Category: Baseball

The Cubs celebrated 150 years since becoming a National League franchise before Sunday’s game, with many of the team’s icons present.

Then the current Cubs put on an offensive show, with its newest potential franchise player, Pete Crow-Armstrong, solidifying his claim on this year’s National League MVP award. PCA hit three home runs, also singled, and had a chance at a fourth homer in the eighth inning. He got a standing ovation after grounding out against a Reds position player in that at-bat, and how often do you see that?

Alex Bregman, Carson Kelly and Seiya Suzuki also homered for the Cubs and all of that helped the team to a 17-5 blowout of the Reds.

The fun started in the first inning, after Kevin Gausman set the Reds down in order in the top of the frame.

PCA hit the second pitch of the bottom of the first for his 34th home run [VIDEO].

Leadoff homer facts from BCB’s JohnW53:

PCA’s homer was the eighth of his career in the first inning with nobody on and nobody out, tying him with Brian McRae for the fifth most by a Cub.

Alfonso Soriano hit 22; Rick Monday, 17; Dexter Fowler, 12; and Ian Happ, 11.

All of PCA’s have come this season, five of them since Aug. 5.

Soriano hit 12 in 2007; Monday, eight in 1976; and Fowler, seven in 2016.

The most remarkable thing abouit that — five leadoff home runs in the team’s last 22 games!

Also, that ball was demolished [VIDEO].

And the Cubs weren’t done in that inning. Suzuki followed with a single and then Bregman went deep, his 20th [VIDEO].

Gausman, though, was also susceptible to the long ball on an afternoon with the wind blowing out at 13 miles per hour. A double by Tyler Stephenson was followed by … sigh… yet another home run by Eugenio Suárez against the Cubs, the 39th career blast for him against the North Siders, making it 3-2.

But the Cubs came right back in the bottom of the inning. Tyrone Taylor led off with a single and went to second on a single by Pedro Ramirez.

Carson Kelly then flied to right and Taylor took off for third. Then this happened [VIDEO].

Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz made a bad throw trying to get Ramirez advancing to second, and on that throw, Taylor scored to make it 4-2.

PCA was next [VIDEO].

That one clanged off the right-field foul pole, homer number 35 for Pete, and a 6-2 Cubs lead.

Again Gausman got taken deep in the third. After he walked De La Cruz, Sal Stewart homered and it was 6-4. That, though, would be as close as the Reds would get.

The Cubs added one in the fourth. PCA came up for the third time in four innings, with people cheering for another homer. Instead, he singled, then went to third on a single by Suzuki and scored on this single by Bregman [VIDEO].

So that’s 3-for-3 and four RBI for PCA in just four innings.

One more run scored off Gausman in the fifth to make it 7-5, and Gausman was removed after the fifth having thrown 102 pitches. It wasn’t a great outing, but with Cubs hitters smacking the ball all over the yard, it didn’t need to be.

The Cubs then began to pour it on in the bottom of the fifth. Taylor and Ramirez singled and Kelly went deep [VIDEO].

It’s now 10-5 Cubs, where it was in the seventh and that’s when the Cubs had even more offensive fun. Taylor and Kelly drew one-out walks, bringing up PCA again [VIDEO].

PCA three-homer game facts from John:

Pete Crow-Armstrong is the 30th different Cub since 1901 to hit three homers in a game. He is the third to join the club this season, after Dansby Swanson on July 1, at home vs. the Padres, and Alex Bregman, on Aug. 12 at Washington. Michael Busch did it on July 4 of last year at home vs. the Cardinals. So they have done it four times in less than 14 months, while playing 211 games.

The previous four had come over 23 years: Brant Brown in 1998, Moises Alou in 2003, Dioner Navarro in 2013 and Rafael Ortega in 2021.

The 30 players have done it a total of 45 times. Sammy Sosa leads, with six; followed by Ernie Banks, four; Dave Kingman and Aramis Ramirez, three; and Kris Bryant, Hank Sauer and Alfonso Soriano, two. PCA is the 23rd with one.

But the Cubs were not done in that inning. Suzuki walked and Bregman was hit by a pitch. One out later, Nico Hoerner came to the plate. He had gone 0-for-4 up to this point, but his single scored Suzuki to make it 14-5 [VIDEO].

Just a bit of an interruption of all this hitting to show you that the Cubs also played some D in this game. Here’s a nice stop by Bregman that ended the top of the eighth [VIDEO].

At first it looked like Bregman had caught the ball, but he immediately threw to first. He knew he hadn’t, and on replay you can see the ball hit the dirt first. Nice grab.

With a nine-run deficit the Reds brought in backup catcher Jose Trevino to throw the bottom of the eighth. Taylor blooped a single to right, his fourth hit of the game. Ramirez flied to center, and then Taylor scored on a double by Kelly [VIDEO].

That brought up PCA. As you can imagine, with a 15-5 lead he was absolutely, positively trying to hit a home run. Who could blame him in that situation? Instead, he grounded out and left to a huge ovation.

But the Cubs were not done hitting homers! Suzuki blasted one into the bleachers to make it 17-5 [VIDEO].

Colin Rea, who hadn’t pitched since a week ago Friday (and only once since Aug. 15) threw two scoreless innings to finish things up. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].

A note on the three-run homers by PCA and Kelly from John:

The three-run homers by Carson Kelly and Pete Crow-Armstrong raised the Cubs’ total this season to 30 with two men on base, breaking the team record for such homers, set in 2017. They hit 28 in 2008, 27 last year and 26 in 1930.

Their 30 this year are the most by any team. The Nationals went into today with 26; the Mariners, 24; and the Brewers and Yankees, 23.

