Category: Baseball

Box Score

Jacob Misiorowski doing incredible things has become shockingly routine this season, especially this month. He came into his start today not having allowed a run in four outings covering 24 1/3 innings in May. But he looked as good as he has at any point during that streak today, if not better, before he finally allowed a sole run in the sixth inning. His offense, meanwhile, jumped on Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore early and handed the Brewer pitching staff everything they’d need, and the Brewers took the first game of the first series of the year with their division rivals.

Misiorowski brought the heat in the first inning. His first six pitches were all at least 103 mph. Unfortunately four of them were balls, so Cardinals leadoff hitter JJ Wetherholt reached on a walk. After that, though, Misiorowski didn’t throw another ball in the inning. He struck out Iván Herrera and Alec Burleson on three pitches each before getting Jordan Walker to ground out on the first pitch of the at-bat.

The Brewers also got a leadoff walk after Jackson Chourio worked back from a 1-2 count. Liberatore almost walked Brice Turang, too, but came back to strike him out. Chourio should’ve been the second out when Liberatore threw over to first with Chourio stealing, but Burleson, the first baseman, made a weak throw to second base and Chourio just beat it (on a play that needed to be reviewed in order to make the correct safe call). That turned out to be big, as William Contreras followed with an RBI single and Christian Yelich followed that with his fourth homer of the season. The Brewers handed Misiorowski an early 3-0 lead.

The Cardinals didn’t have any better luck in the second inning. Miz struck out Nolan Gorman, got a groundout from Masyn Winn, and blew away Bryan Torres on three pitches. Blake Perkins struck out to start the bottom of the second. Garrett Mitchell picked up a hit on a grounder up the middle, one which Masyn Winn was surprisingly able to glove despite it hitting the bag at second base, but he wouldn’t have had a throw even if it hadn’t hit the base. After a Joey Ortiz strikeout, Mitchell was thrown out trying to steal second to end the inning.

Miz looked untouchable in the third. After a first-pitch ball to Pedro Pagés, Miz nearly got an immaculate-inning-minus-one, as he struck out Pagés and Victor Scott II on the next six pitches (including a filthy backdoor curveball on 0-2 to get Scott looking) and then got ahead of Wetherholt 0-2. Misiorowski did end up needing a couple more pitches, but he struck out Wetherholt, too. After walking the leadoff hitter, Misiorowski retired the next nine in a row with seven strikeouts… and needed only 30 pitches to do it.

Liberatore decided to do his best Misiorowski imitation in the bottom of the third, and struck out Chourio, Turang, and Contreras in order. Miz had another 1-2-3 inning with a couple of strikeouts in the fourth—Burleson hit one to the warning track, the first real contact for the Cardinals of the game, but Mitchell caught it without much trouble.

Liberatore continued his strikeout streak by getting Yelich to start the bottom of the fourth, but Andrew Vaughn lined a fastball into the right-field corner for a one-out double. Rengifo followed with a single into center, but Vaughn had to pause to make sure it fell and thus had to hold at third base. Unfortunately Vaughn was caught in a rundown and became the second out on the next pitch when Perkins hit a hard grounder right at the third baseman, Gorman. With runners on first and second and two out, Mitchell battled but struck out looking on a tough slider on the low-outside corner.

Misiorowski picked up his tenth strikeout to start the fifth, then got Winn on a weak groundout to first. Torres nearly got the Cardinals’ first hit with two outs, but Rengifo reached up and snagged his soft line drive to end the inning. Oritz led off the bottom of the inning with a single to left. Chourio hit a ground ball up the middle that was hit a little too softly for Winn to turn two on, so Chourio replaced Ortiz at first base. After Turang struck out looking (Liberatore’s career-high 10th strikeout), Chourio took off for second with Contreras batting—Chourio probably would’ve been out with a good throw, but the throw bounced into center field and Chourio made it to third. Contreras walked a couple pitches later—with first base open, Liberatore didn’t seem all that interested in pitching to him—but Yelich grounded out to second to end the inning.

Pagés, leading off the sixth, finally ended Misiorowski’s no-hit bid with a blooper that landed just out of the reach of Turang in right field. After Scott traded places with Pagés on a fielder’s choice, Wetherholt got the Cards’ first non-cheap hit, with a hard grounder through the right side that put runners on the corners with one out. Suddenly, the Cardinals had the tying run at the plate. A weak grounder from Herrera resulted in the second out but easily scored Scott from third, but a grounder by Burleson ended the inning. St. Louis was on the board, and Misiorwoski’s 29 1/3 inning scoreless streak was over, but the Brewers still had a 3-1 lead.

