Category: MLB

The Yankees were one out away on Sunday from taking round one of the Subway Series against the Mets at Citi Field and salvaging a rough road trip with at least some crosstown rivalry bragging rights.

Instead, David Bednar allowed a game-tying, three-run home run to Tyrone Taylor in the ninth inning before Tim Hill took the loss after a slowly hit fielder’s choice by Carson Benge drove in the game-winning run in the 10th.

“That’s a tough one to swallow, but we gotta get right back out there tomorrow,” Bednar said.

The home run allowed by Bednar was the second the closer has allowed on this road trip after he gave up a game-winning solo shot to Brice Turang and the Milwaukee Brewers in the ninth inning on May 10.

In fact, both home runs came on first pitch curveballs in the zone. After the game, Bednar blamed his “execution” of the pitch, not the pitch selection.

“I’ve had a lot of success with that pitch and I trust my stuff implicitly,” Bednar said about his curveball. “It’s more the position I put myself in.”

The inning began with Benge, in the middle of things once again, singling on a 2-2 fastball up in the zone and Bo Bichette grounding one up the middle on a first pitch fastball down in the zone. 

Bednar then did the heavy lifting by getting Juan Soto to ground out and Mark Vientos to strike out before facing Taylor who had been struggling all season and entered the at-bat with a .177 batting average.

“Just not putting guys away early,” Bednar said about what went wrong in the ninth. “Getting to two strikes on the first guy and not being able to put him away… Overall it’s unacceptable, especially in that spot, it’s just very frustrating.”

Manager Aaron Boone was asked about not only his closer, but the state of the rest of his bullpen as well as the 2-7 road trip that has the Yankees 28-19 and 3.0 GB of the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL East lead.

“I think they’re all capable of getting big outs,” Boone said. “And they have throughout this year. We just had a terrible road trip where we certainly had some tough ones. That’s part of it, we gotta get after it tomorrow.”

The Yankees will try and regroup quickly as they return to the Bronx for the first time in nearly two weeks to host the Toronto Blue Jays for a three-game series starting on Monday night at 7:05 p.m.

Rangers 8, Astros 0

• Okay, I guess, for one day, we can calm down a little about the offense.
• And about Nathan Eovaldi’s achy side.
• Eovaldi had it going on today. Seven innings, 8 Ks, 64 strikes on 94 pitches. Five hits, a pair of walks, and a hit batter.
• Honestly, it felt like he was pitching even better than those numbers indicate.
• Eovaldi went heavy with this splitter and had it working, throwing it 44 times and generating 13 whiffs out of 27 swings on it.
• Eovaldi threw his curveball 18 times and only once was it put into play. That one was kind of a big deal, though, as Yordan Alvarez skied a 1-2 curve to start the bottom of the fourth way, way up in the air, on an arc that looked like it would land in the right field seats.
• Brandon Nimmo wasn’t having any of that, though:

• Nimmo made a spectacular leaping catch to steal a home run from Alvarez. In fairness to Eovaldi, though, that’s a warning track fly ball in most parks. While the Crawford Boxes get all the attention, the right field seats at the onetime Enron Field are closer in than most. Statcast has that as a homer in just two parks — Philly and, of course, Yankee Stadium.
• Eovaldi had little in the way of issues the rest of the way.
• Three weeks ago, Eovaldi’s ERA was 5.79 on the season. Since then, he has allowed one run in 22 innings, has struck out 23, and has walked just three, lowering his ERA to 3.62.
• Gavin Collyer came in to handle the final two innings. The last time Collyer was asked to close out a game with a big lead, he ended up walking three batters, giving up a hit, and being pulled without retiring a batter.
• This time went much better, Six up and six down for Collyer, with a pair of Ks.
• It looked quite unlikely that a Ranger pitcher would be doing positive mop-up duty in the early part of the game, though. Through four innings, the Rangers were once again being no-hit, with a Joc Pederson walk giving the Rangers their only baserunner.
• Alejandro Osuna beat out an infield single to break up the no-hitter with one out in the fifth. And he did it on a ball he had no business swinging at, a changeup he was way out in front of and that was barely above the ground when he made contact with it. Osuna chopped it past the pitcher’s mound, just hard enough to get past Astros pitcher Peter Lambert, just soft enough that Nick Allen wasn’t able to get the ball to first in time.
• We had barely finished celebrating the exciting news that the Rangers wouldn’t be no hit when Jake Burger took a fastball the other way, tucking it into the seats in the right field corner for a homer, making it 2-0.
• It was the second time in four days Burger gave the Rangers a lead with a home run right down the line in right field.
• That doesn’t have any particular meaning, but I figured I’d point it out.
• The flood gates ended up opening in the seventh, with Jake Burger once again doing damage. A Joc Pederson walk, an Ezequiel Duran double, and an Osuna HBP loaded the bases and led to the Astros making a pitching change. Burger let a pair of cutters go by for balls, watched a sinker and a cutter get called for strikes, then crushed a sweeper that stayed out over the plate right over third baseman Braden Shewmake’s head for a two run double.
• I thought Shewmake was going to catch it, because that’s how things have been going. It was probably going too fast for him to see it, though.
• Kyle Higashioka singled home Osuna and Burger, Nimmo doubled home Higashioka, and it was 7-0 and we were feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.
• Higashioka finished things off with a 9th inning homer, his second of the season, giving the Rangers a snowman on the scoreboard.
• In the first game of the series, the Rangers barely got anyone on base. In the second game of the series, the Rangers had a ton of traffic, but only scored one run and stranded, I don’t know, I think 13 runners? Something like that?
• Sunday, they got things figured out. They did the very fun thing where they scored more runs (8) than they had hits (7). Five of the seven hits were of the extra base variety. Of their 10 baserunners, only two were left on.
• Efficient, it was.
• The 8 run margin of victory is the largest for the Rangers since they beat the Angels 20-3 on August 27, 2025.
• In addition, the A’s have lost, and so the Rangers are back to being just a game out of first place.
• Let’s be happy, everyone!
• Nathan Eovaldi’s fastball topped out at 95.7 mph, averaging 94.9 mph. Gavin Collyer reached 97.5 mph with his fastball.
• Jake Burger had a 109.6 mph double and a 102.4 mph home run. Brandon Nimmo had a 101.6 mph fly out. Alejandro Osuna had a 100.7 mph ground out. Evan Carter had a 100.2 mph ground out.
• Now to Colorado.

This afternoon’s rubber match against the Arizona Diamondbacks started after a rain delay that lasted almost two hours. By the time first pitch finally came around one could hardly tell it had been pouring not too long ago. However, spirits were certainly damp as the Colorado Rockies went down early and failed to mount a comeback.

Another difficult Coors start for Michael Lorenzen

For the first two innings this afternoon, it looked like Michael Lorenzen might have himself a solid start at a soggy Coors Field. He pitched two shutout innings with only two baserunners: a single in the first inning—that arguably should have been taken care of by Edouard Julien at second base—and a walk in the second inning.

Things fell off the rails in the third inning. With two outs, Lorenzen walked two batters and gave up back-to-back singles to put the Diamondbacks on the board with two runs. He then finished the inning. In the fourth inning he gave up a leadoff single before getting two outs… only to then give up a single and a home run by Corbin Carroll to give the Diamondbacks another three runs. The fifth inning featured a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. home run, then another run scored via a pair of singles—again with two outs. He was then pulled for newcomer Blas Castañ0, who was called up this morning from Triple-A Albuquerque.

