Category: Baseball

In honor of the Philadelphia Phillies playing host to the 2026 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park, we here at The Good Phight are launching a yearlong series that focuses on the history of the Phillies and the All-Star Game. Check back regularly for posts about the Phillies participation (or lack thereof) in the Midsummer Classic over its history.

We’re back and it’s time to wrap up the rest of the 1980s Phillies’ one and done All-Stars. If you missed part 1 or any of the previous parts, here are the links: 1930s,1940s part 1, 1940s part 2,1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s part 1. Now, settle in for a longer one.

Steve Bedrosian, 1987

“Bedrock” had one of the best single seasons for a Phillies relief pitcher ever, but way before that, he was a standout baseball, football, and wrestling star at his high school in his hometown of Methuen, Massachusetts. His prowess would later lead to the local newspaper dubbing Bedrosian the area’s “Top Athlete of the 20th Century.” Bedrosian stuck with baseball though, and after playing two years at Northern Essex Community College, he played collegiately for the University of New Haven. It was there where Bedrosian went 13-3 and was named to the Division II All-America first team.

That single year in college was good enough for the Atlanta Braves to select Bedrosian with the 53rd overall pick in the third round of the 1978 amateur draft. He moved through the Braves system rather quickly, ending 1979 in Double-A with a 3.03 ERA in 13 starts as a 21-year-old. But it was there where Bedrosian set off to learn how to pitch rather than just relying on his strong fastball. He was named a Southern League All-Star in 1980 and logged 203 innings with a 3.19 ERA. Bedrosian started 1981 in Triple-A but earned his call to the Majors in August. He made his MLB debut on August 14th in Los Angeles. The now 22-year-old Bedrosian entered in the fourth inning against the Dodgers with the bases loaded and one out after Braves starter John Montefusco couldn’t make it out of the inning and had already surrendered two runs. Bedrosian allowed Bill Russell to hit into a sacrifice fly for the second out before drilling Dodgers pitcher Dave Goltz inside the right elbow to load the bases once again. But Bedrosian avoided further damage by getting Davey Lopes to pop out to end his first taste of the Majors.

Despite that somewhat inauspicious start, Bedrosian remained in Atlanta for the rest of the season and finished 1981 with a 4.44 ERA in 15 MLB appearances including one start on August 22nd where he allowed five runs, three earned, all in the sixth inning after throwing five scoreless to start the night. He seemed primed for a good 1982, but he was involved in a car accident in the Dominican Republic while playing winter ball in late January. Bedrosian was the passenger in a car driven by his teammate that ran into a head-on collision, causing Bedrosian to suffer a concussion as well as requiring him to get 65 stiches for facial lacerations and having to have glass pulled from his eye. The injuries continued in March when he broke his left pinky finger after getting it jammed in a door at the Braves’ West Palm Beach hotel. But because he was a right hander, the injury did not cost Bedrosian a spot on the Opening Day roster, and he later became the winning pitcher in the Braves’ record-breaking 12th consecutive win to begin a season.

Bedrosian was mostly a full-time reliever in 1982, as he made only three starts but appeared in 64 games and threw 137.2 innings with a 2.42 ERA. Braves pitching coach Bob Gibson (yes THAT Bob Gibson) decided Bedrosian was best suited for a relief role despite mostly being a starter in his Minor League career. It turns out Bob Gibson knew what he was talking about, as Bedrosian continued to excel in relief for the next two seasons, pitching to a 3.09 ERA across 203.2 IP from 1983-1984 with 8.6 strikeouts per nine innings. However, new manager Eddie Haas announced before the 1985 season that Bedrosian would be in the starting rotation as the arrival of new closer Bruce Sutter allowed the move and the Braves were in dire need of starters. That decision didn’t help Atlanta’s chances, as Bedrosian pitched to a decent 3.83 ERA across 37 starts but finished with a record of 7-15 thanks to poor offensive support from a Braves team that went 66-96 and finished in last place.

New general manager Bobby Cox decided to trade Bedrosian in an attempt to get more offense for the anemic Atlanta lineup. He shipped Bedrosian to the Phillies along with Milt Thompson in exchange for catcher Ozzie Virgil, an All-Star the previous season, and pitcher Pete Smith on December 10th, 1985. Phillies president Bill Giles felt that the trade had accomplished Philadelphia’s main goals of acquiring bullpen help and a leadoff hitter. Phillies manager John Felske was confused as to why Atlanta was willing to part with Bedrosian, remarking “You look at his numbers, and he was outstanding for four innings in his starts and then had problems. But we’re going to put him in our ‘pen and he’s going to be our closer.”

That transition back to the bullpen, in addition to arm soreness in the spring. caused Bedrosian to struggle a bit to begin 1986. By the end of April, Bedrosian had a 7.27 ERA through 8 appearances and was already being serenaded with boos. However, Bedrosian turned his season around in May, pitching to a 2.12 ERA through 11 games and collecting three saves. He credited Phillies pitching coach Claude Osteen with helping him fix his mechanics that resulted in the success. Bedrosian went on to finish 1986 with a 3.39 ERA and 29 saves, as the trade that brought him to Philadelphia was talked about as one of the best of the previous year. He was rewarded for his efforts with a new two-year contract.

It turned out that the security that new deal provided worked wonders for Bedrosian, as he had a season for the ages in 1987. But it didn’t start out that way, as he once again got off to a poor start with a 7.84 ERA through the end of April. One of those rough outings proved to be historic though, as Bedrosian blowing a three-run lead to the Pirates on April 18th allowed Mike Schmidt to hit his 500th career home run in the top of the ninth to give the Phillies the lead again. But Bedrosian turned it around in May with a 1.04 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 17.1 IP. He started a streak of converting 19 of 20 save opportunities including a then-record of 13 consecutive saves. By the time of the All-Star break on July 14th, Bedrosian had a 2.77 ERA and 24 saves for a Phillies team that had only 42 wins. NL manager Davey Johnson of the Mets named Bedrosian to his All-Star pitching staff, and Bedrock joined teammates Schmidt and Juan Samuel at the game to be played in Oakland.

Bedrosian ended up playing a major role in his only All-Star game, as he entered a scoreless game in the bottom of the ninth. He walked Dave Winfield to begin the inning before retiring Tony Fernández on a sacrifice bunt. Dwight Evans drew another walk to put runners on first and second with one out. Harold Reynolds then hit a groundball to first baseman Keith Hernandez who threw to second for the force, but the throw from Hubie Brooks to Bedrosian covering first was wide, nixing the double play chance and making it possible for the winning run to score. But Bedrosian made a spectacular play, as he dove to field the errant throw and quickly stood up and fired home to Ozzie Virgil, the man he was traded for, to nab Winfield as he tried to score, securing the double play after all and ending the inning. Bedrosian’s heroics allowed the NL to eventually win 2-0 in 13 innings thanks to a Tim Raines two run triple.

Bedrosian continued his stellar season after the break and finished 1987 with a 2.83 ERA and a league-best 40 saves, becoming the first Phillie to do so since saves became official. His five wins along with those 40 saves meant that Bedrosian was directly involved in 45 of the team’s 80 wins on the season. His efforts were rewarded with a controversial Cy Young Award, as Bedrosian narrowly edged out Rick Sutcliffe and Rick Reuschel in one of the closest Cy Young Award votes in history to become only the sixth relief pitcher to ever win the honor. Five pitchers received at least one first place vote and no pitcher was named on all 24 ballots. Bedrosian won the award despite throwing just 89 innings while Sutcliffe and Reuschel both tossed over 230 and every vote recipient except Dwight Gooden had over 200. Nevertheless, Bedrosian’s win gave the Phillies their fourth Cy Young winner of the decade (Steve Carlton twice and John Denny once). All in all, Bedrosian ended 1987 with a Cy Young Award, an All-Star nomination, the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year award, the MLB record for consecutive saves, and a newborn son.

Unfortunately, the success didn’t quite carry over to 1988, as Bedrosian started the year on the injured list with a walking pneumonia that prevented his season debut until May 20th. He broke Tug McGraw’s then franchise saves record on September 25th with his 95th save in a Phillies uniform and finished with a 3.75 ERA and 28 saves in 74.1 IP. Bedrosian was the only Phillies player offered a multi-year contract after the season, and he agreed to a new three-year deal worth a little over $4M total. However, Bedrosian would not finish that contract with the Phillies, as he was traded to the Giants on June 18th, 1989, in exchange for Dennis Cook, Terry Mulholland, and minor leaguer Charlie Hayes. Shortly after, the Phillies also traded away fellow 1987 All-Star Juan Samuel, sending him to the Mets in exchange for Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell.

Bedrosian finished the year with the Giants and posted a 2.65 ERA and 17 saves in 51 innings. He appeared in four out of five games in the 1989 NLCS and recorded three saves, including the win that clinched the NL pennant, but pitched just 2.1 innings in the infamous “Earthquake” World Series that the Giants lost to the Athletics. He would go on to pitch another year in San Francisco in 1990 but struggled with a 4.20 ERA in 68 games. The Giants traded him to Minnesota that December where he logged a 4.42 ERA in 56 games but was able to capture his first and only World Series win, as the Twins defeated his old team the Braves in seven games. Bedrosian, a free agent, then took the next season off as medical staffs tried to find out why his once dominant fastball now only sat in the upper 80s as he suffered through numbness in his fingers. But as the 1992 season got underway, the numbness subsided, and it was blamed on tobacco use (which Bedrosian gave up) and stress from his son Cody’s leukemia treatment. With Cody now in remission, Bedrosian signed with the Braves before 1993 and the 35-year-old had a renaissance, pitching to a 1.63 ERA in 49 appearances. He played another season and a half with the Braves before abruptly announcing his retirement in August of 1995 after appearing in just 29 of a possible 95 games and logging a 6.11 ERA.

Bedrock is still third on the Phillies all-time saves leaderboard with 103, having been surpassed by Jose Mesa (112) and Jonathan Papelbon (123). His son, Cam, made 11 appearances for the Phillies in 2021 with a 4.35 ERA.

Kevin Gross, 1988

Who says a little controversy can’t lead to good results? Kevin Gross proved that in 1988. The big 6’5 right hander out of Downey, California, was originally selected by the Orioles in the 32nd round of the 1979 draft. He had thrown a no-hitter his senior year at Fillmore High School and logged 95.2 innings while helping his team to win the local championship and get to the finals for the state title. However, Gross elected to go to college rather than sign with Baltimore, first playing for California Lutheran College before transferring to Oxnard. Part of the reason for the transfer was so that Gross could once again enter the draft, and this time, he was selected by the Phillies in the first round of the secondary phase of the 1981 draft.

