Category: MLB

The Yankees scored early and held on, despite some ninth-inning dramatics, to beat the White Sox, 3-2.

Here are the takeaways...

-- Anthony Volpe put the Yankees on the board in the second inning, nearly hitting a three-run home run, but settling for an RBI double that bounced off CF Tristan Peters' glove. Max Schuemann then found a way to drive the other runners in, bouncing a double over third base to give the Yanks an early 3-0 lead.

Luckily, that was all they needed.

-- Gerrit Cole dazzled in his 12th start of the year, tossing six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. He allowed just four hits and walked two, lowering his ERA to 3.57.

The right-hander breezed through the first three innings, allowing just one hit with four strikeouts. He then ran into a bit of trouble in the fourth inning as Munetaka Murakami doubled and two walks loaded the bases, but found a way to escape without a run crossing the plate after 32 pitches. 

Cole bounced back for a quick fifth inning on just 14 pitches, striking out Murakami on a low slider to end the frame. Looking to keep the shutout going in the sixth inning, he fought around a two-out hit and struck out Braden Montgomery on his 99th pitch of the night. 

-- In the bottom of the fifth, Schuemann, Amed Rosario, and Volpe had a bit of miscommunication in shallow left field, allowing a single to fall between the three of them. Thanks to Cole, the fielding mistake didn't come back to hurt them.

-- Jasson Dominguez, batting from the right side of the plate, got two hits (plus a HBP) against LHP Anthony Kay. He's now hitting .269 against left-handed pitching this season and .239 overall (finishing the night 2-for-3).

-- Up from the minors with Cody Bellinger on the IL, Spencer Jones pinch-hit for Schuemann against RHP Jordan Hicks in the top of the sixth inning, but struck out on three pitches. He remained in the game in left field.

-- Angel Chivilli tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning and then Brent Headrick got some help from Jazz Chisholm to get out of the eighth. David Bednar's 24-inning scoreless streak ended in the ninth on a two-out, two-run home run to Chase Meidroth, but he was able 

Game MVP: Gerrit Cole

It was a vintage performance from the ace, as he recorded his third scoreless outing of the year and first since his second start on May 27.

Highlights

An RBI double for Anthony Volpe! pic.twitter.com/xDnqHmGPbm

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 29, 2026

Max Schuemann makes it 3-0! pic.twitter.com/10NRoTSFP8

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 29, 2026

Gerrit Cole sticks with it 😅 pic.twitter.com/fpIRPCiosi

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 29, 2026

What's next

The Yankees and White Sox continue their four-game series on Wednesday at 7:40 p.m.

Cam Schlittler (10-6, 2.07 ERA) faces right-hander Davis Martin (9-5, 3.49 ERA).

The Philadelphia Phillies (57-51) lost their fourth straight series to begin the second half of the season with a 1-0 loss to the Miami Marlins (54-54) in game two of the series.

Aaron Nola had his second best start of the season, allowing only one run in five and two-thirds’ innings of work. His best also came in Miami back on May 4th, when he pitched six scoreless innings.

The offense only mustered four hits on the evening, all against Marlins’ starter, Sandy Alcantara, who went seven innings. Former Fish, Bryan De La Cruz, had half of those four hits, including a double, to raise his batting average to .727 in 11 at-bats since being called up six days ago.

The game’s lone run came two batters into the bottom of the first when Kyle Stowers sent a 1-1 curveball just beyond the reach of Justin Crawford above the right-center field wall.

Tim Mayza finished off the sixth inning after Nola set the table for a potential scoring threat with a two-out walk to Xavier Edwards and a single to Liam Hicks. Josa Alvarado and Orion Kerkering eached pitched a scoreless inning in the seventh and eighth.

The Phillies are 3-8 since hosting the All Star Game and sit six games back of the Atlanta Braves.

Jesus Luzardo will try to fend off the sweep as the Marlins will counter with a bullpen game.

