyeseong Kim singled to left.

The Trio

Roupp had some short starts early on, so despite taking the ball every fifth day, he has not qualified for MLB leaderboards throughout the first half. He came close to getting there in recent starts, and with the six innings Saturday, he finally crossed the threshold, which is one inning for every game your team has played. 

That means the Giants have three of the top 15 in the NL in ERA at the break. Robbie Ray is fifth, Webb is eighth and Roupp is 13th. They’re the only team in the NL with three qualified starters in the top 15 in ERA. The Phillies (Zack Wheeler and Christopher Sanchez) and Mets (David Peterson and Clay Holmes) are the only other teams with multiple pitchers in that mix. 

The Sho

There’s nobody who gets more love from MLB’s social media channels than Ohtani, but it’s honestly probably not enough. What he did Saturday was remarkable if you step back and really think about it. 

Ohtani took Webb into McCovey Cove on Friday, and a few hours later he took the mound against the Giants for the first time as a Dodger and struck out the side in the first, hitting 100 mph. Ohtani was making his fifth start as a Dodger and he completed three innings for the first time. They have been using him as an opener, and on Saturday he allowed just one hit — a Mike Yastrzemski single — and struck out four. His final pitch was a 99 mph fastball. 

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Even with the Steve Cohen-dubbed "Fab Four" looming nightly at the top of the Mets’ lineup, damage on their minds, the club’s offense can sometimes underwhelm.

The Mets rank only a smidge above MLB average in runs per game, and don’t get us started about hitting with runners in scoring position, a season-long bugaboo that has ruined multiple games. 

That’s why adding a dynamic offensive player at the trade deadline could be an impact move for David Stearnswith reverberations all the way into October.

And it’s why the Mets should at least consider exploring a deal for Jarren Duran of the Red Sox, despite what likely would be enormous prospect cost given that he has three-plus seasons of club control remaining. 

Who knows if Boston would actually trade an outfielder whose breakout 2024 season featured 83 extra-base hits and an eighth-place finish in the AL MVP voting?

The Sox were supposed to fade after trading Rafael Devers earlier this season, but actually hold a Wild Card spot entering play Friday. They do have a logjam of young, lefty-hitting outfielders, though.

Whether a potential deal is fanciful or not, Duran’s name has been rampant in the public trade speculation that’s part of the run-up to the deadline.

Here’s a look at the pros and cons of the Mets dealing for Duran, the MVP of last year’s MLB All-Star Game...

PROS

Duran, who turns 29 in September, led the majors in doubles (48) and triples (14) last season while also smacking 21 homers and stealing 34 bases in 41 tries. That points to quite an appealing skill set, no? It’s easy to imagine Duran whirling around the bases at Citi Field after Juan Sotosmacks a liner into the gap. 

His 8.7 WAR (according to Baseball Reference) was fifth-best in the majors in 2024, behind only Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., Shohei Ohtani, and Gunnar Henderson. Heady company.

Duran also posts nearly every day. He appeared in 160 games last year and in 95 of 96 Red Sox tilts so far this season as a mainstay on one of five MLB teams averaging at least five runs per game. Taking the field daily seems to be something Mets fans appreciate about both Pete Alonsoand Francisco Lindor, so they’d presumably like it from Duran, too. 

Here’s an additional slab of red meat to those fed up with the Mets' woes with runners in scoring position: Duran is batting .298 in such situations this season, tops among Boston regulars. Alonso (.337) is the only Met with a better mark, and no one else is even close.

New York, in case you forgot, is near the bottom of the majors when it comes to batting average with runners in scoring position this season. They went 2-for-19 (.105) with RISP when they were swept in a doubleheader by Baltimore on Thursday.

They could also use an offensive boost from center field, perhaps the only position on the diamond where they can pursue an upgrade, unless they pick the unlikely route of moving on from all their young third basemen. Mets center fielders entered play on Friday with just four homers (25th in MLB) and a .611 OPS (24th).

CONS

Even with a player of Duran’s talent, there are some pitfalls here. Is he really the 2024 Duran or is his 2025 – not as eye-popping so far – closer to the real Jarren? He’s batting .257 (down 28 points) with a .745 OPS (down 89 points). He leads the majors in triples with 10 and also has eight homers.

