MLB News
The Phillies got shut down by the Brewers’ ace on Friday night. On Sunday, Cristopher Sanchez will attempt to return the favor as the Phillies aim to win their second straight game against the Brewers.
The Brewers will counter with Kyle Harrison. The Phillies have had troubles with lefthanded starters this season, and Harrison has pitched well, going 7-1 with a 2.72 ERA.
Game time is 2:10 Eastern and will be televised locally by NBCSP.
The Cincinnati Reds got off to a miracle start to the 2026 season only for their luck to effectively run out in May. Lefty Andrew Abbott, however, got off to a mostly miserable start to the 2026 season only for his fortunes to return as the end of April graced the calendar.
It’s quite the juxtaposition. On April 30th, Abbott entered with an ugly 6.59 ERA through his first 6 starts of the season, and that even included a brilliant 6.0 scoreless frames against Boston on Opening Day. He fired 6.0 IP of 2 ER ball that day as the Reds won to move to 20-11 overall on the season, a high mark they’ve not come close to replicating so far this season. They began an 8-game losing streak the very next day, and are just 13-25 overall since that day.
That April 30th start got Abbott’s season very much back on track. Counting that day, he’s pitching in 8 games since April 30th and owns a 2.54 ERA in those starts (46.0 IP). The Reds, in those starts, are 5-3, meaning they’re just 8-22 in games started by anyone other than Abbott since April 30th. Woof!
Abbott will take the mound again on Sunday in Great American Ball Park as the Reds look to close out a series victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, who they defeated 2-1 on a late Noelvi Marte homer on Saturday evening. Veteran righty Zac Gallen will start for the Snakes, and he’s slipped to a 7.02 ERA over his last 8 starts dating back to May 1st as he continues to get rolled out in my fantasy lineup, for whatever stupid reason I continue to justify.
Cincinnati activated catcher Jose Trevino prior to this one, with catcher PJ Higgins optioned back to AAA Louisville to make way on the roster. Trevino will start today in his return.
First pitch is set for 1:40 PM ET.
Here’s how the Reds will line up to start:
1905
George Davis stole four bases in a 5-3 win at Washington, a mark that has stood for 121 years now (though tied nine different times). Davis led an onslaught that saw the speedy Sox swipe seven sacks on the afternoon without once being caught. Woe was Senators catcher Malachi Kittridge.
It was truly a different, dead-ball era, in that nine different White Sox swiped at least 11 bases in 1905, and the team totaled 194. Davis, in spite of his four-swipe day, did not lead the team; his 31 finished one shy of first baseman Jiggs Donahue. Davis did, however, finish with 7.2 WAR to lead the American League and make him the presumptive MVP (it was not officially honored as such in the early days of baseball). In the extreme dead-ball era, Davis’ hitting prowess landed him at just a .693 OPS.
Davis was elected to the Hall of Fame posthumously, in 1998.
1942
With an 11-4 win in the nightcap of a doubleheader at Washington, Eddie Smith won his first game of the year, in 12 tries, to improve to 1-10. What’s crazy about Smith’s winless streak, which stretched back to the start of the 1942 season, is that he didn’t pitch badly at all: seven complete games, five one-run losses, two two-run losses, and an 3.83 ERA/4.16 FIP.
In the 11 games leading up to this blowout win, the White Sox scored just 21 runs total (not runs in support of Smith, but TOTAL runs in all of the losses, plus one ninth-inning win when Smith had been removed from the game).
If you stretched back to the end of 1941, Smith’s losing run heading into this game was 15 straight, having lost his final five decisions in that season.
Despite a 3.98 ERA that wasn’t that much worse than league average (90 ERA+), Smith would end up leading the AL in losses, at 7-20. While it would be easy to blame a bad White Sox team for Smith’s misfortune in 1942, by 1920-50 White Sox standards the 66-82 White Sox weren’t all that bad; applying their winning percentage to Smith’s 27 decisions, the hurler should have gone 12-15 on the season.
1953
White Sox pitchers Billy Pierce and Sandy Consuegra both fired shutouts in beating the Boston Red Sox in a doubleheader at Comiskey Park. The Sox won, 6-0 and 1-0. Pierce was brilliant in the opener, with two hits and one walk against eight Ks for a 90 game score. And although the 1-0 score in the nightcap doesn’t indicate it, Consuegra was a lot luckier with his win, spinning a shutout on an eight-hitter; Chico Carrasquel knocked in the only run of the game, with a single to center in the second inning.
With the sweep, the White Sox moved from a tie for fourth place with the Washington Senators to third place, leapfrogging the Red Sox with these head-to-head wins. Chicago would spend much of the season in second place from there, but would fall no lower than third for the remainder of the 1953 season.
2000
The White Sox trounced Cleveland, 11-4, but still managed to fail. How? Well, a club-record 17 games hitting at least one home run was snapped in the win.