Six of the seven runs allowed by Lorenzen came with two outs.

“I have to get the third out. For them to put up that many runs with two outs is frustrating,” he said.

The veteran, signed as a free agent this off-season, has struggled immensely at Coors Field. In four starts at a mile high he now has a 9.64 ERA with eight walks and opposing batters hitting .416 against him.

Lorenzen was brutally honest about his performance after the loss.

“I don’t care if it’s Mars,” Lorenzen said after the game. “I need to figure it out.”

He shouldered the responsibility for his poor pitching so far this season.

“It comes down to me. I’ve got to get better. Physically I feel great, but the results are just horrendous. I need to figure it out, because it’s just unacceptable to be this deep in the season and have these kinds of results on a consistent basis.”

Bullpen stops the bleeding

For what it may be worth, the bullpen did exactly what they needed to in relief of Michael Lorenzen. They held the Diamondbacks to just one run for the rest of the game. That run came via newcomer Blas Castaño, who overall had a solid outing. He allowed just the one earned run—a solo home run off the bat of Corbin Carroll—on two hits and a walk while striking out three batters over 2.1 inning.

Seth Halvorsen and Victor Vodnik combined for two scoreless innings of their own. Halvorsen did give up a hit but also tallied two strikeouts. His velocity appears to have fully recovered from his elbow injury last season as he easily hit 101 MPH multiple times. Vodnik pitched a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout as well.

Late offensive surge comes up short

The Rockies offense was again stagnant for most of the game. Michael Soroka kept the Rockies hitless until there were two outs in the fourth inning with their only baserunner coming in the first inning via a Hunter Goodman walk.

With those two outs in the fourth, the offense finally showed some life. Three straight doubles from birthday boy TJ Rumfield, Troy Johnston, and Willi Castro plated two runs. The Rockies had baserunners in both the fifth and six innings but failed to score, and went down in order in the seventh.

The Rockies attempted to begin a comeback in the eighth inning, which started with three straight batters reaching and loading up the bases. A Willi Castro sacrifice fly drove in one run, and back-to-back singles by Jake McCarthy and Kyle Karros drove in two more before a Brett Sullivan sacrifice fly plated yet another and had the Rockies suddenly within two runs.

Unfortunately, the Rockies’ eighth inning ended with an Edouard Julien pop-up. Julien was one of just two batters in the Rockies lineup to go hitless, and the only one to fail to reach safely. The Canadian second baseman has gone stone cold in the month of May, hitting just .075/.159/.075 without an extra base hit, four walks, and 16 strikeouts over 40 at-bats.

“When Eddie is going good, he’s taking his walks, and he hasn’t been doing that a lot lately,” said manager Warren Schaeffer after the game regarding Julien’s struggles.

The Rockies sadly went down relatively quietly in the ninth. Mickey Moniak—who also failed to record a hit today—and Hunter Goodman combined for two quick outs. TJ Rumfield walked after a lengthy at-bat (and thanks to an ABS challenge) but Troy Johnston flew out and ended both the Rockies’ comeback bid and the game.

Coming Up Next

The Rockies will start a series against the visiting Texas Rangers tomorrow evening with two lefties on the mound. José Quintana will face off against MacKenzie Gore with first pitch scheduled for 6:40 PM MDT.

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The San Francisco Giants closed out their three-game series with the Don’t-Call-Us-Sacramento A’s on Sunday and winning the series was a breeze. A stiff wind blew in from left field at Sutter Health Park, but that didn’t stop Luis Arraez and Harrison Bader from hitting home runs out to right, the last one for a grand slam, in a 10-1 Giants win.

Adrian Houser (2-4) had his third straight strong outing, going six innings and only giving up a run when a wind-blown popup in shallow left field turned into a two-run double. He walked five, but induced three pop-ups and eight ground balls and two double plays in his six innings, and his only extra-base hit was the RBI “double” from Carlos Cortes.

The game was tight for seven innings but the Giants broke through with a six-run 8th inning that took advantage of some bad defense from the A’s and a brutal outing for reliever Luis Medina. Zach Gelof committed his second error of the game to start the inning, then a walk to Arraez and a Casey Schmidt single loaded the bases for Rafael Devers, who brought home Bader with a single to center. Lawrence Butler dropped the ball taking it out of his glove and Arraez, who was stopping at third, came home to make it 4-1.

Willy Adames singled to re-load the bases, with Schmidt holding at third even as Tyler Soderstrom kicked the ball in left — he did wisely boot the ball forward. The 1-for-5 day lowered Adames’ batting average to .234, but he’s still up 25 points on this road trip and up 37 points since May 9.

The Adames single mercifully ended Medina’s afternoon (0 IP, 3H 5 R, 2 ER). Daniel Susac grounded to second on a drawn-in infield, and it was Jeff McNeil’s turn to bobble the ball, turning a potential double play into an RBI groundout. After an intentional walk to Matt Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee’s grounder to McNeil, a tougher play, went off his glove for an infield hit and a 6-1 lead.

Then Bader took Suarez deep for a grand slam over the comically-low right field fence at Sutter Health, though it will always be Raley Field to me. If this was the Olympics, Bader’s shot wouldn’t qualify for a record since it was wind-aided, but it was worth four big runs in major league baseball.

It was a stunning change in the nature of the ballgame. Keaton Winn was warming up to protect a 3-1 lead, and then an inning later, the A’s were bringing in their right fielder to pitch the 9th — Cortes pitched a scoreless inning, yielding a walk and a Chapman double and never exceeding 85 MPH on the radar gun.

Bader has raised his average 38 points on the road trip and his slugging percentage by 155 points thanks to going deep three times in his last four games. He’s tied for third on the team with four homers despite having only 75 plate appearances.

Arraez started the scoring with his second home run of the weekend, and also his second of the season. Maybe playing in a Triple-A ballpark unlocked his power potential? He went 3-for-4 with a walk and a double, scoring two runs and raising his slash line to .328/.370/.437.

Our own esteemed Bryan Murphy asked whether Arraez would homer this season and Arraez gave it a resounding yes. The next question is, can he hit one out in a normal-sized park not in a windstorm? The Giants will probably be happy with his ultra-contact approach and a few doubles, but if he can slug like Eric Haase, they might really have something!

The Giants tacked on their second run thanks to more sloppy play from a squad who is poised to be Las Vegas’ fifth-favorite team. Gelof’s first error let Adames reach first and starter Jeffrey Springs balked him to second on an illegal pickoff throw. Then Matt Chapman defied the gods of wind with a double into the left-field gap, his second RBI of the road trip and the first from actually hitting the ball (Chappie had a bases-loaded walk against the Dodgers).

Springs (3-4) probably deserved better on a day when he gave up five hits and two runs in six innings, only one of them earned. He only struck out three Giants, however, and the combination of unpredictable wind and awful A’s defense made this a tough day for pitching to contact.

