Category: Baseball

For a Major League leading seventh time, the San Francisco Giants have been shutout, 22% of the 32 games played in the 2026 season. 

To put this dismal display in perspective, the 2019 Miami Marlins were shutout 22 times, the most in the Wild Card Era, which is roughly 14% of the 162 games in a regular season. The 1963 Mets, who lost 111 games, set the record in the Live Ball era at 30 shutouts, around 19% of their games. Currently, these 2026 Giants are on track to break that record by 6 shutouts. 

A sobering thought that may have occurred to Willy Adames and Rafael Devers at the same time, in this exact moment captured below.

The Giants offense is leading the league in hitters slouched over the dugout railing at the end of ballgames. They’re pacing the league in squinting at some far-off thing in the third deck just beyond the left field foul pole as they remove their batting gloves, their helmet, at the end of another fruitless offensive frame.

The offense recorded 6 total hits against Rays pitching. Their only extra base hit of the game — a Luis Arraez double in the 4th — was erased from the bases when, with the urging of third base coach Hector Borg, he tried to stretch it into a Luis Arraez triple.

A third base coach can have too much attention, and Borg might want to lay low for awhile. He was too cautious Thursday night in the 10th, and here, just too aggressive. All of its connected, of course. Everyone is frustrated and playing tight and overthinking and trying to do too much. Behavior that stems from team-wide ills.

San Francisco’s only at-bat with a runner in scoring position came an inning later against southpaw starter Shane McClanahan with runners at the corners and one out. To be more precise, the Giants saw two pitches in the entire game with a runner in scoring position. A slider in the dirt, and a change-up that Jerar Encarnacion rolled weakly to Junior Caminero for a 5-4-3 double play. 

Then in the 6th, still down by two — which, to be clear, is usually not an insurmountable run total to overcome — a lead-off single by Patrick Bailey was promptly undermined by a weak come-backer off the bat of Heliot Ramos that McClananahan fielded for a 1–4-3 double play.

An outfield assist. Two double plays. That was it. Trying to spark a rally for these Giants has been like trying to build a house of cards. They don’t walk, they don’t hit for extra bases, they don’t steal. There’s only so many singles you can string together before someone nudges the table, or sneezes, or breathes wrong, and sends the whole flimsy structure tumbling down. The Giants actually out-hit Tampa 6-to-5, they just didn’t out-slug them. If singles are Bicycle Playing Cards, extra base hits are Lincoln Logs. The Rays converted three hits and a sac fly into three runs off of Robbie Ray because two of them cleared the wall, and the other was manufactured off a double, a stolen base, and situational hitting. 

Ray turned in another quality start, giving up 3 earned on 4 hits, 0 walks, and 5 strike outs over 6.1 innings, and was stuck with his fourth loss of the year for his efforts. Three of those losses, bizarrely enough, have come in 3-0 shutouts.

So I guess Ray is the problem?

Friday’s college baseball game between Alabama and Vanderbilt had a scary moment.

During the second inning of the SEC matchup, Alabama graduate student Brennan Holt fouled a pitch off from Commodores starting pitcher Brennan Seiber straight into the face of home plate umpire Scott Kennedy.

Kennedy immediately collapsed upon getting hit with the ball, stumbling directly on his back with his mask being knocked off his face.

Umpire fell to the ground after taking a foul ball to the face mask and eventually walked off on his own power pic.twitter.com/TknuykmI7m

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 1, 2026

After falling over, Kennedy remained on the ground for several minutes as he was being assisted by trainers from both teams.

He was ultimately able to walk off the field on his own power, with second base umpire Anthony Perez replacing Kennedy behind the plate for the remainder of the game at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The game was delayed for roughly 15 minutes while the situation was resolved.

Kennedy was “doing better” following the game, but there has yet to be an official update on his health, and there will be a replacement umpire for Saturday’s game, an Alabama athletics spokesperson told The Post.

“I think first and foremost, you’re just hoping Scott’s OK, you know, and I think just get a report from our trainer,” Crimson Tide head coach Rob Vaughn told reporters following the game. “I think he’s OK, and he’s doing better.”

Vaughn added how rattling it is to see a situation where someone gets seriously hurt in a non-contact sport like baseball.

“Obviously it’s just an unfortunate situation,” he said. “Baseball is not a contact sport. You’re used to seeing guys in weird spots like that in football and some other physical sports.

“But baseball, you don’t see that often. So hoping Scott’s OK is the first thing and then you get back to the game.”

Alabama bested the Commodores 5-0 on Friday, improving its record to 31-16.

Here was something rare: legitimate, hard contact against Will Warren. Leody Taveras smoked a fastball that bore across the plate and sent it right back up the middle. 

By the end of his delivery, Warren was facing first base. By the time Taveras’ 101.5 mph grounded dart blitzed its way to the mound, Warren was facing second. 

“I just stood there and hoped it missed me, and it didn’t,” said Warren, who was blinded to the ball, raised his left foot and knocked it down with the bottom of the cleat, then scrambled to record the final out of the top of the second. 

Warren is smothering batted balls, opposing lineups and perhaps questions about his status in the rotation. 

The young right-hander was brilliant again, allowing one earned run while pitching into the seventh inning, and strengthened his case that he belongs among the Yankees starting pitchers as his club sailed, 7-2, over the Orioles in front of 41,239 in The Bronx on Friday night. 

“You say he’s the guy we haven’t talked about,” manager Aaron Boone said with a smile about an overlooked part of a starry rotation. “The body of work, just from jump in spring training, has just been excellent over and over again.” 

The Yankees (21-11) have the AL’s best record and have won 11 of 13, playing well in every phase of the game. 

Ben Rice clubbed home run No. 11, a three-run shot in the second that drained much of the drama from the proceedings. José Caballero remained hot with a homer of his own — hours after it became clear his play at least temporarily has kept Anthony Volpe in the minors — and RBI knocks from Cody Bellinger, Amed Rosario and Aaron Judge (who reached base in four of five plate appearances) kept the offense buzzing. 

