Category: MLB

Peter Lambert (W, 6-4) almost wasn’t a part of this team. He’s been their second best starting pitcher despite not making the team out of Spring Training.

Lambert was nails for the Astros yet again, in a terrific 7 inning performance in which he allowed just one run on 2 hits, he struck out 5 and did not walk a batter. He threw 60 of his 89 pitches for strikes, leading the Houston Astros (35-41) to a series-clinching 4-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers (30-44) at Daikin Park.

Jeremy Pena got the Astros on the board first in the bottom of the third with a 2-out solo shot to left for his 4th HR of the season, giving Houston a 1-0 lead.

The Astros would tack on 2 more in the bottom of the 5th. After Christian Vazquez singled to lead off the inning, Yordan Alvarez drilled a one-out RBI double to drive Vazquez home. After Christian Walker lined out, the Tigers replaced SP Casey Mize (L, 2-4) with Kyle Finnegan.

Isaac Paredes greeted Finnegan with an RBI double to score Alvarez, and make it a 3-0 lead for Houston.

In the 6th, the Astros loaded the bases for Jeremy Pena, who delivered an RBI single scoring Joey Loperfido to increase the lead to 4-0.

In the top of the 7th, the Tigers would finally get to Lambert, as Kerry Carpenter snuck a fly ball into the Crawford Boxes for his 10th HR of the season, cutting the lead to 4-1. That HR would not have been a HR in any other park except Daikin.

In the 9th, Josh Hader (S, 4) was brought in to close the game out. Hader was working on back-to-back days for the first time since coming off the IL. He allowed a solo HR to Kevin McGonigle that went all of 3 feet further than Carpenter’s Crawford Boxes special, and followed it up by striking out the next 3 batters on 14 pitches with 7 swings and misses. It was the first run Hader has allowed this season.

With the win, the Astros are back to 6 games under .500. They are currently 4 games behind the Seattle Mariners, who play later this evening. They are 2.5 games behind the Athletics for the final Wild Card spot in the American League. The Athletics also play later this evening.

NOTES:

Cristian Javier is expected to make one more rehab start before being activated. Javier pitched for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys last night, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits (including a HR) in 3.1 IP. He walked 1 and struck out 6.

Javier worked the first two innings primarily with a fastball at 92-93, hitting 94 once. In the last two innings of his appearance, his velocity deteriorated to 91-92.

Mike Burrows will have his next turn through the rotation skipped, and will be available out of the bullpen. He is ready to piggyback on Tatsuya Imai on his next turn in the rotation which is scheduled for Friday.

Astros probables for the upcoming series with the Cleveland Guardians that runs Fri-Sun:

Fri: Tatsuya Imai (3-3, 6.43) vs Tanner Bibee (2-7, 3.96)

Sat: Spencer Arrighetti (7-2, 2.57) vs Joey Cantillo (5-3, 4.38)

Sun: Kai-Wei Teng (3-6, 4.31) vs Slade Cecconi (3-5, 4.60)

Game Summary

Kyle Leahy battled spotty command in the early going. He ends up working through to a quality start with 6 IP, 3 runs allowed with 7 strikeouts. But the Cardinal offense musters but a single run on a ground, losing multiple runners on the bases in a game where there weren’t a lot of base runners. The Cardinals were outhit 14-6 on the day.

Pre-game notes

• Here we are again on a Wednesday. A day game. Getaway day. You probably don’t want to hear their record on such days.
• The Cardinals go for a home sweep over the San Diego Padres. Perhaps you would not like to hear their record on “sweep day”.
• It is also their fourth crack at vaulting to the mark of ten games over .500. You definitely don’t want to hear their record on days when they are 9 games over .500.
• So, with the odds stacked against them, Kyle Leahy toes the rubber and leads the team to battle against…TBA? Turns out to be Bradley Rodriguez as the opener. I expect him to be followed by Griffin Canning, who if I recall mesmerized in San Diego twice through the line-up and then blew up the third time through. That was a different line-up, though.
• Speaking of line-ups, today will be a typical L-R-L lineup.
• For those that track such things, Fangraphs now projects the Cardinals to win 84 games, which would be the result of a projection that has them playing slightly less than .500 baseball the rest of the way.
• Marinaccio is unavailable today. He pitched last night and takes his suspension day. Without him and Miller, the Padres bullpen seems short.

The first innings

The Padres came out swinging against Leahy. A fine stop by Blaze saved a bigger inning, but a Leahy walk complicated the inning and ultimately scored on a SacFly following an advancing single. I hate walks! Leahy navigates the first three innings, working around 3 hits and a walk, with a lot of hanging pitches that a poor offense could do little with. He did accumulate 4 K’s in the early going.

In the Cardinals’ first, Herrera nearly decapitated the pitcher with a hit, then made two base running mistakes to remove the advantage. The first mistake was he started and stopped when trying to steal second, but got away with it when the C threw the ball into CF. Herrera was unable to advance (never make the third out at third base is a good rule of thumb). But, then he promptly ran into the 3rd out at third when Walker hit a nubber to the third baseman, who had to do nothing other than tag the incoming Herrera.

Griffin Canning indeed replaced Rodriguez in the second, and he mesmerized again. Through four innings, the Cardinals mustered 3 singles and a walk, none in the same inning.

The middle innings

More hits and more hanging pitches combined to add to the Padres score in the fourth inning. A double play builds Leady a pathway out of the inning, though. A single on a 0-2 count and a misplay by Church in CF scores a third Padre run in the fifth. It was scored a double, but it was a poor read and route taken.

Blaze Jordan gets his first MLB walk as he leads off the fifth. Church follows that with a single. Wetherholt advances them with an infield out. The Cardinals lose a runner at the plate on Herrera’s infield out. Burleson gets a nice 2-out RBI single, extending his hitting streak to 17 games. After five innings the score is 3-1 Padres.

