Aug 26, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Nathan Church (27) celebrates after hitting a two run double against the Baltimore Orioles during the fifth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
As Leo Bernal continues to impress and grab a 2027 starting gig, the St. Louis Cardinals are seeing Nathan Church attempt to do the same. While center field did not have the same depth as catcher, Church is looking to take hold of the spot and give the Cardinals some clarity at a position of need.
St. Louis centerfielders entered the season ranked as the second-worst among the position since 2023 with a 74 wRC+ and much of their 3.5 total fWAR during that time being attributed to defense. The Cardinals attempted to solve the problem a few different ways, with three players seeing 100 or more games in center over that span. Of those three, Lars Nootbaar was the only one to be an above-average offensive player, with Victor Scott II and Michael Siani coming in each 35% below league average or worse with the bat.
Nathan Church is looking to give the Cardinals clarity in center field
Going into 2026, the Cardinals hoped that Victor Scott II’s offseason swing work would unleash his offensive potential and gave him the everyday job. The speedster continued to see much of the same issues with the bat and was demoted to Memphis in June after putting up a 55 wRC+ in over 60 games. During that time, Church was mixing in all around the outfield and used an impressive April to begin pushing Scott for innings in center field.
With Jordan Walker’s breakout in right and the attempt for Nootbaar to regain his value in left, Church as given the everyday job once Scott was sent to the minors. A miserable July caused a conversation about the team’s future in center field, but the tune has changed since the calendar flipped to August. Quickly going back to the three-year span from earlier, the Cardinals center fielders ranked dead last with a .613 OPS, so excuse any extensive praise of Church when comparing to the previous group.
In 37 games since August 1, Church has hit .292 and put up a .736 OPS to measure out to 6% above-league average. Even better than the contact, the rookie has trimmed his strikeout rate to just 10% in 127 plate appearances. In 128 at-bats from June to July, Church struck out 28 times compared to just 13 punchouts in 117 at-bats since. The power has not been there recently, but the lefty has 10 homers and 10 stolen bases on the campaign.
Church will likely need a platoon partner, but his defense is solid enough that he can stick in the lineup if he performs at his current wRC+.As mentioned, working in Church’s advantage is that the Cardinals do not have much to really push him for the major league starting gig. Scott has not started a game since being recalled and Chase Davis finally got some time in Memphis but continues to struggle with consistency. We brought up Josiah Ragsdale on the Thursday episode of Cardinals on My Time since he has laid waste to Double-A pitching, but expect Memphis to be his next step.
Assuming the Cardinals continue to use 2027 as a stepping stone season, expecting Chaim Bloom to put any significant financial investment into the outfield would be a pipe dream. What he could do, though, is go the Ramon Urias route and sign a veteran platoon partner to Church who understand their role and would even allow for Church to grab a few at-bats against lefties as well. If Urias had stayed healthy, I pictured him as the Dustin May of the offense and he would have been flipped for a reliever and that could be what happens in 2027 in center.
The Cardinals want to put a stop to the revolving door in center and while Church may be the answer for next year, he may just become a place holder for the next guy to step in.
ATLANTA, GA - JULY 30: Grant Holmes #66 of the Atlanta Braves walks to the mound in the first inning during the game against the Washington Nationals at Truist Park on July 30, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
A similar hand of fate that has inexplicably granted Battery Power’s Ivan near-exclusivity on Martín Pérez starts has linked me with Grant Holmes and Andrew Painter, who will face off for the third time this season (and the second time with the opportunity for the Braves to sweep the Phillies).
As the season draws to a close, it’s almost sad to see them go with the 9-3 season series record Atlanta currently holds (with a big emphasis on almost). I’m sure the Phils have been itching to book it to Hartsfield-Jackson since Friday night’s game ended, and the feeling only intensified after yesterday’s double-digit blowout.
No premature declarations here, but it would be pretty sweet to finish the job and add one more game to the Braves lead atop the NL East.
Grant Holmes (9-5, 3.46 ERA) and Andrew Painter (3-9, 5.71 ERA) will get the ball for their teams today as the Braves look to sweep and the Phillies look to salvage.
Their first matchup was on Sunday Night Baseball back on April 19. Holmes was pulled an out shy of qualifying for the win, going 4.2 innings with four hits and two earned runs via a two-run homer to Kyle Schwarber in the first inning. He walked one and struck out four. Painter gave up three earned runs to the Braves in his four innings of work and was given the loss as the Braves completed the sweep in Citizens Bank Park.
Six days later, Holmes got the win with a six-inning performance where he gave up three runs on seven hits. Painter also went a little deeper with 5.2 innings pitched, but was tagged for nine hits and five earned runs, including a homer by Ronald Acuña Jr. Most notably, this was the stretch where Michael Harris II was 1) the hottest player in baseball following the birth of his son Tripp 2) dealing with a pesky quad injury. He pinch-hit, gave the Braves the lead, and left, giving Andrew Painter his second L in a week and extending the Phillies’ losing streak to ten games.
The walk down memory lane is nice, but what’s different about this matchup now that it’s September?
The enigma that is Grant Holmes is riding a bit of a scoreless streak. He was the unexpected other half of a pitching duel in Philadelphia versus Jesús Luzardo last weekend, tossing six scoreless and only surrendering three hits and two walks while striking out six batters. It was scarier than the final line suggests, but he did his part in that 1-0 Braves loss. Rain shortened his outing in DC on September 2, but he was dealing and no-hitting the Nats through three.
Luis Arraez and Brandon Marsh are tied for the team lead in at-bats against Holmes with eleven and each has recorded a double off him. They’re followed closely by Kyle Schwarber, Bryson Stott, and Trea Turner with 10 ABs – Stott is the only one of the trio that doesn’t have a homer. Harper also has a homer and a 1.433 OPS against Holmes. Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs has also been successful in a small sample, going 2-for-3 with a 1.333 OPS.