And here are PCA’s postgame comments on his big day [VIDEO].

It was a fantastic day in and around Wrigley Field, both during and before the game. Here’s the full 150th anniversary pregame ceremony, which was well done, and it was wonderful to see all these Cubs greats together on the field:

The Cubs will go for the series win against the Reds Sunday evening at Wrigley Field — remember, this was originally a 1:20 p.m. CT game, it was moved for NBC, which is featuring it on Sunday Night Baseball at 6:20 p.m. CT. Announcers will be Jason Benetti, Anthony Rizzo and Jeff Brantley.

Starters for the game Sunday: Shōta Imanaga for the Cubs and Chase Burns for the Reds. Let’s hope the Cubs can start another winning streak here.

Texas Rangers @ Milwaukee Brewers

Saturday, August 29, 2026, 6:15 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / FOX)

American Family Field

RHP Cal Quantrill vs. LHP Shane Drohan

Go Rangers!

Andrew Benintendi had three hits and was involved all three White Sox runs. The rest of the team had zilch. Didn’t matter, because the Twins are really bad, resulting in a 3-2 game and series win for the White Sox.

Benintendi’s first hit was an RBI single in the first, a 78 mph squib through a drawn-in infield that was only drawn in because Bailey Ober walked Sam Antonacci and Munekama Murakami to start the game, with Antonacci taking third on a Miguel Vargas fly out.

Erick Fedde gave up runs in the first and second to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead, walks being key in both cases because the Twins can’t hit much with Byron Buxton hurt.

Benintendi’s second hit was a leadoff double in the fourth, after which he scored when rookie shortstop Kaelen Culpepper, perhaps having watched too much World Cup, decided to kick around Chase Meidroth’s absolutely routine grounder to make it 2-2.

Benintendi’s third hit was a homer in the sixth, which would stand up as the game-winner:

Meanwhile, Fedde settled down to throw scoreless ball through the fifth, Sean Newcomb had an excellent relief stint of three innings with two singles and no walks, and Bryan Hudson tossed a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.

As his luck — or skill — would have it, Culpepper followed up the costly error by striking out, fouling out, and then ending the game on a grounder to first. Definitely not his day, so let’s be kind and show his one moment of competence — oh, OK, make that excellence — on a Braden Montgomery grounder with two on (via walks, of course) in the seventh.

Twins pitchers tried to help the Sox, issuing six walks, but when you go 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, the walks don’t help enough. Twins batters tried to help as well, going an even worse 0-for-7 with RISP.

Heck, even Twins catcher Victor Caratini did his best to help the Sox by running his team out of challenges early, one of his calls on a pitch not even close — challenges they could really have used in the eighth and ninth, when two very bad calls against them had to stand.

The win runs the White Sox record to an amazing 72-63, a season-high nine games better than .500. With Cleveland again trailing Kansas City, there’s a chance that the magic number drops to 24 to 23 in another hour or so.

Either way, the White Sox are eyeing a sweep tomorrow, with Jordan Hicks playing the role of opener versus Zebby Mathews, who sports a 4.86 ERA but has had good performances his last two times out.

---

Sox MVP
Andrew Benintendi: single, double, HR, two RBI, 1 run

Runners-up
When Benintendi had the only hits and RBIs in the game? Fuggedaboudit

Soiled stockings
The rest of the offense, in a team effort

The Cincinnati Reds played baseball against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday afternoon up in Wrigley Field. We won’t get into the nitty gritty of what kind of score ended up on the scoreboard – that’s the kind of thing that teams who are in playoff chases get to care about.

Over here at Red Reporter, we get to follow the exploits of one Sal Stewart as the season dwindles to a close. And thankfully for us, Sal keeps providing us with the good stuff.

Sal swatted a 105.9 mph hammer some 431 feet into the left-center seats at Wrigley for his 30th homer of the season during Saturday’s game. In the process, he became just the 14th big league rookie to ever post a season with at least 30 homers and more than 100 runs batted in, while also joining inner-circle Hall of Famer Frank Robinson as the only rookies in Reds history to hit at least 30 dingers.

Sal Stewart LAUNCHED home run No. 30 😳 https://t.co/2YmnmNfLlMpic.twitter.com/o0WANpkZIR

— MLB (@MLB) August 29, 2026

As MLB’s Sarah Langs pointed out, 9 of the aforementioned 14 rookies with 30/100 seasons came after the Rookie of the Year Award began in 1947, and all 9 of those rookies took home the award at season’s end.

Pretty rarified air Sal finds himself in these days. I wonder if the front office of the Reds can put anyone else around him and build a winner while he’s in a Reds uniform the next few years…

Saturday’s matchup between the Cardinals and Pirates had an odd feel to it. Pittsburgh was planning on having a bullpen game and with Kyle Leahy on a strict pitch count limitation, St. Louis was, too. Eventually, it would be mistakes and who could make the most of opportunities that would decide which team would walk away with a win. In the end, the Cardinals and Pirates would join forces to try and defeat Pittsburgh, but neither was successful.

Kyle Leahy only made one mistake in the top of the 1st inning, but that mistake traveled 364 feet when he threw a 91 mph slider to Brandon Lowe who sent it over the fence in right for a 1-0 Pirates lead. The Cardinals would pull even in the bottom of the 3rd inning when Joshua Baez hit his first Busch Stadium home run which barely snuck over the left field wall tying the game 1-1.

Kyle Leahy was pulled from the game after 3 innings as his pitch count hit 51. He was replaced by Brycen Mautz for the top of the 4th inning. He gave up what looked like an innocent single to left to Lowe, but Joshua Baez misplayed it as the ball got past him which resulted in a two-base error and Lowe standing at third base with no outs. He would score two batters later when Gonzalez singled to center giving Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead.

