Category: Baseball

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At the start of the year, and through the early weeks of the season, it felt like Arizona could almost have assembled a full roster of players on one of the injured lists. However, it now feels like the tide may have turned, and the team are now looking to get these players back and available again. For this week’s question, I want to take a look at one player who returned this week, and three who should be returning in future, and see which one you think will have the most impact. To that end, I purposely excluded Corbin Burnes and A.J. Puk, because they are really going to be back in September, if at all. That’s a little too far out for purposes here.

But here are the four candidates, in alphabetical order.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

He’s already back, having rejoined the team on June 15, and contributed a key RBI hit in that night’s 4-3 win over the Angels. Gurriel had missed the least amount of time of the four candidates, having been out for 21 games with a left hamstring strain. But he also missed the first twenty games this year recovering from ACL surgery in his other leg. The results have been underwhelming so far, with just a .563 OPS and worth -0.4 bWAR. He’ll need to pick up the pace significantly – and also, avoid further IL stints – if he wants the team to pick up his $14 million option for next season.

James McCann

McCann has been out for almost exactly a month, hitting the IL on May 19 with a strain of his right quadriceps – not something you want as a catcher. However, Torey Lovullo said on Monday that James will start playing in the Arizona Complex League next week. While the backup catcher spot is perhaps not particularly important, the fact that in his absence, the role has been filled by Aramis Garcia (OPS+ 28) and Adrian Del Castillo (55) mean there’s definite room for improvement. That’s in addition to McCann’s good reputation for calling games and working with the pitching staff. And besides, we need his arm out of the bullpen. 🙂

Justin Martinez

We haven’t heard much about J-Mart of late. He was originally expected to be the last of our three big pitching pieces back, but it now looks like he’ll beat Puk and Burnes. The last update was on May 10, when Torey Lovullo said Martinez had started throwing bullpens, and was already hitting 99 mph. It is his second Tommy John procedure, so caution is to be expected. But an August return would potentially be a valuable addition to the bullpen for the Diamondbacks, if they are looking to make a second-half push for a postseason spot. The bullpen, while much better than some years, still ranks only mid-table by most metrics.

Carlos Santana

Yeah, I know… However, the bar for the D-backs at 1B has been so incredibly low, that he might still actually be of help. Going into today’s game – where LuJames Groover went 0-for-4, so didn’t help – Arizona’s OPS at 1B was just .569. That is the lowest at the position for a season, by any major-league team since 1920. If Santana could simply hit, not even at his career average, but simply the figure he posted over 124 games last year for the Guardians and Cubs, the resulting ..633 OPS would be a clear improvement over what we’ve received in his absence. With Groover’s OPS now starting with a “3” after today, I suspect he’ll be the move made.

So, which of the players listed above, do you think will have the biggest impact on the team when they return? Here’s a poll, and as ever, feel free to explain yourself in the comments below!

After Wednesday’s 12-4 defeat to the Miami Marlins where Andrew Painter surrendered six runs in just two innings of work, the Phillies will be shaking up the back of their rotation by optioning Andrew Painter to AAA.

The Phillies have tried everything with Painter. They’ve tweaked his usage in certain starts to limit fastball damage, they’ve used an opener, and they gave him 14 appearances to figure this out. With a 7.06 ERA in 65.0 innings pitched, nothing stuck long enough.

Through roughly the first two and a half months of the season, the Phillies have cycled through their number five and six starting pitching options from the big league roster. They went into the season with Taijuan Walker making starts with Zack Wheeler injured but he was released after just 22.2 innings of work because he had an ERA over 9.

Now with Painter out, there is no clear answer for what the Phillies will do on the rotation’s fifth turn. Matt Gelb wrote that former Atlanta Brave and Chicago White Sox Bryse Wilson had triggered his upward mobility clause in his minor league contract, which could force the Phillies to add him to the roster. In 54.1 innings with the Iron Pigs, Wilson carries a 6.29 ERA with 2.76 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Alan Rangel is already on the 40-man roster and pitched for the Phillies earlier this year when they had Kyle Backhus open for the aforementioned Walker in the middle of their ten game losing streak. Rangel has looked solid, albeit not super inspiring with the Pigs, carrying a 3.74 ERA in 65.0 innings.

