Category: Baseball

It has been said that when Stephen Kolek is getting ground outs in the first inning, you can tell it’s going to be a good night. Unfortunately, Kolek didn’t get a groundball until the seventh batter he faced in the first inning, and Nick Loftin turned that into an error. But let’s back up a bit.

In the top of the first, Mackenzie Gore was not fooling anyone. Lane Thomas struck out swinging on a well-located fastball, but Bobby Witt Jr. barrelled a line drive to center at 107.4 for the second out. Maikel Garcia then lined a single to center at 103.8 MPH, Salvador Perez smoked a double down the line at 105.7 MPH. Starling Marte, with runners at second and third but two outs, smoked a ground ball up the middle at 102.1 MPH that old friend Nicky Lopez turned into an inning-ending groundout despite its expected batting average (xBA) of .590.

The bottom of the inning had the Rangers also put a runner at second and third with two outs. Backup infielder Ezequiel Duran hit a line drive to center with a .990 xBA to score them both. Two errors later, two more runs had scored. If that first inning isn’t exemplary of the Royals’ 2026 – failing to drive in runners despite a moderately good effort, followed by giving up runs in the exact same situation, and then crumpling – I don’t know what is.

What makes it the most frustrating is that, during the good stretch the Royals had for a couple of weeks, they were playing some of the most resilient baseball I’ve ever seen in my entire life. But the rest of the time, they have the resiliency of wet single-ply.

Anyway, I don’t think we need to recap in detail every single moment of this game. One particularly frustrating moment was when Steven Cruz, pitching the sixth inning, allowed a two-run home run to Nicky Lopez. That was Lopez’s eighth career MLB home run in his eighth MLB season. He hadn’t hit one since 2024 until tonight. The Royals scored their lone run in the ninth inning when Rangers reliever Gavin Colyer, the first right-hander the Royals saw all night, walked Maikel Garcia and Salvador Perez to lead off the inning before giving up a nice single to Vinnie Pasquantino. He still got two strikeouts and a pop-up to end the game.

One of the most consistent complaints about the Royals this year by fans – including yours truly – is that the Royals aren’t just bad, they’re also not really doing anything about it. Vinnie and Salvy not only still bat 3-4 most nights, but they’ve literally had three days off between them. Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen still get benched for every lefty despite doing slightly better against them than Vinnie.

The Royals have also had multiple opportunities to shake things up with off-days following disastrous series that they’ve completely ignored. I sat down with the FanGraphs transaction tracker and determined that the Royals have the fourth-fewest transactions in MLB since the season started, ahead of only the Padres, Cardinals, and Rangers. That includes promotions, demotions, signings, releases, and IL movement. They’ve also still got the entire coaching staff they started the year with.

They are not behaving remotely like a team that feels any urgency about their predicament. One of the reasons they were able to bounce back last season to finish 82-80 was that they acted with urgency during the season, even if they could have used some more in the previous offseason. We haven’t seen any urgency in either the most recent offseason or this season, and it’s gotten pretty old.

Anyway, the Royals will try again tomorrow afternoon. Seth Lugo (3.74 ERA) will face off against Kumar Rocker (3.96 ERA). The game will start at 3:05 PM CDT. I no longer expect anything to change or anything interesting to happen.

The margins for error in baseball are incredibly slim. So far this season, the White Sox have taken advantage of opportunities afforded to them, which is why they’re seeing success early in the season. Coming into tonight’s game, they knew they’d have to take advantage of their chances with budding Detroit ace Troy Melton on the mound.

The Tigers have been awful so far this season, and much of their struggles are due to their lack of offense. They came into the game ranked 24th in runs scored, and the White Sox knew they wouldn’t need to put much on the board to get a win. Unfortunately, the South Siders looked like they were playing with Wiffle ball bats for the first eight innings, as they went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position and were held to one run.

And that’s not even mentioning the ugly takeaway from this game, in spite of the win: In the bottom of the third, star slugger Munetaka Murakami left the game with hamstring tightness running out a ground ball (postgame, the White Sox indicated an IL stint and a couple of weeks out for Mune).

Hits weren’t much of an issue for the White Sox overall — it was the timing of those hits that was. Chicago outhit the Tigers, 10-4, but it was Detroit that had the upper hand for most of the game. While the Tigers also struggled hitting with runners on, going just 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position, their struggles were offset by a second-inning Dillon Dingler dinger on an Erick Fedde changeup that quite simply had no right to be hit out of the park.

It was an odd change for a White Sox team that was so successful hitting with runners in scoring position against the Minnesota Twins in their last series. The bats will always go cold from time to time, but this game was a stark contrast to the team that hit .311 with RISP over their last four games.

To their credit, the White Sox faithful did everything they could to rally their team. The tarps came off in the stands in the top of the ninth and much like in St. Louis earlier this month, it resulted in a successful rally as the White Sox were able to tie the game on a Rikuu Nishida sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the ninth:

In a long baseball season, these nights are bound to happen to even the best of teams. The difference between the average teams and the good ones is that the good teams find a way to win. The Tigers plated a run in the top of the 10th, and were one out from stealing this win back and possibly turning around their season.

However, the White Sox and Miguel Vargas had other plans. Vargas connected on a juicy changeup from Bengals veteran Drew Anderson and delivered a game-winning bomb that may have been picked up on the radar over at O’Hare. The 30,019 fans went ballistic, and the South Side is surely starting to believe there is magic in the air:

Not many people would’ve expected this result after watching the game, but that’s been Chicago’s M.O. It wasn’t pretty, but the boys scratched and clawed their way and clearly never gave up hope. Only the players and manager truly know exactly what has changed this year in the locker room, but it is clear that their belief in themselves has taken this team to an entirely different level.

For a team that looked like a dead man walking for the majority of the night, they shocked back to life at the perfect time. With the win, the White Sox now have two more cracks at the Tigers to take the series before hitting the road for a six-game stretch.

Charlotte Knights 12, Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 4
Although Charlotte unleashed another storm of runs onto poor Jacksonville, the biggest headline is Jacob Gonzalez’s departure. He collected three hits, including his 19th bomb, and a stolen base before Jason Matthews replaced him in the sixth.

Why, you may ask?

Gonzalez’s removal lines up with Munetaka Murakami being pulled from the parent club’s game after reporting hamstring tightness. Austin Hays, still on a rehab assignment from the big club, was also removed early, with no signs of injury or fatigue. Not long after the end of the White Sox game came confirmation that Murakami will be hitting the IL, and that Gonzalez indeed will be his replacement on the White Sox roster. Perhaps Hays will ride Gonzalez’s coattails to Chicago and reclaim his roster spot.

