Category: MLB

José Caballero and the Yankees are furious with Major League Baseball for reemphasizing a rule without addressing it with them during a frustrating 10-inning, 5-3 loss to the Pirates in the opener of a split doubleheader in The Bronx on Wednesday afternoon.

With two outs and a runner on first base in the sixth inning, Caballero was called for an automatic strike on a pitch-clock violation. It was the second strike of the at-bat that would end with the shortstop striking out.

Caballero routinely waits until the last moment on the clock to engage with the pitcher, looking down for several seconds as he steps into the batter’s box and gets ready to take his at-bat. It is a stalling tactic that sometimes forces pitchers to hold their delivery and has resulted in pitch-clock violations against them on occasion.

By rule, Caballero has to make eye contact with the pitcher when there are 8 seconds left on the timer. He was called for this violation with 9 seconds to go.

“Major League Baseball came out with something new, so we have to go change,” manager Aaron Boone said.

There is a rule that says if a hitter deceives the pitcher it is considered circumventing the aforementioned rule, and the umpire can assess a pitch-clock violation to the batter. There was a call between the league office and the umpiring crew about enforcing this rule prior to the doubleheader, but that didn’t involve the Yankees. It was news to them.

Asked if he was frustrated that the Yankees weren’t contacted about this ahead of time, Boone replied: “Very, very — embarrassing.”

“It says something about deceiving the pitcher, which [to] my understanding is trying to trick the pitcher,” Caballero said. “I’m not trying to trick anyone.”

Caballero wasn’t in the lineup for Game 2, replaced at shortstop by Anthony Volpe.

Home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott could be heard on mics telling Caballero, “You don’t get to do the 3 or 4 seconds thing in the box anymore,” after the two engaged in a conversation after the violation was issued. Caballero responded by telling Wolcott, “you’re picking on me,” multiple times. Hitting coach James Rowson was ejected shortly after Boone came out to defend Caballero.

“He’s been warned all season,” crew chief Adrian Johnson told a pool reporter. “We were instructed not to warn him. We were instructed to violate him. That’s what it is. It’s a violation.

“It’s not allowed anymore. It was the cause of a benches-clearing situation on Monday night. Major League Baseball stepped in. They want it enforced.”

On Monday, Caballero and Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana exchanged words related to his pre-pitch antics that led to both benches clearing. At the time, Caballero insisted he’s merely taking his time and following his routine.

“If you get frustrated, I’m winning. For me, it’s a battle in the box, and I’m trying to win the battle,” he said. “If you are not concentrating 100 percent, I think I’m winning.”

But now, Caballero is going to have to change his routine. He’s not happy about it.

“I’ve seen other guys do other things and they don’t call anything on them,” Caballero said. “I can name players I’ve seen deceiving the pitchers, but they don’t call it on them. They just call it on me. Like I said, they’re just picking on me.”

He later added: “They’re the ones who invented this clock thing. They don’t know what to do with their rule now.’’

That wasn’t the only call the Yankees objected to. Starting pitcher Gerrit Cole was called for a balk as he attempted to tell the umpires the pitch clock wasn’t working. He broke his hands and stepped off at the same time. There was one out at the time, and the balk sent Jake Mangum to second base. Cole was able to get out of the jam.

“They were not aware the clock went off,” Cole said. “I was startled that it was off. I was tracking the clock and holding the runner.”

The pitch clock caused all kinds of problems Wednesday afternoon for the Yankees.

It has been four years since the Padres made the blockbuster trade with the Washington Nationals for superstar outfielder Juan Soto, and they’re still facing the ramifications of it.

Former Major League Baseball executive Jim Bowden appeared as a guest on Foul Territory on Wednesday afternoon and took a shot at the team for mortgaging their future on Soto.

“It’s too painful watching James Wood and CJ Abrams rake every single night, to sit there and trade your next guy,” Bowden said.

Before the 2022 season, the Padres had one of the best farm systems in baseball, headlined by MacKenzie Gore, Abrams, and Wood.

At the time, the trade looked like the perfect move for San Diego, which was making a push to win their first World Series in franchise history by pairing him to play alongside Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr.

When the trade deadline came around that season, the team was second in the National League West with a 58-46 record. General Manager A.J. Preller swung for the fences and traded the three of them, along with Robert Hassell III, for Soto.

Unfortunately for San Diego, things did not pan out. The team just missed the World Series that season when they were eliminated by the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series and missed the playoffs the next year.

In December, 2023, Soto was traded by San Diego to the New York Yankees with Trent Grisham. The move allowed the Padres to replenish the farm to some degree, acquiring Michael King, along with four other players.

Last year, though, history repeated itself in San Diego when they traded away now No. 2 overall prospect Leo De Vries for Mason Miller at the deadline.