Painter was optioned to Triple-A after struggling to the tune of a 13.11 ERA in the month of June. He’s been better since being recalled on July 31, but has had ups and downs. His shortest outing since being recalled was four innings on August 5, but he’ll pretty reliably go five or more. The hot-and-cold is exemplified in his two starts in September: he spun seven scoreless and only allowed two hits against Arizona, but got hit hard by Houston six days later: ten hits and five earned runs in five innings.
The Phillies are going to need Painter to give them some length given the heavy bullpen usage over the first two games of the series.
As mentioned earlier, one of Ronald’s two hits againsts Painter in six ABs is a homer. Harris II is a perfect 3-for-3 with a home run of his own. Ozzie Albies is 2-for-4 with a walk as the only other one with an OPS north of 1.000 at 1.100. But the only Braves regulars that have faced Painter and not yet recorded a hit are Drake Baldwin and Austin Riley.
After a fun and relatively stress-free game last night, let’s hope the Braves saved some runs for this afternoon’s finale. First pitch is at 1:35 pm ET.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Sunday, September 13, 1:35 p.m. ET
PHILADELPHIA, PA - JUNE 09: Luke Williams #30 of the Philadelphia Phillies reacts after hitting a walk-off two run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park on June 9, 2021 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Braves 2-1. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) | Getty Images
There is 1993, when the Phillies knocked the Braves down in six games, including hammering Greg Maddux around for six runs in the series finale. There is the NLDS’s in 2022 and 23, the height of which being when Bryce Harper stared Orlando Arcia down after a home run.
There are several moments to choose from but if you had to pick something that isn’t super noteworthy or wouldn’t get covered on a National TV broadcast, what would it be?
The Braves-Phillies rivalry is one of the best things going on in baseball right now. The Phillies have knocked the Braves around over their last two postseason matchups but the Braves have mostly dominated the division outside of 2024 and 25 but also have the more recent World Series title. It’s a rivalry without true bragging rights, which feels a little rare in today’s sporting landscape.
Anyway, my personal favorite weird moment is when Luke Williams hit a walk off home run against Will Smith, taking a hanging slider into the left field seats for the Phillies to take a game in June (on a very nice date). It was Williams’ first career home run, he did not do much with the Phillies the rest of the 2021 season, and Williams would go on to play 82 games with the Braves over the last four seasons.
Let us know what your answer is, especially if it’s older, because this Question of the Day is being written by a 23-year-old. If you remember something from before 2010, now is the time to share it.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA - SEPTEMBER 12: Relief pitcher Jacob Latz #67 of the Texas Rangers celebrates with Elias Díaz #35 after defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-2 in the MLB game at Chase Field on September 12, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Rangers 6, D-Backs 2
Well whaddya know…the Rangers won a game!
On the road, even!
The losing streak is over. Time to celebrate.
Adding to the warm and fuzzy vibes of the win is the return of Josh Jung to the starting lineup and Nathan Eovaldi to the mound, after each was activated from the injured list before the game.
Of course, because we must maintain equilibrium, Joc Pederson left the game after being hit in the wrist with a pitch, and Nicky Lopez was pulled due to a hamstring issue.
Pederson is the bigger potential loss there, though the x-rays indicated no fracture, which is a relief.
Lopez starting, meanwhile, meant Ezequiel Duran was in center field and Evan Carter was on the bench despite a righthander pitching for Arizona, presumably out of a desire to try to get more offense going.
When you’re sitting in favor of Nicky Lopez because Nicky Lopez is perceived as the better offensive options, that’s not great.
Kumar Rocker was solid in his four innings of work, though when he walked the first two batters in the fifth after the Rangers had just had a big inning to take a 6-1 lead, Skip Schumaker went with the quick hook, going to Robert Garcia with lefties due up.
Garcia retired all three batters and stranded the runners, allowing Eovaldi to come in for a clean inning in his return to action.
Eovaldi was fine, giving up a run in his first inning of work but ultimately going 2.2 innings, with Jacob Latz handling the final four outs.
You wouldn’t normally ask your closer to get four outs in a four run game, but, well… * waves in general direction of the rest of the bullpen *.
All the Rangers runs came in the fifth, when they sent ten men to the plate. A Wyatt Langford homer started things off, before the Rangers strung together some singles, a double, a hit by pitch, and an exciting Lopez sac bunt for a big inning.
Josh Jung had both a run and an RBI in the inning, part of a 2 for 4 night, which had to feel nice for him after missing so much time.
Honestly, it feels nice for me, too. A productive Josh Jung is a very good thing for this team.
Kumar Rocker hit 96.5 with his sinker, averaging 94.4 mph, and 97.3 with his fastball, averaging 95.1 mph. Robert Garcia’s fastball touched 95.5 mph. Nathan Eovaldi maxed out at 95.9 mph with his fastball. Jacob Latz reached 98.1 mph with his fastball.
Corey Seager had a 108.4 mph double. Elias Diaz had a 106.0 mph single and a 100.2 mph single. Ezequiel Duran had a 105.5 mph single. Wyatt Langford had a 105.5 mph home run and a 102.7 mph double. Evan Carter had a 104.4 mph single. Josh Jung had a 102.6 mph single and a 102.3 mph single. Brandon Nimmo had a 100.1 mph double.
The last game of the penultimate road series for the Rangers on Sunday. A win would be good.
ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 12: Junior Caminero #13 of the Tampa Bay Rays celebrates a single in the bottom of the first inning against the Houston Astros at Tropicana Field on September 12, 2026 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Parker S. Freedman/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The good feelings from the series opening win over the Mets were erased in a flash. The crosstown rivals stomped the Yankees in the Bronx, 12-2, as Gerrit Cole gave up another three home runs. It was a bad day for their ace to not have it with the Rays and Red Sox both winning to gain ground over and toward the Yankees, respectively.
Tampa Bay Rays (89-59) 3, Houston Astros (75-74) 2
The Rays’ second-year starter Ian Seymour logged one of the best starts of his young career, holding Houston to two runs on four hits and a walk in six innings. The converted reliever struck out ten, which is already his third outing of double-digit strikeouts in just his 14th start. He induced 19 whiffs on the game including five on the four-seamer despite the pitch averaging just 91 mph.
The first of those runs was to the second batter of the game, Isaac Paredes launching a solo shot to open the scoring early. The second didn’t come until the sixth inning, Yainer Diaz driving in Jose Altuve with an RBI single after the latter reached on a one-out double. At the time, that was the game-tying run, the Rays having scored two in the fifth on a two-run single by Richie Palacios after Victor Mesa Jr. and Chandler Simpson opened the frame with a pair of singles and advanced on a sac bunt.
The game winner came in the seventh, Liam Hicks leading off with a double and Mesa drawing a walk. A force out advanced Hicks to third where he’d score on a pinch-hit sac fly by Nick Madrigal. A Jonny DeLuca single kept the inning alive and put runners on the corners where they’d be stranded by Jorge Mateo. Walks by Jonathan Aranda, Ryan Vilade, and Mesa loaded the bases in the eighth, but Simpson could not bring home an insurance run that ended up going unneeded. With the win and Yankees loss, the Rays restore their four-game lead atop the AL East.
Other Games
Boston Red Sox (81-68) 5, Kansas City Royals (66-83) 1
Ranger Suarez provided one of his vintage starts for the Red Sox, holding the Royals to a run on four hits and no walks with eight strikeouts across seven sterling innings, lowering his ERA to 3.33 in 26 starts in his debut season with Boston. The lone damage came in the sixth, Carter Jensen getting the Royals on the board with a one-out solo homer.
As it happens, that homer tied the game, the Red Sox mustering just a run in the first five innings on an Adley Rutschman RBI single after Roman Anthony led off the frame with a single. The Red Sox turned it on from there, starting with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth, Mickey Gasper and Rutschman reaching on a pair of two-out singles before Wilyer Abreu drove both home with a two-run double. Caleb Durbin tacked on another with an RBI single after Nick Sogard led off the seventh with a double and Sogard added a final run with an RBI double to drive home Trevor Story after his own double in the eighth. With the win and Yankees loss, the Red Sox climb back within 4.5 games of second.
Chicago White Sox (76-72) 6, St. Louis Cardinals (73-76) 5
This was a topsy-turvy, back and forth affair with multiple lead changes. It wasn’t the most cleanly pitched contest by either side, both teams opting for bullpen games and combining to use 13 pitchers overall. The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead scoring three in the second off White Sox trade deadline acquisition Luis Castillo on a two-run double by Masyn Winn and a sac fly from José Fermín.
The two sides then traded runs in the third, Colson Montgomery’s walk with the bases loaded getting cancelled out by an RBI double from Nathan Church in the bottom half. Chicago then rallied to score three in the fifth to knot the scores at four apiece, Munetaka Murakami drawing a bases loaded walk, Randal Grichuk grounding into a run scoring double play, and Tristan Peters adding an RBI single.
By this point both teams had loaded the bases twice in the span of two innings without fully cashing in, a trend which would continue into the final innings. Indeed, St. Louis grabbed a late one-run lead on a Leo Bernal homer to lead off the eighth, the Cardinals then loading the bases before Jordan Hicks entered in relief to strand them loaded. This proved the turning point in the game, Grichuk winning it in the top of the tenth with a two-run blast.
The Twins did all of their scoring in the third, pushing across four in the frame. Emmanuel Rodriguez got things started with a booming solo shot, followed by three straight singles from Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee, and Kody Clemens. Royce Lewis added an RBI single and back-to-back hit-by-pitches first loaded the bases and then forced in the fourth run. It was enough to fend off the Guardians, Travis Bazzana opening the scoring with an RBI single in the second and Steven Kwan drawing Cleveland within one with an RBI single following Brayan Rocchio’s RBI groundout in the fifth. It was a costly loss for Cleveland paired with Chicago’s late win, dropping them back a game-and-a-half out of first.
Toronto Blue Jays (74-75) 7, Baltimore Orioles (72-77) 3
Kyle Bradish has been getting crushed dating back to the five runs he gave up to the Yankees at the end of August, giving up another five runs on eight hits in just three innings against Toronto. Alejandro Kirk had the big day at the plate going 2-for-4 with a homer and three driven in. Brett Bateman also homered and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. added an RBI double while George Springer and Andrés Giménez both contributed multi-hit days. Pete Alonso provided the only real pop for the Orioles with a two-run homer in the seventh.
This game can really be boiled down to one inning, the Rangers scoring six in the fifth off Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt. Wyatt Langford led off with a homer, Jake Burger singled and advanced on a sac bunt, Elias Díaz singled, Joc Pederson got hit by a pitch, Josh Jung singled, Brandon Nimmo doubled, and Ezequiel Duran singled as part of the ten hits Pfaadt gave up on his start. A Pavin Smith RBI single and Corbin Carroll sac fly constituted all the scoring for the Diamondbacks.