Gross moved quickly through the minor leagues, having reached Triple-A by 1983 as a 22-year-old. Despite struggling there with a 6.75 ERA, Gross was selected to join the Phillies rotation in June of 1983. His manager for Triple-A Portland John Felske called Gross into his office and offered him good news and bad news, to which Gross asked for the bad news first. Felske told him that he was removing Gross from the Triple-A rotation, and the reason was that he was joining the big-league pitching staff. His rise was so rapid that Gross didn’t even have a locker in the visiting clubhouse at Shea Stadium on the day of his debut on June 25th. He was impressive in that debut, as Gross went 6.1 innings while allowing two runs on five hits with five strikeouts in a 4-2 Phillies win. Gross’ start was a godsend for a Phillies rotation that was in desperate need of help after losing Larry Christenson to an elbow injury. He stayed in the Majors the rest of the year, making 17 starts and pitching to a 3.56 ERA while the Phillies made it to the World Series, although Gross didn’t pitch in the postseason.

Despite that strong rookie performance, the Phillies did not guarantee Gross a spot in the rotation for 1984. In fact, his spot on the roster wasn’t even guaranteed, as team president Bill Giles wanted to keep Tug McGraw and the Phillies would only keep nine pitchers, making Gross a possible odd man out. Pitching coach Claude Osteen believed that Gross could be used as a spot starter and middle relief despite Gross only appearing in two career minor league games as a reliever. Gross reluctantly accepted the role, and in doing so assured his spot on the 1984 roster. He appeared in 44 games that season with 14 starts and pitched to a 4.12 ERA in 129 innings.

Things changed to begin 1985, as the Phillies informed Gross early in the spring that he had a job in the rotation as long as he didn’t lose it in spring training. He didn’t, and the 24-year-old Gross became a key part of a strong rotation with a 15-13 record and a 3.41 ERA. Gross was firmly established in the rotation by 1986, and he threw a career-high 241.2 innings with a 4.02 ERA and a 12-12 record despite leading the league in home runs allowed and hit by pitches.

The 1987 season brought controversy though, as Gross was ejected from a start on August 10th after umpire John Kibner claimed that Gross was using an illegal substance on his glove to doctor the ball. Gross was the second player that month to be ejected for allegedly altering the ball, joining Joe Niekro of the Twins. Gross’ glove and the ball were confiscated, and it was found that the ball was clean but there was some sandpaper glued to his glove, resulting in Gross being suspended 10 games. Phillies manager Lee Elia admitted to seeing some discoloration on the glove, but also remarked “It might sound funny, but without my glasses I can’t see.” Gross, who was pitching through a back injury, denied that he was intentionally scuffing the ball and appealed the suspension through the MLBPA, but the suspension was later upheld by the league on September 1st. Gross admitted to expecting a suspension but was dismayed when Giles and the Phillies decided to withhold his pay over the course of the suspension. “It makes me wonder what they think about me,” Gross said to the Inquirer, “It puts doubt in my mind that I’ll be playing here anymore.” The Phillies ultimately reversed the decision to withhold his pay, and Gross was willing to put the conflict with the team in the past and move on.

Both sides did eventually move on to begin 1988, as Gross prepared once again to be a stalwart in the Phillies rotation. Gross got off to a wonderful start, going 8-5 with a 2.89 ERA across 134 innings by the time of the All-Star break. A little under a year after the sandpaper glove debacle, Gross was on the doorstep of being named an All-Star despite being stuck on a last place team. He almost lost that chance though when he suffered an ankle injury after slipping on the stairs while running barefoot to answer the phone. Nevertheless, Gross was indeed named to the All-Star team and went to Cincinnati for the festivities, joining teammate Lance Parrish as the Phillies representatives. Gross made it into the game in the top of the sixth with the AL leading 2-1. He recorded a clean inning by striking out José Canseco and retiring Dave Winfield and Cal Ripken Jr. on a pair of flyouts. Parrish made it into the game as well; except he had the honor of being the final out when he was retired by Deniss Eckersley to seal a 2-1 win for the AL.

Unfortunately, Gross couldn’t keep his momentum after the All-Star break, going 4-9 with a 4.79 ERA as the Phillies finished in last place with a 65-96-1 record. The lowly Phillies decided to cash in on Gross as a trade chip following his All-Star season, sending him to the Montreal Expos on December 6th in exchange for starter Floyd Youmans and reliever Jeff Parrett in addition to the Expos waiving their rights to reclaim Jeff Tabaka whom the Phillies then drafted in the first round. Youmans had been suspended 60 days for substance abuse in 1988 and went through rehabilitation. Giles believed it was a gamble but added “we think it will work out.” Youmans made 10 starts for the Phillies in 1989 with a 5.70 ERA and was plagued with injuries through most of the season. He underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery in August and never appeared in the Majors again.

Gross meanwhile spent two years in Montreal and compiled a record of 20-24 with a 4.47 ERA. He signed with the Dodgers prior to the 1991 season and threw a no-hitter with L.A. on August 17th, 1992. Gross needed just 99 pitches to throw the eighth no-hitter in Dodgers history, allowing only three Giants to reach base via two walks and a hit batter while striking out six. It was the highlight of the season for a Dodgers team that finished 63-99. Gross then signed with the Rangers prior to 1995 and pitched in Texas for two rough years, finishing with a record of 20-23 and a 5.41 ERA. The 36-year-old started 1997 in the minors for the Rangers before being released and signing with the Angels in June. He made 12 appearances with Anaheim but only three starts and was once again released in July after logging a 6.75 ERA, effectively ending his career after 15 years.

Von Hayes, 1989

Von Hayes was simultaneously probably better than you remembered but still not as good as it was thought he could be. Nevertheless, Hayes’ baseball journey started in Stockton, California as the son of two remarkable parents. Lenore, Von’s mother, was a native Puerto Rican who grew up on a farm without electricity as one of 13 children. She would go on to get a nursing degree and immigrate to Stockton where she met Donald, a B-17 tail gunner in World War II who was a prisoner of war for 11 months. Von would actually be named after one of Donald’s fellow POWs.

Hayes was undersized playing baseball growing up, but that didn’t stop the family from encouraging him and his father from having him mimic the left-handed swing of Ted Williams. He was 6’1 after graduating high school where he was primarily a pitcher before shooting up to 6’5 during his tenure at St. Mary’s College of California. It was there where Hayes was moved away from pitching and started playing first and third base. He was finally a standout ballplayer, setting numerous school records and even capturing MVP honors in the United States-Japan College World Series in 1979.

His late-blooming performance was good enough for the Cleveland Indians to select Hayes in the seventh round of the 1979 MLB draft. He was a phenom almost immediately for Class-A Waterloo, as Hayes hit .329 with a .905 OPS and 15 home runs in 134 games with less strikeouts (63) than walks (66) as a 22-year-old. The Cleveland organization was so impressed with Hayes that they made the decision to jump him all the way up to the Majors out of spring training in 1981. However, he only played in one game, serving as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning of a 7-1 win on April 14th. Hayes was then sent to Triple-A where he continued tearing up the minor leagues, except this time almost three years younger than the average age of the competition. He hit .314 with an .875 OPS and 10 home runs in 105 games at Charleston, earning a call-up to the big leagues for good in August after the MLB season resumed following a players’ strike. He remained in the majors the rest of the season and hit .257 with a .741 OPS while spending time at DH, left field, and third base.

Hayes started 1982 on the Cleveland bench but won a full-time job by the middle of May. His versatility was a huge asset, as Hayes played all three outfield positions, both infield corners, and was able to bat anywhere in the lineup. He finished his first full season in the majors hitting .250 with a .699 OPS while being almost a three-win player and placing seventh in rookie of the year voting. But his efforts were wasted on a last place Cleveland team that had only finished above .500 three times in the last decade, and one of those was the strike-shortened 1981.

With Hayes on the verge of possible stardom, Cleveland decided to cash in on their former top prospect. They swung a surprising trade with the Phillies, sending Hayes to Philadelphia in exchange for Manny Trillo, Julio Franco, Jay Baller, George Vukovich, and Jerry Willard. It was a massive return for just one player, as the Phillies surrendered five total players including their starting second baseman. Trillo was set to enter the last year of his contract, and the Phillies did not seem likely to meet his demands for a five year, $5M deal. So, the decision was made to ship him out in a trade rather than letting him walk, even as manager Pat Corrales acknowledged that “People are going to criticize us and say we gave up a lot and we did.” But Corrales also expressed the team’s belief that Hayes was “going to be one of the best players around.”

Unfortunately, the Phillies didn’t take into account the effect of trading five players for one 24-year-old would have on the kid’s psyche, nor did they foresee him gaining the nickname “5-for-1” courtesy of his new teammate Pete Rose. Hayes was also making the jump from a team with little aspirations to one expecting to contend with the last gasps of a championship core. Early season injuries and disappointing performance limited Hayes’ playing time in 1983, as he finished hitting .265 with a .707 OPS. He collected only five total plate appearances in the postseason as the Phillies won the NL pennant and lost the World Series to the Orioles. Meanwhile, Julio Franco, one of the five players Hayes was traded for, finished second in Rookie of the Year voting for Cleveland.

The Phillies decided to make Hayes a full-time starter for 1984, giving him time in all three outfield positions. He made the most of it, as he hit .292 with 16 home runs and 48 stolen bases. Despite Hayes’ strong season, the Phillies sunk to 81-81, as core members of their championship core either departed or got another year older. The team was looking to turn the page to its next era, and Hayes looked to be a foundational building block. But 1985 brought a step back, as Hayes saw decreases to his batting average, home runs, stolen bases, and OPS. He did become the first player to ever hit two home runs in the first inning of a game though as part of a 26-7 shellacking of the Mets on June 11th. That night proved to be a memorable moment in an otherwise forgettable season.

1986 looked to be the start of Hayes finally putting it all together and becoming the young cornerstone the Phillies desperately needed. He hit .305 with 19 home runs and led the league in doubles (46) and runs scored (107), finishing 8th in MVP voting behind the first place Mike Schmidt. But much like the previous seasons, the Phillies disappointed in the win column, as their glory days were firmly in the rear-view mirror. 1987 wasn’t much different, as Hayes put up another good season with a career best 21 home runs and .877 OPS, but the Phillies got off to a dreadful start and never fully recovered despite a change at manager. They sunk even lower in 1988, finishing with the third worst record in baseball. New manager Lee Elia didn’t even last the full season, but that didn’t stop Hayes from hitting him in the face with his batting helmet during a game in June. Elia took exception to Hayes not running out a popup, and Hayes took exception to that exception, so he threw his helmet at his manager and had to be restrained from going after him in the dugout.