Fast forward a year later, the Padres farm system is considered the worst in baseball and enters Wednesday third in the National League West with a 50-51 record. Meanwhile, Abrams and Wood have turned into promising young players who were selected as All-Stars in 2026.

“I can’t trade anymore of these top prospects here,” Bowden said. “The farm system is so much different than it was, and you’ve got a problem.”

With the future not looking too bright in San Diego, Bowden is now urging the Padres to be sellers at this year’s deadline.

“The right play here isn’t for them to go for it this year; the right play is to do the exact opposite,” Bowden said. “Listen in on Mason Miller, listen on Michael King, and be very open to trying to see if you can get six or seven players back and quickly try to reboot this thing.”

The MLB trade deadline is Aug. 3, and no one knows which way the wind will blow in Southern California.

Wednesday notes…

• SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE: This is the 17th of the Cubs’ 33 series in which they split the first two games. They are 8-7 in third games, with one postponed by rain. After losing, then winning, they are 6-4, including 1-2 at home. The win was last Sunday vs. the Twins. They had lost to the Nationals on March 29 and to the Giants on June 7. The Cubs are 8-1-1 in their last 10 series and 16-14-2 for the year. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• RUN DIFFERENTIAL: The Cubs have outscored their opponents by 20 runs, 33-13, in their last four games, boosting their run differential to +69, a season high. They were +56 on May 8, after the last of their second streak of 10 straight wins, 7-1, at Texas. They were -2 after a 3-2 loss at Colorado on June 10, +63 after a 23-3 demolition of the Padres at home on July 1, then +44 after a 3-0 loss at home to the Cardinals on July 4. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: The Cubs have made 11, 12, 11 and 11 hits in their last four games. They had not had double-digit hits in more than three consecutive games since they had four in a row April 21-24. Last night’s game was their 75th since then. They did it in five straight games April 12-17. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Sammy Sosa’s three-run homer highlighted a six-run eighth that broke open a 3-3 tie, and the Cubs went on to defeat the Expos 9-5 at Wrigley Field. It happened 28 years ago today, Wednesday, July 22, 1998.

Cubs lineup:

Tigers lineup:

Colin Rea, RHP vs. Keider Montero, RHP

Colin Rea wound up with a “quality start,” three earned runs in six innings, in his last outing last Friday vs. the Twins. That’s due to an error that made one run unearned — but really, the outing was pretty good, marred by one bad pitch that went for a three-run homer by Ryan Jeffers.

Rea hasn’t faced the Tigers since April 24, 2023 and that’s so long ago that Phil Maton’s brother Nick was batting cleanup for Detroit, and his opponent was … Matthew Boyd.

Thus Rea has only faced a handful of Tigers and only for a couple of PA each. Maybe that’ll be to his advantage.

Rea has been much better at Wrigley (2.94 ERA in nine games, eight starts) than on the road (6.45 ERA in 11 games, eight starts).

Keider Montero was in the Tigers rotation until the end of June and was doing reasonably well, but has been throwing in relief since then. This will be his first start since June 28. He hasn’t thrown more than 59 pitches in an outing since then.

Last year he allowed four runs to the Cubs in 5.2 innings as the “bulk guy” after an opener, June 7, 2025 in Detroit. Pete Crow-Armstrong, Michael Busch and Matt Shaw homered off him.

Here is the weather forecast for the area around Wrigley Field.

Today’s game is on ESPN (full national broadcast, no blackouts).

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

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Tigers site Bless You Boys. If you do go there to interact with Tigers 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.

The last and only other time the Red Sox won 15 games in a row was in the spring of 1946. Ted Williams had just returned from World War II and was off to a scalding start in what would become his first MVP season (it should have been his second). Harry S. Truman was a year into his presidency, there were only 48 states, and Louis Armstrong, Helen Keller, Dwight Eisenhower, Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Agatha Christie weren’t just alive, but still had important work to do in the coming years.

Tonight, after yet another victory this afternoon, the 2026 Red Sox could stand alone. Yes, the same 2026 Red Sox that as of a month ago didn’t have a single winning streak longer than three games.

On the mound to help them get there will be Eduardo Rivera, who is likely to be followed by a bunch of Brayan Bello given the current state of the pitching staff. Further complicating matters on that side of the ball is Justin Slaten, Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman all pitching in the first game of the double header today. In other words, outside of an offensive explosion, the Sox probably need Bello to be good and good for a while if they’re going to pull out yet another win. (And let’s hope for Bello’s sake that happens, because if Brayan Bello is the guy to wreck this winning streak, the pitchforks will be out all across Boston for him.)

The theme of this run however has been just finding a way to win against all odds. If these Sox do it just one more time tonight, they’ll stand alone in the franchise record book — A record book that goes back twelve and a half decades!

