Category: Baseball

Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees’ top American League opponents are up to through the Rivalry Roundup. The AL East is well-trodden ground there, but with the end of the month upon us, we’re going to take a peek around MLB as a whole and check in with each of the other five divisions. Who’s surprising? Who’s underwhelming? Who’s simply mediocre at the moment? Read on and find out.

In the subheader of the previous edition of this series, John (correctly) identified the AL West as the “league’s most ‘meh’ division”. Although the past month did little to overturn that overall sentiment, there’s been a shakeup in the standings.

First Place: Texas Rangers (44-42)

Top Position Player: Josh Jung (2.1 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: MacKenzie Gore (2.0 fWAR)

After a magical championship year in 2023, not much has gone the Rangers’ way since. However, things might be looking up for them for the first time in a while, as they’ve overtaken the floundering Mariners for the top spot in the division. Their bats are led by Josh Jung, who has continued to post strong numbers after two consecutive down years. Their other players aren’t pushovers, either; Joc Pederson and Wyatt Langford are having stellar offensive years (though Langford is set to be sidelined through the All-Star break with a lat injury), and former first-round pick Justin Foscue is running a 137 wRC+, albeit in a small sample. This is a fairly deep lineup, with solid to elite gloves in Jung, Langford, Ezequiel Duran, and Evan Carter to boot.

The starting rotation appears to be rounding into form as well. MacKenzie Gore’s 4.05 ERA masks a 3.43 FIP and very strong peripherals; the question with him is, will he be able to avoid the second half slide that marred him in 2024 and 2025. After a rough patch in May, Jacob deGrom has returned to his dominant ways, posting a 3.10 ERA (2.34 FIP) with a 30.8-percent K rate across five June starts. Nathan Eovaldi and Kumar Rocker have been more than serviceable as mid-rotation arms, giving Texas a potent starting four. Meanwhile, led by the leveled-up Jacob Latz, their bullpen owns a 3.81 ERA, fifth-best in the AL. Maybe they’re short on top-end talent, but this is a well-rounded team, and if the Mariners continue to underwhelm, the Rangers should contend for the division lead down the stretch.

Second Place: Seattle Mariners (44-43)

Top Position Player: Randy Arozarena (2.2 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Bryan Woo (2.5 fWAR)

Despite entering June with a six-game winning streak, which they extended to eight in the first two games on the month, the Mariners spent the rest of it spinning their wheels, falling to second place in the process. The offense is potent on paper, as seven of their nine current regulars boast wRC+ marks north of 100 (Cal Raleigh is at 70, and Josh Naylor’s is 98). However, for whatever reason, that hasn’t translated into actual run production, as the team’s 348 runs scored puts them at 11th in the AL. It probably doesn’t help that they’re rated the second-worst defensive team in MLB, in front of only the lowly Angels.

On the other hand, pitching, particularly starting pitching, is the Mariners’ strength. Their starters’ WAR total of 9.5 trails only the Brewers for the best in baseball, and it’s not just the usual suspects driving that performance, either. The trifecta of Bryan Woo, George Kirby, and Logan Gilbert are humming right along, but joining them have been Emerson Hancock and Bryce Miller, who have both bounced back in a big way from disastrous 2025 campaigns. The bullpen has been middle-of-the-road, but certainly not a major weakness. It’s up to the offense to hold up their end of the bargain if the Mariners want to repeat as division champs.

Third Place: Houston Astros (43-45)

Top Position Player: Yordan Álvarez (3.6 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Peter Lambert (0.7 fWAR)

As the saying goes: Never count the Astros out. Despite a brutal 8-18 April, Houston has clawed their way out of that hole and now stand just 2 games out of 1st in the division, and 1.5 games back of the Mariners for the third Wild Card spot. They’re led by their offense, which ranks fifth in the AL with 391 runs scored, and of course, any discussion of the Astro’s bats has to start with Yordan Alvarez. After his 2025 was cut short due to injury, the hulking slugger is back at full strength and raking, with a 179 wRC+ that paces MLB. Elsewhere, strong seasons from Jeremy Peña, Isaac Paredes, and Christian Walker has helped the club weather a down year from Jose Altuve and the loss of Carlos Correa due to an ankle injury (though Peña just hit the IL with a strained calf).