But 1989 started off much better for Hayes, even if it was more of the same for the Phillies. Now 30 years old, it finally seemed that Hayes had put it all together for sure this time. He came out of the gates on fire, hitting .382 with 7 home runs through the first 22 games of the season, earning Player of the Month honors for April. But one of the worst possible things that could have happened to Hayes happened in May: Mike Schmidt retired.

Schmidt’s abrupt retirement and the lack of any other choices thrust Hayes into the role of face of the franchise, especially after the Phillies granted him a new three-year contract worth $6.4M. If there was any doubt that Hayes was the Phillies new star, general manager Lee Thomas said as much. “This has made him the guy, there’s no doubt,” Thomas told the Inquirer, adding “Von is a good player and still has a chance to be a great player.”

Hayes carried the burden well enough to be named to his first All-Star game that summer despite cooling off tremendously from his torrid April. Nevertheless, Hayes joined the retired Schmidt as the Phillies All-Star representatives in Anaheim. Hayes had a request for Schmidt before the game, asking if the future Hall of Famer would stand in the on-deck circle so he could continue to get good pitches to hit.

The request wasn’t honored, but Hayes still was able to get into the game in the seventh inning as a defensive substitution for the Reds’ Eric Davis in center field. He came to bat in the top of the eighth with two outs and the NL down 5-2 and delivered a single to left field off of Dan Plesac that drove in the Astros’ Glenn Davis from second and cut the AL’s lead to 5-3. With Hayes now serving as the tying run, Tim Wallach of the Expos stepped to the plate with the possibility of making Hayes’ hit the start of a memorable comeback. But Wallach lined out to left field off of new pitcher Doug Jones to end the inning, and the NL lost 5-3. Much like most of Hayes’ Phillies career, his good-but-not-great contribution to a losing team was forgotten.

Hayes’ second half of 1989 wasn’t as good as his first, but he still finished with a career high 26 home runs and almost as many walks (101) as strikeouts (103). Hayes stayed fairly consistent in 1990 despite some injuries, but his fit on the team started to become less clear as a new nucleus of younger talent started to take shape in Philadelphia. Then on June 14th, 1991, a fastball from the Reds’ Tom Browning struck Hayes in the wrist, and x-rays soon revealed that the ulna bone in his hand was fractured. That injury proved fateful, as the Phillies didn’t miss a beat and continued to improve with Hayes sidelined. When he returned in September, Hayes became the first player in history to finish a season with 0 home runs one season after having at least 17.

The team may have finished in third place despite their play in Hayes’ absence, but that level of play without their “franchise player” convinced the front office that Hayes was no longer in the team’s plans. On December 8th, 1991, the Phillies traded the 33-year-old Hayes to the California Angels in exchange for Kyle Abbott and Ruben Amaro Jr. “When I first came to Philadelphia, he was the one guy I said I wouldn’t trade,” said Lee Thomas, only slightly under three years after declaring Hayes the face of the franchise, adding “We we’re going to build around him. But it just didn’t work out.” Jayson Stark may have said it best in the Inquirer when he wrote that Hayes “had seen about as much of Philadelphia as ever wanted to see. And Philadelphia had seen about as much of him as it wanted to see, too.”

Hayes played one year for the Angels and hit .225 with only 4 home runs in 94 games. He was released following the season and did not generate much interest from any other team, thus essentially ending his once promising, can’t miss, big-league playing career after 12 years. But his career as a reference for Philadelphia basedsitcoms was still to come.

Sources

Baseball-Reference.com

Wynn Montgomery, Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Biography for Steve Bedrosian

The Mobile Press, June 13th, 1978

The Albuquerque Tribune, August 15th, 1981

Richmond Times-Dispatch, January 27th, 1982

Shari Roan, Fort Lauderdale News, March 7th, 1982

Chris Mortensen, The Atlanta Journal, April 8th, 1985

The Daily News, December 11th, 1985

The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 10th, 1987

Jayson Stark, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 14th, 1987

Bill Conlin, Philadelphia Daily News, July 15th, 1987

Paul Hagen, Philadelphia Daily News, November 11th, 1987

Peter Pascarelli, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 19th, 1989

Ventura County Star, June 8th, 1979

Ventura County Star, January 14th, 1981

Ray Finocchiaro, Camden Courier-Post, June 25th, 1983

Frank Dolson, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26th, 1983

Hazelton Standard-Speaker, March 16th, 1984

Scranton Times-Tribune, March 17th, 1985

Ventura County Star, August 11th, 1987

Peter Pascarelli, The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 12th, 1987

Peter Pascarelli, The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 2nd, 1987

Peter Pascarelli, The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 5th, 1987

Frank Dolson, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 11th, 1988

Jim Donaghy, The Morning Call, December 7th, 1988

Bill Plaschke, The Los Angeles Times, August 18th, 1992

Gordon Edes, Fort Meyers News-Press, January 1st, 1995

Plainview Daily Herald, March 18th, 1997

Ventura County Star, June 21st, 1997

Zac Petriello, Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Biography of Von Hayes

The Lima News, June 7th, 1979

The Daily News, December 10th, 1982

Jeff Young, Intelligencer Journal, June 29th, 1983

Mark Whicker, Philadelphia Daily News, January 18th, 1983

Ralph Bernstein, Standard Speaker, March 6th, 1984

Bernard Fernandez, Philadelphia Daily News, June 12th, 1985

Paul Hagen, Philadelphia Daily News, June 27th, 1988

Jayson Stark, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 12th, 1989

Frank Dolson, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 3rd, 1989

Dick Polman, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 15th, 1991

Jayson Stark, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 9th, 1991

The St. Louis Cardinals ended up winning this series not just in the most important column but also on the aggregate as well. 17-13 ended up being the final aggregate score during this series and of those 17 runs, 11 of those St. Louis runs were scored in just two of the 27 innings that were played.

I’m not going to say that the Braves were the better team across these three games (if they were, we’d be about to talk about some good results instead of the bummer that we’re about to discuss) but it is a sign of just how quickly things can get away from you in this sport. It’s also a sign of just how rough of a go the Braves are having right now where it feels like nothing can go right on a consistent basis for this squad. If you dare to continue, I’ve got the details on this series ready for you. Let’s get into it.

Tuesday, June 30

Cardinals 5, Braves 3

With both Matthew Liberatore coming into this game struggling on the mound and the Braves as a whole entering this game on a bit of a collective nightmare run at the plate, it seemed like something had to give and someone was going to break out of their funk in this one. Unfortunately, it ended up being Liberatore who came out of this one looking golden as he ended up frustrating the Braves for the five innings he spent on the mound. Atlanta coaxed four walks out of him but it took a monstrous effort from the squad just to get a sacrifice fly pushed across home plate in the third inning.

That sac fly actually gave the Braves the lead but it didn’t last long as the bottom fell out for Martín Pérez in the fourth inning. Nelson Velásquez cracked one out for a solo shot that tied things up and then just when Pérez was a strike and an out away from getting out of a jam with the game still tied, he was unable to fool Nathan Church with a changeup and he pulled it into the Chop House to make it a four-run inning for St. Louis.

With the way Atlanta’s offense had been running in recent times in the lead up to this series, it would’ve been perfectly reasonable to think that that was basically the ballgame for Atlanta. The next three innings at the plate did nothing to dispel that thinking for Atlanta but they did eventually come back to life in the seventh and eighth innings. Ozzie Albies delivered an RBI single in the seventh inning and then Ryan Fernandez’s second wild pitch of the eighth inning brought in another run to cut it to 5-3.

Matt Olson got into scoring position with a ninth-inning double so the Braves had the tying run at the plate but sadly, Ryan O’Brien kept it steady for St. Louis and the nasty run of form continued for Atlanta.

Wednesday, July 1

Braves 5, Cardinals 1

Earlier on Wednesday, the English national football team advanced to the Round of 16 of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup with a clutch 2-1 victory over the Democratic Republic of Congo. That match took place in downtown Atlanta and some of the lads decided to take their victory celebration over to Cobb County for a night at the baseball.

They ended up getting treated to the Braves offense continuing to show some signs of life, as Atlanta actually looked to be in control of this one for the most part. Reynaldo López gave up one run in the first inning and that was as good as it got for St. Louis as he and the rest of the bullpen clamped down from that point forward. The strong pitching performance provided the Braves an opportunity to establish themselves at the plate and continue to attempt to revive themselves.

Fortunately, Atlanta took the opportunity and was able to produce enough at the plate to where this was a rare win that wasn’t a nailbiter. Ozzie Albies homered in the third inning to give the Braves the lead and then new English football cult hero Michael Harris II delivered an RBI single in the eighth inning that gave the Braves a much-needed insurance run. They weren’t even done there either, as Mauricio Dubón found yet another way to get it done at the plate as he laid down a bunt that ended up plating Ozzie (who ended up having a pretty nice night, himself) and then Austin Riley made it three runs in the inning and five for the day for the Braves with his capper of an RBI single.

Raisel Iglesias got some work for once in the ninth inning and that ended up being the perfect end to a great day on the mound for Atlanta and a lovely night at the ballpark for the Knights of Money Mike’s Roundtable.

Thursday, July 2

Cardinals 11, Braves 5

For maybe an hour or so, the Braves were feeling good and a series win was within grasp. Despite the Cardinals going three-for-three for first-inning runs in this series by adding three more in this one, Hurston Waldrep calmed down after that while the Braves immediately responded with five runs of their own in the bottom of the first. Things were fine after the offense had a big inning for once and the Braves were carrying a 5-3 lead heading into the seventh inning. Considering how the bullpen has performed all season, it was reasonable to expect that they could make those two runs stand up

Then the seventh inning happened and it felt less like July 2, 2026 and more like October 9, 2019. The Cardinals didn’t make it to 10 runs in one inning this time but they got pretty close as Atlanta’s bullpen had an uncharacteristically nightmarish inning. St. Louis went single-homer-walk (pitching change)-single-single-single-fielder’s choice out (pitching change)-single-double-fielder’s choice RBI (where Jordan Walker executed a bewildering swim move on the slide home in order to evade Drake Baldwin’s tag) before a double play mercifully ended the inning for Atlanta.

Once the smoke cleared, the two-run lead was now a five-run deficit and all the energy at an oppressively Truist Park had been well and truly drained from the building. The Cardinals ended up making it a six-run victory in the end and the Braves were left a bit bamboozled as the most reliable part of the team finally had an off-night at such an inopportune time.

I suppose that the one positive to take away from this series is that the offense didn’t look completely moribund. Considering how the offense looked for the entire month of June, this lineup looked downright potent against the Cardinals over the course of the three games. While their plate performance was absolutely mortifying last month, it was still reasonable to believe that the players in this lineup (particularly the core players like Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris II) could eventually turn it on and get things going at the plate. The jury is still out on whether or not they’re ‘back’ (and the power certainly hasn’t returned yet) but the offense didn’t make me depressed like it did over long stretches during June.