Liberatore, who crossed 100 pitches in the fifth, was done in the sixth, and his replacement was a lefty making his major-league debut, Brycen Mautz. He was rudely greeted by Vaughn, who lined a single into right, and after Vaughn advanced to second on a wild pitch, Rengifo walked. Perkins put a charge into one but he hit it to the deepest part of the ballpark, and Scott caught it with a leap (that was a little unnecessary, maybe) on the warning track, but Vaughn tagged and got to third. That set up runners on the corners with one out for Mitchell, who blooped one into left that landed just beyond the outsretched glove of the diving Scott. Vaughn scored from third, and Milwaukee still had runners on first and second with one out.

Mautz spiked a curveball with Ortiz at the plate that enabled both runners to advance to scoring position. Ortiz struck out, though—the first of Mautz’s career, and also a big one in the game situation—and Chourio struck out, too. The Brewers did finally get an add-on run, but it definitely felt like they’d left at least one more on the table.

Misiorowski was out for the seventh with 81 pitches on his ledger. He got Walker to fly out to center, then struck out Gorman and Winn to end the inning. The strikeout of Winn was Misiorowski’s 12th of the day, matching a career high, and it put an exclamation point on the end of another brilliant outing for the Brewer ace. He finished his day with one run allowed on two hits and one walk, and he lowered his ERA to 1.83.

Turang walked to start the bottom of the seventh. Contreras flew out to right on a pitch that he clearly thought he should’ve hit over the fence, but Yelich hit a base hit up the middle that was followed by a deep drive by Vaughn that bounced off the warning track in the left-field corner and went over the wall. The ground-rule nature of the double was unfortunate, as Yelich would surely have scored on the play; he tried to score on the next play, when Rengifo hit a medium-deep fly ball to right, and initially appeared to have done so. But on review, Yelich’s lead foot bounced up off the plate as he slid, and he was called out. Milwaukee had added another, though, and led 5-1 heading to the eighth inning.

Aaron Ashby came in to relieve Misiorowski in the eighth. The Cardinals squared him up pretty well, but the Brewers defense did what they needed to, as Torres grounded out to third, Pagés flew out to the warning track, and pinch-hitter José Fermín popped out behind second base.

Mautz pitched was out for a third inning in his debut in the bottom of the eighth against the bottom of the Brewer order. Perkins and Mitchell both grounded out, and Ortiz flew out to center. The Brewers headed to the ninth with a four-run lead.

Ashby didn’t need it. Wetherholt grounded out, Herrera struck out, and Burleson popped out. The Brewers won 5-1.

Misiorowski, as he has been, was the game’s big star. But several Brewers had solid days offensively, too, even if the team couldn’t manage more than five runs: every batter except Perkins reached base today (and even Perkins made solid contact a couple of times), and four Brewers had multiple hits. Yelich had the game’s biggest hit, the first-inning two-run homer, and he also hit a single later on. Vaughn had three hits on the day, including his RBI double. Rengifo added two hits and a walk, and Mitchell had two singles and an RBI.

It was a nice win to start the series against the team closest to them in the NL Central standings. The series continues tomorrow night, with Kyle Harrison taking on Michael McGreevy. That game is at 6:40 p.m.

Well, that stuff about Dylan Cease making his next start? Not so much.

The team has put him on the IL.

“It doesn’t look too terrible, knock on wood. Just trying to be smart and not have it get worse. Don’t know the exact timeline yet, hoping it’s a minimal stay.”

The team hasn’t said who is coming to take his roster spot, but likely a reliever for now and then a starting pitcher when it is Cease’s turn in the rotation again.

And Vlad isn’t in tonight’s lineup. They say he is available off the bench, but I have my doubts.

Tonight’s lineup:

Sometimes you just have to tip your cap and admit that someone was better than you. Today’s cap is tipped to Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski who overwhelmed the St. Louis Cardinals on Memorial Day Monday as Milwaukee won 5-1.

If you could erase the first inning, Matthew Liberatore had a better-than-average start for the Cardinals. He registered a career-high 10 strikeouts. Unfortunately, the 1st inning did happen and it was a punishing one for Matthew as he gave up a leadoff walk to Jackson Chourio who ended up stealing second base when Liberatore’s pickoff attempt was tardy and he was ruled safe on a successful Brewers challenge. Chourio then scored on a single to left by William Contreras making it 1-0 Brewers. That wasn’t nearly as damaging as what Christian Yelich would do when he slammed a 381 foot opposite field home run giving Milwaukee a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 lead.

