Category: Baseball

Aroldis Chapman was warming up in the top of the ninth inning with the Red Sox down a run just in case he was needed for the bottom half of the frame; but with the way this offense has performed all season, that felt like ownership drawing up World Series parade routes for the fall, just in in case.

Unsurprisingly, the Red Sox went down like church mice for the final three outs to fall to:

• 11 games under .500 for the first time since 2020
• 0-27 on the season when trailing by three runs or more at any point in the game
• 0-35 when trailing after eight innings

Perhaps the most surprising stat to go along with that last bullet is that the Red Sox actually lead all of baseball in runs scored in the ninth inning in 2026 with 40. They just never score when they actually need the runs to tie the game or take the lead. Yes, the offense is bad, but it’s specifically abysmal when the game is on the line in a way that’s all but mathematically impossible.

Tonight was just another verse in the same rancid, repeating song that is the 2026 Red Sox season. The twist on this particular stanza is that the bottom third of the lineup actually performed pretty well while the top six guys when 2-24 with zero walks.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the bottom of the eighth inning when right after a Marcelo Mayer double cut a 4-1 Rays lead to 4-3. In this moment, the first three guys of the inning reached, the top of the order was coming up, and the Rays still had six outs to negotiate before the end of the game. How did the top six guys in the Sox lineup handle the opportunity? They went 0-6 and blew a golden opportunity to avoid all three deadly bullet points above.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve never seen a team quite like this one. It’s not just that they’re the worse offense in baseball in high leverage situations (batting .214 with a .609 OPS), it’s that they’re 11th in baseball in medium leverage spots to go along with that. For instance, they actually have a higher OPS than the Yankees in medium leverage spots, but are almost 200 points behind them in high leverage situations.

One of the reasons this season feels like such a joyless slog is because there’s never any nights where they randomly come through in a big spot and mix in a comeback win amid the flood of loses and other deficiencies. Those are the beautiful breaths of fresh at the surface that keep you coming back in a season where you’re otherwise drowning. Even most bad teams with bad lineups find a way to sprinkle them in every once in a while, but not this group.

I keep thinking this has to change somewhat just by random chance, but maybe I’m just an idiot. (On a related note, I’ll be going to Boston to catch the games this weekend.)

Three Studs

Marcelo Mayer: One nice thing about tonight is that there’s more signs Marcelo Mayer’s new toe tap might be paying dividends. Not only did he follow up yesterday’s home run with a big eighth inning double, but he also had a nice at bat in the third inning with a runner in scoring position where despite making an out, he got the ball in play with 107mph exit velocity.

Caleb Durbin: 1-3 at the plate, and he also flashed some leather with this wonderful double play in the field in the first inning, which felt really important in the moment:

Isiah Kiner-Falefa: The only man in the Red Sox lineup with a multi-hit game, which is pretty much an automatic ticket into the stud section of the game wrap in 2026.

Five Duds

Ceddanne Rafaela: 0-4 with the lowest WPA in the lineup tonight.

Willson Contreras: 0-4 with the second lowest WPA.

Masataka Yoshida: 0-4 with the third lowest WPA (and boy has he looked awful over the last month).

Mickey Gasper: 0-4 with the fourth lowest WPA.

Together, these four went 0-16 and had a -0.58 WPA.

NESN: They didn’t get back in time from commercial to show the first pitch of the bottom of the third inning. Under no circumstance can this be allowed to slide!

The Cleveland Guardians fell to the New York Yankees, again, tonight. Dropping game two in this series gives New York the series win and puts the Guardians five games above .500.

Slade Cecconi had a strong outing and is looking like he is hitting a groove. Cecconi went 5.0 innings, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. He struck out two batters.

The Guardians scored 2 runs on 10 hits and 4 walks. Both runs came in the bottom of the third inning.

With two quick outs to start the inning, José Ramírez hit a single to center, then reached second on his 24th stolen base of the season. Chase DeLuter singled to center, scoring José from second. Kyle Manzardo drew a walk and Rhys Hoskins was hit by pitch to load them up. Angel Martínez singled to Paul Goldschmidt at first base who made a diving catch. Goldschmidt lobbed the ball to the pitcher with just enough arch that Angel was able to slide into first and beat out the tag.

In the top of the fourth, Travis Bazzana made a great sliding catch to end the inning.

The Guards bullpen did their best to hold it down, all things considering. Colin Holderman walked a batter in his inning of work. Tim Herrin gave up a run in his second inning of work, a solo shot to Jazz Chisolm Jr. He fell to 0-2 on the season, recording the loss. The home run was the only hit he allowed. Matt Festa finished the eighth inning, allowing only one other hit. Shawn Armstrong closed the game, keeping the Yankees at bay, but the damage was already done

This team is going through a funk that seems like it could be easily fixed with a couple of pieces or strategic moves. Tonight they left 13 runners on base and were 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. While the hot start to this season is providing the buffer they need for these sorts of slumps, something needs to improve soon or the White Sox will be taking ahold of first place in the AL Central before we know it.

The Atlanta Braves started a series against the Chicago White Sox after a 5-1 run at home where they took two of three from the reigning AL champ Blue Jays and swept the Pirates who at the time had scored the fourth most runs in MLB.

This matchup was going to be fun because it featured the Acuña brothers playing each other. Unfortunately, that fun was short lived.

Grant Holmes has struggled the second time through the order all season long and was hoping to avoid that tonight, although he was going against a red hot offense that is fourth in MLB in HRs.

Brandon Eisert was the scheduled opener for the White Sox, and has actually had a decent season thus far, but the Braves jumped on him quick. After an Acuña strikeout Harris singled in his return to the starting lineup and Matt Olson followed that with his eighteenth HR of the season to put the Braves up by two.

Albies then singled and Dubón walked to have two runners on with one out. Eisert then got Dominic Smith to fly out on a ball that went three-hundred feet, and then he was replaced by former Braves pitcher Erick Fedde who got Riley to strikeout.

Grant Holmes started off the first inning almost perfect like he seems to always do by producing two fly outs and and a ground out. The Braves then showed of possibly getting some insurance in the second when Acuña reached via HBP with two outs, but then he was caught stealing to end the second inning.

In the second, Holmes gave up a single, but that was the only damage done picking up two strikeouts along the way. In the third for the Braves Harris smoked a liner, but it was caught, but Matt Olson then launched a HR again to make it 3-0 for his nineteenth HR of the season. Albies then doubled and then we saw a somewhat rare catcher interference call that sent Dubón to first. What followed was a weird play where Smith should have hit into a double play, but the pitcher, Fedde, straight up missed a perfect throw and that allowed Albies to score to make it 4-0. Riley then singled, but the scoring ended with a Yastrzemski strikeout.

As stated earlier, Grant Holmes has struggled the second time through the order all season with hitters having an OPS north of 1.000 against him the second time they face him. That did not stop tonight. After getting two outs to the bottom of the order in the third inning, Antonacci who hits first in the order, walked. Vargas then followed that with a two run shot to make the game 4-2. Holmes was able to settle down and get the third out via fly out.

In the fourth is where the bad news hits Braves Nation. After Wynns flied out Acuña appears to have majorly injured his leg running out a grounder.

After the injury delay Harris hit a single and Olson almost hit his third HR of the night, but the ball was caught right at the yellow line on the wall.

The bottom of the fourth is where Holmes fell apart. Again, he is still facing batters for the second time in the game in this inning. He gave up a single, a HBP, then a single to Braden Montgomery for his first career RBI. After a line out and a fielder’s choice to put runners on the corners he walked backup catcher Drew Romo to load the bases. Luckily Dylan Dodd is having the best season of his career and came in and got the out. Holmes finished the night with three earned runs on four hits, two walks, and a HBP on 3.2 innings while picking up two strikeouts.