The streak started on May 26, when Frank Thomas hit a solo home run off of Cleveland’s Chuck Finley in the first inning of a 5-3 win. The White Sox hit 28 home runs during the streak, but interestingly from just seven hitters: Thomas (eight), José Valentín (five), Carlos Lee (five), Ray Durham (five), Magglio Ordoñez (three), Chris Singleton (one) and Greg Norton (one). Eighteen of the homers were solo shots, seven came with one runner on, two were three-run shots, and one was a grand slam.
The streak came close to snapping only three times, with two homers coming as late as the seventh inning to keep the streak going. The homer streak came closest to snapping on June 13, when Durham’s solo shot in the 10th inning kept it going.
The White Sox went 13-4 over the 17 games of the streak, raising their record from 26-20 to 39-24 and extending their AL Central lead to five games by streak’s end. Despite snapping the longball streak, this game came toward the start of a eight-game winning streak and wins in 14 of 16 to shoot to a commanding lead in the division — one that would not be relinquished.
One of the two losses in the stretch came against the Cubs, in a June 11 game when the White Sox exploded for five home runs — all solo shots — in a 6-5 final.
2009
With American League pitchers still having to bat in any interleague game played in NL parks, White Sox pitchers had long been a hole in the batting order of such games. Mark Buehrle, coming into a start in Milwaukee as a career 3-for-36 hitter with zero extra-base hits for a -49 OPS+ and a .083/.108/.083 slash, homered to lead off the third inning against Braden Looper.
Buehrle never homered again in the major leagues, and in fact would have just five hits (two doubles) in his career after this game. In his 14 years hitting in the majors, Buerhle was 9-of-125 for a .072/.087/.112 slash for a -1.0 WAR and -47 OPS+.
The White Sox prevailed in this tight game, 5-4, when A.J. Pierzynski singled in the deciding run in the bottom of the eighth off of Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman. Interestingly, pitcher Clayton Richard had pinch-run for Jim Thome in the inning and scored the eventual winning run.
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The Chicago Cubs just won their first series dating back to the first week in May after taking the first two games in San Francisco. That was also the last time Chicago had a win streak as long as this current three-game streak.
The Cubs will look for a sweep in the Bay Area, but they have their work cut out for them. My Cubs vs. Giants predictions and MLB picks expect the Giants to salvage the series finale.
The San Francisco Giants have scored just one run in each of the last two games, but the offense could get an assist from this Chicago Cubs pitching rotation today.
Chicago is expected to start opener Ryan Rolison, then follow with Colin Rea. Rolison walks 4.5 batters per nine innings and has a FIP two runs higher than his ERA, while Rea has a 5.19 ERA. This Cubs offense also may be down a man after Seiya Suzuki left Saturday’s game with an injury.
I'm subbing out Giants moneyline (-135) for Giants -1.5 at +156, but would take the runs back at -110 or better.
COVERS INTEL: In addition to Ryan Rolison's high overall walk rate, he’s been surprisingly ineffective against the leadoff and two-hole hitters in the lineup throughout his career. Rolison has allowed the top two batters in the order to hit .353 with 1.186 OPS and 171 OPS+ (71% above league average). The other seven batters are .274, .777, 18% below league average.The Giants start their ace on Sunday in Logan Webb. He’s been dependable and effective for years, but since returning from the injured list at the end of May, he seems to have found another level.
In his three starts since returning, he’s allowed two runs and nine hits in 19 1/3 innings. He’s avoiding barrels, inducing grounders, and his barrel rate is down two percentage points from last year. He’s also in the 96th percentile in ground-ball rate.
The Cubs have been scoring, but against Webb and without Suzuki, that could change. Getting plus-money odds with Webb is a no-brainer. I’d stay Under until -110.
The Giants have covered the run line in six of their last 10 games for +0.85 units and a 6% ROI. Find more MLB betting trends for Cubs vs. Giants.
| Location | Oracle Park, San Francisco, CA |
| Date | Sunday, June 14, 2026 |
| First pitch | 3:10 p.m. ET |
| TV | ABC |
| Cubs starting pitcher | Colin Rea (5-4, 5.19 ERA) |
| Giants starting pitcher | Logan Webb (3-4, 3.88 ERA) |
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
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There isn’t much for Blue Jays news today.
Vladimir Guerrero (back) and Andrés Giménez (wrist) both are out of the lineup today. The team isn’t saying how long either will be out.
Bob Nightingale says that ‘teams’ expect Bo Bichette to opt out of his contract with the Mets after this season. I’m finding it hard to believe. He’ll have $79 million left on the contract, that would be hard to give up to go off into the unknown. And it isn’t like he’s having a great season, Baseball Reference has him at a -0.5 WAR. He’s hitting .236/.283/.361. I don’t think his defense at third base has been terrific, though he’s been playing mostly short lately.
Today’s lineup.
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Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Yohendrick Pinango is at the center of today's Yankees vs. Blue Jays predictions as he draws a favorable matchup against New York starter Will Warren.
