Category: Baseball

There was a power surge in the system on Wednesday, with home runs flying out all over the place for the Braves affiliates. Two notable guys who are having big years contributed to those numbers with Eric Hartman and Luis Guanipa both going deep for their respective clubs. Yet, it wasn’t a home run that was the biggest swing of the day for Guanipa. Augusta played an exciting game and it came down to the wire, where Guanipa sent the fans home happy with a walk off single to score Tate Southisene.

(24-23) Charlotte Knights 4, (26-21) Gwinnett Stripers 3

• Nacho Alvarez Jr., 3B: 0-for-2, 2 BB, 2R, .236/.337/.326
• Rowdy Tellez, DH: 2-for-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI, .255/.350/.518
• Jim Jarvis, SS: 1-for-4, R, .294/.398/.411
• Owen Murphy, SP: 6.1IP 4H 2ER 2BB 7K, 5.40 ERA
• Hayden Harris, RP: 0.2IP 1H 0R 0BB 1K, 4.91 ERA

Box Sore

Owen Murphy continued on his roller coaster this season with a good start for the Stripers, though in the end it was not quite enough to earn the win. Murphy largely remained in control through this game and really located his fastball well throughout, a trait which allowed him to get four of his seven strikeouts on his fastball. Importantly he helped his fastball velocity reasonably well throughout the start and the lone home run he allowed came on a changeup. Murphy got great results on his slider as well with eight of his 15 whiffs on the pitch, though he wasn’t doing a particularly great job of keeping it down. When he did land those pitches down he was getting excellent movement and hitters had trouble with it, and he got away with the mistakes he did make. None of his sliders were put in play through the entire game. Like his slider Murphy wasn’t really keeping his changeup off of the plate, and with the mediocre traits of that pitch it didn’t give Murphy much success. He left most of them up and out over the plate and he may be lucky to have avoided even more trouble on the pitch, though with how little he uses the pitch hitters still aren’t keying in on it even when his command isn’t sharp. Murphy’s command of his secondaries is remarkably far behind his fastball at this point and he has to make better pitches to start getting into major league talks, but for the time being he made progress from his last start to this start and the hope is that he can build some momentum. So far this season every good start has been followed by a bad one and vice versa, so getting some consistency will be a welcome sight if it can come.

The Stripers offense was…somewhat present, though the impact beyond the top three hitters fell massively short of any decent hope. Jim Jarvis hit the ball solidly this game despite only picking up one hit, and both Nacho Alvarez and Rowdy Tellez had a huge impact with their performances at the plate. Outside of that trio, who went 3-9 with two doubles and two walks, the rest of the lineup went 3-23 with no extra base hits or walks and 11 strikeouts. Alvarez only made contact once, popping into a double play to end the fifth inning, but he twice drew walks and was once hit by a pitch to make him a steady presence on the bases. Those walks were critically-timed. The first came with two outs, and Tellez immediately followed by shooting a double the other way which allowed Alvarez to motor in to score and tie the game at one apiece in the third inning. It was quite awhile before a threat materialized again, but Jarvis broke through with his hit in the bottom of the eighth inning and Alvarez followed with that second walk, bringing up Tellez with a chance to make a huge impact. He did just that, scooping a ball into the left field corner that cleared the bases and put the tying run at second base with two chances to get him home. Those chances went untaken. Brewer Hicklen hit a popup that wasn’t even deep enough to advance pinch-runner Luke Williams, and on the next pitch Brett Wisely rolled over a grounder to first base to close the frame.

(19-21) Columbus Clingstones 5, (21-20) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 6

• Patrick Clohisy, RF: 2-for-5, HR, R , 2 RBI, SB, .272/.336/.447
• Jordan Groshans, DH: 1-for-3, 3B, R, RBI, BB, .237/.309/.504
• Ambioris Tavarez, 3B: 2-for-3, 2 RBI, R, .213/.322/.373
• Shay Schanaman, SP: 2.2IP 6H 6ER 3BB 2K, 7.25 ERA
• Jhancarlos Lara, RP: 1.2IP 1H 0R 3BB 1K, 8.03 ERA
• Elison Joseph, RP: 0.1IP 1H 0R 2BB 0K, 3.24 ERA

Box Score

The control of the Columbus staff was brutal and Shay Schanaman took the brunt of it early, giving up six runs in less than three innings. Schanaman has been awful this month with 14 runs allowed in 12 innings, and it comes down to him not having the stuff to succeed in a longer role where he faces batters multiple times. His relief appearances early in the season were fine, but needing to pick up starts isn’t something he is really built for and it’s led to him allowing five home runs in four appearances this month. The rest of the bullpen didn’t do a ton better than Schanaman at throwing strikes, though they did avoid hard contact enough to keep Pensacola scoreless over the final six innings. Owen Hackman pitched a scoreless inning and struck out two batters in the ninth, and he has had a quietly solid year so far. Home runs have become a problem here at Double-A, a common trope for guys with mediocre velocity but a ton of fastball carry, but other than his Double-A debut he has had good command and has used his fastball and slider to get whiffs. So far he has a 34.2% K-rate at Double-A, and though that’s likely to come down give his whiff rates he has improved those this season since moving into roles where he makes shorter appearances.

The Clingstones had no sniff of offensive success early in this game, but the game flipped in a hurry and they put up a good effort to come back from that early hole. Ambioris Tavarez was hit by a pitch to lead off the sixth inning, and Patrick Clohisy followed by raking his second home run of the season to quickly get Columbus on the board. In the seventh inning the Clingstones took advantage of a couple of walks by getting another run home on a single from Tavarez, and then added a fourth in the eighth inning with an RBI triple by Jordan Groshans. This gave them the bottom of the order in the ninth inning, but that group came through to flip the lineup over. Cal Conley led off with a walk, and once again Tavarez found himself in the middle of a scoring rolly with one out. He flipped a ball into right field for a hit that scored Conley, and the top of the order had a chance to make waves with one out and the tying run on first base. On the first pitch of the next at bat Clohisy smoked a liner up the middle, and Tavarez sprinted around to third. All Lizandro Espinoza needed was a deep fly ball to at least tie the game up, and after Clohisy stole second base a hit could give them the lead. That stolen base also took away the double play, or so you would hope. Espinoza hit an absolute missile to the left side, but aimed it right at the third baseman, who snagged the liner and stepped on third for a game-sealing double play.

