Category: MLB

Back in August, I began a series here at Pinstripe Alley where I was going to put together an All-Star Yankee team of players who were born in a given month. Since then, we as a staff have started doing daily posts for the year 2026, highlighting a Yankee from history whose birthday happens to land on that day. As we near the end of this month, what better way to put a cap on a month’s worth of birthday posts then by using the all-month teams as a way to look back on who we covered? And maybe some we didn’t cover who shared a birthday with someone else?

With that in mind, here are my choices for the All-June Birthday Yankee Team. (I took making this particular team personal, as today is actually your truly’s birthday.)

Pitcher: Andy Pettitte (June 15th birthday post)

Eddie Lopat, Jack Chesbro, and Will Warren would add onto a pretty solid starting rotation for the June team, but there’s only one I could pick to be the ace. Pettitte won’t be the only “Core Four” member on this particular team, and he’s definitely the choice to be the starter.

Catcher: Bill Dickey (June 6th birthday post)

Catcher is a loaded enough position for June that we’re going to put another one in at DH, Considering that Dickey has an argument to be the catcher for an all-time overall Yankees’ team, he definitely warrants a place in this one.

First Base: Lou Gehrig (June 19th birthday post)

“The Iron Horse” is one of the greatest players in the history of baseball, and a beloved icon in the Bronx. It won’t hold up through every position, but this is a hell of a start for the June team.

Second Base: Gene Michael (June 2nd birthday post)

His tenure in the Yankees’ front office is far better than his playing career, but we’ll give “Stick” the nod at second base as a rare player-GM.

Shortstop: Derek Jeter (June 26th birthday post)

Another “Core Four” member will make up a strong core for this June team. It obviously doesn’t mean all that much, but young me always thought it was cool that my birthday was right after Jeter’s.

Third Base: Wade Boggs

We didn’t get to profile Boggs as he shares a birthday with Pettitte, who got the nod as our birthday boy on the 15th. However, he was an important part of the 1996 World Series winners, and him riding the police horse is one of the most famous images of that championship.

Left Field: Hensley Meulens (June 23rd birthday post)

“Bam Bam” never quite lived up to the prospect status that he had coming up, but he has parlayed his career into a long one in the coaching ranks.

Center Field: Max Scheumann

There’s not a ton of obvious options for a third outfielder for the June team, so we’ll put the current Yankees’ utility man there.

Right Field: Hideki Matsui (June 12th birthday post)

Who doesn’t love the 2009 World Series MVP? “Godzilla” was a very good and dependable Yankee for years after an all-time great career over in Japan.

Designated Hitter: Thurman Munson (June 7th birthday post)

Here’s the aforementioned other catcher that we’re working into the team. Munson was the captain and the heart and soul of the Yankees’ late 1970s teams until his tragic and untimely passing.

That’s my lineup for June, but what would you do? Let us know in the comments!

Yesterday’s defeat was Zac Gallen’s seventh loss of the year, and dropped the team to 6-11 when he takes the mound. It got me thinking, which starter in franchise history was the “biggest loser”? Before we get to that, I have to say that the single-season record for losses is one which never crops up in “unbreakable records”, but it probably should. In 1883, John Coleman of the gloriously-named Philadelphia Statistics lost 48 times. Admittedly, he did start 61 of the team’s 99 games that year, and threw 59 complete games. The Statistics also went 17-81 that year. Wasn’t all on the pitching, as the team collectively hit three home-runs. Anyway…

To find Arizona’s loss leaders, you need to go back a bit. Rodrigo Lopez and Brandon Webb both lost sixteen games, in 2010 and 2004 respectively. The latter is impressive, because Webb had an ERA+ of 125, so was by no means a bad pitcher. That same year, Casey Fossum had 15 L’s and Randy Johnson 14 (coming second in Cy Young voting). The team were simply not very good. That records may be hard to beat, with starting pitchers now less likely than ever to get the decision, as they pitch less far into games. But that same year, the D-backs overall lost 23 games Webb started, which is the most defeats in a season by any Arizona starting pitcher.

However, they still won 12 times, giving a team W% of .343 when he took the mound. Lopez was slightly worse. He made 33 starts, and Arizona lost 22 of them, a team W% of .333. But the record holder appears to be Fossum. Over his 27 starts during that disastrous 2004 campaign, Arizona won just six, a team W% of .222. If Gallen gets another 17 starts, he would need to go 1-16 the rest of the way to end up with a lower team W% than Fossum. But Gallen may be the recent record holder already. In 2021, he made 23 starts, and the D-backs went 6-17 in them, for a .260 team win percentage.

here we go!