⚾️ First Pitch: 7:10pm — Fenway Park, Boston, MA

📺 TV: NESN

📻 Radio: WEEI

Box Score

The Brewers don’t win this game without Joey Ortiz and Christian Yelich. Ortiz went 3-for-3 with a double, a triple, a walk, two runs scored, and two RBIs, while Yelich finished 2-for-5 with a triple and two RBIs. Together, they accounted for five of the Brewers’ nine hits and all four of Milwaukee’s RBIs as the Brewers held on for a 4-3 win in today’s series finale against the New York Mets.

Logan Henderson struck out three in a scoreless top of the first inning, and Mets starter Christian Scott kept the Brewers off the board in the bottom of the frame. Marcus Semien broke the tie in the top of the second with a solo home run on a four-seamer that ran just a little too far over the plate.

The Brewers were shut out yesterday, but their offense didn’t take long to come to life today. In the bottom of the second, Garrett Mitchell led off with a walk, and Andrew Vaughn advanced him to third with a single. Jake Bauers popped up and Cooper Pratt struck out in what were Milwaukee’s first two opportunities with runners in scoring position, but Ortiz delivered with two outs, sending a fly ball over the head of Brett Baty in right field.

Baty probably should have made the catch, but he took a bad route to the ball. He ran almost straight back on a fly ball that landed about 15 feet closer to the foul pole than he anticipated. He adjusted at the last second, veering to his left, but couldn’t quite get there as the ball bounced off the warning track. Ortiz made it around to third for a triple as Mitchell and Vaughn both scored, giving the Brewers a 2-1 lead.

Up next was Christian Yelich, who came through with a line drive single into left field to score Ortiz. All of a sudden, Milwaukee was up 3-1 — and hitting .500 with runners in scoring position.

Henderson allowed just one more hit until the top of the fifth, when Baty hit a solo home run to cut the Mets’ deficit back down to one run. The Brewers couldn’t answer in the fifth, but they did in the sixth. Ortiz grounded a ball past third base that got stuck under the tarp along the third-base line. Ortiz came all the way around to score before being sent back to second on a ground-rule double.

Ortiz wouldn’t be on the bases for long, as the very next hitter — Yelich — crushed a line drive off the center field wall for a triple. Ortiz scored to widen the Brewers’ lead back to two runs.

Henderson exited after five innings, allowing two runs on two home runs while giving up just three other hits. He struck out nine and didn’t walk a batter. As Pat Murphy said in his postgame press conference, “I’ve seen him better,” but if two runs and nine strikeouts is room for improvement, I’ll take it.

Aaron Ashby tossed two hitless innings in relief, striking out four and walking a batter, and Abner Uribe worked around a pair of hits in a scoreless eighth. Trevor Megill came in for the top of the ninth and had a sketchier outing than Brewers fans have become accustomed to lately. He walked Tyrone Taylor to start the frame, who then advanced to second on a groundout from Semien. Luis Torrens then crushed a line drive into right field, but it was right at Luis Lara, who took care of it for the second out.

With the Mets down to their final out, catcher Francisco Alvarez grounded a single into left field to score Taylor. Rather than risking a throw home, Jackson Chourio threw behind Alvarez to keep the tying run at first base.

A.J. Ewing then hit a ground ball to the left side that probably would have been a hit had the Brewers’ third baseman not been named Joey Ortiz:

Despite allowing a run for the first time in his last 14 appearances, Megill came away with the save and the Brewers came away with the series win. After taking two of three from the Mets, the Brewers will get tomorrow off before welcoming the Rockies to American Family Field for their third straight three-game home set. First pitch for Friday’s series opener is set for 3:10 p.m., with the Brewer Alumni Legends Game — featuring Ryan Braun, Ben Sheets, Yovani Gallardo, and many more — to follow.

A rare, one-of-one trading card of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani is set to hit the market beginning Thursday, July 23.

Topps, a popular collectible trading card company, plans to unveil Ohtani's back-to-back Gold Logoman dual autograph card.

The exclusive Ohtani trading card will feature two Gold Logoman patches and two on-card autographs, made available in a pack of 2026 Topps Chrome Baseball cards.

Ohtani games celebrated by Topps

Details of the specialized trading card include game-worn patches that are dated to some of Ohtani's best MLB performances. The first patch is from a September 7, 2025 game against the Baltimore Orioles where Los Angeles won 5-2 behind a perfect batting performance from Ohtani.

He batted 1.000 that day as a designated hitter, going 2-for-2, accounting for two runs and two RBIs after crushing two home runs.