The San Francisco Giants’ season has already gone horribly wrong. Harrison Bader somehow found a way to make it stranger.

Bader had been scheduled to visit a foot and ankle specialist Monday in Indianapolis about the plantar fasciitis that has kept him out since May 30. Before making the trip, however, the veteran outfielder further injured the same left foot in a late-night scooter accident in San Francisco.

The Giants said Bader still attended the appointment, but the new injuries changed the nature of his evaluation. He returned to San Francisco to see team orthopedist Dr. Ken Akizuki and was scheduled for an MRI to determine the extent of the damage.

“Obviously, he’s not better than he was prior to that,” manager Tony Vitello said. “It’s going to delay the recovery process for him, but even prior to it, you’re looking at a pretty frustrating long runway.”

The accident represents a fittingly bizarre addition to a season that has gone pear-shaped at nearly every turn.

Bader signed a two-year, $20.5 million contract in January but has been limited to 30 games by hamstring and foot problems. He is batting .170 with a .198 on-base percentage and .358 slugging percentage, falling well short of the two-way impact San Francisco expected in center field.

This is also not Bader’s first scooter-related mishap. He was suspended from team activities at the University of Florida following a late-night scooter crash in 2014.

Bader’s setback was only part of a brutal injury update.

Casey Schmitt suffered a torn meniscus while rounding first base Monday and could miss the remainder of what had become his breakout season. Pitcher Trevor McDonald will undergo Tommy John surgery and is likely to miss all of 2027.

Those losses arrive as the Giants sit 16 games below .500 and prepare to sell at the trade deadline. Robbie Ray, Tyler Mahle and Luis Arráez could all be moved, while the team faces the possibility of its first 90-loss season since 2017.

San Francisco has experienced disappointing performances, significant injuries and mounting trade uncertainty. Bader further damaging an already injured foot in a scooter crash feels like the perfect cherry on top.

The Mariners are in town as the Dodgers kick off a nine-game homestand.

Tuesday’s game info

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

WASHINGTON - Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s disappointing season has now hit a health hurdle.

Guerrero was removed from the Toronto Blue Jays' Tuesday, July 28 game after three innings due to right hamstring tightness. He was replaced by Kazuma Okamoto, who hit his 24th home run in his first at-bat.

Guerrero has not fared as well; he has just six home runs − none of them at home − and is batting .264 with a .700 OPS in the first year of his 14-year, $500 million contract.

Guerrero suffered the injury when he hit an infield single in the top of the third and then advanced to second on a throwing error by Washington third baseman Jorbit Vivas.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. left the game after this play. https://t.co/CNyZRV4czrpic.twitter.com/rjmb7dwj7Y

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) July 29, 2026

Blue Jays manager John Schneider told reporters that when Guerrero hit the bag, his hamstring felt a little sore, but the slugger wanted to stay in the game. Schneider opted to remove him for precautionary reasons, and he'll be reevaluated Wednesday morning, before the Blue Jays' afternoon game against the Nationals.

Guerrero is on pace to register full-season career lows in all three slash categories as well as home runs.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. injury update: Slugger exits game with hamstring tightness

The San Francisco Giants just can't seem to catch a break this season.

The club has faced many setbacks this season and can add another one with its Tuesday update on outfielder Harrison Bader.

Bader was involved in a scooter accident over the weekend that further injured his left foot, the Giants announced on July 28.

Bader has been out since May 29, battling left plantar fasciitis.

He met with a foot and ankle specialist in Indianapolis on Monday, July 27, the Giants said, but the team added the meeting "was complicated by the fact that he had a scooter accident on Saturday night/early Sunday morning and further injured his same foot."

"The impact of that injury changed the nature of his evaluation, which had originally been to determine the severity of the initial injury/condition (left plantar fasciitis)," the Giants said.

Bader returned to San Francisco on Monday, July 27 where he was further examined, the team said. He was expected to receive an MRI on July 28 to "better understand the severity of the injuries sustained from the scooter accident," per the Giants.