Read my MLB picks below for a full breakdown of today's matchup.
Yohendrick Pinango profiles well against New York Yankees starter Will Warren.
Warren is a contact-pitcher who lives in the zone with a heavy dose of the four-seamer and sinker to left-handed batters. Pinango owns a .385 average against that pitch mix, with a .500 xSLG rate.
Additionally, the Toronto Blue Jays rookie owns a well-above-average solid-contact rating of 6.7%. Warren allows solid contact at a 7.8% clip, well above the 5.9% league average.
Pinango has eclipsed his hits total in eight of his last 11 games, garnering a .994 OPS in that stretch. I’d buy Pinango Over 0.5 hits up to -165.
COVERS INTEL: Will Warren doesn’t have swing-and-miss stuff and allows consistent contact, which should play into Yohendrick Pinango’s strengths with his .283 xBA and 6.7 solid-contact rating. We'll continue to bank on a productive day for the Blue Jay bats in today’s SGP with Ernie Clement and Alejandro Kirk hitting props.
Clement has a hit in 22 of his last 25 games, posting a .964 OPS in that stretch, averaging 2.3 bases per game. He is a premier contact hitter, and Warren is a contact-friendly pitcher.
For the last leg of the SGP, I’ll bet on Alejandro Kirk to keep swinging his hot bat. He draws back into the lineup after a 3-for-3 outing in his return on Friday. He’s one of the best contact hitters in baseball with a .306 xBA.
Kazuma Okamoto has gone back-to-back games with a home run and leads the Jays with 15 homers this season. He also hits Warren's pitch mix well with a .500 slug-rate and a 58% hard-hit rate,
This positions him well for success today as the Yankee starter pitches to contact, while ranking in the 43rd percentile in hard-hit rate.
However, Warren has only allowed one home run in his last 5 starts this season. Therefore, I’ll be making this a half-unit wager today.
The Blue Jays have gone Over the total in 12 of their last 18 games for +5.5 units and a 28 ROI. Find more MLB betting trends for Yankees vs. Blue Jays.
| Location | Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON |
| Date | Sunday, 6-14-2026 |
| First pitch | 1:37 p.m. ET |
| TV | Sportsnet, YES |
| Yankees starting pitcher | Will Warren (7-1, 3.28 ERA) |
| Blue Jays starting pitcher | Patrick Corbin (2-3, 4.45 ERA) |
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Sunday notes…
Cubs lineup:
Giants lineup:
Ryan Rolison is going to open this game because the Giants generally stack the top of their lineup with left-handed hitters. This is an attempt to try to neutralize that. Rolison threw a scoreless inning vs. the Giants last Saturday at Wrigley Field and overall this year, lefties are batting .182/.263/.182 (6-for-33) against him with 13 strikeouts. Rolison last pitched Thursday against the Rockies, throwing one inning and 17 pitches.
After Rolison, Colin Rea is supposed to be the “bulk guy” this afternoon. Rea got hit pretty hard by the Rockies in his last start, last Tuesday at Coors Field. So what do you say we try to pretend that didn’t happen?
In Rea’s three previous starts he posted a 3.57 ERA and got into the sixth inning in all three of them.
Current Giants, though, have hit him hard (small sample size alert): 16-for-32 (.500) with four home runs (Luis Arraez, Matt Chapman, Rafael Devers and Jung Hoo Lee).
Rea has two outings this year as the “bulk guy” and in those he’s thrown 9.1 innings, allowed eight hits and four runs, and struck out eight.
Logan Webb has been the Giants’ best starter for the last five-plus seasons, with Top 6 Cy Young finishes three times in that span. He’s continued that this year, with a bit of a higher ERA (3.88), which has come down over his last three starts (0.90 ERA, 0.672 WHIP, no home runs in 19.1 innings).
Webb last faced the Cubs Aug. 28, 2025 in San Francisco and allowed three runs in seven innings. Ian Happ is 5-for-14 (.357) against Webb with a home run and Dansby Swanson has homered twice off him in 14 career at-bats, including a homer in that game last year.
Here is the weather forecast for the area around Oracle Park.
Today’s game is on ABC (full national broadcast, no blackouts) and streaming on the ESPN App. Announcers: Jon Sciambi, David Ross and Buster Olney.
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Giants site McCovey Chronicles. If you do go there to interact with Giants 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.
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It’s time for some Sunday baseball. The Atlanta Braves are looking to take the series against their division rivals in this afternoon’s finale, and the rosters are set.
Let’s take a look at them.
Michael Harris II is leading off for the Braves today, swapping places with Mauricio Dubón. Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson have the most experience facing Mets’ Freddy Peralta.
Albies, with 14 at-bats against him, hasn’t recorded as much success, only batting .071 with a .378 OPS, but Olson and Riley, however, with 11 and 14 respective appearances, find their ways to bases pretty frequently, with Riley batting .429 against him with an OPS of 1.396.
