Category: Baseball

It was quite the MLB debut for Mets top prospect A.J. Ewing, helping ignite the team to a 10-2 win over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.

Ewing filled the box score, going 1-for-2 with a triple, three walks, two RBI, two runs scored, and a stolen base. His energy was present from the start and he even became the first player in Mets franchise history to triple in their debut.

The 21-year-old walked in his first plate appearance on seven pitches with runners on first and second base and one out. The walk paid off as New York was able to add a run on a groundout. And it was that plate discipline that impressed manager Carlos Mendoza the most, even saying Ewing was "pretty much perfect at the plate" in his first big league game.

"Pretty impressive," Mendoza said. "From the very beginning, the first at-bat, the quality of the at-bat, the takes, not panicking, just under control. He got ahead and was still able to take pitches close to the strike zone. And just the way he was taking them. There was rhythm; he's on time. Pretty good idea. Obviously, something that we've seen in the past, the way he controls the strike zone.

"But man, he was pretty much perfect at the plate today and it was just good to see that."

Ewing flied out in his second at-bat, but then walked again in the bottom of the sixth inning and stole second base to get the team going. It was just the spark New York needed, as they'd go on to score three runs in the frame and take a 6-2 lead. 

Mendoza continued to compliment Ewing's strike zone discipline and his ability to stay "under control" at the plate, something not too common for young players, let alone those playing in their first game.

"Yeah, I don't think you see that right out the gate," Mendoza said. "You see that from players coming up through the system and you know they have pretty good understanding of the strike zone. But not until you get here and the quality of the pitching, obviously. You're going to be jumpy at times. 

"Today, he was just under control from the very beginning. Like I said, it's pretty impressive. Didn't give up any at-bats away, that's the other thing. And it's the 3-1 takes with runners in scoring position, not trying to do too much, like it's just under control. And you don't see that from players when they first get to the league."

To Ewing, that's just who he is as a player.

"I just think that's kind of part of my identity as a hitter," Ewing said. "I'm patient, I see a lot of pitches, and I make pitchers work hard."

It took the former fourth-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft until his fourth at-bat to get his first hit, but the wait was worth it. Ewing tripled down the right field line in the bottom of the seventh inning to score Brett Baty from first base, putting the Mets up 7-2. He added that it "was pretty cool" that he started both Triple-A and the majors with a triple.

That type of energy was exactly what the team had been needing. And while it could be what helps the Mets turn things around this season, Mendoza isn't putting the weight of it on the rookie's shoulders.

"We're going to need him and everyone in that room, it's not fair to put it just on him," Mendoza said. "The fact that he's able to keep the line moving, give you quality at-bats. With him right now hitting at the bottom of the order, the more we can turn that lineup over, we're going to have chances to score runs. Like I said, we're going to need him and everyone in there."

Ewing added on providing a spark: "I think energy's always great, but I'm just here to play baseball and do my job and that's just be the player I am."

He and the Mets will keep taking it day by day as they look to get out of the bottom of the standings. But for now, Ewing is taking it all in and said the best part of his debut was being part of the "great atmosphere."

"Probably the win at the end, but just looking around when I got on first base for the first time. That was when it kind of hit," Ewing said.

The Atlanta Braves announced a series of roster moves on Tuesday, and most notably, Sean Murphy is headed to the injured list with a fractured finger. Though he was just placed on the 10-day IL, skipper Walt Weiss said his time out would surpass the 10-day period and likely be around eight weeks. 

Murphy suffered the injury during a play against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was just his fourth game back after previously rehabbing a hip injury, continuing what has been an injury-plagued season for the Braves backstop.

The club also announced that catcher Sandy León signed a major league deal, OF José Azócar was selected to the major league roster, and INF Jim Jarvis was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett.

More Braves News:

Mike Yastrzemski was the star of the show in Tuesday’s 5-2 win over the Chicago Cubs. 

Here’s everything you need to know from the first quarter of Braves ticket sales and real estate revenue. 

MLB News:

The New York Yankees placed infielder Jose Caballero on the 10-day injured list with a finger fracture. In a corresponding move, the club recalled shortstop Anthony Volpe. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired center fielder Alek Thomas from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for a minor league outfielder. The Diamondbacks designated Thomas for assignment last week. 

The Philadelphia Phillies signed outfielder Dylan Carlson to a minor league deal. Carlson was previously on a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs but was recently released. 

From the Feed:

The Braves paid special tribute to Ted Turner and Bobby Cox ahead of Tuesday’s contest.

The Braves limited the Cubs to just one hit on Tuesday; cast your vote here for Braves Player of the Game.

Anthony Volpe returned to the Yankees roster Tuesday after the team placed Jose Caballero on the IL with a fractured finger, but what seemed inevitable before the season started wasn't the case. 