What has held them back is their pitching, or lack of it. Peter Lambert has been their best starter so far, and while his 3.51 ERA makes him look like a legitimate frontline starter, his 4.47 FIP suggests that he’s really more of a back-end guy. However, there have been positive developments in June. The team welcomed back ace Hunter Brown from the 60-day injured list, and he’s been solid in his three starts since rejoining the rotation. Tatsuya Imai has improved markedly of late, and is coming off a six-inning, 10-K, one-walk, scoreless dismantling of the Detroit Tigers in his latest start. If the Astros do get to enjoy some good starting pitching, they’ll be sure to move up the divisional standings.

Fourth Place: The Athletics (40-46)

Top Position Player: Nick Kurtz (3.3 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: J.T. Ginn (1.3 fWAR)

Much like the Astros, the A’s score a bunch of runs but can’t keep them off the board. Their offense has been legitimately good, led by young phenom Nick Kurtz, and flanked by solid-to-stellar performances from Shea Langeliers, Zack Gelof, and Tyler Soderstrom. New faces like Henry Bolte and Carlos Cortes are also hitting well, softening the blow of the disappointing showings from Brent Rooker, Jeff McNeil, and Lawrence Butler. Ideally, you’d like a little more depth, but this lineup can do some damage.

The pitching, however, is…less than ideal. Their team ERA of 5.01 is the worst among MLB teams that don’t play on the Moon (read: excluding the Colorado Rockies). Top prospect Gage Jump has flashed top-of-the-rotation stuff, and J.T. Ginn looks like a solid No. 3 or 4, but that’s about where the positives end. Until the A’s shore up their arms, I won’t really be convinced to see them as contenders.

Last Place: Los Angeles Angels (36-51)

Top Position Player: Mike Trout (2.4 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Reid Detmers (2.9 fWAR)

Oh Angels, you poor, poor team. If I had told an Angels fan before the season that Mike Trout would have a bounceback season after a down 2025, and that Reid Detmers would finally realize his tantalizing potential and look the part of a frontline starter, I’m pretty sure that they would have been ecstatic. And yet, in this world where those two things have happened (although Trout is currently sidelined due to a strained hamstring because the beings above really enjoy denying us joy), the Angels find themselves dead last in this otherwise wide open division. Indeed, they just fired GM Perry Minasian, who–even acknowledging the limitations of working for a meddler like owner Arte Moreno–had accomplished very little with this roster since taking over in November 2020.

Looking at the rest of the roster, it’s not hard to see why. On the position player side, Zach Neto has been characteristically solid, and Wade Meckler has been a pleasant surprise, but that’s about where the good news ends. On the pitching side, Walbert Ureña and José Soriano have been competent, but outside of that duo and Detmers, the rest of the Halos’ arms have generated just 0.8 WAR. It’s looking like yet another lost season for the Angels. Maybe interim GM John Mozeliak of old Cardinals fame can salvage it by selling everything not nailed to the floor at the deadline and getting a haul. I doubt it, though — Moreno has also voiced a preference on retaining his best trade chips, so I think the organization lacks both the brains and the guts to do so. MLB’s longest playoff drought will continue with no clear end in sight.

These days, we are blessed with an overabundance of information about professional athletes. Thanks to systemic and easily accessible databases (at least, relative to previous centuries), it’s fairly easy to track down basic information about a player – where and when they were born, where they lived, what schools they attended, and how they became known to professional scouts in the sport of their choosing.

That was not always the case, however. Historians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries regularly have to struggle to piece together even the most basic information about a person, even a renowned professional athlete whose name still sits in the record books a century later. Today, we remember one of those players: a man known to history as Jack Quinn.

Jack Picus Quinn (possibly born Joannes “Jan” Pajkos)
Born: probably July 1, 1883 (Stefurov, Austria-Hungary – modern-day Slovakia)
Died: April 17, 1946 (Pottsville, PA)
Yankees Tenure: 1909-12, 1919-21

There is perhaps no better way to summarize the life and legacy of Jack Quinn than his SABR biography, which opens with the following:

He won 247 games in his 23 seasons in the major leagues, plus dozens more in the minors and as a semipro in a pitching career that spanned more than 30 years. Yet we do not know for certain when or where he was born, the national origin of his forebears, or even his birth name. We know him as Jack Quinn, and the reference books agree that he was born John Quinn Picus, which very likely was not the case. Among four editions of the Baseball Encyclopedia, no two of them gave the same birth date and birthplace. Jack Quinn’s personal life was a mystery and he liked it that way.

