One of the scariest sights in Williamsport might just be a big white bow.
That’s because it means that Alabama’s Kinley Rasmus is on the mound, and the 12-year-old Phenix City Little League star has been making waves at this year’s Little League World Series, becoming just the 25th girl to ever compete in the tournament and tying a record previously set by Mo’ne Davis.
Rasmus made headlines this week when she became the first girl since Davis in 2014 to record eight strikeouts in a Little League World Series game during Phenix City’s 2-0 loss to Washington. She allowed just one hit during her time on the mound before moving to shortstop, where she made a run-saving catch.
Pitcher Kinley Rasmus of Phenix City, Alabama, delivers a pitch to a batter for Tacoma, Washington, at the Little League Baseball World Series on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
But her story goes deeper than that, and if her last name sounds familiar, well, that’s because she’s the daughter of former major leaguer Cory Rasmus, who pitched 84 games between the Braves and Angels, and her uncle is veteran outfielder Colby Rasmus.
And the coach of the Phenix City team is also her uncle, Case Rasmus, who played four seasons in the minor leagues.
“It’s just so amazing. Just the opportunity is so great, it’s going to be such a blast,” Rasmus told ESPN before her first pitching appearance in the Little League World Series on Wednesday.
Runner Kinley Rasmus of Phenix City, Alabama, is safe at second base against Tacoma, Washington, at the Little League Baseball World Series on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Rasmus has worn a big white bow in her hair during her games and she and her teammates had coined the phrase “Fear the Bow,” which seems quite fitting for how teams will be feeling going up against her.
“When I hear people say that it, it just brings joy to me,” she said. “Knowing that they’ve got my back and everything I do on the field and it just gives me so much excitement.”
Rasmus has been a big part of helping to get Phenix City to the Little League World Series for the first time in 27 years.
Phenix City will need to get a win on Saturday in the loser’s bracket in order to keep their Little League World Series dreams alive.
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - AUGUST 20: Gage Jump #61 of the Athletics pitches during the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on August 20, 2026 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Athletics couldn’t escape Kansas City with a win in four tries. The club was swept by the Royals in this four-game series, finishing it off with a listless 6-2 loss to wrap things up. Off to Houston.
It was left-hander Gage Jump’s turn in the rotation this afternoon. Things haven’t always been smooth sailing for the rookie in his first big league action but that’s not unexpected for such a young arm.
Unfortunately the Royals were on him early and often today. A solo blast in the first off the bat of Bobby Witt Jr. gave KC a lead they would not relinquish today, then they put up two more runs against Jump in each of the third and fourth innings, then chased him with no outs in the fifth, ending his day earlier than the coaching staff was hoping for.
The bats meanwhile took a while to get going. The A’s would not be shut out today thanks to RBI hits from veteran journeymen Brian Serven and Donovan Walton, but that was about it for the bats today. The Green & Gold collected eight hits, but just one of those went for extra bases.
Well, we got swept. And we’re the worst team in baseball by record. Things can’t get much more worse, can they?
The team leaves KC and is on their way to Houston now for three games against the Astros. Right-hander J. T. Ginn will try to help the A’s snap this skid. He’ll be opposed by Hayden Wesneski. Need to get that 50th win ASAP!
CLEVELAND, OH - AUGUST 20: Cleveland Guardians catcher Patrick Bailey (16) singles to drive in a run during the first inning of the Major League Baseball interleague game between the San Francisco Giants and Cleveland Guardians on August 20, 2026, at Progressive Field in Cleveland, OH. (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
With one out in the 8th inning of Thursday’s afternoon rubber match, Cleveland Guardians center fielder Petey Halpin singled, then got caught leaning by JT Brubaker. The pickoff throw went to Bryce Eldridge, who ran Halpin to Willy Adames, who threw to Osleivis Basabe, who dropped the ball.
Three pitches later, Halpin was at third after Brubaker threw a wild pitch. One pitch after that, he’d scored the final run of Cleveland’s 5-2 win over the San Francisco Giants on an RBI single from Brayan Rocchio.
The Giants would make it interesting in the 9th, drawing two walks off closer Cade Smith (32 saves) after being down to their last strike, but Rafael Devers flew out to end the game and send the Giants to their sixth straight series loss, and their 9th road series loss in a row.
The story of the game was, once again, poor Giants defense. Little Leaguers can successfully execute a pickle, but not the Cement Glove keystone duo of Basabe and Willy Adames, who committed his 18th error of the season and also fumbled the exchange on a potential double play.
Cleveland’s three-run first-inning rally got a boost from a ground-ball single from Travis Bazzanna that went under Basabe’s glove, giving the Guardians first and third with no one out instead of a rally-killing double play. A bloop single and a sacrifice fly made it 2-0, then Adames booted a second double-play ball grom Angel Genao. That opened the door for an RBI single from Patrick “Patty Barrels” Bailey, the first hard-hit ball of the inning off of Landen Roupp (7-13) despite it being a 3-0 game.
Roupp settled down and gave up only two more hits in the next 4 1/3 innings, though he did issue three more walks. Conservatively, Adames forced Roupp to throw 13 extra pitches and made Tony Vitello burn a challenge on an “illegal slide” from Steven Kwan in the second inning that seemed purely motivated by trying to save his player from the embarrassment of dropping the ball for no reason. Otherwise the challenge was pure incompetence, but it’s hard to imagine we’d see that from the crafty Vitello.
Adames did provide all the scoring from the Giants on offense, hitting his 20th home run of the season and the 200th of his career after a Devers single in the first. He’s now the fourth shortstop in Giants history with more than one season of 20 or more homers, joining Alvin Dark, Rich Aurilia, and Brandon Crawford.
