Category: Baseball

The promotions have begun. If you were waiting to go see this year’s possible breakout pitching prospect Joseph Dzierwa in Frederick, tough luck, because he’s headed to Double-A. You’ll have to find him now in Bowie, where the team that once called itself Bowie and now calls itself Chesapeake plays its home games. We can hope this is the start of a summer full of prospects playing so well that they practically have to be promoted. Dzierwa may just be the first to go from Frederick to Chesapeake within this season.

These weekly updates focus on the team’s top prospects, particularly those on Camden Chat’s composite top 20 Orioles prospect list from before the season. They also include other guys who interest me who might develop into prospects over time. I do not tend to spend much time on non-prospect journeymen, though one never knows who might turn into the next Jeremiah Jackson. Or even, over the long haul, whether someone turning into Jackson is worth all that much to the franchise.

Here’s how things went this week:

Triple-A Norfolk Tides

• Last week: 3-3 at Charlotte (White Sox)
• Coming week: at Jacksonville (Marlins)
• Season record: 18-27, last place (9 GB) in International League East

Norfolk has been simultaneously playing host to the rehab assignments of Jackson Holliday and Heston Kjerstad. The infielder may finally be settling back in to a good groove on this latest assignment; though he had 4-17 hitting, that included a triple and a homer, plus three walks, so it was a good OPS. Kjerstad, on the other hand, had 6-22 batting, with only one double, and no walks, so at .591 his OPS looks much worse.

Tougher to find real prospects in this lineup, particularly with Enrique Bradfield not having played since April 21. One other outfielder made his way back from the IL over this week. That’s Reed Trimble, who is on the 40-man roster right now. Trimble was back for two games and that was enough time for him to hit two home runs. Offseason acquisition Payton Eeles batted 15 times across five games, picking up five hits and five walks. Eeles is now sitting at a .327/.465/.364 line for the season. Gotta like the OBP, even if you also gotta be skeptical he’ll do anything like that at the next level when hitting for so little power.

More interesting are Norfolk’s pitching prospects, or at least they would be if they were pitching well. The trio of Nestor German, Trey Gibson, and Levi Wells each pitched four innings this week. Of these, only Gibson’s approximated something like acceptable, as he gave up one run on three hits and four walks. The others were much worse.

Others of interest

• C/1B Creed Willems – Not a great week for Creed, 5-19 with no walks, but he’s still OPSing .842 in 37 games.

Norfolk season-to-date stats.

Double-A Chesapeake Baysox

• Last week: 1-5 at Akron (Guardians)
• Coming week: vs. Somerset (Yankees)
• Season record: 15-23, fifth place (13 GB) in Eastern League Southwest

Not a good week for the Baysox as a team, but it was a good week for my guy Aron Estrada, so I’m going to tell you about him first. Eight hits in 19 AB, plus a couple of walks and a couple of stolen bases. These were his first two steals of the year. He’s got a .672 OPS after that hitting, so, I’d like to see more hot weeks. Mostly light-hitting infielder Griff O’Ferrall got in on the party as well, batting 6-19 with a pair of doubles, five walks, and three stolen bases. Don’t look at his season batting average. Dang it, I told you not to look.

It was mostly the offense that dragged the Baysox down this week, as they lost four games where they scored 3, 3, 2, and 1 runs apiece. Among pitching prospects worth following, things were mixed, with some decent things if you look only at the earned runs column. My honorary hyphenated cousin Juaron Watts-Brown tossed four scoreless, though he did walk four batters. Lefty pitching prospect Luis De León also had a zero in the ER column, though there were three unearned over a 3.1 inning start. This team has a 5.43 ERA. It’s not great.

Others of interest

• OF Thomas Sosa – 5-21 hitting for the week included a double and a homer. Now a .666 OPS for the season, which is nothing to be superstitious about except that it’s way below a number where he’d be more exciting.
• C/1B Ethan Anderson – Not one of his better weeks so far this season, batting 4-21, also with a double and a homer. Season OPS remains at .816 after 31 games.

Chesapeake season-to-date stats.

High-A Frederick Keys

• Last week: 6-0 at Hudson Valley (Yankees)
• Coming week: vs. Greenville (Red Sox)
• Season record: 25-13, first place (0.5 games ahead) in South Atlantic League North

There is one affiliate in the Orioles system that has been playing good baseball, and one affiliate only. It is this one. The Keys are winners of seven games in a row and 12 of their last 13. That’s good stuff. They will have to do it going forward without Joseph Dzierwa, since he got the promotion – certainly a deserved one. Dzierwa allowed two runs over five innings in his start this week, picking up six strikeouts. That almost feels disappointing compared to some of his earlier games. Over eight games with the Keys, he had a 2.21 ERA and 0.811 WHIP.

Hopefully they don’t have to do it without Ike Irish; this wasn’t a good week for last year’s first round pick anyway, but also he was removed from the last game of the week after being hit by a pitch on the hand. That is the kind of luck the Orioles are having in 2026. Geez.

Fellow high 2026 draft pick Wehiwa Aloy did not add to his double-digit home run total this week. He still had an excellent week at the plate overall, with nine hits, including a pair of doubles, across 21 at-bats. Leading the way for Frederick on the week, though, was Braylin Tavera. Still just 21 years old, this outfield prospect hit three homers and stole four bases this week, raising his season OPS to .792. Heading in the right direction there.

Dzierwa wasn’t the only Keys pitcher worth following over this past week. Twine Palmer, the pitcher from last July’s Ramón Urías deal, threw another scoreless game, allowing two hits and two walks over four innings. Boston Bateman from the Padres trade also had a zero in the earned run column, though he managed to walk five batters and gave up one unearned run over 4.2 innings.