The San Diego Padres have been playing some good baseball lately. It’s a relief for the Friar Faithful, who have endured a stretch of tough at-bats and depressing losses. Now? The Padres have reeled off a four-game win streak against two of the best teams in baseball. They swept the Atlanta Braves at home, and took the series opener last night from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

They’ll play Game 2 against L.A. tonight, hoping to win the series and shorten the rivals’ lead in the NL West. It will be tougher than last night, with the 2025 World Series MVP on the mound against San Diego. But, if the offense looks anything like it did last night (seven runs on seven hits), the Friars will coast to a series victory.

Taking the mound

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD) v. Randy Vásquez (SD)

It says something that Yamamoto has been the Dodgers’ second-best starter this season. He boasts an elite 2.65 ERA and minuscule 0.87 WHIP over 91 2/3 innings. His strikeout numbers have been down a bit, but he’s still getting outs at a ridiculous clip. He’s looked even better recently, with a 2.25 ERA in his last 48 innings pitched.

Yamamoto has looked like an ace ever since the Dodgers signed him out of Japan. He’ll seek to keep that dominance going against San Diego. A stat worth noting: Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado boast a combined .348 batting average against the righty. Just how much damage the veteran duo can do tonight remains to be seen.

Vásquez has had a rough stretch lately. After seeming to unlock a new level to his game at the beginning of the season, he now owns an ERA over 4.00 for the first time since April 2025. That’s due to his last outing against the Texas Rangers, in which Vásquez gave up six runs in the first inning, blowing a five-run cushion and losing the game for the Friars almost immediately.

He’ll need to do better tonight. He’s struggled to command his pitches well. If Vásquez isn’t on his A-game, the Padres will likely have to turn to the ‘pen earlier than they’d like. Hopefully, the righty can turn things around in such an important matchup.

Batter up!

The San Diego kid continues to impress. Ty France launched his 10th home run of the season last night for a three-run shot in the second inning. Despite scoring four more in the eighth, it was all the Padres would need after Walker Buehler limited Los Angeles to a single run.

1. Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
2. Samad Taylor, LF
3. Jackson Merrill, CF
4. Manny Machado, 3B
5. Gavin Sheets, 1B
6. Xander Bogaerts, SS
7. Miguel Andujar, DH
8. Freddy Fermin, C
9. Sung-Mun Song, 2B

France has swung a hot bat lately but could be out of the lineup in today’s game after his arm was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the fourth inning. He was able to remain in the game until the ninth inning, when Andujar replaced him at first base. That said, he may not play today depending on the state of his arm.

Relief corps

Buehler looked great against his former team, pitching five strong innings before being lifted in sixth inning for reliever Yuki Matsui. It was an odd move, with Buehler only at 74 pitches. He walked Andy Pages, and was taken from the game before Matsui gave up a double to Freddie Freeman. It could have been much worse, but the lefty popped out Max Muncy and flew out Kyle Tucker to end the trouble.

Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon and Wandy Peralta covered the final three innings well. Adam pitched a perfect seventh. Morejon worked through trouble in the eighth, inducing an inning-ending double play. Peralta did the same to finish off Los Angeles.

The four-run burst in the eighth allowed the Friars to save elite closer Mason Miller for the final two games of the series. If the offense is able to keep putting runs on the board, that move will prove incredibly shrewd for the club. Additionally, Kyle Hart, Ron Marinaccio and David Morgan will be available out of the ‘pen. Hopefully, Vásquez can cover six innings against the Dodgers so the relievers won’t be overworked.

Today’s roster move: Here

Saturday notes…

• SATURDAY IN THE PARK: The Cubs are 6-6 on Saturday this season. They finished 20-7 a year ago. They are 2-3 on Saturday on the road. They finished 11-2 a year ago. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• RISPy BUSINESS: The Cubs were 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position last night. It was the 21st game in which they were hitless with RISP, more than one of every four they have played. They are 3-18 with no hits and have lost 11 in a row since they were 0 for 7 in a 2-0 win at Atlanta on May 14. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• STREAKING: Pete Crow-Armstrong’s 28-game on base streak ties him for the 49th longest by a Cub since 1901 with John Sullivan, 1921; Hack Wilson, 1929 and 1930; Stan Hack, 1941; Tony Taylor, 1959; and Glenn Beckert, 1973. Johnny Evers, in 1912, and Augie Galan, in 1938, had streaks end at 29 games. There have been 46 streaks of at least 30, including seven of exactly 30, most recently by Ian Happ, April 45-May 9. Happ’s tied Bryan LaHair, in 2012, for the longest since Starlin Castro went 43 games, in 2011-12 — one short of Riggs Stephenson’s record of 44, in 1928. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Kris Bryant hits three homers and two doubles, going 5-for-5 with four runs scored and six RBI, as the Cubs defeat the Reds 11-8 in Cincinnati. Bryant’s 16 total bases break a franchise record that had stood since 1962 (Ernie Banks, 14). It happened 10 years ago today, Monday, June 27, 2016.