The good news appears to be that even sans Gonzalez, the Knights lineup will fare just fine. Mario Camilletti and Braden Montgomery, who can hold down the fort as the dynamic duo at the top of the order, tonight combined for five runs and two RBIs with five walks. And though Garrett Schoenle uncharacteristically gave up a pair of runs in the seventh, his 1.98 ERA in 10 games has helped stabilize Charlotte’s bullpen.

Charlotte will definitely be in better shape without Gonzalez than Chicago without Murakami, so let’s hope Jacob can bring his Knights firepower to the South Side.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos 3, Birmingham Barons 2
Bham dropped the ball on what should’ve been its 19th win. The Barons clung to Alec Makarewicz’s sac fly in the first and Jeral Perez’s bases-juiced walk to stay in the game while the bullpen did the legwork. The relief crew did a stellar job recovering from Jake Palisch’s fifth-inning stumble, where he gave up a two-run double that knotted the contest at two each. Jacob Heatherly gave up the only relief run, while Jackson Kelley and Jarold Rosado kept the Blue Wahoos off the board even while faced with a sacks-packed, two-out situation in the eighth.

A walk-off win seemed in sight. Wilfred Veras drew a leadoff walk and Drake Logan singled to quickly get two on with none out. Samuel Zavala grounded into a double play, pushing Veras to third but cutting Bham’s chances significantly. Colby Shelton was hit by a pitch, but the rally ended abruptly on Makarewicz’s fly out. With 10 left on base and going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, a walk-off win would’ve been Bham’s saving grace. But this loss, sadly, was deserved.

Rome Emperors 3, Winston-Salem Dash 2
Rome evened the series with Winston-Salem at two apiece after the Dash lineup failed to translate runners in scoring position into runs. Despite knocking one more hit than the Emperors, going 0-for-11 with runners on second and third and stranding eight on base stifled the Dash. Liam Paddack rung up eight through four scoreless innings to start the game, but they were wasted as the lineup did little until the eighth, when Rome’s Elison Joseph handed two runs to the Dash with a wild pitch and a balk. Outside of Joseph’s mistakes, the Dash would have been shut out. This loss was on the lineup.

Augusta GreenJackets 8, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 1
Adrian Gil played hero on both sides of the ball in Kanny’s struggle to stay in the game. He put the Ballers’ only run on the board with a solo shot to left field with two outs in the ninth inning, and that came AFTER he supplied two scoreless innings on the bump in this 8-1 blowout. Talk about carrying the team.

Outside of Gil’s efforts and Landen Payne’s 2 1/3 shutout frames, the CBs were nowhere to be found. The lineup strung together six hits and the game got out of hand in the second when starter Caedmon Parker a gave up a three-run jack. Thing devolved quickly as the GreenJackets put up eight mostly unanswered runs off small ball. It definitely wasn’t a memorable game. Oh well, onto the next one.

ACL White Sox 6, ACL Dodgers 3 (7 innings)
The ACL Sox got an early jump on the ACL Dodgers, and turned that into an easy victory. Jose Mendoza put the Complexers on the board in the first with his RBI single, and Yordani Soto added three with a homer over the right field wall. In the second, Jurdrick Profar tacked on two more insurance runs with another moonshot, and Marcelo Alcala supplied a sixth insurance run. These runs provided plenty of padding for Fidel Montero, who swiftly saw his lead halved in the third when he gave up a three-run shot to Aidan West. Fortunately, Montero’s slip was the only blunder on the Sox side, as Jeremy Gonzalez and Jesus Mendez closed the final four outs and struck out five.

It’s good to be home.

The Rays came back home Friday night needing something that felt a little less like the last few days in Baltimore and a lot more like the team that had made Tropicana Field a very uncomfortable place for visitors. After four straight losses, a sweep they would like to forget, the Rays opened the homestand against the Los Angeles Angels. The good news for the Rays is has been different. The Rays entered with the best home record in baseball and a chance to become just the first team this season and the third team in franchise history to reach 20 home wins before June.

Nick Martinez opened the night like a veteran trying to get this team to end the losing streak. He struck out Zach Neto, got Mike Trout to fly out in foul territory, and punched out Vaughn Grissom to end a clean and efficient first inning.

Then Yandy Diaz came out swinging in the bottom half of the inning.

On the first Rays plate appearance of the night, he launched a Walbert Ureña sinker for a solo homer to right, his ninth of the season, giving the Rays a quick a 1-0 lead. Junior Caminero would draw a walk later in the inning but that was all the offense Tampa Bay would get in the opening frame.

Martinez worked around two singles with two outs in the second, but the Angels tied it in the third after Neto doubled, moved to third on Trout’s flyout, and scored on Grissom’s two-out single. The Rays, meanwhile, had their own chance in the bottom half when Jonathan Aranda singled and Caminero doubled with two outs. Two runners in scoring position, a chance to answer right back, and Ryan Vilade grounded out.

In the fourth, Tampa Bay had another ideal setup. Chandler Simpson beat out a bunt single, Ben Williamson followed with a soft grounder for an infield hit, and the Rays had two on with nobody out. Instead of retaking the lead, Richie Palacios struck out and Nick Fortes rolled into a double play ending the potential rally.

The Angels took advantage in the fifth when Jose Siri, returning to the Trop in a different uniform, doubled to start the inning, then moved to third on a Martinez wild pitch. Neto singled him home, and suddenly the Rays trailed 2-1. Martinez limited the damage by getting Trout to ground into a double play to keep the game close.

Tampa Bay had another window in the sixth after an error by Neto put Vilade aboard, and Williamson was hit by a pitch. Williamson, in his first game back from injury, had to leave the game. Oliver Dunn took over as a pinch-runner. Once again, the Rays could not finish it with runs. Palacios struck out after an ABS challenge, and Fortes lined out to left. Through six innings, the Rays had chances, but chances aren’t runs. It was the baseball equivalent of loading your cart online and never checking out.

Then the seventh inning happened, and the best way I can describe it is the game turned into a sampler platter of ways to get outs and ways to score runs for the Rays.

Nick Madrigal lead off with a single to left, deflected off Caminero, and for a moment the Angels had a chance to add on while clinging to that 2-1 lead. But the Rays quickly shut the door. Logan O’Hoppe popped out in foul territory on a ball Caminero charged in for calling Fortes off late, then Madrigal tried to swipe second and got tagged out after oversliding the base, turning a leadoff baserunner into two outs in a blink. Jose Siri followed with a soft liner to Oliver Dunn at short, and Martinez was through seven with the deficit still only one. The Rays were still within one swing of a tie game.