The young shortstop underwent offseason shoulder surgery that delayed his 2026 season, but after his rehab assignment was complete, the Yankees decided to keep Volpe in the minors. The decision was made a little easier thanks to Caballero's hot start to the season. 

But now that Volpe is back in the Yankees clubhouse, he's ready to get his year started. 

"Feels good to be back, see everyone and I’m ready to go," Volpe said after the Yankees' win over the Orioles. "Ready to get going. This is my start. Took a lot to get back here. Now that I’m here, I’m ready to go and take it from here."

Volpe was not in the starting lineup Tuesday as he was still en route to Baltimore when his call-up was made official, but he'll likely get the start in Wednesday's series finale. 

He'll look to show off some of the tools that made him the Yankees' top prospect and a promising young big leaguer. He'll definitely want to flush his offensive numbers in the minors this season. In 18 games between Double-A and Triple-A, Volpe is batting .221 with an OPS of .570 to go along with one home run, two doubles and eight RBI. 

Along with the emergence of Caballero, Volpe's paltry offensive numbers during rehab didn't help his case to return. The 25-year-old understands the business and is ready to move forward.

"What’s happened has happened," he said. "I put a lot of work to feel this good and come back, and go and help this team. I’ve been able to process, do everything and it’s just back to work. We have a really good club. It feels great to be back. Just take it from here on out." 

Volpe said it meant a lot that his teammates, including Aaron Judge, reached out to him during this time and that he's more motivated now that he's back. 

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before Tuesday's game that Caballero will be the starting shortstop when he returns from the IL, which Caballero said he only plans to be out for the maximum 10 days. Volpe was asked whether he feels he has an opportunity to change the organization's mind about him starting, the shortstop smiled before answering.

"If I learned anything out of all this, there are things I can’t control and things I can," Volpe said. "We have a game tomorrow and that’s what I’m focused on. Throughout this whole thing, it’s been day to day, how to get better, how to improve and that’s what I’m focused on."

Last season was arguably Volpe's worst as a pro. He batted .212 with an OPS of .663, and although his power numbers rose from the previous year, his OBP (.272) and stolen bases (18) were career lows. Not to mention his career-high 19 errors in the field. 

For some reason, I’m not anywhere near as angry as I should be after another loss in which the Red Sox lineup looked like it was reenacting something out of the Deadball Era. Tonight, some of the highlights lowlights included:

• Batting Mickey Gasper – A 30-year-old with a career .495 OPS – second in the lineup.
• The bats lasting a grand totals of just 16 pitches at the plate over the first three innings.
• The team once again failing to generate the hit they desperately needed late in the contest as the tying run was stranded in scoring position in each of the final three innings.
• Scoring two runs or fewer for the tenth time in the last 14 games at Fenway Park.

But do you know what surprised me the most about tonight? The Red Sox almost won. On paper, this game should have been a rocking chair victory for Philadelphia, and instead the game ended with a drama filled ninth inning where, less surprisingly, the Red Sox bats failed to deliver once again. But just under the surface of another pitiful night at the plate were signs that this Red Sox team might be on the verge of turning a corner. They include:

• Brayan Bello pitching well again in the bulk role
• On a night with no Roman Anthony or Willson Contreras, Wilyer Abreu came up in a big spot in the seventh inning, worked an eight pitch at bat, and hit a ball that would have been a home run in 29 of the 30 ballparks. The result sucked, but that had all the makings of a game changing moment.
• The defense once again looked as solid as ever and kept the listless offense in the game.
• Marcelo Mayer smoked a ball 106mph with the tying run on third to end the seventh inning.

Perhaps it’s just that Happiness = Reality – Expectations, and my expectations were so low for this game that I was somewhat shielded from another letdown. However, I’m also getting this overwhelming sense that the Red Sox pitching and defense is legit. If they’re turning a Brayan Bello bulk game against one of the hotter teams in the sport into a 2-1 affair against a guy like Zack Wheeler when the lineup is missing key pieces, that’s actually not the worst result in the world when you isolate it out from the waterfall of garbage performances we’ve seen at Fenway this season.

Ultimately, this Red Sox season is going to come down to the pitching and defense being able to outlast the offense being this historically feckless. Maybe they won’t, and they certainly didn’t tonight, but part of the reason it’s this noticeable is because they’re wasting plenty of good outings, and if they’re going to start getting those from Brayan Bello in addition to Payton Tolle and Connelly Early, games like tonight are eventually going to start flipping in the other direction.

Three Studs

Brayan Bello: 6.1 innings of one run ball out of the bulk role. A huge step in the right direction.

Wilyer Abreu: Went just 1-4, but looked good defensively again, and came within a few feet of having one of the best at bats of the whole season.