For much of the past century, Quinn’s background has been the subject of much debate, with both contemporaries and historians making the case at various points that he was Welsh, Irish, Polish, Greek, Slovak, French, Russian, and even Native American (perhaps a misunderstanding, given the fact that his teammates described the quiet and self-contained Quinn as a “wooden Indian”); the player himself certainly didn’t help, as he himself acknowledged that his mother died when he was very young, that “Picus” (the name he typically went by, except when playing baseball) was a phonetic spelling of his original name, and that he had absolutely no idea what his original nationality was.

Historian Michael D. Scott has put together what is today the most convincing case for Quinn’s background. Cross-referencing records from the former Austria-Hungarian Empire and Pennsylvania, where Quinn spent his childhood, Scott places Quinn’s birth on July 1, 1883, in Stefurov, a city in modern-day Slovakia, but which at the time was under the rule of the Habsburg emperors. Born Johannes Pajkos, Quinn’s family moved to America the following year, taking the SS Suevia in June 1884; his mother, Maria Pajkos (nee Dzjiacsko), died soon after, and his father moved to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and began to work in the coal mines.

While a young Jack joined his father in the coal mines, lying about his age in order to begin work early, his true passion was baseball, and after almost dying in a mining accident, he hopped the rails and hit the road, heading as far west as Montana. His exact route is unknown, but by 1900, he was back in Pennsylvania, where he was discovered by professional scouts in the most 19th century way possible. Catching a semi-pro game on the Fourth of July, he caught a foul ball; one of the managers was so impressed by the velocity with which he threw the ball back that he was offered a job on the spot.

Armed with a fastball, a “dry” spitter (he used chewing gum, not chewing tobacco, to generate the spit), an unnamed pitch described almost like a knuckleball, and a changeup, Quinn – by this point, he began to play under this name in order to avoid ethnic discrimination – he caught the attention of the New York Highlanders in 1909. Making his MLB debut on April 15, 1909 and in front of the Vice President of the United States, James S. Sherman, Quinn more than held his own. He tossed a complete game in which he allowed just one run on five hits, earning the win.

Quinn spent four seasons with New York, ultimately getting sold to the Rochester minor league team in 1912 due to underperformance and a flaring temper (he was suspended earlier that season for throwing his glove at an umpire, sparking a riot in the stands). He then spent one year with the Boston Braves and two in the Federal League, before becoming the subject of a custody battle between the White Sox and the Yankees in 1918. Due to the United States’ entry into World War I, the league had decided that players from leagues which had been suspended because of the war – which included Quinn, who had been pitching in the independent Pacific Coast League – would be eligible to be signed by teams on an emergency basis. Due to this rule, Quinn was able to spend the latter part of the 1918 season with the Chicago White Sox. That winter, though, the Yankees – who had owned the rights to Quinn – staked a claim for the player, ultimately winning his services in arbitration (over Quinn’s objection).

Quinn spent three seasons with the Yankees, making his first World Series appearance along with them in 1921. Since, in his age-38 season, he was already considered old for a pitcher, the Yankees then traded him to the Red Sox that winter. Unbeknownst to them, however, he was just getting started. Quinn spent three seasons in Boston, then was traded to the Philadelphia Athletics in the middle of 1925. He would go on to spend five and a half seasons there, winning a pair of World Series titles. Moving full-time to the bullpen, Quinn then spent two years as the closer in Brooklyn (although they didn’t give it that title just yet), before finally finishing his Major League career in Cincinnati in 1933 in his age-49 season. He spent the next few seasons bouncing around independent ball, before finally calling it quits for good in 1935.

Over the course of his career, Quinn piled up many accolades. To this day, he remains the American League record holder for oldest player to hit a home run, as he did so in his age-46 season. His record for oldest pitcher to record a win was not broken until Jamie Moyer did so in April 2012, and he is the oldest pitcher ever to start on Opening Day (47 years old). The Baseball Reference Bullpen makes the claim that he is the oldest Major Leaguer in history, as his final game was two days after his 50th birthday, and unlike most other players who played at or near that age, he actually remained a regular all the way to the end: he is one of two players to have at least ten games played in each season from 35 to 50.

Despite these records, though, Quinn was considered a very good, but not great, player, and was not elected to the Hall of Fame. This, though, may be exactly what he would have wanted: after his playing career was over, the quiet Quinn lived a quiet life, getting married in Illinois, then moving back to Pennsylvania after his wife’s death, before himself dying in January 1946 due to an infection in the liver.

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See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

Two fast rising Rays prospects have been named to the 2026 Futures Game roster as part of MLB’s upcoming All-Star Game celebrations. This year’s teams are split between American and National leagues.