Leahy ends up with a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth. Overall, he battles through six innings, giving up 7 hits, 1 walk and 3 runs. He recorded 7 K’s as well. 81 pitches. His command appeared to improve as he got deeper into the game.

In the sixth, Winn walks and gets picked off. Been difficult to get any offensive continuity today.

The decisive and bitter end

Svanson effectively pitches the seventh and 1 out into the eighth. Bruihl then comes in for the left-right matchups. Sure enough, he gets the RH hitter and loses the LH hitters. Hey, wait a minute….

Roycroft comes in for Bruihl. HBP on the first hitter but retires the next of a fly to left to end the 8th inning.

Very little occurred offensively in the later third. An eighth inning HBP on Herrera (again!) is quickly erased by a GIDP.

The Padres tack on runs in the ninth against Roycroft. In a surprising turn of events, Roycroft had an inning spin out of control. A single followed by another single off the wall by Tatis Jr. who was thrown out (by Walker) trying to make it a double but still garners the RBI, followed by another single and a long home run by Merrill. Then a walk. Roycroft was out on an island with no one warming. Then another walk. Then came an error on a routine grounder by Winn to continue the misery. A strikeout to the ninth batter of the inning brings a merciful end.

Nootbaar leads off the ninth with a single, but Winn quickly erases him with a GIDP. Pages ends the game with a ground out. Padres win 6-1. Back to 8 games over .500.

Post-Game Notes

• Check out Today on the Farm – Wednesday 6.17 for updates on MiLB action.
• The Cardinals head to Kansas City for that crucial cross-state, inter-league rivalry match-up with the Royals. Games are Thursday, Friday and Sunday with an odd Saturday off to accommodate a soccer game.
• It’s funny how a bullpen can go from over-used to well-rested and rusty in such a short span, huh? And back again…
• Have you noticed the trend of openers against the Cardinals? That seems to me to be a league-wide recognition of the top 3-4 hitters in the line-up. Teams find value in trying to neutralize them the first time through that line-up. Seems like the investment is a scripted one inning appearance with the chosen matchups and payoff is you give the starter a shot to go two times through the line-up and get deep enough into the game to avoid the chase/bridge guys and go straight to the leverage/closer guys.
• I think we need an update on Blaze Jordan’s defensive prowess at third base. He has been better than advertised.

The San Francisco Giants’ 7-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday was a story of two games. No, literally. A story of two games, played on two days. Two games that the Giants won, resulting in — stay with me — one game that the Giants won.

It began on Tuesday night when, against the the judgement of nearly everyone at the park, the game was started despite pouring rain in Atlanta. The rain seemed to benefit the hitters on each side, as they jumped on pitches that were lacking in their usual spin. Luis Arráez led off the game with a double, and moved to third when Bryce Eldridge singled. After an unproductive out by Matt Chapman, Rafael Devers loaded the bases with a walk, before a Jung Hoo Lee sacrifice fly put the first run on the board. In all, Grant Holmes threw 28 pitches in the first inning, and looked entirely uncomfortable in the storm, though his long, soaked hair looked fairly majestic.

In the bottom half of the inning, it became abundantly clear that the struggles in the top half had been due to the weather, as Adrian Houser immediately suffered the same fate. The first batter he faced, Drake Baldwin, absolutely annihilated the baseball, hitting one of the longest home runs in the Majors this year (473 feet!!!), despite it being his first at-bat in roughly a month.

A single, a walk (by former Giant Dominic Smith), and another single (by former Giant Mauricio Dubón) later, and Atlanta had not just equalized, but taken a 2-1 lead. Houser, like Holmes, had thrown 28 pitches in the first inning, and looked equally uncomfortable in the downpour.

Yet the game continued into the second inning, where the wetness continued to favor the hitters. Casey Schmitt led off with a single, and Drew Gilbert followed with a walk. Following an atrocious at-bat by Daniel Susac (a three-pitch strikeout that featured two failed bunts, and a whiff at a pitch in a different area code), Arráez loaded the bases with a Sandovalian golfed single. In one of the best at-bats of the season, Eldridge tied the game by working a walk, which featured a tremendous ABS challenge. Chapman, having failed in his prior attempt, exacted revenge this time around, successfully achieving a sacrifice fly (though sacrifice liner is a more accurate term, with Dubón making a brilliant catch in center to rob Chapman of a hit).

With that, the Giants not only led, but won the first game 3-2.

That was all the baseball that would be played, though we didn’t know it for a while. The rain had stopped, and the game had not entered a delay, but the baseball was over. The grounds crew took the field in an attempt to restore the soaked infield, and they stayed there for a good 45 minutes. At no point did the game ever officially enter a rain delay, to the confusion of the fans at Truist Park and the ire of the broadcasters and reporters in attendance. Finally, roughly an hour and a half after play had been paused (but not delayed!), it was announced that the game had been postponed, and would resume on Wednesday before the scheduled game.

In doing so, a gift was handed to Robbie Ray, a player in dire need of some help. Because the game was postponed after it began, the lineups were already set … which means Atlanta’s lineup was full of left-handed hitters to combat Houser. Ray, who doesn’t get to face left-handed hitters all that often, found the tonic he was searching for in Atlanta’s arrangement.

He struck out his former teammate Mike Yastrzemski to begin the second half of the first game, and then struck out Ha-Seong Kim, en route to a three-up, three-down first/second inning. He handled the third easily, giving up just a walk. In the fourth, he set down the side in order on just 12 pitches, finishing things off with another strikeout of Yastrzemski. He opened the fifth with back-to-back strikeouts, before issuing a walk that he easily worked around. Only eight pitches were required for a dominant sixth.