Zack Kelly: Threw up a scoreless top of the ninth and gave the bats one last chance when they were starting to show signs of waking up.

Three Duds

Jarren Duran: 0-4 from the top of the lineup with two strikeouts. He’s hitting .189 on the season.

Jovani Moran: Started the game to face the lefties at the top of the Phillies lineup before Bello came in for the bulk role and gave up a solo blast to Kyle Schwarber.

Caleb Durbin: But more specifically, the decision not to have Caleb Durbin bunt when he came up in the eighth inning. We know Durbin’s in there for his glove, and when Carlos Narvaez led off the top of the eighth with a single, it was the perfect opportunity to move him over to second with the top of the lineup coming up. Instead, Durbin flew out to center field as part of his 0-3 night at the plate.

Bonus Dud

The NESN cameraman: Below we’re going to see the play of the game we’ve referenced a few times already, and the camera angle here is going to make it look like we’re watching the space shuttle take off instead of a warning track fly ball to end an eight pitch Wilyer Abreu at bat.

Play of the game:

Death, taxes, and the Tampa Bay Rays defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in the year 2026.

Drake’s 15th project, Iceman, is set to debut May 15, and Shane McClanahan sure had Blue Jays bats frozen Tuesday evening in “The 6ix”, as McClanahan went five innings, allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out seven.

That 97 MPH fastball was the final pitch of his outing and also extended his career-long scoreless innings streak to 21.2, and his season ERA down to 2.27. ‘Sugar Shane’ might be back, folks.

As far as the run support, the Rays jumped on Blue Jays southpaw Patrick Corbin early.

In the first inning, Jonathan Aranda singled, followed by a Junior Caminero single, and Jonny DeLuca driving in Aranda with a two out RBI double. 1-0 Flappy Boys.

In the third inning, Caminero singled, Ben Williamson doubled, and Cedric Mullins delivered with two outs with a two-run single of his own to give the Rays a 3-0 lead.

In the sixth, Taylor Walls scored on a wild pitch from Tommy Nance, and in the seventh, ‘The Rig’ Ryan Vilade homered to extend the lead to 5-0.

Once we got to the bottom half of the seventh, things got scary.

Toronto would not only bat around, but tie the game to make it 5-5.

The bullpen would hold them there, and the game went to extras.

Cedric Mullins would act as the ghost runner in the 10th, and Taylor Walls would drive him in via, you guessed it, a single.

And who else but Aranda to drive him in vis the sacrifice fly to give the Rays the lead.

Garrett Cleavinger entered in the bottom of the 10th to shut the door for good, as Toronto would score once more. Andres Gimenez grounded out to Junior Caminero, who had two errors on the evening, to end the game 7-6.

Tampa Bay is now 19-3 against the American League, and remains the top dog in the junior circuit.

The Rays and Jays will do it again from Rogers Centre on Wednesday, cumulating a stretch of 13 games straight, starting at 7:07 PM EST.

All Shohei Ohtani needed to snap his two-week home run drought?

How about Ice Cube in the broadcast booth.

On Tuesday night, the Dodgers did a stadium-wide Ice Cube bobblehead giveaway, featuring the LA entertainment icon in a Dodger blue low-rider along with the team’s last two World Series championship trophies.

To honor the occasion, Ice Cube was on hand –– throwing out the first pitch, announcing the traditional “It’s Time for Dodger Baseball” call before the start of the game, then joining the team’s television broadcast on SportsNet LA in the bottom of the third inning.

It was while Ice Cube was on the air that Ohtani came to the plate and went deep for the first time since April 26, and only the second time in his last 109 plate appearances.

Shohei Ohtani hadn’t homered since April 26th but Ice Cube showed up so that changed pic.twitter.com/0dZK9K19iW

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 13, 2026

As Ohtani’s drive sailed out to left-center field, Ice Cube injected excitedly on the TV call.

“Yes! There we go. Yeah, yeah!” he said. “Couldn’t have scripted it better.”

Before the blast, Ice Cube was in the middle of a discussion with Joe Davis and Orel Hershisher about his life-long Dodgers fandom, and role as the team’s unofficial hype man during their back-to-back World Series titles.

Over the last two years, he’s been part of plenty of memorable moments at Chavez Ravine, including a pregame concert during the 2024 World Series, more live performances at their championship parades, and opening day ceremonies in which he drove a blue low-rider onto the field to deliver the Commissioner’s Trophies to the team –– which inspired Tuesday’s bobblehead design.

“This is one of the craziest things that ever happened to me,” he said. “I love the Dodgers. I love being a fan. I like to just fan out … And then to be asked to be a part of it, against the Yankees, it was next level. I’ve just been on Cloud 9 ever since, for two years straight.”

That continued when Ohtani went deep, leading Davis and Hershiser to lay out so he could analyze the replay of Ohtnai’s swing.