Pittsburgh would threaten again in the top of the 5th inning. Mautz walked Reynolds to leadoff the inning. He advanced to second on a wild pitch then advanced to third when O’Neil Cruz singled to right. With runners on first and third with just one out, Brycen struck out Mangum. A hanging breaking ball to Flores Jr. would doom Mautz as he blasted it deep into the bleachers in left-center for a 5-1 Pirates lead.

Just when it looked like Saturday’s game would go down the drain as a big dreary disappointment, the Pittsburgh Pirates decided to join the Cardinals in trying to defeat themselves. In the bottom of the 6th after Alec Burleson popped out, Jordan Walker smoked a ball directly to Gonzalez at short, but it went right through him into left field for an error (the first of many in the 6th). Nathan Church grounded into a fielder’s choice which resulted in another error by Gonzalez giving the Cardinals runners on first and second with just one out. The most outrageous error of the 3 by Pittsburgh happened next when Jose Fermin flied to centerfield, but O’Neil Cruz just completely blew the play which allowed Jordan Walker to score cutting the Pirates lead to 5-2. Sadly, that’s all the runs the Cardinals would get after Gorman and Baez both popped out to end the Cardinals 6th. Even with the Pirates helping, St. Louis couldn’t make much of the nearly unprecedented blunder-fest.

Cade Winquest made his Major League debut in the top of the 7th and his first effort was impressive. He made Bryan Reynolds look ridiculously bad striking him out on 3 straight pitches, the last one a wicked 79 mph curveball. Nasty (in a good way). He would end the 7th inning with 2 strikeouts and a pickoff.

The Cardinals offense was so pathetic for the first 2/3 of the game, they didn’t get their 3rd hit until the bottom of the 7th inning when Jimmy Crooks led off with a double down the right field line. The slumping JJ Wetherholt was unable to move him over as he broke his bat and popped out to short center. Ivan Herrera didn’t do anything productive either as he flew out to center. Perhaps it was peer pressure of not coming through with positive offense that led Alec Burleson to ground out to third to end the Cardinals 7th with no runs.

THIS TEAM IS SO FRUSTRATING TO WATCH ON DAYS LIKE THIS.

Back to positive thoughts. Cade Winquest looked impressive in the top of the 8th inning, too. The movement on his curveball is a sight to behold. Groundballs, strikeouts and not allowing hard contact are a reason to be pleased about his debut. Ryan Fernandez was brought in to handle the top of the 9th inning for St. Louis. His goal was to keep the Cardinals within reasonable striking distance for the bottom of the 9th in case the St. Louis offense decided to wake up and he was not successful. With two outs, he walked Lowe. Reynolds followed that with a single and Gonzales doubled to give the Pirates an extra run they likely would never need making it 6-2.

The St. Louis Cardinals would need to do something in the bottom of the 9th that they had not done in any of the previous innings Saturday. A come-from-behind win would require multiple back-to-back hits and a bit of luck. Lefty Mason Montgomery came in to close out the games for the Pirates. Oli Marmol sent up Thomas Saggese to pinch-hit for Nolan Gorman. It only took 3 pitches for Saggese to strikeout. Joshua Baez was next to face the 99 mph heat from Montgomery. He worked the count full before flying out to deep left-center for the second out. Ramon Urias was the Cardinals last hope Saturday. He struck out on a check swing strike 3 which was appropriate considering how the rest of the game went. A big bummer effort, Cardinals.

The St. Louis Cardinals wrap up their homestand before a long west coast swing as they’ll host the Pirates again on Sunday. Matthew Liberatore will give it a go for the Cardinals while the Pirates will start Braxton Ashcraft. First pitch is set for 1:15pm at Busch Stadium and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.

On Friday, the San Francisco Giants had a couple of guests before they played the Arizona Diamondbacks. San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith made a special visit to Oracle Park and participated in batting practice in a Bay Area crossover.

Celebrini nearly hit a long ball, but fell just short hitting the Levi's Landing sign in right field:

Macklin Celebrini came sooo close to his first home run at @OracleParkSF 🤏 pic.twitter.com/z19lxmBWYw

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) August 29, 2026

Meanwhile, Smith, the great-great-grandson of MLB pioneer and the founder of the Chicago White Sox Charles Comiskey, was able to round the bases:

Will Smith hits one out! pic.twitter.com/r5ProcX6Ta

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) August 29, 2026

The Sharks and Giants often team up for Bay Area Unite events and collaboration events, so we'll likely see Celebrini and Smith visit the stadium on the sea again in the relatively near future, which the Giants hinted at themselves:

Same time next year, @SanJoseSharks? 🏒⚾️ pic.twitter.com/vEsxpbVWTb

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) August 29, 2026

With Celebrini earning himself one of the NHL's biggest contracts and Smith competing in Drake Maye's charity softball game back in May, then visiting the Giants on Friday, the Sharks' young stars have certainly been keeping themselves busy ahead of their third season in the NHL. 

Shohei Ohtani is expected to pitch again in a game for the Dodgers at some point, possibly soon. But it won’t happen on Sunday, or Tuesday, manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park in Detroit after a loss to the Tigers.

“In total, Sho hasn’t come out of it well, the arm, the knee. If any pitcher was feeling like this, we wouldn’t run them out there,” Roberts told reporters, as shown on SportsNet LA. “For us, it’s take tomorrow off the table, let’s get back to LA, let’s kind of figure out where his body is at, and go from there.”