Ray was cruising, and he was cruising for the first time in a while. It was a delight to see. He resembled the Ray of early last year, who was both dominant and unfazed. In the seventh, he gave up a leadoff double, but looked completely unbothered, never letting the runner reach third while striking out Yastrzemski for a third time, and also the ever-dangerous Baldwin.

After opening the eighth with an out, Ray ceded a single to Matt Olson. With 94 pitches thrown, Tony Vitello deemed that a good enough effort for Ray, who left the mound having thrown 6.1 scoreless frames, while allowing just four baserunners and striking out eight.

It was a performance worth admiring, even if such performances are a little bittersweet right now. Ray finding his form doesn’t really help the Giants this year, given the hole they’ve dug; right now his success correlates mostly with the return the Giants will get when they presumably trade him next month.

So until then: enjoy the strikeouts, and enjoy the grunts.

While San Francisco opted to move up their scheduled Wednesday starter (Carson Whisenhunt has been recalled from AAA Sacramento to pitch the evening game), Atlanta chose to keep their rotation in order, and handle Wednesday’s resumption with a bullpen game.

For a while, it worked. James Karinchak handled the third inning, and set down the Giants in order. Dylan Dodd came on for the fourth, and did the same. With a pair of lefties due up in the fifth, the southpaw Dodd was given a second inning, and that’s where the Braves’ plan went awry. He retired Eldridge and Chapman easily, but Devers had different plans. Despite generally struggling against lefties this year, Devers jumped on a 1-1 sinker at the top of the zone, and comfortably cleared the fence with it.

What came next was even more surprising: on the very next pitch (a nearly identical pitch, I might add), Lee followed Devers and did the exact same thing.

It was a stunning sequence of events, and the context from the broadcast only made it more stunning: it was the first time since Barry Bonds and A.J. Pierzynski, a whole 22 years ago, that a pair of Giants lefties had gone back-to-back off of a left-hander. What a beautiful thing.

The Giants continued to rely on the long ball, getting their next run in the eighth inning, when Willy Adames took Anthony Molina deep for an awe-inspiring 424-foot solo bomb. By the time the ninth inning rolled around, not only did the Giants have a cozy lead, but they had scored all of their resumption runs on homers.

That would finally change in the ninth with a rally befitting the start of the game on Tuesday: Arráez and Eldridge hit back-to-back singles, with the former scoring on a Chapman ground ball, locking in the final score at 7-2.

Meanwhile, the bullpen held strong enough. Dylan Smith took over when Ray departed with one on and one out in the eighth, and quickly got out of the inning, though he did give up a single. Smith stayed in for the ninth and impressively struck out Riley, as he looked to be cooking.

It came to a screeching halt after that, though, when he gave up a single to Yastrzemski, before issuing a four-pitch walk to Kim, who currently boasts an .089 batting average. Even with the five-run cushion, and even with another nine innings to cover in a few hours, Vitello decided to take no chances, and brought in his recently-appointed closer, Caleb Kilian.

I’ve had my quips with Vitello opting to name Kilian the closer, but one of my favorite things is when the Giants make me look dumb. And Kilian made me look dumb. With two on and the top of the lineup stepping up, Kilian pounded the strike zone with a flurry of unhittable pitches, striking out Baldwin and Eli White to end the game.

It might have taken a few days, but the Giants won, and even managed to look great doing it.

As expected, the Atlanta Braves are likely going to take things very cautiously with Ronald Acuña Jr. and his most recent Grade 1 hamstring. Walt Weiss spoke with the media following Wednesday afternoon’s tough loss against the Giants and he was asked about Acuña’s status at the moment. If you were thinking that Acuña would be making a quick return, you can probably put a pause to that speculation right now.

Weiss said Acuña is a “long way” from returning. Because the hamstring strain is in the same spot, the Braves will be more cautious than they were when Acuña missed nearly three weeks with the previous strain

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 17, 2026

As frustrating as this is to see, it’s likely the right decision. While it’s hard to predict injuries, this is the safer route than rushing to get him back out there. Despite the current rough patch that the Braves have hit, they’re still comfortably ahead in the NL East and 20 games over .500 so they can afford to give Acuña as much time as he needs to get fully healthy again. It’s what I suggested in earlier posts about him and it’ll likely be the path that the Braves take when it comes to getting theri star outfielder right again.

So yeah, it’s a bummer but it’s likely the right path for the Braves to take. I’d imagine that we’ll probably see Acuña back in action after the All-Star break, maybe a little bit sooner if he’s further along in his recovery thane expected. We’re definitely not going to be seeing him in the field for the rest of June and it’s looking likely that he’ll be out for most of July as well. Again, it’s rough but it’s the sensible course of action.

Meanwhile, we also got some news on who the 27th man will be for the second game of today’s doubleheader. It’ll be Jair Camargo, who will likely serve as the emergency catcher while Sandy León likely starts tonight’s game as the catcher. If Drake Baldwin does play, it’ll likely be as the DH.

Cookie Carrasco and catcher Jair Camargo (27th man) will join the Braves roster for the second game. Camargo provides length in the pen. Camargo’s presence will allow Baldwin to stay in the DH spot if something happens to Leon in the second game

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 17, 2026

Also, Carlos Carrasco is back with the big league Braves. Welcome back, Cookie — hopefully the DFA cycle continues to work out for both parties since it’s almost certain that it’ll be happening again at some point in the near future. For now, the Braves have covered themselves depth-wise for tonight’s night cap and hopefully the decisions will help to yield results for Atlanta as they attempt to get this series evened up.

As another Cleveland outfielder hits the IL, Kahlil Watson gets his shot at a big league debut.

Chase DeLauter and his broken rib will spend some time recovering, joining José Ramírez and Angel Martinez on the IL. These are severe blows to the Guardians’ offense. The team needs to be aggressive about trying any and all solutions, which is why I’d like to see plenty of Cooper Ingle and Ralphy Velazquez in left field and even some Juan Brito and Angel Genao at third base in Columbus. In addition to those moves, giving Kahlil Watson a look makes sense.