That 3-0 lead felt “insurmountable” because Jacob Misiorowski was dealing. He didn’t allow a St. Louis Cardinals hit for the first 5 innings. The no-hit bid would end in the top of the 6th inning when Pedro Pagés managed a single into short right field. After Victor Scott II reached on a fielder’s choice, JJ Wetherholt smoked a single between first and second base and Victor advanced to third base. Suddenly, the St. Louis Cardinals had the tying run at the plate in Ivan Herrera, but all he was able to manage was a groundout to third which scored Victor Scott II and cut the Milwaukee lead to 3-1. Jacob Misiorowski ended up throwing heat for 7 innings and striking out 12.

Matthew Liberatore’s final stat line for Monday was 5 innings pitched allowing 3 earned runs on 7 hits while striking out 10 and walking 2. Brycen Mautz made his Major League debut in the 6th inning and got off to a shaky start allowing a single to Vaughan who advanced to second on a wild pitch. Brycen then walked Rengifo and then gave up a single to Garrett Mitchell which scored Vaughan making it 4-1 Brewers. Mautz finished the bottom of the 6th inning strong, though, with strikeouts of Ortiz and Chourio.

Milwaukee would tack on a run to their lead in the bottom of the 7th inning when Brycen Mautz walked Turang. After getting Contreras to fly out, Yelich singled and then Vaughan hit a ground-rule double scoring Turang and making it 5-1 Brewers. It could have been more, but Christian Yelich gave a clinic on why you don’t slide into home with your lead foot sticking straight up in the air as he was thrown out by Jordan Walker after a successful Cardinals challenge. Kudos to Brycen Mautz for setting the Brewers down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 8th inning. Imagine making your Major League debut in a tight 3-1 game against your NL Central Division-leading rival. He should feel good about his first game.

The St. Louis Cardinals will try again on Tuesday night as Michael McGreevy will start for the good guys while Kyle Harrison takes the mound for the villains. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40pm at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

Former All-Star shortstop Wander Franco was found guilty of sexual and psychological abuse of a 14-year-old girl but will not serve prison time, according to a verdict delivered Monday, May 25 by a three-judge panel in the Dominican Republic and reported by ESPN.

Franco, 25, was facing a second trial after he received a two-year suspended sentence when he was convicted in June 2025 of having an intimate relationship with a 14-year-old girl when Franco was 21. The girl's mother was convicted of trafficking her daughter and received a 10-year prison sentence that was overturned on appeal; prosecutors allege that Franco had paid off the mother.

The mother was once again convicted of trafficking her daughter and again received a 10-year sentence, ESPN reported. Although the outlet reported that the court issued a judicial pardon to Franco, he was still convicted of a crime of moral turpitude, which would prevent Franco from obtaining a visa to work in the USA.

The court's decision will be issued June 16. Franco remains on Major League Baseball's restricted list for failure to report.

"We are aware of today's verdict in the Wander Franco trial and will conclude our investigation at the appropriate time," MLB said in a statement.

Both the prosecution and Franco's attorney appealed the first trial's outcome, and according to "Diario Libre," a Dominican Republic newspaper, the state sought a five-year prison sentence, while Franco sought to have the conviction overturned – which would likely be his only hope to continue a major league career.

Franco responds to sentence, wants to play in MLB again

As he exited the courtroom, Franco expressed relief and hope he might resume his MLB career, unlikely though that may be. 

"To my fans, keep supporting me, trust in God, and with faith in God, I'll soon be back (in MLB)," Franco said in a video by Dominican journalist Luis Tomas Rae Barett. "In this process, I learned to never give up and to value family. Value your family, because they will always be there. I've always kept training thanks to my dad. I will continue training and waiting for God's decision."

Franco was in the second year of an 11-year, $182 million contract in 2023 when posts emerged on social media of Franco and the 14-year-old girl. Franco's conviction meant the Rays have not had to pay Franco in the years since, and that's likely to continue.

Franco was named to the American League All-Star team in 2023 and had accumulated 5.4 WAR before he was placed on the restricted list that August. He played his last game on Aug. 12.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Wander Franco guilty of sexual abuse of minor in Dominican Republic

The headline represents about all I’ve got for the Cubs’ 2-1 loss to the Pirates Monday afternoon, their ninth consecutive defeat.

Ben Brown was absolutely dealing. He allowed four hits and a run and struck out seven in six solid innings, throwing 83 pitches (58 strikes). The six-inning effort was his longest of the season, but the 83 pitches were just one more than he’d thrown in his previous outing. It was a warm day in Pittsburgh (73 degrees) but not overly hot and humid, so why not let him go one more?