Ohtani last pitched on July 3 against the San Diego Padres, and has been sidelined from pitching ever since with left knee irritation, and missed the All-Star Game after treatment on said knee. He’s also dealt with a right biceps injury in the last two months, and the Dodgers have been cautious about not wanting Ohtani to have to compensate while pitching and potentially injure himself further, threading a delicate balance of wanting Ohtani back on the mound by the postseason while also needing to keep his bat in the lineup for a Dodgers offense that has struggled for two months.

“I don’t think he’s 100 percent. That’s the hard part right now is trying to figure out if he’s not 100 percent, overall body, is it worth giving him an inning to build up, or not,” Roberts said Saturday morning, as shown on SportsNet LA. “It’s more of when [Ohtani might pitch], and does it have to be [Sunday]. Internally, we’re trying to discuss it.”

“To be quite frank, I just don’t see everything getting to 100 percent by the end of the season,” Roberts added. “But then again, there are a lot of pitchers who aren’t 100 percent, but are still viable. It’s just not an exact science.”

Ohtani won’t pitch on Tuesday either, Roberts said. But he will continue to hit, and will be in Sunday’s starting lineup in Detroit.

The road back for Ohtani on the mound began ramping up in earnest on August 14 with a bullpen session at Dodger Stadium, his first time pitching off a mound in over three weeks. He threw 30 pitches of a simulated game, all to rehabbing Dodgers catcher Will Smith on August 22 at Dodger Stadium, then Ohtani threw off flat ground on the road trip on Wednesday in Atlanta before a 20-pitch bullpen session on Friday in Detroit.

Ohtani this season has a 1.79 ERA and 2.59 xERA with 95 strikeouts and 26 waks in 85 2/3 innings. Among major league pitchers with at least 80 innings this season, Ohtani ranks second in ERA, fifth in xERA, and 14th in strikeout rate. He completed at least six innings in 13 of his 14 starts.

It’s unclear how many pitching starts during the regular season might get, but considering his first outing would be one inning, he might not be able to build back up to five innings by the postseason. Because Ohtani is a two-way player, he doesn’t count against the active-roster limit of 13 pitchers, which will increase to 14 pitchers on Tuesday, September 1. That means any innings Ohtani throws are innings the rest of the Dodgers pitching staff doesn’t aren’t burdened with.

“For Shohei, knowing that any inning is additive is important, and it was a formula that worked,” Roberts said on August 14.

Tyler Glasnow was always going to pitch on Sunday, whether following Ohtani’s one inning or not. Now, Glasnow will start. The right-hander returned Tuesday from three and a half months on the injured list with back spasms with seven strikeouts in five innings allowing three runs in Atlanta, and will be pitching on four days rest against the Tigers.

Texas Rangers lineup for August 29, 2026 against the Milwaukee Brewers: starting pitchers are Cal Quantrill for the Rangers and Shane Drohan for the Brewers.

Texas will try to score some runs today. Ideally multiple runs. They have the righty-swinging crew going.

The lineup:

Foscue — 2B

Seager — SS

Langford — LF

Nimmo — RF

Duran — CF

Burger — 1B

Jansen — C

O’Hoppe — DH

Freeman — 3B

6:15 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are +145 underdogs.

Recap

The Sox jumped out to a sweet, sweet lead in the first with Wilyer Abreu’s twenty-third home run, a career high.

Jake Bennett went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning and damn it felt good. He did the same in the second. He threw a fantastic game, in fact, keeping the Yankees off-balance and off the board.

Carlos Rodon who, outside of Abreu’s homer, had been extremely steady, unraveled in the fifth inning: a long at-bat to Adley Rutschman, a small tantrum after a passed ball that scored Rutschman, followed by a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Simply put, the Sox tilted him and got to the Yankees’ bullpen early with the bases loaded. Unfortunately, nothing came of it, and the insurance run had to be enough to satisfy…for now. 2-0, Sox.

But this rush to the bullpen could take on more importance in Game 2 of the doubleheader tonight. Yankees manager Aaron Boone used four pitchers by the seventh inning and was pretty liberal with the use of the bench too. We’ll see how fresh the Yankees feel later on.

Garrett Whitlock returned from the IL in the eighth and in the same inning, Rutschman successfully used an ABS challenge to recover a strikeout (he did it again in the ninth too). What began as a tough game for Rutschman ultimately was a triumph: ending his drought at the plate, scoring two runs, and converting those strikeouts.

So many other moments worth mentioning:

• Nick Sogard was unfairly sent back to second base in the fifth inning when the third-base umpire inexplicably called time while the play was still in progress. He was sent back and forth from third to second and back while it was sorted out. He had a nice game.
• Three Yankees let a shallow outfield fly drop among them and it was glorious.
• Yankees fans booed the team and started leaving the stadium. Also glorious.
• The Sox had several defensive hiccups but they had some great defensive plays too.

The Sox took a one-game lead against the Yankees in the season series. This series is the last time they’ll meet in the regular season and for the record, I completely disagree; what is September without the Red Sox/Yankees?

What a win. Stay tuned for tonight!

Studs

Pitching

Jake Bennett was in command today: 6 IP, 3H, 0 BB, 7K. Garrett Whitlock returned, with a 1-2-3 eighth inning, and only 13 pitches. Tyron Guerrero and Jovani Moran also did their jobs. No Yankees batters walked.

Erik Miller and Aroldis Chapman remain fresh for Game 2 tonight.

Baserunning

Lots of heads-up running to capitalize on Yankees passed balls, errors, miscues, falls in the outfield. I love our running game.

Ninth-Inning Pile-On

The Sox added four runs and we could relax.

Duds

I hate to get picky on a day like this but here goes.

Willson Contreras

He had 3K, though also some nice moments over at first. Tough day at the plate.