Ureña was gone and Ryan Zeferjahn entered in relief for the Angels. Cedric Mullins immediately drew a walk after looking like he was prepared to bunt in the first pitch of the at-bat. That brought Yandy back to the plate, and Yandy apparently decided one homer was just an appetizer. He launched a two-run shot to left-center, flipping the game from 2-1 Angels to 3-2 Rays. It was his second homer of the night, but this one landed in the mostly shirtless “Tarps off” section of the ballpark, sending the place into a frenzy.

Aranda followed with his own blast, a solo shot to right-center, and suddenly the Rays had back-to-back homers and a 4-2 lead. Caminero singled, Vilade moved him over with a groundout, Simpson reached on an error, and Dunn dropped down a bunt single to score Caminero. Well done.

Then Palacios, who had struck out twice and left runners hanging earlier, got his redemption swing. He ripped a two-run triple to right, scoring Simpson and Dunn, and suddenly the Rays had turned a tight, frustrating game into a 7-2 lead. Fortes added another on-brand run for the Rays, a sacrifice bunt that scored Palacios from third. Homers, walks, errors, bunts, triples, productive outs. It was less an inning and more a baseball bingo card.

Hunter Bigge started the eighth by walking Neto after an ABS challenge, then walking Trout. Grissom doubled in a run, and Kevin Kelly entered trying to stop the inning from becoming a full-blown problem. He did, sort of. Jo Adell and Wade Meckler each brought home runs on groundouts, trimming the lead to 8-5 before Kelly struck out Oswald Peraza to end it in a way that was more functional than ideal. The six-run cushion had turned into a three-run game faster than anyone wanted and served as a reminder that no lead is ever truly safe.

At 8-2, this should have been the point where everyone leaned back, admired the throwbacks, and started thinking about Saturday. There was no reason after that seventh inning to expect the Angels to bring the winning run to the plate in the ninth. And yet, well, here we were.

Bryan Baker entered for the Rays in the ninth and got Nick Madrigal to strike out, but Logan O’Hoppe walked and Siri singled. Baker struck out Neto for the second out, and it felt like the game might finally settle down or go off the rails in the ninth. Then Trout walked, loading the bases and bringing Grissom to the plate as the tying run. Again, this was an 8-2 game seven outs earlier.

Despite giving up the runs, the vibes in the stands were still festive with Rays Brand Engagement Executive Brett Phillips joning in on the tarps off.

Baker finally ended it by getting Grissom to pop out to Aranda at first, preserving an 8-5 Rays win that somehow felt both convincing and too dramatic. The losing streak was over. The Rays became the first MLB team to reach 20 home wins this season.

It was not perfect. The Rays left early runs on the table, the bullpen made the finish much tighter than it needed to be, and Williamson’s exit is worth monitoring. But it was also exactly the kind of win they needed after a rough stretch.

The Rays will try to start a new winning streak as they look to get their 12th series win tomorrow, with first pitch at 4:10pm and Drew Rasmussen scheduled to take the mound opposite Reid Detmers.

The Texas Rangers scored nine runs while the Kansas City Royals scored one run.

After getting battered and bruised by leaguewide losers over the past couple of weeks, the Rangers donned their blood red tops with a sellout crowd decked out in replica Nolan Ryan bloody jerseys to witness an increasingly rare feat for Texas in 2026.

The Rangers came into tonight’s game having lost seven consecutive series-opening contests, with their lone series opener victory of the month coming on the first day of the month when they beat the Detroit Tigers on May 1 in a series they would eventually lose.

The Rangers drew first blood in the first inning in what would essentially become the story of the game. The Royals opened the game with a two-out double with a runner on but that runner had to halt at third base. Texas starter MacKenzie Gore got the last out to strand both runners in scoring position to keep KC off the board.

As we’re all well aware, securing a clean first inning has been a struggle for Texas this season but Gore getting out of danger helped to ignite the team for a crooked number in the bottom half of the inning.

Like Kansas City, the Rangers got a two-out double with a runner on base but that runner was Joc Pederson who led off the game with a walk. Pederson isn’t exactly swift these days so he too stayed at third base meaning it fell on Ezequiel Duran to deliver on the exact same situation that the Royals could not.

Much like with the top of the inning, where Texas has too often allowed early runs to start games with a deficit, two-out RBI situations have too often been wasted by the Rangers. However, the narratives continued to flip as Duran delivered with a two-out, two-run single that snowballed into an even bigger frame.

After Duran’s single, Evan Carter blooped a double toward the left field line and then Alejandro Osuna reached on an error to score Duran. Eventually Carter scored as well when Osuna attempted to steal second base and Royals’ catcher Salvador Perez threw the ball the ball away trying to throw him out.

After bloodying KC’s lip in the first, the Rangers tacked on two more each in the fifth and sixth innings with Brandon Nimmo hitting a two-run homer in the fifth and newcomer Nicky Lopez hitting just the eighth home run over his nearly 700-game big league career.

The dinger from the former Royals’ infielder was also of the two-run variety which gave Texas an 8-0 lead. In the top of the eighth, Pederson capped off the scoring for Texas with a solo dong of his own before the Royals prevented the shutout with a run in the ninth off Gavin Collyer when it was far too little and far too late.

Despite the fact that the Rangers went on to comfortably win by eight runs, a third first inning two-out hit by KC or the Rangers failing to cash in on their own two-out opportunity a half inning later could have easily altered the course of the evening.

Nevertheless, Texas did have themselves a rare charmed first inning and that fed into what would become an even rarer first game of a series win.

Player of the Game: The Rangers had ten hits and scored nine runs, hit three home runs, and saw everyone in the lineup reach base with only Danny Jansen failing to get at least one hit.

However, Gore tossing 6.1 innings of scoreless ball on just four hits and a walk continued a solid stretch for the left-hander as May creeps to a close. Gore, one of the league’s top strikeout artists, only had three strikeouts tonight but 63 strikes in his 99 pitches allowed him to pitch beyond the sixth inning for just the second time this season.

Up Next: The Rangers and Royals play an afternoon affair with RHP Kumar Rocker making the start for Texas against RHP Seth Lugo for Kansas City.

The first pitch of the second game of this series on Saturday is scheduled for 3:05 pm CDT and will be aired on the Rangers Sports Network as well as nationally on FS1.