There’s also the question of his defensive position. Last year, Duran appeared in 105 games in center and 83 in left; this year, he’s logged 91 games in left and six in center, where the Red Sox seem committed instead to Ceddanne Rafaela, an elite defensive player. Is a player who has already been moved by another team good enough with the glove to play center field for the Mets? Hmmm.

Then there’s the talent cost. Since Duran is arbitration-eligible in 2026 and won’t be a free agent until after the 2028 season, this is no rental, where fringy prospects might lure a team looking to move on from their player. The Red Sox will command a haul if they deal Duran, and there figures to be plenty of market competition from teams such as the Padres, which could make the price soar. 

That’s not ideal for a team that has said over and over how much it wants to supercharge its farm system. 

VERDICT

Duran would obviously lengthen the Mets' lineup, even if he’s closer to this season than last as a player. He’s an enticing, vibrant player with game-breaking tools. 

But this feels like a pass for the current Mets. It’s more of a long-term, shakeup move than simply adding deadline oomph. Stearns has been adamant about improving the team defense and it’s fair to wonder whether Duran accomplishes that if he’s their center fielder. And Soto’s not going anywhere in right field; neither is Brandon Nimmo in left.

And the Red Sox, rightfully so, could use the top end of the Mets’ prospect rankings like a want list, checking off names such as Jett Williams, Jonah Tong, Brandon Sproat, and Nolan McLean in talks. Even if you’re no prospect hugger, some combo from those ranks is a steep cost.

If the Mets decide they need to address center field, looking elsewhere for a less-pricey player (Baltimore’s Cedric Mullins, a free-agent-to-be?) might be the move. 

The Mets can take the series from the Royals in Kansas City with a win in Saturday's game at 4:10 p.m. on SNY.

Here's what to know about the game and how to watch...

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Mets Notes

• After homering in Friday's win, Juan Soto is hitting .328/.473/.687 with 14 home runs, five doubles, 29 RBI, 35 runs scored, and 35 walks over his last 39 games

• Francisco Lindor, who hit a three-run homer Friday, is 12-for-35 (.343) with six extra-base hits and 11 RBI with a 1.125 OPS in his last nine games

• Frankie Montas makes his fourth start and looks to find his rhythm. The right-hander has surrendered 10 runs on 15 hits over 14.2 innings for a 6.14 ERA and 1.295 WHIP
• Royals starter Michael Lorenzen has pitched to a 4.61 ERA and 1.304 WHIP in 99.2 innings over 18 starts this year with 85 strikeouts to 29 walks. The righty leads the AL in wild pitches with 10, equaling his total from his previous 381 innings

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Here's what happened in Mets Land on Friday, in case you missed it...

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• The Mets came out of Thursday's doubleheader sweep with a much-needed 8-3 comeback win over the Royals
• Mark Vientos looked to break out of the doldrums with a three-RBI go-ahead double in the eighth
• Kodai Sengafelt good after dealing four scoreless innings with four strikeouts in his return from the IL
• Manager Carlos Mendoza was most pleased with those two players' performance
• Not to be overshadowed, Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto both homered in the ninth

• Sean Manaea said he's ready to make his highly anticipated season debut: "Feels good to be back"

• SNY's Andy Martino wrote about the time Pete Alonso and Pete Crow-Armstrong was a trade conversation
• Down on the farm, Jett Williams socked two homers and Jonathan Santucci had a strong Double-A debut

• In a flurry of moves, Jesse Winker landed on the IL and Jared Young was called up

• Mendoza had injury updates for Winker, Starling Marte, and Paul Blackburn

• Who will the Mets take at No. 38 overall in Sunday's draft? Joe DeMayo had names to look out for

• Danny Abriano argued the Mets’ reliance on bullpen games is flawed and costly, and must end now

• Who is the Mets' best option at third base? That was debated on Baseball Night in New York

• WATCH: Francisco Alvarezhomered and drove in two at Triple-A Syracuse
• The Mets Pod discussed when the Mets should bring Alvarez back to the majors
• WATCH: Jim Duquette talks offensive needs entering the trade deadline

Lately, while watching the Dodgers play, losing streak and all, I am reminded of something the great Benoit Benjamin once said: “Bad team, man. Bad [bleeping] team.”

