Category: Baseball

The Mariners lost to the Guardians, 4-3, and are now 42-42 on the season.

I am not a particular Douglas Adams fan but read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as a middle-schooler, as one does, so I could understand my older cousins’ inside jokes. 42, of course, is the answer to ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything – the catch is, no one knows what the question is. As a literal-minded middle-schooler I was pretty annoyed by this conceit, and more annoyed when I found out later that Adams picked the number 42 entirely at random – an empty answer to a question that didn’t even know what it was asking.

Older, now, and less literal-minded, I can appreciate words that fill in gaps for concepts too hard to name – tough one tonight – and how some questions don’t have answers, or even questions. The 2026 Mariners have won 42 games. The 2026 Mariners have lost 42 games. They are a good team, and also a not-good-enough team.

Tonight the Mariners hitters pounded the ball into the ground against Guardians starter Slade Cecconi, who retired seven of the first batters he faced on grounders. The only damage he allowed the first time through the order was a two-out double to Dominic Canzone, hitting in the three-hole spot for the first time in his career, and even the joy of that was tempered as Canzone, who’s been struggling with a bum hamstring, ran gingerly into second base. The hamstring was obviously bothering Canzone, who was serving as DH, all game; postgame Dan Wilson said the injury was “playable,” which is a word that has some meaning, somewhere, maybe, but not a tremendous amount here, or now.

From there, it was mostly the frustrating Mariners offense you’ve become accustomed to watching over the past few weeks. A leadoff single from Julio Rodríguez in the fourth was squandered after a variety of weak-contact outs. Cole Young uncharacteristically blew a Mariners challenge early, perhaps reacting in frustration after a tough check swing call in the third. Ground ball out. Ground ball out. Groundhog Day.

That left the Mariners starter in a familiar position – this time, Logan Gilbert had the grim task of keeping the Guardians off the board. Gilbert looked strong into the fourth, giving up only a single to the lone right-handed hitter in the lineup in Gabriel Arias, until things devolved in the fourth. Travis Bazzana led off with a groundball base hit on a fastball with good velocity (98 mph) but poor location (right in the middle of the plate). Maybe that scared Gilbert off his heater, because the pitch selection went a little wonky after that: in an 0-2 count where he had Kyle Manzardo whiffing at his four-seamer, he threw a changeup as a putaway pitch that instead Manzardo rapped past a diving Cole Young to put runners at the corners with just one out. Gilbert then hung a first-pitch slider to Khalil Watson for a ringing double that brought in the Guardians’ first run of the day, and went back to the changeup another two times against Kyle Ingle for another sharply-hit ground ball single, this time bringing in two runs. Postgame, Gilbert said the game plan was to use the changeup against the Guardians’ lefty-heavy lineup, but acknowledged “it’s kind of a cat and mouse game,” which must mean something to him.

The Mariners had a chance to answer back in the top half of the fifth despite not recording a hit, with Luke Raley accepting a four-pitch walk and Cole Young reaching on an error, but J.P. Crawford couldn’t come up with a clutch two-out knock, caught looking at a sinker up in the zone for an inning-ending strikeout.

It’s hard to fault Gilbert for the next Guardians run, however: with two outs in the fifth, Bazzana reached after a splitter and floated it into the outfield for a single, and then turned on the jets and scored on an excuse-me swing from Brayan Rocchio on a first-pitch fastball up and out of the zone that dribbled down the left field line for a run-scoring double, extending the Guardians lead to 4-0.

The Mariners had yet another chance in the seventh, with Cecconi’s day finally blessedly coming to an end after allowing a walk (and another walk from reliever Colin Holderman), but Stephen Vogt pushed the Sabrowski Saw button and cut down the Mariners’ attempt at a two-out rally. J.P. Crawford battled, but again was the last out, again caught looking at a perfectly spotted strike three.

If there’s any silver lining to be had for this game, it’s that Logan Gilbert managed to push through the seventh inning, saving the bullpen an inning at least – and maybe a palate cleanser for Gilbert to end his outing, battling Steven Kwan for ten pitches and emerging victorious on a called strike three on the slider for his seventh punchout of the day. Take away the fluky-BABIP run in the fifth (and maybe make a few different pitch calls in the fourth) and that’s a solid outing for the reigning AL Pitcher of the Week. If moral victories are the only kind of victory we’re allowed to savor today, well, there are worse ones.

Having used the Saw Trap already and with the Mariners down to their final six outs, Vogt opted to bring in former Mariner Shawn Armstrong, who had a rough outing, hitting Julio on the hand/wrist with a pitch – he was clearly in pain but remained in the game and even came up with a ninth-inning single – before surrendering a single to Canzone, and then giving up the big hit to Randy Arozarena, who jumped on a 94 mph fastball right in the heart of the plate and demolished it to dead center, giving the Mariners three runs in a hurry.