Stuart Fairchild is with the Guardians for the weekend. It might be enough time to see if he should stay longer.

The reason for Fairchild joining the Guardians is a sad one, as Steven Kwan has had some sort of family crisis. So, we obviously begin by hoping that Kwan’s loved ones are ok before analyzing any baseball moves. Kwan will be back in 3-7 days.

Fairchild has had a great showing in Columbus with a 141 wRC+. He has a 1.197 OPS against LHP there and a .788 OPS vs RHP. Fairchild has spent parts of five seasons in the majors – he SHOULD be tearing up Triple-A. In looking under the hood, he isn’t hitting the ball hard more than usual, his chase and whiff rates remain average to below average. He is taking walks because Triple-A pitchers are bad.

Fairchild is 9 for 11 on stolen bases and has the speed to play center. This is helpful in a bench role on the Guardians, and it’s why Petey Halpin has found a spot on the team. But, in the next few days, the team should evaluate whether or not Fairchild should supplant Halpin.

The big factor is Fairchild’s potential to hit left-handed pitching. He would be a good piece to plug in center or left against LHP if he could be relied on to produce something around his career wRC+ of 106 against them… or better. Halpin doesn’t offer anything of significance at the plate, so, while his defense is superlative, I am not sure he’s the best roster fit. To his credit, Vogt has not tried to shoehorn Halpin into lineups as I was afraid he might. He recognizes that Halpin is best used in a bench role, so I think we can trust he’d do the same with Fairchild.

Fairchild has no options remaining so he either finds a spot on the team or is exposed to waivers. He may very well go through waivers and I’m not saying it would be devastating to lose him. I am saying the Guardians should use the next couple days when they see lefty-relievers from the Boston pen and Ranger Suarez to see if there MIGHT be something useful in Fairchild as a fourth outfielder who crushes lefties that could result in Halpin being optioned back to Columbus. Then, we can cross the “Who to DFA when Arias is healthy?” bridge when we come to it.

The Twins blew an early lead, got it back, pulled out a near-Houdini in the eighth… and in the ninth, the Pirates’ longest-tenured player won the game. Inning-by-inning notes:

1: AppleTV lets some doofus with an iPhone hover around the pitching mound during warmups. I wonder how pitcher Jared Jones feels about this.

He’s plenty warm. 302 MPH total on three straight pitches to K Buxton. A quick Brooks Lee groundout, and Kody Klemens Klobbers one.

Taj Bradley pretty warm himself; 99 MPH. A one-out, four-pitch walk to Brandon Lowe, who has a .904 OPS. Then four straight to Bryan Reynolds, ergggh. Nick Gonzales rolls one to Lee, who should just eat it. He don’t. He tries making an off-balance throw, he airmails it, everybody take two bases!

Oneil Cruz with an RBI groundout, and Konnor Griffin with rocket up the middle. So, all three runs are earned, and Taj throws 666 pitches. Not ideal. Pirates 3-1

2: A leadoff Trevor Larnach single and five-pitch Austin Martin walk. Bringing up Victor Caratini, which ain’t what you want… but he walks on four pitches! It’s a TRAP. Luke Keaschall whiffs badly for his K. Tristan Gray falls behind 0-2… and singles to tie it up! 50 shades of yay! Unfortunately Bux hits it so hard, it’s a perfect GIDP ball, but still, good job gang.

TV shows how Kody in CF has a little positioning index card in his pocket. I love it. Hope it’s laminated, though. Sweat would muss the ink. Bradley still with a high pitch count (36) but strikes out Lowe nicely to end it after falling behind 3-0. Tied 3-3

3: Josh Bell gets a two-out single, important because Jones (coming back from injury) will be on a tight pitch count. Also important because it’s followed by a Trevor NarLaunch! Consensus vote is that it went in the Allegheny River.

Ha, Taj hit the camera in the first row. Not ha — Oneil Cruz hits some more fish food. Connor Griffin with a single & steal, but Taj Ks Endy Rodríguez to end it. Twins 5-4

4: Caratini with a leadoff single? He hits now? Ok. Nothing comes of it, though.

Taj finally with a 1-2-3 inning. Radio tells us that Larnach’s ball was the 86th hit into the river, Cruz’s the 87th. But only 7 have gone in on the fly, without bouncing off the pathway behind. Cruz’s was one of ’em. See what you learn from multimedia?

5: Brooks with a leadoff single. Clemens strikes out, and that’s it for Jones. Sidearming Evan Sisk — their best reliever — gets out of it.

It’s a bullpen game now. Eric Oozy Orze in. He’s helped out by a nice diving Brooks Lee play.

6: Young Wiber Dotel pitching. He’s been successful so far this year, and usually goes a few innings.

Luke Keaschall pulls off a nice two-out hustle double, but nothing comes of it.

Orze’s splitter is nasty tonight. He leaves after a two-out single. Yoendrys Gómez gets the next guy on one pitch.

7: Dotel doinks da Duals.

Apple pointing out the Twins have have a top-five lowest bullpen ERA since May 9th. This feels like jinxing. Anthony “Bad” Banda comes in with one out and one on. Gets the first guy. A long AB by Reynolds ends with a walk. Fortunately, Gonzales hits right into the shift.

8: Dotel STILL in. Still throwing 100. Still gets the Twins.

Banda still in, and leadoff walks Cruz. That brings in Other Cody, Lawyerson, his first game back from injury.

F**K. On a Griffin grounder, Keaschall utterly boots a throw by Gray that could have started a DP. This sends Cruz to third, and Griffin steals second during the next AB. Nobody out.

Rodríguez strikes out. Infield in. Ball hit to Clemens at first! (He moved there a while ago, replacing Bell.) 3-2 for the putout. Then… Jared Triolo lines it right to RF Martin.

Whew!

9: Lefty Gregory Soto pitching. Twins do Nada.

Former closer Taylor Rogers in for the Twins. Infield hit for Horwitz. Pinch-runner Tyler Callihan in for him.

Lowe strikes out. Bryan Reynolds… does not.

Home run. Twins lose.

Studs: Klobberin’ Kody, Larnach, Orze, Lawyerson. Duds: that infield defense (except the one Lee grab). Tay-Tay.

COTG to Zach for a pirate joke, Nagurski for fashion rules, Goose for frog collar kink, JustAnotherMinnesotan for Pirates hat love, and Matt for Pennsylvania pizza hate plus Clash Lawyerson joke.