Brian Lipson
Beverly Hills

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The signing of closer Tanner Scott will go down as the worst in Dodgers history. It's even worse than the signing of outfielder Michael Conforto. Scott has already blown six saves, has two losses and has an ERA creeping up to 4.00. He is the third-highest paid relief pitcher in history. What makes his signing far worse than Conforto's is the fact the Dodgers are stuck with him for four seasons.

Geno Apicella
Placentia

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After beating up on cupcakes — Colorado, Kansas City, Chicago White Sox — in the previous nine games, the Houston Astros came to town and showed the Dodgers how a good team plays. Even more disturbing was manager Dave Roberts' continued mismanagement of his pitching staff. On top of his inept pitching decisions, Roberts actually sought to have the weak-hitting Michael Conforto pinch-hit on Saturday.

Roberts is too prone to cede games when his team falls behind by allowing clearly ineffective pitchers to stay on the mound. Enough already. Replace Roberts with a manager who actually understands the nuances of the game. With their prodigious talent, the Dodgers should not be swept in a series. And they certainly shouldn't be outscored 29-6 over three games.

Brian Gura
Redondo Beach

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Ten runs in six games! That must be a new low for the Dodgers. Although Shohei Ohtani is leading the league in home runs, he is not even in the top 10 in RBIs. This is what comes from having him hit leadoff. It makes no sense. Did any of the great home run hitters ever hit leadoff?

Mike Schaller
Temple City

Messed-up Mookie

Regarding "He's (Ohtani) swinging to get his balance back." What about Mookie Betts? His offensive production is way off since he switched to the more physically demanding position of shortstop. Why not move Mookie back to right field (where he won multiple gold gloves) to get his offensive output back to his lofty standards? Play Tommy Edmon at shortstop, Hyeseong Kim at second, with Miguel Rojas as backup. Now you have three great arms in the outfield while improving the infield defense. Just a thought.

Michael N. Antonoplis
Sherman Oaks

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Mookie Betts' bat has suffered since he has struggled to adapt to playing shortstop. It's time to move him back to right field, where he will be more comfortable in the field and at the plate.

Harris J. Levey
Venice

One last pitch

Can you stand one more letter about the Sandy Koufax-Clayton Kershaw "greatest" controversy? Koufax pitched with an arthritic arm that he soaked in ice for hours after every game. He did not have 21st century medical technology, which could have extended his career.

Carolyn Rothberg
Tarzana

Ganging up on the Jameses

Are you laboring under a misconception that there's a Bronny James fan club out there somewhere?
You seem to work him into every story, whether he plays or not. In the story about the Lakers' win over the Spurs on Tuesday, you rightly credited Darius Bazley with leading the team with 27 points, with Dalton Knecht adding 25.

Then you felt the need to add, "Bronny James, still working to ramp up his conditioning, played just over five minutes and scored two points." Who cares? Other than his parents, whom do you presume is clamoring for stats on a bench warmer?

Steve Rutledge
Beaumont

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A week after signing a $52-million option for next season, LeBron James still owns the acronym of GOAT, only the descriptor has changed slightly: Greediest Of All Time.

Ron Ovadia
Irvin

Talking like a winner

I enjoyed Broderick Turner's article on Deandre Ayton coming to the Lakers. I liked Ayton a lot at the beginning of his career. I thought Ayton had a lot of potential. I hope that LeBron James and Luka Doncic, with their assist skills, can bring that potential out of Ayton this season. I liked that during the course of Turner's article, Ayton was quoted 15 times using "win" as part of a word, like "wins," "winning," "winner," etc. We will have to see if Ayton can convert his words to deeds and be a winner for the Lakers this season.

Vaughn Hardenberg
Westwood

Practice squaring up

Thank you for the article on the Angels interim manager Ron Montgomery. I have one bit of advice for him. Practice bunting. There are a bunch of games the Angels have lost in extra innings because they (along with most of the other major league teams) don’t bunt the player on second base over to third with no outs. So much easier to score a run if the runner is at third base.