Maybe the Phillies try bullpen games to patch things until the trade deadline. The bullpen lost a key leverage arm in Brad Keller to the injured list but have built up plenty of depth through minor league signings and waiver claims. They have the options to make it work even if it’s not an ideal scenario to go through every fifth day.

Whatever path the Phillies go down, it will be without Andrew Painter, as he heads down to Lehigh Valley to figure out who he is moving forward.

Here’s the Guardians’ lineup:

Here’s the Brewers’ lineup:

Let’s go, Guardians!

Before they take a ride down the Canyon of Heroes on Thursday morning, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart made a pit stop at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night.

The newly crowned NBA champions threw out the ceremonial first pitches before the Yankees hosted the White Sox, and the two Knicks received a loud ovation from the crowd as the city continued to soak up the franchise’s first title in 53 years.

“I know [Thursday’s] just going to be otherworldly as far as a parade goes,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But it’ll be great to see those guys tonight. I’m sure they’re having a pretty good week.”

Brunson, the Finals MVP, threw to J.C. Escarra while Hart threw to Max Schuemann. 

Boone, a 76ers fan at heart, described the Knicks’ 16-3 showing in the playoffs as “a captivating run” that will have a lasting impact.

“I think it’ll be one of the historic teams that we talk about when it comes to the NBA,” Boone said. “Every championship is obviously memorable and going back to [Michael] Jordan and that run and the Lakers and the Celtics, what the Warriors [did], on and on, however you want to look at it. I think this team, in the annals of the NBA, will be talked about for a long, long time.”

After throwing all of his pitches “with good intensity” Tuesday in his first full bullpen session since going on the injured list with a left elbow bone bruise last month, Max Fried reported feeling good on Wednesday, the latest positive sign in his comeback.

The left-hander will still need to show improved healing in his elbow before he is cleared to fully ramp up towards a return, but assuming he continues to bounce back well in the coming days, Fried will throw another bullpen session this weekend. 

“Just talking to him today, he said, ‘I felt great during it and then feel good coming into today,’” Boone said. “So it’s been encouraging, really every step of the way, since even the couple days after the Baltimore start when he went on the IL. He’s responded well to everything, which I’m hoping is a really good sign for him and for us long-term.”

Facing White Sox lefty Anthony Kay (who had drastic left/right splits) on Wednesday, Boone started José Caballero in left field, Cody Bellinger in center field and Jasson Domínguez in right field.

Bellinger moving to center for a day opened up left field for Domínguez, but instead Boone opted to keep him in his new home in right to get him a steady dose of reps there to see if it can work moving forward.

Boone did not have an update on George Lombard Jr., the club’s top prospect who left Tuesday’s Triple-A game early after getting his left wrist/hand jammed while covering second base on a steal. … Austin Wells (cervical headaches) came through his first rehab game Tuesday without issue and was scheduled to start at catcher again on Wednesday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before its game got rained out.

The Rays tried their best to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers and a 1-5 road trip, but came up just a bit short this afternoon losing their fourth of four 1-run games on this west coast trip.

The team came into the contest on a 16-inning scoreless streak having last scored a run in the second inning of the opening game in this series, and for awhile, it looked as if that streak could get much longer. Through four innings, Shohei Ohtani held the offense at bay scattering two hits over four innings while lowering his ERA to 1.00 on the season. Ohtani came into the 5th inning with a two-run lead that could have been much worse after a leadoff walk to Mookie Betts led to the first run after a single by Alex Call. Call then easily stole second off the battery of Shane McClanahan and Hunter Feduccia, who then came around to score on a Alex Freeland single after a walk to Dalton Rushing. Tommy Edman would then walk, but Casey Legumina was able to strand the bases loaded by getting the National League’s RBI leader, Andy Pages, to line out softly to Taylor Walls.

The Rays came into the top of the 5th having not scored in 20 consecutive innings before finally showing some life offensively. Victor Mesa Jr. led the inning off with a walk before Feduccia lined a double deep to left center giving the Rays more runners in scoring position than they had in yesterday’s game. Walls drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly, followed up with consecutive singles by Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda. Cedric Mullins then went on to hit what was scored an infield single which was aided by a slow initial reaction by Ohtani to cover the bag. The single gave Mullins at least one hit against all 30 major league teams over the course of his career. Junior Caminero drove in Diaz on a fielder’s choice that involved two athletic plays on both ends by Tommy Edman and Freeland to prevent things from getting worse. Yet another single in the inning, this time by Richie Palacios, gave the club a two-run lead before the rally was ended by Chandler Simpson bunting into the third out.