Armstrong then gave up a first-pitch opposite-field single to Josh Naylor before being replaced by Hunter Gaddis. Gaddis got his first two outs before surrendering a first-pitch single to Cole Young on a changeup. But Colt Emerson couldn’t catch up with Gaddis’s slider, closing the book on the Mariners’ best scoring opportunity for the day, as Cade Smith allowed some uncharacteristic traffic but ultimately slammed the door for the Guardians in the ninth.

The Mariners are 42 and 42. They left 11 men on base. Their bottom four hitters, which tonight includes the reigning MVP runner-up, went 1-for-13. It is their 13th straight game of scoring three runs or fewer, tying a franchise record. These are all numbers that might mean something, but probably don’t, let alone the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything.

Before you could grab your hot dog, popcorn, and preferred pilsner beverage, the Diamondbacks took a 1-0 lead on a Geraldo Perdomo double, Corbin Carroll single, and a whiff of a tag from catcher Hunter Feduccia.

In the bottom half of the first, Junior Caminero hit a thunderous, sky-scraping blast for his sixth homer in his last 19 innings played. The 43-degree launch angle was matched with a 107 MPH exit velocity, the tallest round-tripper of Caminero’s career.

For the first time in 630 days, Michael Grove got to pitch in an MLB game, and my goodness did he deliver.

Grove retired nine of the 10 batters he faced over three innings, struck out four, all on sliders, and collected the win.

Jonathan Aranda hit his 13th longball of the season in the fifth inning, taking us to 3-1 Tampa Bay.

Ketel Marte would cut the deficit in half with a 430-foot solo shot off of Kevin Kelly in the 8th, and Brian Baker would come on in the ninth with a new light show entrance for save number 21 in 1-2-3 fashion.

The two expansion cousins will have getaway day tomorrow, with first pitch scheduled for 1:40 PM EST and Merrill Kelly and Dre Rasmussen as the probable starting pitchers.

Another disappointing loss. Five in a row now, as they fall towards the back of the AL wildcard chase. Really, it’s remarkable that 39-44 counts as in the race at all, but the AL being what it is they’re just 2.0 games back of Texas in spite of having ceded three games to them in the last three days.

• Dylan Cease was messy today. He did pick up 10 Ks in 4.2 innings, but strikeouts are never his problem. Walks sometimes are, and he had five of them en route to allowing four runs. He gave up a run in the first on two walks and a single, but it looked like he was pulling it together for the next three innings. Two more singles and another walk in the fifth plated Texas’ second run in the fifth, and also forced him from the game as his pitch count reached 107.
• Mason Fluharty wasn’t able to pick him up, allowing both inherited runners to score and plating two of his own on a walk, a single, and a double. The first of his own runners would end up being the decider.
• Derek fisher allowed a solo shot in the 5th, running Texas’ total to 7.
• Tommy Nance, Jeff Hoffman, and Tyler Rogers eached worked a scoreless inning of relief.
• On offence, they really couldn’t do much against Cal Quantrill, managing just two singles and a walk over 4.0 scoreless innings while striking out five times.
• They did jump on relievers Robby Ahlstrom and Joe Ross. Ernie Clement doubled and the newly recalled Yohendirck Pinango homered to score two in the fifth. Alejandro Kirk lead the sixth off with a solo homer, and debuting rookie Sean Keys singled, moved to second on an Clement hit, to third on a Pinango, and across on an Andres Gimenez line single to plate the Jays’ fourth and final run.

If you want a bright spot, it was contributions form Keys and Pinango. The former was playing his first major league game, and while one for four isn’t exactly setting the world on fire it was a solid first effort. He outhit their other first baseman, for about 1/45th the price. Pinango, meanwhile, has looked like a solid MLB hitter throughout his MLB time this season. Both look to be long term contributors in some fashion. Plus, Ernie Clement looked like the All Star he’s about to be, accounting for four of the team’s 17 total bases on the afternoon.

We’ll wrap things up tomorrow at 1:37pm ET. Shane Bieber (0-0, 9.82) will look to find some kind of form in his second appearance of the season. The Rangers will start Kumar Rocker (2-6, 4.14).

Saturday night’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Miami Marlins was a contrast of two teams who have almost identical records, but are heading in completely opposite directions. The Miami Marlins took advantage of scoring opportunities and the St. Louis Cardinals didn’t. Watching this team for the past week has made it difficult to not go into an ALL CAPS RAGE.