Watson is a 23 year-old left-handed hitter whom the Guardians acquired from the Marlins in 2023 for Josh Bell. Watson put up a 123 wRC+ (.382 wOBA, .321 xwOBA) in Columbus, with a 28/14.6 K/BB%. He has a 26.8% out-of-zone swing rate and a 12.6% swinging strike rate. He has a 72% contact rate and an 82.6% in-zone contact rate. The concerns with Watson are, indeed, if he will chase and whiff too much to be an effective ML player. He has made his noise mostly at Columbus with an OPS over 1.000 at that hitter’s park, but he does still have a .762 OPS on the road. His game will be to play good defense, take enough walks to earn himself a few pitches to hit, and to do maximum damage on those pitches when he sees them; we need that .236 ISO to show up in some form or another to compensate for what is sure to be a healthy amount of strikeouts. Watson is no sure thing as a prospect, but he has shown enough to earn himself a look as a strong-side platoon outfielder on a team in dire need of help roaming the grass.

Reports are mixed on his defense. He has looked mostly competent in center field, but is not the defender there that Petey Halpin is, for sure. He also has had pretty extreme splits vs. LHP, but that’s why we have Stuart Fairchild, folks! Watson is known to be a passionate and competitive ballplayer which can provide a needed push for a locker room that has to be a little down right now.

Welcome to the big leagues, Kahlil! We are desperate for a spark on offense, and everyone will be hoping you can provide it.

The finale and rubber-match of a three-game series in Houston, in which the Tigers blew a golden opportunity for a series victory on Tuesday night, saw them struggle against a solid-but-not-great starting pitcher and lose the game by a 4-2 score.

Casey Mize, who just returned from the Injured List with a right adductor strain in the groin (ouch), made his tenth start of the season for the Tigers. He was put on the shelf in late May and was recativated today; he spent a couple of weeks on the IL a month earlier for the same affliction. When he’s been healthy this season he’s been fantastic, with a WHIP under 1.00 and only a pair of home runs given up. Stop pulling that groin, young man! (Take that any way you like.)

Facing Mize and the Detroiters for the Astros was Peter Lambert, who’s in his first year in Houston. He’d been up-and-down with the Rockies since 2019, so a return to (almost) sea level was probably a welcome development. His season so far has been pretty solid, but like his colleagues on the ‘Stros, he walks too many batters. He seems to have genuinely found a home in Houston’s rotation, though, which is nice for him.

Both pitchers were in control early on; through two innings each team only had one baserunner, although the Astros had some hard contact with only a harmless double to show for it. What wasn’t so harmless was Jeremy Peña’s fourth home run of the year with two out in the third to put Houston up 1-0.

The Astros loaded the bases with two out in the bottom of the fourth and Jake Meyers at the plate, but Mize made Meyers fly out harmlessly to centre and the quandary was quelled. Lambert, however, was rolling: through five innings he only gave up a Dillon Dingler single and had Tiger hitters flummoxed with a half-dozen different pitches. It’s like that thing you hear about occasionally, the “paradox of infinite choice.” Remember when there were three television channels? You found a show to watch. Looking at an endless scroll of streaming-movie choices? Impossible to find anything you like. Something like that.

Houston extended its lead in the fifth with a single-productive groundout-double combination to go up 2-0. Plenty of long at-bats, plus it being Mize’s first start back from being on the IL, shortened Mize’s start; he exited after the second out in the fifth in favour of Kyle Finnegan with a runner on second. The change did not do the Tigers good, as Finnegan surrendered an RBI double to Isaac Paredes to put the lead at 3-0.

Houston went up 4-0 in the sixth after a double, a pair of walks and a single; it would’ve been 5-0 but Meyers was thrown out at home on the relay from Kerry Carpenter.

And since baseball kinda works this way, Carpenter smacked a solo home run in the top of the seventh to narrow the gap to 4-1.

Leading off the ninth, Kevin McGonigle hit his own solo home run off tough lefty Josh Hader for a 4-2 score. Nice to see the Kid taking a tough lefty oppo to stay hot. But from there Hader slammed the door on the Tigers and that was the end of the proceedings.

Final score: Astros 4, Tigers 2

Injury News and Such

• In case you missed it, Gleyber Torres is back on the IL with his oblique, something that flared up with a swing-and-miss on Monday night. My goodness, what a season it’s been for him.
• In other, weirder injury news, Chris McCosky of the Detroit News reported that Wenceel Pérez was injured after Tuesday night’s game after a plyo band — basically a bungee cord used for workouts — hit him in the face. No word on whether it was his own or someone else’s. We thought nothing could surprise us anymore this season, but the creativity on display is unmatched.
• Colt Keith missed Tuesday’s game due to wrist discomfort, but he was back in the lineup today.
• On this day in 1579, Francis Drake claimed modern-day California for England. The most recent episode of Map Men, in its hilariously British-humour kind of way, tries to answer the question of who circumnavigated the Earth first, Drake or Ferdinand Magellan (spoiler: neither, probably). Both those voyages sounded pretty miserable.

It was a semi-getaway day for the Phillies and Marlins and after getting embarrassed a bit by the Phillies the previous two games, Miami came out swinging. On the day, they battered Andrew Painter and the rest of the Phillies’ pitching staff, putting up twelve runs on thirteen hits. It started early

First-inning Stowers POWER 💪 pic.twitter.com/2CDgA9h7ha

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) June 17, 2026

and often

Owen Caissie smacks the second @Marlins homer in as many innings! pic.twitter.com/BqtgIs5m5F

— MLB (@MLB) June 17, 2026

and truly kept pouring it on.