A leadoff walk to Freddie Freeman followed by consecutive well-aimed soft contact balls by Betts and Miguel Rojas loaded the bases with nobody out. Garrett Cleavinger came in to relieve Legumina and walked Kyle Tucker in a nine-pitch at bat in which Tucker chased early, but then tightened up his zone and drew the walk after fouling off several close sweepers:

That run would miraculously be the only run of the inning as Cleavinger would go on to induce weak contact flyouts to both Alex Call and Dalton Rushing before overpowering UCF’s Alex Freeland weith three sliders much to the delight of USF alum Shane McClanahan.

The game would remain 4-3 until a one-out double by Andy Pages was followed by a two-run homer to Freddie Freeman on a pitch Feduccia wanted on the other side of the plate and Kelly simply missed his spot in the worst possible place to a lefty, let alone one destined for Cooperstown when it is all said and done:

Kevin Cash would go on to nearly empty the bench in the later innings to counter the lefties coming out of the pen in Jack Dreyer and Alex Vesia, and it nearly worked. Austin Slater drew a leadoff walk from Vesia in the 9th and subsequently swiped second base. Ben Williamson and Walls had two unproductive outs, but an intentional walk to Diaz and yet another walk to Aranda brought Mullins to the plate with the bases loaded. Mullins chased a high fastball in a 1-0 count before spitting on two other fastballs and swingingly helplessly at two sliders that would end the game.

The Rays were held scoreless in 24 of the final 25 innings of this series and have the overnight flight home tonight to reset before taking on the surging Nationals this weekend. Neither starting pitcher had a great line in this game. Ohtani has now allowed three or more earned runs in consecutive starts while McClanahan ended a 10-game streak of walking two or fewer batters in his outings. He had 11 batters in his last 10 starts after the consecutive four-walk outings early in the season. The Dodgers were incredibly disciplined in this outing chasing just 13 of McClanahan’s offering out of the zone and were also aided by several ABS overturns on what would have been 2025 strikeouts.

It appears Jonny DeLuca will be back for this weekend to give the club some much-needed help in the lineup, and perhaps that playing time comes at the expense of Simpson who is now mired in a 3 for 44 slump wrapped around the hand issue that hit him in May. The club needs to find some type of offense spark to snap out of this cold stretch which has seen them lose too much ground in the standings and now have an 11-16 record in Interleague play with six more interleague contests coming up on this 10-game homestand. Hopefully they can find a way to snap out of this June swoon.

After a disappointing loss on Monday, the Colorado Rockies rallied back on Tuesday night with a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs to tie up the series. Now, they will turn to a rookie starting pitcher for his second career appearance as they look to snag a series victory.

Sean Sullivan (0-0, 0.00 ERA) takes the mound for the Rockies for the second time. His last start in Las Vegas against the Athletics looked good for three innings before it was cut short. Sullivan had to depart the game because he had been feeling ill before, during, and after the start. Heat stroke didn’t help matters either. Still, he showed off how effective he can be as a pitcher despite averaging a fastball under 90 mph. While the Cubs have been in a tough place lately, they still have some dangerous hitters who should prove to be another worthwhile challenge for the young lefty.

Javier Assad (4-1, 3.99 ERA) takes the mound for the Cubs. Assad started the year in the rotation for the Cubs but was moved to the bullpen after three mixed starts. He made five relief appearances after that before being optioned to Triple-A in mid-May, where he struggled to a 7.31 ERA over five starts. Assad was recalled to the Cubs on June 6 as a rotation reinforcement and has looked good in his two starts. Since returning, he has thrown 12.1 scoreless innings, having surrendered just four hits and two walks while striking out 10. He has made six appearances, including five starts, against the Rockies in his career, while sporting a 4.94 ERA. His last start against Colorado came in 2025, where he allowed three runs over six innings at Coors Field.

And now to the details.

First Pitch: 6:05 pm MDT

TV: Rockies TV

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)

SB Nation site: Bleed Cubbie Blue

Lineups:

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

The San Francisco Giants have another doubleheader today, after their eventual 7-2 win over the Atlanta Braves was paused in the second inning on Tuesday, and finished earlier today.