I hope the St. Louis Cardinals were paying attention to what the Miami Marlins were doing when runners were in scoring position. Given the opportunity, they came through with clutch hits and it started early. The Marlins scored early on Andre Pallante as Otto Lopez hammered a one-out triple in the right field corner and Kyle Stowers singled him in giving Miami an immediate 1-0 lead. Scoring runners in scoring position is possible, Cardinals.

The Marlins added to their lead in the top of the 3rd inning. Joe Mack led off with a single followed by Edwards then reached on a bunt single to third that Bryan Torres couldn’t handle. But, after Lopez grounded into a double play, Miami scored anyway as Stowers came through with a clutch two-out single scoring Mack doubling the Marlins lead to 2-0.

St. Louis had an opportunity in the bottom of the 3rd inning when JJ Wetherholt went the other way smacking a single into left field after Jimmy Crooks and Nathan Church had struck out for the Cardinals first hit of the game. Iván Herrera added his own single to give the Cardinals two baserunners and Alec Burleson was barely grazed on the foot by a pitch which loaded the bases with two outs bringing up the very much overdue Jordan Walker. What did St. Louis do with this opportunity to break out of their 12 inning scoreless streak? Walker struck out on a 3-2 sinker. This has been the St. Louis Cardinals for the past week.

The Miami Marlins took advantage of the Cardinals lack of improving their freefalling RISP numbers by adding to their lead again in the top of the 4th. Jakob Marsee led off with a double. Conine shattered his bat, but grounded out to JJ Wetherholt advancing Marsee for a productive at-bat. Javier Sanojo promptly singled to center scoring Marsee increasing the Marlins lead to 3-0. They weren’t done, either. After Mack flied out, Sanojo stole second and then scored when Edwards came through with a two-out single to left making it 4-0 Marlins.

The Cardinals would FINALLY score a run, but it didn’t happen until the bottom of the 6th inning when they strung together hits for a change. Jordan Walker got it started when he drew a one-out walk. Lars Nootbaar then singled moving Walker up to second. Masyn Winn added his own single as St. Louis began chipping away at the Marlins lead as it was 4-1 Miami after 6 innings.

Andre Pallante did not have his “A” game going Saturday night, but he did pitch deep into the game. He pitched into the top of the 7th inning and was helped by a picture-perfect JJ Wetherholt to Masyn Winn to Alec Burleson double play. He would be removed from the game by manager Oli Marmol after giving up a standup double to Edwards replaced by Matt Svanson. Andre Pallante’s line for the night was 6 2/3 innings giving up 11 hits, 4 earned runs while striking out 4 and walking 1 as he hit the 98 pitch mark. Not disastrous, but not as sharp as Andre has been in his previous June starts. Matt Svanson was unfortunately greeted by a two-out double from Otto Lopez which (of course) scored Edwards who barely beat the throw by Jordan Walker from right upping the Marlins lead to 5-1.

I thought perhaps that fate would begin smiling on the St. Louis Cardinals as JJ Wetherholt hit one of the highest singles in recent history as the Marlins infield and outfield could not decide who should catch JJ’s popup. Lopez called it and then they all just looked at each other as the ball bounced in between them all. I was hopeful the Cardinals would go on a Bender – Anthony Bender who was brought in by the Marlins in relief. Unfortunately, it was just another St. Louis runner left on base when Iván Herrera flied out to center to end the bottom of the 7th.

The Cardinals also wasted a single by Jordan Walker in the bottom of the 8th inning, but that was hardly surprising based on what St. Louis has done for the past week. Did the Cardinals do something inspiring in the bottom of the 9th and make a game of it? Of course not. Hold on a second, personal emotional eruption is coming…

WHY ARE THE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS SUDDENLY SO FLAT FOR THE PAST WEEK? WHY DO RUNNERS IN SCORING POSITION SEEM TO CAUSE TREPIDATION TO WHATEVER CARDINAL HAPPENS TO BE IN THE BATTER’S BOX? WHY HAS OUR DEFENSE BECOME SO SLOPPY? WHO’S GONNA RISE TO THE OCCASION AND REMIND THIS CARDINALS TEAM WHAT INSPIRED THE “TARPS OFF” RIGHT FIELD CRAZIES IN THE FIRST PLACE? WHO STOLE OUR BATS? Sorry about that, but I feel better now.

The St. Louis Cardinals will wrap up their homestand Sunday by trying to avoid a sweep from the Miami Marlins. The Cardinals will start Kyle Leahy while the Marlins starter has yet to be announced. First pitch scheduled for 1:15pm central time at Busch Stadium with the game TV broadcast being handled by Cardinals.tv.

Box Score

Kyle Harrison had another solid outing on Saturday night, handing the bullpen a 2-2 tie with the Cubs in the sixth inning. Unfortunately, Milwaukee’s bullpen struggled, allowing six runs over the final four innings in what ended up as a blowout 8-2 loss.