“He smacks this thing, goes yard, the man,” Ice Cube said of Ohtani. “How great is it to be a Dodger fan right now, to see that.”

Timely hitting and some clutch home runs helped propel the White Sox (20-21) to their third straight win, defeating the Royals (19-23), 6-5. Four of the seven South Side hits were for extra bases, with three dingers and a double, including two clutch bombs that both took the lead at different points in the game. The pitching struggled early, but the offense carried its weight by keeping the Good Guys in the contest until the bullpen established itself late in the game, with the final two arms not giving up a hit.

While it definitely wasn’t his best outing, Erick Fedde mostly did his job, eating five innings for the Good Guys, allowing two runs on six hits with a walk and two strikeouts. In today’s game thread, I referenced how Fedde has been making a habit of surrendering home runs, and naturally, he gave up two more in tonight’s start: a solo shot each for Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Pérez in the top of the first, 2-0.

The South Siders chased a two-run lead for the first four frames, but Fedde was able to settle in a bit after the round-trippers, hoping the offense would wake up. The Sox finally had an opportunity after loading the bases in the bottom of the third, with a base hit from Sam Antonacci starting things off, followed by back-to-back walks from Munetaka Murakami and Miguel Vargas. After four straight balls, Colson Montgomery came up to the plate in a prime situation, but he struck out on pitches that almost certainly would have been balls. Why he was even remotely considering swinging after so many balls in a row is beyond me — just one of those at-bats.

Finally coming alive in the fifth, the South Side bats posted a five-spot, first tying, then taking a three-run advantage to turn the game on its head. Drew Romo cut the lead in half after mashing his fourth home run since being called up, possessing a 1.092 OPS while holding a batting average below .200 (.192). Romo struck out for the rest of his at-bats, so perhaps the average makes sense.

To keep the inning rolling, Antonacci drove a double out to center to pick up his second hit and put the game-tying run into scoring position. As he already had a hot bat, Vargas was set up perfectly to drive him in with a base hit and tie the game up at two. Vargas has driven in at least one run in his last three games and has seven RBIs this month after accumulating nine in the entire month of April.

Mune struck out to bring Colson up, who put together a much better at-bat than earlier in the game and worked a base on balls to put another runner on. That brought up Chase Meidroth, who blasted his third bomb of the season into the White Sox bullpen, putting the Good Guys up, 5-2.

So quickly after taking the lead, the White Sox imploded once Fedde was replaced by lefthander Tyler Schweitzer, who only made it through one out before giving up two runs to bring the Royals back within one, 5-4. In the blink of an eye, the win fizzled out before Fedde’s eyes. Will Venable decided to go with Grant Taylor a bit earlier than expected. Unfortunately, the one hit he allowed in the final 2/3 of the inning was the tying run, also charged to Schweitzer, before striking out Witt to end the inning.

Taylor made it a nail-biter returning in the seventh, giving up back-to-back singles to start the frame, but struck out both Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone before forcing a ground out to end the inning. Despite having to clean up Schweitzer’s mess, he was still assigned a blown save. Seranthony Domínguez is typically more of a ninth-inning kind of guy, but he was turned to in the eighth as the Good Guys worked to keep the game tied at five. Three-up, three-down for Domínguez was exactly what the Sox needed to get the bat back in their hands.

Even if you were given 10 guesses to predict who won the game for Chicago, you probably wouldn’t get it because it was a pinch-hit, go-ahead blast from Derek Hill to put the South Siders up one, 6-5. The best part was that the pitch was below the strike zone, but Hill muscled it enough to clear the left-center wall and put the ball into the bleachers.

Out for the ninth was southpaw Bryan Hudson, who has been nothing short of excellent in his 21 appearances (20 innings) this season. Hudson wrangled the Royals for a 1-2-3 inning to earn his second save of the year, but not without a little more help from Derek Hill, who made a diving catch out in right to rob a clutch hit from Witt. Hudson has maintained a sub-1.00 ERA (0.90), and tonight’s save also secured the W for Seranthony.

Wednesday is Noah Schultz Day. The lefty will be going against righthander Seth Lugo. We’ve got another night game tomorrow, so join us at the same time and place — 6:40 p.m. CT — to watch some quality baseball and hopefully get the club to .500.

On the night where Christian Yelich returned to the lineup, one of the biggest punching bags of the offense had the big performance.

Joey Ortiz has taken a lot of heat this year from fans for his slow start at the plate. Understandably so, Ortiz entered Tuesday’s game with a .181 average, a .443 OPS, and a 27 OPS+. He had just one extra-base hit on the season.

That changed on Tuesday night at American Family Field as Ortiz secured the first Brewers hit of the night and their first run in one swing, lifting a 395 foot home run to left. That’s his first home run since July 19th, 2025.