Others of interest

• OF Vance Honeycutt – This week’s “How many times did Vance Honeycutt strike out?” answer is 11. Eleven times in 21 at-bats! I wanted that spring training stuff to mean something good for the future. It’s just not looking that way.
• 1B/DH Victor Figueroa – 6-22 hitting with nine runs driven in for the week. This big dude from the Padres trade last July is slugging .600 through 32 games. He’s 22, which is old to be a prospect at this level, but I’m keeping an eye on him anyway.
• RHP Yeiber Cartaya – This 6’5” Venezuelan righty is 23, old to be a pitching prospect at this level, but he’s got an 11.3 K/9 and sub-1 WHIP and it’s possible there’s some late blooming going on here.

Frederick season-to-date stats.

Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds

• Last week: 1-5 vs. Fayetteville (Astros)
• Coming week: at Wilson (Brewers)
• Season record: 14-25, last place (13 GB) in Carolina League North

It’s the 18- and 19-year-olds on this roster who are probably the ones worth watching; hopefully enough of them can actually do good things. For the youngest guy, outfielder Stiven Martinez (turns 19 in August), this was a good week, as he hit two home runs to give him three on the season. After 25 games in his first taste of a full-season affiliate, he’s hitting .242/.308/.411. A tougher week for another young guy, DJ Layton, who struck out 10 times in 20 AB.

The pitching prospect on this roster who came into the season with the most hype was Esteban Mejia. Like Keeler Morfe before him, I’m just not seeing it in the actual results so far. Mejia walked three guys in a 3.2 inning start where he gave up four earned runs, and has now walked 25 batters in 22.1 innings. No, really, that’s more walks than innings pitched. That takes some work.

Others of interest

• LHP Caden Hunter – A sixth round pick from USC last year, Hunter is old for this level, so it’s only worth so much, but still: Two starts this week, just one hit and three walks allowed over 8.2 innings. 0.95 ERA and 0.842 WHIP for the season.

Delmarva season-to-date stats.

Player of the week

With the option to create polls in The Feed, we are able to once again proclaim a fan-voted minor league player of the week.

Last week, you voted Aloy to be the player of the week. No surprise! He hit five homers. Irish was the choice in the first poll the week before that. Maybe a player from somewhere other than Frederick will win this week? The choice is yours. Vote below:

Tuesday’s Scheduled Games

• Norfolk: at Jacksonville, 7:05. Starter: TBD
• Chesapeake: vs. Somerset, 6:35. Starter: TBD
• Frederick: vs. Greenville, 6:00. Starter: JT Quinn
• Delmarva: at Wilson, 7:05. Starter: Esteban Mejia

Kris Bubic heads to the IL.

“It’s frustrating,” Bubic said. “I want to be available. A big goal of mine, I don’t set many numericals, but in terms of just being available, I wanted to make a full season of starts this year. And the goal is to keep this at a couple weeks, which we should. But yeah, it’s frustrating. I’m not gonna lie.”

This is the fourth straight season Bubic has been placed on the IL. He missed part of the 2023 and ‘24 seasons after having Tommy John surgery. A year ago, a strained left rotator cuff ended his season early.

Anne also details Bubic’s trip to the IL.

If Bubic’s recovery goes the way he and the Royals expect it to, though, it will be a short stint on the IL before he slots back into the rotation.

“Very mild in nature,” Bubic said. “It’s not something I want to push, given my history and given the timing of the year. So for me, this is good news in a sense. I’ll talk to [Dr. Vincent Key] when he’s here later, but I expect this to be pretty minimal IL, just a few weeks, and we should be back. That’s the expectation in my head.”

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep takes a look at Vinnie Pasquantino’s struggles.

There’s a lot to be said about Pasquantino, who launched 32 home runs, collected 113 RBI, hit .264, posted a 116 wRC+, and accumulated a 1.5 fWAR in 682 plate appearances last year, a career-high. The Royals agreed to a modest extension with him for the 2026-2027 seasons ($11.1 million), and it seemed like Pasquantino was going to continue to be a force in the Royals lineup this year. 

Unfortunately, that’s been far from the case for Pasquantino.

In 189 plate appearances, Vinnie is hitting .201 with a .627 OPS. He also has five home runs, 18 runs scored, 22 RBI, and a wOBA of .278. When it comes to his Statcast percentiles, they haven’t been impressive, though he has been walking more (10.8%) than he did a season ago.

Jac Caglianone talks about recent lineup choices and how he’s sometimes not in them (video interview).

The Sports Business Journal named Kansas City as a top-10 sports city.

Caleb Moody at Kings of Kauffman takes a look at ESPN’s recent mock draft.

Kari Anderson at Yahoo Sports gives a little more detail on Blake Snell’s surgery. Max linked to a story yesterday on this topic; this story just expands it a bit.

Kyle Teel will remain out with a sprained LCL for a bit longer after suffering a setback in rehab.

The Mariners are promoting top prospect Colt Emerson to MLB.

DraftKings is closing its in-person sportsbook at Wrigley Field.

Gio Urshela announces his retirement.

KU Baseball won its first conference championship since 1949.

The KC Streetcar extension to the KC Current stadium is now open.

How John Michael-Gyllenborg could make the Chiefs roster.

The Montreal Canadiens beat the Buffalo Sabres in Game 7 Overtime last night to advance to the Eastern Conference finals against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Pep Guardiola is expected to leave Manchester City.