Fernando Cruz relieved Warren in the seventh and inherited a second-and-third, one-out jam and allowed just a run on a swinging bunt. Camilo Doval and Jake Bird threw scoreless frames for a bullpen that has generally been solid. 

The club’s defense, particularly from Caballero and Judge, was strong. But the Yankees have had no greater strength this season than their rotation, which sports a majors-best 2.70 ERA and is not close to full strength. 

Carlos Rodón will pitch Tuesday in what could be his final rehab start. Gerrit Cole will be making his fourth minor league start Tuesday, too. 

Spots will have to be cleared in a rotation that already has demoted Luis Gil, has given a shot to Elmer Rodríguez and also includes Ryan Weathers, who owns a 3.21 ERA through six starts. 

The competition is on. 

“I think we’re going to have the best staff in all of baseball when they come back,” said Warren, who has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his seven starts. “And so the best pitchers are going to pitch the majority of the games. Gotta make sure that I keep going out there and doing my job.” 

He did Friday, limiting the Orioles to two runs (one earned) on three hits and one walk in 6 ¹/₃ innings in which he struck out nine, slicing his ERA to 2.39 — which is an ace-like number but ranks third (behind Cam Schlittler’s 1.51 and Max Fried’s 2.09) on the Yankees. 

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

The 26-year-old allowed a second-inning home run to Pete Alonso and then retired 16 of the next 17 batters he faced, silencing the Orioles through various means on a night he focused more on off-speed and breaking pitches than fastballs. He has the stuff to make hitters look silly, Baltimore’s Coby Mayo nowhere close as he meekly swung at a sweeper that swept far away from him. 

He did not have to rely upon chasing, though, and routinely challenged Baltimore hitters who looked overmatched. Gunnar Henderson stared at a perfectly placed strike-three sinker and walked back to the dugout without an argument. 

His changeup, a weapon especially against lefty hitters, might have been the strongest it has been all season. The Orioles swung four times at the pitch and missed three. 

Warren did not look like a pitcher who belongs in a bullpen. 

“He’s not satisfied,” Boone said of a righty who made a leap last season and appears to be doing it again. “For all the good he did last year, I don’t think he was satisfied.”

Two early Yankees home runs dug the Orioles a hole they couldn’t fly out of, as the O’s dropped their series opener in the Bronx 7-2.

As we’ve seen many times this season, a disastrous 2nd inning put the Orioles behind early and ruined the outing for Povich. With the game tied at 1-1, Povich began the inning strong, getting the former All-Star Jazz Chisolm Jr. to wave through a slider for the first out of the inning. From there, though, things went from bad to worse for the Orioles’ lefty. The very next pitch, José Caballero attacked a fastball up and in, hooking it around left field foul pole for a solo homer that gave New York a 2-1 lead.

Povich would come back to strike out catcher Austin Wells on another slider down and away. But the Caballero homer put a crack in Povich’s dam, a crack that Ben Rice would break wide open. With two outs, Trent Grisham attacked a 2-2 fastball, sending it into right field for a double. Paul Goldschmidt then worked a four-pitch walk to bring Rice to the plate. After Povich spiked a first-pitch slider in the dirt, he tried to go back to the breaking ball, only to leave it hanging and watch Rice pummel it into the right field bleachers for a 5-1 Yankees lead.

The Yankees almost chased Povich from the game, as Aaron Judge continued the two-out rally with a single to right, before Cody Bellinger ripped his second double of the night to move Judge to third. The Oriole starter was able to escape that jam, punching out Amed Rosario looking on a fastball down and in. However, after giving up four runs on 34 pitches in the 2nd, it was clear it wouldn’t be a banner night for Povich.

The signs of a potentially long night showed up from Povich’s very first inning. He again started the inning well, getting leadoff hitter Paul Goldschmidt to ground out to second before Taylor Ward robbed Rice of a hit with a sliding catch in left. Povich then got ahead of Judge 1-2, only to lose the 3x-MVP on a seven-pitch walk. Bellinger then lined a ball down the line in right, which got away from Dylan Beavers after a carom off the wall, allowing Judge to score from first and Bellinger to coast into second with a double.

In the top of the 2nd, Pete Alsono gave Birdland some hope that this would be a competitive game—if only briefly. With the O’s down 1-0, Yankee starter Will Warren left a sinker over the plate, and Alonso blasted it the other way into the right field second deck for his fifth home run as an Oriole.

However, the Alonso homer proved to be an anomaly, as the Orioles’ lineup struggled to find any answers against New York’s 26-year-old right-hander. Warren started his evening by punching out Gunnar Henderson swinging on a changeup low and away. Judge then gave his starter a defensive assist on a Taylor Ward fly ball, snagging a deep fly up against the right field fence. Warren then finished the inning with a strikeout of Adley Rutschman, freezing the Orioles’ hottest hitter with a fastball at the knees.

Strikeouts were a problem all night for the Baltimore bats, as they often seemed befuddled by the Yankees’ starter. Warren punched out another two Birds in the 2nd, getting Samuel Basallo to swing through a changeup before getting Dylan Beavers to chase another offspeed offering. Coby Mayo led off the 3rd with another strikeout by flailing at a sweeper that finished in the left-handed batter’s box. Warren then punctuated that frame with a punch out of Taylor Ward, getting the Orioles’ LF to swing through a low sinker.

After a Blaze Alexander single in the 3rd, Warren set down the next 12 Orioles he faced, with only two balls leaving the infield on a pair of F7’s in the 5th. Alonso finally broke that streak in the 7th, working a six-pitch walk to give the Orioles their first base runner in four innings. Basallo then followed that up with a single to center that took an awkward bounce past Grisham, allowing Alonso to move to third.