(23-18) Rome Emperors 13, (22-18) Hub City Spartanburgers 5

• Isaiah Drake, RF: 1-for-5, RBI, BB, .281/.361/.469
• John Gil, SS: 1-for-5, RBI, R, BB, .272/.374/.435
• Dixon Williams, 1B: 0-for-4, 2R, 2 BB, .279/.407/.500
• Eric Hartman, CF: 3-for-6, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, .315/.394/.658
• Logan Braunschweig, LF: 1-for-2, 3 R, 2 BB, .294/.417/.422
• Mason Guerra, DH: 2-for-4, HR, 4 RBI, 2 R, .227/.348/.355
• Jeremy Reyes, SP: 5IP 6H 3ER 4BB 4K, 4.91 ERA

Box Score

Eric Hartman just can’t stop himself from hitting bombs. Hartman had his worst series of the season last week, but it took just the second game of this week for him to get right back on track with a huge game at the plate. Hartman crushed one a mile in the fifth inning for his 13th home run of the season, a blast which extended the Rome lead to 7-3. Hartman didn’t just stop with a home run, also notching another two hits in the game, and he also added a stolen base to give him 16 on the season. His swing-and-miss numbers are also improving as of late, and he now has a higher contact rate this season than last season despite his surge in home run power. Hartman wasn’t the only player in this game to go deep. Mason Guerra hit an opposite field three-run shot in the fourth inning, that being the play that really broke the game open early for the Emperors. Late in the game Cody Miller got in on the action as well, hitting a three-run home run that capped off the game’s scoring. Miller has obviously not had a great season so far, but there have been slow improvements for him in recent weeks. His contact is coming up a bit and he is hitting the ball harder, and in May he has a .708 OPS. There are long stretches where he has looked hopeless at the plate but also some where he has really shown a good approach and some impact with the bat, so hopefully moving into summer he can start to avoid those deep slumps.

There were two different versions of Jeremy Reyes who appeared in this game. For two innings he really looked like he was on his way to his best start of the season, throwing tons of strikes and landing his best sliders of the season. He even mixed in a few solid changeups to get whiffs, and through two innings had struck out three of the seven batters he faced. The third inning saw things fall apart after he allowed a home run. He had pitched well but just made a mistake and left a slider a little bit too high in the strike zone, and that seemed to have a major effect on him for the rest of the game. His execution of the slider fell off of a cliff after that home run and he was struggling to make anything near the pitches he had early in the game, and he had to resort to using his fastball in the strike zone more often to poor results. It was positive to see him pitch so well in the first couple of innings and there is plenty for him to take from that moving forward, especially with how composed and fluid his mechanics seemed, but he has to do a better job of handling adversity in future outings. His mechanics sped up and got out of control and he just cannot have success doing that.

(18-23) Columbia Fireflies 4, (23-18) Augusta GreenJackets 5

• Tate Southisene, 2B: 3-for-4, 2 R, BB, .289/.429/.490
• Luis Guanipa, CF: 2-for-5, HR, 3 RBI, R, .316/.358/.535
• Dallas Macias, LF: 1-for-2, HR, R, RBI, 2 BB, .212/.368/.329
• Michael Martinez, DH: 1-for-4, HR, RBI, R, .250/.250/.750
• Derek Vartanian, SP: 7IP 6H 3ER 2BB 3K, 3.69 ERA

Box Score

Through two games Michael Martinez has already been a welcome addition to this Augusta lineup. He brought his power from the complex and has immediately made an impact with extra base hits, hitting the first pitch he saw in the fifth inning a long way out to left center field for a game-tying home run. Martinez has tied his career high now with five home runs split between two levels, and has done it in only 13 games. Even with that swing he wasn’t the star of the show on offense for Augusta. Tate Southisene had three hits and drew a walk in the game, and he has multiple hits now in three straight games. Then there is Luis Guanipa, who continues to hit everything hard. He finished off the fifth inning with a home run of his own, his eighth of the season. The pitcher made a mistake with a breaking ball over the inning half of the plate, and Guanipa is too quick in that spot to make mistakes without giving up major damage. He has more home runs in 38 games this season than he had in his career up to this point. He tied his season high this game with a seven-game hitting streak, and in the ninth inning he was exactly the guy Augusta wanted up in a tie game with a runner on second base. Guanipa came up clutch with a sharp single up the middle, scoring Southisene from second base to cap a walkoff win for the GreenJackets.

It was a bit of a different outing for Derek Vartanian in this game, but not much less successful than he has been all season. Vartanian was not producing the whiffs he has all season, as his command of his slider was not there and he had to really rely on his fastball to get outs. That’s going to be a struggle for any pitcher who lacks elite velocity, and Vartanian had stretches in this game where he was shaky and he gave up two home runs. Yet he also commanded the ball well enough to get a ton of ground ball outs — 12 to be exact, and by pitching into the strike zone with his fastball he covered seven innings with three runs allowed. It was not a great looking outing from Vartanian, yet it is nice to see him be able to make adjustments when he lacks his best stuff and still get outs. This is likely to be more along the lines of the type of pitching Vartanian will have to rely on at upper levels as he lacks a true out pitch in his arsenal and home runs have also been a quiet problem for him this year. Showing an ability to adjust on a start to start basis will serve him well moving forward and his fastball command has made some marginal improvements already this year.

Here’s a pair of conflicting thoughts I believe to my core:

• The Red Sox have completely sucked to this point in 2026.
• The 2026 Red Sox are still going to make the playoffs.

As a baseball fan, I don’t know how to feel about this. Baseball’s a sport that’s supposed to be about measuring greatness over 162 games, and it’s becoming less and less about that with each passing year. Personally, I find the addition of the third wild spot to be an abomination, and scenarios like this are exactly why.

I shouldn’t feel this confident a team that’s looked as underwhelming as the 2026 Red Sox over the first third of the season is going to October, and yet, with each passing day, I find it harder and harder to see how they miss the target. With that, let’s dive into the four main reasons I think this group is still going to punch their ticket to the dance:

1) The American League absolutely STINKS!!!

I’ve never seen an American League this wretched in my lifetime. It’s a joke! As of Wednesday night, Fangraphs projects both the winner of the AL Central (Cleveland) and the AL West (Seattle) to get there with 83 wins. No other team in those divisions is modeled to finish over .500 with Texas coming the closest at 81-81.