Perhaps that would have prevented Henry Davis from hitting the solo home run off Trent Thornton that was the difference in the game.

We’ll never know, of course.

The other difference in the game, naturally, was the Cubs’ almost-complete offensive failure. They had six hits and three walks off Carmen Mlodzinski and Wilber Dotel over eight innings (and no runners in the ninth), but again couldn’t get any of the runners across the plate. It was so bad that the RISP numbers were just 0-for-2, largely because they simply couldn’t get anyone to scoring position. Overall the Cubs left seven on base, with one runner (Alex Bregman) picked off.

The only Pirates run off Brown came in the third when he walked Spencer Horwitz with one out and Brandon Lowe doubled him in.

The Cubs tied the game in the fifth when Michael Busch homered off Mlodzinski, his sixth [VIDEO].

Busch has now homered in back-to-back games. So that’s good. Too bad there wasn’t anyone on base. That home run went a long way [VIDEO].

A bit more on Brown’s outing from BCB’s JohnW53:

Ben Brown finished with one run on four hits, two walks and seven strikeouts in six innings.

Only 12 previous Cubs starters since 1901 had exactly the first four numbers in at least six innings. Just three did not get a decision: Rube Kroh, first of the 12, in 8.0 innings in 1908 at Philadelphia; Tom Gorzelany, in 6.1, in 2010 at Cincinnati; and Jeff Samardzija, the last before today, in 6.0, on June 23, 2014 at home vs. the Reds.
Eight were winners: Orval Overall (1910), Dick Selma (1969), Fergie Jenkins (1972), Scott Sanderson (1987), Jon Lieber (2000), Mark Prior (2003), Carlos Zambrano (2004) and Rodrigo Lopez (2011).

Prior and Lopez pitched 6.0, as Brown did.

Matt Garza pitched a complete game in 2011 vs. the White Sox and lost, 1-0.

Here’s more on Brown’s day [VIDEO].

As you can see there, Brown used a really good pitch mix and mostly baffled Pirates hitters. Could it be that Ben Brown has finally arrived as a MLB starter? You know I had my doubts, but the fact that he has developed good secondary pitches appears to have made the difference. Great for Ben, and great for the team. Here are Brown’s seven strikeouts [VIDEO].

Thornton retired the first two Pirates in the seventh on ground balls before Davis homered. The pitch wasn’t a bad pitch, either, a cutter down and away, but Davis just got it.

Jacob Webb threw a scoreless eighth, helped in part by this fine catch by Pete Crow-Armstrong [VIDEO].

Craig Counsell sent three pinch hitters to the plate in the ninth, the first was Nico Hoerner for Pedro Ramirez.

I’m having trouble understanding why you’d bat for a switch-hitter (Ramirez) in that situation. Okay, Nico’s experienced at leading off innings, I guess you can make a case for it.

Nico swung at what would have been ball three and grounded out.

Seiya Suzuki, batting for Moisés Ballesteros, struck out and Carson Kelly, batting for Miguel Amaya, grounded out to end the game.

You can tell these guys are pressing, which can happen when a team’s on a long losing streak. All the team can do is pick up and try to win tomorrow.

A couple of likely meaningless notes on the Cubs losing recently: First, this game ran 2:24. It’s the sixth game this year the Cubs have played in that time or shorter. They’ve lost all of them.

Second, and even more meaningless:

Maybe wear the blue alternates the rest of the road trip? Just for the heck of it? Can’t hurt, right?

The Cubs will once again attempt to end the losing streak Tuesday evening at PNC Park. Jordan Wicks will make his first 2026 start for the Cubs and Braxton Ashcraft will go for the Pirates. Game time Tuesday is 5:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.

Our first visit of the year to San Francisco, and we’re hoping it goes as well as the last time the D-backs faced the Giants. You probably remember, considering it was the dim and distant depths of… last week. Arizona swept San Francisco handily, outscoring them by a margin of 23-8 across the three games. But like most teams, the Giants have been harder to beat on their own turf. They have gone 12-13 at Oracle Park, as opposed to 10-18 on the road. So I’d be perfectly fine with Arizona taking two of three. That’d give the team a 10-3 record across two weeks of games against divisional rivals (albeit the bottom of the barrel), and you can’t argue with that.

Merrill Kelly will seek to post a fourth straight quality start. Though to be fair, those games were against the three worst teams in the league, in the Mets, Rockies and Giants. It did include our first complete game at Coors in a very long time, which is no mean feat. Merrill held the Giants to three runs over six innings in a 6-3 victory last time out, scattering eight hits and no walks with four strikeouts. Kinda meh, considering the Giants offense. They did scored 18 runs against the White Sox on Saturday and Sunday. But they scored 16 against the Athletics on Saturday and Sunday before coming to Chase Field, and that didn’t help them there, did it?