Game 2 of the day/night double header was another disappointing loss behind some stellar starting pitching.

Gavin Williams pitched another incredible game with a quality start in seven innings of work. Williams allowed two runs on three hits and one walk. He struck out twelve batters, his fourth straight start with eleven or more strikeouts.

The two runs allowed by Gavin came on a solo homer in the first and a wild pitch with a runner on third in the fifth. Gavin fell to 10-6 on the season with tonight’s loss. The Reds were held to three hits. Daniel Espino, who was called up as the 27th man, pitched the eighth inning and looked great. Espino only allowed one baserunner via a walk and struck out three batters.

The offense was shutout again and held to only three walks and four baserunners. In the final at bat of the game, with Gabriel Arias on second base, Petey Halpin hit a long fly ball that was caught at the wall. Dane Myers, the Reds center fielder, made an incredible catch, spoiling what would have been an extra base hit. Kwan, Rhys, Rocchio, and Petey reached on walks. Bazzana, Arias, and Hedgey all reached on hits, but the team was 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Cleveland and Cincinnati are back at it tomorrow with another 7:10PM EDT start in Cincy. Joey Cantillo and RHP Brady Singer will face off.

The Orioles were humiliated in the middle game of their series up in Detroit. Dean Kremer was roughed up on the mound, and the O’s lineup did almost nothing to fight back, losing 14-0 at Comerica Park on Tuesday evening.

This was a miserable game to endure from an Orioles fan’s perspective. Even the rosiest of supporters would need to be donning their thickest pair of orange-tined glasses in order to see anything positive at all. The smarter decision would have been to turn the game off completely sometime in the second inning.

Each of the three actual pitchers used by the Orioles were bad. The Tigers scored runs in each of their eight chances to bat. Dean Kremer lasted four innings, and was charged with eight runs. His season ERA is up to 6.50. Albert Suárez coughed up two runs and recorded only four outs. Josh Walker was barely better, giving up two runs and getting just five outs. It got so bad that Chadwick Tromp was asked to fill in on the mound. He was equally ineffective (one inning, two runs) with his offerings that could have safely driven through a school zone.

Kremer is the one to worry about. This is now back-to-back disappointing starts for him. He allowed six runs to the Red Sox on July 22. He hasn’t even put forth a quality start since July 1, when he gave up one run over six innings to the White Sox. His season ERA has more than doubled (from 3.18 to 6.50) since then.

Nothing was working well for Kremer in this one. He was wild, throwing just 45 strikes in the 81-pitch outing. And he struggled to miss bats, inducing a meager 19% whiff rate. His season whiff rate prior to the game was 29.7%.

It should be said that Kremer is a notoriously slow starter in his career. Normally, April is a tough month (6.04 career ERA) for him. This season, a quad injury interrupted the beginning of his season and has made July into the first full month of play for him. Maybe he will improve later on, but the Orioles don’t have any wiggle room to wait. They need to win games, and Kremer isn’t helping them do that as a starter. The Orioles have two days off in the next six days. They can (and probably should) skip Kremer or put him in the bullpen for a few days.

Regardless of how good or bad Kremer was, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because of the way in which the Orioles lineup was dominated by Tigers starter Troy Melton. There’s no real shame there. Melton is in the midst of a terrific season and has been cruising through most opposing lineups. But this was a particularly poor showing for the Orioles offense.

Across nine innings of baseball the Orioles were unable to create even one at-bat with a runner in scoring position. They collected just three total hits, all of which were singles, and they walked twice. Jackson Holliday had two of the hits as his batting average on the season reached .252 after this one. So, that’s something.

There could be an argument to start putting Holliday at the top of the lineup, at least occasionally. He has been taking the best at-bats on the team recently and is walking more than 15% of the time. The offense needs a consistent spark, and manager Craig Albernaz is clearly trying to figure out the top spot in the order. They don’t want to fix something that isn’t broken by taking Holliday out of his current comfort zone. But they also have always wanted him to be their lead-off hitter anyway. The time to try it again is coming.