The Basallo bloop single set up the O’s only real scoring threat of the night, but the rest of the lineup couldn’t capitalize. Dylan Beavers tapped a grounder back to the mound that allowed Alonso to score to make it 5-2 with two outs. Leody Taveras then flew out to Judge to end the scoring threat—and any Orioles hopes of a comeback.

The Yankees would erase that consolation run in the 7th. Judge and Bellinger worked back-to-back two-out walks to give New York another runner in scoring position. Amed Rosario then singled up the middle to drive Judge home and restore the Yankees’ four-run advantage. The reigning AL MVP would then turn run provider in the 8th, singling up the middle on a sharp ground ball that drove home Rice from second and giving the Yankees their seventh run of the game.

The loss Friday night extends Baltimore’s losing streak against the Yankees to six games, with their last win against New York coming last September 19th in Baltimore. The O’s will try and snap that streak tomorrow when Kyle Bradish faces off against Ryan Weathers.

Spearheaded by a fantastic effort from Will Warren, the Yankees took early command of their first regular-season matchup against the Orioles in 2026, ultimately winning it 7-2. Specifically on Warren, seeing the front-level starters dominating is all well and good, but the built-in expectations may work against the excitement of it in certain instances. Although early, seeing a pitcher like Warren coming together to truly maximize his skill set—as it appears we’re doing—is the kind of thing we love to witness over the course of a 162-game regular season.

Immediately after being handed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, Warren coughed it up in the type of manner that could shake his confidence. Not often in baseball do you get no-doubter opposite-field home runs, but that’s exactly what Pete Alonso delivered against the Yankees starter, evening things up in the second.

Fulfilling the phrase that you’re only as good as the team around you, Warren enjoyed a little support right after that moment. It would’ve been one thing had he spent a prolonged period pitching with a tie game, but the Yankees quickly took control of this one, pouncing on Orioles starter Cade Povich, who simply didn’t have it on Friday night. It was the home team’s turn to leave the yard in the third inning, firstly with a José Caballero solo shot and then a three-run bomb from Ben Rice.

It’s fitting that these are the two players who would come up big, as they represent the two types of hitters who will determine how dangerous the Yankees lineup is against left-handed pitching—Rice as the primary of a group of lefties who can take their game to the next level if they’re able to put up solid numbers against same-handed pitching and Caballero, who is one of the complementary pieces that need to maximize on platoon advantages.

As it turned out, that home run Alonso hit would end up representing a third of the Orioles’ hits against Warren, who took full advantage of a commanding lead from the third inning onwards and shut down Baltimore. Relying less heavily on the fastball than his season norm, and utilizing all three of his off-speed pitches, Warren earned nine strikeouts—the last of them on a terrific challenge from Wells, overturning a backdoor 2-2 sinker against Taylor Ward that had been originally called a ball in the sixth inning.

Warren was cruising in such a manner that Aaron Boone tried to give him the seventh inning, but a walk and a single were enough for the hook with 6.1 innings pitched. As he is known to do, Fernando Cruz came in with runners at second and third—both having advanced on a Trent Grisham error—and he kept the damage at one. Because of the error, this second Oriole run to make it a 5-2 game at that time was unearned for Warren, delivering a performance just as dominant as the one he had against the Royals a couple of outings ago.

Answering back that run, the Yankees made it a 7-2 game, scoring one in the seventh and one in the eighth thanks to RBI knocks from Amed Rosario and Aaron Judge. They could’ve made it a full-scale blowout but managed to strand five baserunners in those two innings, not that the pitching staff missed those runs, with Cruz, Camillo Doval, and Jake Bird combining to give up just a walk in 2.2 innings.

The Yankees will go for their 12th win in 14 games tomorrow afternoon, with southpaw Ryan Weathers facing righty Kyle Bradish. First pitch is at 1:35pm ET.

Box Score

It was a cold Friday night in May in Columbus, Ohio. Nebraska which despite its great season, has been woeful on the mound in Friday nights in conference play. Enter new Friday night starter Carson Jasa. He was tasked with turning around the Husker’s fortunes against Ohio States number one pitcher since about halfway through his freshman season last year, Gavin Kunzniewski.

It was obvious the pitchers were dealing early. The lone blemish in the first few innings came in the 2nd. Mammoth Ohio State first baseman Dane Harvey led off the inning with a solid single into center field that center fielder Mac Moyer couldn’t quite get to as he was playing deep because of Harvey’s power. Maddix Simpson then hit a ball head high to Case Sanderson at first that hit his glove but was just able to trickle out because of the speed it came off the bat. A potential double play snuck out to right field and runners were on the corners.

Carson Jasa pitched the next batter to a full count, but ended up walking him to load the bases with no outs. A mound visit refocused Jasa and he recorded the first out on a 3 pitch strikeout. A quick second out came on a sac fly to right center field, scoring Harvey. Another strikeout ended the inning. A potential disaster was limited to just a single run, something the powerful Husker offense should have no trouble overcoming.

That onslaught never arrived though. Kunzniewski was living off his changeup, keeping Nebraska hitters completely off balance and allowing them to barely get any barrels on the ball.

It took until the 5th inning for Nebraska to really put any pressure on the Buckeye starter. Third baseman Josh Overbeek absorbed a 1 out hit-by-pitch, something this OSU staff gives out rather often. Freshman right fielder Drew Grego then sent the first pitch he saw to center field for a single, marking the first time Nebraska had 2 baserunners. Catcher Trey Fikes pulled a ball down the line to first base, moving the runner over on a productive out for Tuesday night’s hero, Rhett Stokes. Stokes went after the first ball he saw, something Nebraska hitters did all too often on the evening, and grounded out to short to end the inning. Still 1-0 Buckeyes after 5.

In the bottom of the 6th inning, Simpson led off for Ohio State and laced a double to the right center gap. A ground ball to first moved him over to third, and a sac fly to Moyer in center brought him in to widen the lead to 2-0 for the Buckeyes.