Bit of an odd start time. I get the day game on a Monday thing, with it being a holiday, but 2:05 pm is a bit odd, especially since I don’t believe it’s a national broadcast or anything. Oh, well. I’ll have to convince Mrs. S to delay the barbecuing until after I get the recap posted. I’ve been on good form of late: haven’t had a losing Monday recap since April 13. Admittedly a slew of off-days helped! But my last two recaps were victories in completely opposite ways: one was 1-0, while the other was a 12-2 win, our biggest margin of the season. I think I prefer the latter: always nice to start work on the recap in the fourth inning!

The San Francisco Giants welcome the Arizona Diamondbacks to Oracle Park this afternoon to begin a three-game series. Just like we did last week, only this time at home!

As of the time this is being pre-written (due to the holiday), neither team has announced pitchers for this game. So make sure you head down to the comments for the most up to date information.

Game #54

Who: San Francisco Giants – Arizona Diamondbacks

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 2:05 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Per Wilner:

Lukes isn’t having a great season, slashing .250/.286/.327 (a 73 wRC+) in 56 PA before he went down with a hamstring injury. To be fair, though, he was hampered by some strange issues with vertigo in the first three weeks of that time. In 21 PA since seeing a specialist to work out a treatment plan for that issue, he had notched 10 hits including four doubles. Hopefully that means that the Lukes we’ll see is closer to the guy who was a solidly league average hitter in 2025.

Davis Schneider takes the fall to make room. It’s been a rough start for him, with a .127/.295/.211 line through 89 PA. He’s not barreling the ball up as often as he usually does, accounting for the collapse in his power production, and while he still works an absolute ton of walks it hasn’t been enough to overcome a nearly 35% strikeout rate. He’s shown no signs of breaking out of his slump, either, with May numbers worse than what he posted in March and April. Hopefully some everyday time in Buffalo gets him straightened out. It’s worth remembering that he’s been prone to horrific slumps for his entire career, and has always bounced back eventually to post solid overall production, so there’s every reason to hope he can get right.

I’m not sure I agree with Wilner that Lenyn Sosa would have been the alternative. It’s true that he’s somehow been even worse, with a 29 wRC+ on the season and 25 since he became a Blue Jay, but he’s out of options and this front office is loathe to give a guy up for nothing if they have any belief in him left at all. I can’t say I have any faith in a guy who’s below replacement level through four and a quarter MLB seasons, but the Jays just acquired him and I’m not surprised that 76 horrendous PA aren’t enough for them to give up on whatever they think they see there.

In other minor news, it’s the first roof open night of the year:

And Today In Injuries: Dylan Cease told John Schneider he expects to make his next start before going in for an MRI on the sore leg that knocked him out of yesterday’s game. He also apparently told Vladimir Guerrero jr. that he thought it was just a cramp. I’ll believe it when I see it, and obviously everything is up in the air pending the results of the MRI, but it still seems like they probably avoided a major injury here.

Regarding Vlad, the same story notes that x-rays on his elbow were negative. He came out of the game because he couldn’t feel his hand, but apparently experienced the same feeling after a similar HBP last year and played the next day. He’s not in tonight’s lineup, but hopefully it won’t be more than a day or two.

Texas Rangers lineup for May 25, 2026 against the Houston Astros: starting pitchers are Kumar Rocker for the Rangers and Tatsuya Imai for the Astros.

The Rangers return home and will try to break a three game losing streak. Josh Jung is still sitting due to his shoulder issue.

The lineup:

Pederson — 1B

Osuna — LF

Nimmo — DH

Duran — 3B

Carter — CF

Foscue — 2B

McCutchen — RF

Jansen — C

Helman — SS

6:05 p.m. Central start time. The Rangers are -125 favorites.

What started out as a good week for the Yankees turned into a tossup, as they opened with two straight wins against the Blue Jays before dropping the next two to split the series and then opened their second meeting with the Rays in embarrassing fashion blowing the lead late. They got rained out on Saturday prompting another chance to force a split and they took it, but not before going through eight scoreless innings of play that had everyone wondering where the offense was. Thankfully, Aaron Judge took it upon himself to end it, crushing a two-run walk-off homer to finally get one on Tampa Bay.