This means that if those projections are correct, all the Red Sox need to do to make the playoffs is beat the Orioles and finish above .500. Could you possibly set the bar any lower? (Actually, don’t answer that. We might give these greedy owners more ideas.)

Here’s another insane, way too early thought while we’re down this rabbit hole: The team that finishes in fourth place in the AL East might actually end up with the easiest road in October. If this scenario plays out where the Rays, Yankees, Blue Jays and Red Sox all make it, the fourth place AL East team would be the No. 6 seed and play the No. 3 seed in the Wild Card round, which has to be a division winner from the AL West or the AL Central. The winner of that series would then be guaranteed to play the No. 2 seed, which if things keep going the way they are would be the other AL West or AL Central team.

Meanwhile, the second and third place finishers in the AL East would face each other as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds in the Wild Card round, and then they would have to play the No. 1 seed. In other words, we could be headed for a fall where the fourth place finisher in the AL East gets an October path through the AL West and AL Central while the top three teams in the AL East all have to go through each other.

Do you see what’s happening here?

2) The upside of the rotation.

The continued emergence of Payton Tolle and Connelly Early has been one of the biggest positives on the 2026 Red Sox season, and that’s important to note because not only have they helped make the starting rotation the strongest aspect of this team, but they’ve also done it while Garrett Crochet, Ranger Suarez, and Sonny Gray have been unable to fire on all cylinders at the same time — and that’s probably going to change soon.

Sonny Gray, who usually posts, missed a couple of weeks with a hamstring injury. Ranger Suarez got off to a slow start and then missed an outing with a hamstring tweak of his own earlier this month. And Garrett Crochet has already been out for four weeks and counting.

And while we’re on Crochet, I can’t underscore enough how little the Red Sox have gotten from him so far. They’re 3-3 in his six games, in which he’s ranged from looking like vintage Crochet to the guy who gave up ten earned runs in Minnesota. Last year, the Red Sox were 14 games over .500 (23-9) in his starts. In other words, the 2025 Red Sox were a .500 team when you throw out the Crochet starts – and in fact, they were exactly a .500 team without him if you include playoff games.

Since Chad Tracy took over, the Red Sox are 12-10 and Garrett Crochet hasn’t started a single game. So while it’s far too late in the season to expect anything like the 14 games over .500 they got from Crochet last year, he’s still likely to elevate this rotation in a significant way when he comes back this summer. And it could be really significant if the other four guys stay healthy and the guy getting displaced is Brayan Bello.

3) Their defense is excellent

We dove into this two weeks ago her at Over The Monster, but the Red Sox are getting above average defense at just about every position, and the numbers under the hood suggest that’s going to continue.

Here’s a Defensive Runs Saved update from Thomas Nestico of TJ stats:

Team Defensive Runs Saved pic.twitter.com/rtaEpfiPU5

— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) May 15, 2026

And a Fielding Run Value leaderboard:

Team Fielding Run Value pic.twitter.com/2O6E6N8P1t

— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) May 15, 2026

There’s no reason to expect the Red Sox to fall very far from these numbers going forward. In fact, one of their weaker defenders all year has been Trevor Story, and if he does end up getting surgery and is out for a while, Marcelo Mayer might take over shortstop, which could further lift the team’s defensive ceiling.

The bottom line is this: The Red Sox can pitch and play defense, and in all my years of watching baseball, teams that do that pretty much never end up sucking over 162 games. They might suck for part of the season and miss the playoffs with a mediocre record, but eventually there’s a stretch where they rip off a pretty solid record because there are just too many games in the summer months where they have the pitching advantage.

Combine this with the historically weak American League and MLB’s new bloated playoff format, and it’s hard to see how this doesn’t pay dividends for Boston.

4) It will be almost impossible for the Red Sox offense to stay this unproductive.

The Red Sox currently rank last in the American League in home runs, runs scored, RBI, and wRC+ (and I feel the need to emphasize we’re talking about THIS American League). They’ve scored just 3.69 runs per game, which is not only last in the American League, but is also the lowest number they’ve posted as a team since 1943, when Ted Williams stepped away from the lineup to fight in World War II.

So yes, they stink, but they really can’t get any worse, and that’s a really important detail the more you unpack it. Their current offensive output to date hand landed them just two games out of a Wild Card spot thanks to their pitching and defense, and perhaps even more importantly, they’ve been ridiculously bad in situational spots until the last couple of games. Consider that, according to baseball refence, the Red Sox have:

• An OPS of .714 in 816 low leverage plate appearances so far this season (league average is .710 in those spots)

• An OPS of .691 in 675 medium leverage plate appearances so far this season (league average is .699 in those spots)

• An OPS of .581 in 348 high leverage plate appearances so far this season (league average is .724 in those spots)

In other words, all of the Red Sox suckage at the plate, which again lands them last in the AL and as bad as the franchise has seen in 83 years, has been packed specifically into their high leverage plate appearances. They’re basically right at league average in medium and low leverage spots, and then a whopping 143 points off the pace when it matters most.

Now, you might look at this and say this makes them losers who don’t know how to handle situational at bats, and you’re probably right. But then again, even if that’s true, they can’t possibly keep sequencing THIS poorly. The law of averages can only help them from this position.

Tie it all together and even a modest boost in offensive production coupled with this rotation, and this defense, in this American League, and the Red Sox will have to really, really screw things up not to make it to October. I have faith in them! (Take that last sentence however you want.)

Drafted in the 20th round by the Astros, Tim Redding would make his debut on June 24, 2001, in a day game against the Reds in Cincinnati   Our 18th installment of the continuing Legends Series begins there.   

Q:  What do you most remember about that day when you were brought up?

A:  I had gotten into town the night before.  I arrived at the stadium that Sunday for a day game around 9am.  I got my jersey, found my locker and then started to get my mind set and ready and nothing really hit me hard about the start until we started having our pitchers and catchers meeting.   

I’m sitting there with Brad Ausmus and we’re talking about how we’re going to pitch their guys in the lineup and it’s like okay, they’ve got Michael Tucker and Sean Casey and then all of a sudden, you scroll down and batting cleanup is Ken Griffey Jr and that’s when it all hit me.  I was like oh, crap. (laughs).

Q:  A few years later in 2003, you land in the regular starting rotation.  Was that a badge of honor?

A:  That was a lot of perseverance and hard work paying off.   When Jimi Williams called me into the office and said I was part of the Opening Day roster, that was satisfying.  I held my own with innings pitched and ERA and pitched well in day games.    