Nebraska threatened again in the 7th. A Jett Buck walk, and Grego getting hit by a pitch put 2 on with 2 out. Nebraska pinch hit the recovering Will Jesske who put the barrel to the ball for one of the rare times on the night, but flew out in front of the warning track in left field to end the threat.

Jasa exited the game after the 6th, giving the team its first quality start on a Friday since Ty Horn against Michigan State on March 6th. Jasa threw 103 pitches, gave up 2 runs on 4 hits, striking out only 3 batters, his lowest other than the 1 in 1 inning of work at Auburn.

The aforementioned Ty Horn took over for Jasa in the 7th and finished the game for Nebraska, keeping OSU off the board with 3 strikeouts in his 2 perfect innings.

Nebraska finally knocked Kunzniewski out of the game in the 9th, after he walked the first two Huskers in Dylan Carey and Jett Buck. Ohio State turned it over to their reliever Ryan Zamora, who has the best pitch in their bullpen, a hard downward breaking slurve. Overbeek hit a ball up the middle that the short stop was just able to keep from going into center field, and toss to the covering second baseman, leaving runners at the corners.

Drew Grego hit a ball right out in front of the pitcher that the catcher ran out and grabbed and threw to first, beating Grego by a step. Overbeek advanced to second on the play. Nebraska sent left handed batter Preston Freeman in to pinch hit for Jesske. Zamora threw a ball to the backstop, and Overbeek advanced to third. Freeman couldn’t bring him in striking out looking on Zamora’s big breaking ball on the inside corner. Ohio State claims game 1, 2-1.

It was about as even as you could get offensively. Both teams had 4 hits, and both had 3 walks. The Simpson double was the lone extra base hit of the game and proved to be the difference. Even when Nebraska fixes its pitching issues that has been plaguing it each Friday, it can’t seem to find the same success it does on Saturdays and Sundays.

The good thing? They are right back at it tomorrow, which just so happens to not be a Friday! The 2nd game of the series will be shown on BTN, so it will be a rare Saturday night baseball game for the teams. First pitch in Columbus will be at 6pm CDT.

After a road trip full of late heartbreaks and near-misses, it was time for a little home-cookin’ with a three-game weekend series on tap with the Texas Rangers. Well, the near-misses and heartbreak didn’t stop tonight, as a comeback ended up all for naught with a 5-4 loss on Friday night.

Jack Flaherty, who has had more question-marks lately than a defective typewriter, started for the Tigers. In his previous start in Cincinnati he gave up six runs in two innings and didn’t come out for the third. But, for a pair of starts earlier in April, he was looking really good. Which Flaherty would we see tonight? And would it change from inning to inning?

Facing Flaherty and the Tigers tonight was MacKenzie Gore, in his first season with Texas after three fairly solid seasons in Washington. Curiously, he led the National League the previous two years in wild pitches, but not walks (despite logging quite a few innings). Coming into tonight he’d walked 15 batters in 31 innings, which is quite a few when you really think about it.

The Rangers got on the board in the first inning with a single, productive groundout, and a Josh “Not Jace” Jung single to left field to score Brandon Nimmo for a 1-0 Texas lead. Flaherty settled down nicely for a 1-2-3 second inning, including a pair of strikeouts… but then Danny Jansen crushed a long home run to lead off the third for a 2-0 Texas lead.

Q: Could Flaherty prevent the spin-out high-damage inning to which he’s fallen victim so often?

A: Nope.

After Jansen’s home run, the yips returned and he couldn’t find the strikezone, walking the bases loaded. He gave up another run on a single and another on a sacrifice fly (the first out of the inning) and the Rangers were up 4-0. An infield popup and a strikeout limited any further scoring, but still, sheesh. He’d carry on into the fourth and get the first two outs, but at that point his pitch count was 91 and some lefties were coming up, so that was that. Enmanuel De Jesus, who came up from Toledo when Casey Mize went on the Injured List, came on and struck out Evan Carter on three pitches. Flaherty’s final line: 3 2/3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 4 K.

In the bottom of the fourth, Jahmai Jones led off with a double, and with one out Riley Greene hit a tricky popup behind third base on which Jung whiffed. Matt Vierling then struck out, but Spencer Torkelson walked to load the bases with two outs. Wenceel Pérez then stepped to the plate and stung a single into left, scoring Jones and Greene to narrow the lead to 4-2. Hao-Yu Lee dropped a perfect little flare of a single into right to score Torkelson for a 4-3 score.

That was the end of Gore’s day, and righty Cole Winn was brought in to face Gleyber Torres who struck out swinging to end the inning. But hey, the Tigers were back in this thing.

In the bottom of the fifth, Kerry Carpenter (pinch-hitting for Jones) walked, and took second on a wild pitch in the dirt. He moved up to third on a perfectly-placed bloop single on the ninth pitch of a Dillon Dingler at-bat, putting runners on the corners. Greene followed with a shattered-bat ground ball that was too slowly-hit for an inning-ending double play, scoring Carpenter and tying the game.

Brenan Hanifee took over for De Jesus to start the sixth; De Jesus nicely calmed things down for 1 1/3 innings, only allowing a walk. He allowed a leadoff single, and then after a bit of a bunting exhibition by Texas, the inning ended with no damage.

In the bottom of the inning Pérez advanced to third after getting aboard via a fielder’s choice, stolen base and a throwing error, but Torres flew out to centre to end the inning and Pérez was left stranded 90 feet (27 432 mm) from home.

Brant Hurter took over for Hanifee — B.H. for B.H., neato — and with the help of a nice play a third by Lee on a scorcher of a ground ball, a hit-by-pitch was stranded on the bases.

Old Friend™ Tyler Alexander made an appearance for Texas in the seventh, and he got some defensive help by Ezequiel Duran, diving to grab a Carpenter fly ball near the right-field corner.