There isn’t much else to say about this game. The Orioles were utterly dominated in every facet of the game. It happens sometimes, and it’s not usually helpful to overthink it. Chalk it up as a bad night at the office and hope you do better next time out.

Speaking of which, this series will conclude on Wednesday afternoon in Detroit. It should be a nice pitching matchup. Trevor Rogers (6-7, 4.17 ERA) is on the bump for the Birds. He will be matched up against fellow lefty Tarik Skubal (7-5, 2.70 ERA). First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m.

The Dodgers continue their series against the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.

Eric Lauer gets the start for the Dodgers, who have won all eight of his appearances since trading for the left-hander. Right-hander Emerson Hancock starts on the mound for Seattle.

Wednesday game info

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

The Texas Rangers scored four runs while the Tampa Bay Rays scored one run.

Tonight the Rangers were facing the team with the American League’s best record at 62-43. They were at their home park where they were an MLB-best 38-15 coming into the game.

Nevertheless, the Rangers won. Here’s some of the major contributors to tonight’s victory:

Starting pitcher Cal Quantrill, who at this point is essentially a mop up journeyman long reliever who has been reborn into the rotation due to injuries. Tonight Quantrill faced a team that is among the toughest to strike out in the league as a pitcher who is among the worst at striking guys out. So of course he struck out seven in 5.1 innings of one-run ball.

The Rays scored that one run with the Rangers up 2-0 after Nicky Lopez had plated the a first inning run for Texas via a sacrifice fly. Lopez, of course, is only here because Corey Seager has been hurt practically all year necessitating the Rangers to sign the veteran utility infielder basically off the street.

After the Rays had tightened the score to a run with Quantrill out of the game, Austin Wynns hit a solo home run to once again give Texas a cushion. Wynns is here because he has arms and legs and owns his own catcher’s mitt and the Rangers don’t have any catchers.

Another journeyman, Wynns joined the Rangers as his third team in 2026. The 35-year-old had only collected 19 career big league home runs in his eight big league season. No. 20 provided Texas some much-needed insurance.

The other star in this one was Ezequiel Duran, who isn’t a journeyman and wasn’t signed for peanuts to plug a hole. However, Duran was something of an afterthought coming into this season only for him to become one of the most important cogs in a machine that is anything but well-oiled and is in need of constant maintenance.

Tonight Duran drove in the Rangers’ second run with a second inning sac fly and then scored Texas’ fourth and final run after getting hit by a pitch, stealing second base, and coming in on an Evan Carter RBI single.

It was the DFA All-Stars who got it done for Texas tonight. At three games over .500, the Rangers have tied their high-water mark of the season.

Player of the Game: While Quantrill has provided the Rangers with some much needed innings, many of his successful frames have felt like Patrick Corbin-esque smoke and mirrors. Not tonight, though. Tonight Quantrill was inexplicably quite good.

At only 69 pitches, Skip Schumaker was careful not to let him go for too long, much to his chagrin, but Quantrill’s five plus innings with one inherited run crossing the plate on just two hits and a walk and seven K’s was a very welcome surprise in the series-opening win.

Up Next: The Rangers and Rays are back at it tomorrow with LHP MacKenzie Gore expected to take the mound for Texas against LHP Ian Seymour for Tampa Bay.

The Wednesday first pitch from The Trop is scheduled for 5:40 pm CDT once again and you can catch it via the Rangers Sports Network.

The San Francisco Giants continue this three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers tonight from Oracle Park.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be right-hander Landen Roupp, who enters tonight’s game with a 3.93 ERA, 3.31 FIP, with 113 strikeouts to 45 walks in 110 innings pitched. His last start was in the Giants’ 5-4 loss to the Kansas City Royals last Wednesday, in which he allowed two runs on four hits with seven strikeouts in six innings.

