In honor of their 100th season, the New York Rangers have added a 100th anniversary logo to centre ice at Madison Square Garden.
This logo features a 100 in the Rangers’ familiar red-with-white-shadow sweater number style, set above the Rangers’ shield logo.
Throughout the course of the 2025-26 season, there expected to be different events to celebrate this unique milestone.
“The New York Rangers are one of the premier franchises, not just in the National Hockey League, but in all of professional sports,” Rangers President and General Manager Chris Drury said when the centennial mark was first revealed in March 2025. “As we approach our Centennial year, we are proud and excited about the opportunity to honour our legacy with our fans.”
The Giants received some bad news on Matt Chapman before their series finale against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday at Coors Field.
San Francisco’s third baseman has been suspended one game and fined an undisclosed amount for his role in Tuesday night’s first-inning scuffle, MLB announced Wednesday afternoon, noting Chapman’s punishment comes as a result of “pushing” Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland.
Additionally, Willy Adames, Rafael Devers and Freeland all have been issued fines for their “inappropriate actions” during the incident, MLB added.
Chapman, Adames and Freeland all were ejected in the first inning of the Giants’ 7-4 win over the Rockies on Tuesday for their part in an on-field incident following a booming Devers home run. Freeland took issue with how long Devers took to get to first base, and chaos ensued.
Rafael Devers' massive homer leads to a benches-clearing brawl at Coors Field 😲 pic.twitter.com/3difBlh3tR
Chapman’s suspension was scheduled to begin Wednesday, but per MLB, the Giants infielder has elected to appeal the decision and will not be disciplined until that process is complete.
“Yeah, he’s going to the IL. He has an oblique strain,” Cora said on WEEI.
Cora added the Red Sox “don’t know” the exact recovery timeline but “it usually takes from four to six weeks.”
Four weeks from Tuesday is Sept. 30, which is the first day of the postseason, with the Wild Card series running through Oct. 2. Six weeks from Tuesday is Oct. 14, which will be after the completion of the ALDS.
“He’s one of our best offensive players,” Cora said. “It sounds harsh, but we have to move on. We’ve got to put that uniform on today and try to win a game. And we’ve been through this before, right? [Triston] Casas and we traded [Rafael Devers]. There’s been a lot of stuff with this team, and we’ve been able to keep going. So I expect the group to do the same thing.”
The 21-year-old Anthony has been exceptional since earning his call-up to the majors in early June.
In 71 games, he’s batted .292 with an .859 OPS, recording 18 doubles, a triple and eight home runs while driving in 32 runs. After being moved into the leadoff spot of Boston’s lineup, Anthony has in late July, he has hit .320 and reached base at a .411 clip, posting a .931 OPS.
While Anthony alone hasn’t been responsible, his call-up represents a pretty stark turnaround for the Red Sox. They were 32-35 when Anthony was elevated from Triple-A Worcester, and they’ve gone 46-27 since he made his debut.
The Dodgers' Teoscar Hernández singles off Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bubba Chandler, driving in a run, during the third inning of Tuesday's game. (Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press)
It was not quite a benching. But it served as a reminder nonetheless.
Last year, in many ways, Teoscar Hernández was the heart and soul of the Dodgers. Not their best player. Nor their biggest star. But someone who provided effervescent vibes in the clubhouse, veteran leadership in the dugout and clutch hits in several of the season’s biggest moments at the plate.
"Teo is a guy that we counted on a lot last year,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He's a guy that I really admire, because he can balance the fun part of baseball but also have that edge.”
This year, however, frustration has doused much of the fun. Struggles have dulled his usual edge.
Between injuries, slumps, defensive miscues and mechanical swing flaws, Hernández has endured one of his worst career seasons. He is batting just .247, his lowest since 2019. He has a .734 OPS, the lowest of his career and just a smidge above league-average. His limited range in right field has led to a flurry of dropped balls and some of the poorest defensive metrics of any big leaguer at the position. And going back to the last week of June, no other Dodger player (not even Michael Conforto) has been worth fewer wins above replacement than Hernández’s negative-0.5 mark, according to Fangraphs.