Steve Shaevel
Woodland Hills

Title says it all

USC eliminated the position of executive senior associate athletic director. The fact that a position with such a convoluted title even existed tells you all you need to know about administrative bloat in the Trojans’ athletic department.

Gerry Swider
Sherman Oaks

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Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

As a tour group gathered in the press box at American Family Field on Monday, the stadium guide looked down at the diamond and tried to identify the hitter in a Dodger blue T-shirt taking thunderous swings in an afternoon batting practice session.

“I’m not sure which player that is,” the tour guide said.

One knowledgeable Dodger fan in the group recognized it wasn’t a big-leaguer at all — at least not yet.

“That’s Dino Ebel's son,” the fan said. “He’s gonna be a top draft pick next week.”

Brady Ebel might not be a household name yet around the sport but in Dodger circles, the rise of the Corona High infielder, and 17-year-old son of longtime third base coach Dino Ebel, has long been a proud organizational story in the making.

Six years ago, Brady and his younger brother Trey (a 16-year-old junior on a loaded Corona team last season), first started tagging along to Dodger Stadium with their dad after the Dodgers hired him away from the Angels at the start of the 2019 season.

Back then, they were like many of the other children of players and staff that the family-friendly Dodgers would welcome around the ballpark. Not even teenagers yet, Ebel's sons would be taking ground balls and shagging in the outfield during batting practice before the start of Dodger games.

Now, they are both standout prospects with major college commitments (Brady to Louisiana State, Trey to Texas A&M) and expected futures in pro ball.

On Sunday, Brady is expected to be a Day 1, and very possibly first round, pick in the MLB draft — a rise borne of his own physical gifts, but also aided by a childhood spent growing up in the presence of big-league players.

“I’m so blessed, me and my brother,” Brady said this week, after accompanying his dad on the Dodgers’ recent road trip in Milwaukee. “It’s my favorite thing to do. Come to the stadium with my dad. Get better. And watch guys go about it. Because I know I’m gonna be here soon. This is what I’m gonna be doing.”

The physical traits that make Brady a coveted prospect are obvious: His 6-foot-3, 190-pound frame; his smooth, compact left-handed swing; his defensive feel and strong throwing arm from the left side of the infield.

What sets Brady apart from the typical high school prospects that populate draft boards this time of year is his unique upbringing in the game, having absorbed countless lessons on his trips to work with his dad.

“Watching those guys do it every day, just being able to be in the clubhouse and walk around and see how guys act, has helped me and my brother a lot,” Brady said, shortly after peppering balls all over the outfield stands at the Brewers’ home ballpark. “I take pieces from everybody.”

The Ebel sons first got an up-close look at major league life in Anaheim, marveling as young boys at superstars such as Mike Trout and Albert Pujols during Dino’s 12-year stint on the Angels' coaching staff.

When their dad was hired by the Dodgers, their first-person education continued at Chavez Ravine, where many Dodgers players and staffers have marveled at their own evolution into coveted recruits and MLB draft prospects.

“As a dad, I love it, because I get to spend more time with them, and I get to watch them get better,” Dino said. “The process of watching them work with major league players is something I’ll never forget.”

Many days in recent summers, the pair have been a constant presence at the ballpark.

There have been ground rules to follow, as Dino noted: “Stay out of everybody’s way. When you shag, get in the warning track. When you go eat, if a player is behind you, you get in the back of the line.”

The fundamental lessons they've learned, from watching players hit in the cage, to catching balls at first base during infield drills, to talking to other members of the coaching staff during quiet stretches of the day, have been endless. The fingerprints it has left on their game have been profound.

“Process, approach, work habits, how to respect the game, how you go about your work every day,” Dino said. “For them to see that, from guys at the top of the chain of elite superstars in the game … that’s what I’ve seen them take into their game. Trying something different. Listening to what the players are telling them in the cage, on the field.”

Brady, for example, has become a keen observer of Freddie Freeman’s work in the batting cage during recent years.