First up is OF Theo Gillen, the Rays first round pick from 2024 (18th overall) who has vaulted into a top-ten prospect in all of baseball this year. He just earned a promotion to Double-A and will be one of ten former first round picks on the AL roster.

The other is C Nathan Flewelling, one of only eight players from A-ball getting this honor, as he remains at the High-A Hot Rods. He’s shown strong power from his left handed swing, and has improved markedly on defense, bringing him also into focus for Top-100 prospect lists.

1980 World Series Champion and former Phillies manager Larry Bowa will manage the AL side, while former Rays nemesis Shane Victorino will manage the NL prospects. The All-Star Game festivities will be held in Philadelphia this year.

Oh boy. After leaving last night’s game with elbow discomfort, Connelly Early has officially been placed on the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the team is downplaying it for now. “I’m personally not too concerned as of right now,” Early said last night, while Chad Tracy described it as a hyperextension. I suppose we should take them at their word for now, but as soon as you start talking about a pitcher’s elbow it’s already bad news. (Avery Hill, Boston Globe)

Usually a young pitcher leaving a game with elbow discomfort is the biggest story to come out of any given game. But that wasn’t the case last night, when a fight broke out after Nationals pitcher Cade Cavalli made what anyone with any sentience could recognize as a racist comment towards Willson Contreras. Not only did Cavalli somehow escape any in-game discipline while Contreras was ejected, but Contreras is now also under investigation by the league for social media comments he subsequently made. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)

A Contreras suspension would deal a big blow to the Sox’ infield depth, which has already been decimated by injuries to Marcelo Mayer and Trevor Story. The Sox made a minor trade yesterday to try to shore-up that depth, acquiring the recently DFA’d Brett Harris from the Athletics in exchange for minor league pitcher Ben Hansen. Harris has a career .193 average with 3 homers. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)

Could we be talking about Franklin Arias as a possibility in the infield soon? AAA promotion watch is on for Arias, who has played 73 games in AA — fewer games than even Roman Anthony got down there, but more than Kristian Campbell. “Part of this game is to be patient,” Arias said. “Moving up to Triple-A, those type of decisions, I can’t control. The one thing I can control is what are my intentions daily, and it’s just to improve across all facets of the game.” (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)

But Arias will be playing on a big league diamond soon. That’s because he was just selected for the Future’s Game, along with pitcher Anthony Eyanson. (Keith Law, The Athletic)

Jermain Defoe urged Dan Neil to join Rangers before the midfielder signed a three-year contract at Ibrox.

Neil, 24, had revealed he sought advice from former Rangers forward Defoe, who had similarly advised Mikey Moore, the Tottenham winger who spent last season on loan at Ibrox.

"It's a special football club to be honest," Defoe told Sky Sports.

"I always knew that Rangers was a big club but I didn't know how big.

"Before he even spoke, it was 'you've got to go'. You have to go. If you want a challenge, I said you have to go."

Defoe helped Rangers win the 2020-21 Scottish Premiership and Neil joins an Ibrox team coming off a disappointing season in which they finished third.

Derek McInnes has replaced Danny Rohl in the dugout and former Sunderland midfielder Neil joins Ben Godfrey, Ross McCrorie, Ivor Pandur and Lawrence Shankland in becoming a Rangers player this summer.

"For Rangers, they're signing a top player," said Defoe, who also played for Sunderland. "A top young player that is a good character. He works hard.

"And that's sort of one of the demands up there, you have to run around and work hard and give everything when you wear that shirt."

After being interested in Craig Kimbrel for what feels like a decade, the Rays finally brought him into the organization. Before you jump to any conclusions, no they haven’t made any dramatic changes to the shapes of his pitches aside from adding a tick more velocity to both breaking balls, but they have noticeably altered how he attacks hitters.

Below are his pitch usage rates against right- and left-handed hitters before and after joining the Rays:

Pitch Type	RHB Usage Mets	RHB Usage Rays	LHB Usage Mets	LHB Usage Rays
Four-seamer	81.3%	67.3%	75.1%	64.3%
Two-seamer	–	5.1%	–	–
Knuckle Curve	8.3%	4.1%	9.7%	23.8%
Sweeper	11.3%	23.5%	18.2%	2.4%
Change-up	–	–	0.6%	9.5%

Right away, a few meaningful changes stand out.

Against right-handed hitters, Kimbrel has reduced his four-seam fastball usage by more than 10% while introducing a two-seam variant roughly 5% of the time. Overall, his fastball usage has dropped by about 9%.