The Braves were sat down in order in the fifth, but Dodd continued to do well. Outside of a walk, he was able to sit the other three hitters down, to include Vargas who homered in his last at-bat.

It looked like the Braves may score again in the sixth, but it did not happen. After an all too common Riley strikeout, Yastrzemski singled. Then, believe it or not, a catcher got a hit when Wynns singled as well. Unfortunately, in a base running blunder Yastrzemski was thrown out at home when Eli White hit the ball to first baseman Jacob Gonzalez who made the wise decision to throw home for the out. Fedde was then replaced by Tyler Gilbert who got Harris to ground out.

Dodd stayed in the game to pitch the sixth. He got Montgomery to strikeout, but then walked Grichuk which prompted Weiss to replace him with Carlos Carrasco. This move seemed odd considering the close game, and the Braves having the lead, but in a situation where your starter only went 3.2 innings you have to get creative. Carlos Carrasco gave up a single to the first batter he faced, but then settled down forced a fielders choice for the second and and then with the help of Eli White making an epic throw to home plate, he got the third out to end the inning.

Matt Olson led off the seventh inning and walked on a failed ABS challenge by Gilbert. Albies then had his third hit of the night with a single. Tyler Davis then came in for Gilbert and got Dubón to pop up. The White Sox then got redemption on Dominic Smith and forced him into a double play that was actually executed this time to end the top of the seventh.

In a rare questionable move, Walt Weiss left Carlos Carrasco in the game to pitch the seventh with the heart of the order set to bat. He then walked Vargas and then gave up a single to Benintendi to put runners on the corners with no outs. Gonzalez then singled to tie the game with zero outs. Carrasco then was somehow able to get out of the jam by inducing a double play and then a line out.

In the eighth inning Riley walked, then Yastrzemski flied and Mateo pinch hit for Wynns. Unfortunately, Riley got “caught stealing” via pick off, and then Mateo flied out. Sandy León came in to catch and Robert Suarez came in to pitch for the first time since Friday. He was able to retire the side with ease.

In the ninth Eli White flied out, but Harris was able to reach via single. Matt Olson just missed again with a ball that flied three-hundred-thirty feet to RF, and Albies struck out. The Braves at this point have missed insurance runs by mere feet twice to this point.

In the ninth ABS showed its usefulness. In was originally called a ball that would have been a leadoff walk, the call was overturned for a strikeout for Iglesias who relieved Saurez. Vargas and Benintendi were both sat down via ground out and fly out respectively, and it was time for extra innings.

The tenth started out great for the Braves. Albies was the runner on second and Dubón came up clutch yet again and scored Albies with a single on the very first pitch he saw after squaring up like he was going to bunt. Dubón was also able to move to second on the throw home, which worked out great because when Dominic Smith hit another grounder it was not a double play and Dubón moved to third. Unfortunately, for the second time this game a runner was thrown out at home on a grounder that was not a force out when Riley hit a grounder to third and Vargas got Dubón at home. Yastrzemski then flew out to third to put the end to what looked like would be a great inning.

Raisel Iglesias stayed in the game to pitch the tenth making it only the second time this season he pitched more than one inning. He was able to strike out the first batter he saw and then induce a ground out right off the bat, but the ground out moved the runner to third. Braden Montgomery, who made his debut tonight, then hit a walk-off home run to end the game.

The Braves had one of their saddest games of the season this evening. Not only did they lose in extras, but they were 0-8 with RISP if you don’t count the ghost runner and potentially lost Acuña to injury. Matt Olson was a few feet shy twice of hitting a HR to make the outcome much different. Hopefully the Braves can rebound tomorrow when former White Sox ace Chris Sale takes the mound for the Braves.

Following the Mets' 7-0 loss to the Cardinals on Tuesday night, manager Carlos Mendoza spoke about several aspects of the game...

Cardinals' play at the plate

In the third inning with the Mets down 3-0 with runners on second and third and one out, Lars Nootbaar grounded the ball to Marcus Semien at second base. Semien looked the runner at third base back, but Ivan Herrera took off for home as Semien threw to Jared Young at first base for the second out of the inning.

Young threw it home to Alvarez, but Herrera made a nifty swim move to avoid the tag and give the Cardinals a 4-0 lead. 

The Mets skipper was asked about the play and if his infielders could have done anything differently, but Mendoza said he believes the St. Louis baserunners made a mistake and they got away with it.

"They kinda messed it up, because the runner at third base was not going on contact," Mendoza explained. "It was a play that took Marcus to the gloveside. He can’t see the runner on second base, who was playing it like they were going on contact. Looking at the video there, once the ball came out of Marcus’ hand, he took off. At that point, you see JY, you play catch. Looking back, I’ll have to talk to [bench coach Kai Correa] and all that, it was kind of a messed up play there." 

At the time, it was a big run, as it was still early in the game. Unfortunately, Cardinals starter Dustin May held the Mets hitters down. 

Why May was unhittable

May entered Tuesday's series opener with a 4.59 ERA and a WHIP of 1.29, but he looked like the young arm the Dodgers hoped he would be when he was drafted in the third round of the 2016 draft.

The 28-year-old pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and one walk. It was May's best start of the season, and he didn't give the Mets many chances -- the Mets had just two batters reach second base against him. 

"The sinker was good against righties today. Had a lot of movement," Mendoza said of May. "The cutter against lefties and he was finishing them off with fastballs at the top of the zone. You get down 4-0, it’s different at-bats. This guy is working ahead and he’s going to attack. Once we got down, we couldn’t do much with him."

What happened with Gerber?

Joey Gerber allowed one run on three hits across two innings after taking over for Freddy Peralta on Tuesday. 

Mendoza was hoping Gerber could finish the game and save his bullpen, but the right-hander was removed in the ninth inning. It seemed as if the 29-year-old was picking at one of his fingers and Mendoza confirmed that Gerber is still dealing with a blister.

"Same blister he went on the IL," Mendoza said. "Started to flare up again. Not going to risk it there."

Gerber was placed on the IL back in mid-April and didn't return to the Mets until mid-May. After being recalled and optioned a couple of times, Gerber finally had a chance to stick with the big league club. Tuesday was his second appearance this month, pitching a scoreless inning back on June 3 against the Mariners, and third overall this season. 

In his three appearances, Gerber has pitched to a 1.80 ERA, striking out six batters across his 5.0 innings of work. 

The Rays were the kings of the two-out rally on Tuesday night in a 4-3 win over the Red Sox.

Tampa Bay put Payton Tolle to the test early when Yandy Díaz lined a single to right, Junior Caminero followed by smoking a ball to the wall in center, and suddenly Tampa Bay had runners on second and third with nobody out to get the game started.

Well, sort of suddenly.

Caminero got to second, but not before giving us one of the less graceful slides you will see from a professional athlete. It was part stumble, part survival tactic, part “please just let the bag still be there when I arrive.” He made it, and the Rays were in business.

Then Caleb Durbin ruined the fun.

Chandler Simpson hit a hard liner to third, and Durbin made a terrific reaction play, snagging it and doubling Yandy off third before the Rays could cash in on the scoring position. It was the kind of play that flips an inning in one blink. Tampa Bay had Tolle wobbling, had a chance to grab an early lead, and came away with nothing.

The baseball gods did briefly offer them a second chance when a popup in foul territory near the mound turned into a three-person Red Sox game of “not it” for the baseball. Tolle dropped it while multiple Boston defenders stood around as if catching the ball were not the object of the game. Sometimes big leaguers look like little leaguers. The Rays still could not take advantage, even after Ryan Vilade singled and a passed ball moved him into scoring position. Austin Slater grounded out, and the first inning became a collection of missed chances.