The Giants will have to succeed without a boost from Mother Nature when they finish the road trip in Arizona Monday-Wednesday. Robbie Ray takes on former teammate Zac Gallen Monday at Chase Field, likely with the roof shut. It’s a long 10-day road trip with no off days, but the Giants can’t feel too bad with a 4-3 record and their slumping veterans starting to hit again.

The key is to keep hitting, continue turning lots of double plays, and give offerings to Apollo and Helios, god of the Sun, rather than Aeolus, keeper of the winds. We hear Apollo likes wine and honey.

The Athletics and Giants battled in the rubber-game of their three-game set on a windy Sunday afternoon in Sacramento. While the wind helped both teams score runs, the weather did not play that much of a factor in this game’s result. Rather it was the A’s bullpen and defensive collapse in the eighth inning, when the Giants scored eight runs to break the game open and go on to a 10-1 series-deciding victory.

Giants Threaten Right Away

A’s starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs encountered some early traffic before inducing two fly outs to escape that first inning jam.

Kurtz Keeps Streak Going

A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz led off the bottom of the first with a walk against Giants’ pitcher Adrian Houser, extending his on-base streak to an incredible 40 consecutive games. Houser settled down after that, matching Springs with a scoreless first.

Springs continued his strong start in the second, inducing an inning-ending double-play grounder to erase Giants’ catcher Daniel Susac’s leadoff single. In the latter half of that inning, A’s third baseman Zack Gelof crushed a ball that got knocked down by the wind and wound up in the Giants center fielder’s glove.

Giants Strike First

The Giants took the lead against Springs. With one out in the third, Arraez hit his second home run of the season, a wind-aided solo shot down the right field line. A’s catcher Jonah Heim led off the last of the third with a single, his first hit with the team and the A’s first hit of the game.

Giants Add Another Run

The Giants extended their lead the next inning. Their shortstop, Willy Adames reached on Gelof’s throwing error, advanced to second on a balk and then scored on Matt Chapman’s double to center. Springs limited the damage by getting Giants’ right fielder Drew Gilbert to fly out with Chapman on second and two outs.

A’s Attempt a Comeback

Houser worked his fourth straight scoreless inning. The Giants middle-infield duo of Adamesand Arraez made nice defensive plays to assist their pitcher.

In the bottom of the fifth, the A’s got on the board thanks to a two-out rally. Shortstop Darell Hernaiz singled and then Kurtz walked for the third time in three at-bats. That brought up right fielder Carlos Cortes, whose pop-up was somehow not caught by a Giants infielder. His double that never left the infield brought home Hernaiz to cut his team’s deficit in half. Houser escaped the jam by getting designated hitter Brent Rooker to line out as the A’s stranded the tying and go-ahead runs on base.

Springs responded with a shutdown sixth inning, not letting the Giants grab back any momentum. He allowed two runs, one earned on five hits over six innings. He struck out just three while inducing seven groundouts and seven flyouts.

In the bottom of the sixth, Gelof singled and then stole second with two outs. Unfortunately, center fielder Lawrence Butler popped out to end the inning. For the second straight inning, the hosts wasted an opportunity to at least tie the game. Butler continues to struggle, his batting average now a woeful .172.

Like Springs, Houser completed six solid innings for the Giants, only allowing one run on four hits. Aside from the five walks, Houser pitched well and in all likelihood should have ended his outing with zero runs allowed given how the A’s scored their lone run against him.

A’s Bullpen and Defense Falters: Giants Score Eight in the Eighth

In the seventh, both teams turned things over to their bullpen. A’s right-hander Justin Sterner and Giants’ left-hander Sam Hentges each pitched scoreless innings.

The Giants extended their lead in the eighth inning against Athletics’ reliever Luis Medina thanks to several A’s mistakes. The rally started when Gelof made his second fielding error of the game. Following a walk and a single, San Francisco had runners on every base with zero outs. First baseman Rafael Devers singled to center scoring two runs, the second run coming home because Butler failed to cleanly field the ball.

Medina failed to record an out, and was not helped by the defense behind him. Left-hander José Suárez replaced him with the bases loaded, but by the time he finally escaped the inning, the game had gotten out of hand. Giants center fielder Harrison Bader punctuated the rally with a grand slam down the right-field line, capping what was likely San Francisco’s best offensive inning and the A’s worst defensive inning of the season.

Position-player Pitching Alert

Down by nine, A’s manager Mark Kotsay turned to position-player Carlos Cortes to pitch the top of the ninth inning. In his first MLB pitching appearance, the outfielder allowed a walk and a double but did not give up a run.

The Athletics went down meekly in the bottom of the ninth, suffering a 10-1 defeat that marked their second straight home series loss to a National League opponent and dropped them back to .500. The A’s are now just 10-12 at home this season, a mark that must improve if they hope to contend for a playoff spot. They also need to tighten their defense after committing nine errors over the past six games.

Next Game Preview

The A’s, however, have been better on the road, where they are 13-11 entering tomorrow’s matchup at the scuffling Los Angeles Angels. Coming off back-to-back scoreless outings, right-hander J.T. Ginn will start for the A’s as they try to snap their two-game losing streak. The Angels will counter with 22-year-old right-hander Walbert Ureña, who brings a 1-4 record and a 3.29 ERA into his eighth appearance and sixth start of the season. Ureña has pitched well recently, setting up an intriguing first meeting of the year between the division rivals.

For the second time in five days, Mets rookie Carson Benge came through in the clutch with a walk-off.

New York trailed the Yankees by three runs in the ninth inning on Sunday afternoon, but Tyrone Taylor stepped up with a game-tying three-run homer to send the game to extra innings. It was then Benge's turn in the 10th inning to be the hero again, putting the ball in play against a five-man infield that allowed Marcus Semien to score from third base.

After the 7-6 win, Benge reiterated manager Carlos Mendoza's praise of the team showing fight when trailing by continuing to have competitive at-bats.

"You know it's always good when you show some fight back," Benge said. "I feel like our offense did a great job of that today. You know never out of the game, always putting up competitive at-bats. And then Tyrone with the huge swing in the ninth, I blacked out for him."

With the Yankees opting for that five-man infield with a runner on third base, there was no one playing in right field with Benge up to bat against LHP Tim Hill. A bloop over the first or second baseman's head would have been enough, but Benge said he wasn't forcing anything and just focused on overcoming the challenge.

"No, nothing. I was just putting the ball in play, trying to hit the ball hard," Benge said. "That's a tough matchup, but I knew I could overcome it."

It's clear the 23-year-old is feeling more and more confident at the plate every game he plays, and credited that self confidence for his success. He's hitting .287 over his last 30 games and has been on fire as of late, hitting .387 with a .406 OBP over his last seven games. 

"Definitely," Benge said. "You always got to go up there knowing you're better than the other guy, he can't get you out. I feel like going up there with that mindset has definitely helped me out a ton."

After winning two straight series, Benge believes the Mets are finally "trending in the right direction" after a disappointing start to the season. 

A big factor in the recent success has been fellow rookie A.J. Ewing, who has shown impressive plate discipline for a 21-year-old and has drawn seven walks in six games. Ewing told reporters his first week in the majors has been everything he's dreamt of and is looking forward to continuing the momentum.

"It's been a lot of fun, it's been a dream come true, and I'm just excited to keep competing," Ewing said.