Defensive Hiccups

A throwing error by Caleb Durbin, and a fielding error by Eli White. Ceddanne Rafaela uncharacteristically misread what looked like an easy fly and allowed it by him (though he recovered quickly from his initial misplay and started a beautiful relay to the plate that erased the runner and kept the Yankees off the board). Adley Rutschman allowed a passed ball in the fifth, and also dropped a foul tip, seemingly while trying to transfer the ball in order to throw it to third (there was no reason for this). This gave the Yankees another bite at the apple but thankfully nothing came of it. A parade of miscues and two actual errors; that’s not usually the Sox brand of ball. This being said, there were some nice scoops at first, and the dramatic recovery to nail the runner at the plate could almost make you forget about the rest (except for the box score, which doesn’t lie). But with a dramatic finish and the W, all is forgiven.

Play of the Game

Andrew Monasterio’s single in the ninth drove in two and instantly turned a relatively tight 2-0 game into a shout-out-loud party. The Sox had no outs and went on to score two more in the inning but this was the play that wrapped the game up in a bow.

Shohei Ohtani's return to pitching remains uncertain, as Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters in Detroit Saturday, Aug. 29 that the two-way superstar is "not 100%" and cut a bullpen session short a day earlier due to "overall body" considerations.

Ohtani has not pitched since July 3 due largely to left knee soreness, but he is also battling a right biceps issue, both conspiring to truncate a pitching campaign that saw him post a 0.74 ERA through his first 10 starts and a 1.79 mark over 14 outings.

Since Ohtani last pitched, the Dodgers acquired two-time American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Tigers, which greatly lessened Ohtani's urgency to return to the mound. They've also regained lefty Blake Snell and right-hander Tyler Glasnow from the injured list, all following No. 1 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

So the Dodgers, for now, have enviable pitching depth. In a sense, their approach now differs very little from 2025. That's when Ohtani was making his full-season pitching return from Tommy John surgery and L.A. slow-played his recovery in an almost ideal fashion, setting him up for postseason heroics on both sides of the ball.

Yet the vibes are different this year. Roberts acknowledged Saturday that Ohtani, like many pitchers, may not feel 100% the rest of the season. That carries greater implications for the Dodgers, since pitching-created discomfort can in almost any case affect him as a hitter, as well.

"That's the hard part right now," Roberts told reporters, "is trying to figure out if he's not 100%, overall body, is it worth giving him an inning to build up or not? So I think that that's kind of where we're at right now, trying to weigh the positives and negatives."

It seems likely Ohtani will return in an opener or limited-inning role, if only to test his body without subjecting it to the rigors of throwing upward of 50 to 100 pitches. And if he is, in fact, limited physically the rest of the season, a relief or opener role might be his most viable role come the postseason, as well.

The only guarantee is that Ohtani the two-way player is almost certain to look different this October than last.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Shohei Ohtani's pitching return, role for rest of season again in doubt

What a miserable afternoon. The Yankees’ so-called lefty specialist lineup looked like they were swinging pool noodles, the team defense was terrible, and the squad in general looked like they forgot they had a game at 1:05pm. It should surprise nobody then when you combine those three qualities, you tend to lose, this time by a 6-0 score to the Red Sox.

What do we say about Carlos Rodón this time?

I’ve found myself recapping a lot of Rodón’s starts this year, one of those weird, mostly random bits of clustering that you only notice after 120 games or so. I’ve remarked before what a laborious viewing experience I find him to be, clomping around the pitcher’s mound like an uncoordinated horse or your aunt at a wedding when she discovers what a kamikaze is. I’ve recapped multiple games where he fails to get through five innings, indeed today was the third straight occasion. I think these games would go by quicker if every hitter started with a 2-2 count, because Rodón is going to get there regardless before anything interesting happens. All three of those conditions were met today.

He gave up a home run to Wilyer Abreu in the first inning, the third batter he faced. He then sat down the next 11 hitters he faced before Adley Rutschman finally broke through with a single in the fifth, where the troubles began. Rodón then got a liner right to Amed Rosario for the second out of the inning, only for Rosario to throw the ball somewhere in the ZIP Code of first base, trying to double up Adley but instead having the ball rattle around the baseline fence, and Boston’s catcher was on second base. We’ll come back to Rosario in a minute, but today was just about the last time I want to see him in pinstripes.

Speaking of people I no longer want to see in pinstripes, I hope all that kvetching about the Yankees carrying two left-handed hitting catchers was worth it, because Ali Sánchez does stand on the right-handed hitters’ side of the plate despite not actually hitting. Adding to the problem, he doesn’t do much catching either:

As annoying as I do find Rodón, it’s hard to pin that run on him. He gave up just three hits on the day, but after Adley scampered home he walked and then hit consecutive batters, the kind of falling apart after a bad play that we’ve seen him do before. Yerry De los Santos took over with two outs in the frame and managed to navigate his way out of danger.

You’ll be stunned to know the team didn’t manage much offensively, but on the topic of offensive … I said we’d get back to Rosario, didn’t I?

This is a terrible send from third-base coach Luis Rojas, no question. Still, most of the blame lays with Amed, partially because I’m already annoyed with him. There’s no reason to be tagging up on this play: Ceddanne Rafaela is probably the best defensive center fielder in the AL, if he makes the catch the risk of tagging up and heading to third, with two out it isn’t worth the extra 90 feet. You need to freeze midway between second and third — if Rafaela catches that ball, you have enough time to return to second, but the way he’s twisting and turning, if the ball gets down you need to be able to score. Rosario (and Rojas!) makes the worst possible decision and he’s a dead duck at home. Embarrassing stuff.