Thankfully for the Rays, Nick Martinez was doing his part to keep the game settled.

Martinez worked a clean first, then started the second by striking out Willson Contreras swinging. He kept Red Sox hitters uncomfortable and did not let Boston stack together the kind of loud inning that can make a game feel uphill early. Masataka Yoshida grounded out, Mickey Gasper popped out, and Martinez had the Rays right where they needed to be.

Boston broke through in the third when Isiah Kiner-Falefa doubled to left, Marcelo Mayer moved him to third with a groundout, and Jarren Duran lined a single to center to make it 1-0 Red Sox. Annoying, but effective baseball from the Red Sox is doing the boring things that matter.

The Rays, meanwhile, had to get to Tolle before the game got away from them. After going quietly in the third, they finally cracked him in the fourth, with quite the two-out rally.

Vilade started it with a double to left with one out. Slater popped out, and it looked like another inning where another runner might be stranded. Then Cedric Mullins put a hard grounder through the infield and into right. Vilade rounded third, Wilyer Abreu came up throwing, and Vilade beat the play at the plate to tie the game. It was a welcome pressure release valve after the Rays had let Tolle off the hook earlier.

Then Ben Williamson followed with a shot to the wall in left center for a stand-up double, scoring Mullins and giving the Rays the lead. Nick Fortes kept things moving with another double, bringing Williamson home for a 3-1 lead.

Three doubles in the inning. Three runs. All scored with two outs.

Tolle had spent the first few innings bending but not breaking. In the fourth, the Rays finally found the weak spot and pushed through it.

Martinez took that lead and protected it. In the fifth, Austin Slater helped him out with a leaping catch in right field, robbing what could have been an extra bae hit off the bat of Mickey Gasper. Instead of a leadoff problem, Martinez had an out. He followed with two more lineouts to Chandler Simpson, and the Red Sox were back in the dugout.

The sixth was more of the same. Martinez got Mayer on a flyout, struck out Duran, and then retired Rafaela.

Tampa Bay added what felt like an important insurance run in the bottom of the sixth. Ben Williamson singled with two outs, Fortes was hit by a pitch, and Richie Palacios lined a single to center to score Williamson and make it 4-1. Again, it came with two outs. Again, it showed the kind of inning extension that has not always been easy for this lineup. A three-run lead with Martinez dealing felt comfortable.

Baseball enjoys mocking comfort.

The Rays had a chance to push for more in the seventh after Vilade singled and Slater reached on a soft grounder to third. For a moment, it looked like another two-out rally was forming. Instead, Vilade got caught in a rundown between second and third, and the inning ended. The Rays still led by three, but leaving extra runs out there always has a way of becoming relevant later.

Sure enough, the eighth inning arrived with trouble attached.

Durbin singled. Kiner-Falefa singled. Then Mayer pulled a ground ball down the right field line that stayed just fair, scoring both runners and cutting the Rays’ lead to 4-3. The barely fair ball left the Rays barely leading. Martinez’s night ended there, and despite the late damage, it was still a strong outing.

Kevin Kelly entered with the tying run at second and nobody out, which is a lovely little stress test for a reliever. He got Duran to ground out, moving Mayer to third, then retired Rafaela and Abreu to escape with the lead intact, which was huge in this game.

The bottom of the eighth offered one more weird twist. Mullins reached on a strikeout and passed ball, giving Tampa Bay a needed baserunner. Williamson then lined a ball to center, but Rafaela made a great play and an even better throw to double Mullins off first. It was impressive for the Red Sox and inconvenient for the Rays.

So the Rays carried a one-run lead to the ninth, because of course they did. Thankfully, the Red Sox had no plans of ending their winless streak when trailing after eight innings this season.

Bryan Baker handled it with no drama, which felt like a generous gift at that point. Contreras popped out, Yoshida grounded out, and Gasper grounded out to finish a 4-3 Rays win.

The Rays look for the sweep on Wednesday with Drew Rasmussen slated to take the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 pm EDT.

Don’t look now—but the Kansas City Royals officially have themselves a win streak. The Royals secured their third consecutive win (and fifth of their last six games) with a gutsy, impressive come-from-behind 5-3 win over the Texas Rangers.

The first few innings of the game were not particularly kind to the Royals. Texas starter and longtime veteran Nathan Eovaldi was initially excellent, navigating the first four innings without allowing a hit. Meanwhile, though Kansas City starter Stephen Kolek was plenty competent, the Rangers were able to chip away. They scored one in the second inning from a Wyatt Langford walk and back-to-back hits by Ezequiel Duran and Jake Burger. The Rangers—or, well, Evan Carter—scored in the fourth inning with a single, some baserunning gumption, and bad Royals defense. Afterwards, it was 2-0, Rangers.

By the fifth inning, you started to wonder if Eovaldi would be able to shut out the Royals offense and send Kansas City sports fans home sad yet again; they only scored four runs total in their previous series at Kauffman Stadium against the Yankees, after all.

Fortunately, Jac Caglianone said no. After working a wildly impressive 11-pitch walk his first time up, it was time to hit. And Cags did, uncorking a beauty of a home run to right field for a solo shot to disassemble Eovaldi’s no-hit bid and put the Royals on the board.

Though the Royals wouldn’t score that inning, Cags’ home run broke the seal. The Royals started making hard contact on Eovaldi left and right. Carter Jensen led off with a ringing double in the sixth inning, and scored two batters later off a Maikel Garcia triple. Vinnie Pasquantino summoned the right field Pasquatch by launching a ground rule double to center field. That gave the Royals a 3-2 lead.

Then, Cags came up to bat against a brand new pitcher, lefty Jalen Beeks. Jac saw one pitch. He hit one pitch. And thus, a two-home run game was his. That gave the Royals a 5-2 lead.

The Rangers would claw another run back following a Joc Pederson triple in the seventh inning. Fortunately, that was the last run they would score. For a minute there, it sure looked like the Royals would need that extra insurance. Alex Lange came out of the bullpen to secure a save in the ninth inning and uncorked seven consecutive balls—well, six, and then a generous “strike” that the Rangers fortunately did not challenge. Two passed balls skipped by Jensen’s, which put Burger at third base. But Lange struck out Pederson to end the inning and the game.

One thing to keep an eye on after tonight’s contest is Kyle Isbel. Isbel rounded first base a little gimpy, and he was immediately taken out of the game to be replaced by Tyler Tolbert on the bases and then in center field. Hopefully it’s nothing too major.

Regardless, this was an impressive win for the Royals. It was the type of game two weeks ago that would have gotten out of hand, but Kansas City fought their way back. Caglianone finished the night with another single, putting him on base four times. The sooner he can get ahead of Salvador Perez in the lineup (who went 0-4 to lower his on base percentage on the year to an even .250), the better it will be for everyone. And just like that, the Royals are 4.5 games out of the third Wild Card spot.

Phillies 2 Jays 3

Man, baseball is great.

In the top of the ninth, Louis Varland gave up his first run since Jesús (Sánchez) was a boy (yes, I’m going to hell). Well, since April 25th. Varland walked Bryce Harper to lead off the inning. Then got Brandon Marsh to strike out. Alec Bohm ground out, moving Harper to second and Bryson Slott doubled. A ground out (great play by Charles McAdoo at first base) ends the inning, but it seemed too late.