That adjustment makes sense. Even the best fastballs tend to be the easiest pitches for hitters to damage, so relying on them less should improve Kimbrel’s run prevention over a larger sample. He’s also throwing his sweeper much more frequently against righties. While it may not grade as well as the knuckle curve that made him famous, the sweeper’s horizontal movement creates a more uncomfortable angle for same-handed hitters. The curveball is still part of the mix, but it’s now used primarily to keep righties from sitting on the fastball or sweeper.

The Rays have also significantly changed Kimbrel’s approach against left-handed hitters. Fastball usage is down by roughly 10%, curveball usage has more than doubled, and sweeper usage has been cut dramatically. The curveball’s shape plays more neutrally against lefties than the sweeper, making it a better fit in those matchups.

Surprise! There is a new pitch!

In true Rays fashion, Kimbrel has also added an offspeed pitch — and he’s not simply flashing hitters the pitch — he’s throwing it nearly 10% of the time against left-handed hitters.

It resembles a kick change with solid vertical separation off his fastball. It may only grade as an average offering, but it’s another pitch left-handed hitters must respect, making both his fastball and curveball more effective.

The Rays have built a plan that gives Kimbrel a better chance to succeed against modern hitters than the approach he used over the last few seasons. The results haven’t fully followed yet, but it’s early in his Rays career, and these usage changes should give Kimbrel a better chance to recapture some of the effectiveness he showed during his prime.

Whether that translates into a permanent high-leverage role remains to be seen. If Manuel Rodriguez, Edwin Uceta, and Steven Wilson all return healthy, the bullpen crunch could eventually cost Kimbrel his roster spot.

But even if his stay in Tampa Bay is brief, there’s value in having a veteran with his baseball and life experience alongside any bullpen during a postseason race.

TV: NESN

First Pitch: 1:35 p.m. ET

The Red Sox play their final home game before the All-Star break while still waiting for any potential punishments from Tuesday’s scuffle with the Nationals. Willson Contreras, who was ejected in each of the last two games, is in Boston’s initial lineup in search of a second series victory of the homestand. Payton Tolle takes the ball for the Red Sox after seven brilliant innings over the weekend against the Yankees with just one hit allowed. 

Here’s who the Red Sox will send to the plate behind him Wednesday afternoon at Fenway Park. 

Afternoon baseball on deck. pic.twitter.com/ds3c9VzU9S

— Red Sox (@RedSox) July 1, 2026

The Nationals counter with left-hander Andrew Alvarez, who pitched to a 3.44 ERA in his first 10 outings of the season for Washington. You can check out the Washington lineup here.  

There are no easy answers with this one.

Aaron Nola is perhaps the worst pitcher in baseball.

For a long time, Nola was a very good and, at times, great pitcher.

Only two players have ever started more games than Aaron Nola’s 302 games in a Phillies uniform: Steve Carlton (499) and Robin Roberts (472). His 1,963 strikeouts are 2nd-most in team history (Carlton, 3,031), and he is 7th all-time in innings pitched and WHIP.

He has been a postseason hero and will certainly be inducted into the Phillies Wall of Fame one day.

All of which makes his performance over the last two years so sad and difficult to reconcile.

Sure, Nola has always been frustrating. But there were far more outstanding outings than lackluster ones, until 2025.

In an injury-plagued season, Nola made 17 starts and put up a ghastly 6.01 ERA, by far the worst of his career. The thinking was Nola’s ankle sprain and fractured rib a season ago made it impossible to truly judge his performance. Hopes were high after he dominated in the World Baseball Classic in March.

But after Nola’s performance against Pittsburgh on Monday (4.1 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 5 Ks) pushed his already awful ERA up to 6.04, he matched last season’s start total with nearly an identical ERA.

If it wasn’t clear what kind of pitcher Nola had become last year, his 2026 season should leave little doubt.

Aaron Nola is broken. No one seems to know how to fix him.

He’s already given up 19 HRs this season, including another two after being handed a 5-0 lead in the 3rd inning. Nola’s stuff was dancing all over the place in the first three innings, generating 23 swings and misses, the 2nd-most in his career. That’s an insane statistic when you consider he only recorded 13 outs in the game. In the 4th inning, Nola appeared to tire and began leaving his knee-buckling curveball out over the plate, forcing him to turn to his very hittable fastball as he fell behind in counts.

The Pirates know how to hit. And they bludgeoned him.

But again, none of this is new. Since the start of last year, Nola has been worse than Taijuan Walker was in his final two years with the Phillies.