The Yankees did get some undeniably good news this week, getting Gerrit Cole and José Caballero back from the IL on Friday. Cole jumped back into the rotation and proved that he didn’t need one more tuneup, tossing six innings of shutout ball before the inevitable bullpen blowup. Can they rely on Cole to be the ace of old right away, and will they need him to be with the way the offense has been frozen over of late? Will Judge’s blast end up kicking him out of his stupor at the plate? If you have questions like these, or anything else on your mind, send ‘em in for a chance to be featured in our Yankees mailbag.

Answers will run on Friday afternoon. All questions received by the night of May 28th will be considered. You can leave your submissions in the comment section below or by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

The Nationals have won 3 of their last 4 series and have taken over 2nd place in the National League East as we enter the end of May. After coming excruciatingly close to sweeping the Atlanta Braves, they now finish their quick road trip with a 3-game set against the Cleveland Guardians.

Cleveland has been dominating the middling American League Central, sitting 9.0 games over .500. They’ve gone 8-1 over their last 9 contests, and their pitching staff has been absolutely on point. Opposing offenses haven’t been able to string together anything of substance, and their offense has continually done just enough to close out a victory.

Game 1 – Monday 6:10 PM EST

WSH: RHP Zack Littell (3-4, 5.83 ERA)

CLE: RHP Tanner Bibee (0-6, 3.75 ERA)

Littell will look to finish his month of May on a high note, after posting an impressive 2.55 ERA in his last 4 starts. His season-long mark has dropped over 2 full points since the start of the month, and he’s looked much more like the steady veteran the Nationals signed in the offseason. Chasing whiffs hasn’t been his pathway to success, with just 7 strikeouts in 17.2 innings in May, but limiting hard contact has fueled a healthy stretch of productive outings. PJ Poulin will actually open this one, but Littell will get the bulk of the action

Don’t let the record fool you, Bibee has been a more-than-serviceable pitcher through 11 appearances. While he has racked up a few more Ks, he’s another contact-first arm who seems to never get shelled. He’s coming off the best start of the season to date, throwing 8.0 innings of 1-run ball against the Detroit Tigers on May 20th, allowing just 4 hits and 1 walk in the process.

Game 2 – Tuesday 6:10 PM EST

WSH: RHP Cade Cavalli (2-3, 3.86 ERA)

CLE: LHP Joey Cantillo (4-1, 3.05 ERA)

Similar to Bibee, the best Cavalli has looked all year came the last time he was on the mound. He ripped through the New York Mets’ lineup on May 21st, cruising through 7.0 innings with just 2 runs surrendered and 9 total strikeouts. The stuff continues to come in waves for the righthander, and it’s impossible not to continue to believe in the ceiling he has. He’s still looking for his first scoreless outing of the season, and a weaker Cleveland lineup could give him the chance to do just that if he can replicate the success of his arsenal last time around the rotation.

Cantillo was a reliable swing starter for the Guardians in 2025, and he’s taken it to the next level in 2026. He’s parlayed a 2.70 ERA in April with a 3.16 ERA in May, allowing 1 or fewer runs in 3 of his 5 starts this month. When he’s been beat, teams have capitalized on the few hits he tends to give up, making timely hitting of utmost importance for the Washington lineup in Game 2.

Game 3 – Wednesday 1:10 PM EST

WSH: RHP Miles Mikolas (1-3, 6.17 ERA)

CLE: RHP Gavin Williams (7-3, 3.25)

I don’t think anyone is fully gung-ho on Mikolas quite yet, but the redemption arc has certainly been exciting to watch. The ERA remains above the 6.00 mark, but it had sat around the 8.00 range for a handful of starts earlier in the year. He’s been attacking hitters with well-timed sequencing of his pitches, and his command has looked far better with just 3 walks this month. He doesn’t quite inspire confidence, but if the results can continue to come, the Nats’ rotation would benefit in a major way.

Aside from a rough run where he gave up 5 or more runs in 3 of 4 starts, hitters haven’t figured out Williams on a consistent basis. He delivered one of the best starts of any pitcher against Philadelphia a couple of days ago, outdueling Cy Young candidate Cristopher Sanchez with 8.0 shutout innings and 11 strikeouts. Unlike their other arms, when hitters make contact against him, it’s usually around the barrel. His Average Opposing Exit Velocity, Barrel%, and Hard-Hit% are all under the 10th percentile, something the Nats will need to capitalize on.

KANSAS CITY – For the first time this season, Anthony Volpe and José Caballero were in the same lineup on Monday afternoon.

Volpe started at shortstop while Caballero slid over to third base as the Yankees faced Royals right-hander Michael Wacha, who has reverse splits, at Kauffman Stadium.

Caballero had started all 41 of his games this season at shortstop before moving off the position Monday. Aaron Boone wanted to get an extra righty bat in the lineup against Wacha, who has been tougher on left-handed hitters, which meant Ryan McMahon was relegated to the bench.