Because of the doubleheader, the teams are given a 27th player for the second game, and that’s exciting for the Giants, because it means the season debut of lefty Carson Whisenhunt, who will make the start. Whisenhunt has pitched in 14 games for AAA Sacramento this year, and is 5-2 with a 3.65 ERA, a 3.61 FIP, and 77 strikeouts to 30 walks in 69 innings. The one thing he’s struggled this year is going deep into games due to a constantly high pitch count, but that’s not as big of an issue today as it sometimes is in doubleheaders, as San Francisco only used two relievers (Dylan Smith and Caleb Kilian) in the first game of the day.

In addition to calling up Whisenhunt, the Giants made a move between games, calling up lefty reliever Matt Gage, while optioning lefty reliever Reiver Sanmartin.

Atlanta is sticking with their scheduled starter, after finishing the first game with a bullpen showing. That means righty JR Ritchie will take the mound. Ritchie is in his debut season, and turns 23 later this month. He’s appeared in six games this year, while making five starts, and is 1-1 with a 3.82 ERA, a 5.15 FIP, and 26 strikeouts to 18 walks in 30.2 innings. He threw five shutout innings against the New York Mets his last time out.

Enjoy the game, everyone.

Lineups

Giants

1. Luis Arráez — 2B
2. Bryce Eldridge — 1B
3. Matt Chapman — 3B
4. Rafael Devers — DH
5. Jung Hoo Lee — RF
6. Willy Adames — SS
7. Casey Schmitt — LF
8. Drew Gilbert — CF
9. Eric Haase — C

LHP. Carson Whisenhunt

Braves

1. Mauricio Dubón — CF
2. Drake Baldwin — DH
3. Matt Olson — 1B
4. Ozzie Albies — 2B
5. Austin Riley — 3B
6. Eli White — LF
7. Jorge Mateo — SS
8. Mike Yastrzemski — RF
9. Sandy León — C

RHP. JR Ritchie

Game #74

Who: San Francisco Giants (30-43) vs. Atlanta Braves (46-26)

Where: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia

When: 4:15 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

The Braves turn to JR Ritchie on the mound as they look to earn a split from a virtual doubleheader on Wednesday night after 7.5 innings of Tuesday’s game played were played Wednesday afternoon.

The vibes are as bad as they’ve been all season for the team, and the lineup for Game 2, which is missing Michael Harris II after he exited Tuesday night with lower back tightness once again, doesn’t help that.

Drake Baldwin moves down to the second spot in the lineup and will DH again, with Mauricio Dubon batting leadoff and playing in center with Sandy Leon behind the plate. The Braves also called up Jair Camargo as their extra roster member and emergency catcher, making sure Baldwin won’t need to catch the nightcap.

The Giants, on the other hand, are keeping their lineup almost exactly the same. The only change is swapping out Eric Haase behind the plate and in the nine spot for Daniel Susac, who hit ninth and caught the first game of the series.

San Francisco will give left-hander Carson Whisenhunt his first start of the season against Ritchie in a matchup of pitchers each making their sixth career major league starts.

Tune in and see if the Braves can avoid dropping a third straight series or if they force a Thursday rubber match.

Game Notes

Preview

Some unfortunate Ronald Acuña Jr. news between games

Similarly to how it seemed likely that the Braves were going to be without Ronald Acuña Jr. for a bit, it seemed inevitable that Spencer Strider would be put on the longer-term IL eventually once it got out that he’d be shut down for at least a month.

That appears to be the case, as the Braves have gone ahead and moved Strider to the 60-Day IL.

So while Strider is being shut down for four weeks, that also meant that even if all went well with his future IL, it would take a while for Strider to ramp up and get back into big league pitching shape, so this is simply a way to open up a roster spot for Carlos Carrasco. I’d say that this could be a sign that Cookie might be staying around for a bit longer but it still wouldn’t be shocking if he had to ride the DFA cycle once more in the near future.

Meanwhile, Anthony Molina is back in Triple-A Gwinnett and Hunter Stratton has been designated for assignment, himself. All of this roster shuffling is starting to look similar to what was going on in 2025 and that’s not exactly a positive. Obviously, here’s hoping that we’ve (finally) seen the worst of this bad injury luck for the Braves and that once these guys get healthy, they get healthy for good. It’s been a long, long time since we’ve seen the Braves operate at full strength and as we’ve seen, this could be a special team if the core players could stay healthy.