He’ll be facing off against Brewers right-hander Logan Henderson, who enters tonight’s game with a 3.05 ERA, 2.98 FIP, with 47 strikeouts to seven walks in 38.1 innings pitched. His last start was in the Brewers’ 4-3 win over the New York Mets last Wednesday, in which he allowed two runs on five hits with nine strikeouts in five innings.

Game #107

Who: San Francisco Giants (45-61) vs. Milwaukee Brewers (66-40)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 6:45 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

The last time the Red Sox lost on the road, the World Cup was still in its group stage, Taylor Swift was still single, and the Venezuela earthquakes hadn’t happened yet. That was back on the afternoon of June 24th when the Sox dropped to a season low 14 games under .500 leaving Colorado, and were inches away from being sellers.

Now, they’re five games over .500 and have not only started the buying the process, but have also already lost Curtis Mead to the IL with a broken wrist. With Mead on the shelf, they’re going to need to keep stacking wins against lesser opponents to improve their increasingly tricky position from a roster standpoint.

Here’s the lineups for our late night game thread:

⚾️ First Pitch: 9:40pm — Sacramento, CA (in a minor league park)

📺 TV: NESN

📻 Radio: WEEI

This was a very different game from Monday as the Tigers beat the Orioles 14-0.

After taking their third loss in a row on Monday, the Tigers were really hoping to get out of their run of bad luck. With Troy Melton on the mound, they were looking to improve over their dismal series opener. They would be facing Dean Kremer of the Orioles. They also had a familiar face back in the lineup in Javier Baez, finally back from the IL.

Pete Alonso got a one-out walk in the top of the first, but two outs followed to leave him stranded. Kevin McGonigle got the home half going with a leadoff single, then with one out, Riley Greene walked. With two outs, Colt Keith tripled to bring two runs in and put the Tigers in an early lead. Kremer really struggled through the first inning, but he did get the final out of the inning at last.

In the second, Jackson Holliday got a one-out single, but like in the first, two outs followed to leave one runner on the base and no runs scored. With one out in the bottom of the inning, Eduardo Valencia (now the Tigers’ permanent backup catcher with the DFA of Jake Rogers), announced his arrival with a solo home run.

Javier Baez singled, then a McGonigle single got Baez to third and McGonigle to second. Gleyber Torres then doubled, bringing in two more runs. At the end of the second the Tigers were up 5-0, certainly a welcome difference from last night. Belated Squirrel Magic? Happy Baez Returns Luck? Who knows!

Yohel Pozo got a leadoff single in the top of the third, but a lineout and a double play got the Tigers out of any potential danger. In the bottom of the inning Keith took a leadoff walk. Two outs helped advance him to third, then Valencia singled to bring in another run.

The Orioles went 1-2-3 for the first time in the game in the fourth. In the home half McGonigle got a leadoff walk, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Torres then hit a home run to add two more to the Tigers’ lead. Three outs followed, but the buffer was a nice one.

Holliday must know he’s being mentioned in trade talks because this is back-to-back multiple-hit games for him. He started the fifth with a leadoff single. Three outs followed, though, ending the inning with no harm done. The O’s dipped into their bullpen in the bottom of the inning, bringing in Albert Suárez. Valencia got a two-out single, followed by a Baez single. A McGonigle single brought Valencia home.

The Orioles went 1-2-3 in the sixth. In the home half, a pinch-hitting Ben Malgeri got a leadoff single. With one out, a Keith single sent Malgeri to third. Josh Walker came in from the Orioles’ bullpen. Then Spencer Torkelson hit a sac fly to score Malgeri and put the Tigers ahead by double digits at 10-0.

With one out in the seventh, Leody Taveras walked, but a double play eliminated the runner and ended the inning. That would likely be all she wrote for Melton, with a great outing and a final line of 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, on 92 pitches. With one out in the home half, Baez doubled. It seems like he’s happy to be back.