Dominic Smith has also found his pitches against Peralta, batting .400 with an .800 OPS.
The person Peralta really has to worry about, though, with only two appearances against him, is Eli White. Batting in the seventh hole, he averages .500 and has 2.500 OPS against the righty.
The Braves are looking for Bryce Elder to hold the Mets’ defense off, as a few key players are known to get hot against him, and have shown in this series that they could rally at any point. Though the name Bo Bichette has been ringing throughout the series, it’s Juan Soto, who’s seen him the second-most behind Brett Baty, that Elder needs to look out for. Soto’s average is .429 against Elder with a 1.413 OPS, in which he also recorded one homerun and one RBI.
A lot of possibilities as both teams look to close this matchup with a series win. New York is looking to continue their celebration and defeat their division rivals to add to a fresh NBA finals win, but the Braves are looking to shut it down before getting back on the road.
Tune in at 1:40 PM EDT to watch it all play out.
Today marks Ernie Whitt’s 74th birthday. Actually, it was yesterday, but I got busy and didn’t get this posted. But, since he was a favourite of mine I wanted to
The Red Sox selected Whitt in the 15th round of the 1972 amateur draft, just one pick ahead of Jason Thompson, who became a standout first baseman for the Tigers and Dodgers. Blocked by Carlton Fisk, Whitt never got a chance with the Red Sox and was left unprotected in the 1976 expansion draft, where the Blue Jays picked him up.
Whitt had 41 at-bats in the Blue Jays’ inaugural season and appeared in a few games in 1978. He spent all of 1979 in the minors, but at age 28, he finally secured a regular role in the majors as the left-handed half of a catching platoon with Rob Davis. He struggled offensively, hitting .237/.288/.353.
In the strike-shortened 1981 season, the Jays acquired Buck Martinez, who would become Whitt’s platoon partner for several years. Whitt continued to struggle at the plate, hitting just .236/.307/.297 with one home run.
In 1982, Bobby Cox took over as manager and Cito Gaston became the hitting coach. That year, Ernie rediscovered his swing, raising his averages to .261/.307/.440 and hitting 11 home runs in just 284 at-bats, thanks in large part to Cito’s all-out pull philosophy. In 1983, Whitt continued to improve, batting .256/.346/.459 with 17 home runs in 344 at-bats. Together with Buck Martinez, the Jays’ catchers produced 27 home runs and 89 RBI. Under Cito’s guidance, Whitt’s home run totals jumped from 1 to 11 to 17 over two seasons.
In 1984, Ernie maintained his power, hitting 15 home runs in 315 at-bats. The following year, during the Blue Jays’ first playoff appearance, Whitt set a career high with 19 home runs, batting .245/.323/.444 in 412 at-bats and earning an All-Star selection. However, he struggled offensively in the seven-game ALCS loss to the Royals, hitting just .190. Whitt started every game of the series, as Buck Martinez was injured—fans likely recall the memorable play where Martinez broke his leg, dislocated his ankle, and still tagged out the runner at home—with Jeff Hearron serving as backup catcher.
Whitt remained remarkably consistent. In 1986, he hit 16 home runs. After Buck Martinez retired before the 1987 season, Charlie Moore became Whitt’s catching partner. That year, Whitt matched his career best with 19 home runs, set new personal highs with 75 RBI, 24 doubles, and 120 hits, and batted .269/.334/.455. Unfortunately, the Blue Jays faltered down the stretch in 1987 and lost the division to the Tigers, with Whitt missing the end of the season due to a rib injury—a factor that might have changed the outcome.
Whitt’s steady production continued in 1988, when he hit .251/.348/.410 with 16 home runs in 398 at-bats. In 1989, as the Jays made their second playoff appearance, he batted .262/.349/.416 with 11 home runs in 385 at-bats. However, his postseason struggles persisted, as he managed just a .125 average with one home run in 16 at-bats during the five-game ALCS loss to the Oakland A’s.
After the 1989 season, Whitt was traded to Atlanta with Kevin Batiste for Rick Trlicek, making way for Pat Borders and Greg Myers behind the plate. He spent a year with the Braves and finished his career with a short stint in Baltimore in 1991. Despite playing just 33 games before his 28th birthday and only reaching 300 at-bats in a season at age 31, Whitt crafted an impressive and consistent career. From 1983 to 1989, he posted OPS+ numbers between 104 and 121, with on-base percentages from .323 to .349 and slugging averages from .410 to .459.
Whitt appeared in 1,328 games over 15 seasons, hitting 134 home runs and posting a career line of .248/.324/.410 with 534 RBI. He was known as a strong defensive catcher with a reliable arm. Despite early doubts from first manager Roy Hartsfield, Whitt proved himself and enjoyed the longest career with the Jays among players from their inaugural season.