After Harrison breezed through the first with a 1-2-3 inning, including a strikeout, Jackson Chourio greeted lefty David Peterson — in his Cubs’ debut, after being acquired from the Mets earlier this week — with a first-pitch homer over the wall in center at 411 feet to make it 1-0.

The bats went quiet after that, as singles by Gary Sánchez and Joey Ortiz were the only other baserunners through the end of the third.

In the fourth, the Cubs finally broke through. After Harrison struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong, Matt Shaw singled up the middle for Chicago’s first baserunner of the evening, and Seiya Suzuki followed with a two-run homer, his second homer in as many games, to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead. Harrison worked out of the inning with no further damage, though he did allow a two-out walk and single.

The Brewers got a run back in the bottom of the fifth, as Blake Perkins lined a double into the right-center gap, and Sal Frelick followed with an RBI single to left to knot it up at 2-2.

The tie wouldn’t last, though, as Chad Patrick found himself in some trouble in the sixth after taking over from Harrison. While he got the first two outs without a problem, he then issued a pair of walks before Nico Hoerner hit a single to right to make it 3-2 Chicago.

It wouldn’t end there, either, with Ian Happ jumping on a first-pitch cutter from Patrick for a three-run homer, quickly stretching the Cubs’ lead to 6-2.

Milwaukee, meanwhile, couldn’t do much of anything against the Cubs’ bullpen — they went down in order in the sixth and seventh, and their only baserunner in the eighth came on a two-out walk by David Hamilton.

Chicago was able to add one more insurance run in the seventh off Grant Anderson, as he walked Shaw, Suzuki singled to put runners at the corners, and Alex Bregman brought in a run with a sac fly. The Brewer defense was able to limit the damage, though, as Chourio, Cooper Pratt, and William Contreras combined to cut Suzuki down at the plate on a double into the gap by Michael Busch.

Just for good measure, the Cubs added a pinch-hit solo homer from Michael Conforto against Joel Kuhnel in the ninth to bring this one to an 8-2 final.

In an even more unfortunate turn of events in the ninth, Garrett Mitchell entered as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the ninth, and after swinging and missing at the first pitch, immediately grabbed his left hamstring. After a visit from the trainer, he remained in the game (the team was out of position players), ultimately grounding out — hopefully nothing major and something more like a cramp.

Harrison looked good, though he wasn’t the most efficient. He threw 92 pitches across just five innings, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out nine. Patrick took the loss as he gave up four runs in less than an inning of work, while Anderson and Kuhnel each gave up a run. Jared Koenig, in his first appearance since early April after being activated from the IL yesterday, was the only pitcher with a clean inning, allowing one hit and striking out one.

The offense collected just five hits and one walk, with no players reaching base more than once. Chourio had the homer, Perkins had the double, and Frelick, Ortiz, and Sánchez each singled.

The Brewers still hold a 6.5-game lead over the Cubs, but they’ll look to move that back to 7.5 games with a series win on Sunday. Brandon Woodruff is slated to make the start for Milwaukee, with the always terrifying TBD scheduled for Chicago. First pitch is at 1:10 p.m.

Guardians 4, Mariners 3

Groundhog Day as a movie: Randy Arozarena, .14 WPA

Groundhog Day for your baseball team: J.P. Crawford, -.17 WPA; Colt Emerson, -.16 WPA

Game thread comment of the day:

The Phillies have had a pretty remarkable week. Three games that would have been losses were in not for the fight they showed against a weaker opponent. The catch of the year in Friday’s victory over the Mets. It’s been quite the several days.

Today, that came to a screeching halt.

After a decently long rain delay, the Mets and Phillies got underway about an hour late, a game that ultimately saw the Phillies wither without a true starting pitcher and a lockdown performance by the Mets bullpen. Things started well with Bryce Harper homering off of Christian Scott to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead.

However, it being the fifth starter’s turn, the team continued with its opener/Alan Rangel plan for the position and got burned today. Tim Mayza started and was fine, but Rangel allowed four runs in his four innings of work. He started off fine, but in the sixth, things got hairy. Juan Soto and Bo Bichette both singled with one out, then scored when Francisco Lindor tripled to tie the game at two.

After a walk, Jonathan Bowlan came in, walked a batter, then gave up a two-run single to give the Mets a 4-2 lead. In the seventh, Soto hit an RBI triple, then scored on a sacrifice fly by Bichette to end the scoring on the day. The Phillies’ offense struggled against the bullpen that only allowed two hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings.

It happens.

Sometimes, teams just have a rough game and this was one of them.