“There’s stuff he grew up doing that he still continues to do,” Brady said of Freeman. “Different drills. Keeping your hands inside. Driving the ball up the middle. I’ve been doing that since I was 8. And he’s 30-whatever, still doing it. It’s the simple, little stuff.”

As the Ebel boys have gotten older, Dino noticed how they would get home from the stadium, go to a practice field the next day, and replicate specific drills and techniques they’d witnessed the night before.

“It’s pretty special for me, as a dad, to watch them go through this process,” Dino said. “And then, as a coach, how they’re getting better each day they come out here.”

Read more:Sondheimer: Meet the Dodgers of high school baseball: the Corona Panthers

Such roots haven’t been lost on evaluators. Most scouting reports of Brady note his advanced approach and discipline at the plate. MLB Pipeline’s write-up of him ahead of the draft lauded his baseball IQ, and that “his experience working with big leaguers for a long time was clearly on display” as a prep player.

In Baseball America’s latest mock draft, Brady is projected to go 33rd overall to the Boston Red Sox — where he could join Corona teammates Seth Hernandez and Billy Carlson as the highest-drafted trio of high school teammates in the event’s history.

Looming seven picks after that, however, are the Dodgers, a team that would need no introduction to a player that grew up before their eyes.

“That would be really cool, just to be with my dad’s organization,” Brady said of possibly winding up with the club. “We’ll see what happens on draft day. You never know.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

What to know about Giants' outlook, first-round history ahead of 2025 MLB Draft originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — On the day that he traded for Rafael Devers, Buster Posey spoke passionately about what the power hitter could bring to the lineup and organization. But in talking about the cost of acquiring Devers, Posey also acknowledged that it put some extra pressure on the front office. 

“It’s going to be on us as an organization to do really well in the draft and other avenues as far as being able to develop talent through our system,” he said last month.

The Devers trade sent Jordan Hicks and three young players back the other way, including Kyle Harrison, who was the No. 1 left-handed prospect in baseball a year ago, and 2024 first-rounder James Tibbs III.

Tibbs was the sixth and final first-round pick of the Farhan Zaidi Era. On Sunday, the Posey-led front office will attack a draft for the first time, although there might not be much that’s noticeably different. The head of a baseball operations department is always involved with a draft, particularly with the first-round pick, but when Posey made his evaluations in the offseason, he decided to keep the draft in the hands of senior director of amateur scouting Michael Holmes, who was hired by Zaidi. This is mostly up to Holmes and his scouts. 

As Posey and Holmes prepare to embark on their first draft together, here’s what you need to know about where the Giants stand:

The Details

The draft is a two-day event this year, beginning Sunday at 3 p.m. PST with the Washington Nationals on the clock. They’re expected to select either LSU lefty Kade Anderson or prep shortstop Ethan Holliday, the son of former big league star Matt Holliday and younger brother of Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday. 

The first three rounds will air Sunday on ESPN and MLB Network. The next 17 rounds will start Monday morning and be available on MLB.com. 

The Giants’ Picks

There’s a draft lottery at the Winter Meetings now, and the Giants saw two teams pass them. They’ll pick 13th for the third time in six years, and while they’ve struggled in the first round overall, they have at least fared well from that spot. 

The lone first-rounder under Zaidi to reach the big leagues thus far is Patrick Bailey, who was taken 13th in 2020. Tibbs was 13th last year and became a key piece in a blockbuster. 

For a second straight year, the Giants will get a bit of a breather after their first selection. They sacrificed their second- and fifth-round picks to sign Willy Adames, which looked like a savvy move on Friday night. 

About Those First-Rounders …

Posey was a first-round pick out of Florida State in 2008. He’s now running the Giants in part because of the prior regime’s failure to develop first-rounders over the last six years. 

In 2019, the Giants selected power-speed blend Hunter Bishop, who has dealt with injuries and is now in his second season in Triple-A. Two years later, it was right-hander Will Bednar, who also dealt with injuries and is now a reliever in Double-A. Reggie Crawford was a swing for the fences in 2022, and he underwent shoulder surgery late last season. He’s said to be doing well in his rehab, but he won’t get back on the mound until the end of this season. 