The Cubs lineup was not available at posting time. Please check BCB social media for the Cubs lineup.

Brewers lineup:

David Peterson, LHP vs. Kyle Harrison, LHP

David Peterson is having the worst year of his career. Shuttled back and forth between the Mets rotation and bullpen, he’s never been able to get any consistency.

You all know about his extreme ground-ball tendencies; BCB’s Sara Sanchez has more in this article posted yesterday. Hopefully the Cubs’ elite defense will help him get back to the level he was at the last two years, when he was essentially a 2 WAR pitcher.

He last faced the Brewers July 3, 2025 in New York, throwing 6.2 innings and allowing two runs (one earned). I think we’d take that tonight. Current Brewers are batting .184 (9-for-49) against Peterson with 14 strikeouts.

Kyle Harrison has been a revelation for the Brewers, posting a 2.50 ERA and 1.056 WHIP in 14 starts. One of those starts was against the Cubs May 20 in Wrigley Field, where he threw seven shutout innings and struck out 11.

Do better tonight, Cubs.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. If you do go there to interact with Brewers fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.

You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.

The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

There may have been a sense that with AL MVP frontrunner Yordan Alvarez getting just his second off day of the season, the Houston Astros (41-44) may have trouble scoring runs today. That would not be the case.

The Houston offense got untracked early and surged late to lead the Astros over the Detroit Tigers (35-48) 8-6 this afternoon at Comerica Park.

Facing former Astro Framber Valdez, Houston got on the board first in the top of the second on a 2-run homer by Cam Smith. It was Smith’s 9th HR of the season, matching his total from all of 2025.

They would tack on another in the top of the 3rd when Jeremy Pena (3×5, 2R, 2RBI) scored on a Jose Altuve double-play groundout. The Tigers conceded the run in exchange for the two outs. It was 3-0 Astros.

Things got ugly for Astros starter Kai-Wei Teng in the bottom of the 3rd. Teng, who was coming off a terrific 6 inning performance in his last outing allowing just one run, would load the bases on a walk, an error, and a hit-by-pitch. Kerry Carpenter then launched a poorly placed curveball 390 feet to right center for a grand slam, his 12th HR of the season. The bomb gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead.

The Astros would answer right back in the top of the 4th on an RBI single by Jeremy Pena to tie the game at 4.

In the bottom of the 4th, a two-out RBI double by Spencer Torkleson would give the Tigers back the lead at 5-4 and chase Teng from the game in favor of Steven Okert.

Okert has essentially become the Astros “stopper”, the reliever called on to slam the door in stressed situations to quell rallies. Okert came into the game with 2 outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd, but got Carpenter on a grounder to first to end the threat.

In the bottom of the 5th, the Tigers would add another run on a solo HR by Hao-Yu Lee. Lee’s 3rd HR of the season made it a 6-4 Tigers lead and ended Steven Okert’s scoreless streak at 17.2 IP, the longest of the season by an Astros pitcher and the longest of the season by a LHP in MLB this year.

The Astros would get one back in the top of the 7th. a 2-out walk by Isaac Paredes and a single by Jose Altuve gave Houston 1st & 2nd, and then Christian Walker would deliver an RBI single to score Paredes and cut the deficit to 6-5. Walker would finish with 4 hits on the day, this one accounting for his 53rd RBI of the season.

Houston would have more 2-out magic in the top of the 8th. After a leadoff single by Yainer Diaz, Jake Meyers and Taylor Trammell both struck out. Christian Vazquez then poked a single to right, advancing Diaz to 2nd. A single by Pena and an error by Tigers CF James Outman would allow Diaz to score, tying the game at 6.

Paredes then drove a 2-run double into right off losing pitcher Will Vest (3-5), and the Astros took an 8-6 lead.

Bryan King and Josh Hader (S, 7) would handle the 8th and 9th innings in order for the Astros, who improve to 41-44 with the win.

AJ Blubaugh (4-2) picked up the win in relief with 2 scoreless innings.

The Astros are currently 2GB in the AL West and 0.5GB in the AL Wild Card race, pending tonight’s action.

The Astros will look to win the 5th straight series tomorrow afternoon behind Hunter Brown. The Astros have not won 5 straight series since June 20- July 6 last season, a stretch in which they went 12-3.

Chase Burns leads the Cincinnati Reds into Saturday’s contest against the Pittsburgh Pirates with the chance to lock up a much needed series victory. Jared Jones gets the start for the Bucs, with first pitch estimated to come at some point around 4:40 PM ET after a roughly half-hour rain delay.