James Outman replaced him on the basepaths, likely to avoid tempting fate since he’s fresh off his rehab stint. McGonigle singled then advanced to second on an error from Coby Mayo. Torres grounded out, scoring Outman. Then, Ben Malgeri singled, bringing in another run.

Ty Madden replaced Melton in the eighth and got the O’s three-up, three-down. In the home half we got a position player pitching with Chadwick Tromp. Colt Keith walked, and was eliminated in a double play off the bat of Torkelson. McKinstry then doubled, followed by another home run for Valencia. Welcome back to the bigs, buddy.

The Tigers wrapped things up with a smooth 1-2-3 final inning. They scored in every inning where they came to bat.

Final: Tigers 14, Orioles 0

Their season is finished in late July, which does not mean the Mets are playing out the string for nothing.

An uptick from Tyrone Taylor and continued strong work from Huascar Brazobán, both of which were on display Monday, might translate to stronger trade returns by Monday’s trade deadline, which helps. But there also are longer-term ramifications from how the club performs over the final two-plus months of the season.

And with all the caveats that are attached to the existence of the 2027 season, Monday was an encouraging night for next year’s Mets.

Francisco Lindor looked like a superstar shortstop still worth building around.

Marcus Semien provided a bit more hope he is not the dead weight he looked like for much of the campaign’s first three months.

Zac Thornton looked like he belongs alongside Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and probably Sean Manaea in next year’s rotation.

“It sucks the position that we’re in,” Lindor said after the 14-3 blowout of the Braves and before Tuesday’s game was postponed, “but we enjoyed today.”

There might not be a more important Mets player in August and September — provided, of course, that he remains a Mets player after Monday, which is likely but not guaranteed — than Lindor, who is owed $160 million over the final five years of his contract.

His age-32 season has been the worst of his career, consisting so far of injury, underperformance and injury, in that order. Is this a continuation of a natural downward slope for a fading star in his 30s, whose OPS has dropped each of the past three seasons? Or is this the kind of aberrational, injury-filled year that so many encounter?

Lindor’s final few months can begin to answer that question — and the Mets hope his past two weeks have been revealing, too. Lindor entered play July 12 hitting .208 with a .636 OPS. Eleven games, four homers, three doubles and a triple later, his average has bumped to .233 and his OPS to .743.

It is too late for such a streak to make a difference for a no-doubt seller, but Lindor has begun making a case that on the other side of hamate surgery and a calf strain, he still is an All-Star shortstop who can pair with Juan Soto to get the Mets back on track. If Lindor avoids the injuries that have sprung up too often recently and ages gracefully, the future of the Mets would be far brighter.

“He’s just one of the best players in baseball,” said interim manager Andy Green, “and it’s a matter of time before one of the best players in baseball gets hot.”

There was a time when Semien was one of the best players in baseball, three times finishing third in MVP voting and a World Series champion with the 2023 Rangers. That time is over.

Last year he posted the 10th-worst OPS (.669) among qualified hitters in the sport, which led to the fascinating, bad-contract exchange with Brandon Nimmo. This year his OPS has further tumbled (.629), entering play Tuesday as the sixth worst in the game.

The concern level should be high for a second baseman who is owed $46 million in 2027 and 2028, so any reason to believe would be welcome. Maybe a second-half rebound can convince the club that Semien had been compromised for much of the first half, when he battled a bothersome hip that grew in intensity until he hit the injured list June 25.

Fresh off the IL, the 35-year-old has begun to hit again, spiking his numbers over the past five games and breaking out Monday, when he reached base four times, homered and scored three runs.

The Mets need to see more, but it is a start.

“Everybody’s starting to get healthy,” said Semien, referencing Lindor, Luis Robert Jr. and a Juan Soto whom the Mets are waiting for. “It’s a good sign.”