Guardians starter Gavin Williams (12-7) never got Devers out, issuing two of his three walks to the Giants DH. He got 11 strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings, giving up only one hit outside of the 4th. Williams’ biggest weakness is the long ball, but only Adames could take advantage and only once did they get a runner into scoring position off of him, after two 5th-inning walks. After he got pulled with two outs and a runner down in the 6th, pinch-hitter Victor Bericoto’s flied out to center, though the wind may have knocked the ball down.
The shaky defense continued. Bailey singled and stole second in the 4th, without anyone on the Giants noticing him running. Bryce Eldridge dove for an Angel Martinez ground ball in the 6th but couldn’t come up with it, Bailey reached base for the third time in a row with a walk and Kwan (1-for-2, three walks) singled off Sam Hentges to make it 4-2. The Giants did get a force out at third when they ran the “wheel play” on a sac bunt, but Adames declined to throw to first to try for the double play, which was probably just as well.
Good defense on the other side derailed the Giants in the 8th, when Rocchio made an acrobatic play to retire Bericoto after Eldridge walked and Jung Hoo Lee singled.
Left-handed relievers continued to stymie the Giants. The Giants pinch-hit the hitless Andrew Knizner and Jonah Cox, who’d struck out five times in a row, in the 7th inning off Erik Sabrowski. Knizner popped out, though he drew a walk in the 9th, and Cox eventually ran his strikeout streak to seven.
Positives! Christian Koss made a nice throw on the wheel play and caught a tough popup against the netting. Adames is hitting the ball hard, even if sometimes he’s using his glove to deliver the blows. Roupp settled down nicely after a rough first inning that was hardly his fault. And Knizner added some levity when he burned an ABS challenge with two outs in the 9th on a pitch that was such a clear strike that the National Labor Relations Board sent out an official statement of support for it after the game.
Next the team will travel to Boston, a homecoming for Rafael Devers and possibly Marcelo Mayer, though he’ll likely debut at home. Devers is likely to face old friend Erik Miller, who is getting extensive use from the Red Sox since the Giants traded him, striking out 12 and yielding only a single unearned run in 7 1/3 innings over seven appearances. Maybe the Giants will even win a road series!
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - AUGUST 20: Garrett Mitchell #5 of the Milwaukee Brewers hits a double in the third inning against the Seattle Mariners at American Family Field on August 20, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Milwaukee Brewers took the rubber match against the Seattle Mariners on Thursday afternoon, as a big day from Garrett Mitchell and the Brewer bullpen led the team to a 7-4 win.
Robert Gasser started the day with a walk of Brendan Donovan but bounced back to pick up a strikeout and flyout before Julio Rodríguez singled to put a pair of runners on. Josh Naylor grounded out, though, and Milwaukee was through a clean first.
Then, the offense kicked it into gear.
Brice Turang started the day with a single and, after Jackson Chourio flew out (and Turang surprisingly tagged up), Jake Bauers drew a walk. Gary Sánchez then lined a double just fair down the left-field line, bringing both runners home for a quick 2-0 lead.
Christian Yelich followed with a single to put runners at the corners, and Joey Ortiz hit a single of his own to move everyone up, putting Yelich at third and scoring Sánchez for a 3-0 lead. After Ortiz swiped second base, Mitchell hit a double to right, scoring both for a 5-0 lead. David Hamilton then worked a long nine-pitch at-bat, lining the final pitch into right for a double of his own and a 6-0 lead. Luis Lara and Turang lined out and grounded out, respectively, and the inning was over.
Gasser once again walked the leadoff hitter in the second, this time in the form of Taylor Ward. After getting the next two batters out, Gasser gave up a single to No. 9 hitter Brock Rodden, and Donovan made him pay with a two-run double into the right-center gap to cut the score to 6-2.
Milwaukee had another scoring chance in the second as Chourio walked and Bauers singled, but Sánchez struck out and Yelich hit into a double play (aided by a Mariners’ challenge at first) to end the inning.
In the fourth, the Mariners threatened again, with a leadoff walk by Cole Young, a single by Jhonny Pereda, and a passed ball by Sánchez to make it 6-3. Pat Murphy — for the second time this season after doing so to Brandon Sproat in early August — emerged in the middle of an at-bat to make a pitching change, as Chad Patrick took over from Gasser.
Patrick ended up walking Randy Arozarena (who was already in a 2-0 count) and gave up an RBI single to Dominic Canzone to make it 6-4 before the inning was over.
It wasn’t a great day for the lefty Gasser, as he went just 3 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on four hits and four walks, striking out four.
Both bullpens then traded zeros for the next several innings, as no runners got into scoring position after the fourth until the top of the eighth, when Aaron Ashby walked a pair of hitters. He got out of the jam, though, as he struck out a batter and induced a groundout to strand the runners at second and third.
The Brewers finally got one back in the bottom of the eighth, as Mitchell slugged a solo homer to center, his ninth of the year and third extra-base hit of the afternoon. Hamilton followed with a single but was stranded there, leaving Trevor Megill to protect a three-run lead in the ninth.
Megill had no trouble, picking up a strikeout and two flyouts — including a nice ranging grab by Mitchell in center — to wrap up the 7-4 victory.
Mitchell led the Brewers with three hits, including a pair of doubles and a homer, driving in three. Sánchez had two RBIs, and Ortiz and Hamilton had an RBI each. Every starter had at least one hit with the exception of Lara, who went 0-for-4.
After Gasser’s short outing, Milwaukee’s bullpen combination of Patrick, Ashby, and Megill combined to keep the Mariners off the board for the final 5 1/3 innings, allowing two hits and two walks with nine strikeouts.
The Brewers are back in action on Friday afternoon, as they’ll begin a series with the Braves on MLB Players’ Weekend, including a game in MLB’s Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on Sunday. First pitch for Friday’s game is set for 3:10 p.m.
ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - AUGUST 20: Andrés Giménez #0 of the Toronto Blue Jays steals third base from under Junior Caminero #13 of the Tampa Bay Rays in the second inning at Tropicana Field on August 20, 2026 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Shane Bieber last faced the Rays on July 23rd in what was potentially an audition to acquire the veteran pitcher. In that game, he scattered three hits and a single run as Toronto won the contest 3-1. The Jays did some buying and selling at the deadline, and Bieber remained with the club to the detriment of the Rays as he once again disposed of the lineup with ease in a 5-1 Toronto win.
Bieber once again went seven complete innings scattering four singles while allowing a sole unearned run scored by Chandler Simpson. Simpson reaching on a single while advancing to second on an error by Ernie Clement was about the only thing that went the Rays way in a contest where the 63-66 team was in complete control of the division-leading 76-51 club. Consider this game saw each of the following events:
Ian Seymour was a pitch away from an immaculate inning to begin this game until Alejandro Kirk spoiled the fun spitting on an 0-2 changeup and then making Seymour throw eight more pitches in that plate appearances before collecting yet another hit in this series. Kirk has been a modern day Ben Francisco to Andy Sonnanstine situation for the Rays pitchers this season.
George Springer drove in two runs on a ball that left his eviscerated bat at 42.4 miles and took nine hops through an indecisive infield:
Daz Cameron hit a titantic 442-foot blast into the D-ring in the 5th inning, which was the third of three solo shots allowed by Ian Seymour in the game. Ironically, Cameron’s last major league home run came 442 days ago on June 4th, 2025:
Yandy Diaz has now seen at least 2000 pitches this season, and has yet to challenge a single one. It remains the longest such streak in baseball. While he did single later in this at bat, the 0-1 fastball that was called a strike was, in fact, not one:
Diaz not challenging pitches is still better than batters wasting challenges on 1-2 pitches with nobody out in the 3rd inning as Nick Fortes did on a pitch that was fully in the strike zone. Teams get two challenges a game and this was a foolishly wasted one:
Simply put, this was a miserable game to wrap up a miserable homestand. The only two wins of the homestand centered around fielding miscues for an offense that scraped together 30 runs over 7 games while the pitching staff and defense permitted 47 runs.
The team heads off to Baltimore, who has given them fits all season. The Rays took what was supposed to be an advantageous portion of the schedule with sub-.500 teams coming into Tropicana Field and played arguably some of their worst baseball in some time.
CHICAGO, IL - AUGUST 20: Grant Holmes #66 of the Atlanta Braves pitches during the game between the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field on Thursday, August 20, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Lawrence Brown/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Alternatively, for the alliteratively-minded: Braves snap skid and salvage series as Holmes spins six scoreless in the South Side.
Before first pitch, all things are possible. No matter our current gripes we have with the team or their performance, the time leading up to the commencement of the baseball contest fills us with a cautious hope. It’s a new day with a sparkling new chance for the Atlanta Braves to win.
So it was extra deflating when, upon replay review, Ronald Acuña Jr. did not reach first base in time for an infield single after all, leading to the first out of the ballgame. This was followed by quick outs by Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson for yet another scoreless first frame. Bummer (not Aaron). But worry not, folks – Braves pitching and the bottom of the batting order would be the heroes in today’s 2-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Atlanta drew first blood this afternoon courtesy of the wheels of Mauricio Dubón and the bat of Austin Riley. Dubón led off the top of the third with a single off of Anthony Kay. Riley hit a rocket of a double to left, and Dubie’s speed on an audacious send by third base coach Tommy Watkins helped the Braves take a 1-0 lead.
Dubón’s nice 3-for-4 afternoon continued with a single (plus a fielding error by left fielder Sam Antonacci that allowed him to reach second) to lead off the fifth. However, this time he’d be left stranded.
We must tip our collective caps to Grant Holmes. The pressure cooker of the skid, an offense recently incapable of helping their starter out of small deficits, and the clamor for him to be moved to the bullpen could’ve gotten to our curly-haired king. He bounced back in a major way by holding the White Sox hitless through six innings before allowing a single in the seventh. Up to that point, the only baserunners for the White Sox came on the three walks scattered in the second, sixth, and seventh.
The palpitations were certainly high in that sixth inning from Holmes: Munetaka Murakami had grounded out twice before, but came to the plate with Drew Romo aboard. A wild pitch would move Romo up a base, putting the tying run in scoring position. But Grant buckled down with the afternoon’s best slider to get Murakami swinging. No-hitter intact!
The White Sox inadvisedly left Anthony Kay in for the top of the seventh, which they immediately regretted when Michael Harris II doubled to right on the second pitch he saw. Former Met Huascar Brazobán came in and got Dubón to fly out, allowing Harris to get to third. Austin RBI-ley knocked Harris in with a single up the middle to make it 2-0. Sean Murphy followed it up with a 103.2 mph single of his own. But the rally petered out after Brazobán and new reliever Hagen Smith got Ronald and Baldwin to strike out swinging, respectively.
The Braves had both Brent Suter and Didier Fuentes start to throw during the sixth, but Holmes jogged out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh. I fully rewrote earlier parts of this recap because I’d assumed Grant was going to go out on a high note. But with 83 pitches, a lead, and a no-hitter going, it seemed Weiss and company were going to let it ride on a batter-per-batter basis. Unfortunately, Miguel Vargas worked a leadoff walk before Andrew Benintendi ended the no-hitter and Holmes’ afternoon with a single to left.
Didier Fuentes came in tasked with preserving the lead and Holmes’ final line and did so in phenomenal fashion: back-to-back-to-back strikeouts of the non-brothers Montgomery (Braden and Colson) and Chase Meidroth. The way Sean Murphy calls pitches for Fuentes makes me feel things.
Hagen Smith and Dylan Lee pitched a very quiet eighth frame for both sides. Trevor Richards got Harris to fly out to start the top of the ninth. Dubón got his third hit of the day with a single to right before Riley struck out. Two wild pitches during Murph’s at-bat would get Mauricio on third base, but Sean grounded out to send us to the bottom of the ninth with a 2-0 lead for Raisel Iglesias.