The second patch comes from an earlier game during the 2026 season on April 12. The Dodgers took an L to the Texas Rangers, 5-2, but Ohtani reached base three times that game and homered once. He batted 1-for-3 that day, accounting for a hit, a run, and an RBI.

In addition to game-worn patches from big-time performances, the card also features Ohtani's signature twice. Ohtani signed the card once in English and another time again using his rare Kanji signature.

Ohtani, 32, is a sensational Japanese professional baseball player for the Dodgers, whose is two-way ability as a designated hitter and pitcher has drawn countless fans.

Before joining the Dodgers in 2023, Ohtani previously played for the Los Angeles Angels. He made his MLB debut with the Angels in 2018. Before the MLB, Ohtani starred in Nippon Professional Baseball, a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan, for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.

In the 2026 season, Ohtani has put up 102 hits, 22 homers, 60 RBIs and has registered 66 runs on a .287 batting average. As a pitcher, he's posted a 8-2 record with a 1.79 ERA in 14 games started and played. He's pitched a total of 85.2 innings so far where he's tallied 95 strikeouts and a 0.95 WHIP.

Weekday matinees are dumb. I get that it was partially a necessity today because of the rainout yesterday and it’s always used for a getaway game, but it was also pre-scheduled and it never looks right at Yankee Stadium. That’s not an excuse for what happened today, or why the Yankees always seem to be worse in these situations, but it went the way it did.

Mitch Keller flummoxed an offense that’s still struggling with runners in scoring position for five innings, slightly outdueling a visually dominant Gerrit Cole, who gave up a pair of homers despite 11 strikeouts in 7 innings. A massive three-run homer in the seventh by Ben Rice should’ve been enough to rally the troops, but the offense was dormant after that as Fernando Cruz had a rough 10th inning in a 5-3 loss to open the day.

Cole got things started for the Yanks with a clean, 1-2-3 first inning, while Keller responded with one of his own. The pair matched each other in the second, as well, with the only baserunner for either team being a one-out single by Jasson Domínguez. It was definitely Cole, however, who stood out through three, striking out six of the first nine he faced.

The Yankees tried to get something going off Keller in the third. Austin Wells got beaned with one out, Trent Grisham jumped ahead 3-0 before hitting a lineout a few pitches later, and Rice seemed to have blooped a two-out single before a tremendous diving catch by Bryan Reynolds robbed him.

Cole sat down the Buccos in order in the fourth without the need for a web gem. Spencer Jones and Cody Bellinger led off the bottom half with walks against a suddenly erratic Keller, but the next three hitters—Domínguez, Jazz Chishom Jr., and José Caballero—put together some rough at-bats to strand them. Their misdeeds were quickly punished.

The Pirates had absolutely nothing through 14 batters, with eight of them going down on strikes. After a controversial call saved Cole’s perfect game against Ryan O’Hearn, it was immediately ended by a Nick Gonzales single. But before we could say “aw shucks,” the former Cy Young Award winner grooved a 1-1 changeup to Jacob Gonzalez into the Short Porch to make it 2-0 Pirates in the fifth.

Wells reached for the second time with a one-out single in the bottom half to flip the lineup, and Grisham ripped a single up the middle to quickly put the pressure back on Keller, but despite his longstanding struggles against lefties this season, the former All-Star grit his teeth to win a six-pitch battle with Rice and retire Jones to escape unscathed again.

Cole went back to work in the sixth and gave up a one-out single to Jake Mangum before a bizarre balk occurred due to a pitch clock malfunction that the 35-year-old didn’t react to positively. He rebounded to get the next two out. Carmen Mlodzinski relieved Keller after a residential five-and-dive and worked around a four-pitch walk to Domínguez, but not without more theatrics.

Caballero’s pitch clock antics again came up with two out when he was hit with a pitch clock violation for not engaging on time, but he pretty clearly did. You worry sometimes that Caballero’s annoying schtick with this would eventually cause umpires to misapply the rules out of frustration, and that happened there. Somehow, the only one who was sent to the showers was hitting coach James Rowson.

Cole finished his outing after seven innings, coughing up an opposite-field homer to Gonzales to make it 3-0 during it, but despite being in line for the loss when he departed, he looked pretty damn close to vintage Gerrit Cole with 11 strikeouts and no walks. In a day like this, with a diminished Max Fried going tonight, the Yankees needed length, and they got it; the home runs just bit him badly.

Mlodzinski tried to get through the seventh as well, but Pirates manager Don Kelly’s decision to stick with him went badly. Ryan McMahon blooped a ground-rule double to left, Wells walked with help from Pittsburgh’s ABS hesitancy, and the stage was set with one out for Rice, who walloped a 3-1 cutter down the pipe for his 30th home run to tie it. As mentioned on the broadcast, he’s just the fifth Yankees’ draft pick to hit 30 bombs in a season.