Q:  How did you get along with Jimi Williams?

A:  He was a great guy, had expertise, and had come from winning organizations, so listening to his stories was interesting.  He was around some of the greats from the 70’s and 80’s.    

I do remember one time getting called into his office in 2004 and he proceeded to tell me that I was being optioned back down as I struggled out of the gate that season.  I got pissed off and I grabbed the coffee mug off his desk and threw it across the office and shattered it against the wall.    

Jimi looks and calmly says, “if you go down there and throw like that, you’ll be back up here in no time.”  That was a great comeback line.    

Q:  How nasty was Roy Oswalt’s stuff when he had it going?

A:  Roy was special.  We were always kind of 1-2 coming up together.  I’m glad for the career success he had.   It was well deserved.   

He was so gifted, he reminded me of an old school pitcher who could do whatever he wanted, he probably could’ve invented a new pitch if he put his mind to it.     

I think it got tough for me because we were constantly compared to one another, because I was kind of spitting and sputtering along and putting more pressure on myself.   

We pretty much had the same stuff, but his location was better and that made the difference.  It was great to be a teammate of his.    

Q:  Best day at the ballpark?    

A:  My proudest moment came shortly after the tragedy of 9/11.     

We had a Sunday Night game on ESPN against the Giants, and it was the year that Barry was going for McGwire’s record. 

The first night of that particular series, I went out there as a rookie and introduced myself before the game in left field and proceeded to ask Barry for an autograph.  I made it a point to get stuff signed from the greats.  I asked if he’d be willing to sign a baseball and he shook my hand, never looked at me, never made eye contact and basically said I’m not signing for anybody.     

Then two games later, I’m facing him on Sunday Night Baseball, and I struck him out on a full count with a 97-mph fastball up and away, a swing and a miss.  That validated that I belonged and then crazy enough, I got to my locker after the game and there was a signed ball by Barry on the sweet spot.   I didn’t know if he did that in-between innings or because I challenged him, I had earned his respect, I honestly don’t know but I still have that ball.   

Good morning everyone!

The Mariners got a much-needed win against the White Sox yesterday, powering their way to a 5-4 series finale victory. The team has the day off today as they travel to Kansas City for a three-game weekend series.

Jhonny Pereda was the breakout star of last night’s contest with his go-ahead solo homer. He’s also been doing great work behind the dish. When Cal Raleigh comes back from injury, would you rather the team hang onto Mitch Garver or Pereda?

In Mariners news…

• Though he was not available for yesterday’s game, J.P. Crawford was seen taking reps at third base during pregame workouts — and it was his idea.
• Several of Colt Emerson’s new teammates are already impressed with how he carries himself, writes Ryan Divish at The Seattle Times.
• Over at The Feed, Kate asked who you think deserves the most blame for the team’s Tuesday night loss to the White Sox.
• Max Ellingsen kicked off the first of his MLB Draft profiles by taking a close look at University of Tennessee right-hander Tegan Kuhns.
• Jim Callis at MLB Pipeline opined on which Mariners prospects he thinks could be traded this summer.
• Prior to Tuesday’s game against the White Sox, several Mariners players visited two Seattle-area elementary schools as part of the organization’s Recess Takeover program.

Around the league…

• Former All-Star right-hander José Berríos underwent Tommy John surgery, taking him out of action until late 2027.
• Yordan Álvarez was victorious in another lawsuit against Manuel Antonio Azcona, who was seeking 40% of the slugger’s second professional contract signed with the Astros.
• For the first time in almost a month, Shohei Ohtani was in the lineup on a day in which he took the mound. He hit a lead-off homer and fired five scoreless innings.
• With the baseball season now one-fourth complete, Ben Clemens at Fangraphs re-evaluated the league-wide playoff odds.
• Michael Baumann at Fangraphs wondered what on earth has gotten into Miguel Vargas, who is suddenly one of the best hitters in the American League.
• Max Ralph wrote about the “Tarps Off” craze capturing ballparks across the country.
• César González-Gómez reported on new evidence in the mysterious death of Esteban Bellán – a major figure in early Latin American baseball history.

After hitting a home run last night, we were able to talk with CJ Abrams. I asked him about what has made him so consistently good to start the season. Even when Abrams had hot starts in the past, there would be ebbs and flows, but not this year. The first thing Abrams mentioned was discipline.

In his answer, Abrams said that entails, “Working out, taking care of the body, fueling yourself, sleep, everything. Just being able to get yourself ready to compete every single day”. Obviously this is not rocket science, and I am sure Abrams was doing this stuff before, but consistently following that routine everyday has led to better results for him.

Last night was another great performance at the plate for Abrams, who has been one of the engines of the best offense in baseball. In the first inning, the Nats shortstop hit a 3-run home run off of the debuting Zach Thornton. Over the years, Abrams has made a habit of giving debuting pitchers their welcome to the big leagues moment. Since 2022, Abrams has hit 4 homers off of debuting pitchers.

CJ Abrams' 4 HR against SP making their MLB debut since the start of the 2022 season are tied for the most in the Majors with Aaron Judge, Teoscar Hernandez and Cal Raleigh

h/t @EliasSportshttps://t.co/TOk7frqJon

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) May 21, 2026

We have obviously seen Abrams have hot starts before, but I do not think he has ever been this consistently excellent. For the season, Abrams is hitting .300 with a .928 OPS, hammering 10 homers and stealing 7 bases. Those are the best numbers of his career, but we need to see him keep it up in the second half. Abrams has fallen off in the second half each of the last two seasons.

However, at 25 years old now, it feels like this is an older, wiser version of CJ Abrams. When you are young, sometimes you can take the little things even like hydrating for granted. Now, Abrams is doing that stuff every day. He is also going to the gym multiple times a series. Blake Butera has mentioned that Abrams is one of the first people to show up to the ballpark, and one of the last ones to leave. In the past, Abrams may not have been the first guy in and last guy out, but he is in 2026 and it is paying off.

Another key for Abrams is pretty simple. He told reporters that he is eating, and eating a lot. As a naturally skinny guy, he said that it can be tough to keep weight on. With all the work he is putting in, you need food to fuel that. 

That work has obviously led to incredible results. His 3-run homer gave him 42 RBIs on the season. That is tied for the MLB lead, and we are 50 games into the season. In the past, Abrams usually hit in the leadoff spot, but he has been in the middle of the lineup this year, and he has been a fantastic run producer.