Here’s how both teams will line up to start:

During the Padres’ 7-1 victory over the Dodgers on Friday night, Walker Buehler was dominant on the mound.

When Buehler met with reporters after the game, he didn’t hesitate to state how good he felt after beating his former team for the first time as a member of the Padres.

“My last pitch there was the last out of the [2024] World Series. I don’t really know how else I would’ve rather gone out any better than that,” Buehler said Friday.

“I want to kick everyone’s ass. I want to beat everyone, especially in the division. And especially against a team that has been so successful against the organization that I am with now.”

Friday night marked the second time Buehler has faced the team he helped close out Game 5 and win the 2024 World Series over the Yankees. The first time he faced the Dodgers was as a member of the Red Sox, when he pitched 4 ⅔ innings, giving up three runs, five walks and four hits.

On Friday night, Buehler looked like his old self, pitching five-plus innings and striking out five. He yielded one run on three hits and three walks.

“I think the first one in Boston was a lot bigger, emotional, load, for lack of a better word,” Buehler said Friday night. “It’s a team in our division; I’m gonna have to pitch against them. It’s good to get the first win in this uniform, at home, and we’ll see what kind of happens on the road. I haven’t thrown at Dodger Stadium yet, which will be a different thing.”

Buehler admitted during postgame that his philosophy on pitching has changed since he joined the Padres. Now he is not trying to throw over 100 pitches in a game but is more focused on delivering five to six clean innings for the bullpen to finish the game.

Through his last eight starts, Buehler has been one of MLB’s better pitchers with a 2.76 ERA. He has been mixing up his pitching sequence by relying less on his cutter and more on his sinker.

While the Padres and Dodgers are scheduled to play the second game of their three-game series Saturday night in San Diego, it appears Buehler’s next scheduled start will come against the Dodgers: July 2 at Dodger Stadium.

Mets fans, you can expect to see a lot of Jared Young moving forward. 

Interim manager Andy Green told reporters prior to Saturday afternoon's game against the Phillies that Young will handle the position “pretty consistently” over this next stretch. 

“I’d be a fool to change that one,” he said. “There’s still opportunities for other players, especially against certain types of lefty pitching, to get over to first and play, but he’s locking down kind of the lion’s share of at-bats over there.”

First base, of course, has been a bit of a revolving door for the Mets this season as they’ve attempted to make up for the departure of Pete Alonso over the winter.  

Jorge Polanco was brought in on a two-year pact to handle the bulk of the playing time, but injuries quickly limited him to DH duties and then forced him to the injured list since mid-April.

Polanco is resuming a rehab assignment, but will likely only DH again upon his return.  

Mark Vientos and Brett Baty received opportunities over there as well, but Baty ended up being utilized elsewhere around the diamond and Vientos struggled mightily on both sides of the ball.

Thus far, Young has taken advantage of the opportunity since returning from an injury of his own.  

The lefty slugger continues to serve as a catalyst for an offense that desperately needs it, and has provided an extremely steady glove at first base, both of which were on display Friday. 

"I had the opportunity to coach him in Chicago," Green said. "I've always believed the bat is real, it's fun for the rest of the world to get the opportunity to see that -- he's a tremendous teammate, cares about winning, smiles through adversity -- just the kind of guy you love having on a baseball team.

"There's a lot to like and he's really defending the position well, it's been fun watching."

Everyone can beat the Red Sox at home, right? They can’t hit there. They make costly mental errors. They’ve won won just 15 games at their home ground in the Fens, the lowest number of any team in the league.

All of this makes it grandly hilarious that the one team they apparently can beat at home right now is the New York Yankees.

After beating the Yankees yet again, this time behind Jake Bennett’s clean 6.1 innings, the Red Sox are now on their longest win streak of the season. Yes, three wins is not a very impressive streak. But, again, that just makes it even funnier that those three wins have come at the expense of the Yankees. Let’s all laugh at their pain!

The Sox scored early and often off Gerritt Cole, with Masataka Yoshida and Anthony Seigler picking up the daddy-torch Rafal Devers left in his locker 12 months ago. (Wait, ew, what’s a daddy-torch? I don’t want to think about it. Let’s move on.) Yoshida’s homer came in the first plate appearance of the game for the Sox, setting the tone for a pretty nice day at the ballpark.

The two rivals will go at it again tomorrow as the Sox try to complete 2026’s funniest sweep.

Three Studs

Jake Bennett: The pitching depth, it is for realz. Bennett only struck out three batters, but found a way to keep the Yanks off the basepaths for most of the afternoon, taking his start all the way into the seventh.

Masataka Yoshida: Might this be the start of one of Masa’s patented hey! he’s a pretty good hitter! two-month stretches at the plate? TBD, but he notched two hits today and scored twice.