• Walker (25 starts, 146.1 IP: 4.86 ERA, 5.49 FIP, 1.51 WHIP, 29 HRs
• Nola (34 starts, 179.1 IP: 6.02 ERA, 4.79 FIP, 1.42 WHIP, 37 HRs

Everyone can see Nola cannot get anyone out right now. But what can be done?

The mantra seems to be the Phillies will be forced to ride it out all season for two reasons: his contract, and the lack of options to replace him.

Both are valid arguments. But given the $300+ million payroll and World Series expectations, can the Phils afford to keep running Nola out there, even given those headwinds?

It’s clear adding another starting pitcher sooner rather than later in a trade is a must for Dave Dombrowski. Andrew Painter’s struggles further complicates the matter, and there is literally no one else in the minors who can be called upon. Some names to potentially watch as the trade deadline grows closer are the Royals’ Michael Wacha, Baltimore’s Trevor Rogers, the Mets’ Clay Holmes, the Reds’ Brady Singer, and the Royals’ Seth Lugo.

The Phils are unlikely to go shopping for a top-of-the-rotation starter like Tarik Skubal, Robbie Ray or even Sandy Alcantara, given their lack of quality prospects and the need to also supplement the roster with additional relievers and possibly a right-handed hitting outfielder.

Nola still has four years and $98 million due him after this season. They certainly will not release him in the same way they did Walker, who they finally bid adieu while in the last year of his contract. The Phillies are already spending $50 million to pay Walker, Adolis Garcia and Nick Castellanos to not play for them.

Should they acquire a decent starting pitcher over the next few weeks, the only option seems to be trying Nola in the bullpen. Perhaps allowing him to give max effort for one or two innings per outing will allow his fastball to play up a bit, or allow him to exclusive feature his secondary pitches more.

But the mission for these Phillies is clear. They have to win the World Series this season. And while their best chance of doing so is for Nola to figure it out, enough of a track record has been established over the last two years to make that prospect seem desperately optimistic.

Among 109 starting pitchers since the start of last season with at least 170 innings pitched, Nola’s 6.02 ERA is 2nd-worst. Only Anaheim’s Jack Kochanowicz is worse (6.58).

If this continues, the Phillies won’t have a choice. They’re going to have to take him out of the rotation, no matter what anyone else is telling you right now.

This team’s only mission is a World Series. You cannot be a contender and continue to run out a pitcher who has posted an ERA over 6.00 consistently for the better part of two seasons. It’s unfair to the rest of the roster.

There will come a moment when a very difficult decisions is going to be made.

Trying to pretend like it’s not does no one any good.

Last things first, I thought maybe Javier Assad would coast to the finish line and become the 10th different Cub with a save. How is that stat even possible? Not just that 10 different guys have saves. But that there are only 14 total saves. If it were someone like the Rays with 32 total saves, it would feel different to me. But there just haven’t been many saves and two of them were of the three innings in a blowout variety.

Assad didn’t reach the finish line and didn’t become that lucky number 10. Then it was Tyler Ferguson who picked up some very large outs. At some point in time, I’m going to try to determine exactly who Tyler Ferguson is and why he is on my favorite team. I think maybe he is a visitor from the 70’s. Or maybe that’s just his hairdo. He’s definitely not the guy from a Saturday Night Live skit that used to wear an oversized hat. All joking aside, but he’s struck out eight of the 20 batters he’s faced so far. So the former sixth rounder is at least a little interesting.

Thus it was actually Ryan Rolison with the infamous one-batter save. I was starting to make a joke about matching a record for fewest batters faced in a save. Then I realized one of you really smart people was probably going to find someone who was summoned from the bullpen and picked someone off to close out a save without retiring a hitter. I mean it has to have happened, right? Kudos to Rolison who has been quite good. He’s 5-1 with a 1.97 ERA over 27 appearances and 32 innings and is part of the illustrious group of players who have started and finished games for this year’s Cub team.

Look, I see and I understand the reasons people get frustrated with Jed Hoyer. Ironically, one of the single biggest reasons to be frustrated with him this year is that NOW he went and splurged on some relievers after basically refusing to do it in the past. And he got Phil Maton, who has been one of the least effective Cub pitchers this season. Dodgers style thinking for one minute, Maton still has time to get healthy and record key outs in the postseason where it really matters most.