“For me, not being the same as last year is a little frustrating,” Hernández said. “I don't want to be like that. I want to be better than last year. But it's baseball. It's life. You just have to keep working, keep trusting in yourself and the things that you can do to help the team."
Last weekend, however, Roberts had a different idea. In the midst of Hernández’s latest cold spell, the outfielder was unexpectedly benched for Sunday’s series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“He's an every-day guy,” Roberts said that day. “But I do think that where we're at, you've got to perform, too, to warrant being out there every single day.”
The move wasn’t punitive, with Roberts also accounting for Monday’s off day in hopes “a two-day reset could help” the two-time All-Star.
But still, with the stretch run of the season nearing, the manager was dropping a hint to his star slugger as well.
“I think we've lost a little bit of that edge over the last couple months,” Roberts said Tuesday of Hernández, having had “numerous conversations” to communicate the same message with him personally.
“For me, I want to see that edge, that fight, that fire, and I'll bet on any result. I just want to see that. We're past the mechanical part of [his struggles with his swing]. Let's just get into the fight. I've seen it. And I believe that's what's to come in the next month and beyond."
This is not the position the Dodgers expected to be in when they re-signed Hernández to a three-year, $66 million contract this offseason — a move Roberts described as a “no-brainer” at the time after pushing for the front office to bring the free-agent back to Los Angeles.
He trusted Hernández’s bat, which mashed 33 home runs and 99 RBIs in his debut Dodgers season in 2024. He appreciated Hernández’s heartbeat, and how he delivered one of the season’s biggest swings in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series.
In bringing Hernández back, the Dodgers hoped that his mere presence would elevate the rest of the roster for this year’s championship defense.
“He knows his value for our ballclub,” Roberts said. “He knows my expectations of him individually.”
Only, to this point, Hernández has struggled to replicate that same intangible magic.
After a blistering start to the season (.315 average, nine home runs, and an MLB-most 34 RBIs through his first 33 games), the outfielder suffered a groin/adductor strain while stretching for a line drive in Miami, landing him on the injured list for two weeks. When he returned, he looked far from 100%, struggling to rediscover his swing or cover much ground in right. Before long, a slump took hold. And as it stretched on through the summer — compounded by foot contusion on a foul ball he suffered in July — frustration began to mount.
“It's tough when you feel good and then something happens and you have to miss … whatever the amount of games might be,” Hernández said. “It was one of those for me this year. I got injured, then I came back. I fouled it off my foot and then missed games [again].”
He later added: “For me, being hurt is more frustrating than having a bad year. I'd rather be on the field having a bad year, than not being on the field and just fighting back and forth.”
Staying on the field, of course, hasn’t alleviated Hernández’s problems. After the All-Star break, he said his body finally started feeling better. On Tuesday, he proclaimed his groin and foot to be back to full health.
And yet, over his previous eight games, he had batted only three-for-27 leading up to Sunday’s removal from the lineup. Worse than that, he had fallen back into a habit of chasing too much, leading to non-competitive at-bats at a time Roberts had been trying to emphasize the opposite.
“[I want to see] Teo getting back to having that edge,” Roberts reiterated.
In Hernández’s return to the lineup Tuesday, some positive signs finally presented themselves. He fought off a pair of two-strike pitches before lining a second-inning single. He did the same thing in the third inning to drive in a run. Defensively, there was another awkward moment, when Hernández failed to make a sliding catch on a shallow fly ball down the right-field line in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ four-run first inning. But even on that play, Roberts argued postgame, Hernández got a good jump and covered a lot of ground — breaking into the kind of hard-charging sprint that hadn’t always been there earlier this season.
“If I see a good jump getting off the ball, good effort, I’ve got no problem with it,” Roberts said.
Really, that’s all Roberts is hoping for from Hernández moving forward now.
To have the kind of consistent intensity level that has wavered at times this season. To rekindle that balance of having fun and playing with an edge down the stretch run of the season.