Anthony Seigler: Ceddanne Rafalea joined Masa in the two-hit club, as he continues to build his case as one of the low-key best outfielders in the game. But Seigler’s bomb was the first of his career, so let’s stud him for that.

One Dud

Jarren Duran: Another 0-4 day and another two strikeouts for a guy who has been an offensive blackhole for most of the season. Is there some kind of rule that says the 2026 Red Sox need to have someone who is hitting worse than everyone else in the league at all times?

Play of the Game

It’s one of the biggest days of Anthony Seigler’s life, folks.

Right-handed pitcher Bryse Wilson was claimed on waivers by the Cubs from the Phillies earlier this week.

And now, he’s on the active roster (Bluesky link):

Wilson had eight years in the major leagues before 2026, with the Braves, Pirates, Brewers and White Sox. He was pretty bad for the Sox last year (6.65 ERA in 20 appearances covering 47.1 innings) and threw in one game for the Phillies this year. That inning for the Phillies, June 18 vs. the Mets, was the last time he threw in a game.

He’s probably stretched out enough to go maybe four or so innings. Between Wilson and Vince Velasquez, I think that’s who we will see throw in tomorrow’s game, presuming, of course, that David Peterson can give the team some length tonight against the Brewers.

I mentioned Wilson had pitched in Milwaukee, and one of those years was 2023, so Craig Counsell has some familiarity with him — Wilson threw well in relief for the Brewers that year, with a 2.58 ERA and 1.070 WHIP in 53 relief appearances. Maybe Counsell can channel some of that. Wilson was once a Top 100 prospect, back in 2019, for whatever that’s worth.

As always, we await developments. Today’s game preview will post at 4 p.m. CT.

Phillies squander late lead, let one slip away on rainy day in New York originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

NEW YORK – There were no late-inning heroics, no furious comebacks, no eye-popping defensive plays for the Phillies on Saturday.

Their four-game winning streak, built on much of the above, came to an end in a 6-2 loss to the New York Mets at Citi Field.

It all fell apart in the sixth inning when the Mets capitalized on some shaky Phillies’ defense, sent nine men to plate and scored four times to erase a 2-0 deficit.

Bryce Harper was in the middle of it all most of the day.

He clubbed a two-run homer in the top of the third inning to put the Phils ahead.

Alan Rangel, filling the fifth spot in the starting rotation as a bulk reliever, entered the game in the second inning and did a creditable job protecting the lead through five.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Rangel allowed two one-out singles – one was a soft liner to right that may have been catchable had Gabriel Rincones been more aggressive — before Francisco Lindor smashed a ball past Harper at first base. Harper dived for the 102.4 mph bullet, but it got by him and rolled all the way into the right-field corner for a two-run, game-tying triple.

Before the inning was over, Jonathan Bowlan replaced Rangel and gave up a two-run single up the middle through a drawn-in infield to make it 4-2.

The Mets padded their lead with two more runs against lefty reliever Kyle Backhus in the seventh.

The bottom of the sixth was the decisive frame and it spotlighted a Phillies weakness – defense. It’s not so much the errors with this team. It’s the plays that go unmade, plays that a sharp team makes. The Phils entered the day with a rating of minus-20 Outs Above Average, according to Statcast. That ranked 29^th in the majors.

Had Rincones made a play on Juan Soto’s soft liner to right and Harper made a play on Lindor’s hard-hit ball – it went under his out-stretched glove – the Phillies could have gotten out of the inning unscathed.

Manager Don Mattingly wasn’t immediately sure if Rincones could have caught Soto’s ball.

“I haven’t really looked at it yet,” he said. “They’ll have the report, it’ll come out tomorrow, probabilities and things like that.”

As for Lindor’s hot smash past Harper:

“You always have a chance (to make a play),” Mattingly said. “It was over 100 (mph), scorched pretty good and it had a little hook to it. It’s getting by you pretty quick.”

To his credit, Harper said he should have made the play.

“I felt like he top-spun it,” Harper said. “I thought it was going to bounce up and it just kind of got under my glove. Yeah, I was pretty upset about that play. Obviously, it’s a play I think I should have made, but it didn’t happen.”

Independent of the two plays in the sixth inning, Mattingly was asked what he thinks of the team’s defense in the two months he’s been on the job.

“There’s times I like it and times that I don’t feel as good about it,” he said. “That’s kind of day to day. In general, it’s been OK. I like to see us, obviously, always continue to tighten everything up and get better, where we get the outs that we’re supposed to get and not give those guys extra chances.”

Harper’s eventful sixth inning included his being caught trying to stretch a single into a double with no outs.

“I saw the center fielder fall down and thought I could make it,” he said. “It just didn’t happen.”