Whitt was always one of my favorites. His all-out pull swing, encouraged by Gaston, was the most entertaining to watch. He’d finish his swing down on his left knee, sometimes nearly coming out of his shoes. Watching him, you’d wonder how he ever connected, with his back knee dropping and dragging, seemingly risking swinging under the ball. But his open stance gave him a great look at the pitch, and he was a smart, instinctive hitter. As a catcher, he excelled at anticipating pitches, making him tough to fool at the plate.
He wrote a biography called ‘Catch: A Major League Life,’ which I still have somewhere at home. The book stirred controversy when he labeled umpire Joe Brinkman ‘incompetent.’ Whitt also argued he shouldn’t have been limited to a platoon role, but the stats suggest otherwise: he hit just .223/.303/.311 against left-handed pitchers, and resting against them likely kept him fresh.
Rob Neyer, in his “Big Book of Baseball Lineups,” names Whitt as the Blue Jays’ all-time best catcher—a ranking I still support—and credits him with being the franchise’s top defensive backstop. Bill James ranked Whitt 72nd among all-time catchers in his “New Historical Baseball Abstract.” Whitt will have moved down a few spots since then. He was arguably the most popular Jay during his playing days, known for his relentless effort and extensive charity work off the field.
Ernie later served as the Jays’ bench coach and then first base coach beginning in 2005, before being let go alongside John Gibbons and much of the staff in June 2008. Whitt didn’t hold back afterward, criticizing JP Ricciardi and dubbing himself ‘the best manager the Jays never had.’ Maybe he was right.
Since 2004, Whitt has managed the Canadian National Baseball Team, including leading them during Olympic qualifiers.He is also a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
When Buck Martinez left the broadcast booth this year, I thought Whitt would have been a fitting replacement, though I’m not sure how he’d fare in that role.
Whitt is married with three children.
He remains near the top of my list of favourite Blue Jays. As a fellow lefty hitter, I often tried to mimic his unique swing—dropping down to my knee—but could never quite master it.
Happy Birthday, Ernie. Hope it’s a great one.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are closing things out in their three-game weekend series against the Miami Marlins with an earlier start for the nationally-televised contest.
The Pirates will put their ace on the mound in Paul Skenes, hoping that he can rebound from his struggles over his last five games. The Pirates have not won a start from Skenes since May 12 against the Colorado Rockies and have dropped their last five, including the most recent one against the Dodgers on June 9. Skenes pitched six innings and gave up just two runs, but the bullpen could not support him enough.
The Pirates surrendered 10 runs in the seventh inning, which led to the 12-3 defeat. The Pirates cannot let another Skenes start go to waste again, especially with the Marlins countering with one of the top underrated starting pitchers in the league.
The Marlins are starting Max Meyer, who was the number three overall pick in the 2020 MLB draft. Meyer is enjoying the best season of his career so far with a 6-0 mark, which matches his win total from his first four seasons combined. Meyer has gone at least five innings in all but one of his starts this season, so his consistency should challenge the Pirates in the matchup.
Location: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA
Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Peacock
Pitching Matchup: Max Meyer (6-0, 2.85 ERA) vs. Paul Skenes (6-5, 2.84 ERA)
BD community, chime off in the comments section below.
As expected, Vinnie Pasquantino has been placed on the 10-day IL following a pop-up that appeared to injure his right hand during last night’s game. The injury is being described as a right hamate fracture, which is quite bad for the Royals’ first baseman and another brutal injury blow for a team that wasn’t playing well enough before everyone started getting hurt.
Vinnie was not having the season he or anyone else wanted, but he’d been doing better lately. He was slashing .224/.309/.350/.660 for the year, but .289/.372/.408/.780 over his last 20 games and .316/.381/.474/.855 over his last 10. The Royals will miss his bat in the middle of the order.
To replace Vinnie on the roster, the Royals have recalled John Rave. Rave is a 28-year-old, left-handed outfielder who debuted for Kansas City last year. He slashed .196/.283/.307/.590 in 72 games for the big league club. He has been slashing .278/.395/.475/.880 for the Omaha Stormchasers this season. He’s also been walking more and striking out less than he did in the minors last season, so perhaps he can offer more than he did last year.
Rave’s biggest problem would seem to be that he’s too passive at the plate, but he also doesn’t hit the ball hard consistently despite a more than respectable .197 ISO for the year. He’s been known for his speed and defense at the minor league level, though that didn’t always show up in the big leagues last year.
Hamate injuries are notoriously difficult for hitters to overcome. If you want to read more, MLB.com has a detailed article on the subject, thanks to hamate injuries affecting stars like Corbin Carroll, Francisco Lindor, and Jackson Holliday earlier this year. The recovery timeline is 4-8 weeks, but not everyone is at full strength upon their return.
Blake Mitchell suffered a hamate bone injury last year and basically lost his ability to hit for power, even once he returned, hitting far fewer extra-base hits in 2025 than he did in 2024 or has in 2026. There has been a wide range of outcomes even among the people who have had the surgery this year. Carroll didn’t miss a beat, Holliday is hitting for more power than ever (though still struggling as a hitter overall), but Lindor is having by far the worst season of his Hall of Fame career.