Kyle Stowers understands it now pic.twitter.com/Y4wsGRMUqj

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) June 17, 2026

The Phillies got a good day from Trea Turner (three hits on the day), Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott (two hits each) on offense, but it just wasn’t enough. Even after Painter departed, the bullpen also had a rough day. Tanner Banks allowed four runs in his inning of work, Orion Kerkering was a bit shaky and it got so bad, Garrett Stubbs was called upon to pitch in the ninth even though he was catching start the day.

But the big story was and is Andrew Painter.

Andrew Painter still has a viable path to being an MLB starter, especially with his willingness to mix pitches lately.

But it starts with finding a fastball he can execute at a high level with some degree of nastiness. Whether it's a Sinker or Cut Fastball, he needs it. pic.twitter.com/8vxNoGy3Ga

— Pitch Profiler (@pitchprofiler) June 17, 2026

Folks, it’s not good right now.

The fastball is just complete garbage right now, his command is sketchy at best and to be as kind as possible, his spot on the team is just nowhere near as guaranteed as it was when the season started.

The Phillies have bullpen action in the second inning as Andrew Painter once again is getting hit around. The rookie's spot in the rotation is tenuous.

— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) June 17, 2026

You can almost feel the lack of confidence exuding off Painter when he’s on the mound, the lack of trust in his fastball something of an issue. Yes it takes players varying amounts of time to recover from a Tommy John surgery like Painter had, but he simply doesn’t look as though he belongs at the major league level.

Even it means making a move to Bryse Wilson or Alan Rangel, Andrew Painter needs to be sent down to Lehigh Valley, for the betterment of him as a pitcher and the betterment of the team.

They cannot continue to run him out there, back to back, with a struggling Aaron Nola as well. It’s taxing on the bullpen and taxing on the team as well. There has to be some consideration for the group as a whole and whether or not he puts them in the position to win. Right now, he does not.

The Phillies will be fine as a whole, but Andrew Painter? He’s bad right now.

He needs to be demoted.

The Red Sox dropped the series opener against the Blue Jays following a series win over the weekend against the Texas Rangers. Boston sits at 6-15 against the American League East entering play Wednesday as Jake Bennett returns to the mound for his fourth big-league start. The left-hander allowed four earned runs in five innings against the Tampa Bay Rays his last time out. 

Here’s who the Red Sox send to the plate behind him Wednesday night. 

Tonight's starting lineup. pic.twitter.com/R6rl8KIK7q

— Red Sox (@RedSox) June 17, 2026

The Blue Jays counter with Bradydon Fisher in place of Max Scherzer, who gave up three runs in 3 ⅔ innings against the Red Sox Triple-A affiliate in Worcester in a recent rehab outing before returning to the injured list. 

Let's keep it going 👊 #BlueJays50pic.twitter.com/XijNjlVuF3

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) June 17, 2026

ATLANTA — It didn’t just cross Robbie Ray’s mind when he had made it through his fifth no-hit inning Wednesday afternoon. This exact scenario came up in his pregame meeting to go over his plan of attack.

“It’s funny,” Ray said. “We were talking about before the game going no-hit through eight innings, [and] like you don’t get a no-hitter.”

It didn’t quite get that far, but there was at least a moment where it looked like the decision for Ray to pick up where things left off in the bottom of the second inning of the Giants’ suspended series opener against the Braves could cost him a place in the history books.

Entering in relief to begin the bottom of the second, Ray tossed 6 1/3 shutout innings, struck out eight and didn’t surrender a hit until the seventh inning of a 7-2 win in the first game of a split doubleheader.

“The offense certainly did a good job of swinging the bat, but I felt like they were feeding off the vibe of how he was throwing,” manager Tony Vitello said. “Regardless of whatever’s true, he kind of led the way and got us in a great spot at the end of the game.”

It looked like the Giants would make it through the first game of the doubleheader having only used one reliever in addition to their two starters. Dylan Smith, however, issued a pair of walks with one out in the ninth, prompting Vitello to use his closer, Caleb Kilian, to protect a five-run lead.

“Not looking to mess around,” Vitello said. “Just looking to win whenever we have an opportunity.”

It had been a little over 18 hours since Adrian Houser threw his last pitch of the bottom of the first when Ray started the bottom of the second with a grunt that bounced off the walls of a more than half-empty Truist Park shortly after 2 p.m.

Only a small sliver of the 31,266 who bought tickets for Tuesday night’s rain-shortened contest returned the following afternoon. The teams played an inning and half followed by a 1 hour, 52 minute delay before the series opener was suspended shortly before 10 p.m. local time.

“When I was warming up before the game, there was no fans,” Ray said. “And then when I went to the bullpen, they opened the gates and there were like 10 fans. So it definitely felt empty.”

The sparse crowd witnessed Ray flip the Giants’ fortunes on the mound, after Houser was tagged for two runs in a rainy first inning Tuesday night, while their bats picked up right where they left off.

After pouncing on Grant Holmes the night before, the Giants were already up 3-2 and solo shots from Rafael Devers, Jung Hoo Lee and Willy Adames made sure Ray pitched with a comfortable lead.

Devers started things off with his 10th of the season in the fifth, and Lee went back-to-back with two outs to make it 5-2. Adames added on another insurance run in the eighth with his 12th of the season.

What it means

Thanks to Ray’s strong effort, the Giants are able to enter the second game of the doubleheader and look ahead to the rest of their road trip without too many concerns about their pitching depth.

They won’t however, have a fresh closer after Vitello called on Kilian in a non-save situation. That said, the manager didn’t rule out using Kilian if they have a late lead. He only used eight pitches.

Who’s hot

Despite allowing five runs in his last start, Ray looked to be moving in the right direction with his longest outing in more than a month and only his second this season without issuing a walk.