Seriously, thanks to everybody who joined the thread tonight. Sometimes these CrappleTV games can feel like ghost towns on the thread. (And there’s another one next week…)

Tomorrow’s game is at 3:05 Central, featuring something called a Mitch Keller against our own soft-tossing Bailey Ober. Catch ya next time!

After a disappointing mid-week series that the Tigers dropped against the cellar-dwelling Angels, they hit the road for the south side of Chicago for the opener of a trio of games against the White Socks — who were wearing a new City Connects outfit that makes them look like the Bulls — and it didn’t go well as the home team came back to win 4-3 in a gut-punch of a tenth inning.

Troy Melton made his second start of the season, after a late beginning due to right elbow inflammation. He had three solid outings for the Tigers in the playoffs (and a terrible one), and getting any kind of pitching help is definitely welcome at this point. His first start of the year was the nightcap of the doubleheader against the Orioles: he went 5 2/3 innings, and while he walked three he only gave up a pair of hits and a solitary run.

The Pale Hose went with an opener, lefty Brandon Eisert, before righty Erick Fedde took over. It’s been tough slogging for the veteran lately: after a nice seven-inning outing against the Angels at the end of April, May has not been kind to him and his previous appearance saw him surrender eight runs in 3 1/3 innings. He’s been giving up home runs at a pretty astonishing rate this year: a dozen of ‘em in 49 1/3 innings coming into tonight.

Speaking of that, in the third inning, Dillon Dingler opened the scoring thusly after a Zack Short walk:

The Chicagoans got a run back in the bottom of the inning with a single and a double, narrowing the gap to 2-1.

Fedde got himself into a peck o’ trouble in the top of the fourth: the Tigers loaded the bases with two out after a pair of singles and a walk, bringing Short to the plate. Alas, Short lined out to short and the Tigers left ‘em loaded. Would’ve been really nice to get another run there.

Meanwhile, Melton looked good; he gave up four doubles, but managed to strand all those runners. His fastball commmand was a little off and pitching from behind in a lot of counts hurt his strikeout total, but he managed to figure out how to get through innings pretty efficiently, needing only 77 pitches through six frames. At the end of the seventh his pitch count was 89 so his night was done, and his final line was delightful: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K… don’t worry, Troy, those strikeouts will come along.

Will Vest took over in the bottom of the eighth and gave up an infield single, but got a double play to erase the runner. Now, the last time we saw Vest, things went spectacularly awfully for him late in a long appearance… but this time around he got three pretty crisp outs to take the game to the ninth with the same score.

It would’ve been nice if the Tigers added some insurance in the top of the ninth, but that didn’t happen, so the game was turned over to Kyle Finnegan with a one-run lead, which didn’t go particularly well.

With one out, Andrew Benintendi singled to right; Tristan Peters did the same to put runners on the corners. Rikuu Nishida bunted back to Finnegan, who threw to first as Benintendi waited off third; as soon as Finnegan threw, Benintendi bolted for home and Spencer Torkelson’s throw home was wild, letting Peters get to third.

Drew Romo followed with a tricky grounder to Torkelson at first, and with some amount of acrobatics he threw to Finnegan covering first to just nab Romo and send the game to extra innings, which have really not been good for the Tigers so far this year. Tonight was no exception.

The Manfred Man for the Tigers in the tenth was Matt Vierling, who was bunted over to third by Zach McKinstry and driven-in by Short with a sacrifice fly to go up 3-2. The Tigers typically try to play for two in that scenario, but with McKinstry and Short it probably made sense to move the runner and just try for one and hope Drew Anderson could hold it.

Could the Tigers get three outs before giving up a run? It was decided that Drew Anderson was going to give it a try. Romo started the bottom of the inning on second base, and Anderson got a strikeout, a grounder to third that glued Romo to second, and… well…

Yep, Miguel Vargas hit a two-run walk-off home run to win the game for the White Sox, 4-3. There ya go. That’s your 2026 Detroit Tigers, everybody. At least the home team’s uniforms were lousy.

Notes and Whatnot

• Writing a recap that has both Zach McKinstry and Zack Short on the same team is annoying because of how they spell their names just a little bit differently.
• It was only just today that I learned that my city library’s e-book app also has access to a boatload of magazines, all readable for free. We’ve got National Geographic, we’ve got New Scientist, we’ve got Blue Pants Weekly. Check out you local library; the app around here is called Libby.
• On this day in 1660, King Charles II (not the current UK monarch’s dad, for the record) was restored to the throne after that little misunderstanding with the Cromwell fellows.

Blue Jays 6 Orioles 5

Back to .500.

Bullpen days are a terrible thing to watch. One of my lines is that if you use a lot of relievers, you are likely to find the one that doesn’t have it on that day.

And the Jays did find that guy. The second pitcher into the game, Austin Voth, had nothing, but with the guys who weren’t available, he had to throw some innings. He gave up 3 home runs, 5 hits, 5 earned with 4 walks. He had a terrible time finding the strike zone and anytime he came close the Orioles hit it hard. I thought it was game over, but the offense surprised us.

Beyond that:

• Adam Macko opened and worked his way through 5 outs, giving up 3 singles with a strikeout. He wasn’t great, but he didn’t give up a run.
• Connor Seabold (I keep typing Seaborn, I liked West Wing back in the day. If I thought he was going to stay around long, I’d call him Rob Lowe) got 5 outs without allowing a base runner (helped along by a successful Brandon Valenzuela challenge).
• Mason Fluharty was terrific, getting the last out of the seventh and all three outs in the eighth.
• And Braydon Fisher picked up his first save his MLB career, despite a two-out Ernie Clement error (on a very easy play). I made have sworn very very loudly, and with windows open in the house, several neighbours likely heard, but then they know me, they’ll just think ‘Something bad happened in the Jays game’.

On offense, we did nothing for the first six innings, just two hits, a one-out triple by Daulton Varsho in the second (he was stranded) and a one-out double by Valenzuela (also stranded). It looked like it was going to be one of those days where we just wouldn’t score. We thought that Trevor Rogers was going to get a complete game on 60 pitches. But we got to him in that seventh inning.

Vladimir Guerrero started off the seventh with a single and Kazuma Okamoto homered (108 mph, 387 feet). Varsho followed with a double and Charles McAdoo homered (his first MLB hit, 369 feet).

Suddenly it was 5-4 and I was hopeful.

Then, in the eighth, George Springer and Clement started it with singles and Vlad doubled them home, giving us our first lead of the day. It would have been nice to score Vlad and give the bullpen a little bit of room for error, but no. And, in the top of the ninth, Nathan Lukes started the inning with a double and again we couldn’t score him. But we had faith in Fisher.