“We're going to see that,” Roberts said. “I have no doubt.”
“You just leave everything on the field,” Hernández echoed. “I'm going to keep working, keep doing my routine, keep doing the stuff that I normally do to get back on track. And hopefully I get the results that I want to help the team."
Framber Valdez gave up a grand slam to the Yankees during Tuesday’s defeat. Photograph: Ashley Landis/AP
Houston starter Framber Valdez said he apologized to his catcher César Salazar after hitting him in the chest with a pitch on Tuesday night, but he insisted that he didn’t hit his teammate on purpose.
Salazar appeared to ask Valdez to step off the mound when the bases were loaded in the fifth inning of the Astros’ loss to the New York Yankees. But Valdez declined to do so, and then gave up a grand slam to Trent Grisham in a game Houston lost 7-1. Two pitches later, Valdez hit Salazar in the chest. Salazar appeared surprised by the pitch and started hard at Valdez, who quickly turned his back on his teammate. That led to speculation the Valdez was upset with his catcher about Grisham’s at bat.
“What happened with us, we just got crossed up,” Valdez said. “I called for that pitch, I threw it and we got crossed up. We went down to the dugout and I excused myself with him and I said sorry to him and I take full responsibility for that.”
Valdez was then asked directly if he hit Salazar on purpose. “No,” he said. “It was not intentional.”
There’s speculation that Astros pitcher Framber Valdez purposely crossed up his catcher Cesar Salazar and hit him with this pitch after Salazar told him to step off before allowing a grand slam pic.twitter.com/ds3c9MzQV6
Valdez and Salazar were talking when reporters entered the clubhouse after the game and Valdez said they had resolved the issues between themselves.
“We were able to talk through it,” he said. “We spoke after the game … at his locker and everything’s good between us. It’s just stuff that happens in baseball. But yeah, we talked through it and we’re good.”
Salazar was asked about what happened on the pitch where he was hit. “The stadium was loud,” he said. “I thought I pressed the button, but I pressed the wrong button. I was expecting another pitch, but it wasn’t it.”
Salazar said Valdez didn’t hit him on purpose. “No, me and Framber we actually have a really good relationship,” he said.
Here's what to know about the game and how to watch...
Mets Notes
Juan Soto is hitting .303/.466/.730 with 12 home runs, 28 RBI, 29 runs scored, and 10 stolen bases in 118 plate appearances over his last 25 games dating back to Aug. 6
Ryne Stanekhas tossed four consecutive scoreless outings
Clay Holmes allowed four runs (two earned) on five hits while walking one and striking out two in 5.0 innings during his last start
METS
TIGERS
Francisco Lindor, SS
Colt Keith, 3B
Juan Soto, RF
Gleyber Torres, 2B
Pete Alonso, 1B
Kerry Carpenter, DH
Brandon Nimmo, LF
Riley Greene, LF
Mark Vientos, 3B
Spencer Torkelson, 1B
Jeff McNeil, CF
Wenceel Perez, RF
Starling Marte, DH
Zach McKinstry, SS
Brett Baty, 2B
Javier Baez, CF
Hayden Senger, C
Jake Rogers, C
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The Athletics now have won back-to-back AL Player of the Month honors, with rookie first baseman Nick Kurtz capturing the award in July.
Langeliers took home the latest honor by slashing .284/.307/.661 with 31 hits, eight doubles, 11 homers and 22 RBI in 25 August games.
The highlight of Langeliers’ banner month came on Aug. 5, when he went 5-for-6 with a double and three solo homers in a 16-7 win over the Washington Nationals.
In addition to the two AL Player of the Month awards, the Athletics also have three AL Rookie of the Month honors this season (shortstop Jacob Wilson in May and Kurtz in June and July).
Amid all the off-the-field turmoil surrounding the Athletics, Langeliers has been a steady force, as he leads the team with 29 homers entering Wednesday’s game in St. Louis.