Ewing's sacrifice bunt in the 10th inning moved Semien to third base and helped New York pull out the victory. He added that he's been working on bunting all season and the result was better than it had been in the minors. 

Like Benge, Ewing also expressed his confidence at the dish as his routine is certainly working in his favor -- slashing .294/.500/.588 through six games.

"I feel comfortable in the box, I think the batter's box is kind of like my happy place," Ewing said. "I feel comfortable, I feel like myself, and I'm just gonna keep being me."

Both Ewing and Benge's quality of at-bats have been a driving factor during the team's recent stretch and have impressed the manager early in their careers. If the Mets are going to get back to .500 and make a run, the young duo will be a main reason for that success.

"They're staying in the fight. They're not trying to do too much, they're taking pitches, they're putting together some good swings, they're putting the ball in play," Mendoza said. "That matchup there with Hill, we know he's a ground ball machine and he's a tough left-on-left, but the game is calling for putting the ball in play and that's what Carson did there.

"With A.J. getting the bunt down on a tough left-on-left, credit to player development in here that's preparing these guys to come up here and execute when the game is on the line on a tough matchup. Overall, their at-bats have been amazing. Left-on-left, taking what the game is giving them, going the other way, driving the baseball. It's pretty impressive from those guys."

Sunday’s start against the Yankees wasn’t Freddy Peralta’s best outing for the Mets and he’ll be the first one to say that.

In fact, after the game, in which New York (NL) beat New York (AL) in the 10th inning after Tyrone Taylor’s three-run homer in the ninth sent it to extras, Peralta plainly said as much.

“Not good at all,” Peralta said about his start. “But I was trying to navigate there even knowing that I didn’t have my command of the fastball today.”

The right-hander ended up going 5.0+ innings and although he allowed just two hits, he walked a career-high six and gave up three earned runs. 

All things considered, it wasn’t Peralta’s worst outing as he battled with traffic on the basepaths for much of the day and still managed to limit the Yankees to three runs. Still, the walks are a bit of a concern as he’s now walked 25 batters in 54.1 innings this season.

“I think when I realized that I was in that situation [of not commanding well] I was trying to limit the damage and just give the team the opportunity to keep the game close,” Peralta said.

To Peralta’s credit, a lot of his misses on Sunday were very close with home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak not giving him much. Peralta, pitching to Hayden Senger for the first time in his career, also seemed like he wanted his catcher to challenge a few of the balls called on him throughout the game.

In fact, at one point Peralta took matters into his own hands and challenged a pitch called a ball from the mound. It was a ball.

And although Peralta walked his final two batters of the game to start the sixth (as well as throw a wild pitch), in the previous two innings he had retired the side in order.

“Just trying to relax and try to make pitches,” he said about trying to get through an outing without his best command. “Listening to the pitching coach is always nice when you know you have somebody there supporting you and trying to give you the best information that you can get to get through that.”

But even not at his best, Peralta's start kept the Mets close enough for their suddenly red-hot offense to erase a four-run deficit with Carson Benge playing the role of hero in the 10th inning.

Peralta’s next start will likely come on Friday, May 22 against the Miami Marlins where he’ll have a chance to get back on track and continue his very good year in his first season in Queens.

The Mariners may have to patch together thier bullpen for a bit longer. While Gabe Speier looked good in a bullpen today, Matt Brash struggled through two-thirds of an inning in Tacoma.

Matt Brash threw his second game with the Rainiers this afternoon. He’s been on the IL since April 29 when he had to leave a game with lat inflammation after just two pitches. In his first outing on Thursday, he threw 15 pitches, striking out all three batters he faced (all lefties) and touching 96 mph on his fastball. Brash might have rejoined the big league club as early as today, but the Mariners are taking it slow, giving him another game of live action on a warmer day. Today, Brash struck out his first batter, but walked two while consistently missing glove side.

More concerning was the series of grimaces after receiving the ball back from the catcher. And upon fielding a play, the former shortstop did not display his characteristic atheleticism, instead stabbing at the ball and shovel-passing it to first base. Still, he left after hitting 23 pitches rather than with the training staff, and the Mariners have not reported on how he felt afterwards yet. He may have just been frustrated with his command.

30 miles north, Gabe Speier threw 20+ pitches in a pre-game bullpen session. Like Brash, Speier has been on the IL since April 29, after he threw 30 pitches in relief of Brash. He’s been battling shoulder inflammation, and while shoulders are always scary, they’re especially so for Speier after he missed time (and struggled when available) with a rotator cuff strain and partial tear of his subscapularis in 2024. But Speier “has turned a corner” in the words of General Manager Justin Hollander, and this is “the best he’s felt.” Speier echoed the sentiment before heading to the bullpen early this afternoon.

With Logan Gilbert providing “pew pew” sound effects on his phone after each pitch, Speier was going max effort. He threw all of his pitches and was hitting his spots, with the last sinker and four-seamer looking particularly sharp. The team hasn’t yet announced the next step in his rehab, but will monitor how he bounces back over the next couple days.

Until they arrive, Domingo Gonzalez, Alex Hoppe, and Nick Davila will continue to battle it out for who’ll get the last spot in the pen upon Brash and Speier’s return. Neither Gonzalez nor Davila have allowed a run yet and Hoppe has struck out more than a quarter of the batters he’s faced.

Here we go — the first Brewers-Cubs series of the 2026 season, and their first meeting since the Brewers beat the Cubs 3-2 in last season’s NLDS.

The Crew is headed to Wrigley Field, as they’ll take on the Cubs for three games beginning Monday night. The Brewers are coming off a series win over the Twins in Minnesota, their third straight series victory after a 5-1 homestand against the Yankees and Padres. The Cubs, who have rattled off two 10-game win streaks already this season, sit at 29-18 on the season, 1.5 games ahead of the Brewers and Cardinals, though they’ve lost each of their last three series against the Rangers, Braves, and White Sox.

On the injury front, the Brewers are currently without Quinn Priester (early June), Brandon Woodruff (late May), Rob Zastryzny (late May), Jared Koenig (late May/early June), and Angel Zerpa (out for the season). Outfielders Brandon Lockridge (mid- to late June) and Akil Baddoo (late May or early June) are also shelved.

The Cubs are also without a lot of pitching depth. Matthew Boyd (late June/early July), Caleb Thielbar (may return this week), Hunter Harvey (TBD), Justin Steele (second half of season), Riley Martin (June/July), Jaxon Wiggins (TBD), Cade Horton (2027), Shelby Miller (2027), and Porter Hodge (2027) are all out. The only position player injury for them is first baseman Tyler Austin, who is TBD after undergoing a knee procedure during spring training.

Brice Turang is the leader of the Brewer offense, with William Contreras, Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, and Andrew Vaughn also factoring in. Sal Frelick, Jake Bauers, Garrett Mitchell, and Gary Sánchez, as well as Luis Rengifo over the last week or so, have also been key. Joey Ortiz, Blake Perkins, and David Hamilton round things out. As a team, the Brewers are hitting .244/.333/.360 (.693 OPS ranks 23rd), with 30 homers (last), 218 runs (eighth), and 49 steals (fourth).

