Category: MLB

Marlins 2, Mariners 0

Josh Naylor, +0.20 WPA
Cole Young, -0.34 WPA

Game thread comment of the day:

Gerrit Cole pitched into the seventh but the Yankees did not give him run support in their 3-0 loss to the Rays on Wednesday night.

The Yankees had six hits, all singles, and just could not string together enough hits against Tampa's pitchers. After striking out 17 times in the last two games, the Yankees struck out 11 times. 

New York is now 5.0 games behind the Rays for first place in the AL East. 

Here are the takeaways....

-The Yankees had a chance in the second. With runners on first and third and one out, Max Schuemann laid down a safety squeeze, but Jasson Dominguez didn't get a good jump and the bunt was hit too hard back at Shane McClanahan. Dominguez was called out at the plate and the Yankees would not score. 

Their next best chance came in the seventh. With runners on first and second and one out, Anthony Volpe struck out and a pinch-hitting Trent Grisham flew out to end the threat. New York was 0-for-4 with RISP and left four on base. 

-Unlike the Yankees, the Rays did capitalize on an early opportunity. Yandy Diaz hit a one-out double that was nearly a homer in the third. Jonathan Aranda hit a single to Dominguez in right, but the outfielder's throw home was off the line, allowing Diaz to score. An on-target throw would have likely got Diaz out at the plate. 

Aranda would drive in the game's second run with a one-out double in the fifth with two runners on. Gerrit Cole worked out of trouble to limit the damage, but allowed a third run in the seventh on an Aranda sac fly off of Fernando Cruz -- the runner on third was Cole's responsibility.

-Cole gave the Yankees exactly what they needed. He pitched 6.1 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out six batters. This is now two straight good starts for Cole after he allowed two runs across five innings on July 3 against the Twins. He tossed 97 pitches on Wednesday, his most since returning from Tommy John surgery. 

-Paul Goldschmidt's struggles continued. He finished 0-for-4 and his hitless streak is now a career-worst 0-for-34. Volpe went 1-for-3 starting at short while Jose Caballero was also 1-for-3, and started at second. 

-Manager Aaron Boone was tossed for the third time this season in the sixth. Home plate umpire Doug Eddings tossed bench coach Brad Ausmus first, and then Boone was thrown out for defending Ausmus. It seemed like the Yankees were miffed when they were not allowed to challenge an out call when Caballero was thrown out at second on a steal attempt. 

Game MVP: Jonathan Aranda

Aranda drove in all three of the Rays' runs

What's next

The Yankees and Rays complete their four-game set on Thursday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m.

The Yankees have yet to announce a starter, while the Rays will send Drew Rasmussen (7-4, 2.78 ERA) to the mound.

 

Leadoff batter Anthony Seigler and cleanup hitter Willson Contreras both had to exit the Boston Red Sox's game against the Chicago White Sox before Wednesday night's game was even three innings old.

Seigler was hurt in the top of the third inning due to a collision with White Sox catcher Kyle Teel. Seigler scored on a wild pitch, but remained down after colliding with Teel and appeared to be in considerable pain.

He was replaced at second base by Andruw Monasterio.

SEIGLER RACES TEEL HOME FOR A RUN!

He was able to walk off after, but has been replaced by Mona 🥺❤️ pic.twitter.com/9TUgiA0uZX

— NESN (@NESN) July 9, 2026

Contreras fouled a ball off his foot in the same at-bat in which Seigler was hurt.

Willson Contreras has exited the game for the Red Sox after fouling a ball off his foot pic.twitter.com/jIjXAPx28w

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 9, 2026

He flied out to center to end the inning and eventually exited in the bottom of the third when the Red Sox returned to the field. He was limping heavily when he exited.

Both Willson Contreras and Anthony Seigler are out of the game. Incredibly bad luck.

Contreras was limping heavily out at first base before pulling himself. Last time we saw him during the first half? pic.twitter.com/vOyZMuZcri

— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) July 9, 2026

This story will be updated when updates on Seigler and Contreras are provided.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Red Sox injury updates: Anthony Seigler, Willson Contreras exit game vs White Sox

Baseball has a funny way of sticking with you. Some plays, some moments, some games, some players, just latch onto certain segments of your brain and I’m not fit to diagnose why.

I’ve consumed thousands and thousands of San Francisco Giants games in my life. Some through paper box scores, and others through digital ones; many through the speakers of my bright yellow boombox that my parents got me in my youth, and many more through god knows how many different car stereos; some I watched on TV, some I watched on a computer, and some I watched on my phone; a few were in person, and plenty have been followed through social media or the play-by-play data online.