Burch Smith didn’t have quite as much luck: Rangers hitters got aggressive against Smith and didn’t miss too often, making hard contact and hitting a pair of doubles to retake the lead 5-4.

Greene led off the bottom of the eighth with a single against Alexander, but didn’t advance as the next three batters were retired. And in the ninth against Jacob Latz, who has been mostly lights-out for Texas so far this year, the Tigers went 1-2-3 and that was the game.

Final score: Rangers 5, Tigers 4

Numbers and Celebrations

• Both starting pitchers tonight wore single-digit numbers. I don’t agree with this. It looks dumb.
• Coming into tonight’s game, Jack Flaherty had 22 walks in 25 1/3 innings. So, three walks in 3 2/3 more innings? Unfortunately, that didn’t change the overall rate much, if at all. What am I, a mathematician?
• Today is International Workers Day, otherwise known as May Day, and is celebrated as Labour Day in the vast majority of the world’s countries (but not in Canada, the United States, Jamaica, Japan, Australia and New Zealand). It’s meant to celebrate the achievements of the labour movement around the world, including the eight-hour work day, health and safety rights, and countless other gains for workers.

Jacob Misiorowski had a historic night on the mound. He also put a gigantic scare into the Brewer faithful when he had to be removed from the game while cruising in the sixth inning, but the Brewers have hopefully avoided any major concern over Misiorowski’s health (early reports are that he was cramping), and even with that, Miz had his best start of the season. His offense backed him up tonight, too, led by William Contreras, who picked up four hits for the second straight game.

Garrett Mitchell got the Brewers off to a good start as he hit a double over the head of right fielder James Wood on the game’s first strike, a 109 mph missile. Brice Turang was next and moved Mitchell to third on a groundout to first, and Mitchell scored the game’s first run when a sweeper from Nats starter Jake Irvin snuck past catcher Drew Millas (a ball that was initially ruled a wild pitch but was later changed to a passed ball). Irvin recovered to get Contreras on a popup and Jake Bauers on a strikeout, but Milwaukee had an early 1-0 lead before Misiorowski touched the mound.

Miz started with back-to-back 102 mph fastballs to Wood, the second of which was lined to Luis Rengifo at third for the first out. Luis García Jr. struck out on a fastball that clocked in at 102.3 mph for the second out, and Miz kept the flames coming with a 103 mph fastball during his at-bat with Curtis Mead—according to Jeff Levering, that’s the fastest pitch a starting pitcher has thrown in the Statcast Era. Mead did draw a walk to extend the inning, and CJ Abrams did an admirable job of not striking out on a series of nasty 1-2 pitches and worked an 11-pitch at-bat, but ultimately grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.

Rengifo worked a walk to start the second inning, but Irvin got the next three—Tyler Black, Sal Frelick, and Blake Perkins—via strikeout, weak groundout, and strikeout. Misiorowski walked another batter to lead off the second but struck out the next two and got the third out with an assist from Jake Bauers, who made a nice play on a line drive to first.

David Hamilton drew a leadoff walk in the third and, after Mitchell struck out, stole second. Irvin then walked Turang on four pitches to put two on for Contreras, who came through with a looping single to center on a pitch a couple inches off the outside of the plate. That scored Hamilton, and Milwaukee doubled its lead. Irvin got out of the inning without any more damage though, as Bauers struck out looking and Rengifo flew out to the edge of the warning track in center.

Miz got two quick groundball outs to start the bottom of the third, but García Jr. made him throw nine pitches (and worked from 0-2 to 3-2) before striking out to end the inning. Misiorowski was effective and hadn’t allowed a hit through three innings, but he was up to 56 pitches.

Black hit a solid ground-rule double down the left-field line to start the fourth, and Frelick followed with what was effectively a bunt when he swung at the first pitch and hit a dribbler down to third. That gave Perkins a shot with Black on third and one out, but Perkins hit a ball right back to Irvin. Black was caught in no-man’s land, and Irvin chased him down and tagged him out for the second out. Hamilton just missed his first home run as a Brewer when he followed with a fly ball to deep right-center, but Wood caught it on the warning track and an inning that started with real promise was over.

Miz retired Mead and Abrams on fly balls and Daylen Lile on a line drive to first for a pretty quick and easy fourth. Four no-hit innings in the books.

Turang hit a one-out single in the top of the fifth, and Contreras followed with another—his second looping single on a ball well outside of the zone, this one a little tennis backhand on a pitch a couple inches low. Bauers followed with a great at-bat in which he fouled off a couple of tough two-strike curveballs, and drew a walk to load the bases for Rengifo. He fell behind but ended up hitting a weak ground ball to the right side of the infield; Bauers was retired at second, but there was no chance for a double play or a play at home and Turang scored from third. BABIP King Tyler Black followed with another fly ball down the left field line—it wasn’t hit quite as hard as his first one, but it still landed and Black had another double. Contreras scored, and the Brewers still had runners at second and third with two outs. Frelick stung one, by far the hardest-hit ball of the inning at 107 mph, but Wood was able to reach up and snag it for the third out.

If Misiorowski was looking good already, he really locked in for the bottom of the fifth. Brady House, Jorbit Vivas, and Millas were all struck out in order, and Miz was still getting an easy 101 on his fastball. Through five, Misiorowski had seven strikeouts and hadn’t allowed a hit on 80 pitches.

Irvin was done after four, and was replaced by the left-handed Cionel Pérez for the bottom of the fifth. Perkins popped out, and Hamilton was given a rare opportunity face a lefty but flew out to shallow left. Mitchell grounded out, and Pérez had Washington’s first 1-2-3 inning of the game.