“I just wanted to at least have a little bit more of a righty presence today against Wacha, who’s historically tougher on lefties,” Boone said before the game. “We can’t avoid having some lefties in there, obviously, and I like the ones we have in there. But felt like getting another righty bat in there and the athleticism and defense and everything. Felt like today was a good day to have him in the lineup as well.”

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

Volpe had been out of the lineup in Caballero’s first two games back from the injured list before getting back in on Monday, at his regular position. The Yankees plan to have Volpe work out at second base before games he is not starting, though there is no indication he is close to being an option there.

Caballero, meanwhile, could get a start in the outfield during this series against the Royals, which would give Volpe another day in the lineup.

“Whenever I’m in there [the lineup], I’m happy,” Caballero said Monday.

Caballero, who has plenty of history playing other positions, indicated he would only need some pregame work on the days he plays other positions to feel ready there again.

“Between the lines, I feel comfortable,” he said. “I like to be in the lineup, that’s all.”

MLB vs FIFA.

To write a preview when you have not even one day between the previous series and the upcoming one, on a weekday, definitely adds to the time pressure. Luckily for me, the opponent for the next series is the San Francisco Giants. We saw them just a couple of days ago. That, in general, is no fun for a series preview, even less for a weekday series, but it definitely gives me a bit of stress relief: we saw them a couple of days ago, so there is no news there, and no one is going to read this preview anyhow, given the opponent and the weekday schedule.

So, with your approval, I will keep this series preview short.

I was a bit surprised to see that San Francisco will host some soccer World Cup matches this summer, but it makes all sense, of course, because it is a major city.

My memories of the 1994 World Cup, that was organised in the USA, is limited to watching a weird shirt of Germany, seeing a country like Bolivia play, first time I saw the US soccer team and Alexi Lalas and getting up in the middle of the night to see The Netherlands struggle in their group, for example against Saudi Arabia. It wasn’t the best of performances of the Dutch, but the quarter finals against Brazil were a terrific match, with an, in The Netherlands, legendary commentary when we scored the equalizer after being down 2-0, but we lost anyhow. I still hate Bebeto and his swinging arms. Brazil had eliminated a fiery fighting US the round before. I am sure you join me in my everlasting hatred.

San Francisco got to see Brazil in 1994 four times, because they were the group head and had their fixed seat in the group phase in San Francisco. I did not remember that. This year, though, I am inclined to say that the Bay Area has not been spoiled with matches: Paraguay (twice), Qatar, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Algeria, Australia and Jordan (twice) will play a match at the 49ers stadium. Cheapest tickets can be bought from 200$ and up. Holy crap, that is a lot of money for watching some second/third category teams.

I am sure most people in San Francisco prefer to see Major League Baseball and why not the Arizona Diamondbacks.

After being tarred and feathered on their way out of Arizona, the San Francisco Giants received the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox are surprisingly playing around .500 this season and was therefore not a guaranteed redemption effort for the struggling Giants, but they came out on top.

On Friday evening the Giants had a catastrophic 4th inning and were then down 9-0, losing the match eventually with 9-4. On Saturday a 5th inning grand slam from Harrison Bader propelled the Giants to a 10-3 win. On Sunday it was Rafael Devers doing the same in the 5th inning and he launched the Giants to another win, 8-5.

Those 22 runs in 3 games might do wonders for that struggling offence. It certainly has boosted their confidence, so the Arizona pitching corps better be warned.

Matchups.

Game #1 Mon 05/25 2:05 PM MST, Merrill Kelly (ARI) vs Landen Roupp (SFG).

• Merrill Kelly. 7 GS, 41.0 IP, 4 W-3 L, 5.71 ERA, 5.62 FIP, 1.51 WHIP, 27/18 K/BB. $18,000,000.
• Landen Roupp. 10 GS, 55.0 IP, 5 W-4 L, 3.27 ERA, 2.59 FIP, 1.15 WHIP, 61/21 K/BB. $800,000.

Oh, in the end I do feel time pressure on me because why on earth are they playing the Monday game at 2PM????

Said Imstillhungry95 in his preview: Loupp has had a pretty decent season thus far. Through his first six starts in April, he only gave up more than three runs once. It was a seven run beat down against the Mets in his second start of the season. He had settled down fairly well, though, until the end of the month. Since the calendar has turned to May, he’s pitched three times, and he’s given up four runs twice. This could be a situation of catching a pitcher at the right time.