The big hit appears to be Bryce Eldridge, who was taken 16th overall in 2023 and is now the organization’s top prospect and the 20th-best prospect in the game, per MLB Pipeline. Last year, the pick was Tibbs, the lone Zaidi first-rounder who is no longer with the organization. 

The 2024 Group

The Giants gave up their second and third picks in last year’s draft after they signed Matt Chapman and Blake Snell. The Chapman part of it all worked out extremely well, and they seem to have done a nice job of salvaging the top of that draft despite not having much to work with.

Tibbs helped them get Devers, and after sitting out two rounds, they went over-slot to get outfielder Dakota Jordan, a tremendous athlete who dropped because of concerns about his whiff rate at Mississippi State. Jordan is now their No. 5 prospect and has a .841 OPS, nine homers and 27 stolen bases for Low-A San Jose. The front office is thrilled with his outfield defense and all-fields power, and he has made notable strides with his plate discipline. 

Who Will They Take?

There’s really no such thing as drafting for need in baseball, so throw out any thoughts you might have about what this organization is lacking. After getting a lay of the land, Zaidi decided the Giants were well short on pitching depth, so they took nine straight to begin the 2021 draft. But generally, teams pick the best player available, and because there are so many players in the draft pool compared to other sports, there can be some wild swings. 

Posey played with Joe Panik, who was considered a massive reach when the Giants took him 29th overall in 2011. Panik ended up helping them win a ring three years later. 

Just for fun … MLB Pipeline has the Giants taking Oklahoma right-hander Kyson Witherspoon, and ESPN has them selecting Arizona outfielder Brendan Summerhill.

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It’s been a disappointing start to the year for Mark Vientos. 

The youngster was one of the most productive bats in the Mets’ lineup last postseason, but he hasn’t quite been able to carry that success over to this year thus far.

Vientos has been putting together better at-bats over the past couple of days, and he had a big opportunity to come through early in Friday’s contest. 

After Royals right-hander Michael Wacha walked Pete Alonso to force in the first run of the game in the top of the third, the youngster stepped to the plate with a chance to do even more damage. 

However, Wacha quickly set the slugger aside on three pitches to escape the inning, and his frustration got the best of him as he snapped his bat in half over home plate before walking back to the dugout. 

Luckily for Vientos, he had a chance to make up for it later on. 

After the Royals jumped in front of the first time, the 25-year-old stepped to the plate with the bases loaded again and one out, this time facing All-Star closer Carlos Estévez who he saw last postseason with the Phillies.

Vientos found himself in a 2-2 count, and on the third consecutive slider throw to him, he laced one 107.7 mph into the left-center gap to bring in all three runs and put the Mets back in front for good. 

“I was just trying to stay simple with one out and the bases loaded,” he said. “I was trying to hit then all hard the other way and just bring one run in and luckily I found the gap -- it was good to redeem myself and be able to do my job for the team.”

The Mets followed that up with a four-run ninth inning with back-to-back homers from Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, but most encouraging in that frame -- another Vientos opposite-field single. 

After also reaching twice during Game 1 in Baltimore, he's now put together back-to-back multi-hit showings.

With things finally starting to fall for him, both Vientos and Carlos Mendoza are excited for what's to come over the second-half of the season.

“He’s a really good hitter man,” the skipper said. “It’s taken a little bit longer than he wanted and than we’ve wanted, but he’s been hitting the ball hard and a lot of it’s been on the ground -- for him to come through against a good arm in Estévez, it was huge for us and him there.

“Like I said, he’s a really good hitter and we’re gonna need him down the stretch.”

The Dodgers finally looked like the Dodgers again on Friday night.

Too bad it didn’t happen until they were already down six runs.

For the first time in a week, the highest-scoring offense in baseball finally rediscovered its high-flying form, handing San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb his worst start all season while sending shivers up the spine of the orange-clad contingent at Oracle Park.

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But by the time it happened, the club had already dug a hole too deep for even its star-studded lineup to climb out of, unable to completely erase an early six-run deficit in a 8-7 loss to their division rivals — sending the Dodgers to a seven-game losing streak that marks their longest skid since September 2017.