I was initially going to call this “Bouncy Castle Blues,” because that’s what Tropicana Field reminds me of as much as anything. With its synthetic fabric top, and its weirdly springy turf, and the fact that try as we might we never seem to play competent baseball there, it seems fitting. But that would have led me to Google Images and then probably an extended session of foolishness with Photoshop, and I realized I really wanted nothing more than to get this recap done as soon as possible, because it wasn’t a fun baseball game to watch, even with the always pleasant company in the Gameday Thread. And rays are basically fish, right? They live in water and they swim around in it, anyway. Whatever.

Young Jose Cabrera was making his second start of his young major league career, and I was kind of excited to see that, because I must admit I slept through the early innings of his debut last Sunday. And you know what, the kid looked pretty good, even though his final pitching line doesn’t quite reflect that.

We also staked him a lead before he’d even taken the mound, thanks to a one-out Geraldo Perdomo double off the top of the wall in right center that just missed being a home run, followed by a Corbin Carroll single to right that drove him in. Carroll was then promptly thrown out trying to steal second, and Gabriel Moreno grounded out to third to end things against Tampa opener (and former Diamondback, apparently) Cole Sulser. 1-0 DBACKS

Sadly, Cabrera gave that run right back in the bottom of the first. After retiring Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda without any drama at all, he allowed a 2-1 sinker to catch a little too much of the plate, and Junior Caminero launched it over the fence in the left field corner for his third first-inning home run in as many games. 1-1 Tie

And there things stood until the bottom of the fifth, as Cabrera settled down and put up zeroes in the next three innings, while the Diamondbacks offense could do nothing whatsoever against Sulser (who pitched the second inning as well) or former Doyer Michael Grove (who pitched three scoreless with no blemishes other than a Moreno single in the fourth). Cabrera retired the last two batters in the Rays’ order to start the fifth, flipping the lineup back to the top, where their big bats live. And they did big bat things, alas: Diaz drew a 7-pitch two-out walk, and Cabrera threw Aranda a sweeper on the inside that Aranda turned on and sent into the right field seats. 3-1 Tampa

Cabrera was only at 78 pitches, though, so Torey Lovullo sent him out to start the bottom of the sixth, where he was promptly greeted by consecutive first-pitch bunt singles by Victor Mesa, Jr. and Chandler Simpson. Cedric Mullins came to the plate and looked like he was going to bunt as well, and I mean, why not? We hadn’t been able to stop it the first two times, right? That was enough for Torey, though, who pulled Cabrera and sent in Juan Morillo to throw some high-velocity pitches that wouldn’t be so buntable. Which was fine, so far as it went, but Morillo bounced the second pitch he threw in the dirt and it got by Moreno and rolled to the backstop. The runners moved up, and then a fly ball by Mullins to center field allowed Mesa to tag and score. 4-1 Tampa

Some new guy had come in out of the Rays’ bullpen, and allowed a two-out Perdomo single in the top of the sixth, and a two-out Arenado double in the seventh, but both runners were left standing there as the Diamondbacks once again continued to fail to hit with runners in scoring position (they were 0 for 5 total today). We did get one run back in the top of the eighth, courtesy of Ketel Marte going deep to pretty much straightaway center to drive himself in with his 14th home run of the year:

So that was nice, I guess, though it wasn’t nearly enough to make a difference. 4-2 Tampa

Meanwhile, after Morillo’s work was done, Ginkel and Clarke put up zeroes to keep Tampa from doing any more damage, but we couldn’t do any more damage ourselves, so it wound up being kind of moot.

Loss Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

This one was a truly symphony of mediocrity, in terms of Win Probability Added, with nobody really rating in either a positive of negative way other than Jose Cabrera, who also wore the loss in this one:

Fish Food: Jose Cabrera (5 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 HR, -15% WPA)

Sad to say, it was also a pretty anemic Gameday Thread as well, with 141 comments total at time of writing. Amusingly, it looks like the three that got the most recs were from me and Ramona for our hello posts, so in the interest of choosing something at least nominally game relevant, this one goes to AZNailgal520 and kilnborn for this trifecta regarding Jose Cabrera’s nickname and how it reflects his ability to move about the infield:

Extra credit, too, for the callback to last night’s hippo business!

Anyway. If you feel like some morning baseball, you can stop by and join us as we try to avoid getting swept by the other Florida team. Merrill Kelly takes the ball for us, Drew Rasmussen goes for Tampa, first pitch is scheduled for 10:40am AZ time. Hope to see you!

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, Go Diamondbacks!

It was another banner night for the Mets bullpen, and they came up huge in the team's 6-2 win over the Phillies on Saturday night.

Four relievers combined to pitch 4.2 scoreless innings against a tough Philadelphia lineup, and with the help of Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, the Mets snapped their seven-game losing streak.