We had 10 hits. Vlad and Varsho had 2 each. The only starters without a hit were Myles Straw (but he was pinch hit for after 2 at bats) and Yohendrick Piñango who needed break from carrying the team for the last while.

Jays of the Day: Vlad (0.34 WPA), Fisher (0.19) and Fluharty (0.15). Let’s give an honorable mention to McAdoo and Okamoto for the home runs.

Other Award: Voth (-0.26) and Piñango (-0.10). And an Honorable Other Award to Clement for that ninth inning error that shot up my blood pressure 40 points. He made the play on the next ground ball hit right at him.

Also making an error tonight was Vlad, who seemed to misread a popup, but got there, then had the ball pop out of his glove. Joe, in the analyst spot, said something about Vlad being so good at popups and I was thinking ‘name me an infielder who isn’t good at chasing popups’. I mean, there are pretty easy plays, I can catch a popup. Oh well, it didn’t cost us.

I thought McAdoo (or Chuck to those of us who are close friends) looked good at second. He made a very tough play. It is great to see him get that first hit, first home run. Also good to see anyone not named Sosa at second base.

We have game three of four in Baltimore tomorrow. It is a 4:00 Eastern start. Trey Yesavage (2-2,2.25) tries to get us above .500. Brandon Young (3-1, 3,47) starts for the O’s.

The Mets walked off the Miami Marlins on Friday night in the 10th inning to win, 9-7.

Here are the takeaways...

-- For a league-leading 11th time this season, the Mets went to extra innings with the Marlins after the game was tied at 7-7 through nine. Austin Warren did his job by stranding the ghost runner in a clean top of the 10th inning to give New York a chance to win it in the bottom half and that's exactly what it did after MJ Melendez socked a two-run shot to give the team a 9-7 win.

Melendez entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and finished with three RBI.

-- As is the case so often when a team faces a pitcher for a second straight start after the pitcher shut them down in the first outing, the Mets got to starter Max Meyer this time around, jumping him for four runs in the first inning after the right-hander went seven scoreless against New York in Miami on May 23 while allowing one hit.

It started after the Mets loaded the bases on a single and two walks, which brought up A.J. Ewing, hitting fifth in the order, who delivered a two-run single up the middle to beat the drawn-in infield. Brett Baty tacked on two more with his two-out single to right field after Ewing stole second base and put two in scoring position. 

The four runs New York scored in the first inning doubled the total number of runs it scored in the three-game series in Miami last weekend.

-- Staked to an early big lead, Mets starter Freddy Peralta kept the Marlins off the board for the first two innings, but had to endure a rigorous third inning in which he threw 38 pitches. The right-hander allowed just one run in the frame on a triple by Xavier Edwards, but he took a big hit to his pitch count, which could have possibly affected the rest of his performance.

-- Miami wasted no time in the fourth, attacking Peralta early in counts and stringing together three straight hits, two doubles and a single, on the first five pitches of the inning to score a run. Luis Torrens helped out his starter by throwing out a baserunner at second base for the first out and then Peralta escaped further trouble with a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning.

-- Both times the Marlins scored in the third and fourth innings, the Mets got it right back by answering in the bottom half of the inning. In the third, it was Mark Vientos’ solo shot, a 445-foot towering blast that landed in the second deck. In the fourth, New York took advantage of two consecutive errors by Miami’s defense to plate a run.

-- In the fifth, it was a Mets error that hurt Peralta after he had gotten the first two outs of the inning following a leadoff single that advanced to third on two groundouts. On a 101 mph hot shot to first base off the bat of Otto Lopez, Vientos couldn’t make the play, which resulted in a run. Given an extra life, the Marlins cashed in immediately with a double by Kyle Stowers that drove in the second run of the inning and ended Peralta’s night.

Peralta lasted just 4.2 innings and allowed four runs (two earned) on seven hits and a walk while striking out five. He threw 94 pitches (60 strikes) and wasn’t able to earn a win despite his offense scoring six runs for him.

-- A.J. Minter made his second appearance for New York since returning from the IL and recorded the final out of the fifth. The left-hander got two more outs in the sixth before getting pulled. He had two strikeouts in his inning of work.

-- Huascar Brazoban also pitched an inning in relief but allowed a run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly following a walk and a double that rolled past Baty down the third-base line and had a 50 mph exit velocity. Brooks Raley got the final out of the inning on a strikeout.

-- Once again, the Mets responded in their bottom half of the inning by scoring on a sac fly of their own by pinch-hitterMelendez. Bo Bichette walked with one out and Juan Soto singled to put runners at the corners before the sac fly.

-- With a two-run lead, manager Carlos Mendoza chose to go with Tobias Myers in the eighth inning, which backfired when Myers allowed a leadoff single and then a game-tying, two-run home run to Owen Caissie that knotted things up at 7-7. Myers finished the inning without any further damage and Luke Weaver maneuvered through two hits in the ninth to give New York a chance in the bottom half of the ninth.

Game MVP: MJ Melendez

Melendez called game with his walk-off two-run homer.

Highlights

Freddy Peralta strikes out Otto Lopez to end a 1-2-3 first inning 🔥 pic.twitter.com/8IHxV8YSoN

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 29, 2026

A.J. Ewing brings home Bo Bichette and Juan Soto with a two-run single! pic.twitter.com/QQbELGjb17

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 29, 2026

Brett Baty brings home two!

It's a four-run first inning for the Mets! pic.twitter.com/oHS6nTZYiq

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 29, 2026

Juan Soto makes the leaping catch as he collides with the left field wall! pic.twitter.com/OH2IVIcOaP

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 29, 2026

THAT IS WAY OUTTA HERE!

MARK VIENTOS HITS ONE TO THE SECOND DECK! pic.twitter.com/Vo2qEC6syI

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 30, 2026

Luis Torrens bunts, the ball gets away at third and Marcus Semien scores! pic.twitter.com/N3SbfrLCMJ

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 30, 2026

OH, WOW!

A.J. Minter goes behind the back! pic.twitter.com/o3IiOONJMn

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 30, 2026

MJ MELENDEZ WITH A WALK-OFF HOME RUN!!!!!!

METS WIN!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/O0g2sxorut

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 30, 2026

What's next

The Mets and Marlins continue their weekend series on Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 4:10 p.m. on SNY.

RHP Christian Scott (0-0, 3.20 ERA) will be in search of his first career win and will go up against RHP Tyler Phillips (0-0, 1.07 ERA).