CJ Abrams 3-run bomb 🔥

He's tied for the most RBI in MLB with 42!pic.twitter.com/WTKa0CZXMi

— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) May 20, 2026

The real test for Abrams is still yet to come. He is flying high when it comes to his performance and his routine. However, he still needs to prove that he can keep it up as we get into the dog days of summer. There are likely to be trade rumors swirling around him. Can Abrams keep a clear head and avoid the distractions this summer? I think he is in a better position to do that now than he ever has in his career before this.

CJ Abrams has been in our lives for quite a while at this point, so it is easy to forget that he is just 25 years old. As one of the most experienced players on the team now, it seems like Abrams is taking it upon himself to set the standard in DC. With this new version of Abrams, I am very bullish on him. He has always had the talent, but I think he is figuring out the other stuff that can truly make him the face of a franchise.

Hopefully Abrams can be a face in DC. There were trade rumors swirling around him this offseason, but I still hold out some hope that there could be an extension. This fanbase is already getting re-energized by this offense. An Abrams extension would really create a buzz around this town.

Right now, Abrams is on pace for 136 RBIs. Who would not want to keep that kind of player around. There will be questions about his ultimate defensive home because he is not a great defensive shortstop. This could create some complications because shortstops get paid more than second baseman. However, he is hitting so well that he deserves a bag regardless of position.

I know we're not supposed to care about RBI, but that's 42 RBI for CJ Abrams in 50 games. He's on pace for 136, which would just barely top his career-high of … 65. https://t.co/ZFOBfRPt0g

— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) May 20, 2026

It is worth noting that Blake Butera has said Abrams’ pre-game work defensively is also getting better. He talked about how some of the things they are working on have not necessarily made it to game action yet as well. If he could somehow find a way to improve that defense at short, Abrams would be an MVP candidate. With the way the bat is rolling though, the defensive issues are not that tough of a pill to swallow.

CJ Abrams has been in the league for a while now, and I think he is really starting to mature. We still need to see it over a full season, but this looks like an older, wiser and more disciplined version of CJ Abrams. The talent has always been there, but his maturation could truly make him a superstar.

Say what you will about Barry Bonds, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts offered this compelling description of him: “Very low maintenance.”

He prepared himself every day. If he was healthy, he was playing, and why wouldn’t he? He was the best hitter in baseball.

“With Barry, you just pencil [him] in the lineup and you don’t think anything of it,” said Roberts, his former teammate.

Roberts now manages Shohei Ohtani, who has won the most valuable player award four times. The only person with more MVP awards is Bonds.

Read more:Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani hits leadoff homer then shuts down Padres in victory

You might think Roberts would treat Ohtani the same way as Bonds: If Ohtani is healthy, he is in the lineup.

Instead, on the day he let Ohtani pitch and hit in the same game for the first time in a month, Roberts insisted he would make that decision on a “start by start” basis for the foreseeable future.

That risks turning the question of “Will he hit or not?” from a discussion into a weekly distraction.

Bonds did not pitch, of course. Ohtani is trying to complete his first full season as a pitcher in four years, after elbow surgery in 2023, and he already has thrown more innings this year than he did last year.

“For Shohei, you’re just constantly trying to manage his workload, his health, the surgeries and all that stuff,” Roberts said.

“With Barry, it was really just turnkey. Nothing against Shohei. That’s part of being a two-way player.”

On Wednesday, Ohtani hit a home run and pitched five shutout innings, leading the Dodgers to a 4-0 victory and a series victory over the rival San Diego Padres.

Do the Dodgers risk overthinking this?

Roberts said he believes the team can evaluate the strain on Ohtani without driving him crazy every week wondering whether he is going to hit the next time he pitches.

“I think he understands that it’s fluid,” Roberts said. “I don’t think that there is one model. It should be a read and react thing. I don’t know how the week is going to look after this off day.

“I could change my mind and have him not hit in his next outing, but that’s more on workload and how he feels.”

Consider Wednesday’s outing: It was Ohtani’s shortest start of the season, five innings and 88 pitches of what Roberts and Ohtani agreed was a “grind.” In the first three innings, he retired all nine batters. In his final two innings, he faced 10 batters and five reached base.

In the box score: five scoreless innings.

“I have a pretty high standard as far as performance,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “It didn’t really match.”

Said Roberts: “I think it’s just another case in point that it’s good for us to be mindful of the workload and just not take that for granted.”

Roberts started asking Ohtani to stop hitting on days he pitched because he was slumping. Ohtani did not necessarily see the connection and, in any case, the slump appears to be over: On the six games of this road trip, Ohtani is batting .478 in six games, with six extra-base hits, six walks, and nine runs batted in.

On Wednesday, on the first pitch of the first game in which he hit and pitched in the same game, Ohtani launched a home run into the Petco Park beach beyond center field.

“I think that he’s very mindful of everything that’s said about him,” Roberts said. “At times, he uses that as motivation to prove people wrong, that he can do something.

“So, yeah, he’s certainly aware of all of it.”

Read more:Shaikin: From the Big Apple, sour grapes toward the voice of the Dodgers

For all the chatter, and for the weeks in which Ohtani at bat was not the Ohtani we have come to expect, his OPS is .885.

In 2022, the last year he pitched a full season, his OPS was .875. He finished second in the American League MVP race to Aaron Judge, who hit 62 home runs.

Ohtani hit 34, and he also put up a 2.33 earned-run average. He leads the majors in ERA this season, at 0.73.

Pencil him in.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

It turned out to be a sign of things to come when Shohei Ohtani hit a homerun on the first pitch from Randy Vasquez to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 1-0 lead over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. The Dodgers would go on to add three more runs to their total, while the Padres were held without a run in a 4-0 loss.

Vasquez was not as sharp as the Friar Faithful have come to expect and when facing not just Ohtani the hitter, but also the sub-one ERA Ohtani on the mound, the start from Vasquez proved costly. The San Diego right-hander allowed three runs on six hits over 4.1 innings with three walks and no strikeouts. It was the shortest outing for Vasquez since April 15 when he lasted just four innings against the Seattle Mariners.