The Athletics are building a young core around Kurtz, Wilson and outfielders Lawrence Butler and Tyler Soderstrom. But Langeliers’ first-career AL Player of the Month honor shows that he’s still an important part of what the A’s are trying to accomplish.
In the aftermath, Freeland was ejected, along with Giants third baseman Matt Chapman and shortstop Willy Adames, for their actions in the kerfuffle.
Devers wasn’t ejected and after a lengthy delay as the umpires discussed the situation, he was allowed to complete his home run trot.
After the game, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly served as the pool reporter and spoke to umpire Dan Bellino about the incident.
Editor’s note: The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity:
Baggarly: “Can you just run through the reasons for each player’s being ejected?”
Bellino: “Well, the pitcher was removed after his actions in the bench-clearing. Obviously, his reaction was, you know, he was an instigator, same with Chapman. He was an instigator, and Adames, while initially he was not one of the instigators, he prolonged the bench-clearing situation by instigating a second melee.”
Baggarly: “And with Chapman specifically, was it the shove counted as the instigation?
Bellino: “I would say just his actions in general, it was overly aggressive.”
Baggarly: “Just out of curiosity, are you working in concert with the video replay room?”
Bellino: “No.”
Baggarly: “It’s what you guys see on the field?”
Bellino: “Yes. That is something we are actually not allowed to go to replay review to assist in bench-clearing situations. I think that’s through the players’ association. That’s something that the players’ association, they do not want us to have the replay review make those decisions. It has to be the [on-field] umpires.”
Baggarly: “And we’re warnings issued?”
Bellino: “Yes.”
Baggarly: “Devers, did he leave the base path or was there any reasoning or any way that there was a thought that maybe he could have been called out for leaving the base paths?”
Bellino: “It’s an interesting rule. It’s one of those that you don’t see hardly ever. We discussed it, but ultimately, because it was a dead-ball situation, we did not deem it to be an abandoning or anything like that.”
Baggarly: “And then, if [Devers] had been ejected, or if his actions had warranted an ejection at that point, would a pinch-runner have had to enter for him to complete his home run trot or what would have happened?”
Bellino: “No. Yeah, we wouldn’t do that.”
Baggarly: “Would he have been credited with a home run still?”
Bellino: “I believe, yes.”
The Giants now will await word from MLB if Chapman or Adames face further discipline for their actions.
Manager Bob Melvin would prefer the league take a lenient approach to the situation, considering the Giants are fighting for an NL wild-card spot.
“I hope MLB understands,” Melvin told reporters after the game. “Hopefully this isn’t significant for these two guys.”
Devers has homered in the first two games of the series in Denver and three consecutive contests overall, and after Tuesday’s incident, it’s a safe bet that if he goes deep in Wednesday’s series finale, he won’t be shy about taking his time rounding the bases.
The Mets have a decision to make when it comes to Kodai Senga.
Do you have Senga make his next start -- slated for Sunday against the Reds in Cincinnati -- or skip him or do something more drastic? It seems all options are on the table as a new report from The Athletic's Will Sammon states the Mets are considering a few possibilities, "including potentially asking him to accept an optional minor league assignment" -- according to people familiar with the Mets' thinking.
Per Senga's contract, he would have to consent to an option.
But is a minor league option out of the realm of possibility? It was once when Senga was regarded as the team's best pitcher after pitching to an All-Star selection and becoming the runner-up for the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2023. Even this year, the right-hander pitched to a 1.47 ERA before his injury put him on the shelf for a month. But since returning in mid-July, Senga has struggled. He's posted a 6.56 ERA across 35.2 innings since the return, which includes his last outing in which he allowed five runs in 4.2 innings against the Marlins on Sunday.
That performance prompted manager Carlos Mendozato hint at changing the rotation to help Senga. Another possibility for Senga is pushing his turn in the order altogether.
The Post's Mike Puma reported Tuesday that the Mets are "leaning" on having Nolan McLean pitch the series finale Sunday on normal rest after David Peterson and Jonah Tong pitch Friday and Saturday.