Ian Happ leads the Cubs’ offense with 10 homers this season, and the combo of Seiya Suzuki, Dansby Swanson, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alex Bregman, Michael Busch, and Nico Hoerner makes for a formidable middle of the lineup. Rookie Moisés Ballesteros has plenty of pop, and Miguel Amaya, Michael Conforto, Matt Shaw, Nicky Lopez, and Carson Kelly round things out. As a team, the Cubs are hitting .246/.343/.406 (.749 OPS ranks fourth), with 57 homers (tied for seventh), 241 runs (fourth), and 33 steals (14th).

Aaron Ashby, DL Hall, Grant Anderson, Abner Uribe, and Trevor Megill have racked up most of the innings and appearances for the Milwaukee bullpen, with Jake Woodford and Shane Drohan rounding things out (and I’d expect the Brewers to make an additional move to bring another arm into the fold before this series). As a staff, the Brewers have a 3.29 team ERA (third), including a 3.23 starter ERA (fifth) and a 3.36 bullpen ERA (seventh). They’ve struck out 426 batters (fourth) over 391 1/3 innings.

Daniel Palencia, Phil Maton, Jacob Webb, and Hoby Milner bring up the anchors for Chicago’s bullpen, with Ty Blach, Trent Thornton, Ryan Rolison, and Ethan Roberts rounding out the group. Milner and Webb lead the team with 21 and 20 appearances, respectively, and Milner sports a 2.08 ERA while Webb has a 3.20 ERA. Palencia leads the team with three saves in three opportunities since returning from injury. As a staff, the Cubs have a 3.99 team ERA (15th), including a 4.12 starter ERA (16th) and a 3.80 bullpen ERA (12th). They’ve struck out 382 batters (18th) over 417 1/3 innings.

Probable Pitchers

Monday, May 18 @ 6:40 p.m.: RHP Brandon Sproat (1-2, 5.75 ERA, 5.73 FIP) vs. LHP Shota Imanaga (4-3, 2.32 ERA, 2.84 FIP)

Sproat, 25, has made eight appearances (six starts) this season, spanning 36 innings with a 5.75 ERA, 5.73 FIP, and 36 strikeouts. He’s struggled primarily with walks (20) and homers (eight) this year, though he’s coming off his first career win against the Padres in a game where he went 5 1/3 innings with three runs allowed on six hits and two walks, striking out six. This marks his first career appearance against the Cubs.

Imanaga, 32, is in his third MLB season, all with the Cubs. An All-Star in his rookie season back in 2024, he fell off a bit last year but has bounced back nicely thus far in 2026. Through nine starts, he has a 2.32 ERA, 2.84 FIP, and 59 strikeouts over 54 1/3 innings. He took the loss in his last appearance, allowing two runs on five hits and no walks, striking out six in a 4-1 loss to the Braves. The Brewers have had quite a bit of success against Imanaga, as he’s 1-3 with a 5.73 ERA and 18 strikeouts over 22 innings in four starts against them.

Tuesday, May 19 @ 6:40 p.m.: RHP Jacob Misiorowski (3-2, 2.12 ERA, 2.27 FIP) vs. RHP Ben Brown (1-1, 1.60 ERA, 2.44 FIP)

Misiorowski, 24, seems to get better every time he’s on the mound. Over nine starts this year, he has a 2.12 ERA, 2.27 FIP, and an MLB-best 80 strikeouts over just 51 innings. He got pinned with a no-decision in his last time out, but he was absolute nails, going seven scoreless frames with no walks and four hits allowed, striking out 10. He hasn’t allowed a run in each of his last three appearances, totaling 18 1/3 innings. Miz made two starts against Chicago last season, going 0-1 with six runs allowed (five earned) and 12 strikeouts over eight innings.

Brown, 26, is also in his third season with the Cubs. He’s functioned as a sixth starter type over the last couple of years, working in a swingman role but also making starts as needed, similar to Tobias Myers last year or Chad Patrick this year. He’s made 14 appearances this season (two starts), with a 1.60 ERA, 2.44 FIP, and 34 strikeouts over 33 2/3 innings. He’s gone four scoreless innings as a starter in each of his last two appearances, striking out 10 and allowing just two walks and one hit in those outings. Brown has made three starts against Milwaukee, with a 2-0 record, 19 strikeouts, and just two runs allowed over 18 innings.

Wednesday, May 20 @ 6:40 p.m.: LHP Kyle Harrison (4-1, 2.09 ERA, 2.86 FIP) vs. RHP Edward Cabrera (3-1, 4.06 ERA, 4.49 FIP)

Harrison, 24, is enjoying a breakout season thus far, making eight starts with a 2.09 ERA, 2.86 FIP, and 48 strikeouts over 38 2/3 innings. The lefty picked up another win in his last start, going five scoreless against the Padres as he allowed five hits and no walks, striking out seven in a 7-1 victory. Harrison’s only appearance against the Cubs came in relief while with the Giants last May, as he went one perfect inning with a pair of strikeouts.

Cabrera, 28, was acquired from the Marlins over the offseason after spending the first five years of his career in Miami. Over the course of his career, he’s shown flashes of his potential but hasn’t quite been able to put it all together just yet. Through nine starts this season, he has a 4.06 ERA, 4.49 FIP, and 45 strikeouts over 51 innings. After a pair of scoreless outings to begin the season, he’s allowed at least three earned runs in each of his last seven starts, including three runs allowed against the White Sox in his last appearance. Cabrera made four appearances (three starts) against Milwaukee while with the Marlins, totaling 19 2/3 innings with a 2.29 ERA and 20 strikeouts, though he went just 1-2.

How to Watch & Listen

Monday, May 18: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Tuesday, May 19: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Wednesday, May 20: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)

Prediction

This is another tough battle as the Brewers look to assert their dominance over their rivals to the south. I’ll take the Cubs to eke out two of three, but this series will hopefully be fun either way.

You can probably guess why the headline to this recap is what it is, because, well, there aren’t many non-profane words to describe the Cubs’ 9-8 loss to the White Sox Sunday afternoon on the South Side.

Two blown three-run leads. A remarkable ninth-inning comeback. And then… well, just too many home runs served up to an up-and-coming Sox team that seems to enjoy hitting them.

I suppose I’ll begin at the beginning.

The Cubs jumped out to a quick first-inning lead. Nico Hoerner led off the game with a single and Michael Busch made it 2-0 with this home run, his fourth [VIDEO].

Fun fact about Busch’s homer from BCB’s JohnW53:

The Cubs had not had a two-run homer hit by their second batter of the game since Aug. 3, 2024, at home vs. the Cardinals, following a leadoff walk.

They had not had one after a leadoff single since June 20, 2024, at Milwaukee.

The batter who hit both: Michael Busch.

Alex Bregman followed with a single, extending his hitting streak to eight games. One out later, he moved to third on a single by Seiya Suzuki, then scored on this wild pitch [VIDEO].

It’s 3-0 early! What could possibly…

You don’t want to know the answer to that question. But you will get it, right here.

The Sox scored a run in the second on three singles, and it might have been more except for this great throw by Pete Crow-Armstrong [VIDEO].

The Cubs got that run back in the fourth. Dansby Swanson led off with a single and Nico walked, Both runners moved up on a fly ball by Busch, and this single by Bregman scored Swanson [VIDEO].

Unfortunately, the ball didn’t go far enough to score Hoerner and he was stranded. That turned out to be important.