A well-rested Iggy barely gave us time to worry: a groundout for Murakami, strikeout of Vargas, and strikeout of Benintendi on twelve pitches put the Braves back in the win column and denied the White Sox a delayed sweep.
Instead of a happy flight, the Braves will board a happy bus to Milwaukee to face the Brew Crew. The Pokemon card collectors Chris Sale and Jacob Misiorowski will face off in tomorrow afternoon’s series opener starting at 4:10 pm ET.
The Cincinnati Reds are likely to miss the MLB Playoffs for the fifth time in the last six seasons. The St. Louis Cardinals are trying to make a late push to earn the final wild card spot in the National League after missing the playoffs the last three years. The two teams played a rare five-game series this week with tons of drama. On Monday, Red outfielder Dane Myers hit the game-tying home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to give the Reds an improbable win. On Thursday, his crucial error allowed the Cardinals to steal a victory they had no business getting.
The Cardinals trailed the Reds 5-3 going into the ninth inning on Thursday. St. Louis promptly exploded for six runs in the top of the ninth to take the lead, but game should have ended before they ever had a chance to do that. Myers had the final out of the game in his glove, but a sunny day and some confusion in the outfield produced a wild error that allowed St. Louis to take the lead. Watch the play here:
Calling off your teammate only to drop the ball … yikes. Myers simply has to make that play.
Baseball is the cruelest sport. You’re the hero one day, and the goat the next. Myers learned this lesson the hard way.
The Reds came back and scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it wasn’t enough. The Cardinals won, 10-9, to win their fifth straight series. The bats came alive for St. Louis late, and it sure helps when the opposite gives you another out.
The Reds wasted a grand slam from Matt McLain in the loss. There’s a lot of painful things that can happen on a baseball field. Dropping the final out and then losing the game because of it might be as bad as it gets. This feels like the sort of thing that should only happen to the Mets, but there are plenty of other bad baseball teams out there. The Reds are one of them.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - AUGUST 18: Luis Lara #18 of the Milwaukee Brewers is congratulated after hitting his first major league home run in the eighth inning against the Seattle Mariners at American Family Field on August 18, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Brewers fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
In this week’s Reacts survey, we asked fans if they think the Brewers can finish the season with the best record in baseball and/or set another franchise record for wins in a season. The results were clear, but there were still some dissenting votes:
With 110 votes, 66% voted yes to both, followed by 18% voting for neither, 11% saying franchise record only, and 5% saying best record only. Given that the Brewers currently own the best record in baseball and are on pace for roughly 99-100 wins, it probably isn’t much of a surprise that most fans said all or nothing to this question.
If the Brewers are able to hit 98 wins, they’ll break the franchise record of 97 victories (set last season), and they’ll also easily be in the running for best record in the league. Hitting the 100-win mark seems like the “safe” number for best record in baseball with roughly 35 games to go for every team.
What do you think? Can the Brewers hit 100 wins? Have something else you want to say? Keep the conversation going in the comments, and be sure to check out FanDuel Sportsbook for all your betting needs.
Brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.
ARLINGTON, TX - AUGUST 19: Corey Seager #5 of the Texas Rangers looks on in the first inning during the game between the Washington Nationals and the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field on Wednesday, August 19, 2026 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Courtney Kramer/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Texas Rangers lineup for August 20, 2026 against the Washington Nationals: starting pitchers are Jacob deGrom for the Rangers and Andrew Alvarez for the Nationals.
It is the series finale, and the Rangers will be trying to clinch the series with a win. Jacob deGrom, who left his start a week ago today with triceps tightness, is on the mound for Texas. The Rangers are using the same lineup they used Tuesday, when they scored runs, and not the lineup from Wednesday, when they did not score runs.
The lineup:
Langford — DH
Seager — SS
Burger — 1B
Nimmo — RF
Duran — LF
Foscue — 2B
Jansen — C
Freeman — 3B
Carter — CF
7:05 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are -175 favorites.
Before even talking to Rochester Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy, I could feel his presence. When I got to Rochester, two things became very clear to me. First was that I needed to try a “Garbage Plate”, Rochester’s signature dish. Second was that Matt LeCroy was a beloved presence as the Red Wings skipper.
When Paul Toboni took over as Washington Nationals President of Baseball Operations, he made sweeping changes, particularly in the Minor Leagues. However, there is one face that remains unchanged, and that was LeCroy. The charismatic 50 year old with a comforting southern drawl returned for his 18th year in the organization and 5th as Triple-A manager.
When you sit down with LeCroy, you quickly figure out that he is the perfect minor league manager. His dynamic personality and fatherly wisdom makes him capable of uniting a Triple-A clubhouse where players are constantly coming and going. However, he is also very open to new ideas and has no ego. As Seaver King put it, Lecroy is “the ultimate player coach”.
Being a player first manager is something that LeCroy takes great pride in. At the Triple-A level, it can be tough to manage players. In many ways Triple-A is the intersection of dreams and disappointment. There are young prospects like Seaver King who are on their last stop before reaching their big league dream. Meanwhile, there are also veterans like Riley Adams who are looking to re-establish themselves and get back to the show.
LeCroy has found a way to gain not only respect, but love from both of those players who have such different backgrounds. Riley Adams, who was the Nats back up catcher the past few years said that LeCroy, “Has a lot of great feel and knows how to keep things fun. Sometimes baseball can get a little monotonous but he always keeps things fresh”.
For LeCroy, managing every player is different, as they are each their own person. However, he does tend to manage young players differently than veterans. For younger players, he said he likes to try and keep them even keeled while teaching them to trust the process. Meanwhile, for veterans he tries to challenge them and work on things that held them back at the big league level.