Instead, this just felt like one of those series that’s indicative of where things are at right now as far as this team’s fortunes go. Martín Pérez has usually been reliable but he ended up having one bad inning and it doomed the Braves. Right after they got a feel-good win to even up the series and looked to be on their way to taking the series win, the bullpen has their worst inning of the season and the Braves ended up dropping the series, instead. When seemingly nothing is going right, you have stuff like that happening in the two losses that the Braves had in this series. One problem gets solved only for more problems to pop up in the process.

Somehow, the Braves remain in first place despite their woeful form at the moment and now they’ll be gearing up to face off against a Mets squad that has been running just as cold for the past month or so. I would say that this could be a bit of a get-right series for the Braves but first off, this Mets team actually toppled the Braves in a three-game series last month and then when you consider the form that the Cardinals were in heading into this series, this should’ve been the get-right series for the Braves. It did end up being a get-right series — for Nathan Church and the Cardinals, that is.

Now, we’re likely going to see an intense fight between a Mets team looking to have something or anything go right for them and a Braves team that is looking more and more desperate to get back going on the right track before they end up in second place before long. It was nearly unthinkable with the way April and May went for this Braves team but baseball is a funny ol’ sport and right now, the joke is on our Braves.

There have been times in recent weeks when the Yankees, essentially, have been bad at everything baseball, whether it’s fielding blunders that lead to unearned runs, poor pitching, or a vanishing offense that’s set some club records no one would want.

But it’s hard not to believe they’re better than that, especially with a run differential of plus-87 (all numbers are entering play Thursday), which is by far the best in the American League and is fourth overall. They recently surrendered first place in the AL East, but they have the second-best record in the league and only six MLB teams have more wins.

Yeah, there are complaints to be made, but overall, the product is pretty good, despite their recent losing streak. And that’s come while they played all of June without Aaron Judge, the game’s best offensive weapon. Other injuries have affected them, too, but they are still an obvious playoff team that might just be better than the sum of its parts. 

So keep that in mind as we run through some grades for major Yankees. At the end, we’ll deliver marks for Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman, too, as well as an overall judgment. If you’re a pinstriped hierarchy hater, you will probably be disappointed. 

Maybe you’ll get your last laugh this October. But you might just be watching your “favorite” team in the World Series.

Here are the grades... 

AARON JUDGE

The Yanks are 12-15 without him. Pretty telling. His numbers (.907 OPS, for instance) weren’t up to his lofty standard, but we don’t know how much that stress fracture in a rib was bothering him.

Grade: A-minus

BEN RICE

He’s bloomed into one of baseball’s elite mashers (.916 OPS, 22 homers), but his stats have swooned lately without Judge in the lineup.

Grade: A-minus

PAUL GOLDSCHMIDT

“Young Goldy” destroys lefty pitching and already has more homers than he did all of last season. His thunder has been invaluable.

Grade: A

JAZZ CHISHOLM Jr.

He’s got 12 homers and 26 steals, but his OPS is only .708, below MLB average. There’s more in the tank here.

Grade: B-minus

AUSTIN WELLS

If he were qualified, his OPS would be the worst in baseball, by a lot.

Grade: F

CODY BELLINGER

True five-tool player whose glossy offensive season took a hit with a recent slump. His grade, too.

Grade: A-minus

JOSÉ CABALLERO

An agitator who has lots of defensive value at lots of different positions and plenty of verve on the basepaths. Sometimes gets more overall love because he’s not Anthony Volpe.

Grade: B-minus

CAM SCHLITTLER

Best pitcher in the American League, even after getting clobbered in his most recent start. Full stop.

Grade: A

CARLOS RODÓN

Walks too many, but he’s very hard to hit.

Grade: B

RYAN WEATHERS

Eye-popping stuff, but he seems destined to join the bullpen mix once Max Fried is healthy.

Grade: C-plus

WILL WARREN

Rough June (5.49 ERA) clipped his grade, but he’s a consistent back-end arm.

Grade: B-minus

GERRIT COLE

First two starts made you dream, but a 6.12 ERA in June shows how the path back from injury doesn’t necessarily fastrack back to greatness. Yet, anyway.

Grade: C-plus

DAVID BEDNAR

Endured shaky moments, but he’s been hot lately (12 straight scoreless appearances).

Grade: B-plus

FERNANDO CRUZ

His splitter is one of baseball’s great pitchers. Brings nifty emotion, too.

Grade: B-plus

CAMILO DOVAL

Great stuff, right? Results less so – 4.96 ERA, career-worst 1.4 homers-per-nine. Bounceback would be huge for the Yankee pen.

Grade: D

AARON BOONE

The Yankees have the best odds in the American League both to make the playoffs and to win their division, according to FanGraphs. They are second in MLB only to the mighty Dodgers in terms of odds to win the World Series. Seems like they’re in a good place, regardless of how the online anti-Boone faction sees it, though Boone must find a way to keep these Yanks afloat while Judge heals. Boone, a player’s manager, is a solid front-facing executive for the Yankees. He delivers his positive worldview nightly (while some fans crave an eruption) and has navigated personalities and injuries thus far. If there’s a segment of fans who don’t like his message, does that really matter?

Grade: B-plus

BRIAN CASHMAN

See the above on their playoff odds. No one seemed to like the winter plan to mostly run it back from last year, since that meant there were no shiny new toys. But it’s worked. Cashman got Bellinger back, added Weathers to a nice pitching mix and re-signed Amed Rosario, a helpful platoon bat. Now he’s got more work to do – the Yanks need bullpen arms and perhaps a righty-hitting catcher. The bottom of the lineup sometimes seems like a hit desert. Cashman is always willing to attack the club’s weaknesses at the deadline. He’ll likely do it again now and that’s when a more crucial evaluation of the GM will take place.

Grade: A-minus

OVERALL

The Yanks are probably the best team in the American League, even if they got embarrassed last weekend at Fenway, have played poorly since, and have had other moments where it hasn’t looked pretty. They’ve missed Judge, Fried, Trent Grisham and Giancarlo Stanton, and seemingly are enduring another “June Swoon” (that’s carried into July, apparently) that so lights up social media. But it figures to be scary for the rest of the AL once they get their guys back and start playing better.

Grade: A-minus

This culminates a week of grading the Mets’ disappointing first half of the 2026 season. Here are some individual grades for key players, then David Stearns and Carlos Mendoza, and finally a team grade.

JUAN SOTO

Without much protection in the lineup, Soto is putting up big numbers, including a .957 OPS that is second-highest in MLB and a .554 slugging percentage that is sixth. The only knock (besides missing 19 games due to injury) is that, like last year, he hasn’t been great in the clutch. Hitting only .205 w/RISP, but does have .421 on-base, and .500 on-base with two outs/RISP, which tells you he’s not getting much to hit in big spots.

Grade: A

CARSON BENGE

His growth as a hitter has been remarkable. The rookie went from being overmatched in April to a major contributor in May and June, learning to catch up with high velocity and gets the barrel to fastballs up in the zone. Should be a mainstay for years.

Grade: B +

A.J. EWING

Like Benge, one of the only reasons to watch the Mets since they nosedived. He brought energy upon his call-up in May with his speed and his defense in center field, and impressed at the plate with his short, quick swing. Early success leveled off when pitchers stopped trying to get him to chase, challenged him more in the zone, though his .855 OPS in his last 15 games is an indication he’s figuring it out. Leadoff hitter of the future.

Grade: B

FRANCISCO ALVAREZ

Likely will never reach his once-hyped potential as long as he’s going to chase high fastballs, which he seems prone to doing in big spots, but he’s also not a bust. Great work ethic helped Alvarez return quickly from knee surgery. Provides some much-needed pop; has nine home runs in 57 games, including five in 20 games since his return. Still a young catcher at 24, with great energy behind the plate. But his bad habit of backhanding balls in the dirt has returned -- needs to clean that up again.

Grade: C

BO BICHETTE

Bat has come to life the last month or so, but numbers are still way down across the board. OPS is just .676 and his slow start was a huge reason the Mets’ offense tanked when the season fell apart early. Came with a rep as a clutch-hitting savant, with spectacular RISP numbers, and after a horrendous start, he’s started to deliver. Hitting .246 w/RISP, .721 OPS. And w/ 2 outs RISP, .270, .931 OPS.

Grade: D

MARCUS SEMIEN

However you want to frame the trade for Brandon Nimmo, as a needless salary dump or a way to clear space for young outfielders, Semien has been a major disappointment. His OPS + of 71 (major league average is 100) sums it up offensively. And metrics say his range at 2B has slipped dramatically. Only saving grace: he’s been pretty good in the clutch, with a .292 BA, .708 OPS.

Grade: D

FRANCISCO LINDOR

Has only played 30 games due to a calf injury. Got off to his typical slow start offensively. Weird part was the mental mistakes he was making early in the season, forgetting how many outs, mistakes on bases, etc.

Grade: Incomplete

CLAY HOLMES

The only pitcher who was dependable from start to start. Holmes’ outstanding first half was cut short by the line drive that fractured his right fibula. Had a 2.39 ERA, was perhaps on his way to an All-Star appearance.

Grade: A

NOLAN MCLEAN

Maybe expectations were too high, based on his excellence over eight starts late last season, but his inconsistency has been puzzling. The stuff is clearly there. The opposition is hitting just .204 against him, fourth-lowest among in MLB. Has big strikeout numbers. But has to learn to command his assortment of pitches, especially the high-spin breaking stuff, as mistake-pitches have cost him in many games, causing relatively high 3.78 ERA.

Grade: B –

FREDDY PERALTA

Most shocking underperformance of all for the Mets. Peralta’s ERA is 4.81, more than two runs higher than his 2.70 in Milwaukee last year. Even more notably, his ERA+ number of 157 was Hall of Fame level last year. This year it’s 86, well-below major league average. A lot of theories on why he’s not getting swings and misses at top of zone, as in the past, but too late for the Mets to figure it out. Almost sure to be traded at deadline.

Grade: D

CHRISTIAN SCOTT

He’s been solid in his return from Tommy John surgery, pitching to a 3.20 ERA in 10 starts, has bright future. Averaging fewer than five innings per start, missed time recently with hip impingement, so a lot still to prove.

Grade: B

KODAI SENGA

Mets gambled he would rebound. Instead looks like a lost cause, with his 9.09 ERA. Weird that he can be dominant for an inning here and then fall apart the next. Seems to be the definition of in his own head.