Interesting one tonight. The Red Sox used an opener for struggling righty Brayan Bello tonight. The Guardians scored 4 runs off of him. In one inning. Here’s the sequence from that inning: strikeout-single-single-single-single-single-single-sac fly-strikeout. Here it is in action.

You must be thinking the Guardians managed to pile on after to blow the Red Sox out, right? 4-0 in the first? Not quite. Bello came in for the 2nd inning and pitched 7 scoreless innings, allowing only 4 Cleveland baserunners. Those 7 innings are tied for the longest outing of Bello’s season, and represent the longest start in which he’s given up 0 runs all year. In fairness, Bello has been great since he started coming in after the 1st (with the exception of one game in which he started). He’s pitched 30.1 innings in his last 5 games and given up only 9 earned runs (7 of which came against the Braves, where he opened the game). But, the Guardians only made Bello throw *63* pitches in 7 innings.

Okay, I’m done with the negativity. Jose looked really good today. In his 4 plate appearances he struck out once, and had batted balls of 103.6mph, 100.9mph, and 106.4mph. Two of those were outs. Perhaps he’s finally about to catch fire.

Slade was, well, normal. He pitched extremely well for the first 4 innings, and then imploded in the 5th. He gave up 4 hits and 3 runs recording only 1 out in the 5th. (Much like what the Red Sox have done with Bello, I really think the Guardians should consider having Festa open for Cecconi)

The bullpen was good again! Colin Holderman was tasked with cleaning up Cecconi’s mess and did so beautifully. He came on with a runner on second and got two weak groundouts. He came on for the 6th and induced a strike out and a groundout. Gaddis found himself in some trouble in the 8th with runners at the corners and 2 outs, but got Mickey Gasper to groundout for the last out of the inning.

Let’s talk about Cade Smith. He got his league-leading 20th save tonight, striking out the side. His ERA is down to 2.60, and his FIP is down to 1.04. Since the Cubs series, he’s pitched 20.2 innings to the tune of a 1.31 ERA and 0.36 FIP (3 total ER). He’s struck out 31 (thirty-one!!) batters and walked only 2. He’s recorded 16 saves in 20 opportunities. Since then, he’s remembered how to locate his fastball, consistently gotten his splitter below the zone, and is throwing his sweeper down-and-away to righties a blistering 56.3% of the time.

That’s all for tonight. It’ll be Messick (yay) vs. Gray tomorrow night.

The Dodgers (36-20) face off with the red hot Philadelphia Phillies (29-27) on Friday night at Dodger Stadium in the opener of a three-game weekend series. 

Justin Wrobleski (6-2, 3.07 ERA, 1.11 WHIP) starts for the Dodgers.

Zack Wheeler (4-0, 1.67 ERA, 0.82 WHIP) takes the mound for Philly.

Lineups

Friday game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Phillies
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Time: 7:15 p.m.
• TV: Apple TV
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

For six innings, everything appeared to be going Baltimore’s way. Trevor Rogers looked like the guy everyone hoped he would be this season. The Orioles already had three home runs under their belt and appeared destined for more against Toronto’s bullpen.

Then things quickly fell apart. Rogers allowed four runs in the blink of an eye, and Yennier Cano surrendered the lead one inning later. Baltimore’s bats went silent, and the Orioles dropped an extremely winnable game 6-5.

Rogers absolutely cruised through the first six innings. If he hadn’t been so efficient, he would have ended the day with six scoreless frames and a much needed confidence boost. Instead, he left the game with a bat taste in his mouth.

Rogers needed only 74 pitches to record 18 outs. He limited the Jays to two hits and a walk before running into trouble in the seventh. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got the rally started with a base hit on a 0-1 fastball. Rogers attempted to sneak a first-pitch fastball by Kazuma Okamoto, but Toronto’s home run leader ambushed the pitch. Okamoto turned the ball around at 108 MPH and trimmed Baltimore’s lead to three.

Daulton Varsho followed with a double down the left field line, and Adley Rutschman trotted out to the mound before rookie Charles McAdoo stepped to the plate. McAdoo took a pair of pitches before jumping on a similar high fastball. The rookie sent the ball into the first row of the right field bleachers for his first major league hit, and Rogers looked down at the ground in disbelief.

On a night filled with disappointments, it’s brutal that Rogers let a quality start slip away. Tonight could have marked a significant step in the right direction for the struggling starter. Instead, he’s stuck regretting a few late mistakes.

Craig Albernaz summoned Tyler Wells from the bullpen, and the former starter recorded three outs without relinquishing the lead. Baltimore went quietly in the bottom half of the seventh, and Toronto picked right back up where they left off in the top of the eighth.

Yennier Cano coughed up a pair of singles to George Springer and Ernie Clement to start the inning. Guerrero jumped on a first-pitch fastball and sent it to left field for a two-run double. Gunnar Henderson spiked the relay into the ground, and the go-ahead run scored without a play at the plate.

The Orioles jumped out to the five-run lead with some patience at the plate and three home runs. Jackson Holliday led off the third with a single, and Baltimore took three consecutive walks to score the first run of the game. The team could have struck for more, but Pete Alonso delivered an uncharacteristic and uncompetitive at bat with the bases loaded.

After three straight walks, Alonso swung at two pitches well outside of the strike zone before popping out for the first out. Samuel Basallo extended the strike zone a few times as well, but Basallo muscled a fly ball deep enough to plate the second run with a sacrifice fly.

Holliday extended the lead to three with a solo homer in the fourth, and Alonso returned to the plate with some patience in the fifth. Alonso took three pitches before launching an opposite field home run. The Polar Bear’s 11th homer of the season gave Baltimore a 4-0 lead and provided a template for Basallo.

Basallo stepped in and took three pitches before sending an opposite field homer of his own. The back-to-back jacks appeared to position Baltimore for a relatively easy path to victory. The Jays had other plans.

Baltimore had one last chance to extend the game in the ninth inning. Taylor Ward flied out to the warning track. Gunnar Henderson reached on a fielding error, but Adley Rutschman bounced out to end the game.

The game marked the latest chapter in a series of bad losses. The Orioles appeared to capture some momentum with a three-game sweep of the first-place Rays, but things changed in a hurry. The Blue Jays returned to .500 with the win, while Baltimore slipped to 26-32.

There’s nothing quite as heartwarming as letting your former team know what they gave up on. Nelson Velázquez greeted the Chicago Cubs by slamming the first pitch he saw into the visitor’s bullpen helping the St. Louis Cardinals win Friday night. He was joined in the home run parade by Ivan Herrera and Thomas Saggese, but more on that later.