In the bottom of the inning:

Sánchez singled to start the inning (his homer was the Jays only run of the first eight innings). Myles Straw came in to pinch run (good move John). Yohendrick Piñango singled on a hit and run (our hardest hit ball of the game 103.9 MPH). I really don’t like the hit and run, but it looks so good when it works (it might have been a straight steal, and a hit by Lips). Runners on the corners. Daulton Varsho pinch ran for Lips. Varsho stole second. Pretty brave of the Jays. A wild pitch scored Straw.

And then Brandon Valenzuela played hero again, lining one over the drawn in infield. That was Jhoan Duran’s first blown save of the season. His ERA jumped all the way to 2.00 from 1.25.

Dylan Cease was amazing in his first start back after being on the IL. He went 6 innings, allowing just 3 hits, 1 earned (he gave up a pair of doubles in the first inning), a walk with 11 strikeouts. Sportsnet tells us he set a new Jays record with 29 whiffs. He was amazing.

Jeff Hoffman allowed a hit in the seventh, with two strikeouts. Before Bryson Stott’s single, he popped one up to near the Phillies dugout, Valenzuela and McAdoo both were close but it seemed neither called it and Brandon made a less second lunge towards it but missed. Plays like that really need to be made. Then, the ‘hit’ was a ground ball to short (not an easy play) but Andrés Giménez seemed to be a little slow in throwing it, and Stott was barely safe. Called out on the Phillies’ Challenge,

Mason Fluharty had a very quick eighth. Two lineouts and a strikeout.

The Phillies Zack Wheeler also had a terrific start. 6 innings, 6 hits, 1 earned, no walks and 5 strikeouts. Sánchez’s solo homer (he had a game) was the run against.

We had nine hits. Sánchez had 3, single, double, homer. Piñango 2. Ernie Clement, Giménez (with a hit by pitch) and McAdoo had 0 fors.

Jays of the Day: Sánchez (0.35 WPA), Piñango (0.27), Cease (0.19), Fluharty (0.11) and Hoffman (0.09). It also has Straw at 0.28 (for running the bases???) which I’m thinking is a typo of some sort.

The Other Award: Varland (-0.30 for the run in the ninth, the lead off walk was costly), Clement (-0.13) and McAdoo (-0.10). It has Valenzuela at a -0.13 but he had the game winning hit, so I think that must be an error.

Tomorrow we have game 3 of this series. Jesús Luzardo (4-4, 4.56) vs. Max Scherzer (1-3, 9.64) back from the IL.

I really enjoyed the GameThread again tonight. I will say that, you can call a player’s performance lousy, but if you (over and over) insult a player in a way that gets your comment deleted, don’t be surprised when the system bans you. A player’s play can be bad, but don’t make your complaints about him personal. If you do, I won’t miss you.

Over a two-week stretch from May 22 to June 5, the Orioles won ten of fourteen games, and looked to be edging their way back into a playoff position. Well, just a few days later, those good vibes seem pretty distant. It’s not that, numerically, the Orioles have dug themselves into an impossible hole, but that the on-field play looks so uneven that even if they did play themselves into a Wild Card, you doubt they’d do much with it.

Tonight’s 6-5, ten-inning loss was ridiculous in a couple of ways. Start with the offense making Seattle’s Logan Gilbert look like a sitting duck in the first inning (he had to throw 31 pitches and gave up a run to break his 17.2-inning scoreless streak), then disappearing for six innings, during which Gilbert retired fourteen in a row. Equally ridiculous: the Birds mounted a two-run comeback in the bottom of the ninth (against a lefty!), but they had to do it after Leody Taveras struck out by automatic violation after losing track of the count. Likewise ridiculous: after tying it, 4-4, to go to extras, the game-winning home run was a two-run bomb hit off Rico Garcia by Randy Arozarena on a slider that was half a foot off the plate. Finally, really ridiculous: the Birds were thrown out at the plate three times tonight. Tyler O’Neill accounted for two of them, including in the bottom of the ninth, with the game tied, 4-4. Blaze Alexander was the other one, in the bottom of the tenth, with his team down, 6-5, a run that would have staved off a loss.

I’m still processing through my feelings on this one. It felt, first and foremost, like offensive opportunities were wasted, both at the plate and on the basepaths. As I said, if you watched just the first inning, you’d have thought the O’s were on their way to an easy win. Five of the first nine O’s hitters reached off Gilbert, who, true to his scouting report, looked like his fastballs are a weakness.

That run, which feels like it was ages ago, came on two singles by Taylor Ward (solid as DH tonight) and Pete Alonso, who lost his bat in the stands before hitting a single the other way, a great walk by Colton Cowser, and a sac fly by Leody Taveras that would have been a hit but for M’s centerfielder Julio Rodríguez running to gobble it up.

At that point, I would have been stunned to hear that the O’s would rack up one hit and no more runs against Seattle’s starter, or that the latter would go six. But that’s exactly what we got. Stupid baserunning “helped,” as it has with the Orioles of late, when O’Neill, standing at third with two on and one out in the second, tried to score on a grounder. He failed, and the Orioles’ best chance for the first six innings evaporated.

After that: bupkis. After third-string catcher Sam Huff hit a one-out double in the second, Gilbert kept the O’s hitless between the second and seventh innings.

As for Trevor Rogers, he feels like an afterthought today. This start was [shrug]. His line—three runs in 5 2/3 innings—isn’t terrible, and he had just one bad inning, the fourth, when he gave up an Earl Weaver Special to Mitch Garver.

But more concerningly, this makes his third straight start in a row with obvious stamina problems. And he had just three strikeouts, none before the fourth inning. This might be the most concerning thing about Rogers this season (although I’d be open to other suggestions): his strikeout rate, which was a ludicrous 12.54 per game in a brief rookie debut in 2020 and an admirable 10.62 in his All-Star 2021, is down to 6.60 this year.

Back to the blow-by-blow. Andrew Kittredge was summoned to help Rogers close out the sixth inning, which he did nicely, but then he allowed a fourth run in the seventh, all on two outs, when with one on, Julio Rodríguez murdered a Kittredge sinker—I mean it, that thing left his bat at 115 mph—and Arozarena dumped a run-scoring single into left, making it 4-1. This felt insurmountable, and ultimately, it was, but not in the way you expected.

The Orioles got the run back in the bottom of the seventh, though I can’t say they made impressive contact doing it. Coby Mayo reached on an error and Jackson Holliday just legged out a bunt (it was fun to see him flaunt the speed). But then, whomp whomp, Tyler O’Neill hit into a double play. A buzzkill, but not a total rally-killer. Mariners reliever Alex Hoppe uncorked a dreadful curveball, and Mayo trotted home.

Keegan Akin and Tyler Wells pitched competent innings each of them, Wells, especially, with a pickoff of Victor Robles at first. Nice to see for the big guy.

Then came the fireworks. The Orioles had one more chance at a comeback in the ninth, although the odds felt long against a lefty in José Ferrer. Longer, even, when Leody Taveras led off the ninth by striking out in the stupidest way imaginable, losing track of the count with two strikes, and stepping outside of the box so long he got rung up for an automatic third strike.

The Birds weren’t deterred, though, and Coby Mayo, next man up, worked a great at-bat, fouling off a bunch of outside fastballs until he got a meatball down the middle. It was a beaut, the O’s’ biggest big blast of the game, and here is a link to balance out the bad with some good:

Now 4-3, the M’s probably still weren’t breaking a sweat, but maybe they started to when Jeremiah Jackson legged out a swinging bunt. Nothing seemed likely to happen with Tyler O’Neill up next, but O’Neill got a fastball from a lefty and did what we hoped he’d do all year: smack it. The ball went for a ground-rule double, but Jackson scored when pinch-hitter Samuel Basallo bounced a grounder to the right side of the infield. The game was tied, 4-4. There was a chance for more, as Taylor Ward walked (of course) to load the bases, but unfortunately, Gunnar (bad game for him today), hit a quick grounder, and lead runner O’Neill was thrown out at the plate for the second time tonight. We went to extras.