Grade: F  

SEAN MANAEA

Give him credit for at least getting himself back to being useful, recovering lost velocity along the way. But at best he’s a fifth starter making $25 million a year. Turned out his 2024 dominance was lightning in a bottle.

Grade: D

DEVIN WILLIAMS

Early struggles contributed to Mets’ lost April, but he has turned his season around in a big way, looking like a lock-down closer again. Hasn’t had many save opportunities since the Mets haven’t had many late leads, but the air-bender change-up has been a dominant pitch again.

Grade: B +

LUKE WEAVER

On an all-time heater, with a streak of 24 straight scoreless innings. Hasn’t given up a run since April. With another year on contract, big question now is whether the Mets will trade him when his stock is high.

Grade: A  

CARLOS MENDOZA

There wasn’t much Mendoza could do about the injuries and underperformance from several high-profile players, which is why he deserved the chance to weather the early-season storms, including that 12-game losing streak. But by last week, when the Mets fired him, it was clear something had to change.

And while Mendoza wasn’t the cause for all the losing, I thought he missed opportunities to hold players accountable, from Mark Vientos running through a stop sign and bragging about it, to David Peterson failing to back up a play (which brought strong criticism from Ron Darling on SNY), to stopping players from making poor challenges of the ABS system early in games, something that became a major issue. Perhaps Mendoza held guys accountable in private, but at some point I thought there needed to be some sign of strength publicly as the team was failing. Also, he seemed to manage more cautiously after his first season, going less by feel of individual games at times and more by the book regarding lefty-righty matchups, etc. I still thought he had a good feel for his players and communicated well with them, but he wasn’t without flaws.

Grade: C-

DAVID STEARNS

There’s no getting around it: the blame falls heavily on Stearns for this disastrous first half. 

If he was going to break up the core, most notably by not re-signing Pete Alonso, he needed to make the right decisions on new players. Instead, he whiffed on key acquisitions, and perhaps most egregiously, gambled on players with a history of injuries like Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr., who both spent most of the first half on the IL. He proclaimed run prevention would be a priority, but then wound up with key players playing new positions, most notably at first base, the position that hurt the Mets most both offensively and defensively.

In addition, he didn’t want to commit to long-term contracts via free agency to upgrade a starting rotation that fell apart in 2025, gambling instead on bounce-backs from Senga, Peterson, and Manaea -- another whiff. He did trade for Peralta, and while it wasn’t Stearns’ fault that the former Milwaukee Brewers star lost his mojo as a Met, it’s fair to say the President of Baseball Ops paid for not doing enough to change the makeup of the starting pitching. He did get the bullpen right, though that’s not very impactful when the Mets infrequently have leads in the late innings.

Grade: F

OVERALL

Finally, the team grade. I really try to avoid giving out failing grades because I think it diminishes the contributions that even the worst teams in baseball get from players who mostly work their tails off trying to produce and win games. But there’s no way around it in this case. The team with the second-highest payroll in baseball, the only team in the same financial stratosphere as the Dodgers, fell on its face in the first half, to the point where Steve Cohen said he fired Mendoza as much to put him out of his misery as anything else. As such, this is perhaps the most embarrassing half-season in team history, which is saying a lot for a franchise that unfortunately is known more for making the term “LOL-Mets” a part of our sporting lexicon than for its achievements.

Grade: F

Another day of minor league baseball is in the books. See the results below. Check out the previous day’s recap here.

AAA: Sugar Land Space Cowboys (39-44) won 3-2 (BOX SCORE)

Hendrickson started for Sugar Land and was solid allowing 2 runs over 5.2 innings. Sugar Land got on the board in the 6th inning scoring a run on a Salazar bases loaded walk. In the 7th, they took the lead on a Ferreras 2 run double. The pen was great tossing 3.1 scoreless innings as they closed out the 3-2 win.

Note: Ferreras is hitting .375 in Triple-A.

• Zach Cole, RF: 1-for-2, SB
• Shay Whitcomb, 3B: 1-for-4, BB
• Zach Dezenzo, DH: 1-for-5, R, SB
• Trenton Brooks, 1B: 1-for-4, R, BB
• Cesar Salazar, C: 1-for-2, RBI, 2 BB

• Josh Hendrickson, LHP: 5.2 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
• Sam Carlson, RHP: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K (WIN)
• Logan VanWey, RHP: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
• Roddery Munoz, RHP: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K (SAVE)

AA: Corpus Christi Hooks (36-41) lost 5-4 (BOX SCORE)

The Hooks got on the board in the first inning scoring a run on error. They got another run in the 2nd inning on a Holy solo home run. Hertzler got the start for the Hooks and tossed 4 no-hit innings. The game stayed 2-0 until the 7th with the Naturals scored 5 runs to take the lead. The offense got 2 runs back in the 8th on a Bush 2 run single but that would be it as the Hooks fell 5-4.

Note: Brutcher is hitting .354 in Double-A.

• Drew Brutcher, DH: 1-for-3, 2 R, 2B, BB, SB
• Will Bush, C: 2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI
• Yamal Encarnacion, RF: 1-for-3, 2B, BB
• Max Holy, SS: 1-for-4, R, HR, RBI
• Jax Biggers, 3B: 1-for-4, R

• Cole Hertzler, RHP: 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
• Jose Guedez, RHP: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
• Jack Dashwood, LHP: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
• Julio Rodriguez, RHP: 0.2 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K
• Alejandro Torres, RHP: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

A+: Asheville Tourists (25-52) won 17-3 (BOX SCORE)

Asheville got on the board scoring 3 runs in the first inning on a Moss sac fly and Hernandez 2 run single. They blew it open in the third inning scoring 9 runs on a Moss RBI single, Daudet RBI single, Garcia hit by pitch, run on a passed ball, Thomas bases loaded walk, Ochoa groundout, Call 2 run double and Moss RBI single. They scored 4 more runs in the 5th on a Moss RBI single and Brown 3 run home run. Oakes got the start and had his best outing in Asheville allowing 1 run over 6 innings while striking out 4. In the 8th inning, Thomas connected on a solo home run. The pen allowed a couple of runs but the offense did more than enough as Asheville won 17-3.

Note: Thomas has a .942 OPS this season.

• Kyle Walker, 2B: 2-for-4, R, 2B, BB
• Justin Thomas, LF: 2-for-4, 3 R, HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB
• Nehomar Ochoa, CF: 2-for-5, 3 R, 2B, RBI, BB
• Chase Call, RF: 1-for-3, 3 R, 2B, 2 RBI, 3 BB
• Jack Moss, 1B: 3-for-5, 2 R, 4 RBI
• Cesar Hernandez, RF: 1-for-5, 2 RBI, BB
• Zach Daudet, 3B: 1-for-4, 2 R, RBI, BB
• Marcus Brown, SS: 1-for-4, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI, BB
• John Garcia, C: 1-for-3, R, RBI, BB

• Kellan Oakes, RHP: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K (WIN)
• Colby Langford, LHP: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
• Anthony Cruz, RHP: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

A: Fayetteville Woodpeckers (39-38) won 11-5 (BOX SCORE)

Potter started for the Woodpeckers and went 3.2 innings allowing 3 runs. The Woodpeckers got on the board in a big way in the 4th inning scoring 6 runs on a Luciano solo home run, Wakefield bases loaded walk and an Alvarez grand slam. They got 4 more runs in the 5th inning on a Luciano RBI double, Vasquez RBI double and Wakefield 2 run single. Luciano added an RBI single in the 7th inning. Shoemaker allowed 2 runs over 4 innings in relief and Cassedy tossed a scoreless 9th as he closed out the 11-5 win.

Note: Alvarez is hitting .266 this season.

• Anthony Huezo, LF: 0-for-3, R, 2 BB
• Josh Wakefield, CF: 1-for-4, R, 3 RBI, BB
• Kevin Alvarez, DH: 1-for-4, R, HR, 4 RBI, BB
• Carlos Cauro, 1B: 1-for-4, R, BB
• Brandon Nigh, SS: 0-for-2, R, 3 BB
• Waner Luciano, 3B: 3-for-4, 2 R, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, BB, SB
• Hector Salas, 2B: 0-for-2, 2 R, 3 BB
• Yosweld Vasquez, C: 1-for-4, 2 R, 2B, RBI, BB

• Nick Potter, RHP: 3.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
• Ryan Mathiesen, RHP: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K (WIN)
• Adam Shoemaker, LHP: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K
• Brandon Cassedy, RHP: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

Today’s minor league starters:

SL: Ryan Weiss – 7:05 CT

CC: James Hicks – 7:05 CT

AV: Parker Smith – 5:35 CT

FV: TBD – 5:30 CT

With the playoffs expanded to six teams, it’s not surprising for the final spot to go to a team near .500. Just last year, the Cincinnati Reds won a tiebreaker over the New York Mets to grab the final spot at 83-79. In the good old days (before 2022), the San Diego Padres would have had the final spot at 90-72. The 88-90 win range just feels like an appropriate cutoff. Back in May, Matt outlined why the sixth playoff spot is “an abomination” and why the Red Sox were still very much in the playoff race.

Since May 21st, when this was written, the Sox have fallen from five-under .500 to eleven-under .500 after losing two of three to the Washington Nationals. They are 37-48 with 77 games to play. Out of context, that’s an insurmountable number of wins to make up from Independence Day forward. However, the fact that four of the six playoff spots in the American League are currently on pace for 85 wins or less is making this a wildly unique and extreme scenario.

• Chicago White Sox: T-1st AL Central – 45-41, .523 (Pace: 85-77)
• Cleveland Guardians: T-1st AL Central – 46-42, .523 (Pace: 85-77)
• Texas Rangers: T-1st AL West – 45-43, .511 (Pace: 83-79)
• Seattle Mariners: T-1st AL West – 45-43, .511 (Pace: 83-79)

Beyond that, the only two teams that feel like “a threat” are the Houston Astros (43-46, Pace: 78-84) and the Toronto Blue Jays (41-46, Pace: 76-86).

If there were only one playoff spot up for grabs that felt attainable, you’d have to assume that some team would go on a “19-and-4 in September” style run in the second half to make that spot unattainable like the Guardians did a year ago. The multiple spots available have somehow still kept the Red Sox projected playoff odds at 14%, according to Fangraphs. They are projecting the White Sox and Astros to tie for the final wild card spot at 79-83! Their projected win total for the Red Sox is 77-85, two games off of that pace.

If we go off of the current pace, the Red Sox would need to get to 83 games to tie, and 84 games to win the final playoff spot. It would take a record of 47-30 to get to those 84 wins. Of course, outside of a four-game sweep of the Yankees last weekend, there hasn’t been a single week this season that the team has given us reason to think that they could go on a run like that. Perhaps a road trip against the (slightly more) pathetic Angels and Mets can be a catalyst going into the All-Star Break.