Misiorowski struck out Jacob Young looking to start the bottom of the sixth, but after his first pitch Wood he walked around the mound and the training and coaching staff came out of the dugout. It was not clear what happened to Misiorowski, but he was clearly uncomfortable; what we could gather based on irresponsible speculation, body language, and lip reading suggested that he’d perhaps had some sort of cramp in one of his legs. Brewers fans would need to anxiously await an update, but it didn’t look like anything was wrong with his arm and whatever it was didn’t seem serious on first blush. Later in the game, Sophia Minnaert confirmed that the issue was a cramp in Misiorowski’s right hamstring.

Aaron Ashby came quickly out of the bullpen and was, of course, given an extended period of time to warm up; he had no trouble finishing the inning, with a strikeout for Wood and a groundout from García Jr. Pérez continued in the seventh and got Turang to ground out, but Contreras—who is smoldering right now—picked up his third single of the game, his seventh hit in the last two days. Contreras was erased when Bauers grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Rengifo, flipped around to the right side of the plate, lined a hard single up the middle to keep the inning going. With two on and two out, Pat Murphy was going for the kill: he pulled Black back into the dugout and sent out the Kraken, Gary Sánchez. A wild pitch advanced both runners, but Sánchez grounded out to end the inning.

Ashby was back for the bottom of the seventh, and the Nationals still didn’t have a hit. Ashby struck out Mead to start the inning, but a walk of Abrams was followed by the Nats’ first hit of the night on a shallow fly ball to left. Perkins, presumably trying to preserve the no-hitter, dove and couldn’t quite come up with it; the ball got past him, allowing Abrams and Lile to move to second and third. House hit a ground ball to third that resulted in the second out but also the first run of the game for Washington, as Abrams crossed the plate to make it 4-1. Old friend Joey Wiemer, who is still rocking a 176 wRC+ after a torrid start to the season, was called upon to pinch hit, but Ashby struck him out to end the inning.

The new Nationals pitcher in the eighth was Andre Granillo, a righty. Frelick, who’d already flew out on a 107 mph fly ball to right in this game, sprayed three straight hard-hit foul balls down the right field line before putting some serious english on a chopper down the third base line that kept it fair and made for an easy infield hit. Perkins followed with a hard-hit grounder that Nasim Nuñez, who’d just entered as a defensive sub, couldn’t handle; everybody was safe and Nuñez was charged with an error. Hamilton followed with a perfect bunt down the third base line that loaded the bases with nobody out despite zero baseballs reaching the outfield grass in the inning.

Mitchell, who came in 5-for-5 with the bases loaded this season, was up next. But Granillo managed to strike him out with a backfoot slider, and there was suddenly a way out of the inning. With one out, Turang was no less of a challenge, but he popped out for the second out. But Contreras, seven for his last eight, is hotter than the sun at the moment, and he poked a two-out, two RBI single through the right side. Contreras’s fourth hit of the game made it 6-1; he became just the seventh Brewer to ever have back-to-back four-hit games, and in the last two days, his batting average has risen from .262 to .310.

A Bauers walk loaded the bases again, but Rengifo popped out to center—a pop out which clearly frustrated him, as he got a hanging slider about as right-down-the-middle as a hanging slider can be. Ashby, who’d recorded five outs but had needed only 26 pitches to do so, kept pitching in the eighth (and was joined on the diamond by Joey Ortiz, who came in at shortstop, with Hamilton moving over to third and Rengifo to the bench). Ashby walked the first batter, Millas, and Young singled on a soft liner. It felt like maybe it was time to get Ashby out of there, but he kept going: he fell behind Wood 3-0, but a fortunate call on a 3-0 pitch and a successful challenge from Contreras on 3-1 gave Ashby new life. He came back to strike out Wood, and García Jr. and Mead grounded out to end the inning.

Paxton Schultz entered and got two quick outs in the top of the ninth, but Milwaukee mustered a bit of a two-out rally. For the second time on the night, Perkins reached on an error, and Hamilton followed with a single to right. Perkins moved to third, and Hamilton stole second to put two runners in scoring position for the top of the order, but Mitchell struck out looking at a fastball at the top of the zone.

With a five-run lead, Easton McGee was the Brewer pitcher in the ninth. He struck out Abrams, then walked Lile, then induced a game-ending double play from pinch-hitter José Tena (which needed to be confirmed via replay after Washington challenged). A solid Brewers win, 6-1.

Misiorowski’s night ended suddenly and with some concern, but he was quite literally unhittable tonight. It even seemed sometimes like Miz didn’t have his best control, but he was throwing harder for longer than he has ever done before—at near historic levels. He came just shy of Hunter Greene’s Statcast-Era record for most pitches thrown at 100mph or higher in a single start (43 of them, compared with Greene’s record of 47), and he threw more pitches at 102 or higher, by far, than any other starting pitcher:

In total, Misiorowski threw 5 1/3 innings, walked two, didn’t allow a hit, and struck out eight. He was relieved tonight by Ashby, who threw 2 2/3 innings and allowed two hits and two walks while striking out four. McGee finished things up with his scoreless ninth. Overall, it was a great night for the Brewer pitching staff: they allowed just two hits and one run while striking out 13.

On the other side of the ball, the Brewers were led by Contreras and his four singles and three RBI. But Black also added two doubles and an RBI, while Hamilton also had a pair of singles. Mitchell’s leadoff double was the team’s only other extra-base hit, but they outhit the Nationals 12 to two on the night.

The Brewers will get two opportunities to pick up their second straight series victory, but you know they’ll be gunning for a sweep to erase the one that Washington took from them in Milwaukee. Game two tomorrow is a late-afternoon start, at 3:05 p.m. central, in which Kyle Harrison will face off with Foster Griffin.

Ben Rice homered and Will Warren had a strong outing, pitching into the seventh inning as the Yankees defeated the Orioles, 7-2, on Friday night at Yankee Stadium.

With the win, Warren is 4-0 with a 2.39 ERA for the season. The Yankees are 9-2 this season in series openers, including 5-0 in series openers at home.