With a man on and reliable Rico Garcia on the mound, Randy Arozarena got this pitch and still managed to send it, oppo-style, to the flag court. Garcia looked amazed. So, if you’d seen me on my couch, did I.

Could the O’s counter?? Almost, is the answer. More shenanigans sunk them. Their ghost runner was Pete Alonso, exactly the last person you’d want. But he was actually fine. Blaze Alexander, who’s already done everything humanly possible for this team, took an HBP and then, with two on, no out, Leody Taveras made up for his boneheaded strikeout in the ninth, serving a single to right to score the Polar Bear. The lead was down to one. But Mayo hit a weird pop-out that Seattle second baseman Ryan Bliss fully laid out for. A stupid first out. More stupidity next: Jeremiah Jackson hit a grounder, and the speedy Blaze took off from third. Blaze wasn’t fast enough, and became the third Oriole to get cut down at home plate tonight. The comeback stalled, and the score stayed right there, 6-5 Seattle.

What a weird game. Give the Birds credit for rallying, down two in the ninth, against a lefty. So there’s some gumption here. But my sense, with three runs left at home plate, is that their baserunning game stinks. Just a thought. They’ll try to salvage what they can of this series tomorrow with Brandon Young facing George Kirby at 6:35 Eastern. Sheesh.

It’s Tuesday night here at BCB After Dark: the hopping hot spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in out of the heat. The vibe in here is cool. There’s no cover charge. The dress code is casual. We’ve still got a few tables available. Bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

Last night I asked you for your opinion of the best Cubs trade of the 21st Century. (Some of you missed the “21st Century” part and made a plea for the Sandberg trade.) Among the trades actually made this century, you went with the deal that brought Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop to Chicago with 53 percent of the vote. The trade for Anthony Rizzo came in second with 22 percent.

I think it’s possible in 25 years that we’ll say the Pete Crow-Armstrong deal was the best, but we still have to wait to see that play out.

On Tuesday nights, I don’t write about movies. But I always have time for jazz, so let’s start the music now. You can skip ahead if you want.

We’ve got one final performance from saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who left us last month to go on to the next gig. This is “If Ever I Would Leave You” from Camelot in 1962. Jim Hall is on guitar, Bob Cranshaw plays bass and Ben Riley is on drums.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the music.

Yesterday’s topic of what was the best Cubs trade of the 21st century got a lot of reaction, so I’m going to have to go on and ask you what was the Cubs’ worst trade of the 21st Century.

I really hate to ask these kinds of negative questions because being a fan is supposed to be fun and it’s no fun to be going over the Cubs’ failures. But I think we need to be objective and acknowledge that every team in baseball has made good trades and bad ones. These are the bad ones.

Here are the candidates for the Cubs’ worst trades of the 21st Century and some explanation as to why the Cubs made them.

July 7, 2008. Josh Donaldson, Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton and Eric Patterson to the Athletics for Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin.

The thinking behind this trade was clear. The Cubs needed a starting pitcher down the stretch in 2008. Rich Harden, who had a reputation as the American League’s Mark Prior for both his talent and his injury issues, was available.

Harden was actually very good for the Cubs down the stretch, going 5-1 with a 1.77 ERA in 12 starts. Gaudin was a good reliever in Oakland, but he was very poor for the Cubs in 2008, posting a 6.26 ERA.

The Cubs won 97 games that year and finished with the best record in the NL. But Harden lost Game 3 of the Division Series as the Dodgers completed the three-game sweep.

Sean Gallagher was the big name going back to Oakland when the deal was announced. Gallagher had an undistinguished four-year MLB career. But the second name in the deal was the Cubs’ first-round supplemental pick from the year before: Donaldson. He had destroyed short-season Boise in his first professional season, but was struggling in low-A Peoria in his second season when the deal happened. There were also many doubts he could stay as a catcher.

Those doubts about him as a catcher were correct, but he turned into a solid third baseman. Donaldson went on to play 13 years in the majors, make three All-Star teams and was the 2015 MVP.

Murton didn’t do much after leaving Chicago. Patterson was a decent utility infielder for a few years, but nothing special. The big loss here was Donaldson.

July 30, 2009. Josh Harrison, José Ascaino and Kevin Hart to the Pirates for Tom Gorzelanny and John Grabow.

The Cubs were a game under .500 in 2009 when this trade was made and they were desperately trying to turn around a bad month of July and make the playoffs for the third-straight year. But they were 5.5 games behind the Giants for the final Wild Card and they would end up finishing far out from a playoff spot. Gorzelanny didn’t help much, posting a 5.63 ERA in seven starts and 13 appearances after the deal. He was better in 2010, but the Cubs were so poor it didn’t matter.

Grabow was a decent reliever in 2009, but he played two more years with the Cubs in 2010 and 2011 and was bad in both seasons. After that, he retired.

Neither Ascaino nor Hart did anything that would make the Cubs miss them. But Josh Harrison was having a great year with Peoria when traded and had just been promoted to High-A Daytona before the trade went down. Harrison went on to be a two-time All-Star with the Pirates and played 13 years in the majors and was a very good second baseman.

December 8, 2011. DJ LeMahieu and Tyler Colvin to the Rockies for Ian Stewart and Casey Weathers.

This was the first trade that Theo Epstein made as President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs and it was the worst trade he ever made. On top of it being a bad deal, there was no real reason for it other than the Cubs wanted a third baseman and thought Ian Stewart could be the guy. It’s not like they were dumping a contract or anything. This was a pure talent-for-talent trade and it was a terrible one.

LeMahieu would go on to a 15-year career in the majors. He’d win two batting titles, make three All-Star Games and win four Gold Gloves. Colvin didn’t do much of anything after the trade, but LeMahieu would go on to be one of those guys whom people would say that “Real fans know how good he is.”

Stewart was not only terrible with the Cubs, but he had a bad attitude and ended up getting released after blasting the front office on social media. Weathers never made the majors.

July 31, 2017. Jeimer Candelario and Isaac Paredes to the Tigers for Alex Avila and Justin Wilson.

The Cubs got off to a bad start to the 2017 season as they tried to defend their title, but by the Trade Deadline they were firing on all cylinders and had crawled back into first place. But the Cubs had a backup catcher problem. Willson Contreras had established himself as the starting catcher in 2017, but David Ross had retired and Miguel Montero was unhappy about being on the bench and got traded after publicly complaining.

So without a real backup catcher, the Cubs made a deal for Avila, with Wilson to shore up the pen. Avila was a decent backup catcher for two months before he left as a free agent. Wilson was bad down the stretch in 2017 with a 5.09 ERA, although he was solid in 2018 with a a 3.46 ERA in 71 games. No matter, the Cubs lost the Championship Series to the Dodgers in five games.

With Kris Bryant firmly ensconced at third, the Cubs felt they could deal away two minor league third basemen: Candelario and Paredes. Candelario was a solid starting third baseman for the Tigers for six year and is still bouncing around the majors and is with the Angels right now. The Tigers would end up dealing Paredes to Tampa Bay, where he turned into a quality third baseman, making the All-Star Game with Tampa in 2024 and with Houston in 2025.

Ironically, the Cubs would end up trading back for both Paredes and Candelario after Bryant left.

December 29, 2020. Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini to the Padres for Owen Caissie, Zach Davies, Ismael Mena, Reginald Preciado and Yeison Santana.