Thornton’s emergence has been more obvious, a young lefty who is pitching as if he is replacing David Peterson — using stuff that does not look overwhelming to silence offenses, now with a 2.43 ERA in his first five starts.

The 2027 Mets still probably need a front-line starter who isn’t Freddy Peralta, but they might not need another back-end starter if Thornton (who turned in another quality start against Atlanta) continues to outpitch his stuff.

Such a development would be significant for obvious and subtler reasons, including the fact that there have not been enough development victories this season in the organization’s minor league pipeline.

McLean, Scott and Thornton composing three-fifths of their rotation next year would counter that narrative.

“It’s not the traditional way that star pitchers get people out right now,” Green said of a pitcher who lives in the low 90s and leads with a high-80s cutter, “but it’s real.”

The Dodgers’ need for a catcher at the trade deadline might be decreasing.

On Tuesday, manager Dave Roberts announced that All-Star backstop Will Smith has begun baseball activities again, saying the catcher is finally “pain-free” from a neck injury that has sidelined him since early June.

Smith will now begin a throwing and hitting program, in addition to increased work in the weight room.

The news came as an encouraging development for the Dodgers, who had been closely monitoring the 31-year-old’s progress while evaluating the need to potentially add another catcher before next Monday’s trade deadline.

“I’m excited to hear that he is starting some baseball activities,” Roberts said.

Last week, sources told the California Post that the Dodgers hadn’t ramped up their efforts to add another catcher amid Smith’s ongoing absence. The team wasn’t believed to be looking for a bigger name at the position, either, instead weighing the possibility of bolstering their catching depth behind second-year backup Dalton Rushing.

Still, any further setbacks or delays in Smith’s recovery might have altered their approach.

As Roberts noted over the weekend, it was going to be “helpful” to have more clarity on Smith’s status before deadline decisions had to be made.

Now, finally, a tangible update has arrived –– reinforcing the Dodgers’ optimism in having Smith back at full health for the stretch run of the season and the start of the playoffs.

Smith has not played since June 5, when he first developed what was initially described as minor stiffness in his neck. However, the pain continued to linger, leading to a doctor’s visit in which Smith was diagnosed with an inflamed disc in his neck. His previous attempts to ramp up activity were scuttled by recurring pain, ultimately prompting the team to shut him down for a week during the All-Star break.

Since then, though, Smith has seemingly turned a corner.

And while his timeline to return is unclear, the team’s confidence in eventually getting him back should only lessen their urgency to make a notable acquisition behind the plate in the coming days.

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The Dodgers could still use more catching depth, with rookie Eliezer Alfonzo currently serving in a backup role behind Rushing –– who himself has had an up-and-down second season in the big leagues.

Last year, the club added Ben Rortvedt at the deadline, and wound up turning to him to start their first four playoff games while Smith recovered from a broken hand.

Someone like Rortvedt, who is now in triple-A with the Mets, could make sense as another deadline addition this year.

But ideally, the Dodgers won’t need any extra catching help come October, with Smith finally back on the road to recovery almost two months into his IL stint.

Snell, Glasnow progressing too

In other positive injury news on Tuesday, Roberts expressed confidence in the status of both Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, as they continue to take steps toward returning to the active roster.

On Wednesday, Snell is scheduled to throw four innings in a minor-league rehab game with single-A Ontario, while Glasnow will face hitters in a live batting practice session at Dodger Stadium for the second time in the last couple weeks.

Snell could be ready to rejoin the Dodgers after his outing, while Glasnow could be ready to begin his own minor-league rehab assignment after his.

Both pitchers have been out since early May, when Glasnow went down with back spasms and Snell underwent a procedure to remove loose bodies from his elbow.

“I feel very confident [about the state of our rotation],” Roberts said, even though Shohei Ohtani’s next steps as a pitcher remain undecided as he continues to nurse a knee injury. “I feel very good for the rest of the season with all three of these guys.”