McLean has taken the Mets by storm, winning his first four starts with a 1.37 ERA, including Tuesday against the AL-best Detroit Tigers. Clay Holmes is slotted to pitch Wednesday's series finale, and the off day on Thursday allows the Mets to give McLean that start on Sunday.
But simply skipping Senga's turn is a temporary solution. The Mets need Senga and Sean Manaea -- another struggling starter -- back to form to make a playoff run, but time could be running out to do so.
“They are until they’re not," Mendoza said of Senga and Manaea's place in the rotation ahead of Tuesday's game. "We haven't made any decisions yet, we’re still having discussions. We’re going to be flexible and we gonna take advantage of off days and continue to have discussions. But as of right now, we haven’t made any decisions yet.”
PITTSBURGH — Tommy Pham and Jared Triolo each drove in two runs, and the Pirates spoiled a big night by Shohei Ohtani to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-7 on Tuesday night.
Ohtani hit his 100th home run with the Los Angeles Dodgers and had a pair of doubles.
Ohtani hit a solo shot off top prospect Bubba Chandler (2-0) for his 46th homer this season. Playing his 294th game with the Dodgers, he became the fastest to reach 100 home runs in team history ahead of Gary Sheffield (399).
Teoscar Hernández then hit a two-out RBI single and Andy Pages led off the next inning with his 24th homer, tying it 4-all.
Henry Davis put the Pirates back ahead on an RBI single off Edgardo Henriquez (0-1) in the sixth. Triolo added a two-out, two-run double.
Chandler gave up three runs on six hits in four innings of relief. The 22-year-old has two wins and a save in his first three major-league appearances.
Dennis Santana walked Miguel Rojas and allowed Ohtani's second double to start the ninth before retiring the next three batters for his 12th save.
Clayton Kershaw yielded four runs, four hits and a pair of walks in the first inning. He recovered to last five innings, denying the Pirates of another hit while allowing two walks over the final four.
Triolo walked with two outs in the eighth and stole second. Nick Gonzales then sent a soft, looping ball into center where Pages came just short of making a sliding catch. Triolo scored an insurance run, putting the Pirates up three with the top of the Dodgers order coming in the ninth.
Ohtani took 444 games to hit 100 home runs with the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani (1-1, 4.18 ERA) will take the mound Wednesday opposite Pirates rookie Braxton Ashcraft (4-2, 2.58).
TAMPA, Fla. — Cal Raleigh hit his 51st homer Tuesday night, extending his major league record for home runs by a catcher and drawing closer to Mickey Mantle for the most by a switch-hitter.
The Seattle Mariners star went deep in the fourth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Steinbrenner Field.
It was Raleigh's 41st homer while playing behind the plate, tying Todd Hundley (1996) for the second most in a season. That record is 42 by Javy López in 2003.
Raleigh had already bested Salvador Perez for the most homers by a player whose primary position is catcher. Perez hit 48 in 2021.
Mantle set the mark for homers by a switch-hitter with 54 in 1961. Raleigh is also within five of Ken Griffey Jr.'s Mariners record of 56 homers in a season, set in 1997 and '98.
The 371-foot shot to right field was his first home run in a week. Raleigh leads the majors in homers by two over Philadelphia's Kyle Schwarber.
After a tremendous August saw the Mets post one of their best offensive months in franchise history, they arrived in Detroit and stung the AL Central-leading Tigers for 22 runs on 25 hits and nine walks in the first 18 innings of September.
“It’s just a lot of guys playing with confidence now, trusting each other,” manager Carlos Mendoza said about his team after they pounded out 12 runs on 17 hits, including four long balls in Tuesday’s convincing win.
The skipper has often spoken about being a tough lineup one through nine, and he got it all with a pair of solo home runs from Pete Alonso, one from Juan Soto, and three hits from Brandon Nimmo at the top of the order while also getting three hits from Brett Baty out of the nine-hole and two from Luis Torrens in the eight spot, including a three-run shot the blew the game wide open in the fourth.