Even if Vinnie returns in a month, the Royals were floundering with him in the lineup. Thanks to Buddy Bell, no Royals fan would ever say things can’t get worse, but it’s hard to imagine the Royals being even as close as they currently are to competing whenever Vinnie returns.
Ho hum. This was how this stretch was supposed to go. Three days in a row, the Cubs have looked a full step above their competition. In fairness, that can be hard to do on the road, even against bad teams. But for as many times as I’ve written the words “in fairness” through the years, there have been just too many this year. I try to give a lot of benefit of the doubt. Baseball is hard. Hard for teams, hard for players. The edges aren’t massive. Even a year when a team wins or loses more than 110 games, a rare occurrence in either direction, the differences between top and bottom are ultimately not that much.
Fans tend to be unfair. The see a lousy team on the schedule or a pitcher with a high ERA and they just assume victory by a lopsided score is more or less automatic. There are 162 games. Even those rare super dominant (or super awful) teams occur, they still win 50-60 games. Most of the bad teams still win 70 games. That’s a whole lot of David beating Goliath. That’s because in the MLB, it isn’t really David beating Goliath. We tell those stories because so many people love a good underdog success story. But the reason so many games are won by bad teams or lost by good teams, is because the margins just aren’t that big.
Trust me, if you elevated a Triple-A team to the big leagues, they wouldn’t be winning 70 games. Unless it’s a well stocked system, they probably wouldn’t win 60 either. Elevate a Double-A team, and they’d win even less. You keep going down and have a low minor league team playing against major league teams, you’d see the big league teams, even the bad ones, winning over 90 percent of the time. It isn’t the nature of baseball that just any two teams of any skill level will play to close to even. It is the nature of major league baseball that just about any two teams would play to near even.
All of that is fine. But this Cub team is built to win 90 plus games. This team should be able to grind out wins over time. And they should be able to look a cut above for three straight games. But they also should have been able to do a good bit more than that over the seven games prior to that. And they should have been able to go toe to toe and play near even for the three weeks before that. The best Cub team of any of our lifetime went through an extended lull. It happens. I get it. But more than a month is crazy stuff.
I just don’t know what to do or what to think with this team anymore. They had one of the best stretches of baseball I’ve ever seen and one of the teams they beat up on in that stretch is looking like a bonafide contender in the National League. That stretch largely wasn’t against the worst teams in the league. But then this recent bad stretch did include some of the worst teams. We saw some of that last year too. Surging even against strong competition and fading even against lesser competition.
Yesterday, one commenter wondered if the elimination of most of the big league scouting has a part in all of that. I’m not savvy enough to know that. The Cubs certainly aren’t going to tell us that. Even their beat writers rely too much on access to the team and its players to spill any secrets they might hear around the team. I don’t know what the deal is, but this has been a frustrating team to follow.
It’s going to take more than three wins to lure me back onto the bandwagon. But that doesn’t preclude me hat tipping the team for taking care of business now for three straight games and making it look fairly easy doing so. More of that please. Let’s go 10 straight again. Or something like 15 of 20. Let’s make this team even more confusing to understand.
Or let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Yet. Let’s enjoy this win and move on to Sunday. This team has done an exceptional amount of sweeping this season. Let’s get greedy again and pick up another sweep on Sunday. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Positives:
Game 71, June 13: Cubs 6, Giants 1 (37-34)
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
THREE HEROES:
THREE GOATS:
WPA Play of the Game: Luis Arraez had an RBI triple with one out in the third to cut the Cub lead to two. (.140)
Cubs Play of the Game: Pete Crow-Armstrong’s leadoff homer on the first pitch of the game. (.101)
Cubs Player of the Game:
Game 70 Winner: Javier Assad received 170 of 189 votes.
Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)
The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.
Win Pace: 84.4
Up Next: The final game of the series in San Francisco and the last game of the year between the two teams. The Cubs have won three of five. Ryan Rolison (5-1, 2.25) will work as the opener ahead of Colin Rea (5-4, 5.19). Rolison worked as an opener just over a year ago against the Mets as a member of the Rockies. He allowed one hit in an inning of work. Rea threw six innings of three run ball in a follower role earlier this year against the Phillies. Rea is just 1-3 with a 5.89 ERA over his last seven, so this is worth a shot to shake things up a little.
The Giants start their ace, 29-year-old Logan Webb (3-4, 3.88). Webb has struggled at home this year (0-3, 4.94). But he’s still very good. This is going to be a tough one. I’d think Michael Conforto would get a start in right field to give Seiya Suzuki a day off after leaving early last night. Webb is a little more susceptible to left handed hitters, so it would make sense anyway to load up that way.
This team has found so many ways to surprise us. Maybe they surprise us in this one and ride their recent momentum to a win?