Despite losing the lead in the lead in the sixth, Rangel gave the Phils some good work in his second outing since being summoned from Triple A to fill the fifth rotation spot. He pitched five innings of one-run ball earlier in the week in Washington and was rolling along until the sixth inning Saturday. With a sharper defense, he might have gotten a win.

“I thought he was good,” Mattingly said. “He had them off balance. Up until the Lindor ball, nothing was scorched.”

Jesus Luzardo will get the ball as the Phillies look to bounce back and win the series on Sunday afternoon. The Mets will use an opener, lefty Cionel Perez.

After a nice, solid drubbing of the Houston Astros on Friday night which evened the four-game series at a game apiece, the Detroit Tigers looked to clinch at least a series tie on Saturday afternoon. Despite a lovely grand slam early in the game, the Tiger bullpen couldn’t hold onto this one as the Astros prevailed 8-6.

Framber Valdez’s seventeenth start for the Tigers aimed to build upon two solid, six-inning, one-run outings in a row. Regardless of the start, though, walks have been a problem for him: coming into today he’d walked at least two batters in every start since the middle of May. As the late Jim Price used to bemoan on the radio broadcasts, “Oh, those bases on balls!”

Facing the Tigers today was Kai-Wei Teng, making his tenth start of the season to go along with thirteen relief appearances. He’s found a home in Houston’s rotation after having limited success in San Francisco the past two years. That’s not to say it’s been all sunshine-and-roses lately; to wit, two starts ago he faced these very same Tigers in Houston and didn’t make it through the fourth inning, having given up five runs and a trio of taters. One of those was to Colt Keith, amongst the three he hit that lovely day.

The Astros struck first: in the bottom of the second Christian Walker led off with a double; Kerry Carpenter took a strange route to it and might’ve had a play on it in some parallel universe. That cost the Tigers a run as Cam Smith immediately followed with a sizzling line drive home run to left field.

Meanwhile, the Tigers were getting pretty good swings against Teng, but the line drives seemed to be finding gloves at an annoying rate.

Houston kept coming in the third, with some singles and a double resulting in another run; one of the singles should’ve been an error on Spencer Torkelson making the run unearned, but that’s baseball, I guess.

In the bottom of the inning a walk and a grounder off Jose Altuve’s glove put the first two runners on. After Isaac Paredes made a good play on a foul popup from Riley Greene, Teng hit Torkelson to load the bases and bring Kerry Carpenter to the plate. Teng hung a curveball, Carpenter swung, and the batter absolutely did not miss.

The Astros evened the score in the top of the fourth with a pair of singles, a productive groundout, and another single.

In the bottom of the inning Jake Rogers legged-out an infield single, and with two out Greene singled to right. Torkelson followed with a double that scored Rogers and pushed Greene up to third for a 5-4 lead. That was the end of Teng’s day, and lefty Steven Okert was summoned. Carpenter was due up next… and somehow he was not pulled for a pinch-hitter! Alas, he meekly hit a ground ball to first for the third out — as Jahmai Jones forlonly cried a single tear while sitting on the dugout bench.

With one out in the fifth, Hao-Yu Lee hit a fly ball just above the left fielder’s outstretched glove for his third home run on the year, making it a 6-4 game.

Valdez actually settled down quite nicely from the end of the fourth through the sixth, setting down seven in a row. He was done after six innings — his third straight start of that length — but his final line was lousy: 6 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K. Tellingly, his settling-down coincided with a whole bunch of Astros hitting ground balls; if he’d only been able to do that earlier in the game, well then, now you’ve got something.

Drew Anderson took over in the seventh, and with two out he walked Paredes and gave up a soft single to Altuve for a bit of a jam, bringing up Walker who hit a line drive single to left, scoring Paredes and narrowing the lead to 6-5. That’d be it for Anderson, and it was a Drew-for-Drew swap on the mound as Somers inherited a two-on, two-out pickle. The lefty faced fellow lefty, pinch hitter Joey Loperfido, and coaxed a soft fly ball from him for the third out.

Will Vest replaced Drew #2 in the eighth, and it didn’t go particularly well. Yainer Díaz led off with a single, and with two outs Christian Vásquez singled as well to put runners on first and second. Jeremy Peña singled weakly to centre, scoring Diaz to tíe the game; the ball was misplayed by James Outman in centrefield, letting the runners advance a base. Paredes followed with a big, two-run, opposite-field double to un-tie the game and put Houston ahead 8-6. With Vest struggling to locate anything it’s hard to tell how much was on Jake Rogers but the pitch selection didn’t make a lot of sense in that series of at-bats. Getting ahead of a light-hitting catcher 1-2 and giving him a pitch in the zone that he could just drop the bat on being the most annoying one. Maybe try expanding the zone or going up where Vasquez is likely to lift a weak fly ball? Still, with Vest’s command a complete mystery bag maybe there were no right answers.