“In the cages before the game, I was watching William (Contreras) and I was like ‘I wanna be like William today’ and it worked out so maybe I’ll do that tomorrow, too.” Ortiz said. “I went in there, fooled around with William a little bit and it actually (made me) lock in, so it’s funny how it happens.”

“The whole team was so excited for him. That was one of the neat things of today, was to see how the team reacted to him hitting one. I mean, it was like a walk off” Pat Murphy said

The Padres answered with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth on a 2 RBI single up the middle by Nick Castellanos.

The Brewers then punched right back in the fourth inning, sending 10 men to the plate. It all started on a William Contreras one out double off the top of the wall in right field. Then Jake Bauers walked and Garrett Mitchell lined a single to center to load the bases for Sal Frelick.

Frelick then hit a 60.6 MPH dribbling ground ball through the left side of the infield, with the shortstop Xander Bogaerts playing up the middle, he wasn’t even close enough to get to that baseball, allowing two runs to score on a ball that barely made it 10 feet into the outfield grass.

David Hamilton then followed with a bunt single and was able to reach because Matt Waldron looked to third base right away with no one there and couldn’t make the throw to first in time to get the speedy Hamilton. That meant Joey Ortiz was up again, this time with the bases loaded.

Ortiz lifted the first pitch he saw high and deep into centerfield, the crowd erupted, thinking Ortiz had just homered again, but it fell short at the warning track and Ortiz had to settle for a sac fly.

Brice Turang kept the inning going with a 2 RBI double to make it a 6-2 ballgame and Jackson Chourio supplied an infield single that chased Waldron from the game.

The Brewers continued to just hold on after that with the offense falling fairly silent against the Padres bullpen. San Diego got a home run from Miguel Andujar in the 6th, and an RBI double from Andujar again in the 8th.

Brandon Sproat was very good tonight, striking out four Padres in the first two innings and ending up with six strikeouts on the night, tying his season-high. He was pulled after 5.1 IP with 3 earned runs as he seemed to be running out of gas in that sixth inning.

“We were hoping, like hey look we got a nice lead here. Go out there, you can get it done. But then he hung a breaking ball, and then made another pitch down the middle. His stuff was going down, you could see the difference in the stuff. We want to try to work through that and still make pitches. It doesn’t mean just because your fastball is 97 to 95 to 94, it doesn’t mean you can’t be effective. We were hoping he could” Pat Murphy said.

Sproat gets his first MLB win in his 12th career game (10th start), which led to his first career beer shower from the team.

“It got my eyes a little burned, but my hair kind of felt soft after, so I might start using that as shampoo.” Sproat joked after the game.

Shane Drohan got him out of the 6th inning, Bullpen Chad Patrick made an appearance, butting together a 1-2-3 seventh inning. Pat Murphy said pre-game that they have some decisions to make with Patrick and his role in the starting rotation, but that he likes how Patrick has pitched out of the bullpen. After that, it was the back-end of the bullpen 1-2 punch of Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe to slam the door and secure the Brewers fifth straight win.

Joey Ortiz finished the night 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs, one of his best games in a while. The offense certainly looked more potent with Yelich in the lineup, especially in that 4th inning, even though Yelich finished the night 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts.

Tuesday wasn’t Freddy Peralta’s sharpest outing of the season, but the right-hander still found a way to give the Mets six quality innings in a win over the Tigers.  

The first two were where Peralta struggled the most. 

Detroit forced him to throw 21 pitches in a scoreless top of the first, then 27 more in the second as they put two runs on the board on a solo homer and a sacrifice fly. 

Peralta gave up a well-struck double to right leading off the top of the third, but then was able to find himself a nice little groove from there.

“I just had some conversations with [Francisco Alvarez], he was great,” he said. “We just got together, changed up the plan a little bit between innings, and we were able to get outs.”

The righty retired the next eight hitters he faced in order. 

Colt Keith ended that stretch with a two-out single in the fifth, but Peralta threw him out at the plate trying to score on an overthrow after a Riley Greene hit. 

“That was huge,” he said. “I was there, it was a hard sprint for me and I was able to make a good throw home, and Alvy made good tag to get him.”

That out enabled Peralta to come back for the sixth with 89 pitches, and he was able to end his night on a high note, cruising through the inning with help from a pair of strikeouts. 

He allowed just the two runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out seven.

“I have confidence in myself and all my pitches,” he said. “We just changed the way we were using the pitches -- the curveball for the slider, the location of the fastball -- we made adjustments and were able to finish the sixth.”

This marked the second time in three outings that Peralta has completed six innings.

The Kansas City Royals built a 2-0 lead and came back to tie the game at 5-5, showing some fight. But in Major League Baseball, “almost” doesn’t cut it, and the Chicago White Sox where the victors in tonight’s contest.