For now, Spencer Strider will be given all the time in the world to get healthy while the Braves continue to try to figure things out with their pitching staff with the trade deadline in the distance. We’ll see what happens.

The Yankees emphatically grew their lead in the AL East last night by thrashing the up-and-coming White Sox 12-2 at the Stadium—while the Rays dropped another contest to the Dodgers over on the West Coast. It was about as good of a night as you could hope for the Bombers to start their homestand.

To make the vibes even more immaculate, the NBA champion New York Knicks will be at the stadium to receive their heroes’ welcome from the Bronx crowd. Hey, maybe the nearby presence of newly-minted champs will have a positive residual effect on the Yankees going forward. They’re already rounding back into form, winners of three straight and eight of their last ten.

Gerrit Cole flushed a first-inning homer to complete a six-inning quality start, subduing a White Sox offense which has plenty of pesky young players; even as they lack their new star, Munetaka Murakami. Carlos Rodón, who began his career on the South Side, is tasked with keeping them at bay tonight. He’s begun to hit his stride, finishing the sixth inning in each of his last three starts: all of which were eventual Yankee victories. The last time he saw the Sox was in his final start of the 2025 regular season, in which he also went six innings, striking out five and giving up three runs. He’ll be facing them for the fourth time in his career overall.

The White Sox’ rebuild has centered around their farm system like most teams, but the international market has played a massive role. In addition to Murakami, they signed Anthony Kay to fill their rotation. Kay signed with Yokohama a few years back and succeeded in NPB, earning a free agent deal with Chicago—his results since returning stateside have been mixed. He carries a 4.34 ERA through his first 14 appearances, with low strikeout numbers and an elevated walk rate. Additionally, he’s plunked 12 batters, more than anyone else in baseball.

Paul Goldschmidt will be leading off this evening against the southpaw Kay, with Ben Rice to follow and Amed Rosario hitting third. Jasson Domínguez and Ali Sánchez will draw in for lefties Spencer Jones and J.C. Escarra—Domínguez will play in right field while José Caballero handles left.

How to watch

Location: Yankee Stadium — The Bronx, NY

First pitch: 7:05 pm ET

TV broadcast: Amazon Prime Video, Chicago Sports Network

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY); ESPN Chicago, WMVP 1000AM (CHW)

Streaming: Amazon Prime Video

For updates, follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.

Well, Jays, England won, so I’m in a good mood. DO NOT RUIN IT.

No Mad Max tonight, or for the next two weeks plus (at least). Braydon Fisher will be the opener tonight. After that? I’d imagine SWR will have some part of this game. And Spencer Miles.

I just noticed that tomorrow’s Jays game is a 1:30 Eastern start, which means I’m going to miss some of it. But I will be done and likely having a post tennis beer when the Canada soccer game starts. at 6:00 Eastern. It is a good time of year for a sports fan. The NHL playoffs and NBA players have just ended. Before they ended I could spent all day watching sports….now it is only most of the day.

Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Cedric Mullins collided chest first into the blue padding of the center field wall as he made one last-ditch effort to save his team from a Dodgers home run. His glove, though, came up empty.

Not even a leaping Mullins, one of baseball’s veteran home-run robbers, could stop Freddie Freeman from doing what the Dodgers first baseman does best: hitting clutch home runs.

Freeman’s two-run home run in the sixth inning Wednesday, set up by Andy Pages’ double an at-bat earlier, lifted the Dodgers to a 5-4 win that allowed them to maintain a season-high nine-game lead over their closest National League West rival, the San Diego Padres (38-35). For the Dodgers (48-27), it was their sixth sweep of the season — all while surviving a shaky start on the mound by the usually unshakable Shohei Ohtani.

“He’s like a lot of our guys — when they feel good, they get their rest, production follows,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Freeman. “He’s been good for quite some time.”

Read more:Shohei Ohtani and Justin Wrobleski team up to lead Dodgers over Rays

If Ohtani’s left knee inflammation was bothering the four-time MVP, it didn’t seem to pose that great of a threat as he pitched the first four innings, and he pinch-hit in the sixth inning for Miguel Rojas, who had started at designated hitter.

Tampa Bay (41-30) eventually broke through in the fifth inning, scoring four runs on small-ball hits that found just enough grass. No particular pitch seemed particularly off for Ohtani, though the Rays connected more on his four-seam fastball that inning than the others. A bleeding blister that opened up didn’t help either.