After three quick outs, Jacob Waugespack replaced Vest for the ninth. A single and a sacrifice bunt put a runner on second with one out, and after a groundout a walk put two runners on. But a harmless groundout to shortstop ended the threat and sent the game into the bottom of the ninth.

Josh Hader, who’s back from the Injured List and in top form, got the Tigers 1-2-3 in the ninth, as he has done throughout his career against so many teams. The series finale is at 1:40 pm EDT on Sunday.

Final score: Astros 8, Tigers 6

Numbers and Observances

• I don’t put a huge amount of stock in pitcher wins and losses anymore, but Jack Flaherty leads the American League in losses with eight.
• Carpenter’s at-bat against a left-handed pitcher in the fourth inning was his sixteenth against a lefty all season. At that point he’d had 172 against right-handed pitchers.
• On this day in 1895, an electric locomotive was used for a passenger train, the first such occurrence in the United States. (It was between Washington and New York on the B&O Railroad, which should sound familiar if you’ve played Monopoly.) Go to any European country and ride their trains, and then come back to North America and wonder why we can’t have nice things like that.

BOSTON — Contrary to popular belief, those were not toothpicks the Yankees were swinging Saturday. 

But they essentially would have served the same purpose as the lumber they did use, which has been ineffective the past few days. 

Once again, the Yankees got shut down by a lefty, with their bats going silent and offensive woes growing louder in a third straight loss to the last-place Red Sox, this time 4-1 on a fine afternoon at a sold-out Fenway Park. 

For a second straight game, Jake Bennett and the Red Sox bullpen held the Yankees (48-34) to just three hits while Gerrit Cole got hit around, resulting in their seventh loss in the past 10 games. 

“With the way it’s going, we all expect to be better,” Cody Bellinger said. “They’ve been playing well. We’ve got to show up [Sunday] and take a game here.” 

A lineup that had been finding ways to win without the back-to-back AL MVP suddenly looks like it dearly misses Aaron Judge, not to mention Giancarlo Stanton and Trent Grisham, who are also on the injured list. Grisham should return within the week, but Judge and Stanton do not appear anywhere close to coming back, so the Yankees will have to figure out how to snap out of this funk without them. 

More immediately, they will try to avoid a four-game sweep by the Red Sox (35-46) on Sunday night. They will do so against righty Sonny Gray after faltering against three straight lefties in Connelly Early (six innings, two runs), Payton Tolle (seven innings, one run) and Bennett (6 ¹/₃ innings, one run). 

“Today I felt like we had some hard contact going, but kind of chasing uphill and a couple chances to get a big hit and weren’t able to do it,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve got to find a way right now. It’s been obviously a rough weekend for us. But a chance to win one [Sunday].” 

Cole got hit hard for a second straight start, giving up four runs on seven hits, including a pair of solo home runs to Masataka Yoshida (to lead off the bottom of the first) and former Yankees first-round pick Anthony Seigler (in the bottom of the second). 

But the bigger culprit was the offense. 

After Tolle took a perfect game into the sixth inning against the Yankees on Friday night, Bennett had a no-hitter into the fifth Saturday before Max Schuemann broke it up with a solo home run, which was ultimately the only thing standing between them and a shutout. 

Over the first three games of this four-game set, the Yankees have gone just 14-for-94 (.149) with eight walks. 

Some of their most dependable batters have contributed to the recent malaise. Ben Rice went 0-for-4 Saturday and is now 2-for-23 over his past six games. Bellinger went 1-for-2 with two walks, improving him to 2-for-19 over his past six games. Amed Rosario, who had been a reliable lefty killer early on, is now 7-for-42 over his past 15 games. 

The Yankees started the season 18-6 against lefty starters but have now dropped six of their past seven — including all three games of this series so far. 

“I think [Bennett] took the momentum from the last couple lefties that they threw,” Schuemann said. “They’ve all done a good job. … Just pounding the strike zone and having the confidence to pound the strike zone. We try to put good swings together, good at-bats together, it just hasn’t gone our way.” 

The only real threat of a rally the Yankees had all day came in the seventh inning, when Rosario and Bellinger led off with back-to-back singles. But Bennett responded by striking out Jasson Domínguez before the Red Sox went to the bullpen for Justin Slaten, who punched out José Caballero (who challenged strike three and was proved incorrect) and pinch hitter Jazz Chisholm Jr. to squash the threat. 

“Honestly, those guys are pitching really well right now,” said Austin Wells, who went 0-for-3 and is now batting .160 on the year. “Some young guys who’ve thrown well, who a lot of us don’t have a lot of experience facing before. So I think there’s a little bit of that to it.”