The Royals struck first. Bobby Baseball smacked a solo home run to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.

The Royals also struck second, in the same inning! Salvador Perez knocked his own solo home run.

At this point, let’s go to a few sentences I said in the pregame:

Welp, Salvador Perez is hitting cleanup, dragging his .233 OBP along with him. Perez wasn’t in the lineup on Sunday, so there was maybe some hope that he’d be further down the lineup when he reappeared. The answer is: no. I’m sure that won’t negatively impact the game at all tonight, but we’ll quote these sentences and see if that’s correct truly or ironically.

The good news is that the sentence was correct (truly), at least here! And Salvy did get another hit later, so he was legitimately productive there in his return to the game. Maybe some more off days are in order, TBH.

On the pitching side of things, the Royals sent Stephen Kolek to the mound in place of the injured Cole Ragans. Kolek, somewhat famously, had started his Royals career with six consecutive quality starts. For four innings, Kolek sure seemed like it would be another quality start. But he ran into trouble in the fifth inning. With one out Drew Romo (seems like a fake name, tbh) hit a home run. Sam Antonacci (also seems fake, who are these people) hit a double. And with Munetaka Murakami up, the looming threat of a Murakami bomb to truly push the game over the edge was a problem.

But it wasn’t Murakami who hit the bomb. That would be Chase Meidroth (seems like a name from a Final Fantasy game, but I digress) two batters later. That gave the White Sox a 5-2 lead.

The Royals bats weren’t done, though. In the sixth inning, Carter Jensen walked and Jac Caglianone hit a rocket line drive out to center field. Were the Royals finally going to do some damage? Yes, as it turns out. Isaac Collins doubled to put runners on second and third. And for the second time in a week, Nick Loftin hit a key RBI double. Later, Maikel Garcia singled him home to tie the game. It was exciting.

The excitement wound end rather unceremoniously. Matt Strahm replaced Daniel Lynch IV, and though he pitched a mostly clean eighth inning, his one mistake was a home run meatball swatted by Derek Hill. That gave the White Sox a 6-5 lead, a lead they would not relinquish as Witt, Vinnie Pasquantino, and Salvy went 1-2-3 in the ninth inning.

Just like that, the Royals are back in last place in the AL Central—well, tied for it at least. They are a dreadful 6-13 away from Kauffman Stadium. Hopefully, they can win some games on the road soon. If they don’t, the season will continue to slip away.

Mariners 10, Astros 2

Funshine Bear: Randy Arozarena, +0.27 WPA

Grumpy Bear: Julio Rodríguez, -0.10 WPA

Game Thread Comment of the Day:

Rays 7 Jays 6 (10 innings)

The nice part about that game was the come back. The Jays were down 5-0. We were continuously told they would never score again. And then they got five runs in the seven to tie things up.

It was a fun game to watch.

In the seventh:

• Andrés Giménez, pinch hitting, flied out.
• Ernie Clement singled to left.
• Daulton Varsho struck out.
• Jesús Sánchez doubled off the left field wall, scoring one.
• Brandon Valenzuela walked on a full count.
• George Springer single in one.
• Yohendrick Piñango doubled bringing in two more.
• Vladimir Guerrero reached on an error by third baseman Junior Caminero, bringing in the tying run. He had a couple of well hit foul balls earlier in the at bat. Then Vlad stole second.
• But Kazuma Okamoto struck out to end the fun.

Patrick Corbin wasn’t good. He gave up 9 hits, and a walk, but just 3 earned. Fairly lucky to have just given up 3.

Tommy Nance game up another run in 1.2 innings, with 3 strikeouts..

Jeff Hoffman gave up a solo home in his inning, with 2 strikeouts.

Ty Rogers pitched a scoreless inning, in a very non-Rogers way. Walk, line out to right, caught stealing (great throw Valenzuela) and a strikeout.

Louis Varland fought his way through a scoreless ninth.

Braydon Fisher had a tough time in the 10th. with the runner on second, he gave up a deep fly to left that Piñango took a strange route on, but he made the catch. Runner to third. Taylor Walls singled one home. Yandy Díaz walked. A wild pitch moved them to second and third. A sac fly to the wall in center (an amazing catch by Varsho, running into the wall) scored a second run. A ground out (that Clement bobbled) ended the inning.

We got one back in the bottom of the inning. Piñango ground out moving Springer to third. Vlad (after two hard hit foul balls, I’m hoping that is a good sign) hit a sac fly. Okamoto walked, but Giménez ground out on the first pitch, against a lefty.

Our defense has been suspect this year and today in particular. Varsho misread a fly ball. Clement misplayed a couple of grounders. Okamoto had a misplay.

We had just six hits, two doubles. Springer and Clement had two each. Piñango and Sánchez had the others.