"The pitching was really good," Mets interim manager Andy Green said after the win. "For me, what [A.J.] Minter did was pretty special today. He went through the heart of the lineup in an inning-plus; there was a lot to like about today’s game."

Minter took over for starter Christian Scott in the fifth inning with a man on and one out. The veteran reliever got Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber to fly out to end the inning. Minter then followed up by pitching a scoreless sixth, working around a Bryce Harper single to get five outs for Green and the Mets. He also gave the Mets offense a chance to score four runs in the sixth to take the lead.

Huascar Brazoban, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams followed, allowing just two baserunners in the final three innings to complete the win. 

"It’s no secret the starters haven’t been going deep into games, haven’t really been doing our jobs too well," Scott said of the bullpen. "But our bullpen’s kind of saving us. Especially Minter, Brazo, Weave and Devin. Just coming in and being nails every time they’re out. Gives us a chance to win deep in ballgames. Gives our offense a chance to compete later in games. They’ve been huge for us, honestly."

The Mets' bullpen has pitched to a 3.35 ERA, which is the third-lowest in the NL and the fifth-lowest in MLB. The pen also leads the majors in strikeouts with 363.

Minter, specifically, has increased his scoreless innings streak to 12 and has not allowed an earned run in his last 24 appearances. But Weaver has been especially nasty for the Mets.

The right-hander completed another shutout inning, getting Turner, Schwarber and Harper out in order, running his consecutive innings streak to 23 across 21 games. He tied Roger McDowell (1986) for the sixth-longest scoreless streak in franchise history by a relief pitcher. 

"He had the heart of what they have and he had his way with it today," Green said of Weaver. "Schwarber couldn’t pick up the changeup. And the fastball is just alive right now. That combination is tough for guys."

According to Elias, since May 1, Weaver is the only relief pitcher in the majors with 20.0 innings pitched and zero runs allowed. During the same stretch, Weaver has held opposing batters to a .127 (10-79) average and has pitched to a 0.65 WHIP.

With their long losing streak snapped, the Mets will try to string together wins. If they hope to climb out of the hole they created for themselves, they'll need this performance from the bullpen.

BOSTON — Ben Rice has spent most of the season looking like an MVP candidate. 

But the past six games have been much more pedestrian, magnified by the rest of the Yankees offense going through a cold stretch with him. 

Coming off a breather Friday, the slugging first baseman went 0-for-4 in Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Red Sox.

He is batting just 2-for-23 with a .174 OPS over his past six games, of which the Yankees have lost four. 

“No doubt he’s grinding a little bit right now,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But that’s part of it, man. Even the guys that are going to the All-Star Game and are in the MVP conversations, there’s going to be weeks where it’s not easy, where you go through it a little bit. 

“He’ll be fine, he’ll get through that. Hopefully start getting it going [Sunday].” 

To be clear, Rice is far from alone in having a rough week. But it is noticeable because of how impactful he has been for most of the season — he finished Saturday batting .276 with a .940 OPS — with this marking the quietest stretch of his season so far. 

It comes during a week in which the Yankees have faced a heavy dose of lefty starters — including each of the past four games, with Red Sox southpaw Jake Bennett holding him down Saturday. 

“I think [Bennett] executed pretty well against him to give him some problems,” Boone said. 

In a bit of an oddity, Rice grounded out in eight straight plate appearances before striking out in his final at-bat Saturday. 

There’s still no timetable for the Yankees to get their two biggest bats back from the injured list in Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, but two others should be back within the next week. 

Trent Grisham and Ryan McMahon are expected to come off the injured list during the club’s upcoming homestand that begins on Monday. 

Grisham, coming back from a right hamstring strain, is set to play in at least one rehab game, likely on Tuesday (the minor leagues are off Mondays), before potentially returning.

He was one of the Yankees’ hottest hitters before he got hurt, but his return should also help defensively, as his presence in center field allows Boone to put other players where they are best defensively. 

“I think he settles things a lot,” Boone said. 

“You know he’s there, now Belli’s where’s he needs [to be], then other guys are where they’re supposed [to be]. So yeah, we certainly miss him.” 

McMahon, meanwhile, is first eligible to be activated Thursday, an off-day, meaning he should be back for Friday’s series opener against the Twins. After being diagnosed with a peritonsillar abscess Wednesday, he was prescribed a few days of rest, but returned to New York on Friday to begin baseball activities again this weekend. 

“When he was leaving [Friday] morning from the hotel, he was feeling again another day better, good night’s sleep,” Boone said. “He should be doing baseball activities now all week and would expect him when the 10 days is up.” 

Max Schuemann crushed his first home run as a Yankee in the fifth inning, a 412-foot blast off Bennett that represented the team’s only run of the day.