You all know the reason for this trade. After the cut in revenue that the Cubs suffered after the COVID-19 pandemic kept all fans out of the ballpark in 2020, ownership ordered the front office to cut payroll. The Padres were one of the few teams willing to take on payroll that winter, so the Cubs had little choice but to get whatever they could out of San Diego.

Darvish pitched five seasons for the Padres and signed an extension that covers him through the 2028 season. That extension was probably a mistake by the Padres as it looks like Darvish’s career is over. He’s definitely out for the year this year.

But before age and injuries brought him down, Darvish made one All-Star Game with the Padres and had very good years there in 2021 and 2022. Since then he’s either been ineffective or battling injuries.

Caratini was Darvish’s personal catcher and played one OK season with the Padres.

Zach Davies had one bad year with the Cubs before leaving as a free agent. Of the four prospects, Mena and Santana washed out. Preciado is still with the Cubs in High-A South Bend, although he’s currently on the 60-day injured list. Caissie made the majors with the Cubs are was traded to Miami for Edward Cabrera. So the trade has basically broken down to Darvish for Cabrera.

December 17, 2024. Cody Bellinger to the Yankees for Cody Poteet.

This deal was also a pure salary dump, although it was one that didn’t need to happen if the Cubs hadn’t traded for Kyle Tucker. I considered putting the Tucker trade on this list, but we really don’t know how the players the Cubs traded to Houston are going to work out. Paredes is Paredes. After a strong start for Cam Smith with the Astros, he’s been pretty so-so since. He’s also been a right fielder, which was and is a problem for the Cubs.

But we know Poteet never played for the Cubs and was sold to the Orioles for cash before the 2025 season even started. We also know that Bellinger was about as good for the Yankees last year as Tucker was for the Cubs. Yes, he took advantage of Yankee Stadium and he might not have been as good in Chicago, but the upgrade from Bellinger to Tucker wasn’t huge. And Bellinger has certainly been a better player than Tucker in 2026, although both were free agents after last year so that doesn’t really play a role here.

So the Bellinger trade gets listed here because it was a salary dump, bringing back nothing, to make room for a player who turned out to be not much better than Bellinger was.

So now it’s time to vote.

Thank you for stopping by tonight. We need to see friendly faces around now. Please get home safely. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow night for more BCB After Dark.

The Texas Rangers scored three runs but the Kansas City Royals scored five runs.

At one point, as we were entering the bottom of the fifth inning of this game, the Rangers had collected eight hits and the Royals had collected zero. Man, the Rangers must have been destroying the AL’s worst team right? Well, no. Because of a bad batch of sequencing, and a dearth of extra base hits, the Rangers led only 2-0 at that point.

Aside from a two-bagger from Ezequiel Duran in the top of the second, the other seven of Texas’ initial eight hits were singles and worse, a great majority of those came with two outs. That required the Rangers to sustain long rallies with little wiggle room, which simply didn’t manifest for the most part.

The Rangers scored their first run on their best rally of the night, but one that was ultimately wasted if the goal was to bust the game open and take a big lead. After Wyatt Langford walked to lead off the second, Duran hit his double, and then Jake Burger singled Langford home. But with two on and still no one out, the Rangers hit two ground balls in a row with the second one a double play that allowed tonight’s KC starter Stephen Kolek and the Royals to escape the inning with Texas up just 1-0.

The Rangers didn’t even need a run-scoring hit to plate their second run thanks to Evan Carter using his legs to menace Kansas City into a couple of throwing errors. After Carter singled with two outs in the top of the third, he reached second on an errant pickoff throw and then scored when KC catcher Carter Jensen threw the ball away attempting to throw Carter out on a steal attempt at third base.

However, with eight hits, the Rangers wasted plenty of chances for that elusive bases-clearing extra base hit that could have broken open the game. Turns out, they were saving them all up for the Royals. How kind. By the end of the sixth inning it was 5-2 Royals as Kansas City collected the next six hits of the game. All of them went for extra bases. All but two of those came off tonight’s starter Nathan Eovaldi who was a tad wild early with three walks but mostly cruising along.

Ironically, Texas’ next and only other hit of the night was a triple by Joc Pederson and the Royals’ only two hits the rest of the way were a couple of singles that did no damage.

Overall, that was a pretty annoying experience and just the latest of several chances for Texas to move back to .500 that went to waste.

Player of the Game: Josh Jung and Brandon Nimmo led the way with a couple of hits apiece. All four of those hits were singles, however.

Up Next: The Rangers will resume the climb back to .500 with LHP MacKenzie Gore set to make the start for Texas opposite RHP Seth Lugo for Kansas City.

The Wednesday evening first pitch from Kauffman Stadium is again scheduled for 6:40 pm CDT and you can catch it on the Rangers Sports Network.

CLEVELAND — On a night when the Yankees wanted Gerrit Cole to pitch like an ace and pick up an overtaxed and short-handed bullpen, the opposite happened. 

But a win’s a win. 

Five relievers combined to throw five scoreless innings behind Cole, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. shut up a chorus of “Overrated!” chants by hitting a tiebreaking eighth-inning home run to lift the Yankees to a 3-2 victory against the Guardians in front of 27,154 at Progressive Field on Tuesday night. 

“Tremendous,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Everyone really doing their job really well.” 

Battling the humidity, Cole wasn’t sharp at the wrong time, given that the Yankees burned through seven relievers Monday in a 10-inning win. There was double-barreled action in the bullpen during the fourth, which Cole escaped unscathed on his 83rd and final pitch. 

Making his fourth start after Tommy John surgery and his second straight against Cleveland, Cole tired after allowing two runs on two walks and five hits — all singles, including one that was about a foot from clearing the 19-foot wall in left field — while striking out four. 

“At a certain point, I was just so gassed,” Cole said. “It’s just like survival mode.” 

But Paul Blackburn, Tim Hill, Camilo Doval (2-0), Jake Bird and Fernando Cruz came to the rescue, even though all but Cruz were pitching for at least the second straight game. Blackburn tagged out a runner steps from home plate on a failed squeeze bunt. 

With David Bednar unavailable after throwing 38 total pitches over back-to-back games, Cruz recorded the final five outs for his first save. His biggest out was inducing a fly ball to center field from slugger José Ramírez with two on and two out to end the eighth. 

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

“We don’t have the big names [in the bullpen], but we’re a special group,” Cruz told The Post. “We’re hungry. We’re really united. And we’re really into taking the task. There’s something really special going on back there.” 

Then Cruz struck out the side in the ninth. 

“He’s saved our bacon a bunch of times this year,” Boone said. “He’s put out so many fires for us in the biggest moments of the game.” 

With the score tied 2-2, the Guardians kept Tim Herrin in the game after his scoreless seventh specifically to pitch lefty-on-lefty to Chisholm, who launched a full-count pitch into the right field seats using slugger Aaron Judge’s bat. 

“He’s a good pitcher and he doesn’t really miss his spots,” Chisholm said. “For him to miss in that spot, it’s like a huge sigh of relief.” 

Chisholm didn’t leave the batter’s box until the ball descended 360 feet away and milked his home run trot as the boos loudened. Was he fueled by being called overrated? 

“Oh yeah,” Chisholm said. “I think that’s why I overswung the at-bat before. The next at-bat I was like, ‘Keep your composure.’ I love [the chants] kind of. I feel like that was the loudest chants all day.” 

Chisholm’s was the second Yankees long ball of the game. 

Spencer Jones hit his first career home run in his 33rd at-bat to provide a 2-0 lead in the second inning. The No. 6 prospect in the organization also singled to continue a promising four-game stretch since his second call-up. 