And I’ve forgotten most of them, of course. Countless memorable games and can’t-miss highlights that have been labeled as you won’t ever forget that have been, ironically, thrown out in my annual spring cranial cleaning.

What we forget is rarely weird. What we remember, however, always seems so strange.

I remember, for instance, July 2, 2013 vividly. The Giants, seeking to repeat as champions, were mired in quite a slump. A once promising season had fallen by the wayside. They’d lost five of their last six games, and scored one run in three of their last four. They were flailing and feckless. They were inventing new ways to lose.

In a word, they were pathetic.

I was in Yosemite on that day, spending time with my parents for the first time since I had moved out and attempted to start life as an adult. There’s a cafeteria/bar/pizza parlor/patio in the valley, where we would stay on our then annual vacations, and they throw sports on the television, which is quite good of them. In 2013, the glorious pre-streaming era, they played the Giants, because the Giants were on the station they got.

And so I wandered with my dad to check in on the Giants game, eager for a glorious battle between Tim Lincecum and Homer Bailey. Excited for a chance for the Giants to right the ship. The game was only a few innings in when we got there, and we weren’t planning on staying long.

But I had to stay and catch the first hit. My dad, less patient, wandered back to the cabin. Every now and then I’d roam back between innings to fill him in: still no hit. Occasionally he’d meander back to the cafe and poke his head in: still no hit.

Finally and mercifully, the game ended. Nine no-hit innings by Bailey. I remember remarking, I think to my dad but perhaps just in my head, that at least the Giants had finally hit rock bottom. A brutal June swoon that began with getting blown out in both halves of a June 1 doubleheader had reached it’s climactic moment. The Giants had been bounced off the bottom of the riverbed, and had nowhere to go but up. They had been no-hit, and things could not, and would not, get worse.

I was thinking about that game today, as the Giants lost 10-0 to the Toronto Blue Jays. The thought first popped up in the third inning, when Dylan Cease struck out Bryce Eldridge, Drew Gilbert, and Eric Haase in dominant fashion, ending his first turn through the order with emphasis. It was perhaps too early to contemplate a no-hitter, especially given that the Giants, for all their woes, possess baseball’s fifth-best batting average. They struggle to spin hits into runs, and really struggle to spin runs into wins, but they do get their dinks and their doinks and their grab bag of miscellaneous singles.

But Cease cruised through the fourth on just nine pitches. And while a two-out walk drawn by Willy Adames broke up a perfect game in the fifth inning, Cease’s immediate rebuttal — overpowering Eldridge for another strikeout — made it clear that the other historic bid remained intact.

It was hilariously emblematic of the Giants season that Logan Webb was matching Cease bar for bar, but only after stalling out of the starting gates. Webb allowed back-to-back singles to open the game, followed them up with a one-out walk and a single to score a run, and then ceded the first grand slam of his career to Kazuma Okamoto.

By that point the had thrown 25 pitches, allowed five runs, and retired one batter. And then, in typical Webb fashion, he retired the next 13 batters consecutively, and needed just 46 pitches to do so. In all, Webb would make it through seven innings, giving up just a single and a walk after that fated stretch to open the game.

Cease, meanwhile, would not live up to his verb comprising his surname. He gave in with another walk in the sixth — this time a leadoff bases on balls to Gilbert — then struck out Haase, struck out Ramos, and induced a weak groundout from Luis Arráez. The no-hitter watch was well and firmly on.

It highlighted how useless the offensive display was — and how dominant the pitching was — that no one started to question the no-hitter until the seventh inning, when it became apparent that Cease was headed for squeamish manager pitch count territory, which wasn’t helped by his third walk of the game, this time to Rafael Devers. But he worked through it, and entered the eighth inning with a no-hitter intact.

In that frame, he got the two things he needed: a nine-pitch inning, and a highlight play from his defense. The former was necessary for John Schneider to feel comfortable sending his ace out to finish the job. The latter — a 396-foot fly ball from Eldridge that Daulton Varsho tracked down — was mandatory for the no-hitter. According to rule 109.3 in the Big Book of Baseball Rules, and I quote, “Every no-hitter must feature at least one (1) highlight defensive play in which you think a hit will be achieved, but it is instead stolen by a defender, resulting in a pitcher celebration that serves as the first on-field acknowledgement of the historical achievement at hand, and which will be uploaded to MLB’s YouTube channel within 30 minutes of the final out, to be replayed in perpetuity by millions of fans, at least 5,000 of which, annually, will be mandated to claim that they were in attendance even though they were not.”