Sep 12, 2026; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (12) celebrates with second baseman Marcus Semien (10) after defeating the New York Yankees 12-2 at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Meet the Mets
The Mets outslugged the Yankees in a 12-2 win in Yankee Stadium. Francisco Lindor got it started with a leadoff home run and then later delivered the exclamation point with a grand slam. Young Zac Thornton was impressive on the mound pitching seven solid innings and the Mets walked away with a good bounce back victory in the Subway Series.
Yankees ace Gerrit Cole had no explanation for his latest poor performance against the Mets.
Astros DH Yordan Álvarez and and Rays outfielder Chandler Simpson are two very different type of players, but are currently battling it out for the AL batting title.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - JULY 18: The Boston Red Sox grounds crew pulls out the rain tarp prior to a game between the Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park on July 18, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images) | Getty Images
UPDATE AGAIN: We have a start time: 4:55 PM.
UPDATE: Well, with less than 30 minutes before first pitch, the Sox have finally acknowledged meteorological science and announced an indefinite delay.
It’s going to be a waiting game today at Fenway Park as the Red Sox and Royals try to complete their final game against each other this season. Here’s what we can say with confidence:
It’s going to rain steadily throughout the morning and into much of the afternoon.
The rain should let up and stop late in the afternoon and into the early evening hours, creating a window to get the game in.
With just 13 games left in the season, MLB is going to want to get this in today, even if it means waiting a little while.
As a result, the Red Sox already announced yesterday evening that the scheduled start time has been pushed back 90 minutes from 1:35 to 3:05pm
The #RedSox have moved the start time of the game tomorrow, Sunday, September 13, against the Royals at Fenway from 1:35 p.m. to 3:05 p.m. pic.twitter.com/UDEVIMVSjH
However, that’s probably not far enough, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see additional delays.
Here’s a simulated radar from the HRRR model for 3:00pm today.
Things will likely be headed in the right direction by mid afternoon, but the back edge of the precipitation will probably take a couple more hours to fully clear Boston. Here’s a simulated map for around 5:00pm:
This is probably closer to the time they can pull the tarp off and get things ready for play, and once they do, conditions should remain playable through the evening.
So again, it’s going to be a waiting game. The Red Sox and Royals want to get this game in today, and conditions will improve late. However, until that time, we’re all just going to be watching the radar and waiting for things to clear.
MIAMI, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 12: Tyler Glasnow #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches against the Miami Marlins in the first inning of the game at loanDepot park on September 12, 2026 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Dodgers’ season-high eight game win streak came to a crashing halt on Saturday, as they fell to the Miami Marlins 4-3.
Saturday turned out to be a rough outing for right-hander Tyler Glasnow, who completed just four full innings of work through 91 pitches while getting charged for four earned runs, resulting in his first losing decision of the season. Although he struck out seven, Glasnow allowed four walks on the afternoon, the most he allowed in a start since April 29, where he gave up six walks also against Miami.
Glasnow at one point was able to retire the side in order in both the third and fourth innings before the wheels fell off, notes Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times. Despite the poor start, Glasnow said that his back— which kept him off the field for three months— feels good.
“I think it was just trying to move a little quicker and get my glove a little higher,” Glasnow said. “I was just ripping off everything. I kind of put a Band-Aid on it. Felt pretty good then it started to feel a little weird again.”
Glasnow said his back, which sidelined him for three and a half months earlier this season, “feels good.”
Dave Roberts spoke on his decision to pull Glasnow in the fifth inning for reliever Jack Dreyer, insisting on having the bullpen extinguish the fire that Glasnow created for Miami, per Perla Paredes of MLB.com.
“It was great [for him] coming back and competing like he did,” Roberts said. “I just thought for me, walking those first two hitters in that fifth inning was time to just pull the plug and get Jack [Dreyer] in there and try to limit damage.”
Freddie Freeman was back in the lineup on Saturday for his 37th birthday after missing the past two games due to right knee issues. Freeman noted that his injury has hampered his production on both sides of the field, and the team will manage his workload over the final two weeks of the regular season, per Jack Harris of the California Post.
“I was having trouble moving [on defense]. I didn’t have a front side anymore [in my swing],” Freeman said of the way the injury had initially impacted him. “It just got to the point where it wasn’t giving me the best opportunity to play like I want to.”
Moving forward, manager Dave Roberts said the club would continue “to manage” Freeman’s injury by trying to “pick spots to give him an off day here or there, because again, we’ve just got to make sure he’s at optimal health when we finish the season.”
Max Muncy followed up Mookie Betts’s first inning home run with one of his own, but that was all the Dodgers could amount on the scoreboard before a Hunter Feduccia RBI single in the ninth inning. Muncy spoke with Kirsten Watson of SportsNet LA following the loss to Miami, describing how the offense was unable to regain the spark they had to begin the game.
“They did a good job of mixing it up on us, and they executed some pitches. We didn’t do a great job ourselves of creating opportunities. That’s baseball.”
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 9: Christian Koss #50 of the San Francisco Giants hits a single against the St. Louis Cardinals at Oracle Park on September 9, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Suzanna Mitchell/San Francisco Giants/) | Getty Images
Good morning, baseball fans!
Another week of San Francisco Giants baseball comes to an end today, so it’s time to share our favorite highlights of the week.
I think it was a pretty easy decision this week. The Giants combined for a whopping six home runs in last Saturday’s 9-5 win over the New York Mets. Including two each from Rafael Devers and Christian Koss!
What was your favorite highlight of the week?
What time do the Giants play today?
The Giants wrap up this series against the San Diego Padres this afternoon at 4:20 p.m. PT.