The Guardians tied the score at 2-2 and left the bases loaded in the third. 

Chase DeLauter’s two-out RBI single ate up lightning-rod shortstop Anthony Volpe, who couldn’t keep the ball in the infield. The 96 mph smash hopped right in front of Volpe as he shifted his body to the side and wound up on his butt. 

“Bullet, ’tweener,” Boone said. “With a man on second there, one you want to try and body up if you can. Tough play.” 

Cole was booed after hitting Rhys Hoskins on the knuckles by coming up and in. Hoskins fell flat on his back — just six days after Hoskins homered off Cole. 

Maybe Cole’s mind still was sidetracked because he was late covering first base — in shades of the 2024 World Series — after Angel Martínez hit a hard ground ball to first base that was stopped on a dive by Paul Goldschmidt. The costly delay — Cole was thinking double off the bat — resulted in a bang-bang RBI single. 

The trainer visited the mound to check Cole after he slid bare hand first into the bag. No injury concern looms, and even Boone admitted the check-in was as much to let Cole catch his breath as to test his hand. 

“That’s about as deep of a jam as you can get in,” Cole said. “I guess the good part is we were able to escape with two and keep us in the game.”

PITTSBURGH –– For most teams, spotting Paul Skenes an early two-run lead would be a death sentence.

For the red-hot Dodgers, it was just a temporary challenge en route to another blowout win.

In a 12-3 defeat of the Pirates on Tuesday night, the Dodgers erased their early deficit by tagging Skenes with two runs in his six-inning start, then unloaded on the Pittsburgh bullpen in a 10-run seventh-inning onslaught.

The 10 runs marked the most the Dodgers had scored in one inning since June 2021.

The rally also featured a milestone moment for first baseman Freddie Freeman, who collected his 2,500th career hit in his second time up in the frame with an RBI single.

“That’s a special inning,” said Freeman, who had also doubled and scored in the top of the sixth.

The Dodgers’ turnaround had been well underway before then, beginning with another solid effort from journeyman Eric Lauer in his third start with the team.

After giving up back-to-back home runs in the first, Lauer retired 15 of the final 16 batters he faced in a 5 ⅔-inning, two-run performance, giving him a 2.76 ERA since joining the club in a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays last month.

“He was doing what he does,” Roberts said. “He gets ahead, he mixes speeds, doesn’t walk guys, and I thought he did a great job. He left a couple pitches up early for the homers, but outside of that, unscathed and got into a good rhythm.”

Lauer’s performance also gave the Dodgers time to figure out Skenes, with the club getting one run in the second (on a Kyle Tucker sacrifice fly) and another in the sixth (on a Max Muncy RBI single) to level the score.

“He’s as tough as they come, and the first couple innings, I thought it was gonna be tough,” Roberts said. “But we scratched one across early to answer back from that two-run inning they had … And then we tacked on another one. So that was big. So to get him out of the game after the sixth inning was a big feat.”

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Indeed, with Skenes at 103 pitches by the end of the sixth, Pittsburgh turned to the bullpen to begin the seventh. 

What followed was an unmitigated disaster. 

Fifteen Dodgers batters came to the plate. The first nine of them all reached safely and scored. The team racked up seven hits (including a two-run homer from Andy Pages and RBI double from Shohei Ohtani), four walks (including two with the bases loaded) and a run-scoring error. By the time it was done, three Pirates relievers had combined for 68 total pitches.

As for the hole the Dodgers had faced at the start of the night? Long buried, and completely forgotten.

What it means

The Dodgers (43-24) keep on rolling, improving to 19-6 in their last 25 games.

Tuesday marked the fifth time in that stretch they’ve scored double-digit runs, and already the 11th instance overall this year. Only one other team has more than seven such games this year: the Washington Nationals, with nine.

“I think it just shows what we can do,” said Mookie Betts, who had two hits including a second-inning double that led to the Dodgers’ first run. “I mean, obviously we would love to do that all the time. But it just shows that we’re capable of it [when] we’re just grinding.”

Who’s hot

The Dodgers did not hit Skenes well during his Cy Young campaign last year, held scoreless in two starts and 12 innings against him.

On Tuesday, however, Muncy helped them flip the script. 

Muncy went 3-for-3 against Skenes in the win and directly contributed to the two runs the Dodgers scored against him, setting up Tucker’s sacrifice fly with a second-inning single before tying the game with a high hopper in the sixth that got past second baseman Brandon Lowe.

Muncy also had a double in the fourth, then walked after Skenes exited in the seventh, helping raise his batting average to .269 and OPS to .875. He is in the driver’s seat to be the National League’s starting third baseman in the All-Star Game.

Who’s not

Will Smith missed a third-straight game with neck stiffness, and is becoming “more of a possibility” to land on the injured list, manager Dave Roberts said before the game.

Smith has not played since last Friday with a neck issue that Roberts said came “out of nowhere.”

Up next

Shohei Ohtani (6-2, 0.74 ERA) will play both ways again on Wednesday, as the Dodgers face Pittsburgh right-hander Jared Jones (1-0, 4.82 ERA).

The Toronto Blue Jays (32-35) got some help from Jhoan Duran’s faulty PitchCom as they walked it off against the Philadelphia Phillies (36-30) by a score of 3-2 in game two of the series.

Zack Wheeler and Dylan Cease went punch for punch as two of the best starters in the game, each allowing one run across six innings of work. It was Cease’s first start back after two weeks on the injured list and he showed no signs of rust, striking out 11 Phillies hitters.

Cease’s lone blemish on the scorecard came in the first inning as doubles by Trea Turner and Brandon Marsh staked the Phillies to an early 1-0 lead.

Wheeler left a fastball up in the zone to Jesus Sanchez that he sent to the right field seats to tie the game with one out in the bottom of the sixth.

Both bullpens held serve bridging the gap to their closers, with Orion Kerkering going an inning plus and Jose Alvarado shutting the door in the eighth. Jeff Hoffman also pitched a scoreless seventh inning after struggling much of the year for the Jays.

Louis Varland and Duran will both likely take the mound at or near the end of the All Star Game in July, but tonight they were unextraordinary.

Varland came into the game with a 0.26 ERA and doubled it with his second earned run allowed of the season in 36+ innings when he walked Bryce Harper on four pitches to open the inning and Harper later came home to score on an inside out punch shot RBI double by Bryson Stott down the left field line to give the Phillies the 2-1 advantage.

Duran had been perfect in save opportunities on the season but after allowing a lead-off single to Sanchez to begin the bottom of the inning, he began complaining of issues with the PitchCom receiver in his hat. It was clearly not resolved during his next at bat against Yohendrick Pinango, as he crossed up JT Realmuto on a pitch that caught JT near the wrist and caused the Phillies staff to bring out a replacement receiver. Up 0-2 against Jays’ catcher, Brandon Valenzuela, a breaking ball got away from Duran and Realmuto and the tying run came home on the wild pitch. Valenzuela turned on a fastball down the middle on the next pitch to end it.

Jesus Luzardo takes the mound in the rubber match against Max Scherzer who is also making his first start back from the injured list after being sidelined since late April.

The Spencer Jones experiment has been extremely interesting over the first few weeks we’ve seen it. Yankee fans have been wondering aloud how a player with such titanic power, but such concerning holes in his swing, would fare against big-league pitching.

The early results have been mixed. He’s kept up his reputation as someone who usually gets a hit whenever he makes contact and he hasn’t looked too overmatched, but he’s also still running a gigantic strikeout rate. It probably doesn’t help that he keeps facing flamethrowers.