Here are the takeaways...

-Warren had a strong first inning, retiring the side in order with two strikeouts and Aaron Judge making an impressive catch, robbing Taylor Ward of extra bases.

Judge wouldn't be able to rob Pete Alonso in the second inning as the former Mets slugger launched an opposite-field shot to tie the score at 1-1. The homer went 367 feet into the second deck in right field but was launched at 107.6 mph. It's Alonso's fifth homer of the season. After that, Warren was dealing, pitching into the seventh with less than 90 pitches thrown, but a one-out walk to Alonso and a Samuel Basallo single -- coupled with a Trent Grisham fielding error allowing runners to get to second and third -- spelled the end of Warren's night.

Fernando Cruz came on to try to get out of the inning, and after allowing Alonso to score on a groundout, Cruz got out of the frame relatively unscathed and put a stamp on Warren's line.

The young right-hander allowed two runs on three hits and one walk across 6.1 innings (94 pitches/60 strikes) while striking out nine batters.

-The Yankees got on the board early. After a two-out walk by Judge, Cody Bellinger drove him home with a double down the right field line, aided by a bobble from Dylan Beavers in right field. 

With Anthony Volpe's return looming, Jose Caballero is making his case to stay in the lineup with a first-pitch ambush of Cade Povich that went 397 feet just inside the left field foul pole. The homer went 108.5 mph off the bat. It wasn't the only homer on this night, as Rice launched a three-run shot. It was all part of a second inning that saw all nine Yankees batters come to the plate. 

Rice's homer came off the lefty and now has five left-on-left longballs, which is tied with the Astros' Yordan Alvarez for the most in the majors. 

-The Yankees added on in the seventh with Amed Rosario coming through with a two-out single to score Judge from second. Aaron Boone could have gone with a lefty off the bench to go up against Orioles right-hander Albert Suarez, but Rosario came through. Rosario, starting at third base, finished 1-for-3 with two strikeouts.

Judge added the Yankees' seventh run with a two-out single in the eighth to score Austin Wells from second. The Yankees captain went 2-for-3 with two walks. 

-Bellinger entered Friday's game struggling. He was 2-for-18 over his last five games, but seemed to get back on track on Friday. He finished 2-for-4 with two doubles and a walk. 

-Boone changed up the lineup a bit, having Paul Goldschmidt leading off (and starting at first) and dropping Grisham to ninth in the order. Goldschmidt went 0-for-4 with a walk and a run, while Grisham finished 1-for-4 with a run scored. 

Game MVP: Ben Rice

While Warren was great, Rice's three-run shot gave Warren breathing room to fill up the zone.

Highlights

Aaron Judge makes the leaping catch at the wall! pic.twitter.com/belBdIZ20E

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 1, 2026

Cody Bellinger scores Aaron Judge with an extra-base hit 💪 pic.twitter.com/O8JiMktxHy

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 1, 2026

José Caballero CRUSHES his fourth home run of the year 🔥 pic.twitter.com/OTXFsAeAG9

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 1, 2026

RICE RICE BABY!

BEN RICE WITH A THREE-RUN BLAST! pic.twitter.com/2MNTLtpSAn

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 1, 2026

Aaron Judge scores his 900th career run on Amed Rosario's RBI single 👏 pic.twitter.com/6HKhB5YCov

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 2, 2026

What's next

The Yankees and Orioles continue their series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m.

Ryan Weathers (1-2, 3.21 ERA) will take the mound against Kyle Bradish (1-3, 4.20 ERA).

Adam Schein doesn’t want to hear a peep from Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns during his team’s historic skid.

On Friday’s episode of “Schein Time,” The Post host ripped Stearns and the Mets, saying that it’s the exec’s fault for assembling a flawed team.

“You know what I would do?” Schein said. “I would honestly, if I’m David Stearns, not say a damn thing. Your roster, that you put together, is atrocious. It is shades of the ’62 Mets, an expansion team.

“And you spent all that money haphazardly, foolishly, on this flawed, embarrassing, pathetic, poorly put together roster.“

"David Stearns spent all that money haphazardly, foolishly, on this flawed, embarrassing, pathetic, poorly put together roster." – @AdamSchein

Today's Schein Time Episode https://t.co/kPC7YX7jnJpic.twitter.com/O1fXQdaRYh

— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) May 1, 2026

Schein then dug into the lack of success from the Mets’ pitching staff despite their large payroll this season.

“$350 million with two pitchers,” he added. “I mean my goodness. David Stearns should wear a bag over his head. That is awful. You signed Devin Williams, Luke Weaver. You got rid of my guy, Pete Alonso.”

Schein’s fiery remarks came after Stearns confirmed that manager Carlos Mendoza’s job is safe for at least the near future despite the Mets’ abysmal start.

“We know our record is not what we want, and we know we are capable of more,” Stearns told MLB.com on Friday. “We don’t view this as a manager problem, and we don’t intend to make a change.”

The Mets hold the worst record in all of MLB at 10-21, including a stretch where they have lost 15 of 18 games.

The ’62 Mets — which lost a then-record 120 games — started that season with a 12-19 mark.

Speculation about Mendoza’s job security sparked after the Red Sox fired Alex Cora and the Phillies axed skipper Rob Thomson earlier this month following disappointing starts from both teams.

“It’s hard for all of us,” Mendoza told reporters following Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the Nationals. “We’re in this together, it’s not easy, but we have got to keep going.”

The Texas Rangers scored five runs while the Detroit Tigers scored four runs.

The Rangers escaped the dank, musty confines of The Shed and immediately started scoring some runs. That included a real first inning, lead-grabbing unicorn with Josh Jung plating the game’s first tally with a two-out RBI single to show that his torrid April was no fluke.

With the early lead, an even rarer unicorn arrived as Danny Jansen homered to kick off a three-run top of the third for the Rangers. Jansen had notably struggled in April but started out May with a solo shot for his second so far with Texas before Jung again singled in a run and Joc Pederson produced a run with a sac fly.