The thing about June is that it is just June.

The losses the Yankees have suffered at the hands of the last-place Red Sox have been equal parts dull and maddening, but they are ultimately just losses in June. Even after this 4-1 loss on Saturday afternoon, they are at worst in a tie for first place in the AL East. However, it remains remarkable how often the Yankees ship up to Boston in June and seemingly leave all their good bats behind. My colleague Michael Zeno found that this entire decade, the Bombers have gone 1-14 at Fenway in the month as opposed to 19-11 in Beantown every other page of the calendar.

Today’s defeat, like yesterday’s, felt over from the jump. Rookie starter Jake Bennett had the Yankee hitters in a blender and Gerrit Cole gave up a leadoff home run en route to another forgettable start as the Red Sox won the series. They will have to stave off an ignominious four-game sweep at the hands of their last-place archrivals tomorrow night.

The tone was set extremely early on, which is never a good thing for a struggling team. The Yankees went down in order against Bennett in the first inning, then Cole’s second pitch of the afternoon was launched into the Boston bullpen by Masataka Yoshida. The DH has not been a powerhouse this year, as that home run was just his second of the season. And Cole’s pitch wasn’t even in the strike zone. But that’s the way this series has gone.

The second inning brought more of the same. Bennett easily worked around a leadoff walk in the top half, and the Sox got another homer in the bottom half. Former Yankee prospect castoff Anthony Seigler (boy, Boston sure likes collecting those) snuck an opposite-field fly ball just over the Green Monster for a 2-0 lead. These are just solo homers, blips that Cole can usually live with when his offense is hitting. They just are not hitting this weekend.

Oh yeah, and it was Seigler’s first big-league homer. Congratulations to him, I suppose.

Regrettably for Cole, it was not just a pair of solo shots he had to contend with today. Boston put a pair of ducks on the pond in the third, which Willson Contreras was more than happy to call back to the nest. On 1-2, Cole’s fastball caught too much of the plate, and Contreras hit it where it was pitched. The ball easily split the outfielders and reached the left-center wall to plate a pair and double the Boston lead again. All this while the Yankees hadn’t managed a single hit of their own through four for the second day in a row.

The Yankees managed to end the no-hitter and shutout one swing in the top of the fifth, and it came from an unlikely source. Max Schuemann clubbed a ball out toward the triangle in left center field. The ball hit off the yellow stripe which denotes the ‘end’ of the Green Monster; essentially, if it hit to the left of that line it would have been in-play.

Schuemann’s first homer as a member of the Yankees made it a 4-1 game.

Cole departed with one out in the sixth having once again allowed a few too many big hits. It was quite reminiscent of his previous start against the Tigers: his command was not bad, per se, but he continually missed in crucial spots, and the opposing lineup was ready to take advantage every time.

Meanwhile, Boston’s good-young-southpaw-starter factory seems to have endless output. For the third straight game, the Bombers found themselves flummoxed by a lefty. Jake Bennett worked through six almost-spotless innings, the lone hit that Schuemann home run. He worked a bevy of quick 1-2-3 frames, preventing the Bombers from building any kind of early momentum. Seriously, I am formally requesting a moratorium on further precocious left-handed pitchers in the Boston organization. The bit gets old when you see it three days in a row.

The Yankees’ best opportunity to climb back into the game came in the top of the seventh when Bennett allowed a pair of singles. While the Red Sox bullpen got going, Bennett faced Jasson Domínguez, and struck him out on a changeup to grab a crucial first out. Interim manager Chad Tracy then made the move to Justin Slaten, who, it must be noted, entered action with a 6.48 ERA. Naturally, he came in and struck out José Caballero on a perfectly-located fastball at the knees (and we know it was perfect because Cabby challenged it), then got pinch-hitter Jazz Chisholm Jr. to wave over the top of a cutter to send the Yankees to the stretch emptyhanded.

The worst part about these losses is the individual who has shown up in the ninth inning to put them to bed. Aroldis Chapman started the ninth by rocketing a trio of fastballs past an overmatched Ben Rice, who suffered another oh-fer today. After Amed Rosario rolled over to shortstop, Cody Bellinger worked an admirable walk. So, like clockwork, Caballero popped out on the first pitch to make that battle meaningless. This is just what happens in June. The good news: June is almost over! The bad news: July awaits.

As ESPN was more than happy to point out ahead of the final out, at least this game and the one before were quick affairs, completed in a little over two hours.

All that is left to do is prevent the four-game sweep in Beantown. Tomorrow night, the Yankees will once again be on national TV. NBC will have the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast between Carlos Rodón and Sonny Gray. Note that first pitch is set for 7:20 PM.

Box Score