So, I was going to open this up with a play on the song You Gotta Have Heart, from the classic musical Damn Yankees. But I did that for an article before. And I’m fresh out of heart puns. Something about those chalky candy hearts that nobody ever eats? Something about cardiology? Maybe a bit about how Brandon Marsh is playing so thrillingly that you might need a cardiologist to handle watching him? I’m going to sleep on it, and if you’re reading this, that means I didn’t think of anything clever overnight.
Anyway, Brandon Marsh is doing something interesting with the heart region this year. All pitches thrown end up in one of four Attack Regions:
Purple is Heart, Red is Shadow, Yellow is Chase, and Grey is Waste. I was gonna do a Captain Planet bit here (by your powers combined, I’m Captain Strike Zone!), but then I remembered that was created by Ted Turner, who owned the Braves, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to write about a Braves-affiliated cartoon on a Phillies site. Anyhow, every pitch thrown ends up in one of those four regions, and a batter’s performance on every pitch he receives either adds or subtracts from his team’s run expectancy, and so we can calculate the run value he contributes or detracts by region. That’s what we see here. This isn’t some random player’s chart, by the way. It’s Brandon Marsh’s, from this season.
And this is Marsh’s from last season.
Last season, Marsh’s performance on the pitches he got in the Heart region graded out as exactly neutral. The run expectancy he added with decisions to swing were canceled out by the run expectancy he lost with decisions to take. This season, though, he’s been a decided positive on pitches in the Heart region, adding 8 runs there. Only 10 players league-wide have added more, and their number includes familiar names like Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt, Jr., and Kyle Schwarber. That’s good company.
Here’s Marsh’s performance in the Heart region since 2022. Overall performance is the sum of the runs generated by swings and the runs generated by takes.
| Season | Overall Runs Value, Heart Region | Swing Runs | Take Runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 8 | 12 | -4 |
| 2025 | 0 | 9 | -9 |
| 2024 | 4 | 15 | -11 |
| 2023 | 0 | 13 | -13 |
| 2022 | -5 | 5 | -9 |
Since this is a cumulative statistic, and you can lose run value with bad decisions, there’s a possibility that his number for 2026 could drop before season’s end. Still, it’s notable that his 8 runs added in the Heart region would be by far the most of his career. If it holds (or goes up), it’ll be just the second time in his career he’s posted a positive run value in the heart region. So, how’s he doing it? Well, you want to swing at pitches in the Heart region. And he’s generating more runs with his swing decisions than he did last year, and losing fewer with his take decisions than he did last year. So he’s probably swinging at more of the pitches he receives there as compared to last year, right?
Last season, Marsh swung at 72% of pitches he received in the Heart region. And this season he’s swinging at… 72% of pitches he receives in the Heart region. He hasn’t changed his swing rate there at all. (As a side note: Marsh’s swing rates in 2025 were exactly identical to the MLB average in three of the four attack regions, and just 1% off of the average in the other. That’s not really relevant to this piece, but it was odd enough that I felt I had to mention it somewhere).
So if Marsh isn’t swinging at more pitches in the heart zone, how is he generating more run value there this year?
Well, one way to do it would be to just do more damage on his swings there. A double on a pitch in the Heart region is going to add more run value than a single. And that’s the case: in 2025 he posted a wOBA of .386 on pitches in the Heart region, and in 2026 that number is .516. Marsh is just better at the plate this year, and so of course that’s going to show up on his performance on pitches in the heart of the zone. But there’s gotta be something more specific we can say. Something a little more precise than, “I dunno, Marsh hit ball good” (which is true, but not exactly the sort of analysis that you come to TGP to read).
So, what is it? Well, we know that his overall swing rate on pitches in the Heart region hasn’t changed. But that doesn’t mean that his swing decisions there haven’t changed. Let’s take a look under the hood.
| Season | Fastball Swing Rate, Heart Region | Breaking Swing Rate, Heart Region | Offspeed Swing Rate, Heart Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 77.2% | 56.4% | 84.2% |
| 2025 | 70.6% | 69.8% | 87.5% |
Marsh’s overall swing rate in the Heart region hasn’t changed one bit, but his swing decisions sure have. He’s a lot more likely to swing at fastballs there, and a lot less likely to swing at breaking balls there (as well as a little less likely to swing at offspeed pitches). The fact that his overall swing rate in the Heart region hasn’t changed is hiding the fact that he’s started to hunt fastballs. Actually, he’s swinging at fastballs more in the Shadow and Chase regions too; it’s not an approach limited to the Heart region. He’s getting fewer fastballs overall, and he’s clearly making a decision to maximize what he can do with the ones he does get. His decreased willingness to swing at breaking balls is Heart-region specific, though: he’s swinging at a greater percentage of them in all other regions. At any rate, when it comes to the Heart he’s clearly swinging at more of the pitches he can do the most damage on and at fewer of the ones he can do less damage on.