The Sox made it 4-2 in the fourth off Colin Rea, who hit the first batter he faced, Miguel Vargas. Vargas eventually cored on a double by Andrew Benintendi. Then Rea walked the leadoff hitter in the fifth and, as you well know, that’s never a good thing. The Sox wound up scoring a pair of runs on a double by Vargas and that was it for Rea, who has struggled in his last couple of starts.

It might have been worse in the fifth if not for this impressive catch by PCA [VIDEO].

The bullpens for both teams took over and did well for a while. Jacob Webb, who’s been very good lately, threw 1.1 scoreless innings, as did Hoby Milner. For the Sox, they got five shutout innings of relief from Sean Newcomb, Grant Taylor and Bryan Hudson. The Cubs stranded a bunch of runners in those innings, too.

Personally, I think I’d have let Milner throw the entire eighth inning. I know he’s not used to multiple innings but he’d thrown only 18 pitches (14 strikes) to record his four outs. Craig Counsell did let him start the inning and he struck out Colson Montgomery. Phil Maton came on in relief and got Chase Meidroth to ground out.

Two out, nobody on, and then Maton fell apart. Walk, single, three-run homer by Tristan Peters. That, my friends, was Peters’ first MLB home run. It gave the Sox a 7-4 lead. Maton has been just awful most of the year, now with a 9.49 ERA, and the Cubs signed him to a two-year deal with a third-year option. That’s looking like a really bad signing right now.

So. To the ninth, and Seranthony Dominguez on to close for the Sox. Dominguez had some rough outings early in the year but had converted seven straight save opportunities since blowing a save April 16 vs. the Rays.

The Cubs had themselves an amazing ninth inning. Bregman led off with a walk and after Ian Happ struck out, moved to second on a wild pitch. Suzuki then hit a ground ball to third that was thrown away by Vargas and was safe, advancing to second, with Bregman stopping at third.

That brought up Michael Conforto [VIDEO].

Conforto has shown a flair for the dramatic in his first couple of months as a Cub. The homer, his third, tied the game 7-7. Also, from John:

A Cub had hit a game-tying three-run homer in the ninth inning only 15 times previously since 1910, first season for which baseball-reference.com has searchable play-level data.

The last to do it was Anthony Rizzo, at Cincinnati on April 21, 2017. He did it with two out.
Nine days earlier, Willson Contreras had done it with one out at St. Louis.

The only three earlier since 1994:
Shane Andrews, at home vs. the Braves, with nobody out, on April 10, 2000
Kosuke Fukudome, at home vs. the Brewers, with nobody out, on March 31, 2008 (his first game as a Cub)
Geovany Soto, at home vs. the Brewers, with two out on Sept. 18, 2008.

There’s still only one out after Conforto’s blast, but Miguel Amaya popped to short center and PCA lined to second. In the bottom of the ninth, Daniel Palencia allowed a one-out double but got out of the inning scoreless, so on to extras the game went.

PCA was the placed runner. He stole third [VIDEO].

After that, Swanson walked and Hoerner hit a ground ball that got PCA in a rundown [VIDEO].

The rundown lasted long enough to get Swanson to third and Hoerner to second with one out. Busch was intentionally passed to load the bases, and Bregman hit a grounder to short, which scored Swanson [VIDEO].

But that’s all they got. Happ was intentionally passed and Suzuki struck out to end the inning.

Still, there’s a one-run lead with three outs to go. Who’s going to pitch?

Well, there aren’t a lot of choices here. The Cubs could have gone with Ty Blach, who was just called up from Triple-A Iowa Sunday. Blach hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2024 and is 35 years old and wasn’t doing all that well at Iowa.

So Ryan Rolison, who threw the eighth Saturday night, was the choice. Meidroth was the placed runner for the Sox. They had Andrew Benintendi lay down a bunt, and here’s what happened [VIDEO].

That was pretty clearly a terrible call by Laz Diaz, and it took very little time for it to be overturned. So the Sox have a runner on third with one out.

Not that any of it really mattered when Sox catcher Edgar Quero hit a walk-off homer off Rolison.

From John:

That was the Cubs’ first walk-off loss of the year. They had won six games on walk-offs.

The Cubs blew three leads today, 3-0 and 8-7. They have blown 21 for the season, in 16 different games, including seven in the next half-inning after going ahead.

They are 8-8 in the 16 games.

The Cubs scored a lot of runs in this series — 21 of them, to be exact, averaging seven per game. That’s really good! They have now scored 241 runs for the year, which is 5.13 per game, which would be 831 for the year.

The problem, as you surely know, is pitching. The Sox scored 22 runs off Cubs pitching in this series. The Sox have some pretty good young hitters, but they are not that good. The Cubs need better starters and relievers; the current bunch, decimated by injury, is just not up to the task at this point. This was a winnable game, even after the two blown leads.

A reinforcement could come soon when Caleb Thielbar returns, but the Cubs will need more bullpen help. And clearly, they need a starting pitcher, or maybe more than one. It’s still several weeks until Matthew Boyd can return.

Hopefully they can hang in there until then, or until a deal or deals can be made. Fortunately, everyone else in the NL Central also lost Sunday, so the Cubs’ division lead remains at 1.5 games over the Brewers and Cardinals.

Oh, yes, one other problem with this game:

Yeah, that’s going to have to change.

Oh, speaking of the Brewers? They’ll be at Wrigley Field to open a three-game series Monday evening. Shōta Imanaga will start the opener of this series for the Cubs and Brandon Sproat goes for Milwaukee. Game time Monday is 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.

Who’s rising? Who’s falling so far in the minor leagues for the Cardinals? We had on Kyle Reis to speak about that and worked in conversations about who the next man up might be for various spots on the big league roster. As usual when you involved Kyle, it was an entertaining and thought provoking conversation.

We covered a lot of ground: Rainiel Rodriguez gets multiple crazy comps, are they teaching Tai Peete to bunt with runners in scoring position to be the future centerfielder (we jest!), Liam Doyle’s rocky start and much, much more.

We think you enjoy the convo and always love to hear from the community. You’ll have thoughts about the next man up conversation – we guarantee it!

All the links are below. It would be fantastic if you could subscribe while you listen (you know how the internet works!). As always, thanks for listening!

The Mariners are trying to avoid being swept by the Padres for the season, having failed to win a single game against them so far while losing possession of the prized Vedder Cup guitar. Thoughts and prayers to Pete Woodworth. George Kirby will take the mound for the Mariners as Seattle’s last hope for a single win against the Padres this season.

Lineups:

Not to spoil the “news” section here, but there’s no shiny lineup graphic because we had a last minute change. See if you can spot the difference!

News:

In an earlier iteration of today’s lineup, Brendan Donovan was out but Leo Rivas was playing third base. Earlier today, Dan Wilson was asked about Donovan being out of the lineup again today and said the team is managing him day to day, but wouldn’t rule out the possibility Donovan could be available as a pinch hitter. That possibility evaporated shortly pregame, when Donovan was placed on the 10-day IL with a groin strain, and the Mariners announced they are summoning their top prospect, infielder Colt Emerson, from Tacoma. Read more here.

In other injury news, Gabe Speier threw a bullpen today and it appeared to go well. Matt Brash is in Tacoma today making a rehab outing.