The cases of Adams and King are two great examples of that. Riley Adams is a power hitting catcher whose contact skills and plate discipline have let him down. This year in AAA, his chase rate is only 24%, down from 31% in the big leagues last year. Even when he was in AAA in 2024, that chase rate was 27%. With the help of the new front office, LeCroy has helped Adams stay engaged and make tangible improvements that could make him better the next time he gets a shot in the big leagues.
With Seaver King, he plays the game at 100 MPH at all times. LeCroy admires the “old timey” nature of King’s game. However, he is probably one of those players that needs to stay a bit more even keeled. The ability to slow one player down while also being able to push others is a great trait that LeCroy possesses.
Being able to truly manage players is one of the keys to being a great Triple-A manager. When LeCroy managed at the lower levels, a big part of his job was actually teaching young players how to play the game the right way. However, things are different in AAA, where players are knocking on the door of the big leagues. As he put it, “Here in Triple-A, these are grown men fighting to get to the highest level. I try to be honest and fair. I do not have many rules but there is an expectation that I want you to play a certain way”.
The shadow of the Major Leagues hangs over the Triple-A level at all times. Players are coming and going all the time and reaching the top of the baseball world is constantly on their minds. LeCroy said the biggest challenge of managing at this level is “dealing with mindsets and keeping people where their feet are”. Through many years of experience, Matt LeCroy has found a way to do that.
For LeCroy, the most rewarding part of his job is telling people they are going to the big leagues. In fact, just a couple days after I left, he made one of his famed call-up videos, telling Erik Tolman he was headed to the show. He met with the 27 year old, who has had to battle through many injuries over the years and at first he asked him if he wanted to pitch in winter ball. Eventually he let his down the mask, and told Tolman he was headed to the MLB.
He told me that his favorite call-up was when he told Trey Lipscomb he was going to the show a couple of years ago. Throughout our interview, LeCroy spoke glowingly about Lipscomb who has had a huge bounce-back year, hitting 25 home runs for the Red Wings. In Lipscomb’s call-up, he had the whole clubhouse together and told Trey he would have his own room on their trip. However, the reason for that was because he was going to be a big leaguer. The whole room erupted and it was a wonderful moment to watch.
Trey Lipscomb is a big leaguer … just like we drew it up. 🥲
— Nationals Player Development (@Nats_PlayerDev) March 31, 2024
As this young core of Nationals players rose through the minors, they all crossed paths with LeCroy. He managed the likes of James Wood, CJ Abrams, Cade Cavalli, Daylen Lile and Dylan Crews among others. Having managed those players, he admitted that he was not overly surprised to see the offense humming.
The big league level is not the only place where we are seeing a lot of offense though. Rochester has also been much improved offensively, and overall. The Red Wings have the best record in the International League under LeCroy this season at 73-47. LeCroy also got his 1,000th career managerial win this season.
1,000 WINS FOR SKIP! 🏆 🔥
Matt LeCroy has officially reached 1,000 career wins as a manager!
A milestone built on years of leadership, passion and plenty of victories along the way.👏 pic.twitter.com/lD3XeoDH7a
All the talent coming through Rochester has helped but another factor is the growing coaching staff. The Nats have more coaches at the minor league level this year, with two hitting coaches, two pitching coaches, multiple trainers and strength coaches, as well as a quality control coach. LeCroy called this a “really big help” and said it lets players get more individualized training. He also said he is in much more consistent contact with the big league staff this season, talking to bench coach Michael Johns at least once a week.
The combination of this new staff and the man management skills of LeCroy have the Red Wings humming. When I saw the Red Wings this weekend, I saw a group firing on all cylinders with great pitching and tremendous power on display from Seaver King and Trey Lipscomb. At a level where it is hard to get players to buy in, Matt LeCroy has mastered the art of managing at Triple-A. Is that what he wants to do forever or does the charming veteran want to achieve his own big league dream one day?
Aug 20, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Daz Cameron (23) celebrates after hitting a home run against the Tampa Bay Rays in the fifth inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Blue Jays 5 Rays 1
What a nice game. It never seemed to be in doubt, even though we didn’t really blow the Rays out.
Shane Bieber was terrific. Likely the best we’ve seen him in a Blue Jays uniform.
He went seven innings, allowing just four hits, no walks with seven strikeouts, with just the one earned. He threw 101 pitches, getting to 100 for the first time as a Jay. Really no complaints about his game at all.
Spencer Miles pitched the eighth, a clean inning. Louis Varland got the ninth, allowed a hit and a walk, just to make sure we kept watching.
On offense? Well, we had three home runs. Kazuma Okamoto (number 26 on the season), Nathan Lukes (number 7) and Daz Cameron (crushed, 105.8 mph and 442 feet). Cameron had two hits, as did George Springer and Okamoto. Myles Straw had the only 0 for, an 0 for four with two strikeouts.
A lot was made of the 1 for 11 in RISP, but the homers really helped out.
There was bad news, Andrés Giménez came out of the game with “right hamstring tightness’. Hamstring tightness sponsored this series with him, Bateman and Josh Smith (tho he stayed in yesterday’s game, but didn’t play today). I hope he isn’t out long, his glove has been amazing and he seems to be hitting the ball well lately.
It was good to see Clement back in the lineup after missing yesterday being ‘under the weather’. He might be even more important if Giménez has to be out of the lineup.
They say they will wait until tomorrow on Giménez, hoping he’s better.
Nathan Lukes made a super catch in right at the wall, with a runner on and no outs in the seventh. Without that catch, I doubt Bieber would have finished seven.
Jays of the Day: Bieber (0.27 WPA), Cameron (0.14) and Okamoto (0.10).
Other Award: Straw (-0.12).
Tomorrow it is the Yankees. TBA vs. TBA. They say Spencer Arrighetti will either start or be the bulk guy tomorrow. Which means we’ll get more roster moves.