Unfortunately for the Rangers, the Tigers were pretty eager to score runs too with tonight’s starter MacKenzie Gore burning through a ton of pitches before exiting after just 3.2 fairly ineffective innings.

With Gore struggling to finish off hitters, the infield again had an issue catching a pop up that eventually came back to bite Texas with Detroit putting up a three spot of their own in the bottom of the fourth and then scoring the tying run one inning later.

With the game now tied and the Rangers in danger of wasting a 4-0 lead, Jake Burger and Alejandro Osuna hit back-to-back doubles to bring in the go-ahead and eventual game-winning run.

After Gore exited, the bullpen did a great job once again with Cole Winn, Jalen Beeks, Tyler Alexander, Jakob Junis, and Jacob Latz combining to allow just one run over 5.1 frames with Latz picking up the save.

With the win, the Rangers are back to .500 as the season’s second month gets underway.

Player of the Game: While Jung picked up where he left off in April with two hits and two RBI, plus it was nice to see some production from the bottom of the order with Burger collecting two hits, Osuna hitting the game-winning double, and Jansen homering.

Also, here’s a fun catch from Zeke Duran:

Up Next: The Rangers and Tigers will play the second game of this series with Texas turning to RHP Kumar Rocker opposite RHP Keider Montero for Detroit.

The Saturday evening nationally televised showdown from Comerica Park is scheduled for 6:15 pm CDT and will be aired on FOX.

Upon the Red Sox axing Alex Cora, a former player summarized the situation with a bizarre analogy.

“It’s like s–ting your pants and changing your shirt,” the former Red Sox player anonymously told sports reporter Rob Bradford.

The remark immediately went viral after Bradford posted it to X on Sunday, and the source of the comment has now been revealed.

Former Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett made the wild comment, with Bradford revealing the news while hosting the righty on his “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast on Friday.

“It was me, it was me,” Beckett said while laughing on the show. “It was so good, and I just felt like it fit.

Beckett spent seven seasons with Boston and was on their 2007 World Series championship team, along with being a teammate of Cora’s for two years.

He added that he believes that Cora was the perfect coach to continue leading the Red Sox.

“I know A.C. [Alex Cora] really well and I thought he was the perfect guy to be there, and he kinda [stabilized] that ship. As we know in Boston, it’s 162 one-game seasons, and you can’t have a guy running that ship who can’t understand that.

“I know A.C. was perfect was that. Who they get next, they could be perfect for that as well. But I felt that saying kind of fit for this year.”

The Red Sox sit at the bottom of the AL East with a 12-19 record, and fans are pointing to ownership for the team’s problems.

Shortly before Boston’s game against the Astros on Friday, a small plane circled around Fenway Park with a banner reading “FIRE CRAIG! SELL THE TEAM!”

The banner was targeted for the Red Sox’s chief baseball officer, Craig Breslow, and their principal owner, John Henry.

Breslow fired Cora on April 25 following a 17-1 road win over the Orioles, with Chad Tracy taking over as the interim manager.

Cora, however, has made it clear that he will not be managing another club at least for this season, telling The Post’s Jon Heyman that he wants to spend more time with his family.

“I accepted to be a full-time dad,” Cora texted The Post.

The indoor setting of Tropicana Field should have been a welcome sight for the Giants, whose arrival in Florida was delayed by a rain-induced doubleheader that could not have gone worse.

An air-conditioned and drama-free affair Friday against the Rays didn’t treat them any better.

There was no risk of being walked off for a third consecutive game as the Giants never held a lead or got on the scoreboard at all, in a 3-0 loss to begin the second leg of their road trip.

Robbie Ray surrendered solo home runs to Yandy Diaz and Junior Caminero, while Shane McClanahan proved to be too much for the Giants’ meager lineup, which didn’t help its cause by erasing one of its six hits on the basepaths and two more via double plays.

The Rays went around the diamond to keep the Giants from scoring with runners at the corners in the fifth with an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play on a sharply hit grounder from Jerar Encarnacion, and Heliot Ramos bounced into another rally killer after Patrick Bailey singled to lead off the sixth.

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The shutout was the Giants’ seventh in their first 32 games, the most in the majors and only four off their total from all of last season. Their 3.25 runs per game are also the fewest in the majors.

What it means

After being walked off twice by the Phillies to seal a three-game sweep, the Giants fell to 0-4 on the road trip. Their fourth loss in a row matched a season-long streak that they had already reached twice before.

Facing one of the toughest southpaws in the sport, the Giants’ struggles against left-handed pitching persisted against McClanahan, who held them scoreless for six innings on only 73 pitches.

San Francisco fell to 2-7 against left-handed starters this season and 19-35 dating back to the start of last year, worse than any team besides the Rockies (9-38).

Who’s hot

Ray hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his seven starts. He limited the Rays to only four hits over 6 1/3 innings, but two of them went over the fence — his second time surrendering more than one home run this season. Aided by the Rays’ contact-happy approach, it was also his second start without issuing a walk and his second-deepest start of the season.

Who’s not

Third base coach Hector Borg made another glaring mistake, giving Luis Arraez the green light to go for three on his ball into the right field corner in the fourth. Rather than a runner on second and one out, the Giants suddenly had nobody on and two away, and went down quietly.

Borg erred late in the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader, holding the would-be go-ahead run at third in extra innings despite the ball deflecting off a defender’s glove and into no-man’s land.

Up next

The Giants have stopped each of their past season-long losing streaks from reaching five games. That task will fall on the shoulders of RHP Landen Roupp (5-1, 2.55 ERA), who has allowed only one earned run over his first three starts away from Oracle Park. First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 p.m.

Here’s the Guardians lineup:

Here’s the A’s lineup:

Let’s go, Guardians!