Game Information:

Game time: 4:20 PT

Television: NBC or Peacock, or as Alex Mayer called it, “Big NBC,” with the Sunday Night Baseball crew: Jason Benetti and Jake Peavy, joined by Ryan Rowland-Smith

Radio: ESPN Radio with Roxy Bernstein and Doug Glanville, and Seattle Sports 710 AM with Rick Rizzs and Gary Hill Jr.

Over the last several weeks, Roki Sasaki has been making minor improvements.

On Sunday at Angel Stadium, it finally led to impressively tangible results.

In a 10-1 win over the Angels, Sasaki delivered a seven-inning, one-run gem that helped the Dodgers complete a decisive weekend sweep in this three-game Freeway Series, easily turning in the best start of his young MLB career.

It was the first time as a major leaguer that the 24-year-old phenom pitched past the sixth inning. “I was able to listen to the English version of ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ on the mound for the first time,” he joked in Japanese afterward.

He also set an MLB career high by striking out eight batters and didn’t issue a walk for his first time in a big-league start.

“It was just great to see him be efficient and continue to do what he’s telling everyone that he needs to do better,” manager Dave Roberts said postgame. “I think that he’s understanding what is needed to get major-league hitters out, what’s needed to go deeper in a game.”

Granted, dominating the lowly Angels (16-31) these days is like beating your little brother in a driveway basketball game. Dunking on them — or shoving like Sasaki did Sunday — is no grand achievement against their slumping offense.

The way Sasaki did it, however, offered the most encouraging signs yet of the slow progress he has been making.

He consistently got ahead in the count (69 of his 91 pitches were strikes). He limited hard contact (snapping a six-start streak of allowing a home run). And when he had the chance to put hitters away, his reworked pitch mix allowed him to do so with ease.

“My delivery is gradually getting better,” Sasaki said. “I know that if I throw a certain way, the ball will more or less go to a certain place.”

It helped that Sasaki spent most of the day nursing a big lead, after the Dodgers (29-18) scored two runs in the top of the second and exploded for a five-run rally two innings later.

But for a team battling a wave of pitching injuries and looking for length out of its starters to protect a bullpen that has taken on a bigger recent workload, the strides Sasaki took were nonetheless important.

“There weren’t any bad walks [or] deep counts that didn’t need to be deep … Just losing a ball and hitting a batter accidentally didn’t happen [either],” Roberts said.

“I think he’s got clarity on what he needs to do,” the manager later added. “And you can see it in every throw.”

What it means

For perhaps the first time since he arrived from Japan last year, Sasaki looked exactly the way a reliable big-league starter should.

And given the star pitchers the Dodgers have on the injured list, not a moment too soon, either.

It wasn’t long ago, remember, Sasaki’s place in the Dodgers’ rotation was starting to look tenuous. But with Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell going down in the last couple weeks, he should now have a runway to build off Sunday’s success.

His most critical task moving forward will be replicating the efficiency he finally found against the Angels. He didn’t have an inning that required 20 pitches. He was 19-for-24 on first-pitch strikes. And after allowing his lone run on a Yoán Moncada RBI single in the fourth, he faced the minimum number of batters over his final three frames.

“I want a little more strength behind my fastball,” Sasaki said, still finding a flaw with his performance after averaging only 96.6 mph with his heater. “But I think it was good that I was able to hold their hitters today. My breaking balls were better than they were last time.”

Who’s hot

Much of Sasaki’s recent turnaround — he at least pitched into the sixth inning in each of his previous three outings — has come as a result of two key factors.

The first: He is locating his fastball in the zone consistently, throwing it over the plate more than 80% of the time Sunday.

The other: His new pitch mix has made him less predictable, with the addition of a new splitter, to go along with his trademark forkball and newly added slider, giving his game a different dynamic.

Against the Angels, it led to more swings-and-misses (18) than he had ever before generated as an MLB pitcher. He also got batters to chase out of the zone 40% of the time.

“He attacked the strike zone. He attacked it with all three pitches, too,” catcher Dalton Rushing said. “And then from there, you can kind of play the chase card with him a little bit and get outside of hitters’ comfort zone. And obviously with the stuff that he has, it’s easy to miss barrels.”

Again, time will tell how much that was due to Sasaki himself, or the fact that he was facing such a miserable Angels lineup; which has averaged fewer than three runs per game during their current 5-21 free fall.

Then again, Sasaki became the first Dodgers pitcher other than Shohei Ohtani to go seven innings with two runs or fewer since Glasnow tossed eight scoreless April 23.

“Today,” Rushing said, “was obviously a big step.”

Who’s not

The Angels were betting on Grayson Rodriguez’s upside when they acquired him in a trade for outfielder Taylor Ward this offseason.

But in his injury-delayed team debut Sunday, he looked helpless against the Dodgers’ resurgent offense.

The turning point in his 3 ⅔-inning, seven-run start came with two on and two outs in the fourth, when he was slow to cover first base on a two-out grounder from Hyeseong Kim that allowed the inning to continue.

The four at-bats that followed: a two-run single from Ohtani (who went 3-for-5), a walk from Freddie Freeman (which loaded the bases again), a two-run single from Andy Pages (putting him back in the MLB lead for RBIs with 41 this season) and then, after Rodriguez was removed from the game, another RBI single from Kyle Tucker (who ultimately finished the day with three hits and three runs driven in).

Just like that, the Dodgers led 7-0.

The way Sasaki was pitching, it would be more than enough.

“I think the games unfolded close to perfectly,” Ohtani said, after the Dodgers outscored the Angels 31-3 in the series.

“To break out like that,” Roberts added, “is good for the confidence of the offense.”

Up next

The Dodgers renew their recently heated rivalry with the Padres on Monday in San Diego, opening the series with Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3-3, 3.60 ERA) on the mound and a one-game lead in the NL West standings (pending the outcome of the Padres’ Sunday game against the Mariners).

It’s a good thing Miguel Vargas is currently playing like he wants to wear an All-Star jersey in a couple of months, because something tells me the White Sox won’t be getting anything else in return for Erick Fedde when he departs the rotation this time around.

Despite what wound up being a cathartic, 9-8 victory in 10 innings, it appears likely that said departure will come sooner rather than later, given the glut of minor league pitching that needs a chance at some big league action. He just didn’t have particularly astute command today, and his stuff simply doesn’t have the juice to get much done when his command isn’t astute. It’s not surprising that the Cubs put three runs on him before we even had a chance to blink, when you take a look at the pitches they were swinging at in the first inning.

Those are a lot of fat locations for pitches that are pretty easy to make contact with, and it’s not particularly surprising that Michael Busch managed to extend his hands on one of those outside cutters and yank a two-run homer out to right field against the breeze. Two singles and a wild pitch later, it was a 3-0 game, and any hope at a repeat of yesterday’s home side thwacking was swiftly thwarted.

Fortunately, opposite Fedde, Colin Rea wasn’t exactly a portrait of intimidation, and it took just one additional inning for the Sox to string a few hits together, as singles from Colson Montgomery, Andrew Benintendi and Edgar Quero scratched their first run across.