Ray took that progress and built on it against the Braves.

“He rolls through those first three innings, really, close to a 15-pitch average, and it’s a little different than what he’s had,” Vitello said. “He looked like he was excited to throw today and he was efficient right out of the shoot.”

The only base runners Atlanta mustered against Ray until Austin Riley led off the seventh with a double were two lone walks, neither of which made it past first base.

Leaning on his sinker over his four-seamer, Ray’s eight strikeouts were his most in 15 times toeing the rubber this season and his 6 ⅓ innings of relief represented his second-longest outing of the year — his first time completing six or more innings since May 8.

“Everything’s kind of coming together,” Ray said. “Everything felt good in my last one. It just felt like the results weren’t there. I was just able to build on that today. The two-seam has been a good pitch for me lately. It’s something I’m still developing and still getting comfort for.”

Ray, who has traditionally relied on his four-seamer at the top of the strike zone, turned to his two-seamer 29 times in 94 pitches, more than any other offering. He had been throwing it only about 5% of the time.

“The game’s kind of changed a little bit,” Ray said, with the Automated Ball-Strike System. “You used to be able to exploit the top of the zone, especially when you’re ahead. I feel like the two-seam is a pitch that allows you to get some early outs. That’s kind of what I’ve been able to use it for.”

---

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

Who’s not

It had only been a little more than a week since Adames’ last home run, but it might as well have been a year. Between his two-homer game in the Giants’ opening game at Wrigley Field and his solo shot in the eighth, Adames had been 1-for-31 with 11 strikeouts.

Likewise, Devers’ home run was also only his second of June while batting an equally poor .161 (9-for-56). Neither player is exactly making it easier to move their hefty contracts as the Giants reportedly listen to offers for their highly paid, underperforming stars.

Up next

A short break, and then the second game of the double header. Both teams can add a 27th player, and the Giants used their roster spot on Carson Whisenhunt, who will make his first start of the season in the nightcap against the Braves’ regularly scheduled starter, JR Ritchie.

Whisenhunt was named the Pacific Coast League’s pitcher of the month for May and is 5-2 with a 3.65 ERA in 14 games (13 starts) — 2.76 dating back to his last start of April.

Royals put together a complete game to avoid the sweep in the nation’s capital. The 6-2 final score was a product of a mostly solid all-around game for a team that needed it. Things got off to a very quick start when Carter Jensen led off the game with the first solo home run of the day.

Three more solo home runs came in the early parts of the game for the Royals. John Rave hit his first big-league homer of the year in the 2nd inning. In the 3rd they took it up a notch with two more solo blasts when Lane Thomas and Michael Massey went back-to-back to give Kansas City of 4-0 lead.

Every Royal in the starting lineup reached base today and only Nick Loftin failed to get a hit. It really was Carter Jensen’s day though. After opening the game with a blast, he proceeded to get on base four more times and ended the day 4-4 with a walk. His OPS went up 43 points in one game. Hopefully this means he is back on track after struggling a lot in May and early June. Rave deserves the honorable mention here too with a home run and a triple.

The final two runs for the Royals were started by Rave opening up the 6th inning with a triple because James Wood misplayed a liner off the wall and he fell down in doing so. Nick Loftin moved him to third on a ball hit back to the pitcher and then Isaac Collins bunted him home. It counted as a sac bunt though there were no outs on the play when Luis Garcia Jr. decided to go home. He almost made a nice play, watch below.

This was easily Luinder Avila’s best start of his young career. Walks have been a major problem for him, and he finally avoided the free passes this afternoon except for the very last batter that he faced. His final line was 5 2/3 IP, 3H, 1BB, 1ER, 5K dropping his BB/9 from 6.19 to 5.5 on the year. He barely gave up any hard contact. It was a great day for Avila. The one run was on a double given up by Matt Strahm who continued his recent struggles. He faced two batters, gave up two hits and run scored on each. He was bailed out on the second one when Dylan Crews tried to stretch a single into a double and was thrown out on a very close play that the Nationals challenged and lost.

Lucas Erceg looked better than I have seen him look in at least a month. He took the 7th inning and knocked them down one two three. One ball was hit hard but it was on the ground. The third batter, Jose Tena, struck out on a slider. John Schreiber took care of the 8th and turned it over to Alex Lange still 6-2. Lange did plunk the first batter and then move him to second on a passed ball that Jensen just missed. Second base is all the further Curtis Mead would go as Lange took care of the next three.

The three game road trip is over and the boys will be playing baseball in Kauffman for a weird series with the Cardinals starting tomorrow night. They play Thursday, Friday, and Sunday with an almost unheard-of off day on a Saturday thanks to the World Cup. It will be Ecuador and Curacao that get the parking lot that day.

The current rough patch for the Atlanta Braves continued on for another game as they simply got outclassed by the San Francisco Giants over the course of a rain-delayed/suspended contest in Cobb County.

This game started on Tuesday night in wet conditions, which ended up being a double-edged sword for the Braves in particular. Grant Holmes got the ball to start things off and the Giants proceeded to jump all over him while he was busy trying to get his bearings about him in the terrible conditions. San Francisco had already put a run on the board before loading up the bases with just one out. Fortunately, Holmes was able to get out of that situation without giving up much damage but he walked in a run and gave up a sacrifice fly in the second inning so by the time the game was suspended, the Braves were down 3-2.

Those two runs came in the first inning, which was easily the high point of the entire game for the Braves. Drake Baldwin led off and the very first swing he took ended up with a ball that landed deep in Chattahoochee Falls in center field for a leadoff dinger that tied the game up. Michael Harris II singled immediately afterwards and he was brought in by Mauricio Dubón for what was then the go-ahead run. Unfortunately, Harris tweaked his back while crossing home plate and so he ended up leaving the game after that since Walt Weiss didn’t want to chance anything due to the conditions.