The Padres offense was held to just five hits. Three came off Ohtani who completed five scoreless innings with two walks and four strikeouts. The other two hits came off reliever Kyle Hurt who pitched a scoreless innings despite the hits. Fernando Tatis Jr., Gavin Sheets, Ramon Laureano, Nick Castellanos and Bryce Johnson each had a hit in the game. Johnson came into the game in the top of the fifth inning to replace Jackson Merrill in center field after he appeared to be experiencing some discomfort in his torso following an attempt to rob the first inning home run by Ohtani.

San Diego dropped the third game of the series and lost the series to Los Angeles, 2-1. The Padres have an off day on Thursday and will return to action on Friday against the Athletics at Petco Park at 6:40 p.m.

Padres News:

• Alex Verdugo had a short-lived tenure with the San Diego organization and was released by the team earlier this week.

• Lucas Giolito made his first start for the Padres and his velocity was down compared seasons past. He said he expects that to change as he gets more starts under his belt.

• Infielder Jose Miranda looked like he had a legitimate chance to make the San Diego roster out of Spring Training, but he struggled in the minors which resulted in him being released by the team.

Baseball News:

• Kyle Harrison and the Milwaukee Brewers dominated the Chicago Cubs in win.

• Trey Yesavage leads Toronto Blue Jays to 2-1 win over New York Yankees.

• The Tampa Bay Rays scored four runs in the eighth inning to win and get their sixth sweep of the season.

• Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte lead his team past the San Francisco Giants, 6-3.

• Texas Rangers get ninth inning win over Colorado Rockies.

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The Los Angeles Angels hope to avoid a sweep as they host the Athletics tonight in Anaheim.

My A’s vs. Angels predictions see the Halos grabbing a much-needed win with ace Jose Soriano on the bump. Read on for more analysis of tonight’s game with my MLB picks below.

Who will win A's vs Angels today: Angels moneyline (-108)

Jose Soriano has been flat-out one of the most effective starting pitchers in baseball, taking the leap from solid rotation piece to bona fide ace. 

The right-hander has a 2.41 ERA through 10 starts primarily thanks to his elite swing-and-miss stuff. He rides a 93rd percentile whiff rate en route to a 28% strikeout rate. 

When he’s not striking batters out, he’s doing the next-best thing — inducing soft-contact (75th percentile in hard-hit rate) grounders (81st percentile in ground ball rate).

The Los Angeles Angels are a different team with their flamethrower on the hill, winning 70% of his starts.

A's vs Angels Over/Under pick: Under 8.5 (-115)

One thing about betting on the Angels is that it’s difficult to count on much run support from the lineup, which has a league-worst 54 wRC+ against RHP this month. 

Luis Severino allows too many baserunners (1.57 WHIP) for me to rely on him to lead his team to victory, but he could help keep this a low-scoring game against the Angels.

His 107 Stuff+ ranks 12th among qualified starters, and this is the second consecutive season in which he’s been more effective on the road (3.56 ERA). The A’s have an uninspired 93 wRC+ in away games.

A's vs Angels odds

• Moneyline: A's -110 | Angels -110
• Run line: A's -1.5 (+135) | Angels +1.5 (-180)
• Over/Under: Over 8.5 (-115) | Under 8.5 (-110)

A's vs Angels trend

The A’s are 6-16-1 O/U in their last 23 road games. Find more MLB betting trends for A's vs. Angels.

How to watch A's vs Angels and game info

A's vs Angels latest injuries

A's vs Angels weather

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We step outside the lab again today to take a look at the argument for an Astros tear down. There are two main reasons why a rebuild makes a ton of sense. So, we should take a look at what that looks like and the whys and what fors for a decision as seemingly rash as this. Isn’t this giving up on the season? Indeed it would be and that is the first thing we should take a look at.

In a previous post, I looked at the Astros current math problem. They sit at 20-30 as I write this. In order to win 85 games they would need to finish 65-47. That’s assuming that 85 wins sneaks you into the playoffs. That’s a 94 win pace over a full season. I don’t think any of my colleagues picked them to win that many games. I had them pegged at 85 wins and that was assuming good health for guys like Hunter Brown. I just don’t see .580 baseball as very likely from here on out.

However, the Astros usual course is to continue trying to win and then adjusting for the next season on the fly. If it means that players depart for free agency then so be it. You get your compensation pick (when you tender them a qualifying offer) and hope that your farm system can pick up the pieces. Framber Valdez took the spot of Gerrit Cole. Jeremy Pena took Carlos Correa’s place. Kyle Tucker replaced George Springer. You get the idea.

Reason One: The farm system is barren

You cannot expect someone to come up and replace the stars. In the span of another year plus, you are on pace to lose Jeremy Pena and possibly Hunter Brown (more on that later). There isn’t anyone in the farm system there to take their spots. So, you are essentially just losing guys for the sake of losing them. This dive bombs us into the real reason why a rebuild is necessary. Simply put, you are on a hamster wheel and there is no good way to get off.

Even if you could re-sign Jeremy Pena or Hunter Brown then you would be committing all of your resources to keeping a team together that is not currently good enough to win. Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa are going to continue to get older and less effective as that nucleus gets older. The younger guys behind them will also continue to get more expensive.

There are only two ways around that hamster wheel. The first is to spend money like the Dodgers. We aren’t even sure what the CBA will look like after the season and if that will even be legal. However, it is nearly impossible to envision Crane spending upwards of 300 million on the roster. The other way to get through it is to fill enough holes with young players that you can compete. Neither of those scenarios seems likely.

Reason two: You aren’t likely re-signing Hunter Brown or Jeremy Pena

It just isn’t likely for any multitude of reasons. For one, both are in line for one of the long-term megadeals that the Astros simply don’t pay. For another, we aren’t even sure that they would deserve that kind of pay day even if we were willing. Given the recent history of the Astros, I seriously doubt they would sign any pitcher to a contract beyond two or three seasons. This could be an industry wide thing.

Pena has the look of a three or four win player moving forward. Fangraphs would peg that as worth between 25 and 30 million a season, but it is hard to see the Astros giving a deal beyond five seasons at that kind of money. I personally would not blame them. If that is a given then playing them until they are free agents is a foolish option. As we saw with Kyle Tucker, you could get as many as three useful players for a player with one year left until they become a free agent.

Imagine having more than a season. Teams that make deals at the deadline can demand a king’s ransom because the acquiring team gets them for two pennant drives. You could then get between six and eight players if you deal them separately, If you dealt them together you could demand multiple top 100 overall prospects and probably some current big league talent.