Unfortunately, things didn’t get a whole lot better for Fedde, who still walked two Cubs in the second inning despite bouncing back to hold them scoreless. He then appeared to be dealing with some sort of cut or blister on his throwing hand, receiving brief medical treatment between innings before allowing another walk and double in a shaky third. Finally, it all fell apart entirely in the fourth inning, as Fedde failed to record an out and was removed from the game after allowing Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner to reach via a single and walk.

Taking the ball from Fedde 12 years after being taken three picks ahead of him in the 2014 draft, Sean Newcomb has been generally excellent this year in taking on whatever role has been asked of him, from garbage time to LOOGY work to traditional long relief. He couldn’t quite clutch up all the way this time, letting in a run by way of a deflected ground ball back up the middle and pushing the Cubs run total to four. But he was excellent the rest of his time in the game, keeping the Cubs off the board in the rest of the fourth and fifth and giving his club a chance to chip away.

That chipping began with Newcomb still pitching, as Miguel Vargas got plunked to open the fourth and circled the bags on a double into the gap off of Benintendi’s bat, his second hit of the day.

The ability to meaningfully chip away at a deficit is not a skill that Sox offenses have possessed very much in recent years, but evidence mounts that this might finally be changing. The whipping wind was as important as any individual player in this one — according to Statcast, it robbed a would-be Ian Happ home run to right of an absurd 124 feet of distance in the third inning.

And for a minute in the fifth inning, it felt as though the White Sox were putting this one in the category of games that would be more reasonable to expect them to win next season. A would-be game-tying home run from Derek Hill, smoked off the bat at 100.4 mph at a nearly-ideal 24° launch angle, was kept in the park just enough for Pete Crow-Armstrong to get his glove on it. Munetaka Murakami’s hustle kept the inning alive with a legged-out fielder’s choice that could have been an inning-ending double play, and though it looked like Vargas was on the precipice of being a wind victim for the second time, his 103 mph line drive evaded Crow-Armstrong’s leather to tie the game at four:

Grant Taylor was nails in relief of Newcomb, facing the minimum six hitters and using just 25 pitches over two perfect innings against the top of the Cubs lineup. It was the 55th appearance of his career, which moved him into a tie with a couple of the dead ball era’s most infamous names — Carl Mays and Ed Cicotte — for the most games to start a career without allowing a home run. Bryan Hudson avoided disaster for the second time in three days, narrowly escaping a bases-loaded jam to keep things scoreless headed to the Sox half of the eighth.

Much to his credit, Benintendi came to play ball today, working a two-out walk to get Phil Maton on his toes before moving into scoring position on an Quero single and, finally, gloriously streaking home on Tristan Peters’ first big league bomb:

Then Seranthony Domínguez came on and had an easy 1-2-3 inning to secure the 8-5 win, right?

Reader, you know the answer to that question. Domínguez walking Alex Bregman to start the inning was predictable, as might have been his subsequent strikeout of Ian Happ. It also probably wouldn’t have been hard to predict that he’d be unable to bear down and stop the fire when Vargas threw away the second out of the inning and made Michael Conforto the tying run at the plate.

You know why I called Conforto the tying run at the plate, right?

Murakami gave the Sox some hope for keeping things out of extra innings with a slightly bizarre double that dropped between a tumbling Seiya Suzuki and Crow-Armstrong in the outfield, but Vargas and Chase Meidroth couldn’t bring Mune around to score. Crow-Armstrong himself started the 10th inning on second base for the North Siders, and instantly stole third with freshman righty Tyler Davis taking over for Domínguez. Crow-Armstrong eventually was thrown out trying for home on an infield-in ground ball, but it nonetheless set the table for Alex Bregman to step to the plate with the bases loaded.

Davis did his job, drawing a slowly-chopped ground ball, but it was just a hair too slow for Montgomery to have a play at the plate. Even though Davis nutted up and punched out Suzuki to end the threat, the Cubs still took a 8-7 lead to the bottom of the 10th.

It’s worth repeating, Benintendi had a hell of a game, capping off his afternoon with a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt to move the tying run to third — perfectly executed enough that it rather irritated me when he couldn’t beat it out and make himself the winning run.

Fortunately, it didn’t matter, because as I was typing up my message of complaint into the South Side Sox slack, Quero made it all a moot point. Given the slight reported setback in Kyle Teel’s rehab assignment, Quero couldn’t have possibly picked a better time to escape from the malaise that’s plagued his bat all season. What started out as a sure game-tying sac fly kept carrying into the seats, for a game-winning home run:

Even with every game spent with a winning record this season being house money, failing to come back and win this game would have been tough to swallow. But the win wraps up Chicago’s longest homestand of the season, and one that undoubtedly brought some of the best vibes Rate Field has seen in years despite a couple of highly-avoidable losses.

Their schedule has them on a plane to the West Coast as I write, where they’re set to take on Seattle for a trio of nightcaps Monday through Wednesday. Tomorrow will be the most challenging start of Noah Schultz’s young career, as he’ll see a potentially potent Seattle lineup for the second time in 10 days opposite All-Star Bryan Woo. First pitch is at 8:40 p.m. CT, and I’ll be there to watch and recap it with you!

After the Mets got the first two men on against Yankees closer David Bednar in the bottom of the ninth inning down by three, their big boppers in Juan Soto and Mark Vientos weren’t able to get the job done. So, down to their last out, it was left to Tyrone Taylor, who didn’t even start the game but entered as a pinch-hitter for MJ Melendez in the fourth inning. 

And after going 0-for-2 in his first two at-bats, despite hitting the ball hard both times just for an outfielder to make a great play on the ball, Taylor came through in the ninth, attacking the first pitch and hitting it where nobody could make a play on it.

“Awesome. That’s all I can say. It was awesome,” Taylor said of his game-tying, three-run home run.” I was just happy to contribute for the team and do my part.”

Actually, it had been a while since Taylor, now 6-for-37 in his last 15 games, had done something with the bat. In fact, his entire season had not been going as he would’ve liked, hitting just .177 before the home run with an OPS below .500.

That’s what makes the home run that much more stunning, or “special” as Sunday’s starter Freddy Peralta called it.

“It was one of the best moments that I’ve experienced before,” Peralta said.

Following the blast, Citi Field was sent into a full on frenzy as the Mets fans in attendance were finally able to give it to their Yankee counterparts with the Yanks leading since the third inning and the Mets playing poorly, particularly in an ugly sixth inning.

But Taylor, perhaps the unlikeliest of sources, was able to help the Mets finally win a game in which they trailed after the eighth inning, a well-documented distinction that they hadn’t accomplished since 2024.

Having it come against the Yankees, in the rubber match of the Subway Series during an intense weekend, made it all the more sweeter for Taylor and the Mets.

“It was pretty awesome, the atmosphere here was electric,” Taylor said. “Bednar is a really good pitcher so it felt good for sure.”

Already dramatic enough, the home run had an added level of spice to it with the ball hit towards the left-field foul pole and nobody, not even Taylor, knowing if it would be fair or foul until it finally landed in the seats.

“I didn’t know it was gonna stay fair,” Taylor said. “I kind of waited there to see if it would.”

But in a season where not a lot has gone the Mets, or Taylor’s, way, for one moment, it all did.

“The way that we came back was very special,” Peralta said. “And coming from [Taylor] as well too, it was really nice because he’s a great guy, great player and I feel great about him.”