Jays of the Day: Piñango (0.21 WPA), Varland (0.14), Rogers (0.11) and Vlad (0.12).

Other Award: Fisher (-0.41), Corbin (-0.17), Giménez (-0.15), and Valenzuela (-0.12).

Tomorrow we have our last game with the Rays (for awhile). Dylan Cease (3-1, 2.58) vs. Griffin Jax (1-2, 5.00). It would be nice to win one.

Zac Gallen getting lit up, the Dbacks offense allowing an opposing pitcher to cruise through 8 innings needing only 95 pitches. I feel like I have typed this exact game recap multiple times already this season. So I will make this quick as there is not much that came from this game that is going to surprise anyone.

This was a worse game then the final score will show as if it wasn’t for the Rangers reliver losing all control for the strike zone in the 9^th inning and walking the bases loaded, this would’ve been a 7-1 loss. I put the late game runs on the Rangers reliever more so than I do on the Dbacks offense.

After the starting rotation had been rolling, leave it to Zac Gallen to break the streak of 6+ inning games and solid run prevention performance. Gallen allowed 7 runs in just 4.2 innings tonight while just being entirely to hittable. Gallen gave his team no chance tonight as he gave up a HR to the leadoff hitter old friend Joc Pederson on a center cut fastball at 93 mph. Once again, it was the fastball that bit Gallen as the pitch was down in velocity a full tick from his season average and he was able to generate just 1 whiff on the pitch. His once trademark knuckle-curveball was also ineffective today as that pitch also generated just 1 whiff as it was not fooling anyone.

It is sad for me to see Gallen fall so far when he is still just 30 years old and he was really betting on himself this year to get that big contract. However, the big payday just doesn’t appear to be in the cards anymore for the once top of the rotation star as his season ERA is now up to 5.65 after turning in another clunker. I feel as though he is not just one small tweak away from being competitive again either. Looks more like a reinvention is in store. Here is another thing to think about, if Corbin Burnes was ready to come back tomorrow, it would likely Gallen’s rotation spot that would be lost if decisions were made on performance.

The offense once again was unable to make an adjustment to their ultra-aggressive approach that has plagued them most of the season. They were only able to walk 1 time through the first 8 innings against a starting pitcher that has really struggled with the free pass all season.  The number of pitches outside of the zone that the Dbacks hitters are swinging at is staggering. Of people that look particularly lost is Gabi Moreno who popped out on a pitch a foot below the zone, and then struck out in the 8^th on a ball that literally bounced. No plate discipline whatsoever. Jose Fernandez also had some pretty bad at bats as it looks like the inconsistent playing time he’s been having as of late may be getting to him a little bit. Although the book on him is clearly out, spin away and Fernandez will chase.

I also want to note that there was a pivotal play in the 5th inning where with 2 outs Geraldo Perdomo stumbled trying to field a ground ball allowing the inning to go on and allowing what would be the decisive 5th run of the game to score. The Rangers would go on to score 2 more runs in the inning. Just another example of how critical defense can be as rather than Gallen getting through 5 innings of 4 run ball, he got pulled and didnt make it through the 5th inning and got charged with the additional 3 runs. Not saying it would’ve been an easy play for Perdomo and I’m certainly not making excuses for Gallen, however we have seen noticeably more booted balls from our SS this season as it looks like he may be trying to rush.

One of the few positives from this game from an offensive perspective was Ryan Waldschmidt continuing his advanced hitting approach taking a pitch low and away 101 mph to the right centerfield gap. To me, this swing really shows me something. Not just because his bat speed has been consistently registering in the 80 mph range producing 100+ mph rockets, but also because he didn’t get pull happy like so many of the Dbacks hitters and he took the ball where it was pitched from the other way using the big part of the field. He has really impressed me thus far. He also made another super catch in CF. I haven’t noticed any drop off at all not having Alek Thomas in CF.

Another positive that should be noted was a great game by Ildemaro Vargas as he hit a HR and had a big 9^th inning RBI. It cant be understated how big he has been for this team.

The Dbacks will look to win their second straight series tomorrow in an uncharacteristic get-away evening game. This team will need Ryne Nelson to keep his momentum going and for the love of Pete, this offense needs to make an adjustment. See more pitches and take some walks and get some base traffic. Not every batter needs to be the hero. Pass the batton to the next guy.

The Texas Rangers scored seven runs while the Arizona Diamondbacks scored four runs.

The roof was open allowing for a breath of fresh air at The Shed tonight. One night after going nine innings without a run, the Rangers scored one batter into tonight’s game when surprise leadoff hitter Joc Pederson took Zac Gallen deep for his third dong of the year.