With new life, the Yankees went to Brent Headrick for the eighth, and he looked as nasty as ever with a trio of strikeouts. There’s a Matt Blake revelation every year, and he certainly is one with an ERA of 1.40 in 51.1 innings. Mlodzinski got the first two out in the bottom of the eighth before Mason Montgomery retired McMahon to send it to the ninth.

Brandon Lowe led off the ninth with a rocket single off David Bednar that went under the glove of McMahon at third, but he made up for it with a catch against the tarp a few pitches later. Things got sticky with two on, two out, and 3-2 on Gonzales, but Rice made an outstanding diving stop on a tremendous piece of hitting by Gonzales to save a run and get it to the bottom of the ninth.

Montgomery stayed on to face 9-1-2 in the ninth, getting a groundout out of the pinch-hitting Paul Goldschmidt before walking Grisham. His triple-digit velocity overwhelmed Rice and the pinch-hitting Amed Rosario to send it to extras, where Fernando Cruz emerged to begin Manfred ball.

It didn’t go well for him. A flyout got the go-ahead run to third before he walked a pinch-hitting Marcell Ozuna. At this point, he just lost control. After spamming splitters to Ozuna, he tried mixing some other pitches to get the next few hitters but had no idea where they were going. Two great pieces of hitting on pitches that wandered up by Jared Triolo and Mangum drove in two runs. A five-pitch walk to Lowe chased Cruz after his worst outing in a good bit.

Kervin Castro made his second appearance as a Yankee and nicely weaseled his way out of Cruz’s jam with two strikeouts, but the damage was done. Gregory Soto locked down the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning to secure the win for Pittsburgh.

The Yankees will look for the series victory with returning ace Max Fried on a pitch limit. The lefty will square off against fireballer Bubba Chandler at 7:05pm tonight on YES.

Box Score

Would he get his own song?

Lars Nootbaar grew up in Southern California, playing for USC and attending games at Dodger Stadium. His mother is from Japan, so he played with Shohei Ohtani on Team Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

In Japan, fans come up with a song for each player and sing it happily and relentlessly. Nootbaar played in the major leagues, not in the Japanese league, so he was not sure he would get a song until he came up to bat.

“I don’t know how everybody in the stadium knew how to do it,” the St. Louis Cardinals outfielder said Wednesday at Angel Stadium. “Everybody was chanting it. It was pretty awesome.”

In Japan, baseball games are nine innings of songs and chants, drums and noise sticks. No excessively caffeinated in-game hosts. No scolding video commands to make some noise. The joyful sounds are organic, and they come from the fans.

Nootbaar attended Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s last game in Japan and absolutely raved about the energy in the stadium. Does he believe that kind of fan experience would translate to an American ballpark?

“I don’t see why not,” Nootbaar said. “It would probably have to start small, but it would be cool to integrate that.”

We’re starting small, and soon. A minor league team plans to launch in Irvine next year, and the entrepreneur behind it is pitching it as a way to provide fans with a taste of Asian baseball.

“We’re going to really lean into some of the innovation in fan experience that you’ve seen in Korea and Japan,” said Paul Freedman, co-founder of Innovation Baseball Partners.

“We’ll be the first, to our knowledge, to bring that as the fan experience of an American baseball team.”

The team would play in the Pioneer League, the independent league in which Freedman and his partners previously launched teams in Oakland and Long Beach. In Oakland, the ballpark is a pop-up. In Long Beach, the team plays at 70-year-old Blair Field.

Irvine hits the sweet spot: a glistening new community ballpark in as targeted a demographic as an Asian-themed team could want. In Irvine, which has about 320,000 residents, 44% of the population is Asian.

The defending champions of Korea’s league last year held spring training in Irvine. More Koreans live there than in any city in the United States besides New York or Los Angeles.

Read more:Shaikin: For Korea's baseball champions, it's time for spring training. In Irvine

Asian food will be available at the games, as will hot dogs.

On Tuesday, the Irvine City Council is scheduled to consider a five-year contract with Innovation Baseball Partners, under which the team could sell naming rights to the Great Park stadium and would split the revenue with the city 50-50. The agreement also provides a framework for potential expansion of the stadium from 1,300 to 3,000 seats.

Don Wakamatsu, who runs baseball operations for Freedman’s teams, was the first Asian-American manager in major league history and managed Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki with the Seattle Mariners.

Ichiro won’t be playing in Irvine — the Pioneer League limits players to no more than two years of professional experience — but Wakamatsu plans to tap into his network to ensure the team has an Asian manager or coach and a nucleus of Asian players.

Wakamatsu described Freedman’s model of minor league teams as “somewhere between conventional baseball and the Savannah Bananas” and believes the Asian style could take hold in Irvine.