Sports Illustrated is in hot water once again for AI plagiarism accusations.

Urban Meyer lost his arbitration case against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Ranking the musical guest performances of SNL’s 51st season.

Your song of the day is That’s How I’m Feeling by Jack White.

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants continue their local road trip later today when they take on the Arizona Diamondbacks. In the meantime, I thought we’d take a moment to watch a video that the team’s social media crew put out last week on their YouTube channel.

In the video, Giants players answer some of the most frequently asked baseball questions. I’ll admit, I didn’t have the highest hopes upon beginning the video and seeing Harrison Bader reading his own name off the queue cards. But his first answer was an absolute lock, so I’ll let it pass.

Anyway, it’s not a long video but it’s pretty fun to see everyone’s answers. So grab a coffee, settle in, and enjoy!

What time do the Giants play today?

The Giants begin their three-game road series against the Diamondbacks tonight at 6:40 p.m. PT.

The Yankees’ 2-7 road trip left a sour taste in all our mouths, the club following up a stellar stretch of play with a frustrating week and a half that saw a number of bullpen blowups and close losses. New York now trails the Rays by three games in the AL East despite pacing the American League in run differential, ERA, wRC+, and a host of other measures.

These periods of time are grating, but they happen to every team, even good ones, over the course of the season. As we wait for the Yankees to pull out of this current skid, let’s try and focus on the positives and ask: what has been the most positive development so far in 2026?

I think there are two obvious choices that will pop first into everyone’s heads, those being the play of Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler. Rice enjoyed a breakout 2025 campaign, but every last piece of underlying data we had available to us from Rice’s first two seasons suggested that he was capable of even more. This year has been proof of concept, Rice leading the majors in wRC+. For almost every team in baseball, there’d be no question that a player like Rice, in his prime, blossoming into one of the finest players in the league would be the best development of the early season.

And yet, it’s possible to argue that Schlittler’s ascension is not only the most positive development of the Yankees’ season, but of any team’s campaign thus far. Somewhat similar to Rice, Schlittler had a great 2025 that hinted at even greater promise, and just like Rice, Schlittler has fulfilled that promise and then some. He’s been the AL’s best pitcher so far and, even if it’s still early, is the current favorite to take home the Cy Young award. A year ago, many Yankee fans wouldn’t have even known Schlittler’s name; now, he is the premier name to watch in the Junior Circuit.

In truth, the most positive development of this season probably has to come down to one of these two, but I do want to highlight some other positive things we’ve seen this year that were far from guarantees. It might seem strange to note Aaron Judge here, with Judge’s metronomic excellence take for granted at this point, but the fact that at age-34 he’s still producing a 172 wRC+ even while slightly underperforming some of his underlying numbers, and while also just feeling like he hasn’t even really gotten going yet, has to qualify as a positive. And, though he has yet to debut in the majors and thus we can’t yet say anything all that definitive, the fact that Gerrit Cole has progressed has far through his rehab both healthy and flashing elite velo is also a nice development for this Yankees club. Just like Judge, Cole is at an age where precipitous physical decline could be around the corner at any moment. The fact that the team’s two superstar veteran cornerstones have not fallen off an athletic cliff yet is a positive that can’t be taken for granted at this point in their careers.

What do you think? What’s been the most positive development so far out of these 2026 Yankees?

On the site today, we’ll get Michael’s recap of the week that was down on the farm for the Yankees, while Matt sums up Monday night’s American League action. Josh will wonder whether the Yankees’ apparent sense of urgency early this season will translate to the trade market, Peter’s At-bat of the Week features some good work from Anthony Volpe (!), while Jonathan profiles Gil McDougald, one of the driving forces behind the Yankees’ 1950’s dynasty.

Today’s Matchup

New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays

Time: 7:05 p.m. EST

Video: YES Network, Sportsnet One, TBS

Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

Over the last couple of seasons the starting pitchers for the Pittsburgh Pirates have grown into some of the best pitchers in baseball and have cemented themselves as one of the best overall units. Between strong scouting, good use of draft picks and player development, the Pirates have established themselves as an organization with a knack for creating a strong rotation.

The Pirates offseason strategy in recent years has been reliant primarily on the draft and not in free-agency or on the trade market. With this being the case, the crop of pitchers they have are all home grown talent. Mitch Keller serves as the veteran of 2026’s rotation, was drafted back in 2014, and made his MLB debut in 2019. Keller was drafted by Joe DelliCarri who ran the Pirates’ drafts from 2013-2023. DelliCarri was the Senior Director of Amateur Scouting before being promoted to Vice President of Scouting, and had a hand in selecting every one of the pitchers in Pittsburgh’s rotation, to include Jared Jones who is currently on rehab assignment.

In that 10-year span DelliCarri and the Pirates selected several of the best pitchers in baseball. Keller in 2014 was just the start as Braxton Ashcraft was drafted in 2018, Jared Jones was a second round pick in 2020, Bubba Chandler was selected in the third in 2021 and Paul Skenes was taken first overall in 2023. Carmen Mlodzinski who has seen work as a starter off and on in his career was selected by the Pirates in 2020.

To be clear, those are just the names that have seen consistent Major League action, because there are several names in the organizations top 30 prospect list that were also drafted in that span. Hunter Barco has been up and down and has been primarily used as a bullpen pitcher was drafted by the organization in 2022 is Pittsburgh’s third highest ranking prospect. Thomas Harrington is in Triple-A and is the organization’s 12th highest ranked prospect was picked in 2022, while Low-A 13th ranked hurler Levi Sterling was selected in 2024. Kristian Curtis was picked in 2023 and is the 21st highest ranked prospect for the Pirates and the 23rd overall prospect for Pittsburgh, Zander Mueth, was selected in 2023 by the club.