At that point, the no-hitter felt like a given. The Blue Jays had their play. Cease had made it through eight innings with only one scare, only four balls hit harder than 90 mph, and 11 strikeouts.

But the Giants had a cheeky trick up their sleeves. They had tried everything to knock Cease out of rhythm: taking pitches, swinging at pitches, looking blankly at pitches, making jokes while watching pitches go by them … you name it, they’d tried it. But late in the game they tried a new tactic: ice him out.

It started in the top of the eighth inning, when Spencer Bivens replaced Webb, and an oh-so-long inning ensued. Bivens loaded the bases with one out, and then induced a double play ball, only to watch as Devers flat out dropped a pitch thrown right to his chest. A run scored, the inning lived on, and then another run scored on a single. They had kept Cease, now into triple figures with his pitch count, sitting in the dugout for a long time.

Was it any coincidence that when he took the mound in the eighth, he immediately threw a pitch that Eldridge tattooed deep into the night, even though it was ultimately caught?

Apparently the Giants didn’t think so, because they doubled down on their efforts in the ninth inning, with a man who has been honing this craft all season: Ryan Walker. If a laboriously long inning is what Tony Vitello is after, then he knows just the man to call. And indeed, Walker took his time issuing a leadoff walk to Nathan Lukes, then followed it up with back-to-back home runs issued to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer, both on teed-up hangers placed perfectly into the wheelhouse of the respective sluggers.

Walker mixed in a single and a few other long counts, ultimately throwing 28 pitches in the inning, the perfect amount of time for Cease to sit, grow cold and stiff and bored, and then get called on once again.

This time it worked. Cease took the mound for the ninth inning, and the third pitch he threw caught too much plate, with too little movement. Ramos jumped on it, lining it sharply into center field.

The no-hit bit was over, and it honestly felt anticlimactic. You almost found yourself rooting for a little bit of history. Maybe it’s the memory of Chris Heston influencing me, but there’s something magical about how a no-hitter stands as an outlier in a player’s performance, which allows it be viewed as separate from a run of the mill great outing. Great pitchers throw them, yes, but mediocre pitchers throw them as well. Sometimes players throw a no-hitter, and the next week get rocked. It feels less like a sustainably great performance by a sustainably great player, and more like the sport’s version of an eclipse: a perfect confluence of magic, skill, luck, and destiny bestowed upon a pitcher some random weekday from the baseball deities.

But eight innings of one-hit ball by an ace who was available this winter but the Giants didn’t even try to sign, followed by three quick outs from Tyler Rogers, an elite reliever who was available this winter but the Giants didn’t even try to sign? Well, that just feels like a baseball team that’s run better than yours and coached better than yours, using their players who are better than yours to win.

And with that, the Giants fell to 16 games below .500 for the first time in eight years. It wasn’t a no-hitter like the one Bailey painted all those years ago, but it sure feels like rock bottom all the same.

Then again, the day after Bailey no-hit them 13 years ago, the Giants got walked off in the 11th inning, and would lose six of their last seven. So maybe it’ll get even worse.

The Dodgers’ longest homestand of the year — 10 games — to take them into the All-Star break features all National League West opponents. First came the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies to Los Angeles, and now the Arizona Diamondbacks are in town for a three-game series beginning Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

Los Angeles really distanced itself from the division in June, and Arizona has lost 10 of 16 games entering Wednesday night.

Shohei Ohtani takes the mound in his final pitching start before the All-Star break. He’s lasted at least six innings in 13 of his 14 starts this season, including each of his last six starts, averaging 6.12 innings per start this season with a sparkling 1.79 ERA and 2.70 xERA.

Friday game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. D-backs
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Start time: 7:10 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

Prior to today’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Atlanta Braves recalled right-handed pitcher Victor Mederos and optioned lefty Conner Thomas to Triple-A.

Mederos appeared in one game back in late May for Atlanta, covering two innings in a victory against the Miami Marlins. He had pitched in a dozen games across three seasons with the Los Angeles Angels prior to his Braves debut. Thomas appeared for the Braves last night, allowing four runs in 3.2 innings pitched in his debut with Atlanta.

The Braves continue to churn pitchers on an almost daily basis. On a related note, the team’s transaction page shows the Carlos Carrasco has resigned on a minor league deal again.

Mederos has had middling results with Gwinnett this year, but can cover multiple innings, when needed.

The St. Louis Cardinals will play the 4th game of their 5-game series this week versus the Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday night. Birthday boy Michael McGreevy will get the start for St. Louis while Milwaukee will give the ball to Kyle Harrison who’s 8-1 on the season with a 2.82 ERA. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45pm at Busch Stadium and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.