“Torrens getting the huge three-run homer with two outs, Baty having a really good night again, guys getting on base, Jeff [McNeil] another good night,” he said, noting McNeil added three hits and three batted in. “It’s a pretty good lineup. Guys controlling the strike zone and then doing damage when we have to.”
In the last 30 days, the Mets lead MLB in every slash line category, .292/.366/.525 with an .891 OPS, while socking 55 home runs and 179 RBI. They've also done the little things, including stealing 35 bags, with four of them coming on Tuesday, including a first career steal by Torrens.
“I’m glad they’re on my team,” Mets starter Nolan McLean said after delivering six innings of two-run ball. “It’s a lot of fun to watch. It’s nine really tough outs for the opposing pitcher every time we go out there.”
Soto, who walked and singled in addition to his seventh-inning 408-foot blast, has homered five times in the last five games and has 37 on the year with 91 RBI to go along with his .923 OPS. (So much for concerns about a down year.) And Alonso, with his two homers, now has 33 on the season with 112 RBI, and raised his OPS to .867 for the season.
“I think we’re doing a really good job of capitalizing on pitches in the zone,” Alonso said. “I think we’re recognizing hanging breaking balls really well, I think we’re doing damage on heaters really well, I think we’re doing a really good job of letting those borderline pitches go and making pitchers pay when they come over the heart of the dish.”
Alonso did just that when he whalloped a 3-0 fastball from Tigers starter Sawyer Gipson-Long for a majestic, 435-foot blast to centerfield with two down in the top of the first inning.
“Just saw a 3-0 heater right over the middle of the plate,” he said. “Saw it in my area and let it fly.”
Nolan McLean had a lead before he threw a pitch in the fourth start of his big league career on Tuesday night in Detroit. But the Mets’ young right-hander gave that lead right back before he escaped the bottom of the first, allowing two runs on two hits and two walks.
In a worrying sign, it was quite noticeable that McLean didn’t appear to have any feel on two of his three most-used pitches, the sweeper and curveball. In the 24-pitch frame, he threw 11 sweepers with only two going for strikes and spun four curves, resulting in two balls and an RBI single.
“So we started to attack with some harder velo pitches,” Mclean said. After the first, he threw just five sweepers over the next three innings, compared to 10 fastballs, seven changeups, and two cutters. The result? McLean surrendered a walk and a single in the second but closed the day by retiring the last 14 straight Tigers he faced, including six strikeouts.
Manager Carlos Mendoza said that the battle from the 24-year-old “shows a lot of maturity.”
“That’s what you call pitching, understanding that you have to make adjustments and find a way to get through five, six innings,” the skipper said. “I thought he attacked, and then once we got the lead, he continued to stay on the attack. He went to the sinker when he needed to, the changeup when he needed to, and then continued to mix in some of those sweepers and the curveball.”
Luis Torrens, who caught McLean for the first time in the game and added a three-run home run to give the starter a four-run cushion in the fourth, called the pitcher’s performance “excellent.”
“He still surprises me to see what he’s been able to do,” Torrens said, speaking through an interpreter. “The adjustments that he’s been able to make, he’s just been excellent since he’s been up here.”
For Pete Alonso, the rookie’s performances have come as no surprise because of the work he is doing off the field between starts, adding that McLean’s “commitment to his process” has been the most impressive aspect.
“What he’s doing on the field is great and awesome and is helping us win, but I am really thoroughly impressed with his day-to-day process, like the stuff that no one really sees on day one, two, three, and four between starts,” Alonso, who socked two homers in the win, said. “I know everyone is gonna be talking about all the great stuff that he’s doing on the field, which is for sure warranted, but how he’s going about his business, the day-to-day, is super impressive. And that’s the reason why he’s able to do what he’s been able to do on the field.
“Huge huge kudos [for] that. He’s been a pro since he’s come up, and, for me, seeing him go about his business, there’s no shock at all about why he’s finding success.”