Ryan Yarbrough got the short end of the stick, saving the bullpen with three innings of work in the front half of the day’s doubleheader. He did allow some runs in the ninth, walking Caleb Durbin to open the frame and then letting Rutschman reach second on a dying quail to no man’s land. Andruw Monasterio’s single brought in both runners, but Yarbs had to wear this one with so much anticipated stress on the bullpen the rest of the weekend. The usually-excellent Cody Bellinger lost his footing in left field on a Nick Sogard double a batter later, seeing Monasterio score the third run of the inning. A fourth came home to make it 6-0 as Ryan was noticeably gassed, and critically, Boston taking the game out of “save situation” status meant Aroldis Chapman didn’t need to be used, and is available in the nightcap.

After a game like this, you’re kind of grateful there’s another in two hours, so the team can hopefully wash the taste of this one out of their mouths. There’s very little about the Yankees, especially the Yankee offense, that makes me confident they’ll be able to though. At least we get Max Fried back. The Yankees need to win both the remaining games in this series in order to have the tiebreaker in the event they end the season tied with the Red Sox, but when has a tiebreaker been important in determining the Yankees’ playoff fate anyway?

First pitch of the night half of today’s affair comes on FOX at 7:05pm Eastern. Fried is set to face an opener, lefty Alec Gamboa. Brayan Bello is expected to work as the bulk guy in relief for Boston.

Box Score

The same old story played out for the Dodgers on Saturday. They got a strong outing from their starting pitcher and an uninspiring performance from their offense, resulting in a close game.

This time the Dodgers lost, 2-1, despite left-hander Blake Snell’s five innings of one-run baseball.

The Dodgers’ last five games have been decided by one run. They’ve lost all but one of them.

“It is a toll, it is a ripple effect,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And it’s more on the pitching, where you feel like you can’t give up a run or we lose. And that’s not the way it should be, certainly with this offense. We’re using our leverage [relievers], a lot of guys, in big spots. So yeah, that’s the toll.

“But the offense knows that. They’re not blind to it. But that just doesn’t translate to hits and runs.”

It was Snell’s fourth game back from arthroscopic elbow surgery in May. He’s limited opponents to one run or none in every start. Saturday marked the first time he threw fewer than six innings since being activated this month.

Read more:Shohei Ohtani still 'not 100%' and will not pitch Sunday against the Tigers

He limited the Tigers to three hits and issued three walks. Four of those six baserunners reached before Snell briefly left the game in the third inning.

Snell had cruised through the first two innings, a Texas leaguer into shallow right field the only blemish on an otherwise perfect beginning.

The third inning, however, started to go haywire. Snell walked Javier Báez, traditionally a free swinger, to open the frame. Tigers rookie Max Clark laid down a sacrifice bunt, but Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy lost control of the ball as he tried to throw to first, enabling Clark to reach base as Báez advanced to second.

Against Gleyber Torres, Snell left a changeup too far over the plate for a ground-rule double. The high hop over the yellow line on the right-field fence saved a run, sending Clark back to third, but the Tigers pulled ahead 1-0.

Snell threw two pitches to Hao-Yu Lee and then, after a conversation with home plate umpire Chris Guccione, headed off the field and disappeared down the dugout tunnel.

Snell later explained that he had a blister on the big toe of his left foot, which he covered with a bandage before the game. But by the third inning, it had moved under his foot.

“So anytime I was pushing, I was slipping,” Snell said. “And I thought if I kept doing that, I’m gonna hit somebody because I had no clue where the ball was going.”

He got permission from Guccione to leave the field to remove the bandage.

“My foot hurts more now, but, yeah, it definitely helped,” Snell said.

After inducing Lee to pop out and then issuing a walk, Snell struck out five straight.

“Happy with the way I competed with runners on base,” Snell said after lamenting that a more passive approach inflated his pitch count. “Happy with the way I continue to just learn and develop throughout the at-bats on what I should do, what I don’t like, what I like. Overall didn’t give in and made pitches when I needed to.”

The Dodgers’ offense, however, failed to give him run support. Through five innings, they mustered only two baserunners against Tigers starter Keider Montero.

“I’m just trying to figure out solutions,” Roberts said of the offense. “We’re all frustrated. We know we should be better. But again, now it’s more of, what are we gonna do about it? So that’s kind of where my head is at. I do know, coming down on guys when guys are putting in the effort isn’t the answer. And then you’ve got to figure out, is it a process thing? Is it an approach thing? Is it a focus thing? Those are things I’m trying to figure out collectively, individually.”

In the sixth, they finally strung multiple hits together and got a run out of it. Alek Thomas led off with a double to left that ricocheted off the wall on a hop. Shohei Ohtani grounded out on a close play at first, moving Thomas to third. Then Freddie Freeman lined an RBI single to right.

The Dodgers went on to load the bases with one out. But, following a concerning pattern, they failed to squeeze any more runs out of the opportunity.

The Dodgers entered Saturday batting .211 with the bases loaded this month, putting them in the bottom third in the majors. When Tommy Edman grounded into a double play to end the sixth inning, it was their third with the bases loaded this month.

In the ninth, the Dodgers were a few feet from pulling ahead. With two outs and a runner on first, the Tigers brought in closer Kenley Jansen, the former Dodger, to face Teoscar Hernández.

Hernández fell behind in the count 0-and-2 and then sent a cutter for a ride to deep left-center. But Báez made an over-the-shoulder catch a few steps from the wall.

“I hit it good, not the best, but it happened to go to the farthest part of the ballpark,” Hernández said. “That’s the … luck that we have right now. But it’s part of the game.”