“Wait for a fastball over the meaty part of the plate” isn’t exactly an iconoclastic idea. But there’s no rule that says your strategy needs to be novel. It just needs to work. And for Brandon Marsh, it’s working quite well. He’s taken that approach, old to many, new to him, to heart.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers put an end to the Chicago White Sox’s eight-game home win streak yesterday and will look for a series win as they chase down the league's best record.
My Dodgers vs. White Sox predictions and free MLB picks have L.A.’s top-ranked offense eventually cracking Chicago’s bullpen to pull away for the victory.
Bryan Hudson's 0.00 ERA is misleading because he's worked just 3 1/3 innings in three starts and is unlikely to face this Los Angeles Dodgers order more than once.
That leaves the Chicago White Sox's vulnerable middle relief exposed for 7-8 innings against baseball's best road offense, averaging 6.03 runs per game and leading MLB in average, OBP, slugging, and OPS.
The White Sox bullpen has struggled to suppress power, allowing the seventh-most homers, which is a dangerous profile against L.A.'s lineup depth.
The Dodgers have won 13 of their last 15 road games as favorites by multiple runs, and I'd play the spread to -2.5 if interested.
COVERS INTEL:This Dodgers offense has been successful because their batters aren’t chasing pitches. They are currently tied for the fifth-fewest team strikeouts per game at 7.80.We’ve already discussed L.A.’s offensive prowess, and they’ll be starting righty Emmett Sheehan, who might be a help in pushing this score Over the total.
He was pulled after just 1 1/3 innings in his last start against the Angels after allowing three hits, two earned runs, and two walks in a 13-5 drubbing.
That’s the third time in the last seven Sheehan starts that’s ended with more than nine runs scored between opponents, and the sixth time overall. That should help a White Sox offense that already scores the eighth-most runs in the league at 4.83 per game.
Tally that up with the Dodgers cashing the Over in six of the last seven, and you’ve got another Over hitting Sunday.
The White Sox have lost by multiple runs in 12 of their last 13 losses, including eight straight. Find more MLB betting trends for Dodgers vs. White Sox.
| Location | Rate Field, Chicago, IL |
| Date | Sunday, June 14, 2026 |
| First pitch | 2:10 p.m. ET |
| TV | SNLA, CHSN |
| Dodgers starting pitcher | Emmet Sheehan (3-3, 4.70 ERA) |
| White Sox starting pitcher | Erick Fedde (1-5, 4.69 ERA) |
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
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Team News
D-backs squander another one of Soroka’s walk-free quality starts
“When you feel like the hitter might not know what’s coming, I feel a little bit more comfortable throwing balls completely over the plate,” Soroka said. “Last year, I think I ran into struggles, because I didn’t have those extra pitches. And second, third time around, these guys were seeing the same two [pitches], four-seam, curveball, over and over again.”
https://www.mlb.com/dbacks/news/michael-soroka-quality-start-d-backs-lose-to-reds
Michael Soroka’s strong outing not enough as D-backs’ hitting woes continue in loss vs. Reds
The D-backs finished the game going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position despite outhitting the Reds 7-3. https://arizonasports.com/mlb/arizona-diamondbacks/d-backs-loss-vs-reds
Abysmal Offense Cripples Diamondbacks Once Againhttps://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/onsi/abysmal-offense-cripples-diamondbacks-once-again-reds
Young Diamondbacks Pitcher Suffers Surprise Shoulder Injuryhttps://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/onsi/young-diamondbacks-pitcher-surprise-shoulder-injury-hoffmann-bratt
A Zac Gallen Turnaround Simply Can’t Wait Any Longerhttps://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/onsi/zac-gallen-turnaround-cant-wait-longer
Other Baseball
Jose Ramirez To Be Placed On IL With Hamate Fracturehttps://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/jose-ramirez-to-be-placed-on-il-with-hamate-fracture.html
Cole Ragans Headed For Testing On Arm
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/cole-ragans-headed-for-testing-on-arm.html
Red Sox’s Aroldis Chapman reportedly says if Yankees trade for him, GM Brian Cashman should apologize first; Aaron Boone disagrees
Yamamoto carries no-hit bid into ninth inning as Dodgers winhttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/49054315/yamamoto-carries-no-hit-bid-ninth-inning-dodgers-win
Will Skubal get traded? Here are 7 possible destinations
https://www.mlb.com/news/teams-that-could-trade-for-tarik-skubal
Dollander placed on 60-day IL, trending toward UCL surgery https://www.mlb.com/rockies/news/chase-dollander-elbow-injury-2026
Anything Goes
This day in history:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-14
This day in baseball:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/June_14
You may have seen fact sites claiming that the Great Wall is the only man-made structure visible from space, but this is actually not the case. According to the Apollo astronauts, the Great Wall cannot be seen from space. However, city lights at night, roads, and the Pyramids of Giza are said to be visible.
The oldest chewing gum ever found was a lump of birch bark tar that dates back to the Stone Age.
If you are invited over for dinner at an Egyptian household, remember that it is traditionally rude to ask for salt. It’s also considered offensive for the host if you refill your own glass.