Mets first baseman Mark Vientos has been scheduled to begin a rehab assignment at Double-A Binghamton on Friday, Aug. 21, when the Binghamton Rumble Ponies take on the Altoona Curve at 7:00 p.m.
Vientos has been sidelined since fracturing his right hand against the Kansas City Royals on July 9th, hit by a pitch thrown by righty starter Michael Wacha.
DENVER, CO - NOVEMBER 13: From left, Colorado Rockies Executive Vice President Walker Monfort, new President of Baseball Operations Paul DePodesta and owner Dick Monfort during Depodesta's introductory press conference at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado on Thursday, November 13, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) | Denver Post via Getty Images
One of my little pleasures in life is going to check the mail to see if I got anything. There’s just something so thrilling about that walk to the mailbox and checking to see if I got another letter from a credit card company trying to get me to apply for one.
Last week, I asked our Purple Row community to submit questions for a mailbag. I appreciate those who felt inclined to send in a question and for the great community involvement in everything we do here on the site. Now, without further ado, let’s read some mail!
Has Tyler Bell had surgery yet and if so, where is he in recovery? — sdcarp from Roanoke
At the time of writing, there still hasn’t been a clear indication that Tyler Bell has undergone surgery to repair his non-throwing shoulder, but it may have already happened or isn’t too far off. The 10th overall pick reported to Arizona with the rest of the 2026 draftees for the onboarding camp and was then placed on the 60-day injured list on July 24. It was reported in July that he would work with the Rockies to determine the best course of action concerning his shoulder and the timetable for the surgery. His professional debut will certainly be delayed in 2027, but the hope is that he can be a quick riser through the system once he is healthy.
It’s also important to remember that since Bell is not on the 40-man roster and therefore not a member of the MLB Players Association, there will be nothing impeding him during the offseason in terms of working and communicating with the club.
The Rockies have not always been the laughingstock of baseball. They had baseball people like Bob Gebhard and Dan O’Dowd and Don Baylor and Clint Hurdle. I’m looking for the “bad guy,” the guy who just screwed the pooch, over and above Dick Monfort. It’s Bridich, isn’t it? And Schmidt was just over his head. Right? — Truchero from Girona, Spain
When it comes to the struggles of the Colorado Rockies, this is a million-dollar question. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly one simple “bad guy,” as you put it, because there have been contributions from across the history of the franchise. Ultimately, the laughingstock the Rockies became has to fall on the shoulders of Dick Monfort. Since taking majority control of the team in 2005, Monfort has been deeply ingrained in the operations of the team, especially after the tragic passing of team president Kelli McGregor in 2010.
The failures of Jeff Bridich and Bill Schmidt over the last 10 years were a result of an insular organization that refused to play the game the rest of the league was playing. Dan O’Dowd resigned from the team in 2014 after the meddling from the front office. Monfort rejected outside ideas and failed to spend his money wisely. It often doesn’t matter if you have baseball people in the organization if the person at the top is adamant about calling the shots. Bridich and Schmidt definitely have their fair share of the blame, but it wasn’t just them.
Monfort stepping away this season and allowing his son Walker to run the team alongside Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes has been a major reason 2026 has seen improvement. Baseball people are making baseball decisions and working cohesively among themselves and with other teams in the league. The 2026 Rockies are operating like an actual sports organization and not like a small-town family business it used to.
What in the heck is going on with Tovar and what are the club’s options in dealing with him? It is painful to watch his AB’s. He chases everything and misses the pitches he should be punishing. It seems the dynamic SS prospects are in the lower minors, so I don’t see options there. —Mountain Ball from Highlands Ranch
The struggles of Ezequiel Tovar have been one of the more frustrating stories of the 2026 Rockies. After a strong showing by Team Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, Tovar has not had any sort of rhythm this season. The frustrating part is that these are problems that have been known since he first broke into the league in 2022. He had excellent years in 2023 and 2024, but the obvious issues of his incredibly aggressive approach caused the league to adjust against him, and he hasn’t adjusted back.
Tovar is under contract for four more seasons with a little under $50 million guaranteed. There is also a $23 million club option for 2031. At the moment, it would be difficult to entice a team to take on Tovar and the rest of his contract with such poor offensive numbers. Yes, he is still an elite defender, but the value is just too low without having to kick in money and prospects you’d rather not part with.
So, the Rockies will have to continue working on Tovar on the fly. He is still quite young, having just turned 25 this season, so there is still plenty of room for development. The Rockies will just have to exercise patience and hope that he takes to coaching more and is capable of making the necessary changes in his plate discipline. There have been hints of what he can do when his bat is clicking, but the pressure is mounting for him to start producing on a regular basis. The reinforcements are creeping up behind him.
How do you think the Penner investment has impacted the organization so far? PDP’s moves seem to indicate to me that he thinks the club can be competitive in 2028. Depending on 2027 results, do you think the Penner money will allow PDP to exceed the budget and spend his way into the playoffs in 2028? — Marcus M. from Denver
The addition of the Penner Sports Group as minority owners back in April was a welcome surprise as they bought a roughly 40% minority stake in the Rockies worth about $670 million. After seeing how the Walton-Penner group turned the Denver Broncos into a legitimate Super Bowl contender in such a short time, it’s easy to have those aspirations with the Rockies now.
Greg Penner recently spoke to the media about the partnership with the Monforts at Broncos training camp last week and made it clear that the Monforts are still fully in control. Penner is focused on being a support and has no involvement in the day-to-day baseball operations. Still, the influx of cash was likely a nice boost for the club and could give the Rockies some extra wiggle room to throw some cash around in the near future. How much liberty Paul DePodesta will have to spend money in 2027 and beyond is going to be determined by what happens in the CBA negotiations this winter. It’s also worth keeping in mind that there could be a scenario down the line where the Penners end up purchasing the Rockies from Monforts should they decide to sell.