Schuemann was starting in center field. for the second time this season.

Mets infielder/designated hitter Jorge Polanco appeared in his first rehab game in nearly a month on Saturday night for Triple-A Syracuse and finished 0-for-3 while batting second and DHing.

In his first at-bat, Polanco, a switch-hitter batting right-handed against the lefty Kolby Allard, swung at the first pitch he saw and popped out to second base. Leading off the fourth inning, the 32-year-old struck out looking against Allard on a 2-2 curveball that appeared to be a bit outside. Polanco did not challenge the call.

An inning later, with the game tied 1-1 and a runner on first base with two outs, Polanco, facing Allard for a third time, once again popped out to second base to end the inning. He was replaced by a pinch-hitter with two outs and nobody on in the seventh inning.

It's been a tough first season in New York for Polanco, who continues to recover from Achilles bursitis that has plagued him all season. In fact, the veteran had to shut down his previous rehab assignment at the beginning of June after six games due to left ankle soreness. 

Last night, the Athletics got off to a winning start in their three-game weekend series against the Los Angeles Angels, riding a seven-run fifth inning to a 9-3 victory. Tonight, the “Green and Gold” look to clinch the series, while extending their winning streak to three games with a second straight win over their division rivals.

Taking the ball for the road team this evening will be right-hander Jack Perkins. The 26-year-old enters his 22nd appearance and fifth start with a 2-3 record, a 6.26 ERA, a 1.37 WHIP and 57 strikeouts over 46 innings.

After being tagged with the loss in his first start of the season earlier this month, Perkins has steadily settled in, improving with each outing. He has gone without a decision in each of his last three starts, a streak he hopes to end in his second consecutive start against these Angels.

Last Sunday, Perkins allowed four runs on four hits over five innings while recording a season-high eight strikeouts. He exited with the Athletics holding a three-run lead and in line for the win, but the A’s bullpen surrendered the lead as the Angels rallied for a comeback victory. Still searching for his first win since joining the starting rotation, Perkins will look to change that, though he will need his teammates to hold the lead this time around.

Speaking of the A’s beleaguered bullpen, the team made a trade today to address that weakness.

Juenger, the Blue Jays’ sixth round draft pick in 2021, brings an MLB-ready arm to the A’s relief corps. The team has not yet announced whether he will join the major-league club or report to Triple-A Las Vegas.

In 21 appearances with Triple-A Buffalo, Juenger posted a 1-2 record with a 2.59 ERA. His strong minor league performance to start the season led to his first MLB promotion. The right-hander allowed three earned runs over two innings in his brief time with the big-league club before the Blue Jays designated him for assignment earlier this week.

The other player in this trade, Carapellotti signed with the A’s as an undrafted free agent following four years at Georgetown. He was off to a good start with Single-A Stockton, hitting eight home runs in 20 games.

Lastly, corner infielder Brett Harris’ time with this franchise could be coming to an end. The 28-year-old has been up and down between the A’s and the minors over the past three seasons, yet failed to make much of an impact and has now been overtaken by younger, higher-ceiling players.

Back to the game, here’s the A’s Saturday night lineup:

The A’s starting nine is nearly identical to last night’s lineup. The lone change comes in right field, where right-handed hitter Colby Thomas gets the start in place of Lawrence Butler, who started there in the series-opener. Both catchers also remain in the lineup for a third straight game, though their roles are reversed. Jonah Heim moves behind the plate, while Shea Langeliers shifts to designated hitter.

The bottom three hitters, who sparked the Athletics seven-run fifth inning, will look to deliver again. Alika Williams, one of the team’s most unexpected contributors this season, gets another start at shortstop as Jacob Wilson continues to recover from a re-aggravated left shoulder injury.

That lineup will be facing Angels left-hander Reid Detmers, who has pitched well as a starter after spending all of last season in relief. The 26-year-old enters his 17th start with a 3-5 record, a 3.93 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP and 104 strikeouts across 94 innings.

This game features the same pitching matchup as last weekend’s series finale between these two teams, when the A’s tagged Detmers for five runs on six hits over six innings.

The Athletics potent offense will look to have a similar level of success against the southpaw tonight at Angel Stadium.

And the Angels’ lineup, brought to you by old friend Kurt Suzuki:

The Angels are still without Mike Trout, yet their lineup still features several dangerous bats, including shortstop Zach Neto, right fielder Jo Adell and designated hitter Jorge Soler. Following a blowout loss yesterday, the “Halos” will look to bounce back and even the series. Can Perkins limit mistake pitches and work deep into the contest, or will the Athletics need to dig deeper into their bullpen ahead of tomorrow’s series and road trip finale?

Tune in to find out whether the squad can make it three in a row. Let’s go A’s!