A roster without Pena and Brown would likely not compete in any circumstance. So, you might as well trade the likes of Paredes, Walker, Abreu, Hader, and Meyers. If you managed to jettison all of them you could be looking at between five to ten additional prospects. That is a total of 10 to 16 prospects between all of those players. The coup de gras would be Yordan Alvarez, If you got a Juan Soto type deal you could see another four or five prime prospects coming. We are talking a total of 20 prospects.

The Cash considerations

If you traded all of the players listed you would be looking at upwards of 120 million in player salary savings. Between 1998 and 2000 the Seattle Mariners dealt or allowed three of their stars to walk. They won 114 games in 2001. Obviously, that is the absolute ceiling of what we are talking about here, but the blueprint is there. You cannot just consider the players you get back for those players. You must also consider the financial savings from cutting their salaries from your roster.

Those Mariners used the money to sign good but not great players that made that roster deeper. No, they did not win the World Series that season and they were never THAT good again, but they were constantly above .500 and in the hunt even though they dealt three Hall of Fame level players. The St. Louis Cardinals dealt all of their expensive players away this past season and they currently sit at 28-19.

The difference between this and a traditional rebuild is that Crane has shown he is willing to spend up to the current tax line. If you couple the right prospects with 120 million worth of free agents then you could return to competitiveness immediately. You also restart the clock on star level players so that you aren’t necessarily churning veterans every year. You could build something.

I’m not sure Dana Brown is up to this task. That is the downside. However, if you couple these moves with another solid draft then your farm system goes from being one of the bottom five to one of the top five. It’s time to start building the next great era of Astros baseball. This one is winding down. It has happened to all dynasties before. The 1990s Braves feels like the most compelling comparison point. Those Braves got old. These Astros are getting old. No one wants to sit around and watch the 2010-2014 Astros again. A teardown would prevent that kind of prolonged pain if handled correctly. What do you think? Is it time to start the teardown?

Here’s something I’ve tweeted in recent days, but it’s also a good conversation to have here.

The collapse of batting average across MLB is astounding! As of yesterday, there are more qualified hitters batting under .200 (17) than there are guys batting .300 or better (15). These are not the scrubs pinch hitting a couple times a week; these are the everyday players! 

Compare this to 30 years ago (1996) and there were 48 guys batting .300 or better. Meanwhile, the guy with the lowest qualified batting average in the entire sport in 1996? Delino DeShields, and he hit .224, a full nine points worse than the next guy. 

Batting average has correctly been minimized in importance over the last couple of decades, but Dear Lord has the pendulum swung too far in the other direction (and this is coming from a full blown nerd!). So what do you think OTM? With more guys hitting under .200 than over .300, does MLB need to make rule changes in the next CBA to incentivize contact?

Talk about this and whatever else you’d like in this thread, and as always, be good to one another!

Yesterday’s loss to the Reds featured a rather lackluster performance from the Phillies bullpen. Tim Mayza, Orion Kerkering, Brad Keller, and José Alvarado combined to allow 5 runs in 4 innings and doom the Phillies’ chances of mounting a comeback. So naturally, let’s take this off day as a chance to re-assess the trust level for each member of the bullpen.

Jhoan Duran is probably the only reliever with absolute trust right now. The Phillies closer has been dominant since returning from the injured list, allowing only one run on 3 hits and 5 walks, with that run and three of the walks coming in his first appearance back after forgoing a rehab assignment. Duran’s struck out 13 of the 26 batters he’s faced in his six appearances over that span and converted all three of his save opportunities.

However, after Duran is where things get complicated. Chase Shugart has been the most consistently good of the rest of the Phillies relievers, but as Ethan Witte pointed out earlier this week, Shugart has been deployed in almost exclusively low leverage situations, and his pristine 1.53 ERA doesn’t tell the full story. Orion Kerkering has good numbers at first glance with a 2.60 ERA, but he’s still having trouble getting whiffs. Tim Mayza has pitched the most innings out of the bullpen with 22.2 and has been mostly effective, but he now sports a 4.04 ERA after being charged with two runs yesterday. Tanner Banks has regressed heavily from his strong 2025 with a 6.75 ERA and a WHIP over 2. Free agent signing Brad Keller has been uneven and trade acquisition Jonathan Bowlan has been mediocre. José Alvarado has not yet shown that he can recapture his form from before his suspension and injury and has been one of the biggest disappointments on the pitching staff, as he owns a 6.11 ERA after surrendering a two-run homer that was the final nail in the Phillies’ chances yesterday.

As a whole, the Phillies bullpen entered yesterday ranked 14th in ERA (3.88) and 15th in WHIP (1.32). However, they were ranked second in fWAR (2.5) thanks in large part to a strong FIP (3.40) that ranks fourth and an expected ERA (3.12) that ranks second. Their second worst BABIP (.318) does back up that they are due for some positive regression in the more traditional bullpen rankings.

So, what is your trust level in each of the Phillies relievers? On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being absolute trust and 1 being completely untrustworthy, how would you rank the current relievers?

Ha, this isn’t really even a question, except in the rhetorical sense. I just wanted to have an appreciation post for Dominic Smith, so this is it.

It would’ve been enough for Smith to have those two big April hits and then fade into obsolescence. Two huge game-swinging mashes for a guy signed to a split deal with a $1.25 million salary in the majors would’ve been plenty. As I did in an earlier post about him, that would’ve been reminiscent of Pablo Sandoval, and it would’ve been fine. We still remember Pablo Sandoval.

But that’s not what Smith has done at all. He’s kept raking. His rolling 100-PA xwOBA hasn’t been below league average since the start of April, and it hasn’t even been below .350 since April 14. Nor is he egregiously outhitting it: a .370 wOBA and .378 xwOBA is both really good and nothing to sideeye for any reason.

It’s easy to say that Smith has never had a season quite like this one, except in 2020. He was crazy-good that year, and he’s still got a ways to go this year before matching his PA total from that shortened season (106 so far, 199 in 2020). But in every other year, he really didn’t do much: in his other eight seasons, he had an xwOBA in the .320s four times, and something lower the other four times. In other words, in a non-shortened season, his career-high xwOBA was .325.

Since I lured you in here with a question that presumably has an answer, I’ll give you a brief, non-nuanced version.