DETROIT, MI - SEPTEMBER 12: Hunter Goodman #15 of the Colorado Rockies celebrates his three-run home run against the Detroit Tigers with Mickey Moniak #22 in the dugout during the third inning at Comerica Park on September 12, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Hunter Goodman has had an outstanding season. He has hit 38 home runs, which not only obliterated his old record (31) but also is 11 more than the next MLB catcher (Dillon Dingler, 27) and 15 more than the next NL catcher (Drake Baldwin, 23). And this, of course, also comes after Goodman spent 10 days on the IL with a shoulder injury in August.
This week, we asked if you thought Goodman would surpass the 40-homer mark. 63% of you believe he will — becoming the first Rockies player to do it since Nolan Arenadon in 2019.
There are 14 games left, and 10 of them are at Coors Field. Do you think Goodman will hit 40 before the end of the season? What do you think his final total will be?
It was not a great day for the Norfolk Tides. The offense managed just three hits. Bryan Ramos homered, Enrique Bradfield Jr. doubled, and Tavian Josenberger singled. As a team, they struck out fourteen times. Every player struck out at least once and Bradfield led the way with three.
Trey Gibson started and was not good. In 4.1 innings, Gibson was knocked around for 11 hits. He had runners on base in every inning. He battled through three innings with just one run allowed, but gave up three runs on a homer in the third and two more in the fifth after back-to-back doubles. His final run scored after he left the game.
Four relief pitchers finished the game for the Tides, including the rehabbing Ryan Helsley and Félix Bautista. Helsley threw 10 pitches in a perfect inning with one strikeout. Bautista wasn’t as successful. He faced five batters, gave up a home run, and walked a batter. He threw 17 pitches and only nine strikes.
Bob Uecker returns to the broadcast booth for the first time since his heart surgery before game against the Washington Nationals at Miller Park on Friday, July 23, 2010. Brewers24 Spt Sieu 2 | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Co
Bob Uecker was a man of many talents, although he would have denied it.
Uecker spent six years in the big leagues, even winning the 1964 World Series with the Cardinals. He became a regular on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, starred in Mr. Belvedere, appeared in countless commercials, and played perhaps the most famous fictional baseball broadcaster of all time in Major League.
And, of course, he spent more than half a century calling Brewers games.
“Ueck”, the new documentary about Uecker’s life, touches on all of it. Much of the first half-hour or so of “Ueck” will feel relatively familiar to Brewers fans, replete with some of the most iconic Uecker moments — Tonight Show clips, Miller Lite commercials, his Hall of Fame induction speech, even the time he got choked out by Andre the Giant on live TV.
Those stories are accompanied by newer footage recorded in the final years of Uecker’s life: 90-year-old Uecker pulling up to the stadium in his blacked-out Corvette, cracking jokes with Vinny Rottino in the broadcast booth, and sharing a (now less) private moment with Christian Yelich in the locker room.
The documentary moves back and forth between those two versions of Uecker, centering the story of his life within the context of his final years. We see him, and others, discuss his 2023 lung cancer diagnosis. We see him around the clubhouse with current Brewers players. We hear Robin Yount talk about arriving in Milwaukee as an 18-year-old and having Uecker take him under his wing.
All of that eventually leads to a scene in the Brewers’ locker room where Uecker quietly shares his diagnosis with Yelich. That scene — along with a couple of others — is where the documentary stops showing us “Mr. Baseball” and starts showing us the man underneath.
Another example comes after the Brewers are eliminated from the 2024 Wild Card Series — Uecker’s final broadcast, though nobody knew it yet. He signs off with what would become his last words on a Brewers broadcast — “That one had some sting on it” — and the camera stays on him.
Playoff baseball games are an ecosystem in and of themselves, teeming with energy and alive with movement. Amid the chaos, the throngs of fans rushing for the exits, and the visiting Mets celebrating, Ueck just sits there, quiet, still, staring off into space. Whether or not he knew for certain that it was over, watching it now, we do.
And yeah, I cried a little.
Only a couple of people had any sense that it might be his last game. One of them was Yelich, who — with tears in his eyes — explains that, with the benefit of hindsight, he knew it would be Uecker’s last call. After all his years with the Brewers, there was no storybook ending waiting for Uecker that night, no World Series championship or carefully planned farewell. At the time, nobody watching really knew they were hearing him call a baseball game for the final time.
And that hindsight, more than anything, is what makes the footage from the final years of his life so special to watch now. Brewers fans knew Uecker was getting older. We knew he had health problems. What we didn’t normally get to see was this version of him — away from the broadcast itself, the commercials, and the public appearances. We see him come straight to the ballpark from radiation therapy, unable to get out of his car without assistance and visibly ill in the booth, but then — as he always did — put on the headset and call a darn good baseball game.
Continuing to be Bob Uecker in his final years took an immense amount of strength, but he did it anyway. He could have easily taken the rest of the season off, but he didn’t. He wanted to be in the booth. He wanted to call Brewers games for as long as he could.
And maybe that’s why one line from earlier in the documentary stuck with me more than anything else.
Uecker had played major league baseball, become a television star, made movies, and become famous well beyond Wisconsin. Most people would probably consider any one of those things the accomplishment of a lifetime.
Uecker had other priorities.
“All that other stuff’s fun,” he says. “But I wanna come back here and do baseball.”
It’s easy to watch this documentary and be sad. Brewers fans are still mourning the loss of Uecker, one of the greatest announcers of all time, by all accounts a genuinely great human being, and a proud member of the Brewers organization.
But another thing the documentary makes clear is that Uecker’s impact survives him. In Yount’s words, he was “everybody’s best friend.” Whether you were a security guard or an MVP, he would stop, share a laugh with you, and then continue on with his day. That builds a culture, especially over more than 50 years.
When Uecker called his first Brewers game, in the second year of the franchise’s existence, they were an expansion team in a market that had already lost a major league franchise. As the documentary mentions, there was some doubt as to whether Milwaukee was a big enough city to keep a baseball team.