The point is, Jed has generally not been willing to pay relievers for past success. And when you see guys like Ferguson and Rolison having success, you can understand why. He gets a lot of mileage out of scrap heap relievers. Every single year. I also get that the game is more and more reliever intensive every year and that if we’re thinking like the Dodgers, it is those innings in the postseason where elite arms matter the most. It’s hard to reconcile. This strategy works. It has worked nearly every single year since the Cubs brought Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer to town. Year in and year out they’ve consistently had a top 10 bullpen. The rub is that it’s never a top 5 pen. And sometimes it is those top 5 pens that win championships.

Amazingly, I’ve filled out 500-plus words talking almost exclusively about the bullpen and bullpen strategy. I was hoping that wouldn’t be the case. The Cub offense slugged five homers and scored nine runs in the first six innings of this game. This could have been an easy one. The Cubs were well on their way to checking off another item on their in season shopping list. Winning the season series from another Wild Card contender. They already got it from the Phillies and they needed a win in this one or the next one to get it from the Padres.

In the end all that matters is that they got it. They got the season series. They won their fourth straight. They completed their third non-overlapping and compact stretch of games at 10 over .500. They have two 10-0 stretches and one 14-4 stretch. It is absolutely frustrating how hot and cold this team runs. Three stretches of games that would run out to a 34-4 stretch if placed end-to-end. And just 14-35 in all of the not peak periods of the season. Cue national media pointing out at some time later in the season during a broadcast that no one wants to face this Cub team in the playoffs. I can’t imagine, even in my wildest dreams, this team winning a championship. But you better believe that I think this team could beat any team in the league in a series.

I know they don’t have that kind of bulldog starter that you want. I know that the flurry of no-name relievers is just not intimidating. But you know it happens when your hitters just all start hitting the ball in the general direction of a very good player and the other team finds a few holes. This team looks lost when they are out of their groove and like world beaters when they are in it. I would not fall over in shock if this team won a series from the Dodgers or Braves and I would totally get it if they play in a Wild Card series and don’t score a single run. That’s this team.

Anyway, it’s a shame that this piece wasn’t about two Dansby homers, a much needed Bregman homer, a Busch bomb and one more Pete Crow-Armstrong homer to finish an insanely productive month. Pete interrupted his newly deployed patience to launch another majestic shot to remind us how many weapons he has. He now reminds me of vintage peak Sammy. They didn’t want to walk him because of his tendency to get anxious and chase. They go after him. They’d pound pitch after pitch just out of the zone. He leaned to take them. And as he started working longer counts, every now and then, even a very good pitcher would just lose one in the zone. And then there was the hop and the trot. With Pete it is that long swing, tossing the bat away and then the electric tour of the bases. He’s so fun to watch play.

I’m going to get back to Jed again before wrapping. I see some of you talk about that man like he’s forced you to watch the original Ishtar on loop with the Barney soundtrack in the background. I get the things he isn’t. I see the perception that his career just follows the coattails of Theo Epstein. This team has won a lot of games on Jed’s watch. A ton of them when he was #2 and a not insignificant while he’s been #1. He’s made a lot of very good moves. Have some of them failed? Yeah. Some of them quite spectacularly.

Remember a few things. First, it used to suck to be a Cubs fan. Maybe that shouldn’t be part of the grading scale, but seriously do you remember waiting around and hoping that this would be the year that they’d catch lightning in a bottle and sniff the playoffs? I realize the expanded playoffs makes it easier, but this team is competitive nearly every year. Second, what did the championship core teach us? To win a modern championship, you have to pull together a special group of guys and THEN they have to get lucky along the way. That 2016 team, as great as it was, was on the ropes at one point in every round.

Am I disappointed that this era of Cub baseball has only produced one championship? Absolutely. Do I think it is the most amazing thing in my lifetime that I’m disappointed by ONLY one Cub championship over any period? There was basically no real expectation of anything before Theo and Jed came to town. Do I think he should get an infinite honeymoon period as a result? No. Also, I think they won a playoff series just last year. I’m not going to blame him for the abomination that is (checks notes) 13 pitchers on the injured list today. A whole damn pitching staff on the IL at once. And yeah, that number includes Shelby Miller who actually came that way.

Do I want to see them ask some questions as to if there are any non-bad luck causes of all of the injuries? Absolutely. I actually think the team has done a better than usual job of not carrying injured players this year. They’ve generally pulled the trigger. Along those lines, they seem to be erring on the side of caution. Are some of these IL stints preventive like the Dodgers have been doing for years? I don’t know the answer to that and I’m not making that excuse for them. This whole thing is definitely curious.