The Milwaukee Brewers, winners of seven straight against the Cardinals and four straight overall, are looking to extend both those streaks on Wednesday night as they’ll take on St. Louis for the fourth game of their five-game set. Left-hander Kyle Harrison is set to start for the Brewers, with righty Michael McGreevy starting for the Redbirds.

Harrison, 8-1 with a 2.82 ERA and 99 strikeouts this season, had a short start on Friday night in Arizona, as he exited after just 2 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits and a walk, striking out three on 72 pitches. That marked his third consecutive and fourth start in his last five allowing at least two runs — he’ll look to buck that trend in St. Louis tonight.

McGreevy, 3-7 with a 3.12 ERA and 60 strikeouts this season, has lost each of his last four decisions despite a still-solid month of June — across five starts, he went 0-2 with a 3.41 ERA and 14 strikeouts over 29 innings, allowing two runs or fewer in four of those five games.

In roster news, Brandon Woodruff had an MRI in Milwaukee, but the news is not good: he has a new injury to the anterior shoulder capsule. His surgeon, Dr. Keith Meister, will provide a second opinion before determining a timeline. Another big “oof” for the Brewer veteran.

Additional info from the Brewers is not good: Brandon Woodruff’s imaging showed a new injury to the anterior shoulder capsule. Waiting on a second opinion from Dr. Keith Meister before determining a timeline.

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) July 8, 2026

Tonight’s lineup once again features Christian Yelich in the leadoff spot as the DH, followed by Jackson Chourio and Jake Bauers. William Contreras, Garrett Mitchell, and Luis Lara make up the middle of the order, with Cooper Pratt, Joey Ortiz, and Greg Jones (at second base!) rounding things out.

First pitch is at 6:45 p.m. CT on Brewers TV and the Brewers Radio Network.

Game four of five in STL

📺: https://t.co/eycfmE2vgm
📻: WTMJ#ThisIsMyCrew x @NicoletLawpic.twitter.com/XSCBiqPzGO

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 8, 2026

Birthday Boy on the mound! 🎂 pic.twitter.com/451smzrrk3

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 8, 2026

Anaheim Angels @ Texas Rangers

Wednesday, July 08, 2026, 7:05 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / Rangers Sports Network)

The Shed

RHP Walbert Urena vs. LHP MacKenzie Gore

Go Rangers!

The Mariners are about to play baseball again.

They’ll be playing the Marlins tonight after losing to them last night in extras. They’ll face Tyler Phillips, who Jake Mailhot previewed for the site yesterday. George Kirby will pitch for the Mariners and looks to build off an eight-inning performance last time out. And yeah, that’s all I got for the pregame, let’s watch some baseball.

Lineups:

Game Info:

First Pitch: 3:40 p.m.

TV: Mariners.TV

Radio: Ol’ Reliable

The Toronto Blue Jays' 36-year-old no-hitter jinx still hasn't met its match.

But Dylan Cease nearly finished the job.

Cease came three outs shy of pitching the second no-hitter of his career and just the second in Blue Jays history Wednesday, July 8, striking out 11 San Francisco Giants and throwing a career-high 118 pitches in a 10-0 conquest of the San Francisco Giants.

He took a no-hitter into the top of the ninth inning, but Heliot Ramos ended the suspense quickly with a solid single to center field. And so the Blue Jays no-hitter saga continued, despite manager John Schneider's best efforts.

Cease, 30, is in the first year of a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Blue Jays, and they certainly expected him to dominate. Yet pitch efficiency has been a bugaboo in his first season in Toronto, and it nearly derailed his no-hit hopes.

But Schneider just kept sending him out there, and Cease kept rewarding his faith.

He was aiming to throw the first no-hitter for Toronto since Dave Stieb tossed the first in Blue Jays history on Sept. 2, 1990 at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. And that didn't come easy: Stieb had three no-hit bids broken up with two outs in the bottom of the ninth before making Toronto baseball history.

Cease tried taking the long way home: He walked three batters and had thrown 115 pitches through eight innings. Three days earlier, the Miami Marlins lifted Eury Perez after needing 92 pitches to complete seven perfect innings.

But Perez has been injury-prone; Cease threw a 114-pitch no-hitter as a member of the San Diego Padres against the Washington Nationals in 2024. That stood as his career high in pitches until Wednesday.

And so he jogged out to the ninth, buoyed by the one great play so many no-hitters seem to include: Center fielder Daulton Varsho chasing down Bryce Eldridge's fly ball to left center field, hauling it in and then crashing into the fence, some 399 feet from home plate.