After allowing just four runs through his first 26.1 innings of his MLB career, his teammates are excited about the future.
“When he throws the rock, he’s got poise, he’s got grit, obviously the stuff to match that. Really impressed so far with his first few starts,” Alonso said.
“It’s the attitude that he has when he’s on that mound,” Torrens added. “He’s always out there trying to compete. He has that attitude and that flair of a superstar.”
On a night when he didn’t have his best stuff at first, McLean being able to dip into his full arsenal – Statcast had him throw six different pitches – it showed Mendoza that the youngster appears to have “a pretty good feel and idea of what he’s trying to do on the mound.”
“Before you know it, you look up and it’s six innings and he’s giving you a chance to win a baseball game,” the manager said. “Another really good sign for a kid that is making his fourth start at the big league level.”
McLean admitted that he started to “lose confidence” in his sweeper and curve because he wasn’t throwing it for strikes. But, once he “got in a groove” with the higher velo pitches went back and found the feel for his offspeed pitches and had them later in the game, getting a called third strike on both pitches in the fifth and sixth.
“Lotta times throwing fastballs gets me right back on track,” he said. “Once I am able to start locating my heater, I am able to kinda find that feel in my hand again to start manipulating other pitches.”
On the night, he threw just 56 of 90 pitches for strikes, but got 15 outs with eight whiffs on 34 swings (24 percent) and 22 called strikes for a 33 percent called strike-whiff rate.
“I was proud of the way I competed,” McLean said. “Obviously first inning didn’t go the way I wanted, but I had trust in my stuff. And I knew if I could find some pitches later in the game, I knew I was gonna be tough to hit.”
The Yankees blasted three homers, capped by Trent Grisham's grand slam, as they took the series opener from the Astros, 7-1, on Tuesday night in Houston.
Here are the takeaways...
-Going up against tough lefty Framber Valdez, Jazz Chisholm Jr. went deep for a two-run shot to give the Yankees an early lead in the second. It's Jazz's 27th blast, just his third against a southpaw this season. It was also the infielder's 500th career hit.
Jazz wasn't the only lefty to hit a homer off of Valdez on Tuesday. In the fifth, Valdez walked Paul Goldschmidt with one out and gave back-to-back singles to Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge. Giancarlo Stanton struck out looking to set upGrisham. The outfielder launched a 358-foot blast over the Crawford Boxes to give the Yankees a 6-0 lead. Valdez would only pitch five innings.
Jazz would add another homer off a southpaw, this time a solo shot, in the eighth.
-Max Fried was on the bump and did not allow a hit through the first few innings, but lost his control in the third. He walked the first batter and hit the next one, but a poor bunt from Jeremy Pena allowed Fried to get the force at third base. A force out at second on a Carlos Correa chopper followed before Fried got Jose Altuve to ground out to get out of the jam.
Fried allowed his first hit to lead the fifth, but bounced back to strike out the next three batters. The Astros would get a couple of hits in the sixth and push across a run on a Yainer Diaz fielder's choice, but that's all Fried would give up. In the seventh, Houston would get two runners on with no outs, but Salazar popped into the air on a bunt attempt. Fried slid to make the catch and then doubled up the runner on first. A groundout ended the frame as Fried got through seven innings, allowing just one run on four hits and three walks while striking out five batters.
-Jose Caballero got the start at third base with the lefty on the mound, but the speedster's time won't be long. Caballero picked up a single in his first at-bat, but in his second time up, he was hit in the foot with a pitch. However, the home plate umpire correctly determined he swung. Caballero disagreed, and whatever he said upset Ramon De Jesus, who ejected him.
He was replaced by Ryan McMahon.
Game MVP: Trent Grisham
Fried was great, but the grand slam was a backbreaker and allowed Fried. This season with the bases loaded, Grisham is 4-for-9 with three home runs, two walks and 16 RBI.
Why This Upcoming Season Will Be Critical For Matt RempeThe 2025-26 campaign will be the biggest season of Matt Rempe’s career.