After the Diamondbacks tied the game in the top of the second, the Rangers immediately retook the lead in the bottom of the inning via a Jake Burger RBI single. Two innings after that, they scored another run on an Ezequiel Duran solo home run. In the fifth, the Rangers finally produced a crooked number with four more runs crossing the plate and before you knew it, it was 7-1 and the Rangers were on their way to evening this series.

With a rare banquet of runs as a buffer, tonight’s starter MacKenzie Gore was able to work effectively and efficiently after a handful of less-than-stellar outings over the last month or so. Tonight, with the bullpen taxed from having to pitch the whole game last evening, Gore went eight innings for his longest outing with Texas as the lefty allowed just one run on three hits and a walk with five strikeouts in his 95 pitches.

The only negatives on the night were Brandon Nimmo getting replaced in the top of the seventh a half inning after twisting his ankle beating out an infield single and Gavin Collyer finally earning himself a big league ERA by walking the bases loaded in the ninth to force Jacob Latz to come in and clean up.

Otherwise, the Rangers cruised to their 20th win of the season with the wind blowing in their hair.

Player of the Game: The Rangers had Burger sit for a few games over the weekend after a rough season thus far and though he didn’t do much in his return to the lineup last night, tonight Burger went 3-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs batting in the No. 8 spot.

Up Next: The Rangers and Diamondbacks close out this series with a rubber match featuring RHP Kumar Rocker for Texas opposite RHP Ryne Nelson for Arizona.

The Wednesday evening first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 7:05 pm CDT and will be aired on the Rangers Sports Network.

A.J. Ewing was summoned from Triple-A to provide a much-needed spark to a moribund Mets team in Queens. 

If his debut in a 10-2 win over the Tigers at Citi Field was any indication, the speedy outfielder may be up to the task. 

The 21-year-old did a little bit of everything, as he reached base four times, drew three walks, scored twice, drove in a pair of runs, picked up his first hit — a triple — and stole a base. 

His lone out of the night came on a 102 mph laser to the warning track in center. 

“I think that’s part of my identity as a hitter: I’m patient and make pitchers work hard,’’ Ewing said of his ability to work counts consistently. 

The Mets will take all of it. 

“There’s gonna be playing time for him,’’ Carlos Mendoza said before the game of Ewing, who spent just 12 games with Triple-A Syracuse before his promotion. 

By the end of the night, the small crowd remaining was chanting his name. 

“I’m confident in my ability to play,’’ Ewing said beforehand. “I’ll play the same game I’ve been playing.” 

His arrival was a boost for a team running out of time to show it’s capable of turning around the season. 

As Mendoza noted, “It’s not early anymore. We’ve got to go out there and do it.” 

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After dropping three of the last four games on their recent road trip, the Mets got some life from what’s been a dead lineup, as well as a fourth straight solid start from Freddy Peralta. 

The right-hander allowed just a pair of runs in six innings against Detroit, which has lost six of seven. 

It was just the second time in the past 12 games they scored more than five runs. 

After Peralta and the Mets fell behind in the second, they came back and went ahead in the fourth and took advantage of plenty of mistakes by the Tigers to improve to 16-25. 

Even in victory, though, the Mets found trouble, as Francisco Alvarez left the game with a right knee injury. 

It was Alvarez who started the go-ahead rally with a one-out double to left-center in the fourth. He came in when Benge followed with a hit to left to make it 3-2. 

The Mets had fallen behind in the top of the second, as Dillon Dingler took Peralta deep to open the inning. Wenceel Pérez followed with a single and moved to third on a double by Gage Workman before Spencer Torkelson’s sacrifice fly. 

But Jack Flaherty, who’d allowed 16 earned runs in just 14 innings over his previous four starts, couldn’t hold the lead for Detroit. 

In the bottom of the inning, after Ewing walked to load the bases in his first plate appearance in the majors, Alvarez just beat out a throw to first to avoid an inning-ending double play, which allowed Melendez to score. 

They tied the score in the bottom of the third with three straight singles by Bo Bichette, Juan Soto and Mark Vientos. 

The Mets stayed ahead in bizarre fashion in the fifth. 

After Colt Keith singled with two outs, Riley Greene followed with a base hit to right. 

Benge’s throw got by Brett Baty at third and ricocheted off the railing in front of the Tigers dugout, where Peralta picked it up and fired home. 

Keith, after sliding safely into third, got up and immediately ran into third base umpire Rob Drake. 

He continued home and was tagged out by Alvarez. 

The Mets got some insurance in the sixth, courtesy of more shoddy play by the Tigers around third base, as Workman’s throwing error led to a pair of runs, and the Mets put the game away late. 

With the Mets looking to put the first 40 games of the season behind them, perhaps Ewing can help revive the season. 

“He was pretty much perfect at the plate,’’ Mendoza said. 

And the manager added: “We’re gonna need him and everyone in that room.”