Dodgers left-hander Jack Dreyer took the mound for the bottom half and, with the bases loaded, gave up a walk-off single to McGonigle, whose deep drive bounced off the warning track and over the wall in left-center.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The middle game of a three-game weekend series against the Dodgers continued on a perfect-for-baseball Saturday afternoon in Detroit. Like Friday night’s game it was a low-scoring affair, but unlike the series opener the Tigers came out on top, 2-1… or was it? Keep reading for the exciting conclusion.

If patterns are to be believed, Keider Montero was due for a good outing on Saturday: his previous six starts saw him give up 1, 6, 0, 5, 0 and 3 runs. By that logic he was going to be pretty stingy with the runs. He was also going on extra rest, so the Tigers probably weren’t going to let him throw a hundred pitches. The rest did seem to do him some good though.

The Dodgers threw out their second consecutive multiple-Cy-Young-award-winning starting pitcher in a row, Blake Snell. He’s been around a bit: his first five years were with the Rays, then he left for three in San Diego, one in San Francisco, and this is his second year in Dodger Blue. He’s been hurt for most of the season with “loose bodies” in his left elbow, so this was only his fifth start of the year.

The game started with the pitchers very firmly in control: through his first three innings Montero only allowed a Shohei Ohtani single and a Kyle Tucker walk.

In the bottom of the third Javier Báez walked to lead off — surprising, no? — and Max Clark laid down a bunt that was probably going to be a sacrifice, but Max Muncy at third couldn’t handle it and two runners were on. Gleyber Torres hit a ground-rule double to score Báez and push Clark up to third.

Kevin McGonigle then walked on a full-count slider to load the bases with one out, but Dillon Dingler and Eduardo Valencia both struck out and a trio of Tigers remained stranded.

Montero was looking great early on, with oodles of first-pitch strikes: out of the first 17 batters he faced, he got a first-pitch strike (including the batter putting the ball in play) on 15 of them, and that is mighty, mighty fine. Through five innings he’d thrown 40 of his 60 pitches for strikes, too.

Clark led off the bottom of the fifth with a hustle-double to left, squeaking into second base just before the throw. But then Torres struck out and Hao-Yu Lee fouled-out to first for the third consecutive at-bat; McGonigle walked on a full count to put two runners on, but Dingler struck out for the third out, Snell’s tenth strikeout of the day.

Montero got shaky in the top of the sixth, though: Alek Thomas hit a leadoff double to left, advanced to third on an Ohtani groundout, and scored on a Freddie Freeman single to tie the game at 1-1. Mookie Betts hit a liner that ticked off Lee’s glove at third, and that was the end of Montero’s day. Tyler Holton came into the game and walked Max Muncy on four pitches to load the bases, and you had to wonder if things were about to become spectacularly unravelled at this point. But, lo! There be a perfect double-play ground ball to shortstop, and forsooth the inning hath hastily concludèd.

With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, pinch-hitter Zach McKinstry got clipped by a pitch and promptly stole second. Alas, Báez grounded out to shortstop and McKinstry was stranded.

Fast-working Andrew Sears came in to pitch the top of the seventh and Tucker poked a leadoff double to left. But then Teoscar Hernández flew out to left, Enrique “The Other” Hernández struck out, and Miguel Rojas flew out to right and the game remained tied. Also: Sears’ twenty-fourth birthday is on Sunday.

It remained tied after the bottom of said inning, too: with two outs Lee singled and stole second, but McGonigle grounded out and Lee became the eighth runner stranded on base. Let it not be said that the Tigers didn’t have a bunch of chances to score a boat-load of runs.

Sears continued on into the eighth to face the top of the Dodgers order: Ohtani softly lined out, Freeman grounded out to shortstop, and Betts flew out to right. Welcome to the Tall Buildings, bud!

Edgardo Henriquez came on to pitch for the Dodgers in the bottom of the eighth, and holy moly, can this kid throw fireballs: he was regularly hitting 102 mph (he averages 100.6 mph on his fastball). He froze Dingler on a third-strike on the outside corner with a 103.6 mph sinker for the first out. After Valencia popped out, Colt Keith got nicked on the foot but McKinstry fouled-out to left, stranding yet another runner.

Since Sears was rolling, and since some of the Tigers’ most-reliable bullpen arms were used on Friday night, he carried on into the ninth. He got Muncy to pop out to shortstop, allowed a single and got a forceout at second, and then left in favour of Kenley Jansen, facing his longtime teammates. Teoscar Hernández hit a fly ball to left field and Báez had to run a heck of a long way to make a fine running catch, probably saving a run and sending the game to the bottom of the ninth, tied.

A fired-up Báez then led off the bottom of the inning with a leadoff double to put the winning run in scoring position. Clark followed with his second sacrifice bunt — remember, kids, if you’re only going for one run, a bunt is fine — and Báez advanced to third. Torres was intentionally walked, and Lee fouled off a boatload of tough pitches before walking to load the bases. Finally, McGonigle sent a deep fly ball to left field which easily scored Báez for the win.

Doesn’t that look like a ground-rule double? Which would score two runs, not one, making it a 3-1 final score? Did Torres not cross the plate? Curious.

Final score: Tigers 2, Dodgers 1

Numbers and Notes

• Blake Snell wears a single-digit number on the mound. Jack Flaherty does it too. I don’t like it.
• It’s been a Tale Of Two Augusts for Spencer Torkelson. From August 1 through 14 (12 games, 53 plate appearances), he was 17-for-47 for a .362 batting average and a .859 OPS. From the 15th through the 28th (12 G, 39 PA), though: 3-for-34, .088 BA, .352 OPS. Ouch.
• When our family was in Japan last year, we made it a bit of a game to try to spot as many ads for products or services with Shohei Ohtani in them as we could. The conclusion: he’s in a heck of a lot of ‘em.
• Whenever I hear Dodgers catcher Hunder Feduccia’s last name, I think of the word “feduciary.” There’s nothing else to that.
• On this day in 1831, English physicist Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction: if you change the magnetic field passing through a conductor, an electric current will flow in that conductor. Without this, neither electric motors or generators would work, and we’d still be living in our own filth in a muddy field somewhere.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Yankees fans and fans across the country.