Well, Roupp went strong against the Diamondbacks and pitched 6 innings, giving up just 1 run. Unfortunately for him, so did Ryne Nelson go strong in that game and it came down to moments. In this case it was Ketel Marte who decided that Arizona was going to win.

Merrill went strong as well in his game against the Giants, giving up 3 runs in 6 innings, but enough for the win, and the sweep.

Game #2 Tue 05/26 6:45 PM MST, Eduardo Rodriguez (ARI) vs Tyler Mahle (SFG).

• Eduardo Rodriguez. 10 GS, 60.1 IP, 4 W-1 L, 2.24 ERA, 3.66 FIP, 1.19 WHIP, 43/23 K/BB. $21,000,000.
• Tyler Mahle. 10 GS, 51.2 IP, 1 W-6 L, 6.10 ERA, 4.73 FIP, 1.57 WHIP, 54/21 K/BB. $10,000,000.

Said Imstillhungry95 in his preview: That’s a stat line for Mahle that looks like it would fit right in with the Diamondbacks pitching staff. It’s been very much a coin flip for Mahle and the Giants as to what sort of performance he is going to put up. He’s started nine times. Three times, he has held his opponent scoreless. Once he gave up two runs. The other five starts? He’s given up five runs or more. Combine this with an offense that sporadically likes to beat up on pitchers, this could be a very beneficial matchup for the Diamondbacks.

Well, Mahle definitely tried but he gave up 6 runs in 5 innings in that matchup against Merrill Kelly, and was tagged with a loss. Said Tyler Mahle after the game: “It’s a bad one, I mean, five innings, six runs is never considered a good start. I don’t think anything was off, just made some bad pitches in some key situations and they capitalized on it. I’ve not given us a chance to win every day [I start]. So that really doesn’t help our record at all.”

Except for a couple of hiccups, E-Rod has been very good so far this season (knocking on every piece of wood I can find at my home). His latest performance was 7 strong innings at Coors Field, allowing 4 hits and a walk, without any damage. As a Diamondback, Eduardo Rodriguez has faced the Giants 4 times and got 1 win. That was last season, in September. 14 runs in 20 innings isn’t a great overall performance against San Francisco since wearing Sedona Red, so time to make a statement.

Game #3 Mon 05/27 12:45 PM MST, Michael Soroka (ARI) vs Trevor McDonald (SFG).

• Michael Soroka. 10 GS, 55.0 IP, 6 W-2 L, 3.27 ERA, 2.94 FIP, 1.26 WHIP, 57/14 K/BB. $7,000,000.
• Trevor McDonald. 4 GS, 22.2 IP, 2 W-1 L, 4.76 ERA, 3.43 FIP, 1.02 WHIP, 21/4 K/BB. $596,453.

Unfortunately the Diamondbacks couldn’t get Soroka a win despite going 6 strong innings, allowing just 1 run. That was already the third time where you’d say the Canadian should have gotten a win. Soroka has seen the Giants just 3 times in his career as a starting pitcher, the last time last year, when he gave up 3 runs in 6 innings and got the loss, as a Washington National.

Trevor McDonald was called up to the major leagues about a month ago after Logan Webb hit the IL. Webb is on his way back though and the biggest question is whether McDonald will stick in the rotation. He did well against Padres, Dodgers and Athletics, but his first non-West coast team knocked him around pretty hard: the White Sox scored 4 runs on him, after hitting two batters and issueing a walk, an anormality for a pitcher who can be proud of his command and control. McDonald was off and not helped by some defensive errors and Borucki allowing two inherited runners to score. Unless Webb makes a surprisingly fast comeback to the majors, it could be McDonald’s final outing in the rotation at the moment, though he has pitched better than his ERA might show.

Philadelphia Phillies (26-27) at San Diego Padres (31-21), May 25, 2026, 3:40 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Petco Park – San Diego, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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Ahead of the start of the Mets’ three-game series with the Reds, manager Carlos Mendoza offered a number of injury updates in his pre-game press conference.

Most pressing for this series is that Juan Soto is still feeling week and has a fever, and so isn’t playing today and his status for the rest of the series is still unknown. Jared Young and A.J. Minter are both set to rejoin the team this week, with Young likely on Tuesday and Minter either Tuesday or Wednesday.

In a rare bit of Mets’ good news, Francisco Lindor has started doing baseball activities and so is on the road back to playing. Similarly, Francisco Alvarez is already running and doing catching drills and may be ahead of the initial eight-week assessment for his return.

Jorge Polanco will “hopefully” start a rehab assignment this week, which is a situation that truly needs to be seen to be believed. And finally, Kodai Senga will throw a bullpen today and make his second rehab start on Thursday.