• Smith is swinging at everything. While it’s not the highest z-swing rate of his career, it’s the highest in quite a few years. His chase rate is egregiously high, not just for him, but for anyone. He’s swinging at nearly half of first pitches he sees; previously he was much closer to a quarter, while the league is about one-in-three. He’s not walking, but he’s also not striking out, because he’s up there to hit the ball.
• He’s hunting and destroying four-seamers. There’s nothing special about Smith and non-fastballs, he’s still struggling against them. He’s not even hitting sinkers all that well. But, he has a .560 xwOBA (el-oh-el) against four-seamers thus far.
• He’s not hitting it on the ground. It’s important to know, I guess, that Smith isn’t swinging any harder, nor did he adopt any Braves-esque approach of trading contact for power and trying to hit a dinger on every swing. He’s actually moved back in the box, and his swing is slightly shorter, with no emphasis on swinging harder or anything like that. He’s hunting fastballs, but giving himself a chance to survive the other stuff.

Put these things together, and, well, I think it’s safe to say that part of the reason he’s doing it is because pitchers haven’t adjusted. He’s getting a lot of pitches in the zone, probably too many for anyone that can do what he does. He’s still getting a bunch of four-seamers, which doesn’t have to be the case. Lastly, a lot of his xwOBA is driven by flares; though he’s dropped both ground- and air-based not-useful contact, a lot of the corresponding increase has been in bloops or hard choppers, rather than in good contact and/or barrels. All that said, though, we’re more than halfway through May, and he’s still doing the same stuff he’s been doing in terms of beating up on opposing pitching, so maybe he’ll continue to fly under the radar and rack up awesomeness for a while yet.

Remember yesterday, when I brought out the old line: “No team is as bad as it looks when it’s on a long losing streak”?

I dunno. Maybe I’m wrong about that. The Cubs sure looked that bad in losing to the Brewers 5-0 Wednesday evening at Wrigley Field, being swept by their division rivals and now on a five-game losing streak.

The Brewers both dominated the Cubs pitching-wise and schooled them in several aspects of the game.

Edward Cabrera got out of the first inning scoreless despite allowing two hits. Nico Hoerner then led off the bottom of the first with a double.

I mean, I really could just stop this recap right there because the rest of the game was all Brewers and not Cubs. The thing about Nico’s double is — he took a really wide turn around second, thinking “triple,” but then had to quickly scoot back to first. I guess he really wanted third base because then he tried to advance on a medium-deep fly ball to left-center.

Hoerner was called safe, but it was overturned on review [VIDEO].

If you did not see this game — that was the only time the Cubs had a runner past first base.

In the second, the Brewers played that annoying kind of baseball that has made them good and drives us nuts. First, they got a catcher’s interference call on review [VIDEO].

Then Cabrera walked Joey Ortiz.

And then this happened [VIDEO].

I dunno. (I think I’ve said that before.) I’m obviously not in Pete Crow-Armstrong’s head and have no idea what’s on his mind or what he was thinking there, but something is clearly off with him. If it’s still the incident with the Sox fan, well, that’s in the past and gotta move on from it. PCA always wears his heart on his sleeve and his intensity level is something we don’t see from too many players. Often, that intensity serves him well. Recently, it has not. Honestly, given everything that’s happened to him this year, maybe Craig Counsell should have given him Wednesday off, which would have given him two full days (with today’s off day) for a reset.

PCA talked about all this after the game, and listening to this clip, he didn’t sound real good [VIDEO].

If Joe Maddon were managing this team, I think he’d tell PCA to take the off day and not think about baseball at all.

Anyway, that play made it 3-0 Brewers, and you’re thinking this is 20/20 hindsight but honestly my first thought after that play was, “This game is over.”

And it was. The Cubs had just three more baserunners the entire game — walks to Seiya Suzuki in the second and Michael Busch in the eighth, and a single by Alex Bregman in the seventh. Busch was erased on a double play, and that along with the DP on Nico in the first meant that Brewers pitchers faced just two over the minimum. Starter Kyle Harrison struck out 11 Cubs and reliever DL Hall added two K’s. It’s like the Cubs were just going through the motions after that Little League home run in the second. I’d like to hope I’m wrong about that.

And to top all that off, Cabrera left the game with a blister [VIDEO].

Obviously, the last thing the Cubs need is another starting pitcher injury. Fortunately, blisters aren’t serious and perhaps he won’t even miss a start. Cabrera threw reasonably well; the error on PCA made all three of the runs that scored on that play unearned.

Cubs relievers, with one notable exception, threw well. Trent Thornton, Hoby Milner, Ryan Rolison and Daniel Palencia combined for 5.1 shutout innings, allowing two hits and two walks, with six strikeouts.

And then there was Phil Maton, who allowed Milwaukee’s fifth run in the seventh, giving up two hits and a walk and wild-pitching in the run [VIDEO].

At this point, I’ve got to think maybe there’s some other injury to Maton that can put him on the IL again and get someone in the pen who can actually get outs. Who would that be? Here’s the Cubs’ 40-man roster, maybe you can figure it out. And I know this has become a meme but… maybe the Cubs really should stop signing former Astros relievers.

Here, let me show you one positive Cubs highlight. Nico made a nice stop and jump throw for an out in the seventh [VIDEO].

Here are postgame comments from Counsell [VIDEO].

A “sad note,” as he called it when he sent it to me, about this game from BCB’s JohnW53:

This was the 305th regular-season game since 1901 in which the Cubs made two or fewer hits — one of every 64 played.

It was the 49th since July 31, 2012, the last time the Cubs made no more than two hits and committed three errors. They made one hit and three errors that day, in a 5-0 loss at home to the Pirates.

They made one hit and two errors in a 5-0 loss at home to the Dodgers on May 31, 2016.

They made two hits and two errors in losses at Washington by 4-1 and 6-1, on June 13, 2016, and June 27, 2017.

They also made two and two in a 9-0 loss to the Reds at home on May 6, 2023.

Back to that line I quoted at the top of this recap… No, of course no team is as bad as it looks during a long losing streak. We know this Cubs team is better than that. Hopefully they begin looking that way starting Friday.

Even with this losing streak and being swept, the Cubs are just 1.5 games behind the Brewers, in a virtual tie with the Cardinals for second place in the NL Central (three percentage points behind). The team will certainly enjoy this off day, their first after playing nine days in a row, and then will begin a three-game series against the Astros Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Jameson Taillon is the Cubs’ listed starter for Friday. At this time the Astros don’t have a starter listed. Game time Friday is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be on Apple TV (how to watch).