“If we can truly capture some of that excitement and fan interaction,” Wakamatsu said, “I think we’ll get a deeper connection with the players.”

To help launch the Irvine team, Freedman tapped two Korean-Americans: Martin Kim, a onetime interpreter to former Dodgers pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu and international business development executive with the Dodgers and Major League Baseball; and Yugina Yun, an Orange County-raised sports executive that said she “begged” to join the team as its operations director.

“The element that we’d really like to bring forth is the idea that fans in the stands can impact a team,” Yun said. “We want them to feel like they’re a part of the culture from the ground up.

Read more:Shaikin: Why USC baseball plays its home games in Orange County this season

“We’re not manufacturing the experience. They are.”

If you watched the World Baseball Classic, or for that matter the World Cup, you don’t have to be sold on this. On the night before the World Cup final, Argentinian fans took over Times Square, singing and chanting and waving banners.

A sign outside this year’s WBC finals in Miami listed 16 “permissible instruments” (bongos, cowbells and tambourines welcome) and eight “prohibited instruments” (no airhorns, please). In Tijuana, where Dodgers icon Justin Turner is playing this season, airhorns buzz constantly, and games feature skits between innings.

“I think there is a lot of attention to how different cultures have taken America’s pastime and created experiences around it that are different than we have here,” Freedman said. “We’re excited to bring some of that back home.”

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Pirates fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

We’re trying something a little different with the Reacts posts in an effort to get as much interaction as possible, so we’re posting the question in The Feed and in a story, but the idea is still the same!

We covered the rumors on Oneil Cruz earlier, with the Pirates reportedly taking offers on the talented outfielder who is currently on the injured list. Supposedly, the Bucs are listening. We’ll see if anything comes of it, but as usual, we want to know your thoughts. Should the Pirates trade Oneil Cruz?

When we ran a similar poll at the beginning of the season, a majority of voters said yes. It’ll be interesting to see if anything has changed.

Thanks for voting. We’ll be back soon with the results.

Not like the Braves could really do worse against Michael King…

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind for Austin Riley — he was hitting sixth or seventh for a long while, but then moved up to cleanup against a southpaw on Monday, and stayed there against Walker Buehler on Tuesday. With a right-hander on the mound in Michael King, he’s dropping to fifth. Mike Yastrzemski starts again at DH, as the Braves implicitly vote that a righty-hitting Brewer Hicklen is currently more palatable than a lefty-swinging Dominic Smith, even against a righty. One funny part of all this is that Mauricio Dubon drops to seventh for the first time in nearly two months of play. So, this will be the 82nd different lineup the Braves will have used in 101 games.

As for the Padres, it’s a familiar cast of characters for Martin Perez to tackle. Jase Bowen hasn’t played much at all (50 PAs so far) and gives them another righty bat, albeit one that hasn’t hit in those 50 PAs.

Everyone in this Braves lineup other than Jim Jarvis and Brewer Hicklen have faced Michael King, which makes sense given that he dominated the Braves a few starts ago. Still, no one has double-digit PAs against him other than Yastrzemski. The combined line is a .280 wOBA and .328 xwOBA in 59 PAs; if the Braves can manage something akin to that xwOBA, it may not be enough to win, but it’d probably at least feel decent.

Because Martin Perez has been around forever, a lot of Padres have a decent tally of PAs against him. Manny Machado has crushed him in 20 PAs, while both Ty France and Xander Bogaerts have been various flavors of decent in around 20 PAs each. In aggregate, we’re talking 92 PAs of .334 wOBA / .344 xwOBA with every batter in the lineup having faced him at least twice. I’m not sure that’s really predictive of an issue given that Perez is Perez, though.

Texas Rangers lineup for July 22, 2026 against the Chicago White Sox: starting pitchers are Tyler Alexander for the Rangers and Anthony Kay for the White Sox.

Texas looks to win this series against Chicago this evening. Cal Quantrill is expected to come in behind Tyler Alexander, who is the opener. Josh Jung, who left yesterday’s game due to a calf issue, says he’s fine and available, but he’s getting the day off. Wyatt Langford is at DH again.

The lineup:

Langford — DH

Foscue — 2B

Burger — 1B

Nimmo — RF

Duran — 3B

Cauley — CF

Diaz — C

Osuna — LF

Lopez — SS

7:05 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are +104 underdogs.

A very explosive seventh inning accounted for all but two of the runs today including a 2-run homer from Salvador Perez to tie George Brett’s franchise record. Kansas City scored five in that inning to complete the sweep 5-4 this afternoon.