“The stuff was good,” Roberts said. “The sweeper wasn’t as lights out, swing and miss as we’ve seen. He still always finds a way to manage innings and make pitches when he needs to, but yeah, I mean, I think that he was still kind of working through some delivery stuff with the knee.”

A handful of unlucky plays in the fifth left the Dodgers vulnerable. Take Mullins’ single to Freeman. Mullins hit the ball hard enough that Freeman, more than a handful of steps away from first base, wouldn’t be able to make the play unassisted. Ohtani tried his hardest to match Mullins’ speed but couldn’t.

“There was a little confusion with the Shohei inning, as far as you know, Freddie going to second, then Shohei thinking that, so giving them an extra out there,” Roberts said.

After a five-hit inning, Ohtani escaped on a bunt that went to Tommy Edman — playing third base in his return from the injured list — who threw to first for the third out. Ohtani’s ERA, after he surrendered a season-worst four earned runs, rose to 1.47 but still is second only to Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski among pitchers with at least 70 innings.

“I felt good overall,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “It’s just really that inning, that fifth inning, that I wasn’t really too pleased. But aside from that, the stuff was good and felt pretty good overall.”

Rays starter Shane McClanahan also ran into trouble in the fourth inning. Alex Call singled in Mookie Betts for the first run, then stole second base. Call sprinted home on an Alex Freeland single, his helmet popping off and skidding a couple of feet into the grass as he crossed home.

McClanahan left the game with the bases loaded after the left-hander walked Edman — his only time reaching base in an 0-for-3 day — before Pages ended the inning by lining out softly to short against Casey Legumina.

The Dodgers came up short in another bases-loaded opportunity the next inning, squandering a chance to take the lead. Kyle Tucker pushed one run across on a bases-loaded walk. Yet, with no outs, the next three batters — Call, Dalton Rushing and Freeland — went down in order. The Dodgers finished with 11 runners left on base, which nearly cost them.

Alex Vesia put the potential tying run on base with a walk and spent most of his ninth-inning outing with Tampa Bay’s Austin Slater on second. The Dodgers intentionally walked Yandy Díaz with two outs to face Jonathan Aranda, who earned a walk. With the bases loaded, Vesia struck out Mullins swinging to end the game. It capped a stretch of nine scoreless innings by the bullpen in this series after the unit struggled during the team’s recent trip.

“I put myself into that mess,” Vesia said with a small smile while shaking his head. “Rush and I were just — I was leaning on him, to be honest. He had some good words of encouragement during a couple meetings. Just trust my stuff. I felt like I was nibbling around the edge. Overall, I’ll take it. It was a good win for all of us.”

Read more:Shaikin: The Dodgers are ruining baseball! Stop them! But first let me vote for all their players

Injury updates

Teoscar Hernández, out with a hamstring injury, is scheduled to take live batting practice Thursday. A simulated game is also in the works for the 33-year-old outfielder before a rehab game early next week, Roberts said.

Will Smith is unlikely to be reinstated Friday when he is eligible to come off the injured list. The Dodgers still are trying to figure out ways to make sure he doesn’t regress once the catcher comes back from a neck injury. He did a full workout Tuesday.

“I don’t want to put a say on when he’s going to play,” Roberts said. “But each day is getting better.”

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

For most of the afternoon, Wednesday’s game played out frustratingly for the Dodgers.

The team’s lineup squandered a couple key early chances, getting just one total run from two bases-loaded opportunities in the bottom of the fourth and fifth.

Shohei Ohtani, making his 12th pitching start of the season as scheduled despite last week’s knee injury, had his worst inning of the season on the mound, giving up four runs in a nightmare fifth inning that included a leadoff walk and miscommunication with Freddie Freeman on a ground ball to first base.

With a chance to sweep the Rays within their grasp, the Dodgers appeared to be on the verge of letting it slip away.

“But,” manager Dave Roberts said, “we found a way to win.”

Indeed, this Dodgers team has more margin for error than most. They can hang around, stay within striking distance and flip the script on a moment’s notice.

Wednesday, it turned out, would become the latest example, with Freddie Freeman keying the club’s eventual 5-4 victory with a go-ahead two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth.

The squandered bases-loaded chances didn’t end up mattering, despite a three-at-bat sequence with the bags full and no outs in the fifth that “was as bad as it gets,” Roberts said.