Uecker could have called Brewers games for five years, then applied to the Yankees, or gone and been an actor. But he didn’t. He loved Milwaukee, he loved the Brewers, and he built a community here — one that will survive without him.
The Cubs’ offense and Shota Imanaga just rolled over the Pirates on Friday, 12-2. Alex Bregman hit his 25th HR and his 30th double in his 3-for-4 day at the plate. Shota Imanaga was effective, allowing two runs (one on a CSPSHR*) on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts over six innings.
Bregman’s double was one of five in the game. Carson Kelly (2-for-3, two RBI), Nico Hoerner (2-for-5, RBI), Michael Busch (2-for-4, 3 RBI) and Pedro Ramirez (1-for-4, two runs scored) all had two baggers. Seiya Suzuki added a triple in his 3-for-5 total for the game. He also scored three runs.
There was another low-leverage, scoreless three innings by three relievers. It’s hard to rate these type of outings. Maybe the small bullpen wins will lead to a more confident group of relievers. We can hope, at least.
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Brian Sandalow (Chicago Sun-Times): Why the Cubs are hoping Edward Cabrera emulates Roki Sasaki in move to bullpen. “Cabrera was activated from the injured list Saturday and will pitch out of relief like Sasaki did last year, when his electric arm helped the Dodgers win the World Series despite disappointing as a starter.”
Jordan Bastian (MLB.com): Cabrera returns from IL ready to step up in new role out of Cubs’ ‘pen. “The Cubs do not know exactly how things are going to go for Edward Cabrera as he shifts into a relief role in a crucial part of the season and with postseason baseball on the horizon.”
A four times UK Blues Awards winner, UK Blues Hall Of Famer and Take Me To The River All Star. Singer, guitarist and songwriter making music with real gravitas, marking him as the new voice of British soul-blues. Scored successive no.1 albums on Radio charts with the IBBA and RMR. Influenced by the playing of Albert King and the vocals of OV Wright. New music with Hi Rhythm out summer 2026.
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The Detroit Tigers secured their second-straight series win on Saturday afternoon with an 11-7 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Comerica Park. Down 7-4 in the bottom of the eighth, the good guys ran off seven straight runs to prevail over their MLB basement-dwelling foes.
On Sunday, the Motor City Kitties look for their first four-game win streak as well as their first sweep since the start of August, when they swept the Athletics in Sacramento followed by a win against the Mariners in Seattle. That glorious stretch seems like forever ago as the 2026 schedule quickly wanes.
Getting the start in the series finale for the Ole English D is right-hander Jackson Jobe, who recovered from an ugly outing against the Guardians in Cleveland last time out. The 24-year-old gave his team five frames of two-run ball on four hits (one home run) and two walks while striking out seven, getting a no-decision in an eventual 3-2 loss in extras.
For the Rockies, fellow righty Gabriel Hughes will make his 11th start of the season in search of his first win. The 25-year-old has been sharp over his last two starts, putting up a 1.86 ERA and 1.96 FIP over 9 2/3 innings of work, allowing three runs (two earned) on eight hits and two walks while striking out 10 and hitting a batter, earning his seventh loss in the process.
Take a look at how the two match up as the Tigers go for the kill on Sunday afternoon.
Detroit Tigers (69-79) vs. Colorado Rockies (55-93)
Time (ET): 12:10 p.m. Place: Comerica Park, Detroit, Michigan SB Nation Site:Purple Row Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Game 149: RHP Jackson Jobe (1-2, 4.45 ERA) vs. RHP Gabriel Hughes (0-7, 5.81 ERA)
Curtis Pride stands on the field during a game between the Angels and the Seattle Mariners in August 2006. (Stephen Dunn / Getty Images)
The 11th in an occasional seriesof profiles on Southern California athletes who have flourished in their post-playing careers.
Curtis Pride was born deaf, and when he started playing baseball he was doing it mainly for himself. But the closer he got to becoming the first deaf major leaguer in nearly half a century, the more he realized he was actually playing for a far bigger audience.
“Growing up, I never really had a role model,” he said. “I wanted to be that person because I wanted to tell people that no matter what kind of disability you have, we should not let those disabilities stop us from pursuing our golden dream.”
Yet seven years into what seemed like endless minor league purgatory, Pride’s dream had become a nightmare. He was stuck in double A, where he batted .227 and struck out 110 times in fewer than 400 at-bats. His longtime girlfriend had just broken up with him, his teammates were mocking him behind his back and, at 23, he had crossed the line from prospect to liability.
With a finance degree from William & Mary, he could surely do better things with his life.
So he put away his bat and glove and took a temporary job with a special education program at John F. Kennedy High, his old school, in Maryland, where he quickly learned quitting wasn’t an option. When the students, all of whom had disabilities, found out what he did during the summer, they threw his own words back in his face and insisted he go back. How could he urge them to chase their ambitions if he was willing to give up on his own?
“It kind of hit me. What kind of message would I be sending to them if I walked away from baseball?” he said. “So I thought maybe I should give it another try and see what happens.”
Less than a year later, Pride was standing at second base in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, doffing his batting helmet to a long-standing ovation he couldn’t hear after doubling in his second big-league at-bat.
“I shed a tear,” said Jim Tracy, Pride’s manager at double-A Harrisburg, where he began his comeback. “That was, for me, a sense of accomplishment for a young man that was driven his whole life to eventually be standing there.
“It was a moving moment.”
“He wanted to be an inspiration,” added Mike Scioscia, Pride’s final big-league manager with the Angels. “He is an inspiration.”
Pride would go on to play 15 more seasons and wouldn’t take the uniform off again until he was forced to, teaching thousands of children (and almost as many adults) that success is possible if you refuse to quit.