We’ve all been wondering, though, when we’d see that titanic power. It turns out, all we needed was to see him get a mistake from a softer throwing righty, as he pummeled a cutter left over the plate by Slade Cecconi for his first major league home run in the second inning to give the Yanks an early lead. A later home run by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and an impressive five-out save by Fernando Cruz finished off a 3-2 win over the Guardians to secure a series victory.

The game started innocently enough on both sides. Paul Goldschmidt was the only baserunner in a scoreless first for Slade Cecconi, while Gerrit Cole sat down the Guardians 1-2-3 in the bottom half.

That ended as soon as the second inning started. Chisholm worked a six-pitch walk after falling behind 0-2 before Cecconi grooved an absolute cookie down the pipe on 1-0 to Jones, who demolished it 443 feet to dead center field for his first career home run, giving the Yankees a quick 2-0 lead.

Cole got into trouble in the bottom half after a single by Rhys Hoskins and a catcher’s interference call, but worked out of it. Trent Grisham and Goldschmidt both hit singles in the third to threaten further, but a heads up play by Kyle Manzardo cut down on Grisham at the plate on a potential double play ball.

Things unraveled for Cole in the third. After two quick outs, he gave up a single to perennial Yankee killer José Ramirez, who then stole second. With two outs and a runner on second, Chase DeLauter smoked a ball up the middle that Anthony Volpe completely misread, jumping out of the way instead of knocking it down, leading to an RBI single.

While that play could’ve ended the inning, it’s hard to put full blame on Volpe for the rest of the inning. Cole lost Manzardo, plunked Hoskins, and failed to cover first on a play that will give you major flashbacks to tie the game at two. Did all of these extra pitches and baserunners happen because Volpe didn’t make the play? Sure, but if any pitcher should be able to pick up his defense, it’s Cole.

The Yankees had a chance to respond in the fourth after singles by Jones and Ryan McMahon, but stranded them. Cleveland had a chance to take the lead on a laboring Cole with a long single by Austin Hedges and a walk by Travis Bazzana, but the former Cy Young gritted his way through the end of a difficult, four-inning outing.

After Cecconi worked around a two-out walk in the fifth, the Guardians threatened again off Paul Blackburn, putting runners on the corners with one out. The struggling Steven Kwan tried to safety squeeze Manzardo home, but Blackburn made a head’s up play off the mound to tag him out trying to score.

Cecconi finished up his outing with another scoreless inning in the sixth, putting a bow on a second consecutive quality start against the Yankees. Blackburn, Tim Hill, and Camilo Doval were able to get the next six outs to send this game into the eighth, still tied at two.

Tim Herrin, who tossed a scoreless seventh, got to start the eighth and jumped ahead of Chisholm 0-2. For the second time today, a Guardians pitcher was unable to execute a pitch to put away the Yankees’ second baseman, running the count full before hanging a slider that was demolished into the right field seats for a go-ahead home run.

Herrin was pulled for Matt Festa with one out, who got out of the inning after allowing a single to McMahon. With the bullpen depleted, Aaron Boone went to Jake Bird to start the eighth, and just like yesterday, a Yankees’ reliever failed to get outs against their lane. With two on and one out, Boone pulled him for the only fresh reliever on the roster, Fernando Cruz, who did his usual sorcery to get out of the inning with a strikeout of Bazzana and a flyout from J-Ram.

Shawn Armstrong put up a quick 1-2-3 inning for the Guardians in the top of the ninth, setting up Cruz to go for the five-out save. Walking DeLauter on four pitches wasn’t a great start, but he got a pair of swords to strike out Manzardo and Hoskins. Angel Martinez was the last man standing, and he was equally helpless against the deadliest splitter in the game, as Cruz locked down just his second save as a Yankee.

The Yanks will go for the sweep in another mid-week matinee against the Guardians tomorrow at 1:10 pm EST on YES. It’ll be Carlos Rodón up against lefty Parker Messick.

Box Score

Eric Lauer held his own against Paul Skenes into the sixth inning, then the Dodgers broke loose against Not Paul Skenes in a 12-3 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night at PNC Park.

A tie game entering the seventh inning quickly became untied as Pirates reliever Wilber Dotel allowed five hits and a walk to his six batters faced, and all of them scored. Andy Pages hit a two-run home run to break things open.

It took 10 Dodgers to bat in the seventh before the Pirates bullpen recorded its first out. And they weren’t done yet. Two games after a nine-run inning against the Angels that was the Dodgers’ best in five years, they scored 10 runs in the seventh inning on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

The 10th run of the frame was driven home on a single by Freddie Freeman, the 2,500th hit of his illustrious career.

Keeping the flow

PNC Park stands at the confluence of three rivers in Pittsburgh, so perhaps adding a fourth River into the mix might represent a Roberto Clemente Bridge too far. So while River Ryan is in Charlotte and set to start on Wednesday for Triple-A Oklahoma City, Lauer remains in the rotation, and thus far has basically done exactly what was asked of him when the Dodgers acquired the left-hander from the Toronto Blue Jays on May 17.

Lauer allowed a pair of two-out home runs in the first inning, which is going to happen sometimes considering the left-hander has the third-highest home runs per nine innings (2.56) among major league pitchers with at least 40 innings. But after the home runs, Lauer retired 15 of his final 16 batters faced, leaving in a 2-2 tie after 5 2/3 innings, with five strikeouts and no walks.

What was an uphill battle facing Skenes was smoothed out a bit by Lauer pitching as deep as he did, and the Dodgers giving themselves several chances against the Pirates ace.

In five starts against Skenes, the Dodgers have 25 total hits (in 112 at-bats), but 13 are for extra-bases. Mookie Betts got one of those with a double to lead off the second inning, and scored the first run for Los Angeles. Max Muncy doubled with one out in the fourth, but Skenes struck out Kyle Tucker and Ryan Ward to end that threat.

But the Dodgers kept threatening against Skenes, reaching base in every inning from the second through the sixth, including a one-out double in the sixth by Freeman, his 2,499th career hit. One out later, Max Muncy grounded a ball that took a hop past second baseman Brandon Lowe for his third hit of the game, scoring Freeman with the equalizer.

As good as Skenes has been this season — a 3.08 ERA, 2.29 xERA — the Pirates have managed to lose eight of his 14 starts, despite having a winning record (34-33) overall. Seeing the bullpen makes that more understandable.

Two sides of aggression

Dalton Rushing walked to open the fifth, but his slide into second base on a grounder might have been acceptable 50 years ago, well off the bag and into Pirates shortstop Jared Triolo. Instead, he was rightfully called for interference, turning a forceout into a double play, neutering a potential scoring opportunity.

Rushing channeled that aggression more productively in the seventh inning, with a single and going from first base to third on a single to left center. Then on a pickoff throw by catcher Henry Davis, Rushing went back into the bag standing up, remaining in the way of third baseman Nick Gonzalez. The throw hit Rushing and caromed into foul territory, allowing him to easily score the go-ahead run.

That run seemed important at the time, but got washed away under the avalanche of runs during the frame.

Tuesday particulars

Home runs: Andy Pages (15); Bryan Reynolds (7), Ryan O’Hearn (10)

WP — Will Klein (2-2): 1 1/3 IP, 3 strikeouts

LP — Wilber Dotel (1-1): 0 IP, 5 hits, 6 runs (5 earned), 1 walk

Up next

The Dodgers and Pirates are back at it on Wednesday (3:40 p.m. PT; SportsNet LA, MLB Network), with Shohei Ohtani on the mound for the middle game of the series, and Jared Jones pitching for the Pirates in his third start back from the injured list. Weather permitting, of course.