Ditto with the four fifth-inning runs Ohtani was charged with in his six-inning start, one that was also hampered by a bloody blister on his right middle finger.

Instead, once Freeman provided the lead with his 12th home run of the year — a towering two-run blast against Rays right-hander Kevin Kelly on a center-cut sinker, turning a one-run deficit into a one-run lead — the club rolled the rest of the way to a third consecutive one-run win in this series, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the top of the ninth when Alex Vesia struck out Cedric Mullins with a full-count slider.

“There’s not a lot of situations where you feel 100%,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “So I just took it as that. It’s big that … we were able to win a game like this.”

What it means

Coming off their first series loss in more than a month to the White Sox last week, the Dodgers (48-27) bounced back in impressive fashion against the Rays (41-30).

They picked up their first series sweep since the Rockies came to town last month and their first against a team with a winning record since a trip to play the Nationals in early April. 

At the 75-game mark, they continue to own the most wins in the majors.

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Who’s hot

It was only a month ago that Freeman seemed to be struggling, mired in a mid-May slump that had dropped his season batting average to .254 and OPS to .737.

As he has so often done over his 17-year career, however, Freeman didn’t panic, looked for tweaks to his swing and trusted his process. 

Ever since, he has rounded back into his perennial All-Star form.

With Wednesday’s go-ahead home run, Freeman is now batting .323 in 27 games since May 19. In that time, he has eight home runs, 14 extra-base hits, 20 RBIs and an OPS over 1.000.

It has helped raise Freeman’s season-long numbers closer to his norm (.279 average, .850 OPS) and catapulted him into the early lead for All-Star Game voting among National League first basemen, as he looks for a 10th career selection to the Midsummer Classic.

Who’s not

Will Smith is making progress from his neck injury, Roberts said before Wednesday’s game, and has been going through on-field activities throughout the week.

However, the catcher is unlikely to be activated from the injured list when he’s eligible Friday, dashing hopes he would only miss the minimum 10 days as he deals with inflammation in a disk.

“We’re just trying to get him to a place where he doesn’t regress with it once he comes back,” Roberts said. “So I guess he’s not out of the woods yet.”

Up next

The Dodgers are off Thursday and continue this homestand Friday by opening a three-game series against the Orioles. 

The Milwaukee Brewers will be looking to secure a series win over the Cleveland Guardians tonight after a win in last night’s pitchers’ duel.

Some pregame notes from Pat Murphy include a positive report on Brandon Woodruff’s rehab start last night for High-A Wisconsin, in which Woodruff was sitting 90-92 mph. He’s expected to rejoin the big league rotation soon and not need another rehab start. Also, there’s no update yet on the decision on Quinn Priester following his appointment with his thoracic outlet specialist, but news should be coming soon.

Meanwhile, for the Brewers’ current rotation, it’s Brandon Sproat’s turn tonight. Sproat is coming off one of his strongest outings yet, despite pitching in the bandbox that was Las Vegas. Sproat went six strong innings, allowing just one run over six innings on 68 pitches. He was efficient and largely kept the ball in that tiny ballpark. He’ll be looking to repeat that strong performance against a fairly weak Guardians lineup that is missing a couple of its best hitters, including José Ramírez.

However, the Guardians will be throwing one of the better starters in the American League tonight with Gavin Williams. The East Carolina product has a 3.32 ERA on the season with a 9-3 record. Williams is tied for the fifth-most strikeouts in baseball this year and ranks in the top 10 in the AL in opponent batting average.

The Brewers’ lineup tasked with going against Williams will include the standard top four in the order with Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, and William Contreras. Jake Bauers gets the start at first base, meaning Andrew Vaughn is on the bench once again. Sal Frelick is in right field, Garrett Mitchell is in center. Cooper Pratt, seeking his first major league hit, is batting eighth for the second consecutive night, with David Hamilton rounding out the bottom of the order.

The Guardians still have a pretty strong 1-2 punch atop their order with Travis Bazzana and Kyle Manzardo. Old Friend Rhys Hoskins is batting cleanup and is the designated hitter. Another old friend, David Fry, traded as a minor leaguer for JC Mejia a few years ago, is batting sixth and playing right field.

The Brewers have already set a franchise record for most wins through 70 games with 44 of them. In their 71st game, can they add to their win total? First pitch is at 6:40 p.m.