“I’ve had so many parents come up to me [and say] ‘wow, you have really given them hope,’” Pride said two days into September, which is Deaf Awareness Month. “To provide that inspiration, that’s more important to me than being a Hall of Famer.”
Curtis Pride poses for a portrait during Angels spring training in February 2005. (Jed Jacobsohn / Getty Images)
Pride first learned he could be that inspiration when, as a 17-year-old struggling through his first season of rookie ball in Kingsport, Tenn., he opened a letter from a blind elementary-school student named Amanda. She had always wanted to play baseball, but until she heard about Pride she felt there was no place in the game for a girl with a disability.
The same summer Pride made his professional debut, Amanda set aside her hesitations and joined a tee-ball league.
After his first major league game with the Expos, the trickle of fan mail became a deluge, with hundreds of letters arriving annually from children dealing with everything from hearing and vision loss to debilitating illnesses and injury. Pride answered every one.
“For parents of children with hearing differences, one of the hardest worries to carry is not knowing how to support your own child, or whether they’ll be able to communicate with the people who love them most,” said Cathleen Mathes, president and CEO of the John Tracy Center, a private, nonprofit education center in Los Angeles for infants and preschool children with hearing loss. “Curtis’ story proves that hearing loss puts no barriers on what can be achieved.”
“He’s a shining light,” added Scioscia, who managed Pride for three seasons in Anaheim. “He’s got so much to offer — not only the baseball world, but just [to] people who strive for their goals.”
One of Pride’s goals now is to stay busy.
“I play pickleball every morning. And golf,” said Pride who, 18 years after his last game, isn’t far off his playing weight of 205 pounds.
Pride and his wife Lisa, a former TV journalist, have two children, a daughter Noelle, 22, who is a senior at Ohio State, and son Colten, 19, a sophomore at Central Florida. Noelle has bilateral cochlear implants while Colten has hearing loss in his left ear; both children appeared alongside Judd Hirsch and Amy Smart in the 2024 coming-of-age movie “Rally Caps,” and are active in their father’s advocacy for deaf and hard-of-hearing youth.
For Pride, who has lived most of his life on someone else’s schedule, the free time of retirement in South Florida can be both a luxury and a burden. After his final season as a player with the independent Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in 2008, Pride was hired as the head coach at Gallaudet University, a school for deaf students, taking the team from an 8-23-1 record in his first season to 27 wins in 2014. He was also appointed to the President’s Council of Fitness, Sports and Nutrition under Barack Obama, represented the U.S. at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London and worked as an ambassador for inclusion with Major League Baseball.
But Gallaudet dropped baseball two years ago and MLB scaled back much of its inclusion programming two months into the second Trump administration, so now Pride, 57, coaches part-time with the Louisville Slugger Warriors, an amputee and limb-difference baseball team made up primarily of former and current military members. Pride shares his story in motivational speeches and through his book, “I Felt the Cheers: The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride” (co-written with Doug Ward, the former publications manager for the Angels).
“I never really thought [I was] different from everyone else,” Pride said on a videoconference call, where he fielded questions by reading lips and real-time captions that scroll across his computer screen. “I never knew what hearing is like so there was never an adjustment for me to make.”
In clinical terms, Pride is profoundly deaf. While others with hearing disorders can perceive certain low-frequency vibrations as sound, for Pride almost everything is completely inaudible without powerful hearing aids. And even then loud environmental vibrations such as a low-flying airplane or a heavy truck passing are no more than faintly perceived.
Pride was 6 months old when doctors told his father John, who served eight presidents in a long government career during which he helped investigate the civil rights noncompliance of Southern states, and mother Sallie, a nurse, their son was deaf. After meeting with doctors, audiologists, speech therapists and the families of other deaf children, Pride’s parents made a series of decisions that would change the course of his life.
Pride could learn to communicate orally, through cued speech or in American Sign Language, they were told. Sign language, or the use of hand signals that correspond to separate words or phrases, is the most common choice in the deaf community while oral communication, which involves reading lips and learning to pronounce words you’ve never heard, is by far the most difficult. Yet that was also the option that presented the best chance for Pride to achieve his maximum potential.
So the Prides chose that one, moving to Silver Spring, Md., and enrolling their son in top educational programs for deaf children. At age 6 they also signed him up to play tee ball with the other neighborhood kids, teaching him his deafness may be an obstacle to a normal life but it was not a wall that separated him from one.
“My mom, she explained to me that it was something that I was born with and that I had to make the most of my situation,” recalled Pride, who speaks clearly but with atypical speech patterns since he cannot hear his own voice and adjust his pronunciations.
“[It] should not keep me from fulfilling my dreams and goals.”
And those dreams and goals weren’t confined to the baseball diamond. As a senior at Kennedy High, where he was the only hard-of hearing student, Pride was arguably one of the greatest prep athletes in the country, batting .509 and making the all-county and all-state teams in basketball while becoming the first player at his school to score more than 1,000 career points.
Soccer, however, was his best sport. Pride was a Parade high school All-American, the national player of the year and was ranked by Kick!, a UK soccer magazine for kids, as one of the top 15 youth players in the world after scoring two of the three U.S. goals in the FIFA U16 world championships in China in 1985.
Pride was also an honor student academically, earning a 3.6 GPA despite not being able to hear any of his teachers. So after the New York Mets selected him in the 10th round of the 1986 amateur draft — ahead of future teammate Tim Salmon and future All-Stars Steve Finley, Chuck Knoblauch and John Olerud — his father insisted the Mets allow Pride to attend William & Mary on a basketball scholarship while playing minor league baseball in the summer, an arrangement that may have slowed his progress as an outfielder but one that allowed him to earn a bachelor’s degree in finance in four years.