Is this THE PLAY?!

Daulton Varsho makes an amazing catch to keep Dylan Cease's no-hitter intact 👏 pic.twitter.com/QUzCH19goy

— MLB (@MLB) July 8, 2026

Cease also shouted out Ernie Clement's across-the-body throw to get Willy Adames after the second baseman ranged across the bag to field the chopper in the seventh.

"Usually a couple of those happen every no-hitter" Cease said of Varsho's catch in an interview with Sportsnet. "Ern Dawg made a good play up the middle the inning before. When you start to see stuff like that, you start to think maybe it’s your day."

Nobody could stop Ramos' solid shot to center, though. Perhaps next time.

"I probably should've thrown a slider," Cease said after leaving a 96-mph sinker up in the zone for Ramos.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dylan Cease no-hitter bid, chance to make Blue Jays history falls short

Detroit Tigers (41-50) vs. Athletics (41-50)

Time/Place: 6:40 p.m., Comerica Park
SB Nation Site:Athletics Nation
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: RHP Troy Melton (4-1, 2.05 ERA) vs. LHP Jeffrey Springs (3-8, 5.79 ERA)

Player	G	IP	K%	BB%	GB%	FIP	fWAR
Melton	7	44.0	19.2	6.0	42.3	4.54	0.4
Springs	18	93.1	19.7	8.1	33.8	5.86	-0.3

92/162

⚾️ 6:40 PM ET
📺 @WatchDSN
📻 @971theticketxyt
🏟️ Comerica Park pic.twitter.com/fMUUxGYYtV

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) July 8, 2026

Today's 9 👊 pic.twitter.com/DPnKh50d3O

— Athletics (@Athletics) July 8, 2026

Blue Jays 10 Giants 0

What an amazing start by Dylan Cease. I wasn’t all for sending him back out for the eighth inning at 104 pitches. But Clease isn’t going to make a start in several days, with the All-Star break ahead (well, he might start the All-Star game). But in the eighth Daulton Varsho made an amazing catch running into the center field wall at close to full speed to make the catch, and then got two strikeouts. At 116 pitches, Clease was coming out for the ninth.

Unfortunately the first batter, Heliot Ramos, in the ninth lined a singled to center.

Cease walked three and struck out eleven. And the one hit. Just an amazing start.

Tyler Rogers finished off the one-hit shutout.

---

Everything that mattered, offensively, happened in the top of the first (well I shouldn’t say that, Vlad’s homer in the ninth matters, I hope, as a step in the right direction).

Ernie Clement and Nathan Lukes singled to start the first inning off. Vladimir Guerrero tapped a ball that barely trickled in front of the plate, which worked like a bunt, moving runners up to second and third. George Springer walked. Daulton Varsho popped one in front of the right fielder, who came up just short of making the catch (the Giants defense was terrible today), getting us a run. Then Kazuma Okamoto hit a grand slam (barely, hit right at the edge of the right field wall). They did a replay review and called it a home run. It was very close. 5-0. Barely works, and it is a long say out to right field in SF.

The Jays had four hits that inning, Logan Webb would go seven innings and gave up just one more hit. He did have some bad luck that inning

We scored two more in the eighth. With one out, Varsho and Okamoto each singled. Alejandro Kirk walked (on eight pitches). Myles Straw hit into what looked to be a double play, but first baseman Rafael Devers missed the catch at first base, gifting us another run. Andrés Giménez followed that with an infield single. As talked about in the GameThread, Giants shortstop Willy Adames isn’t the defensive player he used to be (maybe that unnecessary ‘e’ in his last name stands for error?). Adames made an error in the fifth inning.

And then three more in the ninth. Lukes walked and Vlad hit the first pitch for a home run. 108.3 mph and 419 feet. Then George Springer, hitting cleanup and playing in his first game since coming back to the team from Paternity Leave, also homered. This one 104.3 mph and 415 feet. Almost to the same spot as Vlad’s.

Vlad had hits of 108.3, 101.8 and 99.9 today. Springer 104.8 and 104.3. Lukes had one 106.1. Kirk 104.7. Okamoto 101.7. And Varsho 101.6….so there was lots of hard contact. Well, not all hits, contact off the bat.

Jays of the Day: Cease (0.18 WPA), Okamoto (0.19), and Varsho (0.10, plus that catch in the eighth).

No one gets the ‘Other Award’.

19 runs in the past two games is a nice sign.

Tomorrow is an off-day.

Then we have three in San Diego to lead us into the All-Star break.