In 2024, following the promotion of DelliCarri, the Pirates hired Justin Horowitz to be their director of amateur scouting. Horowitz oversaw the Pirates’ draft from 2024-2025 before taking a job with the Washington Nationals to be their Assistant General Manager. While with the Pirates, Horowitz selected Sterling in 2024 and then in 2025 he drafted Seth Hernandez. In his first season of professional baseball Hernandez has blossomed into Pittsburgh’s top prospect, the third highest rated prospect in baseball and the best pitching prospect in baseball.

2025 was a breakout season for Pittsburgh’s pitchers. The Pirate’s led Major League Baseball in shutouts with 19, while allowing the third fewest home runs of any team. The Pirates also ranked tied for fourth in WHIP (1.22), and seventh-best in ERA (3.76). Skenes was named to his second All-Star game and won the NL-Cy-Young award.

The Pirates in the span that DelliCarri has been with the organization has also had a fairly consistent cast of pitching coaches. Oscar Marin was hired by manager Derek Shelton prior to the 2020 season to be the team’s pitching coach. Marin had previously worked with the Texas Rangers as a bullpen coach and two previous years in Seattle serving as a minor league pitching coordinator. For five seasons, Marin helped to develop what are now some of the top pitchers in baseball, but was ultimately not brought back following the 2025 season, with pitchers citing that they thought they were not getting all they could from his coaching.

With the departure of Marin Pittsburgh went out and signed some top tier pedigree talent in pitching coach Bill Murphy. With the Houston Astros Murphy started as a rookie ball pitching coach, but was brought onto the major league staff in 2019 as a pitching coordinator. In 2021, Murphy was named the assistant pitching coach and helped the Astros win a World-Series title in 2022. While under Murphy, Houston led MLB in ERA (3.61) and the club finished eighth in team pitching WAR (18.0) in his last season with the club.

In his first season with Pittsburgh, Murphy and the Pirates currently rank in the top 10 in baseball for K/9 (10), HR/9 (4), BABIP (10), HR/FB (3) and WAR (7). The Pirates also have the 11th lowest ERA in baseball (3.86). Paul Skenes leads the staff as he is currently tied with eight other pitchers for the most wins in baseball with 6, and is 11th in K/9, first in BB/9, second in BABIP and seventh in WAR.

Overall, the organization hasn’t had the results in the win column that fans would like, but it is undeniable that they built one of the best rotations in baseball and have several more young pitchers waiting in the wings.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: In Gerrit Cole’s most recent rehab outing, the former Cy Young winner touched 99.6 mph on the gun, velo that would impress even among the best in MLB. Given that pitch-level success, it’s been debated within the Yankee org whether it would be better to let Cole have one more rehab outing, or activate him in time to pitch on regular rest during this current homestand Friday night. While the Yankees will be understandably careful after Tommy John at Cole’s age, adding a player of his caliber to both replace Max Fried and spell the bullpen a bit must be awfully tempting.

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: As I said above, adding someone like Cole could eat up innings that are currently being taken by the bullpen, and generally those are not well pitched. While the club has continued to shift payroll allocation away from the relief unit, avoiding the bloated contracts that kept people like Aroldis Chapman around for longer than he probably should have been, the replacements brought in have yet to impress, particularly in high-leverage spots. Part of this is the lack of swing and miss, for all the value of a groundball — and the Yankees boast a 50 percent GB rate — when you really, absolutely need an out, a strikeout is preferential to anything else.

NJ.com | Bob Klapisch: While discussing how underwhelming the bullpen as a whole has been, David Bednar in particular has become a problem. We can debate the exact value of a true, ninth-inning closer, but when you’re handed a three-run lead in the ninth, you really need to come out of that game with the win. While his FIP is significantly lower than his ERA, which should indicate some positive regression coming your way, those kind of splits can last for longer than you think because of how little closers pitch, and the impact two or three bad outings can have — both on a pitcher, and in a close division race.

MLBTR | Darragh McDonald: We close with a couple of “in case you missed it” posts. The Yankees optioned Elmer Rodríguez back to Triple-A after a meh start Sunday, bringing righty Yovanny Cruz up as pitching depth while Max Fried will continue to be evaluated on the IL.

MLBTR | Darragh McDonald: Happy trails to Gio Urshela, one of the big pieces of the 2019 Yankees, putting up three-plus wins in a year that saw the Yanks make it to the ALCS. The ten-year vet announced that he was hanging up the spikes yesterday, unable to find an MLB job this season. Best of luck going forward, Gio!

To start off the evening, we had a patented dome field advantage at One Trop Drive. There was a thunderstorm that passed directly over Tropicana Field for about the first hour of tonight’s contest, and had it been 2025 we might not have got the ballgame in. 

Tampa Bay placed seven right-handed hitters in tonight’s lineup against southpaw Trevor Rogers, and boy did it pay off. 

Yandy Diaz had quite the night to say the least, finishing with four hits including two doubles, four runs, and four RBI on the night, and just missed a leadoff home run to start tonight’s ballgame. 

Junior Caminero delivered the proverbial dagger with a three run homer to right field, right after a Gunnar Henderson miscue led to Baltimore only getting one out instead of two in the fifth inning. Caminero would also score two more times and walk twice tonight. 

Are you sensing the pattern here? The righties swung it, and swung it well. The Flappy Boys went 9/20 with runners in scoring position, and had 15 runs by the sixth inning. 