The staff at the Purple Row are all very talented and thoughtful writers. It really doesn’t make sense that so many long-time posters (and I am sure lurkers) spend so much time caring about and investing their time in this franchise whose on-field play has given us so few reasons to care for most of their recent history.
I think a lot of it is the talent and commitment to fresh content and viewpoints you get on The Row all year. What was the team, or the game, or the player or the moment that caused the staff to care about this team as much as many of us do? —WhiskeyDrinkingManfrom Arvada
First off, thank you for these comments. We appreciate the constant quality engagement from the community. This year, we have seen increased engagement across the site, which is exciting because it means the Rockies are actually doing things that pique people’s interest, which we then get to write about. I can’t speak for all of our writers as the reasons for caring about the team vary, but the common thread is a deep-rooted love of baseball and the Rockies.
For myself, I love the Rockies since I’m a Colorado native and my dad was a fan from day one. My personal connection to the team solidified in 2007 during the World Series run. I was in sixth grade when the Rockies began the September run, and the excitement of my dad and my oldest brother made me pay closer attention. My dad got us Dish Network again so we could watch the games on television, something I hadn’t really ever done before. I knew about the legends of the team prior to 2007, but I was hooked on the Rockies after that.
Thank you again for the excellent questions! There were a couple that I hadn’t thought about before, and I was appreciative of the opportunity to think on these things.
Hopefully we can continue this type of article series during the offseason because we are definitely going to need things to talk about before baseball hopefully arrives next February.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA - JULY 22: Ildemaro Vargas #6 of the Arizona Diamondbacks delivers a ninth inning pitch against the Athletics at Chase Field on July 22, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. Diamondbacks won 15-5. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) | Getty Images
This particular rabbit-hole was first encountered after the series against the Athletics. Ildemaro Vargas had a walk-off hit in Tuesday’s game during that series, and then ended up closing out (if not closing) Wednesday’s game from the mound, being called on to pitch with a 12-run lead. Has that ever happened before? Has anyone got a walk-off hit one day, and then pitched the very next? There’s no easy way to find out, and my Tweets at the Elias Sports Bureau – who probably could check – went unanswered. So I had to dig into the question the hard way, and see if I could find any previous examples.
The obvious candidates are Babe Ruth and Shohei Ohtani. According to Baseball Reference, Ruth was credited with sixteen walk-off hits in his career. But as a pitcher, he only really was a regular from 1915-1919, with just nine major-league appearances on the mound outside those years. Ruth’s first walk-off wasn’t until 1918, severely cutting down the odds. Still, I chugged through the record books, and found a couple of close cases in 1919. He did the reverse: Ruth closed out a Red Sox win on July 30, and the following day had a walk-off hit in the 12th inning. And on September 20, the Babe started the game, moved to left in the sixth and had a walk-off HR off Lefty Williams in the 9th. But he didn’t pull a Vargas.
Ohtani was considerably simpler. Over his career, he has four walk-off hits. September 2020 (didn’t pitch after August 2nd); two in 2024 (didn’t pitch at all that year); and April 2o25 (didn’t start pitching until mid-June). So, not even close there. However, these are definitely not the only two pitchers to have recorded walk-off hits. You might think that would be extremely rare. And, to be honest, in the present day it is. Hasn’t happened for more than twenty years, and it likely never will again. The Manfred Man rule means marathon games are no more, so teams are unlikely to run out of position players, and have to let a pitcher hit.
Even the famous Ryne Nelson hit was as a PH, not a pitcher. Actual plate-appearances by pitchers, while not entirely extinct, are now incredibly rare. In the 2021 season, the last before the DH came to the National League, there were 4,829 of them. That number has been reduced by over 99%, with the average for 2022-25 being just 38 PA. They’re almost inevitably in blowouts, with a manager happy to give up an at-bat to get another inning from his reliever. Of 35 pitcher trips to the plate this year, none have been with a margin of less then eight runs. They have got four hits – but three were by position players like Vargas.
Most notable of those: Brett Sullivan’s HR while pitching for Colorado, and that came off another position player, Miguel Rojas! The only “true” pitcher to get a hit this year was Victor Mederos of the Braves, who drove in two runs with a single. He came into the game after seven innings with a 12-0 lead, in a triple switch which cost Atlanta the DH. Mederos then reached the plate with two outs in the eighth, and drove in a pair (below). Let’s quietly forget that it came off the Texas Rangers’ catcher, Kyle Higashioka. Instead, we’ll just revel in Victor becoming the 124th member of the “Career 1.000 BA Club”, a distinction he’s not likely to lose anytime soon.
[Side note: Ohtani hit a home-run on May 20th, leading off the game in San Diego before taking the mound in the bottom half of the inning. However, the box-score firmly records him in the batting order as a designated hitter, and so that doesn’t count as a pitcher HR]
But I did decide to look at pitchers who recorded walk-off hits, and see if any of them might have pitched the following day as well. Baseball Reference has play-by-play data going back to 1910, and they have 218 examples of pitchers with walk-off hits. Probably more than I’d have thought. Inevitably, the majority are in the early days of baseball, when complete games by starting pitchers were the standard, not a rare exception. In 1910, for instance, Walter Johnson made 42 starts, and finished 38 games. That certainly given your starter a shot at coming to the plate late. They could also hit better than recent pitchers. In 1921, they had a .521 OPS, compared to .293 in 2021.