Both the Royals and the Giants were unable to do almost anything offensively for the first two thirds of this one. In fact, through the first 5 innings Seth Lugo had faced the minimum thanks to a double play and Landen Roupp had faced one over the minimum for a total number of 31 plate appearances. Then the first run was scored without a hit in the 6th inning. Lugo walked Willy Adames to open the inning and then hit Drew Gilbert in the thigh when he squared to bunt. Not the best way to start out an inning. The nine hitter, Drew Cavanaugh, sac bunted to move those two free base runners into scoring position. Back to the top of the lineup and Luis Arraez who hit a flyout deep enough into center to score a run and move Gilbert to third. That one run was all they would get in the 6th.

Lugo gave up two more in the 7th when the offensive torpor lifted for both teams. It again started with a walk, this time to Rafael Devers. He was still at first base with two outs when Jung Hoo Lee drilled a ball into the right field corner for an RBI triple. It was followed by another hard hit ball from Willy Adames that bounced over the left field wall for a ground rule double and another score. Seth finished the day with 7IP, 3H, 2BB, 5K, 3ER. It was not a bad day though it did look like he was set up to take the loss.

Down 3-0, the Royals had Vinnie Pasquantino leading off in the 7th, which turned into the first real drama of the day. Vinnie hit a ball down the first base line into the corner for a double, but his slide into second was a bit awkward and Adames thought he had tagged him out. I don’t think he tagged him while he was off base but that did not matter since the umpire ruled he was pushed off and therefore safe. This led to some arguing from Tony Vitello who was ejected when he could not challenge the call. Next up was Salvador Perez who decided to make a little history happen. Salvy up with Pasquantino on second, he launches home run number 317 just to the right of center and tied George Brett for the most in Royals history!! It also cut the lead down, now 3-2, and there were still no outs and Landen Roupp was removed to bring in Sam Hentges.

Michael Massey was up next in the 7th and bunted, which Hentges fielded and threw wide of first allowing Massey to end up at second. After Isaac Collins grounded out, he moved to third on a Starling Marte groundball through the right side that Lee got to quickly to stop Massey from scoring. The Giants decided to bring in Keaton Winn and the Royals decided to pinch hit with Nick Loftin rather than having Josh Rojas face him. It was a good decision has Loftin singled to center and tied the game 3-3. The inning was still rolling, now first and second with one down. After another out, Starling Marte stole third which did not matter since Carter Jensen walked the bases loaded. And then to round out the inning, Lane Thomas hit a ball between second and first to score two more and give the Royals their first lead of the day. The team batted around and got five in the 7th, time for the bullpen to see if they could secure the win.

Daniel Lynch came in and threw a clean 8th to get three outs closer to victory and bring up Salvy to lead off the bottom half of the inning with a chance to break the record. He did not and instead struck out on three pitches. The Royals also came up empty in the inning, and the Royals went to the field three outs away from victory and a sweep.

Steven Cruz came on for the ninth looking for his first career save. He has been great recently giving up just one run in his last 12 outings. Cruz took care of Heliot Ramos and Devers quickly to get one out away from ending it. Then came mighty Casey, Casey Schmitt that is, to the bat. Schmitt took a 99 MPH fastball into the visitor’s bullpen to make it 5-4, but Lee popped out and that was that. The Royals got the win and the sweep, Steven Cruz has one career save, and Salvador Perez is tied with George Brett. It was a nice way to end the home stand.

Next up for the boys in blue is a road trip to Detroit, Minnesota, and Colorado. They won’t be back in Kauffman until August 4th, so Salvy is likely going to break the record on the road.

Remember when this was supposed to be a hard-fought series between the two hottest teams in baseball? It sure looks like a one-sided letdown to me.

The O’s again failed to quash Boston’s historic winning streak, which tied a franchise-best 14 games in a 6-3 Red Sox victory. Dean Kremer bombed immediately, coughing up four runs in the first, and the Sox cruised into the record books from there.

In the opener of this series on Monday, the Orioles, even in defeat, gave the Red Sox a heck of a scare. Whenever the Sox took a lead, the O’s would deliver a counterpunch, going toe-to-toe with the league’s hottest team right down to the final out. Defensive shenanigans aside, the Orioles at least made the Red Sox sweat.

But this game? Not so much. The Red Sox were in total control from the very beginning, and despite the O’s actually out-hitting them, the Birds never really felt like they had a chance.

The Red Sox took command immediately, torching Dean Kremer for four runs and five hits in the bottom of the first. The first two knocks weren’t especially well hit — a bloop into center, a slow roller to second — but Boston hitters stung the ball more as the inning went on. Willson Contreras lashed a single to left to load the bases, and a Caleb Durbin hit up the middle plated two runs.