In terms of the “worst” teams to ever make the postseason, MLB.com did a great recap a year ago of all of the teams that have made it with 85-wins or fewer. Never forget the 2006 Cardinals, who won their division with 83 wins back when only four teams made the playoffs in each league, and then went on to win the World Series.

Discuss in the comments, be good to each other, and Happy Fourth!

Want to get more Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account here.

Pitching will be the focus in my MLB same-game parlay predictions for tonight's action. 

I'm expecting both Trevor Rogers and Jake Bennett to throw gems, while Trevor Larnach should stay hot at the dish against the New York Yankees. 

Read more inn my MLB picks for Friday, July 3. 

Today's best MLB SGP picks

Game	SGP Odds
MIN vs NYY	+264
BAL vs CIN	+500
BOS vs LAA	+260

Twins at Yankees SGP: Larnach Steals The Show

Minnesota Twins outfielder Trevor Larnach is hitting .417 over the last week, and he's came across the plate in four of his last six games. The Twins' leadoff hitter is a sparkplug, and he's reached base safely in six straight contests as well. 

Larnach is coming off a three-hit performance, and, for what it's worth, the 29-year-old is also 2-for-7 lifetime against Gerrit Cole with a home run. The Twins also have 113 wRC+ over the last week. This lineup is producing, and Larnach is consistently putting himself in scoring position.  

As for Cole, he hasn't been great since returning from injury, but the veteran consistently pounds the strike zone. He's cashed the Under in walks allowed in back-to-back outings.

• Time: 7:05 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: YES, Twins.TV

See full analysis of this game in our Twins vs. Yankees predictions.

Orioles at Reds SGP: Another Gem From Rogers

Baltimore Orioles starter Trevor Rogers is really settling in lately after a rough start to the season. The left-hander owns an impressive 2.52 FIP across his last five outings. During that span, Rogers has allowed just 0.29 HR/9 and 1.76 BB/9. He's consistently pounding the strike zone and inducing weak contact. 

Rogers has cashed the Under in earned runs allowed in three straight appearances, and he's up against a Cincinnati Reds offense that is hitting just .230 over the last two weeks. Rogers also has hit the Under in hits surrendered in three straight outings. 

Brady Singer is coming off a start where he allowed nine hits, and Gunnar Henderson enters this matchup swinging the bat well with two multi-hit games in his last three contests.

• Time: 7:10 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: MASN, Reds.TV

See full analysis of this game in our Orioles vs. Reds predictions.

Red Sox vs Angels SGP: Bennett Dominates Halos

Boston Red Sox rookie Jake Bennett has impressed since earning his call-up, posting a 3.27 ERA while compiling a stellar 1.51 xERA across his last two starts. Bennett hasn't allowed more than two earned runs in three consecutive outings. 

He's also consistently limiting hard contact. The southpaw has allowed Under 4.5 hits in three straight, and opponents have just a 29% hard hit rate against him over the last month. 

His ability to consistently pound the strike zone has also allowed the youngster to work deep into games, tossing six innings in back-to-back starts. He'll face a Los Angeles Angels lineup with just 67 wRC+ over their last six games and a poor .268 wOBA. 

• Time: 9:38 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: NESN, ABTV

See full analysis of this game in our Red Sox vs. Angels predictions.

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Good morning, LSB.

The Rangers beat the Tigers last night, 10-4.

Shawn McFarland says the Rangers finish their 15-games-in-15-days stretch by winning 10 of them.

It was another night of Texas’ unsung heroes leading the way to a win, writes Kennedi Landry.

In other news Brandon Nimmo is OK after slamming into the wall the other day and expects to play this weekend.

Newest Ranger Ben Peoples had a hectic week that finally saw him land in Arlington.

Jordan Montgomery and Cody Bradford, the elbow surgery bros, continue to progress.

The Socceroos took over the ballpark last night.

And Bobby V is the latest guest on Evan Grant’s Rangers podcast

That’s all for this morning. The Rangers are weirdly off today so have a nice baseball free Friday.

The Mets open a three-game series against the Braves on Friday night at 7:15 p.m.

Mets Notes

• Christian Scott owns a 3.18 ERA with 38 strikeouts over his last seven starts, including six against the Phillies last time out on June 27
• Francisco Lindor has homered twice in his last three games as he looks to get back on track since returning on June 24
• A.J. Ewing is hitting .304 over his last seven games with four RBI and three walks

Today's Lineups

As Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy moved fluidly through a chopper at the edge of Camelback Ranch’s infield grass and made a running throw to first, his offseason work started to snap into place.

He wasn’t thinking about the angle he took to the ball, or how to get into the right position to throw — or anything, really. He was just moving instinctively.

“That’s how I like to field it in my work, is not necessarily traditionally,” Muncy told The Times on Thursday. “I like to field it one-handed, sometimes off the wrong foot, sometimes off balance, and that’s what works for me really, really well. I just couldn’t get that into the game. And finally getting those first couple of balls [this spring] to go that way just made everything click in my head and gave me the freedom to know that I can do it when it matters.”

Muncy has put together an impressive all-around first half. His .871 OPS through Thursday leads NL third basemen. He’s on pace for his highest slugging percentage (.513) in five years. But he’s most proud of the work he’s put in on the defensive side.

Read more:Dodgers overcome Roki Sasaki's poor performance to rout Padres

“I felt like I would show flashes of this, but never the consistency,” Muncy said. “And so to be able to just do it on the consistent daily basis that I’ve been doing this year, that’s easily what I’m most proud of.”

Now, with that well-rounded body of work, he’s in position to claim the third All-Star selection of his career and first since 2021.

Muncy entered Stage 2 of All-Star fan voting this week as the favorite to claim the starting nod at third base, up against fellow finalist Alec Bohm. But voting totals reset, adding some unpredictability to the process. The All-Star starters are set to be revealed Saturday at 4:30 p.m. on Fox.

“In total, the player, the defense, the hitting, the slugging, I think this is the best version of Max,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I’m so happy that he’s leading the All-Star voting.”

Not only is this shaping up to be Muncy’s best offensive season since 2021, it’s the best defensive season of his career, regardless of position.

Entering this weekend’s series against the Padres, he had a fielding run value of plus-five runs, tied with the Giants’ Matt Chapman for the highest mark among third basemen, according to Statcast.

“He’s always been a hitter,” first-base/infield coach Chris Woodward told The Times. “And I think he took it upon himself to say, ‘I’m going to prove to everybody that I’m a really good defensive player,’ which he has been in his time here, but he’s just never had the opportunity to play one position.”

Though Muncy is in his 11th major-league season, and has played all around the infield for most of it, 2022 marked his first season making the majority of his appearances at third base. And 2023 was his first season moving there full time.

He was also limited by injuries in that span. For years, he still felt the effects of the elbow injury he suffered toward the end of 2021. And he strained his right oblique in each of the last two seasons.

“Third base was just a new position for me, and it just took time to learn it,” Muncy said. “And so just trying to get my work to translate into the game is a tough thing to do, and that’s kind of the secret to every aspect of baseball.”

Read more:Dodgers let Charlie Barnes get shelled while they prepare for the Padres

Each infield position is unique, with its own quirks in footwork, angles and timing. Each has plays — like a slow-roller up the third baseline that requires a quick throw across the diamond — that no other position will encounter.

“When a righty gets around the ball, it comes off the bat a lot different than when a lefty gets around the ball,” Muncy said. “And it’s weird how that works, and it’s hard to explain, but that’s just the way it is.”

For much of Muncy’s baseball life he played on the right side of the infield, fielding pull-side contact from left-handed hitters and opposite-field contact from right-handed hitters. That was second nature.

“You have to completely flip that,” Muncy said of playing third base, “and understand which way it’s going to bounce, how it’s going to bounce, how it’s going to get to you. It just took years of experience to finally get to that point.”

Woodward has always been impressed by Muncy’s agility, surprised when the Dodgers first promoted him in 2018 (as he returned to the big-leagues for the first time since being released by the A’s the previous spring) and by how he moved at second base, despite an atypical build for a middle infielder.

Now, after an offseason with a new diet and training program, he may have leveled up that part of his game — even at 35 years old.

“In the past it was a good first step, and he couldn’t sustain his speed,” Woodward said. “And this year I think he can sustain the speed through the ball.”

Said Muncy: “I’m still beating the age curve for now.”

Woodward also noted how good Muncy is at staying on top of the mental side of the game, knowing how specific pitches to different types of hitters should change his positioning. That, along with regular communication, are some of the details that make the Dodgers infield look like it’s moving as a unit — or, as Woodward put it, an “NFL defense” because of the way they swarm to the ball.

The Dodgers’ infield defense as a whole has improved even from last season (No. 6 in fielding run value) to sit in the No. 3 spot in the majors (plus-17 runs) a little past the halfway point of the season.

Read more:Dave Roberts gets his 1,000th win as manager in Dodgers' victory over Athletics

Muncy unlocking even more potential in the hot corner is a big part of the Dodgers raising their defensive ceiling. That’s helped the Dodgers, who own the best record in the majors, create separation in the standings. But it’ll be even more vital in the postseason, when the margin for error is at its thinnest.

In All-Star voting, defense won’t be the determining factor. Muncy’s increased power at the plate is the far flashier aspect of his case to start the Midsummer Classic. But a well-rounded resume doesn’t hurt.

Muncy can picture it: his three children — Sophie Kate, who turns 5 this month, Wyatt James, 3, and Macie Grace, who was born in January — taking in All-Star weekend in Philadelphia, watching their dad represent the National League.

“Being able to have my kids experience the whole ordeal with me would mean everything to me,” Muncy said. “My oldest is kind of old enough now to remember these types of things, and so I think it’d be really special to just share that moment with them.”

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Want to get more Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account here.

The Milwaukee Brewers are sizable -155 favorites in their series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

With Kyle Harrison on the mound, my Brewers vs. Diamondbacks predictions and MLB picks are backing the Brew Crew to pick up a low-scoring victory.

Who will win Brewers vs Diamondbacks today: Milwaukee Brewers (-155)

Kyle Harrison gives the Milwaukee Brewers a pitching advantage almost every time on the bump. His consistency has been almost shocking, with the talented lefty conceding more than two earned runs once all season – in an extreme hitter-friendly park against the Athletics.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are excellent against lefties and yet it likely won’t matter. Harrison has allowed two or less in five of six games vs. Top-10 teams in OPS against lefties.

The Brewers rank fifth in wOBA vs. righties and Jose Cabrera’s indicators are worse than his counting stats. Harrison should get run support.