Browsing the list makes for a fun wander through baseball history. People like Bullet Joe Bush, who had more walkoff hits (4) than any other pitcher, and is sometimes credited with inventing the forkball. Or knuckleballer Mickey Haefner, who performed the feat twice in eleven days during the 1945 season, but is best known for hitting Ted Williams in an exhibition game. Or Hall of Famer Red Ruffing, who on April 14th, 1933 made the ultimate statement, by hitting the only recorded walk-off grand-slam by a pitcher in major-league history. [Clay Bryant had a 1937 go-ahead slam in the 10th inning, but that was the top of the frame]
49 of these instances happened from 1910-19: in the live-ball era, there was one fewer the following decade, then fifty in the 1930’s. But they happened less frequently thereafter, and became perilously rare after the sixties, as teams would pinch-hit for their pitchers more often. There have been just eleven walk-off hits by a pitcher since the end of 1969, and one in the past thirty years. That belongs to Randy Keisler of the Reds on May 24, 2005 [though there have since been pinch-hitting pitchers to do it, such as Michael Lorenzen, who walked off against the D-backs in 2019]. He got the knock as his first career hit: Keisler said, “I was so excited that I swung at the first pitch, and it was 2 feet off the plate.”
Anyway, returning to the original topic. Has any of these players pitched the following night? I figure it was more likely to be a recent pitcher – a reliever. Iron-armed though the starters of yore were, they still weren’t going back to the mound on consecutive games. So I began with Keisler, and manually started tracking their pitching logs, to see if any threw the next night. Keisler did get the next night off, before pitching on May 26 – so close, but no cigar. Before him, Mike Stanton in 1994: he pitched four innings for Atlanta, in a game where the Braves scored seven in the ninth to force extras. He went 2-for-2 on the night, but got a well-deserved week off after that.
I had to go back to 1957 to find a match for Vargas’s feat here. On September 5, Bob Grim of the Yankees came up with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and the game tied 2-2. The 1954 Rookie of the Year had just worked round a leadoff double in the top half of the inning, and there were two men on base. He promptly ended his own night with a three-run homer, as documented by our siblings over at Pinstripe Alley. The following night, down in Washington, he came in to another tied game and put up a zero in the eighth. But he walked the first three batters in the ninth and, though rebounding with a groundout and pop fly, a missed catch error at second ended the game and Grim took the loss.
Now, it is definitely possible that someone took the Ildemaro route. A position player getting a walk-off hit one day, then pitching the next. The problem is, there are a lot more walk-off hits for position players. 129 this year alone, to be precise. Even flipping the script and starting with position players pitching, we have seen that almost as often – 119 times in 2026 already, not including Ohtani. Digging through those is also more intensive, since you need to go through the player’s game log into the box-score to determine if they had a walk-off hit. Maybe I’ll put samath on the job there, see if he scrape that data!
Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler leads, as of Wednesday, the American League in fWAR among qualified pitchers with 4.9. His 2.19 ERA is also the best in the junior circuit and third in the majors behind Jacob Misiorowski and Chris Sale.
Statistically, Schlittler’s 2026 season has been nothing short of amazing. In fact, he is well on his way to posting the best pitching season in recent franchise history, at least in the last ten years.
That’s right: he is already starting to flirt with Gerrit Cole’s 2021 and 2023 campaigns, as well as with Luis Severino’s 2017 and 2018 outputs. Check out the best Yankee pitching seasons by fWAR of the last decade:
Pitching season
fWAR
ERA
K%
BB%
IP
FIP
2017 Severino
5.6
2.98
29.4
6.5
193.1
3.07
2018 Severino
5.4
3.39
28.2
5.9
191.1
2.95
2023 Cole
5.3
2.63
27.0
5.8
209
3.16
2021 Cole
5.2
3.23
33.5
5.6
181.1
2.92
2026 Schlittler
4.9
2.19
31.4
5.6
152
2.58
The rate stats, such as ERA and the always reliable FIP, say that Schlittler definitely belongs in the conversation of best Yankees pitchers in the last decade. We realize that it might still be a bit premature to say that, so let’s just say his 2026 output belongs in the organization’s elite from the 2017 campaign to the current one.
Schlittler can do it all on the mound: he throws multiple types of fastballs and mixes in breaking balls; he continually flirts with triple digit velocity; he can locate all of his pitches, and he misses bats with most of them on a consistent basis. Oh, and he has the mentality of a bulldog and isn’t afraid to compete and even talk some trash, because he knows he can back it all up where it counts: on the mound.
Schlittler has, give or take, seven starts left in the regular season. For the sake of being conservative, let’s just say he has six left. He has racked up, on average, 0.19 fWAR per start this year. That would put him on a 6.0-fWAR pace, which would allow him to leapfrog Luis Severino’s brilliant 2017 campaign as the best in Yankees’ recent history.
Since we’re at it, let’s dive deep and examine how Schlittler’s current stats stack up against some of the best seasons in franchise history. Granted, Yankee history is chock-full of relevant position players and not that many pitchers, but there are still some incredible performances to discuss.
These are the best pitching seasons on the Bombers:
Pitching season
fWAR
ERA
K%
BB%
IP
FIP
1978 Ron Guidry
9.1
1.74
23.5
6.8
273.2
2.19
1904 Jack Chesbro
8.5
1.82
4.73 K/9
1.74 BB/9
454.2
2.11
1997 Andy Pettitte
7.2
2.88
16.8
6.6
240.1
2.96
2001 Mike Mussina
6.9
3.15
23.5
4.6
228.2
2.92
1979 Tommy John
6.9
2.96
9.9
5.8
276.1
3.10
The best year by a Yankees pitcher, according to fWAR, belongs to the Louisiana Lightning. Guidry’s brilliant 1978 had him flirting with the 10-fWAR threshold, an amazing achievement for pitchers. There have been just 20 such seasons in the history of Major League Baseball, dating back to 1871, and only one in the new millennium: Randy Johnson in 2001 (10.4).
Schlittler won’t match Guidry’s 1978 season this year, and it’s highly unlikely he cracks the top five unless he goes bananas in his remaining starts. However, the fact that he is already in the conversation in his first year as a full-time starter is impressive, to say the least.
Perhaps as we get closer to his prime, we might see Schlittler crack the top five in franchise history when it comes to individual seasons. He is off to a fantastic start in his career and, if fate allows him to enjoy good health, seems destined for greatness.