Andre Pallante struggled and that’s putting it kindly. In the top of the first inning, Andre was able to get Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nico Hoerner out, but then allowed Chicago to do a lot of two out scoring. Michael Busch singled and Alex Bregman both singled before Cardinal killer Ian Happ greeted a Andre Pallante 4-seam meatball by sending it 407 feet into the stands giving Chicago an early 3-0 lead.

Fortunately, it did not take long for the Cardinals to respond. In the bottom of the 1st, Iván Herrera had a ball glance off of his toe and then Jordan Walker lived up to his name and walked which brought up Nelson Velázquez who played his first Major League game as a Chicago Cub in May of 2022 until he was traded to Kansas City the following year. Nelson celebrated his call-up from Memphis by destroying a Shota Imanaga 4-seam fastball giving it a 411 foot ride tying the game at 3-3. Yo Nelly indeed.

Andre Pallante looked uncomfortable in the top of the 2nd inning as he gave up a single to Dansby Swanson and then walked Nico Hoerner with two outs. Michael Busch punished him by singling in Swanson allowing Chicago to jump back in the lead 4-3.

The resilient Cardinals answered that challenge again in the bottom of the 4th inning when Thomas Saggese homered to left-center tying the game again 4-4.

Andre Pallante would only last 3 innings giving up 8 hits and 4 earned runs while striking out 3 and walking 1. Justin Bruihl would come in for relief in the 4th inning before handing the ball to Gordon Graceffo who entered the game in the top of the 5th inning, but only being allowed to throw 10 pitches. George Soriano pitched the top of the 6th inning. They were able to keep the Cubs off of the scoreboard in the middle of the game giving St. Louis a chance to grab the lead for the first time which they did thanks to Ivan Herrera slamming his 7th home run of the season. At that point, it was 5-4 Cardinals.

The late innings were handled by JoJo Romero who took over in the top of the 7th inning and had the honor of being the first Cardinals pitcher to get Michael Busch out Friday night as he was 3 for 3 before JoJo struck him out. He also struck out Ian Happ which proves it’s possible for a St. Louis pitcher to accomplish this. Ryne Stanek was tasked with the top of the 8th inning. He gave up a leadoff single to Seiya Suzuki, but struck out Michael Conforto with a nasty split finger third strike. After Carson Kelly grounded out in front of the mound, Stanek appeared to tweak his knee a bit, but he stayed in the game. Ryne was able to close out the Cubs in the top of the 8th by getting Dansby Swanson to fly out to Walker in right field.

The Cardinals would add some badly-needed insurance in the bottom of the 8th inning when Nelson Velázquez reached on an infield single. After Alec Burleson struck out, Masyn Winn (who had 2 hits on the night) went the other way with a pitch into right field giving St. Louis a scoring chance that was delivered on when José Fermín singled into left upping the Cardinals lead to 6-4.

Riley O’Brien was brought in to lock down the game for St. Louis in the top of the 9th inning. He was rudely greeted by Pete Crow-Armstrong who knocked the 2nd pitch he saw off of the right field wall for a double. Nico Hoerner then nailed Riley in the back of the leg with a ball back up the middle, but he was able to recover and get the first out at first. O’Brien got Michael Busch to ground out scoring Armstrong from third, but the Cardinals were still clinging to their 6-5 lead. Alex Bregman grounded out to Masyn Winn to end the game and give St. Louis a very important early season victory.

Game 2 of the rivalry will happen Saturday night at Busch Stadium as Kyle Leahy will make the start for the St. Louis Cardinals while the Chicago Cubs will ask Ben Brown to take one for the team. Saturday night’s game will be a national broadcast on Fox with first pitch scheduled for 6:15pm.

The Atlanta Braves have scored the second most runs MLB so far this season and had plans of continuing this trend while facing the Reds an their started Chris Paddack and his 6.86 ERA.

The first inning started off with a bang. Ronald Acuña Jr. hit the fourth pitch he saw for a solo shot in the first inning to set the tone with a solo shot to make the score 1-0. The interesting part is he saw three four-seam fastballs and then took a curveball deep. Notoriously this season he has struggled against four-seamers.

After a Harris fly out Olson hit a ball to the wall and tried for a sliding double but got thrown out in a bang-bang play. Albies then flied out to end the top of the first. Grant Holmes looked good in the first, outside of a walk to Mosley High School graduated JJ Bleday, he sat down every other batter to include a strikeout.

In the second inning the Braves started to blow the game open, Smith singled followed by a Riley walk and a Yastrzemki walk and the bases loaded. Jorge Mateo then hit a chopper to short in which he got out, but a run scored to make it 2-0. Tromp then came to the plate and did his job by hitting the ball deep to right to get a sac fly and make it 3-0. After a walk, Harris hit a single to score Mateo from second to make the score 4-0. Olson grounded out, but the damage had been done.

Holmes then did what he does best early in a game and sat the Reds down in order in the second inning picking up two groundouts and a strikeout. To not be outdone, the Braves were also sat down in order in the third. In the third fr Holmes his rival Freidl who already has two HRs against him singled, but then Holmes struck back with back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout from De La Cruz.

The only offense in the fourth for the Braves was a single by Yastrzemski. The fourth for the Red was very different. Bleday hit a shot to to RF to make the score 4-1. After a pop up and Stewart being caught try ing to steal third, Lowe hit a solo shot to make the score 4-2 Braves. Steer then singled, but after a mound visit Holmes got the last out.

In the fifth, Harris singled, but was caught stealing second. He was initially called safe, but after a challenge it was overturned. That was the only offense for the Braves in the inning. The Reds got to Holmes again. This time with two singles After the hits Didier Fuentes came in the game. Holmes finished the game going 4.2 innings with seven hits (two HRs), three earned runs, one walk and five strikeouts. Solid work.

Fuentes allowed a runner to score that he inherited, but then he got the strikeout to end the inning. After a single by Smith and a HBP from Riley, Yastrzemski hit a double to make the score 5-3.

Mateo then singled to keep the scoring going and make it 6-3. Harris came in clutch after an intentional walk and singled to make the score 8-3, which would end up being the final score.

The Braves started the series off with a statement. They are the best overall team in MLB. After Fuentes the Braves pitched Lee, then Suarez, and finally Kinley who combined for 3.0 innings and allowed two hits, zero walks, zero runs, zero walks, and five strikeouts.

The Braves showed out tonight and look to do it again when they face the Reds again tommorow. Harris and Smith had three hit nights and Ronald Acuña had a HR.