The Vilade Brigade, the new manta started by DRaysBay’s own Ben Whitelaw for the Rays’ right-handed utility man, kept on trucking. The Oklahoma native had a three-hit, three RBI night that included a triple, and Taylor Walls helped himself to three runs scored and a pair of doubles. 

It would behoove me to not talk about Shane McClanahan’s efforts, as he not only got the win, but collected his 500th career strikeout. 

If you thought 16 runs on 18 hits was enough to satisfy Rays fans’ palates, about 250 of the announced 13,633 fans gathered in the left field corner in the 8th inning, took their shirts off, and swung them around their heads, even prompting Raymond to hop in and participate. 

The Rays conclude the night 16 games above .500, and with a 12-0 drubbing of the Braves from the Marlins, Tampa Bay is the best team in baseball. 

If you don’t know by now, this team is for real. They love being around each other, they play for one another, and most importantly, they win for one another.

Believe it, Tampa Bay.

We have a running joke around these parts about how the Mariners and White Sox are incapable of playing a normal game with one another, but tonight’s game really stretched the bit thin. At the end of it, though, the Mariners emerged with a 6-1 victory, shaking off the doldrums of their series sweep at the hands of the Padres this weekend with an electrifying finish.

The game didn’t start out seeming like it would be the vibes-changer it would grow into. Bryan Woo had a shaky first inning, fighting with his command and issuing two walks. Although he threw first pitch strikes to all five batters he faced, he then fell behind, needing 25 pitches to clear the inning and only throwing fourteen of them for strikes. He got helped out by The First Weirdness of the evening: a truly bizarre TOOTBLAN where Sam Antonacci, who had led off the game with a hard-hit line drive single, attempted to steal third after Woo had issued a walk, apparently trying to catch the Mariners defense napping? But Woo and Colt Emerson were having none of that, no sir, cutting down Antonacci as he attempted to sneak into third. (Colt also made a nice play at third deep to the third-base line right after that, snapping off a quick throw to Cole Young to get the lead runner that I don’t think Leo Rivas makes. Competent third-base defense! Perhaps I can finally take that photo of Ben Williamson off my mirror.)

After fighting through the first, Woo’s pitch count was saved by a lightning-fast second inning, needing just eight pitches to mow down the bottom of Chicago’s lineup. But he scuffled again against the top of the lineup, again needing 21 pitches to clear the inning, although this time the damage wasn’t of his own making – just a pair of singles, one where Antonacci threw his bat at a changeup and a rare single from Munetaka Murakami that snuck just past a diving Josh Naylor. Woo bounced back with a sharp fourth, though, striking out the side, and then was in cruise control the rest of the night. Postgame, manager Dan Wilson pointed to the fifth inning, in particular, as lengthening Woo’s outing: he needed just eight pitches to get through the 8-9-1 hitters, allowing him a sixth inning of work.

Woo said postgame that it wasn’t necessarily that he was overcompensating trying to set the tone after the disappointing weekend sweep, but thought he was maybe trying to “do too much” in the first inning. He was pleased with his ability to clean it up after, though, simplifying the game and going right at hitters.

The Mariners got their first run of the evening in normal fashion. Julio Rodríguez was able to leverage some right-handed power off the lefty Noah Schultz, working a long, eight-pitch at-bat that ended in his eighth homer of the season, getting his arms extended on a sinker on the outer edge of the plate.

But the next run came via our old friend Chaos Ball. Jhonny Pereda was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. It looked a little like the Mariners wouldn’t get anything out of the inning, when with one out Julio lined out hard to Antonacci at second; he dropped the ball and attempted to play it off like a double play, which is smart, but the umpire ruled he had caught the ball on a lineout. Arozarena then doubled deep into the left field corner, and Pereda found himself trying to get to third only to find Antonacci standing in the middle of the basepath as a spectator. Pereda trucked Antonacci out of his way, but the delay was enough to get him thrown out at home – but the umpires ruled that Antonacci did interfere with Pereda and awarded the run. This obviously upset White Sox manager Will Venable, who found himself escorted to an early shower. Postgame, Wilson said the interference was obvious from the dugout, and praised Pereda for his heads-up baserunning and third base coach Carlos Cardoza for the aggressive send of Pereda, scoring what would have been enough to win the game.

But the Mariners would add on. Randy Arozarena led off the sixth with a double, advanced to third on a passed ball, and then Josh Naylor said “Canadians don’t do silliness” and stroked an efficient RBI single through the right side of the infield to make it 3-0 Mariners. He then easily swiped second base because Canadians might not do silliness but Josh Naylor does do Basepaths Chaos. Naylor ended his night with three hits and two stolen bases, because another thing Josh Naylor doesn’t do is Bobblehead Night Curses.

More chaos ensued when Connor Joe hit a ball at Chicago shortstop Colson Montgomery that he just kinda…lost the handle on, and then Joe and Naylor executed a double steal, because at this point, why not? Unfortunately, the two young lefties at the bottom of the lineup, Young and Emerson, couldn’t capitalize on it against White Sox reliever and fellow lefty Brandon Eisert, although each put up a good battle. Poor Emerson, who had also suffered his own Weirdness earlier in the game, on a bizarre foul tip strike three that seemed to pop up over the catcher’s head like a wayward popcorn kernel before finding its way back into the glove. In retrospect, the popcorn metaphor is apt because tonight would end like a movie for Colt Emerson.