After the Braves finished off that frame, we ended up getting an unofficial rain delay that turned into a game suspension. The game was restarted at 2:00 p.m ET on Wednesday and from that point forward, the Giants dominated the Braves. Despite struggling for most of 2026 so far, Robbie Ray was seemingly back in Cy Young form as he delivered his best start since April 7 when he held the Phillies scoreless for nearly seven innings. Ray went 6.1 innings in the restart and gave up two hits and two walks while striking out eight batters and giving up zero runs. Atlanta’s lineup had no answers for Ray on this particular afternoon in what was one of the low points for the Braves in terms of plate performance.

Things weren’t much better on the mound. Dylan Dodd came on in the fourth inning and while he was able to get through his first five batters without giving up a hit, it all came to a screeching halt in the fifth inning which is when Rafael Devers and Jung Hoo Lee hit back-to-back dingers to make it a three-run lead for San Francisco.

The two teams traded scoreless innings in the sixth and the seventh before the Giants got back onto the scoreboard with another home run — this time, Willy Adames cracked his 12th dinger of the season to push the lead to 6-2. For reference’s sake, the Giants had hit the fourth-fewest amount of homers in the National League so far this season but they went deep three times in this one.

Anthony Molina gave up the homer to Adames and then he surrendered another run in the ninth inning to make it a 7-2 game after two singles from Luis Arraez and Bryce Eldridge culminated in a productive out from Matt Chapman plating a run.

Once it was Atlanta’s turn in the ninth, they did get a single from Mike Yastrzemski and Ha-Seong Kim got on base (!!!) with a four-pitch walk that prompted the Giants to have to go deeper into their bullpen with Caleb Kilian getting the nod to finish things off. Kilian proceeded to strike out the final two batters and that was that!

This was just a comedy of errors from the words “Play Ball” for the Braves. Well, “errors” is probably a bad word to use here since Atlanta actually played some solid defense in this one but in all other facets, this was not a good performance from the Braves at all. Hopefully things will be better later on tonight with JR Ritchie taking the mound and they’ll also have their offering of high-leverage bullpen guys available for the nightcap. Still, the offense has got to wake up because that was just very dull to watch them get dominated by present-day Robbie Ray and the rest of San Francisco’s pitching staff.

They go again at 7:15 p.m. ET, as scheduled.

The New York Yankees’ greatness can be measured and appreciated in many different stats; one of them is that at some point or another, they’ve played at least one playoff series against 26 of the other 29 active teams in Major League Baseball, eye-popping even for a team with 27 World Series titles and 41 pennants to its name. Surprisingly, not all three exceptions are members of the National League—that is the case for the Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals, but the third one resides on the South Side of Chicago, a 1901 founding member of the American League that predates the Yankees themselves. One might excuse expansion teams such as the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays for not featuring in this contingent, but for the Chicago White Sox to be a part of this select group, that’s just strange.

Beginning a weeklong homestand this week, the Yankees host the White Sox in a rare battle—particularly over the last few seasons—of these two teams both fighting for division leads. Just as the Yankees overtook the Rays, the White Sox fell to even with the less surprising Cleveland Guardians. While it is far too early to be certain of the Pale Hose sustaining this level of play as a legitimate threat to make the postseason, their current presence in the hunt and upcoming matchup with the Yankees provide the ideal segue to discuss the history, or in this case, lack thereof, between them.

For well over a century, the Yankees’ success has been as close to a constant as any team could get, and thus, the reality of assessing never-before-seen playoff matchups involving them leaves the responsibility entirely on the other side. It’s the Rockies’ fault for only making one Fall Classic in their history, and the same applies to the Nationals. And even then, the Yankees could’ve easily faced one of the two with better luck in the 2007 or particularly the 2019 postseason. If we want to include the Montreal Expos as part of the Nats’ history, they fell just two runs short of a showdown with New York in 1981 after losing to the Dodgers in a winner-take-all NLCS Game 5.

Around for far longer than those two aforementioned NL clubs, the White Sox playoff history is equally lacking given its context, with Chicago having played in a total of 11 postseasons dating back to 1901. It is a staggeringly low total for a team with 125 years of history. Out of those 11 appearances, four came prior to the existence of divisional play and postseason series in each league, with Chicago advancing straight to the Fall Classic in 1906, 1917, 1919, and 1959.

Here we’ll note that if said divisional play had been introduced earlier in the ’50s or ’60s, perhaps the Yanks and White Sox would have gone head-to-head in an American League Championship Series. Modern fans might not realize that those White Sox were quite competitive with the dynastic Yankees between 1952-64, but finished third six times and runner-up on four occasions. The Yankees were also third during Chicago’s lone pennant-winning season in 1959.

So we move on to 1969 and the beginning of the ALCS. The Yankees have never shared a division with the White Sox, who were quickly sorted into the AL West prior to the existence of the AL Central. A playoff matchup was possible! But they were rarely contenders at the same time. The White Sox won two AL West crowns, in 1983 and 1993. Both came during the Yankees’ 14-year playoff drought. Another White Sox division title in 2008 arrived in conjunction with New York’s run of 13 consecutive postseason appearances coming to a close.

We’re left with only four occasions in MLB history when both these teams made the playoffs.

Through one of the postseason’s most impressive runs back in 2005—when they won the championship, losing only one game across three playoff series—the White Sox nearly had the Yankees in their way, but New York faltered in the do-or-die Game 5 of the ALDS against the Angels. Whatever one’s feelings are regarding that 2005 Yankees team, they probably could’ve offered the Sox a bigger challenge than the Angels, who lost four straight after winning Game 1, seeing the elder Vladimir Guerrero wrap up that series with a 1-for-20 line. There is also an alternative path: if the Red Sox had finished ahead of the Yankees in the standings (both teams finished with the same record and the Yanks won the division on an off-field tiebreaker) the Yankees would’ve been the ones matching up with the Pale Hose in the ALDS.