“I like the fight. I thought one through nine, there were good at-bats in there, scored some runs, had a chance to win again,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And unfortunately, on the pitching side, we just couldn't prevent enough."

Friday, of course, never figured to favor the Dodgers given the difference in caliber of the starting pitching matchup.

On one side stood Webb, the crafty and relentless All-Star right-hander who has largely dominated the Dodgers in his seven-year career.

On the other was Dustin May, the once-promising Dodgers right-hander who has yet to realize his tantalizing potential in what has been his first fully healthy big-league season so far.

Still, for a little while on a cold night along the San Francisco Bay, little separated the two sinker-ball specialists, the Dodgers and Giants locked in the kind of close contest that has been the hallmark of this rivalry in recent years.

In the top of the third, Shohei Ohtani even put the Dodgers in front, splashing his NL-leading 32nd home run of the season into McCovey Cove beyond right field for only the eighth splash-down home run by a Dodger player in Oracle Park history.

But eventually, May came unglued, giving up seven runs in less than five innings as the Giants surged to an 8-2 lead. And though the Dodgers (56-39) eventually got to within one, tagging Webb with a season-high six runs, they came up empty in their final couple trips to the plate, wasting plenty of positive subplots in another losing story.

“Today we were able to string some hits together, put some innings together,” shortstop Mookie Betts said. “But we just come up short."

After starting his night with increased fastball velocity and ruthless assault of the strike zone, May lost his command in the fourth inning. 

Rafael Devers walked on four pitches to start the inning. Matt Chapman received another free pass despite a mid-at-bat mound visit from catcher Will Smith. And with one out, Jung Hoo Lee laced a two-run triple over the outstretched glove of Teoscar Hernández, who returned to the lineup after missing the last four games with a foot contusion but still seemed hobbled while trying to track the ball down in the right-field gap.

“Just got a little bit out of sync, couldn’t time things back up,” May said of his delivery, which has teetered between flashes of dominance and stretches of frustration during his return from a second career elbow surgery.

“During my warm-up throws in the fourth, it felt a little off. Trying to get my foot down a little earlier didn’t really help. That’s been a cue. But yeah, it just went bad.”

Things got worse in the fifth, when the Giants (52-43) plated five more while sending 10 batters to the plate. 

Dominic Smith led the inning off with a homer. May then gave up a single and two walks to load the bases. The Dodgers missed their chance to escape the inning, when Hyeseong Kim failed to turn a difficult but potential inning-ending double play quickly enough at second base.

May was replaced by Anthony Banda, who was greeted with another two-run triple by Willy Adames (who had already homered to open the scoring in the second inning) and a run-scoring infield single from Lee, who outraced Banda to first base to punctuate a painfully long inning.

“To win a big-league ballgame is tough, but you’ve still got to pitch well, you’ve got to catch it and you’ve got to take good at-bats,” Roberts said. “If all three of those things don’t line up in one night, it’s hard to get a win.”

It was at that point, coming off a six-game stretch in which they’d scored 10 total runs, that the Dodgers’ bats finally came to life.

In the top of the sixth, Hernández launched a two-run double that Lee couldn’t quite corral on the run at the warning track, before Michael Conforto followed with a two-run homer that chased Webb and cut the deficit to two.

In the seventh, the Dodgers struck again, when Betts slid into third after hitting another ball just beyond Lee’s reach in center and later scored on Smith’s RBI single.

“It's definitely more encouraging,” said Betts, who has been among the coldest hitters in the Dodgers lineup lately. “I can't speak for everyone. But I haven't done anything this whole time … Just to get us going, get some hits there, that's the positive that you can take out of it."

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That, however, was as close as the Dodgers got. Smith was left stranded to end the seventh. Kim’s two-out double in the eighth was squandered. And, in the most frustrating of endings, a two-on, one-out opportunity in the ninth went by the wayside when Smith rolled into a double play.

The division lead is down to four.

And as the Dodgers continue to stumble toward the All-Star break, moral victories remain the only wins in sight.

“I know it sucks, but you have to try to take some positive out of it,” Betts said. “At least we battled back."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.