The White Sox were able to get back a run against Eduard Bazardo, who gave up a two-out solo shot to Tristan Peters, who sat on a first-pitch fastball and exploded it over the right field fence. But Bazardo made things rough on himself after that, giving up a fly ball single to catcher Drew Romo and walking pinch-hitter Chase Meidroth. José A. Ferrer came in to face pinch-hitter Randall Grichuk and needed exactly two pitches to mail the nascent rally back to the Windy City.

After the Mariners failed to score in the bottom of the seventh despite a very enthusiastic Pereda single, Ferrer continued on in the eighth. His curséd BABIP luck continued, though, as “Three True Outcomes” Murakami snuck an infield single past a diving J.P. Crawford for his second base hit of the night. But the narrative! Ferrer was able to close things up, though – despite making things a little interesting with a wild pitch – getting a flyout, striking out Montgomery, and then finally getting groundout off pinch-hitter Edgar Quero, because when you have a chance to put a guy hitting .174 into the lineup you gotta take it.

The White Sox put a righty on the mound for the first time in the eighth inning much to the delight of the Mariners lefties; Naylor recorded his third hit of the night, a single, and pinch-hitter Dominic Canzone worked a walk to put two on with none out. But Luke Raley didn’t fare as well as a pinch-hitter, striking out, and Young flew out harmlessly, putting the job of Insurance Man on Colt Emerson, who just to remind you would be just finishing up his sophomore year in college if he was actually studying to be an Insurance Man.

Facing Trevor Richards, who was finishing up his sophomore year in college when people were asking “What Does the Fox Say,” Emerson fell down 1-2 in the count before laying off a tough changeup. He fouled off another changeup and a fastball on the plate before finally dropping the barrel and golfing a changeup just over the right-field fence.

Somehow, in the middle of all that – 31,400 fans in the ballpark going crazy, his family in the stands for the first time, his first major league hit a storybook moment – Emerson remembers to acknowledge the bullpen as he’s rounding the bases. The crowd roared for a curtain call and he gave it.

“The discipline to be 20 years old and not just come out swinging right away says a lot about who he is,” said Woo, who said he re-watched the homer “ten times” before coming in for his media availability.

“He’s a two-pitch guy, but he’s got a really good fastball and a really good changeup” said Emerson postgame. “So I was just looking for something down the middle over the plate that I can hit for a base hit up the middle. Got to two strikes early, fought back, and then put a good swing on a good pitch and by the grace of God, it went out.”

The homer didn’t just put the game out of reach for the White Sox – who were mowed down in the top of the ninth by Andrés Muñoz – but also provided a lift to a Mariners clubhouse that badly needed one. Woo wasn’t the only one re-watching Emerson’s home run: postgame Andrés Muñoz’s wife Wendy walked by in the tunnel watching the home run on her phone.

“I think this is one of those games where you just felt something a little bit extra and the guys gave a little bit extra,” said Dan Wilson. “I think we’re going to be carrying this for a while.”

“We talked about wanting to bring more energy to start the game,” said Woo. “Regardless of how we’re playing, just having a much more controllable attitude of going out there and bringing the energy from first pitch. You’ve got to control the stuff that you can control.”

As far as a vibes-readjustment, you couldn’t ask for much more than this game.

“The energy was outstanding today,” said Wilson. “It was a tough series over the weekend, no question, but we turned the page, and we’re moving on, and this is a great effort to get started on that.”

Before Monday’s game, veteran third baseman Nolan Arenado had hit more home runs and driven in more runs against the San Francisco Giants than any other MLB team. Against Monday’s starter Robbie Ray, Arenado had a career slash line of .364/.444/.773. Six pitches into Monday’s game, Arenado had a grand slam and the Arizona Diamondbacks had a 4-0 lead they’d never relinquish in a 12-2 loss.

At least he kept his pitch count down. Ray (3-6) got rocked early and often, giving up 10 runs and 11 hits in 4.1 innings, yielding four runs after two hits and a Matt Chapman error on a difficult ground ball from Geraldo Perdomo led to Arenado’s fourth career dinger off Ray and his 35th career homer against the Giants, which is three more than Paul Goldschmidt and eight more than Max Muncy. (The all-time record belongs to Stan Musial, with 89 home runs against the Giants.)

To add injury to insult, Jung Hoo Lee and Willy Adames both left the game with injuries. Lee left after suffering a back spasm, and was replaced by Will Brennan in the bottom of the 4th with the Giants already down 7-2. Adames exited after a suffering a thumb contusion on a play where his error scored the Diamondbacks’ 12th and final run. The man who hit that grounder was, of course, Nolan Arenado.

Lee is expected to miss Tuesday’s game while manager Tony Vitello isn’t sure about Adames, who left partly because his team was trailing by 10 runs at the time. It’s an unfortunate hand injury for a player who’s been really hitting, including a walk and a home run Monday.

Adames cut the lead, but the pitching of Zac Gallen kept the Giants bats quiet in six innings where he gave up two runs and four hits. Two of those came in the top of the third inning, when Harrison Bader doubled, Lee singled him to third, and contact master Luis Arraez delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 3-2.

But Ray simply wasn’t fooling anyone and his defense wasn’t helping. In the 2nd, a walk, a stolen base, and an Eric Haase throwing error set up a Ketel Marte sacrifice fly, though Ray gave up a triple to Corbin Carroll immediately after. Consecutive singles started the 4th inning, before Tim Tawa delivered a two-run single — before Ray picked him off.

Ray had a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th, lulling Giants fans into a false sense of security before catcher Gabriel Moreno hit a two-run homer, Jose Fernandez singled, and Tawa hit the ball off Ray’s quad on a groundout that ended his night.