Pride often refers to his deafness as a “hearing difference” rather than an impairment or handicap. He wasn’t disabled, he said, he was differently-abled — and in some ways, he thought his deafness actually helped him on the field.
“I relied on my other senses,” he said. “My other senses have been enhanced because of my lack of hearing.”
He had no problem communicating with coaches and teammates as long as they stood in front of him, where he could read their lips. And while his teammates could be distracted by raucous crowds and heckling fans, Pride heard nothing but silence. Some outfielders could be fooled playing balls off the crack of the bat, but Pride got good jumps by watching the swing. He also learned to avoid pickoffs by watching for the shadows of opponents sneaking up behind him.
“He had an innate sense of positioning and really relied on that sense,” said Scioscia, who never saw Pride make an error in parts of three seasons with the Angels. “He worked hard at his craft.”
The first deaf player to excel in the major leagues was Billy “Dummy” Hoy, an outfielder who debuted for the Washington Nationals in 1888. He would go on to play 14 years, batting .288, averaging more than 100 runs scored a season and stealing 596 bases before retiring as the all-time leader in career chances and putouts by an outfielder.
Both records have long-since been eclipsed, but Hoy’s influence lives on in the visual signals umpires use to indicate strikes at the plate and out and safe calls.
At the start of Hoy’s career, those calls were typically made verbally, meaning Hoy would have to turn around and look at the umpire to find out if a pitch was a ball or strike. Opposing pitchers would take advantage of that by quick-pitching Hoy, who eventually asked umpires to indicate strikes with a raise of their right hands.
By 1906, four years after Hoy’s final game, that practice was widespread and by 1908 umpires were required to use visible hand signals alongside verbal calls so players, fielders and fans could understand rulings.
At least six deaf men have played in the majors since Hoy, but Pride is just the second to do so in the last 112 years. And only Hoy appeared in more big-league games than Pride.
“Most of the deaf kids who follow sports know who he is,” Joe Strasser, Pride’s longtime agent, said of his client. “To a deaf kid he is like Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan. And when he talks to them, the kids realize that hey, this guy knows what I’m going through because he went through it himself.”
Pride, like Hoy, also left his own unique mark on the game by inspiring the now-ubiquitous practice of players and coaches covering their mouths during meetings at the mound.
Curtis Pride, right, celebrates with Roger Clemens after driving in the winning run during a game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in July 2003. (Bill Kostroun / Associated Press)
Although there is some disagreement over exactly how that ritual started, Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux insists it began after Pride was called up by the Expos in September 1993. Nine days later Maddux started for the Braves in Montreal and took the mound remembering something his brother Mike, also a major league pitcher, had told him about Pride.
“He always reads lips, then tells the coach or the manager exactly what they said,” Maddux later recounted to the Athletic. “When I started [covering my mouth], I started doing it because of Curtis Pride.”
That wasn’t Pride’s only contribution to the teams he played for. A slashing and slender left-handed hitter with blinding speed, Pride hit .300 or better six times, stole 20 or more bases seven times and reached double digits in homers in six seasons, mostly in the minors.
“His physical abilities were flooring,” said Tracy, who managed Pride during his best minor-league season, when he hit .356 with 15 homers and 21 steals in 50 games for Harrisburg. “I think he was driven to prove that hey, not only am I a player, I’m a major league player.”
That last part didn’t go so well. Because while Pride did everything every big-league team asked of him — homering in his first games for both the Red Sox and Yankees — it was never enough to make him an everyday player. Yet Pride wouldn’t quit, Strasser said, urging his agent to call around each winter hoping to get one club interested.
“I would say ‘Curtis, you understand that if you retire now, you would make more money working for an investment banking firm,’” Strasser said. “He wanted to keep playing as long as he could because he saw what kind of effect he would have on kids. That’s why he kept doing it.”
Pride hit .444 with three extra-base hits and five RBIs in nine at-bats as a September call-up for the Expos in 1993. But he got just 63 more big-league at-bats for Montreal before being let go two years later.
After signing with Detroit, he played a career-high 95 games for the Tigers in 1996, hitting .300 with 10 homers and 11 stolen bases — only one teammate with at least 300 plate appearances did better — then batted .252 in 70 games for Atlanta two years later, only to be released both times.
“If a team had given me a chance to be an everyday player, I have no doubt in my mind that I’d have done well,” said Pride, who spent parts of 11 seasons in the majors, hitting .250 in 421 games for six teams. “It’s one of those unfortunate situations where I [was] a pinch-hitter or the fourth or fifth outfielder off the bench.”
As for why he couldn’t stick, Pride has a theory, one that goes back to the second of two short trials with the Red Sox. In the 13th inning of a midseason game in Toronto, the Blue Jays’ Chris Woodward drove a ball to the alley in left-center that center fielder Carl Everett misplayed after he saw Pride closing in from his right.
The mistake cost Boston the game and even though Everett took ownership of the error, many incorrectly blamed Pride’s inability to hear his teammate calling for the ball. Boston released Pride less than two weeks later.
“That sort of reinforced his fear that he had to be twice as good to get half the chance,” said Ward, the co-author of Pride’s biography. “He just didn’t have the margin for error that maybe some of the other players had.”
Pride would play just 108 more games in the majors, making an encore with the Expos and spending a week with the Yankees before finishing with three short stays with the Angels; at 37, he walked and scored a run in his final plate appearance on the last day of the 2006 season.
He would play one more season in the minors and another in the independent Atlantic League before retiring after 23 pro seasons and 1,853 professional games, his debt to the special education students at John F. Kennedy High more than paid off and his legacy as an inspiration secure.