Follow the Game:
Watch:
Athletics – NBCSCA

Listen:
Talk 650 KSTE, A’s Cast

It’s time for Game 2 in the series between the San Francisco Giants and the Atlanta Braves. And it’s a doozy of a pitching matchup!

For the Giants, it’s their ace, right-hander Logan Webb. The two-time All-Star is 4-5 in 13 starts this year, with a 3.35 ERA, a 3.07 FIP, and 70 strikeouts against 20 walks in 83.1 innings. Webb has been lights out lately, having pitched eight innings in each of his last three games, while allowing just three earned runs in that span.

For the Braves, it’s fellow righty and fellow All-Star Bryce Elder, a 27-year old. Elder has made 16 starts this year, and is 5-5 with a 3.71 ERA, a 3.79 FIP, and 79 strikeouts to 29 walks in 94.2 innings. He’s been struggling lately though, as he’s allowed 14 earned runs in 10 innings over his last two starts.

Enjoy the game, everyone.

Game #82

Who: San Francisco Giants vs. Atlanta Braves

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 6:05 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

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

In removing Carlos Mendoza and inserting Andy Green, the Mets hoped to breathe some life — any life — into a team that was perishing.

For much of Saturday, Citi Field felt funereal. But a spark — and a few hits and runs — demonstrated a pulse that had not been evident earlier.

It is just that — a pulse, rather than a steady heartbeat — but the Mets discovered a bit of fight, enough offense and finally a victory.

A sixth-inning eruption that featured big swings from Francisco Lindor and A.J. Ewing carried the Mets from two down to two ahead in what became a 6-2 win over the Phillies in Queens, where the announced crowd of 37,338 sat through a 70-minute rain delay to see the club snap a seven-game skid and see Green record his first victory as interim Mets manager.

It is far too soon to declare that banishing Mendoza and installing Green will change much around the Mets, who seem destined to sell at the trade deadline, but any trace of vitality would be welcome to a clubhouse and crowd that wants August and September games to matter.

“We know we got a mountain to climb,” said Christian Scott (4 ¹/₃ innings, two runs, six strikeouts). “But we can only climb the mountain one step at a time.”

To beat significant odds and accomplish as much, the Mets (35-48) would need more games like Saturday’s, in which they looked listless and lifeless for five innings — as did the crowd, which appeared apathetic rather than angry at the lineup’s strikeouts — before they rattled off all six of their runs in the sixth and seventh innings. During their seven-game losing streak, they scored as many as six runs in a game one time.

Through five innings against opener Tim Mayza and Alan Rangel, the Mets totaled three base runners. In the sixth, six straight Mets batters reached base.

A Juan Soto single began the rally. Bo Bichette’s knock put runners on the corners. And Lindor — in his third game back after missing two months while his team spiraled — snuck a triple under Bryce Harper’s diving glove at first base, tying the game and providing hope for just about the first time in a week.

After a pair of walks from Jared Young and Mark Vientos, it was Ewing grounding a two-run single through the middle that allowed an exhale. The Mets would add to the lead an inning later, when Soto came through with his own RBI triple and Bichette followed with a sacrifice fly.

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Lindor and Soto contributed in just the 11th game they have played together this season — “I think that’s what everybody was hoping to see repetitively all summer long,” Green said — reminding of their potential following injuries that debilitated the Mets lineup.

That injury misfortune — and not David Stearns’ trades and signings that have been largely unfortunate — is where Lindor pointed to explain the Mets’ predicament.

“I felt like Stearns did a good job putting the team together. We just haven’t been together. We just haven’t played together,” Lindor said after his 27th game and Soto’s 64th. “And now that we’re slowly getting healthy, little by little, hopefully this next however many games we can play together and make something special out of it.”

The Mets survived, for the day, because their offense awoke, Scott was solid in allowing just a two-run homer to Harper and their bullpen was shutdown.

After an abbreviated, 82-pitch outing from Scott in his first start off the injured list, Green turned to four relievers (A.J. Minter, Huascar Brazobán, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams) to cover 4 ²/₃ scoreless innings in which they walked one and let up two hits — one of which belonged to Harper, who was thrown out trying to stretch a bloop single into a double.

Minter was particularly impressive in 1 ²/₃ innings, his longest outing since Oct. 2, 2021. The 32-year-old lefty entered with a runner on in the fifth, retired Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber, then returned and got through a Harper-Brandon Marsh-Bryson Stott sixth.

“What Minter did was pretty special today,” Green said of a pitcher who has not allowed an earned run since April 4, 2025.

Speaking of streaks, Weaver took down the eighth to push his run to 23 scoreless innings.

“I think a lot of guys did a lot of really good things today,” Green said.