Back Milwaukee to -165.

COVERS INTEL:The Brewers own a 35-22 record vs. right-handed starting pitchers, trailing only the Dodgers.

Brewers vs Diamondbacks Over/Under pick: Under 9.0 (-120)

Harrison ranks in the 93rd percentile in Pitcher Run Value and has held opponents to two or less in 14 of 15 starts. 

He has a solid, right-handed heavy bullpen behind him. That is important as the Diamondbacks are much more potent against left-handed pitching.

The Brewers are well-equipped to slow the Diamondbacks down. They will likely need a ceiling offensive performance to push this total Over the number, and we haven’t seen that as often of late – Milwaukee is tied for 20th in runs scored over the past two weeks.

Play the Under to -130.

Brewers vs Diamondbacks weather

Arizona plays in a rarely opened dome so the weather has little to no impact.

Brewers vs Diamondbacks odds

• Moneyline: Brewers -155 | Diamondbacks +135
• Run line: Brewers -1.5 (+105) | Diamondbacks +1.5 (-125)
• Over/Under: Over 9.0 (+100) | Under 9.0 (-120)

Brewers vs Diamondbacks trend

Milwaukee has hit the moneyline in 34 of the last 50 games (+12.05 units, 16% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Brewers vs. Diamondbacks.

How to watch Brewers vs Diamondbacks and game info

Brewers vs Diamondbacks latest injuries

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Among a flurry of moves the New York Yankees made Thursday involving the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, one jumped off the page:

Right-handed pitcher Carlos Lagrange placed on the seven-day injured list.

Lagrange is the Yankees’ No. 4-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline. He has spent the last month transitioning from the starting rotation to the bullpen with New York considering him as a possible big-league relief addition. Now, that has been put on hold with his trip to the IL.

Various reports indicate that Lagrange is dealing with a shoulder injury and set for an MRI. But after Thursday’s game against the Norfolk Tides at PNC Field in Pennsylvania, RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan said he didn’t think it was anything serious.

“With a guy like Lagrange, anything pops up, you’re protective of the guy,” Duncan said. “I don’t know the details, the little ones. But it’s nothing alarming.”

During the first two months of the season, Lagrange made 11 starts and had an 0-3 record with a 4.41 ERA]. He allowed 25 runs (24 earned) and 40 hits in 49 innings with 25 walks and 63 strikeouts. He impressed with a fastball that could reach 100 mph.

Lagrange was moved to the bullpen in June and the process of making him a reliever began. He earned his first Triple-A win at Syracuse on June 3rd, pitching four shutout franes with one hit, two walks, and seven strikeouts. He notched his first Triple-A save at Indianapolis on June 25th, working the final 1.1 innings and allowing one hit with two strikeouts.

However, in his last relief outing, also at Indianapolis on June 28th, Lagrange entered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning and the RailRiders leading, 4-1. He recorded just two outs and gave up five runs and four hits with two walks and one strikeout and took the loss, 6-5.

In seven relief appearances, Lagrange was 1-1 with one save and a 5.02 ERA. He allowed 12 runs (eight earned) and 13 hits in 14.1 innings with 8 walks and 20 strikeouts. Overall this season, he is 1-4 with a 4.55 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 63.1 innings. That K total ranks fifth in the International League.

Throughout the month, the Yankees and RailRiders were careful to space out Lagrange’s appearances. He pitched June 3rd, June 9th, June 14th, June 18th, June 21st, June 25th, and then June 28th. Duncan wasn’t sure if that contributed at all to his injury.

“It could be, but we don’t know,” Duncan said. “I’m sure it’s some we’ll dig into. When you transition from starter to bullpen, bullpen to starter, you have a different routine, different things. But we don’t know. We’ll look into it.”

Duncan also provided an update days earlier on the status of infielder George Lombard Jr. The Yankees’ top prospect has been on the injured list since June 18th. During a game June 16th in Columbus, he reached for a throw into a sliding runner on a stolen base attempt and suffered two sprained fingers on his left (catching) hand.

“It’s day to day,” Duncan said. “It’s nothing bad, but we don’t want to bring him back when it’s still sore and lingering. We want to bring him back when he’s 100 percent. So we’re taking our time with that and letting him go at his own pace.”

It remains to be seen how the injuries to Lagrange and Lombard will affect their status for the All-Star Futures Game on July 12th at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Both players were selected to the American League squad on Wednesday.

Elmer Rodríguez, the Yankees’ No. 2 prospect, had one of his best outings of the season Thursday night at PNC Field. He threw 6.1 quality innings and allowed three runs on eight hits with two walks and six strikeouts. He threw 93 pitches, 60 for strikes. Backed by four home runs, he earned the win, 7-3.

“I felt good from the start. I felt like I was attacking the hitters, comfortable throwing every single pitch,” Rodríguez said. “Obviously they got some hits and some tough spots, I kept attacking and feel like I got some good results.”

With two outs in the top of the third, Norfolk put together three consecutive singles to score its first run. The first two hits were slow rollers that found holes before Heston Kjerstad lined a hit to center field to knock in Enrique Bradfield Jr. and make it 3-1. But Kjerstad was thrown out trying to advance to second on the play to end the inning.

In the top of the sixth, Kjerstad hit the first pitch from Rodríguez out to center field for a home run to cut the Tides deficit to 3-2. Rodríguez then walked Ryan Noda with one out and allowed a two-out single to Mike Siani. But he came back and struck out Silas Ardoin on three pitches to end the threat.

“That leadoff home run in the sixth, sometimes you have to tip your cap to the hitters,” Duncan said. “That’s not easy to do. He’s aggressive in the strike zone first pitch, doing what we wanted to do to get ahead and he got a good piece of wood on it. It happens.

“But if you look at (Rodríguez’s) performance overall, he was attacking the strike zone, finishing hitters when he got to two strikes. That’s a recipe for success right there. He had good command of his fastballl tonight, breaking balls were pretty nasty. Excellent finishing pitches tonight. That was one of the best performances we’ve seen out of him, stuff-wise and command matched together. He had a real good outing.”

Rodríguez improved to 4-3 with a 2.93 ERA.

It’s been a dream of a past week for Owen Carey, who is showing power we’ve never seen from him before while maintaining an lengthening hitting streak. The pitching on the minor league side also had much intrigue, with Garrett Baumann pitching in Gwinnett and Lucas Braun posting his best start of the season for Columbus. Add in yet another home run from Alex Lodise and the day was full of exciting moments and big performances.

(42-41) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (35-49) Durham Bulls 6

Box Score

Statcast

• DaShawn Kiersey Jr., RF: 3-5, 2B, .262/.311/.373
• Garrett Baumann, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 11.49 ERA

Even with a rough start from Garrett Baumann and a lackluster performance by the offense the Stripers still had a sniff of a chance to steal this game late, but always came up just short with two-out RBI chances. The Stripers left 11 men on base in this game, but that doesn’t fully encapsulate that eight of those came in just the final three innings of this game. With the bases loaded in the eighth inning the Stripers, by some miracle, had a chance to tie the game, but Jair Camargo flew out lazily to end that opportunity. An error in the ninth inning put Adam Zebrowski on base, kicking off a rally that saw the Stripers fall tantalizingly short. DaShawn Kiersey hit a bouncer off of the back of the pitcher that would go for a single, but as the ball trickled into left field Zebrowski tried to score from second and a combination of his sub-20 speed and an admittedly impressive play from Carson Williams to get to the ball in shallow left field saw Zebrowski cut down trying to score. It probably wasn’t smart to send him, and after a single, a hit batter, and a walk scored Kiersey and left the bases loaded with two outs it seemed even worse in retrospect. Jose Azocar finished off the game with a grounder straight at Williams that would have been a routine double play if there were only one out, stranding the bases loaded for the second straight inning.

All six of the runs Garrett Baumann allowed in this game were driven in via home runs, which is an issue that has exploded over the past three outings for him. Baumann allowed seven home runs in his first 12 starts this season (11 COL, 1 GWN) but in the past three outings has allowed eight of them. While the Bulls hitters took advantage of the mistakes Baumann made and he left a few too many pitches over the plate, he didn’t really pitch that poorly. He made good pitches with his splitter, located his fastball at the top of strike zone fairly consistently, and mixed his pitches well. He ran out of steam a bit in the final inning which contributed to the middle-middle fastball that got hit for his third home run, but overall he wasn’t glaringly bad in any particular way. He got beat a few times by hitters making good swings, but this was not nearly on the level of his prior two starts when he was making too many mistakes with his command. He looked better in this outing even if the results weren’t there, and if he comes out in future outings and pitches like that the results should follow.

Swing and Misses

Garrett Baumann – 16

Connor Thomas – 5

(33-40) Columbus Clingstones 0, (45-33) Knoxville Smokies 1

Box Score

• Patrick Clohisy, CF: 0-3, BB, .264/.337/.448
• Lucas Braun, SP: 8 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 3.30 ERA

With the run environment up across minor league baseball there haven’t been too many of these true pitchers’ duels, but we got one in Tennessee on Thursday night and it was a masterpiece from Lucas Braun. It didn’t immediately look like it was going to be one of those nights for Braun. He struggled with his command to the first couple of hitters and gave up hard contact, including throwing a sinker middle-middle in a 2-0 count that got hit off of the wall in the deepest part of the park for a double. He fell behind 3-1 to the next guy before getting him to pop out and then got a ground out on a slider he hung, but after catching a series of breaks he locked in and started putting in good work. He dialed the slider in with a swinging strikeout to end the second inning, then started to dot the fastball up, slider down sequence to great success. That was the formula for the rest of the game, and his combination of being on with his command and the Smokies being willing to chase on sliders below the zone gave him the tools to get through eight scoreless innings.

The Smokies managed to match Braun with zeroes, and the Clingstones running up strikeouts undid the advantage they had with getting runners on base. Heading into the bottom of the ninth inning Columbus had gotten ten runners on base to the Smokies two, but thanks to strikeouts in key moments with runners in scoring position and a couple of outs on the basepaths they never managed to push anyone home. Shay Schanaman had an unfortunate bit of luck when he jammed the leadoff hitter but gave up a single on a slow roller to third base, but he also struggled to throw strikes. He walked two hitters to load the bases up with only one out in the inning, then gave up a walkoff single on a hard hit ball that went off of the glove of Jordan Groshans at third base.