While the Yankees didn’t get a chance to run into the eventual champs in 2005, the opposite was the case a few years prior in 2000. The American League’s top seed in that season, the White Sox were swept by the Mariners, a turn of events that handed the Yankees home-field advantage in that year’s ALCS against the Alex Rodriguez-led Seattle club. Despite having the worst record, the Yankees got the edge as division winners on their way to winning the Fall Classic.

Decades later, while the 2021 campaign didn’t present a particularly close possibility given that the Yankees lost the Wild Card Game to the Red Sox and the White Sox were on the other end of the bracket, scheduled for an ALDS matchup against the powerhouse Astros (one that they lost in a gentleman’s sweep), the 2020 campaign tells a more interesting story.

The way seeding worked in the shortened 2020 campaign with each of the three divisions guaranteed at least two playoff teams, meant that even though Cleveland and Chicago finished with the same record, Cleveland, which had the tiebreaker, secured the fourth seed, while the ChiSox had the seventh seed. Had the White Sox finished ahead of Cleveland, they would’ve played the five-seed Yankees, who actually had a worse record than both. Instead, Chicago lost to Oakland in the first round, and that was that.

To this day, the 2020 through 2021 period is the only one in which both the Yankees and White Sox made the playoffs simultaneously in consecutive years. Unfortunately for Chicago, things spiraled miserably for their window of contention after that, and 2026 is the first year with signs of life since then.

Lastly, with the possibility of a lockout looming, we’d be remiss not to touch on what transpired in the 1994 campaign, another one with unfulfilled potential for a Yankees-White Sox playoff series. When play stopped, the Yankees and White Sox were the top two teams in the American League. Cleveland was chasing Chicago, only a game back, but even if they managed to pass the White Sox, it would only turn a likely ALCS matchup into a certain ALDS one. While the Yankees went on to dominate the second half of the ’90s, the White Sox didn’t get back to the postseason until 2000, leading to several lean years wasting the prime of Frank Thomas.

This won’t go on forever. Remember, the Yankees had never played the Blue Jays in the postseason until last year either. The deck of cards metaphorically representing an MLB season will eventually deal us a Yankees/White Sox playoff matchup — it could even happen in 2026 if both sides keep up the good work. May the Ron Hassey Bowl one day come to pass.

Max Scherzer is scratched from today’s game with back spasms, which turns tonight’s game into a bullpen day. We were hoping we were finished with those.

Whoops, a change, Max has been put on the IL, so he’s gone for 15 days at least. Chad Dallas is back on the roster and apparently will be active tonight, so they knew about Max’s back for at least a few hours. I’m wondering if he’s had his last game as a Blue Jay. Next week, Shane Bieber should be back, and would be a much better choice for that spot in the rotation.

Braydon Fisher will be the opener. Spencer Miles last pitched three days ago, 2.2 innings, so he will be available, but Simeon Woods Richardson hasn’t pitched in nine days, so he will likely be the bulk guy. He’s only pitched in one game with the Jays, which is out of character for our team. We usually pitch a guy until his arm falls off.

Tonight’s lineup:

After dropping the first two games in Cincinnati and draining the bullpen, the Mets needed a strong performance out of Nolan McLean on Wednesday afternoon.

The right-hander stepped up and delivered perhaps his most dominant outing of the season, going 7.0 innings with no earned runs (one unearned), nine strikeouts and just one walk. He threw 101 pitches and looked much more like the 2025 version of himself who came up to the majors and absolutely overmatched hitters, doing his part as the Mets’ bats came to life in a 9-1 win over the Reds.

“Man, that was excellent there. He dominated that lineup,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “It starts with the command of all of his pitches, and he was on today, he was spot-on. He attacked, and the way not he was not only using the four-seam, the sinker, the cutter, that allowed him to use his secondary pitches, but man, that was pretty impressive there.”

McLean, who lowered his season ERA to 3.67, acknowledged that Wednesday’s start was his best of the season from a complete performance standpoint, and his four-seam fastball usage was a big part of it. Of his 101 pitches, McLean threw 27 four-seamers, getting eight called strikes and generating five whiffs on 11 swings. 

"I was establishing the zone early, and I was able to get some chases late," he explained.

It’s no secret that the Mets’ starting rotation has been in a state of disarray. Christian Scott landing on the IL with a hip issue was the latest blow to the rotation, and Kodai Senga struggled on Tuesday night in his return to the big league mound, adding even more uncertainty.

But McLean said that he’s not feeling any extra pressure to perform. In his mind, the goal is the same every single time he steps between the white lines.

“I wouldn’t say I put any more pressure or responsibility on myself. Every time I go out there, I’m trying to win a baseball game,” he said. “I think if everybody’s trying to do that and we’re all pulling the same rope, good things will happen.”

Danny Rohl thanked Rangers after leaving the Scottish Premiership outfit for Red Bull Salzburg and taking his first training session with the Austrian club.

The German, 37, departed Ibrox after eight months, having previously managed Sheffield Wednesday. Derek McInnes was appointed Rangers manager shortly after Rohl's departure was announced.

"I've been here several times in the past and know Salzburg well – the club has always stood for attacking, courageous football," Rohl said at his first news conference with RB Salzburg.

"That's precisely the path we want to take. We want to return to the identity that distinguished the club for so many years.

"I have to also thank Rangers, who agreed to this move."

Sporting director Marcus Mann commented: "It's true that we had agreed with Danny a week ago.

"A few points came up that needed clarification, which is why the matter dragged on a bit. We certainly would have liked to finalise it a few days earlier but the important thing is that it worked out. Sometimes you can have different opinions on things – those have now been resolved."