The inning got even worse when JT Brubaker entered and surrendered a double to rookie Ryan Waldschmidt, threw a wild pitch, gave up an RBI infield single to Marte and then the vengeful grounder to Adames.

Moreno also got a strikeout on Drew Gilbert later with the shrewd use of an ABS challenge. Moreno and Marte each finished with two runs, two hits, and two RBIs, while Waldschmidt went 3-for-3 with a walk, that RBI double, and two stolen bases. We assume he also bet on the San Antonio Spurs, had at least four of the winning Powerball numbers, and discovered he’s immune to the hantavirus.

The game featured a number of Giants defensive switcheroos, with Schmitt going from left field to shortstop, Jesus Rodriguez pinch-hitting for the shortstop, playing left field, then moving to second base when Gilbert replaced second baseman Arraez. He turned a 5-4-3 double play without issue, showing versatility that might keep him on the roster a while longer.

Bryce Eldridge had a two-hit game and got his batting average (.143) back on the interstate. Harrison Bader hit two doubles in four at-bats and now has a higher slugging percentage than Rafael Devers. Will Brennan got his first hit of the season and looked very handsome in his uniform.

We’re looking for silver linings after a 10-run loss. Who knows? Maybe Arenado tired himself out running the bases and needs to take the rest of the series off instead of crushing the Giants’ dreams, over and over again.

Just like the rest of us, the White Sox had to get up on Monday and go to work, and just like most of us, they played with some lethargy after a possibly overstimulating weekend, dropping a quiet 6-1 loss to the Mariners on Monday night to open a six-game West Coast swing. It drops them to 24-23 on the season, and two games back of the Guardians in the AL Central after their 8-2 win earlier in the evening.

The Sox had a chance to strike early, when Sam Antonacci singled to lead off the game against Bryan Woo. Munetaka Murakami followed it up with a relatively easy walk that could have applied a load of early pressure on Seattle’s ace. Unfortunately, Antonacci had already gotten a little bit greedy and stymied the potential rally with a foolish out on the bases as Murakami hit. The bats went quiet for the remainder of the inning.

On the other side of the ball, the hope was that Noah Schultz could set the pace early. While he didn’t make too many mistakes, Julio Rodríguez isn’t the kind of hitter to miss a mistake. It thus took just two hitters into the bottom of the first inning for the Sox to fall behind, as the All-Star barreled up a sinker and took it over the right-center field fence for a 1-0 lead.

Things got a little spicier in the third inning, when a pair of judgment call umpiring decisions made Antonacci’s night worse, helping put a second run on the board for the Seamen and Will Venable in the locker room.

First, there was a negated inning-ending double play when what initially appeared to be a smart snag-and-drop by Antonacci was instead ruled a catch on the fly, keeping the inning alive long enough for Randy Arozarena to shoot a double down the left field line. It then looked like a solid relay from Tristan Peters to Miguel Vargas to Drew Romo would nonetheless win the day, until the umpires again ruled runner Jhonny Pereda safe on the basis of interference by Antonacci earlier in the play. The resulting hubbub got Will Venable his first ejection of the season, and fourth as manager of the Pale Hose.

Schultz did manage to get out of the inning without further damage, and the Sox defense did find some redemption, once again courtesy of Peters. To my eyes, the former Savannah Banana’s defensive acumen and ability to execute offensive fundamentals is outweighing his lack of pop and putting him in a good position to survive the outfield roster crunch likely to happen once some combination of Everson Pereira, Jacob Gonzalez, and Braden Montgomery get the call to the majors.

Despite having some scattershot strike-throwing lapses, Schultz managed to avoid walks with much more dexterity than in previous starts.

Schultz largely used his sinker over his four-seamer, which led to fewer whiffs than we’d like to see, but he nonetheless put hitters away when he needed to. Promisingly, he used changeups to draw inning-ending whiffs from right-handed hitters in the fourth and fifth innings, which will be critical in going deep into games against good lineups moving forward. Schultz threw 56 of his 91 pitches for strikes (a solid, if not ideal, 61%), but despite working his way into a number of three-ball counts, he didn’t yield in any of them, making for the first zero-walk start of his young career.

Unfortunately, Woo cut through the Sox lineup like it was balsa wood, ultimately scattering three hits over six sharp innings. The Sox had one other real opportunity to get to the 26-year-old when Antonacci and Murakami once again reached base to start the third inning. It went for naught — Woo completely locked in amid the threat, going on to retire the next 11 batters to conclude his night. Very few of those 11 trips the plate resulted in anything close to threatening.

Schultz was chased from the game in the sixth inning, when Arozarena led off the inning with a double on a catchable fly ball that Luisangel Acuña got turned around on, and swiftly scored two batters later on a ripped single by Josh Naylor, who continued his now comically-long vendetta against the Sox with a 3-for-4 night. I have a hunch that Acuña, who has minor league options remaining, might be one of those outlasted by Peters when the roster crunch comes due. The same is probably true of Jarred Kelenic, who wore a hat trick of punchouts amid an 0-for-4 showing.

Meanwhile, it took Peters 130 plate appearances to notch his first big fly in The Show, but just three more to put up his second. When he got the head of his bat out front against a grooved sinker from Eduard Bazardo, Peters gave the Sox their first scratch of the night with a 366-foot big fly to right.

While the momentum continued to creep Chicago’s way when Drew Romo looped his only hit of the night into the outfield and Chase Meidroth drew a walk in lieu of Acuña, it died on the bat of Randal Grichuk, who pinch-hit for Antonacci and ended the inning with a weak ground out.