Had Kremer been able to limit the damage at 2-0, things might’ve felt less bleak. He could not. With two outs, Jarren Duran lashed a triple into the right-field corner, bringing home another pair to make it 4-0. Because of course the guy with a .594 OPS delivered the big hit. Whatever devil magic has gotten into the Red Sox apparently isn’t going away anytime soon.

We’ve seen games this year where the Orioles fell behind early but rallied for a late comeback. This was not one of those games. Red Sox starter Jake Bennett, buoyed by his ample run support, never allowed the Birds to get particularly close. The rookie southpaw, who carried a 2.35 ERA into this game, put some traffic on the bases but mostly kept the O’s off the board.

Through the first five innings, the only runs Bennett allowed were on a gift RBI double in the third — when center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela lost a routine Tyler O’Neill fly ball in the sun, allowing Pete Alonso to score — and a solo homer by Christian Encarnacion-Strand in the fifth. In any case, the Red Sox quickly got both runs back against Kremer, first on a Duran sac fly in the third and then a Rafaela homer in the fourth.

Kremer ended up working six innings and giving up six runs. I wrote in the game thread, “If Kremer hopes to cool down the red-hot Red Sox, he’ll need to work a little further into the game than he has recently.” Perhaps I should have specified that he needs to both work further into the game and actually pitch well. My bad. But I will give him credit for saving the bullpen. The O’s needed only one reliever, Anthony Nunez, to finish the game, which leaves all of their high-leverage guys available for the nightcap of the doubleheader. Of course, that will only matter if the O’s actually have a late-inning lead to protect.

As for this game, Bennett began to tire in the sixth, giving up doubles to Coby Mayo and the scorching hot Encarnacion-Strand to make it a 6-3 game, and he departed after 5.2 innings. Normally I’d say that chasing the starter in the sixth inning is a moral victory, but the Red Sox have the best bullpen in baseball, so it wasn’t even that.

Sure enough, Boston’s lockdown relief arms shut out the Orioles the rest of the way. Justin Slaten worked 1.1 scoreless innings, Garrett Whitlock cruised through a perfect eighth, and closer Aroldis Chapman worked around a walk and a single to nail down the save in the ninth. As shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng threw out Pete Alonso for the final out, the Fenway Park crowd of 35,039 erupted, celebrating the franchise record-tying 15th consecutive win. I look forward to the Red Sox still finding a way to ruin their own season eventually.

The Sox will aim to break their record in the nightcap, scheduled for 7:10 pm. It sure would be nice if the Orioles found a way not to be on the wrong side of history.

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With 16 homers to his credit through just 95 games played this season, Spencer Steer is well on his way to topping 20 homers in a season for the fourth consecutive season. All four of those seasons have come with the Cincinnati Reds, as did a 28 game cameo with them the season before that homer streak began.

That’s a fun way to look at some pretty consistent production from the guy. It’s also a testament to just how much time has elapsed since the last Cincinnati Reds rebuild, as Steer – who came from the Minnesota Twins in a deal that sent Tyler Mahle the other way – was one of the first big pieces of it.

That rebuild simply hasn’t worked out.

The 2025 Reds snuck into the expanded playoffs, lost both games they played, and finished the year having won just two more games than they lost – and that is the peak the Reds got from this whole large-scale rebuild. Now, they’re mired in last place again and going nowhere in 2026, and the time has come to ship off pieces that have good present value for, ideally, a handful more that look to be promising down the road.

Steer has hardly been the problem with the Reds during this time. As complementary pieces go, he’s been perfectly fine, specifically with a bat from the right-side that can crush lefties and an ability on defense to be at least passable just about everywhere they try to play him. The problem for the Reds, though, is that he’s already been plying his trade that way long enough to earn $4 million in his first arbitration year this year, and that’s only going to escalate for the two additional years of team control that he has.

So, the question is this – is now the time for the Reds to trade Steer?

As market conditions go, he’s pretty ripe for the picking right now. Teams like the Mariners, Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies are all desperate for right-handed hitting help that can crush lefties, and Steer owns a 1.062 OPS in 96 PA against southpaws this season. You’d be hard pressed to find that who’s who of buyers interested in exactly what Steer provides at precisely the same time again, and there simply aren’t a ton of other obvious guys out there who are availble right now with the same set of abilities.

The Reds would be forfeiting the two additional years of team control by moving him, something they may well like to think is still a window for them to put together a contender. With Elly De La Cruz presumably around for those years and Hunter Greene pairing with Chase Burns atop the rotation it’s not unfathomable, but so much else about the rest of the roster needs fixing that moving a valued piece like Steer, now, might well land them multiple pieces who can help for two years and beyond.

So, what say you? Is now the time to move Steer if you’re the Reds, knowing there’s a defined market for what he provides even though the Reds have him under control through 2028?

Let us know in the poll below!