Also, Matthew Boyd, Shōta Imanaga and a whole lot of guys casual baseball fans have never heard of are coming soon to an MLB stadium near you and they just might beat whoever they’re playing. Jed was the man at the helm when virtually every one of them was brought here and they have tied for the fifth-most wins in baseball and look headed back to the playoffs.

Three Positives:

• Dansby Swanson had a three-hit, two-homer game. That’s going to put him up here. He wasn’t there tonight, but my favorite team’s nine hitter is on a bit of a tear.
• Alex Bregman had a three-run homer and drew a pair of walks.
• I thought Tyler Ferguson recorded the three biggest outs of the game, starting with an inning-ending strikeout of Manny Machado representing the tying run. That would have been a disheartening loss if it had gotten away.

Game 86, June 30: Cubs 9, Padres 7 (48-38)

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Alex Bregman (.200). 1-3, HR, 2 BB, 3 RBI, R
• Hero: Dansby Swanson (.173). 3-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R
• Sidekick: Tyler Ferguson (.094). IP, 3 BF, K

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Ian Happ (-.041). 1-4, R
• Goat: Matthew Boyd (-.041). 5 IP, 24 BF, 8 H, 0 BB, 3 ER, 2 K (W 3-1)
• Kid: Nico Hoerner (-.035). 1-5

A quick couple of WPA notes. Carson Kelly just missed the top three. Also, looking at the shape of this game, the Cub offense poured it on early. Boyd took hits for giving away some of the lead and for departing with runners on base. Assad had a big, late lead when he gave up late runs. So WPA was quite a bit harder on Boyd. Only four Cubs even had negative WPA numbers in this game because despite the final score, the Cubs controlled this one more or less wire to wire.

WPA Play of the Game: Alex Bregman’s three-run homer with one out in the second extended the early lead to four. (.184)

Padres Play of the Game: Manny Machado’s homer with two outs and a runner on third in the fifth to get the game back to two. (.118)

Cubs Player of the Game:

Game 85 Winner: Seiya Suzuki (178 of 199 votes)

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Pete Crow-Armstrong +17
• Michael Busch +15
• Ben Brown +13.5
• Trent Thornton +12.5
• Carson Kelly +11.5
• Edward Cabrera -9.5
• Phil Maton/Dansby Swanson -10
• Caleb Thielbar -13
• Seiya Suzuki -14.5

Up Next: The Cubs can complete a three-game sweep of the Padres Wednesday afternoon. They have an off day Thursday and didn’t use much pen in this one. Colin Rea (5-5, 4.80) squares off with Walker Buehler (5-3, 3.81). Another tough matchup, but no tougher than some of the wins these Cubs pulled off this past weekend.

This is a plus series regardless, but it sure would be sweet to cap this one off.

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Rick Rizzs Happy Totals: 13
Dan Wilson Tough One Tonights: 14
Run Differential: -17

wRC+: 91 (24th)
Rotation ERA-/FIP-: 97/82 (11th/2nd)
Bullpen ERA-/FIP-: 127/87 (25th/5th)
OAA: -6
BsR: -0.7 (22nd)

Mariners fWAR leader: Dominic Canzne & Logan Gilbert, 0.9

Beef Boy Bombs: 1
Josh Naylor SB: 3 for 4
Julio HR-SB: 2-7
Ty France Memorial HBP Counter: Randy Arozarena, 4

Luke Raley wOBA rank: 235 of 236 (May was 1 of 260)
Dominic Canzone Barrel%: 16.1% (15th)
J.P. Crawford Innings Played at 3B: 104
Colt Emerson OAA at SS: -1
Rob Refsnyder PA: 33

Piggyback starts: 1
Logan Gilbert Fastball%: 50.9%
Emerson Hancock ERA/xERA: 5.19/5.01
Bryce Miller K%-BB%: 38.1% (1st, min 20 IP (2nd place is 31.8%))

Gabe Speier Fastball Velocity: 96.2 mph
Relievers used: 11
Bullpen IP: 77.1 (28th)
Andés Muñoz saves/opportunities: 6/7

Kade Anderson K/BB: 10.7
Ryan Sloan K/BB: 11.5
Lazaro Montes HR: 12

You favorite June stat not listed here: In the comments

Playoff position: Hold 3rd WC (+1.5), 2nd in AL West (-0.5)

Current overall record and run differential: 44-43, +13
On this date in 2025: 44-40, +17
2024: 47-39, +6
2023: 38-42, +11
2022: 37-41, +2

Christmas ham: Gabe Speier, +0.97 WPA
Tender hamstrings: Josh Simpson, -0.56 WPA