On a more positive note, Schultz’s newfound walk avoidance seemed to have rubbed off on Jordan Hicks, who relieved Brandon Eisert for the home half of the seventh. Hicks worked a relatively seamless inning, allowing a single but avoiding any free passes after Friday’s four-walk disaster against the Cubs.

More chances for the Sox offense materialized and went uncapitalized. Murakami reached base for the third time in the eighth inning on an infield single and moved to second on a wild pitch, but none of Miguel Vargas, Colson Montgomery, or pinch-hitter Edgar Quero could do anything with high-octane lefty José A. Ferrer, and hope sputtered out once again.

For perhaps the first time in Schultz’s big league career, he wasn’t the freshest top prospect on the field of play, as Seattle third baseman Colt Emerson received a curtain call from fans in his second-ever major league game. That was because he notched his first big league hit, and it happened to be a three-run bomb against Trevor Richards with two outs in the eighth that all but put the game away. Seattle fans hope it’ll be the first of many for the young infielder, having signed a record eight-year, $95 million extension with the Mariners several months ago — the largest pre-debut contract ever signed.

Despite a five-run lead, close Andrés Muñoz was already loose and ready to go for the ninth inning. Muñoz has struggled uncharacteristically this season, but 5.29 ERA or not he was in his best form against the White Sox, easily dispatching the bottom of their lineup to preserve a 6-1 win for the Mariners.

After the way the weekend went, it’s hard to feel too bad about dropping a sleepy Monday night game to open a West Coast road trip. The bullpen is completely spent. Not every game can be a heroic comeback; the encouraging growth and toughness we saw in Schultz is probably more important than the individual wins and losses in the 25-odd starts we’ll ideally see from him this summer.

Tomorrow is a new day, and one that will see Anthony Kay take the hill against Bryce Miller, who makes his second start of the year after missing much of the spring with an oblique strain. First pitch is at 8:40 p.m. CT, and we’ll see you there!

Well that was less than fun.

Braves lost 12-0 on Monday against the Marlins. It was the worst loss of the season for the Braves on a rare night where they simply had no answers. While these games happen to all teams at least a few times a year, there is an opportunity for the Braves to bounce back to make sure they make the most of another week of games against the NL East.

Thankfully, the Braves will get a big boost starting today with the return of Ronald Acuna Jr. from the IL. He was activated on Monday, as Kyle Farmer went to the IL. The Braves offense has not been as potent over the past few weeks, so getting their best offensive talent back should help production get back to consistent levels.

Braves News

Demetrius Bell looks at the week ahead vs the NL East.

Matt Powers looks at the history of the 26th pick in the draft.

The Braves have reportedly called up pitcher Victor Mederos from the minors. It will be interesting to see what other moves occur on Tuesday.

Mark Bowman looks at some impressive performances from Braves prospects.

MLB News

The Padres now lead the NL East after a victory over the Dodgers.

The Angels were close to being no-hit, but instead hit a walk-off home run.

Corey Seager went to the IL with a back issue.

Former Braves Gio Urshela announced his retirement.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Athletics starter J.T. Ginn took a no-hitter and a one-run lead into the ninth inning Monday night.

Six pitches later, he walked off the mound with a heartbreaking loss.

Adam Frazier lined a leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth and Zach Neto followed with a two-run homer that gave the Los Angeles Angels a 2-1 victory, snapping a six-game skid while stunning Ginn and the A’s.

“Obviously, a tough game,” Ginn said. “Just keep your head up and keep moving forward. It’s just the nature of the game that we play. I attack the zone and I live with that.”

Frazier lined an 0-2 pitch over shortstop for a clean single, giving Los Angeles just its third baserunner. Neto then drove a 2-0 sinker to center field for his eighth home run of the season.

“Just a crazy game to play,” Ginn said. “I fell behind 2-0, threw a good sinker, and he was waiting on it and put a good swing on it. So, tip your cap to him.”

Ginn (2-2) was trying for the first no-hitter in the majors since Shota Imanaga combined with two Chicago Cubs relievers for a 12-0 win over Pittsburgh on Sept. 4, 2024. The previous pitcher to throw a complete-game no-hitter was Blake Snell for the San Francisco Giants against Cincinnati on Aug. 2, 2024.

Ginn threw a career-high 105 pitches, 64 for strikes. He struck out 10, walked one and hit Neto with a pitch in the sixth.

The right-hander from Mississippi, who turns 27 on Wednesday, struck out the side in the seventh and finished the inning with his 10th strikeout — setting a career high.

“J.T. dominated all night. For him to walk off the mound with a loss there, it hurts, obviously,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “He pitched probably the best game he’s pitched in his big league career, and to have an opportunity to get a no-hitter, and two hits later you walk off with a loss, it’s tough. I had full confidence in him going out there in that inning at 100 pitches and trying to get it done. It just didn’t work out.”

Pinch-hitter Lawrence Butler put the A’s ahead 1-0 with an RBI single in the top of the ninth. Angels reliever Chase Silseth got slugger Nick Kurtz to ground into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.

It was the 30th career start for Ginn, who made his major league debut in August 2024.

“He did such a phenomenal job all night keeping guys off balance. His stuff was nasty. Just kind of rolling, you know, and then it’s gut-wrenching stuff in the ninth for it to end that way. It definitely sucks right now,” Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers said. “Baseball will humble you in all sorts of ways. … It’s going to be hard to flush this one.”

The Angels haven’t been no-hit since Sept. 11, 1999 — the longest active streak in the majors.