Swing and Misses

Lucas Braun – 16

Shay Schanaman – 3

(38-38) Rome Emperors 8, (28-49) Jersey Shore BlueClaws 4

Box Score

• Tate Southisene, SS: 1-4, 2B, BB, .205/.340/.361
• John Gil, 2B: 1-4, BB, .263/.357/.418
• Eric Hartman, LF: 0-3, 2 BB, .291/.361/.557
• Owen Carey, DH: 1-4, HR, BB, .269/.336/.471
• Zach Royse, SP: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 4.96 ERA

The Owen Carey fan club is eating well these days. Carey only had one hit in this game to extend his hitting streak to nine games, but he did it in a big way with a missile for a home run in the fifth inning. Carey has three home runs in his past four games with that hit, and already has beaten his total for home runs last season in just 37 games. Carey is really making solid contact in the air on the pull side early in this season, which was the biggest criticism you could have of him last season. He is maintaining his ability to hit hard line drives all over the field and make contact at a high rate while adding to his power output, and the Emperors have yet another breakout candidate making waves for them. Overall this offensive performance was mostly not driven by the elite-tier prospects for the Braves, though they’ll certainly be happy to see Dixon Williams add another to his total. Williams had a no-doubt shot in the first inning to put Rome up 3-0, banging the ball off of a billboard well past the fence in left field. Williams has homered in two straight games, and after that nasty slump he has really been crushing the ball over his past 15 games. He has five home runs and a .321/.415/.661 slash line during that timeframe, though his poor contact rates do remain a red flag.

Zach Royse had a couple of poor games in his adjustment to High-A, where he was not missing bats at the rate he was in Single-A, but this game was a quick reversal of trends as he looked strong once again. Royse’s slider was on full display as he kept going back to it until each individual hitter proved they could hit it, and some of the guys in the lineup never showed that they could. Royse’s only issue in the game is that he had a whole lot more trouble commanding his fastball, but he was able to work around that the first time through the order. The next time through the BlueClaws had a better feel for him and his velocity really started to drop off, so the earlier success he had at getting whiffs didn’t carry over. Royse did enough and his slider was good enough that Jersey Shore never got comfortable in the game, but the velocity dip and the command of his fastball are more fuel to the opinion that Royse’s future is likely in the bullpen. The quality of that slider is good enough to carry a major league middle relief pitcher’s career, but there’s certainly no reason to move him out of the starting role just yet even if it’s just to give him extra reps.

Swing and Misses 

Zach Royse – 15

Jacob Kroeger – 5

(44-34) Augusta GreenJackets 10, (30-47) Salem RidgeYaks

Box Score

• Luis Guanipa, CF: 2-5, 2B, 5 RBI, .320/.378/.483
• Conor Essenburg, RF: 0-5, .253/.385/.442
• Alex Lodise, SS: 2-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, .254/.342/.369
• Jeremy Reyes, SP: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 3.25 ERA

It was a disappointing outcome for the GreenJackets on Thursday night, but they still received big contributions from the top prospects in the lineup, especially from Alex Lodise. Lodise has yet again hit a spell where the strikeouts are piling up — he has nine over the past six games — but it hasn’t slowed down his power production one bit. He hit his 16th home run of the season and eighth over the past 14 games while adding in a double. Most of the damage Lodise has done during this hot streak has come with him lighting up the lower half of the strike zone, but this time he took a fastball in the upper half and hit it the other way. Early in this game Augusta went on a run at the plate that allowed them to open up a 6-1 lead, and a big part of that came courtesy of the Carolina League batting leader Luis Guanipa. With the bases loaded in the second inning Guanipa shot an inside sinker into the opposite gap for a bases-clearing double, netting him the first three of five RBI on the day. In another bases-loaded chance in the fifth inning Guanipa again came through with an opposite field single, helping Augusta open up a lead of 9-6 that would also eventually get blown by the pitching staff. While Guanipa has maintained his contact numbers throughout this season he hasn’t seen the home run power that he showed earlier in the season and that double in the first inning is an example of a pitch we were seeing him drive to the pull side in April and May. Guanipa’s bat speed makes it so he tends to never get beaten on the inner half, but he has shown a tendency to drift back towards getting his front foot down a bit late and shooting pitches the opposite way, which has robbed him of some of the impact he showed in the early months. Conor Essenburg added an 0-5 performance to his recent struggles, and has been locked in his worst stretch of the season for the past couple of series.

With his recent demotion you would hope for better results from Jeremy Reyes, but right now what Reyes is putting on the field is concerning for his future. His velocity is down significantly and he just doesn’t have the command to overcome that limitation, and even though his slider has had success generating whiffs at the Single-A level there just isn’t much indication of growth from him. Should the velocity return to his baseline there is a chance for him to fit in as a relief arm, but the electric potential he showed last season has not been there at all in 2026. He’s getting hit hard right now in addition to not being able to throw strikes consistently, and it’s hard to see that changing anytime soon when his sweeper is the only thing showing anything right now and that’s a pitch he can’t land near the strike zone consistently.

Swing and Misses

Jeremy Reyes – 13

Kendy Richard – 6

Happy Friday A’s fans,

Earlier this week, the Athletics began a six-game stretch at home by losing two of three to the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Tonight, they welcome the Miami Marlins for the opener of a three-game series. The Marlins, who have an even lower payroll than the A’s, posted an MLB-best 20-6 record in June to jump into the National League Wild Card picture.

Miami’s pitching staff, which has the 11th best ERA in the sport, played a major role in the club’s stellar performance over the past few weeks. While the A’s will not have to face standout right-hander Max Meyer, they’ll still draw the Marlins’ Dominican duo of Sandy Alcántara and Eury Pérez on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Meanwhile, only the Colorado Rockies have a higher ERA and have given up more runs than the Athletics’ much-maligned pitching staff. Yes, the team is playing in a hitter-friendly minor league park for a second straight season. However, that does not change the fact that these are major-league pitchers league pitchers who have earned their way to baseball’s highest level. As a result, they should be capable of making the necessary adjustments to limit the damage in a hitter-friendly environment.

Currently, it seems like the Athletics can only count on J.T. Ginn and Gage Jump to consistently deliver quality starts. On Wednesday night, Ginn shut down the Dodgers for six innings, helping his team avoid the series sweep.

Two nights prior, Jump endured his first rough outing against a Dodgers’ lineup loaded with star power, so the result was not entirely surprising. The promising rookie left-hander will look to bounce back in Sunday’s homestand finale. Before that, the A’s will turn to right-handers Jack Perkins and Aaron Civale to start tonight and tomorrow night.

Offensively, the Marlins are the opposite of the Athletics. Miami relies on speed to manufacture runs, leading the majors with 94 stolen bases this season. In contrast, the A’s have some speed, most notably center fielder Henry Bolte, but their offense is still driven primarily by the long ball.

The Marlins won’t make it easy, but there would be no better way for the Athletics to celebrate the Fourth of July than by putting their June struggles behind them and taking the series.

A’s Coverage:

• Three Things To Watch For The Athletics In July
• Julyeball Scout Report As Hopes, Like The Sun, Sink Slowly In The West
• Thoughts And Well Wishes For A’s Prospect Ryan Lasko
• A’s Take Series Finale, Beat Dodgers 7-1
• Dodgers Overwhelm A’s Once Again
• A’s roster moves: Massive Shakeup
• A’s To Trade Brett Harris To Red Sox
• It’s Harder To Win When You Don’t Understand Your Own Personnel
• Fun Parallels To 2012 Emerging
• What Kade Morris’ Role Will Look Like for A’s in Future
• Some Easy Fixes Rocket Science Aren’t
• Athletics’ Devin Taylor Emerges As All-Around Talent
• From celebratory pool dip to the A’s, Meneses’ journey back to Majors a memorable one
• Athletics Could Deal Hottest Triple-A Bat This Summer
• Status Report: Uncertainty Persists In 5 Places On The Diamond

MLB News and Interest:

• How will the logjam in AL postseason race impact Trade Deadline?
• MLB 2026: Player every team should trade or trade for in July
• MLB’s Labor Philosophy: A Reader’s Guide
• The Draft Top 250 is out! For the 1st time all year, there’s a new No. 1
• The Draft is just over a week away! Find out if the landscape has changed with our latest mock
• Rangers’ Corey Seager back on IL with lower back inflammation
• Red Sox Place Connelly Early On Injured List
• 2026 All-Star Futures Game rosters revealed
• Mets owner says changes need to be made, but Stearns is staying
• MLBPA seeks larger roster sizes, demotion protection in proposal
• Trade rumors: Skubal, Angels, Yankees, starting pitchers
• Dodgers’ Dave Roberts fastest manager to reach 1,000 career wins
• Cavalli, Contreras receive 7-game suspensions after benches-clearing incident
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

Ryan Lasko injury update:

Funny exchange between these two A’s players. Lawrence Butler would greatly benefit from listening to Shea Langeliers’ advice as Butler’s batting average is still below the Mendoza line.

The American League West remains up in the air with only the Los Angeles Angels out of the divisional race at this point in the season.

Injuries have taken a toll on this team and could be one reason behind its June swoon. The return of several key players over the next two months could fuel a rise back up the standings.

As we inch closer to the All-Star Break, we continue our 40-year anniversary of the game’s 57th Summer Installment which took place at the iconic Houston Astrodome on July 15th, 1986, in front of a capacity crowd of 45,774.    

Don Aase would come on for the American League and notch the save on this night.    Don reflects with us exclusively at The Crawfish Boxes.   

Q:  I went back and watched this game in its entirety, and it appears that Willie Hernandez thinks that he’s actually going in to close out the game when manager Dick Howser makes the move.  What happened there exactly?    

A:  Yeah, it was funny.  Willie went to go running in there and then he stopped, dead in his tracks. It was mix up, kind of strange there, but I went in and did the job.

Q:  So, you earn the save in your only All-Star appearance.  What did that night at the Astrodome mean to you personally?

A:  Oh man, that was something that you can only dream about.  I couldn’t believe I got a save in that situation.   I don’t know if anything can ever beat that feeling.  That was a high point of my career.    

Q:  What did you think of Roger Clemens outing that night?  He had a little extra going on being back home and it being his first ever ASG appearance.  

A:  He had it going no doubt.  You know, all of the pitching was really good.  I remember Fernando also doing his thing.  It was just a great thing to watch really, and it got extra exciting towards the end.    

Q:  You were on fire to get there.  You posted 23 saves in the first half of the 1986 campaign and the O’s weren’t even a legit contender that season.  What do you remember most about that season?    

A:  We were in a ton of games early on and they were all close and we started off well and I was closing games it felt like daily.   We tailed off because I hurt my back and I had to miss a few weeks.   I still think about that and the season we could’ve had.

Q:  What do you think about the closers today?

A:  It’s just really amazing how big and strong these guys are now.  This is coming from somebody who spends most of his time these days watching the grandkids, but it’s impressive seeing how hard everyone throws these days.  It seems like everyone today throws it 10 mph faster than we did.