Earlier this week, we polled Yankees fans about their thoughts on a quartet of slumping Yanks: second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., catcher Austin Wells, outfielder Heliot Ramos, and utilityman José Caballero. Even with a few good games earlier this week, the Bombers’ offense has hardly been bombing on the whole since Aaron Judge went down with an injury at the end of May.

Indeed, from June onward, they’ve hit .220/.290/.385 with an MLB-worst 88 wRC+. Chisholm has scuffled in his walk year, Wells has been utterly lost at the plate outside of the past few weeks or so, Ramos hasn’t hit a lick since coming over from the Giants at the Trade Deadline, and after a hot stretch near the beginning of 2026, Caballero has posted just a .610 OPS in his last 240 plate appearances.

So which of these four players has best shot to play better as the Yankees try to rally for a division title? Here are the results:

This is probably who I would’ve picked as well. There’s no getting around the fact that Chisholm has had a deeply disappointing follow-up to 2025, when he went 30/30 and made the American League All-Star team. Even if you’re not a fan of his approach, you’d probably acknowledge that he’s a better hitter than someone with a triple slash of .226/.305/.401. Forget the .242/.332/.481 he posted in 2025 — he’s a career .244/.314/.445 hitter.

Some folks in the comments of the Feed poll noted that Wells had already rebounded, and that’s a fair counterpoint if you didn’t want to vote for him. He’s looked much more like himself since Brian Cashman referred to the position as “an issue” during an early-July media session, posting a 108 wRC+ in his last 102 plate appearances.

As for the 17 percent who said that none of them would rebound … look, I’ve been annoyed enough by this Judge-less offense that I’m not going to begrudge your frustration. It’s certainly possible that all stink! For our collective sanity, I’m going to cross my fingers and hope that it’s not the case. If it is, then this team isn’t going anywhere in October.

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This week’s SB Nation Reacts poll results are brought to you by FanDuel.

The Dodgers suffered their second walk-off defeat over their last four games, as the Detroit Tigers struck for a ninth-inning rally to win 2-1.

Offense came at a premium for a second consecutive game against Detroit’s starting pitching, as the Dodgers were left scoreless over their first five innings against Keider Montero. The Dodgers had just two baserunners over that span— a 10-pitch walk to Kyle Tucker and a bloop single to left by Shohei Ohtani— but Montero kept his pitch count in a great spot with just 60 over five innings.

Saturday was another superb start for Blake Snell, as the only trouble he faced came in the third inning. After allowing two leadoff baserunners, a Gleyber Torres ground-rule double was the lone run Detroit against the left-hander. The main issue was his inability to get quick outs, as after tossing 29 pitches over his first two innings, Snell needed 70 pitches to get his next nine outs, and his day was done after tossing 99 over five innings. Snell tied a season-high 10 strikeouts while also walking three, and in four starts since returning from the injured list, he has a 1.17 ERA with 31 strikeouts and 10 walks over 23 innings.

The Dodgers got their first extra-base hit of the weekend in the top of the sixth inning with a leadoff double by Alek Thomas— his first double as a Dodger. Shohei Ohtani moved Thomas to third on a weak ground ball to the left side of the infield, and Freddie Freeman came through once again with an RBI single to take Snell off the hook for the loss and tie the game.

Clutch Freddie! pic.twitter.com/uXic94QoCr

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 29, 2026

Mookie Betts followed Freeman with a single of his own and a walk to Max Muncy loaded the bases with only one out. With what has been a recurring theme over this road trip, the Dodgers find a way to put men on only to do themselves in as Tommy Edman helped the Tigers initiate a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the jam.

Kyle Tucker lined a double down the left field line to begin the top of the seventh inning against left-hander Andrew Sears, but the Dodgers would leave him stranded and went down in order in the top of the eighth inning. Tommy Edman lined a single to left against Sears in the top of the ninth inning, but after 2 2/3 innings in relief, Detroit brought in old friend Kenley Jansen to get out of the jam. Teoscar Hernández sent a deep fly ball to the left-center field gap, but a running catch on the warning track by Javier Báez gave the Tigers the chance to try to walk it off.

Báez began the bottom of the ninth with a double to left field against Jack Dreyer, and a bunt from Max Clark helped move him to third. Dave Roberts decided to put Torres on intentionally to set up the double play opportunity, but Dreyer helped Yao-Hu Lee work an eight-pitch walk to load the bases. Kevin McGonigle sent a fly ball over the shallow outfield to give the Tigers the last laugh.

The Dodgers offense has mired in a lackluster struggle this week, as they are now averaging one run per game over their last three games. The Dodgers went just 1-6 with runners in scoring position while leaving six on base on Saturday, and they’re hitting just .231 as a team this weekend. Each of the five games of the this current road trip have ended in a one-run decision.

Game particulars

• WP— Kenley Jansen (4-5): 1/3 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts
• LP— Jack Dreyer(5-2): 2/3 IP, 2 hits, 1 earned run, 2 walks, 0 strikeouts

Up next

The Dodgers wrap things up in Detroit on Sunday (10:45 a.m. PT, SportsNet LA) before flying back home for a three-game set against the St. Louis Cardinals starting Tuesday. Framber Valdez goes for Detroit, while the Dodgers have yet to announce their starter.